Staff Profiles<\/a><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_accordion_item][\/et_pb_accordion][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.4.8″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2020\/06\/Arielle-Shimko.jpg” _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” alt=”Seven people stand side-by-side.” title_text=”Arielle Shimko” sticky_enabled=”0″ align=”center” border_color_all=”#000000″ border_width_all=”1px”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ text_font=”Open Sans||||||||” text_font_size=”16px” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
Promenading along El Malec\u00f3n, Havana\u2019s harbor esplanade . . . connecting with the Cuban capital\u2019s remaining but vibrant Jewish community . . . sampling concerts, galleries, and parties. That\u2019s where Arielle Shimko thrived in January. \u201cI always, always, always wanted to go to Cuba, ever since I was a little kid,\u201d says the worldly traveler and Queens College senior. She was one of six CUNY undergraduates pioneers on \u201cCuba: A Literary Adventure,\u201d a new Winter Session offering.<\/p>\n
Serendipity drew Shimko to her dream. Stopping by QC\u2019s Study Abroad office to check on her German language credits earned last summer in Berlin, she noticed a poster for the Cuban program. She signed up right away to experience this Communist country as it opens up to cultural exchange for eligible groups. \u201cMy Spanish is pretty good,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Majoring in Hebrew and minoring in art history, Shimko had gone to Florence, Italy, on a QC study abroad art trip; had a fellowship in Israel; and is eagerly applying for more international opportunities.<\/p>\n
In Havana, the students and the trip\u2019s organizer, writer\/editor\/educator Janet Hulstrand, were well-sited for their ambitious agenda: They stayed in a waterside penthouse apartment. The group listened to Cuban youth discuss contemporary culture, visited the Hemingway house museum, and toured other institutions highlighting the Cuban Revolution and Afro-Cuban religions. At Casa de las Americas, Havana\u2019s Art Deco trove of Latin American art, they were on hand for its Premio Literario awards and readings, as well as for concerts; an exhibit opening; and lectures by the island\u2019s specialists on Cuban film, theatre, music, literature and more. This summer, Hulstrand will guide QC students on the college\u2019s 15th annual Paris literary adventure, which, like the Cuban program, is offered in English.<\/p>\n
Shimko\u2019s social whirl swirls from 6 am yoga class to nighttime Yiddish cabarets. She plans parties from the \u201cbrainstorming to the cleaning up\u201d; volunteers for Jewish Heart for Africa and other causes; and hosts charity events and Shabbat dinners. \u201cI make sure everyone knows the people they need to talk to,\u201d she notes. \u201cThat\u2019s my shtick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her social nature meets up and melds with her serious side. Shimko worked for two years at a marketing firm and now teaches two classes at a Hebrew school. \u201cI love architecture and visiting museums and new galleries,\u201d she says. At the Polish consulate in New York, she previewed the opening of a museum devoted to the history and culture of Poland\u2019s Jews. \u201cI really want to be a curator of a Jewish museum. I\u2019m interested in Holocaust Studies, Holocaust museums, in Judaica and visual objects in Jewish art,\u201d she notes. \u201dI want to be able to create a space that attracts many different types of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
What she\u2019s reading: <\/strong>Days of Awe, a novel by Achy Obejas about an expatriate Cuban woman living in America exploring her family roots in Cuba (her family is descended from conversos, Jews who converted to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition), and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 weekly series Covenant and Conversation, which Shimko values because it \u201cdescribes in a very intellectual manner the Jewish Bible as literature.\u201d<\/p>\nFavorite music:<\/strong> Cultural, klezmer, Israeli, \u201cmusic I can dance to, something that has a twist.\u201d<\/p>\nHidden talent: <\/strong>During her family\u2019s long weekends in Vermont, she says \u201cI used to be a competitive freestyle skier.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Name: Arielle ShimkoMajor: Hebrew Year: 2012From: Manhattan “I chose Queens College because it offers a comprehensive and affordable education.”- Arielle Shimko Student Profiles Alumni Profiles Faculty Profiles Staff ProfilesPromenading along El Malec\u00f3n, Havana\u2019s harbor esplanade . . . connecting with the Cuban capital\u2019s remaining but vibrant Jewish community . . . sampling concerts, galleries, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"page_category":[],"wf_page_folders":[137],"class_list":["post-759","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1990,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/759\/revisions\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"page_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page_category?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"wf_page_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qc.cuny.edu\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_page_folders?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}