Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. This reading is curated by Martha Southgate.

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story.
He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue
Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He
teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives
near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine.
He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a
United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast
Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended
Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His
essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in
publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa
Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie
Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current
Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two
children. Signifying Nothing is his
first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels,
most recently Third Girl from the Left
which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006.
It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the
American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation
for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell
Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf
Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book
Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best
African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have
appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She
also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and
Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is
working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can
visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the rest of the fab schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

My friend over at Phatush Diaries is FUNNY. And she's writing again. Which thrills me no end. You gotta read this woman who may be the edgiest mom around. Here's an excerpt but read the rest at her blog.

Tonight at Bar Reis playing Delta Blues: Moira Meltzer-Cohen and her dad, blues guitarist Andy Cohen.

Remember Moira? She's the awesome Bar Reis bartender who is now getting her law degree at CUNY Law School. She comes from a family of civil rights lawyers and blues guitarists and is really an awesome gal.

According to Mo, her dad is "one of the most seriously awesome guitarists you will
ever see." Mo loves to sing and they're going to play a set of pre-war Delta Blues to raise money to benefit the Mississippi
Project at CUNY School of Law.

There is no cover but they are soliciting
donations (which can be tax dediuctible if you write a check) which
will go to the material and administrative costs of sending 15 law
students (including Moira) to the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans to
volunteer with the ACLU and the Innocence Project to provide legal aid
to citizens who need it most.

It's all happening on Wednesday night 7-9 p.m:
Bar Reis
375 Fifth Avenue near 6th Street in Park Slope

In the 1960's Tom Hayden was an anti-war activist at the University of Michigan, and a
founding member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1961. He
was one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement, described by Howard Zinn as "one of those historic documents which
represents an era."

After forty years of activism, elected office (he was a California State Senator) and writing, Hayden is still a strong voice for ending the war in Iraq, eradicating
sweatshops, saving the environment, and reforming politics through
greater citizen participation.

The author or editor of thirteen
books, he comes to the Park Slope Methodist Church for a conversation sponsored by Brooklyn for Peace.

Does U. S. foreign policy in Iraq, Afghansitan and Pakistan mean Endless War? on Friday, October 2, 7:30 pm at the Park Slope United Methodist Church, 6th Ave. and 8th St., Brooklyn

Q and A with follow the talk.
Free Admission, donations gratefully accepted

Reception follows the event.

Sponsors: Brooklyn For Peace

Park Slope United Methodist Church Social Action Committee

Info@brooklynpeace.org

718 624-5921

http://www.brooklynpeace.org

The race for Bill De Blasio's seat in the City Council in the 39th district isn't over. Brad Lander may have won the Democratic primary but he still faces Republican Joe Nardiello and Green candidate David Pechefsky (pictured right) in the general election. On Monday October 5th, the three will meet at a Democracy Forum at Old First Church.

City Council Candidates for District 39 David Pechefsky, Brad Lander, and Joe Nardiello will
lead a discussion on democracy following a free screening of the documentary Please Vote for Me (http://pleasevoteforme.org/index.html) a film about an election for class monitor
in a third grade class in China, complete
with intimidation, bribery, and vote rigging!  The film will be the jumping off
point for examining democracy in New York City.

The screening and discussion
takes place Monday, October 5, 7-9 p.m."
Old First Church,
7th Avenue and Carroll Street in Park
Slope

Learn more about Steve Levin, our 28-year-old candidate apparent for David Yassky's City Council seat in the 33rd district. According to the Brooklyn Bugle, there's an interview with him in City Hall's "40 Under 40: The Next Political Leaders of New York."

Levin is running against Republican Elizabeth Tretter in what is a largely Democratic district.

OTBKB sends congratulations and best wishes to Robin Elizabeth Lester and William Gordon Kenton III, who were married Saturday at the Montauk Club in Park Slope!

Her husband, William Kenton is an adjunct professor of English at Barnard College in Manhattan. He graduated from Ohio University and received a doctoral degree in English and American literature from NYU.

There's an adorable video in the NY Times about how Robin and William met.

Hang on to your hats, folks, it's the Atlantic Antic on October 4th!

"What joy to celebrate
the Atonement with this people who embrace Atonement. What joy to
celebrate the repentance of our sins from A to Z. That's a gift that
Jews and Christians in unity can give our society, the good news of
repentance, and just why that is good news," wrote Pastor Daniel Meeter on his blog Old First.

Indeed, it was a Yom Kippur to remember in Park Slope when the ceiling fell in at Congregation Beth Elohim and Old First hosted the high holy day services.

And in an unrelated incident: a group of bigots from a Kansas Baptist Church (godhatesfags.com) picketed outside of the synagogue on the Saturday morning before the start of Yom Kippur on Sunday.

"What a week," Rabbi Andy Bachman told the Yom Kippur crowd at the church. And they laughed knowlingly. The rabbi held a service on the steps of the synagogue on Saturday, blew a shofar while 200 congregants and Park Slope residents danced, sang, and laughed.

And now we hear from Old First's Pastor Meeter who graciously offered his church to the neighborhood Jews and made a wonderful statement about Christian/Jewish unity in the process.

There was a murder at the Wyckoff Houses, a heroic cabbie who chased down his assailant; two, that's two iPhone stolen and loads of burglaries in the 78th precinct last week and it's all in the Brooklyn Paper Police Blotter.

—

Yup. The Two Joshes (Josh Grinker and Josh Foster who own Stone Park Cafe) are opening a new place in the space that used to be Tempo and before that Cucina. That's old news. It was reported on OTBKB quite a while ago.

And what's it gonna be?

Alright. Alright. Let the Brooklyn Paper have a piece of the story.

According to those BP guys: It's a Chinese place. And they're not kidding. They actually spoke to the Two Joshes. Now that's reporting!

“It’s going to be a traditional Chinese restaurant, not a fancy
restaurant like some of the Manhattan places have tried,” one of the Josh's  told the Brooklyn Paper. “We’ll cut out the stuff that Westerners just don’t go for … but the
food will be traditional in the techniques, the ingredients and the
recipes.”

In the Brooklyn Paper article, however, there was no mention of a third partner, or the fact that she's related to the "Cucina Family."

That was the scoop you heard right here at OTBKB not long ago. Sounds like the Joshes are going for a very different cuisine than their New American style-place on Third Street.

And I for one am excited. I think they're really good at what they do and I can't wait for the new place to open. I've already had one person ask me when they're opening.

She wants to do her daughter's bat mitzvah there.

GET OUT THERE AND VOTE! Yassky and DeBlasio need your vote. Every vote counts. The turnout is expected to be very low. It's 11:30 and I'm on my way to John Jay. See you there, okay?

It's the Bill and David Show once again. They've
been Park Slope's City Council members for eight years and now they're
running for their political careers in a special run-off election for
Public Advocate and City Comptroller respectively.

OTBKB
endorses the Park Slope team in today's race. Yassky runs against
Queens council member John Liu and DeBalsio is running against Mark
Green.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE HOME TEAM! GO YASSKY! GO DEBLASIO!

DO THE PARK SLOPE CHEER for David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio! And VOTE! The
polls are open all day on Tuesday September 29th.

Elizabeth Reagh of Good Form Design has once again designed a beautiful poster for Brooklyn Reading Works.

This is the fourth poster she's designed for the series and I love them all. Indeed, it's hard to pick a favorite.  It is, however, worth noting that the one she did for the 2006 season won an award for poster design excellence. 

Good Form Design, is a small and vibrant graphic design studio right in the heart of Park Slope. It is a collaboration of talented designers, fine
artists, and software engineers working together to create print and
web design that really do delight the senses. Reagh sees every project as a chance to bring her parallel
backgrounds in fine art (she's a talented painter) and graphic art together to produce effective
and beautiful communication. Logos, websites, invitations and branding
— they do it all.

Reagh is a wonderful designer and I always says she brings a great sense of humor, color and fun to her work. Check out her website and think of her if you have a design project.

Excitingly, she is in the process of designing the new masthead for OTBKB!!! Stay tuned for that when we roll out the OTBKB makeover.

Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Young, Gifted and Black (Men) with Clifford Thompson, Victor LaValle and James Hannham. This reading is curated by Martha Southgate.

Where: The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope

When: October 1, 2009 at 8 p.m.

James Hannaham's stories have appeared in The Literary Review, Open City and Nerve, and one is about to show up in One Story.
He has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The Blue
Mountain Center, Chateau de Lavigny, and Fundacion Valparaiso. He
teaches creative writing at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and lives
near there. His first novel, God Says No, came out through McSweeney's Books in late May of 2009. An excerpt from the book appears in McSweeney's 31, which looks a lot like a yearbook, binding-wise.

Victor LaValle is the author of slapboxing with jesus, a collection of stories, and two novels, The Ecstatic and Big Machine.
He has received numerous awards including a Whiting Writers' Award, a
United States Artist's Ford Fellowship, and the key to Southeast
Queens. His website is victorlavalle.com

Clifford Thompson grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended
Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. His
essays on literature, film, jazz, and other subjects have appeared in
publications including The Threepenny Review, Commonweal, Cineaste, Film Quarterly, The Iowa
Review, Black Issues Book Review, and The Best American Movie
Writing. He is the editor of the H.W. Wilson publication Current
Biography. Thompson lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two
children. Signifying Nothing is his
first novel.

Martha Southgate is the author of three novels,
most recently Third Girl from the Left
which was published in paperback by Houghton Mifflin in September 2006.
It won the Best Novel of the year award from the Black Caucus of the
American Library Association. She received a 2002 New York Foundation
for the Arts grant and has received fellowships from the MacDowell
Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Bread Loaf
Writers Conference.  Her July 2007 essay from the New York Times Book
Review, “Writers Like Me” appears in the recent anthology Best
African-American Essays 2008.  Previous non-fiction articles have
appeared in The New York Times Magazine, O, Premiere, and Essence. She
also has essays in the recent anthologies Behind the Bedroom Door and
Heavy Rotation: Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives. She is
working on her next novel, to be published by Algonquin Books. You can
visit her website at www.marthasouthgate.co

And here's the fab schedule for the 5th anniversary season of Brooklyn Reading Works:

October 15:  POETRY PUNCH curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
November 19 at 7 p.m.  YOUNG WRITERS curated by Jill Eisenstadt (note: earlier start time)
December 10:  FEAST: WRITERS ON FOOD curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. A benefit for a local soup kitchen.
January: 21:  TIN HOUSE READING curated by Rob Sillman
February 11:  MEMOIRATHON curated by Branka Ruzak
March 18:  BLARNEYPALOOZA curated by Michele Madigan Somerville
April 15:  TRUTH AND MONEY Curated by John Guidry
May 13:  4TH ANNUAL EDGY MOTHER'S DAY
June 13: FICTION IN A BLENDER Curated by Martha Southgate

The Old Stone House is located on Fifth Avenue at Third Street in Park Slope, 718-768-3195. Directions here.

In honor of Sukkot, which begins on Saturday, the 3rd of October and will continue for 7 days until Friday, the 9th of October, here's an excerpt from an interview in the current Forward with Park Slope author Jonathan Safran Foer and his brother, Josh Foer about a sukkah they built last year.

J.F.: Our original design idea was a floating sukkah. It was going to have curtain walls and be suspended from above by cables.

JSF: Directly from God’s beard.

J.F.:
Directly from Jonathan’s magnolia tree. I had four pieces of steel
specially fabricated for the project. But that idea got nixed by a
rabbi. You can’t build a sukkah under a tree, you know.

JSF: No. That’s not it. We decided the tree couldn’t support the weight.

J.F.: Right.

Don't forget to vote today. To find your polling place, visit: http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm.

OTBKB is endorsing Bill DeBlasio for Public Advocate and David Yassky for City Comptroller in Tuesday's run-off election.

Based on his honesty and integrity, I believe that David Yassky has what it takes to be a great New York City Comptroller. His legislative
successes, include putting hybrid taxis on our streets to
fighting for affordable housing to creating thousands of jobs through
the Film Tax Credit. He has a commitment to transparency, as he demonstrated by putting the City budget online at www.itsyourmoneynyc.org.

Yassky has lots of ideas he wants to implement once in the Comptroller's Office, including investments in
biotech and cleantech, auditing the Department of Education, and
cutting waste in the budget.

Yassky has been endorsed by Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Times, the New York Daily News and the New York Post. The Times said that David is the Comptroller candidate "most suited to do the job, with skill, intelligence, and independence."

The turnout for this run-off is expected to be exceptionally low. Every vote counts.  It only takes a few minutes to vote. 

At Babeland on Wednesday, September 30th: this month's Babeland Sexy Mom's event will feature Lauren
Abrams, a community health center midwife from Park Slope, who will speak about
her experience as a lesbian partner raising two children.

 She'll discuss
navigating the medical world as a lesbian couple, communication between the
birth and non-birth mother, changing desires, "donor dads," taboos,
etc.

Babeland Co-Founder, Claire Cavanah, will also speak about her experience as a single lesbian mom. Complimentary
refreshments will be served. This event is jointly sponsored by The New Space
for Women’s Health, Bump and Park Slope Parents. Complimentary
refreshments will be served courtesy of Sip Wines and Joyce Bakery. No
pre-registration necessary, just stop on by!

Wednesday, September 30 at 7pm.

Babeland Brooklyn is located at 462 Bergen Strett in Park Slope.

I am always thrilled when Richard Grayson, author of "Who Will Kiss the Pig" and "And To Think That He Kissed Him on Lorimer Street" and other titles from DUMBO Books, decides to share his thoughts with OTBKB readers:

We headed over to the Old Stone House in Washington Park on a dreary fall
Sunday afternoon to see a first-rate production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger.

It
was precisely the play needed for a dreary Sunday, as it has three
crucial scenes set on dreary Sundays. But this drama's effect is the
direct opposite of dreary. It's explosive.

We
bought the Bantam paperback edition of the play from the old Bookworm
Bookstore on Flatbush Avenue near Church when it came out in 1967.

We stayed up one night and read the play in one long gulp.

The
book had amazing drawings of the scenes by Lee Gregori. But of course
it was Osborne's words, even a decade after they caused a revolution on
the London stage, in the mouth of his "angry young man," Jimmy Porter,
that so excited one 16-year-old boy in Brooklyn:

I've
an idea, why don't we have a little game? Let's pretend that we're
human beings and that we're actually alive. Just for a while. What do
you say?

The contemporary reaction to Look Back in Anger
is more respectful than enthusiastic. It's impossible, given the past
forty or fifty years, to recapture the response its got back in the day
when it seemed urgent, an emancipation of drama from the restrictions
of past generations, particularly in pre-Beatles, pre-mods-and-rockers,
pre-"cool-Britannia" Britain, but also in fifties America.

Even by the time we read it, we'd already digested – devoured – Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which the emotional outbursts are even more extreme than the ones that are Look Back in Anger's most compelling moments.

The second floor of the Old Stone House is a great space for talks and the Brooklyn Reading Works
but it's not ideal for theater. Yet this production, directed fluidly
by Thomas Mulhare, managed to employ the space to maximum effect,
effectively using the intimacy; at several points, sitting on the
aisle, we could have reached out and touched the characters. Scene
changes, which could have been jarring, were handled adeptly in an
understated way with a character simply announcing them: "Two weeks
later."

The cast was uniformly superb. The dialogue written by
Osborne (for some reason, the program misspelled the author's name four
times, adding a superfluous U, as if it were labour, honour or colour
– but we guess it's great that that was our biggest quibble with the
production) contains a number of monologues that could lend themselves
to scenery-chewing. But here everything was controlled, restrained –
even at the moments of highest rage and passion.

Alex
Mills played Jimmy Porter with a vulnerability that made his sneering
and sadistic tirades directed at his wife Alison and the other
characters understandable. Mills' performance also emphasized Jimmy's
high intelligence and educated background, which serve only to feed his
frustration and bitterness and make him strike out at the world,
including those who – almost unaccountably but not quite – love him.
But he's also delighted with his own fury.

Yet it's hard in 2009
to take Jimmy's long, vicious riffs – like those against his despised
mother-in-law – with the kind of shock that it generated decades ago.
Look Back in Anger is one of those artistic works at the
vanguard of so triumphant a revolutionary change that its innovations
are impossible to discern for an audience who didn't live through its
initial reception.

Today it's hard to imagine how some of us were affected by Osborne's plays – we also loved The Entertainer – and other groundbreaking British novels, dramas and films of the time: Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey, John Schlesinger's Billy Liar, anything by Alan Sillitoe.

Our dad once came in as we were viewing Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner for about the seventh time one week on Channel 9's Million Dollar Movie
and said with a chuckle, "No matter how many times you watch it, he's
never gonna finish that damn race." So we were thrilled to have this
production come to the Old Stone House this weekend and delighted to
get this kind of quality theater for just a five-dollar donation.

There's
a tenderness in this Jimmy Porter that makes his unpleasant egotism
understandable but doesn't veer into mawkishness. Alex Mills perfectly
captured Osborne's stage directions' description of his antihero as "a
disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness
and freebooting cruelty."

In the squalor of Jimmy's Midlands
flat – subtly suggested by a minimalist set, lots of newspapers
scattered about (we admit being distracted by their being New York
papers; maybe they could have gotten some London ones?) and a few
stuffy furnishings, including an old record player from which very
low-key background music which served the action of the play well –
Alison, his upper-class wife, at first seems out of place.

Played
by Katy Foley, who also was the producer here, this Alison seemed less
Jimmy's punching bag and doormat than someone who's somewhat willingly
taken on the role of wife as victim as a way of protecting the man she
loves from turning his anger on himself. That is, Alison here appears
very vulnerable but not bewildered; she's made her choices
deliberately, even though she may not be aware of it. In Foley's
portrayal, you can see why Alison is the squirrel to Jimmy's bear in
their stuffed-animal avatars on a side table.

As Helena, Ruby
Joy at first is outwardly brittle and somewhat manipulative, but in Act
Two – there was a ten-minute intermission – it's obvious that she wears
a protective armor and is also a lost soul, drowning slowly in what she
once thought were safe waters. She doesn't lack compassion, but for
Joy's Helena, everything else takes a back seat to self-preservation.

Daniel
Kemper excelled as Cliff and was in some ways the pivotal character in
this production. Jimmy's most ardent passion is devoted to his loyal
crony Cliff, who's fiercely protective of him despite the mutual
insults. Cliff is even more protective and tender toward Alison, whom
he's so affectionate toward – the choice made to begin the play with
Cliff and Alison in an embrace, as if they're having a furtive affair,
was brilliant – that it would arouse the jealousy of any husband except
Jimmy, who's incapable of jealousy.

Tolerant, patient,
self-deprecating, funny, acutely aware of his limitations and lack of
education, Kemper's Cliff is also quite needy, and we don't quite know
how to respond to his perfectly-delivered speech announcing that it
might be time for him to move on from Jimmy's sweet shop business and
his friends' menage; this character's motivations are in some way the
most complex in the play.

Like
Jimmy's working class English accent and the posher accents of the
other characters, Cliff's Welsh accent was effectively unobtrusive and
unaffected.

Dan Odell as Colonel Redfern, Alison's father,
gave an affecting performance as the representative of the
establishment, no caricactured Colonel Blimp but a man plagued by
self-doubt and second-guessing, as vulnerable as the young people,
distracted and bewildered by the ground shaking underneath Old
England's feet. In the way he muddles through, there's a sense of
decency about him, and Odell struck all the right gestures for a man of
his time and place.

Look Back in Anger
is a period piece today, and this production emphasized not its blazing
fury but the melancholy underlying the characters' lives. Osborne's
words, even the ones that seemed vulgar and brutal in 1956, now seem
elegaic and wonderfully poetic.

The sun was shining as we left the Old Stone House and we were really glad we got to see this production.

In the last few days I have heard Patrick Gaspard referred to numerous times (in the press, on WNYC, in casual conversation) as the Karl Rove of Obama's White House. He is, apparently, behind the decision to give Governor Patterson the heave ho.

Karl Rove was was Senior Advisor and  Deputy Chief of Staff for former President Bush. He was considered the policy maker behind the scenes of that administration.

And what a mess this Paterson thing has become. News that the White House interfered with the New York governor race has created a sticky situation for the Obama administration.

It's too bad it wasn't handled in a more delicate manner.

Still, it's interesting to see that Gaspard is such a powerful force in the White House.

A former resident of Park Slope and PS 321 parent, Patrick Gaspard is the Director of the Office of Political Affairs for the Obama administration. A Haitian-American, Gaspard was also on his transition team after the election. During the presidential campaign, Gaspard was Obama's National Political Director.

Gaspard was the executive vice president for politics and legislation for the 199SEIU United Healthcare Workers, the largest local union in
America.

His job at the union was to help coordinate political activity on behalf of 300,000 members. Gaspard worked for Howard Dean's presidential campaign and Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential bid and for numerous other congressional candidates and campaigns.

It's the Bill and David Show once again. They've been Park Slope's City Council members for eight years and now they're running for their political careers in a special run-off election for Public Advocate and City Comptroller respectively.

OTBKB endorses the Park Slope team in tomorrow's race. Yassky runs against Queens council member John Liu and DeBalsio is running against Mark Green.

You may have had issues with these men during their tumultuous times in the City Council. But they're our guys, like family. Let's hear it for the home team.

DO the Park Slope cheer for David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio! And VOTE! The polls are open all day on Tuesday September 29th. And the turnout is expected to be very low and every vote counts.

"Wow, what a week," Rabbi Andy Bachman told his congregation as they sat in the pews of Old First Dutch Reformed Church on the holiest night of the Jewish calendar.

And what a week it was.

It was the week that the anti-gay, anti-Semitic Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas decided to picket three synagogues in Brooklyn and Brooklyn Tech High School because Brooklyn has more Jews and gays than just about anywhere else in the United States.

The picketing was set for Saturday. But on Thursday (in an unrelated event), the ceiling over the mezzanine of  Beth Elohim's sanctuary collapsed, making it impossible to hold Yom Kippur services there. It will also necessitate a costly renovation. 

Luckily, Bachman and Pastor Daniel Meeter of Park Slope's Old First Dutch Reformed Church are good friends. Bachman called Meeter. Meeter said yes, of course the congregation was welcome in his large, beautiful church built in 1891. They wouldn't even have to cover any crosses. "There are none. We're Calivinists!" Meeter told me.

Meeter was over the moon to have the Jews at the church. That's the kind of pastor he is. He loves to bring people together. He loves inter-faith events. He loves to foster community spirit, religious tolerance and openness. Last year for Martin Luther King Day he organized a full-day program for adults and kids
called "The Audacity of Peace," which included an interfaith prayer service for peace with Imam Salilou Djabi, of the Imam Ali Mosque in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rev. T. K. Nakagaki, of the Buddhist Church of New York, Rabbi Andy Bachman, of Congregation Beth Elohim and Meeter himself.

So having the Jews over for Yom Kippur was right up his alley and he welcomed the Park Slope congregation with open arms.

On Saturday, as has been reported here and elsewhere, the Kansans did picket Beth Elohim and the congregation's response couldn't have been more perfect. With dignity, humor and a great spirit of openness, the rabbi blew the shofar, spoke eloquently as members of the congregation and the community danced, sang and laughed. A lot.

Even snarky Erica of FIPS was moved by the counter-demonstration:

The events of the week were referred to often during the service. Rabbi Bachman thanked Meeter and the Old First congregation for their hospitality and generosity. Meeter told the crowd that he wasn't sure if he should wear his yamulke or his collar. "Wear them both," one of his church members reportedly told him. Rabbi Bachman praised the space saying it was a wonderful place to pray.

The Yom Kippur service traditionally begins with a mournful
melody called "Kol Nidre." When the music began, a duet of bass cello and piano, the crowd gave itself over to the poignancy of the moment. It didn't matter that they were Jews in a Christian space or that they pray to a different God than their Christian hosts or use a different portion of the Bible. Old First Church was a hall of worship where Jews and Christians were gathered on one of the holiest days of the year.

And it was good.

In response to this post Pastor Meeter had this comment:

"But you know, we do pray to the same God. We tell different stories about
this God, and our stories clash, but it's the same God we tell the stories
about, like two siblings arguing over a story about their dad."