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Lunch and Learn // A Storytelling Lunch Hour // Sept. 26, 2024
September 26 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Please Register Here to Help Us Plan
Before turning to fiction writing, Lenny Levine enjoyed a successful 20-year career as a recording studio singer and composer of many jingles, such as McDonald’s, Lipton Tea, and Jeep. His stories have been widely published in literary magazines and journals, and he received a Pushcart Prize nomination for short fiction. His mystery novels Diehard Fan and Death in the Jingle Jungle are available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.
David Schein was lucky to go to Burlington High School in the mid-60s where he encountered writing teacher Gladys Colburn and theater teacher Margaret O’Brien whom he credits with setting him on his course. He spent many years in the San Francisco, New York and Chicago theater and poetry scenes. David wrote for, and performed and toured with Whoopi Goldberg as her star was rising. He lived in Tijuana, where he wrote and recorded for NPR with performance artist, Guillermo Gomez-Peña. He has worked extensively in Germany and Ethiopia — where, with a troupe of street kids, he founded One Love AIDS/HIV Awareness Theater. David is the author of three books, published by Burlington’s own Fomite Press, with another one, STONES, coming out soon.
About OZ’s Lunch and Learns:
In-Person in Ohavi Zedek’s Social Hall. No Zoom unless conditions change.
Speakers cover a wide range of topics. A delicious lunch will be offered, which is served promptly at NOON. The talks begin at about 12:15pm and end no later than 1:15pm (including some time for Q&A).
Suggested cash contribution of $10 for food can be paid on the registration form or collected at the event — but feel free to give more or less. Please also consider sponsoring one or more Lunch & Learn to help cover expenses. Information on this is on the registration page.
Please Register Here to Help Us Plan
2024-2025 Series of Lunch and Learn Talks:
- Thursday, September 26, 2024: A Storytelling Lunch Hour. Readings by Lenny Levine & David Schein
- Thursday, November 21, 2024: The Challenges Facing Caregivers. A talk by caregiver and author Alan Rubel.
- Thursday, December 19, 2024: Bridges of Hope: Learning about Mental Health. A presentation by staff & volunteers with NAMI-Vermont
- Thursday, January 16, 2025: Volunteering to Stop Human Trafficking in Vietnam. A talk by OZ member Sue Schein
- Thursday, February 20, 2025: Jewish Life & Antisemitism in Today’s Germany. A talk by UVM Professor of History & Holocaust Studies Alan Steinweis
- Thursday, March 20, 2025: Artists & the Holocaust: Documentation, Memory, Elegy. A visual presentation by former UVM Fleming Museum Director Janie Cohen
- Thursday, April 24, 2025: The Music of Terezin. A talk, with music, by composer Michael Schachter
- Thursday, May 15, 2025: Last Messages from the Dying. An exploration with End of Life Doula Sarah Villanueva
Download Our Lunch & Learn Brochure with Details on Each Talk
Lunch and Learn // Volunteering to Stop Human Trafficking in Vietnam // Jan. 16, 2025
Ohavi Zedek Synagogue 188 North Prospect Street, Burlington, VT, United StatesTight up against the Chinese border in northern Vietnam is a mountainous, tribal area from which, almost daily, Hmong girls are tricked, drugged, kidnapped and smuggled deep inside China. There, they’re sold into coercive marriages and domestic, agricultural or sexual slavery. Disoriented, most lack the language, means and skills to escape. Most disappear forever. Long-time OZ member Sue Schein will describe how she worked with partners to design and launch workshops aimed at interrupting this practice, by teaching girls how to…
Lunch and Learn // Jewish Life & Antisemitism in Today’s Germany // Feb. 20, 2025
Ohavi Zedek Synagogue 188 North Prospect Street, Burlington, VT, United StatesGermany is today home to about 120,000 people who identify as Jews: less than one percent of the world's Jews and to less than two-tenths of one percent of Germany's total population. But for obvious historical reasons there is great interest in Jewish life, as well as antisemitism, in contemporary Germany. Alan Steinweis, Professor of History and Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont, will share his insights into that subject based on his extensive experience…
Lunch and Learn // Artists & the Holocaust: Documentation, Memory, Elegy // Mar. 20, 2025
Ohavi Zedek Synagogue 188 North Prospect Street, Burlington, VT, United StatesJanie Cohen, past Director of UVM’s Fleming Museum, will provide an illustrated talk about the work of several artists who experienced the Holocaust directly or indirectly. Cohen will also focus on two of the former, Henryk Ross, who clandestinely photographed life in the Lodz ghetto while serving as the Jewish Council’s official photographer, and Hannelore Baron, a New York artist who witnessed Kristallnacht as a child and escaped Germany with her family. Sponsors of this Talk: Thanks to Mary Fillmore…
Lunch and Learn // The Music of Terezin // Apr. 24, 2025
Ohavi Zedek Synagogue 188 North Prospect Street, Burlington, VT, United StatesIn this talk with music, composer, writer, and pianist Michael Schachter will explore his forthcoming music-theatrical project based on the history of the Terezín Ghetto, a WWII concentration camp outside Prague where the Jewish inmates resisted the Nazis through musical, dramatic, and artistic expression. In particular, he’ll focus on the musical activities of Eric Vogel, a trumpeter who founded a jazz band in Terezín called the Ghetto Swingers, and Rafael Schächter, a pianist and conductor who led the inmates in…
Lunch and Learn // Last Messages from the Dying // May 15, 2025
Ohavi Zedek Synagogue 188 North Prospect Street, Burlington, VT, United StatesThe dying process is daunting and brings forth a plethora of emotions that are felt by all. While there are signs that indicate when someone has reached the end stages of the dying process, the most moving indicator is called “abstract speech.” Often overlooked, abstract speech offers an opportunity for a final connection with the departing person. Join Sarah Villanueva, who is both Director of Beth Jacob Synagogue and an End of Life Doula, as she explores this phenomenon. About…
