An American imam took an eye-opening tour last month of the Dachau and Auschwitz death camps and said that what he saw was unfathomable - and undeniable.

"You see the ashes of people. You see the pictures. You walk the trail; you see the gas chambers," said Imam Muhamad Maged of the All-Dulles-Area Muslim Society in Virginia, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America.

"It is beyond imagination that somebody would do something like that."

Here's a way for Jewish New Yorkers on a budget (not all of us are affluent) to get out of the city and spend a few days in the countryside. At Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center's Soil, Soul & Service program you can enjoy all its programs and facilities (boating, fishing, swimming--both pool and lake, gym and hot tub, tennis, arts & crafts, yoga and meditation classes, guided hikes, farm and green tours on its 300-acre wooded land) including room and board for a three to six-night stay any time between June 28 - July 25, 2010 for a voluntary contribution of $60 per night and a few hours of volunteer work each day (helping out in one of the gardens, pulling weeds or harvesting veggies on the farm, working in the dining room or housekeeping).

Tuesday 6/15: summer camp movie & Mumbai Jewish teen; Wednesday 6/16: Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg

To read the interview click here

In Monday's article I introduced the The Jewish-American Marriage Oral History Project. In honor of Brooklyn Pride's 14th Annual Pride Celebration this week the first Jewish-American couple whose interview will appear in this column is a Brooklyn lesbian couple, Mindi Wernick and Malkie Grozalsky, whom I interviewed in their Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn apartment two years and ten months ago. To make the interview read like a dialogue I have edited out my questions; for clarity the interview subjects sometimes rephrase a question as a statement, and where this occurs it indicates a change of subject. I began the interview by asking how they met.

To read the article click here

These listings, which supplement those in Friday's article, include a gay Jewish film festival, an author talk, a pro-Israel rally, an Israeli rock band's performance, and an exhibit of work by Latino-Jewish visual artists.

To read the article click here

To read the article click here

To read the article click here

Monday May 24th marked the birthday anniversaries of two Jewish-American immigrant men of letters; poet and Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, who would have been 70, was remembered by New York's Russian speaking community at at the Russian Samovar in midtown (the event was covered by the Russian service of the BBC), and journalist, novelist, and founder of The Forward Abraham Cahan was honored on the 150th anniversary of his birth at an exhibit about his life and work at The Forward's offices at 125 Maiden Lane between Pearl and Water Streets. That exhibit is open to the public.

To read the article click here

New York's First Festival of Israeli Jazz, curated by Roberto Rodriguez, is taking place this week at John Zorn's club The Stone (Avenue C and E2nd Street in the East Village--all sets are $10).

To read the article click here