A LOOK AT ‘FUNNY GIRL’: JOHN KENDRICK
A talk with Kendick (“Musical Theatre, A History”) via Zoom. He’ll discuss Jule Styne’s musical about Fanny Brice that originally starred Barbra Streisand. — Tuesday, April 28, 6:30-7:45 p.m., Virtual Streicker, emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual/. Free.
ISRAEL — THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES: AMBASSADOR IDO AHARONI
Ambassador Aharoni, Israel’s longest-serving consul-general in New York and the tri-state area to date, appears in a discussion via Zoom Video Conferencing. — Wednesday, April 29, 10:30-11:45 a.m., Virtual Streicker, https://temple-emanu-el-streicker-center-classes.ticketleap.com/israel-72-years-of-statehood-amb-ido-aharoni/details. Free.
ELLEN BASS ON ‘INDIGO’
A live reading in celebration of Ellen Bass’ new poetry collection, “Indigo,” which features the poem “Photograph: Jews Probably Arriving to the Lodz Ghetto circa 1941-1942,” with poets Victoria Chang, Nick Flynn and Ben Purkert. — Wednesday, April 29, 7-8 p.m., Books Are Magic, https://www.facebook.com/events/908602032911936/. Free.
DANIEL KAHN PRESENTS YIDDISH BLUES IN BERLIN
The Detroit-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter concocts furious “alienation klezmer” and leads The Brothers Nazaroff. His Yiddish cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” has gone viral, with over 700,000 views. — Wednesday, April 29, 7 p.m., Folksbiene!LIVE, nytf.org/live/.
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH ‘SHTUMER SHABES’ (SILENT SABBATH)
Join Facebook Live to go behind the scenes and back in time with the creative team from “Shtumer Shabes,” the new play by LABA Fellow Rokhl Kafrissen. It’s a show about Yiddish theater, human experimentation and making art in the most difficult times. In other words, a comedy. Cast members will perform short excerpts from the play, set in the early 2000s East Village and 1930s Warsaw. Then Kafrissen and director Aaron Beall will join special guests in conversation about what inspired the show. — Wednesday, April 29, 2 p.m., 14Y LABA Arts + Culture, 14streety.org/virtual-14y/virtual-arts-culture/. Free.
In the year since the vicious anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue in Poway, Calif., the surge in anti-Semitism has continued worldwide. Some have preyed on the fear and economic insecurity brought on by the coronavirus to scapegoat Jews and other minorities. Join historian and professor Deborah Lipstadt, whose real life experience battling a Holocaust denier in court was depicted in the 2016 film “Denial,” and Lisa Leff of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum live on Facebook as they discuss anti-Semitism here and now and learn how we can respond to it as individuals and as a society. — Wednesday, April 29, 9:30-10 a.m., United States Memorial Holocaust Memorial Museum, facebook.com/events/
VIRTUAL UNPACKING THE BOOK: JEWISH WRITERS IN CONVERSATION
Join us for a Zoom conversation with Esther Safran Foer (“I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir”), a former CEO of the Sixth & I congregation in Washington, D.C., and mother of Franklin, Jonathan and Joshua; Keith Gessen (“A Terrible Country”), founding editor of n+1; and Tablet Magazine and “Unorthodox” podcast’s Stephanie Butnick. — Thursday, April 30, 7 p.m., The Jewish Museum, thejewishmuseum.org/calendar/events/2020/04/30/unpacking-the-book-4302020. Free.
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BOB DYLAN: ‘OH, MERCY’
The iconic troubadour has been busy of late: first, dropping a 17-minute song (and journey through American culture), “Murder Most Foul,” about the JFK assassination; then a few weeks later a song with the Whitmanesque title “I Contain Multitudes” (in which he actually name-checks Anne Frank). The songs on Dylan’s 1989 “Oh, Mercy” album are born of personal crisis, not the least of which was his own feeling that he was written out. The story of the writing of these songs and the making of this album was brilliantly told by Dylan in his autobiography, “Chronicles: Volume I,” and Louis Rosen will explore the details, drawing from the tracks on the album as released, as well as some terrific songs that were held back only to see the light of day years later via Dylan’s own subsequent Bootleg Series of recordings. Timeless tunes from the album like “Ring Them Bells” and “Everything is Broken” will doubtless echo down to today. — Thursday, April 30, 7:15-9 p.m., 92Y, 92y.org/class/bob-dylan-oh-mercy. $50.
DR. EDITH EVA EGER IN CONVERSATION WITH TOVA FELDSHUH: ‘THE CHOICE’
Now in her 90s and an internationally acclaimed psychologist, Dr. Eger is one of the few Holocaust survivors old enough to remember life in the camps. This event is a rare opportunity to hear her astonishing story, with its message for us all: “We have the capacity to hate and the capacity to love. Which one we reach for,” Eger says, “is up to us.” In this online event, she will also share her wisdom on how to cope with the Covid-19 crisis and changes to our lives. — Sunday, May 3, 6 p.m., 92Y, 92y.org/event/dr-edith-eva-eger. $40 general/$20 for those age 40 and under.
Ongoing:
Based on true events, acclaimed fiilmmaker Yaron Zilberman chronicles the disturbing descent of a promising law student to a delusional ultranationalist obsessed with murdering his country’s leader, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.”Incitement” is an unnerving look through the eyes of a murderer who, encouraged by increasingly militant political rhetoric, silenced a powerful voice for peace. Winner, Best Picture, Ophir Awards (Israeli Oscars). — Streaming at Film Forum, filmforum.org/film/incitement. $9.99.
The Tony Award-winning play follows a troupe of actors, the cast members of Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance,” who risked their lives and careers to perform a work in which they deeply believed, at a time when art, freedom and truth were on trial. It is a serious story told with great theatricality, and joyous songs and dances. — Airing through Nov. 17, THIRTEEN Passport, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/
PLAY MAH JONGG FROM HOME
Real Mah Jongg Online allows you to play American Mah Jongg online against computers and your friends on either a computer, iPad or tablet. A 14-day trial is free and then it’s $5.99 per month after that. If you would like to connect with other players from the 14th Street Y, please email Karine Wittes at KWittes@14streety.org or Julie Gayer Kris at JGayerKris@14streety.org.
OMER AVITAL’S ‘NEW YORK PARADOX’
The new album by Omer Avital’s quintet Qantar — five expat Israelis who regularly get together to share Middle Eastern-inflected jazz music and Turkish coffee — was supposed to launch April 14 at Brooklyn’s Wilson Live. But “New York Paradox” is newly available for listening and purchasing at https://smarturl.it/QantarNYParadox. Avital, a bassist and composer, is “one of the most exciting musicians to come onto the jazz scene in the last 20 years,” according to DownBeat Magazine, and The New Yorker calls him “one of the key figures in the new wave of jazz.”
