Feature

Salem Film Fest 2018 kicks off weeklong documentary film festival on March 22

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By Shelley A. Sackett

 

Reluctant Radical

Ken Ward breaks the law in “The Reluctant Radical.”

 

For the eleventh straight year, Salem Film Fest 2018, the weeklong all-documentary film festival, arrives just in the nick of time to brighten the spirits of weary North Shore winter warriors. With a diverse program of more than 60 feature and short films, parties, discussions, and opportunities to meet visiting filmmakers in intimate settings, Salem Film Fest is the perfect antidote to those Nor’easter blues.

 

The festival kicks off on Thursday, March 22 at 5:30 pm with an opening night reception at Old Town Hall featuring a video installation by local filmmaker Elayne Cronin and a Virtual Reality film by WGBH’s FRONTLINE and NOVA.

 

Salem Film Fest runs March 22-29 with screenings in Salem at Cinema Salem, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), the National Park Service Visitor Center and Old Town Hall. For the first time, screenings will also take place in Beverly at The Cabot and at Endicott College’s Rose Performance Hall.

 

“Although we will always be rooted in Salem, we are excited to increase the opportunities for audiences outside the city to see these works. We want the whole North Shore to consider this their documentary film festival,” said Salem Film Fest Co-Founder and Co-Festival Director Joe Cultrera in a press release.

 

With its focus on artistically well-told stories, SFF 2018 offers a broad menu of films on subjects that range from art & music to global politics, from legal dramas to soulful journeys. During the week, audiences will have the rare opportunity to mix and match films on such eclectic topics as: Irish Big Wave surfers; the British punkers, Sleaford Mods; Fred Beckey, the mountaineering “dirtbag”; Father Divine, a black minister who claimed to be God; a subculture of women who dress as mermaids; and giant swamp rats that invade Louisiana.

 

As one of the largest all-documentary film festivals on the East Coast, Salem Film Fest prides itself on the post-screening Q&As, where filmmakers, film subjects and filmgoers engage in thought-provoking conversations that often continue beyond the theater.

 

“Audiences have a great opportunity to speak with filmmakers at Q&As after screenings, but also out and about in Salem as they take in the downtown. Filmmakers tell us all the time how much they enjoy the recognition they get and how much they enjoy interacting with our audience,” said Salem Film Fest Program Jeff Schmidt.

 

Filmmaker Lindsey Grayzel, who directed “The Reluctant Radical” and will attend its East Coast premiere screening on Sunday, March 25 at CinemaSalem at 7:20 pm, is looking forward to hearing how the audience reacts to her film. “It still thrills me to hear a group collectively giggle or sigh during certain scenes,” she said by email.

 

“The Reluctant Radical” follows climate activist Ken Ward through a series of civil disobediences as he breaks the law to fulfill his personal and moral obligation to future generations. Ward spent over 15 in Massachusetts, living in Amherst, Boston and Hull.

 

Grayzel met Ward in 2015 and found his personal history compelling. “He made me feel differently about climate change after our first conversation,” Grayzel said. Ward, whose activist journey took him from environmental organizations and lobbying to civil disobedience and direct action readily agreed when Grayzel asked if she could make a documentary film about him. “It was the one approach he hadn’t yet tried,” she said.

 

Grayzel hopes audiences will realize that they have the power to slow down and prevent the worst-case scenarios of climate change and “commit themselves to joining the fight for our future. We are not powerless to change the course ahead,” she said.

 

In addition to connecting with other filmmakers and “seeing some great films,” Grayzel is also looking forward to the post-screening Q&A. “I’m curious what kinds of questions and issues the film brings up for people, and if my themes came across clearly,” she said.

 

Filmmakers are expected to be present at more than half the screenings, including “This Is Home” and “Beauty and Ruin.”

 

“This Is Home,” a New England premiere, will screen at The Cabot on Friday, March 23 at 6:45 pm. The film is an intimate and timely portrait of four Syrian refugee families arriving in America and struggling to find their footing as they learn to adapt to challenges, including the newly imposed travel ban.

 

East Coast premiere “Beauty and Ruin” spotlights Detroit and its recent bankruptcy, which put all the city’s assets on the table, including the Detroit Institute of Art’s priceless collection. The film follows the struggle that unfolds between the retired city workers, who want the art sold to fund their pensions and health care, and the museum, which wants to preserve the city’s cultural treasure for future generations. The film screens at PEM on Saturday, March 24 at 8:10 pm.

 

Other films of special note are: “Becoming Who I Was” (a boy discovers that he is the reincarnation of a Tibetan monk and takes an epic journey with his godfather in a story of faith and unconditional love); “The Judge” (the first woman judge to sit on a West Bank Palestinian Shari’a court redefines how the law treats women); “Mr. Fish” (an outrageous editorial cartoonist tries to raise a family and maintain his defiant voice when dangerous humor has no market); and “Siberian Love” (after 20 years of living in Berlin, director Olga Delane journeys back to her roots in a small Siberian village, where she is confronted with traditional views of relationships, life and love).

 

For those who can’t wait for the March 22 kick off reception, SFF is partnering with local businesses to hold three launch parties — Notch Brewery & Tap Room (Thursday, March 15 from 4-11 pm), Far From The Tree Craft Hard Cider (Friday, March 16 from 5-9 pm) and Deacon Giles Distillery (Saturday, March 17 from 6-10 pm). SFF volunteers will be on hand to answer questions and sell tickets.

 

A complete lineup of films, listings of all events, and information on how to buy tickets is available at salemfilmfest.com.

 

 

Swampscott Library hosts fabulous Friday night out for the ladies

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By Shelley A. Sackett

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Mandy Roberge, owner of Wicked Good Henna, gives Brenda Cohen her first henna tattoo.

 

Last Friday night, over seventy women left their families, pets and chores at home and trekked over to the Swampscott Library for Ladies Night Out, the fabulous Friday fundraiser sponsored by the Friends of the Swampscott Library with help from library staff.

 

The evening was a heaven-sent respite from the wintry ravages of March. Jazz wafted through the library, transformed to resemble more of a cocktail party than house of culture and learning. Attendees were treated to a stress-free evening of pampering, chatting, eating and drinking. Women received one complimentary service with more available to purchase, and they enthusiastically signed up for henna tattoos, Reiki, massage, Tarot and Angel card readings, and personal image consultations. Exciting raffles, pop-up boutiques, speakers and sumptuous appetizers donated by Whole Foods were the icing on the cake.

 

Becky Brandt, owner of Nurture Massage and Wellness in Swampscott, brought her massage chair and complimentary goodie bags to the event. The Swampscott native, who has practiced massage therapy for 7 years, was delighted to be part of the evening. “This looks like a really fun night. There’s a little bit of everything for women to come in and enjoy,” she said.

 

The area that created the biggest buzz, however, was Mandy Roberge’s henna tattooing table. Women gathered to watch Roberge ply her craft and to pick out which design they wanted when, at long last, it would be their turn. Roberge, who lives in Leominster and owns Wicked Good Henna, was invited to participate by one of librarians, a friend of hers. “This event is a nice way for libraries to treat their patrons and also to bring in new people,” she said as she put the finishing touch on a tattoo by sprinkling it with pink sparkles.

 

Alison Kenney, a Marblehead resident and Swampscott Friend for 20 years, heard about this type of event from another library and thought it would be a great fit for Swampscott. “We were looking for new ways to engage the community and raise money and this came out of a brainstorming session with some of the librarians, ” she said. “The library is 100 years old, but it is very vibrant tonight,” she added, as she excused herself to go to her Reiki appointment.

 

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Phyllis Sagan, owner of Sagan Realtors in Swampscott, captivated the audience with her humor, advice and personal tales of running a business.

 

Two speakers, Life Coach and Certified Yoga Instructor Molly Williams and Phyllis Sagan, owner of Sagan Realtors, addressed the standing room crowd. Sagan talked about her experiences starting and growing her business, now in its 34th year, peppering her talk with humor and sage advice. “I live by the motto, ‘No challenge, no business,’” she said.

 

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Alyce Deveau, Swampscott Library director, and Izzi Abrams, co-head of Children’s Services, prepare to draw the winning raffle tickets.

 

The Friends is a tax-exempt entity that provides volunteer help, conducts an annual book sale, sponsors programs for adults, purchases all museum passes, funds the library newsletter and underwrites many Young Adult and Children’s Room activities. The evening’s $50 cost included a year’s membership to the Friends, which holds its open meetings in the library on the second Monday of each month at 7:00pm.

 

Ellen Winkler, a longtime Friend and new Trustee, beamed as she looked around the room. “We’re going to try to reimagine the building from the inside out,” she said with pride.

Millennial Jews finding ways to connect on the North Shore

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Alex Powell and Toby Jacobson discuss the Six13 North program. Photo by Steven A. Rosenberg/Journal Staff

 

By Shelley A. Sackett

 

Last November, a group of young Jewish professionals gathered at the home of Congregation Shirat Hayam Rabbi Michael Ragozin to brainstorm ways to engage their fellow North Shore millennials. Ranging in age from 22 to 45, few of them   had met before and most knew the rabbi only minimally.

Yet all shared the same longing to create a vibrant local community of Jewish friends. They quickly focused on their purpose: To maximize the number they would connect with over the next six months.

They decided to apply for a $2,500 Combined Jewish Philanthropies Young Adult Community Grant to start the group. Named Six13 North after the 613 mitzvot in the Torah, it defines itself as “an open community of young professional Jews and friends with the stated mission to design environments to create, grow, and deepen connections on the North Shore.”

Within two days, recent college graduates Alex Powell and Axi Berman delivered a draft business plan. The group collaboratively revised it and on Dec. 21, CJP awarded the grant and Six13 North was officially launched.

Its first event, Hometown & Homeland, will feature a tasting of local spirits and Israeli wines paired with light snacks at the Bit Bar in Salem at 8 p.m. on March 8.

“We wanted to create a fun, low-barrier social gathering for young, professional Jews and their friends,” Rabbi Ragozin said. 

Subsequent plans include a cooking class, a networking event, and an outdoor recreation get-together.

“Many millennials have the view that temple doesn’t have to be a weekly trip for them to have faith,” Powell said. “My hope is to create a social experience in which participants take the lead and decide what they want to get out of it.”

The Swampscott native attended Temple Israel and Shirat Hayam and grew up in a religious family where Shabbat dinners were frequent and family and friends always gathered to observe Jewish holidays. As a recent Franklin Pierce University graduate, he thinks traditional temple affiliations are more appealing to young families than to “a post-grad still strapped with student loans. There are other means to feel connected.” 

Elliot Adler-Gordon attended the inaugural Six13 North meeting with his wife, Jenna. “People choose to be involved with religion when they find it to be meaningful, and I think that the synagogue-oriented Judaism that many people have grown up with over the past 40 years can be difficult to relate to,” he said. “This is why there needs to be a focus on creating alternative opportunities.” 

Adler-Gordon grew up as an “involved Conservative Jew on Long Island,” attending Jewish day school through high school and Jewish summer camp. He was very active in Jewish life at the University of Pennsylvania and met his wife during a junior year abroad in Haifa.

A product marketing manager at GCP Applied Technologies in Cambridge, Adler-Gordon moved to the North Shore a few months ago from the Brookline/Brighton area after Jenna was hired as the second-grade teacher at Epstein Hillel School. They left behind a strong group of Jewish friends.

“We knew, moving to the North Shore, that there is not much of an involved Jewish young professionals community, so I was glad to hear Rabbi Ragozin was looking for a group to create such a community,” he said.

In addition to sponsoring large events, Adler-Gordon hopes Six13 North helps people meet friends who share interests such as hiking in the mountains or sharing Shabbat dinners. “I am optimistic there are people who live on the North Shore who are looking to be part of a Jewish community,” he said.

Rabbi Ragozin’s plans go far beyond that. By empowering organic leadership within the group, he hopes this self-organized leadership team will design experiences that “create such a buzz that there’s a natural flow of millennials from Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, and Jamaica Plain into the North Shore.

“I’m speaking with as many millennials as possible. They’re hungry for spirituality and meaning. They’re looking to their faith tradition – Judaism – but not finding models from their childhoods that excite them today. They want the spirituality of social connections, Shabbat dinners, service projects, etc. Their first point of exploration is within Judaism, but up to now, they haven’t found it within existing North Shore Jewish institutions.

“Six13 North flips the script. We say, ‘You are the institution. You make it happen.’” 

To buy tickets ($10) for the Hometown & Homeland event March 8, visit bit.ly/Six13North01.

‘Bernstein & Beethoven’ slated for March 4 at the Cabot

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Leonard Bernstein in 1973. Photo by Allan Warren

by SHELLEY A. SACKETT

Symphony by the Sea, the North Shore’s premier professional orchestra, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth with “Bernstein & Beethoven,” a concert featuring excerpts from his most popular and enduring achievement, “West Side Story,” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”).

The historic Cabot Theater in Beverly will host the concert on Sunday, March 4 at 3 p.m.

Bernstein, whose given name was Louis, was born in Lawrence to Russian immigrant parents, and attended Boston Latin School and Harvard University. He burst onto the American music scene in 1943 when he substituted for the ailing Bruno Walter as an 26-year-old unknown assistant conductor, leading the New York Philharmonic in a critically acclaimed concert.

Maestro Donald Palma, music director of Symphony by the Sea, has a special and personal connection to Bernstein (1918-1990), who was the grandson of a Ukrainian Hassidic Rav (Rabbi) and the first American to become musical director and conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

Palma grew up in New York, where he attended the Juilliard School and joined Leopold Stowkowski’s American Symphony at age 19. He worked with Bernstein on several other “awe-inspiring concerts” and attended many of his performances at the New York Philharmonic. “I even sent him a piece I wrote when I was 12-years-old!” Palma said by email.

In 1984, when the German classical music record label, Deutsche Grammophon wanted Bernstein to record “West Side Story” in Germany, he insisted the recording be made on the West Side of New York with New York musicians. Bernstein invited Palma, a prominent classical double bassist, to play principal bass on the record.

“One of the high points in my career was recording ‘West Side Story’ with its composer. We recorded not far from where the action of the play takes place,” Palma said. Bernstein’s children provided the spoken dialogue and the BBC documented the week’s proceedings.

A year after his conducting debut, Bernstein established his composing prowess when New York critics awarded his Symphony No. 1 (subtitled “Jeremiah,” in reference to the story of the sixth century B.C.E. Jewish prophet) their highest accolade, pronouncing it the most impressive new work of the year.

Although Bernstein was not traditionally observant, his life and music were steeped in Judaism. He accepted a commission from the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City in 1945 to compose liturgical music for Shabbat services. “Hashkivenu” for cantor mixed chorus and organ is Bernstein’s one work specifically for the synagogue.

He first visited Israel in 1946, when he conducted the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, and he was later appointed the first conductor of the Israel Philharmonic.

To create “West Side Story,” choreographer Jerome Robbins convened a quartet of Jewish artists – the composer, Bernstein; the lyricist, Stephen Sondheim; the librettist, Arthur Laurents; and Robbins, the director and choreographer.

The show transfers Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to the tempestuous streets of 1950s New York City’s Upper West Side, where two star-crossed lovers find themselves caught between two rival gangs of different ethnic backgrounds: the white Jets and the first-generation immigrants from Puerto Rico, the Sharks.

The centennial concert adds an exciting twist to nine musical selections from “West Side Story” by combining them with stage direction by Penny Singh, narration by playwright, actress and Salem State University professor of theater, Anne Marilyn Lucas, and vocals by the Endicott Singers, directed by Rebecca Kenneally.

Although written over 50 years ago, Kenneally’s students uncovered contemporary messages. “The themes of gang violence, prejudice against immigrants, police brutality and troubled youth seem especially relevant today. The subject matter is as deep as the musical language Bernstein uses to discuss it, and the students are hungry to explore these depths fully,” she said.

Palma deliberately paired Bernstein’s “West Side Story” music with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. “Lenny was a larger than life figure and as great if not greater than his reputation. He taught so many of us, through his Young Person’s Concerts and Harvard Lectures, how to think about Beethoven’s music,” he said.

On March 4, the great Maestro’s legacy will live on under the baton of one who still feels the thrill of having been touched by his greatness.

For more information, visit symphonybythesea.org or call 978-922-1248.

Swampscott’s Saris takes LEAP into educating those in need

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Above: LEAP for education cofounder and executive director Linda Saris (center) with brother and sister Josward Santana of Peabody (at left) and Idekelly Santana King of Lynn. Josward is a sophomore at Middlesex Community College and works full time at Citizens Bank. Idekelly graduated from Northeastern University in 2017 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

By Shelley A. Sackett

JANUARY 25, 2018 – SALEM – Linda Saris’ stellar resumé reads like every parent’s dream. A degree in economics and urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago led to a career that culminated in the senior vice presidency of RSA Security, a fast-growing tech company with 1,300 employees and $320 million in worldwide sales. Her leadership and entrepreneurial skills reaped increasing responsibility and commensurate compensation.

Yet through her quarter-century career, she always felt something was missing. “As a mother and full-time employee who traveled a lot, there was little time for community engagement,” the Swampscott resident said. “I did work in support of women’s advancement opportunities in the workplace, but looking back, I should have done more.”

Her “wake up call to do something different” came in 2001, when the tech bubble burst after 9/11. Saris took advantage of a generous severance package and left the private sector to start a nonprofit with a mission to teach tech skills to young people and their parents.

“It was my time to give back and honor my family and cultural tradition of tzedakah,” she said.

Named Salem CyberSpace, the startup began as part of a larger nonprofit called North Shore Community Action Programs and served seven Salem students in 2003. Today, after going solo in 2004, it is known as LEAP for Education, and a $1 million budget allows it to reach over 800 students per year, primarily in Peabody and Salem.

With its mission to help low-income and first generation American students succeed in middle school, high school, and college, LEAP also educates parents on the college process and financing. It now has a staff of 17 and over 100 volunteers. Saris is understandably proud of LEAP’s 100 percent high school graduation rate and 85 percent college access and retention rates.

While LEAP continues to focus on teaching tech skills and emphasizes STEM – a curriculum based on science, technology, engineering, and math – it has adapted to changing demographics by also providing arts programs and English literacy for the growing immigrant population for whom English is a second language.

According to Saris, organizations like LEAP are especially important during this current administration. “LEAP helps to support, educate, affirm, and make feel welcome young people [and their families] from a variety of countries,” she said.

When new and longtime citizens meet and build connections across ethnic and cultural lines, Saris thinks the resulting familiarity and understanding creates respect, tolerance, admiration, and affection among a diverse citizenry.

“Those qualities are the antidote to prejudice, ignorance, and scapegoating,” she said.

Saris was raised in West Roxbury and attended Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Newton (now in Brookline), where she became a bat mitzvah in 1965 and attended Hebrew school through 11th grade. While her home life was “not overly religious,” her parents and temple educators stressed the importance of charity and community engagement.

As a high school student, she volunteered at ABCD in Dorchester, tutoring young children. “I talked incessantly about the inequities I saw in our community and my parents pushed me to put action behind my words,” she said.

Growing up during the 1960s empowered Saris. “It was a decade of citizen empowerment, of despair and of hope,” she said. “The events around me, my family, my Jewish cultural roots, all foreshadowed the path I decided to take.”

Her sister Patti Saris, older by 11 months, serves as chief judge of the federal court in Boston, and it is evident the sisters share views on immigration that are at odds with the current administration. Last September, Judge Saris issued a temporary order stopping the Trump administration’s deportation of Indonesians without due process.

At a hearing last week, The Boston Globe reported she compared the Indonesian Christians facing possible torture or death in their Muslim-majority homeland to Jewish refugees trying to escape the Nazis on the St. Louis, a boat that left Germany with 937 passengers, mostly Jews, that was turned away by the US government in 1939. Many were later killed in the Holocaust.

“We’re not going to be that country,” Judge Saris said in court, according to the Globe.

“My sister has always been a source of inspiration and someone I always looked up to,” Linda Saris said. “She was very supportive when I changed my career. However, the drive to do what I did came from within me, with a lot of help from my family and the events of the day.”

Guthrie’s love song to her Jewish and folk family

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By Shelley A. Sackett

Above: Nora Guthrie, daughter of folk legend Woody Guthrie, recently spoke at Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody.

 

JANUARY 25, 2018 – PEABODY – About once a year, Nora Guthrie presents “Holy Ground: Woody Guthrie’s Yiddish Connection,” a multi-media program about Woody Guthrie’s creative and collaborative relationship with his Jewish mother-in-law, the Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt.

Last Monday, over 140 people attended Guthrie’s presentation, which was sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Organizations of the North Shore and CJP, and hosted by Temple Ner Tamid in Peabody.

The hour-long storytelling piece included writings, artwork, music from a two-disc Klezmer project, home movies, and Nora Guthrie, telling the surprising story about how her father and grandmother bonded as fellow artists when the family lived in Brooklyn’s Coney Island.

Guthrie says she always begins by answering the question she knows is on everyone’s mind: what in the world does Woody Guthrie have to do with Yiddish poetry? “It’s this crazy story about two people from completely different backgrounds. My father had never met a Jew in his life and my mother had never met a cowboy. He grew up Protestant in a small Oklahoma town. She grew up in Atlantic City and was a student of early Zionism,” she said in a phone interview.

Her parents’ romance started in New York City in the early 1940s, where Woody Guthrie caught the attention of folklorist Alan Lomax, who recorded the troubadour’s songs. Some were used in a Martha Graham Dance Company ballet called “Folksay,” a suite of dances set to American roots music. Marjorie Mazia was a dancer with the troupe. She jumped at the chance to meet the songwriter when she heard he was at his apartment in Greenwich Village. She was instantly smitten.

By 1942, the couple was living in Coney Island, the heart of Brooklyn’s Jewish community, across the street from Mazia’s mother, Aliza Greenblatt. By 1945 they were married and Greenblatt introduced her son-in-law to Jewish culture and, most importantly, to Jewish food.

Asked what growing up in Coney Island was like in the 1950s, Nora Guthrie laughs. “It was very Jewish. This was the Yiddish-speaking culture that left Hester Street and moved to Brooklyn. Everything was blintzes, borscht and knishes,” said Guthrie, who is the co-founder of the Woody Guthrie Archives and president of Woody Guthrie Publications.

On the other hand, she was barely aware that her grandmother was a renowned Yiddish poet whose poems were widely published in the Yiddish press and were also set to music and recorded by composers and performers including Abraham Ellstein, Solomon Golub, Theodore Bikel and Sidor Belarsky.

“Our relationship with her was purely bubbie and every aspect of bubbie. It was singing lullabies to us at night, it was taking us for walks on the boardwalk, it was feeding us every Friday night,” Guthrie said.

Shabbat meant family dinner at bubbie’s, and Nora and her brothers, Arlo and Joady, looked forward to the chopped liver, blintzes, sweet and sour meatballs, and liver and onions. In 1952, when Guthrie was just two-years-old, her father was hospitalized for Huntington’s chorea, the disease that killed him in 1967. She doesn’t remember anything special about her father and grandmother’s relationship.

“I was a kid. Bubbie was bubbie. My father was folksongs. When you’re little, you’re not paying attention to that stuff. I didn’t really have an awareness of them as artists and the depth of their creative collaboration, and so a lot of this program I am doing is really explaining the discovery I made as an adult about them,” Guthrie said.

The “discovery” is her father’s writings, drawings and journals that were put into boxes when he was hospitalized and sat unopened for forty years. As her mother moved from apartment to apartment, the unopened boxes went with her. When she died in 1983, they ended up in an office. Ten years later, Guthrie went to work in that office and started looking through her father’s papers. “I found over 100 songs that had to do with Jewish topics. I couldn’t believe my father wrote songs about blintzes and hamentashen,” she said.

Uncovering her grandmother’s legacy was equally happenstance. She received a call one day from Aaron Lansky, president of the Yiddish Book Center, and was informed that Greenblatt’s books had been digitized. Guthrie had no idea her mother had donated them to the center after her grandmother’s death. “I never even had the opportunity to learn of my grandmother’s story and her creative life’s work, especially her Yiddish poetry,” she said.

She created “Holy Ground” to draw attention to an unknown side to her father’s legacy and to the woman who inspired him. “It’s kind of my funny journey from a child knowing each of them as I’m growing up to now as I discover more and more about each of them as creative artists. As you get older, you want to learn more about what your parents did as adults. I didn’t put that together for a long time,” she said.

 

 

 

 

Salem’s So Sweet Kicks off February 9

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Salem Sweet

Shelley A. Sackett

Salem will look like a mid-winter’s night dream on Saturday, Feb. 10 when dozens of illuminated ice sculptures beckon even the most thin-blooded to bundle up and stroll the historic city’s streets.

As if the magic of glistening ice sculptures were not treat enough, there will also be delectable chocolate samples, trolley rides and discount Valentine’s Day shopping during Salem’s sweetest event of the year: the 16th annual Salem’s So Sweet Chocolate & Ice Sculpture Festival.

From Friday, Feb. 9 through Sunday, Feb. 11, Salem Main Streets, the Salem Chamber of Commerce, Destination Salem, and local businesses work together to create the much-anticipated weekend that helps distract from the long, cold slog of New England winters.

The festival kicks off officially on Friday, Feb. 9 with a Chocolate and Wine Tasting at Colonial Hall at Rockafellas, 231 Essex St. from 6:30–8:30 p.m. Featuring wine and chocolate samplings and music by Molly Pinto Madigan, the event is the highlight of the season and sold out early in past years. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased in person at the Salem Chamber of Commerce, by phone at 978-744-0004 or online at salemsosweet.com.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, many downtown businesses will offer free chocolate samplings and sweet discounts. The “Golden Ticket” is a 10 percent discount valid Feb. 10 and 11 only: shoppers making a full-price purchase at one participating downtown business receive a 10 percent discount off the next purchase at a participating business. The tickets are inserted in brochures found throughout the city.

Photographer John Andrews, whose organization Creative Salem supports community-based festivals and often teams up with Salem Main Streets, said Creative Salem has introduced two new Salem’s So Sweet events this year.

Galentine’s Day at Ledger restaurant on Saturday, Feb. 10 will celebrate ladies celebrating ladies. Inspired by the Amy Poehler character from the show “Parks and Rec,” the event features a nighttime brunch, DJ and photo booth. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit eventbrite.com/e/galentines-day-at-ledger-tickets-41705352833.

On Sunday, Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Creative Salem will host the first Pop Rocks Pop Up Craft Market at Old Town Hall, with dozens of local artisans.

“Midwinter is challenging for small downtown businesses,” Andrews said. “We are happy that Salem Main Streets and other organizations are constantly working to support the business, creative and resident communities.”

Even though Salem is abuzz with these various exciting activities and events, the ice sculptures steal the show as well as people’s hearts.

Last year, there were a record-breaking 25 ice sculptures installed around downtown and for the second time local company Retronica illuminated them on Saturday night “which really adds a whole new sense of celebration in the face of February’s cold, dark nights,” said Salem Main Streets Executive Director Kylie Sullivan.

Sullivan has two favorite festival moments. One is about mid-day on Saturday, when everyone begins discovering the sculptures for the first time.

“But the illumination on Saturday night has also become one of my favorites,” she said. “To look around and see the downtown so full of people of all ages, locals and visitors – on a night in the middle of February when you wouldn’t normally see anyone out – is so cool and is really the reason we have the festival in the first place,” she said.

Mayor Kim Driscoll agrees.

“The Salem’s So Sweet Festival is a unique and festive way to celebrate this season and all the terrific local businesses that participate,” she said. “I hope folks will have the opportunity to get to the many events, restaurants, and shops taking part this year. I’m especially looking forward to what we’ll see with this year’s ice sculptures.”

Israelsohn and Noss to receive social action award

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By Shelley A. Sackett

JANUARY 11, 2018 – BEVERLY – When Eve Israelsohn Noss was a child, her mother, Elaine Israelsohn, and a friend started the Ipswich League of Women Voters (LWV). The two women held planning meetings at each other’s homes, usually in the kitchen. Eve recalls sitting under the table, coloring and “listening to them talk about voter education and water resources.”

Elaine’s dedication to social issues and activism extended to the family supper table. “We encouraged our kids to participate and be knowledgeable of what was going on around them politically,” she said by email.

Her mother’s community involvement and growing up in Ipswich, where she and her brothers were the only Jewish kids in the entire school district, shaped Noss’ career choices and her commitment to social justice and interfaith community building issues. “Ipswich has always been ethnically and economically diverse,” Noss said.

When the educator and mediator returned to the area years later, she followed in her mother’s footsteps, joining the Beverly LWV, co-chairing two local studies on domestic violence and child abuse, and serving as its co-president.

Mother and daughter remain dedicated to tikkun olam (“repairing the world”) at Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly and throughout the North Shore and Essex County, their multi-generational commitment spanning half the temple’s history.

On January 12 at 7 p.m., the TBA Social Action Committee will acknowledge them at its Social Action Shabbat with the third annual Leah Shriro Social Action Honor, which pays tribute to members who represent the best of TBA through their community involvement.

“Eve and her mother represent two generations of compassionate, caring, engaged members who are also active in the larger community,” Rabbi Alison Adler wrote by email. “It became clear that honoring Eve and her mother, Elaine, had special significance on MLK weekend, as we remember all who were engaged in the Civil Rights Movement together across religious boundaries.”

The inclusive Shabbat service includes a speaker and reflections from Dr. King, Rabbi Abraham Heschel and other sources that fit with themes of social justice and interfaith activism.

The social action award was created in 2016 in memory of Leah Shriro, a longtime temple volunteer and founder of the Social Action Committee who died in 2015 at the early age of 62. The award brings into focus and salutes the passionate dedication of members who have been working for social justice and creating caring community both within TBA and in the world at large.

In addition to her work with the local and state-level LWV, Israelsohn also served on the board of Bridging the Generations, a Beverly coalition that dealt with social issues and city-wide preventative programs, and represented TBA on the Beverly Interfaith Council.

She served on the temple’s board for many years, including as vice president, and created its historic archive collection. “Preserving the history of our community is so important and she has done so with great love,” Rabbi Adler said.

The seed for Noss’ work embracing interfaith marriage and community relationships was planted when she moved back to the North Shore in 1985 and started attending temple programs as a young interfaith family. “It became clear at High Holiday and regular services that in a Conservative congregation, the Jewish spouse was expected to convert the non-Jewish spouse to Judaism,” she said by email.

She met many other couples that were grappling with similar issues, including Leah Shriro, who became one of her closest friends. In response, she helped develop an interfaith family group for couples with and without children and parents whose young adult children were dating non-Jews. These families celebrated holidays together and discussed what it meant to raise children together. “Eve really helped change TBA into a more welcoming place for interfaith families,” Rabbi Adler said of the TBA past president.

Swampscott native takes the helm at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters

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DECEMBER 28, 2017 – When Harvey Lowell steps down after 21 years as president and CEO of Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Boston, he will pass the baton to Kimberlee Schumacher, who brings strong vision and 20 years of executive experience, including as vice president of strategy and development of the organization.

“The fact that Kimberlee has been leading our strategic planning process for the last 18 months, and helping us create a vision for our future, will ensure a smooth transition into her new role,” David Franklin, chairman of the board of trustees, said in a Dec. 12 statement announcing Schumacher’s appointment.

Schumacher, a Swampscott native who now lives in Arlington, will bring a blend of innovation and respect for past practices to her new position. “I am incredibly honored and humbled to be in the position of implementing the new strategic plan,” she said.

One aspect of Lowell’s legacy Schumacher plans to maintain is a deep commitment to the mission of JBBBS: reaching out to the most vulnerable children and adults in the community.
She was selected following a national search conducted by Commongood Careers, a leading executive search firm specializing in nonprofits.

Founded in 1919 as the Jewish Big Brother Association, the JBBBS is New England’s oldest youth mentoring organization. Today, with financial support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies, The United Way, and other foundations and grants, the Newton-based organization matches over 250 Jewish and non-Jewish children from over 90 towns in eastern Massachusetts with adult mentors.

In 1992, JBBBS inaugurated Friend 2 Friend, the first program of its kind to pair adults with mild to moderate disabilities with a mentor. The program currently serves 175 adults who benefit from the social interactions it provides.

One of the biggest challenges the organization faces is finding and keeping volunteers. “We are always looking for new volunteers,” Schumacher said, noting the current waiting list of around 80 kids and adults with disabilities. “I’d like to encourage anyone who is interested to consider volunteering. It’s truly an incredible experience and our community needs you.”

Schumacher credits her parents for instilling such a strong love of Judaism. “They taught me the value of committing to and being part of the Jewish community,” she said. Growing up, she belonged to Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead and Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott.

As a teenager, her involvement in the Temple Emanu-El SMARTY youth group provided a platform to develop leadership skills at a young age. She became its president while a Swampscott High School junior and worked as a SMARTY adviser while an undergraduate at Brandeis University.

Schumacher believes her experiences as a teen leader fueled her passion to continue working in the community at CJP, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, and now at JBBBS. “I am extremely grateful for the mentoring relationships I formed in high school. The wonderful people I worked with then remain my mentors today,” she said.

She is also grateful to be at the helm of JBBBS. “I believe strongly in giving back to the community, and working in the nonprofit world allows me to live my life according to the values I was raised with,” she said.

Marblehead, Swampscott congregations unite to study Israel’s history

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DECEMBER 14, 2017 – Round tables in the Temple Emanu-El social hall were draped with white paper cloths. The coffee pot and cookies beckoned from the corner. Around five minutes before 7, a steady flow of adults greeted each other, staking out a seat within just the right view (and hearing range). They clutched textbooks and pens, and bore the excited, eager look that marks adult learners.

For four Tuesday nights this fall, 30 people attended a class co-taught by Rabbis David Meyer of Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead and Michael Ragozin of Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott. Titled “Israel’s Milestones and Their Meanings: The Legacy of the Past and the Challenge of the Future,” the curriculum was developed by the Shalom Hartman Institute iEngage in New York and addressed three pivotal moments in Israel’s history: 1917, 1947, and 1967.

The rabbis alternated locations, with two classes at Shirat Hayam and two classes at Temple Emanu-El. While the class appreciated the readings and history, it was the interaction of the rabbis that most resonated.

“I love the idea of co-teaching between the two rabbis,” said Temple Emanu-El member Judy Mishkin. “They are wonderful together, they are wonderful separately.”

For Brenda and Shelley Cohen of Marblehead, these evenings were a way to share. “My husband is a history buff and he fills in everything I don’t know,” Brenda said with a laugh.

Asked what “Tuesday night date night” meant to him, Shelley, a Shirat Hayam member and retired dentist, deadpanned, “A quick supper.”

The rabbis stressed the importance of uniting a community challenged by divergent views toward Israel and American politics. “We thought we could do something that would bring a measure of healing and acceptability into the conversation around Israel,” Rabbi Ragozin said.

“There’s something inherently beautiful about bringing the two congregations together. The participants don’t necessarily know each other, so they might feel they’re in a safe setting to openly discuss and critique Israel.”

Rabbi Meyer agreed. “We really sought to create a fresh dialogue and a new conversation about Israel, about the role Israel plays in the world and in our lives,” Rabbi Meyer said.

The two also relished the idea of working together. “I’m always learning something from David. He’s a mentor and a mensch,” said Rabbi Ragozin, referring to himself as “the new young rabbi in town.”

“Our congregations are separated by only a mile and a half, but our programming tends to be separated, so it’s certainly allowed Michael and me to work together and get to know each other,” Rabbi Meyer said. “And that’s all positive.”

“It’s a luxury to have two rabbis teaching us,” said Margaret Somer, a Swampscott resident and Shirat Hayam member. Even more important to her, however, was thinking about the 1967 Six-Day War, especially as the celebration of another historical miracle – Hanukkah – approaches.

“It was a major, major moment in history, a transformation of how the Jewish people feel about themselves, the confidence and assertiveness,” she said, pausing as she searched for the exact words that summed up how she felt. She smiled broadly. “It’s OK to be Jewish,” she said triumphantly.