Ep Bio: Noah Mauchly sits down with Media Maker Hayden Young to discuss his upbringing in the Upper Valley watching age-inappropriate movies and what led him to become the filmmaker he is today.

Join the JAM team as they discuss all things JAM and what's happening in the Upper Valley. With a rotating cast of guests to keep you on your toes, and local legends and legends in the making sitting in the hot seat, find out what makes this organization and the community around it tick!

Hosted by the JAM Media Education and Membership coordinator Noah Mauchly. Contact him at noah@uvjam.org. Original art by Cedar O'Dowd.

This podcast is made by JAM - Junction Arts & Media serving the Upper Valley of NH and VT from White River Junction, VT.

S2 Episode 3: Sandra Gartner – Recorded November 20, 2025 Photo: Sandy with book, by Liora

Among many roles that she plays, Sandra Gartner has been co-producer of Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre for 20 years, an actor with the company, and is co-producer with filmmaker Nora Jacobson on her latest project. Sandra also writes for Rutland Magazine and other publications. Not surprisingly, she has a wonderful way of telling stories. In this conversation she picks up threads of her life in Vermont and New York City; her life in theatre, journalism, and the Rutland, VT Jewish community.

Sandra was a Youth Ambassador to Israel in 1966, at 16 years old, and “came back a changed person”. She maintains great affection for the land and people not withstanding that the current situation “doesn’t sit well” with her. The book she is holding in this photo is To Life: A Celebration of Vermont Jewish Women, based on an oral history project she undertook with Ann Zinn Buffum and which was contributed to the Jewish Women’s Archive.

S2 Episode 2: Irit Librot–Recorded November 12,2025 Courtesy Photo: Irit. Irit Librot takes us through her early years in Haifa immediately following the creation of the State and the subsequent move to the US where “the streets are paved with gold” (spoiler: didn’t turn out that way). We get a strong and inspiring picture of Irit’s mother, Rachel Dziecholska Rotkovitch,who lived, studied, and worked in Poland, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, and the US. You can read about Rachel in the alumni magazine of the American University in Beirut, photos p.51, write up p.64. Irit’s own experience of October 7 and the war is tempered by her time in Israel and the reactions of those in her close community here, where, as you can see from the show notes, her life is infused with music and dance.

The chokehold has been lifted. America breathes again! I mean we narrowly avoided complete, self-inflicted disaster. After harrowing days of the most long-drawn-out government shutdown in U.S. history—a marathon of political brinkmanship—Congress somehow reached a makeshift deal to get off the people's back. Federal workers will return to their offices, airports will return to normal, and there will be food on the table for millions living paycheck-to-paycheck. The "glass is half-full" optimists would say this deal is simply the lesser of two evils. And, frankly, that’s about as good as it gets these days. We like to think of polarization as the Damocles Sword hanging perpetually over our heads. But history speaks otherwise. From the Marshall Plan to the Civil Rights Act to Medicare, America can build consensus across class, race, and party lines. The problem is not that cooperation is impossible. Rather, we’ve simply forgotten how to expect it. We’ve become so used to the partisan food fight that we're surprised when someone actually tries to cook dinner.

S2: Episode 1: Kesha Ram-Hinsdale–Recorded November 7, 2025 Courtesy Photo: Kesha and baby, VT Statehouse.

Kesha Ram-Hinsdale, as we establish at the outset, is our Vermont Senate Majority Leader, and yet here, she is not talking state politics–she’s just an ordinary Jew. Her story, as a self-proclaimed HinJew, is awash with streams of migration and displacement on both sides of her family. Looking at the origins of Israel, we focus often on the fallout from the mid-century dissolution of the British Empire. At the same time, Kesha’s family was uprooted by the divisions left on the Indian subcontinent by the British exit. She speaks movingly about the legacy of her grandfather, Sir Ganga Ram, the role of art in giving her a sense of place in Israel, and how her dual legacy has shaped her thinking on democracy and human rights.

Hi! I’m happy to be back with a second season of OJT. Here, in Episode 0, I have a few words about the "why”of the podcast and some thoughts on this season in the short S2 E0 audio. And let me tease Episode 1–we start out with a great conversation with VT Senator Kesha Ram-Hinsdale. I’ve been asked a few times why I’m doing this podcast and I'd be glad to tell you. I felt from the beginning of the Gaza War that I needed a better connection with other Jews. I had been part of the Upper Valley Jewish community, and then I wasn't. And it was, and still is, such a fraught time and so confusing with the rise in antisemitism, the rise in pro-Palestinian sentiment, and no end to conflict in sight. I was trying to sort out my own history and my own feelings, and I started going back to the UVJC and what I realized was that it wasn't just me–a lot of people just really needed to sort things out.And it’s not because there is a shortage of analysis and expertise. There's great stuff online, really knowledgeable people from a historical perspective, theological, social perspective.But I feel that it isn’t just the experts who need to have these conversation–it’s also us ordinaryJews. More on this topic, including online resources, with a soon-to-be-linked Substack. Happy listening, and please, do, subscribe! Thank you.

Episode 5 Description: On Canal Street in Brattleboro are the remains of one of Vermont’s most influential companies. In the 19th and early 20th century people across the country—and the world—played music on reed organs made right here in the Green Mountain state. What is a reed organ? And why were they so popular in a bygone era? Dr. Dennis Waring recounts the story.

Series Description: Roadside Vermont is a podcast series about the historical monuments, markers, and plaques that are all too easy to drive by and never stop to read. In each episode host Kelby Greene travels to the far corners of Vermont to talk to local storytellers, historians, and community stewards about the quirky, quizzical, and surprising events of the history hidden down the dirt roads and rural highways of the Green Mountain state. From vampires to missile silos, to pencil mills and famed fiddlers, this season will span all fourteen counties of Vermont. This season is supported in part by a grant from Vermont Humanities, in partnership with the Vermont 250s Commission and Junction arts and Media—JAM. Special thanks to story editor Sophie Crane.

Bio: Kelby Greene (she/her) is a Norwich, Vermont based journalist and independent radio producer. Her work is about explaining the present through the past—looking for the precedents to seemingly unprecedented times. Rooted in a passion for rural places and their unique histories, she hopes to tell stories worth talking about: in the car, over dinner, and passing by the state's hundreds of roadside markers.

Episode 6: Roberta Berner – Recorded September 3, 2025 Courtesy Photo: Roberta Berner, with her husband, Rich Abel
Roberta has accomplished so much, one would think she lived three lives rather than lived in three places: the deep South, Midwest, and for 27+ years, here in the Upper Valley. She didn’t mention, but I will, that she was awarded a Shem Tov award this year from the NH Jewish Federation. Roberta is a Board Trustee and the immediate past President of the Upper Valley Jewish Community (UVJC) where she leads the Caring and Chesed (loving kindness) Committee and reportedly makes the best Saturday morning coffee. Her remarks on Israel and being Jewish at this moment are touching, difficult, and central to what so many of us are experiencing.
For my part, I’m taking a pause here after Episode 6 to reflect on where OJT can go
from here, line up a new season of guests, and enjoy the glorious Vermont fall. Happy
New Year, Shanah Tova u’Metuka – an even better year and a sweeter year – to you all.

Episode 6 Notes:
 DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution): According to an AI Overview on
Google, “The DAR has evolved to be open to all races, religions, and ethnic
backgrounds.” Roberta’s reference reflects what was a truism for us growing in
mid-century – that Jews need not apply.
 Shir Shalom, Woodstock VT A Reform Congregation
 The Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF) Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families
for Peace. “Those who have paid in blood cry out: WE MUST end this war.
…there is no other way. Stop the killing. Stop the cycle of revenge…It is time to
choose peace and reconciliation.”
 Dr. Meron Medzini, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
gave classes at Shir Shalom; his son was a tour guide when Roberta visited in
2019.
 “Israel: A Lesson in Democracy” taught by Hanan Miron about Israeli “judicial
reform” in 2024.
 Military leaders on the conflict in Gaza, mid-2025. See also Episode 5.
 It’s Time, see also reference in Episode 3.
 UVJC Healing Circles, discussed in Episode 4: Gene Kadish.