PLANS FOR JAM 2011- under way!

Yup, we're planning!
We've begun writing grants, looking at options, dreaming up possibilities.

Do you have an idea?
post it here!

Want to get involved?
write to jampdx@gmail.com and let us know!

Jewish Arts Month....Portland Oregon.....spring 2011

A perfect match!

Shelley Jordon : Jerusalem welcomes Oregon artist!

Shelley was a featured artist in JAM 2010.....and now following a research trip to Berlin, Shelley will  spend a month in Jerusalem. Check this out!!!!!!!
Elise BernhardtPresident and CEO
Foundation for Jewish Culture

and
 Uri DromiDirector General
Mishkenot Sha’ananim

Invite you to meet the Pilot cohort of the
 JERUSALEM CULTURAL FELLOWSHIP
Shelley Jordon, visual artist / Nicole Kraus, writer
Jonathan Safran Foer, writer / Josh Sirefman, urban planner
Reggie Wilson, choreographer

In the presence of Mayor Nir Barkatand Ruth Cheshin, President of the Jerusalem Foundation

Mishkenot Sha’ananim
Monday, June 14thReception at 6 pm
Opening of Shelley Jordon’s exhibition, “Flying / Falling”, at 6:30 pm
Introduction to Fellows at 7 pm

Rsvp to Ofira at Mishkenot  ofira@mishkenot.org.il 
02-629-2215, by Wednesday, June 9, 2010
 

 

Shelley Jordon

Shelley Jordon is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores the intersection between interior and exterior worlds and connections between past and present experiences. A recipient of a 2010 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Fellowship Award, a Fulbright-Hayes Group Travel Research Grant to Yemen and Tunisia, a 2010 OSU Center for the Humanities Fellowship Award, and an Oregon Artist’s Fellowship Award in Painting, her artwork has been exhibited in numerous venues nationally and internationally, including the Frye Museum in Seattle, Washington, the Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum, the Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum, and the Portland Biennial, at the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME. Her films have been screened at international film festivals in Hamburg, Germany, Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, CA.  She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and her MFA from Brooklyn College, also in New York. Jordon, a Professor of Art at Oregon State University, was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome last spring.

Nicole Krauss

American novelist and graduate of both Stanford and Oxford universities, Krauss had her first novel, Man Walks into a Room published in 2002. Her second novel, The History of Love became an international bestseller, and topped the lists in Israel as well. The book received France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger and Amazon's #1 Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Orange, British Book Award, Médicis, and Femina prizes. Krauss's books have been translated into more than thirty languages and her writing has been published in newspapers and magazines, including:  the New Yorker, Harper, Esquire, the New York Times and others.

Jonathan Safran Foer 

American author Safran Foer graduated from Princeton University with a degree in philosophy. His senior thesis examined the life of his maternal grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. The thesis later became his novel Everything Is Illuminated (2002) for which he won the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award. In 2005, Liev Schreiber wrote and directed a film adaptation of the novel. In his second book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), Safran Foer tells a story of a nine year old boy whose father dies tragically in the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center buildings. The book uses many nontraditional writing techniques known as visual writing. His use of these techniques earned him both praise and criticism. The book's movie rights were jointly purchased by Warner Brothers and Paramount. Safran Foer also wrote a libretto for the opera titled Seven Attempted Escapes from Silence, which premiered at the Berlin State Opera in 2005. In 2009, Safran Foer published Eating Animals. He works as an editor on different writing projects and leads writing workshops at Yale University and New York University.

Joshua J. Sirefman

Joshua Sirefman is an urban planner, president and founder of Sirefman Ventures, Inc.

Between 2007 and 2009 he served as Senior Vice President, US Development at Brookfield Properties and was responsible for all development activity across the United States for publicly traded commercial real estate company with approximately $20 billion in assets.

He was a senior member of Bloomberg Administration (2004-2006), working with Deputy Mayor to develop and advance economic development strategies to enhance the business climate, diversify NYC’s economy, and improve quality of life.  In June 2006 agreed to Mayoral request to run the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Between 2002 and 2004 he was Chief Operating Officer at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, responsible for overall policy and strategic direction, coordination of priority initiatives, external affairs and general organizational management.

Among the projects he was involved in: Coney Island, New York Harbor, Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.  He received his Master in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan.

 

Reggie Wilson

Reggie Wilson (Artistic Director and performer) founded his company, Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group, in 1989. Wilson draws from the movement languages of the blues, slave and spiritual cultures of Africans in the Americas and combines them with post-modern elements and his own personal movement style to create what he now calls "post-African/Neo-HooDoo Modern dances." His work has been presented nationally and internationally.

Wilson is a graduate of New York University, Tisch School of the Arts and has lectured, taught and conducted extended workshops and community projects throughout the US, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean. He is the recipient of the Minnesota Dance Alliance's McKnight National Fellow (2000-2001). Wilson is also a 2002 BESSIE New York Dance and Performance Award recipient for his work The Tie-tongued Goat and the Lightning Bug Who Tried to Put Her Foot Down and a 2002 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. He has been an artist advisor for the National Dance Project and is a Board Member of Dance Theater Workshop. Most recently, in recognition of his creative contributions to the field, Wilson was named a 2009 United States Artists Prudential Fellow and is the recipient of the 2009 Herb Alpert Award in Dance.

His current work, The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn had its World premiere at the Walker Art Center in November 2009 and NY premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 2009.

Historic Jewish Portland-May 23!

A Walking Tour of Historic Jewish Portland

Sunday, May 23, 2010

10 a.m.  to 12 p.m.

 In the early 1900's, Eastern European and Sephardic Jews settled in South Portland.

It was a close and largely self-contained neighborhood. There were kosher butcher shops and bakeries, a Jewish orphanage and an old age home, social activism and immigrant benevolent societies. There were schools, a library with Yiddish books, and the Neighborhood House, a focal point with a Hebrew school, citizenship classes, and youth activities.

 In 1958 Portland voted to create the South Auditorium Urban Renewal District and bulldozers demolished 54 blocks of the immigrant community.

Despite this, today there are intact reminders of the way life used to be. See historic buildings, hear first-hand memories and read period newspaper accounts as you walk through the old neighborhood.

Meet at Lair Hill Market, 2823 S.W. First Ave.; $8 per person ; for more information or  to register, please reply to this message or email ojfas@comcast.net.

This event is a benefit for the Jewish Federation of Portland.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE AT JAM?

We'd love to hear from you!

We're thinking about a poetry slam,  a dance, big name concerts......

REALLY.....what would you like to see?

We're writing  grants, dreaming dreams, and recruiting volunteers to help us make things happen.

Why not join us?

Portland's Jewish Theater Collaborative raises funds!

The first show has sold out but a few tickets are left for the second show. Here's the info I lifted from their website. If you can't make the performance, consider cutting them a generous check!

OUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY FUNDRAISER

We Invite You To Travel Back In Time
To The Sultry Cabaret Of Pre-War Europe

with excerpts from

CITIES OF LIGHT

Starring
Cantor, Off-Broadway & International Chanteuse

Rebecca Joy Fletcher

IN PORTLAND FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY!

WEDNESDAY MAY 12, 2010
$36 per person
Reply to sacha@JewishTheatreCollaborative.org or call 503-512-9582
Hosted by the Oregon Jewish Museum
1953 NW Kearney, Portland view map

LIMITED to Two Intimate Performances
in OJM's art deco screening room

Please make your reservations to celebrate at either show:

EARLY SHOW	LATE SHOW
7:00pm Wine & Hors D'oeuvres 7:30pm Performance & Program 8:20pm Toast	8:00pm Wine & Hors D'oeuvres 8:20pm Toast 8:45pm Performance & Program

Thanks to Jewish Federation of Greater Portland for their seed support of JTC
and the Oregon Jewish Museum for generously hosting this event.

JAM 2010 IS OVER....Hello JAM 2011

We have begun the evaluation process for JAM 2010 and welcome any and all commentary that will help us reflect on our events....as well as assist us in planning for next spring!

WE WILL CONTINUE TO POST ANNOUNCEMENTS OF ART EVENTS AS WE BECOME AWARE OF THEM...so stay tuned!

Thank you Oregon Arts Commission for your most generous grant!

Thank you Mittleman Jewish Community Center: Lisa Horrowitz, Helen Gundlach, Jordana Levenick, Beth Germain, Marissa Brown, Rosanne Levi, and the amazing custodial staff!


Thank you ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists!


Thank you Team Planners: Esther Liberman, Eddy Shuldman, Abby Myers, Sharyn Schneiderman, Cantor IdaRae Cahana, Priscilla Kostiner, Barbara Steinfeld , and Ed Kraus!!!!!!!

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.