SIMCHAS SPECIAL SECTION, PAGES 20-45 NOW YOU SEE HIM MODERN CLASSICS TWO FOR ONE
Bar mitzvah Alex Newberg does good with magic he has practiced since age 4. Page 22
Miriam Karp adds a bit of tech to her art to create customized ketubahs. Page 24
Meet the Millers, the new rabbinic couple Emanu-El just had to hire. Page 42
Atlanta VOL. XCII NO. 12
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
MARCH 24, 2017 | 26 ADAR 5777
Shoah Survivor a Bar Mitzvah at 85 Leon Asner never got to celebrate becoming a bar mitzvah when he was 13. The Nazis and World War II made that impossible for the native of Belgium. Now 85 and a retired tailor, he officially became a Jewish man at a special service Sunday, March 19, at the Marcus Hillel Center at Emory in front of nearly 100 people, most of them students who did not know him until that afternoon. “You have fulfilled the last commandment and have proven to everyone that it is never too late to be the person you want to be and to do the things that we think will make us complete,” said Anat Granath, who has worked with Asner for years through Jewish Family & Career Services’ Holocaust Survivor Services. “You are an inspiration, not just to all those who witnessed you just now, but to all those who are fortunate enough to know you,” said Granath, who arranged the service after Asner approached her with the idea several months ago. Rabbi Claudio Kaiser-Blueth presided over the ceremony and read Torah. Emory students, including members of Sigma Delta Tau, Delta Phi Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Mu and Alpha Tau Omega, brought gifts to celebrate the simcha, which included lots of food and dancing. Asner has the energy and humor of a man half his age, Granath said, and he has never let the lack of a ceremony stop him from leading a Jewish life.
Assisted by Hillels of Georgia Executive Director Rabbi Russ Shulkes, Rabbi Claudio Kaiser-Blueth blesses Leon Asner after the Torah ceremony.
Leon Asner recites the blessing after the reading of the Torah aliyah.
Photos by Michael Jacobs
Bar mitzvah man Leon Asner carries the Torah before his first aliyah at Emory’s Marcus Hillel Center on March 19.
Leon Asner gets a kiss as well as a gift from DPhiE.
Asner did not talk about his Holocaust experience, which included hiding from the Nazis and losing his parents, but he tearfully explained the miracle that led him to the Sunday ceremony. One day at home he prayed to have
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Anat Granath tells Leon Asner how proud she is to be his friend.
a chance to go to Belgium to say Kaddish for his father. “A few days later, something happened while I was sleeping and I was awake,” he said. “A big, bright light came in through my window, through closed blinds. I thought the window was
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Leon Asner and friends dance in celebration.
Leon Asner listens to some wisdom from Rabbi Claudio Kaiser-Blueth after receiving students’ gifts.
on fire, and I realized that was the light of G-d. I have seen the light of G-d, so help me, and things changed for me and I decided to have bar mitzvah. That is about all I can say. And it was a miracle, so I share that miracle with you.” ■
BIG DAY IN COURT
How do you apply timeless Jewish legal principles to a self-driving car in a crash? Ask the two Weber School students who answered that question well enough to win a national moot beit din competition. Page 16