2026-09-03T00:00:00-04:00
  • “Fritz Ascher: Themes and Variations”
    A Digital Exhibition Experience

    This digital exhibition includes important examples from the oeuvre of the German Jewish Expressionist artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970). Ascher’s career extended from prior to the First World War until the late 1960s. However, Ascher’s artistic trajectory was interrupted due to persecution under National Socialism, and he spent much of the Second World War in hiding, concealed in a family friend’s basement. Ascher’s work consequently encompasses both the vibrant artistic scene in early-20th-century Germany, as well as the trauma and aesthetic shifts consequent of Ascher’s persecution and deprivations during the twelve years of the Nazi regime. These selected works are representative not only of critical moments in Ascher’s personal and artistic development, but also of key themes that occupied Ascher’s [...]

  • Reconciling Identities:
    Marcel Janco and the Romanian Avant-Garde in the Interwar Years
    Presentation by Amelia Miholca
    followed by a conversation with Nicola Baird, PhD, London (UK)

    ONLINE VA, United States

    In her presentation, Dr. Miholca will spotlight the artistic and historical significance of Marcel Janco and the Romanian avant-garde group during a period of tremendous creative experimentation and productivity, when artists and writers merged their Jewish identity with the international identity they sought to foster through their network of dadaist and constructivist magazines. Janco, alongside other Romanian-Jewish artists like M. H. Maxy, Victor Brauner, Mattis Teutsch, and Benjamin Fondane, wished to capitalize on the Dada movement initiated by Janco and Tristan Tzara—alongside Hugo Ball, in Zurich, 1916—with their own avant-garde movement in Bucharest that mainly emerged through magazines such as Contimporanul (1922-1932), 75HP (1924) and Integral (1925-1928). The presentation will be followed by a conversation with Nicola Baird, PhD. [...]

    Free
  • Newish and Jewish from Europe:
    Refugees, Survivors and the Spread of Modernism
    Presentation by Samuel D. Gruber

    ONLINE VA, United States

    The architecture of the American Jewish community was transformed following World War II by émigré and refugee architects engaged to design synagogues and Jewish Community Centers. Eric Mendelsohn’s synagogues for St. Louis, Cleveland and elsewhere are well known but the work of Fritz Nathan, Mendelsohn’s German-Jewish contemporary, is virtually forgotten. Image above: Hamden, CT, Mishkan Israel sanctuary, photo S. Gruber, 2011. Architects: Fritz Nathan and Bertram Bassuk, Ark: Ben Shahn, Stained Glass: Robert Pinart and Jean-Jacques Duval REGISTER HERE Erich Mendelsohn, sketch for Congregation Bnai Amoona, St Louis, MO Erich Mendelsohn, Model for Congregation Bnai Amoona, St Louis, MO Nathan arrived in the United States [...]

    Free
  • SAVE THE DATE!
    Understanding Past Realities of the Holocaust.
    Photography versus Art
    With Dr. Christoph Kreutzmüller (Berlin) and Dr. Rachel Perry (Boston)
    UN Headquarters, New York

    ONLINE VA, United States

    This event will bring together leading scholars to examine how visual media contribute to our understanding of the Holocaust. Berlin-based Dr. Christoph Kreutzmüller and Boston-based Dr. Rachel Perry will interpret visual narratives that serve as both powerful and complex testimonies to lived experience. Through a detailed visual analysis, they will examine what photographs and works of art reveal about the individuals and communities depicted, as well as the embedded social dynamics and historical contexts. The discussion will also address the interpretive challenges inherent in visual sources. What are the strengths and limitations of photography compared to artistic representation? How do intention, perspective, and medium influence what is shown—or left out? By examining both photographic and artistic documents, the event [...]

    Free