Rachel Stern2026-09-30T13:51:28-04:00September 1st, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
The architecture of the American Jewish community was transformed following World War II by émigré and refugee architects engaged to design synagogues and Jewish Community Centers. Image above: Hamden, CT, Mishkan Israel sanctuary, photo S. Gruber, 2011. Architects: Fritz Nathan and Bertram Bassuk, Ark: Ben Shahn, Stained Glass: Robert Pinart and Jean-Jacques Duval Eric Mendelsohn’s synagogues for St. Louis, Cleveland and elsewhere are well known but the work of Fritz Nathan, Mendelsohn’s German-Jewish contemporary, is virtually forgotten. Erich Mendelsohn, sketch for Congregation Bnai Amoona, St Louis, MO Erich Mendelsohn, Model for Congregation Bnai Amoona, St Louis, MO Nathan arrived in the United [...]
Rachel Stern2026-09-16T14:42:28-04:00September 1st, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In her presentation, Dr. Miholca will spotlight the artistic and historical significance of Marcel Janco and the Romanian avant-garde group during a period of tremendous creative experimentation and productivity, when artists and writers merged their Jewish identity with the international identity they sought to foster through their network of dadaist and constructivist magazines. Janco, alongside other Romanian-Jewish artists like M. H. Maxy, Victor Brauner, Mattis Teutsch, and Benjamin Fondane, wished to capitalize on the Dada movement initiated by Janco and Tristan Tzara—alongside Hugo Ball, in Zurich, 1916—with their own avant-garde movement in Bucharest that mainly emerged through magazines such as Contimporanul (1922-1932), 75HP (1924) and Integral (1925-1928). The presentation will be followed by a conversation with Nicola Baird, PhD. [...]
Rachel Stern2026-09-16T16:36:06-04:00August 31st, 2026|Events, Lectures|
This event will bring together leading scholars to examine how visual media contribute to our understanding of the Holocaust. Berlin-based Dr. Christoph Kreutzmüller and Boston-based Dr. Rachel Perry will interpret visual narratives that serve as both powerful and complex testimonies to lived experience. Through a detailed visual analysis, they will examine what photographs and works of art reveal about the individuals and communities depicted, as well as the embedded social dynamics and historical contexts. The discussion will also address the interpretive challenges inherent in visual sources. What are the strengths and limitations of photography compared to artistic representation? How do intention, perspective, and medium influence what is shown—or left out? By examining both photographic and artistic documents, the event [...]
Rachel Stern2026-09-16T16:40:08-04:00August 4th, 2026|Events, Lectures|
Event Chair: Carol Prendergast Keynote Speaker: Bella Meyer A Migrant's Legacy - Marc Chagall's Response. Reflections of his Granddaughter Event committee (in formation): Betty Ehrenberg Cheryl Fishbein Janet Heit Sam Konig Carol Lipsky Ilona Oltuski Steven Orlikoff Ian Shapolsky Ori Z Soltes Rachel Stern
Rachel Stern2026-08-13T06:16:59-04:00July 21st, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Born in Germany, Suzanne Loebl and her family left for Belgium in 1938, and lucky enough to be hidden there after the Nazis overran the country. She survived to carve out a diverse career as a writer, including books that focus on the visual arts and museums. Her most recent volume, Plunder and Survival, draws from her passion for art and her fascination with the story of both the Nazi obsession and theft of cultural property and the winding trajectory of attempts to restore plundered artworks to the families or institutions from which they were stolen. Image above: Yussuf Abbo, sketch of Gretel Bamberger, Suzanne's mother, n.d. Courtesy Suzanne Loebl . In this zoom program Loebl [...]
Rachel Stern2026-07-15T13:51:50-04:00June 28th, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In her talk, Daria Santini presents her new biography of the Austrian-British photographer and Soviet agent Edith Tudor Hart (1908–1973). At the centre of a wide and vibrant circle of predominantly Central European artists, architects, designers, scientists, intellectuals and political activists in 1930s and 1940s London, Tudor Hart combined a successful career as a photographer with a clandestine role as a communist agent. This remarkable dual identity forms the basis of a compelling and dramatic life story. Image above: Edith Tudor Hart, London ca 1935. Born in Vienna into a secular, social-democratic Jewish family deeply rooted in the progressive culture of the city that became known as 'Red Vienna', Edith Tudor [...]
Rachel Stern2026-07-22T15:12:44-04:00May 24th, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In this presentation, Carla Maria Huttenloher brings women’s photographic agency to the forefront of the Bauhaus story, uncovering the rich and long-underexplored links between their lives and their powerful bodies of work. Image above: Grit Kallin-Fischer, Self-portrait with cigarette, around 1928. Courtesy Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin . Women have worked behind the camera since photography’s beginnings, but their contributions have been sidelined in art‑historical narratives. The Bauhaus offers a clear case: during the Weimar Republic women engaged with and shaped photographic modernism in multiple ways, yet their work is insufficiently acknowledged to date. In the 1920s and early 1930s, the social figure of the New Woman — ideologically linked to greater independence, professional [...]
Rachel Stern2026-05-21T07:16:30-04:00April 27th, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In this online lecture Anne Uhrlandt will present the forgotten story of once prominent German Jewish artist and collector Eugen Spiro (April 18, 1874, Wrocław - September 26, 1972, New York City). During her two-year research project, Uhrlandt reconstructed the artist’s biography and the fate of his looted collection by bringing together evidence and sources from numerous international archives. Two case studies about specific stolen objects highlight the dramatic events following both s the Nazi government ‘s expulsion of Spiro from his profession, robbing him of his sources of income, and the theft of his art collection, which included both his own works of art and works of art by other artists. The case studies demonstrate the potential of [...]
Rachel Stern2026-05-06T14:12:25-04:00April 22nd, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In this talk, Rutgers University professor emeritus Matthew Baigell discusses early Jewish immigrant artists and cartoonists. As millions of Jews immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe starting in the 1870s, they brought with them not only their religious heritage but also a definitive idea of the place and value of art and aesthetics in society. Around 1900 they established a Jewish art stream separate from mainstream American art that continues to the present day. To a greater or lesser degree over the decades, artists have continually emphasized community values, politics, and religious heritage. Image above: Shelter Us Under the Shadow of Thy Wings, Hebrew Publishing 1909 Matthew Baigell is professor emeritus in art history at Rutgers University. [...]
Rachel Stern2026-06-24T13:42:59-04:00April 16th, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
The Restless Hungarian (2021) is a personal narrative set against the backdrop of the Hungarian Jewish diaspora, the rise of Modernism, and the Cold War. The film centers on Paul Weidlinger, one of the most important structural engineers of the twentieth century who created the strength behind iconic skyscrapers, churches, museums, embassies, and monumental sculptures by Picasso, Noguchi, and Dubuffet. Early in his career, he broke from mainstream modernism with his concept of the “Joy of Space”. Behind his professional success, however, was a deeply troubled private life marked by loss, denial, and family tragedy. As the filmmaker—his son—begins to explore Paul’s past, the story shifts into a deeply personal journey across continents, uncovering hidden Jewish roots and the family’s [...]
Rachel Stern2026-03-09T14:05:31-04:00March 9th, 2026|Events, Lectures|
This class with acclaimed professor Ori Z. Soltes will consider the lives of eight major Jewish artists of the 20th century, and will discuss their experiences migrating under duress just before, during, or after the Holocaust. From Fritz Ascher to Anni Albers to Eva Hesse, we’ll learn about how these great artists fled, adapted, and survived through the 20th century and went on to create powerful works of art that we still recognize today. REGISTER HERE Session 1: March 13 Immigration and Art from One Generation to Another We'll begin with brief discussions of Ben Shahn and Raphael Soyer, then focus primarily on Fritz Ascher and Rudi Lesser, before concluding with Michael Iofin and David Stern. [...]
Rachel Stern2026-04-15T13:27:08-04:00March 1st, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
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. Newman’s long hours at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory informed her entrée into labor activism. In the following years, she tirelessly advocated for workers, [...]
