When Ceilings Fall: Old First Church on Rosh Hashanah

I received this email from Reverend Daniel Meeter of Old First Dutch Reformed Church in Park Slope detailing what happened when parts of the church’s ceiling crashed down just minutes before the start of a Rosh Hashanah service for a local congregation that was being held at the church.

“The people of Congregation Beth Elohim plus a few Christian friends were gathering on Wednesday night for Erev Rosh Hashana at Old First, the service set to begin at 8p.m.

“Why a Chirstian church? For the third year? Because three years ago (just a day before Rosh Hashanah) the plaster from the ceiling of Garfield Temple came crashing down causing the synagogue to close and find another place for their large high holy day services. The congregation was welcomed to hold thier services in the church.

“But at 7:50 p.m., just before the people started to fill the pews, the same thing happened at Old First, some ceiling plaster came crashing down. No one was seated in that spot yet, thank God, so we spent half an hour cleaning up and composing ourselves, and cordoned off the center pews, and started the service.

“Much abuzz, much shaking of heads, “unbelievable,” many loving jokes: “You can do Christmas Eve at the schul,” etc.

“During the service, pieces of loose plaster obviously and ominously were hanging down. Early the next morning, pastor, rabbi and work crews gathered to try to shake the loose plaster down, from up above the ceiling in the cavernous attic of the church. Our custodians, Pedro and Abraham, climbed into the housing above the chandelier, and, blind to the underside of the ceiling beneath them, started banging on beams with poles. Crash, crash, chrash. More plaster came down than we expected, crashing into the chandelier, breaking three bulbs.

“I was up there, grieving and crying for my church, but we had to do it. We came to a stop where we could and strated cleaning up. We flipped the switches on the chandelier, and thank heaven, it lit. But there is a wound in our ceiling, and maybe still more loose pieces, which we can’t be sure of until we get a cherry-picker, which means thousands of dollars.

“So the pew remained cordoned off, the the service started on time, and the Torah was read and the shofar sounded. This year I did not sit among the people as I was running around and calling contractors, and I missed both of Rabbi Andy Bachman’s sermons, and finally the congregation left, and now, God help us, we have to figure out what we will do. Shana Tovah.”

Photo by Hugh Crawford

Noam Chomsky on Occupy Wall Street

“Anyone with eyes open knows that the gangsterism of Wall Street — financial institutions generally — has caused severe damage to the people of the United States (and the world). And should also know that it has been doing so increasingly for over 30 years, as their power in the economy has radically increased, and with it their political power. That has set in motion a vicious cycle that has concentrated immense wealth, and with it political power, in a tiny sector of the population, a fraction of 1%, while the rest increasingly become what is sometimes called “a precariat” — seeking to survive in a precarious existence. They also carry out these ugly activities with almost complete impunity — not only too big to fail, but also “too big to jail.”

“The courageous and honorable protests underway in Wall Street should serve to bring this calamity to public attention, and to lead to dedicated efforts to overcome it and set the society on a more healthy course.”

Noam Chomsky

photos by Tom Martinez

The Community Bookstore Celebrates Its 40th

This was first published in Park Slope Patch, where I write a weekly column called, Around the Slope:

While I wasn’t able to attend the Community Bookstore’s 40th Anniversary reading at Old First Reformed Church on Saturday, I did drop by the after-party at the bookstore just in time to hear an employee, who was wearing a morning suit, read aloud from an official proclamation from the Brooklyn Borough President. It declared September 17, 2011 “Community Bookstore Day.”

“Whereas, it is a Brooklyn tradition to honor those organizations and individuals that display exemplary leadership and commitment to the people of their neighborhood and the borough…” the proclamation read.

Ezra Goldstein and Stephanie Valdez, the soon-to-be-official co-owners of the bookstore, were in jovial moods, sipping Brooklyn Brewery beer and eating “three-pie cake” with gloppy white icing and layers of cream and fruit.

Earlier in the day, more than a thousand people came to hear Park Slope literary royalty, Paul Auster, Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Siri Hustvedt, Mary Morris and Haley Tanner, read poetry and fiction by their favorite authors from the last 40 years as they celebrated Brooklyn’s oldest independent bookstore and one of Park Slope’s most important informal community centers.

“This group of authors was chosen because they are very dedicated to the bookstore. Not only did they read but they had such nice things to say about the store,” Valdez told me at the after-party.

In 1971 when Susan Scioli, who owns the building and lives in an apartment above the shop, opened the Community Bookstore, Park Slope was just beginning its gradual transition from a working and middle-class Irish and Italian neighborhood to the gentrified and expensive place it is today. But in the ensuing 40 years, the store has had its financial ups and downs.

In 2001, Catherine Bohne, a longtime bookstore employee, bought the shop from Scioli. In 2005 the store nearly went out of business, but was mercifully saved, in part, by a group of individuals who each donated $10,000 and became part owners of the shop. But a devoted following among the Park Slope community also enabled the store to survive through the advent of Amazon and a Barnes and Noble just a few blocks away.

Goldstein, a former journalist and member of the Park Slope Civic Council, and Valdez, who used to organize readings and other events for the store, have been running the place for a year now and will officially buy the bookstore from Bohne in the next few weeks.

Standing at a long table with a white tablecloth, flower arrangements and wine and cheeses, I talked to a man who has just moved to Park Slope from Washington Heights, a real newbie.

“I’m so glad to have found this bookstore,” he said holding a stack of fiction he was about to buy. He was with a friend from Manhattan and we talked about why Park Slope is such a community with a capital “C.”

I went into my usual spiel about Park Slope being a college town without the college.

“That’s a good one,” he said.

I went on to offer a variety of theories: Maybe it’s the scale of the neighborhood and the fact that locals walk everywhere and enjoy standing on the street while talking with friends and neighbors. Or maybe it’s because there are many neighborhood meccas that provide people with places to hang out and feel connected with one another.

There’s the Community Bookstore, of course, where it’s always possible to have a conversation about a favorite author, an upcoming book group, or a hot topic pertaining to Park Slope or the world. But there is so much more.

There’s the famous (and infamous) Park Slope Food Coop with its 15,000 members, who are required to work in order to enjoy the bounty of organic food, and love to gripe about the overzealous rules and regulations of the place.

Continue reading The Community Bookstore Celebrates Its 40th

Sheva Fruitman Jewelry Exhibit in Paris

If you are in Paris: Go see this tonight.

Sheva Fruitman, a talented photographer, jewelry designer, and an old friend of OTBKB,  sends word of the opening of her jewelry exhibition in Paris tonight (Naila de Monbrison, 6 Rue de Bourgogne, Paris 75007).

Doesn’t that sound lovely? We so wish we could be there.

please join me on september 20th

from 5pm-9pm
for the opening of my jewelry exhibition at naila de monbrison
6 rue de bourgogne, paris 75007
avec l’aimable participation de la maison veuve clicquot



This is one of her bracelets

Sheva also sends these photos she took in Paris while setting up her show

Postcard from the Slope: Healing Music by Czech Composer

Music is said to soothe the soul and on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, many New Yorkers opted to attend musical performances scheduled for the day of remembrance.

At the Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Center at the Brooklyn Public LibraryThe Sherman Chamber Ensemble played a program of elegiac music by 18thand 19th century composers, including Gabriel Fauré, Felix Mendelssohn, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

“I didn’t want it to be all lugubrious. I wanted to combine memory with works of mourning and rebirth,” said Eliot T. Bailen, co-founder of the ensemble and cellist.

Bailen and his wife, flutist Susan Rothholtz, founded the Sherman Chamber Ensemble in 1983. They perform nearly two-dozen concerts a year, including a subscription series in Sherman and Kent, Connecticut.

To prepare for the concert, Bailen listened to radio interviews with survivors and family members who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks.

“I tried to keep my focus on the day and the meaning of it,” he said.

Probably the most unusual piece on the program was the “Piano Trio” by Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), a Czech composer who was championed by Franz Lizst. Introducing the piece, Bailen told the audience “to listen to the contours of the music and the way that it alternates between beautiful melodies and turbulence.”

Smetana’s composition, he explained, was written after the death of the composer’s 4-year-old daughter.

“It was very specifically written after tragedy and that is why it is appropriate for today,” Bailen explained.

The performance of this piece with Bailen on cello, Michael Roth on violin and Margaret Kampmeier on piano, was virtuosic and highly emotionally as it sonically conveyed what Bailen called “the incomprehensible train of thought between anger and beauty and the heroic aspect of dying.”

The audience seemed moved by the music and cheered for the performers who appeared equally exhausted and exhilarated.

Continue reading Postcard from the Slope: Healing Music by Czech Composer

Postcard from the Slope: Purple Doors Wide Open

Sunday morning, the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the purple doors of Old First Dutch Reformed Church were wide open for its memorial service just as they were in the days and weeks after September 11, 2001. And just like 10 years ago, there was an A-frame board on the sidewalk in front of the Carroll Street church with the words: “The church will be open for prayer and meditation until 5 p.m.”

Inside, an unusually large crowd listened to 10-year-old Lector Frank Adams reading from the book of Exodus. Hanging from the walls of the church, with its imposing Neo-Gothic architecture, beautiful stained glass windows and a grand chandelier, were pieces of white newsprint, some readable, some blurry. The prayer sheets were created by visitors in the days and weeks after the 9/11 attacks, when the church invited those who walked through its doors to write down their prayers.

What seemed like a typical Sunday service, with the singing of hymns and readings from Romans and Matthew, suddenly transitioned into a memorial when Reverend Daniel Meeter began his sermon.

“Let me tell you what you did 10 years ago,” Rev. Meeter spoke directly to the crowd of over 200 people. “While paper and debris was raining down on this neighborhood some of you knew right away that you had to open the doors of the church for sanctuary.”

He continued: “People came and sat looking for safety and shelter because you opened the door. You hosted them. You gave them music, candles and hung up sheets of newsprint and put out markers.”

While he spoke, I noticed a small boy a few pews ahead of me playing with a toy fire truck, which somehow seemed appropriate for 343 firefighters died while responding to the World Trade Center attacks, including 12 firemen from Squad 1 on Union Street.

Continue reading Postcard from the Slope: Purple Doors Wide Open

Postcard From the Slope: Make Mine a Double

I’m thrilled as punch to be in an essay collection called Make Mine a Double, which was published TODAY. To make matters even merrier the collection, edited by Gina Barreca, is garnering great reviews like this one in Library Journal:

Make Mine a Double: Why Women Like Us Like To Drink (Or Not). Univ. Pr. of New England.Sept. 2011. c.192p. ed. by Gina Barreca. ISBN 9781584657590. $19.95. BEVERAGES

You don’t have to drink to enjoy this fine collection of short stories, poems, and essays edited by Barreca (English & feminist theory, Univ. of Connecticut; It’s Not That I’m Bitter…, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World); the complex web of social, cultural, and political factors around women and alcohol will envelop both partakers and teetotalers. The selections run the gamut: Greta Scheibel recalls challenging norms by imbibing publicly in Tanzania; Sarah Rasher discusses negotiating the mores of drinking (and sexual preference) in Japan; Sarah Deming cleverly decries snobbishness and asks for a bartender who will simply make what’s ordered; Susan Campbell narrates her search for the perfect drink, which ultimately led her to soda; and Louise Crawford considers the volatile social cocktail of moms and booze. This reviewer swallowed the collection in a single, greedy gulp, but other readers may prefer to savor slowly the nearly 30 works by an impressive list of contributors (e.g., Amy Bloom, Jill Eisenstadt, and Wendy Liebman). VERDICT In lieu of an evening out with the intelligent, witty contributors, this laugh-out-loud funny, touching, thought-provoking collection is highly recommended.—Courtney Greene, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington

Postcard from the Slope: My Hiatus

In June I quietly decided to take a hiatus from writing this blog. Thankfully, Hugh Crawford (No Words Daily Pix) and Eliot Wagner (Now I’ve Heard Everything) kept the flame burning.

My reasons for taking a break were manifold. In February of 2011 I began training to be a court reporter and my time for blogging was quite limited because I needed to focus on, well, court reporting. During a break from school in July I took a trip to Europe, which also limited my ability to blog.

But there were other reasons, too. After seven years writing for OTBKB I needed a break, a chance to regroup, rethink, and take a step back.

For almost seven years my passion for this blog was unlimited. People often asked: how do you do it, why do you do it, where do you find the time???

My answer was always the same: I love it.  Indeed, I was truly passionate about blogging and OTBKB. It didn’t feel like work, it felt like joy. That’s why I started the Brooklyn Blogfest (to spread the blogging gospel). That’s why I was able to post at least once a day and many days much, much more (I couldn’t stop, I had so much to tell you all).

I also loved my beat and the wide scope of this blog. Yes, there was my hyper-local focus on Brooklyn and beyond, including its civics and urban life, art and culture, food, drink, shopping, parenting and street life. But I was able to bring so much of myself and my other interests to it, too.

This blog felt like an extension of me and it could contain whatever interested me, which I hoped would be of interest to you.

Last Spring, for the first time in a very long time, I just couldn’t find the time, the will, or the interest to blog.  Because I was in school, OTBKB wasn’t the primary thing I was doing; I felt I had to step away to make room for the new. Stepping away was actually easier than I imagined it would be. I was spending more and more time in Manhattan and my non-stop attention to Brooklyn was waning.

But I also felt a great absence. I hardly knew myself when I wasn’t blogging. OTBKB was where I reckoned with the things that mattered to me, it’s where I set down my thoughts and feelings. Like a notebook, it was where I responded to the world around me.

Who was I without OTBKB? Some days I didn’t know.

And then on September 10, 2011, I felt moved to blog about the 10th anniversary. I’ve written many times on OTBKB about 9/11 anniversaries so it felt right that I should comment on this meaningful day.

Coming back to the blog was like finding an old friend. It felt familiar, yet different. There was much to say and yest, also a desire to find a new ways to connect. I didn’t want to get back into old habits; I wanted to find a new way of doing things.

The first post I ever posted was on September 18, 2004 almost exactly seven years ago. Soon after I started calling my posts, Postcard from the Slope.

I’m liking that idea that I will, once again, write these little postcards about what I’m thinking about. It feels right, it sounds good.

I’ll take it from there and see what happens. Thanks for listening.

An Open Letter from Rabbi Ellen Lippmann

Here is an open letter from Rabbi Ellen Lippmann of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives inviting the public to a special discussion the synagogue is sponsoring.

“On Thursday, September 15, at 7:30 pm, Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives ( 1012  8th Avenue in Park Slope) is hosting an open Jewish conversation about cultural boycott of Israel.  This is a controversial subject about which many people hold passionate opinions for, against and everything in between.   Why have I and Kolot Chayeinu decided to host such an event?

“The simple answer is that we believe strongly that our Jewish community should be a place of open conversation about many subjects, including one that like this arouse deep passions.   While the subject of boycott of Israel as a strategy seeking greater justice and peace there has been discussed widely in private individual and organizational settings, there have been few Jewish spaces willing to open doors to this conversation.  We thought it was time for Kolot Chayeinu to open those doors.

“In our community, too, the discussion of boycott of any kind has been confined to the living rooms that housed a two-year Israel-Palestine reading group.  But when asked last year about hosting a larger event on the subject, opinion in the community was split. What was not split, though, was the desire on the part of many Kolot members to have our congregation be a place of open discussion, regardless of any member’s opinion on the subject at hand.  Therefore, when we were asked this year to host, we agreed — with the understanding that the event must be a truly open conversation, allowing strong voices pro and con.  We insisted that members of our congregation be speakers on the panel along with those from other organizations.  We insisted that because the subject was cultural boycott specifically, some speakers be artists; on the final panel, one is a filmmaker, one a musician.  All panelists have thought long and hard about the subject of cultural boycott.  Some stand firmly against it, some just as firmly for it.  Others are still engaged in internal debate even as they share that debate with us.

“Ultimately, what is important in this conversation is that it is an open conversation for Jews, who rarely have this chance in a Jewish setting.  This is not an evening of advocacy, people are not speaking to convince anyone to take a position.  Rather, while the positions expressed are certain to be strongly stated, the evening is for talking and especially listening.  After all, God gave us 2 ears and only one mouth! And we must ALL listen with respect to each other no matter our personal position or how violently we may agree or disagree with what is said.  This is an evening for openness, honesty, careful listening, and deep thought.

“The conversation we are hosting on September 15 is unrelated to any others that are going on in the neighborhood or in the community.  It is OUR conversation.  The Kolot Executive Board would not have voted to host anything else, nor would I.  I look forward to seeing you Thursday evening.”

Sept 15: Italian America: History, Politics and the Everyday

RE-THINKING ITALIAN AMERICA AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2011.

Brooklyn Reading Works at The Old Stone House presents Italians in America: History, Politics and the Everyday. On September 15th at 8PM curator Joanna Clapps Herman brings together a group of Italian American scholars and authors who examine the details of history as it was created, lived and spoken, but until very recently hidden from view of the larger academic and literary world in America.

As an American ethnic tribe, Italian-Americans came later than some other ethnic groups to studying and writing about the details of custom, culture, folkways and history of their people.

In the last 25 years however the flood gates have opened and there is now a rich body of written material examining all aspects of cultural history and daily ways of life. Each of the authors at this reading brings to light a particular aspect here-to-fore not examined piece of the Italian American way of life: history, language, vernacular culture and archaic customs preserved.

Joseph Sciorra is the Associate Director for Academic and Cultural Programs at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College (City University of New York). As a folklorist, he has published on religious practices, cultural landscapes, and popular music.

Nancy C. Carnevale is Associate Professor of History at Montclair State University and author of A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945 (University of Illinois Press, 2009), winner of a 2010 American Book Award.

Jennifer Guglielmo specializes in the history of immigration, race, women, and labor in the United States, and is an Associate Professor of History at Smith College. Her recent book Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945 (UNC Press, 2010) documents Italian immigrant women’s commitment to revolutionary and transnational social movements, and explores how this activism diminished as they became white working-class Americans.

Joanna Clapps Herman has published poetry, fiction, memoirs and essays. Her latest publication is her memoir, The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian In America (SUNY Albany Press, March 2011) She is co-editor of Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana (Fordham University Press, 2008), as well as co-editor of Our Roots Are Deep With Passion (Other Press, 2007).

When: September, 15, 2011 at 8PM

Where: The Old Stone House in Park Slope on 3rd Street between 5th and 4th Avenues. Note: due to construction in park enter from west side of the house.

What else: $5 suggested donation includes wine and refreshments. Books for sale.

For more information about the authors and the event please contact Louise Crawford at 718-288-4290 or louise_crawford@yahoo.com

BROOKLYN READING WORKS 2011-21012 SEASON:

September 15, 2011: Italian Americans: History, Politics and the Everyday curated by Joanna Clapps Herman

October 6, 2011: Tranformations on the Tongue curated by Pat Smith

November 17, 2011: Make Mine a Double (Why Women Like Us Like to Drink) curated by Gina Barreca

December 8, 2011: A Taste of Salt, a reading with novelist Martha Southgate and others.

January 12, 2001: The Truth and the Ghost Writer curated by John Guidry

March 15, 2012: The Year of the Dragon: Voices from the East curated by Sophia Romero

May 10: Edgy Mother’s Day curated by Louise Crawford and Sophia Romer

Postcard from the Slope: Begin to Begin

First published on September 12, 2005.

In the new normal, September 11th is the new Labor Day. By that I mean that the autumn season doesn’t officially begin until we have mourned our losses from 9/11.

Falling on a Sunday, this year’s anniversary did feel like a national day of remembrance. Even though it looked like a typical fall Sunday and people did typical Sunday things – it wasn’t really a typical day at all.  At Ground Zero, at houses of worship, homes, firehouses, cemeteries, gardens, and on streets throughout the city, people commemorated the loss of  the nearly 3000 people who died on September 11. Bells tolled at the exact times the planes hit, as well as the times the south and north towers fell.

This year, I didn’t take part in any 9/11 memorial activities. In the past I have gone to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to meditate on the grass or to Old First Church to sit and listen to the church bells ring. Last year I attended a dinner at Al Di La given by a friend whose husband died on that day. She wanted to thank all her friends for their support and love.

Yesterday, I was aware of it being September 11th from the moment I woke up. Listening to the names being read at Ground Zero was a stark reminder. And this year the siblings read the names, which brought its own stirring poignancy.

I don’t think the beginning of September will ever mean anything other than 9/11 and the dispair we felt on that day. And September 12th will always bring relief because on that day in 2001 we slowly began to put back the pieces. We also truly connected to one another and felt a real sense of solidarity. That is also the legacy of 9/11, Through our tears, our panic, and our bewilderment,  we began the protracted healing process that continues to this day.

9/11 will always be the day we took the hit. But on the day after, we begin to begin again and celebrate the goodness that persists despite the evil we have seen.