Professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett will present this year’s invited visual arts lecture at Congregation Beth Sholom on Sunday, November 5, at 7 p.m. Her lecture is entitled “Curating Between Hope and Despair: History, Art and Architecture at Warsaw’s New POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.”

Professor Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is chief curator of the Core Exhibition at the new POLIN Museum in Warsaw, which sits on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto. She will take participants on a virtual tour of the 1000-year history of the Polish Jews and share the difficult decisions and trade-offs made in selecting the work for the museum’s inaugural exhibit. Not to be missed are the inspirational story and visuals of the reconstruction inside POLIN of the timber-framed roof and exquisitely painted bimah and wooden ceiling of the lost 17th-century wooden synagogue of Gwożdziec.

Kirschenblatt-Gimblett explained that “at the monument, we honor those who died by remembering how they died. At the museum, we honor them—and those who came before and after—by remembering how they lived.” She views the role of the museum as an agent of transformation that can move an entire society forward.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is university professor emerita and professor emerita of performance studies at New York University, where she has been affiliated with the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. She was honored for lifetime achievement by the Foundation for Jewish Culture, received honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and University of Haifa and was decorated with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for her contribution to POLIN Museum. She was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. No reservations are necessary.

The Sunday lecture is the concluding event of a scholar-in-residence weekend that includes three lectures on Shabbat: Friday night following dinner: “Listening With Love: A Daughter Discovers Her Father’s Childhood in Poland”; Saturday morning during services, “Renewal of Life in Poland”; and Saturday afternoon following lunch: “Jewish Identity and Continuity: The Role of Jewish Museums.” For information on attending these lectures and/or meals, please visit https://cbsteaneck.shulcloud.com/event/sir-dr-kirshenblatt-gimblett.html or contact Congregation Beth Sholom at 201-833-2620 or [email protected].

Congregation Beth Sholom is located at 354 Maitland Avenue in Teaneck.

By Joan Boykoff Baron and Reuben M. Baron

 Joan Boykoff Baron and Reuben M. Baron are co-chairs of the Sunday evening Visual Arts event. They are writers for artcritical.com, the online magazine of art and ideas.