Honoring the arts

Five Jewish women featured guests at Hadassah event

LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor

Five Jewish women from the worlds of theater, art, music and story-telling will soon be featured at a Hadassah event honoring "Jewish Women in the Arts."

The program's 2001 debut drew more than 200 guests, says event chairwoman Lauri Blumenthal. "Last year went very well. ... It was easier this year than last year because we had something to build upon," she says. Hadassah expects 300 people to attend this year's event, which will be held 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, at Chaparral Suites Hotel in Scottsdale.

In addition to the featured guests, the event includes lunch, coffee and dessert. Dietary laws will be observed.

The featured women are moderator Janet Arnold of the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, artist Beth Ames Swartz, tapestry artist Bat-Zvi, scholar Helene Pine and Cantorial Soloist Laura Eisenhart.

Blumenthal says Had-assah selected these particular women after receiving recommendations from several people in the community. "I think these are five really phenomenal Jewish women who are very strong and individuals in what they do," she says. "They're incredible women, each in their own right."

Janet Arnold

Moderator Janet Arnold is the founder and producing director of the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company and has been an actress with various Valley companies for the past 16 years.

During the Dec. 11 program, Arnold will do a reading written specifically for her by local Jewish playwright Joni Browne-Walders. Both Arnold and Browne-Walders grew up in Phoenix in the late 1950s, and "A Hanukkah Tale or How I Learned to Stop Kvetching and Love the Torah" is about "a young Jewish girl who moves to Phoenix in the '50s and she decides she wants a Christmas tree because everybody else has them," Arnold says. "Phoenix (at that time) didn't have a whole lot of Jews."

Arnold will also talk about trends in contemporary Jewish theater.

"I'm delighted that they are honoring the women in the arts," she says. "It's easy to see the contributions that Jewish women have made to the arts."

Beth Ames Swartz

Artist Beth Ames Swartz, keynote speaker of the event, will show a slide presentation of an exhibit which depicts how kabbalah has played a part in her work in the last 26 years.

The presentation will include her early fire-works, based upon several trips to Israel. It will also include selected works from her latest three series that are based upon the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the 10 Sephiroth (surrounding spheres) in the Tree of Life.

An exhibit of the Paradise Valley artist's work, "The 32 Paths of Wisdom: Beth Ames Swartz and the Kabbalah Selected Works: 1976-2003," will be on display Jan. 12-March 12 at the Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum in Scottsdale. Her work can also be found in public collections such as the National Museum of American Art, the Phoenix Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. A book on her work, "Connecting: The Art of Beth Ames Swartz," was published in 1984 and "Reminders of Invisible Light: The Art of Beth Ames Swartz" was published earlier this year.

In 2001, Swartz received the Governor's Individual Artist Award for her significant contribution to the arts in Arizona.

Bat-Zvi

Local Israeli tapestry artist Bat-Zvi will present samples of her work, as well as answer questions from the audience. For more than 30 years, she has worked with a form of expression called Fabric Collage Tapestry, in which she uses existing patterns and designs on fabric to create a total composition. A fabric collage tapestry begins with a large piece of background material that serves as a base upon which Bat-Zvi builds several more layers; many of her tapestries contain 10 or more intricate layers of fabric. Her work has been on display in many art gallery shows and museum exhibits, as well as public buildings and private homes.

Subjects depicted in her tapestries include Jewish devotees praying at the Wailing Wall, Pueblo Indians in a spiritual dance and soldiers in pain. Themed shows have included "Children of the World," "Carnival in Rio" and "Faces of Tel Aviv."

Helene Pine, Ph.D.

When psychotherapist Helene Pine was a child growing up in Chicago, her parents used to read her The Bintel Brief, the advice column from the Jewish Daily Forward that answered immigrants' questions with a focus she describes as "adjusting to the new country with the old country customs."

At the luncheon, Pine will give the background of The Bintel Brief, read some of the letters and ask advice from the audience "to see what they would have answered."

Although The Bintel Brief started in 1906, Pine says today's generation can still learn from the letters. "I think the piece of it that they could learn (from are) the struggles of the immigrants that came from Europe to the United States," she says. They can learn that "it's possible that you can come with very little education, you can come with very little resources and when you persevere and you're motivated, you can make it."

Pine describes the letters as "very touching, very poignant, very sad, very humorous." The topics range from relationships and the generation gap to raising children.

"It was like a human document of a very important chapter in America's history. ... It really brought me back to my own family and their struggles when they came over," she says.

Pine lives in Palm Desert, Calif., where she is a family life education coordinator for Jewish Family Service in Palm Springs and the Desert Area.

Laura Eisenhart

Laura Eisenhart, can-torial soloist at Sun Lakes' Temple Havurat Emet, will complete the program with a performance of songs by Jewish composers, ranging from cantorial songs to Ladino folksongs. Her performance will include a piece of Hebraic melodies by French composer Maurice Ravel, consisting of his version of the "Kaddish" and "L'Enigme Eternelle" ("The Eternal Question").

Eisenhart, who has a background in opera, concert and recital appearances, will be accompanied on piano by Robert Mills and will give a brief description of each song.

Details

What: Jewish Women in the Arts
Who: Hadassah Valley of the Sun
When: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11
Where: Chaparral Suites Hotel, 5001 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale
Cost: $50 members, $65 nonmembers by Nov. 29
Call: 480-998-1880

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