The Jewish Museum Presents See the Light(s): Hanukkah 2011

The Jewish Museum is presenting See the Light(s): Hanukkah 2011. This annual celebration features exhibitions of Hanukkah menorahs from the Museum's extensive collection, eclectic music, family festivities, and more. Highlights include an installation of Hanukkah lamps selected by the renowned author and illustrator Maurice Sendak; Frank London's Klezmer Brass Band Allstars in concert on December 27; a Hanukkah Family Day on December 18; and family concerts by The Macaroons on December 25. Other special exhibitions on view include: The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats and The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936-1951. Hanukkah begins at sundown on Tuesday, December 20 and continues until sundown on Wednesday, December 28, 2011.

A guide to Hanukkah at The Jewish Museum can be found online at www.TheJewishMuseum.org/Hanukkah2011. Visitors to the site can take an online tour of the menorahs in An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak, buy tickets to Hanukkah concerts, plan a visit, learn about Hanukkah in an educator resource and fun holiday family feature, send a Hanukkah e-card to friends and family, shop for Hanukkah gifts, give a gift of a Jewish Museum membership, and more. The public can celebrate the holiday by signing up to receive eight daily Hanukkah e-mails by visiting TheJewishMuseum.org/Enews and selecting Hanukkah. Each e-mail will feature an image of a beautiful Hanukkah lamp from the Museum's collection, fun facts, special offers and other Unique Features.

In addition, Lox at Café Weissman will offer a special Hanukkah menu featuring classic paper thin potato latkes with sour cream and applesauce; sufganiyot (donuts) filled with apricot, hazelnut or mixed fruit jam; Napoleon-style layered latkes with house sour cream, dill sauce and lox; and homemade house cheesecake.

The Jewish Museum Shops sell Museum reproductions, distinctive Jewish ceremonial objects for every holiday, exhibition catalogues and related merchandise, jewelry, stationery, Jewish books and music, and gifts related to art and Jewish culture. The Jewish Museum Design Shop, Celebrations, also offers ketubbot (marriage contracts) and a gift registry. For Hanukkah, a large selection of menorahs, dreidels, holiday books, music and gifts, as well as Hanukkah candles, will be on sale. New this year is a limited edition adaptation of a Hanukkah lamp from the Museum's collection, designed in Vienna between 1919 and 1928 by Karl Hagenauer, available at an introductory price of $225 through December 31. The original Hagenauer menorah is on view in the exhibition, An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

December 2, 2011 – January 29, 2012
Exhibition
An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak
An Artist Remembers features thirty-three Hanukkah lamps of varied eras and styles, chosen by renowned author and illustrator Maurice Sendak from The Jewish Museum's extensive collection. This highly personal selection of lamps, many never before exhibited, echoes the quality of line and depth of emotion that define Sendak's work. This exhibition also includes two original drawings for Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (1966) and In Grandpa's House (1985), and audio excerpts of a conversation between Maurice Sendak and Jewish Museum curators Susan Braunstein and Claudia Nahson recorded as he picked out the works for the exhibition. The lamps Sendak found most compelling and poignant are those that "go right to the heart," whose "beauty is contained." Yet his sense of humor was never far from the surface: as he made his choices he often free-associated, whimsically recalling old movies and Catskills family vacations. Above all, he was guided by his sensibility as an artist and author. The lamps on view reflect the diversity of the Museum's collection ranging from an early 20th century lamp, created in the well-known Hagenauer Workshops, with spiral elements and flower buds characteristic of the Viennese Art Nouveau, to an 18th century piece from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, decorated with two smiling lions supporting a heart and topped by a large stork. Lamps from Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Galicia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States are included.

Window Installation
Large, cut-out images of eight Hanukkah lamps in the collection of The Jewish Museum with light shining through them will be on view in eight windows: six on Fifth Avenue and two on 92nd Street.

December 2, 2011 – January 29, 2012
Postmodernist Hanukkah: Design from the 1980s
Four Hanukkah lamps from The Jewish Museum's Permanent Collection, each a product of the radical styles of the 1980s, will be on view in the Museum's lobby. The 1980s saw an explosion of interest in art and design about identity. Architects and designers Richard Meier, Yaakov Agam, R. M. Fischer and Eduard Hermans reinvented the Hanukkah lamp from new perspectives.

Sunday, December 18 from Noon to 4 pm
Hanukkah Family Day
Children can create Hanukkah lamps and sculptures made from found objects; design holiday scenes with illustrator Nancy Cote; dance to the music of Ben Rudnick and Friends; and visit the Museum's renowned collection of Hanukkah lamps.

Free with Museum admission

Monday, December 19
Gallery Talk
A Jewish Museum curator tells stories of Hanukkah lamps on view in An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak. The 20 minute talk focuses on a single lamp.

December 19 Rebecca Pristoop, Curatorial Assistant

Free with Museum admission

Sunday, December 25 at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm – THREE SHOWS!
Family Concert: The Macaroons
Families can enjoy a guitar-based sound that recalls everything from the Kinks to Queen to the Shins. The Macaroons will perform such songs as Hurry Up And Light The Candle and Mezuzah.

Tickets: $20 per adult; $15 per child; $17 adult Jewish Museum family level member;
$13 child Jewish Museum family level member

Tuesday, December 27 at 7:30 pm
Concert
Frank London's Klezmer Brass Band Allstars
This band has toured the world, bringing over the top exuberant energy to traditional Jewish roots music. Their CD, Carnival Conspiracy, was Rolling Stone magazine's #1 non-English recording. For this show the band will perform Hanukkah favorites and be joined by special guests Michael Alpert and the Purchase Klezmer Mob.

Tickets: $45 general public; $40 Jewish Museum members

The festival of Hanukkah commemorates an ancient victory for religious freedom – the liberation and reestablishment of Jewish worship in the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE. According to legend, a miracle occurred as the Jews gave thanks for divine intervention. A one-day supply of consecrated oil necessary for worship burned for the entire eight-day celebration. One of the most popular and beloved Jewish ceremonial objects, the Hanukkah lamp has evolved over the centuries for the kindling of lights during the eight nights of Hanukkah. The Jewish Museum's collection of Hanukkah lamps reflects the multitude of places where Jews have lived and flourished, as they often incorporate local styles and motifs. The design and history of each lamp speak to a complex interaction of political events, Jewish law, artistic expression, and personal experience. The millennia-old tradition of kindling the festival lights on a winter's evening continues to have profound meaning around the world as a celebration of freedom and miracles.

About The Jewish Museum
Widely admired for its exhibitions and collections that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is one of the world's preeminent institutions devoted to exploring the intersection of art and Jewish culture from ancient to modern times. The Jewish Museum organizes a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed and award-winning temporary exhibitions as well as broad-based programs for families, adults, and school groups. The Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection. Today, The Jewish Museum maintains a collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.

General Information
The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York City. Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to 4pm. Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members. Admission is free on Saturdays. For information on The Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3200 or visit the website at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org.