We are thrilled to announce that Browsing Through Birke’s is now available for online rental streaming and for purchase via digital download on VIMEO. Please click here to view our new VIMEO page — once on that page, you may select whichever option you prefer, either rental or purchase. All transactions can be made via credit card and are completely secure.
Rentals are for 24 hours, and cost $3.99, or you may purchase and own the film by downloading it to your home laptop or computer for just $8.99.
We look forward to sharing our film with a wider audience, thanks to this convenient medium!
WGBH’s “Stories From The Stage” features Szifra Birke!
[Click the image above to play this poignant and evocative episode of Stories From The Stage featuring Szifra Birke.]
. . .
Experience immigrant stories of yesterday and today on Stories From The Stage, an onstage performance series that showcases the power of everyday people sharing real stories in front of a live audience. In this episode, titled “Suitcase Stories Part 2,” Szifra was honored to join two other dynamic story tellers, Nano Raies and Abhishek Shah, for an evening of laughter, confession, and emotion. This episode first aired on public television in January 2018.
“Suitcase Stories,” a traveling live performance series and social media campaign, was launched in March 2017 by Cheryl Hamilton, co-director of Massmouth and director of partner engagement at the International Institute of New England, a refugee resettlement agency. Hamilton created the series to counter negative national coverage about immigrants and refugees. Click here to read a Boston Globe Magazine interview with Cheryl Hamilton and learn more about her inspiration for “Suitcase Stories.”
“Suitcase Stories” is produced in partnership with Massmouth and the International Institute of New England.
[Click the image above to view the official film trailer]
We have exciting news to announce! An official Discussion Guide to “Browsing Through Birke’s” has been created by two UMass Lowell students — Autumn Sacramone and Suzanne St. Peters — on behalf of the Tsongas Industrial History Center. Please see the excerpt below by BTB’s director Steven D. Grossman, and click the link after the excerpt to gain access to learn all about this remarkable project and access the free PDF download of the Discussion Guide.
From “Browsing Through Birke’s” director, Steven D. Grossman:
“Browsing Through Birke’s has been the most enriching and rewarding labor of love I have ever undertaken. Period. Bar none.
The Birke family came into my world at the suggestion of an old friend, who had settled around Lowell in the early 1990s. She thought the store and the family who ran it would interest me as a subject for a documentary film. How right she was. As soon as I walked into the classic early 20th-century four-story brick façade structure, childhood memories of exploring G. Fox’s Department Store in downtown Hartford, Connecticut, with my maternal grandmother known as “Baba” came flooding back to me. The scale, the humanity, the anachronistic but now newly “vintage” clothing stock, the sui generis feel and smell of the place I daresay, all walloped me with an admixture of nostalgia and a strange romance. I was hooked, and knew right then and there that I should endeavor to find some way to capture this story.”
( … CLICK HERE to continue reading the full article and to learn more about the BTB’s Discussion Guide!)
UMass Lowell History Students Create Learning Tools Inspired By “Browsing Through Birke’s”
I’m so proud, honored and humbled to have the documentary about my family being used to help educate teachers and students across the country. Thank you again to Sheila Anderson Kirschbaum for imagining this project and to Autumn Sacramone and Suzanne St. Peters for creating the discussion guide, a website, and for their dedication and passion. Please read the full story below via the UMass Lowell News Room on how this Tsongas Industrial History Center project, and partnership, came to fruition:
Dear Friends:
We are so grateful to everyone who attended our “Browsing Through Birke’s” evening at the United Teen Equality Center on October 1st. Being present with an audience that cares about our community and the experiences of our fellow citizens made the experience very rich and important for me.
I also want to thank our courageous speakers, Sonith Peou and Senga Wabulakombe, who opened their hearts to us. We all have so much to learn about the people who live near us, who wait in line at the supermarket with us, whose children attend schools, and who own restaurants, drug stores, and jewelry stores. We have so much to learn from our bank managers, our waiters, our teachers, and our politicians.
If you attended the event and took photos, or have any reactions, feelings, or thoughts you’d like to share, PLEASE share them directly with me at Szifra@BrowsingThroughBirkes.com or on the Browsing Through Birke’s Facebook page if you feel comfortable.
I wanted to share some brief thoughts after the film, but selected to forgo my words to allow others to share. I’d like to give you a sense of what was on my mind.
We all need some degree of courage—to be brave—to tell our story, and to be open to other people’s stories and lives. It is that courage that I want to talk about and remind others (and myself) about.
First, I want to remind myself to be courageous enough to keep an open mind and be more curious and less judgmental. I need to remind myself to override the instinctive way my brain—all of our brains, actually—wants to take the easier path.
We tend to make assumptions. We often don’t struggle to find new or hidden truths. We tend to have answers, not questions.
I want to make fewer assumptions, or at least question the ones my brain wants to make, when someone:
- has a beautiful set of pearly white teeth, or is missing some
- is perfectly dressed, or is wearing worn clothing
- is driving a Mercedes, or a Chevy with some rust
- is covered with tattoos
- has their hat on backwards, or their pants hanging low
- is working at a convenience store, or a lawyer’s office
I want to remind myself to stay curious, to ask questions and to reach out and remember that each person has a story that is worth my time to hear.
Second, I want to be courageous enough to stand up and not just standby. I want to stand up when someone tells a joke that I find rude or offensive—sexist, racist, classist. I want to be courageous enough to walk away and not participate. Or if there is the safety and I have the courage to say something, I want to speak up.
Third, I want the courage to ask more questions when I have the opportunity. It may seem like I know a lot about my parents’ lives, but I missed many important opportunities because I was afraid to bring up what could be uncomfortable for them. I saw a big NO TRESPASSING sign, which I wish I had helped to take down. I wish I had tried to be more transparent and to help them share more specifics about their lives before and after they came to the U.S.
The first time I asked my father any questions he was 77 years old. I wish I had asked him even then:
- What did my grandmother look like?
- What did she cook for him?
- What was an average day like when he was a kid in Poland?
I wish I knew why he loved his father so much.
Some of you have parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, or uncles who are still alive. Are there questions you feel able or willing to ask them if you push against your hesitation? I encourage you to have the courage to try.
And for those of you who’ve gone through dramatic and/or traumatic experiences, please consider sharing with your family some of what life was like and what some of your relatives were like. You can talk about the sad moments. Or, just as important, you can also share the bright moments, the times of joy, the small moments that matter and stand out to you. I missed a lot of opportunities and I wish I hadn’t. I now wish I’d had more courage to open those doors.
Again, I thank you.
With warmest regards,
Szifra
SAVE THE DATE!
October 1, 2015
BROWSING THROUGH BIRKE’S
A documentary film co-produced by Szifra Birke
About a Jewish Holocaust-surviving family, their quirky
50 year-old downtown Lowell clothing store, and its eccentric owner.
People from all over the world have come to Lowell to rebuild their lives after struggle and traumatic loss. Please join me, Szifra Birke, on October 1st to watch this documentary and hear stories of survival and resilience.
DATE: October 1, 2015
TIME: 6:00 – 8:30 PM (Film at 7:00 PM)
PLACE: ** United Teen Equality Center (UTEC), 41 Warren Street, Lowell, MA 01851
. . .
6pm – 6:45pm: Light Refreshments
Visit with people from many of Lowell’s immigrant communities and organizations to learn more about their history, culture and experiences.
7pm – 8pm: Watch “Browsing Through Birke’s” documentary film
8pm – 8:20pm: Panel Discussion
With Sonith Peou, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide, Sandrine Mukakinani and Senga Wabul, a couple who survived the Rwandan genocide, and Szifra representing the Jewish Holocaust.
8:30pm – 8:30pm: Q&A Discussion
. . .
Szifra (SHifra) Birke is the co-producer of the film “BrowsingThrough Birke’s” and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Contact her at Szifra@BirkeConsulting.com or 978-446-9600.
Please forward this to anyone you think might also be interested or share this event on Facebook!
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Lowell Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
** I chose UTEC because each time we rent space there, go to Café UTEC, or choose them for catering, we offer young people real life work experience, helping to prepare them for jobs when they complete the UTEC program—and some additional hours of much needed pay. If you haven’t seen it, the space is beautiful and affordable. Please consider supporting our youth when you have an event. It’s such an easy way to make a difference.
Sally Birke: A Life Remembered
On December 28, 2012, Sally Birke passed away at the age of 92. To honor her rich life — the majority of which was spent in Lowell, MA — the family held a memorial celebration on January 5, 2013, at Lowell’s American Textile History Museum. We invite you to watch the video of this uplifting event, and share your own comments, memories, and wishes for Sally Birke, a remarkable, loving woman who will be so greatly missed.
>> Sally Birke Obituary [Lowell Sun] – CLICK HERE
The following is a feature story that appeared in the Hadassah update of the Congregation of Moses (COM) Bulletin (Kalamazoo, Michigan):
The 26 Hadassah members and guests who attended the October movie-luncheon meeting were treated to the story of Nathan and Sally Birke and their rather unusual marriage and department store. Imagine walking into a retail business and being greeted by a large “NO BROWSING” sign. Then, when you ask if a jacket comes in another color or size, the owner kicks you out and tells you to shop elsewhere. That was the experience of generations who shopped at Birke’s Department Store in downtown Lowell, Mass., often described as the T.J. Maxx or Marshalls of its day with regard to quality and pricing.
The movie had an introduction by Szifra Birke, daughter of Nathan and Sally, who shared her memories of her parents’ past. After the movie, with technology expertise from Joyce Camhi and Diane Fogel, we established a Skype connection with Szifra, and she graciously shared with us many more memories and some challenges she faced when growing up. We wanted to do something to show our appreciation to Szifra and ordered flowers to be delivered to her mother, Sally, now in a nursing home. Coincidentally, it was Sally’s birthday. We later got this note from Szifra: “Thank you all so much for your incredibly thoughtful gesture for my mom. Her birthday flower arrangement is gorgeous. When I saw that they were from the Kalamazoo Hadassah, I was filled with emotion. Thank you again for such a sweet and kind gesture.”
And thank you, Maxine Berke, our new member, for bringing this movie to us. Browsing Through Birke’s left us nostalgic for the characters who populated our childhoods: tough, funny, resilient people who had weathered unimaginable storms, and who somehow managed to continue to be productive, creative life forces.
Letter to the Editor, Jewish Advocate
“I saw the article about Birke’s clothing store in Lowell with the ‘No Browsing’ sign. I grew up in Lowell and took the unique store-front sign for granted. After I got married, my brother-in-law who grew up in Scranton, PA visited us. My wife and I took him on a walking tour of downtown Lowell. We walked along as I pointed out this and that. Suddenly, my brother-in-law stopped in his tracks and I backed up to see why he stopped. He was staring at the ‘No Browsing’ sign in Birke’s store. He said, ‘What’s this? I don’t believe it! Is this for real? How can 
he stay in business? I think I’m going to go in and walk around and browse and see if he tells me no browsing.’ But we found the store to be closed. The store and its sign seemed to make a bigger impression on my brother-in-law than any other sight in Lowell…
I always thought of Nathan and Sally Birke as Boris and Natasha, the two Russian spies in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon show. Nathan Birke was short and squat and had a sly half smile and Sara was tall, elegant and poker faced. I thought she looked a little like Ava Gardner.
Nathan Birke made me laugh. He didn’t have anything funny to say but he sounded funny. He swore with a heavy accent. I never heard anyone over forty swear as much as he did. It was ‘f’ this and ‘f’ that and the words were uttered as calmly as though they weren’t considered the least bit offensive. His heavy Yiddish accent made the short ‘u’ vowel-sound in the F-word come across like the European pronunciation to the Hebrew vowel, ‘kometz’. Every time Birke swore I couldn’t help laughing, even though he wasn’t trying to be funny. Normally I would feel it is rude to laugh at a person’s accent. But in Birke’s case I felt that it should be permissible. If he was rude enough to swear so much it shouldn’t be inappropriately rude for me to laugh at the accent he swore in.
His wife never swore. I couldn’t imagine her as ever swearing. They were truly an odd couple.”
Hersh Goldman
July 11, 2012
Swampscott, MA
browsingthroughbirkes.com 