Phyllis Isaacson - To Life! A Celebration of Vermont Jewish Women

About this film

Phyllis’ family emigrated from Russia and Poland in the 1880s to the large Jewish community of Chelsea, MA near Boston. Her parents were not very religious but honored the holidays by getting the family together for Chanukah and Passover. They were both active in the Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, originally organized to help the Italian, Jewish and Polish women immigrants working the NYC sweatshops. Growing up in a home where her mother played violin and her father trumpet, Phyllis began to teach herself to play the piano. She started lessons at age six and by junior and senior high school she was the accompanist for soloists and the chorus. Her first big show was “Annie Get Your Gun.” Right after high school, Phyllis was the organist in a conservative synagogue near Revere. She learned to play French horn and graduated in music education from Boston University in 1959. As music director at Temple Isaiah in Lexington, MA she conducted the Haydn Creation and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus. In 1969 Phyllis began her master’s degree in conducting at New England Conservatory of Music. At this time not many women were in the field of conducting and Phyllis met resistance from both men and e…

Directors & creators

DAVAR: The Vermont Jewish Women's History Project

Subjects

Vermont, Jewish women, immigration, musician, kibbutz

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