HUNGER FEAST
A special seventhnight Passover seder opens eyes to opportunities to address hunger. Page 9
STAR MAKER
HONORED TRIP
At 21, Yeshiva Atlanta grad Carmelle Danneman already is an award-winning filmmaker. Page 16
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed talks about his latest trip to Israel, including a streetcar connection. Page 21
Atlanta VOL. XC NO. 14
APRIL 17, 2015 | 28 NISAN 5775
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
Jewish-Led Groups Vie For Hawks By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
T
Light for the Nations After lighting the first candle, Abe and Marlene Besser stand behind the memorial lights at the Yom HaShoah commemoration at the Marcus Jewish Community Center on April 12. The Bessers donated the Besser Holocaust Memorial Garden at the Marcus JCC, and Abe Besser built the Memorial to the Six Million, which will mark its 50th anniverary during a service April 19 at Greenwood Cemetery. Yom HaShoah coverage, Pages 6-7 Photo by Michael Jacobs
JNF BREAKFAST
Jewish National Fund comes under pressure from near (Buckhead) and far (New Orleans) for standing by the decision to honor Charles Stanley. Page 8
NEW JEWEL
More than 75 years after starting, D. Geller & Son has polished its suburban set of jewelry stores by moving into Sandy Springs. Page 26
Calendar
INSIDE
2 Israel
17
Candle Lighting
3 Business
26
Local News
4 Simchas
27
Remember When 5 Obituaries
28
Opinion 10 Crossword
30
Arts
31
16 Marketplace
he Atlanta Hawks were expected April 10 to receive the final bids for the NBA team from the last two potential ownership groups. While no word has arrived about the winner, one thing is certain: The team will remain in the control of Jewish-led ownership. One group is led by Los Angeles private equity investor Steve Kaplan, the founder of Oaktree Capital Management, who became a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2012. The other group also has a Jewish leader with business interests in Los Angeles: Lionsgate Entertainment Chairman Mark Rachesky, who heads his own investment firm, MHR. Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, who like the current ownership group’s controlling partner, Bruce Levenson, is Jewish, said at the Business of Sports Summit last month in Australia that he expects an ownership announcement this summer. Levenson’s revelation last year of a racist email he sent in 2012 about the team’s fans spurred the sale of the Hawks. The purchase of the franchise, which will enter the NBA playoffs as the topseeded team in the Eastern Conference, includes operating rights to Philips Arena and $112 million in debt on the arena. Forbes values the Hawks at $825 million, 22nd among the NBA’s 30 franchises. But some predicted a higher price after Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion from Donald Sterling — another sale between Jewish owners after publicity over racist language. ■
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CALENDAR ONGOING
Film history. Bob Bahr teaches “Fitting In — A Short History of Jewish Film in America” each Tuesday at 10 a.m. for six weeks (started April 7) at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs. Open to all; register at www. templesinaiatlanta.org. Temple Sinai and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival are co-sponsors.
THURSDAY, APRIL 16
Ambassadorial view. Marc Ginsberg, former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, speaks about the Middle East at 7 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, in a program co-sponsored by Friends of the IDF. Free; register at fidfcbs416. splashthat.com. Election analysis. Rabbi Arnold Goodman’s scholar-in-residence weekend at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead, begins with a look at his new book of Torah insights, “Mah Nishma From Jerusalem,” at 7 p.m. and with a conversation with Emory professor Ken Stein on the recent Israeli elections at 8 p.m. Rabbi Goodman also will deliver a sermon at 9 a.m. services and lead a post-kiddush beit midrash at 12:45 p.m. Saturday. All events are free.
SATURDAY, APRIL 18
Silver anniversary. Celebrate 25 years of ACCESS, the American Jewish Committee’s under-40 division, with a gala at 8 p.m. Le Fais do-do, 1611 Ellsworth Industrial Blvd., Atlanta. Tickets are $75; www.ajcatlanta.org/access25. Community teen dance. Atlanta Council BBYO invites all Jewish eighth- to 12th-graders to an event that combines the BBYO beau/sweetheart dance with Marathon Madness, an initiative to support American and Israeli soldiers, at 9 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El, 1580 Spalding Drive, Sandy Springs. Tickets are $15 until April 16, then $18; www. atlantajcc.org/bbyo or 678-812-3970.
SUNDAY, APRIL 19
Middle East analysis. Emory’s Ken Stein discusses Iran, Islamic State and other Middle East changes and their implications for the United States and Israel at 9:30 a.m. at Young Israel of Toco Hills, 2056 LaVista Road. Free (optional breakfast is $10 for Young Israel members, $12 for nonmembers); www.yith.org/event/kenstein. Yom HaShoah. The 50th annual Holocaust commemoration at the Memorial to the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery, 1173 Cascade Road, Atlanta,
features Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat as keynote speaker at 11 a.m. Free.
fedweb.jewishfederations.org/page/s/ help-fight-hunger2 or 404-870-1866.
Holocaust remembrance. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat addresses how we honor Holocaust victims in the 21st century at 2:30 p.m. at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Free; thebreman.org.
Memorial for Israel’s fallen. Commemorate Israel’s lost soldiers and terror victims with the observance of Yom HaZikaron at 7:30 p.m. at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead. Free; doors open at 6:30.
Camp kickoff. A flag football tournament benefits Camp Living Wonders at 3 p.m. at the Weber School, 6751 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. The $36 fee includes snacks and a T-shirt, and the Marcus Foundation will match all money raised; www.camplivingwonders.org. A cappella magic. The Maccabeats sing for one night only at 5 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $8 to $15; www.atlantajcc.org/ boxoffice or 678-812-4002.
TUESDAY, APRIL 21
Challah making. Learn to braid and bake challah with the TOV program of the Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta at 10:30 a.m. at Congregation Gesher L’Torah, 4320 Kimball Bridge Road, Alpharetta. The cost is $18; atlanta.
THURSDAY, APRIL 23
Yom HaAtzmaut breakfast. Yedidya Harush and the Rev. Charles Stanley are the honorees at Jewish National Fund’s 12th annual Jack Hirsch Memorial Breakfast to celebrate Israeli Independence Day at 7:30 a.m. at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown. Free; www.jnf.org/about-jnf/ events/2015/12th-annual-jack-hirsch. html or 404-236-8990. Yom HaAtzmaut lunch. Paratrooper Yedidya Harush speaks at Jewish National Fund’s Ladies Who Lunch Israeli Independence Day event at 11:30 a.m. at Founders Hall, 1076 Canton St., Roswell. Register by April 17. The cost is $36; www.jnf.org/aboutjnf/events/2015/2nd-annual-yomhaatzmaut.html or 404-236-8990. Yom HaAtzmaut barbecue. The com-
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CALENDAR CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES
Parshah Shemini Friday, April 17, light candles at 7:52 p.m. Saturday, April 18, Shabbat ends at 8:49 p.m. Parshah Tazria-Metzora Friday, April 24, light candles at 7:57 p.m. Saturday, April 26, Shabbat ends at 8:55 p.m.
Yom HaAtzmaut celebration. Celebrate Israel’s Independence Day with food, dancing, music, face painting, crafts and other activities at 5 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free; rabbi.glusman@atlantajcc.org or 678812-4161.
SUNDAY, APRIL 26
Autism walk. The Walk Now for Autism Speaks 1.5-mile walk starts with ceremonies at 9:15 a.m. at Atlantic Station, Pinnacle parking lot, 20th Street, Midtown. Free; raise at least $150 to get a T-shirt. Register in advance at www.walknowforautismspeaks.org or at 8 a.m. at the walk. Israel festival. Celebrate Israel’s 67th birthday with Jewish Atlanta’s community Yom HaAtzmaut party at 1 p.m. at the Davis Academy Upper School, 7901 Roberts Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; clevitan@jewishatlanta.org.
FRIDAY-SUNDAY, MAY 1-3
Scholar in residence. Rabbi Shmuel Lew visits Chabad of Cobb, 4450 Lower Roswell Road, East Cobb. Events include dinner with a discussion of his time in Greenland at 7:30 p.m. Friday ($24 for adults, $14 for ages 7 to 12, $8 for ages 3 to 6 until April 27, then $5 more each); a lunch talk on “Realizing Our Potential” at 12:30 p.m. Saturday (free); and a discussion of Chabad teachings on happiness at 10 a.m. Sunday ($12). Register at www.cobbjewishacademy.org, or call 770-565-4412.
SUNDAY, MAY 3
Kosher Day at Turner Field. Take in a Braves game against the Cincinnati Reds at 1:35 p.m. and enjoy a variety of kosher food available for purchase. For more information, call the Atlanta Kashruth Commission, 404-634-4063.
SUMMER DAY CAMPS 2015
Student awards. Greater Atlanta Hadassah presents the Marian F. Perling Hadassah Chesed Student Awards to seventh- to 12th-graders at 2 p.m. at Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody. Free; atlanta@hadassah.org or 678-443-2961.
EE BU FR TRANSPOR
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MONDAY, MAY 4
Spa evening. Women are invited to a Spa for the Soul, including a guest speaker, at 5:30 p.m. at Chabad of Cobb, 4450 Lower Roswell Road, East Cobb. Admission is $36; www.chabadofcobb.com or 770-565-4412.
AJC dinner. The American Jewish Committee presents Eliot Arnovitz the Selig Distinguished Service Award at 6 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, 3434 Peachtree St. Tickets are $180; www.ajcatlanta.org or 404-233-5501.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29
THURSDAY, MAY 7
His mother’s story. Michael Epstein presents “From Leipzig to Leeds: My Mother’s Holocaust Journey,” a presentation he delivered to students in Leipzig, Germany, to the Mount Scopus Group of Greater Atlanta Hadassah at 7:15 p.m. at the Central DeKalb Senior Center, 1346 McConnell Drive, Decatur. Contact Edie Barr, embarr1@bellsouth. net or 404-325-0340.
MJCCA
Ester Rada. The Israeli-Ethiopian singer closes the 2015 Molly Blank Concert Series at 7:30 p.m. at the Breman, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Tickets are $39 for Breman members, $50 for others; thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.
Send items for the calendar to submissions@atljewishtimes.com.
S
To life. Jewish Family & Career Services and Greater Atlanta Hadassah’s Ketura Group hold the L’Chaim program, “Being Connected,” at 1:30 p.m. at JF&CS, 4549 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody. The cost is $10; 678441-0650 or sdalmat@gmail.com.
THURSDAY, APRIL 30
Breman benefit. The Wildest Party of the Year starts at 7 p.m. at the Hyatt at Villa Christina, 4000 Summit Blvd., Brookhaven. Tickets are $150 ($100 if you’re 36 or younger); thebreman.org/ Events/Wildest-Party.
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munity is invited to join Young Israel of Toco Hills for food, fun, Israeli music and flag dancing at 5 p.m. at Mason Mill Park, 1340 McConnell Drive, Decatur. Free (charge for food); www. yith.org or 404-315-1417.
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LOCAL NEWS
Flag Football to Kick Off Camp Living Wonders By Zach Itzkovitz
F
or a b’nai mitzvah project, Jeremy Leven, Danny Raymon and Jay Satisky decided to do something a little different. They are spearheading a flag football tournament whose proceeds will go to Camp Living Wonders, a summer camp for Jews ages 7 to 25 with special needs. Kickoff for Camp Living Wonders will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the Weber School, 6751 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Entry is $36. The boys’ goal was to raise $3,500 to fund one camper, but Camp Director Noah Pawliger said they are well beyond their goal. “They’ve already raised enough to send one camper to camp,” Pawliger said, “and I just thought that was mind-blowing. They’re on track to get another one by next week.” Pawliger spoke highly of Jeremy, Danny and Jay and said the change they are making extends far beyond themselves. “It means that the value of the camp and the influence that the camp is having on other kids is starting to be understood as something that’s important for all kids,” Pawliger said.
volunteering and “I’m liking that the working with the three of them really special needs populearned about the lation at the same camp. We’re providage as Jeremy and ing a Jewish camp his friends that I reexperience for a lot alized, ‘There’s a big of kids who probably need for this, and never had the same these kids deserve opportunity to have and need opportunia great Jewish camp ties to be a part of the experience as they community.’ ” had.” Pawliger noted The camp serves how the three boys those with autism changed the mospectrum disorders, rale of the campers. Down syndrome, ToHe also observed urette syndrome and growth in the boys. attention deficit hy“It gave them a peractivity disease, Camp Living Wonders is open little more sensitivamong others. to girls as well as boys. ity and a more incluCamp begins sive mind-set toward June 14 at Camp Arrowhead near Asheville, N.C., and some them,” Pawliger said. “For our campers, slots remain. A 19-day session and it’s a few more people who are passiontwo nine-day sessions are available. ate enough to go and tell their story to Visit camplivingwonders.org, or email their friends. It’s a very powerful thing, coming from a community that these noah@camplivingwonders.org. “I always knew I wanted to run a kids are often excluded from.” Jeremy, 13, remembered his own camp from a very young age,” Pawliger said. “But it wasn’t until I started summer experiences and wanted
someone who had missed the opportunity to have the same experiences. “I’ve been going to camp for the last four years and having a great time,” Jeremy said. “I thought it would be a good idea to take my time and raise money so a kid could have a lifetime experience at camp.” The boys thought a football tournament would be a fun and healthy way to raise money for a great cause. “I used to play football, and I play baseball and basketball too,” Jeremy said. “We just thought it would be an easier thing to do. A couple of my friends did basketball tournaments, so we wanted to switch it up.” Camp Living Wonders has many opportunities. High school juniors and seniors are eligible for the camp’s fully inclusive staff-in-training program. “It’s an opportunity for teenagers who want to learn how to work with this population,” Pawliger said. “It’s a life-changing experience — it will probably shape the rest of their lives and change their viewpoint on what communities should look like, and our camp really reflects what a Jewish community should look like.” ■
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Remember When
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about 200 over the course of 1979. The Atlanta Jewish Federation agreed to resettle 512 Soviet Jews in the year ending Sept. 30 but wasn’t expecting the last wave so soon.
10 Years Ago April 15, 2005
PUBLISHER MICHAEL A. MORRIS
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■ Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise in the United States even as attitudes toward Jews improve, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL’s annual audit found a 17 percent increase in 2004 to 1,821 incidents, the highest total in nine years. But a poll concluded that 14 percent of Americans were anti-Semitic, down from 17 percent in 2002. ■ Craig and Beth Intro of Atlanta announce the birth of a daughter, Jolie Maya, on Oct. 14, 2004. She weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces and was 21 inches long. 25 Years Ago April 13, 1990 ■ Atlanta’s Jewish resettlement system is bracing for a record 324 Russians who will arrive before the end of May. The greatest previous influx of Soviet Jews was the arrival of
EDITORIAL Editor
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Contributors This Week DAVID BENKOF BEN FINK JORDAN GORFINKEL LEAH HARRISON ZACH ITZKOVITZ MARCIA JAFFE ABE SCHEAR SHAINDLE SCHMUCKLER EUGEN SCHOENFELD TERRY SEGAL AL SHAMS JOE STERLING RABBI DONALD TAM
■ The bar mitzvah celebration of David Michael Tenenbaum of Atlanta, son of Jan and Terry Tenenbaum, will take place Saturday, April 21, at Beth Jacob Synagogue. 50 Years Ago April 16, 1965 ■ Maxine and Harold Marcus have agreed to chair The Southern Israelite’s 40th-anniversary dinner in the newly redecorated Garson Hall at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center on May 20, during the annual convention of the American Jewish Press Association. Sharing the spotlight that night will be the Hebrew Watchman of Memphis, also founded in 1925. All readers are invited at $5 a head. ■ Mr. and Mrs. Manuel L. Krugman of Atlanta announce the engagement of their daughter, Karen Krugman, to Barry S. Ephraim, son of Dr. and Mrs. Zachary N. Ephraim of Bethesda, Md. An August wedding is planned.
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LOCAL NEWS
Yom HaShoah Call for Action By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
T
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
he Holocaust was possible in a civilized nation like Germany because of demonization, a simple process that is happening again today to Israel and Jews, survivor Irving Roth told a crowd gathered for the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s annual Yom HaShoah observance April 12. Through demonization, Roth said, “there’s no limit to what you can do to people.” Roth, who was born in eastern Czechoslovakia in 1929 and survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald, spoke at the observance 70 years and one day after his liberation. He said the two U.S. soldiers who walked into his Buchenwald barracks, one black and one white, were his messiahs. Roth explained how Nazi demonization of Jews brought him to that day from a childhood in a well-integrated city of 7,000, one-third of whom were Jews. He went to a school for Jews and non-Jews, played soccer with Jews and non-Jews, and found a Greek Orthodox girlfriend when he was 6. His father owned a thriving lumber business that produced railroad ties. But Nazi Germany swallowed Roth’s country, first taking the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia in 1938 under the Munich accords, then breaking its deal with France and Brit-
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ain by occupying the rest of the country in the spring of 1939. “So much for signed agreements,” Roth said. “Maybe we should learn something.” Under the new fascist government of Slovakia, life fell apart for Roth. It started with a sign banning dogs and Jews from a park in summer 1939. Curfews and the requirement to wear yellow stars were followed by a ban on non-Jews living with Jews and on Jews owning such “luxury” items as his sheepskin winter coat. Demonizing government policies changed Roth’s friends and neighbors. That sweet Greek Orthodox girl he fell for at age 6 decided in March 1940 that he couldn’t carry her books, do homework with her or walk her home from school because she couldn’t be with Jews. In September 1940, the day Jewish teachers and government workers were fired, Roth and all other Jews were kicked out of school, and Roth’s soccer team gave him the boot. When Jews no longer Photos by Michael Jacobs were allowed to own busiTop: Ambassador Opher Aviran, Israel’s consul general to the Southeast, says Yom HaShoah is about nesses, Roth’s father put remembering not only those killed, but also the survivors, “who lost everything but their humanity.” his lumber business in Bottom left: Rabbi Brian Glusman brought Irving Roth to the Marcus JCC to be the Yom HaShoah the name of a non-Jewish keynote speaker and to light the last of six memorial candles. Bottom right: Irving Roth reads from the Atlanta Jewish Times to demonstrate the fallacy of calling Israel an apartheid state. friend in what was supposed to be a paper transaction only. But that friend soon took the April 10 issue of the Atlanta Jewish control and let Joe Roth stay around Times about an Arab being named the deputy chief scientist in the Ministry just to make him money. That vital job did spare the Roth of Science, Technology and Space. “It’s the same lies, the same defamily when most of the city’s Jews were deported in summer 1942, and monization, taking place,” he said. Roth said that if “never again” is to eventually the Roths moved to Hungary, where Jews were rounded up in be more than a slogan, we must fight Spring 1944. At that point, Roth said, it such lies day and night by educating was clear that the Nazis were going to our friends, neighbors and children. Other speakers at the ceremony, lose the war, “but the war against the held inside the JCC’s theater instead of Jews could still be won.” That’s how he arrived at Aus- the Besser Holocaust Memorial Garden chwitz with his older brother in May because of rain, also called for action. Rabbi Paul Kerbel said we must 1944. He turned 15 at Auschwitz and was marched out in January 1945 as the remain vigilant against anti-Semitism. Israeli Consul General Opher Russian army approached. He spent the final months until liberation at Bu- Aviran urged the JCC to stop all other activities at the center for 40 minutes chenwald. His brother did not survive. Roth sees the same process of de- each year to mark Yom HaShoah. Rabbi Brian Glusman, saying he monization in the world’s views of Israel today. Somehow, he said, the world fears “we may have gotten used to the accepts the idea of Israel as an apart- darkness,” urged remembering the vicheid state even though anyone who vis- tims by screaming out against oppresits Israel knows there aren’t separate sion wherever and whenever it occurs. “We must stop the lies,” Roth said. facilities, accommodations and services for Jews, Muslims, Druze, Chris- “We must stop the demonization. In tians and so on. He read an item from this way, we will honor the 6 million.” ■
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LOCAL NEWS
A Tombstone Wasn’t Good Enough
I
t started with a notice in the Oct. 16, 1964, Southern Israelite: “Monument for Six Million Victims To Be Erected in ‘Garden of Martyrs.’ ” Six months later, Atlanta’s Memorial to the Six Million was dedicated at Greenwood Cemetery during the first Yom HaShoah commemoration there. In that half-year, the vision for the monument changed from something static and perhaps forgettable to something that won a national design award in 1968. It earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 even though the memorial was less than 50 years and its designer, a Holocaust survivor, was still alive. That survivor, Ben Hirsch, was only about two years into his architecture practice when he saw an announcement about the intentions of an organization he had not heard of, Eternal-Life Hemshech. The newspaper said Hemshech was working with international organizations and “wellknown architects” to finalize plans for the monument on a 40-grave plot in Greenwood’s Jewish section. The group held a public meeting to unveil the plans prepared by the Georgia Monument Co.: a 6-foot-wide, 3- or 4-foot-tall, white marble tombstone with “6,000,000” engraved on both sides and a white marble candelabra on top, to be built for $6,500. In an interview at his home office with the memorial’s 50th anniversary approaching, Hirsch said the tombstone design wasn’t ugly, but it wasn’t good enough. While the first requirement for the memorial was to provide a place for the relatives of victims to say Kaddish, he wanted something more, a place that would draw people in and make a statement to the world. After the community meeting, which approved the tombstone plan, Hirsch approached the leaders of Hemshech. “I’m a survivor, and I’m an architect. … I’d like to offer my services,” Hirsch recalled saying. “I think I can give you something better than a tombstone for such an important endeavor.” Lola Lansky helped persuade the other group leaders to give Hirsch two weeks to come up with something. He was ready to present the design the next day, including a model of clay and construction paper. “My concept was to have a space that was open to the four corners of the earth, north, south, east and west,”
Hirsch said. “It would be inviting to anybody, regardless of religion, race or ethnicity, to participate.” With help from colleagues, he kept the final cost to $8,500, including the bronze memorial plaques. A big part of the
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Architect Ben Hirsch lives and works in another building he designed. There he keeps the site and floor plan for the memorial, which remains a reality at Greenwood Cemetery.
successful execution was fellow survivor Abe Besser, whose company built the memorial. More than 40 years later, Besser would give the community a second Holocaust memorial at the Marcus Jewish Community Center. “He was a Godsend, very talented,” Hirsch said. Besser and Hirsch donated their services. The highlights of the memorial include the angled granite walls at different heights, the entrances that get narrower as you enter, the access ramps at two of the entrances for the days when survivors grew old, and the six towering torches (adapted gas street lamps). The groundbreaking for the project occurred in early 1965 on a snowy, rainy day, and the monument was finished in time for the community ceremony April 25. Ben’s brother Jack was the master of ceremonies. Hirsch said the ceremony went beautifully. He headed home, looked in the mirror and said: “You’re 32 years old. You’ve accomplished everything you wanted. What are you going to do now?” ■ Atlanta native Stuart Eizenstat, who has spent decades uncovering hidden assets from Holocaust victims, will be the keynote speaker at the 50th-anniversary ceremony Sunday, April 19, at 11 a.m.
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LOCAL NEWS
JNF Resists More Demands to Revoke Stanley Honor From Staff Reports
announced during Saturday morning services April 11. But the congregation is not making a public statement. JNF is honoring Stanley for his longtime support for Israel, especially for leading hundreds of his congregants on a mission to Israel last year during the Gaza war. But citing his long record of hostility toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, LGBT advocates have criticized JNF Southeast’s
J
ewish National Fund is standing by its decision to honor First Baptist Church Atlanta Senior Pastor Charles Stanley at the 12th annual Jack Hirsch Memorial Breakfast on April 23, Yom HaAtzmaut, despite more community criticism. Ahavath Achim Synagogue personnel will not attend the breakfast, congregation President Douglas Ander
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decision to give the Tree of Life Award to Stanley. SOJOURN: Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity released a letter April 2 detailing Stanley’s history and demanding that he not be honored. By that time, The Temple, where the Hirsch Breakfast will be held, and Temple Sinai had notified JNF that their clergy would not attend the event but remained strong JNF supporters. Rabbi Fred Greene, the outgoing spiritual leader of Temple Beth Tikvah, announced April 12 on Twitter that he was asking JNF to withdraw the honor. Because the controversy arose as Passover arrived, several rabbis said they were not fully aware of the situation and were studying the matter or talking with JNF before making any decisions about the breakfast. Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla of Congregation Or VeShalom, which is scheduled to have a table at the breakfast, had been unaware of the controversy but said JNF and the breakfast, which last year honored one of his congregants, Morris Maslia, deserve support for all they do for Israel. “We have been apprised that there
is some disagreement on our choice for this year’s Tree of Life honoree,” Beth Gluck, JNF’s regional director in the Southeast, said in a statement. “While we respect everyone’s opinion, we stand by our decision.” A strong dissenting voice came from Modern Orthodox Rabbi Gabriel Greenberg of Congregation Beth Israel in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, who released a letter to Gluck on April 13 in which he called the decision to honor Stanley puzzling and upsetting. “One of the many reasons we as a community stand up for Israel is due to its progressive record on LGBTQ rights,” Rabbi Greenberg wrote. “This is one of the things that buttresses Israel’s claim toward being a bastion of Western values in the Middle East.” Ellen Mills, a longtime Ahavath Achim member, disagreed with her synagogue leadership’s decision to skip the breakfast. “Reverend Stanley is a pastor and has his beliefs, but he has done so much to help Israel and influence others,” she said. “I am an inclusive thinker but do not see the conflict in supporting JNF and attending the breakfast to honor him.” ■
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Diamant To Help Launch Community Mikvah
By Suzi Brozman om sbrozman@atljewishtimes.c known as the nita Diamant, best Tent,” is comauthor of “The Red two public ing to Atlanta to make appearances this month. Boston Girl,” “The book, Her latest her visit Feb. 23 to the will be the focus of ity Center. But Marcus Jewish Commun will help local orgathe night before she a new project, an allnizers plunge into at Congregation denominations mikvah Springs. B’nai Torah in Sandy n of reimaginDiamant’s discussio age will be free ing ritual for the modern at The Temple in and open to the public the Metro Atlanta Midtown to launch (MACoM) into the Community Mikvah Atlanta. Jewish of consciousness ent nonprofit MACoM is an independ construction of the that plans to start in May and finish community mikvah . The project will before the High Holidays of the existing faciliinvolve a renovation has the support of ties at B’nai Torah and synagogues and other more than a dozen organizations. diverse supMACoM’s board reflects rabbis and repreport, including three Conservative and sentatives of Reform, Judaism. Orthodox streams of the model Diamant helped establish al community for a nondenomination 10 years at Boston’s Education 27 mikvah the past Waters). Mayyim Hayyim (Living Obituaries 28 to the idea of a “People responded ng and beautiful, Simchas 29 place that was welcomi to s and sad, a way for happy occasion Sports 29 ” Diamant said. mark life’s changes, thoughts on the Crossword 30 See more about her Page 6. ■ modern mikvah on Marketplace 31
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LOCAL NEWS
Hunger Seder Serves Up Powerful Message
M
ore than 110 people of various faiths came together April 9 at Ahavath Achim Synagogue for the fifth-annual Hunger Seder. Some were advocates. Some represented hunger-related organizations. Some were children. Some were homeless. Hunger Seder participation began even before the event with an email of action steps the day prior. In addition to asking registrants to encourage others to accompany them to the seder, the email entreated participants to begin thinking in Passover terms, speaking of the plague of hunger and of ways to help others out of that bondage and into the freedom of food security. Co-chair Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal of AA welcomed attendees and led the seder. He said the four cups of wine symbolize the promises of freedom made to the Israelites as they were led out of slavery and four new promises about breaking the shackles of hunger today, as listed in the Mazon/Jewish Council of Public Affairs Hunger Seder Haggadah: • We will not turn away from the plight of those struggling with hunger and food insecurity. • We will educate ourselves and then others about the real dynamics and causes of food insecurity and not allow ignorance and bigotry to fuel uncompassionate and punitive actions. • We will urge our policymakers to make it a priority to end hunger, especially for children and seniors. • We will work to ensure that everyone has access to enough nutritious food. Rabbi Rosenthal encouraged those at the seder to formulate questions about food insecurity and hunger and
then try to answer them. The questions posed included: When the United States is so effective at growing food, why is there so much hunger? How do we locate people who are hungry? Why does our government subsidize unhealthy food? How can I help get food to the hungry? Harold Kirtz, a seder co-chair and executive board member and past president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta, said the Hunger Seder and the original haggadah were created as part of the JCPA’s national efforts to combat hunger. The haggadah has been updated and modified each year. Representatives from partnering and sponsoring organizations spoke throughout the seder about their efforts to inform the community and combat food insecurity, including Ahavath Achim’s Hunger Project, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Atlanta Food and Farm, Atlanta Mobile Market, Challah for Hunger, Concrete Jungle, Gideon’s Promise, Helping Feed Atlanta, JCRCA, JCPA, Jewish Family & Career Services’ Kosher Food Pantry, The Temple’s Blessing Box Project, Limmud Atlanta SE, Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, ModernTribe and Second Helpings Atlanta. Many offer opportunities for involvement in the anti-hunger effort. Before dining, we were assured that the leftovers from the meal, as with all meals at AA, would be taken to a shelter that night. Those at the seder did not go hungry. Jodie Sturgeon, an Atlanta Kashruth Commission-certified executive chef and the owner of For All Occasions & More catering, prepared the meal under the auspices of AA. From the refined charoset and handcrafted gefilte fish to the plum-size matzah
Personal Action Throughout the thoughtful, empowering and inspiring Hunger Seder, we were encouraged to think of and act on the many ways each of us can make a difference in the fight against hunger. My piece of the puzzle? With a volunteer plate that is already quite full, I hesitated to put my name in the baskets of organizations that would follow up with attendees after the event. But I connected with Pastor Maggie Leonard of Mercy Community Church, a homeless congregation in the basement of Druid Hills Presbyterian Church. Pastor Leonard told of the challenges of providing food, fresh produce, and, to the extent possible, meals, which she herself prepares, to her congregants. While I cannot compete with the thousands of pounds donated to other organizations by Costco, Kroger and the like, the overage from my garden this year will be put to good use in helping to provide fresh meals for the congregation.
Photos by Leah R. Harrison
balls, flavorful chicken, three types of kugel, flourless chocolate cake and oversized macaroons, the food was bountiful and delicious. Options for vegans and vegetarians abounded as well. The presenters made clear that in America the issue is not so much an adequate food supply as the delivery of
Top left: Seder attendees were encouraged to take home edible centerpieces in Mazon tzedakah boxes. Top right: (From left) Voncile Hodges, Frieda Minga and Esther Levine help conclude the seder with a reading. Left: Ahavath Achim Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal leads the seder.
those resources to people in need. “G-d provides plenty of food,” Rabbi Rosenthal said. “We have a distribution problem.” ■
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Pastor Leonard allowed me to leave the seder with a satisfied stomach and a full heart.
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Now the charge: What questions will you create and act on in the battle against hunger and food insecurity?
Same Day Test Results
— Leah R. Harrison
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
By Leah R. Harrison
Steven J. Eisenberg, M.D.
AJT 9
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OPINION
Our View
Coalition Politics
I
sraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party won the Knesset elections a month ago amid expectations that he would quickly form a government, but a coalition remains elusive as the May 7 deadline draws closer. Unfortunately, winning the election is only the first step toward becoming prime minister. To secure the position, Netanyahu must cobble together a coalition with at least 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. Likud alone, with 30 seats, is almost halfway there, but then things get murky. The 20th Knesset, sworn in March 30, represents 10 parties, down from 14 in the last Knesset. An increase in the threshold to enter the Knesset from 2 percent of the vote to 3.25 percent helped reduce the number of parties, but too many remain. Take away Likud’s 30 seats and the Zionist Union’s 24, and eight parties are splitting 66 seats, an average of just over eight each. That’s less than 7 percent of the Knesset per party outside the big two. But those small parties, often based on one issue or one leader, wield big power because the would-be prime minister needs so many of them to build and maintain a governing coalition. The horse trading involved in forming a coalition takes place behind closed doors. The prime minister must offer parties positions as Cabinet ministers and deputy Cabinet ministers to persuade them to join the government, then must remain true to their agendas, lest they quit the government and bring it down. Complications arise when likely coalition members have conflicting positions on secondary issues or want to control the same agencies and policies.
Coalitions collapse so often that no prime minister has made it through a full five-year term without re-forming the government. New elections come along about every 3½ years. Twelve people have served as Israel’s prime minister in its 67 years. Four of them have resigned six times, three have died in office, and five, from David Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, have served nonconsecutive terms. Only once has Israel given one party a Knesset majority, when Ben-Gurion’s party won 63 seats in 1958, and even that government collapsed. To some extent, that chaos is intentional. It’s part of the more direct democracy involved in a parliamentary system with proportional representation. By contrast, the American and English systems of electing lawmakers by district create republics with legislative majorities that don’t accurately reflect the political breakdown of the population. Theoretically, an American political party could win every congressional race by a single vote and wind up with all 435 House and 100 Senate seats despite having the slimmest of majorities in the vote counts; that could not happen in Israel. The good side of Israel’s system is that issues important to small percentages of the population are heard. Unfortunately, the fragility of the coalition system prevents action on the big issues most of the population cares about. Issues that are important but go nowhere include marriage restrictions, minority rights, religious pluralism, military or national service for the Haredi, public subsidies for Haredi communities, exactly who is a Jew, and even the settlements and peace process. The stalemate with the Palestinians and constant threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Islamic State, etc., expose the other big problem with Israel’s governmental chaos: Such instability could
be fatal for a nation in a perpetual state of war. Israel should be focused on finding a practical solution to Iran’s nuclear program and fending off U.N. resolutions for Palestinian statehood, but Netanyahu must concentrate on finding at least four coalition partners or must break a campaign pledge and reach out to the Zionist Union for a unity government (which still would require at least one more partner). It’s possible if unlikely that Netanyahu won’t be able to pull a coalition together, forcing President Reuven Rivlin to turn elsewhere, likely to Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog, and possibly leaving Likud out of the government. All of this chaos and political drama might be fun and even beneficial in a place like Italy, which can count on the European Union and NATO for external matters. But an isolated, threatened nation like Israel needs more stability. A possible solution would be a system in which the leader of the largest party is automatically the prime minister. The elected leader would still need a coalition to govern effectively, but he or she could form a Cabinet and get on with business even with a minority government. Potential coalition partners thus couldn’t hold the prime minister hostage. We believe that letting the Israeli people choose the prime minister by giving the post to the leader of the party with a plurality would lead to the formation of fewer, larger parties addressing a wide range of issues during the campaign instead of resolving matters in secret after the election. Governments then would be less likely to fall at the whim of a single party or a single lawmaker angered by a single issue. Israel would have more transparent, more stable, more consistent governance, and that’s a good thing no matter who holds office. ■
Making Connections
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
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We had a focus group of young adults CCESS is celebrating its 25th anniversary at the AJT about nine years ago to disApril 18, and one thing I can guarantee: More cuss a lifestyle magazine; I think three people will be at Le Fais do-do that night than people showed up. And that would have attended an ACCESS town hall April 8. been a massive turnout for one of the It was an intimate gathering: ACCESS co-chairs town halls we tried to hold when I was Matt Weiss and Gabby Leon, steering committee a regional editor for Patch.com. member Mamie Dayan, American Jewish CommitGroups are always trying to draw tee Atlanta Chapter Executive Director Dov Wilker, new people, but how do you reach Benjamin and Whitney Kweskin, and me. That them? We at the Jewwasn’t necessarily ish Times aim to be by design; it’s just the outlet to connect tough to get peoEditor’s Notebook groups with commuple out to a BuckBy Michael Jacobs nity members, but we head meeting on mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com don’t reach everyone. Even when a business night the right people get the message, it in the middle of can be hard to motivate them to act, Passover and, especially on a weeknight. for many young Maybe a town hall works better on a Saturday parents, spring break. night or Sunday afternoon, or when it isn’t a Jewish The small numbers didn’t detract from the holiday or a school break, or when it’s at a brewery. quality of the conversation or the consumption of But the attendance mystery stretches beyond whitefish salad, albeit on matzah crackers. But it was a shame more people weren’t there to hear about the town halls, at least for me. One Sunday morning in Dunwoody, the Daffodil Dash draws nearly 700 good work done and good fun had by ACCESS, the people to raise money for Holocaust education and AJC’s young professional group. genocide education and prevention. Two weeks later It’s not a problem unique to ACCESS, of course.
on an afternoon in Dunwoody, perhaps one-third as many people attend a powerful program educating people about the Holocaust and advocating, among other things, genocide prevention. Why the difference? If you can offer insight into why some programming resonates better than others in Jewish Atlanta, please share. I don’t think I’m the only one who could use an education in this area. ■ Admission to the ACCESS celebration is $75; visit www.ajcatlanta.org/access25 for details and tickets.
OPINION
On JNF, Not Needing To Make a Choice
Honor Israel. Thus, no less an advocate of civil rights and anti-discrimination than Wiesel was able to find common cause with this important group over mutual support for Israel. This appearance by Wiesel displayed an attitude of tolerance toward the views of others (with which we might not
My View By Marcia Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com
agree) who share with us a love for the Jewish people and support for the state of Israel. If Wiesel can address the evangelical Christians, many of whom voice conservative views similar to Dr. Stanley’s, JNF can certainly host Dr. Stanley. There are, and need to be, many people and groups in the world beyond the Jewish community that support Israel. We cannot expect that we will agree with them on all issues, but the one issue we do agree on is Israel. Dr. Stanley and his community have stood with Israel for years, including difficult times, such as after the war in Gaza last summer when he led a trip of over 400 members of his congregation to Israel. The LGBT community should recognize that Israel is one of the most tolerant and accepting countries in the world in terms of protecting LGBT rights, yet Dr. Stanley does not let his differing views prevent him from supporting Israel. I was scheduled to speak at the Buckhead Business Association the same morning and canceled to attend the JNF breakfast at The Temple. I am bringing as many people as I can to show support, which is the true and urgent topic. As Georgia Aquarium CEO Mike Leven so movingly said at an Israel Bonds event April 2, “The biggest problem in the American Jewish community today is not in arguing about whether Netanyahu speaks to Congress, but our own divisiveness on the real issues facing our survival.” The JNF breakfast is kosher and free. Register at 404-236-8990, bgluck@jnf.org or www.jnf.org/aboutjnf/events/2015/12th-annual-jackhirsch.html. ■
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APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
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uring Saturday morning services April 11 at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, congregation President Douglas Ander announced from the pulpit that AA is joining a boycott of the JNF breakfast April 23, indicating that the Rev. Charles Stanley’s enduring and tremendous support of Israel is lessened by his negative stand on LGBT issues. AA thus joins at least two Reform temples that are skipping the 12th annual Jack Hirsch Memorial Breakfast, The Temple and Temple Sinai. Stanley, the recipient of the Tree of Life Award, is not the morning’s only honoree. Yedidya Harush, the community representative for Israeli residents on the Gaza-Egypt border, is being presented the Cantor Isaac and Betty Goodfriend Community Service Award. Should we boycott him also? Having been a proponent of Atlanta’s LGBT community, I don’t buy the linkage that attending this breakfast in recognition of Dr. Stanley’s strong support of Israel somehow implies our diminishment of gender issues. Many Christians still scratch their heads in puzzlement as to why Jews themselves do not support our own homeland, especially in tight times. And Jewish National Fund is about planting trees, not even in the political realm. Recognizing Dr. Stanley and his community for their support for Israel is in keeping with a tradition of mutual cooperation between the Christian and Jewish communities in support of Israel and the Jewish people. In the recent past, the Atlanta Jewish community joined with Dr. Stanley at his church, which is one of the largest Christian communities in the South, to celebrate a Night to Honor Israel. Israeli Consul General for the Southeast Opher Aviran was one of the keynote speakers at the event, which was attended by representatives of Atlanta Jewish synagogues and Jewish community organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel addressed evangelical Christians at a similar salute to Israel hosted by John Hagee Ministries and Christians United for Israel that was Hagee Ministries’ 28th annual Night to
AJT 11
4/14/15 10:07 AM
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OPINION
Where Are Our Great Leaders?
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
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hese are difficult times in which we find ourselves as Americans. We seem to have a government incapable of moving beyond differences founded on ideological principles that seem incapable of pragmatic compromise. We are witness to the increasing Balkanization of our society into interest groups, each of which seeks to establish its own will no matter what the effect is on most of us and what the destructive effects on our society as a whole might be. The civil discourse in our country has reached a low level. We have a Congress hardly capable of keeping even the most basic functions of government in operation. In the field of foreign policy we seem to stand helpless before a world increasingly disintegrating into war and hatreds that turn murder into acts of religious fidelity and threaten our way of life. Our foreign policy is increasingly mystifying and projects a stance of weakness in the face of vicious enemies. More and more I ask myself, “Where are our real leaders? Where are the statesmen of the kind we once were able to push forward in times of trouble and danger?” It seems to me that Jewish wellbeing is especially at risk these days because of Jewish vulnerability in Europe and the Middle East and our increasing vulnerability in America as a shrinking percentage of the population where size equates to electoral power and electoral power to influence. “Why do our leaders seem so small in our time when we especially need them to be large?” becomes not merely an academic question, but an almost plaintive cry for help. In our history this is nothing new. I like rummaging around used-book stores and some years ago came across a series of historical essays written by Joseph Klausner, who in the 20th century was a great historian at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he taught intellectual history of the biblical and Greco-Roman period, a time fraught with danger and catastrophe for our people. In one of his essays in “Massot Historiyah,” published in Tel Aviv in 1944, he takes a phrase directly from the Book of Zechariah (4:10) to mean it was “a time of little deeds and little people.” Zechariah was teaching during the early period of our return from
the Babylonian Exile to the land of Israel, finding ourselves in the midst of enemies seeking our destruction while we were disorganized and weak, wracked by internal dissentions. Klausner explains “little deeds and little people” as meaning a time when the Jewish community did not seem able to produce leaders large
Guest Column By Rabbi Donald Tam
enough to lead us through the troubles we were experiencing. Our community was wracked by discord, too populated by groups whose vision was too narrow to move beyond the boundaries of their ideological biases. Leaders are produced out of communities. We assume sometimes that only communities of open vision and strength can produce great leaders. It isn’t necessarily so, and this truth gives us hope in our own “time of little deeds and little people.” Sometimes potential leaders in a period may appear to their contemporaries to be unsuited to leadership, their abilities unnoticed or even mocked until they are called forth by chance or by need and destiny. Our year of 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the 50th anniversary of the death Winston Churchill. Both leaders were produced during periods in their countries when it seemed “little people” led. Here in the United States in the mid-19th century, North and South were no longer able to speak to each other across the divide of slavery, and “hot heads” in and out of Congress refused civil discourse toward a peaceful resolution to the social and ethical malaise that would finally cause the Civil War. In Great Britain of the 20th century, Churchill was in political exile during the period of England’s attempt at appeasement with Hitler. And yet both men became leaders of their countries in ways that themselves were ironic, made up of little things, unexpected and surprising. It gives us hope for our own time. Lincoln was born poor during a time when the wealthy elites usually ruled. He had practically no formal schooling. His father did not under-
stand him, and his mother died when he was only 9 years old. He didn’t come from the great centers of American life in the 19th century: from New York or Boston or even Charleston or New Orleans. He was a backwoods kid who bounced around, trying one thing and then another to make his way in the world. He disliked most things except reading books, which he by and large taught himself to do. Finally apprenticing himself to a lawyer, he took up his work and life in Springfield, Ill., having married Mary Todd from a slaveholding family in Kentucky. He spoke with such a “hick” backwoods accent that he made some people blush, though he spoke well, even with eloquence. He had a melancholy nature stamped upon him, which plagued him his whole life and which, according to Doris Kearns Goodwin, the author of “Team of Rivals,” a great Lincoln biography, “came from an acute sensitivity to the pains and injustices he perceived in the world. He was uncommonly tenderhearted [something seen as a weakness on the frontier]. When his schoolmates tortured turtles by placing hot coals on their back to see them wiggle in pain, he told them ‘it was wrong.’ He refused to hunt animals, which ran counter to frontier mores.” I would differ here with Goodwin. My sense is that his melancholy nature was not caused by his acute sensitivity. Rather, his acute sensitivity toward the pain of others was caused by the effects that his predisposition to depression wrote on his character. He was gracious in defeat, and he did not hold grudges. Those who contended with Lincoln were among the brightest and most accomplished political thinkers of that time, coming from cultured homes and the best universities. Lincoln seemed like a hayseed by comparison. And yet history often turns on little things, even in “little times.” First, the Republican Convention was held in Chicago because the other candidates refused to let the convention be held in the strongholds of their competitors. Chicago was in Illinois, Lincoln’s home state, but no one thought this backwoods lawyer would be a serious contender. So Convention Hall in Chicago was filled with Lincoln supporters. Another little thing: When on the second day of the convention a move was made to proceed to presidential
balloting, they found that the papers necessary for the tally had not been prepared. Had the vote been taken at that time, many believe that William Seward would have received the nomination. Then there is Churchill. He was an Englishman raised in Edwardian England with a culturally and politically Victorian predisposition, facing the most vicious evil the 20th century had yet produced. Churchill was an anachronism, politically and culturally, an old man by then who seemed to have outlived his time, out of government for a decade, a has-been who was held to be emotionally erratic (that was right), unsteady, given to depression, a heavy-drinking blowhard who some believed was mentally deranged. This was the man who led England to its finest hour? It was precisely his old-fashioned commitment to the outmoded ideal of honor that made him refuse to give up in the face of Hitler’s onslaught. It was his psychological immersion in the atmosphere of Edwardian and Victorian England that some say blinded him to the realities of 20th-century England. And yet that blindness, if that’s what it was, refused to allow him to make peace with Hitler when the other contenders for prime minister in 1940 probably would have done so, changing the face of Europe into a tyranny second to none for a very long time. Churchill, the egomaniacal, sentimental, cultural anachronism, erratic, often brooding, depressive old man who enjoyed hearing himself talk, bound by the 19th century, saved the West in the 20th century. When I am reminded of such truths of history, how even “times of little deeds and little people” can throw forth great leaders where one least expects them, I have hope for our own time, as chaotic and depressing as it often seems. The age of leadership genius is not entirely dead. If Klausner was right that the prophet Zechariah lived in “times of little deeds and little people,” still leaders of our people arose then and through all the times afterward who were worthy of the challenges they confronted. So, like the more recent cases of Lincoln and Churchill, might it be in our time as well. Something creative and magnificently good is present in our midst, harbored by fallible human beings we may not yet have heard of — in these, “our times of little deeds and little people.” ■
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OPINION
Counting the Omer: Path to Become Humane With fear but with determination, I exited my underground, lice-infested, cold bunker and began crawling while hiding from the searchlights. Finally, I reached the hospital and knocked at the door. It opened, and I entered. Next day, the trains came, and the Jews, with the exception of the
One Man’s Opinion By Eugen Schoenfeld
few who hid, were unceremoniously packed into the wagons like sardines in a can and were taken away. Two days later, I woke up to the sound of distant gunfire — the rattat-tat of machine guns and the loud booms of canons. The war had come to Muhldorf Wald Lager, the camp where I was. Somewhat later the camp that usually was noisy became quiet; there wasn’t a sound to be heard. We cracked open the hospital door and peeked out; there wasn’t a soul to be seen. The machine guns that were usually pointed toward the camp were gone, as were all the guards, and all was quiet. We came out, the few Jews who, like me, hid and weren’t locked up in the train and the few non-Jews, and gathered in the court yard. We were free. Yes, the guards were gone. We could move about freely. We could and did open the gates, on which the slogan “arbeit macht frei” was still inscribed. We took a few steps outside but, with the exception of German criminals who were also interned there but served as supervisors, re-
mained in the camp. We didn’t know what to do. We had no direction. We lacked purpose, and for all practical purposes we were still slaves because we hoped that someone would come and take care of us. We were still slaves dependent on someone who would tell us what to do. There I learned an important lesson: Physical freedom alone does not make one free. In some ways we Holocaust survivors and the Jews who were freed from Egyptian slavery share a common experience. Both of us were freed from slavery, and although we were physically free, both of us lacked direction and had to re-establish our moral ideals, and it took time, like the time of counting the Omer, to learn that the privilege of freedom must be balanced by moral duties. We the survivors of the Holocaust and the survivors of the Egyptian enslavement had to be taught that freedom cannot coexist in a world absent of morality. It took the survivors of Egypt 49 days to be given the Torah and be taught that people remain slaves unless they gain a foundation of spiritual freedom rather than, as Erich Fromm said, take the easy way of pleasure and escape from freedom. For in every generation there are those who lack the courage to be free and would prefer to be re-enslaved because that is often the easier path. It took 49 days, seven whole weeks, the days of the Omer from Pesach till Shavuot, for the Egyptian slaves to be given the Torah, the moral and ethical ordinances and principles that made our ancestors totally free. At the foothills of Mount Sinai, we started gaining the wisdom that is necessary to be free.
This is why I consider Shavuot as humanity’s real birthday. On the sixth day G-d created the physical human being endowed with instincts and enslaved to his physical body and pleasures and lacking moral understanding. In that period man was not far above the beast — a selfish and selfcentered entity governed, in Freud’s term, by the id alone. In this period man was not far above the beast and far lower than the angels. Let us celebrate Shavuot as the day we were given the understanding and the wisdom to become moral men, and when we accomplish it, we will change from beings who are less than the mythical angels to a higher level far above the angels. For unlike the mythical angels, the moral man is constantly confronted by choices. Still, it is mankind that received the Torah, the moral teachings, and with it as a guide, man can distinguish good from evil, right from wrong, and have the courage and fortitude to choose the moral path to life. It is only through becoming moral beings that mankind can become elevated to humane beings. Then, and only then, when we become moral beings, we could hope to realize Isaiah’s dream for the existence of a peaceful and fearless world. Instead of seeking more destructive weapons, we will beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks, and nation will not lift swords (nor bombs) against other nations, and neither will war be taught. Only then could we proclaim that there is freedom throughout the world and join Martin Luther King and declare: Free at last, thank G-d Almighty, we are free at last. ■
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n April 29, 1945, we returned from our labors and gathered in the camp courtyard for appel, the twice-a-day routine of being counted. The camp commandant received the report: So many schutzheftlingen (inmates) went out in the morning, so many returned, and frequently the report included the statistic that so many died and were buried in the common grave. On this day, the commandant also gave the assembled Jews unsettling information. “Tomorrow,” he informed us, “the train will come, and all Jews in the camp will be taken to another place. Only non-Jews and those in the hospital will remain.” It didn’t take a genius to figure out that tomorrow the safest place for Jews would be to remain in the camp with the non-Jews. I decided that night I must somehow enter the hospital. My uncle the physician was the head of the hospital, and because he treated the guards and their families, he was given many privileges. My father and my two uncles, as well as my cousin, the physician’s 11-year-old son, already were in the hospital. My father was treated as a patient, but unlike other Jewish patients, who were sent back to work or were culled and taken away, he remained in the hospital under his brother’s protection. My two uncles did office work, and my young cousin was a laufer, a messenger boy. Only I, like all other unprivileged Jews, worked and starved. I decided I would crawl in stealth into the hospital and be reunited with the family. It was a moonless night. Were I to be caught, I would surely be executed.
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LOCAL NEWS
Seen on Social Media Georgia Tech sophomore pitcher Brandon Gold, a Johns Creek High and Davis Academy grad, had struggled a bit after giving up no runs in his first three starts of the season, but he celebrated the end of Passover by bouncing back in a big way Sunday, April 12, against 15th-ranked Virginia. Gold gave up three hits, two walks and one run while striking out seven in seven innings in a 4-3 Tech win and raised his season record to 5-1. Another sports moment came during Passover when Chabad Rabbi Ari Sollish got up close and personal with former heavyweight boxing champ Evander Holyfield, as shared by Joel Alpert on Facebook on April 9.
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APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
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AJT 14
Contact Steven W. Cook, PhD swc@collegebridge.net or 404.983.4573
AZA Sons of Judea Reunion Jerry Draluck, a lifetime member of Aleph Zadik Aleph and the Sons of Judea in Atlanta, recently arranged a reunion of his SOJ chapter, which has been getting together for more than 30 years. Seen at the reunion were (front row, from left) Steve Koonin, Wayne Miller, chapter sweetheart Sharon Capaluto Sonenshine, Steve Kamrass, Lisa Mazier Phillipson, Bruce Bena-
tor, Morris Benatar and David Birnbrey; (second row) Mario Greszes (red shirt) and Cary Lewis; (third row, from left) Marty Levenstiem, Scott Dorfman, Brad Ross and Jerry Draluck; (fourth row, from left) David Rabinowitz, Arthur Levin, Richard Kahn, Brian Bodker and Mark Mandel; and (last row, from left) Mitch Davis, Stuart Shapira and Eddie Becker.
The Exchange
Native Atlantan Richard Galanti, the longtime chief financial officer of Costco, returned to town in the week before Passover to speak at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s Exchange, which drew more than 450 people. Photos by Patti Covert of Scenesations Photography
Photos top down: Richard Galanti visits with Carly Edlin, Allied Fence President Todd Edlin, Jay Edlin and Lori Movsovitz-Edlin. It’s a reunion of Richard Galanti’s BBYO chapter, Frank Garson AZA, with (from left) Harold Halpern, Todd Maziar, Mark Tarica, Joel Arogeti, Richard Galanti, Richard Jacobson, Gerald Reisman, Joe Oxman, Larry Lefkoff and Ronnie Galanti. Richard Galanti is flanked by the chairs of the 2015 Exchange, Richard and Marcia Jacobson and Lindsey and Michael Kuniansky.
LOCAL NEWS
Local Briefs
Beiner Leaves Epstein Early Stan Beiner’s decade-plus run as the Epstein School’s head of school has come to an end a couple of months earlier than expected. Mark Stern, the president of Epstein’s board of trustees, announced April 6 that Beiner’s final day will be April 17. Bernice Kirzner will be acting head of school until July 1, when David Abusch-Magder will begin his duties as head of school. In a letter to the Epstein community, Beiner said it has been an honor and a privilege to lead Epstein for 13 years. “I will miss the relationships formed with families, children, alumni, and staff,” he wrote. “I will keep them close to my heart and will forever be grateful for my time here at Epstein.” Stern also announced that Cathy Borenstein, Tal David, Aaron Griffin and Myrna Rubel will remain at the school next year as part of the transition. Goldstein’s Council Seat Threatened Philip Goldstein hasn’t had much trouble holding his seat on the Marietta City Council in elections, but he will face a different kind of challenge in 2016. The council voted 5-2 April 8 to hold an advisory referendum next year on whether to institute term limits on city officials. The nonbinding referendum will ask city voters whether they want to limit future mayors to two, four-year terms and future council members to three, four-year terms. Goldstein, who is Jewish, is the city’s longest-serving council member. He has held office since 1980.
He, along with Anthony Coleman, voted against the referendum, proposed by Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin, a longtime political rival. (During the same council meeting, Tumlin cast the deciding vote to delay Goldstein’s proposal to build a three-story brewpub to fill his famous hole in the ground on Marietta Square.) Goldstein said he is against term limits, especially for legislators, and noted that the election of three new council members last year showed that such limits are not necessary to counter the power of incumbency. “We are subject to term limits every four years by vote and will of the citizens through the election process,” Goldstein said. “The citizens of each ward should have the right to decide who represents them, be it a new person or someone that has been serving them for a period of time.” He add that “there’s something to be said for having institutional knowledge.” If the referendum passes and if the council then in office decides to follow that recommendation, it still will be up to the Georgia General Assembly to enact a change to the city charter. Tumlin proposed the referendum after council member Stuart Fleming proposed instituting term limits March 9. Council member Grif Chalfant criticized the proposal as an attack on Goldstein, The Marietta Daily Journal reported. Help Us Find the Innovators Last year, with your help, the Atlanta Jewish Times identified Jewish Atlanta’s 40 Under 40, the young professionals who are making a difference in our community. Now we need your help again with a different challenge. On July 3, the AJT will celebrate 25 innovative Jewish leaders of nonprofit organizations in the Atlanta area. We have some ideas of who should be on that list, but we need your help to make sure we have the best list possible. Send your nominations for innovative nonprofit leaders who deserve recognition, along with brief explanations for what makes them special to Michael Jacobs at mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com by May 31.
The future is in your hands. Meet Ariel Chernofsky, a current Yeshiva University senior. Ariel will be graduating with a degree in mathematics and will be attending the BioStatistics Program at Columbia University in the fall. He is among the 90% of YU students employed, in graduate school or both—within six months of graduation.* With nearly double the national average acceptance rates to medical school and 97% acceptance to law school and placements at Big Four accounting firms, banks and consulting firms, our numbers speak for themselves. Picture yourself at YU. #NowhereButHere
Corrections & Clarifications The work history for River Eves Elementary School teacher Tina Ratonyi, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, was incorrect April 10 in the article “After the Survivors.” She worked as a paralegal and has been a teacher for 15 years. YU_Atlanta_drop1.indd 2
www.yu.edu | 212.960.5277 | yuadmit@yu.edu *Career Center Survey, 2013/2014
www.yu.edu/enroll
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
Greene Named Guggenheim Fellow Atlanta author Melissa Fay Greene was named April 9 as one of 175 recipients of Guggenheim Fellowships in the United States and Canada for 2015. Greene, best known as the author of “The Temple Bombing,” received the one-time grant to work on her next book, “The Gods of Frolic: Children and Dogs in Life and Hard Times.” She was chosen among more than 3,100 applicants. “These artists and writers, scholars and scientists, represent the best of the best,” Guggenheim Foundation President Edward Hirsch said in a statement. “It’s an honor to be able to support these individuals to do the work they were meant to do.” The fellowship, whose amount is not disclosed by the foundation, provides money for six to 12 months to provide an “advanced professional” time to work on a project.
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ARTS
Yeshiva Atlanta Grad, 21, Wins at Film Festival Carmelle Danneman wrote, directed and produced ‘Send in the Clowns’ By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
ing with around 30 people. They came, and not all of them knew that I was a 20-year-old putting on this entire projilmmaker ect. To this day, I’m C a rm e l l e still surprised that Danneman is they all listened to only 21, but she alme.” ready has an awardDanneman diwinning film to her rected, and they lisname. tened. “Send in the “Send in the Clowns” was filmed Clowns” (sendinthein three days and c l ow n s f i l m . c o m ) , produced over six the short film she months and had a wrote, directed and private premiere in produced about the November. hardships of childThe film focuses hood cancer, capon 7-year-old cancer tured the Audience patient Sarah, who Choice Award last is struggling with the month among the hardships of her daynontimed entries in to-day treatments the Fifty-Four Film until she meets Amy, Fest in Nashville, the medical clown. Tenn. (The Fifty-Four Danneman said Film Fest also holds the subject matter of a competition which the film was inspired gives filmmakers by her volunteer exonly 54 hours to perience as a medicomplete a film.) cal clown in 2012Danneman is a 2013 during her gap 2012 graduate of Yeyear. shiva Atlanta High “When I was School and was born a medical clown in Top: Atlanta’s Plaza Theatre held and raised in Atlanta Israel, I saw how the private premier of “Send in where she attended much it meant to the the Clowns” in November. Congregation Ariel. kids that somebody Bottom: Kate Kilcoyne plays the She shot her film in came,” she said. “It young cancer patient in Carmelle Atlanta with funding Danneman’s directorial debut. was really hard seefrom an Indiegogo ing all these kids campaign that Danneman spearhead- who have cancer. I clowned specifically ed. That campaign raised $5,381, top- in the oncology department, so that atping its $5,000 goal. mosphere kind of inspired me to write Part of those proceeds went to sup- this film.” port a 6-year-old brain cancer patient Danneman, who also acted in her named Katheryn Brezina. film, is in her second year studying cinAlthough Danneman has acted ematography at Yeshiva University in professionally since 2009, “Send in the New York. She said that although it is Clowns” is the first film she has pro- tough to balance filmmaking with her duced herself. faith as an Orthodox Jew, anything is “When I wrote the script, I knew I possible with enough dedication. She would need a cast and crew,” she said. plans to continue acting while remain“So I posted on different casting web- ing observant. sites, and I really didn’t think anyone “If you set your mind to somewould respond. When I got submis- thing, it can be done,” she said. sions, I almost panicked that people “Send in the Clowns” is under conwere trusting in me to create this film. sideration at additional film festivals in Finally, when I got my cast and crew the United States, and Danneman said together, we had a production meet- it will be released online soon. ■
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ISRAEL
Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Natural chemicals that protect against cancer. Scientists working in the Technion laboratory of Israeli Nobel Prize winner Aaron Ciechanover have discovered that high concentrations of the chemical KPC1 and protein p50 suppress malignant growth and protect healthy cells. Stopping cell spam to prevent cancer. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have found that cancer can be triggered by an overload of specific messages from the cell membrane to the cell nucleus. They also have found a molecule that can filter out the messages, much as email filters block spam messages. Pomegranate juice and dates for healthy arteries. Researchers at the Technion and Haifa’s Rambam Hospital have discovered that combining pomegranate juice and dates (with their pits) provides maximum protection against the buildup of plaque on the endothelium of the arteries and thus prevents heart attack and stroke.
graphics for sports events and develops workflow management solutions for broadcasters, will become part of Avid’s research-and-development operation in Israel. Conserving Gulf of Aqaba. Israeli and Jordanian groups recently got together for the first time in a decade to plan environmental conservation and improvements for their shared Gulf of Aqaba through the European Union-funded Mare Nostrum Project, Israel21c reports. Alleviating drought in the Marshall Islands. When Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak appealed to Israel for assistance with an acute water shortage, the Israeli Foreign Ministry called in Hadera-based G.A.L. Water Technologies. G.A.L supplied the islanders with a GalMobile, which purifies enough water for 6,500 people. Steering cars across the United States. An Audi A7 traveled over 560 miles through California and Nevada, aided by a high-resolution, wide-angle, 3D
video camera from Jerusalem-based Mobileye. For 95 percent of the journey, the car had no driver. A Delphi Automotive Roadrunner drove itself nearly all of the 3,000 miles from San Francisco to Manhattan using Mobileye’s Advanced Drive Assistance System.
Elbit Systems a $73.4 million contract for a laser imaging system. The Common Laser Range Finder-Integrated Capability system enables troops in concealed positions to carry out imaging, range finding and navigation in combat areas.
Israel to host World Science Conference. Delegations including up to 20 Nobel laureates and 400 young scientists and thinkers from 60 countries will attend the World Science Conference in Jerusalem in August. The fiveday event will be the largest such event of its kind ever.
Wastewater recycling. Israel continues to lead the world in wastewater reuse. The nation treats and recycles 90 percent of its wastewater. About 10 percent of that treated water is released into rivers to maintain their quality, and Israel uses that water to irrigate 325,000 acres, nearly double the land receiving recycled water 10 years ago.
More about CyberTech. The two-day CyberTech 2015 conference in Tel Aviv in late March drew 8,700 people from 50 countries, including a 33-member delegation from Georgia (see Pages 21 and 22). The exhibition featured a pavilion at which 100 Israeli startup companies displayed breakthrough technologies and products.
Syrian boy recovering with matzah. Israeli doctors performed complex surgery to enable a Syrian boy to walk again after he was severely injured by a shell in Syria’s civil war. Having to spend Passover in an Israeli hospital, he enjoyed eating matzah, calling it a delicacy.
Laser imaging for Marines. The U.S. Marine Corps has awarded Haifa-based
Compiled courtesy of verygoodnewsisrael. blogspot.com and other news sources.
Mobile app for hip replacements. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the iPhone/iPad app TraumaCad from Petach Tikvah-based health tech company Voyant, which helps doctors plan hip replacements on mobile devices. The app enables doctors to import digital implant images from secure hospital networks and visualize operations.
Sharing data on swine flu. Palestinian Authority and Israeli health officials met in the Judaean town of Beit El, north of Ramallah, to discuss the recent outbreaks of swine flu in the region. Officials on both sides shared information on cases they had encountered and discussed ways to prevent the spread of the virus. Enhanced TV graphics. U.S. video production giant Avid Technology has agreed to buy Kfar Saba-based Orad HiTec for $60 million, The Times of Israel reports. Orad, which creates real-time
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
Extreme sports for young cancer patients. Jerusalem-based cancer charity Zichron Menachem took 100 young cancer patients on a three-day camping trip in the Galilee. The youths took part in ice skating, bowling, paint ball, sailing, rafting, jeep tours and a helicopter flight. The trip gave the parents a well-deserved rest.
AJT 17
ISRAEL
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By Rabbi Paul D. Kerbel
O
ne of the anomalies of my relationship with Israel is that, although I have visited Israel close to 30 times, beginning with a synagogue youth trip in 1972, I have no family in Israel — not even a distant cousin. So many people have family to visit, and while I am blessed with many friends and acquaintances, I have no one to call mishpacha. A That is, until now. I have been part of many Federation missions, synagogue trips and rabbinic study programs. I have visited Israel Aircraft Industries, high-tech companies, and intelligence outposts near Gaza and in the Golan Heights. But my annual visit to Yokneam and the Megiddo Regional Council the past seven years has enabled me to say, “I now have family in Israel.” Yael, Arkaday and Judy, Levana, Ayelet, Tzofia, Eshel and Andrea, Sima, Shoshi Tegania, and Avraham treat me like family. Our Jewish Agency staff and relationships with the mayor’s office in Yokneam and Megiddo’s regional staff have enabled me to feel at home in a small corner of the Jewish state. Yokneam, a city of 35,000 people 20 miles southeast of Haifa, and the neighboring Megiddo Regional Council, consisting of 13 kibbutzim and moshavim with 13,000 people, have become my home away from home. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and the Jewish Federation of St. Louis provide funding for services to these communities to support children, high school students and families at risk of economic, educational and psychological challenges that require resources beyond what Israel’s cities and municipalities can provide to its citizens. In addition, our relationship, now celebrating its 18th anniversary, creates connections and friendships for our Federation and its leadership in our yearly meetings in the region, visits by synagogues such as The Temple and Congregation Etz Chaim, and regular visits by Birthright groups from Atlanta and the University of Georgia. These trips enable each of us to have personal relationships with the citizens, the
teachers, the counselors and the leaders of these dynamic and important Israeli communities
Levana Caro, the Jewish Agency’s partnership director, said, “Atlanta’s partnership with Yokneam/Megiddo has changed the lives of many people in the region, giving families at risk a chance for a better life, from enrichment programs for children in all grades to army preparation training for seniors in high school to economic and financial advocacy for families seeking to achieve financial success and independence for their families.” Caro also noted the lifelong relationships built in our partnership. The Atlanta Jewish community can be proud of the way we contribute to Israeli society in our partnership region. The programs we fund include parenting classes for Ethiopian mothers; learning enrichment programs for elementary, middle and high school students; sports programs for disadvantaged youth; support of the Yokneam Youth Center; in-home assistance in homework to help parents engage with children about their schoolwork and help them do homework at home with volunteer coaching; community and financial empowerment for families facing financial difficulties; support for Jewish National Fund’s new Lotem Park to make the outdoors accessible for children and adults with disabilities; and Leket, which fights hunger by enabling volunteers to gather fruits and vegetables in the fields and deliver them to families at risk. As Andrea Arbel, the Jewish Agency’s director of partnership, described our contributions, our partnership “turns the ideas of ‘Israel’ and the ‘global Jewish family’ from an abstract concept into a tangible, vibrant and compelling reality where friendships,
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ISRAEL
Photos courtesy of Rabbi Paul D. Kerbel
A: Border guards provide a security briefing at a West Bank checkpoint. B: Rabbi Paul Kerbel meets with leaders of a Yokneam program to help students do their homework at home. C: A security wall surrounds the preschool at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. D: Rabbi Paul Kerbel visits with students at an Israeli school twinned with the Epstein School. E: Rabbi Paul Kerbel meets some of the high school students in the Aharei pre-army training program.
B
C
D
E
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Rabbi Paul D. Kerbel is a rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim and vice chairman of the Israel Outcomes Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. Rabbi Kerbel is also a member of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, the Rabbinic Cabinet of Jewish Federations of North American and Israel Bonds, and the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel.
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APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
genuine feelings of kinship, an ever-expanding network of relationships and creating a platform for American Jews and Israeli Jews to engage with each other creates a living bridge to Israel.” I’m filled with pride and admiration when I watch visiting teen volunteers lead a weekly program for teens with disabilities, high school seniors learn and compete in a variety of training courses to prepare for the Israel Defense Forces, Ethiopian men create and maintain their own agricultural farm to bring extra crops to those in need, the Warm Home program provide elementary and middle school children educational and psychological services after school to help them succeed in school and life, and new immigrants succeed in navigating the stages of education and training to achieve economic and educational success. As we approach Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel Independence Day, our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Israel as we together celebrate the 67th anniversary of the creation of the state. We can support Israel in many ways, through studying in Israel, touring Israel, investing in Israel and developing relationships with any of the thousands of nonprofit groups that support the people of Israel. My family contributes a significant amount to support Israel predominantly through Federation and to support religious pluralism in Israel through the Masorti (Conservative) movement in Israel. We buy Israel Bonds, and we contribute to over a dozen other charities in our support of Israel. What gives me the greatest satisfaction is knowing that these dollars help real people with real problems and challenges. The friendships I have made with the residents of Yokneam and with our team of professional staffers who help us achieve our goals give me great confidence that we are making a difference in the lives of thousands of Israelis who strive every day to fulfill the Zionist ideal and help build a strong, vibrant, successful Jewish state. If you wish to join me by making new friends and family in Israel, write to me at ravkerbel@etzchaim. net. ■
AJT 19
ISRAEL
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The AJT wants YOU… … if you’re a creative, talented college student interested in a future in the news business. We have openings for paid summer interns. Send a résumé, links to your social media accounts, at least three ideas for stories you’d like to see in the Jewish Times, and a cover letter explaining why you’d like to spend some of your summer vacation working with us to Editor Michael Jacobs at mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com. APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
Your deadline is April 22.
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an Israeli synagogue from the Masorti (Conservative) movement. Atlanta has 18 sister cities, said Cehe planets have aligned in 2015 for Atlanta and Ra’anana, the dric Suzman, a mayoral appointee on Georgia capital’s startup Israeli Atlanta’s sister city commission and a member of the Atlanta-Ra’anana sister sister city just north of Tel Aviv. Mayor Kasim Reed was part of a city committee. He said the relationdelegation that visited the city during ship with Ra’anana “is one of the more his trip to Israel in March, marking the active on the commission.” Suzman, who is executive vice first time an Atlanta mayor went to the president and director of programwell-scrubbed, high-tech metropolis. Music, education, research and ming at the World Affairs Council of environmental exchanges are in the Atlanta, has visited Ra’anana. He describes the city works for as “unique” and Ra’anana and a “highly modAtlanta instituern, forwardtions. looking place.” “It’s a very It’s differbright future,” ent from the said Yaoz Sevancient cities, er, a spokesand it lacks the man for the bustle of Tel Ra’anana muAviv, he said. nicipality. It’s a lot Ra ’ a n a n a like going to Mayor Ze’ev Bi Judith Shorer, who will become the Israeli consul modern parts elski and Reed general to the Southeast this summer, and sister city of India such as “have now committee head Arnold Heller attend a dinner March established a 21 welcoming Georgia’s cybersecurity mission to Israel. Bangalore, the high-tech cengreat connecter, he said. tion,” Sever In fact, just before Reed stopped said, and it “will be the cornerstone of a lot of future initiatives we want to by, India’s ambassador to Israel paid his own visit to Ra’anana, where he met take.” Reed said he has made “global en- with students and private industry. Heller said the city, with a populagagement and intercultural exchanges tion of about 80,000, is known to some a focus” of his second term. “As part of our sister cities partner- as Little America. Many of its residents ship with Ra’anana, I would like to see came from New York, he said. It is the home of many companies, our trade, academic and cultural links continue to prosper and grow,” he said including Amdocs, a software and service provider that also has an operain a statement. That response is great news for Ar- tion in Alpharetta. The city also hosts nold Heller, an international business Microsoft’s head office in Israel. Myrna J. Cohen, the vice chaireducation consultant who chairs the woman of the Atlanta-Ra’anana comAtlanta-Ra’anana committee. He started, spearheaded and main- mittee, said the cities have many comtains the longstanding relationship be- mon threads. “I saw it like another tween the cities, which began when he American city,” she said of Ra’anana. “They do everything there that we do.” taught at North Atlanta High School. Three years ago, Rena Kahn, a Heller organized a student exchange with Ostrovsky High in member of the Atlanta-Ra’anana comRa’anana in 1998. That got the ball mittee, hosted a concert by musicians rolling for stronger ties. Atlanta and from the Israeli city. It was a success, Ra’anana became official sister cities she said. “Better understanding of another culture,” she said. “Despite the three years later. The sister city program promotes differences of language and geography, cultural, educational, business and we have very much in common.” After Reed’s visit, Heller said, the technical exchanges — kind of a citisister city program is in a good place. zen diplomacy. “It was like a mitzvah. Kasim Reed Since 2001, Atlanta and Ra’anana really did a mitzvah for the sister cities students, musicians, politicians and program,” Heller said. “Now we’re wellbusinesspeople have visited each other. positioned. I take my hat off to him. He Conservative Congregation Shear was a statesman.” ■ ith Israel has formed close bonds with
ISRAEL
Israel Might Supply Streetcar Fare System
Reed amazed by cyber talent on trip
A
AJT: Is there a need for increased cybersecurity in Atlanta? Reed: There’s a need for increased cybersecurity in Atlanta and in every developed economy in the world. The estimates are that 50 million people wake up every day to engage in some type of cyber-related criminal activity. That means that cyber interruptions are going to become more and more a part of our everyday life. I think that places like BenGurion University in Be’er Sheva are really going to be on the front lines in partnership with terrific universities here like Georgia Tech in leading the fight against cyber crime.
tlanta Mayor Kasim Reed led a delegation of 33 from Georgia to the CyberTech International Conference & Exhibition in Tel Aviv in March. The Georgia group, organized by Conexx, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the state Department of Economic Development, was the largest group among the 8,000 participants at the conference. Reed talked to the AJT about the Georgia mission, which was in Israel from March 21 to 27. AJT: How was your trip to Israel? AJT: Did Reed: It was this mission help amazing, I always strengthen ties leave Israel rebetween Georgia Top: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Ra’anana newed, and I felt and Israel? Mayor Ze’ev Bielski flank Arnold Heller, who the same way af- heads the sister city committee for the two cities. Reed: I think Bottom: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says ter this trip. What the trip certainly Ra’anana Mayor Ze’ev Bielski is terrific. is going on in the did. First of all, cyber technolGeorgia is No. 3 in ogy sector there is the United States one of the most amazing stories in the in terms of cyber-related business. global economy. Israel has about 250 To develop the relationship between startups in the technology sector each Georgia’s and Israel’s cyber technology year, largely driven by the experience communities, in addition to the fact that young Israelis get serving in the that Georgia handles about 70 percent military. So you have highly talented of all payment transactions that occur young people serve their two-year in the world, I think is a strong first commitment, and they are exposed to step just because of the talent that exstate-of-the-art, groundbreaking tech- ists in both communities. nology. Many of these individuals are then helping to fuel a technology secAJT: Favorite place to visit? tor that’s one of the most impressive. Reed: Of course it was Jerusalem. No matter how special any other part AJT: Are there any technologies of Israel is, as a Christian going to Jeruyou saw that you would like to bring salem and seeing where Christ was cruback to Atlanta? cified is always the most special part of Reed: I’m considering having some my trips to Israel. It was also nice to go of the firms in Israel help us develop an to the Negev region for the first time. I app for our Atlanta streetcar fare sys- also visited Ra’anana, which has had tem. I’ve made the fare free through a sister city relationship with the city 2015 so that we can have a state-of-the- of Atlanta for more than 20 years, and art fare system in the city of Atlanta. they have a terrific mayor there. ■
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
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www.atlantajewishtimes.com
ISRAEL
Mission Creates Good Feelings, Opportunities This firsthand report from the March business mission to Israel was the April leadership message for Conexx and comes from the organization’s chairman-elect. Spending a week in Israel with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Conexx, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and various members of the Georgia Department of Economic Development has given me an even greater appreciation for the importance of the work
of Conexx. Our mission is to “connect people to Israel through the vehicle of business,” and the recent cybersecurity mission truly put this mission into action. Along with Reed and the other economic development professionals, senior business leaders from Coca-Cola, IBM, Capgemini, Southern Co., Carter’s,
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APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
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AT&T and NCR participated in the mission. Most of the 33 delegates on the trip had never been to Israel. Everyone
Guest Column By Ben Fink
returned with a highly positive view of Israel, which they will likely share with their friends, families and colleagues. For this reason alone, even if nothing more comes of the mission, it will have been a success. However, much more is likely to come out of the mission, including significant business relationships between and among these companies and government agencies and some of the companies they met in Israel. Israel, Atlanta, Georgia and the Southeast are all on the forefront of cybersecurity technologies. While Atlanta is home to more than 100 companies in the cybersecurity space, the number of cybersecurity companies in Israel is too numerous to count. Many of these companies are fueled by graduates of the Israel Defense Force’s elite cybersecurity units. The cybersecurity ecosystem created by the combination of private industry, the IDF, Israel’s top universities and the Israeli government is truly unique. The mission provided an incredible opportunity to learn about Israel’s cybersecurity ecosystem, which has clearly become a hotbed for cuttingedge innovation in the global market. While the synergies between the Southeastern United States and the state of Israel are many, this is an area where there is a tremendous opening to generate significant business opportunities that will benefit both Israel and our city, state and region. The mission provided a catalyst for these opportunities to take shape. Reed carried the flag for Atlanta and our region admirably. He is a smart, thoughtful and genuine person (traits not often found in politicians these days). He had multiple opportunities at CyberTech 2015, at Ben-Gurion University, at a town-hall meeting in Be’er Sheva, and at a meeting of the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce to tout the benefits of doing business in Atlanta and the Southeast. Reed’s eloquent remarks, along with those of Jorge Fernandez of the
Metro Atlanta Chamber and Mary Waters of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, continued to raise awareness of Atlanta, Georgia and the Southeast in Israel in ways that will have benefits for our region. Israeli companies employ thousands of people in Atlanta and the Southeast, and at least in part because of the mission, that number will increase significantly in the coming years. The mission helped establish Atlanta as a top destination for Israelbased companies that are innovating in the technology industry, including the cybersecurity industry. In many ways, the mission highlighted the importance of the work being done at Conexx. American companies can benefit from Israeli technologies, including those in the cybersecurity field. Israeli companies need access to U.S. markets, for which Conexx provides a gateway. While Conexx was founded to help create jobs in Israel for the immigrants from the former Soviet Union, the organization has transformed to generate economic development on both sides of the Atlantic. The benefits to both Israel and Atlanta and the surrounding region are real and quantifiable. On another note, most people who regularly do business with Israeli companies will say that there is no substitute for going to Israel. Meeting Israeli companies and businesspeople in person cannot be replicated by telephone, email, videoconference, social media or any other electronic means. If you seek to do business with Israeli companies as clients, customers, vendors or suppliers, you will be best served by going there, meeting them in person and establishing those personal relationships for which there is no substitute. Conexx can help you plan a trip for this purpose, or you can participate in the next Conexx business mission. All you need to do is ask. Finally, I cannot say enough about Guy Tessler, Bracha Shlomo and the rest of the Conexx staff who helped put together an amazing trip. It will almost certainly result in significant opportunities for companies and businesspeople in Israel, Atlanta and the Southeast. Perhaps more important, it has already resulted in positive feelings toward Israel among business leaders who might not otherwise have had the opportunity to formulate those opinions. At a time when Israel can use all of the friends it can get, we can already say “mission accomplished.” ■
Conexx Helps Trendlines Pitch Medical Innovators By Al Shams
C
onexx, the former AmericanIsrael Chamber of Commerce in the Southeast, recently brought Israeli-based Trendlines to Atlanta to describe its business operations and introduce local angel investors and entrepreneurs to six of its portfolio companies seeking capital. Trendlines is an innovation commercialization entity that creates, uncovers, incubates and invests in unique medical and agricultural technologies. It is a hands-on investor involved in all aspects of a company’s growth. Most investments are made through two incubators franchised by the Israeli government. The primary goal is to create and develop entities that improve the human condition. Trendlines has a team of more than 30 professionals with a wide range of skills, including research and development, marketing, media, law and finance. The organization was formed in the early 1990s and is still led by Steve Rhodes and Todd Dollinger. Each has more than 35 years’ experience in growing innovative companies. The success of Trendlines parallels Israel’s success story in “Start-Up Nation.” Beyond good technology, Rhodes and Dollinger believe that “the people” and “building relationships” are key elements to their success. In November, they received the Global Business Development Leadership Award from the American Society of the University of Haifa. Trendlines is not a traditional venture capital investor. It has little or no promoted or carried interest and invests on the same terms as outside passive investors. Trendlines believes that its strengths are as follows: • A business model in which its principals are deeply invested. • A solid senior management team and dedicated staff assembled by Rhodes and Dollinger. • An established portfolio of companies focused on medical and agricultural technology. Trendlines reviews more than 400 prospects each year and funds eight to 10. • A record of success for which entrepreneurs often seek it out. Since 2007, Trendlines has raised more than $160 million. It has 46 companies in its portfolio and had five exits the past three years. Two companies
had IPOs. Trendlines has five Best Company and two Best Incubator awards. Conexx attendees heard from the senior management of six companies: • Arcuro Medical has developed a safe, reliable and cost-effective way to repair a torn meniscus. At the heart of the approach is a Super Ball repair system that consists of a knotless, all-suture anchor. More than 300,000 meniscus procedures are performed annually with a worldwide market of $240 million • Endobetix is developing a minimally invasive, nonsurgical implant to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity. The device mimics the hormonal benefits of bariatric surgery. The device diverts bile and pancreatic secretions from the upper part of the small intestine to the lower part. This diversion changes the hormonal balance so the body absorbs less fat and diabetes goes into remission. • IonMed has developed a plasma tissue-welding system that offers advantages over suture and staple methods of closing wounds and surgical cuts. The $5 billion worldwide market is expected to grow to $14 billion by 2018. • NeuroQuest is developing a blood test that will enable an early and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease, based on the discovery of bloodbased immune biomarkers in Alzheimer’s and ALS patients. • Omeq Medical is developing a single-use, smart needle for safe and accurate epidural injections. Current technology relies on a physician’s sense of feel, resulting in 30 percent of needles being improperly placed. The worldwide market is $1 billion, not counting the cost for complications from improperly placed needles. • VisiDome is developing an accommodative interocular lens for people who get cataract surgery. The lens exploits the eye’s biology to overcome the flaws of products that do not fully restore near vision. The worldwide market for interocular lenses is $4 billion. ■ Al Shams is a Sandy Springs resident, a former CPA and an investment professional with more than 35 years’ industry experience.
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APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
ISRAEL
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ISRAEL
Human Rights Council Hit Israel From Start By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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Security Council. But pro-Israel NGOs U.N. Watch and B’nai B’rith International warned he 2006 fighting in Gaza after the of the precedent the Human Rights abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Council would set with its initial acShalit provided the first real test tions, Tatlock said. U.N. Watch said for the U.N. Human Rights Council, the session wouldn’t be special at all which went down a path of criticism of but just the same old demonization of Israel that has never stopped. Israel. B’nai B’rith warned that if the During a panel discussion at the council kept up the Israel-bashing, it Peace Builders Conference at More- would damage the credibility of all of house College on April 10, Armstrong the United Nations. State University proSure enough, the fessor Jason Tatlock resolution from the addressed the actions special session went of the council during much further than the Gaza crisis in the the first general sessummer of 2006. Tatsion in criticizing Islock’s presentation rael and its use of milfocused on the role itary force and made played by nongovernlittle mention of Palmental organizations estinian actions that in influencing the contributed to the criHuman Rights Counsis, Tatlock said. cil and the United The council also Nations itself, but he disappointed NGOs also demonstrated by not urging the Sehow the council chose curity Council or GenJason Tatlock a direction that ineral Assembly to act. creasingly has led IsThe Human Rights rael’s supporters to view it as an enemy. Council decided to send a fact-finding Urged by NGOs to put a greater mission to Gaza, but Israel blocked it, emphasis on human rights, the United Tatlock said. Nations launched the Human Rights Tatlock avoided assigning blame Council in March 2006 as a replace- for the fighting in 2006 or the relative ment for its criticized Commission on merits of the two sides in the long-term Human Rights. In its first regular ses- conflict, but his neutrality didn’t satission, the council addressed the Israeli- fy at least one member of the audience. Palestinian conflict and cited Israel as Dee Muhtadi from the University a violator of human rights without any of Southern California spent about five mention of Palestinian actions, Tatlock minutes “correcting” Tatlock. She emsaid. phasized that Hamas was democratiHamas, which had won the Gaza cally elected because Fatah was guilty elections in January, and Fatah began of human rights abuses in Gaza. fighting in May 2006. On June 25, infil“Be careful about labeling and stetrators from Gaza abducted Shalit, and reotyping,” she said about Hamas. Israel soon began airstrikes on Gaza. She acknowledged Shalit’s abducThe fighting led Tunisia to propose tion but said it’s not fair to name one Isa special session of the council June 30. raeli who was released alive in 2011 and NGOs set the stakes high, Tatlock said. not name the thousands of children The International Youth and Stu- “killed and butchered and massacred.” dent Movements of the United Nations She also claimed that in the Israedenounced Israel’s use of force and li-Palestinian conflict, “complex issues urged the council to seize its “defining are not actually complex at all.” moment” and intervene in the conflict. Tatlock gave specific figures for Amnesty International saw the special the Palestinian deaths in the fighting session as an opportunity to correct he studied: 202 killed, including 44 the old commission’s passivity in re- children, not thousands. sponding to the conflict. The Interna“The ideals of peace are not so tional Commission of Jurists declared complex,” Tatlock said. “When it comes that rather than issue more words, the to the implementation and the practicouncil should urge action by the U.N. calities, they are not so simple.” ■
T
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ISRAEL
Israelis Here to Stay in Atlanta Real Estate is essentially becoming a bond payable by the U.S. real estate company to the bondholders (the Israelis), who in turn have security in the underlying real estate. This structure purports to reduce debt cost for U.S. property owners while engaging otherwise fallow monies for the investor. This structure has
Guest Column By Abe Schear
received a great deal of recent attention, though for sure this investment works best for large portfolios. Lastly, during a brief business trip to London, the subject of Israeli investment was a consistent part of the conversation, particularly for large transactions. The London law firms, mostly without offices in Israel, travel regularly to Israel to work with hightech companies and real estate investors. The London market, of course, has what we in Atlanta have: smart people, clean real estate title and a predictable form of government (much different from a predictable form of politics).
Where will this lead? That is always difficult to tell, but, for Israelis, the world has become a smaller real estate market. Enough money has been lost in Eastern Europe, and government (and title) uncertainties have made some investors cautious about other markets. Latin America is a long way from Israel and has clear language barriers. This is likely to lead to a more permanent Israeli investment presence in the United States, one that will amaze us all with its ultimate magnitude and breadth. ■ Abe Schear is a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory in Midtown.
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
T
he real estate investment market, particularly as relates to Israeli investment in the United States, surely goes through cycles. Ten years ago, investment in the United States by Israelis was, for the most part, limited to the New York market (though there was also robust investment in our northern neighbor, Canada). There was real truth to that longstanding drawing of New York City and the rest of the country. Based on a real estate program I attended at the AIPAC conference in March, New York lawyers still feel their market is “the” market, though reality would prove them wrong. With the frightening real estate collapse a few years ago, coupled with less predictable investment opportunities in locales like Eastern Europe (and even Western Europe), Israelis saw openings and began to move their feet, meeting partners, exploring assets of different classes (e.g., office, retail, multifamily) and better understanding secondary or even tertiary U.S. markets. In many ways, these Israeli investors, constrained by the lack of new investment-grade property in Israel and an unpredictable European market, have a better analysis of the U.S. market than we do. I was reminded of this oldfashioned approach recently when a handful of Israelis were in Atlanta to discuss new real estate opportunities, not because Atlanta has unique assets that are particularly appealing to the investors, but because Atlanta has an infrastructure that effectively works with these investors, both within and without the Jewish community. With U.S. developers embracing Israeli investors, in many cases after the developers traveled to Israel to meet with counterparts, Atlanta has become a significant portal for Israeli funds. Our community has numerous real estate companies that purchase assets throughout the Southeast, as well as lawyers and accountants who are fully integrated into the daily dialogue with international investors. Understandably, this seems to not be a boomor-bust scenario because the Israeli investors now own significant property with established management in place. Additionally, Israeli investors are beginning to look at different opportunities, including in the Israeli securities market, where U.S. real estate debt
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BUSINESS
D. Geller & Son Expands to Sandy Springs By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
F
or more than 75 years, D. Geller & Son has been a fixture in the Atlanta jewelry market. The first location opened off Broad Street in downtown Atlanta in 1939. The jewelry store moved outside the Perimeter in 1976, and now it has added to locations in Smyrna and Kennesaw with a store in the heart of Sandy Springs. “In my mind, Sandy Springs is the future of metro Atlanta,” owner Mike Geller said. “It’s a great location, 10 minutes from Buckhead, 15 from Midtown, and to the east and west there’s a huge area we can serve. Sandy Springs itself is fantastic. I’m an Atlanta native, and the lead-up to Sandy Springs becoming a city was a big deal. It has flourished since then.” Sandy Springs was incorporated in December 2005. The development of a city center project along Roswell Road has spurred retail, housing and business growth in the area. Geller, a
Business Briefs
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
Zep Going Private Zep Inc., the venerable Jewish-founded manufacturer of cleaning products, is being sold to New York-based private equity firm New Mountain Capital and being taken private. Including net debt, the deal is valued at $692 million, Zep announced in a press release April 8. Zep shareholders will receive $20.05 in cash per share. The deal requires shareholder approval and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015, although the Zep board has a month to seek and secure a better deal. John Morgan, Zep’s president, CEO and chairman, said in a statement that the company spent a year reviewing strategic opportunities and decided that the New Mountain offer delivers the best value to shareholders. “This transaction will allow Zep Inc. to continue to deliver the high-quality 26 products and services our customers
AJT
member of Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs, hopes that the growth of the city will coincide with the growth of his new store. “I see this store as the next giant step,” he said. “I wanted to go to the next level, so here we are.” The company had searched for several years for a suitable location to complement the stores at 840 Ernest Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw and 2453 Cobb Parkway in Smyrna. Geller said he chose Sandy Springs for the community feel and its proximity to customers. The store opened March 30 in the Hammond Springs Shopping Center at the intersection of Hammond Drive and Roswell Road. “The response so far has been great,” marketing director Heather Klisures said. “So many people have seen our billboard on Roswell Road, which has been up for a couple months now. We have existing customers that this location is closer to, and they are really excited. It’s been an overwhelmingly posi-tive response from the community.”
Photos by David R. Cohen
Chris Frazier (store manager) stands in the Sandy Springs store with (from left) Heather Klisures (marketing director), Gabby Pore (sales professional), Sara Smathers (marketing coordinator) and (back) Meredith Estroff Naggar (assistant manager). The new D. Geller & Son location opened at 5975 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs at the end of March.
The Jewish role in the diamond trade goes back hundreds of years, and Geller comes from a family with 14 generations in the industry. His father, Dan, founded D. Geller after moving to Atlanta from New York, where he worked beside his father in a jewelry factory. Dan’s father came to the United States from Odessa in Russia. The D. Geller founder died in 1974. The diamond business has
changed since 1939, but Geller said he believes in doing things the old way. “I know the younger generation loves the Internet,” he said. “But I think this is too emotional of a pur-chase to just see it on the screen, go click and hand it to someone you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. You really need to see it, feel it and touch it. It means so much more to us. Our people just love doing this.” ■
have come to expect from us, as well as brands as Zep, Enforcer, TimeWick, provide additional opportunities for our Black Magic and Rain-X returned to the associates from future growth and busi- Zep corporate name in 2007. ness building,” Morgan said. “Zep Inc. is an industry leader with Zep’s name comes from the initials significant growth potential and fits of founders Mandle and Sam Zaban, perfectly with New Mountain Capital’s William Eplan, and Sam Powell, who investment philosophy of investing in launched Zep Manufacturing in 1937 by market leaders in sustainable growth inborrowing $6,000 from dustries,” said Matthew Mandle Zaban’s life inHolt, the managing disurance policy. rector of New Mountain. Mandle Zaban’s son Erwin drove Zep’s McKenna Long Joins growth to $29 milGlobal Giant lion in annual sales as The name McKenna president from 1947 to Long & Aldridge will dis1966, and Harry Maziar, appear from the Atlanta who became president legal scene later this in 1971 of what was year under a merger then National Service Inannounced April 8 with dustries, took the comNew York- and Washingpany to $350 million ton-based Dentons. in annual sales in the Dentons made a This portrait of Erwin Zaban, donated deal with Chinese law 1980s. by Judy Zaban, is on display at The company’s firm Dacheng in January the Marcus JCC’s Zaban Park. growth included the purto form the world’s largchase of Selig Industries est law firm with more in 1968. than 6,000 lawyers. The addition of McKAfter various mergers, spinoffs and enna Long, which has 434 lawyers, will name changes, the producer of such give the firm more than 6,600 lawyers
in more than 50 countries, according to a statement from Dentons and Atlantaand Washington-based McKenna Long. In the United States alone, the expanded Dentons US will have more than 1,100 lawyers in 21 offices. Dentons has a small office in the Cumberland area of Cobb County under partners David Klein and Summer Martin. Martin used to practice law for McKenna Long. The big names at Dentons include Eric Tanenblatt, who served as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s chief of staff. Jeff Haidet of McKenna Long and Peter Wolfson of Dentons will serve as the co-CEOs of Dentons US once the merger closes sometime this year. Haidet told Bloomberg that he expects the vast majority of McKenna Long’s partners to make the transition to Dentons. McKenna Long’s partners include such prominent Jewish community members as Atlanta Jewish Film Festival board Chairman Steve Labovitz. Dentons touted the merger’s benefits to its corporate, litigation, real estate, insurance, public policy and regulation, U.S. government contracts, and intellectual property practices.
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SIMCHAS
Pearls of Wisdom at a Saturday Service The Mishkan was the central tent of meeting while the Jews were wandering in the desert. During the time of the Mishkan and the Temple in Jerusalem, sacrifice was the main form of worship. At this time, Jews did not pray in synagogues because they had not been invented yet. The sacrifices at the Temple were like barbecues.
Shaindle’s Shpiel By Shaindle Schmuckler shaindle@atljewishtimes.com
The kohanim (also known as priests) would burn the offering on the altar/grill, and both the kohanim and the family who brought the offering would eat it together, leaving a small portion for G-d (who I will call HaShem). While this was going on, the family would thank HaShem for their blessings that year. You might be thinking, “What was the meaning of the sacrifices?” Well, the meaning of the sacrifices was to cleanse the human or the family of their wrongdoings that year. It was kind of like taking a bath. Just like we have to clean our bodies, we have to clean our souls. These days we make “sacrifices” in order to cleanse our souls just like in times of the Torah, but luckily what we actually sacrifice these days is much different! Today we sacrifice our time by helping others, or we offer up our resources to help others. These sacrifices are also mitzvot, or commandments, but they are in the form of good deeds
was formal. So much for that now. The instead of animal offerings. most formal barbecue I have ever been The famous Jewish storyteller to was one where some people did not Isaac Bashevis Singer was once asked get food on their shirts. why he was vegetarian. He answered, So what did I learn from Parashat “Because it’s good for the animals.” Tzav? I learned three big ideas. Likewise, the way we do mitzvot and One is that sacrifice has always sacrifices these days is better for the been a major part of Jewish life. (It animals. used to be meat that was sacrificed, Back to the MEAT. Parashat but now we sacTzav is all about rifice our time to commandments, good deeds to feel sacrifices and food. closer to G-d and Food is a communal spiritually clean.) thing. People gather The second big together for meals idea is the imporevery night. Food tance of the role brings us together. of the community Most people look organizers. It used forward to holidays to be the priests because they are who were the excited about the organizers, but now special foods that we any person with eat. Every religion, inspiration can every culture has a organize fundraisspecial type of food ers, food drives or special customs and other tzedakah for making food or projects. I learned eating food. Whole Adin Yager how important the communities get kohanim were. together just to have The third big idea is the idea that one meal. This is just like sacrificing. food brings us together. It used to be The entire Jewish people gathered into the sacrificing of animals that brought the Temple on certain holy days, such as Rosh Hashanah, just to sacrifice one Jews together to pray and eat at the kohanim’s barbecue, but now we have animal and have one meal. backyard barbecues. We invite friends The kohanim were the organizers of the sacrifices. They were the hosts of and family of all religions to gather for the barbecue. The only way to have the a potluck. This gathering for food and prayer also happens at bar mitzvahs. sacrifices was with the kohanim. Tzav Hmmm. is a book of rituals for the kohanim. I have a serious question to ask This parashat is the guidelines for you all. How many of you came here sacrificing. This is where the idea of just for the food? a barbecue came from. The Jews were Well, I certainly did! All of this the first people to have barbecues. But back in the Temple times, the barbecue studying for one meal. ■
Birth
Bat Mitzvah
Tracy and Marc Hennes of New York City announce the birth of their daughter, Emily Lilah Hennes, on April 5, 2015. She weighed 6.1 pounds and was 19 inches long. The proud grandparents are Michael and Karen Himmelstein of Roswell and Peter and Monica Hennes of Toms River, N.J. Emily’s greatgrandparents are Bettye and Harry Baer of Atlanta, Harold Himmelstein of Boynton Beach, Fla., and Elizabeth Loch of Willingboro, N.J. Emily is named in memory of her great-grandmothers Ellen Himmelstein and Lillian Hennes.
The bat mitzvah celebration of Rachel Lyndsi Steuer, daughter of Cindy and Howard Steuer of Marietta, will be held Saturday, April 25, 2015, at Temple Beth Tikvah in Roswell. Rachel, a seventh-grader at Dodgen Middle School, is the younger sister of Samantha, 24, and Melissa, 22. Her grandparents are Iris and Arnold Steuer of Long Island, N.Y., and Jerry Weiner of Boynton Beach, Fla. Rachel is dedicating her special weekend to the memory of her Nana, Rita Weiner. Rachel is involved in cheerleading and competitive dancing. For her mitzvah project, she is assisting teachers of elementary-age special needs children.
Emily Lilah Hennes
Rachel Lyndsi Steuer
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
Is it possible for a 13-year-old to share with us know-it-all adults words of wisdom, spirituality and learning? I say yes. What follows is the d’var Torah delivered by bar mitzvah Adin Yager for Parashat Tzav at the historic Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C. Shabbat shalom! A long, long time ago, way, way, across the ocean, far, far from here, during the time of the Torah, sacrifices were made using lambs, goats or sheep. Yes, I’m talking about MEAT. No offense to you vegetarians out there, but it is very fitting that this week’s Torah portion is about sacrifices and MEAT because I am a card-carrying carnivore. When I was 2 years old, my parents introduced me to tofu. Like many children, I was skeptical. But my parents only had to say one word to get me to try tofu, the one word that always made me smile: MEAT. They asked me, “Adin, would you like to try some tofu MEAT?” The rest is history: To this day, I eat tofu as if it were MEAT. Just in case some of you were talking to a neighbor during my Torah reading, this week’s Torah portion is called Tzav. The word tzav means decree or command, from the same root as the word mitzvah, as in bar mitzvah. Parashat Tzav is about the commandment of performing sacrifices. To be more specific, who eats and performs the offering, what is eaten from the sacrifice, where the sacrifice is performed, and how sacrifices were performed during the times of the Mishkan (also known as the Tabernacle).
AJT 27
OBITUARIES - MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
Faye Rich Alpert 83, Atlanta
Faye Rich Alpert, age 83, of Atlanta passed away Tuesday, April 7, 2015. Faye was much loved by all who knew her. She worked as a legal secretary at the CocaCola Co. for over 25 years, retiring as secretary to Chief Operating Officer Donald Keough. After retirement, she volunteered for Alterman/JETS Transportation of Jewish Family & Career Services. Survivors include daughter and son-in-law Linda and Ken Auchter of Lawrenceville; daughter and son-in-law Ellen and Bob Setzer of Loganville; and son and daughter-in-law Scott and Shannon Alpert of Charlotte, N.C. She was blessed with five grandchildren, Allison Auchter of Austin, Texas, Chelsea Siegrist of Norcross, Rebecca Auchter of Lawrenceville, Skyler Cook of Loganville, and Grant Alpert of Charlotte, as well as two great-grandchildren, Cian Baker and Lila Siegrist. Other survivors include brother and sister-in-law Joseph and Winnie Rich of Atlanta, sister-in-law Shirley Rich of Atlanta, brother-in-law Bob Diskin of Atlanta, brother-in-law and sister-in-law Stanley and Carol Alpert of Baltimore, and many, many nieces and nephews. Faye was preceded in death by husband Jerry Alpert; parents Saul and Addie Rich; and siblings Dorothy Axelrod, Sidney Rich, Lillian Rich, Maurice Rich and William Rich. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Georgia Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, the American Cancer Society or a charity of your choice. A graveside service was held Wednesday, April 8, at Greenwood Cemetery. Shiva was held at the home of daughter Linda Auchter in Lawrenceville. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Helen Talesnick Fichman 99, Atlanta
Helen Talesnick Fichman, formerly of Indianapolis, died in Atlanta on Tues-
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day, April 7, 2015. She was born Sept. 8, 1915, in Lafayette, Ind., and lived in Indianapolis until the age of 89, when she moved to Atlanta. She was preceded in death by her beloved parents, Rose (Galerman) and Louis Talesnick, a beloved brother, Irvin Talesnick and her very beloved husband, Dr. Philip Julius Fichman. Mrs. Fichman was a graduate of Shortridge High School. As a teenager she was Queen Esther of the JEA Purim Ball circa 1932. Mrs. Fichman graduated from Indiana University with a master’s degree in social work. She worked for the Red Cross after a flood in southern Indiana and then for several years at Jewish Family Services and at the former Bornstein Home. One of her most meaningful experiences was when she was responsible for the transit and settlement of all German Jewish youths who arrived in Indianapolis circa 1938-39 for the Indianapolis Jewish Welfare Society. After her children were grown she worked for the Jewish Federation of Indianapolis and then at Ayres Glendale. During the years she was raising her daughters, Mrs. Fichman devoted many hours to volunteer work. She was a member of the National Council of Jewish Women, Hooverwood Guild, the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and Hadassah. She served several terms on the board of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, led several campaigns for the Jewish Federation of Indianapolis, and served in many positions with Hadassah, including president of the Indianapolis Chapter and on the regional board. One of her most cherished times with Hadassah was when she helped launch the Haima (the mothers) Group, from which came many future Hadassah leaders. She always referred to them as her girls and maintained relationships with some of them until she moved to Atlanta. Mrs. Fichman is survived by her dear brother, Stanley Talesnick; daughter and son-in-law Nancy and Arthur Shorr; daughter Lynne Savage; grandchildren Ross and Jody Daniels, Rachel Daniels, Robert Daniels, Benjamin and Laura Savage, and Rose (Savage) and Alan Gross. She is also survived by her great-grandchildren, who brought joy and pleasure in her later years: Michael and Andrew Daniels, Hannah and Danielle Gross, and Jacob Philip Savage. Additional survivors are nieces and nephews Jill Talesnick Wilkins, Jane Talesnick, Kay Talesnick Gilmore, Alan Talesnick and Steven Talesnick, with whom she shared a special bond. Her daughter Lynne and granddaughter Rose extend their thanks and gratitude to Mrs. Fichman’s dedicated caretakers for the last several years, Freddie Newel, Christine Cash and Sheila Jackson, and to the dedicated staff at Huntcliff Summit, especially her dear friends Charity and Deborah. Sign the online guestbook at www.jewishfuneralcare.com. Funeral services were held April 12 at Aaron-Ruben-Nelson Mortuary with interment at the Kelly Street Cemetery, Indianapolis. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Louis & Rose Talesnick Immigrant Education Fund c/o Indianapolis Jewish Federation or the Indianapolis Chapter of Hadassah. There will be a memorial service at Huntcliff Summit in Atlanta at a date to be announced. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Myron Koplin
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
89, Macon
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Myron Koplin, 89, died peacefully Sunday morning, March 29, 2015. Graveside funeral services were March 30 at Congregation Sha’arey Israel Cemetery in the old section of Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon. Visitation with the family took place after the funeral at Carlyle Place. He was born Jan. 29, 1926, in Macon, son of the late Sarah and Henry Koplin. During World War II, he served in 7th Army ordnance in France and Germany. After Army service, he graduated from Georgia Tech in industrial engineering. He was a Mason and a Shriner, was a member of the Macon Civitan Club, and was on the advisory board of the Salvation Army. Mr. Koplin was also a charter member of the Macon Shield Club and treasurer of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce. He also served as president of Congregation Sha’arey Israel and the Macon Federation of Jewish Charities. He was former co-owner of Macon Iron and Paper Stock Co. Mr. Koplin was an active member in Employer Support for the National Guard and Reserves, encouraging midstate employers to support their employees’ participation in guard and reserve duty. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Ethel; daughter Rhonda; sons Henry,
OBITUARIES - MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING Evan and wife Marty, and Chip; and grandchildren Amanda, Rachael, Jessica, Alex and Sarah. He was predeceased by his brother, Alvin Koplin, and sister, Norma K. Oliner. The family would like to thank all of the caregivers, especially Mrs. Ruthie Bentley, and staff at Carlyle Place. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Congregation Sha’arey Israel, 611 Plum St., Macon, GA 31201. The memorial register is online at www.hartsmort.com. Hart’s Mortuary and Crematory, Cherry Street, Macon, has charge of arrangements.
Beatrice Rosenberg 94, Woodstock
Beatrice Rosenberg, age 94, of Woodstock, formerly of Fayetteville, N.C., died Thursday, April 9, 2015. Beatrice was born in Fayetteville to Fannie and Jacob Kronsburg, of blessed memory. She spent most of her life in Fayetteville and moved to Atlanta in 1994 to be close to family. She was everybody’s Aunt Bea and will forever be known for her “Aunt Bea’s Brownies.” She was “Nana” to her loving grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Survivors include son and daughter-in-law Mark and Karen Rosenberg of Marietta; son Jerry Rosenberg of Sandy Springs; grandchildren Mara Silver (Brian), Heather Rosenberg (Joey), Bryan Firestone, Joanna Firestone and Craig Rosenberg (Tova); and great-grandchildren Emily, Isaac and Erin. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, IL 60601. A graveside service was held April 12 at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Shalom Lewis officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Frieda Sosno Spieler 94, Atlanta
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member of the Georgia Board of Optometry and as president of the Georgia Optometric Society. Dr. Wasserman was a longtime member of the Kiwanis Club. He was predeceased by his parents, Marion and Leo Wasserman, and brother, Morton Wasserman, of blessed memory. Survivors include his loving wife of 54 years, Marilyn Wasserman; son and daughter-in-law Leonard Wasserman and Sherri Edgar-Wasserman, Arlington, Va.; daughter Sharon Wasserman and fiancé Thomas Taylor, Boston; son and daughter-in-law Jay and Stephanie Wasserman, Westwood, Mass.; brother and sister-in-law Dr. Norman and Iris Wasserman, Johns Creek; grandchildren Alex, Zachary, Ben, Ray, Leah, Sarah and Daniel; many nieces and nephews; and extended family. The family would like to thank the wonderful hospice staff at Emory University Hospital. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia, 1925 Century Blvd. NE, Suite 10, Atlanta, GA 30345, or Congregation Shearith Israel, 1180 University Drive, Atlanta, GA 30306, or the charity of your choice. A graveside service was held Wednesday, April 15, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park with Rabbi Joshua Lesser officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Death Notices
Synagogues may send condolence announcements to editor@atljewishtimes.com. Alexander Artman of Atlanta on April 11. Marion Berkman of Smyrna on April 3. Allen Buchalter of Marietta on April 5. Craig Daniels, 58, of Roswell on April 6. Lawrence Etkind on April 7. Basya Flaksina of Atlanta on April 1. Henry Francis of Marietta on March 30. Eve Hilsen, 98, on April 1. Barbara Neuwirth of Sandy Springs on April 3. Pauline Sokol, 91, of Birmingham, Ala., on March 31.
Allan Wasserman 83, Decatur
Dr. Allan Wasserman, age 83, of Decatur died Sunday, April 12, 2015. He was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Detroit. He received his doctor of optometry degree from Illinois College of Optometry in 1955 and served in the U.S. Air Force as an optometrist from 1955 to 1958. Dr. Wasserman opened his professional optometry practice in 1958 in Forest Park, moving later to Morrow. He served as a
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
Frieda Sosno Spieler died Friday, April 3, 2015, at age 94. She resided in Denver for 32 years, moved to Valdosta, where she lived for 42 years, then moved to the Jewish Tower in Atlanta, where she lived for 20 years, and then Sunrise of Buckhead for two years. She was preceded in death by her husband of 37 years, Edward Spieler, and her daughter, Adrienne Spieler Rosenberg. Survivors include son Mark Spieler and his husband, Peter Bjerkerot, of Atlanta; granddaughter Jennifer Rosenberg and grandson Brian Rosenberg, both of Greenville, S.C.; several nieces and nephews; and many great-nieces and -nephews. There are also many special friends who will remember her. Frieda Spieler was a member of the Valdosta Hebrew Congregation and Valdosta Hadassah-Sisterhood. She held many leadership positions in the Valdosta congregation and was a lifetime member of Hadassah-Sisterhood. She was a docent in the Valdosta State University art gallery and served as a volunteer in the family services program at Moody Air Force Base. She was a charter member of the Readers Review book club. She also worked at the Valdosta Daily Times in various departments of the newspaper. In Atlanta she was an active friend of Congregation Bet Haverim and attended Ahavath Achim Synagogue. She served on AA’s senior and advocacy committees and was the Jewish Tower representative to AA. When she was a resident of the Jewish Tower, she participated in many volunteer activities. Graveside services were held Monday, April 6, at Sunset Cemetery in Valdosta. A memorial service was held in Atlanta on Wednesday, April 8, at Congregation Bet Haverim. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Congregation Bet Haverim, Building Fund, P.O. Box 29548, Atlanta, GA 30359.
AJT 29
CLOSING THOUGHTS OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
Iyar: Our Month Of Illuminated Healing
R
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
osh Chodesh Iyar begins Sunday, April 19. Iyar is a month of illumination and radiant brilliance. After a cold, gray winter, it’s finally time for the sun to shine brightly on the flowering trees and blaze across the palette of hues painting the sky. Let’s unwrap the mysteries of our gifts and tasks this month. Iyar is healing, like a ray of sunshine breaking through dark clouds. The hint about that is in Exodus 15:26 in the acronym for Iyar of “I am G-d your healer.” It was during this month that King Solomon established the Temple in Jerusalem so he could take advantage of the highest vibration of healing energy. Iyar’s Hebrew letter is vav, Zodiac sign Taurus, tribe Issachar, sense thought and controlling organ right kidney. Vav is like a connecting pipe between the upper spiritual realm and the lower materialistic world. The trials of the month lie in taming our wild natures that desire to break free in uncontrolled expression. We must transcend those energies to maintain balance. We can move our vigor upward into the spiritual realm and use that fire to fuel tikkun olam. Taurus, an earth sign represented by the bull, can get rooted in possessions and sensualities of the physical body. At their best, those born under this sign are patient and generous with their time and energy. They’re dependable and persistent in the completion of tasks. At their worst, they can be stubborn, insensitive, and a bit too frugal and possessive of things. We are commanded to count the Omer in Iyar. There are 49 days, which is seven times seven. During this time, the realms of the soul and the flesh must be integrated through Midot with Kabbalah’s seven attributes of mercy, judgment, beauty, victory, splendor, foundation and kingship. The ruling planet is Venus, which governs physical beauty and sensuality and, with regard to land, rich agricultural growth and abundance. Issachar is the tribe associated with Iyar and higher thought form, regarded as a scholarly tribe, able to decipher and understand secrets of the universe. They were astronomers and mathematicians. As with composting rich soil, their work was to turn over 30 and rake through the tenets of our tra-
AJT
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CROSSWORD
“Biblical Leaders”
By Alan Olschwang Editor: DavidBenkof@gmail.com Difficulty Level: Medium
dition to keep it alive and fruitful for future generations. Like seeds that are planted this month, we are preparing ourselves to be ripe and ready during Sivan, when we receive the Torah. The controlling organ is the right kidney, which is slightly smaller and
New Moon Meditations Dr. Terry Segal tsegal@atljewishtimes.com
lower than the left. When we have two limbs or organs, such as arms, legs, kidneys or lungs, there is a yin and yang flow of energy. Yin is feminine, and yang is masculine. In traditional Chinese medicine, the right kidney is yin, and the left is yang. Kidneys create, store, regulate and transform bodily energies and fluids such as qi, urine and blood. The kidneys deal with water, but the “gateway of vitality” between them is the source of our fire. Kidneys perform purification, required for us to refine ourselves. So while we desire to burst forth like the juice from a pomegranate seed, we are charged with the discipline of distributing our energies between the lower and upper realms to separate us from the beasts. We can feel our passions, but we must also remember not to lose our minds. Just before Passover, we lighted a candle and searched every corner of our dwellings for chametz. If any was found, we used a feather to sweep it up and dispose of it by burning. That light heralded the illumination of Iyar, followed by the clean sweep of our souls. Meditation Focus Untamed energies can manifest in the form of fire-breathing dragons of lust, sharp-tongued speech that scorches others, or hoarding possessions. Quiet yourself and consider what thoughts have been ruling you. If they are lower-level notions, practice elevating them to higher ideals. You will be more available to help others while becoming free yourself. ■ Terry Segal is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a hypnotherapist, holds a doctorate in energy medicine, and wrote “The Enchanted Journey: Finding the Key That Unlocks You.”
ACROSS 1 Deli delight 6 Joel Siegel was its film critic for over 25 yrs. 9 Bar mitzvah planners’ fears 14 Zohar verse: “Whosoever sleepeth at night in his bed tasteth of death, for his soul leaveth him for the ___” 15 Abraham’s sacrifice 16 Make like David and Jonathan 17 Where tzitzit are attached 18 Without wavering 20 A. J. Ayer’s alma mater 21 Movie in which Stephen Lang played Colonel Miles Quaritch 22 Dayenu stanza starters 23 A chance for the big bucks 26 India’s equivalent of Reb 27 Some pour them on their matzo brei 30 Fischer chess opponent, a number of times 33 Rends, as garments 37 Emulate A. M. Rosenthal 38 Tzimmes 39 Snobbish sort 42 With “out”, a phrase equivalent to “scramble for” in the song “Tradition” 43 Hot stuff that helped create the Hexagon Pool in the Golan 45 Outbreak at a Women of the Wall service 46 Adam and Eve do it to fig leaves when they realize they are naked 47 What God does in the first sentence of Genesis 50 When Hanukkah begins, briefly 52 City in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula 59 This is to be kept in check, according to Micah 6:8 61 Esau’s birthright transaction, e.g. 62 Kosher ocean denizen 63 Yellow invader 65 2014 Lenny Kravitz album 66 Isaac Stern’s son Michael recorded his Enigma Variations 67 Insect praised in Proverbs 6:6-9 68 Boothe Luce who had a love affair with Bernard Baruch 69 “All the fowls of heaven
made their ___ in his boughs . . .” (Ezekiel 31:6) 70 Bandleader Brown who played “Leapfrog” in Jerry Lewis’s “The Nutty Professor” 71 Spurrell who translated the Old Testament from the original Hebrew DOWN 1 Some do this during Yom Kippur services 2 Acknowledge on Tisha B’Av, perhaps 3 Unit of a Franklin Mint late 1970’s issuance with books of the Old Testament 4 Qualities created by anointing with oil 5 Like the namesakes of the twelve tribes 6 It’s sometimes served atop kishke 7 Displeased, as with the child who wouldn’t sit quietly during the rabbi’s sermon 8 Instrument auctioned by Isaac Stern’s estate in 2003 9 Anderson on whose team Richie Scheinblum played in the outfield in 1973 10 Photographer Goldin 11 Matter of interest to some 49D employees 12 ___ of Eilat 13 1974 Elliott Gould spoof 19 Rapper Miller and others 21 Statesman Sharon 24 Tree of Life menorah sculptor 25 Before as it might appear in an Isaac Rosenberg poem 28 Gefilte fish ingredient 29 What Esau received when he engaged in 61A 30 If it’s pure, the OU says it can be used on Passover without certification 31 When Purim occurs 32 Some Billy Joel music
34 David’s was perfect 35 The International Coastal Highway, for one: Abbr. 36 Part of an abbreviation appearing on a bar mitzvah invitation 40 Meal that includes a hunt 41 Be fruitful and multiply, and multiply? 44 Org. that can help you get from Zion to Mt. Carmel without ever leaving Utah 48 Latke ingredients 49 It’s “skyward” in Hebrew 51 Kine, today 53 Dreyfus or Beilis 54 Execute, one way 55 Campers live in them in Colorado’s Ramah Outdoor Adventure 56 Like many kibbutzim 57 Make someone less of a greenhorn 58 What Adam’s apple was to be 59 Location of Adam’s apple 60 Dorothy who sings Arlen and Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” 64 “Can’t Help Lovin’ ___ Man” (Kern/Hammerstein song) 65 Weizmann Inst. of Sci., for one
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JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER ATLANTA PRESENTS
FED Talks
Join the Movement Honoring Lifetime of Achievement Award Winner
Dr. S. Perry Brickman
THE LINEUP JOEL PERESMAN
President & CEO The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc.
JAN SINGER
The future is now. Enroll today.
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DR. JOSHUA GREEN
Chair Designate, Nat’l Young Leadership Cabinet (JFNA)
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 | The Buckhead Theater 7 pm doors open | 8 pm program | $36 per person Event open to donors who contribute to the 2015 Community Campaign.
Event Chairs: Lynne P. Halpern & Samantha Schoenbaum
Register online at JewishAtlanta.org/FEDTalks Questions? Kim Watkins at kwatkins@jfga.org or 404.870.1614
YU enables you to grow and deepen your understanding of, and commitment to, Jewish life at a top tier college while discovering your passions and beliefs and forming lasting friendships. With student programs across our campuses and worldwide, YU takes a global approach to learning, education and values, creating a full college experience. A YU education is not out of reach. Over 80% of students received help with tuition last year, with over $45 million in scholarship and financial aid awarded.
APRIL 17 ▪ 2015
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