Arel Mishory: Guarding the Mitzvah

In Guarding the Mitzvah, a digital story that is part of the Mizel Museum’s Community Narratives Project, Arel Mishory, a Denver-based artist, takes us on her very personal journey as a member of the Chevra Kadisha. She generously shared her story so that, through its permanent exhibit, the Museum can expand visitors’ knowledge of the ancient and meaningful Jewish practice of preparing a body for burial.

To watch Guarding the Mitzvah and read more about the Community Narratives Project CLICK HERE.

A Chevra Kadisha (Aramaic for holy society) is an organization composed of observant Jewish men and women who ensure that deceased Jews are prepared for burial according to Jewish tradition. At the heart of the society’s function is the ritual of tahara, or purification. The body is thoroughly cleansed, and then ritually purified by immersion or by pouring a continuous flow of water from the head over the entire body. Following the laws of modesty, men prepare males and women prepare females. In accordance with tradition, the tahara is performed while reciting special prayers and relevant scriptural verses. Those engaged in the tahara are careful to maintain the dignity of the deceased, covering parts of the body as soon as they have been washed. Additionally, at all times the face of the deceased remains facing upward. In some communities it is customary to wash the deceased under a sheet without uncovering any part of the body. No objects are passed or handed over the deceased and all unrelated activities or unnecessary talking is prohibited. Once purified, the body is dressed in a plain white cotton garment and placed in a casket.

For more information about traditional observance of Jewish death and dying, see The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning by Maurice Lamm.

The following essay was written by Lynn Greenhough for Sh’ma in 2001:

The Washer and the Washed: Bound in Sacred Duty

I am a member of a Chevra Kadisha because I believe we are with God in life and in death; that we are with God in this life, Olam HaZeh and in the next, Olam HaBa. While our very existence is testament to God’s generous intention, it is hard for most of us to acknowledge such generosity in the face of death. The mitzvah of kavod hamet, honoring the dead, grounds this intention by binding us to our community through shared ritual. In doing so, we not only bind our faith through that ritual, we recreate a stance of renewed optimism and trust.

As we begin the rechitza, the physical washing, we acknowledge God’s dwelling amongst us, even as the metah, the dead person, has begun her journey from this world. We feel God’s presence as we wash her hair, rinse, and then gently comb it free of knots. We hold her in transition between two worlds.

Judaism constantly challenges dualistic theology, emphasizing the profound connectedness of the spiritual with the material, the emotional with the physical. As we witness the changes in the body of the metah, her limbs now leaden, so too do we sense her diminishing yet still sacred presence. Even as death brings tumah, this ritual of taharah brings about purification, through poured water, prayer, and our collective attentiveness to death.

We proceed, first along her right side, and then her left, washing the body from head to toes. We enter into a scripted liturgy and ritual that acknowledges the sacredness of each life. These tangible rituals alert us to our sacred interdependence. Together, the dead and the living fuse in a cleansing ritual that is at once mundane and utterly holy.

The mitzvah of taharah purifies not only the person who has died, but also us, the washers. As we pour water, as we gently wash fingers and toes, we too are wet with the mayim chayim, the living waters of cleansing. Into this room we bring the elements of life: candle, water, shards of clay to be placed over the eyes and mouth, and our own breath. We sense the holiness of our actions, the sacredness of each fingernail, stretch mark, and stitched incision. We approach each person as if he or she were a Sefer Torah inscribed by the Divine. Each time we touch death we are renewed. These ritual gestures intimately bind us to each other.

Death demands. There is no argument, no procrastination. Death demands our presence and death demands this ritual of physical and spiritual purification. Death demands we remember we are a tribe dedicated to gemilut hasidim, acts of lovingkindnesses – attending the dead but once. Each time I participate in a taharah I am reminded, yet again, to show such kindnesses to the living, to not wait for their death to open my heart.

One of the texts that teaches our ritual relationship to the dead is called Tractate Semachot. In a telling textual conundrum, death and simcha, joyfulness, are blurred. Through these rituals, we encounter life and death, joy and grief. In facing death we find the spark of holiness that binds us to each other and to God and, in the sharing of that spark, we know that what was shattered can be healed.

Lynn Greenhough lives in Victoria British Columbia and has been working with Chevra Kadisha since 1996. “Preparing the dead for their next journey makes me so aware of the blessing of breath and of every-day life. Draw water, wash our dead, dress them gently. Each taharah renews my gratefulness as I witness our transformation through the gift of chesed. The work of our hands becomes very simply, our collective wisdom. L’dor va’dor.”

Sh’ma is an independent think tank of diverse ideas and conversations published online and in print to incubate issues of significance to Jewish community conversations. http://www.shma.com/shmadigital/

Celebrating 30 Years

By Ellen Premack, Executive Director

Peering back into our archives to June 2002, the year the Mizel Museum of Judaica celebrated “freedom of expression in the arts” at our 20th anniversary gala dinner, I realized that I have been sitting at this desk at the Mizel Museum for 18 years! The faces, places, and stories have been such an important part of my life. What surprises me, I guess, is the way the museum and my complicated self have grown and intertwined through exploration of diverse cultures: the beauty and wonder of the arts and artists, art history, theatre, music, community, and being Jewish.

From 1982 to 2002, the Mizel Museum of Judaica was located at BMH-BJ Congregation in a single room where we displayed Jewish art and artifacts. We started out like any other American Jewish museum with the obligatory pretty menorah exhibition. The need for space grew as the number, size of our exhibitions, and our reputation grew. The museum became a destination for culture lovers to expand their insight into Jewish history.

In 1994, the museum developed Bridges of Understanding, an exhibit that showcases Native American, Muslim, African American, Hispanic, Asian and Jewish cultures. The exhibit brings communities and students together, teaching tolerance, understanding, ancestry, and the idea that people aren’t that different—we do many of the same things, just in different ways. It was viewed as a giant leap forward for a museum because it initiated and welcomed community involvement and inclusivity. The essence of community changed as we stepped into the future, reaching large multicultural audiences, and a fresh excitement permeated all of our future exhibitions.

In 2004, “Judaica” was dropped from our title when we relocated to the original Rodef Shalom Synagogue, simply so that we could expand our mission while at the same time not sacrifice our Jewish character. Once again, we experienced a new beginning, and the museum now existed in the form of three entities: the Mizel Museum, The Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab (The CELL), and we took  on the stewardship of Babi Yar Park. This year, The CELL will open a new exhibition built around the eight signs of terrorism, and Babi Yar Park will expand its teachings, grounded in the Holocaust, to include the September 11 Memorial, incorporating steel from the remains of the World trade Center. The missions of each site complement each other and give us the ability to ground ourselves in multiple, salient 21st century issues.

In 2009, thanks to our staff’s ingenuity, 4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks was built, and will remain the museum’s centerpiece for two years. Museum programs stem from the 17 subjects that are encompassed in the exhibit. Our education department has devised new approaches to teaching the Holocaust, immigration, Jewish life and culture and global issues. The Community Narratives Project, which currently includes 50 stories, enhances the exhibition and programming by illustrating meaningful, life changing personal experiences through an audio/visual format.

Now we celebrate the museum’s 30th Anniversary throughout the year and look back at all the good—exhibitions, events, performances, and community gatherings generated by the hard work, creativity and imagination of our dedicated staff and board. Even as I reflect back, I look forward to many more years in a new home where we can continue to grow! I would like to thank Rabbi Stanley Wagner for his foresight and Carol and Larry Mizel for their mentorship, commitment and involvement through the years. Happy 30th birthday to the Mizel Museum!

Let’s Dance!

By Georgina Kolber
Curator of Exhibitions, Collections & Programs

“It’s a secular religious experience,” said Joseph V. Melillo, executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy, about watching the Batsheva Dance Company. “You feel something personal and spiritual at a Batsheva performance.”

Tel-Aviv based Batsheva Dance Company was founded in 1964 by Martha Graham and Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild. Although nearly half of Batsheva’s dancers are not Israeli, as an Israeli dance company that has reached a high level of international success—it has performed in nearly 20 countries in the last two years alone—it continually confronts the paradox of wanting to embrace its national roots while simultaneously working to cultivate an independent identity in which art is the only thing that matters.

We haven’t highlighted Israeli dance live and in the flesh here at the Mizel Museum, mostly because of space constraints. But in October during our trip to Israel, we’ll experience Israeli dance at its source: the Susan Dellal Center in the heart of the historic Neve Tzedek neighborhood in Tel Aviv, a leap away from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Established in 1989, the Suzanne Dellal Center is the home of the Batsheva Dance Company and other dance and theatre groups.

We’ll be greeted by Debra Friedes Galili, an independent dancer and dance scholar, who will discuss contemporary Israeli dance, then we’ll dive into a workshop with Batsheva. She’ll give us an introduction to the company’s history and its current director, Ohad Naharin, who has pushed the company into unchartered territory during the past decade with the development of his new movement language called Gaga. Geared toward both non-dancers and professionals, Gaga encourages participants to “connect to pleasure.”

“Before momma and poppa there is gaga,” says Naharin about the name of this movement language. It’s like baby talk, it’s instinctual. The form is a framework for discovering and strengthening the body. It adds flexibility, stamina and agility while lightening the senses and imagination. Gaga classes are open to anyone over the age of 15, regardless of their background in dance or movement. Speaking philosophically about Gaga, Naharin says “the power of imagination is much bigger than our vocabulary” and “this dance is like an iceberg, there’s what you see, and then there’s this huge thing under the water.”

Recently I had the pleasure of experiencing a Gaga piece choreographed by Naharin and performed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Called “Minus 16,” the piece was set to a pounding remix of the traditional Passover song “Echad Mi Yodea.” The dancers wore black suits and hats. Naharin points out that Israeli viewers assume the work is a commentary on the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox, while a Japanese audience viewed the piece as portraying stockbrokers. Not only is the piece remarkable due to its somewhat porous and open-ended meaning, it’s unique to the Ailey repertory because unlike any other piece, it challenges the dancers to improvise and invites the audience to participate in the experience by joining the dancers onstage. Gaga, Naharin insists, is accessible to dancers and non-dancers alike, so why not bridge the audience and dancers on stage? We’ll experience this phenomenon first hand during Art & Culture in Israel, Mizel Museum’s hand-crafted Israel trip, October 15-25, 2012, when we’ll not only learn more about Batsheva and Gaga, but we’ll participate in a workshop. Let’s dance!

The History of Babi Yar Park

More than 30 years ago, visionary Denverites came together as the Babi Yar Park

Grove of Remembrance Photo by Paul Brokering

Foundation to memorialize a tragic and senseless act of terror with a gift of hope and life that would last in perpetuity.

Founded in 1971, Denver’s Babi Yar Park is a living memorial to the thousands of Jews, gypsies, Ukrainians and others who were murdered between 1941 and 1943 at the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of Kiev. The story of Babi Yar began on Yom Kippur in 1941, in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. In a murderous rage conceived by Nazi minds and abetted by the complicity of Ukrainian officials, between 100,000 and 200,000 men, women and children were herded to the ravine’s edge, murdered and their bodies thrown into the now infamous ravine.

The connection between Babi Yar and Denver began in 1969 when the late Mayor William H. McNichols, Jr., designated 27 acres of park land at the corner of Yale and Havana as Babi Yar Park, at the request of The Committee of Concern for Soviet Jewry. The purpose of the park was to create “a place and an act that would demonstrate a unified public protest.”

This was the beginning of the promise to build a growing symbol of conscience that would become a landmark of national significance. The park was dedicated in 1971 by Elie Weisel. The  second dedication in 1983 marked the transformation from a reserved open space to a park, designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin as a profoundly sacred ground of remembrance, hope and protest against all acts of inhumanity.

The Ravine Photo by Paul Brokering

Today Babi Yar Park is a place for memorial gatherings, walking, biking, educational tours and quiet remembrance. It is a place that respectfully welcomes the voices of victims and survivors of world terrorism without speaking for them or representing their pain. It is a unique public landscape that serves as an active agent for culture and dialogue, and it functions as a vehicle for preserving, communicating and sharing the memory of historic traumas while providing conditions for healing traumatic wounds.

Mizel Museum, Denver Parks & Recreation and numerous community leaders are preparing for the next phase of development: The September 11 Memorial. Linking the memory of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington to the memory of mass killings of Jews and others at Babi Yar began with a “memorial in transit” in August 2011—the transportation of sixteen pieces of steel from the site of the World Trade Center across the country to a new resting place in Denver. Watch for the opening of The September 11 Memorial in 2013.

Guided tours of Babi Yar Park provide compelling testimony about genocide, history and human rights abuses of the past, and speaks to inspiring a symbolic conscience for future generations. Babi Yar Park is located at the corner of Havana and Yale in Southeast Denver. To schedule a tour contact Deanne Kapnik at (303) 749-5019.

Introducing Generations: Survivor Stories

By Deanne Kapnik
Director of Special Events & Projects

Generations: Survivor Stories is the newest addition to the museum’s Community Narratives Project, a collection of digital stories that serve as living objects in our permanent exhibit. Stories of 32 members of Denver’s Jewish community are accessible in an audio/visual format, enhancing the experience for museum visitors and highlighting the central theme of immigration.

The newly completed compilation of stories of child survivors of the Holocaust was previewed on November 9 during the Miryam Brand Holocaust Education Film Project at George Washington High School. Generations stories and their storytellers will also be featured during two Salon Nights on February 16 and March 15 at the museum, and during Generations Opening Night on April 19, 2012.

Sari Horovitz and I had the honor of working with Miriam Hoffman, who was born in Larissa, Greece in 1935. At the age of five, she contracted polio, her father was in the Greek army, and her mother moved with her to Chalkis to be near family. Her father joined them in 1941, when Germany and Italy occupied Greece and the Greek army disbanded. In 1942, the Nazis were advancing from the north and the mayor and chief of police helped the Jews in Athens acquire false IDs with Christian names, and helped them hide. Over the next two years, the 18-member family moved around, ending up in Athens, where they split into three residences. In 1944, they heard that the Nazis had deported all Jews from Salonika and Larissa to Auschwitz. In their home in Athens, they removed every sign of being Jewish and decorated their walls with Christian icons. After years of hiding, all but Miriam’s grandmother survived. She was murdered in Auschwitz.

You’ll be able to meet Miriam and hear her story at the March 15 Salon Night, and at Generations Opening Night on April 19, 2012, when the collection will be launched as the newest addition to 4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks.

Students at the November 9 Generations program stood in line to greet Miriam Hoffman and thank her for telling her story.

Local Artist Partnerships Cultivate Community Creativity

By Jan Nadav, Director of Education & Interpretation

For the past several years, the Mizel Museum has integrated the talents and commitment of artists-in-residence into the life of the museum, and the results have been transformative. Over the summer the museum hosts an impressive line-up of renowned teaching artists who work with young people in five-day intensives that combine cultural content with creative learning in theatre, music and the visual arts. Without the typical time constraints of the average classroom, our teaching artists are able to stretch out within these five-day Creative Journeys program, incubating projects, concepts and collaborations that are the seeds for year-round programs and programs that go beyond the museum’s walls.

A great example is a collaboration with Dona Laurita, a mixed-media artist and fine art and documentary photographer. Dona is the creator of “Cassa di Vita” or “Box of Life,” an ongoing project that crafts individual life stories captured in books, audio and film recordings, photographs and paintings to create one-of-a-kind multi-media documentary works of art. Dona’s program works closely with individuals, families, and workshops to create one-of-a-kind ancestral pieces to celebrate life’s passages that draw from both visual and audio material.

Through her fine art documentary work, Dona Laurita has facilitated countless experiential learning programs as an artist-in-residence in schools throughout Colorado. Her workshops weave together photography and other forms of visual art, as well as creative writing and storytelling. She encourages children to begin to “see” what already exists within and around them and facilitates the expression of their impressions, intuition, and imagination through visual, written and auditory media.

“Given the centrality of the narrative metaphor in the museum’s exhibit and approach, we knew she would be a great fit,” says Jan Nadav, director of education and interpretation at the Mizel Museum.

Dona came to the Mizel Museum as a teaching artist for two successful camps. One focused on creating altered books from found objects and another utilized photography, writing and soundscapes to archive childrens’ experiences of their summer. Developing these camps and witnessing the experience of the campers resulted in ideas that later took hold in a grant recently awarded to the museum from Colorado Creative Industries. The project, entitled, “Stories Matter” is an innovative arts education project that will involve fifth grade students from two low-income, highly diverse Denver schools (Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy and Placebridge Academy) in exploring themes of family history, immigration, cultural preservation and community-building. The project will also be piloted in January at Highline Academy.

Through in-class sessions, Dona will guide students in collecting personal and family stories and associated objects found from home. Students will explore multimedia art forms, photography and writing, compiling the results into a high-quality work of art to take home. Then, these “altered books” will be photographed by the students and installed in permanent exhibitions at participating schools. The Mizel Museum will archive these photographs for use in a new travelling exhibit and associated curriculum, which will be launched next fall.

“This collaboration has certainly been generative and is keeping us busy!” said Nadav.

On Dec. 19-23, 2011, Laurita will partner with Betsy Tobin, another teaching artist, puppeteer and performing artist, for the museum’s winter break camp called “Winter Lights, Winter Sparks,” and in February, Nadav is excited to offer the first art workshop for adults based on Laurita’s “Boxes of Life.”

Creativity is not a concept, it’s like any skill: a disposition that one must nurture. With teaching artists like Dona Laurita, the Mizel Museum is able to cultivate in students the ability to both create art that honors one’s uniqueness and to think and explore “out of the box” to open curious minds.”

The Art of Shabbat

By Penny Nisson, Jewish Education Coordinator

When I think of Shabbat, a word derived from Hebrew root words meaning to rest, I think of the essence of being human and having free will. The celebratory aspects of Shabbat come into play when one chooses to make Shabbat a centerpiece of the week. The first mention of the word “holy” in the Torah is associated with Shabbat. Refraining from certain types of work that represent constructive, creative effort, allows people to eat more elaborately and spend time in a more leisurely fashion. Shabbat is sometimes described as a bride or queen, and its status invites spiritual enrichment and social interaction.

While Jews are commanded to remember and guard Shabbat, it is also a means to remember its significance as a commemoration of creation and freedom from slavery in Egypt. It is a day of great joy when one can set aside weekday concerns and devote themselves to more relaxing pursuits. Getting enough rest is integral to the overall health and wellbeing of all human beings.

As in other aspects of contemporary Jewish culture, Jewish people find interesting ways to observe Shabbat. It certainly takes discipline and structure to apply the principle of rest over the mastery of productivity in our stressful, over-scheduled lives. There is art in Shabbat observance. One definition of art is “a system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities,” and that certainly applies to Shabbat. Art is also defined as a skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation. Is setting aside quality time for Shabbat an art or skill? Perhaps it is. Embracing any aspect of Shabbat can be meaningful and celebrates time as a refuge.

Traditional Shabbat rituals create a serene environment in the home with sights, sounds and smells. The lighting of candles creates special light on Friday evening. There are blessings for children and parents, for wine (kiddush) and bread (challah). Showing appreciation for Shabbat includes the serving of special foods during three meals, singing Shabbat songs, and saying grace after meals (birkat hamazon). In the synagogue, prayer services and reading the Torah takes place.

Shabbat closes with Havdalah, a special ceremony that marks its separation from the rest of the week. It is customary to use a candle with several wicks, symbolizing the light of the first day of creation and the light of the first day of the week. A cup of wine or grape juice is used to represent the sweetness and joy of Shabbat, and a small spice box containing sweet smelling spices is sniffed to comfort people as they approach the coming week.

In the news lately, mention has been made of a revival of the Sabbath. At the Mizel Museum, we have initiated a Friday night program called The Art of Shabbat, when we invite the community to join us to celebrate time, engage in some Shabbat customs, and explore different forms of art that connect with Shabbat. Join us on Friday, February 10 for the special event.

In my own life, observing Shabbat is medicinal. It enhances my spirituality and blesses my life with a level of focus and decorum that is unattainable elsewhere. I believe that behaviors such as road rage, rudeness, and other societal ills might be alleviated if people took seriously a day of rest. The buzz of technology can temporarily be turned off for the good of human beings and the health of the body and mind. Lively conversations with family and friends at a beautifully set table, delicious smells emanating from the kitchen, and maybe a nap, can easily fill the day. Shabbat is an art for both beginners and experts alike, and it is definitely chicken soup for the soul.

Art Tells the Story: Zion Ozeri

By Georgina Kolber, Curator

While developing the exhibition 4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks, one of the themes that emerged as being important to illustrate was “the contemporary Jewish experience.” What is the experience of being Jewish in the world today? Whether in Denver or in Mumbai, Jewish communities exist within a global matrix of cultural groups with whom they have exchanged ideas, values, musical styles, artistic techniques, recipes, and more for generations. Some communities have held tight to traditional Jewish customs while others have evolved and even assimilated. The result is a vibrant and colorful diaspora that continues to expand. The ability to adapt to their surroundings while preserving a core cultural identity has enabled the Jewish people to survive and thrive.

Artist Zion Ozeri has made it his life’s work to capture the diversity of Jewish communities in photographs. Born in Israel to Yemenite parents and raised in Israel during a period of mass immigration, he interacted with many diverse cultures. Currently living in New York City, he is one of the world’s leading photojournalists, and his mission is to explore the diversity of Jewish life around the world. In his photographs, Ozeri encounters Jewish communities scattered across the world, and in them he finds a sense of home, familiar customs, and shared experiences. His images speak to all who have altered, shaped and reinvented their traditions, fusing old and new, familiar and unfamiliar, creating modern and meaningful views on life.

“Traveling extensively throughout the world and observing the nuances of each Jewish community, it’s striking to discover the common thread that runs through all of them,” said Ozeri. “In my photographs I try to capture meaningful fragments amidst the spectrum of Jewish life, one that helps the viewer appreciate its value, giving it meaning and purpose.”

When I discovered Ozeri, I knew that his photographs would illustrate the diversity of today’s global Jewish communities seamlessly for our exhibition. We commissioned him to create two short films with his photographs. One is a collection of images of Jewish people all over the world; the other is comprised of images of Israel’s people, landscapes, and historic and holy sites. Both films are set to contemporary Jewish songs, which we carefully selected to accompany the tone of his photographs. The films are central to the exhibit, and visitors tend to sit and immerse themselves in the images. Many of the images are quite surprising, including an image of a synagogue in Tunisia, something even our well-traveled Mizel Museum staff had never seen until we viewed Ozeri’s films.

My favorite image is Oil Pressers. This image is typical of Ozeris’ style: dramatic contrast of black and white, rich content and artful composition that appears almost staged. Technical attributes aside, there’s something deeply spiritual and serious about this image, yet this family of oil pressers is simultaneously unassuming, even timid. This Jewish family lives in Alibag, India, a small village outside of Mumbai. Many of the Jews in the towns and villages around Mumbai have worked for generations as oil pressers. In their dark brown eyes we can see years of history and tradition, yet they appear naïve and young. To me, capturing this bit of intrigue, even magic, in every shot is what Ozeri does best.

In this picture, you can see some familiar symbols of Jewish life—the Magen David (Jewish star) and Hamsa (good luck sign in the shape of a hand)—alongside the traditional tools of the oil pressers’ trade. This family is from B’nei Yisrael, India’s oldest Jewish community. According to tradition, their ancestors came to India from the Land of Israel in the second century. Over the years, the B’nei Yisrael maintained the essentials of Jewish practice, including circumcision, dietary laws, and the observance of the Sabbath, while developing their own local traditions.

Each of Ozeri’s photographs illustrates a unique story and, in an effort to broaden the educational scope of his work even further, Ozeri developed The Jewish Lens for students. The project features a wide selection of Ozeri’s photographs, and includes a student-centered curriculum that highlights the concept of Jewish unity. The Mizel Museum and CAJE are partnering to bring Zion Ozeri and The Jewish Lens to Denver next April for an exciting series of programs for youth and adults. Stay tuned for details, and in the meantime come see for yourself the photographs on view here at the museum.

Gathering Sparks Celebrates the Light of the Winter Season

The Mizel Museum announces Gathering Sparks: Sephardic Concert and Art Sale, Sunday, December 4 at District 475, 10111 Inverness Main St., Englewood (near I-25 and Dry Creek Rd.) The event will feature a live concert by the band Pharaohs Daughter, and a juried art exhibition and sale with 20 local artists.

Gathering Sparks: Sephardic Music and Local Art will be a day of celebrating the light of winter season, starting with the art exhibition/sale and light hors doeuvres from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Pharaohs Daughter will perform from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, and the art exhibition/sale will continue from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm.

New York-based Pharaohs Daughter has toured extensively throughout the world. With a pan-Mediterranean sensuality, Basya Schechter leads her band through swirling Hasidic chants, Sephardic folk rock, and spiritual stylings filtered through percussion, flute, strings and electronic.

Sephardic music has its roots in the musical traditions of the Jewish communities in medieval Spain. Over the centuries it has picked up influences from Morocco, Turkey, Greece and other places where Spanish Jews settled following expulsion from Spain.

Born into a Hasidic family in Brooklyn, Basya Schechter retained powerful musical experiences from her childhood but invented her own identity, still rooted in the words, sounds, and experiences of her childhood, but using her global curiosity to launch a reformulation of Judaic musicality. Her music has been cultivated by her Hasidic music background and a series of trips to the Middle East, Africa, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, and Greece, where she learned new melodies, rhythms, and instruments. By infusing an eclectic instrumental blend of traditional Judaic tunes with Middle Eastern rhythms and African beats, her music is an infectiously beautiful compilation that radiates with spiritual energy and haunting joy while maintaining a rock and roll intensity. (PD website) The lyrics fluctuate between Aramaic, Hebrew and Ladino, and there are many songs with free form vocals that are reminiscent of spiritual chants.

All kinds of art and creative/hand-made works will be displayed for viewing and for sale, including painting, metal work, jewelry, photography and more from 20 local artists including Gayle Adler, Catherine Alter, Paul Brokering, Paula Burger, Amy Chavez, Ivy Delon, Paula Jones, Lela Kay, Irina Kopelivich, Ann Lederer, Arel Mishory, Nevet Montgomery, Jonathan Moreno, Andrea Palos, Dawn Reinfeld, Lia Lynn Rosen, Joy Weinstein and Patti Zetlin.

The Mizel Museum is a portal to the contemporary Jewish experience. Rooted in Jewish values, the Museums exhibits, events and educational programs inspire visitors of all ages and backgrounds to celebrate diversity and honor the journeys of all people. Through a full spectrum of expression, the museum offers interactive and memorable experiences that engage the community and the dynamic ways that each of our journeys interweave.

Purchase tickets at www.mizelmuseum.org/gatheringsparks or call 303-394-9993.

Mizel Museum Educates High School Students About the Holocaust Through Film

Mizel Museum is presenting “Survivor Stories: Generations” on Nov. 9, at George Washington High School. Each year the museum produces the Miryam Brand Holocaust Education Film Project, bringing to Denver films and speakers from across the globe to educate students about the Holocaust. Through film the museum encourages exploration of the lessons presented by the Holocaust and genocide, such as resilience, survival and hope.

“Survivor Stories: Generations” is a collection of digital stories that will become part of the Mizel Museum’s new exhibit, 4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks. Produced by the Mizel Museum, these four to six minute films feature Holocaust survivors and/or their children or grandchildren telling their stories of survival and resilience through words and pictures. Holocaust survivors will dialogue with high school students from across the Denver area during two 75 minute sessions at George Washington High School.

Making this program really hit home for students will be George Washington principal Loan Maas, who agreed to share her story about growing up as an immigrant child of a Vietnamese mother and an American soldier. Illustrated by two George Washington students, Maas’s story describes how prejudice and intolerance shaped her desire to become a leader whose vision of tolerance and understanding can help shape students’ lives and the world.

Miryam Brand was a Holocaust survivor and Mizel Museum volunteer whose family has chosen to carry forward her legacy through education. Read about past programs at http://www.mizelmuseum.org/honor-3/miryambrandproject/.

Brand and her family want to help ensure that society never forgets, and by educating through film, they are helping students understand that this message isn’t just about history, it’s about intolerance and prejudice — the very things that led to the Holocaust and other acts of terrorism today.

“It’s not just a history lesson,” said Deanne Kapnik, Mizel Museum project manager. “It’s a lesson about today and how important it is that we teach our children to understand, respect and care about their communities and their world.”

“Survivor Stories: Generations” will be held twice on Nov. 9, first at 10:00 am and repeated at 12:00 pm. Classes from all area schools are welcome to attend free of charge. Transportation assistance is available.

For more information contact Deanne Kapnik at (303) 749-5019 or dkapnik@mizelmuseum.org.