2014 Neustadt JAAMM Fest Brochure

By Michael Chabon

Published in The New York Review of Books and NYRblog “Rovingthoughts and provocations from our writers”

I hate dreams. Dreams are the Sea Monkeys of consciousness: in theback pages of sleep they promise us teeming submarine palaces butleave us,on waking,with a hermetic residue of freeze-dried dust.Thewisdom of dreams is a fortune on paper that you can’t cash out, anoasis of shimmering water that turns,when youwake up, to amouth-ful of sand. I hate them for their absurdities and deferrals, their end-lessly broken promise to amount to something,by and by. I hate themfor the way they ransackmemory, jumbling treasure and trash. I hatethem for their tedium, how they drag on, peter out,wander off.

Prettymuch the only thing I hatemore thanmy own dreams are yours.“I was flying over LakeMichigan in a pink Cessna,”you begin,“only itwasn’t really Lake Michigan…,” and I sink, cobwebbed, beneath adrifting dust of boredom.

Dreams are effluvia, bodily information, to be shared only with inti-mates and doctors. At the breakfast table, in my house, an inflexiblelaw compels all recountings of dreams to be compressed into asentence or,better still, half a sentence, like the paraphrasings of epicfilms listed in TV Guide: “Rogue Samurai saves peasant village.”Therecounting of a dream is—ought to be—a source of embarrassmentto the dreamer, sitting there naked in fading tatters of Jungian cou-

ture.Whatever stuff dreams are made on, it isn’t words. As soon asyou begin to tell a dream, as Freud reminds us, you interpolate, fal-sify, distort; you lie. That roseate airplane, that wide blue arc of coldwater: no, it wasn’t like that, not at all. Better just to skip it, and passthe maple syrup.

Worse still than real dreams, mine or yours—sandier mouthfuls,ranker lies—are the dreams of characters in books and movies. No-body, not even Aunt Em,wants to hear about Dorothy’s dream whenshe wakes up at the end of The Wizard of Oz.As outright fantasy thejourney to Oz is peerless, joyous,muscular with truth; to call it a dream

A Celebration of Jewish life featuring dynamic art, authors, books, movies, music, dance, and theatre events.

Why I Hate Dreams

Why I Hate Dreams continues on page 4

VOL, 7 ISSSUE 1 OCTOBER 22–NOVEMBER 9, 2014

2014 NeustadtJAAMM FestSix years ago, based on a generous grant from theRose Community Foundation, the MACC decidedto expand the popular Festival of Jewish Booksand Authors by offering several performing andeducational events to augment the terrific line upof nationally known author lectures. Little did weknow that our expansion would lead to the colos-sal success that is our JAAMM Fest (Jewish Arts,Authors,Movies &Music).As we enter the seventhyear of the festival,we are humbled by the growth,power and appeal of JAAMM.We have doubled ouraudience from just over 2,000 patrons in our inau-gural year to over 4,000 last year. We believeJAAMM Fest offers Colorado the most compre-hensive festival focused solely on the celebrationof Jewish arts and culture. In fact, JAAMM Festappears to be relatively unprecedented nationallyas it relates to the scope and variety offeredthroughout our three week extravaganza.

We are overjoyed to announce that this successhas led one of our donors, Kathy Neustadt, to per-manently seed an endowment for the festivalensuring many more years of enriching programs.Henceforth, we will be known as the NeustadtJAAMMFestival in honor of Kathy and her family’sexceptional generosity.

This year’s festival truly offers something for every-one with premium author lectures, internationallyacclaimed music concerts, an edifying scholar-in-residence program, an enlightening theatre pro-duction, several exciting collaborative events andmuch more.

Please come,enjoy and spread the word about thisextraordinary celebration of Jewish arts, cultureand literature!

SteveWilsonExecutive Artistic Director,MACC

Ely HemnesFestivals Coordinator,MACC

JAAMM Fest Named in Honor ofNeustadt Family

Our community arts festival“illuminates thehumanexperience” through powerful and influential liter-ature, music, art and performances. This fall, theMizelArts andCultureCenter (MACC)will host theseventh annual all-encompassing and compelling2014 Neustadt JAAMM Fest - JewishArts,Authors,Movies and Music Festival at the Robert E. LoupJewish Community Center (JCC) from Oct. 22through Nov. 9 and also including a special authorlecturewithAri Shavit onWednesday,November19.

This year, Stuart Raynor, CEO of the JCC, has an-nounced that the festival will be named in honorof Kathy Neustadt and the Neustadt Family.Kathy is a former president of the JCC and mem-ber of the renowned Neustadt family, founders ofThe Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

“It is very exciting for JAAMM Fest to have thesupport of Kathy and her family,” Raynor says.“Our goal is to continue to establish JAAMM Festas one of the premiere Jewish arts festivals in thecountry, and the Neustadt family support willassist us in reaching our goal.”

The Neustadt International Prize for Litera-ture is a biennial award for literature. It is consid-ered one of the prestigious international literaryprizes, often compared with the Nobel Prize inLiterature and referred to as the“AmericanNobel”because of its record of 30 laureates,candidates orjurors, who in 42 years have been awarded NobelPrizes following their involvement with theNeustadt Prize. Like the Nobel, it is awarded notfor any one work, but for an entire body of work.

“Our family has long supported the literary world,and endowing JAAMMFest is a wonderful way topass this tradition along,” Neustadt says.“It is soimportant to honor our cultural heritage, and wehope the community joins in supporting thisworld class festival.”

The three-week Neustadt JAAMM Festival willconsist of several series including literature,music, movies, collaborations with other localorganizations,and an art exhibit.NewYork Timesbest-selling and Pulitzer-Prize winning authorMichael Chabon will host a community discus-sion of his latest novel,“Telegraph Avenue”whilelocal authors Nancy Sharp and Adam Rovnerwill present their latest books,“Both Sides Now:A True Story of Love, Loss and Bold Living” and

“In the Shadow of Zion,” respectively.An impres-sive array of artists will make up the music seriesincluding internationally-renowned clarinetist inhis latest project, “The Big Picture FeaturingDavid Krakauer,” Zalmen Mlotek, one of theworld’s leading authorities onYiddish music,willperform “The Magical World of Yiddish Song”with special guest Avram Mlotek, “The Trio ofTrios - Music of Three Generations,” an inspiringclassical concert compiled by Ofer Ben-Amots,Texas legend Kinky Friedman, and 9-timeGrammy Award winning band, Asleep At theWheel featuring Ray Benson.

At the core of strengthening the community arepartnerships with other organizations and the2014 Neustadt JAAMM Fest boasts just that.Asa festival highlight, author Nigel Simeone andan ensemble from the Colorado SymphonyOrchestra will celebrate the legacy of LeonardBernstein through a lecture and concert.Fiddlerat 50 in Concert!, a music revue celebrating 50years of tradition,will be presented by Boulder’sDinner Theatre.Denver favoriteWonderboundwill perform“Messages and Letters” to the musicof the Confluence String Quartet, featuringJoseph Lukasik.

2 Neustadt JAAMM Fest

2014 Neustadt JAAMM Fest Unites Community Through JewishArts, Authors, Movies And Music

MACC’s 7th Annual

2014 Neustadt JAAMMFestBookstoreOctober 22–November 9, 2014

You’ll find an outstanding collection of new books for all ages and interests, hand selected by our expert committee. Don’t knowwhat to read next? Come get ideas from our 2014 Literary Committee Top Picks list or have a committee member help you!

Just in time for Hanukkah shopping!

Bookstore Hours: Mon.–Thurs. 5:30–7 p.m.; Fri. 10 a.m.–2 p.m.; Sat. 7 p.m.–11 p.m.;Sun. 9 a.m.–8 p.m. (except on 10/26 closes at 6 p.m., closed 11/5)

Phillips Social Hall, MACC, 350 S. Dahlia St., Denver, CO 80246

ART

4 “Chosen: Jewish Artistsfrom the Collection ofDr. Wayne F. Yakes”

AUTHORS

5 Nancy Sharp“Both Sides Now”

5 Gabrielle Selz“Unstill Life”

6 Andrea Jacobs &Paula Burger“PaulaWindow”

6 Charles Dennis“The Magiker”

7 Debra Fine“Beyond Texting”

7 Ayelet WaldmanSignature AmericanAuthor

8 Scott Cowen“The Inevitable City”

8 Gail Sheehy“Daring: My Passages”

9 Assaf Gavron“The Hilltop”

9 Heidi S. Hyde“Elan, Son of Two Peoples”

10 David Kertzer“The Pope and Mussolini”

10 Don Burris“Following in the Footsteps oftheMonumentsMen”with doc-umentary film “The Man WhoSaved the Louvre”

11 Michael ChabonCommunity Read

12 Ari Goldman“The Late Starters Orchestra”

12 Hesh Kestin“The Lie”

13 Adam Rovner Book Release“In The Shadow of Zion”

13 Ari Shavit“My Promised Land”

MUSIC

14 The Big Picture FeaturingDavid Krakauer

14 A Trio of Trios: Music ofThree Generations

15 Asleep At the Wheel

15 Zalmen Mlotek’s Yiddish

MOVIE

16 Broadway Musicals: AJewish Legacy

MIXED GENRE

16 A Celebration of LeonardBernstein

17 Kinky Friedman

18 Fiddler at 50 in Concert!

18 Wonderbound’s Messagesand Letters

LECTURES

19 12th Annual Fred Marcus Me-morial Holocaust LectureMeet“Miep Gies: A Beacon ofHope,”a one-act play

19 Chai Life XIII:The Startup Life

SCHOLAR INRESIDENCE

20 Yehuda Kertzer“The Future of the Jewish Past”

“The Past, Present, and Future

of JewishMemory: Reconsider-ing Holocaust Memory”

“Jewish Identity in a Boundary-less Age”

THEATER21 “Kindertransport”

by Diane Samuels

JAAMM Fest Tickets InformationTo Purchase Tickets:For tickets andmore information call theMACCBoxOffice at (303) 316-6360,or visit thebox office,Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. or one hour before all events at 350 S.Dahlia St.Denver, CO 80246.

JAAMM FEST SAMPLER PACKAGE:• ONE Signature Author or Community Read• ONEAuthor fromAuthor Series• ONE Showcase Concert• ONE Salon Concert• ONE FilmTOTAL $75 (value $92)ATTENTION: JAAMM Fest Sampler Package must be redeemed and specific seats chosen through theMACC Box Office. Purchase of package does not guarantee a seat until individual events are chosen withthe box office staff.

ART EXHIBIT:Chosen: Jewish Artists from the Collection of Dr. Wayne F. YakesFREE

AUTHORS:COMMUNITY READ MICHAEL CHABON$18 Adult, $15 Student/Senior

CHILDREN’S AUTHOR$5 Child, Accompanying Adult FREE

SIGNATURE ISRAELI AUTHOR ARI SHAVIT$25 Orchestra, $20 Balcony

SIGNATURE AMERICAN AUTHOR AYELET WALDMAN$18 Adult, $15 Student/Senior

AUTHOR SERIES$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE YEHUDA KURTZER$18 Adult each event or $36 for all three, Students free with current ID

MOVIE SERIES:$10 Adults, $8 Student/Seniors

MUSIC SERIES:All Seats reserved through the MACC Box Office

SHOWCASE CONCERTS:$36 Adults, $30 Student/Senior

SALON CONCERTS:$18 Adults, $15 Student/Senior

THEATREKINDERTRANSPORT SPECIAL OCT. 22 PERFORMANCEDessert Reception and Post-Performance$35 per ticket

KINDERTRANSPORT SHOW$25-$28

12TH ANNUAL FRED MARCUS MEMORIAL HOLOCAUST LECTURE$18 Adults; Free to Holocaust survivors, students and event sponsors

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Neustadt JAAMM Fest 3

A Message from Simon Zalkind, Curator, SingerGallery

The Singer Gallery is honored and delighted topresent this exhibition of works by Jewish artistsselected from the collection of Dr.Wayne F.Yakes.Dr. Yakes has been a generous and enthusiasticpatron and supporter of the Singer Gallery and itsexhibitions program since 2002. In a sense, thisexhibition reprises highlights from the manymuseum-quality exhibitions that we have curatedfrom the works in his remarkable collection. Dr.Yakes began his collecting journey in the mid-1980s focusing primarily onmodern and contem-porary Russian and Soviet artists.Not surprisingly,many of them were Jews.

The status of the Jews within soviet society wasfraught with ambivalence.From the vantage pointof their marginal status, Jewish artists played acatalytic role in the formation and flowering of the2nd Russian avant-garde beginning in the 1960sand continuing into the present. Artists such asKomar and Melamid, Eric Bulativ, Ilya Kabakov,Oscar Rabine, Oleg Tselkov, and Ernst Neizvestnywere raised and trained within the Soviet system,but came to represent resistance to the totalitariancontext in which they attempted to create art.Many of these artists were originally exhibited atthe Singer Gallery in 2002, in an exhibition called“Russian Revolutions: Generations of RussianJewish Avant-Garde Artists.” It was an extremelyambitious undertaking and would have been im-possible to realize without Dr. Yakes’ encourage-ment and resources.

In 2006, the Singer Gallery was proud to present“A Thousand Casualties”, the first major exhibi-tion of Eugene Yelchin – another Russian émigréartist and a painter of searing emotional ferocityand painterly bravura.Although I organized thatexhibition independent of Dr.Yakes’ assistance,heended up acquiring a significant portion of theworks for his own collection.Yelchin’s work is noteasy. Many of them are visceral, abstract andtragic responses to masterworks of canonicalstatus such as Goya, Ribera and Rembrandt.However,Yelchin has achieved his greatest recog-nition as a masterful illustrator of children’sbooks.Yelchin’s“Breaking Stalin’s Nose”garnerednumerous awards among them Best Children’sBook of theYear by theWashington Post, the New-

bery Medal, Horn BookBest Children’s Book ofthe Year, and Children’sChoice Book of theYear inRussia!

In 2007 the Singer Gal-lery organized Komarand Melamid’s “AmericanDreams”– an exhibition ofthose two remarkable andaudacious tricksters. Fun-damentally rooted in aplayful sense of irony– richin meaning and seriousintention, they producepaintings, installations,performances and eventsthat examine the central role of images in creatingand promoting systems of ideology and power.Alltheworks in thisworld-class exhibitionwere lent tous by Dr.Yakes.

Also in 2007, the Singer Gallery organized, withthe generous assistance of Dr.Yakes, the first insti-tutional exhibition outside of Israel and Europe ofworks by an Israeli artist – Ygal Ozeri – whoseeccentric aesthetic sensibilities have made him asignificant force and his diverse body of work astaggering achievement. The exhibition was enti-tled“Anima: The Persistence of the Feminine.”Dr.Yakes provided the works that formed the core ofthe exhibition. He continues to acquire manyworks by Ozeri and to champion him as one of themost important artists of his generation.

Without a doubtMarc Chagall is the paradigmaticJewish artist of the 20th century – infusing imagesof the ghetto with the surrealism, fauvism andcubism that Chagall encountered and absorbed inParis.He also turned tomore exalted subjects suchas the Bible and his biblical pictures provided Jewswith a visual link to their sacred texts that werecomfortably familiar but suffused with the chal-lenges of modernity. In 2012, the Singer Galleryorganized “Marc Chagall and the Bible: Etchingand Lithographs from the Wayne F.Yakes Collec-tion.” Once again,Dr.Yakesmade it possible for theSinger Gallery to present an exhibition of a scopeand stature that would otherwise be impossible forus to secure.

There are a number of new discoveries in this ex-hibition as well as the modern masters describedabove. Dr. Yakes continues to be an active anddriven collector and, while his vast collectionencompasses many artists of diverse origins, hedoes appear to have what I refer to as a ’karmiclink‘ with Jewish artists. This exhibition is thefruition of the Singer Gallery’s long and fruitfulrelationship with Wayne Yakes – one that I trustwill continue for many years to come.

ART EXHIBIT

Yigal Ozeri,Untitled (Territory), 2012, oil on canvas

CHOSEN: Jewish Artists from the Collection of Dr.Wayne F.YakesOpening Reception, Thursday, October 23, 5—7:30 p.m.Exhibit open October 23—December 21, 2014

Sponsored by Dr. Wayne F. YakesWith Support From Carol and Larry Levin

SINGER GALLERY, MACC350 S. Dahlia Street | Denver, CO 80246

www.maccjcc.org | (303) 316-6360

GALLERY HOURSMonday–Friday 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Sunday 1–4 p.m.(Closed Saturday)


(a low trick L. Frank Baum,who wrote the origi-nal story, never stooped to) is to demean it,to deny it, to lie; because nobody has dreamslike that. Nobody has dreams like the dreams in“Spellbound,”either; or like those in Little Nemoin Slumberland,Alice inWonderland, Inception,or even, quite, in “Meshes of the Afternoon,” the1943 film byMaya Deren which, in the flickeringof its pseudonarrative, the ostinato of its imagery,the strange urgency of its tedium, comes closest,and yet still rings false, camera-bound, hokum-haunted.

If art is amirror,dreams are the back of the head.Awork of art derives its effects from light, sound,and movement, but dreams unfurl in darkness,silence, paralysis. Like a recipe attempted in anill-provisioned kitchen,“dreamlike” art relies onsubstitutions: Dutch angles, forced perspective,absurdist juxtapositions, arbitrary transforma-tions, and, as Peter Dinklage’s character pointsout in the film“Living in Oblivion,”a lamentablesuperabundance of dwarfs. Dreams in art eithermake sense,or theymake no sense at all,but theynever manage to do both at the same time, theway dreams do while we’re dreaming them.

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. If art weremorelike dreams, I might ban it from my breakfasttable, too.

Michael Chabon, June, 2012.Read more about Michael Chabon on page 11

Cover art by Lance Rockwell

Why I Hate Dreams Continued from Cover

Nancy Sharp“Both Sides Now: A True Story of Love,Loss, and Bold Living”Thursday, October 23, 7 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Harold and Sue Miller Cohen in memoryof Leah Cohen

Colorado’s own Nancy Sharp speaks about love, loss and bold living in her new book,“Both Sides Now.”Winner of a National Indie Excellence Book Award and the 2014 International Book Award. Followed bya conversation with Denver Post’s Suzanne Brown.

About “Both Sides Now: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Bold Living”Abrave and vividly renderedmemoir:when life and death collide,one youngwoman discovers how to holdboth past and present at once--ultimately lifting herself by bold living and a second chance at love.“BothSides Now” hinges on the day when Nancy Sharp delivered premature twins and learned that her hus-band's cancer had returned after eighteenmonths in remission.Set in NewYork City,where the couple livedhappily until Brett’s diagnosis in 1998, the story moves back in time through Nancy and her husband'scourtship andmarriage—and forward through Brett’s death,when the twins were two and a half, he wasnot quite forty, and Nancy was thirty-seven.When life hands you the unthinkable, youmust find new waysto see. Such is the ground on which Nancy rebuilt her world. In the words of the Psalm,“I will lift upmineeyes unto the mountains: From whence shall my help come?”

Nancy had long been drawn to the sturdiness of the Rocky Mountains and the bounty of their view.Andso she came with her five-year-old twins, never expecting to find love again in the pages of a magazine.This is a story of real courage and unexpected joy. It is also a story about Steve,Nancy's second husband,a widower with two children, and the surprising turns life takes when blending two families torn by loss.“Both Sides Now”promises hard-wonwisdom,a gift for those looking to rise again.The past is simply partof our story, just not the whole story.

More about Nancy SharpNancy Sharp is an author, speechwriter, and keynote speaker who frequently presents to large groupsabout loss and gain, second acts, leaps of faith, the power of telling your story, and renewal and move-ment no matter the obstacles.“I consider it my life’s purpose to use my written and speaking voice to liftothers,”says Nancy.“In no way does this redeemmy first husband’s death,or anyone’s loss,but it certainlymakes their lives worth something.”

“Your story is my story,” a woman in her seventies, a bookseller, told Nancy after reading “Both SidesNow.” And from a 26-year-old financial planner, a young man with his whole future ahead of him, “I’venever experienced anything like you did, but your story made me think about how I live my life today.”

Nancy will kick off this year’s author series at the 7thAnnual Neustadt JAAMMFest, the first local authorto do so in the history of the JAAMMFest.Nancy is a warm and engaging speaker and storyteller whowillmake you think about joy and sorrow,the power of resilience,and loss and gain in profoundlymovingways.Learn more at www.NancySharp.net.

“We are right there with you on the journey and cheer as you show up, participate, and grab at life asthough it’s your last day. Once I was your Rabbi. In this wonderful book you are mine.” —Rabbi RobertLevine, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Rodeph Sholom, New York

AUTHOR TALKSGabrielle Selz“Unstill Life: A Daughter’s Memoir of Art andLove in the Age of Abstraction”Friday, October 24, 11 a.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Irwin and Carol Wagner

Moderated by Timothy J. Standring, Gates FoundationCurator, Painting and Sculpture, Denver Art Museum

About “Unstill Life”In 1958, soon after Gabrielle Selz was born,shemoved,with her parents and sister to NewYork,where herfather, Peter Selz, would begin his job as the chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum ofModern Art.What followed was a whirlwind childhood spent among art and artists in the heyday of Ab-stract Expressionism. Gabrielle grew up in a home full of the most celebrated artists of the day: Rothko,de Kooning, Tinguely, Giacometti and Christo, among others.

Poignant and candid,“Unstill Life” is a daughter’s memoir of the art world and a larger-than-life fatherknown asMr.ModernArt.Selz offers a unique window into the glamour and destruction of the times: thegallery openings,wild parties and affairs that defined one of themost celebrated periods inAmerican arthistory. Like the art he loved, Selz’s father was vibrant and freewheeling, but his enthusiasm for bothwomen and art took its toll on family life.When her father leftMOMA and his family to direct his ownmu-seum in California,marrying four more times, Selz’s mother, the writer Thalia Selz,moved with her chil-dren into the utopian artist’s communityWestbeth.Her parents continued a tumultuous affair that wouldlast forty years.

Set against the turbulent, unrestrained bohemians of New York and Berkeley, Selz traces her journey tocome to terms with the ramifications of growing up in a world where the boundary between art and listoften blurred.Weaving her family narrative into the larger story of twentieth-century art and culture,Selzpaints an unforgettable portrait of a charismatic man, the generation of modern artists he championedand the daughter whose life he shaped.

About Gabrielle SelzGabrielle Selz is a writer and a live storyteller. Combining her dual passions for words and images, sheholds a Bachelors of Arts in art history from the University of California,Santa Cruz and aMasters of FineArts in writing from City College of NewYork. She has worked in commercial television and on the polit-ical campaigns of two Greek democratic presidential candidates:Michael Dukakis and Paul Tsongas. Sheis the recipient of a fellowship in Nonfiction Literature from the NewYork Foundation for the Arts and aMoth Story Slamwinner.She has published inmagazines and newspapers including,The NewYorker,TheNew York Times, More magazine, Fiction, Newsday, and Art Papers. She now writes art review for TheHuffington Post.Learn more at gabrielleselz.com


Andrea Jacobs andPaula Burger“Paula’s Window: Papa, the BielskiPartisans and A Life Unexpected”Sunday, October 26, 10:30 a.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by David Zapiler

“Paula’sWindow: Papa, the Bielski Partisans andA Life Unexpected,”co-authored by Intermountain Jew-ish News SeniorWriterAndrea Jacobs, tells the story of Paula Burger’s survival during the Holocaust in theforests of Belarus under the leadership of Tuvia Bielski,made famous by the movie,“Defiance.”

About Paula’s Window“Paula’sWindow: Papa, the Bielski Partisans andA Life Unexpected”chronicles Burger’s waking nightmarein the Holocaust. Just seven when the Nazis occupied her hometown of Novogrudek, Poland, Burger andher family were imprisoned in the ghetto, a holding pen for slaughter and death.

Burger credits her fatherWolf Koladicki for saving her life.A respected businessman in Novogrudek,Wolfheard about the Bielski Partisans, founded by brothers Tuvia, Zus,Asael and Aron Bielski, and joined thegroup in 1942.

Wolf intended to smuggle his wife Sarah, Paula and Isaac out of the ghetto to the Naliboki Forest in Be-larus, the partisans’ nomadic home.Wolf left the ghetto, went to the Naliboki and started planning hisfamily’s escape. Then a Polish neighbor who coveted the Koladickis’ property informed on Wolf to theNazis.

The Nazis confronted Sarah about her husband’s whereabouts. She feigned ignorance. She also deniedhaving any children.The Nazis murdered Sarah.OnceWolf learned of his wife’s fate,he knew his childrenwere next.With the help of some kind peasants, he quickly managed to get his children to the forest.

In the forest, Burger waited daily for death, either at the hands of the Nazis or members of the BielskiBrigade who regarded children as a threat to the unit’s survival.

Every Sundaymorning, Jacobs explored Burger’s agonizingmemories at the Burgers’ kitchen table.At theconclusion of these sessions, Jacobs would break down in the elevator. Then it was time to write. Jacobs“became” Burger to fully convey her suffering. A seasoned journalist, she says this was the hardest as-signment of her career.

The public is invited to hear Burger and Jacobs discuss the arduous process that resulted in“Paula’sWin-dow” on Sunday,Oct. 26, 10:30 a.m., at JAAMM Fest.

Charles Dennis“The Magiker”Sunday, October 26, 12:15 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

About Charles DennisWhether directing the outrageous comedy“Hard Four”in LasVegas; treading the boards in NewYork,LosAngeles and Edinburgh performing his play“Going On”; sitting inmakeup for“Star Trek”; voicing the vil-lain for Disney's “Home on the Range”and video games like “Doom 3”and“StarWars”; or writing aboutfilm history for the LosAngeles Times, the Hollywood Reporter and the Criterion Collection,Charles Den-nis leads a hectic and creative life as an actor/author/director/producer. His production company, FooDog Productions, produced the feature film“Hard Four”and“Chicanery.” It also recorded audio versionsof Dennis’s plays “The Alchemist of Cecil Street” featuring Bryan Cranston, Ron Orbach, Edward Asner,Willie Garson and“TolstoyWas Never There”with Kevin Dunn, John O’Hurley and Ed Begley Jr.His latestnovel, “The Magiker” was published in 2013.Visit our website, www.maccjcc.org/jaamm to hear BryanCranston reading from“The Magiker.”Learn more at www.charlesdennis.com

Books• “The Magiker”• “This War is Closed Until Spring”• “Bonfire”• “Stoned Cold Soldier”• “Given the Crime”• “The Deal Makers”• “Given the Evidence”• “Somebody Just Grabbed Annie!”• “Shar-Li”• “The Next to Last Train Ride”


Thank you so much to Suzanne Swift, Joyce Lit and

Carolyn Hessel at the Jewish Book Council for all their

hard work in securing the top notch authors for the

7th Annual Neustadt JAAMM Fest!

Debra Fine“Beyond Texting: The Fine Art of Face-to-FaceCommunication for Teenagers”Sunday, October 26, 1 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

JCC South Location: 9625 East Arapahoe Road,Greenwood Village, Colorado, 80112

Denver’s own bestselling author and internationally recognized conversation expert Debra Fine focuseson communication for teenagers in her book“Beyond Texting.”This third and latest book in her“FineArt”series offers teens the tools to balance their digital and real world experiences and relationships by sharp-ening their ability to have fulfilling face-to-face conversations.

A Message from the AuthorAs a parent of now adult children, raising them I was reminded of the social challenges somany of us ex-perienced during our own teen years,especially communication challenges.Overcoming shyness was a bigone for me.Making friends was a constant pursuit, interacting with authority figures caused great nerv-ousness, and attending a meeting or joining a group alone was out of the question.With the advent oftexting and social media, face-to-face communication for teenagers is not as necessary or as common asit once was.How does a teenager fare when texting is not an option? I am passionate about offering con-versation tools and tips to not only teens,but also to the important leaders in their lives.These leaders ex-tend from parents and educators to leaders of religious institutions, scouting programs, sororities/fraternities, camp counselors and all types of mentors to young people.

About “Beyond Texting”“Beyond Texting”is the first book for teens to explain how to be plugged in without neglecting the neces-sity and power of physical,human interaction.Even themost outgoing teenmay find a job interview, firstdate ormeeting with a teacher to be challenging because of lack of face-to-face communication skills.Of-fering practical advice and cheat sheets,“Beyond Texting” strives to help teens balance their digital andreal world image and relationships.

About Debra FineBestselling author and internationally recognized communication expert,Debra Fine began her career asan engineer. Author of the bestselling books “The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation,Keep It Going,Build Networking Skills and Leave a Positive Impression”,and“The FineArt of the Big Talk:How to Win Clients, Deliver Great Presentations and Solve Conflicts at Work” both translated and pub-lished around the globe. Fine is retained as a keynote speaker and trainer for clients that include Google,the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business,Deloitte andHyatt Hotels and she has servedas a spokesperson forWhole Foods andMSN Canada.Her media appearances are many, some highlightsinclude The Today Show,CNN,The Early Show and NPRMorning Edition and she is a regular blogger forHuffington Post. Learn more at www.DebraFine.com

Booklist Review“Fine cleverly draws comparisons between digital spheres and in-person interactions, and she helpfullyoffers suggestions for moving from virtual conversations to IRL (in real life) with a special exhortation tobe careful whenmeeting online friends in person for the first time.While the advice for teens is handy, thismay find a wider readership among adults who want to impart good advice to teens or better understandelectronic communication.”

Signature American Author

Ayelet Waldman“Love and Treasure”Sunday, October 26, 2 p.m.$18 Adult, $15 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Elaine and Arnie Tinter

About “Love and Treasure”A spellbinding new novel of contraband masterpieces, tragic love, and the unexpected legacies of forgot-ten crimes,“Love and Treasure”weaves a tale around the fascinating, true history of the Hungarian GoldTrain in theWorldWar II.

In 1945 on the outskirts of Salzburg,victoriousAmerican soldiers capture a train filled with unspeakableriches: piles of fine gold watches; mountains of fur coats; crates filled with wedding rings, silver pictureframes, family heirlooms,and Shabbat candlesticks passed down through generations. Jack,a tough,smartNewYork Jew, is the officer charged with guarding this treasure—a responsibility that grows more com-plicated when he meets Ilona, a fierce, beautiful Hungarian who has lost everything in the ravages of theHolocaust. Seventy years later, amid the shadowy world of art dealers who profit off the sins of previousgenerations, Jack gives a necklace to his granddaughter, Natalie, and charges her with searching for anunknown woman—awoman whose secret may help Natalie to understand the guilt her grandfather willtake to his grave and to find a way out of the mess she has made of her own life.

A story of brilliantly drawn characters,“Love and Treasure” is AyeletWaldman’s finest novel to date: a sad,funny, richly detailed work that poses hard questions about the value of precious things in a timewhen lifeitself has no value, and about the slenderest of chains that can bind us to the grief and passion of the past.

About Ayelet WaldmanAyelet Waldman is the author of “Love and Treasure,”“Red Hook Road” and The New York Times best-seller“BadMother:A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes,Minor Calamities and OccasionalMoments of Grace.”Her novel “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits”was adapted into a film called“The OtherWoman”star-ring Natalie Portman.Her personal essays and profiles of public figures such as Hillary Clinton have beenpublished in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times,Vogue, TheWashington Post,and TheWall Street Journal.Her radio commentaries have appeared onAll Things Con-sidered and The California Report. Her books are published throughout the world, in countries as dis-parate as England and Thailand, the Netherlands and China,Russia, Israel, South Korea and Italy.Learn more at www.ayeletwaldman.com

Reviews:“Waldman sustains her multiple plot lines with breathless confidence and descriptive panache, fashion-ing complex personalities caught up in an inexorable series of events.” -New York Times

“Waldman reaches thoughtfully into an epic sweep of complex issues related to identity, home, disloca-tion and feminism, and illuminates her ideas through the critical junctures of the journeys of both thependant and the painting. In the end, as readers, we gain a deeper understanding of what it means tocovet and what it means to love.” -San Francisco Chronicle


Scott Cowen“The Inevitable City: The Resurgence of NewOrleans and the Future of Urban America”Monday, October 27, 7 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Kathy and Arthur Judd

About Scott CowenScott Cowen is the 14th President of Tulane University,beginning in 1998.He also serves as a professor inthe school of business and as an economics professor in the school of liberal arts and sciences. In 2009,Cowen was named one of TIME Magazine’s top ten college presidents for his work in rebuilding NewOrleans and Tulane after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. His Rebuilding Plan led to a largeincrease in applications and community programming at Tulane.Cowen has written more than 100 pro-fessional and academic articles, essays and reviews as well as five books. Receiving his bachelor’s degreefrom the University of Connecticut in 1968,Cowen served in the U.S.Army for three years before earningmasters and doctoral degrees from GeorgeWashington University.He then served as a professor at CaseWestern Reserve University for 23 years before becoming dean of the school of management.His areas ofexpertise include corporate governance and leadership,strategic financial management systems,and lead-ership. Learn more at www.scottcowen.com

Review of “The Inevitable City: The Resurgence of New Orleans and the Future of Urban America”“Scott Cowen writes with obvious passion and personal knowledge about the various ways in which thecity has seized the opportunity provided by natural disaster to rebuild itself — ‘reimagining the city fromscratch,’ as he puts it — and he makes a strong case that the city is well on its way to becoming a betterplace for more of its citizens. Though Cowen does not minimize the problems New Orleans continues toface — it ‘is an inner city that ranks extremely low on every key measure: jobs, income, safety, health,education, literacy’ — at heart ‘the story I’m going to tell’ is an optimistic one: ‘about jump-starting theuniversity and rebuilding the city despite a miserably inadequate response from the federal govern-ment; about quelling racial animosity after the storm and partnering with Dillard, a historically blackcollege, in the recovery effort; about salvaging the education system, creating high-performing charterschools that have helped kids from drowned neighborhoods and wrecked homes finish high school andgo to college or get a job; about projects like Grow Dat, an urban agricultural experiment, and Roots ofMusic, a program that teaches middle schoolers how to play in brass bands.’ Though Cowen is not loathto pat himself on the back for the role he played (and continues to play) in his adopted city’s rejuvena-tion, this role has indeed been large.” –Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

Gail Sheehy“Daring: My Passages: A Memoir”Friday, October 31, 11 a.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Boomers Leading Change in Health

About Gail SheehyWorld-renowned author, journalist, and popular lecturer.Gail Sheehy’s books have changed the way mil-lions of women and men around the world look at the stages of their lives. In her 50 years as a writer shehas interviewed thousands of women and men and written 17 books. Her earliest revolutionary book,“Passages,”was named by a Library of Congress survey one of the tenmost influential books of our times.“Passages” remained on The New York Times Bestseller List for more than three years and has beenreprinted in 28 languages. Five other books on the passages theme revisit the stages of adult life for “Un-derstandingMen’s Passages,”“The Silent Passage (menopause),”“Sex and the SeasonedWomen”and“Pas-sages in Caregiving.”

Sheehy is also a journalist who has covered national and world leaders and brokenmany cultural taboos.She culminated a decade of following Hillary Clinton forVanity Fair with the biography,“Hillary’s Choice,”exploring the personal ambitions and vulnerabilities that drive the world’s most public woman. She haswritten about the character and psychology of presidential candidates from Robert Kennedy to BarackObama and world leaders fromMargaret Thatcher to Saddam Hussein.

Here is what a NewYork Times book reviewer and Princeton professor Elaine Showalter wrote about theimpact of Sheehy’s books:

“In 1976, in her best seller “Passages,” the journalist Gail Sheehy invented a new way of thinking aboutthe phases of adult life…[as] ‘a series of developmental stages and tasks, critical turning points along thelife cycle when one’s opportunity for growth is also heightened’ [...] Women embraced Sheehy’s thinkingand incorporated it into their expectations.” –The New York Times June 7, 1998

Passing 70, she figured it was about time she turned the lens on herself: she had to write a memoir abouther own passages. The book is called“DARING:My Passages.” It will be published in September 2014 byWilliam Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins. I hope it inspires young women to dream big, take risks,outlive the early failures, and build toward success with meaning and social purpose by midlife.


WWW.JCCDENVER.ORG/CAMPS

Assaf Gavron“The Hilltop”Friday, October 31, 12:30 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Udi, Etai and the Baron Family

In-Kind Sponsored by University of Denver Department ofArts, Humanities & Social Sciences and the Center forJudaic Studies

About “The Hilltop”Hailed as “The Great Israeli Novel” (Time Out Tel Aviv) and winner of the prestigious Bernstein Prize,“The Hilltop” is a monumental and daring work about life in aWest Bank settlement from one of Israel’smost acclaimed young novelists.

On a rocky, beautiful hilltop stands Ma’aleh Hermesh C, a fledgling community flying under the radar.According to the government it doesn’t exist; according to the military it must be defended.On this con-tested land, Othniel Assis—under the wary gaze of the neighboring Palestinian village—plants aspara-gus, arugula and cherry tomatoes, and he installs goats—and his ever-expanding family. As Othnielcheerfully manipulates government agencies,more settlers arrive, and, amid a hodge-podge of shippingcontainers and mobile homes, the outpost takes root.

One of the settlement’s steadfast residents is Gabi Kupper,a one-time free spirit and kibbutz-dweller,whoundergoes a religious awakening.The delicate routines of Gabi’s new life are thrown into turmoil with thesudden arrival of Roni,his prodigal brother,who,years after venturing toAmerica in search of fortune,ar-rives at Gabi’s door, penniless. To the settlement’s dismay, Roni soon hatches a plan to sell the ‘artisanal‘olive oil from the Palestinian village to Tel Aviv yuppies.When a curiousWashington Post correspondentstumbles into their midst,Ma’aleh Hermesh C becomes the focus of an international diplomatic scandaland faces its greatest test yet.

By turning serious and satirical,“The Hilltop”brilliantly skewers the complex, often absurd reality of lifein Israel, theWest Bank settlers, and the nation's relationship to the United States, and makes a startlingparallel between today’s settlements and the kibbutzmovement of Gabi and Roni’s youth.Richwith humorand insight,Assaf Gavron’s novel is the first fiction to grapple with one of the most charged geo-politicalissues of our time, and he has written a masterpiece.

About Assaf GavronAssaf Gavron is a writer and translator. He grew up in Jerusalem, studied in London andVancouver andlives in TelAviv.He published five novels,a collection of stories and a collection of Jerusalem falafel reviews.Among the numerous international awards he won are the Prix Courrier International in France, Buchfur die Stadt in Germany, the DAAD artists-in-Berlin residency and the Bernstein Prize in Israel.His fic-tionwas translated to 10 languages,was adapted to the stage and four of his books are optioned formovies.Gavron's first publication in the US,“Almost Dead”(HarperCollins, 2010) was chosen by the LA Times asone of the 10 best books of the year. Scribner will publish his second,“The Hilltop,” in October 2014. It isa sprawling, daring novel, which dismantles the extreme and absurd reality in the Israeli-occupiedWestBank:“Catch 22”meets 21st century Israel.The book was a bestseller and wonmajor awards in Israel, ap-plauded by both sides of the political spectrum.

Gavron is also a noted translator in Israel. Among the many authors he translated from English are J.DSalinger, Philip Roth, Jonathan Safran-Foer and J.K.Rowling.

Children’s Author Heidi S. Hyde“Elan, Son of Two Peoples”Sunday, November 2, 11 a.m.$5 per child, accompanying adult freeGeared for children ages pre-K through Grade 2Don’t forget to wear your pjs!

Sponsored by Jewish Colorado

In-Kind Sponsored by JCC Family Programs and JCCYouth Programs

About “Elan, Son of Two Peoples”In 1869,SolomonBibo immigrated to theUnited States where he joined his brothers’mercantile business inNew Mexico. Fascinated with Native American culture, he opened a trading post atop a mesa and becamefluent in the Keres language.There he married JuanaValle, granddaughter of a former Acoma Pueblo chief.At the turn of the century,Solomon and Juanamoved to San Francisco to provide for their children’s Jewisheducation.In addition to becoming aBarMitzvah,their eldest son participated in theAcoma rituals of man-hood. “Elan,Son of Two Peoples”is a multi-cultural tale that celebrates this youngman’s duel heritage.

About Heidi S. HydeHeidi Smith Hyde, a PJ Library author, is a graduate of Brandeis University and Harvard Graduate Schoolof Education.She is the Director of Education of Temple Sinai in Brookline,Massachusetts.Heidi is the au-thor of four children’s books.Her first book,“Mendel’s Accordion”,was the winner of the 2007 SugarmanAward for Best Jewish Children’s Book.Her second book,“Feivel’s Flying Horses”,was the 2010 finalist forthe National Jewish BookAward.“Emanuel and the Hanukah Rescue”,Hyde’s third book,was featured inthe NewYork Times Book Review section.

Program DetailsCome immerse yourself in Native American culture as we recreate Elan’s journey from San Francisco toNew Mexico.We will begin with an interactive book reading. Together we will chug down the railroadtracks, grind corn on slabs of stone, flap our powerful Eagle wings, and go to sleep on a sheepskin rug.Hyde’s program, geared for children ages pre-K through Grade 2, will incorporate art, drama,music anddance.Parents, grandparents and caregivers are cordially welcome to attend this ninety-minute program,which will be followed by a book signing.

About PJ LibraryJEWISHcolorado is pleased to provide the PJ Library program for the Colorado Jewish community inpartnership with its founder, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.PJ Library (PJ for pajamas) provides fam-ilies raising Jewish children,ages 6months to 5½ years old,with a FREE high quality,age-appropriate Jew-ish book or music CDmailed monthly to their home.

JEWISHcolorado (Jco), formerly theAllied Jewish Federation of Colorado, is the umbrella community or-ganization inspired by the collective responsibility to build and sustain Jewish life in Colorado, Israel, andaround the world. Jco has two powerful mission objectives: 1) To secure, steward and share philanthropicand human resources in support of vibrant Jewish life,and 2) tomobilize the community in times of need.JEWISHcolorado impacts the local and global Jewish community through value-added community pro-gramming in three impact areas: 1) Engaging the next generation in being Jewish; 2) Caring for the vul-nerable and; 3) Supporting Israel and advocating on behalf of the Jewish world.

PJ Library fosters Jewish learning and creates a gateway for deeper engagement in Jewish life. PJ Libraryhas provided more than 5 million Jewish-themed books and music to Jewish families in 200 communi-ties across NorthAmerica.To sign up or formore information,please contact Laura Don at 303-316-6476or [email protected], register online at www.jewishcolorado.org/PJLibrary.


David I. Kertzer“The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History ofPius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe”Sunday, November 2, 4 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Dottie and Steve Resnick

About “The Pope and Mussolini”From National Book Award-finalist David Kertzer, an explosive book that exposes the fractious, co-de-pendent relationship between Pope Pius XI andMussolini.With the recent opening of theVatican archivescovering Pius XI’s papacy, the full story of his dealings with the Italian dictator can be told for the first time.The two men, one scholarly and devout, the other an anti-clerical rabble-rouser, came to power in Romein the same year, 1922. Contrary to the widely accepted account of this time, in which a heroic Churchdoes battle with the Fascist regime,David Kertzer shows that Mussolini would not have been able to im-pose his dictatorship on Italy without the pope’s support. In exchange, the Pope expectedMussolini to usehis repressive reach to enforce Catholic morality. Even in the face of Mussolini’s increasing embrace ofHitler, eachman relied on the other to consolidate his power and pursue his political goals.Reaching fromSistine Chapel conclaves to roaring Fascist crowds,“The Pope and Mussolini” is a thrilling history, sur-prising and finely-wrought.

About David KertzerDavid I. Kertzer is the Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science and professor of anthropol-ogy and Italian studies at Brown University, where he served as provost from 2006 to 2011.He is the au-thor of nine books, including “The Popes Against the Jews,” which was a finalist for the Mark LyntonHistory Prize,and“The Kidnapping of EdgardoMortara,”whichwas a finalist for the National BookAward.He has twice been awarded the Marraro Prize from the Society for Italian Historical Studies for the bestwork on Italian history.

Books• “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe”• “Comrades and Christians: Religion and Political Struggle in Communist Italy”• “Family Life in Central Italy, 1880-1910: Sharecropping, Wage Labor and Co-residence”• “Ritual, Politics and Power”• “Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change: The Transformation of Life in Casalecchio, Italy,

1861-1921” (with Dennis Hogan)• “Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control”• “Politics and Symbols: The Italian Communist Party and the Fall of Communism”• “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara”• “The Pope Against the Jews: The Vatican’s Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism”• “Prisoner of the Vatican: The Pope’s Plot to Capture Italy from the New Italian State”• “Amalia’s Tale: a Peasant’s Fight for Justice in 19th Century Italy”

Don Burris Lecture, “Following in theFootstep on the Monuments Men”Documentary “Jacques Jaujard, The Man WhoSaved the Louvre”Friday, November 7, 11 a.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Udi, Etai and the Baron Family

About Don BurrisDonald S. Burris has been a distinguished practicing international lawyer and law lecturer for 44 years,working since 1976 from a Los Angeles base. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 7, 1943,received a Bachelors of Arts degree with honors fromAlfred University in 1965 and a Juris Doctorate withhonors, graduating at the top of his class at the Georgetown University Law Center in 1969. In 1970, heserved as a law clerk to Judge James R.Browning of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Cir-cuit. Since that timeMr.Burris has had a notable career as an internationally-oriented trial and businessattorney, first in the District of Columbia, (where he spent several years on the staff of the SenateWater-gate Committee) and for the past 38 years in LosAngeles.Mr.Burris has also served on the faculties of theGeorgetown Law Center and Loyola University of Los Angeles Law School, has been a contributing au-thor of various articles and sections of textbooks relating to his professional and teaching activities andhas also served as amember of the Board of Directors for a number of entities, including Jinpan Interna-tional Limited (JST), a publicly-traded NASDAQ-based corporation which manufactures cast coil trans-formers for power distribution on a world-wide basis and whose manufacturing facilities are located inShanghai,Wuhan and Haikou,Hainan Island, China.

For the past ten years,Mr. Burris has devoted a considerable amount of time to the pursuit of art worksand other assets stolen by the Nazi authorities before and duringWorldWar II. These efforts culminatedin 2004 with a successful argument to the United States Supreme Court in the case of Altmann v.Repub-lic of Austria, 541 U.S. 677 (2004), at the conclusion of which the Austrian government was ordered to,and did, return to the firm’s client’s possession a number of priceless historic paintings by Gustav Klimt.He has authored an article for the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law entitled “Reflections on Liti-gating Holocaust StolenArt Cases”,which is reproduced in thematerials.He is currently involved,both aslead counsel and as local counsel, in a number of cases in the state and federal courts dealingwith the resti-tution of property stolen by the Nazis during the Holocaust, including theVon Saher case featured promi-nently in the course materials.

About “Jacques Jaujard, The Man Who Saved the Louvre”Original Language of Title: “Illustre et Inconnu: Comment Jacques Jaujaurd a Sauvé le Louvre”Director: Jean-Pierre Devillers & Pierre PochardLength: 60 minutesCountry of Origin: FranceLanguage: French and English

At the dawn ofWorldWar II, a resistance group organizes an incredible exfiltration of masterpieces fromthe Louvre Museum to save it off the Nazis’ hands. The man leading the operation is Jacques Jaujard, theLouvre Museum’s director. Jaujard had an extraordinary personality and was madly in love with art.Al-though hewas a devoted servant of the State,he used his knowledge of the system and his audacity to servea universal cause: saving the world heritage. The film talks about this important chapter of history com-bining interviews, rare footage (including Jaujard’s notebook), supported by a dynamic narration, ani-mated sequences of the protagonists embedded in archives and footage shot in situ. This form is in adequation with our heroes’ elegance who remained until now in the shadow...


Michael Chabon“Telegraph Avenue”Sunday, November 2, 6:30 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$18 Adult, $15 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Ellen Beller

About Michael ChabonMichael Chabon is an American authorand one of the most celebrated writers ofhis generation. Chabon’s first novel, “TheMysteries of Pittsburg,” was publishedwhen he was 25 and catapulted him to lit-erary celebrity. In 2000,Chabon published“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier &Clay,” a critically acclaimed novel that re-ceived the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His novel “The The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” an alternate historymystery novel, was published in 2007 to enthusiastic reviews and won the Hugo, Sidewise, Nebula andIgnotus awards.Chabon’smost recent novel,“TelegraphAvenue,”published in 2012 and billed as“a twenty-first century ‘Middlemarch,’” concerns the tangles lives of two families in the Bay Area of San Franciscoin the year 2004.His work is characterized by complex language, the frequent use of metaphor along withrecurring themes, including nostalgia,divorce,abandonment, fatherhood,andmost notably issues of Jew-ish identity.

Michael Chabon on his JudaismAwriter walks into a room full of rabbis.This sounds like the beginning of a joke,but it’s not. In the wordsof Woody Allen’s “Broadway Danny Rose,”“It’s the emes.” The Central Conference of American Rabbis(CCAR) held the Reformmovement's annual rabbinical conventionMarch 3-6 in Long Beach, and novel-ist and essayistMichael Chabonwas this year’s Jacob RaderMarcus lecturer.He spoke on the topic“Shap-ing Jewish Narrative”with Rabbi Yoel Kahn who, not coincidentally, was the rabbi who married Chabonand his wife, author Ayelet Waldman. All of which raises the question: How is a novelist like a Reformrabbi?

Before the crowded room of gregarious,well-read rabbis from around the country,Kahn asked Chabon tonarrate his own Jewish coming-of-age.When Chabon was 8, his family moved to Columbia, Maryland,a new planned community developed by James Rouse that sought to be a model for the city and thecommunity of the future - fully integrated and harmonious in all aspects. It even included an interfaithspiritual center shared by several religious denominations, including Chabon’s own congregation,whichpracticed what he called a“guitar-strumming”Reform Judaism called“Innovative Judaism.”

Chabon’s loss of innocence occurred at age 11,when his parents announced their separation and eventualdivorce, a completely unexpected event that caused, he said,“the scales to fall frommy eyes.”

Growing up, the sound of Yiddish was familiar. His grandparents belonged to a Conservative synagoguein Silver Springs, Md., which he attended on several occasions, and where they prayed, he recalled, in a“pickled-herring type of Hebrew – lots of bones in it” in a service that was heavy - not only because of its

five-hour, endless-seeming plodding pace, but also because he knew there was meaning there that hecouldn’t yet grasp.Nevertheless after his bar mitzvah, Chabon drifted away from Judaism.

In his twenties, he said, he found himself adrift. A first marriage to a non-Jewish woman had ended.Although they’d had no children, they had fought constantly about how they would raise them. She chal-lenged him about why he felt so strongly about his Jewish identity when he had little to no Jewish contentin his life.Forced to give what Chabon called,“The Tevye answer”of“tradition,”he found himself wonderingwhat did matter to him about Judaism.And so, he said,“I began to reconnect.”

Then ChabonmetWaldman, and, yes, she was Jewish, but her father was a secular Trotskyist Zionist whoworked on a kibbutz and had contempt for any religious practice. So, together the pair searched for whatwas meaningful for them,which led them, as San Francisco residents, to Rabbi Kahn’s congregation.

At the same time,Chabon explained,he was also feeling equally adrift as a writer.He was publishing NewYorker-acceptable short stories, but he felt that form limited his expression of all that he enjoyed asa reader - which was all sorts of genre fiction. Chabon decided that his writing should better reflect hispassions and who he was.

“The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,”his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is about two comic bookcreators,one of them aHolocaust survivor; it tells the story of their lives, loves, success and tragedies,andit became, for Chabon, a vehicle for embracing his interests and expressing parts of who he was. Hefollowed up with three more novels,“The Final Solution,”“The Yiddish Policemen's Union” and “Gentle-men of the Road,”all of themmixing genre elements with Jewish characters and themes in new ways.

Nonetheless,Chabon said the“unapologetic Jewish stance”in his writing is only possible because he is whathe called a “post-Rothian” writer, not breaking ground the way Roth or others Jewish writers of priorgenerations had to do.

“I benefit from the struggles of my parents and grandparents. They did all the hard work,”Chabon said.

Asked how he expects his own childrenwill connect to Judaism,Chabon said he is curious to see what theywill adopt and make their own.Asked what he struggles most with as a Jew, Chabon answered that it is“the incredible black eye that fundamentalists are giving every religion,” and that fundamentalists willmake all religions seem tainted to his children and their generation.

In discussing how he shapes his narratives,Chabon explained that often onemust decide whether to sup-ply a lot of explanation and set things in context, or to plunge the reader right into a world and explain bymeans of the main character’s point of view— to reveal information to the reader only as the characterlearns about the world.

As it turns out, the challenge for the Reform rabbi is similar, Kahn remarked, in deciding how best toexplain the context of Judaism and Jewish history while attempting to address a congregant's own pointof view on the world, and in so doing, shaping the narrative of Judaism for the future.

Chabon has found away tomeld hiswriting self with his Jewish self to forge a newnarrative.And for as longas there have been American Reform rabbis, they have tried to shape the story of contemporary Judaism.As was clear from Chabon and Kahn's conversation, both the Reform rabbi and the JewishAmerican nov-elist are engaged in the search for authentic expression of self as well as a continuity of Jewish identity.

There is, however, one important distinction: Only the novelist gets to play at being God.–Huffington Post

Learn more at www.michaelchabon.com

Don’t miss New York Times Best-Selling Pulitzer-Prize winning author of “The Amazing

Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” and “Telegraph Avenue.”

Lecture followed by a conversation with DU Professor and author Adam Rovner.

Community Read


Hesh Kestin“The Lie”Sunday, November 9, 4 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Friends of Sheldon Fisher

About “The Lie”“The Lie”is a gripping,morally complex thriller about a woman torn between idealism andmotherly de-votion. Dahlia Barr is a brash,principled, and successful attorney infamous for defending accused Pales-tinians in Israeli court.One day, to her astonishment, the national police approachDahlia with a tantalizingproposition: join us and become the government’s arbiter of the state’s use of harsh interrogation meth-ods—what somewould call torture.Dahlia has no intention of permitting torture.Can she change the sys-tem from within? She takes the job.

But Dahlia is not just a defender of civil rights. She is also a mother.When her sonAri, a twenty-year-oldlieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces, is kidnapped by Hezbollah and whisked to a safe house hiddendeep in the heart of Beirut, she intends to save him,using any means necessary.As fate would have it, theman who holds the key to Ari’s whereabouts is locked in an Israeli jail cell. He is an Arab who has a longand complicated history with Dahlia: EdwardAl-Masri—professor,pundit and possible associate of rad-ical Islam.He’s not talking.How far will a mother go to save her son?

Kestin, who spent two decades as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, offers no simple answers.Instead, “The Lie” gives readers a nail-biting, morally complex narrative that is perfect for our uneasytimes.

About Hesh KestinHesh Kestin was a foreign correspondent for two decades, reporting from Europe, the Middle East, andAfrica onwar, international security, terrorism,arms dealing,espionage and often equally shadowy globalbusiness.Formerly a London-based European correspondent for Forbes,he is an eighteen-year veteran ofthe Israel Defense Forces. His articles have appeared in Newsday, The Jerusalem Post,Ma’ariv, and Play-boy. The father of five,Kestin lives close to NewYork City in a very quiet village, and likes it that way.

Reviews“The narrative is headlong, the issues have never been more current, and the characters come alive fromthe page…I started reading; I ended up experiencing. The Lie is what great fiction is all about.”

—Stephen King

“An utterly riveting thriller that is likely to rank as one of the year’s best…. The Lie has everything: memo-rable characters, a compelling plot, white-knuckle military action, and an economy and clarity of prose thatis direct, powerful, and at times beautiful.” —Booklist (starred review)

Ari Goldman“The Late Starters Orchestra”Sunday, November 9, 2 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Terry and Arthur Heller

About “The Late Starters Orchestra”What was your passion before the weight of responsibilities and schedules stole it away from you?

Did you enjoy playing the guitar or perhaps you reached for a paintbrush each day? Or did you harness yourinner Fred Astaire with ballroom dancing? For Ari Goldman, it was playing the cello.

Goldman is a former NewYork Times reporter and the author of “The Search for God at Harvard,”whichwas a NewYork Times Notable Book.A few years ago, he felt nostalgic for the cello and chronicled his re-turn to the instrument in an article for the NewYork Times. In“The Late Starters Orchestra,”we follow hispersonal account of what happenswhen amiddle-agedwriter picks up the cello for the first time in twenty-five years and reignites his passion for music.Readers join him on this well-tuned journey, first securinga seat in his 11-year old son’s youth orchestra and sitting in on his private Suzuki lessons,and then the bigtime: the Late Starters Orchestra of New York City, whose motto is ‘If you think you can play, you can’.When he commits to playing at his upcoming 60th birthday party, we wonder with him whether he’ll begood enough to perform in public.

Praised as “a lovely, moving story of personal rediscovery” (David Hadju, Positively 4th Street) and “apoignant and lovingmeditation on…the great resilience and capacity of the human brain”(JoshuaHenkin,TheWorldWithoutYou),“The Late Starters Orchestra”is for fans of books like“TheHappiness Project”and“Tuesdays withMorrie.”Delighting us from the very first line,“Standing in a crowded elevator inmidtownManhattan with a cello strapped to your back is no way to win a popularity contest,”and accompanied bywhimsical black-and-white drawings by Eric Hanson, readers will enjoy this humorous and heartwarm-ing story about finding passion and purpose later in the life, and about the power of music.And for any-one who has ever had a dream deferred: it’s never too late to find happiness on one’s own terms.

About Ari GoldmanAri L.Goldman is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism,where he directsthe ScrippsHoward Program in Religion, Journalism and the Spiritual Life.He teaches a variety of courses,including the popular Covering Religion seminar that has taken students on study tours of Israel, Ireland,Italy, India and Russia.

Goldman is the author of four books, including the best-selling“The Search for God at Harvard.”His newbook,“The Late Starters Orchestra,”has been named the book one of the top 10music books for its springlist, calling it a “wise, candid, and inspiring true story about rediscovering your passion.”

Professor Goldman came to Columbia in 1993 after spending 20 years at The NewYork Times,most of itas a religion writer.His articles have also appeared in TheWashington Post,Columbia JournalismReview,the NewYork JewishWeek, the Jerusalem Post and the NewYork Daily News.

Learn more at www.arigoldman.com


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• Year round Salt-Sanitized Indoor,Outdoor Pools

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Signature Israeli Author

Ari Shavit“My Promised Land”Wednesday, November 19, 7:30 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$25 Orchestra, $20 Balcony

Sponsored by Gay and Barry Curtiss-Lusher,Barbara Mellman Davis and Lee Davis, Marc and ClaudiaBraunstein and Recht Kornfeld, PC, Attorneys at Law

With Additional Support From Kathi and Steve Crammerand Ruth and Warren Toltz

One of the most influential journalists about the Middle East today and The New York Times

Bestselling author of My Promised Land.

About My Promised LandAn authoritative and deeply personal narrative history of the State of Israel, by one of the most influen-tial journalists writing about the Middle East today.A NewYork Times Bestseller.

Not since Thomas L.Friedman’s groundbreaking“FromBeirut to Jerusalem”has a book captured the essenceand the beating heart of the Middle East as keenly and dynamically as “My Promised Land.” Facing un-precedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. Ari Shavitdraws on interviews, historical documents, private diaries, and letters, as well as his own family’s story, il-luminating the pivotalmoments of the Zionist century to tell a riveting narrative that is larger than the sumof its parts: both personal and national, both deeply human and of profound historical dimension.

We meet Shavit’s great-grandfather, a British Zionist who in 1897 visited the Holy Land on a Thomas Cooktour and understood that it was the way of the future for his people; the idealist young farmer who boughtland fromhisArabneighbor in the 1920s to grow the Jaffa oranges thatwould create Palestine’s booming econ-omy; the visionary youth group leader who, in the 1940s, transformed Masada from the neglected ruins ofan extremist sect into a powerful symbol for Zionism; the Palestinianwho as a youngman in 1948was drivenwith his family from his home during the expulsion from Lydda; the immigrant orphans of Europe’s Holo-caust, who took onmenial work and focused on raising their children to become the leaders of the new state;the pragmatic engineer who was instrumental in developing Israel’s nuclear program in the 1960s, in theonly interview he ever gave; the zealous religious Zionists who started the settler movement in the 1970s;the dot-com entrepreneurs and young men and women behind Tel-Aviv’s booming club scene; and today’sarchitects of Israel’s foreign policy with Iran,whose nuclear threat looms ominously over the tiny country.

As it examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, “My Promised Land” asksdifficult but important questions:Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can Israel survive?Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is currently facing,“My Promised Land”uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. The result is a landmark portrait ofa small,vibrant country living on the edge,whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today’s globalpolitical landscape. Learn more at www.arishavit.com

About Ari ShavitAri Shavit is a leading Israeli columnist and writer.Born in Rehovot, Israel, Shavit served as a paratrooper inthe IDF and studied philosophy at theHebrewUniversity in Jerusalem.In the 1980s hewrote for the progres-sive weekly Koteret Rashit, in the early 1990s he was chairperson of theAssociation for Civil Rights in Israel,and in 1995he joinedHaaretz,where he serves on the editorial board.Shavit is also a leading commentator onIsraeli public television.He ismarried,has a daughter and two sons,and lives in Kfar Shmariahu.

Reviews: “[A] must-read book.” —Thomas Friedman, New York Times

Adam Rovner“In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands before Israel”Sunday, November 9, 6 p.m.$10 Adult, $8 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Nancy Reichman and Charles Gwirtsman

Come celebrate with us as our friend Adam Rovner, University of Denver Professor and localauthor, launches his new book, “In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands before Israel”.

Notes from Author Adam RovnerTodaymy research has led me toAngola’s second-largest city,Huambo. It’s early morning and the air car-ries the scent of smoke from hundreds of open fires.Potholes crater the city streets.Open sewers edge thesidewalks.The façades of most buildings are pockedwith bullet holes fromAngola’s decades-long civil war.A young boy raises his deformed arms up as I pass.Where his hands should be I see only knuckled humpsof scaly-shiny skin. Probably leprosy. You can’t travel far in this country without seeing someone oncrutches,a pant leg hanging limply beneath the knee.There aremillions of landmines buried beneathAn-gola’s soil, but leprosy is a new horror to behold.

I’m here in this difficult land because a century ago a scientific expedition arrived in Huambo to determinewhether the surrounding region could be developed into a Jewish homeland.Angola’smaster at the time,Por-tugal, had approved the plan.So too did important Jewish leaders.YetAngola forever remained a paper state.

In the early 20th century, Jewish intellectuals advanced numerous proposals to carve out territories inremote and often hostile locations. The would-be founding fathers of these imaginary Zions dispatchedsurvey teams to far-flung locales and filed reports on the states they planned to establish. Instead ofexporting Jaffa oranges, citizens of these promised lands might have shipped pineapples from the Ama-zon Basin, stalked lions in East Africa, or hunted whales off the Tasmanian coast. Rather than swelteringunder the Mediterranean sun, they might have endured tropical downpours in Madagascar, or felt thechill of Angola’s highlands.

My research tookme on a, sometimes hazardous,quest to each of these fantastic Jewish geographies.Themen andwomenwho proposed them risked assassination,personal betrayal, financial hardship, the phys-ical dangers posed by a pitiless natural world, and an equally unforgiving political climate.At stake wasnothing less than the salvation of European and Russian Jewry.They failed in their rescue efforts, and be-cause they failed, they and their dreams havemostly been forgotten.“In the Shadow of Zion”rescues theirnoble struggles from obscurity.


www.jccdenver.org/join

JCC Sports & Fitness CenterJust Some of the Perks:• State of the art Cybex equipment

• Year round Salt-Sanitized Indoor,Outdoor Pools

• Insanity, Boot Camp and TRX

• Free Yoga, Heated Yoga and Yoga Sculpt

The Big Picture Featuring David KrakauerSHOWCASE CONCERTSaturday, October 25, 8 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$36 Adult, $30 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Terri and Gary Yourtz

Very few artists have the ability to convey theirmessage to the back row, to galvanize an audience with a visceral power that connects on a universal level.DavidKrakauer is such an artist.Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet,he has beenpraised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music.

Known simply as “Krakauer” to his fervent following, he is nothing less than an American original whohas embarked on a tremendous journey transforming themusic of his Eastern European Jewish heritageinto something uniquely contemporary. That journey has lead Krakauer to an astounding diversity ofprojects and collaborations ranging from solo appearances with orchestras tomajor festival concerts withhis own improvisation-based bands.He has shared the stage with a wide array of artists such as the Klez-matics, FredWesley, Itzhak Perlman,Socalled,Eiko andKoma,Leonard Slatkin,and Iva Bitova while beingsought after by such composers as Danny Elfman, Osvaldo Golijov, David Del Tredici, John Zorn, GeorgeTsontakis,Mohammed Fairouz, andWlad Marhulets to interpret their works.

Having been showeredwith accolades for his groundbreakingwork in classical,klezmer,and jazz,Krakauernow finds himself at an artistic crossroads and is ready to make a daring leap into a new phase in his ca-reer. His next project,“The Big Picture,”may be his most adventurous to date.“The Big Picture” is a spe-cial kind of project. It’s a tour through Jewish history, and an exploration of how the movies show us theuniversality of our individual quests.“I want this experience to serve as an opportunity for all. I am priv-ileged to be the tour guide for this incredible voyage,” says Krakauer.

With an all-star crew of fellow musical renegades, Krakauer is re-imagining familiar themes by suchrenowned film music composers as John Williams, Marvin Hamlisch, Randy Newman,Wojciech Kilar,and Vangelis, as well as interpreting melodic gems by the likes of Sidney Bechet, Sergei Prokofiev, MelBrooks, Ralph Burns, John Kander & Fred Ebb, and Jerry Bock that have appeared in popular films.Krakauer picked these pieces because all were heard inmovies that had a Jewish connection,whether the-matic or because of the identity of the filmmaker or composer.“I’ve taken themes from iconic films withJewish content and re-imagined them with a band of world-class musicians,”Krakauer has said.

The clarinetist and his collaborators—the much-in-demand jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman, guitaristAdam Rogers, keyboardist and accordionist Rob Burger, bassist Greg Cohen, and drummer Jim Black,along with a few guests on one track—take on familiar themes and lesser-known material from moviesas varied as “Sophie’s Choice,”“Life is Beautiful,”“Lenny,”“Avalon,”“The Pianist,”“Cabaret,”“The Produc-ers,” and “Funny Girl.” Two of the most emotionally potent selections come, unsurprisingly, from filmsabout the Holocaust: the somber,prayerful“Moving to the Ghetto”,by Kilar, fromRoman Polanski’s“ThePianist” and Nicola Padovani’s bittersweet theme from Roberto Benigni’s “LaVita è Bella” (“Life is Beau-tiful”). Krakauer and company bring deep feeling to these pieces while never milking them for theirpathos—which makes them all the more affecting.

In February,Krakauer,with a different band,presented themusic from“The Big Picture”in amixedmedia,“cinematic concert” at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage. Krakauer teamed up with the New York-based graphics outfit Light of Day,which, instead of using film clips, created new moving images for theproduction. The album’s marvelous and evocative music—created by a gifted auteur who works with aclarinet instead of a camera—offers a complete, and completely satisfying, experience on its own.

Having already contributed to films by directorsAng Lee and Sally Potter,Krakauer now takes on the chal-lenge of bringing a modernist vision to tunes that resonate on a deeply emotional level with generationsof moviegoers.“For me, it’s like putting on a new suit of clothes,”says Krakauer of “The Big Picture.”“Andthis project is also a way for me to connect the dots of all the music I’ve been playing throughout my ca-reer. So I’m very excited about this new step we’re taking.” Learn more at www.davidkrakauer.com

A Trio of Trios—Music of Three GenerationsSALON CONCERTThursday, October 30, 7:30 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$18 Adult, $15 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Libby Bortz and Michael Altenberg

Themost profound and beautiful way to convey feelings like appreciation, admiration, friendship, or lossis throughmusic. It is thus,nowonder that in the Russianmusical tradition, the piano trio is the composer’spreferred genre to express gratitude and sorrow over the passing of a dear friend or a great mentor.

This new classical programwill feature three piano trios by composers Dmitri Shostakovich, JosephDorf-man, and Ofer Ben-Amots. Each of these trios was written in memory of a great friendship and mentor-ship. The three trios combined,will explore a wide range of human emotions and their meaning.

Shostakovich's“Trio No.2, in Eminor Op.67”was written inmemory of Ivan Sollertinsky,a Jewish friendwho died at the age of 41. Shostakovich wrote to Sollertinsky's widow: "Ivan Ivanovich was my closestfriend. I owe all my education to him. It will be unbelievably hard for me to live without him.”His“PianoTrio No. 2” (1944), with its famous "dance of death" finale, was dedicated to Sollertinsky's memory. Thetrio is filled with Jewish themes and Klezmer dances; styles that were very risky in the Stalinist era.

Dorfman's trio was written in memory of Shostakovich,who he knew well and occasionally studied withinMoscow and St.Petersburg. It’s a strong, impressive, and very energetic work,which often quotes sometypical Shostakovich motifs or themes.

Joseph Dorfman was Ben-Amots’ composition teacher in Tel Aviv and later became a dear colleague anda close friend. He passed unexpectedly during a piano concert he gave in Los Angeles in 2006 at the ageof 65.Ben-Amots’ trio, titled“The Odessa Trio” is dedicated to his memory.The most remarkable motiveused in “The Odessa Trio” is the musical cryptogram of Dorfman’s name,Do-Re-Fa-Mi-La (C-D-F-E-A)that can be heard throughout the piece.While some of the trio’s movements have been performed on var-ious occasions, this concert will mark the first performance of “The Odessa Trio” in its entirety.

Featured artists will be Karen Bentley Pollick (violin), JeffreyWatson (cello), and Debra Ayers (piano) ofMontage Music Society along with composer Ofer Ben-Amots.

MUSIC


Zalmen Mlotek: The Magical World of Yiddish Song,with Special Guest Avram MlotekSALON CONCERTSunday, November 2, 2 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$18 Adult, $15 Student/Senior

Join ZalmenMlotek,ArtisticDirector ofthe FolksbieneYiddish Theatre and oneof theworld's leading authorities onYid-dishmusic,for amovingmusical journey thatfollows themigration ofYiddish songs fromEastern Europe to thebustling streets of NewYork’s Lower East Sideand onto the Broadwaystage andHollywood screen.Mlotek vi-brantly illuminates howYiddish music helped shape and inspire American music from the likes of GeorgeGershwin, Irving Berlin,Cab Calloway,Neil Sedaka andmanymore popularAmericanmusical icons.

Special guest Avram Mlotek is a singer, actor, rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah RabbinicalSchool.He is a teacher andwriter who has spent his life absorbing and perpetuating the worlds of Yiddishculture and spiritual Judaism.A graduate of Brandeis University,Avram's writings have appeared in TheHuffington Post, Haaretz, Tablet, The Jerusalem Post, The Forward and The Jewish Week, among otherblogs. In 2012, The New York Jewish Week selected him as a “leading innovator in Jewish life today,” aspart of their “36 under 36”Section.He has toured internationally with his father Zalmen Mlotek in a va-riety of concert and theatrical presentations that have given new life to the precious legacy of Yiddish song.

“Deserves at least three cheers.His work is both fresh and true to itsYiddish sources.”- The NewYork Post(on Zalmen Mlotek)

Asleep at the WheelSHOWCASE CONCERTSaturday, November 8, 8 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$36 Adult, $30 Student/Senior

Sponsored by TriCuzz Productions

The 9-Time Grammy Winning Kings of Texas Swing, Asleep at the Wheel, perform their classic hits.

Can a wheel reinvent itself while it’s still rolling? Sounds like an impossible task—but you never want tosay “impossible” to Asleep at the Wheel, the famed western-swing, boogie, and roots-music outfit that’s,amazingly, still on the upswing. That’s saying something, too, considering the group’s been around fornearly 40 years, turning out an incredible 25+ albums while playing an unrelenting schedule of one-nighters that would make a vaudevillian dizzy.

And even as the Wheel rolledon, the reinvention had begun.You could see and hear it intheir live shows,where new vo-calist Elizabeth McQueen in-vited comparison with theclassic female vocalists of theband’s earlier era, and fiddler-singer Jason Roberts gave theband a second male lead voiceto complement Benson’s imme-diately identifiable baritone.

These days, the reinventedWheel is also rolling down acouple of new avenues. One in-volves the critically acclaimed

musical play,“A RideWith Bob,”which stars Benson as himself – encountering the ghost of BobWills ona tour bus – Roberts as the youngWills,andMcQueen asMinnie Pearl and other famed entertainment fig-ures, with the rest of the band members featured as well.

TheWheel’s new look is also spotlighted in several new discs – the first called,appropriately enough,“Rein-venting theWheel.”The 12-cut celebration of American – particularly Southwestern –music features guestappearances by gospel’s Blind Boys of Alabama and banjoist Rolf Sieker,alongwith lead vocals byMcQueenand Roberts as well as Benson,whose voice has been synonymous withAsleep at theWheel for decades.

The second is 2009’s “Willie and theWheel”; a collaboration withWillie Nelson that was originally envi-sioned by famed producer JerryWexler in the 1970s. In late 2007 the idea was revived and Jerry and Rayreconnected by phone.Always the producer with a vision, Jerry was involved in every way.He insisted thatsome of the tracks should include horns as well as a return to traditional fiddles and lap steel guitar as-sociated with western swing.Wexler heardmost of the finished tracks prior to his passing inAugust 2008.“Jerry wanted us to do this album and I'm glad we got to do it for him,” saysWillie Nelson.“And that heheard it before he passed on.”The success of the“Willie and theWheel”album release was quickly followedup by a tour and even a taping of the 35th anniversary of “Austin City Limits” for PBS.

NowRay remains focused on the original concept.“I carried the load formany,many years,but I’ve alwaysjust wanted to have a band, as opposed to Ray Benson andAsleep at theWheel.”

So,whether your next encounter withAsleep at theWheel is at a dance or concert,or backing upWillie Nel-son via the new disc,or at a live production of “A Ride with Bob,”you’ll be witnessing something very spe-cial - a band that’s not only been entertaining audiences with its own genre-bustingmusic for four decades,but also a group that’s never been afraid to try something new - including a reinvention, inspired by thepast, that rolls joyously toward a long and shining future.


Art & Theatre Academy

Summer Camps for Grades Pre–K–12

Painting & Drawing • Set Design • CeramicsPerformance Workshops • Glass/Mixed Media

Creative Dramatics • and much more!

www.maccjcc.org/camps

350 South Dahlia Street | Denver, CO 80246(303) 316-6360 | www.maccjcc.orgmacc

at the jcc

Mizel Arts andCulture Center

Ray Benson (third from the left) is 6’7” tall and wears size 16 boots.

MOVIEBroadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy

Tuesday, October 28, 7 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$10 Adult, $8 Student/SeniorFamily-Friendly Event

Sponsored by Rosie and Harold Grueskin

“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy” is the first docu-mentary film to explore the phenomenon that,over the fifty-year period of its development, the songs of the Broadwaymusicals were created almost exclusively by Jewish Ameri-cans. These are the popular songs that our nation took towar, sang to their children at bedtime, and whistled whilewaiting for the bus. Taken in total they comprise the vastmajority of what is now commonly referred to as ’TheAmerican Songbook.’

Narrated by Joel Grey, the film features interviews with Sheldon Harnick, John Kander, Andrew Lippa,Stephen Schwartz,Phyllis Newman,Charles Strouse,Harold Prince,MauryYeston,Mary Rodgers Guettel,Ernie Harburg,Marc Shaiman,David Shire, Stephen Sondheim,Mel Brooks, Stephen Schwartz andmanyothers.

Dynamic footage includes performances by stars such as David Hyde Pierce,Matthew Broderick and KelliO’Hara, Zero Mostel, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Nathan Lane, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, BarbaraStreisand, Joel Grey,DickVan Dyke,Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel.

“BroadwayMusicals:A Jewish Legacy” is a production of Albert M.Tapper,with funding provided by thePatty and Jay Baker Foundation, Stuart Weitzman and Family, Judith B. Resnick, The Blavatnik FamilyFoundation, Barbara and Buddy Freitag Family Fund, The Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, The Ira andLeonore Gershwin Philanthropic Fund, The National Museum of American Jewish History, Leslie andRoslyn Goldstein Foundation,Raymond Tye and Family Charitable Trust and The Shubert Organization.

Written, directed and produced by Michael KantorNarrated by Joel GreyCo-Producers Jan Gura, Patty Baker, Sylvia CahillEdited by Kris LiemMusic Supervisor Andy EinhornFor Thirteen: Supervising Producer Bill O’Donnell, Executive Producer David HornA Production of B’WAY Films LLC,Ghost Light Films,Albert M.Tapper and Thirteen forWNETExecutive Producer Barbara Brilliant

MACC and Colorado Symphony Orchestra present

A Celebration of Leonard BernsteinSHOWCASE CONCERTWednesday, October 29, 7 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$36 Adult, $30 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Peter and Gabriella Gottlieb

MACC and Colorado Symphony Orchestra present a celebration of acclaimed American composerand pianist Leonard Bernstein with a lecture by noted British author Nigel Simeone, “The LeonardBernstein Letters,” and music performed by members of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

Exerpts from “Leonard Bernstein, the Man Behind the Legend of the Jewish Maestron” By Adam KirschThanks to YouTube, it’s possible to watch the 1965 concert in which Leonard Bernstein conducted theIsrael Philharmonic and the Vienne Youth Chorus in a performance of his own choral work, ChichesterPsalms.What’smesmerizing about this video,beyond themusic itself, is the sheer historical irony at work.Amoung the Israeli musicians were doubtless to be found refugees from Nazi Vienna; amoung the Aus-trian choirboys and girls, there were surely some whose parents had been Nazis themselves.Yet here theyare together, under the baton of the world’s most famous Jewish conductor—and they are singing thewords of the Psalms as Jews have sung them for millennia, in Hebrew.

Only Leonard Bernstein could have brought about such a dramatic vindication of Jewishness, in the erst-while heartland of anti-Semitism.Reading about his life and career in“The Leonard Bernstein Letters,”amarvelously entertaining new book, shows just how famous Bernstein became, and how his fame helpedto shape the image of American Jews as the cultural high-achievers of the American Century. From the1940s through the 1970s, Bernstein was probably the world’s most recognizable classical musician; eventoday, 23 years after his death, his eagle-like profile and swoop of white hair remain an icon of high-cultural glamour. He was triply famous as a conductor, the longtime music director of the New YorkPhilharmonic; as a classical composer, whise major works dwell explicitly on Jewish themes and texts;and as a Broadway composer,where he reached the widest audience with his scores for“West Side Story,”“Candide,”“On the Town”and other shows.

In retrospect, it’s possible to see that Bernstein came along at the perfect moment tomake themost of histalents.Before the 1940s, the top conductors of American orchestras were all Europeans, and the idea lin-gered that only in Europe could a world-class musician be made. After the 1970s, the mass prestige ofboth classical music and Broadway began to collapse, as part of the fragmenting and democratizing ofAmerican culture.Today,even a sophisticatedNewYorkermight struggle to name the conductor of the NewYork Philharmonic.

But everyone knew Leonard Bernstein. Nigel Simeone, the editor of the Letters,made the good decisionto include not just letters Bernsteinwrote,but those he received,and it is often the latter thatmake themostexciting reading.Name a celebrity in any field from the 1940s to the 1970s, and there’s a good chance thathe or she will be found in“The Leonard Bernstein Letters,”showering themaestro with praise.Frank Sina-tra is here, asking Bernstein to participate in JFK’s inaugural concert; eight years later, Jacqueline Onas-sis thanks him for arranging the music for Bobby Kennedy’s funeral. Bette Davis writes him fan latters:“there is probably nothing in the world so encouraging for the future of the world as a super talent insomeone—it is the only true inspiration and help in believing the world is really worthwhile.” So doesRichard Avedon:“You stand alone.Terrifying, but true.”So doesYevgenyYevtushenko, in broken English:“probably, only composer who could create music for such kind of theme are you.”

The premier event “A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein”during the Neustadt JAAMM Fest will include alecture by British author of “The Leonard Bernstein Letters,”Nigel Simeone, and a performance of someof Bernstein’s greatest works from the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

MIXED GENRE


Early Childhood Center• Children learn and grow best when they are

socially and emotionally secure

• We encourage children to explore theirimagination, curiosity and creativity

• Values stemming from Jewish tradition arethe foundation of who we are

• Families are important partners in ourdaily work with young children

• We support children to develop a lifelonglove for learning

Learn more at:

www.jccdenver.org/ecc

Kinky FriedmanSHOWCASE CONCERTSaturday, November 1, 8 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$36 Adult, $30 Student/Senior

Sponsored by Alison and Paul Gillis

Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist and politician marks his 70th birthday with aperformance that is guaranteed to offend!

About Kinky FriedmanIn addition to publishing 34 booksand 11 record albums to date,Kinky Friedman has been perform-ing/singing for decades, includingtouring with Bob Dylan and WillieNelson (to name a few) and headlin-ing numerous world-wide toursplaying for tens of thousands of fans.His other entrepreneurial venturesrange from Man in Black Tequila toKinky FriedmanCigars.With an avidpassion for animal welfare, Kinky isone of the co-founders of the UtopiaAnimal Rescue Ranch.

Band of Brothers by Kinky FriedmanIn the seventies my country musicgroup, the Texas Jewboys, set out toprove the world wasn't square.Whathappened to us when we left thespotlight?”

A happy childhood, I’ve always be-lieved, is the worst possible prepara-tion for life. Be that as it may, mydream as a child was to grow up tobe a country music star. But if you

dream of becoming a countrymusic star as a kid, you'll invariably wind up a best-selling novelist. It’s justa little trick God plays on us, like the channel swimmer drowning in the bathtub. But for me, becoming awriter has been a rather fortuitous turn of events. For one thing, I’ve always wanted a lifestyle that didn’trequire my presence. For another, I’ve always been somewhat ambivalent about performing, and latelyI’ve come to realize that anyone who uses the word“ambivalent”should never have been a country singerin the first place.As Joseph Heller once observed,“Nothing succeeds as planned.”

With country music still in my head after I graduated from the University of Texas, I joined the PeaceCorps and worked for 11 cents an hour in the jungles of Borneo.As an agricultural extension worker,myjob was to help people who’d been farming successfully formore than two thousand years to improve theiragriculturalmethods.I was supposed to distribute seeds downriver,but the Peace Corps never sentme any.Eventually I was forced to distribute my own seed downriver, which had some rather unpleasant reper-cussions. Still, it was in Borneo that I wrote some of my first country songs and dreamed up the great no-tion of putting together a band called Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys.

Several years later the Texas Jewboys became a reality,a country bandwith a social conscience,a dementedlove child of Lenny Bruce and Bob Wills. The group included four Texans: Jeff “Little Jewford” Shelby,Kenny “Snakebite” Jacobs, Thomas William “Wichita” Culpepper, and myself, Richard Kinky “Big Dick”Friedman.All of us except forWichita were Jewish.The other original members—Billy Swan,Willie FongYoung,and Rainbow Colors--were all Texans and Jews by inspiration.There were other Texas Jewboys overthe years,of course:my brother,Roger Friedman;Dylan“Clitorious”Ferrero; Cowboy Jack Slaughter; Bryan“Skycap”Adams; Panama Red; Major Bowles; and Arnold“Big Jewford”Shelby, to name just a few.

In 1972 we got our first big break, when Chet Flippo wrote a story about us in Rolling Stone. The title ofthe piece was“Band of Unknowns Fails to Emerge.”The following year we did emerge, traveling about thecountry, irritatingmany of our fellowAmericans.With songs like“TheyAin’t Makin’ Jews Like JesusAny-more” and“Proud to Be anA—hole From El Paso,”we were not destined to be embraced byMr. andMrs.Back Porch. In fact, in 1973 the Texas Jewboys received death threats in Nacogdoches,got bomb threats inNewYork, and required a police escort to escape radical feminists at the University of Buffalo.

We also had an audience with BobDylan after a show in L.A.(he was barefoot and dressed in white robes),walked on our knuckles after hanging out with Ken Kesey in San Francisco,played a farewell gig forAbbieHoffman in New York before he went underground (we were co-billed with a video of Abbie’s recent va-sectomy), and were unceremoniously tossed off the stage by the management of a Dallas nightclub andresurrected the same night atWillie Nelson’s house.On June 2 of that year, I had the rare distinction of beingintroduced by Hank Snow’s son, the Reverend Jimmy Snow, as “the first full-blooded Jew ever to appearon the Grand Ole Opry.”Through it all the Jewboys believed that the purpose of art is not merely to reflecta culture, but to subvert it.We also believed, just as passionately, that some things are too important to betaken seriously.

What happened to the Texas Jewboys?We live in the fine dust of the far horizon, beyond time and geog-raphy, where music and dreams play in perfect harmony. Little Jewford and I still occasionally travel theworld (he plays keyboards and the most irritating instrument in the musical kingdom, the kazoo).Snakebite Jacobs blows his horn with the New Orleans Nightcrawlers (you can catch him in the Big Easyany Sundaymorning).The last time I sawWichita,who played guitar,mandolin, and fiddle, he was livingin his car with his dog, Dwight. Like Mr. Bojangles’dog, Dwight died—from a rattlesnake bite in atrailer park. I would like to findWichita. Billy Swanwrote“Lover,Please”and“I Can Help”and still livesand makes music in L.A. Skycap and has a band inSt.Louis.My brother,Roger,who originallymanagedthe band, is now a psychologist with three kids andlives in Maryland.Dylan Ferrero, our tour managerwho always wore dark shades and a python-skinjacket,now teaches special ed in comfort and ismar-ried to a woman named Sage who has 25 tattoos,signs for the deaf, and runs my web site.

The only one who has left us isJack Slaughter, our road man-ager. Jack, an expert on forestpreservation and endangeredanimals, was a gentle spiritwho always remindedme a bitof JohnnyAppleseed.Last year,while jogging on the walkwayof the Lamar Street Bridge inAustin, he was killed by anSUV with big tires driven by ateenager. Of all of Jack’s ac-

complishments and after all these years, the obituary in the paper beganwith“Roadmanager for the TexasJewboys.”That’s not a bad thing, I remember thinking at the time, to have done in your life.


Kinky Friedman with President Bill Clinton andWill Smith.

For+18

Audience

MACC and Boulder’s Dinner Theatre present

Fiddler at 50 in Concert!SALON CONCERTMonday, November 3, 7 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$18 Adult, $15 Student/Senior

Steve Wilson, MACC Executive Artistic Director, muses on 50 years of “Fiddler on the Roof”We are overjoyed this year to celebrate the 50th Birthday of one of the greatest musicals of all time –“Fid-dler on the Roof.”We welcome the incredible Boulder’s Dinner Theatre company to trod the boards of theElaine Wolf Theatre and preview their upcoming professional production of Fiddler with an evening ofhighlights from the show.

Most recognize Fiddler for itsstirring and melancholy music,exuberant and heartfelt charac-ters and the “sad/dark” ending.While time has tempered ourview of an appropriate endingfor amusical, it’s not hard to seewhy the creators of the originalproduction were nervous aboutthe then“risky”end of the show.

Credit their genius with a conclusion that truly honors the brilliant source material - the moving, bitter-sweet, original stories of “Tevye the Dairyman,”by SholemAleichem.While unconventional for the time,I believe the Fiddler finale (or lack thereof) offers an upbeat affirmation of resilience, strength, love, com-munity and - dare I say - tradition.

As the father of a daughter myself, I can’t help but be personally struck by one of the plays central themesthat focuses on a father’s struggle as his daughters leave the nest (three of Tevye’s five daughters will leaveduring the play).While Tevye’s specific problem is connected to the changing Jewish traditions of arrangedmarriage at the dawn of the twentieth century, everyone can relate to this familiar and tumultuous rite ofpassage that shapes us all.Beyond this, I believe the play touches an even deeper truth,making it the quin-tessential statement about the strength of the human spirit.While the story has a special tie to the rich her-itage of the Jewish Diaspora and the dark struggle with Anti-Semitism, it also touches on the collectivetruth that everyone will ultimately leave the comfort of “home” and venture off into the sometimes for-bidding and unpredictable world. It is a dual struggle, both for those who leave and those left behind - aneternal cycle lived anew by each generation.And the trauma of these transitions is only heightened whenpeople are forced to leave against their will for reasons completely outside their control.The play also hasmuch to say about how humans define home.We are certainly disheartened when the villagers are forcedto leave Anatevka, but the story clearly tells us that it is not the place that has defined the people, but thepeople who have defined the place.Homewill travel with themwherever they choose to go – and their re-solve to live a productive, vibrant life will be ever present.

I believe great theatre provides an opportunity to connect us with signature moments that clarify howour small journeys can connect to our bigger journey. I hope our JAAMM celebration of Fiddler, as real-ized and energized by the brilliant artists of Boulder’s Dinner Theatre,will encourage everyone to recon-nect with their own experiences of these pivotal life cycle transitions - when children leave, familiesrelocate, relatives move or pass on, natural disasters destroy or a significant health event irrevocably al-ters life’s course. These are times of stress, loss and tragedy, but can also be times of revelation, potencyand renewal.

We also hope our celebrationwill encourage your family to raise a collective glass to the beauty behind theplay’s simple, celebratory affirmation— L’Chaim.To Life.

MACC and Wonderbound present

Messages and Letters

Thursday, November 6, 7 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$36 Adult, $30 Student/Senior

A Message from WonderboundWonderbound is delighted to be performing at the Neustadt JAAMM Festival for a second year.Wonder-bound and MACC first worked together in 2013 when Israeli dance troupe, Liat Dror Nir Ben Gal Dancecame to Colorado to create a fully collaborative work.“Messages and Letters”will be a collaboration withConfluence String Quartet and Clarinetist, Joseph Lukasik. The evening will consist of “Intimate Letters”choreographed by company Artist Sarah Tallman to the Leos Jancek score of the same name, as well as aworld premiere work by Artistic Director Garrett Ammon entitled“Messages.”

“Intimate Letters” is inspired by the more than 700 love letters written by Janacek and kept in Theresien-stadt concentration camp. This haunting work delves into the complexities of relationships and bringsaudiences on a viscerally emotional journey.

The second half of the evening will feature a world premiere creation by Garrett Ammon.Wonderboundis thrilled to bring Confluence String Quartet and Joseph Lukasik together to create a work that will con-sist of klezmer-style compositions researched by Lukasik and arrangedby Confluence Cellist Richard VonFoerster. The result will produce anall newmusical arrangement created specifically for“Messages”that willbe an exploration of Jewish legends and customs conveyed throughAmmon’s signature athletic style.

Featured dancers include the full Wonderbound Company: CandiceBergeron,Amanda Copple,Marian Faustino, Julie King,Meredith Strath-meyer, Sarah Tallman, Colby Foss, Brandon Freeman, Dylan G-Bowley,Corbin Kalinowski,Damien Patterson andDanny Ryan.ChoreographedbyWonderbound Artistic Director Garrett Ammon andWonderboundCompany Artist Sarah Tallman.

Featured Musicians include Joseph Lukasik (Clarinet), René Knetsch(Violin),Lynne Glaeske (Violin),Don Schumacher (Viola) and RichardVonFoerster (Cello).

Wonderbound’s MissionWonderbound uses dance to deepen humankind's common bondthrough uncommon endeavors of discovery and creation.

Confluence String QuartetNow in their eighteenth year together, the Confluence Quartet presents high-energy performances of a widevariety of works from the string quartet repertoire.Active performers in the FrontRange area,they have givenrecitals inVail,Crestone,Nederland,Sterling andDenver.They also serve as the core stringquartet for vocal andinstrumental performances at Holy Ghost Catholic and StAugustine Orthodox Churches in Denver.

Joseph LukasikBorn in NewYork City, performer and composer Joe Lukasik was infused with European folk music froman early age accompanying his father, a professional musician, from gig to gig drinking up Jewish, Russ-ian, Polish and Greek wedding and dance music. His love of music set him on his own path to graduatefrom the Eastman School of Music and later the University of Michigan School of Music. In 1989,he cameto Colorado as faculty of the University of Colorado College of Music and continues now as an independ-ent performer, teacher, composer and‘musical chaplain’. Joe has performed and recorded widely as a jazzand ethnic music instrumentalist.His compositions have been performed internationally.He is the win-ner of the 1993 International Barlow Prize in Composition.

at50


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12th Annual Fred Marcus Memorial Holocaust Lecture“Miep Gies: A Beacon of Hope”Sunday, October 26, 4 p.m.Elaine Wolf Theatre$18 Adult, Free to Holocaust Survivors and Students

Sponsored by the Holocaust Awareness Institute of the Center for JudaicStudies at the University of Denver

Please join us for an affecting one-person,one-act play,“Miep Gies:A Beacon of Hope,”performed bywell-known local actress JudyWinnick. Students age 12 and up are welcome at this premier performance forthe Jewish community.

Miep Gies, a petite, humble, Catholic woman who—along with her husband and three other non-Jews—helped hideAnne Frank andher family inAmsterdamduringWWII.Together,they provided food and otherbasic necessities to the attic residents, as well as a link to the outside world.Miep’s preservation of Anne’sdiary after the familywas arrested enabled this literarymasterpiece to becomeknown throughout theworld.

After her retirement from Littleton Public Schools, JudyWinnick began portraying extraordinary womenfromWWII history, including Irena Sendler and Miep Gies. She has given hundreds of performancesthroughout Colorado and other western states, as well as in Europe, at middle and high schools, libraries,universities,historical societies,synagogues,churches,as well as nonprofit organizations,and book groups.Amember of the Colorado Humanities/Chatauqua Speakers Bureau, Judy also received one of Colorado’sDistinguished Teaching Awards. Judy says of her work,“These women inspire me with their courage, hu-mility, compassion, and the message that one person can make a difference.”

A careful and tireless researcher, Judy recently spent two weeks in the Netherlands visiting importantWWII sites with a Jewish history guide.At theAnne FrankHouse,shemet with a long-time friend of Miepand also attended the Remembrance Day Memorial Service in Amsterdam.

Audrey FriedmanMarcus and her family inmemory of FredMarcus,a survivor of the Shanghai ghetto anda well-known teacher of the Holocaust established the Fred Marcus Memorial Holocaust Lecture, whichis under the auspices of the Holocaust Awareness Institute of the Center for Judaic Studies at the Univer-sity of Denver, in 2003.

Reservations online at www.maccjcc.org/jaamm or call the MACC Box Office at 303-316-6360. Seats are$15 a person.There is no charge for Holocaust survivors, educators, students, or event co-sponsors.

Chai Life XIII: The Startup Life

Sunday, November 4, 20149 p.m. – 12 a.m.$10 Admission

Located at Galvanize I: 1062 Delaware St, Denver, CO80204

All of the perks, none of the work.

Join E-3 Events at MACC and special guest Eliot Peper, author of the startup thriller “Uncommon Stock,”for a party that gives everyone a taste of Denver’s thriving startup culture while celebrating local entre-preneurs and their latest projects.

Eliot will playMCwhile local startups with a Jewish connection get 45 seconds to share their stories.Start-ups will also host themed games at the Galvanize building,which is Denver’s premier innovation ecosys-tem. Drink local brews, have some snacks, and try your hand at the startup lifestyle.

Peper’s book,“Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0” is the first in a new genre Boulder’s Foundry Group Pressis calling“start-up fiction.”The novel will available for purchase and signing by the author.

About E-3 Events at MACCStarted by Ean Seeb, Eric Elkins and Ezra Shanken, E-3 Events at MACC is dedicated to bridging the gapbetween popular culture and traditional Jewish values while providing connections and exploring Jewishidentity. E-3 is a strategic partner with the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, its fiscal sponsor. For more in-formation, visit www.e-3events.com or the E-3 Events Facebook page facebook.com/e3events

LECTURE

Bellerglass.com

Photo by Eris Stephenson


Yehuda Kurtzer

$18 Adult per event or $36 for all three event, Studentsfree with current ID

Sponsored by the Denver Jewish Learning Collaborative, aproject of the Department of Jewish Life and Learning,Robert E. Loup JCC, the University of Denver’s Center forJudaic Studies, and Kabbalah Experience.

Tuesday, November 4, 7 p.m.Book Talk: “The Future of the Jewish Past” (Philips Social Hall, JCC)

Wednesday, November 5, 10:15 a.m.Text Seminar: “The Past, Present, and Future of Jewish Memory: ReconsideringHolocaust Memory” (Located at the University of Denver)

Thursday, November 6, 10:30 a.m.Text Seminar: “Jewish Identity in a Boundary-less Age” (MACC Board Room, JCC)

About Yehuda KurtzerYehuda Kurtzer is President of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. He has a doctorate inJewish Studies from Harvard University and a Masters of Arts in Religion from Brown University, and isan alumnus of both theWexner Graduate and BronfmanYouth Fellowship programs.

Yehuda is the author of“Shuva: The Future of the Jewish Past,”awork of constructive theology that offers newthinking on how contemporary Jews can and should relate to our past while living profoundly in the present.As a fellow in the Institute’s iEngage Project,Yehudawrites and teacheswidely on the central challenges facingJewish life in bothAmerica and Israel,and hownew Jewish thinking can help us stand up to these challenges.

Thoughts from Yehudah KurtzerThe real threats to being Jewish are and always have been an unwillingness to be part of the Jewish people orto contributemeaningfully to Jewish life,neither of which requires the theological category of ‘belief.’ I thinkthat being Jewishmeans belonging to an extremely powerful story,which bringswith it the implications bothof the story itself – commitments born out of the accident of birth, the consequence of amarriage or as partof deciding to join – as well as towards both the past legacy of the story and its future success.

I don’t think I can answer whywe are Jewish in themetaphysical sense,but I think there are ideas and idealsthat Jewishness can still bring to the world, and I think that the Jewish people have an extraordinary pastand destiny that still needs to be carried and fulfilled, independent of any theological passports to entry.

Will a lack of piety in the present make us worse in the long term?Will it give up the tool of Jewish sur-vival that has gotten us here?

To this I have two answers: No,because I’m not at all convinced that the creativity, commitment and con-tinuity that defines the successful Jewish past was really ever rooted in and driven by faith in the Chris-tian sense as we know tend to talk about; and No,because in so many ways the present, for Jews, is much,much better than the past – however pious! – Ever was.

But let me also give a more positive answer: For those fortunate to believe in God, Torah, etc. as a featureof their Judaism – what a blessing! I certainly think these folks have the potential to use their belief as ameans of improving Jewish life and contributing to the betterment of Judaism. But it doesn’t come easyto everyone… and frankly, faith does not exonerate its possessors from studying Torah, feeding the hun-gry, keeping Shabbat… all the activities that ostensibly everyone can do.Without maligning the believ-ers, I think our community is stronger when we create and support broader contexts for meaningfulparticipation, rather than focusing on the fortunate few.We do the Jewish past a disservice whenwemakeit holier than the present. –An Interview by Shmuel Rosner, Jewish Journal


Win an all-expense paid vacation package to anexciting location and YOU choose where to land.You are in the pilot seat!

125 prizes to give away including the grand and second prize (1 in 20 chance to win)*

Grand Prize Winner can Second Prize Winner canchoose between: choose between:• Paris Shopping Experience • American Music Awards

• Bandon Dunes Golf Getaway • Bloomingdales Shopping Spree

• Choose your Championship • Costa Rica All-Inclusive

• Disneyworld Family Adventure • Fairmont Ski Getaway

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• Tuscany Culinary Escape • Napa Culinary Adventure

Get your tickets at the JCC or purchase online atwww.jccraffle.com*When all 2,500 tickets are sold.

Jewish Community Centers of Denver350 South Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80246

(303) 316-6324 • www.jccdenver.org

Life and LearningJEWISH

Denver

SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE

Kindertransport by Diane SamuelsProduced by Theatre Or* and MACCDirected by Richard H. PeggOctober 30 – December 7, 2014, PLUSS Theatre, Tickets $25-28;Preview October 29, Pluss Theatre, Tickets $14

Two Performances Honoring Denver Local KindertransportParticipants on the 75th Anniversary of the Kindertransport:

Wednesday, October 22, 6:30 p.m.Special performance with a tribute to long-time Denver theatreproducer Henry Lowenstein andKindertransport participant.Dessertreception to follow.Tickets $35.

Sunday, November 9, 2 p.m.Kindertransport performance and post-performance talkback withartists and Kindertransport participants Harry Karplus, HenryLowenstein, Peter Ney, and Doris Small. Additionally commemorat-ing the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Tickets $25-28.

*Or is the Hebrew word for light.

Notes from Diane Gilboa, Producing Artistic Director, Theatre Or“Kindertransport” by Diane Samuels is one of the most beautiful,moving, and personally meaningful plays I have ever read. I havewanted to produce it for many years,but for personal reasons, I resis-ted. This year the stars aligned.

After Kristallnacht, the Kindertransport rescue mission transportedabout 10,000 children, most of whom were Jewish, from Europe tosafety in England. Most of these children never saw their parentsagain. “Kindertransport,” the play, is the poignant story of a “kind”(participant) who wants to bury her past, and her relationship withher daughter who needs to understand her mother's story in order toforge her own identity. It’s an incredible artistic challenge, and Ineeded to feel I could do it more thanmere justice.Our gifted Britishdirector,RichardH.Pegg,not only has uncanny insight into our char-acters’ traits, which is essential because the children rescued by theKindertransport went to England where the play is set; but he hashimself dreamed of directing this play for years.We were able to castearly – over six months in advance of the play - and we have assem-bled what I predict will be one of themost stunning ensembles of ac-tresses to grace the Denver stage inmany a year.Our costume, lightingand set designers - Ann Piano, Karalyn “Star” Pytel, and Michael R.Duran - are among Denver’s most creative talents. My co-producer,MACC Executive Artistic Director Steve Wilson, is as excited andproud as I am to bring Ms. Samuel’s indelible drama to life.

Moreover, this yearmarks the 75th anniversary of the Kindertransportrescue mission.And the Denver community is home to four Kinder-transport participants.As I spoke to each of them and heard their sto-ries, I felt it was time to honor them - their courage and fortitude anddrive to survive - with this production.Their remarkable stories are re-minders to all of us how fortunate weAmericans are and why it’s im-portant to cherish, protect, and be ever grateful for our freedoms. Inthese times of searing turmoil throughout the world, the inspiringways they’ve personally met life’s most daunting challenges give ushope andmotivation to find the best in ourselves, to continue to cham-pion the rights of all people to live in freedom and dignity, and to hugour children tight every chancewe get– even aswe nurture their wingsto independence.This play also describes how twomothers send their

daughters out into the harrowing world. But it is about so very muchmore, and I won’t give away the intricate plot here.

“Kindertransport” is not only an ambitious artistic project, it is alsoambitious educationally.We will have two special performances tohonor Denver’s local Kindertransport participants. On October 22 at6:30 p.m.we will kick off the JAAMM Festival with a special previewperformance,honoring Henry Lowenstein,a Kindertransport partic-ipant whose immense contributions to Denver theatre were recog-nized by naming the HenryAwards after him – Colorado’s equivalentof the Tony Awards. In addition to the performance, we will host adessert reception, and DU Associate Professor Adam Rovner will fa-cilitate a talkback after the performance with the artists and Henry.We will have another special performance on November 9 at 2 pm,where we will also commemorate Kristallnacht, the historical eventprecipitating the rescuemission.During this special performance wewill also acknowledge local Kindertransport participants HarryKarplus,Peter Ney,Doris Small andHenry Lowenstein,who have vol-unteered to participate with us in a post-show talkback. Peter Ney’sbook,“Getting Here: From a Seat on a Train to a Seat on the Bench” ison sale at the JAAMM book fair. In addition, we will also hold manyother post-show talkbacks during our run October 30-December 7,and take our luminous cast into the community, accompanied byKindertransport participants, to share these stories.Thus far our talk-backs are scheduled for Oct. 22, 29, 30; Nov.1, 9, 13, 15, 16, 20, and 22;but we will add them for group bookings of 10 ormore upon request.

Theatre Or strives to bring plays to life that you won’t see on otherDenver stages: thought-provoking stories that move, entertain, edu-cate, uplift, and perhaps even transform us in ways that only art can.Please join us for an unforgettable theatrical experience.

THEATRE


Winner of the Henry Award (Colorado’s Tony Award)for “Outstanding Children’s Theatre!”

Androcles and the LionBy Aurand Harris

Directed by Billie McBride

March 4 – May 1, 2015

RECOMMENDED FOR GRADES K—6, ENJOYED BY ALL!

Tickets & Info:

(303) 316-6360 orwww.maccjcc.org/DCT

MACC & Denver Children’s Theatre Present

MACC at the JCC • 350 South Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80246 • (303) 316-6360 • www.maccjcc.org

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JAAMM LITERARY COMMITTEE:Deanie AndersonHedva BanksEllen Beller, Chair, JAAMM FestSandie BrownBerdine ClumpusFran CohenHarold CohenDolly CorlinGay Curtiss-LusherClare CurwenCarol DenkerSusan DinnGail & David DymJan EdwardsJeri ElsbergJanet & Sheldon FisherJan FisherJessica FishmanAlice ForshnerRobyn FriedmanSue Parker GersonDiane GilboaJudy GoldbergSue GoldbergSusan GordonDorothy GottliebHelen GreenJackie GreenbergJean GutheryShoshana HamiltonSuzanne HandlerMarsha HarrisEve HeimbachTerry Heller, Chair, Children’s Literary CommitteeRachel Fisher IngrahamKathy JuddBarbara KadinJaye KephartJoanne KleinsteinRachel KodanazCynthia LandShirley LeffDiane LevineEvi MakovskyHedy MantelRobbie MarksHelene MartinJoanne MatzenbacherBarbara Mellman-DavisJoyce MeltzerBonnie MerensteinEileen NaimanKathy NeustadtBonnee Shafner OderbergAndrea PearlmanSue PovolotskyNaomi PrimackBeth Radetsky

Dottie Resnick, Chair, Literary CommitteeDorothy ResnickBonnie RiceAndi RosenthalDebbie RosenthalJudy RothmanSusie SchickMarty SchlenkerEvelyn (Patsy) ShafnerMuri SigmanDeanna SimonIlana SimonAdena SladekSelma & Osi SladekJoyce SpieglerSue StockBen StreltzerDiane SummersBernice TarlieMichelle TeitelbaumElaine TinterIrwin WagnerBeth Ann WagyHedy WeinbergSusan WeinstockLinda WeissJennifer WeinerVivian WorkmanSusan Zalkind

MACC BOARD OF DIRECTORS:• Elaine Tinter, Chair

• Joanne Singer, Treasurer

• Kathy Judd, Secretary

• Rabbi Eliot Baskin

• Ellen Beller

• Sharon Haber

• Terry Heller

• Marcia Karshmer

• Kathy Neustadt

• Jeffrey Reiss

• Dottie Resnick

• Julie Schwarz

• Erica Singer

• Lisa Taussig

• Carol Wagner

MACC STAFF:Executive Artistic Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steve Wilson

Festivals Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ely Hemnes

Production Manager/Wolf Theatre Academy Asst. Director . . . Emily MacIntyre

Technical Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mr. Erock

Administrative Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brynn Starr Coplan Sater

Administrative Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kellie Lambert

Ceramics Studio Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vicki Smith

Gallery Curator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Simon Zalkind

Director of Marketing & Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Talia Haykin

Marketing Project Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rob Franc

Creative Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeff Bee

Graphic Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jeff Hoffman

Web Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kim Hottenstein

Volunteer Coordinator & House Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jackie Rutman

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THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE


Presented by

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THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!

Sponsored by

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!Gold Sponsors

Kathy NeustadtEllen Beller

Silver SponsorsTriCuzz ProductionsJEWISHcoloradoDr. Wayne F. Yakes

Bronze SponsorsLibby Bortz and Michael AltenbergUdi, Etai and the Baron FamilyBoomers Leading Change in HealthClaudia and Marc BraunsteinSue Miller and Harold CohenGay and Barry Curtiss-LusherBarbara Mellman Davis and Lee DavisAlison and Paul GillisGabriella and Peter GottliebTerry and Arthur HellerCarol and Larry LevinKathy and Arthur JuddDottie and Steve ResnickElaine and Arnie TinterCarol and Irwin WagnerTerri and Gary YourtzRecht Kornfeld, PC, Attorneys at Law

Friends of JAAMM FestKathi and Steve CramerRosie and Harold GrueskinLeland HuttnerFriends of Sheldon FisherHenny and Donald KaufmannVicki Trachten-SchwartzDavid ZapilerSelma and Osi SladekRuth and Warren Toltz

In-Kind SponsorSuzanne BrownTimothy J. StandringUniversity of Denver Department of Arts,

Humanities & Social SciencesThe Holocaust Awareness Institute at The Univer-

sity of Denver’s Center for Judaic StudiesJCC Family Programs and JCC Youth Programs

JAAMM PartnersBBYODenver JDSHEAJFSMazel Tot.orgMizel MuseumRodef ShalomShalom CaresTemple MicahTemple SinaiThe Jewish Experience

A Q&A with CEO, Stuart Raynor

SAVE THE DATES!

FEBRUARY

4–1520

15

Denver Jewish Film Festival19th

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MizelArts andCultureCenter

sponsored by Wagner Wealth Man

agement

www.maccjcc.org/film

What is JAAMM?JAAMM stands for Jewish Authors, Artists,Movies and Music. JAAMM is our annual artsfestival held each fall at the Mizel Arts and Cul-ture Center. It is a celebration of Jewish arts andculture through the presentation of a variety ofprograms including; authors speaking abouttheir new book releases that are about a Jewishtopic or of interest to the Jewish community, Jew-ish music or music with Jewish connection orthemes by world class performers from manygenres,an art exhibition in our Singer Gallery ofworks focused on Jewish content or by Jewishauthors and movies with similar interest. Webring some of today’s most interesting authors,artists, musical acts, movies, theatre perform-ances and other mixed genres to Denver’s Jew-ish community, and in some cases, to Coloradofor the first time.

The common tie is the variety of Jewish content,theme, culture or interest but the presentationsare eclectic and cut across somany cultures anddisciplines.Where else can you hear a perform-ance and conversation by leading authorities on

the Jewish influence in Shostakovich’smusic andan edgy event by Texas humorist, politician,satirist and musician Kinky Friedman in onefestival?

How did JAAMM get started?JAAMM started as the Leah Cohen Festival ofBooks, which took place for many years. Year-round, theMACC presents a variety of program-ing genres so we decided to expand frompresenting only authors to many other areas ofthe arts that our audience will enjoy.We hopedthat expanded programming would open thedoors to new ideas, bigger audiences and givethe festivalmore energy.We have seen continuedgrowth in each of the 7 years JAAMM has beenin existence andwe feel this year’s programmingis better then ever. Last year, the performanceswere amazing and when I was in the lobby dur-ing intermission the energy was incredible.Sev-eral people walked up to me and said “JAAMMFest has arrived!” However, the a key to thesuccess has been that funders like Rose Com-munity Foundation,Ellen Beller,Kathy Neustadt

andmany others loved the idea andwere willingto take a risk that this new festival would besuccessful.

How many events were therein the first year?In the last year of the Leah Cohen Festival ofBooks and Authors, in 2007, we had 11 authorspresenting at eight events. This year, we havemore than 35 events with 16 authors, includingrenowned authors Michael Chabon and AriShavit. Expanding the festival has allowed us toreach a broader audience and engage fascinat-ing, internationally known authors and artists.

Enjoy the Festival!

Stuart Raynor


discovera great community

• JCC Sports & Fitness Center• Early Childhood Education• Jewish Education Programs• Family Programs• Youth Programs

• Child Care• Swim Lessons• Day Camp• Ranch Camp• MACC Wolf Theatre Academy

• MACC Art Academy• Senior Activities• Indoor and outdoor year-roundSaltPure®Swimming Pool• Much, much, more

BBeeccoommiinngg aa mmeemmbbeerr hhaass nneevveerr bbeeeenn mmoorree rreewwaarrddiinngg::

www.jccdenver.org350 South Dahlia Street • Denver, CO 80246 • (303) 399-2660

Photo: Ca

itlin Coar

Documents

2014 Neustadt JAAMM Fest Brochure