{"id":33946,"date":"2019-12-20T03:44:15","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T11:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=33946"},"modified":"2019-12-18T12:50:05","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T20:50:05","slug":"inspired-through-story-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2019\/12\/20\/inspired-through-story-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired through story, song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musician Myrna Rabinowitz, left, and Jewish Senior Alliance\u2019s Shanie Levin. (photo from JSA)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The theme of this year\u2019s Jewish Seniors Alliance-Snider Foundation Empowerment Series is \u201cBe inspired!\u201d and the first of four sessions was called Be Inspired through Story and Song.<\/p>\n

Held at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture on Nov. 29, Gyda Chud, co-president of the JSA, introduced the two presenters, referring to each as \u201ca gift to our community\u201d: storyteller Shanie Levin, who is a member of JSA\u2019s executive board and on the editorial board of JSA\u2019s Senior Line<\/em> magazine, and singer-songwriter and guitarist Myrna Rabinowitz.<\/p>\n

Rabinowitz opened with the Yiddish song \u201cAbi Gezunt<\/em>\u201d (\u201cAs Long as You\u2019re Well\u201d) and the audience echoed enthusiastically the refrain, \u201cAs long as you\u2019re well, you can be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levin followed with a story by Kadya Molodowsky, the first lady of Yiddish poetry. A House with Seven Windows<\/em> is about a proud, strong heroine in the mid-19th century who embraced the dream of \u201cnormalizing\u201d Jewish life through a return and settlement in the land of Israel.<\/p>\n

Other songs by Rabinowitz included the Yiddish translation of Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah,\u201d as well as \u201cSleep Little Boy,\u201d a Yiddish song that she wrote eight years ago for her first grandson. She ended with the Yiddish rendition of \u201cSunrise Sunset\u201d from Fiddler on the Roof <\/em>(Tog Ayn Tog Oys<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Tall Tamara<\/em> by Abraham Karpinowitz, both sympathetically comic and painfully tragic, was another inspiring story of Vilna\u2019s poor and the unexpected dignity available to one woman through a chance contact with Yiddish literary culture.<\/p>\n

Levin also shared Ted Allan\u2019s Lies My Father Told Me<\/em>, about the relationship between a 6-year-old child and his grandfather that transcends the differences in ages with deep connection. This story was made into a Golden Globe-winning film of the same name.<\/p>\n

The last story Levin read \u2013 If Not Higher<\/em> by I.L. Peretz \u2013 was about a rabbi who demonstrates that doing good deeds on earth may be a more exalted activity than doing God\u2019s will in heaven.<\/p>\n

Chud thanked the performers and urged the audience to attend upcoming JSA events, the next one being the screening of the movie Music of the Heart<\/em>, starring Meryl Streep, at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on Jan. 15.<\/p>\n

Marilyn Berger, who initiated the Light One Candle project and designed a card to help JSA celebrate Chanukah, encouraged the audience to spread the light and make a special donation to help JSA continue its peer support program, as well as its advocacy work.<\/p>\n

For more information about JSA, visit jsalliance.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tamara Frankel<\/strong> is a member of the board of Jewish Seniors Alliance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musician Myrna Rabinowitz, left, and Jewish Senior Alliance\u2019s Shanie Levin. (photo from JSA) The theme of this year\u2019s Jewish Seniors Alliance-Snider Foundation Empowerment Series is \u201cBe inspired!\u201d and the first of four sessions was called Be Inspired through Story and Song. Held at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture on Nov. 29, Gyda Chud, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7778,6761,3036,4836,3714,604,186],"class_list":["post-33946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-arts","tag-literature","tag-music","tag-myrna-rabinowitz","tag-seniors","tag-shanie-levin","tag-yiddish"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}