Ten Great Jewish Legacies: The Final Letters
Aug 07, Aug 14, Aug 21, Aug 28 Wed 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
What did Maimonides, Theodor Herzl, Edmond James de Rothschild, and Sholom Aleichem consider as their most valuable words and teachings to be left for posterity? Explore ten extraordinary written legacies of these and other leaders of the Jewish people, as we delve into the words of Rabbis, medieval thinkers, mystics, Hassidic masters, Holocaust victims and survivors, and contemporary American Jews to find out what they left behind as spiritual legacies. What can we learn about the core values that maintained the life and spirit of our people? What could it teach each and every one of us in terms of what we would want to leave behind?
Nazi-Looted Jewish Art: From Theft to Restitution
Aug 07, Aug 14, Aug 21, Aug 28 Wed 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
The Nazis stole thousands of masterpieces from private Jewish collections. After the war, this loot landed in national museums in Europe and America; it took 50 years for legal heirs, lawyers, art historians, curators and government officials to have some of these artworks returned to their rightful owners. Follow the breathtaking saga of Jewish looted art as we explore the fate of three major artworks—a Klimt, a Schiele, and a Cranach. Track them as they wander about from being hung in Viennese salons, to getting locked in a German warehouse, displayed in American museums, seized by legal authorities, and find out what their final resting place is today.
Great Comic Jewish Short Stories
Aug 07, Aug 14, Aug 21, Aug 28 Wed 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Jewish humor has a long tradition, in tales from Sholom Aleichem to Woody Allen, Philip Roth to Nathan Englander, Cynthia Ozick to Wendy Wasserstein. Read these and other great Jewish writers as they remind us—and teach us--to never underestimate the power of wit to satirize and criticize, re-frame life’s absurdities, defuse fate’s bitter sting, and just plain help us lighten up and laugh. For further insight into the history of the distinctive flavor--and the stereotype-- of Jewish humor, finish up by reading selections from scholar Ruth Wisse’s newly published analysis of Jewish comedy, No Joke: Making Jewish Humor.
