Friday, May 29, 2015

David Blatt and Al Attles; My Father

The Times They Are A-Changin': The Golden State Warriors are now the Champions of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). In the Finals, the Warriors will face the Cleveland Cavaliers, Champions of the Eastern Conference.

This presents a terrible dilemma for Abq Jew.

For whom to root?

David Blatt of the Cleveland Cavaliers

On one hand, there is Head Coach David Blatt of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Wikipedia tells us:
David Michael Blatt (Hebrew: דייוויד בלאט‎‎; born May 22, 1959) is an Israeli American professional basketball coach, and a former professional basketball player. He currently serves as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the National Basketball Association. 
And even more importantly:
Blatt grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts, and is Jewish. As a boy, he went to a Reform temple, and until his bar mitzvah he attended Hebrew school twice a week. He says that in Israel he became "much more Jewish and much more Zionist." 
In his sophomore year at Princeton, a coach for an Israeli kibbutz team recruited him to play in Israel for the summer. The summer at Kibbutz Gan Shmuel turned out to be a life-changing experience. Blatt graduated from Princeton in 1981 with a B.A. in English Literature, completing his senior thesis on Bernard Malamud, author of The Natural
In 1981, he immigrated to Israel, and he served in the Israel Defense Forces on the Schneller military base, which he views as one of his greatest bonding experiences with Israel. 
In 1991, Blatt married Kinneret, from Netanya, Israel; she had played on an Israeli professional basketball team that he coached. 
They have four children: twin daughters Shani and Adi (who have served in the Israeli army), daughter Ela (his youngest child), and son Tamir (born in 1997; in 2014, he was the starting point guard on the Israeli junior national basketball team, and had signed to play for four years with Hapoel Tel Aviv).
Although he has not visited in many years, and has not personally observed the transformation of the country, Abq Jew retains strong ties to the Land of Israel.

Abq Jew attended the Technion in Haifa in 1970-71. His father. Richard Yellin, of blessed memory, worked for Elta Electronics (a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries) in Ashdod in 1970-72; while his mother, Roselyn Yellin, of blessed memory, maintained the family home on Simtat HaSneh in Ashkelon.

Al Attles of the San Francisco Warriors

On the other handAbq Jew fondly recalls attending many a San Francisco Warriors game in the 1960's with his father. Al Attles was then the Warriors' point guard.

William C Rhoden has just published Al Attles, a Warrior for Life, Is a Bridge to a Lone Bay Area Title in The New York Times. Mr Rhodes says of the 78-year-old Mr Attles:
Attles was the head coach of the Warriors when on May 25, 40 years ago, they completed a stunning four-game sweep of the powerhouse Washington Bullets to win the franchise’s only title in its more than 50 years in the Bay Area.
“Nobody expected much of us and felt that we were just lucky to even reach the finals,” Attles recalled. But his players, he said, “never believed” the low estimations others had of them. 
“They couldn’t wait to get on the floor, then one day we looked up and we had won the championship,” Attles said. 
The Warriors were founded in Philadelphia in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors. In 1962, they relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, and were renamed the San Francisco Warriors.


The Warriors played most of their home games at the Cow Palaace in Daly City.
The Warriors made the playoffs from 1971 to 1977 (except 1974), and won their only championship on the West Coast in 1974–75. 
In what many consider the biggest upset in the history of the NBA, the Warriors defeated the heavily favored Washington Bullets in a four-game sweep. 
That team was coached by former Warrior Al Attles, and led on the court by Rick Barry, Jamaal Wilkes and Phil Smith. 
So little was felt of the team's chances in the playoffs, even by their home fans, that the Coliseum Arena scheduled other events during the dates of the NBA playoffs. 
As a result, the Warriors did not play their championship series playoff games in Oakland; rather, they played at the Cow Palace in Daly City.
Ah, yes, the good old Cow Palace. Wikipedia tells us:
Cow Palace (originally the California State Livestock Pavilion) is an indoor arena in Daly City, California, situated on the city's border with neighboring San Francisco. 
The idea for the arena was originally conceived as the result of the popularity of the livestock pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. 
Newspaper records show that the name "Cow Palace" was used as early as May 1935. 
One story for how the current name came about tells of a newspaper editorial that asked "Why, when people are starving, should money be spent on a "palace for cows?" Thus, the Cow Palace was born.
The Cow Palace has been used for many concerts (The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones); sports events (basketball, ice hockey, Roller Derby); rodeos and livestock expositions; and (twice!) the Republican National Convention.


The Times They Are A-Changin'

The NBA reports with ethical swagger that the Warriors have decided to build a new facility in the City By The Bay.
Why has the team decided to build a new facility in San Francisco?
We believe a spectacular, centrally located sports and entertainment center, located near myriad transportation options in San Francisco, will best serve the organization, the fans and the entire Bay Area. 
Where will the new arena be located?
The new Warriors Sports and Entertainment Center will be built in Mission Bay on 12 acres of private, inland property, bounded by 3rd, 16th and South Streets, and Terry Francois Blvd. 
How will the new arena be financed? Will this cost taxpayers anything?
The arena will be entirely privately financed and built on private land – virtually unprecedented among major league sports and entertainment facilities in the U.S. Unlike virtually every other arena or stadium project in the country, there will be no public subsidy. 
When will the groundbreaking take place?
A specific groundbreaking date has not been set, but the organization is still targeting the 2018-19 season for opening its new arena.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals tips Thursday June 4 at 7:00 pm New Mexico Time on ABC. Abq Jew plans to be at the NHCC, watching Havana Curveball and Jubanos.


Which brings us to The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the second studio album by Bob Dylan, which Columbia Records released on May 27, 1963.

Fifty-two years and two days ago.

Wikipedia tells us:
Whereas his debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, Freewheelin‍ '​ represented the beginning of Dylan's writing contemporary words to traditional melodies. 
Eleven of the thirteen songs on the album are Dylan's original compositions. 
The album opens with "Blowin' in the Wind", which became an anthem of the 1960s, and an international hit for folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary soon after the release of Freewheelin‍ '​. 
The album featured several other songs which came to be regarded as amongst Dylan's best compositions and classics of the 1960s folk scene: "Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right".
Which brings us to The Times They Are a-Changin', the song of our final destination, which Columbia released as the title track of Mr Dylan's third album on January 13, 1964.

We learn from Wikipedia:
Dylan wrote the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the time ....
Ever since its release the song has been very influential to people's views on society, with critics noting the general yet universal lyrics as contributing to the song's everlasting message of change. 
Here is the (in Abq Jew's view, seminal) cover by Peter, Paul and Mary.


Shabbat Shalom, New Mexico!
Good Shabbos, Albuquerque!

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Get Ready: ABQ Jewish Film Festival!

Starts Monday June 1: Deli Man, Dancing in Jaffa, 24 Days, Havana Curveball, Jubanos, Deli Man. Something for everyone, and more!

Did Abq Jew mention Deli Man? He is (as you surely recall; see Oh, What A Night!) a big fan of kosher deli in general and Ben's Kosher Deli (NYC, of course) in particular.



Friday, May 22, 2015

Hoshana for Shavuot

Extraordinary: Or, as Israelis say, יוצאת מן הכּלל. This is all about Victoria Hanna.
Israeli vocal artist Victoria Hanna has been performing for years, but it was only a week ago that she put out her first official video single. 
The video, Aleph-Bet, has already garnered more than 68,000 views, signaling that her unique, experimental sound is perhaps going more mainstream.

That's what Renee Ghert-Sand said - back in February - in her Times of Israel article,

Aleph-Bet has been on YouTube for many weeks now. At latest count, it's been viewed more than 340,000 times.

Ms Ghert-Sand continues:
Hanna is known for mesmerizing interpretations of traditional Jewish texts (both Hebrew and Aramaic) that combine traditional Middle Eastern sounds with contemporary genres, such as rap and hip-hop. 
Among her religious literary inspirations are the biblical Song of Songs and the Kabbalistic Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation). In Aleph-Bet, she focuses on one of her favorite subjects: the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and their various vowel sounds. 
The video opens with the alphabet and then moves in to the prayer for rain from the Hoshanot (Hosanna) service in the Sukkot liturgy.

On the Festival of Shavuot (Weeks), we recite neither small hoshanot nor (which please see) The Great Hosanna.

But we do celebrate the Gifting of the Torah, which in many ways may be compared to starting all over again with the Aleph Bet.

Note: There is only one Torah, which was given to the People Israel but once - on Shavuot. On Shavuot (and all festivals) we do not take "two Torahs" from the ark - we take two Torah scrolls. As for receiving - the people Israel receives the Torah anew every day ....


Public Radio International (PRI) reporter Daniel Estrin tells us more about Victoria Hanna.
The 'edgiest' singer on Israeli airwaves is an Orthodox mother of three
Victoria Hanna is the freshest, edgiest, weirdest artist on the Israeli airwaves today. 
How did she reach that status? By singing the alphabet. 
Hanna, a longtime fixture of the small indie Jewish spiritual music scene, released her first single this month — and it became an instant Internet sensation. 
The song is called Aleph Bet, the name of the Hebrew alphabet, and the music video is hypnotic and strange. 
In the video, Hanna plays a schoolteacher teaching a classroom of girls the Hebrew alphabet. She chants the entire cycle of the alphabet over and over with a different vowel. 
Ah Ba Ga Da … Aee Bee Gee Dee … Ooh Boo Goo Doo … 
Then she recites a Jewish prayer for rain, each line in alphabetic order. 
Raised in an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem, Hanna draws from ancient Jewish texts for her creative inspiration.
Mr Estrin talks with Ms Hanna about her video here.



The Jewniverse tells us more about Victoria Hanna here.

And here is the Aleph-Bet video.



Shabbat Shalom, World!
Good Shabbos, Universe!


Hag Sameach, New Mexico!
Good Yontif, Albuquerque!

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

ABQ Jewish Film Festival: Deli Man

A Film from the USA: The Albuquerque Film & Music Experience and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque are proud to present:


Deli Man
Sunday June 7 ~ 1:00 pm
Albuquerque JCC

For some, delicatessen food is close to a religious experience: a tender, crumbling cut of corned beef steeped in its juices; a full-bodied garlic dill pickle; spicy brown mustard with grain.

The recipes and culinary garnishes from Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Romania flowed into late 19th and early 20th century America soon became part of an American culinary and cultural vernacular – Deli.

The principal guide of Deli Man is the effusive and charming Ziggy Gruber, a third-generation delicatessen man, owner and maven (as well as a Yiddish-speaking, French-trained chef) who currently operates one of the country’s top delis, Kenny and Ziggy’s in Houston.

The story of the American deli is the story of Jews – their immigration, migration, upward mobility, and western assimilation. Jerry Stiller, Larry King and others are featured. (2014, 60 minutes)

Purchase tickets here at Hold My Ticket. View the trailer here.




Tuesday, May 19, 2015

ABQ Jewish Film Festival: Jubanos

A Film from Cuba: The Albuquerque Film & Music Experience and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque are proud to present:


Jubanos: Jews of Cuba
with Havana Curveball
Thursday June 4 ~ 7:10 pm
National Hispanic Cultural Center

Cuba is known for its revolutionary leaders, communism, cigars, and 50s cars. However, religion does not define this small island. When the Cuban Revolution hit in 1961, religion was banned, leaving the Cuban Jewish Community struggling to sustain itself for nearly three decades.

Jubanos: Jews of Cuba tells the humbling story of the 1500 Jews who remained in the country despite the difficulties. With exclusive interviews from members of the scattered Jewish community, this documentary explores how the new generation re-learned what so many had previously forgotten.

The journey to rediscovering and reviving Jewish life raises questions about faith, sustenance, strength, and the future, which the Cuban Jews continue to face up until today. (2010, 42 minutes; Spanish with English subtitles)

Purchase tickets here at Hold My Ticket. View the trailer here.




Monday, May 18, 2015

ABQ Jewish Film Festival: Havana Curveball

A Film from Cuba: The Albuquerque Film & Music Experience and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque are proud to present:


Havana Curveball
with Jubanos: Jews of Cuba
Thursday June 4 ~ 6:00 pm
National Hispanic Cultural Center

Mica is a classic young teen. Enthusiastic. Idealistic. Dreaming baseball. At 13, he is studying for his Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming of age ritual. He takes to heart his Rabbi’s requirement to help “heal the world.” Imagining himself a savior of sorts, he launches a grand plan to send baseball equipment to less fortunate kids in Cuba, the country that offered refuge to his beloved Austrian grandfather during WWII. Nearly 70 years later, Mica feels a need to repay the debt. Enthusiastically collecting bats, mitts and balls, he never considers that his good intentions might not be enough.

Havana Curveball observes Mica shift from high-pitched boy to broad-shouldered young man, as he squares off against the complexity of the adult world. After two years, he finally boards a plane to Havana with his family, 200 pounds of baseball gear, and all the rhetoric, expectations, and worries of family, friends, and history in tow. Imagining he is finally in the home stretch, his experience there is transformative. (2014, 60 minutes)

Purchase tickets here at Hold My Ticket. View the trailer here.




Friday, May 15, 2015

ABQ Jewish Film Festival: 24 Days

A Film from France: The Albuquerque Film & Music Experience and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque are proud to present:


24 Days
The True Story of the Ilan Halimi Affair
Wednesday June 3 ~ 7:00 pm
National Hispanic Cultural Center

Winner of four U.S. Film Festival Audience Awards and the Lia Award - Jerusalem Film Festival, 24 Days is a gripping and carefully-plotted thriller that tells the true story of the 2006 kidnapping-for-ransom and torture of 23 year old Jewish Ilan Halimi in a Paris suburb by The Gang of Barbarians.

Backed by a top-notch cast, director Alexandre Arcady’s white-knuckle dramatization follows the massive police manhunt and the family’s nightmarish ordeal as they race the clock to find Ilan and his abductors.

24 Days compellingly pinpoints how France continues to deal with racial tensions and anti-Semitism almost a decade later. (2014, 110 minutes French with English subtitles).

Purchase tickets here at Hold My Ticket. View the trailer here.




Thursday, May 14, 2015

ABQ Jewish Film Festival: Dancing in Jaffa

A Film from Israel: The Albuquerque Film & Music Experience and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque are proud to present:


Dancing in Jaffa
Monday June 1 ~ 7:00 pm
National Hispanic Cultural Center

Ballroom dancing bridges gaps between Jewish and Palestinian children in Israel in Dancing in Jaffa, a surprising, well-crafted, award-winning  documentary about how the celebrated dancer Pierre Dulaine, founder of Dancing Classrooms, a tremendously successful inter-ethnic program in New York, returned to help his hometown of Jaffa, which he fled as a 4-year-old in 1948.

Starting with a seemingly impossible situation, marked by deep cultural restrictions and war-forged trauma, Hilla Medalia’s film traces a slow but inexorable process of change as spitting enemies learn to tango, rumba and meringue together.

Dancing in Jaffa offers an up-close-and-personal perspective of how the future might unfold if the art of movement and dance could triumph over the politics of history and geography (2013, 90 min)

Purchase tickets here at Hold My Ticket. View the trailer here.




Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Adele in Gold

An Affirmation of Life and Art: How can a simple story - whose ending is both positive and known - be so powerful?

In an unanticipated Mother's Day special event, Abq Jew had the pleasure of escorting Great Grand Mama (and Mother-in-Law) Sheila Kronrot to a local (Century Rio 24) showing of the new film Woman in Gold.


The just-released film tells the story of Maria Altmann (Tatiana Maslany and Helen Mirren), who was forced (and able) to flee Vienna shortly after the Anschluss (March 1938) - the joining of Austria with Nazi Germany.

With the help of a young lawyer, Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), the then elderly Maria sought to recover Gustav Klimt's portrait of her aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer (Antje Traue), from the Austrian government.

The portrait , the "Mona Lisa of Austria," had been displayed at the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna since it was stolen by Nazis off the wall of Maria's family home.


The film is, as shown above, about the fight for justice. But there is much more to this very human story - about the fate of so, so many of Austria's Jews, and about the fate of one family of Austria's Jews.

In the film, Maria Altmann explains:
People see a masterpiece by one of Austria's finest artists. But I see a picture of my aunt, a woman who used to talk to me about life. We should be reunited with what is rightfully ours.
Gustav Klimt's 1907 painting The Lady In Gold is
a portrait of his friend Adele Bloch-Bauer (Antje Traue)

The power of Woman in Gold comes from its retelling of the story of one family.

The most poignant scene is not (says Abq Jew) that of Maria's ultimate vindication. Rather, it is in the flashback to her wedding, and the glittering celebration of her future that soon turned dark.

Sold for $135M in 2006, The Lady in Gold
is now at the Neue Galerie, New York

From the Neue Galerie website:
Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold
April 2, 2015 - September 7, 2015 
Note: Although the exhibition "Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold" is only on view through September 7, the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt is on permanent view at the Neue Galerie. 
"Gustav Klimt and Adele Bloch-Bauer: The Woman in Gold" is an intimate exhibition devoted to the close relationship that existed between the artist and one of his key subjects and patrons. Included in the exhibition will be a display of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, paintings, related drawings, vintage photographs, decorative arts, and archival material. 
This exhibition coincides with the opening of the historical drama "Woman in Gold," starring Helen Mirren as Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann, and Ryan Reynolds as lawyer Randol Schoenberg. The Weinstein Company is set to release the film in U.S. theaters on April 1, 2015. 
The film is based upon the incredible true story of how Altmann, working in collaboration with Schoenberg, successfully sued the Austrian Government for the return of five Klimt paintings seized by the Nazis from the Bloch-Bauer family townhouse in Vienna during World War II.
Some reviewers (like the Daily Mail, source of many of the photos in this blog post) like the film; some call the film a "must see."

Others, Abq Jew must tell you, see the lack of suspense (for those who know how it all turns out) as a serious handicap - despite Helen Mirren's outstanding performance.

Here, then, is Abq Jew's advice:

Go see the film.

Better: Go see the film and go read the book, The Lady in Gold, by Washington Post contributor Anne-Marie O'Connor.


Better yet: Go see the film and go read the book; then go participate in Sparks of Restitution, the June installment of Congregation B'nai Israel's popular Shabbat Sparks series.


More news from The Jewish Chronicle Online:
Academy award winning actress Helen Mirren is to receive the World Jewish Congress Recognition award for her role in the acclaimed film Woman in Gold.
The award is to be honoured by WJC president Ronald S Lauder in a ceremony in New York later this year. 
Mr Lauder said: 
The history of the ‘Woman in Gold’ painting exemplifies the immense suffering, painful loss and, for a prolonged period, the injustice that many Jews were subjected to during the 20th century. 
Thanks to Helen Mirren’s stunning performance, the international public will learn about this legacy which still hasn’t been addressed properly by many governments and museums.
And if you need further convincing, here is the trailer:

Friday, May 8, 2015

A-WA: Three Israeli Sisters

What is A-WA? Three letters that you may not know how to pronounce (for now). Three sisters whose sweeping and uncompromising creation will take you on an exciting journey.


So says the A-WA website. Abq Jew first learned about A-WA from this March 23 article (by the aptly-named Avishay Artsy) in Jewniverse.
The Israeli Sisters Whose Music Video is Sweeping Across the Arab World 
On March 8, a music video uploaded to YouTube flew from the Israeli desert to Yemen and through the Middle East. Its three stars, sisters Tair, Liron and Tagel Haim (not to be confused with L.A.’s three-sister rock band Haim) became immediate celebrities. 
Going by the name A-WA (pronounced Ay-wa, Arabic for “yes”), the young women sing in Arabic, wear bright pink dresses and head scarves, and tear through the desert in a Yemeni jeep. Then they dance-battle three guys (potential suitors?) wearing matching blue Adidas tracksuits. 
Their first video, Habib Galbi, which was viewed over 500,000 times around the world in the two weeks since its release, layers beautiful Yemenite melodies over irresistible hip-hop beats, creating a fast-paced, danceable fusion of Middle Eastern musical traditions.

The A-WA website provides a bit more background:
To tell the story of A-WA, we have to go a few years back, to a family who lives in the small village 'Shaharut' in southern Israel. Not too far from the Egyptian border. In beautiful prairie landscapes with magical desert sunsets, Tair, Liron and Tagel grew up - three sisters (out of six siblings) to the Haim family.

As a gift from God, all members of the Haim family are blessed with musical talent. All three sisters studied music, sang, danced and performed together and separately since a very young age. In their childhood home they listened to many different kinds of music, such as Greek music, Yemenite music, Jazz, R&B, Hip Hop, Reggae, Progressive rock and more. The inspirations that sustained them, and the warm musical home that encouraged them, have become the creative part and parcel of their lives.

A few years later, after Tair and Liron completed their studies in music and design, and before Tagel started college, they hooked up again at their parents' house. They worked in the days, and at night they would meet up and record materials in English, Hebrew and Yemenite, which always had a special place in their hearts. They filmed and uploaded their videos to YouTube.
The rest, as they say, is history. Or, as we Jews say, History.



Shabbat Shalom, Albuquerque!
Good Shabbos, New Mexico!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

The 2nd Annual ABQ Jewish Film Festival!

AFME & Abq JCC Partnership: The 2nd annual ABQ Jewish Film Festival will be the product of a new, exciting partnership between the Jewish Community Center (JCC) and Albuquerque Film and Music Experience (AFME).


The ABQ Jewish Film Festival will screen a total of five films in two venues. The line-up will showcase a rich and varied program of contemporary films from the U.S, Israel, France, and Cuba.

Movie topics and themes include: finding common ground amongst Israeli and Palestinian kids; anti-Semitism in France; baseball in Cuba; and the parallel of the New York Deli and the Jewish-American immigrant experience. Several of the screenings will also include special guests and unique experiences that will enrich the film experience.

Ivan Weiner, Executive Director of AFME, said
We enthusiastically add the Jewish Film Festival to our line-up at the Albuquerque Film & Music Experience.
Our partnership with the JCC has been very successful in providing great opportunities to the community. 
These excellent films celebrate the Jewish experience while illuminating the human experience.
Dave Simon, JCC Executive Director, said
The JCC is excited to continue to build our city’s reputation as a destination for the film experience. 
The themes of the ABQ Jewish Film Festival films have wide appeal to interest all audiences.
Screenings will be held at National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) and the Jewish Community Center (JCC). Tickets to all films are $5.


Here’s the line-up of outstanding films:

Dancing in Jaffa
Monday June 1, 7:00 pm; with Special Guest, Pierre Dulaine (NHCC)                                                
Ballroom dancing bridges gaps between Jewish and Palestinian children in Israel in Dancing in Jaffa, a surprising, well-crafted, award-winning  documentary about how the celebrated dancer Pierre Dulaine, founder of Dancing Classrooms, a tremendously successful inter-ethnic program in New York, returned to help his hometown of Jaffa, which he fled as a 4-year-old in 1948.

Starting with a seemingly impossible situation, marked by deep cultural restrictions and war-forged trauma, Hilla Medalia’s film traces a slow but inexorable process of change as spitting enemies learn to tango, rumba and meringue together. Dancing in Jaffa offers an up-close-and-personal perspective of how the future might unfold if the art of movement and dance could triumph over the politics of history and geography (2013, 90 min)

24 DAYS:  The True Story of the Ilan Halimi Affair
Wednesday June 3, 7:00 pm  (NHCC)

Winner of (4) U.S. Film Festival Audience Awards and the Lia Award - Jerusalem Film Festival, 24 DAYS is a gripping and carefully-plotted thriller that tells the true story of the 2006 kidnapping-for-ransom and torture of 23 year old Jewish Ilan Halimi in a Paris suburb by The Gang of Barbarians.

Backed by a top-notch cast, director Alexandre Arcady’s white-knuckle dramatization follows the massive police manhunt and the family’s nightmarish ordeal as they race the clock to find Ilan and his abductors.  24 DAYS compellingly pinpoints how France continues to deal with racial tensions and anti-Semitism almost a decade later. (2014, 110 minutes French with English subtitles)

Havana Curveball
Thursday June 4, 6:00 pm (NHCC)

Mica is a classic young teen. Enthusiastic. Idealistic. Dreaming baseball. At 13, he is studying for his Bar Mitzvah, the Jewish coming of age ritual. He takes to heart his Rabbi’s requirement to help “heal the world.” Imagining himself a savior of sorts, he launches a grand plan to send baseball equipment to less fortunate kids in Cuba, the country that offered refuge to his beloved Austrian grandfather during WWII. Nearly 70 years later, Mica feels a need to repay the debt. Enthusiastically collecting bats, mitts and balls, he never considers that his good intentions might not be enough.

Havana Curveball observes Mica shift from high-pitched boy to broad-shouldered young man, as he squares off against the complexity of the adult world. After two years, he finally boards a plane to Havana with his family, 200 pounds of baseball gear, and all the rhetoric, expectations, and worries of family, friends, and history in tow. Imagining he is finally in the home stretch, his experience there is transformative. (2014, 60 minutes)

Jubanos: The Jews of Cuba
Thursday June 4, 7:10 pm (NHCC)

Cuba is known for its revolutionary leaders, communism, cigars, and 50s cars. However, religion does not define this small island. When the Cuban Revolution hit in 1961, religion was banned, leaving the Cuban Jewish Community struggling to sustain itself for nearly three decades.

Jubanos: The Jews of Cuba tells the humbling story of the 1500 Jews who remained in the country despite the difficulties. With exclusive interviews from members of the scattered Jewish community, this documentary explores how the new generation re-learned what so many had previously forgotten. The journey to rediscovering and reviving Jewish life raises questions about faith, sustenance, strength, and the future, which the Cuban Jews continue to face up until today. (2010, 42 minutes; Spanish with English subtitles)

Deli Man
Sunday June 7, 1:00 pm (JCC) 
With special Knish, Hot Dog, & pickle lunch @ $5 at 12:30 pm

For some, delicatessen food is close to a religious experience:  a tender, crumbling cut of corned beef steeped in its juices; a full-bodied garlic dill pickle; spicy brown mustard with grain. The recipes and culinary garnishes from Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Romania flowed into late 19th and early 20th century America soon became part of an American culinary and cultural vernacular – Deli.

The principal guide of Deli Man is the effusive and charming Ziggy Gruber, a third-generation delicatessen man, owner and maven (as well as a Yiddish-speaking, French-trained chef) who currently operates one of the country’s top delis, Kenny and Ziggy’s in Houston.  The story of the American deli is the story of Jews – their immigration, migration, upward mobility, and western assimilation. Jerry Stiller, Larry King and others are featured. (2014, 60 minutes)

Monday, May 4, 2015

Summer 2015 @ OASIS Albuquerque

Great Courses @ OASIS:  You know about OASIS, right?  Abq Jew has featured OASIS Albuquerque on several occasions, and lists OASIS Abq courses of Jewish interest on his Learn/FiftyPlus page.

OASIS (as stated on the organization's website) is


 ... a unique educational program for adults age 50-plus who want to learn, grow and explore new ideas. We promote successful aging through lifelong learning, health programs and volunteer engagement.

NEW! OASIS Abq and Abq Jew 
are now Community Partners!

 OASIS Albuquerque has just announced their Summer 2015 line-up of classes.

Registration will open on Wednesday May 6.

Executive Director Kathleen Raskob continues to make sure there are plenty of courses of Jewish interest.  This session's courses and instructors include:

Religions & Funeral Traditions
Wed 20 May 2015 @ 1:00 pm - #88
Instructor: Gail Rubin
What It Is: Learn what you need to know about funerals for different religious traditions -- Catholic, Jewish, Native American, various Christian denominations, and more. Whether you will be attending or coordinating an event, get acquainted with the diversity of these religious funeral traditions. Some traditions will be illustrated with film clips.

Poetry from the Oral Tradition: Simon Ortiz of Acoma Pueblo
Thu 21 May 2015 @ 10:30 am - #59
Instructor: Norma Libman
What It Is: Simon Ortiz is an author, educator and poet. He has written several books, yet he comes from a culture with an oral tradition. What does it really mean for a language to exist without a written component? And how has Acoma Pueblo, and Simon Ortiz himself, bridged the gap from oral to written communication? In this presentation Norma Libman will address these questions and look at the meanings behind some of Ortiz's poems.

Jewish Poetry in Words & Music
Tue 16 & 23 May 2015 @ 1:00 pm - #60
Instructor: Paul Citrin
What It Is: In two sessions, we will share highlights of three millennia of Jewish poetry from Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, and English sources. The poetry will be drawn from both secular and religious contexts. Much of this work has been set to music which we will hear. These sessions are meant to contribute to the artistic and aesthetic sensibilities of the learners.

Myths & Misconceptions About Shariah
Wed 10 June @ 10:30 am - #90
Instructor: Imam Shafi Abdul Aziz
What It Is: In this class, we will examine the correct meaning and practice of Islamic Shariah to dispel popular misperceptions. Based on a belief system of a divine origin, Shariah envisages both a religion and a social order. Core textual, theological, and legal components, along with historical impact, will be discussed. We will examine different phases of Shariah through its sources and methodologies leading to development of schools of opinions and legal theories.

The World of Arlo Guthrie
Thu 2 July 2015 @ 1:00 pm - #69
Instructor: Jane Ellen 
What It Is: Many Arlo Guthrie (1947- ) biographies state that he was born with a guitar in one hand and a harmonica in the other, in Coney Island, NY. Son of folk singer Woody Guthrie, Arlo grew up surrounded by famous folk musicians of the day. Since his first performance at the age of 13, Guthrie has worked continuously, toured the world as a successful multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, activist, and a natural-born storyteller, despite having only three mainstream hits to his credit.

When Do We Die & What Happens When We Do?
Wed 5 Aug 2015 @ 10:30 am - #96
Instructor: Harry Rosenfeld
What It Is: Using Biblical and other sources we will look at how the definition of death has changed and how our beliefs about afterlife develop and affect our attitudes about death.

You’ve Got a Friend in Carole King 
Mon 10 Aug 2015 @ 1:00 pm - #74
Instructor: Jane Ellen
What It Is: Singer/songwriter Carole King (1942- ) began her career in the 1960s writing hit songs with then husband Gerry Goffin. A decade later, she became an award-winning performer in her own right when the album Tapestry topped the US charts in 1971 for 15 weeks and remained on the charts for six years. Recipient of the Gershwin Prize from the Library of Congress in 2012, King has written the musical soundtrack of our lives across five decades.