The premise of “Hadirah” (“The Flat”) appears simple: An elderly grandmother has died and her apartment must be emptied of the relics of a lifetime.

As he filmed what was intended to create a record of his grandmother’s home and lifestyle, however, director and narrator Arnon Goldfinger began “to uncover…things that were a bit disquieting…, [that] did not cease to transform and surprise me.”

In the resulting documentary — which won Best Editing in a Documentary Feature at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival — the secrets revealed stimulate a convoluted journey into Goldfinger’s family’s history and the discovery of what he calls “a reality that is often chaotic and unexpected.”

The JCC Thurnauer School of Music at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly will hold its 22nd annual Gift of Music Gala Benefit Concert on Wednesday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m.

The school will honor Francisco J. Núñez, founding director of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, of which the Young People’s Chorus at Thurnauer is an affiliate. He recently received two accolades: a 2011 MacArthur Genius Fellowship Award and a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama.

The evening will also feature Bob McGrath from Sesame Street, as well as Colin (violin) and Eric (cello) Jacobsen, artistic directors of The Knights orchestra.

Call (201) 408-1462 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

p>This month and next, the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City will present book programs about modern Jewish history. On Wednesday, May 23, at 7 p.m., in advance of the summer Olympics, author David Clay Large will discuss his new book “Munich 1972: Tragedy, Terror, and Triumph at the Olympic Games.” Author Marni Davis will present her book “Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition” on Sunday, June 10, at 2:30 p.m., followed by a whiskey tasting.

Call (646) 437-4202 or www.mjhnyc.org.

After a year-long study of the Book of Job, the Artists’ Beit Midrash of Congregation Beth Sholom in Teaneck will open its spring show “Tackling Job” with a reception at the synagogue on Wednesday, May 23, from 4 to 6 p.m. Twelve artists will exhibit works in a variety of media and will discuss their interpretations of the text.

The Artists’ Beit Midrash brings together artists of varying levels of skill and different media and challenges them with the in-depth study of texts, such as the Bible and Talmud. With the assistance of educators, rabbis, scholars and artists/critics, participants create works of art and artistic expression. Participants include printmakers, potters, poets, collagists, painters, and musicians.

This year’s program was led by Harriet Finck, who served as both text and art teacher. Finck, originally trained as an architect, is also a collagist whose works have been shown in the tri-state area, as well as Chicago and Boston. She teaches at the Art School at Old Church in Demarest.

The show will continue through Monday, May 28, which coincides with the second day of Shavuot. The Beit Midrash will hold an Artist Talk Back, at the end of Shavuot services. Call (201) 833-2620 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

We have seen the Shoah treated as somber tragedy, as adventure story, as cartoon, and as farce. Now, in the new play “Eavesdropping on Dreams” by Rivka Bekerman-Greenberg, we have the Shoah as soap opera. The production by the Barefoot Theatre Company directed by Ronald Cohen at the Cherry Lane Theatre unfortunately mistakes histrionics for emotion, and manages to present a two-hour play about arguably the greatest tragedy experienced by a people without a moment of believable feeling in it.

“Eavesdropping on Dreams” focuses on the relationship between three women: Rosa or Raizel (Lynn Cohen) who survived four years in the Lodz ghetto, working as a hatmaker; her neonatalogist daughter Renee (Stephanie Roth Haberle) who devotes herself to saving babies and playing sex games; and Renee’s daughter Shaina (Aidan Koehler), a young woman who dropped out of medical school, broke up with her boyfriend, went on March of the Living to Lodz, and has just returned home transformed. Rosa is also visited periodically by the ghosts of her brother Yakov and Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, the “king of the Jews,” who turned the ghetto into a workshop in order to convince the Nazis that the residents were too valuable to kill, at least right away.

“Nature and People: Photographs by Robert Kern,” is on display through May 25 at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly. A meet-the-artist reception is on Sunday, May 6, from 1 to 3 p.m.

Call Rochelle Lazarus at (201) 408-1408 or visit the JCC website at www.jccotp.org.

The show is an ongoing study of mans’ creations in nature. Most of the imagery comes from the New York and New Jersey area.