Special Exhibitions and Cultural Program in July, August and September 2013
Press Information
Press Release, Tue 18 Jun 2013
The Long Night of Museums, on 31 August, will be the last night of the exhibition "The Whole Truth ... everything you always wanted to know about Jews." Throughout the night, various Jewish guests will take their seat in the showcase entitled "Are there still Jews in Germany?" and, if desired, respond to questions and comments from the visitors. Four films accompanying the exhibition will be showing in the "Monday Movies" series.
As part of the Cultural Summer Program with "Jazz in the Garden" and Yiddish psychedelic rock, the Jewish Museum Berlin opens its doors for a day long Summer Party with a family program in the Museum Garden, the Old Building and the Libeskind Building as well as in the newly opened Academy on 4 August.
Special Exhibition "The Whole Truth ... everything you always wanted to know about Jews" and Accompanying Program
Until 1 September
"The Whole Truth ... everything you always wanted to know about Jews"
With the exhibition "The Whole Truth," the Jewish Museum Berlin confronts various questions about Judaism and being Jewish: the FAQs, the difficult questions, the funny questions, the clever questions, and the questions that really have no answer. Some of them make the questioner uneasy, some are politically incorrect, while others betray something about the person who asks them. How does someone become a Jew? What am I, if my mother is Christian and my father is Jewish? What is the Jewish take on Jesus and Mohammed? Are the Jews a Chosen People? With an even-handed and witty touch, we present questions through extraordinary objects and installations taken from religious practice, everyday life and contemporary art. Throughout the exhibition, literary and documentary voices speak about Jewish identity today. In a life-size film installation, visitors encounter rabbinic answers to questions concerning religious laws in everyday life. "The Whole Truth" picks up on controversial social debates, asks counter questions and sensitizes the viewers to stereotypical images and patterns of thought. And, every once in a while, a question will be answered.
In cooperation with the Jewish Museum Hohenems
With the generous support of the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin
Location: Old Building, first level
Admission: with the museum ticket: 7 €, reduced rate 3,50 euros
1 July
From Exile in Paradise to Redemption in Hell – Jews and Judaism in Germany: Past, Present and Future
(In English)
Jewish Learning at its most entertaining! Australian scholar, writer and teacher David Solomon has impressed Berlin audiences with his signature 3-D lecture "The Whole of Jewish History in One Hour." Irresistibly, the globally-roaming educator now returns to present a talk created exclusively for the special exhibition "The Whole Truth" at the Jewish Museum Berlin.
Solomon surveys the complex and fascinating history of the Jews in Germany, with a view to addressing several basic questions, such as, what defines a Jew in Germany, and why are Jews living in Germany today?
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7.30 pm
Admission: 7 €, reduced rate 5 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
31 August
Long Night of Museums
6 pm to midnight
This Long Night of Museums is also the last night of the special exhibition "The Whole Truth." To mark this occasion, there is one last opportunity for a special encounter – changing Jewish guests can be found in our display case to respond to possible and impossible questions about Judaism.
18 bis 24 Uhr
Discussion
In addition, a wandering guided discussion will begin from 6pm every half hour through the "Whole truth," the last tour begins at 10 pm. The 30-45 minute tours begin at the Meeting Point. Participants are asked to register beforehand at the cash desk.
Admission with the Long Night ticket, every half hour
Monday Movies
15 July
Jealous of the Birds
Germany/Poland/USA 2011, directed by Jordan Bahat, 78 min, German/English/Polish with English subtitles
Why did about 15,000 Holocaust survivors stay in Germany after the Second World War? Starting with his grandparents’ story, director Jordan Bahat talks to survivors and their descendants in this documentary. A unique film about what it means to live as a Jew in Germany.
29 July
Partly Private
Canada 2009, directed by Danae Elon, 84 min, English original version
An expectant mother wonders whether or not she will circumcise her son after his birth. Viewers accompany the filmmaker Danae Elon on her search for answers in this personal, funny, and at the same time thoughtful documentary.
5 August
In Heaven, under the Earth
Germany, 2012, directed by Britta Wauer, 90 min
In her documentary film, Britta Wauer portrays a place full of life – the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe where burials still take place in Berlin-Weissensee. People from all over the world come here to visit not only the dead. A film about stories told by a special place.
12 August
When Two Sing
Germany 2013, directed by Richard Heidinger/Paul Brody, 75 min, English original version
The trumpeter Paul Brody searches for the creative spark between Jewish culture and musical innovation in this low-budget production. While the trumpet asks, the big voices of Jewish music today respond – Alan Bern, David Krakauer, Adrienne Cooper, Steven Bernstein, Frank London, Theodore Bikel, Andy Statman and others. World première attended by Paul Brody and Richard Heidinger.
The "Monday Movie" events are held at 7:30 pm in the Auditorium, Old Building
Admission free
Admission with seat ticket only (available at the cash desk)
Bookings: +49 (0)30 259 93 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
- Kontakt
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Press office
T +49 (0)30 259 93 419
presse@jmberlin.de - Address
Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation
Lindenstraße 9–14
10969 Berlin
Special Exhibition "Bedrich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto" and Accompanying Program
until 25 August
"Bedrich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto"
The exhibition presents works by the graphic artist Bedrich Fritta (1906–1944), produced between 1942 and 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
The fortress of Theresienstadt, north of Prague, was made into a ghetto in late 1941. Around 140,000 Jews from central and western Europe were interned there before being deported to the death camps in the East. The international public—and especially the International Red Cross—was supposed to believe that this was just a normal small town, where Jews lived in isolation but under acceptable conditions. Among their other tasks, artists detained in Theresienstadt had to produce propaganda material to reinforce that illusion. However, in secret drawings they captured the hardship of actual life in the ghetto.
The majority of Bedrich Fritta's large ink drawings and sketches, numbering more than one hundred, survived in hiding. They are now in the possession of the artist's son.
Up to now, Fritta's works have been regarded mainly as historical documents. This survey exhibition, by contrast, focuses on the aesthetic techniques through which Fritta interpreted and commented on daily ghetto life. It reveals the diversity of his visual language and the extraordinary artistic quality of his drawings and sketches.
Location: Libeskind Building, ground level, Eric F. Ross Gallery
Admission: with the museum ticket
4, 8, 22 July
Art or Document?
Tour with the curators through the exhibition
Time: 7 pm
Admission: 10 €, reduced rate 6,50 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
Cultural Program
8 August
1933: Denial, Opposition, and Protest
Unknown Reactions of German Jews to Nazi Persecution
From 1933, the German Jews saw themselves exposed to both central and local persecutions. Individuals quickly developed their own reactions to the often dissonant politics. While tens of thousands emigrated and others hoped for a change, more than just a few resisted as shown by sources – up to now unheeded – from Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Leipzig. The talk by Wolf Gruner, professor of history at the University of Southern California, describes for the first time how many Jews did not follow official orders and some even protested publicly against the persecution.
This event is part of the theme year "Destroyed Diversity" in cooperation with the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism
Time: 7 pm
Location: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
Admission: free
17 August
Back-to-back and face-to-face
(In English)
A night of Jewish and Arabic storytelling and music
Storytelling is a powerful way to combine the energy of the performer and the contents of the story being told across cultures and religions. Peninnah Schram, a teacher of speech and drama at Stern College in New York is truly a master of her profession. She has traveled the world for many years, telling stories of Jewish history and religion and sharing her gift with students. Maha Alusi, a Berlin-based Iranian artist, and Gerard Edery, a guitarist and singer-songwriter from New York, join her onstage to generate a vital and colorful dialogue of Jewish and Arabic storytelling.
Time: 9 pm
Location: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
Admission: 15 €, reduced rate 10 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49 (0)30 841 089 09 or www.juedische-kulturtage.org
www.juedische-kulturtage.org/en/
27 August
A Century of Israeli Art
(In English)
In an illustrated talk, art historian, critic, and curator Yigal Zalmona will provide a fascinating survey of Israeli art in the context of the country’s cultural, social and political history. Beginning with the early days of the Bezalel School in 1906, Zalmona will go on to explore Land-of-Israel art during an era of nation-building, the pre-eminence of international modernism after 1948, the social-activist art of the 1970s, and the recent embrace of photography and video. This event marks the launch of his book "A Century of Israeli Art" published by Lund Humphries.
In cooperation with Lund Humphries London
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
Admission: 5 €, reduced rate 3 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
9 September
Leon de Winter: Ein gutes Herz (A good heart)
Book Presentation with the author
A city is held in suspense. In Leon de Winter’s new novel, both fictional and real, existing protagonists pull the strings – the dead filmmaker Theo van Gogh surfaces … but in heaven. On Earth, his murderer. A black Franciscan priest bequeaths a dubious Jewish businessman his heart. Abandoned by his wife Jessica Durlacher, a writer named Leon de Winter consoles himself with a novel project on Theo van Gogh. And a group of radical Muslims put Amsterdam into a state of emergency. All of this is ingeniously, playfully, wickedly intertwined. Leon de Winter’s novel about the explosion of violence in the midst of our society is already a bestseller in the Netherlands.
A cooperation with the Literaturhandlung
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
Admission: 10 €, reduced rate 8 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49 (0)30 8824 250
12 September
Stauffenbergs Gefährten – Das Schicksal der unbekannten Verschwörer
(Stauffenberg’s companions - The fate of the unknown conspirators)
Reading with Antje Vollmer and Lars-Broder Keil
The assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944 is mainly associated with the name Stauffenberg. By comparison, many of the other resistance fighters who participated have to this day not received the acknowledgement and appreciation due to them. Planning and attempting to carry out such a coup would not have been possible without their efforts. In ten portraits, the authors present some of these resistance fighters against Hitler, describing their actions and motivations as well as the fate of their families. They thus expand the perspective on the different origins of Nazi resistance.
Moderated by Elisabeth Ruge, publisher at Hanser Berlin
A cooperation with Hanser Publishers, Berlin
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Old Building, ground level, Auditorium
Admission: 7 €, reduced rate 5 euros
Tickets for visitors: +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
17 September
Channah Trzebiner: Die Enkelin – oder Wie ich zu Pessach die vier Fragen nicht wusste
(Channah Trzebiner: The granddaughter – or how I did not know the four Passover questions)
Reading with the author
A humorous and provocative new voice emerges from a representative of the third generation, – "my name is Channah, like my grandmother’s youngest sister." Trzebiner unfurls a cornucopia of stories, snapshots of her youth. Nothing is invented – with radical subjectivity, the author describes her life between identities the way it is. Torn and yet exciting, Trzebiner tells of those who are missing, and those who have remained. "A captivatingly vivacious text" (Ulrike Kolb) that gives a powerful impression of "what being part of the Holocaust’s third generation still means" (Micha Brumlik).
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
Admission: free
30 September
Ludwig Greve – Autobiographische Schriften und Briefe
(Ludwig Greve – Autobiographical Texts and Letters)
Reading with Ingo Schulze and Ulrich Noethen
Born in Berlin in 1924, Ludwig Greve was a poet who was banished by the Nazis and whose work is thus little known today. Reason enough for the German Academy for Language and Poetry and the Wüstenrot Foundation to republish his "autobiographical writings and letters" with an essay by Ingo Schulze with Wallstein Publishers. They allow insight into the life of the German-Jewish poet who survived persecution in France and Italy, was able to emigrate to Palestine in 1945, and later returned to Germany. Ingo Schulze will present the poet and Ulrich Noethen will read the texts.
With welcoming speech by Friedrich Pfäfflin
A cooperation project of the Wüstenrot Foundation and the German Academy for Language and Poetry at Wallenstein Publishers
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
Admission: 7 €, reduced rate 5 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
Cultural Summer Program
7 July
Jazz in the Garden: Samuel Blaser Trio
Samuel Blaser is a trombonist shooting star. This musician, who commutes between New York and Berlin, has internalized all that jazz history has produced and moves between jazz, contemporary classical music, and free improvisation. His smooth flowing lines sometimes contrast sharply with the guitarist Marc Ducret’s harsher statements. With their third man, the versatile percussionist Peter Bruun, they venture into bold territory combining familiar and unusual musical worlds to create a new sound experience.
Blaser (trombone), Marc Ducret (guitar), Peter Bruun (percussion)
Time: 11 am
Location: Museum Garden (Glass Courtyard in bad weather)
Admission: free
24 July
Hilde Domin: Nur eine Rose als Stütze
(Only a rose for support)
Reading with Marianne Sägebrecht
The poetry collection "Nur eine Rose als Stütze," published in 1959 as the first publication of poetry by Hilde Domin gives the name to this atmospheric evening of reading with Marianne Sägebrecht. Both women share their lifelong passion for art and the mindset, courage, and self-confidence to develop a positive exchange with others. Accompanied by violinist and actor Lenn Kudrjawizki, Marianne Sägebrecht – the actress who gained international acclaim through her roles in "Out of Rosenheim" and "Rosalie Goes Shopping" – leads us into Hilde Domin’s lyrical world full of soul and warmth.
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Old Building, second level, Great Hall
Admission: 9 €, reduced rate 7 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
4 August
Summer Party
Get to know the Jewish Museum Berlin from its sunny side!
At the big summer party for the whole family, the kids fight against Goliath, jump with the animals on Noah’s ark, print their own T-shirts or bake mazzah bread while the grown-ups test their knowledge of Judaism in the quiz "Mazel Tov!" or explore the new academy building designed by Daniel Libeskind on a guided tour. Louise Gold & The Quarz Orchestra swing with Mad-Men-Sound on the last day of the summer vacation, which ends with the force of the Greek-Israeli-German band Cherry Bandora – in between there is falafel in the plane grove, coffee & cake in a deck chair, waffles and ice cream and much, much more....
Time: 11 am to 6 pm
Location: Museum Garden
Admission: the garden program is free of charge
11 August
Jazz in the Garden
Max Doehlemann Jazz Trio feat. Paul Brody
Jewish tunes from different continents and jazz standards from the American songbook – the collaboration between the Max Doehlemann Jazz Trio and the American trumpeter Paul Brody moves between dynamics and poetry, between jazz and Jewish music as it can be heard from New York to Istanbul. The band plays traditional material in an improvisational manner, spanning the arc to their own compositions.
Paul Brody (trumpet), Max Doehlemann (piano), Christian Schantz (bass), Martin Fonfara (percussion)
Time: 11 am
Location: Museum Garden (Glass Courtyard in bad weather)
Admission: free
29 August
Forshpil – Yiddish Psychedelic Rock
Berlin première – their unusual and bold style have caused a sensation and now the first CD by the cutting-edge band from Riga Forshpil is available. Led by keyboardist Ilya Shneyveys and singer Sasha Lurje with her sensational deep timbre, Forshpil presents a fusion of Yiddish songs, Hasidic chants, and klezmer tunes, mixed up by jazz, reggae, and funk. This is how it would have sounded if Pink Floyd and The Doors had ever jammed together at a Jewish wedding!
Sasha Lurje (vocals), Ilya Shneyveys (keyboard), Mitia Khramtsov (violin), Roman Shinder (guitar), Zheka Lizin (bass)
Time: 8 pm
Location: Glass Courtyard, ground level
Admission: 12 €, reduced rate 10 euros
Tickets for visitors: tel. +49(0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de
Children’s Program
1 July to 29 July (every Monday)
Alis wunderbarer Weg – Ali‘nin gizemli yolu
(Ali’s wonderful path)
Reading and tour through the permanent exhibition
For children from 5 to 9 years
"Where is God if you can’t see him?" is the philosophical question posed by Ali in the German-Turkish picture book "Alis wunderbarer Weg." During the reading, fairytale illustrations are projected onto the wall. In the brief tour through the permanent exhibition that follows, the children discover the very different ways that people try to make contact with God.
The reading can be bilingual (German and Turkish) on request.
Admission: 3 euros
Duration: 1,5 hours
Bookings on tel. +49 (0)30 25993 322 or ferienprogramm@jmberlin.de
Summer Vacation Camp
Dates: 2 to 5 July / 9 to 12 July / 30 July to 2 August
2, 9, 30 July
Day 1: Raise the Curtain for the Kamishibai!
Japanese storytelling workshop for children from 8 to 12 years
Kami-shibai (translation: paper-theater) stems from Japan and is a special form of storytelling that is explored with the children.
In tents in the Museum Garden, they will look at special children’s books and test their storytelling talents. With the Kamishibai frame the children built themselves and the pictures they painted, they will then artfully illustrate the story of the book and present it to the audience.
3, 10, 31 July
Day 2: Spinning Yarns – "There once was a rabbi or an elephant…"
Theater workshop for children from 8 to 12 years
In the holiday tents, mysterious items have surfaced. They belong to individuals who the children have not heard of yet. Who were these people and how did they live?
On a guided tour, they go on the trail of these unknown people and continue to weave the story of their lives.
Making use of homemade costumes and props, they slip into the roles of the characters of the story and unpack their acting talent on the theatre stage in the Museum Garden.
4 and 5 July, 11 +ánd 12 July, 1 and 2 August
Days 3 and 4: Sound Kitchen – "A boat is coming…"
Two-day acoustic workshop for children from 8 to 12 years
Day 1: Ears sometimes see more than eyes. Following a ‘sound stroll’ through the museum, the children will make sounds with various things and have the others guessing what those things are. Then a poem will be read in several languages and will be transformed into images. By the end of the first workshop day, the children will have produced their own trick animation and be amazed at the pictures that can arise from a poem.
Day 2: A normal towel can make the sound of a human heartbeat. This and other such recipes will be revealed in the Sound Kitchen on the second day. With expert training in the world of sounds, the children will then put sounds to the trick animation from the previous day with the aid of a computer program. Parents and friends are welcome to attend the film première in the afternoon!
Time: 10 am to 5 pm
Costs: Day tickets: 15 € including admission fee, lunch and materials (All workshops can be booked individually)
Summer camp ticket for all three workshops: 55 € (including admission fee, lunch and materials)
Registration on tel. +49 (0)30 25993 437 or ferienprogramm@jmberlin.de
