THE PAUL FEIG Z’’L TIKKUN 2017
JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave. at West 76th St.
Tuesday, May 30, free, 10:00 pm – 5:00 am
646-505-5708
www.jccmanhattan.org
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which means “weeks” or “oaths,” celebrates the harvest and the reacceptance of the gift of the Torah. It is accompanied by all-night study, so the JCC in Manhattan is opening its doors for free from ten o’clock in the evening on May 30 through five o’clock the next morning, hosting seven hours of dozens of special events throughout the building, from the lobby to the roof. “There is no one right way to be Jewish. There is no one right way to celebrate Shavuot,” Rabbi Abigail Treu, the director of the Center for Jewish Living at the JCC, said in a statement. “If it’s a holiday you do and do well, come join us. If it’s a holiday you’ve never heard of, come join us. If it’s a Tuesday night and you’re up for an adventure, come join us.” Below are only some of the workshops, discussions, live performances, culinary tastings, and, yes, study being held in this overnight bonanza; there will also be plenty of cheesecake, coffee, and tea.
Mikvah on the Roof: Transformation Through Water, with Rabbi Sara Luria & ImmerseNYC faculty, 10:00 pm – 2:45 am
Inequality: What Can Be Done? The Biblical Economies of Sufficiency, with Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, Makom, seventh floor, 10:00 pm
Free Minds: Prison Poetry Workshop, with Repair the World Fellows, mezzanine, 10:00 pm
L’chayim! Israeli Wine Tasting, with Micah Halpern, classroom 2, lobby, 10:00 & 11:15 pm
The Decline and Fall of the Cultural Jew, with John Podhoretz, seventh floor reception room, 11:15 pm
Toward a Liberating Jewish Sexual Ethic: Between Openness and Limits, with Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller & Doreen Seidler-Feller, Painting + Drawing room, lobby, 11:15 pm
Immigrants and Refugees from Genesis to 2017, with Congressman Jerry Nadler & Ruth Messinger, North Gym, third floor, 11:15 pm
Revelation Through Meditation, with Sheldon Lewis, Soft Studio, fifth floor, 11:15 pm
On the Development of Moral Courage, with Ruth Messinger, Beit Midrash, seventh floor, 12:30 am
Jewish Millennials Talk Broadway, with Sas Goldberg, Philip Ettinger, and Joshua Harmon, moderated by Ruthie Fierberg, North Gym, third floor, 12:30 am
If We All Stood at Sinai, Where Do We Stand Now? A Conversation About What This Holiday Asks of Us, with Abigail Pogrebin, Rabbi Andy Bachman, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, and Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, South Gym, third floor, 12:30 am
L’chayim! A Taste of Schnapps (Scotch Tasting), with Micah Halpern, classroom 2, lobby, 12:30 am
Would the Rabbis Have Tweeted? Midrashic Teachings for the Social Media Age, with Rachel Rosenthal, Library, seventh floor, 12:30 am
My Body. My Choice? with Adena Berkowitz, Painting + Drawing room, lobby, 12:30 am
Laughter Yoga, with Francine Shore, Dance Studio, fourth floor, 12:30 am
Dance Midrash: Una Velada en Danza i Canto, Guarding Shavuot in Dance and Song, with Rabbi Mira Rivera & Jerome Korman, second floor communal space, 1:45 am
New Israeli TV, lobby auditorium, 1:45 & 3:00 am
Israeli Dance with Tamar Yablonski, North Gym, third floor, 1:45 & 3:00 am
Less Is More: An Intriguing Talmudic Story, with Joe Septimus, Conference Room, seventh floor, 3:00 am
Stand It Up on Its Feet: The Prophetic Voice for Social Activists, with Rabbi Mira Rivera, Reception Room, seventh floor, 3:00 am
Bringing It Home Closing Circle, lobby, 4:15 am
“I’ve always been extremely devoted to what I do, and I love being a part of the New York City Ballet. But I do feel the ticking clock, and at times I’ve thought, if I don’t dance, I’d rather die. I’ve actually said that,” longtime New York City principal dancer Wendy Whelan says in the intimate and revealing documentary Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan. Whelan gave directors and producers Linda Saffire and Adam Schlesinger remarkable access as she faces a turning point in her life and career. In 2013, she began to notice she wasn’t getting the parts she used to excel in and decided to get reconstructive hip surgery, hoping that she could return to dancing full-time, at top level. She allows Saffire and Schlesinger into the operating room as Dr. Marc J. Philippon performs the procedure on her torn right labrum. “Ballerinas are probably God’s best athletes,” Dr. Philippon, says. The film then documents her hard-fought battle to return to the stage, as it’s unclear that she will ever regain her skills — or if Peter Martins and the New York City Ballet will even want her back. “What the fuck is this gonna be like when I can’t do this anymore,” she wonders, later adding, “I need to get back in the game, because I don’t have a ton of time left at my game.” With an inspiring dedication, brave honesty, and self-deprecating sense of humor, Whelan, who turned fifty earlier this month, works with physical therapists Marika Molnar and James Gallegro and discusses options with her husband, choreographer and creative director David Michalek; her manager, Ilter Abramowitz; her mother, Kay; and friends Adam Barrett and Maria Scherer, holding nothing back about the choices she must make. Concerned that soon she will not physically be able to be at her best in ballet, she starts the “Restless Creature” contemporary dance project with choreographers Kyle Abraham, Josh Beamish, Brian Brooks, and Alejandro Cerrudo. But she still aches to return to her home of thirty years, the New York City Ballet, where decades of balletomanes, twi-ny included, have thrilled to her technical precision, insight, musicality, and breathtakingly beautiful line. 
