![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dec-19-history.19.Peretz-4-Pillars-Bluma-Field-and-Claire-Osipov-at-banquet-in-honour-of-Claire-2011.jpeg\")
<\/a>Nothing in filmmaker Michael Kissinger\u2019s 36-minute documentary shattered the notion that they treated everyone with such respect, for which I\u2019m grateful. I want to remember these women this way. A key element I feel is missing in the world today is this ability to be friends, or at least be civil to, people with different opinions. We are so polarized that our own views \u2013 and our need to express them \u2013 often take precedence over making another human feel, well, human.<\/p>\n
I know that this phenomenon is nothing new. As is the case with most organizations, the Peretz Centre was started to fill a need that wasn\u2019t being met by other groups at the time. Secular and socialist in nature, the Peretz has rarely \u201cfit in\u201d with the mainstream Jewish community over its 80-year history. While its politics held no interest for me, its focus on Yiddish culture, its choir in particular, did appeal to me and I was involved for some 30 years, having been introduced to the centre by Claire, who was the epitome of class \u2013 and, wow, what an incredible voice. She was close friends with my aunt, who also, sadly, has passed away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Going down memory lane with Four Pillars of Peretz <\/i>was truly a pleasure. For people who don\u2019t know the four women profiled, I would still recommend watching it, if only to demystify the Peretz Centre. Community unity shouldn\u2019t mean community uniformity, and everyone should be so lucky as to have at least one place where they feel welcome. We don\u2019t need to belong everywhere, but it\u2019s vital to our health, I think, that we belong somewhere.<\/p>\n Four Pillars of Peretz<\/i> is also an example of what other organizations could do to honour their founders. Keeping history alive is so important, in my view. It\u2019s not an inexpensive endeavour, but it\u2019s worthwhile. In the case of this documentary, Kissinger really captures the spirits of these women and the way in which they still inspire others. Bluma, Sylvia, Claire and Gallia were by no means the only pillars of the Peretz Centre, but they were particularly driving forces, and they were so for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThese stubborn old ladies, you know, they get sh*t done,\u201d says Faith Jones, providing the first comments in the film, which features clips from\u00a0<\/span>interviews with other Peretz members and with members of the women\u2019s families. Through these snippets, as well as photographs and other archival material, you get a sense of the enormous amount of effort and love that it takes to start an organization and keep it running.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The film starts with an overview of the four women, then each gets their own spotlight. The snappy music and the way in which Kissinger has edited the film makes it move along smoothly, both communicating the challenges these women \u2013 and others in their generation \u2013 faced with tenacity, but also with joy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think all of these women, if they were here today, would say that they got just as much out of it as they put into it, because it\u2019s community,\u201d says one of Gallia\u2019s daughters, Rita Chudnovsky, near the end of the film. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no replacement for a sense of community, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s, I think, getting harder for people to find.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>