CENTENNIAL100

celebrating a century of the Jewish Community Center

MARCH 2013

celebrating a century of the Jewish Community Center MARCH 2013 Adar/Nissan 5773

1st EDITION OF CENTENNIAL IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus


MARCH 2013

March Gallery Players presents Fiddler on the Roof March 2-17 Kosher, Eastern-European dinner after Fiddler on the Roof performance Sunday, March 10, 5:30 pm Fiddler on the Roof historical exhibit open until March 30 NAACP presents civil rights honor to JCC March 21

April Harmony Project activities including mural painting, new playground construction, and tree-planting, April 24-26

May The Center of it All historic exhibit opens in the JCC lobby May 1 Gallery Players production of The Whipping Man May 4-12 Annual Gaynor Lecture with Dr. Jonathan Sarna, May 6 JCC 100 Grand Celebration featuring Michael Feinstein at the Lincoln Theatre, May 23, 7:30pm Graeters special JCC 100 ice cream flavor revealed at dessert reception following Grand Celebration and then available at Graeters while supplies last

June Membership Fun Day at the JCC, June 11, 4-7pm

July JCC Reunion Float in Fourth of July parade, Thursday, July 4, 9am JCC Reunion BBYO/Camp Day at the JCC, Friday, July 5, 1-5pm JCC Reunion bowling tournament at Holiday Lanes, Sunday, July 7, 9am-12pm JCC Reunion softball tournament at the JCC, Sunday, July 7, 2pm

October JCC FunFest, Sunday, October 6, 10am-6pm Historical exhibit for Gallery Players 65th anniversary in JCC lobby Jewish Bookfair

November Columbus Jewish Film Festival

December Hanukkah Finale event

Mark your calendar for these exciting events in 2013

1913-2013celebrating a century of the Jewish Community Center

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New JCC 100 special flavor from Graeters unveils May 2013


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Shalom!

00! Meah! What a milestone

Im thrilled to invite you into the pages of the first issue of CENTENNIAL, a magazine that celebrates the first 100 years of our JCC and lets you know about all the events and activities planned for this year.

In this first of three issues, take a deep look into Gallery Players production of Fiddler on the Roof, and journey through the years of our historic community theater. Dont miss the profile of Irene Braverman, who has been a part of Gallery Players productions for the past 60 years. Youll be longing for those carefree summer days as you read about life at JCC Summer Camp. Find out whats planned for this summer, and see how camp has become such a tradition for families in our community. I hope you enjoy these and all the other stories.

Thank you to our sponsors, advertisers, staff members, JCC 100 committee, and volunteers, who all came together to create this centennial year celebration!

Happy 100th Birthday, JCC!

Carol FolkerthExecutive Director

from the Director

CONTENTSMARCH 2013

6A CENTURY OF LEADERSHIP

10JCC SUMMER CAMPS

18THE MAGIC OF CAMP HOOVER

22BUILDING COMMUNITY TOGETHER

24THE JCC TIMELINE

1913-2013

28FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

32A SHORT HISTORY OF

GALLERY PLAYERS

36PLAYER PROFILE:

IRENE BRAVERMAN

40OUR PAST PRESIDENTS SPEAK...

44JCC DEPARTMENTS

45JCC 100 STORIES

ON THE COVER:Julian Barnett plays Tevye in the 1972 Gallery Players

production of Fiddler on the Roof. Photo courtesy of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society.

This is the first of three issues of CENTENNIAL. Dont miss issue two in May 2013 for a preview of the Michael Feinstein event and a close look at the Early

Childhood Education program and what makes it so special.

JCC 100 STEERING COMMITTEESig Munster

Lisa NewmarkIra Nutis

Joel SchwartzRobyn SilbersteinSusan Steinman

Connie TuckermanJennifer Wasserstrom

Ben ZacksMary Beth Zacks

CENTENNIAL STAFFSheila Cline

Ron FriedmanJason Goggins

Felicity Nesham-West Karen Scholl

Gary Cheses, Co-ChairHeidi Levey, Co-Chair

Ted FiremanMarc Fishel

DeeDee GlimcherDenise GlimcherDavid Goldstein

Pam GurwinShelly IgdaloffJeff Milgrom

Greg Munster

JCC BOARD PRESIDENTJoe Sniderman, Board President

JCC EXECUTIVE STAFFCarol Folkerth, Executive Director

Mike Klapper, Assistant Executive DirectorLouise Young, Chief Financial Officer

Melanie Butter, Program Director


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Building for the next 100 yearsCollege Avenue Groundbreaking,

December 6, 2012

More than 100 guests from across the community gathered outside the College Avenue building for this historic moment.

Students from the JCC Kaleidoscope afterschool program marched up from the Zusman Center carrying banners and special rocks they painted to go into the construction site. JCC President Joe Sniderman, Expansion Project co-chair Jennie Cammeyer, and Executive Director Carol Folkerth shared words of thanks and messages of excitement about the new era of the JCC that this expansion will usher in.

The project is set to be completed in the summer of 2013.

Our Mission StatementThe Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus is a human service agency offering a varied program that is Jewish in nature. It is committed to enhancing the quality of individual and family life through the promotion of physical, intellectual and spiritual wellness. It provides educational and cultural programs that reflect the Jewish heritage, health related activities and many services to the community at large. Through its wide array of programs, the JCC pursues its mission of strengthening the individual, family and community.

Our Vision StatementThe JCC nurtures a passion for Jewish learning and living. Through programs and services, the JCC provides comfortable and inviting environments in which the community can thrive.

- Revised by the Board of Trustees on April 16, 2012


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In preparation for this milestone anniversary, one question has been asked repeatedly: what is the exact day that the JCC opened its doors in Columbus?

Judaism is already full of difficult questions, and this one proved no less challenging. The truth is, there was no ribbon-cutting, no speech, no hoopla. Much like the concept of community itself there was no official start or first day.

In 1913 Joseph Pop Schonthal provided meeting rooms at 355 South Washington Avenue for local Jewish organizations to have a centralized space. He wanted to make sure Jewish people had a place to meet. While one of the first needs the space met was to help with the integration and settlement of the wave of immigrants coming to Columbus from Eastern Europe, Russia and Lithuania, it quickly grew to encompass more.

After a few years, as his vision expanded, Schonthal purchased the old Hoster Brewery Mansion on East Rich Street in 1918, naming it the Hermine Schonthal Community House, after his wife. Next door he established the Jewish Infants Home of Ohio.

The next expansion was in 1927 when Schonthal purchased 25 acres of land in Union County to establish one of the first Jewish summer camps in the area Camp Schonthal, located near Magnetic Springs.

As the community grew, attention turned to the idea of a larger location that could offer more opportunities to more people. In 1935, the United Jewish Fund (the forerunner of the Columbus Jewish Federation) earmarked funds to build a Jewish Community Center. The Camp Schonthal property was sold to raise money for the same purpose.

A groundbreaking was held in 1949, and the new Jewish Community Centers cornerstone was laid during a ceremony on October 30 of that same year. Joseph S. Summer, grandson of Pops Schonthal, presided over the event.

The new center housed an auditorium, bowling alley, basketball courts, swimming pool, sauna, and classrooms. Its location, just south of Livingston Avenue, recognized the movement of the Jewish community further to the east side of Columbus and nearby suburban Bexley.

A Century of Leadership

A community is too heavy for anyone to carry alone Deuteronomy 1:10


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Joseph Summer, grandson of Pops Schonthal, at the setting of the cornerstone on

October 30, 1949 in the old JCC building.

The cornerstone was moved to the current location in 1983 and

is located next to the main entrance.


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In 1965, a gift from Millard Cummins established the summer day camp site at Hoover Reservoir, and in 1966 the JCC opened an outdoor swimming pool complex. This camp was originally called Cubbage Corners, and is known today as Camp Hoover.

The next major evolution of the JCC was the result of the generosity of Leo Yassenoff. Groundbreaking for a more modern facility at 1125 College Avenue, built on the same site as the 1949 structure, was held in May 1981. In 1983, the doors opened to the JCC we enjoy today.

The community filled the new building and continued to expand outside 43209. The Early Childhood Education program expanded into a site in Dublin in 1987 with JCC North, and then again in 1996 into New Albany.

Major additions to the College Avenue site include the Ellman Early Childhood Wing in 2001, and the Zusman Center, which is used primarily for summer camp and the Kaleidoscope afterschool program, in 2007. Of course, later in 2013 the next expansion will be complete 16,000 square feet that includes a new gymnasium on the ground floor and doubling the fitness space on the buildings lower level, including a space specifically for youth the J-Zone.

The Hermine Schonthal Community House (above) in 1918 and the Jewish Community Center (below) in 1950

Courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library

Congratulations JCC on 100 years of service.


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Thank you to our JCC 00 sponsorsMeah (Lead) Sponsor

The Schottenstein Family Jay and Jeanie, Joey and Lindsay,

Jonathan, and Jeffrey Leslie and Abigail Wexner

Mishpacha (Family) Sponsor

The Columbus Jewish Foundation

Yahalom (Diamond) SponsorThe Diamond Family

LDor VDor (Generation) Sponsor

The Glimcher FamilyLimited Brands, Inc.

PNC Bank

LChaim (To Life) SponsorThe Lewin Family

The Wasserstrom Family

Ktzat (Decade) SponsorGary and Margey Cheses

Graeters Ice Cream Mike and Heidi Levey

Nancy and Thomas LuriePepsi

Services Galore, Inc./Ruth and Joe Sniderman & Luann and Michael Gurevitz


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Chagiga (Celebration) SponsorCreative Distinctions

Downes, Fishel, Hass & KimThe First Bexley Bank Carol and Jeff Folkerth

Law Offices of David GoldsteinThe Kroger CompanyJon and Karen Meyer

Sig and Rita Munster & FamilyArt and Ellen Pollack

Vorys, Sater, Seymour & PeaseThe Robert Weiler CompanyBernie and Miriam YenkinBen and Mary Beth Zacks

Chai (Festival) SponsorBig Lots

Arnold Good & Lisa NewmarkMeyers Jewelers

M/I HomesHummel Title

OSUCC - James Cancer Hospital & Solove Research InstituteSandy and Nanette Solomon

Zidel Dental Group Dan & Greta Zidel / Eric & Katrina Zidel

Kibudim (Tribute) Sponsor

Bob and Bev DarwinBarbara and Doug Davis Bob and Clemy Keidan

Jane MattlinSid and Babs Miller

Dr. Allen and Barbara NicholDavid and Miriam Portman

Linda and Stanton (zl) RobinsGary and Ellen Rogers

Mark and Rosanne RosenFrankie Schottenstein

The Wine BistroJim Winnegrad & Janice Manheim As of 2/21/13


MARCH 20130

Building Kehila Its a bright, sunny day as the outdoor pool

shimmers and a cool breeze rolls over the water, just waiting for a child to jump in. To the 300 or so Chaverim campers who have begun their first week of camp at the JCC, its not just another summer day. Its the start of their next big adventure.

When Marc Rossio starts playing his guitar at the end of the week to start off the campers Shabbat celebration, eyes light up, sparkling to the music of Bim Bam, Shabbat Shalom. Kids are jumping up and down, clapping, and singing along. This is a memory in the making. And moments like these are what Halle Schwartz and her dedicated team of camp directors and counselors work for every day striving to come up with new, creative opportunities to absorb their campers in Jewish learning while letting the kids be kids having fun, being silly, and not even realizing how much they are learning about Judaism, Israel, and what it means to be Jewish. Thats the magic of the JCC summer day camp experience.

For Shelly Igdaloff s family, this magic endured long after her children attended camp and continued on to become counselors. All five of my children attended camp. I remember in the summer going

to the JCC on Fridays, walking behind the building to where the children were all gathered sitting cross-legged. Their faces were sun-kissed and smiling, singing Hebrew songs at the top of their lungs. They seemed so full of ruach and pride. These experiences are planted securely in the make-up of who they are today and will be something they encourage their children to participate in as well, she said.

Halle Schwartz promises that Building our Kehila, the 2013 camp theme, will reignite that magic all over again for another season of campers. Kehila, the Hebrew word for community, will be explored using a variety of creative activities and concepts that Schwartz hopes will help this years campers feel like they are truly building their own camper community. One of the new things were going to do this year is buy little pop-up tents which we will put all around the campgrounds so there will be extra shade. But this will also be a community. And each week we will talk about a different theme, like responsibility, as in whats your responsibility to your community? To yourself?

Building our Kehila will draw on Jewish tenets like kindness (chesed), courage (chazac), leadership, service, and mitzvot, said Schwartz. To achieve

And you shall teach them diligently unto your children Deuteronomy

JCC Summer

Camps By Felicity Nesham-West

Continuing a Tradition of Outdoor Adventure


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JCC Summer

Camps


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even more impact and make these concepts more meaningful, campers will have opportunities to work together in teams to earn the equivalent of merit badges. Each week, at bunk time, we will talk about tikkun olam (repairing the world), and the kids will earn a plastic charm with that weeks theme on it. They will earn their charms together as one bunk. Theyre building their community and working together as a team toward the common goal of learning what these words mean.

Activities like these helps kids make meaningful connections to Judaism. JCC Board Vice President and former Camp Chair Karen Shore-Meyer sent all four of her children to the Columbus JCC summer camps through the years. She talked about the way that camp held her childrens interest and kept them coming back year after year. The directors and staff over the years have made camp so much fun for all of my kids. They know how to have fun in the 100-degree weather as well as the rainy days. There are always great, creative and engaging activities planned. My kids could count on the same traditions year after year, said Shore-Meyer.

The daily activity menu at the JCC day camp on College Avenue offers a plethora of fun,

meaningful, and diverse ways for young children ranging in age from toddlers to 9 years old to experience Judaism in a natural setting. There are daily swim lessons, Israeli culture and Judaics learning sessions, art, science and nature blocks, and even Zumba, that fun fusion of dance and aerobics, set to a soundtrack of international music including Israeli folk songs.

Special events like Dress Up days, Carnival, Pirate, Animal and Israel days, and Maccabi Games are the highlights of the summer for some children. And summertime favorites like slip n sliding, water balloons, and shaving cream parties are also featured throughout camp.

Specialty camps like Lego, So You Think You Can Dance, Mosaics, Cooking, Lacrosse/Field Hockey, Tennis, Basketball, Flag Football, and Columbus Crew Soccer, and the exciting return of Circus Camp bring glee to childrens summers. Learning new things, like how to cook, dance, build a robot out of Legos, or play a new sport like lacrosse, can be really fun for kids in the camp-setting, said Halle Schwartz. Youre not in a four-walled classroom here. Youre learning in a fun way where you dont even realize youre doing it. Youre just having fun being a kid, doing what every kid should do in the


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summer: run around and be crazy, she said.

Many of the camp activities and events are held in the Zusman building, an air-conditioned field house built in 2007 on the

campgrounds behind the JCC. The Zusman features a multi-purpose great room, changing areas and restrooms, a nurses office, and an art room with a kiln. Adjacent to the Zusman is the Sprayground, a water playground for children to cool off with buckets, spray jets and fountains during the summer. Features like these allow kids to keep cool while enjoying the great outdoors, which is what camp is all about.

Close your eyes and try to imagine your very first day of summer camp. Remember the excitement of the newfound freedom of running

around outdoors, meeting new faces, making new friends, and splashing in the pool? For a child who has never been to camp, wondrous moments like these are beyond thrilling. Former Columbus JCC camp counselor Heidi Solomon talked about how important camp is not only in teaching kids independence and how to be role models to fellow campers, but also how to appreciate the outdoors.

Camp gives kids confidence in nature and in the water, said Solomon. Solomon, who continues to send her son to camp, has a palpable enthusiasm for all things camp. I just think the whole experience from end to end is amazing. Being able to experience the outdoors, try things theyve never tried before, go swimming every day and enjoy the summer is so wonderful. As a counselor, you can see a camper get in the pool at the beginning of the summer with no swimming experience whatsoever. By the end of the summer, with our help, they are swimming on their own. We have such great facilities here, and the whole swimming experience is just awesome, she said.

Some exciting, new offerings are in the works for the 2013 camp season, which begins June 10. Fun options abound for your child to explore special interests in sports, dance, cooking, and more. The Big Top is coming back to the College Avenue campgrounds after a break. Circus Camp will bring a professional, touring circus company along with various trapeze artists, clowns, and other circus performers to showcase their talents and instruct children who sign up for the specialty camp. Highlights will include juggling, acrobatics, and walking the tight rope.

Other specialty camps this year are sailing camp and a Judaics-focused mosaic camp. A new partnership with local overnight camps is in the works, too. Kids love residential camps, so we are trying to bring a little bit of that residential camp experience to the day camp. In collaboration with residential camps, well be visiting Emma Kaufmann Camp and Camp Livingston. Our 3rd-6th graders will get to take a two-night, three-day trip to one of these camps. I think it is important for our kids to know what its like to go to a Jewish overnight camp, said Halle Schwartz.

Children from preschool through third grade can attend the day camps located at College Avenue: Yeladim (infant up to age 2), Ora (ages 3-5), and Chaverim (Kindergarten-3rd grade). Those with special needs can attend either Camp Arye at College Avenue or Camp Shutafim at Camp Hoover. Campers going into fourth through eighth grade attend Camp Hoover.

Register now for the 2013 camp season. Sign up now by contacting Diana Goggins in the camp office at (614) 559-6251 or [email protected], or go to the JCC camp website, www.columbusjcc.org/summer-camps/, to learn more about JCC camp offerings and pricing.

New adventures await! Register now for Summer 2013

A camper participating

in Circus Camp


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Eye-opening learning experiences, like swim lessons and with Circus Camp returning this year, even soaring through the air on a trapeze are part and parcel of camp. The best part about camp is what it gives the children: it gives them such courage, to be brave and to try something new, said Halle Schwartz.

The bonds created during camp extend into adulthood. For former camper Deena Levey, camp was just as memorable as an adult as during her childhood. I met so many great friends and always had a blast with the counselors from the JCC summer camp. I also had the amazing experience of working with nurse Carol Blade during one of my summers home from nursing school. I learned so much from her and had a great time meeting all of the campers. It was just as fun experiencing camp as an adult as it was as a kid.

Camp is more than the arts and crafts projects, the swim lessons, or the Shabbat celebrations. Jordan Dale, Executive Director of Surprise Lake Camp, founded in 1902 and one of Americas oldest Jewish summer camps, wrote, Kids who become emotionally invested in their Jewish identities will stay Jewish whether they learn lots of facts or not. The key is to turn kids on to being Jewish. This doesnt happen for kids because of what they learn. It happens because of how they feel. If Jewish activities are fun, positive associations will develop and kids will want more.

The JCC summer camp program does just that. The shared experience of camp gathering hundreds of Jewish children together for a summer-long immersion into Judaism that is fun, meaningful, and almost imperceptible can be life-changing. Campers come to associate the pure joy of their camp experience with Judaism, and that association can firmly cement their Jewish identity.

The History of the JCC Jewish Summer Camp

Jewish summer camps were created at the dawn of the 20th century to help alleviate the grim conditions of city life. They were originally intended as a place to get fresh air and get away from the threat of polio and the tenements of the city, but over time, camp became a summer rite of passage for over 70,000 U.S. campers annually.

As Jews moved to the suburbs in the 50s and 60s, so, too, did camp evolving to meet the needs of the Jewish community. The reach of the Jewish summer camp expanded and began to focus more on Jewish educational programming.

Our own JCC summer camps have evolved, too, over the years. Beginning as day camps that offered field trips all over central Ohio in the early1900s, the camp expanded in 1927 with the purchase of 25 acres in Union County, near Magnetic Springs. Called Camp Schonthal, it was one of the first Jewish overnight camps in the area.

Camp has expanded and changed locations several times over. In 1948 Camp Schonthal was sold, and the money raised from the sale went toward building the new JCC on College Avenue. In 1965, the 28.4-acre rustic day camp on Hoover Reservoir opened.

Through the Generations: Camp as a Family Tradition

New generations come back to our JCC summer camp to carry on a tradition going back to the childhoods of their grandparents and great-grandparents. People really do live and breathe camp its their life from Kindergarten on up until they come back to work as camp counselors, said Halle Schwartz. Everyone is connected, generation after generation, and its those little connections that make camp feel like one big family, she continued.

One such former counselor is Rick Rosenthal, whose two children, Kaley and Sam, also spend their summers working at camp. In fact, this year will be Kaleys first year as Camp Chaverim Director. Dr. Rosenthal, a local optometrist with a practice in Bexley, talked about his own experience attending camp in the early 1970s and then working as a camp counselor in college from 1986-1989. The beauty of working at the JCC camp, for me, was in gaining Jewish values and experiences by osmosis. Working at the JCC camp entwines you into the community. You meet these children and their parents who make up the community. What I love now as an optometrist is when people from my community come to see me and know me from the relationship that was started when I knew them at camp. My children recently started working at camp, and it has been an awesome experience. I see the same


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learning and growth in them that I experienced. Their maturity has soared and their care for the Jewish community has increased. It works both ways. My own kids have had an impact on these children, and the campers and their families have had an impact on them, said Dr. Rosenthal.

The Solomon family can certainly attest to the generational pull of camp. As 16-year-olds, A.J. and Heidi Solomon met along the banks of Alum Creek when A.J. was a junior counselor for JCC third graders and Heidi was visiting her older sister, who was also working that summer as a counselor. Now married and with three young children, the couple have a 20+ year history with the JCC summer camps and currently serve on the camp committee. I love everything about camp, said Heidi, who sends her six-year-old son to camp and plans to send her daughter again in 2013. I just think theres something so innocent and free-spirited about it. Whatever it is that you have a passion for, you are free to explore while at camp.

Heidis husband, A.J., grew up in Columbus and attended camp since early childhood. Camp was my summer home, said A.J., from my first years all the way through college. The Jewish experiences I had at camp growing up just added to the overall experience. The family loves the camp songs, loves Shabbat, and said there was nothing about the JCC summer camp experience that they didnt appreciate. Its fun to watch him come home and share stories and cheer the same things on that I did when I was his age, said A.J.

Camp is definitely a tradition for the Solomon family. Even A.J.s parents now continue to sing the songs they learned when A.J. was little, as an Ora camper, to their grandchildren. To hear your son come home and sing those same songs and teach his little sister, and now shes singing the songs at home, theres something really special about that, added Heidi.

Building Jewish ConnectionsResearch has proven the experience of going

to Jewish summer camp is one of the most long-lasting ways to build deep commitment to Judaism and Israel in Jewish children. Camp provides kids


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with informal, teachable moments that instruct them on the various concepts of Judaism without being heavy-handed, said Halle Schwartz. Jewish values seamlessly blend in with all programming. We bring in Jewish learning in a fun way so that the kids might not even know theyre learning. So maybe through an art project, well bring in the concept of tikkun olam.

What sets the JCC apart from other summer camp programs is the way it brings Judaism and Israel to life, said Schwartz. Its the ideas we have. We make Judaism and Israel real for the kids. For example, last year on Israel Day we turned the playground into a shuq a little market and well be doing that again this year. Were turning our Sprayground into Ein Gedi where the kids can travel through the waterfalls. Its just taking the resources we have and being creative with them. Were giving each child their own passport, stamping their passports at each stop along the way. Its those little things that make a difference and are truly memorable for our campers things that they will remember forever.

One of the most uplifting and meaningful aspects of camp is the connection felt when the campers celebrate Shabbat together with song and dance, said Schwartz. Our campers look forward to Fridays when they share a musical Shabbat celebration. I dont know a lot of Jewish day camps that have concerts every week with someone like Marc Rossio to send them on a spiritual high when they go home. Theyre feeling like camp is a big family, and that this is their home away from home.

Camp does become a second family for the two Israeli Shilchim counselors who come every year to experience our culture and share some of theirs. Camp counselors from Israel can help bridge American and Israeli culture for kids who have no real concept of Israel. The Shilchim counselors can teach campers Hebrew and survival skills from their Army training, like how to tie knots and climb the ropes course. Israeli and Hebrew songs become anthems of the summer for campers and their counselors, and the Jewish connection becomes that much more meaningful when cultures are shared.

Shana Canter Levin and FamilyShana and her sisters, Shari Canter George and Samantha Canter Schofield, all went to Ora, Chaverim, and Hoover in the early 1980s. Shana Levins children, Leah and Avner, now attend Chaverim and Ora. Shari George also has sent her children, Sarah and Zachary, to JCC summer camp.

Liza Larky and FamilyLiza was a camper during the 1980s at JCC camps throughout Ohio. During the 1990s, she worked as a counselor at the Y-town JCC day camp, the Ann Arbor JCC day camp, and at Camp Young Judea in Waupaca, WI. Her daughters, Jadyn and Elliot, have been at our JCC day camp since 2006 and 2008, respectively. Boris and Vicki Kushnir and FamilyBoris and Vicki both attended Jewish summer camps back in the USSR, where their shared love of camp developed. Their son, Tony, now attends our JCC summer day camp and will go to Camp Wise this summer.

Seth Hoffman and FamilySeth attended our JCC day camp from 1977-1983. His children, 8-year-old Rebecca, 5-year-old Miles, and 3-year-old Talia all currently attend JCC camp.

Rick Rosenthal and FamilyRick attended the Columbus JCC summer camp from Kindergarten through third grade, from 1970-73. He also worked as counselor in college from 1986-1989. His children, Kaley and Sam, attended camp as youngsters. Both Kaley and Sam worked as camp counselors, and this year is Kaleys first year as the new Chaverim Director.

AJ. Solomon and FamilyA.J. attended camp as a kid and became a CIT and counselor in high school and college. He and his wife, Heidi, met while A.J. was a junior counselor in high school and later they returned to the Columbus JCC camp to work as counselors together. Now, two of their children, Ethan and Emma, attend JCC summer camp.

Stacy Abroms Bandler and FamilyStacy attended the Columbus JCC summer camps as a child and now sends all four of her children, Dasi, Gadi, Rami, and Tani, to camp.

Camp Through the Generations


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Daniel Zidel, DDSEric Zidel, DDS

Patty Gutman, DDSJosh Halderman, DDS

IS A PROUD TO SUPPORT THE JCC OF GREATER COLUMBUS!

Mazel Tov on 100 years of being

the heart of the Columbus Jewish

Community!ZACKS FAMILY



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Register online at www.columbusjcc.orgstop by the JCC or call 559-6251.

Creating memories that last a life time!

June 10 throughAugust 2, 2013! 1st -8th graders

Join the Circus &

Become a Star!

Dont Miss Circus Camp

June 17-21


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Bring up a child in a way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

The Magic of Camp Hoover

A World of Its Own

and dunk tanks, with Mark sitting in the dunk tank.

Every morning, Hoover campers are engaged in two individual activity sessions of their choosing, which include archery, arts and crafts, soccer, and football. A new offering this year will be gaga ball, a fast-paced, high energy sport played in an octagonal pit. An Israeli phenomenon similar to dodge ball but with a soft, foam ball, players can only strike opponents below the knees. Gaga ball is a simple, safe, and fun game that can be modified and played by everyone, Mark said.

We can be flexible and adaptable to whatever the kids want to do. We have the climbing wall, the ropes course, and space where campers can choose from 30 different activities, said Mark. After lunch, campers come together as a group, or bunk. Daily bunk activities include swimming, boating, art, and Judaics. Each bunk rotates through an hour of fun along the shores of the Hoover Reservoir, with trained specialists guiding them along the way in each activity.

Last year, Sailing Camp was offered on the reservoir to enthusiastic response, quickly becoming a favorite activity for participants. In 2013, campers will have the chance to again learn how to sail on Hoover Reservoir. New and different this year will

On 28.4 acres of land along the banks of Hoover Reservoir, 4th-8th grade campers enjoy a sense of freedom and independence. Because of the remote location and size, said Camp Hoover Director Mark Moscardino, the kids truly connect with each other, forming strong bonds with their counselors and fellow campers. The picturesque setting of Camp Hoover is perfect for young explorers to share a carefree summer of boating, skipping stones, and singing beloved camp songs, all of which gives the Hoover campers a sleep-away camp feeling, but where they can sleep in their own beds each night.

Camp Hoover, originally named Cubbage Corners, was acquired as a gift from Millard Cummins in 1965. Located in Westerville, it is 30 minutes from the College Avenue JCC and 10-15 minutes from the New Albany JCC.

Whats in a Week at Camp Hoover?Fun activities and special events are incorporated

every week at Camp Hoover. Field trips to Zoombezi Bay, a Columbus Clippers baseball game, and Fort Rapids or Kings Island are some of the highlights of the summer. Every Wednesday is a special day. Maccabi Day, Israel Day, Space Day, and more will be featured. Animal Day can involve bringing in human hamster balls and balloon animals, and Carnival Day offers what else? bounce houses celebrating a century of the Jewish Community Center

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The Magic of Camp Hoover

A World of Its Own

be that, in addition to learning how to sail, campers will have the opportunity to sail in the open reservoir. The Hoover Sailing Club will offer open Sundays to all Camp Hoover families so that campers may take the skills they learn and apply them on the water.

Bringing a Little Bit of Israel to the Hoover Home

Each week of Camp Hoover offers a new theme on a Jewish topic. Art, science, and nature lessons are often designed around that weeks Judaics theme. Last year, Camp Hoover incorporated lessons from the Torah and Gemilut Chasadim in a 7-week-long extended Judaics lesson.

Judaism and a love of Israel are incorporated everywhere you look at Camp Hoover. Shabbat services are held every Friday after lunch. Campers talk about their week and their highlights. The Shabbat service is an opportunity to relax and rest as a camp. Kids say the blessings over the candles, have grape juice for the Kiddush, we pass out challah, and say the Motzi and the Shehecheyanu, said Mark. Counselors play their own guitars, songs are sung, and announcements are made about the upcoming week.

Camps Hoover and Chaverim invite two Israeli Shilchim each year to be camp counselors. The Israeli counselors instruct campers about Israeli culture and


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teach Hebrew. We really bring in Israeli culture, said Mark. The national anthem of Israel, HaTikvah, is sung every morning at Camp Hoover. A lot of our songs are about peace in Israel, such as Am Yisrael Chai. Our Israelis teach the kids a Hebrew phrase or word of the day and instruct them in fun ways, bringing their Army background with them.

Andrew Igdaloff, who went to Camp Hoover and worked there as a counselor for two summers, remembers the Israeli counselors he worked with well. They each played an integral part in the day-to-day camp programming by planning outside-the-box and entertaining Israeli education activities. Every year campers anxiously awaited the chance to make pita from scratch or to play on the giant map of Israel. Their favorite activity was Machanayim, which is an Israeli version of dodgeball. The true value of having Israelis at camp was in the conversations and guidance they provided. Their positive encouragement to learn more about Israel convinced me to attend a 9-month Gap Year program in Israel. While living there, the Israelis opened their doors and welcomed me in as their family. My most meaningful experiences in life so far can all be traced back to the connections I made at JCC camp, Andrew said.

Counselors Make All the DifferenceJCC counselors are selected and trained for their ability

to connect with kids and encourage creativity. Counselors are able to reach the campers with powerful lessons they may otherwise ignore or find uninteresting. Unplanned lessons at Hoover are everywhere. If we see a spider, we all start talking about it, giving the kids an informal science lesson right there about insects. Its those kinds of impromptu moments that have the biggest impact.

Hoover campers lie in the design of the Israeli Flag.

Hoover staffers celebrating another successful summer.

For Mark, one of the most pivotal moments of his life was when a Camp Hoover counselor gave him his first Beatles CD. I remember the counselor who handed it to me. That was when I started listening to good music literally, like, that day. Thats what our counselors do for these kids. It was there that I first became interested in music, and now I play guitar and was a music minor in college.

Hoover is special to Max Tuber, who has attended JCC camps since he was in elementary school. Now, going into his final year at Camp Hoover, he has lots of fond memories of discoveries and friendships made there. I met so many friends at the JCC camps. I am still friends with two boys who were in my bunk my first year at Camp Chaverim. Mark Moscardino has become my mentor through our many talks. He also taught me how to play guitar and has guided me in doing the right thing, said Max.

Lifetime Memories in the MakingBogrim Adventures, a four-day road trip where campers

explore camp life by pitching tents and cooking over a fire, is the capstone experience for 7th and 8th graders who will take the lessons they learn at Camp Hoover with them as they go on to become future leaders, continuing in the building of our community.

Last year, the adventure took campers from whitewater rafting and camping out in West Virginia to Clevelands Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where campers were guided on a musical journey, learning about the history and highlights of the musicians and groups honored in the hall of fame.

Hoover will offer Bogrim Adventures again in 2013. This year, the Bogrim experience will take campers from


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ACE Adventure Park and Lake up to Kennywood. Before heading to the Pennsylvania amusement park, campers this year will get to spend more time at the adventure resort in West Virginia where they can enjoy all the zip-lining, ATVs, and other fun activities the resort has to offer.

For the younger campers, there is also the all-camp overnight experience to give them the full camp experience. Three weeks into the summer, the whole camp will have one big sleepover together, with a dance party, complete with deejay, and a talent show. Well make the pavilion look like a dance club for the night, and have a little fire pit with a bonfire and tents, said Mark.

Ben Kozberg, a camper at the JCC during the 1990s and a former camp counselor and Camp Hoover Director said it was the friendships he made at Camp Hoover that made him want to come back year after year. Camp at the JCC was always something familiar to me. I was able to socialize with my friends that I did not see too often throughout the school year. And the activities at camp were tremendous. They allowed me to do things I typically did not do at school.

Andrew Igdaloff agrees with Ben, saying that, for him, the friendships he made at camp had the most lasting impact. Friends I made as an 8-year-old camper continuously reappear in unexpected places. For Andrew, the Jewish connections he made while at camp really had a lasting impact to live a strong Jewish lifestyle, he said.

Camp Culture: An Indescribable Experience

A camp experience would not be complete without the soundtrack of silly, nonsense songs with catchy tunes and goofy words. And anything can be a Hoover camp song. We bring our own experiences and memories into the songs, which are fun because whatever songs a counselor remembers from their own camping experiences can be Hoover songs, said Mark. A lot of my counselors come from USY and BBYO and so they use memories of those songs and bring them to our camp.

Mark always has his guitar amp and iPod, as do a lot of the campers and counselors, he said. Whenever they have free time, I say, plug it in and turn it on.

At the end of the season, during the final days of Camp Hoover, the whole camp gathers and the campers are asked what the highlight of their summer was. For some of the kids, said Mark, the highlight is in that new skill they developed over the course of the summer. They will say stuff like, I caught a fish, or My boat capsized and I knew what to do. Were teaching these kids all these new skills that translate to necessary life skills.


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Kids who go to a Jewish preschool have a higher chance of remaining Jewishly involved throughout their lives. It is this premise, as stated here by demographer Steven Cohen, on which the JCCs five-year, $5.5 million capital campaign was founded.

When leaders of the Jewish community came together and decided it was time to grow the Jewish community, it was clear the place to start was with the children. Many families start their Jewish journey with preschool but the JCC didnt have enough space. It was important to keep up with the recent growth in the community, which would help spur new growth.

The first step to growing the entire community was creating a permanent home in the Northeast. We believed it would allow our Early Childhood program

to flourish, and also allow for more programming, recreation and adult education, said Jennie Cammeyer, Co-Chair of the expansion project. Were thrilled with how the community has embraced the new building and with the wonderful collaboration weve established with the Columbus Jewish Day School.

Thanks to a generous donation and support from the Les and Abigail Wexner family, the community came together, raising the first $2.5 million and building a permanent space at 150 East Granville Road in New Albany. JCC New Albany opened its doors in 2009. It is home to both the Columbus Jewish Day School and the JCC Early Childhood Education program, which has grown to 150 families. In addition to the thriving preschool, this campus is actively used for after-

No one has ever become poor from giving Anne Frank

JCC New Albany opened in 2009 thanks to $2.5 million raised through the Capital Campaign.

Building Community

Together


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school programs, adult and youth basketball leagues, synagogue religious schools, yoga classes, the Melton Mini School and a variety of family programs.

Phase two of this campaign is focused on College Avenue, where nearly every program for children, Baby Boomers and older adults is at capacity if not completely out of space. Thanks in large part to the generosity of the Schottenstein FamilyJay and Jeanie, Joey and Lindsay, Jonathan and Jeffreyfor a matching gift that doubled the impact of all new dollars up to $500,000, the capital campaign raised an additional $2.5 million, which enabled the JCC to break ground on a 16,000 square-foot expansion at the College Avenue location.

Weve been so pleased with the jump in memberships over the last decade. We love when the building is full of people being active physically and spiritually. But the flip side is finding space for the growth more members and more programs. The new addition will provide the room we need today and it will also give us flexibility as the JCC moves into its next century, said JCC Executive Director, Carol Folkerth.

The new space more than doubles the Diamond Family Fitness Center creating more room for cardio, personal training, group exercise classes, stretching, toddler fitness and babysitting and includes a new gymnasium, which will accommodate the tremendous growth in youth sports. The addition will also help the JCC meet the needs of the growing numbers of seniors, and provide a youth-specific fun and fitness area with the J-Zone.

The J-Zone, one of the most anticipated pieces of the expansion, will be a state-of-the-art facility with equipment and activities designed for our youngest children, youth, and teens. The J-Zone is especially exciting as it will allow the JCC to offer age-appropriate, fun, and innovative space for our youth to be active and build friendships and community, said Cammeyer.

Members of the community will have more options for multi-use space and rentals for large events like bar/bat mitzvahs and weddings. Parking will be increased too, with 68 additional spaces.

Spanning five years, the campaign effort was enormous, and highly successful thanks to the support of the entire Jewish community. Special thanks go to JCC President Joe Sniderman and co-chair of the expansion project, Jennie Cammeyer, who shepherded the project from its infancy. The JCC is also grateful to the Columbus Jewish Federation and the Columbus Jewish Foundation for their ongoing support.

Later this summer, in the midst of so much nachas for the JCCs 100th anniversary, the College Avenue expansion will be ready for the community, ready for children and seniors, ready for fitness and fun, ready for congregation and celebration, ready for the next 100 years of Jewish living in Columbus.


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The JCC Timeline was created by the Columbus Jewish Historical Society and is on display in

the JCC lobby throughout 2013.celebrating a century of the Jewish Community Center

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The JCC 1913-2013

One hundred years ago, believing that Jewish people in Columbus needed a centralized place to meet, Joseph Schonthal opened up meeting rooms for organizations to use. Today the JCC continues to grow and evolve, still providing spaceand food, education, recreation, and human connectionfor this thriving Central Ohio community.

1913 Joseph Schonthal provided meeting rooms to all segments of the Jewish community, at 355 South Washington Avenue

1918 Schonthal purchased the old Hoster Brewery Mansion building on 555 East Rich Street

1919 Athletic programs began at the Schonthal Center, including basketball, baseball and boxing

1927 Camp Schonthal opened on 25 acres of land in Union County near Magnetic Springs

1946 The name was changed to The Columbus Jewish Center

1948 Gallery Players founded

1949 Golden Agers was formed, the first formalization of activities for seniors.

1950 JCC completed and moved into a new building at 1125 College Avenue

1951 Preschool opened as a formal program

1963 First Jewish bookfair held at JCC

1965 28.4-acre country day camp site acquired at Hoover, originally called Cubbage Corners, later renamed Camp Hoover

1983 JCC completed and moved into current building , also at 1125 College Avenue

1991 Infant care facility opened

1987 JCC north preschool program started

1996 JCC New Albany opened in collaboration with Temple Beth Shalom

2002 The Diamond Family Fitness Center opened and Ellman Early Childhood Wing opened

2004 First Jewish Film Festival

2007 The Zusman Center opened

2009 JCC New Albany Campus opened

2012 Began two-story expansion to College Ave Campus


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The Jewish Community Center

of Greater Columbus100 years of caring and serving our community.

Lets celebrate! Gary and Margey Cheses




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Whats your first memory of Fiddler on the Roof? For Jared Saltman, Gallery Players Managing and Artisitic Director and producer of Gallery Players upcoming March production of the musical, Fiddler on the Roof brings back memories of his dad who would often take him to see theater as a child growing up in Washington, D.C. I remember my dad taking me to see it when I was 13, and I just loved it. I remember laughing when I was supposed to laugh, being upset when I was supposed to be upset, and humming the music on the way out. Thats what Fiddler does for people.

Now that the Columbus JCCs sun has set on its first hundred years, it rises in anticipation of a bright future with hundreds of years to come. Gallery Players March musical production of Fiddler on the Roof promises to honor the JCCs memorable past and promising future, complete with an expansion project.

The 2013 production will be the sixth Fiddler performance that Gallery Players has

A Triumphant Return to Eisenstein Stage Captures Spirit of JCCs First 100 YearsBy Felicity Nesham-West

Gallery Players PresentsFiddler on the RoofMarch 2-March 17Tickets to Fiddler on the Roof can be purchased by calling 614-231-2731 or by visiting www.jccgalleryplayers.org.


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staged in its illustrious 65-year history. What could be a better kick off to a year of celebrating the JCC centennial anniversary than Fiddler on the Roof? A timeless classic, performed all over the world and translated into many languages, Fiddler on the Roofs message of maintaining tradition in a changing world is more relevant today than ever.

Saltman discussed how the musical captivates the public imagination even today. Fiddler has a universal appeal. Every culture can relate to that message of tradition and wanting to cling to old ways; its not just a Jewish story, its everyones story. Because of this appeal, Fiddler is always being performed somewhere, whether it be in community theaters throughout the country, professional productions throughout the world, or revivals on Broadway.

Nobody Does It Better: Gallery Players and Fiddler

Fiddler on the Roof s initial Broadway run, beginning on September 22, 1964, starred Zero Mostel as Tevye. It had the first musical theater

From one of the first Gallery Players productions of Fiddler on the Roof

run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. Fiddler held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years. Mostel, with his buoyant, larger-than-life persona, launched the archetypal image of the poor milkman sadly departing from the Russian shtetl into the public consciousness for all time. Before closing in 1972, Fiddler on the Roof won nine Tony awards, including Best Actor (Mostel), author (Stein), director and choreographer (Robbins), composer (Bock), and lyricist (Harnick). Mostel brought the character of Tevye to life with bravura and boisterous comic timing and reclaimed the role in the 1976 Broadway revival.

Here in central Ohio, Cantor Jack Chomsky of Congregation Tifereth Israel returns to the Roth/Resler Theater to once again fill the lead role of Tevye. He last starred in a sold-out run of Fiddler on the Roof in 2006. Im thrilled to have the opportunity to repeat the role in this 100th anniversary celebration of the JCC. My performance of Tevye was personal; not play-acting, but the experience of a father and an Everyman. If we thought that

Im thrilled to have the opportunity to repeat the role in this 100th anniversary celebration of the JCC.

- Cantor Jack Chomsky


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Tevyes world changed rapidly for him, imagine the situation that we face today. The technological innovations in todays world bring about newness every six months and its getting faster!

Gallery Players decided to put on this sixth performance of Fiddler on the Roof, in honor of the JCCs 100-year anniversary because it has been one of the most popular and most performed musicals in Gallery Players 65-year history. Gallery Players Chair Lillian Strouss said, Fiddler was a unanimous decision on the part of the committee. We all agreed that it was only appropriate that we do Fiddler again for the 100th anniversary. Jared Saltman added, We thought, lets use a show about tradition to celebrate the JCCs tradition.

Fiddler on the Roof was first performed by Gallery Players in May of 1972, with Adult Activities Director Harold Eisenstein at the helm. It was directed again by Eisenstein in January 1983 and starred Paul Lipson as Tevye. Fiddler was also performed by Gallery Players in June of 1993. And in honor of Gallery Players 50th anniversary, renowned New York actor Marty Ross performed the role of Tevye in October 1998. The last performance was in February 2006 with

Chomsky as Tevye. When Jack Chomsky returns this year to play Tevye, it will be the first time that the same person has played Tevye more than once for Gallery Players, said Rena Vesler, Gallery Players committee member, former production manager, and a current historian who spends her free time working on the Gallery Players Collection of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society.

Vesler spoke of the long tradition intertwining Gallery Players with Fiddler on the Roof. The tradition of Gallery Players steers our purpose and grounds us. Were still taking the best of tradition and moving it into the present and into the future. The tradition of Gallery Players was fully realized through the vision of Harold Eisenstein, who arrived as Adult Activities Director in 1958. For 40 years, Eisenstein directed, produced, and became the guiding hand for Gallery Players. Gallery Players has a really strong reputation for quality thanks to Harold Eisenstein. He was a tough cookie; you worked hard for him and he got results. Harold set the bar for what we still strive to achieve: quality, professionalism, and being open to new ideas. Weve got one foot in the door of tradition and one foot in the future, said Vesler.

Above: Sid Chafetz wood cut

Below: From Fiddler on the Roof, 1983



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As Compelling Today as It Was Yesterday: The Phenomenon of Fiddler

Fiddler, based on the stories of Yiddish storyteller Sholom Aleichem, has been revived multiple times and even now, almost 50 years after its original 1964 Broadway opening, it continues to be staged across the country and around the world. Part of Fiddlers long-lived appeal is in the little shtetl of Anatevka itself. The iconography of the Old Country being romanticized in Fiddler calls to the publics yearning for a world many of us can only imagine and may only have knowledge of through cultural references like Fiddler. The traditional world we see in Fiddler on the Roof is a world in flux, set against a backdrop of looming hardship. It is a world that even today illustrates the power of hope in dealing with uncertainty over the future.

Chomsky said, If you think about when this play was first produced in the 1960s there was a sense that progress was everything, and so Tevye was looked at as kind of foolish for being against progress. But in our day and age, I think that weve come to understand that progress isnt all its cracked up to be. So that may look a little different when I get up close with this script, to recognize that there may be more wisdom in resistance to change than I might have seen before. Not to say that Im against change but change why, change toward what, for what, and from what?

Fiddler retains its popular appeal not just because its familiar and sweet, Chomsky said, but because, Its a certain kind of miracle bringing together

the stories of the brilliant writer, Sholom Aleichem, distilled through the remarkable choices of writer Joseph Stein and the music and lyrics team of Harnick and Bock. It seems to tell the remarkable story of the Jewish people as they move from one era to another and one continent to another. But it has been received as telling a universal story of the tension between tradition and modernity.

For Chomsky, the emotional core of the character of Tevye compels him to perform the role again. There is a pathos even in Aleichems humor that isnt always apparent onstage. Tevye is what I would call a wise fool. He often misquotes the Jewish tradition, but at the same time, there is wisdom at the heart of what he says. Once youve read all the Tevye stories and seen the real angst and grief in them, its hard to see Tevye as a clown, or to perform the role in a clownish way. When I experienced Tevye last time around, I felt a tremendous sense of personal, emotional loss as each of my daughters drifted away in their various ways in each performance.

Fiddler on the Roof, set in 1905 at the beginning of the Russian Revolution, shows the Old World making way for the new, with Tevye struggling in the middle of these two opposing forces. The challenges to his beliefs are represented through the loss of his daughters, one by one, to marriage, radical politics, and the world of gentiles. It is the story of Tevyes attempts to maintain his traditions while outside influences creep into their lives.

The musicals title originates from the painting The Fiddler by Marc Chagall. The Fiddler represents

What is your Long Term Care plan?Happy 100th to the Columbus JCC!

Adam Eisenberg, CLTC Eisenberg Insurance

2699 East Main Street Bexley, Ohio 43209614-528-0011 www.eisenberginsurance.com


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the Jews struggle to survive, through tradition and joyfulness, in an unstable world. The Fiddler was an essential presence in ceremonies and festivals, expressing through music the collective conscience of the village. He accompanies the people of Anatevka through both their celebrations and their struggles.

A Community Coming Together, Then and Now

Jared Saltman promised this revival of Fiddler on the Roof will be both old and new, much like the forces driving the story of Fiddler itself. Fiddler is so wonderful because it can be new and familiar all at the same time. Even if youve never seen it before, it doesnt feel dated because of how wonderful the story, the music, the dancing all of it is. This is why it continues to be producedbecause it is always fresh and new. New audiences will love it the first time they see it, and it will bring them back. Everyone will want to experience it again and again, said Saltman.

Much like the original Broadway production with Zero Mostel in 1964, the production will be larger

than life. Director Mark Mann really wants to capture the original feel of the musical. We are going to go back to the plays roots to explore how funny and fun this production can be, said Saltman.

Chomsky also hopes to approach the role of Tevye in a new way. He reflected on the changes in his life in the last six years, and how he may have become more wizened by time and experience. He hopes to bring this experience to the role. Im a little bit different now from when I first approached the role, he said. Like Tevye, I hope that when I face reversals, I will do so with good humor and undying energy. Jewish life is inherently joyful. We tend to look at the people of Anatevka as joyful in the face of challenge and tend to see the challenge first. But I think that its important to understand that theyre inherently joyful whether theres challenge or not. Thats what I hope people walk away with that joy. No matter what became of the people of Anatevka there is dignity in that joy. I want people to have a great time watching this, and Id like them to be inspired to face lifes reversals with joy.

Gallery Players began in the late 1940s when the foremost community theater in Columbus was the Players Club Theater. As a private club, this group did not permit the participation of African Americans or Jews. Finally, a group of Hadassah women who were interested in theater met at the home of Florence (Zacks) Melton to organize a theater activity in which members of the Jewish community could comfortably take part, while honoring the traditions of their faith.

This new theater groups first activities involved reading plays, but they expanded into a performing company when the R.G. Barry Corporation offered loft space to this fledgling drama group on the top floor of its factory at 80 East Long Street. Gallery Players earned its name from this space, an unused loft offset by pillars which gave it the look and feel of an art gallery. The actors would perform in a circle with the audience surrounding them, giving a very intimate feel to the first of Gallery Players many performances. It was within this space that Gallery performed its first play, Hay Fever, in May of 1950.

This initial effort was met with great enthusiasm by the Jewish community. The new Jewish Center (that existed prior to the

current building) was under construction at the time and the program department of the agency offered its multi-purpose room as a site for the group to stage its future productions. In order to present plays at their highest level and be true to the playwrights vision, the group reached out to the general community for additional talented individuals. Thus, Gallery Players became the first community theater in central Ohio to implement a casting policy that did not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, or gender.

65 years later, Gallery Players continues this inclusive tradition, always striving to bring the very best in community theater to Columbus which can only be achieved by relying on the talents of a diverse cross-section of people. It is the oldest community theater in the Midwest, with a strong reputation for quality, professionalism, and integrity.

According to Gallery Players committee member Rena Vesler, Gallery Players produces plays that have universal appeal to all human beings, Jewish or not. We value and strive for that, to put on plays that show human values. Even if youre doing a show with Jewish actors, where the playwright is Jewish, and the family in the play is Jewish, and

A Short History of Gallery Players

First Gallery Players production: Hay Fever, 1950. Bea Roth and Marvin

Bonowitz are pictured, standing

Photos Courtesy of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society, Gallery Players Archive Collection.

Lillian Strouss and Joe Hietter in 1984s The Price


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We strive to produce such high quality theater that people forget they are inside a community theater, said Saltman, For that moment they are in that world, the world onstage. We want people to truly suspend disbelief. With a six-piece orchestra of local musicians and a production that will be bigger than ever, the show promises to transport audiences to the little town of Anatevka all over again. I look forward to gathering people from our own Jewish community to portray this imaginary village, said Chomsky. I hope that all segments of our Jewish community will come together to create an Anatevka for the Ages and that many hundreds of people will come out to enjoy the show. I hope it will also be an opportunity to appreciate the many years of artistry of many hands building and maintaining Gallery Players.

Fiddler on the Roof is unique, too. No other musical devoted to an overtly Jewish subject matter has ever triumphed on Broadway in the way it has. The play has been the best ambassador for Jews that weve ever had, commented Chomsky. Aleichem romanticized the shtetl as it was disappearing. The shows success

stems from that deeply felt appeal of a community where everyone knows each other, where your burdens are eased by your neighbors, and where your triumphs and sorrows are each and everyones.

Our Columbus Jewish community is remarkable in its sense of community. Its always a challenge to keep those relationships strong as our world changes at a breakneck technological pace, but I hope that this musical will be an opportunity to draw them a little more tightly together, said Chomsky. Fiddler perhaps does speak to a longing to get back to a smaller world, he said.

It is this longing for community that finds many Jews returning again and again, year after year, to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus. For 100 years now, the JCC has been helping to maintain a community that, though it gets larger and geographically spread out with each passing year, somehow manages to stay connected, feel intimate, and maintain relevance as it enters the 21st century. It is here where tradition and modernity meet, come together, and make peaceand maybe a little challah afterwards to celebrate.

the storys Jewish there are themes in that play that anybody can relate to and learn from, she said. As the only performing arts group in central Ohio dedicated to producing quality plays that reflect the Jewish experience, Gallery Players continues to serve as a source of pride to the Jewish community.

It is unbelievable and unprecedented that Gallery Players is in its 65th year of operation. In this day and age, and climate of theater we have, its pretty remarkable. Were one of those little gems of Columbus, and, with the JCC 100 celebration, I think its a great opportunity for people to discover us again, said Jared Saltman.

In 1983, David and Bea Roth and Eleanor Resler funded the construction of the 329-seat Roth/Resler Theater. The very first performance on this new stage was Fiddler on the Roof. Hundreds of performances have since been enjoyed in that theater, but for many, it is the memory of Harold Eisenstein that keeps them coming back.

For Gallery Players Chair Lillian Strouss, Gallery Players was a lifeline, and it can all be traced back to Eisenstein. It was Harold that hooked

me. Harold was very charming, charismatic, and kinda wonderful, wonderful man. He called me to come meet some of the performers and to read for the play, Ondine, in 1960. And so I did. From that day on, I was hooked. Gallery Players saved my life.

Strouss began acting in high school and performed professionally after earning a BFA in theater from Ithaca College. Art has been her lifes work. Since beginning as an actress with Gallery Players in 1960, Strouss went on to direct multiple plays, her favorites being dramas and those of the playwright Arthur Miller, most notably Broken Glass (produced by Gallery Players in 1998), she said. She continued in Eisensteins footsteps after his retirement as Cultural Arts Director. I loved directing, said Strouss. The young man, Mark Mann, who is directing this years Fiddler on the RoofI directed him at least 20 years ago, in Crossing Delancey. Its those kinds of cross-generational connections that make keeping the Gallery Players tradition alive so meaningful for Strouss.

Photos Courtesy of the Columbus Jewish Historical Society, Gallery Players Archive Collection.

Lillian Strouss in Ondine, 1960

Light Up the Sky, 1977, with (pictured left to right): Irene Braverman, Lillian Strouss, Roger Masten,

Joe Hietter, George Cappell and Jim Nelson


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Cast:Tevye .............................................................Jack ChomskyLazar Wolf ....................................................Scott A. WillisMotel .....................................................Matthew HarperPerchik ..........................................................Elisha BeachyFyedka ..................................................Phil CunninghamTzeitel ..................................................................Eliya SmithHodel .........................................................Hannah RossioChava ...............................................................Paula ShteinBielke .......................................................Amelia StarcherShprintze .................................................Adelaide FeibelGolde ..........................................................Susan GellmanMendel ........................................................Tim BrowningYente ......................................................Irene BravermanRabbi ..................................................Frederick M. LuperConstable .......................................................Todd CovertSasha ..................................................Stephen R. HannaMordcha ........................................................Dave CollardAvram ......................................................................Rick HoltNachum ......................................................David SpialterGrandma Tzeitel ............................Laurie Alexander Fruma Sarah ........................................Amy Silver JuddShaindel ...............................................................Kate WillisYussel ............................................................Jay FolickmanRifka .......................................................................Joan FishelMendel ........................................................Tim BrowningThe Fiddler ......................................Stephen R. Hanna

Crew :Director .............................................................Mark MannMusic Director ..........................Stephanie Stephens Stage Manager .....................................Sarah HurwitzCo-Stage Manager .....................Karlayna StewardChoreographer ....................................Danielle MannScenic Design/Construction ..................................Christopher ClappLighting/Sound Design .....................Jarod WilsonCostume Design .........................Rosemary CullisonProps Master .................................................Karen TylakGallery Players Managing and Artistic Director .......................... Jared Saltman

Chorus: Nate EisenbergHalley DunnStella FriedGeorgia FriedSusan ParkerRosie KalefNeil Kalef

Fiddler on the Roof sponsored by:


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Musical NumbersAct I Prologue: Tradition ...........................................Tevye and the Company Matchmaker, Matchmaker .......................Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava If I Were A Rich Man .................................................................................. Tevye Sabbath Prayer ...................................Tevye, Golde and the Company To Life .............................................Tevye, Lazar Wolf and the Company Tevyes Monologue .....................................................................................Tevye Miracle of Miracles ......................................................................................Motel The Dream .............................................Tevye, Golde, Grandma Tzeitel, Fruma-Sarah and the Company Sunrise, Sunset ............................................................Tevye, Golde, Perchik, Hodel and the Company The Bottle Dance ........................................................................ Instrumental

Act II Entracte .................................................................................................... Orchestra Now I Have Everything ...............................................Perchik and Hodel Tevyes Rebuttal ............................................................................................Tevye Do You Love Me? .................................................................Tevye and Golde The Rumor ........................................................................Yente and Villagers Far From the Home I Love ......................................................................Hodel Chavaleh (Little Bird) ..................................................................................Tevye Anatevka .......................................................................................The Company

Gallery Players PresentsThe Whipping Man

May 4- May 12

Coming this Spring, the Central Ohio PremiereThe Whipping ManGallery Players spring play, The Whipping Man, will be produced in collaboration with New Players Theater. Set in post-Civil War Richmond, in April of 1865, the story follows the intersections of racial and religious intolerance as the young, wounded Confederate soldier Caleb DeLeon returns home to find nothing remaining of his former life, except for two former slaves, Simon and John, who are waiting in his empty house for the familys return.

The play will bring a compelling moment in history to life on stage as the characters wrestle with their shared past, the approach of Passover, the implications of the slaves newfound freedom, and the bitter irony of Jewish slave-owning. As the sun sets on the last night of Passover, Simon prepares a Seder to observe the celebration of the Hebrews liberation from slavery in Egypt.

Hailed by the New York Times, the play is, Emotionally potent...surreal in the layers of meaning... a quiet force... We are in the hands of a playwright who wants to mess with our viscera.

Tickets to The Whipping Man can be purchased by calling 614-231-2731 or by visiting www.jccgalleryplayers.org.

Directors NoteLike many great plays, Fiddler on the Roof is a slippery customer. It delivers to its audiences a classic bait and switchit begins by showing us that traditions are the most important element in a society, the glue that binds its people together, and provides them with a unique identity. Then, just when we have understood that concept, it begins to show us that there is something that transcends even the most time-honored traditionslove. We watch as Tevye the Dairyman negotiates challenges to his beliefs and we marvel as the daughters he so fiercely loves begin to assert their own identities in ways he could never have imagined.

The original production of Fiddler arrived in the middle of what many consider to be the most remarkable period of the American musicalfrom the mid 50s to the late 60s, we were witness to the advent of such musicals as West Side Story, Camelot, The Music Man, Hello Dolly, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Gypsy!, Funny Girl, Man of La Mancha, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumthe list goes on and on. With its themes of love, tradition, social upheaval, its masterful intermingling of humor and tragedy, and its beautiful and heart-wrenching score, a persuasive case can be made that Fiddler on the Roof stands at the top of this list. It teems with life, it bursts with humor, it thrills with music that arises naturally from the moment, and it inspires with its depiction of a people who remain indomitable in the face of hostility and prejudice. LChaim!

-Mark Mann


MARCH 2013

Irene Braverman has been a comedy gem for Gallery Players for the past 60 years. When I first learned that she is fluent in Yiddish, played the role of Yente the matchmaker in 1983 and 1993, and has been in more Gallery Players productions than anyone, I expected to meet an 89-year-old woman who would remind me of my own bubbe, or at least the bubbe I imagined coming straight off the pages of one of Sholom Aleichems short stories about the Old Country.

But Braverman is not your Bubbes Bubbe. Thoroughly modern, Braverman is totally disarming; at first very quiet and sweet, and then, suddenly, she zings you with one-liners that seem to come out of nowhere. Braverman has all the chutzpah of Betty White, continues to work full-time, has a Facebook account, and responds quickly to emails from her Blackberry. When asked what she thought of Gallery Players fall play, November, and of David Mamets colorful use of language, she said she liked it and that she was happy to see that Gallery Players was moving with the times. So, it seems, is she.

Braverman was the first generation born in America in her family. Her father immigrated from Poland and her mother from Lithuania. Yiddish was the only language spoken in her familys home growing up. Because of this, Braverman is able to embody her Yiddish roles effortlessly, while versatile enough as an actress to play just about any character. Her resume includes roles in musical theater like The Music Man, comedies like Social Security and Blithe Spirit, serious dramas like The Book of Ruth, and everything in between. Cast to perform in 2013s production, again as Yente, a justifiably excited and contemplative Braverman and I talked at length about her years in Gallery Players, her favorite roles, and what keeps her coming back for more.

Q: How did you become interested in theater?A: I was always performing for my family when I was growing up. I was a bit of a ham. Thats definitely why my forte is in comedy.

Player Profile: Irene Braverman

Q: How did you first become involved with Gallery Players?A: Im from outside Chicago, but I came to Columbus to live with my brother after our parents died. Ive always been interested in theater, and when I heard there were auditions at the Center for this play, thats when I came down. But I had acted before in Chicago and had done some professional theater there. Performing in Gallery Players was my first time performing in Columbus.

Q: Could you tell me about that first performance and what it was like back then (in 1954)?A: The first play I was in was in 1954. We didnt have a theater director back then. We didnt have a stage. They improvised it, building a makeshift stage in the auditorium of the old building. It was very primitive. I remember the walls were very thin. You couldnt flush the toilet because it was right under the stage and people would hear it in the auditorium. You could also hear the bowling alley next door. Q: What was it like to be a Jewish actress in Columbus in the 1950s?A: Well, Players Club Theater would not allow Jews to be in a play. You had to belong to the club, and it was restricted. They didnt want Jews, so thats why Gallery Players was born. Gallery Players has been a wonderful outlet for me. There were no other opportunities back then. When I was first starting, there wasnt theater that you could become involved in. Later on, Players Club opened up and I did a lot of theater there, too. But Gallery Players has always been an outlet for me, especially with Harold Eisenstein, who

By Felicity Nesham-West

Posters and other memorabilia Irene has collected over the years


MARCH 2013

Irene Braverman (right) played Yente alongside Dee Capelli as Golde, in the 1983 Gallery Players production of Fiddler on the Roof.

A tile from the stage of the auditorium in the old JCC building


MARCH 2013

was such a wonderful teacher. I had taken theater courses and studied theater before, but he was really instrumental. He was my mentor and I learned so much from him because he was such a marvelous teacher and director.

Q: What made Harold Eisenstein so instrumental in Gallery Players history?A: Well, Harold ran the whole shebang when he came in 1958, and his reputation throughout the city was so great. His background with theater in New York was wonderful; he was really so inspiring. The way he took over. He respected you, though. If things didnt go right he would let you know if you werent doing something the way it should be done.

Q How have things changed in the last 60 years?A: Its different now, because we would paint and build our own sets together and everybody gave of their free time more readily. We would have set-painting parties, til late in the night, 11, 12, 1 in the morning. I still have my old painting shirt! But people dont have that free time now. I think that Gallery Players recognizes that and has adapted to that. I just want Gallery Players to maintain the position it has now but grow even more. Weve always done plays by Jewish playwrights or with Jewish themes, and we have to continue doing that. We have a great reputation in the community now and we have to continue growing on that in the 21st century. Its a different time now, and I think Gallery has to adapt to that.

Q: What has kept you in Columbus, coming back to Gallery Players year after year?A: I met my husband here while I was working for a telephone company. We married in 1950, and my first child, Larry, was born in 1952. Then my daughter, Becky, was born in 1955. In fact, I became pregnant during that first play in 1954. Some of my best memories revolve around Gallery Players. I remember we had all the cast parties at my house. Some of my best friends were involved in or came out of Gallery Players. We all had that common interest together. Gallery Players was at the center of things for me.

Q: What have been some of your favorite roles or memories of Gallery Players through the years? A: There was always a place or role for me. One of my favorite plays was Gods Favorite. We did that one twice, and it was also directed by Lil Strouss. She was just a great director. It was a great script, too, and a very well-done play. Ive probably been in more plays than anybody connected with Gallery Players. At one time, when I was much younger, I had done some professional theater and Ive made a couple movies since then, but had small parts in them. And its really been one of the most important parts of my life, besides my

own family. I feel I have a talent for it, and I love these roles that I can play. To become another character is so exciting. Q: What are some of your favorite memories from your years playing Yente in Fiddler on the Roof?A: The best memory I have was from my first time performing Yente in 1983. Its a great role. I know this woman. I understand Yente. I know who Yente is. It was memorable because it was on a brand new stage for us, and we hadnt had a stage before. It was so nice because this was a real stage with sound equipment and everything. It was very exciting. We had these wonderful sets that had to be moved back and forth. We had a guest star named Paul Lipson from New York. In the New York production he played the rabbi, and here he played Tevye. I remember one time, there was a scene where everybody was in the courtyard and the rabbi was talking to Tevye. I remember I got so engrossed in their conversation and I had one line in this scene after Tevye said something. And I got so involved in the scene that I never said my line, and all of a sudden I heard Tevye saying my line. So, afterwards, I came over to Tevye/Lipson, and I said, Im really sorry that I forgot my line, but I was so excited and engrossed in the scene. And he said, Well, if you liked it so much, you should have bought a ticket. That was a really embarrassing moment. You dont let that happen again. Ill never forget that. I always take somethinga prop, a costume, some sort of mementofrom every show, to keep as a memory.

Q: What, for you, is so special about performing in Fiddler on the Roof?A: Fiddler is really a history of the Jews. It really is one of my favorites. The music is marvelous, and the characters just have so much depth. Even though youve seen it over and over again, its really got so much schmaltz there. Its just such a marvelous play; every role is so good in it. Every performance is a little different, and the more you play it, the more you understand the role that youre playing. Youre that person.

Q: What have you been up to lately?A: More recently, I was Bessie in From Door to Door. That was the last play I was in, in 2010. I played the grandmother, but it was really like I was playing my own mother. There were three women, and there was their history. I was the grandmother, and there was a mother and a daughter. This character, when I was playing it, I remembered my mother, because she was doing things that I remembered my mother did. So it was a wonderful role for me to play, like playing my own mother. It is a little more difficult for me to learn the lines at this point in my life. It used to come very easy, but now it doesnt come as easy. And of course Im thrilled to play Yente again. Have I got a match for YOU!


MARCH 2013

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David Milenthal1987-1989

Because I was a relatively young chair my term was as much a learning experience as a leadership experience. Allan Finkelstein was in the last years of his role as Executive and together we tried so many creative management ideasmost of which worked better in

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