Atlanta Jewish Times, Vol. XCI No. 11, March 18, 2016

Preparing for Purim

Special Report

BIG DECISIONS DUE AT FEDERATION

After more than 110 years as the central depot of charitable giving in Jewish Atlanta, Federation comes to a millennial crossroad while it searches for a CEO and crafts a strategic plan. Page 20

FOR REAL

ONLY MAKE-BELIEVE

Atlanta

If you’re looking for ways to celebrate Purim, our calendar crosses the community with options.

Page 14

The Times of Shushan makes its annual appearance, focusing on a surprising kosher meat, the highlights from the faux-shul beat and a fishy discovery from the depths of the Dead Sea. Pages 15-18

INSIDE

Calendar ���������������������������������� 2 Candle Lighting ��������������������� 2 Simchas ����������������������������������� 4 Health & Wellness ���������������� 6 Israel News ����������������������������� 8 Opinion ����������������������������������10 Education �������������������������������13 Purim ��������������������������������������14 Arts ����������������������������������������� 28 Obituaries ����������������������������� 29 Crossword ����������������������������� 30 Cartoon �����������������������������������31

VOL. XCI NO. 11

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MARCH 18, 2016 | 8 ADAR II 5776

NEW TO TOWN

And new to the AJT is Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder, offering a fresh perspective. Page 3

Photo by David R. Cohen

Sounds Through Light and Shadow

The seventh Atlanta Jewish Music Festival emerged from the darkness of a long, wet winter to open with the lightness of Hadar Noiberg’s flute at Steve’s Live Music and continued through the flame of the Havdalah candle, held by Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Scott Colbert, and the heat of Joe Buchanan’s Texas guitar soul as feared rain failed to dampen the enthusiasm or the crowds for the varied Jewish music. The festival continues into its second weekend with spiritual music and chanting at three Shabbat services, offers two chances to hear children’s performers Andrew & Polly, and rocks back toward the workweek with KehillaFest.

Find details at atlantajewishtimes.com/category/artsandlife/ajmf and www.atlantajmf.org. More photos, Page 32

PEDAL FOR HOPE

Ovarian Cycle, honoring Gay Lenner, raises funds to aid earlier cancer detection and longer survival. Page 7

BALANCED LIFE

Jewish nonprofits can do a lot of things to make up for lower pay, argue communal professional women. Page 12

PEOPLE’S BOOK

Emory unveils a collection of historic haggadot to get you in the Passover spirit. Page 28

Photo courtesy of AJMF

Jewish Candidates Lean Toward Judiciary

G

eorgia voters have no contests for 30 of 56 Senate seats and 88 of 180 House seats, but one of two Jews in the General Assembly faces opposition.

Rep. Michele Henson (D-Stone Mountain), who has served since 1991, faces a primary challenge from retiree Joscelyn O’Neil. No Republican is in the race, so the winner gets the seat.

Qualifying for the May 24 primary ballot took place March 7 to 11.

The only Jewish member of the state Senate, Buford Republican Renee Unterman, initially had a primary challenge from Todd Tyson, but he’s not on the final

list. Unterman appears to be unopposed.

It’s not clear whether new Jewish candidates are seeking General Assembly seats, but at least one is vying for Congress: Allan Levene of Rome, running in the Republican primary against Rep. Tom Graves of Calhoun. Electrician Mickey Tuck also is in the GOP race.

Levene, who was born in postwar England, ran for Congress in Georgia and Hawaii in 2014. His ideas include swapping a slice of Texas for the land Israel captured in 1967. Israel then would consist of two pieces 7,000 miles apart.

Among judicial races, Probate Judge

Jeryl Debra Rosh and State Court Judge Mike Jacobs are unopposed in DeKalb County, while State Court Judge Dax Lopez, having been blocked from a federal judgeship by Sen. David Perdue, faces a challenge from lawyer Roderick Bridges.

In Cobb County, Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Schuster faces Jewish lawyer Cindie Alter and Juvenile Court Judge Joanne Elizabeth Elsey.

Fulton County also has a Superior Court race involving two Jews, Gary Alembik and Andrew Margolis, who, along with Eric Dunaway, are seeking the seat being vacated by Wendy Shoob. ■

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CALENDAR THURSDAY, MARCH 17

“Book Thief” 10th anniversary. Author Markus Zusak discusses the novel at 7 p.m. at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Free; www. littleshopofstories­.com.

FRIDAY, MARCH 18

Rashi’s yahrzeit. Led by Chabad of North Fulton Rabbi Hirshy Minkowicz, families travel to New York for the weekend to mark Rashi Minkowicz’s second yahrzeit. The cost is $150 plus airfare; www.chabadnf.org.

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. Ruach Shabbat at Temple Beth Tikvah, 9955 Coleman Road, Roswell, starts at 6:30 p.m. with the congregation’s musicians. Free; www.atlantajmf.org.

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. Chant Shabbat, featuring Gayanne Guerin, Will Robertson and Sunmoon Pie, starts at 7:30 p.m. at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead. Free; www.atlantajmf.org.

SATURDAY, MARCH 19

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. Chant Shabbat, featuring Gayanne Guerin, Will Robertson and Sunmoon Pie, starts at 10 a.m. at Congregation Bet Haverim, 2074 LaVista Road, Toco Hills.

Free; www.atlantajmf.org.

Jewish gangsters. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, launches its Kiddush U education series with Rich Walter discussing “Kosher Nostra — History of the Jews in the Mob” at 12:30 p.m. Free; bethshalomatlanta.org/kiddush-u.

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. Andrew

& Polly perform two children’s concerts, at 5:30 and 7 p.m., at Venkman’s, 740 Ralph McGill Blvd., downtown.

Free; www.atlantajmf.org.

SUNDAY, MARCH 20

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. Andrew & Polly highlight the Purim family concert at 10 a.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free; www.atlantajcc.org/family-purim-concert.

Cancer fundraiser. Ovarian Cycle, benefiting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, starts at 11 a.m. at Life Time Athletic Atlanta, 5580 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Registration is $50 (free for cancer survivors); bit.ly/1QjUC2s.

“Fancy Nancy.” Synchronicity Performance Group presents a familyappropriate show based on the book series at 1, 3 and 5 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $10 to $20; www.atlantajcc.org/boxoffice or 678-812-4002.

Survivor story. The “Bearing Witness” series at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown, continues at 2 p.m. with Henry Birnbrey talking about escaping Hitler’s Germany as a child and returning as an American soldier. Free; thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.

Vegetable cooking. The Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, hosts chefs Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart, authors of “Mastering the Art of Southern Vegetables,” for two Page From the Book Festival events: a master cooking class at 3 p.m. and an author talk and signing at 7:30 p.m. Admission to both events,

Hillels to Honor Levens

H

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

illels of Georgia is holding its biggest annual fundraiser, “A Night With the Stars,” on Tuesday, March 29, at the Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road, Buckhead.

The show includes performances from past winners of “Campus Superstar,” the fundraiser “A Night With the Stars” is replacing, as well as Jewish day school students, community leaders and a few surprises.

The event highlights the milestones of Hillels of Georgia and honors the Leven family — Andrea and Mike, Kyeong-ah and Adam, Michelle and Rob, and Shawn and Jon — for many years of volunteer service in the Atlanta community and for passionate 2 efforts to support Jewish continuity.

AJT

The show starts at 7 p.m., and a party follows. Tickets are $250; people who never attended “Campus Superstar” can get tickets for $150.

Tickets and more information are available at hillelsofgeorgia.org/ nightwiththestars.

The Leven family also is sponsoring a challenge grant of $100,000. The Levens will match, dollar for dollar, new or increased donations to Hillels of Georgia to help its work of creating the next generation of Jewish leaders, supporting Israel and maintaining a strong Jewish identity among college students across the state.

Last year Hillels of Georgia reached more than 6,000 students through more than 700 programs. ■

CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Parshah Vayikra Friday, March 18, light candles at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 19, Shabbat ends at 8:26 p.m.

Parshah Tzav Friday, March 25, light candles at 7:35 p.m.

Saturday, March 26, Shabbat ends at 8:31 p.m.

Corrections & Clarifications

Chabad Intown’s Big Wrap took place March 2. The date was incorrect in a caption on Page 1 of the March 11 issue. including a copy of the cookbook, is $65 for JCC members and $80 for nonmembers. Admission to the talk only is $10 for members, $15 for nonmembers; www.atlantajcc.org or 678-812-4002.

Campus anti-Semitism. Jacob Levko­ wicz, the American Jewish Committee’s assistant director of campus affairs, and Emory University professor Ken Stein lead a discussion for high school and college students and their parents about issues on college campuses at 4 p.m. at the Weber School, 6751 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Free for students, $10 for parents; bit.ly/1U527yX. “The Lion King Jr.” Students at the Davis Academy perform the Disney musical at 1 and 7 p.m., as well as at 6:30 p.m.

March 21, at the Davis Middle School, 7901 Roberts Drive, Sandy Springs.

Tickets are $15; www.davisacademy. org/lionking.

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. KehillaFest with Soulfarm starts at 7 p.m. at Atlanta Jewish Academy, 5200 Northland Drive, Sandy Springs. Tickets are $18; www.thekehilla.org.

Preschool fundraiser. Intown Jewish Preschool holds its Rock the Casbah party at 7:30 p.m. at Chabad at Emory, 1526 N. Decatur Road, Atlanta. Admission is $25; 404-898-0438 or www. intownjewishpreschool­.org.

MONDAY, MARCH 21

Kabbalah workshop. The three-week mystical study of two biblical tales of espionage to gain self-mastery begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Intown Jewish Academy, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Midtown. The cost is $18; www.intownjewishacademy.org or 404-898-0434.

TUESDAY, MARCH 22

Tot holiday class. Chabad of North Fulton, 10180 Jones Bridge Road, Alpharetta, focuses on Purim customs at its Babyccino class for children through age 2½ and their moms at 11:30 a.m. Admission is $12; hs@chabadnf.org.

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. The AJMF House of Peace, featuring interfaith DJs FSQ, at 10 p.m. at Aisle 5, 1123 Euclid Ave., Atlanta, is the festival’s first electronic dance music event. Tickets (ages 18 and older) are $7 in advance, $10 at the door; aisle5atl.com.

THURSDAY, MARCH 24

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. Music at the Mikvah, featuring Jaffa Road’s Aviva Chernick and Aaron Lightstone, starts at 7:30 p.m. at MACoM, 700A Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Tickets are $10; www.freshtix. com/events/music-at-the-mikvah.

FRIDAY, MARCH 25

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. The Well, featuring Rabbi David Spinrad and Sammy Rosenbaum, is a monthly service for young professionals at 8:30 p.m. at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown. Free; www.atlantajmf.org.

SATURDAY, MARCH 26

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. A-WA and Jaffa Road headline the AJMF Purim party at Terminal West, 887 W. Marietta St., West Midtown. Doors open at 8 p.m.; music starts at 9. Tickets (ages 18 and up) are $20 in advance, $25 at the door; www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1057203.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27

Run for Rashi. Chabad of North Fulton holds a fundraising 5K run starting at 8 a.m. at Newtown Park, 3150 Old Alabama Road, Alpharetta. Registration is $36; www.chabadnf.org, runforrashi@ gmail.com or 770-410-9000.

Atlanta Jewish Music Festival. A teen battle of the bands is at 1:30 p.m. at the 595 North Event Center, 595 North Ave., Midtown. Free; www.atlantajmf.org.

Torah study. The Atlanta Rabbinical Association holds Torah study from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Weber School, 6751 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Free; register at atlantayomiyun.eventbrite.com.

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

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

OPENING IDEAS

How Do You Like Atlanta?

Abshalom, Amon, Tamar, and more.

These were great individuals, but they were not lone wolves. They were part of communities, clans and families.

Because to be Jewish is to be in connection.

In Atlanta, getting to know someone usually begins with talking about where I grew up: Canada. Where we go to synagogue: We have been enjoying

Taking Root

By Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder

visiting the wealth of congregations in the city across the denominations.

Who my children are: I have two.

These questions place me in context and connection. It is as if to say that who you are and what you do may be important, but no one is an island onto herself. Who we are owes not only to our own efforts, but to our relationships as well.

It is the confluence of Jewish and Southern values that I now point to when asked how I like Atlanta. I’ve met people here who remember my grandfather, an eye doctor in Montreal. I’ve been invited to every synagogue and to myriad Shabbat dinners. I’ve seen women post to the Jewish Moms of Atlanta to invite total strangers to their homes for holidays because everyone should have a place to belong and connect.

I am not naive. I have dedicated much of my rabbinate to helping people feel connected, and I know that Jews are not always the most welcoming bunch and at times misuse connection to exclude “others.” But our tradition teaches that any trait can be used for bad or good. And in my experience so far, that special confluence of Southern and Jewish values has been essential in helping me feel like who I am, where I come from and who my people are matter; it helps me feel like I belong. ■ Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder, Ph.D., is passionate about Jewish living, family, diversity and Jewish food. She works for Be’chol Lashon, an organization dedicated to celebrating the diversity of the Jewish people. She lives in Sandy Springs with her husband, David “Dr. D.” Abusch-Magder, and is mom to two teens.

You can find her online on Facebook and @rabbiruth on Twitter.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

F

rom the moment my family arrived in Atlanta this summer, people have asked us how we liked the city. The question was expected; a dual Jewish professional couple, we have moved many times in our careers, each time to a very different setting. Inevitably, people ask how we like our new home.

We have developed an approach to getting to know a new town. So immediately upon unpacking, we set out to explore. In Atlanta this means hikes along the Chattahoochee, exploring the offerings at Your DeKalb Farmers Market, walking or poking in the stores in Little Five Points.

Even as I miss the hills and water of the San Francisco Bay area, where we lived, and the friends we left behind, I find much to enjoy in Atlanta.

I point to these experiences when talking about what I like. But a recent trip to California helped me realize it is much more than that.

As it was my first trip back, not surprisingly I answered the question of how I liked Atlanta quite often. On my final evening, I sat in the home of a close friend who spent his formative years in Dunwoody.

As we discussed the differences between the two communities, I told him that one of the things I had noticed in Atlanta was that the first question people ask upon meeting someone is not “What do you do?” with the intention of placing someone professionally, but rather “Where do you belong?”

Nodding, my friend provided that questions of belonging are part and parcel of what it means to be from the South. My friend is wise. Born in the North, his family roots are in the South, and as a diversity trainer he thinks long and hard about how different parts of America are distinct from each other. So I accepted his assessment.

But my friend is not Jewish, and questions of belonging resonate with my deepest sense of what it means to be a Jew. Relationships are at the core of Judaism. Belonging is both theologically and sociologically important to Jewish life. Not only are the people of Israel in relationship with G-d, but with each other.

Genealogies matter. For example, King David is the son of Jesse, the son of Ohed, the son of Boaz and Ruth; he is the father of Solomon and

AJT 3

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SIMCHAS

Wedding Wachter

Eric Marshall Wachter and Miriam Ruth Fischer were married Jan. 17, 2016, at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. Rabbi Jack L. Moline officiated.

Eric is the associate director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Washington regional office. He oversees civil rights and community activities and advocacy in Washington, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received a law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School.

He is a son of Jan Levith Wachter and Paul Wachter of Marietta.

Miriam is an attending physician in emergency medicine at Inova Fairfax Hospital and a clinical professor with the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, both in Falls Church, Va. She is also a clinical professor with the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, from which she received her medical degree. She did her emergency medicine residency at Grady Hospital through Emory University. The bride’s undergraduate degree is from Cornell University.

She is a daughter of Linda G. Jason and Andrew M. Fischer of Brookline, Mass.

The couple recently returned from a honeymoon in Seoul, South Korea, and Bali.

Birth William Joseph Thiele

Shelley and Joe Thiele proudly announce the arrival of their son, William Joseph, on Nov. 14, 2015, in Atlanta. The thrilled grandparents are Donna and Arthur Salus, Karol and Kin Picker, and Pamela and Vijay Rampal. William was named in loving memory of his great-grandfather William McCurry and was given the Hebrew name Chaim Moshe in fond memory of great-grandfathers Harold Cederbaum and Rudy Salus.

Anniversary Larry and Ellen Nemeth Ellen, Twenty-five years of marriage is a blessing to treasure and a gift to celebrate.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

We have laughed together, Cried together, Grown together.

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We have carried each other’s burdens

And shared each other’s dreams.

I love you for all that you are, All that you have been And all you’re yet to be.

Happy 25th wedding anniversary.

Love always, Larry Nemeth

Share Your Joy The AJT loves simcha announcements and runs them at no charge. Send your good news about births, b’nai mitzvah, engagements, weddings and anniversaries to submissions@atljewishtimes.com. Call Michael Jacobs at 404-8832130, ext. 104, with any questions.

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Remember When

10 Years Ago March 17, 2006 ■ After two years of searching for a rabbi, Temple Beth Tikvah hopes Sunday, March 19, will be a big day. At a meeting that evening, the Reform congregation in Roswell will vote on the recommendation of the search committee and the board to hire Rabbi Frederick Greene. In seeking a successor to founding Rabbi Donald Tam, Beth Tikvah saw negotiations with a candidate fall through last year, and interim Rabbi Avi Levine agreed to stay a second year.

■ The bat mitzvah ceremony of Arielle Elizabeth Geller of Marietta, daughter of Michael and Robyn Geller, was held Saturday, Jan. 7, at Congregation Or Hadash.

25 Years Ago March 15, 1991 ■ Financial constraints are causing the Atlanta Jewish Community Center to relinquish the position of shaliach, the Israeli emissary to Atlanta, which has been part of the

center’s programming since 1981. Rami Amitai will be the last shaliach under AJCC auspices. The Atlanta Jewish Federation is expected to assume control of the program this summer, bringing Atlanta in line with some 20 other U.S. communities with World Zionist Organization emissaries.

■ Danna and Sandy Leff of Marietta announce the birth of a son, Cory Ross, on Feb. 13.

50 Years Ago March 18, 1966 ■ The Georgia State Association of B’nai B’rith Lodges convenes this weekend in Atlanta. The highlight of the convention will take place Sunday, March 20, at 1 p.m. at the Progressive Club. Gov. Carl Sanders of Georgia will be the speaker and present awards to several BBYO groups.

The entire community of Atlanta is invited to attend the luncheon and honor Gov. Sanders, who will be introduced

by Rep. Elliot Levitas of DeKalb County.

■ Mr. and Mrs. Julius Wilensky announce the engagement of daughter Rosalyn Joan Wilensky to Martin William Cohen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Cohen, all of Atlanta.

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Contributors This Week AMANDA ABRAMS RUTH ABUSCH-MAGDER CAROL GELMAN YONI GLATT JORDAN GORFINKEL M. PATRICK GRAHAM LEAH R. HARRISON RABBI LOREN LAPIDUS MEREDITH LEFKOFF RABBI LYDIA MEDWIN RONDA ROBINSON DAVE SCHECHTER EUGEN SCHOENFELD TERRY SEGAL RACHEL WASSERMAN

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Doing Well on Dialysis

Frank Moiger awaits a second kidney donation

By Ronda Robinson

I

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

t’s Sunday night, and the dialysis machines at Emory Healthcare in Midtown are whirring and beeping. Otherwise the clinic is quiet as 20 patients receive a lifesaving treatment that uses a special machine to clean their blood. One of them is wearing a B’nai B’rith T-shirt and a baseball cap.

Frank Moiger, 60, sits in his favorite lounge chair with needles in his arm connected to tubes circulating his Type B blood through a dialysis machine that filters out waste, salt and excess fluid. Like healthy kidneys, the process has kept his body in balance for years.

Tonight he will shed 6 pounds of fluid.

This is his life, three nights a week, six hours at a time. A modest, private person, he agreed to a visit during dialysis to help others understand what it’s like to be a kidney patient.

He spoke for National Kidney Month, observed every March to raise awareness of the importance of kidneys and to support the 26 million Americans living with kidney disease.

Information on kidney health, free

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screenings, organ donation and more is at the National Kidney Foundation website (www.kidney.org).

“I developed kidney disease before my bar mitzvah,” said Moiger, who grew up in Knoxville, Tenn. “I’m lucky we do have dialysis. People with endstage heart disease don’t have that opportunity. I’ve shown a person can do well on dialysis.”

He started on dialysis at age 22. “I went in to see the doctor because I had horrible headaches and was sick to my stomach. He sent me to the hospital, and I was put on dialysis.”

Moiger had planned a career in the hospitality industry and was employed at a downtown Atlanta hotel at the time. He lost his management training position, which would have required traveling across the country, because of his dialysis regimen. But he still worked a 60-hour week as assistant food and beverage manager.

The life expectancy for a dialysis patient then was five years. Moiger poured himself into his health and patient advocacy. In the 1980s he worked as associate director for the Georgia

affiliate of the kidney foundation and volunteered for the American Association of Kidney Patients, serving as Atlanta Frank Moiger (right) welcomes a longtime customer and friend, chapter president.

After a decade Harvey Linder, to one of his sports collectible shows. With Linder are his sons, Zal (back left), Aaron and grandson Aiden (front left). of dialysis, the access port to connect the equipment to to do well on dialysis. It took every part his bloodstream started failing, requir- of my being. I didn’t have a chance to ing a repair almost every three months. do in life what most normal people do.”

Moiger remains hopeful. His name “It became disheartening,” Moiger said.

“That’s when I went on a kidney trans- is on a transplant list at the University of Alabama at Birmingham transplant plant list.”

A donor match was made in 1990. center and soon, he hopes, Emory UniHe rushed to the University of Alabama versity. Because of his blood type and at Birmingham transplant center. Stay- other factors, it has been a long wait.

“I would just be grateful not to be ing in Birmingham for two weeks after leaving the hospital to make sure on dialysis anymore,” he said. “I also everything went well, he discovered a could eat bananas and baked potatoes baseball card shop, marking another again. I love those two foods so much.

But they’re really high in potassium; turning point in his life.

“I used to just collect cards as a kid potassium can stop the heart if you and put them away. I had some cards can’t excrete it.”

Dr. Stephen Pastan, the medical I remembered and wanted to see how much they were worth. I thought may- director of the Kidney and Pancreas be $300 each; at that time they were Transplant Program at the Emory Transplant Center, said the success worth $1,200 each,” Moiger said.

Back home, he started two busi- rate should still be good if a kidney is nesses, FairPlay Sportscards and At- found that proves a good match.

“We know that patients who are ellanta Area Sports Collectibles Shows. igible for and receive a transplant feel He likes to collect Jewish stars from his better and live longer than those who childhood, including Sandy Koufax. A stay on dialysis in most settings,” said diehard Vols fan, he also favors UniverPastan, also an associate professor. sity of Tennessee standouts.

He said the need for donors re“What I like about the business mains great, with more than 100,000 now is I’m seeing more baby boomers patients on kidney wait lists nationbringing in their kids and grandkids. ally: “With only about 17,000 to 18,000 Their dads and granddads are handkidney transplants per year, it’s critical ing down their hobby to them,” said that we focus our energies in promotMoiger, who is single. ing living donation.

This is something He runs his businesses around diwe’re working hard on at Emory.” alysis. Why is he back on dialysis? The The kidney foundation has donated kidney failed after 13 years. launched an awareness campaign on He dreaded returning to dialysis.

“I didn’t want to do it the second time. living donation called The Big Ask, The I wanted to die,” he said. “But for some Big Give (www.kidney.org/transplantareason HaShem said, ‘I’m not ready for tion/livingdonors). Georgia is one of the first states to roll out the program. you yet.’ ” Rabbi Ilan Feldman, the spiritual He was in home hospice but still running shows on the weekends with leader of Congregation Beth Jacob, said a lot of help from friends. People told it is absolutely appropriate for a Jew to him, “You really don’t want to die be- be an organ donor. “Of course, like everything else in life, there are halachic cause you’re still doing shows.”

One day in 2004, blood oozed from guidelines to follow, but the idea of savhis feet, and his sister took him to the ing a life by giving of your own being is hospital. He returned to dialysis on the the ultimate chesed (kindness).” ■ anniversary of his transplant and has Ronda Robinson and Frank Moiger remained on it ever since.

“I had to put a lot into staying have been friends since childhood in alive,” Moiger said. “To make it to 60 Knoxville, where they attended their first years old, I had to concentrate on how AZA dance together.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Ride to Remember Helps Fight Ovarian Cancer

O

varian Cycle started in 2004 as a way for Bethany Diamond to honor her friend Debbie Green Flamm, who died of ovarian cancer, and to raise money for research into the disease under the slogan “Join a community that rides to remember those lost, honor those still affected, and celebrate making an impact in the fight against ovarian cancer.”

The annual indoor ride, set for Sunday, March 20, remains a powerful way for people touched by ovarian cancer to take action in response.

According to the American Cancer Society, 22,280 women will receive a new diagnosis of ovarian cancer and 14,240 women will die from the disease in 2016. Ovarian cancer strikes one in 40 Ashkenazi women in their lifetime, compared with one in 71 for the general American population.

Gay Lenner was diagnosed with Stage 3C ovarian cancer in 2011. She and her family joined Ovarian Cycle the next year, and Lenner became a dedicated advocate for ovarian cancer awareness and research.

Her husband, Rick, said Gay never let her illness dampen her spirit; she mentored newly diagnosed women and counseled survivors.

She was on a mission to inform as many Gay Lenner women as she could about her terrible illness; for example, almost 400 women attended a program on genetics and ovarian cancer that she led at Temple Sinai.

“When she finally lost her battle to this deadly disease in 2015, there was a vast hole left in the hearts of not only her family, but the entire community,” Rick Lenner said.

The Ovarian Cycle efforts of the Lenner family and others are helping.

In 2012, Benedict Benigno, Lenner’s gynecological oncologist, told ride participants that their efforts and money raised would be used to perfect an early detection test at Georgia Tech.

In 2015, the Ovarian Cancer Institute, in partnership with Georgia Tech, developed a method to detect ovarian cancer that is highly accurate in pa-

tients with Stage 1 disease. That is significant because the survival rate for a Stage 1 diagnosis is close to 95 percent.

Ovarian cancer typically has been diagnosed late, with low survival rates, and has been known as a silent killer because its symptoms are so nonspecific that they are often dismissed by patients and doctors alike. They include suffering abdominal bloating, pressure and pain, feeling abnormally full after eating, experiencing increased urination, and feeling back pain.

It’s not uncommon that the earliest symptom is “My jeans are getting tight, but I am not gaining weight.”

This year’s ride will pay tribute to Gay Lenner. Ovarian Cycle will spin to her memory and carry her fundraising torch. Rick Lenner has a fundraising goal of $10,000, and the Lenner Spinners team is trying to raise $50,000 toward the event’s $200,000 target (matching what the Lenner team alone has collected the past four years).

Ovarian Cycle, a signature event series of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund since 2012, has raised nearly $2.1 million overall.

The event will feature an empty

Gay Lenner is joined at a past Ovarian Cycle by son Jonathan (left), husband Rick, daughter Alison, and Alison’s boyfriend, Michael Bernstein.

bike that represents ovarian cancer patients who are going through treatment or have died. You can donate to the empty bike or riders such as the Lenners, or you can participate as a fundraising rider, either alone or as part of a team. You even can be a virtual rider if you want to raise money but can’t attend the ride. ■ What: Ovarian Ride Where: Life Time Athletic Atlanta, 5580 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs When: 11 a.m. Sunday, March 20 Information: www.ocrf.org/news/ events/ocrfs-ovarian-cycle-rideatlanta-ga or kcoomber@ocrf.org

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

By Carol Gelman

AJT 7

ISRAEL NEWS

Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Kristal, who is 112½, on Friday, March 11. Kristal was born in Poland on September 15, 1903, to a religious Jewish family three months before the Wright brothers made their first successful flight. He has been an orphan for 106 years, since his mother died in 1910.

Above: Photo by Samuel Magal, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

Laurie Rimon shows the gold Roman coin she found while hiking in the eastern Galilee.

Below: Photo by Shai Halevy, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

The face of the coin features a portrait of the “deified Augustus.”

Roman coin found in Galilee. While hiking with friends in the eastern Galilee, Kibbutz Kfar Blum member Laurie Rimon uncovered a rare gold coin at an archaeological site. The coin, which bears the image of Roman Emperor Augustus, is the twin of a coin that is housed in the British Museum in London and was thought to be unique.

Minted in 107 C.E., the gold piece was part of a series of nostalgic coins that Emperor Trajan minted and dedicated to Roman emperors who preceded him.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

Ghana’s foreign minister at Yad Vashem. The foreign minister of Ghana, Hannah Tetteh, visited Yad Vashem on Monday, March 14. She toured the Holocaust History Museum, participated in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, visited the Children’s Memorial and signed the guestbook.

AJT 8

The Jewish Peace Corps. The Jewish Agency for Israel is recruiting young people from Israel and around the world to volunteer in distressed communities in Africa, South America and Israel as part of Project TEN. Billed as “the Jewish Peace Corps,” the program was created three years ago and offers the opportunity to practice the Jewish values of tzedakah and tikkun olam.

The oldest man on Earth. The oldest living man in the world is a survivor of Auschwitz who has lived in Haifa since 1950. Guinness World Records officially announced the status of Israel

Saving stabbing victims. An Ariel University researcher has discovered a promising method to stop the uncontrolled bleeding of stab wounds, potentially saving lives from terrorist attacks. The only available solutions to stop bleeding from the deep wounds caused by terrorist stabbings are either too weak or so strong that they cause deadly blood clots. But Moshe Rogosnitzky discovered that gallium, used to stop bone loss in cancer patients, in liquid form as gallium nitrate can rapidly halt bleeding without causing blood clots. Extensive testing to verify the finding and determine the best dosage and delivery method is needed before the approach can be used.

Spanish tech mission to Israel. The first Spanish high-tech mission to Israel, which began Monday, March 14, was organized by Red.es, a public corporate entity of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism. As part of the mission, Spanish startups visited leading digital players in Israel’s tech hub, as well as investment funds, communities of entrepreneurs and international corporations with innovation centers in Israel.

Click on a Tel Aviv beach. The Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality has launched a nonstop live-streaming website featuring the city’s beaches. Visitors to the site can view wind speed, wave height and other sea conditions as well as see a live feed of the beach. Tel Aviv has won countless accolades for its pristine Mediterranean white-sand beaches.

Hummus-flavored beer. The Israeli Ministry of Tourism has brewed up a special hummus beer, produced from chickpea flour, for ITB Berlin, the world’s leading travel trade show. The beer links Israeli and German cultures and was served at a tourism meeting the Israel Government Tourist Office held during the conference.

Compiled courtesy of Israel’s Government Press Office, Israel21c.org and other news sources.

Free Atlanta Show Could Be Boon for Yemin Orde

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he Atlanta community has been challenged to donate $50,000 to earn an Israeli school a dollarfor-dollar matching grant tied to a free concert next month.

The 11-member Yemin Orde Youth Choir, composed of at-risk teens from Ethiopia, France, Brazil and former Soviet republics who live and study at the youth village on Mount Carmel, is performing at The Temple at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 6, during a U.S. tour organized by Friends of Yemin Orde.

That fundraising organization has received a $50,000 challenge grant from an Atlanta supporter. The grant will match every dollar in new and increased gifts to Friends of Yemin Orde from the Atlanta community through April 20, up to $1,000 per donor.

In addition to the $50,000 challenge grant, the Marcus Foundation has an ongoing 2-to-1 challenge grant for donations to bring Yemin Orde’s Village Way methodology to additional villages and schools in Israel. Thus, commitments made at the choir concert will be matched on a 3-to-1 basis.

“Yemin Orde and its Village Way educational methodology are changing the very nature of education for at-risk youth in Israel,” said Lewis Shubin, a Friends of Yemin Orde national board member and co-chair of the concert with his wife, Joanie. The new challenge grant “is important for Israel’s future and for the future generations of Jews everywhere.”

The choir’s Atlanta performance will celebrate the 30-year partnership between Yemin Orde and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.

“We are thrilled to have Yemin Orde’s choir in Atlanta to celebrate the great friendship between Yemin Orde and our community. Our aim is to make this the choir’s largest event during its U.S. tour, and we are confident Atlanta’s Southern hospitality will help make this effort a success,” said Robert Arogeti, the Shubins’ event co-chair, who joined the Friends of Yemin Orde national board last fall.

Registration for the concert, which begins with a dessert reception, is open at bit.ly/22geif2. ■

P&C INSURANCE AGENTS!!!

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To be considered for this position, please forward resumes to: joley@aaasouth.com.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

ISRAEL NEWS

AJT 9

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Our View

Asian Appeal

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MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

great worry these days is the spread of antiIsrael sentiment and the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement on college campuses.

We have written about and will continue to report on examples of the dangerous battle for hearts and minds at universities around the country, including the University of Georgia this semester. From BDS resolutions to protests of pro-Israel speakers to the nasty propaganda of Israel Apartheid Week, antiIsrael activists are targeting a population (college students) that is vulnerable because of a combination of ignorance, innocence and social justice impetus.

Michael Coles, the president of Hillels of Georgia, emphasized the reality and importance of that campus struggle during his appearance before the AJTsponsored Jewish Breakfast Club on Thursday, March 10. Coles said he is committed to working with Hillel as long as necessary to ensure that the campus organization has the resources it needs to help college students be proud of their Jewish identities and of Israel.

(You can contribute to that cause by attending Hillels of Georgia’s “Night With the Stars” fundraiser Tuesday night, March 29, at the Buckhead Theatre.

Visit hillelsofgeorgia.org/nightwiththestars.)

A national event that recently came through Georgia, the Start Up Nation Technology Fair, provides reassurance that the pro-BDS, anti-Israel forces are losing and will continue to do so.

It’s not that the turnout for the traveling fair was overwhelming at Georgia Tech on Feb. 29 and Emory on March 1, although the showcase of Israeli innovation and entrepreneurship organized by Israel Ideas and Hasbara Fellowships drew good attendance.

It’s not that the gathering of such startups as Zeekit, which lets you virtually try on new clothes, and Mobileye, whose technology helps cars avoid collisions, was a reminder of the contributions Israeli companies make to modern life worldwide, although that message was unavoidable.

It’s not that the fair’s internship opportunities with Israeli companies strengthen connections at a personal level, although the conversations alone between students and startup executives created networking bonds that could pay dividends for decades.

The most important thing about the tech fair, at least at Emory, was which students showed up, made those connections and learned the value of Israel.

Yes, Jewish students were there, but while it’s important to strengthen young Jews’ connections to Israel, they didn’t appear to be the largest group.

That honor goes to Asian students.

They flocked to the fair, drawn by Israeli technology and know-how and the possibility to work with and learn from Startup Nation stars.

Conexx Vice President Barry Swartz, who spoke at the Emory fair, said the Asian turnout was not surprising; he has seen it before, as when an Israeli Nobel laureate came to Atlanta several years ago and spoke to an audience filled with people whose roots are between India and Japan.

Such crowds demonstrate why BDS will always fail on campus: Too many smart non-Jews are too busy building and benefiting from a better world to 10 get mired in politics. ■

AJT

‘Passion’ Plays With Scary Passion

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he Easter season is upon us, and with it comes create an arthouse film series each fall and spring. A one of the hottest trends in television — live series ticket got you access to one independent film musicals — applied to a centuries-old form of a week for 10 weeks. Most of those films never would spring entertainment, the Passion play. have reached a place like Henderson without the Before Atlantan Tyler Perry’s “The Passion” series. “Passion” was an exception. airs live from New Orleans on Fox at 8 p.m. Sunday, The theater owner included “Passion” in the March 20, it’s worth remembering that no Passion series either as an incentive or a reward for patrons. play — a dramatic retelling of Jesus’ final days — For my wife and me, who bought tickets to each seaever was good for the Jews. sonal series, it was a The first and last time I challenge. Neither of remember seeing a Passion play us would have paid Editor’s Notebook in person, amid a crowd of Christo see the film, but

By Michael Jacobs tians, was in the spring of 2004 given that we had mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com when Mel Gibson’s “The Passion passes as part of the of the Christ” was packing movie series, should we go theaters across the nation. or stay home?

In case you’ve somehow forgotten that mania My wife skipped it; she had seen enough of Pas12 years ago, the Jewish community was on edge as sion plays in her life. But I couldn’t resist the chance “Passion” shattered all box office expectations. to see what all the hype was about.

Some people then, and many more since, It was, without a doubt, the most uncomfortable blamed the Anti-Defamation League in a self-fultwo hours I’ve ever experienced while supposedly filling prophecy for the film’s success and for any being entertained. negative feelings it spread toward Jews. The thinking I sat in the back of a sold-out theater and spent was that if ADL head Abe Foxman hadn’t spent the as much time watching people watching the movie second half of 2003 publicizing “Passion” with his as following the screen violence myself. For the most criticism of the portrayal of Jesus’ contemporary part, they were in ecstasy. The more Jim Caviezel’s JeJews, no one would have wanted to see a movie shot sus suffered, as he did with relentless snuff-film bruin Aramaic and Latin. tality, the closer the Christians seemed to feel they That day in the movie theater in Henderson, were to redemption or salvation. And they couldn’t N.C., I realized Foxman was more like Cassandra, help but absorb the film’s message that all of Jesus’ offering accurate prophecies no one would believe, suffering was caused and cheered on by Jews. than Don Quixote, battling nonexistent monsters.

I tried to fade into the seat so no one would Henderson, a rural town an hour north of notice that one of the town’s 10 Jews was there.

Raleigh that you’ve driven through if you’ve taken The point isn’t that Gibson’s film was anti-SeInterstate 85 into Virginia, wasn’t much for culture, mitic. The fault lay in the story he was telling, a mebut it did have two wonderful holdovers of a bygone dieval version of events that had a nasty habit each era: an independently owned first-run movie theater Easter of inspiring violence against the local Jews. and a drive-in.

It’s the same story Perry is telling Sunday night, The owner of the movie theater had class and albeit with a modern setting and soundtrack. I’m good business sense, and she combined them to glad I’ll be at KehillaFest, far from a TV. ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Federation: Looking Back, Looking Forward probably used one of my favorite lines — that issues may appear black and white from a distance but up close are

From Where I Sit

By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com

shades of gray.

And then I said it.

I prefaced my suggestion by citing an estimate that only one in four American Jews had visited Israel.

I don’t recall the reaction of our Federation hosts. I doubt they were pleased.

That experience aside, I remain available to address Federation or other Jewish communal events.

In the process of writing about the future of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, I read dozens of articles about the past and present of Jewish communal life in this country and the Jewish Federation movement.

I talked with people who work for and with JFGA, as well as others involved in Jewish communal affairs in

A Note for Purim

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he other night I watched one of my favorite television programs, “Finding Your Roots.” While I am interested in the history of most of the families depicted, I am most interested in the histories of the Jewish families.

My interest is perhaps rooted in my own lack of knowledge of my ancestry.

Indeed, very few Jews in the United States have knowledge about their families beyond those who immigrated to these United States.

The recent episode of “Finding Your Roots” featured the history of Dustin Hoffman’s family tree.

The paternal side of his family story is indeed a tragic one. His grandfather and great-grandfather suffered extreme losses at the hands of the Bolshevik revolutionists. His grandfather, great-grandfather and grand-uncle were killed by the Soviet secret police, the Cheka.

His great-grandmother, after a seven-year imprisonment in a gulag, was able to escape and migrated to Brazil, from where she finally settled

with the remnant of her family in Chicago. All this, according to the story, was unknown to Hoffman, and his father refused to talk about it.

In the end, when asked what his

One Man’s View

By Eugen Schoenfeld

thoughts were, Hoffman raised his head and proudly proclaimed, “I am a Jew.” Needless to say, I too shed some tears as the story unfolded.

Yes, most of us have tragic stories to tell — stories of persecution, of hardship, of attempts to survive. Of course, I, too, as a Holocaust survivor, have stories to share, and so do most other Jewish families living in the United States — or perhaps I should say worldwide.

But as we look at these stories, it becomes evident that a common denominator characterizing the Jew-

Atlanta and elsewhere in the country.

A number of people were willing to speak with me provided that I not use their names. As the largest player in the local Jewish world, JFGA involves some of the most prominent and wealthiest members of the community. There is, therefore, an understandable sensitivity about having one’s name attached to anything that might be taken as criticism.

I appreciate the time taken by the lay leaders and professional staff of JFGA in talking with me and thank them for their patience in answering my questions.

As with lengthy articles I have written about Holocaust survivors, Leo Frank and Jewish-Catholic relations, writing about the Jewish Federation was an opportunity to study an aspect of Jewish life with which I had a passing but hardly deep familiarity.

As a “legacy” organization, with roots laid more than a century ago, Federation faces challenges as it seeks to remain relevant in the 21st century.

Not the least of these is to attract the millennial generation — young adults born after 1980 — who are said to be more cause-oriented than loyal to organizations and more demand-

ing of transparency from recipients of their donations.

JFGA is in transition, seeking a new chief executive as it implements a new strategic plan and updates a decade-old profile of the community.

As individuals and through its communal organizations, Jewish Atlanta forms its own safety net, and Federation provides major support for that net. Federation funds schools, social service agencies and other organizations that care for those in need, young and old, singles and families; that educate students of all ages; and that encourage a culture of participation in Jewish life.

You can donate to Federation, whose staff and lay leaders are dedicated to identifying communal needs and making sure that any gaps in services are filled. Or you can do the research yourself and donate directly to causes of personal interest.

Regardless, every dollar counts.

By the way, I still believe that American Jews who have not been to Israel (and the current estimate is that only 40 percent have) should make the trip. Even if that means forgoing a charitable contribution.

Yes, I said it. ■

ish people is the indomitable spirit to survive as Jews. Jewish history attests that most of us or members of our families in the past survived against all odds.

We all are “unsinkable Molly Browns”; we are the unsinkable Jewish people.

In the last two millennia we were, more than any nationality or religious group, torn from our homes and had to survive outrageous fortunes, myriad massacres and even forced conversions, but in the end we retained our identity and our spirit. Indeed, we are a stiff-necked people.

It is this propensity to survive and have phoenixlike rebirths that is our enduring quality.

In a letter sent to me by President Barack Obama on the occasion of my 90th birthday, he writes: “You are

part of an extraordinary generation that, in the face of unspeakable evil, showed the courage to preserve and the strength to thrive.”

Yes, Mr. President, we have done so for two millennia.

On the 23rd of this month, on Wednesday evening, I’ll read the Megillah. It is a story of Jewish perseverance and of survival against historical enemies who wished and still wish to destroy us — and yet we survive and in most times even prosper, especially in our spirit.

11 Happy Purim. ■

Yaakov Kirschen, Dry Bones

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

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nd then I said it.

“Next year, don’t write a check. Take yourself to Israel and see for yourself what the fuss is all about.”

That may not have been the most judicious choice of words. Not at a Jewish Federation event — in my wife’s hometown.

We recently had returned after nearly two years in Israel, most if it spent working in the Jerusalem bureau of an international television news network.

I knew this community, having spent several years there reporting for a local newspaper.

This community straddles a river.

On one side was the Conservative congregation in which my wife grew up. On the other, of course, was a Reform congregation.

There were about 100 people in the audience that night, including my wife’s paternal grandmother.

When it was my turn, I gave an overview of the situation in Israel.

I talked about notables I had interviewed, those whose names the audience would recognize, and stories I had covered in Israel and elsewhere. I

AJT

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Employers Must Help Set Work-Life Balance

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ing. Not all are the best fit for every any Jewish nonprofit profesorganization, so board members, CEOs sionals forgo higher salaries and HR directors should consider the or glamorous job opportuniindividual nuances of each workplace ties to work in an organization that and think creatively about potential matches their values and fulfills them on a different level.

Although a nonprofit Guest Column or congregation cannot pay employees at the same level

By Amanda Abrams, Rabbi Loren Lapidus, as corporate America, it Meredith Lefkoff, Rabbi Lydia Medwin and can adopt policies to make Rachel Wasserman the workplace more accommodating and conducive to areas for improvement. an appropriate work-life balance. This Here are some ideas, many taken not only ensures that an organization practices the Jewish values it preaches, from AWP’s Better Work Better Life Campaign recommendations: but also increases employee morale • Create a policy of formal flexand reduces turnover. ibility. This may include some or all Advancing Women Professionals of the following components: flextime states, “Retaining talent and cultivat(allowing employees to think outside ing loyalty is more cost-effective than high employee turnover.” The econom- the 9-to-5 box); telecommuting (which may alleviate child care limitations for ic benefits have been underscored and employees and space constraints for proved by such businesses as Google, employers all at once); part-time work; Netflix and PepsiCo. It is time for the compressed workweeks (40 hours do nonprofit world to follow suit. not have to be spread evenly across In addition to paid parental leave, five days); and job sharing (divide a job which is the natural starting point for among more than one employee). any organization seeking to formalize • Provide a clean, comfortable the link between Jewish values and pumping room for breast-feeding smart organizational strategy, there mothers with access to electrical are many other best practices organioutlets, adequate refrigerator space, zations should consider implement-

a sink for cleaning pump equipment and a nice place to sit. And, no, a bathroom is not acceptable. While this is required by law for companies with more than 50 employees, all organizations should keep the needs of mothers and babies in mind and make life as easy as possible for pumping moms.

• Many of us have experienced the following scenarios: A child is too sick to attend school but not sick enough to stay home in bed; the power is out at the day care, and it closes for the day; the nanny experiences car trouble; the day school closes at noon for parent conferences. Few life situations are more stressful than searching for safe, quality child care in a short amount of time. How can an organization or congregation alleviate some of that stress on working parents? Depending on the situation, perhaps the employee can bring the child to the office or work from home (without fear of being criticized or punished). Some organizations offer emergency child care on site or contract with a professional child care company to make it very easy for parents to quickly arrange alternative care. More important, supervisors should be understanding, cooperative and collaborative so as not to add to the stress of the situation.

• Respect boundaries. When your development officer gets married, it is not appropriate to ask for her family planning timeline. When your cantor is pregnant, don’t ask whether the baby was planned or whether she intends to return to work after the baby is born. When your administrative assistant has several children, it is none of your business whether she intends to have more. When a candidate interviews for a CEO position, it is neither acceptable nor legal to ask about her family. Oftentimes these questions and comments come from a good place, but they can be received as threatening, uncomfortable and inappropriate.

As a rule, if you are not sure whether something is your business, err on the side of caution and don’t ask.

Ultimately, aim to create and maintain an atmosphere of respect, privacy and flexibility for your professional team. Remember that they are whole people, with lives and responsibilities that extend beyond their position at your organization or congregation. ■

tice and upholding the integrity of the legal profession in our state.

— Robert J. Kauffman, president, State Bar of Georgia

sure effective follow-through.

The common thread for these organizations, many of which are behind some of Israel’s most important social advancements, such as Israel’s first rape centers, is the New Israel Fund.

For over 35 years the New Israel Fund has supported Arab and JewishArab civil society organizations that protect and promote both the rights of Arab citizens of Israel and a shared society for which all of its citizens feel an equal sense of ownership and responsibility. This is not only good for Arab Israelis; this is good for all Israelis.

— Shai Robkin, chair, New Israel Fund Atlanta Regional Council

2010, when a minister announced that Israel would build apartments in Ramat Shlomo, a part of Jerusalem that is not in pre-1967 Israel. In any two-state solution, Ramat Shlomo, being west of Jerusalem proper, would be on the Israeli side. But an international crisis erupted, with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton screaming at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a solid 45 minutes.

Is the murder of an American citizen less important than apartments?

I am trying to put myself in the shoes of our leadership. I felt a great loss over the murder of Taylor Force, even though I never had the honor of meeting this graduate of West Point, veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and future entrepreneur. The greatness of the United States rests on people like Force. If one looks at the cold calculations from the State Department, they might say an ex-military person in business school is likely a Republican, and his death might distract attention from the massive violation that Iran has committed with its ballistic missile launch. To paraphrase our likely next president, “What difference does it make?”

— Jack L. Arbiser, Toco Hills

Letters To The Editor

Mourning Judge Feldman

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

On behalf of the State Bar of Georgia, I would like to express condolences to the family, colleagues and many friends of retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Joel M. Feldman on his recent passing.

Judge Feldman served as a U.S. magistrate judge for 31 years before he retired in 2005. Previously, he had served the public in a number of positions, including assistant Georgia attorney general, assistant legislative counsel, assistant Fulton County district attorney, and legislative assistant and legal counsel for U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn. He was also a director of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association.

Judge Feldman served his country for 29 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve, retiring as a captain and military judge, and served his faith community as a president of Temple Sinai.

All Georgia lawyers and judges are grateful for Judge Feldman’s lifetime of service and are inspired by his many 12 contributions toward promoting jus-

AJT

Showing NIF’s Work Thanks for informing your readers about a recent to visit to Atlanta by Reem Younis, an Arab Israeli high-tech entrepreneur who is working hard to advance not only the interests of her own Nazareth-based company, but also those in her community who have the potential to emulate her success (“Arab Entrepreneur Helps Engineer Israel’s Future,” March 11). She spoke in Atlanta on behalf of the New Israel Fund, of which she is a new board member.

Ms. Younis expressed her excitement about the Israeli government’s recent decision to invest more than $2.5 billion to close the gaps between Israel’s Jewish and Arab populations.

Government decisions of this nature are not made overnight; they come from the advocacy work of citizens through civil society organizations.

While we should all be encouraged by this decision, proper implementation will depend, in good part, on the ongoing efforts of these organizations to en-

Biden’s Two Visits This month Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel. During his visit American Taylor Force was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist. The Palestinian leadership, including Mahmoud Abbas, refused to condemn the attack, which the Palestinian media praised.

The most that Abbas would do was offer condolences that Force was in the wrong place at the wrong time. There was no outrage from Washington.

Contrast this to a visit by Biden in

This column was written on behalf of an action group of Jewish communal professionals who are also mothers of young children.

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

EDUCATION

The Epstein School’s (from left) Gavin Brown, Shai Bachar and Dylan Wendt placed in the top three in their categories at the Georgia Educational Technology Fair.

10 State Tech Winners

Ten winners from the North Atlanta Jewish Students Technology Fair went on to place in the top three at the Georgia Educational Technology Fair on March 5 in Macon.

The nearly 70 students who qualified for the state competition from the North Atlanta Jewish event in January were allowed to submit projects on video to avoid violating Shabbat.

The Epstein School’s Shai Bachar was the only North Atlanta Jewish qualifier to finish first in the state, capturing the title for third- and fourthgraders in device modification.

Fellow Epstein students Gavin Brown and Dylan Wendt finished third among fifth- and sixth-graders for their project in device modification.

Atlanta Jewish Academy’s Dan Jutan placed second in the tech programming challenge for high school juniors and seniors.

Two students, the Davis Academy’s Jordan Liban among seventh- and eighth-graders and the Weber School’s Josh Glass for ninth- and 10th-graders, finished second in game design.

Liban and Davis classmate Jake Friedman’s 3D modeling project was third for seventh- and eighth-graders.

Charlie Berss from Davis finished third among third- and fourth-graders in 3D modeling.

Shaun Regenbaum of Atlanta Jewish Academy was third in 3D modeling among high school juniors and seniors.

Yoni Bachar from Druid Hills High School finished third in robotics among ninth- and 10th-graders.

Each STAR student is asked to name the teacher most influential in her academic development.

Those STARs are math teacher Patsy Cain at AJA and chemisAbby Stein try teacher Nicole Brite at Weber.

“It has been a privilege to see Jessica grow, not only in her love and passion for chemistry, but into a wonderful and caring young lady as well,” Brite said. “I am so very honored that she chose me as her STAR teacher.”

Abby, who scored 2270 on the SAT and has a 4.5 GPA, is co-president of the AJA Student Council, a varsity volley-

Weber School STAR student Jessica Bachner says her STAR teacher pick, Nicole Brite, has helped her fall in love with chemistry.

ball player and a primary cast member in musical theater productions.

TIP Fellowship Deadline Friday, March 25, at 5 p.m. is the deadline for undergraduate and graduate college students to apply for The Israel Project’s Tower Tomorrow Fel-

lowship, an eight-week summer program in writing and media advocacy in Washington, D.C. Tower Magazine Editor David Hazony leads a writing seminar in which the students write and revise 2,000-word articles on Israel and the Middle East, practice short-form journalism, and produce daily blog posts.

Fellows meet with journalists, scholars and diplomats, work with TIP staff members, and visit institutions such as Congress, the Israeli Embassy and The Washington Post.

The fellowship runs from June 6 to July 29. Participants must pay for their own travel, housing and living expenses. Fellows receive a $2,500 stipend.

Get an application and more details at www.theisraelproject.org/fellowships.

Atlanta Jewish Academy and the Weber School in late January announced their STAR students in the Class of 2016: Abby Stein at AJA and Jessica Bachner at Weber.

Under the auspices of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, the Student Teacher Achievement Recognition program honors the senior at each high school who has the highest SAT score on one test date and is in the Top 10 in the class (or top 10 percent) based on grade-point average.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

STAR Students Named

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www.atlantajewishtimes.com

PURIM

Purim Around Town SATURDAY, MARCH 19

Spiel. The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown, hosts an adults-only Purim spiel, starting with cocktails at 6 p.m.

Free; RSVP to lsimon@the-temple.org.

Spiel. Congregation Shearith Israel, 1180 University Drive, Morningside, offers “$25,000 PURIMid,” with Havdalah, drinks and desserts, at 8 p.m.

Free; RSVP to rsvp@shearithisrael.com.

SUNDAY, MARCH 20

Hava Megillah. Andrew & Polly highlight the Purim family concert at 10 a.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free; www.atlantajcc.org/family-purim-concert.

Family celebration. Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs, starts with a family Megillah reading and sensory-sensitive reading at 10:15 a.m. and continues with a carnival from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Admission is $10 per child 3 and older (food is extra); temple sinaiatlanta­.org­/worship/purim.

Parade. Congregation Beth Jacob holds its community Purim parade at 11 a.m. from the Toco Hill Shopping Center at LaVista and North Druid Hills roads to Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills. Enter a float — a truck, a car or a group walking with a banner — at bit. ly/1QmNYs2. Free; 404-633-0551, ext.

233, www.bethjacobatlanta.org/purim, or sfberkowitz@bethjacobatlanta.org.

Carnival. Congregation Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, holds a festival from noon to 3. Free admission; www.bethjacobatlanta.org/purim.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

Carnival. Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead, holds a carnival from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Admission is $10 per child or $25 per family for members or $15 per child or $35 per family for nonmembers; aasynagogue.org/worship/holidays.html.

Carnival. The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown, holds a carnival that opens to preschoolers at 11 a.m. and to everyone at 11:30. Admission is free, with a charge for activities and food; the-temple.org or khoffman@thetemple­.org.

Carnival. Temple Kol Emeth, 1415 Old Canton Road, East Cobb, holds a carnival from 11:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Admission is free, with a charge for activities and food; www.kolemeth.net or 77014 973-3533.

AJT

Family party. Jewish Kids Groups and Brookhaven Bayit @ OVS hold a party from noon to 1 at Congregation Or VeShalom, 1681 North Druid Hills Road, Brookhaven. Free; www.jewishkidsgroups.com/purim-party-2016.html.

Carnival. Congregation Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Parkway, East Cobb, holds a space-themed Purim carnival from 12:15 to 2:15 p.m. Admission is $15; www.etzchaim.net or 770-973-0137.

Open house. Berman Commons, 2026 Womack Road, Dunwoody, celebrates its first anniversary and Purim from 2 to 4 p.m. with a toast, hamantaschen, and music by the Chaverim Klezmer Band and violinist Boris Savchuk. Free; 678-222-7500.

Hamantaschen making. The Sixth Point gathers adults for a costumeoptional session baking the triangular treats from 2 to 5 p.m. at 2884 Parkridge Drive, Brookhaven. Admission is $5; thesixthpoint.org or 470-210-6847.

MONDAY, MARCH 21

Hamantaschen workshop. The Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, teaches adults the history and making of the Purim treats at 7 p.m. Admission is $35 for JCC members, $50 for nonmembers; register by March 19 at www.atlantajcc. org/holy-hamantashen or 678-812-3971.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23

Pizza and Esther. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, offers a free dinner of pizza and salad at 5:30 p.m. and the full Megillah at 6:30 p.m. Free; bethshalomatlanta.org/erev-purim or 770-399-5300.

Super celebration. Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs, includes superhero training in its holiday celebration, starting with a carnival for children 6 and under at 5:30 p.m. and continuing with an early childhood Megillah experience and a carnival for those 7 and older at 6:30, Maariv at 7:15, and the Megillah reading at 7:30. Free (food available for purchase); www.bnaitorah.org/purim-events-march-23-24.

Festivities. Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead, celebrates the start of Purim with a family dance party at 5:45 p.m., a Megillah reading at 6:30 and a klezmer concert by the Marlatov Cocktails at 8.

Admission is $5 for those 21 and older,

including one drink, and free for those younger; aasynagogue.org/worship/ holidays.html.

Pre-Megillah fun.

Congregation Shearith Israel, 1180 University Drive, Morningside, holds a family dinner with festivities at 6 p.m., followed by a costume parade and Megillah reading at 7. Free (boxes of mac and cheese for use as groggers are $3); RSVP to Natalie Surpris at 404-873-1743.

Adult celebration. Temple Kol Emeth, 1415 Old Canton Road, East Cobb, offers the Megillah, cocktails and more fun at Pour ’Em for Purim at 7:30 p.m. Free; www.kolemeth.net or 770-973-3533.

Hypnotic celebration. Congregation Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Parkway, East Cobb, offers a magical Megillah reading with a spiel featuring hypnotist Gary Conrad at 7:30 p.m. Free; www.etzchaim.net or 770-973-0137.

Adult celebration. Chabad of Cobb, 4550 Lower Roswell Road, East Cobb, provides a Megillah reading, open bar and buffet at 8 p.m. Admission is $18; www.chabadofcobb.com or 770-5654412.

Family reading. Chabad Intown, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Midtown, celebrates with Maariv at 8:10 p.m., a Megillah reading at 8:15 and a light break fast at 9. Free; chabadintown.org/purim.

Heroes & Villains Purim Party. YJP Midtown Atlanta’s party for young professionals, featuring such drinks as the Shushan Moonshine, Morde-High, Gin ’N’ Taschen, Flamin’ Haman and Mordtini, begins at 7:45 p.m., with the Megillah reading at 8:15, at 11th Frame, 1940 Piedmont Circle, Midtown. Tickets are $5 until March 20, then $10; www.yjpmidtownatlanta.com.

THURSDAY, MARCH 24

Brazilian celebration. Chabad of Peachtree City, 632 Dogwood Trail, Tyrone, holds “Purim in Brasil” at 5 p.m.

Admission is $15 per person or $50 per family until March 15 and $20 each or $70 per family afterward; chabadsouthside.com.

Splash celebration. Chabad of North Fulton, 10180 Jones Bridge Road, Alpharetta, offers the chance to dunk Haman as part of its family carnival and Megillah reading at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $5 (dinner is extra); www. chabadnf.org.

New York celebration. Chabad of Cobb, 4450 Lower Roswell Road, East Cobb, reads the Megillah and provides New York-style food and family fun at 6 p.m. Reservations are $10 each or $36 per family by March 18, $15 and $46 after that; www.chabadofcobb.com or 770-565-4412.

Celebration in the stars. Chabad Intown, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Midtown, offers a multimedia Megillah reading, a cosmic spiel and more fun at 4:30 p.m. Admission is $10 for children, $18 for adults; www.chabadintown. org/purim.

“Lights, Camera, Megillah!” The Kehilla, 5075 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, holds its TV-and-movie-themed Purim celebration with the Megillah at 4:30 p.m. and a meal at 5:30. The fee is $18 for members, $23 for nonmembers through March 19, then $23 and $28, plus $5 for children 3 to 12; www.thekehilla.org/purim.

FRIDAY, MARCH 25

Preschool parade. The Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, hosts a Purim parade and costume contest for the Weinstein School at 10 a.m. on Main Street, followed by a Purim-flavored Shabbat sing-along in the Morris & Rae Frank Theatre. Free; www.atlantajcc.org.

Spiel. Temple Kol Emeth, 1415 Old Canton Road, East Cobb, presents its Purim show, “MagThriller,” during Erev Shabbat services at 8 p.m. Free; www.kolemeth.net or 770-973-3533.

SATURDAY, MARCH 26

South-side celebration. Congregation B’nai Israel, 1633 Highway 54 East, Fayetteville, offers a Purim extravaganza with games, a spiel, costumes, hamantaschen and a light dinner at 6:30 p.m.

Admission is $8 for children and $10 for adults in advance or $10 and $12 at the door; bnai-israel.net/project/ purim-extravaganza-2016.

SUNDAY, MARCH 27

Carnival. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, holds its Out of This World Purim carnival from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., including the Amazing Race Adventure for fifth- to seventh-graders. Admission, including all activities, is $10 by March 22, $15 at the door (lunch is $4 to $7); bethshalomatlanta.org/purimcarnival.

The Times of Shushan All the make-believe that fits, we print In Our Own Shushan Not So Long Ago …

Synagogue news compiled by intrepid reporter Professor Essie Fresser Jews ‘R’ Us

Newer Toco Shul

Residents of the Toco Hills neighborhood, reading the latest news on the Frum Atlanta website, were surprised to learn of the establishment of another house of worship on LaVista Road (the eighth or ninth — we’re journalists, not mathematicians). This shul is temporarily named the Newer Toco Shul.

When questioned about the necessity for another shul on the 1-mile strip of the busy street, community elder Rose Early laughed and said: “Synagogues are like chocolates and grandchildren. You can never have too many.”

President Jack F. Alltrades was exuberant as he welcomed this reporter to the small house with a big mechitzah, excusing himself briefly to remove a squirrel’s nest from the gutter.

“Why should Orthodox people have to walk more than a block in order to pray in a minyan?” he asked. “It’s like New York, right? People in Brooklyn roll out of bed and there’s a shtiebel right next door.

“With all due respect to our neighbors up and down the street, the Newer Toco Shul is proud to offer this guarantee: We have 18 chairs. You show up, you get a seat, and it’s all in the front row. You want an aliyah? We’ve got you covered.

It’s as simple as that.”

This reporter had quite a few other questions, but Alltrades was otherwise

occupied. A bar mitzvah was planned for the upcoming Shabbat, and his committee was figuring out where to seat the women.

Torah of the Week

Clever members of Atlanta’s Synagogue Executive Directors for Really Exciting Developments (SED FRED) have recognized that only two fundraisers truly bring congregations together and donations rolling in.

One is the big anniversary, but even supplementing celebrations every fifth year (because it’s a nice football-field number) with multiples of 13 (bar mitzvah) and 18 (chai, or life) for the congregation, the building, the parking lot, the rabbi, the cantor, the executive director, the janitor, and the Big Green Egg used for the Purim carnival and the congregation barbecue leaves a few years without the traditional cash-bar-and-silent-auction simcha.

The solution is guaranteed fundraising blockbuster No. 2: writing a Torah.

“People never get tired of fulfilling the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah,” one SED FRED member said. “As fast as a sofer can produce one, we can auction off every letter, word, sentence, page, parshah and book — even the spaces between sections and the missing vowels.”

The SED FRED Guide to Torah Fundraising recommends kicking off fundraising as soon as the Havdalah candle is doused on Saturday night. The sofer begins the scroll Sunday morning, and the final-letter ceremony takes place Friday afternoon before Shabbat.

“That way, we can make each Torah special for each parshah,” said Rabbi Riteon de Money, a sofer (scribe) who runs a sofer school and employment agency that has met the surge in demand by cutting the time to craft a Torah from one year to one week.

Hymie Sogood, one of the new wave of sofers, acknowledged that accuracy is an issue with a one-week Torah.

“But let’s be honest,” Sofer Sogood said. “No one is using these Torahs for more than one Shabbat. If we can get that one parshah right, who’ll ever know about the rest?”

On a related note, construction budgets are surging, eating up the Torah proceeds, as congregations search for places to store dozens of sacred scrolls.

Medicinal Marijuana in Little Five Points

Heebs on Hemp, targeting the underserved majority of Jews who seek an unencumbered source of medicinal marijuana, have opened the first house of worship legally sanctioned to offer the drug.

A community cannabis garden is in full bloom.

Rebbitzen Bea Toker cheerfully explained: “We’ve been inundated with support for this ecologically based and chesed-oriented project. Not only is it a handson opportunity for many unemployed area residents who seek a career in vegetation, but we believe that we’re playing a major role in enhancing the sleep patterns and easing the pain of everyone associated with the project.”

Somewhat redundantly, Toker added: “We call the area our Tranquility Garden.”

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

Jews “R” Us, a loose union of popular venues and the Greater American Synagogue Partnership (GASP), has recently established roots in California and the Vegas Strip. After that initial success, Atlanta is next in the plans.

The group is considering sites at Gwinnet County’s Mall of Georgia, the Atlantic Station IKEA, and Bruster’s ice cream shops in Marietta, Dunwoody and Toco Hills.

GASP’s motto, “We go where the Jews are,” says it all, explained Bert Feeder, location scout for the group. “Atlanta is clearly a happening place, and we’re determined to be where the action is. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in Baltimore and Miami, but now we’re totally into the New South and have already made plans for a Megillah reading at the Georgia Aquarium.”

Frank Lee Spikkin, the program director of the project, when questioned after services at the Nevada site, responded enthusiastically.

“Here in Vegas, we award chips for attendance at davening in our associated casinos, and parents strongly encourage their children to attend. You’d be surprised how many out-of-towners pray with us,” he said.

“Casual wear is encouraged, and services are trimmed to meet an average preteen’s attention span. Let’s face it,” Spikkin added thoughtfully, “can you think of a better way to get your kids to go to shul with you?”

Spikkin’s partner, Izzy Furreal, added: “You know the prayer for Israel? We gather at beaches and dig while we chant. We find lots of stuff. When all is said and done, is there such a big difference between broken glass from a wine flask from Caesarea and a bottle of Bartenura Moscato? They look pretty much the same to me. I mean, is somebody there schlepping around a carbon-dating setup?

Pretty pieces of glass — doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Feeder jumped in: “We had an amazing experience at Target in L.A. Gathering in the toy tank and Uzi aisle, the emotion during prayers was palpable. Are we contemporary, or what?”

Rumor has it that the Georgia Aquarium has trained a school of clown fish, two otters and a rookery of emperor penguins to enhance the service Wednesday night, March 23.

AJT

Continued on the next page 15

THE SHUSHAN TIMES

Take Your Seder to New Heights!

Flanken and Seltzer Cafe is proud to announce that we are the exclusive Atlanta sellers of certified kosher giraffe meat.

Place your Pesach orders now! Call 822-555-TALL. You think the Jews were surprised about the plagues in Egypt? That’s nothing compared with the awe and delight expressed by your seder guests when you serve them giraffe pot roast or giraffe cutlets!

Don’t forget the venison gumbo that was such a big hit last year. A nurse we know at the CDC claims that deer meat is even better for you than veal.

Don’t Eat Giraffes!

A congregant who preferred to remain nameless stepped forward.

“This garden has changed my life,” the former football player said. “I had headaches, constant shoulder pain and felt depressed all the time. Free weed gave me my life back, and my kids and former wives have noticed the difference.”

Speaking of children, the synagogue preschool offers many useful projects, including making pot holders and grass mats.

“We’re different from most other places,” Toker said. “The activities involving our youth benefit the whole family, not just the kids. You should see the great brownies the kids create in our cooking classes!”

“My mother was inconsolable when Obamacare wouldn’t pay for her Botox injections,” Manny Fold, a Tranquility Garden supervisor, told visiting City Council members. “Constant access to marijuana really changed her attitude, and now, with a steady supply, she’s always in a great mood, in spite of her wrinkled lips.”

After hearing more heartfelt personal stories, the council members adjourned to the garden, where they received multiple cuttings and personalized pot holders.

Heebs on Hemp would love to expand OTP, Toker said, but “we always have the munchies. Want to get a pizza?”

Drink Till You Can’t Tell Purim From …

The late arrival of Purim because of the Jewish leap year has inspired a few congregations to try to get a jump on the ultimate party holiday.

In the theory that two Adars are better than one, North Fulton young-professional chavurah Six Pack scheduled a faux-Purim party for the 14th of Adar I, urging its members to “drink until you can’t tell the difference between Adar and Adar.”

Unfortunately, the plans for the adults-only Purim carnival were made over cocktails at Six Pack’s regular Wednesday night mixer (not to be confused with Monday night networking, Tuesday night happy hour, Thursday three-martinilunch and learn, or Friday night soused Shabbat).

Let’s just say Six Pack now knows how many Long Island iced teas it takes not to be able to hear the difference between Purim and porn.

Hat Contest Results The results of the 13th annual Chabad of Dahlonega Black Hat Contest are in.

Once again, it was a 10-way tie.

Even Newer Toco Shul

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

Are you horrified about Israel’s decision to allow the ritual slaughter of giraffes?

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Join us at the Israeli Consulate, where we will meet visiting left-wing activist Uri Gaeshun, who recently cut a Knesset-seat deal with Benjamin Netanyahu. Many of us (but not all) understand Israel’s right to defend itself against terror, but what did the giraffes ever do to hurt anybody, even other animals?

We’ve already taken action. Members of our group are withholding Federation pledges until the carnage is stopped, and free “Don’t Eat Giraffes” lawn signage is available at our office.

Our rally at the Flanken and Seltzer Cafe on Roswell Road drew such support that we’re going to the source of the problem. You don’t have to be a vegetarian or vegan to understand our mission. Stand with us! Join us at the consulate!

Go to our website, wedontjusthateisrael.giraffe, and click on “meet Uri Gaeshun” for details.

This just in to the Times of Shushan newsroom: Charles Tonne, Jack F. Alltrade’s neighbor and sworn enemy, and his wife, Haffa Tonne, have emptied their storage shed to establish the Even Newer Toco Shul.

Asked to explain this seemingly counterproductive move, Tonne was candid: “My neighbor has been aggravating Haffa and me for years with his kids’ tuba and pipe organ playing. What Jews play the tuba and pipe organ nowadays? They’re just a family of show-offs, and I’ve had enough. If they think people will go to the Newer Toco Shul, they better think again. Our storage shed is double height. We’re going to have 18 seats for guys on the floor level and another 18 upstairs for the gals. That’ll show ’em.”

Asked about the unkind things said about him, Alltrade declined to discuss the Newer Toco Shul or the Even Newer Toco Shul, but he jumped at the chance to defend his children’s musical choices. “Look, our kids aren’t that brainy, but Orthodox Jews who play the tuba and pipe organ will get into some kind of college, right?”

Meanwhile, Young Israel of Toco Hills has changed its named to Old Young Israel of Toco Hills, pre-empting the rumored copycat establishment of Younger Israel of Toco Hills.

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

THE SHUSHAN TIMES

Hunger Games Food news from Frank Enfurter Restaurant’s Controversial Cuisine

According to the Bible, all animals that chew their cud and have a split hoof are kosher, and when these creatures are properly slaughtered, they may be cooked and eaten. Kosher restaurants are always eager to expand their repertoire of dishes, but they’re limited by the small group of meat possibilities.

Now the Flanken and Seltzer Cafe on Roswell Road has embraced a surprising menu-expanding possibility. For the first time in Atlanta, kosher giraffe meat is being offered.

Main and side dishes will be available in time for Passover, perfect as an intriguing alternative to chicken and roast beef.

Rock Bassar, the cafe owner, said: “Everybody always knew that the giraffe is a kosher animal, but no one could figure out the exact spot where the shochet should perform his ritual slaughter. Furthermore, for some reason, no slaughterhouses were stepping forward to offer their facilities. Now, with new technology developed in Israel, we have located the exact neck location.” (See related item in Good News From Our Homeland.)

“The process is a tad complicated,” Bassar said, “but even more difficult has been finding ritual slaughterers who want the job. Who knew that they were so finicky?”

As word got out about the new menu, boisterous protesters started marching in front of the Flanken and Seltzer Cafe. The angry group had honed those skills while opposing the restaurant’s introduction of deer meat last year. Interspersed among the “Giraffe Murderers!” signs were a few holdover “Bambi Killers!”

(Word has it that these signs are already valued collectibles in certain circles.)

In an official statement, Bassar promised, “We’re on track with giraffe steak, giraffe cholent and giraffe kabobs. We’re still working on a giraffe burger, which is sure to become our best seller.”

Other establishments are following suit with giraffe shawarma, and a wellknown kosher caterer is developing giraffe sliders for the b’nai mitzvah and wedding crowd.

worth walking a mile to eat; and KKK for worth violating Shabbat and hopping in the car to eat.

“People take being shomer Shabbos really seriously,” Mandelbaum said. “Every time I post a KKK review, you wouldn’t believe the nasty comments I get.”

The biggest disagreements to his reviews come from Mandelbaum himself.

“You know what they say: one Jew, three opinions. I just can’t understand how someone so obviously intelligent as myself could be wrong so often. I wouldn’t listen to a word I say.”

‘Oh, No!’ at Oneg The aftershocks from the February oneg riots are still being felt at Conservative shuls around the city.

After the movement’s latest rebranding promoted Conservative Judaism as the gourmet taste of the religion, compared with the bland, traditional flavors of Orthodoxy and the fast food of Reform, some synagogues took the metaphor literally and invested in gourmet Kiddush lunches (or forced b’nai mitzvah families to pay the price).

The effort worked: Synagogues became so full with folks hungry for a Kiddush catered by Wolfgang Puck (official gourmet catering sponsor of United Synagogue) that the shuls stopped letting people in after 10 a.m. Many regular shul goers were shut out, while people with no stomach for sitting through long sermons, let alone Musaf, found themselves with rumbling tummies while waiting hours to eat.

The inevitable followed at shuls around the nation: On the last note of Adon Olam, hundreds of starving Jews charged for the oneg tables.

“It was like Kishinev with a shmear,” lamented one witness of a Chicago oneg riot.

No one was killed or even hospitalized in Atlanta, but several poached salmon and a couple of chocolate torten were fatalities.

Progressive synagogues are experimenting with moving the Kiddush lunch to the start of services, to kill the hunger pangs, amid fears that full stomachs will lead to empty pews for the sermon.

Double-Height Storage Unit Sale

Almost Kosher

Food for Prayer

Recognizing that families increasingly are choosing a synagogue based not on rabbi, denomination or location, but on the food served after services, Max Mandelbaum has established himself as a professional Kiddush/oneg critic.

Posting his reviews online at www.iprayedforthatkugel.shul, Mandelbaum applies his trademarked K-ratings: K for worth walking a block to eat; KK for

Sunday, March 20, before and after the Purim Parade

EVERYTHING MUST GO!

Unique Toco Hills valuables: • Artistically warped eruv posts and sukkah beams • “Bambi Killers!” T-shirts (very rare) • Almost-new pipe organ stops, various sizes • Beginner tuba music (some with drum accompaniment) • Triple-seater stroller and numerous front- and back-facing car seats • Long-sleeved white and blue school shirts • Black kippot, inscribed “Tonne Family Reunion, 1998” • Various pieces of fleishig Mikasa china • Shabbos lamps (slight shade tears, nothing serious) • Vintage real-hair wigs in hard-to-find styles, lengths and colors • More, much more Contact Charles or Haffa Tonne at candhtonne@jmail.com for directions and details.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

The newest restaurant appealing to a Jewish clientele is operated by Persian brothers Ali and Massoud Yassedef.

Not Quite Qosher serves many traditional Jewish and Israeli dishes but with an NQQ twist. The schnitzel, for example, uses ostrich instead of chicken. The shawarma is high on the hog and low on the lamb. The homemade gefilte fish features catfish instead of carp.

“We keep calling the AKC for certification, but they never call back,” Ali said.

“So I guess we’re just kosher-style, not certified. But you don’t have to worry: We never serve cheese with meat, and if you want a glass of milk or a hot chocolate, we insist you drink it before you get your shawarma.”

Not Quite Qosher made quite a splash during its opening week when the Yassedef brothers entered the first BeltLine Outdoor Urban Rap Contest.

“We made our signature gefilte-kugel wraps and were sure we’d win, but we were hip-hopped right off the stage,” Massoud said. “I guess we misunderstood the contest. We left all our holiday wrapping paper at home.”

AJT 17

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

THE SHUSHAN TIMES

Mideast Pride: Good News From Our Homeland Giraffe Meat at Kibbutz

Kibbutz Tirat Zvi, known for its massive deli processing business, has hired and trained the first giraffe ritual slaughterer. The giraffes are part of an ongoing exchange program with several African nations that have plenty of giraffes but not enough sabra cactus plants. The kibbutz plans to have giraffe salami and giraffe hot dogs available by Passover. Giraffe schnitzel will be sold at kiosks in Tel Aviv and Netanya by the end of the month. As an added benefit, the growing French population has expressed interest in adapting classic Gallic recipes to suit their elevated gastronomic tastes.

Sanders Plans Aliyah

Concerned about his improving prospects for the United States presidency, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has announced his backup plan if, to his own surprise, he wins his party’s nomination over Hillary Clinton. If he does secure the nomination, and if the polls in the fall indicate he actually could win, he will apply to Nefesh B’Nefesh, the organization that assists immigration to Israel.

He’ll likely use the High Holidays as an excuse to visit Israel and simply won’t come back. A lifelong socialist who worked on a Shomer Ha Tsair kibbutz in his youth, Sanders will feel right at home in what his grandparents called “the Holy Land,” according to sources in his campaign. Clinton strongly supports his idea.

Robots Take Onerous Jobs

Concerned about the dearth of Israelis willing to take menial jobs, and reluctant to employ thousands of possible terrorists to do low-level work, Israbot, a startup based in Carmiel, will manufacture robots designed to perform specific tasks, such as sewer cleaning, garbage handling and fertilizer manure management. “The great thing about these robots,” said Chaim Dinger, a recent Technion graduate and sheish-beish champion, “is that they have replaceable parts, can be hosed down regularly, don’t get sick or ask for salary increases, and can be reprogrammed to lead dances at simchas.”

Finding Their Waze

The last members of the lost tribes of Israel have finally found their way back to the Promised Land. They had been trying to navigate using an early version of Apple Maps on their iPhones, so they naturally spent a lot of time in Siberia and Outer Mongolia. Once they downloaded Waze, they were walking into Jerusalem within minutes.

So Wrong, It’s Right

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched on the GoFundJew platform to expand a pilot program called Birthwrong across the nation. Under Birthwrong, Jewish parents ages 65 and older who complain about their kids or grandchildren too much get free trips to Egypt — fulfilling the wish of those freed slaves who whined in the desert that they were better off back in Mitzrayim. Like Birthright Israel, the trips are for 10 days. Unlike Birthright, all the seniors need to do to extend the trip indefinitely is to keep complaining.

Under the Sea

Ichthyologists based at BenGurion University of the Negev have made an important discovery for the Passover table: the original gefilte fish. The fish, which naturally has the ground-meaty texture of the chopped version prepared by generations of Jewish grandmothers, lives deep in the Dead Sea, thriving in the high-salinity water to produce a fish with the flavor, according to a Ben-Gurion news release, “of a salt lick.”

Compiled from no sources beyond our imaginations.

Ask the Maven Dear Maven, I’ve been hanging out with religious Jewish friends, and one of them told me there’s a proper way to put on one’s shoes. Is this true?

Wondering in Waycross Dear Wondering, Put on socks first, then shoes. That should work.

Never Be Stuck on Shabbos Again!

Do you find yourself longing to visit that new shul with the highly rated Kiddush but can’t go because it’s outside your eruv?

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

Never fear, Eruvs to Go is here.

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Dear Maven, I want to get a place of my own, but I don’t have any savings, and I don’t have a job. I guess I should go to college, but I didn’t finish high school (boring). I think my internal clock is off because I stay up all night and wake up around noon.

I expected an inheritance from a great-aunt, but she passed me by. As if this weren’t enough, my mother’s selfish about making me food that I like, and my father is really mean every time I get into a tiny fender bender. Any suggestions?

Disappointed in Duluth Dear Disappointed, Ask your parents to call me at the number on my web page.

P.S. I just gave tzedakah in gratitude that you’re not my kid.

Dear Maven, I was eating a bologna sandwich while I did my Hebrew homework. I accidentally dropped the homework into my glass of milk. Is the homework still kosher?

It’s due Friday, and I don’t have time to do it all over again.

Nervous in Norcross Dear Nervous, You were eating a bologna sandwich with a glass of milk, and you’re worried about the homework?

Dear Maven, What’s the proper way to store Pesach dishes?

Tense in Tucker Dear Tense, This can be tricky, but personally, I like teak cabinetry.

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LOCAL NEWS Anti-BDS Bill Advances

With time running out in the 2016 session of the General Assembly, legislation to ban businesses that boycott Israel from being state contractors appears to have a chance at passage.

Senate Bill 327, which the Senate passed 45-6 on Feb. 26, had a hearing Monday, March 14, before the House State Properties Committee, chaired by Augusta Republican Barbara Sims.

Responding to some opposition to the legislation, the House committee reportedly amended the bill so that it would apply only to state contracts and not affect local governments. The legislation still would force companies seeking state contracts worth at least $1,000 to certify that they do not boycott Israel or territory controlled by Israel.

Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta) introduced the legislation, which is a response to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

The committee passed the modified bill, sending it to the full House. No action was scheduled Tuesday, March 15, however, leaving only three legislative days for the bill to win House passage and for the Senate to accept the modified version or for a conference committee to work out the differences and win passage again.

ognizes their amazing contributions while raising funds to ensure that every school-age child in our region gets to experience the center. Based on the examples of those we are honoring, we hope our young people will gain the power and courage to stand up for what is right.”

AJC to Honor Ashers The Atlanta Regional Office of the American Jewish Committee will honor Spring and Tom Asher with its Selig Distinguished Service Award on Wednesday, May 18, at 6 p.m. at the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead.

AJC Chief Executive Officer David Harris will be the featured speaker at the dinner.

“We are thrilled to honor the Ash-

ers, whose lives, leadership and work in the Atlanta Jewish and civic communities reflect AJC’s global mission,” said Dov Wilker, the AJC Atlanta regional director.

A former chapter president and AJC national board member, Tom Asher spent his career in the investment business, primarily with RobinsonHumphrey and Smith Barney. He is the president of the Rich Foundation and a trustee of the Atlanta History Center and the Woodruff Arts Center. Spring Asher is a past co-chair of the Breman Museum, is a board member of The Temple and the High Museum, and is vice chair of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. She is a co-founder of Speechworks, now owned by son Joey Asher.

Eliot Arnovitz won the Selig Award last year, and Robert Arogeti was the

Spring and Tom Asher

2014 winner.

Amy and Robert Arogeti, Candy and Steve Berman, and Caroline Wainright and Colby Schwartz are the cochairs of the dinner.

Sherry Frank, the former longtime director of the American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta Regional Office, will be honored at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights’ second annual Power to Inspire Tribute Dinner on Thursday, May 5.

Frank will receive one of three Power to Inspire Awards at the dinner to recognize her lifelong work to fight bigotry and hatred. In announcing the awards March 2, the center cited the founding of the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition during her time as AJC Atlanta’s executive director and quoted her as saying, “Racism is alive and well.

And bigotry and prejudice is still out there. So blacks and Jews as a minority have always found common ground to speak up for social justice issues, for voting rights, for equal pay for women, for all kinds of freedom issues.”

Also being honored at the dinner are the Rev. Joseph Lowery and his late wife, Evelyn, and Sussan Tahmasebi, who has worked for women’s rights in the Middle East, especially Iran.

“Our honorees are inspiring,” center Executive Vice President Deborah Richardson said, “and this event rec-

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

Rights Center To Celebrate Frank

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www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS

Decision Time at Federation

Atlanta’s Jewish center of philanthropy is seeking a CEO, crafting a strategy and counting the community while reasserting its relevance in an era of direct giving “Thus, as G-d clothed Adam and Eve, federations were concerned about clothing the naked; as Abraham cared for strangers, federations cared for strangers; as G-d buried Moses, Jewish federations supported Jewish burial societies.”

— From an essay by Donald Feldstein in “A Portrait of the American Jewish Community” (1998) “Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow.”

— Ephraim Levi, philanthropist (as told by Dolly Levi)

By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com

J

ewish life is built around rituals.

Lighting candles on Shabbat. Fasting on Yom Kippur. Eating matzah during Passover.

Giving to the local Jewish Federation has been a ritual for American Jews for decades.

“By writing a single check for the Annual Campaign, the donor both fulfills a religious duty and contributes to the well-being of the community at home, in Israel, and around the world,” proclaims the website of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.

It’s reasonable to suggest that most of Atlanta’s 120,000-plus Jews have interacted with Federation — as a donor, as a volunteer, or as a recipient of services or a participant in a program by one of 60 social service agen-

cies, schools, communal institutions and other organizations that Federation funds.

Its boosters like to say: If Federation didn’t exist, we would have to invent it.

Nevertheless, critics and allies — who often are one in the same, including some who asked not to be identified (“I have to work with these people,” one said) — question the relevance and future of the organization. As Federation seeks to clarify its communal purpose, it is searching for a new chief executive officer, preparing a new strategic plan, launching an update of its decade-old community profile and trying to connect with the millennial generation.

Meanwhile, giving to the annual campaign has rebounded in recent years but remains below a high reached nearly a decade ago, and criticism, much of it voiced privately, continues over Federation’s response to last year’s Iran nuclear deal.

The new CEO will take the helm of a charity at the financial heart of Jewish communal life in Atlanta. In its tax statement for fiscal 2013-14 (the most recent published), Federation reported assets of $146.1 million, revenue of nearly $41.3 million (including $39 million in contributions and grants) and expenses of $30.2 million (including $23.1 million in grants and contributions to other organizations and individuals). Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) taxexempt status use the Internal Revenue

Service’s Form 990.

Federation faces challenges from technology. The Internet allows research into organizations serving the Jewish world in a way not possible a generation ago. Why rely on Federation when you can do the homework and make direct donations yourself?

Think of this as individualism vs. the collective.

Federation also is challenged by the fundraising prowess of other Jewish organizations, some of which it funds — a situation mitigated by coordinating approaches to major contributors.

Other challenges are A demographic, such as the expansion of where Jews A live in metro Atlanta, growth in the percentages of young and old, and the trend of non-Orthodox Jews marrying non-Jews. As the makeup of the community changes, so do the needs for services supported by Federation.

Federation’s professional and lay leaders acknowledge that to remain relevant, it must adapt its methods of fundraising and communication to changing realities.

“Our Federation here in Atlanta serves a crucial purpose,” raising a lot of money, facilitating collaboration within the Jewish community and ensuring the community’s continuity for generations to come, said Howard Feinsand, the chairman of the Federation board of trustees. “The Jewish community would be much the worse without

TASTE of TASTE

the Federation.”

He acknowledged that the Federation model needs to be updated and could do things better. “Show me an organization that can’t. That’s a longerterm issue. There are some philosophic issues,” he said. “There is absolutely no question that the Federation is relevant and always will be relevant because of the people that work for them, that volunteer for them, and it’s the best way that I know of taking care of the Jewish community, better than any agency or school or synagogue.”

In the comments that followed a widely read article at eJewishPhilanthropy.com, provocatively titled “The Ugly Side of Jewish Federations,” an unnamed former executive declared that Federations are confronting “the struggle for relevancy that I believe all umbrella organizations faced then and still today.”

So what should Federation be?

“Instead of raising money for the annual campaign, make it about directing people to Jewish institutions,” said an Atlanta communal insider who asked not to be identified, echoing a comment heard from others. “The Federation needs to be the marketing firm for the community.”

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LOCAL NEWS

Michael Horowitz, at his final Federation annual meeting as CEO in June, presents the Gerald H. Cohen Community Development Award to volunteer Erica Katz. Horowitz’s last day on the job was in February.

to Federation’s tax return for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014, Horowitz received compensation and benefits totaling $334,534, including a base salary of $291,692. He ranked 38th on a list the Forward published in late 2015 of the highest-paid executives of Jewish nonprofits in the country.

Benjamin said Federation expects to pay “market compensation” comparable to the heads of Federations in cities of similar size.

Federation has another vacancy in its executive ranks. Chief Development Officer Michael Balaban left just before Christmas to become the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Broward County in Florida. Benjamin said the hiring of Balaban’s successor will be left to the new CEO. Benjamin rejected assertions that the Federation model is no longer relevant. “If you subscribe to our joint obligation to provide for Jews anywhere in the world, there is no more efficient way to do it.”

Connecting Donors According to Federation’s website, “Through the generosity of our supporters, we touch the lives of thousands of people in our local Jewish community, in Israel and overseas. … With measurable results and fiscal sustainability as our guiding principle, we are in a very unique position to allocate funds based on the needs of the entire community.”

Federation allocates money to Jewish day schools and to programs for Jewish students at public high schools; to agencies that feed, clothe and coun-

Continued on the next page

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

Michael Horowitz announced in September that he would be leaving after five years as CEO. His last day was in mid-February.

Until his replacement is named, Sheila Katz Cohen, the chief financial officer, and Amanda Abrams, the senior vice president of strategy planning and impact, are managing Federation operations, including a staff of about 60.

“Things are going very well,” Gerry Benjamin said about the CEO search.

Benjamin, a former board president, heads the search committee.

Even before a search firm began its work in January, several candidates had “self-presented” interest in the position, he said.

Benjamin said that in addition to working with staff and some 1,350 volunteers a year, the new chief executive should have an understanding of social media and an ability to attract millennials.

An online posting read: “JFGA seeks a professional with demonstrated experience and success in four critical areas: building partnerships, strengthening and developing relationships, executive leadership and management and organization positioning.

S/he must be conversant with a broad range of Jewish community issues locally, nationally and internationally, and be familiar with the systems that address these concerns. The new CEO must have a personal passion for Jewish community, continuity and peoplehood, and must inspire that passion in others. Transparency and integrity are key personal traits.”

No salary was specified. According

AJT 21

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS sel Jews and non-Jews; to programs for Jewish college students and recent graduates; to congregations spanning the denominations of American Judaism; to efforts to support the aging population of Holocaust survivors; to opportunities to enhance life for people with disabilities; and to groups in Israel and other nations.

Funds are earmarked to aid children, families and the elderly, to inspire young people to engage with the Jewish world, and to enhance security at Jewish institutions.

This work is supported by a staff of 53 full-time and seven part-time workers with a 2013-14 payroll of more than $3.72 million — overseen by 128 officers, trustees and other members of the Federation governing body.

The lifeblood of Federation is raised from an estimated 6,000 donors, for whom writing that check or making that pledge on Super Sunday means supporting the welfare of Jews locally, nationally, in Israel and elsewhere in the Diaspora.

When Federation marked the centennial of its predecessor welfare organizations in 2005-06, the annual campaign was going through a sustained period of annual growth, and leaders anticipated raising more than $20 mil-

geted initiatives have lion a year by the end of the decade. included Jewish overInstead, the econight camps, PJ Linomic collapse of 2008 brary (a program that took a toll from which distributes Jewish chilFederation is still redren’s books to famicovering. lies), the Holocaust According to figSurvivor Support Fund ures provided by Federand Birthright Israel. ation, the annual camMiller said funpaign peaked in fiscal draising in the cur2006-07 at $18.2 milrent 2016 campaign is lion raised from more ahead of schedule. than 7,100 donors. The But the number next year saw a slump of donors is still down to $15.6 million, and the almost 15 percent from campaign bottomed 2007. out at $14.1 million in 2010-11.

Reaching Millennials “With improve“If we didn’t have Federation, Critical to the fuwe’d have to invent it,” says ments in the economy, ture of any charity is Howard Feinsand, who heads a repositioning of attracting millennials, Federation’s board of trustees. events, positioning key the generation now professionals as senior philanthropic roughly ages 18 to 34. advisers, a re-engagement model for In the 2013 Pew Research Center several fundraising divisions, and study of American Jews, 68 percent of utilization of targeted initiatives, the millennial Jews self-identified as “Jews most recent campaigns have begun to by religion,” meaning that more than rebound,” Federation spokeswoman two-thirds considered themselves to be Melissa Miller said.

Jewish. The remaining 32 percent were The 2015 community campaign classified as “Jews of no religion.” By raised nearly $14.9 million, plus $4.7 comparison, 81 percent of Jewish baby million for impact priority areas. Tar- boomers were “Jews by religion.”

Atlanta’s Federation is a legacy organization whose antecedents date back more than 110 years, while techsavvy millennials are disruptors. The millennials, who outnumber the baby boomers, are said to be more interested in causes than organizations. They are less likely than their elders to be sat-

isfied with writing a check, and they demand greater transparency from recipients of their donations.

As a rabbi working for the Conservative movement wrote, his fellow millennials want to be “co-creators” of their philanthropic experience.

Of the 6,000 donations to Federation last year, about 6 percent came from millennials, a figure likely to increase as their financial fortunes improve. “Even though many millennials have limited discretionary income, we have connected with them in order to build relationships — with us and with the broader Atlanta Jewish community — in anticipation of fostering future giving,” Miller said.

The idea that millennials will give more is validated by the Pew study, in which 56 percent of all Jews surveyed said they made donations to Jewish organizations. Giving by age category ranged from 39 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds to 71 percent among those age 65 and older. Of those earning less than $50,000 per year, 46 percent said they donated to Jewish organizations, compared with 64 percent of those earning more than $150,000.

“There are as many millennials as there are Boomers, and there are many more of them than Gen Xers. Given that millennials are poised to inherit $40 TRILLION, much of which will be donated to charity, the time is now to cultivate these high-capacity, young donors,” reads a report by the Jewish Funders Network.

“With around 80 million millennials coming of age, knowing how they

Federation Builds On New Foundation

T MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

he annual community campaign is the highest-profile fundraising effort by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, but the donations to Federation’s endowment have grown in size and importance over the

AJT 22

years.

As of January, those gifts have a new destination: the Atlanta Jewish Foundation, the rebranding of what was Federation’s Planned Giving & Endowment department.

Itai Tsur, who leads the foundation, said PG&E was one of the best-kept secrets at Federation and drew increasing interest, but it also was associated almost entirely with legacy giving at death.

“It was informally called the Department of Death,” Tsur said. “People don’t like to talk about death.”

When Eydie Koonin became the chairwoman of Planned Giving & Endowment, Tsur said, they both concluded that the organization needed a relaunch. The initial plan to make a cosmetic change became something more.

“It’s rebranding, but it’s also a change of focus away from legacy giving,” Tsur said. The Atlanta Jewish Foundation wants to get more gifts now to Federation’s endowment and to other Jewish causes in the community.

“We’re broadening our efforts and defining success in a broader fashion,” he said. ■

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spend their cash on causes is going to be critical for nonprofits. And their spending patterns aren’t the same as their parents,” Elaine Hu reported for National Public Radio.

Making an annual donation because “that’s what we do” is not millennials’ style.

Decades ago, there might have been a meeting at which an individual stood and declared how much his family would donate. That way the donor was identified and recognized as an upstanding member of the community.

In the new model, the meeting, such as it is, happens online. Millennials who see an appeal on a friend’s Facebook page and see that other friends are involved may make a small donation. Their small donations add up, and they become part of the philanthropic world — but not the same world as their parents or as the traditional structure of a Jewish Federation.

“It’s not just the tools; it’s the mindset. … The annual campaign doesn’t make any sense to these people.

It’s a daily campaign. It’s a weekly campaign,” a communal veteran with experience raising money said.

“I think to a millennial, who’s grown up in a very different world — one that’s more participatory because of the digital tools that we have — to them they want to feel like they’re making an investment. Not just that they’re investing their capital, but they’re investing emotionally,” Amy Webb, who forecasts digital trends for nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies, told NPR. That participatory bent propels millennials to invest in causes rather than organizations. “Individuals want to be part of something bigger than themselves but not at the cost of being themselves,” said Seth Cohen, the director of network initiatives for the Schusterman Family Foundation, which supports efforts by young Jewish adults “to create Jewish experiences and communities for themselves and their peers,” according to its website.

Cohen is a Federation board member and former chairman of its allocation committee, as well as former president of the JF&CS board.

He recently was quoted in the English-language edition of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz in an article about how young Jews in New York are creating their Jewish experiences outside traditional structures. “This is the age of hyper-curation,” Cohen said. “If you can curate everything in your life, why shouldn’t you be able to curate your Jewish experiences?”

Feinsand said that in addition to

basic management capabilities, Federation is looking for a CEO who is a “great communicator,” including the ability to reach millennials. “You have people that you need to communicate with and make them understand” their role in the future of Federation’s mission, he said. “You have to use today’s English, today’s media, things that matter” to them.

One successful effort is Federation LEADS (Leadership Education and Development Series), begun in 2014 and led by peer volunteers. Participants ages 22 to 40 years old are divided into groups based on age and where they live to “talk about contemporary Jewish topics that are relevant to millennials who are exploring what their Judaism means for them,” Miller said. “This year, all 50 LEADS leaders have contributed to the campaign. With more than 300 LEADS alumni in a year and a half, we are seeing how young adults are both creating meaningful and lasting friendships and thus participating in more Jewish programming across Atlanta.”

Making One Stop The first Federation was created in 1895 in Boston and “brought together under one umbrella all the different

local fundraising groups,” according to “A Portrait of the American Jewish Community.” This new organization “offered the first one-stop philanthropy ever formed on this continent.”

Today there are 151 local Jewish Federations across the United States and Canada (and some 300 smaller community networks). They collectively raised more than $900 million last year. But four decades earlier in 1974, the year after the Yom Kippur War, Federations raised $686 million, the equivalent of nearly $3.3 billion today.

The inflation-adjusted decline in giving supports critics’ contention that the one-stop-shop model — donors give and Federation allocates — has become outdated.

Last summer, a “long-time Federation professional” using the pen name Uzi ben Gibor posted the eJewishPhilanthropy article “The Ugly Side of Jewish Federations.” Its appearance sparked a lively discussion, including accusations that the author violated the biblical injunction against lashon hara (speaking evil).

In the comments posted with the article, Josh Feigelson, founder and director of Ask Big Questions, an initiative of Hillel International, wrote: “Yes, federations are conservative or-

ganizations — because they aim to be big tents. And now we’ve spawned a ‘Jewish innovation sector’ in contradistinction to the ‘non-innovative’ world of federations (painting with a broad brush), and there’s good stuff happening there in congregational life and Jewish education. In many ways, I don’t think Federations should be in the education or congregation business — give block grants and let people be innovative. But they absolutely must be in the businesses that they’re good at — feeding the hungry, housing the poor, healing the sick, tending to the aged. If we tear down this system, I truly fear for the unintended damage we will cause to the most vulnerable in our communities.”

In that same discussion, Balaban, then still in Atlanta, wrote: “I am proud that my Federation in Atlanta and our Leaders recognize that for Federation and community to be relevant our work must be marked by a sense of restlessness, a certain malcontentedness focused on raising the bar of excellence across the breadth and depth of our community and thus transforming Federation. I find this same understanding from my colleagues across the Federated system. …

Continued on the next page

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

LOCAL NEWS

AJT 23

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS “Has Federation made our community better — absolutely — whether from the perspective of the family whose child is experiencing the joy of Jewish summer camp for the first time, the young adult exploring Israel, the family that received an interest free loan, the upstart Jewish education program that needed incubating or the senior who lives a more dignified life, we impact and improve lives every day and make the Jewish world a better place.

“Where we need help — all of us, Federation, Synagogues, JCCs, etc. … is that we must foster ownership in our community by the members of our community. Too many individuals opt out (and yes, some of the blame lays with institutions that have been less than welcoming). However, it has been said that ‘no one pays to wash a rental car.’ Building a Jewish community should not be seen simply as charity.

We are in the business of building a Jewish community not only for others, but for ourselves. Our work is not only for those less fortunate than we, but for our children’s children, and our grandparents, for our families and our friends — for those who discount our work I say, stop renting, get involved and own the responsibility to have

your Federation reflect the vibrancy Jewish life needs it to be.”

Balaban declined to be interviewed for this article.

Steve Rakitt, the former Atlanta Federation leader who is the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, took a contrarian approach: “Federations are legacy institutions that have become countercultural. In an age of rampant individualism, we proudly promote collectivism. In an age of ‘What’s in it for me?’ we ask, ‘What’s in it for the community?’ And at a time when philanthropy is increasingly targeted, we say that no one gift touches more lives. And that is what’s most important. We touch, change and save thousands of lives every day. We convene important communal discussions and take decisive action. We partner with, and support, a vast network of social, educational and Jewish identitybuilding services and programs which are making a profound difference in Jewish lives and in our communities.

We help shape the Jewish future.”

Competing for Dollars For its efforts to shape that future in 2013-14, Federation received a fourstar “highly rated” grade from Charity Navigator, which bills itself as “the na-

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Davis Academy Head of School Amy Shafron says the funds Federation provides to the Reform day school, while covering only part of the budget, “are truly vital.”

tion’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities.”

Federation’s score of 93.28 out of 100 was a combination of its marks for financials, accountability and transparency. On the financial side, JFGA’s rating was based on 89.9 percent of its expenses being for programs, with just 4.1 percent going to administrative costs and 5.8 percent for fundraising expenses.

“Ensuring a Jewish Future” accounted for 72.3 percent of program spending, or $19.7 million, according to the fiscal 2013-14 tax forms. The building blocks of that future are education, camp programs and trips, connections with Israel, and aid for Jewish organizations in other countries.

“Caring for Jews in Need” claimed 14.3 percent ($3.9 million). That money supports a safety net for seniors and programs for youths, families and people with special needs.

“Strengthening Jewish Community,” which accounted for 9.9 percent ($2.7 million), trains leadership and promotes participation by adults and youths in communal affairs.

Federation provides substantial portions of the budgets of its recipients, but those schools, social service agencies and other organizations also seek donations on their own, often dipping into the same pool of givers.

To give it a clear path when it launches its annual campaign, Federation enforces a blackout period each September and October, during which Federation, but not the organizations receiving its funds, may solicit donations.

“They have outgrown any one organization’s ability to provide them

with all of their funding,” Feinsand said of Federation’s beneficiary agencies. “You can say it’s competition, but we don’t feel it’s competitive. … I don’t think we feel that it’s a zero-sum game and competitive with our affiliates.”

One method to avoid a zero-sum game is called Create a Jewish Legacy, a model employed in numerous cities. Federation and its affiliates work together “to secure legacy gifts for the community, regardless of the organization or institution that serves as the ultimate beneficiary,” said Itai Tsur, who manages Federation’s endowment as the senior director of the Atlanta Jewish Foundation. “Additionally, for current gifts, we regularly establish endowments and other planned gifts in partnership with other agencies and institutions, regardless of whether Federation is the current or ultimate beneficiary of those gifts.”

Testimonials from Federation affiliates are easily garnered.

Jewish Family & Career Services is one of the largest recipients, getting more than $1.46 million in fiscal 201314. “Federation has been and continues to be JF&CS’ largest funder, and we are deeply grateful for this support,” CEO Rick Aranson said. “Funds provided by the Federation enable JF&CS to operate mission-critical programs and services that address unmet community needs. While we appeal to some of the same donors, we don’t feel that this is a competition. We have a generous community, and we rely on donors to make their own decisions regarding their philanthropy.”

Douglas Kuniansky, the chairman of the board of the Marcus Jewish Community Center (more than $1.44 million in fiscal 2013-14), downplayed any competition. “The MJCCA and JFGA work as a collaborative, a partnership. Not only does JFGA provide much-needed funding to the MJCCA so we can deliver our crucial programming and services, but we also work together to fulfill needs in the greater Atlanta community. JFGA monitors the needs of the Jewish community, and they look to the MJCCA to deliver programs and services that address those needs. A perfect example is the special needs and inclusion programming we are now offering. JFGA’s Jewish Abilities Alliance evaluated the needs of a specific population, and we are one of the agencies delivering the services to address those needs.

“The challenge for our community isn’t organizations competing for community dollars, but rather expanding the community’s donor base. We need for Jews throughout greater Atlanta to understand the value of strengthening

Itai Tsur, who leads the recently renamed Atlanta Jewish Foundation on behalf of Federation, has the responsibility of focusing on planned giving.

our community by supporting all of these important Jewish organizations.”

Amy Shafron, the head of school at the Davis Academy, said: “These funds are essential in helping ensure Davis’ commitment not only to educational excellence, but also to Jewish continuity. The Federation’s community campaign funds provide tuition assistance for families who may otherwise not have access to a Jewish day school education, and while these funds do not meet the totality of the school’s fundraising needs, they are truly vital.”

“We appreciate the allocation from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta that supports the ongoing expansion of the curriculum and programming of the Weber School,” said Rabbi Ed Harwitz, the high school’s head of school.

The Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, now in the middle of its seventh spring festival, has benefited from mini-grants. AJMF’s founder and executive director, Russell Gottschalk, said Federation funding “plays a huge role in the success and vitality of AJMF. … But if you look at the numbers, their annual support is a small slice of our revenue. So I would argue that the act of JFGA’s funding means more than their actual funds. Validation from a legacy, community-wide organization like JFGA opens doors to other potential supporters.”

Gottschalk’s bottom line: “I think their cash is helpful, but their cachet is more important.”

Choosing Recipients Federation has “many different criteria for receiving a grant/donation and a multitude of ways to receive,” Senior VP Abrams said. “In addition, our

partners are evaluated to ensure the work we fund aligns with our mission and ensure that what Federation funds is meeting its intended outcomes, as defined by the organization.”

But not every recipient listed on its Form 990 appears aligned with Federation’s stated purposes: “Ensuring a Jewish Future”; “Caring for Jews in Need”; and “Strengthening Jewish Community.” That’s because the tax form properly groups campaign fund distributions with donor-advised funds.

The average donor, uninitiated in the business of philanthropy, might be surprised when reading the fiscal 201314 tax form by donations such as: • $63,000 (after $35,000 in fiscal 2012-13) to the University of Kentucky Athletic Association’s K Fund.

• $95,000 to the VMP Nutrition Foundation, connected to a Fort Worth, Texas, manufacturer of nutritional supplements.

• $29,320 (after $721,800 in fiscal 2012-13) to Planned Parenthood.

Or donations in previous years to the booster club for the baseball team at Walton High School, the Clinton Foundation and Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

All came from donor-advised funds, a tool of growing popularity in philanthropy.

A donor-advised fund begins with an irrevocable donation of cash or securities to Federation, which then owns the assets.

“The donor and designated advisors may recommend distributions from the fund to public charities whose purposes generally are in furtherance of the purposes of Federation. These recommendations are advisory only, and Federation has the final authority to approve the grant recommendations,” Federation’s website reads.

Tsur, who oversees this program, said Federation “vets the organizations and programs that donors suggest and reserves the right to follow or not follow those suggestions on a case-by-case basis.”

Tax forms list the largest contributions but do not name the donors or specify whether their gifts went to the community campaign or to donoradvised funds. But sometimes you can spot connections. Federation’s largest grant in fiscal 2013-14 was $7.29 million to the American Friends of the Israel Democracy Institute, whose international chairman is Bernie Marcus, co-founder of the Home Depot and Federation life trustee. The largest gift Federation received that year was 100,000

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MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

LOCAL NEWS

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LOCAL NEWS shares of Home Depot stock, valued at close to $7.62 million. The next largest gift was more than $4.95 million in stock in the financial technology firm GreenSky Founders.

Federation charges a fee for its handling of donor-advised funds and takes care of the paperwork and administration. In addition to the tax incentives for charitable giving, donors gain the ability to remain anonymous by giving through such funds.

Federation follows the law in not differentiating on its tax forms between grants from donor-advised funds and those from the community campaign. If you want to know, you have to ask.

Federation listed 389 donor-advised funds and similar accounts on its fiscal 2013-14 Form 990. Grants totaling nearly $16.3 million were made from donor-advised funds, including $3.7 million to Federation programs (beyond the $22.7 million in grants and donations Federation made to other organizations in 2013-14).

The math illustrates the importance of donor-advised funds: $12.6 million from those funds accounted for 55 percent of Federation’s grants and donations in 2013-14 and 41 percent of its total program expenditures.

“Our hope is that as much of this philanthropy will go to benefit mission-aligned causes, but recognize that as this is a giving mechanism, and the primary source of giving for many of our donors, donor-advised funds are used to make funding recommendations for a variety of different causes, Jewish and otherwise,” Federation spokeswoman Miller said.

Supporting Israel Outside Atlanta, Israel is Federation’s largest beneficiary.

Victory in the 1967 Six-Day War sparked a surge of Jewish pride and made aiding Israel a priority for Federations. The Forward reported that

in 1974, two-thirds of the money raised

by Federations nationally was sent to Israel and other overseas venues. Last year, that figure reportedly was about one-sixth.

Atlanta’s percentage to Israel and elsewhere overseas was 37 percent, more than double the national figure, in the 2015 allocation process, Miller said.

Federation in fiscal 2013-14 sent shy of $3.4 million to umbrella organization Jewish Federations of North America. In addition to dues, a large portion of that money was designated for the Jewish Agency for Israel ($2.27 million), which connects Jews to Israel, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ($1.04 million), an international relief organization.

Federation’s vice president of philanthropic advancement, Susan Moray, touted the impact of donations to Israel in a blog reviewing her recent visit with colleagues from other communities.

“On our trip I was shown the power of our Federation dollars as they are tackling some of these critical issues.

Our overseas partners are working on our behalf to ensure pluralism is taken seriously and that there is true freedom of religion. They have ensured that Jewish marriages, not just common-law ones, are recognized even for people who choose to marry in a ceremony that is not consistent with the Rabbinate’s guidelines. They have created a community center that is building stronger relationships between Jewish Israelis and Israeli Arabs. They are developing employment programs to transition Haredi men into the work force, and educational programs for their sons,” Moray wrote.

Taking Stands Atlanta’s decision to join last year’s chorus of Federations that issued statements opposing or expressing concern about the international nuclear weap-

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Dr. Ted Becker (Ph.D., Northwestern) is Professor of Political Science at Auburn University.

Formerly, The Walter Meyer Professor at NYU School of Law: Chairman, Dept of Political Science, U of Hawaii. becketl@auburn.edu Dr. Brian Polkinghorn (Ph.D., Syracuse) is Professor and Director of the Center for Conflict Resolution, Salisbury U (Maryland); visiting professor of Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University each summer.

From AmericAn empire to First GlobAl nAtion

ons agreement with Iran was not universally applauded.

In an Aug. 18 statement Federation acknowledged “that its views cannot be assumed to represent the views and opinions of the entire Atlanta Jewish Community. Many thoughtful and well-meaning people have or will reach different conclusions. But as longtime and strong supporters of the people of the State of Israel, the Executive Committee of Federation believes that it must express its concerns, doing so as a matter of policy and not political partisanship.”

Federation officials said the organization was not pressured by Jewish Federations of North America or other parties to issue the statement.

The Atlanta Federation urged “Congress to give this accord its utmost scrutiny” and added, “While some commentary has suggested that the sole alternative to accepting this deal as presented is war, we believe that other options and possibilities are available to address the numerous legitimate concerns raised by so many and thus do not support the JCPOA as it is currently written.”

Horowitz discussed the reaction to the statement in a blog post nine days later. “I received many emails and comments. Many thanked us for taking that position, but others were highly critical because our statement was ‘too weak’ and did not clearly say that we were opposed. Some of those threatened to pull their financial support of Federation, suggesting that not providing help to care for those in need and build a strong Jewish future was the appropriate way to ‘punish us’ for having taken a position. Many of those emails used inappropriate comments about our President and others. Others were highly critical of our position arguing in favor of the deal, but once again, used terms, words and phrases that went beyond policy debate and labeled those opposed inappropriately. And fi-

nally, many simply were offended that we made any statement, suggesting that Federation was not in the business of doing so. Some of those emails came from those who oppose the agreement, but the vast majority came from those who support it. And once again, many threatened to pull their financial support to Federation.”

Six months later, Feinsand said, “There are times when the Federation is looked at by many in the community to take a position, and we talked about this at great length in the executive committee of the Federation and understood that the Federation could not take a position on either side and agreed to issue and did issue a neutral statement.”

Counting Population A decade after funding its last Jewish population study of Greater Atlanta, Federation has contracted for an update. The new data will help planners understand the Jewish community it serves and sometimes represents.

The 2006 survey’s estimate of 119,800 “Jewish persons” in 61,300 Jewish households lifted Atlanta to the 11th-largest Jewish community in the United States from 17th in 1996. The population had increased 56 percent from the 1996 estimate of 78,000 Jews.

The Jewish community grew as the metro area grew: Jewish households accounted for 4.3 percent of all households in 2006 and 4.4 percent in 1996.

Although annual population estimates are questionable — the 2010 census set the Atlanta metro population lower than the Census Bureau’s estimates for the previous two years — the area is believed to have grown about 10 percent in the past decade.

Similar growth in the Jewish population would result in a community of more than 130,000.

The new survey may redefine what Jewish Atlanta looks like by showing, among other things:

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LOCAL NEWS

Seth Cohen, who serves on the Federation board, says Jewish Federations must simultaneously lead and get out of the way.

• Whether the community continues to attract newcomers (31 percent of households had come to Atlanta between 1996 and 2006, compared with 21 percent who had been here at least 40 years).

• Whether the segment of the community 65 and older (12 percent in 2006) has increased as baby boomers have aged and retired parents have moved to Atlanta to be near family. One communal insider warned that the community may face a critical need for aging services the next five years.

• Whether anecdotal evidence accurately reflects an increase in the Jewish population south of the city (about 4.5 percent in 2006).

• Whether intermarried households (50 percent of married couples in 2006, up from 37 percent in 1996) and those intermarrieds raising children (41 percent of children under age 18 in the 2006 survey) continue to grow.

The updated survey will help Federation implement a three-year strategic plan expected to be complete this spring, timed to the arrival of the new CEO. “We will be developing initiatives focused on things like better use

Steering the Future If you compare Federation to an aircraft carrier, an enormous craft that requires time to pivot in the water, you understand that any change will come gradually. The risk, as more than one person interviewed warned, is that by the time Federation adapts to the changing community and world of philanthropy, smaller and more flexible organizations could fill the gaps and render Federation less important.

There is no consensus on how Federation should chart its course, but those interviewed generally agreed that wider community involvement — in programs that enhance life as a Jew and in programs that enhance communal opportunities — will be critical.

Federation’s future will begin as a new CEO is hired, a new strategic plan is put into place and a new community study provides necessary data.

In 2009, Seth Cohen was not optimistic about the future of Jewish Federations. “We must have the strength to come to a fundamental realization about the state of the Federation Movement as embodied by our current Federation system — it is dead,” Cohen wrote in an article republished by eJewishPhilanthropy. “But in its death, it presents an opportunity for it to be reborn. While the basis of its need still exists, we have long ago outgrown the humble origins of the Federation system. The history of its birth, its growth,

and its decline is a great chapter in American Jewry. But it is only a chapter. … There must be another.”

Now with the Schusterman Foundation, with offices at Atlantic Station, Cohen said: “The Federations, to be relevant, need to simultaneously do the impossible task of leading, following and getting out of the way, all at the same time. That means making use of tools available, including social media, to lead the conversation; follow when other agencies are leading or highlighting an issue; and, when things develop in which the Federation has no role, get out of the way and don’t impede.”

Feinsand envisions Federation maintaining its role.

“There are parts of the community that are in need that are part of our mission, that are part of the Jewish community mission, that are not covered by the organizations. … There are gaps. We serve those gaps. We identify those gaps,” he said. “There’s no organization in the community that covers everything. Our mission is to look at the whole community and always will be. … If we didn’t have Federation, we’d have to invent it. There’s just things that you need to have a central organization for.” ■

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of technology to improve the donor experience, increased opportunities for transformational gifts beyond the unrestricted annual campaign, more focus on endowed giving opportunities as one might see at an institution of higher education or in the medical world, and providing more opportunities for donors to increase their philanthropic giving through Federation in support of identified community needs that align with that donor’s interests,” Abrams said.

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ARTS

Study for Passover

Haggadah collection offers new draw at Emory

By M. Patrick Graham libmpg@emory.edu

E

ach spring Emory Hillel and Chabad work to ensure that all Jews on campus can observe Passover with a seder and other services. This year Emory’s Tam Institute of Jewish Studies has collaborated with library staff to offer a new experience: an exhibition of historic and contemporary haggadot in the new gallery of the Pitts Theology Library.

“Reading the Telling: The Passover Haggadah Across Time and Place” is curated by doctoral student Adam T. Strater. It opened March 7 and runs until June 30. It is open to the public at no charge during regular library hours.

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

What Will I See? The setting for the exhibition is a gallery of 1,200 square feet with 22 custom cases illuminated by fiber-optic and LED lighting. Large graphic panels complement and enhance the rare and exquisite haggadot, along with key examples of more modern pieces. Materials are drawn from the collections

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Based on the Amsterdam text, the Ma’aleh Bet Horin Haggadah, published by Anton Shmid in 1794, adds instructions for the seder in a western Judeo-German dialect that is different than the Yiddish of Eastern European Jews.

of the Pitts Library, the Rose Library (Emory), the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum and private Atlanta collectors. Among the featured items: • The first three editions of the illustrated Amsterdam Haggadah (1695, 1712, 1781), produced by a convert to Judaism and exerting more influence than any that followed.

• L ’Haggadá Illustrata, published in Trieste in 1864 and acclaimed as the most distinguished illustrated haggadah in 19th century Europe.

• The Poona Haggadah (India, 1874)

printed for the second-largest community of Jews in India with distinctively Indian illustrations.

• The Rainbow Haggadah, published in 1945 for the Images courtesy of the Pitts Theology Library 42nd Infan- The Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695 was published by Abraham ben Jacob, try Division’s a convert to Judaism, and is the most imitated and copied haggadah seder in Dahn, in history. Around the haggadah text, it preserves the commentary of Isaac Abravanel, a Jewish philosopher expelled from Spain in 1492.

Germany, just curred without the contributions of before Germamen and women devoted to Passover ny’s surrender.

• A 1947 kibbutz haggadah that observance and to the haggadah.

Rabbi David Geffen, author of presents Holocaust imagery. the “American Heritage Haggadah” • A 1948 Israeli military haggadah.

• The Freedom Seder of 1969, which marked an effort by Jews to connect with African-Americans after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. • The “Third Annual Women’s Seder Haggadah” (Rachel Simon, 2004), illustrating an event sponsored by the Marcus Jewish Community Center.

Printed in Italian in 1864, L’Haggadá • Facsimiles of the historic Rylands Illustrata is a famous illustrated edition produced in Italy by and Prague haggadot (14th and 16th Avraham Hai Porpurgo. centuries), plus the beautiful Jerusalem (1997) and Moss (2007) haggadot.

(1992) and grandson of Congregation Shearith Israel Rabbi Tobias Geffen, What Will I Learn?

Some of the materials in the ex- who came to America from Lithuania hibit may seem familiar to adults but in 1903, gave his collection of about 100 novel to many of the children who visit. haggadot to the Pitts Library in 2007 Likely new to all, however, is the and continued to support the library’s beautiful folio copy of the first illus- work after he made aliyah.

After the Geffen donation, Richard trated Amsterdam Haggadah, as well as others that demonstrate the achieve- Goldstein, a Jewish social worker in ment of the haggadah to transmit and Hollywood, Fla., gave his 580 haggadot guide the Passover observance to each in 2008. His daughter, Lauren Azoulai, new generation, wherever Jews found connected him with the Pitts Library themselves and whatever languages and suggested that it would be a suitthey spoke. The illustrations show bib- able home for his collection.

“Wherever we were and wherever lical continuity but also attest to artiswe traveled, we were always on the tic vitality and flexibility as they appeal quest for more haggadot,” Azoulai said to new places, cultures and times. of the army of friends and family who The exhibit treats the history of helped grow her father’s collection. the haggadah, explains key terms, reOthers have donated haggadot to hearses Passover observance in AtlanPitts, and the library has purchased ta, discusses cultural and ideological versions of the haggadah, and takes up historic imprints at New York auctions.

So Emory invites you to visit this the motif of the four sons.

Visitors will leave the gallery spring and let this exhibit enrich your struck by the power of the Exodus sto- Passover observance. It may well spark ry, its potential for representation to a few new questions and some new and engagement by successive genera- commentary at your seder table. ■ tions, and the inspiration of haggadot M. Patrick Graham is the Margaret produced in times of great hardship.

A. Pitts professor of theological bibliography at the Pitts Theology Library in EmoThe Backstory This exhibit would never have oc- ry’s Candler School of Theology.

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OBITUARIES

Leon Auerbach 85, Atlanta

Leon Auerbach. Nov. 3, 1930-March 9, 2016. Beloved companion, father, zayde and uncle. Leon was the youngest child of Abe and Minnie Auerbach. He built a life in Atlanta that began in retail furniture and moved into real estate, land development, and construction and investments. He was a member of Congregation Beth Jacob most of his life and loved participating in the community there as long as he was able. Generations of children will remember getting candy after Sabbath services from “Uncle Leon” on the porch at Miss Gertrude’s house next door.

He was a graduate of Boys High (now Grady High School) and attended Marsh Business College. Leon was a Mason of the Scottish Rite and a past member of Yaarab Shrine Temple, where he delighted in being a member of the Motor Corps.

People who have known Leon will think of his ready smile, his warm laugh and his gentle sense of humor. Even as time and disease robbed him of language and then speech, the twinkle in his eye, his laugh and his outstretched hand made it clear he was engaged with his visitors. Leon loved to sing, and he raised his family to the songs of Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. And the man could dance! Relationships that began in his childhood he carried throughout life, and he established many more along the way. He valued hospitality and was a constant host to family and friends every week as long as he was able. He loved to travel and always included others in the adventures. Leon embraced an expansive definition of family and welcomed into his fold all sorts of in-laws and out-laws. He was happiest with a grand- or great-grandchild in his arms. He was the Baby Whisperer.

Leon was preceded in death by his parents; sister Betty Cohen; brothers Sam, Bennie and Hy Auerbach; and daughter Paula Cohen. Leon is survived by his devoted companion of 25 years, Jackie Green, and her family, daughter Michelle Leaf (Bruce) and grandchildren Morgan and Brian Leaf and Stacy and Elliot Flamm; his sons, Cary (Tammy) and Steve (Mary Alice); son-in-law Ken Cohen; grandchildren Sara Hightower (Davis), Lindsay Solomon (David), Sarah Parpart, Seth and Hayley Cohen, and Jacob and Griffin Auerbach; and seven great-grandchildren.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Friday, March 11, at Greenwood Cemetery with Rabbi Ilan Feldman officiating. Memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or Congregation Beth Jacob. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Rosenthal officiating; burial followed at Greenwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Friends of Music, Office of Gift Records, Emory University, 1762 Clifton Road NE, Suite 1400, MS:0970-001-8AA, Atlanta, GA 30322-4001. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Ruth Minkoff 91, Atlanta

Ruth Minkoff, age 91, of Atlanta died Sunday, March 13, 2016.

A loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, she is survived by her children, Barry (Nancy) Minkoff, Lynn (Herb) Fenster, Gail Aronoff and Amy (Guy) Toro; grandchildren Phillip, Amy, Fred, Marcia, Alex, Matthew and Ben; and many loving great-grandchildren.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Wednesday, March 16, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or the charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Marian Perling 95, St. Louis Park, Minn.

Perling, Marian, age 95, of St. Louis Park, Minn., formerly of Atlanta, passed away Saturday, March 12, 2016. Preceded in death by husbands Mike Grossman and Phillip Perling; parents Bessie (Kaplan) and Nathan Fink; brother Earnest; and sister-in-law Lila Fink.

She is survived by a son, Jerome Grossman; brother and sister-in-law Edmar and Claire Fink; sister-in-law Delores Fink; brother-in-law Joe (Doris) Perling; special nieces and nephews Nancy and Barry Goldstein, Bruce Fink, Judie and Marvin Liszt, and Marilyn and Mel Perling; loving friend Toby White; and many other loving family and friends. A special thank-you to caregivers Katie, Carol, Naomi, Sheila and Felicia. A funeral service was held Monday, March 14, at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park. Memorials preferred to the donor’s favorite charity.

Herbert Rubin Karp Herbert Rubin Karp, 94, native to Atlanta, passed away peacefully Friday, March 11, 2016. The son of Sadie and Louis Karp, he graduated from Emory University School of Medicine before enjoying a successful career as a neurologist and chair of Emory’s department of neurology. In 1983, Dr. Karp became the inaugural medical director at the Wesley Woods Center, the nation’s first geriatric hospital, and went on to work as associate medical director for the Georgia Medical Care Foundation, from which he retired at the age of 90. Among his numerous achievements, Karp received the Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest honor given by Emory University to a faculty member, and the Emory department of neurology created the Herbert Karp Neuroscience Endowment to support excellence in teaching, research and clinical care for generations to come.

In addition to medicine, his great passion was music. A member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra board of directors for many years, he also founded the chamber music series at Ahavath Achim Synagogue and was deeply involved with chamber music at Emory University. Active in the Jewish community, Dr. Karp served as president of the Ahavath Achim Synagogue, where for over three decades he sounded the shofar at High Holidays. He was very proud of his decade’s work on the board of Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters, for which he served as chair in 2005.

Herbert is survived by his loving wife of 67 years, Hazel; his daughters, Miriam and Beth (Richard Fischer); his son, Benjamin (Margie); and grandchildren Isabella Cantor, Simon and Marlee Fischer, and Jonathan and Aaron Karp. The family expresses their deep gratitude for the loving care of Gwendolyn Brown and Patricia Thompson.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. His funeral was Monday, March 14, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue with Rabbis Neil Sandler and Laurence

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

94, Atlanta

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CLOSING THOUGHTS OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING

CROSSWORD “Dress Up”

Art of the Run

I

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

n the Bronx, my hometown, there were many reasons to run.

Trying to time the exact arrival of a city bus was like trying to forecast the existence of Google. Men, women, teens, little kids, old folks, short, tall, skinny and chubby people could be seen racing to make the bus.

Keeping in mind the buses ran every 10 minutes, it always seemed unnecessary to make that bus.

Believe me when I say that although this would cause your heart rate to go way up, this run was NEVER considered exercise.

Running for the El or the subway train was even more complicated and could cause some serious agadah (aggravation). Sometimes you had to race to the bus to transport you to the stop you needed to race for the trains.

Racing for transportation was a way of life. The reward was ending up at your destination on time.

Running for a taxi was not necessary. You only had to know how to place your feet firmly on terra firma and lift an arm high in the air with the pointer finger raised and ready to flick up and down, indicating to the cabdriver you needed a ride.

Hitchhiking was an activity that required you to be alert and ever ready to chase down the car, whose driver decided too late to stop and give you a ride. Ah, the good ol’ days.

The art of running came in handy when I was running errands for my mom (z”l). With a list of items and the money to purchase them, I was ready to run the race to come back fast with what my mom needed.

Running from the police was a popular activity but not one in which I participated.

Moving to Atlanta opened a whole new reason to run. Although my family has lived in Atlanta for nearly 36 years, I am still perplexed about why people around here run.

Don’t get me wrong: I believe in doing the right thing, in taking care of those who cannot care for themselves.

Performing mitzvot (good deeds) is an integral part of who I am, who my family is. So when my daughters tell me they ran a qualifying race to get their time recorded, I wonder who their mother really is.

You are not alone if you are wondering why they need their times recorded, or perhaps you know because you are getting your time recorded.

30 For more than 30 years my very own

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husband was running to get his time recorded. And all for what? A T-shirt?

Seriously? A T-shirt?

Oh, sure, to get said T-shirt, you must make a donation to a worthy cause. I get that part of it. Couldn’t you just make the donation without running for a T-shirt? The excitement that builds when the T-shirt is long-sleeved is a complete mystery to me.

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

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Did you know there is a race called the Hot Chocolate Run? Not only do you receive a T-shirt that you pay for, but you also get, yes, hot chocolate. A heck of a sweet way to replenish your energy.

There is a race called the 400 Run, along the Georgia highway. Now what in heaven’s name is that all about?

Right about now, running from the police seems tame.

My sweet hubby has nearly 35 July 4th Peachtree Road Race T-shirts.

What do you suggest I do with them?

I am forbidden to donate them or sell them (who would buy them?); making a blanket, which was a suggestion, is not my thing.

So they are stored in giant plastic containers for some future archaeologists to discover. Now that I think about it, it would probably be wise if I included a letter of explanation. If I don’t, I am afraid their brains will hurt trying to decipher what these things are.

Heart attack hill? Why would a normal human being deliberately run a hill clearly marked to give you a heart attack?

All these races are meaningful in their own way; after all, my own family is among the lunatics who participate. I must say, I do have one daughter, which would be No. 2 daughter, who does not fit into this category. So I have only four lunatics for whom I must celebrate their accomplishments in the prestigious field of “runner.”

To tell you the truth, I too am a runner; at least I refer to myself as one. Yes, one, that’s the average distance I run: one mile; on a good day, two or three. No shirts involved: My prize is having quiet moments to think and to delight in early morning sights and sounds. ■

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By Shaindle Schmuckler shaindle@atljewishtimes.com

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ACROSS 1. Seder soloists 5. 1930s boxing champ Max 9. Bait, like the yetzer hara 14. One is about half a yard 15. Kudrow or Bonet 16. “___ From Hawaii” (Elvis album) 17. Costume of a Paul Rudd hero making a villainous turn?

19. Second of Abraham’s eight sons 20. Broccoli blessing 21. Country where Bibi went to HS 23. Kramer invention 24. David, when bequeathing to Solomon 27. Rav Yosef 30. Queen of the cyborgs costume?

33. Foe of a Broderickvoiced lion 34. “___ ha-shalom” 35. Spielberg used FX 38. Asimov title character 41. Lenny Bruce’s was 56748-8307: Abbr.

42. He narrated Mel’s “History of the World: Part I” 45. Cain’s was the first 48. Costume of a Jewish savior and “Star Wars” villain?

52. Good one, by Rivers 53. Merciful ones (like Abraham and Solomon, at times) 56. 120 is a notable one 57. Have a seudah 59. Goldfinger’s favorite bar?

60. Made Havdalah again 63. Costume of a Purim queen and Disney princess?

66. Jacob had more than one

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67. Major role for Ron before he was opposite the Fonz 68. What many bring back from Eilat 69. Syrian leader 70. Do kriah 71. Post (mishloach manot)

35. Crystal genre, for short 36. They’re made to make noise 37. Sabras 39. Lighting liquids 40. Cantillation 43. Drinks too much on Purim 44. Super ___ (popular DOWN Chanukah gift in the early 1. Theocratic structure ’90s) 2. Manilow’s “___ It 46. A Jewfro or hazel eyes Through the Rain” 47. Unwanted results from 3. What Hamas rockets too much schlepping often cause 49. Chabad capital?

4. Kislev lighter 50. Sukkot branches 5. Nonkosher letters 51. Controverts, in the 6. Ability of a Galil user Knesset 7. Husband of Judith in 54. Villain in the Nicole Genesis Perlman-penned 8. The Maharam of “Guardians of the Galaxy” Rothenburg was held for it 55. What most do for 9. ___: Krav :: Chi : Maga Neilah 10. School and shul enders 56. 1/3 of the shevatim 11. Ruth’s old kin 58. Medium for Shlock 12. Enslavers, long ago Rock’s early albums 13. Edible shell or tref Bell 61. Rhoda’s TV mom 18. Like Zac Efron, as a 62. Senator running for dresser president with very different 22. Cohen who was the first views from Bernie Israeli to play pro soccer in 64. She wrote and sang on England David Guetta’s “Titanium” 25. “The Blind Side” player 65. Allen’s “Hannah and signed by the Panthers ___ Sisters” Dave Gettleman LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION 26. “___ 911” H A M S A A B A T E C I G (Comedy A R E A S R E M I X R O E produced by O W L H A T C H A M A T C H Stacey Sher) R E M U B O A T A M O K 28.

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ARTS

Photo courtesy of AJMF

Athens-based Klezmer Local 42 keeps the crowd dancing to classic klezmer and contemporary covers March 13 at Congregation Beth Shalom.

Photo courtesy of AJMF

Joe Buchanan, who traveled from Houston, gets to play outside despite weather worries at a Havdalah concert at Temple EmanuEl on March 12.

Photo by David R. Cohen

Outgoing festival board President Bram Bessoff and festival Executive Director Russell Gottschalk show off the 2016 Atlanta Jewish Music Festival poster between Hadar Noiberg’s sets March 10.

Jazz, Klezmer And Other Jewish Sounds

T

MARCH 18 ▪ 2016

he seventh Atlanta Jewish Music Festival kicked off Thursday night, March 10, with two performances by Israeli jazz flutist Hadar Noiberg at Steve’s Live Music.

The festivities continued with Noiberg participating in a jazz service March 11 at Congregation Or Hadash, Ameri-

AJT 32

cana artist Joe Buchanan performing for Havdalah at Temple Emanu-El on March 12, the AJMF All-Stars providing entertainment at the Hunger Walk/ Run on March 13, and Athens-based Klezmer Local 42 capping the weekend with a high-energy concert at Congregation Beth Shalom. ■

Photos courtesy of AJMF

The AJMF All-Stars — Becky Herring, Sammy Rosenbaum, DJ Burel, Beth Schafer, Bonnie Levine and Mark Gallegos — keep the passing walkers at the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s Hunger Walk/Run entertained March 13 near Turner Field.

Photo by Devi Knapp

Annie (Sara Goldberg) finds a friend on the streets of New York in stray dog Sandy (Lily Knapp).

Photo by Michael Jacobs

Annie (Miriam Burmenko) comforts fellow orphan Molly (Eva Beresin) in the opening scene of “Annie.”

Sun Came Out at AJA

Two casts of fifth- to eighth-graders delivered four performances of the musical “Annie” at Atlanta Jewish Academy from Wednesday, March 9, to Sunday, March 13, drawing a total paid audience of more than 1,200. One cast was led by Miriam Burmenko as Annie, the other by Sara Goldberg as the lovable orphan who finds a home with billionaire Oliver Warbucks. ■