August 14, 2014
CCPA MURAL UPDATE
Just in time for the start of a new school year….
Good things come to those who wait! While bumps in the weather and on the plaster delayed the mural installation, the day has finally arrived when all the love, labor, and lucre came together.
The mural was completed today (August 14, 2014) with the finishing touches applied by the mural master, Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen, and three assistants including Sophia’s first cousin from L.A. Noah Scheindlin.
With gratitude and good wishes to the extended CCPA community
and a special shout out to superwoman and Co-Vice Principal, Fabiana Ahumada.
And a HUGE thank you to all of you who contributed in any number of ways to this project!
(Thanks for the photos, Toni Truong!)
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Rosh Hodesh Kislev 5753 (November 3, 2013)
Mural Painting at CCPA
Second Shift Group Photo (Thanks, Geoffrey Biddle!)
First Shift Group Photo (Thanks, Ellen Finestone!)
(far right section of group photo)
Some of the panels drying... Davi Scheinok in the foreground.
Erica Goldman Brodie with Tony Villalobos, a CCPA senior.
Adam and Ariella at the end of the day!
For a sense of the scale of the mural Adam is standing in front of the wall that was selected as the "canvas."
Rosh Hodesh Kislev 5753 (November 3, 2013)
Sunday morning services at Netivot Shalom before the mural painting.
Sophia reads
from the torah
as her grandparents
SabbaJoe and SavtaErica take an aliyah.
Lee Bearson & Vicky Kelman were the gabbaim.
Ariella and Sophia with their SavtaErica.
(far left section of group photo)
Muralist maestro, Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen offering painting tips to Flo Hasson, Dan Schifrin with Aviv and Lior, Mia & Gaby Finestone.
Sophia with Mia Finestone.
Ariella hugging Kagz with Kagz's balloon column creation in the background!
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE MURAL PROJECT...
About the School: CCPA (www.coliseumcollegeprep.org/ourstory.html)
About the Mural: Rebuilding Through Art (RAP) (www.rebuildingthruart.com/Murals.html).
To contribute to the creation of public art for CCPA you can donate online by clicking here or you can make a check out to: Rebuilding Thru Art Project and mail it to Sophia Brodie-Weisberg, 1239 Peralta Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94706.
Thanks for your interest and support!
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Ariella has her first aliyah to the torah!
Ariella and Sophia with their SabbaJoe.
Rosh Hodesh Heshvan 5753 (October 5, 2013)
Although no photographs were taken at the Shabbat Morning services at Congregation Netivot Shalom, our cousin Michelle Benjamin Ruchames took photos of just about everything else that weekend.
Rosh Hodesh Tammuz 5753
(June 9, 2013)
Morning service at Congregation Netivot Shalom
Sophia's teachers Judy Massarano and Julie Batz, as well as our friends Dorothy Richman, Rena Dorph, Babbie, Lee & Tanya Bearson, Robin Mencher, Matthew Diamond & Marnina, and our cousin Wendy Simon joined Netivot Shalom regulars in morning services for Rosh Hodesh.
Ariella (holding Marnina Diamond)
and Tanya opened and closed the ark.
This morning Sophia wore her Oma's tallit (prayer shawl) for the first time. The tallit is special for many reasons including the fact that It was handmade by Deborah's friend, the artist Sarah Jacobson. Deborah was involved in choosing every aspect of it from the gorgeous fabric in deep purple and turquoise to the prayer fragments calligraphed on the edges. Seeing Sophia wrapped in it as she led Hallel and the torah service plus all 4 aliyot of the torah reading was very moving. The first anniversary of Deborah's death will be marked on the 7th of Tammuz, this coming Shabbat.
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Adam and Rachel both got aliyot.
Ariella was one of the gabbaim.
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Preparing for the Mural Project
A Workshop at CCPA on May 23, 2013
On November 3rd we’re gathering to paint a mural with and for the students of Coliseum College Prep Academy (CCPA). For details about that project, check this website's calendar.
In preparation, Jay Wolf Schlossberg-Cohen (the artist leading the project) came out to do a workshop with some CCPA students just before their break for Memorial Day Weekend. The goal was to generate images for the mural and Jay led a multi-step process that invloved writing, sketching, painting and group collage.
In the weeks before the workshop was held Jay asked Sophia to choose a theme and then find a quote that might capture the theme in words that prompted strong visual imagery. The centrality of the moon in Sophia's Rosh Hodesh-centered celebrations brought her to choose a quote from Carl Sagan:
“Look again at
that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love,
everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was,
lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of
confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and
forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization,
every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father,
hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt
politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader,"
every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of
dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
The images that emerged from the student work included a soccer ball planet suspended in a grassy green sky, a night scene of tall buildings glowing with electricity, sunbeams speckled with planets, a wide variety of superheroes, the love from family and friends represented in concrete and abstract ways and much more....
Middle Schoolers painting during the Workshop on 5/23/13
53 students participated in the 2 hour workshop that included a live DJ and snacks.
Middle Schoolers painting during the Workshop on 5/23/13
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Rosh Hodesh Sivan 5773 (May 10, 2013)
Oakland Hebrew Day School
Middle School girls' Tefillah
Sophia led the morning services and as a preview of the month's major holiday, Shavuot, she led Hallel using some holiday-related melodies. In the photo she is helping to roll the torah to the section that includes her Rosh Hodesh reading. Standing to her left is Hodi M., Mira K. and the school's Director of Judaic Studies, Batsheva Miller.
Rosh Hodesh Iyar 5773 (April 10-11, 2013)
Oakland Hebrew Day School
Middle School girls' Tefillah
Sophia led the morning services and as a preview of the month's major holiday, Israel's Independence Day and 65th Birthday, she and teacher Judy Massarano led Hallel using tunes from Israeli folksongs.
Our family donated a "yad" (Torah pointer), that Sophia picked out, to the school for use in the girl's services.
Rachel got an aliyah during Sophia's torah reading and Ariella did hagba (raising the torah scroll at the end of the reading) for her first time! This was followed by breakfast treats for all the girls.
A few of Sophia's 7th grade classmates:
Chaya D., Sophia, Hodi M., Naomi M. and Sarah C. during theTorah reading
Ariella and some of her 6th grade classmates (not including the lamb)--Simone, Roxy, Ariella, Talia, Anya and Aviva--shenanigans after the service but before (!) the sugar high from the breakfast treats... go figure.
Sophia with Asher, Kayleigh's little brother (April 8, 2013).
Rosh Hodesh Nisan 5773 (March 12, 2013)
Oakland Hebrew Day School
Middle School girls' Tefillah
Sophia co-led the morning service with her friend Celia Haber and as a preview of the month's major holiday, Passover she and teacher, Judy Massarano led Hallel using tunes from the seder. Rachel got an aliyah during Sophia's torah reading and Adam and Sophia's good friend Zoe offered Sophia blessings.
Zoe's blessing included the hope that while change is inevitable she hoped Sophia wouldn't change too much because she loves Sophia as she is right now -- generous, caring and thoughtful, quiet but always willing to stand up for what she believes.
And let us say: Amen!
Oh, and we brought breakfast treats for all the girls....
March 2, 2013
Sophia's 13th birthday!
RB EYES FRIDAYS: Can I Grin and Bear It?
In anticipaiton of Sophia's 13th birthday Rachel wrote about
parenting an adolescent for 3200Stories.org
Rosh Hodesh Iyar 5772 (April 22, 2012)
Sophia officially become a bat mitzvah (12 and a day) on the 26th of Adar/March 20, 2012. On Rosh Hodesh Iyar (April 22, 2012) she read torah publicly at the weekday mornign minyan in the Netivot Shalom library.
Sophia's grandparents, Adam's parents, Marilyn and Ray, joined us. We videotaped the reading so that Sophia's Oma, Rachel's mother, Deborah, could view it from her hospital room in New York City. Just over a month later Marilyn died and two months later, Sophia chanted her torah reading in person to her Oma who died very shortly after that.
26th of Adar 5772 (March 20, 2012) Sophia is officially a bat mitzvah!
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