TRAVEL, PAGES 26-32 FAMILY STYLE
A trip to Iceland for 23 people will be the Marxes’ 32nd annual clan escape. Page 26
PASSAGE TO INDIA
A Federation mission shows Justin Milrad an ancient Jewish community. Page 27
THORNLESS ROSE
Portland, Ore., is weird, wonderful and well worth crossing the country. Page 32
Atlanta VOL. XCII NO. 15
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
APRIL 14, 2017 | 18 NISAN 5777
Nemhauser, Levenberg Receive Morehouse Honor The Board of Preachers at Morehouse College’s Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel inducted two Atlantaarea Reform rabbis at its 32nd annual induction ceremony Thursday, March 30: Brad Levenberg of Temple Sinai and Ellen Nemhauser of the Center for Israel Education. Few of the roughly 1,000 clergy members from around the world who have been inducted into the honorary organization over the years are rabbis, and Rabbi Nemhauser is the first female rabbi. Rabbi Michael Bernstein of Congregation Gesher L’Torah was inducted two years ago amid festivities attended by Rabbi Levenberg, who spoke at the presentation of the chapel’s Gandhi King Ikeda Award for Peace. “I’m very honored, very humbled, and I intend and am committed to continue the work that needs to be done,” Rabbi Nemhauser said. Terry Walker Sr., the director of chapel relations, said Rabbi Nemhauser’s induction in part reflects efforts in recent years to make the board more inclusive. A place in the Board of Preachers carries no responsibilities, but its members “have exhibited a commitment to and/or promise for using their positions of religious leadership to promote peace, tolerance, interfaith understanding, healing, reconciliation, moral cosmo-
Photos by Heidi Morton
Rabbi Ellen Nemhauser is one of about 60 inductees March 30.
politan social progress, agape justice and care for the ecosystem,” according to information provided by the King Chapel. “It’s very exciting. It was a great morning, very spiritually charged, very emotional,” Rabbi Levenberg said. “It was fantastic to be in the King Chapel, sitting there on that particular stage.” Inductees are not told who nominated them or why, but Rabbi Nemhauser is active in interfaith work in Atlanta through organizations such as the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta and the Jewish Community Relations Council. She noted that multiracial and multifaith programs overlap in Atlanta. She is about to provide the Jewish leadership on her fourth World
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Pilgrims trip, which brings equal numbers of Christians, Jews and Muslims. A July World Pilgrims trip will take her to northern California, and one around Labor Day will go to South Africa. Rabbi Nemhauser also offered the invocation at the same King Chapel award ceremony in 2016 at which Rabbi Levenberg spoke in 2015. Rabbi Levenberg said he has seized every opportunity to go to the chapel since helping organize a FAMA visit for a program in 2008 or 2009 and has spoken there for several events. One highlight, he said, was when his 11-year-old daughter, a civil rights activist herself, got to read part of a King speech at a candlelight vigil in January.
INSIDE Calendar ��������������������������������������� 4 Candle Lighting �������������������������� 4 Business ����������������������������������������5 Israel News �����������������������������������6 Opinion �����������������������������������������9 Obituaries �����������������������������������35 Marketplace �������������������������������36 Arts �����������������������������������������������38 Crossword �����������������������������������39
Rabbis Brad Levenberg and Ellen Nemhauser are the fifth and sixth rabbis inducted into the Board of Preachers since 2009.
“Unofficially, that piece of paper that signifies the induction … casts a pretty big shadow,” Rabbi Levenberg said. “It’s a reminder that by virtue of my induction, it is an investment in a career ahead that I’ll continue doing work for civil justice, for civil rights, for equality and for accessibility for all people.” Although no tasks are required of board members, Rabbi Nemhauser said the assumption is that the inductees are all “actively engaged in peace work, bettering the world, interfaith, multiracial — we’re all actively involved.” She said other female rabbis in Atlanta and around the country are worthy of King Chapel recognition for their justice work. “Their time will come.” ■
DECISION TIME
Election Day is April 18, and we close out our series of candidate profiles for the 6th Congressional District and introduce the Jewish candidate for the state Senate in the 32nd District. Pages 16-23
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MA TOVU
Getting Spick and Span In Home and Soul As the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, explained (and Chabad.org reports), it is essential for us to share the message of the holiday with our children — and to ensure that they receive a Jewish education. In my day job, I meet many Rus-
Hand of Hashem By Mindy Rubenstein editor@nishei.org
The physical tools of cleaning are just the start of Pesach prep.
sian refugees who were forbidden to receive a Jewish education or to practice any aspects of Judaism. As ambassadors for G-d on Earth — as a light unto the nations — what better target for hatred and darkness than the Jews? Yet many families would sneak in their Judaism, going to great lengths just to ensure that their children knew who they were and that they were connected to G-d through mitzvahs. Here in the United States, growing up as a secular Jew, I saw how fascinating it was that we had every right and freedom to fully practice our religion with enthusiasm and pride. Yet so many of us took that freedom for granted. I read recently that we have come so far from the holiness of our ancestors that in some cases all that is needed from someone in this lifetime is to simply change a habit. So much beauty and meaning, love and light, are just waiting to be revealed. Sometimes it just takes a slight scratching of the surface for that light within to come shining through. Chag kasher v’sameach: happy and kosher Pesach. ■
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I love cleaning for Pesach, but it wasn’t always that way. What was once a surface-level encounter has become a transformative experience. Over the past 11 years of our almost two decades together, my husband and I have gradually adapted our lives to include more mitzvahs, and our observance of and preparation for the Festival of Freedom has increased as well. In the week before the holiday this month, as I pulled almost-empty cereal bags and half-eaten chametz snacks from my pantry, tossing them into the trash was one of the most liberating feelings I have experienced. My daughter was standing nearby as I announced how much I enjoy cleaning for Pesach, and it occurred to me how often we may hear people bemoan this annual occurrence. I was one of them. Once we started becoming more religiously observant, some of the stringencies of Pesach and other holidays began to feel almost like a burden. As a busy mom of four with a couple of part-time jobs, that weight seemed like something that interfered with my responsibilities. But this year it felt different. It helps that my children are getting older, and I no longer have babies or toddlers to tend. I also started preparing earlier, emptying closets of unneeded items while finding bits of not-kosher-for-Pesach foods hiding under beds, in pockets and in other random places. My vigor for Pesach cleaning extended throughout the house and into the kitchen. For my husband and me and our kids, it was physically demanding work, lifting and sorting, cleaning and covering, and eventually cooking. And it felt good. It is not physical preparedness alone, however, that is required of us, but also spiritual preparedness, according to Chabad.org. The physical and spiritual are linked, especially in the celebration of Shabbat and festivals. We are spiritual souls within physical bodies, sometimes working together in perfect unison — as when using our hands to light Shabbat candles, reciting a blessing out loud or removing the leaven from our homes for Pesach.
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“Atlanta Collects.” The second part of the exhibit of privately held art, covering contemporary work, is at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Museum admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students and educators, and $4 for children 3 to 6; thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.
Intermediate Shabbat of Pesach Friday, April 14, light candles at 7:50 p.m. Saturday, April 15, Shabbat ends at 8:47 p.m. End of Pesach Sunday, April 16, light candles at 7:52 p.m. Monday, April 17, light candles after 8:49 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, holiday ends at 8:50 p.m. Shemini Friday, April 21, light candles at 7:56 p.m. Saturday, April 22, Shabbat ends at 8:53 p.m.
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Contributors This Week RABBI RICHARD BAROFF HARRIET CORTELL ROBYN SPIZMAN GERSON YONI GLATT JORDAN GORFINKEL LEAH R. HARRISON MARCIA CALLER JAFFE HAROLD KIRTZ • KEVIN MADIGAN JEANIE MARX REBECCA MCCARTHY JUSTIN MILRAD JEFFREY ORENSTEIN MINDY RUBENSTEIN DAVE SCHECHTER SHAINDLE SCHMUCKLER KEN STEIN • DUANE STORK PATRICE WORTHY
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THE ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES (ISSN# 0892-33451) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SOUTHERN ISRAELITE, LLC 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, Atlanta, GA 30328 © 2017 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES Printed by Walton Press Inc. 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
SATURDAY, APRIL 15
Housewarming party. Moishe House Buckhead hosts a Passover-themed housewarming party at 8:30 p.m. to celebrate the opening of Atlanta’s newest Moishe House. Free; RSVP for the address at www.facebook.com/ events/979525488849540.
SUNDAY, APRIL 16
Chocolate seder. The youth department at Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, holds a chocolate seder for third- to 12th-graders at 3 p.m. The cost is $5 for youth department members, $10 for others; cbshalom.wufoo.com/forms/ kusy-chocolate-seder.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19
Jewish Breakfast Club. Federation CEO Eric Robbins talks about the results of last summer’s market study of Jewish Atlanta in a special luncheon edition of the JBC at 11:30 a.m. at Greenberg Traurig, 3333 Piedmont Road, Suite 2500, Buckhead. Admission is $18; atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/event/ jewish-breakfast-club-luncheon-witheric-robbins. Temple at 150. Cellist Matt Haimovitz is the featured performer at an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert of Jewish composers and Jewish-inspired music to celebrate The Temple’s sesquicentennial at 6:30 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St., Midtown. Tickets are $25; aso.org.
Corrections & Clarifications
Aviad Meitar of the Zvi and Ofra Meitar Family Fund interviewed the musicians during a plenary session discussing arts and culture at the Jewish Funders Network conference. The interviewer was misidentified in an article in the April 7 issue. midtown-art-cinema for show times.
THURSDAY, APRIL 20 World War II. Kathy Williams, author of the book “Dear Dad,” talks about the experiences of her father, Gen. Judson Miller, as a tank platoon commander in World War II, at the weekly meeting of the Edgewise group at 10:30 a.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free for members, $5 for others; matureadults@atlantajcc.org or 678-812-3861. “Altar EGO.” Cantor Patti Linsky performs her one-woman show about her struggle with alcohol and prescription drugs at 7:30 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs, in a program co-sponsored by HAMSA. Free; templesinaiatlanta.org.
FRIDAY, APRIL 21 Israeli food film. “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” the closing film of the 2016 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, opens at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Drive, Midtown. Visit www.landmarktheatres.com/atlanta/
IDF presentation. Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Southeast Executive Director Seth Baron speaks about Israel and support for the IDF, especially lone soldiers, after a brief service at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation B’nai Israel, 1633 Highway 54, Jonesboro. Free; bnaiisrael.net.
SUNDAY, APRIL 23
Yom HaShoah. Eugen Schoenfeld and Bob Bahr discuss memories of Schoenfeld’s childhood shtetl, Muncacs in the Carpathian Mountains, 10 a.m. in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; templesinaiatlanta.org. Yom HaShoah. The annual commemoration at the Memorial to the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery, 1173 Cascade Circle, Atlanta, starts at 11 a.m. with French survivor Manuela Bornstein delivering the keynote address. Free; eternallifehemshech.org/ events/52nd-annual-yom-hashoah-service-of-remembrance.
Send items for the calendar to submissions@atljewishtimes.com. Find more events at atlantajewishtimes.com/events-calendar.
Remember When
25 Years Ago April 10, 1992 ■ A group called the Community Coalition Against Bigotry, combining Jews, women, Native Americans, gay people and others, has formed in Athens in response to the March 24 publication of a Holocaust-denying ad in the Red & Black, an independent student newspaper at the University of Georgia. Then the Athens Banner-Herald ran an editorial saying that it also would have run the ad if it had been submitted. ■ The bat mitzvah of Rachel Etta Feingold of Decatur, daughter of Alan and Marilyn Feingold, will take place at 9 a.m. Sunday, April 12, at Shearith Israel Synagogue. ■ Jennifer and David Kusiel of Marietta announce the birth of a son, Justin Gordon, on Dec. 8.
50 Years Ago April 14, 1967 ■ Mrs. Marshall J. Mantler, the chairman of the Atlanta Chapter of the American Jewish Committee, testified before the Georgia Advisory Commission of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission on April 8 that an AJC investigation and information from other Jewish sources showed that housing discrimination against Jews is a persistent problem in the area. Six subdivisions in northwest Atlanta exclude Jews. ■ Six Soviet-made Syrian MIG-21s were shot down by Israeli warplanes in a sudden land-and-air battle touched off by new Syrian efforts to prevent Israeli tractors from cultivation in a demilitarized zone on the border. Two Israeli tractors were damaged. ■ Lynn Cheryl Nassau, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Saul Edward Nassau of Atlanta, became the bride of Lewis Alan Morris, son of Mrs. Hyman B. Morris and the late Mr. Morris, on Sunday, March 5, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue.
BUSINESS
Conexx Launches Lifestyle Connector By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com A new initiative from Conexx: America Israel Business Connector aims to explore partnerships between Israel and the Southeast in the lifestyle sector. The group held its first meeting Wednesday, April 5, at the Microsoft retail store inside Perimeter Mall. “Lifestyle is about the parts of our lives that are a little more personal than everything else,” Lifestyle Connector chair Shira Grossman said. “The Southeast is a focal point for entertainment, sports, leisure, education, hospitality and dining.” Israeli companies are creating advancements in the lifestyle sector, which includes water tech, physical security, supply chain and logistics, textiles, and 3D printing. Grossman said those companies are poised to build a presence in the Southeast. The topic of the first Lifestyle Connector meeting was “Designing Virtual Worlds,” and it focused on advancements in virtual and augmented reality. James Ashley, a Microsoft Mixed Reality MVP and owner of the Imaginative Universal, demonstrated the innovative Microsoft HoloLens, the world’s first self-contained, holographic computer and the company’s bid to lead in the augmented reality market. Several Israeli companies have contributed to the HoloLens, including 3DV Systems, a startup based in the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s sister city of Yokneam. Microsoft acquired 3DV in 2009 to enhance the motion-sensing capabilities of the HoloLens. The Israeli military has used the augmented reality capabilities of the HoloLens to improve battlefield strategy and train field personnel. Ashley demonstrated the current capabilities of the HoloLens, includ-
James Ashley gives a live demo of the Microsoft HoloLens at the first Conexx Lifestyle Connector meeting.
ing applications in gaming, the display of 3D AutoCAD models and hands-on training, as well as the possibilities of the technology, such as tech that would allow you to scan a stranger’s jacket and buy one just like it on the spot. The HoloLens costs $3,000 to $5,000, but Ashley said advancements in the technology will make it cheaper and smaller the next few years. Yaov Fael, the co-founder and CEO of Virtuality New Space, Skyped into the event from Israel. Fael’s company uses virtual reality to reduce physical store space for retailers. He showed the group a demo of a natural-interaction VR shopping experience. (Watch it at youtube.com/ watch?v=R2a0_WIV6qI.) The third member of the panel was Michael Reznik, the CEO of Metanoia VR, based in the ultra-Orthodox Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak. He had technical difficulty Skyping in from Israel but did show a demo of his company’s product. Metanoia brings cutting-edge virtual reality to the real estate market to help consumers and corporate clients see and walk through a property without being there. Conexx Vice President Barry Swartz said Lifestyle Connector meetups are planned three to four times per year. ■
Conexx to Honor Governor
Since taking office in 2011, Deal has supported Georgia’s economic and strategic ties with Israel. He led a five-day delegation to Israel in the summer of 2014 that included business leaders and state officials. While in Israel, Deal met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to explore business and trade opportunities. The gala will be held at Twelve Atlantic Station from 6 to 9 p.m. Get more information and tickets ($125) at www.conexxgala.com.
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Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal will be presented the Tom Glaser Leadership Award at the 2017 Conexx Gala on Wednesday, May 3.
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ISRAEL NEWS
Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Treating Syrian wounded. Since 2013, Israel has quietly treated around 3,000 war-wounded civilians from Syria. That number is expected to grow as fighting heats up in the wake of a chemical attack on civilians and the U.S. missile strike in response April 6. While the numbers are a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded in the six-year Syrian civil war, doctors and patients say the Israeli effort has changed perceptions and eased tensions along the border. Jerusalem factory for flu vaccine. Ness-Ziona-based biotech BiondVax will receive an Israeli government grant for 20 percent of the 20 million shekels ($5.5 million) required to build a Jerusalem factory for commercial production of its M-001 universal flu vaccine. BiondVax plans to produce tens of millions of doses of M-001.
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Eying automotive autonomy. Hod Hasharon-based Valens has raised $60 million to help it develop communication chips to connect all the cameras, sensors and other systems being inte-
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grated into automobiles as they develop autonomous operations. Starting in 2020, all Mercedes-Benz cars will have Valens chips, and Valens provides part of the infrastructure for the systems of Jerusalem-based Mobileye, which Intel is buying for $15.3 billion. Psycho-trauma therapy on four legs. The United Hatzalah volunteer emergency response service has a trauma and crisis response unit. The psychotrauma unit’s latest recruit is a dog named Lucy. Therapy dogs have proved to be helpful in traumatic situations, especially when dealing with children and the elderly. No plastic. Since a law adding a surcharge on plastic supermarket bags went into effect in January, 42 percent of Israeli consumers have stopped taking plastic bags at the grocery, and 20 percent get them only rarely, according to a Geocartography Institute survey commissioned by the Histadrut Consumer Authority. Before the law, 90 percent of consumers took plastic grocery bags.
More maternity leave. Israel is increasing government-paid maternity leave. An increase from 14 to 15 weeks had unanimous support in the Knesset on the bill’s first reading. A proposal to increase that leave to 16 weeks is expected to be approved within six months. Israeli law also gives mothers flexibility to transfer their leave to fathers. Yoga, Israeli style. Preschool yoga, prenatal yoga, workplace yoga, yoga for soldiers — yoga in its many forms has found its way into most areas of Israeli life. Even government ministries and the Jerusalem prosecutor’s office offer weekly yoga sessions to workers. Preserving the DNA of endangered species. Ramat Gan Safari is working with Germany’s Leibniz Institute to try to preserve animals expected to go extinct in the next few years. DNA from tissue samples will be frozen and stored at the safari. Observing innovation in Israel. Deborah Weinswig, the managing director
of New York-based Fung Global Retail & Technology, took her team on a fourday innovation technology tour to Israel. She was impressed with the level of investment, tie-ups with multinationals, and accelerators. Sending mandarins to China. Call it chutzpah or call it marketing savvy — either way, Israel’s Plant Production and Marketing Board believes that China is a ripe market for the easy-peeling Jaffa Orri premium mandarin orange. Though China is the world’s No. 1 grower of citrus, it also imported 21,000 tons of mandarin oranges in the 2015-16 season, an increase of 10 percent from the previous year. Food historians pinpoint China as one of the first places to cultivate mandarin oranges about 4,000 years ago. Jaffa Orri eyes China’s fresh produce market as a logical place to peddle its great-tasting, easy-peeling mandarins, meant to decrease food waste. Compiled courtesy of verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com, Israel21c.org and other sources.
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ISRAEL NEWS
Tell the Story as It Happened
An overflow crowd turns out for the opening of the Jerusalem YMCA on April 18, 1933.
Today in Israeli History
Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), where you can find more details. April 14, 1976: David Elazar, who served as the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces in the early 1970s, dies at the age of 50 after a heart attack. April 15, 1940: Weightlifter Yossef Romano, one of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is born in Benghazi, Libya. April 16, 1988: Palestine Liberation Organization leader Khalil al-Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, the architect of several notorious terrorist attacks against Israelis and an organizer of the First Intifada, is killed by Israeli special forces in his home in Tunis. April 17, 2006: Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, a leading history scholar and Jewish communal and religious leader who served as the American Jewish Committee president and a World Jewish Congress vice president, dies from heart failure at the age of 84. April 18, 1933: The Jerusalem YMCA, previously housed in a facility near the Damascus Gate, is opened by British Gen. Edmund Allenby in front of an overflow crowd on St. Julian’s Way (now King David Street). Allenby says the building, designed by the same architectural firm that did the Empire State Building, is “a gesture of friendship” to Muslims and Jews as well as Christians. April 19, 1949: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a stalwart of American Zionism and the Reform movement, dies at the age of 75. April 20, 1953: The Israel Prize, an annual award presented in a variety of cultural and scientific categories and considered the highest honor in the country, is awarded for the first time to nine people in seven fields.
ances of Israel and the territories and were more concerned about health care and immigration. The older rabbi said her congregants are apathetic about Israel.
Guest Column By Ken Stein
“No,” the younger rabbi said, “I beg to differ with you. Your congregants are estranged and alienated from Israel, not apathetic.” “How can you possibly know what my congregants are feeling?” the older rabbi said. “They don’t care one way or another.” The younger rabbi left my seminar on Israel five minutes later, I suppose because her view that Diaspora Jews must be alienated or estranged from Israel was not accepted by a peer. Hundreds of students have to read articles faculty members choose to rip at Israel as a democracy. Many times,
those students don’t speak up; they tell me it is better to leave a controversy undisturbed and get a good grade. Is that what we have taught our children, not to question when you know there is another view? This is a long topic for a short space. In context, we all should step back as we hit the 50th anniversary of the June 1967 war. Today, an overwhelming number of Arabs and Israelis care much less about the future of the territories and whether Jewish and democratic Israel is on the brink of existential disaster, and much more about whether the Arab state system will survive. What matters most is that perspectives in all things are valid. The only common Rx for all four children on Passover is to tell them the story. Not just the one you want them to hear because it reflects your preferred view or their level of interest. Tell everyone the whole story about the good and bad on the long road to peoplehood, liberation and freedom. ■ Ken Stein is president of the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org).
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Photo courtesy of the American Colony Photograph Collection, Library of Congress
For several years I have heard and witnessed stories about Israel (dis)engagement. Everyone asks how to stem a distancing from Israel. Students and parents who raise some aspect of Israel as an issue are mostly Jewish, some with a day school background, others engaged in Jewish organizations. Israeli-Palestinian politics and leadership are the main issues. Most questions pertain to the territories, the settlements and Israel’s nature. Most people seek positive reinforcement for what they believe. In front of the 200-plus assembled at a Washington forum recently, a father asked: “Where did I go wrong with her? Why is she in the streets loudly protesting now against the very organization that I have belonged to and have supported for two decades?” A young, brash, opinionated, left-of-center rabbi in San Francisco could not contain herself when a rabbi a bit older said her congregants did not have time to study or learn the nu-
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LOCAL NEWS
Latin Jews Struggle With Communal Confusion By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com Desiree Nathanson, an Atlanta Hawks trainer, seldom faced antiSemitism growing up in Sarasota, Fla., where her mother served as a synagogue cantor. But her experience changed when she started working. “I hardly think about my Jewish identity because it is a part of me,” Nathanson said. “However, when I began bartending, my customers often made remarks such as, ‘Hey, don’t Jew me,’ and when I exclaimed I was Jewish, the following line always ensued: ‘That’s funny, you don’t look Jewish.’ ” She and other Latin Jews shared their experiences during Hava Tequila: A Night of a Little More Charla, a collaboration between American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS and the AJC Belfour Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs on Wednesday, April 5, at No Mas! Cantina. At the University of Florida, Nathanson performed with the Dazzlers dance team and traveled all over the country while being exposed to differ-
Photo by Sarah Moosazadeh
With CDC Deputy Director Jose Montero watching, Mamie Dayan and Britt Rotberg Wolfe welcome attendees to Hava Tequila on April 5.
ent ethnicities. “I think we all strive to surround ourselves with diverse people, and college allowed me to do that by branching out,” Nathanson said. “Our Jewish identity is such a big part of us, and you don’t realize how much it influences you until you encounter various forms of anti-Semitism.” Maintaining a Jewish and Latin identity was more difficult for Jason Esteves, an at-large representative on the Atlanta Board of Education and an assistant general counsel at Equifax. “Growing up as an Afro-Latin male was a sensitive subject for me and often led me to ask myself, ‘Am I one or
JOIN US FOR
the other?’ In the Latin community, if you’re not Mexican, you’re black, but I was neither. I was Puerto Rican,” Esteves said. When he moved to Orlando, he was thrown for a bigger loop because Puerto Ricans thought he was black. In time, Esteves became more comfortable with his Latin and Jewish identity. “I came to realize that Latinos come in a range of shades, which made me more comfortable about my position on the Board of Education.” Embracing her Jewish and Latin identity became a part of Michelle Mazier’s career as the director of Welcoming Atlanta, a public-private initiative that strives to integrate refugees and undocumented immigrants. “I think we need to focus on the similarities among people, which is something that is desperately needed right now,” Mazier said. After hearing stories about how her grandparents fled Russia, she became passionate about using her skills for public service when she witnessed the backlash against undocumented youths. Growing up as a Latin Jew in Co-
The Jewish Breakfast Club Featured Speaker
ERIC ROBBINS Eric Robbins was hired as president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta in May of 2016. He moved to Atlanta in September 2005 to run Camp Twin Lakes, which provides camp experiences to nearly 10,000 children a year with serious illnesses in collaboration with other nonprofit organizations. Under his
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Leadership, the camp expanded from one location to three and moved into areas such as programs for military veterans and their families and a group home opened with Jewish Family & Career Services for special needs adults.
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Before taking over Camp Twin Lakes, Robbins worked in the New York area. He was associate executive director of the Jewish Community Center MetroWest in northern New Jersey from the start of 2000 until he took the Twin Lakes job, and he was deputy executive director of New York’s Educational Alliance, a wide-ranging service agency with Jewish roots, for about four years. Robbins also earned a master’s in social work from Yeshiva University during his time in New York.
lombia was fairly easy, said Jose Montero, the deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “No one really cared about one’s religion, as it should be for every ethnic Jew,” Montero said. In the United States, Montero discovered that things are not always as they appear. He was categorized as Hispanic and Puerto Rican even though he thought he was white in Colombia. Montero often was approached by fellow congregation members who thought he was Puerto Rican. “I was surprised that highly educated Jews were adopting a discriminatory behavior toward me and had a preconceived notion of Jewish Latinos.” He said his ethnicity and Jewish identity were not main components of his childhood, but “to this day I still go to a kosher supermarket for Passover and will visit a Colombian restaurant to enjoy a meal. I am who I am.” Karina Lifschitz, who serves as a public health adviser for the CDC, urged attendees to share more stories to spur a sense of togetherness within the community. ■
Luncheon
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OPINION
The community will hold its annual Holocaust commemoration at the Memorial to the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery at 11 a.m. Sunday, April 23. We will hear a story of miracles from our keynote speaker, Manuela Mendels Bornstein. Through the miracle of survival, she escaped the Nazi onslaught that crushed the lives of 6 million Jews. Those who survived are our witnesses to the degradation and decimation of our people. Bornstein is one of those witnesses. A tale of luck and perseverance, it is one of our guideposts for finding a light out of the darkness. Others experienced miracles of survival as well. Philip Maisel described when he was a 17-year-old in Lithuania, hiding from soldiers as they swept through the ghetto, rounding up people for transport to work camps. Pressing his back against the wall of a darkened room and trying not to breathe, he heard footsteps climb the stairs, then felt a soldier’s hand on his chest. “I was fully aware of the danger which threatened me,” he said. But the lights did not go on, and he heard the soldier report that the room was empty. “This unexpected relief I could never forget,” Maisel said. “Why did he do it? Even today I can’t answer that question. I think about it often, but I can’t answer it.” Over the next five years, Maisel witnessed unspeakable suffering and cheated death several times before he was liberated from a death march. “I survived due to the kindness and humanity of other people.” A similar story of miracles concerns Dr. Dovid Landau, a dentist in Poland who was patronized surreptitiously by Nazi soldiers even though it was strictly forbidden to go to a Jewish professional. They befriended him, and through those connections he helped the Jewish community by having a number of harsh decrees annulled. He used his friendships with his Nazi patients to ensure a somewhat easier life for his brethren. But fortune turned, and one day, at the scene of a public hanging, Landau was ordered to put the nooses around the necks of three
Jews accused of a minor crime. He refused, and the German commander instructed two soldiers to take him out to the fields and shoot him. Both men happened to be Landau’s patients. When they arrived at the outskirts of town, one whispered to him:
Guest Column By Harold Kirtz
“Don’t be afraid. We’ll dig a shallow grave. Climb in, and stay there until it gets dark. Run deep into the forest. We know there are Jewish partisans hiding out there, and maybe you can join them. But remember, whatever you do, don’t ever show your face in our town again.” They took out their guns, shot twice into the air, returned to the site of the hanging and told the commander the job was done. Landau was then aided by a Polish farmer with food and a place to sleep, and eventually the farmer pointed him in the direction of the forest where the partisans were hiding. When Landau finally found the partisans, they were as excited as he, declaring his arrival to be providential. Many of them knew him from town and knew him to be a skilled dentist. After they had hidden in the forest so long, their teeth had become neglected, their gums badly swollen. The next day, two of them ventured out of the woods to steal dental equipment and medicine, and Landau began a second thriving practice — in the forest. In addition to his dentistry, he fully participated in partisan activity against the Germans and was involved in skirmishes where many of his comrades were mortally wounded. He was nearly captured or killed several times himself, but somehow he always managed to escape death at the last minute. Miracles are all around us. They come in many shapes and sizes. Some people directly experience them, many in the depths of horror or despair. Come hear Manuela’s story. ■ Harold Kirtz is serving as the chair of the Yom HaShoah commemoration planning committee.
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Miraculous Survival During the Holocaust
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OPINION
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Our View
A Line Crossed
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It’s easy to criticize President Donald Trump’s decision to launch 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian air base Thursday, April 6. When Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was deciding whether to use military force against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2013, Trump ridiculed the idea, and he made clear throughout the presidential campaign that he was willing to work with Assad to stamp out Islamic State. (We’re not going to waste time citing examples of people in both parties who have flipped positions on U.S. policy toward Syria now that a different side is in the White House. Just accept that “politics” and “hypocrisy” are synonyms in Washington in 2017.) Trump acknowledged changing his mind after seeing images of children killed by what the international community (other than Russia and Syria) agrees was a chemical attack by Assad forces. Many have cited a contradiction between the president’s sudden distress about violence against Syrian children and his efforts since the start of his administration to bar Syrian refugees from settling in the United States. The point about refugees is not a minor one. We agree that concern for the child victims of Syria’s 6-year-old civil war should extend to those who need a safe place to live and not just to those who are part of the half-million death toll. Perhaps, just as he changed his mind about military action, Trump also will have a change of heart about refugees. But refugees are a symptom, not the disease. Even if the United States accepted the full 100,000 refugees a year authorized by Obama, millions of people would still be displaced in and around Syria, with more driven from their homes all the time. The only way to solve the refugee crisis is to end the war. One barrage of cruise missiles won’t accomplish that goal. But it is a clear statement to Assad that if he thinks his actions have no consequences — perhaps because Obama didn’t enforce his own red line about chemical weapons or perhaps because he thinks Trump is under the spell of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Assad’s patron — he is wrong. Trump’s action was strong, swift and measured. The U.S. Navy didn’t bomb civilians, nor did it target Assad or launch a broad attack on the Syrian military. It struck the one airfield from which the chemical attack originated earlier in the week, and the missile strike didn’t lose its impact by taking place weeks or months later, after relentless hemming and hawing. Sometimes it’s OK to act with controlled outrage in response to what can only be seen as an outrageous action. What happens next is crucial. The United States must not become another combatant in a civil war, but we can lay down the international law for Assad. No more chemical weapons. No more barrel bombs. No more slaughter of civilians. Such attacks will be met with swift and, if necessary, escalating responses. Syria is a disaster that will not be resolved quickly or easily, and the United States has contributed to that catastrophe with an incoherent, inconsistent and indecisive policy since 2011. But one good deci10 sion is a solid start. ■
Cartoon by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com
One Vote in the 6th District
Sorting through the 18 candidates running to be I just hope that those voting for Ossoff do so my congressman in the 6th District, I think it’s more because they think he’s the best candidate, not important to pick a good because they want to send person intent on doing a message to Trump or the what’s best for his or her GOP — a message, by the constituents than someone way, that will produce a Editor’s Notebook who aligns perfectly with staggeringly expensive priBy Michael Jacobs me on the issues. mary election a year from mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com This campaign has now if Ossoff does flip the been dominated by Demodistrict. crats’ efforts to flip the In the interest of district through Jon Ossoff and thus send a message transparency in our coverage of the election, I feel of resistance to President Donald Trump. a responsibility to share my vote. But as I write this, Through the end of March, Ossoff had raised I’m still undecided between two candidates: Republijust under $8.3 million, an astounding amount, 95 cans Judson Hill and David Abroms. percent of it from outside Georgia. People across the I’ve known and liked Hill on a professional level country also have made phone calls and sent letters for more than a decade and been one of his state for Ossoff; I received a personal postcard from Wilm- Senate constituents for most of that time. I usually ington, Del., urging support for the 30-year-old. agree with him, and I appreciate his willingness to Ossoff is a smart, well-educated guy. He grew up buck his party leadership. in the district. He’s Jewish. But just among DemoHill, as a longtime elected official for a significrats, he doesn’t have the military record of Richard cant chunk of the 6th District, is the logical, deservKeatley, the legislative experience of Ron Slotin or ing candidate to succeed Tom Price. the health care expertise of Rebecca Quigg. Most important, Hill has been Israel’s best The AJT interviewed 15 of the 18 candidates, friend in the General Assembly, from supporting and with Ossoff we had the hardest time breaking state purchases of Israel Bonds to opposing Iran and through the polished politician to the real person. BDS. Israel could use an ally like Hill in Congress. That’s not a criticism; I just don’t feel as if we got to But Abroms impressed me in our interview. I know who he really is. Maybe his 200,000 donors like his story, from the inspiration of his Holocaustand #FliptheSixth advocates feel differently. survivor grandparents to his willingness to risk The relentless attack ads against Ossoff have everything to start his business and to give it all up earned him sympathy and support. Yes, most of his to bring a fresh voice to Georgia politics. money is from out of state, but he has raised more I’d love to see a runoff between Ossoff and than $400,000 locally, in the range of other leading Abroms, not only because that would guarantee a candidates. Jewish victor, but also because we’re ready for a duel I’m annoyed that Ossoff has stretched his of ideas between two clever candidates in their early national security experience and frustrated that he 30s. Ossoff almost certainly will reach the runoff, hasn’t said exactly what work his documentary film but Abroms didn’t even make the five-person Repubcompany did for Al Jazeera. But while I don’t like Al lican candidate forum April 2. Jazeera, it’s silly to think that work for the QatariStill, it will be Abroms or Hill for me in the priowned network represents support for terrorism. mary. I’ll reassess for the June 20 runoff. ■
OPINION
Rabbi Tracks Signposts Along Life’s Journey A fast-food restaurant was the site of a barbershop, a church formerly the location of a movie theater (where he received an early lesson in unrequited love), and a shopping center sits where the Atlanta Crackers minor-league baseball team played.
From Where I Sit By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com
Rabbi Sugarman also recounted his courtship of Barbara Herman, who hailed from Jackson, Miss., and was in Atlanta visiting family. They met on a Sunday. He proposed that Thursday. “I knew a good thing when I saw it,” he joked. They married three months later, and, 52 years on, the Sugarmans are the parents of two daughters and are grandparents four times over. He did not set out to be a rabbi. At Emory he studied business. Years later, he recognizes events that steered him toward his vocation. As a 5-year-old, he was told that G-d needed his mother in heaven. As an 8- or 9-year-old, he felt Rabbi Jacob Rothschild’s voice addressing him directly during a High Holiday service at The Temple. After his confirmation at age 16, he delivered a sermon at a teen Shabbat program on “religion as a source of comfort during your darkest hours.” Later, a woman approached and told him how moved she was by his words. Three weeks after their marriage in 1965, the newlyweds met for lunch at Mary Mac’s Tea Room. The groom told his bride that he wanted to exchange life as a businessman for rabbinical school at age 27. “Other than getting married, it’s the best decision I ever made,” Rabbi Sugarman said. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. After rabbinical school, Rabbi Sugarman returned to The Temple as a rabbi in 1971 and, after Rabbi Rothschild’s death in 1974, served as the senior rabbi until 2004. Now, as Rabbi Emeritus, Sugarman writes a spiritual biography, he can follow a map of his journey formed by addresses that are, indeed, so much more than numbers. ■
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“Addresses are so much more than a street number.” Starting with childhood, think about addresses of significance in your life and appreciate the wisdom in the comment by Rabbi Alvin Sugarman as he narrated a tour of the Atlanta he knew growing up. I tagged along as my wife, the content manager of AIB-TV (formerly known as Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters), drove and interviewed Rabbi Sugarman while a videographer recorded his memories. This son of Atlanta was born in June 1938, when the city’s Jewish population was 12,000, one-tenth its estimated size today. Seven years earlier, The Temple, the city’s oldest Jewish congregation (founded in 1867 as the Hebrew Benevolent Society), had relocated from the intersection of South Pryor and Richardson streets to its current Peachtree Street home. “As a city and as a community we evolve and change, and that’s what makes us human,” Rabbi Sugarman said. “Atlanta was a little village compared with what it is today.” In his 78 years, Rabbi Sugarman has seen the Jewish community migrate from neighborhoods south of downtown north to Buckhead, Toco Hills and then into the suburbs. Over four hours he told stories about Jewish life in Atlanta, his path to becoming a rabbi, and experiences both poignant and humorous. The tour included the addresses of apartments where he lived on Ponce de Leon and Boulevard; where an elementary school stood on North Avenue; where his parents operated a store, the Southern 5 & 10, on Georgia Avenue; and various places where he engaged in youthful mischief. “It is amazing, when you really think about a life, the things that stick with you,” he said. Rabbi Sugarman recalled the last kiss he received from his mother, who died in December 1943 of breast cancer, and talked about his father, who struggled with mental illness until he died of heart disease in 1964 at age 71. “The older you get, the buildings that were so much of your life evaporate and morph into something else,” Rabbi Sugarman said as we traveled on Ponce.
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PASSOVER
The Nigga Jew I remember it like it was yesterday. I was laid off from my job for poor work performance. Weeks before, I went to HR regarding a co-worker who attacked my Jewish identity by asking another co-worker, “What, does she want to be Jewish?” followed by “She thinks she so cute” because I asked for the first day of Pesach off. Her sister, who worked in the same department, questioned my Judaism in front of the entire office, and when the daily harassment was too much for my body to handle, I was hospitalized and forced to tell my diagnosis to my supervisor, who encouraged the discrimination, and the HR rep. It was the first time I experienced discrimination because of my religion, and I was blindsided that it came from the black community. I couldn’t and still cannot understand how people targeted for racial violence and discrimination can be so oppressive. Being black and Jewish, at least from my experiences in the South, is
a precarious position. Especially in a socially segregated city like Atlanta, where you are forced to choose between being Jewish and being black. I have been told the discrimination is my fault by white Jews who
Additional Voices By Patrice Worthy
were fired for being Jewish and taking holidays off. Your identity is constantly questioned, and your loyalty to both communities is a topic for debate. People wrongly assume one of my parents is white. My mother’s family is an Afro-Portuguese/Indian mix, and she is darker than me. My father is black. But living in the South, I’ve been told everything from I’m not really black, to I think I’m special to I prefer Jews over blacks. None of which I have said or communicated, but being a
black Jew seems to draw projections. My identity garners resentment from those who are comfortable with the status quo because being a black Jew disrupts stereotypes in both communities. People who have never met a Jew tell me about being Jewish or that I’m trying to whitewash my identity. The first man I dated in Atlanta said I needed to drop my Jewish identity, and I was warned to keep it a secret. I thought to myself, “This is not 1865, nor is it the crusades, and I am a proud Jewish woman.” History proves being Jewish isn’t easy. When I sought solace from my father, he always said, “Birds always pick at the best fruit, and the best fruit is at the top.” Whether the discrimination is out of jealousy, ignorance or malice, it’s all part of being Jewish, he would add. During our study sessions, I have learned about being a Jew and specifically a black Jew. I inherited a true understanding of the trauma of slavery by reading Deuteronomy and an even better understanding of the slave mentality by reading Exodus. The liturgy,
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General Admission: $20 Purchase at: www.Wiesenthal.com/atlantaspecialscreening2017 The film follows the experiences of the late Ambassador Yehuda Avner during the years he worked for Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin. Based on Ambassador Avner’s best-selling book, The Prime Ministers, the film examines Rabin’s election as the country’s first native born Israeli leader in 1974, his negotiating the first bilateral treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1975, the dramatic events surrounding Israel’s rescue of hostages in Entebbe in 1976, the tense relationship between newly elected US President Jimmy Carter and Rabin and Rabin’s subsequent downfall in a financial scandal involving his wife Leah. Starring the voices of Michael Douglas as Yitzhak Rabin and Christoph Waltz as Menachem Begin and introducing Nicola Peltzas the voice of Esther Cailingold, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers is full of emotion and rich history with rare, never before seen photos and film footage.
combined with my father’s urging to research the Harlem Renaissance and Black Wall Street in high school, fostered a true love for my heritage that inspired me to start a website dedicated to blacks in the high arts. I never felt that being black and being Jewish were mutually exclusive. I always believed those stories of freedom (Passover), civil rights (Esther) and family abuse (Joseph) applied to me. I always thought Hashem was talking to me. One of my black Jewish friends would say, “You’ve never had a problem mixing fried chicken and latkes. I admire you for that.” And it’s true. I have faced discrimination all my life. One morning I woke to a cross on my front porch and the words “Niggers go home” on my front door. Someone tried to burn down my house while my family slept. At 8 years old, I knew what it meant to be hated and violated because of your race. So when I picked up the Torah and read about freedom and blessings as a result of standing up to Pharaoh, my soul stirred. Like many black Jews, Passover is my favorite holiday. Yes, I now understand I am special. I love that I probably look like many of the women in the Torah. When I attended the Jewish Funders Network conference, Israelis approached me speaking Hebrew because they assumed I was from Israel. I don’t have much family, and my Jewish community has always been my family and my source of comfort. The Tanakh has and always will be my go-to in times of trouble, celebration, peace, happiness and stress. It is who I am. There is liberation in Judaism, and, as Rabbi Harold Kushner said, “Judaism will save your life.” Judaism has saved my life on more than one occasion. There is freedom in being among people for whom it doesn’t matter if I am light-skinned black or darkskinned black. I am a black Jew, and that means something to me. I don’t have to abide by racial constructs embedded in my psyche. I am free to grow and to challenge myself. I am free to be my black Jewish self and to think of new and big ideas, just like Abraham and Moses and his wife, Tzipporah. So I rest easy, knowing I come from a long line of kings and queens who were considered lower and were discriminated against, but changed the world. ■
PASSOVER
Challenge of Spring who has saved the people of New Israel (the church) through the shedding of his blood. The shank bone on the seder plate reminds us of how our people were saved: The 10th plague, death to the firstborn, passed over the
Guest Column By Rabbi Richard Baroff
Israelite homes because of the lamb’s blood painted on the door posts and the cross beam connecting them. Easter is closely connected to Pentecost, which traditionally marks the beginning of the church. Pentecost refers to the 50th day, as it occurs seven Sundays after Easter — the 50th day if you count Easter Sunday as Day 1. Jews have a similar counting, sefirah. Beginning on the second day of Passover, 49 days (seven weeks) are recognized, the 50th day being Pentecost. Jewish Pentecost is the Festival of Weeks, Shavuot, when the Hebrew slaves became the Hebrew nation. Jews call Shavuot the “time of the giving of the Torah.” Christian Pentecost commemorates the gift of the Holy Spirit enjoyed by the apostles on that day. The Jewish and Christian festivals both involve theophany, the appearance of the divine among the elected people. The close connection between the Christian and Jewish holidays has a dark side for Jews beyond the calls for violence against the killers of Christ. Easter season represents replacement theology. Jesus takes the place of the Torah and his sacrifice becomes the means of salvation rather than mitzvot. This replacement theology was articulated by Paul, the apostle to the gentiles. Many churches, Protestant and Catholic, have seders. I have led a few. Inviting a rabbi to lead a church seder is a friendly act. Given the violence of Easters past, it should be seen as a big step forward in Christian-Jewish relations. Because of replacement theology, however, it is also problematic. The Easter-Passover closeness comes with challenges that can never be entirely overcome. It should be enough that we now live in peace. ■ Rabbi Richard Baroff is the president of Guardians of the Torah.
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Nowhere and at no time is the Judeo-Christian heritage of Western civilization more prominent than at Passover season. Yet historically for the Jews in Christian Europe this time of year was the most perilous. Passover coincides for Christians with Christ’s Passion: the physical suffering after Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane just outside Jerusalem. According to the Gospels, although the Romans arrested and crucified Jesus, various Jewish leaders, as well Judas, were involved in his prosecution. Many Jewish communities throughout the ages suffered and were attacked because of these “Christ-killer” narratives, especially during the early spring at Passover and Easter time. Yet there is no denying the importance of Passover in Christian theology. Jesus is often called “the lamb of G-d.” Christian theologians speak of the paschal sacrifice of Christ. The Last Supper may have been on Passover. The words or phrases used in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian for Easter are all derived from the Hebrew Pesach (Passover). In fact, the words for Passover in those languages are almost identical to those for Easter, indicating the close relationship between normative Jewish practices and those of the early Christians who considered themselves Jewish. As for the English Easter, the etymology is unclear. Perhaps it has to do with traditions from the “East” and so derived from the old AngloSaxon term for Eastern. Perhaps it comes from an old Germanic term for “dawn,” evoking the rising sun as a metaphor for the risen Christ. Taken together, these theories convey the idea that Easter was an Eastern, ancient idea involving spiritual renewal, connected with Passover as narrated in Exodus and the haggadah. The paschal lamb was offered on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, the 14th or 15th of Nisan, according to most New Testament scholars. Easter has two symbolic foods that parallel Passover: eggs and lamb. The eggs represent new life, renewal and the return of spring. For Jews, the Passover egg represents the koban hagigah, the special festival offering. The seder egg also symbolizes the promise of rebirth and spring. The lamb for Christians is Jesus,
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PASSOVER
Ethiopian Jews Hide Passover Observance By Patrice Worthy A pre-Talmudic Jewish community in Ethiopia times its celebration of Passover with Easter to shield itself from anti-Semitism. “We are discriminated against in school because they believe we are human by day and hyenas at night,” said Abebe Debay, a member of the Bal Ej Jews, the subject of the film “The Hidden Jews of Ethiopia.” The Bal Ej Jews broke from the Beta Israel Jews in Gondar 300 years ago. It was officially announced there were no more Jews in Ethiopia after the rescue of about 2,000 Falash Mura Jewish families through Projects Solomon and Moses in the late 1980s and early 1990s. But when filmmaker Irene Orleansky, along with Melissa Toporek, traveled to the neighborhood of Kechene in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, they documented the Bal Ej and their long-forgotten pre-Talmudic Jewish practices. “Thank you for writing about my people and our community,” Debay said. “Our identity is not openly known. We do not reveal our identity because of killing and discrimination.” Debay and Toporek, who are married, are members of Congregation Bet Haverim. The Bal Ej, whose name means craftsman, live in secret, masquerading as Christians in public but practicing Judaism behind closed doors. “The insult and suffering are because of religion. The Coptic church encourages persecution,” Debay said. “If someone is sick from the community, they assume they have the evil eye from Jews.” For centuries the group faced discrimination by the Coptic Christian majority, and as a result observed Juda-
Photos courtesy of Melissa Toporek
A member of the Bal Ej community looks down on his secret synagogue in Ethiopia.
ism through a system of secret synagogues and rituals. On Shabbat the Bal Ej Jews bake Shabbat bread that can be eaten only by members inside the secret synagogue. “The priest comes to check your house to see if there is a picture of Jesus,” Debay said. “They know we do things hidden, but they don’t know about the hidden synagogues.” The Bal Ej do not feel as threatened in Addis Ababa as they did in Gondor, but Debay said they are always reminded that they are considered second-class citizens. “They do not allow us to serve in the Coptic Christian Church because they believe we killed Jesus,” Debay said. “We still outwardly practice Christianity, but they know we descended from Jews.” For Passover, the Bal Ej begin celebrating at Easter, and the holiday lasts
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A child studying Hebrew at home uses a wall as a chalkboard.
Melissa Toporek hands a mezuzah to a Bal Ej member for his secret synagogue.
seven days. In the hidden synagogues, oxen are slaughtered in a kosher way, and blood is spilled by the door and smeared on foreheads. “We stay in synagogue as long as blood is on the forehead. The holiday is celebrated under Christian Easter so no one suspects it’s a different practice,” Debay said. During the seven days of Passover, the Bal Ej, who are potters, taxi drivers, weavers and blacksmiths, refrain from work. They eat dorowot, a traditional stew made with chicken spices, red pepper, garlic and onion. They pass time playing card games and gambling, Debay said, because gambling is permitted during festivals. “We don’t do nothing,” he said.
“For seven days we go around to different houses and eat dorowot. If a couple is married, it is required they take dorowot to their parents’ house at night and eat it all together.” Like Jews who observe Passover in the Western tradition, the Jews of Addis Ababa do not eat bread, and they thoroughly clean their homes before the festival. The younger generation established an open synagogue in the neighborhood where they eat matzah. “We used to go there and eat matzah to have a common religious practice with the West,” Debay said. In general, the Bal Ej Jews are not interested in adopting Western practices or seeking acknowledgment from the Israeli government. Toporek said a rabbi tried to start the process of official recognition, but it’s difficult to measure pre-Talmudic Jews using Western standards. “From the perspective of the state of Israel, they don’t understand the recordkeeping,” Toporek said. “They can’t walk in with their parents’ ketubah and say, ‘I want to make aliyah.’ The process for Westerners is different from the process for non-Westerners.” Debay learned he was Jewish like most Jews around the world and doesn’t like using a set of standards to validate someone who falls outside the current Jewish homogeneity. “The rabbi asked Debay, ‘Who told you you are Jewish?’ and he said, ‘My mother. Who told you you were Jewish?’ and the rabbi said, ‘My mother.’ ” There are no photos or Jewish wedding contracts to prove the Bal Ej’s Jewish lineage, but Toporek embraces her husband’s identity. While Toporek was working in Ethiopia, she worshipped with the Bal Ej. “I came across the community while working there for three months. I was really looking for a place to celebrate Shabbat,” Toporek said. “When I met them and participated in the festivals and rituals, it felt like home.” In Atlanta, Debay is learning to practice Talmudic rituals. He said he must always practice Judaism, whether in the United States or in Ethiopia. “Every religious activity done is because we should not be separated from the city of David. Many believe it’s not in Israel but in heaven,” Debay said. “We don’t have the right to own land (in Ethiopia), and we’re persecuted because we prefer to have the city of David.” ■
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SPORTS
Braves Trust Starr With Stadium Signs By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
A large statue of Hank Aaron sits in the monument garden, a section of the park devoted to the franchise’s best players and coaches of all time.
Guests at SunTrust Park have many options for in-game dining, including the Hank Aaron Club in left field.
Mets fans support Braves starting pitcher Bartolo Colon, who played for New York last season.
The Chop House in right field offers some of the stadium’s best views.
New Dawn for Atlanta Baseball
The first baseball game at SunTrust Park, an exhibition game providing a soft opening for the Cobb County stadium, saw the Atlanta Braves defeat the New York Yankees 8-5 to end spring training March 31. It was a chance for the Braves staff to test out everything from security and concessions inside the park to parking and traffic outside it. The Braves officially open the ballpark in the Cumberland Community Improvement District at 7:35 p.m. Friday, April 14, against the San Diego Padres.
Above: Members of Todd Starr’s crew install a large SunTrust Park sign at one of the main entrances to the stadium. Left: Todd Starr and retired NFL running back Jamal Lewis are partners on the SunTrust Park sign installation.
The Atlanta Braves sign just outside the park is one of many Todd Starr’s team installed.
project. Starr’s sister company, ASAP Signs, was selected to manufacture and install frosted vinyls throughout the Braves’ new corporate offices. In addition to being a past JNF Southeast president, Starr attends Chabad of North Fulton and is the captain of its softball team in the Atlanta Men’s Synagogue Softball League. He and his wife, Gabrielle Starr, serve as co-chairs for the congregation’s building campaign. He has also coached baseball in the past two JCC Maccabi Games. Next up for Starr and Altair Signs is the installation of signage at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a project that is behind schedule because of delays with the one-of-a-kind retractable roof. “We’re honored to be chosen to install signs in both stadiums this year,” Starr said. “We have our work cut out for us at the Falcons stadium with such a condensed timeframe, but we welcome the challenge.” ■
No Shabbat Changes at Sinai The first season at SunTrust Park is expected to cause traffic woes for much of metro Atlanta, especially while the repairs on Interstate 85 push more traffic toward I-75 and the western side of the Perimeter, but Temple Sinai, the closest congregation to the stadium, isn’t making any changes to its Shabbat service schedule for now. The Sandy Springs synagogue, which is four miles from the stadium, holds Friday services at 6:30 p.m. Stadium traffic from Sandy Springs and Buckhead for 7:35 p.m. games could flow past Sinai and interfere with people headed to services. “At this time, we are not making any changes to our Friday evening service schedule,” said Sinai’s communications director, Andrea Fineman. “We will monitor the situation as the season starts and solicit feedback from our members. We will then determine if any adjustments need to be made later in the summer.” Thirteen Friday night games are scheduled at SunTrust Park this season.
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Photos by David R. Cohen
Long security lines await fans at the Braves’ first game inside their new stadium.
The Atlanta Braves’ sparkling new stadium and surrounding mixed-use development, a project with a total cost of $1.1 billion, is filled with options for enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of a major-league baseball game. Everywhere you turn at SunTrust Park, something is there to catch your eye. Jewish Atlantan Todd Starr played a role in making the venue so captivating. Starr, a past president of the Jewish National Fund Southeast Region, is the owner of Altair Sign and Light and recently installed hundreds of signs on the interior and exterior of the stadium. Although Altair does fabricate signs, a company out of Pennsylvania manufactured the signs for SunTrust Park, and Starr’s crews did the installation. Some of the park’s most visible signs were bolted on by Starr and his crew, including the SunTrust Park signs on all the main-gate entrances, the Chop House signs, the Home Depot Club House and Kid Zone signs, and most of the concession stand signs inside the park. “We are humbled to be chosen as the local sign installation company for a project of such importance and scope,” Starr said. “Kudos to our project manager Justin Graham and our crews for getting it together.” Starr and his team partnered with Southeast Exhibits on the project. The two companies worked at the stadium from November through March to get hundreds of signs erected. Atlanta native Jamal Lewis, a retired NFL running back, is the president of Southeast Exhibits. Starr said the partnership between the companies was invaluable for executing the
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POLITICS
www.atlantajewishtimes.com
Call to Service Leads Wiskind Into Election By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
Bob Wiskind was observing a state Senate debate on the medical use of cannabis oil during this year’s General Assembly when he heard at least three senators incorrectly cite the testimony of the head of the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The AAP is concerned that allowing children with autism to be treated with cannabis oil turns them into lab rats because no studies have been done on the oil’s effectiveness, dosing or side effects, said Wiskind, a former Georgia AAP president who has practiced at Peachtree Park Pediatrics for 25 years. But that’s not the story the senators told their colleagues. “They got the facts so terribly wrong that I wanted to be able to just stand up and say, ‘No, that’s not the way it’s been explained to you by people who know it, and that’s not the way reality works,’ ” Wiskind said. (The legislature passed Senate Bill 16, which awaits Gov. Nathan Deal’s signature.) The chance to be a voice of medical knowledge and in the process help
Bob Wiskind is one of the few residents of the 32nd Senate District who is outside the 6th Congressional District.
people beyond his pediatric practice inspired Wiskind to enter the April 18 special election for the 32nd District seat in the state Senate. The Temple member and Sandy Springs resident is running as a Democrat in a district represented for more than a decade by Republican Judson Hill, who resigned to run for Congress. He is married to gynecologist Anne Wiskind, and they have two children, Sam, 25, and Claire, 21. Wiskind hopes to appeal to Republican voters who consider themselves fiscal conservatives but social liberals. “We really do have a responsibility to our fellow citizens, especially to those who … are less fortunate or need a helping hand,” Wiskind said. He sees that as a core tenet of the Democratic Party and a vital teaching of Judaism. Wiskind grew up in Akron, Ohio,
and came to Atlanta 30 years ago for medical school at Emory. He said his political beliefs fit Reform Jewish tradition, such as: • Adequate health care, especially preventive care, is a responsibility of the community. • Georgia should expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. • State money should not go to private schools through vouchers or the popular student scholarship organization tax credit, widely used by Jewish day schools. “It potentially legitimizes discrimination,” he said. • Transportation solutions, from rail to roads, require coordination. • The HOPE scholarship must be fully funded. • The minimum wage should be raised so that it is a living wage. • Campus carry for firearms adds danger without any benefits. • The state, already running on a lean budget (49th on Medicaid spending, for example), should not cut taxes. “It is my responsibility, as somebody who has done well financially, to pay taxes to support those who need society’s help,” Wiskind said. ■
8 Seek Senate Seat Pediatrician Bob Wiskind is one of eight candidates running April 18 in the special election for the state Senate seat Republican Judson Hill resigned to run for Congress. The three Democrats and five Republicans are on the same ballot; if no one gets a majority, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will compete in a runoff June 20. The other seven candidates: • Democrat Christine Triebsch, a family-law lawyer who attends St. James’ Episcopal Church, www. christine4ga.com. She wants Georgia to accept the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, supports Planned Parenthood and opposes private management of any public schools. • Democrat Exton Howard, a TV director for the Weather Channel, extonhoward.com. He proposes a light-rail link from the northwest suburbs to MARTA, supports a higher minimum wage, backs the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA, wants funding for Planned Parenthood, rejects religious liberty measures proposed in recent years and opposes private management of public schools. • Republican Gus Makris, a tax lawyer who attends Holy Spirit Catholic Church, makrisforsenate. com. He wants to protect the HOPE scholarship, reform the state’s school funding formula, enhance posthigh-school alternatives to four-year colleges, invest in roads and bridges, overhaul government spending to allow tax cuts, and help law enforcement fight human trafficking. • Republican Hamilton Beck, a financial systems consultant, beckforga.com. He opposes abortion, backs gun ownership and school choice, and wants to cut taxes and spending. • Republican Kay Kirkpatrick, a retired orthopedic surgeon who attends East Cobb United Methodist Church, kayforsenate.com. She wants to help dismantle the Affordable Care Act and to replace the state income tax with the Georgia Fair Tax, a sales tax.
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• Republican Matt Campbell, a railroad conductor and union lobbyist who attends North Point Community Church, votemattcampbell. com. He supports transportation infrastructure spending, lower taxes, sufficient funding for all public schools and reduced red tape for small businesses.
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• Republican Roy Daniels, a neuroradiologist and financial adviser who attends Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, danielsforsenate.com. He opposes the Affordable Care Act, seeks more business-friendly regulatory and tax policies, wants lower taxes, supports gun rights and opposes abortion.
POLITICS
Kremer Warns of GOP Wasting Its Chance By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Amy Kremer is a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots and former chair of the Tea Party Express.
Kremer was an early supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign but said she is not 100 percent in agreement with the president and is not running to be a yes-woman in Washington. She said it’s disgraceful that the Republican-led Congress has failed to send Trump legislation to sign, but she opposed the failed Affordable Care Act repeal bill, which she joined other conservatives in calling “Obamacare Lite.” Repealing the ACA is not the only issue on Kremer’s agenda. She wants to abolish the Department of Education and send its money to the states as block grants. She wants to cut regulations, especially at the Environmental Protection Agency, so that American businesses can compete fairly with foreign competitors. For economic and national security reasons, she sees the need to pay down the $20 trillion national debt and continue to reduce imports of oil. She wants to cut the income tax rates on individuals and corporations and insists on offsetting any new investments in infrastructure with spending cuts elsewhere. “We need to live within our means,” she said. She supports peace through a stronger military, with the hope that such strength will deter enemies. “I’m a principled conservative, and you know where I stand,” Kremer said. And she stands against the ACA. Kremer said Republicans were elected to repeal and replace Obamacare, but they are squandering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to effect change in Washington because they’re “afraid of their own shadow” and obsessed with re-election. The repeal legislation must go through the normal legislative process, unlike the ACA and the failed Republican bill, she said. The ACA replacement has to lower premiums, cut drug costs and allow the purchase of insurance policies across state lines to increase competition but remove the mandate to have health insurance. “It’s about choice and free-market solutions,” Kremer said. ■
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When Al-Qaida terrorists knocked down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and struck the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 Americans, Amy Kremer’s daughter didn’t know all that day whether her mother was one of the casualties. Kremer, then a flight attendant with Delta, had flown to Grand Cayman on Sept. 10, then spent the night in a hospital after falling ill instead of flying back to Atlanta the same day as usual. Set to go home Sept. 11, Kremer was stuck when all air traffic was grounded after the terrorist attacks. She was safe, but the experience brought home for her the importance of homeland security. She thus supports efforts to annihilate Islamic State, thinks it was wrong to unfreeze $100 billion or more of foreign assets for terror sponsor Iran under its nuclear weapons deal, recognizes the importance of standing strong with Israel as the United States’ No. 1 ally in the Middle East, opposes admitting refugees from Syria and other countries where terrorists are active, and insists on tough immigration enforcement to stop terrorists from slipping into the United States. Still, it was not Osama bin Laden but Barack Obama that compelled Kremer, a lifelong East Cobb resident, to become politically active. She was one of the founders of the modern Tea Party movement and spent the past eight years organizing rallies, campaigning around the country, and fighting the Affordable Care Act with Rep. Tom Price and others. Kremer, a Republican, said she never aspired to be in Congress even as others encouraged her to run, but then Price resigned the 6th District seat to lead the Trump administration’s ACA repeal efforts as health and human services secretary. “I can’t go out and encourage others if I’m not willing to do it myself, so here I am,” she said in an interview. Kremer, who was born at WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, graduated from Lassiter High School and went to Auburn University, said she’s “a home-grown peach.” “I believe we’re a conservative district” that wants a small government living within its means, she said. “Washington should work for us.”
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Physician Quigg Aims To Heal Health Care
Navy Veteran Keatley Urges Global U.S. Role
Congressional candidate Rebecca Quigg is ready to pit her expertise on the Affordable Care Act and health policy against any of her 17 rivals. “We need a doctor in the House who wants to give health care coverage to patients in America, who wants to fight to keep the law we have, improve it and expand it to cover everyone,” said Quigg, who lives in East Cobb and has worked the past four years as a health reform advocate and ACA consultant, from helping people enroll for health coverage to forcing insurers to meet their coverage requirements. “There couldn’t be a more perfect time for someone like me to run.” Quigg ended her 25-year career as a cardiologist and moved with her younger son, Gregory, to the Atlanta area three years ago from Chicago, where she directed the heart transplant program she created at Northwestern University. Her goal was to find the right school for Gregory, who has a central auditory processing disorder. Pope High School proved to be the perfect fit because of its special education program and its competition marching band, in which he played tenor saxophone. He will graduate in May, then study engineering in college. Her son’s experience has demonstrated to Quigg the value of public education and some of the deficiencies requiring more funding, such as the counseling departments. But it was health care that pulled her into Democratic politics for the first time. She attended a fall conference at which Republican Rep. Tom Price and Sen. Johnny Isakson talked about the need to raise the retirement age to save Social Security, an idea Quigg rejects. Quigg discussed her disagreement with Price after the meeting, then asked him why he voted against letting Medicare negotiate drug prices, as Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs do. Price cited the high research and development costs paid by drugmakers; Quigg responded with the huge profits they make. The discussion stuck with her when Donald Trump picked Price as his health and human services secretary. Quigg opposes most of what Trump says and does, but she said putting Price in charge of the nation’s health care might be his worst move.
None of the candidates for the 6th Congressional District seat has served in the Israel Defense Forces, but Democrat Richard Keatley has come closest. During his seven years as an engineering officer in the U.S. Navy, while his frigate, the USS Donald B. Berry, was in port in Haifa, he served a week on an Israeli navy gunboat rather than do maintenance on the boilers. “It was really small. I got a bit seasick because it was so small,” the Tucker resident said. But the experience gave him a good understanding of Israel’s vulnerable position, and his time with the Israeli crew of about 15 sailors helped him appreciate the variety of views about the settlements and the conflict with the Palestinians. “I believe that the two-state solution is … the only viable way to preserve the Jewish state without forcing (out) all of the Palestinians,” Keatley said. Unlike some of his opponents, he said the United States does have a role as a mediator in trying to bring peace to Israel and the Palestinians, much as Jimmy Carter helped Israel and Egypt reach the Camp David Accords. That role extends globally for the world’s largest military and economic force, said Keatley, whose Navy service included time with NATO. “For 70 years the United States has been a stabilizing force,” he said. “No one wants to be the policeman of the world; that’s a negative way to look at it. But our leadership role has helped bring about the spread of democracy in countries where despotism reigned.” Having not only served overseas in the Navy, but also studied for several years in Naples and Paris, Keatley has a broad view of America’s role. A tendency toward isolationism under President Donald Trump worries him, as does a plan to throw more money at the military just to look strong. He’s concerned that the United States is turning away vulnerable refugees and labeling them undesirable even though they’re the least likely people to be terrorists. He cited the parallel fellow Democrat RuthE Levy drew to the fate of Jewish refugees who unsuccessfully fled the Nazis. “Part of being a leader in the world is doing the right thing and helping people who need help,” Keatley said. Helping people applies at home
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By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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Rebecca Quigg moved to East Cobb so her son could attend Pope High School.
So she organized a downtown protest of his nomination Jan. 15. When she got a positive response to her comments about health care a few days later at a protest outside Price’s Roswell office, she decided to run for his seat. “I will speak out as soon as I’m there about what the truth is,” Quigg said, criticizing ACA misinformation from members of Congress. “The American people have been lied to.” She said premiums have skyrocketed because ACA opponents have refused to enforce the law’s cap on annual increases. But the two Democratic physicians in the House have been silent, Quigg said, and the 16 Republican physicians have gone along with repeal efforts. “The thought that we would lose all those benefits is very overwhelming, and I’m set to fight for this,” said Quigg, a Pittsburgh native who had to go into debt to put herself through Washington and Jefferson College and Penn State’s medical school. “I know the facts of this law.” The race to replace Price is her first political battle, but Quigg has her parents as examples of fighting for what’s right. Her father served in the Army Air Forces in World War II, then became an iron worker, and her mother won equal pay for equal work. As the daughter of a veteran and as a physician who worked in Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, Quigg is adamant about getting veterans the best care possible. She said she also is passionate about resisting Trump administration efforts such as undermining public education, delaying or stopping Muslim refugees, and dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency, but health care remains the heart of her campaign. “If Georgia wants a person in Congress that happens to be a physician and an expert on this law, that can actually speak directly to the issues rather than gather from other people who may not be correct,” she said, “then they should elect me.” ■
By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
The open 6th District seat accelerated Richard Keatley’s plans to run for Congress.
as well for the Georgia State professor, who has taught Italian and French here since 2004. Keatley used a Navy ROTC scholarship to earn an engineering degree from Virginia Tech, then supported himself through independent study and a doctoral program at Yale. He’d like to see a national program to trade debt-free college for service. An engineering student might participate in a summer co-op with public works projects, then work with a public or nonprofit agency for a couple years after college, for example. In addition to avoiding student debt and accomplishing needed public service, the program would ensure that students are learning skills that align with employment opportunities. In addition, “national service helps the idea of national identity,” Keatley said. “People become more American by being exposed to people from different places.” If elected, he will have one staffer assigned to do nothing but handle problems and concerns brought by military veterans, who too often run into stall tactics from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Keatley was planning to run against Tom Price in 2018 after being frustrated by the feeble Democratic opposition in 2014 and 2016. When Price resigned to become health and human services secretary, those plans were accelerated. He thought the jungle primary of all 18 candidates on one ballot would benefit an outsider like himself, but he got a lesson in party politics when Democratic institutions and leaders lined up behind Jon Ossoff, who has raised $8.3 million so far. Most observers assume Ossoff will make the likely runoff between the top two vote-getters, but that second-place person could be a Republican, a Democrat or an independent. “I hope it’s me and Jon,” Keatley said. “Then we’ll see if they want a young whippersnapper, or they want a veteran.” ■
POLITICS
Wilson: Term Limits Are Key to Reform D.C. By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
Married to Stacey Wilson, Kurt Wilson has four daughters, ages 12 to 24.
Wilson said, but he did try to convert to Judaism twice. “The rabbi said, ‘Why would I want you to be a Jew? You’re not a very good Christian.’ ” In addition to religion, Wilson said his parents gave him two gifts: a voracious appetite for reading and a blind spot for differences of race, religion and ethnicity. He didn’t know that two of his parents’ three close friends he called “uncle” were Jewish until he was grown up, and he didn’t think anything of going to a black friend’s house or having the friend at his house. “I remember being called a bleeding-heart liberal,” Wilson said. He was an underachiever through high school, and his father had the answer: the Army. Wilson enlisted in the Army Reserve in April 1980, and he said basic training turned him into an overachiever. He got an ROTC scholarship for his junior year in college and intended to be a career officer. But a physical found asthma, and he was discharged before his senior year. Wilson thinks the country would benefit if everyone did military service after high school, following the example of Israel. Young people would gain a sense of patriotism and a connection to something bigger than themselves, and if most of the nation had a connection to someone in the service, there would be more pressure not to go to war except in cases of vital national interests. National service isn’t the only thing Wilson admires about Israel. As a Christian, he said, he honors the Jewish people and their state as G-d’s favorites. “My stance is pro-Israel, pro-Israel, pro-Israel, and the United States is its strongest ally and will continue to be its strongest ally, but not just in talk, but in terms of making sure that the state of Israel stays viable and protected militarily, economically, politically,” Wilson said. He doesn’t have much sympathy for the Palestinians because of their unwillingness to accept Israel. “That two-state nonsense? If Israel negotiates that, fine,” he said. “Our job is to support Israel.” ■
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Solving the nation’s many problems begins with one simple act, in the eyes of small-business man Kurt Wilson: the passage of the 28th Amendment, limiting members of the U.S. House and Senate to two four-year terms of office, just like the president. It’s an idea Wilson, running as a Republican in the 6th Congressional District, didn’t care for 25 years ago but now embraces it as the only way to replace career politicians with normal concerned citizens in Washington and restore the United States to its proper place as “the greatest country that’s ever been on the face of the Earth.” Term limits, the elimination of special pensions and health insurance for members of Congress, and the reduction of legislative sessions to three or four months would break up the “House of Lords” mentality on Capitol Hill, Wilson said. That shift, in turn, would enable Congress to reverse the national debt, balance the budget and create a surplus, repeal the 16th Amendment and institute a flat income tax or a fair consumption tax, and derail and defund the federal bureaucracy. Wilson, who has lived in north Fulton since 1986 and has a business that operates five Zaxby’s franchises in Alabama and develops commercial real estate, is running to be one of those citizen legislators and to effect change as a “junior flunky congressman” because he said a win for a candidate on a term-limits platform in the 6th District would gain national attention. “We need a reformation,” he said. Although he is a conservative Republican propelled by a fervent Episcopal faith, Wilson didn’t start that way. He grew up in a liberal household, and he was unchurched until the family ended a period of at least yearly moves when his father became the vice president of academic affairs at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1972. Wilson said he’s not sure whether his mother was motivated by the needs of her three children or wanted to close a gap in her political résumé (she ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1976), but the family began going to the Episcopal Church. “I took to it like a fly to sugar,” Wilson said. “G-d kept showing Himself to me in ways of love that were humbling and motivating.” His father never cared for church,
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POLITICS
Hill Hopes to Help Israel From a Bigger Stage
Gray Finds His Purpose On the Campaign Trail
By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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No one running in the 6th District race for Congress has risked more politically than Republican Judson Hill, who resigned a safe seat in the state Senate to try to succeed Tom Price. In some ways, his decision to seek higher office also is a risk for Israel. Hill was Israel’s strongest supporter in the Georgia General Assembly. Since 2005, he had been the driving force behind several pro-Israel measures, including legislation forcing Georgia to divest from companies doing business with Iran and a law last year that barred companies boycotting Israel from winning state contracts. The Israeli Consulate General presented him the Friend of Israel Award one Yom HaAtzmaut, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called Hill to thank him for his efforts. “For me, support for Israel is extremely important. It’s in my heart, and I believe in it,” said Hill, who has visited Israel twice and who bases his devotion to the Jewish state on the Bible. “The people of Israel are strong advocates for most of the same principles that I stand on: families and faith and integrity and affordable health care that works, getting government out of your life, reducing your tax and regulatory burden, putting an end to illegal immigration and protecting your borders.” Hill, an East Cobb resident and member of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, said he hopes to have a bigger impact on the U.S.-Israel relationship and in opposition to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in Congress, but support for Israel didn’t drive him to be the first Republican to announce a campaign for Price’s seat. “I just feel we have a unique opportunity here in our country to really chart a new course, fundamentally reform Washington, D.C., get our country back on the right track,” said Hill, who is running as a conservative reformer with a record of getting legislation passed and of putting the interests of his constituents first. He once lost a leadership position in the Senate because he didn’t follow the party’s wishes. Hill doesn’t plan to change that willingness to be his own man in Washington. For example, he said he would have voted against the failed Republican legislation to repeal the Affordable 20 Care Act, in part because it wouldn’t
Judson Hill has endorsements from Sen. Marco Rubio and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
have immediately implemented the replacement for Obamacare. Health care is one of Hill’s strong issues. He wrote state legislation for health insurance to cover existing conditions, be portable from job to job, and be available for purchase across state lines, and he co-wrote a bill to reduce the frivolous malpractice lawsuits that lead doctors to practice expensive defensive medicine. He also wants federal legislation to keep the provision for children to stay on their parents’ policies until age 26. Health care legislation, he said, should focus on the patient and the patient-doctor relationship while removing bureaucrats from decisions about care. The measure should lower costs and increase access and choice. Ultimately, Hill would like to see health insurance severed from employment so that people take the coverage they want from job to job. From support for the military and veterans to the creation of balanced budgets to a reduction in government regulation and tax rates, Hill emphasized that he has a record of actions to back up his words. The military support is personal. His wife, Shelly, is the widow of a man who died while serving in the Navy, and Hill serves as an officer in the Georgia State Defense Force, where he puts his legal expertise to work helping families prepare for military deployments. “We need to stand up for veterans for the rest of their lives,” said Hill, who agrees with President Donald Trump that the defense budget needs to be increased to properly equip U.S. troops. “They made a commitment. We need to keep our promise to them.” In an 18-candidate field, including 10 other Republicans and a Democrat, Jon Ossoff, who has raised more money than the other candidates combined, Hill said voters have an important responsibility. “We need to select the conservative who can win this race. The issues are too complex, they’re too important, to send someone there to learn on the job.” ■
Bob Gray acknowledges that it sounds hokey, but in running for Congress from the 6th District, he’s on a mission from G-d: to save the American dream amid protests, violence and the effects of illegal immigration. “It’s not a country I recognize anymore.” Gray, a longtime tech executive, doesn’t have divine visions. But a few years ago the book “Halftime” by Bob Buford led him to ponder his purpose and his legacy. He worked on a personal mission statement that led him to the conclusion that G-d wanted him to step onto the field of political battle. He won a seat on the Johns Creek City Council in July 2014, knowing it was the start of a journey but not where the path led. “I didn’t know this opportunity would present itself, but you have to recognize when G-d opens and closes doors and try to step through.” The timing is good for Gray, who grew up in Buffalo, because his oldest daughter graduated from the University of Georgia last year, and his three other children are in college and, as he put it, “transitioning off the payroll.” As required by state law, the Republican resigned from the City Council in February to join 17 others on the April 18 ballot in the special election for Tom Price’s former House seat. As much as any other candidate, Gray has aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump. He said Trump made 22 promises in his speech to a joint session of Congress, and Gray agreed with all of them. Part of the reason, he said, is that both are businessmen. People in business are interested in results, whereas the lawyers who often become career politicians are interested in the debate. Gray said Trump is the kind of disruptor Washington needs to make the dramatic changes that will help pay down the inconceivably large debt, such as cutting welfare and eliminating the Education Department. Gray has a vision for the next era of the U.S. economy, driven by innovation in artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics and the Internet of Things. The productivity gains will be impressive, he said, but they will require a workforce with different skills. That means changing education now to get ahead of the disruptions. We need to emphasize options
Bob Gray says the lure of time with future grandchildren will limit his terms in Washington.
beyond four-year colleges after high school, he said, citing an eight-week coding boot camp that all but guarantees a job for at least $50,000 a year. Gray also advocates school choice and wants states and local school districts to control education funding. In health care, the problem is the cost, Gray said. He wants to apply freemarket principles to increase competition and thus expand choices, lower prices and increase quality. Part of the solution, he said, is for people to recognize that health insurance, like auto insurance, should be used to mitigate the risk of something bad happening. It shouldn’t apply to standard maintenance (oil changes and tune-ups for cars, checkups and standard screenings for people). Gray said he would have unhappily voted for the Republican legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act because, as Ronald Reagan said, 80 percent of something is better than 100 percent of nothing. But Gray blames House Speaker Paul Ryan for the bill’s failure. Perhaps proving Gray is an optimist, he said he is confident Congress will resolve health care before he takes office, allowing him to focus instead on economic issues. He wants to cut corporate income taxes from 35 percent to as close to zero as possible and replace the individual income tax with a national consumption (or sales) tax. He also proposes deregulation of the health care, financial services and energy industries to spur job growth, but in an environmentally responsible way. “The last thing I want to see is a spoiled environment,” said Gray, who called himself an outdoorsman who likes to hunt, hike and ski. He and his wife, high school sweetheart Susanne, had a special outdoor experience in Israel in the late 1990s: They baptized each other in the Jordan River during a tour of the country. “The U.S. and Israel are rock-solid global partners,” Gray said. “Together we stand against terrorism and more traditional enemies.” ■
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POLITICS
Edwards: Georgia Needs Women in Congress Four women are running in the 6th Congressional District special election April 18, including Democrat Ragin Edwards, who says Georgia has a long way to go toward gender equality. Georgia has no female representative in Congress, and the Peach State ranks 49th out of the 50 states for women elected to state and federal office. “I have two daughters, and I feel that women are being ignored and undervalued today,” Edwards said. “We’re the only group in the world treated as second-class citizens anywhere you go. I want my daughters to grow up in a country where they can get paid the same as a male counterpart and where they don’t have to worry about their rights being taken.” Georgia has elected only five women to Congress, most recently Democrat Cynthia McKinney, who left office in 2007 after losing the party primary in the 4th District to Hank Johnson. Running on a campaign slogan of bringing government back to the people, Edwards’ top priorities are improved education, tax legislation that favors the middle class, and racial and gender equality. She does not support repeal of the Affordable Care Act but said it does need to be fixed to lower premiums. Edwards grew up in East Cobb and graduated from Pope High School before enrolling at Georgia Tech. She then moved to Washington, where she completed her degree at Nyack College. She moved back to East Cobb to raise a family a few years ago and now works as a senior manager of global sales operations at a technology services firm. “I’m able to put myself in the shoes of the people that different laws will effect,” she said. “I understand how small things can effect certain groups of people astronomically. I understand how it is to work for a global organization and how regulations that are put on the company don’t allow them to thrive. That perspective is one that most of the candidates don’t have.” She has some famous family. Her cousin Eugene Jacques Bullard was the first black fighter pilot in the world; he flew for France during World War I. Her grandmother was a well-known minister in Rochester, N.Y., where she fed the homeless and founded a nonprofit for women who were victims of sex trafficking. Edwards visited Israel with her
Ragin Edwards, who grew up in East Cobb, is hoping to be the sixth woman ever elected to Congress from Georgia.
mother and a Christian tour group in 2008 and said it was the best trip she has ever been on. “You read the Bible, and then you see where everything happened,” she
said. “It really helps you put everything in perspective. For such a small country, it’s amazing how much goes on there.” She said the United States has
probably done more harm than good the past few years in trying to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The 6th District has elected Republicans since 1978. But Edwards, running as a Democrat, said that if elected she would take all viewpoints into consideration. “I do tend to vote Democratic, and I have certain values that align with my party in terms of equality and education,” she said. “But I’m not a person who won’t listen to the other side. Representatives are supposed to align with their district, not the other way around.” ■
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By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
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NCJW Atlanta thanks our local sponsors for the NCJW National Convention held in Atlanta March 23-25:
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• The Flower Buds
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• • • •
(Robyn Tanenbaum and Shirley Bernes)
Georgia Peanut Commission Henri’s Bakery Publix Supermarkets The Fresh Market in Buckhead
POLITICS
Can Mr. Hernandez Go to Washington? By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Alexander Hernandez is used to working behind the scenes on movie sets, but now that he has stepped into the spotlight by running for Congress, the Dunwoody resident is looking for a Hollywood ending. It’s the Cinderella story of a working-class, religious son of Mexican immigrants who finds himself in the right place at the right time to bring a new, independent voice to Washington. “There’s an appetite for an independent. That’s what we’re taking advantage of,” Hernandez said. Born in Illinois, Hernandez grew up in northern Indiana. His father is retired from a steel mill; his mom owns a beauty salon. After studying political science, Hernandez switched to film school, earned a degree in Florida, and worked in set decoration in Los Angeles, then in Georgia. He said he was planning to get out of the film industry and try labor organizing and politics when he and wife Adea de Carlo and their two dogs moved to Georgia about a year ago, but fell back into set work until Tom Price was nominated for health and human services secretary, opening the 6th District seat in Congress. Hernandez and his wife intended to move to Decatur, outside the 6th District, but the home they were going to rent wasn’t acceptable. At the last minute, they found a place in Dunwoody, in the middle of Price’s district. The couple did a lot of praying about whether Hernandez should enter the race. “Whatever happens, you’ve just got to put your faith in G-d and go from there,” said Hernandez, who called himself a nondenominational Christian for whom faith is crucial. He also called himself the only true independent among the 18 candidates — Andre Pollard also is running as an independent — and said independence is more important to 6th District voters than resistance to President Donald Trump. The resistance, Hernandez said, is just composed of disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and hasn’t gotten much traction in the Republicanleaning 6th. “An independent has a better chance than a Democrat in this district,” Hernandez said. Without party affiliation, he said,
Alexander Hernandez advocates a national program of infrastructure improvements.
he can apply common sense to issues and do what his constituents want instead of worrying about party loyalty. He’s not a pacifist, but doesn’t think the U.S. should be involved in any of its seven current conflicts. “The best way to help in a humanitarian way is to stop bombing folks, stop getting involved in conflicts,” Hernandez said. The military has a big enough budget, Hernandez said, even though Americans have lived in fear since Sept. 11, “We’re the United States of America. What are we afraid of?” He does not support continuing to give Israel more than $3 billion a year in military aid, which he sees as perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said it’s up to the Israelis and Palestinians to decide on the future they want, and the United States, which is not seen as an impartial broker, should stay out of the way. Back home, Hernandez supports an extensive national program of infrastructure projects to invest in people and take care of such priorities as clean water and bridges that don’t collapse. The projects should exist already, and they should not rely on the crony capitalism of tax credits. He wants to see audacious goals instead of incrementalism. “We have that ambition to do great things.” Hernandez is wary of a health care bubble that could cause a bigger crash than the housing bubble a decade ago. He said any health care reform that relies on private insurance in unsustainable. Instead, he’d like to expand a people-operated Medicare to cover everyone. Despite the bubble talk, Hernandez is an optimist, like a character out of a Capra film. “We like that no one’s talking about us,” Hernandez said. “Everyone’s focused on the folks with money. But, frankly, you talk to people on the ground, and they want something different.” ■
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POLITICS
Pollard Pushes Tech for American Dream Andre Pollard represents the American dream: An immigrant who came from English-speaking Guyana at age 10, he has a solid career as a tech professional working in the cloud in development operations, owns a home in Milton, and has a hairdresser wife and four children. He tries to give back to the community through involvement in groups that support tech startups and app developers, and he teaches free Saturday classes to anyone who wants to learn computer coding with Ruby on Rails. Now he’s running for Congress in the special election April 18 to replace Tom Price in the 6th District. “I am District 6. I am everyone in District 6,” Pollard said. “I live in District 6. I’m a homeowner. I live in a community. I’ve got teenage daughters. I’ve got a 4-year-old in pre-K, Georgia pre-K, thank goodness it’s free. I’ve got a 1½-year-old toddler running around.” Like other nonpoliticians in the race, Pollard said life is good for him, but he felt compelled to address problems holding back others in America. “It became more and more difficult watching TV and yelling at the TV. I just felt so helpless,” Pollard said about the start of the Trump administration. “The whole American brand just got devalued in less than a month.” When Price resigned to become health and human services secretary, Pollard saw his opportunity. But he chose to run outside the two-party system, something made easier by the one-primary system used in the special election, with all candidates on one ballot. “A lot of our problems is the segregation of Republican and Democrat,” he said, because elected officials listen to parties instead of constituents. Pollard instead launched his own party, the Tech Party, of which he is the only candidate. As the name indicates, the focus is on expanding the integration of technology into society. Pollard wants to see more women, more minorities, more inner-city youths, more welfare recipients and more people from outdated industries find positions in the tech industry. For example, instead of trying to regain lost jobs in coal mining, Pollard would like the coal communities trained to design, build, operate and repair robots to take on dangerous mining work. Pollard grew up on Long Island and worked his way through com-
Andre Pollard came to the United States when he was 10.
munity college before finishing a mechanical engineering degree at SUNYBuffalo. As an example of an immigrant succeeding through hard work, he takes it personally when he sees the
American dream under attack. Pollard moved to Georgia from New York for a contract with AT&T as a Microsoft Exchange consultant. He has lived in Milton for 14 years. He knows job opportunities exist if people can get the right training because the tech industry must issue so many H-1B visas to bring in foreign workers to fill open positions. Many such workers live just north of the 6th District in Cumming, he said. He supports a path to citizenship for longtime illegal immigrants, but he also said it’s important for immigrants to commit to integrating into society. He doesn’t want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but he knows the law
needs to be changed to address health care affordability because his premiums went up 20 percent. But if elected officials would focus on issues instead of the politics, he said, solutions could be found because there are so many areas of agreement, such as allowing inter-state competition for insurers and covering existing conditions. He supports military aid to Israel, and he’s hopeful that the Israelis and Palestinians soon will grow weary of conflict and accept coexistance. Such is the optimism of a candidate who knows he’s a long shot in an 18-candidate field. “I’m a great tennis player,” he said. “I’ll challenge anyone, including Serena Williams.” ■
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By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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HOME
Buckhead Pad Inspired by Earth, Water The 4,200-square-foot Alpern condo in Buckhead has a tiger’s-eye view of the city — not to be overshadowed by its classical format with a modern allure. Looking out the 20th-floor windows, the view could be Chicago or Tokyo. Looking inside, it’s a seamless, sophisticated tone-on-tone sanctuary. The interior design team began with Charlestonian Terry Gillespie and concluded with Atlantans Bill Moore and Bill Stewart. Sandy Springs art consultant Anthony Naturman brought in contrasting Craig Alan pieces. “When the Alperns moved from their old home, they did a complete change in taste and design,” Naturman said. Amy and Woody Alpern collected the remainder from travels and things to which they were attracted. Local Israeli master Yaacov Golan did the spectacular lighting, as seen in the master bathroom rotunda. Leather walls and headboards add texture and depth. What stimulates the most is Mother Nature’s art, such as the coral in front of the cascading indoor waterfall. Take our sky-high oceanic tour.
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Jaffe: The ambience here is very sultry and sedate. What mood did you wish to convey? Amy: I wanted to come home from work and feel relaxed in a taupeand-charcoal setting. I would call our style “simply modern.” Our furniture and art are varied: braided metallic beaded chains as a backdrop for the bar, Lalique, leather, iron and real earthy elements. We enjoyed commissioning local artist Francesca Ocampo, who created the 8-foot-by-8-foot oil facing the bar. Framing it was not so easy (laughing). Jaffe: Your natural earth touches are geological yet artful. Woody: Yes, we collect agates and surround ourselves with travertine, petrified wood, stone, jade, quartz and the like. The front guest powder room is primarily onyx. When you get off the elevator, you see a geological display.
Jaffe: The kitchen really plays into that. Amy: The island is chocolate 24 cement with embedded agate. It was
very difficult to get these counters up here in one elevator. The back counter is brushed granite. This huge bowl is travertine. The cabinets are striped wood. Our appliances have red knobs, which add some fun. The backsplash tile all around is wavy cement, simulating the ocean. Most of our chairs throughout are warm wood in ultra-
Chai-Style Homes By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com
A suede. The architect designed the ceiling in an elliptical circle. But you won’t find me in here cooking very often. Jaffe: What are some of the most unusual pieces that you have? Amy: I would say the recycledpaper chandeliers in the main living/ dining area with the neon tips are the most eclectic. In the hall we have a South African art collection that stands on its own — stone and carving. … We like to collect things from travels like this warrior mask from Greece. We brought back this very intricate, hand-embroidered group of Asian women from Beijing. Most of all, we love Israel and to shop there. Jaffe: Anthony, why did you select Craig Alan for the Alperns? Naturman: The two pieces by Alan are just a taste of his abilities. He is indeed a unique artist, always finding new ways to express his art. Inspired by the techniques of Sumi-e, Craig created this limited series of figurative paintings, “Cardinal Marks,” using 10 strokes or less. The medium is waterborne wood stain on paper. The canvas at the Alperns’ entrance is titled “Cymbals,” done in oil and acrylic on board. We first huddled with Craig to custom-design and then met along the process, seeing the different layers in its stages of creation. The end result is the two striking pieces. Jaffe: I have never seen more and more varied mezuzot. How do you relate to your Judaica? Woody: We have one on the door of every room and entrance. The hamsa collection in our daughter’s bedroom is from Tsfat (in northern Israel). We sentimentally collect art
B
C featuring King David. The ceramic of David as a boy is the first piece we bought as a couple. The David in the kitchen is an Israeli piece by Nina. I treasure the Meisner Torah we acquired, also in Tsfat. Jaffe: You are an avid scuba diver. Do the tactile ocean and organic shell touches reflect that? Woody: I was born with fins, and diving is my passion. I have been scuba diving all over the world, from Palau, an archipelago of 500 islands in
the western Pacific, to the Galapagos, Indonesia. That’s why we have textures from the ocean throughout the home. I am a volunteer at the Georgia Aquarium and perform in the show “Ocean Voyages,” where we relate to and educate the audience. I especially enjoyed taking my daughters (on those scuba trips). Amy is certified but, shall we say, “reluctant.” Jaffe: Last word, Woody. Now we know why you have a waterfall outside your master bathroom. ■
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HOME
D
F
G
E H
I
J
K
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Photos by Duane Stork
A: The master bathroom features a spectacular chandelier. B: The Alpern master bedroom has a square leather headboard for a dramatic effect. C: The Alperns brought back this intricate threaded traditional tapestry from China. D: The expansive living/dining area is graced by recycled-paper chandeliers with unusual neon tips. E: The Craig Alan painting “Cardinal Marks,” done in fewer than 10 strokes, joins the waterfall down the hall to make the master wing more exotic. F: The TV room expands on the leather-themed walls with a sea-urchin chandelier. The family’s cherished Meisner Torah from Tsfat is on an end table in the back-left corner. G: The front foyer welcomes guests with the dual canvasses called “Cymbals” by Craig Alan. Anthony Naturman and the Alperns were involved in Alan’s artistic process at steps along the way. H: The Alperns commissioned Francesca Ocampo to create this large oil painting opposite their bar. I: This portrait of David as a young boy, displayed in the TV room, is the first piece of art the couple collected together. J: The kitchen has wavelike walls to accent the chocolate-cement counters with imbedded agate forms. K: The warrior mask, collected in Greece, hangs beside the bar.
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TRAVEL
3 Decades of Travel With the Marx Family By Jeanie Franco Marx
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As a family, the Marxes have traveled together for more than three decades, never missing a year. The first trip was to the Caribbean on a Windjammer cruise, known as the “barefoot cruises” because we remained barefoot the entire week, living in a tiny cabin and never worrying about what to wear. I was invited, having become Albert Marx’s girlfriend. Because we couldn’t control our cabin’s air conditioning, we often slept under the stars and awoke to the smell of fresh doughnuts and coffee. We would dock at a different island each day, maybe go for a swim at a beach or check out the island shopping, and later watch the sunset as we sipped our rum swizzles. It was a true tropical paradise with no worries. That first trip would be one of many, some that included grandchildren and some that were just for Albert’s children and their spouses, and later included my daughter and her husband.
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The Marx family gathers at Yellowstone for the annual trip in 2016.
One trip we learned to ski at Grey Rocks, a Canadian resort with phenomenal ski instructors and even better French cuisine. We loved the Quebecois food so much that we often left our ski run to indulge in the amazing lunches. We cruised with Holland America to see Alaska one June — the warmest time of year, we were told. But it rained almost daily, and the temps never got above 50 or 55. Nevertheless, we made the most of our trip and enjoyed the antics of our barista when we reconvened each happy hour. Another summer found us in Alberta, visiting the ice fields and gorgeous scenery around Banff, Jasper and Lake Louise, where glacier runoff
created sparkling aqua lakes. The Galapagos has to be one of the highlights of our trips. Marco led us around many islands on our own little yacht to swim, hike and explore the islands. Then he took us out in a dinghy to snorkel twice a day and check out reef sharks, penguins and sea lions. Once while snorkeling I was eye to eye with a magnificent sea lion that was not fazed by my proximity. After all, there have never been predators on these islands, so the inhabitants, such as blue-footed boobies, cormorants and albatrosses, have no fear. The same goes for the sally lightfoot crabs that skitter over the rocky shore and the marine iguanas, which recall prehis-
toric life with their craggy armor and quick movements. Twice we spent a week on a Western dude ranch: once in Wyoming and another time in Colorado, where we honed our horseback riding skills and Diablo threw me out of the saddle. For the Wyoming trip, we took our young grandchildren. Rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon was one highlight of our American trips, as was last year’s gathering in Yellowstone National Park. Seeing a national park up close, away from iPhones and other distractions, is truly a gift. The Grand Canyon meant bathing in a 42-degree river and being treated to wonderful dishes like bananas Foster and guacamole, prepared in the middle of an American wilderness. In Yellowstone, we stayed in rustic cabins and the Old Faithful Inn, overlooking huge bison that took naps below our window and blocked traffic in the park. Each day our guide would set up scopes and aim them at whatever critter he spotted: elk, bear or bison. Eventually it became commonplace to see elk behind the cabin or watch an elk being born. The geysers and hot springs were amazing, each more colorful than the next. The same thing happened in Africa. Kenya offered us a window into nature that few experience, introducing us to unusual birds and wildlife as well as those we knew. Spotting a leopard in a tree was a special treat. We were fearful watching elephants emerge from the river into our camp. The minute we made the event known, however, someone appeared and scared him away. And the camping was deluxe, better known as “glamping,” with a cushy, king-size bed and spacious bath in the middle of the Masai Mara. We’ve spent time on the beaches of the Mayan Riviera, Antigua, Turks and Caicos, Cozumel, Zihuatanejo, Belize, the Dominican Republic, the French West Indies (including St. Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, Nevis, St. Bart and St. Kitts). We saw volcanoes and colorful birds in Costa Rica and cruised the beautiful islands of Hawaii. This summer we’ll be going on our 32nd family trip. Destination: Iceland. There will be 23 of us. As the older grandchildren grow, so do our numbers. Thanks go to my husband, Albert, who began this annual tradition, which keeps us connected in a special way. ■
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TRAVEL
My Jewish Mission to India I participated in the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet Study Mission to India from Feb. 20 to 27. The mission was the largest for JFNA’s National Young Leadership Cabinet, with 105 participants representing 36 communities, and coincided with India celebrating 25 years of diplomatic relations with Israel. I had the opportunity to meet Daniel Carmon, Israel’s ambassador to India, and learn about the many ways Israel and India are working toward common goals as democratic partners in the Middle East. The sights, sounds, culture and religious diversity of India were like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and it was remarkable getting to know the Bene Israel Jews, who represent just 0.000004 percent of India’s population of 1.2 billion. The Jewish communities of India date back more than 2,000 years, and Indian Jews tie their ancestry to one of the lost tribes. Many of the Bene Israel Jews we met in Mumbai joined us for Shabbat in Delhi. The small Judah Hyam Synagogue was filled, probably for the first time in a while. Services were led by Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, the synagogue’s honorary secretary. He joked that it was nice to have a minyan for a change. The Indian Jews showed us their incredible spirit and pride in being Jewish. While our tunes differed in some instances, the feeling in the room was that we were all connected. The purpose of the mission was to build a connection with the Indian Jews and understand the organizational services in place to support their unique way of life and how they engage with the larger Indian society. The poverty in India is stark. Seven million children live in slums without access to education. I visited the Dharavi Slum, the largest in Asia and one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Nearly 1 million people live in less than 1 square mile with 1,700 shared toilets. While we expected the conditions to be terrible (and they were), what surprised us was the strength of the community. Families and individuals looked out for one another. Kids played in the street. School was in session. Food was prepared and shared. Crafts were prepared for sale at the market. This slum had an ecosystem where producers, buyers and sellers made
Temple Sinai member Justin Milrad gets a taste of life in India.
commerce happen. While the spirit in the slums appeared to be positive and strong, the conditions and infrastructure have a long way to go. JFNA, through its partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel, provides social and educational services for the small community of 5,000 Jews in India and for those living in poverty regardless of religion. JDC runs the Evelyn Peters Jewish Community Center in Mumbai, offering programs ranging from b’nai mitzvah preparations to elder care visits and Meals on Wheels. JDC works with multiple organiza-
tions with which I had the opportunity to volunteer. JAFI has helped resettle Indian Jews in Israel, where the Indian Jewish population exceeds 70,000, through services such as Hebrew education and job training. For those who remain in India, JAFI offers Birthright and longer-term Israel experiences through Masa. This year India will have its first full bus of Birthright participants. Each of us on the mission was asked to bring a gift for the centers we would visit — school supplies, mindstimulating exercise books for the elderly, toys and toiletries. My kids and I purchased dozens of boxes of crayons, colored pencils and pencils at Walmart. Kayla, 7, and Ethan, 5, wanted the kids of India to know they hoped they would enjoy the gifts and dream big, so they each wrote a message on the boxes. India is an ancient country that’s modernizing quickly; it’s the largest democracy on Earth. Being out of my element in an environment that’s so culturally and religiously different has strengthened my commitment to Jew-
ish life. My time in India reinforced the core values of being Jewish: chesed (compassion), tikkun olam (repairing the world) and tzedek (justice). Throughout the mission, we witnessed extreme poverty and formed meaningful relationships with the members of the Indian Jewish community. Our National Young Leadership Cabinet chairs, Ronna Schneider (Cincinnati) and Bryan Drowos (South Palm Beach, Fla.), urged the participants to give back to the Indian community in a meaningful way. We will raise funds for the Gabriel Project Mumbai and JDC’s Youth Pioneers Program. Engaging with those most in need through the work of Federation and partners deepened my belief that we are capable of the greatest good when acting on our Jewish values together. We all have a duty to carry out tikkun olam and do our part to strengthen the world for future generations. ■ National Young Leadership Cabinet is recruiting members. Email justinmilrad@gmail.com to learn more.
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By Justin Milrad
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TRAVEL
Mission to Israeli Borders Opens Eyes, Changes Lives By Harriet Cortell
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I have been to Israel many times, but I have never had my life changed in the way it was by the 10-day Zionist Organization of America Purim mission to Israel this year. My cousin Howard Katzoff, the deputy executive director of the New York office of the ZOA, called my sister in Ohio and me in Atlanta to ask us to join the mission he was planning with Jeff Daube, the director of the ZOA Israel office. Little did I know that I would not be the same person at the end of mission as I was at the start. The Purim shaloch manot mission was created to bring the joy of Purim to the Magav, the Israeli border police serving between Israel and Samaria (part of the West Bank). They serve in tense places and are not allowed to leave their posts for Purim. We loaded our bulletproof bus with big plastic bags full of candy and other goodies, as well as personal letters written by children at Jewish schools across the United States, including the Epstein School and Torah
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The Zionist Organization of America mission brings Purim joy to Israel.
Day School of Atlanta. Our first stop was the most dangerous place, Tzomet Patuach in Samaria. The soldiers there daily face four to five shootings, stabbings, car rammings and other incidents. The soldiers were thrilled to see us. The commander of the unit, an Israeli Arab Muslim, talked to us. We sang and danced with the soldiers.
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When we learned that it was the birthday of a soldier in the watchtower, we formed a semicircle and sang to wish him a happy birthday. One of our mission members went up the stairs to hand him a letter and goodies, and the soldier put his hand over his heart, read the letter and wiped tears from his eyes. No one seems to show these brave
border guards how much we care about them, how much we appreciate their protection and how much we pray for them, even in the United States. The elite unit at the border bases in Tulkarem and Kalkiya is made up of Christians, Jews, Druze and Muslims, all fluent in Arabic and Hebrew. “Do you think we want to live under the oppressive PLO or Hamas or sharia law?” one soldier said. “In Israel, we are free people.” On Shabbat afternoon, an Arab Muslim newspaper reporter, Khaled Abu Toameh, talked to us about the facts on the ground. “There will never be a two-state solution,” he said. “There will never be a political peace between Israel and the PLO. Even if you give them 99 percent of all they want, they will not take it. Why? Because their goal is the complete destruction of Israel and the complete dominance of the entire Mideast,” then the world. We were told that children are being taught in Palestinian schools to hate anyone different from them and to embrace martyrdom as the path to
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TRAVEL On the Mount of Olives
One of my holy moments came from our visit to the 3,000-year-old Jewish cemetery on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, which has more than 200,000 graves, including prophets and revered rabbis. But it has been dangerous for Jews to hold burials or visit graves there. It even has been dangerous to travel the streets leading to the cemetery through a heavily Arab area without an armed guard. There are now 147 monitored surveillance cameras and an extra police presence on the nearby roads and in the cemetery.
greatness. A life-changing experience was seeing the “settlements” of Efrat (20 minutes outside Jerusalem) and Sderot (on the Gaza border). These are beautiful, bustling cities of 10,000 and 20,000 people, respectively, with big, modern buildings and homes with bomb shelters. Sderot has two bomb shelters on every street because the city gets only a 15-second warning when rockets are fired from Gaza. We were so impressed by the residents’ bravery, their faith in G-d and their joy in Torah. When our bus drove into Sderot, Rabbi David Fendel, who serves the city and a yeshiva where students spend half the year learning Torah and half in the military, greeted us with dancing and singing. We followed as he led the yeshiva boys in a parade of dancing and singing with a Purim-decorated truck blaring its horn. The most lasting impression occurred at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which is a five-minute drive from Sderot and is a half-mile and three fields (under which Hamas could be digging tunnels) away from Gaza. We stood at the wire fence separating the kibbutz from the fields and could hear the truck we watched moving along the border road in Gaza. Who protects the brave kibbutz families? A group of commandotrained volunteers, men and women, called Yatar Israel, an ATV unit that patrols and reacts quickly to capture terrorists in areas out of reach of security vehicles, such as narrow alleys and dirt roads in hills and fields. Many of them work day jobs, then patrol at night, leaving only a couple of hours for sleep. “My wife and children live here. Of course I am going to be a Yatar volunteer to protect them,” one commando said. “Why do we live here?
Because this is our home, and Israel needs us.” When we asked Yatar volunteer Mieria Pons, who has a 3-year-old and is pregnant, what we can do to help, she mentioned Yatar’s need for bullet- and knife-proof vests, which cost $600. Taxdeductible donations can be sent to Friends of Mishterat Israel, Yatar CTU, P.O. Box 632, Woodmere, NY 11598. How have our lives been changed by the ZOA mission? We realized how deeply biased the media are and how
That was made more poignant when cousin Howie Katzoff showed us the burial site of our great-grandmother Sima, who immigrated to Israel around 1904 to escape pogroms in Poland and was buried on the Mount of Olives in 1914. For a brief moment, time stopped for me. My soul was part of hers and of every soul buried there.
naive Western thinking is. The misconceptions include Israel’s border barrier. Only 5 percent is a cement wall. The rest is a wire fence with 24-hour video monitoring and electronic touch sensors. Col. Dani Tirza, who planned the 451-mile fence, said plotting the route was one of his hardest responsibilities. He zigzagged the route to try to keep Arab houses and agricultural land together. After witnessing the unbelievable bravery of our people in Israel, risk-
ing their lives to keep Israel safe and strong, we realized that those of us who are not living in Israel must do more to help the soldiers and border police and show them we care. We are an eternal people, bound to each other through our Torah covenant with G-d, responsible to those who came before us to continue the holy work of ensuring that this sacred gift of the land of Israel will be there for those who come after us. ■
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Above: The ZOA mission brought cards such as this one, made by a Torah Day School of Atlanta pupil, to Israeli security personnel. Left: Harriet Cortell brings a border police officer a shaloch manot bag and a card for Purim.
For me, it was moving to stand among those graves and have Jewish history come alive in front of my eyes. Standing at the burial site of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin and his wife and looking over the countless white burial monuments of our Jewish people, I realized even more strongly how connected we Jews are to one another, to Torah and to the land of Israel.
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TRAVEL
Be Treated Like Laid-Back Royalty at St. Simons By Robyn Spizman Gerson
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If sun-washed seashore and sandcastle-lined beaches are calling your name or you’re looking for a tranquil island within an easy drive, all you have to do is head south to St. Simons Island. This low-key island is embedded in history and a food lovers’ paradise. Nestled along the Georgia coast, St. Simons is a quick trip — a straightforward five-hour drive from Atlanta — and has long been a time-honored favorite place to visit with its unpretentious ambience. When the island’s King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort (www.kingandprince.com), a historic hotel, invited me to experience it, the thought of a little relaxation lured me without hesitation. The idea of unwinding was high on my priority list. At the King and Prince, you’re bound to slow down and enjoy the salty air, friendly folks and casual environment. This sprawling, oceanside hotel with a multitude of accommodation choices, from well-appointed rooms
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The resort is right on an uncrowded stretch of beach.
The King and Prince offers five oceanfront swimming pools.
to spacious villas with ocean-view balconies and resort residences, exudes a friendly Southern hospitality. The King and Prince, which has welcomed visitors since 1935, has received six consecutive TripAdvisor Certificates of Excellence and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort has welcomed guests to the Atlantic Ocean since 1935.
The resort’s location makes a range of ocean-view accommodations possible.
The hotel sits on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Crowned in terra cotta and bathed in sea breezes and sunlight, it is a destination framed by rolling waves. The resort also offers five oceanfront pools, the King and Prince Golf Course, massage therapy, tennis, and seasonal activities, making it ideal for a family getaway, wedding, romantic escape, reunion or sports outing. Food lovers will appreciate Echo, the island’s only indoor-outdoor oceanfront dining experience, which offers an array of handcrafted spirits and delicacies. The fresh catch of the day will please even the most seasoned foodies. St. Simons Island is covered with award-wining golf courses and is known as an oasis for coastal golf. The King and Prince Golf Course, home of the Hampton Club, celebrates its 28th anniversary Aug. 1. The Joe Leedesigned 18-hole course includes four salt marsh island holes connected by 800 feet of elevated cart bridges, but it is playable for all ages and handicaps. Hotel tennis pro Pride Evans is a treat for players seeking a lesson from a seasoned professional. A Georgia Professional Tennis Hall of Fame member, Pride offers private and group lessons and presents a focused tennis program with many options as an alternative to golf. The island will interest visitors who crave water sports and eco-adventures, exceptional restaurants, regional shopping, galleries, and the genuine friendliness that makes a short vacation memorable. Be sure to check out Delaney’s, a delightful bistro and bar on Fredericks Road, for lunch or dinner. Nearby shopping includes boutiques, a local
toy store, and G.J. Ford Book Shop, a charming bookstore that’s well-stocked with the best beach reads and staffed with literary pros. Biking is a popular way to get around along paths and low-tide options, and you can get rental bikes on the island. Moss-draped oaks and magnificent twisted trees that have stood the test of time and weather line the winding island streets, creating a perfect setting filled with historical landmarks. The island’s village includes the St. Simons Lighthouse Museum, a working lighthouse built in 1872. Walk to the top for a panoramic view and discover the lighthouse’s history in the museum. Add a trolley tour or dolphin boat ride with island expert Cap Fendig of Lighthouse Trolleys for an engaging island experience. “I love living in St. Simons,” said cousin and former Atlantan Steve Cohen, the owner of East Coast Designs, a custom cabinet company in nearby Brunswick. “No traffic, beautiful weather, and it’s an ideal place to live and work. It’s great when friends and family visit and do not want to leave.” Yes, time flies when you’re having fun, and St. Simons delivers the rest and relaxation. There’s something to be said for slowing down, heading south and packing up a small suitcase for a laid-back break at the beach. You’ll be treated like a king, or at least like a prince. ■ Robyn Spizman Gerson (www. robynspizman.com) is a New York Times best-selling author who is seen often on local and national television.
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TRAVEL
Walk in Talmudic Times
Israel is building an interactive trail that will run 45 miles across the Lower Galilee, from Beit She’arim to Tiberias, to bring the region’s Talmudicarea history to life. Recent archaeological excavations by thousands of high school students along the main street of the ancient Roman city of Tiberias have paved the way for that section of what will be known as the Sanhedrin Trail, which will connect sites associated with members of the Sanhedrin. The trail is south of Sandy Springs’ Israeli sister city, the Western Galilee cluster. As part of the Tiberias segment, a visitors center will soon be built to give the public a better understanding of the project and a chance to join the excavations. The Sanhedrin Trail will have five segments and can be covered in five days of walking by families. The smart trail will communicate with hikers using an augmented reality application. The app will enable the virtual reconstruction of heritage sites, will integrate figures who will guide children along the trail, and will bring back to life the Sanhedrin scholars and the sages of the period. The Sanhedrin was exiled to Yavne after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., then to the Galilee after the Bar Kokhba Rebellion was crushed in 135. The effort to develop Judaism without the Temple led to the writing of the Talmud and the Passover haggadah. Michal De-Hann, a pedagogic deputy in the National Religious Education Administration, said the work to create the trail also will have educational value by connecting Israeli students to the history of Jewish ideas. “People such Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi, the members of the Sanhedrin who were active here 2,000 years ago, determined to a great extent much of how our lives are run today,” said Yair Amitzur, the IAA’s antiquities inspector for the Eastern Galilee. “It is according to these religious laws that we marry or conduct funeral ceremonies and even administer Jewish law. The establishment of the trail and walking on it will connect those who
Photo by Gilad Cinamon, Israel Antiquities Authority
Students make a preliminary tour of the planned route of the Sanhedrin Trail.
live here today with the atmosphere and frame of mind of that period.”
Travel With JDC The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the global Jewish humanitarian group, offers volunteer and travel opportunities for many ages. Through JDC Entwine (jdcentwine.
FIDF Fall Missions Friends of the Israel Defense Forc-
es offers two chances to travel to Israel on FIDF missions this fall. The third annual FIDF cycling tour of Israel rolls from Eilat to Jerusalem from Oct. 20 to 26. The cost, not including airfare, starts at $3,720 if you room with another person. Registration and a $1,000 deposit are due June 9. The National Leadership Mission, which includes exclusive chances to meet Israeli soldiers and leaders, visit elite IDF units, and see military sites not normally open to tourists, runs from Nov. 10 to 17. Not including airfare, the cost starts at $4,900 per person, double occupancy, with a registration deadline of Oct. 31. Find more information and registration forms at www.fidf.org/sslpage. aspx?pid=1011.
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Drafting by Anastasia Shapiro and Yair Amitzur, Israel Antiquities Authority A map shows the planned route of the Sanhedrin Trail.
org), the growing young adult engagement initiative of JDC, young Jews can make an impact on global Jewish needs and humanitarian issues through overseas travel and service. Lasting one week to one year, upcoming opportunities include India, Morocco, Georgia, Ethiopia and Argentina. JDC Ambassadors, a major philanthropic platform, creates travel experiences offering insight into JDC’s work with Jewish communities and others around the world. Upcoming trips include Poland, Hungary, Belarus, Greece, Cuba and Morocco. For more information, visit www.jdc.org/letsgo.
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TRAVEL
Weird, Wonderful Portland Worthwhile Portland, Ore., nicknamed the Rose City, is one of North America’s truly unusual urban areas. Located on the Willamette River where it flows into the Columbia River, Portland is Oregon’s largest city and a center for architecture and culture that is known for livability. Because it is a friendly and well-run city with a pleasant climate, it is a pleasure to visit. Portland is a busy seaport about 80 miles inland from the Pacific and is justly renowned for being bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly. It abounds with public art and boasts many museums and parks. The city also has many microbreweries and distilleries. Though the city has an unofficial slogan of “Keep Portland Weird,” there is nothing to fear for visitors such as yours truly who are unweird. It boasts very unweird upscale shopping, great restaurants, lush gardens, amazing public transportation, and a deserved reputation for being progressive, green, well-planned and tolerant. While the city’s tolerant population and government celebrate the eclectic and even the weird, they also embrace tourism and civic virtue. The town’s weirdness is mostly a good and entertaining diversion. Before You Go Do some pre-trip research at: • www.travelportland.com. • www.portlandoregon.gov. • www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-a-Visitto-Portland,-Oregon. • www.youtube.com/ watch?v=oNsEezSXG_w.
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Getting There Portland is well-served by highway, train and air: • Portland International Airport (PDX) is 10 miles from downtown. It is served by 17 airlines and the city’s light rail. • By train, arrive at Portland’s Union Station on Amtrak’s Cascades from Seattle, Vancouver or Eugene, on the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles or Seattle, or on the Empire Builder from Chicago. • By ship, the nearest ocean cruise port is Astoria, Ore., 90 miles away. River cruises depart from Portland’s Embassy Suites Airport Hotel. • By highway, the city is on Inter32 states 5 and 84 and is roughly 2,600
miles from Atlanta. Must-Sees On a short trip: • Downtown shopping and dining.
Simply Smart Travel By Jeffrey R. Orenstein jorenstein@SimplySmartTravel.com
Photo by Jeffrey Orenstein
Photo courtesy of travelportland.com
Mount Hood dominates the Portland horizon on clear nights.
Portland’s popular Union Station connects Amtrak passengers to the city via streetcar and light rail.
Above left: Photo by Jamie Francis, Travel Portland
The Max light-rail system is ubiquitous in Portland, an easy city to get around without a car.
Photo courtesy of the Embassy Suites Downtown
The luxurious past of the Embassy Suites Downtown Portland shines through in its lobby.
• The Pearl and Waterfront districts. • Powell’s City of Books. • The Portland Farmers Market. • The Lan Su Chinese Garden. • The Portland Japanese Garden. For a longer stay: • Explore Vancouver, Wash., just across the river. • Visit Mount Hood and/or the Columbia River Gorge. • Visit wine country in the Willamette River Valley and taste Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. • Visit the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, home of the only municipally owned operating steam locomotives in the United States. It’s across from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Tips for Dressing Anything goes, especially T-shirts, flannel shirts and jeans. Portland’s reputation for being eclectic is accurate. You’ll see business dress to unkempt and everything in between around the city. Be comfortable. At a Glance Mobility level: Easy. The public transportation system is accessible, and the city is walkable. When to go: All year. But winter is rainy, and summer is crowded. Spring and fall are best. Where to stay: The Embassy Suites Downtown Portland. It’s not a typical Embassy Suites; it’s a refur-
Above right: Photo courtesy of Travel Portland
Many bridges carry public transportation, pedestrians, bikes and cars across the Willamette River. Left: Photo by Jeffrey Orenstein
One of Portland’s two operating steam locomotives, Southern Pacific 4449, frequently pulls passenger trains on local and regional excursions. It is housed at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center.
bished luxury hotel dating back to 1912. It’s a great location, and it’s the only Embassy Suites among the Historic Hotels of America. Plus, there’s an amazing happy hour. Getting around: Portland has fantastic public transportation. Use buses, streetcars, the aerial tram and the Max light rail, and forget the car. Downtown is also walkable.
Special interests: Gardens, bridges and public transportation that works. ■ Jeffrey Orenstein is a travel writer who lives on Florida’s Gulf coast. He and his wife, Virginia, enjoy simply smart travel and writing about it. Check out their travel ideas, articles and blog at www.SimplySmartTravel.com, and like www.facebook.com/SimplySmartTravel.
Jewish Portland Portland is the center of Judaism in the Willamette Valley and the state of Oregon. It boasts 17 congregations, about half the state’s total. Among its prominent Jewish institutions are two day schools, the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, a Jewish home for the elderly and the Oregon Jewish Museum. Federation’s website, www.jewishportland.org, is a good resource for Jewish resources and culture. Although the Public Religion Research Institute found Portland to be the least religious city in the country because 42 percent of city respondents identified as religiously unaffiliated, 2 percent of the city’s residents are Jews. More than 45,000 Jews are believed to live in the greater Portland area, including a resurgent Orthodox community. In the 19th century, the first Jewish immigrants came mostly from Eastern Europe and Germany. Later waves of Jewish immigration came from Turkey and Rhodes in the early 20th century. The first synagogue was built in the 1880s and burned down in 1923. During the past century, greater Portland’s Jews have become well-integrated into the community, and most have achieved solid middle-class respectability and have become part of the city’s social, commercial and political fabric. Bernard Goldsmith was the first of the city’s five Jewish mayors, serving from 1869 to 1871, and Vera Katz was the most recent, in office from 1992 to 2004.
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AJA students Zach Mainzer and Abe Schoen finished fourth in a national moot beit din competition.
AJA Fourth in Beit Din
Hundreds of European yeshiva students traveled to the Far East in 1941 to escape Nazi persecution. Before settling in Shanghai, they temporarily stayed in Kobe on the Japanese island of Honshu. Realizing that they could have crossed the international dateline, many observed two days of Shabbat each week. Was that the right decision? Students from Atlanta Jewish Academy and five other high schools debated that question in the fourth annual Touro College Beis Medrash L’Talmud-Lander College for Men Model Beis Din competition in New York last month. The tournament allows Orthodox high school students to debate halachic dilemmas. For the fourth time, Torah Academy in Teaneck, N.J., won the competition. AJA finished fourth. The other teams came from DRS Yeshiva High School in Woodmere, N.Y., the Mesivta High School of Greater Philadelphia, Rambam Mesivta in Lawrence, N.Y., and Yeshivah Ohr Yisrael of Boston. “The Model Beis Din guides students to fully understand the dynamic nature of halacha — how the Torah can inform and confront contemporary moral and legal challenges in the most sophisticated way,” said Rabbi Yonason Sacks, the rosh hayeshiva of the Beis Medrash L’Talmud, who directs the program. Each high school received details of the scenario and relevant halachic sources in September. An adviser at each school helped students study the texts and craft their arguments. “Preparing was intense,” said Abe Schoen, who formed the AJA team with Zach Mainzer. “The first step was trying to understand the complexities of the case. Then we had to figure out how it fits with all that we have learned previously. The model beis din definitely improved my analytical skills and comprehension of halachic law.” Rabbi Jacob Czuper, a Lander College alumnus who advised the Atlanta team, said: “Our students can feel the inspiration here. They are learning college-level material and being chal-
lenged to defend their positions.” The first round of the competition used a debate format. Each of two teams argued for or against the court’s decision in front of four judges from the Beis Medrash L’Talmud faculty: Rabbi Ephraim Tanenbaum, Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz, Rabbi Shmuel Marcus and Rabbi Sacks. In the second round, individual teams argued for what they believed to be the correct decision, and the judges questioned them about how they reached their conclusions. Because the matter is subject to debate, the winners were chosen based on the quality of their presentations and their mastery of the different opinions and Talmudic sources. Moshe Sokol, the dean of Lander College for Men, said the beit din competition lets young Orthodox men experience Torah study at an advanced level. “We seek to demonstrate to students the broad reach of the Torah, which touches and transforms every dimension of life,” he said.
ZBT Initiates Olens Zeta Beta Tau, which was founded in 1898 as the first Jewish fraternity, initiated Kennesaw State University
President Sam Olens into its brotherhood Monday, April 3, in a ceremony at the Buckhead Club. “I’ve known Sam Olens for a long time. He is a valuable and esteemed member of the community,” said Zeta Beta Tau Foundation President Bruce Weinstein, a University of Alabama alum and Atlanta resident. “As attorney general for the state of Georgia, he had a positive effect on the lives of millions of people. In his new role as president of Kennesaw State University, he will continue that great tradition. The response to Sam’s speech at ZBT’s 2016 International Convention (in Atlanta) was powerful and impactful. And we knew we wanted Sam to be a part of Zeta Beta Tau. We couldn’t be more honored to have Sam as a brother.” Olens, a member of Congregation Etz Chaim, became the first Jewish Georgian to win in a statewide partisan election in 2010 when he was elected attorney general. In his second term, he resigned last year to become Kennesaw State’s president Nov. 1. In 2016, Georgia Trend magazine named Olens the Georgian of the Year, and he has been listed among the publication’s “100 Most Influential Georgians” for 12 consecutive years. Olens received his law degree
from Emory and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from American University in international politics. He and his wife Lisa have two children, Lauren and Jonathan.
Registration Open for Club J The Marcus Jewish Community Center has opened registration for the 2017-18 school year for Club J, its afterschool program for pre-kindergartners through fifth-graders. Club J meets at Zaban Park, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, with transportation available from Atlanta Jewish Academy, Austin Elementary School, Chesnut Elementary Charter School, Dunwoody Elementary School, Kingsley Charter Elementary School, Kittredge Magnet School, Montgomery Elementary School, Peachtree Charter Middle School, the Davis Academy, the Epstein School and Vanderlyn Elementary School. Three-, four- and five-day options are available. JCC membership is required. To register, visit atlantajcc.org/afterschool. To get more information or schedule a tour, contact Club J Director Megan Usow at 678-812-3761 or megan. usow@atlantajcc.org.
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EDUCATION
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EDUCATION
Camel Leads UGA Students to Water, Israel By Rebecca McCarthy
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They came for the camel and stayed for the food and information. A stream of University of Georgia students flowed into the Tate Student Center Plaza on Friday, April 7, for Israel Day, put on by UGA Dawgs for Israel. “I just passed by and saw the camel and was like ‘Whoa!’ ” said student Jacque Nutter, 19, of Dacula. She snapped a selfie with Oscar, the dromedary camel standing in an enclosure. Oscar’s owner, Jeff Gray, said the 10-year-old camel is completely tame and loves being petted. Many students, such as Sonny Phan, 20, saw the camel, then spent half an hour going from table to table, talking to the students staffing each one. At each table a visitor earned a stamp on an activities card, and a certain number of stamps meant a free Tshirt or free food. Students could nosh on pita bread, falafel, salad and yummy dressings. At one table, Golda Adler, who is studying communication science and speech disorders, was selling challah
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Photos by Rebecca McCarthy
JACQUE NUTTER Jacque Nutter feeds Oscar the camel, a major draw for students who attended Israel Fest at UGA on April 7.
loaves the size of cantaloupes for $4. It’s a weekly practice for students at Hillel at UGA: making bread, selling it and donating the money to organizations combating hunger in Athens. Tessa Green, 19, was demonstrating how to make chocolate milk in a plastic bag at her table. Beside her, a young woman was talking about Israel’s humanitarian efforts and handing out cupcakelettes. Statistics major Claire Wong, 20, of Johns Creek was visiting each table with her family. “There’s a lot of stuff here,” she said, glancing around. “The camel, of course. But the technology stuff is really cool.”
Avi Lyons explains some of the innovations developed by Israeli high-tech companies.
Avi Lyons is a 19-year-old Atlantan who’s studying engineering and business. His was the technology table, showcasing some of Israel’s many hightech companies. Among them were ReWalk, which makes a wearable robotic exoskeleton to help wheelchair-bound people walk again; Mobileye, which makes vision and collision-avoidance technology for cars and is being bought by Intel, and Water Gen, which collects drinking water from the air and was demonstrated by Alan Dershowitz at the recent AIPAC Conference. Lyons has been to Israel twice and has met officials from some of the companies he was talking about. While he
admires many companies, he said he would love most to work for Beit Issie Shapiro, which betters the lives of people who have disabilities. At another table Karin Sowieja, 20, of Roswell said she was just passing by when she saw the camel and decided to see what was happening with the tables, the balloons and all the people. “I love how much all these kids love the culture of Israel,” she said. “Events like this represent the diversity on campus.” New to the celebration this year was a table staffed by Christians United for Israel, which expects to get up and running on campus soon, said Matthew Garces, 20, from Buford. He went to Israel last year, he said, “and it was the most impactful trip I’ve ever had.” Until he was in the country, he hadn’t realized how diverse and how tolerant Israel is. While Israeli music blasted from speakers, a small group of students stood nearby, yelling pro-Palestinian chants, until UGA police ushered them to another spot on the Tate Center grounds. ■
OBITUARIES
Freda Kurgan 91, Atlanta
Freda Kurgan, 91, of Atlanta passed away peacefully Thursday, April 6, 2017. She was born Nov. 29, 1925, in Plunjan, Lithuania, to Ita Devorah and Benzion Diamond, both of blessed memory. Freda was preceded in death by her loving husband of 59 years, Isaac Kurgan, and her 10 siblings. She is survived by her daughter, Ada Gelb; a son, Benjamin Kurgan (Felicia); grandchildren Hylton Gelb (Stephanie), Stacey Rothberg (Mark), Mia Atkins (Derek), Paul Kurgan (Samantha) and Shelley Coplin (Elliot); and 11 great-grandchildren. Freda will be greatly missed. Graveside services were held Friday, April 7, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park with Rabbi Yossi New officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Congregation Beth Tefillah Cemetery Fund, 5056 High Point Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30342, www.bethtefillah.org. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Ruth Leavitt 91, Atlanta
Ruth Leavitt, 91, passed away on Tuesday, March 28, 2017, days after sustaining a serious fall. Born in Boston, she lived in Boca Raton, Fla., for many years before moving to Atlanta in 2006. She loved to travel with her husband of 59 years, Daniel Leavitt (predeceased). Ruth was very witty, regularly entertaining family and friends. Proud wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she always appreciated and enjoyed the finer things in life. Ruth is survived by her daughter, Marjory Segal (Bill) of Atlanta; her son, Richard Leavitt (Phyllis) of Lake Stevens, Wash.; her granddaughter, Lauren Wise (Jon); her grandson, Alan Segal (Evan) of East Cobb; and one great-grandchild, Maggie Segal of East Cobb. A graveside service was held at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs. Donations in her memory may be sent to the Anti-Defamation League or the Southern Poverty Law Center. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Martha Sussman Martha Seltzer Sussman, age 91, died peacefully on Thursday, March 30, 2017. Martha was born Nov. 2, 1925, in Brooklyn, N.Y., the daughter of Abraham and Becky Seltzer. Martha was preceeded in death by her beloved husband, Marty Sussman, and her brothers, Sidney Seltzer and Norman Seltzer. She was a devoted mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister and aunt who adored her family. She is survived by her loving children, Bonnie and her husband, Neil, of Marietta and Alan and his wife, Denise, of Charlotte, N.C.; grandchildren Nate Negrin (Lillian), Meredith Strongin (Jonathan), Mark Sussman (Laurie), Beth Richek (Jeff), Rebecca Negrin and Samantha Negrin; and great-grandchildren Max, Bailey, Ruby, Zach, Drew, Maya and Nina. Martha lived with her family and raised her children in Roslyn, N.Y., before moving to Atlanta in 1997 and living her final years in Charlotte. In addition to being a businesswoman, she had many creative outlets. Martha had golden hands: Everything she touched turned into perfection. Whether it was sewing dresses for her grandchildren’s b’nai mitzvah or arranging flowers, Martha had a creative gift. She enjoyed hosting family and friends for holidays and special occasions, especially Thanksgiving. She loved animal prints and was always impeccably dressed. People were drawn to Martha and her charismatic personality and beautiful smile. She had a way of making everyone feel special and loved. If not for Alzheimer’s, we would have had seven more years with our beloved mother and grandmother. Her mind had moved on, but her spirit will be with us forever. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in her name to the Alzheimer’s Association (act.alz.org/goto/Martha_Sussman) or Congregation Etz Chaim.
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SYNAGOGUES Beth Tikvah Hires Cosden Temple Beth Tikvah has hired Susan Halpern Cosden as the Roswell Reform synagogue’s director of congregational learning, effective this month. The new position is part of Beth Tikvah’s transition as Hassia Levin, a founder of the congregation who has served as religious school principal for 30 years, prepares to retire this spring. “Susan’s breadth and depth of knowledge, her creative imagination, and her background in 21st century Jewish learning make her the ideal
Susan Halpern Cosden is leading all educational programs at Temple Beth Tikvah.
professional to serve our community,” Rabbi Alexandria Shuval-Weiner said. “We were particularly impressed by Susan’s diverse skills.” Cosden is moving from New Jersey, where she served as a director of con-
gregational learning at Temple EmanuEl of West Essex in Livingston. The daughter of a rabbi, Cosden grew up in Reform Judaism, spent summers at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Coleman and participated in the North American Federation of Temple Youth. She earned a master’s in Jewish education from Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion. Community members can meet Cosden during any of three free Bagels, Brew and Beth Tikvah sessions the synagogue is hosting from 10 a.m. to noon
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on three consecutive post-Passover Sundays, April 23, April 30 and May 7. During the informal meet-andgreet sessions, people looking for a synagogue can tour the building, visit with Rabbi Shuval-Weiner (except at the April 23 session), Cantor Nancy Kassel and staff, and learn about worship, education and social programs. Beth Tikvah is at 9955 Coleman Road in Roswell. RSVP for Bagels, Brew and Beth Tikvah, at tinyurl.com/bagelsbrewandbethtikvah, or call 770-642-0434. ■
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‘Wild Nights’ Awakens Us to Sleep Nightmare By Kevin Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com We have been sleeping all wrong, and we are teaching our children bad sleeping habits, Emory University English professor Benjamin Reiss says in his new book, “Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World.” Reiss, a Congregation Bet Haverim member, spoke March 30 during a book signing at the Barnes & Noble store on campus. “My background is in cultural history,” Reiss said. “I teach in the English department, but I work in that vein, trying to see how ideas, assumptions and culturally learned behaviors change over time.” Sleep has changed tremendously the past 200 years, he said, “and those changes have created a lot of the mess we have inherited in our sleep world.” The book grew out of a course Reiss taught with neurologist David Rye, an Emory specialist in sleep science. “I really learned a lot about the workings of sleep from a biological standpoint, and I brought to it readings on literature, philosophy, history and
Emory professor Benjamin Reiss says the rigid rules we relate to sleep in children haunt our nights as adults.
anthropology, trying to get at the social and cultural meanings of sleep, particularly as they evolved,” Reiss said. “Before the 19th century it was unthinkable for families to spread out in ways we now expect them to,” he said. “The whole idea of a bedroom for a common home is a relatively recent invention. Most homes had rooms with overlapping functions for day and night. People slept in collective spaces, and in many societies it was common even for strangers to sleep together on certain occasions. It was only with the rise of industrialization that health concerns arose about large numbers of people packed together in factory boarding houses and so on that health
authorities started aggressively trying to separate them. That played a big role pushing this idea of separate spaces.” Increasingly, Europeans came to view co-sleeping societies as inferior, and we have inherited some of that stigma, Reiss said. “Children don’t want to sleep apart; we have to train them to do it. A lot of fuss and energy goes into it. The ritual of the bedtime story, to ease their passage into it, it becomes a zone of struggle in many families to get everyone on the right schedule.” He laid out the “basic rules” for how Western society has decided to do sleep: “at night, more or less all at once for about seven to eight hours, in a private, specially appointed room that is sealed from the external world, noisefree, no distractions, probably climatecontrolled, with a relatively soft surface that is somewhat customizable according to what your body likes.” Reiss said it’s odd how we train our children to sleep according to strict guidelines and consult manuals and experts for advice. It doesn’t seem to stick because once you get children to learn to sleep appropriately, they grow up and have to adapt to new circum-
stances, and sleep becomes an ordeal. The middle-class ideal is to put children alone, away from their parents and generally apart from siblings. “The main thing we should guard against is having them be too routinized because if they have to change their routine, like when a new sibling comes along, it can be very upsetting to them.” Which system is better, Reiss asks, the one where the child thinks sleep is something to be rigidly adhered to or something training them to be flexible? The problem, Reiss said, is society’s obsessiveness with the subject. “We’ve created all this commercial interest around sleep. We have over 2,500 registered sleep clinics in this country. There’s a multibillion(-dollar) pharmaceutical industry related to sleep and waking. We have hundreds of products you can buy to monitor your sleep. So a lot of what we experience as disordered or disturbed sleep is a response to the expectations we bring to it.” ■ Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World By Benjamin Reiss Basic Books, 320 pages, $28
Henna Makes Mark on Simchas, Holidays By Patrice Worthy
APRIL14 ▪ 2017
The novel “Henna House” follows a Yemenite Jewish child soon-to-be bride as she navigates through growing up in a Muslim-ruled country. The story takes place the early in 20th century after the orphan decree was reinstated, making Adela vulnerable to being adopted by a Muslim family after the death of her father. Using henna as her only skill, she makes a way for herself in a land where women and Jews have few rights. Author Nomi Eve takes readers into a world of ancient rituals where Jews live among fragrant spices and practiced customs that are both familiar and exotic. Eve, who opened the Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center with “Henna House” in November 2015, spoke to the AJT in advance of Passover. AJT: What was the inspiration for the novel? Eve: I’m an Ashkenazi Jew, and my father is from Israel. My grandparents were from the Ukraine. I have a Yemenite aunt that I spent time with, and 38 I was inspired by my beloved aunt.
AJT: Where did you learn about henna in the Jewish community? Eve: If you’re lucky enough to be invited to a Yemenite Jewish wedding, you’re treated to a night of henna. It’s still very much alive and well in the Yemenite Jewish culture. AJT: Has henna always been a part of Jewish culture outside Yemen? Eve: Henna was a part of any culture where the plant grows, primarily in places like Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, India, Afghanistan, in the Maghreb, such as Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Ethiopia. All the way back in the Song of Songs it is mentioned. In my novel on the front page there is a quote about henna from the Bible. There are several mentions of henna in the Bible. AJT: When is henna applied? Eve: In the Yemenite community, artists applied henna before all celebratory occasions like Passover and during weddings. It was also applied at times of death and for healing. I was intrigued by henna as an art form passed down from mother to daughter.
AJT: What is the reason behind the resurgence of the art form among Yemenite Jews? Eve: When Yemenite Jews came to Israel in the 1950s, women stopped practicing henna rituals because they wanted to assimilate, and it was thought of as primitive. Today, their granddaughters feel more comfortable in Israel and started doing henna. AJT: Where did you begin your research for the novel to create a life for the main character, Adela? Eve: I’m a writer, so I have to research time and place. I was interested and horrified by the orphan decree. It was a decree that stated any Jewish child whose father died was to be confiscated by Muslim authorities. They were given to Muslim families and adopted. So to prevent that, Yemenite Jewish children were married at a very young age. AJT: How did you come up with Adela’s name? Eve: Adela doesn’t sound Muslim or Jewish, but at the time names bore remnants of the Ottoman Empire
when the Turks were in Yemen. There were a lot of Bellas and Marias. AJT: “Henna House” is popular among Jewish book clubs. The Hadassah Greater Atlanta Metulla Group is discussing it April 21. Do you ever make an appearance? Eve: I do Skype, and the discussions are so much fun. They usually have henna artists come, and the women get their henna done while discussing the book. ■
Who: On the Same Page Book Club of Hadassah’s Metulla Group What: “Henna House” discussion When: 1:30 p.m. Friday, April 21 Details: New members are welcome. Contact Barbara Shoulberg at brsgolf1@bellsouth.net or 770-9482443.
My Father the Butcher It was a lovely Thursday evening, I was a newlywed preparing dinner for my groom. Suddenly, there was a firm knock on the door of our one-bedroom, one-bathroom, adorable apartment with the yellow-and-white kitchen and large living room in an old Jackson Heights building. A rather deep voice shouted: “I’m Henry the cop. I’m a friend of your dad.” My father the kosher butcher. Gene opened the door while I meekly stood behind him, and indeed it was Henry (not his real name) the cop. Yes, my family called him Henry the cop. We were that close. “You’re parked on the side of the street where the Department of Transportation is scheduled to clean tomorrow,” he said. “Better move your car to the other side. I’d hate to give you a ticket for blocking the cleaning trucks.” Henry was kind enough to make weekly meat deliveries to my father’s customers who lived along the route to Henry’s home. He also was instrumental in keeping my dad’s kosher butcher shop safe and untouched by the hands of hungry burglars. Henry’s family loved the delicious meat from my dad’s shop. At the end of our first year of marriage, this girl from the Bronx and boy from Brooklyn relocated to Baton Rouge, the home of Louisiana State University. The cultural shock and trauma of this move are a story for another time and place. My mother-in-law’s concern for our health was heartwarming. She insisted we look into what shots were required to protect ourselves from the diseases in a place like Louisiana. Our persuasive powers were never more powerful than in the conversations that followed. We never got shots, and, needless to say, none were required. Louisiana was and still is in the United States. Although we did not need shots, we did need to eat. How would we sustain ourselves without a kosher butcher who could tell me how to cook whatever I was buying? Along came my father the kosher butcher. My handsome, creative, greatdancer dad did some investigating. You can be sure of one thing: His daughter and son-in-law would not go
hungry; he would never allow it. Dad discovered that the airlines had planes that specialized in carrying freight. Perfect! He would freeze a large package of various meats and ship it to the New Orleans airport, an hour door to door from our marriedstudent housing. Clever, right? That was my father
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ACROSS 1. Recent Spielberg flop, with “The” 4. Lewis Black might go on one 8. Feline with kesef 14. One can be told for “Shalom Bayit” 15. It’s a congregation 16. Pesky comp. program 17. In addition to 19. Esther, e.g. 20. It can shut down Jerusalem 21. Heston as Moses, e.g. 23. “Puttin’ on the ___” 24. Mosaic piece 25. Classic song from 1939 28. Haifa to Nazareth dir. 29. General for Jews on Christmas Eve 30. ___-Wan (he didn’t carry a 1-Down) 31. Echad, to Juana 32. Horned Spider-Man villain created by Stan Lee 34. High res. level for this publication’s pics 35. It often coincides with April and May 36. One way to fall in love 40. She killed Sisra 43. Rabbi Lookstein’s NYC area 44. What David felt when seeing Bathsheba 48. Start of a question from Cain 49. ___ Lanka 50. Spot for the exhausted on Shabbat 52. Seth’s mom 53. Will power 56. They’re found in Palestine and Jerusalem? 57. 18 58. Sefer read on Yom Kippur 59. Robert De ___ (Crystal’s “Analyze This” co-star) 60. “Rabbi, ___ I” (start of a request for advice)
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the kosher butcher. So every couple of months we would drive to the New Orleans airport in a Studebaker we called Black Beauty to collect our goodies. We were always surprised that my dad’s kosher meat was so much cheaper than the treif meat at the A&P. By the way, given that I was a butcher’s daughter, you would think I would know my meats. I could not tell rib steak from lamb chops. Seriously. Upon discovering that our nonJewish neighbor was paying more for treif meet than we were paying for kosher meat, I was shocked. I told my dad and asked him whether he could send them meat — they would, of course, pay him. For more than 3½ years, my dad helped support our neighbors and us by keeping us well fed. It took years before my father the kosher butcher revealed all this to me. I had no way to repay him for this incredible kindness except to give him four granddaughters who would inspire us all to be better people. My father the kosher butcher was a businessman first, a butcher second. But he always gave young brides frequenting his shop a significant break on their total bill. So how could he afford to help Henry, help young brides, help his daughter and her neighbor, help some of the shopkeepers on his block and countless others? My father the kosher butcher put the frozen liver he was sending us on the top of the frozen meats in the package. The liver would defrost, making the entire package appear damaged, and the airline would reimburse all shipping costs if your package arrived damaged. My father the kosher butcher. ■
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By Shaindle Schmuckler shaindle@atljewishtimes.com
“Skip It”
By Yoni Glatt, koshercrosswords@gmail.com Difficulty Level: Manageable
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Shaindle’s Shpiel
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62. 15th of Nisan, or a hint for solving 17-, 25-, 36- and 53-Across 64. One making the parnasah 65. It starts getting counted during 62-Across 66. What Jews do at a seder 67. Mix occasionally seen in Jerusalem, but never Eilat 68. Kudrow who was originally cast as Roz on “Frasier” 69. ACLU focus
appendage? 33. Mathieu Schneider’s skating org. 34. Makes like Ike Davis or Ron Blomberg, at times 35. ___ air 37. Halo, e.g. 38. Zeus is a false one 39. Yeled to Scotty 40. Hamelach or Suf 41. Poet Yehuda 42. “Finkle is ___!” (realization made by Ace Ventura) 45. “___ Us” (from “The DOWN Prince of Egypt”) 1. Han Solo carries one 46. What many Jews do on 2. Helsinki synagogue 62-Across language 47. Where some spend 3. ___ HaDor (very holy 62-Across Jews) 49. One posing for bat 4. Title for a Jewish teacher mitzvah pictures 5. Take on, like Abram to Lot 50. Name that means “son 6. Historic tribe (but not of of my people” Jews) 51. Makes like one 7. “___ Will Be Blood” (Day- correcting answers in this Lewis film) grid, perhaps 8. Like Taft or Eglon 54. Cause to cower 9. Purim time, once in a 55. He sang “Tradition” while 56. “I’ll take that as ___” 10. Author of “Concerning 60. Fix a torn kittel the Jews” 61. Like the Negev 11. “___ Me Love” (film 63. Giveret, in Madrid: abbr. with choreography by Paula Abdul) 12. State that would have been a fitting LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 birthplace M A C E P R A D A I M A N 14 15 16 for Joaquin I R A S E A S E D D O D I 17 18 19 Phoenix O N A N M A S T E R M I N D 20 21 22 23 13. 9th letter G I L A S H L O M O I F I 24 25 26 27 A S P C A N D Y L A N D 18. Miracle 28 29 30 31 32 33 S T O O P R A M O N E response 34 35 36 37 38 S T A R D O M E L A L 22. Torah 39 40 41 42 43 T A B O O Z Y G I D I C E cantillation 44 45 46 26. Rotenberg 47A A H S 48 A D A P T 49O R 50 51 52 E N E P H I R A B B I or Irish Rose’s 53 54 55 56 57 58 C H O O P E R A T I O N man on 59 60 61 62 63 L E O N S H A K O K O M O Broadway 64 65 66 67 B O A R D G A M E S A H E M 27. Yom 68 69 70 E R N I E S O M E H I R E Kippur, e.g. 71 72 73 N O S Y Y O S E F A L E C 29. Treif 39 APRIL14 ▪ 2017
CLOSING THOUGHTS
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