Jewish History

SHANGHAI - Not far from the Bund district, with its hordes of tourists and view of the city's famous skyscrapers across the Huangpu River, is a quiet neighborhood called Hongkou. Walk here along Zhoushan Road and you'll stumble on a sign that designates an otherwise unremarkable building at No. 59 as a landmark. "During the World War II, a number of Jewish refugees lived in this house, among whom is Michael Blumenthal, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury of the Carter Government," the sign reads in imperfect English.

Great balls of fire! Who would have guessed that Jerry Lee Lewis would be the inspiration behind such a weighty tome as In Search of American Jewish Culture (Brandeis/New England, $26)? But he was, says author Stephen J. Whitfield, who recalled in a recent interview how he had been "chatting with a student several years ago who was wearing a kippah skullcap and who wanted to write a paper on Jerry Lee Lewis. The discrepancy between so observant a Jew being enthusiastic about Southern rock and roll of an era long before he was born made me intrigued by how easy it is to reconcile being Jewish and being American.

1492. Has there been a more explosive time in Europe? It's the year when Christopher Columbus set sail. Yet it's also the year when the adventurer's royal sponsors let the Inquisition run amok in Spain. And the year when that nation, which for decades was the home of an extraordinary renaissance of Jewish and Arabic learning and art, expelled the Jews. (Not long after, the Muslims were expelled, too.) These events are woven into a beautiful tapestry in Pennsylvania author Mitchell James Kaplan's debut novel, By Fire, By Water , which has been chosen as the region's annual One Book, One Jewish Community selection.

Selected items from the comic-book collection of Steven Bergson, as well as the work of contemporary Jewish cartoon artists, are on display now through July 31 at Temple Judea Museum of Keneseth Israel, 8339 Old York Rd., Elkins Park. The exhibition looks at how cartooning has been used to explore Jewish history, tradition and fantasy, museum curator Rita Poley said. Some of the works are controversial, "as comic art is usually over the top and lacking in subtlety," she said. The items from the Bergson collection include comics about intermarriage, golems, biblical and literary characters, the Holocaust and Israel.

For European Jewry, 1492 is not a year worth remembering only for Columbus' discovery of America, under the aegis of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. For them, that was the year those same monarchs decreed that the Jews of Spain must either convert to Catholicism or leave. It was the beginning of the European Diaspora, which would culminate in the horror of the Holocaust 450 years later. Transfer a few numbers, and you get 1942 - also a year of bitter memories, the time of the odious Wannsee Konferenz, during which Hitler and his men plotted, in a lakeside villa near Berlin, the final solution to the "Jewish problem.

Like the place's convoluted name, the twin epigraphs that greet visitors entering the new Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust hint at the complexity of its undertaking. "Remember . . . Never forget," says the first, from Deuteronomy. "There is hope for your future," counters the second, from Jeremiah. Just as telling as the dual epigraphs - an exhortation to recollect past injuries paired with the promise of better times ahead - is their source.

The Jewish community is like a jelly doughnut to Rabbi David Klatzker, the new leader of Beth Tikvah-B'nai Jeshurun in Erdenheim. "It's flaky on the edges," Klatzker said. "There are a number of people who are not committed. " "But as you get closer to the center, there's a lot of good stuff," he said. "There are a number of people who are deeply committed, and those people give me hope, give me the strength to carry on. " Klatzker, 37, began full-time duties this week at the synagogue.

It's apt, if sadly so, that photographs of cemeteries should play such a central role in a new exhibition at the National Museum of Jewish History. The horrors of mass death, along with the preservation of memory and the responsibilities of the survivor, are inescapable themes of 20th-century Jewish history. But the Gratz College-sponsored show, "From Salonika to Curacao: A Sephardic Odyssey," also takes us back to a time when cemeteries connoted not extinction, but rootedness, tradition and communal ties.

The rich stories involving a golem - a fictional Jewish guardian imbued with the dangerous power to protect at all costs - make perfect sense in light of Jewish history. A golem is like a security blanket, but much scarier: It provides comfort but also must fight oppression. The most famous golem story - they are all tales, with golem springing from an ancient Hebrew word that means a shapeless form - is set in 16th-century Prague. In the world-premiere play called The Golem, which Ego Po Classic Theater opened Thursday night with an experienced cast and unwavering sincerity - there's a neat twist.

In its newest incarnation, New York's Jewish Museum is returning to its roots - both sets of them. Founded in 1904 as a repository for Jewish cultural history, it became known around mid-century as a leading venue for exhibiting avant-garde art. More recently, it has moved toward interdisciplinary exhibitions - including last year's "Bridges and Boundaries: African Americans and American Jews," which successfully fused art and social history....

JERUSALEM - Ben-Zion Netanyahu, the historian and Zionist activist whose skepticism about peacemaking with the Arabs helped to shape the world outlook of his son, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, died on Monday. He was 102. The Prime Minister's office said in a statement that he died at home. It did not give a cause of death, but he had been ill recently. Born Ben-Zion Mileikowsky, in Warsaw, Poland, Netanyahu was a devout follower of revisionist Zionist leader Zeev Jabotinsky, who advocated Jewish military strength and opposed partitioning Palestine between Arabs and Jews.

Alfred Weisskopf, age 16, died in Auschwitz in 1944. So did Eva Bulova, age 15. And Zuzana Winterova, who was just 11. But Dotan Yarden, Haley Weiss, and Dana Handleman are very much alive. Along with 23 other young actors in the play I Never Saw Another Butterfly, which will be performed Thursday at the National Museum of American Jewish History, they are capturing the voices of children who lived in the Terezin concentration camp during the Holocaust. Between 1941 and 1945, 15,000 children were transported to Terezin, created by the Nazis as a "model ghetto.

The rich stories involving a golem - a fictional Jewish guardian imbued with the dangerous power to protect at all costs - make perfect sense in light of Jewish history. A golem is like a security blanket, but much scarier: It provides comfort but also must fight oppression. The most famous golem story - they are all tales, with golem springing from an ancient Hebrew word that means a shapeless form - is set in 16th-century Prague. In the world-premiere play called The Golem, which Ego Po Classic Theater opened Thursday night with an experienced cast and unwavering sincerity - there's a neat twist.

WE LIKE TO picture our rock stars spending their tour off-days engaging in various manifestations of debauchery. But if you're Max Weinberg, you're spending your Tuesday night in Philly in a most un-debauched manner. Tonight, Weinberg's boss, Bruce Springsteen, and his co-workers in the E Street Band are performing in Boston. Wednesday, they open their sold-out, two-night Wells Fargo Center engagement. In between, Weinberg has a date to speak at the National Museum of American Jewish History on Independence Mall.

Eric Kimmel's children's book Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins is a story that, aside from being engaging, is also gently subversive and proudly ethnic. In Gas & Electric Arts' staged adaptation, Jacqueline Pardue Goldfinger adds live music, puppetry, and another layer of engagement with an Alice in Wonderland backstory that connects the book's wandering Jewish hero with a present-day audience of youngsters. Jewish history is, of course, filled with some pretty rough stuff, and Hershel of Ostropol (David Blatt)

Perhaps the stickiest issue of all surrounding the opening of the National Museum of American Jewish History last November was whether it would be open on Saturdays. On the one hand, Saturday is potentially the best-attended day of the week for any such institution. But on the other hand, it is also the Sabbath day for observant Jews; operating Saturday could be perceived as a sign of disrespect. But in Solomon-like fashion, a compromise was conjured: The museum is open Saturday, but because Jewish law prohibits cash transactions on Sabbath, tickets must either be purchased in advance, or with credit cards at the museum (the transactions are posted electronically the next day)

Nearly a year after its celebrity-packed opening, the National Museum of American Jewish History has sharply reduced its attendance expectations and stepped up the call for donations to support its day-to-day operations. The slumping economy and a cold, snowy launch season combined to depress ticket sales at the $142 million gallery overlooking Independence Mall. In addition, officials say, the initial projection of 250,000 visitors annually was unrealistic. They have set a new benchmark of 125,000, which they anticipate reaching by the first anniversary on Nov. 26. The good news on the eve of the High Holidays - starting at sundown Wednesday with Rosh Hashanah - is that attendance has been trending up, according to museum chief executive officer and president Michael Rosenzweig.

When you told someone you were from Marshall and Porter, you were saying you grew up around the brown-brick building where Eddie Fisher sang in the chorus, where the elders played gin rummy, and young guns learned to arc two-handed set shots under impossibly low ceilings. Today this hub of the downtown universe is called the Jacob and Ethel Stiffel Senior Center, but it was born 83 years ago as the Jewish Education Center No. 2, a safe, comfortable haven for the vibrant community of immigrants from Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe.

Ivy L. Barsky, deputy director of New York's Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, has been named museum director and chief operating officer of the National Museum of American Jewish History, in Philadelphia. Museum officials cited Barsky's "depth of experience and passion for her work" in announcing the appointment to the museum, which moved last fall to a new Market Street facility across from Independence Mall. "She will bring an important voice as we create new exhibitions and continue to develop our education programs," museum cochairs George M. Ross and Ronald Rubin and president and chief executive Michael Rosenzweig said in a joint statement.

SHANGHAI - Not far from the Bund district, with its hordes of tourists and view of the city's famous skyscrapers across the Huangpu River, is a quiet neighborhood called Hongkou. Walk here along Zhoushan Road and you'll stumble on a sign that designates an otherwise unremarkable building at No. 59 as a landmark. "During the World War II, a number of Jewish refugees lived in this house, among whom is Michael Blumenthal, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury of the Carter Government," the sign reads in imperfect English.