This article appeared in the Jewish Advocate's North Shore edition on Sept. 13, 2013.

Lynn community activist seeks to advance to city government

By Susie Davidson

Special to the Advocate

“I didn’t just move to Lynn. I jumped in head first,” says Seth E. Albaum.

He is not content to simply be editor of the independent, online city publication LynnHappens.com, or Founder and President of the Downtown Lynn Neighborhood Association, or a Video Production and Broadcast Journalism teacher at Chelsea High School. And neither with merely serving on the Lynn Cultural Council, the Lynn Arts Board of Directors, and the Downtown Lynn Cultural District and Friends of Ward 5 organizations as well. Nor is he satisfied to be a member of the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce and the North Shore Latino Business Association.

He wants to be Lynn's next Ward 5 City Councilor.

“It’s been an honor and a lot of fun to serve Lynn in these capacities, but endeavors like these can only do so much if they hit obstacles in City Hall, such as outdated ordinances, outdated permitting processes and outmoded thinking,” he states on his website, www.ward5lynn.com. “Lynn needs to be ahead of the curve as an innovative city, and not a reactionary one. We can celebrate and preserve Lynn’s past glory best by no longer trying to live in it. Instead, let’s honor the past by adding new chapters to our city’s rich history.” On his site, he jokes that should he win, there would be no one to run the camera at City Council meetings. “I made them accessible and open to the public by posting videos of these meetings online, starting with a Cable Advisory Subcommittee meeting of September 9, 2008.” (Since 2009, they’ve been posted to his LynnHappens site.)

Albaum participated in the committee that brought Lynn in as Massachusetts' premiere Arts & Culture District, and he has also regularly DJ'd at the Gulu-Gulu Cafe in downtown Salem, spinning 80s new wave, post-punk, classic indie-rock, power-pop, garage-punk, and other musical genres such as Motown and mod/British Invasion for the past four years. He does weddings, too, for those with particular musical preferences rather than Top 40.

In the Sept. primary, he will face off against Diana Chakoutis, who is a manager at the Old Tyme Restaurant in Lynn, and Jake Keo, an assistant retail manager. Albaum, a Democrat, explained that the Lynn seats are non-partisan, and voters choose a person rather than a party.

“Mr. Albaum is the only candidate of his faith running in the upcoming elections in Lynn,” said Bonnie Weiss, a healthcare and legal resources advocate who is co-director of Mikvat B’not Yisrael at Lynn's Congregation Ahabat Sholom. She learned about Albaum through helping another candidate for Ward 1 Councilor in Lynn, and has since become a member of Albaum's campaign team.

“I attended a Lynn Community Association meeting, a strong community organization in Lynn that holds their events and meetings at my synagogue, which happens to be the last Jewish organization and institution in Lynn,” she said. “At that meeting, I met Seth and his wife, who recently married and own a home right in the heart of downtown Lynn.”

Albaum told the Advocate that he has never felt this welcome in a city ever since relocating to New England from New York in 1996, and then moving to Lynn from Jamaica Plain in 2007. “I carefully chose Lynn because of the great buildings and the growing arts community in the downtown, the ocean, Lynn Woods, and because of its diversity and location,” he said. “However, within my first week here, I realized Lynn’s best feature is its people. I could not help becoming involved in this city because I was made to feel involved from the very beginning. I could not help advocating for the city, putting on events, and having opinions on issues affecting the city,” he said.

Chief among those for him are safe streets, good schools, open government, and fostering the creation of “a 21st century Lynn.”

Albaum was born in New York City, and raised in upstate New York and in Wayne, New Jersey before coming to Boston in 1993 to attend Emerson College, first to study Mass Communication, and then Speech Communication and Education. “I got involved in Hillel and WERS right from the start,” he said. It was at Hillel events in his freshman year that he met Jennifer Adler: “She was a year ahead, and she transferred to Brandeis, and we would not meet again until 2005.” This past May, they were married.

Albaum is the oldest of four children of a father who was born on the Lower East Side and grew up in Brooklyn, and a mother who was born to Holocaust survivors in Amoneburg, Germany. “She came through Ellis Island at the age of 2 in 1951, they spent a short time in Dorchester, then went to Washington Heights in Manhattan, where my grandmother still lives,” he said.

In 1996, he moved off campus to Brighton, and became involved in Radio Free Allston and in advocating for Low Power Community Radio. “I found myself training people of all ages and backgrounds in how to operate equipment to host a show,” he said. “We featured many languages, and had high school children through senior citizens on staff.” His experience there, coupled with his communications background led to a job operating a public access television studio in North Reading, where he stayed for nine years before beginning teaching full time in Chelsea. He also worked for CN8, The Comcast Network, when it was in New England. Other jobs in college included valet parking, coffee shop server, camp counselor at Nah-Jee-Wah (Jewish Y camps), and data entry positions.

He moved to Jamaica Plain in 1998. “It was a fun, diverse, and enjoyable neighborhood, but I was still involved in community radio and also working on the North Shore," he said. "I never really got involved in civic life in JP, because I wasn't there enough."

In 2007, he purchased a two bedroom condo/loft in a former commercial building in downtown Lynn, where he now lives with his wife. “I was bringing some odds and ends over one night when a neighbor knocked on my door and invited me to join their dinner party,” he recalled. “That never happened to me before, so even though it was a school night, I couldn't refuse.” That led to more neighborly connections. ”We'd knock on doors or text before going out, and many of us still do,” he said. “I guess that's what happens when you have a new residential area. It's like move-in day at college.” Sharing issues and concerns with them led him to form the Downtown Lynn Neighborhood Association in 2008.

“Seth and Jennifer are following the footprints of the hundreds of Jewish people that started their lives and businesses in Lynn,” said Weiss. “These many families helped to fuel the economy into Lynn through numerous industries. Lynn was, and continues to be, a gateway and bridge to many new immigrants, cultures and religions offering economic opportunity, housing, and other amenities,” she said, noting that many Jewish organizations that now reside in the Swampscott and Marblehead belt came from Lynn. “Lynn was the cornerstone and foundation of the Jewish community,” she said. Weiss herself has lived this saga, moving from Lynn at the age of 11 to Swampscott. “However, you can take the girl out of the Lynn but you cannot take the Lynn out of the girl,” she quipped. She drew a parallel between Albaum's teaching at Chelsea High and the fact that many Swampscott and Marblehead Jews were also from that city. “In an odd way, he is following Jews who preceded him, without even being aware of this dynamic,” she said. “He is originally from New Jersey, but he is fulfilling a very unique Mitzvah, making sure that there is a Jewish presence in every corner of the diaspora, and in essence he is helping to bring back, retain and cultivate a new Jewish presence in Lynn.”

Albaum grew up attending a Conservative temple and Jewish summer camps, including Poyntelle and Nah-Jee-Wah. “Other than those experiences, I had a hard time finding Jewish youth groups I could relate to - but it was more that I had little interest in another bowling night or awkward dance with top 40 music,” he said. “It wasn't until Emerson and getting involved in Hillel, as a real skeptic at first, that I turned around. I went to alternative and punk shows with the people in my Hillel, and we found kinship with the Berklee Hillel, as well,” he recounted. He would also attend High Holiday services at Boston University.

His wife's father, Rev. Ethan Adler, who was born in Israel, is the Religious Leader at Congregation Beth David of Narragansett, Rhode Island. “It's a little far from where we live, but I'd have to say, where we're affiliated by default!” Albaum said. “I've also attended a lot of events sponsored by the Lynn Community Association at Temple Ahabat Shalom.”

Albaum was the winner of the 2012 David Solimine Sr. Community Service Award, and he has also received awards and official recognition from the Lynn City Council, Communities That Care, and the Lynn Community Association.

“Through LynnHappens and downtown, I got to know people in City Hall better, and really got to know the whole city,” he said. “It's honestly the first place I've felt comfortable living in since moving to New England. It has the ocean and a harbor on one side, and Lynn Woods on the other. Plus, the downtown has great character and is just as safe - probably safer, than Jamaica Plain. There's more to Lynn than most people realize. We have a theatre group, live music at bars throughout the city, an arts scene that's developing, and zero pretense. You can just be yourself here. It's also a very welcoming place for people who want to get involved and make a difference.”

To help Seth Albaum advance to the next level of community commitment, visiewww.ward5lynn.com, email seth@ward5lynn.com, or call his campaign hotline at 781-309-7845.