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VOL. XCIII NO. 14
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APRIL 6, 2018 | 21 NISAN 5778
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RECALLING MLK
The civil rights icon, assassinated 50 years ago this week, was a product of Atlanta and a friend to Jews and Israel. Page 8
ADDICTION AID
Jewish Atlanta is developing a range of services and resources to respond to addiction and the opioid epidemic. Page 13
EARLY CHANGES
The Marcus JCC adds a third preschool location as a longtime director retires. Page 16
STICKER SOUNDS
The return of Israeli hip-hop group Hadag Nahash highlights Atlanta’s Jewish music scene in April. Page 24
ISRAEL@70 SPECIAL
We’re taking a week off from the normal news to dedicate the April 13 issue to a celebration of Israel-Atlanta ties.
INSIDE Candle Lighting �������������������������� 4 Israel News �����������������������������������6 Opinion �����������������������������������������8 Health & Wellness �������������������� 13 Arts ���������������������������������������������� 24 Obituaries ���������������������������������� 26 Business ������������������������������������� 28 Crossword ���������������������������������� 29 Marketplace ������������������������������ 30
Cold Reality of Survival Ben Klein, a Holocaust survivor from the Netherlands, tells his story as part of the closing ceremony of the seventh annual Daffodil Dash on Sunday, March 25. A cold, rainy morning may have suppressed the turnout for the Am Yisrael Chai fundraiser at Liane Levetan Park at Brook Run in Dunwoody, but it did not affect the enthusiasm or education. The race, in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children slain in the Holocaust, was one of several events related to the observance of Yom HaShoah, which falls on April 11 and 12 this year. More from the Dash, Page 20. Additional coverage: The Polish role in the Holocaust, Page 17; Romanian survivor Helen Weingarten will deliver the keynote address at the Memorial to the Six Million, Page 18; Atlanta honors a slain French survivor, Page 19; Anne Frank’s story comes to life at the Walker School, Page 21; Cafe Europa gets cooking, Page 22.
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APRIL 6 â–ª 2018
MA TOVU
Dented Van Resolved
Hashem Sees All I am sorry if this seems rude, but you asked: This story is disgraceful. Did you really leave the scene of an accident that was your fault? What do you think a police officer would say if you told him you didn’t want to miss your Pilates class? Do you realize you could have been arrested? Yes, you would be responsible for the damage. Yes, you would get points on your license. Yes, your insurance could go up. I know this sounds harsh, but some people will look at this article, maybe your kids, and think, “So what if I just take an apple; I don’t have any change” or “I don’t have money for this meal; let’s run!” What if I lie on my résumé, cheat in college or make a mistake during surgery that costs someone his life? Would you say, “He was old and sick, with not much longer to live anyway?” Hashem is, of course, the final arbiter, but if I did something like that, the look of disappointment on my father’s face would be much worse than any ticket or insurance problem. You knew this person parked there every day, legally. It was your responsibility to be careful. If you were late, were tired, were rushed, were not paying attention and were not backing up carefully, put on your big-girl pants and woman up to your responsibility. When the time comes to answer to heaven, this may be a small infraction, but will it lead to a life of excuses for not doing the right thing? How will you judge your husband’s indiscretions, and how will you teach your children when they do something to
injure someone? We Jews were given the gift and the responsibility to exemplify morality. Remember the Ten Commandments? No. 7 is no stealing; No. 8 is no lying? We still hold that responsibility and honor, which is not always easy but is always right. Go to your neighbor, apologize, show humility and insist on paying for
Shared Spirit Moderated By Rachel Stein rachels83@gmail.com
the damage you caused. (Do not pay for a new van. Back your car, carefully and slowly, close to his van, and you will see the spot where you hit his van.) You will feel better, sleep with a clear conscience, face your family without guilt and teach your children what is right by example. I know this sounds extreme, but a little pebble in your shoe can ruin your trip. Do the right thing. It will be a mitzvah, and Hashem will smile on you and bless you. Shalom. True to Yourself A tough dilemma. As you said, if you had thought to assess the situation immediately, the right course would have been clear. Hindsight is 20/20. You pride yourself on being honest, so be true to yourself. Can you live with the knowledge that you may have caused damage and owe compensation? Or do you feel that because it’s an old vehicle, what’s another dent in the overall scheme of things? Your neighbor doesn’t seem to care about the van’s appearance, and one more dent won’t deduct from its worth. Have a long talk with yourself and your conscience, and perhaps ask a spouse or friend for advice. Good luck. Next time, even at such an unearthly hour, don’t forget to look behind you. — Gil Stern Confess You hit the car. You should have stayed, awoken the neighbor and let the chips fall. Yes, your husband might be aggravated, but you still have to repair the car. Your conscience is your guide. There is no question as to the right course of action. If you were 16, you’d be afraid, but your parents would make you tell the
neighbor. You are an adult. How could you have left the accident? Is this any different than hitand-run? The police will likely decide if the car was parked incorrectly. — Edith Pilzer Feeling Your Pain I feel your pain. The house across the street from ours has been a rental for most of 22 years. Every tenant has parked directly across from our driveway. We have asked them not to, but it has continued to happen. Years ago, a friend of a tenant parked there, and my cousin backed into the car. Guess whom the police blamed? So, legally, it was your fault, but if there were common-sense police, they’d charge your neighbor. When the latest tenant moved in, I told him we’d get along just fine if he would remember my simple rule: Don’t park behind my driveway. So far, he wins as the best neighbor yet. — Sharon Goren Leave a Note It sounds as if you’re uncertain whether your neighbor is a man of integrity. You mentioned a concern that he would use the accident as an excuse to fix up many of the marks on his car. I have an innovative suggestion. What if you drop a note in his mailbox
with a friend’s cell number? When he calls, your friend can describe what happened and assess his reaction. He might just thank the caller for being honest. Or he might demand remuneration. Based on his reaction, you can chart your plan of action. — Barbara Levy Do Unto Him Whenever I’m uncertain about the best course of action, I flip the problem and ask myself, “How would you like to be treated in this situation?” If you would overlook the accident because of the perpetrator’s uncertainty whether she even did anything, fine. But if you would expect to be told so that you could either fix the damage or collect the money to which you’re entitled, shouldn’t you give the victim the same courtesy? We’re told in Psalms that G-d is our shadow. Just as a shadow mimics your every move, so G-d emulates the ways you act. In other words, G-d treats you the way you treat others. With that in mind, I wish you calm and peace. — A Friend Have a dilemma for our readers? Send it to rachels83@gmail.com. Requests for confidentiality are respected.
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Recap: Genine woke on an ordinary morning, raring to go to her daily 6 a.m. exercise class. It was pitch-black outside when she slowly pulled out of her driveway and, to her horror, heard an unexpected smash. It became clear she had collided with her neighbor’s geriatric van. She fumed about the number of times she had asked him not to park there on the street, and she drove off to her gym, reasoning that because she had been driving so slowly, her tiny car couldn’t have inflicted any damage. When she returned home, she spotted a large, ugly indentation on the van, alongside many minor scratches and dents. She wondered whether she should confess despite not knowing whether she caused that damage.
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Contributors This Week CHERIE AVIV RABBI MICHAEL BERNSTEIN DAVID R. COHEN YONI GLATT JORDAN GORFINKEL LEAH R. HARRISON ARNOLD HELLER HAROLD KIRTZ ALLEN H. LIPIS KEVIN C. MADIGAN LOGAN C. RITCHIE ELI SPERLING RACHEL STEIN
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APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
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THE ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES (ISSN# 0892-33451) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SOUTHERN ISRAELITE, LLC 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, Atlanta, GA 30328 © 2018 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES Printed by Walton Press Inc. MEMBER Conexx: America Israel Business Connector American Jewish Press Association Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber of Commerce Please send all photos, stories and editorial content to: submissions@atljewishtimes.com
CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES
Holocaust opera. The Atlanta Opera and Theatrical Outfit present the stories of two survivors in “Out of Darkness: Two Remain” at the Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St., downtown, at 7:30 p.m. today through April 8 and April 12 through 15. Tickets are $50; www.atlantaopera.org.
Pesach Thursday, April 5, light candles at 7:43 p.m. Friday, April 6, light candles at 7:44 p.m. Saturday, April 7, Shabbat and holiday end at 8:41 p.m. Shemini Friday, April 13, light candles at 7:49 p.m. Saturday, April 14, Shabbat ends at 8:46 p.m. Tazria-Metzora Friday, April 20, light candles at 7:55 p.m. Saturday, April 21, Shabbat ends at 8:52 p.m.
FRIDAY, APRIL 6
Film opening. The post-Holocaust movie “1945,” part of this year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, starts a run at the Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Drive, Suite C-212, Midtown, and the Springs Cinema & Taphouse, 5920 Ros well Road, Suite C-103, Sandy Springs. Visit www.menemshafilms.com/1945. “The Jew Catcher.” A play about a Holocaust survivor in 1962 opens at 7:30 p.m. at Onion Man Productions, 5522 New Peachtree Road, No. 111, Chamblee, with performances through April 22. Tickets are $12 to $16; 404-519-7591 or www.onionmanproductions.com.
SUNDAY, APRIL 8
Hope amid dementia. John Zeisel speaks on “Hopeful Aging” at 2 p.m. at the William Breman Jewish Home, 3150 Howell Mill Road, Buckhead. Free; register at www.jewishhomelife.org. Argentinian film. The Atlanta JewishLatino Film Series at Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, opens at 4 p.m. with “Los Gauchos Judios” and runs through April 14. Tickets are $5 per film, $18 for the series, or $36 for the series and dinner April 14; www.or-hadash.org.
SUNDAY, APRIL 15
Golf benefit. The Temple Kol Emeth
Greek Holocaust Film Airing on PBS
A documentary about the lost Sephardic Jewish communities of Greece is coming to two Public Broadcasting Service stations in Atlanta, just in time for Yom HaShoah observances. “Trezoros,” a Ladino term of endearment for “treasures,” is making its local broadcast debut Wednesday night, April 11, at 11:30 p.m. on Georgia Public Broadcasting, immediately after a 10 p.m. broadcast of “GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II,” which was featured during this year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Public Broadcasting Atlanta is showing “Trezoros” the next night at 7:30 and again at midnight. Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) starts at nightfall April 11. The hour-and-a-half documentary focuses on the city of Kastoria, where Jews had lived peacefully among Christians for 1,900 years. That ended when the Axis powers invaded Greece in October 1940, and Italy occupied Kastoria. The Germans replaced the Italians in 1943 and wiped out a Jewish community whose history began during the Roman Empire. More information is available at www.trezoros.com. ■ Men’s Club raises money for the family of paralyzed Brett Greenhill through a tournament at City Club Marietta, 510 Powder Springs St., Marietta, with practice at 7 a.m. and a shotgun start at 8. Registration is $150; www.kolemeth. net/event/mens-club1.html. Dental health. Dentist Brenda Paulen and periodontist Lyndsay Langston discuss the connection between your teeth and gums and your overall health at a Hadassah Greater Atlanta
Health Professionals event at 1 p.m. at Har mony Place Spiritual Center, 1035 Green St., Roswell. Admission is a $7 Hadassah contribution; RSVP to viviang.hadassah@gmail.com. Piano recital. Internationally renowned Chopin pianist Rafal Blechacz performs at 5 p.m. at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Hall, 1280 Peachtree St., Midtown, in a Chopin Society of Atlanta recital. Tickets are $25 to $45; www.chopinatlanta.org.
Find more events and submit items for our online and print calendars at the Atlanta Jewish Connector, www.atlantajewishconnector.com.
Remember When
10 Years Ago April 4, 2008 ■ Atlantan LaVon Mercer spoke at the University of Florida in early February to kick off a national partnership linking historically Jewish college fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, historically black college fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi and B’nai B’rith International. Mercer, the Spelman College basketball coach, is a former Israel professional basketball star. ■ Dale and Karen Winkler of Canton announce the birth of a son, Adrian Maxwell, on Dec. 9. 25 Years Ago April 2, 1993 ■ The Emory University Gaucher Center is stepping up its efforts to spread awareness of Gaucher disease, one of the more overlooked medical problems for Ashkenazi Jews. Louis Elsas, the physician spearheading the campaign, will give a community briefing April 25 at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center. ■ The bar mitzvah ceremony of Noah Benjamin Pawliger
of Marietta, son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Pawliger, took place Saturday, March 27, at Temple Sinai. 50 Years Ago April 5, 1968 ■ A 22-year-old Jewish sailor is among the 83 U.S. personnel captured aboard the USS Pueblo by the North Koreans on Jan. 23, The Southern Israelite has learned. Steven Robins of Alexandria, Va., is the LaVon Mercer is a household son of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney name among Israelis. Robins, and his mother was at one time associated with The Southern Israelite. ■ Miss Sally Simone Cohen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Theodore Cohen of Savannah, and Robert Leon Schwartz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Kurt Schwartz of New Orleans, were married March 17. They will live in Savannah.
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ISRAEL NEWS
Will Israel Strike a Nuclear Facility Again? Israel recently admitted to destroying a Syrian nuclear site in 2007. The facility, in the Deir al-Zour region, was built using North Korean assistance and technology. Operation Outside the Box — a play on words related to the cubical shape of the facility — was the result of a scrupulous investigation and meticulous action. The region around the site later became an Islamic State stronghold. It was not the first time Israel acted to prevent an Arab neighbor from acquiring a nuclear weapon. In June 1981 in Operation Babylon (also called Operation Opera), Israel destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor. That action set an Israeli foreign policy precedent known as the Begin Doctrine, after Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983 and the man who ordered the attack. Under the doctrine, Begin asserted that Israel would prevent any of her enemies from obtaining nuclear weapons that could be used against her. Similar to the 2007 operation in Syria, Israeli intelligence and military establishments knew about the Iraqi nuclear program well before 1981. Under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1974-77), planning was underway to deal with the Iraqi threat. A series of military actions before Operation Babylon aimed to thwart Iraq’s
development of a nuclear weapon. By 1980, however, Israel had obtained photographic evidence,
Guest Column By Eli Sperling U.S. government photos
provided by American and pre-revolutionary Iranian intelligence agencies, of the site’s progress. In October 1980, the Mossad reported to Begin that the Iraqi facility could be operational as early as June 1981. The Israeli government, while divided on whether to strike, voted to carry out the attack. After months of rigorous training, 16 American-manufactured Israeli fighter jets took off from the Etzion air force base in the Israeli-controlled Sinai on June 7, 1981. The fighter pilots carried out a risky mission, destroying the Iraqi facility. Despite numerous attempts after the strike, Saddam Hussein was never able to obtain a nuclear weapon. The September 2007 operation against the Syrian reactor began with the Mossad documenting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s meeting with North Korean officials. Israeli intelligence engaged in phonetapping and computer hacking of Syrian officials. Intelligence information was
Photographs show the Syrian nuclear facility before and after the airstrike by Israel in 2007.
shared with the United States. Both the nuclear facility’s existence and its progress were irrefutably confirmed. Israeli intelligence and operational plans culminated in an airstrike on the nuclear site Sept. 6, 2007. The plans had to include neutralizing the reactor without causing a radioactive, environmental disaster. Aided by American communications technology, eight Israeli F-15s and F-16s entered Syrian airspace. The operation destroyed the facility. The mission succeeded in preventing the Assad regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The operation had long-lasting geopolitical and military effects and raised important security questions: • What if Islamic State had been able to access a Syrian-made nuclear weapon? • What if one of the factions fighting in the Syrian civil war had access to a nuclear weapon?
• What if a nuclear device fell into the hands of the Iranian-trained and -funded fighters on Israel’s northern border? • Would a Syrian nuclear weapon have spawned a regional nuclear arms race and emboldened North Korea to spread its technology to other hotspots? Also relevant to this story are current international tensions with North Korea over its nuclear program. Israel’s official release about the September 2007 operation is not arbitrary. Detailing how Israel, aided by the United States and without detection, destroyed the Syrian facility is pertinent to the diplomatic stalemate with North Korea. Today, with controversy swirling over the Iranian nuclear deal, the Begin Doctrine is often discussed in Israel. The deal, struck by the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China and Germany with Iran, is controversial in both Israel and the United States. President Donald Trump has a May deadline to scrap, renew or rework the deal. It remains to be seen whether the Begin Doctrine will again be enforced by the Israeli Air Force, this time with a focus on Iran. ■ Eli Sperling is the Israel specialist and assistant program coordinator for the Center for Israel Education.
Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Swallowing easier colon scans. Isfiyabased Check-Cap has received approval from the European Union for its ingestible C-Scan system for colorectal screening, which replaces a colonoscopy in most cases. A patient takes a low-dose X-ray capsule, a contrast agent and fiber supplements with each meal for two or three days, and the system collects data to produce 2D and 3D maps of the colon. Only if a polyp is found, as happens about 25 percent of the time, does a colonoscopy follow. U.S. studies are planned next year. APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
A flash discovery. Hebrew University of Jerusalem physicist Uriel levy and emeritus professor Joseph Shappir have shown in a paper for Laser and Photonics Review the proof of their concept for an integrated circuit that uses flash memory technology to bring 6 fiber-optic speed to electronics. The re-
sult could be the first terahertz-speed microchip, making computers and wireless devices 100 times faster. Resetting the quake meter. Earthquake warning and forecasting systems worldwide are ineffective, according to research from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering Studies. The research shows that electromagnetic radiation measurement would be a better predictor, providing hours, or even days, of warning before an earthquake. According to the study published in the May issue of Geological Magazine, hundreds of millions of dollars invested to measure seismic radiation to predict earthquakes have been wasted because the radiation before an earthquake is absorbed in Earth’s rocks and cannot be measured. The researchers showed that measuring high frequen-
cies of electromagnetic radiation is more effective. Winning over the U.N. Save a Child’s Heart, an Israeli nongovernmental organization recognized as a world leader in providing lifesaving cardiac surgery for children from developing countries, was awarded the 2018 United Nations Population Award on Monday, April 2. Established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1981, the award recognizes outstanding achievements in population and health. Save a Child’s Heart has served more than 4,400 children from 55 countries since 1996. Seeing at night. Researchers at BenGurion University of the Negev have developed low-cost infrared sensors that can be used to create the world’s thinnest night-vision glasses and to revolutionize smartphones and self-
driving cars. Gabby Sarusi, a faculty member in the Unit of Electro-Optical Engineering and the Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, has built the stamplike device, which reads infrared wavelengths and converts them to images that are visible to the human eye. This stamp — basically a film that is half a micron in thickness — is composed of nanometric layers, nanocolumns and metal foil. Water of life. Israel imported a record 4.5 million bottles of Scotch whisky, worth almost $37 million, in 2017. The monetary value rose 15 percent from 2015 and 2016. Israel’s favorite blended scotches are Johnnie Walker Black and Red and Chivas Regal; the top single malts are Glenfidduch and Glenlivet. Compiled courtesy of Israel21c, Globes and other sources.
www.atlantajewishtimes.com pagne celebration at 6:45, the main program at 7:45 and a JNFuture afterparty at 9. Tickets are $118, $180 for patrons or $36 for JNFuture members; bit. ly/2GgioyG or 404-236-8990, ext. 851. Stories and music. Temple Emanu-El, 1580 Spalding Drive, Sandy Springs, celebrates Israel’s birthday with funny stories and musical acts with its Beit Café at 7 p.m. Tickets are $18; RSVP by April 15 at templeemanuelatlanta.org/ calendar/temple-emanu-el-beit-cafe.
Maccabi Tel Aviv star Tal Brody lifts the Euro trophy April 7, 1977.
Today in Israeli History
Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), where you can find more details. April 6, 1923: Shoshana Netanyahu is born in Danzig, which is now Gdansk, Poland. She becomes the second woman to serve on the Israeli Supreme Court. April 7, 1977: Maccabi Tel Aviv defeats Italian team Mobilgirgi Varese 78-77 to win its first Euro League basketball championship. The victory follows a stunning upset in the semifinals over Soviet champions CSKA Moscow, played on a neutral court in Belgium because the Soviet Union has no diplomatic ties with Israel. April 8, 2006: More than 3,000 spectators attend the Ten Dance European Cup, the first international dance sports competition held in Israel. Fifty dancers from 25 countries compete in the ballroom dancing contest, won by a couple from Russia. The Israeli team finishes seventh. April 9, 1921: Yitzhak Navon, elected as Israel’s fifth president in 1978, is born in Jerusalem into a Jewish family that has lived in the holy city for more than three centuries. April 10, 2005: Forty-nine participants from 11 countries gather in Haifa for a five-day NATO conference on mass-casualty medical preparedness. It is NATO’s first event in Israel. April 11, 1961: The trial of Adolf Eichmann, architect of the Nazi Final Solution, begins in front of a special panel of three judges at the Beit Ha’am community center in Jerusalem. The trial lasts 14 weeks and results in 15 guilty verdicts and the death sentence, which is carried out May 31, 1962. April 12, 1984: Egged Bus 300, traveling from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon, is attacked by four Palestinian terrorists, who take 40 passengers hostage. One of the 40 is killed in a rescue mission, as are two of the terrorists.
Israel@70
The following events are part of Atlanta’s celebration of Israel’s 70th birthday. Send additions to this calendar to editor@atljewishtimes.com.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11
FIDF speaker series. Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Doran speaks at 6:30 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; advance registration required at fidfse.wixsite. com/israel70speakers.
THURSDAY, APRIL 19
JNF jubilee. Comedian Sarge entertains at Jewish National Fund’s gala celebration for Israel at the Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road, Buckhead, with a VIP reception at 6 p.m., a cham-
MONDAY, APRIL 23
Women at the Wall. Israel Religious Action Center Director Anat Hoffman speaks about the struggles for religious rights for women at the Western Wall at 7 p.m. at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown. Free; www.the-temple. org or 404-873-1731.
THURSDAY, APRIL 26
Food trucks. Celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut with the Marcus JCC, including kosher food, Israeli dancing, live music, performances by day school students, games and crafts, at Liane Levetan Park at Brook Run, 4770 N. Peachtree Road, Dunwoody, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Free admission; www.atlantajcc.org.
SUNDAY, APRIL 29
Israel@70 Atlanta. Jewish Atlanta holds a community celebration from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with games, exhibits, activities, food, and music from performers including the Billy Jonas Band, Joanie Leeds and Taking the Time at Park Tavern at Piedmont Park, 500 10th St., Midtown. Admission is $10 per or $18 per family in advance, $18 or $25 at the door; jewishatlanta.org/israel70. BeltLine bar crawl. Birthright Israel alumni have brunch at 11:30 a.m. at Mariposa Lofts, 100 Montag Circle, Inman Park, and stop at a few bars on the way to the community celebration at Park Tavern. Tickets are $36, including brunch, four drinks and Israel@70 Atlanta admission; jewishatlanta.org/ birthright-bar-crawl or 678-222-3746.
MONDAY, MAY 14
FIDF gala. Friends of the IDF honors the men and women who have defended Israel for 70 years with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and a dinner program at 7 featuring Rep. Brian Mast at the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta, 3315 Peachtree Road. Admission is $250 ($118 for ages 35 and under); fidfse. wixsite.com/atl70/event-details.
GPB HDTV airing Wednesday, April 11th at 11:30pm ALTPBS airing Thursday, April 12th at 7:30pm HDTV airing Wednesday, April 11th at 11:30pm ALTPBS airing Friday, April 13th at 12Am
GPB ALTPBS airing Thursday, April 12thET/5:30pm at 7:30pm PBS World Channel airing Thursday, April 12th at 8:30pm pT ALTPBS airing Friday, April 13th at 12Am CHeCk LoCAL LiSTinGS or ViSiT WWW.TrezoroS.Com For ADDiTionAL AirDATeS & TimeS
PBS World Channel airing Thursday, April 12th at 8:30pm ET/5:30pm pT
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
ISRAEL NEWS
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OPINION
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Our View
Long Live King
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
This week we mark one of the saddest days in modern U.S. history: April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a single rifle shot while standing on a hotel balcony in Memphis. The night before, King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, sounding as if he knew he would never return alive to Atlanta. The Southern Israelite of April 5, 1968, which went to press before the assassination, led with a story about Memphis’ Orthodox community coming through riots relatively unscathed a week earlier; it included a small item about national Reform leaders endorsing King’s planned Poor People’s Campaign. A week later, Atlanta’s Jewish newspaper reflected the anguish felt across the nation, particularly in King’s hometown. “Jews Throughout America Mourn Martyred Dr. King” was the lead headline on the front page, but Editor and Publisher Adolph Rosenberg also shared the fear that extremists would tear apart the City Too Busy to Hate in “Nightmare, Dream of Peace Vie for Upper Hand in Atlanta”: “This writer was reminded that it must have been like this … when the Leo Frank posse moved into Atlanta and Jewish people hid and wondered what would happen.” Rosenberg’s editorial carried through that fear of the unknown, that without King, any peaceful progress in race relations and civil rights would give way to righteous anger that would devastate the Jewish community. But at its heart, it is an elegy for the Jewish community’s lost friend: “It is an ironic commentary on the present state of American society that a gentle man of peace should meet his death in an act of violence.” The editorial goes on to cite King’s praise for early Jewish leadership in the civil rights movement and his condemnation of the emergence of anti-Semitism among the radical forces in the black community. “When these same militant, black-power advocates accused Israel of being the aggressor in the Six-Day War, and they were aided and abetted by the white radical left, and the Israelis were called imperialists,” King came to Israel’s public defense. A man of G-d first and foremost, King was an honorary alumnus of the Jewish Theological Seminary, a frequent and admired speaker before national Jewish organizations, and a friend to some of Atlanta’s Jewish leaders. As The Southern Israelite emphasized, he was a product of Atlanta and all its opportunities and connections. “We extend to his family our deep sympathy in their bereavement. We fervently hope and pray that his sacrifice will give renewed vigor and strength to the movement for justice in American life,” the newspaper said. We can’t know how King’s views on Israel might have evolved the past half-century or whether his ties to the Jewish community would have remained strong, just as we’ll likely never know the full story of how the great man met his end outside a Memphis hotel. But we can look to his example to inspire a renewal of the close black-Jewish cooperation that elevated Atlanta to the leadership of the New South then and can carry our city to the forefront of a thriv8 ing nation in the years to come. ■
Cartoon by Yaakov Kirschen, Dry Bones, Israel
Lights, Cameras, Action at AJT I got a phone call recently from a person conthan edited stories. And it will mean that sometimes fused about the way we covered the international you’ll be left scratching your head about what we Hebrew Order of David conference in Sandy Springs were thinking. — HOD’s first biennial outside South Africa. The truth is that we won’t always be thinking The caller had no problem with what we wrote when it comes to video, at least for the next several about HOD or its new grand president, Atlantan months. We’ll try different things and look for a Alan Rubenstein. She didn’t have any complaints happy medium between what we have the time and about the photos we used. ability to produce and But she didn’t what you want to see. understand why, out of You can follow our (I Editor’s Notebook Rubenstein’s 10-minute hope) rapid development By Michael Jacobs speech about HOD and its on our YouTube channel mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com future, we posted a video (bit.ly/2H4DUHR — please of nothing except a slightly subscribe), and call (404off-color joke Rubenstein 883-2130, ext. 104) or email delivered. Of all things, (mjacobs@atljewishtimes. why that and only that? com) any time with your feedback. I had an answer, but maybe not a good one. The increased use of video is just one change Rubenstein made it clear not only that he enjoys we’re making now that we’re well into the fourth telling jokes, but that his HOD brothers know him year of Michael Morris’ ownership of the Atlanta for those stories. So I thought it made sense to post a Jewish Times, with more than 160 issues behind us. video on our YouTube channel and our website that For example, we’re putting more effort into highlighted a significant part of his character. making the newspaper’s cover appealing with larger, But the reason I didn’t post more of the speech stronger photos while cutting back on the stories we has nothing to do with newsworthiness and everyrun on the front. It’s something we should have done thing to do with the current limitations of the AJT. a long time ago: Not surprisingly, the more visually We’ve talked about shooting and posting more appealing the cover, the more copies get taken. videos on the AJT website for at least a decade, but Some weeks we’ll have one short story on the our staff has traditionally consisted of people who front; some weeks we won’t have any. But the real are far more experienced with words than with reading will take place inside, where we’re planvideos. So videos too often are an afterthought, and ning some subtler design and style changes while when we do them, they take far more time and wind implementing features we hope will better serve up far rougher than they should be from a profesthe community, such as the new Writing on Writing sional news organization. series from local Jewish authors. We’re working on it. Staff writer Sarah Moosa Whether in print, online or both, I hope you’ll zadeh and I are trying to shoot video when we cover continue to be part of the effort to match the AJT to events, and we’re trying to develop a workflow and our community’s needs. gain practice with the editing software so that we Clarification: My March 30 column about can turn that footage into videos worth watching. Chabad Intown’s exciting new BeltLine property But getting from where we are to where we should have said Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman hopes want and need to be won’t be easy. The effort will that it will become a hub for the Israeli high-tech involve some experiments that won’t work. It will community, not a gathering spot for the Israeli cominclude a lot of videos that are simple clips rather munity in general. ■
www.atlantajewishtimes.com
Letters To The Editor Handel Needs Balance
There’s no doubt that Karen Handel (“Congress Endorses Local Health Solutions,” March 23) operates in the best interests of her constituents. But her articles on the opinion pages of the Atlanta Jewish Times read like political election pieces: “I fought to …” and “I am committed to …” and so forth. If she simply wrote neutrally about activities in Washington or in her district, I would not be concerned. But she is campaigning. Where are the legitimate, counterbalanced columns of her anticipated opponents in 2018? I’m sure they would “fight to” or be “committed to” certain goals as well. Let’s not arrive at November having read only Handel’s 6th District campaign literature in your paper. — Ed Jacobson, Decatur
Keep Thinking for Yourself
I found Eliana Goldin’s article very refreshing (“Why I Didn’t March With AJA’s Walkout,” March 23). Here is a young lady who does not follow the
crowd mentality but thinks for herself. While I agree that a memorial for the innocent victims of the Florida school shooting is appropriate, I do not agree with the 17-minute walkout. Eliana emphasizes the #WalkUpNotOut response, walking up to students who are sitting alone or who are bullied. These gestures will teach inclusiveness and are great to boost a teenager’s self-esteem. I object to CNN using the Florida high school students, giving them talking points before the media. Even David Hogg, as articulate as he is, is being used to push a leftist agenda to cause more divisiveness and chaos in this country. It is very unpatriotic. Eliana, continue to think for yourself, to see right from wrong, and not to follow the crowd mentality. — C. Leah Starkman, Atlanta
We Must Defend Ourselves
In the spirit of Pesach: If we Jews were not confrontational against Pharaoh and did not war against our enemies in Egypt and in the wilderness, where would we be today? If we do not defend Israel against our enemies today, how can we spread out in Israel as the Torah tells us to do?
We must support the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad and the Jewish Defense League. We haven’t the opportunity to observe our laws here and to debate our leftist detractors who support Mahmoud Abbas. Why not support the Netanyahu coalition and stand up for Israel, as John Bolton does? Rabbis should be aggressive about conversions. Jews should enlist in the U.S. armed forces. Jews should express their views in newspapers and answer detractors. Young Jewish college students should learn Torah and practice halachah. All Jews should learn about Hannah Senesh and Mordechai Anielewicz. We should venerate Rabbi Meir Kahane and read his books. — Phil Wendkos, Silver Spring, Md.
From the Blogs
The community conversation is always active at the AJT’s blog page, blogs.timesofisrael.com/atlanta-jewish-times. Visit the blogs to sign up for your own AJT blog or to add your comments to posts. Recent excerpts: • Wendy Kalman, “Gazans, Palestinians and the Future of Israel” — “I wish I had heard something in Hamas’
words as it planned this protest that would lead me to believe that a twostate solution was something the Palestinians could actually agree with. I wish I had heard Abbas say something, anything, about what the Gazans were about to do before they did it. But I heard neither.” • Bonnie Levine, “Passover Kashering Part 3” — “In some ways I’ll probably be *eating* in a way that’s less ‘kosher for Passover’ than in previous years, given that I’m completely cool with kitniyot this year. But in terms of preparing for Pesach, you know what? I improved over last year, and under some pretty stressful circumstances to boot.” • Rabbi Marc H. Wilson, “PEAS and BEANS and RICE, OH MY!” — “The maelstrom erupted a few years back when a p’sak was issued by the Conservative rabbinate entirely lifting the prohibition of kitniyot, even for Ashkenazim. In brief, the rationale was that the practice had become irrelevant.”
Write to Us
The AJT welcomes letters and guest columns from our readers. Send submissions to editor@atljewishtimes. com. Include your name, your town and a phone number for verification.
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
OPINION
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OPINION
Dreamers in the Face of a Nightmare This Passover, as we anticipate the celebration of the 70th year since the birth of the modern state of Israel, a different milestone is marked in the United States. April 4 is 50 years since the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on his hotel balcony in Memphis. The legacy of the great preacher and modern prophet is almost always defined in terms of his rousing, extemporaneous words that turned the occasion of a blistering oration titled “Normalcy, Never Again” into what will always be referred to as the “I Have a Dream” speech. In addition to the vivid evocation of children of different skin colors playing together in the very places still scorched by “vicious racism” and the core fairness of valuing in a person only what cannot be judged on the surface, Dr. King borrowed words from the biblical prophets. Like Isaiah, he invoked the day when “every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low” in the name of justice and peace. So his dream went beyond the necessary work of uprooting the rules and customs that made obvious the degra-
dation of black people in his day. The words he spoke became an addendum to the self-evident declarations of equality and liberty that were signed when black people lived enslaved, some even to the men who
From the ARA By Rabbi Michael Bernstein
wrote the original words and fought to bring about the nation founded upon them. Dr. King’s dream was a transformation of a nation that even then, and more so now, was quick to forget the horrors perpetrated on black people only yesterday and all too slow to address the real and present injustices that are part and parcel of the lives of so many in our country for whom the nightmare is a reality and the dreams are just words echoing in empty places. A nightmare that felt even more stark April 4, 1968. Like Dr. King, Theodor Herzl will always be known for his dreams. But he very much understood the night-
mare, too. For Herzl, that nightmare was the looming shadow of antiSemitism in Europe. A problem that he saw went far beyond the visceral outbreaks of violence against Jews in certain places and reached the very structure of a society that refused to accept Jews as true citizens and thus to accord them, formally and informally, equal treatment as human beings. He envisioned dealing with this intractable antipathy by bringing Jews from around the world back to the land of our formation as a people and as a faith to achieve nothing less than a society that would transcend the ills of his day and be a model of human civilization. While the celebration of Israel’s 70th birthday is a testament to the power of his dream, Herzl’s nightmare was to come true in the Holocaust in a way beyond his or any Jew’s imagination before the core of his vision could be fully realized. Fifty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., I can’t help
but feel that his hopeful, almost messianic pronouncements and deep personal commitment to moving forward have made it all the easier to lose sight of how committed he was to live in the real world, to recognize the urgency of taking action, not to help fulfill the promises of Scripture or our founding documents, but to shield the vulnerable from harm, feed people who are starving, and, as he did in his last days in Memphis, stand side by side with those who worked dangerous, undercompensated jobs like sanitation and help them declare “I am a man.” As Jews, we know never to take for granted being able to assert our equality, liberty and humanity. Even as we cherish the dream, we know how important it is to never forget the nightmare. In these days, as we dedicate ourselves first to those memories and then to the celebration of our dreams, may we make sure that we remember not only the great dreams and dreamers of our country, but also the real history, real consequences and real lives that are at stake in bringing them to life. ■ Rabbi Michael Bernstein is the spiritual leader of Congregation Gesher L’ Torah.
Eliminating Chametz Is Temporary Solution By Rabbi Michael Bernstein
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
I arranged the sale of chametz to a person who is not Jewish on Friday, March 30. We do this not to avoid preparing for this week of unleavened bread, matzah, but both to take care of things not easily gotten rid of and as a fallback for the crumbs we have missed. The woman who took possession is the mother of someone who is part of our Jewish community, a Jewish family and a Passover tradition while he himself is not of the Jewish faith. I thought of this seemingly strange ritual that has developed as I went to take a set-aside portion of the chametz from my house to a neighbor, my good friend Rabbi Hirshy Minkowicz, whom I have had the lovely pleasure of joining for the final step of removing ownership of leaven for the holiday: the burning of the chametz. Each year we share a little Torah with each other, and this year we thought about how chametz symbolizes for many Jews something that can be 10 quite harmful: arrogance that puffs us
up even as yeast makes the dough rise. The question is asked in the Lubavitch tradition: If chametz is arrogance, why is it allowed? Shouldn’t we live without it all year long? After we gasp at the thought, the answer that is given is that in fact we need enough sense of self, imperfect as we are, to be able to face the everyday world — to be puffed up enough to have the strength that we seek to put to good use. There are, I believe, two kinds of people. Well, really three, but the third is very rare. The very rare person is like matzah all the time: no ego, no anger. I actually believe I have been blessed to know a few of these people. The rest of us are either full of chametz and somewhat aware of it or full of chametz and don’t really know it. We try to be patient with friends and with those who annoy us. Who can blame us for losing it from time to time? And, in fact, the truth is that is just what it means to be a human being. If we lose sight of this humanness, we only fool ourselves into thinking we
are matzah when we are really still just bubbling with that chametz, waiting to explode. We mistake our anger for righteousness and our ego, which can be put to good uses, as only recognizing our own gifts and opportunities to help others. So we have a temporary solution. Get rid of all of it, physically at least, for one week to remind ourselves not that it is possible to be without, even for a week, but that what is at our core is as simple as matzah. That we may really need the other stuff most of the time, but that it does not define us. Not get rid of all the big stuff that we just pretend is gone, nor be defeated by those crumbs we couldn’t find. Let the fire burn clean not the stuff that makes us us, but the illusion that we can only be us if we never let down our defenses or make room for others. May this be a sweet and meaningful Passover celebration for all of us as we feast on the bread that represents affliction and wholeness, brokenness and perfection. ■
Rabbis Michael Bernstein and Hirshy Minkowicz burn chametz before Passover.
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LOCAL NEWS No Hate-Crimes Law
Another General Assembly session has ended without Georgia joining 45 other states in enacting a law prescribing enhanced penalties for hate crimes. Legislation introduced at the start of the session in January with the support of the Anti-Defamation Leagueorganized Coalition for a Hate Free Georgia failed to get out of committee. Outgoing Rep. Wendell Willard then attached similar language to judiciary bill that had passed the Senate, S.B. 373, and guided it through his committee, but it never got a vote on the House floor before the session closed Thursday, March 29. The ADL and its allies in the fight for a hate-crimes law had success opposing legislation that critics said would have allowed adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ people. That measure, S.B. 375, died in the House without getting a floor vote.
• “Los Abandonados (The Abandoned Ones)” (2015), a documentary about Alberto Nisman, the chief prosecutor in the AMIA bombing, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 11. • “Wakolda (The German Doctor)” (2013), a historical drama about Josef Mengele in Argentina, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday, April 12. • “Mi Primera Boda (My First Wedding)” (2011), a comedy about a groom who tries to postpone his wedding after misplacing the rings at 8:45 p.m. Saturday, April 14, after Havdalah and a light Argentinian-style dinner at 7:30. Each film is $5, or a series pass is $18. A series pass plus the Saturday dinner is $36; the dinner and movie Saturday alone are $23. Reservations for dinner are due Monday, April 9. Visit
www.or-hadash.org for details and reservations.
Grant for Check It Out!
Hadassah Greater Atlanta, with the Northside Hospital Cancer Institute, has been awarded a grant of $1,580 from It’s the Journey, which puts on the Georgia 2-Day Walk for Breast Cancer. The grant will support the Check It Out! program, which teaches high school students in the Atlanta area about body awareness, breast cancer and healthy lifestyles. Hadassah won one of 33 It’s the Journey grants for breast cancer programs in Georgia. “We emphasize the importance of early detection, knowing your own body and recognizing changes,” said
Joined by Northside nurse educator Susan Casella (left), Ellen Banov accepts the grant check from It’s the Journey Executive Director Kimberly Goff (right).
Ellen Banov, the Check It Out! Program chair for Hadassah Greater Atlanta. “Our grant from It’s the Journey Inc. allows us to provide take-home brochures and other information to our attendees so that they can share the information with friends and family members.”
Beth Jacob to Honor 8
Congregation Beth Jacob is honoring four couples who serve as congregational ambassadors as the Orthodox shul celebrates its 75th anniversary with a gala Sunday night, April 29, at Heritage Hall. Each of the four couples represents a core value of the congregation: Larry and Eleanor Bogart (family as the center of Jewish life); Mark and Barbara Fisher (Shabbos and hospitality); Aaron and Miriam Cann (shul as community); and Alan Minsk and Julie Kaminsky (focus on education). The celebration, which is scheduled to include Rabbi Emeritus Emanuel Feldman on a visit back to Atlanta from Israel, starts with a cocktail reception at 6 p.m. before dinner at 6:45. Tickets are $118. Get more information and reserve seats at www.bethjacobatlanta.org/dinner.
Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, is hosting the first Atlanta Jewish-Latino Film Series from April 8 to 14. The series, co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Argentina, features five films, starting at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 8, with the 1975 film “Los Gauchos Judios (Jewish Gauchos),” a musical dramedy about Jews who flee Russia in 1889 and wind up in an Argentinian farming colony. The other films: • “Anita” (2009), the story of a child with Down syndrome growing up during the chaos after the 1994 bombing of the AMIA building in Buenos Aires, at 7 p.m. Monday, April 9.
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Latino Series Premieres
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LOCAL NEWS
From the Klan to Strip Clubs, He’s Argued It All I ran into Alan Begner at a 50-year Grady High School reunion where I was a guest, not an alumna. Alan grew up in the ’50s and ’60s in Morningside as a member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue. Now he’s a successful trial lawyer whose name is sometimes associated with defending underworld figures and arguing strip-club-type First Amendment cases. He’s a charming character who has kept his hands clean in what is not a lily-white business. Hear how he charmed judges and juries through the decades. Jaffe: Have you always been a hippie? Why do some criminal attorneys go for a wild look? Begner: I originally started the ponytail for practical reasons … then the full beard and all became my trademark. In 1972, when I applied to go to law school, I was a hippie and had a hard time getting admitted. … I showed up for interviews in a leather sportscoat, vest, a bowtie (laughing). When I graduated from law school,
the code was that lawyers can’t win trials with facial hair, ponytails or bowties. Wrong! Jaffe: How did you fall into the
Jaffe's Jewish Jive By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com
First Amendment type of practice? Begner: I paid my dues starving for a few years taking any kind of case. In 1982, I was appointed to represent a Communist revolutionary who took over a general’s office at Fort McPherson and declared he had taken over to protest the planning of World War III. I got an acquittal! My mother started crying when I told her I had taken the case. “What have you done? You’ll ruin your career!” From there, I went on to represent civil rights leader Hosea Williams, the Klan, civil disobedients and protesters of all kinds, strip clubs, accused racketeers, Gypsies and video machine gambling cases.
Alan Begner’s “hippie” look has become a trademark.
Jaffe: What makes Atlanta unique in naughty businesses? Begner: Our adult clubs are famous for allowing nude dancing and alcohol service. It is not easy to get a license. They are very valuable. Many cities and counties are constantly changing the rules. We have gone from 45 to less than 30 clubs. They continuously struggle against government overreach. Nude dancing is protected expression as long as the participants are over 18, so some local governments take away the alcohol. Jaffe: Your wife, Cory, is your law partner. How does that work?
Illustrative cases are stacked in boxes around Alan Begner’s desk.
Begner: She was an English major in college and graduated from Georgia State Law School. She does the research, drafts the pleadings and writes the briefs. We talk about the issues and challenges to the laws. I usually do the oral arguments. We have been together since 10th grade and married 46 years. Jaffe: What’s your most unusual case? Begner: A customer sued my client, the Gold Club, alleging that the club had employed a dancer who was a vampire. The dancer had bitten him, and it had destroyed his marriage. The jury could not stop laughing. Jaffe: Talking to you, I feel that you explain complicated things very plainly and that you appear to be mild and gentle despite the subject matter. Is this the key to your success? Begner: I’d say the key is being prepared and pinpointing the one unique thing that may convince the judge or jury.
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Jaffe: You are writing a book? Begner: It’s a novel based upon a true story about the confluence of three events in Atlanta in 1985 and 1986: the conviction of Wayne Williams in the “missing and murdered children” cases, which allowed Atlanta to reclaim its reputation as a good place for families to visit; a very famous murder trial in 1987 featuring the Gambino crime family (I defended the alleged Gambino defendant); and how the murder case prosecutor tried to link Atlanta’s adult stores with the murders.
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Jaffe: Do you ever relax? Begner: Years ago, I worked 60 hours a week. … Now down to 40 or less. Cory and I collect American folk art and American Indian pottery. I collect old wooden 12-inch rulers. The bottom line is I have been fortunate to defend common folks against government overreaching and to have Cory stand with me in this fight. ■
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HEALTH & WELLNESS
A Lifesaving Response to a Deadly Epidemic
Jewish Atlanta develops a depth of resources for addiction treatment and recovery By Leah R. Harrison lharrison@atljewishtimes.com A lot has happened since the AJT first explored “Atlanta’s Jewish Heroin Triangle” in the fall of 2016. The opioid crisis has continued to grow across all ethnic and socioeconomic groups. The Atlanta Jewish community, like populations across America, has suffered terrible losses and seen too many funerals of promising lives cut short by addiction. Additives such as fentanyl and carfentanil have made heroin and prescription opioids more potent and deadly. There is a lag in the publication of official statistics, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human resources said 116 people a day died from opioidrelated drug overdoses in the United States in 2016. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overall drug overdose deaths in the United States increased from 47,055 in 2014 to 52,404 in 2015 to more than 63,600 in 2016.
By comparison, 2016 saw more than 38,000 gun deaths (about 11,000 of them homicides) and 37,461 deaths in traffic crashes. Drug overdoses are now the No. 3 cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer. A June article in The New York Times calls the opioid crisis “a modern plague” that is the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50. As the devastation hit Jewish Atlanta, synagogues and other organizations called for information, speakers and meetings, and Jewish Family & Career Services’ HAMSA program held sober Shabbats. Amid the continuing epidemic, Jewish individuals and organizations have stepped up to supplement the existing meetings and generally available treatment and recovery centers with specific resources to fight addiction in our community. We asked providers to tell us what they have developed the past 18 months and what services they are making available.
The Berman Center www.bermancenteratl.com, 770-336-7444 Established in September by Alyza Berman in response to the needs of her clients and the community, The Berman Center is a Jewish faith-based intensive outpatient program, or IOP. It is for adults who suffer from addiction or co-occurring diagnoses, including anxiety, depression and trauma, as well as eating disorders. The center is housed in a midrise surrounded by serene woods at 1200 Ashwood Parkway, Suite 400, in Dunwoody. The IOP offers therapies ranging from individual to group, 12-step warm yoga to art, as well as fitness and massage. The center has the support of rabbis representing a wide spectrum of Jewish observance who rotate in to provide guidance and conduct group sessions on Fridays. This connection helps clients gain solid footing on their journey toward sobriety and community engagement. The Berman Center has clients from multiple states in numbers that
are exceeding initial expectations. “Calls are coming in every single day,” Berman said. “It’s so exciting. We’re seeing so much transition and change within our clients.” In addition to being comfortable for Jews, “what’s different about this treatment center, compared to others where I have worked, is that our mission to really effect change in a way that people leave feeling better and more capable of tackling life and really thriving in life is being achieved,” she said. “All of our clients are leaving with either a job or on their way to a job, or they are going back to school.” Berman coined the phrase “Jewish recovery triangle” in reference to the complementary efforts of The Berman Center, HAMSA and the coming Derech Transitional Living facility. This array of services positions Jewish Atlanta to help those fighting addiction find the resources they need. The center is working on outreach in areas such as prevention and awareness of mental health in day schools,
Continued on page 14
ENTER TO WIN FLOWERS, CANDY OR A SPA DAY FOR YOUR MOTHER THIS MOTHER’S DAY. Do Your Love And Appreciate Your Mother?
Submit 200 words or less telling us … Why your mother deserves flowers, candy or a day at the spa for Mother’s Day
Email your submission to editor@atljewishtimes.com or call 404-883-2130 with questions.
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Your entry will be entered in a drawing to win one of 5 awards. Your submission will be published by the AJT either in our upcoming Mother’s Day issue on May 11th or on-line. You must include a photo.
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HEALTH & WELLNESS Continued from page 13 high schools, synagogues, youth programs and camps. Berman and her husband, center CEO Justin Milrad, are on numerous community boards and have established the Blue Dove Foundation to help prevent cost from being a barrier to treatment.
THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC BY THE NUMBERS IN 2016...
116
People died every day from opioid-related drug overdoses
11.5 m
People misused prescription opioids1
The Blue Dove Foundation justinmilrad@gmail.com Understanding that finances often prevent people from getting the recovery and mental health assistance they People died from People misused prescription overdosing on opioids2 opioids for the first time1 need, Berman and Milrad created this 501(c)3 nonprofit. “We are planning on helping any Jewish person anywhere in the United States get Deaths attributed to People had an opioid use overdosing on commonly disorder1 the treatment they need,” said prescribed opioids2 Berman, likening the foundation to a quarterback driving the Atlanta effort in collaboraDeaths attributed to overdosing tion with JF&CS, Derech and People used heroin1 on synthetic opioids other than others. methadone2 The foundation has a threefold mission: • Education and awareDeaths attributed to People used heroin for ness of addiction and mental overdosing on heroin2 the first time1 health issues that affect the Jewish community. The foundation will work with local experts, host events, and increase awareness and pathways to In economic costs3 treatment. • Hardship scholarships Sources: 1 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2 Mortality in the United States, 2016 NCHS Data Brief No. 293, December 2017, 3 CEA Report: The and zero- or low-interest loans underestimated cost of the opioid crisis, 2017 to offset the costs of treatment Updated January 2018. For more information, visit: http://www.hhs.gov/opioids/ for any Jewish person seeking treatment in the United States. • Community outreach with bers for such a Jewish home. As stated come the program manager, and a schools, synagogues, camps and youth on its website, “Derech Transitional full-time information and referral spegroups through a “mental health tool- Living provides a supportive living en- cialist has been hired, indicating that kit” that can be scaled as needed. The vironment for Jewish men and women JF&CS recognizes the magnitude of the prototype will test programs, such as ages 21-35 who are on a committed path addiction problem and is leveraging installing a mental health expert in a to recovery as they continue on their the resources to fight it. The agency has noted an increase school, then work with the community journey through treatment and adopting a sober lifestyle.” in people needing and seeking help. In to institute those that succeed. A qualified staff in a convenient a recent meeting at the JF&CS offices in The Blue Dove website is near intown location will provide structure Dunwoody, Director of Clinical Serviccompletion, and the foundation is and in-house support groups, as well as es Dan Arnold spoke about the increasfinalizing details and assembling a access to community meetings and oping lethality of the substances people board. A community fundraiser is in portunities to connect with the Jewish are taking. “These are drugs that will the works, in addition to creative ways community at large. kill you,” he said. “People don’t always you can be identified as an ally and proknow what they’re taking.” vide support. HAMSA CEO Rick Aranson noted a broad hamsahelps.org, hamsa@jfcsatl.org, 833spectrum of factors contributing to Derech Transitional Living 426-7243 the escalation of substance abuse, dederechhomes.com, 678-909-9772 Helping Atlantans Manage Sub- pression, anxiety and related issues. In the final stages of preparations, Derech Transitional Living, a sober stance Abuse, or HAMSA, a program “I think collectively that’s why we’re residential environment meant to ac- of Jewish Family & Career Services, seeing a rise in clients in our clinical commodate people at all levels of Jew- has restructured to “serve as the go-to services area, but also in our substance resource for the Jewish community” in abuse program.” ish observance, will soon be available. Derech was created in response to battling addiction, its website says. JF&CS intends HAMSA to be a 14 a need expressed by community memMandy Wright has recently be- community resource for the totality of
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15,469
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
504 billion
the needs of addicts and their families. The focus may have been awareness in the past, but HAMSA now is structured to support people and their families in all stages of active addiction and recovery. “We recognize that there’s not a single solution for everybody that calls us. … We want to be the neutral community resource that connects people to services based on their unique needs and experiences,” Aranson said, even if those services are outside the nonprofit and the Jewish community. “That’s really how JF&CS positions itself across the organization. We provide some services, but we’re also a neutral, nonprofit referral source to connect people to whatever it is they need.” “This crisis is bigger than any one organization,” Arnold said, “and if we’re going to serve the community, then we have to focus on partnering and collaborating with other folks so that people can find safety and assistance.” Wright said the new information and referral person will develop relationships with recovery and treatment centers to make the best recommendations to callers. HAMSA will provide Jewish sensitivity training to those partners so they can best serve referred clients. As a result, the options for “confident referrals” from HAMSA to trusted centers will increase, Wright
said. HAMSA works closely with The Berman Center and expects to do the same with Derech. The new hamsahelps.org website features a “Contact Us” box that provides one-click access to a form to request help, volunteer with HAMSA or receive program updates. Other services listed include: • Individual and group therapy. • Meeting companions to accompany program participants to their first meetings. • Narcan education and supply. You can schedule a “Get Naloxone” training event for a synagogue, school or business. • Speakers bureau of people affected by addiction. • Sober holiday celebrations and community events. Faye Dresner, the JF&CS chief programming officer, said she hopes the new 833-HAMSAHELPS (833-426-7243)
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HEALTH & WELLNESS
phone number “can become, over time, Ongoing Group Meetings Events a single point of entry for anybody • Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Alcoholics • Quieting the Silence is a night of who’s looking for any kind of service, Anonymous on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. Al-Anon on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. (AA is a recovery Jewish mental health and substance so they don’t have to navigate through program for alcoholics. Al-Anon is for people affected by a friend or relative’s abuse education presented by substance abuse.) Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, services when they’re in crisis.” Sandy Springs, and the Blue Dove HAMSA plans extensive commu• Temple Kehillat Chaim, 1145 Green St., Roswell. AA on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Contact Foundation with The Berman Center Mike Gordon at 770-597-4599 or mcgordon@mindspring.com for information. nity outreach and a mentor-type proand HAMSA at 7 p.m. Thursday, May gram using addiction “graduates.” • Temple Beth Tikvah, 9955 Coleman Road, Roswell. Families Anonymous on Mondays 24. at 7:15 p.m. Contact Jeff Schultz at 404-213-0604 or Jeanne Schultz at 678-938-1302. Two therapy groups meet at the • Sober holiday celebrations, such JF&CS campus at 4549 Chamblee-Dunas a Sober Seder held Tuesday, April woody Road in Dunwoody: a group for memorialize and share the stories of can write about personal stories and 3, at Temple Sinai, are being planned struggles. and added to the HamsaHelps website those in recovery and a group for fam- those who died. throughout the year. Miller said everyone has a role in • Jewish clergy can offer guidance, ily members of those who struggle with recovery and has something to contrib- share and collaborate. • A sober Birthright Israel trip is addiction. being organized for July by Israel Free Miller describes it as “a disruptive Anyone interested in starting a ute, and the shared experiences of each Spirit (www.israelfreespirit.com/trip/ group meeting in a Jewish-friendly set- person will benefit others. The website model to have Jewish recovery available jacs) to help young Jews in recovery ting is encouraged to visit www.survey- is structured to allow for partnerships from your desktop, cellphone, or from or affected by addiction to reconnect on all levels, “so Jews in recovery can any screen anywhere.” Because mobile monkey.com/r/CJ9RCWS. with their heritage and the Jewish community. find other Jews in recovery and they devices are how anyone under 40 ac can share.” cesses the world, Miller said the website live and alive support to each other,” Jewish Path to Recovery It is a place where: will be optimized for cellphone use. Miller said. www.jewishpathtorecovery.org • Addicts and their families can Coming soon is the mobile app. BeWith the help of a talented team, find resources. cause the needs of addicts aren’t conveShare Your Stories Eric Miller has envisioned and created • People in recovery can connect niently timed around the availability Those in the recovery commua local, online platform. JewishPath- with, mentor or support others. of therapists or group meetings, the nity have made it clear that the opioid toRecovery.org is an interactive web• People in all stages of addiction app will provide immediate person-tosite “for Jewish people to find resources and recovery can blog about personal person connections to rabbis, mentors, epidemic has produced inspirational for their whole life cycle of recovery.” experiences and resources. counselors and others through social stories of triumph over addiction in It is comprehensive and carefully Jewish Atlanta, and we want to share • Parents, spouses, siblings and media. curated to provide practical tools and other family members can connect Stressing Jewish spirituality as a them. To bring your story to the Jewish paths for connection. with people in similar circumstances. point of difference, “we will be able to community, email lharrison@atljewKnowing that the computer is the • Anyone touched by addiction create a recovery community to offer ishtimes.com. ■ first place people go for information or resources, “we want to be that initial point of contact,” Miller said, “and a constant part of that community for support, information, inspiration and connection.” Miller, a veteran of the Atlanta addiction recovery scene through HAMSA and his own journey through addiction and recovery, said a strong spiritual component is an integral part of the process. The website will therefore offer “the Jewish take on recovery and the recovery process,” he said, including “Jewish teachings as they relate to getting sober and coping with addictions of all sorts and places where addicts find themselves.” Presented by John Zeisel, PhD In addition to addiction resources Recognized leader in the field of of all types, the website will link to arAlzheimer’s care and founder of ticles and offer many special sections, The Hearthstone Institute, Dr. Zeisel including: developed the I’m Still Here® • “Jewish Strategies to Recovery” The William Breman Jewish Home approach used by Memory Care with targeted prayers and meditation. 3150 Howell Mill Road, NW, Atlanta Centers of Excellence throughout • Blogging platforms for addicts, the country, including Jewish Home Jewish mothers and other family memLife Communities. bers, and the community. • “Torah Sparks” with timely references to Jewish holidays and the weekly parsha. Learn about the life-changing, non-pharmacological I’m Still Here® philosophy of HOPE and • A two-way-street referral page the belief that everyone deserves a life worth living. Hearthstone’s innovative I’m Still Here® where you can request or recommend programs engage a person in what they can do – in new and interesting opportunities – a helpful spiritual guide, a treatment to help those with memory loss enjoy a life filled with joy, love and meaning. facility or a therapist. Free and open to all. Please RSVP: www.JewishHomeLife.org | 404.351.8412 • “May Their Memory Be for a 15 Blessing,” a thoughtful place to honor,
Hopeful Aging
Creating a Life of Purpose & Joy for Those With Dementia
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Sunday, April 8th 2:00pm - 4:00pm
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EDUCATION
Emanu-El Preschool Joins JCC Lineup By Logan C. Ritchie lritchie@atljewishtimes.com The Marcus Jewish Community Center is taking ownership of Temple Emanu-El’s Schiff Preschool, effective Aug. 6, to stabilize student retention, upgrade classrooms and curriculum, and reach a larger audience. The Schiff Preschool will continue under the current management for the rest of the 2017-18 school year and for summer camp before becoming the third Marcus JCC preschool location for the new school year. Temple Emanu-El and the JCC’s Zaban Park campus, home of the Weinstein Preschool, are both in Dunwoody and are less than four miles apart. Emanu-El Rabbi Spike Anderson looks forward to maintaining a loving preschool with the amalgamation of programs, resources and expertise from the Marcus JCC. “Schiff has fantastic history, but in the last couple of years our numbers were declining. We have an established name, reputation and facility, yet we weren’t getting the number of kids needed to continue running a first-rate program,” Rabbi Anderson said. “Nobody does preschools better than the JCC.” He added that synagogues and preschools are run as individual enti-
Cap Raised on Tax Credit
Schiff Director Sheila Purdin, who is moving to Colorado, said the preschool has 53 pupils, but the graduating pre-K class makes up half that population. “Preschools across the city are seeing numbers drop,” Purdin said. The Marcus JCC has a goal of enrolling 45 students in full-time day care or half-day preschool at Schiff by the end of the 2018-19 school year. Teacher contracts are issued in late spring based on fall enrollment. Weinstein School Director Kim Sucan said Schiff will retain as many teachers as possible. She emphasized that quality teachers are the most important part of the program. Sucan said the Marcus JCC is getting the word out via print advertisements, town hall meetings, open houses and social media from Roswell to Marietta to Dunwoody. Current parents told the AJT they are most looking forward to updates to classrooms, toys, the playground and the curriculum. “Schiff has always been a warm and loving place. It just needs an update,” one mother said. When Jamie Kaszowicz’s family moved to Atlanta a few years ago, she looked at four Jewish preschools. Schiff was the front-runner even though the set provision, so the cap on the credit would return to $58 million in 2029 without further action.
KSU Opens Radow Exhibit
Real estate executives Norman Radow of the RADCO Cos. and Peter Fitzgerald of Fightingtown Cos. have announced a $1 million donation to the Paul Radow Endowment, which provides scholarships to mechanical engineering students. The announcement was made Friday, March 30, at the opening of a permanent exhibition honoring Radow’s engineer father at Kennesaw State University’s Engineering Technology Cen-
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
The Georgia General Assembly has approved an expansion of the state tax credit supporting scholarships at private schools. The House and the Senate passed a compromise version of House Bill 217 on Thursday, March 29, the final day of the legislative session. With the signature of Gov. Nathan Deal, the measure would increase the cap on the annual total of tax credits for donations to student scholarship organizations from $58 million to $100 million in 2019. The SSOs include the Federationestablished ALEF Fund, and the major beneficiaries include students at Jewish day schools and preschools. Requests for the SSO tax credits year after year have far exceeded the $58 million cap, meaning that donors have gotten a prorated credit instead of the full amount they requested. H.B. 217 should increase the amount of scholarship money available to Jewish schools. But the benefit is not permanent. At the insistence of Senate negotiators, 16 the legislature includes a 10-year sun-
ties.
Photo by David Caselli, Kennesaw State University
Norman Radow helps open the Kennesaw State exhibit honoring his father March 30.
Sunshine Leadership Change
Longtime Sunshine School Director Raye Lynn Banks is retiring May 31, to be replaced former Sunshine School teacher Nancy Goldstein Parker. Banks has been with the East Cobb preschool for more than 40 years. “Raye Lynn supervised and mentored countless teachers and was instrumental in bringing high-quality early childhood education to the East Cobb community,” Marcus JCC CEO Jared Powers said. “She will certainly be missed.” Parker, most recently a senior account executive at Canterbury Press, began her career at the Sunshine School as a teacher of 3-year-olds. She rose to become the director of the Marcus JCC’s Camp Billi Marcus in East Cobb. She also was a Sunshine School parent. “Nancy Parker is the perfect person to take the helm of this very special school,” Powers said. “Nancy is a longtime member of the Sunshine School family, and it is my pleasure to welcome her back in this new capacity.” Parker’s first day will be Monday, April 30. location was out of the way. She plans to keep her daughter in the warm and intimate Schiff community. “We are really happy there,” Kaszowicz said. “There is something to be said for a school where all the kids know the teachers and all the teachers know the kids.” Brett Rubin, the Schiff Preschool Parent Group president, cited high teacher-student ratios and top-notch security as two reasons he plans to keep his son at Schiff. “Over time we’ve seen fluctuating membership at our preschool, which has meant unpredictable revenue to fund our efforts year to year. We see this ‘better together’ news as a win-win, given the JCC has experienced periodic ter. The exhibit, “Paul Radow: Life of Innovation, Legacy of Service,” chronicles innovations from “nearly indestructible” pants pockets for Levi Strauss to an enhanced the launch pad elevator system for NASA’s Apollo program. “My father knew firsthand how engineers could solve so many of our problems,” said Radow, a Congregation Etz Chaim member and former KSU Foundation chair. “As you can see from this new exhibition, he solved some important problems himself.” The $10,000 scholarship is open to full-time students pursuing a mechanical engineering degree in KSU’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology. A student must be an adult learner, a military veteran or the child of a veteran and have at least a 3.0 grade-point average. The four-panel exhibit was curated by Kennesaw State’s Department of Museums, Archives and Rare Books for the Engineering Technology Center lobby. The display is anchored by reproduction prints of engineering plans for the Apollo program in the 1960s.
overflow at their location, year to year,” Rubin said. Marcus JCC CEO Jared Powers said the Weinstein School is full and runs a waiting list every year. Asked about creating a preschool intown, he said: “We would love to have a preschool intown. This is not the end, but rather the beginning. We are open to future partnerships.” The center’s other preschool is the Sunshine School at Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb, where it moved, replacing the congregation’s preschool, after the JCC closed its Shirley Blumenthal Park campus. The Marcus JCC ran Keshet Preschool in Morningside until October 2008, when it closed for mold remediation. ■
Photo by Andrea Hanks, White House
Chabad of Georgia Rabbi Isser New (second from left) joins other Chabad rabbis in meeting with President Donald Trump on March 27.
Rabbi New at White House Chabad of Georgia Rabbi Isser New was part of a Chabad delegation that visited the White House on Tuesday, March 27, for President Donald Trump’s signing of a proclamation to mark Education & Sharing Day USA. Congress and the president have recognized the day annually on the birthday of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, in honor of his educational efforts during his lifetime and to raise awareness of educational opportunities. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal reportedly plans to sign a similar proclamation Tuesday, April 10.
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YOM HASHOAH
Polish Atrocities in Holocaust Echo Across Decades By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com Poles under occupation in World War II killed more Jews than they killed Germans, Jan Gross told an audience at Emory University. The number of Jews killed by Poles in Poland was a small fraction of the total killed by Nazis, but the plunder and killing of Jews by their neighbors were not insignificant. The perpetrators were sometimes Polish peasants, members of guerrilla organizations, or people who held roles in the local officialdom, such as village heads or employees of district offices, said Gross, quoting historians’ papers with witness testimonies. The killings were sanctioned, Gross said, meaning that regular members of the community took part and that they were done openly and publicly, drawing crowds of onlookers. Gross, an emeritus history professor at Princeton, expanded on the Polish targeting of Jews in a lecture Tuesday, March 27, to the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies called “In the Aftermath
Professor Yan Gross doesn’t let a new Polish law stop him from talking March 27 about Polish atrocities against Jews during World War II.
of Neighbors: Were the Killings of Jews by Polish Peasants a Norm or an Exception?” Without exception, the perpetrators were Roman Catholics, Gross said, and there were observers for almost every crime. The crimes, he said, were committed against victims who were often known by name to their attackers. He added the villagers were in solidarity with the accused and there was no need to expiate for the crime. Most villagers felt solidarity with the culprits, Gross said. Again citing historians’ papers, he said Polish villagers either lacked interest in the fate of Jews and or felt disapproval toward them. A special category was given to
Polish police functionaries, who exercised a sense of superiority and freedom from German authority, Gross said. Because there was no blueprint on how to operate during a genocidal occupation, everything was fluid, he said. “In every aspect of the killing process and every stage of the Holocaust, decisions had to be made,” Gross said. “It is a phenomenon filled with individual decisions from perpetrators who were not coerced but … pushed the process along, based on their own initiatives.” This process became clear, Gross said, after people realized that the Germans were going to lose the war. The simple motive for Poles to murder Jews was the opportunity to plunder their belongings, Gross said, quoting a fellow historian. “We can safely assume that local people viewed the right to private property as the norm, and the only occasion which they felt it might be suspected … was to relieve extreme hardships which would befall themselves, such as a fire or a flood,” Gross said. The view of acceptable behavior
against Jews shifted during the occupation. In the eyes of their Polish neighbors, Gross said, Jews ceased to be human beings. “The plunder of Jews was a social practice rather than a criminal or deviant behavior of some individuals.” After the war, Gross said, it was impossible for Polish Jews to return to their homes because many Catholic Poles saw a Jewish return as an invasion rather than a restoration and were willing to defend their seized property by any means. Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a bill in February that makes it illegal to accuse the nation or its citizens of complicity in crimes committed by Nazi Germany. Since then, Gross said, Jewish museums in Poland have been hijacked and have begun trying to construct their own stories of the past. “Poles’ involvement in these crimes was opportunistic,” Gross said. “Many across the European continent benefitted from the Nazi policies stripping Jews of property rights and eliminating them from public life or stripping the Jews of lives altogether.” ■
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APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
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YOM HASHOAH
Memorial Speaker Triumphs With Testimony, Joy By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Not many Jews today can remember Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’s notorious “Angel of Death,” putting his hands on them and spinning them around to judge their fate. Among that select few, perhaps only one can also say she has an 8-yearold great-granddaughter who is a professional baker, making cakes for simchas in Florida. That one, Helen Weingarten, who celebrated her 94th birthday just before Passover, is the featured speaker at the Yom HaShoah commemoration Sunday, April 15, at the Memorial to the Six Million. “People have to know what happened to me, what happened with the Holocaust, because it happened to me, and I want them to make sure they know it happened,” she said in an interview in her Hammond Glen apartment. “I’m here alive to tell what happened to me. … I cannot forget a day from Auschwitz, I can’t.” When the native of Romania delivers her address, you can expect to follow her through the extremes of human cruelty and joy. The Nazis killed Weingarten’s parents, half of her eight siblings, and her nieces and nephews. Another sister likely would have died at Auschwitz, but Weingarten pulled her into a differ-
Helen Weingarten is a familiar friendly face at Hammond Glen in Sandy Springs.
ent line when Mengele and the guards weren’t looking, Weingarten said. She spent 180 days at Auschwitz, starting in May 1944, and she knew her end had arrived when she was among 500 women selected by Mengele and marched toward the gas chambers — until an SS officer drove up and announced that the group was needed for factory labor. For the second time, Weingarten was crammed into a cattle car for a five-day train journey. At the end, she found herself making airplane motors in Nuremberg. “Overnight I became an engineer,” she said with a smile, finding the humor in a life-or-death situation: She and the other women were warned that if the motors didn’t work and the planes didn’t fly, they would be killed. They also faced frequent Allied air raids. After three months, Weingarten was moved to another factory to make metal plates that looked like hatchet blades. By April 1945, as the U.S. Army was advancing, the Nazis wanted to move the women again, but they refused.
We Are All Survivors
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Yom HaShoah is approaching. It is a time of remembrance and reflection. For many people, it is also a time of action to make more concrete the byword of “never again.” I have thought for a long time that everyone in the Jewish community is likely a survivor in some fashion. And now we have information that our own family has a much more direct connection to the Shoah than we had known. My wife’s immediate family, on both sides, came to America before or during World War I, as did my family. We had no knowledge of anyone who stayed. Family either came to America or went to South Africa. However, my wife has a cousin in Moscow whom she found through an ancestry site in the past three years. 18 This cousin, just this summer, told her
about relatives who were lost in the Holocaust. One died at Dachau. Others were killed by Lithuanians on the first day of Nazi occupation. At 11 a.m. Sunday, April 15, a
Guest Column By Harold Kirtz
service will commemorate Yom HaShoah for the 53rd consecutive year at the Memorial for the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery in Southwest Atlanta, which has large and active Jewish sections. The memorial was constructed entirely by survivors of the Holocaust who had made their way to Atlanta after they escaped the horrors in Europe
“We said, ‘If you want to kill us, kill us here,’” Weingarten said. The result was a stalemate that lasted until the Allied troops arrived three days later. Postwar, she and her sisters stayed together in a Bavarian town, Rehau, where they learned that their younger brother, whom Weingarten had thought was on a truck she saw driving toward the gas chambers early in her time at Auschwitz, had survived as well. In Rehau she also met her future husband, Jack, a survivor from Poland. They married in 1946 and had the first of two children, and, thanks to special expansion of refugee limits enacted by President Harry Truman after his surprise election in 1948, the family immigrated in 1949 to Ohio, where an uncle lived. All her surviving siblings also made it to America. Weingarten, who went to high school as an adult and got her diploma in 1968 — she remembers it was the year that Martin Luther King Jr. died — first talked about her Holocaust experience when a student, a customer in her seamstress business, asked to interview her for a school project. She didn’t know if she could do it, but once she started talking, she couldn’t stop. That
girl got an A, as did others who interviewed her, Weingarten said. She has volunteered to speak to school groups at the Breman Museum since moving to Atlanta from Florida nine years ago to be near her daughter. She used to speak to several groups a week, sometimes two a day, but Rabbi Joseph Prass, the interim director of the Weinstein Center for Holocaust Education, said the museum has cut her back to two or three times a month to give others a chance. Whenever she talks, Weingarten and Rabbi Prass agree, the students are silent, hanging on every word. She has presented at the Breman’s “Bearing Witness” program a couple of times, and the museum made a video of her story. “It is my responsibility to tell the people what happened in the Holocaust, and I am here to tell you, all of you, that I went through it, and it happened, and I don’t want this to happen again to nobody,” Jewish or not, she said. The only thing that might be more important is her family, her triumph over Mengele and the Nazis, including a little Florida baker who’ll turn 9 this spring. ■
What: Community Yom HaShoah service When: 11 a.m. Sunday, April 15 Where: Memorial to the Six Million, Greenwood Cemetery, 1173 Cascade Circle, Southwest Atlanta Admission: Free; www.thebreman.org/Events/04-15-2018-Yom-HaShoah
and built new lives here. Ben Hirsch, who died recently, was the architect of the memorial. He will be remembered at this year’s service. He was representative of the spirit of all the survivors who came to this country and contributed so much to it. With the passing of each survivor, our joy is diminished. But many are still with us, and a number will be coming to the April 15 service. The community can show its support of and appreciation for all the survivors by coming to the service. Our keynote speaker is Helen Weingarten, who is originally from Romania. She will tell her story of survival. As the years pass, members of the second, third and fourth generations of the survivors take up the task of remembering, and all members of the community have that responsibility as well. We should never forget
the victims of the Holocaust and the survivors. The lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten. Even with the tragedies that have occurred since the Holocaust — with the attempted genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Iraq (the Yazidis by Islamic State) and other places — we must remain vigilant that they not succeed. As Jews, we must be one of the loudest canaries in the coal mine to speak truth to power and to ensure that we do as much as we can so that genocide does not happen again. One way to keep that task in the forefront of our minds is to attend a commemoration service and participate with survivors because, as I think, we are all survivors. Please join us Sunday, April 15. ■ Harold Kirtz is the chair of the Yom HaShoah Commemoration Committee.
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YOM HASHOAH
Slain Survivor’s Memorial Targets Anti-Semitism A small but vigilant crowd gathered on short notice on a windy day roughly 30 hours before the start of Passover for an American Jewish Committee-organized memorial for 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll, who was stabbed and burned in her home March 23 in Paris. Knoll was one of the few who escaped the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup in Paris in July 1942, which deported 13,000 Jews to Nazi camps. In opening the memorial Thursday, March 29, at the Marcus JCC’s Besser Holocaust Memorial Garden, AJC ACCESS associate Jeffrey Silverstein said members of his family were caught in the roundup and later killed at Auschwitz. “Her life represented the lives of all our ancestors who did not escape. Her death represents the deaths of countless Jews of the generations who have fallen victim to anti-Semitism,” he said. “These tragedies also bring the true face of contemporary anti-Semitism to our minds and our discourse.” The ceremony drew about 25 people, including a staffer from Congresswoman Karen Handel’s office, German Deputy Consul Olaf Ladegast and Irish Consul General Shane Stephens. Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul spoke about hate passing from one generation to the next. He also emphasized the need to address hate speech, which he said can manifest as behavior, and not to tolerate bigotry in any form. The consul general of France in Atlanta, Louis de Corail, said the murder of Knoll and the Islamic Stateconnected terrorist attack that killed four people in Carcassonne and Trebes, France, the same day are expressions of the same type of hate. He said French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Édouard Philippe are committed to combating anti-Semitism and have a new government plan to protect schools and synagogues and fight anti-Semitism among youth. Macron is pushing to force Internet platforms to remove content that promotes extremism and to educate elementary school children about the history of anti-Semitism, Corail said. Thousands marched Wednesday, March 28, in Paris to pay their respects to Knoll and stand against anti-Semitism, which Corail quoted Macron as saying is the dishonor of France.
Mourners including Manuela Bornstein (right), who like Mireille Knoll escaped the July 1942 roundup of Jews in Paris, attend the memorial for Knoll on March 29. See a video of the ceremony at atlantajewishtimes.com.
“Israel is appalled by the heinous murder,” Israeli Consul General Judith Varnai Shorer said. “Just as it is our duty to honor and commemorate the 6 million Jews and others that were lost in the Holocaust, it is our responsibility to teach our family, friends and neighbors about the past and the dangers we all face if we ignore hatred.” Marcus JCC Rabbi Brian Glusman, who led the Mourner’s Kaddish, compared the need to stand up against anti-Semitism to an egg being boiled:
French Consul General Louis de Corail speaks about rising anti-Semitism in his country.
“The egg becomes hard and tough, and we too need to be more like that egg. As things get bad and as anti-Semitism spreads throughout the world, we have to be resolute and strong and gather together as a community loud and proud and say, ‘Never again.’ ” AJC Atlanta Regional Director Dov Wilker issued a call to action for people to reach out to elected officials to urge action against anti-Semitism and all other forms of hate. He also said that while the French government ac-
tions cited by Corail are important, the threat extends beyond Paris. He quoted AJC CEO David Harris as saying that he doesn’t want Jews to be the canary in the coal mine because the canary dies. “I want Jewish people to be able to live without fear. I want Jews to be able to live in societies that welcome them, that understand who they are,” Wilker said. “I want our societies not just to welcome Jews, but all people, all minorities.” He noted that the memorial fell on the last day of the Georgia legislative session, during which the General Assembly failed to pass a bill that would increase penalties for crimes motivated by the perceived race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identification, or physical or mental disability of the victims. “This is not just a Jewish issue. This is an issue for our values. This is an issue about democracy. This is really about how we present ourselves, how we engage in our community and what we are going to do about it,” Wilker said. “We need to remember that we have a voice and can make a difference.” ■
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com
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YOM HASHOAH
Holocaust Remembrance 73 Years After Liberation The following Atlanta-area activities are commemorating Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which begins at nightfall Wednesday, April 11, and ends the following evening. Photos by Michael Jacobs
Am Yisrael Chai President Andrea Videlefsky recognizes Marist School history teacher Brendan Murphy, who not only organized the top fundraising team for the Daffodil Dash, but also finished third for his age group in the 5K.
Jorge Affonso, 72, crosses the 5K finish line first for the 70-and-older age group.
Their race run, Daffodil Dash participants can have some fun at Brook Run Park.
Based on the official results, Ghila Sanders, Mark Wulkan and Lily Stewart finish the 5K in the identical time of 31:23.
Sheltered From Nazis, Exposed to Cold Rain
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Holocaust survivor Ben Klein reminded participants in the seventh Daffodil Dash of a different kind of trauma suffered during and after the Holocaust: that of young children who were saved by being hidden with Christian families but in the process forget who they were. Klein was the featured speaker during the closing ceremony of the race, held on a cold, rainy Sunday morning, March 25, at Liane Levetan Park at Brook Run. About 200 people ran the 5K, while others walked or ran a 1-mile course or cheered on friends and family. The dash raises money for the Daffodil Project, which is working to plant 1.5 million daffodils around the world in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children killed in the Holocaust, and for Am Yisrael Chai’s other genocide education and prevention programs. The Marist School, always a big participant in the run, was the top fundraising team, contributing nearly $3,500. The interfaith aspect of having a Catholic school raise the most money fit with Klein’s story of being sheltered 20 from the Nazis by a Christian family.
Born in Holland in 1940, Klein was placed with the family when he was 2½ in March 1943, by which time his father had already been killed by the Nazis. “I became part of that family” as the seventh child, Klein said. “It was a wonderful family.” So it was tough for him when a woman he didn’t recognize showed up in mid-1945 after the war ended and said, “Hello, I’m your mother.” On his fifth birthday in July 1945, he was forced to go back to his mother and two sisters so they could suffer together the next two years. “Things in Holland were unbelievably difficult. Everything was on rations. There were shortages of everything,” Klein said. But the family pulled together and immigrated to the United States in 1952. Klein is active in the Daffodil Project, whose daffodil plantings and related informational signs are “wonderful reminders that it really happened,” he said. Am Yisrael Chai President Andrea Videlefsky thanked Klein for “being here in this crazy weather, doing the 1-mile walk.” ■
this year’s Yellow Candle project, during which lodge members also delivered free candles before Yom HaShoah to Gesher L’Torah, Chabad of North Fulton, Congregation Ariel, Temple Kol Emeth and Temple Beth Tikvah.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11
Holocaust program. Hadassah Greater Atlanta’s Ketura Group holds a remembrance program at the Sandy Springs home of Renee Kaplan at 7:15 p.m. Admission is $5 in advance or $7 at the door; email Esther Low at mitzva@ bellsouth.net for details.
THURSDAY, APRIL 12
Survivor story. Ukrainian survivor Hershel Greenblat speaks at 1:30 p.m. outside Augusta at Alexander Hall, 33800 Chamberlain Ave., Fort Gordon. Free; holocaust.georgia.gov/4-12-18.
Eva Tibor is speaking at Christ Our Shepherd Church on April 15.
Issy Cheskes delivers HOD Yom HaShoah candles to Congregation Ariel Executive Director Debbie Kalwerisky.
Memorial. The Breman Museum and Eternal-Life Hemshech sponsor the 53rd annual Yom HaShoah service at 11 a.m. at the Memorial to the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery, 1173 Cascade Circle, Southwest Atlanta. Free; w w w. t h e b r e m a n . org. Interfaith service. Educator Eva Tibor, a native of Budapest and child of the Holocaust who escaped Hungary with her parents and brother in 1956, is the keynote speaker at 1:30 p.m. at Christ Our Shepherd Lutheran Church, 10 N. Peachtree Parkway, Peachtree City, in the annual Holocaust remembrance service held by the church and Congregation B’nai Israel of Fayetteville. Free; bnai-israel.net or 678-817-7162.
Pogroms. Jeffrey Steve Kaufman delivers HOD Yom HaShoah candles to Carol Kopstein, a political Lief at Temple Kol Emeth. science professor at the University of California at Irvine, speaks about “Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Shadow of Remembrance. The the Holocaust” at ceremony at the Lodge Shimshon President David 7 p.m. in the audiBesser Holocaust Adler delivers Yom HaShoah torium at Georgia Memorial Garden candles to Chabad of North Fulton State University’s at the Marcus JCC, Rabbi Hirshy Minkowicz. Dunwoody campus, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, 2101 Womack Road, Dunwoody, includes in a program sponsored by the Georgia readings, a torch lighting and the AtCommission on the Holocaust. Free; lanta Men’s Choir at 3:30 p.m. Free; atholocaust.ga.gov. lantajcc.org or 678-812-4161.
SUNDAY, APRIL 15
Candles. The Hebrew Order of David Lodge Shimshon, based at Congregation Gesher L’Torah, delivers commemorative candles to the religious school at Congregation Dor Tamid, 11165 Parsons Road, Johns Creek, to complete
FRIDAY, APRIL 20
Days of Remembrance. The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust holds its annual commemoration at 11 a.m. at the Capitol, 206 Washington St., downtown, with seating by invitation only. Free; holocaust.georgia.gov/DOR2018.
YOM HASHOAH Anne Frank’s World
The Georgia Ensemble Theatre brought a performance of James Still’s Holocaust play “And Then They Came for Me” to the Walker School in Marietta on Friday, March 16, to enhance the Middle School curriculum. The multimedia show re-creates the world of Anne Frank through the stories of two survivors who knew her, Ed Silverberg (her first boyfriend) and Eva Schloss (whose mother married Anne’s father after the war). The Middle School is integrating the production into the curriculum. Sixthgraders have connected the show to their study of the Holocaust and Anne Frank in English classes. Seventh-graders are using it in their study of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in English. Eighth-graders are discussing the show in history classes. Earlier in the semester, Walker hosted the traveling “Never Forget: An Introduction to the Holocaust” exhibit from Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education. ■
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Photos by Meghan Stauts, courtesy of the Walker School
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YOM HASHOAH
Survivor Support Sizzles With Cooking Sessions By Cherie Aviv
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
A delicious addition to the monthly gathering of Cafe Europa, where many Holocaust survivors from the Atlanta area meet, talk and enjoy entertainment, has been a big hit: Nearly 80 volunteers have baked treats for the survivors to match the Jewish holidays. As part of my work as the chair of the Holocaust Survivor Support Fund, an initiative convened by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, I developed the idea with chef Howard Schreiber of the Hirsch Culinary Arts Studio at the Marcus Jewish Community Center to create a cooking outreach program that engages community members and Holocaust survivors in Jewish tradition. We’ve met four times, with approximately 20 volunteers at a time, to cook holiday and dessert items that follow the Jewish calendar and are distributed to survivors at Cafe Europa and in their homes. We made 100 apple pies for Rosh Hashanah, 900 cookies for Chanukah, 300 salted tahini chocolate-chip cookies for Tu B’Shevat and over 400 blueand-white cookies to celebrate Israeli Independence Day this month. One of our more festive events was the Chanukah lunch for survivors who speak at the Breman Museum and their guests, a total of 35 people, prepared with help from more than 20 volunteer cooks. Between 10 a.m. and noon, cooks cracked eggs, shredded potatoes and zucchini, and huddled over frying pans to make three types of latkes — zucchini, sweet potato and waffle potato — and composed a cranberry salad. Guests joined the group at noon and had good times with the meal. Marcus JCC preschoolers sang Chanukah songs at the luncheon, which brought together volunteers, survivors and youths to celebrate community and Jewish tradition. HSSF is a multifaceted initiative. Its primary mission is to raise money to care for Holocaust survivors. In a related effort, I have found many opportunities to perform community outreach. Examples include the Frank Leadership Mission Alumni group, which made fleece blankets to distribute to survivors during the winter months. We also hosted a Shabbat luncheon program in collaboration with the Weber School. With the addition of the cooking outreach program, we find more mem22 bers of our community participating
Caryn Hanrahan (left) and Jeanney Kutner prepare treats for Holocaust survivors.
in activities that support survivors. We hope to expand this engaging program and to bake treats for more holidays. This article includes recipes from our cooking sessions (for after Passover), courtesy of Chef Howard. HSSF strives not just to help survivors live better lives with dignity, but also to make survivors feel like a special part of the community. Through community engagement such as the cooking events, we create awareness and keep the connections to survivors alive. The partners in HSSF are Federation, Jewish Family & Career Services, Jewish Home Life Communities, the Breman, the Marcus JCC and EternalLife Hemshech. HSSF is truly having an impact. To learn more about HSSF or get involved, call Federation at 404-873-1661, or visit JewishAtlanta.org/holocaustsurvivorsupportfund. Sweet Potato and Parsnip Latkes Makes about 12 latkes 1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled ½ pound parsnips, peeled Kosher salt, to taste 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 2 large eggs ¼ cup vegetable oil for frying On a box grater, grate the sweet potatoes and the parsnips. Combine them in a large bowl. Season with salt. Toss to combine. Add the flour and stir to distribute evenly. Add the eggs and stir well. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, heat 2 tablespoons of oil, and fry
Joyce Thornton mixes a batch of sweet potato and parsnip latkes.
the latkes until golden brown on both sides and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Remove to a paper-towellined plate. Season with additional salt. Repeat with all the latke mixture, adding more oil to the pan as necessary. Serve with applesauce, sour cream and green onions. Tomato and Pomegranate Salad 2 pints mixed small or cherry tomatoes of varying colors 2 teaspoons za’atar 3½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided Seeds of 1 pomegranate ½ yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced ½ small red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced 1/3 cup loosely packed, fresh basil leaves, sliced as chiffonade Freshly squeezed juice of ½ lemon 3½ ounces feta cheese (optional) 1 teaspoon salt Halve or quarter the tomatoes so that they are all roughly the same size, and place them in a bowl. Mix 2 teaspoons za’atar with 1½ tablespoons olive oil and set aside. To the bowl with the tomatoes, add the pomegranate seeds, sliced pepper and onion, herbs, lemon juice, cheese, remaining 2 tablespoons oil and salt. Gently mix the salad. Drizzle the za’atar mixture over the salad and serve. Salted Tahini Chocolate-Chip Cookies From the recipe box of Debbie Lewis, adapted from Danielle Oron ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened ½ cup tahini, well stirred
(From left) Gail Kodner, Kathy Ray and Jodi Schiff bake together for Holocaust survivors.
1 cup sugar 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1¾ cups bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips or chunks Flaky sea salt for garnish Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, tahini and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and continue mixing at medium speed for another 5 minutes. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and kosher salt into a large bowl and mix with a fork. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture at low speed until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be soft, not stiff. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Use a large ice cream scoop or spoon to form the dough into 12 to 18 balls. Place the balls on the baking sheet at least 3 inches apart to allow them to spread. Bake 13 to 16 minutes until just golden brown around the edges but still pale in the middle to make thick, soft cookies. As the cookies come out of the oven, sprinkle them sparsely with sea salt. Let cool at least 20 minutes on a rack. ■
YOM HASHOAH L’Dor Vador Goes Both Ways
Photos courtesy of the Beth Jacob Preschool
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APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
The pre-kindergarten class at the Beth Jacob Preschool sang a medley of rain and Passover songs for the monthly gathering of Cafe Europa participants in Heritage Hall at Congregation Beth Jacob. The children practiced for several weeks to perform for the Holocaust survivors and their supporters involved with the cafe. The children were happy and surprised when the audience sang along to the Four Questions and “Dayenu.” “We’re not sure who had a better experience, the children performing or the adults in the audience,” Beth Jacob Preschool Director Robyn Grossblatt said. “We have the opportunity to visit with our Cafe Europa friends about once a year, and it is always a mutually enjoyable experience.” ■
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ARTS
Hadag Nahash Highlights Post-AJMF9 Options
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
If the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival left you craving more Jewish music and more music from Jewish artists, you’re in luck. AJMF9, which attracted its largest audience ever, concluded in March, but festival programming continues year-round. Atlanta’s other purveyors of live music have gotten into the mix. City Winery Atlanta regularly hosts visiting Israeli and Jewish artists, thanks to the company’s New York-based vice president of programming, Shlomo Lipetz, an Israeli who has worked at City Winery since its launch in 2008. Variety Playhouse was sold in 2015 by Jewish community member Steve Harris to Agon Sports & Entertainment, whose president, Jeff Eiseman, is Jewish. After an extensive renovation in 2016, Variety remains one of Atlanta’s top music destinations. It has hosted Jewish and Israeli artists recently, as well as multiple AJMF performances over the years. Terminal West, Center Stage, Aisle 5 and Smith’s Olde Bar also frequently
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bring in established and up-and-coming Jewish and Israeli touring acts. Atlanta has no shortage of goodquality Jewish music. Check out the concert calendar to see.
Jewish Music Scene By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
Hadag Nahash at City Winery One of Israel’s most popular and successful bands, Hadag Nahash, will perform at City Winery Atlanta on April 24. The Israeli hip-hop and funk outfit last played in Atlanta at Center Stage in 2008. The group has released three albums since. Led by a trio of frontmen, Sha’anan Streett, Guy Mar and Shlomi Alon, Hadag Nahash blends Western pop music with Eastern elements to create a tapestry of sound with influences from jazz, hip-hop and reggae to electronic music. It’s high energy, it’s catchy, and you don’t want to wait another 10 years to see them in Atlanta.
The first time I saw them live, I was blown away. The grooves are accessible and familiar, even if you’ve never seen them before. They also bounce around musical genres so often that the music stays fresh. If you might go, here are a few listening suggestions to get you ready: • “Hine Ani Ba (Here I Come)” — A catchy tune about a group of young Israelis driving to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem for a night of fun. • “The Sticker Song” — A big 2004 hit in which all the lines are direct quotes or plays on slogans from bumper stickers in Israel. • “Lazuz” — The title track from the group’s 2003 album. “Lazuz” means to move, and that’s what you’ll want to do when you hear this hit, which sounds like a cross between Parliament Funkadelic and Outkast. Concert Calendar Thursday, April 12 Yo La Tengo. The American indie rock band and AJMF5 headliners take the stage at 9 p.m. at Terminal West, 887 W. Marietta St., West Midtown. Tickets are $28; terminalwestatl.com/
event/yo-la-tengo. AEPi Battle of the Bands. Georgia State AEPi hosts a battle at 7 p.m. at Smith’s Olde Bar, 1578 Piedmont Ave., Midtown, to raise money for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, Innovation Africa, Heroes to Heroes Foundation and other charities. Tickets are $10; smithsoldebar.com. Friday, April 13 Acoustic Shabbat. The performers at the coffeehouse evening of soulful music include Rabbi Brian Glusman, Drew Cohen and Weber School students at 7 at San Francisco Coffee House, 1192 N. Highland Ave., VirginiaHighland. Free (food and wine available for purchase); atlantajmf.org/event/ acoustic-shabbat-at-san-fran-coffee-4. Tuesday, April 24 Hadag Nahash. The show is at 8 p.m. at City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Old Fourth Ward. Tickets start at $45; citywinery.com/atlanta/hadagnahash-4-24-18. ■ Email david@atljewishtimes.com with music news and concert info.
ARTS
Novel Comes Due
the world — his angel of beholding. Carole falls in love with Allie; he joins her on a goodwill tour for President Reagan and becomes a global force for justice and compassion. The peace missions, though, tug at
Writing on Writing By Arnold Heller
Allie’s bond with his family. As Allie’s importance and influence grow, strains between him and Carole form just as his family stabilizes. Things worsen with Carole when Allie switches from direct action for improving human welfare to the growth of a huge philanthropic fortune for direct investment in the lives of the poor and oppressed. In the end, G-d and Special Angel Gabriel, the narrator, empower Allie to transform Atlanta into a model metropolis for all citizens. “Dues” is an almost biblical love story that will make you laugh, cry and take stock of your life. I take the reader on an emotional roller coaster and exciting trip around the world that will leave you thinking about where America is headed as a society and how the world is evolving. I was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Pace University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees and from Georgia State University with a doctorate. A career educator, businessman, writer and world traveler, I was married for 38 years to Sue Auerbach Heller, who passed in 2009, and have one son, Sasha, a journalist in Austin, Texas. I have published on my website (www.arnoldheller.org) about 130 pages on a range of subjects, including Atlanta-Ra’anana sister cities information and notes about the novel. ■
Dues: The Coming of Allie Cohen By Arnold Heller Xlibris, 1,054 pages, $34.99
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APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
I am an ideas- and issues-driven writer with an eye for analysis and an ear for truth. My main literary influences are Philip Roth and his striving characters in “Goodbye, Columbus” and “Portnoy’s Complaint,” the revealing local insights of Charleston in Pat Conroy’s “South of Broad,” the full magical realism of Michael Chabon’s “Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” and the perfect narrative of Geraldine Brooks (in “The Secret Chord”) in describing the relationship between King David and Samuel. I usually read every book by Carl Hiaasen and any new Gabriel Allon superspy story by Daniel Silva. The social historian Arthur Koestler intrigued me with his theory of the Khazars and Judaism. I’m a fellow social scientist and was fascinated with the messianic concept and how it might play out, especially after I developed a multicultural education treatment for middle school students. The product of an interesting family and network of friends, I included many as character models to memorialize their goodness and uniqueness. I started “Dues: The Coming of Allie Cohen” in 1980 as a mirror of the Reagan era. For nine years I wrote on weekends, holidays and summers off. Growing family and career needs forced me to put it down for 25 years. Four years ago, I dusted it off and transformed the story into a period piece, and I think I finally got it right. G-d sends a Messiah who does not fly through the air, walk on water, or hurl lightning and thunderbolts. The mission of the Lord’s “Einstein of human relations” is to teach the people how to live in peace and freedom by embracing human virtues of trust, cooperation and love. The people are challenged by the Almighty to behold and exalt the prophet and follow in a common state of awe, but will they really see, hear or listen to him? Dr. Allie Cohen, a successful educator, develops a statistically valid prejudice-reduction treatment for global application. Allie is married to Sarah, his beloved angel of the hearth. He also writes “The Lesson,” a best-selling novel that is made into a Holocaust-themed film. Meteoric success drives a wedge into Allie’s idyllic life with his beautiful wife, a gifted educational specialist. G-d commissions Allie by teaming him with Carole Herman, the most popular Jewish actress and singer in
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OBITUARIES
Ronald Bachenheimer 72, Sandy Springs
Ronald D. Bachenheimer, 72, a native Chicagoan who relocated to Atlanta in the ’70s with his wife, Iris (Berg), and daughter, Dena, died Tuesday, March 27, 2018, enveloped by their loving embrace. He is also survived by brothers Frank (Roberta) Bachenheimer of Sarasota, Fla.; Dr. Steven (Peg) Bachenheimer of Chapel Hill, N.C.; and beloved in-laws, nieces, nephews and cherished friends who have become family. Ronald is the son of the late Hermann and Friedel Bachenheimer. A graduate of Northern Illinois University, he enjoyed a career in retail apparel with Federated Department Stores, delighting in all things fashion. Always appreciative of the culinary arts, Ronald developed skills that brought joy to his family and friends. His love for the opera was longstanding. In retirement, he developed newfound interest in drawing and painting, nurtured by art classes at the Benson Center in Sandy Springs. His heart was fueled by four decades of active affiliation with Congregation Etz Chaim in East Cobb, where the family has worshipped, studied and socialized. Interment was Thursday, March 29, in the Bachenheimer family plot in Chicago, with a “Minyan and Remembering Ron” gathering set for Congregation Etz Chaim on Wednesday, April 4. In lieu of flowers, donations to the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org), Center for the Visually Impaired (www. cviga.org) or Congregation Etz Chaim (www.etzchaim.net) are appreciated. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care (Atlanta) and Weinstein & Piser (Chicago).
Helen Farkas 93, Dunwoody
Helen Farkas, age 93, of the Bronx, Mineola and Glen Cove, N.Y., and Dunwoody died Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. All her life, Helen was a fun-loving free spirit and welcomed everyone she encountered as if they were family. Her artistic talents and flair for color and design were put into her artwork from a very young age. Mrs. Farkas’ artwork was exhibited in Glen Cove, at the Georgia Governor’s Mansion and with the Dunwoody Fine Art Association, winning many prizes for her talent over the years. Her pride and joy was her blue-shag-carpeted modular pieces that fit together to form a three-tier couch or one huge platform. Mrs. Farkas was predeceased after 51 years of marriage by her adoring husband, Milton. Survivors include her daughter, Melanie Feingold (David); her son, Andrew Farkas (Ferne); grandchildren Leah, Noah and Daniel Farkas, Rebecca Birnbaum (Jason), and Benjamin Feingold (Lauren); and great-grandchildren Jonah and Emma Birnbaum and Meira, Shaya, Asher and Naomi Farkas. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Hadassah. A graveside service was held Friday, Feb. 16, at Arlington Memorial Cemetery. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Connie Giniger
APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
92, Germantown, Md.
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A pillar of Atlanta’s Jewish community, Connie Giniger, died peacefully in Germantown, Md., on Monday, March 19, 2018. Connie and her husband, Mort, made Atlanta their home for 38 years starting in 1964. They moved to Maryland to be near their daughter, Barb Giniger Cooper (Stan), and her family after 9/11. Connie was born in the Bronx on Nov. 4, 1925. She attended Walton High School and City College, where she received a B.S. in business. Her first job was with the New York Telephone Co. She soon married and had two daughters but always envisioned having a career. After reading Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” and recognizing herself in the pages, Connie went back to school and got her teaching degree. She taught fifth grade in New Jersey and fifth, sixth and seventh grades at the Hebrew Academy in Atlanta. Light-years ahead of her time, she set up an open classroom that exuded creativity and fun learning, including having a “Girl Talk” corner, giving preteen girls a forum to share thoughts and anxieties about be-
OBITUARIES coming women. Students adored her. “There are few people in my life that I can remember with as much respect as I had for her,” one said recently. An active member of The Temple, Connie volunteered with Rabbi Alvin Sugarman to set up a formal program for visiting Jewish prisoners at the Atlanta federal penitentiary. This led to her next job as the volunteer coordinator for the Georgia Department of Corrections, and she had fascinating encounters, including with a Mafia boss, who said, “If you need anything, Connie, just ask.” She didn’t. Connie then became the regional director for B’nai B’rith Women and completed her professional career as the director of Meals on Wheels for Jewish Family & Career Services. From children to the elderly, Connie spent her entire professional life in the service of others, providing boundless energy and love. “Being bold and imaginative” was who she was, recall daughters Pat Giniger Snyder (Adam) and Barb. “She always looked forward and was always reinventing herself.” She was a Brownie and Girl Scout leader, a BBG adviser to the Aviva chapter, the president of the Children’s Civil Theater, a volunteer at the JF&CS shelter, and a ringleader, along with Mort, of their beloved chavurah connected with The Temple. When they moved to Maryland, Connie became a trailblazer at their newly formed Jewish community, Shirat HaNefesh; was a docent at the Butterfly House and the National Air and Space Museum; and became an adviser to people returning to the workforce. Among her most successful accomplishments was being the perfect grandmother to Lili and Kasey Snyder and Grady and Lila Cooper. She taught them grace and determination, how to be the ideal straight man for a very funny Papa, and the trick of wearing signature butterfly pins on one’s back. “She spread her wings of loveliness all around us.” Contributions in her memory may be made to the Revitz House Torah Fund, Charles E. Smith Life Communities, 6121 Montrose Road, Rockville, MD 20852.
Martin L. Tanenbaum 57, Atlanta
Unveiling
The unveiling for Barbara Wolff Watters will be held by her children, Seth Watters, Rachel Watters and Rebecca Richie, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park, 2000 Marietta Blvd., Atlanta, at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 6.
Death Notices
Penina Bowman, 90, of Dunwoody on March 30. Leonid Burmenko, 75, of Duluth on April 1. Maurice Gan, 89, of Atlanta on March 30. Elaine Glauberg, 92, of Alpharetta, mother of Aaron Glauberg and Beth Glauberg, on March 29. Alice King, 93, of Atlanta, mother of Kevin King and Gerry King, on March 25. Naomi Schmerer, 45, of Cumming on March 31. Temi Silver, 82, of Atlanta on March 29.
Obituaries in the AJT are written and paid for by the families; contact Associate Publisher Kaylene Ladinsky at kaylene@atljewishtimes.com or 404-883-2130, ext. 100, for details about submission, rates and payments. Death notices, which provide basic details, are free and run as space is available; send submissions to editor@ atljewishtimes.com.
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APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
Martin L. Tanenbaum, age 57, of Atlanta passed away unexpectedly Thursday, March 29, 2018. He is survived by his wife, Robyn Oxman Tanenbaum, and his children, Alec, Katie and Ruthie Tanenbaum. He was preceded in death by his parents, Beryl and Beverly Tanenbaum, and his father-in-law, Bennett “Buster” Oxman, of blessed memory. Other survivors include his sister, Marcy (Marc) Oppenheimer; his brother, Aaron (Emily) Tanenbaum; his mother-in-law, Harriette “Hank” Oxman; his brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Joe and Darcy Oxman and Andy and Helaine Lasky; and numerous nephews, nieces, great-nephews, great-nieces and cousins. A graveside service was held Sunday, April 1, at Arlington Memorial Park. Donations may be made to the Temple Sinai Operating Enhancement Fund, 5645 Dupree Drive, Atlanta, GA 30327; the William Breman Jewish Home, 3150 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30327; Chabad of Athens-UGA, 1491 S. Lumpkin St., Athens, GA 30605; or a charity of your choice. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
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BUSINESS JIFLA Hits Road
tional outreach program, talked about some of the more than 100 loans made in recent years. Jewish groups, including synagogues, nonprofits and clubs, may invite a JIFLA-On-the-Road speaker to a meeting. Contact JIFLA Executive Director Nancy Weissmann at 470-2685665 or freeloan@JIFLA.org.
JIFLA, Jewish Interest Free Loan of Atlanta, is taking its message from its Chamblee office to the community. On-the-Road speakers, including Jay Kessler and Jeff Gladstein, are meeting with groups throughout the city to inform members of the Jewish community about the availability of financial relief in the form of interest-free loans to get through financially challenging situations. Kessler, a member of the JIFLA executive board and co-chair of the marketing and engagement committee, spoke at Congregation Beth Jacob after services Saturday, March 3. He explained the organization’s mandate, scope and nonthreatening accessibility. Interest-free loans are a classic Jewish practice and have been available in various forms for hundreds of years. The present board is focused on “telling our story and getting information out there to more people who need us or who know people whom we can help,” Kessler said. Since 2010, JIFLA has provided interest-free loans to people and families in immediate need. Kessler, who initiated the informa-
Grant to Fifth Third
Jonathan Grant has joined Fifth Third Bank’s Atlanta team as vice president, insurance producer. Grant brings nearly 15 years of experience in providing insurance and risk management in Georgia. With Fifth Third, Grant provides coverage for property and casualty insurance for people and businesses. With the ability to leverage insurance coverage with bank products, Fifth Third Bank can serve as a one-stop resource for risk management programs. Grant got a bachelor’s in risk management and insurance from the University of Georgia. He is a board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and the Metro Atlanta Independent Insurance Agents Association.
Atlantic Bay Honorees
Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group’s Reece Cohen, Allison Beldick, Devorah Shaw and McKenzie Cochran were recognized at the 2018 Mortgage Banker Association of Georgia’s Gold Awards Recognition Program in March. The Gold Awards program honors MBAG members who excel in the field and exceed the association’s standards of excellence. Along with loan production standards, members are required to take part in continuing education, stay involved with MBAG and practice professional ethics. The Rising Star Award is given to mortgage bankers who, in the first full production year, close more than $8 million in loans. The Gold Award is for mortgage bankers who close $10 million to $24.9 million in a year. Mortgage bankers who close $25 million to $49.9 million receive the Platinum Award. The Diamond Award goes to mortgage bankers who close at least $50 million. Cohen and Beldick received the Platinum Award. Shaw got Gold. Coch ran was recognized as a Rising Star.
Aquarium Accredited
The Association of Zoos & Aquariums announced the accreditation of
the Georgia Aquarium on Monday, April 2. “Only the very best zoos and aquariums can meet the gold standards set for accreditation by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums,” AZA President and CEO Dan Ashe said. “By achieving AZA accreditation, Georgia Aquarium demonstrates that it is committed to exemplary animal care and welfare, educational and inspiring guest experiences, and supports AZA’s mission to conserve our world’s wild animals and wild places.” The aquarium went through a thorough review to make certain it has and will continue to meet rising standards in such categories as animal care and welfare, veterinary programs, conservation, education, and safety. The aquarium received its first accreditation from the AZA in 2008 and was accredited again in 2013. “Being an accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums is not only an honor, but a testament to our commitment to the care of all animals,” said Joe Handy, the president and chief operating officer of the aquarium. “We look forward to our continued successes with AZA in the world of animal care and conservation.”
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Modern Technology Is Racing Past Me I grew up without computers, without cellphones, without the Internet. In the seventh grade I learned to type with 10 fingers on a real typewriter. To talk to my friends, I went to their homes; I never used our telephone as a child. In college, I took notes by hand and studied from those notes. I hired a woman to type my dissertation on her typewriter to meet the specifications of the university. For many years in business, I wrote all my memos by long hand. Now jump ahead 50 years to today. Technology continues to expand, to enhance and to confuse my day-to-day living. I usually print the boarding pass for a plane on my computer within 24 hours of leaving. My oldest grandson heard that and insisted that I didn’t need a boarding pass. He grabbed my cellphone, downloaded the Delta app and put the boarding pass on my cellphone. All I now need is my cellphone to show security at the airport and to board the aircraft. I didn’t know how the technology worked. Thank you, Menachem. My wife buys a new computer and doesn’t have Microsoft Office on it. She writes enough documents that she needs to have that software. I used to buy a disc, load the disc on my computer and follow the directions. But there is no disc anymore; everything is downloaded. We buy Microsoft Office, which only says to go to a certain website, put in the very long password and follow the directions. I try to help my wife get this done, but between us we fail. I call Microsoft Help to solve the problem by phone, but they fail. In walks another of my teenage grandsons, who determines that the security on the computer prevents downloads of software like Microsoft Office to avoid getting a virus. He goes to the security on the computer, releases the restrictions, and by magic the download works. Thank you, Binyomin. My TV can accept Netflix, but Netflix requires a connection to the Internet. The regular TV works when connected to AT&T, but it is necessary to connect the TV to the Internet to watch Netflix.
Apparently, the Internet connection was broken, because it worked before, and I couldn’t fix it, even though I knew the various passwords necessary to connect to the Internet at my home. Another teenage grandson shows up and tries to fix the problem, but he discovers that it does not work, just as I did. However, he has a solution. He uninstalls the Internet connection, starts the connection again and solves
The Bottom Line By Allen H. Lipis
the problem. Thank you, Emanuel. I have records that did not play on my turntable. Emanuel took the turntable apart and fixed the problem. I have over 200 music discs, and all of them are obsolete, according to my grandchildren. They can find any music on Spotify, and they challenged me to give them a test. I gave them several songs, and they found them on Spotify in less than 30 seconds. I have over 100 movies, and they tell me that they can find them on the Internet and can watch them free. My music and my movies are all unnecessary. They can hook up my car to get and make telephone calls hands-free. They no longer need a GPS system in the car and can do it with Waze on a cellphone. Waze not only gives the fastest directions, but also identifies problems on the road ahead to be avoided. Leo, my son, uses FaceTime to call me free of charge, and we can see each other on our cellphones while we talk. I have no clue how to do it. I recently discovered that my grandchildren are playing “Call of Duty” on the Internet. In case you don’t know, and you probably don’t, the 2018 “Call of Duty” World League returns to Atlanta. Over 170 teams from around the world will compete in “Call of Duty: WWII” on PlayStation 4 at the Georgia World Congress Center, with a $4.2 million prize purse up for grabs. The bottom line: Technology is passing me by. I need a Venmo account. ■
CROSSWORD
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April Fools
By Yoni Glatt, koshercrosswords@gmail.com Difficulty Level: Easy
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APRIL 6 ▪ 2018
CLOSING THOUGHTS
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Pill: Islam, Judaism Rooted in Political Separation By Kevin C. Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com A talk by Rabbi Shlomo Pill at Emory University raised questions about the separation of church and state in Judaism and Islam and the historic differences and commonalities in the two religions. “We assume there should be some correlation between law and society and the religious faith traditions to which that society adheres,” Rabbi Pill said during his lunchtime lecture Monday, March 26, titled “Religion and State: Islamic and Jewish Perspectives From Antiquity to the Modern World.” “In many ways, certainly until the Reformation and the 16th century, this is pretty normal. Societal norms and laws reflected religious values, and force was often used to punish misbehavior from a religious perspective.” Rabbi Pill, a visiting assistant professor of Islamic, Jewish and American religion and law at the university’s Candler School of Theology, said the two traditions, both closely associated with law and normative systems for individuals, “have largely, historically, rejected the idea that politics should
pendent of each other. “That’s not so much the case anymore. Nowadays, in many parts of the Islamic world, much has changed since the 15th century,” he said. “For those of you who haven’t been living under a rock, in some Islamic republics and states, religion and politics use force to enforce laws; it’s endemic.” As for Judaism, he said, “The independent Jewish communities that lived with the Diaspora during the medieval period, from the 900s up to the modern period, 1600 to 1700s, all of them functioned democratically, with democratic forms of government, recalls and voting rights, with all the basic building blocks you would expect from a democratic society.” In today’s world, Rabbi Pill would like to see more adherence to religious influence. “My personal sense is that in both Islam and Judaism, strangely enough, more religion is needed. I think more religion breeds more humility, and the breadth and depth of the multiple voices with which it speaks, if viewed properly, helps support ideas for pluralism and respect for diverse opinions and respect primarily for process.” ■
Photo by Kevin Madigan
Rabbi Shlomo Pill speaks at a Leadership and Multifaith Program lecture at Emory on March 26.
influence religion and vice versa.” “Islam always held that there needs to be a separation between religious authority and politics, allowing each to function as separate power bases in society,” he said. “And because religion has its own valuable place in society, it serves as a valuable check on government excesses and tyranny. When they went too far, the religious elites who were not beholden to the state called the state out on it.” Citing Martin Luther King Jr. as a prime example of a religious figure who confronted his government, Rabbi
Pill quoted the civil rights leader as saying, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state and never its tool.” Conversely, politicians and the state were often able to criticize religion and religious excesses, and for this reason it was important for the two to be separate — the basic organizing principle of Catholics, for example. In Islam during its classical period, systems were put in place to ensure that church and state remained inde-
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APRIL 6 â–ª 2018