METROPOLITAN NEW YORK
Lectures and Discussions
Vilna Memories: “Memory and Witnessing: Life, Culture and Politics in the Holocaust” is a lecture-reading with Barbara and Benjamin Harshav held in conjunction with the publication of “The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania” (Yale University) — the English translation of Herman Kruk’s chronicles of the Vilna ghetto and camps — which he edited and she translated. The Harshavs are both professors at Yale University: Benjamin is Blaustein professor of Hebrew and comparative literature, and Barbara teaches translation theory and practice. National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South (near 20th Street & Park Ave.); June 9, 8 p.m.; free, reservations required. (212-475-3424 or www.nationalartsclub.org)
Below the Mason-Dixon Line: “Struggles in the Promised Land: Slavery, Civil Rights and Southern Politics” takes a look at the issues that have united and divided Jews and blacks throughout the South’s history, from slavery to Jewish involvement in contemporary Southern politics. The round-table participants are Robin Kelley, history chair at New York University; Hasia Diner, Steinberg professor of American Jewish history at NYU; MacArthur fellow Theodore Rosengarten, and Leah Wise, executive director and co-founder of the Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network in Durnham, N.C., discuss the issues that divided and brought together Jews and blacks in Southern history, as well as the civil rights movement. Yeshiva University Museum, Center for Jewish History, 15 W. 16th St.; June 11, 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m.; please call for additional information, reservations required. (212-294-8301 or www.cjh.org)
Women’s Words: “Read All About It” is an evening of readings by women writers whose words have graced the pages of Lilith, the independent Jewish women’s magazine: Amy Koppelman, Ruth Knafo Setton, Faye Moskowitz, Katie Singer, Ilana Singer-Ross and Yona Zeldis McDonough. The reading is held in conjunction with the “Lilith Magazine: The Voice of Jewish Women” exhibit. Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, 1 W. 4th St.; June 11, 7 p.m.; free. (212-824-2293)
Bookish: Writer-journalist Alix Strauss (“The Joy of Funerals”) and Elise Miller, author of the forthcoming Brooklyn-based sex comedy “Celebrified” (Warner) read from their work as part of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan’s “Rough Cuts” series of readings by emerging Jewish writers. KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th St.; June 11, 7:30 p.m.; free. (646-505-4379 or www.jccnyc.org)
Film
Hirschfeld’s Hand: Jules Feiffer, John Darnton, Marian Seldes and Louise Hirschfeld join filmmaker Susan W. Dryfoos before and following screenings of her 1996 documentary, “The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story,” which won six Academy Award nominations. Hirschfeld, who died this past January at age 99, is perhaps best known for his New York Times drama drawings that brought to life the stars of the stage in a distinct style — one that delighted his fans by including the encryption of his daughter’s name, Nina. Makor-Steinhardt Building, 35 W. 67th St.; June 11, screenings 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m., discussion 9 p.m.; $25, reservations recommended. (212-415-5500 or www.92y.org)
Exhibitions
A Survivor Speaks: Jósef Szajna, who now lives in Warsaw, hid his portraits of fellow Auschwitz inmates under his mattress during World War II. Before the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “The Last Expression: Art and Auschwitz” comes to an end on June 16, Szajna — who resigned after a decade as director of the Warsaw art gallery Studio in 1981 protest over Poland’s military rule, discusses his life and experiences with BMA curator Marilyn Kushner. The exhibit includes more than 200 works by prisoners at Auschwitz — some created during the war, some afterward — including Szajna’s ink drawing “The Roll Call Lasted Very Long… My Feet Hurt Very Much” (1925). Brooklyn Museum of Art, 200 Eastern Parkway; conversation June 8, 3 p.m.; exhibit through June 15, Wed.-Fri. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (first Sat. of each month 11 a.m.-11 p.m.); $6, $3, students and seniors, free members and children under 12. (718-638-5000 or www.brooklynmuseum.org)
Tours
Harlem Yidishkayt: The Lower East Side isn’t the only Manhattan neighborhood that served as a home to immigrant Jews in the early 20th century. “When Harlem Was Yiddish,” a Dr. Phil’s New York Talks and Walks tour, leads the way past the former synagogues, stores and homes of Jewish Harlem. Meet in front of Bill Clinton’s office, 55 W. 125th St. (at Fifth Ave.); June 13, 1:30 p.m.; $15. (888-377-4455 or www.newyorktalksandwalks.com)
Father’s Day Stroll: While there are many ways to eat a Father’s Day meal, no one ever said it couldn’t be broken up into an afternoon of pit stops with snacks. Big Onion Walking Tours’ annual “Father’s Day Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour” lets two generations come together for a look back at their forebears — and those of their fellow New Yorkers — through food. The “From Naples to Bialystok to Beijing” tour takes walkers through the Jewish East Side, Chinatown and Little Italy. Meet in front of the Olympic Restaurant, the southeast corner of Essex St. and Delancey St.; June 15, 1 p.m.; $16, $14 students and seniors, includes snacks. (212-439-1090 or www.bigonion.com)
Let Freedom Ring: Composer Arnold Saltzman, cantor of Washington’s Adas Israel Congregation, presents the world premiere of his “An American Symphony,” a celebration of religious freedom in four movements, one each for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. Saltzman’s earlier works include “Rescue in Denmark Symphony” and “An Israel Symphony” and the ballet “Solomon and the Dove.” University of Maryland, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Dekelboum Concert Hall, Route 193 and Stadium Drive, College Park; June 15, 7:30 p.m.; $30, $15 students and seniors, $5 UMCP students. (301-405-2787 or www.claricesmithcenter.umd.edu)
WASHINGTON, D.C.
From Anne’s Annex: It would be difficult, one hopes, to find an American Jew unfamiliar with Anne Frank and her diary. Yet few are likely to have seen the young woman’s annex writings as penned by her own hand, some of which have never before been on American soil. Timed to coincide with what would have been Frank’s 74th birthday, “Anne Frank the Writer: An Unfinished Story” comprises Frank’s original writings, on loan from the Amsterdam-based Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, which was created after World War II and to which Otto Frank bequeathed her writings in his will. Other items are on display courtesy of the Anne Franks-Fonds in Basel, Switzerland. June 12, the exhibit’s opening day, also commemorates the start of the journal, which Frank began on her 13th birthday after receiving the red-plaid diary as a present from her father. “All we can do is wait, as calmly as possible, for it to end,” she wrote on its pages. “Jews and Christians alike are waiting, the whole world is waiting, and many are waiting for death. Yours, Anne.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, S.W.; June 12-Sept. 12, daily 10 a.m.- 5:30 p.m.; free. (202-488-2690 or www.ushmm.org)
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THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING
Bed to bed they lie: the victims of a terrorist bombing in Israel and the terrorist who has survived his suicide mission. Both are treated by the pragmatic Dr. Avi Rivkind in the wards of a Jerusalem hospital, the focus of Ramón Gieling’s documentary “Welcome to Hadassah Hospital” (the Netherlands, 2002), which kicks off the 14th annual Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York.
From 18 countries, the festival’s 28 films and videos touch upon violence and courage, despair and fortitude. Topics include discrimination against Moroccans in Israel, misinformation about AIDS in South Africa, criticism of post-9/11 media spin in America, Hutu-Tutsi relations in today’s Rwanda and much more.
Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center, W. 65th Street off of Amsterdam Ave., plaza level; festival June 13-June 26, please call or visit Web site for complete festival listings; $9.50, $7 full-time students, $5 members, $4.50 seniors (weekday matinees only), $5 children. (212-496-3809 or www.filmlinc.com)
NUREMBERG’S LEGAL LEGACY
Benjamin Ferencz, a chief prosecutor for the United States at the Nuremberg trial, gives the keynote address at a symposium on “Justice After the Holocaust” that brings scholars and legal experts together to debate and discuss the legacy of the Nuremberg trials and their impact on international law.
“Response to the Holocaust: Nuremberg, Restitution and Reparation” and “The Legacy of Nuremberg: Transitional Justice, Truth Commission and International War Crimes Tribunals” are the two panel discussions. Participants include former Israeli Supreme Court justice Gabriel Bach, professors Gary Bass of Princeton University and Jonathan Cohen of Hebrew Union College and the University of Cincinnati; Saul Kagan, executive vice president emeritus of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, and museum director David G. Marwell, among others.
Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, 18 First Place, Battery Park City; June 12, 3 p.m.-8 p.m.; $15, $12 students, seniors and members, reservations recommended. (212-509-6130 or www.mjhnyc.org)
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