Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird

Monday, November 19, 2018 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfiled Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Detroit-born, Berlin-based poet/translator/singer/multi-instrumentalist Daniel Kahn concocts furious, tender, electrifying and revolutionary “Alienation Klezmer” music. With the Painted Bird, he presents a variety of songs inspired both by the struggles of Jewish revolutionaries at the turn of the century and his own desire for a better world. With their latest release, The Butcher’s Share, Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird continues to masterfully navigate the dichotomy between revolution and alienation, the political and the poetic, the explosive and the corrosive. The raucous live show features projected translations and images by legendary New York underground artist Eric Drooker.

"Accordion charged with punkrock...the free-spirited attitude of the New York Tzadik circle, cabaret flair, and scraps of Tom Waits."- Rolling Stone

Assigned Seating
Price: $30; Member Price $25

Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird in Concert Add to Cart

GIANTS OF JAZZ ON FILM, A NEW Three Part Series, Hosted by Mark Cantor

Tuesdays at 7pm, September 4, October 23, and November 27, 2018
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC


With a vast archive of more than 12,000 films and clips, music maven Mark Cantor’s spectacular collection of jazz and blues performances is widely considered one of the world’s premier collections of American popular music on film. In his not-to-be-missed programs, Cantor screens rare clips and shares detailed documentation and lively commentary.

“Mark Cantor has one of the very best collections of jazz films in the world.”
– Ken Burns

General Admission Seating
Price for individual shows: $25; JCC Member Price: $22
Series price: $57; JCC Member $50

Broadway to Hollywood to Jazz – November 27th at 7pm Add to Cart

The Gender Creative Child with Diane Ehrensaft

Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, a developmental and clinical psychologist based the University of California San Francisco, helps unlock the door to a gender-expansive world, revealing pathways for positive change in schools, the community, and the world at large. Fueled by over three decades of pioneering work, she explores the interconnected effects of nature, nurture, and culture to explore and explain gender fluidity. Her most recent book, The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes acts as a guide for parents who are raising children in a time of progressive change in cultural, medical and legal ideas of gender and identity.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

The Gender Creative Child with Diane Ehrensaft Add to Cart

Sandemonium

Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Get swept into the madness of “Sandemonium” from the one and only Sandra Bernhard. This hilarious mix of comedy and song highlights all the issues. Climate change? Check. Russian cyberattack? Check. Facing an Instagram account-hacking white supremacist while floating on a chunk of the polar ice cap? Check, and check out “Sandemonium!”

Assigned Seating
Premium Price:$68; Tier 2: $58; Tier 2 Member: $51; Tier 3: $48; Tier 3 Member: $41

Sandra Bernhard "Sandemonium" - December 12 at 8pm Add to Cart

Scattered Among the Nations Presentation by Photographer Bryan Schwartz

Monday, December 17, 2018 at 7:00pm
Gotthelf Art Gallery

From the Benei Menashe tribes in the hills of India to the Inca Jews of the Andes to the Jewish community of Rusape, Zimbabwe (with its own Jewish gospel choir), Bryan Schwartz has visited dozens of today’s most isolated Jewish communities. Scattered Among the Nations’ unique photographs and interviews document the fringes of the Jewish Diaspora.

Followed by Preview of Gotthelf Art Gallery Exhibition of Jews of Color: a Renaissance created by Scattered Among the Nations

General Admission Seating
Price: $20; Member Price: $18

Scattered Among the Nations Presentation by Photographer Bryan Schwartz Add to Cart

Francis Fukuyama-Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment

Wednesday, December 19, 2018 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Identity politics has taken America—and the world—hostage, crippling our ability to even be civil with those with whom we disagree, let alone have constructive communication. A provocative examination of modern identity politics.“ Because we are all different, we each have a contribution that only we can make. That is the way of Abraham.” - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Book signing to follow.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Francis Fukuyama-Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment Add to Cart

50th Anniversary of Funny Girl

Tuesday, December 25, 2018 at 5pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

It’s December 25, and that means Chinese food and a movie: the Chinese food will be Kosher and the movie will be William Wyler’s Funny Girl, which is now 50 years young. The story (in case you didn’t know) centers on the life of Fanny Brice—inimitably portrayed by Barbra Streisand—a famed entertainer of the early 1900s. For the full menu visit https://www.sdcjc.org/common/pdf/fgmenu.pdf. Registration required by December 18.


General Admission Seating; Price Includes Food
Price: $38; Member Price: $35: 4-pack: $100
For groups of ten or more: Group Rates

50th Anniversary of Funny Girl Add to Cart

Erez Ben-Yosef - In Search of King Solomon’s Mines: The Archaeological Discoveries Behind the Biblical Legend

Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Archeologist Erez Ben-Yosef, MGSDII visiting professor at UCSD, presents his latest discoveries in Southern Israel. Uncovering a 3,000-year-old fortified trading post, and the copper mining camps it protected, Ben-Yosef and his team thought, “Are these the gates to King Solomon’s mines?” Dating techniques put it squarely in the era of stories from the Bible about Solomon’s and King David’s reign. Hear Ben-Yosef unravel the mystery of King Solomon’s Mines.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Erez Ben-Yosef - In Search of King Solomon’s Mines: The Archaeological Discoveries Behind the Biblical Legend Add to Cart

NATHAN DEVIR: The Lost Tribes of Israel in Madagascar?

Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

For centuries, millions of people on the island of Madagascar have claimed to be descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Does this claim have any basis in fact? In this presentation, Professor Nathan P. Devir examines the evidence, provides an overview of current Jewish activity on the island, and elucidates the implications of these claims and movements for Israel and the larger Jewish world. Book signing to follow.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

NATHAN DEVIR: The Lost Tribes of Israel in Madagascar? Add to Cart

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: LINK LINK CIRCUS

Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Link Link Circus is at once comic and scientifically informed, arguing Darwin’s theory of evolution which links us humans to animals. The show is illustrated with legendary Isabella Rossellini’s short comic films, home movies and animation. She transforms herself into philosophers of the past like Aristotle, René Descartes and a medieval theologian while her dog Pan plays various animals, assisted by puppeteer and animal handler Schuyler Beeman. Judaism teaches that animals are part of God's creation and should be treated with compassion. God makes a covenant with the animals, just as he does with humans.
Co-Directed by Guido Torlonia “The world’s most uncategorizable star”—Vanity Fair
Assigned Seating
Price: $65; Member Price: $58; Premium: $85

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: LINK LINK CIRCUS Add to Cart

UNORTHODOX Tablet Magazine's Podcast Live

Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Unorthodox is the world’s leading Jewish podcast - but you don’t have to be Jewish to love it! Hosted by Mark Oppenheimer, Stephanie Butnick, and Liel Leibovitz of Tablet Magazine, each episode brings you interesting guests (one Jewish and one gentile), News of the Jews, and so much more. From Amy Schumer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, presidential nepotism to Drake, no topic is off limits. Guests to be announced soon but former guests include David Duchovny, John Cleese and Mark Bittman. Join us for a live recording of this popular podcast!
Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium: $52

UNORTHODOX Tablet Magazine's Podcast Live Add to Cart

Dan Zanes and Friends in Concert

Sunday, February 3, 2019 at 11am
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Known as the crown prince of contemporary kids’ music, Grammy Award-winning musician Dan Zanes and Friends perform for families live at the Garfield Theatre. Zanes got his start at Oberlin and went on to play in the acclaimed rock band The Del Fuegos. In his family-friendly incarnation, he has collaborated with everyone from Sheryl Crow to Lou Reed. (Ages 3+)

“(Zanes is) the family-music genre’s most outspoken and eloquent advocate.” – TIME Magazine


General Admission Seating
Price: Adult $32, Child (under 16) $18; Member Price: $29, Member Child (under 16) $15
Lap Child (under 5): Free

Dan Zanes and Friends in Concert Add to Cart

Tio Chorinho: A Tribute to Jacob do Bandolim

Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Toronto’s Tio Chorinho performs a tribute to the great Brazilian-Jewish mandolin virtuoso Jacob do Bandolim on his 101st birthday during the month of Carnival in Brazil. One of the founders of choro, the original Brazilian soul music, Bandolim’s compositions virtually defined the choro style through the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, and he remains one of the most endearing figures in Brazilian music to this day. This exciting tribute to one of Brazil’s greatest Jewish composers features creative arrangements by contemporary masters Tio Chorinho. Charming and powerful music with a sensual lyricism from one of the guiding lights of the Jewish Diaspora.
“An absolute delight...outstanding playing...It’s a terrific debut CD; play it on a grey day and your room will be filled with sunshine” -The Wholenote Magazine

Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Seating: $52

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Nellie McKay Performs THE BIG MOLINKSY: CONSIDERING JOAN RIVERS

Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Nellie McKay exploded onto the music scene in 2004 with her eclectic showstopper, Get Away from Me. Upending the norms of piano-backed jazz with a seamless merger of musical erudition and thematic irreverence, it was, as the New York Times observed, “a tour de force from a sly, articulate musician.” With a voice that can be boisterous and bold or soft and breathy, McKay harnesses the agility of a superstar athlete from the piano bench. She has maintained that adventurousness — starring on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera, opening for Lou Reed at Carnegie Hall, duetting with Eartha Kitt and recording a dazzling tribute to Doris Day. In her onewoman show The Big Molinsky: Considering Joan Rivers, McKay delivers a performance for the ages as the talented and treasured Joan Rivers (playing a few other people in Rivers’ life to boot).

Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

Nellie McKay Performs THE BIG MOLINKSY: CONSIDERING JOAN RIVERS Add to Cart

Talks with Dr. Judith Hauptman

Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 10am
Rehearsal Room, Lawrence Family JCC
Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 7pm
Congregation Beth-El, 8660 Gilman Dr, La Jolla

AM SESSION:
In general, only men issue halachic statements in the Talmud. But women appear often in anecdotes, and a close reading thereof reveals that women sometimes took the law into their own hands and made changes in it for personal reasons. In this session, we’ll see the kinds of changes women made in the law and the reasons behind them. Text handouts in Hebrew and English.

PM SESSION:
This presentation is based on a discussion in Bavli Shabbat, which takes up the question of what to do when one sees people misbehaving, whether they are government officials or neighbors, and whether they are breaking religious or civil laws. Via anecdotes and midrashim, a demanding and contemporarily relevant moral principle emerges.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $16; 2-Pack: $28; Member 2-pack: $25

Women's Voices in the Talmud (AM SESSION) Add to Cart

The Moral Obligation to Speak Out in the Face of Wrongdoing (PM SESSION) Add to Cart

JACOB GOLDBERG Lectures on the Middle East

Monday, March 11-13, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Professor Jacob Goldberg—a former senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak—presents a three-day lecture event centered on the current political landscape in the ever-changing Middle East. The author of The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia, Goldberg has also been published in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

General Admission Seating
Price: $28, 3-pack: $63; Member Price: $23; Member 3-pack: $52

Jacob Goldberg-Monday Add to Cart

Matti Friedman-Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel

Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 7pm
Rehearsal Room
Lawrence Family JCC

A tale of Israel’s first spies who would emerge, after Israel’s War of Independence, as the nucleus of the Mossad, Israel’s vaunted intelligence agency. It’s about the complicated identities of these young spies, but it’s also about Israel’s own slippery and fascinating identity as a Western nation with Middle Eastern roots and traditions. Book signing to follow.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Matti Friedman-Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel Add to Cart

Caroline Rothstein

Thursday, March 21, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Caroline Rothstein is a New York City based writer and performer of spoken word poetry, theater, creative nonfiction and journalism. Her poignant poetry and soulful presentation allows the audience to connect to her, to each other, and to themselves, and feel “they are enough.” Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, with high praise coming from Lady Gaga who called the poet “very inspiring.”

General Admission
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Caroline Rothstein Add to Cart

Inside Israeli TV-An Eveing with Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz

Thursday, March 26, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, MGSDII visiting professor at SDSU, is one of the most powerful women in Israeli cinema. She has been a writer on several television series, directed documentaries and also served as a script editor on two series. She is well known in Israel for the drama “A Touch Away” and the documentary, “A Place Under the Sun." She was Editor-in-Chief at Keter Publishing House, one of the largest publishers in Israel, and has edited books by celebrated writers, including Amoz Oz, Shemi Zarhin, and Nava Semel.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Inside Israeli TV-An Eveing with Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz Add to Cart

Bill Charlap Trio: Somewhere, The Songs of Leonard Bernstein

Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

In celebration of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, jazz pianist Bill Charlap and his trio perform songs from Charlap’s tribute, Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein. Charlap is an acclaimed master of the Great American Songbook, whose inspired reading of Bernstein includes songs from West Side Story, On The Town, Fancy Free and Wonderful Town. Charlap has performed with Wynton Marsalis and Barbra Streisand and had a longstanding residency at the legendary Village Vanguard. In 2016, Charlap's collaboration with Tony Bennett led to a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Album.

“Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved…when he sits down to play, the result is an embrace, an act of possession.”
-TIME Magazine

"Bill Charlap is one of the greatest musicians and greatest artists I've ever met."
-Tony Bennett, 2016 Grammy Awards Ceremony

Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

Bill Charlap Trio: Somewhere, The Songs of Leonard Bernstein Add to Cart

Jamie Bernstein-Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

The oldest daughter of Leonard Bernstein, one of the 20th century’s most revered musicians, offers a rare look at her father on the centennial of his birth. Book signing to follow.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Jamie Bernstein-Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein Add to Cart

JENNY SCHEINMAN’S KANNAPOLIS: A Moving Portrait

Thursday, April 4, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Acclaimed composer, singer, and violinist Jenny Scheinman accompanies the captivating visual world of Depression-era filmmaker H. Lee Waters, who documented over 118 small towns in the southeast between 1936-42. A frequent collaborator with musicians such as Bill Frisell, Ani Difranco and Norah Jones, Scheinman and her musical sidemen provide a live soundtrack seasoned with bluegrass, country, and roots music. Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait takes audiences on a journey back into America’s industrial past that speaks to any community today as much as to the towns where it was filmed.
"A beautifully coordinated melding of music and film... a vivid image of small-town life, morphing back and forth almost imperceptibly between black-and-white and color."
The Washington Post
"Scheinman [has] a distinctive vision of American music, suffused with plainspoken beauty and fortified all at once by country, gospel, and melting-pot folk, along with jazz and the blues.”
The New York Times

Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

JENNY SCHEINMAN’S KANNAPOLIS: A Moving Portrait Add to Cart

End of the Silence

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Written and performed by Dan Wolf
Directed by Gendell Hing-Hernandez
Music by Keith Pinto.

World premiere of a solo play from acclaimed Bay Area actor/playwright/rapper Dan Wolf whose performances cross borders to combine conventional theater styles with the themes, language, music, history and aesthetics of the Hip-Hop generation. End of the Silence is about a podcaster making a podcast. Using field recordings, voice actors, music, video, movement, spoken word and rap, this performance follows a Jewish - American man as he makes a podcasr about his relationship with, and the untimely death of, an artist from Hamburg, Germany. The show plays out like a live podcast as Daniel (the writer and director) uses shards of a fragmented history to attempt to heal the wounds of time.

With incredible energy and seamless staging, the show has the effect of being lost in a good book, not sitting in a theater. -San Francisco Chronicle

Assigned Seating
Price $28; Member Price $23

End of the Silence Add to Cart

ISRAEL STORY LIVE!

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Join us for an evening of magical live radio with the creators of Israel Story (Sipur Yisraeli)—the award-winning radio show and podcast that is one of the most popular programs in Israel, where it is aired nationally, on prime-time. With its unique blend of live storytelling and surprising multimedia, Israel Story introduces us to a different Israel, one that we rarely get a chance to see: life-sized, nuanced, funny and touching. These are everyday stories, told by, and about, regular Israelis.
“The Israeli ‘This American Life’” -Ira Glass

Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

ISRAEL STORY LIVE! Add to Cart

SALK TALKS

Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 7pm Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at 7pm Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Three remarkable events bring together experts and influencers from The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the world’s top leader in biomedical research, located in La Jolla. Salk scientists will showcase their remarkable insights and discoveries and their impact on humanity.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15;

Satchidananda Panda, PhD: “The ideal circadian code to a long healthy life” Add to Cart

Sreekanth Chalasani, PhD: “A new approach to alleviating symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders” Add to Cart

5 Minute Play Festival

Monday, June 3, 2019 at 7pm
Rehearsal Room
Lawrence Family JCC

Join us for the 6th Annual 5-Minute Play Festival, a staged reading series. You'll get a taste of comedies, tragedies and everything in between as professional San Diego actors, under the stellar direction of D. Candis Paule, transform scripts into theater showcasing fresh, new playwrights that speak to Jewish identity, cultural experiences and values. This is an evening of laughter, inspiration and thought-provoking questions.

General Admission
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

5 Minute Play Festival Add to Cart