I do many talks and workshops on
both artwork and Jewish genealogy and
often incorporate videos from an oral
history project on Jewish Identity and
Legacy. More recently I have
been doing many talks on my book We
Spoke Jewish that incorporates
artwork, history and story. You can
get a flavor for the range of talks at
the We
Spoke Jewish website.
Jewish Identity and Legacy
-incorporating artwork and oral
history
My series on Jewish
Identity
and Legacy gives a flavor
for the Jewish community and the
diverse strands that compose
it. Included in the interviews
are stories of those who lived in
early Jewish immigrant communities
in Minnesota, those who were
survivors and immigrated after the
war and Jewish immigrants from the
former Soviet Union who came in the
1980s and 1990s.
I include 2 minute clips of the
interviews and talk about how the
paintings grew out of their
stories. This is a talk that
also addresses themes of how we
honor the legacy of elders through
story.
The book, We Spoke Jewish,
is based on this series of oral
histories and incorporates history,
artwork and story.
Immigration Laws, Documents and the
Stories Within -genealogy and oral
history
This talk explores the relationship
between the changing immigration
laws and the genealogy documents
that evolved out of those laws. I
incorporate video excerpts of oral
histories from the Jewish Identity
and Legacy Project that explore the
immigration experiences
throughout the 1900s. This
presentation addresses the
dimensions of immigration as shaped
by the laws, reflected in the
documents and told through the
stories to paint a fuller picture of
immigrant experiences.
Crossing
the Ocean -genealogy
Using case studies
based on Lithuania Latvia, Poland, and
Belarus, we explore how to connect a
wide variety of records and make use of
many search engines. With these tools we
cross the ocean from US records to
locate ancestral towns and family within
them. This talk addresses how to create
finding tools to decipher records in
Russian handwritten Cyrillic.
Mining
the Manifest -genealogy
After 1906, immigration
manifests offer a wealth of information,
but what do you do if your family came
over prior to that time? And how did
they get from New York to
Minnesota? We will take a look at
derivative naturalization documents,
trace contacts they were going to
through the NY vital records and follow
immigrants who found their route through
Canada. Once in New York, we will
explore how you can follow their journey
to the Midwest.
Telling
Your
Family Story
With Collage –storytelling
through art
I do a
talk that
explores the creation of
collages. It addresses
materials, basic design
concepts, developing a
theme, deciding on a
background as well as
central image and
supporting images. I take
collages that I have
created and deconstruct
them so you can see the
steps I considered in
their creation. This
can be done as either a
talk or a hands-on
collage workshops to help
participants create a
collage that tells their
family story.
Jewish Genealogy
–art and genealogy
My journey started with a series of
artwork on family history titled Putting a
Face on Family History.
As part of that exhibition I
explored the stories behind my
personal family history. As I
frequently do talks on family
history, I incorporated the artwork
and stories which makes it
engaging as well as informative as a
broad introduction to Jewish
genealogy.
Holocaust
Topics – as told through
artwork Much of my work
relates to the Holocaust and
I do a number of talks that
make use of different
elements in my work.
The Silence
Speaks Loudly, my work on
Lithuania addresses how Lithuania
deals with their Holocaust history
today and the traces that remain of
the former Jewish community. I
address the stories contained within
this series of paintings.
These are by their nature serious
stories that address the death of
the Jews of Lithuania, the story
that was buried for many years,
quite literally in the ground, and
the stories behind what is now a
restaurant in Lithuania. In
this talk I explore the traces of
the Jews that remain in Vilnius and
surrounding areas I use my
artwork as a storytelling vehicle.
The Jewish
Identity
and Legacy series also
involved interviews with a number of
survivors. I have video of
many of them telling their story and
share excerpts with groups along
with the paintings that evolved out
of the video interviews.
I often use video excerpts
and you can find some of them on the
Identity/Legacy tab. Go to Postcard
from
New Ulm for an example of both
text and video that is incorporated
into telling the survivor's story.
I
have worked on a series of paintings
based on Holocaust stories from a
friend who is a survivor from the
same town as my family. I sometimes
speak in conjunction with my friend.
We have often exhibited my artwork
together with her family photos that
were hidden in family members' shoes
in the camps. You can see some
of the paintings in this series at Dvora's Story.
