Celebrity and Celebration Mark JCC's 100th Anniversary

Actor, author and director Paul Michael Glaser came with his book and a message Sunday at the JCC.

He read from Chrystallia and the Source of Light, written in the voice of 13-year-old girl confronted with the loss of her mother and home.

The message, he said after the reading, tells what he has learned about how to cope with helplessness and fear.

"I wrote this as a way to share what I have learned over the last twenty to twenty-five years and wanted to write to the children in all of us," he said.

Glaser appeared anything but helpless and fearful.

He looked at ease sitting in a comfortable chair, a leg crossed, the book propped on a thigh.

He spoke in an array of character voices — a delicate Southern belle's, a booming Russian's and a French aristocrat's among them.

Guests lined up afterwards to have the author sign their copies of his book.

"I had to remember to call him Paul not Starsky," said Patti DeMoura, at the event with her family.

The Leigh Blander said it was an event-filled weekend at the JCC as the center recognized the past and looked to the future and celebrated in the present.

The weekend started with a Shabbat dinner with Glaser on Friday.

Saturday featured a centennial dinner, auction and reading by Glaser.

Sunday began with a ceremony where the JCC started, 45 Market St. in Lynn.

Later in the morning the JCC held a rededication ceremony at its 11-acre campus in Marblehead, which opened in 1972.

Among those who attended were Congressman John Tierney, D-MA, state Sen. Thomas McGee, D-Lynn, and state Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead.

Sunday events included the reading, book-signing and Q&A by Glaser, outdoor activites including Israeli dancing and a Field Day featuring basketball, cake decorating and field games.