JEWS OF MISSOURI HISTORY COMES TO LIFE IN MARA W. COHEN IOANNIDES’ NEW BOOK
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Galit Lev-Harir (center) dances with the St. Louis Israel Folk Dancing group in the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School gym earlier this month. PHOTO: BILL MOTCHAN
Longtime folk dance group helps connect St. Louisans with Israel The St. Louis Israeli Folk Dance (IFD) group has been meeting for 50 years.
BY BILL MOTCHAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH LIGHT
Every Monday night the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School hosts a dance party in the gym. The participants, who range from teenagers to octogenarians, learn and practice the art of Israeli folk dancing. The St. Louis Israeli Folk Dance (IFD) group has been going strong for 50 years. It began as a Jewish Community Center-hosted program run by Shlomit Eisner. In 1978, Bob Olshan took over the group. Olshan learned to dance at age 8 growing up in Skokie, Ill. Now 69, he leads the late-night couples dance session. He shares his love for dance with his mother who, at age 95, still leads a Chicago-area group. Israeli folk dance is good exercise, and learning the routines is good for the mind, he said. “It helps your body physically and cognitively, and it’s fun, too,” said Olshan, who belongs to Kol Rinah. “You learn
the dances, and some are quite complicated. I know probably a thousand different dances.” Israeli folk dancing has an intricate choreography. It bears some similarities to country music line dancing, except that dancers form a circle. They take their cues from the leader, who also selects the music, which includes
Turkish, Asian and Kurdish influences. Add in Israeli pop music, and you’ll find a mashup of many styles. The songs and dance moves are directly related to Israeli culture and its arid desert climate. Israeli folk dancing came into its own as a movement in the several years See FOLK DANCING on page 6A
SEE SUMMER ARTS GUIDE ON PAGES 1B-8B
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In 1972 Gail Lang skipped her commencement to get married. On May 20, she got the chance to enjoy the pomp and circumstance she missed.
50 years later, Wash U grad walks in cap and gown BY ELLEN FUTTERMAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
On Friday, May 20, Gail Lang did something she had waited to do for 50 years — walk at her college graduation ceremony. There she was, replete in cap and gown, at the age of 71, walking with roughly 50 members of Washington University’s Class of 1972 onto the campus’ historic Francis Field where commencement was held. Gail and her classmates had returned for their 50th college reunion, and one of the perks was walking at graduation. She didn’t expect to feel so excited; in fact, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to attend the reunion, or walk at graduation, when she first learned about it. “Initially I wasn’t going to go to the reunion because the few people I’ve maintained a friendship with since college I am in touch with and the others I probably wouldn’t remember,” said Gail, who is a member of Temple Emanuel. “But there was mention in the information packet about walking at graduation. I started thinking this is my only opportunity and if I don’t do it now, I’ll regret it.” Gail missed walking the first time around because she had a wedding to attend. It happened to be her own. She met her future husband, Carl Lang, when she was a 20-year-old junior studying occupational therapy at Wash U and he was 25 and in law school there. Talking at a party late in the spring semester, she told him she had to stay in St. Louis over the summer to complete practicums for See GAIL LANG on page 7A