David Berg News

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 19 categories - and bestowed one special award - for the 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, beginning at 7:00pm EST. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF. Beloved and celebrated entertainer, Wayne Brady, will emcee the ceremony.

The Off-Broadway League today announced nominations in 19 categories - and bestowed one special award - for the 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts, beginning at 7:00pm EST. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. Additional support is provided by TDF. Beloved and celebrated entertainer, Wayne Brady, will emcee the ceremony.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust today announced plans to present the most comprehensive Holocaust exhibition about Auschwitz ever exhibited in North America. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is produced in partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland and the international exhibition firm Musealia. The groundbreaking exhibition was curated by an international team of experts led by historian Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt. It will open in New York City on May 8, 2019 and run through January 3, 2020.

When famed author Chaim Potok was inspired to write about another legendary Jewish writer, the result was Out of the Depths, Potok's first and only original play. Based on the extraordinary life and work of S. Ansky, author of the world renowned play, The Dybbuk, Out of the Depths was recently published for the first time in The Collected Plays of Chaim Potok. Now, in celebration of its publication and the 100th anniversary of Potok's birth, the Center for Jewish History will host the New York premiere of Out of the Depths with a staged reading on Sunday, February 3rd at 2:00 pm.  

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president, his popularity with American Jews inspired this Yiddish joke from a Jewish Republican judge: The Jews now had three velten (worlds), the judge quipped. Di velt (this world), yene velt (the world to come), and Roosevelt. Although the Democratic party has won the majority of American-Jewish votes since the 1920's, the critical issues that motivate Jewish voters, like all voters, also reflect the political climate and a range of priorities. Today, as the country grows increasingly polarized, are Jewish voters becoming more starkly divided as well?  Are ideological schisms, gender differences, and generational divisions shaking up the Jewish political landscape too? What can we glean from historical voting trends? And with Jews making up only 2% of the population, why so much interest in the Jewish vote anyway?

Margalit Fox wrote more than 1,400 obituaries during her career at The New York Times, gaining a legion of fans with her exquisite prose and eye for quirky detail. Now she applies her meticulous research and superb storytelling to a long-forgotten 20th-century murder case-and to Oscar Slater, the Jewish immigrant who was framed for the crime. The sensational case both captivated the public and captured the attention of Arthur Conan Doyle, celebrity author of the wildly popular Sherlock Holmes detective novels. One century later, Ms. Fox shines a bright light on a cold case, revealing the twists and turns of Conan Doyle's real life murder investigation and uncovering question we still grapple with today. "Why isn't the Oscar Slater case better known?" Fox muses, "It's about racism, antisemitism, xenophobia. Not relevant to today? Think again." 

Due to critical acclaim and an entirely sold-out summer run the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) has announced a fall extension with a new block of tickets for the American Premiere of the Yiddish language Fiddler on the Roof. Originally announced to play through August 26th, the Yiddish language Fiddler on the Roof that opened on July 15th, will now play through October 25th. The production will continue its run at the Museum of Jewish Heritage with an updated performance schedule that includes Saturday evening performances,

Jewish astronauts orbiting the earth face a particularly vexing question on Friday nights: how do you celebrate Shabbat at sundown when the sun rises and sets approximately every hour? What about eating matzo in microgravity during the holiday of Passover? Or taking a Torah into space? "Crumbs would fly around the shuttle," Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman realized, so he left the matzo at home. But after consulting his rabbi,  Hoffman, NASA's first Jewish male astronaut, did bring a tiny Torah and read from the Book of Genesis while passing over Jerusalem. Sharing these and other stories from orbit, Dr. Hoffman will talk about his fascinating career and unusual Jewish journey in a program designed for space enthusiasts of all ages. Hosted by the Center for Jewish History and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research on May 7th at 6:30 pm, the program is presented in conjunction with their current exhibition, Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit. Dr. Valerie Neal, Curator and Chair of the Space History Department at the Smithsonian Institution, will be joining Dr. Hoffman to introduce the program and provide the history of Jewish astronauts.

The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) is pleased to announce a compelling lineup—featuring a robust mix of 41 documentaries and narratives—for the 17th annual Westchester Jewish Film Festival (WJFF), including all 10 episodes of The Writer, one of the latest in Israel's brilliant streak of TV dramas. The festival spans two and half weeks from March 13–29, with all screenings and events taking place at JBFC, a nonprofit cultural arts center and one of the most successful suburban film houses in the country located in Pleasantville, NY. Presale tickets are available for members starting on February 13th, while tickets will be available for the general public on February 16th.

Going boldly where no Jewish museums have gone before, the Center for Jewish History and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are pleased to announce the launch of their joint exhibition, “Jews in Space: Members of the Tribe in Orbit.” Featuring a stellar array of rare artifacts, from 18th-century Hebrew astronomy texts to a collection of Judaica that went into orbit on the space shuttle, the exhibit explores the age-old Jewish quest to understand the heavens.

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (JLCO) comprises 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today. The orchestra makes a return to the Marcus Center's Uihlein Hall on Wednesday, October 11 at 7:30 pm.

Recognized as one of the 20th century's preeminent political philosophers and historian of ideas, the polymathic Isaiah Berlin was a celebrated British essayist, raconteur and scholar. An alumnus of Oxford University's Corpus Christi College, Berlin was most famous for his influential lecture and paper "Two Concepts of Liberty," in which he explored pluralism. Roger Cohen, noted journalist and columnist for The New York Times, will speak on the importance of Berlin's work and ideas in a time of growing intolerance.

Highlights include a discussion about the history of Jewish Justices on the Supreme Court, a conversation with Jenna Weissman Joselit and Samuel G. Freedman on the Ten Commandments, a talk on Freud and his use of Yiddish from our NEH Senior Scholar Naomi Seidman and a presentation about the "Jewish Territorialist" movement

Highlights of the new season include new courses on Holocaust education and Spinoza's Ethics, a Passover workshop for all ages inspired by historical garments, a day of programs for and about Jewish children and the 20th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.

Dancers will mix and mingle with arts, business, and civic leaders for an evening en pointe celebrating the 23rd season of one of the nation's most innovative and entertaining contemporary American ballet companies at Smuin's Annual Gala, to be held Sunday, March 19, 2017 at San Francisco's Galleria. Co-chairs Patti and Jerry Hume, and Athena and John Konstin along with Smuin's Board of Trustees and the Friends of Smuin committee will be hosting this event. The elegant evening will include a cocktail reception, dazzling performance by Smuin's acclaimed dancers, premier live auction, gourmet dinner catered by McCall's, and after-dinner dancing. Smuin's Annual Gala takes place 5pm, Sunday, March 19, 2017 at San Francisco's Galleria, 101 Henry Adams Street, San Francisco. For tickets and more information, the public may contact Smuin Ballet at (415) 556-5000 x100or visit www.smuinballet.org.

The Jewish Museum's 2017 slate of lectures, discussions, and events continues in February with a lecture by guest curator Esther da Costa Meyer on Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design, and a concert by the low string quartet Bonjour. 

Highlights of the new season include new courses on Holocaust education and Spinoza's Ethics, a Passover workshop for all ages inspired by historical garments, a day of programs for and about Jewish children and the 20th New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.

An evening of musical performance will explore the history of Jewish Austrian emigres who transplanted the music of Viennese cafes to New York City. Esther Wratschko (Prins Foundation Fellow at the Center for Jewish History) will share her discoveries from the combined partner archives at the Center.

Cafe Carlyle is a low-ceilinged room with walls covered in paintings that lend credence to the illusion of being locked in another world, a jazzy rendition of 80 years ago that's all glitz and glam. It is in this room that Ana Gasteyer performed, making her debut at the venue. There was an immediate clash between the buttoned-up atmosphere and the by-no-means-buttoned-up performance Gasteyer gave. The SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE alum's show, directed by Julian Fleisher, is, at its heart, a comedy show, sometimes irreverent, sometimes touching, and always laugh-inducing.