UPCOMING EVENTS:
JULY 13, 2011: A memorial ceremony for the late Samuel Merlin, number two man in the Bergson Group, will be held at the Horshim cemetery, in Israel, during which Merlin’s remains will be reinterred. The burial and commemoration will be held under the auspices of the Wyman Institute. Dignitaries will speak, and the public is invited.
JULY 17, 2011: The Wyman Institute and Yad Vashem will co-sponsor a one-day conference, “The Bergson Group and America’s Response to the Final Solution” at Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. The event will coincide with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Bergson Group.
ARTICLES, EXHIBITS, PROJECTS:
Recently published articles by Arts & Letters Council member Prof. Thane Rosenbaum (Fordham U. Law School) include “Why Sidney Lumet Fought the Law” (Wall Street Journal,” April 11; Thane is co-producing a documentary film about Lumet along with director, Daniel Anker); “Sidney Lumet: the Prince of New York City” (TFD News, April 12); and “Egypt: The Days of Rage and the Days After” (February 17, in the Huffington Post, where he is a regular columnist). Thane was also quoted in a January 17 Fox News report about the aftermath of the Arizona shooting.
An exhibition of 10 paintings (and their sketches and studies) by Arts & Letters Council member Archie Rand, based on the “Had Gadya” Passover song, is being held at the Gershman Y in Philadelphia (information: 215-545-4400), through May 8. The catalog includes essays by Matthew Baigell, Rabbi Steven Greenberg, Larry Silver, Miriam Seidel and a statement by Wyman Institute Arts & Letters Council chair Cynthia Ozick.
Arts & Letters Council member Pierre Sauvage spoke at the Columbia University conference, “Rescue of Jews in France,” on March 24. He screened his work-in-progress, a new documentary short highlighting the testimony of Three Righteous Christians of France. He also showed and discussed outtakes from his 1989 documentary Weapons of the Spirit, and excerpts from his forthcoming documentary And Crown Thy Good: Varian Fry in Marseille.
Wyman board member Michael Berkowicz and his wife and partner Bonnie Srolovitz Berkowicz, of Presentations Gallery Ltd., have received a commission to design a new Holocaust Memorial / Plaza to be located across from the Capitol Building in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Anticipated completion is September 2011.
Rafael Medoff’s essay, “Opening Palestine’s Doors,” appeared in Ha’aretz on February 4; his article ” ‘Megillat Hitler’, FDR and the Jews,” was published in the Jerusalem Post on March 18. Dr. Medoff will be speaking on “Teaching the Holocaust through Comic Books” at the Anaheim Comic Convention on May 1, and will be the keynote speaker later that day at the Orange County Yom Hashoah commemoration, chaired by Wyman board member Dr. Ari Babaknia.