LIGHT NIGHT
Preparing its full lineup, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival reveals its opening-night blockbuster. Page 21
BUY ONLINE
AND SAVE
Jewish Heritage Night with the Atlanta Hawks offers much more to cheer for before tipoff than after. Page 27
Atlanta WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
VOL. XC NO. 48
File Name: 15AQUA1247_ATLJewishTimesTeaser Client: Ga Aquarium Desc.: ATL Jewish Times Teaser Ad
Live: NA Trim: 2.12”W x 3.18”H Bleed: NA
Bertha Diener pauses her stock market picks and iPad solitaire to celebrate her 100th birthday. Page 4
November 9, 2015 12:0
Color: 4C Process Built @: 100% Printed @: 100%
ROLL CAMERA
CENTENNIAL
GeorgiaAquarium.org
DECEMBER 18, 2015 | 6 TEVET 5776
Trump Plan ‘Despicable and Indefensible’ AJA Students Win $1,000, Give It Away By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
O
n a stage with some of the city’s top Protestant pastors, Sherry Frank’s impassioned speech stood out Monday morning, Dec. 14, amid an interfaith call to stand with Muslims against fear and prejudice. “How dare the demagogues and bigots of today not honor the basic principles of our Constitution and our nation and welSherry Frank come the stranger and include, value and honor the magnificent ethnic and religious diversity of America?” said the former Atlanta head of the American Jewish Committee. Four times she repeated, “It is despicable and indefensible to suggest a ban on Muslims entering our country.” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump proposed that ban a week earlier, inspiring the Rev. Gerald Durley, pastor emeritus of Providence Missionary Baptist Church, to organize the Faith Over Fear rally at the King Center. “We want to let Georgia know that this is a unified group,” Durley said of the
HEROIC NIGHT
Friends of the IDF supporters hear from a Yom Kippur War hero and the sister of a Gaza casualty while recalling a year of achievements. Page 6
38 faith-based groups backing the event, which drew about 75 people. In addition to Frank, representatives of the Jewish community included The Temple’s Rabbi Peter Berg, Ahavath Achim Synagogue’s Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal and Myrtle Lew in, Congregation Bet Haverim’s Rabbi Joshua Lesser, Congregation Or Hadash’s Photos by Michael Jacobs Rabbi Mario Karpuj, the The Rev. Gerald Durley listens as Rabbi Peter Anti-Defamation League’s Berg expresses outrage at anti-Muslim political Mark Moskowitz and Shelrhetoric Dec. 14 at the King Center. ley Rose, the AJC’s Harold The Rev. Bernice King cited Proverbs Hershberg, Interfaith Community Initiaand her father Martin Luther King Jr.’s tives’ Judy Marx, the Jewish Community writing in labeling Trump’s proposal not Relations Council’s Noah Appley and Lois Frank, and Atlanta Interfaith Broadcast- only unacceptable, but also a form of violence. “We must refuse to be silent in the ers’ Audrey Galex. “Jews cannot stand idly by today and face of such hateful and hurtful rhetoric.” She invited Trump to King Center watch our Muslim brothers and sisters training on nonviolence and conflict recsubject to such inhumane treatment, onciliation. Moskowitz, the ADL’s Southespecially because of the atrocities of a east director, added that Trump needs to few,” Rabbi Berg said. He called Trump’s go back to school for American history. suggestion to close the borders to Mus“I know from my Jewish commulims unconstitutional, un-American, and nity’s tragic experience during the Hoharmful to the United States’ standing in locaust what the price of silence yields,” the world and efforts to fight terrorism. “He makes a mockery of this season” Frank said. “I will never remain silent when Chanukah celebrates religious when evil prevails in our midst.” ■ Survivors react to Trump, Page 15 freedom, the rabbi said.
FROM THE ASHES
Congregation Beth Shalom celebrates the restoration of its Holocaust Torah, which survived burning to take its place in regular worship. Page 16
INSIDE
Calendar 3
Education 18
Candle Lighting
3
Arts 21
Simchas 4
Chanukah 22
Israel 6
Sports 27
Opinion 10
Obituaries 28
Business 13
Crossword 30
A
tlanta Jewish Academy students won by not quite winning Landmark Automotive’s Atlanta Teen Safe Driving contest this month. The Morrow car dealer organized a high-stakes contest to encourage teen drivers around the area to understand safe driving practices and sign a pledge not to text and drive. Landmark offered $10,000 to the high school that gathered the most pledges from students, their parents and other adults in their communities over two months ending Dec. 5. The top two schools were AJA and Kennesaw Mountain High, whose enrollment from ninth through 12th grades is roughly four times that of AJA’s lower, middle and upper schools combined. Landmark announced the winner at its showroom Friday, Dec. 11. The AJA students planned to apply the prize to the school’s annual fund for tuition assistance, given to 52 percent of AJA students. Kennesaw Mountain won the top prize, however, and its students said the money would go to their Shop With a Mustang program, in which high-schoolers take underprivileged elementary school kids shopping for holiday gifts. The AJA students at the announcement — Jesse Cann, Gil Vayner, Avi Greene, Dauren Parker, Rachel Kahen, Shira Solomon, Nicole Nooriel, Ellie Parker, Oryah Bunder, Ruby Jacobs and Maia Dori — decided on the spot to donate their $1,000 second-place prize to Shop With a Mustang. “After hearing about all the incredible things that you guys do with the money,” Dori said, “we wanted to give you our check to help support your cause.” ■