Atlanta Jewish Times, Vol. XCII No. 22, June 2, 2017 by Atlanta Jewish Times

ATLANTA RESPONDS TO SIX-DAY WAR, PAGES 16-25 THE HOMEFRONT FIGHTING WORDS ICONIC TRIO

Three paratroopers head for Atlanta 50 years after liberating the Kotel. Page 16

Jewish Atlantans recall the community response in Israel’s time of peril. Page 17

The Center for Israel Education traces how Arab aggression led to war. Page 19

Atlanta VOL. XCII NO. 22

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JUNE 2, 2017 | 8 SIVAN 5777

Breman Museum’s Berger Resigns as Director Breman Jewish Heritage Museum Executive Director Aaron Berger has resigned effective June 20 to become a consultant to nonprofit organizations. His departure represents his sense that the Breman has met the challenges he was hired to address 5½ years ago, Berger said in an interview after the announcement Wednesday, May 24. “The Breman hired me to come and help expand the audience, help build the donor base, help really build some reputation beyond just the Jewish community and really kind of make it more of a destination place,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of great work, so now it feels like it’s time.” After celebrating its 20th anniversary in the fall, the museum is approaching the end of the fiscal year with a substantial surplus, an excellent staff of trained museum professionals, and an outline of programs and exhibitions for the next year, all of which Berger said should make his position attractive for top candidates. But it’s not for him anymore. “I’m really attracted to a challenge, to something that is struggling or having a difficult time, and the museum is not in that position.” Instead, while staying in Atlanta, he will help all kinds of nonprofits with fund raising, board development and

Breman Executive Director Aaron Berger is a fan of Chuck Close’s self-portrait, part of the second half of “Atlanta Collects,” on display through June 11.

management. He also hopes to free up the time to work in the Jewish community in other ways, whether serving on a board or volunteering with an effort such as the Holocaust Survivor Support Fund. “Being able to help some of those causes personally, that’s also really exciting to me,” he said. Exhibits created under Berger include “Return to Rich’s: The Story Behind the Store,” which helped annual museum attendance peak at 34,000; “18 Artifacts,” which highlighted key points in Jewish Atlanta’s history; and “Atlanta Collects,” a two-part presentation of more than 200 years of art from private Jewish collections in Atlanta that was staged to help mark the museum’s 20th anniversary. “The Breman board of directors is grateful to Aaron for his leadership over the last five years,” said Craig Frankel, the chair of the Breman’s board. He said

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Berger forged partnerships that raised the museum’s profile and helped it reach new audiences. Within the museum, housed in the Selig Center in Midtown, capacity crowds have become the standard for programs such as the Bearing Witness series of Holocaust survivor presentations, which have been offered free, and the Molly Blank Jewish Concert Series, which has involved partnerships with the Atlanta Opera, Theatrical Outfit, the Atlanta Jazz Festival and NPR. Outside the museum, the Breman has expanded its Historic Jewish Atlanta Tours series, which guides visitors through such sites as Oakland Cemetery, the Fox Theatre and The Temple. It worked with Tel Aviv’s Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People, on a family history project through Congregation Shearith Israel. It started “Teaching the

INSIDE Calendar �� 4 Candle Lighting �� 4 Israel News ��6 Opinion ��10 Education �� 28 Business �� 30 Obituaries ��37 Crossword ��38 Marketplace ��39

Holocaust to Jewish Families,” a program in which parents and children learn in a way that balances the realities of the Holocaust with stories of Jewish heroes. The Breman overhauled its website (thebreman.org); launched the Historic Jewish Atlanta app, the first of its kind in any U.S. city; and started a museum magazine, At the Breman. But Berger said more personal items mean the most to him. “Getting to know the Holocaust survivors is parallel and I think as important as knowing Elinor Breman and her vision and Bill’s vision for the museum. Those two things, those are the things that really matter to me. That’s the hardest part to leave, honestly.” The Breman board has formed a transition team with a search committee to find the next executive director. One issue awaiting the next director is whether the Breman has outgrown its portion of the Selig Center, which it shares with the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. “The long-term horizon involves a look at our facility,” Berger said. “We’re at capacity for all our programs, there’s no doubt about that.” Berger said the board must decide whether the Breman exists to serve the Jewish community or to represent Jewish arts, culture and history to everyone and whether its focus is reaching out or bringing people into the museum. ■

‘SNL’ SEDER

Paul Shaffer, the cool Canadian who spent all those late nights backing up David Letterman, is touring with a new album and talking about not-ready-for-primetime Passovers. Page 33

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MA TOVU

Resolving Who Did It Recap: Boisterous, energetic 6-year-old Nathan breaks his classroom door while under the supervision of a teacher, Miss Brown. Although Miss Brown tells him to stop banging the door, Nathan continues slamming it. At some point, the wooden door cracks, and the glass window shatters. The principal reminds Mrs. Schwartz that, under school policy, she is liable for the door. Livid, she wonders where school responsibility begins and ends. Why didn’t Miss Brown prevent the damage?

I suggest you approach the school board and request an appeal. Miss Brown should have taken Nathan’s hands off the door. “We are not allowed to slam doors here,” she should have said, crouching to his eye level. “It isn’t safe, and I want everyone in our classroom to be safe.” She then should have redirected

A Peace Offering

him, even praising him for listening as she led him to another activity. Instead, Miss Brown was complicit in and even responsible for Nathan’s infraction. After all, who was the adult? She persisted in admonishing him ineffectively, watching as his final slam caused the door to shatter. Does a lifeguard stay seated while someone flounders, shouting that he has ventured too far out? Or does he plunge into the depths? If speaking to your school board doesn’t work, tell Mr. Klein that you are hiring an attorney. My gut feeling is that he will back down. There is too much information available nowadays to allow unsuccessful educational techniques. Teachers and parents must conform to the highest standards to provide the best foundation for our children, our future. — Alex White

Take Out the Ammo

I was appalled to read your story. Miss Brown shirked her responsibility, and the school is trying to camouflage the incident and compel you to pay for her negligence and mismanagement.

Moderated By Rachel Stein rachels83@gmail.com

Take a Chill Pill

Can’t life ever stay calm? Just for a day or three? Take a deep breath; this is just another curve ball. As an octogenarian, I’ve batted more than a few. We are a stiff-necked people, we Jews, especially when someone tampers with our diamonds, our children. But we want to do the ethical thing. How can we know which path to take when our emotions are in turmoil? Never act in the heat of the moment. Take some time to breathe, discuss the situation and get objective advice — from a friend, an aunt, a sister, a rabbi or your mother-in-law. Wishing you much Yiddishe nachas from your sweet, little Nathan. — Betty Ostreicher Do you have a dilemma? Email rachels83@gmail.com, and maybe our readers can help you.

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I feel for you. My child, too, was not created in the “sit in your seat with your hands folded” mold, and I have been in your place more times than I care to remember. In fact, I can describe every nuance of the décor of our principal’s office. He should get a new paint job and replace that oldfashioned desk, but I digress. That said, I offer you my 2 cents; with inflation, perhaps my opinion is even worth a few dollars. Legally, you are liable. You signed an agreement accepting the policy that parents must reimburse the school for harm inflicted on the property. Unless you are prepared to wage a legal battle, the cost of which will far exceed the $300 value of the door, write a check and be done with the ordeal. If you are worried about a recurrence with adventurous Nathan, perhaps you should omit your signature on that clause at re-registration. Typically, this omission goes unnoticed as schools lack the time or manpower to pore over every page and signature. Additionally, this conflict, if you choose to fan its flames, can cause negative ramifications for Nathan. How unhealthy for him to bear the brunt of this whole episode. Mr. Klein or Miss Brown could come down harder on him for his next infraction. Consider the money a peace offering — we all have unexpected expenses at some time — and move on. — A Parent Who Has Been There

Shared Spirit

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Contributors This Week RABBI RUTH ABUSCH-MAGDER ARLENE APPELROUTH SKYE ESTROFF LOWELL FINE RABBI DAVID GEFFEN YONI GLATT JORDAN GORFINKEL LEAH R. HARRISON MARCIA CALLER JAFFE KEVIN C. MADIGAN ROBBIE MEDWED DAVE SCHECHTER EUGEN SCHOENFELD RACHEL STEIN RICH WALTER PATRICE WORTHY

CREATIVE SERVICES

SUNDAY, JUNE 4

Shavuot hike. Cub Scout Pack 1818 hosts an all-Scout hike preceded by a child-friendly service at 8:15 a.m. at Stone Mountain Park, 1000 Robert E. Lee Blvd., Stone Mountain, at the base of the mountain by Confederate Hall. Park entrance is $15 per carload; RSVP to dyannd@charter.net. Car show. Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, hosts its annual Kosher Kar Show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free admission, with kosher barbecue for sale; www.or-hadash.org or 404-250-3338. Hair donation. Women with at least 12 inches to cut may donate hair and get free styling at Keri Gold Salon, 1258 W. Paces Ferry Road, Buckhead, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the first Great Lengths for Cancer event in Atlanta to benefit Zichron Menachem and Israeli children with cancer. Free; greatlengthsforcancer.org or 404-990-3200. Field day. The Sixth Point offers summer-camp-style fun and games for young adults with its Wet Hot American Field Day at 2 p.m. at the Park at Pernoshal Court, 4575 N. Shallowford Road, Dunwoody. Admission is $5; thesixthpoint.org.

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CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

THROUGH JUNE 11

“Atlanta Collects.” The second part of the exhibit of privately held art, covering contemporary work, is at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Museum admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students and educators, and $4 for children 3 to 6; thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.

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

Open house. The Cohen Home, 10485 Jones Bridge Road, Johns Creek, shows off its $2.5 million with a rededication open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Free; www. cohenhome.org or 770-475-8787.

Naso Friday, June 2, light candles at 8:26 p.m. Saturday, June 3, Shabbat ends at 9:28 p.m. Behaalotecha Friday, June 9, light candles at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 10, Shabbat ends at 9:32 p.m.

Corrections & Clarifications

• There are approximately 1,500 homeless veterans in Georgia and 40,000 in the nation. Those numbers were overstated in a May 19 article about American Bar Association President Linda Klein’s appearance at Jewish War Veterans meeting. Klein provided the correct numbers in her speech. • Despite what the Editor’s Notebook column May 26 said, Wendy Melkonian has not performed “Losing My Religion” with the REMakes.

MONDAY, JUNE 5

Ossoff event. Congregation Bet Haverim, 2074 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, is hosting Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff and his fiancée, Alisha Kramer, a Bet Haverim member, for a no-fundraising question-and-answer session at 7:30 p.m. (noshing starts at 7). Free; RSVP to bit.ly/2rVfoQy.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7

Annual meeting. Federation honors Larry Frank with the Lifetime of Achievement Award and hears from former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro at 7 p.m. at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead. Free; jewishatlanta.org or 404-870-1625.

THURSDAY, JUNE 8

Spiritual recovery. Working with HAMSA and InterfaithFamily/Atlanta, SOJOURN, 1530 DeKalb Ave., Suite A, Atlanta, hosts a discussion at 7 p.m. on spiritual tools to help LGBTQ people and their allies in recovery. Free; www.facebook.com/events/836653689819612.

FRIDAY, JUNE 9

Recovery Shabbat. Rabbi Rami Sha-

piro, author of “Recovery: The Sacred Act,” starts a weekend in residence at Congregation Bet Haverim, 2074 La Vista Road, Toco Hills, with the d’var Torah at 7:30 p.m. services. He also leads a workshop from 3 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, including dinner, and a study session with brunch at 9 a.m. Sunday. Free for Friday, $36 for Saturday, $18 for Sunday or $50 for the weekend; 404-315-6446 or www.congregationbethaverim.org.

SUNDAY, JUNE 11

MACoM annual meeting. The Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah holds its annual meeting at Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs, at 6 p.m., then holds the grand opening of the mikvah’s gallery space with the exhibit “Mayim Rabim: A Great Many Waters” at 7. Free; RSVP by June 2 to blenoble@atlantamikvah. org or 404-549-9679. Eizenstat Family Lecture. CNN political anchor and “The Situation Room” host Wolf Blitzer delivers the annual lecture at 7 p.m. at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead. Free; www.aasynagogue.org or acohen@aasynagogue.org.

Send items for the calendar to submissions@atljewishtimes.com. Find more events at atlantajewishtimes.com/events-calendar.

Remember When

25 Years Ago May 29, 1992 ■ The Atlanta Jewish Federation’s Goldstein Leadership Program recently held its 10th graduation. The annual program takes 30 to 40 community leaders, usually in their 30s, through a hands-on tour of how Federation tries to serve the Atlanta Jewish community and steers them toward a better understanding of their potential roles as volunteers. More than 200 program graduates dot the leadership slots of community agencies. ■ The bat mitzvah of Brie Anise Finegold of Atlanta, daughter of Edith and Joel Finegold, took place May 23 at The Temple. ■ Art and Barb Levy of Columbia, S.C., announce the birth of a son, Andrew Evan, on April 24.

50 Years Ago June 2, 1967 ■ Sen. Herman Talmadge is to address the Benjamin J. Massell Memorial Award Dinner, honoring Isidore Alterman, on June 11 at the Switzerland House. The goal of the dinner is to sell Israel Bonds, which dinner chairman Max Rittenbaum said have played a crucial role in increasing Israeli exports from $70 million in 1951, when the bond program started, to an expected total of more than $1 billion for 1967. ■ Readers of The Southern Israelite are urged to make contributions toward the $500,000 that must be raised from the community to enable the construction of Northside Hospital where the Perimeter Highway, Johnson Ferry Road and the new North Fulton Expressway come together, meeting the needs of 200,000 residents of North Metro Atlanta. ■ Kim Goldsmith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Goldsmith, will become a bat mitzvah at services at Ahavath Achim Synagogue today, Friday, June 2, at 8:15 p.m.

JUNE 2 â&#x2013;ª 2017

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ISRAEL NEWS

When Basketball Gripped the Jewish State With the National Basketball Association Finals beginning Thursday, June 1, let us look at a moment 40 years ago when the sport had a major impact on Israel. While to date only one Israeli, Omri Casspi, has played in the NBA, the sport is wildly popular in the Jewish state, second only to soccer in public interest. Much of basketball’s popularity in Israel is a result of the success that its teams have had in international competitions. Maccabi Tel-Aviv, the standardbearer of professional basketball in Israel, has captured six European League championships and finished as the runner-up nine times in the prestigious competition. Those impressive achievements go along with the team’s 51 Israeli championships, 44 Israeli Cups and six Israeli League Cups since 1954. The watershed moment for Israeli basketball came when Maccabi won its first European championship in April 1977, defeating the two-time defending champion Mobilgri Varese

of Italy, 78-77, in the final. The victory, recently commemorated by a documentary film shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, “On the Map,” had an important impact on a country that had suffered a series of national traumas in the preceding

Photo by Yaacov Sa’ar, Government Press Office

Guest Column

Maccabi Tel-Aviv teammates Tal Brody (left) and Micky Berkowitz hoist the European League championship trophy at a rally in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on April 10, 1977.

By Rich Walter

years, including the 1973 invasion by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur. A scandal in the days leading up to the tournament against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin also stressed the nation. Rabin’s wife, Leah, had maintained an American bank account after her husband’s tenure as ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973. At the time, this was a violation of Israeli law. The scandal led Rabin to resign as prime minister and Labor Party leader just two hours after the team’s victory in the championship game and

less than six weeks before the May 17 parliamentary elections. Perhaps even more significant than winning the championship game was Maccabi’s victory over CSKA Moscow, 91-79, in the semifinal round. That game was played in Belgium because the Soviet Union had severed relations with Israel over the June 1967 war 10 years prior. The Soviets both refused to allow their team to play in Tel Aviv and barred the Israeli team from competing in Moscow. The deteriorating situation of Soviet Jewry added further fuel to the

contest. Maccabi Coach Ralph Klein told his team before the game: “We are fighting for our country as well as for thousands of Jews who cannot immigrate to Israel because of Soviet policy. Let’s beat the Soviet bear.” (Yair Galily and Michael Bar-Eli, “From Tal Brody to European Champions: Early Americanization and the ‘Golden Age’ of Israeli Basketball, 1965-1979,” in Journal of Sport History, Fall 2005, Page 414.) Maccabi Tel-Aviv’s victory in 1977 led to further success for the team and Israeli basketball. The national team, led by several Maccabi players, finished as runner-up in the European Championships in 1979, and Maccabi Tel-Aviv won European League championships in 1981, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2014. Today, there are four levels of professional basketball in Israel. The top tier, Ligat Ha’Al (Super League), is composed of 12 clubs, including Maccabi Tel-Aviv. ■ Rich Walter is the associate director for Israel education at the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org).

Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

No more ice bucket. Scientists at BenGurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva discovered a breakthrough treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects the motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Biotechnology engineer Rachel Lichtenstein slowed the disease by stopping the increased activity of glial cells, which damage and kill the motor neuron cells. The university hopes that the drug can be used to treat a range of other degenerative brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Arterial repairs. Researchers at BenGurion University and Ramat Gan’s Sheba Medical Center have developed a biomedical polymer that reduces plaque in arteries and inflammation in the cardiovascular system. The polymer reverses arterial damage and has no effect on healthy tissue.

Streaming back. The government has restored work permits for 74 West Bank Palestinians who have jobs with SodaStream in the Negev. The 74 had kept their jobs when the company 6 moved its manufacturing plant from

Later accelerator. Facebook Israel and some private investors have established an accelerator and investment program for entrepreneurs who are 45 or older. The program, Future, targets people with a record of success and an idea to develop.

Photo by Shai Halevy, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

Israel Photo of the Week

Roman Battle for Jerusalem

Nahshon Szanton, who is leading the Israel Antiquities Authority’s excavations in Jerusalem’s City of David related to the Roman capture and sacking of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., holds a ballista stone catapulted during the siege. The IAA and the Nature and Parks Authority unveiled ballista balls, arrowheads and other artifacts from the battle as part of Yom Yerushalayim observances Thursday, May 25. A 100-yard-long, 8-yardwide section of paved Roman road between the city gates and the Second Temple has been excavated, with the goal of excavating the entire road within five years.

the West Bank to the Rahat area in the Negev in 2015 but lost their permits early in 2016. Fast food safety. Jerusalem-based Yarok Technology Transfer is one of five winners of the 2017 International Award for Innovative Ideas and Tech-

nology on Agribusiness from the U.N. Organization for Industrial Development’s Italian Investment and Technology Office. More than 330 entries came from 80 countries. Yarok has a microbial testing system for fresh food that provides results on contamination within 45 minutes.

Eye on the future. Proving that it isn’t leaving its Jerusalem home after its purchase for $15.5 billion by Intel, Mobileye unveiled plans for its new campus on Yom Yerushalayim. The vehicle automation company will house 4,000 employees in eight buildings plus a 25-floor tower across 12 acres. Wayne’s world. American hip-hop star Lil Wayne is set to perform in Israel on Aug. 24 at Live Park in Rishon LeZion. Home for lacrosse. Israel, which finished second in the 2016 European lacrosse championships, will host the sport’s quadrennial world championships in July 2018 in Netanya. Israel finished seventh in the 2014 world championships. Compiled courtesy of Israel21c.org, verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com and other sources.

ISRAEL NEWS

Today in Israeli History Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), where you can find more details. June 2, 1990: The third biennial Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival takes place. Among the winners is Adam Davidson’s “The Lunch Date,” which goes on to win the Academy Award for best live-action short film at the 1991 Oscar ceremony. June 3, 1948: David Ben-Gurion, serving as prime minister and defense minister, delivers a report to the provisional Israeli government on the status of the 1948 war with neighboring Arab states, discussions with the United Nations and the domestic needs of a young country at war. He accuses the British of assisting the Arab war effort. June 4, 2009: President Barack Obama addresses the Muslim world from Cairo University with a speech titled “A New Beginning,” focusing on mutual interests and respect between

Muslims and the West. June 5, 1967: The Six-Day War begins. Egypt is on alert, expecting an Israeli attack at dawn, but the Israeli air force does not strike until 8:15 a.m., when most Egyptian pilots are at breakfast and Egyptian commanders are caught in traffic. June 6, 1944: More than 325,000 Allied troops land at Normandy on D-Day and begin their march across France. The landings represent the largest seaborne invasion in history. In 11 months, the Nazis are defeated. June 7, 1930: Magen David Adom, Israel’s answer to the Red Cross, is founded. The idea of such an emergency medical society is revived in response to the 1929 Arab riots against Jewish settlements in Palestine. June 8, 1971: After several days of training and an official dedication by Prime Minister Golda Meir, the first El Al flight, using a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, departs from Lod Airport for London and New York.

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Magen David Adom, the successor to an organization of the same name that operated from 1915 to 1921, has been in operation since 1930.

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ISRAEL NEWS

NIF Honors History-Making Temple Matriarch By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Janice Rothschild Blumberg likes to tell a story about her friend Ilse Yallon, a fervent Zionist whose family made aliyah in the 1930s and whose husband, Shimon, was one of the first Israeli consuls general in Atlanta. In the euphoria after the Six-Day War, Rabbi Jacob and Janice Rothschild led a group from The Temple to visit Israel in January 1968, and the Yallons took them to their favorite restaurant for lunch — in Ramallah, now the seat of government for the Palestinian Authority. Among Ilse Yallon’s boasts about what made Israel great was the lack of Black Panthers in the Jewish state. Six months later, the Rothschilds were driving from Jerusalem to Caesarea and gave a ride to some soldiers whose parents had immigrated to Israel from Arab countries. Sure enough, during the drive, the soldiers declared themselves to be Black Panthers — not violent or militant, but determined to gain the same government protections and services as Ashkenazi Jews.

Calling the event “beyond belief but not beyond words,” Janice Rothschild Blumberg accepts the NIF Atlanta Tzedek Award, given in honor of her “extraordinary commitment to justice, equality and civil rights.”

NIF Atlanta Regional Council head Shai Robkin introduces Sharon Abraham-Weiss, the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

Blumberg told about the Israeli Black Panthers while accepting the first New Israel Fund Atlanta Tzedek Award at The Temple on Thursday night, May 25. She pointed out the parallels between Israel and the United States in how their treatment of minorities often falls short of the countries’ ideals. “Golda’s dream came true to some extent. Israel is becoming a nation like any other nation in many ways, but it will never be a nation like all other nations in all ways. And I wonder how much of this unrealistic Zionist idealism is still there,” Blumberg said.

She said the organizations NIF supports are responsible for the surviving idealism. With NIF’s help, nonprofit groups dedicated to equality and a civil society in Israel are “pushing a huge boulder uphill constantly, and it’s up to us to do what we can to help them keep that boulder going up and not falling back.” Rabbi Peter Berg, who had a conflict and missed the event, had a statement read in which he said he was proud to host the 70 or so attendees at the ceremony in part because Blumberg is his hero and friend and the matriarch of The Temple, where she has been a member all her life. “Janice has been a witness to history and a participant in making notable history. She has been a celebrity and has been with celebrities,” Lois Frank said in her introduction of the honoree. “But it’s her character and her soul by which we most profoundly know her.” Appropriately a few days before Shavuot, when the Book of Ruth is read, Rabbi Berg said that, as Ruth followed Naomi, so people want to go where Blumberg goes and live as she lives, and that includes support for NIF. “The values of NIF course through her blood with all that she is and all that she does.” Rabbi Berg said NIF means the world to him because no organization does more in Israel for civil rights, democracy, pluralism and religious tolerance and almost no other Israeli group is concerned about economic justice. NIF, which has become active in Atlanta the past two years, is controversial because it funds groups, such as Breaking the Silence, that criticize the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces on the international stage. “Janice didn’t ask for agreement, only civility,” Frank said. “ ‘It never bothered me’ — this is a quote from Janice — ‘to have people critical of me. I was in theater and orchestra. I’m used to taking direction and critique.’ ”

Her theater roots give her a different perspective on this period of major anniversaries. While she said she joins in celebrating the 150th birthday of The Temple and 50 years of a reunified Jerusalem, she also is excited about the centennial of Israel’s Habima Theatre. “I celebrate it because I feel that the arts and theater especially serve as the last bastion of free speech, which we are in dire need of today both in Israel and America,” Blumberg said. She’s less enthusiastic about the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War. “I think back on those days 50 years ago with great nostalgia, with great love and with a certain amount of sadness, disappointment, that the euphoria that all of us felt then is no longer there, and there’s just so much of the news that comes out now that makes us wonder if there will ever be a time like that.” Blumberg, who first traveled to Israel in 1963 and has visited many times since, said she got involved with NIF in the mid-1990s because of the organization’s support for civil rights. It was therefore fitting that the guest speaker at the ceremony was Sharon Abraham-Weiss, the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Shai Robkin, who heads NIF’s Atlanta Regional Council, called Israel’s oldest and largest civil rights organization the flagship grantee for NIF. Some of the cases Abraham-Weiss talked about, such as the 1995 lawsuit that forced the IDF to let women serve as combat pilots, have developed into issues about which Israel boasts (such as the meme about Israel having more female military pilots than Saudi Arabia has female drivers). Abraham-Weiss said much of what ACRI does involves identifying an important civil rights issue, then helping shift public opinion to embrace it. She said taking a case to Israel’s Supreme Court is a last resort, although “we’ve gotten there too many times.”■

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ISRAEL NEWS

Buying Bonds Is a Way to Help Israel Now defiantly promises the annihilation of Israel and arms and finances Israel’s enemies. People sometimes say to me in

Guest Column By Lowell Fine

frustration, “What can I do?” There is something I do that you can do right now: Buy an Israel Bond. Invest in Israel and help yourself at the same time. Buying Israel Bonds is my way of supporting Israel. The purchase of bonds is an apolitical way to provide American investment to help the Israeli government build and improve projects such as desalination plants, shipping and port facilities, roads, train and airport facilities, and immigrant absorption. The purchase of bonds has enabled Israel to become the innovation nation and a global leader in medicine, science, technology and other fields.

My specific reasons for buying bonds: • My purchase of Israel Bonds creates a financial connection between me and the state of Israel. • I am not just buying any municipal, federal or corporate bond; I am buying an Israel Bond, which is a bond with the people of Israel. • I get an excellent return on my investment. I am making an investment, not a charitable donation. • I can invest in Israel Bonds for different time periods and different amounts. There is no commission or fee involved. • Israel has always paid the principal and interest on my bonds on time and in full. They have always been a safe, secure investment, and there has never been a default. Over $1 billion of bonds were purchased in the United States last year. It just makes good financial sense to own Israel Bonds. • I am helping Israel because Israel can pay interest on Israel Bonds for less than banks or other financial institutions would charge it for a loan. • Israel Bonds are so easy to purchase. I can click on Israelbonds.com

or just call the Atlanta bonds office at 404-817-3500. • I buy bonds as gifts for family members and bar and bat mitzvah presents. Also, purchasers of Israel Bonds can invest in bonds in their retirement or other individual or corporate accounts and their foundation and donor-advised funds. • Israel Bonds also can be used to contribute to many organizations, such as Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, Magen David Adom and your favorite college. Use Israel Bonds and do a double mitzvah! • I feel very good that my investment is going to help the people of Israel. When I visit Israel, I take great pride in knowing that my dollars are being wisely used. To have peace with security, Israel needs our purchases. Long-term security for Israel will be greatly enhanced if Israel can maintain its economic strength. Don’t delay; buy an Israel Bond today. ■ Atlanta lawyer and mediator Lowell Fine is a member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue.

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

In June 1967, I was a student at the University of Georgia School of Law and closely watched the news about the Six-Day War. I felt great pride at Israel’s quick defeat of so many hostile nations that promised to drive her into the sea. My love affair with Israel and my enhanced pride in being Jewish began at that point, and the following year my wife, Laraine, and I purchased our first Israel Bond. We have continued to do so since then. Since Israel’s Independence Day was recently celebrated, it is a good time to reflect on the rich history of Israel and pray that the future brings further prosperity and peace to the Jewish homeland. This is also the time when we must do all we can to ensure that Israel remains strong and secure. A direct investment in the state of Israel through the purchase of Israel Bonds allows me to do just that. Targeted and existential threats and actions continue against the only democracy in the Middle East. Iran

OPINION

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Our View

Nes Gadol

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Chanukah is the traditional time for “Nes gadol haya sham” (“A great miracle happened there”), but we can’t help thinking of that reference to Jerusalem this week as we mark the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and the revival of Jewish access to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. While many Jewish organizations and individual activists are focusing on the troubling aspects of this anniversary — occupation, refugees, little hope for peace — it’s important to understand the history of what happened in the spring of 1967. You can find the outline on Pages 19 to 22 and details at the website of the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), but no revisionism or regrets can change the clear record. Israel launched a devastating, decisive airstrike the morning of June 5, 1967, not to add territory or to regain access to Judaism’s holiest sites (blocked since 1948), but simply to survive. It’s possible Gamal Abdul Nasser was playing an Arab nationalist bluff when he vowed to draw Israel into a war that would destroy the Jewish state, when he built a military alliance to do the job and when he ordered a U.N. peacekeeping force to withdraw from its buffer zone between Israel and Egypt. But if someone loads a gun and points it at your head, it’s smart to assume he’s willing to pull the trigger. Especially if he kneecaps you at the same time, which is what Nasser tried to do to Israel by closing the Strait of Tiran and blockading Eilat. The nearly flawless execution of Israel’s military strategy was miraculous not only because it ensured Israel’s survival for the foreseeable future, but also because it created the conditions for peace. Israel’s victory broke the dream of pan-Arab nationalism exemplified by the shaky union between Egypt and Syria. A weakened, isolated Egypt was thus in a position for a leader other than Nasser to make peace in exchange for the return of the Sinai. By losing the West Bank, Jordan experienced a demographic shift. It took a civil war and a quartercentury, but that change freed Jordan to make peace. The advance in the Golan Heights gave Israel a defensible northern border, enabling people to live without continual bombardment from Syria. The particular evil of the Assad regime has stood in the way of peace, but the threat from Damascus is minimal. We look forward to the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s annual meeting Wednesday, June 7, when former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro will help mark the anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. Friends of the Israel Defense Forces’ event five nights later with the three paratroopers from the iconic 1967 Western Wall photo should be unforgettable, and we urge all who can to attend. Still, something is missing from the anniversary. It’s understandable that many Jews approach this anniversary with empathy for the Palestinians and fear for the corrosive effects of occupation on Israel and the Jewish people. But we regret that, unlike Jewish Atlanta 50 years ago, we couldn’t come together en masse for just one week, or even one day, to celebrate a miraculous victory and the restoration of a Jerusalem where people 10 of all faiths have access to their holy sites. ■

Cartoon by Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News

Unquestionable Politics The 6th District election is June 20, and just in We’ve had ample time to learn about both case you were wondering, no, the AJT is not going to candidates and to recognize that whoever wins will endorse either Democrat Jon Ossoff or Republican stick to the party line almost all the time in WashKaren Handel. ington. Maybe a debate I don’t think anyone or three will reveal more is waiting to hear what we about them, particularly Editor’s Notebook have to say before voting, the depths to which they By Michael Jacobs although some people will or won’t sink to try to mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com want to see whether the be elected. AJT aligns with their But what can anyone politics or to confirm their else say that’s new? What suspicions about the answer. more does anyone want to know? I’m happy to keep running letters and guest A recent post on the AJT Facebook page asked columns from readers who want to make the case people what they want to know from the candidates. for or against either candidate, although I could do No one posted a question. No one emailed me with without the outrage over the AJT’s desire to be exactquestions or topics. ly what we’ve envisioned for 2½ years: a communal If you have a question you’d like the AJT to pose space for people to debate the issues of the day. to the candidates, email it to me at mjacobs@atljewBut I’m not sure what the writers of those letters ishtimes.com. Otherwise, we’ll just wait together for and columns are trying to accomplish at this point, the results June 20. other than firing up people who agree with them to motivate them to vote in the runoff. I’m not sure Sandy Springs’ Jewish Heritage what fact or opinion could emerge at this point that Heritage Sandy Springs is planning a traveling would push significant numbers of the few undeexhibit on Jewish life and culture in Sandy Springs, cided voters one way or the other. opening this fall. That’s part of the reason we’re not endorsing The heart of the exhibit will be displays of anyone. What can we say that’s persuasive? questions about the community with answers from What can any third party say that’s new? Just organizations and individuals, but the history center look at all the TV ads; you can’t miss them. also is looking for oral histories, photos, documents, They draw ridiculous caricatures of both candimementos and other artifacts related to Jewish life dates. Ossoff isn’t a California liberal, a carpetbagger in Sandy Springs, the home to half a dozen synaor a stooge. Handel isn’t a self-interested, big-spendgogues, almost as many day schools, a couple of ing hater of healthy women. mikvahs and two Jewish newspapers. Any photos or To his credit, Ossoff has a plan to cut waste documents will be scanned and returned. from the federal budget, although it’s a pittance as a If you’re a longtime Sandy Springs resident percentage of overall spending. To her credit, Handel or part of a Jewish organization in the city, contact issued a statement about the importance of the ecoMelissa Swindell, the director of Historic Resources nomic and security ties between the United States at Heritage Sandy Springs, at 404-851-9111, ext. 2, or and Israel after President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East. mswindell@heritagesandysprings.org. ■

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OPINION

Letters To The Editor War Was Not a ‘Setback’

So Ilise Cohen of Jewish Voice for Peace thinks the Six-Day War is a misnomer (“Divine Act or Loss of Soul?” May 19). It is the naqsa, a setback for Palestinians, while 1948 was the naqba, a disaster. In this spirit, World War II should instead be called a setback for Nazis. If you don’t think there is merit in the analogy, consider this: The 1948 and 1967 wars were initiated or instigated by Arab leaders pledging Israel’s destruction. Palestinian leaders endorsed genocide of Jews not only in World War II, but also in 1948 and in 1967. Hamas continues to do so publicly to this day, while Mahmoud Abbas is coyer. His Palestinian Authority named town squares in Jenin and Tulkarem after terrorists, even as President Trump was visiting the Middle East (see Palestinian Media Watch, palwatch.org/ main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=21131). In no other conflict does the group that was attacked and whose legitimacy is denied continually apologize for winning a war of survival. Moreover, it is hypocritical for “progressive Jews” living in the vast expanse of the United States to prate to Israelis that they should return to the situation of being a country 9 to 14 miles wide at their most densely populated center. It might be different if there were Palestinian leaders genuinely prepared to accept coexistence. However, all Palestinian leaders make it clear that a state in the West Bank will not end the conflict. Rather, it will be used as an intermediate step for their primary goal, the destruction of Israel. — Doron Lubinsky, Sandy Springs

how she believes that Israel illegally occupies Judaea and Samaria (more commonly known as the West Bank), while she acknowledged that the Palestinians call the war “the setback,” implying that their ultimate goal is complete Israeli annihilation and that they initiated the war. Something is not a setback unless one tries and fails in the attempt. Dave Schechter’s article mentions that the June 1967 war was not the focus of local celebrations of Yom HaAtzmaut and that no communitywide event was scheduled to mark Yom Yerushalayim. But why would an event for Yom HaAtzmaut, which commemorates the War of Independence of 1948, focus on the Six-Day War? As for Yom Yerushalayim, when I opened a synagogue bulletin, there

were two events, and those were just the ones advertised. The article quotes Rabbis Ilan and Emanuel Feldman, who have held multiple events about their experiences in the Six-Day War, as told in Rabbi Emanuel Feldman’s book “28th of Iyar.” In all, the article is pro-Israel and gives points to both sides, but some of the anti-Israel points are preposterous. I’m sorry if this offends, and I admit I am only an eighth-grader and may not understand all points of view, but thank you for reading this. — Matthew Minsk, Atlanta

Thanks for Another Dream It is hard to believe that 24 years of the Harris Jacobs Dream Run have passed. We know that Harris is smil-

ing down on the 402 men, women and children who ran and walked in his memory Sunday, May 7. My family and I are so grateful to the fantastic HJDR committee members, particularly Larry Gordon, who was responsible for making this an annual event. Kudos always to the marvelous Marcus Jewish Community Center staff, particularly Pam Morton and Kaycee Pearce, who spent many hours working on the event, as well as the many volunteers who once again stepped up to the plate to give of their time. Again, our sincerest thanks for helping keep Harris’ memory alive with such a successful event. Please mark your calendars for May 6, 2018, to help celebrate No. 25! — Kitty Jacobs and family, Atlanta

I am a 14-year-old student at an Atlanta-area Jewish day school, and while reading “Divine Act or Loss of Soul?” I couldn’t believe the quote that the AJT printed by Ilise Cohen. I read it and reread it and couldn’t believe it. Cohen said, “Calling it the war of 1967 or the Six-Day War comes from a particular Jewish narrative.” I can somewhat fathom that “SixDay War” is sort of bragging about the victory, but calling the war “the war of 1967” is simply stating a fact. How could it be called anything more neutral? Calling it “the War From June 5 Through June 10, 1967, Between the State of Israel and the Arab Coalition”? Cohen’s statement continued to be extremely hypocritical, explaining

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Cohen Incomprehensible

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OPINION

The Search for a Secular Jewish Identity

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Jewish identity in the Diaspora was a complex phenomenon until the 19th century. It was a combination of faith, Jewish culture, the non-Jewish culture of the country of residence and historical experiences. Even in my youth in a shtetl, being Jewish was defined as one born to a Jewish mother, a follower of the Jewish religion, an observer of the 613 religious laws. Even in the third century B.C.E., when Judaea was an independent kingdom, many Jews chose to live in other countries, to use languages other than Hebrew or Aramaic, and perhaps to dress like Greeks or Egyptians. Many indulged in different cuisines. But they shared a common denominator with Jews in Judaea that gave them a common identity: the Jewish faith and religious customs. When Jews were driven out of their country and dispersed in many directions, they took along this common denominator. They all used Hebrew, the holy language in which they prayed; believed in the inerrancy of the Torah; observed common holidays and associated rituals; and lived by common religious laws that governed their daily lives while their historical consciousness also formed a substantial part of their identity. Until about four centuries ago, Jews formed a homogeneous group sharing a sense of kinship and believing in the adage “All Israelites are knitted together by friendship.” Jews were never strangers to one another and, when they were visiting, would find that they were welcome. The last advice my father gave me before we were taken to the concentration camps: “If you survive this ordeal and find yourself in a different part of the world and you are lonely, go to the synagogue, and you’ll be at home.” After the Holocaust, I attended services in many European countries, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Once I entered a synagogue or temple, I was on familiar ground and felt a part of that community. The 17th century brought a vast change that continued with the advent of the Napoleonic era and the onset of the Enlightenment (Jewish and Christian). Jews started to vary in their beliefs, in their political stances — in short, in their identity. Jews began to question their older 12 beliefs, often rejecting what some con-

sidered archaic theology, and to commit themselves to secular perspectives, resulting in altered Jewish identities. Various countries began granting citizenship to Jews, leading to their integration into Christian and secular society. By 1829 the gates of the last German ghetto, the one in Frankfurt, were removed, and by 1860 Jews in

One Man’s Opinion By Eugen Schoenfeld

all German territories were granted citizenship and were free to settle in most parts of the country. In France the fate of Jews was affected by the spread of universalist ideals that advocated the moral beliefs — liberty, fraternity and equality — that led to the French Revolution. Napoleon not only spread these ideas to the countries he conquered, but also put these ideas into practice and granted citizenship to the French Jews. (I suppose this is why the gabaim in the Orthodox synagogue in Paris wear Napoleonic hats with tricolor attached.) This did not mean that Jewish identity eroded, but it did change. Some Jews assumed a more modern religious perspective. Others became secular Jews with an emphasis on politics in the countries where they lived. Others joined the Zionist movement. Still others became secular but maintained their ethnic and historical identity. We became a heterogeneous people. This heterogeneity of Jewish identity began around 1860 and was eroding by 1960. Once again, we find an absence of institutional support that would help secular Jewish identity flourish. The rise of liberal Judaism in Europe and America is a response to greater acceptance of Jews in society at large. This new Judaism, independent of its nationalistic roots and from its Eastern European culture, could, as Will Herberg argued, create an American religion to stand as part of a trinity of American religions: Protestant, Catholic and Jew. With this modern Judaism, one could be a Jew and a committed American. In the midst of the 19th century,

an early form of Zionism developed in Poland and Russia (the Pale of Settlement) known as the Biluyim, consisting of Jews who were tired of waiting for the messiah and began developing the idea of the Jewish return to Israel. The Dreyfus affair in 1894 pushed this idea further and led to the first two Zionist Conferences in Basel, Switzerland, at the end of the 19th century and the establishment of an organized movement to develop a Jewish state. This movement assumed a quasireligious form and gave secular Jews a historical foundation to their identity. Zionism has often turned to the Bible and incorporated ancient rituals and thus Jewish identity — for instance, celebrating Shavuot with the ritual of the first fruit, bikurim. Also affecting Jewish identity was the Yiddish cultural movement, a secular celebration of literature, music, theater and food. Writers such as I.L. Peretz, Mendele Mocher Sforim, Yaakov Fichman, Sholem Aleichem and Isaac Bashevis Singer were this movement’s stars, and their work and ideas took root and flourished in the United States. The development of Yiddish secular culture led to the proliferation of Jewish restaurants and theater and had a great impact in developing a secular Jewish cultural identity. Shooting off from the Yiddish movement were various socialist organizations that provided roots for an often atheist Jewish identity. The members of the Jewish Arbeiterverein and the Bund developed Jewish labor unions, the most famous of which was the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, whose members swore allegiance in Yiddish. The union was led by David Dubinsky, whose socialist perspective was derived from the Bible and Marx. He provided Jewish women the means for social association as well as two weeks’ vacation at union-owned resorts, health insurance and other benefits. Those who sought membership in a secular association that advocated Jewish values and morals could find it in the Ethical Society. I remember a Jewish professor at Washington University who was an atheist. When seeking to adopt a child, he was required to declare his religion. He joined the Ethical Society and said it was his religion. All this has disappeared from the American scene. Being a Jew today primarily is associated with membership

in a synagogue. Even Zionism in the form that I knew it — committed to a utopian idealism representative of the spirit of Herzl, Weizmann, Ben-Gurion and Meir — no longer exists. There are hardly any social, nonreligious Jewish institutions that serve the needs of secular Jews. It seems that religion, at least in America, is becoming the core of Jewish identity. The question that we most frequently ask of Jews who move to a new city: What synagogue do you belong to? Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in the United States, recognized American Jews’ search for a Jewish identity without religion and suggested they place the locus of their identity in Israel. He wrote, “Despite detachment (from Israel), Israel remains the best, perhaps the only hope for a durable American Jewish identity that is not exclusively religious.” Unfortunately, the emotional and cultural attachment Jews had to Israel for 2,000 years is crumbling. Putting all religious authority in an Orthodox rabbinate that denies the legitimacy of Conservative and Reform Judaism rejects equal religious rights to most American Jews. Moreover, the moral perspectives that were fundamental to Zionism — liberalism, humanism and rodef shalom, the seeking of peace — have given way to power politics that American Jews do not endorse. We are American Jews whose roots are in historical Israel. Because of that, we will always maintain our dream of the ideal Israel and take pride in its achievement. But we are also Jews committed to and with primary allegiance to America. For that reason we not only abide by the principle of dina d’malchuta dina (the law of the land is the law), but also are attached to its idealism and political interest. In the first century C.E., the Jews of Alexandria, though they lived close to Israel, sought their own identity. Today, we also are bound to develop an identity that is intertwined in American culture and values, which means that we must develop not only the religious identity, but also a secular Jewish identity. I hope that the relatively new academic endeavor of Jewish studies will develop leaders who can find a new passage, a new halacha, whose aim is to maintain many principles that were central to the former Jewish movements in this country. ■

JUNE 2 â&#x2013;ª 2017

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LOCAL NEWS

Harris: ‘We Need the United States to Lead’

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Excerpts from American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris’ speech at the Selig Distinguished Service Award Dinner on Wednesday, May 24. We are not Jewish activists who are masquerading as Democrats or Republicans; we are Jewish activists working on behalf of Jewish activism, which means, in this binary world in which, unfortunately, too many of us are living, AJC stubbornly and steadfastly refuses to succumb to binary thinking. We’re not with you; we’re not against you. We have a set of a core values. We have a mission that is 111 years old, and we will do everything we possibly can to defend those core values and to advance that mission. And we will do so as a strictly nonpartisan, centrist and independent organization. And as far as we’re concerned, I wish more Americans would think like that instead of going into their own political, ideological, informational media bubbles, surrounding themselves with an echo chamber and refusing to come out of it, whatever their views may be. For goodness’ sakes, if public policy were so simple, we would have solved our problems by now. We need

Photo by Paula Gould Photography

AJC CEO David Harris speaks in Atlanta about this key teaching moment in history.

one America talking to each other and not at each other. At the heart of AJC, we have three core values, and they are strictly nonnegotiable. Core value No. 1: We believe in a democratic and pluralistic America. We believe in a democratic and pluralistic world. We believe that all of us are strengthened and enhanced by difference, be embracing one another, learning from one another, advocating for one another. … Secondly, we believe that America cannot, must not, must never retreat from the global stage. For goodness’ sakes, how bad can we be as history students if we fail to understand the consequences of a world in which America steps back? America does not always get it right; we know that. America can-

not be the policeman of the world; we know that. But there is no substitute for the role of the United States in the world in which we live. Not if we want a world that advances democracy, human rights, respect for human dignity, peace. We need the United States to lead. We need the United States not to be AWOL. And let’s not kid ourselves: If we step back, others step in. Dangerous vacuums are created. We saw that happen in the Middle East in recent years. … President Putin saw an opening, and he stepped in. And we are all now paying a price for his attempted leadership in the Middle East. … And don’t for a single minute believe that Iran’s ambitions have been quelled by the Iran nuclear deal of July 2015. Don’t for a minute believe that Iran will suddenly turn into a moderate, peace-loving, contributing nation to world stability and security. … Finally, but certainly not least, AJC’s core principles revolve around the well-being of the state of Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship and the relationship between Israel and other nations around the world and Israel’s rightful place in the community of

nations. And there are few better moments to affirm that principle than right now, on the eve of one of the most dramatic moments in world history. Fifty years ago, on June 5, Egypt, Syria, then joined by Jordan, threatened the very existence of the state of Israel. The record is clear in the weeks leading up to that date. … This is a great teaching moment, and the first thing that we need to teach is that from 1948 to 1967 the West Bank was not in Israel’s hands; it was in the hands of Jordan. Eastern Jerusalem was not in Israel’s hands; it was in the hands of Jordan. A Palestinian state on the West Bank could have been created any day of the week had the Arab world had one wit of interest in doing so. They didn’t. Their interest suddenly emerged only after 1967. Had they been so interested, Gaza was in the hands of Egypt. Egypt never spoke about a Palestinian state there. Instead, they extended military annexation of Gaza and imposed military rule on Gaza. Where was the outcry? Where was the concern for Palestinian statehood when it could have happened any day of the week? Secondly, shortly after the end of the war, Israel quietly passed word to the Arab League, “We’re ready to trade land for peace.” The Arab League’s response came on Sept. 1, 1967, in Khartoum, Sudan, where they were meeting. It came in the form of three no’s: no negotiations, no peace, no recognition. … A third consequence, a very personal one to me. … My wife, her seven brothers and sisters, her parents, and all her ancestors from time immemorial have lived in an Arab country, Libya. In 1967, my wife was 16½ years old when the war broke out in the Middle East. Within a matter of weeks, a raging mob of Libyan Arabs surrounded my wife’s home, and they were prepared to torch it. In the end, my wife’s family was saved by one brave local Arab gentleman, who, by the way, to this day is alive and refuses to be identified for fear that, having saved 10 Jews, he would be killed. … The world continues to perpetrate the notion that there is only one refugee population from the Arab-Israeli conflict. There were two. There were two. But one was instrumentalized; the other was solved. … AJC will continue to travel throughout the Arab world, throughout the entire world, looking for new King Husseins, looking for new Anwar Sadats, looking for new openings and opportunities, because at the end of the day, we seek an Israel at peace, not at war. ■

PETER BRANDI

LOCAL NEWS

Estate Sales

Photos by Marcia Caller Jaffe

Beth and Gregg Paradies welcome the sell-out crowd to AJC Atlanta’s Selig Award Dinner.

Cindy Paradies (left) talks with last year’s Selig Award honorees, Tom and Spring Asher.

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AJC Atlanta Flourishes With Selig Honorees performances from students at the acclaimed Ron Clark Academy. AJC gave out three other awards before the Selig presentation: • The Advocacy Award to Atlanta Initiative Against Anti-Semitism co-

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founders Lauren Menis, Danielle Cohen, Lisa Freedman and Hildee Isaacs. • The President’s Award to Murray Goldman and Ronnie Van Gelder for their outreach to Muslims. • The ACCESS Award to Lindsey Fenton, a co-chair of the group. Paula Gwynn Grant, the director of communication for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, praised the 50 years of cooperation and improved relations between the Jewish and Catholic communities. “The more we learn and understand, we will build a more peaceful world,” she said. “It’s this network of relationships that makes the AJC so powerful.” If ever parents deserved to kvell, the poised Paradies daughters, Dorrie, Katie and Molly, provided a case. They spoke adoringly of the example their parents set for them. “Mom is the glue that holds the family together.” “Dad had us secret-shop his competitors’ stores.” “They taught us by three generations of caring backed by action.” Beth and Gregg were emotional in accepting the award. Gregg referred to his late mother, Judy, whose presence was felt that night. He closed, “Our work is bigger than ourselves, and our daughters’ involvement will be our lasting legacy.” Beth, an original member of ACCESS, supermom and lawyer, was tearfully touched in expressing her gratitude. ■

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JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

More than 600 people packed into Buckhead’s Flourish Atlanta on Wednesday, May 24, to help American Jewish Committee honor Beth and Gregg Paradies. AJC Atlanta’s goal for spring fund raising was $650,000, but the Selig Distinguished Service Award Dinner raised over $1 million, thanks to a wider outreach. Because the Paradies companies include retail stores at airports, the theme was aviation, with table assignments printed as terminal gates. Beth spoke earlier about the couple’s involvement in the founding of AJC’s ACCESS young professionals group when they were newlyweds. “AJC made Atlanta seem like home to me, especially being a young lawyer and from Ohio,” Beth said. “We were nurtured initially, and our entrée in the community and volunteerism led to my involvement on the national AJC board and as chapter president.” Beth and Gregg, who have been affiliated for 28 years, said AJC is all about building relationships. “The dialogue we have with African-Americans, Muslims, Latinos, Catholics, the consular corps, etc., is very impactful,” Beth said. “When things happen, we have a vast network of bridges on which to communicate.” The Selig dinner, sold out for the first time, featured AJC CEO David Harris, whom Steve Selig referred to as “one of the best Jewish organization professionals worldwide.” Selig and daughter Mindy Shoulberg performed a rousing tonguein-cheek banter about how Beth and Gregg are so effective and well rounded. Steve tickled the crowd by listing the various matches with Jewish Atlanta bachelors that failed before Beth and Gregg found each other. The stage was enlivened by synchronized dance and voice

SIX-DAY WAR

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6 Days That Changed The Jewish World

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

During the 1967 Six-Day War, against all odds, Israel fought for her life along borders with Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Not only did the nascent Jewish state survive the onslaught, but it also gained control over Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Sinai Desert, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. I was merely 3 years old at the time, but I remember hearing my parents, both Zionists, talking worriedly and seeing reports on the small black-and-white TV in our living room. Years later, I learned just how significant those six days were. Just after Israel’s miraculous victory, Jews around the world were elated, but few could know the long-term impacts it would have. That triumph transformed not only the landscape of Israel, but also the entire Middle East, and it changed the lives of Jews around the world. Returning to the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall, suddenly stopped being a dream; any Jew today, after landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, can find himself or herself praying at the Kotel within a few hours. The Jewish Diaspora worried less and could sleep more easily knowing that the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces passed the ultimate test, and the state of Israel was here to stay. I first visited Israel in 1985. I remember standing in the Judean Hills, overlooking Jerusalem in all its historical beauty, and thinking that for more than 2,000 years this was the closest Jews could come to touching the Kotel. It was thanks to the IDF’s Paratroopers Brigade and the more than 700 soldiers who gave their lives during those six crucial days that I was able to descend to the Old City and walk through Jaffa Gate and right up to the Kotel to pray. Whether standing there in the Judean Hills or at my home here in Georgia, each time I hear Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” I am reminded of the sacrifices our people have made in the hope of having a free and peaceful Jewish homeland. Though we sing the first stanza of the original nine-stanza poem “Tikvateinu” by Naftali Herz Imber, the following stanzas most resonate with me as we remember those who came before us. They embody the Jewish people’s yearning to visit their 16 holy city, Jerusalem:

As long as tears from our eyes Flow like benevolent rain, And throngs of our countrymen Still pay homage at the graves of our fathers; As long as our precious Wall Appears before our eyes, And over the destruction of our Temple

Guest Column By Seth Baron

An eye still wells up with tears. On June 7, 1967, Israeli photographer David Rubinger, who died just this March, took what is regarded as the iconic photo of the Six-Day War. “Paratroopers at the Western Wall” shows three war-weary IDF paratroopers looking up at the Kotel after having just won the battle for Jerusalem — and perfectly captures the emotions of Jews everywhere. Fifty years later, the IDF’s brave young men and women still put their lives on the line every day to keep Israel safe. My organization, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, supports well-being and educational programs for these soldiers. Their job is to look after Israel; ours is to look after them. This June, FIDF will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War locally by reuniting those three paratroopers, Zion Karasenti, Haim Oshri and Dr. Yizhak Yifat, whom Rubinger’s lens turned into unintentional symbols of Israel’s — and the Jewish people’s — miraculous victory. By bringing these heroes to Atlanta, we can take a fresh look back at that pivotal, historic moment and revitalize our core mission of supporting the men and women of the IDF. We invite you to join us for this wonderful opportunity. To purchase tickets for our communitywide commemoration at The Temple in Midtown at 6 p.m. Monday, June 12, visit www.fidfse.wixsite.com/sixdaywar, or call 678-250-9030. Funds raised at this event will go toward FIDF’s educational programs for IDF soldiers. To learn more, visit fidf.org. ■ Seth Baron is the executive director of FIDF’s Southeast Region.

Atlanta Did Its Share For the Six-Day War Read this headline, and if you are 60 or older, remember that you did it: “Citizens Rally Around Israel and Its Winning Army: Atlanta Raises $1,000,000 at Emergency Meeting.” The Southern Israelite put that in bold above an article by Vida Goldgar (z”l) in its June 9, 1967, issue. The leaders of Atlanta Jewry launched the campaign after a crucial meeting in New York at the national Federation office. Recall who went to the meeting: Dr. Marvin Goldstein, Max Cuba, Max Rittenbaum, Dr. Irving Goldstein and Atlanta Federation head Max Gettinger. When they returned, they called a special meeting Tuesday, June 6, when the Six-Day War was raging. At a second meeting in New York for communities to report, Pincus Saphir, Israel’s finance minister, and Louis Pincus, the head of the Jewish Agency, were present to explain what was happening in Israel. This newspaper reported, “Mr. Pincus agreed to come to Atlanta to tell this story to the Atlanta leadership.” Milton Weinstein and Sidney Feldman were selected to head the special Israel Emergency Campaign and contact those in the community who should meet with Pincus. In their letter, Weinstein and Feldman stressed that “the money for the Israel Emergency Fund is intended to go completely and only to the people of Israel in their hour of crisis.” The Atlanta Jewish community knows that when Atlantans want to do something, they can do it. The regular Federation campaign had just ended with $1 million raised for the first time. Within a few days, this emergency touched Atlanta Jewry so much that another million dollars was raised. Fifty years ago our community in the Gate City was small, but our great leadership rose to the challenge. Atlanta Jews, through The Southern Israelite, knew a lot about what was happening. Adolph Rosenberg, the editor, and Vida Goldgar, the associate editor, had gone to Israel for the annual conference of the American Jewish Press Association. Rosenberg was the president. When the group came home May 31, Rosenberg stayed. The campaign in Atlanta was fascinating because for the first time since 1920 every part of the Jewish

community was involved. I want to quote from letters a few children sent to LBJ, America’s president, and to Levi Eshkol, Israel’s prime minister. Gertrude Krick (z”l), a teacher at the Hebrew Academy, encouraged her third-graders to take their own action. They wrote letters. Dear President Johnson,

Guest Column By Rabbi David Geffen

I hope that you can hold Russia and UAR from attacking Israel. Please do all you can to stop them. Can I do anything to help? I feel that this is very important and I hope that I can help. Please answer my letter. Every man should be equal. Sincerely, David Arnovitz Dear Levi Eshkol, I am terrified about the war. There must be away to stop war. There is always a way to do something. Sincerely, Am Ruth Tillem Dear President Johnson, Will you do everything you can do to stop the threat of war? If they do start a war they may start using atomic bombs. If they did that, everyone in Israel will be blown up. Sincerely, L. Mendel These letters were printed in The Southern Israelite. I am looking for those of you who participated in efforts to assist Israel and for those who went to Israel as volunteers to help. Please send details to the Atlanta Jewish Times. I want to know more about your personal acts for a beleaguered Israel in 1967. Because I was the Jewish chaplain at Fort Sill, Okla., where I was living with my wife, Rita, and our two young kids, Avie and Elissa, I only discovered that there was a war when we heard the chief chaplain blow a shofar. Mazel tov on the 50th Jerusalem Day. How fortunate we are. ■ Rabbi David Geffen, an Atlanta native, lives in Jerusalem.

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A Week of Atlanta Unity The Jewish community rallied during Israel’s time of 1967 need By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com

Dr. ChiChi Berhane Toby Parker, now Hadassah’s Southeastern president, answered the Jewish Agency’s call and left Purdue University to volunteer in Israel for 11 months.

dent read: “The Atlanta Jewish Community Council, representing 49 organizations, virtually all the Jewish groups in greater Atlanta, is greatly concerned with the serious threat to peace in the Middle East. The Arab terrorist attacks on Israel and the girding of Arab nations to attack her is of vital concern to our government, which is interested in peace and democratic ideals. We trust that our government will take all appropriate measures immediately reaffirming our commitment to Israel’s security and territorial rights.” On May 29, several prominent Christians, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, issued a statement calling on “our fellow Americans of all persuasions and groups and on the Administration to support the independence, integrity and freedom of Israel.” Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan of Atlanta was one of a trio of Catholic leaders who jointly issued a similar statement a few days later. The Southern Israelite reported that five Atlantans — Dr. Marvin Goldstein, Max Cuba, Max Rittenbaum, Dr. Irving Goldstein and Mike Gettinger — attended an urgent meeting of the United Jewish Appeal in New York the weekend of June 3 and 4. Israeli Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir and Louis Pincus of the Jewish Agency briefed the gathering on the dangers facing Israel. The war began June 5 with an Israeli airstrike that shattered Egypt’s air force. On June 6, the Atlanta Jewish Wel-

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When the war began on the morning of Monday, June 5, 1967, Shai Robkin was a 15-year-old student at Grady High School, growing up in a household where “Israel was really front and center of our Jewish identity.” Ilan Feldman was 12 and living in Israel with his parents and three siblings. His father, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, was teaching at Bar-Ilan University on leave from Congregation Beth Jacob. Lori Ann Draluck was 12 and looking forward to becoming a bat mitzvah at Congregation Shearith Israel. Four days earlier she had returned from a trip to Israel with grandparents Irving and Elsie Levy, who were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. Toby Parker was a 19-year-old student at Purdue University in Indiana. Her home in Atlanta became a collection point for medicine that would be shipped to Israel. When the Sachnut (the Jewish Agency for Israel) sought volunteers to work in Israel to free soldiers for other duties, she stepped forward. These four Jewish Atlantans — and many others — remember how six days in June 1967 changed Israel, changed what it means to be Jewish in America and, in some cases, changed their lives. Fifty years ago, Atlanta’s Jewish community was smaller, numbering about 16,000, and centered more intown with just six congregations: Beth Jacob, Shearith Israel, The Temple, Ahavath Achim Synagogue, Congregation Or VeShalom and Congregation Anshi S’fard. For months, The Southern Israelite (now the Atlanta Jewish Times) had carried reports of escalating tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors — bellicose rhetoric threatening Israel’s destruction, punctuated by crossborder raids, shelling and occasional armed clashes. The May 26 edition reported that Zionist groups in Atlanta and the Atlanta Jewish Community Council (now the Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta) had sent urgent telegrams to President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and members of Congress. The communication to the presi-

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fare Fund held an invitation-only (by telegrams sent the day before) meeting attended by 200 Jewish community leaders, among them “top contributors to the Atlanta Jewish Welfare Fund.” That session raised $1.132 million for the Israel Emergency Fund being coordinated by the national United Jewish Appeal. After a presentation by Pincus, who had been invited to Atlanta after the meeting in New York, a pledge of $100,000 was made, followed by one of $50,000. Then another $100,000 was pledged, followed by 10 announcements of $25,000 to $57,000. “The pledges came so fast and so spontaneously that Dan Garson, who was keeping a record on the board as announced so people could know the status at any given moment, was unable to keep up at one point because of the large number of announcements that were being made simultaneously,” Southern Israelite Associate Editor Vida Goldgar wrote in the June 16 edition. Similar meetings were held that night in Jewish communities across the country. Milton Weinstein and Sidney Feldman led the Atlanta campaign for the Israel Emergency Fund, which was

Shai Robkin, who heads New Israel Fund’s Atlanta Regional Council, says an event on the fourth night of the war at Ahavath Achim is the first major rally for Israel he remembers attending.

distinct from the annual Jewish Welfare Fund campaign. The latter was suspended when the war broke out but eventually raised more than $1.1 million. The Jewish community at large was invited to a rally at 8 p.m. Thursday, June 8, at Ahavath Achim. The Atlanta Jewish Community Council urged the community to “come and demonstrate your support for the people of Israel in the hour of peril.”

The event raised an additional $200,000 from Jewish and non-Jewish Atlantans, The Southern Israelite reported. Robkin remembers the evening at Ahavath Achim. “It was probably the very first time that I went to any sort of major rally for Israel,” he said. “It was so passionate.” The war that began on a Monday ended on a Saturday, June 10, but Atlanta’s efforts to aid Israel continued. On Monday, June 12, Marvin Goldstein, Nathan Lipson and Milton Weinstein flew to New York for a meeting of the United Jewish Appeal, taking with them a check for $1 million. The Atlanta District of the Zionist Organization of America held an emergency meeting June 12 at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center on Peachtree Street in Midtown. Adolph Rosenberg, the editor and publisher of The Southern Israelite, attended barely 24 hours after returning from Israel, where, after a conference of the American Jewish Press Association, he had reported on the war. He “was given a standing ovation by those present who expressed admiration for his courage in remaining in the field of battle even though the State Depart-

ment had requested all American citizens to return home immediately,” his newspaper reported. A small box at the bottom of The Southern Israelite’s June 16 front page addressed itself to “All Women Of The Atlanta Jewish Community!”: “The Jewish Welfare Fund Women’s Division ISRAEL EMERGENCY FUND (I.E.F.) CAMPAIGN will be phoning you for your contribution on SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 18. The people of Israel depend on us — Be more than generous with your response.” The June 23 edition of The Southern Israelite carried a statement from Weinstein and Feldman that “Atlanta can be justly proud of its outstanding record in contributing to the Israel Emergency Fund.” By mid-July, the Israel Emergency Fund campaign in Atlanta had raised more than $1.56 million (equal to approximately $11 million in 2017) from 1,878 donors, not all of whom were Jewish. That sum included $25,000 from a non-Jewish (unspecified) foundation in Atlanta, $25 from an Atlantan stationed with the Air Force in Spain, and $2.61 from a 5-year-old in Atlanta, ac-

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Israel’s Road to War and Victory This chronology omits the 1948 and 1956 wars and any mention of rising Arab-Israeli tensions from 1947 to May 1967. That context is essential for understanding the passionate dislike that Egypt and other Arab states and populations had for Israel before the June 1967 war, as well as the level of existential fear Israelis felt. Details about the context and about the war can be found in Ken Stein’s “The June 1967 War: How It Changed Jewish, Israeli, and Middle Eastern History,” eBook and print, 2017, israeled.org/june-1967war. May 12: The Soviet Union erroneously reports Israeli troops massing on the Syrian border. Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol promises possible retaliation against cross-border attacks from Syria. May 13: The Syrian Foreign Ministry issues a statement claiming that Israel has aggressive intentions toward Syria. Soviets repeat the same warning

to Egyptians. (On the question of Israeli troop movements, Secretary-General U Thant on May 19 refers to allegations about troop movements and concentrations on the Israeli side of the Syrian border but concludes: “Reports from United Nations Troop Observers have confirmed the absence of troop concentrations and significant troop movements on both sides of the line.”) May 14: Egyptian troops begin moving into the Sinai. An Egyptian general visits Syria to survey the situation with Israel. May 15: The U.N. Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) reports no sign of an Israeli military buildup in the north. The Egyptian general returns to Cairo and reports no sign of a buildup. Egypt puts its military on a state of alert. May 16: The Egyptians request the removal of 3,400 U.N. Emergency Force troops from the Sinai, where they were placed after the 1956 war. U.S. intelligence sources deny any Israeli military buildup. Cairo Radio declares: “The existence of Israel has continued too long. We welcome the Israeli aggres-

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sion. We welcome the battle that we have long awaited. The great hour has come. The battle has come in which we shall destroy Israel.” May 17: Thant says that, if the United Arab Republic demands it, he will have to order the withdrawal of U.N. forces because they are on sovereign Egyptian territory. May 18: Egypt repeats its request for the complete withdrawal of an estimated 3,400 UNEF troops. Thant yields to the request. May 19: The Egyptian High Command issues orders for the occupation of Sharm el-Sheikh, which controls access to the Gulf of Aqaba via the Strait of Tiran. UNEF troops leave Sinai. May 20: UNEF withdraws from Sharm el-Sheikh, which leads to Israel’s southern port of Eilat. Syria Defense Minister Hafez al-Assad says, “Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse any aggression, but to initiate the act ourselves and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland of Palestine.” May 21: UAR forces continue occupying Sharm el-Sheikh. The Supreme

The Jewish Breakfast Club Featured Speaker

DR. KENNETH W. STEIN

Founding Director, Institute for the Study of Modern Israel, Emory University; Founding President, CIE Dr. Kenneth W. Stein is Professor of Contemporary Middle Eastern History and Political Science, as well as the Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel at Emory University and the Founding President of the Center for Israel Education (CIE) in Atlanta . He has taught at Emory since 1977 and in 2006 was a Visiting Professor of Political Science at Brown University. At Emory he has earned university wide recognition for internationalizing the curriculum, mentoring students, and teaching excellence. His scholarship focuses on the origins and development of modern Israel, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and US relations with Israel and the Arab world. Two of his works remain standards in their fields, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (1984) and Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin and the Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace (1999). In 2015, he published an e-book (second edition) History, Politics and Diplomacy of the Arab- Israeli-Conflict, A Source Reader (425 documents/1400 pages.) During the last decade he has led dozens of Israel enrichment workshops and seminars reaching more than 2200 precollegiate Jewish teachers and rabbis, reaching some 360,000 students in North and South America. He completed advanced graduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned his graduate degrees at the University of Michigan.

Executive Council in Cairo agrees that the Strait of Tiran should be closed to Israeli shipping. Cairo announces the mobilization of reserves, adding more than 100,000 men to Egypt’s armed forces, estimated at 200,000. May 22: Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser says: “The Israeli flag shall not go through the Gulf of Aqaba. Our sovereignty over the entrance to the gulf cannot be disputed. If Israel wishes to threaten war, we tell her, ‘You are welcome.’ ” Eshkol calls for a mutual reduction of troops and tells Arab neighbors that Israel has no aggressive intentions. May 23: Radio Cairo announces early in the morning that the Strait of Tiran has been closed to Israeli ships and other ships carrying strategic cargo to Israel. Eshkol announces that the closing of the Gulf of Aqaba constitutes an act of aggression against Israel. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson asserts that the United States is firmly committed to the territorial integrity of all nations in the area and considers the Strait of Tiran an international waterway.

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He calls the blockade “illegal.” Nasser says, “We knew that closing the Gulf of Aqaba meant war with Israel. … If war comes, it will be total, and the objective will be Israel’s destruction.” May 24: New York Times correspondent James Reston writes, “In discipline, training, morale, equipment and general competence his (Nasser’s) army and the other Arab forces, without the direct assistance of the Soviet Union, are no match for the Israelis.” All UAR reserve forces are called up. Algeria and Tunisia announce support for any Egyptian action against Israel. May 25: Egyptian, Russian, American, Israeli and U.N. officials take stock of the extraordinarily high military tension between Israel and Egypt. Several confer with respective allies on next steps. Lots of diplomatic talk and reassurances are given, but no effort is made to defuse the building confrontation between Israel and Egypt. Nasser at Egyptian air force headquarters says: “Our forces are now in Sinai, and we are fully mobilized both in Gaza and Sinai. The armed forces yesterday occupied Sharm el-Sheikh. What does this mean? It is affirmation of our rights and our sovereignty over the Gulf of Aqaba, which constitutes Egyptian territorial waters. Under no circumstances will we allow the Israeli flag to pass through the Gulf of Aqaba. The Jews threaten war. We tell them you are welcome; we are ready for war. Our armed forces and all our people are ready for war, but under no circumstances will we abandon any of our rights. This water is ours.” May 26: Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban confers with Johnson in an effort to find out the extent of U.S. support of Israel for reopening the Strait of Tiran by force. Eban met with French President Charles de Gaulle and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson before flying to the United States. Johnson reaffirms support for Israel but refuses to say the United States will do whatever is necessary to reopen the strait. Nasser declares: “The problem today is not just Israel, but also those behind it. If Israel embarks on an aggression against Syria or Egypt, the battle against Israel will be a general one and not confined to one spot on the Syrian or Egyptian borders. … Our basic objective will be to destroy Israel.” May 27: Soviet ambassadors in Cairo and Tel Aviv deliver a plea for restraint to Nasser and Eshkol in the early hours of the morning. The Israeli Cabinet meets and is evenly divided on whether to go to war. May 28: Eshkol says the Cabinet 20 has decided on “the continuation of

www.atlantajewishtimes.com political action in the world arena” so that “international factors could take effective measures to ensure free passage in the strait.” Israel maintains that the closure of the strait to Israeli shipping is equivalent to an act of aggression against Israel. Nasser says the Arabs “will not accept any … coexistence with Israel. … Today the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel. … The war with Israel is in effect since 1948.” May 29: Nasser tells the Egyptian

Syrian treaty, binds the parties to use all means at their disposal to repel an attack on either one. Jordan lets Iraqi troops enter its territory as part of forming a joint Arab command. At the signing ceremony, Nasser says, “The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel … to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. … We have reached the stage of serious action and not of more declarations.”

Photo by David Rubinger, Israeli Government Press Office

In the most famous photo of the Six-Day War, Israeli paratroopers (from left) Zion Karasenti, Yitzhak Yifat and Haim Oshri stand in front of the Western Wall shortly after its liberation June 7, 1967.

National Assembly that Defense Minister Shams Badran has brought a message of support from Premier Alexei Kosygin in Moscow “that the Soviet Union stands with us in this battle and will not allow any country to interfere.” Algeria says it will send troops to join Arab forces, the Defense Ministry announces. … Nasser declares that a negotiated peace is “out of the question” until the Palestinian Arabs “return to their homelands.” May 30: King Hussein of Jordan flies to Cairo and signs a mutual defense agreement in which their forces will coordinate with each other. The agreement, modeled on the Egyptian

Eban says the Israeli government will open the Strait of Tiran “alone if we must, with others if we can.” He adds, “Less than two weeks ago a change took place in the security balance in this region. The two most spectacular signs of this change were the illegal attempt to blockade the international passageway at the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba and the abnormal buildup of Egyptian troops on the Israeli frontier. The government and people of Israel intend to ensure that these two changes are rescinded, and in the shortest possible time.” May 31: Iraq sends troops to Egypt and Jordan. Yemen, Kuwait, Morocco

and Algeria promise the same. Iraqi President Abdul Rahman Aref says, “The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear: to wipe Israel off the map.” Several members of the British Parliament lament the drift toward war and the removal of U.N. forces, “taking the fire brigade away just when fire was about to burst out,” Foreign Secretary George Brown says. Sir Alec DouglasHome says the United Nations is the first casualty and “would need an immense effort, an almost superhuman effort, to restore the prestige of that organization.” June 1: Nasser receives former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson and agrees to send his second vice president, Zakariya Muhieddin, to Washington to discuss ways to defuse the situation. Facing criticism of his “procrastination,” Eshkol broadens his coalition and names Moshe Dayan, still a war hero from the 1956 war, defense minister. Herut leader Menachem Begin and others are brought into a national unity government and given Cabinet rank without portfolios. PLO Chairman Ahmed Shukairy, reconciled with Hussein, says in Amman that he expects war, that Jordan might start it and that the Arabs will win. “The Jews in Palestine will have to leave,” he says. “Any of the old Palestinian Jewish population who survive may stay, but it is my impression that none of them will survive.” June 2: Nasser warns his senior officers that the Israelis will strike in a few days. His warning goes largely unheeded. The UAR newspaper Al-Ahram reports that the Suez Canal will be closed to all ships that try to break the blockade of Aqaba, and Egypt will view such attempts as “acts of aggression.” … The French government announces that it “is not committed in any way and on any subject” or on the side of “any of the states involved.” De Gaulle says his country’s policy toward the budding conflict is “positive neutrality.” In Tel Aviv, 12,000 volunteers, including schoolchildren, join in digging trenches and filling sandbags. June 3: Eshkol’s Cabinet, after hearing Mossad head Meir Amit’s report from Washington, decides to recommend war to the full government the next day. Libyan King Idris orders army units to take up positions with Egyptian forces near Israel. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gideon Rafael, presents a detailed outline of events leading to the war. Egypt has 210,000 troops ready for deployment,

SIX-DAY WAR minister, the defense minister, the chief of staff and the head of military intelligence, the government ascertained that the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan are deployed for immediate multifront aggression, threatening the very existence of the state. The government resolves to take military action in order to liberate Israel from the stranglehold of aggression which is progressively being tightened around Israel. The government authorities — the prime minister and the defense minister — will confirm to the General Staff of the IDF the time for action. Members of the Cabinet will receive as soon as possible the information concerning the military operation to be carried out. The government charges the foreign minister with the task of exhausting all possibilities of political action in order to explain Israel’s stand and to obtain the support of the powers.” Monday, June 5: Israelis pre-emptively strike 11 Egyptian airfields at 7:45 a.m., destroying the vast majority of Egyptian military aircraft (279) in four hours. (Israel destroys a total of 389 Arab planes and loses 19 in the first 48 hours of the war.) Syria replies with the immediate bombing of Israeli settlements on the northern border. Israel’s entry into the West Bank is not a premeditated Israeli plan for territorial expansion. Instead, at 10:40 a.m., Dayan says in a message to the troops: “We have no aims of conquest. Our only aim is to frustrate the attempt of the Arab armies to conquer our country and to sever and crush the ring of blockade and aggression which has been created around us.” An hour later Eshkol broadcasts to the nation: “We shall not attack any state so long as it does not wage war against us. But anyone attacking us will meet with our full power of self-defense and our capacity to defeat his forces.” Israel gives assurances to Jordan that morning that there will be no attack if Jordan does not open hostilities. Nevertheless, Jordanian forces open fire on Jewish Jerusalem at 11:45 a.m. and expel the U.N. observers from their headquarters in the city, while towns and villages all along the armistice lines are shelled by Jordanian artillery and bombarded by Syrian and Iraqi planes. Fighting rages from Syria to the Sinai and along the Jordanian border. Cairo Radio reports that places in the UAR have been bombed. The Egyptian government says Arab land forces have repulsed invading Israeli armor on the Gaza Strip and in the Sinai. Israel claims major victories in the Sinai and Gaza, saying troops have taken al-’Arish and Khan Yunis. The Israeli

government also reports that planes have decimated the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian air forces. A two-day meeting of the oil ministers of all Arab oil-producing states ends in Baghdad after agreeing to three resolutions: that oil supplies will be suspended to any state that “agrees or supports an aggression” against any Arab state; that any such aggression would mean that properties of that country’s companies and nationals would be subject to war resolutions; and that all Arab states should hold an emergency meeting to implement the war regulations. The Egyptian armed forces supreme command charges that American and British planes provide fighter cover over Israel during raids by Israeli aircraft. The Johnson administration has done little to fend off war, and the president wants to be careful what the administration says now that war has broken out. But when asked by a reporter if the administration intends to reaffirm its neutrality, State Department spokesman Robert McCloskey says, “Indeed I would; I would be happy to. We have tried to steer an even-handed course through this. Our position is neutral in thought, word and deed.” Joseph Califano, a special assistant to the president, frets that the remarks are “killing us with the Jews in this country.” Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) ridicules the remarks, saying: “What’s neutral? I call it ‘snootral’ — when you stick up your snoot at both sides.” Tuesday, June 6: Israeli troops sweep around the Jordanian sector of Jerusalem and reach Mount Scopus. Eshkol appeals to the Soviet Union to help secure peace “based on the independence and territorial integrity of all nations.” In the south, Israeli forces clear Abu Aweigila, advance deep into the Sinai and occupy Gaza. Israel takes further Jordanian strongpoints in and around Jerusalem and captures Ramallah, Jenin, Tulkarm and Kalkilya on the West Bank. The Soviet Union demands that Israel “immediately and unconditionally” halt military operations and asks that the United Nations condemn the Israeli aggression. Egypt charges that U.S.-British air cover has been provided to Israel, explaining why Israel has flown so many more sorties than seems possible based of the number of Israeli aircraft. Rather than take an hour to turn a plane around and refurbish it with armaments and fuel, Israel accomplishes the task in 20 minutes, giving the appearance that its air force is triple its size. Egypt severs diplomatic relations with

the United States, not to be resumed until after the October 1973 war. Wednesday, June 7: Israel claims victory and full occupation of the Sinai Desert. Israeli troops are reported at Sharm el-Sheikh and Isma’iliyyah. Troops also report capturing Jericho and Nablus. Israel declares that the Strait of Tiran is an international waterway. Israelis pray at the Western Wall for the first time since 1948. When Dayan visits the Old City of Jerusalem, he says, “We have unified Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned to the holiest of our holy places, never to depart from it again.” Eshkol meets with the heads of all religious communities and assures them that no harm will befall the holy places. The chief rabbis will be in control of the Western Wall and the heads of the Muslim and Christian communities of their holy places. Johnson promises U.S. efforts to transform the Middle East with a lasting Arab-Israeli settlement and announces a special task force led by McGeorge Bundy to draft a peace plan. Thursday, June 8: Israel claims complete control of all approaches from Sinai to the Suez Canal and says its forces are carrying out “the total destruction of the Egyptian forces in the Sinai.” Egypt accepts a cease-fire in Sinai. Damascus Radio says Syria will continue to fight until the flag of the Palestinian Arabs “flies in the skies of Tel Aviv.” Israeli torpedo boats and planes attack and sink a U.S. communications ship, the USS Liberty, off the Sinai coast. Israel apologizes for the blunder, which kills dozens of U.S. sailors and wounds more than 75 others. A cease-fire is declared on the Jordan-Israel front. Israeli forces are transferred from the central front to the north, where aircraft, artillery, armor and infantry break through the Syrian positions on the Golan Heights, from which Israeli villages in the valley below have repeatedly been harassed and shelled. For a preliminary CIA assessment of the Israeli attack on the Liberty, see history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/ frus1964-68v19/d284. Friday, June 9: U.N. The Security Council adopts a resolution that says Israel and Syria have accepted the demand for a cease-fire and demands that “hostilities should cease forthwith.” Israeli forces penetrate six to eight miles into Syria. A cease-fire is declared on the Egyptian-Israeli front. Nasser announces the Arab defeat on television, blames it on Israel’s foreign allies and says he intends to resign.

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

100,000 of them with 930 tanks in the Sinai. The CIA assessment is summarized with two formidable conclusions, “the rapidly growing belief in Israel that time is running out and that if Israel is not to suffer an ultimately fatal defeat, it must very soon either strike or obtain absolutely iron-clad security assurances from the West. The second aspect is the rise of a euphoric, bandwagon spirit among the Arab states, leading even moderate Arabs to believe that the time may in fact have come when the Arabs can close in on Israel with some hope of success. The Arabs are sniffing blood.” Johnson presents two U.S. principles: “The first is that we support the territorial integrity and political independence of all of the countries of the Middle East. This principle has now been affirmed by four American presidents. The second is our defense of the basic interest of the entire world community in the freedom of the seas. As a leading maritime nation, we have a vital interest in upholding freedom of the seas, and the right of passage through a strait of an international character. … I must emphasize the necessity for Israel not to make itself responsible for the initiation of hostilities. Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go alone. We cannot imagine that it will make this decision.” Secretary of State Dean Rusk, in writing to Arab ambassadors, warns, “The ‘Holy War’ psychology of the Arab world is matched by an apocalyptic psychology within Israel. Israel may make a decision that it must resort to force to protect its vital interests. In dealing with the issues involved, therefore, we must keep in mind the necessity for finding a solution with which Israel can be restrained.” June 4: The Israeli Cabinet votes to go to war in response to the concentration of Arab forces on Israel’s borders, perhaps a bigger threat than the blockade on the Gulf of Aqaba. It is announced that Egypt’s Muhieddin will visit Washington and U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey will visit Cairo to defuse the crisis. Iraq joins the Egyptian-Jordanian defense pact. Algeria, Libya and Sudan report that they are preparing to send forces to Egypt; Kuwaiti troops are already in Egypt. A conference of 11 Arab oil-exporting countries opens in Damascus at Iraq’s initiative to consider prohibiting the sale of oil to countries that support Israel. The Israeli Cabinet passes a secret resolution: “After hearing a report on the military and political situation from the prime minister, the foreign

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SIX-DAY WAR “Accurate calculations were made of the enemy’s strength and showed us that our armed forces, at the level of equipment and training which they had reached, were capable of repelling the enemy and deterring him,” Nasser says. “We realized that the possibility of an armed clash existed and accepted the risk. … In the morning of last Monday, 5 June, the enemy struck. If we say now it was a stronger blow than we had expected, we must say at the same time, and with complete certainty, that it was bigger than the potential at its disposal. It became very clear from the first moment that there were other powers behind the enemy.” He says the United States and Britain were settling their accounts with the Arab national movement by helping the Jews, just as Britain had in 1956. Nasser later retracts his resignation. Saturday, June 10: The Israeli government offers to pay compensation for the deaths and damage in the attack on the USS Liberty. The Soviet Union breaks off diplomatic relations with Israel, as do Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. With the Soviet Union fearing a massive Egyptian loss, the risk of “a grave catastrophe” is compounded for the Soviets by Israel’s

www.atlantajewishtimes.com continued gains in the Golan Heights while fighting the Syrians. So vexed is Kosygin that he uses the hotline between Moscow and Washington to tell Johnson: “A very crucial moment has now arrived which forces us, if military actions are not stopped in the next few hours, to adopt an independence decision. We are ready to do this. However, these actions may bring us into a clash, which will lead to a grave catastrophe. Obviously, in the world there are powers to whom this would be advantageous. We propose that you demand from Israel that it unconditionally cease military action in the next few hours. On our part, we will do the same. We propose to warn Israel that, if this is not fulfilled, necessary actions will be taken, including military.” Johnson tells Kosygin that the United States will press Israel for a cease-fire, and he orders the 6th Fleet, then 300 miles off the Syrian coast, to head east to within 50 miles of the coast. Johnson, in his memoir, notes that the effect of the U.S. move was to temper future Soviet actions. Israel declares victory over Syria and says it will not return to the 1949 armistice lines. Soviet U.N. representative Nikolai Federenko launches a vigorous effort to have Israel return to the

pre-June lines. The Syrians agree to a cease-fire but continue to shell Israeli villages, so Israeli forces attack and occupy the whole of the Golan Heights as far as Kuneitra, less than 40 miles from Damascus. The cease-fire goes into force on the northern sector at 4:30 p.m. GMT, bringing the war to an end. Sunday, June 11: Cairo Radio announces that “the UAR will not rest until Israel evacuates the land she now occupies.” A cease-fire is declared on the Syrian-Israeli front. Nasser replaces 11 top army commanders. The New York Times’ Reston writes, “The Israelis are now very popular in Washington. They had the courage of our convictions and they won the war we opposed.” Another Times writer, C.L. Sulzberger, writes, “The United States can claim no credit for Israel’s swift victory but the fact of that victory was strategic benefit to us, although our role was confined to waffling. Despite ourselves, American prestige has risen.” The State Department makes it clear to the Israeli government that West Bank residents should not flee their homes and that Israel should do all it can to stem any flow to the East Bank. Israel tells U.S. Ambassador Wally Barbour that it has no intention to urge such flight.

Sources: Michael Brecher, “Decisions in Crisis Israel and 1973,” University of California Press, 1980, pp. 91-170; 253-288; the Shiloah Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, Middle East Record 1967, Israel Universities Press, Keter Publishing House Jerusalem, 1971; Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, “ArabIsraeli War- 1964-1968, Arab-Israeli Crisis and War, 1967-Pre and Post War Diplomacy,” Volume XIX, history.state.gov/ historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19; Michael B. Oren, “Six Days of War June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East,” Ballantine Books, 2003; Robert David Johnson, “Lyndon Johnson and Israel: The Secret Presidential Recordings,” the S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies at Tel Aviv University, July 2008, www.tau.ac.il/humanities/ abraham/publications/johnson_israel. pdf; The Middle East Journal chronology sections in Volume 21, Nos. 3 and 4 and Winter 1968, Volume 22, Nos. 1 and 2, Spring 1969; Nadav Safran, “From War to War: The Arab-Israel Confrontation 1948-1967,” New York, Pegasus, 1969; Nadav Safran, “Israel the Embattled Ally,” Cambridge, 1978, pp. 382-475; Near East Report, Volume 11, Nos. 11 and 12; “Timeline,” Center for Israel Education, israeled. org/resources/timeline.

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SIX-DAY WAR shoulders and in full battle dress they davened Shacharis and said the Shma. And again we wept,” the rabbi wrote. The diary that Rabbi Feldman kept during that period was published as a book, “The 28th of Iyar.” (The 28th day of the Jewish month of Iyar was June 7, 1967, the day Israeli paratroopers liberated the Western Wall, the Kotel ha’Maaravi.) Fifty years later, in April, the Rabbis Feldman, Emanuel and Ilan, spoke at Beth Jacob about that experience and their belief that the events of 1967 were divine miracles. “We who were living there saw in our own eyes the hand of G-d,” Rabbi Emanuel Feldman said. He recalled seeing his students at Bar-Ilan University, “my boys,” mobiliz-

ing and going off to war. He said he sat in his car and prayed for their safety. “We didn’t know why we stayed. When the bombs were falling, we thought we were crazy,” Estelle Friedman told the Beth Jacob audience. “We didn’t want to abandon Israel.” “We just didn’t feel right in abandoning the holy place in its time of need,” her husband added. Rabbi Ilan Feldman recalled “moments frozen in time.” The children at his school in Bnei Brak had practiced moving to the bomb shelters; when the war started, they went. He remembered the ground shaking from tank battles just 25 miles away and being excited, not scared. When the war ended, he recalled, Bnei Brak closed for a day of prayers,

“an entire city davening.” A couple of weeks after the war, his class took a field trip to Jerusalem. When they reached a point some 70 yards from the Western Wall, their rebbe, an older man, “ran like a child to the Kotel.” In that moment, Rabbi Ilan Feldman said, “I learned what it is to love.” Some 6,400 miles away, in Atlanta, Robkin lived with his parents, Max and Ozna. “I was really known among my friends as the super Jew type. As Jon Stewart would have put it, I was the Jewiest of all of them,” said Robkin, whose family attended Ahavath Achim. “This was a very tight-knit Jewish com-

Continued on the next page

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

companied by a printed note reading, “This is all the money I have.” The newspaper reported that a record $570,000 in Israel Bonds had been sold during that organization’s recent fundraising campaign. The June 23 edition also carried a letter written before the war by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman to Beth Jacob President Larry Nager and his wife, Frances. Rabbi Feldman, his wife, Estelle, and their four children (including 12-year-old Ilan, who in 1991 succeeded his father on the Beth Jacob pulpit) took up residence in Bnei Brak (an ultra-Orthodox city east of Tel Aviv) in September 1966. As the tensions rose and most visitors, including Americans, exited the country, the parents decided that the Feldman family would remain. “If this were France or England, we would leave with the rest of them, of course. But this is Israel, and to leave during an hour of crisis somehow does not appeal to us,” Rabbi Feldman wrote in his May 26 letter. As he wrote, his children — Amram (z”l), Yonatan, Ilan and Chava — “are downstairs helping fill up sandbags and cleaning out the air raid shelter, which is standard equipment around here. They think this is some kind of Western movie, with Arabs instead of Indians. That this is deadly serious I am happy they do not realize. Their morale is high, as is the morale of the rest of the populace, and there is every confidence that if things come to an armed confrontation that Israel can take of itself. We have, after all, a secret weapon, and He will surely not allow this last place of refuge to go under.” In its June 30 edition, The Southern Israelite published another letter from Rabbi Feldman, this one written during the war. “We are all fine, thank G-d, and came through the bombardment and shelling without a scratch. It was, to say the least, an exciting time in our lives, and we are glad to have stayed on to see it through.” He reported hearing the Shehechyanu prayer recited and blasts of the shofar over Israel Radio “over and over again. And the soldiers at the Wall fell into one another’s arms and wept. And we wept. And all Israel wept.” Rabbi Feldman was able to visit the Western Wall just 24 hours after it was in Israeli hands, taking advantage of a Southern Israelite press card given him by Rosenberg. “Soldiers, grimy and hot from battle, were running up to it, prostrating themselves at its foot, and weeping. They put on Tallis and Tefillin, most of them, and with their guns on their

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SIX-DAY WAR

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, who has reissued his book about being in Israel during the Six-Day War, used a Southern Israelite press card to visit the Kotel within 24 hours of its capture.

Estelle Feldman, shown with son Rabbi Ilan Feldman at Congregation Beth Jacob’s annual dinner May 14, says that “when the bombs were falling, we thought we were crazy” for staying in June 1967. “We didn’t want to abandon Israel.”

munity. As a teenager, I probably knew every Jewish teenager in Atlanta.” Max Robkin was a life insurance agent for Mutual of New York and an official of the Atlanta branch of the Zionist Organization of America. Max remembered his own father visiting Leo Frank in prison after his conviction in the killing of a 13-year-old girl at the downtown Atlanta pencil factory he managed. (Frank later was kidnapped from a state prison and lynched in a wooded area of Marietta.) Following the news was an obsession in the Robkin household. “Every opportunity they had. … They always were listening to the radio,” Shai Robkin said of his parents. “As things were starting to build up, it seemed quite apparent that something was going to happen. Something was about to happen. I could feel it in my own household.” He added: “For my parents, it was like the world coming to an end. When everyone learned that Israel destroyed the Egyptian air force, it had gone from grave concern to this incredible feeling of pride and achievement, almost a feeling that a miracle had really happened.” Robkin and his wife, Judy, made aliyah in 1976, and he served in the Israel Defense Forces. They were coowners of Israel’s first bookstore/coffee shop, Sefer ve Sefel, which they sold when they returned to Atlanta in 1984. Robkin today chairs the Atlanta Regional Council for the New Israel Fund and is an active supporter of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, located at Kibbutz Ketura in the Negev. Lori Ann Draluck was allowed to miss her last month of seventh grade at Kittredge Elementary School when she traveled to Israel with her grand-

parents. They arrived in Israel on May 12 and made the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv their base while taking tours around the country. As reports of possible war reached Atlanta, Lori Ann’s parents called and told her grandparents that they should leave. They stayed, she said, “until we were the last people left in the hotel, other than all the reporters.” They arrived home June 1, four days before the war began. Irving Levy wrote in The Southern Israelite, “In accordance with the old truism, it is probably easier today, spiritually and psychologically, to be an alerted soldier on the Sinai Border, than a confused and worrying civilian in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv; and probably also easier to be a Jewish civilian in Israel than one, say, in New York or Atlanta.” Fifty years later, the now-Lori Ann Struletz remembers attending a meeting of Der Arbeter Ring (The Workmen’s Circle), a Yiddish organization that her grandfather and great-grandfather belonged to, where she and her grandparents gave a talk about their trip. She had plenty of stories to tell when she began eighth grade that fall at Lakeside High School. “I milked it for everything it was worth. There were so many stories to tell. It literally got me through high school,” including a paper for a Spanish class on the differences between American and Israeli teenagers. “I have been three times since then, and it is just amazing to me what a country can become,” Struletz said. Toby Parker answered the call for volunteers issued by the Jewish Agency, leaving shortly after the war and remaining in Israel for 11 months. “I grew up in a Zionist household. I am third-generation Hadassah —

SIX-DAY WAR Hadassah’s Southeastern Region. “My mother and grandmother had raised money for Mount Scopus, so I was very excited to be there. We were assigned to the nurses’ quarters, and my job was to scrape radiators.” Fifty years later, Elliott Levitas remembers the emotion of those days in June 1967, when he was a 36-year-old member of the Georgia House of Representatives. “My recollection of that time is that in the Jewish community there was a combined feeing of relief, pride and optimism similar to and second only to the euphoria at the 1948 declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel itself,” he said. “Heads were held higher. There was a feeling that a corner had been turned and the future security of Israel was assured even if it required the force of arms against hostile neighbors and others bent on the destruction of Israel. Israel could defend itself and prevail. Previous doubts were quelled. There was an upsurge of feelings of closeness to and identification with the people of Israel.” Charles Kass Cohen, who grew up at Ahavath Achim, was 13. “If I was aware of the community’s mood, I don’t remember,” Cohen said. “However, speaking for myself and my family, we were so proud. To be the fellow Jews of those who were defeating and humiliating these mighty Arab armies filled us with great pride. I have a memory — and 50 years later I can’t swear this is a fact — of a family member telling me that non-Jews in my mother’s small Georgia hometown were praising the Israelis when speaking with my uncle who ran the family business there.” ■

Jewish Atlanta needed only one meeting to raise as much for Israel as it had raised all year in its Federation campaign.

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

five generations now if you count my daughter and granddaughter,” she said. “My mother, Laurel Weiner, got the Sachnut notice calling for volunteers. I said I wanted to go, and both my parents encouraged me to go. I was very excited. It was like a great adventure. I wasn’t afraid at all. I was eager to go,” Parker said. She left for orientation in New York the week after the war ended. “We were told how hard the work would be, and none of us volunteers believed them. Our job would be to take over the soldiers’ jobs, freeing them up for other duties.” In Israel, Parker was assigned to a kibbutz, meeting Jews from South Africa and Greece who also were volunteers. “I was assigned to the fields hoeing eggplants. It was very hard work. After 10 days, my hands were too swollen from farm work, so I was transferred to the kitchens: cooking, setting tables, doing dishes, etc.,” Parker said. “Then I was assigned to pick olives. This all took place over a period of five months or so. Then I was transferred to a kibbutz outside Jerusalem where I worked for about a month. This gave me a chance to explore Jerusalem. I wanted to see the Old City. It smelled 5,000 years old. It was dirty, smelly, with stalls that sold goats and chickens which were hanging for selection. As I walked, the feeling in my heart was that I was home. This is where I belonged. This is where I should be.” She then was assigned to Hadassah’s Mount Scopus hospital. “Remember, I was a third-generation Hadassah life member, and I had always heard of Mount Scopus growing up,” said Parker, who is now the president of

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Frank Credits Family For Life of Achievement By Leah R. Harrison lharrison@atljewishtimes.com

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Larry Frank is quick to deflect attention when asked about receiving the Lifetime of Achievement Award from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta on Wednesday, June 7. He speaks about his wife, Lois, whom he met through his roommate after graduating Vanderbilt, while she was still a student at Emory. “Lois is working all the time. She’s always at some committee meeting or another. Matter of fact, she left the house at 9 this morning, and I don’t even know where she is.” He tells of the accomplishments of his four sons, to whom he and Lois have passed their love of Israel and JewFULL ish identity. All in the family contribute WARRANTY to the Frank Family Foundation, which supports causes related to Israel and the Jewish people, including education, identity, continuity and survival, as well as other charitable organizations, the majority of which help other people in the name of Jews, such as American Jewish World Service and IsraAID. Anyone who knows the Franks understands that their work for social justice and the community is a combined effort, often in conjunction with the family foundation, created “while the kids were still young” (they are now 40 to 50), with an eye on, and in support of, Israel. To foster a network of young leaders, each year the foundation sponsors nine to 14 Frank Fellows through the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Recruited from Jewish Community Relations Councils across the country, the fellows participate in preparatory classes before traveling with staff to Poland and Israel. After their return, they attend the JCPA plenum and participate in follow-up calls to mentor them toward leadership on a national level. In Atlanta, the Franks’ son Isaac leads an annual foundation-sponsored trip to Israel for 15 people ages 35 to 45 with a “Jewish heart,” interest and leadership ability. In the hope that they form a connection to the land, the only requirement is that they become involved in Jewish life upon their return. The Atlanta Frank Family Foundation Israel missions have had 45 participants to date. Now engaged with organizations ranging from Friends of the Israel Defense Forces and AIPAC to the

Larry Frank credits his mother’s devotion to Hadassah for the development of his “Jewish heart.”

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Israel Sports Center for the Disabled, the alums are networked and supportive of one another’s causes. Frank credits his mother and her devotion to Hadassah for helping form his “Jewish heart.” He grew up with an oversize picture of Henrietta Szold in the living room. That and his early travels to Israel solidified his commitment to the land. In memory of Frank’s mother, the foundation recently funded a Poland and Israel trip for 17 Hadassah leaders around the country. “It’s amazing what going to Israel does for a person,” he said, telling of the With this Money impact of his United Jewish Appeal trip Mailer valid with any othe one week after the Six-DayNot War in June 1967 and of his subsequent trips while Expires 2/3/14 Israel was “fighting for its life.” Frank said the experience “changes people’s lives and lets them realize what Israel’s all about and what being Jewish is all about. … Israel is the heart of the Jewish people.” After receiving the Federation Young Leadership award in 1969, Frank served as one of four national regional chairs of UJA from 1970 to 1973. Simultaneously, he was Federation campaign chair in 1971 and Israel Bonds Southeast regional chair from 1971 to 1974. The Frank family now helps develop strong organizational leadership across the country. Larry and Lois now have their own place in Israel. Their AdamMailer coupo Withson this Money is a Conservative rabbi inwith Jerusalem, any other offers. Expir and they visit about four times a year. Their granddaughter’s bat mitzvah last month was “a good reason to go to Israel,” Larry said. He said that receiving the Lifetime of Achievement Award from Federation was a large surprise. Said Lois about Larry, “He’s very low profile, very humble.” She said he has passed along great values to their children, and “he feels blessed, fortunate, and has always been very modest about it. That’s what makes him so special.” ■

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LOCAL NEWS

Etz Chaim Picks Director Congregation Etz Chaim has hired Martin Gilbert to succeed Bob Bachrach as the Conservative synagogue’s executive director, starting in July, according to an announcement Wednesday, May 24. Gilbert has served as the temple administrator of Temple Emanu-El West Essex in Livingston, N.J. It’s the second time in a year and a half that Etz Chaim has found a synagogue leader in Livingston: Rabbi Daniel Dorsch was hired in February 2016 from Temple Beth Shalom in that city and is just completing his first year as the East Cobb congregation’s spiritual leader. Gilbert is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and worked in management for such retailers as Borders, Barnes & Noble and Target. He will move to metro Atlanta with his wife, Lori. Former Etz Chaim President Irwin

Berman led the committee that spent nearly a year searching for a successor for Bachrach, who has been the executive director for nine years.

AA Starts Search

While one Conservative congregation has completed its executive director search, another is just beginning after Manuel Mesa has resigned from Ahavath Achim Synagogue, a move announced Thursday, May 18. Mesa has been the executive director at the Buckhead shul for three years. Barry Herman has been named AA’s interim executive director. The congregation already has Cary Rosenthal in the role of interim chief financial officer.

UGA Honors Rechtman

Janet Rechtman is one of five University of Georgia faculty members and service professionals who received the Walter Barnard Hill Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach on April 17 for their contributions to improving the quality of life in Georgia and beyond. Rechtman co-leads the nonprofit leadership development and capacity building practice at UGA’s J.W. Fanning

Janet Rechtman has been honored for her work in helping develop nonprofit leaders in Georgia and elsewhere.

Institute for Leadership Development. She develops, delivers and evaluates programs and training for individuals, organizations and communities. Each Hill Award winner is judged to have made public service contributions greatly exceeding the normal accomplishments of a productive faculty member. The award includes a raise.

Municipal Savings Plan

Atlanta Municipal Court Judge Gary Jackson was one of the judicial representatives who witnessed Gov. Nathan Deal’s signing of House Bill 370 at the Georgia Capitol on May 8. The legislation amends the Georgia Code to enable the Council of Municipal Court Judges to create and administer savings and deferred-compensation plans for its members. Jackson, a Jewish native Atlantan who got his law degree from the University of Georgia, is the president of the council.

Judge Gary Jackson (two to the right of the governor) is among several lawmakers and judicial officials joining Gov. Nathan Deal at the signing of H.B. 370 on May 8.

H.B. 370 was sponsored by Republican Reps. Scott Hilton, Matt Hatchett, Jay Powell and Barry Fleming.

New Osteopath Michele T. Melamed of Atlanta was among the 119 graduates awarded the degree of doctor of osteopathic medicine from the Georgia Campus of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine on Friday, May 26, at Infinite Energy Center. Melamed is the daughter of Joseph and Annette Melamed. She earned a psychology degree from Georgia State University in 2010 and a master’s in public health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in 2013. She is continuing her medical training in emergency medicine at the Emory School of Medicine.

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Martin Gilbert reinforces Etz Chaim’s fondness for Jewish professionals from Livingston, N.J.

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EDUCATION

www.atlantajewishtimes.com Hannah Pincus says that, like any good student, she studied as many valedictory speeches as possible on YouTube before putting hers together.

Photos by David R. Cohen

Above: AJA Head of School Rabbi Ari Leubitz congratulates the 22 AJA Upper School graduating seniors on their hard work. Right: Co-valedictorians Hannah Pincus (left) and Shaun Regenbaum (wearing medals) watch with amusement while Dan Jutan and Ezra Blaut deliver the d’var Torah.

Dan Jutan gives a spirited d’var Torah on Bamidbar.

AJA Upper School Graduates 22 The Atlanta Jewish Academy Upper School is sending 20 of the 22 students who graduated Tuesday, May 23, to Israel to study or join the Israel Defense Forces. The Class of 2017 was the last AJA class to start high school at Yeshiva Atlanta, which merged with Greenfield Hebrew Academy to form AJA in the summer of 2014. The 22 graduates also are the last to complete high school at AJA’s Raymond Drive campus in Doraville; the expansion of the Northland Drive campus in Sandy Springs will be ready to accommodate all students from preschool through high school in August. “We have accomplished so much this year,” AJA Head of School Rabbi Ari Leubitz told the crowd at AJA’s auditorium. He noted the high school’s mitzvah mission to Azerbaijan before Passover to package matzah for the Jewish community, the trip to Israel in April to compete in an international safecracking physics tournament, and the

strong performance at the regional tech fair in January, which saw two seniors, Dan Jutan and Shaun Regenbaum, win their categories to reach the state fair in March. “It has truly been an amazing and productive year, and it has been an honor and a privilege to watch our students grow and become ready to leave us,” Rabbi Leubitz said. Jutan and fellow senior Ezra Blaut, who started a YouTube channel this year called Half-Decent Divrei Torah to discuss the weekly parsha, gave their take on the week’s portion, Bamidbar, for the final time as AJA students. “We were inspired by this week’s parsha, in which G-d tells Moses to take a census of the Jewish people while they are wandering in the desert, so we took our own census of the 2017 AJA class,” they said. “There is so much talent and diversity among these 22 incredible people that we can probably keep talking about them all day. Today, this little group of ours is saying goodbye and joining something bigger. We

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Naomi Moosai smiles as she reflects on four years of high school at AJA.

are going to be let loose on the world as descendants of those in this week’s parsha, B’nai Yisrael.” Commencement speaker Martin Lowenberg, a Michigan resident and Holocaust survivor whose parents and younger twin brothers were killed by the Nazis, added perspective to the d’var Torah by lecturing the students on the importance of being Jewish and their luck at being able to freely practice their Judaism. “Follow the path that your parents have laid out for you,” Lowenberg said. “That path of Yiddishkeit, that path of study. I think back to what happened to all the other families that would have loved to be in your shoes right now who can no longer speak and who can no longer move. Like my two little brothers, who died in Auschwitz in 1944. Those children that died did not have a chance to graduate, to study, to become parents, to become grandparents or famous people. How lucky you are to think of what the future will hold for you.” ■

Class of 2017 Jonathan Ethan Bashary Yehuda Benschitrit Joshua Meir Bland Judah Isaac Blanks Ezra Shalom Blaut Thelet Bunder Maxwell Ross Cohen Rivkah Orah Cohen Dustin Leor Dayani Yeshaya Hirsch Joshua Leo Italiaander Ruby Violet Jacobs Dan Dov Jutan Mikhael Reuvan Khandadash Naomi Moosai Hannah Ida Pincus (co-valedictorian) Brooke Aviva Ratner Shaun Ryan Regenbaum (covaledictorian) Daniel Lev Shapiro Aden Shmuel Rina Eve Sobel Zohar Wittenberg

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EDUCATION

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24 AJA Eighth-Graders Pass Milestone The 24 students completing eighth grade at Atlanta Jewish Academy on Wednesday, May 24, didn’t start summer vacation with the usual graduation mix of praise and hope. Those elements were part of their recognition ceremony — the caps, gowns, pomp and circumstance without the vocabulary of a graduation because AJA doesn’t end at eighth grade — but Holocaust survivor Martin Lowenberg made sure the students understood their place in Jewish history 72 years after he was liberated from his fifth Nazi camp as an orphaned 17-yearold. Lowenberg, a family friend of eighth-grader Simmy Wilson’s who flew in for the occasion from Detroit, did offer best wishes to the class but also provided a history lesson. He took the students back to the Exodus and the start of the mezuzah as a sign on Jewish doorposts. “It is something of our Jewish heritage that we should never, ever forget, and we should adore that with love.” He connected that symbol of the end of a time when we were slaves making bricks and mortar with his final three weeks as slave labor for the Nazis, using his hands to rub mortar off bricks from damaged buildings in Kiel, Germany, in 1945 so they could be reused.

“I was a damn Jew. I was a dirty Jew. I did not graduate like you did. I did not wear the gowns that you do. I suffered,” Lowenberg told the students. He said he weighed 74 pounds when he was liberated. “As soon as freedom rang again, I was not just thrilled, but I was overcome with joy that I could kiss that mezuzah,” he said. He noted that Jews had no menorahs in the Nazi camps and that you still can see marks on doorposts in Poland and other European countries indicating where mezuzahs once hung and thus where Jews once lived. “You should always remember that the mezuzah is the one that keeps us strong. That is our life. That is our heritage,” Lowenberg said. To help AJA students remember and be proud of their Judaism, he crafted a mezuzah that will hang on the doorpost between the old AJA facility on Northland Drive and the new construction that will house the Upper School starting in the fall. The mezuzah is mounted on a piece of wood from a railcar that transported Jews to death camps. On the front is the AJA logo surrounded with stars. “These stars are you,” Lowenberg told the students. “You are the best that this school has, and every student that is coming after you and before you.” ■

Class of 2017

Paulina Lebowitz

Jolie Abadi

Rebecca Lewyn

Jared Amdur

Matthew Minsk

Gefen Beldie

Daniel Mordoch

Samuel Brenner

Ashira Rabinowitz

Daniel Chasen Noah Chen This mezuzah, crafted by Martin Lowenberg, will mark the doorway from the old AJA building to the new.

Mikhael Covitz Katherine Cranman Deena Glusman Raina Grosswald Ryan Helland Matthew Kaplan

Wade Rabinowitz Samuel Rubin Shayna Shapiro Barbara Sloan Eden Vainer Gabriel Weiss Simeon Wilson

The 24 members of the eighth-grade Class of 2017 sing together for the last time at the end of their recognition ceremony.

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Holocaust survivor Martin Lowenberg has a few words with Simeon Wilson at the end Jared Amdur (left) and Samuel Brenner enjoy listening of his message to the Class of to faculty members speak about other members of their 2017, including the presentation eighth-grade class at AJA after they had their turns. of the mezuzah he made.

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The end of eighth grade has arrived for these AJA students.

Rabbi Ari Leubitz, the head of school, speaks about the progress AJA has made in the three years since its formation in the merger of Greenfield Hebrew Academy and Yeshiva Atlanta, including the expansion of the Sandy Springs campus and the hiring of administrators for new positions overseeing academics.

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

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Visit us at www.collegebridge.net

BUSINESS

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Atlanta Tries to Build on FinTech Ecosystem By Patrice Worthy Atlanta is a big market for financial technology, processing three-quarters of U.S. financial transactions and serving as the home for more than half the nation’s FinTech companies, in part because the city is working hard to create an environment that attracts startups and investors. “The city is giving incentive to companies like First Data to help drive the ecosystem,” Barry McCarthy, the executive vice president of network and security solutions at First Data Corp., said in a keynote address Tuesday, May 23, the second day of the twoday Atlanta-Israel FinTech Innovation Conference hosted by Conexx and the Israeli Consulate General at Greenberg Traurig. “Because of the high concentration of FinTech companies, Atlanta is good place to start a company and relocate.” Companies from all over the world, including Israel, come to Atlanta to do business, said Mitchell Kopelman, the partner in charge of Aprio’s tax practice and its technology and biosciences group. He said Georgia is reducing taxes for FinTech corporations. “Georgia has tax credits,” Kopelman said. “There is a tax credit for research and development and a refundable tax credit for locating in certain areas.”

Atlanta has advantages when it comes to costs, First Data’s Barry McCarthy says, but it must develop the human capital to remain a FinTech capital.

You can sell the tax credits to a third party, enabling companies to get the money faster, Kopelman said. Georgia also gives companies $3,500 per employee for five years if they create innovation centers. The state has been rated No. 1 for business and for entrepreneurs, said Jorge Fernandez, the vice president of global commerce for the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Atlanta is an economic driver in the Southeast with an economy larger than Denmark. The city has the nation’s thirdlargest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and there are multiple examples of companies such as e-Solutions, a Brazilian-based FinTech company that left Silicon Valley for Atlanta, said Fernandez, who credits the success to low operational costs. Business expenses that average $100 across the nation cost $105.70 in

New York but only $95.10 in Atlanta, he said. “The cost of living is also lower. For every dollar you spend in the U.S., you spend $2.274 in New York and in Atlanta only $0.999, which is right at the national average.” McCarthy said that when he traveled to London, financial officials recognized that Atlanta has emerged as a FinTech capital, but many companies are more focused on the long-term market for investors than the immediate ecosystem. First Data, therefore, is partnering with colleges and universities to create a curriculum that will provide students with the skills companies require. He said the biggest challenge to retaining the talent coming out of colleges like Georgia Tech is that graduates don’t know what FinTech is. “I talk to them, and they’ll say, ‘I’m not majoring in finance,’ ” McCarthy said. “They don’t understand FinTech is an element in everything. Their Apple payments use FinTech.” First Data doesn’t necessarily scout for talent, but McCarthy said a team is looking for companies that have emerged and are gaining traction. First Data recently acquired Acculink, which helps merchants choose a debit network to route transactions saving time and money. But Atlanta businesses can be a bit conservative when partnering

with new companies, which can make it tough for companies in Israel and elsewhere to get new clients, said Orna Sharon, the director for business development at Conexx. “For Israeli companies, they can be very successful outside of the United States, but when they come to the U.S., they have to start from scratch,” she said. “Some of the Israelis may have big clients in Israel and have been in operation for a few years, but when they come here, a lot of the potential clients we introduce them to say, ‘Go find local clients first and then come back to us.’ They don’t want to be the first to try the technology.” To ease the hesitation, Conexx hosts such conferences to facilitate networking among companies. The business connector also customizes events for Israeli companies that want to invite strategic partners, but Atlanta can be a hard sell for Israelis who don’t think beyond New York and California when they look at the United States. “It takes a little more work because New York is a brand, Palo Alto is a brand,” but Atlanta lacks that established brand, Sharon said. “But Israelis travel. They’ll go anywhere, and all the companies I’ve met with today say they want to meet with clients, and they’ll consider having offices here, and they’re very impressed with what they saw.” ■

Tech Commitment Key to Israel’s Success By Patrice Worthy

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Israel’s lack of natural resources drives its reliance on intellectual property, and the government is committed to technological growth to drive success in security and the economy, said Inon Elroy, Israel’s economic minister to North America. “We invest quite a bit in technology when it comes to minorities,” such as Arabs, Elroy said at the Atlanta-Israel FinTech Innovation Conference. “A company with a founder from one of those groups has an advantage today within our major support schemes, which is the Innovation Authority. We invest $400 million annually in technology companies.” The Israeli culture is also more risk-oriented, said Yoav Tzruya, a partner and the CEO of JVP Cyber Labs. Citizens who join the Israel Defense 30 Forces usually come out of the military

Inon Elroy, Israel’s economic minister to North America, points to technology as a great equalizer for Israel.

with no spouse, no student loans and a desire to outdo their tech predecessors. That mentality contributes to a climate that encourages growth and innovation, Tzruya said. “It’s very different than in the U.S., where people get their first real job in their 30s and spend 40 years at a company, he said. “It’s not good for innovation and entrepreneurship and doesn’t translate into growth.” Israel is No. 3 in the world for startups per capita. Omri Dotan, a co-founder of Wisor, which is moving mortgage lending from standardized to personalized

loans, said what differentiates Israel is the government’s commitment to training tech experts and developing leadership skills. “Military, military, military,” Dotan said. “People do crazy stuff in the army, like hacking. … They get graduate and Ph.D. training in the military, and when they come out, they’re the smartest of the smartest.” Dotan, who led 70 people while serving in the IDF, then lived in California for 10 years, said Israel is different from the United States in the way it values leadership skills cultivated in the military. “In the U.S., soldiers aren’t put on a pedestal. Soldiers know what it is like to be under fire and turn a square into a circle. They have the skills of a Harvard grad,” Dotan said. “Soldiers that come back from war know how to work with people and lead people, and these things are invaluable.”

Israel also has a culture of sharing that is missing from America and Europe, especially among competitive businesses, Dotan said. “In Israel, you don’t feel threatened by other companies. We introduce each other to investors.” Digitalization is becoming more important and geography less critical, Elroy said. Therefore, someone who doesn’t live in the city can work for and become successful at a tech company. Technology is also a gateway for those who may have economic disadvantages because all they need is a computer, and Israel, with its commitment to technology, provides the rest. “As the idea of the startup is so spread and the success of the people is very inspiring, many young people who didn’t necessarily grow up in the middle of Tel Aviv or go to the best school try to get in on prosperity,” Elroy said. ■

BUSINESS

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FinTech Innovation Slams Into Regulatory Conflicts The biggest challenges in the tech world right now are regulations, according to a discussion during the twoday Atlanta-Israel FinTech Innovation Conference. Each state has its own regulations for tech companies and nonbanking financial services. Those regulations are meant to protect consumers and regulate financial risks, but they can be a hindrance to innovation. But when facing rules that are old and vary from state to state, companies such as Uber, a ride-sharing app, and Square, a financial technology service that lets merchants take payments from smartphones and tablets, are pushing ahead with multimilliondollar platforms that could get tangled in red tape. As a result, consumers are not protected, and investors can’t properly assess risks. Carl Fornaris, a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, which played host to the FinTech conference organized by Conexx and the Israeli Consulate General, said many of the regulations are outdated. “From a U.S. perspective, the regularity landscape is a disaster,” Fornaris said Tuesday, May 23. “All 50 states have independent licenses to regulate nonbank financial services. You have a hodgepodge of state regulatory systems.” A FinTech firm that wants to do business in multiple states must apply for licenses in every state. Companies that suffered through this process, such as PayPal, now have a competitive advantage, but fledging companies face a daunting task, complete with lawyers and consultants to figure out what should be done. If the company is already operating when regulatory changes are made or an audit is conducted, the process to comply is overwhelming, said Mary Kopczynski, the CEO of 8 of 9. “The problem is, when things get audited and the question of ‘Why did you do this?’ comes up, you have to go back through thousands of pages in SharePoint documents,” Kopczynski. “We need a lighter version of documenting processes.” There are about 17,000 rules for different states, and many firms must check with lawyers just to code software. First Data, an Atlanta-based corporation that provides companies with solutions for commercial transactions,

One set of rules would make FinTech more efficient, Greenberg Traurig’s Carl Fornaris says, but a lot of state regulators could be put out of work.

has regulators in the office 100 percent of the time. Barry McCarthy, the executive vice president of network and security solutions at First Data, said companies must adapt and respond to change. Many FinTech companies have great ideas, but then realize they’re operating as banks. Being able to understand the regulatory landscape and navigate around regulatory holes can lead to success, McCarthy said. “They want to disrupt the ecosystem but find out it’s the law,” he said. “Many companies think of regulations as a hindrance, and they can be, but it can create opportunity.” Kopczynski said her “disruption of the ecosystem is to accept laws are going to change” instead of hoping for a uniform set of laws, something she doesn’t think will happen. The tech world is fighting the notion of constant change to regulations in response to the constant change in products and services. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal agency that regulates national bank and trust companies, put out a draft charter last month for a uniform license manual for nonbanking special services. The OCC’s intent is to create a one-stop license that applies to FinTech companies throughout the country. “It’s one examiner, one auditor and one set of rules to make the system for FinTech more efficient,” Fornaris said. “It’s a proposal, but it’s controversial because it puts a lot of state regulators out of business.” The OCC is being sued by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors on the grounds that the OCC lacks authority to issue such charters. During Vision 20/20, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, state officials said they want to create a uniform examination standard for all 50 states by 2020. “They realize they can’t play with 50 sets of rules and try to be more modern and efficient,” Fornaris said. Despite the lawsuit, the OCC is still accepting proposals from FinTech

firms. Though the OCC proposal is appealing to many FinTech businesses, Bob Mark, the CEO and managing partner of Black Diamond, said the charter poses challenges that regulators are not ready to address. A huge chunk of regulating is monitoring the risks involved with lending. Mortgages and commercial loans have two ways of looking at risks, and now that institutions are moving into FinTech mortgages, a way is needed to secure reputation risks and uncover blind spots. “FinTech mortgages are not on the books, and no one knows what keeping some of the risk looks like,” Mark said. “After all, it’s about assigned capi-

tal, and too much is not worth taking, and too little does not level the playing field.” Under the federal Patriot Act, it is a felony to operate a FinTech company without knowledge of licensing. Uber and Square are examples of companies that asked for forgiveness rather than permission for violating regulations, then were hit with millions of dollars in fines. Such rapidly growing companies would rather pay fines, seeing them as speed bumps on the road to success, then halt their growth and wait for the rules to catch up. One risk with complicated regulations is that many companies choose to take the hit, in anticipation of high demand and speedy growth. For companies determined to abide by the rules, the slow regulatory process can stall technology that could benefit consumers and be profitable. “It’s slowing a lot of people down,” Fornaris said. “Regulators are relying on antiquated rules meant for older services. I think the Treasury Department will suggest to Congress some kind of national licensing be set up.” ■

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

By Patrice Worthy

HEALTH & WELLNESS

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AIDS Quilt Brings Jewish Ties to New Home By Robbie Medwed

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Judaism has long emphasized the value of tangible memory. Many in the non-Jewish world have borrowed the custom of creating tangible memorials, and one of the largest in the world, the NAMES Project Foundation’s AIDS Memorial Quilt, has been based in Atlanta since 2001. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is the world’s largest AIDS memorial, with nearly 58 tons of fabric panels created to remember those who have died since 1985. A new visitors center and central offices for the quilt are opening this month at 117 Luckie St. in downtown Atlanta, complete with open visiting hours and an interactive app designed to bring alive the stories of those memorialized on the panels. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a yahrzeit memorial itself: It is dedicated to the memory of Marvin Feldman, who was the best friend of quilt founder Cleve Jones. That’s not the only Jewish connection to the quilt. The NAMES Project Foundation might be one of Atlanta’s most Jewish nonprofit agencies. “Anyone who understands what it means to be the other — some of these things we learn as we talk about the quilt and the human connection — so much of it, I’ve learned over the years, is centrally thematic to the Jewish faith,” Executive Director Julie Rhoad said. Though she is not Jewish, she finds parallels between many of the struggles gay men and others who have been affected by AIDS face and those of the Jewish people. But it’s not the struggles she focuses on. “We talk about Jewish people on this quilt and Jewish people who have been lost to this disease, but what stays with me is the lessons we’ve learned through the Jewish community,” Rhoad said. “We’ve learned how to honor memory and honor life and, in doing so, learning how to teach the living.” Teaching the living is the central focus of the NAMES Project. It regularly hosts school groups, camps and many others. Both Camp Barney Medintz and Camp Coleman have created panels and participated in programs, as have many rabbinical groups. Ahavath Achim Synagogue has a longstanding connection to the quilt that was made strongest by AA member Alan Landis, who died in early 2016 32 from pancreatic cancer. Landis was a

Ahavath Achim Synagogue has a longtime connection to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, including this panel.

volunteer educator at the foundation, and his memory is still guiding educational programs. “When Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal eulogized Alan, he discussed seven characteristics of perfection, and those seven words ended up on the AA quilt panel,” Rhoad said. “We’ve been talking about him with young people and about the words that we remember him with, and we ask students: What seven words do you want to be remembered with?” Rabbi Rosenthal said his congregation’s contribution to the AIDS Memorial Quilt is one of the most meaningful and spiritual efforts he has experienced. “Every ritual, action or teaching is supposed to have many layers of meaning, significance and emanations of the divine. The AIDS Quilt is a similar endeavor.” For AA, he said, “making a panel was a space for remembering those we had lost, honoring those in our congregation and families that are still living with the disease, all the while providing our collective voice to activism of the quilt that shouts truth to ignorance, love against hate, honor in front of disregard. By making a panel of the quilt, we helped to elevate the souls of so many who were disregarded and thrown away by our society and elevated them to exist in a place of holiness and sacredness.” Providing a collective voice to activism is the central motivation for Billy Planer, the founder and director of Etgar 36, a civil rights program for teens and touring groups. “Our visit to the quilt helps get across one of the points of our Civil Rights Journey, and that is that we are all connected. What would have happened if we understood that what first

Camp Coleman is one of many Jewish organizations that have contributed pieces to the quilt.

impacted a community that didn’t have a voice or power in America impacts us all?” Planer said. “Instead, America was able to say, ‘The gay community isn’t us; they are the other,’ so we were able to ignore the disease. (President Ronald Reagan) was able to avoid mentioning HIV/AIDS for eight years. If we could understand that there is no ‘other’ but just ‘another,’ and what impacts you impacts me, perhaps we wouldn’t be dealing with the fact that 30 years later the fastestgrowing segment being infected with HIV is teens.” Rhoad values her time with the Etgar 36 participants and other visiting groups. “We get to talk about social justice, human rights, civil liberties and what the modern civil rights movement all have in common. They are craving opportunities to dig a little deeper in the story and learn what happened so it can never happen again. They want to be a part of change, and they want to be change makers. They may not choose HIV/AIDS, but they come away with the power of the movement, how to change the world and how to create allegiances with communities that perhaps aren’t your own.” Emory University Hillel has held a program in partnership with the NAMES Project for many years, and it has grown to incorporate departments and groups from across campus. The Emory display of the quilt and the events associated with it have sparked numerous conversations and provided multiple opportunities for education. “One of the things that stuck with me about Hillel taking this on was the notion that saving a life was akin to saving the whole world,” Rhoad said. “Once you connect to the quilt, either by making a panel or seeing a display,

The AIDS Memorial Quilt includes many tributes to individual Jewish victims of HIV/AIDS.

you’re forever linked.” Emory Hillel now holds one of the largest displays of the quilt in the world. “For whatever story you want to tell, there is fodder on the quilt,” Atlanta playwright and PR consultant Janece Shaffer said. “There is no collection of more fascinating stories than what is here. Every panel has so much background. “When we talk about the lessons learned, it’s not done in a broad way. We’d have students come in, and they’d listen to Alan, and he’d show them the 33 pills he took each day, and suddenly they clicked in. I brought my teenage kids to see the quilt, and I asked them, ‘Do you think any of these people thought they were going to get AIDS? If someone had to create a panel for you, what would they include?’ It’s a powerful educational tool.” ■

ARTS

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The World’s Most Dangerous Bandleader Paul Shaffer talks ‘SNL,’ seders and touring again By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com It’s the most Jewish “Saturday Night Live” moment you’ve never heard of, involving a musician you’d never expect. Long before he served as David Letterman’s musical director and trusty sidekick from 1982 to 2015, Paul Shaffer was a young member of the house band on “SNL.” On Passover in 1976, a 27-year-old Shaffer led a group of cast members and writers that included Al Franken, Gilda Radner, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Alan Zweibel and producer Lorne Michaels in a seder. Legend has it that Bill Murray and one of his brothers, who are Roman Catholic, even showed up. The seder was such a hit that it was held at Passover the next four years and was dubbed “Paul Shaffer’s Celebrity Seder” by Michaels, who cosponsored the event with Shaffer. “When it came time for ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ ” Shaffer told the AJT, “I used to tell everyone, ‘Well, Lorne has promised, next year, real silverware.’ ” Shaffer, who grew up attending an Orthodox congregation in Thunder Bay, Ontario, said he was well prepared for the occasion. “They were legendary, those seders,” Shaffer said. “A dear friend who

Photo by Sandrine Lee

Paul Shaffer has released his first album in 24 years.

was a writer on the show, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, came up with the idea for a Passover seder, and I said I could conduct it. My family being not so Orthodox, but yet my education being so, there was no way I was going to subject them to the full length, but I wanted to cover just the important parts. Even that was tough because all they wanted to do was get to the meal. So I came up with a way of making it entertaining but in a very reverent way.” When Letterman ended his run as host of “Late Show” in 2015, the everpresent Shaffer quietly stepped out of the spotlight as well, but the 67-yearold has remained busy. Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band (his iconic band from “Late Show”) this year released their first album in 24 years and are touring to support it. They’ll stop in Atlanta on Sunday, June 11, at the Center Stage Theater in Midtown.

The tour, which began in April, is Shaffer’s first since he played with the Blues Brothers in 1980. “I haven’t had to travel much in my career,” Shaffer said. “When I toured with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi for the Blues Brothers, we were 30 years old, and I think that was our last chance to be touring rock musicians. These days I’m just trying to stay healthy on the road. I was spoiled working for Letterman. Every day for 33 years I would show up, and my stuff was all set up. It was so easy compared to this. The show is worth all of it, though. It’s so much fun to do.” The new album, “Paul Shaffer & the World’s Most Dangerous Band,” is full of the 1960s-era rock and soul that Shaffer grew up on and features a number of special guests, including Darius Rucker, Valerie Simpson and Bill Murray.

Shaffer has been close with Murray since before he backed up his iconic Nick the Lounge Singer character on “SNL.” “Bill is an old friend from before ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ” Shaffer said. “In 1974, when I first got to New York from Canada, he was one of the first guys I met. We used to do musical comedy things together even way back then for the National Lampoon radio hour. I remember one song we did called ‘Kung Fu Christmas.’ Then in 2015 I worked with him on a Netflix special called ‘A Very Murray Christmas.’ ” At a Chabad function in March, Shaffer was presented an award by Letterman, who has famously let his beard grow out since leaving late-night television. “Dave was nice enough to come out and present me the award,” Shaffer said. “There were a lot of religious people there, and Dave said to everyone, ‘I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me and asked, ‘Rabbi, what time is sundown?’ ” ■ Who: Paul Shaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band Where: Center Stage Theater, 1374 W. Peachtree St., Midtown When: 8 p.m. Sunday, June 11 Tickets: $54 to $59; www.centerstageatlanta.com

Exiled Kaiser at Heart of AJFF Selects’ ‘Exception’ with a sold-out screening of the Israeli romantic comedy “The Wedding Plan” at Lefont Sandy Springs. The series is helping to extend AJFF programming throughout the year with the same caliber of independent and foreign films as

We offer freshly baked cinnamon rolls, cookies and brownies.

Christopher Plummer plays Wilhelm II, the exiled former kaiser, in “The Exception.”

Courtney’s character falls into a romance with a chambermaid who is hiding her Jewish identity, portrayed by Lily James. His loyalties are tested when the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, visits the former monarch. Tickets for the screening are $13 and are available at ajff.org/exceptiontix. The film is the second chosen for AJFF Selects, which launched in May

the winter festival shows each year. “We’re privileged to continue bringing more of the world-class cinema that audiences have come to expect from us,” AJFF Executive Director Kenny Blank said. ■

Call to place your catering order today. www.cinnaholic.com Vegan/Kosher Pareve Bakery Edgewood Retail District 1230 Caroline Street • Little Five Points UNDER SUPERVISION OF THE ATLANTA KASHRUTH COMMISSION

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JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival continues its monthly AJFF Selects series with the World War II drama “The Exception,” being shown at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 22, at Regal Tara Cinemas 4. The movie, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, is based on Alan Judd’s novel “The Kaiser’s Last Kiss” and stars Christopher Plummer as the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II. “The Exception” is the first movie Plummer did after starring as Holocaust survivor Zev Guttman in “Remember,” which opened the 2016 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. The plot focuses on the efforts of a Nazi officer, played by Jai Courtney, to uncover an Allied spy believed to be working on the staff of the palatial Dutch estate where Wilhelm is living out his final years while watching Germany’s revival and return to war.

ARTS

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Decatur Gallery Showcases Activist Artists By Kevin C. Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com A new art gallery opened over the Memorial Day weekend in Decatur, and among its inaugural exhibitors are two local artists who have a few things in common yet remain distinct from each other. Works by Eben Dunn and Flora Rosefsky, both Jewish and based in Atlanta, are being shown at the Different Trains Gallery, a space dedicated to multiple art forms at 432 E. Howard Ave. Both artists often integrate objects and symbols into their pieces as a commentary on the state of the world. “There are images all over them (that) are collaged together,” Dunn told the AJT. “I use books, Bibles sometimes, historical photographs, and then compose those objects over time, overlaying them on text that means something, so they juxtapose off each other.” One of his pieces hanging at Different Trains depicts the civil rights movement, with pictures of Martin

Luther King Jr. and other figures of the 1960s superimposed over scenes of turmoil in the streets within a giant peace sign. Dunn worked with Atlanta real estate mogul Steve Selig in the 1990s before abandoning real estate and becoming a full-time artist. He shares a studio in Inman Park with “a pretty famous painter,” Fahamu Pecou. “For me, I feel I have to make things. It’s a way for me to get balance with the world around me because I can express what I’m feeling and my interactions with the world, which is a bit crazy right now. It helps me make sense of it, convey emotions, reach into the hurricane and call out the important moments in time,” Dunn said. Rosefsky shares certain motifs with Dunn yet retains her singularity. “I like using found objects in my work, such as keys. Keys can be very symbolic of things, like the vulnerability of life,” she said during a visit to her Decatur studio. A committee member of Arts & Activism, Rosefsky has created numer-

ous pieces on the concept of human trafficking. “I did a whole series on this theme,” she said. “I took hairpins and stretched them; they became these forms sticking into circles, like being trapped. Some of my pieces are very conceptual, emotional; others are more literal.” One of her works in progress was named “Boundaries,” but now she wants to alter it in reference to the current occupant of the White House. “It had a theme, but I’m going to change it and create a more political piece. The new piece could maybe be called ‘Unhinged.’ It’s such a polarized country right now. … It’s scary. Today, in the political climate, a lot of artists, not just me, are asking, ‘What can we do?’ ” Rosefsky said she hopes her themes are universal. “Some of it is very much Judaic work, but it doesn’t matter if you come from a Jewish background or a Hindu one. Art has to stand by itself as a good piece of art, no matter what the message is. And sometimes they don’t have a message, which is OK too.” ■

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Two of Eben Dunn’s pieces at Different Trains reflect his collage technique of layering images atop text.

Photos by Kevin C. Madigan

Above: Flora Rosefsky, showing some of the work in her studio, says art doesn’t always need a message. Below: Flora Rosefsky (right) discusses one of her pieces at the Different Trains Gallery opening.

FOOD

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Best Israeli Food This Side of the Med As the weather gets hotter, we increasingly crave refreshing foods. Anything in the category of Israeli, Persian or Mediterranean food is sure to satisfy with its incorporation of fresh ingredients and flavorful seasonings. From a culinary standpoint, we can group this region of the world together because the land shares the same agricultural tendencies and produces many of the same crops. Similar themes of hummus, roasted vegetables and meats, rice, and spices drift through traditional and modern recipes. Take a look at this Taste of Atlanta recommended list of restaurants to get your Mediterranean food fix right here in Atlanta.

and lots of research to make this food stall as authentically Mediterranean as it could be. The menu reads like a different language (which it partially is), but this is our must-order: the Shouk, which

The Food Scene By Skye Estroff

can be served in a laffa, pita or bowl filled with shawarma, fries, hummus, baba ghanoush, Israeli pickles, coleslaw, harissa and tahini. Mediterranean Grill This Taste of Atlanta alum knows how to serve up a great plate. Now with four locations — Decatur, Midtown, Marietta and Athens — Mediterranean Grill (www.mediterraneangrill. com) has a neighborhood spot just around your corner. Mediterranean Grill has a wide selection of traditional appetizers, salads, kebabs and more. The restaurant even serves a savory spanakopita (phyllo dough stuffed with spinach, feta, ricotta cheese and herbs).

Stop by before the crowds commence.

Photo by Morgan Collett, M-Squared PR

Sides at the Halal Guys include hummus, baba ghanoush and tabbouleh.

Halal Guys continues to grow its roots and is signed on for Taste of Atlanta this year. HotRocks Grill With a grand-opening celebration scheduled for Wednesday, June 7, this Norcross dive won’t be secret for long. HotRocks Grill (www.facebook.com/ HotRocks-Grill-1856001007968113) opened a few weeks ago, and the reviews are as rave as they come. The menu is expansive, with traditional kebabs like lamb and chicken, tomato and cucumber salad, hummus plates, and even a beautiful golden beets salad with goat cheese, spiced almonds and orange ginger vinaigrette.

Olive Bistro Olive Bistro (www.olivebistro. com) is not new to the Atlanta restaurant scene, but the restaurant is certainly tasty and consistent. The owner/head chef hails from Israel and believes in serving hummus the color of sand with the flavors of the old country. Each plate of grape leaves, falafel, eggplant and chicken stuffed with tabbouleh is delicately crafted and filled with zest. Taste Olive Bistro at locations in Brookhaven, in Vinings and off Ponce de Leon. Taste of Atlanta will celebrate our Sweet 16 from Oct. 20 to 22, so save the dates. The three-day festival is moving to Historic Fourth Ward Park, across from Ponce City Market. For more information about Taste of Atlanta and to get inspired by other delicious restaurants, visit TasteofAtlanta.com, or check out the festival on Facebook (Taste of Atlanta), Instagram (@tasteofatlanta) and Twitter (@ tasteofatlanta). ■

Photo by Michelle Labovitz, M-Squared PR

Bowls are one of four ways to get your meal at Bezoria.

Yalla If y’all haven’t been to Yalla (www.yallaatl.com), it’s time to find an excuse to visit Krog Street Market and try this fantastic restaurant. Chefowner Todd Ginsberg used his roots

COME SEE WHY

C HEF LINDA M T C O ADE HE OVER

CHEF MAGAZINE

Photo by Morgan Collett, M-Squared PR

Baklava (here offered from the Halal Guys) is the classic Mediterranean dessert.

Halal Guys New to the Atlanta neighborhood, Halal Guys (thehalalguys.com) has maintained a steady line around the block for its food. The restaurant began from a hot dog stand in New York in 1990, and now the brand has expanded internationally. The location in Chamblee is the only one in Georgia and serves a full menu of Mediterranean food. Order a sandwich or a wrap filled with chicken, beef or falafel, or opt for a platter or customizable plate instead.

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JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Bezoria Bezoria (www.bezoria.com) may be fast-casual for the customers, but its handcrafted dishes show some TLC. Choose among Photo by Michelle a pita, laffa Labovitz, M-Squared PR (wrap), bowl Zesty hummus is one of two versions or salad and offered by Bezoria. customize your fixings. Kebabs, kefta (ground chicken mixed with vegetables and spices), shawarma and falafel are all available to add. Don’t forget an order of baklava to end your meal.

SIMCHAS

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Colitis Can’t Compete With Athletic Bar Mitzvah By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Preschool wasn’t easy for Aaron Weinberg. At 3 he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a disease his father, Mike, and paternal grandfather, Robert, also have. But the diagnosis did not bring an effective treatment. “He was one sick little boy,” said his mother, Diane, whose other sons, Samuel and Isaac, do not have colitis. Aaron visited the hospital enough that “there was a Weinberg parking space, I’m pretty sure,” she said. “We could direct doctors who looked lost … because we were there all the time.” Congregation Beth Shalom’s Alefbet Preschool, however, dealt with the irregular attendance, the bloody diapers and the changes of clothes. A decade later, Aaron celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah at Beth Shalom on Saturday, May 27, a weekend after he participated in the annual Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis walk at Dunwoody’s Brook Run Park. The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America walk — for which Aaron this year led his own team, the Fantastic Flushers, instead of being part of a team organized through his father’s office — served as the Sandy Springs resident’s mitzvah project and helped end a successful seventh grade in the classroom at Fulton Science Academy and on the gymnastics mat for Amplitude Gymnastics Academy in Roswell. “I’m super-proud of Aaron. He’s done a tremendous job this year,” his

Aaron Weinberg has just finished the seventh grade at Fulton Science Academy.

mother said during an interview with them in a rare break amid extracurriculars and bar mitzvah preparations. Things began to turn around for Aaron about six years ago. His doctors — his main physician is fellow Beth Shalom member Jay Hochman — put him on a biologic called Remicade, delivered by IV every six weeks. He got involved with the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, starting with attendance at a Take Steps walk to support the team sponsored by the center where he gets his Remicade infusions. And he went to Camp Oasis, a six-day camp for children with Crohn’s or colitis, held at Camp Twin Lakes’ Winder facility. The Remicade infusions force Aaron to miss school one day every six weeks and are likely to cost him the last day of camp in June. The drug suppresses his immune system, so he’s susceptible to the flu even after getting the shot and sometimes must miss gymnastics practice to avoid exposing teammates to skin infections, which are easy to develop in a sport in which ripped-open hands are a badge of honor. Once, his mother said, Aaron needed a traveling pharmacy with him and had supplies of narcotics at school. But since getting off nausea-inducing

B’nai Mitzvah Alexandra Alterman Zachary Alterman

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

The bat and bar mitzvah ceremony of Alexandra Lily Alterman and Zachary Nathan Alterman was held Saturday, May 20, 2017, at Temple Sinai. Alex and Zach are the daughter and son of Amy and Louis Alterman of East Cobb. They have a brother, Brody, 9, and are the grandchildren of Nancy and Robbie Baron of East Cobb and Sally and Bruce Alterman of Sandy Springs. For her bat mitzvah project, Alex supported Ron Clark Academy’s Extreme Bedroom Makeover, in which volunteers provide middle-schoolers with a safe and comfortable place of their own to live, study and play. Alex painted, built furniture, decorated and earned money babysitting to transform a sixth-grade girl’s bedroom. For his bar mitzvah project, Zach supported Charity Ball, a global organization that provides 36 new, FIFA-quality soccer balls to kids in poverty-

methotrexate about six months ago, he takes only one pill twice a day, the probiotic VSL#3, along with calcium gummies because his digestive system can’t handle dairy products. The involvement with the foundation proved beneficial for Aaron and his father, who not only got his office to sponsor a Take Steps team, but also became the president of the foundation’s Georgia Chapter. “There’s just so much spirit,” Aaron said about Take Steps, which covers 1.5 to 2 miles. “They’re all trying to do the best they can to raise as much money as possible.” He has raised at least $2,000 each year, including $2,883 this year toward a team goal of $6,000. His father joined another foundation project, Team Challenge, and ran a half-marathon, twice the distance of the 10K Peachtree Road Race he runs each year, now accompanied by his father and son. Mike Weinberg’s Team Challenge participation led Aaron to speak as an honored hero at an event in New Orleans in 2016. Aaron speaks at schools and businesses before Take Steps, although this year his only promotional speech was at Beth Shalom during services May 13. Some of his confidence to speak about colitis stems from Camp Oasis. His mother saw a dramatic difference in Aaron after his first camp session. Driving home, they stopped for lunch at a place that had a little toy to put together. “I was going to help him put it together, and he looked at me and was like, ‘Mom, I can do this.’ It sounds really kind of silly, but you just saw this

self-confidence that hadn’t been there before, and that’s continued as they’ve talked about the issues, as they teach them skills to cope with whatever challenges they’re facing.” Aaron said it’s special to spend a week where everyone understands any problems with your disease. “It’s definitely a heartwarming place for everyone that goes there because having Crohn’s or colitis, you kind of just feel left out of some things, especially if you have to use the bathroom and you’re gone for a bit longer than usual,” he said. The bathroom can be an issue while he trains for gymnastics, which he began about four years ago. But Aaron said if he misses something, he asks the coach what he can do at home to make up for it. It must be working because Aaron finished first in his division at a regional USA Gymnastics competition in Daytona Beach, Fla., on April 21. He said he gets 10s in his best event, the rings, and does well on the vault. As for his goals in the sport, “I just want to keep going as long as I can.” After all the serious issues Aaron has overcome to achieve athletic success and to mark his Jewish adulthood by chanting from the Torah, he takes minor setbacks such as skin infections in stride, his mother said. “I always feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the Remicade to stop working or whatever, but he’s doing great,” she said. “It’s easy to forget right now that he has anything wrong with him.” ■

stricken communities around the world. Zach designed and commissioned custom Leave a Legacy bracelets and sold them to his friends, family, teammates and classmates, raising enough money for dozens of communities around the world to receive their first brand-new soccer balls.

Teddy Goldstein

The bar mitzvah of Theodore “Teddy” Robert Goldstein of Dunwoody was held Saturday, May 27, 2017, at Congregation B’nai Torah. Teddy is the son of Ray Alyssa Rothman and has a brother, Sammy, almost 10, and a sister, Becca, 8. Teddy is the grandson of Stan and Harriet Dickman of Virginia Beach, Va. He is the son of Will Goldstein and has a half-brother, John. For his bar mitzvah project, Teddy worked with Creating Connected Communities, which brings life-enhancing programs to underprivileged children by empowering teen volunteers to become engaged community leaders and offers b’nai mitzvah projects. Teddy chose to have a booth at CCC’s spring festival, where he helped children who were not as fortunate as he to plant flower seeds. His belief is that the underprivileged kids will grow and thrive like the flowers.

OBITUARIES

Sophie Goldberg 92, Atlanta

Sophie Goldberg, age 92, of Atlanta died Tuesday, May 23, 2017. A native of Chicago, Sophie and her husband, Morris, moved to Atlanta in 1972 and founded Goldberg’s Bagels and Bialys. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who will be sorely missed by her family and friends. Survivors include daughter Eadie (Harvey) Berliner of Hoschton; son Jack (Sandi Cohen) Goldberg of Alpharetta; daughter Susan Petre of Atlanta; six grandchildren, David Berliner, Michelle Rubey (Todd), Shayna Schwartz (Matthew), Erin Lis (Moshe), Alayna Petre and Harris Goldberg; five great-grandchildren, Max, Brendan and Emma Rubey, Lily Schwartz, and Jonathan Lis; and a brother, Martin Goldstein. She was preceded in death by a brother, Charles Goldstein, and her husband, Morris Goldberg, of blessed memory. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite hospital. A graveside service was held Thursday, May 25, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Joshua Heller officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Reva Reiner 88, Marietta

Reva Reiner, age 88, of Marietta died Thursday, May 25, 2017. Survivors include her daughter and son-in-law, Anita Reiner and Maurie Lustman of Marietta; her son and daughter-in-law, Michael and Shelly Reiner of Marietta; grandchildren Ondrea (Ben) Davis, Jessica (Dennis) Durando, Mitchell (Jenny) Reiner and Matthew (Hillary) Reiner; and great-grandchildren Tyler and Nolan Davis and Micah and Ayla Reiner. She was preceded in death by her husband, Oscar Reiner, of blessed memory. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to City of Hope (www.cityofhope.org) or Congregation Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Pkwy., Marietta, GA 30068 (www.etzchaim. net). A graveside service was held Friday, May 26, at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Jackie Wolfe 74, Atlanta

Death Notices

Raquel Vasquez Aguilar, mother of Chabad of Peachtree City member Ben Gaxiola, on May 18. Leanore Block, 71, of Atlanta, wife of Paul Brockman, sister of Ilene Block and stepmother of Paul Brockman Jr., on May 25. Hyman Fifer, 94, of Atlanta on May 21. Judith Sellinger, 86, of Sarasota, Fla., mother of Temple Kol Emeth member Carolyn Shapiro, on May 16.

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

Jackie Wolfe, age 74, of Atlanta died Monday, May 22, 2017. Jack, a native Atlantan, lived and raised his family in the New York/New Jersey area for 30 years. He worked in the garment industry. He was a graduate of Georgia Tech and an alumnus of AEPi. Jack loved sports, especially golf and Georgia Tech football. He was an active member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue. Devoted to his family, Jack is survived by his wife, Rina Wolfe; a son, Jeffrey Wolfe (Christie) of Coral Gables, Fla.; daughters Amy Sheridan (Jeff) of Duluth, Lauren Sindel (Tom) of Brick, N.J., Saralyn Dunphy of Atlanta and Tova Weiss (Jason) of Parkland, Fla.; sister-in-law Lynda Wolfe (Michael Cohen); brothers-in-law Steven Levin and Jeffrey Levin; sister-in-law Adrienne Levin; mother-in-law Eleanor Sims; and grandchildren Thomas, Megan, Mikayla, Tanner, Ashley, Tyler, Jacob, Logan, Aiden and Madison. Jack was preceded in death by his brother, Larry Wolfe; a sister-in-law, Lori Fierman; and his parents, Adele and Harry Wolfe. Funeral services were held Wednesday, May 24, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue with Rabbi Neil Sandler officiating. Interment followed at Arlington Memorial Park. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Ahavath Achim Synagogue or Susan G. Komen Greater Atlanta. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Conspiracy of Silence

JUNE 2 ▪ 2017

The phrase “conspiracy of silence” has echoed through my life. I first heard it at a conference featuring psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler Ross. Her book “On Death and Dying” was groundbreaking because she wrote about five stages of dying and the aftermath of grief for a culture that preferred being secretive about these realities. I already knew something about them. When my 17-year old brother, Barry, died, I was dumbstruck to discover no one would talk about it, not even my parents, who were shocked into lifelong numbness. It has been 50 years, and my mother rarely speaks his name. A conspiracy of silence can last a lifetime. Death is powerful. It demands transitions and thrusts unwanted responsibilities on the bereaved. As I’ve journeyed from marriage to widowhood, I’ve worked hard to live fully. I never know when the grieving gremlin will overtake me and cause me to stop what I’m doing and weep. I have no control over what triggers my mourning. Grief is unpredictable. Rather than be silent about my grieving process, I have broadcast it on social media. I’ve chosen to be emotionally transparent on Facebook. Many ask why. I share my journey in the hope of saving others from shock and unpredictability if it happens to them. Social media may be widely ridiculed and seen as a waste of time, but it affords me a place to share complex details and nuanced feelings. Losing my husband has been the most difficult experience of my life. My intention is to continue living fully while remembering how he filled my heart with love, acceptance and hope. Plus, I want to honor his memory and keep it alive for our grandchildren, who deserve to know how kind, giving and philanthropic he was. The agony of living through his funeral and the week of shiva was ameliorated by the way my friends and community embraced me. Life goes on. I kept living. When it was time to plan Dan’s unveiling, I hit a wall. I felt paralyzed and couldn’t bear the thought of going to the cemetery. An unveiling seemed like the last thing I would ever do as Dan’s wife. I didn’t want to write the last chapter. 38 How could I select a tombstone

and compose his epitaph? I was stuck. I had no idea how to overcome my resistance. A friend gently urged me to find a way to do what was necessary because the yahrzeit would come around before I knew it. My rabbi had told me an unveiling is an American concoction. No Jewish law mandates putting up a

CROSSWORD

“Making Waves”

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

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ACROSS 1. Kudrow and Loeb 6. Like Yoni Netanyahu or Judah Maccabee 11. “The Good Wife” airer 14. First of a doubled month 15. Menachem with the alias Rabbi Israel Sassover 16. Like Israel in the summer 17. 1999 Tim Allen hit 19. “Barefoot Contessa” chef Garten 20. Anti-Israel org. 21. Letters many consider inappropriate for the Western Wall? 22. Namesakes of the first lady 23. Pure treif 26. Capone and Michaels 28. Place for David’s sword 30. Egypt to Israel, in 1948 32. Magen David Adom letters 35. Some settings on Braff’s “Scrubs,” for short 36. Jewish testimonials 37. Night prayer 39. Rabbinic title 42. Ya___ (name in Hebrew meaning “precious”) 43. With the start or end of 17- and 65-Across and 11- and 25-Down, she’s making waves as Wonder Woman 44. Davidson of “Saturday Night Live” 45. Portman won this award for “Black Swan” 46. Chaverim, like Juan and Julio 47. Marty Feldman in “Young Frankenstein” 48. Eilat slitherer 50. Kushner’s political party (now); abbr. 51. Cholent ingredients 52. Jewish basketball great Omri 55. Leah or Sarah, e.g. 57. Harper or Stan 58. Brother of Cain 59. ___-wee Herman 62. Drink in Maaleh?

According To Arlene 58

aappelrouth@atljewishtimes.com

By Arlene Appelrouth

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stone at a specific time. Jewish custom, however, is for a stone to be erected by the first anniversary of the death. I asked myself what Dan would want. He was traditional and took Jewish customs and laws seriously. My son David, a rabbi, reminded me that the unveiling had to occur before Passover. I emailed my rabbi, saying I was unable to go to the cemetery and begin the process leading to the unveiling. His compassionate response was a welcome surprise. “Would it help if I went with you?” he texted. We drove to the cemetery and walked around, looking at the gray memorial monuments — what people in the industry call tombstones. I read epitaphs and compared the design of the stones and the variations in colors. I took photos of those I liked. I noticed footstones, which listed information other than “beloved husband, father and grandfather.” These footstones, in my opinion, reflected the personalities of the deceased. Words usually come easily to me, but I struggled with the responsibility of choosing words for Dan’s tombstone. Not only was this the last official act I would do as his wife, but also the words would be engraved forever. After much thought, I made the decisions. The headstone and footstone were ordered. The unveiling was set for the end of March. I picked white marble for his stone. Another decision was whether it would be double size, leaving half to contain my name and epitaph. Imagining a future when my children were standing by a gravesite where Dan and I both were buried gave me chills. This was something I couldn’t discuss with anyone. I finally joined the conspiracy of silence. ■

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64. Kirk’s diary 65. Those who might motivate IDF soldiers 70. Actress Green of “Casino Royale” 71. Grace’s last name on “Will & Grace” 72. Bombeck and Franklin 73. ___ Air (neighborhood of the Stephen Wise Temple) 74. Work by King David 75. Lior Raz’s hit Israeli TV show

inits. or yeshiva 33. Madonna’s nickname 34. Golani members 37. “Ben-Hur” studio 38. “Where ___ At” (Beck hit) 40. What one might do on Yom Kippur 41. Line in the Bible 44. Apple ___ (Rosh Hashanah dessert, perhaps) 46. Austrian peak 49. Subj. for Israelis who move to the U.S. 51. Faith DOWN 52. Biblical spy with Joshua 1. Day 33 in the Omer 53. Where some look for 2. ___ Crown Jewish Academy heaven? 3. Mineo of “Exodus” 54. They might have a siddur or 4. Many a Ramallah resident kosher app 5. War that gave Israel back 56. Iconic role for Harrison the Old City 60. Ari___ (female name in 6. 1-Down activity Hebrew) 7. Subscribe to this publication 61. Knievel who made people for another year say, “Oh, my G-d!” 8. Like fine 11-Across 63. Book before Nehemiah 9. They aren’t given to Israelis 65. Year many students spend in some Arab countries in Israel 10. Sinus doc 66. Koufax had an incredible 11. Shot option when saying one “L’chaim!” 67. Bird in a land where 12. Lisa of “The Cosby Show” Chanukah is in the summer 13. The Irgun might have had a 68. “Magniv!” (in the 1960s) secret one of weapons 69. Govt. agency that has your 18. CK1 alternative number 22. Ending for “puppet” (e.g., Shari Lewis) 23. Glances LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 (over the B A E R A S A R C H O R D 14 15 16 mechitza) A L S O N E V E H O V E R 17 18 19 24. Country H A S M O N E A N E N E M Y 20 21 22 where Modi is in B E A T E N T O W E R 23 24 25 26 27 25. Star in M A N N S R E L Y A N D 28 29 30 31 E M E S H O A R D S T A R “A Touch of 32 33 34 N A S I R I E T S Class” and “The M A S 35 36 37 J E R U S A L E M Goldbergs” 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 S E D E R M I E P T A B 27. It’s 45 46 47 48 breathed on the 49S N O W 50 P S A L M 51 R E M A E D U J O H N R O L E S Mediterranean 52 53 54 55 G R A V E G U I T A R 29. Lane for 56 57 58 59 60 those carpooling 61S O L A R 62K I N G D 63A V I D O R A T E E L A L T I C S to YU 64 65 66 L O W Y E V A S B A S E D 31. NYC subway

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