METROPOLITAN NEW YORK
SHAVUOT
In the Garden: Battery Park City Parks Conservancy horticulturalist Laura Steger leads a tour — for children and adults — through the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, sharing information about the garden’s blooming life and Shavuot, the harvest festival also known as the Feast of Weeks that ends the omer and celebrates Moses receiving the Torah. Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, Battery Park City (via Battery Place and West Side Highway); June 8, 2:30 p.m.; free. (212-267-9700)
All Through the Night: For its “Tikkun Leil Shavuot,” the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has organized eight hours of back-to-back study sessions by Jewish scholars throughout the night to commemorate the holiday. Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1 W. 4th St.; (Maariv June 5, 8:30 p.m.) study sessions June 5, 9 p.m.-June 6, 5 a.m.; free. (212-824-2272 or www.huc.edu/kollel/)
Lectures and Discussions
Tribute to a Yiddish Master: In conjunction with the National Yiddish Book Center, the Eldridge Street Project combines music, scholarship and family lore in its afternoon “Sholem Asch Tribute.” Among those discussing the controversial Yiddish writer — author of “God of Vengeance” — are Professors David Roskies and Hannah Berliner Pischthal, film critic J. Hoberman, dramatist Caraid O’Brien and David Mazower, great-grandson of the Yiddish writer and a journalist himself. Slides from Asch’s life and a staged scene from one of Asch’s works are also in the lineup. Eldridge Street Project, 12 Eldridge St.; June 8, 2 p.m.; $6, $4 students and seniors. (212-978-0803 or www.eldridgestreet.org)
In Ruth’s Gaze: Rabbi-cantor Angela Warnick Buchdahl discusses “Looking at Women’s Relationships Through the Book of Ruth” as guest speaker at the Westchester Reform Temple’s Sabbath service. Westchester Reform Temple, 255 Mamaroneck Road, Scarsdale; June 6, 7:45 p.m.; free. (914-723-7727 or www.wrtemple.org)
Classes
The Path of the Spoken Word: Rabbi Mordechai Becher leads “Exploring the Jewish Oral Tradition,” a four-week series in which he examines the evolution and transmission of the words most highly valued in Judaism. Becher is co-author of “After the Return: A Guide for the Newly Observant” and a senior lecturer of the Gateways Organization. The 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave.; June 2-June 30, Mondays, 8 p.m.-9:30 p.m.; $60 series. (212-415-5500 or www.92y.org)
Performance
You Can Never Go Back: In David Mamet’s “The Old Neighborhood,” directed by Simcha Borenstein, Bobby Gould returns to Chicago suffering from a midlife crisis, only to find that his native city and life are full of disappointment. The play follows his encounters with an old friend, his sister and a former lover. Royal Theatre at the Producers Club, 358 W. 44th St.; through June 1, please call for times, reservations recommended. (212-868-4444 or www.smarttix.com)
Community
Baking Across Boundaries: Inspired by the pre-Inquisition days of a Spanish city where Muslim, Jewish and Christian inhabitants cohabitated peacefully, the Center for Religious Inquiry presents a “Cordoba Bread Fest: Breaking Bread Together.” For this examination of the role of bread in the three faiths, (kosher) bread is broken and Francine Klagsbrun, author of “Remember the Sabbath Day,” is joined by a gospel choir, a Muslim storyteller and improvisational artist Chris Grabenstein. St. Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street at Park Avenue, the Great Room; June 8, 6 p.m.-9 p.m.; $25. (212-378-0222 or www.stbarts.org)
Family
Through Children’s Eyes: Talking to children about the Holocaust is difficult, at best. To help get your conversation started, the Brooklyn Museum of Art presents the Pushcart Players in “The Last, the Very Last… Butterfly.” This Holocaust remembrance play, part of the museum’s programming in conjunction with “The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz,” is intended for children 10 and older and includes poems, narrative and drawings by the children of the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Brooklyn Museum of Art, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn; June 7, 7 p.m.; free with museum admission, $6, $3 students and seniors, free children under 12 and members. (718-501-6330 or www.bma.org)
Music
After All These Years: The Knitting Factory has always opened its doors to the eclectic, helping the downtown music scene flourish and blossom. Celebrating 15 years of providing a platform to Gary Lucas, the Knitting Factory presents the guitarist himself, along with members of some of his many musical projects, including Gods and Monsters, the Du-Tels and Captain Beefheart. The Knitting Factory, 75 Leonard St.; June 6, 9 p.m.; $15, reservations recommended. (212-219-3006 or www.knittingfactory.com)
Festival
A Mile of Museums: It’s time once again for the museums lining Fifth Avenue from 82nd Street to 104th Street to throw open their doors to the public — for an evening, that is. For the annual event, the 25th, the city stops traffic along this stretch, and art lovers and the curious alike stroll from one museum to the next, entertained by music and children’s activities that punctuate the thoroughfare. In front of the Jewish Museum, Metropolitan Klezmer integrates traditional sounds with instrumentation from around the globe, from Afro-Cuban to zydeco. Participating in this year’s Museum Mile Festival are, in addition to the Jewish Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Goethe Insitut New York, Neue Galerie New York, the Guggenheim Museum, the National Academy of Design Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, El Museo del Barrio and the Cooper-Hewitt. Fifth Avenue from 82nd Street to 104th Street; June 10, 6 p.m.-9 p.m.; free. (212-606-2296 or www.museummilefestival.org)
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Big Screen: Lina and Slava Chaplin’s “A Trumpet in the Wadi” (Israel, 2001) brings to the big screen Sami Michael’s Haifa-set novel about a Russian-Jewish immigrant and a Christian Arab. Proximity and distress inform their romantic relationship, the hurdles of which are as high as one would expect. The film is screened as part of the Boston Jewish Film Festival’s Encore Summer Series. Upcoming films in the month-long lineup include Gérard Jugnot’s “Monsieur Batignole,” Pascale Bailly’s “God Is Great, I’m Not” and Dan Verete’s “Yellow Asphalt.” Museum of Fine Arts,465 Huntington Ave., Boston; “A Trumpet in the Wadi” June 5, 8 p.m., June 8, 12:15 p.m.; $9, $8 MFA and BJFF members, students and seniors, please call or visit Web site for complete listings. (617-369-3306 or www.bjff.org)
Family Memories: Journalist David Mazower, the great-grandson of Yiddish novelist Sholem Asch, presents a slide-lecture about his forebear, “Sholem Asch: From the Family Album — A Unique Portrait of the Life and Times of the Great Yiddish Writer.” Please see New York listing. National Yiddish Book Center, Hampshire College campus, 1021 West St., Amherst; June 9, 7 p.m.; $3 suggested. (413-256-4900 or www.yiddishbookcenter.org)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Make Your Mark: Artist Joyce Ellen Weinstein — one of 19 artists whose work is featured in the DCJCC exhibit “Archetype/Anonymous: Biblical Women in Contemporary Art” — leads a printmaking workshop for adults of all artistic levels. The focus is on linoleum block prints, and the artist uses her own work as inspiration. Four of the artist’s block prints — “Eve,” “Miriam,” “Shiprah and Puah” and “Yachoved” — are included in the exhibit. District of Columbia Jewish Community Center, Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts, 1529 16th St., N.W.; June 8, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.; exhibit through June 22, please call for materials fee and reservations. (202-777-3254 or www.dcjcc.org)
From Her Words to Ours: Anne Frank’s World War II journal is perhaps one of the world’s best-known wartime diaries. What happens to historical accuracy when a young girl is reconstructed based solely on excerpts from her diary? How effectively did the young Frank communicate when she set pen to paper? What happens to our understanding of her words when they are filtered through another’s vision? Steven Carr and R. Clifton Spargo explore related issues in “Anne Frank in Film and Literature.” Carr, a 2002-2003 museum fellow and an associate professor of communications at Indiana University and at Purdue University at Fort Wayne, looks at “Postwar Representations of Anne Frank in Television and Film.” Spargo, an associate professor of English at Marquette University and a 2000-2001 museum fellow, discusses “Anne Frank’s Diaries: A Literary Perspective.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, Auditorium A; June 5, 2 p.m.-4 p.m.; free, reservations requested. (202-488-6162 or www.ushmm.org)
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CALIFORNIA
On November 27, 1978, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was assassinated, a month shy of his one-year anniversary as the first openly gay elected official in a major American city. His election paved the way for gay-rights legislation — and gay legislators — throughout the nation. San Francisco’s Museum of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History marks the 25th anniversary of Milk’s murder with “Saint Harvey: The Life and Legacy of a Modern Gay Martyr,” which opens next week in San Francisco.
The first half of the exhibit, “Life,” follows Milk from his Jewish boyhood in Woodmere, Long Island, to his sexuality-based dishonorable discharge from the Navy, his battles as an outspoken activist and legislator, through to his assassination — along with Mayor George Moscone — by former city supervisor Dan White. The second section, “Afterlife,”examines Milk’s cultural legacy.
Among the articles on display are photographs, paintings and Milk’s own belongings and kitsch collection, including his naval ID bracelet, the bullet-ridden clothes he was wearing when shot, his barber chair, newspapers and even his ponytail. Perhaps even more poignant, however, is the pen he used to sign the first gay and lesbian anti-discrimination legislation.
The Museum of GLBT History, 657 Mission St., Gallery 300 (between 2nd and 3rd St.), San Francisco; June 6-April 2004, Tue.-Sun. 1 p.m.-5 p.m.; $4, $2 students and seniors. (415-777-5455 or www.glbthistory.org)
A DAY IN A NEW NYC PARK
The Lower East Side has a new music venue that’s outdoors and on the water — except it’s not entirely new. It’s really a refurbished band shell in revamped surroundings: a small park. The East River Park Amphitheater takes its new face to the public with the “3 Farms Festival,” produced by Arlene Grocery, featuring live music, food and arts & crafts. Katz’s Delicatessen, Yonah Schimmel Knishes and other local eateries are on hand to sell snacks to hungry festival-goers. Playing with his band in the lineup is folk-rock musician Andrew Vladeck, great-grandson of B. Charney Vladeck, the Jewish Daily Forward’s legendary general manager from 1917 to 1938. The concert takes place across from the Vladeck Houses, the city’s first municipally funded housing projects, named for the musician’s great-grandfather. Andrew Vladeck himself has parks experience, having once worked for the New York City Parks Department. He was dubbed “The Singing Ranger.”
East River Park Amphitheater, East River at Grand Street (take pedestrian bridge at Houston, Delancey or Grand across FDR Drive); June 7, festival 1 p.m.-8 p.m., Vladeck roughly 3 p.m.; free. (www.arlene-grocery.com)
SYRACUSE, N.Y.
UPSTATE KLEZFEST
Upstate New York’s klezmer great Hal Jeffrin performs as part of the fourth annual Syracuse KlezFest, which brings traditional Eastern European sounds and modern takes to Clinton Park for an afternoon of music and family frolicking.
For the pre-pubescent set, the combo Sruli & Lisa & the Kids teaches youngsters not only to appreciate klezmer, but how to dance to it — and even how play it. On the main stage are Keyna Hora Klezmer, the Twelve Corners Klezmer Band, Catskill Klezmorim, Jonathan Dinkin and Klezmercuse and Klingon Klezmer. Vendors selling kosher fare and Judaica are on hand to fill both culinary and creative needs.
Clinton Square, Downtown, Syracuse (rain location is Henninger High School, 600 Robinson St.); June 8, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; free. (445-2040, ext. 114 or www.sjfed.org/klezfest)
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