Der Nister דער נסתר
Downtown Los Angeles Jewish Center
Culture
Learning
Prayer
TALK
Double Consciousness of Two Prayers: A Poetic Cycle of Prophecy and Rebellion
Readers of our newsletter may be familiar with Joelle, our poet-in-residence this year. Each week, she writes a poem in response to the weekly haftarah (prophetic) portion as an ongoing epic. In these poems, she transports us to a surreal world where the character she creates struggles with, for, and against God in direct thematic conversation with the language and story of the weeks’ reading.
On Sunday, Nov. 27 at 10 AM PST on Zoom and livestream, Joelle will be reading selections of her work, explaining her writing process, and exploring her inspirations for it with Rabbi Zach Golden, followed by a Q and A.
Joelle is from LA and lives in Tel Aviv, where she is writing her MA thesis on the mystic element in Mina Loy’s poetry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Soon she’ll be joining the team at Breaking the Silence, an Israeli peace advocacy organization. She will be someone who you will undoubtedly hear more from in years to come.
Be sure to register in advance if you wish to join the Zoom
play
Marx in Soho
Karl Marx travels to the future to stand in front of American audiences and ask "so how do you like it?" Now more than ever his critique of capitalism is poignant and heartbreaking. This interactive one-man-show, takes place in Downtown LA and travels between three spaces at the heart of the visible homeless crisis. This provides an experience which is not soon forgotten.
Due to the unique nature of the play, capacity is very limited and we encourage securing a spot in advance. The ticket price is from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.
Karl Marx is back and eager to clear his name.
More than 30 years after its premiere, Howard Zinn’s political play, Marx in Soho, has more to say than ever to Los Angeles.
In his play, Marx in Soho, Howard Zinn introduces us to Marx’s outlook on society and passion
for change with wit, humor and gusto. Zinn, bestselling author of A People’s History of the
United States, is an important American historian and playwright, and his writing offers a unique
perspective on Marx’s life, and the fundamental ideas of Socialism.
This is the second run of Marx in Soho directed by Ye'ela Rosenfeld in LA, which already had three performances in the fall. The previous run took place at the Actors Art theater near LACMA and sold out to raving reviews. Allyson Nobles of HEY socal wrote: “Throughout the performance, bouts of laughter spill out of the audience, the chairs squeaking along gleefully with their giddy spasms – their engagement still just as profound during the more solemn, inward-looking moments of the Marx prophecies being explored.”
Rosenfeld is an accomplished stage and screen director, known for her work with renowned
director, Roman Polanski. Her show The Physicists premiered at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe
Festival to rave reviews. Among others, she has put up LA productions of works by Vaclav
Havel, Friedrich Durrenmatt and Jean Paul Sartre.
Marx in Soho, will be performed by renowned theater actor, Gera Hermann.
Order Tickets
Saturday, December 3, 8:00 PM
Sunday, December 4, 6:00 PM
Saturday, December 10, 8:00 PM
TICKET PRICES:
Pay what you can, $18.00 suggested.
TALK
Animation Sings New Life into Once Popular Yiddish Songs
Jane Peppler has been researching brilliant but forgotten Yiddish theater songs for more than a decade. How, then, to get people to listen to these obscure but marvelous songs, when most people have heard - and loved - only the same 20 Yiddish songs over and over again? Animation was one way to appeal to the casual public. Her talk will include video clips of these magically evocative and funny songs as she talks about the people who performed this music in Warsaw between the world wars and how to engage a modern audience. You'll also hear about the young rhymers hired to write Yiddish versions of American Vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley and ragtime songs. Their lyrics are a rich reflection of the lives of turn-of-the-century immigrants to New York City.
Samples of her videos include these here, here and here.
Co-sponsored by the Toronto UJA Committee for Yiddish, Der Nister, and California Institute of Yiddish Culture and Language.
Sunday December 4, 2022
11 AM PT, 2 PM ET
INTERVIEW
Justice in the City
Henry Hollander speaks with Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies Talmud professor Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen about his book Justice in the City. The wide-ranging conversation touches on Rabbi Cohen's intellectual and political development is New York, Israel, Boston and Los Angeles, and then turns towards social problems in Los Angeles and socially just strategies to address them.
Now on YouTube
Featured
Shabbat Morning
Der Nister Podcasts
Der Nister Podcasts
Come spend your Shabbat morning with us at our traditional service followed by Kiddush, every Shabbat morning at 10:30 AM. The beauty of the space and the view help aide your spiritual engagement in the music and words of Torah that Rabbi Zach Golden and Henry Hollander give weekly.
Der Nister Podcasts
Der Nister Podcasts
Der Nister Podcasts
Der Nister has held a number of talks over the last few years - and you can hear them on our podcast Learning with Der Nister! Also, coming soon is a special program called the Der Nister Variety Hour - we look forward to its release.
About Der Nister - דער נסתר
The Synagogue
Der Nister (Yiddish: The Hidden) is the collaboration of Henry Hollander, a Jewish bookseller and rabbinical student, and Zachary Golden, recently ordained rabbi. Located in Mr. Hollander's Spring St. bookstore, those who come will be surrounded by treasures of Jewish civilization - Jewish books that span the centuries, and beautiful views of the downtown skyline, deep learning and musical prayer.
Downtown Los Angeles
Though Downtown has incredible Jewish roots, recent years have brought new waves of Jews to Downtown as Downtown grew. Seeing that their numbers were not served, Der Nister was imagined as a way to meet the religious and communal needs of a community who call Downtown home.