Beth Israel Congregation is beginning a three-part lecture series called “Celebrating Jews in the Arts,” starting Nov. 3, with expert speakers presenting about Jewish music, art and comedy.
The series is intended to celebrate the legacy and continuing influence of Jewish people in the arts and is a chance to explore how Jews have shaped these three specific creative fields for generations.
“We’re calling it ‘Celebrating Jews in the Arts’ because of the very important role that Jewish artists, musicians, actors, comedians have contributed to the world’s literature and the world’s presentations of comedy, art, visual arts and music,” said David Madoff, a Beth Israel congregant who helped plan the series.
The program will run for three consecutive Monday evenings, starting with Prof. Alexander Fiterstein from the Baltimore Peabody Institute, a clarinet player and chair of the woodwind department.
Fiterstein is mostly a classical musician, but growing up in Israel and playing the clarinet led to an interest in Jewish music. That interest covers klezmer, music written by Jewish composers and music written with Jewish themes in mind.
Fiterstein said that his presentation is going to cover those topics. He added that he’s still working on putting everything together, but he plans to cover the clarinet in Jewish music with some examples of “great klezmer clarinetists of the 20th century” and some recordings of their work. Fiterstein said he’d like to speak about the Zimro Ensemble, a group of Russian Jews from the 1920s, along with several other composers.
“[I hope the audience learns about] the connection between music and culture, and the different facets, whether it’s klezmer or classical, just to show how culture, and Jewishness in general, has impacted music and vice versa, and through the clarinet, which is very personal to me,” Fiterstein said.
The second presentation will take place on Nov. 10 and will feature Dr. Ori Z. Soltes, a professor of theology, art history, philosophy and political history at Georgetown University.
Madoff said that Soltes is an expert in multiple visual art fields but has a special interest in Holocaust art and artwork stolen by the Nazis.
Soltes will be speaking about how Jewish art and Jewish artists have had an influence on modern art.
The final presentation in the series will take place on Nov. 17 and feature Dr. Eric Zakim, a professor at the University of Maryland who teaches a course about American Jewish comedy.
Zakim said that many people are under the impression that American Jewish comedy was “a 20th-century phenomenon.” He said that the current century has been another “golden age” of American Jewish comedy, and he will be analyzing its evolution since the turn of the century.
The professor said that he feels there’s possibly more going on with comedy now than ever before. He added that he sees a shift in the field that coincides with the end of “Seinfeld” in 1998, where there’s “a different position of the Jew in America.”
“I think this speaker series is going to get at some of those questions and show to as wide an audience as possible that there’s a lot going on. People are trying to figure out, what does it mean to be an American Jew right now,” Zakim said.
Madoff said he anticipates attendees walking away with a better knowledge of themselves and their Jewish identity, and it will be insightful for people. Madoff also explained why having these speakers present is important to the Beth Israel community and the wider Jewish community.
“Our congregants are interested in the arts. A lot of people love classical music and visual arts, and certainly everybody likes comedy. But it would be very important for us to understand how Jews are instrumental in shaping some of these areas. And I think it could contribute to how we view ourselves as Jews,” Madoff said.
“We are Jews because of a lot of factors. We relate to Judaism, and we relate to the religion, but we also relate to the foods. We relate to the arts. We relate to Jewish sports figures. This all contributes to our sense of our own Judaism. I think that better understanding of how Jews have contributed to the arts will also affect our identities in a positive way,” he added.
