Shorts: The Arts

Jewish music on the Peninsula

The Redwood Symphony will offer a program of Jewish music at an upcoming concert titled "A Musical Diaspora."

Works included in the program include Osvaldo Golijov's "K'vakarat" with Congregation Beth Am Cantor Kay Greenwald, music from Kurt Weill's "Threepenny Opera," Aaron Copland's "Vitebsk," Leonard Bernstein's "Halil," Yiddish cabaret with singer Sylvie Braitman and songs by Sondheim and Weill with Stephanie Rhoads.

The concert takes place 3 p.m. Sunday, May 21 at Temple Beth Jacob, 1550 Alameda de las Pulgas, Redwood City. Tickets: $10-$20. Information: (650) 366-6872 or online at www.redwoodsymphony.com.




Radio host talking comedy at Ner Shalom benefit

Michael Krasny has tackled interviews with such luminaries as Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but this month he'll take on a group with a decidedly more facetious edge.

Krasny, host of KQED-FM's award-winning "Forum" show, will discuss contemporary Jewish humor at an evening benefit for Sonoma County's Reconstructionist Congregation Ner Shalom and the Jewish Community Free Clinic, which provides no-cost medical services to the uninsured.

The fund-raiser will also feature a dinner, live music from the Klezmer Jubilee ensemble and a silent auction.

The event begins 6 p.m. Saturday, May 13 at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. Tickets are $75 per person. For more information, call (707) 792-1932 ext. 3.




ZOA blasts Brandeis award for Kushner

boston (jta) | The Zionist Organization of America criticized Brandeis University for giving playwright Tony Kushner an honorary doctorate.

Kushner, who is Jewish, is a strident critic of Israel and Zionism. ZOA President Morton Klein called Kushner a "hostile critic of Israel" and asked the university to rescind the honor "as a matter of principle."

"This guy is the Noam Chomsky of the playwriting world," Klein said.

The university had no comment.

Kushner recently wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's "Munich," which some Jewish commentators felt drew moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorists and the Israeli anti-terrorist hit squad that tracked them down.




'Soviet Kitsch' singer coming to S.F.

Growing up in New York, Russian Jewish émigré Regina Spektor practiced on an out-of-tune piano in the basement of her synagogue until someone donated one to her family.

Her persistence paid off. The 26-year-old singer (her first album, "Soviet Kitsch," was released last year and her video can be seen on MTV) is currently on tour and will perform 8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at the Independent, 628 Divisadero St., S.F. Tickets are $13-$15. Information: www.reginaspektor.com.