Ori Soltes Archives - Fritz Ascher Society

Aug 9, 2024

BOOK TALK: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Georgetown University, Washington (DC)

Rachel Stern2024-09-20T07:15:28-04:00August 9th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on BOOK TALK: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Georgetown University, Washington (DC)

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 [...]

Feb 4, 2024

BOOK LAUNCH: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Fordham University, New York

Rachel Stern2024-03-26T17:07:03-04:00February 4th, 2024|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on BOOK LAUNCH: Welcoming the Stranger.
Abrahamic Hospitality and Its Contemporary Implications
Fordham University, New York

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,” [...]

May 25, 2021

Alice Lok Cahana –
Beyond ‘The Last Days’:
Familial Continuity, Creativity, and Immortality
With Michael Berenbaum, Michael Z Cahana, Ken Lipper, Ori Z Soltes

Rachel Stern2022-02-18T05:43:45-05:00May 25th, 2021|Events, Memory, Past Events|Comments Off on Alice Lok Cahana –
Beyond ‘The Last Days’:
Familial Continuity, Creativity, and Immortality
With Michael Berenbaum, Michael Z Cahana, Ken Lipper, Ori Z Soltes

Join us for a discussion about the Hungarian born Holocaust survivor Alice Lok Cahana, whose life and art are recently recognized in two very different ways: The just remastered, Academy Award®-winning documentary, The Last Days, presented by Steven Spielberg and USC Shoah Foundation and the book Immortality, Memory, Creativity, and Survival: The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana, Ronnie Cahana, and Kitra Cahana, recently published by the Fritz Ascher Society of Persecuted, Ostracized and Banned Art, which investigates three generations of the Cahana family and their art in the context of biological and psychological research, allowing a deep understanding of how trauma and especially the Holocaust experience is remembered. This event investigates the portrayal of Alice Lok Cahana, her life and art, in art book [...]

May 21, 2021

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter May 2021

Rachel Stern2021-09-14T06:47:39-04:00May 21st, 2021|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter May 2021

Dear Friends, We invite you to join us for a POST SCREENING DISCUSSION Wednesday, May 26 at 12:00pm EST “Undying Love. Stories of Romance, Marriage and Rebirth in Displaced Persons’ Camps” Featuring Helene Klodawsky, Film Director (Canada) and Sabine Rollberg, Expert of Documentary Film (Germany) Moderator Rachel Stern ZOOM REGISTRATION IMAGE: Detail of “Undying Love” Film Poster, 2002 “Undying Love” tells the poignant, enduring, and miraculous love stories of the survivors of World War II. Against the brutalized landscape of post-war Europe, this film focuses on how survivors struggled to reconstruct personal identities and forge intimate relationships. Using searing testimonies, poetic dramatizations, archives and images of romantic love from [...]

Apr 25, 2021

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter April 2021

Rachel Stern2021-04-25T07:16:48-04:00April 25th, 2021|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter April 2021

Dear Friends, Spring, finally! And vaccinations, finally! And yes: we are starting to prepare in-person events and exhibitions! For now, we are all about virtual events, though: The life experience and art of Hungarian born Holocaust survivor Alice Lok Cahana and Indian born Siona Benjamin could not be more different. Join us on Wednesday, April 28 at 5:00 pm EST for “Worlds Apart: Antithetical Jewish Experiences in the Twentieth Century,” when Dr. Meital Orr discusses two recent book publications with author and FAS board member Dr. Ori Z Soltes. Organized by the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, the event features our book “Immortality, Memory, Creativity, and Survival: The Arts of Alice Lok Cahana, Ronnie [...]

Mar 31, 2021

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter March 2021

Rachel Stern2021-03-31T18:24:40-04:00March 31st, 2021|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter March 2021

Dear Friends, What a surprise: The Arolsen Archives own a copy of a name list of Jews released from the concentration camp Sachsenhausen on December 23, 1938 with Fritz Ascher's name! Copy of Doc. No. 4094051#1 in conformity with Arolsen Archives Name List of Jews Released from the Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen on December 23, 1938 I am overwhelmed by your interest in our crowdsourcing initiative “everynamecounts,” in which we are partnering with the Arolsen Archives to help build the largest digital memorial to the victims of Nazism. On our designated project page, you can watch the recording of our Zoom event with Floriane Azoulay (Director) and Giora Zwilling (Deputy Head [...]

Feb 25, 2021

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter February 2021

Rachel Stern2021-02-25T20:35:24-05:00February 25th, 2021|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter February 2021

Dear Friends, Did you ever wonder who created the large Menorah that is standing in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem? We’ll bring the story to your screen, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, at 12:00pm US ET! Christian Walda (Dortmund, Germany) will speak about “Becoming Jewish: The Sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960),” followed by focused presentations by Wolfgang E. Weick (Dortmund) and Ori Z. Soltes (Washington DC). Please register for this Zoom event HERE. Benno Elkan, Menorah, 1956. Knesset, Jerusalem The oeuvre of the German born sculptor was largely made up of commissions. In the beginning, he mainly created tombs. Medals, portrait busts of well-known personalities, monuments to victims and [...]

Feb 22, 2021

Becoming Jewish:
The Sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960)
Christian Walda, Dortmund with
Wolfgang Weick and Ori Z. Soltes

Rachel Stern2022-02-18T07:06:06-05:00February 22nd, 2021|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Becoming Jewish:
The Sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960)
Christian Walda, Dortmund with
Wolfgang Weick and Ori Z. Soltes

Born 1877 in Dortmund, the sculptor Benno Elkan (1877-1960) first studied painting in Munich and Karlsruhe. At the end of his studies, he turned to sculpture. As a young artist, he spent time in Paris, Rome, and Frankfurt. Elkan’s oeuvre was largely made up of commissions. In the beginning, he mainly created tombs. Medals, portrait busts of well-known personalities, monuments to victims and candelabras follow, partly for the religious (Jewish and Christian) context. Elkan fled persecution by the German Nazi regime to Great Britain in 1934and lived with his family in London until the end of his life. Perhaps the most important work besides the Menorah in Jerusalem (1956) was never built: Memorial to the Defenseless Victims of the Bombing [...]

Jan 11, 2021

Between Art and Record Keeping –
Artistic Representations of the Holocaust
Ori Z Soltes, Washington DC

Rachel Stern2022-02-18T07:19:09-05:00January 11th, 2021|Events, Lectures, Past Events|Comments Off on Between Art and Record Keeping –
Artistic Representations of the Holocaust
Ori Z Soltes, Washington DC

WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Visual art during and after the Holocaust, by victims and survivors eloquently contradicts the famous comment by Theodor Adorno that "after the Holocaust to make art is barbaric." On the contrary, it was and is necessary: as part of the record of events as they were transpiring, and as part of the human response to horror--to express anger, to raise questions, to offer healing--in the time after those events. Who creates the art and what kind of art is created? What role does it play in wrestling with the question of what God is and what we humans are? These issues have implications both from within the heart of the Holocaust and from well beyond its particular boundaries. [...]

Jan 10, 2021

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter January 2021

Rachel Stern2021-02-24T05:46:01-05:00January 10th, 2021|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY Newsletter January 2021

Dear Friends, Please join us, the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the German Consulate General in New York TOMORROW, January 19 at 2:00pm ET for a stirring performance of Carolyn Enger’s Mischlinge Exposé, which will be live streamed from Edmond J. Safra Hall. The performance will be followed by a discussion. Registration link for the livestream HERE. Carolyn Enger is a pianist based in the greater New York City area, with roots reaching back to Breslau, now Wroclaw, Poland. Her “Mischlinge Exposé” brings to light the stories of Mischlinge—a derogatory term used by the Nazis to describe people with both Jewish and Aryan ancestry—like her father and godmother, interwoven [...]

Jan 1, 2021

FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY New Year Newsletter

Rachel Stern2021-02-24T05:44:07-05:00January 1st, 2021|Newsletter|Comments Off on FRITZ ASCHER SOCIETY New Year Newsletter

Dear Friends, Thank You For Your Support! When our exhibitions were prematurely closed, we created virtual spaces to get together for lectures and discussions, digital projects and conferences. Thanks to your support, our community grew globally. But this past year has been financially hard for us. If you can, please consider a tax deductible DONATION (https://fritzaschersociety.org/donate/) to the Fritz Ascher Society. The mailing of our new book publication has started. If you are interested in details about ordering a copy, please email fritzaschersociety@gmail.com. (Sorry, US and Canada only) We are very excited about this interdisciplinary volume, which explores the painting of Alice Lok Cahana, a survivor of three [...]

Oct 28, 2020

Legacy And Creativity:
The Filmmaking and Photography of Kitra Cahana
In Conversation with Ori Z Soltes

Rachel Stern2020-11-25T16:10:20-05:00October 28th, 2020|Events, Memory, Past Events|Comments Off on Legacy And Creativity:
The Filmmaking and Photography of Kitra Cahana
In Conversation with Ori Z Soltes

WATCH THE RECORDING OF THIS EVENT HERE. Conversation featuring Kitra Cahana, Documentary Photographer, Videographer and Photo/Video Artist and Ori Z Soltes, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC Introduced by Rachel Stern, Executive Director of The Fritz Ascher Society in New York NY Kitra Cahana's award winning work ranges from photographic studies of American Teens for National Geographic Magazine to documentaries on the annual life-saving dance competition in a small town in northern Canada. She is renowned for work that consistently reflects a deep sense of empathy with her subjects. Her grandmother was a teen-aged Holocaust survivor who became an intense and powerful painter. Her father, a rabbi and a poet, was severely disabled by a stroke at the [...]