Berichterstattung

"New York, NY: 'They called me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust" opened at the Jewish Museum on Sunday, May 10 and remains on view through October 1 2009. In this lively exhibition, visitors will discover a lost world captured in astonishing detail in more than 80 vibrant paintings and drawings by Mayer Kirshenblatt.....Intimate, humourous, and refreshingly candid, the exhibition is a remarkable record of Jewish life in a Polish town, Opatow (Apt in Yiddish), before World War II, as seen through the eyes of an inquisitive boy fascinated by the world in which he lived.

"A delightful and informative, 60-minute, random access Acoustiguide tour accompanies the exhibition. Exhibition visitors are guided through the exhibition by Mayer Kirshenblatt and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett as well as Gershon Hundert, Professor of Jewish Studies and History at McGill University and a noted expert on the history of Apt; Jeffrey Shandler, Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University and a scholar of modern Jewish culture; and theater historian John Bell, Director of the Ballard Institute and the Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut. Mayer Kirshenblatt speaks a bit in Yiddish and Polish. The audio guide is available free of charge and made possible by Bloomberg. The tour component has been produced by the Jewish Museum in association with Acoustiguide."