Festival Ebraico in the Washington Area

 

Centro Primo Levi recommends this program in the Washington area.

FESTIVAL EBRAICO. MUSIC OF THE JEWS IN ITALY: A LECTURE WITH MUSICAL SELECTIONS

Hazzan Dr. Ramón Tasat and The Kolot HaLev Ensemble, Mike Langlois, piano

Presented by The Foundation for Jewish Studies

Sunday, March 6 2016, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm,  Temple Beth Ami, 14330 Travilah Road, Rockville, MD 20850

From the 16th century to the present day, the impact of Italian art and popular music on the musical field has been overwhelming.  This same land of opera and bel canto has made a solid imprint on the liturgy of the Jews as well.  So welcoming was this land that Jews referred to it as I-Tal-Yah (Hebrew for “Island of God’s Dew”).

Join Hazzan (Cantor) Dr. Ramón Tasat, and members of the Kolot HaLev choir as we celebrate the music and history of Italian Jewry.  Enjoy a compilation of Jewish, operatic and popular melodies, accompanied by revealing explanations by Dr. Tasat about their origins.

Please stay for a reception and the opportunity to mingle with Dr. Tasat and his fellow artists.

KOLOT HALEV ANNUAL CONCERT: CANTATA EBRAICA

The Music of the Italian Jews through the Centuries

Kolot HaLev (Voices of the Heart) is a Jewish community choir in the greater Washington area.

Sunday, April 3 2016, 4:00 pm, Ohr Kodesh Congregation, 8300 Meadowbrook Lane, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Join Kolot HaLev and an ensemble of musicians as we celebrate the music of the Italian Jews. Enjoy a compilation of Jewish melodies with an operatic and popular flavor: music from Venice, Florence, Livorno, and Rome.

Admission: $20 adults ($25 at the door) / $10 students & children

Tickets available at www.KolotHaLev.org

 

LORETTA VITALE SAKS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF ITALY & MY PARENTS’ STORIES

Wednesday, May 4 2016, 7:00 pm, Shirat HaNefesh Congregation, North Chevy Chase Christian Church, 8814 Kensington Pkwy, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Loretta Vitale Saks will review the history of the Jews in Italy from ancient times through the Second World War, making special use of her mother’s moving written account of her teenage years in Italy during the period of Mussolini’s anti-Jewish Racial Laws.

Loretta grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, the daughter of Italian Jewish immigrants.  Her mother survived the German occupation of Italy and her father’s family arrived in the United States soon after the Racial Laws were enacted in Italy.

Please RSVP by visiting: http://bit.ly/ShiratHaNefesh

 

THE GHETTOS OF ITALY

Dr. Bernard Cooperman, University of Maryland

Shirat HaNefesh Congregation, Sunday, May 22 2016, 3:30 pm, North Chevy Chase Christian Church, 8814 Kensington Pkwy, Chevy Chase, MD 20815. Reception.

Bernard Cooperman (PhD, Harvard University) focuses on the development of communal institutions and political thought among Jews in early modern Italy.

Dr. Cooperman’s recent publications include

• The Jews of Italy: Memory and Identity edited by Barbara Garvin and Bernard Cooperman, (2008)

• Political Discourse in a Kabbalistic Register: Isaac De Lattes’ Plea for Stronger Communal Government, Be’erot Yitzhak, Isadore Twersky Memorial Volume (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), and

• Theorizing Jewish Self-Government in Early Modern Italy, Una Manna Buona per Mantova. Man Tov le-Man Tovah. Studi in onore di Vittore Colorni per il suo 92° compleanno (Florence: Olschki, 2004).

Dr. Cooperman served as Director of the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies from 1991 to 1997 and is now the Louis L. Kaplan Professor of Jewish History at the University of Maryland.

Please RSVP by visiting: http://bit.ly/ShiratHaNefesh