The Stanton Street Shul And The Art Of David Friedman

Posted on: July 14th, 2004

Artists have a way of calling attention to the things we really need to see. Their sensitivity and funny way of thinking shake us up, and demand that we take notice.

The Last Jew: A Tragedy By David Pinski

Posted on: June 9th, 2004

One hundred years after David Pinski's (1872-1959) "Di Familye Tzvi" was written, the scathing examination of the Jewish world that the play depicts is neither dated nor out of touch with contemporary Jewish life.

‘Nossig’s Antics’ – A New Play By Lazarre Seymour Simckes

Posted on: June 2nd, 2004

"Are you Alfred Nossig?" the waiter asked the middle-aged man at the table.

My America – The Long Road

Posted on: May 19th, 2004

The Jewish Museum has a story to tell in "My America: Art From The Jewish Museum Collection, 1900-1955."

A Bitter View – Auschwitz: A Graphic Novel by Pascal Croci

Posted on: May 12th, 2004

Pascal Croci's graphic novel, Auschwitz, begins with a question to a witness from Auschwitz-Birkenau, "How long have you been keeping all this to yourself?"

Had Gadya: Harbinger Of The Future

Posted on: April 28th, 2004

Had Gadya, the playful, threatening and ultimately reassuring song that ends many Seder evenings among Ashkenazi Jews, has a long history in the Haggada.

Foundations Of Jewish Life: An Auction At Kestenbaum

Posted on: April 21st, 2004

The foundations of a Jewish life may be discerned in three outstanding works of Jewish art that I had the pleasure to preview for the Kestenbaum auction scheduled for March 30, 2004.

You Can’t Go Home: Digital Art By Shulamit Tibor

Posted on: April 14th, 2004

We all attempt to reap sustenance from the past. Our collective heritage acts as a foundation of cultural values necessary for us to build into the future.

Sotheby’s Judaica

Posted on: April 7th, 2004

Jewish Art has always been burdened by Jewish history.

Eliezer Reiner – The Mitzvah Of Memory

Posted on: March 31st, 2004

Remember. The commandment to remember reverberates throughout the Torah, starting with the Exodus from Egypt, continuing to Receiving the Torah and finally climaxing in the weekly remembrance of the Sabbath itself. Embedded in the six remembrances is the commandment to, "remember what Amalek did to you on the way" (Devarim 25:17).

The Narrative Of Authority Paintings By John Bradford

Posted on: March 24th, 2004

Authority, as the Gemara in Sanhedrin says, makes the world go round.

Gleizer’s Paintings: From The Heart Of The Beast

Posted on: March 17th, 2004

Mikhail Gleizer was born at the end of the Second World War in the Soviet Ukraine under the reign of the dictator Joseph Stalin.

It’s a Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s… Super Mensch!

Posted on: March 10th, 2004

Brilliant flags cascade atop two majestic mountains, sullied by throngs of horses and soldiers' shining steel armor reflecting the blinding sunlight.

Hiding And Seeking: Faith And Tolerance After The Holocaust

Posted on: March 3rd, 2004

Poised between imminent moral danger and the irrepressible drive to do the right thing, director Menachem Daum and cinematographer Oren Rudavsky have seared together a complex portrait of an Orthodox family who confront their painful past in the new documentary, Hiding and Seeking.

The Art Of Exile: Paintings By Shoshannah Brombacher

Posted on: February 20th, 2004

Exile is punishment; exile is a constant reminder of our fallen status; exile fills us with longings for a permanent home we cannot possess.

Return To Sinai: Moses Und Aron By Arnold Schoenberg

Posted on: February 13th, 2004

I was transfixed the first time I saw Moses und Aron, the 1933 opera by Arnold Schoenberg.

Akeydes Yitskhok – Goldfaden’s Masterpiece Revived

Posted on: February 4th, 2004

It could have been a travesty. Indeed, think of a musical of Akeydes Yitskhok, frivolous singing and play-acting the most awesome and sacred drama in the Torah!

Kneidlach And Machine Guns

Posted on: January 30th, 2004

The wide variety of bric-a-brac that fills a soldier's pockets, backpack and other gear becomes the medium of exploration in Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried," his examination of Vietnam era soldiers.

Maus: Flash Back To The Present – Survivor Memory Into Holocaust Art, Part I

Posted on: January 16th, 2004

Elie Wiesel encapsulates the problem of Holocaust art by insisting that, "Auschwitz defies imagination and perception; it submits only to memory. It can be communicated by testimony, not fiction."

Desecration Or Sanctification: La Juive, The Opera By Jacques Fromental Halevy

Posted on: January 9th, 2004

The curtain rises to reveal a towering wall of translucent glass behind which the chorus sings 'Te deum laudamus, You are G-d, we praise You,' to the provocative chords of the church organ.