February Blues

February 22, 2024 | Third Thursday Thoughts
Dawn LaRochelle, Executive Director

February Blues – the struggle is real, friends! Holiday cheer is long past, spring blooms seem light years away, and I am officially OVER muddy boots and bulky sweaters. You intrepid Mainers posting on social media about the fun you’re having skiing and drinking hot chocolate with mini marshmallows? All this Pine Tree State interloper has to say is, shoot me. Just shoot me now.

Fortunately, there are always a few sunny moments to brighten the interminable gray February skies. There’s the Valentine’s Bandit to remind me why I love Portland (yup, even in February). And then there’s February 15, the day my husband Nick proposed to me at the top of El Morro in Puerto Rico eight years ago. I was so excited, I jumped into his arms and almost knocked him off the cliff – my boys, who videoed the proposal, were secretly crushed that Nick managed to steady himself, destroying their chance to go viral! This February 15, Nick and I celebrated with a romantic date night at Bistro LeLuCo, one of our fave new culinary haunts. Gazing into my love’s eyes after a memorable candlelit dinner, I found myself slipping out of my funk… until Nick asked me about Third Thursday Thoughts. “That’s not until next week – and I have a few ideas for it,” I responded, with a dismissive wave of the hand. “Now, shall we order the tiramisu or the olive oil cake with pistachios and blackberries for dessert?” Which is when Nick, newly nervous, opened his calendar app and showed me that Third Thursday was, in fact, today. February 15. Which did not compute for me until I realized that February 1 fell on a Thursday this year because of course it did.

Needless to say, neither tiramisu nor olive oil cake with pistachios and blackberries were consumed, and I went into full-on panic mode. It was past 10:00 PM by the time we got the check, and even if I could pull off a coherent piece of writing in the next two hours (unlikely), I doubted many/any of you would be waiting up for me. And so, I made an executive decision: Third Thursday Thoughts would be a week late this month, and absence would hopefully make the heart grow fonder. To make a short story long, I forgot when the third Thursday of the month was, which is why date night was ruined and you are reading my monthly missive today.

As someone who is meticulous about calendaring in every birthday, anniversary, and due date and lives by an Excel spreadsheet with monthly, weekly, and daily to-do lists, forgetting anything, let alone my beloved Third Thursday Thoughts, is galling to me. But it turns out I can’t blame my mental lapse on the February Blues or chalk it up to my advanced years. Experts say those little mental glitches affect everyone, at all ages, and are more likely to impact people when they are tired or stressed out (me, tired and stressed out?! Nahhhhhh!). Proof positive: this thread on reddit.com. It starts with a guy who leaves the gym after working out and can’t find his bike. He’s about ready to call the cops to report the theft when he realizes that he walked to the gym. Bud, I feel your pain. So did other Reddit users, who quickly filled the thread with hundreds of similar forgetful moments.

But cute and relatable Reddit anecdotes aside, the emphasis on remembering is writ large in the Jewish psyche. Millennia before the ravages of Nazi Germany turned “Never Forget” into a slogan and a byword, our Torah and Talmud challenged us to keep our collective religious, cultural, and moral heritage, rich with value and significance. Similarly, our Passover Seder exists to collapse the present into the past, making the old relevant again so that, as one Pesach rabbinic commentary explains, “In every generation, each person is obligated to see themselves as though they, too, came out from Egypt.” Telling and retelling and refreshing a common story is at the core of Jewish resilience, the way we keep the flame burning. It is not accidental that we say zichrono livracha, may their memory be a blessing, during times of bereavement – memory is the vehicle through which we receive blessings.

Museums, too, are about remembering, preserving the history and lessons of our past to inform our present. We are therefore proud to be hosting Bella: An Immigrant’s Tale at the Maine Jewish Museum in collaboration with Chabad of Maine this Sunday, February 25. A one-woman play, written and performed by Vicki Summers, Bella pays homage to Vicki’s grandmother, Bella Indianer, a Russian Jewish immigrant who escaped the pogroms and created a life for herself and her family in the United States. The play brings to life the Jewish-American immigrant experience with all its hardships and rewards. Even more importantly, however, Summers’ mission is to encourage each of us to discover and record our own precious family stories before they are lost to time.

After the worst month of the year is finally behind us, we segue into March and Women’s History Month, a time to highlight the contributions of women who should be unforgettable, but are too often sidelined. MJM will begin Women’s History Month with a new Exhibition series featuring Dahlav Ipcar, the woman artist and Jewish Mainer whose work has enriched the art world across multiple disciplines and provides us with inspiring examples of how to remain creative despite vision loss. Ipcar’s work will be displayed in tandem with her father, William Zorach’s, bronze sculptures. A Lithuanian Jewish immigrant to the United States who rose to the forefront of the cubist movement in the early 20^th century, Zorach’s work was deeply impacted by the Holocaust. Many of his bronzes at the Museum will be on exhibit for the first time ever. Join us for our Exhibition Opening on March 7, where you can honor the memories of Ipcar and Zorach and enjoy the outstanding photography of more than 20 artists (including Berenice Abbot, Eugene Atget, Edward Curtis, Jim Daniels, Barbara Goodbody, Michael Costner, Judy Glickman Lauder, Verner Reed, Tom Webb, among others) from the Steve and Judy Halpert Photography Collection.

Women’s History Month continues at MJM on March 17 with a book launch for  The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin. Domin, a German Jew, fled Nazi Germany with her husband in the 1930s, spending 22 years in exile. The couple returned to Germany in 1954, among the few German-Jewish artists and intellectuals to do so, after which Domin rose to nearly unprecedented fame and acclaim. Among the most recognized writers of post-war Germany to this day, Domin has remained relatively unknown among English readers –something Maine translator and scholar Mark Burrows hopes to remedy with The Wandering Radiance. Burrows’ artful translation gives English readers first-time access to Domin’s exploration of a life in post-war exile (“All my ships/have forgotten about harbors/and my feet the way”) and how poetry carried her through it in “the not-world//stretched out/between word and word.” Domin reminds us to never give up, and that a way forward is worthy of lyricism, recognition, and dignity.

We will culminate Women’s History Month on March 29 with a stark reminder that “Never Again Is Now.” History, Memory, and Poetry: Women in the Holocaust, a special Delet program open to Maine middle and high schools as well as the general public, honors the wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters in Nazi ghettos, death camps, and Jewish resistance groups. Delet Core Consultant Anna Wrobel, a celebrated local historian, teacher, and poet, weaves poetry and family memoir together in historical context to illuminate the collective past and present, with the aim of creating a compassionate, humane, and peace-filled future for humankind.

Of course, the lighted torch exists to be passed to future generations. This is why we  believe that museums are for kids, and this is why we are excited to announce MJM’s 2024 I’m A Jewish Mainer Youth Art Contest . Our inaugural competition encourages young people throughout the state to reflect on their experiences growing up Jewish in Maine and express their Maine Jewish pride through art. Students in grades K – 12 are invited to unleash their creativity, unveil their artistic talent, and explore new media for a chance to have their work exhibited at the Maine Jewish Museum. Three winners will be selected in four age divisions (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12), and we encourage submissions from youth of all backgrounds with any connection to Judaism/Jewishness. The deadline is Friday, April 12 at 3:00 PM. Click here for detailed information and an application form.

To forget is human, to forgive is divine… or something like that. My sincere apologies for forgetting which week we were in. I hope you forgive this lapse and come to one or more of the many fah-bu-lous upcoming events at the Maine Jewish Museum so you can poke fun of me in person. Tiramisu or olive oil cake with pistachios and blackberries: your choice, on me.

Warmly,

Dawn

Dawn LaRochelle

Executive Director