Atlanta Jewish Times, Vol. XCI No. 7, February 19, 2016

AND SAVE

File Name: 15AQUA1247_ATLJewishTimesTeaser Client: Ga Aquarium Desc.: ATL Jewish Times Teaser Ad

November 9, 2015 12:00

Live: NA Trim: 2.12”W x 3.18”H Bleed: NA

Color: 4C Process Built @: 100% Printed @: 100%

BUY ONLINE

Inside: Education Special Section, Pages 14-24

PROTOTYPICAL

UF Hillel, Camp Living Wonders and Israeli know-how could ease life for people with disabilities. Page 15

INSPIRATIONAL

TECHNOLOGICAL

Meet the two rabbis coming to lead day schools with a commitment to individualized instruction. Pages 16, 17

Freed from competing on Shabbat, dozens of thirdto 12th-graders have won spots in the state Technology Fair. Page 18

WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM

FEBRUARY 19, 2016 | 10 ADAR I 5776

Atlanta GeorgiaAquarium.org

INSIDE

Calendar ���������������������������������� 2 Candle Lighting ����������������������3 Israel Pride ����������������������������� 4 Arts ������������������������������������������� 8 Health & Wellness ���������������� 9 Opinion ����������������������������������10 Sports ��������������������������������������13 Education �������������������������������14 Obituaries ����������������������������� 29 Crossword ����������������������������� 30 Cartoon ���������������������������������� 29 Marketplace ��������������������������31

VOL. XCI NO. 7

Full Senate Gets Hybrid Religious Bill

T

NO CHARITY

Former Israeli diplomat Yoram Ettinger makes the case for changing the perception and reality of the U.S.-Israeli financial relationship. Page 6

AFTER SCALIA

Randy Kessler looks at some of the court cases whose outcomes could change after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Page 12

DECADES OF PALS

PAL, the Big Brother/Big Sister program at JF&CS, is celebrating 30 years of mentoring and the enduring friendships that have resulted. Page 25

Photos by Michael Jacobs

Peaceful Feelings

Congregation Beth Shalom Rabbi Mark Zimmerman (above right) joins Israeli singer Noa and her longtime collaborator, Gil Dor, onstage at Kennesaw State University during Noa’s benefit concert for the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies on Sunday night, Feb. 14.

The acoustic show was a big hit for the more than 300 people in attendance, but an unknown number boycotted the performance over allegations Noa denied about her positions and actions promoting peace with the Palestinians. More photos and details, Page 8; column, Page 10

he Georgia Senate Rules Committee approved a hybrid of two religious liberty bills Tuesday, Feb. 16, sending what critics derided as a “frankenbill” to the full Senate with a recommendation for passage.

The resulting legislation — folding Senate Bill 284, the First Amendment Defense Act, into House Bill 757, the Pastor Protection Act — has advanced further than any of the six other religious liberty bills this General Assembly session.

H.B. 757 passed the House on Thursday, Feb. 11. In response to the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage in June, it would protect any member of the clergy from being forced to officiate at a wedding or other religious rite in violation of his or her religious beliefs.

The Anti-Defamation League, among others, has said the First Amendment makes such protection unnecessary.

The amended legislation contains language that could be problematic for Jews. It would protect employees from being forced to work and businesses from being forced to operate on “either of the two rest days (Saturday or Sunday),” thus ignoring Shabbat’s Friday evening start.

Part 2 of the legislation, the former S.B. 284, would protect people and faithbased organizations speaking or acting on a “sincerely held religious belief” that marriage should be between a man and a woman or that sex should occur only between such married couples.

The bill thus protects not only businesses denying service to same-sex couples, but also, for example, those refusing to hire unwed mothers. ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

CALENDAR THURSDAY, FEB. 18

Bearing Witness. The Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown, continues its Holocaust speaker series with Mariella Crea, whose family helped rescue French Jews, at 2 p.m. Free; www.thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.

Romantic twinkle. Dr. Mitzi Rubin discusses how to keep monogamy hot while dealing with fertility issues at the monthly meeting of the Wo/Men’s Infertility Support Havurah at 7 p.m. at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; www.wishatlanta.org.

Artscape. Jewish Family & Career Services’ annual benefit for JF&CS counseling services provides children ages 18 months to 10 years with experiences with visual arts, music and dance from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Sensations Therafun, 1704 Chantilly Drive, Atlanta. Admission is $50 per family in advance or $65 at the door; www.artscapeatl.org.

Book talk. Joel Grey speaks about his memoir, “Master of Ceremonies,” at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $10 for JCC members, $15 for nonmembers; www.atlantajcc.org or 678-812-4002.

SATURDAY, FEB. 20

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Cancer fundraiser. Greater Atlanta Hadassah holds the Big Reveal for Breast Strokes, Hadassah Bares All for A.R.T. (Awareness, Research & Treatment), at 8 p.m. at the Stave Room at American Spirit Works, 199 Armour Drive, Buckhead. Admission is $36 for those 36 and under, $65 for others; www.hadassah. org/events/breaststrokes.

AJT 2

SUNDAY, FEB. 21

Lunch and learn. Rabbis Ellen Nemhauser and Lauren Cohn lead a class at noon at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Bring a dairy lunch or buy food at Goodfriend’s Grill. Free; www.atlantajcc.org or 678-812-4161.

Women-only musical. Students at Torah Day School of Atlanta, 1985 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, perform “ErevShabbos,” an original musical about overcoming adversity, at 4 p.m. for women only. Tickets are $14 in advance or $18 at the door for women and $10 for elementary school students with a $36 family max; MSGPLAY@TorahDay.org.

MONDAY, FEB. 22

Parenting discussion. The Alefbet Parenting Program of Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, discusses “The Secret to

Effective Parenting,” including three popular parenting books, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Free; RSVP requested to 770-3997622 or risa@bethshalomatlanta.org.

TUESDAY, FEB. 23

Moms and tots. Chabad of North Fulton, 10180 Jones Bridge Road, Alpharetta, holds its Babyccino class on mitzvot around the house at 11:30 a.m. for moms and tots up to age 2½. This week’s session focuses on the bathroom. The cost is $12; hs@chabadnf.org or www.chabadnf.org.

Asking why. The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute’s six-session “Jewish Course of Why” begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Chabad Enrichment Center, 3855 Holcomb Bridge Road, Norcross. Registration is $99; www.myjli.com/index.html.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24

Jewish film series. Bob Bahr leads “Fitting In — A Short History of Jewish Film in America,” a six-week course, beginning at 10 a.m. at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown. Tuition is $49; the-temple.org or 404-873-1731.

Mikvah and pregnancy. Caryn Hanrahan and Mother-Mother Massage & Yoga Therapy Founder Rebecca Leary

Safon lead a session on “Immersion and Meditation: Rituals for Pregnancy and Beyond” at 7 p.m. at the Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Free; rsvp@atlantamikvah.org.

THURSDAY, FEB. 25

Green with song. “Shrek the Musical, Jr.,” the annual show of Jerry’s Habima Theatre, opens at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, and continues Feb. 27 and 28 and March 2, 3, 5 and 6. Tickets are $25 for JCC member adults and $10 for children 12 and younger and $35 and $15 for nonmembers; www.atlantajcc. org/boxoffice or 678-812-4002.

SATURDAY, FEB. 27

Anniversary. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, celebrates 40 years with “The Tonight Show With Rabbi Zimmerman” at 8 p.m. Tickets to the show and a buffet at 7 p.m. are $72, while admission to the show only is $36 ($18 for students and military); bit.ly/1m5JXiW.

SUNDAY, FEB. 28

Commandment talk. Rabbi Harvey Winokur leads a discussion on the 613 mitzvot or commandments in the

CALENDAR CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Parshah Tetzaveh Friday, Feb. 19, light candles at 6:07 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 20, Shabbat ends at 7:03 p.m.

Parshah Ki Tisa Friday, Feb. 26, light candles at 6:13 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 27, Shabbat ends at 7:09 p.m.

PAL 30th anniversary. Jewish Family & Career Services celebrates 30 years of its Big Brother/Big Sister program, PAL, by honoring Ellen Moore and Kaethe Solomon at 1 p.m. at Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Free; YTFL.org/ PALcelebration or pal@jfcs-atlanta.org.

Court session. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks with Nina Totenberg at 2 p.m. in a broadcast from New York’s 92nd Street Y at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown. Magistrate Judge Andrew Margolis, a candidate for Fulton County Superior Court, then speaks. Free; the-temple.org.

Beth Jacob honor dinner. Congregation Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, honors Rabbi Daniel and Bluma Estreicher with a 6 p.m. dinner after a 5 p.m. cocktail hour. Tickets are $100; reserve your seat by Feb. 15 at www.bethjacobatlanta.org/annual-dinner-2016.

Shelter fundraiser. Rebecca’s Tent celebrates 32 years of sheltering women with its seventh annual theater gala — heavy hors d’oeuvres and the play “Woman of the Year” — at 5:30 p.m. at Dad’s Garage, 569 Ezzard St., Atlanta.

Tickets are $75; www.rebeccastent.org.

TUESDAY, MARCH 1

Moms and tots. Chabad of North Fulton, 10180 Jones Bridge Road, Alpharetta, at 11:30 a.m. holds its Babyccino class on mitzvot at home for moms and tots up to age 2½. This week focuses on the bedroom. The cost is $12; hs@ chabadnf.org or www.chabadnf.org.

Teege talk. Jennifer Teege, author of “My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me,” speaks about discovering her Nazi family legacy at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s annual Atlanta community event at 7:30 p.m. at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead. Tickets are $36;

bit.ly/1RSNfEf. Asking why. The weekly, six-session “Jewish Course of Why” begins at 8 p.m. at the Intown Jewish Academy, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Midtown. Tuition is $99; www.intownjewishacademy.org or 404-898-0434.

THURSDAY, MARCH 3

Asking why. The six-session “Jewish Course of Why” begins at noon at the Intown Jewish Academy, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Midtown. Tuition is $99; www.intownjewishacademy.org or 404-898-0434.

ORT dinner. ORT Atlanta honors Goza Tequila’s Adam Hirsch at 7:30 p.m. at Park Tavern, 10th and Monroe streets.

Tickets are $25 until Feb. 25, then $36; ealberhasky@ORTAmerica.org or bit. ly/1lmfmgH.

SATURDAY, MARCH 5

Black-Jewish symposium. The DeKalb History Center, 101 East Court Square, Decatur, hosts “Roots of Friendship: African Americans and Jews in Atlanta, 1900-1950” from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with lunch and speakers including Melissa Fay Greene, Sandy Berman, David Goldwasser and Herschel Greenblat.

Admission is $35 for DHC members and $45 for nonmembers until March 1, then $40 and $50; conta.cc/1Xs4pIs or 404-373-1088, ext. 20.

Mystery night. Young Israel of Toco Hills, 2056 LaVista Road, plays host to a political murder mystery with an open bar, heavy hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction at 9 p.m. Tickets are $60 each or $110 per couple for members and $72 or $130 per couple for nonmembers; www.yith.org or 404-315-1417.

Purim off Ponce. Georgia Equality Executive Director Jeff Graham is the honoree at the 10th anniversary of the fundraising party for SOJOURN: Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity from 8 p.m. to midnight at Le Fais do-do, 1611 Ellsworth Industrial Blvd., Atlanta.

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

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

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

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Torah and how to apply them in business, family and personal relationships at 9 a.m. at Temple Kehillat Chaim, 1145 Green St., Roswell. Free; www.kehillatchaim.org or 770-641-8630.

AJT 3

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

ISRAEL NEWS

Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home High on pot. Cannabics Pharmaceuticals expects to raise $4 million from investors in Israel, Europe and the United States to help its Israeli scientists commercialize a delayed-release marijuana pill for people with late-stage cancer, Globes reports. Cannabics also is working on a system to evaluate biopsies using THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Cannabics estimates the potential U.S. market for medical marijuana at $3.6 billion and predicts that market will surpass the movie industry within five years.

Reversing Alzheimer’s symptoms. Israeli Shira Knafo heads Spain’s Molecular Cognition Laboratory at BioCruces Health Research Institute. She has discovered a small protein that inhibits the processes normally associated with mental impairment, including depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

Sealing wounds in a new way. Haifabased Vigor Medical Technologies won the Innovex Disrupt contest at Tel Aviv’s Innovex2016 conference for a medical sealant that replaces stitches, tape and bandages. Vigor’s sealant system treats thoracic trauma, a chest injury that can cause the lungs to collapse. If treated within one hour, the patient has an 80 percent survival chance.

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Sensors to monitor the elderly.

Yokneam-based startup Kytera has developed innovative sensor technology to keep a close eye on at-risk seniors. It also collects anonymous data that can be used to provide vital research on

AJT 4

specific illnesses or medications.

Portable ultrasound. Yonina Eldar at the Technion is developing an innovative portable ultrasound system that transmits scans to the treating physician immediately. Scans can be performed in disaster areas, at road accidents, and in developing countries where the medical infrastructure is limited.

Device to shake up a snorer. Yavnebased startup Nexense manufactures a device to treat snoring and sleep apnea.

Worn as a chest strap or wristwatch, the device detects snoring or apnea and vibrates to help the patient resume normal breathing or stop snoring without waking up the person.

Muslim deputy police commissioner.

Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan has announced the creation of an executive administration to enforce law within the Arab sector. The head will be Muslim Jamal Hakroush, who will be promoted to the rank of deputy commissioner.

Bahraini princess treated in Israel.

A secret 2010 visit to Israel of a Bahraini princess has just been revealed.

She received lifesaving treatment at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center. She stayed two months in Israel, including a rehabilitation center in Nesher, near Haifa. She chose Israel rather than a U.S. alternative.

Aid to Taiwan. Israel has sent searchand-rescue teams to Taiwan, where

at least 114 people died after a magnitude-6.4 earthquake Feb. 6. Taiwan’s new president, Tsai Ing-wen, visited Israel in 2013.

No more zombies. A team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, working with Deutsche Telekom, has tracked the source of botnets — illicit networks that have turned half a billion computers into zombies that try to crash websites, send out spam or run click-fraud scams.

Smartphone security bug. Security experts at BugSec and Cynet, both based in Rishon LeZion, have helped smartphone manufacturer LG fix a major security flaw in its popular LG G3 device.

It is the second time in a month that the team has uncovered a breach in cybersecurity that could have exposed millions to hackers.

Natural pesticides effective. Eden­ Shield has completed studies in Italy, Spain and Israel that show the Trendlines-backed startup’s nontoxic natural pesticides protect crops without damage to the environment. The plants don’t need to be sprayed at all: EdenShield’s Net product is sprayed on the netting and vents of the greenhouse.

Investing as a soccer fan. Tel Avivbased startup FBFM (Football Fans Marketplace) is developing an online marketplace to enable soccer fans worldwide to invest in their favorite players and clubs. Fans provide loans to clubs for players, then receive a portion of any future proceeds earned

when players transfer between clubs.

How to hack a hacker. That is the message of the latest New York Times ad from “Israel is on it.” The ad highlights Israel’s dominance of the cybersecurity market and the innovative software from Tel Aviv-based Illusive Networks.

Israeli show for Netflix. Netflix has bought its first Israeli television show, the youth drama “The Greenhouse” (HaKhamama), created by Giora Chamizer. The U.S. version will be set in California but filmed in Israel.

Megadeth going in Israel. Thrashmetal giant Megadeth, which has sold 50 million records worldwide and received 11 Grammy nominations, will perform at the Rishon Live Park, just south of Tel Aviv, on July 2.

Tame Impala’s first Israeli concert.

Australian psychedelic/indie-rock band Tame Impala is heading to Tel Aviv for its first Israeli concert July 11 at Rishon Live Park. Tame Impala’s 2015 album, “Currents,” includes hits “Let It Happen” and “Cause I’m a Man.” Artistic 110 years. The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel’s national school of art, was established Jan. 16, 1906, with 30 European art students.

Today around 2,000 students are enrolled at Bezalel. Many of Israel’s bestknown artists, designers, filmmakers and sculptors are among its graduates.

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

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS Atlanta

Remember When PUBLISHER

MICHAEL A. MORRIS

michael@atljewishtimes.com

BUSINESS OFFICE Business Manager

KAYLENE LADINSKY

kaylene@atljewishtimes.com

ADVERTISING

Senior Account Manager

JULIE BENVENISTE julie@atljewishtimes.com Senior Account Manager

BRENDA GELFAND

brenda@atljewishtimes.com Sales Assistant

SARAH SKINNER

sarah@atljewishtimes.com

MARKETING

Marketing & Communications Director

STACY LAVICTOIRE

10 Years Ago Feb. 17, 2006 ■ Nearly 600 teens from around the world have registered for the International Convention of BBYO from Feb. 16 to 20 in Georgia. The convention, which will open at the Marcus Jewish Community Center and continue at Camp Ramah Darom, is the first BBYO IC outside the Perlman Camp in Starlight, Pa., in more than 50 years, and the shift from late summer to February has nearly doubled registration.

■ The bar mitzvah ceremony of Moe Jacob Winograd of Alpharetta, son of Harry and Jennifer Winograd, was held Saturday, Jan. 14, at The Temple.

25 Years Ago Feb. 15, 1991 ■ About 300 Atlantans participated in a nationwide Torah learning vigil last weekend as a response to the Iraqi missile strikes against Israel. The 24-hour vigil, organized

by national Orthodox groups, was in keeping with the traditional concept of focusing on prayer and Torah study during times of crisis. The local vigil, starting at 10 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 9, was held at Congregation Beth Jacob.

■ Billy and Sharon Moscow of Roswell announce the birth of a daughter, Michelle Rose, on Jan. 23.

50 Years Ago Feb. 18, 1966 ■ The afternoon Hebrew school of Congregation Beth Jacob held its annual Chamisha Asar B’Shevat assembly on Sunday, Feb. 6. The main feature of this assembly was the awarding of new Hebrew prayer books to the children of the first grade who have completed their elementary Hebrew readers and are beginning the study of the actual siddur under the tutelage of Mrs. David Warman.

■ The marriage of Miss Elaine Marcia Ehrlich, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Ehrlich of St. Petersburg, and Freddy White, son of Mr. and Mrs. William White of Atlanta, took place Saturday, Feb. 12, at Shearith Israel Synagogue.

stacy@atljewishtimes.com

EDITORIAL Editor

MICHAEL JACOBS

mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Associate Editor

DAVID R. COHEN

david@atljewishtimes.com

Contributors This Week APRIL BASLER YONI GLATT JORDAN GORFINKEL R.M. GROSSBLATT CARYN HANRAHAN LEAH R. HARRISON RANDY KESSLER KEVIN MADIGAN RUSSELL MOSKOWITZ LOGAN C. RITCHIE DAVE SCHECHTER CHANA SHAPIRO

CREATIVE SERVICES Creative Design

DARA DRAWDY

CIRCULATION

Circulation Coordinator

ELIZABETH FRIEDLY

efriedly@atljewishtimes.com

CONTACT INFORMATION GENERAL OFFICE 404.883.2130 KAYLENE@ATLJEWISHTIMES.COM

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 © 2016 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES Printed by Gannett Publishing Services 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

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

The Atlanta Jewish Times is printed in Georgia and is an equal opportunity employer. The opinions expressed in the Atlanta Jewish Times do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper. Periodicals Postage Paid at Atlanta, Ga.

AJT 5

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS

Ettinger: ‘Foreign Aid’ Is U.S. Investment in Israel

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

T

he U.S.-Israel relationship shouldn’t be seen as foreign relations but as a partnership, Yoram Ettinger told an audience of Atlanta Jewish Academy students, faculty and staff Thursday, Feb. 4.

The former Israeli diplomat and active observer on U.S.-Israel relations argued that it is a mistake from the American and Israeli perspectives to talk about the $3.1 billion Israel receives each year from the United States as foreign aid.

“Americans don’t like those two words, foreign and aid,” he said, and the term is demeaning to Israel. “It paints us as a supplicant when in fact we are a producer.”

The $3.1 billion is “an American investment in Israel, and the return on that investment is the highest return of any U.S. investment overseas.”

Ettinger cited several examples of how U.S. military aid to Israel benefits the United States, beyond the fact that Israel spends much of that money to buy American-made products, such as

Photo by Michael Jacobs

Yoram Ettinger talks to Atlanta Jewish Academy students after his speech Feb. 4.

the next-generation F-35 Lightning II, part of which Lockheed Martin builds in Marietta: • U.S. Special Operations units stop in Israel for three weeks of training on suicide bombers, car bombs and improvised explosive devices whenever they deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. Ettinger said a soldier he talked to in Birmingham credited that training with his unit’s suffering no fatalities.

• The U.S. military learns tactics from studying Israeli operations. The smashing success against Iraq’s Sovietmade tanks in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 reflected the lessons learned from Israel’s fighting against the same types of tanks in the Sinai.

• Gen. George Keegan, who retired as the Air Force’s intelligence chief in 1977, used to say that whatever intelligence he received from the CIA, he got five times as much from Israel.

• A Northrop Grumman robotics factory in Chattanooga sells anti-explosives robots to Israel. Having Israel as a customer has boosted exports to other countries, which assume Israel will buy only the best, and the robots get even better because of weekly teleconferences in which Israeli experts offer feedback on operations, repairs and maintenance. The robot has effectively gained 10 to 20 years of research and development in far less time and at no cost, driving sales and employment.

• Lockheed’s F-16 plant in Fort Worth, Texas, continually receives lessons learned from Israeli pilots, who push the fighter plane to its limits because every flight they make is within radar and missile range of enemies. A plant manager told Ettinger that roughly 700 modifications to the current F-16 resulted from Israeli feedback, including 70 percent of the changes to the fire control system and 50 percent of the improvements to the cockpit.

Host Your Mitzvah, Wedding & Social Events at the Newly Renovated Wyndham Atlanta Galleria!

Those changes have been worth many billions of dollars to Lockheed, and Ettinger said the story is the same for hundreds of U.S. military systems.

“Israel constitutes the largest, most cost-effective and battle-tested laboratory of the American defense industries,” Ettinger said.

He said that despite the personal rift between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S.-Israel relationship has never been stronger or more mutually beneficial, and it continues to grow in R&D areas such as high tech, agriculture, water and space.

The one concern Ettinger has is the stigma associated with “foreign aid.” His proposed solution is to phase out the $3.1 billion over a decade, each year diverting $310 million from the aid budget into a joint U.S.-Israeli venture fund focused on a particular area of shared interest, such as satellites, nanotechnology and cybersecurity.

After 10 years, the aid budget would be gone, but the two countries would have 10 well-funded foundations from which to invest in R&D for decades to come. ■

Three Elegant Ballrooms

From your lavish affair to an intimate gathering, we can accommodate up to 200 of your closest family and friends! Contact our Professional Planner Dana Cates at dcates@wyndham.com for a tour & quotes. Save 10% off standard pricing by mentioning your found us in the Jewish Times!

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

• Experience our 10 Million Dollar Renovation!

• Complimentary Parking & Shuttle Service • Great location right off 285 on Powers Ferry

AJT 6

6345 Powers Ferry Rd NW, Atlanta, GA 30339 (770) 955-1700 www.wyndhamatlantahotel.com

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

ADL Criticizes Graham

The Rev. Franklin Graham brought almost 7,000 Georgians to the state Capitol’s Liberty Plaza on Wednesday, Feb. 10, with a call for living according to the Christian Bible and with criticism of same-sex marriage, transgender rights and abortion.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Southeast Region office in Buckhead responded by decrying the remarks by the son of evangelist Billy Graham.

“While Mr. Graham is entitled to express his opinion on same-sex marriage and transgender individuals, it is a shame that he uses his bully pulpit to condemn and dehumanize those who are different from him,” ADL Southeast Regional Director Mark Moskowitz said in a statement.

Graham’s Decision America Tour provided support for eight bills in the General Assembly that sponsors say would protect religious freedom but opponents say would legalize discrimination against the LGBT community.

The central issue motivating the legislation is same-sex marriage, legalized by the Supreme Court last June and labeled by Graham as a “great sin” on Feb. 10.

Graham also criticized increasing support for transgender people.

After calling for more Christians to run for public office, Graham cited new Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts as an example of who is elected when Christians stay away. He said her focus is “the gay/lesbian agenda, trying to get transgenders into the bathrooms.”

“That’s wicked, and that’s evil,” Graham said. “We don’t need men and predators going into women’s bathrooms.”

The ADL, however, insisted that Graham was calling transgender people wicked. Moskowitz criticized that statement, as well as Graham’s support for legislation that purports to protect religious rights already guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

“In America’s public marketplace, we serve everyone regardless of who they are or where they are from. The only reason why one would oppose civil rights safeguards in the religious freedom bill is to ensure that businesses can discriminate against the LGBT community,” Moskowitz said in the ADL statement. “The First Amendment guarantees the right of clergy to marry who they want. And federal and local anti-discrimination laws already allow religious institutions to limit their services and facilities to people of their faith.”

He compared state-level resistance to LBGT rights to state opposition to the

civil rights movement.

“Regrettably, we are seeing history repeat itself,” Moskowitz said. “During desegregation, certain white-owned businesses made the same religious freedom arguments to refuse service to African-Americans. Those arguments were rejected then, and they should be rejected now.”

Alembik Seeks Shoob Seat Atlanta lawyer Gary Alembik announced Thursday, Jan. 28, that he will run for a seat being opened on the Fulton County Superior Court by Judge Wendy Shoob’s decision not to seek re-election.

“I have been considering seeking the post for some time,” Alembik, a Morningside resident, said in his campaign announcement. “When my friend and mentor Judge Shoob let me know that she would not be seeking reelection, it seemed like the perfect time to run for a Superior Court seat.”

Alembik, who serves as a Fulton judicial officer and magistrate, is the second Ahavath Achim Synagogue member running for a Fulton Superior Court opening. Andrew Margolis announced his candidacy Jan. 19.

Qualifying for judicial elections is

March 7 to 11, so others could enter the race.

Multiple vacancies on the Fulton court are expected.

Alembik is an Atlanta native with 27 Gary Alembik years of experience in private legal practice.

He served on a Fulton County Family Division task force charged with revising the rules and procedures to improve litigants’ court experience.

“I understand how the court system works. I have served under 10 Superior Court judges for close to a decade and have had the opportunity to learn from all of the judges with whom I have been blessed to work,” Alembik said.

“We need someone who understands that judges are elected to serve our community, and in doing so, they have an obligation to ensure that justice is administered fairly and efficiently.”

He pledged to hear cases assigned to him in a timely and efficient manner.

“If I am elected by the voters to serve, I will commit myself to work diligently to ensure that every citizen that passes through the courthouse doors receives due process.”

Birthright for Law Officers

Jewish law enforcement officers ages 22 to 29 are eligible to join Birthright Israel’s first Law Enforcement Israel Adventure, a free trip to Israel from May 29 to June 9.

Participants’ only financial responsibility is getting to and from New York, the trip departure point.

Jewish National Fund, Shorashim and the National Conference of Shomrim Societies are co-sponsoring the program, designed to connect law enforcement officials to their Jewish roots and Israeli counterparts.

“This is a very important mission, and I am extremely pleased that the National Conference of Shomrim Societies can play an active role in it. Members of law enforcement applaud Birthright Israel for taking on this task,” said Lawrence Wein, the president of NCSS, an organization dedicated to Jews who work as police, fire and other public safety officers.

NCSS chaplain Rabbi Tzvi Berko­ witz came up with the idea for a law enforcement Birthright trip and pushed to raise the age limit to 29 from Birthright’s usual 26 to give more officers a chance to participate.

Register at IsraelwithIsraelis.com/ lawenforcement.

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

LOCAL NEWS

AJT 7

ARTS

B

D

E

G

H Photos by Michael Jacobs

A: Noa responds to the audience’s cheers.

B: Noa tries on her gift of an Israel Ride fleece jacket after saying she wished she had it to start the show, when she joked about feeling cold because she and Gil Dor are desert people.

C: Gil Dor speaks softly during the show but plays a big guitar.

D: Shai Robkin says no visitor to Atlanta should leave without Paz’s CD. E: Rabbi Mark Zimmerman joins Noa and Gil Dor for their encore.

F: Noa talks to the crowd between songs.

G: The crowd of more than 300 people gives Noa a standing ovation.

H: Noa spends part of her performance pounding on the drums.

Singer Noa Celebrates Sound Environment

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

N

AJT 8

oa (Achinoam Nini) drew an official crowd of 342 people and increased awareness of Israel’s Arava Institute for Environmental Studies during what is believed to be the Israeli singer’s first Atlanta-area concert Sunday night, Feb. 14, at Kennesaw State University.

Noa and her collaborator of 26 years, Gil Dor, waived their appearance fee while making time in their American tour to perform the benefit concert, which organizer Shai Robkin said was the first U.S. event to celebrate the Arava Institute’s 20th anniversary.

Robkin called Noa the world’s greatest singer and said he has traveled around the United States and Israel to hear her. But the concert did not sell out Morgan Hall at KSU’s Bailey Performance Center even though it was all about support for the Arava Institute, a Jewish National Fund partner, and for the Israel Ride, a five-day, 300-mile bicycle ride benefiting the institute, JNF and environmental organization

Hazon.

Controversy over Noa’s pro-peace statements and left-leaning political views led to talk of a boycott, although no protesters showed up. Those who stayed away missed an outstanding performance showcasing Noa’s vocal range and musical flexibility.

Many prominent members of the Jewish community joined the crowd, including at least five Conservative rabbis: Michael Bernstein of Congregation Gesher L’Torah, Neil Sandler of Ahavath Achim Synagogue, Analia Bortz and Mario Karpuj of Congregation Or Hadash, and Mark Zimmerman of Congregation Beth Shalom.

Rabbi Zimmerman had the privilege of singing onstage with Noa and Dor during their encore.

Afterward, Robkin presented the Israeli performers with several Aravarelated gifts, including fleece jackets and copies of the only CD issued by the local band Paz, which includes Robkin and Rabbi Zimmerman. ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Pregnancy Support in a Ritual Pool

“D

on’t you miss delivering babies?” is a question I often get these days. After leaving a clinical practice of many years, I admit I do miss delivering babies. But I have found other ways to nurture my midwife’s heart.

I am spending the majority of my time moving my elderly parents to Atlanta, which involves a different type of caretaking.

One of the similarities between being a midwife and a caretaker is the amount of waiting involved. Between waiting in doctors’ offices and sitting with my mother, who lives with dementia, my mind is free to wander and to contemplate midwifery and life’s bigger questions.

Recently, I wondered why there are so many opportunities for Jewish ceremonies and rituals after the birth of a child and so few (if any) during pregnancy.

Many Jewish women refrain from baby showers or other celebrations because of the unpredictability of

pregnancy. Historically, any celebration may have caught the attention of the evil eye (or similar superstition) and invited catastrophe.

Guest Column

By Caryn Hanrahan

Even the traditional response to a new pregnancy is not mazel tov but b’sha-ah tovah, which literally means “in a good hour,” referring to the timing of the birth, as opposed to any kind of congratulations. Our Jewish culture, always cautious, reserves mazel tov until the baby and mother are delivered safely.

Childbearing years can be filled with happiness, but some women are forced to deal with the heartache of infertility and miscarriage. Many women find that this can be a very lonely and isolating time.

No formal rituals exist for those struggling with fertility issues. This

needs to change, and it is changing, albeit slowly.

We can take the customs and prayers of previous generations and create rituals that nurture us in good times as well as bad.

Fortunately in Atlanta, we have a new space to explore and create ceremonies and rituals for many of life’s transitions. Volunteers and leaders at the Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah are busy writing rituals to help people spiritually address the good transitions as well as the difficult ones in life.

Pregnancy encompasses the body, mind and soul. Most Jewish women get prenatal care to monitor their pregnancy and promote physical health.

What do they do to nurture their minds and their souls?

That is one of the big questions that my midwife’s heart wants to answer.

I encourage any Jewish woman who is pregnant or wants to explore new and innovative ways to set intentions (kavanot) for pregnancy to join me and massage therapist Rebecca Leary Safon, the founder of Mother to

Mother Massage and Yoga Therapy, for a one-time workshop at MACoM on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. The program is free, but please RSVP to RSVP@atlantamikvah.org.

We will explore some contemporary uses of mikvah for pregnant women. These include immersion during the ninth month, as well as other times one might want to immerse during pregnancy or the postnatal period.

We also will explore meditation and yoga as tools to heighten this sacred period in a woman’s life.

Lastly, we will gather to discuss the wondrous possibilities to reconnect with your soul and Judaism in a way that feels just right for each woman.

I may not be delivering babies right now, but I can certainly continue to help nurture the bodies, minds and souls of pregnant women in new and meaningfully equal ways. I hope you will join me. ■ Caryn Hanrahan is a certified nurse-midwife who serves as vice president of MACoM (www.AtlantaMikvah. org).

Dr. Seth Yellin

, lASER & AESTHETICS CENTER

Expert. Artisan. Educator.

“My patient’s happiness is what matters most.” Dr. Yellin

→ → → →

After

Dr. Yellin’s patient on whom he performed complete facial rejuvenation: injectable facial volume, upper eyelid blepharoplasty, lower eyelid tightening, a lower face and neck lift and CO2 laser skin resurfacing.

Call today to schedule a personalized consultation

770-425-7575

Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery, Laser & Aesthetics Center

111 Marble Mill Road NW, Marietta, GA 30060 www. MariettaFacialPlastics.com In partnership with Marietta Dermatology Associates Serving Greater Atlanta since 1970

Seth A. Yellin, MD, FACS Founder and Director

$50 OFF Any Service Performed by Dr. Yellin

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Before

Over 20 years of cosmetic facial surgery experience Over 10,000 facial cosmetic procedures performed Impeccable safety record Top facial plastic surgeon, Guide to America’s Top Plastic Surgeons, Consumer Research Council (2011-present) → Trained at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital and Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. → Former Chief, Facial Plastic Surgery, Emory Healthcare (1999-2011) ... and member of Congregation Or Hadash, accomplished drummer and chef.

AJT 9

l

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Our View

Identity Politics

T

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

he presidential selection process is approaching Georgia. Early voting for the primary began Feb. 8, and SEC Primary Day itself, March 1, is less than two weeks away.

Next week we will present columns from supporters of all of the major candidates, making appeals for your vote. We expect the style of those columns to vary as much as the candidates for whom the writers are speaking.

We also expect the columnists to disagree on the basis on which you should choose our president. Differences on issues, including which issues matter, are normal, but questions of identity also come into play.

Should people, especially women, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and feminist icon Gloria Steinem argued before the New Hampshire primary, vote for Hillary Clinton because she’s a woman and it’s time for the United States to have its first female president?

Should people, especially we Jews, vote for Bernie Sanders, who in New Hampshire became the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary, because he would be the first Jewish president?

Should Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz gain votes not only because of their Hispanic last names and Latino origins, but because they showed during the Republican debate in South Carolina on Saturday night, Feb. 13, that they can speak Spanish?

Does Ben Carson bounce back from his awful showing in lily-white New Hampshire — where he finished well behind two candidates, Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina, who then dropped out of the race — because more voters in South Carolina share his skin tone? Or, just as being Catholic was removed as a serious consideration once John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic president, have Barack Obama’s two terms as the first black president allowed us as an electorate to move on?

Sanders has gotten some criticism for not playing the game of identity politics. Faced with an opponent who claims to be anti-establishment simply because her sex would allow her to make history, the Vermont senator has argued over who is the true warrior against the establishment: the socialist who has served in Congress for 25 years or the former senator and secretary of state who has the overwhelming backing of Democratic superdelegates, who by definition are the establishment.

Sanders has shied away from discussing his religion to an awkward extent, as when he talks about his father as a “Polish immigrant” and when he said in a debate that his election would be historic because of his background without specifying why.

It’s possible Sanders doesn’t want to discuss his religious identity because he doesn’t want to talk about whether he has faith in anything other than government. Perhaps 35 years of campaigns in Vermont have conditioned him not to bring up religion.

Maybe, as he indicated in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, his Jewishness is so obvious that it’s not worth addressing.

We suspect Sanders simply rejects the notion that voters should respond to a candidate’s identity 10 instead of his ideas. It’s a refreshing approach. ■

AJT

Becoming Our Own Worst Enemy

O

vah,” endorsed BDS and called for Palestine to reach ne of my recurring frustrations as a member of the Atlanta Jewish community is our felfrom the sea to the river. low Jews in places such as New York ignore Of course, none of that is true. When I asked her or look down on us, as if Southern Jews are as rare as about boycott, divestment and sanctions in January, unicorns or as insignificant as Lilliputians.

Noa went on a rant. Trust me: She hates BDS. We have amazing creativity and vibrancy and Like most Jews in the United States and Israel, wrestle with ideas great and small. Atlanta ought to including the prime minister, she believes in a twobe seen as one of the pillars of American Jewry. state solution. Like many, she thinks Israel could do Then we turn something more to seek peace. that should have been beautiLike many, she is sad ful and unifying into a source and frustrated that Editor’s Notebook of anger and division, and our Israel keeps getting perception as flyover territory sucked into wars.

By Michael Jacobs for Jews traveling to and from And like some, she mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Florida makes sense. questions the conIsraeli singer Achinoam duct of those wars.

Nini, known as Noa, took time You can disout of her American tour to make a special stop in agree with her. You can get angry at her statements Kennesaw and perform free Sunday night, Feb. 14, to and the potential damage to Israel’s reputation. You benefit the Arava Institute for Environmental Studcan wish she would just sing and stay out of politics. ies, which brings Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians But why do legitimate disagreements coming and others together to tackle issues of conservation from a shared desire for a peaceful, secure Israel and sustainability. have to descend into the nastiest of name-calling?

Nearly 350 people attended the concert, but Why do we battle boycotts against Israel but resort others boycotted and cost the institute thousands of to that same bludgeon against our own people? dollars in potential earnings.

As Sunday’s concert, I kept thinking about the At the center of the storm was Noa, who was end of my interview with Noa. After 30 minutes, she born in Israel to a family that escaped Yemen, grew realized she had an immediate need that was more up in New York, then decided as a teenager to make important than her career or the Arava Institute: It aliyah. She is an Israeli by birth and by choice, and was time to pick up her daughter from school. she loves her country.

That’s who she is: an Israeli mom who wants a She also has benefited Israel by projecting a safe future for her three children. It’s petty and depositive image over a quarter-century of recording meaning of us in the Diaspora not to give her every and touring, including representing Israel in the benefit of the doubt and not to listen to her instead 2009 Eurovision contest and performing almost a of rumors and innuendo. dozen times at the Vatican.

She would have been justified as the boycott talk Yet the news that she was coming to Atlanta spread to cancel the trip and enjoy a day off. Instead, sparked outrage. Nasty, defamatory claims about she did the right thing and put on a great show.

Noa spread by social media, email and phone. You’d She also made Jewish Atlanta look small and not think she sang the Hamas anthem instead of “Hatikready for the spotlight we’re so often denied. ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

L

adies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the greatest show on Earth is coming to town.

No animal acts, just men and women demonstrating prodigious abilities, such as stretching and bending the truth into unrecognizable shapes.

Every four years, American presidential campaigns tour cities and towns, tantalizing audiences with unrivaled showmanship.

The performers — er, candidates — make promises that even they know cannot be fulfilled, boasting with the enthusiasm of carnival barkers hawking attractions under the big top.

Their pitch is whatever they think the rubes — er, voters — want to hear, even if that means changing their spiel along the way.

On Super Tuesday, March 1, primary elections are scheduled in Georgia and five other Southern states (along with primaries and caucuses in eight other states). Regionally, this has been dubbed the SEC Primary, referring to the collegiate athletic conference in which football is a religion.

In this, the nation’s most faithdriven region, candidates will invoke the phrase “Judeo-Christian values,”

Letters To The Editor Israel’s Precedents

An editorial titled “Full Disclosure” (Feb. 12) expresses discomfort with two recent Israeli actions. The first is the suspension of three Israeli Arab members of the Knesset who honored the families of terrorists who killed Jews.

The second is new legislation that requires anti-Israel nongovernmental organizations to reveal the source of funding from European governments.

Actually, Israel is on solid ground with both actions, based on precedents in U.S. history.

During the Civil War, a small segment of Union Democrats opposed President Abraham Lincoln’s prosecution of the war and wanted to recognize the Confederacy. This faction was called the Copperheads and was led by an Ohio congressman, Clement Vallandigham. After Vallandigham was warned multiple times that his activities were treasonous, he was arrested, tried and convicted under military law,

no matter any confusion about what it means.

Israel will be mentioned often, more to appeal to Christians, particularly evangelicals, than to these Southern states’ relatively small Jewish populations. The fewest such references may come from the lone Jewish

From Where I Sit

By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com

candidate, who says little on this subject.

Speaking for myself, I cringe when a candidate tells a Jewish audience that he watched the movie “Schindler’s List” the night before, when another recalls his mother urging him as a boy to make Jewish friends because they would be loyal, and when a third makes light of the reputation of Jews as dealmakers. Then there is the candidate who donned a kippah bearing his name as an entrepreneurial rabbi asked him to say “Gut Shabbos” into a camera for promotional purposes.

What motivates candidates to do such things? Votes and money. then was expelled to the Confederacy by order of Lincoln.

The treatment of the Arab members of the Knesset was mild compared with what the United States did under similar circumstances. In fact, these anti-Israel members of the Knesset were told to get out of Nazareth by its Arab mayor, who noted that their presence was bad for business.

The United States has strict regulations on lobbyists and requires those who receive foreign funding to disclose it. Israel would be on solid ground adopting similar legislation.

Finally, the major reason the AJT advises caution is because of how these actions might be perceived. Just as it is futile to ask sharks to become vegetarian, it is futile to think that haters of Israel will all of a sudden love Israel if it tries to please them. Abrogating selfrespect never ends well.

— Jack L. Arbiser, Atlanta

Torn Over Trump, Sanders

While Donald Trump rants like a dictator of old, Bernie Sanders stands for all that Jews and right-thinking

Jews are roughly 2 percent of the U.S. population but on Election Day make up about 4 percent of the voters.

In a nation where 55 percent to 60 percent turnout is considered good for a presidential election, Jewish turnout is around 80 percent.

Jews also make campaign contributions in excess of their percentage of the population.

Attention, pandering politicians: A photograph of you wearing a kippah does not impress me, nor does a grip-and-grin handshake with Israel’s prime minister, nor does your version of “Some of my best friends are Jewish.”

As for the pledge “I stand with Israel,” please articulate any substance behind that statement because it makes me want to ask, “Which Israel are you talking about?” Do you make the mistake of assuming that American Jews are monolithic in their opinions?

On the subject of Israel, former U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller recently offered a reality check on campaign rhetoric. “And the next president will soon encounter the reality that the U.S.-Israeli relationship is not some precious talking point or slogan on a pedestal, but a living breathing one where the interests of both countries can simultaneously

collide and coincide,” Miller, who has advised both Democratic and Republican administrations, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine.

Some Jews base their votes primarily on candidates’ positions on Israel. I am not a single-issue voter. Yes, I am interested in what a candidate says — or actually believes — about Israel, but it is just one issue of consequence.

I also want to hear their thoughts on: • How to improve the quality of public education.

• How to restore Main Street’s confidence in Wall Street.

• How to repair our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure.

• The role of religion in the public square.

• How to secure the nation without sacrificing the civil liberties on which it was founded.

• How to prevent the renewal of cold wars and cool the heat in existing conflict zones.

• Whether the Constitution is static or open to interpretation (not unlike the arguments about aspects of Jewish law).

Political campaigns, like a circus, can be entertaining, but elections have long-term consequences. So enjoy your popcorn but pay close attention to what the candidates say and do. ■

people have fought for in this country since they first came, such as freedom of religion and freedom from religion, workers’ rights, education for all, advancement of science and medicine, and equal rights and justice for all.

Striving for those ideals should be the obligation of anyone who represents us, but there is a higher calling for any president of these United States: the protection of all Americans from evil, both foreign and domestic.

This great country has derived its strength and growth from immigrants, who for the most part fled oppression and insecurity in their homelands and came here seeking freedom and opportunity, captivated by the values they had learned this land espoused. I for one support any and all in desperate situations yearning for safety and freedom, whatever their ethnicity.

However, we are faced with a new breed of immigrants yearning to come here. Never before have we been faced with a multitude of immigrants who have been indoctrinated and brainwashed for nearly a century, if not a millennia, not to love what we espouse,

but to hate America, hate Jews, despise Christians, and seek the death and destruction of Israel and all its people.

Lessons of hate taught in their mosques, newspapers, schools and homes and on radio and TV now deluge them on the Internet. How exactly does one vet such people to determine that neither they nor their offspring will ever express those hatreds?

I am sure many Muslims seek to live here peacefully, but I doubt they will ever vote for a politician who supports Israel and freedom from religion.

Already the children of Muslims are denouncing Israel in our universities and depriving Jews of the right to speak. Already children of so-called peace-loving Muslims commit terrorist acts and plan more and more.

Already Muslims send money overseas to organizations committed to killing Jews and Americans. Already Muslims illegally export weapons and technology to terrorist groups.

And most of those already passed our vetting process — with flying colors.

— Barry Edelson, Hollywood, Fla. 11 FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

The Circus Comes to Town

AJT

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Scalia’s Death Alters Math on Abortion, Union Dues

J

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

ustice Antonin Scalia, perhaps the strictest “strict constructionist” U.S. Supreme Court justice, died Saturday, Feb. 13. His legacy will almost certainly be that in every decision he made or in which he participated, he tried his best to apply the Constitution as he believed the original drafters intended it to be applied.

Many detractors claimed that he needed to change with the times, that the Constitution was outdated. But he saw things simply and clearly: It was his mission to understand and to enforce whatever the original drafters intended (or perhaps would have intended?).

An immediate impact may be felt in cases such as Whole Woman’s Health vs. Cole, No. 15-274, in which a conservative majority led by Scalia might have determined that a Texas law allowing strict medical restrictions on abortions could have provided a state a way to ban many or most abortions. This case could have been the closest the Supreme Court had ever come to overturning Roe vs. Wade.

AJT 12

In Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, union rights are at stake on the question of whether states may require union membership

Guest Column

By Randy Kessler rkessler@ksfamilylaw.com

as a condition of employment. Scalia seemed to be on track to help overturn current law and not allow states to require union membership. Unions’ ability to require fees from everyone at the job may now remain.

Evenwel vs. Abbott could affect voting rights, and other cases are certain to engender much discussion, including a case covering religious organizations and contraception under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

There will be an interesting debate and many story lines about whether the Senate will block President Barack Obama’s attempt to appoint a successor, hoping for a more

Bob Englehart, CagleCartoons.com

conservative (Republican) president to take office in January.

Until then, the interesting thing is there are eight justices, and to paraphrase a baseball term, a tie goes to the appellee. Those seeking to overturn a law or a decision will need a 5-3 majority instead of 5-4 (unless a justice abstains or recuses) because a 4-4 decision is a victory for the appellee.

The U.S. Supreme Court as the final arbiter or interpreter of law is vital. Whether one agrees with its rulings or not, we must have the rule

of law, and we often need closure and resolution. Getting it right, accurately applying the Constitution and maintaining the public confidence will continue to be vital, and nothing suggests that the current court will do anything other than continue this quest.

As the Chinese proverb foretells, “May you live in interesting times.” We certainly do. ■ Randy Kessler is the founding partner of the Atlanta family law firm Kessler & Solomiany (www.ksfamilylaw.com).

SPORTS

Signings: Gothard To Penn, Sloman to Miami

T

wo Atlanta Jewish community members who didn’t start playing football until their junior years in high school, Samuel Sloman and Daniel Gothard, signed to continue their sports careers at college Wednesday, Feb. 3.

Placekicker Sloman, a senior at Pace Academy, has signed with Miami University in Ohio for 2016.

Originally a soccer goalkeeper, he was recruited as a junior to kick for the football team and in his first season was named First Team All-State for AA. His senior season, Sloman converted 20 of 23 field goal attempts, setting a state record for field goals in a season. His longest was 53 yards.

He was named All-Region, AllState and a metro All-Star and gained national accolades: First Team AllAmerican with the two largest kicking camps, Kohl’s and Chris Sailer Kicking; National Placekick of the Year by Chris Sailer Kicking; and the MaxPreps Small Schools All-American Team.

Sloman and his family are members of Temple Emanu-El. Dunwoody High School offensive tackle Gothard has signed to play for the University of Pennsylvania.

Samuel Sloman sports the hat of his college choice, Miami University.

Daniel Gothard has learned enough in two years of high school football to win a spot on Penn’s team next fall.

The 6-foot-6, 300-pounder started playing football his junior year and picked up the sport quickly. Although Dunwoody finished 2015 with a record of 3-8, Gothard was recruited by Yale and Harvard before choosing fellow Ivy League school Penn. He is the son of Julie Horowitz and Andy Gothard.

Gothard and Sloman join Walton High linebacker Joey Goodman, committed to Harvard University, in signing to play college football next year. ■ Send news of local college sports signings to david@atljewishtimes.com.

That Championship Season

Davis Academy basketball teams won three Metro Atlanta Athletic Conference division championships this winter. The A boys and B boys and girls won titles.

The members of the Davis Academy’s A boys team, coached by Yaman Taylor and Loren Spaulding, are (back row, from left) Joey Rubanenko, Evan Bernath, Simon Ben Moshe (holding trophy), Ben Shapiro and Alex Effron and (front row, from left) Zach Leaf, Austin Margol, Ethan Ben Moshe, Justin Edelman, Isaac Goldman and Ethan Goldberg.

Davis Academy’s B boys team is composed of (back row, from left) Coach Rashad Gunn, Jordy Elster, Eric Rubinger, Evan Tessler, Logan Spector and Micah Kornblum and (front row, from left) Andrew Altmann, Eli Minsk, Charlie Janko, Grant Miller, Adam Rubinger and Max Murray, plus (not pictured) Jared Berenthal.

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Matt Barry coaches (from left) Alisa Steel, Mary Ella Rinzler, Alexa Warner, Ellie Rifkin, Emma Perlstein, Emma Bernath, Noa Grace Pollinger and Emma Tessler, plus (not pictured) Jenny Sullivan, on the Davis Academy B girls team.

AJT 13

EDUCATION

National Merger Crosses Day School Divisions

By Logan C. Ritchie lritchie@atljewishtimes.com

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

L

AJT 14

ocal day schools stand to benefit from the formation of a national Jewish educational collaborative.

Historically, day schools looked to independent organizations to help with fundraising, professional development, recruitment and more. Reform, Conservative and Orthodox schools reached out to networks within their own affiliations for resources. Reform day schools like the Davis Academy in Sandy Springs used one network, while Orthodox day schools like Torah Day School of Atlanta in Toco Hills used another to meet similar needs.

Now NewOrg (a temporary name) is combining five national Jewish nonprofits for a one-stop shop.

The effort was announced in 2014 at a Jewish day school conference in Philadelphia. A major financial backer of these five groups, the AVI CHAI Foundation, reportedly decided the organizations were duplicative.

In discussions for years, AVI CHAI wanted to be more efficient and save money by forming one group to encompass the affinity organizations.

AVI CHAI hoped to roll out NewOrg in fall 2014, but the effort took longer. A summer launch is on target.

NewOrg is composed of agencies in Boston and New York, but outposts will be located in every region of the country. It is aiming to cater to 375 Jewish day schools across North America.

Geography plays an important role in NewOrg. Employees will be remotely located to identify school challenges in each demographic.

Davis Academy Head of School Amy Shafron wrote: “As the largest Reform Jewish Day School in the country, The Davis Academy looks forward to benefitting from the rising tide of excitement that comes from a shared commitment to educating our youth, while continuing to devote ourselves ever more deeply to the mission and identity that is uniquely Davis and the special feeling of our school. While we are in so many ways very different from other Jewish Day Schools, we look forward to the opportunities that will come from collaboration on a national platform.”

According to NewOrg board member Jane Taubenfeld Cohen, the executive director of the Yeshiva University Institute for University-School Part-

nership, there are plenty of needs that day schools share.

“The organization will be structured in a similar way to how we set up our schools,” Cohen said. “In your classroom, there are things you do with the whole class and times you need to address individual students.”

NewOrg combines the Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools (PARDES), the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), the Schechter Day School Network, RAVSAK (the Jewish Community Day School Network), and the Yeshiva University School Partnership.

Each organization has an area of expertise, but with overlaps. RAVSAK is known to enhance community through coaching and mentorship skills for professional leaders; PEJE also focuses on staff training in addition to financial sustainability and fundraising.

Although some longstanding relationships are ending with this merger, Atlanta-area schools are optimistic.

“There is finally a place where one voice can respond to Jewish education.

Before it was a divisive split between us [affiliations] where everyone spoke for themselves. One organization will work together in a much more efficient way,” Atlanta Jewish Academy Head of School Rabbi Pinchos Hecht said.

“We are all in the same business.

It’s a waste of energy to not have this resource — one organization to train, help and support will be an impactful thing,” he said.

Struggling schools will get services, Cohen said. A sliding scale will help address the needs of poorer schools.

“We find donors or fundraise to support schools in financial need. A common conversation we have is, ‘This school is struggling, they called for help, and what will we do?’ People volunteer. Currently I’m just helping a school who cannot afford services. We speak on the phone, and I am helping them to get out of their current struggle. That’s exactly how the organization will help,” she said.

David Abusch-Magder, the head of school at the Epstein School, said: “I hope that, as the field moves forward with the birth of this new day school organization, we will engage with them along similar and expanded lines and that the planned synergy of the combined organization allows for greater resources and support.” ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

EDUCATION

Living Wonders, UF Hillel Capital Campaigns Dig In Test 24-Hour Innovation innovative devices to help its special needs population lead normal lives.

“The truest form of inclusion is when we give people with challenges the tools and empowerment to include themselves,” Pawliger said.

“After all, without them, our community is not complete. Through opportunities like BuildUp, we are communicating to them, ‘We need you, you are part of us, and we are going to give you what you need to make us whole again.’ ” If the weekend goes well, he said, he hopes the next BuildUp-type event will take place at Georgia Tech. ■

T

arts center behind the media center.

Nine days later and about seven miles south, Atlanta Jewish Academy will hold its construction celebration from 10 a.m. to noon.

AJA’s $10 million project will enable the Upper School, formerly Yeshiva Atlanta, to move from Doraville to the Lower School campus at 5200 Northland Drive. When the work is done, preschoolers through high school seniors will study at what used to be the home of Greenfield Hebrew Academy.

While it’s too late to make plans to join the Davis ceremony, you can be part of the free AJA event by RSVPing at secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=52ce3a. ■

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

C

amp Living Wonders has earned a reputation as an innovator in providing a summer home and community for people with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Now it’s trying to take innovation to another level by sponsoring a maker event.

The Atlanta-based camp, operating in Clarksville this summer, is working with the University of Florida Hillel on the launch of BuildUp, a weekend event to create devices that could enhance the lives of people with physical, developmental or mental disabilities.

Students in engineering and special education will have 24 hours to create a prototype that addresses one or more of four major issues faced by Living Wonders’ population, camp Director Noah Pawliger said: sensory, mobility, motor complications and mental health.

The event will take place at UF Hillel from Friday to Sunday, Feb. 19 to 21, and thus will be a part of Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month.

In what Pawliger said is a pilot he hopes will be repeated at other universities, students and community members will brainstorm, pitch ideas and develop products.

American and Israeli entrepreneurs will attend the event to mentor the teams, which will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to entrepreneurs and investment bankers. Pawliger said he hopes Israeli companies will produce some of the prototypes.

He said BuildUp offers a chance to answer big questions while promoting Jewish organizations and businesses and boosting Israel. “People need to see all the great things coming from the Jewish people because the Jewish people are doing great things.”

Pawliger and Rabbi Adam Grossman, the CEO of UF Hillel, came up with the idea of BuildUp. They became connected through their involvement in the Jewish innovation accelerator organization UpStart.

“Beyond the start of companies and the creation of products that could drastically help people, we hope this offers inspiration for individuals to continue to develop, build and experiment with ideas that impact our world for the greater good,” Rabbi Grossman said.

Aside from the big-picture goals, Pawliger said Camp Living Wonders is involved in BuildUp because it needs

wo Sandy Springs day schools are breaking ground on their latest campus improvements before the end of February.

The Davis Academy is bringing out the shovels at 8:15 Friday morning, Feb. 19, during an all-school Kabbalat Shabbat celebration at the Lower School at 8105 Roberts Drive for the ceremonial start of its $7.5 million upgrade. Donors and city officials will join school leaders for a reception after the one-hour public celebration.

The Davis construction includes a dining hall and kosher kitchen, a community gathering space, and adaptable learning spaces, but the centerpiece of the project is a 600-seat performing

AJT 15

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

EDUCATION

New Head Eager to Blend Chabad, Montessori

Rabbi Michoel Druin sees self-paced synergy in Chaya Mushka’s approach

By R.M. Grossblatt

R

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

abbi Michoel Druin is the first head of school for the Chaya Mushka Elementary and Middle School in Sandy Springs.

While the Chabad-operated Chaya Mushka Children’s House preschool, under the direction of Dassie New, follows the authentic Montessori program, Rabbi Druin said the upper school is Montessori-inspired.

In an interview, he said he sees “great potential” in the blended learning, self-directed program that complements the beliefs of Chabad. Chaya Mushka serves 65 children from first to seventh grades and is expanding to the eighth grade.

Rabbi Druin was born in California and raised in Israel. He was awarded a master’s degree from Bellevue University, where his research included a Montessori program. He also completed the Lookstein Center Principals’ Program and the School Leadership Program of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

In South Africa, where he met his

AJT 16

Rabbi Michoel Druin says he sees education as a combination of five minds — disciplinary, synthesizing, creating, respectful and ethical — as described by Harvard developmental psychologist Howard Gardner.

educator wife, Rabbi Druin founded the Machon L’Horah smicha (rabbinic ordination) program and Crawford College (now with 1,500 students), both in Pretoria. Only 10 percent of the students at Crawford are Jewish, but Rabbi Druin oversaw the school while heading a program for the Jewish students.

The past five years he was the head of school for the Jewish Academy in Commack, N.Y., on Long Island. Under his leadership, 75 percent of the eighth-graders passed the High School

Regents Exam, the highest percentage for any school in Suffolk County.

To prepare for his appointment in Atlanta, Rabbi Druin visited Montessori Jewish day and secular schools in New York, including the well-known Chabad Lamplighters.

The Chabad educator gave an example of Montessori-inspired blended learning: If 15 children are in a classroom, five will be learning with a teacher, five will be working on their daily tasks in a Montessori fashion, and five will be learning online at computers, working at their own rate. Other schools, Jewish and secular, may use this approach to save money, as it could enable a teacher to monitor 45 students in a classroom, Rabbi Druin said, but “that’s not Chabad’s reason.”

At a Yeshiva University convention, Rabbi Druin tested participants’ expectations for a Chabad Montessori school. The written responses showed “so much overlapping and synergy” between Montessori and Chabad, he said.

“Many of the participants recognized Chabad’s outreach approach, where individuals are encouraged to interact

and grow within Judaism at their own pace, which equates with the Montessori philosophy of teaching each and every child as an independent learner.”

Marie Montessori was an Italian physician who in the early 1900s gave children with special needs sensory and tactile tasks and saw them succeed.

She then introduced her individualized methods to all children, especially preschoolers. Her child-centered program was the Montessori Method.

Rabbi Druin said children might have 10 tasks for the day and choose the order in which to accomplish them.

Another difference in a Montessori school is the attitude toward homework. Some educators believe that they need to eliminate homework and get all the work done at school.

“We, however, believe that instead of homework being something to get done with in school, the students go home feeling a sense of self-ownership in regards to their learning even while at home,” Rabbi Druin said. He added that “Montessori differs from traditional education, where the teacher owns the class and the students repeat what’s said to them to get a good grade.”

As the Chaya Mushka Elementary and Middle School’s first head of school, Rabbi Druin said he has been welcomed by rabbis and feels the community support. Although he sees the benefits of Montessori, he doesn’t want to dismiss the philosophy of education in other schools in the Atlanta area.

To test the proficiency and growth of students in secular studies, Rabbi Druin plans to use the Measure of Academic Progress, or MAP, which assesses children by adapting to each one’s level. It will be used as a formative assessment, enabling teachers to fine-tune their instruction over the year. MAP is part of the not-for-profit Northwest Evaluation Association.

Success in the Judaics program will be measured by seeing the students develop skills and by hearing the parents “tell me that the children are enjoying what they are learning,” Rabbi Druin said. “It’s very subjective to measure kodesh.”

He hopes students will be inspired by their heritage and plans to hire a program director to give them lots of opportunities to celebrate holidays and traditions in and out of school.

“I could do all the talking,” Rabbi Druin said at the end of the interview.

“The parents should come see the school in action.” ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

EDUCATION

Leubitz Answers a Higher Calling at AJA

R

abbi Ari Leubitz never could have guessed two decades ago that he would be moving to Atlanta this summer to become the head of school of Atlanta Jewish Academy.

Back then, the Cleveland native was making his way in the Wall Street world with a Yeshiva University business degree. While trying such jobs as stock trader and currency trader, he had no plans to be an educator or a rabbi or even to leave New York, where he met his future wife, Florence, a native of the city who had no desire to move.

The bursting of the Internet bubble in the late 1990s led him to call center management, where he worked hard but felt that he was missing some essential meaning or purpose in life. “I didn’t have that language at the time, but I was going through the motions,” Rabbi Leubitz, 42, said in a phone interview from California, where he heads the Oakland Hebrew Day School. “I guess I was content.”

The first turning point came when his synagogue offered free one-on-one study with rabbinical students. He said the program wasn’t wildly popular, but it clicked with him. He switched to a graveyard shift at the call center so he could spend more time studying, and he began teaching religious school in the afternoon.

He felt tremendous tension about where he was headed, but he didn’t see himself as a rabbi. He was just passionate about learning and teaching as he found his way religiously after growing up with a Conservative father and an Orthodox mother and attending an Orthodox day school.

A mentor helped him accept that if he found purpose in teaching children and being a pastoral leader, he had to go to rabbinical school, even though that meant giving up his job. When he realized he could be 30 years from achieving career fulfillment in the call center world but was only four or five years from being a rabbi, “it just hit me like a ton of bricks.”

He spent a year at a small rabbinical school as a test, then enrolled in Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, where he received his ordination four years later in 2006.

The next trick was finding a job.

Rabbi Leubitz still had the intention of being a pulpit rabbi, but after he struggled to find a job in the New York area, or even within a one-hour flight, he took a part-time teaching position in

Los Angeles that soon became full time.

He worked his way up to principal of a Modern Orthodox high school, Shalhevet School, then four years ago took the Oakland job, where he leads a school that runs through the eighth grade.

Rabbi Leubitz, whose only ties to Atlanta are a few friends who moved here, took notice when Greenfield Hebrew Academy and Yeshiva Atlanta announced their merger in 2014. He said the model of preschool through high school on one campus provides a wonderful professional opportunity.

“Part of me wanted to get back to high school,” he said. “Part of me loved the lower school.”

At AJA, he gets both, along with the

opportunity to guide a school that has deep community roots but also is new and embarking on a major construction project. “Now I get to have a say in every small part.”

He said AJA is and will remain Modern Orthodox. “I think that means it can still be a place that is open-minded and welcoming to people of different geographic backgrounds and practice backgrounds.”

The school he leads will focus on how it can meet the needs of each learner, which is why he is excited that AJA offers the M’silot Program for children with learning differences, Rabbi Leubitz said.

His educational philosophy starts

with the notion that “an excellent Jewish and general studies education has to be something that feels holistic, centered around students and the needs of students.”

He said the school must nurture the unique abilities of each child so that he or she can blossom and find a voice while developing the skill set in general studies to be “amazing citizens of the world.”

His children — Eliana, 12, Aviva, almost 11, and Ezra, 5 — will be part of the school, while his wife, a pediatric audiologist, is looking for work.

“This feels like the place where we can settle down and create roots,” the rabbi said. ■

experience EPSTEIN.

We’re way more than you imagined.

We look forward to seeing you on our campus.

Schedule a tour at EpsteinAtlanta.org/tour.

THE EPSTEIN SCHOOL Solomon Schechter School of Atlanta

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

THE EPSTEIN SCHOOL Solomon Schechter School of Atlanta

335 COLEWOOD WAY NW SANDY SPRINGS, GA 30328-2956 EPSTEINATLANTA.ORG

AJT

THE EPSTEIN SCHOOL Solomon Schechter School of Atlanta

4819 AJT adN10_15.indd 1

17

10/13/15 3:12 PM

THE EPSTEIN SCHOOL

EDUCATION

Weber Head of School Rabbi Ed Harwitz stands with the high school’s one winner of multiple first-place ribbons, freshman Josh Glass, who won his age group in animation and game design.

Dozens of Young Techies Advance to State Fair

M

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Chattanooga

AJT 18

CAMPWALKABOUT

ore than 200 tech-savvy Jewish students competed in the 12th annual North Atlanta Jewish Students Technology Fair on Sunday, Jan. 24, at the Weber School.

The 16 competition categories range from game design and robotics to digital photography and 3D modeling in age groups from third grade to 12th grade. First-place winners in each category and age group move on to the state-level competition, the Georgia Educational Technology Fair, on Saturday, March 5, in Macon.

The regional tech fair is held on a Sunday to avoid forcing Jewish students to compete during Shabbat.

Because the state competition is on a Saturday, the students are allowed to submit their entries via video.

Winning entries in the regional fair came from students at Atlanta Jewish Academy, Davis Academy, Epstein School, Torah Day School of Atlanta, Weber School, Druid Hills High School and North Springs Charter High School.

Davis had 15 projects created by a total of 21 students win first-place ribbons to give the school bragging rights.

Close behind were Epstein with 11 firstplace projects produced by 19 students and AJA with 13 first-place projects from 13 students.

Epstein’s state qualifiers for Grades 3 and 4 are Shai Bachar in device modification, Jessica Covin and Foster Berlin in Internet applications, Sophie Carmel and Leo Silver in mobile apps, Elliott Furie and Naomi Furie in multimedia, Andrew Frank in robotics, and Lila Ross and Lindsay Greenwald in video production. For fifthand sixth-graders, Epstein’s first-place finishers are Gavin Brown and Dylan Wendt in device modification, Jacob Greenwald and Matthew Neuberger in game design, Jonah Katz and Jordan

Leff in robotics, and Barri Seitz in the technology literacy challenge. Maya Kahn and Galya Fischer are the regional champs among seventh- and eighthgraders in animation.

AJA has the top individual winner: Dan Jutan, who won blue ribbons in three categories (technology literacy challenge, Internet applications and tech programming challenge) among 11th- and 12th-graders. Also earning multiple first-place finishes for AJA are Shaun Regenbaum, who won 3D modeling and animation for the same age group; and the team of Ben Goldberg and Yoni Kassorla, who won audio production and non-multimedia applications among fifth- and sixth-graders.

Both Jutan and Regenbaum are high school juniors, and AJA Director of Technology Sue Loubser said their projects “were some of the best I have seen our students create.”

AJA’s other state qualifiers are Zach Agichtein in animation (Grades 3 and 4), Shiraz Agichtein in graphic design (Grades 5 and 6), Daliya Wallenstein and Sophie Knapp in project programming (Grades 5 and 6), Lillian Zaidel and Noa Rudisch in 3D modeling (Grades 5 and 6), Paulina Lebowitz in digital photo production (Grades 7 and 8), and Bobbi Sloan and Deena Glusman in non-multimedia applications (Grades 7 and 8).

Second-place finishers for AJA are Simon Stein and Zellik Silverberg in 3D modeling (Grades 3 and 4), Caroline Cranman and Kayla Feingold in multimedia applications (Grades 3 and 4), Jordan Joel in 3D modeling (Grades 5 and 6), Shiraz Agichtein and Margalit Lytton in game design (Grades 5 and 6), and Sammy Lebowitz in project programming (Grades 5 and 6).

Double winner Regenbaum also claimed a third place in the technology literacy challenge, along with the

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

EDUCATION

Cranman-Feingold team in animation, Joel in digital photo production, Zach Agichtein and Kayla Wallenstein in game design (Grades 3 and 4), Zachary Amdur in game design (Grades 5 and 6), and Ethan Rice in 3D modeling (Grades 7 and 8).

“As technology becomes more commonplace, our students are using increasingly complex projects to show off their skills,” Loubser said. “We look forward to seeing our students compete at the state level.”

She and Michael Chalmers of the Weber School serve as co-chairs for the

The Davis Academy Lower School’s nine first-place winners are (back row, from left) Adam Tepper, Jack Anderson, Connor Swislow and Jake Martin and (front row, from left) Julia Moss, Sylvie Bella Brown, Charlie Berss, Jack Baylin and Maccabee Anderson.

region.

Weber also had a double winner among the five students taking five projects to the state fair: freshman Josh Glass in animation and game design.

Torah Day School, which is smaller and had fewer entrants, advanced one student to the state contest: Eli Litvin in Internet applications among fifth- and sixth-graders. In the same age group, Torah Day School’s Effy Freundlich and Noah Kalintz finished third in game design.

Two students outside day schools advanced to the state competition,

The Davis Academy Middle School students who finished in first place are (back row, from left) Andrew Levingston, Matthew Aronin, Andrew Altmann, Ethan Wolfson and Stephen Rusnak and (front row, from left) Eli Weiser, Derek Coffsky, Caroline Goldman, Jordan Liban, Jake Friedman and Lucas Jannett.

both among ninth- and 10th-graders: Druid Hills’ Yoni Bachar in robotics and North Springs’ Jared Rakusin, teamed with former Epstein classmate Isabel Berlin, now a Weber student, in 3D modeling.

Weber’s other winners were senior Amanda Kraun in digital photography for Grades 11 and 12, sophomore Justin Cobb and junior Levi Durham in robotics for Grades 11 and 12, and sophomore Isabelle Jacobs in the technology literacy challenge for Grades 9 and 10.

Jacobs and freshman Thomas Foodman placed second in robotics

for the younger high school age group, as did Cobb in the technology literacy challenge.

Davis’ state qualifiers for Grades 3 and 4 are Sylvie Bella Brown and Julia Moss, audio production; Jack Baylin and Maccabee Anderson, game design; Charlie Berss, 3D modeling; and Jake Martin, technology literacy challenge.

The winners among fifth- and sixth-graders are Adam Tepper, digital photo production; Jack Anderson and Connor Swislow, video production; Andrew Levingston, multimedia applica-

Continued on the next page

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

The Epstein School has 19 winners advancing to the state technology competition March 5: back row (from left), Jonah Katz, Maya Kahn, Galya Fischer, Matthew Neuberger and Jacob Greenwald; middle row (from left), Dylan Wendt, Lila Ross, Jessica Covin, Barri Seitz, Lindsay Greenwald, Shai Bachar and Gavin Brown; and front row (from left), Foster Berlin, Andrew Frank, Jordan Leff, Elliott Furie, Naomi Furie, Leo Silver and Sophie Carmel.

AJT 19

EDUCATION

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

The AJA Lower School has 28 participants in the tech fair: back row (from left), Deena Glusman, Bobbi Sloan, Zellik Silverberg, Daliya Wallenstein, Ilan Benamram, Adam Berkowitz, Lillian Zaidel and Ethan Rice; third row (from left), Noa Rudisch, Ian Yagoda, Sophie Knapp, Jordan Joel, Zachary Amdur, Shiraz Agichtein, Hannah Mandel and Paulina Lebowitz; second row (left), Yoni Kassorla, Ben Goldberg, Sammy Lebowitz, Amishai Weismark and Zachary Agichtein; and front row (from left), Kayla Joel, Sam Wachtel, Gabriella Schakett, Ethan Rolnick, Kayla Feingold, Kayla Wallenstein and Justin Rolnick.

AJT 20

AJA Upper School winner Shaun Regenbaum has two blue ribbons this year, for 3D modeling and animation. The animation project explains infinitesimals and nonstandard analysis in an intuitive way, the same approach for which Regenbaum was a national finalist for a $250,000 prize with a video in the fall.

Dan Jutan from the AJA Upper School is the winner of three categories: technology literacy challenge, Internet applications and tech programming challenge.

tions; and Eli Weiser, animation.

The Davis seventh- and eighthgraders advancing to the state contest are Derek Coffsky, video production; Caroline Goldman, multimedia applications; Jordan Liban, game design; Ethan Wolfson and Andrew Altmann, robotics; Jordan Liban and Jake Friedman, 3D modeling; Lucas Jannett and Stephen Rusnak, graphic design; and Matthew Aronin, technology literacy challenge.

The following Davis students finished in second: Ari Levi and Jack Tolk, animation (Grades 3 and 4); Micah Margolis and Etai Vajima, device modification (Grades 3 and 4); Jolie Levy and Sarah Meiselman, game design (Grades 3 and 4); Sarah Menis, robotics (Grades 3 and 4); Sydney Bressler and Dani Werbel, video production (Grades 3 and 4); Harrison Green, tech literacy challenge (Grades 3 and 4); Avery Friedman and Jenna Prass, video production (Grades 5 and 6); Jordan Palgon and Anna Baylin, digital photo production (Grades 5 and 6); Max Martin and Jake Martin, robotics (Grades 5 and 6); Alexa

Warner, video production (Grades 5 and 6); Carson Wolff, tech literacy challenge (Grades 5 and 6); Bryan Kopkin, 3D modeling (Grades 7 and 8); Derek Coffsky, animation (Grades 7 and 8); Jordyn Rosenberg, multimedia applications (Grades 7 and 8); Isaac Goldman and Joey Rubanenko, robotics (Grades 7 and 8); and Lily Fleischmann, video production (Grades 7 and 8).

Davis’ third-place finishers are third-graders Gabriella Haviv and Kyra Russotto in video production; fourthgraders Ross Bernath in multimedia applications, Jordan Frank and Harrison Green in multimedia applications, Bradley Amato and Ari Levy in robotics, and Jordan Frank in the tech literacy challenge; fifth-graders Carson Wolff and Caleb Mahle in robotics and Connor Swislow in the tech literacy challenge; and seventh-grader Jake Friedman in the tech literacy challenge.

“This has been one of the biggest tech fairs,” Loubser said. “We are very proud of all the students who competed.” ■

EDUCATION

It’s Never Too Early to Prepare for College.

No matter the age of your high school son or daughter, now is the time to investigate the CollegeBridge approach to college preparation, selection, and application.

Our approach will impact your child’s success in college and in life.

On an unseasonably warm day in February, WSB-TV meteorologist Katie Walls and Davis Academy first-graders gather near the weather gauge attached to the red fence behind the Lower School fields at the Sandy Springs campus.

The Sun and the Rain

Take the time to explore our website.

Visit us at www.collegebridge.net

W

SB-TV (Channel 2) meteorologist Katie Walls visited Davis Academy first- and third-graders Tuesday, Feb. 2, to speak about weather, weather safety, and the importance of a data project the students are partici-

Contact Steven W. Cook, PhD swc@collegebridge.net or 404.983.4573

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

pating in.

Davis first-graders are monitoring rainfall — a full-time task this school year — with a new rain gauge located near the fields behind the Lower School and reporting the data to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, known as CoCoRaHS. Organizations and individuals including the National Weather Service, hydrologists, emergency managers, ranchers and farmers use the collective data to which the Davis pupils are contributing. ■

AJT 21

EDUCATION

Est. 1989

Voted Top 10 Salons in Atlanta!!

Exclusive for Atlanta Jewish Times’ readers: Bring this ad and get a

COMPLIMENTARY

HAIRCUT with a Color service with selected stylists

770.993.0058 | www.josephandfriends.com Sandy Springs • Roswell • Johns Creek • Milton • Cumming valid until March 31

The Grief Recovery Method Grief Support Group The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses

People say you have to let go and move on in your life, but they don’t tell you what you need to accomplish that.

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

The Grief Recovery Method Support Group not only makes it possible, but provides partnerships and guidance to insure it happens during this 8 week action program. The program offers hope and support for any loss.

AJT 22

The group will meet from 7:00pm to 9:00pm for 8 weeks starting March 17th.

Chabad of East Cobb

4450 Lower Roswell Rd. Marietta, GA 30068

All are welcome. To register, please call Simonie Levy at 914-380-2903 or David Pritchard at 770-855-7503 HOPE FOR THE GRIEVING HEART

world’s less popular nations while participating in the University of Georgia Model U.N. Conference in Athens during the first weekend in February.

It was the Weber team’s second U.N. conference of the school year.

Davis Academy middle-schoolers test out Although the Google Cardboard viewer. there are no winners or losers in model U.N., the WeCardboard Pioneers Second- through eighth-graders at ber team wound up representing two the Davis Academy took virtual field tough countries: Qatar, which finances trips Wednesday, Feb. 10, using the Hamas and whose abysmal human Google Cardboard viewer through the rights record has gained global attention since the emirate began prepaGoogle Expeditions Pioneer Program.

Davis students visited places such rations to host soccer’s World Cup as Spain and Israel and experienced in 2022; and North Korea, known to 360-degree panoramas and 3D images launch rockets into space as a test of with the virtual reality delivered by nuclear-capable ballistic missiles and Cardboard and a smartphone. As beta to spread Sony’s secrets through cybertesters, the students then gave Google attacks.

Juniors Justin Wolozin, Yarden representatives feedback on the prodWillis and Shannan Berzack participatuct.

“The Google reps, who visit many ed in the first General Assembly of the schools, shared specifically how im- United Nations, which focused on the pressed they were with our students for their respectful behavior and thoughtful insights and with our faculty’s professionalism and creative plans for the Google tool,” Davis Head of School Amy Shafron reported to parents.

Teens Can Learn Improv

A new program could make the Marcus Jewish Community Center the place for teens who are class clowns, are interested in theater, or just watch comedy on TV and think, “I could do that.”

Weekly improv comedy classes for eighth- to 12th-graders start Wednesday, March 9, and run through April 20 at the Marcus JCC’s main campus at 5342 Tilly Mill Road in Dunwoody.

Classes meet from 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays.

The April 20 session, the sixth in the series, will be a performance for students’ families.

Skilled improv artists will teach the class. Participants require no experience.

The fee for the six sessions is $75 for JCC members and $95 for nonmembers. For more information, call 678812-4082, email paige.godfrey@atlantajcc.org, or visit www.atlantajcc.org.

Tough Task at Model U.N.

The Weber School’s model United Nations team had to defend two of the

Model U.N. team members Aaron Gordon, Justin Wolozin, Yarden Willis, Asher Stadler, Adam Spector, Jordan Arbiv and Sam Fialkow hang out at UGA with faculty adviser Marc Leventhal. Not pictured is team member Shannan Berzack.

Iran nuclear deal and maritime piracy.

Sophomores Aaron Gordon, Asher Stadler, Sam Fialkow, Jordan Arbiv and Adam Spector participated in the third General Assembly, which explored the economic, social and cultural rights of Syrian refugees.

JELF Loan Period Opens Applications

for

interest-free

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

EDUCATION loans for 2016-17 college, graduate school and vocational programs are available to Jewish students in Georgia and neighboring states from March 1 to April at the Jewish Educational Loan Fund’s website, www.jelf.org.

The loans are need-based and are meant to be last-dollar financing: JELF provides the final money to bridge the gap between a student’s total financial resources and the cost of school.

An applicant must be enrolled in a full-time program leading to a degree or certificate at an accredited institution in the United States, must be a U.S. citizen or a legal resident, and must be able to demonstrate financial need through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. For more information, email application@jelf.org or info@jelf.org, or call 770-396-3080.

JELF also accepts applications in September.

and how science and technology will affect it. The contest’s “future” could address the world as a whole or the student artist’s personal future.

Designs must use the template available at www.atlantasciencefestival.org/tshirtcontest and must be emailed to tshirt@atlantasciencefestival.org so that they are received by 11 p.m. Tuesday, March 1.

The winner will receive two tickets to “Alton Brown Live: Eat Your Science” at the Fox Theatre on April 9, an onstage award during the festival’s Exploration Expo on March 26, and 10 T-shirts for family and friends.

A panel of festival staffers, board members, sponsors and partners will judge the designs on artistry, creativity, originality, and the ability to communicate a clear and positive message about the future and how science and technology will affect it.

“Last year’s contest was extremely successful and a true testament to the imagination, talent and curiosity of the next generation,” said Meisa Salaita, executive co-director of the festival.

“This year’s theme, ‘Meet the Future,’ is the perfect way to showcase the power of our local youth and encourage them to dream big and have fun while doing it.”

March of the Living Alters Attitudes Toward Israel A study by March of the Living International (www.motl.org) has found that the organization’s trips to Poland and Israel lead half of the participants to consider making aliyah in the future.

The recently released study was conducted by sociologist William Helmreich of the City University of New York Graduate Center and the Colin Powell School at City College.

“What’s most remarkable about the march is how deeply it impacts participants over a period of many years,” he said in an announcement about the study. “These include life choices like selecting a mate, moving to Israel, and career choices. In addition, it greatly impacts not only on Jewish identity, but also on compassion toward other people.”

More than 220,000 students have taken March of the Living trips since the program was founded in 1988. The Holocaust education trips annually take 10,000 to 20,000 students from any religion to Poland and Israel, but the report focused only on the Jewish participants.

Most of those surveyed said they

signed up to better understand their Jewish culture.

“We are very pleased with the results of this study,” said Shmuel Rosenman, the chairman of the March of the Living. “To think that the march is such a successful program in terms of ensuring and enhancing Jewish identity and in making people realize the importance of engaging as a Jew within their communities and caring for those outside of them truly illustrates the goals that we had when initially forming the first march so many years ago.”

Among the findings: • Fifty-four percent said the march made them more tolerant toward other groups. Among those who participated 20 years ago, that number rose to 66 percent.

• Eighty-six percent said it’s important to marry someone who is Jewish, and 91 percent said that raising their children with some sort of Jewish education is important. Some 65 percent said that raising their children in a Jewish neighborhood is important.

• According to 90 percent of those surveyed, the march instilled the importance of reacting to confrontations with anti-Semitism, and 95 percent said the march strengthened their sense of Jewish Identity.

Teachers Mary Catherine Stoumbos and Edward Ellis flank Ben Franklin students (from left) Sophie Morris, Alex Warren, Ben Chen and Declan Greenwald with the donated books.

Ben Franklin’s Books Offer Educational Shelter

Science T-Shirt Contest

The Atlanta Science Festival (AtlantaScienceFestival.org) is offering young artists the chance to get involved with the event, set for March 19 to 26, by entering its annual student T-shirt design contest. This year’s theme is “Meet the Future.”

Georgia sixth- to 12th-graders may submit a design that depicts the future

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Ben Franklin Academy’s philanthropy club in one month collected 120 children’s picture books from school families to donate to the Genesis Shelter and Our House Shelter, which provide shelter to homeless newborns and their families.

Encouraging the literacy of the next generation fits the Ben Franklin community’s strong belief in the benefits of reading for a child’s development.

AJT 23

AJT

24

6

3

DOWN 1. ‫( צוה‬27:20) 2. ‫( מעיל‬28:4) 3. ‫( אבנים‬28:11) 4. ‫( ראש‬29:7) 6. ‫( יום‬29:36)

GDLBINUI

GOCNKOI

GRWNTII

Check your answers at: www.thefamousabba.com/tetzaveh

(Hint: things we refrain from on Shabbat)

NEGVIWA

RNAISGE

(scramble)

INANPLTG

WORD CMRLESAB

• Aharon with his sons lighting the menorah.

(27:20) • The High Priest wearing all 8 of his garments.

Act out these scenes with friends and family:

PARSHA SKIT ideas

5

4

2

ACROSS 2. ‫( טבעות‬28:23) 5. ‫( שמות‬28:21) 6. ‫( לבש‬28:41)

Complete the crossword by translating each Hebrew word into English. 1 Use the parsha reference for help.

CROSSWORD

Share two things that happened to you this week that made you think about HaShem.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Humility: Listen to what other people have to say, even if you think you know more than they do. ("Who is wise? He who learns from each and every person.” - Pirkei Avot)

O

E

C

S

E O

H

W C

A

G

U

A L

W O

Y

A

T

H

I

N

K

W

H

F

M

G

R

A

V

H

E

T

A

L

P

I

A

V

E

T

A

A

I

E

I

L

www.thefamousabba.com

D

A

L

B

U

E

O

E

S

L

A

R

G

H

T

W O

S

N I

R

F

I

E

O

N

N

T

E

L

Y

N

© 2016 The Famous Abba

Brought to you by:

C

E

T

R

O B

A M

B

C S

L

I

N

S

F

O

U

L

W O

A

M

T

R

B

M

E

H

T

WORD FIND

Find the bold italic words on this sheet.

The unused letters spell a secret message!

HaShem commanded Moshe to receive pure olive oil from the Jewish people for Aharon to light the menorah. Moshe is commanded to make garments for Aharon and his sons to use when they serve as priests. The garments worn by all priests while serving in the Sanctuary are detailed – k'tonet (a full length linen tunic), michnasayim (linen breeches), mitznefet (a linen turban), and avent (a long sash wound above the waist). In addition, the high priest wore the ephod (an apron-like garment made of many colored linen and gold thread), choshen (a breastplate containing 12 special stones with the names of the 12 tribes), me'il (a cloak of blue wool, with gold bells and decorative balls like pomegranates on the hem), and the tzitz (a golden plate worn on the forehead, with the engravement Holy to HaShem). HaShem detailed the ceremony for when Aharon and his sons are to wear their garments for the first time. The laws of the continual offering are detailed – one in the morning and one in the afternoon, each with fine flour, beaten oil, and wine. HaShem says that He will meet with the Jewish people at the tent of meeting and rest His presence among them.

P

E

I

F

L

O

U

R

D

E

11 ADAR 1 5776 PARSHAT TETZAVEH

WOOL

PURPLE

‫ל‬ x‫ג‬

‫פ‬ –‫נ‬

‫ד‬ +‫ו‬

‫ק‬ –‫ל‬

‫מ‬

‫כ‬ x‫ב‬

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

weekly chinuch podcast - over 100 posted! parsha + chinuch < 5 minutes www.thefamousabba.com/podcasts

400 300 200 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

1

‫א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת‬

‫ר‬ ‫כ‬ – ‫י – קי‬

Two of the High Priest's garments:

gematria

• A sibling was not ready for school so carpool had to wait extra for him.

• The coach didn’t play you in the last part of the game.

Can you judge these situations favorably?

LINEN

COTTON

you be the judge

BLUE GOLD

Which one is different?

(Hint:Priestly garments in this week's parshat)

spot the difference

___ Aharon was born ___ Yosef becomes a father ___ Avraham’s name was changed ___ Pharoah's daughter finds Moshe

List the following in the order in which they occurred:

historical timeline

I was a Kohen and lived most of my life in Radin, Poland. I am usually known by the name of one of my books, detailing the laws of proper speech.

I spent about 28 years writing the Mishnah Berurah.

WHO AM I?

SUPER SHABBat SHEET

good trait OF THE MONTH

CANDLELIGHTING IN JERUSALEM 4:49 P.M.

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

EDUCATION www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS

GRAND OPENING PREVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY AND JUDAIC ART

Come by and preview the art and register for our grand opening offers.

Photos courtesy of JF&CS

PAL Marks 30 Years Of Mentoring, Bonding

By April Basler abasler@atljewishtimes.com

A

tlanta’s PAL program, a mentoring program operated by Jewish Family & Career Services, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a big party Sunday, Feb. 28, at Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs.

The Atlanta area’s only Jewish Big Brother/Big Sister program has touched the lives of hundreds of children, families and volunteers over the years and formed close relationships that in some cases have lasted decades.

PAL was started in 1986 by Archie Solomon and Ellen Moore, the first PAL program manager. According to his widow, Kaethe, Archie was involved in a Big Brother/Big Sister program in Cleveland. When the Solomons moved to Atlanta, he found a need for a similar program and decided to start one.

“Ellen Moore was a social worker here at JF&CS, and she was seeing a lot of families who were going through divorces,” said Carly Sonenshine, the PAL program manager. “The parents were coming in for counseling, saying that their children are really in need of additional support. They said that this is a really difficult time, and if they had a special person of their own outside of the family but supporting the family at the same time and supporting their child, giving them that one-on-one attention, how much they would benefit.”

So the Solomons and Moore started PAL with JF&CS. Through about 500 matches over the years, about 1,500

people have been helped, including the children (little PALs), the PAL parents and the volunteers (big PALs).

The PAL name was an acronym. “It actually used to stand for People Are Loving,” Sonenshine said. “About five years ago, they got away from the acronym and just started calling it the PAL program, like a pal, a friend.”

Somewhere PAL hit a period of decline, she said, and the program manager position became part time. But four years ago the program went back to a full-time clinician, and PAL has seen strong growth from 14 to 45 active matches in that time. The program has a goal of 55 matches by the end of 2016.

“We are really working hard to be out in the community, teaching people about the PAL program and about the benefits of mentorship,” Sonenshine said. “We’re really getting out there with our name and having wonderful advocates of the program to share the wonderful work that we do and making sure that the families who need us know that we are here.”

To volunteer as a big PAL, you must be at least 21, a Georgia resident and Jewish and have a driver’s license.

You must commit for a minimum of one year, during which you meet with your little PAL at least twice a month and connect with weekly phone calls.

Matching big and little PALs is a long process. A volunteer must pass a background check, a drug screening, interviews and other vetting. A family who would like a child to be in the

Continued on the next page

Marc Chagall Rembrandt Van Rijn Pablo Picasso Peter Max

ARTISTS

Izchak Tarkay Yaakov Agam Romero Britto Howard Behrens and many more

Mark Jaffe | Mark@chaifineart.com | 770-289-0114 5975 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, Ga 30328 Hours : Sunday & Monday - Closed Tuesday-Thursday - 11-6 pm • Friday and Saturday- 12-7pm Or by appointment

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Attending one of the first PAL planning meetings are Kaethe and Archie Solomon, Harold Solomon, Ellen Moore, and Carol Cooper.

AJT 25

Come Join the Alefbet Preschool Family

LOCAL NEWS

at Congregation Beth Shalom

Educated, experienced, caring educators Excellent child/educator ratios Warm, loving environment Science, Music, and Movement specialties Integrated Judaics curriculum Full day, extended day, core day options Licensed and accredited thru Bright From the Start Active PTO ALEF Fund Scholarships

COME LEARN MORE ABOUT US! For information, contact Risa Walter, Director of Early Childhood Education Risa@bethshalomatlanta.org

Congregation Beth Shalom

5303 Winters Chapel Road • Atlanta, GA 30360 770-399-7622 preschool | preschool@bshalom.net

THE SONENSHINE TEAM Atlanta’s Favorite Real Estate Team

DEBBIE SONENSHINE STAR NEWMAN KATIE GALLOW Top 1% of Coldwell Banker Internationally Certified Negotiator, Luxury, New Homes and Corporate Relocation Specialist #1 Sales Associate in Sandy Springs Office Voted Favorite Jewish Realtor in AJT, Best of Jewish Atlanta

#1 Team Coldwell Banker Atlanta

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Great Buy in Prime Perimeter Location!!

AJT 26

• End Unit, Former Model in Prestigious Park Towers Place • Contemporary Open Floor Plan with Wide Plank Hardwoods • 2 Bedrooms/2.5 Baths PLUS a Den • Kitchen Has Granite, SS Appliances & Separate Breakfast Area • Large Bedrooms and Baths are Updated

Debbie Sells Houses

Dunwoody/Sandy Springs $235,000

Adam Sonenshine (left) and David Manne take their little PALs to a Braves game.

Marni Bronstein and her little PAL create artwork and memories.

program has an intake meeting, an interview with the child and family, and a home visit. PALs are matched based on hobbies, backgrounds, social needs, interests and preferences. All matches are the same sex.

“The reality is that every child can benefit from a mentor. Nine out of 10 kids in the United States are growing up without a mentor,” Sonenshine said.

PAL serves diverse family situations. Little PALs are the children of parents who are single because of divorce, death of a spouse or choice. PAL also serves LGBTQ families, military families, children raised by guardians other than their biological parents, and, more recently, siblings of children with developmental disabilities. The child with a developmental disability is referred to the Friendship Circle, and the sibling gets a big PAL, giving that child the attention he or she needs.

Little PALs range from 5 to 17. Children graduate from the program at 18, but the typical PAL match does not end at that point, Sonenshine said. “I know people who tell me that they are still in touch with their PALs literally 30, 25 and 20 years later. They are in each other’s weddings and at each other’s break fasts. They are celebrating simchas together because they have become such a huge part of each other’s lives.”

Elissa Fladell and her little PAL graduated from the program over 10 years ago, but they remain close, talking daily and seeing each other often.

“I got to watch her grow up,” Fla­ dell said. “I got to bring something to her that she did not get from anyone else. For me, as an adult, she has be-

come part of my family. Not only have we gotten to give to her, but she has given to us. She is there for my children to be their mentor. She’s someone that they can go to that they trust when they don’t want to come to me or their father. We’ve almost come full circle in that regard. She really is part of our family. She adds to the dynamic of our whole family.”

Fladell highly recommends PAL to others.

“It’s a very special program, and it touches lives, not only of children, which is some of the most important work to be done, but it gives back to the parents that need that in their lives for their children to give them that sense of peace,” she said. “As a big PAL, to me it’s about what I get from it and not what I give to her. She gives so much back to me and my family. I really think that it is a program that is not only rewarding to those that are touched by it, but everybody that those people will then touch.”

Marc Alexander started as a big PAL in the mid-1990s and served on the JF&CS board for a number of years. Alexander said the program is an important service for the community.

“I think it gives the little PALs a great outlet to have someone other than a parent to talk about issues and things that are coming up in their life,” he said. “I think it’s great to have someone help out in the different struggles they might be having. The biggest reward is of the big PAL; it gives them the opportunity to reflect on what they had. Being a big PAL is an opportunity to put life in balance a little bit. To take

Big and little PALs prepare to board the bus for Camp Day Away.

David Manne shows his little PAL around his favorite childhood place, Camp Barney Medintz.

• Unit Overlooks Landscaped Courtyard • 2 Gated/Covered Parking Spaces & Extra Storage Unit • Amenities Include 24 Hr Concierge, Fitness Center, Pool, Tennis, Dog Park, Convenience Store, Dry Cleaner, Wine Room, Gym, Meeting Room & More!

direct 404.250.5311 office 404.252.4908

Debbie@SonenshineTeam.com | www.SonenshineTeam.com ©2014 Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Coldwell Banker is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Operated By a Subsidiary of NRT LLC.

LOCAL NEWS

Little and big PALs thank their sponsors at the PAL Chanukah bowling party in 2015.

Big PALS gathered for networking in July 2013 are (from left) Brian Shulman, Ari Weitz, Jeff Masarek, Mimi Hall Gottschalk, Brett Davis, Scott Levy, Daniel Kaufman, Carly Sonenshine, Adam Sonenshine, Lauren Bloom Wishna, David Manne and Dana Lupuloff Maloof.

Bennett Ginburg and Marni Bronstein attend Camp Day Away with their little PALs.

JF&CS doesn’t charge anything for program participants and encourages free and low-cost activities for PALs to do together. The program also sponsors monthly activities and offers resources to PALs so participation will not be a financial burden.

Other services JF&CS offers to families in the program include financial assistance, counseling, referrals and access to information on overnight Jewish camping.

The 30th anniversary party will bring about 200 people together for pizza, cookies and other kosher snacks, music from a Jewish band called Smothered and Covered, a photo booth, games, and other activities for children of all ages. A ceremony will honor Kaethe Solomon and Ellen Moore.

“I’m delighted that the program has remained so dynamic, and my husband would love to have seen this 30th anniversary,” Solomon said. “He would have been very proud of it.” ■

What: PAL 30th anniversary Where: Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs When: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28 Admission: Free, with walk-ins welcome; yourtoolsforliving.org/pal-celebration

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

a step back and make an impact on the younger PAL’s life is extremely rewarding. To me, the reward is making an impact on his life, which comes right back to you.”

Alexander and his little PAL liked to do outdoor activities such as camping, river rafting and attending sporting events. His little PAL has a brother who was also in the PAL program. The four of them were friendly and did a lot of activities together.

The sibling’s big PAL is Michael Londe, who met his wife, Susan, through PAL. Susan Londe volunteered to be on the committee for the annual PAL benefit called Havinagala, which used to be held at California Pizza Kitchen. Susan ended up being on Michael’s Havinagala committee.

“We started dating, and he had been a PAL for years. It’s kind of funny that it’s hit home in several different ways,” Susan said.

Susan remains close to her little PAL eight years after they graduated from the program. Their relationship has lasted 20 years even though her little PAL now lives out of state.

“She’s awesome,” Susan said.

“From the beginning, our personalities could not have been better matched.

We both loved to do crafty things and bake. We’ve always loved children.”

Susan feels that her little PAL is a part of her family, and they have been through a lot together.

“I love that I have my little PAL in my life,” she said. “She was with me when I went through my dating of my husband and got to know him. She’s watched me have both of my children.

She baby-sat for them even. She’s gone on family trips with us. It felt really good to be able to be a role model for somebody, especially at such a young age, when I was probably the one who needed a role model. We taught each other a lot of things.”

AJT 27

LOCAL NEWS

Something for Everyone Look for these upcoming special sections in your Atlanta Jewish Times: Feb. 26

— Finance

March 4

— Atlanta Jewish Music Festival Preview

$41,000 for PAL

N

early 500 people attended Havinagala at Ponce City Market on Saturday, Jan. 23, to raise money for Jewish Family & Career Services’ PAL program, the only Jewish Big Brother/Big Sister program in Atlanta.

Volunteers in Action, the young professionals volunteer group of JF&CS, organized the party, which raised more than $41,000 to be the most successful Havinagala in the event’s 20-plus-year history. Attendees enjoyed desserts, drinks, music, a photo booth and a silent auction.

The event chairs were David Friedman, Tamar Ruttenberg and Jessica Wronker. Chairing the host committee were Emily and Peter Bernstein, Jason Frank, Allie Raymond, and Allison Thurschwell. Lauren Lestin and Alexis and Jeff Rosengarten led the silent auction committee. ■

March 11 — Camp March 18 — Purim

To advertise in these or any other issues, call 404-883-2130.

Send story ideas to mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com.

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE ®

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

WINNER GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD ®

©HFPA

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

“THE BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR.” Peter Debruge, VARIETY Eric Kohn, INDIEWIRE Anne Thompson, THOMPSON ON HOLLYWOOD THE GUARDIAN

AJT 28

SON OF SAUL

WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM

A FILM BY LÁSZLÓ NEMES

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS START FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19

Atlanta Atlanta LEFONT SANDY SPRINGS REGAL TARA CINEMAPICK (404) 255-0100 (844) 462-7342 #553

VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.SONOFSAULMOVIE.COM

Photo by Erin Lesure, Marcus JCC

She Hopes They’ll Dance

Elisa Clark, a principal dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, visits the Marcus Jewish Community Center on Tuesday, Feb. 9, to teach a master dance class to 9- to 13-year-olds of the J Dance Company in the Rich Foundation Dance Studios. Clark was in town for Alvin Ailey’s run from Feb. 10 to Feb. 14 at the Fox Theatre, where the company’s repertory included two performances of the Holocaust-inspired “No Longer Silent.”

OBITUARIES

Margie Greenberg 79, Atlanta Margie Greenberg, 79, of Atlanta died peacefully Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016.

She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Joel Greenberg; their children, Mark Greenberg (Lisa) and Karen St. Amand (Mike); grandchildren Haley, Jamie and Noah Greenberg and Jacob, Emma and Daniel St. Amand; and brother Robert Gordon Weinstein (Gene Morgan).

She was born in Baltimore on Aug. 25, 1936, to Rose and Harry Weinstein, both of blessed memory. She grew up in Anderson, S.C., before attending college at Vanderbilt University, where she met her beloved husband, Joel. She received her degree in speech and hearing pathology. In addition to her boundless love for her family, Margie enjoyed her volunteer work as a board member and past president of the Jewish Home Auxiliary, playing bridge and reaching Life Master status, travel, her travel business, and music. Her friends and family will miss her exuberant personality and joy and love of life. Most of all, she found joy in her family as they found joy in her.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Funeral services were held Friday, Feb. 12, at Temple Sinai with Rabbi Bradley Levenberg officiating. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the Auxiliary of the William Breman Jewish Home or the American Diabetes Association. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Claire Perlman 91, New York

Death Notice Stuart Myron Rubinstein, 78, of Dunwoody on Feb. 12.

NEW PROGRAM

Earn prizes while raising money for your school.

Support a Weber Student and Subscribe to the ...

atlanta jewish times Weber students are helping our community stay connected to Jewish Atlanta while earning prizes and money for their school with each subscription they secure. (through February)

Here at the AJT, we have started an exciting new program for schools in the Atlanta area promoting subscriptions to raise money. For other organizations interested in participating, call (404) 883-2130 ext. 120

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

Claire Field Perlman, 91, died at home Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. The daughter of the late Helen and Sam Field, Claire was born in New York City and lived most of her adult life in Woodmere, Long Island. She graduated from Hunter High School and Pembroke College and was married to the late Sidney Perlman.

Claire’s belief in helping others made her an active volunteer: typing books in Braille in the 1950s and 1960s and serving as vice president and board member of the Samuel Field YM-YWHA for many years and as a volunteer with senior citizens at the Y. Her lifelong financial support for those in need began early. In 1934, 8-year-old Claire and five friends sent $1.05, the proceeds of a play Claire had directed, to the New York American Christmas and Relief Fund. The New York Times was so touched that it published Claire Field’s letter.

Claire was a generous donor to numerous charitable organizations, including UJA Federation of New York, the Samuel Field YM-YWHA, Israel Goldstein Youth Village in Israel, and Ramat Hadassah north of Tel Aviv, where a gym and sports field are named in memory of her beloved husband.

Claire was an excellent athlete, enjoying golf and tennis and working out at her gym three times a week. When she could no longer get there, the trainers came to her home. She loved to play cards and was well known for her knitting skills. She was the life of the party, whether singing, dancing or telling jokes. She had a wonderful social circle of lifelong friends and a true zest for life. Claire was playing cards, singing and moving to the beat until this past year. She particularly liked Sinatra and followed his belief in living life “My Way.” One of her defining traits in later years caused her to be known as the candy lady: The drivers, waiters and other people taking care of her appreciated her offering them a piece of wrapped candy.

Claire is survived by her daughter, Toni Young; a son and daughter-in-law, John and Maxine Perlman; a stepson, Jim Mindling; and five grandchildren, Mitchell Young (Katka), Ann Young Saban (Hanoch), Betsy Perlman, Sam Perlman and Natasha Mindling. She has two great-grandsons, Giladi Shmuel Saban and another due to be named at his bris Feb. 17.

Special thanks to her outstanding team of caregivers in her final years, Patricia Muir, Dawn Hutchinson, Gladys Barnes, Valerie DaCosta and others. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Samuel Field YM-YWHA or the charity of your choice.

AJT 29

CLOSING THOUGHTS OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING

A Visit to Mexico

M

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

y high school friends studied Latin or French, but my father said, “Learn Spanish. It’s useful.” That’s how I came to spend four years in Senora Gonzalez’s classes. I took more Spanish in college.

I naively considered myself, for want of a more honest word, fluent.

On a trip to Ensenada, Mexico, I gabbed away, and the clever shopkeepers let me show off to sell us things.

My confidence remained intact. When we lived in New York, I exercised my waning linguistic skills via a flexible crossbreed, Spanglish. Alas, even those diminished skills, like anything else one doesn’t use, rusted and withered.

On Buford Highway, there’s a shopping mall that our family calls “Mexico.”

Fiesta Plaza features the sights, smells, goods and overall ambience of southof-the-border culture.

One day I invited our granddaughter Miriam and her friend Rebecca to go to Mexico. Miriam and I had made this excursion two years earlier, and we’d had a lot of fun. This time I promised plenty of time among the incredible ball gowns 15-year-old quinceañera girls get to wear. That, and the fact that there’s an arcade, nailed it.

The signs at the entrance were in Spanish. “Don’t worry,” Miriam declared proudly. “My bubbe speaks Spanish.” Well, kind of.

On our previous sojourn, I had located the bathroom at a crucial moment by asking, “Donde esta el bano?”

I know the official and the tongue-incheek words to “La Cucaracha.” I often call out “Hola!” to fellows working across the street. I use the correct pronunciation of the double ll’s in llama.

I’m also crazy about piñatas.

Yes, I’m a regular Latina wannabe.

Here our story begins.

Fiesta Plaza was a great quasiHispanic experience, and we even happened upon a gorgeous teen trying on quinceañera dresses.

“She looks a lot older than 15,” my 11-year-old companions remarked.

“You’ll probably look like that in a few years,” I declared.

With that intriguing thought in mind, we headed toward the arcade.

En route, I translated shop placards and signs. We stopped at a window of a minuscule shop that sells fancy shoes, Zapatos Elegantes, and the three of us were impressed with a pair that caught the light and glittered 30 alluringly. We had to find out the price.

AJT

“Speak Spanish,” Miriam whispered.

I squared my shoulders. “Que sera sera,” I Found in Mexico, thought. made in China.

Using the remains of my schoolroom Spanish, I asked about the shoes and was given the price, which, of course, I misunderstood.

I told the saleswoman, who I learned was named Clara, that we might come back, and I meant it, but I

Chana’s Corner

By Chana Shapiro cshapiro@atljewishtimes.com

cautioned the girls not to count on it.

Rebecca, a practical girl, declared that she already had dress shoes, but Miriam claimed she was in dire need.

Naturally, we returned to the tiny store an hour later. This time the woman spoke English to us, and I learned that the shoes cost less than I had thought.

The conversation between Clara and me would make a great “Saturday Night Live” routine. Her English and my Spanish were beautifully matched, and we ended up speaking Spanglish.

The effort was worth it, because in the eyes of my granddaughter, the glittering, bowed, jeweled shoes were fabulous. Miriam modeled them in black, gold and silver. Rebecca (remember, she’s sensible) recommended black, but Clara and I knew better.

“Abuelas!” I laughed, acknowledging that both Clara and I were grandmothers, destined to supply our granddaughters with fancy shoes.

Would it be gold or silver? Again, Clara and I were in consonance. “Plata!” we agreed, as Miriam decided, “Silver!”

On the way home, Rebecca told us her family was going to the real Mexico in February, so in preparation she practiced “Donde esta el bano?” As my father said, it could be useful.

Miriam was wearing her new shoes when our daughter picked her up. “Where’d those come from?” Sara laughed. She knew that, whatever the backstory, I was culpable.

“Mexico,” I boasted. We looked at the insole: “Made in China.” ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

CROSSWORD “Initially”

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

1

2

3

4

5

14

15

17

18

20

32

39

13

36

37

56

57

27

35 41

49

42 46

45

47

50

53

54

59

60

63

55

61

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

ACROSS 1. Like a slightly open ark 5. Hatzolah people 9. Many a Jerusalem morning in February 14. Challah option 15. Celine not for BDS 16. Genre for Maurice Stern 17. Bills in America, but not Israel 18. “Ragtime” novelist (1975) 20. Vesper drink in “Casino Royale” 22. Job experience?

23. It held for Joshua 24. Like Mamilla Mall on a Saturday night 25. Goes out, like Shabbat 27. Lansky had to worry about them 28. Crab even gentiles can’t eat 30. Sal’s “Exodus” role 31. “That’s life!”

34. His “The Magician” had artwork by Chagall (1917) 38. Gwyneth’s “Sky Captain” co-star Ling 39. Provider of kosher recipe chat rooms, once 41. Article in France-Soir 42. Loyalist to David and Solomon (1 Kings 1:8) 43. “The Brothers Ashkenazi” writer (1936) 46. Say “ken” 48. Gefilte fish fish option 49. Kosher cruise kitchen 51. Chinese dynasty that started the same time as the Davidic line 53. Kosher alternative to a Pop-Tart 54. Wise one, often 58. ___ Rand (born Alisa Rosenbaum) 59. Comic persona G 60. Like Wilpon’s Mets fielding in the World Series

12

30

44

58 62

26

40

48

11

23

29

52

10

22

34

38

9

19

33

43

8

16

25 28

51

7

21

24

31

6

perhaps 31. He protected Padmé, for short 32. “The ___” (Uris novel) 33. Where Golda Meir spent most of her childhood 35. Reverberation (from the audience at a Billy Crystal show) 36. Notable list number 37. Bat mitzvah bummer 40. They might be worn with skirts 44. Shtar letters DOWN 45. Schmatta 1. Stewing cholent creates 47. “The Bridal Canopy” one scribe (1931) 2. First name of a vaccine 50. Moses and Elijah, atop creator Mount Sinai 3. Rocket red flag 51. Kosher ___, New Orleans 4. “Fear Street” creator eatery (1989) 52. Lee’s Marvel meanies 5. Biblical plot?

53. Teacher of Samuel 6. (Jewish) environment 7. Anti-Nazi Mann’s “Der ___ 55. Pat whom Elvis once opened for in Venedig” 8. A cat on Sam Simon’s “The 56. The shamir worm, for one 57. Latke state?

Simpsons” 59. U.S. to Israel 9. Kotel item 61. Cookie that hasn’t been 10. Facebook’s was $38 treif since 1998 11. Make like Jonathan 63. Post-Manhattan Project Maccabee after Judah’s org. death 64. Political prefix for 12. Many a parent at a Netanyahu and Obama graduation 13. Makes like many a sibling at a graduation LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 19. Bonet’s S N A P S C P R P A R K S 14 15 16 disgraced TV H O N E Y O R E O W N E R 17 18 19 N I B L O A N S A D O R N dad, informally 20 21 22 M E D I C I N E B A L L 21. Chaim 23 24 25 26 27 U S E N O S E S A L I Herzog’s 28 29 30 31 32 S E C T S E D A T E S original 33 34 35 36 37 A R M A D A C R U N C H E S homeland 38 39 40 41 S I R A A R O N R E N A L 26. ___ eyen 42 43 44 45 B E N C H I N G A T A R A H hora 46 47 48 W I R E T A P L A O S 27. Pro (Bibi) 49 50 51 52 53 54 L E M R I P E N A S A 55 56 57 58 29. Possible J U M P I N G J A C K S venue for Torah 59E 60S 61R O G 62P E T 63A R I A N 64 65 66 writing I C E D A N T E S P E L L 67 68 69 30. Babka, N E D E D G E R T A S T Y 62. “Franny and Zooey” author (1961) 65. Tom and Meg’s “You’ve Got Mail” director 66. An archangel 67. “King David” star Richard 68. Shomea K’___ (Shofar related law) 69. Director Meyers 70. Kacha kacha 71. Emperor who the Talmud says became a proselyte

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

MARKETPLACE

FINANCIAL SERVICES

GENERATOR SERVICES

EVENT SERVICES

Spice up your party with TEMPORARY AIRBRUSH TATTOOS!!!

When it comes to finding your perfect home, it’s important to have options. The same is true when deciding on your mortgage. That’s why we offer a wide variety of mortgage options to fit your particular needs:

• • • •

Purchases and Refinances Conventional, FHA, & VA Jumbo Loans with no PMI 100% Financing for Doctors

MITZVAH, BIRTHDAY & CORPORATE EVENTS

Jay Givarz

Senior Mortgage Banker

Generator Sales & Service, Inc. www.perkinselectric.com

678-522-2343

jay.givarz@lionbank.com NMLS# 203728

Face and Body Painting Beauty Makeup • Body Makeup

404-816-0989 404-693-0012

770-251-9765

24/7 Power Protection Hands Free Operation | Professional Installation

GENERATORS 24/7 POWER PROTECTION

bodyworksatlanta@aol.com

makeupartistryatlanta.com icancoverupanything.com COMPUTER SERVICES

COMPUTER SERVICES

fakakta computer?

I’ll drive to you!

Visit our website www.AtlantaJewishTimes.com

for More of What You Need.

Fast Appointment Scheduling Reasonable Rates All Services Guaranteed

Power up. Technology should simplify.™

404-954-1004 damon.carp@gmail.com

Tenth Series Jubilee Bonds ($25,000 minimum) for 10 Years

3.42

Tenth Series Maccabee % Bonds ($5,000 minimum) for 10 Years

FOLLOW THE ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES ONLINE.

3.27

Seventh Series Mazel Tov % Bonds ($100 minimum) for 5 Years

2.92%

I T S O LU T I O N S

Seventh Series eMitzvah Bonds ($36 minimum) for 5 Years

IT

2.92%

IT SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

877.256.4426

www.dontsweatitsolutions.com

(404) 817-3500 Atlanta@Israelbonds.com Development Corp. for Israel Member FINRA Effective through February 29, 2016

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016

→ Desktop & Laptop Repair → Home/Business Networking → Performance Upgrades → Apple Device Support → Virus/Spyware Removal

AJT 31

AJT

32

FEBRUARY 19 ▪ 2016