Monday, December 3, 2012
The JCC had to be evacuated for close to 90 minutes.
Police received a bomb threat for the Jewish Community Center and West Orange's Roosevelt Middle School on Monday morning. Both buildings had to be evacuated. At around 9:48 a.m., a call came in from an anonymous man, claiming to have planted a bomb in the school and the JCC, according to West Orange police Sgt. John Palardy. Police alerted officials in both buildings, who implemented their emergency protocol plans. Members, staff and approximately 240 children in the JCC preschool program were evacuated according to a plan. The children were escorted to the Jewish Community House, adjacent to the JCC, said a JCC staff member. The students were allowed to return around 11:15 a.m. after the building was searched by law enforcement …
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
A cache of World War II letters, now in the hands of a West Orange resident, inspired a recent interfaith event
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Paintings by Amy Charmatz delight the eye and inspire.
The wondrous paintings of self-taught artist Amy Goldsmith Charmatz are on exhibit in a 22-piece, one-woman show at the JCC MetroWest through Nov. 6. Charmatz's visual word poems — her hand lettered text is very much part of the story — have universal appeal. With a vibrant sense of color and design, her autobiographical works all have these elements in common: cats, cats and more cats in all colors, sizes, poses and personalities; some dogs, too; richly textured interiors — patterns abound on floor and walls — and a representation of Amy, sometimes younger, sometimes older, sometimes wry, sometimes philosophical, sometimes wistful, sometimes very funny and always direct and always herself. Being Amy is loving to make art; the paintings …
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Open House & Health Fair on Sunday will provide information on Wellness Institute.
Two giants in the community, JCC MetroWest and Saint Barnabas Medical Center, will celebrate a new partnership with an Open House & Health Fair on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will take place at the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC, at 760 Northfield Ave., West Orange. The JCC and Saint Barnabas are working together to provide a Wellness Institute, which will include rehabilitation and physical therapy, education, health navigation, and a variety of other health-related issues. In addition, the Children’s Wellness Institute will offer classes and programs of interest to parents and children. These classes are expected to address parenting issues throughout a child’s growth and development through age 18. Both programs will reside …
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Pastel takes top prize for Livingston-based artist in Gaelen art show.
Jeffrey Wolfson, a Livingston realtor and well-known area commercial and event photographer, was awarded Best in Show for his evocative, crepuscular pastel, “On the Way to Grandma’s House,” in the 12th annual Audrey and Norbert Gaelen Juried Art Show & Sale. Wolfson and his wife Valerie live in Verona and are members of the Caldwell photography club, but their artistic ties are also deep in Livingston. Wolfson, who holds a 1965 Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute, was a top New York City advertising agency art director before relocating to this area 19 years ago. He is a member of the Livingston Arts Council and credits art instructor Alex Piccirillo of the Senior Community Center on Hillside Avenue for reawakening his practice of …
Saturday, May 14, 2011
On Monday, Gloria Golden will share the history and portraits displayed at JCC exhibit.
At the time of America's 15th century rediscovery by Columbus, the Jews and Muslims of Spain and Portugal were being expelled from the Iberian Peninsula or being intimidated and tortured into converting to Catholicism under the Inquisition. Many Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal kept their faith, ultimately coming to the New World and practicing their religion and traditions here. Another group was the Sephardic conversos, forced converts to Catholicism, who often retained cultural traditions and rituals reflecting their Jewish past. The third group was the Crypto-Jews, converts who secretly practiced their Jewish faith. Over the course of time, conversos and Crypto-Jews came to the New World. Over many, many generations, they …
Thursday, April 14, 2011
What happens when Patch sends a non-Jewish, Atkins following, non-cook to a Passover cooking class?
When I opened the email asking if I wanted to take a Passover cooking class at the JCC, I was just opening up all the windows on the first floor after turning my kids’ frozen pizza into a burnt offering. My editor at Livingston Patch is wonderful, brilliant and apparently has a wicked sense of humor since I’ve written before that I am a culinary catastrophe. Make that a renowned culinary catastrophe. People do not come to my house for the food. But sure, I was willing, as long as 1) Patch was footing the bill 2) I could get childcare 3) the JCC had stomach pumps on site. Patch was kind enough to pay my tuition (at $15 a bargain!), my husband promised he’d be home on time, and although I couldn’t confirm that the JCC had a stomach pump…
Saturday, January 8, 2011
"Photographer/Provocateur" opens Sunday at the JCC.
Howard Heyman collected miniature men of combat as a child growing up in Livingston. A few years ago, he revisited his childhood hobby by going on eBay to search for the tiny figurines that he lost track of as a boy. He was thrilled to find the toy soldiers online that he once treasured. When he finished collecting this time around, he had spent nearly a thousand dollars. With his camera lens, Heyman now sees and photographically interprets qualities about the soldiers unimaginable to him in his youth. The hand-painted fighting men, made of metal or molded plastic, are from the Warriors of the World collection manufactured by the Marx Company. It includes gladiators, pirates, and soldiers from the Civil War and World War I. The Roman …
Carol Selman
10:33 am on Sunday, October 2, 2011
Amy & Arts Unbound are an extraordinary story. Please read about her and her work and go see either or both of her shows in the area. more ›