Jewish History

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 explosion of Jewish culture in the region includes the Gershman Y's venerable Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, which continues its explorations of the Jewish experience through Nov. 18. Films and documentaries from Argentina, France, Germany, Israel, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States reflect the diversity of the Jewish film world. According to Olivia Antsis, director of the festival, the films transcend religion and have wide appeal to audiences of various religions.

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....

Joe Loewenberg held the curved ram's horn to his mouth, pursed his lips, took a deep breath and blew. Nothing. Another deep breath, another blow, and a low-pitched steady sound, similar to a deep hum, filled the air. He smiled. "Yes!" he said. Loewenberg, of Wynnewood, was learning to blow the shofar, the horn that is used by a member of a synagogue to herald high Jewish holidays, particularly Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. This lesson was one of a series of workshops during the sixth annual "Torathon" held the evening of Feb. 1 at Temple Beth Hillel/Beth El in Wynnewood.

Gratz College has the teachers. But it is the Jewish community in Minnesota's Twin Cities - Minneapolis and St. Paul - that needs their expertise. Gratz educators and Minneapolis Jewish Federation leaders hope to bridge the gap with a pioneer program called Teaching Diligently. Using videoconferencing and the Internet to unite academics with students 1,200 miles away, Gratz and the federation hope to develop a cadre of top-quality Jewish educators in Minnesota and, ultimately, across the nation.

William Glicksman, an educator, historian and author who chronicled the Holocaust and celebrated Jewish culture after surviving a Nazi concentration camp, died Friday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He was 87 and lived in Overbrook Park. A native of Poland, Dr. Glicksman led a remarkable life that began in Czestochowa, his birthplace, and eventually brought him to Philadelphia. His first wife and son perished in the Holocaust, as did his parents and many other relatives.

In sentencing Yigal Amir, the slayer of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, to life in prison, the judge, a respected Talmudic scholar, reminded us that Amir's cruelty was a premeditated attack by a lawless Jew, not, as the accused claimed, a commandment required by Jewish law. While Amir's mad act may have been the work of an isolated individual, his zealotry blossomed in the heated rhetoric of a deeply divided Israeli society. Rabin's murder will always be a deep and tragic scar in Israeli and Jewish history.

Susan Levey, the new educational director of Beth David Reform Congregation's religious school, sees religious education as "vital and crucial to the survival of the Jewish family. " So, when she starts her duties on Sept. 13, she intends to get the families of the students involved as much as possible. Before joining the Gladwyne congregation, Levey was a teacher and administrator in the religious school of Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Melrose Park, where she still lives.

The recent clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian protesters seem to pose a profound historical irony. For 2,000 years, since their exile from the land of Israel, Jews have been a politically powerless minority. The Jewish people endured discrimination, persecution, expulsion, pogroms, and finally, the Holocaust. Israeli Jews now control the fate of another minority, the Palestinian Arabs. Paradoxically, the Jews are practicing upon the Palestinians some of the same measures they endured at the hand of others.

Hanukah, the eight-day Jewish festival honoring the long-ago heroics of the Maccabees, began last night. Appropriately, a concert featuring the contemporary Jewish musical ensemble Safam is scheduled for the Keswick Theater Sunday. A six-member group based in the Boston area, Safan has an extensive repertoire that draws from Zionist anthems, protest songs, whimsical rock-and- roll ditties, pop, folk, klezmer, cantorial and even reggae. Although its concert will not dwell exclusively on Hanukah, a portion will be devoted to the "Festival of Lights.