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Instrumentals

Agenda: Leni Riefenstahl screens in Manhattan, I.L. Peretz revived in L.A., caricatures by David Levine at the Met, and more

by
Stephanie Butnick
September 09, 2011

Agenda is Tablet Magazine’s weekly listing of upcoming cultural events.

In Los Angeles, on the heels of the recently released Sholem Aleichem documentary, actor Matt Chait dramatizes the stories of I.L. Peretz in a self-styled “dramedy” called The Stories of Isaac Lieb Peretz, with musical accompaniment by Lior Kaminetsky, at the Complex (Sept. 10-Oct. 9, starting at $15). For a different comedic interpretation of a young Jewish man’s life, Long Island native and Syracuse University graduate Tyler Gildin performs stand-up comedy tonight at the Brokerage Comedy Club in Bellmore, NY. (10:30 p.m., $12).

Tonight, New York’s Rubin Museum of Art screens Leni Riefenstahl’s 110-minute glorification of Hitler’s propaganda machine, Triumph of the Will—or, as it’s more purely known, Triumph des Willens. A viewing will prepare you for the inevitable chatter about Madonna’s new film, W.E., out Dec. 9, which thanks Reifenstahl and John Galliano in the credits. The event is—aptly, confusingly—free with a $7 bar minimum. Downtown, also tonight, 92Y Tribeca will screen Top Secret!, the 1984 World War II satire featuring the earnestly deadpan (and thin!) Val Kilmer and created by the exclamatory funny guys Abrahams, Zucker, and Zucker, who brought the world Airplane! (10 p.m., $10).

Little Shalimar, a “Lebanese, Jewish, WASP, Kentucky Colonel” musician/dj/instrumentalist from Flatbush opens for fellow Brooklyn musicians Red Baraat at The Mercury Lounge tonight (Sept. 8, 10:30 p.m., $15 in advance, $20 at the door). On Saturday night, SoCalled, a Canadian band once repped by Jdub Records, brings Klezmer rap to Drom, in the East Village, as part of the 7th New York Gypsy Festival (Sept. 9, 8 p.m., $10 in advance, $15 at the door). The festival, which starts tonight, also features Frank London’s Klezmer Brass All-Stars (Sept. 17, Drom) and runs through Sept. 29.

New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage brings together the restaurateurs behind Rosa Mexicana, JoeDoe, Arcadia, and Tocqueville for a discussion a week from Sunday about the book Beyond Borscht and Bourekas: Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine, at the museum’s site in Battery Park. The moderator is cookbook author Jayne Cohen; expect a panel that reinvents gefilte fish, as Tablet Magazine has been suggesting for years. (Sept. 18, 2:30 p.m., $12-$15). A week later, a few blocks north, where the original real housewives of New York lived, the Henry Street Settlement reintroduces you to the 1905 version. Resident residence expert Jane Ziegelman, author of 97 Orchard joins historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman and regular historian Suzanne Wasserman for strudel-making and Manischewitz cocktails. Paging Jill Zarin (Sept. 25, 3 p.m., $19.05).

The testimony that didn’t make it into Claude Lanzmann’s nearly 10-hour film Shoah gets an airing Tuesday at the 5th annual Cleveland Jewish FilmFest, sponsored by the Mandel Jewish Community Center (Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m.). Before The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg was just another child actor with Polish immigrant parents. He starred in Holy Rollers—screening Thursday in Cleveland—and is fluent in Polish (Sept. 15, $9). In New York, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute and the Polish Film Institute in Warsaw, cobbles together recent polish cinema for a run from Sept. 9 to Sept. 15, at the Walter Reade Theater. Zbigniew Cybulski, “the Polish James Dean,” stars in Night Train (Sept. 9, 4:30 p.m., $13) and Goodbye Until Tomorrow (Sept. 11, 12:15 p.m., $13).

Hamlet inspires New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art for the title of “Infinite Jest: Caricature and Satire from Leonardo to Levine,” opening Tuesday and featuring political works by the caricaturist David Levine and artwork by the Broadway illustrator Al Hirschfeld. Bob Dylan—the painter—shows work inspired by his travels through China at Gagosian on the Upper East Side—the first time the musician’s art has ever been featured in New York (Sept. 20-Oct. 22).

New York has Fashion Week; Tel Aviv has Fashion Weekend, starting Thursday at HaTachana (The Station), the former railway station turned hip hub. The Tel Aviv Home and Design Exhibition follows on the coattails, Sept. 20-24, and the 5th annual Beersheeva Wine Festival starts pouring Carmel, Golan Heights Winery, Yaffo, and Tsfat HaAttika, Thursday at the Negev Museum (Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m., $13).

Stephanie Butnick is deputy editor of Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.