The People and Places of Northwest Washington July 8, 2009 ■ Page 13

By TERESA G. GIONISCurrent Correspondent

Aarin Packard wants to take on themany myths that surround his art.The top misconceptions? Creating

bonsai is too challenging. It requires years ofspecialized training. It’s time-consuming. It’sfor retirees. It’s solitary.

“I want to show people how enjoyable itis — that you don’t need a Ph.D. in botanyor years of experience to create a bonsai,” hesaid. “Anyone can do it. I really want toencourage people to try it themselves.”

Packard is the assistant curator at theNational Bonsai & Penjing Museum, aWashington treasure tucked inside theNational Arboretum, off New York AvenueNE. His new exhibit, “Becoming a Bonsai,”

By OLGA KHAZANCurrent Correspondent

During the early 1950s, quin-tessential Jewish motherGertrude Berg played one

of the most beloved characters onTV. But even though her charactercaptivated America, making Bergat one point the highest-paidwoman in the country, this earlymedia mogul is largely unknownamong audiences today.

This summer, D.C.-based film-maker Aviva Kempner hopes torevive Berg’s legacy through thefilm “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,”about “the most famous woman inAmerica you’ve never heard of.”

The documentary, which willopen next week, chronicles Berg’srevolutionary TV and radio work,as well as her positive effect on thelives of Jews during a time of ram-pant anti-Semitism. At the film’spremiere last month at theWashington DC JewishCommunity Center, Kempner saidBerg’s character Molly Goldbergwas “one of the most positive por-trayals of Jewish women” in massmedia — then and now.

In 1929, Berg began writing aradio show, “The Rise of theGoldbergs,” about a New YorkJewish family, casting herself inthe role of Molly, the wisecrackingmatriarch. In 1949, the showjumped to TV on CBS as “TheGoldbergs,” in which Molly doled

out advice and managed ameshugeneh household with old-world Yiddish flair.

“My MO is doing films aboutJewish heroes,” Kempner said.“Generations of Jewish Americansdon’t even know that there was anOprah of her day that created thesitcom and never gets credit forit.”

Kempner’s film includes inter-views with Berg’s grandchildren,prominent Jewish producers, actorEd Asner and National PublicRadio correspondent SusanStamberg. It also features SupremeCourt Justice Ruth BaderGinsburg, whom Kempner met at aFrench Embassy function.

“She glowed when I said I wasmaking a movie about GertrudeBerg,” Kempner said.

In the film, Ginsburg fondlyrecalls listening to the radio showin her childhood and said shecould relate to Molly’s character.

“We all listened to MollyGoldberg on the radio as a family,”Ginsburg said. “She was an amal-gam of Jewish aunts and grand-mothers.”

Raised in New York City and inthe Catskills by immigrant parents,Berg drew inspiration for the char-acters on her shows from her dailylife.

Her radio show debuted justweeks after the stock market crashof 1929. For the next 17 years,Berg would rise at 6 a.m. each day,

scribbling ideas in a notebookwhile walking the streets of NewYork and writing the scripts thatwould delight a massive audience.

At its height, “The Rise of theGoldbergs” was second in popular-ity only to “Amos and Andy.” In1950, Berg won the first BestActress Emmy for her work on theTV version of the show.

“She was Tina Fey before therewas Tina Fey,” Kempner said.“The most popular TV shows —‘Friends,’ ‘Seinfeld,’ ‘TheHoneymooners’ — involve fami-lies living in apartment buildings,with neighbors walking in and out.She’s the one who created it.”

The Goldbergs’ homey humorcould not have come at a bettertime. With markets plunging andunemployment soaring, the radioshow provided a much-needed dis-traction.

“They were this positive, warmJewish family saying everythingwould be all right,” Kempner said.“They say President Rooseveltonce said, ‘I didn’t get us out ofthe Depression, the Goldbergsdid.’”

Aside from laying the ground-work for future sitcoms, Berg’sshows also familiarized non-Jewish American audiences withJewish American culture.According to Kempner, the show

allowed many non-Jews to watch aPassover Seder for the first timeand to see that Jewish home lifewas not all that foreign.

“It may be that Molly Goldberg

Above left, Current File Photo; above, courtesy of Aviva Kempner“Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” the latest film by Chevy Chase documentarian Aviva Kempner, above left, aims to revive the legacyof once-famous TV and radio performer Gertrude Berg, above. Bergcreated the radio show “The Rise of the Goldbergs,” which latermoved to TV, establishing the format of many later sitcoms.

By LINDA LOMBARDICurrent Correspondent

To help explain how Take2 summercamp benefits its target population,Dr. Lauren

Kenworthy, a con-sultant to the pro-gram, uses ametaphor to describehow the campers seethe world.

“They’re standingan inch from amosaic. They’revery acute abouthow the tile they’relooking at is a differ-ent shade of tealfrom the one next toit. But they don’tknow they’re look-ing at a picture of a boat.”

The four-week camp, now in its sixth yearin Northwest D.C., is designed for children

with social learning disorders such asAsperger’s syndrome and high-functioningautism.

Schoolwork generally isn’t a problem forthese highly intelligent and verbal children,

who are mostly inmainstream classesduring the schoolyear, but other skillsthat come naturallyto most are a severechallenge. The resultcan be social isola-tion.

Camp co-founderMonica AdlerWerner says you cansee these children’sdifficulties “as aform of socialdyslexia. They’reliterally not seeing

nonverbal clues: body language, facialexpressions, tone of voice, context.”

Take2 offers autistic campers a Plan B

See Camp/Page 21

See Goldberg/Page 16

Bill Petros/The CurrentThe Northwest summer camp teachessocial skills that can be difficult for thosewith social learning disorders.

See Bonsai/Page 16Courtesy of the National Arboretum

A plant, top, becomes a bonsai, bottom.

Arboretum unveilsthe inner bonsai

HOME & GARDEN

Local filmmaker focuses camera on Jewish TV star

Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Kempner!

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THE CURRENT WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2009 21

To address those challenges, thecamp offers activities thatwork on breaking downsocial interactions into theircomponent parts to makethem understandable.

But according toKenworthy, director of theCenter for AutismSpectrum Disorders atChildren’s NationalMedical Center, what’sspecial — possibly unique— about the camp is theway it also addressesanother aspect of the prob-lem: deficits in whatexperts call “executivefunction,” which includesthe ability to see the bigpicture and respond flexi-bly to circumstances.

For the most basiceveryday activities, it’s cru-cial to know what the goalis — and to be able tocome up with a Plan B ifthe first path to the goal isblocked.

“This happens to usevery day — you go to thestore and they’re out ofspaghetti so you buy linguine,”says Werner.

And these skills tie directly intothe social interaction problem,Werner observes, because flexibili-ty is key to reacting appropriatelyto other people. “It’s different everysingle time — you have to be ableto read them and know what’s hap-pening, and how to respond,” shesaid.

Because this type of thinkingdoesn’t come naturally to childrenwith Asperger’s and autism, theyneed to be explicitly taught thekind of strategies that most useautomatically. So camp activities

break down everyday situationsinto goals and plans and includediscussions about how to come upwith Plan B. Then, they allow the17 campers to practice these strate-

gies in a safe environment — aplace where they can always tryagain and see the results of a differ-ent approach, inspiring the name“Take2.”

Of course, because they’re kids(8 to 10 years old) and it’s summer,teachers make sure the activitiesare fun.

One favorite is watching anddiscussing an old cartoon wherethe Pink Panther is trying to crossa street and needs to come upwith a Plan B over and overagain. A take-home activityinvolves making a plan to go to atoy store to buy a gift for a

friend, and thinking about how todeal with the common issues inthat situation — like the frustra-tion of wanting to buy somethingfor yourself instead.

Werner says kids and par-ents are encouraged tomake a game of followingthe plan, and even make agame out of what to do ifthe written-down Plan Adoesn’t work: “Rip it up;feed it to the dog.”The camp makes sure that

the benefits reach beyondthe summer by passing oninformation to campers’teachers about what strate-gies worked well for eachindividual. But the pro-gram leaders’ goals havealways gone beyond theirown campers. Co-founder Lisa

Greenman, a Chevy Chaseresident, started Take2because of her own son —“I had a child that had noplace to go and had veryserious needs” — butfrom the beginning, hervision was to create some-thing that would serve alarger population. Shesays the original visionwas to be a pilot program

for a year-round curriculum —and in fact it inspired a program,directed by Werner, at theIvymount School in Rockville.

In addition, an average of halfthe campers are on scholarship,

and organizers have even attendedto details like making sure thattheir various locations (this year,the Edmund Burke School nearVan Ness) have always beenMetro-accessible. A new onlinefundraising effort this yearthrough the organization GlobalGiving has raised more than$14,000 — much of it from newdonors — which will help themfurther expand their programs.

And Kenworthy says Take2 isunusually open to allowingresearchers to examine whether itstechniques are effective and couldpotentially be of wider use.

These broader goals are impor-tant, because, as Greenmanobserves, her team has no illusionsthat anyone is going to be “‘fixed’and sent out to the world with no

further problems in four weeks.” But even in those four weeks,

important progress can be made— as many who’ve gone to asummer camp can attest.

Think of teaching children toswim, says Werner. “You don’tthrow them in the deep end. Yousit with them on the side of thepool and talk about what they’regoing to do first. They get theopportunity to practice the skills ina scaffolded way,” she explains.“And the deep end for these chil-dren is their everyday environment— there’s no escape from socialinteraction.”

For more information or todonate to Take2 camp, visittake2camp.org orglobalgiving.com/projects/teach-ing-children-with-autism.

CAMPFrom Page 13

Bill Petros/The CurrentTake2 campers map solutions for situations inwhich a first plan doesn’t work.