Episode 30: Virtually Jewish Spaces

radio613 welcomes Ruth Ellen Gruber – writer, photographer and independent scholar – joining the show via phone from Budapest, Hungary. The interview highlights Jewish cultural developments and other contemporary European issues that are critically examined in her book Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture and her recent essay featured in the Jewish Quarterly Review, “Beyond Virtually Jewish: New Authenticitiy and Real Imaginary Spaces in Europe”.

Ruth Ellen Gruber shares insights on the state of Klezmer in Europe with music this week from Itzhak Perlman and the Klezmatics (“Dybbuk Shers”), Brave Old World (“Berlin 1990”) and Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird (“Broken Tongue”). Tune in!

Click here to listen to the show (right-click to download).

Check out articles from Gruber’s Ruthless Cosmopolitan column in JTA reporting on the recent Swiss Minaret ban and anti-Semitic demonstration in the Capital of Moldova.