By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

Using cash or a credit card at a Brookline parking meter will become a more common option in 2010, as the town prepares to replace more than a thousand aging parking meters with multi-space meters.

Brookline Transportation Director Todd Kirrane said the town is including $1.4 million in its capital improvement budget for Fiscal Year 2011 to replace parking meters. About 1,200 single-spaced meters will be replaced with multi-space meters, Kirrane said.

Unlike single-space meters, the new multi-space models accept cash, and credit cards in addition to coins.

For the past year, the town has been experimenting with multi-spaced meters at a parking lot in Brookline Village, and a parking lot in Coolidge Corner on Babcock Street.

"Our revenue has gone up in those two lots and the cost of operation has gone down," Kirrane said.

While more multi-spaced meters will be installed, Kirrane said they will not replace all of the single-space meters in town. Brookline has about 2,500 meters, which generate about $2.6 million in revenue for the town per year.

Multi-space meters cost $12,000 a piece, but Kirrane said operating and maintenance costs are lower because fewer are needed. Multi-space meters also send text messages to technicians when a malfunction occurs, which decreases the amount of time a broken meter is not taking in revenue. The meters are also aesthetically pleasing, Kirrane said.

Kirrane said the additional multi-space meters will begin being rolled out in September.

By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

U.S. Senate candidate Martha Coakley announced in Brookline Monday that she has been endorsed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the American Federation of Teachers of Massachusetts.

Coakley announced the endorsements at Brookline's Baker School where she and her former opponent Alan Khazei spoke to 8th grade students about the importance of civic engagement, according to Coakley's campaign.

"I am honored to have the support of the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, and I look forward to working as U.S. Senator with teachers across Massachusetts to prepare our students to be thoughtful, productive, active citizens," Coakley said in a press release Monday.

Both unions had endorsed U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano prior to the Democratic Primary on Dec. 8. But Coakley beat Capuano, Khazei and Steve Pagliuca to secure the Democratic nomination. She will now face Republican nominee Scott Brown in the general election in January.

In a press release Monday, MTA President Anne Wass said Coakley is a strong, progressive, intelligent candidate with a great deal of integrity and a strong grasp of education and labor issues.

"She has been an excellent attorney general, and we believe she will also be a superb United States senator who is worthy of holding the seat occupied for so long by the late Ted Kennedy," Wass said.

By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

Authorities in Brookline are praising the work of a rookie 911 dispatcher who helped a local man perform CPR on his wife last month until emergency medical technicians arrived.

The woman survived, and now Emergency Dispatcher Siobhan McIntyre, who has been on the job since May, has received a commendation from police for her efforts.

"There's nothing like it," McIntyre said. "I saved a life. I had a hand in this."

David Connolly, the chief emergency dispatcher for Brookline, said McIntyre was working on Nov. 13 at 5:22 a.m. when a Brookline man called 911 because he'd found his wife unresponsive in their home.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, was in cardiac arrest and her husband did not know how to perform CPR, Connolly said.

"He asked me numerous times: "What do I do? What do I do?" McIntyre said. "I was just trying to calm him down. It was frightening to say the least."

McIntyre began walking the man through the steps to perform CPR. She instructed him about how to breathe into his wife and how to perform chest compressions, which he did. At that point, emergency responders arrived and used a defibrillator to revive the woman, Connolly said.

Connolly said McIntyre gets the credit for helping to save the woman's life because she was able to stay calm, get emergency responders in route and help talk the man through performing CPR all at the same time.

"And she's only been on the job since May," Connolly said.

McIntyre, 26, said that while she started in May, she had been training with a partner until she began working on her own in October.

While she is happy to have helped save a life, McIntyre said she's hoping the situation won't arise again any time soon.

"I hope it's a while," she said. "You never want to be in that position again."

By Masha Rifkin, Guest Columnist

Twenty years ago, millions of Soviet-Jews broke through the Iron Curtain of the former Soviet Union and fled to countries all over the world, effectively forming the second Diaspora. Approximately 700,000 of us found our new home in the United States, about 10-percent of that total relocating to Newton, Brookline and greater Boston.

Those of us who were carried to our new homes in strollers or on shoulders are now completely assimilated into our new homes, mostly exhibiting the societal and cultural norms of our current countries. (For example - much to the chagrin of our parents most of us can’t handle our vodka.)

Put all of us new generation immigrants (as well as those who stayed back in the former Soviet Union) in a room together, and an awkward struggle develops. What do we all still have in common? Most of us feel pride toward our current nations. We were raised by our respective countries and thus may have different values and behaviors.

This week, I joined the Young Leadership Conference for Russian-Speaking Jews in Israel, a gathering organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and Nativ (an Israeli liaison organization that maintains contact between Soviet Jews and Israel). Naomi Ben Ami, Head of Nativ, explained that the goal of the conference, ‘is to establish a connection between young Russian Speaking Jews of the diaspora and the Israeli government’.

Members of the conference consist of young leaders, aged 23 to 45, representing the United States, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. The conference aims to educate participants on the issues and history of Israel, by allowing them access to experts in the field: Ministers, Professors, Army Corporals, etc.

On the conference’s first day, Natan Sharansky was the most anticipated speaker.

Sharansky is a modern day hero. His experience is recounted as a near fairy-tale to new generation immigrants, to remind us of the nature of the regime from which we escaped and to teach us the concept of commitment to freedom. In 1978, after actively participating in the human rights movement in the former Soviet Union, Sharansky was arrested on grounds of treason and spying for the United States. He was sentenced with 13 years and served 9 in a Siberian labor camp. Due to monumental international pressure, instigated by his wife Avital, Sharansky was one of the first political prisoners released by then head of State of the Soviet Union, Michael Gorbachev.

This week, Sharansky walked into our little conference room of 50 people. Wearing a baseball cap, sport jacket and jeans, this symbol of freedom shuffled to the mic, grabbed it, and began speaking in Russian – plainly, informally, and personally – as if to friends. He spoke of his past, his current and previous work, and his vision of identity for the Jewish people.

According to Sharansky, the first time he truly learned the nature of the Soviet regime was when he was 5. Stalin had just died, and the entire nation was in mourning. When he came home from school that day, he was pulled aside by his father, who said, ‘Stalin just died. Who was Stalin? He was an awful murderer. We’re Jews, so we were next in line. But now – maybe this event will save us. All your life you must remember that a miracle happened today. But tomorrow – don’t tell anyone what I’ve told you, go to school and do everything that the other children are doing.’

Sharansky explained, “the next day I returned to daycare, and along with the other children cried, and sang the song, ‘Thank you Comrade Stalin for our happy childhood’ but at the same time kept in mind that all my life I need to remember that a miracle occurred, and that I was happy that Stalin died.” Sharansky described this as the concept of doublethink, the phenomenon of saying one thing while understanding that the opposite is true – something many citizens of the former Soviet regime are familiar with.

He explained that in this way he continued his youth, thinking one way – feeling a slave of the regime - but outwardly exclaiming agreement with the masses. He continued with this lifestyle until one crucial turning point. While a student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the Six Day War broke out in 1967. ‘It changed my life not because I immediately understood how important this was,’ he described, ‘all I remember is the propaganda of the Soviet government against Israel. But in one day this all changed. In one day – you began to see that anti-Semites hated you even more, but they began to respect you. Because prior to this, all their jokes centered around the ‘disgusting, greedy, cowardly Jews’. Now, the jokes morphed into, ‘the hooligan jews who beat the face of their neighbors.’ ’ Sharansky continued that ‘now, like it or not – as a Jew - for the rest of the world – you were connected to Israel.’
Sharansky described that he and fellow classmates attempted to understand just what that connection meant. They began to understand that their history unfolded prior to the establishment of the Soviet Union, that it began thousands of years ago in the escape from Egypt; and although all these people were now scattered across the world, ‘they felt as brothers, and they wanted to help each other, and that this country Israel is being built for us, and that the whole world connects us with this country.’

Sharansky expressed how this realization and the resulting change manifested itself in him: ‘I’d always felt uncomfortable in this life of doublethink, this absence of democracy. But I’d never had this sense of Jewish identity before. Once I discovered it, I began to fight for myself – fight to go to Israel, fight to escape this oppressive regime. And soon the fight for myself turned into a fight for others. So, at the same time, I was an activist of two different causes: the Zionist/Jewish movement and the Human Rights movement.’

He told of how he and his classmates began to fight by holding demonstrations – something that at the time was an unthinkable act. Seven to ten students would stand in the Red Square (it was necessary to keep it small, for fear that the KGB would be notified and their plans thwarted), and hold signs like ‘Let us go to Israel’. Sharansky explained that, although the demonstrations would be broken up within minutes, and although it was dangerous, if done right – meaning, if they were able to get a reporter to come to the demonstration, who could succeed in publishing outside of the Iron Curtain – it would result in an international avalanche of protest. The next day, there would be huge demonstrations, in support of those seven to ten students, across the world.

Sharansky’s teacher at the time was the world-renowned physicist and Human Rights leader Andrei Sakharov. Father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, Sakharov was showered with privileges from the Soviet government that very few others received. Yet he traded this all for his relentless fight for human rights, becoming a true giant in the Human Rights movement of the 20th century. Sharansky described him as ‘my rabbi, although he wasn’t a Jew – he was a huge source of strength for me. felt as much comfort with him as I did when fighting for the rights of Soviet Jews…and I realized that the two movements (Human Rights and Zionist/Jewish) were connected.’ ‘’

Sharansky continued to explain the connection between human rights and the Jewish state: ‘It’s very important to understand that the fight for freedom, for human rights, can only prevail if something is more important to us than our physical existence. And this something is our identity.’

He argued that maintaining a sense of identity is crucial in sustaining a democracy. He described a project which grades countries on their level of political and social democracy.
‘If you were to color the resulting grades on the global map’ Sharansky explained, ‘you’d see a huge dark stain in the Middle East; but in all of this – there is one small dot of light – Israel. Its grades are on the same level as the United States. Israel is in the midst of a dense cloud of dictatorships. And, in this environment, we began the principles of the rights of people, democracy, and justice. And this would be impossible to create if behind it we didn’t have our national pride and passion – the feeling that thousands of years of history exist to justify that we belong here. We wouldn’t have succeeded if we didn’t have generations of people who were willing to die for this government. This is why this government has to be a Jewish one. If it won’t be Jewish then it won’t be democratic. And this is important to understand – the connection between identity and freedom.’

For many of us sitting in the audience – Sharansky’s connection was the answer to our question. In that moment, given our varying backgrounds, and difficulties in communication and behavior, our commonality – and that of the millions of like us – became clear. Our commonality is our past and present – our common identity, our shared history of oppression. It’s also our future - the empowerment our identity gives us to continue the fight for freedom.

Masha Rifkin is a graduate of Newton North High school, and an occasional contributor to the Your Town sites.

By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

The Brookline Department of Health will be administering free swine flu vaccinations in a clinic at the Lincoln School on Thursday, Dec. 17.

Health officials are hoping to vaccinate school-aged children from preschool to 12th grade at the clinic, which will be held from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the school located at 19 Kennard Road.

Individuals attending the clinic are being asked to bring their health insurance cards, but no appointments are necessary. For more information, call the health department at 617-730-2300.

Andreae Downs, Globe Correspondent

The recession has not only increased the number of calls for help, it has resulted in more donors to the fund that provides that help.

The Brookline Community Foundation, which funds the ‘‘Safety Net,’’ a Brookline collaboration that provides emergency short-term assistance, increased its mailings this year and netted a number of new donors, said Sara Dassell, the foundation's director of program and communications.

But the average donation amounts are down from last year, she said. ‘‘It looks like it was a good time for us to broaden our appeal,’’ she said.

The fund has also been using federal stimulus money to aid those in need of heat, rent or food, she said. Despite that, the need is much greater than anticipated, said Frank Steinfield, a foundation board member.

In 2006, the Safety Net helped 106 families. This year, the number may exceed 360, or more than 700 people. he said. ‘‘Need has really gone through the roof.’’

By Brock Parker, Globe Correspondent

Slow going on Harvard Street has the MBTA and Brookline looking at how they can get route 66 buses through town more quickly.

The 66 bus route, which runs from Dudley Square in Boston through Brookline and onto Harvard Square has the 6th highest number of riders of all MBTA bus lines. But Brookline Transportation Director Todd Kirrane said the bus often can't get through Brookline smoothly.

"One of the biggest delays for them is Harvard Street," said Kirrane, of the thoroughfare that runs through Coolidge Corner.

Next month the MBTA and the state Department of Transportation will put out a study about the efficiency of its bus lines, and the state is hoping to use federal stimulus money to improve some bus lines, such as the 66 route, Kirrane said.

Brookline's Transportation Board has formed a working group to discuss the problem and possible remedies with the MBTA, Kirrane said.

Some of the fixes for the delays could be simple, such as consolidating infrequently used bus stops into more popular stops and improved signage for the buses.

But Kirrane said other ways to get the bus moving up and down Harvard Street could be more costly, such as timing traffic lights to better accommodate buses or as extending curbs out at stops so bus drivers would have an easier time maneuvering.

But before any work is done, the town and the MBTA must decide what improvements should be made. After the state releases the efficiency report on the bus lines next month, Kirrane said a hearing will be scheduled about how the 66 Bus route can be improved.

By Denise Taylor, Globe Correspondent

Click play on the concert videos posted on Rick Recht’s website, and at first they look like any rock show.

The bass drum pounds out a backbeat. Colored spotlights rake a crowd of cheering, swaying teens. And looking every bit the part of a rock star with his long hair and worn jeans, Rick Recht steps to the microphone. But here’s the twist.

Next he starts crooning a Jewish hymn such as “L’cha Dodi,” and hundreds of young voices sing the Hebrew lines back at him -- along with a few random squeals.

Such is the look and sound of new Jewish rock music. Recht is at the forefront of a growing number of recording artists wielding their guitars not for fame’s sake, but to build Jewish pride and inspire and educate the Jewish community.

“It’s much smaller than Christian rock, but it’s growing,” said Rachel Brown of Jewish Rock Records in St. Louis. “We don’t have the radio stations and the same number of nationally touring acts yet, but we’re getting out there more and more. Rick himself tours over a 150 days a year.”

Recht, the founder of Jewish Rock Records, is currently on an international tour. He makes three local stops this weekend to perform family-friendly Shabbat Alive! shows in Brookline, Boston, and Wayland.

“He’s just completely inspiring and he’s probably the leading light in Jewish contemporary music right now in America,” said Cantor Hollis Schachner of Temple Or Atid in Wayland, where Recht performs Saturday. “His songs are written to build spirit and a sense of identity and a sense of pride and to build fluency with the Hebrew language. He just gets it. People are really pumped about him being here.”

His songs also rock. Take the sweating, jumping teens at his youth shows as evidence. But Recht, 29, softens his sound for his more liturgical Shabbat concerts, and his children’s shows draw on his popular “Free to Be the Jew in Me” CD. No matter the audience though, his sound is always upbeat (think Dave Matthews) and his goal is constant.

“The underlying mission is all about interaction and connection. It’s all about taking people from point A to point Z from the time they walk in to when they leave so they feel more connected to each other and more like a community,” said Recht.

Education is also key. “The common thread in all of our music is that it expresses Jewish values,” said Recht. “Some songs are liturgy straight from the bible but with new melodies that make it connect to people in a contemporary way. Some songs are originals about social action, changing the world, and protecting the environment. These are not exclusively Jewish values, but they are strong values in the Jewish community. So we sing about them.”

The genre’s roots date back to the early ‘60s. At that time, contemporary Jewish music pioneers, led by singer-songwriter Debbie Friedman, set Jewish themes and hymns to the music of the day: folk. The sound grew wildly popular at Jewish summer camps.

“People would sit around with their guitars around campfires and lead songs about Jewish values and liturgy and this became a soundtrack for the Jewish summer camping experience and the Jewish youth group experience,” said Recht. “Then over the last 20 or 30 years this music started to make its way into synagogue worship and conservative music schools. …People called it camp music.”

Over the past decade, new musicians have updated the approach (and their look) to a more modern rock style. The formerly Boston-based Josh Nelson Project has a U2-like edge. North Carolina band Dan Nichols and Eighteen range from bluesy alt-country to indie rock. Sheldon Low, also on Jewish Rock Records, looks a bit like Elvis and sounds a lot like James Taylor with an amped-up band. More can be found on www.soundswrite.com or www.oytunes.com.

“Over the past ten years, the age of computers and the Internet has allowed the genre to spread out quite a bit,” said Recht. “The cost of recording and spreading music from one person to another has lowered dramatically. So now the genre is wide open. You’ve got people playing anything from Klezmer to heavy metal to rock n’ roll to jazz and it’s all Jewish stuff.”

After starting out in secular rock, Recht found his way to Jewish rock in 1999 and soon became both a star and a champion of the art. He now promotes interfaith concerts, organizes public events featuring Jewish rock acts, and actively recruits new artists (he feels female performers, who are underrepresented, are especially needed). Meanwhile, he founded the nonprofit Judaism Alive, which expects to launch Jewish Rock Radio, a 24/7 Internet radio station, by fall 2010.

“Internet radio is really the appropriate medium to develop right now. About 89 million Americans are listening each month. It’s overtaking Satellite radio and Satellite radio is merging into Internet radio now. So we’re moving into that,” he said.

Expansion-wise, he’s eyeing the Christian rock model. “I think the Christian world gives us almost the perfect analog,” he said. “We need to develop global media channels such as Jewish Rock radio or Jewish television. We need more artist-music educators like myself, who have the ability to reach people. We need more role models.”

But while he sees similarities between Jewish and Christian rock, he points out a fundamental difference. “For a lot of Christianity, there is a proselytizing ethic, whereas in Judaism, it’s the exact opposite. It’s hard to become a Jew,” he said. “If anything, Jewish rock brings in Jews who don’t feel as connected to Judaism by playing a medium they do feel connected to.”

“I’m the poster child of that, by the way,” he adds. “Until 10 years ago, I didn’t even know a Jewish song. It was through music that I found my connection to Judaism.”

Rick Recht Shabbat Alive! Concerts: Thursday 7 p.m. Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline, 384 Harvard St., tickets $12, or $45 per family, 617-277-9155, www.congki.org. Friday 5:45 p.m. Temple Israel in Boston, 477 Longwood Ave., admission free, 617-566-3960, www.tisrael.org. Saturday 6 p.m. Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, 141 Boston Post Road, tickets $10, or $36 per family, 508-358-9992, www.shirtikva.org. Info and clips at www.rickrecht.com.

By Nora Dunne

Nearly 100 students cram inside Room 403 of Brookline High School. They sit in, on and under the desks, Indian-style on the floor and up against the artwork cluttered walls. Though they look like typical teenagers in a typical classroom, they discuss atypical topics here at their weekly “Town Meeting.”

“We’re here to take responsibility for ourselves and our community,” says one girl. A handful of her classmates pump their fists in silent support.

“This is really about democracy,” adds a boy, emphasizing his words like a political candidate giving a speech to his supporters. “If we really care about community and equal rights we should vote for the proposal.”

The students are part of Brookline High’s School Within a School (SWS), an alternative learning community housed on the fourth floor of the school. Together in “Town Meeting” the 115 sophomores, junior and seniors propose, debate and vote on everything from attendance policies and admissions procedures to course curriculums and new staff additions, say students. Everyone has one vote in SWS’s democratic system.

FULL ENTRY

The Friends of Brookline Public Health will honor Dr. Peter Stringham for his 36 years of work in youth violence prevention in Boston and with Brookline’s sister city in Nicaragua.

The award will be part of the Friends’ annual meeting Wednesday at Hunneman Hall at the Brookline Public Library, 361 Washington St.

The Brookline Medical Reserve Corps, Brookline Community Emergency Response Team, and Brookline School Nurses will also be recognized for their critical role in this year’s flu clinics. For details, call 617-730-2300.

-- Andreae Downs