PRESENTER

There is a Crack in Everything

Evelyn leads an interactive, richly illustrated presentation suitable for online or in-person events. As a window gallery, FENTSTER is the most public Jewish art space in Canada operating 24/7 year-round, even during the global lockdown. Evelyn leads a “tour” of the latest FENTSTER exhibition, a striking stained glass sculpture by artist Robert Davidovitz that was inspired by his family's roots in Vilna and a Chagall painting. Fractures throughout the glass installation are a reminder that brokenness is a part of life. The exhibition title - What Will Remain - comes from a poem by noted Yiddish writer Avrom Sutzkever, resonating with this moment when the globe seems fractured at a scale not seen since the Second World War. Together we will study Sutzkever's poetry and other writings from the pre-war Yiddish literary group, Yung-vilne. We will also look at art, music architecture, and archival photos as well as Jewish teachings and history, which all form the backdrop to the exhibition.

A version of this presentation was given at the Virtual Tikkun Leil Shavuot, May 2020. Organized by the Miles Nadal JCC. Click here to view

Upcoming: KlezKanada Online, Thursday, August 27, 2020

[IMAGE: Detail of What Will Remain by Robert Davidovitz, 2020. Photo: Morris Lum]

Art Out of the Archives

From Yiddish Theatre to Kung Fu Films to Contemporary Art

Evelyn leads an interactive, illustrated presentation about the exhibition and its evolution, unearthing little-known Toronto stories emerging out of the archives.

Evelyn discusses the history of the Standard Theatre (at the north-east corner of Dundas and Spadina), the subject of a 2018 FENTSTER exhibition featuring multi-disciplinary Toronto artist Shellie Zhang. The theatre served as a cultural destination for both the Jewish and Chinese communities, opening as a Yiddish theatre in 1922 and five decades later presenting Chinese cinema as the Golden Harvest Theatre. This presentation explores engaging archival documents from playful Yiddish posters to lively press clippings to historic photos and even kung fu film advertisements to explore how the theatre connected Chinese and Jewish immigrants with their distinctive cultures and native languages. Discover the surprising backstory of this heritage building and how nearly 100 years after its opening, Zhang represented two significant cultural institutions through a much buzzed-about neon art installation. It’s a quintessential Toronto story with many unexpected twists and turns.

Past presentations:

KlezKanada 2018

Bernard Betel 2019

Ontario Jewish Archives, May 2020. Watch the webinar here

[IMAGE: Left: Proposed marquee for the Standard Theatre, 1921, Ontario Jewish Archives, fonds 49, series 3, file 104. Right: Detail of A Place for Wholesome Amusement by Shellie Zhang, 2018. Photo: Morris Lum)

Comic Book “Beit Midrash”

A Visual Text Study on Jewish Identity in Graphic Novels by Women

Over the last five decades, a substantial number of graphic novels and comics have been created by Jewish women. This phenomenon was explored in a travelling exhibition and related book of the same name, Graphic Details, which Evelyn contributed an essay to. Through powerful, honest work that draws upon their lived experiences, these graphic artists examine their relationships to their Jewishness. In a pseudo-Talmudic fashion, Evelyn facilities a close study of pages from three of these comics to see what these texts reveal about everything from tradition, faith, community, connections to Israel, family, and more. Featured artists include Liana Finck, Sarah Glidden and Miriam Libicki.

Past Presentations:

Limmud, Toronto

KlezKanada, Quebec

LE MOOD, Montreal

Tikkun Leil Shavuot, Toronto

Danforth Jewish Circle, Toronto

[IMAGE: Detail from The Shul Detective by Liana Finck, 2008. Lilith Magazine]

Contemporary Jewish Poland

Evelyn has curated, moderated and presented on many panels on Jewish life in Poland today and the relationship of Canadian Jews to their roots in Poland.

Poland and the Jews: Past, Present and Future

Ashkenaz Festival, 2018 | with a panel of artists, curators, and scholars

Screening of Raise the Roof

2017 | Cummings Centre, Montreal

2016 | Stowe Jewish Film Festival, Vermont

2015 | Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Toronto

Poland: We Keep Coming Back

2015 | Limmud, Toronto, with Michael Rubenfeld

The Rite of Return: Canadian-Jewish Artists and Contemporary Poland

August 2014 | Ashkenaz Festival, Toronto, with photographer David Kaufman, filmmaker Francine Zuckerman, and author Professor Erica Lehrer

March 2014 | Beth Tzedec Congregation, Toronto | with photographer David Kaufman, theatre artist Michael Rubenfeld, and filmmaker Francine Zukerman

[IMAGE: Rear view of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw]