September 9, 2020
Jonathan:
A quick note to recognize you for the superb job of facilitation and creating rapport with our interviewees yesterday. While you could not see me, I was smiling as I watched, knowing that they were in good hands and that you would get what we needed (and then some).
Looking forward to a continuation of a terrific beginning.
Regards.
Rick Bangs, PMP, MBA
Chair
Patient Advocate Committee
SWOG Cancer Research Network
National Clinical Trials Network
National Cancer Institute
PCORI Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
Jon,
Just a personal note to deeply thank you for your extraordinary contribution in producing and staffing our recent Forum on the devastating Japanese crisis. It never would have occurred without your determined efforts. For the Forum series, this was a historic moment. We had a vision, but it was untested. Could HSPH respond to a major crisis with science and experience-based information and advice? You helped to show that we could! As a result, our School's mission and that of the Forum will be forever changed. Again, thanks for your heroic efforts.
Robert Blendon, Senior Associate Dean
Division of Policy Translation and Leadership Development
Harvard School of Public Health
Dear Jonathan,
I finally had the opportunity to read Health Without Boundaries and it really is a beautifully realized and designed piece. The greatest testimony to the writing came from my caregiver who read it from cover to cover and thought she understood what we did. And the pictures are really superb, getting in almost every conceivable aspect of the school.
In a word, it will be the only formal record of what we did in these 10 years, and you should be really proud about how that record has been presented to the university and the outside world.
Sincere thanks,
Barry Bloom, Dean
Harvard School of Public Health
I wanted to make sure I sent you an email to say how fabulous the publication looks and reads! I'm just seeing it today. I love the embossing on the cover, and the use of white space throughout. Jon, your work finding all those photos really inspires the whole publication. And Madeline, you were a wonder pulling together so much great copy so quickly (and then reworking it to fit with the layout as it evolved).
I hope everyone who sees this today at Commencement and tomorrow at the alumni event appreciates (at least a little bit) what an accomplishment this was to pull all together so quickly and so magnificently.
Congratulations!
Julie F. Rafferty,
Sr. Director of Development Marketing and Planning
Harvard School of Public Health
Can I second that emotion? The publication you put together is a polished ambassador for our work. The look and FEEL are great. The tactile sensation of the embossing elicits extra attention. The photos are beautiful in the concrete setting of the publication in a way that no proofs or online versions could convey. The text is lovely to read, not in the least daunting or a chore like many of these types of booklets and the pulled out quotes augment everything. Thank you and bravo for turning out such a great product.
Robin Herman,
Assistant Dean for Communications
Harvard School of Public Health
Dear Jonathan,
I want you to know how very pleased I am with the two videos you produced. Having been there when some of the raw material was gathered, I could appreciate the "makeover" you facilitated. The final product is quite wonderful. A huge amount of content is squeezed into a short time. But it's not rushed and it's exceedingly pleasant and engaging to watch. I know we will use it a lot. I'm heading off to Kansas City next month and will certainly deploy the departmental video in one of my presentations.
Finally, it was fun getting to know you and your colleagues and to see your craft in action. I'm impressed and will gladly recommend you to future clients.
Best wishes,
Joe Brain,
Department Chair 1990 - 2005
Department of Environmental Health
Harvard School of Public Health
REGARDING THE NAYLOR COLLECTION
"..The catalog is definitely one of the most unique presentations I have ever seen."
Bill Bulkeley, Wall Street Journal
"...Without question, this is one of the most impressive and eye-popping offering productions that I have ever seen. The piece itself is an art object and grabs ones attention immediately."
Stephen B. Ashley, Chairman, George Eastman House
"...The printed overview of the collection and the DVD which arrived last week are simply the best produced material on any collection I have ever seen."
Michael Pritchard,
Director, Photographic Auctions,
Christie's, London
Jon.
Thank you for your incredible commitment to excellence and your graciousness in working so hard today especially, but also all the days leading up to today, to complete what is truly the most important and I believe the most powerful document in our organization's history. I know you have gone above and beyond for City Year under a nearly impossible deadline, very tight budget and many late edits. Please know that it is all incredibly appreciated and that you and your production team have done amazing work for City Year. I know that you have given us a document that inspires me and others to go out and work even harder for City Year's success. The document will lead to great things for City Year, I am very sure of that.
I look forward to thanking you in person.
Michael
Brown, Co-Founder and Chairman
City Year
Dear Jon and Karyn,
I arrived back at CY late Friday afternoon from being offsite and found a copy of a truly stunning campaign brochure on my chair. You have given us a remarkable tool for achieving our goals. It exceeds all of my hopes for a document that we knew we needed, but until both of you joined our team, had no way to realize, much less realize so powerfully. It is simply amazing! You have done a miraculous thing in a very short time. I am deeply grateful.
Jon, you captured what we needed, and your attention to detail and insight is, well, way above and beyond. It is so deeply appreciated. You worked so hard for us, and we will never forget it.
Please thank the entire team that worked on this. They did an amazing job!
Thank you!!!!!
Michael Brown,
Co-Founder and Chairman
City Year
"CFL delivers consistent results that are creative, credible, and cost-effective and these qualities are its signature."
David A. Fausch
Vice President of Corporate Public Relations
The Gillette Company
Dear Jon:
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your unwavering support of the past eight years and for your contributions that have played a key role in making Al Zeien, The Gillette Company, and me highly successful.
Your personal quest for perfection has been highly visible in the video products you have created for the Company. Your ability to bring out the personalities of our top executives and to creatively illustrate complex concepts has enabled us to deliver highly diversified messages to all of our targeted audiences both inside and outside the Company.
Above all, we appreciate the professional advice you have provided over the years. Just knowing that we can rely on your judgment and support is a secure feeling in today's hectic business world. We, as a tem, have been able to deliver world-class products despite the urgency, circumstances or budget.
Thanks for always being there when we needed you.
Kindest regards.
Matt Miller
, Manager, Corporate Public Relations
The Gillette Company
Dear Jon:
The Centennial Celebration of the Boston Public Library's McKim Building was an unqualified success!
It was a powerful endorsement of the importance of the Library to our community and a visible demonstration of the wide-ranging support it has earned from all sectors of our city. The funds raised for this event surpassed even our most ambitious expectations - one million dollars in cash and approximately $350,000 in in-kind contributions.
For an evening this complicated and a program this varied to succeed, it required a combination of very talented, hard-working and dedicated people, operating as a team - all of this was true and you are to be commended for being one of the members of the team!
Thanks to you, and Laura, every collateral component of the elegant event was perfect. The unique and beautiful invitation helped us set the stage for a world-class affair. The program book was spectacular - Bates Hall never looked better - and we have received a number of calls from guests asking for extras. The Awards Ceremony program was just right and the Dyson family so appreciated their Friendship keepsake.
All of this leaves us looking forward to working with you on our next project - although you'll have to help us with how we might top what we've just accomplished together!
Sincerely,
Diddy Cullinane
, Gala Chairman
Karyn Wilson,
Director
The Boston Public Library Foundation
Dear Jon:
I am writing to thank you officially for the superb work you have done for the Library.
As you know, the Development Office of the Boston Public Library was founded only two years ago. One of our great challenges has been to produce informational materials both for general public relations use and for use in our planned $80 million capital campaign. We have greatly assisted in this effort by the multi-projector slide show you have completed for us and we are looking forward to the campaign brochure and information packet materials, which are now ready to go to print.
The need for an audiovisual presentation that can be easily and widely distributed was a high priority for us. After exhaustive interviews with numerous producers, we selected Communications for Learning on the basis of demonstrated work, excellent references, and an apparent understanding of and clear affinity for the Library and its missions. We have not been disappointed in any of these areas and have been greatly impressed with your ability to coordinate projects with exceptional care and efficiency. What we could not have predicted was the pleasure it has been to work with you and your staff.
You have brought together a team of very talented professionals: production manager Roz Moore, writer Marjorie Waters, photographer Brian Smith, designer Kenton Rhoades, technical producer Ken Lacouture, and, of course, yourself. In addition to your obvious creative talents and your innovative approach, you have all proven to be infinitely diplomatic, flexible, patient, and sensitive to the needs of the Library and its staff. These qualifications are perhaps nowhere as necessary as they are within the bureaucracy of a large municipal library like ours; your ability to adjust to our idiosyncrasies has been very my appreciated.
The audio visual show, This is Ours! The Campaign for the Library, succeeds in a presenting the complexity and richness of this institution in a way that is enlightening, entertaining, and beautiful to boot. We have received nothing but rave reviews - from the Library Trustees, Library staff, participants in the show, prospective donors, volunteer tour guides, members of community organizations, and others. A videotape of the show was shown on continuous loop at the New England Library Association annual meeting and was received with enthusiasm. We have received request to view the tape from library directors across the country who have read about it in our newsletter and we are convinced that it will become a model for other libraries who are interested in promoting their public image. The Library plans to enter the piece in several public relations and design competitions sponsored by the American Library Association and the Massachusetts Library Association.
Our hats are off to you, Jonathan, for your efforts on behalf of the Library. We wish you well in your future pursuits and hope that they will include repeated collations with us.
With very best wishes,
Tess Cederholm
, Development Officer
The Boston Public Library
Dear Jon:
We've had so many compliments on the new show that I just wanted to thank you once again for a job exceedingly well done.
It is such an on-going pleasure to work with you and your talented staff as you continue to richly capture the flavor of the human services agencies I represent.
You are indeed a gifted lot - I look forward to future collaborations.
Gratefully,
Carol Bonnar
, Vice President, External Relations
Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries, Inc.
Dear Mr. Barkan:
I want to share with you the overwhelming positive response to the Digital Manufacturing Group's Order Management video you so ably produced for DECWORLD '87. Your creativity and technical ingenuity allowed a complex message to be communicated concisely and without loss of import. This video became one of the must see stations in the Manufacturing Display Area.
Additionally, due to the recognized excellence of this video, it has been incorporated in Digital's Journey to Manufacturing Excellence Educational Program which will be implemented world-wide in the near future.
Jon, again I want to extend a heart felt thanks to you and your staff for your clear understanding and support of our difficult schedule and budget.
It was a pleasure to work with you and I hope to do so again in the future.
Sincerely,
Sandra Meyer,
OBU Project Manager
Digital Equipment Corporation
Dear Jon:
I think I can speak for the Chairman of our Board as well as the Trustees and parent community when I express our gratitude for the fine work your firm has done in creating our new logo, brochure, letterhead et al.
Mead is a school that actively supports expression by all of its constituencies. I know that the process of listening to our thoughts and wishes was thus tedious at best! To then synthesize our ideas with the marketing demands we placed on the product was an enormous task.
The resulting designs are a testament to your talent for meeting and exceeding our objectives.
Thank you and your firm very much.
Sincerely,
Gaelen Canning
, Director
The Mead School
Dear Jon and Doug:
Early in 1984, those of us in International Headquarters identified a strong need for a video presentation which could be utilized to address a variety of needs.
After discussing these objectives with you and Jonathan Barkan of Communications for Learning, together you developed an informative and entertaining script complemented with interesting visuals and music. The result was a highly effective 30-minute video presentation which met each of our objectives for the project. The presentation was brought in on time and on budget and has played to a wide variety of audiences, with uniformly favorable response.
We particularly like the fact that the tape was produced in a manner which allows for economical updating of time sensitive content, thereby prolonging the useful life of what we feel is a very fine and effective presentation.
In summary, I feel that our confidence in turning to Corporate Public Relations and Communications for Learning for help in addressing some very real management needs was rewarded with a highly creative, business like solution.
Gillette International is truly appreciative of your joint efforts and professionalism which led to such effective fulfillment of our needs.
Sincerely,
Rodney Mills,
Executive Vice President
Gillette International
Dear Jon:
Now that the Pride in Performance Dinner has come and gone, I want to take this opportunity to both thank and commend you for all of the hard work and effort that went into preparing for the event.
The Governor, Mrs. Dukakis, Cabinet Secretaries, Agency Heads and participants have all told me what a wonderful time that they had, and how well organized and efficient we were in getting people in and out. It appears that the concept of Pride In performance is institutionalized among state employees, and that people are now going to look forward to the dinner and awards ceremony with great anticipations. For my part, I want you to know that I continue to take great pride in your performance, and that I believe that the success of the evening was directly attributable to all of your efforts.
Congratulations on a very successful Awards Dinner and Program and thank you again on behalf of all of us who enjoyed ourselves so much.
Sincerely,
David Haley,
Personnel Administrator
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Department of Personnel Administration
Dear Jon:
Never has a Dear Jon letter been written in better spirit. Although I've said it to you many times, I want to formally acknowledge the wonderful work you did for HRCA. The raves on both the slide show and brochure have been coming in from all sources.
I'm truly grateful for your personal time and creativity and Mary, Debbi and Herb couldn't have been better.
I shall certainly take every opportunity to commend and recommend you. You will be receiving a final check in a few days. Let's talk about May 1st.
Best regards,
Shirley Lerner,
Development Fund Director
Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged
Dear Jon:
I want you to know how pleased I am with your involvement in the development of the new teaching kit for the ACS. I am most excited by the progress which we made and am looking forward to receiving the filmstrip treatments.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I am looking forward to our continued collaboration.
Warmest regards,
Jerry Maburn,
Director of Programs for Youth and Staff Training
American Cancer Society
Dear Jonathan:
Very well done and many, many thanks.
Best regards,
Stu Dawson
Sasaki Associates, Inc.
Dear Jonathan:
Some of us are a little slow in expressing our thanks and gratitude for the fine show you produced. The production is of the high quality caliber we knew you would deliver. I am only sorry that I was not involved in final completion of the project with you, Denise and Debbie. Producing a show was certainly a learning experience for us. (How is that for the understatement of the week?) We thank you for taking what appeared to be an awesome task and making it possible.
I especially appreciated the sensitivity you showed to the students as well as to the employers and co-workers. Producing a show on the employer's turf has its complications. The ease and professionalism with which you handled these situations was commendable. It was a pleasure to have worked with you at the job sites.
May I extend my best wishes for a great future ahead in all your production endeavors.
Sincerely,
Barbara Smith, Supervisor, Adult Services
Perkins School for the Blind
To Whom it May Concern:
I am writing in reference to my feelings about Jon as a teacher. To this I can respond only positively.
I was introduced to Jon by an instructor on our staff who was about to take a leave of absence; Jon being the person suggested as interim instructor in an audio-visual productions course.
We met several times prior to his taking over the class and later I periodically took the opportunity to sit in on his classes.
Immediately, I was impressed by Jon's professional attitude, credentials, and experience. During preliminary discussions he expressed a real concern for continuity in the course and the students' ability to adjust to a new instructor. He took great care in preparing himself to meet the course objectives.
Jon brought to the class an articulate and stimulating balance of educational technique and work experience in the field of communications. He drew an impressive degree of respect from students in the presentation of his own audio-visual productions and in the presentation of class material. The results of his efforts could be readily seen in the high quality of student work and the serious attitude with which they approached their course requirements.
Jon Barkan is an exciting combination of educator and working professional photographer. An impressive instructor in the classroom and a pleasure to work with. We at the Art Institute of Boston benefited immensely from our experience with him as I am sure the students and staff at New England School of Photography do now.
Sincerely,
Richard Sullo
Chairman, Photography Department
Commissioner on Aging
Department of Health, Education and Welfare
Dear Mr. Fleming:
I am writing on behalf of Communications for Learning, Inc., a non-profit organization located in my Congressional district. This organization, in conjunction with the Boston Commission on Affairs of the Elderly, has applied to the Administration on Aging Model Projects on Aging for the project entitled The Rest of Your Life.
The Rest of Your Life will meet educational needs at secondary and pre-retirement levels. This educational program represents a need that has long been considered.
I enthusiastically endorse this project and hope that every possible consideration be given towards a favorable determination of its funding level.
With every good wish,
Sincerely,
Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr.
The Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
"BEARING WITNESS" REVIEWS
BOOKLIST
American Library Association
January 1 & 15, 2003
This riveting program documents the Nazi extermination camps and personalizes both liberators and survivors, who reveal shocking details. The nightmarish experiences of the concentration camps are brought vividly to life thorough historic correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, and personal accounts. American soldiers were note ordered to liberate the camps but claim they came across them unexpectedly and were totally unprepared for what they found - ovens smoking with burning flesh, carts overflowing with emaciated dead bodies, and piles of shoes, clothing, and human remains. The graphic historic photographs and death-camp footage vividly contrast with film clips depicting community life in Europe prior to the 1939 Nazi invasion. Personal reports from those who experienced the horrors tell the same story. This painful, revealing documentary fully conveys Nazi brutality. Appropriate for both high-school students and adult viewers. Includes discussion guide. - Carol Holzberg
VIDEO LIBRARIAN
The Video Review Magazine for Libraries
September / October 2002
***In the final days of WWII, as American soldiers fought their way across Europe toward the final Nazi stronghold of Berlin, they stumbled - almost by accident - across Nazi work camps, a euphemism for slave labor and death camps populated by Jews, gypsies, and other undesirables. Liberating the death camps was a mission the GIs neither trained for nor expected. Drawing on a combination of old newsreels and first person accounts, Bearing Witness, hosted by newsman Morton Dean, offers up a tribute to the citizen soldiers, some little older than boys, who were both liberators and witnesses to Hitler's final solution. Infantrymen, nurses, and combat photographers are still haunted by the scenes of horror (when the GIs arrived, the ovens were still smoking, and men, women and children were dying of disease and starvation at the rate of 300 per day) they encountered over a half century ago. Surviving prisoners remember the many small acts of kindness shown them by the Americans, while soldiers recall the incomprehensibility of the single-minded viciousness heaped on helpless prisoners, particularly children. Today, these elderly witnesses to genocide are compelled to pass on the horrors of what they saw to future generations. As one man put it someone has to remember what happened there. While this brief documentary features many graphic and disturbing images, this is still suitable for high school audiences and above. Recommended. (S. Rees.)
LIBRARY JOURNAL
August 2002
Powerful, moving, and at times horrific, this documentary features firsthand accounts of the Holocaust set against the backdrop of film footage and still pictures shot in and around the camps. The film begins with Szmulek Rosental, a Polish Jew who was sent to the damps at age nine. Rosental reminisces about his family before the war and describes his life in the camps. The film continues with comments from a number of Americans who came into contact with the camps toward the end of World War II. Unprepared for what they found, the Americans could not believe the inhumane conditions and cruel treatment that the inmates suffered. Many are still haunted by the memory of hundreds of people described as walking skeletons and piles of bodies and ash from the ovens. One of the most touching moments involves military photographer Joe Hanson, who took a picture of a group of survivors at Dachau as they cheered their American liberators. Much later, he met one of the people in the picture: Szmulek Rosental, then 14 years old. Rosental recalled his conflicting feelings as he stood at the fence that day: love for the liberators and sorrow that the liberation came too late for his family. The images in this film may be disturbing to some viewers. Highly recommended for high school and college audiences. (Karen Plummer, University of Akron Library)