A discussion panel will be held on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017, in advance of the opening of the musical ‘Rags.’

Submitted

To set the stage for the opening in October of the musical “Rags” at the Goodspeed Opera House, Goodspeed Musicals is hosting a lively panel discussion about the Jewish immigrant experience in America on Thursday, Sept. 7, 7 p.m. at the Mandell JCC, 335 Bloomfield Ave., in West Hartford.

Co-sponsored by the Mandell JCC and the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, “Children of the Wind” will focus on Jewish immigrants who found a new home in America in the early 1900s. Determined to rise above the sweatshop squalor of New York’s Lower East Side, the immigrants went on to create the most productive and politically free Jewish community of all time.

Led by Goodspeed Founding Director Michael Price, the Sept. 7 panel will include Dr. Ronald W. Schatz, professor of history at Wesleyan University’s Center for Jewish Studies, and a member of the “Rags” creative team.  The panel will discuss America’s immigrant past at the turn of the 20th century from an historic perspective, as well as from the way in which this period of time is portrayed in the upcoming Goodspeed musical, “Rags.”

With music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz – the same team that brought to the Broadway stage “Annie and “Wicked” – “Rags” tells the story of a young mother and her son who arrive at Ellis Island at dawn of the 20th century in search of a new life.

Admission to “Children of the Wind” is free. Registration is requested. To register, visit www.goodspeed.org.

The Mandell Jewish Community Center is open to everyone and supported by funds raised by the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, a recipient of funding from the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, and a member of the JCC Association of North America. For updates, follow the Mandell JCC on Facebook and Twitter, or visit www.mandelljcc.org.

The Connecticut Jewish Ledger is an independent newspaper founded in 1929, and dedicated to furthering Jewish life in the state and serving the Jewish community. It is the state’s only weekly Jewish newspaper, and covers a wide range of topics, including current events, people and issues in local Jewish communities across the state. For more information on the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, visit www.jewishledger.com.