Week of April 17

Wednesday, April 23

 

MUSEUM VISIT

The Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors offers a trip to the Pointe à Callière Museum in Old Montreal to see an exhibit on the history and development of the Plateau. Reserve, 514-342-1234, ext. 7209.

 

TEMPLE BENEFIT

Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom is raising funds for its Torah School with a fun-filled evening featuring the  sale of art photography by Danny Taran at his Art for Charities Gallery, 8170 Montview St., suite 100, Town of Mount Royal at 6:30 p.m. There’ll be food and drink and a raffle for $10,000 in cash prizes. Tickets, [email protected].

 

 

Thursday, April 24

 

TRANSGENDER & JUDAISM

Joy Ladin, the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution in the United States, speaks at the Jewish Public Library at 7:30 p.m.  Ladin is the author of Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders, which recounts her return to work at Yeshiva University as a woman after receiving tenure as a man. Her memoir was a finalist for a 2012 National Jewish Book Award and she was named to the  Forward 50 list that year of the most influential or courageous American Jews. Tickets, www.jewishpubliclibrary.org.

Ladin is also the guest at an intimate Jewish Women’s Literary Circle dinner at 6 p.m., presented with the Hadassah Brandeis Institute. Tickets, 514-345-6416.

 

SIX IN THE CITY

The Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation once again holds Six in the City, a fashion-focused fundraiser at Rockland Shopping Centre, noon to 10 p.m. Participants have the opportunity to shop at a discount at any time. A cocktail reception is held at 6 p.m. Tickets, www.sinaisitc.org.

 

UQAM HONOURS RABBI

Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom hosts the final lecture in a series at the Université du Québec à Montréal that began in January honouring the courage of the late Rabbi Marshall Meyer, founder of the Latin-American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires and  a prominent human rights activist in Argentina.  The lecture, entitled “Religion et implication sociale,”is at 6 p.m. in the Bibliothèque des sciences juridiques et politiques, 400 Ste. Catherine St. E. The evening, which is trilingual, also includes an exhibition about Rabbi Meyer’s life and work from Duke University, where his archives are conserved, which continues until April 28.

 

 

…Et Cetera…

 

DIX FILM IN ISRAEL

Montrealer Jennifer Alleyn’s documentary Ten Times Dix was screened at the Tel Aviv International Art Film Festival last month, which she attended. It’s a portrait of German artist Otto Dix, who painted realistic images of life under the Weimar regime and the Nazis, who blacklisted him as “degenerate.” The film includes an interview with Nathalie Bondil, director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which presented a Dix exhibit in late 2010.

 

DANCE DEBUT

Young Montreal choreographer Sasha Kleinplatz’s Chorus II will be presented at Place des Arts’ Cinquième Salle Oct. 21-25, as part of the 2014-2015 Danse Danse season. The dance, inspired by the piety of her grandfather, will share the bill with a work by Emanuelle Le Phan and Elon Hoglund. They were all rated by the critics among the top 10 of emerging dancemakers in Montreal last year. Chorus II is described as both a physical and emotional piece performed by six male dancers accompanied by a percussionist-singer. Tickets, 514-848-0623.

 

PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK

Art book publisher Ian Sternthal’s latest edition is Hana by Hagar Cygler. This photography book presents dozens of photos left behind by a woman named Hana, which Cygler discovered by accident in a flea market in Jaffa, Israel. In each photo, Hana is standing in a similar pose at the entrance of her apartment in a different outfit. The earliest is dated in 1980, the most recent in the early 1990s. “Hana documented herself before the age of the Internet, Facebook and Instagram,” observes Sternthal. Cygler set out to find out who Hana was, eventually learning that she was a Christian who fell in love with a Jewish man who she hid during World War II – a story that might otherwise have been forgotten.

 

MIMOUNA 101

Roots & Recipes, an organization that collects recipes and food stories of immigrant grandmothers, is planning a “Mile End Mimouna Hop” April 27, and needs hosts. Mimouna is the traditional  Moroccan Jewish celebration at the end of Passover. Celebrants open their homes one  evening after the holiday and prepare a variety of sweet treats. R&R  needs four or five people to host a Mimouna in the Mile End or Plateau area in a home that can accommodate up to 20 guests. Volunteers are needed for other tasks as well. [email protected].

 

TECH FOR SENIORS

The Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors offers a class on “Tips and Tricks to Using Your iPad” from April 28-May 12.

Also scheduled for April 30 is a single session on computer maintenance, from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., that covers improving speed, scanning for and removal of viruses, and cleaning out old files. Registration, 514-342-1234, ext. 7348.

 

INTERFAITH FORUM

Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom presents a forum for grandparents in interfaith families on April 28 at 7 p.m. Led by Rabbi Lisa Grushcow, the topic is “Imparting Our Jewishness: Is it Religious or Cultural?”Rosie, 514-937-3575, ext. 213.

 

MUSIC AT THE SEGAL

Two very different musical programs are on tap at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts April 27. At 11 a.m., the choir Concerto Della Donna presents “Aspects of Love.” This group of 18 young women, aged 17 to 31, draw upon their diverse backgrounds to interpret a wide spectrum of songs from madrigals to Romantic lieder to spirituals and folk.

At 8 p.m., jazz musicians and brothers Chet and Jim Doxas, along with bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Andre White, give a concert showcasing their much-praised virtuosity. Both programs take place in the studio. Tickets, 514-739-7944.

 

GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM

Montreal native Charles Asher Small, now the Koret Scholar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and director of the New York-based Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), is editor of the new five-volume series Global Anti-Semitism: A Crisis of Modernity, published by ISGAP. “I believe this is an important and comprehensive contribution to the interdisciplinary study of anti-Semitism, with a focus on the contemporary,” said Small. “Some of the leading senior academics and younger scholars have contributed…from many disciplines and countries.” They were papers presented at an ISGAP conference held at Yale University in 2010.