JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian

THE
Jewish Georgian
Volume 21, Number 5
Atlanta, Georgia
An innovative Seder at The Temple
explores how technology can enhance
religious experience.
By Scott Janovitz
Page 29
AIPAC’s Policy
Conference
More than a meeting to plan and strategize, this annual event is also rich with
meaning and emotion.
By Renee Brody Levow
Page 13
One Good Deed
A small but formidable organization helps
people with physical challenges remain in
their homes.
By Leon Socol
Page 30
Giving Back to Israel
A grateful Dr. David Whiteman found
love in Israel; years later, Israeli doctors
saved his life.
By Bill Sonenshine
Page 28
Coming Together
The Augusta Federation’s Annual
Meeting is a celebration of community
connections and accomplishments.
See Page 30
Breaking the Silence
Talking about the problem of substance
abuse in the Jewish community is the first
step toward solving it.
By Mark Weinstein and Jeff Diamond
Page 15
FREE
Exhibition introduces children to
Jewish culture around the world
What’s Inside
iSeder Breaks
New Ground
JULY-AUGUST 2009
O
n August 30, The Sophie Hirsh
Srochi Jewish Discovery Museum of
the Marcus Jewish Community
Center of Atlanta (MJCCA) will open a
temporary exhibition, “Your Jewish
World.” This exhibition, which follows
the museum’s successful “Your Jewish
Home” and “Your Jewish Town,” introduces children ages 2 to 12 to the wide
array of Jewish culture from the Diaspora.
Designed by Museum Director Cyndi
Sterne and Harley Gould, “Your Jewish
World” will run through July 31, 2010.
In this exhibition, children will discover an imaginative world of different foods,
Sophie Knapp (Photo: Cyndi Sterne) costumes, and culture from South Africa
The Jewish community
of Waycross
By Stuart Rockoff
W
aycross,
Georgia,
developed
economically due to
its location at the confluence of nine railroads and five highways, which gave
Waycross Hebrew Center
the town its name.
As Waycross grew, Jews began to come to the area in small numbers, seeking to take advantage of the town’s economic opportunities.
Perhaps the first Jew to live in the Waycross area was Alex
Gilmore, who left Russia in 1900, when he was only 14 years old.
By 1902, he had settled in Blackshear, just north of Waycross. By
1910, he owned a dry goods store in Blackshear and had earned
enough money to bring over two of his siblings and his widowed
mother, all of whom lived with him. Soon, thereafter, a number of
Russian Jewish immigrants followed Gilmore into this area, some
of whom settled in Waycross.
Of the Jewish immigrants who initially settled in Waycross,
few set down deep roots in the community. According to the 1912
city directory, there were 18 Jews in Waycross who were involved
in commercial trade, either as dry goods merchants, shoemakers, or
tailors. By 1921, all but three of these Jewish immigrants had left
Waycross; many moved to other cities in Georgia.
See WAYCROSS, page 5
to South America, Eastern Europe to the United
Kingdom. Each interactive display will have
personal photographs and stories depicting
Jewish experiences in these areas.
Cyndi Sterne says, “When children learn
about their differences, it is inevitable they will
discover similarities as well. On a personal note,
I know that my children love learning about different customs and traditions and also enjoy
teaching their friends about their own heritage.”
The Sophie Hirsh Srochi Jewish Discovery
Museum is a children’s museum that focuses on
integrating Judaism through interactive play,
wonder, and exploration. The museum also
See SOPHIE HIRSH SROCHI, page 14
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 2
Who are the builders?
T
his past May, Pope Benedict XVI
visited Israel and the West Bank.
During the visit, he spoke of the
“wall,” a subject that is continuously
brought up by many people in discussing
the conflict between Israel and its adjacent
neighbors in the West Bank.
While the pope is not the person who
decided to refer to this partition as a wall, it
is a term that I, as well as many others,
have objected to, since it conjures up a
vision of the Berlin Wall and all the negative happenings that accompanied and
resulted from its construction.
There is no denying that a barrier is
being constructed, but since “more than
97% of the planned 720 km. (480 mile)
security fence will consist of a chain-link
fence system” (see www.palestinefacts.org),
it would be more correct to talk about a
fence rather than a wall. The mental picture
evoked by the word “fence” is that of a partition that would not visually block the
landscape, while the mental picture summoned by the word “wall” is that of a concrete structure intended not only to limit
access but also to limit any tie to the other
side.
But what this did for me was to raise
THE
Jewish Georgian
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Marvin Botnick,
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Jonathan Goldstein, George Jordan,
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The Jewish Georgian ©2009
BY Marvin
Botnick
even a more interesting question. Who are
the builders of the fence?
Is it the party that contracted for the
construction, the State of Israel? Is it the
general contractor, which certainly was
legally authorized to do business in Israel?
Is it the parties who designed the project?
Is it the actual workers who physically
erected the fence, some of whom, no doubt,
were Arabs? Or is it the groups and individuals whose actions resulted in the murder of and injury to innocent, non-combatant Israelis and visitors to Israel, destruction of property in the State of Israel, and
unnecessary and unproductive deployment
of assets that could have been used for constructive purposes?
Consider the following information
from Jewish Virtual Library:
• “Approximately 75 percent of the
suicide bombers who attacked targets
inside Israel came from across the border
where the first phase of the fence was
built.”
• “During the 34 months from the
beginning of the violence in September
2000 until the construction of the first continuous segment of the security fence at the
end of July 2003, Samaria-based terrorists
carried out 73 attacks in which 293 Israelis
were killed and 1,950 wounded.”
• “In the 11 months between the erection of the first segment at the beginning of
August 2003 and the end of June 2004,
only three attacks were successful, and all
three occurred in the first half of 2003.”
• “Since construction of the fence
began, the number of attacks has declined
by more than 90%. The number of Israelis
murdered and wounded has decreased by
more than 70% and 85%, respectively, after
erection of the fence.
“Even the Palestinian terrorists have
admitted the fence is a deterrent. On
November 11, 2006, Islamic Jihad leader
Abdallah Ramadan Shalah said on AlManar TV that terrorist organizations had
every intention of continuing suicidebombing attacks, but that their timing and
the possibility of implementing them from
Just fix’n to
I
woke up during the night recently in a
cold sweat, realizing that they had
struck again. When would this insidious plot end?
I first became aware of this alien
incursion into that sacred realm of tradition some years ago. I was visiting cousin
Bobby Lee in Westabutchie, and he served
grits with “toast” that had been made in
the oven and browned on only one side.
As if that was not bad enough, the butter
had been put on the bread before it was
toasted, so that the middle was mushy.
In utter disbelief, I asked Bobby Lee
why he had strayed from his heritage. Did
he not realize that he was becoming a
party to creating a two-class society? Not
only was he using white bread, but he had
lost the art of scraping. All of our lundsmen, especially those of us who were first
generation, knew that the proper way to
make toast was to brown it sufficiently so
that the presentation was finished off by
scraping the burnt portion immediately
preceding the serving of the dish. The
whole secret was in the wrist. It was only
through using this method that the proper
crunching noise could be made while consuming the delicacy.
As you can guess, it was not long
before this dastardly conspiracy had
BY Bubba
Meisa
spread to rye bread. They had tried to hide
this by printing “Jewish” rye on the wrapper, but one bite quickly told you that it
was another Madison Avenue (that’s in
New York, not Westabutchie) trick. Where
was that hard crust that helped develop the
jaw muscle? Where was that body that
allowed a slice to stand tall, rather than
slump over like a limp washrag?
As you can see, partaking of the staff
of life for the Jew is a total experience. We
all know that suffering adds a special
ingredient to life for the Jew. Eating bread
is no different. Do we not eat matzoh at
Passover to remind us of the suffering we
endured as slaves in Egypt? I ask you
then, how can any self-respecting Jew
enjoy eating these modern transgressions
against what we know to be right? How
can we truly enjoy bread that can be consumed with no effort?
And now we are confronted with the
latest invasion into our proprietary realm
of breads—the commercial bagel.
July-August 2009
the West Bank depended on other factors.
‘For example,’ he said, ‘there is the separation fence, which is an obstacle to the
resistance, and if it were not there, the situation would be entirely different.’”
So, who really are the builders?
Unlike the Berlin Wall and the walls
built around the Jewish ghettos, this fence
was not constructed to keep people in, but
rather it is being put in place solely for the
purpose of keeping terrorists out and preserving life. Just as jails are built by criminals, the fence is being built by the terrorists.
The present population of Israel is
approximately 75% Jewish, 20% Arab, and
5% other. It is not a Jewish state, but a state
for the Jews, and non-Jewish citizens have
the same legal rights as the Jews—unlike
the status of dhimmis for Jews and
Christians under Muslim law. It is not a
theocracy, as are some of its neighbors, any
more than England is a Christian country,
even though the monarch is the supreme
governor of the Church of England and, as
such, is the titular leader over the Church
of England. Israel not only has the right,
but it has the duty to protect its citizens,
regardless of ethnicity or religion, and the
fence has proven its validity as a tool
towards this responsibility. The defensive
measures, including the fence, would not
be present if the terrorists had not built
them.
While the bagel does not go back to
the days of the Temple, it has been with us
for a long time. As we know it, the bagel
is not suppose to have the consistency of a
croissant, nor was it ever meant to have
the same continental flare or pronunciation. It is more blue-collar in both taste
and name. Those of us who are fans can
eat a bagel right off the shelf, just as we
would consume a pastry, or we can eat it
toasted. In either case, eating a true bagel
would be the ultimate Poligrip commercial.
Until this point, I have sat by and said
nothing about these changes, but I can no
longer keep silent. Enough is enough;
wake up before it is too late! The round
roll with a hole in the middle that is being
foisted on you from the frozen foods case
is a conspiracy to weaken your jaw muscles so that you will not be able to open
your mouth in protest. This donut-shape
creation is an attempt to produce a whitebread generation. The uniformity of the
impostor is an attempt to subvert individualism.
You let them redefine toast and said
nothing. You let them perpetrate the
“Jewish” rye hoax and said nothing. Don’t
let this bagel bamboozle spread without a
loud protest. Join with me in speaking out
against them while we still have developed jaw muscles to use.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
What’s
HAPPENING
T
HE ST. REGIS ATLANTA. St. Regis
Atlanta developer Paul Freeman has
hit a home run with his stunning new
resort-like complex in Buckhead.
Located on West Paces Ferry at
Peachtree, the magnificent hotel has condo
residences, restaurants, and bars that are
attracting crowds of Atlantans.
The Wall Street Journal calls the
Starwood Hotels-managed St. Regis “by far
the prettiest hotel in town, a modern take on
traditional Southern grandeur, with spectacular public spaces and spacious rooms and
baths decorated in soothing cream and aqua
shades.” Reporter Laura Landro says she
was also impressed by “the lobby’s 750pound chandelier and two marble staircases
sweeping up to a second-story lounge
area... The vast outdoor piazza with cascading waterfall...19th-century Venetian mirrors, antiqued-glass vases filled with tall
pussy willows, silver plated objets d’ art,
and paintings by Atlanta artists, many commissioned for the hotel. My favorite ‘green’
feature: a toilet with one flush button for
‘half’ and one for ‘full.’”
The St. Regis has it all: The Paces 88
American Bistro; the St. Regis Bar,
designed after the legendary King Cole Bar
and Lounge at the St. Regis New York;
afternoon tea in the lobby; a wine-tasting
room; the Poolside Cafe and Bar, with fireplace; the Grotto Bar and Cafe, tucked into
the Grand Terrace—and each space with its
own special cuisine, atmosphere, culture,
and style.
Overlooking the pool are the five-star
Remede Spa, a
billiards and card
room, a well
equipped gym and
health center, plus
a lovely ballroom,
all giving the St.
Regis a resort feel.
Paul says that he
has spent the last
five years of his
life focused on the
project, “...buildSt. Regis Developer ing an Intown
resort, a landmark
Paul Freeman
facility with timeless architecture that will benefit Atlanta,
serve its guests, and provide a wonderful
place for people to live and visit.”
POWER DINERS. Spotted power-dining at
Hal Novak’s popular eatery, Hal’s on Old
Ivy: Native Atlantans Richard Alterman,
Jerry Gordon, and Paul Ehrlich, haggling
over the bill and debating whether to leave
a 5% or 10% tip. Here’s “What’s
BY Reg
Regenstein
Happening” with these legendary Native
Atlantans:
• Paul’s father-in-law, Stedman Shropshire,
a World War II Marine veteran of Iwo Jima,
just turned 90. He is an active architect who
still draws by hand. Paul’s wife, Gray, is his
only living child. Congratulations to Mr.
Shropshire, thanks for serving our country,
and Semper fi.
• Jerry’s son Brandon is getting married to
the lovely and delightful Leila Mansouri.
Both are students working on their Ph.D.s at
the University of California-Irvine.
• Richard just took a trip to New York City
with his wife, Marty, and his 91-year-old
mother, Sara. They went to see his prodigy
son, Joseph, perform on the piano at the
world-renowned Blue Note Jazz Club with
Grammy-winning saxophonist Ralph
Lalama. After the performance, Bubbie
Sara (whom Richard describes as “the
spryest one of the lot”) jumped up on stage
to have her picture taken, saying, “Now I
feel fulfilled, having seen Joseph play at the
Blue Note.”
ways, is like a medieval monarchy.
Don has served successively as The
Washington Post’s White House, Northeast
Asia, and diplomatic correspondent. His
books The Two Koreas and Tet are considered among the best ever written about the
conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.
GRADY HIGH’S CLASS OF ‘59. Grady
High School’s renowned class of 1959,
which has contributed some of our city’s
most colorful figures, just celebrated its
50th anniversary.
Martha Jo Katz, who is much too
young to have graduated way back then, but
her husband, Jerry, did, told us all about the
reunion.
Coming in from out of town were such
notables as Michael and Eleanor Blass from
Waleska, Georgia; Charles and Gail
Herman, from Birmingham, Alabama; and
Marsha Siegel Belson and Harvey Belson
from Columbia, South Carolina.
Also in attendance were Alan
Alterman; Larry Cooper; Gail Feldser
Natter; Larry Fine; Daniel Hirsh, his twin
Martha Jo Katz and Marcia Siegel
Belson
Jerry Katz, Ronnie Goings, and Jan
Jackson
Ralph Lalama, Joseph Alterman, and
Sara Alterman, at the Blue Note
DON OBERDORFER HONORED. We ran
into our friend, insurance magnate Gene
Oberdorfer, who is always gracious, charming, and sporting a big smile. Gene tells us
that his distinguished brother, Native
Atlantan Don, has just been awarded the
prestigious James A. Van Fleet Award by
the Korea Society, the first journalist ever
chosen for this prize.
In his four decades in journalism, Don
has established a reputation as one of the
world’s foremost experts on North Korea,
and his articles on his visits there are classic
accounts of life in a country that, in many
Page 3
bro, Marvin, and Marvin’s wife, Rita; Cary
and Sherry Adelman King; Nancy Mitzner
Markle; Charles and Ann Marie Rosenfeld;
Charles and Bunny Rothberg Rosenberg;
Alice Isenberg Sanders; Eleanor Leff
Schwartz; Marilyn Makover Shapiro; and
Dick Sokol.
The Varsity truck catered the Friday
night event at Garden Hills Park, so the
food was great. And when one guest
thought he might be having a heart attack,
guess who came up with a much-needed
aspirin? Jerry! He was the only one at the
party who was prepared for a medical emergency. But what would you expect from
someone smart and lucky enough to marry
Martha Jo?
Those were great days, back then,
which we did not appreciate at the time, but
we’ll always have those wonderful memories.
STAN LEWIS, P.I. We love to write about
Atlanta’s colorful characters and interesting, offbeat people. And we knew we’d
found one when we recently met Stan
Lewis at an anti-dogfighting event hosted
by The Humane Society of the United
States. First of all, Stan does the best
Rodney Dangerfield imitation we’ve ever
heard. We asked him how he was doing, and
he replied, in perfect Rodneyese, “I’m OK
now, but last night was rough.”
But his main gig is as a private investigator, and as head of ICU Investigations, he
has worked to locate missing and runaway
children, serve summonses to hard-to-find
defendants, and check up on cheating
spouses.
Stan was featured a while back in an
article in the
Atlanta JournalConstitution, saying that when
men cheat, it’s
usually
with
someone they’ve
met
through
work. “But they
are horrible at
covering
their
tracks. I had a
husband going to
Private investigator his girlfriend’s
house five days a
Stan Lewis
week at the same
time every day. Monday through Friday,
quarter to six, he was there. It was like
shooting fish in a barrel.”
Stan’s son Adam works with him.
“Adam once served papers to a gentleman
in Midtown Atlanta, who came to the door
wearing nothing but his socks and shoes,”
Stan recalls. “Adam was shocked, and after
he told me about it, I said, ‘I have the same
outfit.’”
BASEBALL CHAMP JOSH FARBER.
Josh’s team, the Mountain Park Marlins,
just won their 3rd-grade league championship in Lilburn in the Mountain Park
league, with Josh playing outfield and scoring lots of runs. Josh rocks, and thank goodness he takes after Mom Roberta “Rocky”
Jerry Katz; Mr. Overton, chemistry
teacher; and Gary Goldstein
See HAPPENING, page 4
Page 4
Happening
From page 3
Rochman, instead of Dad Jerry. Josh is an
honor roll student at Arcado Elementary
School, where he was also voted friendliest
in class.
Baseball champ Josh Farber
SOUTHERN FRIED SCHMALTZ. Jerry
has also been busy, headlining
Congregation B’nai Torah’s Southern Fried
Schmaltz event, where he entertained over
400 people to benefit the Jewish Family &
Career Services Emergency Fund. The
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
event, sponsored by the Hebrew Order of
David Carmel Lodge, raised $6,500 for
JF&CS.
Jerry had a couple of tough acts to follow. David Cohen emceed the event, beginning
with
D u n w o o d y ’s
Saul Sloman, a
native Atlantan
who lived for
five years in
Israel, graduated
from Georgia
State University,
and has appeared
at the Punchline
and the Funny
Farm locally.
Jerry Farber
Saul did a hilarious 40-minute
schtick of jokes
and stories in the
Borscht
Belt
style. The crowd
loved it and
wondered why
Saul was not the
headliner
instead of Jerry.
As for Jerry, he
said it was the
best
Jewish
audience
he
Saul Sloman
ever had, at
July-August 2009
least since his bar mitzvah in 1950. Jerry
did his usual adult humor—all the jokes
were at least 21 years old.
One guest told Saul that the event was
a real mitzvah, since everyone had a ball
and forgot for an hour and a half about the
recession and world turmoil and all the
other troubles on their minds.
“The event was such a roaring success,” says Saul, “that we plan to make it an
annual event.”
GOLDBERG’S DELI. Goldberg’s has
always been one of our favorite places to
dine, schmooze, and kibbitz.
Apparently, lots of other folks also
enjoy Goldberg’s, since they now have five
locations: West Paces Ferry at Northside
Parkway; Roswell Road in Buckhead; East
Cobb; Colony Square; and ChambleeDunwoody at I-285. Jewish dining at its
best.
FROM SAM MASSELL’S SCRAPBOOK. Mayor Sam Massell and his
lovely daughter, Melanie, now a popular singer, welcome Michael
Jackson and the rest of the Jackson
5 to his office at City Hall, on April 7,
1971.
Ruby better than gold
R
uby Jones is a bundle of perpetual
motion. She never walks when she
can run. And she is on the run 12-14
hours a day.
If there is a star at The Jewish Tower, it
is Ruby. This 5’ 2”, 66-year-old lady (she
looks 20 years younger) has a heart of gold.
She does not play cards or bingo or sit
around The Tower lobby. She has no time
After she moved into The Tower two
for schmoozing. What she does have time years ago, she found she could not stay busy
for is driving Tower residents to the hospi- enough, so she took a job at Henri’s. Cream
tal, doctor’s office, and supermarket.
rises to the top, and it certainly is true of
At Henri’s Bakery, where she works Ruby Jones. It was scarcely one year before
three days a week, she averages about
she assumed the
37,000 steps a day.
duties of opening
She
sometimes
and closing. Most
opens and closes
of her work days
the bakery. In
start
at
6:00
between, she runs
a.m.—and end at
from the front to
10:00 p.m.
the kitchen, where
She gets her
she prepares sandenergy and motiwiches, cakes, and
vation to excel
assorted delicacies,
from her mother,
and then races
who worked two
back to the front,
jobs to literally
where she welbring home the
comes customers
bacon.
with her million“My spare time
dollar smile.
is spent with famiYou seldom
ly,” says Ruby.
see Ruby without
“My sisters and
her seven-year-old
nephews are the
Yorkie, Weston.
most important
Ruby Jones (Photo: Phil Slotin)
She walks Weston
people in my life.”
daily, 2-5 miles, rain or shine. The only peo- Weston comes next.
ple who come before Weston are sisters
Besides her work, Ruby is strong on
Belenda and Shirley, brother Harold, and volunteering. She is the No. 1 Tower resinephews Eddie, Jim, Johnny, and Tyson.
dent in promoting the Sunshine Fund,
Ruby was born in Knoxville,
founded the Men’s Clothing Closet for
Tennessee, worked her way through the
Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church,
University of Tennessee, and is a loyal
and serves on the Council for Aging Persons
Volunteer supporter. She moved to Atlanta
for the Community Outreach Program.
18 years ago and has been running ever
When I think of Ruby Jones, I think of
since. She managed the Sweet Auburn Curb
Market for the City of Atlanta and was passages from our old Union Prayer Book:
assistant manager of the State Farmers “...receive the helpless and despondent with
sympathy and love.”
Market in Forest Park.
BY Gene
Asher
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 5
Waycross
Like all Southern Jews, the members of
the Waycross Hebrew Center had to adapt to
the local culture while working to maintain
From page 1
their religious traditions. In many cases,
Despite this extreme level of popula- Waycross Jews had to make compromises.
tion turnover, the Jewish community of Since so many of them owned stores, the
Waycross began to organize in the 1920s. congregation held services only on Friday
Jews in the area first gathered to pray nights, as members had to work on
together in 1920. Four years later, thirteen Saturdays, the busiest trading day of the
men officially organized a congregation, week. Al Jacobson recalls moving the start
with Alex Gilmore as its first president. All time for Friday night services from 8:00
but one of these founders were immigrants p.m. to 7:30 p.m. during high school footfrom Russia or Poland. Half of them owned ball season when there were several
dry goods stores, though their numbers also teenagers in the congregation. Since the
included peddlers, store clerks, and a congregation was conservative, they insistlawyer. In 1924, Waycross Jews traveled to ed on waiting until sundown, and thus, even
Valdosta or Brunswick for the High Holy with the earlier start time and shortened
Days; the local newspaper noted that the service, they still arrived late at the game.
Jewish merchants in town closed their As they entered the stands, other fans would
stores for the occasion.
shout, “I hope you prayed for us!”
Between 1926 and 1953, the congregaSoon after the congregation settled into
tion rented space in the Knights of Pythias its own building, members discussed hiring
Hall, on Plant Avenue. Alex Gilmore bought a full-time rabbi to lead the congregation,
a Torah for the group in the 1920s; the but they came to the conclusion that it was
Gilmore
family
beyond their financial
donated a second
means. In 1961, they
Torah to the congremade an arrangement
gation in 1935, after
with the Jewish conAlex’s death. The
gregation in Valdosta,
congregation would
that its rabbi, Samuel
often bring in visitZakuto, would drive
ing rabbis to lead
the 60 miles to
services on the High
Waycross each week
Holy Days.
to teach Hebrew to the
By 1937, 47
children in the reliJews
lived
in
gious school. Rabbi
Waycross, and they
Zakuto also officiated
began to discuss the
at the Waycross conpossibility of buildgregation’s lifecycle
ing a synagogue.
events. He served the
Due to the effects of
congregation into the
the
Great
1970s. Since then,
Depression, the conWaycross has relied on
gregation had to
student rabbis from the
postpone its plans
Jewish Theological
A
cemetery
sign
for a permanent
Seminary for the High
home. Finally, on
Holy Day services and
May 22, 1952, the congregation broke lay readers for the rest of the year.
ground on the Waycross Hebrew Center, on
In 1948, 35 Jewish families belonged to
Screven Avenue. They were able raise the Waycross Hebrew Center. By 1968, this
money from local Jews, family members number had dropped to 24, as children
who lived in other cities, Jewish-owned raised in Waycross moved away in search of
wholesale firms in other cities that did busi- greater economic and social opportunities.
ness with the area’s Jewish merchants, and Historically, Jews had been concentrated in
local gentiles. When the synagogue was retail trade in Waycross. By the 1970s, most
dedicated in the summer of 1953, the con- of these stores began to close, including
gregation held an open house in which the Weisser’s Jewelry Store, which had been in
non-Jewish neighbors were invited to tour business for over fifty years. Jacobson’s
the synagogue and learn about Judaism. Department Store closed in 1981, after 58
Local Christian ministers announced the years in operation. Today, there are no more
open house from their pulpits and encour- Jewish-owned retail businesses in
aged their members to attend.
Waycross.
The congregation was Conservative in
In 2005, the congregation’s newsletter
practice, though it has never officially affil- declared, “We are shrinking.” After the
iated with any of the Jewish movements. A community Seder drew 47 people in 2008,
kosher kitchen was maintained in the build- congregation President Al Jacobson noted,
ing, even though most members did not “We were saddened by the fact that there
keep kosher at home. For some members, was not one Jewish child to ask the four
walking to shul was not possible, as the questions. We need youth.”
Waycross Hebrew Center attracted Jews
Despite this decline, the small but
from several of the small towns in the area. close-knit membership of the Waycross
At the time of the synagogue’s dedication, Hebrew Center has persevered and continmembers lived in Alma, Blackshear, ues to hold weekly lay-led Friday night
Douglas, Homerville, Jessup, and Baxley, in services. About 11 or 12 members regularly
addition to Waycross.
Inside the synagogue
attend, with some driving as much as 70
miles to get to Waycross. If they cannot
make a minyan, they hold an abbreviated
service.
The congregation still brings down a
student rabbi from the Jewish Theological
Seminary for the high holidays. The synagogue’s kitchen is still kosher, and the
members bring in kosher meat from
Jacksonville for special events. Al Jacobson
continues to edit the congregation’s
newsletter, which he has done since 1968.
Rich Luskin serves as the lay leader of the
weekly services, and Ann Jacobson, Al’s
wife, often adds a Torah commentary.
This small but dedicated group has
worked hard to ensure that Jewish life continues in Waycross, Georgia.
Dr. Stuart Rockoff is historian at the
Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern
Jewish Life.
Page 6
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
MJCCA NEWS
GOLF CLASSIC. The MJCCA’s Harry
Maziar Classic, which took place June 22,
drew more than 110 golfers to the Atlanta
National Golf Club, including Billi and
Bernie Marcus, Steve Selig, and, of course,
the tournament’s namesake, Harry Maziar.
The event raised more than $50,000, which
will be used to enhance vital MJCCA programs such as preschool and camping
scholarships, Alzheimer’s daycare services,
developmental disabilities programming,
and much more. Each year, the tournament
honors an outstanding member of the community. This year’s tournament honored
Harry Maziar, co-chair of the MJCCA
Governance Board, past MJCCA president,
native Atlantan, and dedicated member of
the community.
Retired chairman of the chemical division of National Service Industries, Harry
Maziar has been active in a wide variety of
philanthropic and social programs, including Junior Achievement, the Atlanta
Humane Society, the Jewish Federation of
Greater Atlanta, Jewish Family & Career
Services, The William Breman Jewish
Home, and United Way. He is executive-inresidence at the Michael J. Coles College of
Business at Kennesaw State University and
former president of Zep Manufacturing
Company. Maziar lives in Buckhead with
his wife, Sherry.
Harry Maziar enjoyed a day of good
sports and good friends. (Photo
courtesy
of
Heidi
Morton
Photography)
Harry Maziar, surrounded by his loving family, was presented the Scroll
of Honor following his namesake
golf tournament, the Harry Maziar
Classic, Monday, June 22. Pictured:
(front row, from left) Josh Philipson,
Cory Philipson, Lisa Philipson,
Sherry Maziar, Paige Philipson, and
Neal Maziar; (back row, from left)
Jake Maziar, Harry Maziar, Joey
Maziar, Susan Maziar, Todd Maziar,
Hal Philipson, Bram Philipson, and
Amy Sue Maziar. (Photo courtesy of
Heidi Morton Photography)
THE MIRACLE OF JEWISH CUBA. This
winter, fifteen Atlantans will travel to Cuba
to deliver donations to the Jewish community. The trip, which runs December 28,
2009-January 4, 2010, will give participants
the opportunity to explore Judaism through
another culture while experiencing the trip
of a lifetime. While traveling, participants
will stop along the way to deliver donations; visit landmarks such as Patronato,
Old Havana, Templo Sepharadi, and
Revolution Square; and have the unique
experience of celebrating Shabbat and ringing in the New Year in a different country.
Participants will solicit donations of pharmaceuticals and deliver items ranging from
baby aspirin to adult diapers. Monetary
donations will also be delivered to the community.
Fees are $2,950 for a double occupancy room or an additional $300 for a single
occupancy room. The trip includes flight,
hotel, transportation, guides, some meals,
and medical insurance. The deposit and
application are due October 15.
For more information, contact
Shaindle Schmuckler at 678-812-3983 or
[email protected].
Bernie Marcus and Robert Paller get
ready for a day on the links. (Photo
courtesy
of
Heidi
Morton
Photography)
April 2009 MJCCA Humanitarian
Mission to Jewish Cuba participants
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
(front row, from left) MJCCA Guide
Shaindle Schmuckler, Charmaine
Weber, Christa Taunton, Diana
Silverman, and Loretta Winter; (back
row, from left) Beth Sugarman and
Maudi Taunton
Page 7
The festival featured community organizations; the Suntrust Shuk, filled with enticing
vendors selling everything from recycled Tshirts to fashion jewelry; a myriad of children’s activities, including inflatables and a
dance party; an Eastern European pavilion;
an Israeli museum; and delicious food from
area vendors and restaurants.
the chief complaint of the day seemed to the
ubiquitous bruised ego.
———
Michal Peleg, Triathalon
Program Benefactor Marcus Katz
(left) and Program Coordinator Gene
Benator
———
Teen Community Service (TCS)
Camp participants Aaron Itzkovitz,
Shira Lubinsky, and Talya Gordon
visit with Betty Shapiro at the
William Breman Jewish Home.
(Photo courtesy of the MJCCA)
TCS campers Max Mager, Ben Getty,
and Sam Shapiro help pack medical
supplies at MedShare International
for shipment around the world.
(Photo courtesy of the MJCCA)
TCS campers (front to back, left)
Ariella Bland, Talya Gordon, Katie
Cohen, Josh Shapiro, Sammy
Martinez, Jared Kerker, and (right
front) Leo Mager help pack food at
Project Open Hand.
(Photo courtesy of the MJCCA)
EXHIBITION
CELEBRATES
TEL
AVIV’S 100 YEARS. “Hidden Corners of
Tel Aviv,” an exhibition featuring the photography of Gideon Spiegel, Michal Peleg,
and Shifra Levyathan, is on display at the
MJCCA’s Katz Family Mainstreet Gallery,
through August 18.
Gideon Spiegel was born and raised in
Petah Tikvah, Israel. He studied at the
Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem and currently lives and works in Tel Aviv. An artist
as well as a photographer, Spiegel created a
special technique called “photo-painting,”
which combines his photographs of hidden
places in his community with photographs
of his paintings.
Michal Peleg was born in Israel and
currently lives in Hod Hasharon. She
received her bachelors’ degree in architecture and town planning at the TechnionIsrael Institute of Technology. Peleg began
her photography career photographing
design and architecture for Globes
Publisher Supplements. Today, she works
as a freelance photographer, specializing in
social event photography and editorial documentary.
Shifra Levyathan was born in Petah
Tikva, Israel. She studied at the Bezalel
School of Art in Jerusalem and was owner
and curator of the Carlyle Art Gallery, in Tel
Aviv. From her home alongside the RamatGann National Park to the streets of Tel
Aviv to the Golan Heights, Levyathan
always has her camera within reach. Her
work has been shown in numerous exhibitions across Israel, including “Art At
Home,” “White Night,” and “At Eye
Level,” in Tel Aviv; and “Frame Stories,” in
Ramat Gan.
———
ALTA KOCKER SOFTBALL GAME.
Despite temperatures nearing 100 degrees,
75 alums from the MJCCA Adult Men’s
Softball Leagues from the years 1975-90
came together for the 2nd annual MJCCA
Alta Kocker Softball Game, on June 28.
The group, organized by Gene Benator and
Marcus Katz, enjoyed an afternoon of
camaraderie, sportsmanship, and trading
stories. While minor injuries were reported,
The Katz Family Mainstreet Gallery is
located at the MJCCA, 5342 Tilly Mill
Road, Dunwoody. For more information,
contact Arts & Culture Director Kim
Goodfriend at 678-812-4071 or [email protected].
———
CELEBRATE ISRAEL! Pictured, from
left: Event Co-chairs Hadara Ishak
and Leah Blum and MJCCA
President Sherie Gumer (Photo:
Heidi Morton Photography)
Celebrating the sweetness of 61
years of existence of the state of
Israel
(Photo:
Heidi
Morton
Photography)
At the MJCCA, campers can enjoy a
summer of safe and meaningful fun,
choosing from more than 100 day
camp options including travel,
drama, sports, and arts camps at
locations in Dunwoody, North Metro,
and East Cobb. (Photos courtesy of
the MJCCA)
Barbara and Ed Mendel cut the ribbon at the Barbara and Ed Mendel
Splash Park Grand Opening and
Dedication Ceremony, held during
the Celebrate Israel! Festival, May
17. (Photo courtesy of Heidi Morton
Photography)
———
Shifra Levyathan, Trio
CELEBRATE ISRAEL. A little inclement
weather didn’t dampen the spirits of the
3,000+ festivalgoers who came to celebrate
the 61st anniversary of Israel’s statehood
and the 100th birthday of Tel Aviv. The
Celebrate Israel! Festival, May 17, at the
MJCCA, moved indoors when a rainy forecast threatened the mostly outdoor event.
Kids stay cool at the Barbara and Ed
Mendel Splash Park. (Photo courtesy
of Heidi Morton Photography)
See MJCCA NEWS, page 14
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 8
July-August 2009
Upon my honor, I will try
A
friend brought me a delicious
casserole that tasted even better
than it looked, and she hit not only
my taste buds but also my heartstrings
when she said, “This is a Girl Scout dish,
and I knew you were an old Girl Scout and
would appreciate it. We were taught to wrap
all of the layers in aluminum foil and take it
on our hike and cook it over hot coals.”
I said, “Lordy, chile, there was no such
thing as aluminum foil when I was a scout.”
There were my early childhood years,
when I just dreamed of being a Girl Scout.
We didn’t have Brownies and might never
have had a scout troop if one of the schoolteachers hadn’t become interested because
of her daughter. And then, for the rest
of my grammar and high school
days (almost), I was first a Girl
Scout and then a person.
My whole world
became organized around
the olive green of the uniform and the three fingers
held high in a pledge. It
was all-important: the
merit badges, passing the
tests, the hikes, the camping,
the projects; and I adored it.
My friends adored it, and we
became even closer friends.
But here comes a “however”: Although
my fondest memories involve being a
scout, and we were all so appreciative of
our leader, who gave unmeasured time, she
was a stern lady, unyielding and unforgiving. She preached to us constantly about the
evils and sins of the world, such as speaking to a male classmate as he rode by on his
bike. Her assistant was warmer and laughed
more easily, but our leader was a forceful
disciplinarian. We were innocent children
and needed to learn discipline mainly as it
involved our natural surroundings. She was
fearless in those times when you could
afford to be, and we experienced many
wondrous things.
We should not have been surprised
when the day came that she announced, as
we stood at attention, that, since her daughter was finishing school that spring, she
would no longer be our scout leader. Her
assistant could not take on the responsibility. We cried and wandered the residential
streets, going in and calling, unannounced,
on those ladies we thought might adopt us.
Sympathetic ears all, but no one wanted
such a commitment. We had been blessed
with our stern mistress; it was too much to
hope that she might have mellowed like Mr.
Belvedere.
4455 Roswell Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30342
404-255-4312
www.presstine.com
BY Shirley
Friedman
A lifetime later (actually only eight
years), I returned to my high school as a
teacher and had the most wonderful students possible. One afternoon after classes,
a group of young girls came to my room
and said, “Our scout leader had to quit. Will
you take us?” Deja vu! I pressed my lips
together and tried to blink away the tears. I
said, “Let me tell you a little story about
what happened when I was your
age, and you’ll know why I
can’t possibly say ‘No’ to
you.”
I said “yes,” and, once
again, scouting became
an important part of my
life. I was there only a
year, and we didn’t do as
many outstanding things
as I had done under my
efficient leader, whom I
could not duplicate. I was many
years younger and not nearly as brilliant. But we were properly organized, our
activities were well-planned and controlled,
and we had some wonderful, wonderful
times. My last memory was of winding up
in the hospital with a terrible ear infection
from swimming in a “not too clear” pond.
Many, many years later, I went down
home for the centennial of our town. At a
reception, I was talking to a young friend
who is a mountain climber of great note. I
told her how thrilled and astounded I was at
her prowess. “Well, you got me started,”
she said. My husband spilled his punch and
lifted an eyebrow.
“But,” I said, “I could never climb a
mountain.”
She said, “Don’t you remember all of
the great hikes we took when you were our
scout leader? I just loved them, and that’s
what made me become interested in mountain climbing.”
That one remark was worth the ear
infection and all of the weekends spent
camping and hiking instead of partying or
sleeping late.
Here’s to Juliette Low and hiking and
cooking on coals (and aluminum foil!)—
and to love and warmth and understanding,
mixed with merit badges.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 9
No sanction to bigotry, no assistance to persecution
T
his is the month we celebrate the
anniversary of the establishment of the
United States as an independent, sovereign nation. This holiday also is a reminder to
us as Jews to take time to recall our good fortune in being granted citizenship in this wonderful country and to rejoice in the many privileges and opportunities that have flowed to us
from this citizenship.
There is nothing more symbolic of our
membership in the citizenship fold of the
United States than the historic Touro
Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. This
structure is home to Congregation Jeshuat
Israel, a small Orthodox congregation. This is
the same congregation that erected this building, the oldest Jewish synagogue building still
standing in the country and the only such preRevolutionary structure that survives.
In 1790, Moses Seixas, the synagogue’s
warden, wrote to President George
Washington words that still ring true today.
The following is an excerpt from this letter:
“Deprived as we heretofore have been of
the invaluable rights of free Citizens, we now
with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty
disposer of all events behold a Government,
erected by the Majesty of the People—a
Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance—but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience,
and immunities of Citizenship: deeming every
one, of whatever Nation, tongue, or language
equal parts of the great governmental
BY Marvin
Botnick
gious liberty which we enjoy under an equal
benign administration, we desire to send up
our thanks to the Ancient of Days, the great
preserver of Men—beseeching him, that the
Angel who conducted our forefathers through
the wilderness into the promised Land, may
graciously conduct you through all the difficulties and dangers of this mortal life. And,
Touro Synagogue
Machine. This so ample and extensive Federal
when, like Joshua full of days and full of honUnion whose basis is Philanthropy, Mutual
our, you are gathered to your Fathers, may you
confidence and Public Virtue, we cannot but
be admitted into the Heavenly Paradise to paracknowledge to be the work of the Great God,
take of the water of life, and the tree of immorwho ruleth in the Armies of Heaven, and
tality.”
among the Inhabitants of the Earth, doing
It was to this letter that President
whatever seemeth him good.
Washington, a year before the Bill of Rights
“For all these Blessings of civil and reli-
was ratified, replied with what is now his
famous letter and one of the most important
documents in American history. In this simple,
unique response, the guarantee was enunciated
that the new nation would be a place of religious freedom, where no creed would be persecuted. The following is a portion of this document:
“...the Government of the United
States...gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance...May the children of the
Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land,
continue to merit and enjoy the good will of
the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit
in safety under his own vine and figtree, and
there shall be none to make him afraid. May
the father of all mercies scatter light and not
darkness in our paths, and make us all in our
several vocations useful here, and in his own
due time and way everlastingly happy.”
For those of us who have lived in this
great nation and been the beneficiaries of a
society that has given voice to words of
President Washington, it is hard to really
appreciate how radically progressive was such
a position. Let us not forget that it was the pain,
suffering, and subjugation of the Inquisition
that drove the first Jewish settlers to America,
some of whom were the very people that
founded the Newport congregation. As we celebrate our nation’s 233rd birthday, let us be
true to our commandment, “justice, justice
shall thou pursue,” and forcefully supportive
of the rights of all humans.
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Dachau Artist Colony exhibition continues at Oglethorpe
he groundbreaking exhibitions
“Dachau Before Dachau: European
Artist Colony 1860-1914” and
“Dachau Concentration Camp: Years of
Destruction 1933-1945” are at the
Oglethorpe University Museum of Art
(OUMA) through August 30.
When Chloe Edwards, president
of Oglethorpe’s Jewish Student Union,
first heard that the exhibition was coming
to the school, she “was intrigued but also
apprehensive, “ she wrote in the The
Stormy Petrel, the student newspaper.
“What could this mean to me, as a Jew and
the current president of the Jewish Student
Union, and also as an art lover, someone
who attends the opening of new OUMA
exhibits religiously each semester? Could
I, in good conscience, attend this exhibit,
let alone endorse it? While I have heard
arguments for supporting and shunning
the Dachau exhibit, having thought long
and hard about it, I find that I must support the efforts of the museum in bringing
this exhibit to campus. “
The following essays are reprinted,
with permission, from the exhibition catalogue accompany the Dachau Artist
Colony exhibition at the OUMA.
—————
Adolf Hoelzel, Ludwig Dill, Arthur
Langhammer, and others—moved to
Dachau. And thanks to the unusually large
number of artists presently living and
working here, the city is still a vibrant
artists’ centre today. What is more,
Dachau has become increasingly active in
the Federation of European Artists’
Colonies EuroArt.
In the coming years, by means of a
traveling exhibition in English, Dachau
would like to introduce itself internationally as a place of commemoration and culture. In the process, it will decidedly not
use culture as a means of distracting from
the city’s history. On the contrary: the city
of Dachau wants to show how important
the interplay of commemoration and culture is for a peaceful and open world.
In Dachau, culture and commemoration are inseparable. Along with the city’s
active commemoration and remembrance
work, art and culture serve as responses to
its history and act as its ambassadors to
the world. The city of Dachau, whose
name has become synonymous with the
atrocities committed during the Third
Reich, is opening its doors and presenting
itself to the world as a cosmopolitan and
international city of culture.
It was during the twentieth century
that the name “Dachau” became famous
throughout Europe and the world in association with horror. For Dachau was the
location of the concentration camp that
bore the city’s name from the very beginning. The name “Dachau” will always go
hand in hand with memories of the
National Socialist crimes against humanity, a circumstance placing a special
responsibility on the city which it must—
and will—never evade. This responsibility
means, among other things, that Dachau
must do everything in its power to ensure
that the memory of the abominable crimes
of National Socialism is kept alive for the
generations that did not witness the events
first-hand. The first and foremost obligation assigned the city of Dachau by its
own history is to be a city of peace and a
place of learning and commemoration for
the world’s youth.
As a site of remembrance, Dachau
actively confronts its history. One concrete expression of this is the Dachau
Youth Guesthouse, which invites young
people from Germany and abroad to study
National Socialist despotism and organizes discussions with persons who experienced the historical events. The town has
furthermore established a Department of
Contemporary History in addition to hosting an annual symposium on the same
subject.
Yet Dachau was and is also a city of
culture. Already in the late nineteenth century, due to its proximity to Munich, one
of the most important artists’ colonies of
Europe emerged here. Attracted by the
fascinating landscape of the Dachau
Moor, a substantial number of artists—
—Peter Bürgel, Mayor, City of Dachau
T
Hans von Hayek
(1869-1940),
Verschneiter Bauernhof/Snow
Covered Farm, 1904, oil on
canvas, 60.5 x 80 cm
Stadt Dachau
Gustav Keller (1860-1911),
Heimweg/Way home, oil on
cardboard, 28 x 34.5 cm
Museumsverein Dachau
—————Otto Rau (1869 – 1900s),
Winterlandschaft/Wintery
Landscape, oil on canvas,
49.5 x 65.7 cm
Dachauer Galerien und
Museen
Dr. Ulrich und Gertrude
Lechner Stiftung
The Artists of Dachau
The Dachau Painting Gallery is situated in the middle of the picturesque historic
city of Dachau, right opposite the city
hall. Its permanent collection provides
documentary evidence of the artists’
movement in the 19th century, which gave
an important stimulus to the development
of art in Germany. It was here in Dachau
that the open-air painting found one of its
origins, the discovery of the landscape as
an independent motif.
Due to its location in the vicinity of
Munich, Dachau became a popular meeting point for landscape painters in the 19th
century. First, they were enthusiastic
about the atmospheric landscape of the
Dachau Moss, with its changing natural
light. Later, the painters began to show
interest in the picturesque city, the village
life, and the people in their traditional costumes. Besides purely artistic reasons
which made the landscape painters leave
the Munich art scene and go to Dachau,
some of them came because of economic
considerations. In comparison to Munich,
living in Dachau was cheaper and the
rents for studios were reasonable. Dachau
became an artists’ location where the
painters tried to portray the landscape in a
true-to-life way. This was successfully
achieved by painting right in front of the
motif, in the landscape itself. Nature had
become a work of art.
The Dachau Moss (or moor) was discovered in the first half of the nineteenth
century, by Johann Georg von Dillis, who
was a teacher in landscape painting at the
Munich Academy from 1804 to 1814. He
visited the Dachau Moss together with his
students and encouraged them to paint
from nature. It was only in the middle of
the nineteenth century that artists like
Eduard Schleich the Older, Carl Spitzweg,
and Christian Morgenstern came to
Dachau. They were strongly influenced by
the artists from Barbizon, whom they had
visited in 1851. The style in painting of
the second half of the century was characterized by Adolf Lier and Wilhelm von
Diez, two famous teachers in landscape
painting at the Munich Academy. Among
their students were painters like Fritz
Baer, Josua von Gietl, Richard von
Poschinger, Joseph Wenglein, Ludwig
Willroider, Hans am Ende, Ludwig
Herterich, Fritz Mackensen, Max Slevogt,
and Wilhelm Trübner.
Around 1900, Dachau became an
artistic colony through the work of art of
Ludwig Dill, Adolf Hölzel, and Arthur
Langhammer and an art center from which
an important new style developed. From
1893 until 1905, they met in Dachau to
discover new styles in painting and
expressions. Their breakthrough came in
1898, when the three artists had a joint
exhibition as “The Dachauer“ in Berlin.
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914,
Dachau, as many other artistic colonies,
lost its importance. New, sensational fashions in painting were created in the big
cities, and only a small group of painters
remained in Dachau. Nevertheless,
besides the traditional open-air painting
which still was continued by some artists,
there were also avant-garde-style painters
in Dachau, like August Kallert, Adolf
Schinnerer, and Paula Wimmer, all artists
who were looking for development out of
the regional boundaries.
OUMA is located on the campus of
Oglethorpe University, 4484 Peachtree
Road N. E. Hours are 12:00 noon-5:00
p.m., Tuesday-Sunday. Admission is $5.
For additional information, visit
http://museum.oglethorpe.edu, or call
404-364-8555.
Page 12
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 13
Why I missed my best friend’s birthday and went to Washington, D.C., with AIPAC
I
missed my best friend’s 60th birthday
party on the West Coast to be at AIPAC’s
Policy Conference in Washington D.C. I
called her when I returned home and told her
why.
I began with how it felt to hear AfricanAmerican leaders from across our nation
speak before 6,500 pro-Israel activists and
name the Jewish Americans who lost their
lives in the Civil Rights Movement. These
leaders, who aim to bring back the principals
of Martin Luther King’s road to freedom,
declared they stand with Israel.
I told her about the Honorable Anthony
Villaraigosa, a Hispanic high school dropout
who was taken in by Jewish educators, mentored, and sent to college. He is now the
mayor of Los Angeles, and he stands with
Israel.
I told her about the Jewish-American
citizen whose company has the TV rights to
the Woman’s Tennis Championship in
Dubai. Upon finding out that Dubai officials
banned a ranking Israel player, he knew
something had to be done. Despite the
prospect of substantial financial losses and
negative PR, he decided that the network
would not broadcast the tournament. To his
astonishment, his actions inspired others,
including Andy Roddick, who pulled out of
the tournament, and The Wall Street Journal,
which withdrew its sponsorship. In addition,
the World Tennis Association fined the tournament $300,000. I cried and remembered
how one person can make a difference. At
that point, my husband turned to me—when
the lights dimmed upon 6,500 Americans
who share our core beliefs, and you could
feel the full strength and force of the pride to
be an American Jew in the land of the free—
and he whispered in my ear, “Next year, both
our boys will be here with us.” Never mind
that their exams and college commitments
prohibited their attendance. I knew what he
BY Renee
Brody Levow
meant. They’ll be here soon enough, I said to
myself, as I held dear his hidden tears of
emotion.
I told her about the talent and strength of
this organization, which has existed for over
50 years, that attracts the best and the brightest Ph.D.s, present and former government
officials, and experts from around the world,
who brief us on a wide range of topics, from
energy independence to world politics.
I told her about the evening Sir Nigel
Sheinwald, the British ambassador to the
U.S.; Kay Hagan, the freshman Senator from
North Carolina; and Kip Holden, the
African-American mayor of Baton Rouge,
who all stand with Israel, were at my dinner
table. The British ambassador had to step
away several times to chat with the British
minister for the Middle East, who, because
of AIPAC’s reputation, flew in on a “red eye”
to be with us for dinner.
Then, Vice President Joe Biden spoke.
He spoke movingly to all 6,500 of us, including over 1,000 college students and almost
200 student body presidents. He told a story
about being a freshman senator and having
the opportunity to visit Israel and meet privately with then-Prime Minister Golda Meir.
“She painted a detailed and dire picture of
the constant struggle for survival for a country surrounded by enemies,” said the vice
president. As they walked down the hallway
from her office, shoulder-to-shoulder, the
prime minister turned to him and said,
“Don’t look so worried. We’ll be fine.” And
the young senator said, “But I have reason to
BY Marice
Katz
O
n a Sunday in the middle of May, I
set out to see my business partner’s
new baby, who was born a few days
before. I did not know it was raining until I
pulled out of my garage. Oh, well, I thought,
what is a little rain? However, the more I
drove, the less I could see, because it was
one of those downpours that does make it
hard to see. Even with the defroster going. I
kept wondering if this trip was really necessary.
I kept at it and was very proud when I
got to the right street and the right subdivision in one piece. I parked my car, ran up to
the front door, and rang the doorbell. No one
answered. I then realized I was supposed to
be at #110 and not #1101. You are probably
feeling all wet just reading this. I was cer-
tainly drenched. I slushed my way back to
my car and finally arrived at the right house.
The minute I walked in and was given
a towel to dry off, I immediately fell in love.
This little baby boy was beautiful. The
father had told me that, but I thought that
was just daddy talk.
However, this baby was, indeed, really
gorgeous, and I now knew my trip had been
worthwhile. I held him for about an hour. I
did not move. He peacefully slept, and I was
in seventh heaven.
Just one more thing. Every time
Mozart, the family’s little dog, came up to
me and the baby and put his little paw on
my knee, I fell in love with him, too. I might
not get a baby, but this doggie was so very,
very cute, that maybe....
Maybe....
Atlanta
Ann Davis, AIPAC Atlanta Co-Chair
and AIPAC National Board Member
be worried. Your enemies are real and
strong.” And Meir replied, “But senator, we
have a secret weapon. We have nowhere else
to go!” Again, I cried.
I told my friend how we went to Capitol
Hill with two other couples and their son,
who are close friends. Both couples became
involved in AIPAC as a result of a parlor
meeting at our home. I shared with her how
moving it was to lobby with them. We took
pictures as a group before the majestic capital buildings that bright sunny day. I cried
again when I told their 22-year-old son that
this is democracy at its finest, a government
for the people and by people. And that this
precious freedom can never be taken for
granted. Just as we would fight to our last
dying breath to save America, our home, we
would do the same for Israel’s precious
democracy and land of the free, for Jews all
over the world. Later that day, our friends
sent us an e-mail: “We have never felt closer to you than when we spoke our minds,
together, to urge two senators and two congressmen on the Hill to take specific steps to
insure the survival of Israel.” The wife is a
child of Holocaust survivors.
Finally, I urged my best friend to meet
me next year at AIPAC’s 2010 Policy
Conference in our nation’s capital—to experience with me the high that rocks my world
each time I go, to fight for what I cherish. I
told her what our friend Seth Cohen, who
also just returned from the conference, told
my husband and me when we saw him the
next weekend at the movies, “If you don’t
go, you don’t get it.”
So, I say to all of you who have never
been or who missed this year: If you don’t go,
you don’t get it. Join Alan, me, and 6,500 of
your closest friends at the next Policy
Conference, March 21-23, 2010. To make
reservations and take advantage of the earlybird special, call 770-541-7610, or visit
www.aipac.org.
Alan Levow, AIPAC’s
Campaign Chair
Renee Brody Levow is a retired senior vice
president and corporate client group director at Smith Barney, has been an Atlanta resident for 25 years, and is a member of
AIPAC. Her husband, Atlanta Native Alan
Levow, is managing director of Crowne
Partners, a real estate company, and is currently serving as the Atlanta campaign chair
for AIPAC. They have two sons, one in college and one in graduate school.
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weddings • bar/bat mitzvah • corporate
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275 Spalding Springs Lane
Atlanta, Georgia 30305
[email protected]
tel. 770.395.1094
cell 678.637.2030
fax 770.396.8844
Page 14
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
MJCCA NEWS continued
from page 7
AUTHOR, AUTHOR. A page from the
Book Festival of the MJCCA, a series of
year-round author events, recently welcomed Larry King and Gene Wilder to the
Zaban Park campus.
On May 31, CNN talk show legend
Larry King discussed and signed his latest
memoir, My Remarkable Journey.
For a half-century, the world’s most
influential figures have been telling King
their stories. In My Remarkable Journey,
King shares his story, from his humble roots
in Depression-era Brooklyn to the heights
of celebrity as host of “CNN’s Larry King
Live.”
King writes candidly about the many
luminaries he has interviewed in the fifty
years since his first broadcast. Among them
are Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford,
Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George
H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush,
and Barack Obama; political and cultural
leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby
Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Hillary Clinton,
John McCain, Eleanor Roosevelt, Malcolm
X, and the Dalai Lama; entertainers Frank
Sinatra, Oprah Winfrey, Johnny Carson,
Elizabeth Taylor, Paul McCartney, Jane
Fonda, Bono, and Madonna; and noted athletes such as Muhammad Ali and Pete
Rose.
Larry King, pictured with his wife,
Shawn, signs copies of his new
book, My Remarkable Journey.
(Photo: Chris Savas Photography)
———
On June 28, actor, screenwriter,
comedic genius, and author Gene Wilder
July-August 2009
C
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discussed and signed copies of his second
novel, The Woman Who Wouldn’t.
Wilder’s novel has been praised as
“poignant and whimsically romantic,” by
Publisher’s Weekly. According to The
Boston Globe, “The story exudes the same
sweetness that characterizes his screen persona.”
Gene Wilder won the hearts of a
standing-room-only
audience
(Photo: Chris Savas Photography)
Kitty Jacobs pictured with her two
daughters, Faye Kent (left) and
Marsha Freudenberg (right) under a
portrait of Harris Jacobs following
this year’s successful Harris Jacobs
Dream Run, Sunday, June 7. (Photo:
Victor Rachael Photography)
Sophie Hirsh Srochi
From page 1
hosts fun and thought-provoking field trips,
play groups, and birthday parties throughout the year. For information about field trip
packages,
contact
[email protected].
The Sophie Hirsh Srochi Jewish
Discovery Museum is located at the
MJCCA, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody.
Hours are Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.,
Monday-Thursday, 10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.,
and Friday, 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Admission
is free; donations are appreciated.
For additional information, contact
Sophie Knapp (Photo: Cyndi Sterne)
Cyndi Sterne at 678-812-4171 or
[email protected], or visit
www.atlantajcc.org.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Jewish Denial, Jewish Recovery
FAITH-BASED RECOVERY
W
hen you get together with your
friends, we bet the biggest topic
of conversation is the economy.
Everywhere we go people are talking about
friends and family whose lives have been
tragically impacted by job loss. The current
jobless rate (as of May) in Georgia is 9.2%.
Why wouldn’t we want to talk about it? In
any room, almost 1 in 10 people are out of
work. We all talk about who’s out of work,
and how we can help them.
ALCOHOL & DRUG ABUSE IMPACTS
AS MANY JEWS AS JOBLESSNESS
Does the topic of alcohol or drug abuse
come up in the same conversation? We bet
not often. Did you know the incidence of
alcoholism and substance abuse is as pervasive as unemployment? Ten percent of U.S.
adults have alcohol and substance-abuse
problems. The general assumption about
substance abuse among Jews is, “Not in my
house!” We assume our ethical values,
Jewish mores and religious beliefs prevent
substance abuse from impacting us. Not
true!
The reality is that alcohol and drug
abuse knows no demographic, racial or religious bounds. Studies of drug abuse and
alcoholism within the Jewish community
show that substance abuse in the Jewish
BY Mark & Jeff
Weinstein Diamond
community is 12% in New York and an estimated 10% in the Seattle. It’s here, too. In
any room of Jews, 1 in 10 is suffering from
substance abuse in Atlanta’s Jewish community. Yet, our Jewish brethren rarely
speak openly about helping our friends, colleagues, and family nearly as easily or often
as joblessness.
A common cliché is that alcoholism is
“a disease of denial.” The Atlanta Jewish
community is denying this problem. We’ve
got our head in the sand! It’s a problem we
firmly feel needs to be addressed as openly
as possible. Imagine, if we come to terms
with the problem, speak openly about it,
and come together as a community, we
could help close to 10,000 Jews suffering
from alcohol and substance abuse right here
in Fulton County!
Recently, there has developed a radical
new way of helping Jews work through
their substance-abuse problems that has
proven dramatically effective — “Faithbased recovery houses,” such as the Jewish
Recovery Houses (JRH) in Baltimore. A
recovery house is a home for people in the
early stages of recovery from addiction.
Unlike halfway houses, which are “selfgoverned” by their residents, recovery
houses are managed independently by a set
of working rules and parameters that are
developed by professional therapists and
recovery counselors.
House of Hope, a Jewish Recovery
House in Baltimore
The focus at JRH is to help people
Page 15
learn how to foster a normal, productive life
- learning basic life skills that many of us
take for granted, like holding down a job,
managing household chores, lighting shabbos candles, and how to interact with the
world around them.
“Before I came here, I really didn’t
know how to live on my own,” said Rachel,
a current JRH “graduating” resident moving
into her own house. “The focus on avoiding
idle time, simplified my life. Now, I have a
car, insurance, and a bank account. JRH
taught me how to take responsibility and be
accountable for managing my life.” The rigorous expectations of residents at JRH
include documented attendance to
Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics
Anonymous meetings. Residents must get a
job or attend school. They have to pay rent
and they have to adhere to house rules pertaining to random testing, visitation, chores
and curfews.
What is unique, since uniqueness can’t
be measured in degrees at JRH, is that the
“residents” are all Jewish. Addiction is a
disease of isolation. So, any method of
helping people with addiction connect with
other addicts is critical to the success of
recovery. JRH accepts this premise, and its
residents’ similarities are based on their
Jewish backgrounds, upbringing, belief systems and sensibilities. So, they are more
able to offer and accept support to and from
each other.
Brett Goldenberg, a JRH chemicalSee DENIAL, page 16
Page 16
Denial
From page 15
dependency counselor, says that, “Because
the residents are
Jewish, they build
a bond quicker. If
they are able to
bond well, then
they’re more likely to be there for
each
other.”
Jason, a former
resident who is
now a successful
attorney says that,
“having one posiBrett Goldenberg tive thing in common was a powerful thing. Because we related so well to
each other, it got to the point that I felt that
I had a family of 8 or 12 people to help me.”
“Repairing the spirit,” or Tikkun
Hanefesh is a Jewish way of stating the
obvious spiritual goal of most 12-step programs. Another reason for JRH success is
that 12-step programs are steeped in Jewish
Talmudic teachings. Accepting a higher
power over your life. Taking inventories of
your weaknesses and strengths, correcting
character defects, making amends to those
harmed are some of the powerful concepts
we all acknowledge during the high-holidays. As Jews in recovery, it’s easy to
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
understand why JRH residents relate so
well to doing mitzvoth to help others.
How effective is the Jewish Recovery
Houses’ treatment model? Enormously
effective. The most widely accepted form
of treatment, AA-style support groups,
which 56% of all people grappling with
addiction use, has a five-year sobriety rate
that ranges from 10-12%. That means that
of all the people going to AA meetings, only
15% remain sober after five years. The
Jewish Recovery House’s 5-year sobriety
rate has been clinically gauged at 40-56%.
Because this style of helping people is
not non-denominational, it is unable to
accept government or insurance support.
Thus, the JRH in Baltimore depends on
charitable gifts. That’s a big challenge when
you consider that the Chronicles of
Philanthropy says that charitable giving is
down 15.9% in the last year due to our
struggling economy.
BRINGING JEWISH RECOVERY
HOUSES TO ATLANTA
In Atlanta, we are starting an effort to
establish a Jewish Recovery House using
Baltimore’s model. We have sought out
guidance from JRH’s board of directors, as
well as its professional leaders, which
include Michael Rokos, a well-respected
expert in faith-based recovery.
Our goal is to open the Atlanta Jewish
Recovery House by the end of 2010.
Currently, our efforts revolve around forming our advisory board, which already has
six prominent businessmen to help formulate our fundraising and organizational
effort, clergy to help gain broader awareness and acceptance of the problem here in
Atlanta and some of our community’s
respected psychiatrists specializing in drug
and alcohol addiction to oversee operational and programmatic development.
Operationally, the focus will be on fundraising to purchase the house, hire appropriate
staff and launch the recruitment effort. Our
fundraising effort is in its formative stages
but we have already received a $100,000
matching gift challenge.
Have you or someone you know been
touched by alcohol or drug abuse? Our
advisory board will meet again on Sunday,
August 30. We urge anyone interested to
attend. Please call either Jeff Diamond at
770-402-5664 or Marc Weinstein at 404-
July-August 2009
303-4982, and we will give you the details.
Because of her experiences at the
Jewish Recovery Houses, Rachel has reunited with her family. “I never dreamed
that my relationship with my Mom and Dad
could be as good as it is! More importantly,
thanks to Jewish Recovery Houses, I am
back to the person I was meant to be.”
Imagine bringing these kinds of results
for 10% of our community. With your help
we can repair the world.
About the Authors: Mark Weinstein,
Executive Vice President of firstPRO, Inc,
and Jeff Diamond, Managing Director of
Bear Stearns, a division of J.P. Morgan,
both serve on the Atlanta Jewish Recovery
Houses’ Advisory Board and are both
visionaries in bringing the faith-based
sober living model to Atlanta. Both Mark
and Jeff also serve on the board of directors
of the Jewish Recovery Houses of
Baltimore.
Sensations TheraFun opens doors to
the Amit Program for summer fun
N
ewly
opened
Sensations
TheraFun, a multi-sensory activity center, recently held a special
day of summer fun for kids and families
who utilize services through The Amit
Program. As kids took advantage of all the
many activities throughout the warehouse-sized facility, parents joined in
feeding their inner child by ziplining into
the ball pit, while kids scaled the rock
climbing wall, jumped on the two trampolines, climbed in the parachute swing,
maneuvered through the obstacle courses,
enjoyed the multicolored lights in the sensory room, did arts and crafts, and even
played board games for a few minutes of
cooling off.
Sensations TheraFun offers a wide
range of services to families to satisfy the
sensory needs of their children. It gives
parents, kids, and therapists an additional
place for therapy, outside of the therapist’s
office, that is fun for kids and their families. Sensations TheraFun is a great place
for kids, ranging from those currently in
therapy to typical kids in search of a great
place to play. Open to all ages and physical abilities, Sensations also offers private
rooms for therapists to meet with patients,
after-school and summer groups, meeting
space for the community, a large kitchen
for cooking camps, and a floortime room.
The retail store offers products any family
can benefit from, including books, therapeutic tools, and more.
The Amit Program is the central
resource in the Jewish community for special education, ensuring that each child is
able to reach his or her individual potential, while learning in a Jewish environment. With the help of Amit, children with
learning and developmental disabilities
have the opportunity to learn alongside
their peers, while receiving the individu-
Rachel Jay, daughter of Jan and
Gregory Jay, enjoys squeezing
through the rollers at the Amit
Sensations TheraFun Play Day.
alized attention they need to succeed academically.
“Amit wants to offer programming to
their students and families throughout the
summer, and what better way than to
come experience all that this new facility
has to offer,” says Karen Paz, director of
programming and development for Amit.
“One of our many goals is to offer
children with special needs the ability to
have some of the same experiences that
their mainstream friends have, but in a
completely supportive environment.
Some of my greatest joys stem from
watching kids with CP or other physical
challenges enjoying the ziplines in our
special apparatuses that will allow them to
participate in ways they had only dreamed
of previously,” says Jay Perkins, owner of
Sensations.
The play day was a win-win-win for
Sensations, Amit, and all those who participated. For more information on The
Amit Program and Sensations TheraFun,
visit www.amitatlanta.org and www.sensationstherafun.com.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 17
Milestones amid the keepsakes
S
BY Balfoura Friend
ome days, I get the “urge to purge,”
but so much good stuff has been
squirreled away over the years that I
find more goodies to keep rather than toss.
Here’s a clipping, yellowed with age—
a birth announcement from the North China
Daily News: “On July 12, 1925, at St.
Marie’s Hospital, Shanghai, to Mr. and Mrs.
J. Friend, a daughter.” By golly, that’s me!
The hospital was run by the French
Catholic nuns and located in the French
Concession, or Frenchtown as we called it,
miles away from where we lived. I regret
now that I never asked my parents why I
wasn’t delivered at our general hospital,
also run by Catholic nuns, but located closer to our house in Hongkew.
Years later, in the 1930s and ‘40s,
Hongkew became the famous ghetto for the
thousands of European refugees who fled to
China and were lucky to have missed the
Holocaust by a whisker, so to speak.
Another milestone: My kindergarten
report shows, among other remarks,
“Balfoura is rather shy about taking part in
dramatization...is a well-behaved girl, both
in the classroom and on the
playground...excellent work in reading and
phonetics.”
Then prizes and commendations in
years to follow, a prefect in my senior year,
but no honors in gym or sports—I was a
puny, sickly geek!
In my old scrapbook, I have the ticket
stub for my 1947 trip on the General B.
Gordon ocean liner, bringing me to the
United States. Attached to the ticket is the
Shanghai Quarantine Service certificate
showing I received the necessary vaccinations to board the ship.
Framed on my wall is a most precious,
15” x 18” (real sheepskin, y’all), 1950
University of Georgia diploma. Artium in
Journalismo Baccaclaurei, dated X June
Annoque Domini MCML. A proud milestone....
And there are more: the 1953 invitation
to my wedding to Hans R. Mayer, in
Savannah—I became an American citizen
later that year, a major milestone; our first
child, Sandra Mayer, born in 1954 in
Eastman, the first grandchild for my parents, Frieda and Jacob Friend, and a huge
milestone for all of us.
Most checks I’ve shredded, but one
that I’ve saved, for $50, is dated March 26,
1956. It is made out to Bernard Jacobson,
the mohel who drove in from Savannah to
perform the bris for our son, Ronnie Mayer,
at our new home in Hawkinsville. My husband, Hans, taught me how to make
German potato salad, to serve with the
luncheon for our family and guests that day.
Our family doctor, who delivered Ronnie,
was invited to the bris, and he later told me
that he was quite impressed, witnessing this
ritual for the first time.
I also found a 1962 bulletin from the
Fitzgerald Hebrew Congregation, where
our small-town Middle Georgia Jewish
families worshipped and socialized. Noted
Levine
in the bulletin: “ A Mazel Tov to Mr. & Mrs.
Hans Mayer of Hawkinsville, on the birth
of daughter Laurie Kay.” My youngest,
Laurie Mayer Coffey, is now 47 and mother of 11-year-old Tom.
In front of me is a yellowed copy of
The Jerusalem Post, September 18, 1978.
The banner headline screams out, “Pact for
Peace at Camp David.” My daughter Sandy
and I are on board El Al, winging our way
to our odyssey in Israel. Besides meeting
my paternal cousins for the first time, I
recall holding my breath at my first sight of
the Western Wall (which I always think of
as the Wailing Wall) and then touching the
actual stones, where thousands of years ago
one of our ancestors may have stood as
well. If this trip wasn’t a mind-shattering
milestone, I don’t know what else it could
be.
Another biggie, in November 1992,
was my trip to Russia with the Friendship
Force and the first time meeting my mother’s family. Hugs, kisses, and tears of joy in
celebrating that milestone.
And then there was the summer of
1996, when Atlanta hosted the Summer
Olympics. I am stroking the beautiful silk
scarf, part of my dress uniform as envoy to
the Republic of Moldova (formerly the
Moldavian SSR) team in the Paralympic
Games, which followed the Olympic
Games. I gulped down tears as I marched
with the Moldovan standard bearer and the
nine-member team in both the opening and
closing ceremonies—another milestone.
During the decades of my adult life,
there have also been sad milestones. I have
obituaries of my parents, my husbands, and
some dear friends, as time winged its way
through the years.
Then many more joyous milestones:
the childrens’ marriages; my presence in
1984 at the birth of my first grandchild,
Erica (who is now in law school; how time
flies), followed in four years by the
awesome and unforgettable
experience of actually
watching the birthing
of her younger brother, Scott. He is now in
his second year at
UGA. Wow!
I’m
not
claiming originality in reciting personal
milestones. I
am, however,
genuinely
amazed
to
find all these old cards, photos, and documents of those interesting and life-altering
times and events in my life.
One thing I’ve noticed: Throughout the
1950s and ‘60s, I was referred to as Mrs.
Hans Mayer (I signed the check to the
mohel that way, too), as though I were only
a half-part of my husband. I guess most
married women were so addressed then. We
are now taught to have our own credit cards
and bank accounts. I’m not a rabid feminist,
but I think it’s about time we have our own
personal identities. And that, too, is a huge
milestone.
Each birthday is a milestone of sorts,
and I have passed 84 such markers in my
lifetime. Which interesting celebrations are
yet to come? I’m ready—bring them on!
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 18
July-August 2009
Reading Back On Top is like a conversation with your hilarious best girlfriend
By Shira Miller
Back on Top:
Fearless Dating After Divorce
By Ginger Emas
2009
GPP Life
240 pp., $14.95
G
inger Emas is the author of the new
book Back On Top: Fearless Dating
After Divorce, and I am so glad I discovered her. She has such a wonderful
writer’s voice—Ginger is funny and warm,
irreverent and wise. Reading Back On Top
makes the reader feel as if she’s having a con-
versation with a good girlfriend, which is an
amazing experience. The mixture of practical
advice, laugh-out-loud humor, and unique
insight is very compelling. Even the disclaimer at the front of the book cracked me
up!
Ginger breaks down online dating into
doable steps—none of it is overwhelming, but
all of it is stuff a woman needs to know for
savvy dating. I am making all of my friends
who are currently single—divorced or not—
add it to their must-read list.
As helpful and insightful as the tips are—
it’s clear that she’s been doing this for
awhile—it’s Ginger’s humor and honesty that
make the book a truly great, fun read.
Some of it was validating. I loved hearing
Ginger confirm that it was a good idea for me
to take a few years off to really get to know
myself and date differently, and it has certainly paid off in my current relationship with a
wonderful man.
Some of it was eye-opening. The dating
stories themselves are hilarious—I love the
one about Chad, the fitness guy who Ginger
turned to “the dark side” with her chocolate
espresso martini. This is a very timely, scintillating read—so appealing, it is sure to
become a social phenomenon.
For more information on Ginger, her
workshops and the book, visit backontopthebook.com.
David Baron receives a Projects for Peace grant for HOPE Garden
A
David Baron
sustainable way to address homelessness has resulted in a $10,000 grant for
its creator, David Baron of Atlanta, a
sophomore at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
David’s Homeless Outreach Poverty
Eradication (HOPE) Garden was one of more
than 100 student-initiated projects to receive a
Davis Projects for Peace grant from philanthropist Kathryn W. Davis.
HOPE Garden is a partnership of Carolina
students and the Town of Chapel Hill, working
in collaboration with the North Carolina State
University Department of Horticultural
Science. In this project, homeless people will
train and work alongside volunteers and mentors in a community garden, with land donated
by the town. The workers will gain valuable job
skills and income, while the organic produce
they grow will be sold on the UNC campus and
given to disadvantaged families, who could not
otherwise afford to buy this fresh, high-quality,
and nutritious food.
“HOPE Garden will promote employment
security, food security, and the overall security
that comes from strong community ties,” Baron
said. “It will promote peace by bridging the
gaps that exist in the Chapel Hill community,
while providing program participants and the
community at large with a greater sense of com-
BUSINESS BITS
By Marsha Liebowitz
FAMILY MATTERS. Marvin L.
Solomiany, managing partner at KSS
Family Law, has been selected chair of
the Family Law Section of the Atlanta
Bar Association. Solomiany joined KSS
Family Law in
1995 and became a
partner in 2003.
His numerous honors include Georgia
Trend Legal Elite
(2008) and Georgia
Super
Lawyers,
Rising Stars (2005,
2006, 2007, 2008).
Solomiany graduatMarvin L.
ed with a B.A. with
Solomiany
distinction from the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and
received his J.D. degree from Emory
University School of Law. He is married
to Kerry Solomiany and has two children.
BRINGING GOLDBERG’S TO YOU.
Goldberg’s Group of companies, with
five locations in Atlanta, has launched a
catering division, headed by Linda
Baron. A Georgia native, Baron studied
with James Beard, managed a Buckhead
catering company for 17 years, led workshops for The Scarlett Tassel, and taught
cooking classes at The Delectable Fig.
GRILL THRILLS. FuegoMundo (“world
of fire”), a South American wood-fire
grill restaurant, recently opened at the
newly redeveloped The Prado in Sandy
Springs. The restaurant offers flavorful,
affordable, and healthy South American
cuisine that is geared to meat lovers and
vegetarians alike. FuegoMundo is owned
by Udi and Masha Hershkovitz. Udi,
born in Israel to Romanian and Polish
parents, came to America as a teenager.
Masha was born in Barranquilla,
Colombia, and came to Atlanta in 1972 at
Udi and Masha Hershkovitz
munal security.”
Davis Projects for Peace invited all students from partner schools in the Davis United
World College (UWC) Scholars Program, plus
students at International Houses worldwide and
Future Generations, to submit plans for grassroots projects for peace, to be implemented during the summer of 2009. University students
from nearly 100 campuses collectively received
over $1 million in funding during the summer
of 2009 for projects in all regions of the world.
David is the son of Roy and Karen Baron,
and a grandson of Alvin Brown and the late
Doris Brown and Henry and Elizabeth Strauss.
the age of 9. They have three children,
Arie, Tali, and Ariele. For hours and
menus, visit www.fuegomundo.com.
SMILE FOR THE CAMERA. Ilan
Regenbaum recently returned from
Washington, D.C., where he was recognized as one of six finalists, out of 6,000
entrants, in the Young Entrepreneur
Foundation’s entrepreneurial scholarship
competition. At 13, Ilan began taking
pictures at events around Atlanta for Ilan
Event Photographer, his own company.
At 14, he founded Flash Foto Events
(www.flashfotoevents.com). This studio
specializes in digital green screen photography; at events, Ilan takes pictures of
Ilan Regenbaum
guests against a green screen, superimposes the images on one of many digital
backgrounds, and then prints pictures onsite for guests.
PLANNING AND EVALUATION. Rick
Aranson, of Jewish Family & Career
Services, has published a paper in The
American
Review
of
Public
Administration. The paper he coauthored, “Mission-Market Tensions and
Nonprofit Pricing,” was published in
early May. The paper is based on JF&CS’
comprehensive program planning and
evaluation methodologies.
AICC LEADERSHIP. The AmericanIsrael Chamber of Commerce, Southeast
Region, has elected its officers and board
members for 2009-2010. Officers are
Charlie Harrison, chairman; Lorin Coles,
chairman-elect; Joel Neuman, vice chairman; Benjamin Fink, vice chairman;
Jonathan Minnen, secretary; and Steve
Horn, treasurer. Tom Glaser continues as
president and chief professional officer.
New to the Executive Committee are
Randall Foster, Saar Bracha, Arie
Goldshlager, and Maggie Bellville. New
board members are Ben Taube, Robin
Spratlin, Heith Rodman, Warren
Binderman, Robert Kadoori, Ken
Anderson, Ted Schwartz, Philip Cooper,
Ralph Jordan, Kobi Margolin, Gilly
Segal, Gadi Shapira, Diane Weiner,
Robyn Fritz, and Rebecca Chang.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 19
Page 20
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
Page 21
THE
Jewish Georgian
Twittering goes kosher for Roberta Scher and Lois Held
By Suzi Brozman
W
here do you get your kosher
news? From the newspaper?
From the Atlanta Kashruth
Commission’s newsletter or website? From
cookbooks? From friends? From walking
up and down the kosher aisles at the grocery store? Today, there’s a new option,
called KosherEye—tweet about it at
Twitter.com, or follow it on Facebook,
courtesy of Roberta Scher and Lois Held.
Not too many years ago, we all marveled at something called the Internet; we
were fascinated by our cellphones. Before
that, we thought Dick Tracy’s two-way
wrist radio was pure fantasy, never to be
made real. How wrong we were!
Then came e-mail and instant messaging, and we found communication to be
both instantaneous and addictive. Or am I
the only one who’ll admit I stay in touch via
e-mail far more than I ever did when I had
to buy stamps and go to the Post Office to
mail a letter?
Then came Facebook, and suddenly
people we didn’t even know were aware of
our existence are popping up, asking us to
be their friends. Craigslist and e-Bay and
internet shopping let us browse without
ever setting foot in the mall.
And now there’s the new sensation—
Twitter.com, a site that lets you “tweet” went back to school and Roberta went into
about anything at all, as long as you can business. Recently, we’ve worked on Beth
keep your message
Jacob things together,
under 140 characters.
including many things
Track a person or a
related to food—the
product, talk about poliKosher Festival, dinners
tics or whatever interof honor, and so forth.
ests you. And it’s all
We love to eat, cook,
free.
and read cookbooks.
But how to make it
And Roberta has had her
matter, and
kosher
not
just
food colLois Held and Roberta Scher
substitute
umn in
for gossip
T h e
or e-mail?
Jewish
That was
Georgian
the quesfor
six
tion facing
years.”
Roberta
After
Scher and
S c h e r
Lois Held when they decided to put their sold Paper Parlour, her store for over 25
many years of volunteer experience to use. years, and Lois retired from her career as an
The two women had been friends for information technology specialist, they
some 39 years, since they met as volunteers began to search for a new project and soon
in a Hadassah chapter. Like many women, settled on one that had been germinating in
they’d joined to meet people and do good at Scher’s mind for some months. “We believe
the same time. Scher remembers, there is an audience that wants to know
“Hadassah was an outlet for us. Women’s about the newest and the best in kosher
roles have changed. You can judge a person products, gadgets, wine, beverages, and
by working with her on a volunteer basis.” edibles,” says Scher. “We decided we wantHeld agrees. “We formed so many ed to highlight products for chefs, restaufriendships in Hadassah,” she says. “Then I rants, foodies, and cooks, both Jewish and
See TWITTER, page 25
hood until it became time for school. No
schools would take children
known to have Down synIn 1984, The Atlanta Group
drome, and there were no
Home opened its doors to young
training centers available.
adults with mental disabilities.
Frances placed a
At the time, there was no
personals ad in the
other facility in Fulton
newspaper, in which
County like it. Twenty-five
she
encouraged
years later, three of its origiprotests, and she was
nal residents have lived hapable to convince Fulton
pily in this remarkable home.
County to come up with
It all began years earlier,
funds for a day-training cenwhen Harry and Frances
ter for children who needed
Kuniansky were given the news that
help. Eventually, it
their newborn daughter, Jill, had
Jill and Frances
became possible to send
Down syndrome. Six doctors
Kuniansky
Jill and others like her to
strongly recommended placing
her in an institution. Harry and Frances fol- Fulton County schools.
At 21, Jill graduated from Northside
lowed the advice of a seventh and took Jill
High School. She announced to her parents
home, where she lived until she was 24.
In her heart, Frances knew that life at that she wanted to move out and live on her
home would be difficult for a child with a own. Frances was against it, but knew
mental disability, even though her three sib- change was necessary.
lings adored her.
See GROUP HOME, page 25
Born in 1959, Jill had a typical childBy Evie Wolfe
Atlanta Group Home
celebrates its 25th anniversary
non-Jewish, who are looking for kosher
items.”
Held added to her friend’s statement,
“There is a preconceived notion of what
kosher is—Manischewitz—but that’s not
the case anymore. There are a lot of mainstream and gourmet products. It’s not like
what our grandmothers used.” In the old
days, the women point out, you had very
few options available, like a single brand of
kosher parve margarine. Now there are
many, and people need to be made aware of
the choices and their advantages and disadvantages.
Scher shared her philosophy, “We’re
looking for healthy, delicious products for
anyone wishing to cook kosher—it’s a
whole new world out there—milks, preserves, much more, and they’re not in the
kosher department.” Held calls their service
an informational network: they walk up and
down every aisle in the supermarket, virtually survey products, and contact manufacturers and distributors, looking for new
items. Their adviser is Rabbi Reuven Stein,
of the Atlanta Kashruth Commission.
The women decided to test their concept on Twitter.com. It’s free, it’s easy, and
it’s open to anyone. It’s a fast and convenient way to communicate and get your mes-
Page 22
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Kosher Affairs
I
t’s summer, and Atlanta’s kosher selection is hot!
Kosher Gourmet continues its focus on
catering and takeout. The store is now
stocking Israel’s Pereg Gourmet spices and
products, including the hard-to-find za’atar
spice. (Rub olive oil and za’atar on chicken;
roast or grill, and pretend you are in
Yerushalayim.)
Although still under construction, the
Toco Hill Kroger has remodeled and
enlarged its kosher department. In addition
to a full parve bakery, there is an expanded
selection of catered foods and salads, fish,
and meat. Many of the items are made inhouse. And, while you’re there, pick up
some Chai Peking Chinese takeout.
Return to Eden has a delicious new
product. I am already addicted. It is Wax
Orchards’ classic fudge sauce, sweetened
with fruit juice. The product is parve and
especially great for topping dairy-free ice
cream. I plan to try the other Wax Orchards
fudge flavors as well. Sign up for Return to
Eden’s kosher products e-letter at
[email protected], or visit the store at 2335
Cheshire Bridge Road.
Kudos to Trader Joe’s for offering so
many kosher and Israeli products, especially in the wake of a targeted propaganda
campaign by those unfriendly to Israel.
BY Roberta
Scher
Trader Joe’s is known to offer superb products at value prices, and happily, many of
these are kosher and some from Israel! If
you enjoy shopping there, and like their
selection, do let them know.
Goodfriend’s Grill is now open at the
MJCCA. Off Broadway meat restaurant has
closed. Broadway dairy restaurant has
expanded and moved across the street.
Whew—lots happening in Hotlanta.
BOOKS FOR COOKS
Whipped cream, custard, chocolate
mousse, meringue—everything rich, gooey
and delicious can be found in the 60 recipes
of this sweet new cookbook, Mrs. Rowe’s
Little Book of Southern Pies by Mollie Cox
Bryan (Ten Speed Press). The legendary
Mrs. Rowe was known as the Pie Lady of
Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. She died in
2003 at the age of 89, but the recipes for her
handmade pies continue as a cherished family tradition. The cookbook presents simple
July-August 2009
instructions
Topsy Turvey
and tips for
tomato planter
m a k i n g
delectable
pie fillings
a
n
d
piecrusts.
But keep in
mind, if you
have no time
to make a
crust,
just
Our flourishing salad table
buy one!
We met
salad table.
on Twitter (yes, I said Twitter), and now I As for the
am truly a fan of her cookbook. Pam Reiss’ raised garden
Soup—A Kosher Collection is a comprehen- bed created
sive, simple-to-follow cookbook on making with Farmer
just about any type of soup you can imag- D soil—the
ine. This Toronto-based author provides buzz
has
150 varied recipes, even one for chocolate started, and I
soup! I guarantee that you will find a soup have had visappropriate for just about any season, meal, its from local
or occasion. By the way, soup can be a very “ t o u r i s t s ”
budget-friendly, healthful meal all year who
are
long. Think about cold soups in summer amazed
at
(gazpacho, fruit soup, borscht) and more how tall the
hearty soups in colder weather. But who can veggies have
think about cold weather right now? Soup grown and
can be ordered at Amazon.com. Pam is cur- how prolific they are. The tomato plants are
rently working on a Passover cookbook.
taller than I am; squash leaves are tropical
So, how is my organic garden grow- in size, and the remainder of the veggies—
ing? Please check out the photos. The salad peppers, cukes, and eggplant—seem very
table is flourishing; although I have had to happy.
share some of the bok choy and arugula
with a few resident insects, we certainly are
See KOSHER AFFAIRS, page 34
enjoying salads straight from the raised
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Kosher Korner
WHAT’S NEW IN KOSHER
ATLANTA?
THE JUNE 2009 “KOSHER
WITHOUT A SYMBOL” LIST
Whenever possible, it is always best
to purchase items with reliable kosher
supervision. However, there are many
items that are kosher even if they lack a
symbol, although some may require
additional checking for insect infestation.
The following items are currently
and generally assumed kosher (when
there are no other additives) and can be
purchased even if they don’t bear a
kosher symbol. This list is subject to
change.
FOOD ITEMS
Applesauce—unflavored
Baking powder
Baking soda
Barley
Beans—dry
Beer—domestic, unflavored
Buckwheat (kasha)
Caramel color
Cocoa—plain
Coconut
Coffee—plain or decaf, unflavored
Cornstarch, corn grits, corn syrup, and
cornmeal
Couscous—unseasoned and uncooked
Dextrose
Edamame
Eggs—raw, whole, and unprocessed.
However, they should be checked for
blood spots.
Farina—raw
Flaxseed
Flour—without enzymes
Food additives—citric acid, EDTA, high
fructose corn syrup, potassium sorbate,
riboflavin, sorbitol, sodium benzoate,
sodium bisulfate, sodium citrate, sulfur
dioxide
Food colors—F.D. & C. colors with
propylene glycol
Fruit, canned—without added flavors,
colors, or grape juice. (Note: Fruit cocktail needs reliable kosher supervision,
because some brands contain carmine, a
non-kosher natural color derived from
the cochineal insect.)
Fruit, dried—the following are acceptable with no certification when there are
no additional oils or flavors listed:
sliced, diced, or whole apricots, dates,
figs, peaches, nectarines, pears, prunes,
BY Rabbi Reuven
Stein
and domestic raisins.
Fruit, frozen—without added flavors or
coloring. (Some berries require special
checking for infestation.)
Honey
Juices, fresh or frozen—100% orange,
apple, grapefruit, pineapple, and lemon.
(Tomato and grape juices need supervision.)
Maple syrup—mass-produced. Private
farms need to be checked individually
for use of animal fat in production.
Milk—In the U.S. and Canada,
Vitamilk, buttermilk, and chocolate milk
need supervision.
Molasses
Nuts, raw—with no oil or additives
(some contain gelatin), unflavored,
including blanched almonds, Brazil
nuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts,
pecans, and walnuts. Dry roasted nuts
require certification.
Oats—unflavored
Oat bran
Olive oil—100% extra virgin
Polenta—non-processed, unseasoned
Popcorn kernels
Quinoa
Rice—white or brown, including con-
Page 23
AKC
Approved
verted or parboiled, no seasonings
added. Arborio, basmati, sushi rice, and
other varieties are acceptable without
added flavorings.
Seltzer—plain, non-flavored
Soy grits
Spices—The following dried spices
(ground, chopped, powdered, or whole)
are acceptable: allspice, anise, basil, bay
leaf, black pepper, caraway, cardamom,
chervil, chives, cilantro, cinnamon,
cloves, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel,
fenugreek, lemongrass, mace, marjoram,
nutmeg, oregano, parsley, peppercorns
(any color), rosemary, saffron, sage, salt,
savory, sesame seed (raw only), tarragon, thyme, turmeric, and white pepper. Spice blends require certification.
Ginger, fresh or dried, is acceptable.
(Other fresh spices may have insect
infestation.)
Sugar—brown, cane, and powdered confectioner’s
Tea—plain, orange pekoe, unflavored
(regular and decaf)
Tofu—without additives
Vegetables, frozen—All are acceptable,
excluding artichoke, asparagus, and
Brussels sprouts, which require special
checking for infestation. (Supervision is
preferred for broccoli and spinach.)
Vegetables, pre-washed and/or precut
packaged—Broccoli slaw, carrots, celery, coleslaw, onions, and potatoes are
acceptable, but may require checking.
Water—unflavored
NON-FOOD ITEMS
Aluminum foil and foil pans
Baking or parchment paper—Siliconetype is acceptable. Quilon-based paper,
which may contain animal fat, requires
certification.
Cupcake liners
Dental floss
Lipstick, lip balm—Some authorities
prefer those without glycerin.
Oven cleaner
Plastic bags and wraps
Toothpaste, mouthwash—Some kosher
authorities prefer those without glycerin.
(Breath spray and breath sticks require
certification.)
Silver polish
Steel wool pads—plain. (Those with
soap requires certification.)
Rabbi Reuven Stein is director of supervision for the Atlanta Kashruth
Commission, a non-profit organization
dedicated to promoting kashruth
through education, research, and supervision.
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 24
Member of Piedmont Healthcare
Your health can’t wait.
July-August 2009
JF&CS NEWS
“Yes, We Take Your Insurance.”
Walk-ins Welcome,
Minimum Wait!
ALL AGES WELCOME
• IMMEDIATE CARE
• PRIMARY CARE
• TRAVEL MEDICINE
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7 Days
678-904-5611
www.perimeterclinic.com
3867 Roswell Road 1/2 Mile North of Piedmont Road
Just a few minutes from anywhere in Buckhead, Midtown, Brookhaven, Sandy Springs
COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROJECTS HELP FEED THE HUNGRY. This spring,
Rabbi Joshua Lesser, of Congregation Bet Haverim, introduced an inspired Seder program
that he called “Pay it Forward.” Attendees were encouraged to bring grocery store gift cards,
which were then donated to the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Jewish Family & Career
Services. More than 125 congregants, including 40 children, participated in this special
Seder. Rabbi Lesser presented gift cards worth $2,080 to JF&CS CEO Gary Miller and
Outreach Director Linda Briks. He hopes to do this program again next year.
Congregation Etz Chaim completed a Social Action Committee project in which they
sold The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook. The book contains more than 120 stories of
Holocaust survivors and more than 200 recipes. A portion of the cookbooks’ profits will go
to the Carmel Ha-ir Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem; additional proceeds will go to the Atlanta
Community Food Bank and the JF&CS Kosher Food Pantry.
Congregation Bet Haverim and Congregation Etz Chaim are two of the 11 synagogues
that the JF&CS Community Outreach Team works with to bring services and programming
to people in their neighborhoods and synagogue communities.
RECOGNIZING A LEADER. JF&CS Board Member Lynn Redd received the Leadership
Award from the Association of Jewish Family & Children’s Agencies at the 37th Annual
AJFCA Conference, May 3-5, in Chicago. Lynn became eligible for this honor after she
received the 2009 Herbert Kohn Meritorious Service Award from JF&CS.
Lynn Redd has been an active JF&CS volunteer for approximately 13 years, serving on
the Board of Directors for 10 of those years. Most recently, she successfully chaired the
agency’s first $1 million Annual Campaign. Previously, she chaired the Marketing
Committee and the Volunteer Committee. She developed business plans that resulted in the
establishment of the organization’s Synagogue Outreach Program and Legacy Home Care.
She recently assumed the position of vice president of Resource Development.
Redd has professional experience in the healthcare industry, including management
consulting, venture capital, strategic planning, and information technology. She also worked
for the federal government developing national health care policy. She has a bachelor’s
degree in biology from Brown University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania. Redd lives with her husband and two teenage children in
Atlanta.
Novel sheds light on little-examined
piece of WWII history
The Guernsey Literary and
Potato Peel Pie Society
By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 2008
Random House
288 pp., $22
W
BY Carolyn
Gold
hat a wonderful book! The Guernsey
Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
is charming, quirky, and yet serious in an easy-to-read way. This novel by Mary
Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is made up entirely of correspondence.
The year is 1946. In these letters, you meet the characters who lived through the German
occupation of the British Island of Guernsey in the English Channel
during World War II.
The deprivation of the island’s inhabitants accounts for the
“Potato Peel Pie” part of the title. Much of the story tells how these
occupants survived. Some of it touches on German concentration
camp victims and their treatment at the hands of the Nazis, but the
main story takes place after the war.
Juliet Ashton, a writer, goes to the island to learn more and to
write a book about the occupation and its aftermath. The people she
meets are members of the Guernsey Literary Society; they formed
the group to circumvent the German curfew and, through their book
discussions, developed lasting bonds with one another. Running
through the story is a romance that takes a surprising turn at the end
of the book.
Mary Ann Shaffer passed away when her book was in its final stages, and her niece
Annie Barrows finished the work. The language and thoughts are so everyday, quite British,
and delightfully humorous, as well as touching. The island’s occupants observed the good
and bad of humankind with resignation, kindness, and some small efforts to outsmart their
captors when possible. They watched German planes flying over to bomb London, slave
laborers building bunkers on their shores, and even German soldiers scrounging for food as
the islanders themselves had done.
The book, in a most creative way, brings a period in history down to a very small island
and a small group of people, yet touches universal emotions.
July-August 2009
Twitter
From page 21
sage across. After just two months, over
1,400 people interested in food signed up to
follow Held and Scher at KosherEye. You
can do it, too—visit Twitter.com, sign in,
click the “find people” button, put in
kosher, and you’ll get a list of twitterers,
people talking about the subject. If you
click on KosherEye, you’ll see a brief
description.
And what will you find? Here are a few
recent topics:
• Is BaconSalt kosher? (Yes, absolutely
Kof-K kosher.)
• Does extra-virgin olive oil need
kosher certification? (No, and it’s even
Group Home
From page 21
When the idea of a group home was
suggested to Frances, she found a small
house and persuaded Harry to buy it. “If we
buy it now, we can spend all our time on
getting approval and funding,” she told
him.
After four years of hard work by
Frances and others who were eager to help,
The Atlanta Group Home opened. With a
HUD loan, the tiny house was more than
doubled in size, with six bedrooms, four
baths, and all the modern conveniences.
The tour I just took proved to me how wise
the founders were in combining privacy and
a pleasing ambiance. The huge living room
accommodates the group and can be used
for special gatherings as well.
“No one lacks anything he or she
needs,” explains Deborah Lowe, who has
been the house parent for 23 years. Many of
the residents refer to her as “mother.”
Deborah says, “We are a family. Our siblings range in age from 44 to 57. We eat
together, we go places together. Everyone
has daily chores and a routine to follow.
Some of our residents still continue to
work, while the others stay busy at home
with planned activities.”
The residents consider The Atlanta
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
kosher for Passover.)
• Is Bone Suckin’ Sauce just for pork
ribs? (Try it on beef; it’s terrific.)
• Is there kosher sausage? Why buy
kosher certified bagged lettuce? Are Burger
King Onion Ring Snacks kosher?
One of their newest finds are dried
capers in sea salt!
Held and Scher not only search the grocery stores. They also attend food trade
shows, looking for new products they can
showcase—anything that happens to be certified kosher, as well as gadgets and appliances designed to make kosher cooking easier and more fun.
“We’re in another phase of life,” they
explained. “We’ve raised our kids, retired
from business, and we’re pursuing a new
Group Home their real home. “My daughter
would rather sleep here than at our house,”
says Nanci Berger’s mother, Rachiel. “My
feelings were hurt when she first revealed
this to me. But, as I realized that she loved
every part of her life at The Group Home, I
came to my senses.”
The home can accommodate four
female and two male residents. The women
share semi-private baths; the men also share
a bath. At least three of the current residents
have Down syndrome. All of the residents
maintain their own rooms, do their own
laundry, and share in joint chores. They also
enjoy many activities, such as bowling
together every Sunday night.
One question that comes up inevitably
when discussing The Group Home’s 25 successful years is how it is funded. The system is somewhat complicated, but it
includes regular contributions from parents,
the residents’ income, the Federal
Government, and donations from the community.
Frances Kuniansky, as chair emeritus
of the board, continues her interest and
input after her many years of working with
individuals who have mental disabilities.
Long may she continue!
Unfortunately, Jill Kuniansky passed
away on June 19. Everyone at The Atlanta
Group Home will miss her and her contagiously happy personality.
Page 25
avenue of technology. We’re going with a
have people in Australia, Europe,
frontier we didn’t grow up with. We’re
New Zealand, and even Israel,
embracing the wave of the future,
following their site. So,
and getting on it. We’re mature,
next time you have to go
vital women—we are not what
to the store, Twitter
we see in the mirror, but what we
first, and you may find
see in our heads—out there seeksomething new to serve
ing, learning, doing. We want
your family. If you’re
our minds to continue and create.
into Facebook, join the
It’s so much fun—being active,
KosherEye
Facebook
constantly thinking and doing. We
group. And watch for the
have a lot to give. We want to represent
upcoming contest to name
the consumer, to make a shidduch
KosherEye’s pink pig
KosherEye’s
with the manufacturers, help
mascot on the Twitter
pink pig mascot
businesses get their word out to
site.
our targets, the kosher consumers.”
You can reach Held and Scher at
Held and Scher estimate that only [email protected].
about 5% of their audience is local. They
A letter from Jill
In the summer of 2000, Jill Kuniansky sent the following letter to The Jewish Georgian.
It was published in the September/October 2000 issue.
The Jewish Ge
orgian:
I love your art
time. I enjoy rea icles. I read The Jewish Geor
gian all the
ding it a lot. Co
uld I put an art
my family and
icle in about
friends I live wi
th? How I love
much, my sister
them so so so
s and my broth
er, even my bo
I love so much
yfriend, the on
. I live with the
e
nicest friends I
them so so mu
ev
er had. I love
ch.
Here is my art
icle about my
tant to me. An
family, who is
d my friends fro
more imporm where I live
ing there. I lov
and I love live my family an
d
my daddy Harry
and my mom Fr
P. Kuniansky
ances and my sis
ters Carol and
brother Alan.
Laura and my
And my other
family I love so
I love my frien
much, the Grou
ds. I have Debo
p Home.
rah
sister Susie, Tr
acy, and my oth , my house mother, and my
er friend Nanc
er Ted and my
i,
an
boyfriend Stev
d my brothe. I love them
family. And my
all. They are my
brother Dennis
and my best fri
is Deborah Lo
en
we.
d I ever had
My name is Jil
l Kuniansky.
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 26
July-August 2009
Law-enforcement officers learn lessons of Leo Frank lynching case
M
ore than 100 Georgia officers
from federal, state, and local
agencies participated in a training program that examined lessons to be
learned from the lynching of Leo Frank in
Marietta, Georgia, in 1915. The training
was provided by The Anti-Defamation
League, one of the nation’s largest nongovernmental trainers of law enforcement
officers.
The program coincided with the
ADL’s April 30 world premiere presentation of The People v. Leo Frank, a PBS
television documentary shedding important new light on the trial and subsequent
lynching of Jewish Atlanta businessman
Leo Frank. The premiere was held at the
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre,
located just two miles from the site where
Frank was hanged after being abducted
from a prison cell in Milledgeville.
Michael Mears, associate dean of
academic affairs and associate professor
at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School,
taught the course. As an attorney, Mears
has served as lead defense counsel in
more than 27 Georgia death penalty cases
and was founding director of the MultiCounty Public Defenders Office,
Georgia’s first statewide death penalty
public defender’s office. He was joined
by Bill Nigut, Southeast regional director
of ADL.
“The Leo Frank case was an extreme
example of how bigotry unleashed can
undermine citizen respect for the law,”
Nigut said. “When Georgia Governor
John Slayton commuted Leo Frank’s sentence from death to life in prison, he and
his wife were forced to flee the state
under police protection because angry
mobs stormed Slayton’s home and hanged
him in effigy; Leo Frank’s lynching was
organized by a group of some of
Marietta’s leading citizens.
“While lynching is now a relic of a
MISH MASH
By Erin O’Shinskey
A
FIRST. Rabbi Elana Zelony is the
newest
clergy
member
at
Congregation Shearith Israel. She is
the first assistant rabbi for the congregation
in more than a generation and the first
woman to serve as a rabbi in the synagogue’s
105-year history. Rabbi Zelony earned a
B.A. in geology from Occidental College,
dark past here in the South, law enforcement officials are nevertheless still called
upon to deal with community tensions
created by hatred and bigotry,” Nigut continued. “Our class [gave] them the opportunity to examine how they resolve issues
of this kind.”
The officers also participated in one
of ADL’s highly acclaimed briefings on
current extremist activity in this region.
Chairs for the world premiere of The
People v. Leo Frank, were former
Georgia Governor Roy Barnes; Cobb
County Chairman Sam Olens, the first
Jewish chairman of Cobb County; and
Emory University Associate Professor of
Law Julie Seaman, a board member of the
Georgia Innocence Project.
The Leo Frank case is widely regarded as one of the most infamous episodes
in American judicial history. Frank, the
manager of a downtown Atlanta pencil
factory, was accused of murdering Mary
Phagan, a 13-year-old employee of the
factory. Sensational coverage by daily
newspapers whipped the emotions of
Atlanta citizens into a frenzy, and Tom
Watson, a Georgia political leader and
magazine editor, stirred powerful antiSemitic feelings with his lurid articles
attacking Frank.
The Frank case catapulted the AntiDefamation League into prominence as
one of the nation’s leading civil rights
organizations. Ironically, it also sparked a
rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.
The People v. Leo Frank, written,
produced, and directed by award-winning
filmmaker Ben Loeterman, will be shown
on PBS stations across the country in the
fall. Loeterman is one of public television’s most prolific producers of historical and public affairs documentaries and
has produced numerous films for such
prestigious PBS programs as “American
Experience” and “Frontline.”
studied in a Jerusalem yeshiva, and received
her rabbinic training at the Ziegler School of
Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles, where she
was ordained last month. She is married to
Adiv Zelony; they have one daughter, Nesya.
NEW SPIRITUAL LEADER. Rabbi
Michael Bernstein has joined Congregation
Gesher L’Torah. Ordained by the Jewish
Theological
Seminary
in
1999, he served
as senior rabbi at
Congregation
Beth Am Israel,
in Penn Valley,
Pennsylvania,
a
n
d
Congregation
B’nai Jacob, in
L o n g m e a d o w,
Massachusetts.
Rabbi Michael
He has designed
Bernstein
and facilitated
programs at the National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership, served as chaplain
at the Springfield (MA) College Campus
Ministry and Spiritual Life Center, and
recently served as a senior educator fellow at
the Melton Centre at Hebrew University.
Rabbi Bernstein and his wife, Tracie, have
three children, Ayelet, 10, Yaron, 8, and
Liana, 4.
EASING THE WAY. The Epstein School
and The Weber School have signed an agreement providing Epstein students with preferential admission status, a seamless transition,
and a continuous Jewish day school education for students 2 years old through 12th
grade. Epstein and Weber will work closely
together to align academic and enrichment
curricula to ensure the goal of seamless transition is met for Epstein students who choose
to attend Weber. Earlier this year, The Alfred
& Adele Davis Academy signed a similar
agreement with Weber with great success,
serving as a model for other Jewish institutions to follow.
EPSTEIN AND WEBER SIGN AGREEMENT. Pictured: (front, from left)
Robert Franco, president, The
Epstein School Board of Trustees;
Stan Beiner, head of school, The
Epstein School; Dr. Simcha Pearl,
head of school, The Weber School;
Harold Kirtz, president, The Weber
School Board of Trustees; (back,
from left) Steve Rakitt, president,
Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta;
Carol Cooper, chair of the board,
Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta;
Felicia Weber, naming benefactor,
The Weber School; and Joe Weber,
naming benefactor, The Weber
School
SANTA FOR SENIORS. On July 22, Santa
for Seniors held its annual “Christmas in
July” cocktail party at the TEW Galleries.
Party organizers were Jill Berry; Dottie
Smith, executive director; and Jade Sykes.
Senior Citizen Services of Metropolitan
Atlanta, through its Santa for Seniors program, collects new, unwrapped, “seniorfriendly” items such as large-print books,
bath or personal hygiene products, small
blankets, slip-resistant slippers, personal
fans, flashlights, and stationery.
A JOB WELL DONE. Gail Solomon recently received the Cantor Isaac Goodfriend
Award from Ahavath Achim Synagogue. She
was given this recognition in thanks for her
efforts in making the City Wide Blood Drive,
which she chaired, a success.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 27
Fighting for Jewish education in a highly Unorthodox way
Who would ever have thought a professional wrestler named Demon Hellstorm
would be a strong advocate of Jewish day
schools? Or that a nice Jewish boy would
have in his fingers the magic to fix whatever ails a car? Or that these two statements
would be describing the same man?
They are, of course, as anyone who has
ever dropped his or her car off for service at
Gann-El Auto can attest. Owner Greg
Herman not only knows what’s wrong with
cars, he keeps at the job until the owner is
satisfied that the job has been done right.
But, beyond that, Herman has another
passion. He believes in the right of every
Jewish child to receive a superior Jewish
education. And as a parent of two elementary school-age boys, he knows that today’s
sluggish economy, combined with the cost
of day school, is keeping kids out of
Atlanta’s day schools. He has seen that
directly this year: Rambam Atlanta, the
city’s Modern Orthodox elementary school,
closed its doors, and other schools have not
always had the funds to offer sufficient
financial aid to prospective families. So
Herman has devised a way to use his first
passion, wrestling, to benefit the parents
struggling to keep their children in Jewish
day schools.
On Sunday, September 13, Yeshiva
Atlanta will host a family fun day featuring
not only an antique car show, but also a professional wrestling show featuring Greg
Herman, a.k.a. Demon Hellstorm, “the
Madman from Miami,” as well as Yeshiva
Atlanta’s own wrestling coach, Jan “The
Man” Siegelman and an assortment of
heavyweight champion professional
wrestlers, including Big Daddy Goth and
England’s heavyweight champion, Simon
Serom.
How, you might ask, did a nice Jewish
boy come to be known as Demon
Hellstorm? Herman started as a youngster,
in Miami, watching wrestling on television.
By the age of 16, he had begun to attend
matches, and, at 21, working out one day in
a gym, he was approached by a man who
offered him the opportunity to attend
wrestling school. “He told me to show up in
school and he’d sponsor me if I could make
it through the first lesson,” Herman remembers. “I went. There were 64 of us. The
instructor asked who’d take a fall flat on his
back. I was the only volunteer. Four months
later, I was on TV. I didn’t know what I was
doing, but the money was good, better than
being an auto mechanic, which was my day
job. I was the bad guy, inciting the crowd so
they’d come watch me get killed.”
He chose the name Demon Hellstorm
because he’d been told to pick a demonic
BY Suzi
Brozman
name. Demon Hellstorm was lifted right out
of Marvel Comics, where a character who
was the son of Satan was called Demon
Hellstorm. But, insists Herman, he was
actually a good guy in the comics.
Travel and wrestling became a way of
life, until Herman married and became a
father. “There’s nothing more important
than my kids,” he says. His two boys, Ariel
Shlomo, 7, and Natanel Yakov, 5, got to see
their dad wrestle live for the first time on
Super Bowl Sunday last year. Until then,
they’d only seen him on tape.
Herman was not brought up in a religious household, but being involved
throughout his career with born-again
Christians made him want to find out who
he was. At age 36, with a serious muscle
injury, he went back to being a mechanic.
One day, a black man came into the shop.
He was wearing a kippah and tzitzis. He
explained to Herman what they were, and
took him to the Young Israel synagogue in
Tamarac, Florida. Herman began going on
Sundays, since he was working on
Saturdays.
Moving to Atlanta, he began studying
with Rabbi Hirshy Minkowitz at what is
now Chabad of Alpharetta. He got a job in
a mechanic shop, soon opening his own in
Decatur. But, he didn’t like dealing with the
city. So he moved to Toco Hill and opened
Gann-El, God’s Garden. He’s happier here,
and the community is happy to have him,
judging by the number of cars waiting for
service and by the praise spread on
Frum_Atlanta, the Toco Hill listserv. The
shop offers a full array of services, from
tune-ups to restorations and paint and body
work.
But, his children are the focal points of
his life. When their school closed at the end
of the school year, leaving teachers and parents uncertain about the future, Herman
asked himself what he could do to help.
Finances were a problem for many former
Rambam families.
Herman’s own sons will attend public
school in the fall. But many others needed
help to allow them to make the best choices
for their children. Soon, the idea of a
wrestling show to benefit them was born.
He told The Jewish Georgian, “People are
donating their time to try to help. Half of the
money we raise will be going to Yeshiva
Atlanta to help with tuition, and half will go
to parents sending their kids from Rambam
to other schools. I want people to know this
is a show. It’s entertainment, for fun. There
will be no cursing, no spitting, no intentional blood. And there will be some really cool
cars to look at.” Visit his website,
DemonHellstorm.com, to learn more about
Herman and his wrestling career.
Another focus of his life is his fiancée,
Ilana Melnick. The couple will be married
about a week before the wrestling extravaganza.
When Yeshiva Atlanta’s wrestling
coach, Jan Siegelman, volunteered his services, Herman was apprehensive. “Jan thinks
he’s going to win. I think he’s going to get
broken in half.”
But Siegelman, who has coached the
school’s wrestlers for 17 years, is confident.
“My life is a study of what it is to be human.
My commitment is that young men should
grow up to be adults that their parents and
they themselves can be proud of, that they
should be competent in outdoor skills, in
defending themselves, and in standing up
for themselves as Jews. They should leave
the world a better place because they were
here. That’s why I was born, to live that philosophy and help others to.”
Siegelman has been wrestling for 45
years. “I always thought a real wrestler
could beat these so-called pros, these television guys who I see as all muscle and
mouth—most of their muscle is in their
mouths. The guy I’m going to wrestle is a
loudmouth, trying to intimidate me.”
The community can judge his words
for themselves at the wrestling exhibition,
September 13, at Yeshiva Atlanta. Tickets
are just $10. The gates open at 10:00 a.m.
with wrestling starting at noon. For more
information, or to enter your car in the
antique car show, call Greg Herman at
Gann-El, 404-733-1555 or 770-826-1660.
Sponsorships are still available, with current sponsors including Return to Eden,
Bagel Break, C&N Auto Parts, Allan Shaw,
D.D.S., and Kosher Gourmet.
Page 28
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
In Israel, two miracles for one Atlantan
Recently, I had the opportunity to hear a
fascinating story at the Marcus Jewish
Community Center of Atlanta, told by Dr.
David Whiteman, a local plastic surgeon.
David grew up in a small Jewish community in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where
he was involved in B’nai B’rith youth activities. As a teenager, he took a trip to Israel,
where he met a girl from Detroit, Sheri, who
was also on a youth trip. A romance blossomed, and several years later, they were
married.
Fast-forward to 2006. David and Sheri
traveled to Israel with their two children,
ages 12 and 15, to celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary. They were accompanied by
close Atlanta friends Mark and Teri
Edelstein, Gary and Kathy Tuchman, and all
of their children.
They had been traveling for about a
week and made arrangements to sleep in a
Bedouin tent in the Negev Desert. One night,
during a camel ride at sunset, David felt a
crushing sensation in his chest. The pain kept
getting worse. Since he was a doctor, he suspected he was having a heart attack. The
group returned to the tent, where there was a
contingent of teenagers. A medic was there;
however, David said he was not much help.
Fortunately, the guide was still there, but
they were about a half hour from civilization.
David finally got an aspirin from someone in
the group, which helped save his life. They
Dr. David Whiteman
then traveled to the town of Arad, where they
found an ambulance, and the medics started
working on him.
David said he received quality care and
that the ambulance had medicines that ambulances do not ordinarily carry. They gave him
morphine and a complete electrocardiogram;
however, nothing relieved his pain.
It was very dark outside. David started
praying, even though he wondered if it was
pointless; there were plenty of people all
over the world who needed God’s help. “I
was shaking so badly, and I wanted to lower
my metabolism, but could not.” To try to get
his mind off his pain, David jokingly said to
his friend Gary, “When I get to the hospital,
I know I will have a Jewish doctor.”
After about 30 minutes, the ambulance
stopped, and the medics said they wanted to
take another EKG. When David asked how
the electrocardiogram looked, the medics
said it looked worse than the first one.
The ambulance took David to the
Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. Upon
arrival, he saw Sheri and Gary looking at the
ambulance door in surprise. “Did you see
that?” one of them said. David did not know
what they were talking about at the time, but
it turned out to be an important part of this
powerful experience.
David was taken immediately to the
catheter lab. One of the doctors was a very
large Russian. David joked that if the doctor
saved him, he would give him a free liposuction. The doctors told him they were going to
do a balloon dilation. David asked when he
would receive a sedative, and they told him
he would not need one. Once they did the
balloon dilation, the pain went away.
As David was being treated, Gary used
his Blackberry to contact an Atlanta cardiologist, who was a friend and neighbor. The
Israeli doctors communicated with the cardiologist, telling him about David’s condition
and treatment. The cardiologist then communicated to David and Sheri that David was
getting exceptional care. This information
proved to be a great relief to everyone.
David soon learned what Sheri and Gary
had seen on the ambulance door. As it turned
out, the ambulance was donated by friends of
Sheri’s parents in Michigan. Sheri saw this as
a sign that they had to do something in return
for the lifesaving treatment David was
receiving.
David spent the next week in intensive
care. In the hospital, he met Arabs and
Israelis. “Truly a melting pot,” he said. He
was becoming depressed, until a man point-
ed out to him that David experienced two
miracles in Israel: he met his wife there
almost 20 years earlier, and his life was saved
there.
Just before his discharge, David was
scheduled for a stress test. With him in the
waiting room were a Bedouin woman covered from head to toe, an Arab wearing a
headdress, and another person speaking
French. It was “amazing,” David said. “Here
we were, people of different cultures, relating
to each other and not shouting.” To top it off,
David said there was a cooking program on
TV with English subtitles. “This is a side of
Israel that people do not know about,” David
pointed out. “It is not shown on the news.”
A strange coincidence further convinced
David that he had to do something for Israel.
After his discharge, he saw in the parking lot
of his hotel a dedication ceremony for an
ambulance donated by the Westin Club in
Chicago, which has an annual fundraising
dinner for Magen David Adom (MDA).
When David told Gary about what he had
seen, Gary said, “I cannot believe it. I was a
guest speaker at one of their dinners, and my
dad is member of that group.”
All of the things that happened to David
convinced him and Sheri that they had to do
something for MDA. They decided on a
fundraising campaign to purchase an ambulance. Sheri began writing to her friends.
Some people at Davis Academy also raised
money, and eight months later, in October
2007, they bought the ambulance. There was
a dedication ceremony, and the ambulance
was sent to Israel.
David’s story was covered by the media,
but since then, things have been quiet.
However, it is important to keep this story
alive, because, in Israel, MDA depends on
donations, not only for ambulances, but also
for blood services, as well as supplies of all
types.
David’s story was riveting. He told of
his experiences in such detail that I felt as if
I were there on the camel when he experienced the crushing pain in his chest, when he
did not know if he could get any help, when
he was in the ambulance praying. I kept asking myself how I would have handled the situation.
Three years later, David asserts that the
experience didn’t change him that much, but
he does acknowledge that he exercises more,
watches his diet more closely, and does not
rush as much. And he said it definitely puts
him more in touch with his patients.
I then asked if it had changed him spiritually. He smiled, tilted his head a little, and
gave what I thought was a honest response:
“Some days, yes, and some days, no.”
After what happened to him, David feels
more supportive of Israel. His goal is to make
people aware of MDA, and he encourages
bar and bat mitzvah kids to make a project of
donations.
After his two miracles, David wants to
help Israel make miracles for others.
To learn more about MDA, call 1-800266-0046, or visit www.AFMDA.org.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Temple’s iSeder sparks discussion
about religion and technology
As humans, our day-to-day lives are in
perpetual flux. This is especially true for
those living in nations built on progress,
such as the United States. Specifically, our
always-increasing contact with technology
has transformed who we are as a people, our
methods of communication, and how we
send and retrieve information on a by-thewere taken, YouTube and Facebook were
second basis.
While the advent of technology has scoured, and a virtual Internet search for the
certainly been responsible for countless afikomen was conducted.
But if technology has always been consocial, medical, and scientific advancements, all of the beneficial kind, it is an sidered a roadblock to spiritualism, and
aspect of life that has often, and intentional- Judaism is about achieving just that, why
ly, been removed from traditional religious would a rabbi intentionally integrate the
two on one of the holiest days of the Jewish
practice.
In Judaism in particular, there has for- year?
“The intent was to try and see how we
ever been a conscious effort to separate
technology and prayer, an unquestioned could use new technology to engage peosense that interaction with technology ple,” Reeves explained. “Partially, we did it
somehow de-spiritualizes practices of piety. because the Internet is fun and partially to
Torah scrolls and mezuzot must be written reach the 20s-30s group; that group is not
by the hands of expert scribes, the Hebrew interested in the regular kinds of offerings
Bible commands that no Temple be built that synagogues have, and so we thought
with iron tools, most traditional forms of this would be cool and get their attention, so
technology are put to rest once a week for that they would come and have a Jewish
Shabbat—the holiest day of the Jewish experience.”
Throughout the iSeder, those in attenweek—and, to this day, Orthodox Jews seek
out homes nearest their synagogue, so as to dance were encouraged to play active roles,
avoid driving there before sessions of as they were texted specific blessings via
their phones when it was their turn to read.
prayer.
Is this traditionally disharmonious rela- In this way, then, Reeves used technology
tionship between Judaism and technology as a sort of rallying point, as a method of
inherent or fundamental to the nature of attracting and involving Jews, rather than as
religion? Or, rather, is it a condition that barrier to Jewish practice.
“We have in our mindset the idea that
was developed, learned, and integrated over
time, a superficial notion that is challenged somehow technology and spirituality are
more and more every day, as technology separate. I think that part of that has to do
continues to creep into nearly every aspect with the fact that, after the Industrial
Revolution and the dawn of the Information
of our lives?
As this conflict rages on, The Temple, Age, there was a sense of depersonalization
Atlanta’s largest and oldest Reform syna- that came with the advent of mass technolgogue, used Passover 2009 to add a new ogy,” explains Reeves. “The idea is that
chapter to the ongoing discussion, taking a things are no longer individualized or perrevolutionary step in not just allowing and sonalized, and one of the big things that we
accepting technology, but actually attempt- try and do through the synagogue is make
ing to utilize it as a productive tool in connections person-to-person. There’s a
general sense that technology puts a filter or
Jewish tradition and ceremony.
The idea, sparked by Rabbi Frederick a wall between people, and technology is
Reeves—one of The Temple’s four clergy only going to be successful in religious setmembers—was to incorporate today’s most tings if it’s used to break down those walls
and bring people together.”
prevalent and popular forms
Through his carefully calof technology into the secculated attempt to integrate
ond night of Passover, an
technology into traditional
experiment Rabbi Reeves
Jewish ceremony, Reeves
coined the iSeder. The rabbi
has demonstrated a clear
set up a computer at each of
trust in this relationship,
four 10-person tables and a
refusing to accept the two as
larger projector on which
inherently conflicting entithose present could follow
ties. With the future in mind,
the service. Each computer
however, questioning the
was connected to a wireless
degree of compatibility
Internet network, while
between religion and techBlackBerrys and iPhones
nology may no longer be the
were welcomed as well.
Over the course of the night, Rabbi Frederick Reeves most relevant concern.
Simply put, technology will
a PowerPoint presentation
on the 15 steps of the Haggadah was given, play an increasingly greater role in our liv
various Internet polls on the ten plagues
See iSEDER, page 37
BY Scott
Janovitz
Page 29
Page 30
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
Augusta Federation’s annual meeting celebrates community involvement
O
n June 8, the Augusta Jewish
Federation held its annual meeting
at the Augusta Jewish Community
Center. The meeting was opened with welcoming remarks by Al Grinspun, president,
followed by the singing of “The StarSpangled Banner” and “Hatikvah,” led by
Gary Katcoff.
Leah Ronen, executive director of the
Federation, reported that the 2008 campaign closed with a record 385 pledges. She
highlighted the services that had been rendered to the members of the community
because of the generosity of the Augusta
kehillah. She and Al Grinspun challenged
members to make every effort to encourage
individuals to continue their support, even
if the present economic climate makes that
difficult. As Ronen said, “It is time for all
hands on deck!”
Officers and board members for the
coming year were elected. Officers are: Al
Grinspun, president; Louise Aronow, vice
president—campaign
chair;
Debbie
Katcoff, vice president—allocations; Bob
Botnick, secretary; and Jack Weinstein,
treasurer. Board members with terms ending 2010 are Alyssa Bogorad, Lou Scharff,
Jon Shoenholz, Joan Steinberg, and Jack
Weinstein; those with terms ending 2011
are Louise Aronow, Ziva Bruckner, Marc
Gottlieb, Al Grinspun, and Margie Ruben;
those with terms ending 2012 are Bob
Botnick, Jeff Broder, Paul Graboff, Debbie
Federation President Al Grinspun
Executive Director Leah Ronen
Anne
Pomper
receiving
the
Outstanding Volunteer 2009 from Al
Grinspun
Stephen Steinberg presenting the
Maurice Steinberg Achievement
Award to Bob Botnick
Katcoff, and Beverly Lowenstein. After the
election, Sumner Fishbein conducted the
installation.
Anne Pomper was named Outstanding
Volunteer 2009 for her untiring efforts in
telling the story of Federation to donors.
Pomper, on her own, undertook the work of
making personal contact with members of
the community; as a result, there was a
marked increase in participation.
Bob Botnick was honored with the
Maurice Steinberg Achievement Award.
Stephen Steinberg, Maurice’s son, made the
presentation, saying, “The recipient shares
Maurice’s belief in our tradition of tzedakah
and his faith in the ability of the Jewish people for tikkun olam.”
Botnick moved to Augusta in 1962 to
begin his practice of medicine. During the
ensuing years, he became a respected member of the medical community, but always
found time to volunteer his time and energy
in the service of others.
Botnick has served as president of the
Georgia Society of Internal Medicine,
chairman of the Richmond County Health
Department, board member of MAG
Mutual Insurance Company, board member
of the Jewish Educational Loan Fund, a
founding physician of Doctors Hospital of
Augusta, co-chairman of a Jaycees campaign that distributed free doses of the
Sabin polio vaccine to residents of
Richmond County, chairman of the Israel
Bond Drive, board member of Adas
Yeshurun Synagogue, and member of the
board and president of the Augusta Jewish
Federation. In his retirement, he serves as a
volunteer physician at the Faith Care
Medical Clinic, a medical facility operated
by Wesley United Methodist Church for
indigent residents of Columbia County.
After closing remarks by Rabbi David
Sirull, of Adas Yeshurun, the meeting was
adjourned.
Volunteerism is alive and well in
Augusta.
One Good Deed serves residents’ needs
I
t’s hard to know how a person with a
disability or disadvantage feels, unless
you have experienced that life yourself.
Sharon Spiegelman experienced a typical,
healthy life, until beset by physical ailments
that landed her in a motorized chair. That
may have slowed down others, but not
Sharon, for she has continued to be an
active and cheerful person who has found
ways to help others in need of everyday
services.
Sharon was born in New Jersey and, at
a tender age, moved to Georgia with her
parents and
two siblings.
She
went
through the
A t l a n t a
school system
and
attended the
University of
Georgia,
where
she
earned
a
degree
in
communicaSharon Spiegelman
tions in 1981.
She didn’t know what she might do with
that degree, but shortly after graduation, she
went to work for the CIBA optical company
and rose from customer service rep to
supervisor.
Her next job took her to Florida, where
BY Leon
Socol
she worked for Scott Foresman, the textbook publishing company. Then she
returned to Atlanta and had a 15-year career
with Perlis Real Estate Development
Company, selling commercial real estate.
After that, she developed a bone disorder
that resulted in multiple leg fractures. Her
doctors advised her to give up walking and
use a wheelchair, in order to avoid more
serious fractures in other parts of her body.
Her younger sister, Lisa, had married
Atlantan Marty Halpern, who was in commercial real estate. Four years ago, the
Halperns took a trip to Israel and saw how
volunteer programs worked and flourished
there. Marty thought some of these programs might work for senior groups that
didn’t qualify for programs then being
offered in Atlanta.
When they got home, he contacted
Sharon and told her about the programs he
had seen. He asked her to help him find
people who were older or suffered long- or
short-term disabilities and needed help with
life’s daily tasks.
Sharon had, by then, been reduced to
working part time. Marty said that he would
finance the venture for several years if she
would organize and run it. Thus, One Good
Deed was founded in February 2006. Its
primary area of operations was Northeast
Atlanta.
The non-profit’s mission is to help seniors and other persons with physical or
long-term health needs maintain their independence, remain in their homes longer,
and avoid costly institutional care.
Through friends and word of mouth,
Sharon set about to enlist volunteers. Over
the last three years, Sharon has gathered a
group of 133 volunteers, whom she matches with clients. There is no charge for One
Good Deed’s services, and volunteers are
rewarded with the joy they bring to those
they serve. Satisfaction in serving others is
truly a wonderful feeling, says Sharon.
Sharon and Marty’s One Good Deed is
partnering with the Toco Hill and Meyer
Balser NORCs (naturally occurring retirement communities); Jewish Federation of
Greater Atlanta; Jewish Family & Career
Services; Life Enrichment Services; Center
for the Visually Impaired; and Caregiver
CARE Atlanta.
Volunteers of all ages provide help
such as changing a hard-to-reach light bulb
or smoke alarm battery, shopping for groceries, running errands, doing household
chores, preparing and/or delivering a meal,
providing companionship, filling in for a
caregiver, and providing transportation.
Current plans are to extend services to
residents living in the area north of the
Meyer Balser Home, in Northwest Atlanta.
Financing and expanding the services
of One Good Deed is a daunting task, especially in the present economic climate, but
Sharon and her helpers have received grant
money from local and national sources.
Sharon even sells sympathy cards, with all
the proceeds going to One Good Deed.
Sharon literally lives a life of service to
others. She has spread the word about One
Good Deed via the numerous organizations
of which she is an active member. She and
her husband (also named Marty) reside in
Decatur, in a home modified to accommodate wheelchairs. Her husband, victim of a
robbery years ago, uses a wheelchair, too.
But that doesn’t hamper either Marty or
Sharon Spiegelman. They both lead active
and productive lives that challenge individuals without disabilities.
If you would like to volunteer with One
Good Deed, it’s easy. Just contact Sharon
Spiegelman
at
404-460-7842
or
www.1gooddeed.org. You will need to submit an application with references, participate in a brief interview, undergo a criminal
background check, and spend 1-2 hours a
month doing a good deed. No special training is required, and One Good Deed liability insurance protects both volunteers and
clients.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 31
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 32
Rosh Hashanah 2009
A La Carte
Matzoh Ball Soup (1 Ball, 6 oz. Broth) • $3.50 ea.
Matzoh Balls Only • 2.50 ea.
Brisket of Beef (House Specialty!) • $16.00 lb.
Whole Traditional Roasted Chicken (Cut into Quarters) • $10.00 ea.
Chopped Liver • $10.00 lb.
1 Lb. Round Braided Challah • $5.00 ea.
Sides
Small (Serves 3-4) • $9.00
Medium (Serves 6-8) • $18.00
Large (Serves 12-14) • $28.00
X-large (Serves 20-24) • $50.00
Luchen Kugel • Potato Kugel • Broccoli Casserole • Squash Soufflé
Roasted Vegetable Medley (Squash, Peppers, Carrots, Asparagus)
Desserts
Chocolate Mousse Cake with
Chocolate Ganache Glaze (Serves 14-16) • $30.00
Apple Walnut Poundcake (Serves 14-16) • $30.00
Honey Gingerbread Poundcake (Serves 14-16) • $30.00
Chocolate Pecan Tart (Serves 10-12) • $30.00
French Apple Tart with Walnut Crumble Topping (Serves 10-12) • $30.00
All orders must be placed no later than Monday,
September 14th, for pickup by noon Friday,
September 18th. All foods will be cooked and
chilled. Unfortunately, no changes can be
accommodated after September 14th.
www.brickerycatering.com
Brickery Catering
6125 ROSWELL ROAD • ATLANTA, GA 30328
(404) 843-8002
FAX (404) 843-0615
July-August 2009
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 33
Page 34
Kosher Affairs
From page 22
I have also added one more feature to
the garden mix—couldn’t resist. I now have
an “as seen on TV” Topsy Turvey tomato
planter. No, I didn’t buy it off the TV—
Home Depot now carries them. I filled my
Topsy Turvey planter with soil and fertilizer,
inserted one tomato plant, and, yes, it is
growing nicely. If it is successful, I think that
I will Topsy Turvey my yard next year!
I am currently reviewing and
testing the Zojirushi Bread
machine and will feature it in our
September/October issue. Please
share your best bread machine
recipes with me! I am particularly
searching for the best challah,
whole wheat, and oatmeal breads—
all dairy free.
KOSHEREYE—NEW PRODUCT
DISCOVERIES
BONE SUCKIN’ SAUCE. So delicious!
Here’s how I used it. I pre-browned a 4-lb.
top of the rib roast on my outdoor grill, about
4 minutes per side. Then I followed the
directions right on the jar—I mixed the
sauce with 12 ounces of orange juice, poured
it over the top of the rib roast, tightly covered
the pan with foil, and roasted it for 3 hours at
300 degrees. Then I uncovered it and roasted
it for 20 minutes more. I let it cool, refrigerated it, sliced it, and served. (It is even better
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
the next day.) It was truly
scrumptious. For those who
like their heat, Bone Suckin’
also makes a hot sauce. (I
used the original in my
recipe.)
Go
to
Original Bone Bonesuckin.com for
Suckin’ Sauce more recipes.
BACONNAISE AND BACONSALT. This
is a kosher column, so why am I featuring
these products? The company says it best—
”BaconSalt is a zerocalorie, zero-fat, vegetarian, kosher certified
(Kof-K) seasoning that
makes everything taste
like bacon!” Baconnaise
can be substituted in any
recipe that calls for mayonnaise, such as potato
BaconSalt
or egg salad. For recipes
assortment
and to learn more about
these products, visit jdfoods.net and baconsalt.com.
DRINK UP. Lemongrass, rhubarb, kumquat,
juniper berry, vanilla bean, lavender—
sounds like a garden collection, but these are
actually flavors of the Dry Soda Company’s
lightly carbonated, refreshing, non-alcoholic
beverages. The Seattle-based company has
recently introduced this unique line of allnatural sodas that are flavored with fruit,
flower, and herb extracts and lightly sweet-
ened with cane sugar. These beverages can
be enjoyed on their own or as a sophisticated meal accompaniment. All are
OU certified. The consensus at my
table was that the vanilla bean,
kumquat, and lavender were the clear
winners. Read about Dry Soda at
drysoda.com.
July-August 2009
a modern, 18,000-square-foot facility, under
the certification of the OU.
The family motto, “no
short cuts,” is obvious
once one tastes the rich,
tomato flavor in each jar. It
is a premium sauce and
priced accordingly. My
favorite, Aunt Mary Ann’s
NEW BREW. I am not a fan of instant
Sunday Marinara (I even
coffee. However, Starbucks may win
love the name), is sold at
me over with its new product,
Publix, Kroger, and Whole
Starbucks VIA Ready Brew. (Even the
Foods. Deliziosa—what a
name sounds better than instant!)
treat! For recipes or more
There are currently two rich vari- Aunt Mary Ann’s information, visit deleties—Colombian and Italian Roast. Sunday Marinara grossosauce.com.
Both are micro-brewed and taste almost
like the real thing!
Come follow—see all that’s new in
kosher
by
following
ALL IN THE TEA LEAVES. My new TWITTER.COM/KOSHEREYE. Building
favorite bottled iced tea is Sweet Leaf Tea, a kosher network tweet by tweet! And join
particularly the mint-honey green tea and the the Facebook.com/koshereye group.
peach tea. The teas are sweetened with cane
sugar, the flavors are natural, and I even love This column is meant to provide the reader
the happy website! Buy these teas at Whole with current trends and developments in the
Foods, Return to Eden, and other local kosher marketplace and lifestyle. Since stansupermarkets, or order at sweetleaftea.com.
dards of kashruth certification vary, check
with the AKC or your local kashruth authorMAMMA MIA! I have just discovered the ity to confirm reliability. If you are searching
delicious La Famiglia DelGrosso pasta for a hard-to-find kosher ingredient, need
sauces. The concept of bottled spaghetti help with a kosher substitution, or have a
sauce took root in 1943, with husband-and- kosher food question, please contact us, and
wife restaurateurs Ferdinand and Mafalda we will do our best to find the answer. Also,
DelGrosso. This entrepreneurial Italian cou- we ask that you share your discoveries with
ple stirred, cooked, and bottled the sauce by us and look forward to hearing from you. Ehand. The products are now manufactured in mail [email protected].
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
Page 35
What’s cooking?
Recipes
Mrs. Rowe’s Original Coconut Cream Pie
Adapted from Mrs. Rowe’s Book of
Southern Pies by Mollie Cox Bryan
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
BaconSalt
chopped fresh parsley
The most popular dessert at Mrs. Rowe’s
Bakery!
Heat butter and milk together until butter melts. Add vinegar, and cook over medium heat until smooth (approximately 15
minutes).
Cook pasta in boiling water; drain, and
return to pot. Stir in eggs, cheese, and sauce
immediately. Season with BaconSalt and
sprinkle with parsley.
1 9-inch piecrust
3 egg yolks (reserve the whites for the
meringue)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4-1/2 cup water
3 cups milk
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Mrs. Rowe’s meringue (see recipe below)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch,
and just enough of the water to make a
smooth paste. Warm the milk in a double
boiler over simmering water. When the
milk begins to steam, gradually whisk in
the egg mixture. Simmer, stirring occasionally until very thick, about 4 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in 3/4 cup of
coconut, butter, and vanilla.
Pour the filling into the crust and top
with the meringue, sealing the edges well.
Sprinkle the remaining coconut over the
meringue.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or
until the meringue is golden brown and
firm to the careful, light touch. Cool on
rack at least 2 hours. Serve the pie at room
temperature, or, for a special treat, warm in
the microwave for 10 seconds.
—————
Mrs. Rowe’s Meringue
4 egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 tablespoons sugar
In a chilled bowl, combine egg whites
and cream of tartar and beat on slow to
medium speed until soft peaks form. Add
the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, and
continue beating until whites form stiff
peaks but are not dry. The meringue is now
ready to pile lightly over pie.
—————
Spaghetti Carbonara
Adapted from baconsalt.com
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 lb. spaghetti
2 eggs, whisked
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—————
Baconnaise Potato Salad
Adapted from baconsalt.com
2 lbs. small potatoes (preferably reds)
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 cup Baconnaise
3 stalks finely minced celery
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut the potatoes into half-inch pieces,
keeping the skin on. Place potatoes in a pot
of boiling, salted water, and cook for
approximately 15 minutes, until tenderfirm. Drain, and place in cold water immediately. Mix the Baconnaise and Dijon mustard, then add to potatoes along with
minced celery and parsley until evenly
coated. Add salt and pepper to taste, if
desired. Garnish with additional parsley.
—————
Gazpacho
Adapted from Soup: A Kosher Collection
by Pam Reiss
Serves 4
3 medium Roma tomatoes, cored and seeded
1 medium red pepper, cored and seeded
1/2 medium red onion
1 large seedless English cucumber
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 cup low-sodium tomato juice
2 tablespoons each fresh chives and fresh
parsley
Dice 1/3 of the tomatoes, peppers,
onion, and cucumber. Set aside.
Using a food processor or immersion
blender, puree remaining ingredients (except
herbs) until smooth. If mixture seems too
thick, add more tomato juice.
Combine mixture with diced vegetables. Add herbs and chill 4 hours or
overnight.
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Page 36
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
The Blumberg Report
I
had hardly moved into my new digs on
Peachtree when the phone rang with
invitations to two very interesting
events. One was the ceremony and luncheon at Morehouse College inaugurating the
Rabin-King Initiative, a multifaceted program for strengthening ties between Jews
and African Americans. The event featured
the induction of a newly appointed Board of
Preachers and Sponsors that included,
among others, Rabbi Peter Berg of The
Temple, Ambassador Reda Mansour of
Israel, and myself.
The keynote speaker, also an inductee,
was Rabbi David Saperstein, director of
Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center
in Washington, recently listed as the
nation’s most influential rabbi. He gave a
dynamic, highly inspirational lecture recalling the life work of Martin Luther King Jr.
and his connections with Atlanta Jewry, as
BY Janice Rothschild
Blumberg
well as the courageous leadership of Israel’s
martyred Nobel Prize laureate, Yitzhak
Rabin.
On the personal side, I was highly honored to have been included in such an
august group. It was a wonderful experience, one that certainly motivated me to
help further the objectives of the RabinKing Initiative. Where that motivation will
lead remains to be seen, but there is never a
lack of opportunity for extending friendship
and understanding.
One such opportunity came to me in
the form of a phone call from Michael
Baker at Positive Impact, an organization
devoted to providing services to HIV sufferers. He asked me to be the guest of
Positive Impact at a benefit performance of
Driving Miss Daisy at the Balzer Theater.
He also asked me to speak at a post-performance reception for the donors, recounting personal experiences with The Temple
bombing and other historical aspects of the
play. I suggested a panel discussion rather
than a solo performance (for which I lack
the chutzpah) and thus gained the pleasure
of appearing with professor and civil rights
activist Lonnie King, Jr. His input was far
more relevant than mine could ever have
been, since he spoke from ongoing deep
involvement with race relations, the issue at
the core of Miss Daisy.
Questions addressed to me were largely in the realm of reminiscence, and I found
myself tempted to speak more about the
play itself than about the general conditions
that it mirrored. In my opinion, the production of Alfred Uhry’s prize-winning masterpiece by Theatrical Outfit, whose executive
director is Tom Key, was first-rate, and
Robert J. Farley deserves enthusiastic
kudos for his direction. Jill Jane Clements’
portrayal of Miss Daisy was harsher than
Mary Nell Santacroce’s in the play’s
Atlanta debut or her daughter Dana Ivey’s
in New York, but, nonetheless, gave the
aging matriarch a character whose metamorphosis moved many of us to tears. Rob
Cleveland was so good as Hoke that I
immediately stopped comparing him to
Morgan Freeman, and William Murphy was
July-August 2009
delightful as the Jewish “good old boy” trying to care for his mother. Most importantly, they drew the audience through laughter
and heart tugs to a renewed awareness of
the need for sensitivity to the feelings of
others.
Positive Impact is all about that.
Founded in 1993, its mission is to provide
people affected by HIV with culturally
competent mental health counseling and
prevention counseling, as well as with
intensive substance abuse treatment. In
addition to other services, it hosts an annual forum, the Cultural Diversity Institute,
where mental health professionals come to
learn about diversity issues affecting treatment of their own clients.
Those of us who thought that education
and life-preserving drugs had come close to
wiping out the scourge of HIV/AIDS in
America have been sadly mistaken. The
most recent data available indicate that
there has actually been an increase of cases
in Georgia in the present decade. In Atlanta,
Positive Impact alone has serviced more
than 4,100 clients so far this year. The
organization cites complacency as one of
the main reasons for the increase and is trying to strengthen awareness of the danger in
order to reverse this trend.
To learn more about Positive Impact
and ways in which to impact its mission
directly, call Paul Plate or Michael Baker at
404-589-9040. The scourge isn’t over yet,
and in these times of reduced finances,
agencies such as this need all the help they
can get.
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
Page 37
A Personal Memoir, part 1: Atlanta adolescence
By David Macarov
I
grew up in the locker room of the
Atlanta Braves—or, at least where the
Braves locker room now stands. Of
course, they weren’t called the Braves
when I was growing up. They were the
Atlanta Crackers. The Atlanta team was
named Crackers as a deliberate contrast to
names like the enormous New York
Giants, or, obviously, the victorious New
York Yankees.
—————
Crackers were supposed to be
unschooled, impolite, rather simple—in
short, underdogs, and that was the image
that the Atlanta team liked to portray,
because it enlisted a lot of sympathy. It
was also a humorous method of keeping
alive the myth that the South was still
fighting the War Between the States,
which myth had already become an elaborate Southern joke. (“Never call it the Civil
War, son,” a grizzled veteran at the State
Capitol once said to me when I was a
schoolboy, “because it was a most uncivil
war.”)
It was true that we probably learned
more in school about that war than about
the Revolution, and certainly more than
the World War (this was before there was a
World War II), but, as I remember it, we
were taught that slavery was wrong and
that maintaining the unity of the States
was right.
The War Between the States was simply taught as a fact of history, but there
iSeder
From page 29
es with each passing day; no matter where
we turn, it, or some facet of it, will forever
be there.
The question for the future then
becomes: Can religion, absent of technological influence, especially in nations as
progress-oriented and industrialized as the
United States, ever truly exist on a mass
scale? And if the answer is no, and you
accept that technology does posses at least
some de-spiritualizing qualities, what will
all this mean for the American Jew in the
future?
In response to the first question,
Reeves is clear about one thing: whether
for good or bad, the ever-growing connection between religion and technology is an
unavoidable condition of the future.
“Young Jews today rely on technology
in every aspect of their lives. The 25-yearold American Jew could not imagine not
having technology; it would be unimaginable to not have a telephone, unimaginable
to not have access to the Internet, unimaginable to not use e-mail,” Reeves said.
And, at the suggestion that such a
future relationship may have negative
implications, Reeves showed no quit.
were still enough short stories and novels
and movies to make it seem like a glamorous war—Jeb Stuart’s cavalry;
Stonewall Jackson’s last words; Pickett’s
charge; Francis Marion, “the Swamp Fox”;
noble Jefferson Davis; and, of course,
angelic Robert E. Lee—were familiar to
all of us. But we only put on the “proud
Southerner” guise as an inside joke. It was
all history, and rather ancient history.
“Over fifty years ago,” to a youngster,
is going back to the time of Noah. That’s
why calling oneself a cracker had no historical connotation. Instead, its usage had
become a form of reverse snobbery.
“We’re crackers and proud of it,” had
taken on an almost sly aspect. It was a
method of deliberately exaggerating the
characteristics that Northerners imputed to
us, but which we knew weren’t there. At a
later date, “redneck” took the place of
“cracker,” but that was softened when
Governor Gene Talmadge, of the red suspenders, began using the term “good ole
boys.” Though Yankees never knew it and
kept saying “cracker,” the really insulting
phrase was “po’ white trash.”
We never spoke of Yankees, by the
way—that was a term they used themselves. To us, they were Northerners, or—
when we deliberately wanted to exaggerate the differences—Nawtheners. I don’t
imagine many people speak of Southerners
and Northerners any more, and few people
still use the term “cracker,” but, on the
other hand, how many people in the United
States—except in Atlanta—discuss what
the Braves did last night, off an Indian
reservation?
“It would have been like saying, at the
turn of the 20th century, if we engage people with the telephone, they’re going to be
less Jewish. But the telephone became
such an integral part of our society, we
couldn’t imagine how we could possibly
function without it. So I think these other
functions of technology are the same;
[young Jews] just can’t function without
them, and so, by using these tools, we are
reaching young people where they are,
meeting them using a medium with which
they are familiar.”
Still, the telephone has been around
for ages, and, in the lives of many Jews, its
use at certain times—such as Shabbat—
continues to be strictly prohibited and is
done so specifically in the name of
Judaism. So why, then, can we not prevent
other forms of technology from finding
their way into our prayers? Or, with antiSemitism declining and intermarriage at an
all-time high, is the increasingly closer
connection between religion and technology merely the product of what is quickly
becoming a larger and larger pool of
Americanized Jews with a less traditional
tilt?
Only time can answer these questions,
and what either conclusion would mean
for the future of American Judaism
—————
—————
We used to make fun of Northerners,
of course, and the trick was to do it so that
they didn’t know they were being made
fun of. For the most part, the humor was
harmless. We would show them the round
water tower in Druid Hills and explain that
it was a big golf ball—a tribute to Bobby
Jones. On showing them the Cyclorama,
the panoramic painting in Grant Park, we
assured them that the German artists who
made the memorial were later deliberately
blinded so that they could never create
another one. We always mentioned
Sherman’s retreat through Georgia to the
sea (and by then, most of them didn’t
know enough history to catch the joke),
and we showed them the Governor’s mansion, explaining that it was the seat of the
Ku Klux Klan. Sometimes, though, we
played into Northerners’ worst stereotypes
of Southerners.
After a while, the visitor usually realized he was being kidded, but I remember
one particularly obnoxious visitor, who
kept bragging about how much better and
bigger and more interesting “The City”
was. We became so annoyed with him that
we pretended we were going to take him to
view a lynching, to his horror. We were
evidently very convincing, because when
we paused for a traffic light, he leaped out
of the car and ran. We watched him disappear and shook our heads at the naiveté
and stupidity of supposedly sophisticated
Nawtheners.
remains equally unclear. Either way,
though, one thing is for sure: Rabbi Reeves
has an insightful and determined perspective on religion, its purpose, and what it
should work to accomplish. Regardless of
the future implications, he has incorporated technology into religious practice with
the most pure and innovative intentions.
“When we were coming up with how
we would use technology for the iSeder,
some people thought, ‘Oh, are people
going to be in their own homes and connect into the Seder that way?’ I didn’t want
to do that purposely, because then I don’t
think that you would really connect with
other people in the way that religion is
supposed to bring people together and
form community.”
The girls of my generation would
never date a boy who wore white shoes in
the wintertime. White shoes were the style
in the South as well as in the North, but
Southerners wore black or brown when
winter started, and the Northerners—mostly college boys going to Georgia Tech—
continued with their whites. White shoes
in the wintertime marked someone as not
only from the North, which was bad, but
specifically from New Jersey, which was
even worse than New York. White shoes in
the winter automatically meant no date.
When we learned that New Yorkers
never spoke of New York by name—it,
was always “The City” (“In The City,
we...” or, “One day, when I was in The
City...”) we used that to needle them, too.
Whenever a New Yorker began sounding
off about The City, we always looked
dumb and asked innocently, “Kansas City?
Jersey City? Salt Lake City?” We took
pleasure in forcing him to specify “New
York City,” and then our reply was invariably a disinterested, “Oh, that city.”
Once we had created a good relationship with a visitor, however, we usually
showed him the incomplete carving on
Stone Mountain, Druid Hills, the Candler
estate, the Fox Theatre, the Cyclorama,
and the Biltmore Hotel. But, regardless of
whatever else we did with visitors, we
always ended up at the Alliance.
Next issue: Good times at the Jewish
Educational Alliance
Finally, no matter where you fall on
the issue, our overwhelming reliance on
technology is, no doubt, here to stay.
According to Rabbi Reeves, Judaism can
either harness technology’s presence and
use it to persist and grow even stronger in
the years to come, or, through avoidance in
the name of tradition, neglect the needs
and demands of its future followers, while
contributing to its own end.
Reeves definitely believes technology
will be important in keeping Judaism alive.
“I think in 100 years, we’re going to have
technologies in the synagogue that right
now we can’t really imagine. I think that
the use of technology, in the process of
how we do everything, is only going to
increase.”
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 38
July-August 2009
Schwartz on Sports
BY Jerry
Schwartz
A
few months ago, I ran into Bruce
Weinstein at the MJCCA, and he
updated me on one of my “Where
Are They Now?” guys. Arnie Fielkow
played in the Men’s Basketball League in
the ‘90s and was a terrific player. He even
tried out and made the United States basketball team that played in the World
Maccabiah Games in Israel.
During the time Arnie lived in Atlanta,
he was commissioner of the Southern
Baseball Association. Bruce told me that,
when they fined players, the money was
given to charities, and Arnie determined
which ones. He designated a lot of that fine
money to the Marcus Jewish Community
Center of Atlanta. Bruce, at that time, was
chairman of the MJCCA’s Health,
Recreation, and Wellness Department,
which benefited from those donations.
I lost contact with Arnie when he left
Atlanta, so I asked Bruce to fill me in.
Arnie, who is a lawyer, moved to New
Orleans in the late ‘90s and took a job as a
high-level administrator with the New
Orleans Saints. When Katrina hit, the Saints
were playing out of town, and the organiza-
tion had to decide whether they were going
to return to New Orleans to play. The owner
of the Saints did not want them to return,
and Arnie did.
As a consequence of their disagreement, Arnie lost his job. But public opinion
was on Arnie’s side, and he became a hero
in New Orleans for the position he took. As
a result, he decided to run for public office,
for president of the New Orleans City
Council, in 2006. Bruce’s daughter, Brook
Weinstein Berger, who went to law school
in New Orleans and lived near Arnie,
worked on his campaign.
Even though Arnie was running against
an incumbent who was heavily favored, he
won a very close election. So, if you know
Arnie and go to New Orleans, he probably
won’t be able to get you Saints’ tickets, but
he might arrange a tour of City Hall.
While talking with Bruce, I told him
that I wrote a column in December of 2008
about sports memorabilia and had interviewed Dean Zindler, who owns Zindler’s
Sports Collectibles. I was also aware that
Bruce had an extensive collection of baseball cards that he had collected in his youth,
and I thought it would be interesting to follow up on that.
Bruce grew up in Birmingham and
started collecting baseball cards when he
was about ten. From the period of 19561962, he collected a card for every major
league baseball player. He was one kid
whose mother did not throw away his col-
Bruce Weinstein and his priceless possessions
lection, which remains intact today. He was
adamant when he told me he would never
sell his cards. His favorite is Mickey
Mantle’s rookie year. No telling how much
that would be worth today.
Bruce keeps his cards in large, plasticcovered albums. Friends often ask if they
can bring their kids over to see the collection. When they get there, the kids usually
end up watching TV, and it’s the fathers
who spend time going through the cards.
Bruce also told me that, when he
moved to Atlanta in 1971, he started collecting autographed baseballs and now has
approximately 100. He was most interested
in getting Hall of Famers and has attended
the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony the
last two years in Cooperstown, New York.
He has autographed baseballs from Joe
DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Pete Rose,
Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra,
and Don Larsen.
Of course, I asked Bruce about Hank
Aaron, and he said he had an autographed
ball from him, too. Bruce was at the game
when Hank hit homer number 715 to pass
Babe Ruth as the home-run king. He has a
certificate proving he was there. He even
went back to an Old Timers Game to get a
ball signed by Al Downing, the Dodger
pitcher who gave up home run 715 to
Aaron.
Bruce is a longtime Braves season ticket holder. Now, he needs to be certain to get
autographed balls from Gregg Maddux,
Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Chipper
Jones, because they’ll all be in the Hall of
Fame one day.
ALTA COCKER SOFTBALL GAME #2. I
heard from Gene Benator that the second
annual Alta Cocker Softball Game is scheduled for June 28 at the Marcus Jewish
Community Center of Atlanta (MJCCA).
Once again, Marcus Katz has graciously
offered to provide the refreshments for
players, family, and friends.
Gene is determined to have an even
bigger tournament than last year, as evidence by his initial e-mail, sent out to about
60 guys encouraging them to recruit other
guys who played in the Men’s Softball
League from 1971 to 1992. Last year, the
guys were divided into 4- to 15-man teams,
and we played 2- to 3-inning games.
This year, Gene has planned for more
guys and even greater athletic ability to be
showcased. He joked that they had planned
a Home Run Derby Contest, but the
MJCCA said they didn’t have enough time
to set up the “Kid Pitch” fences. He also
wanted to have a “jugs gun”—a radar gun
that measures the speed of the pitch—but
the gun didn’t register in the teens.
I told Gene that I would be at the game
this year solely as a reporter, rather than a
participant. I survived last year’s game with
only a torn pair of blue jeans, managed to
field most of the grounders hit my way at
shortstop, and got the ball to first base without any bounces. I also was able to hit the
modified pitch every time up, even though I
didn’t get the ball out of the infield. I am
going to leave the game to the guys who are
still actually playing, but I look forward to
seeing everyone again, and I’ll cover it in
the next “Schwartz on Sports.”
REMEMBRANCE. I was saddened to hear
that Larry Wolfe had died. He was probably
the best catcher who ever played in the
Men’s Softball League. Larry was a fiery
competitor who had all the qualities of a
great player. He could hit for power and
run, and he had a great arm. I had the opportunity to play against him in many Center
League and City League games.
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Thought You’d Like to Know
By Jonathan Barach
STIMULATING SUMMER. The Marcus
Jewish Community Center of Atlanta
(MJCCA) is offering a number of summer
programs for mature adults. Film Club:
Enjoy contemporary and classic films and
participate in a lively discussion, July 26,
6:00 p.m.; admission is $8 for non-members,
$5 for members. Edgewise Thursday:
Leaders from the Atlanta area will speak on
their particular areas of expertise and lead
group discussions, Thursdays, 10:00 a.m.12:00 noon; admission is $5 for non-members, free for members. For information on
these and other programs, visit www.atlantajcc.org.
ON THEIR OWN. On July 29, 7:00-8:30
p.m., Jewish Family & Career Services’
Tools for Independence program will host a
free Transition Workshop for families of transition-age young adults with developmental
disabilities. Topics will include transitioning
from high school to adult services, as well as
transitioning from living with parents to living independently. The workshop facilitator
is Cheryl Rhodes, a licensed marriage and
family therapist and mother of a young adult
who has recently transitioned to adult services. The workshop will take place at JF&CS,
4549 Chamblee Dunwoody Road. RSVP to
Brenda Revere at [email protected].
THEY’LL SHOP ‘TIL THEY DROP.
Another Sunday Afternoon At Loehmann’s, a
new comedy by Peachtree Battle playwrights
John Gibson and Anthony Morris, is being
held over through August 30 at the Ansley
Park Playhouse, 1545 Peachtree Street,
Peachtree Pointe Building, in Midtown
Atlanta. Performances are ThursdaySaturday, at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, at 3:00
p.m. Tickets are $26.00, including tax; group
rates and gift certificates are available. Call
the Box Office at 404-875-1193, or visit
www.AnsleyParkPlayhouse.com.
MJCCA is presenting Sensory-Sensitive
Movies for children with autism at Zaban
Park, one Sunday each month at the Morris
and Rae Frank Theatre. The next screening is
August 9. Children with autism or sensory
issues can now enjoy the movie theater experience. These screenings are free to both
members and non-members. For more information, contact Sammy Rosenberg at 678812-4092, e-mail [email protected], or visit atlantajcc.org.
VOLUNTEER WITH JF&CS. JF&CS is
offering free Volunteer Orientation sessions
August 19 and October 20, 6:00 p.m., and
September 16 and November 18, 12:00 noon.
The orientation will provide a brief overview
of the agency and volunteer opportunities.
Sessions will take place at JF&CS, 4549
Chamblee Dunwoody Road. RSVP to [email protected].
ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVE. The next City
Wide Blood Drive, sponsored by Jewish War
Veterans Atlanta Post #112, is August 2, 9:00
a.m.-2:00 p.m., at Ahavath Achim
Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Avenue
N.W. Appointments can be made at
https://www.givelife.org/index.cfm?Sponsor
=jwv; use code JWV. Walk–ins are always
welcome, but donors with appointments are
given priority. Bring a picture ID. For questions about eligibility, contact the American
Red Cross at 1-866-562-7156.
CHANGING TIMES. The American-Israel
Chamber of Commerce Professional
Committee will present “Economic and
Political Changes: Effects on U.S.-Israel
Business,” a seminar for legal, accounting,
financial, and real estate professionals,
August 27, 7:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. This event
takes place at the Selig Center, 1440 Spring
Street, Midtown. For details, visit
www.aiccse.org/Event/EventInfo.aspx?Even
tID=485.
SENSORY-SENSITIVE MOVIES. The
HIGH HOLY DAYS STUDY INSTITUTE.
An evening of study to prepare for Rosh
Page 39
Hashanah and Yom Kippur will take place
September 1, 7:00 p.m., at Congregation Etz
Chaim. Participants can attend two classes,
7:15-8:15 p.m. and 8:30-9:30 p.m. Chabad of
Cobb, Congregation Etz Chaim, Temple Kol
Emeth, Temple Beth Tikvah, and Temple
Kehillat Chaim will join with the MJCCA’s
Lisa Brill Institute to explore themes, prayers,
and customs of the High Holy Days. The rabbis and cantors of the participating synagogues will lead study sessions. For more
information, call Institute Chair Rabbi Paul
Kerbel, 770-973-0137. Registration is $10.00
per person.
FIGHTING HUNGER. The Atlanta
Rabbinical Association is hosting Hunger
101, September 2, at Temple Sinai, 6:00-9:00
p.m. This workshop will address the urgent
need to fight hunger locally, nationally, and
internationally. Atlanta Community Food
Bank Executive Director Bill Bolling and
Mazon President Dr. Eric Schockman will
deliver the keynote addresses. For more
information, call Temple Sinai, 404-2523073.
RELAX,
REFLECT,
CELEBRATE.
LimmudFest is Labor Day Weekend,
September 4-7, at Tumbling Waters Retreat
& Conference Center at Ramah Darom,
Clayton, Georgia. At LimmudFest, Jews of
all ages can take a step in their personal
Jewish journeys, explore their connections to
See THOUGHT, page 41
Page 40
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
birds reach adolescence, they will be
returned to the quail farm, where the cycle
will begin again.
By Belle Klavonsky
MOVING UP. At the end of each school
year, 5th-grade students at The Davis
Academy are ceremoniously welcomed to
Middle School. In a symbolic gesture of
l’dor v’dor, Middle School students pass the
Torah to younger siblings who will next year
move up to the Middle School. Pictured:
(from left) Allie Teilhaber, Blake Teilhaber,
Molli Botnick, Logan Botnick, Lynsey
Maya, and Daniel Maya
FIELD DAY SPIRIT. Davis Academy 3rdgrader Aaron Rice (pictured) leads the blue
team’s effort at the rope pull on Lag B’Omer
Field Day, May 12. This spirited day of fun
and competition for Davis students in
Mechina-4th grade was made possible by the
generosity of Davis PTO volunteers.
JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME. In May, Davis
Academy 8th-graders capped off their years
of study with a fantastic two-week adventure
to Israel. From the Old City of Jerusalem to
the museums of Tel Aviv to the top of
Masada to rappelling down cliffs at the
Golan Heights, students had many unforgettable experiences. Pictured: (top to bottom)
Jordan Hirsch, Brandon Hirsch, and Jared
Meline stretch out in the Red Canyon of the
Negev Desert.
GRADUATION DAY. On June 2, seventynine 8th-graders, The Davis Academy’s
largest class ever, graduated from the
Reform Jewish day school. It was an exciting
evening for the students and their families, as
they recalled many memories from their
years at Davis. Pictured: (from left) Jacob
Saban, Jon Adelman, Carly Aronin, and
Marisa Schiff present a gift of an awards case
for the Middle School.
EPSTEIN EAGLE AWARD. Epstein School
8th-graders Hilit Jacobson and Geoffrey
Nathan (pictured, with Coach Jim Battoglia)
received the Epstein Eagle Athlete of the
Year Award, given each year to one male and
one female 8th-grade student. Candidates
must play sports in all three seasons and
exemplify high character in leadership,
coachability, and sportsmanship. The award
was presented by 2008 recipients and alumni Adina Beiner and Daniel Feinberg. Other
recipients are: Sarah Arogeti and (tie) Daniel
Yellin and Mitchell Alterman, 2007; Meghan
Light and Eli Oppenheimer, 2006; Jessie
Levitan and Justin Shemaria, 2005; and Liza
Arogeti and Perry Bern, 2004.
EPSTEIN IN THE NEWS. Sixth-grade students in Kendra Fabry’s advisory class at
The Epstein School engaged in a servicelearning project as part of their yearlong
study of hunger issues. They recently
unpacked, inspected, sorted, and packed
food at the Atlanta Community Food Bank
and also brought donations of food with
them. Channel 2 News (WSB-Atlanta)
videotaped the students at the Food Bank for
a May 5 news segment; Carly Kaplan and
Leah Greenberg (pictured) were interviewed.
Parents Diane Lechter and Lori Peljovich
chaperoned, helped at the Food Bank, and
drove students.
BECOMING A PART OF HISTORY. Go
Where your Eyes Take You: Creating a New
Future after the
Holocaust,
a
hardbound book
published
by
Epstein Middle
School students
(pictured)
is
being archived at
The USC Shoah
Foundation
Institute
for
Visual History
and Education.
The book, which
features stories
written by 7th- and 8th-graders, was part of
project designed to study and celebrate the
stories of 23 Holocaust survivors and the
rebuilding of their lives. The USC Shoah
Foundation became interested in archiving
the book after Epstein parent Meryl Stein
contacted Linda Stern at the foundation to
tell her about it.
A QUAIL TALE. On the last day of school,
The Epstein School welcomed new members
to the Epstein family, when three quail
chicks were born three days overdue. The
tiny friends are part of the elementary school
students’ biological studies of lifecycles,
under the direction and guidance of
Elementary Science Specialist Donna
Goodson (pictured) and Science Consultant
Debbie Lanier. When students return in
August, they will be able to see how the
quails have grown over the summer. As the
DID KERMIT GET IT WRONG? The
Epstein School’s pre-K class, taught by Joan
Lewis and Jackie Steinhauser, released classroom pet Lollipop, a red-eared slider turtle
(pictured), into the Leah’s Pond, located in
the Educational Garden. Lollipop apparently
learned
that
Epstein’s
Sustainable
Educational Garden was recently designated
a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National
Wildlife Federation and expressed his desire
to be free from his cage and live the good
life. The students enjoyed watching the turtle
as he swam away. Lollipop is enjoying his
new home and was recently sighted sunbathing. So maybe it is easy being green!
A FATHER’S DAY MESSAGE FROM
SUMMER CAMP. Seven-year-old Audrey
Gruenhut (pictured) has fun hula-hooping at
the Epstein Summer Adventure Camp carnival. At the face-painting station, she made a
special request to have a love message to her
dad, Mike Gruenhut, painted on her face, so
she could surprise him for Father’s Day. For
more information on Epstein Summer
Adventure Camp, visit www.epsteinatlanta.org.
ZOO SLEEPOVER. Greenfield Hebrew
Academy 1st-graders ended their study of
animals by participating in Zoo Atlanta’s
Nightcrawler Program. They enjoyed a guided tour, including behind-the-scene spaces
and a night visit to the reptile house. At one
point, the tour guide stopped Beth Intro’s
group in front of the orangutans and asked if
the children knew any sign language, which
the orangutans were learning. As the children
July-August 2009
sang a song that included sign language,
which they learned in class, the orangutans
moved closer to watch them. The children
were thrilled with the reaction to their song.
Pictured: Tamar Stein
STUDYING CHEMICAL REACTIONS.
GHA 5th-graders in Sarah Topper’s class
studied chemical reactions by shooting off
Alka-Seltzer rockets. They formulated questions, examined what happens when baking
soda and vinegar (acetic acid) combine to
make carbon dioxide gas, and experimented
with Alka-Seltzer and water. Questions
included: Which type of film canister will go
the highest? Does a larger amount of AlkaSeltzer cause the canister to go higher?
Using the same amount of Alka-Seltzer, will
a small amount of water or a large amount
cause a bigger pop? Does it matter if you
shake the container? Pictured: Jake Chesler
and Carmela Horwitz
A VISIT TO THE AQUARIUM. GHA students in Gan Aleph (pictured) concluded
their studies of sea and ocean animals with a
fantastic trip to the Georgia Aquarium on
May 19. Each student had studied a specific
creature. At the aquarium, the students had to
find their sea creature, take a photo of it,
draw it, and answer some questions about
what they had observed about it. After touring the entire aquarium, the class ate lunch
outside, then headed back to GHA.
MATH MAVENS. Seventh-grader Adam
Brasch (pictured with teacher Robyn
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Cooper) represented GHA at the MATHCOUNTS state competition, finishing 39th
among 180 students. In the Georgia Math
League contest, GHA placed 15th among 90
schools at the 7th-grade level, with Adam
Brasch placing 25th among the 41 top 7thgraders; of 84 schools participating at the
8th-grade level, GHA was 22nd. Several
GHA students were among nearly 150,000
participants worldwide in this year’s Math
Olympiad; Abby Stein placed in the top 2%,
and Jake Belinky, Sam Viness, Adam
Brasch, and Ross Berlin placed in the top
10% at their grade levels.
GOLF CHAMPS. The Greenfield Hebrew
Academy Golf Team, coached by Manny
Fialkow, won 1st place in the MAAC
Conference, on April 22. Seventh-grader
Harrison Brown took 1st place individually.
Team members are Sam Viness, Elliot
Schnabl, Harrison Brown, Dylan Shaban,
and Ethan Fialkow.
CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES.
Fifty-three Weber School seniors (pictured)
graduated June 7, at a ceremony at
Greenfield Hebrew Academy. Students were
accepted to 74 colleges and universities; they
will attend schools including American,
Clemson, Emory, Georgia State, George
Washington, Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio
State, Tulane, Washington, and Wesleyan
universities; universities of Alabama,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland,
Michigan, and Pennsylvania; Oberlin,
Gainesville State, and Guilford colleges;
Raphael Recanati International School;
College of Charleston; Fashion Institute of
Technology; and Georgia Tech. They have
received almost $3 million in merit scholarships; in addition, of 19 students accepted at
Georgia universities, 92% received HOPE
scholarships totaling $926,000.
GOVERNOR’S HONORS. Weber student
Ariella Axler was selected to participate in
the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program, a
state-funded six-week summer instructional
program designed to provide intellectually
gifted and artistically talented high school
students challenging and enriching educational opportunities. Students are nominated
for the program by current teachers.
Page 41
YOUNG JOURNALIST. Jason Feldman, a
rising senior at The Weber School, was
selected as a national youth correspondent to
the 2009 Washington Journalism and Media
Conference at George Masion University.
DANFORTH SCHOLAR. Gideon Palte
(pictured), The Weber School’s Class of
2008 valedictorian, was one of fewer than 30
students to be named a Danforth Scholar.
The Danforth Scholars Program at
Washington University in St. Louis honors
the student who embraces high ideals and
whose life choices are guided by personal
integrity, selflessness, a commitment to community, and a dedication to leadership and
academic excellence. It carries with it a yearly, renewable full scholarship.
GREAT SEASON FOR BASEBALL. After
enjoying its most successful season in recent
memory, the Weber Rams baseball team finished the season tied for 4th place in Region
1–AAA with Young Americans Christian
School and Pinecrest Academy. Juniors
Daniel Maloon (pictured), outfield/first base,
and Jed Wasilewsky, catcher, earned AllRegion honors. Jed also received Honorable
Mention All–State honors.
Thought
http://atlanta.mfa.gov.il/mfm/Web/main/do
cument.asp?documentid=124299.
From page 39
Jewish ideas and tradition, and meet people
who share their enthusiasm and curiosity.
This family-friendly weekend will include
children’s programs and childcare. Register
before June 1 for the early-bird discount.
Accommodations and costs start at
$239/adults and $149/children. For registration and addition information, visit
www.limmudse.org.
LEARN A LANGUAGE. Beginning
September 14, Oglethorpe University will
offer eight-week, evening, non-credit language courses in conversational French,
Hebrew, Italian, Mandarin Chinese,
Spanish, and Greek. Most are introductory
level, with advanced classes offered in
Spanish and French. Many courses will
conclude with a trip to a restaurant, where
students can order and converse in their
chosen language. The cost per course is
$150.
To
register,
visit
www.oglethorpe.edu, and type “noncredit”
in the search bar, or call Rose Cunningham
at 404-634-8016.
MUSICAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY. The Idan Raichel Project will perform
November 7, 8:00 p.m., at the Rialto
Center for the Arts at Georgia State
University. The Idan Raichel Project is an
Israeli musical collaborative that has
achieved success by looking beyond cultural differences and celebrating the value of
diversity. Led by young keyboardist, composer, and producer Idan Raichel, The
Project blends traditional Ethiopian folk
music, Arabic poetry, Yemenite chants,
Biblical psalms, and Caribbean rhythms
with sophisticated production techniques.
For
information,
visit
ORT SOLIDARITY MISSION. ORT
America is organizing a groundbreaking
national Jewish solidarity mission to
Argentina and Uruguay, November 9-15.
The mission offers an insider’s view of the
Jewish communities of Montevideo and
Buenos Aires, featuring one-of-a-kind
briefings, visits to awe-inspiring landmarks
and famous beaches, an unforgettable
Shabbat experience, and even an opportunity to learn tango at its birthplace.
Participants will meet with educators, students, and community members who are
successfully grappling with today’s challenges with assistance from ORT. There is
an optional extension to Santiago, Chile. To
learn more, visit www.ortamerica.org/missions, or call 800-519-2678, ext. 360.
RETRACING JEWISH FOOTSTEPS IN
NEW YORK CITY. The first Jewish learning travel program will be led by Dr. Steve
Chervin October 7-11, developed under the
auspices of the MJCCA’s Lisa F. Brill
Department of Jewish Learning. Highlights
include visiting Ellis Island, Statue of
Liberty, Temple Shearith Israel, Museum of
Jewish Heritage, Tenement Museum,
Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew
Union College, and experience Kabbalat
Shabbat services at B’nai Jeshurun. Prior to
the trip, three mandatory classes will be
held about the Jewish history of the sites to
be visited, facilitated by Dr. Steve Chervin.
The fee is $1,999, plus airfare. For more
information, contact Cheri Levitan at
[email protected].
Page 42
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009
Jewish Marriage Initiative encourages happy families
By Shoshana Cenker
A
s attendees gathered for the first
Jewish Marriage Initiative (JMI)
event, June 9, at Congregation B’nai
Torah, they were greeted by the band Tevya,
which played such fitting tunes as “Sunrise
Sunset” and “Love and Marriage.”
The Jewish Marriage Initiative is a new
marriage education and enrichment organization that focuses on delivering the message of
shalom bayit (literally, peace at home) or
domestic tranquility.
“JMI is devoted to empowering relationships with timeless Jewish wisdom and modern psychology,” said Rabbi Mordechai
Pollack, JMI’s associate director. “This
organization was designed and developed to
teach the skills needed to better relationships.”
At this forum, entitled “Happy
Relationships…The Foundation of Life,” a
diverse panel—a senator, a Jewish educator, a
rabbi, and a psychologist—presented valuable tools to help take relationships from
good to great.
Georgia State Senate Minority Whip
David Adelman opened the discussion with a
startling statistic. “Georgia leads the nation in
the number of high school dropouts,” he said.
“Fifty percent do not graduate on schedule, a
tragically high rate.”
But what does that have to do with
healthy marriages? “Some of the failure in
education is failure of happy families,”
explained Senator Adelman.
people want or need—you
“You can increase the likelimust verbalize. Your
hood that your children will
spouse wants to make you
have a happy family if you
happy, so tell him or her
have a happy family.”
how,” said Cohen. “Think
Senator
Adelman
about what you say before
acknowledged the pressures
you say it, and know that
put on the modern family—
how you react is very
the pull of career, communiimportant. We don’t want
ty, and civic obligations; the
to make a mistake in how
needs of children and famiwe communicate. It takes
ly—and offered suggestions
ten compliments to make
on easing the pressure.
up for just one insult.”
“Involving your extended
Rabbi
David
family is critical to making a
Silverman addressed the
good family great,” said
crowd next with an interDr. Aaron Feldman
Senator Adelman. “When
jection of Torah: ‘It is not
families live within close
good for man to be alone,
proximity, families are better.”
I will make a helpmate to oppose him.”
Next up on the panel was Epstein School
“We learn from this that G-d was showAssociate Head Roz Cohen, who just cele- ing Adam that we must make room for othbrated her 45th wedding anniversary.
ers,” explained Rabbi Silverman. “G-d also
Mrs. Cohen challenged audience mem- introduced conflict in a controlled area.
bers to take responsibility in their relation- Conflict is the best thing for change and
ships. “A husband is not responsible for his growth—conflict creates the opportunity to
wife’s happiness; the wife has the power to become better. We must embrace differences,
do for herself, and the husband can help. hope for resolution, and know that through
Don’t expect all the gaps to be filled by challenges, there is self-discovery. A partnersomeone else,” said Cohen. “Focus on what ship is about giving to others; giving creates
is, rather that what isn’t. Appreciate what you a profound sense of love.”
do have, and know that differences are okay.”
Licensed Clinical Psychologist Dr.
Mrs. Cohen expressed the importance of Aaron Feldman rounded out the panel prebeing a good listener and asking the right sentations by reminding the audience that to
questions. “It’s essential to make time to build and sustain a healthy relationship,
share ideas. Don’t assume we know what “Each partner must be committed to meeting
the needs of their spouse.”
Dr. Feldman spoke about The Five Love
Languages as described in the book of the
same name by Dr. Gary Chapman. “How we
feel loved is different to everyone—identify
what makes you feel loved and what makes
your spouse feel loved,” said Dr. Feldman.
The five love languages are:
• Words of Affirmation—expressing
appreciation verbally.
• Quality Time—expressing love with
the gift of time.
• Receiving Gifts—notes, favorite flowers, etc.
• Acts of Service—making life easier for
your spouse by anticipating your spouse’s
needs and stepping in.
• Physical Touch—hugging, giving
shoulder rubs, holding hands.
“To find which love language is yours,
ask: when you want to show love, what’s
your first instinct? Then ask what your
spouse would like,” said Dr. Feldman.
“Know that your love language may be different from your spouse’s.”
The dynamic panel concluded the forum
with audience questions. Mrs. Cohen ended
with the words, “There is no magic to making
relationships work; it’s a job every day.
Respect and love each other, and focus on
pleasing your spouse.”
“JMI is the beginning of something very
special,”
added
Senator Adelman.
“Remember, the journey of 1,000 miles
begins with one step.”
July-August 2009
THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
Page 43
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THE JEWISH GEORGIAN
July-August 2009