Congregant's Gallery

Much as the chapel and sanctuary provide Temple’s sacred space, the Congregant Gallery is truly Temple’s living room. Beginning in November, 2009, for a month at a time, we have displayed a rotating collection of our congregant’s art. Their work is not for sale but purely for enjoyment – and connection, one member to another. If you have not had a chance to meet past member artists, it’s not too late.

Read their biographies here. The next time you are at Temple, we hope you will stop in (first door on the right, a.k.a. “Meeting Room A”). If you have some of your own artwork to share, please consider bringing a bit of your living room into ours. Contact Erin at [email protected].

The Temple Art Tour App

The Beautification Committee is proud to announce the completion of the Temple Art Tour App. Congregants and visitors can now download the Temple Art tour and delve into the rich and vast art collection that enhances our walls, display cases and building architecture. All you need is a smart phone and your favorite headphones.

Exhibition Dates and Artists

Dates	Artists	Click for Bios
November, 2014	Kim Phillips
August, 2013	Judit Pap (photo)
May, June, July 2013	The Jewish Lens Project
February, 2013	Shelia Jacobs
January, 2013	Martha Nemer
December, 2012	Temple Preschool
November, 2012	Temple Preschool
October, 2012	Jerry Klein
September, 2012	Doris Wasserman
July and August 2012	Pat Halper
June, 2012	Ceci Sachs (print & mixed media)
May, 2012	William W. Rosen (photography)
March, 2012	Mark Goldfarb & Susan Hahn (photo)
February, 2012	Linda Schlanger (abstract painting)
January, 2012	Temple Preschool
December, 2011	Michael Richardson
November, 2011	Robert Lenter (photography)
October, 2011	Laurie Handshu (painting)
September, 2011	Phyllis Alper (painting)
August, 2011	Judit Pap (photo)
July, 2011	Michael Osheroff (pen and ink)
June, 2011	Michael Osheroff
May, 2011	Phyllis Frank
March, 2011	Karen Gold
February, 2011	Anna Cone
December, 2010	Bertha Moise
November, 2010	Susannah Mayhan
October, 2010	Anita Taradash
September, 2010	Hedy Lustig
August, 2010	Dru Markle-Bloom
July, 2010	Pat Halper
June,  2010	Doris Wasserman
May,  2010	Mimsye May
March, 2010	Marion Katz
February, 2010	Olivia Newman
January, 2010	Jerry Klein
December, 2009	Pamela  Harrison
November, 2009	Leonard Greenfield

Biographies of Our Artists

Kim Phillips

Kim Phillips is a Judaica artist in the Nashville area, working in the medium of Jewish papercut art. Following a 30-year career in sales and marketing, she decided to pursue her art after converting to Judaism and visiting Israel. She was certified in pararabbinics at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 2005 and is a Hebrew teacher, art instructor, and speaker.

Artist Statement

I was always an artist…pen-and-ink drawings, charcoal portraits, pencil sketches; the world was black-and-white to me. After converting to Judaism in 2001, I studied at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and at Pardes in Israel. It was in Jerusalem that I found my passion for Jewish papercutting. Along with images of the ancient city, my work is inspired by the sacred texts of Judaism: Torah, Talmud, psalms, midrash, and Kabbalah. The first time I saw a page of Hebrew text, I was captivated by the letterforms and their religious, poetic and mystical interpretations. Whenever I illustrate a bit of Jewish text, it becomes a sort of meditation, and I just disappear into it.

Religious expression can take many forms. Some people are really good at prayer, or visiting the sick, or arranging flowers for the bimah. Doing art draws something from deep inside and makes me feel connected to the texts and traditions of Judaism in a very personal, tactile and creative way. Nothing makes me happier than honoring my teachers by passing on Jewish wisdom with art.

The Jewish Lens Project

9th Grade Curriculum 2012/2013

Teachers: Sarah Shapiro and Polly Shepard
Specialist: Ceci Sachs

Students: Morgan Ausbrooks, Michael Becker, Ashley Birnbaum, David
Cone, Ian Davis, Hannah Diskin, Jordan Fishel, Noah Geltzer, Margo Ghertner, Sarah Goldstein, Ian Jacobs, Riley Raff, Sydney Robbins, Jacob Snyder, Sydney Weinger.

The Jewish Lens program is a curriculum designed to engage students actively in learning about the values that are important in their Jewish community. It uses the arts as a means to help young people connect intellectually and emotionally with their traditions. Along the way, students develop skills in visual literacy, text study, and photography. By the end of this experience, our hope is, they gain competence and a sense of accomplishment in creating and displaying their own work.

Students selected and studied specific texts and then went out to both the general community and our own Temple community to photograph images of what represented the text for them. Below each photo you will find the text and their explanation of how the text and the photo connect.

We are grateful to the Jewish Federation and Jewish Foundation for helping to fund this program and opportunity.

Doris Wasserman

Where we go in life, we take our talents and gifts with us and in the right environment,
they grow and flourish. I found my ‘right environment’ here with this congregation.
Here, serendipity abounds.

Many years ago, Rabbi Fuchs asked me if I’d be interested in updating the children’s
service prayerbook. I think he expected some black line drawings, but I gave him a
full color prayer book. When Rabbi Flash moved to Seattle, I was honored that the
congregation gave her a series of the original paintings from that book as a farewell gift.
In 2004, I joined Cantor Gutcheon’s Adult B’nai Mitzvah class and became a bat mitzvah.
‘You Shall be a Blessing’ is a painting inspired by the song Cantor G sings at every bar
or bat mitzvah service including mine, my son’s (Micah) and my daughter’s (Mira). It’s
hanging on the wall near the coffee pot. It’s also the painting that I exhibited in the first
Temple Arts Festival.

A few years ago, Pat Halper invited me to join a group of Temple members for a Sunday
afternoon playdate at a local studio called Art & Soul. I’ve been a member ever since.
The above photos of me painting were taken there. Through Art & Soul, I have made
treasured friends and many of the paintings in this room.
When my son Micah was three years old I attended my first Purim Carnival. That was
eighteen years ago! This year, my daughter Mira was a member of the Confirmation
class that sponsors the carnival –– under the close supervision of our amazing Religious
School Director Lynda Gutcheon. The parents help in whatever ways they can. One
of my contributions was designing some of the promotional material for the Best. Purim.
Carnival. Ever!

My connection with this congregation has enriched my life in these and countless other
ways. My children’s Jewish education began at Temple Playschool and is grounded
in prayers and lessons learned at our Religious School and Friday night services. My
favorite line from our family service prayer book compares Shabbat to a warm, soft
blanket that enfolds us. That’s how it feels to me too. When I near the amber blinking
light on Harding Road, park my car and walk through our front doors, it feels like
coming home.

Pat Halper

Beginning when I was 9 years old, every Saturday for two summers, my mom sent me to the Toledo Art Museum where I took art and music appreciation classes. I remember absolutely nothing about the art classes. In the lavish symphony hall, I heard wind, reed and brass instruments but felt pretty disconnected there too. Motown had already claimed my musical ear. What I do remember, and still feel completely connected to, is the time I spent wondering through the massive rooms of paintings and sculptures and how I dreamed that maybe someday I could be an artist.

Years later, after some slightly more successful attempts at art lessons, my son Neal asked me if we could go to a place called Art & Soul. He was taking African drumming and the teacher said students could sit in with his drum circle when they played there on Saturday night. I’d heard about Art & Soul years before and was always curious about it. As we left the studio that Saturday night, I picked up a brochure and signed up for the next available class. That was 2003.

Art making, through play, experimentation and exploration, have been at the core of my personal and spiritual journey in the decade since. The inspiration for what I do comes from a variety of sources: my experience of nature, my desire to say something significant about social issues, and my connection to Judaism and how we can create a more caring and compassionate world. It is my experience that we are One, with many beautiful and different facets to be honored and celebrated, and I continue to search for ways to express that through art. And sometimes inspiration comes from just following the wobble and going where it takes me.

Our family -- my husband Wayne and our sons Neal and Josh -- have been members of The Temple for a little over 20 years. I’ve been privileged to serve as Social Action chair, second grade Religious School teacher, and on The Temple Board of Trustees during that time. Josh and Neal were consecrated, become bar mitzvahs, and confirmed here. This community has played a very large part in our lives and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to share this part of myself with you too.

William W. Rosen

William W. Rosen is an attorney and photographer. Originally from New Orleans, Bill Rosen and his wife, Eddy, moved to Franklin, TN following the loss of their home to the “Great Corps of Engineers Flood of 2005” that followed Hurricane Katrina. Shortly after moving to the area, they became Temple members.

Rosen has photographed a wide range of subjects and animals in a variety of places on all seven continents of the world, including the Arctic, Antarctic, the Galapagos Islands and Polar Bears at Canada’s Hudson Bay in winter. He has exhibited in individual shows, been represented by galleries and studied at the Santa Fe School of Photography.

In 1988, Rosen was selected by the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center for inclusion in their juried publication Louisiana Photographers. In 2004, he was invited by the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES) to be the first photographer to photograph the world’s first natural litter of African Wild Cats born of two cloned parents.

After moving to the Nashville area, Bill designed and provided life-size images for a major installation at the Parthenon museum entitled “IMMERSION: A Katrina Room,” exhibited from August 27, 2008 to January 17, 2009. Rosen’s Katrina photographs also appeared in “Katrina to Deepwater Horizon” at the Upstairs Artspace in Tryon, North Carolina. In November 2009, he was an invited artist in the Salon D’Automne exhibit at the Silverman Studios in New Orleans. The April, 2012 issue of Nashville Arts published Rosen’s photojournalistic essay “Never Again – Inside Auschwitz Today.” For the last three years, Bill has been the photographer for the Miss Rodeo Tennessee Pageant and was a credentialed photographer at the Las Vegas Miss Rodeo America Pageant in 2010.

Rosen’s images have appeared in various publications and web sites including the Zegrahm Expeditions travel book “Rain Forests & Reefs Panama Canal”. His images were included in the Franklin Rodeo program since 2009, and in the 2010 Miss Rodeo America Pageant program. He developed and presented a lecture for the Nashville Maryland Farms YMCA entitled “Photographing What You See; Seeing What You Photograph.”

For over 35 years, Rosen was a trial lawyer and has tried cases at every level of state and federal court including the United States Supreme Court. He is listed in Who’s Who In America, in Who’s Who In America Law, and was included in the first edition of The Best Lawyers in America. On most Fridays, you can find him playing harmonica with a group sponsored by the Metro Arts Center.
For information or sales contact Bill at:

IMAGES by William W. Rosen
www.imageswwr.com
[email protected]
615-646-8192

Susan Hahn and Mark Goldfarb

Susan Hahn and Mark Goldfarb have each had a lifelong love affair with photography. When they met, they shared their love of photography, adventure, and the outdoors. Many of the photos in this exhibit were taken on some of their trips together over the last few years.

The couple were married at the Temple almost two and a half years ago. Susan has been a member since then, while Mark has been an active member since he moved to Nashville twenty-five years ago, and has served on the Board of Trustees for the past three years. Mark’s two children, Brittney, (23) and Eliot, (19) each had their Bat/Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation here. Susan has three children of her own, Maya, (22), Jake, (22), and Josh, (24), all of whom live in different cities, (Chicago, Boston, and Vancouver, respectively). Mark is a Cardiologist at St. Thomas, and is the Temple’s Caring Connection Hospital Hesed liaison at the hospital. Susan works in development for a Chicago-based film company, and is also a writer and screenwriter.

Susan studied photography in college, and worked in Chicago as a professional photographer before the digital era specializing in children’s portraits and special events like weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. She also occasionally taught photography, and had a small portrait studio in her home. Mark spent many years taking photos and videos of his children and his many vacations. He particularly loves sports photography, and has been known to create exceptional videos of his ski trips and Bar Mitzvah montages for friends and family. Mark's photography tends to incorporate expansive landscapes and reflections in water, while Susan favors more intimate subjects like flowers or birds, and she's got an eye for abstract forms and capturing the unexpected in nature. They both love sunsets. By nature, Mark tends to be more competitive and loves to win. Susan, on the other hand is more of the artist. Susan hopes you enjoy the exhibit, and that you find beauty and inspiration from the images. Mark just wants to know whose photos you like better.

Linda Schlanger

Linda Schlanger has always been drawn to abstract art. While a por¬trait, land-scape, or bowl of fruit on canvas won’t catch her eye, a painting of half a wom-an’s face certainly will. It was a memorable day during her teenage years when her next-door neighbor in Charleston, South Carolina brought home such a painting from a trip to Spain -- Linda’s interest in abstract art was confirmed!
Linda does not come from an artistic family (though her grandmother was very creative), nor did she have art training as a child. While pursuing her education degree at University of Georgia, she often walked through the art students’ stu-dio just to admire their work. She never imagined that she would produce her own. As a teacher, she enjoyed creating bulletin boards and art projects, the first step towards becoming an artist.
At age 38 and a mother of two, Linda took her first art class at the College of Charleston. Her professor, an abstract painter, had the class paint on unframed canvases stapled to the walls, allowing unlimited boundaries. Linda continued with classes in Charleston and then in Nash¬ville at Watkins Institute and Bel-mont University. Eventually, she stopped her coursework and began painting exclusively in her home studio.
Looking around the room, you’ll see the variety and evolution of Linda’s art, from paintings with definite shapes to ones that create shapes to the very ab-stract that can only be achieved by “moving paint around on the canvas”. Look to see too how she’s transitioned from working with a brush to the blending and moving of color with a cloth.
Linda and her husband, Nashville-native Melvin, have been married for 43 years and Temple members since 2004. They have two grown children, Brian and Stephanie.

Our Temple Preschool Students

Developmentally Appropriate Art in the Preschool
By Corye Nelson and Jan Huettner

The Temple Preschool has been invited to be the featured artists for the month of January. This will be the first time that our Temple congregation has had the opportunity to view our youngest population’s artistic explorations and creative “masterpieces.” When viewing younger children’s art, it is appropriate to realize that creative thinking and expression is preferred over “staying in the lines.”

Today, with the success of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, there is a growing interest in integrating art and learning, using a variety of media. In preschools of Reggio Emilia, a town in northern Italy, children spend a portion of their day immersing ideas from their own experiences into different forms of art media. The arts are integrated into the school program to reinforce concepts, and their art products are considered to represent aspects of their learning. One of the more creative aspects to come from the Reggio Emilia approach is to document the child’s own words along with the artwork. This can reinforce the image or the ideas that the child had while completing the process.

When given the assignment of creating a piece of art to display for The Temple, no parameters or directions were given to the classrooms. There might be a group collage, or tiny handprints, or maybe a work in finger paint or oil displayed on canvas. Whatever might appear, our hope is that it will be independent, creative, and an example of expression from our artists. While viewing the displays, keep in mind that we intentionally move away from art that is solely created to be “cute” and “cookie cutter” friendly to adults, to art experiences that develop and foster our children’s individual personality.

Our children hope that you enjoy their work.

Michael Richardson

A Temple member since 2003, Michael is honored to be included in the Congregant Gallery. He grew up in a small town in northern New York, and purchased his first “real” camera (a used, 35 mm, Pentax Spotmatic II) as a middle school teenager. He recalls early mentoring by a Glens Falls Post Star staff photographer, and taking images of high school sports, his dog, & local scenery, which his father helped him develop in their dark room at home. Thirty-five years later, photography remains a favorite hobby. During travels, his family has long since forgiven and grown accustomed to his lagging behind with his camera.

Michael attempts to present subjects in a way that evokes emotion, invites curiosity, and activates imagination. He seeks to enhance the viewer’s experience through purposeful framing, with occasional application of abstraction techniques to blur reality. Michael seeks to capture striking contrasts, a humorous angle, or images that prompt viewers to work a bit for understanding. He is attracted to the patterns and complexity embedded in his subjects, the stark beauty of natural wonders, and color. He especially gravitates to moments that capture the best of humanity, tender human connections, and emotions that speak to us all. Examples include young and old at play, romantic couples, and people gathered in community.

Water is a favorite subject, owing to its ubiquity, myriad forms, and qualities that make its attraction universal – movement, sound, reflection, colors, life sustainment, recreation, and sheer beauty. Water is present in many of Michael’s images (fountains, harbors, canals, clouds, lakes, snow, and sea), or its ancient presence can often be inferred (canyons, rock formations).

Michael met his wife, Nancy, of 26 years during Orientation Week at Cornell University in 1981. Together with their three children, Audrey, Mackenzie, & Neal, they moved to Nashville in 2002, where Michael is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University. At Temple, Michael’s three children were confirmed, Neal celebrated his bar mitzvah, and personally, Michael converted to Judaism, spoke during the 2006 Congregant Hour, and visits congregants during hospital stays at Vanderbilt on behalf of Temple’s Caring Connection.

Robert Alan Lenter

Born: Newark, New Jersey, November 14, 1951
Military Service: Sgt. Aero-Medical Technician, U.S. Air Force Res. 1969-1976
Education: Loyola University, New Orleans 1986, BLS
Southern Law Center, Baton Rouge, 1989, JD.
Professional Licensing: Louisiana Bar Association: 1970; Tennessee Supreme Court: 2007
Louisiana Press-Photographer: 1999 and, Louisiana Mediation Attorney: 2004
Personal: Married: Fran Trestman 1977; New Orleans
Father to: Lauren Lenter Shapiro & Jordan Benjamin Lenter
Grandfather to: “Twin Rug Rats”, Hayden Ross & Isabelle Faith Shapiro

I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH SO MANY THINGS IN MY LIFE…
A Wonderful Wife who has opened my eyes to so many things outside of Newark;
A Daughter that has been my Princess since the day she was born;
A Son to share so many of my own interests with me, and to allow me to share his own;
A Son-in-Law who has given our family the Rug Rats and so much more, and finally,
Those two Grandchildren that call me GaGa . . .
But as in all of life’s situations, both good and bad, we must live life to its fullest just as the Talmud teaches us. Hurricane Katrina occurred on August 29th, 2005 at 9:45am, when the 17th Street Canal Levee broke six blocks from our home. This disaster, both natural and man-made, affected both the lives of the New Orleans people, as well as my entire family. New Orleans will always be in my heart and soul.

A Message From The Photographer
My photography is a portrait of human life experiences blended with G-d’s exhibition of natural beauty. As you explore my images, it is my hope that they will stir your emotions as they have mine.

I would like to thank the people of “THE TEMPLE” for welcoming my entire family after Katrina, and making it our new spiritual and religious home.
ROBERT

Laurie Handshu

I was born in Brooklyn & grew up in the farthest east Tennessee town of Greeneville. That pretty much says it all. I have a big city pulse with a small town metabolism.

Since I was a Brooklyn transplant who found herself in the south, I was never sure if the Yankee or the Jew in me set me aside from my friends. I do know that I was the only white girl with naturally curly hair in all of Greene County, which happens to be the biggest county in the state of Tennessee.

I was raised as an Epicurean Jew. We celebrated the holidays as they involved food.
I knew a knish, noodle pudding and Celray soda, while my Skipper doll friends knew biscuits, tuna casserole and  Pepsi. Seder plate, got it. Iron skillet, not a clue.

In 2001 I moved to Nashville to work with the Nashville Public Library. If I said 
that I read about Temple hosting Taste of  Judaism classes while sitting at Noshville,
that would be pretty close to the truth. It was time to find out more about Jewish life. The more I listened to Rabbi Rami, the more clear it became that there were religious and cultural reasons that explained the way I saw and related to the world. I just never knew the reason was my Jewishness.

Taste of classes brought me to Temple, book club brought me into Temple life
(much to the chagrin of Cantor Gutcheon who suffered through Hebrew class with me). I have been a “Friend of Temple” for several years and have enjoyed the simple joys of friendship, fellowship (can I say that, it sounds a little Presbyterian?).  I try to get my adult son, Eli, to Temple every time he visits from New Orleans…but I think he is still in the Epicurean phase of his Jewish life.

Since coming to Nashville I have been lucky to be involved with several public art projects: Holiday bollards (on Broadway), Frist Center of the Visual Arts, Cold Nosegay (2004) & Bonbons (2005) & Nashville’s Guitar Art (Gibson GuitarTown 2005, Designed Willie Nelson showcase guitar Bandana) & Southern Festival of Books 2005 (Official festival artwork, posters, bags, etc.) & Tomato Art Festival 2008 (The Amazing Tomato Sandwich).

In the past year I have been painting autobiographical story works, verbal maps of my growing up.  Hope you can find a little something in my works to make you smile or at least leave saying, They were so bad, they were good!
Enjoy.

Phyllis Alper

Two years ago, Phyllis Alper “didn’t know paint from a brush”.  A year before that, she started playing piano. She also dances, gardens (she grows beautiful orchids!), plays tennis four times a week, swims, and gathers with friends for a weekly breakfast. 
At 83 years of age, who approaches life with such gusto? Someone who lives daily by the words of her dearly beloved husband, Ben, who said, “As you get older, always do something that you’ve never done before.” Widowed now for five years, Phyllis is doing everything she can.

Phyllis loves art and she loves her art teacher, Rhonda Wernick, who instructs her to “Do what you feel like”. So, she paints what she likes -- flowers, nature, outdoors, dancing.  Next, she’d like to learn to draw people. Always eager for her weekly art lesson, Phyllis loves to learn. She reaches for her brush and for the next level, saying, “I’m learning, and I hope in the future to be better.”

Phyllis likes that her newfound hobby is also of interest to her family. Mother to Sherri and Denise, grandmother to Rachel (Pat) and Aaron, Brittney and Eliot, she recently painted a second copy of a much-liked piece, so that two grandchildren could own it one day. 

Phyllis was born Phyllis Rosenblum, sister of Mayora Rosenblum Ross, daughter of Mose & Rose Rosenblum.  Though her volunteer time spans local and national endeavors, such as serving on the Boards of the Gordon JCC, Jewish Federation, American Cancer Society, the Opera Guild, and the Belle Meade Planning Commission, Phyllis has spent her life at Temple. She is a past member of the Board of Trustees, has planned many events over the years, and continues to welcome newcomers into Temple life, caring for each one like her own.

Judit Pap

I was born in October 1974 in Budapest, Hungary and have been living in Nashville, Tennessee since 2004.

From an early age I recognized my artistic calling and began experimenting with different forms of art, mostly drawing, painting, and writing. However, I struggled to find the full richness of my creative voice. Then in late 2010 I received as a gift my first camera, a small point and shoot. As I began taking photographs I suddenly found that, unlike any other artistic form, I was able to articulate all that I saw and felt in life.

It is through the medium of photography that my artistic expression has begun to receive positive reviews and encouragement. This support has come from established professional photographers as well as gallery owners who have long standing experience with photography.

Awards & Juries:

• September 2011: third place in The National Arts Program exhibition at Vanderbilt University.

• February 2012: juried online art show titled “True Colors” at Digital Arts California

• February 2012: I was selected to participate in a portfolio review and juried art show at The Arts Company with the members of the South Light Salon based in Nashville, Tennessee.

• October 2012: Juried photography exhibit and auction at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University in Boston, MA

• October - December 2012: juried national art exhibit at the Harpeth Hall School Marnie Sheridan Gallery "Saints, Goddesses and Bodhisattvas"

• January - March 2013: juried national art exhibit at MPLS Photography Center in Minneapolis, MN themed: "Picture This -- What We Photograph"

• January 2013: Special Recognition and Outstanding Art Award at a national juried art show "ALL WOMEN" at Light, Space & Time Online Art Gallery

• February 2013: solo art show of my Home~Town collection through the month of February at the Sig Held Gallery at the Gordon Jewish Community Center in Nashville, TN

• March 2013: Juried online photography exhibit themed "Abstraction" at the Kiernan Gallery in Lexington, VA

• March 2013: Juried art show themed "In Camera" at the Artwell Gallery in Torrington, CT

• May 2013: the jury selected my work “Water/Color VI.” to be part of an international photography show at the North Valley Art League in Redding, CA

• July 2013: Omni Hotel Nashville commissioned my work for their Cumberland meeting rooms. The hotel is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013.

My work “Walk on Water” is currently exhibited at the Nashville International Airport (BNA) after having received Honorable Mentions in a photography contest themed “Capture the international Nashville." Later in the year it will also be shown at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

I am eternally grateful for my mentor, Robert McCurley, for his guidance and patience.

Michael Osheroff

Michael Osheroff was born on April 8, 1991 in Nashville, TN to Cheryl Guyer and Neil Osheroff who have been Temple members since 1985. Michael grew up at Temple attending the Temple Religious School where he was consecrated, became Bar Mitzvah, confirmed, and graduated from post-confirmation in 2009.

Michael developed an early interest in art, bolstered by his teachers at Harding Academy, which he attended from Kindergarten through 8th grade. His mentor, Elizabeth Mask, solidified his proficiency in drawing and pursuit of art as a career during his high school years at University School of Nashville. During his tenure at USN, Michael received 3 Gold Key Drawing Awards, 4 Silver Key Drawing Awards and a Gold Key Graphic Design Award from the Scholastic Art Competition. In addition, Ms. Mask encouraged Michael to explore his interest in architecture by becoming involved in the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (ACE) program. In this program students from local schools team up to propose a design for a building or space to be submitted for a national competition sponsored and judged by members of the Construction Industry Round Table. The USN team designed a Modular Educational Pavilion, which placed second in the nation.

Michael continues to pursue his love of art as a student in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, where he has just completed his spring semester as a sophomore studying abroad in Florence, Italy.

Michael prefers to draw in pen and ink, charcoal, or graphite but has ventured into other mediums as well. A number of the works displayed here are self-portraits executed as a series of assignments for class projects. Obviously, detailed representational drawings are a specialty and Michael has completed a number of commissioned portraits. Anyone interested in commissioning a portrait by Michael should contact him at 615-715-9682 or [email protected].

Phyllis Frank

“Focus on Floral”

The room is abloom with Phyllis Frank’s flowers this spring.  From confined window boxes to full-scale landscaped compositions, these photos are an invitation to spend some time in Phyllis’s gardens.     

Phyllis was born in Chattanooga, then dug her roots in Nashville after college. She soon met Nashville-native and lifelong Temple member, Stanley Frank, son of Isadore and Fedora.  Married for 47 years this June, they have two married children and four beautiful and brilliant grandchildren!  The flowers exhibited are from the garden on Sugartree Place in Green Hills and the balcony and window boxes on the 4th floor of their condo on West End Avenue. 

While living on Golf Club Lane, Phyllis held the first home plant sale in Nashville, which turned into a very rewarding “Greenporch” business out of her home.  She enjoyed showing her plants, and was duly awarded – her houseplants won the Sweepstakes three years in a row at the State Fair.  Her booth at the Lawn and Garden Fair was recognized by the President of the American Horticultural Society as “displaying the best assortment of unusual plants” he had seen.  She lectured at Cheekwood and was a well known speaker at various garden clubs.

About 10 years ago, she discovered the digital camera!  Along with gardening, she now wanted to collect memories of her colorful gardens even after cold weather left her garden bare, or she and Stanley chose to downsize once again.

Phyllis’s interests are not in the soil alone. Her hands attest to a lifetime of volunteer work, cultivating Temple’s legacy of Social Action activities. In 1994-95 she was selected by the Nashville Civitan Inter-City Council as Outstanding Citizen of the Year.  Service to the homeless includes founding board member of Room In the Inn, the Campus for Human Development, and Matthew 25.  She has served as President of the Nashville Coalition for the Homeless – the Phyllis M. Frank Volunteer Award was established in her honor.  She has served as President of the Council on Aging, B’nai B’rith Maimonides Lodge #46, and
She serves on the review team for United Way and is the volunteer Director of Volunteer Services at the Green Hills YMCA.

The photographs on exhibit were taken with Sony Cyber-shot cameras, ranging from 3 to 8 pixels.  Phyllis shares these memories through her photographs and garden greeting cards designed as gifts for friends.

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Karen Pearce Gold

Karen Pearce Gold is the featured artist for March.  She is a native of Oklahoma and displays Quilts made by four generations of her family.  Her grandmother, Vera Hampton, recently passed away at the age of 96, and she pieced quilts happily until the last few days of her life.  Her mother, Avis Bonesteel, learned from Vera and taught Karen and her daughters to piece and quilt.  Most of the quilts displayed were made by a combination of all the family members.  Often Vera would piece a quilt and Avis and Karen would quilt it. 

Karen and Michael joined the Temple in 2008 after moving here to take positions at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  They have three children: Morgan (26), Ariel (24) and Hampton (8). 

Morgan is Karen’s daughter and she crochets and quilts.  The crocheted quilt in creams, yellows, and greens on display is her work.

Michael has joined in on the quilting also, his work is the blue quilt in progress with stars and moons.  He also contributed to the Blue and Green Bear Paw quilt.

The brightly colored flower quilt was made by Karen’s paternal grandparents, Alfred and Henryetta Pearce, who also lived in the small town of Stidham, Oklahoma on a farm.  This quilt was made in the 1970’s from old clothes and other scraps.  

The crimson and cream OU (University of Oklahoma) quilt was made by Avis.  It was made for Hampton and as you can see has been loved a lot.  Most of the family is OU grads!  Boomer Sooners!!!

The blue and green Bear Paw was made by Karen with help from Michael, Morgan and Ariel.  It is a family favorite and is usually on display on the guest bed.

The Tigger crazy quilt was made by Vera and Avis for Michael.  It is an example of a machine piecing and machine quilting.  The 1970’s singer pictured in the photos was used to do the quilting. 

The Double Wedding Ring in unbleached muslin, green, and purple was hand-pieced by Vera and hand-quilted by Avis. 

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Anna Cone

My name is Anna Cone, and I am a Junior this year at the University School of Nashville. This is my third year at the Temple, and also my third year in Tennessee. My family moved from Portland, Oregon to Nashville for my father’s job at Vanderbilt, and we’ve found Nashville to be a very open and accepting community.
These pictures are of a beautiful, rural community called Santo Domingo, in the San Pedro region of Paraguay.  I lived there for about two months this past summer through the wonderful organization Amigos de las Americas. AMIGOS Volunteers immerse themselves in the lives of their host communities and truly experience collaborative development work. AMIGOS is very different from other volunteer organizations in that with AMIGOS the volunteers are asking the community, “How can we help you? We have materials and resources, and we want your help in using them to better your community.”

Amigos de las Americas provided me and my partner from California with materials to build eight fuel efficient stoves called fogones. We were trained by Peace Core volunteers on how to build, and trained by AMIGOS on how to make the building of the stoves sustainable. We did so by teaching our generation in the community how to build. That way, we knew that those teenagers would be able to build their families stoves, and spread the knowledge on to their children.

Overall, AMIGOS provided me with an amazing, eye-opening experience. Santo Domingo became a home to me this past summer, and I’ll never forget my wonderful family and friends that live there. I took these photographs to  describe the breathtaking beauty  of the people and communities in rural Paraguay.  I fell in love with the culture there, and there is no doubt that I will go back. I hope that these photographs evoke some of the rich culture of Santo Domingo for all of you!

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Bertha Moise, in her own words

Born in Chicago, Illinois in August of 1923, Bertha was the typical baby girl. The oldest of all the children, she had to babysit and help care for all the other children, thirteen in all.

She married a young man in December of 1941. Her young man went off to join the Navy during the Pearl Harbor attack. Stationed in Seattle, Washington, their first-born daughter was born in 1943. In 1945 while back in Chicago, Illinois, their second daughter was born.

Many years later, after the girls were married and had their own families, Bertha started to do some sketching, just messing around, really.

In 1973, Bertha Moise took an art class at the local high school in Skokie, Illinois. She learned to sketch with charcoal and colored chalks and enjoyed it so much that she went on to explore oil painting.

At first, she only painted single objects, fearing multiple objects would prove to be too complex. Emboldened by time and practice, she started putting different elements into the painting.

Her favorite subject to paint is anything with water.

Though late to the craft, she has created more than 200 paintings over the span of 32 years.

Susannah Abigail April Mayhan

Susannah was born in Birmingham, Alabama on October 16, 1983.

While exploring new mediums with paint and silk-screening, Susannah's passion is illustrating and writing. She has recently completed her fourth children's book based on a character she created named "Abby".

"When I am creating I feel proud of making and bringing my memories back into my drawings. What I like about my characters is having non-human animals living like human animals. My goal for this cartoon is to draw a series to be published in many books. My favorite tools to create with are pens and permanent markers. Red is often seen in my drawings because it is my favorite color, it is pretty and bright. I want people to feel happy after seeing my artwork. I would like my art be in galleries and books for other people to see. I want to share my cartoons with the world." - Susannah Mayhan

Susannah's art education includes the art department at Hillwood High School, The Creative Fitness Cen¬ter, and since 2007 to present, attending private art lessons with Artist / Instructor, Yvette Renee Parrish.

EXHIBITS AND AWARDS
2008 - VSA arts Tennessee Exhibit - Tennessee Performing Arts Center

2008 - "The Sun" - Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Hobbs Plate
(The Plate will be issued in October 2008 and will be presented to financial contributors to Vanderbilt Ken¬nedy Center)

2008 - "Botox" - Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Exhibit - Harding Academy Art Show

2008 - "Little Tabitha Michelle" - 'The Artist Voice' juried exhibit at The Frist Center for the Visual Arts 2007 - "Botox" - Cover art for November issue of Parent Magazine

2007 - "Little Tabitha Michelle" - November issue of Parent Magazine

2007 - "Botox" - Mayor's Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities and Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities - 26th Annual Awards exhibit

2000 & 2003 - Autism Society of Middle Tennessee Exhibition 2000 & 2003 Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Exhibition

1998 - Hillwood Outstanding Artist Award

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Anita Freedman Taradash

Anita Freedman Taradash was born in Jackson, Tennessee and is the daughter of the late Frieda Lindy and Irwin Freedman.  Even as a child, she loved art of all mediums.  From doodling with pencil on paper to designing outfits for her paper dolls, she was fascinated by the use of color.  In her junior high school Science class, Anita participated in an art project creating an underwater mural design that continued her zest for art.  At Jackson High, she became interested in fashion design, which was a natural since her family was in the ladies’ apparel business. 

After attending Memphis State University, she moved to New York to pursue a modeling career.  In 1970, she moved back to Jackson, Tennessee and began to paint with watercolors, oils and acrylics as a form of relaxation.   Known for her acrylics, Anita’s artwork always contained flowers as a tribute to her beloved Grandma Lindy who always encouraged her artistic talents.  Her art instructor remembers her as the student who always signed her artwork even before her paintings were finished. 

Encouraged by her family to participate in this art exhibit, Anita shares many of her favorites, including several pieces that were damaged in the May flood and have been restored.  Her art show is dedicated to the memory of her mother and best friend, Mama Frieda, who throughout her life inspired and supported her love of art.
Anita and her husband, Howard Taradash, are longtime members of The Temple.  They have three children: Robin, Michael and Lana Faye (Adam), as well as four grandchildren: Lauren (18), Joseph (14), Madeline (2) and Amelia (9 months).  Anita has managed The Temple Gift Shop since 2001.

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Hedy Lustig

Hedy Reinheimer Lustig was born in Hochst Im Odenwald, Germany in 1930. Following her father’s escape from Buchenwald concentration camp, in 1938, she moved with her parents and younger brother to Nashville, Tennessee. 

Though Hedy lacks formal art education, she sketches and paints with the consummate artist’s brush.  The landscape sketch in this gallery is her very first piece, completed on her parents’ living room floor at 8 years of age.  She enjoys impressionistic work, as well as still life, portraits, landscapes and flowers.  She was employed as an engineer’s draftsman for many years.  Additionally, Hedy works with textiles and pottery.

Many of Hedy’s pieces are from her mind’s memory, based on streets she’d seen or significant places in her lifetime.  For example, she’s replicated a street in Germany where her grandparents lived and a cousin’s home in France.   

Venturing north to live with an aunt in New York City, Hedy met New Yorker, Norman Lustig in 1951.  They married and made their home together in Hedy’s hometown of Nashville, where they live to this day.  They are the proud parents and grandparents of Ronnie (Robbie) Brian, Tracey and Andrew of Nashville, and Rabbi Bruce (Amy), Marcus and Eve of Washington, D.C. 

Throughout all of Hedy’s years in Nashville, she has been involved at Temple, in addition to fulltime work.  From cooking to decorating, printing to travelling with our youth, Hedy’s legacy at Temple extends far beyond these gallery walls.

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Dru Markle-Bloom

Born in New Haven, Connecticut 60 years ago, Dru Markle-Bloom is the consummate artist. Multi-talented and flexible, Dru has entertained through dance, mime and masks, storytelling, song (she even had her own singing telegram business!), film, commercials, and painting.  She currently teaches 6th grade language arts and reading at Donelson Middle School, captivating her students with her child-centered, authentic, improvisational, and therapeutic style.    

Dru earned her fine arts degree in Boston in a joint program with Tufts University and the The School for the Museum of Fine Arts and then her Masters of Education at Vanderbilt University.  Since graduating high school, she has lived and worked in Chicago, California, Boston, Maine, Brooklyn, New York City, and Nashville.

Dru married artist and luggage designer, David Bloom (www.tucker-bloom.com) in 1982.  In 1990, they moved to Nashville with their two children, Case and Maddie.  Though she had been apprehensive about living below the Mason-Dixon line, Dru was immediately embraced into Nashville’s Jewish community and fell in love with Nashville. 

During her family’s 20-year Temple membership, Dru has taught in Temple’s Religious School, and she’s worked for the JCC Arts Camp, West End Synagogue, and Chabad. She is active in Temple’s WELL, attends Adult Ed, and will be storytelling to our member’s young children on Sunday mornings. 

“What do I notice?”  “What do I like?”  These are the questions Dru Markle-Bloom asks herself as she picks up her sketching pencil or paintbrush.  As you look around the room, you’ll notice that Dru loves colors and lines and composition.  For Dru, art is journaling.  Not a “studio artist,” Dru draws what she sees as she sees it.  She captures the people in the world around her, no matter if it’s in someone’s living room, a meeting room, or during a brief New York City subway ride.  To Dru Markle-Bloom, drawing is like dancing, like choreography, it’s movement on the page.  Please enjoy.

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Pat Halper

Every Saturday morning for four years, beginning when she was nine years old, Pat Halper’s mom dropped her off at the bus stop near their home to travel downtown to the Toledo Art Museum for art and music appreciation classes. She vividly recalls roaming around the huge museum, inspired by the artwork and the music she discovered there.   Those classes must have worked.  Pat has remained passionate about both art and music throughout her life.

Initially, Pat’s love of art gave way to her love of music, and she pursued a career in the music industry.  As a journalist for Billboard Magazine and freelance writer for various other music publications, Pat had entre to some fascinating people from the world of music and entertainment.  Completely intrigued by the songwriters and publishers she met during that time, Pat ultimately left Billboard to pursue a career in music publishing.  After some success, she was invited to help form Hayes Street Music.  The company published many hits by three-time ASCAP Writer of the Year, and Pat’s business partner, Don Schlitz, as well as “He Walked on Water” recorded by Randy Travis and “I Can’t Make You Love Me”  recorded by Bonnie Raitt -- both songs written by Allen Shamblin.

It was also the music business that brought Pat to The Temple.  She had expressed her strong interest in Judaism to 60’s music icon Janis Ian who she worked with at MCA. Janis introduced Pat to Rabbi Beth Davidson and it wasn’t long before she began studying with Rabbi Davidson for her conversion in l992.

When Pat and Wayne’s sons, Neal and Josh, were born, she decided to leave the music business to focus on being a full-time mom.  When Neal was in 6th grade, he asked Pat to take him to a place called “Art & Soul” to play in a drum circle with one of his teachers, Ed Haggard, and his band the Love Drums. 

Since then, the six years she’s spent at Art & Soul Studios have convinced her that everyone was born to create.  Pat credits Art & Soul founder and teacher Arunima Orr for providing the environment that gives her the courage and openness to pursue her creativity.  Pat also now facilitates workshops at Art & Soul. 

Pat  feels her connection to Judaism is apparent in many of her paintings.  Her work is often inspired by places she’s reached on her spiritual journey.  Some of  her pieces are visual expressions that act as markers for her to remember what she’s learned along the way.  Sometimes her artwork is inspired by the beauty of the natural world.  

Pat has served on The Temple Board of Directors, chaired the Social Action committee and taught second grade religious school for eight years.  This is Pat’s first time to show a group of her work, and she would like to thank The Temple for the opportunity to send it out into the world. 

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Doris Wasserman

 Statement About this Collection of Artwork
The pieces that I have selected for this exhibition were created over the past 18 months, but they represent decades of work in my evolution as an artist. Until 18 months ago, everything that I painted was representational. Non­objective painting is a major transition for me, personally and professionally. These paintings reflect a more daring and more mature artist. I am as invested in the making of the work as I am invested in the outcome. For me, painting is like tending a garden – the important work is in the gardening, but there is a grand reward after the work is done. And, like gardening, painting is an ongoing process.
The act of painting for me is very physical. My canvas is typically pinned to a wall and I may have more than one painting in progress at one time. After preparing my canvases, I choose my paint colors according to the emotion I want to evoke with that particular painting. I might choose a blue that I mix with other colors to become a comforting, soft and protective blanket of color, creating a sense of calm or serenity. Or with that same blue, I might blend it with other colors to create a sense of strength and power. Layer upon layer of color suggests a sense of depth in my paintings. I often use washes of color or glazing medium to enhance that sense of depth. I move from canvas to canvas, and as the layers of paint build, I begin to scratch the paint back, removing it with my brush handle tips, palette knives, sticks, or any effective tool available. I make marks with my paintbrush, charcoal, graphite, or by the scratch­back technique.

 
About My Life
My husband, David, and I have been members of the Temple since 1987. Our children Micah and Mira have both been raised at the Temple. Their education began at Temple Playschool and has continued through Temple Religious School. Micah was an active member of the Post­Confirmation class after his Religious School graduation. This fall, Mira moves on to her 9th grade Religious School studies.
I grew up on a farm seven miles from a town of 600 people, east of Toronto, near Lake Ontario. After graduating from college, I moved to Toronto and worked in the art world for five years before moving to Nashville. During those years in Toronto, I became the sole administrator for the Print and Drawing Council of Canada while also running the evening classes of a private art college. My real education in art came when I was hired as the researcher for the Carmen Lamanna Gallery – a contemporary art gallery that was home to many of the country’s major contemporary artists. My job was primarily to catalogue the gallery’s collection of books and articles written about all the artists represented by the gallery. Upon moving to Nashville, a new chapter in my life unfolded when I was hired as a working artist and graphic designer for the Adventure Science Center and Vanderbilt University.

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Mimsye May

Mimsye May was born January 12, 1930, in Miami, Florida.  Mimsye always enjoyed art, something she’s sure she inherited from her mother.  As a little girl, she used to paint all the time, and she also loved designing clothes for the paper doll cutouts from the weekly newspaper.

Mimsye began studying art formally in college at the University of Miami.  The painting to the right is the first painting she completed during school.  As this month’s gallery depicts, Mimsye enjoys painting flowers and portraits.

During April of Mimsye’s sophomore year, Leon May was vacationing in Miami from Nashville.  Leon’s mother had called one of her Miami Hadassah friends, hoping to arrange a few blind dates for her son.  Mimsye was one of those dates, and in short order, history was made.  Leon and Mimsye saw each other again during the July 4th holiday, and in August, Leon proposed.  They were married Thanksgiving weekend of that same year, and moved directly to Nashville to begin their life together.  Last November, Mimsye and Leon celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. 

In Nashville, Mimsye continued to paint.  She has experience with oil and acrylic, but water color is her favorite.  Mimsye also loves to garden.  Over the years, she has been involved in Federation and Hadassah in Nashville’s Jewish community.

Mimsye’s favorite production sits in her living room at home -- a recent photograph of her large family!  Mimsye and Leon have four children -- Melanie Hirt (Doug), Jack, Frank (Diane), and Deborah Wolfman (Neil) -- nine grandchildren, and six great grandchildren, most of whom live close by in Nashville.

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Marion Katz

Marion Katz shares with us pieces from the Katz family.  Though a trained and talented artisan in her own right, her greatest pride is marrying into a very talented family, and this month’s gallery represents the family’s work.  Marion feels very fortunate to have her family’s artistic influence and love.
Please enjoy Father Katz’s oil painting, Mother Katz’s pointillism, and Marion’s son, Leslie Katz’s edgy illustration.     

Marion was born in Breslau, Germany in 1928, an only child to Emil & Greta Rosenberg.  Her family’s life in the early years was dictated by the increasing threat of the Holocaust, which claimed many of her extended family. At the age of five, her family moved from Germany to Belgrade, Yugoslavia.  In 1938, they left Europe and settled in St. Paul, Minnesota.  By her teen years, her father’s work took them to Vineland, New Jersey, and eventually Baldwin, New York. 

Early on, Marion was a lover of art in all its forms.  Her first job was in textile design.  As a young adult, she rode the train into Brooklyn on weekends to study at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art.  She furthered her textile training by studying in Paris for a year.  She also learned to paint in Paris, and throughout her life, Marion has created artwork in several media – textile, small sculpture, needlepoint design, rug design, and water color painting.

While commuting from Long Island to New York City, Marion met her future husband, Peter Katz, on the train.  He was also commuting to his job as an optic engineer.  Peter and Marion married on March 18, 1951.  They moved to Nashville and joined The Temple in 1972.  They have two sons and daughters-in-law and three grandchildren. 

In the past 3 decades, Marion has served on the Temple Board of Trustees and has been artistically active – arranging our museum exhibits, adorning Temple’s Book of Life, designing a pamphlet about Temple’s art collection, and organizing Judaica art shows. 

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Olivia Newman

Olivia was born in Vienna, Austria, just before World War II.  Tragically, her father was taken to a concentration camp, and for her own protection, Olivia’s mother moved the two of them to Hamburg, Germany with a false identity as a non-Jewish mother and daughter. 

Early on, Olivia loved to paint.  With no access to white paper during The War, she used brown paper bags or wrapping material to draw on and paint. Later, she took classes and received her B.F.A. in Hamburg. Still, her mother insisted that she obtained a “real” education, so Olivia pursued medicine.  She married and had seven children, never abandoning her art.

Only as an adult did Olivia learn that she is Jewish. At that time, she spent time in Vienna to seek information about her father's fate, a quest which has gone unfulfilled.

After the sudden death of her husband in 1975 and left to raise her seven young children, Olivia barely found time to paint. It was her oldest daughter, who, while in art school, introduced Olivia to silk painting. She fell in love with this unique medium of expression and its versatility, and she has painted on silk ever since.

Olivia exhibited her work and conducted workshops throughout Europe. For Olivia, “there are no guidelines for art. My silks are means of communication, aiming to replace words. I adore everything that speaks with large embracing movements of colors. I imagine my paintings as well as my wearable art to bring happiness by creating the materials by hand and making them also pleasing for the eye and the skin.”

Following three of her grown children to America, Olivia moved to Nashville in 1990. She started her own business, creating and selling wearable art, invented her own yarn for knitting, and showed her framed works as a member of Nashville Artist Guild, Visual Arts Alliance, Tennessee Art League and Tennessee Association of Crafts Artists.

Olivia joined Temple in 1998, celebrated her bat mitzvah in 2001, and she enjoys the liberty to freely practice Judaism in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Jerry Klein D.D.S.

The best thing that happened to me was when my family moved from the Bronx in New York to Nashville, Tennessee in 1939. I wouldn't trade those years there, but my life really started here in Nashville. Seeing Nashville grow, and me with it, has been a very positive experience. I had the good fortune to have been educated within the excellent school systems that Nashville provided, attending West End High School, MBA, Vanderbilt University,
and the University of Tennessee School of Dentistry.  I served in that capacity in the United States Air Force Dental Corps, after which I was in private dental practice and a part-time professor at Meharry Dental College from1957 until I retired in 1997, then went on a millennium world cruise, and, finally, settling down to a happy retirement with my wife, Mimi.

It was during this time when painting became an enjoyable pastime for me. I remember, even as a boy, I loved to draw and paint scenes off of greeting cards.

Not having had much formal training, I paint with a sense of freedom, expressing my art with my own style. Many of my paintings depict a variety of subjects that appeal to my sense of perspective, color and composition. They may be landscapes, copies of other paintings and photographs, scenes from my extensive world travels, or just faces in the crowd. Whatever inspires me to create a painting gives me joy and the desire to share it with others.

Vibrant colors are very important in my renditions, and though I have painted in watercolor, oil, mixed media and acrylics, I prefer the ease and beauty of the acrylics.

I have had the pleasure of exhibiting my paintings in a number of local galleries. I have made them available by offering them as KLEIN KONCEPTS ART CARDS in certain local card shops, and on occasion, will offer them for sale. My JerryArt Collection consists of over seventy paintings, and it will continue to grow as I continue to enjoy my colorful pastime.

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Pamela Harrison

Pamela held a quilting needle before a writing pen.  At a very early age, she learned from her father how to crochet, and her grandmother taught her to knit, sew, and quilt.  She shares some of her recent quilts with us this month. 

Pamela enjoys making personalized quilts for others.  Notice the two small ones, which she’s stitched for baby namings.  She also quilts for b’nai mitzvah gifts, weddings, and anniversaries, and you can see the inspiration of different themes and locations on others.  Pam works from her home studio (which doubles as the family’s dining room!).  She knits scarves for the homeless and “healing shawls” for congregants on behalf of the Caring Connection.  Pam also sews pillows and purses, many which she then sells at festivals and markets.

The eldest of four children, Pam was born March 10, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. She has raised five children, the last two being Temple’s beloved Harrison and Andrew Ferris, who will graduate high school next spring, with plans to attend nearby Middle Tennessee State University. 

Pamela and her husband, songwriter Roger Ferris, met in Columbia, Missouri, where Pam was pursuing a graduate research fellowship in Medical Sociology at the University of Missouri.  They married and moved to “Music City” in 1982. In Nashville, Pam worked for the YWCA battered women’s shelter, and then twelve years for Metro Government, retiring as the city’s fleet manager in 2003.  

Born Catholic, Pamela studied with Temple’s Rabbi Allison Flash and converted to Judaism in 2001.  She immediately pursued her master’s degree in theological studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School and interned at Temple for Rabbi Flash, which involved leading several “Brown Bag Shabbat” lunches, Chevrah Torah sessions, and speaking at local churches about Judaism.

Several years ago, Pam helped to develop Temple’s “Four Houses” and our Covenant of Membership.  She also taught 9th grade in Temple’s Religious School, and for years she volunteered in the Gift Shop.  Pam helps to plan the biennial WELL Women’s Retreat, and she is active on many Temple committees, including WELL, Worship & Music, and Caring Connection.  Pam is a voracious reader – evenings she alternates between holding a book and knitting needles.

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Leonard Greenfield

“We’ve Been There”

Leonard Greenfield was born July 12, 1917, in Shreveport, LA, weighing only 1-1/2 pounds.  He grew in good health and strength, and today he shares with us his retirement legacy of almost 30 years of painting.    

Leonard’s college studies in Louisiana were interrupted by The Depression, and eventually, The Draft.  Leonard served in the 8th Air Force in England.  After the War, Leonard returned to Shreveport to his job selling life insurance, where he won a trip to Atlantic City.  The bigger prize happened on the trip, where he met Shirley, a recent war widow with two young boys.  Shirley’s oldest son, 4-year-old Jonathan, begged Leonard not to leave, but to stay with him and become his new daddy.  Leonard and Shirley married two weeks later!  Leonard moved to New York and began work at his father-in-law’s custom tailor company. 

Leonard returned to college on the GI Bill and graduated from the New York University School of Commerce in 1953.  Moving to the South, the Greenfields settled in Dickson, TN, where Leonard worked as an accountant in the garment industry until his retirement.  The Greenfields joined The Temple in 1962, making the drive to Nashville from Dickson three times a week for services and their children’s religious school. In the years since Leonard’s retirement in 1980, they moved to Nashville and enjoy a much shorter drive for Temple services and programming.

Leonard and Shirley enjoyed the opportunity to travel, and during his retirement, Leonard found the painting medium to capture some of their wonderful travel memories.  Taught weekly by Hazel King at the Metro Art Center in Centennial Park, Leonard paints landscapes.  He likes to work with a pallet knife and oil paints.  Depending on the complexity of his piece, Leonard usually finishes a piece in 4 sessions.  Painting can be frustrating, Leonard says, as it is, “tough for an impression to go from head to hand then from hand to canvas; sometimes it gets delayed en route.”

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