Liev Schreiber will speak about Ukraine at Shabbat services at Temple Emanu-El
Who: Liev Schreiber, Michael Goldfarb
What: Shabbat services with special discussion
Where: Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, One East 65th St. at Fifth Ave., and online
When: Friday, January 19, free with advance RSVP (in-person and virtual), 6:00
Why: In the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated, which marked the directorial and screenwriting debut of actor and activist Liev Schreiber, Elijah Wood stars as Jonathan Safran Foer (the author of the novel the film is based on), who travels to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather’s life during the Holocaust. In March 2022, a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Schreiber, whose maternal grandfather was a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant, cofounded BlueCheck Ukraine, “a collective of humanitarian crisis response experts, entrepreneurs, and filmmakers with decades of experience addressing the needs of conflict-affected populations and documenting solidarity movements countering oppression.” Schreiber has traveled to Ukraine several times and has been outspoken in his support of the nation.
On January 19, the three-time Emmy nominee and Tony winner will attend Shabbat services at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, joined by fellow BlueCheck cofounder and board member Michael Goldfarb, who previously worked with Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in such countries as Afghanistan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Niger, South Sudan, Uganda, and Yemen. Schreiber and Goldfarb will discuss American and Jewish values, particularly as they relate to the war in Ukraine. Admission is free both in-person and virtually online with advance RSVP.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]