Celebrating The Old Neighborhood
The Lower East Side may now be a hipster hotspot, but the Third Annual Jewish Heritage Festival, sponsored by the Lower East Side Conservancy, reminds us of the area’s rich Jewish past. Included are tours of the neighborhood, lectures (“Gals from the Hood”) and the opening of Rebecca Lepkoff’s “On the Cusp of Change: The LES, 1935-1975,” a series of photographs chronicling the area’s development. The “Bialystoker the Beautiful” tour tells the story of the Bialystoker Synagogue, while the “Crossing Delancey” tour stops at some of the oldest shuls here, including Congregation Chasam Sopher and the Orensanz Foundation (formerly Anshe Chesed).
—Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy, 235 E. Broadway. (212) 374-4100. Sun., Nov. 11 (postponed from Nov. 4 due to hurricane Sandy). Call for prices.
‘Here I Learned To Love’
In Avi Angel’s new film, two brothers decide, in their 70s, to reconstruct their past. The two were saved from the Nazis as toddlers, with the help of three extraordinary women, and they try to piece together what really happened with their family and their three “mothers.” At one point, one of the brothers stands near the Western Wall and states, “This is the moment when I claim victory over the Nazis.” The film, in Hebrew and Polish with subtitles, received a Special Jury mention at WorldFest Houston.
—Quad Cinemas, 34 W. 13th St. (212) 255-2243. $8-$11. (See review on page 48.)
Mambo And Borscht
At first blush, falafel, freilach and frijoles seem odd bedfellows. But a cross-cultural concert at Symphony Space finds common strains in Jewish and Latino culture. The event is inspired by both the Irving Fields’ “Bagels and Bongos” album, and the history of mambo and salsa dancing in the Mountains, where mamboniks worked the hotels. “Falafel, Freilach & Frijoles: From Mambo to Borscht” mixes Yiddish classics with Afro-Latin big bands, and Latin tunes with klezmer. The opening show of the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s 11th season features trumpeter Steven Bernstein, clarinetist Anat Cohen, percussionist Benny Koonyevsky, trombonist Rafi Malkiel and “El Judio Maravilliso,” Larry Harlow. A talk about musical fusions precedes the Friday performance.
—Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway. (212) 864-5400. Fri., Nov. 2 and Sat., Nov. 3, 8 p.m. $15-$50.
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