Rachel Stern2026-10-07T05:53:04-04:00October 5th, 2026|Events, Lectures|
The artist Armin Stern (1883–1944), born near Pressburg (now Bratislava), moved to Frankfurt in 1900 to study painting. Despite numerous travels and periods of study in Paris, Brittany, the Netherlands, and Ticino, Frankfurt remained the center of his life. After being excluded from an exhibition at the Frankfurt Kunstverein in 1933 because he was a "non-Aryan artist," he relocated with his family to Bratislava, which had by then become part of Czechoslovakia. Image above: Armin Stern, Ascona, 1928. Watercolor. Donated by the descendants of Armin Stern. Jewish Museum Frankfurt REGISTER HERE Armin Stern, Self-Portrait at the Easel, ca. 1930. Oil on painting board. Donated by the descendants of Armin Stern. Jewish [...]
Rachel Stern2026-10-07T05:58:00-04:00October 5th, 2026|Events, Lectures|
In the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, Jewish partisan Faye Schulman carried two extraordinary weapons: a rifle and a camera. After witnessing the murder of her family and the destruction of her community, she joined the partisans, documenting daily life, resistance, and survival. Her photographs—taken while living and fighting with a partisan unit—are the only known images captured from within a partisan camp. This presentation explores Schulman's remarkable life through her wartime photography, highlighting its historical significance and artistic legacy. Drawing from the Pictures of Resistance exhibition, participants will discover how her images challenge misconceptions about Jewish resistance during the Holocaust while serving as enduring works of documentary photography and visual testimony. This event is part of the online [...]
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 Stern2026-08-13T07:03:53-04:00July 28th, 2026|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, Summertime! How do you recharge? Today we want to hear even more from you. Recently, we invited you to join us for New York in-person events - do you want to see more of that? Please share your ideas, opinions and thoughts in our first ever survey: ENTER THE SURVEY HERE Thank you for taking the time - we very much appreciate your feedback. This month, we invite you to meet Suzanne Loebl, who has a dramatic life story to tell, which informs her research interests: WEDNESDAY, August 12, 12:00PM ET online Lost and Sometimes Found: Suzanne Loebl’s Encounter with Nazi-Plundered Art and Its Sometime Restitution Suzanne [...]
Rachel Stern2026-06-30T12:04:40-04:00June 30th, 2026|Newsletter|
Dear friends, First of all: THANK YOU! A heartfelt thank you to those of you who responded so generously to help us continue and expand our work, and a heartfelt thank you to the anonymous sponsor who matched the donations. With your support, we will continue to bring to you buried art treasures and the stories of their creators in historical context. And now we are heading for the 250th birthday of the United States of America! Founded on the basis of an idea, we celebrate the double helix of American DNA: the Jeffersonian embrace of the enlightenment and Adam's emphasis not only on reason, but also on religion and tradition. We celebrate America as a work in [...]
Rachel Stern2026-06-09T07:08:31-04:00June 2nd, 2026|Newsletter|
Dear Friends, This month, the FIFA Soccer World Cup kicks off, and this year it is hosted in North America, with games - among them the final - being played "just across the bridge" in New Jersey. What does that have to do with us? Well, in 1916, the artist Fritz Ascher drew soccer players into one of his sketchbooks - most probably from direct observation. He captured a dramatic moment, when a player holds a shot on goal. He catches the ball with his hands, which identifies him as the opponent's goal keeper - regular players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands. Fritz Ascher, Soccer Players, ca. 1916. Black ink [...]
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 Stern2026-06-24T13:42:59-04:00April 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, [...]
Rachel Stern2026-03-05T07:21:05-05:00February 13th, 2026|Events, Lectures, Past Events|
In this talk, art historian and curator Rachel Perry discusses ten graphic narratives of their experiences of Nazi persecution created by women immediately after liberation. Lacking photographs of what they witnessed and endured, these "first responders" used visual storytelling to counter perpetrator and liberator sources and represent maternal loss, sexual violence, forced labor, and bodily trauma—experiences rarely recorded in canonical Holocaust testimony. Drawing on archives across Europe, Israel, and the United States, this talk recovers marginalized stories that predate Art Spiegelman's Maus by decades. Featured Artists: Lea Grundig (1906-1977), Luba Krugman Gurdus (1914-2011), Mária Turán Hacker (1886-1967), Edit Bán Kiss (1905-1966), Regina Lichter-Liron (1920-1995), Ella Liebermann-Shiber (1927-1998), Ágnes Lukács (1920-2016), Zsuza Merényi (1925-1990), [...]
