Derfner Judaica Museum offers free tours & art workshops
An art discussion takes place in the Derfner Judaica Museum.
Photograph courtesy of Michael Moran
Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art
Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale
will offer free tours to not-for-profi t
senior and special needs groups throughout
the New York City metro area. Groups
from schools, synagogues, churches, senior
centers and other community organizations
are welcome to schedule a museum
educator-led tour. The museum
also offers specialized tours for persons
with special needs and for persons with
Alzheimer’s or other dementias.
In addition to tours, a variety of printmaking,
collage, 3-D, drawing and watercolor
workshops are available to participants
interested in creating their own
visual responses to the exhibitions on
view. Art workshops are available upon
request and can be tailored to meet each
group’s needs. Materials are provided at
no cost.
From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx:
Early Acquisitions from The Art Collection
tells the fascinating story of how the
Grosvenor Gallery in London promoted
artists from Eastern Bloc countries and
came to play a central role in shaping the
Hebrew Home Art Collection. Some of
the fi rst works acquired for The Art Collection
were by artists who were included
in exhibitions at the Gallery, which was
founded in 1960 by American sociologist
Eric Estorick. His gallery created a
niche for the exhibition of these artists
in the 1960s when art from “behind the
Iron Curtain” was largely unseen and unknown
by Western audiences. The exhibition
features works by 35 artists from
the Soviet Socialist Republics of Armenia
and Russia and satellite states Hungary
and Czechoslovakia (today the Czech
Republic and Slovak Republic) who participated
in nine key exhibitions that took
place at the Gallery between 1961–1967.
On view through Sunday, August 25, .
Leonard Freed: Israel Magazine
1967–1968 includes 50 vintage images
by the American documentary photographer.
Freed is well known for his Civil
Rights photographs and has been the
subject of dozens of exhibitions internationally.
This is the fi rst to place his photographs
taken in Israel following the Six
Day War of 1967 in the context of their
original publication in Israel Magazine.
The exhibition demonstrates how the images
supported the editorial point of view
of the magazine and reveals Freed’s distinctive
documentary perspective. Israel
Magazine was edited by Maurice Carr,
nephew of the famed Yiddish writer,
Isaac Bashevis Singer. The photographs
included in the exhibition have been lent
by the estate of the photographer and his
widow, Brigitte Freed, who printed many
of his images. On view Sunday, September
15, to Sunday, January 5, 2020.
With approximately 250 objects, Tradition
and Remembrance: Treasures of
the Derfner Judaica Museum explores
the intersections of Jewish history and
memory. The stories of objects used in
traditional Jewish practice are interpreted
in light of the role of memory in shaping
both individual and communal identities.
Among the featured objects in the exhibition
are a silver fi ligree vase, ca. 1911,
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, A 42 UGUST 9-15, 2019 BTR
and an early copper alloy Hanukkah
lamp, both from the Bezalel School of
Arts and Crafts founded in Jerusalem in
1906. Other objects come from near and
far, including a set of 18th-century German
Torah implements, a handsomely illuminated
19th-century Italian marriage
contract and a 2nd–4th century lamella
amulet. Ongoing.
The Art Collection and Sculpture Garden
comprises 4,500 sculptures, works
on paper and paintings by such artists
as Romare Bearden, Christian Boltanski,
Marc Chagall, Jim Dine, Alex Katz,
Robert Mangold, Joan Mitchell, Louise
Nevelson, Diego Rivera, Ben Shahn,
Andy Warhol and William Wegman. A
garden railroad designed by award-winning
landscape architect Paul Busse and
the miniatures installation Pickles and
Egg Cream by Ruby Strauss, depicting
life on the Lower East Side at the turn
of the 20th century, are also on view. In
the sculpture garden that overlooks the
Hudson River and Palisades, visitors will
fi nd works by Herbert Ferber, Menashe
Kadishman, Marsha Pels and Leonard
Ursachi, among others. Ongoing.
Call (718) 581-1596 for holiday hours
and to schedule group tours, or for further
information, or visit RiverSpring-
Health.org/art
* * *
Stop by picturesque City Island and
enjoy the exciting programs offered at
the PSS City Island Center, which is located
at 116 City Island Avenue, Monday
through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Experience
the exercise classes from gentle
Yoga Stretch, Balance Class, Arthritis
Workshop and Tai Chi as well as the
vigorous Fit For Life and Cardio Fit. They
also offer acrylic painting, health presentations,
blood pressure monitoring, gardening
exchange, singing group and parties.
Lunch is served from noon to 1 p.m.
suggested donation is $2. The center participants
go on shopping trips every day;
i.e. Shop Rite, Dollar Tree, Target, Kmart,
as well as theatre excursions, special
trips, special luncheons and more. It’s
free to become a member, but you must
be 60 years of age or above.
Upcoming Special Events: Thursday,
August 8, at 1 p.m., presentation about
City Island and the Movies; and Friday,
August 9 at 1:10 p.m., Brain Games (a
program about the crazy wonderful
brain).
For more information contact Patty at
(718) 885-0727 or email pattis@pssusa.
org for our monthly calendar.
* * *
Do you need help getting to and from
your medical appointments? Transportation
services are available to seniors
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
in community districts 9, 10, 11 and 12.
The program provides door-to-door service
for all medical appointments. Their
drivers are courteous and professional;
and their vehicles are clean and handicap
accessible, including wheelchair
lifts.
For further information, contact Mildred
Cardona, program director of the
R.A.I.N. Transportation Program, at
(718) 882-8513.
BY MARY JANE MUSANO
Right now our city is in crisis.
The policies of this mayor
have caused anarchy in our
streets and we need to fi ght
back now before it is too late.
After last week’s column,
we have received calls and emails
of thanks for supporting
our police offi cers and
calling out the mayor. This
is our job and we take it very
seriously, but we cannot do it
without you. Please, I ask you
to act on this today.
Please speak out publicly
against this mayor’s anti-police
policies. Write letters to
the editor. Write to the mayor
and our local electeds. Tell
them that they must support
us and our police by creating
legislation that would make
it a felony to assault a police
offi cer even if that assault
does not result in physical
harm. Call us and ask what
you can do, because we do
have a plan.
Below is the letter our association
wrote to Councilman
Mark Gjonaj, Assemblyman
Michael Benedetto, Senator
Alessandra Biaggi, Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez and Speaker of the City
Council Corey Johnson.
Dear _______,
We need your help! There
is anarchy on our streets because
we have a mayor and
some electeds that refuses to
support our police. Our police
offi cers are being assaulted by
thugs that have no respect for
the law, our offi cers or the residents
of our city.
These actions will not be
tolerated! You must speak out
publicly against this criminal
behavior and support our police
offi cers. Why is nothing
being done when for many
months the lives of our offi cers
have been put in danger. Offi -
cers have been murdered just
for being offi cers? Offi cers are
being humiliated and threatened.
The assaults on our offi
cers must stop and it is your
job as an elected get this done!
You must create legislation
that will protect our offi -
cers and bring sanity back to
our streets. It must be a felony
to assault any police offi cer
whether or not that assault results
in physical harm to that
offi cer.
I ask that you respond in
writing to this letter as our
community is waiting for you
to take charge of a situation
that is out of control.
Respectfully,
Mary Jane Musano
Waterbury LaSalle Community
Association
I will share any response
that is sent to us and I will
also share who responds
and who does not. Now is the
time for action and if the action
taken does not produce
the results we want, then we
must respond at the voting
polls.
I want to call your attention
to the op ed written by
Rev. Senator Ruben Diaz in
last week’s Bronx Times Reporter.
For those that do not
know, the reverend now sits
in the city council.
He says, “ I do not support
NYC’s anti-cop climate, and
I have not and will not turn
my back on our police offi -
cers.” To my knowledge, the
reverend is the fi rst elected
to acknowledge that there is,
in fact, an anti-cop climate
in this city. I applaud him for
speaking out so strongly to
support the NYPD. God bless
you reverend. I hope the rest
of our electeds will follow
your lead.
I have called the offi ce of
Senator Diaz to thank him for
his wise words and for being
perhaps the fi rst elected with
the strength to denounce the
anti-cop climate that is so
prevalent in our city. May
I suggest you do the same.
Let’s support those that support
us and vote out those
that do not. His offi ce can be
reached at (718) 792-1140 or
RDiaz@council.nyc.gov.
link
/art
link
link