Coming up

Women’s Philanthropy invites you to join with old and new friends to relax, gab and knit — and to do something great for the community. Help meet the goal of making 100 winter items — scarves, hats, blankets — to be donated to refugees served by Jewish Family & Children’s Service, a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The session will be Thursday, Aug. 12, from 10 a.m. to noon at Knit One, 2721 Murray Ave, Squirrel Hill. R.S.V.P. to Jessica Blose at (412) 992-5210 or jblose@jewishfederationpittsburgh.org.

Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, Pennsylvania’s second largest adult education agency, is seeking volunteers to teach basic literacy (reading, writing, math, computer skills) to adult students throughout Allegheny County. There are currently over 100 students waiting to be matched with a tutor. GPLC is offering a workshop for volunteers wishing to tutor non-native English speakers in ESL. This workshop will be held in East Liberty at GPLC’s main office, Aug. 23, 25, 30 and Sept. 1, from 6 to 9 p.m. No foreign language experience is necessary. Advance registration is required. Call (412) 661-7323 or visit gplc.org for more information and registration forms.

The Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre is performing the plays of Jewish playwright Harold Pinter. The series began Thursday with “Hearing the Noise in the Silence: A Celebration of the Life and Theatre of Harold Pinter” and “The Hothouse” — a tragicomedy the British playwright wrote in 1958. Six Pinter plays can be seen over either of two weekends — Aug. 12 to 14 or Aug. 20 to 22. Pinter, who died in 2008, was the 2005 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Over his lifetime, he wrote 31 plays and 13 sketches. Contact the PICT at (412) 561-6000 for more information.

The Jewcy Film Series (for ages 21 to 35) presents the Pittsburgh premiere of “Holy Rollers” at SouthSide Works Cinema, Saturday, Aug. 28, 9 p.m. An after-party for 21- to 35-year-olds to follow at Over The Bar Bicycle Cafe, 2518 E. Carson St. OTB will be providing vegetarian food and live music. The film is inspired by actual events in the late ‘90s, “Holy Rollers” stars Jesse Eisenberg (from “Zombieland” and “Adventureland”) as a young Hasidic Jew from an Orthodox Brooklyn community who is frustrated by the constraints of his faith and his father’s poor business decisions. Seduced by the easy money and freedom that come from the dark world of drug smuggling, he lives a double life until his worlds begin to unravel. This film is rated R for drug use and brief sexual situations. The series is a program of JFilm: the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Forum, Shalom Pittsburgh and J’Burgh, but is planned entirely by a Young Adult Advisory Committee. For more information about Jewcy events or if you are interested in joining YAAC, call (412) 992.5203 or e-mail filmfestival@JewishFederationPittsburgh.org.

Tree of Life Congregation in Morgantown, W.Va., will host a Holocaust-themed chamber music recital, Monday Aug. 30, 7:30 pm. The program features Allan Blank’s “Poems from the Holocaust” for mezzo soprano, double bass, and piano. The piece includes settings of three poems from I Never Saw Another Butterfly: “At Terezin;” “Man Proposes, G-d Disposes;” and “The Butterfly.” These are separated by settings of two poems in Yiddish: “Spieltzeig” (Abraham Sutzkever) and “Makh Tsu Di Eygelekh” (Isaiah Spiegel). The first half of the program will include the concertino by Holocaust victim Erwin Schulhoff for flute, viola and bass. The performers are from West Virginia University, including mezzo soprano Catharine Thieme, accompanied by her husband Robert Thieme, director of the opera program; flute professor, Francesca Arnone, and visiting viola professor, Andrea Priester Houde. The performance is free to the public. Contact Tree of Life at (304) 292-7029 for more information.

(Angela Leibowicz can be reached at angelal@thejewishchronicle.net.)