The Foundation for Wildlife Sustainability continues the second season of its Senior Social Club at the Long Island Game Farm, 489 Chapman Blvd., Manorville on Fridays, July 26, August 9 and August 23 at 10:30 a.m.
“We’re excited to bring back our Senior Social Club for another season,” shares Long Island Game Farm president Melinda Novak. “We introduced this program last year and it was a hit! Now working with our new nonprofit arm, the Foundation for Wildlife Sustainability, we can expand our educational programming across the game farm. It’s very special to have a social club for our senior community and offer ways for them to connect with nature, animals, and each other.”
Senior citizens (65 years+) will begin the morning exploring the grounds, visiting animals, and learning more about the various species at the game farm. A presentation in Woodland Hall will follow, with topics varying each week from rescued animals to wonders of wool, birding to nature photography, and more.
Seniors will enjoy a discounted admission of $10 to Long Island Game Farm on Senior Social Club days. For reservations, call 631-878-6644.
There are many reasons why estate planning is important.
Join Burner Prudenti Law, P.C. for an Estate Planning seminar titled Protecting Assets: Should I Put My Home in a Trust? at Sachem Public Library, 150 Holbrook Road, Holbrook on Tuesday, July 23 at 6:30 p.m. The program will cover how to protect assets, including property and second homes, the ways to reduce and eliminate taxes, and the importance of having a sound estate plan in place. To register visit burnerlaw.com/seminars-webinars/ or call 631-646-2733.
Offering A Unique Floral Experience On Eastern Long Island
Horton’s Flower Farm, 712 Horton Avenue, Riverhead announced on July 13 that it is open for the season. Nestled among the region’s famous wineries, Horton’s Flower Farm offers a unique opportunity for visitors to handpick their own bouquets from over 100 varieties of cut flowers.
“When you visit our farm, you’ll experience what hundreds of others have described to us: peace, serenity, and an escape from the noise and hustle of everyday life. Our farm is a throwback to a quieter, more serene time. Walking in the fields and cutting the flowers is as therapeutic as it is beautiful,” said co-owner Jeffrey Gross.
The farm is open daily from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with Sunset Picking available from 6 to 8 p.m. (Friday & Saturday only). Admission for adults is $3 and $2 for kids. Veterans, Nurses, Teachers, Seniors, and well-behaved, leashed dogs get in free.
When visitors first arrive at Horton’s Flower Farm, they choose the size of their bouquet based on the number of stems they want to pick. Each bouquet includes a mason jar to take home. After picking, guests are welcome to relax and enjoy the garden, have a picnic, or play games.
Additionally, anyone who buys flowers this season can win a lifetime of free flowers.
“On August 18th, five lucky people will be chosen to attend the Golden Ticket event. One winner will receive a lifetime of flowers, and the other four will receive a Family Pack of four passes for this season and next. Buy a bouquet, enter your email, and you’re in!” said co-owner Claudette Gross.
Group Bookings are available for Girl Scouts, bridal parties, bus tours, and more. Professional Photography services are available for families, couples, and special occasions.
“Plan your family visit to Horton’s Flower Farm. Create bouquets with your loved ones, enjoy a picnic at our tables, and let the kids play on our swing set and engage in family games. For couples, the farm offers a romantic experience where you can pick flowers together and enjoy the picturesque surroundings,” added Claudette Gross.
Group of partisans including Abba Kovner - his Vilna Partisans Brigade
Abba Kovner with rifle, famed Partisan from the Vilna Ghetto and founder of the Ghetto Fighters House Museum in Israel
Jewish female couriers disguised as “Aryans” who engaged in espionage, conveying news between isolated ghettos
An excavated canister in which some of the “Oneg Shabbat” secret archival documentation by Warsaw Ghetto prisoners was hidden
By Daniel Dunaief
Paula S. Apsell wants to correct one of the more insidious myths about Jews during the Holocaust.
Director Paula S. Apsell
The award-winning filmmaker is showing the documentary Resistance – They Fought Back at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington on July 25, offering numerous examples of Jews who fought against the murderous Nazi regime.
The film from Apsell, who will be at the Cinema Arts Centre screening to speak with the audience, chronicles resistance in many forms, from getting married in secret, to having children, to holding concerts, to caring for the poor, to smuggling food and weapons into ghettos and, ultimately, to guerilla combat.
These stories of courage and a readiness to fight back when any form of resistance could mean severe punishment or death not just for the person rebelling but for many others paint a completely different picture than the one in which Jews surrendered meekly to their fate.
“There were seven rebellions in death camps, and six of them were led by Jews,” said Apsell, who won numerous awards as executive producer for PBS NOVA films. “They still mustered the courage to rebel knowing they would die in the rebellion” and almost all of them did.
The survival rate among Jews in general and those who the Germans found were rebelling, which includes many in their late teens and early 20’s who were fighting to protect and defend their families, was low.
While she was an executive producer at PBS for the Nova science series in 2016, Apsell traveled to Lithuania near Vilnius, where she produced a documentary for PBS about Jews who were brought to a site to burn the bodies of thousands of other Jews whom the Nazis had murdered.
At night with shackles on, they used spoons to dig a tunnel over the course of 76 days. When they escaped, they filed off their shackles and raced towards a forest, with 11 of them surviving through the rest of the war.
Building on this story, Apsell, who worked with Lone Wolf Media and co-directed the documentary with Kirk Wolfinger, started gathering information for the Resistance film in 2019 and completed editing the movie in September of 2023.
Apsell, who herself is conservative about what she shares with her eight and 11-year old grandchildren, suggested the documentary is appropriate for juniors in high school or older, unless they have had some level of education about the Holocaust.
Compelling lives
Amid the many stories of courage and sacrifice, Apsell felt a particular connection with Bela Hazan.
A courier who brought information, money and weapons to the ghettos, Hazan posed as a Polish Christian woman and traveled along dangerous roads surrounded by Nazis who would imprison, torture or kill her if they knew of her work.
After Hazan survived the dangers of the war, her son Yoel Yaari, who hadn’t heard of his mother’s wartime activities, found two notebooks containing details about her work.
Yaari, who is the Henri and Erna Leif Professor for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine in Jerusalem, has told people through articles and his book “Portrait of a Woman” about his mother’s “astounding courage and what she had done for the Jewish people,” said Apsell. “We can all learn about courage in adversity.”
Apsell suggested that scholars knew about the way Jews had resisted, but that lay audiences often say they thought Jews went to their death as sheep to the slaughter.
Other ways to watch the film
Apsell is in the final stages of putting together a broadcast deal, which she hopes will be ready in January to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is on January 27.
She also plans to work with organizations that have relationships with schools and libraries so students can access the information.
These stories “ought to be a much more visible part of the history of the Holocaust,” she said.
“I had a mission to tell these stories,” Apsell said. “I felt like it was a personal commitment and a responsibility” to share these stories.
While Apsell appreciates and acknowledges that people who weren’t Jewish helped their Jewish friends, neighbors and even strangers, she felt like the focus on resistance has often been on outside help.
“In this film, my emphasis was on Jews rescuing other Jews,” she said.
The film includes interviews with five Jewish survivors who were among the resistance fighters. Resistance also uses considerable archival footage from organizations that had recorded interviews. The film’s narrators include actors Corey Stoll, Dianna Agron and Maggie Siff.
Dr. Jud Newborn, lecturer, author and curator at the Cinema Arts Centre, had an immediate reaction when he viewed the film.
“I was stunned,” said Newborn, who is an expert on Jewish anti-Nazi resistance and served as the founding historian of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage. “No documentary covers the panoply of Jewish resistance in its many forms and in such a moving as well as revelatory manner.”
Newborn, who will host a discussion with Apsell right after the screening, added that he thought this was a “groundbreaking film.”
While Newborn describes all manner of Jewish resistance in his multimedia lecture programs, he learned new stories because the movie pulls together “the most cutting edge information,” he said. “The subject of Jewish resistance breaks stereotypes and is deeply inspiring and energizing and it’s also deeply moving because they had to overcome obstacles unlike any people under Nazi occupation or indirect rule.”
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The Cinema Arts Centre, 423 Park Ave., Huntington will screen Resistance – They Fought Back on Thursday, July 25 at 7:15 p.m. with filmmaker Paula S. Apsell in person followed by discussion with moderator Dr. Jud Newborn. Tickets are $18 per person in advance at www.cinemaartscentre.orgor at the box office. For more information, please call 631-423-7610.
A scene from 'The Queen of My Dreams'. Photo courtesy of Baby Doll Productions
A scene from 'The Queen of My Dreams'. Photo courtesy of Baby Daal Productions
TBR News Media reporter Daniel Dunief recently interviewed Fawzia Mirza, Director and writer of the film “The Queen of My Dreams.” Set across two continents and spanning three decades, the movie, which will be screened at the Stony Brook Film Festival on July 19 at 7 p.m., highlights the similarities and tensions between a Pakistani Muslim mother and daughter during their formative years.
Have you ever thought about the ways that our country might change if everybody voted? If all the citizens, young and old, could register their opinions by going to the polls?Where could we start to make that happen?
It has been estimated that by February 2024 a total of 91,089 New York State teens have pre-registered to vote, an increase of 11.4% since February 2023. The Civics Center (www.thecivicscenter.org) pointed out that represents fewer than 20% of the state’s age-eligible teens (New York State allows teens to pre-register at 16, although they do not vote until they are 18).
We commend NYS Senator Shelley Mayer from White Plains for writing legislation, New York State Election Law 5-507, signed by Governor Hochul, requiring NYShigh schools and boards of education to adopt policies and procedures by July 1, 2024, to promote student registration. Schools are asked to provide registration access, information and assistance during the school year.
In school districts in New York State, students may work to earn a Seal of Civic Readiness. They learn how to identify and address problems in their community or school and earn at least two points in Civic Knowledge and two points in Civic Participation. Students may also earn points by completing a middle school Capstone project or a high school Capstone project.
What other methods have high schools and colleges found to be successful in increasing voter registration? In many schools a Civics Day in high schools and middle schools highlights the importance of voting and preparing to vote. In many schools, social studies teachers plan their curriculum around the importance of voting, and offer opportunities to register in school. Many college students arrive at their school already registered.
But for many students, voting is too abstract. They are more likely to register if they see evidence that their vote might address a problem that they know of. Generation Citizen, a nonprofit organization that works with schools, has been successful in leading student efforts to pinpoint problems in their school or community and find ways to correct them. The students research the source of the problem, and possible solutions, sharing their findings with the student body and faculty. Most often they learn which public officials could help them, and how to reach them.
They learn that they can contribute to a better environment for their school or community through their study and actions, and show other students that they can make a difference. The students in the Patchogue-Medford High School were successful in adding sidewalks in front of their high school.
Most important, perhaps, are efforts to involve young people in speaking up about issues that affect the residents in their community. For instance, a Youth Advisory Board was formed in Islip in 2022 to address the pressing issue of youth disengagement in Brentwood, Central Islip, and North Bay Shore.
Led by the board of their peers, they have held Youth Town Halls to address the issues of climate change and climate justice, and advocated for a local skate board park. Recently, knowing that many college students from families with low incomes rely on the New York State TAP (Tuition Assistance Program), they led, and won, a campaign to raise the TAP stipends each year.
Gathering support from other students by working through social media, they made contact with NYS Assemblymembers Phil Ramos and Patricia Fahy and NYS Senator Monica Martinez, convincing the state legislators to raise the family eligibility level for TAP from $80,000 to $125,000 and the amount of the awards to at least $1000. In May, the Youth Advisory Board partnered with the NYS Higher Education Services Corporation to present information on the TAP program at a Youth Town Hall meeting at Brentwood High School.
In each of our communities we need to reach out to the members of the Board of Education to remind them that we support more civic education in our schools, especially the New York State recommendation that schools find ways to encourage and provide registration opportunities for eligible students.
Nancy Marr is Vice-President of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County. For more information, call 631-862-6860.
When he was young, Simon Birrer asked his parents for a telescope because he wanted to look at objects on mountains and hills.
Simon Birrer. Photo Studio, Mall of Switzerland
While he was passionate about science and good at math, Birrer didn’t know at the time he’d set his sights much further away than nearby hills or mountains in his professional career.
An Assistant Professor in the department of Astronomy and Physics at Stony Brook University, Birrer uses telescopes that generate data from much further away than nearby hills as he studies the way light from distant galaxies bends through a process called gravitational lensing. He also works to refine a measure of the expansion of the universe.
“All matter (including stars in galaxies) are causing the bending of light,” Birrer explained in an email. “From our images, we can infer that a significant fraction of the lensing has to come from dark (or more accurately: transparent) matter.”
Dark matter describes how a substance of matter that does not interact with any known matter component through a collision or pressure or absorption of light is transparent.
While they can’t see this matter through various types of telescopes, cosmologists like Birrer know it’s there because when it gets massive enough, it creates what Albert Einstein predicted in his theory of relativity, altering spacetime. Dark matter is effectively interacting with visible matter only gravitationally.
Every massive object causes a gravitational effect, Birrer suggested.
When a single concentration of matter occurs, the light of a distant galaxy can produce numerous images of the same object.
Scientists take several approaches to delens the data. They rely on computers to perform ray-tracing simulations to compare predictions with the astronomical images.
The degree of lensing is proportional to the mass of total matter.
Birrer uses statistics and helps draw conclusions about the fundamental nature of the dark matter that alters the trajectory of light as it travels towards Earth.
He conducts simulations and compares a range of data collected from NASA Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Hubble constant
Beyond gravitational lensing, Birrer also studies and refines the Hubble constant, which describes the expansion rate of the universe. This constant that was first measured by Edwin Hubble in 1929.
“An accurate and precise measurement of the Hubble constant will provide us empirical guidance to questions and answers about the fundamental composition and nature of the universe,” Birrer explained.
During his postdoctoral research at UCLA, Birrer helped develop a new “formalism to measure the expansion history of the universe accounting for all the uncertainty,” Tomasso Treu, a Vice Chair for Astronomy at UCLA and Birrer’s postdoctoral advisor. “These methodological breakthroughs lay the foundation for the work that is being done today to find out what is dark matter and what is dark energy,” which is a force that causes the universe to expand at an accelerating rate.
Treu, who described Birrer as “truly outstanding” and one of the ‘best postdocs I have ever interacted with” in his 25-year career, suggested that his former student was relentless even after impressive work.
Soon after completing a measurement of the constant to two percent precision, Birrer started thinking of a “way to redo the experiment using much weaker theoretical assumptions,” Treu wrote in an email. “This was a very brave thing to do, as the dust had not settled yet on the first measurement and he questioned everything.”
The new approach required considerable effort, patience and dedication.
Birrer was “motivated uniquely by his intellectual honesty and rigor,” Treu added. “He wanted to know the answer and he wanted to know if it was robust to this new approach.”
Indeed, researchers are still executing this new measurement, which means that Treu and others don’t know how the next chapter in this search. This approach will, however, lead to greater confidence in whatever figure they find.
Larger collaborations
Simon Birrer. Photo by Rebecca Ross
Birrer is a part of numerous collaborations that involve scientists from Europe, Asia, and Middle and South America.
He contributes to the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). A planned 10-year survey of the southern sky, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is under construction in northern Chile.
The Simonyi Survey Telescope (SST) at the observatory will survey half the sky every three nights. It will provide a movie of that part of the sky for a decade.
The telescope and camera are expected to produce over 5.2 million exposures in a decade. In fewer than two months, a smaller commissioning camera will start collecting the first light. The main camera will start collecting images within a year, while researchers anticipate gathering scientific data in late next year or early in 2026.
The LSST is expected to find more strong gravitational lensing events, and in particular strongly lensed supernovae, than any prior survey.
Birrer is the co-chair of the LSST Strong Lensing Science Collaboration and serves on the Collaboration Council of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration.
Birrer is also a part of the Dark Energy Survey, which was a predecessor to LSST. Researchers completed data taking a few years ago and are analyzing that information.
From mountains to the island
Born and raised in Lucerne, Switzerland, Birrer, who speaks German and the Swiss dialect, French and English, found physics and sociology appealing when he was younger.
“I was interested in how the world works,” he said.
While attending college at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, he became eager to address the numerous unknown questions in cosmology and astrology.
“How little we know about” these fields “dragged me in that direction,” said Birrer.
An avid skier, mountaineer and soccer player, Birrer bikes the five miles back and forth to work from Port Jefferson.
In addition to adding a talented scientist, Stony Brook also brought on board an effective educator.
Birrer is “knowledgeable and caring, patient and at the same time, he knows how to challenge people to achieve their best,” Treu explained. “I am sure he will be a wonderful addition to the faculty and he will play a leading role in training the next generation of scientists.”
In terms of the advice he found particularly helpful in his career, Birrer suggested he needed a nudge to combine his passion for theory with the growing trove of available data. His PhD advisor told him to “touch the data,” he said. The data keeps him humble and provides a reality check.
The friction between thought and data “leads to progress,” Birrer added. “You never know whether the thoughts are ahead of the experiments (data) or whether the experiments are ahead of the thoughts.”
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Fourth Precinct Crime Section officers are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the woman who allegedly stole merchandise from a Commack store.
A woman allegedly stole merchandise, valued at $446, from Target, located at 98 Veterans Memorial Highway, on July 8 at 9:54 p.m.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS, utilizing a mobile app which can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play by searching P3 Tips, or online at www.P3Tips.com. All calls, text messages and emails will be kept confidential.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers and Suffolk County Police Sixth Precinct Crime Section officers are seeking the public’s help to identify and locate the man who allegedly stole merchandise from a South Setauket store.
A man allegedly stole a LEGO set, valued at approximately $230, from Target, located at 265 Pond Path, on July 12 at approximately 1:30 p.m. A store employee confronted the man as he left the store and recovered the merchandise.
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information about these incidents can contact Suffolk County Crime Stoppers to submit an anonymous tip by calling 1-800-220-TIPS, utilizing a mobile app which can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play by searching P3 Tips, or online at www.P3Tips.com. All calls, text messages and emails will be kept confidential.
Rendering of artist locations around the village for the Music Throughout the Village event. Photo courtesy Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce
Local organizations collaborate to host weekly event
By Aramis Khosronejad
This past weekend, a musical addition to the Port Jefferson community has been added to the charming local streets, Music Throughout the Village.
A collaboration between The Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Port Jefferson-Northern Brookhaven Arts Council and Port Jefferson Retailers Association, it is a program that will bring music to this cozy, small town.
This summer event consists of local musicians, who will have the opportunity to play for spectators at set locations. Passersby will be able to “shop and dine in our community,” according to the retailers association, while enjoying the relaxing ambiance.
The ultimate goal for this musical program is to get it “codified” so it can become a permanent fixture of the community, said Barbara Ransome, director of operations for the chamber of commerce.
The program will run every Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. from July 13 to Oct. 20. Each musician has been carefully reviewed and vetted by the arts council.
Through the coming weekends, the musicians can be heard in select locations around the village.
“There are four locations though that can, certainly, be expanded,” Ransome said. The current venues are at the intersection of Arden Street and Main Street in downtown Port Jefferson (next to the local Starbucks), as well as by the popular restaurant Salsa Salsa on Main Street, the Kate & Hale store on East Main Street and, finally, near Tiger Lily Café further down East Main.
This past weekend’s musicians, Hank Stone, Denise Romas, Faith Krinsky and Karl Blessing, were from a variety of musical genres.
“What better way than to walk through a beautiful town hearing beautiful music?” said a spokesperson from the retailers association.
To view a map of current and future concert locations and for additional information, go to the chamber of commerce and retailers association’s Instagram pages, also the respective Facebook pages.
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