President Andrea Battle called the meeting
of the Amherst Club to order at noon on Tuesday, August 11th, 2015, and
welcomed us all. Andrea noted that there will be a board meeting today immediately after lunch. Because this is August, when we meet only twice, there will be no meeting next week. The next meeting is on August 25th. We welcomed our high-school community service award winner, Gabriel Fontes, to lunch today along with his Amherst Boys Club sponsor. Gabriel thanked us for his $700 award, and spoke with impressive maturity about his wide-ranging social activities, including working for women’s rights and for schools in Africa. He is heading off to Brandeis University this fall, and thanks the Amherst Schools for his success. He is donating the $50 we gave him for charity to the Literacy Club, where his grandmother is a student. Announcements: Isaac Ben Ezra is back in rehab at Elaine Manor on North Maple Street in Hadley. He will welcome good wishes and visits. August Activity - What: Tour of the Amherst History Museum Where: Strong House, Amity Street (next to the Jones Library; limited parking is available). When: Friday, August 14 Time: 2:00 PM Our host will be Marianne Curling, curator of the museum. Here is a great opportunity to get re-acquainted with Amherst's past with a personal guide. Three Amherst Club members are associated with the museum. Jim Wald is president of the Board of Trustees, Gigi Barnhill is a member of the Board., and Arthur Kinney is President Emeritus. Please let me know if you would like to attend. Larry Siddall, For the Activities Committee Ruth Miller reminds us to bring out a lawn chair to an open space on Wed. 12th night to enjoy the amazing Perseid meteor shower. There will be up to 100 meteors per hour after midnight. Speaker: Philippe Galaski introduced our speaker, Zvi Jankelowitz, director of institutional advancement at the Yiddish Book Center. The title of his talk was Yiddish: Past, Present and Future; Tales from the Yiddish Book Center. Zvi is a native of South Africa, whose Yiddish-speaking family immigrated there from Lithuania. The Center now houses hundreds of thousands of books in Yiddish, as well as artifacts from the Yiddish culture and world. Because so many of the books were printed on cheap paper which is not holding up well, the Center is now working with the National Library of Israel to digitize all the 40-50 thousand individual Yiddish titles that remain. They distribute Yiddish books to other libraries, and to individuals who may purchase them. As well as their work preserving books, the Center presents exhibitions, concerts and plays, and offers Yiddish language classes for which college credit may be earned through UMass Continuing & Professional Education. The Center is open Sunday-Friday except on Jewish or state holidays. Raffle: Larry Siddall won the wine. Elsie Fetterman won the $10. Your scribe, Linda Honan |
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