September 10-23

Participating artists:
Alexander Korman
Vladimir Panikarov
Alan Teperow
Eduard Klebanov
Alex Khomskiy
Zachar Shapiro
Polina Dorosinsky
Yuliya Shulman
Eugene Foygelman
Elbert Kasparov
Nadija Martinenko
Nataliya Huliayeva-Smahlo

Learn more about the Community Hub:

COMMUNITY HUB

The post Opening Reception at the Community Gallery appeared first on Center Makor.

HOW TO FIND US

Community Hub is a dynamic gathering place for creativity, learning, culture, and networking. Whether you’re interested in educational programs, artistic expression, intellectual discussions, live performances, culinary storytelling, or community celebrations — here you will find a welcoming environment to explore, share, and grow.

The Community Hub is designed for everyone — individuals, families, artists, learners, and friends from all backgrounds. It’s your space to engage, collaborate, and bring your ideas to life. Together, let’s create unforgettable experiences and meaningful connections. This is our vision, and we warmly invite you to share your ideas and join us.

Below are some programs we intend to bring to the Hub soon.

Audio Recording Studio

Professionally equipped studio for sound recording and editing. centermakor.org/audiostudio

Community Art Gallery

Dedicated space for exhibitions, featuring local artists, cultural projects, and seasonal installations. centermakor.org/artgallery

Mini Hall

Flexible space suitable for a variety of performances, presentations, and creative activities. It can accommodate:

• Concerts and musical showcases
• Theater rehearsals and performances
• Presentations, talks, and networking events
• Vocal and music lessons for individuals and groups
• Temporary exhibitions and multimedia displays

Multipurpose rooms/offices/classrooms

Four rooms each can accommodate from 1 to 10 people. 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Equipped with chairs, tables, and free Wi-Fi.

Available: TV, amplified sound, video projection.

Space for Cultural Events and Community Gatherings

The Hub can host a variety of cultural and community-focused events for up to 50 people

These may include:

• Exhibitions and presentations of cultural projects and initiatives
• Festivals featuring music, dance, and traditional crafts demonstrations (without sales)
• Community celebrations of holidays and special occasions
• Educational programs exploring customs, history, and cultural diversity
• Interactive workshops and family-friendly activities that foster cultural exchange and understanding

The Community Hub is located at 1320 Centre St., Newton, 02459.

Find Center Makor on the display by the entrance door and call us. View the display.

Free parking is available between the buildings or on the ramp behind the open bar gate after 3:00 pm and whole weekend.

Newton Centre T Station is 6 minutes away on foot.

The building is accessible to people with disabilities.

View our calendar for available openings

VIEW CALENDAR

Photos from the grand opening of the community gallery on September 10, 2025.

The post Welcome to the Community Hub at Center Makor! appeared first on Center Makor.

Center Makor, in partnership with other community organizations, is thrilled to announce we’ve acquired the space at 1320 Centre St. in Newton!

We’ve named it the Community Hub.

This is your HUB for a wide range of events. Design and create your own event to be enjoyed by everyone, no matter where you live. From inspiring lectures and concerts to art shows and exhibitions, masterclasses, workshops, clubs of interest, vendor fairs, and holiday celebrations – we’re creating something special.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there! Let’s collaborate to make the Community Hub a truly vibrant place for all us. Your ideas and participation are welcome!

Photos: celebrating at the new space.

The post New Space! appeared first on Center Makor.

Dear Friends,

The team at Center Makor is extremely grateful for your consistent support in the Giving Tuesday fundraiser.

This year, we have been able to help thousands of people in Israel and Ukraine, thanks to your generosity. We raised over $250,000, all of which was given to Israel and Ukraine through medicine and other humanitarian aid. We also organized a volunteer mission, where 6 members flew to Jerusalem and provided professional help and humanitarian supplies to over 2,000 people in Israel.

Your kindness directly saves lives, and thanks to your donations, we are able to continue our impactful, life-saving work. Please consider donating to help us. Every dollar counts; no donation is too small.

Thank you for your support, and for being a member of our wonderful community.

DONATE NOW!

Please note: we’re now selling tickets through Zeffy – online platform that allows nonprofits to receive 100% of all donations, covering credit card fees. When you make a purchase, they ask for an additional sum to cover their expenses. This sum is optional; whether to add it and how much is entirely up to you.

Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Foygelman and the Center Makor team.
Together we will prevail!
Am Yisrael Chai!

If you donate just $36 between now and December 11, we will send you this unique t-shirt. Available colors: dark blue, white, and black; sizes: S to XL. We will contact you for your preferences.

Join out #GivingTuesday campaign, help people, and receive a unique t-short from Center Makor! 

The post Please Help us this Giving Tuesday appeared first on Center Makor.

Georgy Melsky is giving a concert for evacuees at the hotel where they’re living now.

A group of volunteers meeting with the head of the Beinechem Uveinehem volunteer group, Golda Kukuevitsky, to discuss coordinating our meetings with evacuated Russian-speaking olim and IDF soldiers in Jerusalem and other cities in Israel.

We visited the Old City of Jerusalem and The Refugees Square in Tel Aviv.

Beautiful, fresh, and refreshing is nearby but we only can see it from the distance. We are doing workshops and sessions with evacuees anв driving from one hotel to another, from one city to another… and we are happy. Right now the real beauty are Israelis. Am Isroel Chai!

OUR MISSION TO ISRAEL

HELP OUR MISSION TO ISRAEL

LEARN MORE

The post Mission to Israel – Photos appeared first on Center Makor.

We are going to Jerusalem!

Yes, we are going to Jerusalem from June 16 to 23 to help evacuees from the North and South of Israel, elderly people, mothers with children, people with special needs, and wounded soldiers.

We will visit Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Tiberias.

Our volunteers will conduct psychological counseling sessions, post-traumatic nervous-enervating-motor sessions, and art therapy.

We will prepare and distribute food packages for wounded soldiers.

We will organize a Shavuot lunch for the elderly and mothers with children in Jerusalem. People will be able to enjoy homemade pancakes, cheesecakes, and other nice meals for the first time in a very long time.

During our mission we will perform concerts.

We will take gifts with us: tablets, art supplies, things needed for the soldiers on the front lines, etc., and donate the funds raised here to continue serving these people.

We invite you to join those noble people and businesses who have already supported this project and make your donation at centermakor.org/donate.

Please see the appeal from our partners in Jerusalem.

Мы едем в Иерусалим!

Да, мы едем в Иерусалим c 16 по 23 июня чтобы помочь эвакуированным с севера и юга Израиля, одиноким пожилым людям, мамам с детьми, людям с особыми нуждами,  а также раненым солдатам.

Мы побываем в Иерусалиме, Тель-Авиве, Хайфе и Тверии.

Наши волонтеры проведут сеансы психологической помощи, посттравматические музыкально-двигательные сессии и арт-терапию.

Мы будем готовить и раздавать продуктовые наборы для раненых солдат.

Мы организуем обед в честь праздника Шавуот для пожилых и мам с детьми в Иерусалиме. Люди смогут насладиться вомашними блинчиками, сырниками и другими приятными блюдами в первый раз за очень долгое время.

В течение нашей миссии мы будем выступать с концертами.

Мы везём с собой подарки: планшеты, арт-принадлежности, кое-что необходимое для солдат на переднем крае и т.д. и передадим им средства, собранные здесь для продолжения обслуживания этих людей.

Мы приглашаем вас присоединиться к тем благородным людям и бизнесам, которые уже поддержали этот проект, и сделать пожертвовать на centermakor.org/donate

Пожалуйста посмотрите обращение от наших партнеров из Иерусалима.

HELP OUR MISSION TO ISRAEL

Photos from Beinechem Uveinehem, the NGO we’re helping.

learn more

LEARN MORE

The post Our Mission to Israel appeared first on Center Makor.

And these people came from different cultural, national, and religious communities. And it was at a restaurant called La Voile in Brookline. Everyone reacquainted, talked to, enjoyed, and drank 4 and 1/2, for sooner freedom of all kidnapped Israelis, glasses of wine. We listened to the history of the exit of the Jews from Egypt, by the leading Seder Rabbi and Cantor, Oksana Chapman. Most importantly, no one makes the difference between Jew and non-Jew, Christian or Muslim.

But most importantly, no one was anti-Semitic.

So, at these crucial times for Jews, Vladimir Foygelman and the Makor Center held an action of friendship, understanding, joy, unity, and freedom. Only truly free people will ever be anti-Semitic.

We will be happy if you, free people, decide to join us next year.

Dear Vladimir and Center Makor,
Thank you for arranging the Passover Seder. It was a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to meet new friends in a welcoming environment. Acting as one of the representatives of the local Ukrainian community was an honor. During the evenings program, I was especially intrigued with the notion presented that in addition to commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, each year’s Seder also allows everyone to evaluate what forces in their present-day life may hold them in unwanted bondage.
— Vsevolod Petriv

Photos: Vladimir Foygelman, Vsevolod Petriv

The post Passover Seder Style Dinner appeared first on Center Makor.

The document says:

Thanks to the charitable organization Center Makor Brookline, MA USA
For active public position, significant contribution to the defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence.
Colonel Valeriy Vovk, commander of the military unit 4122

We’re very touched that our humble efforts to help Ukraine were appreciated. It’s not just thanks to Center Makor; it’s thanks to everyone who donated their time, money, or helped otherwise. We could not have done it without you.

The post A letter of thanks for our help to Ukraine appeared first on Center Makor.

By Sonel Cutler, Globe Correspondent, Updated February 21, 2023, 5:23 p.m.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/21/metro/when-ukrainian-family-began-setting-up-their-new-home-arlingtons-online-community-turned-out-help/

In Ukraine, Olena had a fulfilling job in real estate and an apartment she loved. The only time she had ever left her home city of Zaporizhzhia was to go on vacation.

But after the war with Russia began in February 2022, Olena, who asked to be identified by her first name only for privacy, became scared for the safety of her young daughter and made the most difficult decision of her life: to flee her home.

She and her daughter left Zaporizhzhia abruptly in March after Russian forces took over a nearby nuclear power station. They took only passports, her daughter’s birth certificate, and few other items before driving to western Ukraine and then to Germany.

In April, the Biden administration launched the Uniting for Ukraine program, which helped Olena and her daughter seek refuge in the United States. They arrived in late June, staying with childhood friends in Arlington until January, when their hosts had to bring their own parents to the country from Ukraine.

As Olena looked to restart life in a new country in her own home, she found a community willing to step up to assist her along the way. Connecting on Facebook, Olena became friends with Arlington resident Olga Yulikova, who helped her secure an apartment and turned to the town’s “Everything is Free” Facebook group for donations to furnish the place.

Arlington residents overwhelmingly answered her request. In a matter of days, the previously bare apartment had a fridge, coffee maker, queen-sized mattress, dish soap, and more essentials for Olena and her daughter.

“I’m completely overwhelmed, and I’m so grateful for all the help,” Olena told the Globe, with Yulikova translating. “It’s really important for me to be able to think of the future even though my present is uncertain.”

Yulikova, who immigrated from Moscow as a refugee in 1989, had been organizing humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees since the war began last year.

She and Olena became close friends after meeting online, sharing stories over cups of coffee, and connecting over the discovery that Yulikova’s great-grandmother hailed from Olena’s hometown in Ukraine.

“I cannot stop the war. I’m very much against it,” Yulikova said. “I cannot save theUkrainian people that are suffering. I can only help one or two individuals.”

Yulikova posted her request for donations or small amounts of money in the community Facebook group on Jan. 22, and set up a wish list, listing a drop-off location for donated items.

“She [had] an empty apartment with no money,” Yulikova said. “She’s very happy, but she [didn’t] really have a mattress to sleep on. So I figured I’ll put it on our Arlington lists, just like I did for everything else when I was collecting donations to be sent to Ukraine.”

Daniel Icekson, a 54-year-old Arlington resident and friend of Yulikova, had been following Olena’s story after they had met briefly months before. The tragedy of the war in Ukraine moved Icekson, whose relatives perished in the Holocaust.

When he heard Olena was looking for donations, Icekson began disassembling a large wardrobe, planning to reassemble it in Olena’s apartment.

“I thought, Why not? We have this extra wardrobe. We’ll just give it away,” Icekson said. “If I can just contribute in a small way to one family, then I guess that’s a good thing.”

Yulikova said she initially worried about how she and Olena would transport hefty itemslike a kitchen table and a jumbo bean bag into the apartment by themselves. But,according to Yulikova, “people came out of the woodwork” to help.

“[They] said ‘Oh, no problem. I will drive. I will bring. I will assemble, disassemble,’” she said. “People just volunteer.”

While she knew Icekson, the majority of donors were complete strangers to Yulikova,something she said helped restore her lost faith in humanity.

“It’s such a catastrophe that in the 21st century, we start this war of brutality,” she said.“How’s that possible? … I don’t have the answers. But what I do know is there are somany kind and caring people in my immediate, if virtual, community.”

Though her young daughter has immersed herself in school, performing with the localtheater, and learning English, Olena remains troubled by her separation from her sonand father, who remain in Ukraine to support the army.

“Every day, I don’t know if my son and my father will live another day,” she said. “Everyday I keep the phone at my fingertips and check in on them 100 times a day.”

With her life uprooted and half of her family thousands of miles away, Olena said she isgrateful for the community that has rallied around her in Arlington.

“I feel with my heart that people are reaching out with a hug and a shoulder to cry on,”she said. “My city, Zaporizhzhia, is constantly under attack. … Everybody is under attackand I feel privileged to be supported by this community.”

Sonel Cutler can be reached at sonel.cutler@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @cutler_sonel.

The post Boston Globe Features our Community Member appeared first on Center Makor.

Please view the photos from the premiere and watch the movie trailer.

We plan to repeat the showing soon for those who couldn’t make it this time.

View the event.

The post Carol Of The Bells Movie Showing appeared first on Center Makor.