Online Exhibitions
In honor of our 25th year, the Jewish Music Festival and the Judah L. Magnes Museum have collaborated to produce online exhibitions of cover and print art over the course of the Festival’s history. Thanks to this collaboration we have produced the following:
- a digital archive of the JMF promotional materials since 1987
- a digital history of the JMF as part of the Judah L. Magnes Museum’s Jewish Digital Narratives project
- a host of online resources:
Community participation is encouraged…
JMF Commissioned Artist Eric Kupers in New York Times
The JMF is commissioning a new multimedia piece entitled Dan Plonsey’s Bar Mitzvah by Bay Area composer Dan Plonsey and choreographer Eric Kupers to premiere as part of our silver anniversary season. Eric’s ensemble, Dandelion Dancetheater, recently performed in New York and received a raving review in the New York Times. Click here to read the review! Mazel tov to Eric and to Dandelion!
The Ark Project - Live in Lublin, Poland
Catch some YouTube action of the JMF’s very own Ark Project on tour in Eastern Europe this summer. The group began as the JMF’s first artist residency two years ago and has now blossomed into an international powerhouse. The Ark Project consists of nine of the best artists in Jewish music.
Opening Meeting: Love-the Alchemy of Reconciliation - Monday, June 29, 2009
Today the Festival begins in earnest. I first go to an Open Meeting titled: Love-the Alchemy of Reconciliation. Run by two psychologists, this workshop has been an integral part of the Festival for nine years. It provides a space for people to process their feelings about Jewish culture in Poland, an emotional topic, to say the least.
3rd Day in Krakow - Sunday, June 28, 2009
The day begins at 8 am with a two hour drive through the rolling hills of Galicia to the village of Lelow, where the tsadik that began the Lelover Hasidim is buried. Before the war Jews made up more than a third of the village. Out of eight hundred Jews, very few survived after they were all sent to Treblinka. What stands out about the non-descript farming community is how totally absent any Jewish presence was before Lelover Hasidim began to return on pilgrimage after the Communist era. Most Jewish homes had been around the marketplace, which was one of the first places the Nazis destroyed, along with the town church. What had been the Jewish cemetery is covered by a plain building that had been a store. The tombstones had long since been removed. The Hasidim, mostly living in Bnei Brak, Israel, and Borough Park, Brooklyn, have since bought the building. A few former Jewish residents recalled where the spot of the original tsadik’s grave must have been, and a very simple monument has been established in part of the acquired building. A very simple shitbl, little shul, has been made out of another building bought for the purpose across the street. No adornment, pure function; it’s claim to fame being that it includes one of three mikvehs in Poland for the Hasidim who visit, especially at the time of the tsadik’s yahrzeit in February. While our little group is milling about the street, a local resident waves from his bicycle, greeting us with a boisterous sholom aleichem.