Images from the Older But Wiser Cafe

Jewish Theater Collaborative closes out JAM

Happy Hour with Sholem Aleichem


Date: Sunday, April 25, 2010
Time: 5 - 7 pmLocation:
Food for Thought Cafe
Smith Hall, Portland State University
1620 SW Park Avenue
Portland, Oregon  97201

A storytelling and Klezmer rocking celebration of Sholem Aleichem’s yartzeit
Presented by Jewish Theatre Collaborative, and The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies

Admission: Free

Write to the Heart

Rose Schnitzer Manor Writers will demonstrate their skills in story telling Thursday May 22nd at the Older but Wiser Writers Cafe located in the heart of Rose Schnitzer Manor.


Cosponsored by Jewish Arts Month and Cedar Sinai Park in Portland, this will be a special evening.


Jazz pianist and KMHD radio DJ personality George Fendel will provide musical entertainment from 6:45 to 7pm (ish) and then our writers will take to the microphone and wow the audience with their poetry and stories. 


Refreshments will be available!
Bring a hankie or 2...you will laugh until you cry, and you certainly be touched by their more sobering memories.

OLDER BUT WISER CAFE-Thursday 7pm

Judge this book by its cover!
Five dutiful writers who are also residents of Rose Schnitzer Manor  have just assembled their first anthology. The group assembled in October and have been meeting weekly to write personal narratives, poetry and more!


The Older But Wiser Writers Cafe will be staged in the Zidell meeting room at Rose Schnitzer. Beer, wine, and other refreshments will be available to their eager audience. Will you be there?


This is one of the last events happening under the Jam "umbrella" for 2010.

COME SUPPORT THESE YOUNG AT HEART WRITERS AND LEARN A LITTLE HISTORY ALONG WITH HEARING SOME GREAT STORIES! YOU'LL BE GLAD YOU DID!

LAST Week!...MUST SEE THEATER!

PORTLAND JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

Dates:  April 15 - 25, 2010 Location:  Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum 1219 SW Park Ave. Portland, Oregon The 18th annual festival will feature 12 movies from 8 countries! Watch your Jewish Review for a complete film information guide. General admission tickets are priced at $8. There is a discount for students, seniors and Portland Art Museum members. A festival pass for admission to all 12 films is available for $50 from the Institute for Judaic Studies ( www.judaicstudies.org ). Pass holders are entitled to express entry. Festival director Merridawn Duckler encourages the purchase of festival passes as the best way to help IJS, which created the Portland Jewish Film Festival and presents it today with the Northwest Film Center.  Purchase passes by phone at 503-246-8831 or send a check to IJS, 2900 Peaceful Lane, Portland OR  97239.  Individual tickets may be purchased at the door or from the NWFC: 503-221-1156, or www.nwfilm.org Schedule & synopses of films:   www.nwfilm.org/screenings/25/261/

Put A PDX Spin on the CHOSEN- Wednesday !

Join us for some great conversation about the play THE CHOSEN, see the wonderful video featuring familiar faces....and talk with us about growing up Jewish.


Tim DuRoche with Portland Center Stage will lead the conversation. The play is wonderful and you will just adore the video! 


COME, TALK, LISTEN, LEARN.....

Date: Wednesday - April 14, 2010

Time: 7:00 PM

Location: Mittleman Jewish Community Center
              6651 SW Capitol Hwy              Portland, Oregon
              503.244.0111 

Explore themes in Chaim Potok’s The Chosen (adapted for the stage by Aaron Posner - now on stage at Portland Center Stage) through a discussion from a distinctly Portland perspective. Local figures will join the conversation about fathers and sons, coming of age, the power of silence, and the Portland atmosphere in the 1940s. Open to everyone.  

Admission free, but registration required: Click here to register
Sponsored by MJCC, Portland Center Stage. Call 503.244.0111
or go to: http://www.oregonjcc.org/page.cfm?p=1312 to register

WHAT'S NEXT?

YUVAL RON Ensemble  
Mystical Music of the Middle East- Concert for Unity

Date: Tuesday, April 13 Time: 7pm LOCATION:  First Unitarian Church Sanctuary, 1211 SW Main Portland, Oregon Tickets: $15 at the door or online  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/90746 An inspirational celebration of Sacred Hebrew, Sufi, and Armenian devotional music, poetry, dance and story telling. For more information write to info@yuvalronmusic.com or see www.yuvalronmusic.com

Yom Hashoah Holocaust Rememberance Concert
Co-Sponsored by the MJCC and Oregon Board of Rabbis
The Jewish Community Orchestra presents a the following pieces:

• "Dachau Song" - The musical story of a secret orchestra
• Beethoven - Symphony No. 3, Eroica
• Zipper - Dachau Lied
• Williams - Selections from Schindler's List - Yvonne Shue, Violin
• Various - The Terezin Colleciton

This concert is FREE and open to the entire community
Date: Sunday, April 11Time: 3:00 pmLocation: At the MJCC, 6651 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland

ROSE: Willamette Week Review!!!!

Gnarled hands pushed firmly into her knees, Rose leans forward, hunching over the wooden bench that she will stay perched on throughout her monologue, the thick muscles in her jaw pulling and pushing her lips dramatically as she tells the sorrowful tale of living in Warsaw during the Holocaust and afterward as a refugee, with her husband being marched off by Nazis and young daughter shot before her eyes in between. Amid anguished recollections of her tortured past, Rose (Wendy Westerwelle) graces the audience with short bursts of comedic relief, chuckling as she pokes fun at her sense of style and incomplete memory (“Am I remembering the newsreel or that movie with Paul Newman?” she ponders, squinting her left eye, furrowing her brow and raising her index finger into the air). A surprisingly moving show, Rose, written by Martin Sherman and directed by Donald Horn, blends humor and dark narrative with a deftness that makes this two hour monologue fly by. NATALIE BAKER. The CoH
 o Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St., tripro.org. 7:30 pm Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes April 25. $15-$28.

The Chosen: A PLAY

JAM (Jewish Arts Month) is pleased to be associated with this play.

It opens tonight. You may have read the book by Chaim Potok...now see the play adapted from the novel  by Aaron Posner. Portland Center Stage will also host artwork by local Jewish artists Shelley Jordon and Sarah Horowitz.

The Chosen
a play adapted by Aaron Posner from Chaim Potok’s novel

Dates: April 6 - May 2 Time : varies – check website for times & ticket prices Location:     Portland Center Stage   Gerding Theater at the Armory   128 NW Eleventh Ave   Portland, Oregon  97209   503.445.3700

ROSE: The Reviews are in!

WENDY WESTERWELLE DOES IT WELL!
This is must see theater!

How honored Jewish Arts month is to be associated with this production (and don't forget to see Renate Dollinger's beautiful art work on display in the lobby!)
Here is a quote from the Oregonian:

Rose is a complex character. She is Jewish but also an agnostic and somewhat of a mystic. Such contradictions don't bother her as she ponders the pain as well as the wonder of her life. She humorously compares God to a policeman -- never there when you need him and arresting you when you're innocent -- and yet there is almost a predetermined symmetry to her story. The vital artist she loved in Warsaw and with whom she enjoyed American Western films -- is this the aged, crusty, bitter concentration camp survivor with a glass eye she stumbles upon when traveling across the Arizona desert 50 years later? How is she to respond to the horrible truth that just as her daughter had been shot down by a young Nazi soldier, her young grandson shoots down an innocent Palestinian girl? How is one to deal with the horrors and heartbreaks of history? 

Perhaps as Wendy Westerwelle's Rose does – -- with humor and awe. 

for more info go to: http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2010/04/theater_review_triangle_produc.html

Renate Dollinger- 86 and going strong!!!!!

"When The Rabbi Danced"         by Renate Dollinger

Yes, I posted this earlier....but I want to remind you that this fabulous artist has 20 of her newest paintings on display at COHO theater during the run of ROSE.



Date: April 1 - 25, 2010

Location:CoHo Theatre
2257 NW Raleigh St.
Portland, Oregon 97210

Renate Dollinger paints mainly in oil, but has also done a considerable amount of work in watercolor, gouache and hand tinted etchings.
Renate escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport.  Her bright and joyous paintings of shtetl life will intrigue you and capture your imagination.
Renate is a vibrant 86 and continues to paint.  This exhibit accompanies "ROSE" and will feature her newest work.

ALL OF HER ART WORK IS AVAILABLE FOR SALE!

GREAT ART+ GREAT THEATER= GREAT TIMES!

ROSE Opens April 1

Wendy Westerwelle stars as ROSEtriangle productions! in conjunction with Roscoe Nelson is pleased to present ROSE by Martin Sherman, who also wrote our 1992 hit BENT. Rose is a survivor. Her remarkable life began in a tiny Russian village, took her to the Warsaw ghetto, aboard a ship called The Exodus, and finally to the boardwalks of Atlantic City, the Arizona Canyons and salsa flavored nights in Miami Beach. Rose is a vivid portrait of a feisty Jewish woman and a reminder of events that shaped the 20th century.

Ticket info: https://www.ticketturtle.com/html/triangle/index.html

Happy Passover!

Jewish Arts Month continues its 9 week adventure through much of April.
We are on break right now in anticipation of Passover.

Stay tuned......updates on Portland Center Stage's production of THE CHOSEN and ROSE at COHO Theater will come shortly.

Thanks for checking our site.  Please visit often....we are counting on you!

A Must See Film! ....and a Fahrbrengen!

The Portland WOMENS FILM FESTIVAL joins JAM with their presentation of:HEY HEY, IT'S ESTHER BLUEBERGER 
The festival runs March 18-22. Details can be found at http://www.powfest.com/

 HEY HEY, IT'S ESTHER BLUEBERGER is playing on Sunday, March 21st at 2:45 PM AT THE Hollywood Theater


....AND........Celebrating the memory of Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield  z'l'

An evening of music, dance, art, film, poetry, storytelling and much more!
Light snacks and dinner available.

Sponsored by the Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield Legacy Trust and Congregation P'nai Or of Portland, to benefit theSouthwest Community Health Center and P'nai Or of Portland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farbrengen Date:   Sunday, March 21, 2010 Time:  5:30 pm Location: Havurah Shalom                 825 NW 18th Ave.                 Portland, Oregon Admission:  $6 at the door (children free) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farbrengen Date:   Sunday, March 21, 2010 Time:  5:30 pm Location: Havurah Shalom                 825 NW 18th Ave.                 Portland, Oregon Admission:  $6 at the door (children free)

The family that plays together.....

The Shapiro Olenick family has been playing music together....forever!!!!!!
If you don't believe me go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yllyy11C8KQ

We had a great time last night...and everyone in the audience was involved with singing, clapping and hand motions!

This Sunday you can enjoy more music at Havurah Shalom when P'nei Or celebrates a cd release and more local talent. See the previous post for details. You don't want to miss out!

Fahrbrengen: A celebration! March 21

Celebrating the memory of Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield  z'l'

An evening of music, dance, art, film, poetry, storytelling and much more!
Light snacks and dinner available.

Sponsored by the Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield Legacy Trust and Congregation P'nai Or of Portland, to benefit the Southwest Community Health Center and P'nai Or of Portland.

Date:   Sunday, March 21, 2010 Time:  5:30 pm Location: Havurah Shalom                 825 NW 18th Ave.                 Portland, Oregon Admission:  $6 at the door (children free) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farbrengen

AMY,JEFF, LOUIE in concert TONIGHT!!!!!

yippy! great jewish folk music right here in PDX.....come on down to the MJCC on capitol HWY...7pm Thursday 3/18...it's only $5 at the door.

POWfest joins JAM!

The Portland WOMENS FILM FESTIVAL joins JAM with their presentation of:
The festival runs March 18-22. Details can be found at http://www.powfest.com/

 HEY HEY, IT'S ESTHER BLUEBERGER is playing on Sunday, March 21st at 2:45 PM

Great MUSIC!!!!!!

At long last, Amy Shapiro and Jeff Olenick will appear in concert at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center Thursday March 18th at 7 pm!!!!!!!  Tickets are only $5 at the door!


Yiddish, Hebrew and English folk songs that will get your foot tapping and your lips moving.


Jewish Arts Month is pleased to feature this musical couple.

This is a must see/hear concert!   Won't you join us?

V'chaverim: A Success!

The music was astonishing.....
...this was Jewish Soul Music at it's best! The audience was moved to a standing ovation and we were rewarded with an encore song.


Such talent in this little town of ours! 
sorry for the poor photo. All I had was my phone!

V'Chaverim Concert on Thursday!

Klezmer music will rock your socks Thursday night at 7:30 pm in the Mittleman Jewish Community Center Ballroom. Tickets are only $10.


Pictured here is vocalist Ilene Safyan who has delighted local audiences with her silky voice. I don't have pix for the other musicians yet, but i promise to post pictures post concert!   You don't want to miss this wonderful opportunity!

Shelley Jordon @ OJM!- WOW!

Tuesday Evening March 9th at 7:00 pm....admission is FREE!!!!!!!
Oregon Jewish Museum  1953 NW Kearney St,  Portland


Shelley Jordon is a well known and much loved local artist and professor of art!


She has recently shifted from painting large still lifes to animating a painting. She'll talk about the process, discuss her transitions as an artist and show her animated painting.


What a great opportunity!

Kindertransport - a Must-See!

Kindertransport is an amazing play, currently showing at Artists Repertory Theatre downtown.  It is a moving story of one woman's journey as a child from Germany to England, and the complex web woven through generations.  It is moving and thought-provoking.  Each show is followed by a "talkback" featuring a different person sharing their own real story of emigration and survival. It's very powerful.

Don't miss the chance to experience this show.  It runs through March 21st.  For information, and to buy tickets, click here.