Updates to my recent events, learning opportunities, and anti-semitic protest stories

This article will be an update to several recent stories. To the events this week which I listed in my previous article I would like to add the following additional events:

The documentary film Killing Kasztner will preview tomorrow evening, Tuesday October 20, 2009 at 7:00 PM at YIVO, 15 W 16th Street in Manhattan. The theatrical release begins Friday October 23, 2009 at Cinema Village 22 East 12th Street in Manhattan. Killing Kasztner is about Reszo Kasztner, who negotiated directly with Adolph Eichman and succeeded in saving 1680 Hungarian Jews, but was denounced denounced as a traitor and collaborator for negotiating with the enemy. After the war Kasztner made aliya, sued his accusers for libel, and was murdered in Israel. The film includes a face to face confrontation between Kasztner's daughter and his unrepentant murderer.

Killing Kasztner Trailer

Also on Tuesday Makom at JCC Manhattan will feature author Melia Hellner-Eshed who will discuss her book A River Runs From Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar, in which she focuses on the Zohar's language of mystical experience and provides scholarly insight into the mystical dimensions of the Zohar, namely "the human quest for an enhanced experience of the living presence of the divine and the Zohar's great call to awaken human consciousness."Tuesday October 20, 2009 7:00-8:00 PM, $5. Manhattan JCC is located at Amsterdam Ave at 76 Street in Manhattan.

Also at 7:00 PM pm on Tuesday author Allan Appel will discuss his novel The Hebrew Tutor of Bel-Air at Community Bookstore 143 7th Avenue, between Carroll and Garfield in Brooklyn. Appel's protagonist "Norman Plummer recalls the momentous events that shaped his life during one sultry Los Angeles summer. Set in 1963—after the Cuban Missile Crisis, but before JFK’s assassination—Norman begins to prepare Bel Air heiress Bayla Adler for a bat mitzvah she doesn’t want. The studious teenage son of a ne’er-do-well gambler, Norman finds himself in a strange new world of trophy wives, pool boys, and plastic surgeons—a world where anything might be bought, except the cooperation of the beautiful Bayla. Under threat of nuclear war and the gorgeous California sun, the two forge a tentative truce. They may not be learning Hebrew, but through the miracle of motorcycles and the epiphanies of the road, Bayla and Norman just might learn to shape their own destinies. And—for a few momentous hours—become a latter-day Bonnie and Clyde searching for a Reverse Jewish Nose Job in the City of Angels."

There will be a puppet show at Poets House, 10 River Terrace in Battery Park City in Manhattan, on Friday, October 23, 7:00pm and Saturday, October 24, 2:00pm. Sudden Orpheus: A Puppet Show by Ariel Goldberger & Leonard Schwartz with Diane Ferrer. The performance on Saturday, October 24 will be followed by a panel at 3:30pm with Thalia Field, Edwin Frank, Ariel Goldberger, Claudia Orenstein & Leonard Schwartz. In Sudden Orpheus, an avant-garde puppet-theater piece for adults, puppeteer Ariel Goldberger and poet Leonard Schwartz explore the frontier between poetry and puppetry, drawing from the myth of Orpheus, the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti and Schwartz's own poems. A panel discussion follows the Saturday performance. $10, $7 for students and seniors, free to Poets House Members.

Among the Jewish learning opportunities mentioned in my October 6th article is A Taste of Limud. I wrote then that I didn't know the price; I am now told the evening's learning will cost $10. Classes will include:

* Integrated Kabbalistic Healing Workshop with certified Integrated Kabbalistic Healers Elise Joffe and Naomi Cohen. This session will explore the image of the Tree of Life and serve as an introduction to Kabbalistic healing.
* Darkhei Shalom: The Path to Building Community with Rahel Berkovits, principal of Beit Rabban and former Pardes Talmud lecturer. In this text study-based session, participants will engage with Jewish notions of law and peace.
* From Prophets to Patriots: The Art of Jewish GIs in World War II with Daniel M. Bronstein, congregation scholar at Beth Elohim. Through a visual presentation, this session will explore how the artwork of Jewish soldiers stationed overseas in WWII reconciled Jewish otherness with mainstream American values.
* Jews & Tutsis: Oral History as Justice with Emmy-nominated video-journalist Taylor Krauss. This session will touch upon the similarities and differences between recording Holocaust testimonies versus recording testimonies in Rwanda, while exploring ideas of oral history as justice and the possibilities of using history to build peace in post-conflict regions around the world.

At Congregation Beth Elohim, 274 Garfield Place - October 28, 7-9 p.m.

Makom at JCC Manhattan will offer another fascinating Jewish studies class, The Wholeness of a Broken Heart: Reb Nachman's Stories and Teachings
R. Nachman of Bratslav is one of Judaism's most exciting spiritual thinkers. His message, wild imagination, and charismatic leadership still excite philosophers, artists, and dancing Chassidim. Join Mishael Zion, of Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute and Pardes, to study Rav Nachman's life and teachings, tell his stories, and sing his songs. Mishael studies at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School and is a best-selling author. Six Mondays, Oct 26-Nov 30, 7-8:30 pm, $90/$110. Manhattan JCC is located at Amsterdam Ave at 76 Street in Manhattan.

As a follow-up to my September 25 story Publicity-seeking antisemites to picket Brooklyn shuls tomorrow I would like to share some videos of Brooklynites offering messages rejecting the bigotry of the Westboro Baptist Church protesters.