Our marquee currently features the name of a silent film we are showing on April 3, “City Without Jews” (1924). The film is brought to Greenfield through the auspices of the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts which is also supporting our.
Female Presidents of a Jewish Organization Reflect on Inclusivity
Photo by Moyo Studio/Getty Images
As many in the United States celebrate the nation’s first female vice president, we have been lifted by a spirit of diversity, democracy and inclusiveness. Those same sentiments recently emerged within the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts, an organization that, for nearly a century, has been supporting communities locally, nationally, and worldwide. I recently interviewed eight former female presidents Donna Feldman, Susan Firestone, Betsy Gaberman, Suze Goldman, Sue Kline, Ronda Parish, Ann Pava and Diane Troderman who led the organization at various times between 1987-2019. These interviews culminated in a major community-wide virtual program, in which each president was in the spotlight for a few minutes to discuss her accomplishments.
Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival retools itself as virtual event
Updated Feb 01, 2021;
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This year’s Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival to be presented virtually will feature seven film screenings, including one about Northampton’s Rabbi Kevin Hale, who has dedicated his life to the 613th biblical commandment to write a Torah scroll.
Miriam B. Lewin is the director and producer of that short documentary, “Commandment 613,” and she is Hale’s cousin.
“A few years ago, he started telling me about his work on a particular set of Torah scrolls, the ones that belong to the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London, and are loaned out to communities around the world,” she said. “These scrolls come from communities in Czechoslovakia and were saved there during World War II. When he described to me the deep feelings they bring out for the people who now care for the scrolls, I thought it sounded like a good subject for a documentary.”