By Reporter staff
A variety of Jewish groups are offering educational and recreational online resources. Below is a sampling of those. The Reporter will publish additional listings as they become available.
Siegal Lifelong Learning will hold several virtual programs this summer: “Childhood in Israel: Well-Being and Vulnerability” on Thursday, June 9, from 7-8:30 pm (available here); “Revisiting a Forgotten Center: Caribbean Jewry in a Global Perspective” on Wednesday, June 15, from noon-1:30 pm (register here); “Women on the Front Lines” on Sunday, June 26, from 1-2:30 pm (more info here); “Israeli Graffiti Art: Secrets from Behind the Scenes” on Sunday, July 31, from 1-2:30 pm (find out more); and “Jews and Whiteness” on Wednesday, August 10, from 7-8:30 pm (tickets here).
JArts will hold the virtual “JLive with Beverly Sky” on Friday, June 10, from noon-5 pm, with Beverly Sky, a weaver and paper-maker. This is part of JArts’ series of virtual cultural experiences. For more information or to register, visit this link.
Touro University will hold the online course “History of the Jewish Intellectual Tradition” from June 20-August 18. According to the university, “The course explores how the salient ideas and values of the Jewish intellectual tradition have not only stood the test of time but also – perhaps more importantly – have played a critical role in the shaping of traditional religious practices and customs, while profoundly influencing contemporary non-Jewish Western culture.” Anyone who is not a student of the university can register as a non-matriculated student. The cost is $900. For more information, including how to apply for the course, click here.
The Leo Baeck Institute will hold the virtual book event “Book Club: Where She Came From” about the book “A Daughter’s Search for Her Mother’s History” by Helen Epstein on Tuesday, June 7, at 2 pm. Epstein’s book is about her search to hear about her grandmother and great-grandmother, who were victims of the Holocaust. For more information or to register, visit their event page.
The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History will hold “La Nona Kanta: The Remarkable Life of Flory Jagoda” on Wednesday, June 15, from 8-9:30 pm. The program is free on Zoom with suggested $10 donation. In taped interviews, the late Flory Jagoda the story of how music helped her escape from Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia when she was a teenager. Performances of her music by Trio Sefardi will alternate with her filmed narration. For more information, visit the program page.
The Yiddish Book Center will hold the virtual talk “‘Working toward a Healthy Generation’: An Archival Show-and-Tell on Jewish Women’s Health in Eastern Europe,” with Stefanie Halpern on Thursday, June 16, at 7 pm. Halpern will discuss folk remedies, patient medical records and pamphlets about contemporaneous medical practices at the turn of the 20th century. For more information or to register, see here.
The Jewish Heritage Alliance will hold the virtual program “The Legacy of Sefarad in America Series.” The introductory lecture will be “SEFARAD: Jews in Early America. From Inquisition to Freedom” on Sunday, June 12, from 1-2:30 pm. It will look at “the role of Jews in the development of religious liberty in America, from the arrival of the earliest community of Jews in 1654 through the end of the 18th century.” For more information or to register, visit the tickets page.
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research will hold a book talk about “Fear and Other Stories” by Chana Blankshteyn, translated by Anita Norich, on Wednesday, July 6, at 6 pm. Norich will discuss the book with Chana Kronfeld, professor of Yiddish and comparative literature. For more information or to register, visit their registration page.
The podcast “Holocaust Histories” features real-life stories of those who were in the Holocaust. According to the website, “Each episode features a boxer with a different nationality and unique experience. Some will live, some will die. They will all fight to survive.” For more information or to listen to the podcasts, click here.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage will hold a “Virtual Walking Tour: Anne Frank’s Amsterdam” on Sunday, June 26, at 11 am. The cost is $18 for museum members and $36 for the general public. The tour marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of “The Diary of a Young Girl.” For more information or to register, visit this page.
Secret Chord Concerts is a free on-demand video series featuring 15-25 minute performances from celebrated Jewish musicians representing a broad range of styles, heritages and histories. The concerts are recorded live in front of audiences in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Season One episodes will air the first Wednesday of every month from June until October. Concerts will air live via Facebook on the pages of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The series will be available on-demand after the event on the above Facebook pages, the Weitzman museum’s website (see here) and on the Lowell Milken Center’s YouTube page (available here). Scheduled concerts include July 6, Mostly Kosher; August 3, Neta Elkayam; September 7, Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell with the Baymele ensemble; and October 6 (a Thursday release date), Andy Statman.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will hold the virtual program “Step by Step: Recreating a Family’s Lost Holocaust History” on Tuesday, June 14, at 2 pm. Jessica Shaw will be in conversation with her sister, Dr. Laura Shaw Frank, the American Jewish Committee’s director of contemporary Jewish life, to discuss the history of the Holocaust in France and being the children of a Holocaust survivor. For more information or to register, visit their event page.
For additional resources, see previous issues of The Reporter or our other Jewish Online Resources here.