YELLOW FEVER
Beth Jacob goes viral with a campaign to welcome newcomers to High Holiday learner’s services. Page 6
YOUTH APPEAL
BIG BITES
Meet three people leading new efforts to engage with young congregants at Reform synagogues. Page 18
woodruffcreateATL.org
Sherry Habif’s catering recipes help her son get a taste of the restaurant business at Oy! in Smyrna. Page 20
Atlanta VOL. XC NO. 32
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
Post-Storm Surge
Jewish New Orleans thrives 10 years after Katrina
Main photo by Michael Jacobs; inset photo by Gil Rubman
After Hurricane Katrina and the floodwaters that followed drove away thousands of New Orleans’ Jewish residents, the future of the community was in doubt amid the devastation typified by Congregation Beth Israel, whose destroyed sanctuary in the Lakeview neighborhood is shown at the end of December 2005, four months after the storm. But the celebration seen at the opening of the new Beth Israel in Metairie in August 2012 (inset) reflects the community’s revival. Stories, Pages 22-25
JELF EDUCATION
Hawks CEO Steve Koonin and a Georgia Tech loan recipient help teach a crowd of 315 the value of the Jewish Educational Loan Fund. Page 8
CHABAD GROWTH
A new Torah in Kennesaw and a new student center for Georgia State and Tech are the latest signs of Chabad’s expanding community. Page 14
INSIDE
Simchas 3 Business 20 Calendar 4 Arts 26 Candle Lighting
4 Education 27
Remember When 6 Obituaries 28 Israel 9 Crossword 30 Opinion 10 Marketplace 31
AUGUST 28, 2015 | 13 ELUL, 5775
DeKalb Schools Pass Holiday Test
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ewish public school parents in DeKalb County declared victory Tuesday, Aug. 25, when Superintendent Stephen Green announced a testing schedule that eliminates High Holidays conflicts. “It is a testament to the power of the people — several concerned parents who raised their voices and inspired a broader community to take action,” parents group Resolve DeKalb ITSB Testing posted on its Facebook page. “We are delighted.” DeKalb’s schedule for the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, used in identifying gifted students, had included Sept. 15, the second day of Rosh Hashanah, and Sept. 23, Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah’s first day was the makeup date for another standardized test, the Cognitive Abilities Test. Rich Litner, Alan Kitey and Shari Magnus organized a parents meeting Sunday, Aug. 23, at Congregation B’nai Torah, Litner’s synagogue, with DeKalb school board member Stan Jester and his wife, county Commissioner Nancy Jester, who offered support for the cause. Parents launched a letter-writing campaign, and rabbis including B’nai Torah’s Joshua Heller and Temple Sinai’s Ron Segal applied pressure. “The revised school testing calendar removes all conflicts with religious holidays while ensuring timely testing for students,” Green said Aug. 25. ITBS testing now will occur three days before Rosh Hashanah and three after. Yom Kippur is one of four ITBS makeup dates. The schedule does create a conflict between the CogAT and Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Cobb County has the same problem with its ITBS testing and a CogAT conflict with Sukkot Day 2. ■
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SIMCHAS
Engagement Wasserman-Taylor
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arilyn M. Wasserman of Decatur announces the engagement of her daughter, Sharon Irene, to Thomas Andrew Taylor, son of Lorayne Taylor of Clive, Iowa, and James Taylor of Wichita, Kan. Sharon is also the daughter of the late Allan Wasserman. She is the granddaughter of the late Marion and Leo Wasserman and the late Ethel and Reuben Margolis. Sharon and Thomas met as teenagers at Playland Skating Rink in Atlanta and reconnected 32 years later. Sharon is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia. She works as a user experience/interface designer for Tekscan in Boston. Thomas is employed by FedEx Freight in Boston. A May 2016 wedding is planned in Atlanta at the Georgian Terrace hotel. The couple will continue to live in Boston.
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ark and Debbie Weiss of Roswell announce the engagement of their son, Matthew Michael Weiss, to Stephanie Rose Oreck, daughter of Michael and Susan Oreck of Minnetonka, Minn. Matthew is the grandson of the late Mannie and Natalie Berlin and the late Jerry and Rose Weiss. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a major in political science and earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. He is a lawyer with the Dentons law firm in Atlanta. Stephanie is the granddaughter of Merton and Leslee Shapiro of Minnetonka, Marshall and Julie Oreck of New Orleans, Lillian Orenstein of Minnetonka, and the late Norman Orenstein. Stephanie graduated from Indiana University with a major in Jewish studies. She is employed by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. An October wedding is planned in Minneapolis.
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AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Engagement Oreck-Weiss
MANY OF ISRAEL’S BEST FRIENDS LIVE HERE. HELP KEEP THE ISRAEL CONSULATE TO THE SOUTHEAST OPEN
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CALENDAR THURSDAY, AUG. 27
Kosher festival. The adults-only Kosher Food & Wine Atlanta festival runs from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot, 65 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, downtown. Admission is $70 for ages 21 to 30 or $90 for those older; www.KFWAtl.com. Justice talk. ACCESS Atlanta and the GALEO Leadership Council present “A Conversation on Justice in America” at the Latin American Association, 2750 Buford Highway, Atlanta, at 7 p.m. Free; RSVP to Geverd.Fellow@ajc.org. Fall Bargainata sale. The National Council of Jewish Women’s semiannual sale of used clothing and accessories holds its preview night from 7 to 10 at 6125 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Admission is $25 in advance or $35 at the door for the preview and free for the regular hours, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 4 Sunday; www.ncjwatlanta.org or 404-843-9600.
SUNDAY, AUG. 30
Civil rights struggle. Reform congregations’ role in the civil rights movement and continuing struggle for justice is explored at the Center for Civil and
Human Rights, 100 Ivan Allen Blvd., downtown, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with keynote speaker Rebecca Stapel-Wax of SOJOURN and such panelists as Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple, Janice Roths child Blumberg and center interim CEO Deborah Robinson. Attendance, including lunch, is $36; www.cvent. com/d/8rqvj5 or prezbhood@crystalflex.com. Torah restoration kickoff. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, launches its Holocaust Torah restoration with brunch, a chance to help sofer Rabbi Yochanan Salazar write a letter and an educational program at 10 a.m. Free with required RSVP; cbshalom.wufoo.com/ forms/torah-restoration-brunch-rsvp. Chabad center opening. Chabad of Downtown Universities celebrates the opening of the Rohr Chabad House, 471 10th St., midtown, to serve Georgia State and Georgia Tech. noon. Free; www.chabaddtu.com. Teen program. Chabad Intown launches its CTeen program for the school year with a yacht party at noon; www. chabadintown.org or 404-898-0434.
SHEMA YISRAEL’S SHEMA COMMUNITY YISRAEL’S HIGH HOLY
COMMUNITY DAYS HIGH HOLY WORSHIP DAYS SERVICES WORSHIP Held at UNITY ATLANTA 3597 Parkway Lane - Norcross SERVICES Traditional Services or Reform Services
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We’re always open. We’re always open. You’re always welcome. You’re welcome. Come toalways the High Holidays Come to the High Holidays Ticket reservations immediately on-line at www.shemaweb.org There is no charge
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There is no charge
Another community event from Kol Echad and Shema Yisrael- The Open Synagogue
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
at at
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CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES
Parshah Ki Tetze Friday, Aug. 28, light candles at 7:51 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, Shabbat ends at 8:46 p.m. Parshah Ki Tavo Friday, Sept. 4, light candles at 7:41 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, Shabbat ends at 8:36 p.m. Lebanon War film. Hadassah’s Mount Scopus Israel Film Fest presents “Zaytoun,” about a downed Israeli pilot in the 1982 war and the Palestinian refugee boy who helps him, at 1:15 p.m. at the Central DeKalb Senior Center, 1346 McConnell Drive, Decatur. Tickets are $12, payable by check made to Hadassah and mailed to Melanie Doctor, 3825 LaVista Road, J-1, Tucker, GA 30084. RSVP to Regine Rosenfelder at gine@ aol.com or 404-633-1849. Camp day. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, with the Camping Initiative and PJ Library, holds a family fun day from 1 to 3 p.m. for children interested in or recently returned from Jewish summer camp at the pavilion at Brook Run Park, 4770 N. Peachtree Road, Dunwoody. The event includes free snacks, food for purchase, bounce houses, a balloon artist, face painting, music and stations from participating camps. Admission is $5 for adults and free for children; stanenbaum@jewishatlanta.org or 678-222-3730. Israeli film screening. Israeli director Eran Riklis, artist in residence at Emory University, introduces a showing at 4 p.m. of his 2004 movie, “The Syrian Bride,” about a Druze woman in the Golan Heights. The screening in White Hall Room 208 includes a discussion and reception. Free; filmstudies.emory. edu/home/events/film-series/eran-riklis-residency.html. America’s music. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta hosts the oneman show “Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin” at 5 p.m. at the Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road. Tickets are $18; www.jewishatlanta.org/hersheyfelder. End-of-summer barbecue. Congregation Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, holds a cookout, rain or shine, with music, a free kids show, a free caricaturist and food for purchase from 5 to 7 p.m. Free; RSVP to receptionist@ bethjacobatlanta.org or 404-633-0551. Bowling kickoff. The Atlanta Jewish Bowling League holds a reception at 6:30 p.m. at Brunswick Zone Roswell, 785 Old Roswell Road. The Sunday night bowling league starts play Sept.
20. For information or reservations, call Roz Brotman at 678-393-6339 or Alex Schulman at 404-667-7752. Infertility support. The inaugural communitywide event for the Wo/ Men’s Infertility Support Havurah is a panel discussion featuring experts on fertility, mood disorders and legal issues related to fertility challenges, as well as radio personality Jenn Hobby, who has struggled with infertility, at 7 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; www. wishatlanta.org.
MONDAY, AUG. 31
Iran lecture. Kenneth Stein of the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel addresses “Iran and Other Israel-Related Matters That Make You Nervous” at 7:15 p.m. at Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Free; ismi.emory.edu/home/ index.html.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 1
Israeli film lecture. Israeli director Eran Riklis, artist in residence at Emory University, speaks about “Israeli Cinema: The Way We Were” at 7:30 p.m. in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library. Free; filmstudies.emory.edu/ home/events/film-series/eran-riklisresidency.html.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 2
Kollel networking. Rabbi Mordechai Blecher speaks during the Atlanta Scholars Kollel’s networking event, “Unity, Pleasure and the New York Jets,” at 5:30 p.m. at Atlanta Jewish Academy, 5200 Northland Drive, Sandy Springs. Admission is $25 online, $30 at the door; www.atlantakollel.org. Israeli film screening. Israeli director Eran Riklis, artist in residence at Emory University, introduces a showing at 7:30 p.m. of his 2008 movie, “The Lemon Tree,” about Israeli-Palestinian tensions over a lemon grove. The screening in White Hall Room 208 includes a discussion and reception. Free; filmstudies.emory.edu/home/events/filmseries/eran-riklis-residency.html.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 4
LimmudFest. The Labor Day weekend
CALENDAR celebration of Jewish learning starts with arrivals between 2 and 6 p.m. today and runs through midday Monday, Sept. 7. Registration fees range from $199 to $799 per person, depending on accommodations; www.limmudse.org.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 8
Blood drive. Temple Kol Emeth, 1415 Old Canton Road, East Cobb, holds a Red Cross blood drive from 3 to 8 p.m. Email prepwilson@yahoo.com for an appointment. Israeli film lecture. Israeli director Eran Riklis, artist in residence at Emory University, speaks about “Israeli Cinema: Forging an Identity” at 7:30 p.m. in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library. Free; filmstudies.emory.edu/ home/events/film-series/eran-riklisresidency.html.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 10
Israeli film lecture. Israeli director Eran Riklis, artist in residence at Emory University, speaks on the topic “Of Conflict and Optimism: My Personal Cinematic Voyage” at 7:30 p.m. in the Carlos Museum reception hall. Free; filmstudies.emory.edu/home/events/ film-series/eran-riklis-residency.html.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 12
Comedy show. Lenny Marcus performs adults-only standup at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $18 to $25; www.atlantajcc.org/interior-pages/arts-and-culture-theaterproductions or 678-812-4002.
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Contributors This Week APRIL BASLER DAVID BENKOF JORDAN GORFINKEL YAACOV NOAH GOTHARD LEAH R. HARRISON MARCIA CALLER JAFFE RANDY KESSLER KEVIN MADIGAN DAVE SCHECHTER CADY SCHULMAN CHANA SHAPIRO ANNA STREETMAN
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CIRCULATION
• Temple Sinai Rabbi Emeritus Philip Kranz did not sign the Ameinu letter in support of the Iran nuclear deal, as reported in the Aug. 21 issue. We received incorrect information from Ameinu and failed to confirm it before publishing it. • Guy Tessler is the president of Conexx: America Israel Business Connector. His title was incorrect in an article about the Israeli Consulate in the Aug. 21 issue. • The Latin phrase on Leo Frank’s gravestone is Semper Idem (always the same). It was incorrect in an article in the Aug. 14 issue.
Send items for the calendar to submissions@atljewishtimes.com.
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CONTACT INFORMATION GENERAL OFFICE 404.883.2130 KAYLENE@ATLJEWISHTIMES.COM The Atlanta Jewish Times is printed in Georgia and is an equal opportunity employer. The opinions expressed in the Atlanta Jewish Times do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper. Periodicals Postage Paid at Atlanta, Ga. POSTMASTER send address changes to The Atlanta Jewish Times 270 Carpenter Drive Suite 320, Atlanta Ga 30328. Established 1925 as The Southern Israelite Phone: (404) 883-2130 www.atlantajewishtimes.com THE ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES (ISSN# 0892-33451) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SOUTHERN ISRAELITE, LLC 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, ATLANTA, GA 30328 © 2015 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES Printed by Gannett Publishing Services MEMBER Conexx: America Israel Business Connector American Jewish Press Association Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber of Commerce Please send all photos, stories and editorial content to: submissions@atljewishtimes.com
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
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LOCAL NEWS
Minyans of Minions
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Last year’s Shabbat Project challah bake at the Marcus Jewish Community Center was so well attended that the Atlanta Shabbat Project and the center will again partner to teach the importance of Shabbat observance.
Have Shabbat Your Way
Project promotes challah-ic observance By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
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AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
t started with a little chutzpah and a lot of dough. Last fall, as part of the worldwide Shabbat Project movement, 350 Jews gathered at the Marcus Jewish Community Center to bake challah. The inaugural event was so well received that the center and Shabbat Project are partnering again Oct. 22 to teach the importance of observing the Sabbath and preparing challah. “Last year was a sellout. We actually had to close the event off,” said Rabbi Brian Glusman, the Marcus JCC’s outreach and engagement director. “People showed up that night and weren’t allowed to participate because we ran out of ingredients.” This year’s event will be held in the JCC gymnasium to accommodate an expected crowd of 600 people. Nearly 600 pounds of flour, double the amount of last year, will be brought in to make challah. The challah bake is part of the worldwide Shabbat Project, a weekend full of events across the globe to encourage Shabbat observance. The movement was started in 2013 by Warren Goldstein, the chief rabbi of South Africa, and last year spread to more than 450 cities. “For me, the Shabbat Project is about being Jewish regardless of your affiliation,” said Robyn Regenbaum, who serves as the Atlanta coordinator for the movement. “It’s knowing how important Shabbat is regardless of how you celebrate and accepting everyone for who they are.” 6 In addition to the challah bake,
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the Atlanta Shabbat Project will host a Havdalah concert at the Atlanta Jewish Academy auditorium Saturday night, Oct. 24, featuring Hasidic soul band Zusha. Besides the two events, Regenbaum said, it’s up to you and your family to decide how to observe Shabbat on your own. “For me personally, I celebrate Shabbat as an Orthodox Jew,” said Regenbaum, who grew up in South Africa. “However anyone else wants to celebrate is fine with me; my issue is just getting people to observe Shabbat. It’s important to keep Judaism alive.” The worldwide Shabbat Project has roots in Orthodox Judaism, but the movement includes the entire Jewish community in Atlanta. Shabbat is the most important ritual observance in Judaism and is the only one instituted in the Ten Commandments. “Growing up as a traditional Jew, I didn’t know there were other opportunities or methods of enjoying Shabbat,” Rabbi Glusman said. “When people tell me they don’t have time to make a traditional Shabbat with chicken and kugel, I say have a Shabbat over pizza. Light your Shabbat candles and have challah. It’s possible to celebrate in a variety of ways.” ■
What: The Great Big Challah Bake Where: Marcus JCC’s Zaban Park, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22 Tickets: $10, advance reservation and payment required; atlanta. theshabbosprojectusa.org
ewish versions of the Minions, those yellow creatures made famous in two “Despicable Me” films before headlining their own cartoon blockbuster this summer, are popping up everywhere at Congregation Beth Jacob. You can find them in hallways, above doorways, in bathrooms and across a banner alongside LaVista Road. Rabbi Aiai Glesses, Rose Shytell and Ken Naynahora are never in the same places for more than a week, and their specific messages may vary. But the bottom line is the same on every flier and sign featuring the trio: Invite and attend the learner’s services beOutside, Joel Alpert checks on Beth Jacob’s roadside ing led by Matt Lewis for minyans banner, while inside Minion Ken Naynahora is Rosh Hashanah and Yom in the face of anyone drying his hands in the bathroom. Kippur at the Orthodox shul in Toco Hills. With the support of Rabbi Ilan Feldman, Lewis and Joel Alpert are behind the guerrilla marketing campaign for the free services. You can follow the Minions’ minyans exploits at www.facebook.com/HighHolidayMinyans. ■
Remember When 10 Years Ago Aug. 26, 2005
■ The 90th anniversary of the lynching of Leo Frank was commemorated with a ceremony that celebrated the changes in Cobb County while remembering the injustices done to Frank. A crowd gathered by the Anti-Defamation League and area rabbis near the site of the 1915 hanging included descendants of Frank’s defenders and his lynchers. ■ Herman and Nina Fishman of Atlanta, married June 15, 1950, in Tulsa, Okla., celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary with a river cruise in Eastern Europe. 25 Years Ago Aug. 31, 1990 ■ Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait not only has sparked an international crisis that has resulted in U.S. troops being sent to the Middle East, but also has put Jewish organizations in the awkward position of having to answer charges that Saddam Hussein is standing up to Israel on behalf of all Arabs. The Atlanta Jewish Federation has avoided issuing a position on the Persian Gulf crisis. ■ Jennifer and Harvey Rickles of Atlanta announce the birth of a daughter, Julia Sarah, on July 9. Rabbi Arnold Goodman officiated at the naming ceremony. 50 Years Ago Aug. 27, 1965 ■ Some of the most successful Tau Epsilon Phi alumni in the world will be in Atlanta for the fraternity’s national convention Sept. 1 to 4 at the Americana. Those expected to attend include Herbie Flam, a former member of the U.S. Davis Cup team; Arnold “Red” Auerbach, coach of the Boston Celtics; and Benny Goodman, “Mr. Clarinet.” Atlantan Mendel Romm Jr. will be installed as national president. ■ Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wisebram of Barnesville cordially invite their relatives and friends to attend the bar mitzvah of their son, Steven, at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 29, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue.
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LOCAL NEWS
A Medical Pioneer Among Us
Jaffe: What does an isolation unit consist of? Ribner: Six hundred twenty-two square feet for two patients, special ventilation, and the ability to care for the sickest patients. Jaffe: Emes (tell the truth). Did you ever feel that you were in harm’s way — of contracting the disease or spreading it to your loved ones? Ribner: Sanjay Gupta asked me the very same thing. I never had fear. I have great faith in our policies and procedures. Jaffe: Did you ever harbor the notion that Ebola could have become an epidemic in the U.S.?
Jaffe’s Jewish Jive By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com
Jaffe: During the crisis, did you find yourself working under extreme pressure? Ribner: Yes, it was very laborintensive. We worked around the clock caring for four patients. Remember, it was an intensive-care setting. Jaffe: What do you think is your main contribution? Ribner: Our mission was to educate the public with the confidence that we could clearly handle the situation. We also owed it to healthcare workers to add to our knowledge about this disease. We at Emory set the national example. Jaffe: You’ve been a physician for four decades, and now you’re Time magazine’s Person of the Year. How do you prepare yourself for all the publicity? Does your family tease you about getting a big head? Ribner: Well, I never anticipated this international spotlight. My family is proud. My granddaughter (while researching Ebola in the school library) was overheard bragging to her classmates that she had a famous grandfather. Actually, we handled the press fairly well. One of our patients came and left before the press knew a month later. We treated three patients from West Africa with high-risk exposures that the press never knew about. Total secret until now. Patient confidentiality is tops. Jaffe: So where are we now with Ebola? Ribner: The American public has a short memory. People abroad are still suffering, and we are still observing. The vaccine used in Sierra Leone is promising. Two agents we tried here showed no benefit. One patient was
given a different experimental agent after a highrisk exposure and never got sick. We are learning a great deal.
Ribner: I just came back from Banff, Canada, giving a lecture, then staying over to hike the glaciers with my wife. My hobby is woodworking; I recently made a grandfather clock.
Jaffe: Do you come from a medical family? Ribner: Growing up Jaffe: Do you look to in New York City, my dad religion in your work? was a dentist. My older Ribner: As a Jew, my brother is a neurologist. primary mission would My wife was a nurse/ Emory infectious diseases involve saving lives. On a health care administraexpert Bruce Ribner more practical level, we tor, faculty research developed an alternate nurse. I majored in chemprotocol in case we had to cremate istry and knew that I didn’t want to a victim … should Jewish observance end up doing basic science research. come into play. Fortunately, it did not. But we were prepared. Jaffe: Are your sons in medicine? Ribner: They are all successful Jaffe: Giants in medicine. We’ve professionals: one mechanical engiall seen the pride lists of what Jewish neer, one attorney, and one (here in physicians and scientists have contribAtlanta) is CEO of a flooring company. But the star this week is my 18-year-old uted to society: Salk, Einstein, Freud, Jarvik. Now Ribner. grandson graduated from the Weber But I did wash my hands after School and is joining the IDF. exiting the infectious disease hallowed halls at Emory. ■ Jaffe: So what do you do to relax?
Atlanta History Center
filming
John Ford Samuel Fuller George Stevens
from Hollywood to Nuremberg
Through November 20, 2015 Hollywood directors John Ford, George Stevens, and Samuel Fuller created American cinema classics, but their most important contribution to history was their work in the U.S. Armed Forces and Secret Services. An exhibition by the Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, France.
AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Filming
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Jaffe: You have been called the only man truly prepared to deal with something like the Ebola virus. You began the isolation unit and protocol 13 years ago. Did you ever doubt your decade-long course? Ribner: For a while I was compared to Noah building an ark for a storm that was not coming. There is value in a certain high level of insurance. Infectious disease physicians have to really know everyone’s specialties to prepare for the unimaginable.
Ribner: No, I didn’t. It was never a threat to the general public. Our public health infrastructure is too strong. But don’t relax as being out of the woods. Ebola might come back. We have to plan and adjust. In the next three to five years, we might see MERS, avian influenza, SARS or a totally new agent. Nature … throws curve balls.
George Stevens and his crew, France, 1944 © Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA
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ast December as pundits speculated whether ISIS fighters or Ferguson rioters would be Time’s Person of the Year, reason prevailed: Dr. Bruce Ribner and other Ebola health care workers took the honor. Ribner also was selected by Atlanta Magazine in July as the top doc in infectious diseases. He may be the most famous man you have never heard of. Ribner, a product of Princeton University and Harvard Medical School who has a master’s in public health to go with his M.D., serves as the director of the Serious Communicable Disease Unit at Emory University Hospital. He restored calm to the public by executing the 13-year plan of the isolation unit to treat infected health care workers during the 2014-15 outbreak in West Africa. We were glued to the sight of Ribner on the major news channels, and then I saw him opening the ark at Ahavath Achim Synagogue. My son saw Bob Dylan on Yom Kippur at Beth Tefillah. Services are the place to be for more than one reason.
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LOCAL NEWS
Koonins Help JELF Build Winning Brand By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com
The University of Georgia grad also took a humorous jab at Jacobs by referring to Georgia Tech as a “trade school.” ver 315 people gathered Jacobs shot back: “I’ll take that with a Wednesday, Aug. 19, at Mag- grain of salt.” giano’s Buckhead to salute the The Koonins volunteered to match good works of the Jewish Educational the donations made that night, up to Loan Fund with featured speaker Steve $20,000. Koonin, the CEO of the Atlanta Hawks. JELF supporter Dr. Ramie Tritt The first star of the evening was said, “I believe in helping those willing Georgia Tech senior Rivka Jacobs, a to work hard towards building a better JELF recipient majoring in biomolecu- future.” lar chemistry, who emotionally exJELF board President Rob Rickles plained how the interest-free loan has said, “When people get involved with pushed her professionally, personally JELF, it helps take us to the next step in and Jewishly. community visibility — and more stuJacobs’ mother, a labor and deliv- dents in need can be helped.” ery nurse, was JELF Vice asked to adopt President Stan her literally at Lowenstein nother birth. Pared that JELF ofents Rachel and fers “final dollar” Gary Jacobs relloans to Jewish ished the opporstudents from tunity to raise Georgia, Florida, her but already North Carolina, had college-age South Carolina children, depletand Virginia and ing the family’s has a 99 percent ability to pay repayment rate. college tuition JELF has when Rivka’s been led for turn came. just over a year Introduced by Executive by his vivacious Director Jenna wife and JELF acShulman, who tivist, Eydie, Koohad been with nin took center another educastage and shared tional organizahis work experition, the Atlanta ence with Coke office of ORT and TNT/Turner America, for Broadcasting, nearly a decade. leading to his She is one of leadership role the 25 nonprofit with the Hawks. innovators recTop: Steve and Eydie Koonin flank JELF “Building a ognized this recipient Rivka Jacobs, a Georgia Tech senior winning brand” summer by the who told her story at the JELF event Aug. 19. encompassed Atlanta Jewish Bottom: Joanne Birnbrey (left) and Dawn Koonin’s vision Times. Tresh served as co-chairs of the JELF event. for the Hawks Through after he handled JELF, the Jewthe crises involving racial comments ish community is stepping up to help by one of the former owners and the those with a true financial need. While general manager. JELF lent out $800,000 this year, the Under the new ownership group organization fell $200,000 short of its led by Tony Ressler, Koonin wants the applicants’ needs. Hawks to “excite and unite” while he JELF supporters and community brings in a more diverse, loyal custom- members like Eydie Koonin participate er base, primarily in the 18-to-44 age in JELF’s loan review process, held at range. multiple times throughout the year, to Koonin challenged the audience make the difficult decisions about how 8 to connect with the hometown Hawks. to allocate the loan funds. ■
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
O
AJT
Group Connects Women With a Unifying Spirit Speaker kicks off JWCA’s second year By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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guest speaker involved in taking Jewish mothers on spiritual trips around Israel will help the Jewish Women’s Connection of Atlanta kick off its second year of reaching out to and educating women. Canadian television personality Adrienne Gold, one of the trip leaders for Lori Palatnik’s Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project, will speak to an expected crowd of 120 women at a Sandy Springs home Sunday, Aug. 30. JWRP is like a Birthright Israel organization for Jewish mothers. Women who have children under age 18 at home and haven’t been to Israel as adults are eligible to take 10-day trips with other women from their home city. Women must pay their own airfare, but the travel within Israel is free. Three of the women on the first JWRP trip from Atlanta about six years ago, Helen Zalik, Karen Kaplan and Bev Lewyn, are the organizing force behind JWCA, which aims to bring the spirit of that Israel trip home to Atlanta. “We just loved what we had experienced. We wanted to give that inspiration, that connection, to more people,” said Lewyn, who serves as co-president of JWCA with Zalik while Kaplan leads the group’s communications. JWRP works with the Atlanta Scholars Kollel, and for a time the kollel was able to support the efforts of Atlanta trip alumnae to remain connected and reach more women. But what Zalik calls a “sisterhood without walls” and a “spiritual JCC” outgrew the kollel and its women’s group, Bena. Bena head Julie Silverman said her wing of the kollel focuses on in-reach, providing learning opportunities at the Congregation Beth Jacob and Congregation Ariel campuses for women who have a solid base of Jewish knowledge. JWCA, which also is a kollel project, is about outreach; it’s an entry point for Jewish women of all backgrounds to learn and be inspired. “I think the main thing is just we know what being deeply inspired feels like,” Lewyn said. “It really is coming from a sense of love and wanting to share that spirit with others.” The group connects women from all streams of Judaism, including the unaffiliated. JWCA’s focus on spiritual
meaning sets it apart from other crossdenominational groups, Lewyn said. “We want to bring back the power of the Jewish woman and the ability to be powerful and unified,” said Kaplan, who envisions a time when Jews again fill the roles that feel right without applying divisive labels such as Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. “There is a thread among us, a neshama that’s burning bright,” she said. “We have to do good in the world, have to be connected and unified.” Zalik said the idea behind the group is that if you inspire the mothers, you change the families. She’s an example: That first JWRP trip changed the Soviet native from a skeptic about the Jewish community to someone who sends her daughters to the Epstein School, serves on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, and is devoted to the idea of Jewish unity. JWCA takes a three-prong approach to build that unity: education that inspires women and provides practical knowledge; experiences that are social and spiritual; and encouragement to take the JWRP trip, although typically only 50 women a year can go (the next one is Oct. 19 to 28). “Change the woman, change her home, change the community, change the world,” Kaplan said of the process. “Come join us for an afternoon of inspiration and feel the power of the Jewish woman.” JWCA holds an event each month, Zalik said, with a large event — an out-of-town speaker such as Gold or a Shabbaton — every six months. “We hope they take away many things,” from spiritual growth and a connected feeling to an increase in their number of Jewish friends, Zalik said. “We want them armed with a strong Jewish identity and inspired to live a Jewish life.” ■ Who: Adrienne Gold What: Jewish Women’s Connection of Atlanta kickoff Where: 4889 Northland Drive, Sandy Springs When: 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30 Cost: Suggested $10 donation; RSVP to jwcrsvp@gmail.com to secure one of the 120 spaces Information: www.facebook.com/ JWCAtlanta
www.atlantajewishtimes.com
ISRAEL NEWS
Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home
Tumor removed from womb of pregnant woman. Doctors at Rabin Medical Center also have succeeded in removing a 7-inch-long tumor from a woman’s womb in the middle of her pregnancy without harming her or the baby. Danielle Skald later had a normal delivery of a boy. Bacterium or virus? MeMed, based in Carmel, has discovered a protein in blood called TRAIL that dramatically increases during a viral infection but decreases in response to a bacterial infection. MeMed has developed proprietary algorithms and a blood test called ImmunoXpert that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in Europe alone by detecting whether an infection is viral or bacterial. Medical aid for Taipei burn victims. Israel is donating two skin graft meshers, worth more than $10,000 each, to hospitals in Taiwan after 498 people were injured (202 in need of skin grafts) in a water park explosion in Taipei. Israeli hospital treats Hamas officer. Nayef Rajoub, a senior member of Hamas and the brother of senior Palestinian Authority figure Jibril Rajoub,
Rare baby sand cats. Rotem, a sand cat at the Ramat Gan Safari, has given birth to three kittens. The sand cat is the only species of cat that is able to survive in total deserts, but it now exists mostly in captivity.
is recuperating in a private hospital in Tel Aviv, apparently after spine surgery.
rithm to guide drivers to streets where spaces are more likely to be available.
World-class universities. Six of Israel’s eight universities are in the top 500 of the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was ranked 67th, and the Technion in Haifa was No. 77.
Israeli wind farms in Ireland. Enlight Renewable Energy, part of Israel’s Eurocom Group, has closed a $28 million deal to build Ireland a 14-megawatt wind farm, with more planned. Ireland wants 40 percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2020.
Israel promotes science in Ghana. Israel has flown two female science students from Ghana to the World Science Conference in Israel. Lilian Abrafi Yeboah and Nana Esi Nyarko were given free trips to join 400 young science masterminds from over 70 countries, as well as 15 Nobel laureates.
Israel’s largest indoor market. The 93,000-square-foot Sarona Market has opened across from the Azrieli towers in the heart of Tel Aviv. The market offers 89 businesses and anticipates up to 15,000 visitors per day.
Exercise to earn computer play. Israeli Eylon Porat has built an accessory for his daughter’s computer. It involves an exercise bike that she has to pedal to unlock games on the computer for a certain period. When she run out of credits, the computer locks again until she pedals enough credits to unlock it.
Clean, Clear Water
Diesel-free Haifa. For the first time in Israel, a Clean Air Zone will be enacted, banning diesel-powered vehicles from areas of Haifa, as part of a five-year plan to reduce air pollution and environmental hazards around Haifa Bay. Polly can park your car. Tens of thousands of Israelis have used the Israelideveloped app Polly to park their cars in Tel Aviv. It is being expanded to Jerusalem. Polly uses GPS, crowdsourcing, municipal information and an algo-
Torahs for fallen Israelis. Tens of thousands of Israelis crowded into the Kotel Plaza to dedicate 75 new Torahs, one for each Israeli who died in last summer’s Operation Protective Edge. The event typifies Israelis’ resilient response to tragedy. Compiled courtesy of verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com and other news sources.
Israel Photo of the Week
Many years of drought in Israel, coupled with an increased demand from the rapidly growing population, drained the country’s limited natural water resources, but Jewish National Fund (www.jnf.org) has worked the past three decades to alleviate Israel’s chronic water shortage, primarily through the construction of recycled-water reservoirs that have increased the water supply by 12 percent. In addition to helping build more than 200 reservoirs, JNF established the Parsons Water Fund to expand on this vital work and deal with the threat of future water challenges.
High Holiday Services: minyans go back in time minyans go back in time — y’know, God…creation of the world… groups of Jews praying together. But that’s the big picture. Let’s just start at the beginning…of this New Year! Join us for minyans -- an untraditional approach to our High Holiday tradition. Interactive, with fewer prayers, more perspective. Inspiring stories, Q&A session, & more.
minyans is free. (Contributions? Sure!) Then join us for lunch (optional) -- chill and celebrate Rosh Hashanah with hosts in the hood. Ba-na-nas? Longshot. Apples? Dipped in honey…yes, please. AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Surviving an amniotic embolism. In a medical first, a 43-year-old woman who was declared clinically dead after suffering an amniotic embolism during a Caesarean section has woken up. Doctors at Petah Tikva’s Rabin Medical Center removed a massive blood clot from her lungs with new technology. Her new daughter is also doing well.
PLEASE
minyans Hotline: 404.633.0551 Beth Jacob Atlanta 1855 LaVista Rd.
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OPINION
Our View
Carter’s Cancer
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Former President Jimmy Carter has generally been treated like a secular saint — the grandfather of Habitat for Humanity, the eradicator of the Guinea worm, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — since announcing he has melanoma that has spread to his liver and brain, but not so in the Jewish community. Some people have expressed mixed emotions, unable to offer good wishes to a man seen as hostile to Israel; others have suggested his illness is justice. We find such sentiments upsetting, especially as we near the season of seeking and granting forgiveness. It’s no secret we are not Carter fans. The Southern Israelite didn’t celebrate when he became the only Georgian to win the presidency in 1976. The Atlanta Jewish Times dogged Carter for a year with critical coverage of his 2006 book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” and its aftermath. Our editor in April called the former president a parasite. We didn’t appreciate that in his cancer press conference Thursday, Aug. 20, Carter again blamed Israel for the lack of a peace settlement with the Palestinians when he said: “The government of Israel has no desire for a two-state solution, which is the policy of every other nation in the world.” Regardless of whether the Israeli government’s stated support for a two-state solution is genuine, many nations do not make such a solution their policy because they do not accept Israel’s existence. One of those, Iran, has been in the news a lot lately. But as wrong as Carter is about Israel, we should never forget the good things he has done for the Jewish community. He was the right man at the right time in 1978 to shepherd Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin to the Camp David Accords, which removed the most powerful Arab nation as a threat to Israel’s existence. One key was that Carter earned Sadat’s trust by treating him as an equal. Carter in 1978 created the commission that recommended the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and signed off on the project in 1980. Both the peace treaty and the museum happened in part through the efforts of Robert Lipshutz, the Jewish lawyer Carter took from Atlanta to Washington to be his White House counsel. Another Jewish lawyer Carter took to Washington was Stuart Eizenstat, whose four years working on domestic policy for Carter launched him into national prominence. If not for that start, Eizenstat might never have been in a position to win billions of dollars in restitution for Holocaust victims. We also owe Carter for recognizing the talent of Emory professor Ken Stein, the first director of the Carter Center. We’ll never know, of course, but there’s a chance Stein’s knowledge and ability would not have been enough to establish the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel without the public profile gained from his long relationship with Carter. ISMI plays a vital role in teaching educators about Israel so that students in Georgia and elsewhere learn the truth. Jimmy Carter is not a saint. He is a man, and he has many flaws. We have reason not to love him, but we ought to respect him now and remember him al10 ways for his many gifts. ■
AJT
Accept That the Deal Is Done
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leases and poll numbers and pronouncements from he issue everyone is talking about these days is the Iran deal. People keep asking me why we Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. As editor, I chose not to go that way. aren’t writing more about it. The deal is done. Whether it’s good or bad Supporters of the deal are eager for pro-deal became irrelevant before the text was even released opinions to balance out the published criticism. Nevwhen Obama vowed to veto any anti-deal action. er mind that no one has submitted such a column. Congress is likely Proponents also point to to vote against the reports out of Israel about some deal, but Congress national security and intelligence is not overriding a officials expressing support for Editor’s Notebook presidential veto. the deal — often actually opposBy Michael Jacobs I wish the ing Netanyahu’s position. mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com United States had But we’ve seen only antikept the Iranians deal speakers at local events, talking for another and the only local congressman year and let the sanctions work their magic; maybe who talked to us during a trip to Israel criticized the Iran would have agreed to limits that put it 25 years agreement, as did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanaway from a nuclear arsenal instead of 10 to 15 years. yahu during a U.S. webcast. So most of the limited But Iran was never giving up its nuclear program. news we have published has been anti-deal. We shouldn’t have ended the ballistic missile Still, opponents wonder why we haven’t relentlessly attacked the deal and covered every disturbing embargo under the agreement, especially if we had to leave out Iran’s support of terrorists and holding nuance and every Iranian call for the destruction of of American hostages on the theory that the negotiaIsrael or the United States. And why did we report tions were only about the nuclear program. on a small number of rabbis backing the deal inBut the Jewish community should be focusing stead of all the others opposing it? energy on what happens after the deal goes into efThe answer to both sides is the same. fect instead of spending millions of dollars to save or Our forte is not international diplomacy and defeat it. Just think of all the good $10 to $40 million security. The same is true for every other source for could do if invested in development projects in the local news, from the Sandy Springs Reporter to the Negev or the Galilee instead of D.C. politics. Atlanta Journal-Constitution to local TV newscasts. By the same token, I think our limited news None of us has a reporter assigned to the State space has been and will continue to be better spent Department, CIA, IAEA, Mossad or any Middle East on local stories we report than on secondhand capital. The AJT has contact with analysts, experts stories about the struggle to pass or block the deal. and well-traveled laypeople who can offer informed We welcome opinion pieces on any aspect of the deal opinions, but those opinions usually aren’t news. or what comes after, but as the congressional votes We could stray from our core mission of covernear, we’ll use the improved atlantajewishtimes. ing the local Jewish community and, in the interest of our secondary focus on Israel, set aside space each com to keep you up to date while we concentrate our reporting on the newspaper here at home. ■ week for the deal. We could have compiled press re-
Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Annual Lecture at Ahavath Achim Synagogue presents
Vice President
Joe Biden
Thursday | September 3 7:30 p.m.
“Challenges Facing the U.S. and the World in the 21st Century”
Open to the public. Tickets and reservations not required. RSVP requested: info@aasynagogue.org No parking onsite. Parking with shuttle service available at multiple loctions. Check our website. Uber or other alternative transportation recommended. Ahavath Achim Synagogue | 600 Peachtree Battle Ave. NW | Atlanta, GA 30327 404.355.5222 | aasynagogue.org
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
A free public lecture drawing on Vice President Joe Biden’s experiences at the center of domestic and foreign policy and politics.
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Young Adult Tickets
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OPINION
The Boys and Girls of Summer
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ur youngest is now a couple of weeks into his junior year in high school. His month began in Dallas, playing soccer in 102-degree heat, representing Team Atlanta at the JCC Maccabi Games. The past four years, the JCC games have been his final summer activity before school resumed. This year was his last, as he has completed his eligibility (ages 13-16). Our daughter and two sons played soccer at JCC games in Houston, San Diego, Austin, Memphis, Boca Raton and Dallas. This year, Atlanta sent 90 teenagers to Dallas and 22 to Milwaukee, winning numerous medals and plaudits for their sportsmanship. Through the JCC games we learned about Maccabi USA, which sent our older son to play in international competitions in Israel, Argentina and Brazil. At the JCC games, our children competed against and socialized with Jewish teens from throughout the United States and from other countries.
We sent them because in their daily lives being Jewish is a minority religion and culture. We sent them because we felt it was an opportunity worth the financial cost. We thank the host families who drove them, fed them, entertained them, cheered for them and even did
From Where I Sit By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com
their laundry. We thank the coaches and delegation heads who acted in loco parentis, making sure that Atlanta was represented well during and outside competition. Looking back several years, we thank Jack Vangrofsky, Howie Rosenberg, Kenny Silverboard, Art Seiden, Stacie Graff, Libby Hertz, Mike Wolff, Robert Meyer, Roey Shoshan and Anthony Katzef. Turning to another Jewish athletic endeavor, our softball team ended
its season in the men’s congregation league on something of a high note. We play in the C division, the lowest, against teams representing larger congregations and on average fielding younger players. (See the C division championship results, Page 16.) We may remember ourselves as the boys of summer, but more than a few of us can see autumn on the horizon. Spectators are few: the occasional wife or girlfriend offering moral support or the child who sits in the dugout asking, “When will this be over?” The banter between opposing players is friendly enough (sympathy for muscle strains), though nerves can fray when playing a doubleheader in 90-degree heat. If we get through a game with no one pulling (as opposed to just tweaking) a hamstring, even a loss is considered a success. More players turned up for a bar mitzvah aliyah than most of our games. We are the only team without uniforms or identifying shirts. Our first baseman wears a jersey bearing the number 1 and “Who” on the back (for those who get the joke).
Our pitcher and manager, whose knowledge of the strike zone and the rulebook is nonpareil, is a member of the Hall of Fame of the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance. My skills have declined steadily since a college intramural championship victory against the faculty team back in the era of vinyl, cassettes and eight-track tapes. I have moved from playing second base to right field, where picking up the flight of the ball while wearing progressive lenses can be a challenge (and forget about hitting the cutoff man). In baseball parlance, if I once was good field, I remain no hit. This year we won our first playoff game. I will not name the temple whose team we defeated in a come-from-behind victory, only to be eliminated ourselves in a slaughterrule defeat by another congregation in the next game. There’s always next year, but, guys, we have got to recruit some younger players. ■ Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Ramifications of the Ashley Madison Data Breach
D
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
ivorce lawyers everywhere are already familiar with the website Ashley Madison because membership on it is almost sufficient proof of an affair by a spouse. Belonging to this dating site for married people — whose slogan is “Life is short, have an affair” — is usually enough to convince a judge, a mediator or your spouse that someone is cheating. Perhaps more important, divorce lawyers and therapists are acutely aware that the simple desire to cheat is even more offensive to a spouse than the actual act of cheating. Prior to the Ashley Madison data breach, lawyers and clients have engaged private investigators, forensic computer analysts and others to see whether spouses belonged to the site or had used its services. This breach may make it easier to learn who used it and who didn’t. But unfortunately, what this news may do is give Ashley Madison more public12 ity than it has ever had. Certainly the
AJT
site’s operators are not concerned that they are perceived as promoting adultery. In fact, they want the word to be spread and for people to use their site to help commit adultery.
Guest Column By Randy Kessler rkessler@ksfamilylaw.com
Anyone who uses the site must certainly realize that there are risks of being caught. What if the person you end up meeting on the site is someone you already know or someone who knows your spouse? Or what if your spouse sees the site on your computer one day by accident? As a divorce lawyer for over 25 years, I do not think this data breach will cause more divorce. Yes, that’s what I wrote. Those people who use Ashley Madison to have an affair and who
were already headed toward divorce may get there faster now that their secret is out. But this hack or breach may actually have the effect of causing people to hesitate when using such a service. There are apparently nearly 40 million users on Ashley Madison. There is no way that we will now see 40 million divorces. And the bottom line is that affairs more often truly are the side effect of a bad marriage. Once someone elects to have an affair, the marriage is often in very serious trouble if not already irretrievably broken. Yes, more people will be caught, but perhaps that will actually save some marriages. Forcing the issue, making people address what they have done, can often lead to reconciliation. The alternative is for the conduct to last so long that the parties become apathetic toward each other. What this breach may do is to force legislatures to look more closely at this site. Perhaps laws will be generated that prohibit sites like Ashley Madison.
Will the public rise up and demand that sites that promote infidelity (which is still a crime in some states) be prohibited? Who knows? But as with all social issues, sunlight remains the best disinfectant, and this data breach shed a lot of sunlight onto a lot of people’s activities. Maybe it will help. Maybe people will think more before they engage in relationships like those promoted or condoned by Ashley Madison. As for divorce lawyers, we certainly will now have an easier time proving someone had an affair, and that should save clients a lot of money they might have otherwise spent on private investigators. But other than that, human nature is human nature. Spouses will continue to cheat on each other, and they will continue to get caught. ■ Randy Kessler is the founding partner of the family law firm Kessler & Solomiany (www.ksfamilylaw.com) in downtown Atlanta and former chairman of the American Bar Association’s Family Law Section.
OPINION
A friend once told me that every August there’s a Christmas song she can’t get out of her head: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” That’s right, our children are back in school. They’ll ask for help with homework, need to be driven to myriad after-school activities, and need help navigating the complex social issues that come with being a kid. It’s a good time to reflect — and be grateful for — the quality education our children have. Whether in a Jewish day school, a public school, or any of the private schools around Atlanta, we can sometimes take for granted the opportunity our kids have to learn reading, problem solving and the social skills needed to be successful adults. It’s also a time of year I’m reminded of how many children around the world, including in Israel and the United States, don’t have access to a quality education and what that means for their future. That’s why I became involved with ORT. In the world of Jewish nonprofits, ORT is the only one that addresses the educational needs of at-risk children and young adults around the globe, Jews and non-Jews alike. On Aug. 7 you read in the Atlanta Jewish Times about Hodayot, a boarding school in Israel that houses, educates and provides technical training to some of Israel’s most at-risk children. To them, Hodayot is not just their school; it’s their only home. To many, it’s also the only family they have. However, the renovations Hodayot sorely needs to meet the highest educational standards ORT provides could cost $1 million — a daunting amount, but far less than what our community has spent to make Atlanta Jewish Academy, Davis Academy, Epstein and Temima the showplaces they are. If everyone were to earmark a small percentage of annual giving to Hodayot — perhaps 1 to 2 percent — we could accomplish our goal by year’s end. Perhaps more than any other, our community understands the importance and transformative nature of a quality education. So please call the ORT Atlanta office at 404-327-5266 or mail a check with “Hodayot” on it to ORT Atlanta, 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 360, Atlanta, GA 30328, and give what you can. I’ll be making my tax-deductible commitment. I hope you’ll join me. Kerri Katz, Norcross, president, ORT Atlanta
MAYER SMITH ASKS
Not a Blip
Leo Frank’s murder “a blip on the line of history,” as Sherry Frank said (“A Century of Awkward Silence,” Aug. 14)? Really? If this is widely believed, then I guess that the Confederate flag is just a blip, albeit it larger than Leo Frank, on the line of history. We shouldn’t just focus on this flag and what it represents, but we should celebrate the participation of African-Americans in Atlanta in contrast to them being scapegoated, enslaved, murdered, raped. I don’t think this would go over well in the whole community, and I think that not knowing about the Leo Frank case would be a tragedy. Yes, we should celebrate the positive, but it’s important to know the negative and to learn from our mistakes. It’s a tragedy not to know about and learn from all tragedies. Walter Kolesky, Atlanta
Misleading About Rabbis
I found the headline in your online (“Ga. Rabbis Signal Support for Deal,” Aug. 18) and print (“Rabbis Urge Deal’s OK,” Aug. 21) editions to be highly misleading. The first headline implies that most, if not all, of Georgia’s rabbis support the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. The article itself, however, notes that only three Georgia rabbis expressed this support by signing a letter from Ameinu. (One of those three proved not to be a true signatory.) With probably 75 to 100 rabbis in Georgia, three is a trivial sample. Indeed, had the Atlanta Jewish Times wanted to present a picture of the positions of Georgia’s rabbis toward the deal, the newspaper could have easily surveyed all of the rabbis in the state. That only three of the state’s rabbis signed the letter on behalf of Ameinu suggests that this position is an insignificant minority. In the case of the second headline, found in the print edition, the article would have been more meaningful had it focused on the 340 signatories nationally who signed the Ameinu letter. The article then might have provided some balance to the articles regarding Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s and Federation’s opposition to the Iran deal. Rather than the article leading with the three Georgia rabbis who signed the letter, that paragraph should have come last. Steven Chervin, Dunwoody
How many of these questions can you answer properly?
1.
What 2 important words are missing in almost all beneficiary designations in life insurance applications?
2. Can a life insurance company pay benefits to a minor? 3. Which is most likely to happen before age 65 ... death or disability? 4. When/how should an insured person want the death benefit to be paid? Lump sum? or, according to a plan? 5. What percentage of term insurance policies pay off as death benefits? 6. What do most people really do with the “difference” when buying term insurance to invest the difference? 7. What happens to a deceased child’s share when an insured dies? 8. What are the benefits of a “Living Trust”? 9. How can one pass an entire tax deferred fund to heirs “tax free” and still enjoy an income from the fund? 10. Is there a better way to “invest” the unmatched portion of a 401-k? 11. Will you have enough at retirement to assure a decent lifestyle? Are you satisfied with your answer to number 11? If not, we can help you feel more satisfied.
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AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Letters to the Editor Support for ORT
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LOCAL NEWS
Kennesaw Chabad Celebrates Growth With Torah
By Anna Streetman
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here are 304,805 letters in a Torah scroll. When the first and last letter are put together, they spell the Hebrew word for heart. On Sunday, Aug. 23, the Chabad Jewish Center in Kennesaw gained a new Torah and a new heart for the community. Until the new Torah arrived, Chabad had used a borrowed Torah. The sofer (scribe) for the project, Rabbi Moshe Klein, flew in from New York to complete the scroll with assistance from congregation members. His landing was delayed by bad weather as storms moved through that morning, but the wait didn’t stop Chabad from celebrating. Jews of all ages paraded down Shiloh Road with Chabad’s borrowed Torah. Children danced and waved celebratory flags as music blasted from a truck in front. Rabbi Klein also arrived to rain, though not thunderstorms, when he visited Cobb County five months earlier to complete a Torah for the Chabad center in East Cobb. Adam Brodofsky donated half the
Philip Goldstein, who $40,000 cost of the West has served on the MariCobb Torah. The rest of the etta City Council for more money was raised in about than 35 years, attended a year through the commuthe celebration, where he nity; donations were made read a greeting on behalf to sponsor letters, words, of Republican Sen. Johnny entire books from the Torah, Isakson. the yad for the Torah, and so Goldstein’s famon. ily has lived in Marietta “I grew up around here since 1912. He expressed and always wanted a shul delight at the expansion near me,” Brodofsky said of of Chabad in neighboring his contribution. “I had the Kennesaw and called it “a ability and the opportunity, blessing for the commuso I decided to seize it.” nity.” Special event programs Tim Lee, the chaircontaining swatches of vel- Rabbi Moshe Klein, shown during the March completion of a Torah for man of the Cobb County vet from the Torah’s mantle Chabad of Cobb, leads a team of seven sofrim (scribes) at eSofer.com. Board of Commissioners, were presented to guests as gifts; it is an ancient custom to pur- spiritual leader, Rabbi Zalman Chary- also attended the Torah celebration. In chase a piece of the material used to tan, and his wife, Nechami, also run the his speech, he voiced strong support for make the mantle of a new Torah for Chabad program at Kennesaw State Israel, saying: “As for Tim lee, he stands protection and blessing. University. Their program involves with you folks very strongly, arm in Rabbi Ephraim Silverman, who weekly Shabbat dinners and other edu- arm. I am with you 100 percent, not behind you, but in front with you.” leads Chabad of Cobb in East Cobb, cational and social Jewish events. Lee concluded: “The Torah has said of the West Cobb community: “I Chabad at Kennesaw State also never would have imagined this type gives back to the community through changed the world and changed Westof growth in the Kennesaw Jewish com- service projects such as preparing ern civilization with its values of jusmunity. It’s an amazing thing.” Shabbat care packages for Jewish pa- tice, morality, life and the promise of a The West Cobb Chabad center’s tients at WellStar Kennestone Hospital. better tomorrow.” ■
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LOCAL NEWS
Chabad Opening Student Center for Ga. State, Tech
J
ewish students at Georgia Tech and Georgia State now have a nice Jewish place to hang out. The Rohr Chabad House at 471 10th St. in Midtown will officially celebrate its opening Sunday, Aug. 30, starting at noon. “We’re doing an open-house kind of event,” Rabbi Shlomo Sharfstein, the co-director of Chabad of Downtown Universities, said in a phone interview. “We’ve invited parents of students and alumni to come and participate and celebrate the fact there’s now a permanent Jewish space that serves both the Georgia Tech and Georgia State campuses. It’s technically on the campus of Tech, but we serve both.” Rabbi Sharfstein’s co-director is his wife, Shifra. The couple moved to Atlanta from New York four years ago with the goal of creating this space, but it took a while to come to fruition. They started out using a small house several blocks away, and their first event attracted only a handful of students. “Now we’ve done a Shabbat dinner at the new location, even though we’re not officially open yet, and we had close to 70 people,” Rabbi Sharfstein said. “I was told that last year Georgia Tech had the largest freshman class it has ever had. And from personal experience, it’s also the largest Jewish freshman class ever,” he said. “It’s constantly growing. There are somewhere between 500 and 1,000 Jewish students (at Georgia Tech) and probably a similar number at Georgia State as well, so that’s somewhere between 1,550 and 2,000 out of a total student body of 50,000.” A statement from Chabad in New York said the center acts as “a homeaway-from-home, providing educational, social, spiritual and holiday programming for Jewish students.” Spokesman Chaim Landa said Chabad aims for students to graduate as stronger and more empowered Jews than when they entered college. A grant from the Rohr Family Foundation, which has funded hundreds of Chabad centers on campuses, enabled the Sharfsteins to buy the property and launch the project. “It’s been a work in progress,” the rabbi said. “It actually took about two years. It’s a completely refurbished building. They literally transformed it into something really beautiful.” He added that a lot of students’
parents got involved to make the Chabad center happen, contributing time, money and ideas. The 10th Street building is a vast improvement over the old location, where some visitors had to meet outside on the front porch because there wasn’t room for everyone inside the tiny structure. “Now they have a nice, home-cooked meal with a fairly Jewish atmosphere,” Rabbi Sharfstein said. “That’s very comforting for students.” In the new house, the main activities will take place in a ground-floor area. The building also includes a large kosher kitchen and master dining room, a living room, a library, and a
lounge. “For the Jewish community it’s a real sense of pride; we really exist,” Shifra Sharfstein said. “Now we have a legitimate place on campus, a place where we can go and feel proud to be Jewish. That’s not an outwardly spoken thing on campus. They come here and say, ‘This is where I belong,’ so it must be a cool place to be.” She added: “They’re making friends too. Dates are happening.” ■
Rabbi Shlomo Sharfstein and his wife, Shifra, shown with their children, finally have a Chabad house on campus to serve Georgia Tech and Georgia State.
Ronnie Minsk
AJA Class of 1983 New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, BS, 1987 Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, MPP, 1989 University of Pennsylvania School of Law, JD, 1996 Special Assistant to the President of the United States for Energy and Environment
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
By Kevin Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com
AJT 15
www.atlantajewishtimes.com
LOCAL NEWS
Local Briefs
Neuman Can’t Afford Lawyers The legal team that won Hemy Neuman a new murder trial won’t represent him when he is prosecuted a second time for fatally shooting fellow Jewish community member Rusty Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody preschool in November 2010. In a court appearance Thursday, Aug. 20, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, Neuman told DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams that he no longer can afford attorneys Bob Rubin and Doug Peters after more than four years out of work, a criminal trial and appeals that went to the Georgia Supreme Court. Neuman will get public defenders. His retrial has not been scheduled. Neuman admitted killing Sneider man but blamed temporary insanity caused by a romantic relationship he said he had with Sneiderman’s wife, Andrea, who worked for him at GE Energy. His murder trial found him guilty but mentally ill and sentenced him to life in prison. Sneiderman, later convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, denies having an affair with Neuman. The state Supreme Court over-
turned Neuman’s conviction in June on the grounds that the prosecution’s use of reports from defense experts violated attorney-client privilege. End Nears for Brickery The Brickery Grill & Bar is closing in December, the Sandy Springs restaurant announced by email and on Facebook on Monday, Aug. 24. The Jewish-owned restaurant has long been a community gathering place. But its shopping center at Roswell and Hilderbrand roads is being replaced by a multiuse development in Sandy Springs’ downtown overhaul, and the nearly 24-year-old restaurant has to vacate by late December. Owners Bruce and Sally Alterman decided to close instead of moving. “Time to celebrate what has been a great run,” the restaurant said on Facebook. “We couldn’t be more appreciative of you and your amazing support over so many years!” The exact closing date hasn’t been determined, although Bruce Alterman told the Sandy Springs Reporter he’ll stay open until Christmas if possible. Deal Doubtful on Frank Case The events marking the Aug. 17 centennial of Leo Frank’s lynching repeat-
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AJT 16
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edly raised the idea of exoneration for the Jewish factory superintendent convicted in 1913 of the murder of Mary Phagan, but Gov. Nathan Deal has put a damper on those hopes. Deal told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the day after the centennial that the case has run its course, and he’s not comfortable with some of the anti-death-penalty rhetoric linked with the Frank case. Frank’s trial was tainted by procedural errors and public pressure on the jury to find him guilty. The chief witness against Frank, Jim Conley, likely was the real killer, and the evidence against Frank was shaky enough for Gov. John Slaton to commute his death penalty to life in prison in 1915. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles pardoned Frank in 1986 because of the failure to provide him due process and protect him from the lynch mob that dragged him out of prison in Milledgeville and hanged him in Marietta less than two months after Slaton’s commutation. But that pardon did not declare Frank innocent. Deal said he will discuss the Frank case with Attorney General Sam Olens, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in Georgia history. Olens has not offered a public opinion on a Frank exoneration, but he did attend several of the Frank centennial events. JNF Photo Contest Open Jewish National Fund is accepting entries for its second annual Israel Photo Contest, which is open to all Georgia residents. Each entry earns a 5-by-7-inch, professionally printed photograph and consideration for publication as the Atlanta Jewish Times’ Israel Photo of the Week, as well as inclusion in other newspapers in Georgia and Israel. The grand prize is a 24-by-36-inch canvas photo print, valued at more than $200. Entries must be emailed as attachments at the highest resolution available to photocontest@jnf.org by Oct. 9. Use “JNF Israel Photo Contest” in the subject line and include your name, address and phone number. You may enter up to four times. “We are excited to offer our community a means to share their passion for Israel through the creative outlet of photography,” JNF Southeast Regional Director Beth Gluck said. “Israel is a mosaic of cultures, environments, historic sites and modern miracles. The camera captures all of these images in a second and creates impressions and memories lasting a lifetime.” In addition to the AJT, JNF’s part-
ners in the contest are Chuck Wolf’s Photo Design Bar, The Jewish Georgian, the Israeli Consulate and the Israeli Tourism Ministry. Winners will be announced Nov. 1. For more information, contact Gluck at bgluck@jnf.org or 404-2368990, ext. 851. Or Hadash Wins Softball C Division Avenging a semifinal defeat, Congregation Or Hadash defeated Temple Kol Emeth twice, 9-2 and 13-7, to win the Atlanta Men’s Synagogue Softball League C division title Sunday, Aug. 23. On Aug. 30, the rescheduled B division final will pit Congregation Ariel and Young Israel of Toco Hills, and eight-time defending champion Congregation B’nai Torah will play Congregation Or VeShalom in the A final. Catch both championship games at East Roswell Park, 9000 Fouts Road, Roswell, beginning at 3:15 p.m. Women’s Fund Starts Grant Cycle The Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta has issued its request for proposals for the grants it will issue in 2016 to benefit girls and women and is accepting letters of inquiry from nonprofit organizations and programs that further the fund’s mission and core values. The full grant application is available at www.jewishatlanta.org/ jwfa2016. To encourage innovation, the Jewish Women’s Fund has special funding for pilot programs in Atlanta. Letters of inquiry are due Dec. 1 to Executive Director Rachel Wasserman at rwasserman@jewishatlanta.org. Hawks Hire Saltzman The Atlanta Hawks’ front office took another step toward a minyan Tuesday, Aug. 4, with the hiring of Andrew Saltzman as executive vice president and chief revenue officer. Saltzman is best known in Atlanta as co-founder with Steak Shapiro of sports talk station 790 the Zone, which he oversaw as president of Big League Broadcasting from 1997 to 2012. He most recently was the chief revenue officer for PlayOn! Sports and the NFHS Network, a national high school sports media company. Making room for Saltzman is Andrew Steinberg, who moves from chief revenue officer to executive vice president and chief business officer, a new position that includes facility oversight. Both men answer to the Hawks’ Jewish CEO, Steve Koonin, and an ownership group that is led by Tony Ressler and includes Sara Blakely and Jesse Itzler.
LOCAL NEWS
Town Hall Educates More Than Debates
5 policy resolutions win support By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
festival asked Matisyahu, who is American, not Israeli, to make certain pro-Palestinian political statements he Jewish Community Relations to appease protesters who threatened Council of Atlanta endorsed five a boycott. When the singer refused, national resolutions during a the festival disinvited him, only to intown-hall meeting Tuesday night, Aug. vite him back after a public uproar. 18, but the discussions Matisyahu performed behind the issues were Saturday, Aug. 22, in at least as important as the face of Palestinian the votes. flags. About 40 people Ghitis said a maattended the meeting jor problem is that at Congregation B’nai European politicians Torah on the five resohave nothing to gain lutions, addressing anand much to lose from ti-Semitism in Europe fighting anti-Semitism. and college campuses, The next resoluchanges to laws on tion aims to change marijuana, early childmarijuana possession hood education, manfrom a criminal offense datory paid sick leave with imprisonment to and recognition of the a public health issue. Armenian genocide. Lawyer Jay StrongwaThe resolutions are on ter made the case for the agenda for the Jewa stronger proposal ish Council for Public calling for full decrimiAffairs’ national Jewish nalization, regulation Community Town Hall and taxation. The JCPA in Washington from resolution passed. Oct. 11 to 13. Georgia Early Photos by Michael Jacobs Education Alliance for The first resolution, expressing con- Top: Criminal defense lawyer Jay Ready Students ExecuStrongwater makes the case for cern about rising anti- decriminalization of marijuana. tive Director Mindy Semitism and calling Bottom: Mindy Binderman, the Binderman explained for collaboration with executive director of the Georgia the need for the resoEarly Education Alliance for legislators, agencies lution on affordable, Ready Students, addresses the and interfaith partners high-quality child care need for increased investment to define and condemn and pre-K education. in education for children it, was timely. She said learnfrom birth through age 5. Frida Ghitis, a CNN ing should be seen as contributor who travels to Amsterdam continuous through early childhood every year, shared a common chant rather than starting as day care and among fans of Dutch soccer teams shifting to education at age 3 or 4, but playing Ajax, seen as a Jewish club: “doing it well costs money.” “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas.” The measures on early childhood She also cited two fresh examples and sick leave passed unanimously. of anti-Semitism: the protest of Paris’ The last resolution, calling on the “Tel Aviv on the Seine” beach celebra- United States to use the g-word regardtion and Matisyahu’s lost and regained ing Turkey’s Armenian genocide from invitation to a Spanish reggae festival. 1915 to 1923, was endorsed without conParis was continuing a 14-year tra- troversy but with much sympathy. dition of turning part of the riverfront Georgia is among 44 states that into a foreign beach for a day when Tel recognize the slaughter of 1.5 million Aviv was chosen for Thursday, Aug. people as genocide. 13. But at least one Paris City Council The JCRCA made the resolution member tried to stop the Tel Aviv fes- stronger by adding Hitler’s comment tivities, and anti-Israel protesters chose on the eve of his invasion of Poland in to make a nearby stretch of sand into a 1939 that he could act with impunity Gaza beach covered with corpses. because no one ever spoke of the anniIn Spain, the Rototom SunSplash hilation of the Armenians. ■
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
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AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
LOCAL NEWS
AJT 18
Emanu-El Youth Head Back Where He Started
California Dreamin’ Leads to Kol Emeth
By April Basler abasler@atljewishtimes.com
By April Basler abasler@atljewishtimes.com
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E
“We’re going to have fun, get to know each other and interact on a social level rather than strictly a Sunday ryan Kellert, who grew up at Tem- school classroom setting,” Kellert said ple Emanu-El, became the Sandy in advance of the event. Springs Reform synagogue’s first The high-schoolers in TEFTY crefull-time youth engagement adviser at ate their own programming and set the beginning of July. their own goals on how to run the orgaKellert, 23, nization. graduated from For the colthe University of lege outreach Alabama in Deprogram, Emanucember with a El offers college double major in students a place marketing and to go for the High management. Holidays or simHe lives in Dunply sends a meswoody, and besage or gift to help fore being hired them continue at Emanu-El, he their Jewish conwas the part-time nection after high youth adviser for school. Congregation Dor The 20s and Tamid in Johns 30s group focusCreek. es on engaging Kellert was young adults who involved with are starting caEmanu-El’s NFTY reers and families branch, TEFTY, in so they know they high school, and have a home at now he leads the Emanu-El. Bryan Kellert now leads the youth next generation of Although group of which he was a member. Jewish leaders. new to the posi“This is where tion, Kellert is I grew up. It’s my home youth group. I passionate about his job working with have deep roots here,” Kellert said. “My youths, teens and young adults. connection is here, and I want to help “The thing I like best about my job them thrive.” is the people that I get to work with,” he In his senior year at Dunwoody said. “This isn’t a job where I’m sitting High School, Kellert was TEFTY’s mem- at a desk 24 hours a day.” bership vice president. He said that exKellert has formed relationships perience led him to get involved in the with the youth advisers at other Atlanleadership of Hillel at Alabama and ta-area Reform synagogues. now to be an adult leader for Emanu“In the other synagogues, the other El’s youth. youth advisers are in my friend group,” Because Kellert is the congrega- he said. “The new NFTY advisers for tion’s first full-time youth adviser, the Atlanta area go out to dinner, and Temple Emanu-El is still working on we talk and chat and share our ideas. creating a formal job description for We’re looking to create a community his position. that’s bigger than just the youth groups Kellert oversees four areas of themselves.” youth engagement: Junior TEFTY, What does Kellert hope to accomTEFTY, the college outreach program, plish as Emanu-El’s youth engagement and a group for young adults in their adviser? 20s and 30s. Junior TEFTY is for sixth“I hope to provide opportunities to through eighth-graders and held its the younger generation,” Kellert said. first event on Sunday, Aug. 23. “There’s so much out there.” ■
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Emeth’s religious school principal. “I participated in the program and was really blown away by the students zra Flom, a native of California, and the parents and the community,” is Temple Kol Emeth’s new youth Flom said. “I met people and was really and family programming direc- impressed by the incredible feeling of tor. family that comes from being here.” Now a resident of East Cobb, Flom The youth and family programreplaced Jusming director at tin Blake, who Kol Emeth is removed to Memsponsible for all phis at the beginyouth and famning of July. ily programs for Although children from Flom has lived kindergarten in the Atlanta through high area only a short school. Flom is time, he has alalso the adviser ready had a posifor KEFTY, Kol tive experience Emeth’s NFTY working at a Rechapter. form congregaSeveral uption here. coming youth “It’s been and family proamazing. Atgrams have Flom lanta’s a great excited. The first city,” Flom said. activity is a fam“The people are ily program for wonderful and Sukkot. Ezra Flom usually can be seen wearing his hat. friendly.” “We’re doH a v i n g ing Stone Soup grown up in a in the Sukkah,” he said. “We are bringConservative congregation, Flom was ing the folk tale of stone soup to life involved with USY as a teen. He also here.” was in a Jewish Boy Scout troop. Flom also is looking forward to a Flom earned a bachelor’s degree High Holiday treasure trail for kinderin Spanish culture and literature with gartners through fifth-graders. “We are a philosophy minor at California State creating a life-size game board of the University, Long Beach. He earned a Jewish year and holidays.” master’s degree in education and a So what’s the biggest challenge bachelor’s in rabbinic literature from Flom faces in his new position? American Jewish University in Los An“The most challenging thing about geles. He also attended Hebrew Union this position is seeing so many opporCollege and earned a preliminary Cali- tunities and knowing that I’m just one fornia teaching credential. person,” he said. “That’s the real chalBefore arriving at TKE, Flom creat- lenge, holding back and making sure ed experiences for Jewish learners for that we’re focusing on doing the best over 10 years. His previous positions job that we can. That means limiting include teaching at a Jewish day school the amount of programs.” and being an assistant teacher for a Flom said he has received a lot of sophomore service learning program support from other youth professionat American Jewish University. als and educators in Atlanta. Flom’s first experience with the “I’m really incredibly blessed to be Kol Emeth community was assisting working with so many people who care with a fifth- and sixth-grade retreat. He about Judaism and the Jewish people,” was asked to help by a graduate school he said. “Not just as a group, but as incolleague, Rebecca Tullman, who is Kol dividuals.” ■
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LOCAL NEWS
By April Basler abasler@atljewishtimes.com
about Temple Sinai is that we feel very strongly that nothing is one size fits all in our religious school and youth olly Okun, a graduate of programming. We really strive to have Florida State University, is different options for different types of Temple Sinai’s new director kids.” of youth and teen engagement. Okun oversees Sinai’s five youth Okun, 23, grew up in Tampa, groups, spanning from kindergarten Fla., until she moved to Tallahassee through 12th grade. She is also the to study sociolyouth adviser ogy. Since the for Sinai’s high age of 8, Okun school youth had dreamed of group, SCRUFY, being a Jewish which is a chapsummer camp ter of NFTY. director, and afIn addition, ter college she Okun is responmoved to San sible for the madDiego to work torichim, the teens ward that dream who serve as the as the programreligious school ming associate at assistants. “This Camp Mountain year we have Chai. 48 madrichim, She worked which is aweat the Califorsome. It’s more nia Jewish sumthan we’ve ever mer camp for a had.” year and a half One chalMolly Okun has wanted to work with and discovered lenge Okun has youth since she was a child. she liked camp faced in engagmainly during ing teens and the summer and not as much in the other youths at Temple Sinai is that offseason. she arrived late in the summer, right “I loved camp during camp (ses- when much of the programming was sions), but I really missed the constant about to start, and the High Holidays teen and youth engagement and work- are right around the corner. ing with them during the year,” she “It’s exciting, but it’s definitely said. challenging to get the ball rolling with Okun decided to change jobs be- not that much time to let everything cause she wanted to work with teens happen,” Okun said. and younger children on a regular baShe has plans to implement some sis while still being able to implement new youth programs, such as a Jewish programming, which is one of her pas- cooking class. For fifth- and sixth-grade sions. In early August, Okun moved girls, Temple Sinai is planning a proacross the country to work in Sandy gram to enhance self-confidence and Springs at Temple Sinai. teach them the importance of having As a teen, Okun was involved with positive body image. the youth organization NFTY-STR in “We want them to recognize that Tampa and was on her local youth being unique is acceptable. Everyone group’s board and the regional board. was born different for a reason, and In her spare time, she enjoys sports, that’s totally OK,” Okun said. especially kickball, and is a big hockey She and her colleagues are in the fan. process of proposing an internship proOkun was drawn to Temple Sinai gram to the temple board in which the because of the synagogue’s staff, clergy teens will be guided by a mentor from and philosophy. the Temple Sinai staff, such as one of “The people who work here are so the rabbis, the cantor or the education wonderful, so I was really excited to director, on a specific topic. join this team in particular and come “We want to provide our teens into this community, which is so in- with unique leadership experience and novative by thinking outside of the help them develop skills in specific arbox,” Okun said. “The thing I love most eas,” Okun said. ■
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AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Sinai Youth Director Looks Outside the Box
Rosh Hashana Menu
AJT 19
BUSINESS
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Caterer’s Recipes Help Son Take On Smyrna
T
he Atlanta Business Chronicle reported Aug. 11 that Smyrna is the No. 4 location in the nation to open a restaurant. The Jaffes (no relation) have taken on that challenge by opening Oy! at 2355 Cumberland Parkway, close to the Home Depot HQ. Sherry Habif, Adam Jaffe’s catering and party planning mother, was the inspiration. Adam said he and wife Allie opened Oy! on July 18 with “not super-complicated or complex food with
great chefs blended with my mother’s background of overindulgence.” He practices personal injury and divorce law while Allie runs the dayto-day operations. Sherry keeps a firm watch on quality control and makes surprise visits at least weekly to ensure the chefs — Le Cordon Bleu grads with over 15 years of experience, plus training in Sherry’s
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home — are fulfilling her recipes. Marcia: Why did you chose Smyrna … off the Buckhead beaten path? Adam: We wanted someplace cute
Jaffe’s Jewish Jive By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com
and trendy. … This location was actually a former restaurant. Marcia: Other than growing up with Sherry and loving good food, why go into a tough business like this? Adam: I lived for a bit in New Orleans and loved the huge portions at the Camellia Grill. I was eating at the Flying Biscuit and thinking, “This can be done even better.” We like to make people happy with rich, delicious food and huge portions. That’s our biggest complaint: “You gave me waaaay too much!” So take it home, we say. Marcia: Allie, what’s it like to be in a family business with these machers? Allie: It’s not like work. It’s so much fun. Sherry’s food is to die for, and dining was always my hobby. We are open seven days a week and have done very little marketing. We see lots of different faces here. Families, to-go orders, office lunch workers. We even have a mahjong corner set up for groups to come play and eat. We close at 3, so there are no long night hours. Adam is on site for our lunch rush and all day on the weekend. Marcia: Sherry, what’s your background in food preparation? Sherry: The full gamut. In Bir-
mingham I had a catering business in the ’70s. Then I was the outside caterer for the famous Coach and Six in the early ’80s. For eight years I was the baker for Ahavath Achim Synagogue and made 200 dozen cookies at a time. That’s a real oy. Marcia: What are the menu favorites? Adam: Sherry’s French toast caramel casserole stuffed with cream cheese, extreme buttermilk pancakes the size of a pizza with real fruit toppings, giant six-egg omelets, challah egg soufflé, and Sherry’s famous triple chocolate-chunk cookies. Oops, can’t forget the Juicy Lucy stuffed burger. Our price points are $8 to $12. Marcia: Aren’t you bucking the health food trends? Adam: We use no trans fats or animal fat. Our burgers are lean Angus brisket and short ribs. You can also ask for egg whites or no butter. Our veggie burgers are specially made for us with ground mushrooms, oats and brown rice. We also have delish sweet potato hash. But you’re right: It’s not health food. Everyone likes to overindulge a bit. We ensure that there is someplace to do that and make it worthwhile. Marcia: Are you seeing many familiar Jewish faces? Allie: We have a diverse clientele. We are very community-friendly. You can give a bridal shower, birthday party, bris or brunch here for no facility fee. Marcia: How do you two stay so trim and ripped around this food? Sherry: Oh, they eat sushi and quinoa when I’m not looking. Marcia: I think I’ll go take some Lipitor. ■
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In roughly 3 weeks, Congress will vote on the Iran nuclear agreement. The future of the Jewish people worldwide hangs in the balance. This is a time of crisis and we need to act together now.
JOIN THE “DAY OF JEWISH UNITY” ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 If approved in its present form, the Iran deal would place the Jewish nation in harm’s way and pose a grave threat to democracies worldwide. In times of crisis, the Jewish nation has historically turned to prayer in order to help us persevere and overcome the odds. Prayer has been the hallmark of our people since time immemorial.
THIS IS A TIME OF CRISIS – WE NEED TO ACT TOGETHER NOW. On Tuesday, September 8, 2015, just days before Congress holds this important vote, a delegation of rabbis and community leaders will travel to Radin in Belarus in order to pray at the grave of the Chofetz Chaim, who was the beloved and revered leader of world Jewry in pre-war Europe. In conjunction with that special event, coordinated by the Acheinu organization, Jews around the world will be joining together to recite 2 chapters of Psalms in an attempt to deflect the acute danger that would result from allowing Iran a path to obtain nuclear warheads. The days leading up to the High Holidays are an appropriate time for repentance, reflection and prayer. The days leading up to perhaps the most consequential Congressional vote in our lifetime is a compulsory time for unity and prayer. Join with a projected 500,000 Jews around the world in a Day of Unity and Prayer on September 8.
Prayers and additional information available at:
DayofJewishUnity.com
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS SPECIAL GLOBAL EVENT, PLEASE RECITE PSALMS, CHAPTERS 20 AND 130 ALONG WITH THE SHORT ACHEINU PRAYER BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 7am-12pm ON SEPTEMBER 8TH.
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SOUTHEASTERN NEWS
Katrina Leaves Behind Stronger Jewish Community By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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he Jewish Community Center of New Orleans had trouble in August 2005. Its location in suburban Metairie, shared with the Jewish Day School and Federation, was so underused that its closure was possible. Ten years later, JCC membership in Metairie has risen from 300 to 800 families, and the JCC is raising as much as $8 million to expand its main location in Uptown New Orleans by almost a third to accommodate growth from 1,900 to 2,600 member families, soldout day camps, and a preschool that fills every spare space in the building. Before Katrina, JCC Executive Director Leslie Fischman said, “we wouldn’t have dreamed that we would be now outgrowing this facility.” The improved fortunes for the JCC reflect the renewal of the Jewish community as a whole in the decade since Hurricane Katrina struck the city Aug. 29, 2005, and failed levees left threequarters of New Orleans underwater. “The community’s better for it since Katrina,” Fischman said. “We’re working at keeping our strength.” The core of old-line Jewish New Orleans lies along a 1½-mile stretch of St. Charles Avenue from one Reform congregation, Touro Synagogue, to another, Temple Sinai, which is next to Loyola University and a long block from the first taste of New Orleans for thousands of Jews, Tulane University. The Uptown JCC, at the site of a former Jewish orphanage, is midway between the synagogues. A Jewish cemetery is two blocks from the JCC and two blocks off St. Charles. While most of the city flooded — the century-old Orthodox synagogue, Beth Israel, and its Lakeview neighborhood were under 8 feet of water — that “sliver by the river” of Jewish life and history was high and dry by New Orleans standards. The lack of flooding helped turn the JCC from the center of the Jewish community into a center of the general community’s recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency ran relief efforts from the JCC, whose fitness center was the first in the city to reopen, providing some normalcy and a place to shower. Fischman said a communal turning point came Dec. 20, 2005, when the center hosted glass artist Gary Rosenthal for a Chanukah celebration and homecoming at which more than 500 22 free spaghetti dinners were served. Her
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office holds a menorah from that day. As few as 2,000 Jews were back that fall, down from 9,500 before the storm. After most of the people who were coming back returned by early 2006, the Jewish population was about 6,000, said Michael Weil, who was hired as the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina.
Some 2,500 Jews have moved to New Orleans through the program in eight years, Weil said. Partially as a result, the community has 10,300 Jews and is growing by 200 to 300 a year. Physical signs support the numbers. At Tulane, Hillel and Chabad have new homes. The city has half a dozen kosher restaurants. A Jewish museum is being planned, as is a community
out of New Orleans. Rabbi Loewy said that economy-driven tide began to turn before Katrina and now is a dominant trend. New Orleans’ own young people, even those who go away for college, are staying as adults, and more Tulane students are deciding not to leave. The influx of young people with their new ideas and new approaches, Rabbi Loewy said, has created “a rein-
Photos by Michael Jacobs
Left: Leslie Fischman, an 18-year New Orleans JCC veteran who has been the executive director for five years, says Jewish New Orleans is stronger than ever. Right: Congregation Gates of Prayer welcomed not only homeless Congregation Beth Israel after the storm, but also a Unitarian church that held Sunday services there.
“I barely knew where New Orleans was on a map,” said Weil, who was recruited from the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. He said the traumatized community didn’t know how to move forward but was determined to do so and put aside politics and territorialism. A nine-month effort crafted a fiveyear strategic plan, which the community began implementing before it was finished. Weil said he accomplished what he wanted to do in New Orleans within four years, but like so many others who have moved to the city the past decade, he has no plans to leave. The plan included the Jewish Newcomers Program, which offers financial incentives such as rental and moving assistance and free membership in a synagogue and the JCC to encourage Jews to give New Orleans a chance. “We didn’t want to buy anybody,” Weil said, and the money wasn’t enough to motivate a move. But for young professionals following the trend of moving south from the Northeast and Midwest, the incentives provided a reason to consider New Orleans. The active program also ensures that the newcomers have contact with Jewish institutions from the start, something growing Jewish communities such as Atlanta haven’t achieved.
mikvah to join the concentration of Jewish facilities in Metairie. Within a few miles of West Esplanade Avenue are the Kosher Cajun deli, Conservative Congregation Shir Chadash, the combined day school/Federation/JCC building and a Chabad center. Highlighting the community’s cooperation is the block containing the Reform Congregation Gates of Prayer and relocated Orthodox Beth Israel. Beth Israel accepted an offer to share space with Gates of Prayer until it opened a building in August 2012 on land it bought from Gates of Prayer. People and activities move between the buildings, said Rabbi Robert Loewy, who has led Gates of Prayer for 31 years. One example is the community Shabbat observance at the biennial LimmudFest, itself a post-Katrina arrival in New Orleans. Rabbi Loewy said family connections and some shared membership between the congregations were always common, but the cooperation in learning, social action and even worship didn’t happen before the storm. Now he sees strong cooperation among synagogues and other institutions. “I think we’re all looking to the future with a good sense of optimism.” That optimism is fed by the reversal of the longtime flow of young adults
vigorated Jewish community,” including a bit of a baby boom boosting Jewish preschools and religious schools. One newcomer contributing to that baby boom is Danielle Levine, recently back to work as the New Orleans director of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps after maternity leave with her second child. Both children were born in New Orleans the past three years. “Six years ago I was looking for friends in their 20s,” she said. “Now I’m looking for a day school.” Levine, who grew up in Washington, D.C., moved from San Francisco at the start of 2009 with her New Orleans-native girlfriend, who has since converted to Judaism and married her. Levine didn’t move because of the Jewish Newcomers Program, but she enrolled and used the free synagogue membership to attend Touro, where she said she instantly fell in love with the diverse, welcoming community. She found her way to Avodah through program alumnae she met at Limmud, then followed rabbinic advice to pursue the director’s job when it came open in 2010. “I thought I was going in one direction, but when I got here and became immersed in the community and realized how I was spending my time and energy, it became apparent that (Avo-
dah) job could be what I wanted to be doing,” Levine said. Avodah has nine to 10 people per year, and Levine said usually two or three stay in New Orleans. She cited Dana Keren, who arrived with Avodah in 2010 to work with the Tulane Community Health Center and went on to co-found the Birthmark Doula Collective to battle the high infant mortality rate in the black community. Keren’s ability to quickly make a difference is part of what Levine likes about New Orleans: The city’s small size and big needs lead to openness to new ideas without delays. That openness, perhaps because of New Orleans’ anything-goes attitude, applies within the Jewish community. Levine said she has play dates with an Orthodox rabbi and his wife, who have a daughter a couple of months older than her first child, and attends tot Shabbats at Shir Chadash. “I have nothing but tremendous respect for this community,” she said. Traditional Jewish institutions are looking for more examples like Levine. “I think all of us are anxious to be able to incorporate the newcomers to the community in the established ways that we’ve always done things, as well as new, creative endeavors,” Rabbi Loewy said. The newcomers present a challenge not only because of their lack of connections to institutions, but also because they are bucking a decades-long drift toward the suburbs and moving into urban areas. Gates of Prayer, whose membership has stabilized at about 450 families after dropping from 480 to as few as 390 active families after Katrina, responded this summer by adding a second rabbi, tasked with outreach to unaffiliated Jews in their 20s and 30s. The job went to newly ordained Rabbi Alexis Pinsky, an Atlanta native and Tulane graduate who is taking services to the areas where young adults live. “There is so much young life,” Rabbi Pinsky said, mixing those drawn to the city after college and those, like her, who fell in love with the city while attending Tulane and found their way back. With upward of 3,500 Jewish undergraduate and graduate students, Tulane alone represents a Jewish community that’s one-third the size of the New Orleans Jewish community. “People in my age group are very community-service-focused,” Rabbi Pinsky said, and the chance to help rebuild a great city “called a lot of people to make New Orleans their home.” Weil noted that the Jewish community has gotten to show off a bit the past five years. The General Assembly
of Jewish Federations was in New Orleans in 2010, followed by the New Orleans Federation’s centennial in 2013 and TribeFest in 2014. He said the Jewish singles scene would make much larger cities proud. After decades of stagnation in terms of facilities and programs, Jewish New Orleans has adopted a startup mentality. The barriers to experimentation are gone, Weil said. In addition to Avodah, which arrived in 2008 and has become embedded in the city under Levine, Moishe House is established in New Orleans, which is the smallest city supporting Limmud. Chavurot and other programs are sprouting up, Weil said. “Even traditional institutions are transformed. They’re much more on the ball,” he said. The growth of the community has eased the pressure of eight or nine years ago and allowed some groups to focus more on their own concerns, Weil said, but no one wants to go back to the pre-Katrina Jewish New Orleans. “The outgrowth of Katrina is quite remarkable,” he said. “This is someplace where Jewish collaboration is working.” He can envision the Jewish community doubling or tripling in size. “We are going to have an incredible community,” Levine said. Fischman can see that future as she walks around the Uptown JCC, where day campers fill the pool, the gym and the classrooms during the summer, to be replaced by preschoolers in the fall, and where the fitness center and programming bring New Orleans together all year. The Uptown JCC is a microcosm of the Jewish community: bustling, full of energy, straining for the use of every square foot, frustrated at the Army Corps of Engineers (a drainage project has torn up the roads around the center), and prepared for any disaster. The hurricane-ready stockpile of bottled water, for example, kept the center operating on a 95-degree day in late July when the city faced a boil-water scare. So it’s appropriate that the community will gather there Sunday afternoon, Aug. 30, to remember what happened 10 years ago and celebrate Jewish New Orleans’ bright future. All 19 Jewish organizations that existed 10 years ago are co-sponsoring the free event, which Fischman said will mimic the December 2005 homecoming. The event will include a rabbinic prayer, a zydeco performer, and kosher jambalaya and brisket debris po’boys, she said. “We’re going to celebrate everything good about New Orleans — our music, our food, our people.” ■
Annual Conservative Congregations’
Selichot Program
Sponsored jointly by the Conservative Congregations of Greater Atlanta Ahavath Achim, Beth Shalom, B’nai Torah, Etz Chaim, Gesher L’Torah, Or Hadash, Shearith Israel
Saturday, September 5, 2015
9:15 p.m.
Presentation by Dr. Eric Goldstein,
Director, Tam Institute for Jewish Studies
“The Shtetl: An Anatomy of What Jewish Life
was REALLY Like in the Small Towns of Eastern Europe”
• Havdallah •
• Reception •
• Selichot Service •
Ahavath Achim Synagogue
600 Peachtree Battle Avenue NW | Atlanta, GA The Conservative Congregations of Greater Atlanta welcome the entire community to this service.
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SOUTHEASTERN NEWS
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SOUTHEASTERN NEWS
Beth Israel Rises From Mighty Waters By Yaacov Noah Gothard
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AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
yron Goldberg, a recent president of New Orleans’ Congregation Beth Israel whose Uptown New Orleans home was flooded and whose clothing business had been looted, was one of dozens of Hurricane Katrina evacuees attending a meeting at the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody one week after the storm made landfall Aug. 29, 2005. “All of the agencies and services from Atlanta were there,” Goldberg said. “After all the presentations were made, they asked if we needed anything or had any questions. We just sat there. The local rabbi that was there got up and said, ‘You are all in denial. You are in shock, and you are in denial. All of your life you have been givers, and now you are receivers, and you don’t know how to ask.’ He was 100 percent correct. We were in shock.” Meanwhile, Beth Israel President Jackie Gothard was going to sleep in her son Sander’s home in Dallas, praying to G-d to prevent the unthinkable. “We knew about the breaks in the levee, and we knew that we had water in the shul. I would go to sleep at night praying that the Torah scrolls were above the flood level.” Jackie’s husband, former Beth Israel board member Judge Sol Gothard, said, “We couldn’t come back home for three weeks because there was no power, no working gas stations, no open grocery stores or restaurants, and the city was in a state of emergency.” When residents returned, Jackie Gothard and fellow congregant Jacob Kansas found destruction at the shul. Gothard said: “The glass walls on either side of the front doors had been crashed down by the floodwaters that had risen 8.5 feet. Big tree branches were in the building. All the prayer books and tallisim were on the floor, covered with mud. The massive bimah had floated 8 feet up and had come to rest on top of the benches in the women’s section. Black and white mold was growing everywhere.” The seven Torahs, some as old as the 101-year-old synagogue, were ruined despite the effort of ZAKA’s Rabbi Isaac Leder, who had entered the shul in a motorized raft days after the storm. The $2 million building, its new $175,000 air-conditioning system and its contents were not the only losses. The rabbi moved to New Jersey because he had no place to live, and 30 percent 24 to 40 percent of the members left, Sol
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gathered in the lobby of a Comfort Suites on land purchased seven years earlier from Sol Gothard, which he had bought with his father-in-law, Ralph Pressner, 30 years before. “Do you think my dad is smiling down on us as we observe Yom Kippur as a Beth Israel congregation on land he once owned?” Jackie Gothard asked the congregation. “The way he loved his shul, I certainly think so.” Eddie Gothard, the only one of five Gothard siblings still living in New Orleans, “had put a box of Kleenex at the end of every other aisle. He was singing Kol Nidre. We were coping. We were trying to pray,” said Goldberg, who made it back from Atlanta for the holidays.
Jackie Gothard delivered the sermon amid the few items salvaged from the synagogue (three brass menorahs, a few yads and a bimah cover), in front of a mechitzah made from sand-filled Home Depot buckets, broomsticks and hotel bedsheets, and with the aroma of waffles and bacon drifting in from the hotel breakfast buffet. “No rabbi in the world could have given that drash at that point in time at that particular place,” her husband said. “Men are supposed to be a little tougher, and I am not prone to crying so quickly, but this got to me as no other sermon I had ever heard in my life. … Logically, there was no way in the world that this synagogue could continue to exist. It was not possible, but
Gothard said. “So I thought, ‘How can this shul possibly survive? How can it possibly exist with extremely diminished membership, no building, no rabbinical residence, no rabbi, no Torahs, yarmulkes, prayer books or tallisim? No income?” “It was kind of a triage,” Jacob KanTop left: Former Congregation Beth Israel President Jackie Gothard weeps at the burial of the Orthodox shul’s seven flood-destroyed Torahs in 2005. sas’ son Alan, a lawBottom: The new home of Congregation Beth Israel sits on West Esplanade Avenue in Metairie. yer, said of his first few days back. “I had lost my house, my family was liv- “My 25-year-old son, Aaron, came with she made it possible. She willed Beth ing in a rental house in Houston, and me on Kol Nidre, and he couldn’t come Israel to exist.” Jackie Gothard said Yom Kippur it wasn’t just about the shul. Everyone back the next day. It was too hard.” made her realize Beth Israel could Almost 80 congregants did show had their own Katrina saga that they survive. “I said in my sermon that two up for Yom Kippur day. were in the middle of.” weeks after Katrina we read in our “We were all quite fragile and “Once I knew that I and my family synagogues, according to the prophet grateful to see each other,” said Debra were safe and our homes were intact, Isaiah, this promise from G-d: ‘I have Namias, a congregation member and I could concentrate on seeing what it sworn that the waters of Noah neversocial worker. “I was on the road. I was would take to keep Beth Israel alive,” more would flood the earth.’ G-d promout 10 months and homeless. I used Jackie Gothard said. “Do we sell the ised never again to destroy the whole friends, family and faith to cope. G-d property, fold up as a congregation, let world by flood. Would we dare to say was the basis of everything. G-d played our 100-year-old Beth Israel go with the that the floodwaters destroyed our a role in this. There was a purpose in it, flow? A few said yes. But those of us whole world? Of course there is heartwhose grandparents and parents were and G-d had a place for me.” break and sadness and loss of family Yom Kippur “gave us confirmation the founding members of Beth Israel treasures, but our whole worlds are not and hope that we would come through said no. I did not want to be rememour furniture, our roofs, our businessthis, and we did,” she said. bered as the first female president and es, our cars, our clothes. Those are only Three Yeshiva University students last president of our beloved congregaparts of our whole world. The imporled services with a borrowed Torah and tion. After Rosh Hashanah at Consertant components of our world are each donated prayer books. Irwin Lachoff, vative Shir Chadash, we decided that other — our loved ones, our friends, whose father, gabbai Meyer Lachoff, we wanted a Beth Israel Yom Kippur. our neighbors, our community — and had died in a nursing home two days We had nine days to work on it.” our relationship with our G-d.” after Katrina, assumed his father’s role. On Oct. 13, 50 of the 400 members
Her sermon noted some of the di- same words, and I said, ‘Uri, it’s beshert. he was unbelievable,” Jackie Gothard said. “He went all over the country sasters Jews have overcome, from the This is where we were meant to be.’ ” Rabbi David Posternock, hired as getting financial support. New memdestruction of the Temples to the Hobers started joinlocaust, and concluded that ing. Congregants if the Jewish people could became more survive those disasters, Beth involved. He was Israel could come back from charismatic. Uri Katrina’s floodwaters. stayed with us un“Listening to the story til the new synaJackie told was heart-rendgogue was built, ing. We had our lives. We which was his had to rebuild with what we goal.” had,” Goldberg said. Rabbi Topo“The storm was a wakelosky said: “One up call so the synagogue of the things I did would survive,” lifetime was I focused a lot member Dr. Hilton Title on community colsaid. “A synagogue is the laboration, so that people who make it what it we could be part is. The leadership was the of the communiguiding light. I think it was tywide growth. the outreach by the Jewish New Orleans has community, nationally and a unique spiritual internationally, the outpourquality, the Caring of support, that gave our nival, that carries synagogue a flame, a cataover to synagogue lyst, to survive.” life. That positive Three synagogues ofenergy has a wonfered to house Beth Israel, derful impact on which accepted the offer spirituality. You from the Reform Congregacan point to the tion Gates of Prayer, located tireless devotion in Metairie within a halfof Jackie Gothard. mile of Congregation Shir You can appreciChadash, Chabad of Metaiate the dedication rie and the JCC/Federation of Eddie Gothard complex. “We are as liberal and Richard Katz as an Orthodox congregato make sure that tion can be, and Gates of the synagogue Prayer is as traditional as a would be finanReform congregation can be, Top: photo by Gil Rubman cially viable long so it was a natural shidduch,” Congregations across the country donated five Torahs to replace term and that we’d Sol Gothard said. “Their the ones Beth Israel lost in the post-Katrina flood. have a beautiful rabbi, Bob Loewy, was also Bottom: Photo by Alexander Barkoff sanctuary to walk our champion in Federation, Rabbi Uri and Dahlia Topolosky lead the celebratory procession from as Beth Israel suffered more Congregation Gates of Prayer to the new home of Beth Israel next door in 2012. into.” Eddie Goth financial and infrastructure loss than all the other synagogues com- the synagogue administrator in 2008, ard and Alexander Barkoff served as bined. I asked him, ‘Bob, why are you so said he also felt a higher calling. “I actu- the synagogue construction committee good to us?’ and he said, ‘Because this ally saw the job posting on Valentine’s co-chairmen. On Aug. 26, 2012, almost seven Day, and it was 2:14 p.m. on Feb. 14, so I community needs you.’ ” Two years after the storm, the Or- looked up Genesis Chapter 2, Verse 14, years to the day after the storm, over thodox Union sent down three rabbini- and it talked about the Garden of Eden. 400 congregants, guests and dignitarcal candidates at Beth Israel’s request. To this day I am convinced that G-d ies followed an all-female, AfricanThe synagogue chose Rabbi Uri Topo- sent me to my Garden of Eden. I walked American brass band as five Torahs losky, whose wife, Dahlia, said: “On onto New Orleans soil, I smelled the given by communities across the nation were danced from Gates of Prayer our first visit to New Orleans together, air, and it felt like home.” Dahlia Topolosky said: “I was to the stunning new sanctuary next Uri and I looked at the Hebrew quote on the front of the ruined shul: ‘They never in a city where there was such a door on land bought from the Reform shall make for me a sanctuary that I unity of culture and music and spirit. I congregation. “There were hundreds of people may dwell amongst them.’ We were was never in a city where people loved both thinking the same thing: This was their city so much. In our shul there from all over the community, all over the quote we had chosen to write on was a sense of intergenerational rela- the country, people who hadn’t been our wedding invitation as a prayer for tionship, and I felt as close with people back since the storm, people who had our own lives — our hope to also build in their 90s as with the young people left before the storm and hadn’t seen a home where G-d’s presence might moving into town. You felt a real sense each other in 20 years,” Rabbi Posternock said. “The horns were blazing dwell. And here we were standing in of family.” “To use Rabbi Uri’s favorite word, inside the new sanctuary. You couldn’t front of Beth Israel, staring at these
www.atlantajewishtimes.com hear yourself think. It was inspiring to feel such love. It was incredible.” In 2014, a year after the Topoloskys moved to assume the leadership of Beth Joshua Congregation in Rockville, Md., Beth Israel lured Rabbi Gabe Greenberg from the directorship of the Hillel chapter at the University of California-Berkeley. “The first weekend I came down to visit the shul, they took me out to eat some beignets after Shabbat, and I since inherited the job of ensuring the kosher status of three Café du Monde locations in Metairie and the French Quarter,” Rabbi Greenberg said. “There are two Jewish Mardi Gras crews, Krewe du Jieux and Krewe du Mishigas. Every week we sing Adon Olam to ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’ One of the kosher restaurants made king cakes this year, and we’ve got two more kosher eateries opening soon. It is really sweet living in Metairie and walking to a parade on our street within the eruv on Shabbat.” He added: “Seeing how the community is growing makes me feel that we are part of a rich, dynamic history that has gone through significant changes for hundreds of years, Katrina being just one of them, and that will continue to change and grow in the future.” “The storm undoubtedly finished off our shul, but it paved the way for the rebirth of a smaller, brand-new edifice that reflected the current smaller, revitalized membership,” Sol Gothard said. “The New Orleans Jewish community is back up from 7,000 to over 10,000. Young Orthodox Jews are coming to town with Avodah and Teach for America. The economy is thriving, and all of our shuls are growing.” “The synagogue that had been drowned came back to life,” Rabbi Posternock said. “The quote engraved in wood over our ark from King Solomon’s Song of Songs says, ‘Mighty waters cannot extinguish our love.’ We were in a building committee meeting, talking about carpets and paint for our new edifice, and Uri came up with the pasuk. Everyone went quiet. Everybody in the meeting cried. Some sobbed. It was one of the best moments in my life. When moments like that happen, they are never by accident. G-d allowed us to be in that moment with the perfect description to tell our story. If Katrina, one of the worst storms that ever hit this town, couldn’t destroy us, then nothing can.” ■
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
SOUTHEASTERN NEWS
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Pride in Children’s Music Rabbi Jake releases his debut CD By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
S
inger-songwriter Rabbi Jake Czuper wants to teach your child the joys of being Jewish. The children’s entertainer and Atlanta Jewish Academy Judaics educator teaches Jewish values through music in a fun way. This month he released his debut album, “Rabbi Jake Vol. 1.” The native Atlantan and father of three visited the AJT to talk about the album, what it means to be a proud Jew and the Jewish children’s music circuit. AJT: So did you start out focused on children’s music? Rabbi Jake: In general, I play music of all types, but I’m trying to mostly focus on using music to educate and also using music to give a positive feeling and inspiration towards Judaism. I try to speak to the child’s heart. If people come to a Rabbi Jake show, it’s a positive, upbeat, Jewish experience. AJT: What are the most important Jewish values to teach to children? Rabbi Jake: The values I stress to children are gratitude, that we should be proud to be Jews and that it’s a mitzvah to be happy. AJT: The last track on your album is titled “Proud to Be a Jew.” Why is it important to be proud? Rabbi Jake: We should be proud of who we are, and we shouldn’t hide it. We’ve been around thousands of years, and we have a mission in this world to make it a better place. The Aleinu LeShabeach prayer says it is upon us to be the ones who praise G-d, to be the ones who spread the light. … I think we should be proud to have that sacred path.
AJT: What’s the landscape currently of Jewish children’s music in Atlanta and the Southeast? Rabbi Jake: It’s a genre that there’s not so much out there. There’s one guy in the New York area called Uncle Moishe who’s been doing this for like 30 years. I feel that it’s an untapped area to reach children in. AJT: Is that one of the reasons that you got in to the genre? Rabbi Jake: Yes, I just felt there was a void. When I go to an event, I like to create a Jewish experience for these kids but not so intense. It’s very fun and upbeat. The kids learn a few messages, and they won’t even realize it. I’m passionate about finding kids when they’re having fun and giving them some Jewish content at the same time. AJT: What would you say is the main age group you focus on? Rabbi Jake: Basically from zero to 10 years old. I have played at camps around for 12-year-olds, though, and sometimes they are more outwardly into it than the little ones. AJT: Do you tailor your performances to the age group? Rabbi Jake: Every concert is unique. I definitely change each show depending on who is there and who I’m performing for. If I have 3-year-olds, I’m going to do something different than if I have 10-year-olds. AJT: Your new CD is out now. How can people get their hands on it? Rabbi Jake: It’s available in a variety of formats digitally — Amazon, CD Baby, Google and iTunes. It’s also in the local Judaica store Chosen Treasures. It’s going to be in stores worldwide. ■
EDUCATION
Epstein’s Fresh Start Photos by Coleen Lou he Epstein School started its first year under Head of School David AbuschMagder on Aug. 11 (first to eighth grades), 12 (kindergarten) and 13 (early childhood program). The character education theme for this year is “Words Matter,” which will be woven into the curriculum all year.
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Weinstein School Gains SACS Accreditation
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he Marcus Jewish Community Center is rolling out a wellness-based curriculum at its two preschools, one of which recently gained new accreditation. The Weinstein School, based at the Marcus JCC’s Zaban Park in Dunwoody, added accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement to its accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Weinstein School Director Kim Sucan said the SACS CASI accreditation is based on the New Standards for Quality Early Learning Schools. The two accreditations put Weinstein at the highest level a preschool can attain and ensure that the school meets high standards for early learning, development and care. “We were excited to be a part of this SACS accreditation process, which shows our commitment to support the growth and development of our preschoolers in a culture of continuous improvement,” Sucan said. The Weinstein School and its sister preschool, the Sunshine School at Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb, are introducing a comprehensive, wellness-based curriculum called Discover: CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health). The JCC Association developed the program with the University of Texas School of Public Health to teach children ages 3 to 5 to love physical activity and develop healthy eating habits. It involves the early childhood, sports and wellness, family engagement, and Jewish life departments at the Marcus JCC. “Wellness has been an important part of all of our programs,” Sucan said. “By bringing various areas within our agency together and training us all in the same curriculum, we will be united in our efforts to educate both children and their parents on the importance of physical activity and healthy eating.” Sunshine School Director Raye Lynn Banks added, “It is much easier to instill healthy habits at an early age than it is to change bad habits in older children.” Among the activities of Discover: CATCH, preschoolers will grow fruits and vegetables in their own gardens. ■
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Help the Falcons Rise Up Win a pair of tickets to the Atlanta-Baltimore preseason game Thursday, Sept. 3, at the Georgia Dome by tweeting a link to your favorite AJT story of the week.
Send a tweet with a story link and @AtlJewishTimes between 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 28, and 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for one of three pairs of tickets. Keep an eye out for chances to win more Falcons tickets from the AJT throughout the season.
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Ab u s c h -M a g d e r , known as Dr. D, gets to know first-graders Gavin Cohen and Jeremy Wolf. Leighton Tritt unpacks her backpack on her first day of kindergarten. Teachers Stephanie Lampert and Lauren Sturisky pose with one of their pre-kindergartners, Avi Weiss, who brought a sign announcing his big day. ■
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OBITUARIES
Mary Piha Capeloto 98, Atlanta
Mary Piha Capeloto, 98, of Atlanta passed away peacefully Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. Born in Montgomery, Ala., to Luna and Rubin Piha, both of blessed memory, she moved to Georgia with her family at a very early age and was a longtime member of Congregation Or VeShalom. Mary was preceded in death by her loving husband of 42 years, Victor; a sister, Regina Capilouto; and a brother, Morris Piha. She is survived by her daughters, Rachel Guillen (Manuel) and Annette Schulman; grandchildren Michelle Lawrence (Chris), Carl Guillen (Laura), Greg Guillen, Rubin Schulman (Bridgette), Jodi Garrett (Bill), Helane Bennett (Kevin) and Susan Gow (Mark); and 11 greatgrandchildren. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to OVS at www.orveshalom.org. Graveside services were held Sunday, Aug. 23, at Greenwood Cemetery with Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Deborah Schonberger Dix 64, Marietta
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Deborah Schonberger Dix, 64, died Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. She was born June 9, 1951, in Brooklyn, N.Y., grew up in Galveston, Texas, and raised her family in Marietta. Debby was a loving and beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, cousin, friend and teacher. She never let adversity get her down; life was to be lived until it could not be lived any longer. She is survived by her husband, Stephen; a son, Joshua Aaron Dix; a daughter, Monica Caroline Caron, and son-in-law, Neil Scott Caron; a granddaughter, Isla Jaye Caron; and a sister, Rachel Levit, and brother-in-law, Roy A. Levit. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Friday, Aug. 21, at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs with Rabbi Shalom Lewis officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Colon Cancer Challenge Foundation, www.coloncancerchallenge.org, or Vitas Hospice, www.vitas.com. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770451-4999.
Phyllis Lazarus 66, Atlanta
Phyllis Lazarus, age 66, of Atlanta died Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015. She is survived by her husband of 41 years, Wayne Lazarus; children Jeremy Lazarus, Zach and Lisa Lazarus, and Joanna Lazarus and Josh Rothstein, all of Atlanta; siblings Meryl and Richard Levitt of Atlanta, Beth and Don Wayne of Cincinnati, and Ellen and Michael Levitt of Nashville, Tenn.; grandchildren Jordan, Parker and Pace Lazarus; and mother-in-law Ruth Arnovitz. She was preceded in death by her parents, Meyer and Miriam Goldstein. Phyllis was born and raised in Louisville, Ky. She taught at the Epstein School for many years and worked for the William Breman Heritage Museum for 10 years. She was active with the 1996 Olympics, including running with the Olympic Torch in Gainesville. She volunteered for several communal organizations, including serving as co-chair for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival film selection committee; chaired missions to Israel for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta; and was active in AIPAC. In addition, Phyllis and Wayne were founding members of Congregation B’nai Torah, and they were active with the Atlanta Literary Society Book Club. Special acknowledgment to the loving care from Weinstein Hospice and caregivers Keisha Gaffney and Gale Walker. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Tuesday, Aug. 25, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Joshua Heller officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs, GA 30328, or Weinstein Hospice, 3150 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30327. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
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OBITUARIES
Doris Massell 89, Atlanta
Doris Massell, wife of former Mayor Sam Massell, died Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. A funeral service was held Friday, Aug. 21, at The Temple with Rabbis Peter Berg and Alvin Sugarman officiating. Private interment followed at Crest Lawn Memorial Park. Mrs. Massell was born Nov. 23, 1925, in Griffin, the daughter of Ada and Dee Middlebrooks, and spent her childhood in Hogansville, where she graduated from Hogansville High School; afterward, she moved to Atlanta to attend business school. She later studied art at Georgia State University, where her husband later received his business degree. She learned additional painting skills from Fay Gold and Selma Beard. She was employed at the Atlanta offices of the Texas Oil Co. for 10 years, after which she worked with her husband and their children in the tourism business they owned for 13 years. She and her husband were married Oct. 25, 1952. They are survived by their children, Cindy Massell, Steve Massell (and Krista), and Melanie Jacobs (and Jack), and their three grandchildren of Steve and Krista, Dylan, Graham and Isabel. Doris was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Johnny. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Temple or a charity of your choice. Online condolences may be made at www.hmpattersonspringhill.com.
Theodore Herbert Slotin 78, Ormond Beach, Fla.
Theodore Herbert Slotin passed away Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015, at age 78. Herb was born Nov. 5, 1936, in Augusta. Herb grew up in McRae, Ga., with his two older brothers, Marvin and Philip Slotin. In his youth, Herb was active in the Boy Scouts of America, earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Herb attended the University of Georgia and was a member of the UGA swim team and Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity. After college, Herb worked as athletic director at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center and was married to Peggy Ann Schaffer of Atlanta. After the AJCC, Herb changed careers into the publishing business and served as national sales director for CliffsNotes. Herb was an avid tennis player. He loved collecting American art pottery and became one of the premier collectors of Highwaymen Art paintings in the country. Herb moved in 1990 from Atlanta to Ormond Beach, Fla., where he enjoyed living at the beach, collecting art and taking care of his dogs. Herb is survived by brother Phillip Slotin; sons Ron, Michael and Steve Slotin: and grandchildren Kelly, Taylor and Chelsea Slotin, Emilie and Avi Slotin, and Joshua and Noah Slotin. A graveside memorial service was held Friday, Aug. 21, at the Hillside Cemetery, 215 Seton Trail, Ormond Beach.
Ivan Bloch of Atlanta on Aug. 19. Bob Bomes, brother of Temple Sinai member Margie Stern, on Aug. 17. Shirley Feinberg of Philadelphia, mother of Congregation Beth Shalom member Bruce Feinberg, on Aug. 19. Ronald Goldman, 81, of Birmingham, Ala., on Aug. 18. Robert Koch, Temple Emanu-El member, on Aug. 23. Bill Marcum, 65, of Augusta, brother of Temple Sinai member Linda Friedman, on Aug. 13. Celia “Doll” Mermelstein, 87, of Atlanta, sister of Betty Rose Caldwell, on Aug. 24. Louis G. “Sonny” Sherman Jr., member of The Temple, husband of Mary Louise Marx Sherman, and father of Mary Jane and Fred Colen, Dorothy Gross, Michael Sherman, and James and Nancy Sherman, on Aug. 17.
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
Death Notices
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CLOSING THOUGHTS OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
4 People I Don’t Know
AUGUST 28 ▪ 2015
M
AJT 30
y friend Meta and I lunch at the Toco Hills Publix on Tuesdays, and we often discuss books. Meta likes to tell me, “You read too many detective stories.” She may be right. For many months, we noticed a lanky, weathered fellow focusing on his laptop. He had a backpack with a lock on it and a couple of small black notebooks on the table beside the computer. He wore shaded glasses and whispered when he was on his cellphone. He always sat alone in a corner where no one could see what he was working on. Meta thought he must be a solitary writer who came to Publix for stimulation. I figured he was an undercover agent or a spy. Then he disappeared. He had become a silent yet reliable fixture of our Tuesday lunchtime, and we missed him. Besides, our curiosity was heightened. One day I stopped at Publix on a Wednesday, and there he was at his regular table, working on his laptop, just as before. Where was Meta when I needed her? But it was now or never, so I went over to him. “I’m sure you don’t know who I am,” I began. “I’ve seen you and your friend,” he answered, cautiously. “It’s been a while,” I noted, surreptitiously leaning over his notebooks and computer to find clues. “I hope everything’s OK.” “I’m fine,” he deadpanned. “I’m just wondering …” I began. He sighed and shrugged. He knew he was trapped. “Are you writing a book, or maybe you work for the government?” “What gave you that idea?” he exclaimed. “I’m an accountant.” Soon thereafter, I was granted another opportunity for investigation. As Meta and I bit into our Tuesday sandwiches, an elderly woman in green shorts and a T-shirt picturing Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers came to our table. For a woman her age, she had great legs. “Are you girls from around here?” she asked. We answered in the affirmative. “I’m from New York,” she said
proudly. “Do you know anywhere to go dancing?” We answered in the negative. “I moved here to live with my son,” she explained, without a word of encouragement from us. “That’s him over there,” she said, pointing to a sullen fellow staring at us. He was also dressed in shorts and
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was wearing flip-flops. His toes were callused, just like those of a dancer. It was clear that the mother and son both had dancing in their blood. Ms. Green-Shorts warned us, “Stay away from him; he’s acting mean.” I assumed that his feet just hurt. “Mom’s crazy!” he hollered. “She thinks she’ll meet Jewish people here because of the kosher deli!” (Well, she did meet us.) “Were the two of you dancers?” I asked, confidently. “Dancers!” she chortled. “We stood on our feet every day in a drugstore in Queens.” Her son came over and growled at her. “Now I’m in trouble!” the woman laughed. As Meta and I watched, the two of them tripped the light fantastic toward the vegetables. Yesterday, I went grocery shopping at Publix. I carefully reconnoitered the eating area through the window. Mr. Laptop wasn’t there, and the Green-Shortses weren’t there either. At the checkout line, a dignified, white-haired gentleman, wearing a bow tie, wire-rimmed glasses and a seersucker suit, smiled knowingly at me. I’d occasionally seen him drinking tea, reading piles of journals and taking notes. “I’m usually here on Tuesdays,” he said as he reached the cashier. “I always see you with a friend.” “I recognize you, too,” I answered. “I bet you’re a professor.” “I never went to college,” he laughed. “I make all my money in the stock market.” There are interesting people out there and exciting mysteries to solve, a veritable field day for Miss Jane Marple. Alas, I’m still a wannabe. ■
ACROSS 1 Bit of karpas, perhaps 6 JNF branch? 10 2001 Tony winner for playing Bialystock 14 Ryan who played Berthe in “Pippin” 15 Israel’s is smaller than New Jersey’s 16 Feynman’s bomb 17 Third word of “Blowin’ in the Wind” 18 Funny Sahl 19 Act like a bedouin 20 Star whose life was like the title of her film “Girl, Interrupted” 23 Dead Sea spa sound, sometimes 24 Way to act on Shabbos afternoon 25 Yenta interjection 28 King David Hotel reputation 31 Nosh on 34 Star of 1970’s “Love Story” 37 “Adoni” in Delhi 39 Film set in Islamicist Iran 40 The ones used to make tefillin come from cooked ox hide 42 Chazerai 43 “Jewish ___” (slang for a cash register) 45 She played an English teacher in “Fame” 47 Moses saw many 49 Word that follows “Abracadabra” 50 Abba, but not Eban 51 Smallest shekels 53 Santa ___, California (home of Benjies Deli) 55 For a decade, she stared as Lily Aldrin on “How I Met Your Mother” 62 To stop bad luck, say it three times while spitting 63 Occasional anti-Semitic tactic 64 Like many Yom Kippur shoes
66 Fisher’s “Postcards From the ___” 67 Give tzedaka to 68 Answer choice on some surveys about religious identification 69 First word of the title of Pauline Phillips’ long-running column 70 See 9-Down 71 Like land after the shmita year DOWN 1 ___ Moses Montefiore 2 “No ___!” (“Sababa!”) 3 Tush 4 Location of the Bene Israel community 5 World War II villains 6 “The Jew in the Lotus” personage 7 Word with dome or curtain 8 She played Sophie 9 Superhero whose creator’s last name was 70-Across 10 His name gets 217 million Google hits 11 Sitting on a dreidel? 12 Second Torah portion 13 Julia Louis Dreyfus and Julianna Margulies each got one on August 25, 2014 21 Teva part 22 Some arms 25 The Mossad might set one 26 Where spymaster Eli Cohen died 27 Obama picked her in 2010 29 Ward who co-starred with Jake Gyllenhaal in “The Day After Tomorrow” 30 Act like a dybbuk 32 Forward 33 Bess Myerson headgear
35 Treif 36 Dunham of “Dog or Jewish boyfriend? A Quiz” 38 TV funnyman Garrett 41 Kind of car that attacked Pamela Geller’s “Draw Muhammed” event 44 Oy! 46 Barry Alan Pincus took this name at his bar mitzvah in 1956 48 He illustrated I.B. Singer’s “Zlateh the Goat” 52 Its queen visited Solomon 54 Second Temple Period bead material 55 Acted like impressionist Manny Silver 56 Solomon’s mines treasure 57 Class at the J, often 58 V’imru ___ 59 Sol, e.g. 60 Reason for Akamol 61 Ten men for a minyan 65 Some Yiddish humor
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