Philip Roth and R.B. Kitaj became good friends in London during the ’80s, and the painter influenced Roth in many ways, especially for the title character of Roth’s greatest novel, Sabbath’s Theater. Roger Porter, Professor of English and Humanities, Emeritus, Reed College focuses his lecture on Roth and Kitaj’s shared attitudes, or perhaps those of their characters and their painterly subjects, regarding desire, ecstasy, and the inevitable demise. The title of the lecture is a paraphrase of a quote by the protagonist Sabbath on the last page of Roth’s Sabbath’s Theater.
Israel Film Series
Calling all filmgoers! Join us for an array of Israeli films focusing on the topic of homelessness. A discussion with Q&A will follow each film, please see film details for specifics. Films to be announced soon!
Lost Boys of Portlandia
Wednesday, October 10
7:00 pm
Meet local Israeli filmmaker, Nili Yosha and Executive Director for Outside the Frame. In a riff on Peter Pan, homeless youth of Portland debate if and how to return to mainstream society while creating their own film version of the iconic story.
Diplomat
Tuesday, October 16
7:00 pm
The Hotel Diplomat in Jerusalem was once a five-star hotel. For nearly 20 years it is home to 600 immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Never having integrated into Israeli society, its residents have created their own little island, secluded from the outside world.
Zrubavel
Tuesday, October 30
7:00 pm
The personal dramas of the immigrant Zrubavel family and the universal intergenerational cultural struggles that come with assimilation are depicted in this first feature film made by Ethiopian Israelis.
Purchase tickets at oregonjcc.org/film
In partnership with the Institute for Judaic Studies
Israel Film Series
Calling all filmgoers! Join us for an array of Israeli films focusing on the topic of homelessness. A discussion with Q&A will follow each film, please see film details for specifics. Films to be announced soon!
Lost Boys of Portlandia
Wednesday, October 10
7:00 pm
Meet local Israeli filmmaker, Nili Yosha and Executive Director for Outside the Frame. In a riff on Peter Pan, homeless youth of Portland debate if and how to return to mainstream society while creating their own film version of the iconic story.
Diplomat
Tuesday, October 16
7:00 pm
The Hotel Diplomat in Jerusalem was once a five-star hotel. For nearly 20 years it is home to 600 immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Never having integrated into Israeli society, its residents have created their own little island, secluded from the outside world.
Zrubavel
Tuesday, October 30
7:00 pm
The personal dramas of the immigrant Zrubavel family and the universal intergenerational cultural struggles that come with assimilation are depicted in this first feature film made by Ethiopian Israelis.
Purchase tickets at oregonjcc.org/film
In partnership with the Institute for Judaic Studies
Israel Film Series
Calling all filmgoers! Join us for an array of Israeli films focusing on the topic of homelessness. A discussion with Q&A will follow each film, please see film details for specifics. Films to be announced soon!
Lost Boys of Portlandia
Wednesday, October 10
7:00 pm
Meet local Israeli filmmaker, Nili Yosha and Executive Director for Outside the Frame. In a riff on Peter Pan, homeless youth of Portland debate if and how to return to mainstream society while creating their own film version of the iconic story.
Diplomat
Tuesday, October 16
7:00 pm
The Hotel Diplomat in Jerusalem was once a five-star hotel. For nearly 20 years it is home to 600 immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Never having integrated into Israeli society, its residents have created their own little island, secluded from the outside world.
Zrubavel
Tuesday, October 30
7:00 pm
The personal dramas of the immigrant Zrubavel family and the universal intergenerational cultural struggles that come with assimilation are depicted in this first feature film made by Ethiopian Israelis.
Purchase tickets at oregonjcc.org/film
In partnership with the Institute for Judaic Studies
Art + Spirit Workshop
Willa Schneberg, poet and ceramic artist, will join us for a two-hour workshop based on poems by Jewish poets that are in part inspired by biblical texts. Discussion, prompts, visualizations
and opportunities to write, sketch, move and imagine will be provided.
Cost: $18.
Tickets: oregonjcc.org/art-spirit
In partnership with ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists
Her novel alternates between late medieval Spain and Portugal during the traumatic time of the Inquisition, and a very small town in New Mexico in 1992. The modern New Mexican characters are Catholics with peculiar habits. Nobody in town eats pork but they don’t know why. It is likely they are the descendants of conversos, Jews who converted during the Spanish Inquisition. The story weaves a connecting thread from the Iberian Peninsula to Mexico City and then on to the original settlers who moved into what is now the American Southwest. Five hundred years later, a young amateur astronomer wonders about the secret of the town he grew up in: Entrada de la Luna, or Gateway to the Moon.
Morris’ previous work, The Jazz Palace, won the Anisfeld-Wolf Book Award for important contributions to the understanding of racism in 2016. She also writes short stories and travel memoirs. Her many novels and story collections have been translated into six languages. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.
Doors open at 4:00 PM to meet and greet the author. A one-hour author reading and discussion will follow beginning at 4:30 PM. Light refreshments will be served. Admission is free.
Co-sponsored by the Beit Am Jewish Community and the MJCC. Grassroots Bookstore will be there with copies of the paperback edition of Gateway to the Moon for sale and author signing.
Join us for the Portland premiere of this 15-minute documentary short by Jodi Darby. The film follows two Jewish Portland artists, drummer/writer/environmentalist Lisa Schonberg and musician/writer/Jewish educator Alicia Jo Rabins, as they prepare for Lisa’s adult bat mitzvah. The word chavruta refers to the traditional partner-style study of Jewish texts; over the course of one year, the two women delve into a grassroots, feminist, distinctly Portland course of study.
Free, but suggested donation of $5 at the door.
7:00 pm at the MJCC.
Art + Spirit Workshop: Entering into the Shiviti
Through the traditional Jewish art form known as the Shiviti, we will study, contemplate and enter into artistic expression. Please bring the medium of your choice — visual and expressive arts, songwriting and composing, sculpture, glass, fabric arts and more. A half-hour talk on the history, mystical practice and examples of traditional and contemporary forms will be followed by Q&A, Shiviti gazing, time to create your own Shiviti art work and debriefing.
Rabbi Dr. Goldie Milgram is an artist, educator, author and spiritual guide honored by the Covenant Foundation and National Jewish Book Council for her innovative programs, books, and resources. Her new book release is Wisdom from Reb Zalman: Embracing the Jewish Spirit (Reclaiming Judaism Press).
Thursday, Aug. 1
6:30 pm
Cost: $18.
Register: oregonjcc.org/artandspirit
In partnership with ORA
Film Screening – American Creed
Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State, and David M. Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, come together from different points of view to investigate the idea of a unifying American creed. Their spirited inquiry frames the stories of people striving to bridge deepening divides in different communities around the country. Director Sam Ball will join us for an in-depth conversation following the film.
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED.
Please check back soon for more details, including a re-scheduled date.
Cost: $10. Member Cost: $8.
Register at oregonjcc.org/americancreed