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 Whether it's performing, literary, film, culinary, or visual arts, the J's Cultural Arts Department creates programs designed to engage people of all generations. Our programming provides texture and insight into the rich cultural history and contemporary trends of the Jewish people. We strive to make the J a destination for both our members and the general public to celebrate and appreciate Judaism's culture, people, spirituality, wisdom, humor, and creativity.
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Performing Arts Events: October through December
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Jews and Jazz: Saul Kaye performs
Saturday, October 3, 8pm
Saul Kaye, The Pioneer of Jewish Blues, steeped his soul into the world of Jazz from his early years. At this unique concert, Saul will draw on songs from Tin Pan Alley, Jazz Standards, and give his own renditions of the Great American Songbook.
Saul's appearance was booked through The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life.
Tickets:$29/ $25 members and seniors (65+)/ $20 Under 30
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 The Maccabeats
Sunday, October 18, 1:30pm and 4pm Return Engagement! Premiere A Cappella
The Maccabeats have emerged as both Jewish music and a cappella phenomena. They perform an eclectic array of Jewish, American, and Israeli songs.
Tickets: $34 Premium Reserved (center, 1st four rows)/ $29/ $25 members & seniors (65+)/ $21 ages 9-21/ $21 group rate for 15 or more tickets/ $18 ages 3-8
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 Redder Blood
Monday, October 19, 7:30pm A new play commission by local playwright Helen Pafumi (Artistic Director of The Hub Theatre)
A lesson from the Midrash asks "whose blood is redder?" In a modern turn, this play explores an ancient question about how we measure our worth. Join us for the first public reading of this new play.
The J is excited to foster this new play for future production.
Free admission.
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 Blue Like Me: The Art of Siona Bejamin
Saturday, October 24, 8pm A documentary film about Indian-American artist Siona Benjamin's journey back to her roots in the Bene Israel community. Following the film, join us for a Q&A with the artist, Ryan Arey, the film's editor, and Ori Soltes, theology, philosophy, and art history professor at Georgetown University.
Tickets: $20/ $16 members and seniors (65+)/ $12 under 30. Ticket includes meet-the-artists reception. Seating: Black Box configuration for 120.
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 Trio Sefardi
Sunday, November 1, 7pm
Trio Sefardi is a confluence of three performers who share a love of, and a wide-ranging experience with, Sephardic music as influenced by La Rondinella, the Western Wind, and National Heritage Fellowship winner Flory Jagoda.
Presented in partnership with the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (FSGW)
Tickets:$24/ $20 J members & FSGW members/ $14 under 30.
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 Rang de Nila (Color Me Blue)
Saturday, November 7, 8pm
Rang de Nila is a performance piece that combines music and dance with the art of Siona Benjamin. In the performance, the dancers assume the roles of the subjects of Benjamin's paintings. Through movements infused with elements of traditional Indian dance, modern dance, and jazz, the dancers explore themes of identity and what it means to be a Jewish Indian woman.
Tickets:$24/ $20 members and seniors (65+)/ $14 under 30
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Cantors CabaretSunday, November 22, 7pm 
From the Bimah to Broadway.
Join us for a delightful evening of Jewish and Broadway music, performed by several cantors in our region, including Hazzan Elisheva Dienstfrey, Agudas Achim Congregation; Cantor Jason Kaufman, Beth El Hebrew Congregation; Cantor Rachel Rhodes and Cantor Michael Shochet, Temple Rodef Shalom; and a special guest appearance by Hazzan Sidney G. Rabinowitz.
Tickets: $32 Premium Reserved (center, 1st four rows)/ $27/ $23 members & seniors (65+)/ $21 group rate for 15 or more tickets/ $18 under 30
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 Author Liel Leibovitz
and live music with Bayla Whitten and friends Saturday, December 5, 8pm A Broken Hallelujah: Rock and Roll, Redemption and the Life of Leonard Cohen
Tickets:$24 adults/ $20 members and seniors (65+)/ $14 under 30.
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 Israeli Folk Dance
Sunday, December 13, 2pm
Join us at the J for an afternoon of performance and participation with Yesodot and Kesem Israeli dance troupes comprised of DC area middle and high school teenagers who recently performed at Israeli Dance Festivals in New York and Boston.
Free Admission
After the show, join the community for a Menorah Lighting event at Mosaic District 4pm-5:30pm.
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To buy tickets for October and November events click here. For questions and to buy tickets for all other events:
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Northern Virginia j.talks  
Conversations with authors and artists.
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Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett
Wednesday, September 30, 7:30pm
Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care About Jews, the South, and Civil Rights
Free Admission
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 Book Fest 2015
j.talks New Book Sale Thursday-Tuesday, October 29-November 10 Hundreds of titles - from new releases to the tried and true, fact to fiction, history to mystery, cookbooks to holiday books - we'll have it all. |
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Book Fest Opening Night
Elyssa Friedland
Thursday, October 29, 7:30pm
Love and Miss Communication
This unforgettable debut novel asks us to look up from our screens and out at the world...and to imagine what life would be like with no searches, no status updates, no texts, no Tweets, no pins, and no posts!
Tickets: $18/ $14 member and seniors (65+)/ $10 under 30. Ticket includes post-talk reception.
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 Jennifer Rosner
Sunday, November 1, 2pm
The Mitten String
Location: TBA
An original folktale about a girl who knits, a deaf woman, and a piece of blue yarn.
Tickets: $9/ $6 under 30
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 j.talks Local Author Event
Wednesday, November 4, 7pm It's like speed dating, but with authors! They'll have just three minutes to capture your imagination.
Location: One More Page Books, 2200 N Westmoreland Street, Arlington
Free Admission
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 Dion Nissenbaum
Sunday, November 8, 7pm A Street Divided: Stories from Jerusalem's Alley of God
To folks on either side of "the Forbidden Area," it was a dangerous no-man's land separating warring nations and feuding cultures. Although the barbed wire came down in 1967, it was soon supplanted by ever more daunting cultural, emotional, and political barriers separating Arab and Jew. A Street Divided tells this story from one of the rare streets where Israelis and Palestinians live together.
Tickets: $12/ $10 member and seniors (65+)/ $8 under 30 |
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Book Fest Closing Night
William V. Madison
Tuesday, November 10, 7:30pm Madeline Kahn: Being the Music - A Life
The first biography of the beloved Tony-winning and Oscar-nominated actress,
Madeline Kahn: Being the Music - A Life examines the career of a star who grew up in a non-observant family and went on to work frequently with Jewish writer-directors such as Mel Brooks, Peter Bogdanovich, and Gene Wilder.
Tickets: $12/ $10 member and seniors (65+)/ $8 under 30
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In partnership with the J's Our World Today and in the Future discussion series
Gil Troy
Monday, November 16, 12:15pm
The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s
This year-by-year chronicle of the wild, transformative 1990s centers on the Clinton White House, using Bill and Hillary Clinton as the central characters of a decade that helped define our lives today. In showing how Americans lived and changed, Troy shows how American Jews lived and changed. In exploring Bill Clinton's quest for peace in the Middle East, Troy depicts this Democratic president's love for Israel - and fury at Yasir Arafat for undermining the Oslo Peace Process.
Fee: $3/ Free for members. You are welcome to bring a meatless lunch.
Coffee and tea provided.
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In partnership with the J's Adult Services program
Stanley MeislerThursday, November 19, noon 
Shocking Paris - Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse
A richly informed, absorbing and stimulating account of the life and work of some of the best known expatriate artists of early twentieth century Paris, including Chagall, Modigliani, Pascin, and Soutine, who challenged the growing anti-Semitism and xenophobia of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s through their contributions to modern art and culture.
Dessert buffet, coffee, and tea provided. Fee: $12/ $8 member
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To buy tickets for October and November events click here. For questions and to buy tickets for all other events:
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Fine Arts
In the Bodzin Art Gallery through December
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 Members & Staff Open Exhibition
through October 19 Our open exhibition spotlights the many talents of our own creative community. Enjoy the varied media on display - drawings, oils, watercolors, fiber arts, ceramics, beads, wood working, and more. |
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Blue Like MeOctober 20-December 14 
Siona Benjamin, a painter originally from Bombay, India, who now lives in the United States, combines her Jewish heritage with her experiences growing up in a predominantly Hindu and Muslim Indian family. In her paintings she brings together the imagery of her past with the role she plays in America today, resulting in a mosaic inspired by Indian miniature paintings, Sephardic icons, and contemporary art.
Blue Like Me
Artist Workshop with Siona Benjamin
Finding Home: Parallels in Mythology from Around the World
Sunday, October 25, 2pm-4pm
Location: Goodwin House, Bailey's Crossroads, Falls Church
This workshop uses mythologies like the Indian Matsya story, Noah's Ark, Jonah and the Whale, Alexander Pushkin's The Tale of the Fisherman and the Little Fish, and the Mesopotamian/Babylonian myth Gilgamesh story from 2000 BCE as inspiration for "finding home."
Fee: $15/ $10 members & Goodwin House residents
Blue Like Me
Artist Talk with Kenneth X. Robbins
Plus: The Spices of India with Joan Nathan
Plus: Indian Jewish Food Tasting with Sudhir Seth of Spice Xing
The "Historical" Paintings in Cochin's Paradesi Synagogue
Tuesday, October 27, 7:30pm
For at least 1,200 years, Jews have been welcomed and allowed to openly practice Judaism in Kerala (South India). In the 16th century, more Jews, Marranos, and the Portuguese came to Cochin, where they were all allied with its Rajas. These new Jews built the famous Paradesi Synagogue, set up a Jewish "caste system" that lasted more than 400 years, and developed a narrative that makes it seem that they were the original and only Jews. Kenneth X. Robbins (with Rabbi Marvin Tokayer) edited the books Jews and the Indian National Art Project and Western Jews in India. Joan Nathan's recent book is Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France.
Tickets: $18/ $14 members and seniors (65+) / $10 under 30.
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To buy tickets for October and November events click here. For questions and to buy tickets for all other events:
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Coming in the Winter and Spring
A taste of what's to come...
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Comedy & Music: Adam Ruben
Saturday, January 16, 8pm
Writer, comedian, storyteller, and, yes, a molecular biologist, Adam Ruben brings his one-of-a-kind one-man show to the J's stage.
Washington Balalaika Society in Concert
Sunday, January 17, 2pm
Performing the music of Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe on traditional Russian folk instruments.
The Art of Jewish Food
January-February 2016
Films, authors, chefs, cookbooks, demonstrations, and tastings
Richmond Ballet II
Saturday, March 12, 7:30pm
The State Ballet of Virginia returns for a third visit to the J with a new repertory program of classical and contemporary dance.
Jewish Plays Project
March 2016
The Jewish Plays Project puts bold, progressive Jewish conversations on world stages. Fairfax will be one of several comunities around the U.S. that will participate in this national program.
16th Annual Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival
Thursday-Sunday, April 7-17
Angelika film Center & Cafe at Mosaic
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To buy tickets for October and November events click here. For questions and to buy tickets for all other events:
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