Four students graduated as Jewish Studies minors in May of 2008: Sari Weinstein (not pictured), Adina Mindick, Adam Schoenbart, and David Cutler. We wish them all the best for the future.
Select any image in this gallery to send it as an e-mail postcard.
Adina Mindick, senior Journalism major and Jewish Studies minor, gave a presentation on
“Preserving Jewish Greece" on February 24, 2008. Adina spent the summer of 2007 researching the
Jewish communities on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Crete, photographing her research and work with
the Rhodes Jewish Museum.
Adina's trip was funded in part by the Golberstein Jewish Studies Travel-Study Grant and by generous
funding from the Roy H. Park School of Communication.
In summer 2007, Adina Mindick, recipient of the Golberstein Travel-Study Grant, spent time on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Crete to study their Jewish communities. Here are some of her photos from that trip.
Select any image in this gallery to send it as an e-mail postcard.
The fifth annual Ithaca College Klezmer Gala was held on February 24, 2008. The gala featured a performance by the Ithaca College Klezmorim, a School of Music-supported student ensemble that explores klezmer, the secular music of the Eastern European Jews. Under the direction of Professor of Music Peter Rothbart, the Klezmorim have participated in workshops and master classes and have performed with such klezmer luminaries as the Klezmatics, Frank London, Joel Rubin, Susan and Elaine Watts and Pete Rushevsky.
This year, our program graduated the largest group of Jewish Studies minors (7) since our inception. December graduates were Monica Goldenberg (Writing) and Sarah Eson (Art History). May graduates were Jessica Carroll and Sarah Vaynerman (Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design), Elias Goldstein (Cinema and Photography), Tamar Lerner (Physical Therapy), and Jenifer Weaver (Sociology).
In addition to the seven minors, Deydra Bordoy graduated in May 2007 with a double major in Jewish Studies and Politics. She is the third IC student to graduate with a Jewish Studies major.
Also part of "The Arts of Jewish India: Explorations in Painting, Architecture and Music,” artist Siona Benjamin’s exhibit “Blue Like Me” featured dramatic and brilliantly colored paintings exploring her identity as an Indian-Jewish-American woman. Bangladeshi-American dancer Ishrat Hoque joined her in a lecture/performance aptly titled “Color Me Blue.”
Latin American Jewish author Nora Strejilevich talked about “History, Memory, Testimony” in relation to the Argentine Dirty War (1976-83), during which she survived kidnapping and torture and her brother and other family members and friends disappeared at the hands of the military junta.
In March 2007, “The Arts of Jewish India: Explorations in Painting, Architecture and Music” event featured Zipporah (Venus) Lane from Israel performing traditional South Indian Jewish folk songs, with background and commentary by Barbara Johnson. Born and raised in the Jewish community of Cochin, Kerala, Venus is a song translator and a member of the Nirit Singers in Israel.
An opening reception for "The Arts of Jewish India: Explorations in Painting, Architecture and Music” was held on March 1 in the Handwerker Gallery. Students, faculty, staff and visitors from the Ithaca area filled the gallery to view two simultaneous exhibits: "Blue Like Me" by Siona Benjamin and "Indian Synagogue Architecture" by Jay Waronker.
As part of the month-long series “The Arts of Jewish India: Explorations in Painting, Architecture and Music," architect and scholar Jay Waronker exhibited and discussed his watercolor studies of India’s Synagogues in the Handwerker Gallery.
The IC Klezmorim were formed in 1999 under the direction of Professor Peter Rothbart in the School of Music. They have become an official student ensemble, offered for chamber music credit -- one of the first of its kind in the country. In addition to their very popular Klezmer Gala, held annually at the college, they have performed in local venues, in music festivals, and for alumni events.
“On a Narrow Bridge: Journey of a Gay Jewish Writer” was the subject of a lecture given by prize-winning author Lev Raphael last fall. The son of Holocaust survivors, Raphael came out twice, once as a proud Jew, a second time as a gay man, and he has been integrating those two identities for two decades in his life and his writing.
In October 2006, Middle Eastern Jewish (Mizrachi) music energized the IC campus and the Ithaca community through a dynamic series of musical performances and lectures by musician/scholar-in-residence Galeet Dardashti and the Divahn ensemble. Daughter and granddaughter of well-known Jewish musicians from Iran, Galeet performed and discussed music from Iran, Iraq, Israel and Morocco. She is an anthropologist, cantor, founder and the lead vocalist of Divahn.
