Simon Rutberg of Hatikvah featured in Forward article

Simon Rutberg, of Hatikvah music based in California, is the study of this article in the Forward. For many years Rutberg ran one of the premier stores of Jewish music, Hatikvah. Today, music is still available via the website: Hatikvahmusic.com To read the article: http://www.forward.com/articles/137251/

About Jack Gottlieb

To know more about Jack Gottlieb, please see The Jewish Music WebCenter's special exhibit on the life and works of Jack Gottlieb from 2006: http://www.jmwc.org/ASJM/2006ListofWorksbyJackGottlieb.html
JMWC Biographical Sketch of Jack Gottlieb
http://www.jmwc.org/ASJM/briefbioJackGottlieb.html

Portrait of Fanny Mendelssohn at The Jewish Museum

A recent acquisition to The Jewish Museum, Portrait of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, 1842, by 19th century German artist Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, has been added to the "Modernity" section of Culture and Continuity. The subject of this portrait was the sister of famous composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a talented composer and musician in her own right. Fanny Hensel was the wife of a fellow painter, Wilhelm Hensel, whom Oppenheim met in Rome with the Nazarenes.

GENERAL INFORMATION
To reach the Museum's offices, call: 212.423.3200.
website: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org
1109 5th Ave at 92nd St
NY, NY 10128
for Directions: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/Visit

Oppenheim, widely recognized as a portraitist, is known as the first Jewish artist to have benefited from the Emancipation, when new civil rights permitted Jews entry into academies of art for the first time in Europe. Extensively patronized by the Frankfurt branch of the Rothschild family, Oppenheim characterized himself (immodestly) as "a painter to the Rothschilds and the Rothschild of painters."

Comprised of close to 800 works, this vibrant, two-floor exhibition examines the Jewish experience as it has evolved from antiquity to the present over 4,000 years. Visitors to the 4th floor see the Ancient World galleries, featuring archaeological objects representing Jewish life in Israel and the Mediterranean region from 1200 BCE to 640 CE, and a dazzling installation of selections from the Museum's renowned collection of Hanukkah lamps. On the 3rd floor alone close to 400 works from the 16th century to the present are on view in this dramatic and evocative experience. Other highlights of Culture and Continuity include: a pair of silver Torah finials from Breslau, Germany (1792-93) reunited at The Jewish Museum after sixty years of separation; paintings by such artists as Marc Chagall, Max Weber, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Isidor Kaufmann, Morris Louis, and Ken Aptekar; prints by El Lissitzky; sculpture by Elie Nadelman, and George Segal's monumental sculpture, The Holocaust, 1982. A display of 38 Torah ornaments allows the viewer to compare artistic styles from different parts of the world. It features lavishly decorated Torah crowns, pointers, finials and shields from Afghanistan, Algeria, Austria, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Ottoman Empire (Greece and Turkey), Georgia (of the former Soviet Union), Morocco, Israel, Italy, early 20th century Palestine, Persia, Poland, Russia, Tunisia, the United States, and Yemen.

A suite of classic post-World War II works originally designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson and the prominent Abstract Expressionist sculptor Ibram Lassaw for Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel in Port Chester, New York, is also on view in Culture and Continuity. Included are sections of a large wall sculpture/bimah screen, the eternal lamp, the Torah ark, and two of the four bimah chairs. Television excerpts from the Museum's National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting are also included. The entire exhibition is accompanied by a series of thematic, random access audio guides using MP3 technology, including a Director's Highlights Tour with The Jewish Museum's Director Joan Rosenbaum and WNYC Radio's Brian Lehrer.

Barbara in Berlin

Barbara Streisand sang to a sold out audience of 18,000 people in Berlin, Germany on Saturday, June 30. Streisand even spoke to the crowd in German, and received multiple standing ovations to her concert. Previously Streisand had not sung in European capitals other than London. Reuters reported on the event http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSL2776062320070630

Sid Beckerman Memorial

Sid Beckerman, klezmer clarinetist, beloved teacher and mentor to a generation of klezmorim, passed away on April 4, 2007. A tribute to him will be held Monday, May 21 at 8pm at the Congress for Jewish Culture, 25 E. 21st St. ground floor, Manhattan. Musicians and friends are invited to share a tune or story. Sid's musical partner of many years, Peter Sokolow and his protege Margot Leverett will lead an evening of musical memories. For more information contact Margot Leverett at 718-545-9404 margotlev@gmail.com.

Longy School Famous Faculty Dumont Dies at 94

Long term Longy School of Music faculty member, Lily Dumont, died at the age of 94 at her home, March 6, 2006 in New Bedford, MA. Ms. Dumont was a concert pianist and teacher on the faculty of the Longy School for more than 40 years, and taught privately until around age 92. She was born in Berlin, the daughter of Jakob Dymont, a well-known Jewish synagogue music composer. Lily was famous in her own right before the second world war as a concert pianist, and had already played with many of the leading orchestras in Europe by the time of her departure during the Nazi regime in Germany. Via colleagues in the US, she made her way to New England, and eventually divided time between concertizing world wide, teaching and her family. Ms. Dumont's musical friends and admirers ranked among the most sophisticated in the world. She was a well-loved musician from her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic at age 15 to her final concert in New Bedford's Zeiterion Theatre in 2000. The Boston Globe carried an article about her in the Thursday, March 9, 2006 edition which quoted Raphael Hillyer as saying "With the greatest refinement and with great intensity she performed with a radiance that lighted every work. Her range of expression was astonishing..."

Chazzan Abraham Lopes Cardozo Dead at 92

Chazzan Abraham Lopes Cardozo z"l died February 21 at around 3am. He had been hospitalized for several days with breathing difficulties. Abraham Lopes Cardozo was born in Amsterdam, Holland on September 27, 1914. He was the great-grandson of the Chief Rabbi in Amsterdam and the son of the choir director of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue there. He came to his American post in 1946 and served Congregation Shearith Israel in New York for over 40 years. Cardozo's recordings from 1959 were recently rereleased in time for the celebration of the 350th anniversary of Jews in America, and reviewed by this website: http://www.jmwc.org/NewCDReviews/shearithisraelcds.html

He was a made a Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau by Queen Beatrix of Holland on June 7, 2000. Two years ago the Chazzan celebrated his 90th birthday in Amsterdam. A special tribute program was shown on Dutch television.

Chazzan Abraham Lopes Cardozo
From the Finding Aid at the American Sephardic Federation, Center for Jewish History Created by Randall C. Belinfante

"Abraham Lopes Cardozo was born in Amsterdam, Holland on September 27, 1914. As the great-grandson of the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardim in Amsterdam (who preached the last sermon in Portuguese, and who was later decorated by the King of Holland), and as the son of Joseph Lopes Cardozo, leader of the boy's choir of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, it was fitting that he read his first Haftorah at the age of seven in that same synagogue. He attended Seminary Ets Haim in Amsterdam , and became active in Hagomel, a congregational youth society. In 1939 he was appointed by Queen Wilhemina to be rabbi of the Sephardic congregation in Paramaribo, capital of Surinam. On vacation in New York in 1945 he visited Congregation Shearith Israel in NYC and he liked it. It was mutual, for he was invited by the Congregation to become the Assistant Hazzan there in 1946, a position he held for forty years. In 1987, he released a book and accompanying cassette tapes entitled: Sephardic Songs of Praise. On June 7, 2000, he was knighted by Queen Beatrix of Holland. "

http://www.cjh.org/academic/findingaids/asf/ncprc/LopesCardozoFamily.html

Mike Eisenstadt, z"l , Host of Sunday Simcha Radio dead at 54.

It is with sadness that we recognize, Sunday Simcha, hosted by Mike Eisenstadt is no longer available. Mike died Friday Sept. 2, 2005 from a long battle with cancer at age 54. Eisenstadt hosted the Jewish radio show for over twenty years, starting in 1985. He kept it up continually. and it was the Florida Gulf Coast's only Jewish radio show. To read a tribute to Mike Eisenstadt, go to Tampa Tribune: http://www.tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGBILX7A5DE.html

Uzi Hitman died in Israel in October

Israeli artist/composer Uzi Hitman died from a heartattack in October. The following articles attest to his popularity: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer&cid=1098072900545&p=1062388728699 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/489942.html