The Jewish Welfare Board will hold a 3-day American Bicentennial conference on the Jewish cultural arts beginning Jan. 10. Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, is scheduled to open the conference at the 92nd Street Y. Dore Schary, motion picture producer and director and Academy Award winning playwright, is chairman of the conference.
Schary said the conclave will focus on the ways in which Jews, in the cultural mainstream of American line, have influenced American arts, and in turn, on how Jewish life has been shaped creatively by the distinctive American experience. A spokesman for the JWB said the conference is unique in that it will probably be the largest assemblage of celebrities ever to gather under the auspices of a national Jewish organization and because all the participants are Jewish and have contributed substantially to American culture.
Among those participating in the first sessions dealing with “Jewish Culture; An Overview” will be Barbara Tuchman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian; Alfred Kazin, noted author and Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College; and Richard Gilman, former drama critic of Newsweek magazine.
FESTIVAL OF ARTS PLANNED
On Jan. 11 there will be a gala festival of the arts. Performers scheduled to participate include Sam Levinson, the comedian; actors Sam Levene, Arnold Moss, Harry and Marguerite Goz and Marian Seldes; composers Jule Styne, Cy-Coleman and Burten Lane; the Adat Beyt Mosheh Chorus; and the Felix Fibich Dance Ensemble. There will be a daytime seminar Jan. 11 and 12 on writing, music, the popular arts and the fine arts. The seminars on writing, music and the popular arts will be held at the Jewish Museum.
Among the participants will be Jerome Weidman, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and novelist; Irving Howe, literary critic and author; Cynthia Ozick, author; Paddy Chayefsky, playwright and Academy Award-winning film script waiter. Eugene B. Borowitz, author and editor of the journal, Sh’ma; Martin Gottfried, drama critic of the New York Post; and authors Jacob Kabakoff and Bel Kaufman.
According to the JWB, the conference is a confirmation of a recent statement by JWB president Daniel Rose that “America is good for the Jews. The Jews are good for America.”
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