By Eileen Wingard
LA JOLLA, California — The 6th Annual TAPESTRY: A Community Celebration of Jewish Learning will be presented on Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24, as a hybrid this year:
Saturday evening’s two presentation sessions (7:50-8:40 p.m. and 8:50-9:40 p.m.) will take place on-site and out-of-doors at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, preceded by a dessert reception (6:30 p.m.) and Havdalah (7:25 p.m.). All attendees will be required to present a photo ID and proof that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. As an additional safety measure, masks are required for all patrons.
Sunday’s two presentation sessions and concluding keynote speaker will take place virtually, (10:10 a.m. -1:00 p.m.) preceded by community welcoming (9:30 a.m.) The keynote speaker will be David Kaufman (12:10-1:00 p.m.). His topic will be Jewish History and Jewish Memory: a Modern Midrash on Yerushalmi’s Zakhor.
Kaufman is the founder and director of New York City’s New York Jew: Center for New York Jewish History, Culture and Community. Prior to that, Kaufman taught for a decade at Los Angeles’s Hebrew Union College. With degrees from Columbia College, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Brandeis University, he is a popular educator, speaker and author.
I am thrilled to have been invited again to present a session following my successful program last year on Instruments of the Bible. This time, my topic will be Russia’s Jewish Folk Music Society. I will highlight the lives of six of the society’s outstanding composers and their influences: Joel Engel and Solomon Rosowsky, who went to Israel; Lazare Saminsky and Joseph Achron, who settled in the United States; and Michael Gniessin and Alexander Krein, who remained in Russia. I will also speak about one of their composition teachers at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the great Russian composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, and how he influenced their choosing Jewish thematic material for their compositions. There will be musical examples.
Because Sunday’s sessions are virtual, TAPESTRY will once again be tapping into world-wide resources.
My presentation will be one of five choices during the first session.
The other four will be: San Diego Rep’s Associate Director and UCSD Theater Professor, Todd Salovey, will compare Acting & Prayer; Charles Troy, Broadway historian from Chicago, will present 7 Richard Rodgers Numbers in ¾ Time; Bill Wallen, Jewish professional leader from Pittsburgh, will speak on Moses and the Exodus-Inspiration for America; Yael Weinstein, curriculum writer for the Melton School from Orlando, will consider Hate and the Jewish Question.
Sunday’s second session will have these five choices: Rabbi Yoram Dahan, Head of Kollel A’Havat Israel in San Diego, Why Be Jewish?; David Ellenstein, Director of the North Coast Repertory Theatre, Finding Universal Spirit in Theatre; Rabbi Shoshana Friedman, from Boston, Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action; Yochi Rappeport, Executive Director of Women of the Wall, from Israel, Who Owns the Western Wall?; and Gahl Sasson, Israeli-born astrologer from Los Angeles, Kabbalah and the Tree of Life.
Saturday’s on-site choices will be, first session: Jaqueline Simha Gmach, founder and director of We Are The Tree of Life, Educating on the Holocaust with Performing Arts: The Past and the Future Actions of We Are The Tree Of Life; Rabbi Phil Graubart, Notes from the Narrow Place; Meir Litvak, visiting Tel Aviv University History Professor at San Diego State University, Modern Islamist Anti-Semitism; Dr. Oded Shezifi, clinical psychologist from Del Mar, From Joseph to Freud: The Meaning of Dreams in Ancient and Modern Times;
Saturday’s second session: Martin Bunzl, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Rutgers University, The Past Present and (perhaps) Future of the Israeli Government and the Implications for Domestic and Foreign Policy; Monica Edelman, Director of Development, Jewish National Fund, San Diego, The Z Word: Understanding Zionism and Reclaiming the Narrative of Jewish Self-Determination; Tammy Gillies, San Diego’s Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Understanding and Challenging Antisemitism Today; Deborah Hertz, UCSD History Professor, Bertha Pappenheim, the Patient of Freud, Orthodox Feminist and the Campaign Against Jewish Prostitution.
JLearn is to be congratulated for such a stellar lineup of presentations for what promises to be a stimulating and productive program of Jewish learning.
To register, go to the Tapestry website: https://www.lfjcc.org/cjc/tapestry.aspx.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. She may be contacted via eileen.wingard@sdjewishworld.com