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Jewish Music Festival Goes International
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Photo credit: Jon Gargis
A silent march through Midtown Atlanta on Jan. 11 shows solidarity with Paris after three days of terror. Page 8
URBAN BLIGHT?
Cityhood proposals could slice up Toco Hills Page 2
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A new mosque in Cobb, a new kollel in DeKalb Pages 4, 22
INSIDE Israel Pride 3 Opinion 9 Editorial 10 Candle Lighting 10 Calendar 12 Shaindle’s Shpeil 19
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By David Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com he Atlanta Jewish Music Festival is bringing international music to town for the sixth annual event. The Spring Festival will feature Israeli Yael Deckelbaum and Diwan Saz and Montreal-based Jump Babylon. With an eye on attracting young, intown Jews, AJMF will put on 10 events in 12 days in March. The festival will include Macon-based band Red Heifers and Atlanta-area artists (Hannah) Zale, Sammy Rosenbaum and Tony Levitas. “We are really excited about this year’s Spring Festival,” said Russell Gottschalk, the festival’s founder and director. “We’ve had international performers in the past but never at our opening night, and we’ve never focused entirely on international artists, specifically performers from Israel, at our main event. Main event headliner Yael Deckelbaum has performed since age 16 as a solo artist and is releasing an album this spring. She is also a member of the Israeli folk trio Habanot Nechama. Diwan Saz consists of seven Jews, Muslims and Christians who perform ancient music from Central Asia, Turkey and Israel, promoting peace and understanding through their music. AJMF6 kicks off Thursday, March 12, at Steve’s Live Music with Jump Babylon and its klezmer-inspired ska/roots/ rock. The Sandy Springs venue will also host Zale’s album release party March 14. The festival will produce a stage at the 31st annual Atlanta Community Food Bank Hunger Walk/Run on March 15. The main event will be March 21 at the Variety Playhouse. Additions to the Spring Festival include a cantorial showcase at Temple Emanu-El on March 22 and a closing Holocaust remembrance concert March 23.
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Toco Hills Might Unite to Avoid Cityhood Split be included in the proposed new city By David Cohen LaVista Hills. They have succeeded in david@atljewishtimes.com he Jewish community of Toco getting most of the community added Hills is fighting to stay united to the proposed city map, something in the face of competing an- that LaVista Hills activist and Congregation Beth Jacob member Josh nexation bids from two cities. Young Israel of Toco Hills hosted Kahn says would be best for the comthe second of three scheduled commu- munity. “LaVista Hills would be more renity meetings on the dueling cityhood proposals Sunday night, Jan. 11, four days after the first meeting and four days before the last. Toco Hills is facing proposals that could divide the neighborhood along LaVista Road or keep it together within or outside a Proposed Cities of LaVista Hills and Tucker city. Divided jurisdiction would complicate municipal services, zoning laws and sponsive to the community’s concerns, school systems for the Orthodox Jew- especially zoning and road policies ish community of nearly 3,000 people. that encourage walkable schools and In response to the proposals, 277 synagogues,” Kahn said. “We all have Toco Hills residents have signed a friends and family in Dunwoody and petition for the entire community to Sandy Springs, have seen the success
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of those new cities, and want the same responsiveness and efficient use of our tax dollars.” The proposed LaVista Hills would encompass most of the land between Interstates 85 and 285 in DeKalb County. The southern border of the city would be south of LaVista Road and thus include almost all of the local Jewish community. The Orthodox community in Toco Hills is the largest south of Baltimore and north of Miami with four synagogues, three Jewish private schools and four kosher supermarkets within one square mile. The other proposal is for part of Toco Hills to join the city of Atlanta, possibly splitting the community down LaVista Road. In a survey conducted by the Merry Hills neighborhood in mid-December, 87 percent of those who favored incorporation preferred the LaVista Hills proposal, while 12 percent chose Atlanta. Remaining unincorporated, the subject of the third meeting, also is possible.
“I think it’s certainly ideal that we are viewed by the county and government as one community because we really operate together,” said Rabbi Adam Starr of Young Israel. “There’s a lot of confusion out there, and people are really struggling to understand what’s going on.” Any cityhood bid would have to pass the Georgia General Assembly, which convened Jan. 12. Legislative success would lead to a referendum as early as May or June, with an approved new city starting as early as 2016.
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ISRAEL PRIDE Breakthrough in development of artificial retinas. Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University have developed a wireless, light-sensitive, flexible, implantable film that mimics the function of the photosensitive cells in the retina. It could form part of a device to replace a damaged retina. 3-D compass in the brain. Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have demonstrated that the brains of mammals, including humans, contain a 3-D compass. Microelectrode recordings revealed that certain neurons activate only when the head is at a particular angle. The finding explains conditions such as vertigo and disorientation. Parkinson’s treatment trials success. Israel’s NeuroDerm has announced positive results for its Phase 2 trials of ND0612H, intended for severe Parkinson’s disease patients. The results indicate that the drug could provide an effective alternative to treatments requiring surgery. IDF saves Palestinian baby after heart attack. Magen David Adom and Israel Defense Forces paramedics resuscitated a 6-month-old Palestinian baby who had collapsed at a Jordanian border
crossing. The baby was evacuated by IDF helicopter to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. Israel facilitates Gaza Coca-Cola plant. Israel has allowed Gaza to import machinery for its first Coca-Cola factory. Nine trucks from Jordan carried the equipment to Gaza for an enterprise that could employ hundreds of Palestinians by the end of 2015. Gaza already has a Pepsi plant. Paratroopers give lunch to Palestinian children. IDF paratroopers’ hearts went out to two Palestinian children who approached their post and asked for food. After seeing the children searching garbage bins, the paratroopers gave them bread, meatballs, fruit, vegetables, hummus and snacks that they had bought for their own lunches. Portable solar power. Israel’s Kalisaya has developed the KaliPAK, a portable, renewable power solution. It generates solar energy that can be used by campers or as an emergency generator after a natural disaster. Kalisaya is trying to raise development money on Kickstarter. TwitterMate for the important messages. Tomer Simon, a doctoral student
The Right Place. The Right Time. Welcome Home!
in the emergency medicine department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, has developed a system called TwitterMate to archive and classify information on social media. It records specific hashtags, users or subjects for later analysis. Zaatar chocolate wins international gold. Israel’s Ika Cohen shared a gold medal at the International Chocolate Awards in London. Ika Chocolate’s zaatar truffle won a joint gold medal in
the “flavored dark ganaches and truffles” section of the competition. Easy to fly from France to Israel. Lowcost carrier easyJet plans to launch a direct route between Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport on March 30. Tickets for Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays start at 45.99 euros ($54.22) each way. Courtesy of verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot. com
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ADL Cheers Kennesaw Mosque Approval
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decided it was time to get involved. The ADL sent letters to the council members and Mathews, urging them to reconsider. “This is not the first time this has happened,” Moskowitz said. “This has happened all over the country and a few times in Georgia where people are trying to stop the building and expansion of mosques. They’re using the fear of Islam and the fear of something different.” Kennesaw residents don’t need to be afraid of the mosque’s congregants preaching anti-American, anti-Jewish or pro-terrorist messages, Moskowitz said. Before defending the mosque, the ADL did due diligence on whether there were any red flags with the mosque or its potential members. “We found nothing,” Moskowitz said. “The mosque has no history of being on Homeland Security or the FBI or the GBI’s radar screen” Dillard said he doesn’t know the time frame for the mosque’s opening, but he did advise its leaders to move quickly because the permit grants them only two years to open.
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Before the vote, the councilwoman said, she met with ministers from various denominations to get their thoughts on a mosque in the area. “We were fundamentally founded with freedom of religion,” EatonWelsh said. “If we don’t (stick to) that, we’re going to have problems.” While she’s glad her fellow council members changed their votes, she said doing so likely confused residents. “It’s a hard thing to be on the dais making decisions,” Eaton-Welsh said. The other council members are taking criticism for changing their minds, she said, but they didn’t have a choice. Eaton-Welsh said she receives several emails a day criticizing her decision, but the Jewish community has been incredibly supportive. One Jewish group “sent a very beautiful letter to me saying that they don’t agree with the (Muslim) religion, but they have a right to be there.” When Moskowitz and other ADL officials heard that the City Council had denied the mosque’s permit, they
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city was threatened with a lawsuit under the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Despite the vote reversal, Atlanta lawyer Doug Dillard, who represents mosque leaders, filed a lawsuit at the end of December to challenge the initial vote as a preventive measure. “The concern that I’ve got is that if, in the event the opposition chooses to file a lawsuit and the action on Dec. 15 is disqualified, then we go back to the Dec. 1 action, which is denial,” he said. “Then we have to start all over.” Mosque leaders would have to wait two years to refile the specialuse permit if an opposition lawsuit toppled the Dec. 15 approval. “We would be out of luck if those cards fell that way,” Dillard said. Council member Cris EatonWelsh was the sole vote to approve the mosque Dec. 1, a move she said she had to make because of the First Amendment, which gives Americans freedom of religion. “I realized people have a fundamental right to worship how they choose,” Eaton-Welsh said.
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By Cady Schulman cschulman@atljewishtimes.com he rejection and subsequent approval of a special-use permit to allow a mosque inside the city of Kennesaw isn’t the first such issue in Georgia, but the AntiDefamation League thinks council members initially voted out of fear of the unknown. That is something the organization is working to fight. “We have religious freedom in this country,” said Mark Moskowitz, the regional director of the ADL. “It’s not just for Christian and Jewish houses of worship. It’s for other houses of worship as well. We can’t pick and choose which ones are OK and which ones are not OK.” The Kennesaw City Council voted 4-1 Dec. 1 to deny the application for the Suffa Dawat Center to locate in a 2,200-square-foot space in a shopping center on Jiles Road. On Dec. 15, the council reversed its decision. According to The Marietta Daily Journal, council members approached Mayor Mark Mathews individually after the
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Paris Shatters Cobb Minister’s Jerusalem Peace By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com holiday trip to the Holy Land exposed the Rev. Ike Reighard to terrorist attacks and intense security, but only after he left Israel for France. Reighard, the senior pastor at Piedmont Church near Kennesaw and CEO and president of Mariettabased charity MUST Ministries, arrived Dec. 27 in Israel with about 80 others representing half a dozen churches on a music-and-mission trip organized by Atlanta-based Harmony International. Through stops that included the Galilee, Jerusalem and Palestiniancontrolled territories, “I felt great freedom in moving about,” Reighard said. “Never one time did I ever feel the least bit of apprehension in walking around, going to different places.” Those places included Manger Square in Bethlehem, where the singers in the church group performed Dec. 30. He said the biggest shock for the first-time visitors was that they never felt threatened. One concern for the Christian visitors was the Arab Christian population, which has shrunk the past halfcentury from a big majority to a tiny minority in Bethlehem. “You hear different stories inside and outside the wall” separating Israeli and Palestinian territory, he said. “It tears your heartstrings that people can’t find ways to build greater bridges to live together.” The mission group did its part to make life better by working with displaced people, particularly Bedouins, Reighard said. He was struck by the similarity of the problems in Israel and metro Atlanta, from poverty to generational divides. This trip was perhaps his eighth to Israel since 1986 — he now tries to go every 18 months — and Reighard said he saw less of the Israeli military than in past visits, although soldiers came on the buses and asked questions at checkpoints. He felt less tension at the Western Wall, where his written prayers included two for Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank: a lighthearted one for him to hire a good head coach and a serious one for his mother, Molly, who was ill and died a few days later. “When we prayed, it was quiet and respectful,” Reighard said of the wall. “It was just a wonderful place to
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
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The Rev. Ike Reighard says security was no problem in Israel. be able to go.” After a little more than a week in Israel, he and his wife, with two other couples, stopped for their first visit to another wonderful place, Paris. When they walked out of their lodgings Jan. 7, Reighard noticed a
traffic jam and was struck by the silence. “Parisians are quick to blow their horns, but no one was blowing their horns.” He soon learned the cause: the massacre of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices two miles away.
“It was heartbreaking to see the trip end that way,” he said. The rest of his time in Paris, he saw a heavy police and military presence, especially at tourist destinations. He was at the Louvre on Jan. 8 when the city went silent at noon to honor the previous day’s victims; he and observed a “magnificent sight” when the Eiffel Tower went dark that night. Security at Charles de Gaulle Airport was intense Jan. 9, and Reighard wondered whether Charlie Hebdo attackers Said and Cherif Kouachi were headed there when they were trapped and killed about two miles away. Reighard’s departure was delayed more than hour, but his bigger concern that day was the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris. “My first thought was Shabbat — people will be getting things for their observance,” Reighard said. That attack “ratcheted it up to another level. Is this what is going to happen in the future?”
Billboard Flashes Israel Facts
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hree pro-Israel messages are rotating until Feb. 8 on an electronic billboard along Interstate 85 at the Mixing Bowl interchange with I-285. The messages, sponsored by the pro-Israel educational group StandWithUs, counter a Christmastime anti-Israel ad that appeared on the same billboard from If Americans Knew. The anti-Israel billboard depicted Joseph and Mary barred from Bethlehem by Israel’s security barrier, sending the message that Israel keeps Christians out of the West Bank city. But the barrier doesn’t surround Bethlehem, and Christians can travel to the Palestinian-controlled city through checkpoints from Israel, as a Harmony International group of about 80 people from the Atlanta area did in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Christians flock to Bethlehem each December to visit Manger
Square and the Church of Nativity and provide a boost to the local economy. The Rev. Ike Reighard of Piedmont Church talked about spending hours in one of 200 olivewood workshops in the city and supporting craftsmen using equipment from the 1950s. “Israel goes out of its way to make the border crossing accessible and to increase security during Christmas in the area,” said StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein, noting that only Israeli citizens, because of fears for their security, are barred from Bethlehem. “The real tragedy is that Islamic radicals have made it nearly impossible for Christians to live in Bethlehem by destroying homes, confiscating land, and threatening or even perpetrating physical violence against Christians.”
As one StandWithUs ad shows, the Christian population in Bethlehem has declined 93 percent since 1948, while the Christian population in Israel has increased 373 percent. The second StandWithUs ad targets Hamas, says Israel needs a peace partner and directs people to sayyestopeace.org. The third ad sends the message that Jews have lived in Israel for more than 3,000 years by juxtaposing ancient and modern coins featuring a menorah. StandWithUs, a 13-year-old organization, has chased If Americans Knew around the United States and Canada since 2007, paying for billboards to counter anti-Israel messages that appeared in the same spots. StandWithUs is paying $5,000 for its first Atlanta-area billboard. The monthlong campaign started Jan. 12.
NEWS
Open Eyes on Eve of Terror Muslims, Jews explore common ground
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pointment that Jews outnumbered Muslims by as much as a 2-1 ratio. King said the lack of child care hurt the Muslim turnout and will be corrected at future sessions. Sandra Cuttler, his Jewish cochair, said the task force is learning how to market the program better, and Wilker said he expects imams who attended to encourage their followers to join. But more important than the number of Muslims was their diversity, including blacks, Arabs, Turks, Africans, Persians, Pakistanis and Eastern Europeans, Wilker said, comparing the turnout to a crowd mixing every denomination and ethnic group of Jews. “I’m not sure there’s ever been a more diverse group of Muslims.” By virtue of attending the program, sponsored by the One Region Fund of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and the Ron and Lisa Brill Family Endowment for Interreligious and Interethnic Understanding, the participants came with sympathy for the idea that nothing fundamental to Islam and Judaism compels their adherents to fight. “We’re reaching out to moderate Muslims,” Cuttler said. “They’re our neighbors; we live here together. They want to talk to us and disassociate themselves from the radical Islamists.” A Persian Muslim participant in the dialogue at my table made that effort. “Everything in the Koran is a suggestion,” she said, adding that Islam “is not a religion; it’s a condition.” Cuttler cited a Somali man in his mid-30s who was raised in Qatar, where he was taught to hate Jews, whom he never met until he came to America. “He thanked me for leading the dialogue so he had a chance to talk to Jews and learn all about us.” When he visits Qatar, she said, he could open minds about Jews. “Here’s a chance to develop a cadre of people willing to rethink things,” King said. “We can look at situations from a fresh set of eyes and come up with new ideas for moving forward.” Join the Dialogue Part 3 of the “Intimate Strangers” dialogue, covering 1789 to 1945, will take place March 3 at The Temple. Part 4, covering 1945 to the present, will be May 17 at the Clarkson Community Center. Visit www.ajcatlanta. org to register.
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By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com largely Jewish crowd of about 175 people gathered at an Atlanta mosque to explore the history of Muslim-Jewish relations Jan. 6, the eve of the Paris terrorist attack that brought new attention to Islamic extremism and French antiSemitism. The Black-Jewish Dialogue program at Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam focused on the second of four parts of a French-made documentary, “Jews and Muslims: Intimate Strangers,” which aired at last year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. The segment covered the years 721 to 1789, ranging from the highs of flowering scientific and religious scholarship among Muslims and Jews in Baghdad and the Golden Age of Muslim-ruled Spain to the lows of the massacre of 4,000 Jews in Granada in the 11th century, the forced conversions of Jews to Islam in the 12th century and the struggles of Jews to adjust to North African culture after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. “Jews and Muslims have had close relations at many times and in many places,” Jewish educator Steve Chervin said while introducing the film. “Today’s conflicts are in many ways an anomaly in the larger history of Jewish-Muslim relations.” The documentary ended on the eve of the French Revolution, a time of unfulfilled optimism for liberty and equality≠. Similar optimism filled the participants in small-group discussions at the mosque event, which began with a buffet from Aladdin’s Mediterranean Grill and Deli and included observance and explanation of Muslim evening prayers. “There’s value in connecting with folks and reaching out, providing an opportunity to hear from the Muslim community,” said Dov Wilker, the regional director of the American Jewish Committee, which organized the event. “We’ll never agree with everything each community says, but it’s the opening of a communal dialogue.” “There really aren’t many opportunities for people to cross those boundaries” separating houses of worship, said Morehouse sociology professor Mansa Bilal Mark King, the Muslim co-chair of the task force planning the program. Organizers acknowledged disap-
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NEWS
Charlie and Me Atlanta marches in solidarity after French terror By Michael Jacobs and Jon Gargis mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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bout 400 people silently marched Jan. 11 from Piedmont Park to the Alliance Française in Midtown to show solidarity with France and the victims of a three-day reign of terror, including four Jewish men slain just before Shabbat Jan. 9 at a kosher grocery. The Atlanta march echoed demonstrations around the world, including a Paris march with such foreign leaders as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The top-ranking American was Ambassador Jane Hartley. “What we saw in France the other day was an attack on freedom of expression, on democratic values, on a democratic way of life,” American Jewish Committee Atlanta Regional Director Dov Wilker said before the Midtown march. Calling himself “the trifecta of infidel” by being Jewish, American and gay, march participant Drew Sisselman said: “It stirs emotions, and people want to come together … and show solidarity.” The events that stirred those emotions began Jan. 7 when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi killed 11 people inside the offices of magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Muslim police officer outside. An associate of theirs, Amedy Coulibaly, is believed to have killed a female police officer the next day, then stormed a kosher supermarket and killed Yohan Co-
hen, Yoav Hattab, FrancoisMichel Saada and Phillipe Braham. The magazine attack sparked wide use of the slogan “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”). The grocery attack brought out a companion phrase, “Je suis Juif” (“I am a Jew”). “The Jew- Right: Outside the Alliance Française on Jan. 11, Drew Sisselman shows the “trifecta of ficials predictish commuinfidel” sign he carried in the march. ed before the nity and the latest attacks Above: Jean-Phillippe Gillardo carries a “Je French comSuis Charlie” sign while marching with one that the nummunity, stand- of his daughters. Photos by Jon Gargis ber making ing together, I aliyah from think is a realFrance would ly powerful statement,” Wilker said. jump from 7,000 in 2014 to 10,000 The French terrorists were killed this year. Now there is speculation in simultaneous assaults Jan. 9. the number will be even higher. In response to the grocery kill Citing “the strategic importance ings, Paris’ Grand Synagogue closed of the Jewish communities as supthat night, the first time since World porters of Israel in the countries in War II it was not open for Shabbat. which they live,” however, the head That decision was a moment of of the European Jewish Association, panic, and other synagogues stayed Rabbi Menachem Margolin, critiopen, Yonathan Arfi, vice president cized comments from Prime Minister of French Jewish organization CRIF, Benjamin Netanyahu and others entold CNN. “We will not accept that couraging aliyah, Haaretz reported. we have to close any Jewish activi Israel is the final resting place for ties because of terror.” the four men slain at Hyperchacher. France has the third-largest JewTheir bodies were flown to Israel for ish population in the world, behind a funeral Tuesday. Lassana BathIsrael and the United States, but last ily, a Muslim employee of the kosher year it became the biggest source of grocery, is credited with limiting the new immigrants to Israel. Israeli ofdeath toll by hiding customers in a
More on France Sad end to Israel trip
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Jews at a mosque 7 Our opinion: Stand with French Jews 10 Leadership failure
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walk-in refrigerator. The conflicting actions of Bathily and Coulibaly reflect the problem that many Muslims haven’t studied their religion, Morehouse sociology professor Mansa Bilal Mark King said. King distinguishes between fellow Muslims and those who wrongly identify as Muslim. Terrorism is the work of “Muslim-identified people who in their mind see it as Islam.” At Sunday’s march in Atlanta, Susan Bravman said she was disappointed not to see more fellow Jews. “I think people need to have a big awakening. Because while 3,000 people didn’t die the other day, it’s just a signal of what is to come.” Christina Gillardo, a French Catholic from Loganville, said she and husband Jean-Phillippe brought their three children to the march to show them “that they have the right to walk down the street, say what they want to say, not be afraid to say it, not be afraid to go to church or synagogue or go into the market.”
A lifetime of success, not student loans. JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
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8 Atlanta Jewish Times.indd 1
1/5/15 12:21 PM
OPINION
Zionist Elections Put Israel in Our Hands
ATLANTA BALLET presents J EAN- C HRISTOPHE M AILLOT’ S
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srael — the homeland of the the food, the culture. However, as Jews, the Promised Land, Eretz an American Jew, I understand Yisrael, Ha-Aretz. As a kid, I alalso that there are opportunities for ways envisioned what Israel would me (and all American Jews) to help be like. I saw the many posters in shape the future of Israel. Israel is my synagogue. I watched the videos not just the homeland for Israeli and read Jews; no, the stories. it is the When I first homeland GUEST COLUMN traveled to for all Jews. Israel in As a Reform By Erin Boxt 1999, what I rabbi, I rabbiboxt@kolemeth.net experienced support I could not ARZA, the have been Association prepared for. There were modern of Reform Zionists of America. ARZA buildings. We had dinner in a mall. speaks for all Jews, providing a Israel was just like America in so valuable voice for women’s rights many ways. As a tourist, I was in and gender equality, religious equalawe at the beauty and wonder of ity among all Jews, and the safety, Israel. Sixteen years later, I am still security and stability of Israel, the in awe at the wonder that is Israel, Palestinians and the entire Middle but I am also keenly aware of the East. challenges and questions facing So, the question is, will you step Israelis every day. up and help create an Israel that While I was living in Israel in cherishes the same values we cher2007, I took a taxi with a few of my ish? Each of us has a critical voice friends to go to the mall. As was and a critical opportunity. In Octousually the case, the driver started ber, the World Zionist Congress will to ask us about our visit to Israel. meet in Jerusalem to discuss, debate When one of my friends, a female and decide critical issues; those cantorial student, remarked she decisions will shape Israel today and was studying to be a chazanit, the into the future. Israel was founded driver stopped his cab, yelled that to be a pluralistic and democratic there was no such thing as a female Jewish state. By supporting ARZA chazan, and kicked us out. This in the WZC election, you will ensure story is a clear example of some of that the dream of the founders of the questions and challenges facing Israel will be realized. Israel, even today. How can you be involved? Visit Rabbi Miri Gold earned the dual www.reformjews4israel.org to learn distinction of being the first female more about the elections and how AND the first non-Orthodox rabbi your vote will matter. Through April to receive a paycheck from the state 30, vote. You can vote online or with of Israel as a rabbi. Anat Hoffman, a paper ballot. The vote costs $10 for often seen being arrested at the those over age 30 and $5 for those 30 Western Wall for her leadership of and under. The future of Israel is in Women of the Wall, just wants the your hands. right to pray, read Torah and wear a tallit. These are just two incredible Erin Boxt is one of two rabbis servwomen doing their parts to ensure ing Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb. gender equality in Israel. Rabbi Gold, because she is not What Do You Think? an Orthodox rabbi, is not granted Have a different view about the the same status as her Orthodox World Zionist Congress elections? colleagues. The very character of the Want to share your viewpoint state of Israel is affected by these about that or any other topic of inunequal policies. By denying its terest to Jewish Atlanta? non-Orthodox Jewish citizens equal We want to hear you. Send your treatment under the law, Israel violetters and possible guest columns lates its own Declaration of Indepento Editor Michael Jacobs at mjadence, which guarantees freedom of cobs@atljewishtimes, or comment religion. on this column at www.atlantajew As a rabbi, I stand 100% with ishtimes.com. Israel. I love Israel — the people,
Alessa Rogers and Christian Clark. Photo by Charlie McCullers.
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OPINION
Our View
Stand With Jewish France
T
he reign of terror that started in France with the Charlie Hebdo massacre Jan. 7 should have been no worse for Jews than for others who reject murder to resolve political and religious differences. But that’s not how the world works. Horrifyingly yet almost inevitably, the slaughter that started with 12 p eople slain at a satirical magazine that mocks Islam, Judaism and Christianity with equal glee ended two days later with four Jewish men killed at a Paris kosher grocery. Slain terrorist Amedy Coulibaly’s choice of Hypercacher Alimentation Generale as a target during pre-Shabbat shopping was not surprising. A study by the European Jewish Congress and Tel Aviv University found that 40 percent of France’s racist crimes in 2013 targeted Jews. At an estimated 475,000, France’s Jewish population is both huge and tiny: the third-largest Jewish population in the world, behind only Israel and the United States, but less than 1 percent of France’s population and less than 10 percent of France’s Muslim population. The Atlanta area alone can boast at least a quarter of the Jewish population of all of France, and while we have surely grown since Federation found 120,000 of us in 2006, French Jews are in flight. France became the No. 1 source of immigrants to Israel in 2014, accounting for 7,000 of the 26,500 people worldwide who made aliyah. Israeli Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver predicted at the end of December, before the latest horrors, that 10,000 French Jews would make the move this year. That figure represents an exodus of more than 2 percent of the French Jewish population in one year just to Israel, not counting those moving to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and all reports indicate a surge in Jewish flight after the latest terrorism. A 60-year-old Jewish man, Daniel Corcos, told The Wall Street Jour10 nal after the attack at the kosher
grocery that he is moving to Tel Aviv and that five times as many Jews will join him in leaving France this year as left in 2014. Stephen Pollard, the editor of Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, wrote in The Guardian that every French Jew he knows has left or is trying to leave. We can’t blame any Jew for fleeing France, where anti-Semitic attacks keep multiplying in number and violence as the population of radicalized Muslims grows. Indeed, former Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid has issued a call for all European Jews to make aliyah, and International Fellowship of Christians and Jews head Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein has vowed to help French Jews make that move. The French recognize the danger of an exodus. Premier Manuel Valls told The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg before the latest violence: “If 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure.” That failure would be a devastating loss to Western democracy, the political bulwark of religious freedom. The fall of France’s Jewish community, however, would be a global Jewish tragedy. Yes, Israel gains culturally and economically in the short term from the influx of French Jews, but we fear the long-term risks as the Jewish world increasingly becomes a tale of only two communities: Israel and North America. Diaspora Jews are crucial to fighting anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Those who don’t know us are much more likely to believe the slanders against us, and those nations with few or no Jews have no political motivation to support Israel, increasing the Jewish state’s dangerous isolation. That’s why solidarity marches like Sunday’s from Piedmont Park to the Alliance Française are important symbols and why we as American Jews must follow up with concrete, financial ways to support Jews who wish to stay in France and anywhere else they are under attack.
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
“If 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France.”
Welcome to Your New AJT
W
elcome to 2015 and the community engages and individual first issue of the Atlanta lifecycle events, as well as news, Jewish Times under my perspectives and life from the heart stewardship. My name is Michael of Judaism, Israel. Morris, and I am the new owner of The AJT is the Atlanta Jewthe newspaper and the company ish community’s voice, so we will that publishes it, the Southern Israendeavor to cover a wide range of elite. topics and The AJT thought is a commufrom many PUBLISHER’S CORNER nity asset. Jewish perThe news spectives. By Michael Morris it gathers Business, michael@atljewishtimes.com and discurrent seminates is events, community politics, property and belongs to all of us; education and camps, synagogue I am just its current shepherd. I life, nonprofit events, Jewish tradihope the paper can earn back your tions, health and wellness, lifecycle trust and become a respected part of milestones, Israel, historical perthe Jewish community. The sharspectives, and of course food. We will ing of news, information and ideas listen to you, and you will help set is integral to Jewish life, and your our agenda. newspaper is prepared to take the We are cognizant of the fact steps to fulfill this obligation. that while we, as Jews, are one, I want to thank Cliff Weiss for our voices and opinions are not. We his tenure as owner and publisher. want to engage and, more imporHe took control of the AJT at a tant, be engaged by all segments precarious point and retained the of our community. ITP and OTP, integrity of our 90-year tradition. I young singles, families with kids, also want to welcome back as editor retired veterans, our scholars and Michael Jacobs, who was the AJT rabbis, children in school, business managing editor from 2005 to 2008. leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians, The mission of the Atlanta Georgians, Israelis, transplants, ReJewish Times is to provide timely form, Orthodox, secular, and every information, an exchange of ideas other Jewish iteration. The Atlanta and a forum for debate in print, on Jewish Times is your forum. Please the web and through social media to approach us often and with passion; the geographically dispersed greater our email addresses will be prevaAtlanta Jewish community. The lent. AJT is uniquely qualified to accom AJT distribution will remain plish this mission. free at hundreds of locations around Our goal is to provide engaging, Atlanta and on the Internet because interesting, educational and, when the information in the newspaper necessary, controversial news and is for the whole community. If you opinions about our community to want the convenience of having the our community. We will cover the paper delivered to your home via multitude of events in which our U.S. mail or just want to support the dissemination of Jewish news, thought and debate, I ask you to subscribe. You are a vital link to our success. Thank you. I look forward to serving the greater Atlanta Jewish community, and I hope I have given Parsha Va’eira you cause to look forward to the new Friday, January 16, Atlanta Jewish Times. light candles at 5:35 p.m. Saturday, January 17, Visit atlantajewishtimes.com/aboutShabbat ends at 6:33 p.m. Parsha Bo us/michaelmorris to read more Friday, January 23, about Michael Morris light candles at 5:41 p.m. Saturday, January 24, Shabbat ends at 6:50 p.m.
Candle-Lighting Times
OPINION
T
Meanwhile, I had always intendhe first time I edited the ed our Jewish Film Festival coverAtlanta Jewish Times, I age to explore what the French films started Aug. 29, 2005, the say about the world’s third-largest day Hurricane Katrina devastated Jewish community and the presmy hometown of New Orleans. It sures that wasn’t an have made easy start it the largpersonFROM THE EDITOR est source ally (we lost of aliyah contact with By Michael Jacobs to Israel. my grandmjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Those presmother for sures boiled almost a over when week) or Coulibaly killed four Jewish men at professionally (I learned on the fly a kosher grocery Jan. 9. the many ties between the Jewish When I walked into the AJT communities of Atlanta and New offices to restart this job Jan. 5, I Orleans). never imagined leading the paper When new AJT owner Michael with a French headline; a week Morris offered me a second chance later, there was no other choice. at the job that brought me to Atlan I am always amazed at how such ta, I figured our first issue would be threads weave themselves through easier than in 2005. We would focus on the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, our community day after day and through the AJT week after week. for which tickets are now on sale, One of our missions is to reveal and ease into our community coverthose connections in what often feels age. like not one Jewish community but French Muslim terrorists Said many, divided by geography, denomand Cherif Kouachi and Amedy ination, age, politics and interests. Coulibaly proved me wrong, but the We need your help with that chaos and horror in France revealed mission. The small AJT staff can’t a hidden synergy in Jewish Atlanta. know everything that is happening The night before the slaughter at French weekly Charlie Hebdo, the and every issue that is important to American Jewish Committee-backed more than 120,000 people, and this isn’t our newspaper anyway. The Muslim-Jewish Dialogue met at an AJT belongs to every person who is Atlanta mosque to explore how Jews lived for centuries in harmony under part of and cares about Jewish Atlanta, and it depends on you to take Muslim rulers from Baghdad to an interest in making it a newspaper Toledo, only for extremists to shatof which you are proud. ter the peace. The co-chairs of the I’ll talk more in coming weeks Muslim-Jewish Task Force, Sandra Cuttler and Mansa Bilal Mark King, about my vision for the AJT in print and online, but first I ask you to had a lot more than history to talk share your vision. What do you want about the next day. the AJT to be? What will make the The Rev. Ike Reighard, the AJT a newspaper you can’t wait to senior pastor at Piedmont Church grab every Friday and a website and head of the vital faith-based you’re sure to visit every day? charitable group MUST Ministries Send me an email to mjacobs@ in Cobb and Cherokee counties, had atljewishtimes.com. Write me by agreed to talk about his end-of-year snail mail to 270 Carpenter Drive, visit to Israel, but he wasn’t returnSuite 320, Sandy Springs, GA 30028. ing to Atlanta until Jan. 9 because Call me at 404-883-2130, ext. 104. he was spending most of a week in I cannot promise I will agree Paris first. He was about two miles with you. But I will listen, give your from the Charlie Hebdo office when thoughts real consideration, and it was attacked, then was delayed do my best to turn the AJT into a at Charles de Gaulle Airport during newspaper that pleases many of the the standoff two miles away that people all of the time and all of the ended with the Kouachi brothers’ people at least some of the time. deaths.
The Davis Academy & PJ Library Present
A Special Concert & Pajama Party for Preschoolers! Sunday, Jan. 25 10:30 – Noon Wake up to a mix of fun, silly and Jewish-themed songs with children’s rocker Joanie Leeds and Drummer Dan. Sing along to Joanie’s music in your PJs and free your inner rock star! Joanie Leeds is the multi-award winning principal performer of the top female, nationally-touring kindierock band, Joanie Leeds & the Nightlights. Her latest CD, Good Egg, was named among the best CDs of 2014 by WXPN Kid’s Corner Radio, as well as Parents Magazine, The Washington Post, People Magazine and others. The Davis Academy Lower School 8105 Roberts Drive, Atlanta 30350 Doors open at 10:15 am
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AJT: Finding Harmony Amid a Week of Chaos
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CALENDAR SUNDAY, JAN. 18
WEEKEND OF JAN 23
Congregation Or VeShalom, celebrating its centennial, will host musical artist in residence Gerard Edery for a weekend celebration of Sephardic culture starting Jan. 23 at the Brookhaven synagogue, 1681 N. Druid Hills Road. A Moroccanstyle dinner ($25 for members, $30 for nonmembers, advance only) will follow the 6:30 p.m. Friday services. A lunch-andlearn session on secular songs in the liturgy ($15 members, $20 nonmembers, advance only) will follow Saturday morning services, which start at 8:37. Havdalah services and a concert will start at 7:30 p.m. Saturday ($25 members, $30 nonmembers in advance; $30 members, $35 nonmembers at the door). The cost for the weekend package is $50 for members, $65 for nonmembers. Reservations are due Jan. 20. Call 404633-1737, or email office@orveshalom.org.
Demystifying Dementia. Educator Teepa Snow will address “Demystifying Resistance & Refusals From Older Adults,” a JF&CS Aviv Older Services program, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Selig Center, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. For more information or to RSVP, call 770-677-9336. Digging Israeli Archaeology. Emory University scholar Jacob Wright will discuss recent finds in Israel and put them into their biblical context during a $10 slide show and lecture at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth Tefillah, 5065 High Point Road, Sandy Springs. For more information, visit www.chabadatlanta. org.
TUESDAY, JAN. 20
“Are Jews White?” Emory history professor Eric Goldstein will discuss that
question at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Pkwy., East Cobb. RSVP for the free program at www.etzchaim.net/emory-rsvp. For more information, call 770-973-0137. Kollel Ner Hamizrach Grand Opening. Help the new kollel celebrate at 8 p.m. at Congregation Ner Hamizrach, 1858 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, with three eminent teachers who helped Kollel Ner Hamizrach find its scholars. For more information, visit www.nerhamizrach. org, or call 404-315-9020. (See the article on Page 14.)
SATURDAY, JAN. 24
Fiddle-Dee-Dee. See a Catholic take on Tevye as St. Joseph Catholic School presents “Fiddler on the Roof Jr.” at 7 p.m. in Marist Hall at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 87 Lacy St., Marietta. Tickets are $6 at the door.
SUNDAY, JAN. 25
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Where the Wild Things Will Be. The Breman Museum’s Sunday Funday workshop for youths ages 10 to 16 will explore the art of Maurice Sendak from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Advance registration is required at thebreman.org/Events/Family-Sundays-atThe-Breman. The fee is $18 for museum members, $25 for nonmembers. For more information, email info@thebreman.org, or call 678-222-3700. Cook Moroccan Cuisine. Learn about traditional Moroccan cuisine from Israeli chef Guy Gamzo at 5 p.m. at Hal’s Kitchen, 2710 Apple Valley Road, Brookhaven. The cost is $45. For more information or to register, visit www. halskitchen.com, or call 404-580-3971. Nuremberg Prosecutor Speaks. Benjamin Ferencz will deliver the keynote address at Am Yisrael Chai’s free Holocaust remembrance event at 6:30 p.m. at Atlanta Jewish Academy, 5200 Northland Drive, Sandy Springs. For more information, visit www.amyisraelchaiatlanta.org. (See the article on Page 14.)
SATURDAY, FEB. 7
Directed and Choreographed by the Tony Award®-winning Director of The Book of Mormon and Aladdin
Book By
Claudia Shear
MuSiC By
LyriCS By
ChriS Miller
NaThaN TySeN
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
BASeD on The noveL Tuck EvErlAsTing By NaTalie BaBBiTT DireCTeD AnD ChoreogrApheD By
January 21–February 22, 2015 Tickets @ 404.733.5000 alliancetheatre.org/tuckeverlasting | Groups 404.733.4690
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CaSey NiCholaw
Series on the Alliance Stage
Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs
Book by Claudia Shear Music by Chris Miller Lyrics by Nathan Tysen Based on the novel Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Chabad of Cobb Celebrates 15 Years. Chabad’s celebration honors Lenny and Nina Beck, Barry Frankel, and Liz Helgesen with dinner, an open bar, auctions and live music at 8 p.m. at Chabad of Cobb, 4450 Lower Roswell Road, East Cobb. Visit www.chabadofcobb.com/ dinner2015 to reserve your place for $84.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 11
Lord Jonathan Sacks in Town. Britain’s former chief rabbi will speak at 7:30 p.m. at Young Israel of Toco Hills, 2056 LaVista Road. Register for the free program at www.yith.org. For more information, call 404-315-1417.
French Films Reflect Anti-Semitic, Multicultural Shift
F
rench films have always played a big role at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, but the terrorism Jan. 7 to 9 and years of surging anti-Semitism add timeliness to this year’s selections. “French culture is in a complicated place with Muslims and Jews,” said Gabe Wardell, co-chair of the festival’s Film Evaluation Committee. “It seems to triangulate around Jewish identity, Muslim identity, the French reaction to that and the impact on the culture.” Five of the festival’s 50 features films are from France: “24 Days,” “Belle and Sébastien,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Serial (Bad) Weddings” and “An Untold Diplomatic History: France and Israel since 1948.” While “Belle and Sébastien,” a young-adult story set in the Alps in World War II, and “Serial (Bad) Weddings,” a comedy that addresses the problems of multiculturalism in modern France, are popular mainstream movies that happen to have some Jewish characters and concerns, the other three films strike at the heart of French Jews’ problems. “The filmmakers made these now for a reason,” Judy Marx, Wardell’s co-chair, said of “24 Days” and “Untold Story.” Most painful and most direct in its depiction of anti-Semitism is “24 Days,” which dramatizes the kidnapping of 23-year-old French Jew Ilan Halimi in 2006. Marx said “24 Days” “is one of the most gripping, edge-of-your-seat films that we saw, so compelling … so terrifying at the same time. It’s clearly called for now for a reason.” The horror of “24 Days” comes not just from the treatment of Halimi at the hands of his abductors, but
also from police officials’ refusal to view the case as an anti-Semitic incident. “The committee saw it as a microcosm of what’s going on in France,” said Marx, who wonders about the response in France. “I don’t think that a film like ‘24 Days’ would have been made a few years ago. I don’t think the French film industry would have encouraged that story to be told.” Wardell said: “France has such a tremendous and rich cinematic history. It’s great to see them address some of these issues in cinema.” He said “Once in a Lifetime” hits the high points of the multicultural conversation. In the tradition of urban classroom dramas such as “Freedom Writers,” “Stand and Deliver” and “To Sir With Love,” the film features a teacher trying to reach her poor, inner-city, multicultural high school students. Her opportunity comes through a national competition on the theme of child victims of the Nazis, plus an encounter with a Holocaust survivor. “It speaks to the issue of multiculturalism in France and beyond,” said Brad Pilcher, the festival’s associate director. The world beyond is the focus of “An Untold Diplomatic History,” which provides the international context of the domestic pressures on French Jews. “The French relationship around Israel and the Middle East tends to be seen as antagonistic,” Wardell said. “It’s complicated.” Marx said there was a lot of discussion about whether to include the film because it’s not always favorable to Israel, but it’s valuable for showing how the close friendship between Israel and France turned sour. “The rise of the Muslim community is no small part of that conversation,” she said. “There’s fear and
anxiety about and among that population.” Only time will tell whether these films are chronicling the latest challenges to French Jewry or the beginning of a permanent decline.
Freedom Offers Festival Growth, AJC Focus By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
T
he 15th annual Atlanta Jewish Film Festival will be the first without the oversight of the American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta office. “It won’t change the experience of this year’s festival,” said Brad Pilcher, the festival’s associate director. “It won’t look or feel any different.” The AJC spun off the festival as its own 501 (c)(3) nonprofit Aug. 1. Kenny Blank remains the executive director, and AJC Atlanta Vice President Steve Labovitz becomes the president of the festival’s board of directors. It’s a friendly separation in which the organizations will continue to work together to engage and educate communities to promote understanding. “Our local bridge-building has always been enhanced by the film festival, and we look forward to continuing to see the fruits of this partnership,” AJC Atlanta President Lauren Grien said. The major effects of the formal split, at least initially, will come behind the scenes. As an independent arts and cultural institution, the festival will be free to pursue funding sources, such as arts grants, that weren’t available when it was part of an advocacy group, Pilcher said. New revenue could help the festival meet its constant need to expand capacity and move beyond the limits of screening films over several weeks in January and February. “We’ll still be Jewish. We’ll still be film. But we’ll have a new dynamism,” Pilcher said. That could mean special screenings throughout the year or programming about films, filmmakers or movie stars without screenings. He said sustainability will be a key focus of strategic planning after this year’s festival. “I don’t imagine we would ever want to move away from our core programming of screening Jewish films. Instead, we’ll clarify subtle and important things,” such as whether the mainstream, non-Jewish-content work of mainstream Israeli filmmakers has a place. Judy Marx, who founded the festival as an AJC staffer and later became AJC Atlanta executive director, said the festival has long been a community success, but independence will allow it to move to the next level artistically. “We’ll have new opportunities to expand what we do outside 23 days,” Pilcher said. Although he couldn’t rule out regional expansion, Pilcher said: “Our primary goal going forward is to be the best film festival for Atlanta.” The separation also provides new independence to AJC Atlanta. The festival came to dominate the AJC’s public image, and Pilcher said the overhead and day-to-day responsibility of the festival became burdens. Now the AJC can do its work without the internal pressure of the film festival on its operations, Marx said.
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
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Extra Chances To See Top Choices By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
T
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
he 15th annual Atlanta Jewish Film Festival offers 50 feature-length films and 15 shorts in 165 screenings with 48,000 tickets over 23 days, and dozens of those screenings sold out the day tickets went on sale Jan. 11. The festival is the same number of days as last year but, in the constant struggle to increase capacity, has squeezed in 9 percent to 10 percent more tickets, festival Associate Director Brad Pilcher said. “I believe this is the best lineup of films I’ve been a party to in my time with the festival, nearing a decade,” Pilcher said. He noted that some films are showing five times, so if your preferred screening is sold out, don’t give up hope. Also to meet demand, the festival for the first time has saved screen time at Lefont Sandy Springs and United Artists Tara Cinemas on the second-to-last night and final afternoon of the festival, Feb. 18 and 19, for up to nine encore showings of movies that sold out. “It’s been something that audiences have asked us for for years, and we’ve always wanted to do it,” Pilcher said. He expects six to eight films to make the encore list, based on demand and distributor limitations. The festival will announce the list just after the festival opens, so be prepared to act quickly on tickets. The festival opens Jan. 28 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre with a gala screening of “Above and Beyond,” about the American war veterans who put their citizenship and their lives on the line to launch the Israeli air force during the War of Independence. “It’s inspiring in a way that makes you understand why we refer to the greatest generation as the greatest generation,” Pilcher said. For the opening, “you have to think about the space a film fills,” said Judy Marx, one of the two cochairs of the film evaluation process. “Some are big. This one’s big.” That left no choice for the closing night, she said. It had to be “Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem.” 14 “He has been such a good friend of
the film festival since before I produced the first festival,” Marx said, explaining that she and Cookie Shapiro met Bikel in San Francisco at a conference on film festivals the summer before the Atlanta festival launched. Along with many U.S., East Coast, Southeast and Atlanta premieres, the festival is hosting five world premieres: “Dough,” a British feature starring one-time Bond villain Jonathan Pryce as an aging Jewish baker who hires a pot-dealing Muslim apprentice from Darfur. Pilcher said the warmhearted story is relevant to today with its interfaith connections, generational divides, immigration and changing mores.
“Touchdown Israel” interethnic and international connections.
→ “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream,” the story of the family-owned, 90-year-old New York factory that produces 40 percent of the U.S. matzo but is closing after Passover this year.
→
“J Street: The Art of the Possible”
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“Dough”
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“J Street: The Art of the Possible,” a controversial examination of the liberal-leaning alternative to AIPAC in the world of proIsrael lobbying.
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“Raise the Roof,” a documentary about the re-creation of an elaborate wooden synagogue from Poland, led by two University of Georgia graduates who are neither Jewish nor Polish. “It’s a wonderful movie,” Marx said. “When we see the pictures of the synagogue and what was lost there, there’s a sadness to it.” Pilcher said it’s interesting to see the project’s interfaith,
“Happy in the Box,” a based-ontrue-events Italian short about a photographer who steals a tombstone. It’s part of the first shorts program. “What struck me in this year’s festival and this year’s process was the really remarkable number of good shorts,” Marx said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t put more in.” The selection committee sometimes spent more time talking about a short than the film’s running time, she said. Also getting a lot of discussion before winning spots in the festival lineup were “J Street” and “Sacred Sperm,” Marx said. “J Street” is an important topic and a well-made film, she said, but there’s always nervousness when a film presents divided opinions about Israel. “I’m very interested to see how the ‘J Street’ film is received and the conversation around it,” said her film evaluation co-chair, Gabe Wardell. “That’s as interesting as the film itself.”
“Sacred Sperm”
“Sacred Sperm” is beautifully made and compelling to watch, Marx said, but it’s tough for a gathering of 70 people to talk about the film’s topic, masturbation. “There was an acknowledgment that who else is going to tell that story but us?” Wardell said, “I couldn’t take my eyes off it.” Other films singled out by Pilcher, Marx and Wardell include: “Touchdown Israel,” a documentary about American football played in Israel in a league sponsored by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. “It’s just this well-made documentary,” Pilcher said, about “a sport that we don’t even think about being international.”
→
“Magic Men”
→ “In Silence,” which Pilcher said
“isn’t just another Holocaust film.”
“Night Will Fall,” a documentary about the making of the ultimate Holocaust documentary, which Alfred Hitchcock and others were piecing together from footage fresh from liberated camps, only to have the project canceled. “Night Will Fall” features some of the raw, graphic, brutal footage while telling the story of how the original documentary finally was completed after seven decades.
→
“Magic Men” and “The Last Mentsch” are parallel tales of Holocaust survivors who go back to their home countries late in life (Greece for “Magic Men,” Hungary for “Last Mentsch”). “Both are stories that are Holocaust stories, but they’re not Holocaust stories,” Marx said. They explore what it means that we’re losing the last survivors.
→
“Zero Motivation,” a comedy about young Israeli women doing their military service as office workers at an isolated southern base. “It’s really an interesting look at the absurdity,” much like “M*A*S*H” or “Catch-22,” Wardell said. “It made an impression on me.”
→
“Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa,” a documentary about a human rights lawyer who returned from exile to help write the post-apartheid South African Constitution. “It really ties in issues of human rights and the rule of law, standing up for things that matter, not stepping down in the face of tyranny, danger and threats,” Wardell said. “It’s a terrific film. I hope people take the time to see it.”
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“Avalon,” the Barry Levinson film about a Jewish immigrant family in Baltimore, in a special 25th-anniversary screening. Wardell, who is from Baltimore, is a big fan. “Levinson’s best work comes from these personal stories he tells.” No one involved in the selection process got everything he or she wanted, Wardell said, because it’s not a festival for any particular person. “It’s not arbitrary. We didn’t just check off a lot of boxes,” he said of the selection process. “There’s a reason why this is the pre-eminent festival in the region. No other festival comes close.”
Can’t-Miss Events Special events and guests worth the price of admission include the following:
• The opening night gala at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre is the only scheduled screening of the fantastic documentary “Above and Beyond,” which tells the story of the American World War II veterans who helped Israel cobble together an air force to win its War of Independence. Producer Nancy Spielberg is scheduled to appear. Jan. 28, 5 p.m. for the red-carpet reception ($300, $150 for those 39 and under); 7:30 for the film only ($18). • The Access young-adult group of the American Jewish Committee holds its Gen-Y Night with the searing drama “24 Days,” about a kidnapping in France, at Atlantic Station on Jan. 29. An $18 ticket includes a cocktail reception at Strip at 6 p.m. and the film at Regal Cinemas Atlantic Station at 8. • The Art Party with Creative Loafing takes place Feb. 7 at the Mammal Gallery. For your $18, you won’t see a film, but you will join local artists for a party celebrating Jewish comedians and will walk away with some art and a bag of swag. • Want to hear what it’s like to spend two years working on a documentary, only to have the story change when you’re weeks away from your world premiere? Michael Levine, director of “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream,” can tell you during Q-and-A sessions after screenings Feb. 12 at 6:45 p.m. at Lefont Sandy Springs and Feb. 13 at 11:35 a.m. at United Artists Tara Cinemas.
The following screenings were sold out by midday Tuesday, Jan. 13. Visit ajff.org for updates and other options for specific films: • “Beneath the Helmet,” both screenings. • “Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem,” early screening. • “1913,” Feb. 15 screening. • “24 Days,” Feb. 2 and 4 screenings. • “Apples From the Desert,” all screenings. • “Avalon,” only screening. • “Belle and Sébastien,” all screenings. • “Chagall-Malevich,” all screenings. • “Dancing Arabs,” Feb. 14 and 15 (Lefont) screenings. • “Deli Man,” Feb. 8 screenings.
• You can catch “Deli Man,” a documentary about the rise and decline of the great Jewish deli, at 11:10 a.m. Feb. 1 at Regal Cinemas Atlantic Station or 11 a.m. Feb. 16 at United Artists Tara Cinemas, but the Feb. 8 screenings at Lefont Sandy Springs with the General Muir deli reception are sold out. • Closing night is almost sold out, but if you are lucky enough to get your $18 tickets, you can look forward to “Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem” at either 6:50 or 9:15 at Woodruff Arts Center, a post-film dessert reception presented by Metrotainment Bakery, and maybe an appearance by the great Bikel himself. Visit ajff.org to order these and other tickets, or call 866-214-2072 (phone orders incur a $2.50 service charge).
Tickets Visit ajff.org to see the availability and purchase tickets for each film. You also can call 866-214-2072 to buy tickets, but you’ll pay a service fee of $2.50 per order. Many screenings sell out quickly, but you can purchase tickets for other shows at the venue box offices during the hours of festival screenings. Tickets for most shows are $9 before 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and $13 other times. People 65 and older, 12 and under, or with a valid student ID can get $10 tickets.
• “Dough,” all screenings. • “The Farewell Party,” Feb. 17 screening. • “Félix and Meira,” Feb. 11 screening. • “Gett,” Feb. 5 and 7 screenings. • “The Go-Go Boys,” Jan. 29 screening. • “Hester Street,” only screening. • “Horses of Gold,” Feb. 10 screening. • “The Last Mentsch,” Feb. 5 and 8 screenings. • “Little White Lie,” all screenings. • “Mr. Kaplan,” Feb. 7 and 9 screenings. • “My Italian Secret,” Feb. 6 and 8 screenings. • “The Physician,” Feb. 6, 9, 10 and 16 screenings. • “A Place in Heaven,” Feb. 4 screening.
Venues Aside from opening night at the Cobb Energy Center and closing night at the Woodruff Arts Center, the film screenings are at five locations: • Regal Cinemas Atlantic Station in Midtown. • Georgia Theatre Company Merchants Walk in East Cobb. • Lefont Sandy Springs. • Regal Cinemas Avalon in Alpharetta. • United Artists Tara Cinemas west of Toco Hills.
Sold Out! • “The Prime Ministers,” Feb. 10 screening. • “Raise the Roof,” Feb. 8 screening. • “Regarding Susan Sontag,” only screening. • “The Return,” Feb. 18 screening. • “Secrets of War,” both screenings. • “Serial (Bad) Weddings,” Jan. 31 and Feb. 4, 13 and 14 screenings. • “Streit’s,” Feb. 12 screening. • “You Must Be Joking,” Feb. 15 screening. • “Zero Motivation,” Feb. 3, 6 and 14 screenings.
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The docudrama about artists at Terezin uses voiceovers while the characters on screen never speak. The result, Pilcher said, is lyrical.
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JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
ATLANTA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
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JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
ATLANTA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
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JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
ATLANTA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
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ATLANTA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
Early Movie Memories Made on a Tiny TV
WICKED IS FLYING BACK TO ATLANTA
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eginning in my kindergarten am talking to Jeanette (my aunt, her year in public school, I was sister). She’s telling me the girl on permitted to walk to school our television show died.” on my own. I did not, however, walk And so it went. a mile uphill both ways. P.S. 44 in Not all days were this shocking. the Bronx was directly across the Many days I would arrive home, do street from the apartment building some homework or hang out with where we friends, and lived, as did at 5 p.m. my 99 permom and I SHAINDLE’S SHPEIL cent of my would watch Shaindle Schmuckler nuclear and “The Early extended Show.” Movshaindle@atljewishtimes.com family. At ies! the very Mom tender age would lie of 5, I recognized the new feelings down on the love seat; I would sit at inhabiting my body as my first real the edge. We had to sit fairly close taste of independence. to the little TV, a black-and-white The second time I would experiDumont, as I recall. We loved the ence the delicious taste of indepenmovies on “The Early Show.” dence was going off to overnight My sisters and I still love the summer camp. And let’s not even movies. This time together watching get started on the power I felt “The Early Show” informed our love behind the wheel of my father’s old of the movies. We are movie-addictgreen pickup truck. ed women. I’ve digressed. Back to the point There were the rare times I was of this shpeil. allowed to tag along with my par I can recall once arriving home ents to watch a Jewish movie. I was from a rather happy day at school to one of the few children at the movie an unfamiliar sound. Upon opening house. the door to our apartment, I could The movies were in Yiddish, and hear my mom crying into the phone. I understood every word. At the time This is what I heard: “She died? I did not think this was unusual; From what did she die? I can’t belooking back, I know how lucky I lieve she died. So young a woman.” was to be a Yiddish-speaking Ameri I used to believe that if you can girl. walked on your tippy toes, your Afterward, we would go to the footsteps could not make noise. I’ve deli. I was not a vegetarian in those since learned, to my dismay, this days, and given that my dad was a was an old bubbeh maiseh. I very kosher butcher, he knew where the slowly and very quietly shut the best deli meat was served. door and on my tippy toes walked And then I moved to Atlanta. toward the crying sound. My mom Truth be told, many years and was leaning against a wall in the many residences in many states kitchen, holding the phone to her passed before I moved to Atlanta ear and waving at me to be quiet. I with my husband and my four girls. stood frozen, waiting to ask her who Different state, different time, but died. movies always remained an addic After what seemed like a lifetion. time, a child’s lifetime, Mom finally When the Atlanta Jewish Film hung up the phone. I asked in a Festival premiered, it was a TBT quiet and respectful voice, “Who (Throw-Back Thursday) moment for died?” Which seemed appropriate, me. It was almost like winning the given what I’d overheard. lottery. (I said almost.) “What are you talking about,” How could a Yiddish-speaking my mom said “Are you meshugah? I American girl get so lucky?
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ATLANTA JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
Time Waits for No Matzo Filmmaker
‘Streit’s’ documentarian adjusts to news of factory’s closing
By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com aking matzo is all about timing: You have only 18 minutes after the flour meets the water to finish. So it figures that the making of a matzo movie, “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream,” is all about the timing as well. Targeting a world premiere at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, documentary filmmaker Michael Levine was wrapping up two years of work on the story of the family-owned matzo factory that has operated on Manhattan’s Lower East Side since 1925 when he made a surprise announcement to the world: Streit’s is selling the factory and leaving the city. “It was difficult personally to absorb the news,” he said. “We spent so much time with these guys.” That time started six years ago when Levine, a 15-year resident of the neighborhood, peeked through the windows of the brick tenement buildings on Rivington Street. He saw matzo being pulled out of 73-foot ovens, was offered a taste through a window and walked inside to find himself transported back to the 1920s. Levine learned about the aging machinery no one can repair, the
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pressure on the family to sell the real estate and to succumb to foreign competitors, the sense of family between the owners and workers, and the commitment of the Streits to their history and their neighborhood. He realized he had a story to tell in a film that would run three or four times the length of the matzo-making process. Levine was filming extra footage at the factory Jan. 5 when the owners announced the sale to a real estate developer of the four tenement buildings that produce 40 percent of the U.S. matzo. The factory will close after Passover, but the family hopes to open in a new location. “The footage was difficult to film. I was worried both for the Streit’s owners and the workers,” said Levine, who spent more than a year filming and six months editing. “I was hesitant to film it, but both the owners and the workers were glad I was there. It was an important moment in their history.” The trick for Levine is to include that history without making dramatic
changes to the film that premieres Feb. 5 at Regal Cinemas Avalon. “We want people to leave not completely dejected,” he said. “It’s a celebration of a place that managed to survive decades longer than anybody would have imagined. … The fact that they were there for that long and held out and stuck to their values, that hasn’t changed.” The five-generation Streit’s story has broad enough appeal that 615 people contributed nearly $65,000 in a Kickstarter campaign for the film. (Levine is still raising money for the title sequences at www.matzofilm. com.) But even for a documentary covering almost a century, it’s not unusual for story-changing information to emerge at the end, said Gabe Wardell, one of the co-chairs of the Jewish Film
Festival’s Film Evaluation Committee. “It’s both the danger of the documentary and what makes it so exhilarating.” At some point, you have to finish your story, and if there’s more to tell, you can make a sequel, he said. A sequel is Levine’s plan, something he can discuss during questionand-answer sessions at the “Streit’s” screenings Feb. 12 at Lefont Sandy Springs and Feb. 13 at United Artists Tara Cinemas. “Everybody we worked with there is excited for the film,” Levine said about the Atlanta festival. “It’s the greatest Jewish film festival in the world, from what we hear.”
Decatur’s Matzolah to Keep Crunching With Streit’s By Fran Memberg fmemberg@atljewishtimes.com he sale of the Streit’s matzo factory on New York’s Lower East Side is not expected to stop Foodman, a Decatur-based specialty kosher food manufacturer founded in 2012. Foodman’s signature product, Matzolah, a matzo–based granola, made its debut at the 2012 Kosherfest trade show. Matzolah was named Kosherfest’s best new Passover product that year, and Streit’s agreed to manufacture the product using its matzo and distribute it for Passover 2013, using the company’s macaroon canister design. Streit’s has manufactured, distributed and warehoused Matzolah ever since and expanded its role with Foodman (www.foodmannosh.com) as a partner. “I don’t think much will change
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for Foodman because of this,” Foodman President Wayne Silverman said. While Streit’s matzo has been baked at the Rivington Street factory since a decade after Aron Streit opened shop nearby in 1915, the fam-
ily-run company has a second factory in Moonachie, New Jersey, that produces other Passover products, including Matzolah. Silverman said Aaron Gross, a great-great-grandson of Streit’s
founder, assured him that the companies’ relationship will not change. All Matzolah products are made at the New Jersey factory and are listed in the Streit’s national catalog for large grocery chains. Streit’s delivers Matzolah orders to those stores, including Kroger and Whole Foods. Matzolah orders for small specialty stores and nonprofit organizations are shipped to Foodman’s Connecticut warehouse and distributed by Foodman. Silverman said his conversation with Gross left no doubt that Streit’s views Matzolah as the type of contemporary kosher product it wants to keep bringing to the marketplace.
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NEWS
Silence vs. Violence Produces Paris
Rabbi: Terror knows no limits when politicians let Jews be targets
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INTERFAITH DIALOGUE TO PURSUE KING’S DREAM OF PEACE By Suzi Brozman sbrozman@atljewishtimes.com fter accompanying Pope Francis to Israel for prayer at the Western Wall and meetings with Israelis and Palestinians, Rabbi Abraham Skorka is coming to Atlanta to help two fellow Argentinian rabbis honor Martin Luther King Jr. King’s legacy inspired a program Sunday, Jan. 18, the eve of Martin Luther King Day, at Congregation Or Hadash. Rabbi Skorka and the Conservative synagogue’s spiritual leaders, Rabbis Mario Karpuj and Analia Bortz, will address the theme of “Prophetic Voice,” an opportunity for people from various traditions to search for ways to transform society. “In a world filled with atrocities, in which radical-fundamental minds take over the headlines of every paper and blood and tears are spread through the tapestry of life and death, we desperately look for an honest and deep message of respect and peace among religious, creeds and nations,” Rabbi Bortz said. Rabbi Skorka has put Argentina’s history of anti-Semitic acts behind him to build bridges among the nation’s different faiths and become one of the world’s pre-eminent advocates for interfaith dialogue and cooperation. He befriended Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, and they began a dialogue that continues. They co-authored a book, “On Heaven and Earth,” that explored the possibilities of interfaith dialogue, and they produced and co-hosted television shows in Argentina. His visit is part of a brief U.S. tour arranged by Masorti Olami, which advances the Conservative movement’s principles of Torah learning, the global unity of the Jewish people, pluralism, tolerance and democracy. The Jan. 18 program will start at 7 p.m. at Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, and include a dessert reception. Admission is free, but registration is required at masortiolami.org/registration-forskorka-atlanta.
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violence and hate. “Did I act honestly in my decision-making? Did I perform in the name of justice and peace? Today is a turning point. Tomorrow must not be a copy of yesterday.” He added that authorities must use the law. “If you hear there is a leader praying for violence, put him in jail. Don’t wait.” He said his visit to the United States will spread the message of dialogue as a tool to fight racism and hatred of all kinds. “What is going on in Paris, and in Europe in general, is a consequence of the nonacceptance of the other and the construction of images of hate regarding the other.” Hate of the other drives conflicts around the world, Rabbi Skorka said, as violence spreads from destruction of the image of the other to destruction of the actual other. Interfaith dialogue is the antidote. “The main theme is how to handle hate, violence and fanaticism in our human reality. The answer is to develop a dialogue, but for that you need a counterpart.”
He said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has failed to be that counterpart for Israelis who seek peace. “If we would like to have peace, we have to work for it, through a language of peace and having a partner. We have no leader among the Palestinians.” True to his message, Rabbi Skorka refused to blame Islam for terrorism: “It is forbidden to say Islamic. The term I use is fanatic people who are acting in the name of Islam.” He said there are extremists in every group. “But the good people, those in the middle, must take in their hands a more active position, express themselves with louder voices, maintain a greater commitment. “Look at what happened in Paris, with Netanyahu and Abbas marching with Hollande — an image, a message for the world. When people will take a stronger position, when papers will not publish violence but a message of peace, then it will not be so easy for extremists.”
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JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
Hitler’s greatest tools was the people By Suzi Brozman of Europe. When people were letting sbrozman@atljewishtimes.com he terrorist attacks in France the Nazis take their neighbors, what didn’t just target Jews in the were they to expect in the future? Respecting the other — this is what end; they were the our prophets gave us. The inevitable consequence of way to honor God is to the failure to respond to honor your fellow — this repeated violence against is the message I bring.” Jews, says one of the Political leaders are world’s leading advocates failing to rise to the occaof peace through intersion of a turning point in faith dialogue. history, he said. “There “When you let the are a lot of political facpowers of violence go tors, a lack of answers, no ahead, don’t expect a limresponses to anti-Semitic it,” said Rabbi Abraham and other racist acts. Skorka, a friend of Pope They not only didn’t have Francis’ from their days Rabbi Abraham Skorka proper answers and contogether in Argentina. Rabbi Skorka spoke in an inter- demnation, but they had the support view before visiting Atlanta for a from many people who were playing Martin Luther King Day program on with fire … people who condemn Israinterfaith dialogue at Congregation el blindly, people writing and expressing attitudes against Israel.” Or Hadash. Rabbi Skorka said leaders must “All of humanity must have in ask themselves what they did wrong their memories how the Shoah was in France and other places gripped by performed,” the rabbi said. “One of
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???? EDUCATION
Sephardi Outreach on a Grand Scale Atlanta’s new kollel set to celebrate opening By Fran Memberg fmemberg@atljewishtimes.com hree scholars who helped find the faculty of Kollel Ner Hamizrach are coming to Atlanta to celebrate the learning center’s grand opening in Toco Hills. The night of food and speeches about the importance of a kollel and its potential community impact Tuesday, Jan. 20, will feature Harav Shmuel Kamenetsky, the founder and dean of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, and two representatives of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., Harav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, the dean, and Rav Aaron Kotler, the president and CEO. The kollel, Hebrew for gathering or collection (of scholars), opened for Torah and Talmud study at Congregation Ner Hamizrach in August after a year of planning, fundraising and programming development. It targets three groups: Sephardi Jews; Israelis; and Bukharian Jews, Sephardim of Central Asian descent, many of whom are native Russian speakers.
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What: Kollel Grand Opening Where: Congregation Ner Hamizrach, 1858 LaVista Road, Toco Hills When: Tuesday, Jan. 20, 8 p.m. Cost: Free More info: www.nerhamizrach.org 404-315-9020 Participation in kollel classes and programs is not limited to those groups, however; Ashkenazi Jews make up about half the attendees, said Rabbi David Kapenstein, the president and executive director. After starting with a few men as students Aug. 15, the kollel is serving 40 people a night in small groups or one-on-one study, including women’s classes and activities. Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, the rosh yeshiva, or dean, is pleased with the growth. “People have come to learn. They appreciate the style we have to offer. We’ve added new class topics because of the number of people.” Kollel Ner Hamizrach strives
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DATE Join us as we celebrate 10 years of dynamic spiritual leadership. An Evening of Good Food, Great Friends & Lots of Laughter celebrating
Rabbi Joshua Heller’s
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
Ten Years at Congregation B’nai Torah.
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Sunday April 26, 2015
to augment the 28-year-old Atlanta Scholars Kollel, Rabbi Kapenstein said. For example, he said none of the ASK rabbis is a native Hebrew speaker or Russian speaker, but some Ner Hamizrach rabbis are native Israelis or speak Russian. “The face of Atlanta has changed tremendously because of ASK,” Rabbi Kapenstein said. “ASK has been very helpful to us, advised us.” He outlined Ner Hamizrach’s goals: bring high-level Torah scholarship to Atlanta; serve as a training ground for young rabbis; attract more observant families to Atlanta; and reach underserved populations. The eight kollel rabbis, found through a national search, were asked to make a three-year commitment in Atlanta. All are in their 20s and married, some with children. “We wanted high-level Torah scholars who want to be involved in the community” and ideally settle here, Rabbi Kapenstein said. “They are articulate, dynamic and prolific in writing and speaking.” Rabbi Cohen, a 40-year-old Los Angeles native, said he had heard about Atlanta from friends and was drawn here because “people are looking to grow (Jewishly), and they are positive, upbeat people.” He added, “People don’t realize the size of the Jewish community until they’re here.” In addition to Congregation Ner Hamizrach, the kollel offers classes at The Kehilla in Sandy Springs, Congregation Or VeShalom in Brookhaven and the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Norcross. Learning also can be tailored to individual needs, and the kollel will adjust its offerings to the community’s demands. The kollel “challenges me to learn at a higher level,” said Yosef Chaim Castriota, 43, who attends sessions at Ner Hamizrach. Rabbi Kapenstein, who retired as development director of Torah Day School of Atlanta in 2013 after 25 years, saw the formation of the kollel as a way to help a longtime friend, Ner Hamizrach Rabbi Shmuel Khoshkerman, who had long dreamed of starting a kollel. “I’m interested in making sure that Torah thrives in the Atlanta Jewish community,” Rabbi Kapenstein said.
What: Holocaust Commemoration Where: Atlanta Jewish Academy, 2500 Northland Road, Sandy Springs When: Sunday, Jan. 25, 6:30 p.m. for light appetizers, 7 p.m. for speakers Cost: Free More info: www.amyisraelchaiatlanta.org
Nuremberg Prosecutor To Speak By Marcia Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com he only living chief prosecutor from the Nuremberg warcrimes trials will speak at Am Yisrael Chai’s annual Holocaust remembrance event Jan. 25, the Sunday before International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Benjamin Ferencz will address “Justice and Response” at the event, which is free and open to the public at Atlanta Jewish Academy. Ferencz, a native of Transylvania and Harvard Law School graduate who served in the U.S. Army forces that liberated a German concentration camp, was 27 when he opened the prosecution at Nuremberg in 1947. He also helped form the International Criminal Court and remains an active human rights lawyer. “Benjamin Ferencz provides a unique and incredible opportunity for the Atlanta community to hear his perspective on the Nuremberg trials and the lessons learned from the Holocaust,” said Am Yisrael Chai Atlanta’s president, Dr. Andrea Videlefsky. “He is a legendary speaker.” Ferencz also will speak the next day at Emory Law School and can be seen in the documentary “Night Will Fall,” screening Feb. 2 and Feb. 17 the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. Introducing Ferencz for Am Yisrael Chai will be his son Don, who was born in Nuremberg and is also a lawyer and educator. Father and son created the Planethood Foundation, which “advocates replacing the law of force with the force of law.” International Holocaust Remembrance Day is Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz 70 years ago.
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Febuary 3, 2015 Congregation B’nai Torah
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Admission: $5.00
www.jewishnetworkingalliance.org Complementry Refreshments Served
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
Stunning Brick Home in Gated Sentinel Ferry Subdivision
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TEENS
East Cobb Girl Rules the World
Hailee Grey, 17, is elected the international president of USY
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ailee Grey, 17, of East Cobb won the United Synagogue Youth international presidency in elections at the 64th annual USY international convention at Atlanta’s Omni Hotel at CNN Center in late December. She’s only the fourth girl to hold the title. “I’m so amazed by the results of the election, and it’s something I’ve always dreamed about,” said Grey, a senior at Pope High School who belongs to Congregation Etz Chaim. “It’s crazy to think that now it’s real.” Becoming international president of the Conservative movement’s group for high school students has long been a goal for Grey, the daughter of Mitchell and Michelle Grey, because USY has changed and inspired her so much, she said. “USY is something I put so much time into and something I love and want to give back to. I hope I can give back to USY and impact it as much as it has impacted me and my Jewish life.” Grey has been involved with USY locally, regionally and internationally since her freshman year of high school and has held several positions, including the 2014-15 president of the Southeast’s HaNegev Region. While her previous USY positions prepared Grey for the international presidency, she said that losing several elections also helped. “Beforehand, I ran for two subregional board positions and chapter president and lost all three. I think having those experiences helped me realize that winning isn’t everything and that by losing you can still be a leader without the title,” Grey said. “And that’s something I wanted to express to USY throughout the year — that everyone won’t have a leadership title, but they can still be a leader within USY.” Grey’s goals during her one-year term include increasing membership
and promoting more social interaction. In her campaign speech to the more than 750 convention delegates, Grey’s proposals included specialized conventions for USY regions that are close together, thus cutting travel costs, and a monthly conference call for any USY members to ask questions of the international executive board, thus increasing communication across USY. “I hope everyone in USY can accomplish what they want to in USY, and I hope that I can help everyone fulfill their dreams throughout their four years in USY, like I have myself,” Grey said. Grey’s convention speech, which you can read in full at atlantajewishtimes. com, focused on Havdalah and dreams. “Havdalah is amazing because it’s a time for all to stand together, to hear all voices, to extend the beauty brought unto us by Shabbat and to dream about what the sizzle will bring in the coming week,” Grey said in her speech. “Regardless of your personal Havdalah sizzle thoughts, we all stand in that circle, dreaming of something.” With 132 HaNegev Region delegates in attendance, December’s convention gave Atlanta and the South a chance to show their sizzle. Grey’s election provided the finishing touch as she joined Ahavath Achim Synagogue’s Margo Gold, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s president, atop international Conservative organizations. “I think it’s a great move for Atlanta. The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism president is also a female from Atlanta, so we’re both really excited for this year,” Grey said. “But it also shows that a USY leader doesn’t necessarily need to come from California or New York or somewhere where there are a lot of Jewish people. It can really come from anywhere and from anyone who sets their heart out to be this position.”
PRESIDENT: ‘POSITIVE’ CHANGE ON INTERDATING The USY international convention in Atlanta sparked national controversy by changing the policy on interfaith dating by USY officers. The interdating policy was one of the convention’s three approved amendments to the USY constitution regarding the behavior of USY officers. The other two go hand in hand: Officers should adhere to USY’s zero-tolerance policy on bullying by creating a welcoming environment, and officers should refrain from lashan hara (gossip) while treating others with kavod (respect). East Cobb resident Hailee Grey, the newly elected USY international president, was part of the USY task force that discussed the amendments for a year before December’s voting. The original wording of the interdating policy stated that officers should refrain from dating non-Jews. The revised policy states that USY officers should model healthy Jewish dating choices and encourages officers to date within the Jewish community. “We felt that beforehand, in the old constitution, that it was very exclusive in telling the leaders what they can and cannot do. The leaders of USY felt like we, as the Conservative movement, show inclusiveness, and we wanted to have our amendments reflect that,” Grey said. “So we changed the amendments in a more positive and inclusive way which I really think is honorable. The meaning wasn’t necessarily altered, but we made it in a more positive tone.”
USY BRINGS 750 TEENS TO TOWN
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ore than 750 teens from across North America gathered in Atlanta in late December for the 64th annual international convention of United Synagogue Youth, the first time USY held its convention in Atlanta in more than 40 years. “We’re thrilled to host so many Jewish teens and give them a taste of what Atlanta has to offer,” said Margo Gold, an Ahavath Achim Synagogue member who serves as the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism president. “There is so much here for the teens to see and do, and seeing their enthusiasm for this experience is just great.” While the convention included such fun tastes of Atlanta as a private visit to the World of Coca-Cola and kosher chicken and waffles, it also featured serious social action at more than 15 charities. For Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Day, a day of service named for the Jewish civil rights activist who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., more than 1,000 people, including convention staff, participated in activities such as spending time with the homeless, serving meals to the hungry, sorting more than 10,000 pounds of food at the Atlanta Community Food Bank and picking up trash at the Freedom Park Conservancy. In honor of Atlanta’s civil rights history, the USY convention’s educational theme was Ve’ahavta L’reyacha Kamocha, Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. “Coming to Atlanta, with its rich history of civil rights, gave us an incredible opportunity to leverage those lessons and really bring them to life,” said Rabbi David Levy, the director of teen learning for United Synagogue. The teens visited the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Site and sat in silence in the pews of Ebenezer Baptist Church as they listened to King’s speeches over the speaker system. They also learned about the civil rights movement from the Rev. Graham Williams, who marched with King in Selma. “I learned a lot,” said Avi Lyons, the USY chapter president at Congregation Etz Chaim. “It was really powerful. I feel so connected with the community after this, more than I did before, which is something I didn’t expect.” — Laurie Kamens, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Photo by Ethan Weg
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Hot Cooking From Generation to Generation
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JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
them not too big and not too small, here is no love more sinjust right to absorb the soup, get a bit cere than the love of food” soft, and melt in your mouth.” — George Bernard Shaw Tomato in the Middle I tuned in to Atlanta Interfaith In the middle of the gourmet Broadcasting’s eight-part show “It triumvirate, Annette operates the Tastes Jewish” to catch my “young full-service (bartenders, servers, old” friend Annette Sacks Marcus decorations) with her Annette 88-year-old Marcus mother, JAFFE’S JEWISH JIVE Catering. Charlene By Marcia Jaffe She worked Sacks, and mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com for 12 years dynamic as a special30-year-old needs chef son, teacher Matthew before transitioning into catering for Marcus. more flexible time to spend raising They prepared traditional dishes her boys. Annette is a perfectionist and such gourmet suggestions as with an up attitude who juggles at vegetarian chopped liver and sweetleast 15 jobs at a time. and-sour fish with tips to make the In addition to dairy kiddushes food come out at home as the pros do at various congregations, Annette is it. known for individualizing events to The three generations brought customers’ visions. “I am in evera full-circle warmth into our homes ready mode. Today, for example, as we learned how challah fits into I have an event for 45 and one for our tradition or Charlene whipped 100 … then got a call to do a quickly up cabbage soup with passion and produced funeral reception.” no recipe. Matt, the executive chef at Annette’s creativity shines Portofino in Buckhead, is charismatic and easy on the eyes, replete with de- through in her menu choices, such as Under the Southern Sun with bitesigner rolled shirt cuffs and tattoos. size chicken and waffles, a pre-sym How do we explain these three phony cocktail buffet, and afternoon cooks being so svelte? Move over, tea with mini coconut cakes. portly Paul Prudhomme. She gets busy preparing tradi Interwoven into the AIB series tional foods during Jewish holidays. were Rabbis Analia Bortz, Mario She is kosher-style and will accomKarpuj, Brad Levenberg, and Ellen modate kashrut in the client’s home. Nemhauser to embellish the “gour “What people want is my best met-haymisha” experience. dish; it’s the beauty of what I do,” Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Levenberg said: “I very much enjoyed cooking on Annette said. “Every day creates the show. Though I had absolutely no something different, never the same thing twice. Every year has been a experience cooking, Annette walked growth year.” me through the steps to make some Annette has a menschy heart. amazing dishes … especially matzo When my mother was in hospice, Anballs. She taught me how to make
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is perfecting making nette ferried over food people happy. that Mom said “had some real tam (taste).” Jaffe: What irritates About Matt’s you in the restauindoctrination into the rant service world? family legacy, AnChef Matt: Patrons nette said: “Up until who take too much age 18, he stayed out liberty with the menu. of the kitchen. Then I go 100% above and he began loving these beyond to accomcooking aromas and modate allergies and began smoking meats Matt Marcus even have a separate for his friends and set of pans for those became a hero. That who want some degree was the start.” of kosher prepared at Young Chef Matt Portofino, but some Matt remembers folks want to alter/ yearning for the waftsubstitute preparation ing aromas of brisket. and ingredients out of “Food brings people the reasonable range. together, and I like Charlene Sacks having an impact on Bobby the Matrithe community with arch my art.” Amazingly graceful, Matt recalls as deft and well-spoken a child discerning at 88, Charlene had between a brownie a “lot of fun doing eaten at a friend’s the TV show.” Asked house and the quality about a potential he had at home and national foray into from his grandmother TV with Annette and Charlene, known as Matt, she said, “I Bobby. “Bobby always should only live that had puppy chow (Chex long!” with powdered sugar), Annette Marcus The Detroit native mandel bread with has the history. “My mother was a almonds and crusty pastry leftovers fabulous cook, and my father cooked hanging around on the counter.” Matt learned his trade over seven in the Army, long before it was popuyears under admired chefs from Gold- lar to be a gourmand. We never ate leftovers.” fish to Chops and became certified. “I Here’s my chat with Char. like the chaos of organizing and conJaffe: Was Matt as a young child trolling a kitchen. Food is a fleeting art which I continually re-create. Yes, interested in observing your I enjoy the creativity. Pieces of myself cooking? Char: He never put a foot in the go into these dishes.” kitchen. Some repartee with Matt follows. Jaffe: What about Annette? Char: She liked to follow me around Jaffe: What was it like being on and potchkie in the kitchen. Never TV? Would you like to pursue thought it would be her real vocation that direction? at the time. Chef Matt: I thought the message Jaffe: What’s the best thing Anof the show was cool. You don’t have nette prepares? to be on “Top Chef” to have a reality Char: Annette is known for her hors show. Our food was portrayed as a d’oeuvres, fresh roasted salmon, and family made-at-home menu. It was she makes a mean filet of beef. lot of work to make it look so easy. I Jaffe: What do you take the most would be open to doing it on a grandpride in preparing? er scale with a professional crew. Char: I haven’t cooked for myself in 30 years, but I like to make soups: Jaffe: How would you describe lentil, split pea. In the old days we your style? slipped hot dogs or salami in the mix, Chef Matt: I am classically Frenchbut no longer. trained doing Italian now. My goal
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OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
88, Atlanta Raiza “Rae” Bolgla Berg, age 88, of Atlanta and formerly of Augusta died on Dec. 24, 2014, surrounded by her family. She was preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, Dr. Benjamin Bolgla, and her second husband, Dr. George Berg. She is survived by her five children: Susan Pollock and her husband, Stanley, Atlanta; Beth Bolgla and her husband, Jack Hayes, New York; Harvey Bolgla and his partner, Robert Engel, New York; Jan Bolgla and her husband, Bob Roarty, Atlanta; and Mitchell Bolgla and his wife, Michele, Atlanta. She is also survived by her sister, Judy Sugar, and her husband, Paul, Chicago; and two sisters-in-law, Sara Breibart, Charleston, and Lois Bolgla Merrithew, Delray Beach. She had six grandchildren, Mark Pollock (Keri), Jennifer Bender (Mike), Brittany Pollock, Benjamin Hayes, Isabel Hayes, and Benjamin Bolgla, and four great-grandchildren, Max and Sarah Pollock and Hannah and Sydney Bender. Rae also had three stepchildren from her second marriage, including Lora Berg (Karim Chaibi) of Washington, D.C. An accomplished educator, Rae worked as a special education teacher for the Augusta public school system for more than 30 years. She was a past director of the Augusta JCC Day Camp, directed and acted with the Augusta Players, was a board member of the Augusta Opera, and was a past president of Hadassah. She served as a docent at the High Museum in Atlanta for 15 years and was a board member of the Atlanta Opera. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held on Friday, Dec. 26, at Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta with Rabbi David Sirull officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the High Museum, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30309. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Molly Blank 99, Atlanta Molly Blank lived her life, in word and deed, consistent with her favorite quote: “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it; for I shall not pass this way again.” Her goals accomplished, Mrs. Blank, mother of Michael Blank and Arthur M. Blank, died Jan. 7, 2015, in Atlanta. She was 99. Molly Graff Blank was born on May 21, 1915, in New York, the daughter of Austrian immigrant parents Louis Graff and Celia Hoffman Graff. From the start, family and friends say she had an insatiable curiosity to try new things — and do them her way. As the only Jewish girl in her Girl Scout troop, for example — and at a time when Jews were not openly embraced — she became a troop leader and counselor. She also had a thirst for knowledge, becoming an avid reader and, in her later years, an intrepid traveler. “Mother took pride in being well-read and -versed in just about every topic or event, and she enjoyed engaging with others in healthy debates,” son Michael said.
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Raiza ‘Rae’ Bolgla Berg
Mrs. Blank enjoyed family, art, dance and philanthropy throughout her life but might best be remembered as an independent thinker and self-made businesswoman who, after being widowed at a young age, raised two sons and took control of the family business, turning it into a thriving operation that was later sold to a large retail conglomerate. That experience would have a profound effect on her then-teenage son Arthur, who often spoke of his mother’s resilience and cited her as a primary influence on his entrepreneurial approach in building The Home Depot into the world’s largest home improvement company and, later, in acquiring the Atlanta Falcons. “My mother gave me my first lesson in entrepreneurship: being driven and incredibly resilient under stressful circumstances,” Arthur said. Molly married Max Blank, eloping on her 18th birthday. They lived an early married life of modest means, raising two children in a one-bedroom apartment. Despite their financial restrictions, Molly always told her boys that giving back to the community was essential. Time or money — it didn’t matter; the important thing was to be involved. “Everything we strive to do in life is a gift. It’s our responsibility to share it, to give back to the world,” she would often say. Philanthropy was a high priority for Molly throughout her life. During World War II, she took an interest in Palestine and raising money for the establishment of the state of Israel. That interest never waned, and in 1974 she was honored by the state of Israel and presented with the Masada Award for her fundraising efforts. In later years, she volunteered for numerous organizations and causes that ranged from teaching folk dancing to senior citizens in New York City to helping aspiring businesspeople as a speaker and counselor for Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). When arthritis kept her from continuing her own sculpting, she turned to teaching the craft to elderly residents in a California retirement community. Though their hands might shake as they molded clay or their eyesight might be failing or their minds might be invaded by Alzheimer’s or dementia, Molly said she found the experience tremendously rewarding. “So many people live and die and never realize their potential,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1999. “It’s so wonderful for them to come out and try to do something new.” Other organizations Molly worked with include Meals on Wheels and Bernath Alzheimer Treatment Center. A lifetime asthma sufferer, she established endowment funds for children in need at the National Jewish Asthma Center in Denver, where she often received care, and at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., which in 1998 opened a pediatric clinic in her name. In 1997, Molly wrote her autobiography, “You Pass Through Once: The Life of Molly Blank,” primarily to ensure her grandchildren would not be put in the same position that she had been, not knowing where her family was from or what life had been like for her grandparents. In it, she noted that her fondest wish was that her grandchildren and their descendants would live the ethics and lessons of their Jewish heritage. “In so doing they will eliminate bigotry and discrimination when they can. Justice to all will follow. With this as a guide, their lives will be meaningful and fulfilling.” Molly lived the last years of her life near family in Atlanta while also spending time with family in Scottsdale, Ariz. Molly Blank was preceded in death by husbands Chuna Feibel “Max” Blank, Max Simon and Wayne Mitsch. In addition to her two sons, she is survived by daughter-in-law Carmen; grandson Matthew and his wife, Edie; granddaughter Jennifer and her husband, Eddie; grandson Kenneth and his wife, Nancy; granddaughter Dena and her husband, Joshua; granddaughter Danielle and her husband, Matthew; grandsons Joshua and Max; grand-
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OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING daughter Kylie; and great-grandchildren Melissa, Jacob, Gabriella, Emily, Oliver and Nadia. Private services were held on Jan. 8. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Jewish Family & Career Services of Atlanta, 4549 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, GA 30338. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
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Funeral services were held Wednesday, Jan. 7, at Temple Kol Emeth with Rabbi Steven Lebow officiating. Interment followed at Arlington Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Power Over Prejudice (The Anti-Prejudice Consortium), 3145 Northside Parkway NW, Atlanta, GA 30327, or National Stroke Association, 9707 E. Easter Lane, Suite B, Centennial, CO 80112. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Jeannette Lewis Daniels-Chait Matile Solomon Ginburg 99, Sandy Springs Jeannette Lewis Daniels-Chait, 99, passed away the evening of Dec. 2. She was buried on Dec. 4 at the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, Long Island, N.Y., in the family plot. Before marriage she was an international executive secretary, speaking and writing four languages. After her divorce, she taught high school in Brooklyn, N.Y., for over 25 years and then retired to Lake Worth, Fla. Five years later, with her husband, Ben Chait, she moved to Leisure World in Laguna Woods, Calif. There she had a second career on Channel 6 and a few small parts in TV commercials. At age 93, she moved to Hammond Glen in Sandy Springs to be closer to her only son. She was always an optimist and frequently a woman ahead of her time. She is survived by her son, Kenneth Daniels, and three step-grandchildren, David, Ben and Simcha Ziskind.
Arthur Sidney Davidow 91, Roswell
Arthur Sidney Davidow of Roswell, age 91, passed away peacefully in his sleep Tuesday, Dec. 24, at the Cohen Home. A longtime Buckhead resident, Arthur was an active member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue for over 60 years. A well-known potter in Atlanta, he helped establish and then taught in the pottery program at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center and later in Roswell and Crabapple. Born and raised in New York City and a physics graduate of NYU, Arthur was an early participant in the Manhattan Project at Columbia University. He served as an Army aviation mechanic in India, Burma and China during World War II. For many years, he co-owned Colonial Painting Company in Atlanta. Arthur is survived by his beloved wife of 65 years, Harriet Lang Davidow; by his three sons and their wives, Richard and Sarah Davidow of Dahlonega, Daniel and Miriam Davidow of Richmond, Va., and Bill and Jayne Davidow of Roswell; by his granddaughter and her husband, Alisa and Brian Shapiro of Alexandria, Va.; by his grandsons, Jonathan Davidow of Richmond, Va., and Benjamin Davidow of Decatur; and by his cherished great-grandchildren, Alexander and Lila Shapiro of Alexandria, Va. A funeral service was held at Crest Lawn Memorial Park on Friday, Dec. 26. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to Ahavath Achim Synagogue or the Cohen Home. Condolences may be expressed online at www.jewishfuneralcare.com. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Lucille Freiser
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
85, Atlanta
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Lucille Freiser, age 85, of Atlanta died on January 5, 2015. She is survived by her husband, Marvin Freiser; sons David Rechtman (Judy), Michael Rechtman (Sheryl), and Scott Rechtman; and daughter Sallie Friedman. She was the doting grandmother of Dr. Lauren Rechtman (Jeff Chod), Michelle Rechtman, Jami Rechtman, Joel Rechtman, Rebecca Friedman, Jennifer Friedman, and Hannah Friedman. In addition, she is survived by numerous cousins and close extended family. Mrs. Freiser was born and raised in Detroit and lived in Alabama from 1950 to 1963. She was an educator and school psychologist for Newton County Schools for many years and a longtime member of Congregation Shearith Israel. She loved travel and music (including opera and the symphony) and enjoyed museums and theater.
89, Atlanta
Matile Solomon Ginburg, 89, passed away peacefully on Dec. 26, 2014. She was born and raised in Atlanta, the only child of Tillie and Frank Solomon. She was predeceased by her daughter Harriet and husband of 60 years, J. Kenneth “Keggy” Ginburg. She is survived by her daughter Julia Levingston (Bob) of Greenville, Miss, daughter Sharon Paskoff (Steve) of Atlanta, and son David Ginburg (Laurie) of Atlanta; grandchildren John and Rebecca Paskoff and Brian and Joanna Ginburg; and sister-in-law Millicent Ginburg of Atlanta. Matile met Keggy on a double date to Amicalola Falls; they were engaged six weeks later and married at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. She graduated from Girls’ High and was a lifelong member of The Temple. Matile was devoted to her family. She loved having family and friends over for Friday night Shabbos dinners serving the best roasts, casseroles, and home-baked desserts, especially pecan and chess pies. She cherished vacations at Debordieu with family and grandchildren, where she taught them bridge and bested them in poker. She had many devoted friends, including her bridge group, which met every Wednesday for 50 years. For years, she enjoyed boating on Lake Lanier; later in life, she and Keggy traveled the world together. She loved to read and belonged to several book clubs. An online guestbook is available at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Temple Night Shelter, 1605 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, or Genesis Shelter, 173 Boulevard NE, Atlanta, GA 30312. A graveside service was held Monday, Dec. 29, 2014, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park with Rabbi Peter Berg officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Milton Kuniansky 94, Atlanta
His yard in the spring was an explosion of color from the plants native to Georgia that he had been cultivating for over 45 years — azaleas, wild azaleas, hellebores and rhododendrons, to name only a few. He chose plants native to Georgia, reasoning they should need no maintenance, but he was wrong, since his thumb was so green that he found himself constantly thinning his exploding crop. In his prime, there was not a plant in his garden he could not identify, with the rare exception of some errant cannabis plants, which took three months of research to identify, after which he removed them only weeks before maturity. Milton Kuniansky, Atlanta native, Realtor, master gardener and family man, died Dec. 31, 2014, at the age of 94. The cause of death was complications of a long life well lived. Born in 1920 to Harry and Pauline Kuniansky, he graduated from Boys’ High and Georgia Tech, after which he served in the Army during World War II. There, as a member of the fire brigade, when ordered into a burning building, his immediate response was “Yes, sir, lieutenant, I will be right behind you.” While he was guarding German prisoners of war in Canada, after his unauthorized shooting at bears in the woods, the Army determined that its soldiers, the prisoners and Private Kuniansky would all be safer if he accomplished his duties unarmed. To retaliate against a commanding officer who would not give him a weekend pass to see his wife, he placed a requisition order on the CO’s desk for tanks to safeguard Canada, which was signed, as was the CO’s custom, without reading. On a later visit to Canada he saw the tanks rusting by the roadside. His was not the type of duty that gave rise to posttraumatic stress disorder, unless, of course, you were unfortunate enough to be his commanding officer. Returning to Atlanta after the war with his wife, the former Davee Polier, whom he married in 1942, he entered the booming home construction business. Losing a little money on each house but making up for it in volume,
OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
Julius ‘Malcolm’ Lindy Jr. 78, Atlanta
Julius “Malcolm” Lindy Jr., 78, of Atlanta passed away Jan. 8, 2015, after surgical complications. Malcolm loved racquetball, Alabama football, poker, cigars (which he never lit), the Atlanta Braves and community service. In 1964, he founded the Corned Beef House restaurants, the first privately owned restaurant to integrate in Memphis, Tenn. In the 1970s, he and his family moved to North Alabama, where he owned and operated a Popeye’s Chicken franchise with locations in Huntsville, Gadsden, Rainbow City and Anniston. He was active in civic and humanitarian organizations, with a commitment to social justice, Judaism and philanthropy. He received the prestigious Brotherhood Award from the Huntsville chapter of the National Conference for Community Justice, formerly known as the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He volunteered as a docent at the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, worked the hotline at Crisis Services of North Alabama and walked dogs at animal shelters. He served on the Jewish Federation of North Alabama’s Holocaust Remembrance Committee and the Alabama Holocaust Commission, which influenced guidelines on teaching the Holocaust in Alabama schools. He also authored the novel “The Temple President.” He was a native of Jackson, Tenn., and a graduate of the University of Alabama. Memorial services were held Sunday, Jan. 11, at Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville, followed by interment at Maple Hill Cemetery. Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar officiated. Malcolm is survived by two daughters, Julie Lindy and Beth Sherman (Brian); son Jeff Lindy (Debra); loving partner Dale Shields; six grandchildren, Jamie and Eric Sherman and Morgan, Rebecca Lynn, Jackson and Anna Lindy; and his beloved cat, Schwartz. He was married to the late Linda Goldstein Lindy. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials be made to Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, or the charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Rosalie Newman 86, Atlanta
Rosalie Newman, age 86, of Atlanta died Jan. 3, 2015. Survivors include her daughter Ilene Shurek, Lawrenceville, Ga.; daughter and son-in-law Robin and Mark Belsky, Queens, N.Y.; sister Deena Berger, Delray Beach, Fla.; eight grandchildren and their spouses (whom she con-
sidered her grandchildren); and 21 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Harry Newman, and a son-in-law, Hanan Shurek, of blessed memory. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Memorial donations may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, 3525 Piedmont Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30305, or JDRF.org. Funeral services were held Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, at Sinai Chapels, Queens, N.Y., with interment at New Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Iselin, N.J. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770451-4999.
Susi H. Nichols 79, Atlanta
Susi H. Nichols (née Trnka), age 79, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, Dec. 14. Susi was originally from Vienna, Austria. She and her parents, Edith and Leo Trnka, were eventually able to escape occupied Austria from the Nazis and made their way to the United States, where she grew up in the town of Arcade, N.Y. Susi received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver after beginning her studies at Syracuse University. She also received a master’s degree from the University of Denver in sociology. After finishing her studies, Susi moved to Palo Alto, Calif., where she raised her daughter, Michèle. One of the highlights of her time in California was serving as a volunteer for the 1984 Olympic Games. Susi recently moved from California to Atlanta to be close to her daughter and her two beloved grandchildren. She was an active member of the community in which she lived, joining the Red Hat Society and participating in every excursion offered. Susi leaves behind her daughter, Michèle Taylor, son-in-law, Kenneth Taylor, and grandchildren, Zach and Zoë Taylor, all of Atlanta, as well as countless friends and beloved cousins. She will be missed by those who knew her. Susi wished to be cremated and have her ashes spread in the Rocky Mountains she so loved. A memorial service was planned after the new year in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler. com. The family suggests that memorials be made to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Barbara Landau Wolff Shemper 76, Sandy Springs
Barbara Landau Wolff Shemper, age 76, of Sandy Springs died Dec. 16, 2014. Barb was born in St. Louis, Mo., and it was there she met her future husband, the late Jerry Wolff, when they were 14 years old. Theirs was a love for the ages, and they were together for more than 50 years, living in Columbia, Mo., Dallas, Texas, and then Atlanta since 1975. Barb and Jerry became active and deeply committed members of Temple Sinai. She served as an officer and chair of many committees, including Kesher and Second Helpings. After Jerry’s death in 2007, Barb was blessed to find love again with Maurice Shemper, and they were married in 2010. Barb and Maurice were active in travel, adult education, temple and social activities, as well as Barb’s regular mahjong game. Barbara is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Brad and Betsy, Mike and Cecilia, Kevin and Stacy, and Jeff and Stacy, and her stepsons and daughter-in-law, Jason and Rhianna Shemper and Scott Shemper, all of the Atlanta area. She will live in the loving memory of her grandchildren, Emeline, Kelsey, Paloma, Santiago, Lexie, Sam, Natalie, Candela, Carson, Jaren, Eva, Scarlett and Harrison. Barb is also survived by her brother- and sistersin-law, Don and Heide Wolff of St. Louis and Sylvia Landau of Chicago, and many nieces and nephews. Funeral services were at Temple Sinai on Thursday, Dec. 18, with burial following at Arlington Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations would be welcome to the Kesher Endowment Fund at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs, GA 30327, or to the Weinstein Hospice, 3150 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30327. Sign the online guestbook at www. edressler.com. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
he decided to switch to brokering sales and formed Milton Kuniansky Real Estate, which he ran with his wife until they retired. With no affiliation to the national chains, it was one of the last of the ma-and-pa real estate brokerages in Atlanta. In an era when the average home sale was $25,000, they were consistent members of the Million Dollar Roundtable. He was committed to the principle of fair housing, and when the DeKalb Board of Realtors announced its annual luncheon would be held at the Druid Hills Country Club, he tried to point out the irony of having a group dedicated to fair housing holding its meeting at a club with discriminatory admission practices (at the time). When his arguments fell on deaf ears, he took his campaign to the television stations, and the luncheon was promptly moved to Stone Mountain, although it was then pointed out to him by one friend that the luncheon had been moved from one place that excluded blacks to the former home of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia. He is survived by his wife of 72 years; three children, Harry (Jo Elizabeth Wilson), Richard and Judy; five grandchildren, Jesse, David and Aaron Kuniansky-Altman, Sarah Kuniansky, and Hallie Kuniansky Neal; a sister, Ruth Willner; and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by two sisters, Adele Leifer and Sylvia Zipperman. The funeral was held Friday, Jan. 2, 2015, at The Temple with Rabbi Loren Lapidus officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Weinstein Hospice, 3150 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30327, www. weinsteinhospice.org, or the Zaban Couples Center, 1605 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, www.zabancouplescenter.org. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
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OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
Abraham I. ‘Al’ Smith 97, Atlanta
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
Abraham I. “Al” Smith, 97, of Atlanta passed away Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014. Born in New York City on June 10, 1917, he was the eldest of Frieda and Philip Smith’s five children. A self-described tough kid, Al grew up on the streets of New York and enlisted in the U.S. National Guard directly out of high school. At the beginning of World War II, he entered the U.S. Army, where he served with distinction in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters and was awarded numerous medals. In 1946, Al met Elinor Gershon, the love of his life. He often said that the best thing in his life was marrying Elinor and moving south, first to Carrollton, Ga., where they began their family. As owner of The Hub Department Store in Carrollton, Al was in the midst of that community’s commercial and political life. In 1957, the family moved to Atlanta, where, as a consummate salesman, he built a long, successful career in men’s haberdashery. Active in the Jewish War Veterans, Al rose to the rank of commander of Post 120 and was instrumental in creating a JWV Day as proclaimed by the governor of the state of Georgia. He also held the rank of Third Degree Mason and was an active member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue. Al and Elinor created a strong family tree with four children, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Elinor passed away in 1988. Al married Selma Abramson, who also preceded him in death. Additionally, he was predeceased by his sons-in-law, Peter Aranson and Terry Magdovitz. He is survived by his daughters, Donna Aranson, Atlanta, and Caren Magdovitz, Valrico, Fla.; sons, Mark (Miriam Cukier), New York, and Gary (Sherry Rosenblum), Chicago; grandchildren, Hannah (Joel), Sam (Judy), Jeanette (Ray), Joel, Evan, Brittany, Eliott, Yevette, and Estefani; four great-grandchildren; brothers, Sam (Rose) and David (Elaine) Smith; sisters, Elaine (David) Beeber and Phyllis (Dr. Joe) Arnold; brother-in-law, Herbert (Evelyn) Gershon; and longtime caregiver and dear family friend, Irish Thomas. An online guestbook is available at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the charity of one’s choice. Graveside services were held Thursday, Dec. 11, at Greenwood Cemetery with Rabbi Neil Sandler officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
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John Vogel 98, Atlanta
John Vogel, age 98, of Atlanta died Jan. 3, 2015. He was preceded in death by his loving wife, Dorothy Vogel, of blessed memory. Survivors include his daughters, Sharon (Sidney) Morris, Gail Barr and Terri Pesso; grandchildren, Adrian (Rachel) Barr, Derek Barr, CJ (Rita) Michaels and Alex Michaels; and great-grandchildren, Ethan and Aaron Barr. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway NE, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. A graveside service was held Sunday, Jan. 4, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Joshua Heller officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-4514999.
Jerry Wolk 79, Dunwoody
A beloved husband, brother, father and grandfather, Jerry Wolk of Dunwoody passed away on Dec. 31, 2014. He was born in New York City on Feb. 12, 1935, to parents Tillie and Aaron and is survived by his wife, Penny Hamond-Wolk; two older brothers, Irwin (and his wife, Anita) and Stanley; sons Maurey and Steven; stepchildren Nina Hafitz and Jeff Hamond; and grandchildren Madison and Rylee Hafitz and Sivana and Ilan Hamond. Jerry was very much loved by his family and thought of by all as being a “gentle giant,” easy and gracious in manner, and always ready to listen, offer a calming word or pull a coin out of your ear. He was giving to others to such an extent that he was embarrassed to ever need care or attention from others. Penny says that he was the kindest, most loving man she ever met. In total, they were together for 45 years and married for 18 of them. People who don’t know them may wonder why this is. The actual truth is that they were engaged for 25 years, and the supposed 25th engagement anniversary party was in actuality a surprise wedding that caught all of their friends and family (except the children) totally off-guard. One of Nina and Jeff’s favorite childhood memories is that Jerry loved to tinker with things and fix them, taking them apart and putting them back together. He used to love fixing broken toasters and transistor radios and toys. His dream was actually to run a small repair shop, where people would bring him their broken small appliances and electronics and he would repair them. He also loved collecting stamps and probably secretly hoped to be a worldrenowned philatelist. Instead, Jerry built a career in insurance and risk management. He was an insurance salesman from New York who came to Atlanta in the late 1970s to follow in Penny’s footsteps. He worked for companies such as Polysius, American International Group, and ACE Insurance Group, where he rose to the level of vice president. For his stepchildren, Nina and Jeff, Jerry had been in their lives since 1970, when Nina was 9 and Jeff was 3, and each stepchild thinks of him just as they would a blood relative. Jerry was at every important family function, graduation, wedding, bar mitzvah, etc., and both Nina and Jeff considered him a third parent of equal standing. He was loved just as a father would be loved. While Jerry was very much a part of Nina and Jeff’s lives, he built a strong extended family as Maurey and Steven were growing up. Many happy long weekends were spent in upstate New York, and all of his children and stepchildren have fond memories of vacations together as one family. As Jerry’s family grew and as his children and stepchildren built families of their own, Jerry made every new family member feel special and loved. He will be missed by all. Penny and Jerry were very early congregants of Temple Kol Emeth in Marietta. A memorial service was held at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs on Jan. 4. Donations in Jerry’s memory may be made to the American Heart Association, the Smile Train or the Southern Poverty Law Center. Jerry and his family have been longtime supporters of these charities.
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2014 Pinch Hitter Program Organized by Achim/Gate City B’nai B’rith Lodge 0144and the B’nai B’rith Center for Community Action
JANUARY 16 ▪ 2015
Achim/Gate City Lodge of B’nai B’rith extends our sincere thanks to all of the volunteers who participated in the Pinch Hitter Program on Christmas Day, 2014, and a special Yashir Koach to our volunteer hospital coordinators (noted with **) and their assistants (noted with *) without whom the Pinch Hitter Program would have been impossible to produce. Harry Lutz, Chairman
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Dan Abramovich Rebecca Abramovich Gary Abramson Noah Abramson Rosie Arkin Camron Baker Georgia Baker Rachel Barich Jon Barry Justin Barry Lindsey Barry Rachel Barry Susan Barry Fran Bay Jacob Beck Mark D. Beck Mark Benator Linda Bernknopf Stan Bernknopf Ray Boorstin Cecelia Branhut Adam Brener Jason Brener Nancy Brener Samantha Brener Bob Brenner Dara Brenner Jaron Brenner Joan Brenner Larry Brenner Sam Brenner Noah Brooker Orly Brooker Allee Burka Lawrence Burka Simon Chamberlain Betsy Cohen Cliff Cohen Elliot Cohen Jody Cohen Mark Cohen Richard Cohen Robert Cohen** Shelia Cohen Stuart Cohen Jordan Cohn Lyndsie Collins Bonnie Cook Eileen Cooley Milton Crane Rowena Cromer Sandy Dalton Sam Draisen**
Rodney Eberhardt Shea Ellison Stephanie Ezust Carl Feigenbaum* Robert Feldman Sheri Feldman Linda Flinn Jennifer Freire Maurice Freire Samantha Fuchs Lynda Galler Lindsey Geer Stacey Geer Jane Goldner Steve Goldner Rachel Goldschein Sammy Goldschein Shane Goldschein Andrea Goldt Ariel Goldt Jeff Goldt Jeremy Goldt Josh Goldt Benjamin Goodman Jonathon Goodman* Linda Goodman Sophie Goodman Audrey Gordon Michael Gordon Freida Gottsegen Harlan Graiser Ivie Graiser Larry Greenberg Leslie Greenberg Jane Greenberger Jimmy Grinzaid Harriet Grossman* Sara Grutt Judy Harnack Ranon Herman Nathan Holden James Hoover* Bernice Isaac Gary Jackson Isadore Jackson Donna Jaffe Charlotte Janis Matthew Kaler Jeff Kalwerisky** Frances Kaplan Robin Karlin Sid Karlin Andrew Katz
Joseph Katz Julie Katz Steve Kaufman Adam Kaye Amy Kaye Jared Kaye Jenna Kaye Mitchell Kaye Rita Klein Bud Kornman Jerry Kravitz* Lois Kravitz* Ben Krebs Brian Krebs Josh Krebs Tracy Krebs Jack Leff Josh Leff Nicole Leff Aaron Levin David Levin Ilene Levin Lily Levin Alex Lewin Sara Lewin Scott Lewin Stacy Lewin Art Link* Sandy Linver Ephrat Lipton Jason Lipton Shira Lipton Tali Lipton Zena Lovenger Pamela Lowe David Lurie Rosanne Lutz Steve Mahan Eve Mannes Hanna Mansfield Eric Medwed Joshua Medwed Marla Medwed Noah Medwed Klara Menaker Ronnie Merlin Jay Miller Barry Minkoff Alan Moses Ellen Moses Michelle Nathan Ruthie Nathan June Neumark
Tony Nicholls Janice Nodvin Betty Obregon Leslie Okin Brooke Orenstein Emily Orenstein Greg Orenstein Tracey Orenstein Izzy Perling Rhonda Perling Jordan Person Austin Planer Jonathan Planer Michael Planer Mindy Planer Michael Podolsky Sylvia Poretsky Katherine Price Leslie Price Seth Price Richard Quintana Ethan Rabman Maton Rabman Debbie Rodkin Jonathan Rosen Mitchell Rosen Sophia Rosen Carol Rosenhaft Mark Rosenhaft David Rosenthal Milton Rosenthal Sam Roth Julian Sanders Elana Sarlin Sandy Sarlin* Jill Schancupp Joel Schancupp Joyce Schechter** Alex Schulman** Jenna Schulman Marci Schulman Seth Schulman Claire Schwartz Stan Schwartz Cindy Sedran Madolin Seldes Felice Seligmann Marvin Shams Joelle Sharman Lindsay Sharman Roz Shore David Shulman Andy Siegel*
Sue Siegel Brooke Siflinger Herb Simonoff** Margie Simonoff* Rebecca Simonoff David Skid* Isabelle Skid Johanna Skid Alelna Skyer Jared Skyer Lisa Skyer Mitch Skyer Nicole Skyer Stan Sloan Helen Sonsino Byron Spanjer Pamela Spanjer Denise Stein Lisa Sturt Leslie Swichkow Ron Swichkow Montgomery Tavakis Stephen Tavakis Sharon Teper Elisa Torres Cindy Tracy Mitchell Tracy Patrick Tracy Mat Triche Aissa Umaru Frank van der Sommen Jean van der Sommen Leslie Walden Steve Walden Jill Wasilewsky Arthur Waters Linda Waters Karen Weinberg Frances Weiss Pamela Weizel Terri Westerman Douglas Wexler Jeff Willard Alan Wind Joel Wine Roz Winston John Wise Ronald Zell Esther Zells Ami Zigmond Leah Zigmond Yaniv Zigmond
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