Artists Sara Harwin, Kanaan Kanaan and Inga Dubay love letters. They explore the tradition of sacred letters in Hebrew, Arabic & English calligraphy in many forms of art expression. They each have a creative voice dedicated to peace & justice.
Their will be an opening forum for the exhibit at 7 pm June 2. This event is open to all.
“Inga Dubay, Kanaan Kanaan and I come from three different lettering traditions, yet when we each speak about our journeys, we seek to touch upon a sacred, spiritual path,” says Sara. “We will be speaking on the evening of June 2 at 7 pm preceding the Interfaith Iftar, traditional breaking of the fast during the month of Ramadan.”
Sara Harwin
Sara was feaatured on the February 2014 cover of Oregon Jewish Life in conjunction with the exhibit she created: “Illuminated Letters – Threads of Connection.”
Her love of both art-making and Jewish learning come from being raised in a home filled with Yiddishkeit, Her early Jewish education at the Sholem Aleichem Institute in Detroit, Michigan and many years at Camp Tamarack enriched her sense of Jewish community. Later, she studied Hebrew and art history of the Middle East at the University of Michigan where she completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. At Michigan she gained first-hand experience in printing under the tutelage of artist and author Emil Weddige. Upon her arrival in Portland, Oregon in 1969, she went on to study clay work with Wally Schwab at Marylhurst College, incorporating her figurative approach to art onto dishware and freestanding sculptures. Her work has been exhibited internationally in numerous group and one-woman gallery and museum shows, while her ritual items are widely treasured by individuals and communities.
Inga Dubay
Inga Dubay’s work encompasses calligraphy, painting, drawing and printmaking. She taught at the Oregon College of Art and Craft for twenty-five years and was Book Arts Department Head for six years. Inga currently teaches at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. She has also taught at Portland State University for eight years and has conducted numerous workshops including as faculty at international calligraphy conferences. She has been a guest lecturer at Reed College’s Paideia, Scriptorium, and Art Department. She studied at Mills College and received a B.A. in Painting & Drawing from the University of Oregon with graduate study at the Art Academy in Oslo, Norway, the University of Oregon and the University of California at Berkeley. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally in juried and invitational exhibitions as well as shown in publications including Letter Arts Review, Lettering Arts and featured on Art Beat, Oregon Public Broadcasting. Her essay, The Write Stuff, appeared as an Op-Ed in The New York Times.
Kanaan Kanaan
Mr. Kanaan’s background is both interesting and diverse. He was born and raised in Amman, Jordan, in a Palestinian refugee camp. An artist by training, Kanaan studied at the College of Fine Arts at Baghdad University prior to immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. After moving to Portland, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and Graphic Design from PSU 1999, and in 2006, earned his Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Mixed Media from Warnborough University in Ireland. For the eight years, Kanaan was an adjunct professor in PSU’s art department where he’s taught courses in interactive media, Web design and computer graphics. Since 2011, he is serving PSU as the Middle East Student Retention Specialist. He continues to be an active artist, regularly participating in both solo and group shows.
Boris Uan-Zo-li’s artwork reflects his fascinating life, big, bold, varied and colorful. His work is abstract, but his figures are identifiable like the portraits of Woody Allen and personal hero Bob Dylan. Boris was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1938. During the Soviet times, Boris participated in four exhibitions and at one of the exhibitions in the USSR his paintings were withdrawn from the gallery by the Soviet bureaucrat because they did not fit the communist vision. After the fall of communism, Boris’s paintings were exhibited in a number of places, including the Central House of the Artists, one of the most prestigious Russian exhibitions.
Adroit Maneuvers by Michael Bertish.
This timely and thought-provoking drama portrays a very different view of the personal impacts of war in a touching study of intergenerational trauma and the painful dysfunctions that continue to haunt an entire family. The play is full of music, and discussions of art, philosophy, culture, science and politics on a world stage. As details of the story lay out the facts of the past, the audience can’t help but be reminded of the political climate of the present.
Not suitable for children.
ABOUT THE PLAY
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
This well-known anonymous statement from the 1930s (often erroneously attributed to American novelist Sinclair Lewis) is a prophetic warning about the rise of authoritarian regimes. With the recent tragic events of Charlottesville and other flashpoints of intolerance in the news, assaults on members of the LGBTQ community and racial, religious and ethnic minorities, attacks on a free press, and the rise of voices advocating extreme nationalism throughout the civilized world, many say that our current time is reminiscent of the advent of World War II. However, the real test of our time is to avoid the trap of reactionary fear and to commit to healing change. Adroit Maneuvers offers a compassionate, hopeful perspective on bridging these divides that threaten to fracture our humanity.
The play is set in New York City in 1996 at the Dinger family home. The story revolves around an elderly grandmother, Tilde, and her adult grandson, Micky, who comes back to the city for a final visit. Micky is determined to get Tilde to open up about her experiences during the Anschluss in Vienna. Until this point in her life, Tilde has never spoken about living through the Nazi invasion and World War II. As Tilde tells her story, her memories come to life and the characters from her past enter to relive vignettes from the golden era of Vienna’s famous café society. Micky discovers Tilde’s acts of selfless courage and her friendships with world-class figures of the day: Sigmund and Martha Freud, Albert Einstein, and members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Tilde’s story is interwoven with true historical events, and hearing her story gives Micky the courage to be open for the first time about his own deep-rooted secrets.
This timely and thought-provoking drama portrays a very different view of the personal impacts of war in a touching study of intergenerational trauma and the painful dysfunctions that continue to haunt an entire family. The play is full of music, and discussions of art, philosophy, culture, science and politics on a world stage. As details of the story lay out the facts of the past, the audience can’t help but be reminded of the political climate of the present.
In October 2017, actor/director Tom Hanks said, “If you’re concerned about what’s going on today, read history and figure out what to do because it’s all right there.” Adroit Maneuvers delves into the history of intolerance and brings us to the realization that we have the power to rise above it all through devoted relationships, humility, compassion and forgiveness.
From now through September, every Friday night (except 4th Friday) at Congregation Neveh Shalom, you can enjoy our beautiful NW summer evenings singing, praying and schmoozing outside on our upper plaza! If weather doesn’t allow us to be outside, we will meet in the Stampfer Chapel.
Please join Congregation Shaarie Torah for a special Shabbat morning service. At this service, we will include new melodies, explore the service with some reflections on the prayers themselves, and chant according to the Triennial cycle of Torah readings. It will be a mix of the beautiful and familiar traditional Shabbat morning service and new ideas and energy. This service meets in the Chapel downstairs on the third Saturday of the month.
Torah Troop for 3rd-5th Graders
1st and 3rd Shabbat every month at 10:00am
Meet in the MAIN service (Stampfer Chapel or Main Sanctuary) for the beginning of the Torah service, and then come out with your friends for a fun and active lesson on the Torah portion (parsha) of the week. Return to the service to help lead Adon Olam, and join the community for lunch!
Join other young families with kids age 0-5 years at Congregation Neveh Shalom for singing, dancing, stories, indoor picnic-style lunch and Shabbat fun.
Willa Schneberg will read from Rending the Garment, other works, and new poems. Rending the Garment was featured in Oregon Jewish Life in 2014.
Carter McKenzie will be coming from the Eugene area to read with Willa from her strong new collection Stem of Us (Flowstone Press, May 2018).
Willa Schneberg is a poet, visual artist, curator and psychotherapist. She has authored five poetry collections including In The Margins of The World, recipient of the Oregon Book Award, and her latest volume, Rending the Garment. Willa has read at the Library of Congress, and has been a fellow at Yaddo and MacDowell. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review; Salmagundi, Poet Lore; Bellevue Literary Review; Before there is Nowhere to Stand: Palestine/Israel Poets Respond to the Struggle and Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace. In February of 2018, she served as a poet-in-residence in Kathmandu.
Carter McKenzie’s work appears in numerous journals and anthologies, including What the River Brings: Oregon River Poems, Canary, Sisyphus, Turtle Island Quarterly, The Berkeley Poets Cooperative: A History of the Times, and the poetry anthology Of Course, I’m a Feminist! She is an active member of the Springfield-Eugene Chapter of SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice). Carter lives in a small community in Western Oregon’s Middle Fork Willamette watershed region, which has been her home for the past twenty-three years. Stem of Us is her second full-length book of poetry.
The American poet Muriel Rukeyser described poems as meeting places: “A poem does invite, it does require. What does it invite? A poem invites you to feel. More than that: it invites you to respond. And better than that: a poem invites a total response.” (Rukeyser, The Life of Poetry, p. 11)
Featuring Vocalists: Lisa Lieberman, Leslie Ginalette, Jordan Ackerson and Michael Severson singing a delightful mix of jazz standards, pop, and folk tunes.
Michael Severson on piano – Graham Lampe on bass.
Appetizers and beverages provided.
Doors open 6:30 pm
$15 in advance
$20 at the door
Seating is limited, Kindly reserve your seat via paypal to:
lisalieb@comcast.net (Indicate Friends & Family to avoid service charge)
Lisa Lieberman
Music has always been central to Lisa’s life. Starting guitar at age 12, she delved into folk music, while singing in high school and college choirs. Lisa sang in a high school rock band, and a folk/soft-rock trio during graduate school, playing rhythm guitar. She began studying voice again in 2009, and rediscovered her love of the standards in a PCC vocal jazz class. In 
2013, Lisa placed first in the Oregon Jazz Society’s amateur vocal contest. She enjoys growing her craft, also loving the comraderie of the local jazz singing community.
Leslie Ginalette
Leslie studied classical music at Trinity College of Music in London where she earned a post-graduate certificate in Opera Performance. Life moves us along in stange ways and after a brief stint in the opera minor leagues she went back to her profession as a designer. She currently is a co-owner and the creative director of Amber Lotus Publishing. While opera singing was long behind her, the desire to sing never left. Five years ago on an impulse she took a jazz vocalist class at PSU and she has been singing jazz ever since. Leslie is so grateful that the joy of making music is once again in her life.
Jordan Ackerson
Jordan began soloing in school talent shows at age 8, while performing in many choirs for several years. He began studying voice at the age of 14. In his 20’s, he continued performing as a featured soloist, and in the PCC Voices of Soul choir. In 2015, he became a vocal artist in United by Music North America, performing locally, regionally, and nationally. UBMNA spreads the message of inclusion and acceptance of diversity through the joy of music. Jordan loves to sing, and especially values the importance of touching peoples’ hearts with optimism.
Michael Severson
Michael is a versatile pianist, conductor, and composer. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance from Lewis & Clark College where he studied with great Portland pianists Randy Porter and Susan Smith. He is often performing alongside jazz vocalists, as well as teaching up-and-coming singers in classes at Portland Community College and Clark College in Vancouver. He also enjoys singing and conducting choral music at Lewis & Clark College and Blueprint Ensemble Arts, as well as teaching privately through Chordination Music.
Graham Lampe
Graham has been playing bass for 12 years. He started very young due to growing up in a music store owned and operated by his father. He plays jazz, funk, and rock but is open to and experienced in playing other types of music, as well. He plays with the Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra, his school’s orchestra, takes private lessons, and plays with many different bands in Portland. This Summer, he is headed to Victor Wooten’s music nature camp in Nashville then on to Stanford’s Intensive Jazz Immersion workshop. He is really pleased to be playing for the house party.
Portland’s Sephardic congregation Congregation Ahavath Achim recommends seeing the film TREZOROS.
Using never-before-seen pre-war archival footage and first-person testimonies, TREZOROS: THE LOST JEWS OF KASTORIA chronicles the Jewish life and culture of Kastoria, a picturesque lakeside village in the mountains of Northwestern Greece, near the Albania border. Here, Jews and Greek Orthodox Christians lived together in harmony for more than two millennia until World War II, when this long and rich history would be wiped out in the blink of an eye.
TREZOROS (the Ladino/Judeo-Spanish term of endearment meaning “Treasures”) takes us from the joyful innocence of the pre-war years through the heartbreaking struggles of the Holocaust, to a unique place in time and history of a Greek Jewish culture lost forever.