The Marlene and Herb Levin
Adult University

Lectures continued

Thursday, February 6, 2:00 pm
Unveil the Secrets of Longevity with Centenarian and Social Media Influencer, author Mildred Kirschenbaum and her daughter Gayle Kirschenbaum
When Mildred Kirschenbaum celebrated her 99th birthday, her daughter Gayle shared a video of her on Instagram, setting off a viral sensation. Gayle, initially using her account for photography, redirected the spotlight to showcase her mother's wisdom and the unique bond they share. Now, Mildred has written a book. Mildred's Mindset: Wisdom from a Woman Centenarian. Gayle Kirschenbaum is Mildred’s daughter and a Filmmaker / TV Producer / Writer / Photographer / Coach and Speaker. Mother and daughter will be here together to share their story! Following the outpouring of enthusiasm for her short, funny film My Nose about her mother's quest to convince her to have a nose job, she knew she had to make the feature film Look at Us Now, Mother! We will be screening the film on January 21 at 1:00 pm.

Monday, February 10, 2:00 pm
Frank & Marit Meisler: Legacy and Vision
Marit Meisler, daughter of artist Frank Meisler, will make a presentation about her father’s history and legacy, along with her current endeavors, highlighting the link between his work and her own.

Frank Meisler was a world-renowned artist known for his unique sculptures. His remarkable life journey took him from a Holocaust survivor to a guest at Prince Charles’s royal table. He created the large Jerusalem spheres located at the Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.

Marit Meisler, a designer and artist herself, continues her father’s legacy at the Frank Meisler Gallery. Born and raised in Jaffa, Israel, she graduated with distinction from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. She owns ceMMent Design, known for its modern take on religious artifacts and household objects. Her work is featured in museums worldwide.

Since 2019, Marit has expanded the Frank Meisler brand with new sculptures, combining his legacy with her contemporary vision. She will exhibit at the Palm Beach Art Antique and Design Show from February 13-18.
Free

Thursday, March 6, 2:00 pm
Rosa Lowinger, Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art Exile & Repair
At B’nai Torah Congregation
Dwell Time is an illuminating debut memoir by one of the few prominent Latinas in the field of art and architectural conservation. It is a moving portrait of a Cuban Jewish family’s intergenerational trauma; a story about repair and healing that will forever change how you see the objects and places we cherish and how we manage damage and loss.

Thursday, March 6, 7:30 pm
Adam Nimoy, The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father Leonard Nimoy
In his memoir, The Most Human, Adam Nimoy details his life as the son of one of the most recognizable actors of our time. He has written about the challenges of growing up with his famous father and about their estrangement and ultimate reconciliation. It is a story of breaking generational patterns, letting go and forgiveness.

Thursday, March 20, 2:00 pm
Julie Satow, When Women Ran Fifth Ave:
Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion
Julie Satow chronicles the rise of the department store through dazzling portraits of three visionary women who took great risks, forging new paths for the women who followed in their footsteps. This history of American fashion and the department store is inextricable from Jewish history, from the Jewish immigrants who worked in New York’s Garment District to influential designers and creators.

Sunday, March 30, 3:00 pm
R. Derek Black, The Klansman’s Son;
My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism
The Klansman’s Son is an astonishing memoir of a childhood built on fear, and of breaking from a community of hate. Derek Black was raised to take over the white nationalist movement in the United States. Their father, Don Black, was a former Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan and started Stormfront. David Duke, was also their close family friend and mentor. Racist hatred was all Derek knew. Then, while in college in 2013, Derek began engaging with students of various religions and races. A Jewish classmate bucked campus pressure to ignore and isolate Derek and invited them to Shabbat dinner in his dorm. Derek began joining every week for the conversations and camaraderie. It set them on course to publicly renounce white nationalism. Derek traces a uniquely insider account of the rise of white nationalism, and how a child indoctrinated with hate can become an anti-racist adult, committed to combatting antisemitism.

Thursday, April 10, 2:00 pm
Margalit Fox, The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum:
The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss
At B’nai Torah Congregation
America’s first great organized-crime lord was a woman—a nice Jewish mother named Mrs. Mandelbaum. In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from tenement poverty to vast wealth? In the intervening years, Mandelbaum had become the country’s most notorious “fence” and a criminal mastermind. The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum paints a vivid portrait of Gilded Age New York—a city teeming with nefarious rogues, capitalist power brokers and Tammany Hall bigwigs, all straddling the line between underworld enterprise and “legitimate” commerce. Combining deep historical research with narrative flair, Margalit Fox tells the unforgettable true story of a once-famous heroine whose life exemplified America’s cherished rags-to-riches narrative while simultaneously upending it entirely.