in 1987/88, Rob Malerman started Cafe Israel running out of the Klein JCC in the Northeast. Below there is other memorabilia, but we start our script displaying a TShirt of that session as worn by Robin recently. The idea of shirts for sale is not unusual as most Israeli dance workshops of a weekend or longer duration have this, but it is uncommon for a session. Nevertheless, Malerman got a good response when he put these on sale.

To your left is the duplexed (computerese for two sides of a paper) original flyer announcing the inaugural night of Cafe Israel, the forerunner to the Sunday Israeli dance session at the Klein JCC. The red line delineates the different sides of the page. We thank Rob Malerman for this and other information and hope shortly to provide a script on this web site documenting this Sunday dancing and mingling event held from 1987 through 2000. On the left you can see the official opening date of Nov 1st, 1987 although we are told by Rob that for several weeks this session was operating provisionally prior to the official announced opening. The provisional night attendances were in the 30-40 range with the official opening attracting more than 100 participants. Subsequently, it would prove successful since he regularly hosted over a 100 participants each week. The session's format was based on several locations in the LA area including Cafe Danssa originally created by the choreographer Dani Dansa and later owned and managed by Dave Blume who combined journalism and dance into a unique life style.

How about the flyer itself? Prior to 1980, flyers like this would need an artist (or at least someone with art layout experience) to compose this using real cut and paste - exacto blade knife and either wax or rubber cement - to create 'copy' that was photographed (later xeroxed or mimeoed) to create the document. After 1990, computer graphics had advanced enough so that users could generate this themselves. Between the two dates, especially by 1985, Apple was already providing some support for this with its early Lisas and Macs. If memory serves this was called presentation graphics by Apple in its advertising. Shortly, software makers such as Ventura and forerunners to Adobe were to follow this technology on IBM PCs. This what we have here and to quote Rob Malerman, "I did [this flyer] myself. Typeset with an Apple Macintosh (original with signed interior case). Cut with Exacto blade knife and pasted with rubber cement into a master, and Xeroxed." Of course, if done today, this could be created in a word processor, a program similar to Powerpoint or in a desktop publisher.

As you are aware from other scripts on this web site, the Germantown group has had an expanding attendance throughout the last 2 years. In fact, early in March, 2011, the session saw 30 dancers simultaneously in step around the circle. Much of this attendance increase is due to the leadership of Tamar and Grant and dancers specifically cite Grant, and his accomplished (but low-key) leadership skills, as part of the reason they enjoy the Germantown session so much. On June 20th, 2010, several dancers decided to show their appreciation by commissioning Deborah Kaplan, whose work you have seen on this web site, to come up with a commemmorative plaque to present to Grant. This plaque is shown to the left.

You can specifically see Deborah Kaplan's work at www.deborahkaplancalligraphy.com but this plaque is a good example of her talent in calligraphy. The art work of the lettering is supposed to be pleasing to the eye but the hidden talent is in not overwhelming the eye with massive scripts. Here we see to the left of the picture an ornate column (and to some degree an ornate row, also, at the top) which forces your eye (although you don't know it) into the center to read the inscription. For most of us, this would be an effort to concieve and create. But Deborah, with her artistic talent, does this intuitively. We think you would agree that both the sentiment expressed and the art work makes this a significant presentation.

You can see the presentation of this to Grant on the Germantown dinner dance script.

This web site is already familiar with Deborah's talent. Many of our logos derive from her talent including the two shown here. To the left is the logo for the 12 series of CDs. The rightmost is the log for the 13 series.

The present Hora Aviv started as Dance Washington in the late 90's and the logo for this appears on the tee shirt emblem to the left. For 3 years Dance Washington was resident at Wilson college and when it moved to the Berks campus of Penn State University, a design and name change was called for and the result is the emblem to the right. Since this emblem's inception, different colors have been used to denote the years. Looking at this closely, the figure seems to be a caricuture of Shmuel Batzri, who is the founder and president of the camp, although this has never been confirmed. To see a pictorial on Hora Aviv' 2009,click here.

During summer'09, Germantown Jewish Center decided to run a freeby on Wednesday, August 12th. (note:We doubt if the folks at germantown are so aware but that date would have been the 45th anniversary of the death of the the author, Ian Fleming, who may every now and then be mentioned on this web site). Not only was a session of Israeli dance offered, but various other activities could be sampled that night including as you can see to the right and above, a night at the opera. And, for those with a more cuilinary bent, a seminar on baking challah.

This is so much like Germantown and what dancers experience every Sunday. (Note: dancing switches to Wednesday nights during th summer) This facility is a beehive of activity with not only Israeli dancing occurring, but the activities of the Sunday school and various other programs which could just as easily include a mayorial debate as a sleep and dream seminar or a yoga retreat. This is what makes the centre such fun to enter every Sunday Morning. However, the summer schedule moves these activities to week nights and above and to the left of this paragraph is the art work created for this Wednesday evening during the summer of 2009. To see a pictorial on dancing at Germantown and on the newly furbished Marcus auditorium, click here

When Don stopped his Tuesday class in 2008 at Beth Hillel/Beth El (a facility from which he is now running periodic partner workshops), a void was created for those dancers who were attending that session. Israeli dance is somewhat funny in the fact that it is very addictive. The more you do, possibly the more you want to do. Sharon Polsky, who also runs a Tuesday class that has been in existance since 1998, decided to advertise her class for those in need of a Tuesday dance fix. She created a flyer and you can see her artwork at the right (and possibly above) of this paragraph.

Talma held a marathon on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend '09 in honor of her daughter's recent wedding. This went from 8 in the evening to 3 in the morning, very consistent with most Israeli dance marathons. To announce this event, Talma created a flyer pictured to the left. This was handled out at many of the summer dance sessions to make dancers aware of this coming event. This was augmented by announcements at these dance sessions, emails and announcements on facebook. Below is the flyer. Talma's marathon was one of 2 events that say and you can a pictorial on the events of Sept 5, 2009 by clicking here.

In the style of "America's got talent", Beth Shalom synagogue in Wilmington will hold a talent show where the Arden Israeli dancers will perform. The flyer to the right describes this event to be held Dec 12th. This will not be a first for Wilmington as it has danced on special assignments in the past. You can see this by clicking here.

The Cherry Hill dancers have participated in many field trips in the last few years. Recently, there has been an addition to the program - in fact itis programs done by the well known local srtists, Alison and Andrew. This web site has been very lucky to be provided with copies of this art reproduced both left and right

On Sunday, October 25th, 2009, the Cherry Hill group did a show at the Brith Sholom house in the Wynnefield heights section of Philadelphia. It's safe to say that this demonstration of Israeli dance was well received and was augmented by the program, displayed to the left, created by those well known artists: Alison and Andrew. On Feb 21, 2010, a similar set of performances were held at Lionsgate and again the artists Alison and Andrew provided the programs indicated to the right. Each program provided the list of dances that were to be performed. The artists themselves took the time to personally hand each in the audience a copy of the program.

As you probably suspect, the artists Alison and Andrew are in great demand and their busy schedule of school, after school activities, parades and parties does not allow much time for these pieces described here. They have not been available for all the Cherry Hill field trips and missed at least one at the end of 2010. But, with the new year, they have reappeared better than ever. To the left is the art work for the program presented at Brendenwood on Jan 30th. The artists are very nice about this: they distribute these programs to the audience before the performance and, in many cases, discuss this art (and the dancing) with members of the audience.

As indicated above, the Arden dancers performed Saturday Night, Dec 12th, 2009 at Beth Shalom in Wilmington. To celebrate this, a new logo was proposed. The underlying theme was dancers in a circle and Elaine, the administrative coordinator of the group, took chage of this project. With some help she unveiled what you see at the left. This has been replicated on Tee shirts and sweat shirts and was very prominent in the group's visit to the 2010 Arden Fair where it performed. To the left is this logo.

The dancers at the Germantown Sunday morning dance group are now the proud owners of ceramic cups, one of which you can see to your right. Each cup is a piece of art in itself and you can see a writeup on these cups by clicking here