Actor/author/commentator Charles Grodin presents a humorous retrospective of his career in movies and television at Bergen Community College on Thursday, June 16, at 7 p.m. in the Moses Family Meeting and Training Center on the college’s main campus in Paramus. The event is sponsored by Project Literacy, which helps adult non-readers gain reading and English-as-a-second-language skills; the Lend-A-Hand Foundation; BCC’s School of Continuing Education; and Rosica Public Relations. $40; $10 for Bergen students with I.D. All proceeds are shared by non-profits. (201) 447-7488 or www.bergen.edu/charlesgrodin. Courtesy BCC

Ahead of her June 12 performance to benefit Gilda’s Club Northern New Jersey, the local chapter of a charity founded in memory of the comedian Gilda Radner to help those struggling with cancer, cancer survivors, and their families, Rivers spoke with The Jewish Standard about her love for Israel, her daughter and her grandson, and the reasons she uses her talent to do good.

Jewish Standard: Lots of us admire your relationship with your daughter Melissa. Even when you have your differences, your strong connection and your love for each other shines through. What is it about your daughter that gives you the most nachas?

Joan Rivers: I guess being able to see that my daughter is living a good life, that she has brains and is a terrific mom and is able to cope with adversity — all of that, for a parent, is important.

If you find yourself in Manhattan on Sunday, June 5, finish your business, grab a bite, and head over to Symphony Space, on Broadway between 94th and 95th streets, where, at 4:30 p.m., the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus is presenting a concert of Yiddish music that will make you want to sing along and tap your feet.

This year’s concert, “Love, Loss, Laughter: Favorite Yiddish Folk Songs” includes “Oyfn Pripetshik,” “Der Rebbe Elimelech,” “Rozhinkes Mit Mandlen, and “Zuntik Bulbes,” along with lesser-known songs that illustrate what life was like in Eastern Europe a century ago. The concert also includes newer Yiddish numbers, by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman and the late Avrom Sutzkever, and one written by Josh Waletzky to commemorate 9/11. English translations and explanations are always provided, so the audience enjoys the concert and learns about the backgrounds and meanings of many great Yiddish songs.

Those politicians who are quick to declaim “class warfare” whenever a legislator wonders why people making a lot of money can’t pay higher taxes to help bring down the deficit or fund services for the poor have no idea what class resentment sounds like. We’ve come so far from real animosity between the rich and the poor that the mildest expression of concern about growing income inequality brings forth a torrent of rebuke from people who see themselves as the defenders of capitalism. If you want to hear someone urging real class war, go to the Portmanteau Theatre’s production of Clifford Odets’s agitprop play, “Waiting for Lefty,” at Hartley House, 413 West 46th St., in Manhattan.

“The Jew in the Lotus,” the best-selling book about the first recorded major dialogue between experts in Judaism and Buddhism, is the subject of a lecture by the book’s author, Rodger Kamenetz, at the Newark Museum on Thursday, June 2, at 7 p.m. The lecture will follow a coffee reception at 6.

Kamenetz was invited to document a historic trip in 1990 by a group of Judaic scholars and teachers to Dharamsala, India, the home in exile for the XIVth Dalai Lama of Tibet and the center for his sect of Buddhism. The Dalai Lama wanted to determine if Tibetans might find a path to their survival from the history of the Jews in exile.

Published in 1994, “The Jew in the Lotus” is in its 35th reprint and was also made into a PBS film, which first aired in 1999. Call (973) 596-6550 or newarkmuseum.org.

As part of the East Village Klezmer series, the group di bostoner klezmer will perform Tuesday, May 31, at 10 p.m., at Community Synagogue/Max D. Raiskin Center in Manhattan. $15 admission includes a drink. Call (212) 473-3665, (877) YIDDISH, or www.yiddishmusic.com.

An art exhibit by participants of Artist Beit Midrash of Cong. Beth Sholom in Teaneck will be on Sunday, June 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the shul. Featured artists, some pictured above, include Gila Schnee, Debbie Schore, Eva Leibman, Maxine Silverman, Arlene Sokolow, Deborah Ugoretz, Julie Blackman, Teela Banker, and Carol Weinstein Karlin. Art of all media created by students of this past year’s ABM class based on Jewish texts will be displayed. Refreshments will be served. For information, call (201) 833-2620. Courtesy CBS

Chabad of Hoboken will hold a Friday night dinner for young Jewish professionals on June 3. There will be an open bar, gourmet three-course dinner, and a talk by Mark Sanders, a missionary who converted to Judaism. For information, go to www.jewishhoboken.com/yjp.