What are they saying about our latest exhibit?
Bubbe Reads Story Time with a Jewish Granny (2/18/19)
Fun was had by all at the story time with a Jewish granny event!
This special out of school time event took place on President’s Day as part of the Pioneers to the Present: Jews of Richmond and Contra Costa County exhibit series.
Jewish Food and Wine Celebration
Alix Wall will speak about contributions of Jewish Chefs in the Bay Area.?Wall, founder of The Illuminoshi: The Not-So-Secret Society of Bay Area Jewish Food Professionals, will be joined by Berkeley-based Covenant Winery and Perfusion Vineyard, a Richmond business farmed and owned by surgeon John Bry.
Musicians Melita Silberstein and Dave Rosenfeld will round out the program.
Beloved Jewish treats like chopped liver, kugel, knishes, spinach matzo pie and more will be offered.
Guests of all ages are welcome but must be age 21+ with ID for wine tasting.
This is a FREE event.
Richmond?s Illuminating Connection to the Statue of Liberty
Berkeley historian and author Richard Schwartz will tell the story of Jewish actor Maurice B. Curtis, who used his fortune to light the Statue of Liberty in 1886 when the US Congress didn?t want to spend the money. He is the author of The Man Who Lit Lady Liberty: The Extraordinary Rise and Fall of Actor M.B. Curtis. The book?chronicles the actor?s rise??from overnight success in a groundbreaking play that transcended the stereotypes of Jewish characters of his time to a successful real estate career ? and ultimate ruin.
Curtis was the?manager of the Richmond Opera House, which was in operation from 1907 to 1918, and featured well-known performances including Uncle Tom?s Cabin and Girl of the Golden West. His acting career virtually ended when he was accused, and later acquitted, of shooting a San Francisco police officer.
The event is part of the Pioneers to the Present: Jews of Richmond and Contra Costa?exhibit series.
Fred Rosenbaum Speaks on his book Taking Risks
Fred Rosenbaum speaks about his book, Taking Risks, the story of Joseph Pell who was a partisan fighter during World War II. Joseph made his way to California after the war and eventually founded Moo’s Ice Cream in Richmond.
Fred Rosenbaum, the Founding Director Emeritus of Lehrhaus Judaica, led the?school for 44 years until 2017. He has written eight books on modern Jewish?history including?Cosmopolitans: A Social and Cultural History of the Jews of the?Bay Area?(University of California Press, 2009).?According to Kevin Starr, ?no?single community has contributed comparably to the rise and development of this?region?and no book tells this story better than Fred Rosenbaum?s.?
His book?Taking Risks?(with Joseph Pell) was praised by Michael Krasny as??especially compelling,? and his?Out on a Ledge?(with Eva Libitzky), an Amazon?bestseller, was deemed ?honest and piercing, unsentimental and yet deeply?moving,? by Michael Berenbaum, Founding Director of the United States?Holocaust Memorial Museum. Rosenbaum?s work has been translated into a?dozen foreign languages.
Among many honors, he won the Anne and Robert Cowan Lifetime Achievement?Award for outstanding writing on Jewish themes by a Bay Area author and was?the first educator from Northern California to receive the Award for Exceptional?Jewish Educators from the Covenant Foundation in New York.?He has taught at several Bay Area universities including the Graduate?Theological Union, lectured widely in the United States and abroad, and has?been the traveling scholar on numerous Lehrhaus study tours ? to Eastern and?Western Europe, Israel and the Middle East, South America and Cuba, the?American South, and his native New York.