In normal times, those who love (or would like to learn to love) opera have been meeting monthly at Menorah Synagogue, under the expert guidance of Joyce Kennedy. Combining her career as a GP with raising three children and writing two acclaimed books, Joyce was married to the late music critic, Michael Kennedy, travelling worldwide to 90 operas each year.
During the pandemic Joyce has continued her presentations via Zoom with a suggested voluntary donation of £5, shared between the Royal Northern College of Music Students’ Hardship Fund and Menorah Synagogue. On 4th November, she will discuss Mozart’s comedic melodrama Don Giovanni and on 2nd December, Donizetti’s tragic Maria Stuarda.
HISTORY
Jewish Muslim Research Network Group
In the pre-pandemic era, The Centre for Jewish Studies hosted in-person reading groups at University of Manchester open to all, perhaps they’ll return one day, but for now they have moved online. Like its membership, the texts read and discussed hail from a variety of fields and take diverse approaches to the study of Jews and Muslims and their intersections.
On November 11th, Alaa Murad, expert in Near Eastern and Judaic studies, facilitates a reading of Ross Brann’s Power in the Portrayal, offering a fresh perspective on the paradoxical relations between the Andalusi Muslim and Jewish elites in 11th and 12th century Spain – an era when long periods of tolerance and respect were punctuated by outbreaks of tension and hostility.
FESTIVAL
Limmud Festival
From Hillel to hummus, Limmud Festival is a celebration of Jewish learning covering everything you could imagine. This year, the festival will go online, giving participants the chance to curate an experience unique to them, with the lowest ticket tier locked at last year’s prices.
The programme has been divided into eight dedicated tracks, each one sparking a fresh Jewish conversation, featuring an array of talented performers. From 25th to 29th December, join hundreds of sessions and thousands of participants from around the UK and the world to help you follow your passions or do something totally new.
RELIGION
What I Like About Religion X
Established to develop mutual understanding between the Muslim and Jewish communities, The Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester has organised a special event for Interfaith Week.
On 15th November, three speakers will talk about a religion that is not their own, focusing on what they like about it. Cllr Heather Fletcher will chair the online event, featuring Mohammed Amin celebrating Judaism, June Rosen exploring Christianity and The Very Reverend Rogers Govender MBE discussing Islam.
After the formal talks, members of the audience will have the chance to contribute their thoughts about any religion or belief, other than their own, to debate what resonates with them.
THEATRE
Rent
A rock musical by the late Jewish composer, lyricist and author Jonathan Larsen, Rent
is loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Bohème.
Currently running at Hope Mill Theatre until 9th December, the musical tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in Lower Manhattan’s East Village in the thriving days of bohemian Alphabet City, under the shadow of AIDS.
Following its reopening, the theatre is currently operating at 50% capacity, so book early to avoid disappointment!
LITERATURE
The Ratline: On the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive
On 15th November Philippe Sands, award-winning author of the bestselling East West Street, discusses his new book in an online conversation with novelist and political scientist, Elif Shafak.
The Ratline is the story of Otto von Wächter who, as the Nazi governor of Galicia, presided over the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles. Indicted for mass murder at the end of the war, Wächter went into hiding, first in the Austrian Alps and then in Rome, where a Vatican bishop gave him refuge. But before he could take ‘the ratline’ to Argentina, he unexpectedly died.
Presented by Jewish Book Week in partnership with Kings Place and The London Library, this talk provides a fascinating insight into the mysteries surrounding the extraordinary life and death of a Nazi fugitive.