Community Commemoration, Film Screening to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On Sunday, April 16, at 2 p.m., join the Jewish Federation of the Berkshires for a community commemoration of Yom HaShoah-Holocaust Remembrance Day with a screening of "Passage to Sweden" and a family story told by Agi Sardi, daughter of a Holocaust survivor saved by Swedish intervention. 
 
Candle lighting and prayers of remembrance led by Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch will follow the film. This free in-person event will take place at the Berkshire Museum's Little Cinema, located at 39 South Street in Pittsfield. Space is limited – register on our calendar of events listing at jewishberkshires.org.
 
About the Film
 
Passage to Sweden tells the lesser-known story of events occurring in Scandinavia and Budapest during World War II, focusing on the heroic actions of ordinary people who saved the lives of thousands of Jews and fellow countrymen.  The film pays special homage to the Norwegian resistance, the citizens of Denmark, the Swedish Red Cross, Raoul Wallenberg, and Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. Risking their own lives, their selfless acts of courage and compassion provide a powerful example of how anyone can make a difference.
 
About the Speaker
 
Agi Sardi is the daughter of Dr Andrew Sardi, a Hungarian Jew who experienced pervasive pre-war antisemitism. His mother was able to procure a certificate of protection issued by the Swedish legation, and the family was sheltered in a Raoul Wallenberg safe house from October 1944 through Soviet liberation. Dr. Sardi passed away in 2003. During his life, he was dedicated to ensuring the Holocaust would never be repeated. His daughter Agi continues his important work and will share her family story.
 
About Yom HaShoah
 
The full name of the day commemorating the victims of the Holocaust is "Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah"– literally the "Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism." It is marked on the 27th day in the month of Nisan — a week after the seventh day of Passover, and a week before Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers).
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Residents Oppose Battery Energy Storage in Southeast Pittsfield

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Fifteen community members attended last week's Conservation Commission meeting to speak against a proposed battery energy storage system on Williams Street.

A Stonehenge Road resident called it an "accident waiting to happen" and said, "None of us want 60 Teslas parked in that goddamn spot." 

Fires, flooding, and noise interruptions are collective concerns. More than 170 people in the southeast Pittsfield neighborhood signed a petition against it.

On Thursday, the commission continued a notice of intent application from Brattle Brook LLC to construct a storage system, or BESS, at 734 Williams St., behind the Pittsfield Cooperative Bank.

Chair James Conant clarified, "we will have multiple meetings on this because it's contentious and it's difficult."

BlueWave Solars' Michael Carey, storage development and senior director, and Jesse O'Donnell, an engineer with Weston & Sampson, presented to the commission.

"We are in a time when we are putting in a lot more solar, a lot more wind power, a lot more renewable energy, into our grids nationwide and in Massachusetts, in particular," Carey said.

"In order to continue that and to continue to build a resilient grid in a world with more electric vehicles, big screen TVs, heat pumps, we need to add storage infrastructure to help balance the grid to make sure we have enough power on-site as needed."

He said the site was selected as a "good place" for a battery energy storage project.

"The interconnection points here in these power lines on William Street, it's a place that needs a battery like this," Carey said.

"Those wires get physically hotter at certain times a day, certain times a year. Our battery will actually draw power during those times to help stabilize things. It's in a place that is on a commercially zoned lot that is next to some other commercially zoned lots."

Work is proposed within the bordering vegetated wetland buffer zone. Carey explained that the BESS was moved east so that it is farther from homes and closer to the buffer zone after discussions with abutters.

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