Programs for 55+
Programs for Educated Active Adults 55+
PSJC’s daytime weekday programs for well-educated, active adults 55+ are now open to members of the other Brownstone Brooklyn Jewish organizations. There is no charge for any program with the exception of admissions to museums, etc., unless otherwise indicated. Of course, contributions to defray our expenses are always welcome.
Registration: Please call (718-768-1453) or email the office as far in advance as you can to let us know you are coming. That’s a big help to the teachers. If you are not a PSJC member, please give the office your email address so we can contact you in case of a cancellation.
A note on bringing food to PSJC: Some of the programs are brown-bag lunches. You may bring food from outside so long as it is dairy or parve (e.g. vegetarian, eggs, tuna fish, etc. If you aren’t sure, please call the office and ask.) PSJC will provide beverages.
A note about parking: Alternate side parking ends at 1:00 pm on Tuesdays near PSJC. You should have a reasonable chance to find a spot on that day if you get there at least 10 minutes before 1:00 and plan to sit in your car until close to 1:00.
You can also contact Marlene Schwartz for more information.
WINTER-SPRING 2012 PROGRAMS
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Have you ever wondered what you might have learned about the world or the different skills you might have acquired if you had chosen a different career path? This series is an opportunity to explore some of those paths as various congregants share some of what they’ve learned from the work they’ve chosen to do.
BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MORGAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM – WITH REBA SNYDER
FRIDAY, JANUARY 27th at 9:45 AM at the Museum
We will be treated to a private a tour of the Thaw Conservation Center led by PSJC member Reba Snyder and a docent led tour of “Treasures of Islamic Manuscript Painting.” After that, participants are welcome to stay for the 12 PM docent tour of McKim, Mead and White building/ Highlights tour (open to the public). Participants are also welcome to visit the rest of the museum. Information about the conservation department is at http://www.themorgan.org/collections/collectionsThaw.asp and the main website for the Morgan is at http://www.themorgan.org/home.asp
You MUST register by contacting the PSJC office. Registration is required as this tour will be limited to 10 people and the museum must have the names of the participants in advance. Once you have registered, you will be sent email instructions about where to meet and how to get entrance to the museum.
Participants will not have to pay the regular museum entry fee of $15 for adults or $10 for seniors over 65. But donations to the PSJC Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund instead would be appreciated.
Reba Fishman Snyder has worked as a paper conservator for over 25 years. Her work involves the preservation and hands-on conservation treatment of old master prints and drawings, historic documents and other manuscript materials. She has been at the Morgan Library for 16 years and has also worked at the New-York Historical Society and MoMA. She received her graduate training at the Conservation Center of New York University where she is adjunct faculty and studied art history and chemistry as an undergraduate.
INTRODUCTION TO ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE: A WAY TO CONNECT BODY AND MIND THROUGH AWARENESS, VISUALIZATION AND TOUCH – WITH JANE DORLESTER
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1:00 to 3:00 at PSJC
In this workshop we will address such issues as what is distinctive of Alexander Technique? How is finding the delicate balance of the head on the spine having an effect on the rest of the body? What is the language of Alexander Technique, primary control, inhabitation, habitual response and directing? What sort of issues/conditions can this technique help us with? A talk and experiential workshop will answer these questions. No particular clothes or physical agility required. Brown-Bag (dairy/parve) Lunch and Learn.
Jane Rebecca Dorlester, LCSW has a body oriented psychotherapy practice in Brooklyn, NY, where she lives with her husband, son and dog. She is the Director of Brooklyn Bereavement, which provides groups, individual counseling and on site interventions in treatment of traumatic loss. She is a certified Alexander Technique Teacher and a trained psychotherapist in Reichian bio emotional therapy. She has lectured abroad and at universities & hospitals and has run a three-year training program on the emotional implications of touch.
TWO YEARS IN SOLOMON ISLANDS AS PEACE CORPS LEGAL ADVISOR TO THE GOVERNMENT – with SOPHIE WEBER
TUESDAYS, MARCH 13 and 20, 1:00 to 3:00 PM at PSJC
SOLOMON ISLANDS. Where is it? What are they – countries? Vacation spots? Ever part of Solomon’s Empire? Who lives there? Why did Sophie go there for two years as a mature adult and try to live like “one of them”? What did she learn that is important to us here and now? Sophie will discuss some of the clashes of cultures and legal systems that engrossed and agitated the people of the islands, and her role in dealing with local conflict. She will also describe her frustrating and often humorous experiences living in this very “foreign” place. Her talk will be illustrated with many pictures and artifacts. Brown-Bag (dairy/parve) Lunch and Learn.
Sophie Weber abandoned her long-standing passionate intention of becoming a professional dancer and went to Georgetown Law School in 1952, at the age of 20 where she was the only woman in her classes. (Although Georgetown had never had a policy barring the admission of women, many colleges and universities, including Harvard, had just begun to allow women to matriculate in their law schools.) After graduating in 1957, she practiced law in New York for several years and then “retired” to suburban New Jersey to be a soccer mom to three children. When her youngest was in kindergarten, she began a second career teaching American History, American Government, Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice at a newly opened community college. She later became a legal writer on subjects relating to government and what was then the new field of environmental law. From 1988 to 1990 she was in the Solomon Islands as Peace Corps Legal Advisor to the S.I. Government. On returning to the U.S. she resumed her career as a legal writer. Her experience in the Solomon Islands and what it can teach us today will be the subject of her talk.
TALES OF A WANDERING JEW WITH CAROL LEVY
TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1:00 – 3:00 PM at PSJC
Joel and Carol Levy left New York in 1971, heading for the Peace Corps in Korea. They didn’t move back until 2001. After leaving Seoul, Joel joined the Foreign Service and they lived in Romania, Tanzania, Malta, Washington and Berlin. Carol will share anecdotes and adventures from their years abroad and describe the varieties of Jewish experience they encountered, often in communities with no rabbi and few Jews. Brown-Bag (dairy/parve) Lunch and Learn.
Carol Levy is a sometime book and film reviewer and editor who closely follows the New York art scene. She has an MA in American Cultural Studies.
BOOK GROUP MEETINGS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, TUESDAY, MARCH 6, TUESDAY, APRIL 24, TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2012
All books in this series are available at BPL, the Community Bookstore on 7th Ave. (10% discount for PSJC 55+ book group members) and various other places. The Winter-Spring books are all available in paperback.
The PSJC 55+ Book Group is facilitated by Sara Sloan, a retired school librarian who loves to read. She also loves Brooklyn, literate conversation, cats, travel, physical fitness and oral history. After 30 plus years trying to get students and teachers to use libraries, she is delighted to facilitate a book discussion group consisting of folks who actually read for pleasure.
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1:00 – 3:00 PM at PSJC
Brown-Bag(dairy/parve) Lunch and Learn
In this 2010 Booker Award winner middle aged urban British men struggle with the same questions we all do—friendship, faith, politics and aging—with grace and humor.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 1:00 – 3:00 PM at PSJC
Brown-Bag(dairy/parve) Lunch and Learn
Leo, an 80 year old Holocaust survivor, Lee, a grieving adolescent, and an old manuscript intersect in surprising and unusual ways.
To The End of the Land by David Grossman
TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1:00 – 3:00 PM at PSJC
Brown-Bag(dairy/parve) Lunch and Learn
The incredible saga of Ora, an Israeli mom, who decides to walk the land of Israel without a phone so that “notifiers” can’t find her if her soldier son is killed. Ora meditates on life and love as she walks in this complex work.
PRACTICAL STUFF
From time to time we will offer classes of practical use to retirees.
MORE VACATION FOR FEWER $ WITH LEON GOLDSTEIN
TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1:00 -3:00 at PSJC
Travel? Vacation? If you smiled and envisioned yourself on a beach or climbing Kiliminjaro please come. Ideas on planning. Saving substantial money on air travel, car rentals and place to stay. Accumulating and actually using frequent flyer miles. We’d also appreciate hearing what has worked for you. Brown-Bag (dairy/parve) Lunch and Learn.
Leon Goldstein is an attorney who prefers planning trips and delights in beating a travel system geared to separating you from your shekels. He has planned numerous group, one and two family trips to national parks, U.S., European and third world destinations. In the past ten years the majority of his vacation flights used frequent flyer miles including three to Europe and last winter to Curacao.
JEWISH TEXT CLASSES
TUESDAYS, MAY 1, MAY 8 AND MAY 15, 2012 with DAVID ROSEN - details will be posted later in the semester.