METROPOLITAN NEW YORK
Lectures and Discussions
Charney’s Report: Leon Charney — host of the 13-year-old “The Charney Report” and author, most recently, of “The Charney Report: Confronting the Israeli-Arab Conflict” — discusses the struggle for Middle East peace in the first event in the Rockland Center for the Arts’s “You Heard It Here” speakers series. Charney was once described by Jimmy Carter as the “unsung hero” of the Camp David peace accords. Rockland Center for the Arts, 27 South Greenbush Road, West Nyack; Jan. 25, 8 p.m.; $15, $12.50 members and seniors, reservations required. (845-358-08778)
The Roots of Hate: In “Anti-Semitism Through the Ages: A Dark Side of History,” Jerome Chanes of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture explores the evolution of anti-Judaism in ancient and medieval times and its eruption into virulent antisemitism in the 20th century. Chanes is the author of “Anti-Semitism, A Handbook,” among others. Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, 334 Amsterdam Ave.; Jan. 27-Feb. 24, Mondays (except Feb. 17), 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m.; $75, $60 members. (646-505-4444 or www.jccnyc.org
Understanding the Institutions: In “American Jewish Community & Israel: Follow the Organizations — An Overview,” Forward editor J.J. Goldberg; Martin Raffel, associate executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Moshe Kagan, a member of the executive committee of World Jewish Congress, sit down with moderator Charney Bromberg, executive director of Meretz USA, to share their knowledge about Jewish communal life in America. This is the first event in a six-part series. Makor-Steinhardt Center, 35 W. 67th St.; Jan. 27, 7:30 p.m.; $15. (212.415.5500 or www.92ndsty.org)
Performance
‘The Last Virgin’: A Jew, a Christian and an Arab are sitting in an Irish pub — no, it’s not a joke, it’s the premise of Tuvia Tenenbom’s “The Last Virgin,” a play that ties together Eastern ideology and imagery with Jewish thought and a ghost called “The Last Virgin.” The comedy is performed by the Jewish Theater of New York, recently returned from Europe, with an all-Israeli cast that includes Assaf Ben-Shetrit, Llat Glick, David Tirosh and Amit Yogev. The Triad Theatre, 158 W. 72nd St.; please call for times and dates; $36. (212-494-0050)
Magda and the Others: Gabrielle Lansner and Company presents “Holocaust Stories,” a dance-theater work that weaves together in a nonlinear dance sequence three stories of relationships transformed by the Shoah. “The Jewish Wife” is based on Bertolt Brecht’s eponymous play about a woman in 1930s Germany who flees to Amsterdam with her “Aryan” husband. “Magda” is derived from Cynthia Ozick’s short stories “The Shawl” and “Rosa” and is based on the story of a woman in the aftermath of the Holocaust whose daughter has been killed in the concentration camps. Kressman Taylor’s “Address Unknown” follows the dissolution of the friendship between a California Jew and his German friend cum Nazi sympathizer. The Duke, 229 W. 42nd St.; tonight 8 p.m., Jan. 18, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Jan. 19, 2 p.m.; $20. (212-239-6200)
Music
Orchestra! Orchestra! The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic come together for a joint benefit, which kicks off with the national anthems of both the United States and Israel. Under the baton of Zubin Mehta, music director of the IPO, the 180 members of the two orchestras perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Then, led by New York Philharmonic music director Lorin Maazel, the musicians perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, Broadway between 62nd and 65th streets; Jan. 21, 7 p.m.; $45-$75, reservations required. (212-875-5656 or www.newyorkphilharmonic.org)
Charming Hostess: With bassist-vocalist Jewlia Eisenberg at its helm, Charming Hostess offers up genre-blending beats, bringing the sounds of Eastern Europe and North Africa, punk, klezmer and blues together in an end result that is lively and danceable. Tonic, 107 Norfolk St.; Jan. 24, 8 p.m.; $10. (212-358-7501 or www.tonicnyc.com)
Strom Storm: The multitalented Yale Strom follows a screening of his documentary about the Soviet Union’s Jewish Autonomous Region (capital: Birobidzhan), “L’Chayim, Comrade Stalin,” with a performance with his band, Hot Pstromi. Josef Stalin created the JAR in 1928; with a Jewish population of 45,000 at it height, yidishkayt thrived there. Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, 100A W. 89th St., sanctuary; Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m., reservations required. (212-787-7600 or www.bj.org)
Romanian Memories: The Congress for Jewish Culture, Yugntruf and the League for Yiddish present “Songs of Bukovina” with Bella and Itzik Gottesman. Kosher refreshments are served. Atran Center for Jewish Culture, 25 E. 21st St.; Jan. 23, 7 p.m., $5. (212-505-8040)
Film
Film Fete: Among the movies in the last week’s lineup of the 12th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival are Yaron Shane’s “Festival Under War,” (Israel, 2002), Joseph Seiden’s “Motl the Operator” (United States, 1939), Elida Schogt’s “Silent Strong” (Canada, 2002), Beate Thalberg’s “The Joel Files” (Austria, 2001) and Amos Gitai’s “Kedma” (Israel, 2002). Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, 65th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, through Jan. 23, please call for times and to confirm location; $9.50, $5 members, $5 children 6 to 12, $4.50 seniors weekday matinees only, $6 students. (212-496-3809 or www.filmlinc.com)
Salon Series: As part of its fifth Annual Jewish Film Salon and Brunch Series, held on the last Sunday of January, February and March, the Sutton Place Synagogue screens Sandy Simcha DuBowski’s “Trembling Before G-d,” a documentary about Orthodox and chasidic Jews who are gay. Brunch precedes the screening, which is followed by a discussion with Dubowski and Rabbi Steve Greenberg, who appears in the documentary. Sutton Place Synagogue, 225 East 51st St.; Jan. 26, 11:30 a.m.; $25, $70 series, reservations requested. (212-593-3300)
‘Secret Lives’: Aviva Slesin’s documentary “Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII,” features interviews with adults who, as children, were taken in and hidden from the Nazis by gentiles during World War II. The film focuses on the relationships built during that time — as well as the hidden children’s relationships with their biological families — and includes several recent reunions. A discussion with the Academy Award-winning Slesin, herself a hidden child, and producer Toby Appleton Perl follows the screening. Pioneer Theatre, 155 3rd St.; Jan. 22, 6:30 p.m.; $10, $5 members. (212-679-0870)
Face Off: Think you’ve got a way with words? If so, why not strut your stuff at the Workmen’s Circle’s “Slam Shirim: A Poetry Slam for the Los Angeles Jewish Community.” Participants sign up at the beginning. Refreshments are served.The Workmen’s Circle, Southern California District, 1525 S. Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles; Jan. 25, 8 p.m.; $10, $7 members. (310-552-2007)
GEORGIA
Feminine, Divine: “Shekhina: Photographs by Leonard Nimoy” at the Fine Family Art Gallery features some 13 gelatin silver prints taken by the actor-artist perhaps best known as Spock. This exhibit is one of several organized in conjunction with the publication of his eponymous book by Umbrage Editions dedicated to the feminine aspect of divinity. The book’s images have aroused some controversy; in one, for example, a scantily clad woman is pictured donning tefillin. Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta at Zaban Park, Fine Family Art Gallery, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody; Jan. 16-March 16, Tue.-Thu. 1 p.m.-6 p.m.; free. (770-396-3250 or www.atlantajcc.org)
MASSACHUSETTS
Silver Screen Classic: As part of its winter film series, the National Yiddish Book Center screens “Love and Sacrifice,” a small-budget classic of Yiddish American cinema, based on a book by Isadore Zolotarefsky about a Jewish mother who is sent to prison after shooting a suitor. In February, the center presents “The Vow” and “A Jumpin’ Night in the Garden of Eden.” The National Yiddish Book Center, Hampshire College campus, 1021 West St., Amherst; Jan. 26, 2 p.m.; $3 suggested. (413-256-4900 or www.yiddishbookcenter.org)
Difficult Decisions: In William Gibson’s “Golda’s Balcony,” directed by Daniel Gidron and presented by Shakespeare & Company, Annette Miller plays Golda Meir, bringing to life the internal struggle that the Israeli prime minister must have faced as the Jewish state came under attack from Egypt and Syria in 1973. Tremont Theatre, 276 Tremont Ave., Boston; through Feb. 22, Tue.-Sat. 8 p.m., Wed. 2 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 3 p.m.; $30-$38, reservations recommended. (866-637-3353 or www.shakespeare.org)
NEW JERSEY
Double Bill: Arthur Laurents and Israel Horovitz are taken to the stage in quick succession in “Double Play,” back-to-back performances of Laurents’s “The Vibrator” and Horovitz’s “The 75th,” each a comedy about an elderly couple, one of which never remembers meeting before and the other about the thing that keeps the pair going. George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, N.J.; through Feb. 9, Tue.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m., additional performances Jan. 18, Jan. 23, Feb. 1 and Feb. 8, 2 p.m.; $22-$55. (732-246-7717 or www.georgestplayhouse.org)
FANCY FREE: This 1956 photograph of Leonard Bernstein at Carnegie Hall, taken by Emmerich Gara, is part of ‘Great Moments in 20th-Century Music’ on view at Lincoln Center.
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