David B. Levy is a Professor Emeritus at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. He served as Program Director of Flow House, Wake Forest’s study abroad program in Vienna. He has written articles and reviews for several journals, including 19th Century Music, Beethoven Forum, Historical Performance, College Music Symposium, and NOTES. Levy is the author of Beethoven: The Ninth Symphony (Schirmer Books, 1995; Revised Ed., Yale U P, 2003). He gives pre-concert talks before each performance of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Cantor Emerita Jodi Sufrin and Cantor Roy Einhorn will sing and talk on the topic of the Jewish origins of many of the beloved songs of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and Hollywood!
Cantor Jodi Sufrin was raised in Toronto, Canada. Her home upbringing and early experiences as lay cantor at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto pointed her in the direction of the cantorate. For many years, Jodi sang with her older brother Kerry, specializing in the field of Israeli folk songs. She also pursued a career as a folk singer, serving as warm-up artist for Canadian songwriter and performer, Dan Hill.
Since her ordination in 1983, Cantor Jodi Sufrin served as cantor at Temple Beth Elohim until her retirement. She now services as Cantor Emerita. In the mid-1980s. Cantor Sufrin participated in a group of clergy and lay leaders that laid the foundation for the Rashi School.
Roy Einhorn was the cantor at Temple Israel in Boston for more than 35 years when he retired and became Cantor Emeritus. Cantor Einhorn graduated from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion School of Sacred Music in 1983In 1986 and 1987, following Temple Israel’s engagement with the Soviet Jewry Movement, Cantor Einhorn went on two missions to the USSR.
John Block, producer and Cantor Meredith Greenberg
John Block’s I WILL BUILD THIS WORLD FROM LOVE tells the story of several young women and men from the country of Georgia who aspire to practice their Judaism in all its fullness and without limitation. While their impending b’nai mitzvah ceremony raises the ire of Georgia’s dominant patriarchal orthodox Jewish community, they find acceptance from Georgia’s former Evangelical Baptist archbishop – demoted for his controversial stand against homophobia and Islamophobia. Undaunted, he builds a Peace Cathedral, housing a church, synagogue, and mosque under one roof, all in an effort to advance interfaith relations and global harmony.
Cantor Meredith Greenberg has been cantor at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, NJ. since July 2008. Cantor Greenberg has performed professionally as a soprano soloist in both Jewish and secular music genres and venues.
As a spiritual leader at Temple Ner Tamid she seeks Lehavot Eish: “to spark a fire within each of us by creating meaningful davening experiences through music and prayer, teaching us to open to contemplative practice, study and connection to one another”.
Gary Hahn is Director of Marketing and Communications at the National Comedy Center. He has helped develop and implement marketing, public relations, and communications plans.
Hahn is a seasoned entertainment and tourism marketing executive whose extensive experience includes senior positions with major media and destination brands, including Elvis Presley’s Graceland, XM Satellite Radio and Warner Brothers.
Speakers: Arty and Bett Salz, Edith Everett and Gail Siberstein. With an ice cream truck from 5:30-7:00 pm.
The Arty and Betty Salz came to Chautauqua by accident in June 1969.
“We had three very young children,” Arty Salz said. “We’d been ready to go to the Berkshires, where we’d been going, but the bungalow wasn’t going to be ready for us. We’d heard about Chautauqua from relatives.
Two years later, friends “shamed” them into buying a cottage on Ames Avenue that had come on the market.
At Chautauqua, Betty Salz made good use of her knowledge of Braille during the 1970s.
“Chautauqua Institution sent me the (season program calendar) in April, and I (transcribed) it by hand,” she said. “There was a very active club of transcribers. People who were blind came into the club and told us what their needs were.”
Together the Salz’s have written three books about Chautauqua: Chautauqua: The Streets Where You Live — A History of Street Names, Shalom Chautauqua: The Hebrew Congregation and the Jewish Presence and The Long Dry Road to 3 Taps: Chautauqua, Alcohol.
Edith Everett
Ongoing acts of loving kindness, inclusivity and hopefulness are intrinsic to Edith Brenner Everett’s very being. Savvy planning, follow-through and hands-on involvement have transformed her bold visions into reality beyond expectation.
The Everett Jewish Life Center — “the inclusive center of Jewish life in Chautauqua” — is one such example. The Center has been enhancing the quality of life and broadening the perspectives of Chautauquan’s of all faiths.
Gail Silberstein
Gail was born Buffalo NY and started CHQ at age six.
She went to public schools in Amherst NY and then spent 2 years at boarding school in South Wales UK-part of the United World College of the Atlantic-an international school with the mission of accomplishing peace through education.
Gail attended Brandeis University for a BA in Sociology, Boston University for Masters in Urban Affairs, and Boston College Law School for her law degree.
Kristan McMahon is a non-profit leader who uses her deep curiosity to find the questions not only to satisfy inquiries but to bring information to light for others. She always strives to make people think and question their assumptions.
More than 15 years as an attorney, she has with in-house and law firm experience, counseling domestic and international clients on a range of legal and strategic issues. With strong presentation and client management skills, she has proven ability to communicate complex concepts clearly and concisely, relate to clients’ needs, and ferret out information. She has helped make the world a better place by strengthening and guiding non-profit organizations and associations through their executive search process.
Rabbi Elyse Goldstein is founding Rabbi of City Shul in Toronto and before that was the Rabbinic Director of Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning where she served as its principal teacher for twenty years.
She broke the “stained glass ceiling” right after her ordination upon her arrival to Toronto in 1983, as the only female Rabbi in all of Canada. She was quickly recognized as a fiery speaker, skilled teacher and social justice advocate. After her first position as Assistant Rabbi at Canada’s largest synagogue of 5,000 families (Holy Blossom Temple) she founded Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning, an adult education institute recognized a leader in Jewish adult education, and was awarded the most prestigious prize in Jewish education, the internationally recognized Covenant Award for Exceptional Jewish Educators, as a result of that work, in 2005.
She was the first woman to be elected as president of the interdenominational Toronto Board of Rabbis and was one of seven women featured in the Canadian National Film Board documentary, “Half the Kingdom.” Her first book, ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens, won the Canadian National Jewish Book Awards in the field of Bible. Her second and third books,The Women’s Torah Commentary, and The Women’s Haftarah Commentary were the first Bible commentaries in history written by female Rabbis. Her fourth book, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future won finalist in The National Jewish Book Awards. She is a blogger for The Times of Israel and HuffPost.
Rabbi Goldstein acted in the theatre from 2017-2019 inThe Clergy Project, an award-winning show she wrote together with a priest and a minister, about being clergy in the 21st century. This touching and funny piece won them Best of The Fringe Theatre Festival in Toronto.
She graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1978, earning her master’s degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1981 before ordination in 1983, and receiving their Doctor of Divinity, honoris causis in 2008. In 2013 she was named one of America’s 50 Most Influential Rabbis by The Forward and in May 2017 she was awarded Doctor of Laws Honoris Causis from Ryerson University in recognition of her path-breaking work in Canada.
She was honored to be a Chautauqua 2PM Hall of Philosophy speaker in week 8 of the summer season last year and is a Jewish representative on Chautauqua’s new “Future of the Abrahamic Mission Council”.
Co-sponsored by Chautauqua’s Bird, Tree and Garden Club
Click here to watch a video of this lecture.
The African American Heritage House provides a forum for engaging issues of justice, peace, and faith, establishes a platform for building relationships and community, and serves as a refuge for spiritual, intellectual, and personal renewal.
Erroll B Davis Jr., 75, is a retired senior executive presently engaged with board, philanthropic, senior executive counseling and consulting work. He most recently served as superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools from July 2011 until his retirement in July 2014. Prior to Atlanta Public Schools, Mr. Davis served as Chancellor of the University System of Georgia from February 2006 to June 2011, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the board of Alliant Energy Corporation.
He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the 2014 100 Black Men of Atlanta Leadership Award and the 2014 Atlanta Partners for Education Partnership Champion of the Year Award given by the Metro Atlanta Chamber. He was also recognized as one of Georgia Trend magazine’s “100 Most Influential Georgians” in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011; the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “100 Most Influential Atlantans” in 2006 and 2007; one of the “75 Most Powerful Blacks in Corporate America” in 2005 by Black Enterprise magazine; one of the “Top 50 Blacks in Technology” at the Black Engineer of the Year 2005 Awards Conference; and received the Carnegie-Mellon Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 2004. Erroll also was named one of the “50 Most Powerful Black Executives in America” by Fortune magazine in 2002.
Authors of We Refuse to be Enemies: How Muslims and Jews Can Make Peace One Friendship at a Time.
Sabeeha Rehman came to the United States in 1971. When her sons were school age, she earned her masters in healthcare administration and began a career as a hospital administrator. In 2008 she cofounded the New York Metro chapter of the National Autism Association and was its president.
Walter Ruby is a veteran activist in Muslim-Jewish relations. Since 2008, when he became Muslim-Jewish program director at the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, he has organized hundreds of twinnings.
The Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua proudly supports a Holocaust and Social Justice Education program for high school students in the greater Chautauqua area.
The Congregation underwrites the cost of a trip to Washington, DC for students and teachers in the program. The program has grown yearly, both in the number of high schools participating and the number of students.
Visit the program website at chqsocialjustice.org.
Leigh-Anne Hendrick, Program Director, is a high school social studies teacher with 24 years of classroom experience. Mrs. Hendrick has worked as a consultant with the United States Department of Education’s Teacher to Teacher training program and has presented both nationally and internationally. She has received training at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C, and in 2005 was named one of fifteen Museum Teacher Fellows in the United States. She has been awarded the Toby Ticktin Back Award for Holocaust Education and RIT’s Distinguished Teacher recognition.
Most recently, Mrs. Hendrick has been working to expand Holocaust and human rights education in Chautauqua County, a mission she is passionate about. She is also a co-founding director of the Chautauqua Country Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies. In both programs she has been instrumental in developing teacher and student training programs to broaden and deepen understanding of the Holocaust, genocide, human rights and social justice. She strives to empower students and educators to take an active role in our shared humanity.