Jews And The Arts, Players And Pundits

Posted: Sun, 05/19/2013 - 17:44 | Posted by: Sharon Anstey | Well Versed

The Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College hosted an ambitious and absorbing program, “Jewish Arts and Identity in the Contemporary World” on May 7th. Three panels – on theater, music and the visual arts - were the core of the conference complemented by a performance by Audrey Flack and the Art History Band.

A Tribute to Rabbi Neil Gillman

Posted: Mon, 05/13/2013 - 11:53 | Posted by: Jeff Yablonka | Well Versed

“Faith lasts for a moment and then you’re back in the desert again,” said Rabbi Neil Gillman, quoting Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

For more than half a century. the former dean of the Rabbinical School and current Professor Emeritus of Jewish Philosophy at The Jewish Theological Seminary has guided students of all ages and Jews of all denominations through the shifting sand of that theological Sinai.

Two Israeli Painters To Watch

Posted: Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:38 | Posted by: Jill Nathanson | Well Versed

This year’s MFA exhibition at The New York Studio School, which opened on Wednesday night, includes two Israeli painters working with specifically Jewish or Israeli themes. Leah Raab paints large-scale images of Jerusalem that are tender and intimate, but sometimes communicate a sense of foreboding. Shany Saar paints narrative works, often of biblical themes. Both create strong images through an inventive sense of form and color, vigorous brushwork and an achieved sense of pictorial space.

Happiness Show: Just Thinking About It Makes Me Smile

Posted: Fri, 05/03/2013 - 10:15 | Posted by: Susan Reimer-Torn | Well Versed

Happiness... there is a word for it in every language, yet, what it is and how best to sustain it is a perennial puzzle. There is hardly a culture, religion or political platform that fails to mention it, while few have defined it in consistently satisfying terms.

Confronting Anti-Semitism, On Exhibit

Posted: Wed, 05/01/2013 - 19:57 | Posted by: Erika Dreifus | Well Versed

Today, Germany is recognized as a leading industrialized nation with a stable democracy. But despite the country’s Holocaust memorials and reparations, anti-Semitism—along with racism and neo-Nazi ideology—has remained part of German society since 1945.These circumstances are at the heart of “Germany After 1945: A Society Confronts Anti-Semitism, Racism and Neo-Nazism,” a traveling exhibition that is making its U.S. debut at Baruch College of The City University of New York.