Rachel Stern2023-12-15T11:28:36-05:00August 23rd, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
This event is sponsored by Ilona Oltuski in memory of Ruth Drory. Image above: Samson Schames, Kindling of the Lights, c. 1956. Glass tiles on glass, 56 x 71 cm. Jewish Museum Frankfurt Samson Schames (1898-1967) came from a long-established Jewish family in Frankfurt am Main. With the support of his uncle, renowned gallery owner Ludwig Schames, he made his way into the 1920s art scene and began his training as a painter, graphic artist, and stage designer. Schames’ designs, drawings, and oil paintings from the period up to 1933 testify to his deep connection to Frankfurt and her landscapes. Samson Schames, Opernplatz Frankfurt, 1930. Jewish Museum Frankfurt [...]
Rachel Stern2024-01-24T07:04:07-05:00July 26th, 2023|Newsletter|
This month, we are kicking off our SUMMER FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN. Before the start of the new Jewish year, we aim to raise $8,000.00 to support our virtual lecture program. Help us continue educating about Antisemitism and the Holocaust through the Arts. Telling the stories of artists persecuted by the German Nazi regime and putting them in their historical and societal context initiates discussions that could not be more relevant today. To sponsor a lecture in honor or memory of someone, please contact Rachel Stern at stern@fritzaschersociety.org. If you like what we do, please show us! DONATE TODAY We have two extraordinary virtual events in our series “Flight or Fight. Stories of Artists under Repression” planned [...]
Rachel Stern2023-08-23T14:13:45-04:00July 26th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In May 1940, faced with a country gripped by paranoia, Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the internment of all German and Austrian citizens living in the country. Most were refugees who had come to the country to escape Nazi oppression. They were now imprisoned by the country in which they had staked their trust. More than 1,200 men were taken to Hutchinson camp, on the Isle of Man, which a group of world-renowned artists, musicians and academics turned into history’s most extraordinary prison camp. This is a story of a battle between fear and compassion at a time of national crisis that reveals how Britain’s treatment of refugees during the Second World War led to one of the [...]
Rachel Stern2023-08-09T14:35:11-04:00July 17th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was born into a wealthy, aristocratic Jewish family in Vienna in 1906. She trained under the German painter Max Beckmann, a family friend, and embarked on a promising career. When the National Socialists marched into Austria in 1938 Motesiczky fled the country for the Netherlands, eventually settling in England. Her attempts to build a new life in a foreign country were supported by a network of fellow émigrés, among them the painter Oskar Kokoschka and the writer Elias Canetti, with whom she had a long relationship. Lecture by Ines Schlenker, introduced and moderated by Rachel Stern. Image above: Self-Portrait with Red Hat, 1938 (Private Collection) ©️Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust 2023 [...]
Rachel Stern2023-07-13T05:39:23-04:00July 11th, 2023|Newsletter|
There couldn’t be a better reason to send out this newsletter so late: The Emmy Rubensohn exhibition in Leipzig is now open! A big thank you to everyone who made this exhibition possible. “Emmy Rubensohn, Networker and Music Patron – from Leipzig to New York” GRASSI Museum in Leipzig, Germany From left: Exhibition opening with Rachel Stern (Director Fritz Ascher Society), Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (Director State Ethnographic Collections Saxony, Ken Toko (US Consul General of Middle Germany), and Ulrich Hörning (Mayor of the City of Leipzig) Emmy Rubensohn (1884-1961) was a networker, music patron, concert manager and author of letters. Born in Leipzig in 1884 as the daughter of the Jewish entrepreneurial family [...]
Rachel Stern2023-07-19T13:51:04-04:00July 9th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
With a belated reminder of the proximity of the American and French Independent Day celebrations, this talk focuses on the artists’ Schindler, the American journalist, Varian Fry (1907-1967). Using methods both legal and not, Fry managed to rescue some 2,000 individuals from France between 1940 and 1941. France had become largely swallowed up by Nazi Germany, the “free” parts in Southern France (Vichy France) were not necessarily unreluctant to assist with the deportation of Jews into Nazi-held territories, and the US immigration policies were far from open-handed to those seeking refuge. Who was he and who were some of those he helped—or in some cases, could not help—to escape destruction? Lecture by Ori Z. Soltes, introduced and moderated by [...]
Rachel Stern2023-06-11T08:09:34-04:00May 31st, 2023|Newsletter|
In the 1940s, Erwin Blumenfeld established himself in New York as one of the leading photographers. Join us online to hear Paris-based granddaughter Nadia Blumenfeld Charbit give her personal insights into his life and work: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 12:00 pm ET / 18:00 Uhr CET ”Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1968), from Berlin to New York. A Life in Photography” REGISTER FOR THIS ZOOM EVENT HERE Erwin Blumenfeld, The red cross, for Vogue US, 1945. © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate “No medium of expression is art unless it becomes a vehicle for successfully transmitting an emotion from the one using to the one viewing it – and if it does this what difference is there what raw materials are used?” [...]
Rachel Stern2023-06-07T14:29:04-04:00April 30th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
Photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) survived two world wars to become one of the world's most highly-paid fashion photographers and a key influence on the development of photography as an art form. An experimenter and innovator, he produced an extensive body of work including drawings, collages, portraits and nudes, celebrity portraiture, advertising campaigns and his renowned fashion photography both in black and white and color. In this talk, Paris-based granddaughter Nadia Blumenfeld Charbit gives her personal insights into the life and work of the photographer Erwin Blumenfeld. Introduced by Rachel Stern, director of the Fritz Ascher Society. Image above: Erwin Blumenfeld, Double Self-Portrait with Linhoff, Paris, 1938 © Erwin Blumenfeld Estate Born to [...]
Rachel Stern2023-06-11T07:42:53-04:00April 23rd, 2023|Newsletter|
The big anniversaries keep coming up - this week is the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. In honor of Yom Ha’azmaut, join us for Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes’ talk about what defines Israeli art and when it began to take shape. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26 12:00 pm ET / 18:00 Uhr CET ONLINE EVENT ”Benno Elkan (1877-1960) and the Definition of Israeli Art” REGISTER FOR THIS ZOOM EVENT HERE Benno Elkan, Menorah, 1956. Bronze, 4.30 meters high, 3.5 meters wide. Gan Havradim (Rose Garden) opposite the Knesset, Jerusalem. Presented to the Knesset as a gift from the Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament on April [...]
Rachel Stern2023-04-26T13:54:56-04:00April 19th, 2023|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In honor of Yom Ha'azmaut, Israel's Independence Day, and this year's 75th anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948, this talk by Georgetown University professor Ori Z Soltes addresses the question of what defines Israeli art and when it began to take shape. Is it made only by Israelis---then how did Elkan's Menorah become the consummate symbol of Israel when he never lived in the state? Did "Israeli" art begin with or before the birth of the state? How does this relate to the opening of the Bezalel School of Art in 1906--and closing by 1929, only to re-open years later? How does it relate to the question of defining Jewish art? Benno Elkan's stunning work, [...]
Rachel Stern2023-04-03T09:59:19-04:00March 30th, 2023|Newsletter|
Spring is here! Let’s celebrate with Fritz Ascher’s blossoming Golden Chain. Just this past week, March 26, marked the 53rd anniversary of his death. Born in 1893 to Jewish parents in Berlin, Fritz Ascher (1893-1970) survived persecution by the German Nazi regime in hiding. Fritz Ascher, Golden Chain, ca 1959. Oil on canvas, 25.6 x 27.6 in. (65 x 70 cm). ©Bianca Stock Watch New York scholars Karen Wilkin and Elizabeth Berkowitz, PhD, discuss his post-1945 landscapes: WATCH THE RECORDING Dr. Eva Sabrina Atlan’s January 11 lecture in our virtual lecture series “Flight or Fight. stories of artists under repression” has found much interest. Today, we are excited to offer an English-language virtual [...]
Rachel Stern2024-01-15T20:22:29-05:00March 29th, 2023|Exhibitions, Past Exhibitions|
Emmy Rubensohn! Networker and Music Patron - from Leipzig to New York Emmy Rubensohn (1884-1961) was a networker, music patron, concert manager and author of letters. Born in Leipzig in 1884 as the daughter of the Jewish entrepreneurial family Frank, she attended Gewandhaus concerts at an early age and collected autographs from prominent artists of her time. After marrying Ernst Rubensohn in 1907, she moved to Kassel, where the couple turned their house into a cultural meeting place, where composers and performers such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Walter Braunfels or Ernst Krenek, or visual artists such as the painter Oskar Kokoschka or the sculptor Benno Elkan guested. Thanks to a "residency grant", Krenek was able to complete his opera "Jonny [...]
