Aiming to Spread Judaism One Book at a Time

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Mark Oppenheimer

Todd Parr, at his home in Berkeley, Calif., was commissioned by the PJ Library to write a book.

MASSACHUSETTS - In 2004, Harold Grinspoon, a local real estate mogul, heard a story on National Public Radio about the Imagination Library, founded by the singer Dolly Parton to give free books to children in her native rural Tennessee. The PJ Library, a program of his Harold Grinspoon Foundation, made its debut in December 2005, sending 200 books with Jewish content to interested families, primarily those with young Jewish children. Initially, the books were sent to children in western Massachusetts. The program has grown every month since, and in July the PJ Library will mail 76,000 books to children in every state and across Canada. [link]

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A 300-Year-Old Synagogue Comes Back to Life in Poland

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Laura Brown, a co-founder of Handshouse Studio with a scale model of the synagogue.

POLAND - The Gwozdziec Synagogue, built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here, in the foothills of the Carpathians, an international crew of master timber craftsmen and students has been working on an intensely hands-on project that combines history, art and education. They are building a replica of the tall peaked roof and inner cupola of an ornate wooden synagogue that stood for 300 years in the town of Gwozdziec, now in Ukraine. Constructing the replica is a joint project of the museum in Warsaw and the Handshouse Studio, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization that emphasizes learning by building, particularly the reconstruction of historical structures and other objects. “There are certain things you can learn by making it that you can’t learn any other way,” said Rick Brown, who founded and directs Handshouse with his wife, Laura. “Every time you pick up a tool or start a process or use a certain material, embedded in that is a very rich, almost unlimited learning experience.”[link]

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Kiddush Cups, Haggadahs Suddenly Museum Chic?

THE JEWISH WEEK
By Eric Herschthal

Hanukkah lamp, Augsburg, Germany, circa 1750. MFA Boston

NEW YORK - For years Jewish art museums have looked upon traditional Judaica with something approaching disdain. But if you think Judaica has died a slow death, think again.  It's having a comeback in major secular museums, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Boston's glitzy new Museum of Fine Art.  According to ARTNews editor Robin Cembalest, in an essay today on Tablet, secular museums have picked up where Jewish museums have left off. [link]

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Play Explores Actress Amy Brenneman's Spiritual Evolution

THE HAVARD MAGAZINE
By Alumni in the News

MASSACHUSETTS - The one-act autobiographical theater piece, Mouth Wide Open, explores moments in actress and producer Amy Brenneman’s spiritual evolution (she concentrated in comparative religion at Harvard) as well as her life as a prominent Hollywood film and television actress. The play, part of the ART’s new “First Look” initiative, will have seven performances from May 24 through May 29. Brenneman wrote the script and created the play in collaboration with New York-based director Sabrina Peck ’84, who directed Mouth Wide Open and with whom Brenneman has worked with since their college days. She jumped into her autobiographical project with both feet. The play has “moments of enlightenment that occur in the most pedestrian settings,” says Peck. On the spiritual side, Brenneman’s views might be summed up in the play’s line, “Everyone is God and everyone is a messenger.” [link]

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