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Celebrated Jewish Cookbook Author & James Beard Award Winner,
Often referenced as the foremost authority on Jewish cooking, her landmark achievements include her seminal collection Jewish Cooking in America and her PBS series “Jewish Cooking in America.” Her twelve books, including The New American Cooking and King Solomon’s Table, reach out to home cooks in every kitchen. Joan appeals to all audiences, blending her love of food with her compassion and humanity. Energetic and insightful, Joan inspires everyone to get into the kitchen, try something new, or whip up a lifelong favorite.Over the decades, Joan has been tapped by the New York Times, Washington Post, and PBS as a regular food education and commentary contributor. Distinguished throughout her career, Joan’s honors include multiple James Beard awards plus the Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America. Working with colleagues throughout the food world, her collaborations include Julia Child, Ruth Reichl, Alice Waters, Tom Colicchio, Madhur Jaffrey, Craig Claiborne, and Paul Prudhomme.
Join Joan as she takes over The Bistro aboard The Gentleman. Each guest will be able to dine in this very venue once during the sailing. Guests may also choose to participate in a fun and lighthearted talk on Joan’s culinary career, as well as a fascinating talk regarding the history of Jewish food in the region we’re sailing. Also, enjoy a hands-on cooking demonstration onboard with Joan or simply a beautiful glass of the region’s incredible Rheingau region wines during our welcome and farewell receptions.
Originally from Washington, D.C., Andrew Gottlieb is a professor whose research interests span across disciplines of academia, all in efforts to understand and define Jewish identity. The roles played by Jews, whether in the arts, commerce, law, politics, or medicine, are well-known within the community and beyond. However, Jewish-American identity is additionally defined by the community’s reactions to forces beyond its control—the Holocaust Center among them.
Often identified as the greatest tragedy suffered by Jews since the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 76, the Holocaust had and continues to have, a profound effect on American Jewish identity. Jewish reactions to this genocide have further bound the community together as one people… often through spiritual worship and sometimes through secular or ethnic relationships, yet consistently in such a manner as to perpetuate the community and its values.
Dr. Gottlieb’s background for this broad approach is supported by an eclectic foundation, including a B.A. in Literature, an M.A. in International Relations, and a Ph.D. in Political Science. He has graduate certificates in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Jewish Leadership, and Translation/Interpretation. He currently serves as a board member of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, and as chief curator of the Hollander Collection: Judaica from the Old World and the New.
Gottlieb teaches undergraduate classes in American Politics, Political History, International Relations, and the Holocaust and also teaches community and organizational leadership to graduate students.
Following October 7, 2023, and after a family conversation, Dr. Gottlieb planned to go to Israel to fight. Instead, colleagues in Israel suggested that he remain in the United States to combat antisemitism on campus. With support from Miami-Dade College, he has been teaching numerous sections of the Politics of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) since January 2024. Dr. Gottlieb has researched Jewish identity and politics, the role of ritual artifacts in the perpetuation of culture, and others. He has traveled throughout Latin America, recovering dozens of ritual Jewish artifacts stolen or seized by government forces that they would return to Jewish hands.
He is dedicated to the perpetuation of Jewish life and culture, further inspired by his wife—Isis Gottlieb—a Jewban (Jewish Cuban), whose Jewish identity survived Communist Cuba. Their children, Shelly, and Adam, also share a dedication to their Jewish identity.
A former Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and currently a Professor of History at Collegium Civitas University in Warsaw, Poland. Alex specializes in the history of Europe with an emphasis on 19th and 20th-century political and cultural history. She is a Presidential Counsellor at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, is an annual contributor to the International Conference on WWII, and contributes to the WWII Museum Educational Travel Program. Alex has also studied music and has a deep interest in art history.
Alex studied music with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada from a young age. In 1985, she was able to study the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, visiting the places he had lived and composed. This led to a fascination with the history and culture of the region. She attended Oxford University and wrote a doctoral thesis entitled ‘The Political Manipulation of History in East and West Germany.’ After graduation, she worked for the Boston Consulting Group (London), restructuring industries across Central and Eastern Europe, such as Kombinat Zeiss Jena lenses in the former GDR and Star Trucks in Starachowice, Poland. She also worked in Ukraine and Russia before returning to Oxford as a Fellow of Wolfson College, where she taught History and International Relations.
Alex is the author of Faust’s Metropolis – A History of Berlin, which was named one of the top ten books of the year by American Publisher’s Weekly, and of Warsaw 1944, which won the Newsweek Teresa Toranska Prize for best nonfiction book and the Kazimierz Moczarski Prize for Best History Book 2015. She has contributed to many articles, documentaries, radio, and television programs, most recently ‘Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial’ (Netflix) ‘WWII in Color – The Road to Victory’(Netflix), ‘The SS’ (ZDF), ‘The Rise of the Nazis’ (BBC), and many appearances on C-Span and other channels.
As a Psychotherapist, presently engaged in pursuing his PhD, Michael’s course of study has focused on antisemitism, the Holocaust, German Studies, and the transference of transgenerational trauma. In his own practice, he provides individual and group therapy, and specializes in trauma, addiction, clinical sexology, LGBTQ+ and Second-Generation issues.
While at Alpert Jewish Family Services of West Palm Beach, Michael developed the federally funded Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) HonoringLife Program created to train professionals in the care of Holocaust Survivors and other highly traumatized populations. He is also a self-taught, award-winning filmmaker. Zydu Gatve – Jew Street was a film about his personal journey as a son of a Holocaust survivor, who returns to Lithuania and has an unexpected encounter with his grandmother’s ghost. At the University of Victoria, Michael co-created the I-witness Holocaust Field School, a program in which university students visited Holocaust sites and explored ways in which the Holocaust has been memorialized in Central Europe. The Program’s goal was to have a younger generation of students build an understanding of how antisemitism and the lessons of the Holocaust are relevant in today’s world. Michael has served as an adjunct lecturer at the New School University, the University of Victoria, and Barry University. At the University of Victoria, he taught Yiddish and German language and culture and lectured as a member of the University’s Speaker’s Bureau. Michael was invited to join the Psychology Department’s Advisory Board at Keiser University and has presented papers based on his research at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, Israel, the Pacific School of Religion located in Berkeley, CA the 2018 NASW Social Work Conference – Florida Chapter, and at the International Holocaust and Genocide Studies Conference at Middle Tennessee State University.
Described by colleagues and critics alike as possessing “one of the purest and most resonant bass-baritone voices of recent times,” Neil Nelson is a vocal powerhouse. The award-winning operatic vocalist performs regularly with South Florida Symphony Orchestra, and has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Berkshire Opera, The New York Harlem Opera Theater and other globally renowned musical arts organizations. Career highlights include Tonio in I Pagliacci with the St. Petersburg Opera, Schaunard in La Boheme with Opera Naples, Hagen in Götterdämmerung with Union Avenue Opera, Sulpice in La Fille du Regiment with Palm Beach Opera and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Union Avenue Opera.
He has also appeared as a soloist with the Lynn Conservatory Orchestra, the Ocean City Pops, the Southwest Florida Symphony, and the New England Conservatory Orchestra. Additional engagements include numerous concerts as the bass-baritone soloist in “And The Tony Goes To…” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra, Messiah with the Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches, Jake in Porgy and Bess with the Tartarstan Opera Theater and Ballet in Kazan, Russia and Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore with the Winter Opera St. Louis. Nelson graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music with a degree in music performance.
Award-winning pianist Tamila Salimdjanova has been described as a “truly miraculous in execution she was fully equal to every emotional and technical hurdle. A veritable tour de force” – serenademagazine.com
Ms. Salimdjanova received a widespread recognition after winning the first prize as well as the audience award at BNDES International Piano competition in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Her other awards include top prizes at the Birmingham international piano competition (UK); Massarosa international piano competition (Italy); Lagny-sur-Marne international piano competition (France); Animato international piano competition (France) and the Campillos international piano competition (Spain), Virtualoso Piano Cleveland (US) as well as many others. She is a semifinalist of Arthur Rubinstein (Israel), Leeds (UK) and Montreal (Canada) international piano competitions.
Among Ms. Salimdjanova’s solo engagements are recitals at the Radio France Festival in Montpellier (broadcasted live on Radio France), Festival Pianos-Folies du Touquet in France, Casalmaggiore Music Festival in Italy, and Festival de Inverno Campos do Jordao in Brazil
among many others. She has appeared in Bern Casino, Basel Casino, Salle Cortot, Steinway Halls of Hamburg and London, St. Martin in the Fields, Theatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, and The Concert Hall at Fresno State University.
Ms. Salimdjanova made her orchestral debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan led by Kuvanch Usmanov, performing W. A. Mozart Piano Concerto KV 450 in B- flat Major at the age of 9. She has also performed with Orquestra Experimental de Repertório, the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica da Bahia, Morocco Philarmonic Orchestra, Thames Chamber Ochestra, Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra in such venues as Sala Sao Paulo and Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, Teatro Castro Alves in Salvador, Bern Casino.
She also regularly performs in a duo with her violinist brother Askar Salimdjanov. They have performed together at summer chamber music series of South Florida Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Salimdjanova has enjoyed performing chamber music with many others as well over the years. Among her very recent collaborations is a recital with a violinist Alexandra Conunova in San Francisco (Davies Symphony Hall).
Tamila Salimdjanova was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, into a family of musicians. Her mother, a music theory teacher at Uspensky Lyceum, and her grandfather, Kuvanch Usmanov, one of the most prominent Uzbek conductors, played a significant role in shaping her musical career. Ms. Salimdjanova began her music studies at the Uspensky Lyceum under the guidance of the famed Tamara Popovich, who tutored numerous internationally acclaimed performers. Later on, she was accepted into Moscow Central Music School and subsequently enrolled in the Moscow State Conservatory to further her studies with Irina Plotnikova, a renowned pianist and teacher. After completing her studies in Moscow, Ms. Salimdjanova entered the Royal College of Music in London, under the tutelage of Vanessa Latarche and. She also studied in Bern University of the Arts in Switzerland with Tomasz Herbut.
Ms. Salimdjanova’s repertoire is vast and varied, spanning solo piano works from Baroque period to the composers of present days.
In 2024 she graduated with the Doctoral of Musical Arts Degree from Northwestern University in Chicago.
” Rich, warm sound and a high degree of technical skills…”
South Florida Classical Review.
Askar Salimdjanov is a multiple winner of the Lyric Chamber Music Competition, winner of the first NSAL Piano and Strings Duo Competition, and the Fourth Annual John Oliveira String Competition. He is also a laureate of the 6th International Competition of Young Performers in Moscow, a finalist in the 2nd Yankelevitch International Violin Competition, and a laureate of Vladimir Spivakov’s International Music Festival. Salimdjanov has performed as soloist with the South Florida Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Miami, Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestra, State Conservatory Orchestra of Uzbekistan, and the Lynn Philharmonia under the batons of Kuvanch Usmanov, Vladimir Neymer, Kamoliddin Urinbaev, Alan Paris, Guillermo Figueroa, Elaine Rinaldi and Sebrina Alfonso. He has performed as a soloist and as a chamber musician internationally across Europe, America, and Asia.
As a soloist and chamber musician Salimdjanov has concertized in such notable venues as the Great Hall of Uzbekistan State Conservatory, Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, Wold Performing Arts Centre, the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, and the New World Center in Miami. He attended the Keshet Eilon Mastercourse, the Singapore Violin Festival, the Heifetz International Music Institute and Geneva International String Academy in Switzerland. Salimdjanov was a concertmaster of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory orchestra and the Lynn University orchestra.
In June 2022 Salimdjanov and his sister a pianist Tamila Salimdjanova were invited to perform recitals at South Florida Symphony Orchestra Summer Chamber Music Series in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. In November 2022 Mr. Salimdjanov made his debut as a guest soloist with South Florida Symphony Orchestra for their 25 th anniversary season performing Tchaikovsky violin concerto with Maestra Sebrina Alfonso. In 2023 Mr. Salimdjanov joined Naples Philharmonic as a permanent violinist. Salimdjanov received his education at the Uspenskiy Special Music School in Tashkent, and at the age of twelve he made his debut the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan performing Mendelssohn violin concerto under the baton of his grandfather, Kuvanch Usmanov. He then went on to study at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, the Lynn University and at Rice University in Houston Texas. Salimdjanov’s mentors are Gulnara Suleymanova, Qian Zhou, Elmar Oliveira and Cho-Liang Lin. He has participated in masterclasses with David Takeno, Takashi Shimizu, Valeriy Sokolov, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Ilya Kaler, Rosa Fain, Hagai Shaham, Eduard Grach, Silvia Marcovici, Gabor Nagy Takacs, Midori Goto, Tang Quartet, Victor Tretyakov, Emerson Quartet, Hagen Quartet, Borromeo Quartet, Christian Tetzlaff, Boris Kuschnir, and Pierre Amoyal.
Salimdjanov has seven years of teaching experience and many of his students are prize winners of international competitions for young musicians. He has performed on a 1795 Vincenzo Panormo generously loaned by Mr. and Mrs. Rin Kei Mei, 1670 Antonio Stradivarius, 1702 Antonio Stradivarius loaned by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins Collection, 1693 ‘Harrison’ Stradivari from the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, US.