A 10-day festival with a variety of events — workshops & conversations, happy hours, Shabbat dinners and more — that will take place over Zoom, Instagram and Facebook. Highlights include events with Jewish food world leaders such as Michael Twitty, Joan Nathan, Michael Solomonov, Adeena Sussman, Einat Admony, Jeffrey Yoskowitz & Liz Alpern of Gefelteria, Lior Lev Sercarz, Ruth Reichl, Gail Simmons, Jewish Food Society, Hazon, Mazon and more. — May 19-28, The Great Big Jewish Food Fest, jewishfoodfest.org. Free.
KLEZMER FIDDLE PROJECT — ‘A NIGN A DAY’
A stellar line-up of 35 klezmer string players from 12 countries — including New York City’s own Jake Shulman-Ment and Alicia Svigals — resuscitates the ancient Jewish nign tradition with melodies from Vol. 4 of Moshe Beregovski’s “Old Jewish Folk Music” collection. Every day during the lockdown a fiddler (or cellist) from the project will do a live broadcast featuring nigunim, chat and sometimes even a guest. — Through May 27, 4-4:45 p.m., facebook.com/events/536517630631547/. See the line-up at ilanacravitz.com/strings.htm. Free, but you can make a donation.
COCKTAIL CONCERT WITH FRANK LONDON
Join acclaimed trumpeter and composer Frank London live on Zoom. A bandleader, Grammy Award-winner and all-around klezmer icon, London will be joining us directly from his apartment on the Lower East Side. — Monday, May 18, 7-7:30 p.m., Museum at Eldridge Street, eldridgestreet.org/event/cocktail-concert-with-frank-london/. Free.
SUING NAZIS
Charlie Buckholtz’s “Bad Rabbi” podcast will be joined by YIVO’s Eddy Portnoy for a discussion of Portnoy’s book, “Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press.” An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Portnoy mines the Yiddish press to expose the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw. It’s likely to make CNN’s new documentary “Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer” sound like “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” — Tuesday, May 19, 4 p.m., co-sponsored by YIVO and LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture at The 14th Street Y, yivo.org/Bad-Rabbi-Podcast. Free.
Join Israeli emissary Ophir Tal in a discussion about the contradicting narratives of Israel Independence and Palestinian Nakba in the context of Israel’s establishment, and how it affects the chances of peace in the forseeable future. Bring your own lunch to the Zoom call. — Tuesday, May 19, 1:15 p.m., Virtual 14Y, https://zoom.us/meeting/register/v5Uvfu2rrjgquuvRk9R9MRQMKUF34ygvrg. Free.
COVID-19 AND ISRAEL: SECURITY COOPERATION BETWEEN ISRAEL, THE PA AND HAMAS
A virtual lunch-and-learn session with Ilan Goldenberg, Israel Policy Forum’s policy adviser and senior fellow and director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. — Wednesday, May 20, 1:30-2:30 p.m., Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, https://jccmanhattan.org/programs/virtual-lunch-and-learn-series-covid-19-and-israel-security-cooperation-between-israel. Free.
SOVIET JEWISH CUISINE WITH CHEF BONNIE MORALES, AUTHOR BORIS FISHMAN AND FOOD JOURNALIST GABRIELLA GERSHENSON
If there’s something that Soviet cuisine and the literature surrounding it has taught the world, it’s how to celebrate in grand style in times of bleakness and uncertainty. Join food journalist Gabriella Gershenson in conversation with cookbook author Bonnie Morales (born Frumkin), chef-owner of the restaurant Kachka in Portland, Oregon, and Boris Fishman, author of the lavishly food-focused memoir “Savage Feast,” for a discussion of vodka, salty snacks and the Soviet Jewish appetite as a writer’s muse. — Wednesday, May 20, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Jewish Book Council and The Great Big Jewish Food Fest, greatbig.jewishfoodfest.org/
L’CHAIM!
Join The Jewish Museum for a drink and a conversation with artist Laurie Simmons and curator Kelly Taxter live on Instagram. The Jewish Museum presented the exhibition “Laurie Simmons: This is How We See” in 2015 and her work is also in the museum’s collection. — Thursday, May 21, 5-6 p.m., The Jewish Museum, thejewishmuseum.org/calendar/events/2020/05/21/lchaim-052120.
‘I WANT YOU TO KNOW WE’RE STILL HERE’ BOOK LAUNCH WITH ESTHER AND JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
When Esther Safran Foer’s mother casually mentioned that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust, she resolved to find out who they were, and how her father survived. What she found reshaped her identity and gave her the opportunity to finally mourn. Join us on Zoom for the launch of her post-Holocaust memoir “I Want You to Know We’re Still Here,” where she will be joined by her son Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the acclaimed books “Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and “Eating Animals.” The reading and conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A. — Thursday, May 21, 7 p.m., The Museum of Jewish Heritage, https://mjhnyc.org/events/i-want-you-to-know-were-still-here-a-post-holocaust-memoir-launch-with-esther-jonathan-safran-foer/.
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‘ABE’ Q&A
A conversation plus Q&A with director Fernando Grostein Andrade about his film “Abe.” Rent the film at home (see Ongoing listings below before joining the conversation.) An Official Selection at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Abe” is about a young aspiring chef whose family (half-Jewish Israeli, half-Muslim Palestinian) always fights. Can some home cooking bridge the divide? — Sunday, May 24, 5 p.m., Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, eventbrite.com/e/abe-qa-tickets-104069488642?aff=email511. Free.
VIRAL: ANTISEMITISM IN FOUR MUTATIONS
Emmy-winning filmmaker Andrew Goldberg explores anti-Semitism’s infectious behavior as he travels through four countries to speak with victims, witnesses and anti-Semites as well as Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Fareed Zakaria, George Will and Deborah Lipstadt. The film spotlights the American far-right, the English far-left, the Hungarian prime minister’s campaign against Jewish philanthropist George Soros and violence against Jews in France. — Premieres Tuesday, May 26, 9 p.m., on PBS.
Ongoing:
‘LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE’
The hit Off-Broadway play by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, using clothing and accessories and the memories they trigger, is based on the best-seller by Ilene Beckerman. In 2017, cast members Lucy DeVito, Tracee Ellis Ross, Carol Kane, Natasha Lyonne and Rosie O’Donnell reunited at 92Y for a special one-night-only performance directed by Karen Carpenter, who directed the original production. Now 92Y, in association with Daryl Roth, announce a first-time online release of the 2017 performance, available for a limited time. — 92Y, 92y.org/event/love-loss-and-what-i-wore. $10.
‘CRESCENDO’
Loosely inspired by Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, this feature film directed by the Academy Award-nominated Dror Zahavi focuses on world-famous conductor Eduard Sporck (Peter Simonischek, “Toni Erdmann”), who creates an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra. But the young musicians from both sides are far from able to form a team, forming two parties that deeply mistrust each other, both on and off stage. — At virtual theaters nationwide, menemshafilms.com/crescendo.
‘HEADING HOME: THE TALE OF TEAM ISRAEL’
This documentary charts the underdog journey of Israel’s national baseball team competing for the first time in the World Baseball Classic. Its line-up included several Jewish American Major League players — Ike Davis, Josh Zeid and ex-Braves catcher Ryan Lavarnway — most with a tenuous relationship to Judaism, let alone having ever set foot in Israel. — Now on DVD and Blu-ray as well as Digital HD and Video-on-Demand, menemshafilms.com/heading-home.
‘ABE’
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Twelve-year-old Abe (Noah Schnapp) is an aspiring chef who wants his cooking to bring people together — but his half-Israeli, half-Palestinian family has never had a meal that didn’t end in a fight. Fernando Grostein Andrade’s new film, shot in Brooklyn by Blasco Giuratois (“Cinema Paradiso”), is about grappling with family, background, passions and whether even the most lovingly-cooked family dinner can heal old wounds. — Screening on multiple online platforms, bluefoxentertainment.com/films/abe.
