2013-2014 LABA alumna Yael Kanarek is an Israeli-American artist. Kanarek spoke to 2016-2017 LABA alumnus Gordon Haber about her female-centric adaption of the Book of Genesis and her upcoming program at the 14th Street Y’s dusk-to-dawn Shavuot celebration on May 19th. The interview has been edited for clarity. I have been adapting Genesis in Hebrew and English.
The Feast of Memory is an ancient LABA tradition, where everybody is asked to share a food, either tasty or nasty, connected with a personal memory or story. At the end of the evening, a collective memory emerges, evoking a collective history. Having overcome a mighty hangover, here LABA alum Gordon Haber recalls this year’s feast. “This
LABA alum Gordon Haber considers Black History Month and the dangers of making America great again In these days when we are exhorted to make America great again — in other words, to return to some vaguely articulated epoch of former glory — it’s probably a good idea to consider what a return to
There are a lot of different ways of thinking about Hanukkah, but we tend to forget that the holiday is very much about intra-Jewish conflict. The Festival of Lights, as you know, commemorates the restoration of the Temple in 164 BCE. After kicking out the Seleucids — whom we might call today “culturally Greek Syrians”
Happy Thanksgiving from LABA, the international incubator of Jewish arts and culture! Today, on the American holiday dedicated to fressing (aka gluttony), we’d like to share some words of wisdom about stuffing yourself. You may know that the great Moses Ben Maimon, or Maimonides, was renowned both as a rabbi and a doctor, and his
Gordon Haber for LABA Journal Sommelier Discusses DRUNK, an Evening of Wine Pairings with Jewish Texts at the 14th Street Y “Wine is alive,” says H. Ronald Jordan, wine merchant. “It breathes. It changes. That’s what’s so wonderful about. Try this.” Jordan sets before me a glass of cava. It’s smooth, fizzy and fruity, and
By LABA Fellow Gordon Haber The Enlightenment brought us many wonderful things: the Declaration of Independence, Mary Wollestencraft, the concept of gravity, etc. It also brought some ideas that from our 21st century perspective may strike us as pretty weird, as in the Jewish Question. This question was sometimes referred to as Jewish “emancipation” — meaning
On Thursday, March 16th, LABAlive Two: Others will present an evening of art works and subversive teachings exploring our annual theme, OTHER. The evening will feature teachings by LABA Scholar Ruby Namdar and works by fellows Hadar Ahuvia, Abigail Katz, and Gordon Haber, who will present his work-in-progress, a story collection titled Uggs for Gaza. Here, Haber introduces his
Gordon Haber abandoned an early career in marketing for the more rewarding, if less lucrative, fields of writing and publishing. Gordon has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. His awards include a Fulbright Fellowship to Poland, and he has received support from the Queens Community Arts Fund and the MacDowell Colony. His nonfiction religion