September 2024

The Tacy Foundation empowers children and teens to share hope and joy with hospital patients, military veterans, senior citizens, and disadvantaged youth through performances, music recording projects, and music mentoring programs.

Director’s Corner: Every time I set my GPS to a destination where a live music event features Tacy Foundation hosts and young performers, my spirit lifts and my heart is stirred. This summer from June 1st through the end of August, I visited many seniors and hospital sites:

In Maryland:  

BlackRock Center for a benefit concert, Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, Brookdale Senior Living in Olney, Brightview Grosvenor in Bethesda, Brightview Woodmont in Bethesda, Eden Homes Gainsborough Road and Liberty Lane in Potomac, Hebrew Home Landow House and Cohen Rosen House in Rockville, Hopkins Howard County General Hospital in Columbia, Sterling Care Rockville, Sunrise Brighton Gardens in Chevy Chase, Sunrise Rockville, The Seneca in Rockville, Waverly House in Bethesda, Worldshine Adult Day Care in Frederick, Hopkins Suburban Hopkins in Bethesda, NIH Atrium & NIH Patient Library in Bethesda, and Holy Cross Hospitals in Silver Spring and in Germantown.

In Northern Virginia: Brightview Great Falls in Great Falls, Fairfax County, Brightview Fair Oaks in Fairfax. Harmony at Chantilly in Herndon, Hunters Woods at Trail’s Edge in Reston, and Sunrise Hunter Mill in Oakton.

In Washington, D.C.: Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital.

Due to lack of weekends or unavoidable cancellations in the summer, the sites I missed were the following: Arleigh Burke Pavilion in Arlington, Tall Oaks of Reston, Falcon’s Landing in Potomac Falls, and Waltonwood in Ashburn, Loudon County (in Virginia); and Shady Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation and Brightview West End, both in Rockville (Maryland).

The live music opportunities I missed in Maryland are: Shady Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation in Rockville and Brightview West End in Rockville.

Those that I missed in the summer are first on my list for my next dose of music medicine, enrichment and re-vitalization in September and October. When I started the summer journey, visiting as many volunteers as I could at their favorite sites, I thought I was supporting their wonderful efforts by cheering them on. To my surprise, something magical occurred over and over again. Each volunteer transformed me! The audiences were visibly very moved by the beauty of these young musicians at each event. I know …because I was there to witness the generosity and the extraordinary exchange between youth and elders, youth and the sick, and youth who lifted the broken-hearted loved ones of very ill family members. In all cases, music and youth together brought a special healing medicine for the soul.

On Saturday mornings I also was able to see teens in action with children at Tanglewood Apartments, HOC, because Piano Pals continued there by popular demand. The Resident Counselor provided a wonderful celebrative brunch for everyone in gratitude for the volunteers. In addition, Housing Opportunities provided a banquet at the end of the Piano Pals classes last May. HOC administrators are requesting Piano Pals in other housing complexes where children would benefit greatly from learning to play and read music. Much new good work remains for us to tackle in the near future. What an exciting time to live!

Tacy volunteers in grades K-12, as well as alums now in college, medical school, law school, graduate school, teachers in grade schools, professional musicians and artists, ministers, writers, rabbis, priests, professors, sports coaches, IT managers, nurses, parents, entrepreneurs, life counselors, as always, philanthropists have all made me a better person.

You have changed my life for the better. This newsletter brings you, our youth volunteers, all my very best hopes for a wonderful year in school and in all aspects of your life! Thank you, parents, for inspiring me through your presence and your children’s music and art!        

Charlotte Holliday

Chess with Patients at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring

Capturing and Sharing Seniors' Stories

Michael Favin

Many residents of senior and assisted-living facilities where Tacy volunteers give performances have led fascinating lives. Our newsletter welcomes the stories of facility-residents who are willing to be interviewed by Tacy student volunteers. Below is some general guidance for volunteers interested in doing this.

• Talk to the facility management to request their permission to interview.

• Ask the facility management if they will give permission to include a photo of the person.

• Ask them for suggestions on whom to interview.

• Schedule an interview, no more than one a month.

• Interview the person. Ask the person:

  ►to summarize their life story and to highlight any unusual experiences or achievements.

  ►what music has meant in their lives.

  ►if they do or do not want their real name used.

  ►if they will give permission to include a photo.

• Draft the person's story (1-2 pages long).

• If feasible, let the person review your draft.

• Send the final draft to tacyfoundation.org.

To get the ball rolling, below is an article written in 1950 by my cousin, when he was a student, based on an interview with his uncle (my grandfather).

A DESIRE FOR FREEDOM

In chemistry we learn that on the earth's surface the wealthiest resources such as gold, silver, etc., are stored in one great lump. And so, it is with freedom. It also is stored in one great lump in what we call today a free country such as our own --- the United States of America. This is a story of my uncle Max, who wanted freedom, and of some of his adventures getting here.

My Uncle Max was born on February 9, 1890, in Krutie, Podolie State, Russia. Not much is known of him about this time except that at the age of six, he already had the desire to come to America. He would shiver with ecstasy from hearing anything about America or seeing someone that had recently come from there.

When he was about 18, he decided to leave Russia for reasons that so many other Russians had: no equal rights or opportunities for freedom of religion and little opportunity to obtain an education (the government ruled by the Czars didn't want the people to see that they were ruling in an undemocratic way). Most of all, Uncle Max had a desire to live in the land he had heard so much about.

It was hard getting out of the country. First he had to get a passport, but that was impossible, since he didn't have to much money. He came to the town of Noioselatz, near the border that separates Austria from Russia. There he was to be smuggled across. In this town there were a lot of Russian officers because of an incident that happened two days before. It seems that a group of Russian people who had been smuggled over the line to Austria had been shot at and one man was killed.

It was against Austrian law to shoot at someone over her lines, so the Austrian government demanded a penalty from the Russian government. Since now the soldiers were looking for other smugglers and people to be smuggled, Uncle Max had to hide for two weeks in a cellar -- not a clean ventilated cellar like you find in America.

My uncle could not stand it much longer and decided to run for it all the way by himself. On his way, crawling through the grass, he was spotted by two soldiers, and they signaled for him to stop. My uncle knew that he could not make it over now, so he got up and made a run back, jumping over fences. He was shot at but thanks to G-d, the shots missed.

My Uncle Max knew now that many other soldiers would be on the lookout for him. He ran to the railroad tracks, and by the grace of G-d again, who he knew was with him, a freight train was coming headed for Austria. He jumped it and waited. Just when he was sure of his safety, a gendarme, watchman for smugglers, found him. He was caught; all hope was gone. As he was being dragged by the soldiers, he heard some people speaking German. He then realized that he was in Austria. The Russian soldiers had to release him. He was free. He had been released of all his worries, but now would encounter new ones in his struggle to reach America. These, of course, would never equal the hardships overcome in getting out of Russia.

My uncle then traveled through Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and then to France. He found all these countries in bad condition. In France he was penniless. He slept on park benches and in subways until one day in the park, as he was begging for a few sous (French pennies), a man spoke to him in German. My uncle understood him. This man was of the famous financiers, THE ROTHCHILDS, who gave my uncle a job as a fireman in a bakery, shoveling coal. He slept on the coal, for he had no money for a room. Within six months he brought himself from the lowest paid person to general manager, the highest paid. The owner of the bakery wanted to adopt him as a son. My uncle, whose parents were still living then, did not want this, and since he had saved lots of money, he came to America.

On January 17, 1913, my Uncle Max arrived at New York harbor safely on the steamship Philadelphia. On stepping his foot on America's soil, he kneeled and kiss the ground with tears of happiness in his eyes. Those eyes were soon awakened to see the difference between the two counties, Russia and America. My Uncle Max found America all that it was said to be, a country where anyone can have a good education, work any place he wants, ride any place he wants, and have any kind of business he wants.

After five long waiting years, my Uncle Max became a citizen of the United States of America. He married and raised two wonderful American children that he is very proud of. He is now retired at the age of sixty and still thanking G-d for being able to live the greatest country in the world --- the United States of America.

Some additional pieces of Max’s story: He was the oldest of 12 brothers and one sister. His father managed a large estate near Odessa (today in southern Ukraine, then in Russia). Max arrived in the U.S. with little money, but by the late 1920s, through very hard work, he had become fairly wealthy. He lost most of his money in the Great Depression, then developed additional businesses in the 1940s, including a large industrial laundry in Georgetown. He retired due to deteriorating health and passed in 1958.

Max was able to sponsor three of his brothers to immigrate to the U.S. His parents and remaining brothers back in Russa did not survive the two world wars. His one sister came to the U.S. around 1970 but passed soon after.

Max had a son and daughter. The daughter was an excellent pianist who graduated from the Peabody Institute (Max established a scholarship in her name), and the son was my father.

Songwriters’ Shabbat Provides Community, Prayer through Music Every July

Zoe Bell

This story is reprinted with permission from The Jewish Observer (Tennessee), August 19, 2024.

A Jewish live music-sharing Facebook group sparked the idea for The Temple’s annual Songwriters’ Shabbat service.  

Inspired by Harmony in Unison, where Cantor Tracy Fishbein had performed some of her songs, she brought the concept home, crediting congregant Stacy Beyer, who co-founded the Facebook group of nearly 12,000 members.

“I noticed that a lot of our own Nashville community members — including members of The Temple — were sharing their own music with people, and part of that was, I think, Stacy’s influence,” Fishbein said in a phone interview. “And Stacy was really good about calming people and kind of helping them into presenting on the platform. That’s what she did with me; that’s how I got involved.”

Beyer spoke to fellow congregants at The Temple about Harmony in Unison: how the project began and how healing it was for herself and the community. The first Harmony in Unison service was in 2017, and it continued for nearly three years, Beyer said.

“I mean, the response was overwhelmingly positive, and people were so very, very proud to hear music of the synagogue written by their own temple members,” Fishbein said. “We knew that this was something that we had to continue. We had to do it again.”

Fishbein came up with the name “Songwriters’ Shabbat” and the rest is history. The service has been held every July since 2018, where songwriters of all ages perform original Jewish music for congregants of The Temple.

This year, the annual Songwriters’ Shabbat service is July 19 with live performances by members of the congregation and local Jewish musicians.  

“It’s a special service for our community, and one that really helps members of our community to shine, which is just such a delight for me and for the clergy and the members and the leadership of our congregation,” Fishbein said. “That’s really why we continue to do it.”

The performing songwriters range in age from their 20s to their 80s, with an array of differing musical abilities. Much of the music is folk and rock, and songs specifically written for Songwriters’ Shabbat fall under genres including pop, rock, classical and even musical theater.

“It expresses the individuality of every songwriter and the diversity of our congregation,” she said of the “wonderful blend” of musical genres.

Altogether, local composers have written nearly 50 pieces of original Jewish music for Songwriters’ Shabbat. Fishbein said she expects this number to rise in the next few months in preparation for this year’s service.

“We have people who have never written Jewish music, who maybe have written secular music, but have never touched Jewish music before, who are all of a sudden writing Jewish music,” Fishbein said. “We have people who weren’t songwriters at all; just wanted to try their hand at this and are now incredible songwriters. And we also have people who have come out of this experience, kind of finding that their way through the liturgy, or to understand the liturgy or connect with it, was through the music.”

Fishbein said recent converts to Judaism who may not be as familiar with Hebrew can use these songs to help them better “understand and internalize these words of prayer.”

“Not only is the music wonderful, but the fact that our people are taking the prayers of their shabbat service and crafting them into something that is meaningful to them and very much a piece of who they are, that’s really special,” Fishbein said.

Eitan Snyder, a Nashville musician and composer since the age of 15, is one of the performers at this July’s service who first performed at Songwriters’ Shabbat in July 2023.

“Creating new Jewish music is important because it’s a meaningful way to create in dialogue with the past,” Snyder said. “It’s a meaningful way to take something ancient and traditional and bring it into our contemporary times and be part of the chain of the Jewish people.”

Part of Fishbein’s job as cantor is to coach the songwriters through the composition process: helping with Hebrew pronunciation — as writing in Hebrew can be “intimidating” for some — walking them through the liturgy and crafting the song. Fishbein describes it as a partnership of sorts: “We will work together.”

Before the pandemic, professional instrumentalists performed for the Songwriters’ Shabbat service, but now, musicians typically come in with their own guitar or play the piano themselves.  

“It’s very much like a songwriters’ night in that way, where it’s very organic, and the person just comes up and they play the piece that they’ve written,” Fishbein said. “And we can and do provide accompaniment if people want to.”

Fishbein said she will sing pieces if the songwriter does not feel comfortable performing. Most of the time, the composers are willing to perform their songs.

Snyder, who performs vocals and piano, said that last year’s audience created a positive listening environment and that some congregants joined him in singing along….

For readers who would like to visit or revisit Zoe Bell’s very interesting article in our February newsletter on a Ukrainian musician, the link is:

https://www.tacyfoundation.org/blogs/news/inspiring-hope-this-february

The Tacy Foundation

Educational Mission: Foster youth development through music, story and mentoring

Philanthropic Mission: Empower youth to discover and use their gifts in service to others

Social Mission: Build community partnerships and create intergenerational connections

Whom We Serve

Seniors

Children

Teens

Service members

Veterans

Injured/sick

Economically disadvantaged

Individuals who want to serve

How We Serve (Programs)

Live music concerts

Reading Express®

Piano Pals®

Guitar Pals®

Composers’ Circle

Music USBs

Musical equipment

COVID projects through video, email, cards, puzzles for outreach to the community

Charlotte Holliday, Founder and Executive Director

Matthew D. Scott and Michael Tacy, Graphic Editors

Michael Favin, Chief Editor

Zoe Bell, Teen Editor

Max Belyanstev, Teen Editor

Donations are appreciated.  All adult and teen staff are volunteers.  No salaries or benefits. Every dollar you donate goes to supplies for all projects offered to the community. 

Thank you!