401k Funds: Would it be Previously smart to Withdraw Away from a retirement Account?
401k Funds: Would it be Previously smart to Withdraw Away from a retirement Account? Could it possibly be actually ever smart to take a loan away of the old-age membership to pay for an enormous get? Lender away from Father has many thoughts. Hi Lender of Father. I’m undergoing to purchase a house and have become advised you to, in this situation, it is okay to withdraw out-of my personal 401k, which, immediately, features regarding 100K in there. I would need to use a beneficial $40K financing off to result in the deposit. There are various posts about the risks of borrowing on the 401k also those that discuss times when it is great to do this. Precisely what do do you believe? Have always been We foolish to carry out that it mortgage? I am aware it comes down so you’re able to taking a look at the interest I manage obtain with the loan were We having leftover they untouched from the membership in addition to really worth accrued inside the my domestic. But are there any punishment when planning on taking currency away? Also: How can i make money out and tend to be there ever people times when credit away from one account is the right disperse? I propose to place the cash back in the account. – George, thru email address. At first sight, borrowing from your later years account seems like a pretty higher bargain. Zero credit check? Reduced origination charge? Attract that you shell out to yourself in the place of a bank? What’s never to like? However, for example shiny gems offered in the trunk out-of a keen ’92 Lincoln, 401(k) financing appear a lot less enticing the new better you look. For any it, they make many sense due to the fact a last-lodge supply of funds not at all something we wish to slim to the when designing a giant pick. Why? Given that pull currency from your nest-egg is the most the new surest a way to derail their much time-term savings and you may probably have a big tax bill. The simple truth is that if your boss is amongst the more 80 per cent out-of enterprises which provide fund, just be able to supply at the very least several of you to currency. Irs guidelines enable you to sign up for 50 % of the vested balance, doing $fifty,100, getting fund. The key this is actually the vested part. To suit your needs, the sum their benefits and you can rollover number, along with any vested coordinating loans, must be about $80,one hundred thousand to obtain an excellent $40,100 mortgage. Your typically have to pay straight back the main and you can focus more a beneficial four-12 months period. A different sort of ability out-of 401(k) funds is the fact that attention you only pay on occasion the top rates and something fee point becomes added to your bank account balance. However,, my personal oh my personal, are they laden with property mines. I like to think about retirement discounts given that sacrosanct, states Rebecca Kennedy, an economic planner with Denver-based IMPACTfolio. Frankly, the idea of taking out fully a beneficial $40,one hundred thousand loan off a good $100,100 balance concerns me. Here’s how a beneficial 401(k) financing that dimensions normally backfire: You will experience a big Cash Crisis With home financing, you’ve got the solution to spread out payments more than a thirty-season months. You are and make bigger costs, and this mode less overall to invest your own mortgage, placed into an urgent situation...
Read Moreten Issues Should be aware Laurel Roadway Education loan Refinancing
ten Issues Should be aware Laurel Roadway Education loan Refinancing For those who have student loan debt, refinancing can help you save money, letting you alter your newest financing having a lower-rates option. There are particular qualifications criteria to possess refinancing – such, loan providers may require you to possess the absolute minimum credit score and you may to show which you have a steady income source. If you don’t see this type of qualification conditions, you might still be able to make use of refinancing which have the assistance of an effective co-signer. The new conditions, cost terms and conditions, and interest rates for refinancing are different ranging from lenders. Doing your research will allow you to get a hold of a fitted financial one is best suited for your circumstances. You to common choice for student loan refinancing was Laurel Roadway. Whenever you are an university student, younger elite group, or perhaps the father or mother away from a student otherwise recent graduate, you may have already see this label as you browse your own refinancing choices. The below book provides greater understanding into Laurel Path refinance student fund and certainly will make it easier to know if this is the correct roadway for your requirements. Is actually Laurel Path Ideal for Refinancing College loans? Laurel Street try a dependable supplier out of student loan refinancing services. That said, you should invariably take a look at conditions and terms of every education loan refinance vendor before taking this task. The whole point out of refinancing is to try to improve their education loan payments and you can spend less in the long run. If you could potentially achieve this due to Laurel Path relies on some situations, plus simply how much student loan loans you really have, current competitive rates of interest, along with your most recent or coming employment standing. Laurel Street are an industry frontrunner throughout the refinancing off scholar funds and will be the proper selection for your – but first, you ought to gain a better comprehension of important facts eg attention costs, monthly payments, borrower advantages, and a lot more. Keep reading on important facts. Eligibility So you’re able to qualify for Laurel Roadway refinancing, you should be an excellent U.S. resident or a long-term resident that have an eco-friendly card (I-551) and should have attended a certified place that is licensed in order to discover government help. After you get refinancing, your subsequent have to have finished otherwise already get in the final seasons of student studies. If you are a pops signing up to refinance a bonus financing, your child can still be in school and the graduation requirements does not incorporate. Next, you must have the very least credit rating off 700 (good) to help you qualify for Laurel Highway refinancing. For those who have a subpar credit history, you might not qualify as opposed to a beneficial co-signer (such as for instance a daddy). A great co-signer discharge is available in circumstances we would like to take over the borrowed funds later on when you have increased your own borrowing from the bank. Having said that, you could potentially however qualify for refinancing if you have registered to have case of bankruptcy (provided it was at the least number of years in the past). When you yourself have bad credit and want to refinance the college student fund, check out this publication. There’s absolutely no minimal money significance of Laurel Street student loan refinancing. But not, you should be working in a beneficial professional strength. Because of this...
Read MoreAuto Subscription Fund, Would you Treat Your vehicle?
Auto Subscription Fund, Would you Treat Your vehicle? Can a title fund repossess your vehicle when you look at the Washington? While you are nevertheless and also make money on your own vehicles, then a beneficial tile financing may be the right choice. You are able to receive a lump sum of cash when the you go searching for an automobile security loan inside Arizona, even although you dont individual your vehicle downright. You are going to continue palms of the car given that mortgage was aside as well. For those who have paid off the loan on your auto and feel the term at hand, then you may decide for a subject financing. The lending company use this new name of your car because the equity in return for the money. You could potentially always discover a high matter once you favor a beneficial label loan due to the fact count would depend off the worthy of of vehicles. Once more, you’ll hold hands of vehicles even though you pay-off the latest mortgage. One big care and attention your driver is when they eradicate the car if they default into a subscription or term mortgage. While this is an unrealistic disease, it will takes place if you choose to take out a name financing of a washington financial. If you cannot afford the loan back, then the bank can be repossess the car. If you cannot repay the automobile guarantee financing, a lender will be unable to repossess your vehicle.Usually, a loan provider will earliest attempt to collect with the financing themselves. Whether or not it goes wrong, they may hire a third-group bill enthusiast to try and recover their losings. Specific might even elevates to court to help you sue your more than the balance due. If this happens, your investment returns will be garnished to pay back the quantity that you owe. To end the trouble away from debt collectors and you will court, only take away a subject mortgage knowing you could pay it back. Think about, their identity is the equity for individuals who go for a name loan. The financial institution has the legal right to repossess the car if you can’t make payments promptly. If you are trying to find a concept mortgage, attempt to have the following the on your own palms when you incorporate: Proof income and household A recent bank statement You current Arizona car registration An effective debit card and you may account number You should additionally be 18-years-dated or older to utilize. Provide the car along with you once you get a motor vehicle collateral mortgage. The good thing out of membership fund is that you may have one on the internet is the point that there are no credit monitors and you may no hidden fees. It is possible to favor a term that meets into your budget. You’ll be able to spend the money for financing regarding sooner than the fresh arrangement without penalties or charges. It is advisable to understand the brand new tips to take if the you are worried that you might perhaps standard on mortgage. When you have pulled the mortgage away currently, consult their lender immediately. They likely be in a position loans with no id required to increase the commission plan to make you more time to settle the borrowed funds. This might even result in a reduced payment. Auto Registration Fund, Do you really Dump Your car? You can also envision taking out another mortgage to assist pay out of your own dated you to definitely. Pick good...
Read MoreAnother argument for nationalizing education is natural monopoly
Another argument for nationalizing education is natural monopoly In small communities and rural areas, the number of children may be too small to justify more than one school of reasonable size, so that competition cannot be relied on to protect the interests of parents and children. As in other cases of natural monopoly loan for low income immigrant entrepreneurs, the alternatives are unrestricted private monopoly, state-controlled private monopoly, and public operation – a choice among evils. This argument is clearly valid and significant, although its force has been greatly weakened in recent decades by improvements in transportation and increasing concentration of the population in urban communities. But I suspect that a much more important factor was the combination of the general disrepute of cash grants to individuals (handouts) with the absence of an efficient administrative machinery to handle the distribution of vouchers and to check their use This arrangement would meet the valid features of the natural monopoly argument, while at the same time it would permit competition to develop where it could. It would meet the just complaints of parents that if they send their children to private nonsubsidized schools they are required to pay twice for education – once in the form of general taxes and once directly – and in this way stimulate the development and improvement of such schools. The interjection of competition would do much to promote a healthy variety of schools. It would do much, also, to introduce flexibility into school systems. Not least of its benefits would be to make the salaries of school teachers responsive to market forces. It would thereby give governmental educational authorities an independent standard against which to judge salary scales and promote a more rapid adjustment to changes in conditions of demand or supply. 2 Why is it that our educational system has not developed along these lines? A full answer would require a much more detailed knowledge of educational history than I possess, and the most I can do is to offer a conjecture. The development of such machinery is a phenomenon of modern times that has come to full flower only with the enormous extension of personal taxation and of social security programs. In its absence, the administration of schools was regarded as the only possible way to finance education. Of course, as some of the examples cited above suggest, some features of the proposed arrangements are present in existing educational systems. And there has been strong and I believe increasing pressure for arrangements of this general kind in most Western countries, which is perhaps to be explained by the modern developments in governmental administrative machinery that facilitate such arrangements. Many detailed administrative problems would arise in changing over from the present to the proposed system and in administering the proposed system. But these seem neither insoluble nor unique. As in the denationalization of other activities, existing premises and equipment could be sold to private enterprises that wanted to enter the field, so there would be no waste of capital in the transition. The fact that governmental units, at least in some areas, were going to continue to administer schools would permit a gradual and easy transition. The localized administration of education in the United States and some other countries would similarly facilitate the transition, since it would encourage experimentation on a small scale and with alternative methods of handling both these and other problems. For one thing, the natural monopoly argument was much stronger at an earlier date Difficulties would doubtless arise in determining eligibility for grants from a particular governmental unit, but this...
Read MoreAll you need to Realize about HELOCs
All you need to Realize about HELOCs When you are a resident needing a bundle of cash, take a look at your house. Because of the tapping into your own residence’s guarantee, you happen to be eligible for a loan with an excellent, essentially, all the way down rate of interest and much easier qualification requirements. The easiest way to accomplish that is via opening up a property guarantee line of credit, or a good HELOC. Let us take a closer look at the HELOCs and exactly why they could be just the thing for bucks-strapped people. Good HELOC is actually an effective revolving line of credit which allows residents to borrow money contrary to the guarantee of their family, as required. The new HELOC is like an additional financial with the a property; in the event your debtor possesses the complete household, the fresh new HELOC is a first mortgage. Because it is backed by a secured asset (the brand new borrower’s family), brand new HELOC was secured personal debt and will are apt to have a diminished interest rate than unsecured debt, like playing cards. Just be sure to shell out settlement costs into the distinctive line of borrowing from the bank, which can be equal to 2-5% of overall property value the loan. How much money you could pull out thanks to an excellent HELOC is determined by your house’s total really worth, the new portion of you to well worth the financial institution allows you to borrow against and how far you currently owe on your domestic. Of several lenders only bring home owners a beneficial HELOC that enables new debtor to maintain that loan-to-worthy of (LTV) ratio of 80% or lower A simple strategy to find a great imagine of one’s restriction number you might acquire with a great HELOC is always to multiply your home’s value by large LTV the lender allows. Like, continuing with the above example, when your house is valued at $250,one hundred thousand and your financial enables you to acquire up to 80% of one’s residence’s worth, proliferate 250,000 of the 0.80. This can give you $two hundred,000. Deduct the amount you still are obligated to pay on your own financial (let`s say $one hundred,000) and you might have the limit count you could acquire having fun with an effective HELOC: $100,100000. Such as for example the financing and personal line of credit, HELOCs features qualifications standards. Particular criteria vary, but most loan providers is only going to agree the brand new personal line of credit for homeowners that have an obligations-to-income proportion off forty% otherwise shorter, a credit score off 620 or even more and property which have an appraised worth which is at least 15% more than what is actually due for the family. A great HELOC functions much like a credit card. After you’ve started acknowledged, you could borrow as frequently otherwise only called for, and whenever you’d like over a period of big date known as this new draw months. The brand new draw several months generally lasts four to help you a decade. As mark period stops, new loans Holly Pond AL borrower has the option to start paying down the borrowed funds, or even to refinance to some other loan. Specific lenders enable it to be individuals to make costs towards the eye from the loan inside the mark period. In the event that mark several months closes, the latest borrower will make monthly obligations on the the primary of loan and the notice money. For most borrowers, even though, fees merely initiate...
Read MoreAbout Me
What’s Susan up to?
Penn State Center for Holocaust and Jewish Studies will host me as I present a solo program of song and history focusing on the roots of Eastern European Jewish music and related songs.
I have the honor of presenting this year at the annual American Folklore Society's conference. A lecture on papercut arts around the world and a demonstration of my own work will take place during the conference on October 22, 2021!
ELEVEN languages and counting! Over the years, I've crafted ketubot that honor many cultures. In addition to the expected Aramaic, modern Hebrew, English, and even Yiddish, I have included Korean, Kannada, Latin, Arabic, and even the Telugu seen in the cropped image above! What a joy this has been!
What a wonderful experience I shared with the community of Las Cruces, NM and the Guild of American Papercutters when I presented an hour-long lecture on the worldwide history of papercut arts on March 16, 2021. This was in conjunction with the museum's show of Islamic papercut art. We looked at tools, traditions, and especially shared visual vocabularies from India to Mexico, from Persia to China and beyond!
February 18, 2018 - Susan will be hosted by the Sholem Aleichem Center in the Bronx for a concert. Come for a shmuez (a chat) and stay for the music!https://www.pineclubgolf.com/best-electrical-push-carts/
As part of the Sacred: Image, Text, Ritual exhibit at Lebanon Valley College, Susan will be presenting a lecture recital titled "Words as Homeland: Where Jewish Text, Art, and Song Converge to Express a Culture." Thursday, February 8, 2018, 5 pm at the Zimmerman Recital Hall.
A wonderful arts residency in Teaneck, NJ at Congregation Beth Sholom concluded with a full concert, accompanied by Adrian Banner on Piano. Enthusiasm and learning flowed back and forth the entire time. Fabulous community!
What a great night at the Jalopy in Brooklyn on June 16, 2016 as my new trio with Lauren Brody and Jake Shulman-Ment stepped out to strut our stuff! Many languages, many musical cultures, and great joy in blending our voices and instruments.
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In the beautiful summer landscape of Rindge, New Hampshire, I was privileged to teach traditional Jewish papercut arts at the annual National Havurah Committee's Summer Institute. We turned a large, sunny room into an art studio, and the class burst into enthusiastic art creation. I love the celebratory greeting of everyone's creations as skills and appreciation deepen over four days of classes. I'll come to you! Just ask!
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Back to the Catskills, this time teaching for HAZAK, a group under the umbrella of United Synagogue that offers among its programs an annual summer week of learning and camaraderie. I used my lecture/recital format to widen the world of Yiddish song for about 150 life-long learners as we studied, laughed, sang a bit, and grew to know one another in Kerhonkson, NY.
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When Nancy Spielberg screened her film Above and Beyond in Harrisburg's Chisuk Emuna Congregation, I was tapped to create a papercut gift for her. I chose the color scheme of her promotional material and the Hebrew words which translate into "Be strong... and strengthen one another." The filmmaker and I are shown here. (photo by Josh Damrauer)
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Each year the myriad of faith communities in the Harrisburg region come together to celebrate in song. Here's an image of my participation, sharing the beauty of Yiddish song at the Pine Street Presbyterian Church.
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One of three children's programs to wind up a hectic and marvelous Scholar in Residence program at Congregation Beth El in Fairfield, CT. Lectures, singing programs, explorations of Yiddishkayt - and a debut concert of the new Leviton/Brody duo in concert! I'll happily come to your community, too!
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Yiddish Culture on St. Croix! I received the warmest welcome all across the island where I had the opportunities to teach a vocal arts class in a school, offer an adult papercutting workshop, lecture in the synagogue, and get the whole audience at the Reformed Church singing along in multiple languages! Cultural seeds planted and the smiles, voices, and hugs still linger in memory!
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The Judson Church off Washington Square was packed with well over 300 people on December 30, 2014, to honor the memory and brilliance of Adrienne Cooper, and to award Michael Wex with this year's Dreaming in Yiddish prize. Below is an image of the finale of the musical performance of the Kanonen song from Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera, translated from the German into Yiddish by Wex himself. An all-star band backed us as we belted out the Army Song and others, accompanied by the brilliant puppetry and staging of Great Small Works and Power Point translations which made the text a little less inscrutable! What a night! Singers below include Sarah Gordon, Eleanor Reissa, Tine Kindermann, Dan Kahn, myself, and others.
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A whirlwind arts week in Caldwell, NJ at Congregation Agudath Israel allowed me to open Jewish folk arts to energetic groups from preschoolers through elders. The tots sang and acted out Yiddish songs with costumes and props, the school students (4 larger groups) explored paper arts and traditional papercutting, and adults were treated to a series of lecture recitals, everything taking place in a large space where I hung over 35 works of framed art. What a fabulous arts residency for all of us together!
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Nearly 100 people attended a lecture/recital stitching together I. B. Singer's writing and the artists who illustrated his books as Susan sang her way through the bookshelves, Sunday, November 16, at Chisuk Emuna Congregation in Harrisburg, PA. This was the second event in the year's programming under a grant from the Koster Foundation.
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I was guest lecturer at Dickinson College today, October 6, singing my way through a program on Jews and Food. Unlike the light weight singalongs I often do on this topic, the class took food songs into the framework of Hasia Diner's examination of the place of food in Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement through acculturation in America. 15 songs unpacked! A great eye-opening experience for all!
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Heeding God's Call is a national organization working at a grassroots level to end gun violence and straw buying. On September 18, within days of two gun murders in Harrisburg, I participated in an interfaith program at the MLK Baptist Church in the heart of our city. We 'sang' Reisen's Dos Naye Lid together as the assembled crowd held colored cards with words in Yiddish and English.
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A happy bride at the huppah with her papercut ketubah! 'Tis the season, and I've been busy with commissions of all sorts!
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A full week of learning and teaching at the Havurah Summer Institute was a welcome experience again this year. Located at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire, about 300 Havurahniks from infancy to elder sage-age filled days and nights with enthusiastic work, food, music, and exploration. I taught classes in Yiddish song and helped create a soundscape for Tisha B'Av this summer. Loved it!!!
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A lovely way to begin the summer's KlezKamp's Wisconsin adventure was a solo concert at Chai Point in Milwaukee. Jill Gellerman and were welcomed to the beautiful facility and then I sang for and with a great crowd of elders, eager to be part of the action!
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Quite a surprise when I met the truck from Welch Signage in Maine, carrying the massive synagogue feature wall I had designed, to see a piece of my own artwork prominently displayed on both sides of the vehicle!
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I performed for over 100 people at beautiful Maris Grove in Pennsylvania's Delaware County on May 13. As part of the PA Humanities Council's program of Commonwealth Speakers, I was able to bring the sound of Yiddish to an audience largely unfamiliar with the language and culture. As always, common threads were immediately found!
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Verrry busy these days creating a synagogue feature wall, but I took time last week to be interviewed for Ted Merwin's article "The Aesthetics of Judaism" in The New York Jewish Week. Here's a quote: "For Susan Leviton, a ketubah-maker, paper-cut artist and Yiddish folk song performer ..., it was during the 1960s and ’70s, when many Jews flocked back to their roots, that Jews... 'took Judaism back into their own hands' and began braiding challahs and tie-dying prayer shawls. Hiddur mitzvah 'alters us as we fulfill a mitzvah or perform a ritual,' she told me. A Midrash (Song of Songs Rabbah 1.15) suggests that observance of the commandments makes Jews beautiful, even as Jews glorify God through hiddur mitzvot."
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An outpouring of love and creativity filled the room as we honored the memory of Adrienne Cooper and saw Jenny Romaine accept the first Dreaming in Yiddish award for her visionary work. Here's Susan on stage with Alicia Svigals, Jake Shulman-Ment, Benjy Fox Rosen, Aaron Alexander, Michael Winograd, and Dan Blacksberg, 12/21/13. (Photo by Bob Blacksberg)
When Goucher College Hillel welcomed a gift of two Torah scrolls, I was honored to craft mantles and wimples. So much silk! Garnet polished to look like pomegranate seeds! Text and the visions of students to work with! A grand experience.
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A totally spectacular group of artists, writers, social activists, and even puppeteers joined me for a week of creative work as I served as Artist in Residence at the 2013 National Havurah Conference Summer Institute in Rindge, NH. In 4 days of intense collective learning and creating, we built a musical theater production in a box (a cranky) and shared the story of the plight of needleworkers, past and present, with 300 others in a rapt audience!
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It was a beautiful day in Baltimore as the Jewish Museum of Maryland presented its annual Risch Memorial Program. I was delighted to be the featured performer, following brief, powerful presentations by Andres Salguero, Ssuuna, and the DC Turkish Folk Music Group. It always touches me to rediscover the points of connection among immigrant communities, regardless of geographic homes, cultures, and reasons for relocation. A brilliant celebration of cultures!
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Over 350 pieces of beautiful Youghiogheny Art Glass hand-cut, and now I'm on to wet-grinding the edges! It's a new skill that I'm happy to add to my resume as I take on the responsibility to create a soaring double wall of glass above the Torah ark for Chisuk Emuna Congregation in Harrisburg, building anew after a destructive fire in 2009. Check back in mid-May for a look at the completed wall!
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Getting closer to a new recording! Michael Winograd spent a day in the studio on March 28 with Frank London, Dan Blacksberg, Hadar Noiberg, and Alec Speigelman to lay down horn tracks for my as-yet-unnamed CD. Dan Kahn joined in as a special guest vocalist. Next will come strings and soon after that the mixing and mastering, printing and artwork, and OT AZOY! A new Yiddish recording!
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A whirl of creative activity has sent me to the sewing machine to craft two Torah mantles for Goucher College Hillel. One of the scrolls is a rescued Torah from Czechoslovakia, so armed with a palette of palest greys, golds, silvers, and ivories, I headed to Chinatown in NYC on a rainy day to seek silks! What a delight to discover Belraf Fabrics, owned by an Uzbeki couple. A trip around the world in fabric! Take a peek here are the first days' construction.
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I'll be guest lecturing at Dickinson College in Professor Ted Merwin's class during the week that we commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. My program on the fire in words and Yiddish song continues to grow as I learn, and to sadly resonate as we all ponder how little has changed in global workplace safely in the last century. See "Upcoming Events" for details.
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Each year as KlezKamp ends, I proclaim, "This was the best ever!" And every year I mean it. And this year I mean it more! The staff concert nearly lifted the roof off what had been, in its glory days The Granite Hotel in the Catskills. My classes (traditional papercutting and "Our Lives are in our Songs") were filled with curious, thoughtful participants who challenged one another to take each idea to a new level. What an experience. Do not miss this next December!! (sneak peek? Check out the KlezKamp post under Upcoming Events for a video clip!)
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December 22, 2012. Kaye Theater in Manhattan. I soared on the energy of dozens of the finest performers of Yiddish song and Klezmer as we paid tribute to Adrienne Cooper's memory in a three-hour concert of the songs she most loved. What a thrill to sing 'Di Arbuzn' a cappella, in three parts with women performers including Alicia Svigals, Lauren Brody, Shura Lipovsky, and Marsha Gildin. It was both a humbling and energizing evening. Sing out!
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I've just been selected as one of ten 2013 Guild of American Papercutters/X-acto Masters. This means over the course of the coming year I will be testing tools and materials and interacting with other artists to hone our skills and increase interest in papercutting arts. Very exciting!
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Are you aware of the Commonwealth Speakers program under the PA Humanities Commission? Every two years, a roster of artists, story-tellers, historians, and musicians selected by the PHC are able to travel the state offering specific programs at no cost to groups (schools, libraries, state parks, etc.!) other than a basic application fee. I just returned from Ohev Sholom in Williamsport and will head to Reading on Thursday to bring Women's Voices in Yiddish Song to the Federation's Friendship Circle there. Visit the website at www.pahumanities.org and check it out! Free programming! What are you waiting for???
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It's been a long time coming, but here I am, immersed in the joy of working in collaboration with brilliant musicians as I prepare a new recording! Production is in the fine hands of Michael Winograd, and the initial tracks have been laid down with David Licht, Jake Shulman-Ment, Carmen Staaf, Garth Stevenson, and Avi Fox-Rosen, with Lauren Brody and others joining in soon! Hmm... mostly Yiddish, with some surprises mixed in, and everything from spare acoustic accompaniment to over-the-top orchestrations. There'll be more and more about the project as it emerges from its infancy, so watch for news! Perhaps a concert or cd release party in your neighborhood down the line...
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Kesher Zion Congregation in Reading, PA welcomed me as artist-in-residence for the weekend of November 9, 2012, as the congregation honored the memories of Dr. Robert Greenberg and Evelyn Blumberg. I was delighted to find myself in the company of the congregation's brilliant Rabbi Minna Bromberg and rooms full of enthusiastic people hungry to experience new 'takes' on Jewish culture. My programming included a presentation of Yiddish songs of spiritual yearning, a lecture on contemporary Jewish ritual art, and then a rollicking concert on Saturday night with the newly expanded Old World Folk Band! Be sure to check the "Upcoming Events" tab to see where else I'm scheduled to spread YIddish culture!
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I can't say enough about the wonderful Tree of Life Congregation in MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA, where I just spent a weekend as scholar in residence. If you go to my 'coming events' tab, you may see the whole arc of the weekend, but I want to focus here on the response to my "Rage Against the Sewing Machine" presentation on Saturday night, October 27. Among the folks in attendance were physicians, attorneys, and workplace safety experts who each added to a passionate conversation about the effects of completely unregulated natural gas extraction on West Virginians, coal miners' safety issues, and even the plight of disabled people in sheltered workshops who, like the needle workers of 100 years ago, are largely groups without a voice. 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' And yet we still find inspiration to act for social justice when we learn and sing the songs of our forebears. "Give us bread and give us roses!"
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A radio interview for a BALTIMORE station (WVIE 1370) allowed me to share some insights into the history of labor activism in the United States on September 2, 2012 - Labor Day weekend. So much more meaningful than running to sporting goods stores for sale items, this was a chance to engage listeners in anthemic Yiddish songs and their contexts. So many songs... so little time! But every time a Yiddish song is SUNG, it lives a new life.
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It's late summer, so a trip to the BLOCK AND HEXTER VACATION CENTER in Poyntelle, PA came around on my calendar. My teaching schedule allowed me to alternate sessions with fellow presenter Saul Silas Fahti, as we worked to expand the artistic, musical, polititcal, and in Saul's case, even cosmological horizons of the elders who flocked to the Poconos to participate, learn, and (it's a Jewish camp!) eat 3 squares a day. Whether singing, lecturing, or engaging in issues, I always learn from interactions with program participants. One highlight this year was meeting two Hungarian-born sisters who offered me a macaronic (mixed language) song that alternates lines between Hungarian and German/Yiddish. Will it make the cut on my upcoming recording? Stay tuned!
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A quick trip to MADISON, WISCONSIN as part of "A Bisele KlezKamp" on July 22 was a terrific bright spot in a busy summer season! Over 200 people buzzed around programming by some of the best teacher/artists in the Yiddish folk arts world as Michael Wex, Cookie Segelstein, Lauren Brody, Henry Sapoznik, Sherry Mayrent, Miriam Isaacs, David Spies, Sara Gordon, Kurt Bjorling, Steve Weintraub, and I managed to compress a week's worth of learning into one fabulous day. Keep up-to-date with U. OF WISCONSIN'S MAYRENT CENTER to find out what Yiddish programming will be offered throughout the year before our triumphant return next summer!
On Friday night prior to 'ABKK' I was hosted by Congregation Shaarei Shomayim where I presented an a cappella lecture/recital titled "Healing the World in Yiddish Song." Given the political upheavals and charged emotions in Madison these days, the program was a welcome one. The room was packed with people of all ages, and it was a special joy to me to be singing in a room within Frank Lloyd Wright's historic Unitarian Church, where the congregation meets regularly.
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Lauren Brody and I head to PITTSBURGH on June 3 for two concerts, a family event in the morning, and a full concert in the late afternoon at the JCC, in conjunction with the Jewish Museum's exhibit on the artists who illustrated the works of I.B. Singer. We're working up new material and are delighted that both PennPAT and the PA Humanities Council are supporting the program with generous grants. Come celebrate Yiddish culture!
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Healing the World in Yiddish - This lecture/recital program drew people from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages to a program sponsored but DICKINSON COLLEGE, the Literary Heritage Fund, Association for Jewish Studies, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg on April 24. With PowerPoint translations and even a visit from Dan Kahn and the Painted Bird on screen, we explored the drive for human rights that infuses Yiddish song, and the activism that the songs inspire. As part of a series titled "Telling Jewish Stories through the Arts," the evening's riches were obvious as participants lingered over tea and cake and shared the stories that bubbled up in response to the presentation. What a great night!
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On Sunday, April 1, the Jewish Federation of Greater DAYTON and the Lynda A. Cohen Yiddish Club welcomed Lauren Brody and me for a concert. It was the first time that Lauren and I had the opportunity to present a full concert and we felt like siblings on the stage, finding parallel expressions of meaning and intention in her accordion and my voice without even a nod or a word. Utilizing the full range of her instrument, Lauren crafted a unique setting for each song, and the 'whole cloth' was fantastic.
We're already warming up for an upcoming event in June, so stay tuned for details!!
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MAURICE SENDAK! I write this on the day of Maurice Sendak's passing. (If you haven't heard both the recent Fresh Air interview and the hilarious pair of Colbert interviews with the incomparable Mr. Sendak, go find them NOW and come back here in an hour...) I am grateful and humbled to have had the opportunity to spend several months immersed in the life and work of Mr. Sendak, preparing for a program built around the Rosenbach's exhibit of the influences of his Jewish world on his life's work. So on Sunday, April 15, the Haverford Public Library swelled with the sounds of Klezmer as I took over the children's wing of the library to present "Yiddish in the Nutshell" with Ken Ulansey on clarinet and Heath Allen on keyboard. Sendak's early life in a Yiddish-speaking immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn, the awareness of evil in the world, and the fears and bravery of children shaped much of his life's work, and I blended his personal life into songs and stories for a rollicking hour. The program was interactive, with sing-alongs, props, costumes, and wild Sendakian tales abounding. It was a Yiddishe Vilde 'Rumpus' for everyone's inner child! Pick up a book by Maurice Sendak and look deeply into it. You may be changed!
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LAFAYETTE COLLEGE Hillel hosted me on Tuesday night, March 20 for a program in song and story on the actual history of the Sarajevo Hagaddah. It was a real one-woman show as I demonstrated design, lettering, and gilding techniques of the centuries-old masterpiece, as well as recounted its improbable story interspersed with songs in the Sarajevo dialect of Judeo-Spanish, in Yiddish, and in Hebrew, along with a Moroccan chant - all related to the Hagaddah. The audience included students, college faculty, and local residents, and there was a lively Q and A at the conclusion of the program. Lafayette has a gorgeous old campus perched above the city of Easton at the confluence of the Delaware and Raritan rivers. I hope to return!
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LAUREN BRODY will join me in presenting a full concert in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday, April 1 for the annual event honoring the memory of Lynda A. Cohen. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to share the stage and have been working up two terrific sets for the Yiddish club and expected gathered throngs!
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A presentation of my concert "Women's Voices in Yiddish Song" at Penn State University in Middletown, PA on February 23 drew people from Lancaster, York, Lebanon, and the greater Harrisburg area. Having been interviewed for an upcoming article in a Dayton, Ohio paper the night before, I kept thinking during the concert of a particular question I was asked: "What do you want people to take away from your performance?" So I'll tell you: I want people to be so surprised and touched that they come away with a desire to dig a little deeper into Yiddish culture and discover something about themselves. The values and history that are packed into our songs go far in teaching us how to know ourselves if we just open our hearts a bit. That's why I sing. Oh, and also, I sing because I can't NOT sing!!
Only a week to go before Kerhonkson, NY becomes the temporary capital of Yiddishland! This year at KlezKamp I'll be teaching the hands-on papercutting course and a four-session a capella lecture/recital course.
I'm especially looking forward to the time I'll be carving out with fellow PennPAT artist SUSAN WATTS to work on some vocal duets and arrangements, and to begin taking concrete steps towards my NEW RECORDING, which will be produced by the amazing MICHAEL WINOGRAD! Check this website regularly for announcements, too, of a new duo in the works featuring MICHAEL WEX and Susan Leviton. Use your imagination for now - details to follow soon!
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On Sunday, November 20, 2011, I presented a "Conversation with the Artist" in conjunction with the "Making it Better: Folk Art in Pennsylvania Today" exhibit in which one of my papercuts is featured. I demonstrated the art of Jewish papercutting and shared insights into its history and contemporary expressions with about 30 museum-goers. On exhibit through April 29, 2012, Making It Better tells the stories of over 30 master artists whose works represent a wide array of traditions such as African dance, stone wall construction, Native American clay flutes, Pysanky eggs, contemporary blacksmith work, woodcarving, and Vietnamese funerary portraits. I'm honored to have been chosen to have my work represented among so many brilliant examples of folk arts.
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Groundbreaking for Chisuk Emuna Congregation's new synagogue took place in Harrisburg on Sunday, October 16, 2011, and over 350 people celebrated with a block party that featured kugel in a sukkah, carnival food, games and abundant crafts for children, and an afternoon of outstanding music: klezmer, jazz, and old-timey. Bands set up on a concrete pad at one end of the soon-to-be-a-shul property, and music filled the air! I had the pleasure of singing once again with the Old World Folk Band, which has recently welcomed several new musicians as regulars, and which added additional guest performers for the outdoor event.
The synagogue was destroyed by an accidental fire in 2009, and more recently was left homeless when The Flood of 2011 forced the congregation from temporary quarters in the JCC. The sense that the next plague was waiting in the wings was banished by the wonderful welcome to a new neighbrhood, and it looks like the block party may become an annual event!
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A whirlwind few days at the 14th annual IAYC (International Association of Yiddish Clubs) conference in Novi, Michigan offered me the opportunity to perform and teach, and to meet people from all over the country who gathered to celebrate Yiddish culture. Highlights for me were presenting my powerful lecure/recital, "Rage Against the Sewing Machine" in this 100th anniversary year following the Triangle Fire, and joining Dan Kahn on the bandstand following my solo concert.
To see parts of one of my programs at the conference, please visit www.yiddishlives.com/susanleviton
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