BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Fritz Ascher Society - ECPv6.15.17.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Fritz Ascher Society X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Fritz Ascher Society REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20240310T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20241103T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20250309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20251102T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20260308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20261101T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251201T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251201T200000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061819 CREATED:20251105T002907Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251217T202616Z UID:9238-1764613800-1764619200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Resistance and Art:The “Red Orchestra” Anti-Nazi Group in BerlinPresentation by Stefan Roloff\, Berlin (Germany)School of Visual Arts\, 133/141 West 21st Street\, Room 101C\, New York\, NY DESCRIPTION:BFA Visual and Critical Studies\, the SVA Honors Program and the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art host a lecture by painter and filmmaker Stefan Roloff\, exploring the visual art and resistance of three members of the “Red Orchestra” underground anti-Nazi group.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImage above: Katja Meirowsky\, Photo of cabaret performance at the jazz club “Die Badewanne” [“The Bathtub”] in Berlin-Wilmersdorf\, 1949/50. \n\n\n\n\nThe so-called “Red Orchestra” fought against the Third Reich within Germany from 1933 to 1942. The Gestapo labeled them as Communists and traitors\, a theory that was upheld by Allied Secret Services until recently. Historians now officially recognize their work as that of the largest and most diverse civil anti-Nazi resistance group. The participants held a variety of political and religious beliefs while representing the gamut of German society. Many artists were among them and forty percent were women. Putting an end to Hitler was their common goal. In 1942\, more than 50 members were betrayed and murdered. \n\n\n\nMietje Bontjes van Beek\, French Prisoners of War on Public Train System\, ink\, watercolor\, 1942 \nKatja Meirowsky\, Trying to Hide Strelow\, gouache \n\n\n\n\nStefan Roloff will talk about them through the stories of three young painters whose work reflects their exposure to death\, atrocity and resistance in a totalitarian empire: \nKatja Meirowsky\, a Jewish painter and performance artist managed to hide her identity from the Nazis and hid persecuted people in her studio. After the war her experiences resonated in a powerful multi-media project she created in collaboration with fellow artists. Mietje Bontjes van Beek secretly helped French prisoners of war under the radar of their watching guards. Her subsequent drawings transmit a feeling of their encounters. Rainer Küchenmeister became a painter while incarcerated at the age of sixteen\, inspired by a fellow female inmate and resister who was later beheaded. After the war his work was shown at documenta among other venues. \n\n\n\n\n\nCabaret performance at the jazz club “Die Badewanne” [“The Bathtub”] in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Costume design by Katja Meirowsky \n\nRainer Kuechenmeister Large Figure\, mixed media on Novopan\, 1976 \n\nStefan Roloff is an independent artist and filmmaker working in Berlin and New York. In 1984\, he was invited to experiment on prototypes of digital video and imaging computers at the New York Institute of Technology where he produced videos with Peter Gabriel and Suicide. He received a 1989 fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts for his pioneering digital work\, which has been shown world-wide in museums and galleries. In 1997 he began work on his second documentary film “The Red Orchestra\,” a portrait of his late father\, Helmut Roloff\, a resistance fighter against the Nazis\, which was nominated best foreign film 2005 by the Women Critics Circle. For some years the subject of resistance remained a driving force in Stefan Roloff’s work. He created video-portraits of 80 dissidents from former Communist East Germany\, resulting in a series of installations. Among other works he is currently working on a project about the smashing of monuments and a graphic novel-style feature about the Red Orchestra. \nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \n\n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/red-orchestra/ LOCATION:School of Visual Arts\, 133 West 21st Street\, New York\, 10011\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/029-Han-g.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="School of Visual Arts":MAILTO:jcohan2@sva.edu END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251119T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251119T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061819 CREATED:20251023T104405Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251121T120038Z UID:9228-1763553600-1763557200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:From Vienna to Movies: Costume Designer Ruth Morley at 100\, a birthday commemoration. Presentation by Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie DESCRIPTION:In this virtual event\, the life and work of Costume Designer Ruth Morley will be discussed by her daughter Melissa Hacker and Susan Gammie\, her assistant\, protégé and close friend. \n\nRuth Morley (1925-1991) fled her childhood home in Vienna on a Kindertransport as an unaccompanied child refugee\, arrived in New York City as a teenager\, and became a noted costume designer whose career spanned decades and disciplines\, including dance\, opera\, theater\, film and television. Her film credits include American classics Tootsie\, Annie Hall\, Taxi Driver\, The Chosen\, Kramer vs Kramer and The Hustler; her theater\, opera and dance credits include Death of Salesman (with Dustin Hoffman)\, The Threepenny Opera\, Deathtrap\, Miracle Worker (stage and film\, for the film\, she received an Oscar nomination)\, Billy Budd\, the Golem\, and many more. Television includes Playing for Time with Vanessa Redgrave and Mussolini with George C Scott and Robert Downey Jr. Over her expansive career of nearly 40 years\, she was an inspiration to the many young designers she taught (at New York University and Brandeis) and mentored. While her career was cut short when she died of breast cancer in 1991 at age 65\, her contribution to costume design has not ended. In her centennial year\, the time is right for commemorating and honoring her legacy. \nImage: Ruth Morley at her Desk\, not dated. \n\n\n\n\nMelissa Hacker is the daughter of a Kindertransport survivor from Vienna\, Austria\, and the Executive Director of the Kindertransport Association. Melissa is a filmmaker who made her directing debut with the documentary My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports\, which was short-listed for Academy Award nomination and shown worldwide. Honors received For Ex Libris\, A Life in Bookplates\, Melissa’s current work in progress\, include a Fulbright Artist-in-Residence award in Vienna\, and residencies at Yaddo\, VCCA\, Playa\, Willapa Bay AIR\, Saltonstall\, Millay\, and the LABA Laboratory for Jewish Culture. \n\n\nMelissa has spoken internationally on the Kindertransports\, consulted on exhibits including Rescuing Children on the Brink of War created at the Center for Jewish History in New York and opening at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in September 2025\, and Without a Home: Kindertransports from Vienna\, at the Vienna Jewish Museum. Melissa is the editor of two Academy Award nominated documentary films\, a wandering professor\, most recently in Yangon\, Myanmar\, and serves on the Governing Board of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants. \n\n\nSusan Gammie:  Susan is grateful for Ruth’s influence in her life\, first as her assistant and then as her protégé and close friend.  She was Ruth’s assistant for 5 years working in both film and theatre\, on films including “Tootsie” and “The Money Pit” and the Broadway production of Death of a Salesman starring Dustin Hoffman that was later adapted for film. Her years as Ruth’s assistant left her well-prepared for her own work in independent film\, as costume designer on My Little Girl” (James Earl Jones\, Geraldine Page)\, “A Gathering of Old Men” (Holly Hunter\, Lou Gossett Jr.)\, “Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz: A Marriage” (Jane Alexander and Christopher Plummer)\, and Lee Grant’s “Hard Promises” (Sissy Spacek and William Petersen).   \n\n\nHer career took an unexpected turn when ABC television sought to modernize the production values on its long running soap opera One Life to Live and Susan was hired to create a more character- driven look for the show. Susan stayed at One Life for 21 years\, and designed over 5000 episodes\, receiving 10 Emmy nominations and 3 Emmy awards along the way. A lifelong political and community activist\, Susan’s career took one more turn when\, in 2015 she became the head of the Film and Television Department at United Scenic Artists\, IATSE Local USA 829. She retired from her job at the Union in 2022\, but still serves the Local in an elected capacity\, as an Eastern Region Board Member Rep. She also has served for 10 years on Manhattan Community Board 2\, where she is Vice Chair of its Landmarks and Public Aesthetics Committee. \n\n\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \n\nMelissa Hacker \n\nSusan Gammie \n\nThis is one of a trio of events celebrating her centennial year: In February 2026\, the New Plaza Cinema in New York will host a screening series of selected films\, and on March 12\, 2026\, the American Jewish Historical Society with host a panel discussion with Susan Gammie\, Deborah Nadoolman Landis\, Director\, David C. Copley Center for Costume Design\, UCLA School of Theater\, Film & Television\, and special guests\, moderated by New York Times bestselling author Julie Salamon (The Devil’s Candy\, Net of Dreams\, Wendy and the Lost Boys). \n\n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/ruth-morley/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Ruth_at_desk-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251112T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251112T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061819 CREATED:20251019T123303Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251112T183910Z UID:9220-1762948800-1762952400@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Confronting the Holocaust in Midcentury American ArtPresentation by Jennifer McComas\, Bloomington (Indiana) DESCRIPTION:The Holocaust’s profound impact on midcentury American art has been underrecognized and understudied. Jennifer McComas\, curator of the current exhibition Remembrance and Renewal: American Artists and the Holocaust\, 1940-1970 at Indiana University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art and primary author of the accompanying catalogue\, explores the ways that American artists—American-born\, immigrants\, refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe\, and Holocaust survivors—confronted the Holocaust in their work during the war and in the decades just after. \n\nImage above: Anna Walinska (American\, born England\, 1906-1997)\, Survivors – Exodus\, 1958. Oil on canvas\, 60 x 84 in. (152.4 x 213.4 cm). Gift of Rosina Rubin\, Eskenazi Museum of Art\, Indiana University\, 2023.29. © Atelier Anna Walinska. Photo: Shanti Knight. \n\nIn this talk\, McComas describes how midcentury artists—employing a wide range of aesthetic and stylistic approaches—often alluded to the atrocities indirectly\, through symbolism\, abstraction\, references to Jewish texts and ideas\, or simply through titles. Some made private work not meant for sale or exhibition\, while others proposed designs for publicly sited Holocaust memorials. Some memorialized family members who had fallen victim to the Nazis\, while others grappled with how to visualize more abstract concepts: evil\, memory\, or renewal. Her talk provides new insight into modernist art history and Jewish American history. \n\nJennifer McComas is Curator of European and American Art at the Eskenazi Museum of Art\, Indiana University\, and is also an affiliated faculty member with the university’s Jewish Studies Program. She established and manages the museum’s World War II-Era Provenance Research Project and is now working on projects exploring experience and identity in the twentieth century. Dr. McComas has lectured widely and contributed to a range of academic publications. Her research has received support from the Henry Luce Foundation\, the Terra Foundation for American Art\, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. \nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \n\nAbraham Rattner (American\, 1893-1978)\, Place of Darkness\, 1943. Oil on canvas\, 38 5/8 x 58 1/1 in. (98.1 x 148.6 cm). Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Henry R. Hope\, Eskenazi Museum of Art\, Indiana University\, 58.42. © Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art\, St. Petersburg College\, Tarpon Springs\, Florida. Photo: Shanti Knight. \n\nRuth Weisberg (American\, born 1942)\, Journey I\, from The Shtetl: A Journey and a Memorial\, 1971. Aquatint and etching in black on white wove paper\, sheet: 15 5/8 x 18 in. (39.7 x 45.7 cm). Edition 7 of 55. Museum purchase with funds from Paula W. Sunderman\, PhD\, Eskenazi Museum of Art\, Indiana University\, 2024.250.6. Photo: Courtesy Jack Rutberg Fine Arts\, Pasadena\, California \n\nThe exhibition Remembrance and Renewal: American Artists and the Holocaust\, 1940-1970 is on view at the Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University in Bloomington\, Indiana\, until December 14\, 2025. \nRemembrance and Renewal is the first exhibition to examine the impact of the Holocaust on the development of midcentury American art. It brings together 74 works of art from collections nationwide\, featuring a wide range of aesthetic approaches by artists both canonical and little known. \nAn accompanying catalogue was published by Yale University Press. \n\nEXHIBITION LINKBOOK LINK\nInstallation view\, Remembrance and Renewal: American Artists and the Holocaust\, 1940-1970\, Eskenazi Museum of Art\, fall 2025. Photo: Shanti Knight. \n\nInstallation view\, Remembrance and Renewal: American Artists and the Holocaust\, 1940-1970\, Eskenazi Museum of Art\, fall 2025. Photo: Shanti Knight. \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/holocaust_american_art/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Walinska-Survivors.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061819 CREATED:20250710T194129Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251022T184604Z UID:9136-1761134400-1761138000@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Matisse at War. Art and Resistance in Nazi Occupied France Book talk by Christopher C. Gorham DESCRIPTION:In this book talk\, author Christopher C. Gorham speaks about the artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and his steadfastness to live and work during the years of World War II and the Nazi occupation of France. \n\nWhen the Degenerate Art exbibit opened in Munich in the summer of 1937\, works by notable foreign modernists were denigrated along with German artists. Henri Matisse’s Blue Window (1913) was legally seized by the Nazi regime for inclusion in the traveling exhibit\, and his work was banned from German museums. \n\nHenri Matisse was among the modernists derided by the Nazis. That did not stop them from stealing his art. At the Jeu de Paume Museum\, Paris\, Dec. 2\, 1941 Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (seated\, lower left) ogles two paintings by Henri Matisse and stolen from dealer Paul Rosenberg. Archives des Musées Nationaux. \n\nEven in poor health during the Occupation\, Henri Matisse was driven to create. Here\, he sits in bed at Hôtel Régina in September 1942 with his brushes in hand. © André Ostier\, 2025. All rights reserved \n\nMatisse continued to be an enemy of the Third Reich following Germany’s subjugation of France in 1940. Despite entreaties to flee France\, Matisse defiantly remained. But decades of his work were at risk: his personal collection was safeguarded in a Paris bank vault but subject to German “removal men.” One such removal man was Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring\, Nazi Germany’s second-in-command\, who took possession of several Matisse works which he had “carefully vetted.” \n\n\nPoet Louis Aragon\, a friend of Matisse\, said that the star-shapes in The Fall of Icarus stood for “bursting shells.” Archives Henri Matisse\, all rights reserved. © 2025 Succession H. Matisse /Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York. \n\nTo many wartime observers\, Matisse’s cut-out Monsieur Loyal resembled the profile of General Charles de Gaulle. © 2025 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York. \n\nThe stakes were high for Matisse\, but even higher for his children. His son Jean was aiding British intelligence in the South; his son Pierre was helping artists like Marc Chagall escape to New York; and his beloved daughter Marguerite ferried intelligence for a Resistance network. Despite his anxiety over the fate of his family\, Matisse persevered in his art\, creating a groundbreaking series of images he called Jazz (another so-called “degenerate” artform). Henri Matisse’s steadfastness to live and work during the years of war and Occupation made the white-haired artist “a beacon of hope for the young.” \n\nPenguin Random House 2025 \nChristopher C. Gorham \n\nCHRISTOPHER C. GORHAM is a lawyer\, educator\, and acclaimed author of THE CONFIDANTE (a Goodreads Choice Award finalist in History/Biography) and MATISSE AT WAR (Citadel\, Sept. 30\, 2025). He is a frequent speaker at conferences\, literary events\, and book club gatherings. He lives in Boston\, and can be found at ChristopherCGorham.com and on social media @christophercgorham. \n\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \nYOU CAN ORDER THE BOOK HERE\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/matisse/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/images-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250930T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250930T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061819 CREATED:20250728T203914Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250930T174426Z UID:9153-1759233600-1759237200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Ossip Klarwein (1893-1970): an Architect’s Journey from Berlin to Jerusalem Presentation by Jacqueline Hénard\, Berlin (Germany) DESCRIPTION:In this virtual event\, Jacqueline Hénard speaks about the architect Ossip (also: Joseph) Klarwein (1893-1970)\, a pioneer of the avant-garde\, whose works – including iconic buildings such as the church at Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin and the Knesset in Jerusalem – built bridges between expressionist tradition and radical modernism. \nImage above: Ossip Klarwein\, Knesset in Jerusalem (Israeli parliament). Photo front side\, 2022. Wikimedia Commons Clema12\, CC BY-SA 4.0 \n\nOssip Klarwein was born in 1893 in Warsaw. Due to pogroms in the collapsing Russian Empire\, he emigrated with his parents and siblings to Hesse in 1905. Klarwein became an architect\, with professional focuses in Berlin and Hamburg. In 1924\, he married Martha Elsa Kumme\, a Protestant opera singer. They had a son\, Matthias. \nOssip Klarwein\, Church at Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (Germany). Inauguration March 19\, 1933. \nOssip Klarwein\, Interior of Church at Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (Germany). Inauguration March 19\, 1933. \n\nIn 1933\, Klarwein emigrated to British Mandate Palestine. There\, he initially designed buildings—some of them city landmarks—for private clients and the British administration. After the founding of the State of Israel in 1948\, he built a successful career both as a city planner for Jerusalem and as an independent architect. \nKlarwein played a key role in designing the government quarter\, the university campuses Mount Scopus and Givat Ram\, and the Hadassah Organization’s hospital centers in Jerusalem. He also authored several other innovative structures: in Israel. The crowning achievement of his architectural career was the construction of the Israeli Parliament\, the Knesset\, inaugurated in 1966. In 1957\, the competition jury unanimously chose Klarwein’s design. In 1970\, Klarwein died in Jerusalem. \n\nJoseph Klarwein\, Knesset parliament building\, Jerusalem\, Model 1957 \nJacqueline Hénard was born in West-Berlin during the cold war\, studied in Montpellier\, Cambridge\, and Paris\, and graduated from the Sorbonne with a thesis in contemporary history and international relations. Following a year as a volunteer with an NGO in rural Indonesia\, she joined the editorial staff of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She was appointed the FAZ’s Eastern Europe correspondent in 1987\, during which time she also covered the transformation of the former East Germany.\nIn 1997\, Jacqueline moved to Paris\, where she worked first as a correspondent for Die Zeit and later ran the European program of the public radio France Culture. In parallel\, she continued to pursue her academic interests — teaching at Sciences Po Paris\, doing research\, and publishing a number of books on European history and culture in French and German. In 2022\, Jacqueline started research about the largely forgotten architect Ossip Klarwein\, which led to the book publication and the exhibition currently on view in Berlin. \nThis event is part of the online series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.  \nExhibition Installation view with photo of Klarwein’s Dagon Silos in Haifa (1952-1971) by Eli Singalovski. Photo Nancy Jesse. \nBookpublication \n\nJacqueline Henard (Ed.)\, Ossip Klarwein: an Architect’s Journey from Berlin to Jerusalem\, Dortmund: Kettler\, September 30\,2025. ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3987411988\, ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3987411984\n\n\nThe exhibition “Ossip Klarwein: an Architect’s Journey from Berlin to Jerusalem“ was curated by Jacqueline Hénard and organized by Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin e.V. and is on view until October 16\, 2025 in the so-called “Powerhouse of God” in Berlin\, the Church Am Hohenzollernplatz (Nassauische Straße 66\, 10717  Berlin)\, a masterpiece of Brick Expressionism and one of Klarwein’s iconic buildings. \n\nHis estate is widely scattered across archives and among his family: 2.5 linear meters of documents are held in the Central Zionist Archive in Jerusalem\, and a dozen moving boxes containing letters\, photo albums\, drawings\, business records\, and personal items are held by his descendants in Israel\, Spain\, and France. These have now been evaluated for the first time as part of this project. Until now\, there has been no academic study or exhibition about Klarwein in either Germany or Israel. \nIn addition to Klarwein’s drawings\, historical photographs\, and objects from his estate\, the exhibition includes a specially made model of his original Knesset design. \nThe young Hamburg-Israeli architectural photographer and installation artist Eli Singalovski has photographed several of Klarwein’s key projects for large-format presentation in the exhibition. Despite various challenges\, a collaborative research project between German and Israeli architecture and film students could also been established. Their short documentary films about Klarwein’s buildings are an integral part of the exhibition. \nOSSIP KLARWEIN WEBSITE\n\n\n\n\nThe exhibition “Ossip Klarwein: an Architect between Hamburg and Haifa“ will be on view at the Ernst Barlach Haus in Hamburg from November 16\, 2025 until February 8\, 2026. \n\nOSSIP KLARWEIN EXHIBITION IN HAMBURG\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/ossip-klarwein/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Knesset_front_side_-_2022.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250917T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250917T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061819 CREATED:20250811T221308Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T115422Z UID:9180-1758110400-1758114000@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Samson Schames (1898-1967): Family and Friends Conversation with Natalie Green Giles\, James McCaffrey and Charlie Scheidt.Moderated by William Weitzer DESCRIPTION:In this virtual event\, a distinguished panel comprising family members\, friends\, and their descendants from New York share memories of the German-born artist Samson Schames (1898-1967). His work\, which blends modernist aesthetics with spiritual and historical depth\, is recognized for its innovative technique and poignant reflections on exile\, memory\, and identity. Born in Frankfurt am Main\, Germany\, he fled Nazi persecution to England in 1939 and later emigrated to the United States with his future wife\, Edith\, in 1948 and 1947.  \n\nImage above: Samson Schames\, Blowing the Shofar\, c. 1956. Shards of glass\, polychrome\, layered in relief\, 25.4 x 29.7 in. (64.5 x 75.5 cm). Jewish Museum Frankfurt \n\n\n\nA short film created by the Leo Baeck Institute-New York/Berlin introduces the artist. It is followed by the panel: \n\n\nNatalie Green Giles is a descendant of the Schames family\, whose roots in Frankfurt\, Germany trace back to the 15th century Judengasse.\nJames McCaffrey grew up in Forest Hills\, NY\, the son of Catherine O’Neill McCaffrey\, who became close friends with Edith and Samson.\nCharlie Scheidt’s father was a childhood friend of Samson Schames in Germany. They stayed in touch and reconnected when Samson and Edith arrived in New York.\nThe conversation is moderated by William (Billy) Weitzer\, who spent a decade until his retirement in 2022 as the Executive Director of the Leo Baeck Institute-New York/Berlin. \n\n\nThis event is part of the online series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \n\nNatalie Green Giles \nJames McCaffrey\nCharlie Scheidt \nWilliam (Billy) Weitzer\n\nNatalie Green Giles is a descendant of the Schames family\, whose roots in Frankfurt\, Germany trace back to the 15th century Judengasse.  Her great-great grandfather\, Ludwig Schames\, was a prominent Frankfurt art gallery owner who nurtured the successful careers of German Expressionist artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Beckmann\, among others.  Her grandparents fled Frankfurt in 1938 and settled in New York City\, where her mother became the first American born family member in 1940.  Professionally\, Natalie spent decades working in New York City public school advocacy\, policy\, and oversight\, including serving as a mayoral appointee to the city’s Board of Education\, which oversees the system of nearly one million public school students.  She continues to advocate for and support New York City public higher education through her service on the Foundation board of CUNY’s School for Professional Studies.  She is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School\, Williams College\, and the Yale School of Management. \nJames McCaffrey grew up in Forest Hills\, NY\, the son of Catherine O’Neill McCaffrey.  It is through his late mother’s love of Samson Schames’ work that he is the beneficiary of a large collection of Samson’s art.  Through everyday life in Forest Hills\, Catherine met and became friends with Edith and Samson.  As a child\, James would play with his friend\, Demitri\, who lived next door to Samson’s studio\, and they would run through the studio with Samson looking on in quiet amusement.  Over the years\, Catherine and Edith became very close and during that time Catherine purchased a number of paintings which she cherished up to her passing in 2012.  James shares his mother’s love of Samson’s works\, and they are displayed throughout his home on Long Island.  Following a career in civil service\, James is retired and spends his time collecting off-beat vinyl records and continuing to explore the complexities of the bass guitar. \nCharlie Scheidt\, the son of German-Jewish refugees\, grew up in a close-knit immigrant community in New York City. For over four decades\, he served as the CEO of Roland Foods\, growing the business his parents had founded when they arrived in the US in 1939 into the leading specialty food importer. Charlie now dedicates his time to refugee support and genocide prevention and serves on the board of the Leo Baeck Institute. Charlie’s father was a childhood friend of Samson Schames in Germany. They stayed in touch and reconnected when Samson and Edith arrived in New York.  Samson and Edith were good friends of the Scheidt family\, often guests for Shabbat dinner while Charlie was growing up. \nWilliam (Billy) Weitzer spent a decade until his retirement in 2022 as the Executive Director of the Leo Baeck Institute-New York/Berlin\, a research library and archive dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of German Jewry. Billy continues to work on projects focusing on reaching new audiences at LBI\, including the creation of an exhibition on the art and life of Samson Schames opening in September\, 2025 at the Center for Jewish History. After earning his Ph.D. in environmental psychology\, Billy spent much of his career working in higher education at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst\, Wesleyan University\, and Fairfield University. \n\nThis event is a continuation of our investigation into the impact of persecution and exile on Samson Schames’ identity and art\, which started with our August 27\, 2025 virtual event: \nYou can further explore Samson Schames’ art and life story in bio\, recorded discussions and a scholarly essay by Annika Friedman from the Jewish Museum Frankfurt in our online exhibition IDENTITY\, ART AND MIGRATION.\n\nIDENTITY\, ART AND MIGRATION investigates the experience of eight Jewish European artists who were forced to abandon their country of origin\, or remain in hiding for years\, in response to Nazi policies in effect from 1933 to 1945. These seven artists: Anni Albers\, Friedel Dzubas\, Eva Hesse\, Rudi Lesser\, Lily Renée\, Samson Schames and Arthur Szyk emigrated to the United States\, while one\, Fritz Ascher\, stayed behind in Germany\, hiding in a basement for three years. \nThese artists’ lives and work address the multi-layered concept of identity and the particulars of its expression from slightly different angles. We invite you to explore with us how these wrenching experiences affected their sense of who they were\, and the art they made. \n\nEXPLORE THE ONLINE EXHIBITION\n\n\n\nThe exhibition LOST AND FOUND: The Art and Life of Samson Schames is on view from September 15 to December 21\, 2025\, at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. It is organized by the Leo Baeck Institute New York|Berlin.\nEXHIBITION INFORMATION\n\n\n\n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/samson-schames-friends/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/JMF1989-0155.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250903T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250903T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250804T193116Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250903T183157Z UID:9167-1756900800-1756904400@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Theodore Fried (1902-1980): In Hiding and Beyond Presentation by Sofia Thornblad\, Tulsa (OK) DESCRIPTION:This presentation explores the historical background and creative works of Hungarian-born Jewish artist Theodore Fried (1902-1980). He was educated at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts and moved to Vienna in 1924 and to Paris in 1925. He met and married his first wife Anna and his son Christopher was born in 1928. That same year\, the artist had his first one-man show\, and was included in important shows in Vienna\, Prague\, Berlin\, and Paris. \nImage above: Detail of Theodore Fried\, Self Portrait\, 1938. Oil on canvas. Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art\, Tulsa (OK) \n\nWhen the Nazis came to power in 1933\, Fried’s work was labeled as “degenerate”. He fled with his family to unoccupied Southern France\, from where\, in 1942\, a Quaker organization brought him and his family to the United States. Most of his artwork stayed behind\, hidden throughout France. The bulk of it was not recovered until the 1970’s. \nTheodore Fried\, The Family\, not dated. Oil on canvas. Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art\, Tulsa (OK) \n\nFried settled in New York\, where he lived for the rest of his life; summering in the Berkshires. In the early 1960s he founded\, with his second wife Maria\, the Hudson Guild Art Project\, a community art school and gallery still thriving today. Over the course of his lifetime\, Fried’s work was affected by loss\, love\, and changing aesthetics and values of the world around him. It offers a fascinating glimpse into an era that feels much more distant than it is. \nTheodore Fried passed away in 1980\, and The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa\, Oklahoma became the home of his collection in the early 2000’s. \n\nTheodore Fried\, Maria\, not dated. Oil on canvas. Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art\, Tulsa (OK) \n\nSofia Thornblad is the Chief Curator and Director of Collections and Holocaust Education for the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa Oklahoma. She has a BA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies from Keene State College and an MA in Museum Studies from the University of New Hampshire. Originally from the East Coast\, she lives in Tulsa with her partner and their various pets. In her free time\, she participates in local community theater productions both as a historical consultant and performer. \n\n\nThe exhibition Theodore Fried: Art in Hiding is on view until Dec 31\, 2025 at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa\, Oklahoma (SMMJA) \n\nEXHIBITION INFORMATIONThis event is part of the online series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.  \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/theodore-fried/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Theodore-Fried_Self-Portrait-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250827T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250827T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250812T113518Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T114938Z UID:9203-1756296000-1756299600@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:The Three Exiles of the German-born artist Samson Schames (1898-1967) Conversation with Annika Friedman (Germany)\, Rachel Dickson\, PhD (UK) and Ori Z Soltes\, PhD (USA) DESCRIPTION:In this virtual event\, a transatlantic panel discusses the artist Samson Schames. Annika Friedman (Germany) elaborates on the artist’s beginnings in Frankfurt\, Rachel Dickson\, PhD (UK) gives an insight into the work he made in British exile\, and Ori Z. Soltes\, PhD (USA) speaks about the work he created in his new home\, New York. The presentations are followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A. \nImage above: Samson Schames\, Granite Quarry No. 1\, 1958. Casein on board\, 20.75 in. x 26.25 in. Leo Baeck Institute New York 2007.97 \n\n\nSamson Schames was a German-Jewish artist born in 1898 in Frankfurt am Main\, Germany\, into a prominent Jewish family involved in the textile business. He initially trained in the decorative arts\, studying at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and later in Berlin\, where he became part of the dynamic Weimar-era art scene. Early in his career\, Schames worked in painting and graphic design\, often integrating Jewish themes and symbols into his work. \n\nSamson Schames\, Street in Autumn (Rothschildpark)\, 1935. Oil on cardboard\, 15.94 x 18.1 in. Jewish Museum Frankfurt \n\nAfter the National Socialists rose to power in 1933\, Schames was only able to exhibit his works in exhibitions of the Jüdischer Kulturbund or in his own studio. In 1937\, at least seven of his works were confiscated from public collections as part of the Nazi campaign against “Degenerate Art.” \nSchames fled to England via Holland after the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 1938. In 1940 he was interned in Huyton Camp\, near Liverpool\, as a so-called ‘enemy alien’. During the London Blitz\, Schames began creating mosaics using fragments of broken glass\, pottery\, and other debris from bombed buildings. These works\, which he called “war mosaics\,” were deeply symbolic—transforming destruction into artistic expression and becoming a means of processing trauma and displacement. \n\nSamson Schames\, Bombed House and Broken Wheel Barrow\, 1941. Tempera and gouache with sand on paper\, 22.44 x 15.35 in. Jewish Museum Frankfurt \n\nIn 1948\, Samson and his wife Edith emigrated to the United States\, settling in New York\, where he continued to develop his art and also worked on commissions for synagogues and Jewish institutions\, contributing significantly to postwar Jewish art and religious symbolism. He died in 1967\, leaving behind a body of work that blends modernist aesthetics with spiritual and historical depth. Today\, his art is recognized for its innovative technique and its poignant reflection on exile\, memory\, and identity. \n\nThis event is part of the online series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.  \nSamson Schames\, Boat Docked at Harbor\, 1952. Gouache and ink on paper ; 10 x 13 in. Leo Baeck Institute New York 2023.126 \n\nAnnika Friedman has been part of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt team since 2021\, initially as curatorial assistant and since 2022 as the curatorial project manager for the permanent exhibition in the Rothschild Palais. In addition to “Samson Schames: Fragments of Exile” she most recently co-curated the 2022/23 exhibition Back into the Light. Four Women Artists – Their Works. Their Paths” which detailed the lives and careers of four artists whose paths intersected and subsequently diverged in Frankfurt after the rise of the National Socialists. She received her Master in Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel and her Bachelor at University of British Columbia in Canada. During her studies she was the assistant curator of the art exhibition “Arrivals\, Departures – The Oscar Ghez Collection\,” and a project coordinator in the archives of the Hecht Museum (Haifa). \nRachel Dickson\, PhD is Consulting Editor\, Ben Uri Research Unit\, formerly Head of Curatorial Services\, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum\, London (2011-2020). Her research and curatorial outputs focus primarily on Jewish émigré artists and designers in 20th-21st century Britain\, particularly those who fled Nazi-occupied Europe. A committee member of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies\, School of Advanced Studies\, University of London\, and honorary advisor to The Archives of Polish and Eastern European Emigration\, Nicolaus Copernicus University\, Torun\, Poland\, she has written and spoken widely. In 2023 her biographical chapter on émigré art historian\, Dr Helen Rosenau\, was published in Griselda Pollock’s Woman in Art: Helen Rosenau’s ‘Little Book’ of 1944 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art/Yale University Press)\, a publication which received the award for a multi-authored volume from the Historians of British Art in 2025. \nOri Z. Soltes\, PhD\, teaches at Georgetown University in Washington DC across a range of disciplines. He is former Director of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. His most recent exhibition\, co-curated with Rachel Stern\, is Identity\, Art\, and Migration\, which includes the work of Samson Schames. As co-founding Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project\, he has spent twenty-five years focused on the issue of Nazi-plundered art. Soltes has authored or edited 31 books and scores of articles and exhibition catalogue essays. Recent volumes include The Ashen Rainbow: Essays on the Arts and the Holocaust and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish art and Architecture. \nModerator Rachel Stern is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art in New York. \n\n\nIn another recorded event\, family members\, friends\, and their descendants share their memories of Samson and Edith Schames. A short film introduces the artist. \n\n\nYou can further explore Samson Schames’ art and life story in bio\, recorded discussions and a scholarly essay by Annika Friedman from the Jewish Museum Frankfurt in our online exhibition IDENTITY\, ART AND MIGRATION. \nIDENTITY\, ART AND MIGRATION investigates the experience of eight Jewish European artists who were forced to abandon their country of origin\, or remain in hiding for years\, in response to Nazi policies in effect from 1933 to 1945. These seven artists: Anni Albers\, Friedel Dzubas\, Eva Hesse\, Rudi Lesser\, Lily Renée\, Samson Schames and Arthur Szyk emigrated to the United States\, while one\, Fritz Ascher\, stayed behind in Germany\, hiding in a basement for three years. \nThese artists’ lives and work address the multi-layered concept of identity and the particulars of its expression from slightly different angles. We invite you to explore with us how these wrenching experiences affected their sense of who they were\, and the art they made. \n\nEXPLORE THE ONLINE EXHIBITION\nThe exhibition LOST AND FOUND: The Art and Life of Samson Schames is on view from September 15 to December 21\, 2025 at the Center for Jewish History in New York City. It is organized by the Leo Baeck Institute New York. \n\nEXHIBITION INFORMATION\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/samson-schames-art/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/395414_800px.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250820T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250820T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250711T202727Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250820T220052Z UID:9146-1755691200-1755694800@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Ruth Morley and Lore Segal\, Kindertransport Survivor Artists on Film Film Screening and Conversation with Director Melissa Hacker DESCRIPTION:Join film director Melissa Hacker in conversation with Rachel Stern about My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports. \n\n\nIn the nine months just prior to World War II close to 10\,000 children were sent\, without their parents\, to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany\, Austria\, Czechoslovakia and Poland. These children were rescued by the Kindertransport movement. Most of the children never saw their parents again. Those courageous parents who had the strength to send their children off to an unknown fate soon boarded transports taking them to concentration camps. The story of the Kindertransports is an extraordinary piece of history – untold far too long. The children who lived the trauma and terror of being uprooted from secure homes tell compelling stories.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe filmmaker Melissa Hacker’s mother\, the Academy Award nominated costume designer Ruth Morley\, neé Birnholz\, (Taxi Driver\, Annie Hall\, The Hustler\, The Miracle Worker\, Tootsie\, and many more classic American movies) fled Vienna on a Kindertransport in January 1939. She is a strong presence in the film talking about her experiences alongside other former child refugees\, many of them women. Ruth and the writer Lore Segal\, also a Kindertransport survivor from Vienna\, remember the antisemitism of schoolmates and neighbors\, the violence and their fears on November 9\, 1938\, the difficult decision their parents had to make to send them off into the unknown\, and their lives in the United Kingdom. We learn about their postwar lives in North America\, and hear from their children\, the second generation. Hacker creates space for all to talk and reflect\, making this film a moving and invaluable record of testimony. \n\n\n\n\nRuth Morley with Parasol\, 1931 \n\n\n\nMelissa Hacker is the daughter of a Kindertransport survivor from Vienna\, Austria\, and the Executive Director of the Kindertransport Association. Melissa is a filmmaker who made her directing debut with the documentary My Knees Were Jumping; Remembering the Kindertransports\, which was short-listed for Academy Award nomination and shown worldwide. Honors received For Ex Libris\, A Life in Bookplates\, Melissa’s current work in progress\, include a Fulbright Artist-in-Residence award in Vienna\, and residencies at Yaddo\, VCCA\, Playa\, Willapa Bay AIR\, Saltonstall\, Millay\, and the LABA Laboratory for Jewish Culture. \nMelissa has spoken internationally on the Kindertransports\, consulted on exhibits including Rescuing Children on the Brink of War created at the Center for Jewish History in New York and opening at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum in September 2025\, and Without a Home: Kindertransports from Vienna\, at the Vienna Jewish Museum. Melissa is the editor of two Academy Award nominated documentary films\, a wandering professor\, most recently in Yangon\, Myanmar\, and serves on the Governing Board of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants. \nThis event is part of the online series Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMother and daughter: Ruth Morley and Melissa Hacker\, 1990 \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \n\n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/kindertransport/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/waveTitle.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250723T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250723T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250701T115121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250723T220005Z UID:9127-1753272000-1753275600@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:WHAT IF? Presentation by Ori Z Soltes\, PhD\, Washington\, DC DESCRIPTION:This image-rich talk by Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes considers some of the many Jewish artists destroyed by the Holocaust who had either begun or were poised to add significant threads to the tapestry of twentieth century visual art. Some are now well-known and others remain obscure—but what if artists like Charlotte Salomon and Felix Nussbaum or like Erna Dem and Fritz Taussig had survived to do more art? What additional significant contributions might they have made? \nImage above: Bedřich Fritta (Friedrich Taussig)\, Rear Entrance\, Theresienstadt Ghetto\, 1941–1944. India ink and wash on paper\, 51 x 36.5 cm\nCollection of the Yad Vashem Art Museum\, Jerusalem. Gift of the Prague Committee for Documentation\, courtesy of Ze’ev and Alisa Shek\, Caesarea\, Israel \n\n\nOri Z Soltes teaches art history\, theology\, philosophy and political history in the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University and is the former Director and Curator of the B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum. He is co-curating the exhibition. What If?\, with Marc Masurovsky\, which is scheduled to open in 2028 in Dusseldorf\, Germany. \nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \n\nFelix Nussbaum\, Self Portrait with Jewish Passport [Selbstbildnis mit Judenpass]\, ca. 1943\, oil on canvas\, 56 x 49 cm. Felix-Nussbaum-Haus im Museumsquartier Osnabrück\, Loan from Niedersächsischen Sparkassenstiftung \nOskar Schlemmer\, Bauhaus Stairway\, 1932. Oil on canvas\, 63.9 in × 45.0 in. Museum of Modern Art\, New York Inv. 597.1942 \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/what-if/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/frittatausigrearentrTerzezin.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250709T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250709T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250428T221842Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250709T182040Z UID:9029-1752062400-1752066000@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:DEAR MISS PERKINS. A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany Book talk by Rebecca Brenner Graham\, Ph.D. DESCRIPTION:In this book talk\, author Rebecca Brenner Graham\, Ph.D. speaks about “DEAR MISS PERKINS. A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany\,” which focusses on an unknown aspect of Frances Perkins’ prolific career as the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet\, the longest-serving labor secretary\, and an architect of the New Deal. \n\n\n\n\n\nPerkins’s early experiences working in Chicago’s famed Hull House\, and as a firsthand witness to the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist fire\, shaped her determination to advocate for immigrants and refugees. As Secretary of Labor\, she wrestled with widespread antisemitism and isolationism\, finding creative ways to work around quotas and restrictive immigration laws. Diligent\, resilient\, empathetic\, yet steadfast\, she persisted on behalf of the desperate when others refused to act. \n\n\nFrances Perkins\, age four. Courtesy Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections. \n\nFrances Perkins at her desk\, 1938. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration\, College Park \n\nPerkins was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet\, the longest-serving labor secretary\, and an architect of the New Deal. Yet beyond these celebrated accomplishments\, there is another dimension to Frances Perkins’s story. Without fanfare\, and despite powerful opposition\, Perkins helped save the lives of countless Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. \nIn March 1933\, at the height of the Great Depression\, Perkins was appointed Secretary of Labor by FDR. As Hitler rose to power\, thousands of German-Jewish refugees and their loved ones reached out to the INS—then part of the Labor Department—applying for immigration to the United States\, writing letters that began “Dear Miss Perkins …” \n\nKensington Books 2025 \nRebecca Brenner Graham\, Ph.D. \n\nDr. Rebecca Brenner Graham is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. Previously\, she taught at the Madeira School and American University. She has a PhD in history and an MA in public history from American University\, as well as a BA in history and philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. In 2023\, she was awarded a Cokie Roberts Fellowship from the National Archives Foundation and a Rubenstein Center Research Fellowship from the White House Historical Association. Her writing has been published in the Washington Post\, Time\, Slate\, the Los Angeles Review of Books\, and elsewhere. \n\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \nORDER THE BOOK HERE\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/miss-perkins/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Dear-Miss-Perkins_Graham_HC_COMP-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250625T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250625T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250512T111941Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250625T173320Z UID:9098-1750852800-1750856400@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:THE ART SPY. The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland Book talk by Michelle Young\, New York and Paris DESCRIPTION:In this book talk\, author Michelle Young presents WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland (1898–1980)\, an unlikely heroine who infiltrated the Nazi leadership in Paris during World War II to save the world’s most treasured artworks. \n\nImage above: Book Cover THE ART SPY. The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Vallant by Michelle Young (Harper One\, May 13\, 2025) \n\n\n\nRose Vallant was a curator at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris when the Nazis invaded France\, occupied the museum\, and began using it as a sorting center for thousands of pieces of stolen art from across Europe. Valland made herself appear as nonthreatening and essential as possible\, retaining her position in the museum for years while keeping meticulous secret records of the provenance and destination of every piece of art. Her gathered intelligence enabled the recovery of hundreds of thousands of looted artworks\, stashed in the salt mines of Austria and in German castles\, by the Monuments Men in the last days of the war and after. \n\n\n\n\n\nRose Valland in her 20s. Camille Garapont Family Collection \n\nHitler on his tour of Paris posing in front of the Eiffel Tower\, June 1940. U.S. National Archives\, 242-HLB-5073(20) \n\nYoung moves from the glittering days of pre-War Paris\, home to artistic geniuses of modern culture\, including Picasso\, Josephine Baker\, Coco Chanel\, Le Corbusier\, and Frida Kahlo\, through the tension-riddled cities and resorts of Europe on the eve of war\, to the harrowing years of the Nazi occupation of France when brave people such as Valland risked everything to fight monstrous evil. \nBased on previously undiscovered historical documents\, this detailed portrait of Valland’s bravery and strategic intelligence shows her crucial role in preserving France’s cultural heritage. The story of Valland’s courage and dedication to art and justice is compelling and inspiring. \n\nGeneral Dwight D. Eisenhower\, accompanied by General Omar N. Bradley\, and Lieutenant General George S. Patton\, Jr.\, inspects art treasures stolen by Germans and hidden in salt mine in Germany\, April 1945. U.S. National Archives\, 111-SC-204516 \nEdith Standen (left) and Rose Valland (right) at Wiesbaden Collecting Point\, May 11\, 1946. National Gallery of Art Archives \n\nMichelle Young is an award-winning journalist\, author\, and professor whose writing and photography has appeared in The Wall Street Journal\, The Guardian\, Hyperallergic\, The Forward\, and Narratively. She is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture\, Planning and Preservation\, where she is a Professor of Architecture. She is the founder of the publication Untapped New York. She divides her time between New York City\, Paris\, and the Berkshires\, Massachusetts. \n\nORDER THE BOOK HERE\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/the-art-spy/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Book-Cover-The-Art-Spy-The-Extraordinary-Untold-Tale-of-WWII-Resistance-Hero-Rose-Valland-Michelle-Young-HarperOne-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250611T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250611T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250516T103249Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250612T080206Z UID:9010-1749643200-1749646800@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Victor Brauner's Departures and Returns Presentation by Irina Cărăbaș\, Bucharest (Romania) followed by a conversation with Nicola Baird\, PhD\, London (UK) DESCRIPTION:This presentation by Irina Cărăbaș from the National University of Arts in Bucharest focusses on several key artistic and political contexts relevant to Brauner’s work and biography\, as well as his reception in Romania. It is followed by a conversation with Nicola Baird\, PhD. Introductory remarks by Sorina Neagu\, Director of DOR – Romanian Diaspora. \nImage above: Victor Brauner\, Composition\, not dated\, oil on canvas\, 53\,5 x 64\,5 cm\, National Museum of Arts of Romania\, Bucharest (INV. 73973/8502) © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York / ADAGP\, Paris \n\n\n\nBorn in Piatra Neamț\, Romania into a Jewish family\, Victor Brauner (1903-1966) took part in shaping several avant-garde groups in Bucharest since his early twenties. By the mid-1930s\, he oscillated between Bucharest and Paris\, where he nurtured and solidified his commitment to surrealism. During this time\, Brauner also began exploring the representation of the human body—an investigation that he would develop in highly diverse directions throughout his life\, always maintaining a connection with surrealist concepts. He later left Romania due to the rise of antisemitism never to return. His forced hiding in France during World War II became a period of experimentation with new materials and a deep dive into esotericism. The end of the war brought both personal uncertainties and new opportunities—encounters\, exhibitions\, and growing recognition of his work. \n\n\nVictor Brauner\, Self-portrait\, 1931\, oil on wood\, 22 x 16\,2 cm\, Centre Pompidou MNAM-CCI\, Paris (INV. AM1987-1196) Jacqueline Victor Brauner bequest 1986  © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York / ADAGP\, Paris \nVictor Brauner\, Hitler\, 1934\, oil on canvas\, 22 x 16 cm\, Centre Pompidou MNAM-CCI\, Paris (INV. 2003-259) © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York / ADAGP\, Paris \n\nIn 2023\, as part of the Timișoara – European Capital of Culture program\, Romania hosted for the first time a monographic exhibition dedicated to the surrealist artist Victor Brauner (1903-1966). The exhibition brought together works from several European collections\, helped to circulate the artist’s name beyond specialist circles\, and invited reflection on traumatic episodes in local and European history. The exhibition catalog (Victor Brauner: Inventions and Magic\, edited by Camille Morando\, Timișoara\, Arta Grafică\, 2023)\, the most recent publication dedicated to the artist\, addressed sensitive points in the local reception of his work and placed his artistic practice in connection with experiences of emigration\, exile\, and an “in-betweenness” that shaped Brauner’s career. \nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” In collaboration with DOR – Romanian Diaspora and #CarteadeVineri (CDV). \n\nVictor Brauner\, Stable-Unstable\, Plain of Theus\, 1942\, oil on canvas\, 73 x 54 cm\, Centre Pompidou MNAM-CCI\, Paris (INV. AM3091 P). Purchase from Victor Brauner by the French State in 1951\, allocation to the MNAM in 1951 © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York / ADAGP\, Paris \nVictor Brauner\, The Totem of Wounded Subjectivity II\, 1948\, oil on canvas\, 91\,5×72\,7 cm\, Centre Pompidou MNAM-CCI\, Paris (INV. AM1987-1205) Jacqueline Victor Brauner bequest in 1986 © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York / ADAGP\, Paris \n\nIrina Cărăbaș is assistant professor at the Department of Art History and Theory\, National University of Arts in Bucharest. Her interests are the historical avant-garde\, Socialist Realism\, transnational relations in the Eastern Bloc\, and the survival of Modernism in the postwar era. She is the author of the book Realismul socialist cu fața spre trecut. Instituții și artiști în România 1944-1953 (Socialist Realism facing the past. Institutions and artists in Romania 1944-1953\, Cluj-Napoca\, Idea Design&Print\, 2017) and also co-editor of several collective volumes. \nDr Nicola Baird is an independent art historian and curator affiliated with the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University. She specializes in twentieth century and contemporary British and European art and cultural history and is also passionate about European émigré histories and cultures. Previous exhibitions have included Fred Uhlman (Burgh House and Hatton Gallery\, 2018)\, Czech Routes to Britain (Ben Uri Gallery\, 2019)\, Becoming Gustav Metzger (Ben Uri Gallery\, 2021)\, Knots: Jonny Briggs x Burgh House- Contemporary Interventions into an Historic House (Burgh House\, 2021-2022) and ‘The line is an unreal thing’: Dorothy Mead and Edna Mann (LSBU\, 2024). She is Section Editor for Open Cultural Studies and Editorial Assisant at The International Yearbook of Futurism Studies\, both published by De Gruyter. \nAbout DOR\nFounded in 2020\, DOR-Romanian Diaspora CIC is a UK-based association of Romanians who support and enhance the potential of Romanian communities in the UK by enabling opportunities for integration and continuing education. We deliver a broad range of physical and virtual projects encouraging cross-cultural conversations through community-focused creative and cultural activities.\n\n\n\nAbout CDV\nCartea de Vineri or Friday Book Club\, now in its fifth year\, promotes books by Romanian authors or books by authors of any nationality about Romania. Every week we post a book recommendation on Facebook\, Twitter and Instagram and once a month we host live (recorded) conversations with authors. Authors who have previously taken part in our series of live conversations include Howard Reich\, Valentina Glajar\, Bogdan Suceava\, Radu Vancu\, Oliver Jens Schmitt\, Dennis Deletant\, Tom Gallagher\, Anca Pârvulescu & Manuela Boatcă.\n\n\nDOR-Romanian Diaspora\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/victor-brauner/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/3-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250521T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250521T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250428T181748Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250521T174304Z UID:9012-1747828800-1747832400@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Tamara de Lempicka: Modern Maverick Presentation by Alison de Lima Greene\, Houston (TX) DESCRIPTION:Join curator Alison de Lima Greene for an introduction to the remarkable arc of Lempicka’s career as she rose to the pinnacle of café society in 1920s and 1930s Paris\, and her American odyssey after she fled Europe in 1939. \nImage above: Tamara de Lempicka\, Portrait of a Young Woman in a Blue Dress\, 1922\, oil on canvas\, private collection © 2025 Tamara de Lempicka Estate\, LLC / ADAGP\, Paris / ARS\, NY\, Image © 2023 Christie’s Images Limited \n\n\nCapturing the glamour and vitality of 1920s postwar Paris and the cosmopolitan sheen of Hollywood celebrity\, Tamara de Lempicka (1894–1980) infused her paintings with a brilliant sense of fashion\, design\, and the theatrical. Currently the subject of the first retrospective devoted to her work in the United States\, organized by the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums and currently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts\, Houston\, Lempicka’s singular contribution to the history of modernism is only now becoming widely known. \n\n\nTamara de Lempicka\, Young Girl in Green (Young Girl with Gloves)\, c. 1931\, oil on board\, Centre Pompidou\, purchase\, 1932\, inv. JP557P. © 2024 Tamara de Lempicka Estate\, LLC / ADAGP\, Paris / ARS\, NY. Digital image © CNAC/MNAM\, Dist. RMN- Grand Palais / Art Resource\, NY \n\n\n\n\n Tamara de Lempicka\, Saint-Moritz\, 1929\, oil on panel\, Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans\, inv. no. 76.12.1. © 2024 Tamara de Lempicka Estate\, LLC / ADAGP\, Paris / ARS\, NY \n\n\n\n\nBorn Tamara Rosa Hurwitz in Poland in an era of fierce anti-Semitism\, she learned at an early age to conceal her Jewish ancestry. In 1916\, she married a Polish aristocrat\, Tadeusz Lempicki\, and the two settled briefly in St. Petersburg before fleeing to Paris in the wake of the Russian Revolution. Faced with the need to earn money\, Lempicka determined to become an artist: she first presented her paintings at the Salon d’Automne in 1922 under the name “Monsieur Łempitzky\,” and then more forthrightly as “Tamara de Lempicka” as she established an internationally acclaimed career. \nLempicka’s second marriage\, to Austro-Hungarian Baron Raoul Kuffner-de Diószegh\, granted her the title “Baroness Kuffner\,” the name she took with her to the United States in 1939 in advance of the German invasion of Paris. After 1945 Lempicka divided her time between New York\, Paris\, and Houston where her daughter Kizette had settled\, and she spent her final years in Cuernavaca\, Mexico. \n\n\nUnidentified photographer\, Tamara de Lempicka at home in New York\, c. 1943\, Tamara de Lempicka Estate. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nTamara de Lempicka\, Still Life of Fruit and Draped Silk\, 1949\, oil on canvas board\, Blanton Museum of Art\, The University of Texas at Austin\, gift of Luis Aragón\, 1986\, inv. no. 1986.174. © 2024 Tamara de Lempicka Estate\, LLC / ADAGP\, Paris / ARS\, NY  \n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlison de Lima Greene is the Isabel Brown Wilson Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts\, Houston\, where she has served on the curatorial staff since 1984. A member of the curatorial team responsible for the inaugural presentations in the MFAH’s new Nancy and Rich Kinder Building in 2020\, her recent exhibitions include Philip Guston Now\, organized in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts\, Boston\, and the Tate London.\nMs. Greene was a 2010 Fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership and has served as vice president and trustee of the Association of Art Museum Curators; she is currently on the advisory boards of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College and The Barnett Newman Foundation. \nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.”\nPresented in connection with Jewish American Heritage Month. \nThe exhibition Tamara de Lempicka is on view through July 6\, 2025 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (TX). \n\nMUSEUM OF FINE ARTS\, HOUSTON\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/tamara-de-lempicka/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/08_Portrait-of-a-Young-Woman-in-Blue-Dress-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250507T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250507T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250416T001229Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250507T174245Z UID:8986-1746619200-1746622800@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Through the Lens of Trude Fleischmann (1895-1990) Presentation by Carey Mack Weber\, Fairfield (CT)\, followed by a conversation with Barbara Rosenberg Loss DESCRIPTION:Presentation by Carey Mack Weber\, Curator and Director\, Fairfield University Art Museum\, followed by a conversation with Fleischmann’s cousin\, Barbara Rosenberg Loss. Introductory remarks by Stephanie Buhmann\, PhD\, Head of Visual Arts\, Architecture and Design at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. \nImage above: Trude Fleischmann\, Sandra and Barbara with Golden Heart Necklaces\, 1951\, gelatin silver print. Courtesy of Barbara Rosenberg Loss. © Trude Fleischmann \n\n\nAfter opening her own studio in Vienna at the age of just 25\, Trude Fleischmann (1895-1990) had great success there in the 1920s and 30s photographing artists\, dancers\, actors\, and other key cultural figures of the era. When the Nazis invaded during the Anschluss in 1938\, she fled first to London and then to New York. She opened a studio just behind Carnegie Hall on 56th Street\, in 1940 and photographed many of the artists and intellectuals of the day\, including Eleanor Roosevelt\, Marian Anderson\, and Albert Einstein. \n\n\nTrude Fleischmann\, Toni Birkmeyer Ballet in “Cancan\,” Vienna\, 1930\, gelatin silver print. Lent by Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg. © Trude Fleischmann \n\nTrude Fleischmann\, Helen’s Hands with Cigarette and Ashtray\, ca. 1940\, gelatin silver print. Courtesy of Peter Modley. © Trude Fleischmann \n\nCarey Mack Weber is the Executive Director of the Fairfield University Art Museum and the curator of the current exhibition in the Museum’s Bellarmine Hall Galleries – Famous & Family: Through the Lens of Trude Fleischmann. She was integral to the creation of the Museum in 2010 and was named the Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director in 2019. Carey also currently serves as the President of the Connecticut Art Trail\, is the CT State Representative for the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries\, sits on the Advisory Board of the Maguire Museum at St. Joseph’s University\, and serves as a board member of the Connecticut League of Museums. \nBarbara (Bobbie) Rosenberg Loss is the co-curator of  Famous & Family: Through the Lens of Trude Fleischmann. She was greatly influenced by the artist\, her cousin\, who was an integral part of her family growing up. A former English teacher and reading consultant in the Bridgeport and Fairfield Public High Schools and at Norwalk Community College\, she is the author of Say the Word\, A Guide to Improving Word Recognition Skills. Bobbie often incorporated her own photography into her classrooms. Her interests generated numerous photo books\, including Bridgeport\, Beauty and Blight\, A Tour of Our City through Photographs (2016) and Views from the Train (2020). She was a contributor and consultant to the Austrian TV Documentary: Trude Fleischmann In Nackter Gesellschaft (2019)\, directed by Michael Kreiner and Katherina Lochmann. \nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \nPresented in connection with Jewish American Heritage Month. \n\nTrude Fleischmann\, Albert Einstein\, ca. 1947\, gelatin silver print. Lent by Photography Collection\, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art\, Prints and Photographs\, The New York Public Library\, Astor\, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. © Trude Fleischmann. Photo credit: Photography Collection\, The New York Public Library\n\n\n\nTrude Fleischmann\, Marian Anderson\, 1952\, gelatin silver print. Lent by Photography Collection\, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art\, Prints and Photographs\, The New York Public Library\, Astor\, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. © Trude Fleischmann. Photo credit: Photography Collection\, The New York Public Library. \n\nThe exhibition Famous & Family: Through the Lens of Trude Fleischmann\, the first solo museum exhibition of the photographer’s work to be presented in the United States\, is on view from May 2 – July 26\, 2025\, in the Museum’s Bellarmine Hall Galleries at Fairfield University Art Museum. \n\nFAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/trude-fleischmann/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Fleischmann_15-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250424T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250424T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250402T180235Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250424T194758Z UID:8972-1745496000-1745499600@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:For I See Old Things Happening Again: Jill Freedman’s “Missing Generations” Presentation by Susan Chevlowe\, PhD\, followed by a conversation with family member Wendy Wernick DESCRIPTION:Susan Chevlowe\, PhD\, Chief Curator and Museum Director of Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale\, presents the documentary and street photographer Jill Freedman (1939-2019)\, followed by a conversation with family member Wendy Wernick. \nWhen the documentary and street photographer Jill Freedman went to Poland in April 1993\, on the occasion of the 50thanniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising\, she wrote that she made the journey as a pilgrim “to mourn the dead\, to honor them\,” along with the “survivors\, their children\, old soldiers and witnesses.” She returned to the sites of destruction again the next year after receiving a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation (APF)\, which supports the work of photojournalists. Susan Chevlowe\, PhD\, discusses the series of photographs that resulted from these two trips\, including to additional sites in Hungary and the Czechia\, and the book that Freedman had planned but that was left unrealized at the time of her death. \nImage above: Jill Freedman\, Auschwitz 1. Tourist family entering gas chamber\, 1994. Gelatin silver print\, 8 1/2 x 12 11/16 in. (21.6 x 32.2 cm). © Jill Freedman Family Estate \nFrom the moment she picked up a camera in 1966\, Freedman candidly and passionately documented the world around her. In the 1990s\, as ethnic cleansing was once again being perpetrated in Europe and historical revisionists were denying the Holocaust had ever happened\, the project she called Missing Generations became ever more urgent. Dr. Chevlowe will look at these photographs in the context of Freedman’s other work\, which she undertook as part of her relentless pursuit of social justice in an inherently unjust world\, particularly her photographs documenting the Poor People’s Campaign march to Washington\, D.C.\, following the death of Martin Luther King\, Jr.\, in 1968. \n\nJill Freedman\, Survivors in Front of the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial\, 1993. Gelatin silver print. © Jill Freedman Family Estate. \n\nJill Freedman\, Tourists peering through the doors of the Old-New Synagogue (Altneuschul)\, Prague\, 1994.  Gelatin silver print\, 12 11/16 x 8 1/2 (32.2 x 21.6). Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection\, Gift of the Jill Freedman Irrevocable Trust © Jill Freedman Family Estate \n\nFreedman published seven books: Old News: Resurrection City (1970); Circus Days (1975); Firehouse (1977; 2022); Street Cops (1981; 2022); A Time That Was: Irish Moments (1987); Jill’s Dogs (1993)\, and Ireland Ever (2004). In addition to Missing Generations\, Freedman planned two additional photography books at the time of her death\, Madhattan and Patriot Acts.  Freedman was born in Pittsburgh\, Pennsylvania\, in 1939\, and lived and worked for most of her career in New York City. She died in 2019. \n\n\n\n\nJill Freedman\, Treblinka. View from the bus\, 1993. Gelatin silver print\, 8 1/2 x 12 11/16 in. (21.6 x 32.2 cm). © Jill Freedman Family Estate. \n\n\n\nJill Freedman in Jewish cemetery\, Poland\, 1993. Gelatin silver print. © Jill Freedman Family Estate. \n\nSusan Chevlowe is Chief Curator and Museum Director of Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale\, in the Bronx where she has organized solo shows featuring the work of Micaela Amato\, Leonard Freed\, Jill Freedman\, Jonathan Hammer\, Robert Katz\, Richard McBee\, Jill Nathanson\, Archie Rand\, and many others\, as well as group exhibitions. She is a former adjunct assistant professor in the Program in Jewish Art and Visual Culture at the Jewish Theological Seminary\, where she also served as co-chair of the Visual Arts Committee of the Arts Advisory Board. Prior to coming to the Derfner\, Dr. Chevlowe was an associate curator at the Jewish Museum\, New York\, where she organized such exhibitions as Painting a Place in America: Jewish Artists in New York\, 1900–1945 (co-curated with Norman L. Kleeblatt)\, Common Man\, Mythic Vision: The Paintings of Ben Shahn\, 1936-1962\, and The Jewish Identity Project: New American Photography\, and edited or co-edited their accompanying exhibition catalogues. Her essay on photographer Adi Nes was included in the exhibition of his biblical series at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Dr. Chevlowe received her Ph.D. in art history from the Graduate Center\, CUNY. She is a member of the Jewish Art Salon advisory board and lectures and writes about Jewish art and visual culture. \n\n\nWendy Wernick is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Healthcare certified. She completed Bachelors in Health Service Administration and is a registered wound ostomy continence nurse working clinical solution specialist for northeast at convaTEc. Wendy Wernick is also a distant relative of Jill Freedman and is\, with her sisters Susan Hecht and Nancy Sklar\, the custodian of the Jill Freedman Family Estate. \nFor further information about the 2023 exhibition of Jill Freedman’s Missing Generations at the Derfner Judaica Museum\, and more information about the museum and its programs please go to: \n\nDERFNER JUDAICA MUSEUM\nYou can find further information about Jill Freedman on the photographer’s website: \n\nJILL FREEDMAN WEBSITE\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/jill-freedman/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Jill-Freedman-Auschwitz-1.-Tourist-family-entering-gas-chamber-1994-1-1024x688-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250409T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250324T181457Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250409T182241Z UID:8958-1744200000-1744203600@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Léo Maillet (1902-1990): The Broken Mirror Presentation by Erik Riedel\, Frankfurt am Main (Germany) DESCRIPTION:Curator Erik Riedel presents the work of the painter and graphic artist Léo Maillet\, who changed his original name Leopold Mayer in exile\, reflecting the numerous fractures in his biography. \n\n\n\n\nImage above: Léo Maillet\, Le Graveur (Self-Portrait)\, 1944. Oil on cardboard. Permanent loan by the Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege. © estate of Léo Maillet: Daniel Maillet and Nikolaus Mayer \n\n\n\n\nAfter his dramatic escape from a deportation train bound for Auschwitz\, Maillet lived in the French Cévennes under a false identity from 1942 onwards. He painted and drew with the simplest of materials. Some years later\, he took up the works he had created during his flight and persecution and transformed them into paintings and etchings. The resulting works are\, on the one hand\, artistic reflections of his own work and\, on the other\, confrontations with his own persecution. The fact that Maillet began the latter just a few years after the end of the war is rather unusual. Both among survivors and in the context of the emerging culture of remembrance\, intensive processing of the Shoah only began in the late 1970s. \n\nLéo Maillet\, Self-Portrait Looking Upwards\, 1928. Oil painting\, 80 x 40 cm (destroyed) © estate of Léo Maillet: Daniel Maillet and Nikolaus Mayer \n\nLéo Maillet\, Le Graveur (Self-Portrait)\, 1944. Oil on cardboard. Permanent loan by the Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege. © estate of Léo Maillet: Daniel Maillet and Nikolaus Mayer \n\nLeopold Mayer was born in 1902 in Frankfurt as the only son of the Jewish merchant Eduard Mayer and his wife Betty\, née Nathan. After completing a banking and business apprenticeship in a Frankfurt fashion house\, he attended the Frankfurt Städelschule academy from 1925 on\, where he studied under Franz Karl Dellavilla. In 1930 he was accepted into Max Beckmann’s master class and moved into his own studio at the Städelschule. Due to the unexpected death of his father in 1932 he had to interrupt his art studies and take over his father’s ladies’ hat store. After the Nazis came to power in 1933\, he was forced to end his studies and many of his works at the Städelschule were destroyed. When the family business was seized\, he decided to leave Germany. In 1935 he emigrated to France; in Paris he worked as a photographer and printer. At the outbreak of war\, he was interned as an enemy alien. \nAfter his escape in 1940\, he lived in Provence in the unoccupied part of France. In 1942 he was arrested by the Vichy police and interned in the Les Milles and Rivesaltes camps. After escaping from the deportation train to Auschwitz he made his way back to the south of France and eventually lived under a false identity as a shepherd in the Cévennes mountains. With the support of a refugee aid organization\, Maillet was able to escape to Switzerland in 1944\, where he was interned for six months. After the war he remained in Switzerland where he studied stage design. He finally settled in a small town in Ticino where he died in 1990. \n\n\n\n\nLéo Maillet\, Hanged\, 1971. Etching after an ink drawing from 1940. © estate of Léo Maillet: Daniel Maillet and Nikolaus Mayer \n\n\n\nLéo Maillet\, The Broken Mirror\, 1971. Etching after an ink drawing from 1944. © estate of Léo Maillet: Daniel Maillet and Nikolaus Mayer \n\nThe etching Hanged shows the artist’s portrait in a round mirror hanging from a ceiling beam. The small room is empty except for a stove. Many artists use self-portraits as a medium for self-questioning and self-assurance. This is also the case with Léo Maillet\, whose self-portraits created in exile reflect his life as an emigrant under difficult material conditions and increasing persecution. But in numerous self-portraits\, Maillet also shows the mirror and the space surrounding it. In this way\, he not only addresses the actual circumstances under which the self-portrait is created\, but also the act of seeing and drawing itself\, which is explicitly made visible here as self-observation. \nErik Riedel is head of exhibitions at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and curator of the museum’s Ludwig Meidner Archive. The archive consists of the artistic estates of Ludwig and Else Meidner and several other artists who were forced into exile. Erik Riedel has curated numerous exhibitions on 19th- and 20th-century art\, for instance on Moritz Daniel Oppenheim\, Ludwig and Else Meidner\, Charlotte Salomon\, and Arie Goral. Apart from several exhibitions catalogues he has published the catalogue raisonné of Ludwig Meidner’s sketchbooks and the conference proceedings “Ludwig Meidner. Expressionism\, Ecstasy\, Exile” (2018)\, as well as the catalogue raisonné of Ludwig Meidner’s paintings until 1927 (2023). \n\n\n\n\nA special exhibition with works by Léo Maillet (1902–1990) is on view until November 16\, 2025 in the “Art and Exile” room on the third floor of the permanent exhibition in the Rothschild Palace of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt (Germany). \nJEWISH MUSEUM FRANKFURTMaillet’s sons created a website with much information about the art and biography of their father: \nLÉO MAILLET WEBSITEThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/leo-maillet/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Leo-Maillet_seitz-gray_kl.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250327T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250327T210000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250303T232114Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250401T155007Z UID:8906-1743103800-1743109200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Survival and Intimations of Immortality:Artist and Curator Talk DESCRIPTION:Join curator Ori Z Soltes\, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana\, and Kitra Cahana for a conversation about Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana\, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana\, and Kitra Cahana. \n\n\n\n\nImage above: Alice Lok Cahana\, 1940-44 Triptych: left panel\, 1984. Collection Ronnie and Michael Cahana\, Inv. 052 \n\n\n\n\nThis unique and powerful exhibition at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education explores the role of art and creativity\, bringing the past into the present by focusing on three generations of artists from the same family. The artists and curatorial team will share their insights about the work in the exhibition\, how the show was made\, and the impact it had\, and share more insight into the remarkable life and work of Holocaust survivor Alice Lok Cahana. \n\nAlice Lok Cahana\, New Day IV\, 1981. Collection Ronnie and Michael Cahana\, Inv. 079 \n\nAlice Lok Cahana\, 1940-44 Triptych: center panel\, 1984. Collection Ronnie and Michael Cahana\, Inv. 051 \n\nKitra Cahana is an acclaimed documentary photographer\, filmmaker\, and TED speaker. She holds a B.A. in philosophy from McGill University and an M.A. in Visual and Media Anthropology from the Freie Universität in Berlin. Her work explores important social\, anthropological\, and spiritual themes\, and she is committed to telling deeply human stories with sensitivity and depth. Her work has appeared in National Geographic Magazine\, The New York Times\, The Washington Post\, ProPublica\, The Intercept etc. \nKitra has received numerous recognitions\, including\, a Peabody Award\, a TED Senior Fellowship\, a DuPont Columbia award\, a World Press Photo award\, the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award for young photographers\, a World Press Photo Online Video of the Year Nominee\, multiple Canada Council grants for the Visual Arts\, and a year long residency at FABRICA. \nRabbi Ronnie Cahana is a rabbi and poet who had a severe brain-stem stroke in 2011 that left him quadriplegic in a rare condition called locked-in syndrome; paralyzed from the eyes down with a fully cognizant mind. Today\, Rabbi Cahana has regained his capacity to speak\, breathe\, and sing. He works with a scribe who helps him produce his poetry\, psalms\, and Divrei Torah. \n\nKitra Cahana\, Still Man: Transcendence\, 2013. \n\n\n\nKitra Cahana\, The Cult of Maria Lionza: Fire\, 2009 \n\nOri Z Soltes\, PhD teaches at Georgetown University across the disciplines of theology\, art history\, philosophy and politics. Since 1997 he is a Founding Director of the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) and has spent more than 20 years researching and consulting on the issue of Nazi-plundered art. A former Director of the B’nai B’rit Klutznick National Jewish Museum in Washington DC\, he has extensive experience in developing and executing exhibition concepts. He is the author or editor of 25 books\, including The Ashen Rainbow: The Holocaust and the Arts; Symbols of Faith: How Jewish\, Christian\, and Muslim Art Draw from the Same Source; and Tradition and Transformation: Three Millennia of Jewish Art and Architecture. \nThis program is co-sponsored by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and the Fritz Ascher Society and presented as part of Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana\, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana\, and Kitra Cahana\, which is on view until May 25\, 2025. \n\n\n\n\nMORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXHIBITION\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/cahana-panel-discussion/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Memory,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20_Alice-Lok-Cahana_WallenbergSchutzPass_1981-copy-3.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250326T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250326T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250214T220825Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250326T200421Z UID:8881-1742990400-1742994000@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:"There is something mad about the art” The German-Jewish Art Dealer Alfred Flechtheim and his Heirs' Fight for Restitution Presentation by Journalist Michael Sontheimer\, Berlin (Germany) DESCRIPTION:Journalist and author Michael Sontheimer speaks about Alfred Flechtheim\, who was born in 1878 in Münster as the son of a wealthy German Jewish grain dealer. He was trained as a trader but did not want to stay in the family business. As he was fascinated with art\, he left his hometown and moved to Düsseldorf\, where he opened a gallery in 1913. \n\n\n\n\nImage above: Rudolf Großmann\, Alfred Flechtheim\, 1922-27. Pencil\, ink\, and gouache on paper\, 5.3 x 3.8 in. Museum für Moderne Kunst\, Freiburg (Germany) G 62/008 b. \n\n\n\n\nAfter serving in the German Army during the First World War\, in 1921 he opened a second gallery in Berlin\, the place to be in the 1920s. He brought works from modern French artists like Picasso\, Braque\, Chagall\, and others to Germany. He also made German painters like Max Beckmann\, George Grosz\, and Paul Klee widely known. \n\n\n\n\nImage above: Rudolf Großmann\, Alfred Flechtheim\, 1922-27. Pencil\, ink\, and gouache on paper\, 5.3 x 3.8 in. Museum für Moderne Kunst\, Freiburg (Germany) G 62/008 b. \n\n\n\n\n\nAlfred Flechtheim\, 1911 \n\nFront Cover of Der Querschnitt\, vol. VIII\, no. 6\, Juni 1928. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag\, 1928 \n\nAdolf Hitler and the National Socialists targeted Flechtheim not only for his involvement with ‘Entartete Kunst’ but also for being Jewish\, using him in Anti-Semitic propaganda. After Hitler’s rise to power\, Flechtheim fled to Paris\, where he had to cheaply sell paintings. Many artworks from his gallery and personal collection were stolen. He died in London in 1937 in poverty and despair. His wife\, Betty Flechtheim\, took her life the night before her announced deportation “to the East”. \n\n\n\n\n“Die Rassenfrage ist der Schlüssel zur Weltgeschichte” (“The race question is the key to world history”). Front cover Illustrierter Beobachter\, 1932. Foto: Flechtheim-Estate \n\n\n\nRudolf Hermann\, Entartete Kunst exhibition poster with Otto Freundlich’s sculpture\, Large Head (Der Neue Mensch\, 1912) and a caricature of Alfred Flechtheim in the background\, 1938. Los Angeles County Museum of Art\, gift of the Robert Gore Rifkind Collection\, Beverly Hills\, CA \n\nIn the 1950s\, a nephew of Flechtheim\, who had no descendants\, submitted a claim for compensation. He received only a modest amount for artworks by renowned artists\, including Picasso. Following the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets\, held from November 30 to December 3\, 1998\, in Washington\, D.C.\, which reinforced the rights of individuals seeking the restitution of Nazi looted art\, Flechtheim’s grandnephew\, Michael Hulton\, residing in San Francisco\, pursued restitution. However\, the museums in possession of the artworks that once belonged to Flechtheim contested their return. The heirs successfully reclaimed a limited number of paintings\, yet several remain subject to dispute. \n\n\n\n\nOskar Kokoschka\, Marquis Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac\, 1910. Return of the painting by Moderna Museet in Stockholm to Flechtheim-Heir Michael Hulton in 2018. Sold at auction by Sotheby’s. \n\n\nMichael Sontheimer was born in 1955 in Freiburg\, Germany. He studied modern history and politics at the Free Universität in Berlin. Becoming a journalist\, he was one of the founders of the daily newspaper “die tageszeitung”\, later he was a staff writer with DIE ZEIT and DER SPIEGEL. He published ten books on political and historical issues like: Goetz Al /Michael Sontheimer: How Julius Fromm’s Condom Empire Fell to the Nazis. Other Press\, New York 2009.  \n\n\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/alfred-flechtheim/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Alfred_Flechtheim_-_Rudolf_Grosmann_-_G_62_008_b_M_f_Neue_Kunst_Freiburg-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250312T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250312T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250306T170219Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250312T182213Z UID:8919-1741780800-1741784400@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Art and Conscience in a Time of Upheaval. Ben Shahn (1898-1969)Presentation by Ori Z Soltes\, Washington (DC) DESCRIPTION:Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes will speak about Ben Shahn (1898-1969)\, who arrived in 1906 as a child to the United States from Tsarist-governed Lithuania. Four years after the Tsarist authorities had exiled his father to Siberia for alleged revolutionary activities\, his mother managed to bring the family to New York. There they reconnected with Ben’s father who had escaped from Siberia and made it to the US by way of South Africa. \n\n\n\n\nImage above: Ben Shahn\, Detail of the Mural “The Meaning of Social Security\,” Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building\, Washington\, D.C. \n\n\n\n\n\nWithin 25 years Shahn emerged as perhaps the key figure in the developing arena of American Social Realist painting with a strongly political bent. He became renowned for his championing of left-wing causes and in his later years achieved recognition as a photographer\, as well. No artist in the twentieth century more effectively than Ben Shahn simultaneously appreciated his adopted country for its promising possibilities and criticized it stridently for its failures to live up to that promise. His work remains painfully relevant today. \n\n\n\n\n\nBen Shahn\, Children of destitute Ozark mountaineer\, Arkansas\, 1935 \n\nBen Shahn\, Sharecropper on Sunday\, Little Rock\, Ark.\, 1935. \nBen Shahn\, Mural at the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building\, Washington\, DC\, 1939-1940 \n\n\n\nBen Shahn\, Mural at the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building\, Washington\, DC\, 1939-1940 \n\nOri Z Soltes teaches art history\, theology\, philosophy\, and political history in Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. He is the author or editor of 31 books\, including Jewish American Painters in the Twentieth Century and Welcoming the Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications (with Rachel Stern). \n\n\n\n\nBen Shahn\, Lidice poster\, DPLA\, between 1941 and 1945. \nBen Shahn\, Torture\, proposed poster in The Nature of the Enemy series\, 1942 or 43\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/ben-shahn/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/iiif-service_pnp_highsm_24800_24815-full-pct_25-0-default-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250227T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250227T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250120T150033Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250302T093445Z UID:8797-1740657600-1740661200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Love and Betrayal. The German-Jewish artist Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) A presentation by Rachel Stern\, organized by Saint Elizabeth University\, Morristown (NJ) DESCRIPTION:Rachel Stern will present insights into the art and life of the German-Jewish artist Fritz Ascher and the mission of The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art. Introduced by Richard Quinlan\, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education at Saint Elizabeth University in Morristown (NJ). \n\n\n\nImage above: Fritz Ascher\, Male Portrait in Red\, c. 1915. Private collection © Bianca Stock \n\n\n\n\nFritz Ascher (1893-1970)\, a painter\, graphic artist\, and poet\, was recommended to the art academy in Königsberg by the renown German painter Max Liebermann at the age of 16. From 1913 onwards\, he gained recognition as a painter in Berlin. Ascher was a keen observer of his era; the devastation of World War I and the revolutionary turmoil in Berlin inspired him to explore Christian and mystical themes\, which he reinterpreted in innovative ways. Following the rise of the Nazi regime in 1933\, the Jewish-born artist faced a ban on creating\, exhibiting\, and selling his work. During the pogroms of November 9/10\, 1938\, he was arrested and subsequently interned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and the Potsdam Gestapo prison. \n\n\n\n\n\nFritz Ascher\, Bajazzo\, c. 1916. Private collection © Bianca Stock. Photo: Malcolm Varon \n\nFritz Ascher\, Study for Golgotha: Mary Magdalene\, c. 1919. Private collection © Bianca Stock. Photo: Rafi Koegel \n\n\nAscher survived the Shoah from 1942\, finding refuge in a cellar in Berlin-Grunewald. During these harrowing and isolating years\, he composed poetry. Post-1945\, Ascher developed a distinctive artistic style\, drawing inspiration from the nearby Grunewald\, focusing on landscapes while remaining faithful to his expressionist visual language. He lived a reclusive life until his passing on March 26\, 1970. \n\n\nFritz Ascher\, Two Sunflowers\, c. 1959. © Bianca Stock. Photo: Malcolm Varon \nFritz Ascher\, Landscape\, c. 1960. Oil on canvas\, 40 x 37.4 in. © Bianca Stock. Photo: Malcolm Varon \n\nRachel Stern is the founding director of the Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art in New York. She emigrated to the USA in 1994\, wrote for AUFBAU and worked for ten years in the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Most recently\, she published a selection of poems by Fritz Ascher\, Poesiealbum 357 (Wilhelmshorst: Märkischer Verlag 2020) and co-edited with Ori Z Soltes “Welcoming the Stranger. Abrahamic Traditions and Its Contemporary Implications” (New York: Fordham University Press 2024)\, and co-edited with Jutta Götzmann the exhibition catalogue “Love and Betrayal. The Expressionist Fritz Ascher from New York Private Collections” (Petersberg: Michael Imhof Publishers 2024). Stern studied art history and economics at the Georg August University of Göttingen. \n\n\nThe exhibition LOVE AND BETRAYAL – The Expressionist Fritz Ascher from New York Private Collections is on view at Haus der Graphischen Sammlung in Freiburg\, Germany until March 2\, 2025. It was co-curated by Rachel Stern and Jutta Götzmann\, Managing Director of the Freiburg Municipal Museums. The exhibition catalogue\, published by Michael Imhof Verlag in 2024\, can be ordered in the online shop of the museum. \n\nMORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXHIBITION\nThis event is organized by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education at Saint Elizabeth University. It is co-sponsored by The Fritz Ascher Society. \n\n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/love-and-betrayal/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20_FritzAscher_MannerbildnisinRot_um1915_26.6x22cm.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250212T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250126T195041Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250213T120051Z UID:8829-1739361600-1739365200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Signs and Wonders. Author Melvin Jules Bukiet in Conversation with Artist David Stern DESCRIPTION:This presentation starts with Bukiet reading an excerpt from a novel he is currently working on\, followed by an inspiring discussion with Stern about the daily reality and nature of being a writer. They continue with a broader conversation about the arts and their relationship to reality. As they delve into his books\, they explore the direct or indirect presence of the Holocaust in his works and the way it still shakes the foundation of our civilization. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMelvin Jules Bukiet has published eleven books\, including After\, Signs and Wonders and Strange Fire. His fiction has appeared in the Paris Review and other magazines\, his non-fiction in the American Scholar and other magazines. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nAMAZON LINK TO ORDER MELVIN BUKIET’S BOOKSDavid Stern is a German born American figurative painter\, whose work is rooted in the European figurative tradition and informed by American Abstract Expressionism. Stern’s art explores the human condition. With a career spanning over 45 years\, his works have been exhibited internationally and can be found in public and private collections across the United States\, Europe\, and Asia. \nDAVID STERN WEBSITE\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.”  \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/bukiet-stern/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Screenshot-2025-01-26-at-1.50.47 PM-copy-2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250211T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250211T210000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250103T001741Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250212T194701Z UID:8762-1739300400-1739307600@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Plunderer. The Life and Time of a Nazi Art ThiefScreening followed by Q+A with producer John FriedmanMarlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, New York DESCRIPTION:Hermann Goering’s art dealer\, Bruno Lohse\, prospered by selling stolen art for decades after WWII\, while Jewish families struggled to regain their paintings and memories. Captured and interrogated by the Monuments Men after the war\, he served a brief prison sentence. After his release\, he dealt profitably in stolen art for sixty years after the war\, selling to collectors\, galleries\, and major museums. Highlighting stories of Holocaust survivors working to reclaim their families’ lost artworks\, Plunderer reveals the failures of post-war justice and the continuing complicity of governments and the art trade. \n\n\nScreening followed by Q+A with producer John Friedman. \nIn partnership with The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art. \n\n\n\n\n\nDirector: Hugo Macgregor\nYear: 2024\nRuntime: 115 minutes\nLanguage: English\nCountry: United Kingdom\, United States\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTRAILER\n\n\n\n20% off tickets with code fritz2025\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/plunderer/ LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Plunderer-film-still.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan":MAILTO:info@mmjccm.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250204T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250204T210000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250120T162036Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250120T162036Z UID:8817-1738695600-1738702800@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:The Return from the Other Planet\, 2023Screening followed by Q+A with director Assaf LapidMarlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, New York DESCRIPTION:Ka.tzetnik\, the Holocaust author who sold millions of copies and shaped its memory in Israel\, was and remains an enigma. He remained elusive as rumors spread\, claiming that he wrote all night long\, in complete solitude\, wearing his prisoner uniform from Auschwitz and burning his manuscripts by morning. During the explosive Eichmann trial\, Ka.tzetnik was forced to reveal his identity to the public as he was summoned to testify. In a short testimony of a few minutes\, he coined the term “The Other Planet” in describing Auschwitz\, and fainted. \nThe film explores the Ka.tzetnik enigma\, shedding light on the person behind the myth\, and brings back a chapter in his life that wasn’t discussed much—his personal odyssey in coping with his trauma through the unconventional path of LSD. \n\n\nScreening followed by Q+A with director Assaf Lapid. \nIn partnership with the Books That Changed My Life Festival 2025\, 3GNY\, Claims Conference\, and The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art. \n\n\n\n\n\nDirector: Assaf Lapid\nYear: 2023\nRuntime: 81 minutes\nLanguage: Hebrew\, English\, Dutch\, Yiddish\nCountry: Israel\, Germany\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n20% off tickets with code fritz2025\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/return-from-the-other-planet-screening/ LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures ORGANIZER;CN="Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan":MAILTO:info@mmjccm.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250126T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20250126T180000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20250120T115205Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250127T123146Z UID:8792-1737907200-1737914400@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Opening receptionSURVIVAL AND INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY:The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana\, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana and Kitra CahanaOregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education\, Portland\, Oregon DESCRIPTION:Please join us for the opening event! \nSurvival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana\, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana\, and Kitra Cahana is a unique and powerful exhibition that explores the role of art and creativity\, bringing the past into the present by focusing on three generations of artists from the same family. Alice Lok Cahana (1929-2017) was a Holocaust survivor who pledged she would become an artist if she survived the war. Rabbi Ronnie Cahana\, Alice’s oldest son\, is a poet and survivor of a major stroke. Kitra Cahana\, Ronnie’s daughter\, is a filmmaker and photographer. This exhibition reveals how the tragedy of the Holocaust impacted multiple generations of a family and how each member transformed the destructive trauma of the Shoah into acts of intense creative accomplishment\, taking their own path to provide a through-line to preserving the memories\, culture\, and identity of their shared family and the Jewish people. \nImage above: Alice Lok Cahana\, 1940-44 Triptych: right panel\, 1984\, Collection Ronnie and Michael Cahana\, Inv. 052 \nAlice Lok Cahana\, New Day III\, c. 1980\, Collection Ronnie and Michael Cahana\, Inv. 078 \nKitra Cahana\, Caravana Migrante: The Question of the Future (Portrait of Maryuri Celeste\,18\, from Santa Rosa\, Honduras) Tijuana\, Mexico\, 2018 \nSurvival and Intimations of Immortality is guest-curated by Ori Z Soltes. It was organized in cooperation with The Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art\, New York. Funding has been generously provided by the Craig E. Wollner Exhibition Fund\, the Arnold and Augusta Newman Photography Fund\, and the Judy Margles Education and Culture Fund \nOREGON JEWISH MUSEUM AND CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATIONThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/opening-reception-ojmche/ LOCATION:Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education\, 724 NW Davis St\, Portland\, OR\, 97209\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/16_Alice-Lok-Cahana_triptych-right-1-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250126 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250526 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20241122T200714Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251121T160133Z UID:8596-1737849600-1748217599@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:SURVIVAL AND INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY:The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana\, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana and Kitra CahanaOregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education\, Portland\, Oregon DESCRIPTION:Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana\, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana\, and Kitra Cahana is a unique and powerful exhibition that explores the role of art and creativity\, bringing the past into the present by focusing on three generations of artists from the same family. Alice Lok Cahana (1929-2017) was a Holocaust survivor who pledged she would become an artist if she survived the war. Rabbi Ronnie Cahana\, Alice’s oldest son\, is a poet and survivor of a major stroke. Kitra Cahana\, Ronnie’s daughter\, is a filmmaker and photographer. This exhibition reveals how the tragedy of the Holocaust impacted multiple generations of a family and how each member transformed the destructive trauma of the Shoah into acts of intense creative accomplishment\, taking their own path to provide a through-line to preserving the memories\, culture\, and identity of their shared family and the Jewish people. \nSurvival and Intimations of Immortality is curated by Ori Z Soltes and co-organized by Rachel Stern in collaboration with the museum. \nPress voices \nArts Beat\, Oregon Public BroadcastingThe Franklin PressKATU TVOREGON JEWISH MUSEUM AND CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST EDUCATIONAlice Lok Cahana\, 1940-44 Triptych: right panel\, 1984\, Collection Ronnie and Michael Cahana\, Inv. 052 \nKitra Cahana\, Caravana Migrante: The Question of the Future (Portrait of Maryuri Celeste\,18\, from Santa Rosa\, Honduras) Tijuana\, Mexico\, 2018 \nVIEW OUR BOOK AND RECORDINGS OF RELATED EVENTSThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.YOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/cahana-ojmche/ LOCATION:Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education\, 724 NW Davis St\, Portland\, OR\, 97209\, United States CATEGORIES:Exhibitions,Past Exhibitions ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/IMG_1641-4-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250122T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250122T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20241222T114115Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250122T183112Z UID:8673-1737547200-1737550800@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Making Way for Berthe Weill—Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde A presentation by Lynn Gumpert\, New York DESCRIPTION:Berthe Weill was a trailblazing art dealer who exhibited works by emerging artists in her Parisian gallery from 1901 to 1941. Even though many of them went on to become key avant-garde figures\, Weill’s role has been omitted from most historical accounts of 20th-century modernism. \nIn this presentation\, Lynn Gumpert\, a co-curator of the first exhibition on Weill\, provides an overview of this remarkable woman. \n\n\n\n\nImage above: Amedeo Modigliani\, Fille rousse (Girl with red hair)\, c. 1915. Oil on canvas\, 16 x 14 3/8 in. (40.5 x 36.5 cm). Musée de l’Orangerie\, Paris. Jean Walter and Paul Guillame Collection\, 1960.46 © Photo: Musée de l’Orangerie / Sophie Crépy \n\n\n\n\nPassionate and outspoken\, Weill was the first to sell works by Pablo Picasso\, to exhibit Henri Matisse\, and organized Amedeo Modigliani’s only solo show during his lifetime. She also championed fledgling Fauves and Cubists along with numerous women artists. Born in 1865 in Paris to a modest Alsatian Jewish family\, she apprenticed in her early teens with a print and antique dealer. \nPablo Picasso\, Le Chemineau ou Vieux Tolédan (The Vagabond or Old Tolédan)\, 1901. Pen and Indian ink enhanced with watercolor and pencil on wove paper mounted on paper board. 8 1/4 x 5 3/8 in. (21 x 13.6 cm). Musée des Beaux-Arts\, Reims\, France. 949.1.108 © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York. Photo: Christian Devleeschauwer \n\nPablo Picasso\, La Miséreuse accroupie (Crouching beggarwoman)\, 1902. Oil on canvas\, 39 7/8 x 26 in. (101.3 x 66 cm). Art Gallery of Ontario\, Canada. Anonymous gift\, 1963\, 63/1 © 2024 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAt the age of 36\, she opened the Galerie B. Weill with a business card that read “Make way for the young.” Weill also sold books\, prints\, and antiques to pay the rent. In 1941 she was forced to close during the Nazi occupation. Managing to avoid deportation\, Weill emerged impoverished and in poor health after the war. She died in 1951 at the age of 85. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nHenri Matisse\, Liseuse en robe violette (Reading woman in a violet dress)\, 1898. Oil on canvas\, 14 7/8 x 18 1/8 in. (37.8 x 46 cm). Musée des Beaux-Arts\, Reims\, France 949.1.40.  © Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York. Photo: Christian Devleeschauwer \nÉmilie Charmy\, Piana Corsica\, 1906. Oil on canvas mounted on board\, 21 1/8 x 25 3/8 in. (53.5 x 64.5 cm). Galerie Bernard Bouche\, Paris © Alberto Ricci \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMuseum director\, curator\, administrator\, and art historian\, Lynn Gumpert has overseen and organized exhibitions on four continents. For more than 25 years\, she has served as Director of New York University’s Grey Art Museum\, formerly known as the Grey Art Gallery. During her tenure\, the Grey has presented over 75 exhibitions. Among them are: Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World\, 1950s–1980s (2020); The Beautiful Brain: The Drawings of Santiago Ramón y Cajal (2018); and The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene\, 1974–1984 (2006). Gumpert received a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA in art history from the University of Michigan. The French government honored Gumpert with the distinction of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1999. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMarc Chagall\, Bella à Mourillon\, 1926. Oil on canvas\, 18 1/8 x 25 5/8 in. (46 x 65 cm). Private collection © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York / ADAGP\, Paris \nRaoul Dufy\, 30 ans ou la Vie en rose (Thirty years or la Vie en rose)\, 1931. Oil on canvas\, 38 5/8 x 50 3/8 in. (98 x 128 cm). Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Donation of Mathilde Amos\, 1955\, AMVP 1924 © 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS)\, New York. Photo: CC0 Paris Musées / Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris \n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe exhibition Make Way for Berthe Weill. Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde features some 110 paintings\, drawings\, prints\, and sculpture—many of which were shown at her gallery during the first four decades of the 20th century. The exhibition also includes archival documents—such as letters\, exhibition catalogs\, photographs\, and journals—that reveal her deep relationships with a range of artists. Examining Weill’s contributions to the history of modernism as a gallerist\, a passionate advocate of contemporary art\, and a Jewish woman\, it brings to light the remarkable achievements of a singular figure who overcame sexism\, antisemitism\, and economic struggles in her quest to promote emerging artists. \nThe exhibition is on view at the Grey Art Museum October 1\, 2024–March 1\, 2025 and will tour to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts May 10–September 7\, 2025\, and the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris October 8\, 2025–January 25\, 2026. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nEXHIBITION AT THE GREY ART MUSEUMLynn Gumpert \n\n\n\n\n\n\nAn illustrated publication\, Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-Garde\, accompanies the exhibition. Published by Flammarion\, it illuminates the rich artistic period by spotlighting recently rediscovered artists and offering new insights into the era’s central figures. It includes an introductory essay by Le Morvan\, a discussion of portraits of Weill by Grace\, an essay on antisemitism in late 19th-century France by historian Charles Dellheim\, an overview of collectors who frequented the Galerie B. Weill by researcher Robert McD. Parker\, and entries on works by Eloy. It also features a chronology and selected bibliography. The publication is available for purchase in-person at the Grey Art Museum\, NYU\, and through the online bookstore. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nORDER THE BOOK HERE\n\n\n\n\n\nAlso available is Weill’s recently translated 1933 memoir\, Pow! Right in the Eye! Thirty Years Behind the Scenes of Modern French Painting (University of Chicago Press\, 2022)\, which offers rare insights into the Parisian avant-garde and a lively inside account of the development of the modern art market. The volume is edited by Lynn Gumpert and translated by William Rodarmor\, with an introduction by Marianne Le Morvan and foreword by Julie Saul and Lynn Gumpert. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nORDER THE BOOK HERE\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” It is co-sponsored by The Grey Art Museum. \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/berthe-weill/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12.-Modigliani_Fille-rousse_1915-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250108T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250108T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20241121T182200Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250109T192752Z UID:8572-1736337600-1736341200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Fred Kormis – Sculpting the Twentieth Century Presentation by Barbara Warnock\, London (England) DESCRIPTION:Born in 1894 in Frankfurt into an Austrian and German Jewish family\, Fred Kormis’ life and career were shaped and disrupted by some of the most significant events of the twentieth century. Kormis saw action and was wounded in the First World War as part of the Austrian army\, before being held for four years as a prisoner of war in Siberia. \nImage above: Fred Kormis\, Two Heads\, c. 1930s © Wiener Holocaust Library Collections \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHe worked as an artist during the politically and culturally tumultuous Weimar period\, and during the Nazi era revealed himself to be Jewish\, a decision that led to the removal of his art from galleries. Kormis and his wife Rachel Sender left Germany in 1933\, and many of the works he left behind in Germany were lost. In exile in relative poverty in Britain from 1934\, Kormis formed deep links with many in the Jewish refugee community in London. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFred Kormis\, Portrait of a Man\, c. 1915-20. Woodcut printed on oriental laid paper © Wiener Holocaust Library collections \nFred Kormis\, Adam and Eve\, 1986. Bronze resin \n\n\n\n\n\n\nDuring the war\, he had to rebuild his life and career once again\, when his studio and much of the work he had produced in Britain were destroyed in an air raid. Kormis’ artistic practice was varied and evolved over time\, but his experiences as a prisoner of war created in him a lifelong preoccupation with memorialising and representing in sculptural form the emotional impact of captivity. This theme culminated in the 1960s in his Prisoner of War and Concentration Camp Victim memorial in Gladstone Park in London. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFred Kormis\, Memorial to Prisoners of War and Concentration Camp Victims\, 1969. Gladstone Park\, London (England). Photo Adam Soller\n\n\n\nFred Kormis\, Detail: Head from Memorial to Prisoners of War and Concentration Camp Victims\, 1969. Gladstone Park\, London (England). Photo Adam Soller\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDr Barbara Warnock is the Senior Curator and Head of Education at The Wiener Holocaust Library\, where she oversees the education programme and has curated the exhibitions Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust; Berlin London: The Lost Photographs of Gerty Simon; Fighting Antisemitism from Dreyfus to Today\, and Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti\, amongst others. She is the author (with John March) of Berlin-London: The Lost Photographs of Gerty Simon (2019)\, a Spectator Book of the Year\, and the editor of Anti-Antisemitism: Countering Anti-Jewish Racism in Western Europe\, 1890-2022 (2022). She has written a number of articles on refugee history\, the Nazi persecution of Roma and the history of The Wiener Holocaust Library. She obtained her doctorate in Austrian history from Birkbeck College\, University of London\, in 2016. She was for many years a history teacher and examiner. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Wiener Holocaust Library in London\, the world’s oldest and Britain’s largest archive on the Nazi era and the Holocaust\, received a collection for Fred (Fritz) Kormis’ documents and photographs in 1986. Their exhibition Fred Kormis – Sculpting the Twentieth Century reunites some of the most important of his diverse works\, borrowed from major institutions in the UK. It is on view until February 6\, 2025. \nA book publication contains personal reflections of Kormis by David Aronsohn\, and expert assessments of the sculptor’s extraordinary life\, work and legacy. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nEXHIBITION FRED KORMIS – SCULPTING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY\n\n\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.” It is co-sponsored by The Wiener Holocaust Library. \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \n\n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/fred-kormis/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/1032-002-007_023-0001-copy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241218T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241218T130000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20241124T191846Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241218T191811Z UID:8595-1734523200-1734526800@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:Behind the Glass: The Villa Tugendhat and Its FamilyA book talk by Michael Lambek\, Toronto (Canada) DESCRIPTION:In this book talk\, Michael Lambek follows the intertwined history of Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Villa Tugendhat and the family who inhabited it from 1930-1938. Part memoir\, part social history\, the book traces the family from its origins in a Jewish ghetto to the present day\, focussing on the author’s maternal grandmother\, Grete Tugendhat who commissioned and championed the house\, which is now a World Heritage Site in Brno\, Czechia. \n\n\n\n\nImage above: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe\, Villa Tugendhat\, Brno (Czechia)\, photo David Zidlicky \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Villa Tugendhat\, designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1929\, is an icon of architectural modernism in Brno\, Czechia. It was also a family home. Centring my account on my remarkable maternal grandmother\, Grete Tugendhat\, who commissioned\, loved\, and championed the house\, I write about what the house has meant for the family and the family for the house. I recount the social history of the family from a Moravian ghetto to wealthy textile owners\, to the contemporary diaspora. The family fled in 1938-9 but Grete conditionally offered the house to the city of Brno in the late 1960s. Eventually the house became a UNESCO World Heritage site and was restored as she had wished. It has become a museum of itself. In 2017 the city invited the family back\, raising the question of how they should be represented in the house and what this belated recognition of a Jewish family and house have come to mean for the city itself. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nLiving room\, Villa Tugendhat. Brno (Czechia) \nBoys by window\, Villa Tugendhat\, Brno (Czechia)\, 1935\nLiving room\, Villa Tugendhat. Brno (Czechia). Copyright David Zidlicky \nLiving room\, Villa Tugendhat. Brno (Czechia). Copyright David Zidlicky \nGrete Tugendhat\, 1940. Bromine oil print. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMichael Lambek is Professor and Canada Research Chair emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and former Professor at the London School of Economics. He has carried out ethnographic research in Madagascar\, the Comoro Archipelago\, and Switzerland\, writing on questions of religion\, ethical life\, historicity\, memory\, healing\, and kinship. In 2019 he delivered a Tanner Lecture to the Philosophy Department at the University of Michigan. He is the author of 8 books and 9 edited collections. \nHis book “Behind the Glass: The Villa Tugendhat and Its Family” was published by University of Toronto Press in 2022.\nYou will receive a 25% discount on the hardcover and e-book formats with the code Lambek25. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nORDER THE BOOK HERE\nThis event is part of the online series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression.”  \n\nPlease donate generously to make programs like this possible. Thank you. \n\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible. \n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/villa-tugendhat/ LOCATION:ONLINE\, VA\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures,Past Events ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Ch-1-house-photo-by-Zidilcky-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241217T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241217T210000 DTSTAMP:20260404T061820 CREATED:20241209T221332Z LAST-MODIFIED:20241209T221332Z UID:8674-1734462000-1734469200@fritzaschersociety.org SUMMARY:World Premiere: Kafka’s Last TrialScreening at Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan DESCRIPTION:Screening followed by Q+A with director Eliran Peled\, writer Daphne Merkin\, and author Benjamin Balint. Film and screening offered in partnership with the New York Jewish Week. Co-sponsored by Fritz Ascher Society for Persecuted\, Ostracized and Banned Art. \nUpon his death in 1924\, the great Czech-Austrian novelist Franz Kafka left behind a rich collection of unpublished manuscripts\, with instructions to his friend Max Brod to burn them all. \nThanks to Brod’s failure to fulfill Kafka’s wishes\, the world has come to know one of the great writers of the 20th century. Now\, 100 years after his death\, the film “Kafka’s Last Trial” tells the story of this altruistic betrayal and the multi-generational effort to preserve Kafka’s literary legacy. Based on the book by renowned author Benjamin Balint\, the film takes viewers from the twisty streets of Prague to Spinoza Street in Tel Aviv\, where Brod’s legendary secretary died at the age of 102\, and where the manuscripts discovered in her home would lead to a trial that could have been written by Kafka himself. \nDon’t miss the World Premiere of this new film\, by Israeli director Eliran Peled\, and brought to New York by the New York Jewish Week\, immediately followed by a discussion with Peled\, Balint and acclaimed literary critic Daphne Merkin. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBUY TICKET HERE\n\n\n\n\n\nCan’t make it to the event in person? Click here to purchase a virtual ticket. You’ll receive online access to the film and a link to watch our live conversation with Eliran Peled\, Daphne Merkin and Benjamin Balint. \nTickets for screening and Q&A are $36. $54 VIP tickets entitle you to join us at a meet-and-greet with the speakers before the film. \nBy registering for this event\, you agree to receive emails from the New York Jewish Week about the film and other New York Jewish news. You can unsubscribe at any time. \n\n\n\n\n\n\nBUY VIRTUAL TICKET HERE\nThe Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.\nYOUR SUPPORT MAKES OUR WORK POSSIBLE. THANK YOU. \n\n\nDONATE HERE URL:https://fritzaschersociety.org/exhibition-event/kafkas-last-trial/ LOCATION:Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan\, 334 Amsterdam Ave\, New York\, NY\, 10023\, United States CATEGORIES:Events,Lectures ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://fritzaschersociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/678134733.Def_.L.png ORGANIZER;CN="Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan":MAILTO:info@mmjccm.org END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR