May-August Public Program Schedule for the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Public programming this spring and summer at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will feature the launch of Film Club @MJH, an intriguing literary series called Terrace Talks, and concerts with virtuoso performers reflecting dynamic Jewish musical traditions. The Museum will present events with Sephardic super star Gerard Edery (May 26), the Chief Cantor of Vienna Shmuel Barzilai (June 3), and all-stars from the Krakow Jewish Music Festival including Klezmer great Frank London (June 9). In addition, a comedy show featuring Cory Kahaney, Jessica Kirson, and Esther Goodhart (May 16) about the people who love mah jongg will be presented in conjunction with the Museum's newest special exhibition, Project Mah Jongg.
 
New this year is the Film Club @MJH, which engages the Museum's film audience members via an online community on Facebook where viewers can discuss the films and suggest films for consideration. Club members will also receive exclusive benefits at participating downtown businesses. This series of six domestic and foreign films includes the Coen brothers' A Serious Man (June 2), followed by a discussion with Rabbi Irwin Kula and film critic Leonard Quart, and the French/German production Saviors in the Night (Unter Bauern) (June 30), which opened this year's New York Jewish Film Festival. The dates and program details for all six films can be found below.
 
Following on the success of last summer's Terrace Talks, the Museum is once again offering a line-up  of fascinating authors presented in one of the Museum's beautiful spaces with stunning views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. Louis Begley (May 5), Ruth Reichl (May 9), and Judith Shulevitz (July 7) are just a few of the featured speakers. Program details can be found below.
 
May programs :
PEN World Voices Festival – The Museum welcomes back the Festival for a full day of programs that includes Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, and Ariel Dorfman (May 2) Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters – Novelist and lawyer Louis Begley in conversation with New Yorker journalist Jane Kramer (May 5)
For You Mom, Finally – Author Ruth Reichl in conversation with literary critic and essayist Daphne Merkin (May 9 – Mother's Day)  [Terrace Talk]
Birthplace (Miejsce urodzenia) – Screening of the powerful documentary about renowned writer Henryk Grynberg's quest to learn who killed his family in WWII, followed by a discussion with Grynberg and historian Joanna Michlic (May 12) [Film Club]
The Future Mah Jongg Players of Majestic Isles – An afternoon of comedy and stories about mah jongg and the people who are crazy about it, with comedians Cory Kahaney and Jessica Kirson, and Esther Goodhart (May 16)
Former Neighbors: A Jewish-Polish Conversation – A panel of historians and the Chief Rabbi of Poland explore the complicated questions about the revival of Jewish culture in Poland (May 25)
The Spirit of Sepharad: From Casbah to Caliphate – Gerard Edery and friends return for a lively concert celebrating the Sephardic and Mizrahi traditions and the shared melodies of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths (May 26) 
 
June programs :
A Serious Man – Following a screening of the Coen Brother's film, Rabbi Irwin Kula and film critic Leonard Quart unravel this black comedy about an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe gone awry (June 2)  [Film Club]
Tradition into Future – In this world premiere, Cantor Shmuel Barzilai, Chief Cantor of Vienna, and Adam Holzman, jazz pianist and former member of the MiLes Davis Band, perform a unique blend of  Hasidic and Klezmer music with jazz and world music (June 3)
Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Krakow Music Festival with The Stars of Szeroka Street –This evening of music from the famous Krakow Festival of Jewish Culture features luminaries Frank London, Lorin Sklamberg, Benzion Miller, and Michael Alpert with special guests Armenian oud master Ara Dinkjian and Indian percussionist Deep Singh. (June 9)Devotion: A Memoir – Author Dani Shapiro in conversation with novelist Lauren Grodstein about her spiritual quest to answer her son's questions about God, mortality, and the afterlife (June 16). [Terrace Talk]
Surviving Hitler: A Love Story  –  The New York City premiere of a documentary chronicling the lives of two German teenagers who fall in love amidst the July 1944  plot to kill Hitler
(June 23 ) [Film Club]
Saviors in the Night (Unter Bauern) – The opening night pick of this year's New York Jewish Film Festival tells the riveting true story of a family hidden from 1943-1945 by German farmers  (June 30)  [Film Club]
 
July programs:
The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time – Author Judith Shulevitz in conversation with Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia School of Journalism, about her exploration of the sabbath in Judaism and Christianity (July 7) [Terrace Talk]
Four Seasons Lodge – An inspiring documentary that follows a community of Holocaust survivors who come together each summer at their Catskills bungalow colony (July 21)
[Film Club]Ajami – This 2010 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film examines the repercussions of a revenge killing in Jaffa's multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood (July 21) [Film Club]
 
August programs:·        
Hebrew Mystical Chant with the Kirtan Rabbi – Rabbi Andrew Hahn leads call-and-response singing that combines yogic chanting with the language of the Torah and Kabbalah (August 4)·         Missing a Beat: The Rants and Regrets of Seymour Krim –Mark Cohen discusses his biography of  an influential Beat writer who covered the post-war American scene from a Jewish perspective (August 11) [Terrace Talk]

 
The Museum's three-floor Core Exhibition educates people of all ages and backgrounds about the rich tapestry of Jewish life over the past century–before, during, and after the Holocaust. Special exhibitions include Project Mah Jongg, opening May 4 and on view through January 2, 2011; Traces of Memory: A Contemporary Look at the Jewish Past in Poland, on view through August 15; and The Morgenthaus: A Legacy of Service, on view through December 2010. The Museum's new Keeping History Center features Voices of Liberty, an interactive installation featuring the stories of immigrants from 1935 through the present. The Museum offers visitors a vibrant public program schedule in its Edmond J. Safra Hall. It is also home to Andy Goldsworthy's memorial Garden of Stones, as well as James Carpenter's Reflection Passage, Gift of The Gruss Lipper Foundation.