Month: July 2017

Teens discover their Jewish identity on Youth to Israel journey

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By Shelley A. Sackett

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2017 Y2I participants dance on the Haas Promenade in Jerusalem during their ‘Welcome to Jerusalem’ ceremony. The trip included 109 teens from 28 communities.

 

 

Josh Tabenkin didn’t want to go on the Youth to Israel Adventure trip. He even skipped one of the mandatory pre-trip meetings, half hoping that infraction might get him booted out of the program. He ultimately decided to go because he was afraid he would regret it if he didn’t for the rest of his life.

 

After two weeks in Israel, the Georgetown Middle-High School 11th grader returned a different person.

 

“You learn about how great Israel is over all these years, but you really don’t believe it until you see it. I now feel I have a home and a place to go where I’ll always be accepted,” he said. “Being a Jew is more than a religion. I am changed in a Jewish way.”

 

Which is exactly the kind of transformation philanthropist Robert Israel Lappin hoped teens would experience when he created the Y2I program in 1971.

 

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2013 Y2I alumnus Jon Cohen, who is currently a Lone Soldier in the IDF, spoke to 2017 Y2I teens and encouraged them to defend Israel by being Israel advocates. Pictured, from left: Jonah Spritz of Swampscott, Colby Tarbox, Ian Shevory of Marblehead and Cohen.

 

“Y2I teens come back from Israel prouder and stronger Jews and eager to support Israel. Israel builds Jewish pride in our teens where none existed before. Israel inspires kids to stay Jewish. Israel connects teens to our Jewish Family and Israel inspires them to keep the Jewish chain of tradition going,” he said.

 

A stated goal of Y2I is to “inspire teens to stay Jewish, to marry Jewish, and to raise their own children Jewish.” To that end, it gives local teens a means and a reason to get together. “It’s a beautiful thing to see so many North Shore teens connect with one another and become fast friends. Were it not for Y2I, most would never meet,” Lappin said.

 

Open to Jewish sophomores or juniors in high school who live in or are members of a temple in any of 23 cities or towns, Y2I is considered a rite de passage for Jewish North Shore teens. More than 2,500 teens have taken the fully subsidized trip since its inception as Let’s Go Israel in 1971.

 

The 2017 trip included 109 teens from 28 communities and 38 high schools. Y2I is open to all, regardless of level of Jewish observance, education, and affiliation and, thanks to a 2017 grant from the Ruderman Family Foundation, disabilities.

 

Deborah Coltin is executive director of the Lappin Foundation and has led 12 Y2I trips over the program’s life. The two-week trip combines education, adventure, history and fun in a packed itinerary that includes visits to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, a Bedouin Village, the Sea of Galilee, and Masada.

 

“A big challenge is wanting to do more and see more during our time in Israel. With thirteen days on the ground and only 24 hours in a day, there is only so much we can do and see, and we do and see a lot!” she said. The 2017 trip also included activities such group building and leadership development, and Israeli dance sessions that tell the story of Israeli history and culture through dance.

 

Although Y2I offers participants the opportunity to have a Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall, none from the 2017 signed up in advance. After less than a week in Israel, several changed their minds. “It was beautiful how Israel made them feel this way not even one week into the trip,” she said.

 

Tony Gluskin, who never had a Bar Mitzvah at home in Marblehead, pinpointed the event of wrapping tefillin, reading a prayer with Rabbi Bernie and receiving a blessing at the Western Wall in Jerusalem as the single Y2I experience that had the most impact on him as a Jew.

 

“I felt a connection like never before, like I was crossing a bridge and strengthening my Jewish identity,” the Marblehead High School 11th grader said. “It all came together to give me a once in a lifetime feeling.”

 

Being at the Wall, touching it and putting a note to his grandfather in one of its crevices was “one of the coolest experiences I ever had,” according to Tabenkin. “I just felt so connected with the country and my people.”

American and Israeli teens spent fours days together in mifgash, a Hebrew word that means, “encounter.” Coltin witnessed the strong bonds formed over such a short time. “The mifgash is about feeling part of the Jewish Family, regardless of where we live,” she said.

Gluskin was struck by how similar American and Israeli teenagers are. “We talk about the same stuff, like the same music, enjoy the same things,” he said. He was also struck by an important difference.

 

“Once we graduate high school, we go onto college, but once they graduate, they go to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. It was fascinating seeing the affect that has on their daily lives.”

 

For Katie Cohen, of Peabody, seeing people who were not much older than herself wearing IDF uniforms and carrying guns “showed me up-close how different it is to grow up in America versus Israel.”

 

Most of the teens were surprised by how safe they felt in Israel. “The Israel they saw and experienced was not the Israel they saw on the news,” Coltin said. “Some expected Israel to be like a military state with armed soldiers roaming the streets.”

 

The rigors of a summer tour in Israel had its own physical tests. For Gluskin, the 6 a.m. wakeup call was his biggest challenge. “During the summer I like to sleep a lot,” he said. For Cohen, it was the heat, which she doesn’t think she could ever get used to completely.

 

With the heat, however, came the chance to float in the Dead Sea, Cohen’s favorite experience of the trip. “I’m not that great of a swimmer, so for the first time I could float comfortably without a floaty,” the Peabody Veterans Memorial High School 11th grader said with a laugh.

 

On a more serious note, another goal of Y2I is to equip teens to be Israel advocates and ambassadors. Following their trip to Israel, they are invited to enroll in the Foundation’s free Teen Israel Advocacy Fellows program, where they can participate in advanced Israel Advocacy training.

 

“My wish is that every Jewish teen in the U.S. could experience Israel, which would remedy the growing divide between the American community and Israel,” Lappin said. Coltin is excited by the number of teens who have expressed their interest in continuing in the 2017 post-trip advocacy program.

 

Her biggest reward, however, still comes from establishing a connection between Israel and North Shore Jewish teens who now have new friends, their own personal stories about Israel, and the tools and techniques to stand up for Israel and for themselves as Jews.

 

“Y2I continues to weave its magic,” Coltin said. According to Tabenkin, so does she. “This whole trip would not happen if it weren’t for Debbie. She gave me the gift of Israel,” he said.

 

 

 

 

Y2I is funded by Lappin Foundation, Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, Robert Israel Lappin, Combined Jewish Philanthropies and more than 900 donors to the Foundation’s annual campaign. The Morton and Lillian Waldfogel Charitable Foundation provides funds for families in need to cover ancillary costs.

 

 

Salem reinvests in Artists’ Row with its first Artist in Residence

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By Shelley A. Sackett, Salem Gazette correspondent

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Last Thursday, Artists’ Row was a beehive of activity. Alexis Batakis, a UMass Amherst art major from Peabody, donned short overalls and wielded a drill as she hovered over a pile of wood in a corner that was destined to become a 24-foot community table, the latest example of Salem’s commitment to public art.

 

Kids and parents, teens and grandmas sat down together and created mosaics from buckets of natural and upcycled materials that ranged from mussel shells to pieces of fabric during the first of six weekly Public Art Salons.

 

The mosaics will eventually become the top a 24-foot long table that will remain in Artists’ Row and become a gathering place for conversation, creativity and community.

 

This Community Table is the latest brainchild of Salem’s first Artist in Residence, Claudia Paraschiv. She is a Salem architect and owner of Studioful – Architecture, Community Art and Neighborhood Design, and founder of Salem Public Space Project.

 

She was as busy as a bee, organizing volunteers, like her husband Michael Jaros, who teaches English at Salem State University, and was having a blast brandishing a hammer instead of a piece of chalk. “I love doing this. It is liberating and fun,” he said, obviously meaning it.

 

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The Community Table will be built over five weeks by “anyone who would like to contribute time, artistry, ideas, help, materials or conversations,” Paraschiv said. She likes to imagine people sitting at the table and finding their artistic contribution and sharing that memory with new friends.

 

Her mission, as Artist in Residence, is to transform Artists’ Row into a local destination rather than a transitional, walk-through space. She intends to accomplish that through a series of creative placemaking events, called Public Art Salons, that will take place every Thursday, July 13 through August 17, from 3-7pm.

 

Located at 24 Derby Street in historic downtown Salem across from Old Town Hall and Derby Square at 24 New Derby Street, Artists’ Row occupies land that originally functioned as the City’s market place. Today, the space has five buildings that range in size from 370 to 1,000 square feet. Four function as working and gallery space for artist tenants, and a fifth is a restaurant, the Lobster Shanty.

 

Salem Public Art Planner Deborah Greel, who manages Artists Row and refers to its stalls as “art incubators”, wants to take the Row to the next level.

 

“It’s a place of challenged space. It’s wide. People don’t know where it is or how to get there,” she said, adding it is seen more as a cut through than a destination.

 

“We want Artists’ Row to be a creative space, a place that people are curious to stop at and see what’s going on there.”

 

To that end, the Public Art Commission and Greel launched the Artist in Residence Pilot Program (AIRPP) as an ongoing public art initiative to benefit the community by cultivating Artists’ Row’s potential. “Knowing the skill level Claudia has in creative placemaking, we asked her for a proposal,” Greel said.

 

Paraschiv was the first Artist in Residence in Dorchester’s Four Corners and recently facilitated the 289 Derby Community Design placemaking events.

 

Coined in 2010, the term placemaking describes a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood, city, or region by inspiring people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of their community. Typically, placemaking involves a series of collaborative, inclusive meetings among stakeholders, municipal and professional representatives, and facilitators.

 

After she was hired, Paraschiv’s first step was to meet with the Artists’ Row tenants over a six week period for listening sessions where she asked them their priorities and needs, and how the AIRPP could help. “The consensus was to transform the Row into a destination rather than a traditional, walk-through space,” she said.

 

To accomplish that, she developed the concept of a Community Table with each artist tenant contributing materials that will be applied to the table directly and through use in the mosaics.

 

The Community Table will be designed and built during a series of five creative placemaking events, named Public Art Salons. These are also opportunities for people to cultivate local talent and build productive and meaningful relationships.

 

The 24-foot long table will be constructed in six parts that people can separate to sit at and lunch separately, or combine together into one long communal table. “The table will also integrate small gardens and spread knowledge about native plants,” Paraschiv said, noting that one thought is to have a birdbath right in the middle of the table.

 

To facilitate the cross pollination of ideas, she has engaged three professionals to help her host the Salons: ecological landscape designer Annie Scott (thrivedesign.studio); artist Lexiee Batakis (@ayyyitslexayyy); face painter Alison Troy (@AlisonTroy) and reading nook architect David Rabkin (@WentworthArchitecture).

 

She envisions the Salons as engaging the entire space of Artists’ Row in ways that will evolve over time with community feedback, ideas and participation. Reading areas, gardens and other possible are under discussion.

 

In the meantime, Paraschiv is very much in the moment, and her enthusiasm for the Community Table she is shepherding into being is contagious. A passerby she engages in conversation happily joins the table to create her own mosaic contribution.

 

“When Claudia was doing all those different projects each week at 289 Derby, it was just wonderful to go down there and eat and play,” Greel said with a wide smile. “Building community is actually the most important piece of the placemaking process.”

 

Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism collide at Chicago Dyke March

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By Shelley A. Sackett

JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT

 

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From left: Marlene Copland Dodinval, Co-Chair of the A Wider Bridge Metro Council, Laurie Grauer, and Donna Fishman, past President of the Chicago Northshore NCJW Chapter.

 

An ill wind blew across Lake Michigan at the June 24 Chicago Dyke March when three women carrying Jewish Pride flags — a rainbow flag with a Star of David in the center — were asked to leave the rally by its pro-Palestinian organizers who claimed their flags were an unwelcome “trigger.”

 

Laurel Grauer, one of those ejected, told the Journal by phone, “one of the Dyke March Collective’s representatives told me this was an explicitly anti-Zionist march, and my flag was making people feel unsafe.”

 

Grauer has carried the same flag, which is from her congregation and celebrates her “queer, Jewish identity”, for over a decade. “The only difference this year is I was asked to leave,” she said.

 

The hint of trouble started before the march when Grauer noticed anti-Zionist comments on the Dyke March Collective’s social media pages and contacted Alex Martinez, its core organizer, to let her know she intended to march with her flag as she always had.

 

Martinez assured her that the march was not anti-Jewish and that there shouldn’t be an issue.

 

All was fine until the march concluded at a nearby park, where the rally continued with a bar-b-q and other activities.

 

Grauer stepped off the march and onto the green still holding her flag. “That’s when I was approached by several people telling me I had to put away my flag or leave,” she said.

 

“This is a community I care a great deal about,” Grauer said. “The way I had demonstrated my Jewish and gay pride for so long was being silenced because of some people’s conceptions of Israel.”

 

The annual Dyke March attracted some 1,500 people this year. It is billed as a more inclusive event than the larger Chicago Pride Parade, held days later.

 

In its official statement issued three days later, the Dyke March Collective reasserted its anti-Zionist platform.

 

“Zionism is an inherently white-supremacist ideology. We welcome and include people of all identities, but not all ideologies…We welcome Jewish allies and marchers who are as invested in liberation as we are,” the statement said.

 

“The Chicago Dyke March Collective is explicitly not anti-Semitic, we are anti-Zionist,” the statement continued. “The Chicago Dyke March Collective supports the liberation of Palestine and oppressed people everywhere.

 

“From Palestine to Mexico, border walls have to go!!”

 

Reaction from the local, national and international Jewish communities was swift and united, labeling the Dyke March’s action as anti-Semitic.

 

Locally, Robert Trestan, the Anti-Defamation League’s New England regional director, decried what he saw as a political litmus test designed to exclude Jews from what is supposed to be an inclusive event.

 

“They’re creating their own definition of Zionism to fit their political purposes,” he said.

 

Although disheartened by the experience, Grauer sees a silver lining. “People see there is more than one way to perceive a term or an identity, whether it be pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian, Zionist or anti-Zionist. I think it’s a touch point for a new conversation that needed to happen and maybe that’s why this story was picked up, and continues to be covered, by so many communities.

 

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Jew(ish) Tribe for Pride, of the North Shore, participated in the Salem pride march on June 24.

 

In stark contrast to the stormy Chicago march, a kinder, gentler ocean breeze wafted over the June 24 Salem Gay Pride March, where members of Beverly’s Temple B’nai Abraham and a new group, Jew(ish) Tribe for Pride, were among the over 10,000 participants.

 

Temple B'nai Abraham Pride Parade 2016

 

Those interviewed had nothing but praise and gratitude towards North Shore Pride, the six-year-old nonprofit that sponsors the parade.

 

“What happened at the Chicago Dyke March is unsettling and I believe anti-Semitic and it demands our attention, but it is not what happens here,” said Temple B’nai Abraham Rabbi Alison Adler.

 

This is the third year the temple has marched as a Jewish organization and the second year members wore labels with the same rainbow Jewish star that has long been a symbol of LBGTQ Jewish identity and pride. No one has said anything about it except, ‘thank you,’” Rabbi Adler said.

 

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The sticker worn and handed out by members of Temple B’nai Abraham which resembles the flag Laurie Grauer was not allowed to carry at the Chicago Dyke March.

 

 

Sandy Freiberg, a Beverly resident and Temple B’nai Abraham vice president, marched for the first time this year and found the experience encouraging and powerful, “in large part due to the fact that I was simultaneously celebrating my gay and Jewish identities,” he said.

 

 

All of which is music to North Shore Pride president and founder Hope Watt-Bucci’s ears.

 

“The premise of our organization is really building community with pride, so we’re all about inclusivity,” she said. She started North Shore Pride six years ago as a result of hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community.

 

North Shore Pride is purposefully apolitical. “We are all about unity,” Watt-Bucci said.

 

Rabbi Adler seconds that. “North Shore Pride’s theme this year was ‘Stronger Together’ — and they live by it,” she said.

 

289 Derby final design a triumph for community engagement

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By Shelley A. Sackett, correspondent

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The 289 Derby final collective schematic plan shows a balance of green space and paved surfaces with an amphitheater-like area, lawn with shade, a multi-use stage and a variety of areas for meetings, play and chance encounters.

 

289 Derby Street is a half-acre parking lot that directly borders the South River. The site hosts a pop-up carnival during Halloween each year and little else.

 

All that is about to change.

 

Salem acquired the parcel in 2016 and, with a recent $750,000 state grant for construction, the City hired CBA Landscape Architects to design the new public space that will connect downtown Salem to its waterfront.

 

CBA Landscape Architects engaged Claudia Paraschiv as a consultant for this placemaking phase. She is a public artist, urbanist, and registered architect in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and owner of Studioful -Architecture, Community Art, and Neighborhood Design.

 

She founded the Salem Public Space Project to facilitate these placemaking meetings and engaged John Andrews, of Creative Salem, to co-facilitate. He built the 289 Derby St. website that included the public input surveys that were crucial to the information gathering process.

 

After a series of four 289 Derby Community Design Events, the permanent park design was unveiled at the fifth and final June 21 event, and it is a curvy beauty.

 

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Participants of one of the four 289 Derby Community Design placemaking events.

 

The whole process took a mere five weeks and involved the participation of community members in an exciting and innovative approach to collaborative public space planning called placemaking.

 

First coined in 2010, the term describes a hands-on approach for improving a neighborhood, city, or region by inspiring people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of their community. Typically, placemaking involves a series of collaborative, inclusive meetings among stakeholders, municipal and professional representatives, and facilitators.

 

The goal for the 289 Derby Street public space project, according to Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Community Development Kathleen M. Winn, is to have a place that is both beautiful year-round and flexible enough to accommodate different types of programming.

 

Unique to this project, however, was the process used to achieve that goal. Rather than engaging in the traditional top-down practice of having CBA Landscape Architects design the space first and then ask the public to retrofit it to specific use, the community meetings were used to hear from residents and other stakeholders what they wanted to use the space for before they designed it.

 

Anyone interested would be invited to join the conversation and have a say and a vote in how the 289 Derby space would be used and what it would look like.

 

 

“The idea is to bring the project to the people who will use the space and then have it designed to fit their desires,” Paraschiv explained.

 

Members of the Salem community were invited to help design the city’s public space at the vacant 289 Derby Street lot during four community events that took place on site from May 24 to June 14.

 

Each 289 Derby meeting gave participants a hands-on opportunity to experience the different activities the space might sponsor, such as music, yoga, gardening, games, outdoor movies and even paddle-boarding on the South River.

 

“The space was transformed to show people literally, ‘look how cool this could be!’” Paraschiv said.

 

The first event, “Dance & Design”, featured performances by local dance groups and a chalkboard wall where attendees were invited to write their favorite activities.

 

“Meet & Share” offered the opportunity to share personal visions of the public space’s character, programming, meaning and culture; games and activities were the focus of “Plan & Play.”

 

Both Paraschiv and Andrews couldn’t be more pleased with the process and its outcome.

 

“This was a grassroots effort to design and construct an otherwise empty lot. The idea is to try to bring it to the people who will use the space and then have it designed to fit those needs,” said Paraschiv,

 

“One thing we learned during placemaking is what a powerful tool the community and the municipality has with this process under the right direction,” Andrew said.

 

At the fourth meeting on June 14, approximately 200 residents local food and the opportunity to review and comment on the final two design options, one straight and one curvy.

 

By a margin of 70 to 18, the curvy plan was the overwhelming favorite.

 

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Participants chose the “curvy” plan at right over the straight plan at left by a          70 to 18 margin.

 

 

The final collective schematic plan shows a balance green space and paved surfaces with an amphitheater-like area, lawn with shade, a multi-use stage and a variety of areas for meetings, play and chance encounters.

 

Some of the possible green space uses include botanical gardens and a labyrinth that could double as a space for group exercise and a small skating rink in the winter.

 

“It’s hard to believe that just five weeks ago we had our first listening session with ‘Dance & Design,’” said Paraschiv.

 

CBA Landscape Architects is continuing the design work and developing cost estimates. Permitting is underway and the City expects to have documents ready for late August, according to Winn.

 

Because the lot is the site of October’s Derby Street Carnival, construction could not begin before November.

 

In her summary report, Paraschiv credits local support for helping the Community Engagement achieve its three objectives of: designing a schematic plan direction with strong public support; creating simulated events of feasible, actual use; and inspiring local stewardship of some key elements of the park and programming for 289 Derby.

 

“This permanent park design is a collaborative collection process by the people who came to the meetings and the architects,” Paraschiv said with obvious pride.

 

Andrews believes that those vested in the 289 Derby collaborative process might likewise influence the larger long-term project of creating a connection between downtown Salem and the waterfront.

 

“One thing is certain,” added Andrews, “It really drives home the emphasis on making a harbor walk a feasible and existing part of Salem’s future.”

 

For more information, visit salempublicspaceproject.com and CreativeSalem.com/289Derby.

 

Swampscott cantor hits it out of the park with new CD release

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Shelley A. Sackett, correspondent

 

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Cantor Elana Rozenfeld loves her job at Congregation Shirat Hayam (CSH) and last Sunday, her congregation gave her a big “back atcha” with a “Song of the Sea Soirée” that honored her six years as their cantor and celebrated the release of her new CD, “Hallelu!”

 

The sold-out crowd of over 260 guests was treated to an elegant evening of food, camaraderie and — most importantly — music as Cantor Elana and her six-piece band performed a repertoire that included several songs from the new CD and ranged in genre from Yiddish theater to a popular Israeli radio hit song to liturgical music.

 

Rabbi Michael Ragozin introduced her as the “biggest engine and vehicle” that has strengthened the temple’s ability to forge life long, meaningful relationships. “Her music brings us together in powerful ways that I haven’t experienced anywhere else,” he said. “This is the space where I want to be and it is all because of our cantor.”

 

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“I’m an artist. That’s what fills me up, it’s what gives me something to give. If I take away the giving part of what I do, I’m not happy,” she said.

 

That generosity of spirit and artistry were on full display during the 70-minute concert and fundraiser that brought the audience to their feet for two standing ovations and had many wiping away a tear after her soulful encore rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

 

Each of the 14 songs took on a special meaning after Cantor Elana’s informative and anecdotal introductions. The musicianship of her band (violin: Yaeko Miranda Elmaleh; guitar: Lautaro Mantilla; percussion: Jeremiah Klarman; bass: Simón Willson; back vocals: Sarah Nissenbaum; piano: David Sparr) added special texture, color and professionalism to the evening.

 

In the audience, 17-year-old Rachel Nissenbaum and her parents, Lilly and Jerry, were thrilled that Berklee vocal student and Rachel’s sister, Sarah, was sharing the stage with Cantor Elana as back up singer. “It’s so nice to see so many people here supporting the cantor. It’s very beautiful,” Rachel said.

 

“I’m so excited! I can’t wait!” added Lilly.

 

“Oy Mame,” a Yiddish love song, had the crowd clapping along to Cantor Elana’s exaggerated theatrical gestures and tapping their toes to Elmaleh’s klezmer-like violin accompaniment.

 

“Shavim,” a popular Israeli song about equality and inclusion, was dedicated to CSH and its “tireless effort to support all people in our spiritual home.” The cantor underscored her point by signing the words as she sang them.

 

Other songs urged listeners to look inward during these challenging times. “History Has Its Eye On You/Oseh Shalom,” a “mash up” of a song from the musical “Hamilton” and a Hebrew prayer for peace, is about life, regrets, mistakes and hope for a better future. “It should remind us that it’s up to each of us to make a change and to make peace,” she said.

 

“Seven Years,” a female rewrite of Lukas Graham’s top 40 hit, considers what kind of legacy we want to leave for our children. “I want to make the world a better place. Isn’t that the point of art? Isn’t that the point of music?” she said earlier in the week during an interview.

 

Cantor Elana is known as much for her love of teaching children as she is for her exquisite voice. The Chai Notes, CSH’s all-girl teen choir, is her pride and joy.

 

They performed Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” at the soirée fresh on the heels of their June 13 performance of “Star-Spangled Banner” at Fenway for Jewish Heritage Night.

 

How they got to Fenway is inextricably related to the CD celebrated at the soirée.

 

The girls recorded the song “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem, for Cantor Elana’s new CD. While working with them on that track, she became aware of Fenway’s upcoming Jewish Heritage Night and a light bulb went off in her head. “I thought, ‘We need to do Fenway’” she said.

 

Congregant and choir mom Amanda Clayman contacted the Red Sox and found out how they selected singers and what The Chai Notes would need to submit for consideration. Since they already had studio time for the CD, they were able to quickly record the requisite “The Star Spangled Banner” in three-part harmony and then send it in.

 

“They responded immediately, ‘Yes. We want you.’” Cantor Elana said. “And then we practiced. A LOT.”

 

Although her impressive resume includes NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and cantorial posts at Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, N.J. and Park Avenue’s eminent Park Avenue Synagogue, her reasons for wanting to make a CD have nothing to do with personal gain or fame. They are all about promoting the synagogue she calls home.

 

“People are starting to know me in the Jewish world and to know Shirat Hayam. We’re this hidden gem and I want us to be less hidden,” she said. “No one would know that a shul (synagogue) like this would exist in Swampscott,” Cantor Elana said.

 

The CD also allows CSH to put their liturgical music on their website. “This is a fraction of the musical legacy of CSH,” she said, adding she hopes people will hear the music and say, “Yeah. I want to go there.”

 

All the money earned by the CD goes to CSH for music programming. Although she owns the copyright to her own music, Cantor Elana does not reap any personal financial benefit from sales.

 

She hopes that people will buy CDs for themselves and for “100 of their closest friends” to support the work she is trying to do.

 

“We say it supports music at Shirat Hayam, but music IS Shirat Hayam. If someone gives money to the Hebrew School or preschool, there’s music programming in both of those. Everything we do is around music,” she said.

 

Rabbi Michael is especially pleased that the CD contains most of the musical prayers which comprise the Friday evening and Saturday morning Shabbat services, giving CSH the ability to reach beyond the weekly live prayer/performance experience and give others access to these same connections any time they want.

 

“Many of the things we do are aimed at increasing accessibility and giving someone this CD also gives them tremendous accessibility to what we’re doing here at Shirat Hayam,” he said.

 

For more information or to buy the CD “Hallelu!”, visit https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/cantorelanarozenfeld.

North Shore day camps serve up Jewish summer fun

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Shelley A. Sackett, Journal correspondent

 

Happy campers in the pool

JCCNS Campers

 

After a chillier and wetter spring than usual, parents and their school aged children are especially anxious for the warmer days of summer vacation and the welcoming start of the summer camp season.

 

Families on the North Shore are lucky to have a choice of three Jewish day camps: the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore’s “Summer at the J” in Marblehead; Chabad of the North Shore’s “Camp Gan Israel of the North Shore” in Swampscott; and North Suburban Jewish Community Center’s “Summer Play” in Peabody.

 

The JCCNS has offered the Camp Simchah summer camp experience for over 70 years, starting in Lynn Beach and moving to its current 11-acre campus “on the hill” after over four decades at its former Middleton location.

 

Fine and Performing Arts- Day one

 

Summer at the J Camps covers all age groups from 2 years 9 months through those entering 10th grade. With nine one-week sessions, camp starts on June 26 and ends August 25. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with extended care available.

 

All campers have instructional morning swim led by the Aquatics department at the outdoor pool located on the JCCNS campus, and use of lower fields, tennis courts, and gym.

 

KinderCamp features daily schedules of music and movement, sports and games, instructional swim and more for those between 2 years 9 months and entering kindergarten.

 

Campers entering grades 1 and 2 attend Simchah Classic Junior and those entering grades 3 to 6 attend Simchah Classic, both with rotating schedules of drawing, science, arts and crafts, sports and instructional swim. The two groups also have a weekly choice of electives, among them science, engineering, SCRATCH!, robotics, drama, cooking, ropes course, dance and more.

 

Older campers entering grades 6-8 have the opportunity to attend Simchah Travel Camp, with weekly 2-3 night overnight trips and daily trips that may include kayaking, canoeing, indoor/outdoor rock climbing, museum visits, amusement parks and beaches. Day trip destinations may include Crane’s Beach, Canobie Lake Park, Salem Willow, and Water Country. Overnight trips may be to Caratunk, Maine and North Conway, New Hampshire.

 

The Simchah Counselor-in-Training (CIT) Program partners with the North Shore Teen Initiative (NSTI) to provide campers entering grades 9 and 10 with two-week sessions which incorporate counselor training, leadership workshops, social justice field trips, volunteer projects and fun social trips.. For more information and to register, visit JCCNS.org or call 781-631-8330.

 

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Chabad of the Norhshore Camp Gan Israel buddies

 

Chabad of the North Shore’s Camp Gan Israel has been in operation for almost 20 years, with Rabbi Shmaya and Aliza Friedman entering their seventh year as camp directors.

 

Aliza has directed Jewish day camps across the world, including in Dublin, Ireland, Helsinki, Finland and Boca Raton, Florida. She spearheads staff training and has extensive experience with preschoolers through teenagers. Rabbi Shmaya heads up Chabad’s youth programming, including Jew Crew and Chai Five.

 

All campers get a hot kosher lunch every day and extended before and after care options are available for those who need more hours than provided by the regular 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. schedule. Camp runs from June 26 to August 4.

 

Mini Gan Izzy for boys and girls ages 3-4 takes place at Chabad at 44 Burrill Street in Swampscott, where campers participate in sports and outdoor adventures, art and music and swimming.

 

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Camp Gan Israel field trip

 

The Junior (entering grades K-2), Sabra (entering grades 3-5) and Pioneer (entering grades 6-8) programs take place at Chabad’s second campus at 151 Ocean Street in Lynn.

 

“It’s like an everything camp in one,” Aliza explained, describing the various activities all campers experience, from swimming at the Marblehead YMCA and Salem Forest River Park to the many specialties offered each week to the Friday Shabbat party with a specialty show that may be magic, puppets, the “bubble guy”, animal people or a mad carnival.

 

Every Wednesday, the entire camp goes on a field trip to destinations like Legoland, Canobie Lake and Water Country. The older two divisions have additional trips on Mondays that may be bowling, skating, golfing or laser tag. They also have a choice of electives that include photography, horseback riding, boating, Adventure camp, computer lab, art and baseball clinic.

 

Camp Gan Israel’s flexible sign up policy allows parents to craft their own schedule, whether by the week, for a few days here and there or for the entire summer. The Friedmans’s “low maintenance and user friendly” approach to scheduling recognizes that many families plan summer vacations and may need childcare on an irregular basis.

For more information and to register, visit nsjewishcamp.com.

 

For the wee ones from 6 weeks to 5 years old, NSJCC in Peabody offers a state-of-the-art childcare facility and “Summer Play” camp activities for toddlers and pre-kindergarten aged children from June 26 to August 18. With flexible 2-3-4 or 5-day options and summer theme days and water play, children enjoy gardening, exploring bugs, having camping adventures and exploring edible science. For more information or to register, visit nsjcc.org.

JCCNS Inclusion Camp champions diversity

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Shelley A. Sackett, Journal correspondent

 

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When Marty Schneer arrived in Marblehead in 2013 to take over as executive director of the JCCNS, one of the first people he met was Marcy Yellin, whose 32-year-old son, Jacob, has special needs and was employed at the JCCNS.

 

She told Schneer that the community lacked an inclusion camp. He asked her what she would like to see. Within months, Schneer formed a committee with Yellin and a few others, including Special Education teacher Melissa Caplan. By the following summer, the JCCNS Inclusion Camp was up and running with 20 campers and Caplan at the helm as director.

 

This year the Inclusion Camp has 40 campers, a staff of 25, and a long waiting list. Specially trained staff work with children to integrate them into Kindercamp, Simchah classic camps and the Simchah CIT program.

 

There are no criteria for admission. “We take inclusion pretty seriously, so how could we make criteria that excludes some?” Caplan asked. The only reason a camper might not receive support is if that individual already tried camp and the staff knows it is unable to keep that child of their peers safe.

 

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Special needs campers participate in the same activities as their chronological peers, including aquatics and sports. “The goal of the camp is not only to provide services to a population who until now was not included, but also to break down the boundaries that often exist when people are not exposed to differences at an early age,” Caplan said.

 

Campers range in age from 2.9 months to teenagers. Staff includes teens and young adults who themselves have disabilities, filling an additional community need. “These individuals come to work and receive a paycheck just like their non-disabled peers,” Caplan said.

 

Inclusion campers and staff cope with a variety of disabilities that include developmental delays, intellectual impairments, autism, cerebral palsy, blindness, social/emotional disabilities, muscular dystrophy, down syndrome, seizure disorder and many more.

 

Most require on-on-one aids, which is expensive, and which is covered partially through private donations and organized fundraising. “We pride ourselves that the cost to attend camp is the same for all, whether you need a one-on-one aid or not,” Schneer said. “The underlying philosophical approach is that this is good for entire community of campers.”

 

“Marty believes in the need to support a neuro-diverse population, even though it costs the JCCNS a great deal,” Caplan added.

 

The term “neuro-diverse” means normal, natural variation in human cognition. It embodies the idea that those who are non-neuro typical can live their lives as they are with accommodations and modifications instead of being forced to conform to “normal.”

 

Caplan’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in multiple disabilities and a Masters degree in Early Intervention. She has worked in Roxbury, Newton and Marblehead and currently teaches special education at the Clarke School in Swampscott. “I believe wholeheartedly in the spirit of inclusion. It is a passion of mine,” she said.

 

During the rest of the year, the JCCNS runs adaptive/inclusion programs. Caplan works “very part time” in the year-round Inclusion Program, which last year added inclusive basketball and lacrosse clinics, Sunday family drumming circle and an IEP (individual educational program) support clinic for families. The program already has adaptive swim and gym programs.

 

Next year, Caplan would love to expand the sports clinics and start a lacrosse league and a Special Olympics swim team. “We have tons of great ideas and committed staff and eager participants. The only setback is funding,” she said.

 

In the meantime, Yellin sees the fruits of her vision every Friday as she walks down the hill to the JCCNS where she plays music. “I see wheelchairs amongst kids playing and all kinds of people in one space. It’s a beautiful sight,” she said.