On Thursday, June 30th, friends and acquaintences of Ami Shapiro, both dancer and non dancer alike, converged on Adath Israel to honor his presence and acomplishments in life. Ami was world famous as an ophthalmologist, having given seminars in the latest surgical procedures in various countries such as Poland, China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and the like over many years. Ami also was known for his attendance at Israeli dance sessions as it was the rare session that he didn't attend. By 8PM that night, when these pictures were taken, the auditorium was filling up. Notice that a table of pictures of Ami throughout the years was prominently positioned and many of the attendees could be found looking at the various pictures of Ami which perhaps sparked a remembrance of previous events that they also were a part of.
This montage delves a bit deeper into the contents of the table and includes a picture of the slideshow that was on the side. As to the pictures, Ami was born in Israel and his service in the Israeli army coincided with the Yom Kipper war of 1973. If one of our editor's recollections is correct, Ami indicated that his Mother was a polish citizen during the German occupation of World War two and had fought the Nazi's within the Polish underground before escaping to what was then known as Palestine. She married Ami's father and had two children, both boys, both of whom grew up to be physicians. These pictures of a much younger Ami are taken during the early days of Israeli statehood, a period of multiple wars and turmoil.
As to the slide show, this was put together very quickly from pictures that are already on this web site and were shown on a screen provided by Don. [Ed Note: Ami is one of the principles of our Day In The Life Of A Dancer script; the pictures of the 2015 super bowl party and of Ami as an instrutor at the Eye Institute can be found in our personalities script.]
Generally on Thursday nights the Israeli dance community attends Don Schillinger's session at Adath Israel. In the following montages you will see Don in the background. While Don normally would be in charge, for this evening, especially at the onset, Jody was in the lead. She had planned this tribute to include a set of religious prayers to commemorate the recent passing of Ami, and then some short recollections from several of the attendees including herself. This montage documents this affair to the point that Jody starts the proceedings that will lead into the prayers.
The prayer session was led by Richard Rosen, who is married to Jani Rosen, and Steve Levine. Jani is known around the world for her efforts in popularizing Israeli dancing. Rick is a retired physician who dabbles in a variety of things including ham radio. Steve is a member of the Pennsylvania national guard. Rick and Steve led the group this night in two Jewish prayers.
Appropriately the first to give their thoughts about Ami was Iris. Many years ago Ami met Iris at a social event and she suggested (and drove him the first time) that he try Israeli dancing for the practical reason that most sessions have an abundance of women and male dance partners are generally in short supply. We're sure she didn't expect to see Ami merge into the groups with such ease. Iris, like all the speakers that followed, spoke about her various experiences, both somber and humorous, with Ami over the years. And, with all the speakers - Iris and everyone who followed - the audience hung on every word.
Another speaker remembering Ami was John Frank. John and Ami shared a profession - both being doctors - and obviously shared an interest in Israeli dancing. Above, in the slide show, you can see a picture of Ami and John together on the dance floor. We asked John to paraphrase his own remarks at this memorial and here we print his response
"I mentioned the 4 things we had in common, Jewish, love Israeli dancing, both physicians and both similar body stature. I mentioned all the good ideas he shared with me about how to save money on my trip to Israel. I ended saying what a generous, warm, humorous person Ami was. He showed unbelievable perseverance in the face of his illness. We will miss him very much."
John, being a psychiatrist, always is the serene port in the storm when in need of a friendly voice or support. The advice is distributed with a wry sense of humor as you may be able to discern from some of these pictures. We assume Ami took advantage of this as his medical situation worsened.
The next two speakers were Zev and Don. Zev related some stories about originally meeting Ami in the late 1980's apparently concurrent with Ami's decision to live and practice ophthalmology in the United States and specifically in the Philadelphia area. Ami apparently married shortly after relocating to the Philadelphia area and moved into his house in Gladwyne in the late 1980's, a house that many of the Israeli dancers would became familiar with as Ami would host annual parties especially for the Super Bowl. Don's remarks focused on Ami as a dancer. No-one would confuse Ami with Fred Astaire but he progressed slowly but consistently through the years and as Don would note he was a consistent regular at Israeli dance sessions around the Philadelphia region.
Jody has two children, fraternal twins. One of her offspring, Michelle, spoke about the twins' experiences with Ami. This was another moving speech as Michelle related as to how Ami had welcomed Jody's family into his house. Given Ami's medical background, one would expect that his medical advice would be spot on. But apparently Ami acted like a father figure to both twins in the advice given. And, as this web site can document, no one was more generous than Ami in the giving of time and in his propensity to treat. The last picture in this montage shows the interest in the audience to Michelle's remarks as many of these people could recite similar stories about Ami's generousity.
In one of the most sensitive and remarkable events seen at an Israeli dance session, Jody read a poem about her various experiences with Ami over the last few years. Jody and Ami started going together some time after Ami had been diagnosed with the disease. In spite of Ami's condition, he - accompanied by Jody - visited Equador and the Galapolas islands in one long trip and then later the Malay peninsula - including Malayasia and Singapore. Theirs was a very loving relationship which only got closer, perhaps more intimate, as Ami got sicker. The poem as narrated by Jody went through all the experiences of this couple and Jody, through smiles and tears, touched everyone's heart with its reading. Jody was the last of the individual remembrances.
After the service and the remembrances of the memorial speakers, there was a little time for those attending to congregate among themselves and reminisce about Ami. We think our photographer spanned the room in an attempt to document this. Among the photos here is the table where the pictures remembering Ami had accumulated.
At first this remembrance table was in the middle of the room but after a while it was moved next to the projector displaying what you have seen above on the wall. You can see Don supervising this movement. The rest of this montage shows several of the attendees looking at the photos, the slide show or perhaps both.