EDCJCC- D25 volunteers 2025

The Edlovitch DCJCC (the Washington DC Jewish Community Center) held its annual D25 volunteer day to help those in need on Christmas.  I documented volunteers preparing food, serving meals, donating blood, organizing parties and giftingiving, and singing holiday  carols at  Central Union Mission,  DC Central Kitchen,  Christ House Loaves and Fishes, Sasha Bruce Network's Allen House, and at the JCC itself. 

This was my 31st year covering this citywide mission of charity, of tzedakah.

Thank you to Mira Smith of the EDCJCC volunteer/social action program,  to the hundreds of volunteers, to the staff members of these caring social service agencies, and especially to my dear partner Ruth Stromberg, who once again got up before dawn and provided the caption material needed for the press. 

Portraits of Destiny

Portraits of Destiny, made at a Christmas party thrown by volunteers at a youth center in Washington DC.

Fierce, and beautiful.

A Joyful Noise at the Bodzin Gallery | Pozez JCC

The premier exhibition of my photographs of klezmer musicians is now up at the Bodzin Gallery of the Pozez JCC in Fairfax VA. 

Thanks to curator Sarah Berry for her support and the effective installation of the work.

The exhibit will run from Dec. 15 2025 through January 26, 2026, with a klezmer concert by Mrs. Toretsky's Nightmare, a book-signing, and a reception on January 24, 2026.

Fourth night of Chanukah

 Kislev 29, 5786

Heather Heyer Memorial, Charlottesville VA

Street memorial to Heather Heyer, 4th Street at the corner of Water Street, Charlottesville, Virginia.

From Wikipedia: This memorial has been kept up in honor of Heaather Heyer, who was murdered by a car driven into a crowd by James Alex Fields Jr  during the  rightwing Neo-Nazi Unite the Right rally  in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017.. Thirty five other people who were protesting against racism were injured in this attack. 

Fields was convicted in a state court of the first-degree murder of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, eight counts of malicious wounding, and hit and run. He also pled guilty to 29 of 30 federal hate crime charges to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 419 years for the state charges, with an additional life sentence for the federal charges.

Heather Heyer was fatally injured in the attack… Her friends described her "as a passionate advocate for the disenfranchised who was often moved to tears by the world's injustices", and said that she "spoke out against inequality and urged co-workers to be active in their community".According to her mother, Susan Bro, Heyer would ask people of opposing views why they had come to their beliefs. Bro said that they both advocated for Black Lives Matter, which Bro said fights for equal treatment.

"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."- Heather Heyer's mother, Susan Bro.

See also this report by NBC News.

This memorial has been kept up by the community in her honor.  

Never Forget. Compassion, peace, and justice for all.