Monday, November 3 | Reception 7 pm | Cabaret 8 pm | $10
Presented by koffler20s&30s
Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe by award-winning journalist Lisa Alcalay Klug is a field manual for the 21st century Jew & the people who love them, covering everything from identity, clothing & cuisine, to spirituality, diversity & language.
Decode the modern-day hipster Heebster in all its forms of cultural expression at the Cool Jew Cabaret with local GTA Cool Jews doing cool & creative things.
Come at 7 pm for noshies & drinks @ the Koffler Gallery with cool Jew tunes & a chance to enter The Incredible Bar Mitzvah Machine. PLUS: Check-out The Bookmark Project finalists on display & tour the Koffler Gallery!!
A program of the 32nd annual Jewish Book Fair of the Koffler Centre of the Arts | Leah Posluns Theatre | 4588 Bathurst Street
Insider info on Facebook
Hear Lisa Alcalay Klug interviewed by Jian Gomeshi on CBC Radio's arts and culture show Q! Q: The Podcast Monday November 3, 2008
Tickets: At the door or through the Jewish Book Fair at 416-636-1880 x368 | bookfair@kofflerarts.org
Presented together with Hillel of Greater Toronto, the Jewish Magazine, and This is Not a Reading Series, Pages Books and Magazines.
THE COOL JEW CABARET FEATURING:
Aviva Chernick & Aaron Lightstone from The Huppah Project (a marriage of the familiar and new sounds of the Jewish wedding ceremony) and Jaffa Road (blending Eastern roots with fresh grooves)
JAMS (Jewish Animated Mandala Series) by video, performance, and installation artist Melissa Shiff.
Short story writer, Rebecca Rosenblum whose award-winning first collection, Once, came out in September.
The Incredible Bar Mitzvah Machine – experience this rite-of-passage in an instant, the brainchild of the late Charles Katz who never had a bar mitzvah, presented by his multitalented friends.
With Cool Jew Comedian Oren Tamir as the MC!
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The daughter of an Ashkenazi Holocaust survivor and the descendant of a Sephardic chief rabbi of Sarajevo, Lisa Alcalay Klug is an American-born journalist whose work has appeared in a wide range of mainstream and Jewish publications, including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Shape, Self, Men's Fitness, Chicago Sun-Times, Associated Press and Los Angeles Times. Lisa has also written for Jewish Living, Hadassah, Moment, Forward, Canadian Jewish News, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Jewish Woman, New York Jewish Week, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, Jerusalem Post and many other media outlets. Lisa earned a BA in Middle Eastern Studies (Alumni Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa and highest honors) and an MJ (master of journalism) at UC Berkeley. She has repeatedly taught in the Kol Echad spirituality retreats in Maui and at the Jewlicious Festivals. She is an advisor to Schmooze: The Sidney Krum Jewish Culture Conference and a judge at the Simply Manischewitz Cook Off. As a consultant, she partners with organizations to present public programs, panel discussions, workshops, and seminars.
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Aviva Chernick is a passionate singer whose voice and presence enchant audiences. As well as singing with Jaffa Road (jaffaroadmusic.com) Aviva released her first solo album In the Sea in the winter of 2008, an eclectic mix of World Cabaret music featuring Toronto Jazz and Improvisational greats Tania Gill and Andrew Downing. Her latest records include: The Huppah Project: Music of the Jewish Wedding Celebration (thehuppahproject.com) and Jaffa Road's debut Global Fusion album. Chernick is also a Cantorial Soloist, lending her passion to Jewish Spiritual practice throughout Toronto.
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Aaron Lightstone is a multi-instrumentalist/composer, music therapist, and music therapy educator. Aaron has performed on the guitar and ud in various solo projects and collaborations for over a decade, including Jaffa Road and The Huppah Project. He has studied with highly respected teachers in a variety of musical genres including Jazz, Sephardic and Arabic music, and classical Indian music, with a number of world-class teachers. Aaron received his Masters degree in Music Therapy from Wildfid Laurier University where he received a number of prestigious awards for his research.
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Rebecca Rosenblum is a writer of short stories, some of which have been or will be seen in Exile Quarterly, Danforth Review, The New Quarterly, Journey Prize Stories 19, Joyland, Maisonnueve, Best Canadian Short Stories 08, and Coming Attractions. Her first collection, Once, came out in September from Biblioasis.
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Melissa Shiff is a video, performance, and installation artist who specializes in utilizing Jewish myths, symbols and rituals in the service of social justice and activism as well as engaging with issues of cultural memory. Her highly acclaimed work ARK was the keynote project for the Jewish Museum in Prague's centennial year celebration in 2006. ARK is an outdoor video sculpture that that measures 4.5-meter high. For the group show, Off the Wall: Artists at Work, at The Jewish Museum NY (Spring 2008) she was commissioned to create JAMS, the Jewish Animated Mandala Series, animating the Museum’s Judaica collection. Her real life performance art Postmodern Jewish Wedding has been exhibited around the world. In the fall of 2007 Shiff created Iconoclash, an interactive multi media rave with a 40 foot screen that was hung in one of Toronto’s main downtown parks, commissioned by the City of Toronto for the all night art event Nuit Blanche. Other works that rethink, reinvent and reinvigorate Jewish ritual include Gender Cuts/The Jew Under the Knife (2000); Times Square Seder: Featuring the Matzoh Ball Soup Kitchen (2002), a multi-media art activist event for the homeless featuring Elijah Chair and Passover Projections , and her art activist Passover endeavor The Medium is the Matzo (2005) which initiated the launch of her online store JAP: Jewish Art Projects, Politics, Products where her Crush Oppression Matzo Pillows are on sale to help fight hunger. Shiff received her artistic training at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
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The Incredible Bar Mitzvah Machine is the brainchild of the lateToronto artist Charles Katz. Like many creative people, Charles had dyslexia, and as a result he never completed his Bar Mitzvah. Using the photo booth model, Charles thought he could create a machine that would solve this problem, allow him to become a man and have his Bar Mitzvah. And everyone else could too.
The Incredible Bar Mitzvah Machine is not a statement on religion or belief – it is a playful solution to obstacles and barriers – through a clever, never irreverent point of view that is not without a subtle sense of irony. Through this machine, Charles Katz’s point of view can be shared with everyone - and his friends will know he has had the last laugh.
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Oren Tamir is a funny local Jewish boy. He has appeared throughout the 905, 416 and 02 (Jerusalem) area codes, including Yuk Yuk’s, Comedywood, and the Laugh Resort. Oren has also been seen entertaining audiences at community and charity events with his musical impressions and witty jokes. By day he’s a City Planner, and at night he brings down the house.