Dear Friends,

Thank you for your generous donations over the summer, which help ensure our virtual programming this fall.

Happy September! This month we feature memory painter Mayer Kirshenblatt, who recreated the Polish town of his youth in paintings and words. We also honor the Dutch painter and sculptor Jaqueline de Jong, who died only recently. Her flight to Switzerland in infancy determined her outlook on life and her art.

And Ori Z Soltes and I will sit down for an in-person book talk about “Welcoming the Stranger” at George Washington University in Washington, DC:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 ONLINE
PAINTED MEMORIES OF A JEWISH CHILDHOOD
IN POLAND BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST
Presentation by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Warsaw (Poland)

Mayer Kirshenblatt, Synagogue interior, 1991. Acrylic on canvas. Gift of the Kirshenblatt Family. Taube Family Mayer July Art Collection at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw

Lest future generations know more about how Jews died than how they lived, Mayer Kirshenblatt (1916-2009) made it his mission to remember the world of his childhood in images and words. Born in Opatów (Apt in Yiddish), Mayer left for Canada in 1934 at the age of 17.

This lecture by the artist’s daughter Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, an acclaimed scholar of East European Jewish culture, will present the artist and his work in the context of two exhibition, one at the Jewish Museum in New York (2009) and the second at POLIN Museum (May 17–December 16, 2024). The exhibition at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw is staged as a dialogue between Mayer’s shtetl as represented in his paintings, and today’s Opatów as a post-Jewish town.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 ONLINE
MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND CONTRADICTIONS:
THE ART AND LIFE OF JACQUELINE DE JONG
Presentation by ARIELLA WOLENS

In this virtual talk, curator Ariella Wolens will present the late Dutch artist, Situationist, and Pataphysician Jacqueline de Jong (1939-2024). Born into a Jewish family in Enschede, Netherlands, De Jong’s infancy was spent in exile in Switzerland; she and her mother narrowly escaped deportation to Sobibor after being taken in by the resistance. For the rest of her life, she remained universally empathic, and chose art as her own form of resistance.

De Jong was a central figure within the 1960s avant-garde of Paris, however, she remained a forward-facing figure all her life, fully engaged in contemporary discourse until her last days. She defied categorization, engaging in painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design, typography, jewelry and ceaseless experimentation.

Misunderstandings and Contradictions will accompany the forthcoming exhibition Jacqueline de Jong: Vicious Circles, the first U.S. museum survey dedicated to this monumental artist. Curated by Ariella Wolens, the exhibition will open at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale on November 17, 2024.

If you live in or near Washington DC, we invite you to join us for our book talk.

And if you don’t, you can join us virtually (same registration link):

This timely book offers theoretical and practical reflections on ‘welcoming the stranger.’ From the theological analysis of Abraham to the legal and political discussion of immigration and refugees, the volume explores how hospitality—welcoming the ‘other’ into our tents—leads to peace and improving the world.—Mehnaz Afridi, Director, Holocaust, Genocide & Interfaith Education Center and Professor, Religious Studies, Manhattan College

There, you can find access to the free digital publication (epub) as well.

If you missed our July events, you can watch the recordings here:

Please donate generously to make our work possible. THANK YOU.

If you want to commemorate loved ones by making a contribution to a specific event or project, please contact me at [email protected].

The Fritz Ascher Society is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is fully tax deductible.

I hope to see you online or in Washington DC!

All best wishes,

Gratefully,

Rachel Stern

Executive Director