Author: Archivist

Posted on

JCC Fitness Center Features Healthy Program Variety

By CELIA GANS

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day we indulge. By January 2nd, we bulge. And join a health club. That’s right, statistics confirm that the highest number of health and fitness club memberships are bought in January. Not just bought, but used. According to A.J. Lipstein, JCC Fitness Center Coordinator, “In January, 1993 the Center averaged over 1,400 member- visits per month.”

1,400 member visits? Isn’t that almost triple the projected number of visits-per-month projected for the newly refurbished center opened in November, 1992? What’s going on here? In case you haven’t noticed, the Fitness Center is thriving.

Its cardio-vascular and Vigor Sport strength-training equipment (retrofitted, with 6 new machined added since the fall of 1992) is state-of-the-art. Its six staff trainers and 11 independent personal trainers are all certified athletic trainers (or must become certified within 6 months of joint the Center) or physical therapists. The independent trainers not only bring in their own clients, but work one five-hour shift per week at the Center with any Center member. The trainers also bring expertise: Ron Johnson, trainer of the Wilmington Blue Rocks, gives baseball clinics in addition to his hours of floor time.

Classes, including regular, step and low-impact aerobics, country line dancing, and its special classes (“Stretch & Flex” Co-Ed Conditioning or “Abs with A.J.,” for example), are open to members on a first-come- first-serve basis. “We recognize that fitness center members couldn’t always make one or two specific classes every week,” says Lipstein, “and we changed our class enrollment policy. Now, for an additional $135 per year, a member can attend an unlimited number of classes with no pre-class sign-up.”

The Fitness Center has also added special programs on health, which include lectures and health screenings. September was National Cholesterol Month, and the Center featured lectures on nutrition, with the measurement of cholesterol levels. October was National Spinal Health Month, with a chiropractor conducting a workshop and screening. January, 1994 will feature Dr. Alan Tocker lecturing an eye care and conducting eye checks, including a screening for glaucoma. In February, National Heart Month, cardiologist Edward M. Goldenberg, M.D., will conduct a workshop and perform blood pressure screenings. Again, any member can sign up for one or all of these special events.

By April, admits Lipstein, “people return to outdoor activities,” and Center visits taper to 950 to 1,000 per month. As for Lipstein himself, he’s always in training. In addition to his Fitness Center work, he’s captain of the Wilmington Rugby Club, whose record was 14-2 during the past season. “We lost to Washington, D.C. in the finals of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament. That’s impressive for a city the size of Wilmington.” And, says A.J., if you’re interested in trying out for next season — it begins in February. Better check your fitness level first, however: remember that January sign-up statistic?

SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATION PROGRAMS

The Jewish Community Center does more than meet fitness and recreational needs of its members, according to Eileen Wallach, Program Director, it also reaches out to non-members with special needs. Five to 10 special needs youngsters 14 and over and adults use the Fitness Center; the JCC Summer Camp’s Tikun unit mainstream its special needs youngsters with other campers whenever possible. In cooperation with the Wheelchair Tennis Program of Delaware, 20 young people and adults from Delaware and Pennsylvania participate in spring-summer- fall tennis program, including instruction, drills and tournaments, on the JCC’s courts.

From March through June, 20-30 adults use the JCC’s pool for Special Olympics events and practice. The JCC provides Multiple Sclerosis Society adult members 50 to 90 hours per week of free pool time.

For the first time, the February 6, 1994 Snow Ball Run will be “open to athletes with disabilities in any division, including the wheelchair division,” says Wallach. This is sanctioned, she notes, and will meet all requirements for course layout, safety, and staffing. Run sponsors to date include MBNA, the Cactus Bar & Grill, Katler & Katler (Howard and Steven Katler, podiatrists, and Deane Katler are all JCC members), Rehabilitation Consultants, Double S Companies (construction), Patterson-Schwartz Realtors, Grotto Pizza, and Entenmanns’. The dollars raised by the event will be used to re-do special needs locker rooms at the JCC with a handicapped-accessible ramp, and install a wheelchair lift (or ramp) to the JCC’s lower level.

AQUATICS PROGRAM

In the fall of 1992, it was the JCC’s Fitness Center which benefit from new equipment, new staff, and a new outlook. Now, says JCC Program Director Eileen Wallach, it’s time to focus on the Aquatics Program. Under the direction of Melody Medley, a competitive swimmer, teacher and coach for almost 20 years, and head of the 1993 JCC Summer Camp’s Aquatics Program, the program is developing new ways to bring more people, more funds and innovative ideas into the JCC’s pool.

Medley has taught individual and group swimming lessons since 1974, and has served as an assistant coach for a national Junior Olympic swim team and four future Olympic swimmers. She is the inventor of the Swim Gem, a patented PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipe “pool island,” which creates a safe, shallow, in-pool platform on which beginning swimmers can practice – or play.

In 1990, Medley conceived, wrote and produced two nationally distributed swim videos: “Swim, Play and Learn: A Parent’s Guide to Teaching Swimming Skills” and “Teach Yourself How to Swim: A step-by-step Video Guide for Adults.” In working with swimming instructors and coaches, Medley insists that “teaching swimming lessons should be as much fun for the teachers as it is for the students.”

“We’re looking ahead,” says Wallace, “with the American Red Cross phasing out its Water Safety and Lifesaving Programs, we want to be ready to fill the gap. We want to be leaders in developing successful aquatics programs for swimmers, for instructors, and for water safety and lifesaving certification programs.”

Posted on

Jewish American Graphic Artist Designs Israel -U.S. Hanukkah Postage Stamp

The Israel Postal Authority and the United States Postal Service have jointly released separate postage stamps honoring the Jewish Festival of Lights – Hanukkah. The design to be used by both countries shows a symbolic menorah with nine brightly burning candles.

The Hanukkah postage stamp design was created by Hannah Smotrich, a bright and talented 31 year-old graphic artist who before going off to college, grew up and attended schools in Westchester. NY. Growing up, Hannah was raised with a strong Jewish identity.

Smotrich graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University in 1987 with a bachelor of arts degree in History, having written a thesis titled “Deserted: Jewish Immigrant Women and the National Desertion Bureau.”

After graduating from Harvard, Smotrich decided to spend a year in Israel from 1987-1988 with the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS). The first half of the WUJS program was spent in the southern Israeli town of Arad where she and other members of the program took Hebrew languages lessons at an ulpan. The second half of the year, the participants were encouraged to work in the field of their professional interest.

Although she majored in history at Harvard, Smotrich’s involvement in the arts – primarily photography and graphic design – was continuous from high school through college. In Israel, Hannah finished the year with the WUJS by working as a graphic artist for the firm of Superstudio in the capital city of Jerusalem.

In 1989, she enrolled at the Yale School of Art, earning a master of fine arts degree in 1991. In her last semester, she began her teaching career as a teaching assistant in a course titled “Word & Image: Intermediate Graphic Design.” The class dealt with word-image concepts as well as basic typographic and formal principles. Since 1994, Smotrich has been on the faculty of the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC as adjunct professor in graphic design.

Hannah’s master’s thesis at Yale, again demonstrated her strong interest in Judaism. Her thesis was titled “Opening the Text: A Multi-Voiced Reconsideration of the Passover Haggadah.”

Upon graduating from Yale, Smotrich worked for two years. 1991-1993 at Carbone Smolan Associates in New York City. In 1993, Smotrich relocated to Washington, DC where she had the opportunity to open her own studio and work for herself.

For the last three years, Hannah Smotrich Graphic Design & Consulting has served a growing list of corporate and non-profit, educational and cultural clients. When asked to describe her professional philosophy, Smotrich declares, “What I enjoy most about graphic design is the mix of intellectual problem solving and artistic expression.”

“It is the challenge of integrating these two aspects of design which make my work enjoyable. As a designer, I do not consider myself to be a fine artist and my work tends to reflect the character of my client and not myself.”

She was first approached about a year and a half ago by the United States Postal Service with a commission to submit a design for a Hanukkah stamp. They paid her a standard fee to prepare a design and gave her three to four months in which to complete her design concept.

The holiday of Hanukkah lasts eight days. Hannah’s stamp designs show eight Hanukkah candles and the Shamash or servant candle burning. Beginning on the first day of the festival, which begins in the evening after sunset, one candle is lit by the shamash candle.

On each subsequent night, an additional candle is lit, until on the eight and last day, all the candles are burning brightly as shown on the Israeli and US stamps designed by Smotrich.

The holiday commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the victory of a small band of Jewish patriots against the larger numbers of Greek Syrian soldiers, who not only controlled the Holy Land, but also were committed to stamping out Jewish religious practices.

It was some 2,160 years ago, in the year 164 Before the Common Era that the Jewish revolt against Antiochus Epinhenes, the Greek Syrian leader, broke out in the little village of Modin. The climax occurred with the liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem from pagan hands.

When the Hasmoneans began the difficult process of purifying the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, they found only one jar of pure olive oil that had not been tampered with by the Greeks. This oil was need to light the special Menorah in the Temple.

It would take eight days before a new supply of the holy olive oil could be created. The jar contained only enough oil for just a single day. However, after the Menorah was lit, the oil was not used up in one day as was expected. Instead, the oil burned for eight continuous days until a new supply of consecrated olive oil was delivered to the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem.

Those interested in the Israeli Hanukkah stamp and other philatelic gift ideas combining both the Israel and USA Joint Hanukkah stamps can contact a stamp agent or the Israel Philatelic Agency, 535 Fifth Avenue, Suite 300, New York, NY 10017, Telephone (800) 607-2799.

Posted on

From Al’s To Zutz – PRESERVING DELAWARE’S JEWISH BUSINESS HERITAGE

Twenty years ago, the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware celebrated the opening of “From Al’s to Zutz,” an exhibit at the Delaware History Museum recognizing the memorable role of Jewish merchants and businesses in Delaware.  We will be recalling those memories with photographs and other memorabilia on our website and on our Facebook page, facebook.com/JHSDel.

Join in and share your memories and photos.

From Al’s To Zutz –
PRESERVING DELAWARE’S JEWISH BUSINESS HERITAGE

By LYNN EDELMAN
Editor

Take a stroll down memory lane to a time when Wilmingtonians schlepped their children to Wilmington Dry Goods for back to school supplies, haggled over the price of groceries at Sam’s Market and noshed with friends at Blatman’s Kosher Sanitary Bakery. Now through November 6th, you can celebrate Delaware’s rich Jewish business tradition through a unique exhibit at the Delaware History Museum in downtown Wilmington.

“From Al’s to Zutz” is a proud partnership of the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware and the Historical Society of Delaware. This treasure trove of photos, signs, newspaper advertisements, menus and other memorabilia took nearly five years to put together. Judging from the tremendous turnout at opening night festivities, it was well worth the wait.

“More than 400 people packed the gallery space so tightly that you could barely move,” said Marvin Balick, President of the Jewish Historical Society. Balick, a Brooklyn, New York native who was ‘raised here from the time I was a little boy,” said that the exhibit sparked fond memories of the time spent with his father and six brothers. “In preparation for the exhibit, we collected old Yellow Pages listings from the Wilmington telephone directory,” said Balick, who waxed nostalgic over an ad for Turkish and Steam baths operated by Leib Katz. “I can remember packing a lunch and spending the entire day at the schvitz,” he recalled.

Memories like these mark our very existence,” Dr. Barbara Benson, Director of the Historical Society of Delaware, who finds some parallels between the way that Jewish and Quaker settlers did business in Delaware. “Both peoples established small companies here rather than the large factories that were founded by other ethnic groups,” Benson explained. Many of these businesses began with merchandise peddled from carts directly to customers then eventually expanded to become storefronts.

Benson said that jobs at Wilmington institutions like “The Dry Goods” provided more than just an income to the emigres who served as employees. “For many, it was their first experience with the American culture,” she stated, adding that “a number of newcomers learned the English language while they assisted customers.”

Unlike larger East Coast cities Delaware Jewish merchants have always marketed their goods to the broader community. Also, because of its small size, Delaware’s Jewish community never established a “ghetto”, Benson maintained, explaining that “the addresses of these companies marked an economic entry point-many began in lower Wilmington and migrated to the suburban areas along with their customers.”

Although extensive, the exhibit “just scratches the surface of Jewish business in Delaware,” said Julian Preisler JHS Executive Director. Preisler emphasizes that the collection is not “a definitive history of Jewish business in Delaware but rather “a work in progress.” He plans to continue to expand the Jewish archives – which are housed rent-free in the basement of the Delaware Historical Society – and to develop a comprehensive data-base so that people who do not have physical remnants of their connections to Delaware’s Jewish business tradition can document their memories.”

Throughout the run of the exhibit, community members will have an opportunity to share their stories and compile an oral history of Jewish businesses in Wilmington, Newark, Dover and other communities throughout the State.

Why? “These stories are gone, and many of their former customers are gone as well,” said Benson, emphasizing that “We must preserve our past to pass on the future generations.”

“From Al’s to Zutz” is funded through grants from the Delaware Humanities Forum and the Jewish Fund for the Future, the endowment arm of the Jewish Federation of Delaware and through the generosity of numerous community businesses and individuals.

Admission is $4, but is free to members of the Jewish Historical Society. For additional information about the exhibit or to become a member, please call Julian Preisler at 655-6232.

Posted on

Monument Dedication

Gordon Morris Goldstein

Please Join Us For
The Dedication of a Monument
honoring the memory of the
Jewish Members of the
Armed Forces of the United States of America
who gave their lives preserving our freedom and democracy
Sunday, November 10, 2019
promptly at 12:00 Noon
Beth Emeth Memorial Park
1220 Faulkland Road
Wilmington, Delaware 19805
Refreshments will be served following the dedication.