Happening

Young, Jewish & Now

This film celebrates diversity, weaving together queer culture, Jewish Arab history, secular Yiddishkeit, anti-racist analysis, and religious/spiritual traditions. Community organizers Julia Caplan and Loolwa Khazzoom, JFREJ director Dara Silverman, playwright Deb Shoval, artists Molly Hein and Emily Nippon, and others speak of building progressive organizations, new rituals, and more inclusive communities, drawing from a Jewish past of reform and rebellion, inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the Workmen’s Circle, and their own communist and socialist grandparents. youngjewishandleft.org

Jewish-American Women & World War II

What do you remember about the day Pearl Harbor was bombed? Did you collect tin cans? Do factory work? Do military service? How did the war affect your daily life? How did the war change your ideas about the roles of women and men? These are some of questions you can answer yourself or interview a friend or family member about as part of an oral history project at The Jewish Women’s Archive. jwa.org

Getting Older: 4 Films

“Inside/Out” by Jennifer Petrucelli asks what role our physical appearance plays in our feelings of self worth. In “Let’s Face It” by Wendy Oser, Joan Levinson and Beverly Spencer, women in their 40s, 50s and 60s explore the unrelenting message that youth is the epitome of beauty. “Her Name is Zelda,” by Nicole Sampogna, portrays 85-year-old Zelda Kaplan, whose mission is to promote global women’s rights. “Beauty in Aging” from Terra Nova is a compilation of other videos. fanlight.com

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Facing Death

is a film about the two-pound triplet, born in Zurich in 1926, who defied her parents wishes by studying medicine and went on to write the classic On Death and Dying, in which she described the stages of grief in terminal illness or mourning: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. A DVD of the 98-minute 2002 film is available from First Run Features: firstrunfeatures. com; learn more at elisabethkublerross.com.

In The Beginning

Indiana-based painter and installation artist Kay Rosen, Israeli born new-media artist Shirley Shor, who lives in New York, and New York based installation and performance artist Mierle Ukeles are among the comissioned contemporary artists who interpret the Genesis story in an inaugural exhibit opening to the public on June 8, of the newly re-built Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco. thecjm.org

Writing Heals

The Why and Later is an anthology of poetry written by survivors of rape and sexual assault, including such wellknown poets as Marge Piercy, Adrienne Rich and Ellen Bass. Carly Sachs, a poet and editor of this groundbreaking book, says: “Too often, rape and assault silence women, making them afraid to trust, afraid of their own bodies, afraid to name what has happened and what continues to happen… the writing of these poems becomes a way of healing.” $15 from deepcleveland. com/deepclevelandbooks.html.

Bat Mitzvah Firsts

Did you or someone you know have a pioneering first-of-its-kind bat mitzvah in your community? Moving Traditions, the organizer of the Jewish teen girls’ groups “Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing” launched this project on the 85th anniversary of the ritual first celebrated by Judith Kaplan in 1922 — two years after women received the right to vote in the United States — at The Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York. “We get so used to the way things are today that we forget that Judaism is always evolving. Today, our sons and daughters can’t believe that their grandmothers could not become bat mitzvah,” says Sally Gottesman, founder of Moving Traditions. You can share your bat mitzvah story at movingtraditions.org.

Oil/Water, Mother/Daughter

a video installation and photo exhibit by Israeli artist Mor Arkadir explores her own secular world and her mother’s religious observance. In a 14-minute film depicting a 24-hour road trip, mother and daughter, as driver and passenger, confront generational differences, conflicting belief systems and engine troubles. Through June 2 at the Media Center, Jewish Museum of New York. thejewishmuseum.org

A Hotline For Diaspora Students In Israel

For the approximately 7,500 North Americans and other Anglos who spend a year in Israel, the experience can be life-changing but also tough. Eye Squad, connects young adult callers with an impartial person outside the school/program. In case of emergency, the service is available even on the Sabbath. Eye Squad is coordinated by Adina Bloomberg, The number to call in Israel is *9111, and parents in the U.S. and Canada can reach the Eye Squad service by dialing toll-free 866-550-4EYE.

The Hotel Maid

More than 90% of hotel housekeepers are women, and these jobs tend to pay less and are more likely to create injury than hotel jobs usually filled by men. In the interpretive commentary Midrash Tehillim 18 the rabbis taught that welcoming guests is “even greater than welcoming the divine presence.” To recognize the importance of this work, the Jewish Funds for Justice, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Jewish Labor Committee, and other Jewish organizations have been working with UNITE HERE, the union that represents hotel workers, to improve the lives of hotel housekeepers. Learn how your hotel stay can improve working conditions for the housekeepers who service your room at ga6.org/campaign/ ethical_travel/we8dk6g2om5nn3j.

The “Material Support” Problem

The Jewish Perspective, a report by Melanie Nezer, sheds light on alarming developments in immigration policy. Legitimate policies designed to bar the admission to the United States of individuals who provide “material support” to terrorists can end up denying protection and sanctuary to bona fide refugees from a wide range of countries where persecution is rampant. This analysis, for community leaders and activists as well as policymakers and legislators, is available from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. hias.org

Golda, Gertrude Stein & Sarah Bernhardt

are among Andy Warhol’s “Jewish geniuses.” Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980) features the 10 paintings along with Warhol’s preparatory drawings, source photos and related prints. Through August 3, at the Jewish Museum in New York, thejewishmuseum.org, and then, in October, at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.