February 2014 Events at Leo Baeck Institute
Join us in February for a diverse lineup of programs that will explore how German-Jewish immigrants helped build San Francisco, the role of Rabbis in the German Army in WWI, and much more. Unless otherwise noted, please register in advance at (212) 744-6400. The most current list of events is always online at lbi.org/events.
Thursday, February 6, 2014, 6:30 PM | Panel Discussion
Jews, Cities and Culture: Hamburg, New York, and Kiev
Art museums, galleries, libraries, concert halls and political arenas have long been hallmarks of culturally sophisticated urban centers. Join us for a lively discussion of how the features of three distinct cities provided settings for the flowering of Jewish cultural and intellectual life, and how Jews, in turn, contributed to the larger life of the cities in which they lived, often on the margins. With Emily J. Levine (Dreamland of Humanists), Tony Michels (A Fire in their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York), Natan Meir (Kiev: Jewish Metropolis – A History 1859-1914) and Alisa Solomon (Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof).
$7 Members / $10 General
Reserve Tickets
Thursday, February 13, 2014, 6:00 PM | Book Talk
Loyalty Betrayed: Jewish Chaplains in the German Army During the First World War
Around 30 Jewish chaplains served in the German army during WWI, providing spiritual care for 100,000 Jewish soldiers plus Jewish refugees made homeless by the Tsarist army. Author Peter Appelbaum has collected, translated, and annotated their memoirs and diaries for the first time in English. Applebaum will speak along with moderator Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor Emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary and President Emeritus of LBI.
$5 Members / $10 General
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Tuesday, February 18, 2014, 6:30 PM | Film Screening and Panel Discussion American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco
German-Jewish immigrants played a central role in transforming San Francisco from a sleepy village to a thriving metropolis. In the process they reinvented themselves as well, becoming a distinctly new kind of Jew – a San Francisco Jew. Join us for a screening of a new documentary about this transformation, followed by a discussion in which a panel of scholars will explore the intertwined destinies of San Francisco and the Jews who settled there.
$5 Members / $10 General
Reserve Tickets
Monday, February 24, 2014, 6:30 PM | Book Talk
American Jewish Political Culture and the Liberal Persuasion
The sustained loyalty of the Jewish electorate to the Democratic party while other ethnic voters cast their ballots elsewhere has long puzzled political pundits and chagrined Republican stalwarts. Henry Feingold’s new book seeks the origins of Jewish liberalism and questions whether the communal motivations behind it are strong enough to withstand twenty-first-century America.
Admission Free
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Other events of note:
New Lanzmann film, The Last of the Unjust in Theaters Feb. 7
In 1975, while collecting material for his landmark documentary, Shoah, Claude Lanzmann filmed a series of interviews in Rome with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last President of the Jewish Council in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Murmelstein was the only “Elder of the Jews” to survive the ghetto, and he became an extremely controversial figure, loathed by some who viewed his role on the Council as a type of collaboration. The footage was not included in Shoah, but Lanzmann has now returned to it in a film that focuses on the personality of Murmelstein and savage contradictions of the Nazis’ so-called “Model Ghetto.”
The film opens in select theaters in NYC, LA, and South Florida on Friday, February 7.