November 15, 2009
Marc Epstein, professor of religion and director of Jewish Studies at Vassar College, will deliver a talk on “The Art and Artifacts of the Jews,” followed by a special guided tour in the George and Lottie Sherman Museum of Jewish Civilization at the University of Hartford to celebrate the opening of a new exhibition at the Sherman Museum.
The exhibition features the on-going biblical archaeology artifacts on loan from the State of Israel from the Bethsaida excavations, the Irving and Fran Waltman Cantorial collection and two new collections: 35 items from the Joel and SusAnna Grae Mediterranean and Judaic Collections, and the new oil paintings from artist Susan Weinreich.
The program, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Sunday, Nov. 15, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., in Wilde Auditorium, Harry Jack Gray Center, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford (The Sherman Museum of Jewish Civilization is located in the University’s Mortensen Library, which is also in the Harry Jack Gray Center.)
The Art of the Jews: 3,000 Years in the Making is an exhibition that will open on Nov. 1, 2009 and run through Feb. 1, 2010 in the Singer Family Gallery of the Sherman Museum of Jewish Civilization.
Susan Weinreich’s exhibit will have a limited four month run in the Sherman Museum and was specifically created for this show. Weinreich’s new show,
Kiss, The Breath of Life, is a tribute to the Westchester Four Winds Hospital and is based upon the biblical image of the “Dry Bones” from the Book of Ezekiel.
The Grae Collection will be on loan to the Sherman Museum for the next two years and includes antiquities from Mesopotamia and Egypt as well as items from the Middle Ages and the Modern period. In addition, the personal collections of local individuals will be highlighted including a rare family Bible from the 16th century on loan from Judge Howard Scheinblum.
The museum is free and open to the public and available for group and individual visits five days a week and for special pre-arranged visits with student docents. For hours please consult the Greenberg Center website at
www.hartford.edu/greenberg.
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