What To Do This Winter

Shabbat Shalom,

Were back with our very popular calendar of cultural Jewish activities this winter we're looking forward to.

Now on view at the Guggenheim, Alex Katz: Gathering. This sprawling retrospective begins with the artists NYC subway rider sketches from the 1940s, encompasses his paintings, collages, drawings, prints, and cutout works, and culminates with his more recent immersive landscapes. Its an ode to the landmark, still-living artist, in the city where hes lived and worked his entire life.

During the pandemic, Lisa Edelstein, the actor possibly best known for her role on the series House, and as Alan Arkins daughter on The Kominsky Method, took to painting. And shes very good! Really. Currently on view at sfa Advisory in New York, her paintings in the exhibition, Lisa Edelstein: Family, are inspired by old photos that Edelstein found of her family and relatives. Forbes said of her work: There is a vividness and a familiarity in the work as if weve been transported to the past. They are like figures from a lost world, figures from the old world happy to be in the new, a generation of Jews flourishing in America.

This years New York Jewish Film Festival runs January 12 through 23, with both in-person and virtual screenings. Theres a wonderful mix of international films about the Jewish experience, including the world premiere of Charlotte Salomon: Life and the Maiden, a documentary highlighting the young artists life and work before she was killed at Auschwitz at just 26 years old.

Broadway beckons this winter thanks to Leopoldstadt, a new play by Tom Stoppard and a New York Times Critics Pick. Named after Viennas Jewish Quarter, the story spans 50 years (18991955) and follows a bourgeois Jewish family eager to assimilate. Yet no amount of assimilation can stop history from knocking on their door.

Jewish horror film The Offering will be released in US markets this week. Shot in Bulgaria, the movie uses Eastern European mythology to set up the story of a host-possessing demon who invades an Orthodox funeral home. For what its worth, Jewish horror is not a genre we often see and were here for it.

Season four of Israeli drama Fauda hits Netflix on January 20. The thrilling series is based on its creators real-life experience serving in the IDF. Fans have been waiting years for this new season to drop, so were all geared up for a weekend binge.

Another Netflix drop were looking forward to? The latest from big comedy names like Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Eddie Murphy, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, You People explores the complexities of interfaith and interracial dating. Its available January 27.

Were big fans of author Dara Horn who wrote the incredible, thought provoking (and funny!) book, People Love Dead Jews. The Holocaust continues to make headlines yet ignorance and indifference towards Jew-hatred seems to be higher than ever. Join Dara as she discusses what exactly is going on here during a free virtual event for Holocaust Remembrance Day. In partnership with the Calgary Public Library and Calgary Jewish Federation.

In February and March, Batsheva Dance Company will return to NYCs Joyce theater with Hora. Set to a musical arrangement by Isao Tomia and choreographed by artistic director Ohad Naharin, this dance embodies a poetic struggle to distinguish an individual from the collective.

Its cold, its winter, and what better way to hibernate than with some Jewish bakery goods. If youre like us that means outsourcing - and the best (and Kosher!) way to bring the bakery to you is our friend, Jake Cohens Goldbelly assortment of Challah, Bubka, and Black & Whites. Jake is also hosting a live Rugelach baking class on January 25th. You have plenty of time to get that Catskills summer body together - but for now, its time to eat some of our favorites from one of our favorites - nationwide.