Using the Arts to Connect Cultures : University of Judaism Program Spreads Ethnic Understanding Through Diverse Performances

One might think UCLA had opened a new cultural center in Bel-Air.

The National Ballet of West Java, the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers and the Aman International Music and Dance Company are among those who have appeared in a concrete and glass auditorium atop Mulholland Drive.

But this eclectic performing arts program--with an emphasis on ethnic offerings--is part of the University of Judaism.

“We’ve always tried not to be isolated up here on the hill,” said university Vice President Max Vorspan, who is also the impresario of the program. “The arts are a significant bridge, a way to connect and make contact. . . . We can’t understand Judaism without understanding the culture around us.”

That’s the philosophy behind the decision to book secular arts into a religious institution. The monthly shows, with ticket prices ranging from $10 to $18, are aimed at exposing the Jewish community (and anyone else who is interested) to culturally diverse performers.

The Khadra International Folk Ballet, for instance, brought the smoldering Gypsy music of Moldavia and the acrobatics and colorful costumes of the Ukraine to the quiet streets of Bel-Air. The Sudanese Gamelan Orchestra, in conjunction with 25 singers and puppeteers, presented the historical Hindu epic “Ramayana.” And the Chinese Folk Dance Assn. of San Francisco interpreted dances from Yunan Province. The university also offers more traditional acts, such as storyteller Nehemia Persoff, who revisits the tales of Yiddish humorist Sholom Aleichem.

The performing arts program has a modest annual budget of $117,000. (Ticket prices cover the cost of staging shows.) For help in booking and promoting shows, officials rely on contacts, such as Irwin Parnes, who founded the Los Angeles International Folk Dance Festival at the Music Center in 1947.

And, said Vorspan, “We’re always scouring.”

Performers appear in the 500-seat Gindi Auditorium, a $1-million facility that Times music critic Martin Bernheimer called “an acoustical gem” when he reviewed the inaugural show by violinist Itzhak Perlman in 1984. The Gindi is also the permanent home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, which gives most of its shows there.

A sculpture garden is blossoming on the 28-acre campus. Last November, the university installed a work by modern artist Jenny Holzer, who uses electronic signs and other media to display slogans and aphorisms. The work, “Truism Benches,” includes slogans such as “Government is a burden on the people” and “Confusing yourself is a way to stay honest.” Holzer, whose works are included in the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, will represent the United States at the 1990 Venice Biennale International Exhibition.

Barry Bortnick, the coordinator of special programs in the humanities department for UCLA Extension, says the cultural offerings at the University of Judaism are first-rate, especially since it lacks the size, staff, contacts and financial backing of a large university.

“I think it’s unusual for a smaller-size college to consistently have series that have large, leading national figures,” Bortnick said.

For those who shape policy at the University of Judaism, the issue of what role Jews should play in contemporary Los Angeles is one of crucial importance. The influx of immigrants in the last two decades has made Los Angeles a “Third World” city, a new Ellis Island with particular resonance for a people who themselves immigrated more than a century ago from Western, Central and Eastern Europe.

“We haven’t had anything like this since the 1880s,” said Vorspan, who is also associate professor of Jewish American history at the University of Judaism and co-author of “History of the Jews of Los Angeles.”

The university plans to enlist its newly established Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies--a Jewish think tank of sorts--to look at contemporary American ethnicity and its implications for Jewish life. And school officials believe the arts offer an important window.

“No art form is an island,” Vorspan said, referring to his decision to specialize in the ethnic arts. “Each influences and is influenced by the other.”

The school’s administrators worry that the university and its arts programs remain a “well-kept secret.” Nonetheless, its mailing list goes out to 26,000 people and, increasingly, performers are playing to capacity crowds.

If Vorspan is the guiding light of the performing arts programs, Rabbi Jack Shechter, the dean of continuing education, is the spark behind the school’s lecture series. Norman Mailer lectured in January. Coretta Scott King will discuss black-Jewish relations on March 5 and 6. And Howard Fast, the author of “Spartacus” and “The Immigrants,” will discuss the saga and achievements of the Jews throughout history on April 9 and 10.

The speakers, who focus on Jewish themes, are chosen by Shechter and a committee of religious officials and laypeople. The series runs Sundays at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino and Mondays at the Sinai Temple in Westwood.

Today’s $20-million campus with 200 dorm rooms is a far cry from the Koreatown storefront at 6th Street and Ardmore Avenue where the University of Judaism was founded in 1947 as the West Coast branch of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

“We started with half a dozen rabbis sitting around a desk who wanted to continue their education,” Vorspan said.

In 1958, the university moved to the old Hollywood Athletic Club on Sunset Boulevard. Eventually, wealthy donors joined with the Stephen S. Weiss Temple and bought a chunk of hillside in the Sepulveda Pass.

In 1973, former U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren spoke at ground-breaking ceremonies in the Santa Monica Mountains. Today, 200 students are enrolled at the undergraduate Lee College or are earning MBAs, master’s degrees in Jewish studies or in rabbinical literature and education. There are also 2,200 students in the continuing education program, which has been known to offer such whimsical fare as “Hasidim in Jazz.”

To be sure, the secular is only a small part of the university’s offerings, most of which deal with Jewish themes.

Two years ago, the school staged the play “My Quarrel With Hersh Rasseyner,” based on a story by Chaim Grade, the Yiddish storyteller who wrote “Rabbis and Wives.” The traditional Ellis Island Klezmer Orchestra has made pilgrimages to the Bel-Air hillside, and the university once commissioned works on the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe from Aman International Music and Dance Co.

In addition, the school wants to develop its own drama workshop where aspiring playwrights could produce works with Jewish themes.

“We would like to create works that are truly our own rather than just bringing outside groups in,” Vorspan said.

Indeed, Vorspan believes the performing arts program at the University of Judaism is still nascent, still struggling to define itself within the backdrop of an increasingly diverse Los Angeles.

“I don’t think we’ve found our voice yet. We need to work out a vision,” he said.