• Tonight: Tuesday, November 11, 2008. Friend of Russ & Daughters, writer and director David Bar Katz writes to tell us of the final performance of his new play, Burning, Burning, Burning, Burning, tonight at The Public Theater. This staged reading of a work in development is part of the Barn Series, the annual festival of new play readings hosted by the fantastic LABryinth Theater Company. And, it stars another Russ & Daughters customer, Eric Bogosian, as “The Prophet of the Messiah and the harbinger of the END OF DAYS!!” (Emphasis, his.)

  Bar Katz also notes that the play tells the tale of Bogosian’s prophet, Sabbatai Zvi, “who returns home to his small village community and throws it into chaos when he infuses the people with messianic zeal, then coerces them to break every holy law they once held dear to hasten the End of Days.” We are looking forward to it. Free tickets will be distributed 30 minutes before curtain on a first come, first served basis, at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street, just south of Astor Place).

• Thursday, November 13, 3008. Actor Saul Rubinek is a big Russ & Daughters fan. In fact, he was in the store yesterday. We’re fans of his too. See him on Thursday night at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where he will perform as part of a festival in observance of the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht: Music In Exile - Emigre Composers of the 1930s.

  Thursday night’s program starts with a lecture at 6:00 p.m. (We Will Never Die presented by Bret Werb) and continues with performances at 7:00 p.m. The first part of the second half contains music with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, Czeslaw Milosz, and Guido Cavalcanti. The second, Through Roses by Marc Neikrug, a “music-drama for an actor and eight solo instruments,” features Rubinek (who also directs) and eight musicians. The show is at the Edmond J. Safra Hall at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Tickets are available.

- Jen Snow