Congratulations to the Women Cantors Network who recently celebrated its 30th anniversary at a conference in Newton. This is big news because for centuries, women were not allowed to lead prayers in the synagogue, and now, starting in the 70s for Reform cantors and the 80s for Conservative cantors when they were first ordained in the seminaries, the role of the female cantor has blossomed nationwide.
From far and wide, 100 women cantors gathered mid-June at Temple Beth Avodah in Newton to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women Cantors Network. In prayer and song, in workshop and lecture, the members learned, sang and worshipped together over the course of three and a half days.
“Thirty years ago I could not have imagined an annual gathering of 100 women from across the country – this year even from Hamburg, Germany,” said WCN founder Deborah Katchko-Gray. “Thirty years ago we were twelve women with lots of questions and energy – today with close to 250 members, we have support, friendship and opportunities through our email listserve and conferences for Jewish learning, spiritual growth and sharing music.”
They’ve come a long way, baby! Although women have only been invested as cantors since the mid-70’s, they now make up a large part of the graduating class from the conservative and reform seminaries.And that doesn’t take into account the many women cantorial soloists and prayer leaders across the country who were also in attendance at the conference. The remarkable growth and acceptance of women cantors caught the eye of Rachel Adelstein, a doctoral candidate from University of Chicago, who came to interview the women for her dissertation.
“Literally in one lifetime — mine — women cantors have gone from being a rarity to being so common that I was well into my thirties before I even met a male cantor,” said Adelstein. “Cantor Sheila Cline, whom I met at the conference, was the second female graduate of Hebrew Union College’s School of Sacred Music. She graduated the same year that I was born!” Others came for support from the “veteran” members, such as Cantorial Soloist Jane Roman Pitt from Fairfield, Iowa. “I had to gather my courage to come as I didn’t know anyone,” she said.
“But I was met by warmth and a willingness to share the knowledge, the wisdom and the music of one hundred women who became like one as the days went on. In fact, the last service was one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life.”
Beth Avodah Rabbi Keith Stern, who joined Glickman and other WCN members in leading the opening night worship, commented on the inspiring nature of women leading services in song. “’Kol Isha,’ boy, those guys never heard these women,” he said, referring to the ancient rabbinic prohibition against hearing women sing.
Who even knew that NewTV had a art gallery? I certainly didn’t. But they do – just outside the offices -and showcase many talented local artists (previously featured artists include Marian Dioguardi and Coleman Rogers) and save the date for the Gallery Reception of The Small Stage: Still Life, Part II on July 18th, 7-9 pm.
Featuring Local Artists – Sharon Schindler, Emily Sper, Jeffrey Hayes, Amy Kaufman, Jeanne Gugino, Jessamyn Martin, Douglas Weisman, and Myra Abelson.
This is a great way to see these artists in a casual setting. You can also see Sharon Schindler’s work in the lobby of the Newton North High School (there is a beautiful photo of the old Newton North printed on birch wood just outside the main office) and some gorgeous photos of Israel at Temple Reyim on Washington Street, Newton.
Save the Date!
Please join us for a wine and cheese reception at NewTV as we celebrate our newest exhibit, The Small Stage: Still Life, Part II. Presented by Newton Open Studios, and curated by Ellen Fisher. Eight artists from Newton Open Studios explore the still life format, presenting a varied and delightful sampling that challenges preconceived notions of the genre. These still lifes often peer into unusual places, occasionally verge on abstraction, and tackle both conventional and unexpected subjects. Exhibit runs through August 20.
From the website:
At the NewTV Art Gallery, we offer a moment to reflect upon a photo, painting, collage, or any frameable medium. We encourage local, emerging and established artists to submit work for one of our quarterly group or solo exhibits, art openings, and on-line exposure. Work is for sale, with pricing established by the individual artists. Please support our state of the Arts!
As I explored the website I learned of the many class offerings – what a tremendous resource. Classes include Animation Workshops, Studio, Field and Post Production classes and even a Screenwriting class. and Any Newton resident, non-profit organization or business can join NewTV for a small, annual membership fee. Once you’ve signed up, you are eligible to take any classes or workshops offered by NewTV, use any of NewTV’s equipment and book the Conference Room or Studio, all free of charge with your membership.
NewTV is also running a NewTVSummer Raffle
EXCLUSIVE TO NEWTV MEMBERS!
Spread the word about NewTV’s fantastic membership opportunities to your friends and you can enter our Summer Raffle. It’s easy! All you have to do is refer a friend for a NewTV membership. Once they sign up, you are automatically entered in the raffle, with the opportunity to win one of three great prizes!
I am excited for Newton’s Farmer’s Markets to open this week! I go to both some weeks. Friday’s has better parking but a more limited selection. Tuesdays also has the ice cream truck parked inside with premium ice cream as a way to get the kids to come along without complaining.
What is your favorite stand or item to buy? My vote is the peaches and the fish guys.
Tuesdays
New Cold Spring Park
1200 Beacon Street
Newton, MA 02464
July 3 – October 30
1:30PM – 6:00PM
New this season at the Tuesday Market will be fresh Mushrooms and Raviolis.
Have you noticed the gorgeous artwork that has been beautifying the city on those drab electrical boxes? On all 4 sides too! Newton BoxArt projects are everywhere.
We saw our guy working on his below on Commonwealth Avenue at Washington Blvd. It’s timely! And coincides well because this is the turn to the bottom of Boston Marathon’s infamous Heartbreak Hill! I like how there are 4 sides that connect into a 3 dimensional piece of art.
There are more boxes that can be painted!
If you would like to submit your design to paint one, submit your application soon. The deadlines are June 15 and August 1.
The application is on line at www.newtoncommunitypride.org or on the City of Newton website/Government/Cultural Affairs/Mayor’s Office for Cultural Affairs/Public Art RFP: NewtonSERVES Box Art Project. Call (617) 527-8283 for more information.
p.s. This is at Commonwealth Avenue at Walnut Street. It’s so perfect because it’s near Newton Free Library and Newton City Hall! I don’t think that this placement is a coincidence!
p.s. Send me photos of your favorite BoxART Projects and we will post them here!
My Mom Friend Melissa told me her Dad Friend Brian told her about a book written NY Times best selling author from Newton and set in Cold Spring Park. I go to the dog park a lot with my dog so I was intrigued. It turns out that Brian was William’s old neighbor from West Newton.
Then my Dad Friend Andrew, the founder of Ten Marks, an online math tutoring company sent me an email and offered to introduce me to William Landay. Hurrah!
Let’s interview him together. Please leave a comment with any questions you want to ask him and I will ask for a Q and A interview.
Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.
Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.
Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.
Andy Barber, a respected First Assistant DA who lives in Newton, Mass., with his gentle wife, Laurie, and their 14-year-old son, Jacob, must face the unthinkable in Dagger Award–winner Landay’s harrowing third suspense novel. When Ben Rifkin, Jacob’s classmate, is found stabbed to death in the woods, Internet accusations and incontrovertible evidence point to big, handsome Jacob. Andy’s prosecutorial gut insists a child molester is the real killer, but as Jacob’s trial proceeds and Andy’s marriage crumbles under the forced revelation of old secrets, horror builds on horror toward a breathtakingly brutal outcome. Landay (The Strangler), a former DA, mixes gritty court reporting with Andy’s painful confrontation with himself, forcing readers willy-nilly to realize the end is never the end when, as Landay claims, the line between truth and justice has become so indistinct as to appear imaginary. This searing narrative proves the ancient Greek tragedians were right: the worst punishment is not death but living with what you—knowingly or unknowingly—have done.
William Landay is the author of The Strangler, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Crime Book of the Year, and Mission Flats, winner of the Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel and a Barry Award nominee. A former district attorney who holds degrees from Yale and Boston College Law School, Landay lives in Boston, where he is at work on his next novel of suspense.
“Troubled cops, revenge-hungry mob bosses, dead women–these are the things that make life interesting…. [The Strangler has] plenty of violence, suspense and family intrigue.”—Esquire.com“Landay movingly explores the bonds of family and basic questions of honesty and loyalty…. The emphasis remains on such themes as crime and punishment, love and honor, truth and justice.”—Publishers Weekly“Complex…. This character-driven novel …[unfolds] against the backdrop of the oppressive atmosphere of 1963 Boston. People are reeling from the assassination of JFK and the still-on-the-loose Boston Strangler.”—USA Today
“Landay has a marvelous ear for dialogue and for relationship complexities, smartly emphasizing the impact of crime instead of on the crimes in particular.”—Baltimore Sun
“Mr. Landay combines a fictional investigation of the Strangler’s killings with a chronicle of three brothers…. The result is a gripping, atmospheric saga in which the official version of many matters (both criminal and civil) bears little resemblance to the truth.”–Wall Street Journal
From the New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob
Former D.A. William Landay explodes onto the suspense scene with an electrifying novel about the true price of crime and the hidden corners of the criminal justice system. Only an insider could so vividly capture Boston’s gritty underworld of cops and criminals. And only a natural storyteller could weave this mesmerizing tale of murder and memory, a story about the hold of time past over time present–and the story of one unforgettable young policeman who ventures into the most dangerous place of all.
By a gleaming lake in the forests of western Maine, outside a sleepy town called Versailles, the body of a man lies sprawled in a deserted cabin. The dead man was an elite D.A. from Boston, and his beat was that city’s toughest neighborhood: Mission Flats.
Now, for small-town police chief Ben Truman, investigating the murder will mean leaving his quiet, haunted home and journeying to an alien world of hard streets and hard bargains, where the fierce struggle between police and criminals is fought for the ultimate stakes.
Ben joins a manhunt through Mission Flats, where cops are scrambling to find their number-one suspect: Harold Braxton, a ruthless predator targeted for prosecution by the murdered D.A. To the Boston police, Braxton is a marked man. But as Ben watches the shadow dance of cops and suspects, he begins to voice doubts about Braxton’s guilt…especially when he uncovers a secret history of murder and retribution stretching back twenty years…back to a brutal killing now nearly forgotten. As past and present collide and a bloody mystery unfolds, only one thing remains certain: the most powerful revelations are yet to come.
Mission Flats is at once a relentless page-turning mystery and a vivid portrait of a cop’ s life. Here are the street corners, courtrooms, and stationhouses; the deal makers, thugs, and quiet heroes. An unforgettable world–and the luminous, boundary-breaking debut of a new voice in suspense fiction–Mission Flats will haunt you long after the final pages.
To view any book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book.
Mass. suburb develops into a Russian enclave. The Mass. suburb that the Boston.com article refers to is Newton!
Russian immigrants have become part of the character of the Boston suburb of Newton. More than 9% of people in the town report Russian ancestry, according to the U.S. Census, and residents say it is common to hear Russian spoken there. Newton’s Russian community also has set up schools and community centers to preserve its language and culture.
Students from low-income school districts in Massachusetts are about twice as likely to be placed in special education than those in more affluent districts in the state, a new report shows. The study’s findings are counter to the belief by some that more affluent families are driving a push for more accommodations and services for students. The study recommends districts work to prevent the over-identification of students for special education and strive to educate more students with disabilities in inclusive settings.
Seventeen percent of Massachusetts students are in special education programs — the second-highest rate in the nation.
… many kids are identified as special needs students because they don’t get the help they need early on.
Do you remember an old episode of Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshaw, desperate to meet Big’s ex-wife, meets with her to plug a book concept? Unfortunately, during her meeting, she discovers that Big’s ex-wife is a children’s book publisher. So she quickly makes up a story about a girl with magic cigarettes that can take her anywhere she wants to go. And the ex-wife says, “A picture book for ADULTS?! I LOVE it!”
Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: I didn’t know you were into children’s books. Carrie: Well, who doesn’t love children’s books? Carrie: [in her head] Five minutes of bodice-ripping material out the window. So, I did what any writer would do… I pulled an idea out of my ass. Carrie: Well, my story’s about a little girl… named Cathy. Little Cathy. Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: And what makes Little Cathy special? Carrie: Well, um, she has these magic…
[looks at cigarettes in her purse] Carrie: …cigarettes. Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: She has magic cigarettes? Carrie: Yes, “Little Cathy and Her Magic Cigarettes”. And whenever she lights up, she can go anywhere in the whole wide world. Like Arabia or New Jersey! Of course that’s going to be worked out. Barbara, Mr. Big’s Ex-Wife: You want to write a children’s book about smoking? Carrie: Yes, it’s a children’s book for adults.
Go the F**K to Sleep turns out to this imagined picture book for adults by Newton’s own Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Richardo Cortés. Sleep deprived adults with young children, that is. The language was … suggestive, to say the least.
Now there’s a clean version. A “G” rated version that you can actually read aloud to your kids…
The #1 Bestseller Go the F**k to Sleep
Now Available as Enhanced “G” Rated, Kid-Friendly Ebook—
Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés reunite with Seriously, Just Go to Sleep, inviting the children themselves in on the joke. As parents know, kids are well aware of how difficult they can be at bedtime. With Cortés’s updated illustrations (including a cameo appearance by Samuel L. Jackson, who narrated the audio book version of Go the F*** to Sleep) and Mansbach’s new child-appropriate narrative, the book allows kids to recognize their tactics, giggle at their own mischievousness, and empathize with their parents’ struggles — a perspective most children’s books don’t capture. Most importantly, it provides a common ground for children and their parents to talk about one of the most stressful aspects of parenting.
Seriously, Just Go To Sleep, a more child-friendly version of the international bestseller and worldwide phenomenon Go the F**k to Sleep, is now available as an ebook from Akashic Books and Open Road Integrated Media.
Kindle version
To view any book more closely at Amazon, please click on image of book.
Yesterday, Franco Garcia’s body was found yesterday in the Chestnut Hill reservoir near Boston College and the bar where Franco was last seen.
The 21-year-old, who was studying chemistry and played clarinet in the symphony band, disappeared Feb. 22 after leaving a bar in Boston popular with college students. from CBS News
Garcia, 21, was last seen on Feb. 22 at approximately 12:15 a.m., inside Mary Ann’s bar on Beacon Street in Brighton, Mass. from Huffington Post
The reservoir is between the neighborhood the bar is in and the Boston College campus, where García planned to stay in a friend’s dorm the night he went missing. from Fox news
Maryann’s by Cleveland Circle. The Chestnut Hill Reservoir is to the left (see blue area).
According to a message from my middle school principal where Garcia’s younger brother attends 6th grade with my daughter, there was no foul play suspected. Divers searched the reservoir for a week when Franco first went missing on February 22nd but unsuccessfully.
Body Believed to be that of BC Student Boston.com
Boston College Student Found in Reservoir Fox News
Established in 1889, the Waban Improvement Society is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization whose membership comprises all people who live and/or work in Waban, Massachusetts. The Society promotes any activity intended to improve Waban and fosters a sense of community for those who live and work here.
Congratulations to the Women Cantors Network who recently celebrated its 30th anniversary at a conference in Newton. This is big news because for centuries, women were not allowed to lead prayers in the synagogue, and now, starting in the 70s for Reform cantors and the 80s for Conservative cantors when they were first ordained in the seminaries, the role of the female cantor has blossomed nationwide.
They’ve come a long way, baby! Although women have only been invested as cantors since the mid-70’s, they now make up a large part of the graduating class from the conservative and reform seminaries. And that doesn’t take into account the many women cantorial soloists and prayer leaders across the country who were also in attendance at the conference. The remarkable growth and acceptance of women cantors caught the eye of Rachel Adelstein, a doctoral candidate from University of Chicago, who came to interview the women for her dissertation.
