(gentle tones) - Hello, I'm Portia Young.

Next on 10thirtysix, what a local Jews In Space exhibit teaches us about acceptance and Jewish traditions.

And a pastor aiding Ukrainian refugees has a holiday message for Milwaukee, plus meet a Door County artist who suffered a life-threatening illness has found a new way to express herself, and a song of the season from a Marquette choir.

(gentle music) We begin with a follow up to our Ukrainian refugee stories.

A pastor from the nonprofit organization New Hope Eurasia has worked with Ridge Community Church in Greenfield in aiding refugees taking shelter across the border in Moldova.

He visited the church recently and shared an update with 10thirtysix about what he's seeing, and has a holiday message for Milwaukee.

(soft music) - The war is not over.

Even if the media doesn't speak much about the war itself, the war is not over.

The war is still there.

Yes, it takes shapes, different shapes, and the activity is up and down, but in the recent couple of months what we face is face blackouts because of the missiles that now Russia is using, so it's a distant type of war with all the drones and all of that type of equipment that they're using, which mean with the winter, fall and winter coming so fast, so quickly, in Ukraine, a lot of natural gas heaters depend on electricity.

A lot of wood stoves, they also depend on electricity.

So water towers and the pumps depend on the electricity, which means you have no access to water, no access to heating.

It makes it difficult for them to stay there.

So beside the previous 10 million people locally displaced, four and a half million that have left the country into Moldova, Poland, and Romania and farther on, what we see now, it's a second wave, a second wave of people that are conditioned not only by the missiles, they're conditioned by the fact that basics of what they used to have is lacking now in their own country, in their own homes.

It's difficult really to be able to look in the eyes of crying moms, because husbands cannot leave the country.

Men are not allowed to leave.

It's been if you had two kids and less, men could not leave at all.

Now it's getting even harder for those who have multiple children or some kind of a form of disability, so they have to stay, and to be able to see them hugging each other and men kissing their kids and hugging their kids and pushing them over the border, I mean, that is devastating.

It's gonna be a difficult Christmas for us in our part of the world.

It's gonna be very difficult to bring the joy on those little faces that we are seeing every day in the shelters for the distribution of food, centers like food banks.

It'll be difficult.

It's probably gonna be the most difficult Christmas for us.

But no matter what, Christmas is a special time for any child.

A child that has lost maybe both parents.

We've added 70,000 orphans in the last six months of what is just known.

Still not recorded all of the cases.

It is to be able to bring for them Christmas presents, a Christmas story, a joy.

I think that can be bridged between Milwaukee and that part of the world.

Sometimes we think the task is too big, the number of people is too large, but I love the words of Mother Teresa, helping one help everyone.

It takes one child at a time in Ukraine or Moldova that we can actually get on their level and look in their eyes and tell them we love you.

- As female refugees cross the border, they're often lured into human trafficking.

Next month we'll hear how Pastor Oleg is trying to prevent this from happening.

We're introducing a new story sharing partnership between Milwaukee PBS and CBS 58.

This month marked the 81st commemoration of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

CBS 58 Reporter Tajma Hall introduces us to the last remaining Pearl Harbor survivor from the Milwaukee area.

- [Tajma] At 102 years old, Ed Miklavcic is not slowing down.

Ed spent a lot of his life working maintenance on elevators.

- When did I start?

In 1946.

- [Tajma] Ed has lived a long life of service and connection to others, but perhaps one of the most memorable life experiences happened more than 80 years ago.

- [Ed] Pearl Harbor happened on the morning of December 7th, 1941.

(explosions booming) - [Tajma] Ed is a survivor and one of the last living Pearl Harbor veterans in the US, and the last in the Milwaukee area.

He recalls the day that Japanese conducted a surprise aerial attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.

- We were all stationed out in the field where our planes dispersed.

- [Tajma] Ed was there when hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, destroying nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships and hundreds of airplanes.

- We had 150 planes in line in a small area, so it was quite easily cleaned up by the Japanese in one sweep.

- [Tajma] Ed says the attack was a complete surprise to him and his fellow American soldiers.

- So we were going to breakfast and the bomb went off and we knew the Japanese attacked.

- [Tajma] Thousands of Americans were killed.

- We had no defense.

We had nothing to fight backwards on.

- [Tajma] He was just 20 years old, building the resilience many of our brave veterans display every day.

- And that must be me.

It's a matter of survival, so I think that was the main thing, is save yourself.

- [Tajma] In total, Ed served in the US Army Air Forces for about five years.

- Do you think he was happy to be alive?

- [Tajma] Later got married and started a family.

- Hi, dad.

- Hi, Carol.

- [Tajma] Now he lives in a senior community in Brookfield, and his sole mission is to stay connected to the ones he loves the most, his family and friends, and he's using technology to do so.

- Now, these are my grandkids in North Carolina.

I can talk to them, and this guy's in Baltimore.

Well, it keeps us in the family.

Otherwise I'm by myself, and they're all over the country.

It's really a good tool.

- [Tajma] Because for Ed these days, it's all about connections, giving him the opportunity to share his story and the pivotal moments he witnessed with the generations that follow.

- I was gone for four years, and when we got back, we went to Iwo Jima.

We stayed in Iwo Jima until the end of the war.

- He is truly inspirational.

Thank you sir, and thank you to all our veterans who serve.

The Jews In Space exhibit at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee goes beyond just space-related books and television programs like Star Trek starring Jewish actors.

Curator Molly Dubin spoke with producer Maryann Lazarski about the deeper messages and traditions behind it all, including a Hanukkah connection.

- We're looking at the earliest connections between Judaism and space, to all of the contributions, achievements, technological advances, pop culture influences, sci-fi influences, to contemporary missions, including the Artemis.

We feature Jessica Meir as one of the pioneering women in all of her accomplishments, and she is tied to the Artemis Project and likely will be the first woman to walk on the moon if she's part of that mission, so there's really something for everyone, and it allows people to dive a little deeper into that final frontier, if you will.

(soft music) In a time when we have so many things that are kind of dividing us, to be able to explore a topic like space and technological advancement and the US aiming to get back to the moon, these are topics and individuals who are working for the betterment of mankind and hopefully will bring people together in their interest in wanting to explore that.

We know Leonard Nimoy, who along with William Shatner, two Jewish actors who starred on the original Star Trek.

Leonard Nimoy was born and raised in Boston and attended synagogue.

He spoke Yiddish fluently.

He thought back to a memory that he had of attending synagogue and seeing the kohanim, which are the high priests, and that is a descendant from Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was considered the first high priest.

There is a blessing to the congregation where they hold their hands out, splitting their fingers like this to bless the congregation, and this is the letter shin in Hebrew, which is the letter that begins many prominent words, not the least of which is shalom, which is hello, goodbye and peace.

So this, unbeknownst to many people out there, many Trekkie fans, this has origins in Jewish tradition and Jewish prayer, and Leonard Nimoy had the foresight to tap it and to make it the everlasting symbol of live long and prosper.

So looking back to Star Trek, thinking about when it came on the air, heading into what was the height of the civil rights movement, and here is this franchise with this intentionally diverse cast.

You have Jewish individuals, you have an Asian American in George Takei, of course.

You have Nichelle Nichols, who is pioneering.

We just lost her, but her legacy as far as being a woman of color, even just a woman at that time in a role to be able to inspire women and women of color to say hey, if this is something I'm interested in, I can go out there, and it's possible.

And here comes this show with not only this diverse cast, but it's placed in somewhat of a futuristic utopian society where people from all different backgrounds get along.

There is the idea of betterment for all mankind, so being able to highlight, even if it's a fictionalized franchise that shows this looking to the future and looking for ways that we come together as a society, as a people, is inspiring in a lot of food for thought in terms of the environment that we find ourselves in today.

(energetic music) Mel Brooks.

So Mel Brooks is a Jewish comedian well known for his parody work, and at the end of a film called History of the World Part One, he does a parody trailer for a film called Jews in Space.

(gentle music) There's a fantastic connection to Hanukkah.

One of the things that I learned in researching this exhibit is that astronauts are allowed to bring a certain number of personal items into space, and one of the individuals who's really been noted for that in terms of the Judaic items he has brought is Jeffrey Hoffman.

Jeffrey brought a Torah into space at one point and read from the Torah.

- [Jeffrey] This is a special Torah.

I think a lot of people don't appreciate what it went through.

- But he was in space at one point over the holiday of Hanukkah and he thought, what are some things I can bring that might be able to allow me to celebrate this while I'm in space?

So he brought with him a portable menorah but also a dreidel.

A dreidel is a spinning top that has Hebrew letters on four sides.

It's a game that you play.

He brought this dreidel into space, as you can imagine, with zero gravity.

It spun for a really long time.

But also, he was looking at what are some of the ways that he might reinterpret the rules for this game, knowing that there's no up or down.

So we have this great clip of Jeffrey spinning this dreidel, and people in Houston who are broadcasting to the entire country kind of saying hey, what do you have there and what are you doing with it?

It was a great opportunity to showcase these pieces of Judaica and to highlight the holiday of Hanukkah, and it's how it can be literally taken to the final frontier and explored and celebrated there.

- Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate.

You can learn much more about Jews In Space and Star Trek on The Arts Page January 5th at 7:30 right here on Milwaukee PBS Channel 10.

When Dora County artist Vicki Rawlins suffered through a life-threatening illness that prevented her from holding a paintbrush, she turned to nature for creative expression.

Her work is showcased in her new book, the Power of Flowers, Turning Pieces of Mother Nature Into Transformative Works of Art.

Producer Scottie Lee Meyers visited her studio.

- I've been an artist my whole life, but just eight years ago really started the foliage work, and I'm obsessed with it.

(soft music) I tell people all the time it's like the simplest thing.

It's literally just like going outside and just start picking up things that interest you.

All sorts of flowers.

There is Queen Anne's lace and chicory and there's black eyed Susans, peony and ranunculus that I absolutely love, and zinnias.

I just started gathering foliage.

(soft music) My mom was a big gardener.

I was one of the kids making these little houses in the grass.

I would separate the grass, and then I would be doing these little leaves.

I would make little forts for them, kind of like it was a little house.

I was just always creating and I just felt connected.

It made me just feel really good.

I'm just having so much fun trying to push this medium that I used to do when I was really little, never even thought about it though, into this sort of just trying to push it and see how far I can take it.

There's something about it, and I think it's just been very therapeutic for me that is just keeping me going back.

(soft music) - [Scottie] What happened?

When did your physical health sort of deteriorate, and what happened there?

- I had been taking some antibiotics for something just really, I never get sick, and it was just this sort of stomach issue.

I took a 10 day round of this antibiotics, and then about the tenth day, all of a sudden my body just went numb.

It just started burning and tingling.

It literally felt like I had sort of been hit by lightning.

It was a full on attack on my central nervous system.

I couldn't feel my legs from the waist down.

I had shocks going into my eyeballs, my brain.

I was in the hospital for a few days.

They did every test under the sun and full spinal taps, the entire thing, and they're like, we don't know what's wrong.

We don't know what's wrong.

And literally I knew, I knew.

I said I know it's the antibiotic.

I tested positive for definitely neuropathy, the peripheral neuropathy, sensory neuropathy and all these neuropathies, and you just don't get rid of neuropathy.

I'm still not rid of the neuropathy.

I still have it.

My whole life turned absolutely upside down.

- [Scottie] How devastating was it to be an artist and not be able to create?

- I was just trying to survive.

Literally, I was just trying to survive during that time, so I wasn't even thinking about it.

I had this vase and all the petals were around it and kind of dead and it was looking sad, and I just started playing with them and I was just having a lot of fun.

It got me outside, it pushed me out the door because I was looking out my window and I'm like, oh wow, those leaves look cool.

I could use these flowers off this lady's tree that's hanging over the fence.

I was foraging and I was having fun and I wasn't worried about my body or if my legs were numb or whatever it was.

It just, like I said, just kept pushing me out the door and out of my head, which I needed, definitely.

(pleasant music) - My name's Brooke Rawlins, and I'm an owner of Sister Golden alongside my mom Vicki, and we are in Sister Golden in Fish Creek, Wisconsin.

It's really just a collection of things that we love that we would bring into our own homes, mostly handmade pieces by different independent artists kind of from all over the world, people from Wisconsin, people from across the country.

When we first opened this brick and mortar store and we were filling it out with merchandise, the back room, I remember my mom saying oh, that's the perfect place to have storage.

And I'm like, heck no.

That back space is the perfect gallery space for your art.

This is the gallery.

Come on in.

As you can see, we have a bunch of pieces in here.

People will spend an hour back here just looking at everything.

(pleasant music) It's just so incredible to have people go back into the gallery.

You hear their audible gasp when they see it, like (gasping), and then they come back to the counter with a print and they're like, who makes this?

Who does this?

And I'm like oh, it's, you know, or is this person local?

And I'm like yeah, it's my mom, actually.

She lives just down the street in Jacksonport.

And they're like, no way.

People have said this art has changed my life, which is just so cool.

It's so amazing to witness.

I think my mom gets shy when people say that, but it's just so cool.

(scissors snipping) - I do love making, doing portraits.

Elton John, John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Iris Apfel, Diana Ross, Cher, Audrey Hepburn.

Oh, Einstein, Frida Kahlo, of course.

I've done her 49 times.

I just always thought she was just such a bad (beep) woman.

I mean, my God, she's just so cool, and she just had been through such a horrific physical experience, you know?

But she always, no matter what, she was painting.

Nothing was gonna take her down.

I just say to everybody that this is happening.

If something is happening to you, good or bad, it's happening for you, not to you.

The neuropathy, I never looked at it as a bad thing happening to me.

It was a bad thing happening to me physically, but I was just thinking why, what can I learn from this?

I think it's about the journey through, going through it.

I would have never started foliage art.

(gentle music) - Very inspirational words from Vicki Rawlins, especially at this time of year.

Remember to check us out on our social platforms as well as on our YouTube channel.

From all of us at 10thirtysix in Milwaukee PBS, we wish you a very happy and healthy holiday season.

We leave you with a song of the season from the Marquette University Gospel Choir.

(piano playing) (group chattering) ♪ It was a silent, silent night ♪ ♪ It was a silent, silent night ♪ ♪ Silent night ♪ ♪ Holy night ♪ ♪ All is calm ♪ ♪ All is bright ♪ ♪ Round yon Virgin, mother and child ♪ ♪ Holy infant so tender and mild ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly ♪ ♪ Sleep in heavenly peace ♪ ♪ Silent night ♪ ♪ Holy night ♪ ♪ Shepherds quake at the sight ♪ ♪ Glories stream from heaven afar ♪ ♪ Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia ♪ ♪ Christ the Savior is born ♪ ♪ Christ the Savior is ♪ ♪ Christ the Savior is ♪ ♪ Christ the Savior is ♪ ♪ Born ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ (dog barking)