jewish identity Archives - Fritz Ascher Society

Apr 29, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MAY 2025

Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:30:15-04:00April 29th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MAY 2025

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: [...]

Apr 2, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter APRIL 2025

Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:31:47-04:00April 2nd, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter APRIL 2025

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 [...]

Mar 7, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MARCH 2025

Rachel Stern2025-04-29T10:32:39-04:00March 7th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter MARCH 2025

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 [...]

Feb 12, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter FEBRUARY 2025 with Signs and Wonders

Rachel Stern2025-02-12T07:45:33-05:00February 12th, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter FEBRUARY 2025 with Signs and Wonders

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, [...]

Jan 2, 2025

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JANUARY 2025

Rachel Stern2025-01-09T14:06:25-05:00January 2nd, 2025|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JANUARY 2025

Dear Friends, Happy 2025! An eventful month lies ahead. First of all, I am very excited to announce that you now can experience our website in multiple languages - try it out: https://fritzaschersociety.org/. Here at the Fritz Ascher Society, we are starting the year with two virtual talks that are connected to exhibitions - one in London and one here in New York: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8, 12:00PM EST FRED KORMIS (1894-1986)– SCULPTING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PRESENTATION BY BARBARA WARNOCK, LONDON (ENGLAND) REGISTER HERE Fred Kormis, Two Heads, c. 1930s © Wiener Holocaust Library Collections Sculptor and printmaker Fred Kormis (1894-1986) was born into an Austrian and German-Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany, was wounded fighting [...]

Dec 24, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY wishing you joyful holidays

Rachel Stern2025-01-09T13:35:50-05:00December 24th, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY wishing you joyful holidays

Dear Friends, We wish you Happy Holidays with Mayer Kirshenblatt's painting Hanukkah, in which he remembers celebrating the holiday with his family in Opatów (Apt) in the 1920s. "This is Hanukkah at home with my father, mother, and brothers. We lit the candles and sang Maoz tsur (Rock of Ages). I painted a few notes to indicate that we were singing. It was a special day for us because we were let out of school early. Father gave me Hanukkah gelt, a few pennies for a present, in honor of the holiday. Mother cooked latkes, potato pancakes, which are very delicious. She grated raw potatoes, added eggs, and flour and fried the pancakes in shmalts, [...]

Nov 26, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter DECEMBER 2024

Rachel Stern2024-12-12T19:30:39-05:00November 26th, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter DECEMBER 2024

Dear Friends, What a whirlwind of a month this was, with the opening of the important new Fritz Ascher exhibition, "Love and Betrayal - The Expressionist Fritz Ascher from New York Private Collections" at the House of the Graphic Collection, Augustinermuseum in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). This is the first exhibition that focusses on works on paper created by Fritz Ascher before 1933. In this most immediate and intimate medium, we discover the cheerful and thoughtful artist who was part of the avant-garde in what was then the most exciting cultural city in the world and who spontaneously recorded his thoughts, ideas and experiences on paper, or worked on pictorial themes or compositions. The exhibition is on view [...]

Oct 29, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter NOVEMBER 2024

Rachel Stern2024-12-12T19:00:08-05:00October 29th, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter NOVEMBER 2024

Dear Friends, Breathtaking foliage, crisp weather and the change of clocks are the messengers of fall - a fall that brings an important election in the United States - please vote, everyone! - and the opening of the Fritz Ascher exhibition in Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany. If you can, please join me there! And don't miss the online presentation of this very little known woman artist: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20 ONLINE FELKA PLATEK - ARTIST AND COMPANION OF THE PAINTER FELIX NUSSBAUM Presentation by Anne Sibylle Schwetter REGISTRATION FOR ONLINE EVENT Felka Platek, Self-portrait in front of an open window, around 1940. Gouache on drawing paper, 65 x 49.7 cm. Felix-Nussbaum-Haus [...]

Oct 1, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter OCTOBER 2024

Rachel Stern2024-12-12T18:26:36-05:00October 1st, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter OCTOBER 2024

Dear Friends, As we prepare to welcome the Jewish New Year on Wednesday night, we reflect on the past while looking ahead with hope and purpose. Thank you for being part of our community, and for supporting our work. In the coming year, we reaffirm our commitment to educate, engage and inspire with engaging and meaningful virtual and in-person events and exhibitions about artists, who were suppressed and persecuted by the German Nazi regime. Looking back 100 years, allows us to learn and think about highly relevant topics. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 ONLINE OTTO ANTOINE (1865-1951): "THE PAINTER OF BERLIN" BETWEEN COMPLIANCE AND DEFIANCE Presentation by KATHLEEN LANGONE REGISTRATION FOR ONLINE EVENT [...]

Sep 4, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter SEPTEMBER 2024

Rachel Stern2024-12-12T18:10:34-05:00September 4th, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter SEPTEMBER 2024

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 [...]

Jul 31, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter AUGUST 2024

Rachel Stern2024-08-13T08:58:22-04:00July 31st, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter AUGUST 2024

Dear Friends, With the Olympic Games going on, I can't resist to share with you Fritz Ascher's drawing of two muscular male nudes wrestling. The drawing will be on view for the first time in the exhibition "Love and Betrayal. The Expressionist Fritz Ascher in New York Private Collections," which will open on November 8th at Haus der Graphischen Sammlung in Freiburg (Germany). Fritz Ascher, Two Male Nudes Wrestling, ca. 1916. Graphite and charcoal on paper, 29 x 22,8 cm. Private Collection This sheet is one of several works in which the artist depicts fighters around 1916. As a sport, wrestling experienced its Golden Age in Germany and Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. This [...]

Jul 3, 2024

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JULY 2024

Rachel Stern2024-08-11T05:49:52-04:00July 3rd, 2024|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter JULY 2024

Dear Friends, This month, we have two very special online programs for you before we take a short summer break in August. But first of all, we are excited to share with you our 2023 program report (please click on the image): PROGRAM REPORT 2023 Still hurting from the aftermath of COVID, we are proud of the exhibitions and programs we were able to organize in 2023, and your feedback proves that we are doing something right. But we need your help. This summer, we aim to raise $6,000.00 to support our virtual fall programming. This year is the 10th anniversary of The Fritz Ascher Society. If you want to honor this momentous occasion [...]