Tag: Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Categories
Culture Entertainment Events Museums Music News Theater

A Celebration of Resilience, Resistance, and Hope

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, where 13,000 Jews died fighting Nazi oppression –

in April and May 1943, it was the largest single act of resistance during the Holocaust. The Uprising was the inspiration for “Zog nit keyn mol” (Yiddish: “Never Say”), known as the “Partisan Song.”

 

A Celebration of Resilience, Resistance, and Hope
WeAreHere-IG-Timezones

The song, which exemplifies Jewish resistance to Nazi persecution, is inspiring a special virtual event this Sunday, June 14 –

 

“We Are Here: A Celebration of Resilience, Resistance, and Hope.” The concert – which will be live-streamed at www.wearehere.live – commemorates the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 77th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, even as it speaks to the challenges of the current moment.

“We are all inspired by the example set in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The Partisan Song, which begins and ends this program, speaks to the fight for social justice and fundamental human rights,” said Bruce Ratner, Chairman of the Board at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, Sing for Hope, and Lang Lang International Music Foundation partnered to organize the event, enlisting more than 100 organizations from across the United States and globe to present it at 2:00 PM EST on Sunday.

And they’ve enlisted a robust array of renowned actors, musicians, and civic leaders to participate. Among them is a four-time Grammy Award and National Medal of Arts-winner, star soprano Renée Fleming, who will perform the world premiere of a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano based on a text by Kitty O’Meara.

Among the others participating are EGOT-winner Whoopi Goldberg –

Grammy Hall of Famer and Tony-winner Billy Joel, world-renowned pianist Lang Lang; the iconic Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Emmy- and Tony-nominated actress Lauren Ambrose, multi-platinum, Tony-winning Broadway star Lea Salonga, multi-Grammy-winning opera star Joyce DiDonato, and award-winning actress Mayim Bialik.

“Both the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the centuries-old pandemics of racism and antisemitism highlight the need for resistance and resilience,” Sing for Hope Co-Founder Camille Zamora said. Added Sing for Hope Co-Founder Monica Yunus, “As we seek to listen, learn from, and serve our communities in the days ahead, thoughtful organizational partnerships will be key. It is an honor to unite artists and stand together as allies with a global network that fosters resilience, resistance, and hope.”

National Yiddish Theatre Artistic Director Zalmen Mlotek –

and Executive Director Dominick Balletta noted that “In this time of rising antisemitism and global crisis, the themes of resistance, resilience, and hope are more important than ever, and the Partisan Song takes on even more resonance. The song begins with the words ‘Never say this is the final road for you,’ and ends with the words ‘We Are Here.’ It is the song that binds together those who fight for justice.”

The program also will feature an interview by The Forward Editor-in-Chief Jodi Rudoren with Nancy Spielberg, Roberta Grossman, and Sam Kassow about their film Who Will Write Our History, which chronicles the story of Oneg Shabbat, the group that daringly preserved the history of the Warsaw Ghetto.

You can view the list of all participants here. Local viewing times include 11 AM Pacific Time, 2 PM Eastern Time, 7 PM London, and 9 PM Israel.

Categories
Chefs Dining Museums News Nutrition NYC Restaurants

Serving Up a Dish of Heart and Sole

Serving Up a Dish of Heart and Sole

Holocaust survivors are considered some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Serving Up a Dish of Heart and Sole
David Teyf – Executive Chef

One Manhattan restaurateur is making sure they get a dose of comfort – and good food – while staying indoors to remain safe.

Madison and Park Hospitality Group’s David Teyf, the executive chef who operates Lox at Cafe Bergson at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, is preparing pre-packaged kosher meals for Holocaust survivors.

With a small team, Teyf then bring the meals directly to these seniors across New York City.

“I am personally cooking and delivering these meals. I know that my grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors, are smiling down on me. This is something I want to do to honor them and because it’s the right thing to do,” Teyf says. “It’s in my soul to give back.”

An estimated 38,000 Holocaust survivors live in the greater New York City metropolitan area, according to Selfhelp Community Services. More than 50% of them live in poverty.

The pandemic is particularly traumatizing, echoing their lives more than 75 years ago during the Holocaust when food and resources were scarce. Because of coronavirus restrictions, they struggle with a lack of resources and community as they isolate at home.

Teyf has partnered with the Museum and the Met Council to identify 50 Holocaust survivors who need assistance. Additionally, the Museum is reaching out to other survivors to assess their needs so Teyf can provide more support.

He also is setting up an arrangement to deliver more kosher meals to essential healthcare workers at hospitals throughout New York City. The meals include salads, entrees, and desserts.

 

Serving Up a Dish of Heart and Sole
Jewish dish from Teyf’s restaurant

Teyf’s family has more than a century of epicurean experience.

“My great-grandfather started baking matzah for the Jewish community in Minsk in 1920,” he says. Each of his grandparents was the sole family survivor of the Holocaust. “After the Holocaust, my grandfather continued his father’s tradition of baking matzah for the Jewish community, which he had ultimately risked his life during Communist times until 1979. In 1979, my grandfather decided to pick the whole family up and leave Minsk for the United States for our Jewish freedom.”

Museum President and CEO Jack Kliger praised Teyf’s philanthropy.

“David is doing a real mitzvah,” Kliger says. “The Met Council and David are being generous with their hearts and minds: stepping up to serve others when there is a great need in our city.”

Categories
Events News

Museum of Jewish Heritage To Celebrate 20th Anniversary

This year, the Museum of Jewish Heritage celebrates its 20th anniversary. In doing so, the museum have put together a great calendar for the upcoming months and continue “to educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the broad tapestry of Jewish life in the 20th and 21st centuries—before, during, and after the Holocaust.”

Downtown sat down with the Museum’s CEO and President Michael Glickman for a talk about the Museum of Jewish Heritage, its upcoming exhibitions and a few questions about Glickman himself, inside and outside the museum.

Photo courtesy of John Halpern

How did you wind up working with the Museum of Jewish Heritage? Did you know people working there?

Michael Glickman: I spent a decade working in the Jewish cultural world and I was quite familiar with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. When the presidency of the Museum became available, I found the opportunities and challenges that surrounded the position to be incredibly interesting and thrilling.

Had you been to the museum before taking the job? Had you spent a lot of time in Lower Manhattan?

MG: I had been to the Museum many times for different exhibitions and programs. And, for a period of time, until September 11, 2001, I worked on Rector Street for a city agency.

Do you have any goals for the museum? Is there something that you would like to see happen?

MG: The Museum is a remarkable institution, unique to this city, as we present the history of the Holocaust. We are working hard to find innovative ways to tell the stories of individuals that capture the attention of a culturally sophisticated audience and hope to grow our attendance by leaps and bounds over the coming years. We at the Museum face the necessary challenge of representing the facts of the Holocaust, while encouraging visitors to connect to history on a human level.

Visitors to our New York home can explore items that represent personal experience of global significance. Just as importantly, they can discover thousands of testimonies by Holocaust survivors, liberators, rescuers, Jews who served in the Allied Armies during World War II, and many others. We are defining the future of testimony-based Holocaust education, pioneering new ways to explore survivor accounts and oral histories. We are focusing on how the Museum will take on an even greater role in allowing visitors to hear from witnesses and make human connections mediated through technology and supported by artifacts.

What inspired you to launch the Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism?

I was fortunate that the Board of Trustees had the foresight to launch the Center about a year before I arrived.

In our own time, we are seeing a rise in both anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. We have to remain vigilant and we must protect the historical record. Given what we are seeing around the city and around the world, this center, through exhibition, program and scholarship, will offer the public opportunities to explore the history of this greatest hatred in new and meaningful ways.

Do you have a favorite exhibit or attraction within the museum? LOX, perhaps?

MG: I may be a bit biased as I think the entirety of the Museum is extraordinary. I’ve had the good fortune to produce two new installations since I arrived in the fall and I’m quite partial to the idea that we are able to present pieces that focus on the individual experience – from My Name Is to Eyewitness – it’s important for me to be able to present the stories of those who experienced the trauma of extreme loss in the Shoah and how we will not allow the memory of millions to pass into stony silence.

I also think Andy Goldsworthy’s Garden of Stones is a marvelous oasis at the heart of our Museum that allows a visitor to experience the serenity of our city. And I’m pretty partial to LOX as well, particularly since we can offer a café that combines great modern fare with old world charm.

Any exciting events coming up for the museum?

MG: We’re kicking off our 20th anniversary year in July with a series of new exhibitions and installations that are certain to capture the attention and interest of New Yorkers and tourists alike. The Capture & Trial of Adolf Eichmann, which opens in September 2017, documents how the Nazi responsible for transporting millions of innocent people to death camps mysteriously disappeared after World War II, his daring capture and his historic trail. It contains recently declassified material from the Mossad, and for the first time on view in New York, the glass booth that Eichmann sat in during his trial.

Accompanying this exhibition will be New Dimensions in Testimony, which for the first time in NYC will present hologram technology that will allow for a “virtual conversation” with Holocaust survivors. Eichmann will be at one end of the museum – the man responsible for killing millions – and one of the survivors will be virtually recounting his experiences at the other end, enabling the Museum to not only mourn those who were killed and comfort those who suffered, but that we tell their story with precision, accuracy, and the utmost of respect for human dignity.

When not busy with the Museum of Jewish Heritage, how do you like to spend your free time?

MG: I have three children who keep my wife and I very busy, so really any moment that I’m not at the Museum, I am with my family. It offers an incredible balance and perspective, and helps me focus on what’s important.

Beyond LOX, do you have a favorite restaurant in New York?

MG: I have found some of the most wonderful restaurants in Lower Manhattan, so I’ll give you my two favorites – Gigino and Inatteso.

Do you have tickets to any upcoming concerts or events?

I had a chance to see Billy Joel reopen Nassau Coliseum, which was amazing. And I’m looking forward to seeing the Amerike – The Golden Land, a National Yiddish
Theatre Folksbiene musical that will open at the Museum in July.

Finally, Michael, any last words for the kids?

Be present and attentive. We live in challenging times and we need to work together to keep moving forward.