Culture & Arts Guide
 Fall 2014

  Center for Jewish Studies at Queens   College
  The Arthur and Carole Anderman

Tuesday, September 16   7 pm; LeFrak Concert Hall
Performance   
Free and open to the Public
National Yiddish Theatre, Folksbiene   
From Rosenfeld to Robeson

See Detailed Flyer

Starring Broadway and international opera star, Elmore James and Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director of the National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene as they take you on a musical journey through the repertoire of Paul Robeson, the great African American singer, actor and civil rights activist.  Together, they explore the pathos inherent in love ballads, songs of the sweatshop and slavery, melodies of spirituality, protest and hope.  This new concert breathes fresh life into its interpretations of classic Yiddish songs, songs of revolutionary poets, Holocaust era partisans and Broadway favorites.
Folksbiene at CUNY is a series of free concerts and readings sponsored by the
City University of New York.

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Thursday, October 2    12:15 pm; Rosenthal 230
Discussion  
Co-sponsored with the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding
Free and Open to the public

The Third Gaza/Israel War:  The Ethics, Evidence, Efficacy, and Consequences.
A discussion with Prof. Moshe Halbertal (Hebrew University & NYU) , Israeli Scholar of Jewish Thought & Phliosophy and an author of the IDF’s Code of Ethics;  and  Khalil Shikaki, Ph.D. Columbia University Political Science, Founder and Director: Palestinian  Center for Policy and Survey Research (since 2000). 

Moderated by Professor Mark Rosenblum, Middle East historian, QC and track II Diplomat, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies; Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding, Michael Harrington Center for Democratic Values; Ibrahim Student Leadership and Dialog Project on the Middle East.

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Sunday, October 19, 2 pm Rosenthal Library 230, 
Film On Sunday
Admission: $5 or $8  for both films
Call 718-997-5730 for ticket information 
Co-sponsored with the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understand

Huqoq is an ancient village located 1.5 miles to the northwest of the Sea of Galilee. Flourishing through the late Roman and Byzantine periods, Huqoq is mentioned in I Chronicles 6:75 as part of the inheritance of the tribe of Asher.

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Sunday, October 26,    2 pm   Rosenthal Libray 230
Film on Sunday
Admission: $5 or $8  for both films
Call 718-997-5730 for ticket information 
Co-sponsored with the Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding

Documentary, 50 minutes:   Strangers No More (2010, English, Hebrewdir. Karen Goodman; Kirk  Simon
Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject, the film depicts an exceptional school in Tel Aviv, where children from 48 different countries, who have experienced adversity and hardship including genocide,  come together to learn at the Bialik-Rogozin School.  With a focus on several student, not only do the students heal together, as they begin to learn with one another, but also find support and guidance through their dedicated teachers and mentors. 

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Monday, October 27,    12:15 pm    Rosenthal Library, Conference Room #2
Lecture   
Free and Open to the Public
Co-sponsored with Department of European Languages

Coming Out as Jewish in Weimar Germany
Prof. Kerry Wallach, Gettysburg College
Kerry Wallach is Assistant Professor of German Studies at Gettysburg College. She received her Ph.D. in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the University of Pennsylvania. She previously taught in the Jewish Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and she held a short-term postdoctoral fellowship at the German Historical Institute in Washington DC.   Her presentation will draw from her current book project on gender and Jewish recognizability in Weimar Germany.

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Tuesday, October 28, 7:15 Pm, LeFrak Concert Hall 
Lecture   
Free and Open to the Public

Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World
Professor Benjamin Gampel,  Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Benjamin Gampel is the Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History at The Jewish Theological Seminary. He teaches courses in medieval and early modern Jewish history, with a special focus on the medieval Sephardim, and the Spanish Inquisition, and lectures widely on the entire range of Jewish history.  He is the author of the Last Jews on Iberian Soil. 
In his presentation Dr. Gampel will discuss the beginnings of the Inquisition and the events leading to it and thereafter,  including the latest developments in Spain in their effort to address the reinstatement of Jewish citizenship to the descendants of the Inquisition.

Presented by the Annual Leon and Morris Levy Memorial Lecture, endowed by the Levy Family.

Dr. Otterman was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1937. At the age of three, he and his parents escaped Lodz and fled to Warsaw. From there after being confined in several ghettos, Bernard and his mother wound up escaping from Auschwitz and were fugitives until Liberation.  His father was sent by train to Auschwitz, then immediately moved to a work camp in Germany. He too survived and the family was reunited in Lodz in September of 1945 through displaced persons listings.  They lived in Germany until coming to the United States in 1951. Otterman was trained in mechanical engineering and for many years was on the engineering faculty at Northeastern and Hofstra Universities. He worked and reworked the stories in the anthology for more than a decade. Also a poet, Dr. Otterman’s poems have been published in such venues as “Poetry”, “Jewish Currents” and other journals and compendia. He is in the process of completing a novel centered on the life and death of journalist and novelist Arthur Koestler. Inmate #1818  will be rendered as a dramatic reading by a Queens College Drama student, with commentary thereafter by Dr. Otterman followed by an interactive question and answer period with the audience. Sunday, November 16, 2pm – 4:30 pm, LeFrak Concert Hall Lecture     Free and Open to the Public An Annual Commemoration of Kristallnacht and Recommitment to Combating Anti-Semitism Co-sponsored with the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding Keynote Address:  Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger,  “Against All Odds Change is Possible: A Personal Journey”Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger, an award-winning physician in Aventura Florida, highly regarded for eminent work within the profession, he is also the author of several books, which includes, A German Life: Against All Odds Change is Possible..  In this autobiography he describes his struggle growing up in Germany in the shadow of his father, a highly-decorated WWII tank commander and Nazi officer.   Eventually young Wollschlaeger would convert to Judaism; immigrate to Israel, where he completed his medical education; and serve in the Israel Defense Forces as a Medical Officer. The program also includes a candle lighting ceremony with six Holocaust Survivors, or their children escorted by student facilitators from the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding.  After introducing the individual who lights a candle, the student facilitator makes a commitment to combat anti-Semitism and hatred.   In addition there is a multicultural invocation, remarks by public officials as well as audiovisual and musical interludes. Organized by the Center for Jewish Studies and the Center for Ethnic, Racial & Religious Understanding at Queens College, the Queens Jewish Community Council, Kupferberg Holocaust Research Center and Archives at Queensborough Community College, and others. Tuesday, November 18,  2014, 7:15 PM, Rosenthal Library 230     Free and Open to the Public Rosenthal Library 230 Co-sponsored with the American Sephardi Federation Documentary/Film and Panel Discussion Film/Dialogue Series Reading Tehran in Tel-Aviv, dir. George Itzhak;  English, Hebrew, Farsi Length: 20 minutes Reading Tehran in Tel-Aviv tells the story of two Iranian-Jewish women who engage in  creative work that attempts to create a bridge between Iran and Israel, and their identities as Jews and Iranians. Orly Noy, an Iranian- born Israeli, is the first person to translate contemporary Iranian literature into Hebrew. Josephine Mairzadeh, an American born to Iranian parents, is a visual artist who brings together Iranian, American, Jewish, and Muslim imagery into her collages and photography. And while Orly’s and Josephine’s work brings them closer to their identities and their roots, it also leaves them with unresolved feelings and tensions. The presentation of the documentary will be followed by a panel discussion with George Itzhak, Director; Josephine Mairzadeh, Artist, and American Sephardi Federation;  and Dr. Houman Sarshar, Historian and Literary History on Iranian Jewry with an active  Q & A session with the audience. Made possible through the generosity of Leon* and Elsi Levy *deceased Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014  [START TIME TO BE ANNOUNCED]  LeFrak Concert Hall Co-sponsored with the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding Third Annual Innovation Exchange: New Frontiers:  Innovation in the Middle East The dissolution of Arab States. The rise of the ISIS state. The collapse of Israeli/Palestinian Negotiations. The third Israel/ Gaza War. Hatred and Incitement. In the midst of this breakdown, are there any hidden breakthroughs? As a result of this great unraveling, individuals are forging new identities. Some of these “identities in formation” are building bridges, and not barriers. Stakeholders across the Middle East are countering the prevailing violence with an astounding array of innovative new ideas and activities, many of which cross unlikely borders to create new frontiers. The Third  Innovation Exchange sponsored by the Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding (CERRU) will highlight current transformations on the themes of education, the arts, technology, civil society and governance, and will feature social entrepreneurs from across the Middle East, and from the United States. Wednesday, December 17,  7 pm LeFrak Concert Hall Songs of Chanukah:  Celebrating the Festival of Lights Featuring Magda Fishman, Rachel Yucht, Avram Pengas, Dmitri Zisl Slepovitch, Brian Glassman, and Matt Temkin.  Musical Director Zalmen Mlotek on piano.  In Yiddish, English, Hebrew and ladino with English translation supertitles Kosher Chanukah treats available after the performance in a meet and greet settin