Special Exhibitions and Cultural Program in May and June 2011

Special Exhibitions

Radical Jewish Culture

The New York Music Scene Since 1990

At the beginning of the 1990s, an avant-garde Jewish music movement developed in the New York underground scene that became known as "Radical Jewish Culture". Musicians such as John Zorn, David Krakauer, Marc Ribot, Anthony Coleman, and Frank London passionately explored the possibilities for a new form of Jewish music, emancipating themselves from conformity and inconspicuousness. Their music blended free jazz forms with klezmer improvisations, experimental music with rock, blues, and punk. The exhibition "Radical Jewish Culture" presents this music scene through lots of music samples and primarily unpublished material.

An exhibition by the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, Paris.

When : 8 April to 24 July 2011

Where : Old Building, first level

Admission: 4 €, reduced rate 2 euros

Micha Ullman: Under

Micha Ullman is one of the most important Israeli sculptors of his generation. His family fled a Thuringian village in 1933 to Palestine, where he was born in Tel Aviv in 1939. His work has been shown in public places in Germany since the 1970s. Best-known is his memorial to the book burning at Bebelplatz.

The Jewish Museum Berlin acquired an important work by Micha Ullman last year: The installation "Under" is now on show with a series of works on paper by the artist acquired at an earlier date and a documentary film about Micha Ullman in the Eric F. Ross Gallery. The artist picks up on a thread that runs through many of his works, namely that the object itself is absent, invisible, and inaccessible. He thus enters into congenial dialog with the architecture of Daniel Libeskind and his concept of voids.

When: Extended to 26 June

Where: Libeskind Building, ground level, Eric F. Ross Gallery in the permanent exhibition

Admission: with the museum ticket (5 €, reduced rate 2 euros)

Program Surrounding the Special Exhibition "Radical Jewish Culture"

New Voices in Jewish Music

A Series of Concerts Curated by Greg Cohen

New Voices: Mycale Meets Bester!

Compositions and Interpretations

The Bester Quartet (Krakow), one of the strongest voices of Jewish music in Europe, presents high-caliber improvisation coupled with rousing compositions and transcriptions of traditional melodies. Led by Jarosław Bester, this band is renowned for its passionate performances.

Mycale (New York) unites four of the world’s most creative female voices. The singers meet here in the intimate framework of interpreting a capella John Zorn’s "Book of Angels" featuring texts in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, French, and Arabic from works by Rumi, Fernando Pessoa, and the Hebrew Bible among others.

Bester Quartet: Jarosław Bester (accordion) / Jarosław Tyrała (violin) / Oleg Dyyak (accordion, clarinet, percussion), Maciej Adamczak (double bass)

Mycale: Basya Schechter, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Malika Zarra, Sofia Rei

When: 4 May 2011, 8 pm

Where: Glass Courtyard, ground level

Admission: 15 €, 10 € reduced rate. Ticket reservation (for non-journalists) on tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de

New Voices: Caine, Sparks, and Cohen

Improvisations and Variations

Uri Caine (New York) is unique on the landscape of modern piano improvisation. He plays the whole spectrum from Barrelhouse to Bach, from Motown to Mahler.

The genre-breaking guitarist Tim Sparks (Minneapolis) and Masada bassist Greg Cohen (Berlin, New York) create a whole new sound landscape with their fresh interpretations of classic klezmer tunes and regional Jewish music. Sparks and Cohen will play titles from the recordings they made together for the renowned Tzadik Label.

Uri Caine (solo piano), Tim Sparks (guitar), Greg Cohen (double bass) plus guest

When: 9 June 2011, 8 pm

Where: Glass Courtyard, ground level

Admission: 20 €, reduced rate 15 € including a free drink

Ticket reservation (for non-journalists) on tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de

Monday Movies

Sabbath in Paradise

Documentary about the Radical Jewish Culture scene by Claudia Heuermann (US 1998, 85 min, English original version)

When: 23 May 2011, 7.30 pm

Marc Ribot. La Corde Perdue/The Lost String

Documentary by Anaïs Prosaïc (FR 2003, 52 min, English original version)

Marc Ribot. Descent into Baldness

Documentary by Cassis Birgit Staudt and Jörg Söchting (US 1996, 30 min, English original version)

When: 6 June 2011, 7.30 pm

The Klezmatics. On Holy Ground

Documentary by Erik Greenberg Anjou (DE, HU, IL, PL, US 1989, 106 min, English original version)

When: 20 June 2011, 7.30 pm

The following applies to all events in the Monday Movies series:

Where: Old Building, ground level, Auditorium

Admission: free with seat ticket only (available at the cash desk).

Ticket reservation (for non-journalists) on tel. +49 (0)30 25993 488 or reservierung@jmberlin.de

Cultural Summer Program

Jazz in the Garden: Paul Brody

The American trumpeter Paul Brody, who has been living in Berlin since the 90s, has created with his band a unique sound with its blend of traditional klezmer and contemporary jazz.

Paul Brody (compositions, trumpet), Alan Bern (accordion), Christian Koegel (guitar), Martin Lillich (bass), Michael Griener (percussion)

Picnic baskets can be ordered (with at least 24 hrs advance notice) from Liebermann’s Restaurant on tel. +49 (0)30 25939 760

When: 26 June 2011, 11 am

Where: Museum Garden (Glass Courtyard in the event of bad weather)

Admission: free

An event within the context of the "Sounds No Walls 2011 – Jazz & Jewish Culture" festival from 23 to 26 June at the Jewish Museum Berlin. Organized by Jazz Activities e.V. and realized with funding from the Federal Centre for Political Education. Further information at www.sounds-no-walls.de.

Cultural Program

Jews in Germany – Germany in Jews

Book Presentation with the Editors Y. Michal Bodemann and Micha Brumlik

The book unfolds a panorama of Jewish life in Germany at the beginning of the 21st century. The multitude of voices – both journalistic and belletristic – reveal a profound shift in Jewish life in Germany since the end of the Cold War. It is no longer about traditional German Jewry, nor about the plight of a community consisting mainly of survivors. Now it is about immigrants primarily from the Soviet Union and their children who are shaping a new Jewish community. The colorful, almost confusing diversity is presented by the editors and a row of the volume’s renowned authors in a reading and discussion.

When: 9 May 2011, 7.30 pm

Where: Old Building, second level, Great Hall

Admission: free

Sayed Kashua: "Zweite Person Singular" (Second person singular)

Book Presentation with the Author and the Actor Burghart Klaußner

In his new novel, the Israeli author Sayed Kashua tells the skilfully woven story of two Arab Israelis whose burning desire is to be part of Jewish Israel. They do everything in their power to lose not only their foreignness, but also their Arab culture which they see as backward. They seek their salvation in the promises of pop culture and Western individualism that make everything seem possible. But it is this that dooms them to failure.

In cooperation with the Literaturhandlung.

When: 16 May 2011, 7.30 pm

Where: Old Building, ground level, Auditorium

Admission: 9 €, reduced rate 7 €. Ticket reservation (for non-journalists) at the Literaturhandlung on tel. +49 (0)30 8824 250

Not just Education, not just Citizens: Jews in Pop Culture

Conference

The link between Jews and pop culture has so far received little attention in German-speaking countries. Research has focused on middle-class Jews and has thus not facilitated an exploration of mass and pop-cultural forms of expression. This international conference "Jews in Pop Culture" aims to capture attention for this topic. Cultural scientists will provide insights into their work on various aspects of pop culture in Jewish contexts – film, literature, music, and theater.

In cooperation with the Academic Consortium of the Leo Baeck Institute, the Center for Jewish Studies, Graz, and the Institute for German-Jewish History, Hamburg.

When: 29 and 30 May 2011, 10 am to 6 pm

Where: Old Building, second level, Great Hall

Admission: free

Stefan Meining: Eine Moschee in Deutschland (A mosque in Germany)

Book Presentation with the Author

The editor Stefan Meining researched an incredible story: Veteran Nazi bureaucrats, expelled functionaries, secret agents, and other Cold War warriors prop up the nucleus of political Islam in the West in Munich of the 1950s. Muslims who fought with the Nazis against the Soviet Union in WWII are now to cause unrest in the Islamic Soviet republics. But the Munich Muslims do not have the Cold War in mind. They become the most important branch of the Muslim brotherhood in the West and the control center of a global network. The Islamic world is long since aware of the significance of the mosque in Munich. Stefan Meining introduces the topic with US-Army film footage.

In cooperation with the Literaturhandlung.

When: 30 May 2011, 7.30 pm

Where: Old Building, ground level, Auditorium

Admission: 9 €, reduced rate 7 €. Ticket reservation (for non-journalists) at the Literaturhandlung on tel. +49 (0)30 8824 250