BEETHOVEN IN THE YIDDISH IMAGINATION
Two Facebook live streams celebrate composer Ludwig van Beethoven: At 3 p.m., baritone Mario Diaz-Moresco and pianist Spencer Myer perform “Ode to Joy” in Yiddish alongside “An die ferne Geliebte,” a song cycle Beethoven composed to poetry by German Jewish poet Alois Isidor Jeitteles. At 4 p.m., Allen Lewis Rickman and Yelena Shmulenson perform a bilingual dramatic reading of “Bethovens levone sonate,” a Yiddish children’s story by Shloyme Bastomski about Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.” — Monday, April 20, Digital YIVO, /yivo.org/Beethoven. Free.
YOM HASHOAH
The Downtown Jewish Life community will gather in remembrance of the many lives lost in the Holocaust. Through song, stories and prayer, community leaders will create a space to ensure that future generations never forget the past while paving a future with unity and hope. — Monday, April 20, 7 p.m., Virtual 14th Street Y, 14streety.org/virtual-14y/virtual-arts-culture/. Free.
‘THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA,’ EPISODE 6
Philip Roth’s novel of the same name is the basis for this six-part series on HBO starring Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan and John Turturro. In Roth’s reimagining of history, a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey watches the political rise of aviator-hero and xenophobic populist Charles Lindbergh as he becomes president and turns the nation toward fascism. — Episode 1 airs through April 18; Episode 2 airs through April 18; Episode 3 airs through April 6; Episode 4 airs through April 13; Episode 5 airs through April 20; Episode 6 (Series Finale) premieres April 20 and airs through April 26. hbo.com/the-plot-against-america.
MICHELLE OBAMA’S SPEECHWRITER ON JUDAISM AND POLITICS IN TRYING TIMES: SARAH HURWITZ
Speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz, who wrote “Here All Along” about her rediscovery of Judaism, appears via Zoom Video Conferencing in a discussion moderated by Daniel Jeydel. — Monday, April 20, 10:30 a.m., Virtual Streicker, emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual/. Free.
‘THE SOAP MYTH’
Watch PBS’s recording of Jeff Cohen’s gut-wrenching play starring Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh on your own, and then join a virtual discussion about the shaping of history and the seduction of anti-Semitism with Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh, Jeff Cohen, Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum and Ira N. Forman, President Obama’s special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism. — Monday, April 20, 6:30 p.m., Virtual Streicker, emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual/. Free.
WOMEN OF THE WALL — RESILIENCE AND RESISTANCE: ANAT HOFFMAN
A discussion via Zoom Video Conferencing with Anat Hoffman, chairman of the board of Women of the Wall and executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center, the legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel. — Tuesday, April 21, 10:30 a.m., Virtual Streicker, emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual/. Free.
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OMER AVITAL’S ‘NEW YORK PARADOX’
The new album by Omer Avital’s quintet Qantar — five expat Israelis who regularly get together to share Middle Eastern-inflected jazz music and Turkish coffee — was supposed to launch April 14 at Brooklyn’s Wilson Live. But “New York Paradox” is newly available for listening and purchasing at https://smarturl.it/QantarNYParadox. Avital, a bassist and composer, is “one of the most exciting musicians to come onto the jazz scene in the last 20 years,” according to DownBeat Magazine, and The New Yorker calls him “one of the key figures in the new wave of jazz.”
LIVING ROOM CONCERT
Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene, performs from home. — Wednesday, April 22, 7-7:30 p.m., Folksbiene!LIVE, nytf.org/live/. Free.
NOT YOUR FATHER’S ANTI-SEMITISM: MICHAEL BERENBAUM
A former head of Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, Michael Berenbaum will talk via Zoom Video Conferencing about the roles of the internet, BDS and other contemporary vectors of anti-Semitism. — Wednesday, April 22, 6:30 p.m., Virtual Streicker, emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual/. Free.
COVID-19 AND ISRAEL: HOW THE PANDEMIC IS AFFECTING ISRAEL’S GOVERNMENTAL PROCESSES
The virtual, hour-long session will feature Michael Koplow, policy director at Israel Policy Forum. Questions discussed will include: How is this pandemic shaping the outcome of Israel’s third round of elections? What does this mean for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ongoing legal cases? How is Israel’s government responding to this unprecedented public health crisis? — Wednesday, April 22, 1:30 p.m., Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, jccmanhattan.org/virtual-programs#adults. Free.
“STAN LEE: A LIFE IN COMICS” (BOOK LAUNCH)
He created Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, and Stan Lee’s Jewish roots ran deep. Join author Liel Liebovitz for the launch of his new book about Lee and a discussion with “Unorthodox” podcast co-host Stephanie Butnick about the surprising connections between Lee’s celebrated comic book heroes and the ancient tales of the Bible, the Talmud and Jewish mysticism. — Thursday, April 23, 7 p.m., programs.cjh.org. Free.
CORONAVIRUS IN ISRAEL AND THE FUTURE OF IMMUNOTHERAPY: PROF. SHAI ARKIN
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Dr. Isaiah T. Arkin heads a team of Hebrew University researchers who investigate the structural biology of membrane proteins in important human pathogens. — Thursday, April 23, 10:30 a.m., Virtual Streicker, emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual. Free.
MY LIFE THROUGH MUSIC: DAVID BROZA
The Israeli superstar’s music reflects the three countries in which he was raised: Israel, Spain and England. — Thursday, April 23, 6:30 p.m., Virtual Streicker, emanuelnyc.org/streickercenter/virtual/. Free.
SHAINA TAUB — JOE’S PUB LIVE!
A live-stream of the archived 2018 performance from songwriter-performer Shaina Taub’s residency at Joe’ Pub. The show was a creative laboratory as Taub, her band and special guests debuted new songs and performed lots of selections from Taub’s “Old Hats” (the Bill Irwin/David Shiner musical) and her album “Visitors.” The New York Times says, “The singer and songwriter Shaina Taub belongs to a breed of performers who, apart from being artists, are gravitation forces around whom others cluster like filings to a magnet.” In the spirit of the season, Taub was part of the 2018 Passover seder show performed by Broadway actors and composers and partially underwritten by the Jewish cultural group Reboot; fittingly, she sang her tune “Huddled Masses,” inspired by a Trump travel ban protest poster that quoted Emma Lazarus. — Friday, April 24, 8 p.m., publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub. Free.
In 2018 she was honored with a mid-career solo exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Now Zoya Cherkassky, under quarantine in Tel Aviv, has created compelling new works on paper that are on view online in a new exhibit on the Fort Gansevoort gallery’s website. Upon entering the exhibit, the viewer chooses among five collections, “Black Chuppah,” “Chad Gadya,” “Shabes Goy,” “Anne Frank” and “Lost Time,” all with the curator’s engrossing insights into some of the key works. — Opening Wednesday, April 8,fortgansevoort.com. Free.
The Tony Award-winning play follows a troupe of actors, the cast members of Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance,” who risked their lives and careers to perform a work in which they deeply believed, at a time when art, freedom and truth were on trial. It is a serious story told with great theatricality, and joyous songs and dances. — Airing through Nov. 17, THIRTEEN Passport, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/
Based on true events, acclaimed fiilmmaker Yaron Zilberman chronicles the disturbing descent of a promising law student to a delusional ultranationalist obsessed with murdering his country’s leader, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.”Incitement” is an unnerving look through the eyes of a murderer who, encouraged by increasingly militant political rhetoric, silenced a powerful voice for peace. Winner, Best Picture, Ophir Awards (Israeli Oscars). — Streaming at Film Forum, filmforum.org/film/incitement. $9.99.
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