“Jewish Authors, Artists, Movies and Music” — JAAMM — is the cultural celebration put on by the Mizel Arts and Culture Center at the Loup JCC.
We’re looking forward to it. In 2007, the first year of the reincarnation of the Leah Cohen Festival of Books and Authors, 11 authors made presentations at eight events. This year, it’s 35 events with 16 authors, not to mention the concerts, the lectures and more.
But it’s not the quantity.
It’s the quality.
Ari Shavit will tell us about his promised land. Ari Goldman will inform us how he became a cellist, of sorts. David I. Kertzer will enlighten us about the Pope and Mussolini. Then there are Gail Sheehy. Michael Chabon. Local scholar Adam Rovner. Gabrielle Selz (whom IJN readers got advance insight into on Sept. 26). Oh, and did we forget Zalmen Mlotek and the magical world of Yiddish song? We’ve barely scatched the surface.
Of particular interest to us will be the Fred Marcus memorial Holocaust lecture — this year, a one-act play, actually — by Judy Winnick on Miep Gies, the Catholic woman who helped hide Anne Frank; and the scholar-in-residence, Yehuda Kurtzer.
Kurtzer’s blurb tells us: “For those fortunate to believe in G-d, Torah, etc. as a feature of their Judaism — what a blessing! I certainly think these folks have the potential to use their belief as a means of improving Jewish life and contributing to the betterment of Judaism. But it doesn’t come easy to everyone . . . Without maligning the believers, I think our community is stonger when we create and support broader contexts for meaningful participation.”
Actually, we don’t think it comes easy for anyone. And speaking of broader contexts, the efflorescence of Jewish music and art by the community of believers widens the boundaries. We’ll look forward to dialoguing with Yehuda Kurtzer, learning about Kindetransport, listening to Leonard Bernstein and to an original composition by Ofer Ben-Amots, another artist our readers know. And don’t miss Paula Burger, IJN Senior Writer Andrea Jacobs and “Defiance’s” Bielski partisans.
We’re looking forward to JAAMM.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
