Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:30:15-04:00April 29th, 2025|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, May is the month during which we celebrate the fifth anniversary of our virtual event series "Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression." You can now find about 150 artist videos on our YouTube channel @fritzaschersociety! Throughout this month, we ask you to donate to the Fritz Ascher Society to enable us to continue this important virtual program, which brings artists to a global audience, who are not widely known because they were persecuted or murdered by the German Nazis. We need to raise $10,000.00 to ensure the continuation of this program. And I am happy to announce that every donation made this month will be matched dollar-for-dollar until we reach that amount, so please: [...]
Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:31:47-04:00April 2nd, 2025|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Spring is here, with the energy of renewal and growth and blossoming trees, plants and flowers. Holidays abound, and we honor Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. We have organized fabulous virtual events for you, but first I have a story with a happy ending for you, at least for the art: Pretty exactly a year ago, the reporter and writer Julie Zigoris told the story of artwork that was found on a park bench in San Francisco’s Crane Cove Park in 2022. City employees had rescued the art and found the majority of the artworks to be by the Jewish painter Ary Arcadie Lochakov (1892-1941), a member of the famed School of Paris group that includes [...]
Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:32:39-04:00March 7th, 2025|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, During these breathtakingly turbulent times, we prepared very diverse online programs for you: we start this month by looking back at US history by discussing immigrant American artist Ben Shahn, then focus on the state of Nazi era art restitution by presenting the much disputed collection of the Jewish art dealer Alfred Flechtheim, and conclude the month with a panel discussion of curator Ori Z Soltes, poet Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and photographer Kitra Cahana about our Portland (OR) exhibition Survival and Intimations of Immortality: The Art of Alice Lok Cahana, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana, which is on view until May 25. First we present the American artist, Social Realist painter, and child refugee from Tzarist-governed [...]
Rachel Stern2025-02-12T07:45:33-05:00February 12th, 2025|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, February is a busy month with many interesting events in our orbit, starting with two film screenings at the JCC Manhattan, continuing with a virtual conversation with author Melvin Bukiet and a presentation of Fritz Ascher's art, and two exhibitions, of which one is closing in early March in Germany, and one just opened in Portland, Oregon. Please join us at the JCC Manhattan for two important film screenings: Tuesday, February 4, 7:00PM ET The Return from the Other Planet, 2023 Screening followed by Q+A with director Assaf Lapid Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, New York 20% off tickets with code fritz2025 Tuesday, February 11, [...]
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 Stern2024-09-20T07:15:28-04:00August 9th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Welcoming the Stranger, a collection of essays, explores hospitality and inclusion in Abrahamic traditions from historical, theoretical, theological, and practical perspectives. It offers an enlightening and compelling discussion of what the Abrahamic traditions teach us regarding welcoming people we don't know. Join the Center for Jewish Civilization and Mortara Center for International Studies for a conversation with editors Ori Soltes and Rachel Stern, refreshments, and a book signing. Image above: David Stern, Snow Crash (Lost Agency), 2018-19. Acrylics and pigments on paper, 27 x 35 inches. © David Stern / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York This timely book offers theoretical and practical reflections on 'welcoming the stranger.' From the theological analysis of Abraham to the [...]
Rachel Stern2024-04-02T18:31:46-04:00March 28th, 2024|Newsletter|
Finally it's spring, and with it comes the energy of renewal and hope. At the Fritz Ascher Society, we have installed a new system to register for events. Hoping it will work flawlessly, I ask you to be kind and patient if it doesn't. Next week, we will hear National Jewish Book Award winner Benjamin Balint in conversation with Georgetown University Professor Ori Z Soltes: WEDNESDAY, April 3 ONLINE 12:00 PM EDT BRUNO SCHULZ (1892-1942): An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History REGISTER FOR THIS ONLINE EVENT HERE Bruno Schulz, ‘The Enchanted Town II,’ 1920-1922. Bruno Schulz is renowned as a master of twentieth-century imaginative fiction. Isaac Bashevis Singer called him “one [...]
Rachel Stern2024-03-05T11:31:35-05:00March 1st, 2024|Newsletter|
Happy March! This month, we are looking forward to three fabulous events. Please join us on March 18 at Fordham University in New York to celebrate the book launch of Welcoming the Stranger. Abrahamic Traditions and Contemporary Implications, or join us via livestream. Online, we'll learn about two artists well respected in their time, and recently re-discovered. Please safe March 27, 12:00pm ET for an unbelievable art mystery that is a developing story. Stay tuned! Next week, we'll focus on Rahel Szalit, who will be recognized in a forthcoming book publication. Hear author Kerry Wallach: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6 ONLINE 12:00 PM EST ”TRACES OF A JEWISH ARTIST: THE LOST LIFE AND WORK OF RAHEL SZALIT (1888-1942) REGISTER [...]
Rachel Stern2024-03-26T17:07:03-04:00February 4th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Join us for an evening of stimulating conversation, and refreshments, as we celebrate the publication of Welcoming the Stranger. Abrahamic Traditions and Its Contemporary Implications. Advance copies of the book are available for purchase. This book is a collection of thought-provoking essays exploring the theme of hospitality as a means of building bridges between different cultures and communities. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in interfaith dialogue, social justice, and creating a more inclusive society. Its contents could hardly be more relevant today. Beginning with the story of Abraham’s hospitality to the three strangers described in Genesis18, the narrative explores both the theological evolution in and beyond the Abrahamic traditions of the principle of “welcoming the stranger,” [...]
Rachel Stern2022-04-28T09:33:15-04:00April 26th, 2022|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Thursday is Yom HaShoah - Holocaust Memorial Day. In January, we invited you to actively commemorate victims of National Socialism by contributing to the Arolsen Archive’s digital memorial #EVERYNAMECOUNTS. I know that some of you found the project so meaningful that you are still donating your time to it. Right now, you can choose to enter data of documents from Buchenwald, Flossenbürg or Dachau: PARTICIPATE HERE This Thursday, I invite all to donate time to help build this important digital memorial. On our website you find further information about the project and our partnership with the Arolsen Archive: https://fritzaschersociety.org/digifas/everynamecounts/ And please share your experience with us! In May, we turn to the experience of [...]
Rachel Stern2022-03-28T05:26:02-04:00March 28th, 2022|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, When the artist Ben-Zion was born in 1897, his hometown Starokostiantyniv belonged to the Russian Empire. By the time he left for the United States, it belonged to the Ukraine/Poland. Today it again belongs to the Ukraine, and is brutally attacked and destroyed by the Russian army. As the casualties are mounting, we hope for peace, democracy and independence in the Ukraine. Join us on Wednesday, April 6 for a ZOOM LECTURE in our monthly series "Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression” about the painter, printmaker, sculptor, educator, and poet: Wednesday, April 6, 12:00pm “Ben-Zion (1897-1987): Man of Many Faces” Featuring Tabita Shalem and Ori Z Soltes ) ZOOM EVENT REGISTRATION Ben-Zion, Prophet [...]
Rachel Stern2022-03-25T18:43:40-04:00February 15th, 2022|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Our new online exhibition is ready to be launched, and we want to celebrate with you, together with our new partner, the Sheen Center! Please join us: Sunday, February 27, 3:00-4:30pm “Identity and Migration: Artists and Composers who Fled Persecution” The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, New York MORE INFO AND TICKET LINK During the first half of the 20th century, with the rise of Nazism and other fascist movements across most of Europe, the numbers of people migrating were second only to today. Many refugees made the United States their destination. During this event, expert panelists discuss the degree of receptivity of America to incoming refugees, as well as [...]
