arts & entertainment

Future Thinkers

Exhibit on Depression-era world fairs is a reminder of the
Jewish Palestine Pavilion's link to the modern Jewish state.

ARIAS

JUNE

Suzanne Chessler
I Contributing Writer

(1936-37 in Cleveland), Golden Gate
International Exposition (1939-40 in San
Francisco) and the New York World's Fair
(1939-40 in New York City).
The exhibit brings together some 150
artifacts from the events and will feature
building models, architectural remnants,
furniture, ephemera, period film footage
and Elekto the Moto-Man robot.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett's comments
below emphasize the impact of the New
York World's Fair:

B

arbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
has not seen the traveling exhibit
"Designing Tomorrow: America's
World's Fairs of the 1930s" coming to the
Henry Ford in Dearborn, but she certainly
knows about the Jewish connections.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, professor of per-
formance studies at New York University
and currently program director of the core
exhibition at the Museum of the History of
Polish Jews in Warsaw, has written exten-
sively about Jewish representation at these
events.
"Before there were major Jewish muse-
ums, there were exhibitions:' Kirshenblatt-
Gimblett explains in a phone conversation
from Warsaw to give background for the
local display on view April 27-Sept. 2.
"The history of exhibitions with Jewish
themes and the history of exhibitions by
Jews at world fairs offer wonderful mate-
rial as a way of understanding how Jews
presented themselves and became part of
the history of museums"
The idea behind the display at the
Henry Ford (organized by the National
Building Museum in Washington,
D.C., and supplemented by holdings in
Dearborn) is to explain why millions of
Americans traveled to those fairs with a
goal of getting a glimpse of the future.
Six Depression-era fairs, introduc-
ing new concepts about the future of
American life, are recalled: A Century
of Progress International Exposition
(1933-34 in Chicago), California Pacific
International Exposition (1935-36 in
San Diego), Texas Centennial Exposition
(1936 in Dallas), Great Lakes Exposition

Jews

IN: What should Jewish visitors in
Dearborn know about the connection
between Jews and world fairs?
BK-G: Jews were impresarios and entre-
preneurs in organizing exhibits at world
fairs. I have written a book, Destination
Culture, which describes the ways Jews
functioned at these events. There was an
evolution from a focus on the Holy Land to
a focus on Jewish Palestine, and there was a
shift, as the fairs progressed, to presenting
Jews as capable of aesthetics and art.

IN: How does your work relate to the
exhibit at the Henry Ford?
BK-G: I [studied] Jewish participa-
tion in sanitary fairs (a precursor to the
Red Cross that provided relief services to
Union troops), charity fairs and world fairs
from the mid-19th century until the New
York World's Fair in 1939-1940. I was very
interested in the evolution of Jews at these
events.
My interest in the 1939-1940 World's
Fair was specifically the Jewish Palestine
Pavilion. It was designed by Arich
El-Hanani, the person who designed the
Levant Fair in Tel Aviv. The building itself
was considered to be very beautiful archi-

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

Major Leaguers

The following players are on a big
league roster (active or disabled) as of
April 16. All have at least one Jewish
parent and were raised secular or
Jewish: Ryan Braun, 29, outfielder,
Milwaukee; Craig Breslow, 32, pitcher,
Boston; Ike Davis, first base, New
York Mets; Scott Feldman, pitcher,
Chicago Cubs; Nate Freiman, 26, first
base, Oakland; Sam Fuld, 31, outfielder,
Tampa Bay; Ian Kinsler, 30, second
base, Texas; Jason Marquis, 34,
pitcher, San Diego; Michael Schwimer,
27, pitcher, Toronto; Kevin Youkilis, 34,

74

April 25 • 2013

third and first base,
New York Yankees.
Notes: Freiman
is the only rookie
this season and
may be the tallest
Major Leaguer ever
(he stands 6-foot-
Freiman
8-inches). In 2012,
he played for Israel
in the World Baseball Classic quali-
fier, and his mother is on the faculty
of Hebrew College, a Boston-area
Reform-affiliated school. Many sourc-
es, including Jewish Sports Review
magazine, list Ryan Kalish, 25, out-
fielder, Boston, as Jewish. His father
is Jewish, but he was raised in his

tecturally. Within it, the exhibits
featured urban planning and
architecture. It showed a very
contemporary approach to exhi-
bition design.

6

tO

NOVEMBER

2

Guidebook for the Texas Guidebook for the Great
Centennial Exposition
Lakes Exposition (1936-
(1936 in Dallas)
37 in Cleveland)

JN: Were any individual fairs more
important to the Jewish population than
the others during the 1930s?
BK-G: The Zionist Organization of
American was instrumental in creating the
Jewish Palestine Pavilion for the New York
World's Fair, and that was a real statement
about the aspiration to create a Jewish
homeland and Jewish state in what was
then British Mandate Palestine. It was a
very strong platform at a world's fair.

JN: Who were representative Jewish fig-
ures in New York?
BK-G: Meyer Weisgal, a key figure in
the Zionist movement, was instrumental
in creating the Jewish Palestine Pavilion.
The work of Arthur Szyk, a Polish-Jewish
artist living in the United States, was spot-
lighted in the Polish Pavilion.

JN: Were there key design elements in
understanding Judaism?
BK-G: The designs were more charac-
teristic of Tel Aviv than Jerusalem. Tel Aviv
probably has the largest intact groupings
of Bauhaus buildings, brought largely by
German Jewish architects to Palestine.
There also were influences of Russian
Jewish architects, who brought a contem-
porary perspective and gave Tel Aviv its
modern character. The Jewish Palestine
Pavilion also took materials, such as olive
wood and stone, from the Holy Land and
tried to find a contemporary expression
for them.

mother's Catholic faith.

At The Movies
Michael Bay (Transformers), 48,
is the director of Pain and Gain, a

new action comedy opening Friday,
April 26. Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne
Johnson play personal trainers who
get caught up in a criminal enterprise.
Opening the
same day is The Big
Wedding, a roman-
tic comedy about
nuptial tensions that
threaten to spin
out of control. It is
directed and written
by Justin Zackham,

JN: Do you think there was a lasting
influence that visitors took away from
those fairs regarding the image of
Judaism or Palestine as it was then?
BK-G: The involvement with communi-
ties. There was a Temple of Religion that
was not specific to any faith, and Jews par-
ticipated in it as well. It was very close to
the Jewish Palestine Pavilion. Jews had an
interesting relationship because there was
definition as a religion in one pavilion and
definition as a nation in the other.

JN: Did the fairs in the 1930s set prec-
edents for future fairs?
BK-G: The New York World's Fair in the
1960s had an Israel Pavilion.

JN: Does your work in Warsaw have any
link to world fairs?
BK-G: Museums today are more like
world fairs than they are historical insti-
tutions. The building in Warsaw is very
innovative, like structures at world fairs,
so it's more like a pavilion. It uses multi-
media, narrative exhibitions as pioneered
by fairs. The world fairs became transfor-
mative of exhibitions and museums.

❑

"Designing Tomorrow: America's
World's Fairs of the 1930s" runs April
27-Sept. 2 at the Henry Ford, 20900
Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn. Hours are
9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. every day. Free with
museum admission, $12.50-$17; free
for children 4 and younger. (313)
982-6001; www.thehenryford.org .

42, best known for writing and directing
The Bucket List. Wedding's all-star cast
includes Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton
and Amanda Seyfried. The groom is
played by Brit actor Ben Barnes, 31, the
son of a non-Jewish father and a South
African-born Jewish mother.

On The Tube
Comedian Amy Schumer, 31, a cousin
of New York's Sen. Chuck Schumer,

stars in the new Comedy Central
series Inside Amy Schumer, which
debuts at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, April
30. Schumer provocatively explores
topics — like sex and relationships —
through scripted vignettes, standup
bits and street interviews.

❑

