Rachel Stern2026-03-01T10:52:18-05:00March 1st, 2026|Events, Lectures|
In this book talk, author Cathryn J. Prince follows Pauline Newman’s life from a youth split between Lithuania and New York City sweatshops to her work as an advisor to New Deal–era labor secretary Frances Perkins. From her start as one of the youngest activists in US history, Pauline Newman helped shape the International Ladies' Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) into a dominant force in industrial America. Cathryn J. Prince tells the story of a self-educated Jewish immigrant who dedicated herself to a legion of causes and lifelong battles against sexism and classism. REGISTER HERE Newman’s long hours at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory informed her entrée into labor activism. In the following years, she tirelessly advocated for [...]
Rachel Stern2026-02-04T06:26:33-05:00February 3rd, 2026|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, As the snow doesn't seem to melt here in New York, we slowly move towards the Jewish holiday of Purim. So in our next talk, we will focus on the German-born Israeli artist Jacob Pins who depicted clowns repeatedly. We will explore how he portrayed the clown, a figure between tragedy and comedy, between self-identification and stage, within his larger oeuvre, within the Israeli society and beyond: Wednesday, February 11, 12:00pm ET online Jacob Pins (1917-2005): The Art of Laughter and Tears Presentation by Ori Z Soltes, PhD Georgetown University, Washington (DC) REGISTER HERE Jacob Pins, Dance of Death, 1957. Color woodcut, 995 x 597 mm. Forum Jacob Pins, [...]
Rachel Stern2025-10-22T14:46:04-04:00July 10th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
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. When 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. Henri 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, [...]
Rachel Stern2025-06-25T13:33:20-04:00May 12th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
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. Image above: Book Cover THE ART SPY. The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Vallant by Michelle Young (Harper One, May 13, 2025) Rose 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 [...]
Rachel Stern2025-07-09T14:20:40-04:00April 28th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
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. Perkins’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 [...]
Rachel Stern2025-02-13T07:00:51-05:00January 26th, 2025|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
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. Melvin 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 [...]
Rachel Stern2024-04-03T13:56:09-04:00March 27th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Benjamin Balint, author of the National Jewish Book Award winning book, and Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes in conversation. Bruno Schulz is renowned as a master of twentieth-century imaginative fiction. Isaac Bashevis Singer called him “one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived.” But Schulz was also an exceptionally talented graphic artist whose masochistic drawings would catch the eye of a sadistic Nazi officer. Schulz’s art became the currency in which he bought life. Image above: Bruno Schulz, Mural, 1941-1942. Drohobycz. Discovery Benjamin Geissler, 2001. Drawing on extensive new reporting and archival research, Benjamin Balint chases the inventive murals Schulz painted on the walls of an SS villa—the last traces of his vanished [...]
