January 23, 2011

Jewish Home Beautiful: Revisited II

Gelber Convention Centre, Montreal

In collaboration with Andrew Harder, Vera Kisfalvi, Chantale Laplante, Lesley Levy, Diana Yaros, and Sonia Zylberberg. With the participation of Sandeep Bhagwati, Alice Ming Wai Jim, Rana Alrabi, Fabienne Presentey, Robert Silverman, Léa Neumark-Gaudet, Lisa Ndejuru, Danielle Generaux, Mirka Monet, and others. Documentation by: Geneviève Fortin, Andrew Harder, Daniel Rodriguez, and Melissa Morris. This project was possible in part by funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Goddard College Faculty Development Fund

This community performance like the first Jewish Home Beautiful – Revisited event is based in part on the original Jewish Home Beautiful script that was written in the 1930s by Betty D. Greenberg and Althea O. Silverman and performed ever since in Jewish congregations across North American. Unlike the original theatrical pageant, the Jewish Home Beautiful – Revisited series unfolded dialogically.

At the heart of this conversation was a reflection about our relationship – both physical and symbolic – to the orchards, groves and forests in Israel/Palestine. While we celebrated the New Year for Trees and marked the Middle-Eastern season wherein the earliest-blossoms emerge from their winter sleep to begin a new fruit-bearing cycle, we also considered the choices made about which trees are being planted where and whose are being cut down.

Video: Jewish Home Beautiful: Revisited II - Gelber Convention Centre, Montreal (dur. 03m00s)

Audio: Devora Neumark & Chantal Laplante - CKUT Radio Broadcast - 2011.02.16 (dur. 53m39s)

Audio: Devora Neumark & Chantal Laplante - Olive Trees excerpt - (dur. 18m42s)

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