Atlanta Jewish Times, Vol. XCII No. 7, February 17, 2017

TREE RETREAT

Ramah Darom helps people get back to nature for Tu B’Shevat. Page 26

CAMPS, PAGES 26-28 JEWISH ESCAPE

Like the Catskills, England’s Green Park offered a spot for a cultural recharge. Page 27

URBAN RENEWAL

The Hawks’ day camps play a role in creating and guarding community. Page 28

Atlanta VOL. XCII NO. 7

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FEBRUARY 17, 2017 | 21 SHEVAT 5777

BDS Is Turned to Israel’s Advantage

Price’s Seat Sparks Rush

A Hollywood actor’s BDS activism is leading to a donation to a nonprofit organization battling the boycott movement on college campuses.

Sandy Springs resident Dovid Antopolsky had agreed to rent out his house exterior and driveway for a movie shoot Monday, Feb. 13, but had second thoughts when he learned that the film features Danny Glover, a political activist who has been among the leading celebrities backing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.

Glover — who is shooting “Come Sunday,” about an evangelical preacher who is ostracized for saying there’s no hell — signed an open letter Feb. 10 urging NFL players to cancel a seven-day visit to Israel. He also celebrated the decision of Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett and others to skip the trip.

Jewish Atlanta experienced controversy over actors and BDS in January because Emma Thompson, the star of Atlanta Jewish Film Festival opening-night movie “Alone in Berlin,” had joined a call to boycott an Israeli theater group in 2012. Last year she said the boycott decision was a mistake.

Glover’s position is clear, however, so Antopolsky, an electrical engineer/ consultant, sought the advice of Rabbi

Voters in the 6th Congressional District will have plenty of choices in a special election April 18 to replace Roswell Republican Tom Price, who resigned from Congress after the Senate confirmed him as President Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary Feb. 10.

Candidate qualifying was set for Monday to Wednesday, Feb. 13 to 15.

Sweeping from East Cobb through North Fulton to North DeKalb, the 6th District encompasses one of the core areas of Jewish Atlanta.

Fifteen candidates qualified by Feb. 14. Nine are Republicans: Judson Hill, who resigned from the state Senate to run; Mohammad Ali Bhuiyan, who hopes to be the first Muslim Republican in Congress; William Llop, who lost in the primary in the 11th District last year; Dan Moody, a former state senator; Bob Gray, a Johns Creek councilman; Bruce LeVell, a jeweler and Trump ally; Keith Grawert, an Air Force veteran; and small-business men David Abroms and Kurt Wilson.

The Democrats on the ballot are Jon Ossoff, who has the backing of Reps.

Hank Johnson and John Lewis; Ron Slotin, a Jewish former state senator; Richard Keatley, a Navy vet and college professor; Rebecca Quigg, a cardiologist and health reform advocate; and Ragin Edwards, who works in tech services.

Independent Alexander Hernandez, who works in film production, also qualified.

At least one more Democrat, former state Rep. Sally Harrell, has announced she’s running, as has Republican former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel.

State Rep. Betty Price, Tom Price’s wife, is among others considering a run. (Visit atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com for the final list.)

If no one gets a majority, the top two vote-getters will have a runoff June 20. ■

By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com

Trucks line up in the Antopolsky driveway for a movie shoot Feb. 13.

Yossi New, the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Tefillah.

Rabbi New advised Antopolsky to proceed with the movie contract, but with the stipulation that the rental fee be paid to a pro-Israel charity.

“I feel I have a chance to also make a statement,” Antopolsky said. “When a star like Glover makes public statements against a nation trying to defend itself, I want to express my disappointment. Further, I don’t want to be associated with blatant misinformation.”

The production company agreed to make the donation, and Antopolsky chose StandWithUs, whose mission is to fight propaganda, falsehoods and bias in the media and on campuses. The organization is bringing two Israel Defense Forces soldiers to Georgia for appear-

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Danny Glover makes no secret of his opposition to Israel. For more on the NFL trip to Israel, see the Editor’s Notebook, Page 10.

“I feel I have a chance to also make a statement,” Dovid Antopolsky says.

ances at Atlanta Jewish Academy on Friday, Feb. 17, and at Georgia State, Emory, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia on Feb. 20 and 21.

Rabbi New said, “I thought it best to move forward with the movie shoot and call attention to our objections and what step could be taken to turn it into something more positive.” ■

INSIDE Calendar ��������������������������������������� 4 Candle Lighting �������������������������� 4 Israel News �����������������������������������6 Opinion �����������������������������������������9 Business ������������������������������������� 20 Arts ���������������������������������������������� 29 Obituaries �����������������������������������34 Marketplace �������������������������������36 Crossword �����������������������������������38

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FEBRUARY 17 â–ª 2017

MA TOVU

Growing My Garden Is there another way you could have handled that?”

“I guess I could have told you or Mom.” “Excellent. And next time I’m sure you will. I’m really sorry about the Lego. Is there any way I can help you fix it?”

With my method, the child feels

Shared Spirit Moderated By Rachel Stein rachels83@gmail.com

validated, and he still gets the message. He knows his dad is rooting for him. With Shelly’s method, Adam feels angry and misunderstood.

I worry that he will eventually rebel against the strict rigidity of his upbringing. My goal is to build a strong relationship with my children while I guide and teach them. Honestly, I think the best way to teach them is through modeling and effective communication, not by preaching and certainly not through punishing.

A gardener is skilled in giving his plants just the right amounts of water and fertilizer. He exposes them to the appropriate measure of sunlight for their optimal growth and endeavors to protect them from harmful influences.

Should we be any less careful with our children? Don’t we want to help them grow into sturdy, strong, independent beings? And to be capable of producing rich, luscious fruits of their own?

Shelly’s a good wife, cares for my needs, and is a warm, insightful partner. But when it comes to raising our children, we speak a different language.

I’ve tried to communicate my displeasure privately, but criticism makes her angry and defensive. Sometimes I’ll leave a great parenting article in a strategic location. I don’t know if she reads it. She won’t hear of going for therapy, so I’m left straddling the fence, unsure what to do.

How can I give my children a strong foundation while showing support for Shelly, even when she is wrong? Do I nurture my marriage or my children? ■ I welcome your comments and suggestions. Submit responses to rachels83@ gmail.com by Monday, Feb. 20.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Modern psychology emphasizes that parents must be on the same page when raising children. There are Torah sources for this concept, so it is not merely a contemporary view.

Mommy should never contradict Daddy, and vice versa, nor should one parent become the go-to parent when the other says no. We know these principles. But as the father of three beautiful children, I face a daily struggle.

My wife, Shelly, sees parenting in black and white. She represents the old view of authoritarian parenting. “You’ll do it because I said so” is her motto, and if a child disobeys, he must be reprimanded and punished.

I’m an old softie — so was my father. My mother was warm and loving, too, but not quite as gentle as Dad. I love the way I grew up and try to follow the same path. If a child breaks a rule, I speak to him, help him understand my expectation and join him in hoping for a better result next time. I also use incentives to encourage the kids instead of negative repercussions.

Here’s a recent example of Shelly’s mothering that left me quivering.

“You hit your brother?” Shelly was appalled, and I watched her body go rigid. “Go up to your room right now!”

“But, Mom,” Adam said, “the guys are waiting for me outside. We were about to play baseball in the park.”

“You should have thought of that before you raised your hand, hmm?

Now get up there, now!” Her dark eyes flashed lightning as she took a threatening step toward Adam.

Adam stomped up the stairs. My insides were in knots.

Shelly reacts poorly in so many instances, and I worry that she’s harming the children. I’m not condoning physical violence among siblings. But I would have liked to discuss what happened with Adam. My hunch is there were two sides to the story; a 7-yearold doesn’t lash out without reason.

I would have invited Adam to sit by me for the following conversation.

“Adam, you must be really angry at Benny right now. Can you tell me what happened?”

“He broke the little Lego that I just put together. I worked for an hour on it, and now it’s ruined!”

“How frustrating! You worked so hard, and now it’s ruined.”

“Yeah.”

“But in our family we don’t hit.

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FBI discussion. Stephen Emmett, an FBI special agent, talks about the bureau’s past and present at 10:30 a.m. as part of the Edgewise Speaker Series at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free for JCC members, $5 for others; matureadults@atlantajcc. org or 678-812-3861.

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Jewish-Indian ties. American Jewish Committee, ACCESS and the Indian Professionals Network celebrate 25 years of Israeli-Indian relations with a buffet dinner and a panel discussion at 6:30 p.m. at Aishiana Banquet Hall & Restaurant, 5675 Jimmy Carter Blvd., Norcross. The cost is $15 in advance or $20 at the door; www.ajcatlanta.org/ jewsandindians2017.

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Contributors This Week BOB BAHR RABBI DAVID GEFFEN

Cooking demo. Jenny Levison cooks and signs her new cookbook, “Souper Jenny Goes Vegan,” at 6:30 p.m. at Strippaggio, 855 Emory Point Drive, Suite C-135, Atlanta. Tickets are $15; 404-9635921 to register.

YONI GLATT JORDAN GORFINKEL ELI GRAY RACHEL FAYNE GRUSKIN LEAH R. HARRISON MARCIA CALLER JAFFE KEVIN MADIGAN DAVE SCHECHTER

FRIDAY, FEB. 17

Refugee discussion. Federation hosts a conversation with International Rescue Committee Executive Director J.D. McCrary on the status of the refugee resettlement program at 7:45 a.m. at the Selig Center, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Free; jewishatlanta.org/servicedialogue-security-series.

SHAINDLE SCHMUCKLER EUGEN SCHOENFELD RACHEL STEIN RICH WALTER

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FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

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CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

THURSDAY, FEB. 16

POSTMASTER send address changes to The Atlanta Jewish Times 270 Carpenter Drive Suite 320, Atlanta Ga 30328.

Established 1925 as The Southern Israelite Phone: (404) 883-2130 www.atlantajewishtimes.com THE ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES (ISSN# 0892-33451) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SOUTHERN ISRAELITE, LLC 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, Atlanta, GA 30328 © 2017 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES Printed by Walton Press Inc. MEMBER Conexx: America Israel Business Connector American Jewish Press Association Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber of Commerce Please send all photos, stories and editorial content to: submissions@atljewishtimes.com

Inclusion Shabbat. Temple Kehillat Chaim, 1145 Green St., Roswell, holds a special service with PRISM Executive Director Marilynn Martinez to honor Jewish Disability Awareness and In-

Yitro Friday, Feb. 17, light candles at 6:06 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 18, Shabbat ends at 7:02 p.m.

Mishpatim Friday, Feb. 24, light candles at 6:12 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 25, Shabbat ends at 7:08 p.m. clusion Month at 7:30 p.m. Free; www. kehillatchaim­.org.

org/production/the-temple-bombing.

Shabbat of the Senses. Temple EmanuEl, 1580 Spalding Drive, Sandy Springs, explores sensory differences during a special service at 7:30 p.m. Free; templeemanuelatlanta­.org.

Eating disorders. The Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta holds a panel discussion on the prevention and treatment of eating disorders at 9 a.m. at Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Free; www. jwfatlanta.org/events.

SUNDAY, FEB. 19

Bearing witness. Architect Ben Hirsch, who escaped Germany as a youth, shares his experiences at 2 p.m. at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Free; thebreman.org.

Anne Frank show. The Georgia Ensemble Theatre performs “And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank” with an appearance by Frank friend Eva Schloss at 6:30 p.m. at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. Tickets are $10; get. org/family-stage.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22

Bingo mitzvah. Hadassah Greater Atlanta’s Metulla Group participates in bingo with seniors at Addington Place, 762 N. Main St., Alpharetta, at 1:45 p.m.

Contact Livia Sklar at livia5678@gmail. com or 914-602-8998 for more details.

“The Temple Bombing.” The worldpremiere show based on Melissa Fay Greene’s book opens tonight at 7:30 at the Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree St., Midtown, and runs through March 12. Tickets start at $10; alliancetheatre.

THURSDAY, FEB. 23

Book talk. Brian Curtis talks about his latest book, “Fields of Battle,” about the 1942 Rose Bowl and the World War II service of its participants, at 10:30 a.m. as part of the Edgewise Speaker Series at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free for JCC members, $5 for others; matureadults@atlantajcc. org or 678-812-3861.

FRIDAY, FEB 24

Book club. Hadassah Greater Atlanta’s Metulla Group discusses “In the Land of Invisible Women” by Qanta Ahmed at 1:30 p.m. at 425 Wembley Circle, Sandy Springs. Contact Barbara Shoulberg at brsgolf1@bellsouth.net, or call 770948-2443 for details.

Scholar weekend. Vanderbilt scholar Amy-Jill Levine returns to Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs, for a series of talks and study sessions focused on family in the Torah, starting with the Friday service at 6:30 p.m. and ending with a session Sunday morning at 10. Some events have fees, but most are free; templesinaiatlanta.org.

Send items for the calendar to submissions@atljewishtimes.com.

Find more events at atlantajewishtimes.com/events-calendar.

Remember When

25 Years Ago Feb. 14, 1992 ■ The fifth anti-Semitic incident in 1½ years has compelled Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb to join with the AntiDefamation League to offer a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever committed the most recent crime, scrawling “Attention: Jews are not desired here!” in German on a stone wall near the Reform synagogue’s entrance Dec. 17 or 18. “We figured enough’s enough,” said Jane Miller, the president of Kol Emeth. Police suspect teenage skinheads are the vandals, so the reward might be big enough to prompt someone to break ranks.

■ The bar mitzvah of Gregory Michael Sasine of Atlanta, son of Janice and Jeff Sasine, will take place at 8:30 a.m.

Saturday, Feb. 22, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue.

50 Years Ago Feb. 17, 1967 ■ Perry Brickman and James Kaufmann have been appointed co-chairmen of the Physicians and Dentists Division of the 1967 Jewish Welfare Fund Campaign. A Committee of Physicians and Dentists is now being formed as part of the division’s efforts in behalf of the campaign, which will culminate in a dinner meeting on April 2.

■ The director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Joseph Tekoah, said in a speech at the Commercial Club in Jerusalem that the failure of the United Nations and the major world powers to act to discourage Syrian aggression is contributing to the current tensions in the Middle East.

■ Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Levy of Augusta announce the engagement of their daughter, Barbara Sue, to Louis Salsbury Silverman of Hampton, Va., son of Samuel J. Silverman of Newport News, Va., and the late Bernice Salsbury Silverman.

CALENDAR SATURDAY, FEB. 25

Purim off Ponce. SOJOURN honors Rabbis Michael Bernstein and Pamela Gottfried at 7:30 p.m. at Le Fais do-do, 1611 Ellsworth Industrial Blvd., Atlanta.

Tickets are $75 in advance, $100 at the door; www.sojourngsd.org/poptickets.

SUNDAY, FEB. 26

Art exhibit. The first part of “Atlanta Collects” closes at the Breman, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students and educators, $4 for ages 3 to 6; www.thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.

Wheelchair basketball. Players from the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled show their skills and welcome others to participate in drills during the Champions for Life event to benefit the American Friends of ISCD at 11 a.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free; bit.ly/2jW1xcB. B’nai mitzvah expo. Atlanta Party Connection holds its Bar & Bat Mitzvah Expo from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Atlanta Marriott Alpharetta, 5750 Windward Pkwy. Free; atlantapartyconnection. com/bar-and-bat-mitzvah-expo.

Power of One reception. The Greater Atlanta Jewish Abilities Alliance holds the annual awards ceremony for community members who have made an impact on inclusion at 5 p.m. at the Selig Center, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Free; RSVP by Feb. 19 at atlanta. jewishabilities­.org/powerofone.

Upside-down dinner. Congregation Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, marks Rosh Chodesh Adar by offering a full breakfast buffet and a hot cocoa bar for dinner at 5:30 p.m. The cost is $5 per child and $10 per adult, with a $40 family cap, for members and $7, $12 and $45 for nonmembers; www.bethjacobatlanta.org/breakfastfor-dinner (RSVP by Feb. 23).

SUNDAY, MARCH 5

Purim parade. Congregation Beth Jacob’s annual Purim parade starts at 11 a.m. at the Toco Hill Shopping Center and ends at Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, with a carnival. Register floats at bit.ly/2ioq3Sh.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

MONDAY, FEB. 27

Dementia awareness. Jewish Home Life Communities and Chabad of North Fulton present the Virtual Dementia Tour from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Cohen Home, 10485 Jones Bridge Road, Johns Creek. Free; RSVP to Kim Urbach at admin@chabadnf.org or 770-410-9000.

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ISRAEL NEWS

Photos by Casey L. Olson and Oren Gutfeld

Archaeologist Ahiad Ovadia digs in the cave.

Ziad Abu Ganem and a student filter material.

Jar fragments litter the cave floor.

This cloth was used for wrapping scrolls.

Cave Found, Minus Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew University archaeologists working with Liberty University students have uncovered a new cave containing Dead Sea scrolls for the first time in more than 60 years.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced the finding Wednesday, Feb. 8. Oren Gutfeld and Ahiad Ovadia from the university’s Institute of Archaeology carried out the excavations with Liberty’s Randall Price and his students from the Lynchburg, Va., campus.

The cave on the cliffs west of Qumran, near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, held scrolls from the Second Temple period that were looted by Bedouin in the middle of the 20th century.

The excavation was supported by the Civil Administration of Judaea

and Samaria, by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Israel Antiquities Authority and is a part of Operation Scroll, launched by IAA DirectorGeneral Israel Hasson to undertake systematic surveys and to excavate the caves in the Judean Desert.

Numerous storage jars and lids from the Second Temple period were found hidden in niches along the walls of the cave and deep inside a long tunnel at its rear. The jars were all broken and emptied, and the discovery of a pair of iron pickax heads from the 1950s (stored within the tunnel for later use) proves that the cave was looted.

Scholars suggest that the site should be numbered Cave 12 among the scroll caves. Like Cave 8, in which scroll jars but no scrolls were found, this cave

will receive a Q designation, Q12 (the Q for Qumran in front of the number indicates no scrolls were found).

“It was accepted that Dead Sea scrolls were found only in 11 caves at Qumran, but now there is no doubt that this is the 12th cave,” Gutfeld said.

“Although at the end of the day no scroll was found, and instead we only found a piece of parchment rolled up in a jug that was being processed for writing, the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen.”

Those findings include jars, a leather strap for binding a scroll, a cloth that wrapped scrolls, and tendons and pieces of skin connecting fragments.

The discovery of pottery, flint

blades, arrowheads, and a decorated stamp seal made of carnelian, a semiprecious stone, indicated that the cave also was used in the Chalcolithic and Neolithic periods.

“The important discovery of another scroll cave attests to the fact that a lot of work remains to be done in the Judean Desert, and finds of huge importance are still waiting to be discovered,” Hasson said.

“We are in a race against time as antiquities thieves steal heritage assets worldwide for financial gain. The state of Israel needs to mobilize and allocate the necessary resources in order to launch a historic operation, together with the public, to carry out a systematic excavation of all the caves of the Judean Desert.” ■

Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Service in Africa. Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, left Sunday, Feb. 12, for a fiveday trip to Africa to dedicate Project TEN volunteer centers in Namulanda, Uganda, and Durban, South Africa.

Project TEN, the “Jewish Peace Corps,” brings young Jews from Israel and the rest of the world to volunteer.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

New cancer treatment. Sarit Larisch of Haifa University discovered that the protein ARTS, which regulates cell death, is missing in tumors. Haifabased biotech ARTSaVIT is developing a treatment based on this research and has received $6.3 million in funding.

A clue against resistant bacteria. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that when phage-resistant bacteria are in close contact with phage-sensitive bacteria, the resistant bacteria lose their resistance. The discovery could help research into antibiotic resistance.

6 Paralyzed officer walking. Nicki Don-

nelly, a former British police officer who was paralyzed in 2009, can walk again with the help of a ReWalk exoskeleton supplied by the Gerald Ronson Family Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Jewish Community Security Trust. Donnelly now hopes to visit ReWalk’s Israeli inventor, Amit Goffer.

Responding to a first responder. United Hatzalah held a special dinner to honor its Jerusalem-based Arab Emergency Medical Service volunteers. Its newest doctor, Murad Issam Odeh, had to put his skills on display by treating a fellow first responder who unknowingly ate some fish and suffered a severe allergic reaction.

Israel’s good credit in Europe. Israel’s largest sale of euro-denominated bonds was more than four times oversubscribed. The Israeli government sold 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in 10year bonds and 750 million euros ($800 million) in 20-year bonds. Investors, however, were prepared to buy bonds worth 9.8 billion euros.

A plan for the north. The Israeli government has put forth a 15-billionshekel ($4 billion) plan to revamp northern Israel. It includes upgrading schools, improving health care, making grants to businesses, developing roads, expanding Haifa’s bus system, and building a light-rail connection between Haifa and Nazareth.

therapists, stylists and much more.

Anti-BDS film in two festivals. “Boycott This,” a documentary from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations that criticizes the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, has been selected for two film festivals, the Chandler International in Toronto and the Hollywood Boulevard. The film, starring Brad Stine, has won a 2016 Telly Award and a Gold Award from the Spotlight Documentary Film Awards.

All-Haredi paratrooper company. The first all-Haredi paratrooper company of 40 soldiers was sworn in at an Israel Defense Forces ceremony at the Kotel.

Rabbis associated with the Nahal Haredi Foundation, which provides support to Haredi soldiers, praised the paratroopers as trailblazers.

Tel Aviv dog festival. Tel Aviv residents love their dogs so much that they put on Kelaviv (kelev is dog in Hebrew), the ultimate party for dogs and their owners. They served sushi and cakes for canines and provided dog massages,

Stadium to be funded by Patriots owner. On the heels of his franchise’s latest Super Bowl title, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has announced that he will donate $6 million to Israel’s first regulation-size American football stadium, which will be near Jerusalem.

More rooms to stay. Jerusalem is going through a hotel building boom, with 1,700 rooms added in 2015 and 2016 combined, and 5,000 more expected over the next five years, according to the Jerusalem Development Authority.

Compiled courtesy of verygoodnewsisrael. blogspot.com and other sources.

ISRAEL NEWS Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), where you can find more details.

Feb. 17, 1948: The U.S. State Department prepares a memorandum for Secretary of State George Marshall and President Harry Truman seeking nonimplementation of U.N. Resolution 181, calling for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The State Department policy planning staff’s concerns over the creation of a Jewish state included the risk of a confrontation between U.S. and Soviet forces, the likely alienation of the Arab world, and the possibility of U.N. reconsideration of the Palestine problem.

Feb. 18, 1577: Jews in Safed, the largest Jewish community in Ottoman Palestine in the 16th century, deliver a petition to the Ottoman sultan to seek protection from extortion, robberies and violence by local officials.

Feb. 19, 1936: Zionist leaders debate how to confront proposed British restrictions on Jewish land purchases in Palestine.

Feb. 20, 1957: In a nationally televised radio and television address to the American people, President Dwight Eisenhower discusses the tense situation in the Middle East in the aftermath of the October 1956 Suez war.

Feb. 21, 1852: Pope Pius IX writes to Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany to protest the grand duke’s decision to grant levels of emancipation to Jews.

The pope expressed the need to keep Catholics separate from “the infidels.”

Feb. 22, 1914: An important moment in Israel’s nation-building comes when the Kuratorium (board of trustees) of the Technion, then under construction in Haifa, reverses its decision of October 1913 and decides that Hebrew, not German, will be the language of instruction at the new school.

Feb. 23, 1965: Ephraim Kishon’s “Sallah Shabbati” becomes Israel’s first Oscar-nominated film, getting the honor in the foreign language category for the 37th Academy Awards.

Italy’s “Yesterday, Today Starring Topol, and Tomorrow” “Sallah Shabbati” wins the Oscar. earned an Oscar nomination in 1965.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Today in Israeli History

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ISRAEL NEWS

Understanding Why Jerusalem Matters to Others

By Rich Walter Center for Israel Education

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

With the recent discussion on the potential move of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, it is necessary to deepen our understanding of Israel’s capital and why it is significant for so many.

For centuries, Jerusalem has been important for three religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. As a result, it has seen continual struggles for its control. These struggles have been multifaceted, as war, diplomacy and intellectual debate have variously tried to define the city and to whom it belongs.

As the ancient capital, Jerusalem served as the political, economic and religious center of the Jewish world, beginning during the reigns of Kings Saul, David and Solomon.

After the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. and the subsequent Babylonian exile, the Jewish people maintained their connection to the land and the city. This connection increased after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in the year 70, when rabbinic Judaism formally replaced sacrifice and the emerging liturgy was filled longing for a return to Jerusalem.

David Ben-Gurion best articulated the historic and religious connection to the city in December 1949 after a United Nations vote to internationalize the city: “Israel’s position on the question of Jerusalem found a clear and final expression in statements by the government. … Jerusalem is an inseparable part of Israel and her eternal capital.”

While most readers are familiar

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This 1883 map of Jerusalem is from “Hardesty’s Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia Illustrated,” published in 1884 by H.H. Hardesty & Co., and is part of the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas.

with Jerusalem’s significance to Jewish history and religious practice, understanding the city’s significance to other faiths is important in developing an appreciation of how it has become such a hot-button issue.

For Christians, Jerusalem’s significance derives from its connection to the life and death of Jesus. Jesus did most of his teaching and preaching there. It was in Jerusalem that Jesus was crucified and, according to Christian belief, was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

More than just its importance as a physical city connected to the life of Jesus, Jerusalem also exists as part of a theological idea. This heavenly Jerusa-

lem is at the core of the Christian belief in the return of Jesus and the creation of a kingdom of G-d on Earth. The Book of Revelation, Chapter 21, Verse 2, states, “And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from G-d out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

For Muslims, Jerusalem, which they call Al-Quds (meaning holy in Arabic), is considered to be the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina.

Soon after Islam’s birth, the prophet Muhammad and his followers left Mecca for Medina in search of adherents. At this time, for a short period, Muslim worshippers prayed facing north toward Jerusalem. Less than two

years later, Mecca replaced Jerusalem as the direction of Muslim prayer.

The Muslim conquest of Jerusalem began in 636. While Muslims made their capital in Ramle, to the west, the city took on added importance because it was believed to be the site of Muhammad’s night journey from Mecca to the farthest mosque. It was during this journey that, according to Muslim belief, the prophet ascended to heaven and received instructions from Allah.

Because Jerusalem is not named in the Quran, scholars debate whether the farthest mosque (al-Aqsa) was a reference to Jerusalem. The actual Al-Aqsa mosque was first built circa 690.

Since its reunification of the city in the June 1967 war, Israel has maintained free access for all to the city’s holy places while adhering to its core belief that the city is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

In December 1969, Yigal Alon, then Israel’s deputy prime minister, emphasized both concepts when he addressed the Knesset, saying, “Without exaggeration, at no time in the history of Jerusalem were the holy places of all the faiths more secure and more open than under the enlightened rule of the state of Israel. … Jerusalem was united under a decision of Israel’s Knesset, as the sovereign institution, and it is hence a permanent fact. We must develop it for the good of all its inhabitants and regard it as the city where all faiths come together.” ■ Rich Walter is the associate director for Israel education at the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org).

OPINION

Rising From the Rubble decent people of the South rise and take charge.”

The Temple was one of several synagogues and a larger number of African-American churches bombed or burned that year.

By any era’s definition, these were acts of terrorism.

The next day, a column by Atlanta Constitution Editor and Publisher

From Where I Sit

By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com

Ralph Emerson McGill concluded: “For a long time now it has been needful for all Americans to stand up and be counted on the side of law and the due process of law — even when to do so goes against personal beliefs and emotions. It is late. But there is yet time.”

Five white supremacists were arrested.

Only one stood trial, and he was acquitted on the second attempt after a mistrial.

Janice Rothschild Blumberg has said that the support received after the bombing helped “lance the boil” of anti-Semitism that had caused the Jewish community to turn inward after the Frank lynching.

The Jewish population of Atlanta, about 14,500 in the late 1950s, grew to more than 70,000 by 1990.

Rabbi Rothschild’s Shabbat sermon the Friday after the bombing was titled “And None Shall Make Them Afraid,” making reference to Leviticus 26:6.

“This despicable act has made brighter the flame of courage and renewed in splendor the fires of determination and dedication. It has reached the hearts of men everywhere and roused the conscience of a people united in righteousness. All of us together shall rear from the rubble of devastation a city and a land in which all men are truly brothers and none shall make them afraid,” he told a packed sanctuary.

In the Emory video, Janice Rothschild Blumberg applies a lesson from 1958 to current times: “I hope people will get an idea of how bad things can be when we look down on each other, when we feel that somebody else doesn’t have the same rights or shouldn’t have the same rights we have.” ■

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FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Eve Hoffman wore a new dress to The Temple youth group’s fall membership party the evening of Oct. 11, 1958.

“I felt pretty — really, really pretty,” Hoffman wrote in her poem “The Yellow Dress,” about the night she was installed as youth group president.

Five hours after the Youth Group party ended while I lay asleep in my bedroom twenty miles away the yellow dress across a chair a trail of stockings and dyed-to-match yellow shoes on the floor …

At 3:37 a.m., a bomb fashioned from 50 sticks of dynamite tore through a side entrance of The Temple, an explosion audible far from Peachtree Street. a gaping hole blasted in the north side of the building where just hours before we’d been dancing to Elvis Presley, Perry Como, and the Kingston Trio.

Hoffman receives a mention in “The Temple Bombing,” a play that will premiere Feb. 22 and run through March 12 at the Alliance Theatre in Midtown. This year marks the sesquicentennial of The Temple, founded in 1867 as the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation.

The script is based on Melissa Fay Greene’s book of the same name.

It also draws from the memories of Janice Rothschild Blumberg, whose late husband, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, was The Temple’s spiritual leader and an increasingly outspoken advocate of civil rights.

“We realized that there could be danger, but we didn’t think about it consciously,” Janice, now 93 years old, says in a video produced by the Emory University Center for Ethics through its Ethics & the Arts program.

My Northern upbringing taught me little about the lynching of Leo Frank in Marietta woods on Aug. 17, 1915, or the bombing on Oct. 12, 1958.

Not until I wrote about the legacy of the lynching a century later did I read extensively about the bombing.

Just hours after the blast, Mayor William Hartsfield stood in front of the rubble and declared, “Whether they like it or not, every political rabble-rouser is the godfather of these cross burners and dynamiters who sneak about in the dark and give a bad name to the South. It is high time the

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OPINION

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Our View

Bibi’s Visit

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to make his first visit to the Trump White House on Wednesday, Feb. 15. We go to press Tuesday, so we can’t address the outcome of the meeting, but we can tell you we’re hopeful that this conversation begins to provide clarity for the direction of the U.S.Israel relationship under President Donald Trump.

Despite Trump’s stated determination to be more steadfast in his public support for Israel than Barack Obama was, we still can only guess at his intentions.

When Trump first spoke about Israeli-Palestinian peace talks during the presidential campaign, he opened himself up to criticism by suggesting that the United States had to be a neutral mediator.

He followed the examples of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in promising to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem — and, like those predecessors, it’s possible that he’ll break that promise. Arab media have reported that Trump has let the Palestinians know the embassy is staying put.

The embassy move at least has slid down the list of presidential priorities; we’ll see by June 1, when Obama’s most recent waiver of the legal requirement to move the embassy will expire, whether Trump is being cautious or is having second thoughts.

More important is what Trump has in mind for U.S. policy on Israeli settlements. Bush made a distinction between new settlements and construction in existing blocs close to the Green Line. Obama, by contrast, considered every housing unit east of the 1949 armistice line, including those in traditionally Jewish areas of Jerusalem, to be an assault on peace.

Trump and his aides have both defended and criticized the settlements. The perfect example of the confusion sown by administration statements came at the start of February when White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, “While we don’t believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal.”

The first part of that sentence seems to endorse Netanyahu’s position: The settlements aren’t standing in the way of peace. The second part seems to support Netanyahu’s critics: The expansion of the settlement enterprise is an obstacle to peace.

Meanwhile, one of Netanyahu’s coalition partners, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, has warned of severe repercussions if either Netanyahu or Trump says the words “Palestinian state” in public. President Reuven Rivlin, a member of the prime minister’s Likud party, has floated the idea that Israel should press ahead with annexation of the entire West Bank — as long as the Palestinians receive the rights of full citizens at the same time.

Then there’s Iran. Neither Trump nor Netanyahu likes the 2015 nuclear deal, but now is not the time to ditch it. Instead, the United States and Israel need to show a unified front against Iranian aggression, with support for Arab-Israeli cooperation and, if necessary, new sanctions in response to specific actions.

Given the immediate dangers in the Middle East, our hope is that the meeting produces more about 10 Iran and Islamist terrorism than the Palestinians. ■

Cartoon by Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle

No Winners in NFL Trip to Israel The first post-NFL weekend was surprisingly John Carlos, author Alice Walker, entertainer Harry and embarrassingly full of professional football Belafonte, actor Danny Glover and Jewish Voice for news related to Israel, Peace, posted an open letthanks to a fumbled public ter to the football players, relations opportunity emphasizing false parallels Editor’s Notebook in the battle against the between Palestinians and boycott, divestment and black Americans and urgBy Michael Jacobs sanctions movement. ing them to boycott Israel. mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Working with AmerSeveral players, startica’s Voices in Israel, an ing with Seattle Seahawks organization that specialdefensive lineman Michael izes in bringing celebrities to Israel, Israel’s Strategic Bennett, fell for it. Bennett announced Feb. 9 that Affairs and Public Diplomacy Ministry and Tourism he wasn’t going on the trip and followed up with a Ministry arranged for a weeklong visit by 11 NFL letter on Twitter to explain that he wouldn’t be used players and a retired player starting Monday, Feb. 13. and would, at some point, go to Israel, the West Bank The timing was excellent to get positive press, and Gaza to see how the Palestinians, “who have even on ESPN: right after the football season, right called this land home for thousands of years,” live. before the start of baseball spring training. We inMiami Dolphins wide receiver Kenny Stills celcluded the news of the trip in the AJT on Feb. 10. ebrated Bennett’s tweet and joined the trip boycott.

But putting out a press release before the trip Bennett’s New England Patriots tight end brother, was a big mistake, especially with comments from Martellus, also pulled out of the trip, although there Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy Minister Giwas some dispute over whether he ever intended lad Erdan about his hope for the players to “present to go. Denver Broncos running back Justin Forsett the beautiful face of Israel to their tens of millions of pulled out, then later said he had made the decision fans” and from Tourism Minister Yariv Levin about weeks ago for family reasons, not politics. the players being goodwill ambassadors for Israel.

The Bennetts and Stills are not defending prinYes, of course, Israel was hoping the players ciples, and they’re not aligning themselves with the would return to the United States and sing the side of justice. They’re exposing their ignorance and praises of the Jewish state. But the boasts by the two being used — just as Michael Bennett feared.

Cabinet ministers before the trip were the equivalent “If you didn’t want to be used, why didn’t you of a player celebrating an impending touchdown at use the opportunity to try to learn more about the 10-yard line, only to have the ball slip out of his the country and people that you chose to attack?” hand and roll through the end zone for a touchback.

American Jewish Committee Assistant Executive The press release had errors, such as the false Director Daniel Elbaum wrote in his own open letter claim that the visiting pros would participate in an to Bennett. And if the player wasn’t satisfied with the exhibition game with players from the American trip itinerary, why not use the celebrity and influFootball League in Israel, but the biggest problem ence so valued by Israel to try to change it? was that it created a target for BDS activists.

Israel’s not afraid of what visitors will see. BenSome of those activists, including Morehouse nett would have learned that if he’d just opened his College professor Marc Lamont Hill, 1968 Olympian eyes to reality instead of propaganda. ■

OPINION

Letter To The Editor

Tom Price Dangerous To Those With Disabilities

Write to Us

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FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

For millions of Americans, the confirmation of Tom Price as the federal secretary of health and human services may pose a greater downside risk to our nation’s well-being than the confirmation of other, more vilified Trump nominees.

For those of us who have been involved in services to people with disabilities, Price’s policies have contributed to Georgia’s dismal national ranking in funding services for those with disabilities.

To qualify for services that could cost tens of thousands of dollars annually, a family must obtain a waiver.

The waiver uses a funding formula that combines state funds (about 20 percent) with federal funds (about 80 percent). The state needs only to agree to receive federal funds to offset the financial burden on a family.

As a state legislator, Tom Price led the charge to deny the acceptance of federal funds.

The result? Money earmarked for the thousands of families in need in Georgia was transferred to other states eager to accept federal funds that would better the lives of their citizens.

Price sat on the House Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Ways and Means. He helped ensure that Georgia has well over 10,000 people on its waiver waiting list (for years).

To put that number in perspective: California, with more than twice our population, has 3,500 on its waiver waiting list. Wisconsin has 3,000. Missouri has 650. New Jersey has 50. New York, Oregon and Massachusetts have none.

Perhaps Price uses Texas as a model for what is in store for our nation: Texas has a waiting list of 163,000.

Irrespective of what we feel about the other questionable candidates, Price has the potential to cause extraordinary grief and dislocation to those who can least afford and tolerate it.

— Harry Stern, Marietta

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OPINION

History Teaches Us to Trust in Truth

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

About a week after my release from the military hospital where I recuperated from my Holocaust ordeal in 1945, I went back to my hometown.

It took me just one day to realize that Mukacevo, now belonging to the Soviet Union, was not the place that I wished to live.

I tried Budapest. But that city, occupied by the Russian army, didn’t please me, so I mounted the train with the new aim of settling in Prague.

I had lived in Czechoslovakia until 1939, and, even at 13, I had realized that this country under the leadership of Masaryk and Benes was the most liberal democratic country in the known world. Prague was also a city with a long Jewish history, the Golem.

The Golem was a powerful humanlike clay creature believed to have been created by Rabbi Jehudah Loew ben Bezalel, known as the Maharal. He created the Golem to be the protector of the Jews, to save them from the harm that was generally inflicted on them, and especially to defend them

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against the infamous blood accusations of killing Christian children and using their blood to bake matzah.

Soon after my arrival in Prague, I

One Man’s Opinion

By Eugen Schoenfeld

visited the Alt-Neu (Old-New) Shul, the Maharal’s synagogue, and I climbed the stairs to the attic to visit the site where the Golem was decommissioned from a living entity into a lump of clay.

The tale relates that this clay man was clumsy and useless not only for the protection of the Jews, but also, based on the rebbetzin’s assessment, for household tasks. The Maharal had no option but to decommission him.

The Maharal took the Golem to the synagogue’s attic and returned him to his original form, a lump of clay.

Standing in the attic, I stared at the dirt-covered floor, seeking the

protrusion that would, according to the legend, indicate where the Golem became again a lump of clay. At one point I thought I saw a little rise in the floor, and I said to myself: “Ah-ha! This must be the remnant of the Golem.”

But how did the rabbi give life to this creature in the first place?

The legend relates that the rabbi fashioned a large man from clay and inserted into his mouth, under his tongue, a parchment on which G-d’s sacred and unpronounceable name was written — the name that G-d Himself used to create the universe.

But that was not sufficient. The rabbi needed one more item, an additional sacred force, to give life to the clay form. Using his finger, the rabbi inscribed on the creature’s forehead the Hebrew word emet, meaning truth, and the Golem came alive.

I believe that the inscription of the word truth indicates that humans as social beings cannot exist without truth. All we have to do is to erase the aleph, the first letter in emet, and we are left with the word met: death.

Social life without truth is death.

In the traditional prayer book, in the evening prayer after the three chapters of the Shema — the declaration of G-d’s unity, the injunction to obey the law and the use of tzitzit — a fourth paragraph begins with the words emet v’emunah: truth and faith.

These words reflect the association between the two concepts: Truth and faith are interrelated. Faith is a synonym for trust, so I can declare that only with truth can trust exist.

We Jews emphasize the essentiality of torat emet, to teach the truth. It is essential that what authorities tell us should be the truth. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, offered advice on the type of men Moses should pick for public service: “Select from the entire population men of valor, G-d-fearing men, truthful men, who despise bribes,” and these people should serve the nation.

Alas, we have failed to follow Jethro’s advice. We have gathered a government of people who believe that truth comes in different forms and can be altered and who do not believe in telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It seems that I again must be subject to a government operating under the belief that if you tell a big lie often enough, people will believe it to be the truth. As far as I see, the motto is “Give the public alternate truth.” Is this what we wish for this country?

Let me propose that the absence of truth leads to enslavement. The big lie led to the enslavement of the mind and to the Holocaust, and history can repeat itself.

I know that we are facing difficult social and economic conditions. Adult children live with their parents, and the future is more clouded than it has been in 80 years. Young and mature people alike lack the ability to foresee the future. We are losing the “if-then” propositions that we used in the past to make decisions for the future. Getting a college degree no longer means getting a good job.

The Germans faced similar conditions at the end of the 1920s.

Out of fear, they rejected reason and believed in a false messiah who, using lies, assured them that he alone could solve their problems. His slogan was Germany first.

It is time that we realize what Franklin D. Roosevelt taught us: The only thing to fear is fear itself. If we reject fear and again assume rationality, we can solve our problems and face the future with hope. ■

LOCAL NEWS

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

It’s not every day that Jewish Atlanta gets a chance to meet a Holocaust survivor who not only was a friend of Anne Frank’s, but also became her father’s stepdaughter after World War II. But it is something that will happen twice in less than two weeks.

Eva Schloss, who at age 87 is still going strong while living in London, is making 10 appearances across the United States, and two of them are in Roswell.

On Sunday, Feb. 19, she’ll join the Georgia Ensemble Theatre at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center for its onenight-only production of “And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank.” It’s a multimedia stage show she attended years ago, and she’s returning for the celebration of its 20th anniversary.

She’ll be back 10 days later at the Holiday Inn Roswell in a benefit appearance for Chabad of North Fulton and Chabad of Cobb. The spotlight will be entirely on Schloss as she talks about her Holocaust experiences, which were similar to Frank’s: Born in Vienna, she fled westward at age 9 to Belgium, then to Amsterdam, where the German invasion came in May 1940, three months after the Geiringer family arrived.

Schloss said she knew Frank for a couple of years in Amsterdam. They were friendly but not close. “She was quite a sophisticated little girl who was interested in boys.”

Like the Franks, the Geiringers went into hiding but were eventually betrayed and sent to Auschwitz. Eva and her mother didn’t have to go on a death march toward Germany before the Soviets liberated the camp Jan. 27, 1945, but her father and brother were forced on a hard march with other prisoners and died.

Schloss noted that Anne Frank’s boyfriend, Peter, had the chance to remain in Auschwitz as well but didn’t want to stay behind without her. “That was his mistake,” Schloss said. “You had to make all those choices. Some were good, some bad.”

What: “And Then They Came for Me” Where: Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19 Tickets: $10; get.org/family-stage

A good decision for Schloss was to go to London in 1951 to train as a professional photographer. While she was there, she met an Israeli named Zvi Schloss, and they fell in love and married in 1952. He wanted to return to Israel, but her mother wanted them closer and persuaded them to stay in London, where they Eva Schloss raised three daughters and have remained.

Elfriede Geiringer married Otto Frank in Amsterdam the next year and became a part of his work to share Anne’s diary with the world.

Eva Schloss, however, kept her silence about the Holocaust and acknowledged chafing a bit at being identified as Anne Frank’s stepsister until 1986, when a traveling Frank exhibit came to England. The organizer asked Schloss to speak, “and I realized it was important — people wanted to know.”

Her husband wrote that first speech, but she soon found her own words, to the point that she has written three books (signed copies of her autobiography will be available at the Chabad event). She has embraced her responsibility to bear witness, including talking about the Franks. She became friendly with the founding director of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, Sylvia Wygoda, and visited the state’s “Anne Frank in the World” exhibit when it was in Kennesaw.

“She was a very nice lady,” Schloss said of Wygoda.

She doesn’t have nice things to say about President Donald Trump, but she hopes he finds a way to make peace in Syria and Yemen so that people don’t have to flee their homes, just as she didn’t want to leave Austria back in 1938.

“The world hasn’t learned anything from the concerns of Auschwitz,” Schloss said, pointing to a rise in religious prejudice. “Now there are refugees all over, and nobody wants them.

It reminds me very much of our time.

We have to really change that. We can’t go on killing other people.” ■ What: Evening with Eva Schloss Where: Holiday Inn Roswell, 909 Holcomb Bridge Road, Roswell

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Anne Frank’s Stepsister Making Double Visit

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 1 Tickets: $18; 770-410-9000 or www. chabadnf.org/eva

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LOCAL NEWS

Pro-BDS Voice Gets to Speak for Jewish Community

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Atlanta has come a long way from the Jim Crow South to a vibrant city immersed in various cultures and religions. It has become a haven for those who seek a brighter future and those who wish to start a new life.

Every day Atlanta residents interact with multiple ethnicities and faiths with, one hopes, respect, understanding and curiosity. Like any other city, how Atlanta’s diverse communities accept and embrace one another will determine its path toward the future.

Faith-based communities and organizations are no exception, and while some have pioneered the building of bridges of understanding between religious and cultural communities, others have chosen a different route.

To address the challenges facing Atlanta’s diverse communities, Emory University’s Candler College of Theology and Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts held their third annual Leadership and Multifaith Pro-

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gram Symposium to foster interfaith dialogue on global migration.

The topic was prophetic, thanks to the Trump administration’s morato-

Reporters Notebook

By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com

rium on refugees, but the program was less successful at addressing political concerns during each workshop.

Deanna Womack, the LAMP director and a professor of history and multifaith relations at the Candler School, invited leaders from local organizations that work with refugees, such as Welcoming America and New American Pathways, to create workshops discussing asylum, refuge and relocation.

With limited resources, Womack consulted Compassionate Atlanta Executive Director Leanne Rubenstein to form a discussion panel on “Compassion in Action: An Interfaith

Photos by Sarah Moosazadeh Compassionate Atlanta Executive Director Leanne Rubenstein leads a discussion on “Compassion in Action: An Interfaith Response” with New American Pathways’ Safia Jama, Jewish Voice for Peace’s Ilise Cohen and Sustainable Wellness lifestyle transformation consultant Sonali Sadequee.

Response.” The dialogue was intended to foster communication among Atlanta leaders whose actions on behalf of immigrant and refugee communities are rooted in their respective faith traditions.

The workshop sought to link local and global responses to the refugee crisis by providing a glimpse of services available to refugees from faith-based organizations and steps needed to assist refugees in Atlanta and around the world.

Safia Jama, a department manager for New American Pathways, expressed her appreciation for synagogues and Jewish communities in Atlanta and worldwide for assisting Syrian refugees and her dissatisfaction with others who have not: “Why aren’t rich Middle Eastern countries taking in refugees when they have the means to do so?”

She said she had thought that “Jews were the enemy because that is what we were taught by our govern-

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ment, but then I met some Jews in Holland, and we became friends. I saw how much they helped incoming immigrants.”

LAMP Director Deanne Womack Jama began delivers opening her career with remarks at third New American annual symposium.

Pathways 17 years ago and has helped refugees in over 20 countries. As a widowed mother of nine and a refugee herself, she relates to the challenges refugees face. “Islamic tradition encourages one to provide food and shelter to those suffering injustice, irrespective of what religion they are — with the priority given to women and children.”

For a Jewish representative, other than herself as moderator, Rubenstein chose Ilise Cohen, who heads Jewish Voice for Peace’s Atlanta chapter.

Rubenstein coordinated with Womack on panelist suggestions and met with community members, but she knew some panel candidates, including Cohen, with whom she has been friends for a long time.

Rubenstein said Jews benefit from white privilege, and she wanted to take on the issues without being paternalistic.

“How do we stand with Muslims within this country when we as Jews were banned once before?” Rubenstein said.

“There is no one in the Jewish community doing anything specifically in refugee resettlement,” she said.

“JF&CS has a program to work with elderly refugees, and a couple of synagogues who have set up apartments, but other than that, I don’t know about anyone in the community that is assisting refugees.”

Rubenstein said the Atlanta Jewish community no longer has a resettlement program because no Jews are coming. HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, no longer has an affiliation with Jewish Family & Career Services. “I am open to other community leaders coming to hold a dialogue, but I don’t see any synagogues in the Jewish community taking an initiative to help refugees.”

(Temple Sinai member Kevin Abel, the vice chair of the New American Pathways board, has said his Sandy Springs congregation has enough donations and volunteers to make a sustained commitment to supporting refugees settled in the Atlanta area.)

“Ilise Cohen was chosen for a

number of different reasons” for the panel, Rubenstein said, “because JVP looks at refugee resettlement worldwide, and JVP works a lot with Islamophobia. I don’t see that in the Jewish community. I felt that there was no one else who could speak on that on behalf of the community.”

She added that she thinks every faith community had a representative speaking that group’s truth.

Cohen is a Middle East scholaractivist and Interfaith Peace Builders delegation leader, board member and former chair. She confronts white supremacy, state violence and works for justice for Palestinians.

The Evian Conference in 1938, at which only the Dominican Republic offered to accept Jewish refugees from Europe, had a dramatic influence on Cohen and stuck in her mind when the United States closed its doors to refugees seeking to escape persecution.

“I thought it was a critical moment of resistance,” Cohen said.

But the only refugees mentioned in the Jewish Voice for Peace mission statement are Palestinians. Sure enough, Cohen focused on Palestinians and the politics surrounding them during the LAMP panel on refugees. “The Palestinians were kicked

out and continue to live under refugee status in Israel. They are not treated like any other refugees and are still waiting for the 1948 armistice lines to live in Israel. … Palestinians have lost everything — the West Bank, Gaza — and have not been allowed to escape.”

Cohen addressed what the she believes Jews think of Palestinians: “Jews believe if Palestinians returned, there would no longer be a Jewish majority, and Jews don’t want to be in a pool.”

She also criticized Israel’s response to African asylum seekers.

“There are a lot of African individuals seeking asylum in Israel, and the country has refused them. Israel holds them in detention centers and does not absorb them. The state of Israel does not care or want to think about them.”

As part of its advocacy for Palestinians, JVP supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement but has little to say about non-Palestinian refugees in the United States.

Cohen’s rhetoric reached far beyond interfaith support for immigrants and went straight to politics when she was asked to relate the Jewish community to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians and refugees affected by the Trump executive order

are separate entities, but Cohen portrayed them as one and the same.

Not only did no one from the Jewish community present an alternative view to Cohen’s, but another voice, Louisa Merchant from All Saints’ Episcopal Church, removed herself from the panel to clear the way for the Muslim-Jewish dialogue. Rubenstein believes that Christian voices too often dominated discussions between Muslims and Jews.

Judy Marx, who serves as a community engagement co-chair of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and executive director of Interfaith Community Initiatives, attended the workshop and said she enjoyed the panelists’ stories and the pushback from their own communities.

Marx said she would have stopped Cohen from making some of her comments, but the symposium wanted someone from the Jewish left.

For future symposiums, Womack and Rubenstein would do well to invite community leaders who embrace cooperation over conflict and seek to balance peace among faith-based communities and organizations. Atlanta has set the pace for acceptance and led the fight for inclusion for many years; it shouldn’t stop now. ■

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

LOCAL NEWS

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LOCAL NEWS

Photo by Sarah Moosazadeh

University of Pennsylvania associate professor Heather Sharkey notes that the Middle East’s landscape has changed over the centuries.

Migration Transforms America, Middle East

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“Massive shifts in population and human rights have led to a desire for change,” Dean Jacqueline Royster of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech said at the Leadership and Multifaith Program Symposium, held in conjunction with the Candler School of Theology at Emory.

Atlanta’s demographics have changed, she noted, but this region wants to be the champion of national values, whether on race, gender or religion. To address the shift in migration from Muslim countries and examine the waves of emigration from the Middle East, LAMP presented a workshop on migration and the Middle East that was led by Heather Sharkey of the University of Pennsylvania.

In the late 19th century, populations of Chechens, Georgians, Circassians and Tatars were driven out of Crimea by the expansion of Russian power. The displaced people moved to the Middle East and settled in what is now Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Israel, among other countries. Over time, these newcomers assimilated.

Meanwhile, large numbers of immigrants escaped the Ottoman Empire and sought refuge in the Americas, including Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. Pogroms throughout the Russian Empire in the 1800s compelled Jewish communities to relocate to Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Morocco.

Immigration policies became far stricter after World War II, setting tighter barriers against Asians and Middle Easterners.

Various factors, including religious and sectarian tensions, contributed to the movement of these populations. Among them were Jews who experienced strains in relationships with their Muslim neighbors.

Deteriorating economic conditions in the Ottoman Empire and land

shortages led to further surges of immigration, including 1.2 million people trying to avoid being drafted into the military, Sharkey said. Single women who relocated after 1900 sought employment and prospective husbands overseas.

In due course, American and Middle Eastern experiences became intertwined, and authors such as Mark Twain sought to counteract Orientalism with books like “The Innocents Abroad.” People from the Middle East, such as Lebanese-American artist, writer and poet Kahlil Gibran and Sufi poets Hafez and Rumi, shared their culture through stories about immigration.

“Much of the Middle East’s landscape has changed over time,” Sharkey said, as has its influence.

Dubai, for example, has become a thriving metropolis among vast desert dunes. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, Los Angeles experienced waves of Persian immigrants who brought their culture and traditions.

Following in the footsteps of Jewish peddlers, people from all over the globe spread across the American landscape as artisans, carpenters and restaurant owners.

Not everyone who immigrated to the United States settled, however; many returned home because of lost jobs or national quotas such as the Johnson-Reed Act in 1924 and the HartCeller Act in 1965.

Those who were most violently uprooted, however, remained in their new land. “Global interconnectedness between the Middle East and America weaved a rich tapestry of pride and conviction for one’s culture,” Sharkey said, and that’s important to remember moving forward.

“The past is usable to us in that it tells us where we have been and where are we going,” she said. “The past offers a sense of comfort and experience in understanding how our country’s history is intertwined.” ■

LOCAL NEWS

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Kayongo: Refugees Fuel Marketplace of Skills Most immigrants leave their home country because of a regime change or loss of economic stability, National Center for Civil and Human Rights CEO Derreck Kayongo said during the third annual Leadership and Multifaith Program Symposium in Atlanta on Monday, Feb. 6.

The program, examining multifaith and community responses to asylum, refuge and relocation, provides community leaders, religious organizations and students the opportunity to connect with local organizations that work with refugees. The event is a collaboration between the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech and Candler School of Theology at Emory.

Kayongo and his associate director, Harold J. Berman Fellow Silas Allard, presented the keynote address on how the legal power of protecting rights expands the marketplace.

Kayongo’s path to refugee status started when Gen. Idi Amin Dada seized power in Uganda through a military coup in 1971. For the next eight years, Amin persecuted the Lango and Acholi ethnic groups in retaliation for exiles’ attempt to invade Uganda.

Kayongo and his family lived a comfortable life until one of Amin’s men entered their apartment one night and shouted for them to get out. Amin’s soldiers selected four men and lined them up for a firing squad to retaliate for the death of a soldier.

“We were killing for stupid things,” Kayongo said. “Neighbors were turning on each other to place the blame. Can you imagine your neighbor turning on you?”

Kayongo witnessed a man who had just arrived in the village take the blame for everyone with one gunshot.

Kayongo and his family then escaped to Kenya before immigrating to the United States.

He went on to graduate from the Fletcher School of Law at Tufts University and received a CNN Hero award for his Global Soap Project. “People gave me a chance in the United States, and I can’t imagine where I would be without that.”

Kayongo is proud to live in America and believes that this country’s history is woven with immigrants’ stories.

Immigrants add value to the places where they settle and bring skills and knowledge, which Kayongo referred to as the marketplace. Legal barriers to

Photo by Sarah Moosazadeh

National Center for Civil and Human Rights CEO Derreck Kayongo (left) and Associate Director and Harold J. Berman Fellow in Law and Religion Silas Allard discuss how the legal power to protect immigrants’ rights applies to the marketplace.

immigration damage the global marketplace.

“How much culture, infrastructure and diversity did Germany lose when it senselessly murdered Jewish doctors, attorneys, artists and musicians?” Kayongo said, wondering how long it would take to retrain people in those fields.

Since the Trump administration’s executive orders restricting immigration and refugees, courts and legal scholars have wrestled with the law.

President Donald Trump said he would not appeal a circuit court ruling that blocked his order addressing seven majority-Muslim countries and all refugees.

Allard responded to Kayongo’s address.

Allard is a member of the advisory committee of the Georgia Immigration Working Group, and his research focuses on the ethics of migration policy.

He considers the rule of law to be a system of power, and when it is exercised arbitrarily, the rule of law breaks down.

“The executive order that was passed by the new administration has an arbitrary element,” Allard said, which can do more harm than good.

“The administration selected seven countries seemingly arbitrarily even though there are other countries who have problems with governance and violence; the administration’s criteria do not appear to hold up.”

The Obama administration enacted a temporary visa waiver program in 2015 on Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan and later added Libya, Yemen and Somalia — the seven countries Trump targeted.

People migrate frequently; that’s part of the human experience. But Allard said the law looks at those crossing borders in a different way. Asked whether the Unites States has a right to protect its citizens’ security, he said,

“Although we should be cognizant of citizens’ rights to safety and security, we must consider the administration passed the ban off fear. It was not empathetic to welcoming and embracing other people.”

Representatives of organizations that work with refugees also spoke about global partnerships and faithbased local solutions for refugees.

Ilise Cohen, who leads Jewish Voice for Peace in Atlanta and helps coordinate the Jews of Color/Sephardi/

Mizrahi caucus partnering with JVP, said: “Israel destroyed the Palestinian economy. They warehouse Palestinian labor, and the population is not protected at all.”

Kayongo said she was raising a policy issue, and he did not wish to go into details about the conflict. But he addressed the need to speak up about disadvantages in the marketplace, such as jobs lost by Palestinians when the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which JVP supports, pressures a company to close a factory in the West Bank.

America has remained a destination of hope for those seeking refuge for centuries, but “I’m not going to be a refugee again,” Kayongo said. “I’m proud of this country because I have heard so many bad stories turn out well and have a positive outcome. It’s not easy being a refugee, but we are relying on you for help.

“This is the perfect opportunity for people to ask themselves, are you still alive? Are you still awake? It’s an opportunity to know your identity and a chance to become even stronger.” ■

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com

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LOCAL NEWS

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Kosher Elevated to Match Refined Chabad Honorees

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Close to 600 oenophiles and gourmet revelers flocked to Mason Fine Art on Thursday, Feb. 2, to honor Rita and Michael LeVine and Yaarit and Ian Silverstone at Kosher Food and Wine Atlanta.

Thirty vendor displays rivaled a New York or Chicago showing of the ultimate in kosher wine and food. Chabad of Georgia coordinated the one-night festival, mirroring its premiere in Atlanta in August 2015. Rabbi Yisrael New engineered the event.

Before the main event, the Silverstones and LeVines were adored by the crowd at the sponsors dinner. Sandra Bank of A Kosher Touch, the honoree at the first Kosher Food and Wine Atlanta, once again outdid herself with several stations.

My favorites were a buffet-style ahi tuna bowl with toppings and sauces, then spring chicken and an avocado slaw.

“Tonight is a reflection of the growth and community outreach of Chabad in Atlanta in all walks of life,”

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Rabbi Yossi New said.

He greeted the sponsors and toasted the honorees by reminding us that the Jewish people were instructed to have lunar and solar calendars. He

Jaffe’s Jewish Jive

By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com

compared the constancy of the sun to the LeVines, “who serve the community day in and day out,” while the moon parallels the Silverstones, “who demonstrate humility and reflect light.”

The honorees were given exquisite metal candlestick platters.

Rita LeVine, a former president of the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, said she feels good about the work of Chabad, and her own cup “overflows with so much of life’s goodness.”

Her husband, named the 2016 Premier Physician of the Year by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, said,

Photos by J. Braxton Photography

Rabbi Yossi New and Dassie New flank honorees Michael and Rita LeVine (standing) and Ian and Yaarit Silverstone.

“After 47 years of marriage, you won’t have to hear more from me.”

Yaarit Silverstone, a managing director with Accenture and a board member of the Atlanta United Way, said, “Chabad provides a haven for give and take, a map of responsibility for us to pass along to our children in an increasingly complex world.”

During the sponsor reception, Bev

Darryl Lewis prepares liquidnitrogenfrozen, nondairy ice cream.

Lewyn said, “Yaarit is one of the most brilliant and warm women I have met.”

Marc Lewyn added, “Ian is a loyal friend, a brilliant businessman, and, most importantly, a relentless philanthropist.”

Ian Silverstone is the CEO of homebuilder Waters Edge Group.

Lynne Halpern, dressed in a stunning tangerine coat dress, said: “Rita is so deserving. Her gift is serving as a connection for and with the Jewish community.”

The main gallery opened at 7 p.m. with new vendors. The offerings included stir fry (Kosher Gourmet), teriyaki salmon (Julie’s), a mile-high, colorful assortment of sweets with tiramisu (The Spicy Peach), healthy juices (Arden’s Garden), a soup bar (Bijan), and a gallery of even more wines (Royal Wine).

A novel display was liquid nondairy cream frozen into ice cream with nitrogen. The chocolate-chip mint was divine.

Wolfgang Puck, Cotton Cravings, FuegoMundo, Avenue K, Ali’s Cookies, Classic Pita, Chai Peking, Dolce and Goza Tequila also helped ensure that no one left hungry.

The event showed the elegance and beauty of keeping kosher. It’s not just Manischewitz anymore. ■

LOCAL NEWS

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Purim off Ponce Honors ‘Dynamic Duo’ Two stalwarts of Atlanta’s Jewish community are being honored at the upcoming Purim off Ponce party for their work in support of SOJOURN: Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender & Sexual Diversity.

Rabbis Pamela Gottfried and Michael Bernstein will each be presented with the Michael Jay Kinsler Rainmaker Award at the event Saturday, Feb. 25.

“They both individually have such a rich influence on their communities,” SOJOURN Executive Director Rebecca Stapel-Wax said. “Whereas Rabbi Gottfried is a teacher in school and Rabbi Bernstein is the spiritual leader of a congregation, their history of supporting LGBT rights and equality isn’t dissimilar. So having them as a dynamic duo is a terrific announcement to the world. This level of commitment goes through all denominations.”

Rabbi Bernstein, who leads Congregation Gesher L’Torah in Alpharetta, is a longtime advocate for equality.

“The voices that have been raised come from every religious type, from different perspectives and political positions, so obviously, while there are those that take another view, the coalition of those who say this is a fundamental civil right goes across the spectrum,” he said.

Stapel-Wax said it is difficult for the two honorees to be in a position of authority while speaking out for a group “that has been historically scrutinized and oppressed. It’s only in the last 10 years that the Conservative movement has been relatively accepting of gay and lesbian people. So much has changed in that time, yet they (Rabbis Gottfried and Bernstein) have always been these comforting and accepting human beings.”

Both rabbis have actively opposed religious liberty legislation the past couple of years in the Georgia General Assembly. Such measures have been criticized by LGBTQ and civil rights organizations for potentially legalizing discrimination against LGBTQ people and others.

Rabbi Gottfried, the dean of Jewish studies and student life at the Weber School in Sandy Springs, has counseled students on sexual and identity matters since moving here from New York in 1999.

“Kids who were coming out would come to me for pastoral care. ‘I can’t tell my parents,’ that sort of thing,” she

said. “For a long time I had Robbie Medwed (SOJOURN’s former education director) and Rebecca as my go-to people to make sure I was doing it right. I had Rebecca Photo by Kevin Madigan on speed dial. I knew Rabbi Pamela what I was doing, but Gottfried speaks I was working a lot at a rally against religious liberty with students who legislation at the were coming into Georgia Capitol their own and coming in February 2016. out of the closet and looking for guidance.”

One of those seeking counsel

turned out to be Rabbi Gottfried’s own daughter, Shira. “It was totally different when it was someone else’s teenager,” the rabbi said. “It became Rabbi Michael personal that year and a really meaningBernstein participates in ful connection.” the opening of She said the Puthe Metro Atlanta rim award from SOCommunity Mikvah in JOURN “was a comNovember 2015. plete surprise. We did all these protests and things down at the Capitol because we would do them anyway and never ex-

pected to be honored.”

Stapel-Wax said Purim off Ponce, SOJOURN’s biggest fundraiser each year, is important “because we need to have joy. They cannot take away our fun or our successes. It’s a time when people get together and put their stake in the sand and say, ‘This is who we are, and we’re not going anywhere.’ ” ■ What: Purim off Ponce’s 11th anniversary When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 Where: Le Fais do-do, 1161 Ellsworth Industrial Ave., Atlanta Tickets: $75 in advance or $100 at the door, with sponsorships beginning at $300; sojourngsd.org/purim

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

By Kevin Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com

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BUSINESS

Soho Café and Bakery reopened Jan. 17.

Soho Reopens

Soho Café and Bakery in Sandy Springs reopened Jan. 17 after a remodel.

The eatery, which closed for the renovations in November, has a new executive chef and an updated menu.

In addition to New York-style bagels and pastries, Soho now offers hot and cold sandwiches and a salad bar with 34 ingredients and unlimited toppings.

Soho, at 334 Sandy Springs Circle, close to the City Springs development, is open Monday through Saturday for breakfast and lunch.

Keith’s Now Kosher

Keith Marks has been one of the driving forces behind the annual Atlanta Kosher BBQ Competition, and since he launched his own barbecue catering truck in 2015, he has offered the option of going kosher for events.

Now Keith’s Corner Bar-B-Que has gone one step further, gaining Atlanta Kosher Commission certification for the ribs, brisket, chicken and other items Marks serves up through his onsite catering for special events. Marks can be reached at keithscornerbbq@ gmail.com.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Paran Homes Names Rosenberg President

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Duluth-based builder Paran Homes named Michael Rosenberg company president in December.

Rosenberg is managing the dayto-day operations of Paran in building more than 20 residential communities in metro Atlanta, Raleigh, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn.

Rosenberg brings with him more than 20 years in the real estate and residential construction industry.

“When I first met with Paran Homes’ CEO, Whit Marshall, it was clear that we are on the same page regarding what a home builder should be and how best to serve home buyers in the Southeast,” Rosenberg said. “Joining the Paran team presents me with a unique opportunity to help take this company to the next level. In addition to the fact that prospects abound for growth in Atlanta’s hot housing market, I’m excited to be involved with two

other healthy Southern markets, Raleigh and Nashville.”

He has worked for Ashton Woods as director of sales and marketing, Winmark Homes as vice president of sales and marketing, Rocklyn Homes as senior vice president, and Acadia Homes as vice president of operations and chief operations officer. Most recently he was the Atlanta Division president Michael of Taylor Morrison, Rosenberg which bought Acadia Homes in early 2016.

“We are very proud to add a leader of Michael’s caliber to our team,” Marshall said. “Not only does he share our vision of pairing value with craftsmanship and customer service excellence; he has a proven track record of taking young homebuilding companies to the next level. We know where we want to go, and he knows how to help us get there. He’s joining us at an exciting and promising time of growth for our company.”

Paran Homes, founded in 2010, has three new communities planned in the first quarter of this year and three more later in 2017, including two active-adult developments.

Booker Promotions Named Partner of the Year

Promotional products distributor Booker Promotions was recently named Partner of the Year by technology services provider Facilisgroup.

Booker Promotions, which is owned by Scott Moscow, John G. Hiles Jr. and Neil Kalnitz, is one of the largest promotional products distributors in Georgia and is nearly 100 years old.

Booker was honored by Facilisgroup for sales growth, support of preferred suppliers and use of best practices through Facilisgroup’s software.

“We are proud to receive this honor that recognizes the hard work our team has put in over the past year,” Moscow said. “The growth we attained is a tremendous accomplishment, and Facilisgroup’s tools and support definitely helped us to achieve this success.”

Two sales representatives from Booker were honored by Facilisgroup at its awards ceremony in Las Vegas.

Grace Hiles-Pack and Shimon Kaminetzky were named members of the Achiever’s Club. Their individual sales levels place them in the top 10 percent of Facilisgroup’s 800-plus sales associates.

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FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

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LOCAL NEWS

Sunday Fun Day for the Trees

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Because Tu B’Shevat fell on Shabbat this year, the 16th of Shevat (the day after the holiday that marks the new year of the trees) became the prime day for celebratory outdoor activities related to nature. Two of the most popular events were JNFuture’s Tu Beer’Shvat, which involved trail maintenance on the property of the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in the morning and adult beverages in the afternoon, and the tree planting organized by Trees Atlanta and Tu B’Shvat ATL at the Carter Center property in the afternoon. The afternoon tree planting, a longtime Trees Atlanta tradition on Tu B’Shevat, welcomed people of all ages and, as usual, drew a strong contingent of families with young children eager to dig in the dirt. Tu Beer’Shvat, on the other hand, targeted Jews in their 20s and 30s under the auspices of Jewish National Fund’s young professionals group.

Photographer Eli Gray attended both events on behalf of the AJT. On this page are his photos from the JNFuture gathering. Page 23 has photos from the Tu B’Shvat ATL planting. ■

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FEBRUARY 17 â–ª 2017

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EDUCATION The members of the MAAC champion Epstein Eagles are (back row, from left) Simon Gersten, Ben Fox, Isaac Jaye, Jordan Shoob, Max Young, Jaron Holzer and Coach Howard Galloway and (front row, from left) Harris Dankberg, Aaron Bock, Mitchell Cohen, Gray Schneider and Kiefer Sturisky.

Epstein Boys Win MAAC The Epstein School’s A boys basketball team won the Metro Atlanta Athletic Conference Division 1 championship with a 37-25 win over the Galloway School.

TDSA Boys Take Division 2

The victory completed an undefeated season for the Eagles.

“It has been a great season,” said James Battoglia, affectionately known as Coach B. “Everyone really worked hard and came together as a team. It was a very exciting game.”

The Torah Day School of Atlanta Middle School boys varsity basketball team won the Metro Atlanta Athletic Conference Division 2 championship for the second consecutive season.

The Thunder survived a shot at the buzzer by Atlanta Jewish Academy to win the title game 40-39 on Jan. 25. Torah Day trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half but seized the lead in the third quarter.

The Thunder, coached by Rabbi Michoel Alterman, reached the championship on a buzzer-beating threepointer by Mordy Lindenblatt that produced a 40-39 semifinal victory.

Other members of the team are Dovi Fleshel, Shmuel Horowitz, Yacov Ingber, Dovid Pearlman, Elijah Pelishev, Avi Weiden and Eli Zeiger.

AA, JCC Volunteer Is STAR

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Senior Jeremy Colton is this year’s Student Teacher Achievement Recognition student at Riverwood International Charter School, based on results on the SAT Jeremy Colton and class rank, the Sandy Springs school has announced.

Jeremy, the son of Jonathan and Rachael Colton, chose science teacher Rama Balachandran as his STAR teacher “because I’ve really enjoyed how she brings physics to life in the classroom.”

Jeremy plans to major in mechanical engineering in college. He has been accepted to Georgia Tech and lists MIT, Vanderbilt, Penn and Carnegie Mellon among his top choices.

He has the highest SAT score in his Riverwood class and scored a perfect 36 on the ACT. He is a National Merit Scholar semifinalist, a Presidential Scholars Program candidate and an AP Scholar With Honor and received the Georgia Certificate of Merit. He won the

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Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal for Excellence in math and science.

Jeremy founded Riverwood’s Ultimate Frisbee club. He volunteers as a teaching assistant at Ahavath Achim Synagogue’s religious school and as a counselor at the Marcus Jewish Community Center. He tutors other students in math and science.

Balachandran said she’s “fortunate to have observed his maturity of thought and reasoning, his ability to not get carried away by successes, and above all his trustworthiness and dependability as a lab aide and a peer tutor.”

Weber Also Names STAR Weber School senior Ross Williams has earned the distinction of being the school’s STAR student, based on having the top SAT score in the class and ranking among the top 10 students.

The son of Randi and Mitchell Williams chose technology instructor Michael Chalmers as his STAR teacher. Two years ago, “after witnessing Ross Williams another STAR student and STAR teacher be chosen, I remember going to Dr. Chalmers’ office and stating that if I ever get STAR student, I would choose him. Far-fetched at the time,” Ross said.

He said Chalmers helped him start the robotics club and got him involved in a Rube Goldberg project Weber participated in. Ross’ extracurriculars also include Odyssey of the Mind and Safe Cracking, and he’s busy with Magic the Gathering and water sports.

“We know that he is destined for great things,” said Joy Gray Prince, Weber’s dean of college advising.

Ross is deciding between Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech for college, then plans to pursue industrial engineering.

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The Pop Ups keep the crowd dancing and clapping along at the Davis Academy on Jan. 29.

Popping Up in PJs

The Pop Ups — the Brooklyn-based duo of Jason Rabinowitz and Jacob Stein — drew more than 120 families of preschoolers and a total of about 400 people to the Davis Academy on Sunday, Jan. 29, for a concert hosted by PJ Library with the help of the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival.

Nathan Brodsky, the PJ Library engagement associate for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, said more than 80 percent of the attendees participated in PJ Library before enjoying The Pop Ups’ mix of electro-pop children’s music and puppetry, and he said that percentage will rise now that more of the families have connected with PJ Library. ■

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CAMPS

Photos by David R. Cohen A pasta-making workshop is a hands-on activity Sunday afternoon.

Ramah Darom retreat center program director Emily Kaiman caps off Shabbat by leading Havdalah.

A Farm-Filled Tu B’Shevat

A warm February weekend set the stage for the first Farm to Table Tu B’Shevat festival at the Kaplan Mitchell Retreat Center at Ramah Darom. Activities from Feb. 10 to 12 were geared toward celebrating the new year of the trees by experiencing ways attendees could facilitate sustainability in their everyday lives. All meals during the festival were prepared with locally sourced kosher food

by Ramah Darom executive chef Todd Jones and Souper Jenny Levison. Staff from Ramah were joined by facilitators who hosted sessions and workshops each day of the retreat, including a Tu B’Shevat seder on Saturday night. A green festival Sunday was open to people who couldn’t spend the whole weekend in Clayton. ■ Mixologist Robbie Medwed takes on the role of bartender and crafts an array of locally sourced cocktails.

All the food served during the weekend was organic and locally sourced.

On the final day of the retreat, participants help plant a fruit orchard at Ramah Darom with help from Atlanta-based farming entrepreneur Jonathan Tescher.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

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The Green Park was considered the classiest of England’s Jewish hotels in the 1950s and 1960s.

‘Green Park’ Getaway Reminiscent of Ramah When Jews descended on the Catskills during summers in the middle of the 20th century, “they wanted to be sporty and American,” filmmaker Marsha Lee said, but when their British contemporaries gathered at the fabled Green Park hotel in Bournemouth, England, “they wanted to be queen.”

Lee was speaking after the screening of “The Green Park” on Monday night, Feb. 13, at Lefont Sandy Springs as part of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Lee, who married into the family that owned the kosher beachfront hotel from 1943 until it was sold and demolished in 1986, had the idea for the documentary and was one of its producers.

Ramah Darom sponsored the screening because of the parallels between the cultural role the Green Park and similar hotels played for British Jews then and the role Jewish retreat centers provide in America today, said Eliana Leader, the director of the Kaplan Mitchell Retreat Center at Ramah Darom.

The programs at Ramah, just as the vacations at the Green Park did, provide an opportunity for Jews to stop worrying about being in a minority group assimilating into society at large.

More than three decades after the Green Park closed because British Jews increasingly traveled abroad, including to Israel, and decreasingly felt as outsiders because of wider acceptance in society, Lee said the Anglo-Jewish community feels the absence of that kind of gathering place. “We want this back,” she said people tell her. “We want to have this again.”

Still, Lee said it took someone like her, who isn’t from England, to recognize that there was a story to tell about the hotel and the people who worked and stayed there — especially the

many married couples who met there.

She said it’s also no accident that director Justin Hardy and screenwriter Jack Fishburn aren’t Jewish; they could see the hotel as part of the miraculous story of how Jews still exist after thousands of years. They also recognized the Green Park’s history as a love story.

The most difficult technical challenge in making the movie, she said, was “the British Jew.” People in Anglo-Jewish society, Lee said, just want to keep their heads down and carry on. ■

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FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Hawks Camps Typify Community Commitment

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The Atlanta Hawks are supporting two day camps at the Marcus Jewish Community Center this summer: a basketball camp, open to second- through eighth-graders for three one-week sessions, and a sports broadcasting camp, offered to third- through eighth-graders for two one-week sessions.

But those camps aren’t about branding or money. Hawks CEO Steve Koonin explained during an appearance at a luncheon session of the Jewish Breakfast Club on Wednesday, Feb. 8, that those camps, as well as the Hawks dance camp, youth league programs and other initiatives, are part of the NBA team’s effort to cultivate a sense of community in metro Atlanta.

“Building Bridges Through Basketball is one of the things that gets me most excited and I’m extremely proud of,” Koonin said.

He said new majority owner Tony Ressler sees the Hawks as a community asset, which is why he has invested heavily in the Hawks Foundation for big, audacious projects.

One of those projects is an initiative to build 25 community basketball courts by 2018 in areas ranging from the Marcus JCC to some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Nine courts have been completed, and Koonin said six more will be done this year.

Most of the people served by those courts not only will never buy a season ticket, but probably will never go to a game, Koonin said. “But we look at these courts as building a town square.”

Truancy and crime are down in every neighborhood where the Hawks have installed a court, and the team has followed up with other services, such as vision van that offers free eye exams and provides free glasses to those who need them.

“Everything we’re doing is through the lens of basketball,” Koonin said.

“Touching kids at the Marcus Jewish Community Center playing basketball, kids playing basketball, youth leagues playing basketball, that’s the best way,” he added.

With Koonin as CEO and Ressler’s ownership group in place, the Hawks have made dramatic gains in social media, television ratings, ticket sales and attendance. The Hawks have risen from 29th to first in popularity for video game players. Hawks merchandise “has become incredibly popular,” Koonin said.

But the Hawks item that typifies

Photos by David R. Cohen The good side of the racist email from the old Hawks ownership, Steve Koonin says, is that it led to the sale to great ownership.

the team’s approach in contrast to the rest of the league actually takes away from the bottom line: shoelaces.

“The shoelaces symbolize another piece: inclusion,” Koonin said.

The team sells 16 versions of boltgreen, Hawks-branded shoelaces for $2. No other team does that, Koonin said, and the laces cost more than $2 to manufacture. But, recognizing that Atlanta has the greatest economic disparity of any big city in the country, team management was determined to offer officially licensed merchandise for $2 and not force fans to spend $150 on a jersey or $200 on shoes to show their Hawks pride.

“We want every kid in Atlanta growing up to be part of the Hawks brand, to touch it, to wear it, to display it and to be able to feel included by” it, he said.

That inclusion rises above kids’ feet. The Hawks are the only team among 122 in North American majorleague sports with a chief diversity and inclusion officer, and the team creates merchandise to fit specific communities, such as a rainbow-colored line for the Pride parade and festival.

“I’m not supporting Jewish causes and doing Jewish dinners and doing Jewish fundraisers,” Koonin said. “But one of the biggest programs we have is with the MJCC, where we run a Hawks camp and Hawks dance camp.”

The most audacious program is still to come: The Hawks, led by Ressler’s brother, Richard, want to rebuild downtown, using the revival of Los Angeles as the model. The plan includes buying the Gulch and bringing in residents and retail so that downtown has a heart.

Koonin said the team doesn’t need any public money, just a commitment for police substations and traffic management. “We’re raring to go.” ■

ARTS

Photos by Kaylene Ladinsky

Amelia Andrews shows the drawing that earned her runner-up recognition among 10- to 12-year-olds.

For Evie Carmel, a runner-up in the 6-and-under category, Chanukah is too festive for only nine candles.

Toasting the Artists

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

Several of the winners from the Atlanta Jewish Times’ Chanukah Art Contest gathered for a reception in their honor Sunday, Feb. 12, at contest sponsor Binders Art Supplies and Frames in Buckhead. The young artists received their prizes, got their creations back and shared a cookie cake from Ali’s Cookies with their families. See more reception photos at atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com, and look for entry forms for the contest for Chanukah 5778 in late October.

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ARTS

People who changed America in their lifetimes, such as filmmaker Elia Kazan, Martin Luther King Jr., Ray Charles and Elvis Presley, are also bringing chances in death through nostalgia for their accomplishments.

Bob Bahr leads a six-week exploration of the role of music and movies in the making of the civil rights movement starting Feb. 22 at The Temple.

Look Back in Longing Artistic nostalgia proves popular in Atlanta amid political unease

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

By Bob Bahr

30

The year is still young, but 2017 already is becoming a year for the Atlanta Jewish community to look to the past.

We are awash in nostalgia.

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, which was set to conclude Wednesday night, Feb. 15, always gives a vigorous nod to history. But the 17th festival seemed to revel in the past.

The opening night film, “Alone in Berlin,” took us back 75 years to the first half of World War II to speak clearly about the importance of the individual in a world beset by Nazi moral tyranny.

The festival included a recently discovered and reconstructed conversation from almost 50 years ago with the first Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in retirement, then screened a fascinating replay of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s European championship basketball season of 40 years ago.

There was a documentary about racial hypocrisy at the 1936 Olympics, another about the big hit song from 1930, “Body and Soul,” and a look back at a long-neglected rock ’n’ roll hitmaker, Bert Berns, who died 50 years ago.

For one of the three retro screenings, the festival chose “Radio Days,” a Woody Allen film that fondly remembers the golden age of radio at the end of the 1930s and start of the 1940s.

Another was a 1982 film, “My Favorite Year,” affectionately recalling the early days of television in the 1950s.

Looking at that narrow slice of the dozens of films screened during the

three weeks of the festival might give you the impression that the AJFF programmers were aiming at an insignificant demographic. But all those journeys back in time were well attended, and some were sold out.

In 2017 nostalgia sells.

Part of the reason the past is such a hot market is that America is getting older. It has been 60 years since Elvis Presley shook up national television on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1956 and changed American popular culture forever.

The baby boomers who crowded living rooms for that first performance still wield significant influence in an America that is growing older.

We have a new 70-year-old president who rode to the White House on a promise to take us back to a simpler time.

Based on demographic projections, the number of Americans in their 70s will grow by 50 percent in the next 10 years and by more than 80 percent by 2035.

As our population ages, so does an appreciation of the movies, music and other cultural influences we grew up with. The past just looks better. The certainties of what we knew growing up look more appealing than the uncertainties we face in this new year.

It is not just baby boomers who have a keen interest in the past; nostalgia has gotten a scholarly makeover.

It has its own college textbooks. Scholarly research on nostalgia has become the source for academic programs on a growing number of college campuses.

Marketers have tapped into the

ARTS them afraid.”

Popular music and a new generation of entertainers also carried that message to a national audience poised to remake America in the decades to come. The role Jews played in shaping that important conversation was significant and widespread.

On Sunday, March 19, the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum and Theatrical Outfit are presenting “Some Kind of Wonderful: Rock Music From 19561966” to remember the contributions of Jewish artists during that tumultuous period of social change.

What has become the stuff of nostalgia was, in the hands of a generation a half-century ago, the inspiration for the revolutionary ways in which Americans lived and worked together.

Bringing the events of the late 1950s back into focus, it’s hoped, not only will revive the memories of those who lived through that time, but also will help shake up a new generation that might not be fully aware of the achievements of the past. ■ Bob Bahr begins a six-week course at The Temple on Wednesday, Feb. 22, that is open to the public, “Movie, Music and Spirit — The Southern Roots of An American Revolution 1945-1960.”

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

past to sell everything from automobiles to kitchen appliances to chewing gum.

All this interest in the past may be bringing us to a better understanding of what lies ahead. The way we think and feel about the past could guide us to a smarter future.

That must surely be part of the goal of two new creative offerings in the next month.

The first is the Alliance Theatre’s new production of “The Temple Bombing,” which opens Wednesday, Feb. 22.

This highly anticipated adaptation of Melissa Fay Greene’s best seller of the same name is about the explosion that rocked The Temple in Midtown in the early hours of Oct. 12, 1958.

The blast caused no casualties but shook up the city of Atlanta for years to come.

The Temple’s spiritual leader at the time, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, whose outspoken support for civil rights made the synagogue a target, was prophetic in his response.

He roused his congregants on the Shabbat after the bombing by proclaiming that “all of us together shall rear from the rubble of devastation a city and a land in which all men are truly brothers and none shall make

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ARTS

Accessing Diversity at the Film Festival I may have been the last Jewish person under 40 in Atlanta who hadn’t been to an ACCESS- sponsored event. But no more. The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival’s young professionals night, presented by ACCESS, on Saturday, Feb. 11, was my first.

Walking into a large room at the Woodruff Arts Center that was filled with people of different ethnicities

The Social

By Rachel Fayne Gruskin

and cultures gathered in groups and chatting with drinks in their hands was no doubt different from most Jewish events I’ve attended.

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In the hour of socializing before the film began, I met someone from the National Black Arts Festival, chatted with a representative from Muslims for Progressive Values, introduced myself to a visitor from the German Cultural Center, and accidentally spilled wine on a Jewish founder of Goza Tequila.

It was a busy night.

While the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival might be self-explanatory in its title, I wasn’t familiar with ACCESS, the young professional organization of American Jewish Committee, and why as a Jewish organization it was sponsoring such a seemingly diverse event.

As most Jewish people under 40 can tell you, there’s no shortage of organizations for us around town, and it can be difficult to keep track. What sets ACCESS apart is specifically the community building it does among different religious and cultural groups around Atlanta.

For this event, ACCESS partnered with 15 organizations representing everything from LGBTQ to German to Muslim to African-American to Jewish people around the community. ACCESS has a variety of events throughout the year that reflect that kind of inclusive nature.

Brandon Goldberg, a member of the steering committee for ACCESS, said: “We focus on policies and what those plans mean for different communities. Most of our events have a learning component of some kind and focus on community building while engaging the community.”

That was evident in the film chosen for the night, and close to every seat in the 420-person theater was taken. Representatives from the film festival and ACCESS selected “Family Commitments,” a film with its share of warring ethnicities and family dysfunction.

Jewish David and Arab Khaled (Maximilian von Pufendorf and Omar El-Saeidi) attempt to shatter the taboos of a same-sex marriage in middle-class German society. The complexities of family and tradition thicken the plot, but all is seen through a multicultural lens.

It was an apt film for the theme of the night, and as ACCESS continues to do more around Atlanta to promote inclusion and diversity throughout the community, I’ll likely be at more events.

“It’s not just about getting people together,” Goldberg said. “It’s about getting people together to make a difference.” ■

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Photo by Rachel Fayne Gruskin

Enjoying young professionals night at the film festival are (from left) event cochair Maddie Cook, Julia Katz, Dina Fuchs-Beresin, Gabby Leon, event co-chair Mark Spatt, Brandon Goldberg and ACCESS co-chair Nathaniel Goldman.

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HISTORY

Visiting the Cyclorama pening. Later, I learned from Martha Barnes, who taught the required Atlanta history class at Grady High School, the important role our city played in the terrible, internecine conflict.

Guest Column

By Rabbi David Geffen

On that first visit, my father told me how he and his brothers and friends between 1910 and 1917 dug up Minié balls left from the battle. They were resting in the dirt near their home on Hunter Street (MLK Drive).

Another fascination was the manner in which the Confederate veteran described each element of the battle as both sides, Yankees and rebels, fought to the death. I remember him naming the commanders with whom he was familiar, and I recall his description of a bird flying in the painting as the battle rages in the city below him.

This was the first painting I had

ever seen, and it was circular. When I later saw paintings that were flat, I treasured my visits to the cyclorama.

From 1946 to the late 1950s, I visited 10 times. After my mother took me to see “Gone With the Wind” at the Empire Theater during its first rerelease, I appreciated the cyclorama even more.

My family had its own connection with Grant Park and the cyclorama.

My great-grandfather Yosef Geffen was a lumber broker in Lithuania. He bought trees in Lithuanian forests that were cut and shipped to Germany.

He told stories to his children, as Rav Tuvia Geffen records in his autobiography, about his years as a youngster when his family lived in a small shtetl and he had to walk through the forests each day to get to the yeshiva ketana (pre-yeshiva) where he studied.

So his son Rabbi Geffen had an interest in forests that developed into his love for Grant Park when the Geffens reached Atlanta in 1910, when Grant Park had the largest concentration of trees in the city. The family lived on Hunter Street, so the park was close by.

Many Atlanta Jewish organizations held outdoor races, barbecues,

canoe races in the lake, fashion shows and other types of activities. Piedmont Park also was used, but Grant Park was considered more heimish.

A recollection from my father: “After we moved to Atlanta and settled in to the community, my father, Rav Tuvia, began to investigate the neighborhoods around us as well as Grant Park and Piedmont Park. He described to us what a beautiful city Atlanta was and what afforestation it contained. In the summer of 1911 four of us, myself, Lottie, Joel and Sam, began our Shabbat walks in Grant Park. Our father would explain the different trees which he knew, learned both from Yiddish books and from tree books. His enthusiasm excited us but most of all made us feel like real Atlantans. I have always treasured those walks.”

They also learned about the painting of the Battle of Atlanta, an event that was very much alive before World War I. So it was natural for my father to take me to Grant Park and the cyclorama first. My recollections of the park and the painting are always with me.

I hope you will go to the Atlanta History Center to see it restored. ■

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

When I read on the front of The New York Times here in Jerusalem about the cyclorama painting of the Battle of Atlanta moving from Grant Park to the Atlanta History Center, I realized how meaningful it was that this great painting depicting a significant moment in Atlanta history was being transferred to a locale where it could be seen in all its glory.

In the fall of 1946, after my father, Louis Geffen, returned from serving six years in the Army, he took me to see the circular painting depicting the 1864 battle. A few Confederate war veterans were still alive, and one of them described the battle as shown in the painting, the work of artists from Milwaukee.

George Gress, a rich Atlanta lumber merchant, had bought the painting, which in 1889 was placed in a wooden building at Grant Park (named after railroad entrepreneur Lemuel Grant, who donated the land in 1885).

The excitement of the painting had several elements to it. One was to see an actual Civil War battle hap-

33

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OBITUARIES

Carlyn Feldman Fisher 93, Atlanta

Carlyn Feldman Fisher, 93, passed away Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017, after a long illness.

She spent most of her life in Atlanta, where she was born Carlyn Lorraine Feldman on Nov. 5, 1923. Inspired by Georgia’s varied landscape, she painted nearly every day of her adult life. Her work has been shown in galleries all over the Eastern United States, including 16 one-woman shows. Commissions include the Cobb Galleria, the Savannah Convention Center and the Atlanta Jewish Community Center. When not painting, she devoted her time to the arts community in Georgia. Her many contributions include co-founding the Arts Festival of Atlanta; writing and co-producing “Artists of Georgia,” a five-part series of half-hour programs for Georgia Public Television that won an Emmy Award; and serving as the chairman of the board at the Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences in Rabun Gap. In 1967, she researched and wrote a comprehensive survey called “The Arts in Georgia,” which was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. In subsequent years, she also found time to serve as art editor for Atlanta Magazine, Georgia Magazine and the Atlanta Jewish Times, among others. From 1975 to 1985, she lived and worked in New York City. While there, she served as executive producer of “Art in Its Soul,” a television documentary about the Provincetown Art Colony, which was first aired on WGBH in Boston. In 2005, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries.

Before she stopped painting, the subject of her art was trees. “The older I get, the less sense everything else makes, and the more sense nature makes. Trees do what they’re supposed to do. They don’t care whether you know it. They don’t care whether you see it. They’re just doing their job,” she told columnist Lee May for this newspaper.

Survivors include one daughter, Eve Shulmister; nephews Ted, Bill and Adam Frey; her beloved grandson, Benjamin Yorker, and his wife, Carrie Yorker; and two great-granddaughters, Emma Clay Kate Yorker and Margaret Ann Yorker.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 12, at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Atlanta, with Rabbi Loren Filson Lapidus officiating. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Hambidge Center, P.O. Box 339, Rabun Gap, GA 30568. Arrangements

by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Minnie Silver Kaliser 98, Atlanta

Minnie Silver Kaliser, age 98, of Atlanta passed away peacefully Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017, at the age of 98.

Minnie was born June 5, 1918, in Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1920 at the age of 2. She grew up in Atlanta as the youngest of five Gilner siblings. She graduated from Commercial High School in Atlanta in 1935. In 1939 she met the love of her life, Ben Silver, and moved to Hawkinsville, where she lived a beautiful and loving life and raised their three children, Milton, Lynn and Alan.

Minnie and Ben ran Silver’s Department Store and were pillars of this small com-

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munity in central Georgia. Minnie moved back to Atlanta in 1972 after Ben passed away. She was a member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue for over 50 years. She married Mike Kaliser at the age of 62 and lived a wonderful life with him. In her mid-90s, she moved into Hammond Glen, where she lived her life with gusto until the end. She was a charismatic woman who was the life of the party wherever she was. Everyone she touched loved Minnie because she was MINNIE. She is survived by her children, Estelle Silver of Chicago, Lynn and Bill Hare of Atlanta, and Alan and Janice Silver of Miami; her grandchildren, Erica Silver, Steve and Johanna Silver, and Beth and Rob Lowe; her great-grandchildren, Ally and Ben Silver and Hannah and Rachel Lowe; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her son Milton Silver of blessed memory.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in Minnie’s memory be sent to Temple Sinai or Ahavath Achim Synagogue in Atlanta. Sign the online guestbook at www.dressler.com. Graveside services were held at Greenwood Cemetery on Tuesday, Feb. 14. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Leonard Kringold 94, Atlanta

Leonard “Lenny” Kringold, 94, passed at his home in Atlanta on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017, comforted by his loving family.

A gentle giant loved by all and a founding member of the Do Nothing Club, he passed in the same way that he had lived: with style and grace. Lenny was born in the Bronx, N.Y. His father died when Lenny was 3, after which he spent a good part of his childhood growing into the man of the family. He accomplished this partly by reaching the height of 6-foot-5 by the age of 15. At the age of 22 he enlisted in the Army. As one of the tallest members of his unit, he played on the base basketball team and served as a staff sergeant in Guam. After leaving the service, he worked in New York for his stepfather, who manufactured coats and suits. Lenny met the love of his life, Laurette Essex Kringold, when she stopped by his company’s showroom to interview for a modeling job. They began raising their two children in New York while Lenny continued to gain expertise in managing garment production lines. In 1956, Lenny moved the family to Miami Beach, where he managed production for several ladies’ ready-to-wear dress manufacturers.

Lenny and Laurette shared a unique love and affection for each other that was admired by all who came in contact with them. They loved to travel, laugh and enjoy a cocktail together at the end of the day. He was the light of her life, and she was his. Lenny’s kindness and generosity were surpassed only by his quickwitted sense of humor. Lenny and Laurette cherished their retirement years, during which they moved to Boynton Beach, Fla., and then to Atlanta.

He was preceded in death by Laurette, his wife of 66 years. He is survived by his children, Gail and Michael Habif and Steven and Debra Kringold; grandchildren Lauren and Ben Barden, Craig and Julie Habif, and Rebecca and Eric Kaplan; great-grandchildren Lola, Sam, Jacob, Allen and Lily; and siblings by marriage Roz Drucker, Muriel Jacobs, and Harold and Johanna Essex.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Weinstein Hospice. Funeral services were held at Arlington Cemetery on Tuesday, Feb. 14. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

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OBITUARIES

Howard Margol 92, Atlanta

Howard Margol, 92, born in Jacksonville, Fla., on Feb. 22, 1924, to Morris and Sarah Margol, passed away Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017.

He was preceded in death by a brother, Melvin, and is survived, in Atlanta, by his loving wife of 68 years, Esther Landey Margol; three sons, Bruce (Jan), Gary and Maury (Elise); daughter Felice; nine grandchildren; one great-granddaughter; brother Hilbert Margol (Betty Ann); and sister Bernice Wolf of Tampa, Fla. Howard, a World War II veteran, served as a private first class in the 42nd Infantry Rainbow Division in Western Europe. After returning to the States, he graduated from the University of Florida with a business degree. An entrepreneur at heart, Howard started a furniture business, which he successfully managed for 40 years. Most important, he was a devoted and loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather and was a true friend to the Atlanta and international Jewish communities.

He was active with the Mount Paran Civic Association, a founding member of the Metropolitan Atlanta Council on Alcohol and Drugs, and president of the Atlanta and International Jewish Genealogical societies for many years, and he wrote numerous articles, some of which appeared in the Atlanta Jewish Times and Jewish Georgian.

In retirement, Howard found a true passion in the field of genealogy, becoming one of the foremost authorities on Lithuanian genealogical research. For 20 years, he led Roots Tours to Lithuania and helped thousands research their heritage. On one of his first trips to Lithuania, he was so taken aback by the pitiful existence of the Jewish community that he began the American Fund for Lithuanian-Latvian Jews with his wife, Esther, to help rebuild the Jewish community there.

Howard also shared his World War II military experience in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp with various groups across the country and was recorded by numerous historians, all in the spirit of helping the community rebuild and remember. Howard was honored by the Georgia General Assembly at the state Capitol and by the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field as a hometown hero for his service as a World War II veteran and Dachau liberator. He was an athlete and played racquetball until the age of 86.

Services were held Sunday, Feb. 12, at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Fund for Lithuanian-Latvian Jews, c/o Peggy Freedman, 8335 Berkley Ridge, Atlanta, GA 30350. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Todd Ostrow 55, Atlanta

Dr. Todd David Ostrow, 55, devoted father and husband, passed away Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017.

He was a dedicated neuroradiologist who had a passion for his family, travel, sports and musicals. He grew up in Maryland with an identical twin. They took advantage of their physical similarities by playing pranks on teachers. He did his undergraduate work at Cornell and went to medical school at the University of Maryland, where he met his wife, Judy, followed by a residency at Emory. After practicing in Florida, he relocated his family to Atlanta, where he was voted one of the top doctors many consecutive years. In addition to being an excellent doctor, he was beloved by his family, friends and colleagues.

He leaves behind his wife, Judith; his two sons, Alexander and Mitchell; his parents, Barbara and Harvey; and his brothers, Brian and Michael. His life was remembered Feb. 7. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to Grady Health Foundation (gradyhealthfoundation­. org) or Create Your Dreams (www.createyourdreams.org). Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Betty Sterling 99, Johns Creek

Elizabeth G. “Betty” Sterling (nee Glickman), 99, died Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, at the Cohen Home. She was the beloved wife of the late Sargent D. Sterling, loving mother of Nancy (Ivan) Shomer and Joseph (Carole) Sterling, and devoted grandmother of Rachel Sterling, Isaac Shomer and the late Daniel Sterling. Graveside services were scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 16, at Haym Salomon Memorial Park (Sec. Beth David) in Malvern, Pa. Contributions in her memory may be made to Beth David Reform Congregation. Arrangements by Goldsteins’ Rosenberg’s Raphael Sacks.

Ellen Bressler Mills Ellen Bressler Mills passed away Friday, Feb. 10, 2017.

She was preceded in death by a son, Robert Field; her parents, Frances and Jake Bressler; her husband, Jack Mills; and a brother, Hirsch Bressler. She is survived by brother Richard Bressler (Linda) and sister-in-law Sharon Bressler; her children, Jodi (Dr. David Mazel), Lauri Fellman (Jeffrey) and Dr. Jonathan Field (Yaffa); grandchildren Suzanne Voystock (Jack), Shayna Mazel, Jacob Mazel, Melissa Fellman, and Matthew, Zach and Ari Field; stepchildren Brian Mills and Karen Mills Wells (George); and grandchildren Ben and Jake.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Ellen graduated from Grady High School and went on to attend the University of Wisconsin and Oglethorpe University. Ellen sold residential real estate, then went on to enjoy working in customer service at Aarons Lamp and Shade, where she worked until her retirement. Ellen loved eating good food, socializing, going to movies and traveling with friends. She had a wonderful smile that could light up a room.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Funeral services were held Sunday, Feb. 12, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Atlanta, with Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal officiating. Interment will follow at Greenwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Ahavath Achim Synagogue Food Bank, the Ovarian Cancer Institute of Atlanta, Weinstein Hospice or a charity of your choice. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770451-4999.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

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CLOSING THOUGHTS

The Next Witness: Your Virtual Assistant

My mom (z”l) once spent the most wonderful week of her life sequestered in a hotel room in New York.

I don’t actually remember this time in our lives too clearly. However, I sure did hear about it from my dad (z”l).

Dad preferred having his “little” Paula (that was one of his many loving nicknames for my 5-foottall mom) at home with him. My mom’s sister, our aunt Jeanette (z”l), also shared some tidbits with me. The rest I put together in my developing brain.

The police arrested a man accused of committing a horrific murder in the Bronx, not too many blocks from where we lived. The incident got lots of press; it was a highprofile case. Until the day the alleged perpetrator was finally apprehended, people were very worried.

The jury pool was huge; however, most had their own opinions regarding the guilt or innocence of the accused. Attorneys spent arduous hours, which turned into days, choosing a jury.

My mom was one of those lucky citizens chosen. She was thrilled; she was so into it.

As an immigrant and a citizen in good standing, she understood that serving on a jury was both a privilege and a right not to be taken lightly.

When my mom was asked about the case before she entered a state of sequester, she would be very careful and deliberate to keep her counsel. She packed her suitcase with the items she would need for the week the courts anticipated the trial would last, and she proudly left for her “day” in court.

She was a little surprised that her hotel room had two beds; she did not anticipate having a roommate. A very nice girl, by the way.

They took their enormous responsibility of never discussing the trial very seriously. I feel sure they found many other topics of conversation.

Each day the jury filed into court to listen and watch the many witnesses be sworn in and provide their 38 testimony. Mom was completely pro-

ficient in English and so was able to size up these witnesses and determine whether their information was both truthful and relevant.

DNA information was not available in those years. The outcome of this trial rested heavily on the accounts of witnesses, their impressions of the accused, and the attorneys’

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ability to interpret and disseminate all the information for the jurists.

One thing was obvious and was something all the witnesses had in common: They were all human.

Alexa was not yet conceived.

Wondering who Alexa could be?

Today, this same incident and the trial that would follow would not be beholden to humans for their testimony. Today, my mom would sit in her jury seat, feeling as if she entered another time zone, another universe, indeed an alternative universe.

She would watch in awe and complete shock as a bailiff (a human, by the way) would lift Alexa into the jury box and swear her in to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Meshuga (crazy) would be on the tip of her tongue (or perhaps even spoken) while she watched as well-dressed, allegedly intelligent lawyers checked their notes for the questions they were about to ask.

In today’s world, Alexa would be the key witness. After all, she spends all her time in her owner’s home.

Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, she hears every secret, every note being practiced on her owner’s banjo, every fight, every conversation — every murder?

Alexa, your devoted Google virtual home assistant. The next best thing to life itself.

P.S. Once again I thank Margie for her devoted, real-life assistance. ■

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Shaindle’s Shpiel

By Shaindle Schmuckler shaindle@atljewishtimes.com

“President’s Day”

By Yoni Glatt, koshercrosswords@gmail.com Difficulty Level: Medium

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One thing was obvious and was something all the witnesses had in common: They were all human.

FEBRUARY 17 ▪ 2017

CROSSWORD

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

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ACROSS 1. About, or a former kosher restaurant in downtown Manhattan 6. Can’t stand (like Newman of Jerry) 11. UWS clock setting 14. Ahava application words 15. Tu B’Shevat honoree 16. Kane’s Batman and Robin, e.g.

17. Oldest serving president 19. Tree that’s an anagram of legend Brooks 20. Lake in New York or a camp near Morasha and Lavi 21. Jewish Federation of Greater ___ Moines 22. Taking the Jews out of Egypt, e.g.

23. A Steve Madden 25. Klein competitor 27. First president 32. Snake in a plane with Indiana Jones 33. Suffix with cash (shekel recipient) 34. Lauder and others 36. Flows very slowly into a mikvah 39. Benjamin to Judah, for short 41. Vodka that sounds like the Western Wall 42. Start a trip (or to make aliyah) 44. Item left behind by many making aliyah 46. Words not heard at an 8-Down wedding 47. Longest-serving president 51. Abound (like a locust plague) 52. Israeli singer Naim 53. Haman’s raffles 56. You might say Job got into a really bad one 58. Elisheba to Aaron 62. “___ Idiot Brother” (Paul Rudd film) 63. President who recently

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got out of prison 65. Great serve by Yishai Oliel 66. Eye parts that were striking on David 67. Winona (Ryder) in “Beetlejuice” 68. Makes like Ron Blomberg in the lineup 69. Prep group for future soldiers 70. “Love ___ Around” (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme)

Down) 31. “___ say more” 32. Modern anti-Semitic letters 35. ___-mo (device used by Kubrick) 37. Actress Annie in Reitman’s “Ghostbusters” 38. Financial guru Orman 40. One getting a bris, usually 43. Old City 45. Pose to the rabbi again 48. Like one enjoying a Marx Brothers film 49. Language heard by many Israelis vacationing in Kathmandu 50. Shtetl coins 53. One might do one to have clean clothes for Shabbat 54. Response to a Goldberg punch 55. Casspi can hit a lot of them, in slang 57. Better ___ Ezra 59. Kosher inspector inspectors: abbr.

60. Jib (by Eilat) 61. Assessment of a YU class 63. Elite coffee locale?

64. ___ Einai

Down 1. Be guilty of nivul peh 2. “Blessed ___ who shepherds” (Ezekiel 25:17 in “Pulp Fiction”) 3. Strap many an Egyptian might have pulled at the Red Sea 4. 1978 Jane Fonda-James Caan film, “___ Horseman” 5. I 6. JSwipe, e.g.

7. What the Nile did, once 8. See 46-Across 9. It fits all 10. 6 and 431 in Isr. 11. Biblical plot 12. Kirk’s helmsman 13. Arnold and Brady 18. Mother-in-law of Ruth 22. Speak from the pulpit 24. Ram mates LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION 26. Stop for 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 T O P I C B A R B S B A N those sent to 14 15 16 A L A M O E R I C A E V E Siberia 17 18 19 27. Feldman or 20X I I A 21N G R Y M E 22N 23 T O V D E G A S J D A T E I N N Haim 24 25 R E N E D U E 28. Island 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 where the first 33 I I I M E N 34A N D A B 35A B Y Jew arrived in 36A R S O N 37 38 B E A N 39 I R E S C A R Y O P U S M I S T 1492 40 41 42 P L O Y D R A S H O S U 29. Dampier 43 44 45 46 T H E V I I Y E A R I T C H who played 47 48 A C T R A V S for Cuban’s 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 D R A N K S C I F I A P U Mavericks 57 58 59 60 O I L L F I R S T D A T E S 30. Yeshivat 61 62 63 P A E E R I E E L I T E C ___ Aryeh 64 65 66 S E N S W A B S R I D E R (school in 43-

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FEBRUARY 17 â–ª 2017

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FEBRUARY 17 â–ª 2017