H••"ii·H·¼+J·t• ** •·H u+•1S- D GF J2qo6 R~[ 9 JEW j~3 ~f l ~OfP ~~1 ~~SOC H TI JN 130 SESSIONS ST PRov·oENCE , RI (\ 1 Rhode Island Jewish Elections '90: Trouble For Israel Backers --HERALD Page& The Only English-Jewish Weekly in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts VOLUME LXXVI, NUMBER 40 THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1990 35t PER COPY 'Better Than Waiting on Tables' A Woman Of The World Today's Yiddish Theater by Nahma Sandrow and she decided "it was better that her " American" career !en years ago, when she than waiting on tables," which kept making steady progress, was just another cute kid living is where so many show biz the spotlight on the Yiddish in New York and trying to careers start and end. Eleanor stage was coming to feel like a break into show business, began in the chorus, rose to comfortable place to stand. Eleanor Reissa answered a playing saucy soubrettes in All the same, last season, casting call in Backstage to other Yiddish productions, and when she got a phone call of­ audition for a place in the cho· several years later, when the fering her a starring role in the rus of a Yiddish show. She got star happened to leave her Yiddish musical "Songs of the part. Yiddish theater was show, she was ready to step Paradise," she groaned, "Oh not Broadway, but it was a job center stage. At the same time no, not again!" and made a rude face at the receiver. Still, she didn't turn it down. "Songs of Paradise," a frisky and irreverent retelling of Bible stories, newly adapted from Yiddish poetry with a cast of young actors and fresh refer· ences to salsa, reggae, and dis­ co, delighted the New York Times as well as the Yiddish Daily Forward. So did Eleanor. And this year finds her yet again belting out big numbers Lola Schafranik in a Yiddish revue, "Those by Michael Fink Were the Days." Special to the Herald In her bemused, affection­ Those of us who have taken tea with Lola Schafranik form a ate, edgy, ambivalent attitude small society. Now that Lola has left us we share our club with toward the Yiddish theater, anyone willing to read our words. Eleanor is typical of most Lola Jived in a very elegant retirement building in East American Yiddish actors of the Greenwich. She played the continental hostess in a salon that (Clockwise, beginning with top left): Rosaline Cerut, David younger generation. ("Young" held the tea things and tables she had somehow managed to Kener (middle), Avi Hoffman, Eleanor Reissa, Adrienne in today's Yiddish theater bring over from her own and her parents' places in their native Cooper. The cast of "Songs of Paradise," now at the Public/ means roughly 20 to 45 years Vienna. Shiva Theater. Photo Martha Swope. (continued on page 15) Compact and competent, she created her world in one room. The larger domain had cheated her of its spaces. A survivor of the iJl.fated ship the St. Louis, she had been turned back from Bar Mitzvah Made Easy with Computer America. She found wartime refuge in England. by Kathy Cohen facilitate the memorization of thing a cantor can, one advan­ Herta Hoffman, a founder of Self-Help, the R.I. organization Herald Assistant Editor the blessings. tage of the computer is that " it set up to receive German and Austrian Jewish refugees, drove me to meet Lola a few years ago. Lola had already reached her Teaching trop has been sim­ Two years ago, the couple can help the cantor with the in­ worked together with Shira's formation: such as teaching the nineties. She moved about on her carpets, charged with vigor plified through a new computer and stamina. I went back for a second rendezvous with a stu­ called Lev Software which. father, Cantor Shimon child to recognize Hebrew," Gewirtz, as well as other Israeli says Temple Torat Yisrael's dent named Becky Brenner, whose Polish Jewish parents had helps students learn the Torah survived the Holocaust. We taped Lola's account of her time in and Haftorah blessings in any cantors in order to merge a mu­ music teacher Stanley Freid· sical program Benjamin de­ man. Vienna. A neighborhood lad in a Hitler's Youth uniform had tempo within a twelve-key come by for tea and dessert. He was at a loss what to say or range. It also will transliterate signed, with a Hebrew com· The system is considerably puter language. They made it more advanced than listening ask, not ready yet to let go of his respectful image of the re­ the Hebrew into either English fined lady in the fashionable suite of parlors who baked typical adaptable to IBM personal to an audio recording of a can· or Russian. cookies and put them on exquisite china plates. Lola wore the The program was designed computers and Lev Software tor performing the blessings. was born. With the computer, the child classic Austrian Jewish image of pride, dignity, taste, and by Benjamin Levy and his wife, strength. singer Shira Levy, in order to While it doesn't do every- not only hears the pitches but can follow along with each After the interview, Lola walked us out to my car. Becky word as the computer takes the found her bearing a bit haughty. Her feisty faith in herself child through each trop at their appealed to me. Lola phoned me at home from time to time. I own voice range and at varied was honored to hear her voice. I saw in my mind the form of speeds as they sing along. Lola, straight but small, offering me her cheek in the bleak Temple Torat Yisrael will be parking lot at the old Post Road. the first school to implement Are we Jews permitted to believe that the dead eavesdrop the new computer program in on what we say or think about them? I want to address a word to Lola. "You lived a heroic life!" Lola liked to serve her tea to Rhode Island, and within the (continued from page 16) next few months, others throughout the country are ex­ pected to follow. The Levys began using the DUE TO THE OBSERVANCE OF marketing strategies of an American firm in Chicago to LABOR DAY, NEXT WEEK'S market their new development to individuals in the United States and Canada. They also RHODE ISLANDJEWISH HERALD advertised in the hlternationa/ Jerusalem Post . Eventually they WILL BE PUBLISHED ON Proud owners of Lev Software, Benjamin and Shira Levy pose took on their own marketing in with Temple Tout Yisrael Cantor Shimon Cewirlz, who America and abroad. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7. helped put the program together. (continued on page 16) Featured performers at the ness cuu1111u11ny ,., --··--··o Letter To The evening benefit include resources and money for com­ VISIL.11 l!::j r, .....,, =~~-· _ Editor composer, author and teacher munity and ecological con­ Boost Brown Kay Gardner, and singer, song­ cerns. In the past year since its Your issue of August 23 had writer and recording artist inception, Earthcalls has Brown University's Program ish students. We have mixed the usual interesting and ef­ Laura Berkson. Tickets are $ 10 presented workshops with Star­ in Judaic Studies will host sev­ faculty and a mixed s,udent ficiently reported column by and may be purchased at hawk, Luisah Teish, and eral visiting professors during body. Dorothea Snyder, this time Visions and Voices, 255 Harris Margot Adler. the next academic year, pro­ Visiting professors this year titled Seniors Mull Middle East Avenue, Providence (401) 273- Kay Gardner, composer, gram chairman Ernest Frerichs will include: Crisis. 9757. Tickets may also be ob­ master of the nute, trans­ announced last week. Joseph Dan, a professor of ka­ As a "senior citizen" oh boy, tained at the door or through formance artist, is at the fore­ Meanwhile, the program ballah at Hebrew University. do I hate this word, I am the Earthcalls Network (401) front of composers creating staff will be conducting a He will be teaching courses in almost or even clearly, at the 521-0767 o, (401) 782-8625. lyrical, improvisational, hol­ search for a professor to replace kabalistic study, Jewish mysti­ age where but for the grace of In addition to the concert, istic, entrancing and experi­ former co-chairman of the pro­ cism and messianism. Cod, I could, but am not at the there will be a workshop given mental music designed for gram, Jacob Neusner. Neusner Michael Stone, also of He­ facility we lovingly call "the by Kay Gardner on Sunday, meditation, relaxation and took early retirement in July. brew University will be teach­ Home." September 16, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. healing. According to Frerichs, there ing a course on Jewish sects I couldn't agree more with entitled "Sounding the Inner Laura Berkson is a sinjiter, is now somewhere between and sectarianism in the Roman songwriter, recording artist the good people interviewed Landscape: Music & Healing." " 300 to 400 programs, centers, era. and educator for whom music by Mrs. Snyder. In these times Participants will explore the institutes and committees of Barbara Geller Nathanson, of unprecedented crisis, the ways in which sound and is a medium for personal Jewish or Judaic studies," from the department of reli­ President goes electioneering music affect not only our ears, growth, community empower­ around the country. This is a gious studies at Wellesley Col­ for his party colleagues when but our entire bodies, minds ment, and world change.