Joshua Malina (Class of '80)

I was psyched to be cast in the role of Applegate, the slick salesman to whom Joe Boyd sells his soul in exchange for a shot at the pennant. Among the highlights of the experience were a backstage tussle with Michael Rieber (can't quite remember what we were fighting about) and burning my hand with a low-tech magic trick during the climactic moment of the show. But most importantly, years later as I pursued acting professionally, I would often bolster my confidence by reminding myself that if I could manage to play the Devil at a yeshiva, I should be able to do anything.
 
Flash forward to 1988 -- I am out of college and living in New York City, trying to make it as an actor. I didn't have an agent at this point, so I could only go to auditions that were open to all union members. These were insane cattle calls with hundreds of people jockeying for one job. I saw a notice about an "open call" for a pizza commercial, so I dashed over to the location and hit the back of the line which was outside and around the block.

 

A couple hours later, I finally made it into the building, and to my horror I discovered that every actor was being given a slice of pizza to eat on camera. This normally wouldn't have been a problem, but it happened to be Pesach. When I got to the front, I tried to explain that I couldn't eat the pizza, but I'd do a great job miming it. "No," the casting director explained, "you gotta eat it on camera." At this point I tried to enlighten her on the fundamentals of Passover and the prohibition against eating leavened food. She was unmoved, so I launched into the Exodus story, beginning with Joseph being sold into slavery. No dice; I was out of luck. I walked away from the audition, Jewish pride intact, acting career stalled.
 
My last story is another Passover-related memory, albeit a happier one. In 1999, I got my first job as a regular on a TV series. It was a show called "Sports Night." In one episode, my character ("Jeremy") organizes a seder at work for his colleagues. It's a fantastic script that has Jeremy writing an Exodus play for his co-workers to perform and concludes with me saying kiddush. It was a treat to finally act in something with a little Jewish substance to it. Magnifying the fun was the fact that my parents and one of my sisters were there when we shot it.

 

Working on that episode is one of the highlights of my career. People of all religious backgrounds enjoyed the material. Ten years later, strangers still mention it to me, many adding that they were thankful for my use of "Adoshem" and "Elokeinu," which seemed appropriate to employ, as I had to film the scene about 20 times. I have always appreciated how my years at WDS helped me become the person that I am today. But I guess in some ways my time there also makes me the actor I am today, if only to the extent that I am able to add "Can recite kiddush" to the "Special Skills" section of my resume.

                               

I distinctly remember a sentence my mother repeated throughout my youth:  "I'm your mother...not your friend," and I reluctantly admit to having used these very words with my own kids.  The era of Facebook however, has introduced a new twist to the concept of "friend." 

 

 

The noun, friend, is a common English word; a friend is defined as "a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard" (dictionary.com).  The verb "to friend" however, is not found in traditional dictionary sources.  It and its opposite ("to unfriend") are creations of Facebook and other 21st century social networking outlets.  So what is this "friending" all about?  Or to use William Shakespeare's language, "To friend, or not to friend, that is the question."
 
A number of years ago, I ventured into the world of Facebook.  I bravely opened an account, added a profile and began to search for "friends".  Not many of my friends had Facebook accounts at the time, so the first two people I "friended" were my sons, Teddy and Daniel (WDS '03 and '05).  They were quick to remind me of my parental status and were not particularly keen about my invitation for "friend-ship".  My quest for cyber-friends progressed slowly at first.  I was not adept at searching and many of my peers had yet to discover the joys of Facebook.  Slowly, I gathered enough "friends" so as not to feel lonely.  High school, college and graduate school friends resurfaced, as did long lost family members, colleagues and business associates. 
 
Imagine my surprise a number of months ago, when I clicked on the WDS Alumni page and found the famous (or infamous) graduation photos that adorned the walls of the WDS hallway for as long as I can remember.  The walls of ivy had crossed the threshold of cyberspace in the form of a Facebook group.  I browsed through the photos and located family members and friends spanning decades of WDS students. 

 

In addition to reminiscing, I was able to pinpoint the exact year that students exchanged party dresses for caps and gowns (1986), the number of times Mr. Plotnick appears in the photos (4), and the number of indoor vs. outdoor photos (9 indoors, 49 outdoors).  While I am not certain, I believe that Teddy, our eldest (and member of the Class of 2003), holds the distinction of being the only graduate photographed with a full beard.  And they say that Facebook is a waste of time!
 
I was happy to see that a number of former WDS classmates used the graduation photos as an opportunity to reconnect.  Friendly banter among Steven Grundwerg, Martin Rubenstein, Judy Kamerman Weingarden, Barrie Graham, Danny Turetsky, Jeffrey Schlossberg and me was entertaining.  I am not caught up with everyone as yet and have not even "friended" all of them as yet, but the connection is there.  I look forward to continued communication with them and to hearing from the remaining members of the Class of 1973 as the WDS alumni network expands. 

 

                               

As the Grateful Dead said, "What a long strange trip it's been." This would certainly describe my arrival in the music business in the middle of 2001. Caswell-Massey, the oldest chemists and perfumers in the United States, was my family's business (our involvement began in 1916) and I grew up surrounded by the pungent scents of soaps, potpourris, lotions, shampoos and the like. After college, I officially joined the firm and along with my brother Josh, my father Milton and his brother, helped oversee the expansion of the business from one store to 35 stores, and from a small mail order business to one sending out millions of mail order catalogs every year. This is how I cut my teeth and learned what makes a business successful. We sold the business in 1989.
 
All during college and my life at Caswell-Massey, I had a fascination with music and with people in the music industry, many of whom shopped at the store. I even had the privilege of meeting and spending a few minutes with three out of the four Beatles (still waiting on Ringo!).

 

I had a dream of working in the entertainment industry but in spite of my interest in music, I never actually thought of going into the music business. Instead, after selling Caswell-Massey, I pursued my entertainment industry dream by setting up a company with a friend to produce documentaries, reality programming and TV movies. This work took me to Los Angeles.

 

In the late 90's, I set up another company to produce Caswell-Massey type products which took me to south Florida, where I lived for three years. As luck would have it, a friend of mine from the music business, who was visiting us, was looking for someone to run a company they had an interest in. This was just at a time when I was thinking of returning to NY or LA. One thing led to another, and I became president of APM in June 2001.
 
APM is the largest production music library in the world. We commission songwriters and composers to write music for our library and this library is made available to television, movie and videogame producers for use in their productions. We also supply countless corporations, websites, YouTube video producers and others with music.

 

It is a fascinating world, and one of the few areas of the music business that has remained successful, profitable and grows every year. Interesting to note is that our industry has become completely dependent on technology for its business. Where people used to browse through our CDs for music, today it all comes down to the online search through our search engine and delivering a set of relevant results so that the user will find the exact track he or she is looking for out of the hundreds of thousands that we have. It is a challenging and fascinating time in the industry with new changes and growth opportunities ahead as we move more into the digital space and mobile platforms.
 
I have thought about the common threads in my life and I believe that the two most influential and foundational aspects of my upbringing were the moral framework given to me by my father and the education and respect for education I gained from attending Westchester Day School. I was there at the time of Maurice Plotnick, the founding headmaster, and his influence on me cannot be overstated. I believe the combination of the Hebrew learning, particularly the dialectical structure of the Talmud and its discussion of ethics, along with the powerful secular education we received, gave me a toolset that I use every day of my life. I am forever grateful to have had the opportunity to have been at Westchester Day school.

                               

If you ask any of my childhood friends they would tell you that during play dates I routinely roped them into acting in my home-made plays and performing in my family's living room with an audience of siblings, parents and stuffed animals. I have been a theatre-maker as long as I can remember. My passion for the arts grew as I continued to take classical piano lessons, pursue dance classes and attend performing arts summer camps.

 

After graduating WDS in 2000 and continuing my Jewish education at Ramaz, I had little time to dedicate to artistic activities, and theatre emerged as the priority amongst them. I constantly wanted to be onstage, to dive into a new script and rehearsal process, and to me, theatre was much more than an extracurricular activity.

I decided to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where I would receive a BFA in Drama, thrilled with the prospect of semesters full of classes such as acting, voice, directing, movement and accents/dialects.

My first job out of college was running a circus. Literally. I ran a 2,300 person circus site in downtown Manhattan. I wasn't performing in the trapeze acts, but I was enabling the production to happen. I quickly learned about ticketing systems and venue management. I have since gone on to work in Carnegie Hall, on Broadway and off-Broadway, doing everything from building sets, hanging lights, production and stage management to being executive producer of off-Broadway shows.

I remember fairly vividly the day of my Chag HaSiddur in the first grade. We were lining up to go to the auditorium. Adrenalin-filled, I suddenly burst into tears. Mrs. Rossler pulled me aside and asked me what the problem was. I told her I didn't understand why I was playing a narrator who had to wear this itchy, ugly costume, while some of my friends got to perform a dance in beautiful white dresses in which they were playing angels. I told Mrs. Rossler that I was envious of the other girls and didn't understand why I wasn't in their group number. She told me that the job I had in the play was more important, that as a narrator it was my job to tell the story.  

My sister Rachel asked me one day in high school why theatre was so important to me. She stated that surely I must find theatre hugely important, otherwise why did I spend so much time doing it? Why did I think it was worthwhile? I was shocked, I had never thought about it in those terms before. It was then that I realized that I truly believe that performance - music, theatre, dance - can actually change the world. I believe in the power of affecting an audience through storytelling.

 

I currently work at the Cherry Lane Theatre, the longest running continuous off-Broadway theatre. Its mission is as follows: "to cultivate an urban artist colony, perpetuate our groundbreaking heritage and engage audiences as partners in creating theatre that illuminates contemporary issues and, at its best, transforms the spirit." I truly believe in my capability, along with my colleagues in the theatrical community, to achieve that caliber of inspiration.

                               

On behalf of the 2010 graduating class, we would like to thank the entire WDS faculty for the amazing experience that they provided to us throughout the years. It is with this educational foundation that we will succeed throughout our lives.

 

Along with our outstanding education, we also formed incredible friendships with our classmates. These friendships carried us through the good times and the bad. Our friends have encouraged us as well as advised us. These connections will stay with us forever. 

 

 

 

As our days at WDS come to a close, we are beginning to realize that every experience we have shared at WDS has been meaningful and memorable. From singing our hearts out at Chag HaSiddur to making it  to the Yeshiva League basketball championships to journeying down to Washington DC last month, we have created strong bonds with one another. These experiences have helped us grow as individuals,  taught us derech eretz, and have ultimately inspired us to achieve greatness.

 

We want to thank every teacher, Rabbi and staff member for being great mentors and guiding us on a path of Torah and middot. We know that we will miss everything about Westchester Day School because Westchester Day School has truly become our second home. 

                               

Music has always been an important part of my life.  I remember really being interested in music and enjoying what I was listening to back when I was in the 8th grade at WDS.  From then on, I wanted music to be part of my life.  I even took saxophone lessons after school.  But it was not until High School that I knew I wanted music to be my career. I would spend hours listening to the radio and reading up on rock music.  I even wrote my senior thesis on rock music in America.  Music was an area that I was always passionate about, and I felt I had knowledge in the field.  

In 1998, my senior year of college, I landed an internship at K-Rock, New York. I learned how radio ran as a business,how the format is developed and maintained and which music is appropriate to play. It was at K-Rock that the programming staff hired me as a programming assistant. This is where I received my radio personality name "Rabbi," and I have used it professionally ever since.  I met the band Pearl Jam and when I was introduced, the band thought I was a real Rabbi.
  
In 2003 I was hired as music director at a legendary Rock station in Philadelphia, PA, WMMR-FM. My main job responsibility is to schedule all the music that our listeners hear on a daily basis.  I work closely with record representatives, who try to convince me to play their music.  I use my expertise along with research to create our station playlists and our station format.

When I first started in radio, I was playing music from CD's, which have become almost obsolete. In today's radio world-everything is digital.  Everything we play on the air has to be put into our digital system.  The system most radio stations use today can be automated and can include pre-recorded talk from radio hosts.  

I also maintain WMMR's website.   I update it with current music news, audio and video pieces, and relevant information about the bands we play.  One of my favorite aspects of the site is the fact that I have the freedom to expose listeners to new music that I discover before adding it on air.  We stream our signal and also produce daily podcasts for our morning show consisting of interviews with artists we interview.   We have also introduced a lot of video to our website to make it more interactive.  We offer a digital itunes music store and playlists so listeners can purchase music anytime they want.  Radio websites used to be a means of promotion; now they are a way to generate revenue and expand our signal to reach more people.  We offer applications to use on a smartphone so listeners can hear WMMR anywhere in the world.  Our company is all about embracing new technology; we know how to use it to our advantage.
 
I am also an on-air announcer Sunday nights on WMMR.  I play rock music as well as songs that I personally enjoy.  I relate the songs I play to current music news, along with stories about bands and include my own personal opinions and observations.   My favorite part of my air shift is specialty weekends where we "break" format a little to play songs that listeners have not heard in a while.  Interaction with listeners is also an important aspect of being on the air. By picking up the phone and saying "hello MMR," the listeners have someone to communicate with.  I also jumped into the podcast world and started soliciting interviews from bands that we might not air.  I know our audience is diverse and interested in hearing about bands that we do not play on a regular basis.
 
I also coordinate interviews and concert promotions for the station.  I was once backstage at an Ozzy Osbourne contest with my wife Rachel and oldest son Jeremy, who was nine months old at the time.  Ozzy told me "cute kid, lotta hair."  Many musicians think that I am a real Rabbi and ask me questions about Judaism and religion.  It is always a positive experience to meet these famous musicians.  Coldplay's Chris Martin and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters even refer to me as Rabbi after having met them both a few times.
 
Some critics say that radio as a medium is dead. I can tell you definitely that it is not true. MMR just celebrated its 42nd birthday in April. We have many loyal listeners who come to our events, participate in our contests and give us "their time spent listening" daily.   I am very happy with the decisions that I have made in my life and career and feel truly blessed to be a part of the dynamic world of broadcast music.  I would not change it for anything and I could not see myself doing anything else.  

                               

After graduating from WDS, I attended Westchester Hebrew High School and proceeded on to Bar Ilan University for my freshman year.  Following Bar Ilan I went to Binghamton University and graduated in 2005 with a BA in Sociology.
 
It was during my senior year in college that I met my husband, Adam, through a mutual friend who attended the University of Pennsylvania with him.  After just 9 months of dating, Adam proposed to me on my 22nd birthday, and 9 months after that we got married. 
 

 

I moved down to Atlanta in the hopes of finding a job in non-profit public relations.  I had worked many summers and winters for various PR firms and always thought it was what I wanted to do. The market was horrible and left me jobless and alone during the day while Adam was at work. Being left to my own devices and having always had body image issues, I started on a downward spiral with a severe eating disorder.
 
About 5 months later and almost 20 pounds lighter, people around me started to get very worried and suggested I start seeking help. I agreed to therapy to get everyone off my back. After several sessions of therapy, I finally opened my eyes and became determined to get healthy. As much as I desired and worked to be healthy, I was failing and my health was deteriorating rapidly at just 23 years old.

 

 It was at our one year wedding anniversary that Adam and our therapist sat me down and told me they knew I was working hard and doing my best, but it was time for a more intensive treatment plan.  Adam and I believed that a person could fully recover from an eating disorder so it was important to us both that I attend a facility that had that mentality as well. So we packed our bags and went to check out various facilities. We knew at that time that we might never come back to Atlanta, and sure enough we never did.
 
I ended up attending an out patient treatment center in Brentwood, California.  One of the components to the treatment program was art therapy.  Prior to this, I had never picked up a crayon, marker or paintbrush. I never believed myself to be creative, let alone artistic. I was incredibly reluctant to do the art therapy and tried to get out of it every time, but I was forced to do it since it was part of the treatment. I let go of all my inhibitions and had fun and started to find art very relaxing and enjoyable. After three months of intensive treatment, I had made major strides in my recovery.  It was not without much difficulty, but through a lot of hard and exhausting work, I graduated from the program at a healthy weight and with a healthy mind and attitude.

After another few months of living in Los Angeles, we decided it was time for the next step in our lives. Adam had always wanted to work with his family in the family's real estate business, back in Memphis, TN, and now that we were stable as individuals and as a couple it was time to get back to reality. We moved to Memphis in January of 2008. I decided I did not want to stop doing art, so I started going to art sessions with other adults who all just painted together.  From there, I made a whole group of "art" friends, which also got me involved in the Memphis art scene. People started encouraging me to show and sell my work, and while I was and still continue to be diffident about it, I put myself out there and have turned my passion into my career.

My art reflects my personality, my passions, desires and experiences. Whether I am painting a landscape or an abstract mixed media piece, I put my all into each painting. I keep an updated portfolio of my work online at www.artbyjulieg.com.