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JEWISH MUSIC FESTIVAL PREVIEW, PAGES 13-28 SHTETL TIME IRON WOMAN ONLY THE GOOD
Opening night, go back to the future with modern takes on Yiddish and klezmer. Page 16
Music activist Chana Rothman is the hardest-working woman at AJMF9. Page 18
Four decades later, Billy Joel is no stranger to the ATL Collective treatment. Page 27
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VOL. XCIII NO. 9
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
MARCH 2, 2018 | 15 ADAR 5778
Anti-Jewish Incidents Jump in SE
Determined to Celebrate Purim
Atlanta faced persistent and sometimes torrential rain Sunday, Feb. 25, but a little water couldn’t wash away the fun and tradition of the 27th annual Atlanta Purim Parade & Festival in Toco Hills. The rain might have dampened expectations, but participants like these riders on the Torah Day School of Atlanta float kept rolling merrily along LaVista Road. More photos, Page 34
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Anti-Semitic incidents surged by 32 percent in the Southeast in 2017, according to a report released Tuesday, Feb. 27, by the Anti-Defamation League. ADL’s four-state Southeast Region — Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina — reported 74 incidents in 2017, compared with 56 in 2016, according to ADL’s annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. Among those incidents were bomb threats against Jewish community centers in each state, including multiple threats against the Marcus JCC, for which an Israeli-American teen was arrested. Nationally, ADL reported almost 60 percent more anti-Semitic incidents in 2017 than in 2016, the largest single-year increase since the tracking of incident data began in 1979. Anti-Semitic incidents at schools and colleges nearly doubled for the second year in a row. The Southeast saw 53 incidents of harassment, including 13 bomb threats, up 15 percent from 2016; 20 incidents of vandalism, double the 2016 total; and one physical assault after none in 2016. About a third of the incidents occurred at Jewish institutions or Jewish schools, and a third took place at colleges or non-Jewish schools: 21 at non-Jewish schools, up from 17; five on college campuses, up from three; and 24 at Jewish institutions and schools, up from 13. “It is deeply concerning to observe the rise of anti-Semitism in places where our children should be learning how to positively impact society,” said Phil Rubin, who chairs the ADL Southeast regional board. ADL’s anti-bias training is in high demand, Southeast Regional Director Allison Padilla-Goodman said. ■