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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, May 16, 1986
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LOCAL NEWS
Jewish Culture
Continued from Page 1
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In his prepared remarks sent in
advance to The Jewish News, Dr.
Ruskay cited programs in Ameri-
can dance and theater sponsored
over the last 50 years by the 92nd
Street Y. These must, he said,
run side by side with more tradi-
tional Jewish cultural offerings.
Jewish institutional offerings
should include the study of the
Jewish past and present, the con-
cerns of all Americans living in
the latter half of the 20th Cen-
tury, and the concerns of Jews in-
teracting with the broader cul-
ture.
Dr. Ruskay criticized Jewish
institutions which too in-
frequently study their long-term
goals. Some believe that the crit-
ical barrier in Jewish cultural
life is financial," he said. "I be-
lieve it is more often the absence
of articulated ideas and vision."
Now a vice president of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of
America, Dr. Ruskay warned
that culture can not be separated
from the Jewish religious experi-
ence and gently chastized the
"fascination with 'American
Jewish civil religion,' particu-
larly among the leadership of
central agencies that assert and
defend our communal interests."
He stressed the efforts of local
agencies, rather than national
ones, in bringing Jewish cultural
programming to the American
Jewish Community.
Thursday afternoon, Dr. Rus-
kay was joined at the United He-
brew Schools by Joan Rosen-
baum, director of the Jewish
Museum in New York. Speaking
from the museum perspective,
Rosenbaum said Jewish
museums and educational in-
stitutions must work toward
being exciting and dynamic
without losing sight of their
scholarly and archival missions.
"We have become an exciting
source of Jewish family
entertainment", and with the
situation of Jewish identity in
this country, museums have been
"put in a wonderful place to be
more vital."
She said program areas for ex-
hibitions and collections have
greatly expanded, as has "the
tremendous number of contem-
porary Jewish artists dealing
with Jewish themes."
Traveling exhibits help
broaden the audience for major
museum efforts. Rosenbaum
pointed to her museum's Jewish
American folk art exhibit which
has been traveling for several
years, and the major exhibition
on Danzig Jews which has now
completed a five-year tour. She
suggested several themes for
local institutions, including "the
whole new world of Judaic crafts
people," documentation of com-
munity history, and photog-
raphy.
Have we barely scratched the
surface? "Yes," answers Rosen-
baum. • "People think of Judaica
as limited, but we find we have
an infinite amount of ideas." She
said many exhibitions in recent
years have been related to the
Holocaust: The Danzig exhibit,
Precious Legacy, the art of Felix
Nussbaum. "These all have a
Holocaust - theme, but the effort
must be made to show the addi-
tional contexts for what you are
seeing."
According to these two experts,
the same can be said for all
Joan Rosenbaum
Jewish cultural programming.
Thursday's program is part of
the week-long series marking the
25th anniversary of the National
Foundation of Jewish Culture.
On Wednesday, Detroiters heard
Dr. Ruth Wisse, professor of Yid-
dish literature at McGill Univer-
sity. Respondent was Dr. Zvi
Gitelman, professor of political
science at the University of
Michigan.
The remaining schedule for the
symposium, entitled "Jewish
Popular Culture: Media and Mes-
sages,"is:
Saturday
9:30 p.m. Composer-lecturer
Dr. Jack Gottlieb will present
"Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish:
A Study in American Popular
Culture," a performance/