Touro Synagogue Foundation announces the third program of its Winter 2022-2023 Judah Touro Program Series, featuring Dr. Samantha Baskind, a professor of art history. Dr. Baskind’s talk, titled, “Picturing Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews in 17th & 18th Century Amsterdam,” will be presented virtually, via Zoom, on Thursday, February 9 at 6:00 p.m.
Dr. Baskind will present the work of Rembrandt, Bernard Picart, and several other artists who spent considerable time drawing and painting the Jewish residents of Amsterdam, both in the synagogue and as they went about their daily lives. Picart was one of the first to distinguish in his etchings between the Ashkenazi Jews of Germany and Eastern Europe and the Sephardic Jews of Portugal. The images produced and published by these artists give us a remarkable insight into the life and practices of the Jews who came to Newport in the colonial period.
Samantha Baskind is a Distinguished Professor of Art History at Cleveland State University. She received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of North Carolina. She has a wide range of expertise in topics ranging from how Jews were depicted in art as well as their role as artists in American culture and has written prolifically on most of them. She was Editor for U.S. art in the twenty-six-volume Encyclopaedia Judaica, and has lectured widely at universities, museums, and congregations throughout the United States and abroad, including Stanford University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Oxford University, among many others.
There is no fee to participate, but reservations are required to receive the Zoom login information. To reserve, please visit the “Program & Events” page at tourosynagogue.org, where you may also view recordings of past presentations, or use this link: https://tinyurl.com/bdzcj85f .
For more information or assistance with registration, please contact Meryle Cawley at (401) 847-4794, extension 207, or meryle@tourosynagogue.org.
Please “save the date” for the fourth and final program of the Winter 2022-23 Series: Thursday, March 30 at Noon. This will be a special collaborative presentation hosted by the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, “Local Collections in Conversations,” featuring Touro Synagogue’s Ner Tamid (Eternal Light) and its Great Chandelier, and comparative objects from the collection of the RISD Museum. Presenters will include Howard Newman, a nationally respected Newport artist and conservator, who restored both these objects. Details and link to reserve may be found on the “Programs & Events” page of tourosynagogue.org next month.