Carolyn Slutsky

Promoting Jewish Learning

Published on August 24, 2006

Billed as "Jewish Literacy: A Learned Community and a Community of Learners," CAJE 31 was a raw, messy, creative affair, with 20 sessions held every hour for five days on such wide-reaching topics as "God Shopping," "The Jews of Sing-Sing," "Assessing Our Relationship to Israel" and "Jews as Global Citizens."

Caricatured Tribute to Artists on ‘List’

Published on March 3, 2005

In the summer of 1937, the Nazi Party opened an exhibition in Munich titled "Great German Art."

Much of the show's art was culled from Hitler's personal collection -- he had amassed a number of works with the proceeds from his autobiography, "Mein Kampf." The show consisted of pure lines and pure themes, with scenes of immaculate peasants tilling the fields, families sitting down to hearty dinners and soldiers fighting for an Aryan Germany.

More than 420,000 visitors gathered to see this show in the city that was the birthplace of the Nazi Party.

Later that week, the Nazis opened another exhibition across the street. This time the theme was "Degenerate Art."

Works confiscated from German galleries were badly hung on the walls, labeled with crude hand-scrawled captions. It was a showcase, a freak show of the works of "degenerate" artists, Bolsheviks, homosexuals and Jews, whose work and lives the Nazis hoped to extinguish in the coming years.

More than 2 million people saw that show. It was a blockbuster success.

Ceremonies to Mark Auschwitz Liberation

Published on January 20, 2005

Each year, the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet forces is marked on Jan. 27, but this year, the 60th anniversary has given Poland, site of the most infamous Nazi death camps, a special opportunity for remembrance and reflection.

The anniversary ceremonies, which will be held at the memorial site in Birkenau, will draw an assortment of international dignitaries and leaders. Among those slated to attend are Israeli President Moshe Katsav, Ukrainian President-elect Viktor Yuschenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ex-Communist ‘Burb Makes Menorahs

Published on December 2, 2004

All the menorahs made at the factory have seven branches, a departure from the nine-armed versions most American Jews light to celebrate Chanukah.

Polish City Unveils Its Jewish History

Published on April 15, 2004

Czestochowa is known around the world as the site of the Jasna Góra Monastery, a pilgrimage place for Poles and other Catholics who flock there to see the famous painting of the Black Madonna.