Matisyahu will perform for 90 minutes and will hold an open question and answer session. This will be an acoustic (unplugged) performance in an intimate setting with superior acoustics and comfort. VIP patrons receive priority seating and a post-show private reception with Matisyahu. Ample free parking available. A complimentary buffet will be served after the show – plan to stay and schmooze!

For more information or to purchase tickets visit www.JewishTriValley.com or call 925.846.0700.

This will be a truly memorable event and an opportunity to get up close and personal with a musical superstar.

The event is presented by Chabad of the Tri-Valley, in conjunction with The Jewish Federation of the East Bay and the Contra Costa County Jewish Community Center, and with support from Voyage-Air Guitar.

A public opening event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 20, at 7 p.m. at the Jazz Heritage Center (1320/1330 Fillmore Street). Following a reception, award-winning historian Fred Rosenbaum will speak about Zakheim at 8 p.m. Admission to the exhibition is free every day, including the public opening event.

The exhibition is made possible by a lead grant from the Koret Foundation, the Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation, and the Fleishhacker Foundation. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, collaborated on the exhibition.

Although he is little known today, Bernard Baruch Zakheim (1896-1985) was one of the leading artists in California in the middle decades of the 20th century. Born and raised in a Hasidic family in Warsaw, Poland, he immigrated to San Francisco in 1921 and except for lengthy periods of study in Paris and Mexico City, he resided in the Bay Area until his death.

“My father’s work speaks to humanity; it speaks of humanity,” said Nathan Zakheim. “As a diarist, he recorded the Holocaust in vivid paintings from afar. He recorded the horror of man’s inhumanity to man, but then, from the depths of personal pain, the pain of losing his whole extended family in the Warsaw Ghetto, he emerged with lush green grasses, and scorched dead trees blooming with fresh red flowers. From those dark days onward, his art brimmed over with golden waves of the resurgence of life, of darkness giving way to light. In today’s troubled world, his work has taken on a new light.”

Reproductions of Zakheim’s main works may be viewed at www.bernardzakheim.com.

Zakheim, an associate of Diego Rivera, won fame primarily as a muralist. His Jewish Wedding, commissioned for the new San Francisco Jewish Community Center in 1933 (and removed, restored, and reinstalled when that institution demolished its building and erected a new facility in 2004) is considered one of the most notable works of art in any Jewish building on the West Coast.

In 1934, he oversaw the entire Coit Tower mural program, the largest publicly funded art program in the country, and his own work, Library, ignited much controversy because it starkly reflected the class conflict during the Depression. At the end of the 1930s, he painted the monumental 12-panel fresco, The Story of California Medicine, which hangs in the amphitheater of Toland Hall on the campus of the UCSF Medical Center.

In addition, Zakheim produced a large oeuvre of watercolors, oils, other works on paper, and sculpture. He was one of the first American artists to depict the Holocaust, and his huge wooden sculpture Genocide (initially displayed at the Magnes Museum and since 1969 in Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles) was among the earliest Shoah monuments in the United States. He traveled to Israel in 1970 and portrayed the achievements of Zionism. He also painted a series of vivid scenes showing the Jewish contribution to the American Revolution.

The Zakheim exhibition is a follow-up to the highly successful Jews of the Fillmore exhibit presented by Lehrhaus Judaica and the Magnes Museum in the fall of 2009. Zakheim lived and taught in the Fillmore District, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in the 1920s and 1930s, during the interwar period before moving to Sebastopol where he set up his studio in an apple orchard. Rosenbaum’s recently published cultural and social history of Bay Area Jewry, Cosmopolitans (UC Press, 2009), includes a five-page section on Zakheim in the context of his times.

“In the 1930s, Zakheim was one of the foremost Jewish artists in the country,” said Rosenbaum, the 2010 Cowan Award recipient. “He was also among the most controversial. The Jewish symbols of his youth in Warsaw, the narrative fresco techniques he studied in Mexico City, and the postimpressionism he absorbed in Paris, all served his artistic plea for human dignity. “

Other than the murals, the majority of Zakheim’s work is in the possession of his son, Nathan Zakheim of Los Angeles. The family also has an invaluable photo collection dating from the artist’s birth to his death at the age of 89, as well as an extensive archive of his personal correspondence and other papers. The Zakheim family and its exclusive representative for Bernard Zakheim’s art, Albert Neiman, have pledged full cooperation for this project.

In addition to the public opening lecture by Rosenbaum, there will be three additional Zakheim presentations in San Francisco. Rosenbaum will participate in the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s panel on the Works Progress Administration murals on Thursday, October 21, at 7 p.m. Contemporary art specialist Susanne Strimling will speak about Zakheim on Tuesday, October 5, at 7 p.m. at Congregation Sherith Israel and on Sunday, November 14, at 11 a.m. at the Jazz Heritage Center.

For more information, please visit www.lehrhaus.org or www.jazzheritagecenter.org.

In an effort to continue to go green, we have scaled our print catalog to 32 pages. The full range of classes are still available, but we have found creative ways to save paper through shorter class descriptions and removing the faculty bios. Not all of our classes our published in the print catalog. You have to visit www.lehrhaus.org to see everything we have to offer. Check the Web site periodically to find new classes and to find full course descriptions and faculty bios.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or have ideas for future Lehrhaus classes. We look forward to seeing you at a Lehrhaus class or event this fall!

Out on a Ledge

Rosenbaum researched this book not only through 100 hours of interviews, but also as part of an international team of scholars assembled by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. There he unearthed shocking documents about Eva’s Holocaust journey, data obtained from the International survivors and their families can access the ITS. Tracing Service, which had lain fallow for 65 years. At the JCCSF on October 14, he will explain how other survivors and their families can access the ITS.

In addition to numerous works on local Jewish history, Rosenbaum is the author (with Joseph Pell) of the widely acclaimed Taking Risks and (with Sonia Orbuch) of Here, There are no Sarahs.

To order Out on a Ledge (Wicker Park Press, 2010), contact Lehrhaus Judaica at 510-845-6420. The cost is $16.95.

Libitzky of Pompano Beach, Fla., will be in conversation with Rosenbaum at the JCCSF in San Francisco on October 14. Rosenbaum will also speak at the Kristallnacht commemoration at Temple Sinai in Oakland on November 9. Both events are free.

This November 9 talk is part of the 22nd Annual Contra Costa Jewish Book & Arts Festival. For information, go to www.jfed.org/bookfestival or call 925-938-7800 or 510-318-6453. Special thanks to the Tillie and Rene Molho Fund for Holocaust Remembrance of The Jewish Community Foundation of the East Bay for endowing this lecture.

Co-sponsored by the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum
Thursday, October 14, at 7 p.m.
JCCSF
3200 California Street, San Francisco
415-292-1200

Kristallnacht commemoration
Tuesday, November 9, 7:30 p.m.
Temple Sinai
2808 Summit Street, Oakland
510-451-3263

Back by popular demand, the Jews of the Fillmore exhibition will be on display at the BJE Jewish Community Library from September 2010-January 2011. The free exhibition features a photographic depiction of San Francisco’s greatest Jewish neighborhood from 1907-1965.

A center of Orthodox religious life, but also Zionism, socialism, and the Yiddish theater, the Fillmore was the hub of Yiddish-speaking Jewish culture in Northern California for almost half a century.  But, it was also the entertainment mecca for the whole city, and Jews were highly visible as the operators of restaurants, vaudeville houses, movie theaters, and Jazz clubs. The Fillmore produced one of the greatest violinists of the century, Yhudi Munhihn, along with many Jewish communal leaders.

Fred Rosenbaum, co-curator of the exhibition and author of Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews of the San Francisco Bay Area (UC Press, 2009) will deliver a presentation on the Jews of the Fillmore:

Thursday, November 18, at 7 p.m.
BJE Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco
415-567-3327

This exhibition, which was co-curated by the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the Jazz Heritage Center in the fall of 2009, is made possible by the Koret Foundation, the Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation and the Shenson Fund.

Freund has directed six archaeological projects in Israel and three in Europe on behalf of the university. He has also appeared in 15 television documentaries on Biblical archaeology, including for the History Channel and CNN. Additionally, he is the author or co-author of eight books, including most recently, Digging through the Bible: Ancient Archaeology and the Modern Bible.

Freund will deliver the opening and closing addresses for the conference. The opening address is titled: Digging through the Bible: Modern Archaeology and the Ancient Bible – The Back Story. Freund will conclude with a talk titled: Digging Deeper: Where is the “Real” Mount Sinai?

Top Bay area rabbis and scholars are on tap to lead 11 workshops. Additional workshops will be announced later this summer.

Special thanks to the Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation and the Koret Foundation for their support of Bible by the Bay in Contra Costa. Thank you to the Bible by the Bay co-sponsors – the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay and the Contra Costa JCC.

Workshops Include

Raising Hell and Speaking Up: The Biblical Dialogue from Abraham to Job
Rabbi Peretz Wolf-Prusan, Lehrhaus Judaica

Genesis in the Modern Jewish Imagination
Professor Ron Hendel, University of California, Berkeley

Esther Nister: Theology Hidden in the Megillah
Rabbi Raphael Asher, Congregation B’nai Tikvah

The Interpretation of Dreams: Joseph and Pharaoh to Freud and Anna O.
Professor Naomi Janowitz, University of California, Davis

Promised Land or Occupied Territory The Role of the Bible in the Political Debate in Israel
Rachel Biale, Lehrhaus Judaica

The Unbinding of Isaac: the Disabled Patriarch?
Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Beth Chaim Congregation

Biblical Prayer Reaching for God without a Prayerbook
Rabbi Nicki Greninger, Temple Isaiah

How Could They Forget Hanukah in the Bible?
Rabbi Roberto Graetz, Temple Isaiah

The Wisdom in the Wine: Its Use (and Abuse) in the Biblical  World
Dr. Jehon Grist, Lehrhaus Judaica

Singing in the Bible
Cantor Sharon Bernstein, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav

Trysts and Turns: Love Affairs Between Women and God in the Bible
Poet Yiskah Rosenfeld, Tauber Jewish Studies Program

Two-Handed Torah The Golden Calf – Text and Commentary
Rabbi Elon Sunshine, Congregation B’nai Shalom

Lehrhaus Judaica is proud to co-sponsor Bureau of Jewish Education’s 5th Annual Young Adult Feast of Jewish Learning “WANDER/LUST.”

To get a taste of the Feast, check out this 50 second video. Join hundreds of inquisitive minds for dozens of interactive workshops on Jewish texts, philosophy, mysticism, spirituality, culture, cooking, yoga, lust and love.

Click here to download the detailed class descriptions and teacher bios. Classes are taught by professors, rabbis, artists, and educators from all walks of Jewish life.

Each participant can attend three 75-minute workshops
Everyone (21-40ish) is welcome and everything is FREE.

Visit www.bjesf.org/feast to get the full scoop. Click here to RSVP or reply on Facebook.

Questions? Contact Mariana Roytman Schiffner

Name of Event (10 words or less)
Brief Program Description: (25 words or less)
Date, Time (preferably starting and ending)
Location/Contact Phone/Contact Email
Fee/Suggested Donation, if any
Full List of Co-sponsors (we cannot accept a partial list)

To do our best in promoting your event, listing requests must be made at least 30 days before the date of the event. Please email your event text to: debbie@lehrhaus.org. Lehrhaus reserves the right to edit content to fit layout requirements, and to reject submissions that are not consistent with our educational mission.