11th Annual Neustadt JAAMM Festival Brochure

2018

october 4 — november 18

35o South Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 8o246

3o3.316.636o | maccjcc.org/jaamm

ROSE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION Supporting Jewish Life in Greater Denver In addition to investments in °ging, ¼hild and Íamily Àevelopment, Äducation, and Ðealth, Rose Community Foundation seeks to make Jewish life more relevant, meaningful, welcoming and inclusive for all Jewish people and their loved ones in Greater Denver.

XÄ °ôÄ ñôçþÀ üç ÷þññçôü üÐÄ 4Äþ÷ü°Àü , 33 Ä÷ü »Ä¼°þ÷Ä ¼þÝüþôÄ Ñ÷ °ã Ñâñçôü°ãü Àççôđ°ē Ñãüç çþô ,ÄđÑ÷Ð ¼çââþãÑüÑÄ÷ȩ

Rose Community Foundation strives to enhance the quality of life of the Greater Denver community through leadership, grantmaking and donor engagement – stewarding philanthropic resources and investing in strategic and innovative solutions to enduring challenges and emerging issues. Since its founding in 1995, the Foundation has granted more than $275 million to organizations and initiatives in the seven-county Greater Denver area.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.RCFDENVER.ORG

Welcome to the 11th Annual

DE NVE R NEUSTADT JAAMM FESTIVAL Welcome to our 11th Annual Neustadt JAAMM Festival – Jewish Arts, Authors, Movies, and Music. JAAMM is a one-of-a-kind arts extravaganza, and the most comprehensive Jewish cultural arts festival in all of Colorado. It is also a community festival, and a cherished opportunity to form partnerships with organizations we love all over town. In our efforts to serve our larger community, we are all working together to connect our fabulous content with the people we love to serve: you!

We take pride in the high artistic caliber of this year’s festival lineup. Our authors and lecturers include a 2018 Academy Award winner, a New York Times editor, a CNN commentator and viral TED talk lecturer, national and international literary prizewinners, a James Beard winning chef and restauranteur, and an Emmy Award winning television producer. Our film programming highlights the intersection between music, literature, and dance as experienced through the Jewish and Israeli lens. Our musical acts come to Denver from all over the world, and span genres ranging from family music from a Jewish rock idol (speaking from my sleepaway camp days here), to improvisational world music, to original “unkosher” comedy songs, to modern German anthems with a Yiddish twist. Our venerated collaboration with Denver’s own Wonderbound has expanded into an emerging artist residency featuring the choreographic works of their company dancers. And our Pluss Theatre will host two fully-staged theatre productions from September through November.

JAAMM Fest wouldn’t be possible without the support of our incredible sponsors. We thank our endowment sponsor, the Piñon Trail Foundation, the prestigious Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, and the Rose Community Foundation for their irreplaceable support and loyalty.

The generosity of these key organizations, in conjunction with our family of individual donors and community partners, help bring our arts and literary programs to life. We are also deeply appreciative for the ongoing operational support of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District.

JAAMM is a selection of curated events, but it is also a way to find connection with your friends and family, and an opportunity for you to form community with those around you. While a hallmark of our festival is the hosting of events at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, we have expanded the geographic footprint of our festival to include one-off events all over town, from the Sie FilmCenter to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Sloan’s Lake, to the brand - new Israeli restaurant Safta in the RiNo district. We have also extended the calendar footprint of JAAMM in order to make attending more festival events easier for our patrons.

Whether this is your first time at JAAMM, or you’ve been looking to the JCC for Jewish books for the last 50 years, we are so proud to present two dozen unique, inspiring, and uplifting events for you and thousands of other like-minded cultural consumers this fall.

Amy Weiner Director of Festivals Mizel Arts and Culture Center

Wonderlab November 15 – 18 p. 7

SEE PAGE NUMBER

Thursday, September 14 – Sunday, October 14

Times vary and locations

Pre-JAAMM Fest Opening, Oh My God! presented by Theatre Or and the Mizel Arts and Culture Center

8

Wednesday, September 26

7:30 pm

David Amram at Dazzle

27

Thursday, October 4

7:30 pm

JAAMM Fest Opening Night, HEADLINING KEYNOTE: Bryan Fogel

5

Saturday, October 6

7:30 pm

Itzhak

21

Sunday, October 7

2:00 pm

Rick Recht

28

Sunday, October 7

6:30 pm

Body and Soul: An American Bridge

22

Tuesday, October 9

6:30 pm

Jonathan Weisman, “(((Semitism)))”

12

Wednesday, October 10

6:30 pm

Sally Kohn, “The Opposite of Hate” (Denver Jewish Community Read)

11

Thursday, October 11

6:30 pm

Osnat Fox

14

Saturday , October 13

7:30 pm

Michelle Azar’s From Baghdad to Brooklyn

9

Sunday, October 14

6:30 pm

David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg present “Voyages”

29

Monday, October 15

6:30 pm

Book Signing – Local Female Authors

19

Tuesday, October 16

6:30 pm

Rachel Kadish, “The Weight of Ink”

12

Wednesday, October 17

6:30 pm

Jessica Cohen

14

Thursday, October 18 – Sunday, November 11

Times vary

My Name is Asher Lev presented by Cherry Creek Theatre

9

Thursday, October 18

7:30 pm

Sean Altman’s JEWMONGOuS

30

Saturday, October 20

7:00 pm

ICARUS at the Sie FilmCenter

23

Sunday, October 21

6:30 pm

One Last Bedtime Story, Chapter 1: Language

23

Saturday, November 3

7:30 pm

Disobedience at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – Sloan’s Lake

24

Sunday, November 4

9:00 am

Annual Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado Seminar

15

Sunday, November 4

6:30 pm

Alon Shaya, “Shaya” at Safta restaurant

13

Monday, November 5

6:30 pm

Mike Reiss, “Springfield Confidential”

13

Wednesday, November 7

7:30 pm

Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird

31

Sunday, November 11

4:00 pm

Fred Marcus Memorial Holocaust Lecture

15

Monday, November 12

6:30 pm

Let’s Dance!

24

Thursday, November 15 – Sunday, November 18

Times vary

Wonderbound Dance Company presents Wonderlab

7

Sunday, November 18 – Tuesday, November 20

Times vary

MACC Pottery Exhibition and Sale

AUTHORS

p3

CATAGORY

Schedule and Index

JAAMM FE ST IV AL

DANCE

MOVIES

MUSIC

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

THEATRE

PRE and post JAAMM EVENT COLLABORATION

2o18 JAAMM Fest Ticket Information

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Centerpiece Lecture |

p. 5

MACCJCC.ORG/JAAMM | 3O3.316.636O How to Purchase Tickets

Arts |

p. 6 – 9

Online at maccjcc.org/jaamm

Call Box Office at 303.316.6360

Authors |

p. 10 – 15

Purchases through different venue’s box office.

See event page for detail.

Box Office Hours Box Office Telephone Hours:

Movies |

p. 20 – 24

Monday – Friday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Box Office Walk-up Hours:

Monday – Friday, 1:00 – 5:00 pm, or one hour before all events at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center

SuPPORT FROM

Music |

p. 26 – 31

JAAMM Festival, Volume 11, 2018 • This program is published annually by the Mizel Arts and Culture Center at the J, 350 South Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80246.

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p4

OPENING NIGHT WITH BRYAN FOGEL

Thursday, October 4 7:30 pm (VIP reception: 6:00 – 7:15 pm) Elaine Wolf Theatre $25 Adult, $20 Student/Senior VIP: $125

Bryan Fogel

Lecture/Hollywood, Thriller Academy Award-winning Writer and Director of ICARUS Community Partners: East High School and Wish for Wheels When Bryan Fogel set out to make ICARUS he had one goal: to examine how easy it is to get away with doping in professional sports. Instead, he was connected to a Russian doctor-turned-whistleblower, Grigory Rodchenkov.

Together, they blew the lid off a state-sponsored doping scheme that has been ongoing in Russia for decades, which directly led to Russia being banned from the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea. In a story that rivals any international spy thriller, Fogel’s program takes audiences through his quixotic adventure making ICARUS. Audiences are captivated by the unprecedented unravelling of an international scandal leading directly to the Kremlin, and the intricacies of Russian covert tampering—not only in the U.S., but on the international playing field.

p5

JAA MM FEST I VAL

Bryan Fogel is an American film director, producer, author, and playwright best known for directing the Oscar-winning 2017 documentary thriller ICARUS. Fogel has appeared on ABC Nightline, Charlie Rose, Seth Meyers, Joe Rogan, CNN, ESPN, The View, and has been featured in publications around the globe.

Fogel began his career in Hollywood pursuing stand-up comedy and acting. Fogel, in partnership with Sam Wolfson, developed, co-wrote, and initially starred in the play Jewtopia, an off-Broadway comedy about the dating lives of two young men seeking Jewish women. It is one of the longest-running and fastest-recouping productions in Off-Broadway history. He also co-authored the book Jewtopia: The Chosen Guide for the Chosen People, and directed, co-wrote, and produced the feature film adaptation of Jewtopia, which was released in 2013 and won the Audience Choice Award of the 2012 Malibu International Film Festival.

He is an avid amateur cyclist and has participated in Haute Route. Originally from Denver, Colorado, he currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

Arts Dance, theatre

Arts : Dance

Thursday, November 15 at 7:30 pm Saturday, November 17 at 7:30 pm Sunday, November 18 at 2:00 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $36 Adult, $30 Student/Senior

WONDERBOUND DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS

Wonderlab

Contemporary Dance, Community Collaboration Thanks to our Wonderlab Salon Sponsors Wonderbound and the Mizel Arts and Culture Center are delighted to present a trifecta of transcendental dance, created by Wonderbound’s own Company Artists. These eclectic events encourage everyone to enjoy a raw and surprising production devised explicitly for the Elaine Wolf stage. No matter which day you attend, be prepared for more than just dance: live (and local) music will be performed from musicians like Jesse Manley, Annie Aqua, and Emily Rose Lewis. Join us for this topsy-turvy presentation that will leave you with an ever-lingering air of wonder.

Choreographers: Morgan Sicklick, Sarah Tallman, and Ben Youngstone Musicians: Jesse Manley, Annie Aqua, Emily Rose Lewis, Jen-Luc Davis, David Short, and Dean Hirschfield

Sarah Tallman is one of Wonderbound’s longest-standing Company Artists.

Before coming on board in 2004, Sarah danced with David Taylor Dance Company, Kim Robards Dance, Lynn Barr, and Gleich Dance Contemporary Ballet. Aside from being the Principal dancer in many of Garrett Ammon’s ballets, Sarah is also an accomplished choreographer and instructor inside Wonderbound and around her Denver community.

Ben Youngstone has been a Wonderbound dancer since 2016. Prior to joining our Denver family, Ben danced professionally with companies such as Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory, Charlotte Ballet, and was an apprentice at the Chautauqua Institution.

Learn more about Wonderbound Dance Company at wonderbound.com

Morgan Sicklick has been dancing with Wonderbound since 2015. After receiving her BFA in Dance Performance, Morgan spent time with Kaatsbaan Extreme Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Ellison Ballet, Paul Taylor’s American Modern Ballet, the American Dance Festival, and most recently, the Kansas City Ballet. While at KCB, Morgan began experimenting with original choreography and has brought those talents to us.

p7

JAA MM FEST I VAL

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

:

Arts Theatre

Pre-JAAMM Event Collaboration September 14 – October 14 Tickets $15-$35; visit maccjcc.org/jaamm or call 303.316.6360 for tickets

THEATRE OR AND MIzEL ARTS AND CULTURE CENTER PRESENT THE REGIONAL PREMIERE OF

Oh My God!

A Divine Comedy God goes to therapy!

When God seeks out an earthly therapist to aid him with his wrenching doubt, it is not always clear who the therapist is to whom. Wrestling with doubts of her own, therapist Ella has but one therapy session to convince God not to destroy his creation.

“Anat Gov’s Oh [My] God! is a treasure. It’s a funny, witty, poignant, often brilliant text that asks some intriguing questions about the nature of the Deity and our relationship to Him, all in a delightful 80 minutes that whisk by like five.”

— The Jerusalem Post

Mizel Arts and Culture Center at the J 350 South Dahlia Street, Denver, 80246 Preview performance on Thursday, September 13, 7:30 pm Fridays and Saturdays: September 14 – 29, 7:30 pm, and Thursday, September 27,* 7:30 pm Sunday: September 16, 4:00 p.m.*, September 23, and 30, 2:00 pm Newman Center Hamilton Recital Hall, University of Denver 2344 East Iliff Avenue, Denver, 80210 Saturday, October 6, 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm* Boulder Rabbi Marc Soloway appears in the title role October 6, 8:00 pm newmantix.com or call 303.871.7720 Boulder Jewish Community Center 6007 Oreg Avenue, Boulder, 80303 Saturday, October 13, 8:00 pm* and Sunday, October 14,* 4:00 pm Boulder Rabbi Marc Soloway appears in the title role at the Boulder JCC on October 13 and 14 boulderjcc.org or call 303.871.7720 *Post-show talkback with others to be determined.

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p8

Arts : Theatre

Saturday, October 13 7:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $25 Adult, $20 Student/Senior

Michelle Azar presents “From Baghdad to Brooklyn” Family/Immigrants/History

Join Michelle Azar on her quest to balance her way from Baghdad, to Brooklyn, and beyond. With an angelic voice, deep sentiment, and humor, Michelle tells a timely story of a family’s love and dysfunction.

Michelle Azar is an NYU Graduate with a BFA in Drama and an MA in Drama Therapy. She grew up singing with Placido Domingo in the Lyric Opera of Chicago and has performed all over the world. After working with children in Israel, she met and married her current rabbi husband, and now lives in LA. Her writings can be found in Kveller, The Jewish Journal, and in her blog, YogaBreaths on Wordpress.

Mitch Samu - Accompanist is a professional musical director and pianist, Mitch has spent most of his career at the helm of over 500 theatre productions. He has played and conducted many national Broadway touring shows including: “Saturday Night Fever,” “The Lion King”, “Mama Mia,” “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Across the Universe” (directed by Tony award-winning, Julie Taymor).

Reviews: “From the moment she came on stage, to the packed house at the Pico Union Project, she owned it and had the audience in the palm of her hand.”

— Gerald Silverhardt, theatre critic

October 18–November 11 Thursdays, 7:00 pm Saturdays, 7:30 pm Sundays, 2:00 pm Sundays, November 4 and 11, 7:00 pm Pluss Theatre $35 Adult, $30 Student/Senior

My Name is Asher Lev Art Vs Religion Written by Aaron Posner Adapted from the novel by Chaim Potok Directed by Bernie Cardell Presented by Cherry Creek Theatre Torn between his Hasidic upbringing and the need to fulfill his artistic promise, Asher Lev is caught between two worlds. Relationships with his parents, community, and mentor are all on the line as the prodigy realizes he must make a difficult choice between art and faith. This adaptation of Chaim Potok’s stirring novel presents a heartbreaking and triumphant vision of identity and what it means to be an artist.

Created from the vision of a group of Cherry Creek North residents in early 2010, Cherry Creek Theatre debuted in the Denver theatre scene in 2011 with its first production, A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters.

After six successful seasons at the Shaver-Ramsey Gallery in Cherry Creek North, Cherry Creek Theatre moved to a permanent home in the Mizel Arts and Culture Center’s Pluss Theatre at the Staenberg – Loup Jewish Community Center in 2017. Cherry Creek Theatre is proud to bring quality, thought-provoking, professional theatre to the Denver-metro area.

“Everyone must see this masterful phenomenon. The script was clear and the songs so carefully chosen and specific to the story line… You found yourself tearful and then smiling and then riding the roller coaster again and again."

— Aviva Kadosh, educator

p9

JAA MM FEST I VAL

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

Authors Lectures, Seminars, Book Signings

Authors : Lectures, Seminars, Book Signings

Wednesday, October 10 6:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $15 Adult, $12 Student/Senior

Denver Jewish Community Read

Then Kohn offers tools for combating these tendencies, including connection-spaces (bringing people from opposing sides together), connectionspeech (communicating your viewpoint in a way that’s empathetic but firm), and community activism.

Sally Kohn

Non-Fiction/Politics and Current Affairs The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing our Humanity Writer, activist, and popular commentator Sally Kohn confronts the recent epidemic of incivility, drawing on eye-opening research and personal stories to uncover why we hate, and how we can (and must) stop it.

CNN’s Sally Kohn is known for her ability to make friends across the political aisle. While establishing herself as a leading progressive voice as a liberal commentator on Fox News, she went head-to-head with her colleagues on divisive issues, engaging in heated arguments and developed unexpected friendships. She went on to give two viral TED talks (with more than 3 million views) about practicing kindness online and finding compassion even for your fiercest political enemies. But since the 2016 election and the upheaval that followed, even the famously nice Kohn has found herself wanting to lash out at her enemies. She recognized the increased vitriol permeating America’s political discourse, as well as her own intensifying anger, and wondered: Where did all this hate come from?

In The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity, Kohn investigates the evolutionary and cultural roots of hate in its most subtle and obvious forms, from implicit bias and racism to violence and full-blown genocide. She travels across the country and worldwide, interviewing fascinating people who have left extraordinary lives of hate behind, and even reflects on her own history of bullying.

p11

JAA MM FEST I VAL

At a moment when Americans are facing an epidemic of animosity and incivility, divisive political speech, online trolling, and escalating hate crimes, The Opposite of Hate is enlightening, instructive, and hopeful, providing an optimistic look into one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Sally Kohn is one of the leading progressive voices in America. She is currently a columnist and CNN political commentator. Previously a Fox News contributor, she has been a frequent guest on MSNBC and writes for media outlets, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, New York Magazine, Cosmopolitan, the Daily Beast, Time, and many others. Kohn lives in Brooklyn with her partner, Sarah Hansen, and their daughter, Willa.

Reviews: “Sally and I agree on very little politically, but somehow in spite of that, we have navigated a friendship that transcends everything else.

This book explains it all!”

— Sean Hannity, host of Hannity and New York Times bestselling author of Let Freedom Ring “This is a must-read book for all of us at this moment in history. I’m grateful for Sally Kohn’s clear voice and vision in showing us the way forward.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

:

Authors Lectures, Seminars, Book Signings

Tuesday, October 9 6:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $15 Adult, $12 Student/Senior

Jonathan Weisman

Tuesday, October 16 6:30 pm Phillips Social Hall $11 Adult, $9 Student/Senior

Rachel Kadish

Non-Fiction/Anti-Semitism/Politics and Current Affairs

Jewush Fiction/Women The Weight of Ink Sponsor: Dottie and Steve Resnick

(((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump Community Partner: ADL This event is co-presented by ADL and will feature a post-lecture panel discussion and Q&A led by local experts on anti-Semitism and extremism.

A short, literary, powerful contemplation on how Jews are viewed in America since the election of Donald J. Trump, and how we can move forward to fight anti-Semitism.

After being attacked on Twitter by a wave of neo-Nazis and anti-Semites, New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman stopped to wonder: How has the Jewish experience changed under a leader like Donald Trump? In (((Semitism))), Weisman delves into the rise of the Alt-Right and their roots in older anti-Semitic organizations to spread hate in a palatable way. He concludes proposing a unification of American Judaism around the defense of self and of others even more vulnerable: the undocumented immigrants, refugees, Muslim Americans, and black activists who have been directly targeted.

Jonathan Weisman is Deputy Washington Editor of The New York Times and author of the novel, No. 4 Imperial Lane, which was a Chautauqua Prize finalist, Amazon Best Book of the Month, and Great Group Reads Pick at the Women’s National Book Association. He has reported for The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

Reviews: "Timely... [A] passionate call to arms."

— The Washington Post "This is much more than a personal response to the bigotry he experienced because of his Jewishness; Weisman has written a manifesto that outlines the dangers of marginalizing and demonizing all minority groups. This powerful book is for all of us."

— Michael Eric Dyson

A 2017 National Jewish Book Award Winner and a USA Today bestseller.

Set mostly in London of the 1660s and the early twenty-first century, the book tells the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Valasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned to view a trove of newly discovered 17th century Jewish documents and embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the scribe “Aleph.”

This is a novel about what it takes for a woman not to be defeated when everyone around her is telling her to sit down and shut up. It’s a novel about a woman of heart and mind trying to speak about the world as she sees it...at a time when speaking that way (let alone speaking as a woman) could have deadly consequences. Electrifying and ambitious, The Weight of Ink is about women separated by centuries and the choices and sacrifices they must make in order to reconcile the life of the heart and mind.

Rachel Kadish is the author of the novels The Weight of Ink, From a Sealed Room, and Tolstoy Lied: a Love Story, as well as the novella I Was Here. Her short fiction has been read on National Public Radio and has appeared in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Salon, and Tin House. She has been the Koret Writer-in-Residence at Stanford University and a fiction fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, and has won the National Jewish Book Award, the Association of Jewish Libraries’ Fiction Award, and the John Gardner Fiction Award. She lives outside Boston and teaches in Lesley University’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.

Reviews: “I gasped out loud…[Kadish has a] mastery of language…[The Weight of Ink] was so powerful and visceral…Incredible…I haven’t been able to read a book since.”

— Rose McGowan, New York Times, Book Review Podcast

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p12

Authors : Lectures, Seminars, Book Signings

Alon Shaya

Sunday, November 4 6:30 pm Safta Restaurant in the Source Hotel, RiNo $100 Ticket – Includes family-style menu and signed cookbook Vegetarian options available Only 30 seats available first come, first serve!

Cookbook/Memoir

Monday, November 5 6:30 pm Phillips Social Hall $11 Adult, $9 Student/Senior

Mike Reiss

Memoir/Television/Pop Culture

Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel

Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons

Sponsor: Ann and Evan Geldzahler & Robin and Ken Glickstein

Sponsor: Terry and Art Heller

Join us for an intimate, immersive dining experience at the new Safta restaurant, located in RiNo’s Source Hotel. Enjoy a family-style meal as narrated by restauranteur Alon Shaya himself, as he delves into his personal journey and the inspiration behind the presented recipes.

In celebration of The Simpsons’ thirtieth anniversary, the show’s longest-serving writer and producer offers a humorous look at the writing and making of the legendary Fox series that has become one of the most revered artistic achievements in television history.

Alon Shaya's memoir of culinary sensibility begins in Israel and wends its way from the U.S.A. to Italy and back to Israel, then comes together in the American South, in the heart of New Orleans. These are stories of place, of people, and of the food that connects them. Interspersed are glorious full-color photographs and illustrations that follow the course of all the flavors Shaya has tried, places he's traveled, things he's experienced, and lessons he's learned in more than one hundred recipes.

Mike Reiss shares stories, scandals, and gossip about working with America’s most iconic cartoon family ever. Springfield Confidential exposes why Matt Groening decided to make all of the characters yellow, dishes on what it’s like to be crammed in a room full of funny writers sixty hours a week, and tells what Reiss learned after traveling to seventy-one countries where The Simpsons is watched (ironic note: there’s no electricity in many of these places); and even reveals where Springfield is located! Reiss explains how the episodes are created, provides an inside look at the show’s writers, animators, actors, celebrity guests, and reminisces about the making of perennially favorite episodes.

An exciting debut cookbook that confirms the arrival of a new guru chef. A moving, deeply personal journey of survival and discovery that tells of the evolution of a cuisine and of the transformative power and magic of food and cooking. From the two-time James Beard Award-winning chef whose celebrated New Orleans restaurants have been hailed as the country's most innovative and best by Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Saveur, GQ, and Esquire.

Alon Shaya was born in Israel, raised in Philadelphia, and calls New Orleans his home, where he started and ran as executive chef/partner of three celebrated restaurants – Domenica, Pizza Domenica, and Shaya. In 2017, he formed Pomegranate Hospitality, and with this company has just opened two new restaurants: Saba in New Orleans and Safta in Denver. He was called one of the "50 People Who Are Changing the South" by Southern Living magazine, and by The Forward as one of the "50 Most Influential Jews in America."

Reviews: "Alon's journey is as gripping and as seductive as his cooking . . . Lovely stories, terrific food."

— Yotam Ottolenghi, author of Jerusalem: A Cookbook

p13

JAA MM FEST I VAL

Mike Reiss has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his thirty years writing for "The Simpsons." In this fun-filled presentation, illustrated with rare cartoon clips, Reiss talks about Jewish themes in the show: Jewish writers, actors, guest stars, and Jewish-themed episodes. Reiss also explains how he somehow wound up writing seven Christmas books, two Christmas specials, and jokes for Pope Francis...really!

Reviews: “Besides providing a hilarious look at what is perhaps the greatest TV show of all time, Mike Reiss has also created a staggering literary work that is almost completely devoid of typos and grammatical errors. It’s well worth the price of this book for the proofreading skills alone.”

— “Weird Al” Yankovic

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

:

Authors Lectures, Seminars, Book Signings

Thursday, October 11 6:30 pm Phillips Social Hall Free

Wednesday, October 17 6:30 pm Phillips Social Hall $11 Adult, $9 Student/Senior

OSNAT FOX

Jessica Cohen

Lecture from Israeli Emissary Israeli Graffiti and street art as a mirror into society - Street art and graffiti are thriving in Israel. We will look at some of the ways they are used as artistic expression, a tool for protest of civil discourse, or for personal expression and how Israel society is reflected through them.

Osnat Fox is JEWISHcolorado’s Israel Emissary (“Shlichah”), a non-governmental position of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) funded by JEWISHcolorado. Here for four years, Osnat works to be a face of Israel, bring Israel to Colorado and Colorado to Israel in diverse and tangible ways. She works throughout Colorado to educate, connect, and advocate for Israel. She is a resource to our community and a liaison to JEWISHcolorado’s partnership region of Ramat HaNegev in Israel. Her expertise in education enables her to facilitate candid and complex discussions as a means toward improved understanding and connection of people with different views of Israel.

Osnat has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Education Policy and Management. She brings extensive experience in community engagement and education from diverse communities.

Osnat is here with her husband, Shalom, a water scientist, and her three young children Shahar, Sagi, and Yogev.

Local Author/Hebrew Translation, Literary Scholar Community Partner: Denver Jewish Day School JAAMM presents Jessica Cohen in conversation with Professor David Shneer about the art and craft of literary translation, the current Israeli literary and cultural scene, and what American readers might stand to gain from reading Hebrew literature in translation.

Award-winning translator Cohen has translated works of fiction and non-fiction by some of Israel’s finest writers. She will discuss the particular challenges of conveying contemporary Israeli concepts to English-language readers, and consider whether literature can — and should — be one of the windows into the latest political and cultural developments in Israel.

Jessica Cohen is a literary translator born in England, raised in Israel, and living in Denver. She translates contemporary Israeli prose, poetry, and other creative work. She shared the 2017 Man Booker International Prize with David Grossman for her translation of A Horse Walks Into a Bar. Her translations include works by major Israeli writers including Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Dorit Rabinyan, Ronit Matalon, and Nir Baram, as well as Golden Globe-winning director Ari Folman. She is a past board member of the American Literary Translators Association and has served as a judge for the National Translation Award.

The Mizel Arts and Culture Center would like to thank ˜ Trail Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries, SCFD, Pinon Rose Community Foundation, Bonfils Stanton Foundation, and Staybridge Suits for their continued support of JAAMM.

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p14

Authors : Lectures, Seminars, Book Signings

Sunday, November 4 9:00 am – 4:00 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $25 JGSCO Members; $35 Non-Members Register by October 9 at JGSCO.org Kosher dairy breakfast and lunch are included.

Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado (JGSCO) Presents:

ANNUAL FULL-DAY SEMINAR ON JEWISH GENEALOGY Jewush Family History

Featuring Lara Diamond Genealogist; Author; Producer of videos and podcasts Co-sponsored by Mizel Arts and Cultural Center, Ellen Beller Glass, Feldman Mortuary, Mount Nebo Memorial Park, and NAI Shames Makovsky Seminar Schedule 9:00 – 9:30 am: Registration and Breakfast 9:30 – 10:45 am: Jewish Genealogy 101: Where to Start & What's Available A comprehensive overview of genealogy resources available for Jewish genealogy.

11:00 am – 12:15 pm: DNA Successes In–And in Spite of–Endogamy Learn how you can have success when dealing with endogamy by examining stories from the speaker's own family's DNA, which include reuniting with branches thought killed in the Holocaust.

12:15 – 1:00 pm: Lunch, door prizes, and networking 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Genealogy Research in Ukraine This talk covers various strategies used to obtain documents from in Ukraine (including those parts formerly in the Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Poland), from hiring researchers privately to crowdsourcing research for specific towns and utilizing the Family History Library's resources.

2:30 – 3:45 pm: Reconstructing Rutners: Tracing a Family through Changing Borders & Languages European borders were fluid, meaning that records for one family can possibly be written in many languages and kept in disparate locations. This talk examines one large family that lived in the area that now spans the Ukraine/Romanian border. What ended up being a very large family was reconstructed over the course of decades using a variety of methods, including synagogue records, vital records, census enumerations, Holocaust documents, Yizkor books, DNA, and more, bringing the family back to the 1700s and tracing distant cousins across the world.

p15

JAA MM FEST I VAL

Sunday, November 11 4:00 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $18 Adult; Free to Holocaust survivors, students, educators, and event sponsors

16th Annual

Fred Marcus Memorial Holocaust Lecture

,

Holocaust Art

Presented by the Holocaust Awareness Institute and the Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver.

“500,000 women had front-row seats to the Final Solution . . . and yet their presence, and their atrocities, have been largely ignored for the last 70 years” [LA Review of Books]. After WWII, many complicit women were excused for their roles entirely; lawyers argued, and judges agreed, that Nazi women could not be held accountable for the crimes of the men around them. In her important book, Prof. Wendy Lower (John K. Roth Professor of History and George R. Roberts Fellow and Director of Mgrublian Center for Human Rights; Claremont McKenna College) questions this historical narrative not only by uncovering historical details that have often been overlooked, but by inviting us to question the line between individuals and their societies, as well as the line between witnesses, bystanders, accomplices, and perpetrators: Aren’t Nazi women culpable for standing by as witnesses, taking lives, and serving as accomplices? Lower fills an historical gap by answering “yes” to this question. “Genocide,” Lower argues, “is also women’s business.”

For more information on other programs sponsored by the Holocaust Awareness Institute at the University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies, please visit du.edu/ahss/cjs.

BRING YOUR GENTLY WORN SHOES TO THE LECTURE We are again collecting gently worn shoes at the lecture as a reminder of the shoes left behind in concentration camps by victims of the Holocaust. This year, shoes will be donated to the Holocaust Shoe Project (holocaustshoeproject.org), which uses shoes to educate students about the horrors of the Holocaust, then donates shoes to needy families throughout the Front Range. Please help in this very worthwhile effort.

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

Get Fit with the j

303.316.6308 | @jccdenver

FESTIVAL CALENDAR

PRE-JAAMM EVENT COLLABORATION 14

7:30 PM

Oh My God! presented by Theatre Or & Mizel Arts and Culture Center

26 7:30 PM

See event pages for ticket and location information.

David Amram at Dazzle

September 14 – October 14

AUTHORS

DANCE

MOVIES

7

SUNDAY

MUSIC

THEATRE

MONDAY

PRE-JAAMM EVENT COLLABORATION

8

TUESDAY

9

WEDNESDAY

2:00 PM 6:30 PM

Rick Recht

6:30 PM

6:30 PM

Jonathan Weisman, “(((Semitism)))”

Body and Soul: An American Bridge SUNDAY

14

6:30 PM David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg present “Voyages”

MONDAY

15

TUESDAY

16

Sally Kohn, “The Op

DENVER JEWISH COM

WEDNESDAY

6:30 PM

6:30 PM

6:30 PM

Local Female Authors

Rachel Kadish, “The Weight of Ink”

Jessica Cohen

21

SUNDAY

6:30 PM One Last Bedtime Story, Chapter 1: Language

November 4

SUNDAY

MONDAY

5

TUESDAY

6

WEDNESDAY

9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Annual Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado Seminar

6:30 PM

6:30 PM

7:30 PM

Mike Reiss, “Springfield Confidential”

Daniel Kahn and the

Alon Shaya SUNDAY

11

4:00 PM Fred Marcus Memorial Holocaust Lecture

p17

JAA MM FEST I VAL

MONDAY

6:30 PM Let’s Dance!

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

12

TUESDAY

13

WEDNESDAY

2018

OCTOBER THURSDAY

4

5

7:30 PM

pposite of Hate”

MMuNITY READ

17

THURSDAY

6

7:30 PM

JAAMM Fest Opening Night Bryan Fogel

10

SATURDAY

Itzhak

12

11

SATURDAY

13

7:30 PM

6:30 PM

Michelle Azar’s From Baghdad to Brooklyn

Osnat Fox Lecture

THURSDAY

19

18

7:00 PM (October 18 – November 11) My Name is Asher Lev

20

SATURDAY

7:00 PM

presented by Cherry Creek Theatre

Icarus at the Sie FilmCenter

7:30 PM Sean Altman’s JEWMONGOuS

MACC POTTERY Exhibition and Sale

SATURDAY

3

7:30 PM

November 18 – 20

Disobedience at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – Sloan’s Lake

7

THURSDAY

8

9

14

THURSDAY

15

16

SATURDAY

10

Painted Bird

SATURDAY/SUNDAY

17/18

7:30 PM Wonderbound Dance 7:30 PM Wonderbound Dance Company presents Wonderlab

Company presents Wonderlab

2:00 PM Wonderbound Dance Company presents Wonderlab

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p18

JOIN US IN THE

JAAMM Festival BOOKSTORE

Monday, October 15, 6:30 pm FREE TO ATTEND

Mazel Tov AMY WEINER JON WEISS

wishing you a

A panel of local female authors, featuring Dafna Michaelson Jenet, Jamie Korngold, and Elizabeth Fox, discuss their recently published books and the sisterhood of our local literary community.

lifetime of love and happiness

from JCC Denver 0L]HO $UWV DQG &XOWXUH &HQWHU 6WDƪ

Movies documentaries, shorts, dramas, lbgt

:

Movies JAAMM

Saturday, October 6 7:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $13 Adult, $11 Student/Senior

Itzhak

Documentary/Music

preceded by the short film

Director: Alison Chernick 2017/82 minutes/Israel, USA/English Community Partners: Rocky Mountain PBS | Colorado Symphony A look at the life, work, and religious heritage of violinist Itzhak Perlman.

From Schubert to Strauss, Bach to Brahms, Mozart to Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman’s violin playing transcends mere performance to evoke the celebrations and struggles of real life; “praying with the violin,” says renowned Tel Aviv violinmaker Amnon Weinstein. Alison Chernick’s enchanting documentary looks beyond the sublime musician to see the polio survivor whose parents emigrated from Poland to Israel, the young man who struggled to be taken seriously as a music student when schools saw only his disability. As charming and entrancing as the famous violinist himself, ITZHAK is a portrait of musical virtuosity seamlessly enclosed in warmth, humor, and above all, love.

Reviews: “A love story on so many levels - Perlman's love of music, of the violin, of life itself!"

— Ray Rogers, The Hollywood Reporter

Mr. Bernstein

Short Drama/Music, Post-Holocaust Director: Francine Zuckerman 2015/Canada/12 minutes/English After Debbie hears about her father's life-changing musical experience in a refugee camp, she tracks down the famous conductor years later, with unexpected consequences.

This film is based on the true story by New Zealand writer/performer/comedienne Deb Filler. Filler, (originally from New Zealand) and her Polish Jewish father, who survived Auschwitz, grew up in a bakery in Auckland. Her father Schaja saw Bernstein perform when he was a refugee in Landsberg Displaced Persons’ Camp in Munich in 1947. Premiered in the Rocky Mountain region earlier this year at the 2018 Denver Jewish Film Festival.

“Briskly entertaining.”

— Dennis Harvey, Variety “A musical masterpiece. Captures, the life, work, and heritage of worldfamous violinist Itzhak Perlman.”

— Vicki Leopold, Atlanta Jewish Times

p21

JAA MM FEST I VAL

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

:

Movies JAAMM

Sunday, October 7 6:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $13 Adult, $11 Student/Senior

Body and Soul: An American Bridge Documentary/Jazz/History

preceded by the short film

Director: Robert Philipson 2016/58 minutes/USA/English The performance history of the most recorded song in jazz reveals the influences, creations, and conflicts between Blacks and Jews in American popular song.

Out of all the cross-cultural encounters that have resulted in the richness of American popular music, none has been so prominent or so fraught with fraternity and conflict as the relationships between African Americans and American Jews.

Body and Soul: An American Bridge aims to tease out the strands of this cultural knot by focusing on the early performance history of the jazz standard, “Body and Soul,” one of the most recorded songs in the jazz repertoire. Composed by Jewish composer Johnny Green in 1929, the song was introduced on Broadway by Jewish torch singer Libby Holman and ushered into the jazz canon by Louis Armstrong the following year. Four years later, the successful recording of "Body and Soul" by a behind-the-scenes Benny Goodman trio, which included the Black pianist Teddy Wilson, led to the historic smashing of the color barrier in popular music.

The Man Who Shot Hollywood Short Documentary Hollywood /Photography Director: Barry Avrich 2015/12 minutes/USA/English Jack Pashkovsky lived quietly in a town lit up by a thousand stars.

He practiced his art anonymously. By the time he was finished, he had compiled what must be the greatest collection of celebrity photographs never seen. The beautiful people looked like real people, and that’s what makes his portraits illuminating. They have a startling immediacy. This is his story.

“Body and Soul” Music by John W. Green Lyrics by Edward Heyman and Robert B. Sour With performances by: Dianne Schurr, Jack Hylton and His Orchestra, Libby Holman, Louis Armstrong and the New Cotton Club Orchestra, The Benny Goodman Trio, and John Coltrane.

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p22

:

Movies JAAMM

Saturday, October 20 7:00 pm Sie FilmCenter $13 Adult, $11 Student/Senior visit denverfilm.org for tickets

Icarus

Documentary/Sports/Thriller Director: Bryan Fogel 2017/121 minutes/USA/Russian, English with English subtitles

Sunday, October 21 6:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $13 Adult, $11 Student/Senior

One Last Bedtime Story, Chapter 1: Language

Documentary/Sports/Thriller Creators: Modi Bar-On and Anat Zeltzer 2017/55 minutes/Israel/Hebrew with English subtitles

Community Partner: Denver Film Society and East High School Community Partner: Denver Jewish Day School Skype Q&A with filmmaker Bryan Fogel after this special screening!

A journey into Israeli children's literature, featuring its leading figures.

ICARUS follows director Bryan Fogel and the renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov — a pillar of his country’s “anti-doping” program.

Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia’s state-sponsored Olympic doping program. Fogel helped Rodchenkov navigate the crisis by assisting with legal counsel, immigration advice, coordination with the FBI, CIA, the DOJ, and ultimately, the hopeful political asylum of Dr. Rodchenkov. In exposing a conspiracy that spanned more than four decades, Fogel revealed, and intricately documented, the biggest international sports scandal in living memory.

ICARUS received rave reviews and won the first-ever Special Jury Orwell Award at 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Choice Award at Sundance London among many other accolades. It was acquired by Netflix in one of the largest nonfiction deals in history. ICARUS was named Best Documentary by the Academy Awards and was nominated for a BAFTA; Fogel has been nominated for Best Director of a Documentary by the Directors Guild of America.

For five generations children have asked their parents in Hebrew for one last bedtime story. This series examines the past and present of Israeli children's literature. In five parts, the series explores how the child learns about the world, and the development of the Israeli identity in which children's literature plays a crucial role through molding language, place, society, and even fears.

Renowned Israeli writers read from their books and those they read as children, delving into the experiences behind them. The series is about childhood itself, and examines how literature molds children's identities and the Israeli identity as a whole.

Rocky Mountain Premiere

Reviews: “A game changing documentary.” – Variety “Illuminating.” – The New York Times “A truly absorbing piece of filmmaking.” – IndieWire

p23

JAA MM FEST I VAL

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

:

Movies JAAMM

Monday, November 12 6:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $13 Adult, $11 Student/Senior

Saturday, November 3 7:30 pm Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – Sloan’s Lake $13 Adult, $11 Student/Senior visit drafthouse.com/show/jaamm-fest-disobedience for tickets

Let’s Dance!

Disobedience

Documentary/Israel/History Contemporary Dance

Romance/Orthodoxy/LGBT Director: Sebastián Lelio 2017/114 minutes/UK, Ireland, USA/English/Rated R

Director: Gavriel Bibliowicz 2011/72 minutes/Israel/Hebrew with English subtitles

Sponsored by: Joanne Singer A film about the soul of Israeli society: dance.

From the Oscar-winning director of A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience follows a woman (Rachel Weisz) as she returns to the Orthodox Jewish community in London that shunned her decades earlier for an attraction to a childhood friend (Rachel McAdams). Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality. Adapted from the novel by Naomi Alderman.

In the words of the filmmaker: “Disobedience exists in the clash between forces that appear to be irreconcilable: individual freedom against the interest of the community; the loss of purpose against faith; the attraction of the forbidden against moral duty; human instinct against the divine order; the exploration of new ways of being versus the forces of the tradition; flesh against spirit. The eternal conflict between duty and desire.”

Despite its reputation as a militaristic and “macho” society, Israel has become a recognized world leader in modern dance. The need to move, shift, and to be in motion has raised generations of dancers and choreographers who have turned local modern dance into a national and international success story.

Through the works of leading choreographers Ohad Naharin, Rami Be'er, and Yasmeen Godder, Let's Dance! opens a window to their sources of inspiration – to the vibrant and exotic world of the pioneering choreographers and to the story of the development of the local dance scene. Combining spectacular pieces of video-dance, rich archival material, interviews, and visual demonstrations, the film offers a unique and surprising view on Israeli society, as well as dance.

Reviews: “A gorgeously acted, written and directed spellbinder… Weisz and McAdams [are] two extraordinary actresses at the top of their game.”

– Rolling Stone “This is richly satisfying and powerfully acted work.”

– The Guardian Note: All patrons must be 18 years or older or be accompanied by a parent. No talking, texting, cell phone policy strictly enforced. All seats are reserved via a “pick your seat” model. No late seating. Full multi-course food and drink menu available – not a kosher kitchen.

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p24

Music Jazz, klezmer, rock

:

Music JAAMM

Wednesday, September 26 7:30 pm Dazzle @ Baur’s $25 – $35 visit dazzeldenver.org/events/david-amram for tickets

Pre-JAAMM Jazz Concert

David Amram & Friends f

Jazz, International Music

Presented by: Music Appreciation Society’s Eclectic Concert Series One of the greatest living proponents of the art of music, David Amram symbolizes excellence and creativity in Jazz, Classical, Folk, Latin, and film scores, opera, and musical theatre. He has collaborated with Woody Guthrie, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, Pepper Adams, Levon Helm, James Gallway, Betty Carter, poets Alan Ginsburg, Langston Hughes, Lawrence Ferlangheti, and Jack Kerouac, to name a few, as composer and performing artist on french horn, flute, keyboards, and other instruments. He is the recipient of six honorary doctorate degrees and numerous other prestigious awards and recognitions, including the Highlights in Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tribeca Performing Arts Centre, Kansas City’s Folk Alliance International’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame’s Jay McShann Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Bruce Ricker Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pasa Roblas Digital Film Festival for his half-century work as a film composer.

While celebrating a lifetime in the world of jazz, David continues to tour the planet extensively, sharing his wealth of knowledge and talent, as he has done for the past 65 years. Along with Julius Watkins, David is acknowledged as the pioneer of improvisational jazz french horn.

He is actively releasing new recordings and composing new works today as well. His latest on Affetto record label is David Amram – “So

p27

JAA MM FEST I VAL

In America” – Selected Chamber Music (1958 – 2017). He also recently released “David Amram Jazz on Film”, Classic American Film Scores which highlights his work in film and theatre. In 2015, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra recorded David’s concerto “This Land” a tribute to Woody Guthrie.

He was praised by The Washington Post as “one of the most versatile and skilled musicians America has ever produced,” while The Boston Globe hailed him as “the Renaissance man of American music,” and The New York Times proclaimed him “multicultural before multiculturalism existed.”

Music Appreciation Society & Denver Eclectic Concerts have partnered up to form MAS Eclectic to continue to bring world class music to Denver. On Facebook at MAS Music and on the internet masmusic.org MAS Eclectic aims to provide an intimate “acoustic” listening experience, featuring multiple genres of music from jazz and classical to blues, folk, bluegrass, world, and more. MAS also aims to provide familyfriendly, educational, traditional, and experimental music programming to the Denver area. Beginning in March 2015, MAS has held over 80 performances at the Historic Baur’s Building on 15th and Curtis Street in downtown Denver, now the home of Dazzle Denver.

National and international artists including Grammy winner Jon Cleary, jazz patriarch Ellis Marsalis, powerhouse vocalist Catherine Russell, Brazilian mandolinist Hamilton de Hollanda, singer-songwriter A.J. Croce, Jason Moran, Harold Lopez-Nussa, and Grande Orquesta Navarre, pianist Katie Mahan among many other fine performers touring around the world have performed in Denver for MAS Eclectic audiences in the past three years.

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

:

Music JAAMM

Sunday, October 7 2:00 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $10 Adult, $5 Child (17 and Under)

Rick Recht

Jewush Rock, Participatory Family Concert for All Ages Community Partners: MazelTogether | PJ Library | YAD Family Denver Jewish Day School Rick Recht is one of the top touring musicians in Jewish music, playing over 150 dates each year in the US and abroad. Rick has revolutionized and elevated the genre of Jewish rock music as a powerful and effective tool for developing Jewish pride and identity in youth and adults across the US. Rick is the national celebrity spokesman for the PJ Library and is the Executive Director of Songleader Boot Camp – a national songleader training immersion program held in various cities around the U.S. Rick is also the founder and Executive Director of Jewish Rock Radio, the very first high-caliber, 24/7 International Jewish rock online radio station! He is also the Executive Producer of PJ Library Radio. Recht is the Artist in Residence at United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis, MO. He enjoys hiking and spending time with his wife, Elisa, and sons, Kobi and Tal. Rick has 10 top selling Jewish albums, including his latest hit album, Halleluyah. His two solo children's CDs, Free to Be the Jew in Me and Look at Me, have been nationally distributed to tens of thousands of Jewish preschool-age children through PJ Library. Recht has also produced several children’s compilation albums for PJ Library that have been distributed to thousands.

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p28

:

Music JAAMM “Voyages” • November 22 by Kinan Azmeh (arr. Tagg) • Première Rhapsodie by Claude Debussy • Parzial by John Zorn (arr. Tagg) • Ebuhuel by John Zorn (arr. Krakauer & Tagg) • Body and Soul by Green, Heyman, Sour, Eyton (arr. Krakauer, Tagg) • Berimbau by Kathleen Tagg • Gasn Nign Traditional (arr. Krakauer & Tagg) • Chassidic Dance by Abraham Ellstein • Moldavian Voyage by Emil Kroitor (arr. Krakauer & Tagg) • Synagogue Wail by David Krakauer • Der Heyser Bulgar by Traditional (arr. Krakauer, Tagg)

Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet, David Krakauer has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. In 2015 he received a Grammy nomination in the Chamber music/small ensemble category as soloist with the conductor-less orchestra "A Far Cry," and a Juno nomination for the CD "Akoka" with cellist Matt Haimovitz. He has appeared with the world’s finest orchestras including the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Baltimore Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Orchestre de Lyon, the Phoenix Symphony, the Dresdener Philharmonie, and the Seattle Symphony.

Sunday, October 14 6:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $25 Adult, $20 Student/Senior

David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg present ”Voyages” Classical/World Music/Klezmer

Grammy nominated world music star David Krakauer returns to JAAMM alongside acclaimed composer/performer Kathleen Tagg in a passionate, eclectic, and highly personal musical journey called “Breath and Hammer.”

Breath & Hammer’s acoustic program “Voyages” starts with classical music. The journey then continues with Krakauer & Tagg’s arrangements of tunes by composers as diverse as John Zorn, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and traditional Moldavian master accordionist Emil Kroitor, along with original compositions by Krakauer & Tagg that incorporate influences ranging from interlocking African drumming patterns to romantic symphonic music to minimalism to klezmer. These diverse and seemingly disparate musical influences intermingle, transformed into something entirely new, a hybrid art form that bridges the cultures of the past and new work that looks toward the future.

p29

JAA MM FEST I VAL

South African-born pianist, composer and producer Kathleen Tagg, praised for her combining of "outstanding technique with deep musicality," has performed on four continents in leading venues such as Carnegie Hall, had her original music performed in venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center, appeared on a host of classical, world music and multi-genre recordings on NAXOS, Universal, Table Pounding Records, Ossia Records and Gallo Africa, and produced numerous CDs and inter-disciplinary programs from Cape Town to Los Angeles.

Reviews: “...Krakauer joined with the adventurous South African pianist Kathleen Tagg in an exciting new duo project… At the peak of their conversation, Krakauer sailed through virtuosic passages before taking off on a passionate, soulstirring improvisation... [a] compelling duo set.”

– Downbeat Magazine “It is lovely to watch Tagg and Krakauer playing from the same invisible page where mood and phrasing are written. Their synergy of interpretation travels immediately to the audience...after the last note of the enchantment had faded, no one wanted to come out of meditation.”

– Andy Wilding, Fine Music Radio David Krakauer Personal Direction: Judson Management Group, Inc., 145 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022, Telephone: +1 (212) 974-1917.

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

:

Music JAAMM Thursday, October 18 7:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $25 Adult, $20 Student/Senior

Sean Altman’s JEWMONGOUS

with Percussionist Michael Hunter Original Comedy Music Sponsor: TriCuzz Productions Ex-Rockapella star Sean Altman's unkosher comedy song concert Sean Altman’s JEWMONGOUS is "tuneful and sharply witty" (Los Angeles Times), "relentlessly clever" (Chicago Tribune) and "bawdy with a wicked modern streak" (Washington Post), with "hilarious pleasures" (The New Yorker) that combine "the tunefulness of the Beatles and the spot-on wit of Tom Lehrer" (Boston Globe) with a “silky tenor voice that produced chills” (New York Times). Altman, one of "New York's finest comedians" (New York Times) and “a terrific singer and a songwriter with an ear equally attuned to comic satire and the power of pop music” (The New Yorker), "writes hilarious and irreverent acoustic rock songs about his awakening Jewish awareness" (Jerusalem Post) to make you "laugh your tuchis off" (Time Out) as "part of a new breed of Jewish hipster comedy that includes Jon Stewart, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Sarah Silverman" (Philadelphia Daily News).

He is a former, founding member of Rockapella and led that pioneering vocal group through its heyday years on the Emmy-winning PBS-TV series, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?, for which Altman co-wrote the famous theme song. His classic Passover song "They Tried To Kill Us (We Survived, Let's Eat)" has been featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Altman has twice performed for U.S. Presidents at the White House Chanukah Party, and has shared concert stages with Billy Joel, Steve Miller, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, Joey Ramone, and Moby. The delightful-yet-risqué JEWMONGOUS albums “Taller Than Jesus” and “The Least Jewy Jew In Jewville” are available on iTunes and streaming services that pay Sean practically nothing, to his eternal chagrin. Altman sings vocal standards at the bedside of hospital patients as a volunteer with Musicians On Call and has performed JEWMONGOUS throughout the USA, Europe, Israel, and once in China. jewmongous.com Sean Altman’s JEWMONGOUS welcomes all faiths, creeds, and denominations but is not appropriate for children unless you’re training them to be sailors.

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p3o

:

Music JAAMM

Wednesday, November 7 7:30 pm Elaine Wolf Theatre $25 Adult, $20 Student/Senior

Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird: “Freedom is a Verb” Tour German Klezmer-Punk

With their new record The Butcher's Share, The Painted Bird returns to the road as the original radical Yiddish borderland bandits. The Berlin-based Detroit-born poet/translator/singer/multi-instrumentalist (accordion, piano, guitars) Daniel Kahn has reformed the band with new and old comrades: Berlin’s clarinet/sax/brass master Christian Dawid, New York’s Yiddish fiddle virtuoso Jake Shulman-Ment, expat experimental contrabassist Berlin composer Michael Tuttle, and classic klezmer drummer Hampus Melin.

The live show features projected translations and images by legendary NY underground artist Eric Drooker, whose work is woven into the album’s design, as well as material from the band’s new videos.

Hora" explore the depths of trauma and Traum. And the dark rock landscape of "No One Survives" references the brave hopelessness of late David Bowie. In the title track "The Bucher's Sher," Kahn manages to make an upbeat Klezmer epic out of economic concepts of commodity fetishism and bourgeois morality. With songs like “Shtil di Nakht Iz Oysgeshterent” and “Arbeter Froyen,” old Yiddish ballads of resistance and revolt are made radical and relevant through poetic new translations.

Reviews: “Accordion charged with punkrock… the free-spirited attitude of the New York Tzadik circle, cabaret flair, and scraps of Tom Waits.”

— Rolling Stone [Germany] “When it’s comes to wicked freaky Klezmer music, the Americans were always way ahead. Daniel Kahn, born in Detroit, living in Berlin, belongs to this caste of Yiddish music agitators. An absolute must for lovers of unusual, intelligent, challenging, exciting folk music and a blast at every instant.”

— Klaus Halama, Sound & Image

New anthems like "Freedom Is A Verb" and Josh Waletzky's “99%" speak to the political moment as much as they address eternal struggles of class and liberation. Ballads like "Children In The Woods" and "Sheyres

p31

JAA MM FEST I VAL

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

The Neustadt Prizes The Neustadt JAAMM Festival was endowed by Kathy Neustadt in 2014. A long-time JCC Board member, Chairperson of the JCC Board, and current chair of The Mizel Center Board of Directors, Kathy wanted to continue the legacy of literature and culture that her family has cultivated with two prestigious international literature prizes.

The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature and is considered one of the most prestigious international literary prizes, often compared with the Nobel Prize in Literature and referred to as the “American Nobel” because of its record of 30 laureates, candidates or jurors, who in 42 years, have been awarded Nobel Prizes following their involvement with the Neustadt Prize. Like the Nobel, it is awarded not for any one work, but for an entire body of work. Since 2003, the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature has been awarded every other year to a living writer or author-illustrator with significant achievement in children’s or young-adult literature.

stop by our

JAAMM FESTIVAL BOOKSTORE

Whether you’re looking for a Hanukkah gift for friends and family, or want to treat yourself to some of the latest award-winning Jewish literature to celebrate Jewish Book Month, we know you’ll find something you’ll love!

Come visit us one hour before each JAAMM event and every Sunday throughout the festival.

Our best wishes for a very successful JAAMM Fest 2018.

Elaine and Arnie Tinter from the pacific northwest Missing all our Denver friends.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! MIZEL ARTS AND CULTURE CENTER SPONSORS

Title Sponsors

FESTIVAL PRESENTING SPONSORS

p33

JAAMM FE ST IV AL

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

LEADERSHIP SPONSOR

Savethe Date

maccjcc.org | 303.316.6360

Sponsors, Committees, and Staff BRYAN FOGEL SPONSORS

Elise and Brian Barish J.P. Morgan

WONDERLAB SALON SPONSORS

Celeste Grynberg Lisa and Lynn Taussig Geri and Meyer Saltzman Brad Levin and Patti Robinson Zeff Kesher Foundation Essie and Jordon Perlmutter & the Perlmutter Family Foundation Caterina Fagelson Bei-Lee Gold and the Gold Family Foundation Joyce and Gary Pashel Howard Lerman Richard Sanders Bernice and Anschel Tarlie The Elena and Boris Draznin Family Fund Laurie Brock Judy Joseph

Music & Performance event Sponsor TriCuzz Productions Celeste Grynberg Lisa and Lynn Taussig

Author/Movie Sponsor

Terry and Art Heller Ann and Evan Geldzahler and Robin and Ken Glickstein Dottie and Steve Resnick Anonymous Joanne Singer

Friend of JAAMM

MazelTogether Elaine and Arnie Tinter

p35

JAAMM FE ST IV AL

OctOber 4 – NOvember 18, 2018

Sponsors, Committees, and Staff COMMUNITY PARTNERS MOUNTAIN STATES

MEDIA SPONSORs

SPECIAL THANKS

JAAMM Fest 2o18 COMMITTEES & STAFF LITERARY COMMITTEE & VOLUNTEERS Berdine Clumpus Cathy Cohen Elaine Fein Nancy Fein Susan Fein David Feinman Janet Fisher Ann Geldzahler Evan Geldzahler Sue Parker Gerson Robin Glickstein Evie Heimbach Terry Heller Ali Hill Barbara Kadin Lynn Kutner Pesia Lenczner Judi Marcus

Roger Marks Robbie Marks Kathy Neustadt Beth Radetsky Steve Replin Dottie Resnick Allegra Reynolds Rosalie Richter Danielle Skornik Selma Sladek Osi Sladek Ben Streltzer Jerry Streltzer Patti Jo Streltzer Marci Waldman Carol Kozak Ward Amy Weiner Linda Weiss Alan Wernz Patti Zetlin

MACC BOARD OF DIRECTORS Kathy Neustadt, Chair* Joanne Singer, Treasurer Sue Aaronson Nancy Alterman* Terry Heller* Steve Replin Geri Bader Saltzman Lisa Taussig Julie Turken Betsy Mordecai Heyman Ann Zedd Geldzahler* Robin Glickstein* Harvey Cohen Terry Rubin

MACC STAFF Executive Artistic Director, Steve Wilson Director of Festivals, Amy Weiner Production Manager, Dan Rib Office Manager, Trevor Fulton Director of Education, Emily MacIntyre Promotions/House Manager/ Volunteer Coordinator, Becky Toma Marketing Director, Adam Zandman Creative Director, Jeffrey Hoffman Marketing Manager, Jackee Woodman Content Coordinator, Alexis Robbins

* JAAMM Committee Member

info & tickets: maccjcc.org/jaamm | box office: 303.316.6360

p36

MIZEL ARTS AND CULTURE CENTER AT THE J 350 SOUTH DAHLIA STREET DENVER, CO 80246-8102

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Denver, CO Permit No. 2027

M I Z E L A R T S A N D C U LT U R E C E N T E R

denver children’s theatre

LE AR N M O R E AT M ACC JCC .ORG