"Life Is Beautiful" will play July 20

The Jewish holiday cycle and academic year may both be quieting down, but Jewish educational and cultural opportunities are still on offer throughout Connecticut during the summer months. Below is a sampling.  (And don’t forget to check out our “Community Calendar” too.)

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FILM

Summer Flicks at Congregation Agudath Sholom
301 Strawberry Hill Ave., Stamford
Wednesdays, June 29-July 27, 7:30 p.m.

"The Infidel"

■ June 29: “The Infidel” An identity-crisis comedy centered on a London Muslim who discovers that he’s adopted – and Jewish.
■ July 6: “Holes in My Shoes” A captivating documentary portrait of Jack Beers, known as “New York City’s Strongest Boy” who became a true Jack of All Trades: a strongman, a self-taught structural engineer who worked on most of New York City’s iconic buildings, inventor, trainer of show boxers, and actor in more than 200 films. An inspiration to anyone who thinks that “enough” will do.

■ July 13: “The Juggler” Hans Muller, played by Kirk Douglas, is a Jewish refugee from Germany who relocates to Israel after World War II.

■ July 20: “Life Is Beautiful” Set in Italy during World War II, an unforgettable fable that proves that love, family, and imagination can conquer all.

■ July 27: “The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959)  A fictionalized version of Anne Frank, who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II.

JCC Greenwich Presents JCC Cinema Series
JCC Cinema series brings recent Jewish films from Argentina, Israel, China, and the U.S. to venues throughout Greenwich. The series runs throughout 2011 and is co-sponsored with Carmel Academy and The Friendship Circle.
JCC Cinema will include a special screening of “Sarah´s Key” (“Elle s’appelait Sarah”) prior to the film´s July 22 theatrical release. Based on the international bestselling novel by Tatiana de Rosnay and starring Kristen Scott Thomas, the film unfolds through two seemingly unrelated stories: in present-day Paris, an American journalist is researching the 1942 Vel’ d´Hiv roundup of more than 13,000 Parisian Jews; and a 10-year-old girl living in Paris during World War II tries to save her family from that Nazi-engineered mass deportation. Past and present connect in unexpected ways in this critically acclaimed drama directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner.

■ “A Matter of Size” (Israel, 2009)
Monday, June 27, 7 p.m.  (6:30 p.m. reception)  Bow-Tie Criterion Cinemas at Greenwich Plaza, 2 Railroad Ave. Greenwich.
Herzl, a 340-pound chef who lives with his mom, is up to here with dieting and weight-loss clubs. Just as the going gets tough for him and his overweight pals, he meets Kitano, a sushi-restaurant owner, and discovers the one thing that honors large people: Sumo wrestling. Directed by Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor, “A Matter of Size” won four 2009 Ophir Awards (Israeli Oscars).

"Anita"

■ “Anita” (Argentina, 2009)
Monday, July 18, 7 p.m.  , The Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive
Anita Feldman, a young woman with Down syndrome, lives a happy, routine life under her mother’s meticulous care. When a terrorist bomb razes the nearby Argentine Israelite Mutual Association–an actual incident that took place on July 18, 1994–her world explodes as well. As she wanders through Buenos Aires, she learns not only to care for herself, but touches the lives of those around her. Directed by Marcos Carnevale, the film co-stars Oscar nominee Norma Aleandro, the Argentine “Meryl Streep.”
Guest speaker: Alberto Limonic, founder, Argentinean Jewish Committee, Greater Boston
Admission: $12/adult; $6/senior. Series pass: $60/adult, not valid for “Sarah´s Key” or added special screenings  For information on tickets and other films in the 2011 series visit jccgreenwich.org

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LEARNING

JCC of Greater New Haven Center for Jewish Life and Learning Summer Institute
Tuesdays. June 21-July 26, 10:30 a.m.; JCC Greater New Haven, 360 Amity Road, Woodbridge

■ June 21: “Listening as Embracing the Other: Martin Buber’s Philosophy of Dialogue” Prof. Mordechai Gordon, Quinnipiac University

Prof. Mordecai Gordon

A look at Martin Buber’s ideas on dialogue, presence, and especially his notion of embracing in order to shed some light on his understanding of listening. The relationship between speaking and listening is one of reciprocity and mutual dependence and that listening plays an essential role in initiating many dialogues by creating a space in which two people can embrace each other as complete individuals. Mordechai Gordon challenges his students to think critically about foundational questions in education. Gordon’s background is in philosophy, psychology, and education, and his research explores the intersections of these three disciplines. Gordon’s areas of interest include teacher education, foundations of education and, more recently, exploring the connections between humor and philosophy of education.

■ June 28: “Holocaust Stories: Preserving the Memories of Others” Felice Cohen, author of “What Papa Told Me”
Holocaust survivors are dying every day. Soon there will be no one left. Their grandchildren don’t want you to forget their stories. Author Felice Cohen is one of those grandchildren. She will discuss how she came to write a memoir about her grandfather and how you can go about writing your own. Felice Cohen has published more than 100 opinion columns and articles in New York, the New York Daily News, and Metro (New York, Boston and Philadelphia editions). She has published stories in two anthologies: “The Truth About the Fact” and “For Daddy, With Love,” and is also writing a personal memoir, “Crushed,” a chapter of which won the Bronx Writers Chapter One competition, while another chapter was recently published.

Prof. Risa Sodi

■ July 5: “Poems from the Italian Jewish Experience,” Prof. Risa Sodi, Yale University
Participants in this workshop will read and discuss poems by Italian Jewish poets and reflect on the Italian Jewish experience. Poets will include Amelia Rosselli, Umberto Saba, Giorgio Bassani, and Primo Levi. No previous experience with poetry or knowledge of Italian is necessary. Risa Sodi is Senior Lector II, and Italian Language Program Director (Ph.D., Yale 1995). She is the author of “Narrative and Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian Holocaust Writing, 1944-1994″ (2007) and “A Dante of Our Time: Primo Levi and Auschwitz” (1990), as well as articles on modern Italian literature and history. She specializes in Jewish Italy and the Holocaust, Primo Levi, and Italian film.

■ July 12: “The Eichmann Trial 50 Years Later,” Prof. Robert Burt, Yale University Law School
The 1961 trial of Adolph Eichmann Jerusalem provoked world-wide controversy. The 50th anniversary of the trial provides an occasion for a retrospective evaluation of its merits and demerits. Robert A. Burt is Alexander M. Bickel Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He has been a member of the Yale faculty since 1976 and previously served on the law and medical school faculties at the University of Michigan and the law faculty at the University of Chicago. Prof. Burt has written extensively on biomedical ethics and constitutional law.

■ July 19: “A House Divided: Jews in the Civil War” Marc Wortman, Author
Union Army General Ulysses Grant ordered Jews expelled; a higher proportion of Jews fought for the South than the North. In this 150th anniversary year of its beginning, what does the Civil War mean for American Jews today? Marc Wortman is author of “The Millionaires’ Unit: The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented American Air Power” (2006) and “The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta” (2009), both published by PublicAffairs Books.

Sydney Perry

■ July 26: “Jerusalem: Twice Destroyed and Twice Rebuilt.” Sydney A. Perry, CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven.
Our sages have long agonized over the reasons for the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. During this period leading up to the fast day of Tisha B’av, it is instructive to learn some of the texts from the Gemara (the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah or Oral Tradition) which explains the behaviors that led to the destructions but more importantly provides the inspiration for and achievements of a resilient Jewish people. Sydney A. Perry, CEO of the Jewish Federation, spent more than 20 years as the director of the Department of Jewish Education. She believes that you don’t have to be a Talmud scholar to delve into rabbinic texts and dialogue with the rabbis. The important lessons we can glean for how to live our lives are everyone’s rich inheritance.
Admission: $18/session; $100/series For information contact (203) 387-2522, ext. 300, rwalter@jewishnewhaven.org, or visit www.jccnh.org

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MUSIC

Grill ‘n Chill
Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven, 360 Amity Rd, Woodbridge
Music lovers can enjoy cool sounds and hot kosher barbecue every Wednesday on the Center Café Terrace of the JCC of Greater New Haven, 5 – 8 p.m.

■ June 29: Music by Richard Gans and Steve Zulli

■ July 13: Music by Ira Kroopnek.

For more information contact (203) 387-2522 or shelleyg@jccnh.org.

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THEATER

Temple Players
In the Kava Café of Temple Beth Sholom, 275 Huntington Rd, Stratford
Sundays, June 23 – 26, 7:30 p.m.

The Temple Players will open its 14th season with a staged reading of “Tribal Humor 5,” a festival of six original one-act comedies that explore mother/daughter, sister to sister and couple relationships as well as the relationship between a disgruntled older man and friends of his family who discover they share a love of theater.
Three of the plays are by local playwrights who are members of Stratford’s SquareWrights Playwright group.  They are:  “After All I’ve Done for You” by Orna Rawls of Stratford, directed by Marlana Rugg of Branford; “The Free Pass” by Elizabeth Appel of Bethany, directed by Robert Watts of Milford; and “Uncle Murray Does Some Acting” written and directed by Mary Jane Schaefer of Norwalk.
The remainder of the show is comprised of “Moscow” by Lauren Simon of La Jolla, CA, directed by Jack Rushen; “Learning Experience at Elderhostel” by John Donnelly of Portland, Oregon, directed by Mark Lambeck; and “The Right to Dry” by Shirley King of Benicia, CA, directed by Tom Rushen.  All three of these directors are from Stratford.
The Temple Players is Connecticut’s first theater dedicated to staging works with Jewish themes and characters.
Admission: $10; $8 for students, seniors, and Temple members. For more information and reservations, call (203) 378-6175.

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FESTIVAL

6th Annual SummerFest
Congregation B’nai Israel, 193 Clapboard Ridge Road, Danbury
Sunday, Aug. 21, 12 noon-6 p.m.

A Jewish festival featuring vendors from throughout New England; homemade kosher food including brisket, falafel, hot dogs, kugel, bourekas, and He’Brew (“The Chosen Beer”); live Israeli, klezmer, and Jewish music and dancing; and fun family activities including arts & crafts and storytelling.  Free parking and a shuttle service at the church next door, St. Ann Melkite Church, 181 Clapboard Ridge Road  Info: www.thejf.org (203) 792-6161

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ALSO…

Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Falls Village

Full program of courses and workshops for adults and children includes Jewish learning, cultural pursuits, spiritual retreats, community-service opportunities, and Adamah Farm & Learn programs. For more info visit www.isabellafreedman.org