LAMOTH will be open on Monday, January 18, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as we celebrate the life of the visionary civil rights leader who was  committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.
The image above, which appears in LAMOTH's Gallery 7, shows Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. marching at Selma in 1965 with other civil rights leaders, including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Polish-born scholar and philosopher who fled the Nazis, arriving in the United States in 1940. 

This Friday is the opening of Visas to Freedom: Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the Refugees of World War II, an exhibition celebrating the courageous actions of Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Sousa Mendes was the Portuguese Consul General stationed in Bordeaux, France in 1940. His government had issued strict orders to all its diplomats to deny visas to Jews and other refugees seeking to escape German-occupied Europe through Portugal. Sousa Mendes defied these orders and issued life-saving Portuguese visas to thousands of people in May and June of 1940. The exhibit of original visas, photographs and other artifacts from the Sousa Mendes family as well as families that survived thanks to the diplomat's help is presented in partnership with the Sousa Mendes Foundation, who loaned LAMOTH many of the artifacts.  

On January 23, in connection with the opening of the exhibit Visas to Freedom: Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the Refugees of World War II, LAMOTH will screen two films about Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

On Sunday, January 24, at 3:00 pm, American Jewish University will host the world premiere of the dramatic oratorio Circular 14: The Apotheosis of Aristides by composer Neely Bruce. The concert is produced by Marilyn Ziering and LAMOTH is a community partner.

Soloists are LA Opera tenor Robert MacNeil in the role of Aristides, LA Opera soprano Marina Harris in the role of his wife Angelina, LA Opera tenor Ashley Faatoalia in the role of Salazar, Stephan Kirchgraber, a New York bass-baritone, in the role of Rabbi Kruger, and LA Opera soprano Katherine Giaquinto in the role of Aristides's second wife, Andrée Cibial. The part of Aristides's brother César, a spoken role, will be played by actor Michel Gill of the hit Netflix series "House of Cards," who is the son and grandson of Sousa Mendes visa recipients. Portuguese guitar will be played by Pedro da Silva, the leading performer on this instrument in the United States. The conductor is Donald Brinegar directing the Donald Brinegar Singers, and the composer Neely Bruce will be at the piano.