7 Days in Arts

23
Saturday

“Klop-klop-klop mitn kop, hinter Kristofer Robinen.” Fluent Yiddish speakers, students of the language and even the uninitiated can enjoy actor/translator Leonard Wolf’s rendition of A.A. Milne’s children’s classic, “Vini-der-Pu.” A bilingual dramatic reading of Wolf’s translation, featuring Wolf and Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre Artistic Director Eleanor Reissa, is the second public event of the two-week “Art of Yiddish” conference. $24 (general admission); $18 (seniors and students); free (children under 12). 7:30 p.m. DoubleTree Guest Suites, 1707 Fourth St., Santa Monica. For more information, call (310) 396-5212.

24
Sunday

Thirty-nine performance groups will participate in this year’s L.A. County Holiday Celebration, including a broad multicultural mix of choirs, symphonies and dance ensembles. The six-hour celebration, which will also be broadcast live on KCET, includes performances by two local Jewish choirs. Scheduled to perform at 4:50 p.m., the Sinai Akiba Academy Choir, a student ensemble, performs original Chanukah songs. And at 5 p.m., the Valley Beth Shalom Congregational Choir joins with members of the Jewish Symphony for a performance including a Yiddish adaptation of selections from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus. 3 p.m.-9 p.m. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. For more information, call (213) 972-3099.

25
Monday

Merry fourth day of Chanukah. In the spirit of celebrating triumph over oppressive forces, author Margaret Marketa Novak reads from and signs her book “One Left… Just One.” Novak’s childhood autobiography details her survival in Auschwitz, the only one of her family of nine to make it through the Holocaust. Despite that tragedy, the book, and this afternoon’s activities, are meant to emphasize what Novak writes on the first page: “Surviving is not enough; it’s what we do with our lives that counts.” To that end, the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust event includes family tours, children’s activities and special exhibits. 2 p.m. 6006 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. For reservations or more information, call (323) 761-8174.

26
Tuesday

Photographer Sheila Metzner shows off her work in two concurrent exhibitions this month, focusing on natural and built landscapes, respectively. The Stephen Cohen Gallery offers a series of flowers and sweeping vistas from her recent book of unspoiled natural landscapes, “Inherit the Earth.” Nearby at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Metzner presents similarly sweeping vistas of New York City. “Inherit the Earth”: Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Through Jan. 6. 7358 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 937-5525. “New York”: Tues.-Sat., 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Through Jan. 6, closed Dec. 23-Jan. 2. 138 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. For more information, call (323) 937-0765.

27
Wednesday

The inaugural exhibition at the Jewish Federation-Goldsmith Center’s Bell Family Gallery mirrors its home in featuring quality Jewish work emphasizing continuity between the new and the old. The exhibition, “Traditions and Transformations,” includes two separate yet connected bodies of work. The “Traditions” portion is made up of selections from the Stern Family Judaica collection, with beautiful menorot and other traditional Jewish artwork. For the “Transformations” portion, the gallery has on display collaborative works from the Kabbalah Series of artists Lynn Small and Dennis Paul. Combining traditional and digital photography, woven fibers and collage, the series includes contemporary artistic renderings of each letter of the Hebrew alef-bet. 6505 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Through June 2001. For more information, call (323) 761-8170.

28
Thursday

In a city quite accustomed to hyphenated job descriptions, Steven Friedman may still raise a few eyebrows. The philosopher-medical researcher-installation artist includes among his 15 published works both “Meaning and Time,” and “Thermodynamics and Design of Viral (Smart) Chemotherapeutics.” In addition, Friedman has exhibited his paintings and installation projects in Los Angeles since 1983. “Light Worlds,” his current exhibition at Robert Berman Gallery, consists of suspended acrylic poles adorned with multiple small paintings, each painted first on a large brush, then transferred in a single stroke to the surface of the pole. Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Through Jan. 13. Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica. For more information, call (310) 315-1937.

29
Friday

Sometime between Tuesday and today, head over to The Knitting Factory Hollywood for the Jewish Music Festival, affectionately known as JewMu. Tonight, RebbeSoul performs “RebbeSoul-O: One Man’s Musical Journey,” a play written by Richard Krevolin. The festival also includes Tuesday night’s Chanukah/Kwanzaa jazz celebration with saxophonist Joshua Natural Sound and drummer Dan Littleton. Other featured performers include the Hollywood Klezmers and the Rabbinical School Dropouts. Festival pass for all six performances, $25. “RebbeSoul-O,” $8. 8 p.m. Knitting Factory, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. For a full schedule or more information, call (323) 463-0204.