Jewish Museum

She was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, but the world knows her as the pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago, whose installation The Dinner Party (1974-79), which celebrated important women throughout history, became a leader of the women's movement. Now a new exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Maryland explores how Chicago's secular Jewish upbringing shaped her artistic vision and her compassionate identification with the plight of oppressed people the world over. Judy Chicago: Jewish Identity presents artworks from throughout her career that challenge injustice and express the artist's long-standing aspiration for universal tolerance, understanding and peace.

Essex, Hopkins festivalsCelebrate cultural diversity at festivals this weekend at the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County, and today through Nov. 13 at the Johns Hopkins University. At the Ethnic Heritage Festival at Essex, see displays from more than 24 ethnic communities, gifts and handcrafted items and egg-decorating; enjoy cooking demonstrations, dance instruction and live entertainment; try authentic foods and an international beer garden; and more. At CultureFest at Hopkins, catch a film festival, ballroom dancing, art exhibits, a variety of cuisines, dance troupes, poetry readings, music and more.

Rebekah Johnson, the young star of "Liberty Heights," munched brownies brought to her from the dessert table by a local doctor. "He said he'd heard actresses don't eat much, and he wanted to make sure I did!" Johnson was heard telling co-star Ben Foster, just before the two were swept up in a sea of new fans at the movie's premiere party.The buzz in the tent behind the Senator Theatre was "bravo!" for Baltimore-born director Barry Levinson's fourth B'more-based film. Its premiere here raised $80,000 for the Osler Scholar Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Jewish Museum of Maryland.

BERLIN -- The building is empty, and still they come, 10,000 people a month, embarking on a silent pilgrimage into a nation's soul.They tread through disorienting corridors that weave this way and that. One stairwell is topped with light and seeming life. Another path leads to symbolic exile, a jagged garden of concrete pillars shrouded with oak willows. And over there, the heavy door is moved, and the Holocaust Tower is entered, with its deathly chill and darkness countered by a shaft of sunlight.

You can see the hand of the artist at work in the sculpture of Reuben Kramer, the marks of his tools, the mediation of his mind and the feeling in his heart.He formed his figures and his portrait heads from lumps of clay, pressed and prodded into place with his fingers, worked with knobs and scrapers and knives, and cast into bronze with the marks of his workmanship left undisguised, as a hallmark of his integrity."He had a distinctive technique," says Virginia North, librarian and archivist at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the repository for a rich selection of Kramer's work, his notebooks, many drawings and several of his tools.

Holocaust survivor should demonstrate greater empathyJohn Rivera's interview with Deli Strummer (" `Holocaust victor' recounts story of survival," Nov. 14) reflected an air of self-congratulation by the interviewee and a sense of utter insensitivity, if not arrogance, on her part, toward those who she refers to as "my colleagues and my comrades."She must be reminded that these comrades also give of their time to painfully recount and share their experiences.In a patronizing way, Ms. Strummer says, "that she understands those colleagues and comrades who don't want to speak about it. They want to go to Boca Raton and live a good life."

"Facing the New World," which opens at the Maryland Historical Society today, amounts to too much of a good thing and not enough of another good thing. An exhibit based on early American Jewish life, it marries a national component that goes on at great length with a local component that only whets the appetite.The conflict between assimilation into the larger community and retention of ethnic identity continues to be a concern of the American Jewish population. Its present-day manifestations were the subject of last year's "Too Jewish?"

Lillian Braiterman Crane took one look yesterday at a photo on display in the newly expanded Jewish Museum of Maryland, and the memories came flooding back.The photo depicted a teen-ager who secretly left his home in Maryland to enlist in the Jewish Legion, an all-Jewish fighting force organized by the British army during World War I to free Palestine from Turkish control. It was her brother, William Braiterman, who enlisted under an alias so he wouldn't be rejected from service."He didn't tell my mother where he was going, and he lied about his age because he was only 17, and he had to eat a lot of bananas so he would weigh enough, but he got in," Crane said.

Israel and Maryland go way back.In his book, "Uncommon Threads," a history of Jews in Baltimore, Philip Kahn Jr. makes note of an editorial penned in 1816 by a local journalist who prophesied the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.By the late 19th century, as thousands of Russian Jewish immigrants arrived in Baltimore, Zionism caught fire in outdoor markets and more formal settings. In 1895, the first American Zionist group was founded in Baltimore, and in 1900, the city was the site of the Federation of American Zionists' first national convention.

Bernard Fishman, director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland for the past 13 years and the person behind its remarkable success story, will leave at the end of August to become director of the Lehigh County Historical Society in Pennsylvania.As the position here did when he took it in 1985, Lehigh County offers the kind of challenge Fishman welcomes. "It's a little bit larger than the Jewish Museum but somewhat similar in its general outlines," he said. "It has two historical sites and an imposing collection of materials related to the region and going back to the 18th century.

Sunday BUTCHERS HILL HOUSE TOUR: The tour runs from noon to 5 p.m. and begins at Patterson Park's White House at East Lombard Street and South Patterson Park Avenue. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 the day of. Call 410-522-6773. JEWISH HISTORY BIKE TOUR: Get fit, learn some history and enjoy the great outdoors all at the same time. The bike tour rides through South Baltimore, East Baltimore and Bolton Hill to uncover remaining Jewish sites. The trip leaves from the Jewish Museum of Maryland, 15 Lloyd St., at 10 a.m. Riders must be at least 12 years old. Tickets are $20. To register, call 410-732-6400.

Icelandair moves regional offices from Columbia Icelandair, the national carrier of Iceland, said Wednesday it has relocated its North American headquarters from Columbia to Quincy, Mass. The move comes two years after the carrier announced it was canceling its flights from BWI Marshall Airport. The airline did not return calls so it is unclear how many jobs will be relocating. - Andrea K. Walker Jewish Museum of Md. buys land for expansion Baltimore's Corned Beef Row appears to be losing a deli and gaining a larger museum.

Construction to begin on offices near APG 1 Construction will start tomorrow on an 84,000-square-foot office building near Aberdeen Proving Ground. The building off Route 22 will be the first structure in the North Gate Business Park at APG. The office park is being marketed to defense contractors and other companies. Lorraine Mirabella MTA considers reducing service from Harford, Cecil 2 Faced with declining revenues, the Maryland Transit Administration is considering cost-cutting reductions in service from Harford and Cecil counties to Baltimore beginning early next year.

Back Door Slam The lowdown -- Home to little more than 80,000 people, the Isle of Man is not known for producing musicians. But from this island nestled in the Irish Sea comes the Back Door Slam. With a sound inspired by B.B. King and Eric Clapton, these bluesmen jam at the 8x10 on Wednesday. If you go -- Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. The 8x10 is at 10 E. Cross St. Call 410-625-2000 or go to the8x10.com. March on Stage The lowdown -- March On Stage is a series of concerts started by the Hard Rock Cafe that aims to bring local bands and communities together to benefit charities.

Marvin Leventon, a towering 83-year-old man, immediately picked out a somewhat familiar face from the top row of 200 photographs yesterday. Even though the picture was taken more than 60 years ago, the image of himself dressed in an Army Air Forces uniform during World War II stirs a strong sense of pride. "It brings back a lot of memories," said Leventon's wife, Vivian, who was struggling to capture the scene with a digital camera. "You realize more and more it's amazing what they went through and still managed to survive."

The crowds and the noise, the live chickens at Yankelove's Poultry, the bagels at Wartzman's and the cream cheese at Smelkinson's, the sidewalk fruit stands and pickle barrels ... they've all vanished from East Lombard Street, once the heart of Jewish East Baltimore. All that remains is a trio of delicatessens - Lenny's, Weiss' and Attman's - and, just off Lombard on Lloyd Street, B'nai Israel, the sole surviving active synagogue, and the Jewish Museum of Maryland. But all the memories, and a happy reunion of former East Lombard Street regulars, converged on the museum yesterday.

She was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, but the world knows her as the pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago, whose installation The Dinner Party (1974-79), which celebrated important women throughout history, became a leader of the women's movement. Now a new exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Maryland explores how Chicago's secular Jewish upbringing shaped her artistic vision and her compassionate identification with the plight of oppressed people the world over. Judy Chicago: Jewish Identity presents artworks from throughout her career that challenge injustice and express the artist's long-standing aspiration for universal tolerance, understanding and peace.

Arena Players, Four Queens, No Jacks, a visit with four friends who, in the course of their weekly card game, discuss the challenges of modern dating. 8 p.m. Oct. 26, 801 McCulloh St. Reservations required; arenaplayersinc.org or 410-728-6500. Baltimore Public Works Museum, "Heavy Metal: Big Truck Day," featuring the city's fleet of big trucks. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 6, 751 Eastern Ave. ci.baltimore.md.us/government/dpw/museum/ or 410-396-5565. Baltimore School for the Arts, open house featuring workshops in dance, music, acting, stage production and visual arts.

DOWN ON THE FARM Enjoy the fun side of farming life Saturday in Annapolis when the Maryland Department of Agriculture holds its annual open house. Shop the Maryland food and craft market, make slime in the state chemist's laboratory, practice hog-calling, milk a cow and more. It's a hands-on way to learn how food gets to the table and about the farmer's role in protecting the environment. .................... The open house will be held 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, rain or shine, at the Maryland Department of Agriculture headquarters, 50 Harry S. Truman Parkway, Annapolis.

Over her 64 years of life, Mervin Savoy has heard both familiar and unfamiliar tales of history, from George Washington's military triumphs to the struggles of her native people, the Piscataway Conoy tribe on Maryland's Western Shore. What she hasn't heard, at least not to her satisfaction, are the twists and turns of history as told by women. Whether in war, politics, business - the events of the day as told in newspapers and books - too often women seemed left out of the story lines.