Welcome the stranger. Reverend Daniel Meeter affirmed that message during his homily on Christmas Eve at Old First Dutch Reformed Church in Park Slope.  “If you are Christian, Jew, Muslim or anything else; no matter your beliefs or even your lack of beliefs, all are welcome here,” he told the packed church.

As a Jew, I make a point of attending that church on Christmas Eve. And when Christmas Eve happens to be the first night of Hanukah all the better.

In these dark times, these days of division and demagogeury, it is more important than ever to enter spaces that bring people of disparate beliefs together in an atmosphere of light and introspection. Sitting in the balcony of the church’s upper church hall, I felt part of this incredible community celebration.

It was an evening of lessons and carols. During the first half hour, Old First’s remarkable music director Aleeza Meir led a small orchestra in festive music by Bach and Vivaldi. The church filled, the candles were lit, the lectors took their seats. It was a time of quiet chatter and meditation.

Then all rose for a hymn: “Jesus is our childhood’s pattern: day by day like us he grew/he was little, weak and helpless; tears and smiles like us he knew; and he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness.” 

Reverend Meeter’s homily continued on this theme of Jesus’ smallness, his vulnerability, his being like us. He even quoted the great Joan Osborne song: “What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus,” Meeter intoned. “That’s it. Full stop. Jesus was a passenger on the MTA.”

Throughout the service, the lector’s rose one by one and recited passages from Genesis, Isaiah, St. Matthew, St. Luke, and St. John. And following each reading there was music. Glorious music.

It is a tradition at Old Church for one of the lector’s to be a staff member from Congregation Beth Elohim, a synagogue just a few blocks away. This year, the church welcomed the virtuosic Cantor Josh Breitzer to the lectern where he read in Hebrew and English from Genesis 22:15-18.

It was a night of great music. Michael Daves, a talented bluegrass guitarist and vocalist, led the congregation in “Go Tell it on the Mountain” and featured vocalists including Evelyn Troester-DeGraf, Merrill Grant, Jennifer Cribbs, and Jeff Cribbs gorgeously sang songs by Vivaldi, carols, and poems set to music by Aleeza Meier. The variety and the beauty of the music lifted this  Christmas Eve service into the divine hemisphere.

And yes, the orchestra was beautiful.

Perhaps the most stirring moment of  a night of many stirring moments came late in the service, when all the electric lights were turned off and the church was dark except for the flicker of candlelight. Cantor Breitzer sang the first verse of “Silent Night” in German.

“Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht! Alees schalft, einsam wacht..” 

The emotional cluster of hearing a cantor in a church singing “Silent Night”  on Christmas Eve. Well, you can imagine the ecstasy and the poignancy of that moment.

Soon after, the lights were back on and the orchestra and singers led the congregation in a joyous “Joy to the World” punctuated by euphoric and loud foot stamping. Even this stranger knew to stamp along.

The crowd streamed out of the church into the unseasonably warm Brooklyn night. Infused with light, the evening gave me hope that a future is possible even in these uncertain last days of 2016.

Earlier this week I was invited to speak about blogging to the seventh grade at the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School (MELS) in Forest Hills.

According to the school’s website:

The school follows the Expeditionary Learning model (www.elschools.org), in which students engage in learning expeditions and have multiple opportunities for hands-on learning, both inside and outside of the classroom. Students participate in fieldwork with civic leaders, industry figures, and environmental scientists to examine agriculture, architecture, city infrastructure, design, environmental policy, law, and planning. 

Talking to seventh graders. I must admit I was terrified. How was I going to make this subject scintillating to bunch of 12-year-olds? Turns out I had nothing to worry about. The kids at MELS are really smart, cool and engaged. They are also embarking on a really interesting project that involves blogging. And sacrifice.

For the next few weeks, every one in the seventh grade is giving up one thing for the environment. Some kids are giving up meat or dairy. Some are going vegan. Some are giving up plastic bags or air conditioning. Some are going to walk rather than use cars or public transportation. And they’re going to blog about the experience every day.

The kids seemed really psyched about their sacrifice and very receptive to what I had to say. I was happy to fill them in on what they needed to know.

Their teacher, Mica Fidler, asked me to give the kids a brief history of blogging. I told them about the early days of hyper-local blogging in Brooklyn. I talked about the Brooklyn Blogfest. I told them about Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn. The kids were really interested in why I started the blog, what I hoped to accomplish, the challenges, how I monetized the blog, and how I dealt with negative comments.

We also talked about writing for a blog and the importance of voice. I told them the most important thing is that spelling and grammar matter. There’s nothing worse than having a spelling error pointed out to you by one of your readers. That said, it’s really helpful because if you’re like me and terrible about proofreading your own writing, it’s great that someone else is catching the mistakes.

All in all, it was a great day at MELS and a satisfying one for me. As I said to the kids, “What you do with  your blog can enhance your life and change the world.”

The best FREE political comedy show in New York City presented by The Laughing Liberally Lab at 8PM on December 23rd, 2015 at Beauty Bar in Manhattan.

Hosted by comic, writer, and filmmaker Katie Halper, featuring comedians from Comedy Central, MTV, David Letterman, Funny or Die, The Onion, MSNBC, and the Huffington Post.
Katie Halper – WBAI’s Katie Halper Show
Justin Williams – Laughs on Fox and Men’s Health Magazine
Dean Obeidallah – Host of Sirius XM radio’s The Dean Obeidallah   show
Frank Conniff  – Mystery Science Theater 3000, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell
And more performers TBA
Beauty Bar, Backroom, 231 East 14th Street New York, NY 10003

In a column on Psychology Today, Pamela Katz, screenwriter of the film Hannah Arendt (pictured above) and author of the book The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women and Germany on the Brink (Doubleday/Nan A. Talese) asks :”Why do people commit acts of evil? How can we stop them? What are the social conditions permitting an organized group of people to justify—even celebrate—murder and destruction?”

In her compelling essay, Confronting Evil, Again, she cites Hannah Arendt, the sub ject of her critically acclaimed and award-winning film:

“Philosopher Hannah Arendt’s phrase, “the banality of evil,” famously defined the concept of how hundreds of thousands of “ordinary’ citizens could participate in World War II’s genocide. When Arendt was witnessing the trial of Adolf Eichmann — a Nazi who organized the transportation of innocent civilians to Hitler’s extermination camps — she raised the question still confronting us today in the aftermath of Paris, Mali, Beirut and most recently as we held our breath over Brussels: how do we simultaneously acknowledge the “unspeakable horror “ of the crimes committed against innocent non-combatants, with the apparent ordinariness of those who initiate and carry out such unspeakable atrocities?”

Read more here.

The best political comedy show in NYC, The Laughing Liberally Lab features comedians from Comedy Central, MTV, David Letterman, Funny or Die, The Onion, MSNBC, the Huffington Post.

Join us on Wednesday, October 14 at 8PM, the day Hillary and Bernie duke it out. With John Fugelsang (Sirius Radio host), Frank Conniff (Mystery Science Theater), Mike Brown (NY Comedy Fest), Julianna Forlano (The Julianna Forlano Show), Travis Irvine (The Guardian) Rae Sanni (It’s About Us podcast) Hosted by Katie Halper (MSNBC).

Laughing Liberally

Wednesday October 14th at 8PM at The Commons Brooklyn at 388 Atlantic Avenue between Hoyt and Bond Streets. FREE.

This week on The Katie Halper Show on WBAI, Katie chats with the “terrifically entertaining” (New York Times) Judah Friedlander. The comedian, actor, cartoonist, photographer, and author  (30 Rock,  Wet Hot American Summer, American Splendor., How to Beat Up Anybody) will riff about politics, life, comedy and his new book,  If the Raindrops United (Hachette Books, October 2015), a  collection of hilarious and scathing drawings and cartoons, which Tina Fey calls “in the grand ’70s tradition of B. Kliban” and predicts “will probably fix the world.” 

THE KATIE HALPER SHOW

Where serous people can be funny and funny people can be serious.

Called “hilarious” (The Nation) and “cute and somewhat brainy” (The National Review, of all places) standup comedian, filmmaker and writer Katie Halper is a mash-up of Jon Stewart and Emma Goldman, using comedy to get into serious issues and news stories.  Her weekly WBAI show (6 pm on Wednesdays) takes a humorous look at the news, politics, pop culture, and history through news segments and conversations with  guests that include Margaret Cho, Nate Silver, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jelani Cobb and other writers, journalists, activists, artists and political comedians.

Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie is a A New York based comedian, writer, filmmaker and history teacher, Katie is a co-founder and member of the comedy ensemble Laughing Liberally, and has performed Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, and The Nation Magazine Cruise. Her writing and videos have appeared in Salon, The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation, Jezebel, Guernica, Alternet, Raw Story, Feministing and more. Katie appears regularly on HuffPost Live as well as MSNBC, RT, the Alan Colmes Show, and Sirius radio (which hung up on her once).

 Katie attended the Dalton School, where she has taught history, and Wesleyan University, where she learned that “labels are for jars.”

Listen to Katie’s show here: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-katie-halper-show/id1020563127?mt=2

Paul Muldoon, Pulitzer Prize winning poet and poetry editor for The New Yorker curates and hosts Muldoon’s Picnic the second  Monday of each month at Irish Arts Center at 553 West 51st Street in Manhattan.

On October 12th at 7:30 p.m., Muldoon’s Picnic will feature author Colum McCann author of  Let the Great World Spin, winner of the National Book Award. His new book Thirteen Ways of Looking is just out.

This omnium-gatherum of words and music also includes Portland-born poet Michael Dickman, fiddler and violinist Dan Trueman, Indie Neo Folk band Damsel and Rogue Oliphant, a spoken word ensemble featuring Paul Muldoon. You’re in for a treat as Paul Muldoon leads this night of half musical, half literary revelry.

For more information: irishartscenter.org

My friend Eleanor Traubman is a wonderful tutor. She’s smart, patient, compassionate, creative and fun. If you child is in need of school help or wants to develop confidence and joy about reading and writing, give Eleanor a call. I give her my very highest recommendation.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year Award, Irish Arts Center introduces its first-ever festival celebrating Irish children’s literature!

On October 8th at Irish Arts Center, the very best Irish children’s writers recognized at the leading book awards in Ireland, the CBI Book of the Year Awards, are featured at Rí Rá Festival of Children’s Literature. Bringing children and families together to creatively engage with literature, the festival encourages readers tall and small to discover new books at readings, talk with those who create them, and share their love for reading. Stay all day, or pop in to play at one of our many free events for kids, teens, and adults.

Rí Rá, Irish Gaelic for “ruckus” or “mayhem,” is the perfect word to describe this one-day extravaganza of Irish children’s literature.

Authors include Áine Ní Ghlinn, Oliver Jeffers (pictured above), Chris Haughton, Louise O’Neill, Gabriel Rosenstock, and Eoin Colfer (Children’s Laureate of Ireland).

Sunday, October 4, 2015

11 am – 4 pm
Irish Arts Center553 West 51 Street, New York, NY 10019
212-757-3318

$5 per person for individual events: Oliver Jeffers (11 am,) Chris Haughton (12 pm,) Gabriel Rosenstock (1 pm,) Aine Ní Ghlinn (2 pm,) and Louise O’Neill (3 pm)

Festival Pass $15 (+ 20% off books)

$50 Festival Family Pass
(2 adults + 2 kids OR 1 adult + 3 kids + 20% off books)

FREE for Junior Joyce & Family Circle Members

Slow Food NYC and The McCarren Hotel present the fourth annual SPIRITS OF NEW YORK event featuring spirits made in New York, primarily with principle ingredients grown and produced in New York, or, if not, fair- or direct-traded.

Here’s a great opportunity to support a great cause (Slow Food NYC Urban Harvest) and to sample selected regional producers’ beverages served up neat or in imaginative cocktails.

The not-for profit Slow Food NYC Urban Harvest program is a good food education for NYC kids at 16 schools, in the Bronx and East Harlem, on the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn, and at a summer educational urban farm in Brownsville.

More than 1,000 Urban Harvest kids each year learn about the importance of good, clean, and fair food to their health, the health of their families and communities, and the health of the planet.

Participating distillers include: Astoria Distilling, Barrow’s Intense Liqueuer, Black Button Distilling, Black Dirt Distillery, Breuckelen Distilling, Caco Prieto, Harvest Spirits Farm Distilling, Jack from Brooklyn, Nahmias et Fils, Port Morris Distillery, Van Brunt Stillhouse

When: 7-9 pm on June 15, 2015

Where: McCarren Hotel Rooftop Lounge “Sheltering Sky” – 160 North 12th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, 11249

Tickets: Tickets available at http://sony15.brownpapertickets.com
General Admission – $40 / Slow Food Member – $30

There’s something at once ultra contemporary and classic about Toni, who is fast becoming a regular on New York City’s alt-cabaret circuit. I was introduced to her work through cabaret singer Karen Kohler, who is very much in the know about the best and the brightest lights musically in New York.

Clearly, it’s the haunting, raw quality of her voice, the poetic sensibility of her words, and her magnetic stage presence that astonishes audience. “I feel like her voice reaches me in the deepest places of my soul and pulls me up,” raves actress/singer Valentina.

Working with Michael Kingsley, an award-winning composer and producer, Toni will appeal to those who like their love songs edgy and dark. She is equally at home in a cabaret or a Bushwick club. “My songs are about survival and love as the foundation of all that is important,” she says.

She approaches her work philosophically. “I believe in the truth and the essence of things,” Toni says. “I try to steer clear of the world of created complications, the modern mind dust.”

Indeed, listening to her latest work with Michael Kingsley The Heart is Not Involved one feels clear of “mind dust” as the beauty and depth of the singer and her song infiltrate the air. A sweeping orchestral arrangement anchors the song, which is about deep loneliness. The vocal is wrenching and real.

You can listen (and buy) Toni’s music at CD Baby. 

The Park Slope 100 is something I started in 2006. It is now a collaboration with Park Slope Stoop. I want to thank Mary Bakja for helping me continue this great tradition, which tells a nice story about our neighborhood. Kind of an archive of what goes on around here. I had fun coming up with a bunch of these. Great to hear about the people, places and things that Park Slope Stoop brought to the list. Hope this inspires people to seek out the new. It certainly inspires me.

In a neighborhood where you can easily find several inspiring new stories every day of the year, it’s hard to choose just a few that represent how Park Slope is such a special place to live.

But annually for the past eight years, Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklynhas managed to do just that with her Park Slope 100, choosing 100 of the most interesting people, places, and things that have made the past year unique.

For the second year in a row, we here at Park Slope Stoop and our sister site South Slope News helped compile the list, and we are proud to be able to share it with our readers and neighbors as well.

If you have any thoughts, corrections, or suggestions for 2015, let us know in the comments, or email us at editor@parkslopestoop.com or Louise at louisecrawford@gmail.com.

Here goes…

Brett and Ashley Affrunti for doing their absolute best for Dottie the dog.

Bishop Ford administrators and current and alumni students for their valiant effort to save the school.

Charles Blow for his consistently intelligent and powerful New York Times op-eds about racial justice and for the publication of his memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

Blue Lightning for showing us that kids can rock the house, too!

Local bodega cats, in “their own” words.

Josh Breitzer for the glorious music as cantor of Congregation Beth Elohim.

The Brooklyn Cottage, for creating space for a variety of programs — storytelling evenings, cooking classes, meditation gatherings, writing workshops, art exhibitions, and creative “unleashings.”

Brooklyn for Peace for presenting Noam Chomsky as the special guest at their 30th anniversary gala in November.

The brown bins! Even if not everyone that can is using them…

Mark Caserta from the Park Slope 5th Avenue Business Improvement District, for advocating for and promoting businesses along the commercial strip — and one of the most familiar cyclists we see zipping along 5th regularly!

Patty Cavallo for being such a tireless advocate for children’s cancer research, and for doing a beautiful job honoring her daughter’s memory. Ditto for Ellen Hollander-Sande and her son Caleb.

Wordsprouts, the reading series of the Park Slope Food Coop, is presenting a nonviolent communication workshop with Dian Killian  on Friday November 14 , 7-8:30pm. Please note: you don’t have to be a member of the Food Coop to participate.

Can you imagine a better way to get ready for Thanksgiving, the December holidays and all those family-centric days ahead? A communication workshop with  Dian Killian could be a real game-changer. She is the co-author of ‘Connecting Across Differences: Finding Common Ground with Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime’ and the author of ‘Urban Empathy: True Life Adventures of Compassion on the Streets of NY.’ 

Her credentials are certainly spot-on. Killian is a Certified Trainer with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication. At the Food Coop whe will lead a workshop about about practicing empathy and compassionate communication in every day challenging situations–including the holidays with your family! She will share stories from her book, Urban Empathy, and some practical exercises and tips to help make being heard and connecting with others easier!

See you there. Refreshments will be served. Learn to communicate better.

Brooklyn Reading Works in partnership with Words After War Presents: Writing War: A Special Veteran’s Day reading with writers of fiction and memoir who served in Iraq and Afghanistan at The Old Stone House/Washington Park. 

This year’s writers are: Mariette Kalinowski, Lisbeth Prifogle ,Nate Bethea, Adrian Bonenberger, Eric Nelson, Jacob Sotak and Nebojsa “Vic” Zlatanovic. LTC Peter Molin will host.

For the fourth year, Brookyn Reading Works is the proud host of this important event. Past readings have included 2014 National Book Award finalist Phil Klay, author of the acclaimed book of short stories Redeployment, Roy Scranton, Matt Gallagher, Jake Sigal, Maurice Decauland host Peter Catapano, editor of Home Fires in The New York Times.

To see video by filmmaker Leslie Topping of past Writing War events CLICK here. 

What: Brooklyn Reading Works in partnership with Words After War Presents:
Writing War: A Special Veteran’s Day reading with writers of fiction and memoir who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When: On Veterans Day, November 11, 2014 at 8PM

Where: The Old Stone House, 336 Third Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215 F train to Fourth Avenue, R Train to Union Street

What else: Suggested donation $10. Refreshments

Words After War is dedicated to building a community of thoughtful, engaged and skilled veteran writers. Through high-quality literary programming, they provide veterans, their families and civilian supporters with the tools they need to tell their stories.

The Old Stone House/Washington Park is on the site of the first, and largest conflict of the American Revolution, A Historic House Trust of New York City site, OSH commemorates the Vechte-Cortelyou House’s unique place in Brooklyn and American history.

Brooklyn Reading Works is a monthly thematic reading series presenting emerging and established authors. Produced by Louise Crawford and now in its tenth year, popular BRW events include Edgy Moms, Writing War, New Plays by Brooklyn Playwrights, Funny Pages, Brooklyn Book Festival Book End.

Do you need a  patient, focused educator to help your child with homework, reading, and writing?

Look no further.

My friend, Eleanor Traubman, is an alumna of Bank Street College of Education with 25 years of experience working with children in public and private school settings, as well as in museums (Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Brooklyn Children’s Museum.) A former Assistant Teacher at PS 29, she is a skilled writer with a blog called Creative Times that’s been around for almost a decade and lots of articles published on the web.

She can support your K – 5th grade child in the following ways:

–Stay organized and on-task with homework assignments.

–Establish patterns and routines to boost study savvy.

–Develop increased comfort with and enjoyment of reading and writing.

Eleanor works with families in the Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill neighborhoods. I know Eleanor very well and know how kind, empathic and attuned to young people she is. She also has many years of classroom experience. Eleanor and I worked together on the Brooklyn Blogfest for four years and she is an incredibly hard working, organized and creative person. She is also really fun. I have no doubt  that young people will enjoy working with her. Please don’t hesitate to contact Eleanor if you are interested: etraubman(at)gmail(dot)com

This is a shout-out about two wonderful Brooklyn vets who have been very kind to a friend’s new cat. Heather Thompson DVM recently opened Brooklyn Heights Veterinary Hospital, which is located on Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights. She works with a vet named Beth Balsam DVM.

“They are both exceedingly kind and very good vets,” says Hillary Ghertler, whose cat Benjamin was very ill recently. “They took over a  rather derelict vets office in a charming old building that had been closed for some time.”

Their care for Benjamin included house calls, great compassion, and smart medicine. Benjamin is now on the mend and Hillary, who has dealt with many vets in Brooklyn, is thrilled with Brooklyn Height Veterinary Hospital.

Thomson has plans to remodel  the entire space including putting in all modern diagnostic equipment. According to my friend, they are the only vets in the heights. Their general medical services include: dermatology – treating allergies and other skin diseases; ophthamology; wellness Services, puppy exams, Vaccinations, blood Screening, parasite monitoring and Treatment AND house calls.

Here are the details:

Brooklyn Heights Veterinary Hospital, 59 Hicks St 11201, 718-624-1200, info@brooklynheightsvets.com

Today’s the day.  The Modern Chemist, Park Slope’s contemporary bespoke pharmacy, opens at its brand new location on Fourth Avenue and Sackett Street.

Pharmacists/owners Carlos Urriola and Par Vora with partner Juliana Porotsky will be on hand all day to introduce locals to their beautiful new shop and their personalized, one-on-one approach to healthcare.

“It is our aim to positively impact the health and well being of our customers and give them the personal care they deserve,” says TMC co-owner and pharmacist Carlos Urriola. From noon until 6PM, there will be  music, tastings, product demos, face painting and much more. “I promise you, this will be a fun-filled day,” says Urriola.

The Modern Chemist, the first pharmacy on Park Slope’s Fourth Avenue, isn’t just any pharmacy: we are a compounding pharmacy, which means that medications are tailored to the patient’s needs and our pharmacists work closely with doctors to get the best results.

Compounding can mean flavoring prescriptions and over-the-counter medications; making and flavoring medicines for pets; customizing formulations; and creating discontinued products.

In addition to compounding, The Modern Chemist features a wide range of traditional and progressive health and beauty products, including personal care, sports nutrition, vitamins and supplements, homeopathy and aromatherapy.

Since 2010, The Modern Chemist has been a trusted health practitioner in the back of a Park Slope drug store.  Now,they’ve got their ery own shop on Park Slope’s newest residential boulevard, designed to our specifications, where you can find holistic products, person-to-person interaction and skilled pharmacists who pay attention and care.

Marian Fontana has once again pulled together an incredible line-up of enormously talented and funny writers from near and far for Funny Pages 2014. You won’t want to miss what is sure to be an uproarious evening of humor.

Looking forward to seeing you on April 24th at 8PM at The Old Stone House in Park Slope.

 ABOUT THE FUNNY PEOPLE: 
Henry Alford has written for the New York Times and Vanity Fair for over a decade. He has also written for the  New Yorker. It is entirely possible that you have heard him on National Public Radio. He is the author of a book about manners,Would It Kill You To Stop Doing That?; a book about the wisdom of people over the age of 70, How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They are Still on This Earth; a humor collection,Municipal Bondage; and an account of his attempts to become a working actor, Big Kiss, which won a Thurber Prize.

Karen Bergreen is a stand up comedian, a former lawyer and the author of Perfect is Overrated and Following Polly, a novel. She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

Billy Frolick’s journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, Movieline, Premiere, and The Los Angeles Times. His screenwriting credits include DreamWorks Animation’s MADAGASCAR. Billy’s 2003 directing debut, It Is What It Is, screened at many global festivals, including the New York International Film & Video Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Picture, as well as prizes for Best Screenplay and Best Directorial Debut. He is preparing to direct the comic heist Low Notes, from his own original screenplay.
Downtrodden Abbey  released in December from St. Martin’s Press, is Billy’s fifth book-length parody. The first, The Ditches of Edison County (Plume, 1994), was a national bestseller, and was published in several foreign editions.

Marian Fontana’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Salon.com, The Guardian and more. Her memoir, A Widows Walk was published by Simon and Schuster and was called a Top Ten Great Reads of 2005 by People magazine and on the New York Times best selling biography list and was nominated for a Books for A Better Life Award. Her essays have appeared in the anthologies Money Changes Everything andThe Time of My Life for Random House and most recently in My Apocalypse for Sock Monkey Press.

Leah Gray Mitchell, a musician,actress and dancer, was one half of the acclaimed duo, Two Chicks and a Casio. After releasing their second album, Back2Bitter, they played Joe’s Pub and numerous other venues in New York City and Boston. Jane magazine sponsored a West coast tour to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. She has performed in numerous film and theater projects and runs her own ballet school on Staten Island.

Marion Winik was Baltimore Magazine’s 2013 pick for “Best Humorist,” Marion Winik is the author of eight books of creative nonfiction, including the New York Times Notable BookFIRST COMES LOVE and THE GLEN ROCK BOOK OF THE DEAD. Her most recent are HIGHS IN THE LOW FIFTIES and the e-book GUESSWORK. Marion writes a regular column at BaltimoreFishbowl.com, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Sun, Salon, and a bunch of other places. She reviews books for Newsday and Kirkus Reviews, and her commentaries for All Things Considered are collected atwww.npr.org. She is a professor in the MFA program at the University of Baltimore.

On Wednesday my sister called to say that Rabbi Andy Bachman would be resigning his post at Congregation Beth Elohim in 2015. As a member of the synagogue, she’d received an email from the President of the congregation. I told her to send me the email. Then I realized that in this day and age, the information would be on Facebook.

And there it was. Rabbi Bachman posted his letter to the congregation on Facebook and comments were coming in fast. I also checked Rabbi Bachman’s blog Water Over Rocks and saw that his letter was posted there, too.

Which brings me to how I first became aware of Rabbi Bachman: I discovered his blog. I loved the idea that a rabbi had a blog. This was back in 2005 when I was an insanely enthusiastic hyper-local blogger and he was the leader of a group called Brooklyn Jews. Blogging was not the ubiquitous activity it is today so I felt he was a kindred spirit in the art and soul of the blog. In fact, I was so impressed with his thoughtful meditations on religion and community,  I invited him to be one of the speakers at the Second Annual Brooklyn Blogfest in 2006 (along with author Steven Berlin Johnson, the late Robert Guskind of Gowanus Lounge, and Brownstoner’s Jonathan Butler).

That night, a huge crowd gathered at the Old Stone House. We had to turn many away. I waited for Rabbi Bachman to show up because he was listed as the first speaker. Unfortunately, he had to attend to a rabbinical emergency, a hospital visit I think. The Reverend Daniel Meeter of Park Slope’s Old First Dutch Reformed Church, also an early blogger, graciously spoke to the audience and said a prayer. In Dutch.

A year later, I reported on Reverend Meeter’s passionate and soul-baring post on his blog about three homeless men who slept on the steps of his church and his frustration with them. Reverend Meeter had tried help these men, tried to get them jobs, apartments and health services. But they continued to live on the church’s steps. When the men urinated on the steps, Meeter lost it. He grappled with what to do about it on his blog:

“Their names are Robert Royster, Will Franklin, and Frank. They cause me a great deal of trouble, and lots of anger from our neighbors, and I do wish they would go away, but, whatever else, they remain human beings, images of God, and they need to be treated with respect.”

Soon after, the Reverend and the Rabbi united to form the Park Slope Coalition for the Homeless. This group was created after a meeting with the city’s Department of Homeless Services. Bachman posted the group’s goals on his blog: “Acknowledge with dignity those who are homeless. … Work for their dignity and safety. Connect them to the variety of homeless services in the city. Support the provision of services to these people.”

That was not the last time that the Reverend and the Rabbi united to do service for their community. Together they added an ecumenical note to Park Slope, when they borrowed each other’s sanctuaries, when building troubles prevented them from using their own. Spending Yom Kippur with Rabbi Bachman in Old First Church is a memory I will forever cherish.

As to his community work, Congregation Beth Elohim seemed the perfect platform from which to address that which is broken in the world. I figured he’d be a rabbi forever.

Apparently, he saw it differently. After turning 50 and after seeing the devastation of Sandy and what it revealed about underserved and impoverished comminities like Red Hook and Coney Island not far from Park Slope, Rabbi Bachman decided to focus on homelessness, hunger, violence and poverty in New York City—not just Jewish service.

 “Last year, the combination of watching our community’s response to Hurricane Sandy as well as the fortuitous and inevitable rite of passage of turning 50, I began to explore the idea of moving beyond strictly Jewish service and contemplate seriously the idea of serving disadvantaged communities broadly throughout New York City.  The issues of poverty, hunger, homelessness, education, and violence remain central to my own concerns as a citizen of New York.”

I will admit that my initial reaction was sadness.

Sadness for the Jewish ritual that lies ahead that won’t involve Rabbi Andy Bachman. He presided over my father’s funeral service in 2008. And he did so beautifully. Later he wrote about the service on his blog:

“A beloved man died at age 79 and the structure of mourning and remembrace that was so carefully set in place by his daughters was so perfectly attuned to his wishes and to his abiding influence on them as a parent so that even as they were choosing on their accord how to remember and honor him, his touch and voice could still be heard.”

In February, he led the funeral service of Edith Jacobson, my sister’s mother-in-law. Again, we witnessed Bachman’s special way of meeting death and helping a family through it with Jewish ritual and carefully chosen words and prayers. My sister especially appreciated his presence at the cemetery and how he instructed the mourners to stop seven times on their way to the grave as he recited a Psalm.

It is always bold and inspiring when someone makes a huge change in their lives. It can also be unsettling, not unlike what happens when people decide to divorce. We accept the labels that people adhere to themselves. When changes like this are announced it can feel like a landmark is falling or an institution is crumbling (to paraphrase the song Will You Still Be Mine).  It also forces us to rethink what we are doing. And maybe that is the spiritual “take-a-way.” Rabbi Bachman is not only changing his life, but in the process forcing others to rethink their own.

NOTE: The photograph of of Andy Bachman was taken just days before the first anniversary of the Newtown school shooting, when a group of clergy including Rabbi Bachman and Minister Donna Schaper of Judson Memorial Church, took part in a solemn vigil outside Cerberus, an investment firm that profits from the sale of military style assault weapons including the one used in the Newtown shootings. Photo by Tom Martinez.

The photo of Reverend Meeter and Rabbi Bachman is from the Brooklyn Paper.

Just days before the first anniversary of the Newtown school shooting on December 14th, a group of clergy including  Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim (pictured above) and Minister Donna Schaper of Judson Memorial Church, took part in a solemn vigil outside Cerberus, an investment firm that profits from the sale of military style assault weapons including the one used in the Newtown shootings.

Organized by The Campaign to Unload and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, the group entered the Lexington Avenue office building where Cerberus is located, and delivered a letter demanding that the CEO live up to an earlier promise he made just after the Newtown shooting, that he would divest from the arms manufacturing companies they were profiting from.

The company, which owns the Freedom Group, the gun manufacturer whose Bushmaster rifle was used by Adam Lanza to kill 20 first graders, six adults and then himself on Dec. 14, 2012, owns $900 million worth of gun manufacturers in the United States.

All photos by Tom Martinez

BRING SOMETHING TO READ, BRING AN APPETITE TO FEAST

On December 12, 2013 at 8PM, Brooklyn Reading Works at The Old Stone House in Park Slope presents Feast: Writers on Food (as subject matter, as metaphor) presented by Ame GIlbert, founder of The Poetry Soup Salon, a monthly reading and dinner series.

Soup will be served.

Feast’s curator Ame Gilbert invites anyone who wants to read a poem, a short story or a non-fiction piece about food to read at the FEAST open-mic (8-minute time limit).

Ken Carlton, author of The Hunger (included in Best Food Writing of 2009) will open the event with a short reading from his new novel Food for Marriage.

Feast is a fundraiser for a local food pantry. Give generously ($10 is suggested donation). Soup, bread and dessert will be served. Plus wine. Readings are limited to 8-minutes.

When: December 12, 2013 at 8PM
What: Feast: Writers on Food Open Mic
Where: The Old Stone House, 336 Third Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. F train to Fourth Avenue. R train to Union Street. For info: 718-288-4290
What else: $10 donation includes wine, soup, bread and dessert

I received this note from the owners of Dalaga, a lovely shop in Greenpoint owned by two Filipino sisters. There is an event at Jeepny tonight. But Dalaga will be accepting donations in the coming days. Dalaga: 150 Franklin St, Brooklyn, NY 11222, (718) 389-4049

Dearest Dalagas,

As some of you know, my sister and I are Filipino and this weekend a devastating typhoon hit the country. Typhoon Haiyan resembled a tsunami, leveling houses and drowning hundreds of people in one of the worst disasters to hit Southeast Asia. Thankfully our family’s area was not badly hit, but 480,000 others are displaced and 4 million more are affected by the typhoon across 36 provinces. They are expecting another storm to hit them tomorrow morning. Relief agencies are immediately calling for canned food, water, medicines and tents for the homeless.

For anyone who lives in the New York metro area, Jeepny is hosting a Typhon Haiyan Fundraiser TONIGHT, 6pm to 9pm. They are accepting canned food and monetary donations for the Philippine Red Cross. If you cannot make it to the Jeepny event tonight and wish to donate, we will accept donations starting today. We will be making regular drops to The Philippine Red Cross. Please see the list of donations we will be accepting.

Canned/ packaged ready to eat food (sardines, instant noodles, shelf stable milk, rice, etc.)

Water purifier tablets

Water containers

Tents and other temporary shelters

Freshly laundered and clean blankets, pillows, sheets, towels, etc

Flashlights and batteries

Hygiene kits with personal care items-soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, sanitary napkins

Baby diapers, wipes, bottles, baby formula

Cooking apparatus-pots and utensils

General medical supplies and over the counter medications at least one year from expiration

Mosquito repellant

At this time, we cannot accept clothing. We appreciate any support you can give and hope you’ll help to spread the word.

Thank you.

Michelle & Mary Mangiliman

Owners

DALAGA

This Thursday (November 14) at 8PM: Brooklyn Reading Works presents: WRITING WAR: Fiction and Memoir by Veterans curated by Peter Catapano with Phil Klay, Kevin R. McPartland, Maurice Emerson Decaul, and Lynn Hill.The Old Stone House in Park Slope 336 Third Street between Fifth and Fourth Avenues. R train to Union Street or F train to Fourth Avenue. A $5 donation includes wine and snacks.

Lynn Hill is a United States Air Force veteran, performer and poet. She is a graduate of Columbia University and served as an intelligence analyst and worked with bomber, Red Flag simulated war games and Predator drones. In 2012 and 2013 she appeared in the multimedia show “Holding It Down” with Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd. Her next project, “Lioness,” with Maurice Decaul, will debut at the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival in 2014.

Maurice Emerson Decaul served in the United States Marine Corps in the Iraq War. He is an essayist and librettist whose work has been featured in the New York Times, The Daily Beast, Sierra Magazine, Barely South Review, Epiphany and others. He is a graduate of Columbia University and is working towards his M.F.A. at New York University. In 2012 and 2013 he appeared in the multimedia show “Holding It Down” with Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd. His next project, “Lioness,” with Lynn Hill, will debut at the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival in 2014.

Kevin R. McPartland is the author of “Brownstone Dreams” (Boann Books and Media), a tale of love and death in 1960s Brooklyn. A native Brooklynite, novelist and short story writer, his work has appeared in AIM Magazine, Grit Mag and in “Adventures in Hell,” an anthology of short stories by Vietnam veterans. Follow Kevin on Facebook.

Phil Klay served in the United States Marine Corps from 2005 to 2009, and was deployed to Iraq in 2007-8. He is the author of the forthcoming short story collection, “Redeployment,” and is a contributor to the collection “Fire and Forget: Short Stories From the Long War.” His work has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, Tin House and elsewhere.

Matthew Mellina served in the US Army from 2002-2007, deploying to Iraq in 2006 with the 4th ID. He is working on his first novel and has had pieces featured in The New York Times, Newsweek, and Slate.

Peter Catapano (curator) is the editor of Happy Days, Home Fires, and other opinion sections at the New York Times Web site. He lives in Brooklyn.