Atlanta Jewish Times, Vol. XCII No. 20, May 19, 2017

LET THE VOTING BEGIN!

Cast your votes for your Jewish ATL Favorites.

50 YEARS AFTER THE SIX-DAY WAR, PAGES 14-20 BATTLEGROUND MIRACLE OR CURSE? SWEET SORROW

The Kotel’s capture has led to increasing internal fights, Rabbi Geffen says. Page 14

The Jewish community is divided over how to observe the war’s anniversary. Page 16

Rabbis Emanuel and Ilan Feldman share memories of Jerusalem in 1967. Page 20

Atlanta

atlantajewishtimes.com/ vote-for-jewish-atlantafavorites-2017/ Deadline for Entries, June 9

VOL. XCII NO. 20

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Film Academy Grants $10K to AJFF The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival has received a competitive grant from the Oscar-granting Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the second time in the festival’s 17-year history.

The $10,000 grant supports programming that showcases Israeli history, culture and politics at the annual winter festival — the second-largest Jewish film festival in the world — and during AJFF’s increasing efforts at year-round events.

The May 11 launch of the AJFF Selects series with a showing of the romantic comedy “The Wedding Plan” and the April screening and discussion of “Brave Miss World” in partnership with the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta are examples of year-round Israeli programming.

AJFF is among 44 programs splitting $500,000 for the 2017-18 fiscal year through the academy’s FilmCraft and FilmWatch programs, which aim to identify and empower future filmmakers from nontraditional backgrounds, cultivate new and diverse talent, promote motion pictures as an art form, and provide a platform for underrepresented artists.

Each grant is $5,000 to $20,000.

The $10,000 FilmWatch grant to AJFF is earmarked for the Life in Israel program, featuring films and panels exploring issues tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, immigration, sports, history, culture and life in Israel.

Photo courtesy of AJFF

Festival Executive Director Kenny Blank speaks at the May 11 screening of “The Wedding Plan,” an Israeli comedy that kicked off the AJFF Selects series.

“It is an honor to be recognized not only by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but to be in the company of so many other film festivals and film presenters that we hold in such high esteem,” AJFF Executive Director Kenny Blank said. “There is no greater validation in the film arts field than to be recognized by the academy.”

The nearest programs outside Atlanta to receive academy grants are Indie Grits’ Visiones program of Latino film and culture in Columbia, S.C.; the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival’s fiveweek documentary film school for high school students in Durham, N.C.; and the

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New Orleans Film Society’s Emerging Voices Mentorship Program.

The only other Jewish program to receive a grant is the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Atlanta’s rival for the unofficial title of world’s largest Jewish film festival. The Bay Area festival won money to support a two-week program on the experiences of immigrants and refugees.

The previous AJFF grant from the academy came about a decade ago and was more general in supporting the festival’s mission of using film to build bridges of understanding between communities. That grant largely supported operations of the fledgling festival. ■

INSIDE Calendar ��������������������������������������� 4 Candle Lighting �������������������������� 4 Israel News �����������������������������������6 Opinion ���������������������������������������10 Arts ���������������������������������������������� 30 Business ��������������������������������������32 Obituaries �����������������������������������35 Marketplace �������������������������������36 Crossword �����������������������������������38

MAY 19, 2017 | 23 IYAR 5777

Kotel Visit Key Part Of Trump Trip

President Donald Trump’s plan to be the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall is likely to be the most dramatic moment of his 26-hour trip to Israel, said two U.S. experts on Israeli diplomacy convened Tuesday, May 16, by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.

Daniel Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Israel for the last 5½ years of the Obama administration, and Scott Lasensky, an Atlanta native who served as Shapiro’s senior adviser, called in from Israel for the second in a three-call educational series led by Lasensky. But the scheduled topic, common interests and values between the United States and Israel, was changed to address Trump’s trip to Israel on Monday, May 22, the third stop on his first foreign trip as president.

Shapiro called it “meaningful” and reflective of strong relations that Israel is part of the trip. He said the itinerary is packed, likely including Yad Vashem and possibly the first presidential visit to Jerusalem’s Old City, let alone the Kotel.

Traveling to the Old City might upset the Palestinians, Shapiro said, but could help Trump cushion Israeli disappointment at a likely decision to postpone the U.S. Embassy’s move to Jerusalem.

While the embassy, Iran, Syria, Islamic State, security and terrorism are likely to be discussed, Trump’s surprising emphasis is on restarting the peace talks, even though the same leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas, are dealing with the same pressures and same mistrust.

“My strong impression is that both of them are rather nervous,” said Shapiro, the keynote speaker at Federation’s annual meeting at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, June 7, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue. ■

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MAY 19 â–ª 2017

MA TOVU

Jumping with excitement, Nathan torpedoed onto my bed on his first day of kindergarten. Shuddering, my first hazy thought was that this was a vivid nightmare, and I prayed to be released from its clutches.

“Is it time for school yet?” Nathan wanted to know, prying my eyes open with pudgy fingers.

“Darling,” I croaked, “it’s very dark outside. Even the roosters are still sleeping. Please go back to sleep.”

“But what if we miss my bus? I don’t want to be late.”

I rolled over, wedged my eyes closed and tried to re-enter that delicious zone of dreamland. Alas, it was not to be. Five minutes later, those fingers were at it again.

“Mommy,” he said urgently, “a whole hour went by! My teacher won’t like it if I’m late. It’s my very first day.”

Propping myself up on my elbow, I gazed into the chocolate eyes that mirrored my own and let out a breath.

Resigned to my fate, I swung my legs onto the floor. I suppose there are advantages to starting the day early.

Pancakes were whipped up and served, lunches were packed, and, at long last, my starry-eyed child waved and ascended his school bus. Wiping my eyes — from emotion, relief, exhaustion or a combination — I waved back until the bus disappeared.

The call came a few weeks later.

“Mrs. Schwartz?”

“Yes?” I answered distractedly, continuing to edit my piece. While I cradled the phone between shoulder and ear, my eyes roved down the page, adding, slicing and spicing as needed.

“Mr. Klein requests that you come in for a meeting today or first thing tomorrow.”

Mr. Klein? The principal of Nathan’s school? Was there a problem?

Tearing my eyes from my work, I gave my full attention to the secretary.

“Is there some sort of problem?” I asked, surprised. Nathan always came home happy, and no one had contacted me to tell me otherwise.

“Well,” she said, “your Nathan broke his classroom door. And on the registration policy, there is a clause that says parents are responsible for damages.”

“May I speak with Mr. Klein, please?” I demanded. I didn’t have time for shenanigans. Deadlines loomed, and, besides, who makes a big deal out of a 6-year-old’s escapade?

Later that day I sat across from the principal, gazing at his serious mien and steepled fingers. Do they teach them that in principal school?

“Nathan continued slamming the door even after Miss Brown instructed him to stop,” Mr. Klein said, adding that the door costs over $300.

I let out a gasp. They teach that in parent school. “Mr. Klein, I have one question for you.” Swallowing hard,

Shared Spirit Moderated By Rachel Stein rachels83@gmail.com

I donned a mask of composure and went for defense. “Where was the supervision while this, uh, misdemeanor was occurring?”

“The teacher was present,” Mr. Klein replied, and I began counting the creases in his forehead. “She told him to stop, but he was noncompliant.”

“I see.” I folded my arms and gazed into his eyes. “Do you mean to tell me that this teacher had no other means at her disposal to stop a child’s misbehavior? Perhaps she should foot the bill.”

Mr. Klein drew a sharp breath.

“Parents are responsible for their children, Mrs. Schwartz. It says so in Clause 3 of our registration agreement — that if a child causes unusual damage to school property, parents agree to reimburse the school.”

“And what about teachers’ responsibilities? Do they have to sign anything prior to employment?”

Mr. Klein opened his mouth, then snapped it closed. “Mrs. Schwartz, my secretary will send you the invoice, and we would appreciate your dealing with this issue in a timely manner.”

Somehow, I didn’t think he was hearing me. Pushing my chair back, I got up and headed toward the door.

I had no intention of paying the bill. As far as I’m concerned, the adults on campus are responsible to supervise the children, especially at that age.

And if this happened, there was an obvious lack of liability.

So who do you think is accountable, the 6-year-old and his parents or the staff on site? I welcome hearing from you and hope your advice will guide me in resolving my dilemma. ■ Please respond to rachels83@gmail. com by Monday, May 22, to have your responses printed in the next column.

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CALENDAR THROUGH JUNE 11

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

THURSDAY, MAY 18

Frankly Speaking. NCJW Atlanta, 6303 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, hosts its monthly women’s discussion group moderated by Sherry Frank, focusing on current events through a Jewish lens, at noon. Free; RSVP to christineh@ncjwatlanta.org.

The Tasting. Jewish Family & Career Services hosts its annual fundraiser for the Zimmerman-Horowitz Independent Living Program at 7 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead, 3300 Peachtree Road. Tickets are $125 at the door ($75 if you’re under 35); www.thetasting.org.

FRIDAY, MAY 19

Book club. Hadassah Greater Atlanta’s Metulla Group discusses “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult at 1:30 p.m. at a home in Sandy Springs. Free; Barbara Shoulberg at brsgolf1@bellsouth.net or 770-948-2443 for details.

SATURDAY, MAY 20

Scholar in residence. Rabbi Arnold Goodman delivers the sermon in the morning and leads a post-Kiddush discussion on G-d’s plan at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave., Buckhead. On Sunday at 10:30 a.m., he and Robbie Friedmann have a conversation. Free; www.aasynagogue.org.

SUNDAY, MAY 21

Congressional talk. Jewish War Vet-

erans Post 112 has invited 6th District candidates Jon Ossoff and Karen Handel to speak about veterans and defense at the group’s monthly breakfast meeting at 10 a.m. at Berman Commons, 2026 Womack Road, Dunwoody.

The cost is $10; jwvpost112@gmail.com or 770-403-4278.

Kabbalah talk. Rabbi Ari Sollish discusses Kabbalah with Hadassah Greater Atlanta’s Metulla Group at 1 p.m. Free; Sandye Charlop Geller at sandyecharlop@gmail.com or 678-4432961 for details.

Kosher Day. The Atlanta Kosher Commission hosts Kosher Day at the Atlanta Braves’ 1:35 p.m. game against the Washington Nationals, with kosher food from Keith’s Corner Bar-B-Que available for purchase at the Batter’s Eye Deck near the Home Run Porch at SunTrust Park, 755 Battery Ave., East Cobb. Tickets are $11 to $18; groupmatics.events/event/BravesKosherDay. Molly Blank concert. The Molly Blank Concert Series concludes at 5 p.m. with a live concert of NPR’s “From the Top” with host Christopher O’Riley, Jewish composers, Jewish themes and Jewish musicians at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Tickets are $49 for museum members, $10 for students using code “music10” and $59 for others; www.thebreman.org.

Or Hadash bar mitzvah. Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, concludes its yearlong celebration of its 13th year with a party at 6:30 p.m. Tickets start at $54; www. or-hadash.org/event/coh133.html.

TUESDAY, MAY 23

After-school art. Chabad of North Ful-

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

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

Remember When

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

25 Years Ago May 15, 1992 ■ A black radio host’s on-air remarks could have been illegal, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The night of April 30, after rioting in downtown Atlanta, “Ralph From Ben Hill,” whose real name is Miles Smith Jr., reportedly said on WGST-AM 640 that Jews control UCLA and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, that whites should get out of town, and that blacks should take it to the streets, which the ADL said could be interpreted as an incitement to violence.

■ The bar mitzvah of Jeremy Ryan Chotiner of Marietta, son of Gerry and Ann Chotiner, took place May 9 at Etz Chaim Synagogue.

■ Jennifer and Harvey Rickles of Dunwoody announce the 4 birth of a daughter, Carley Jaclyn, on Feb. 3.

CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Behar-Bechukotai Friday, May 19, light candles at 8:17 p.m.

Saturday, May 20, Shabbat ends at 9:18 p.m.

Bamidbar Friday, May 26, light candles at 8:22 p.m.

Saturday, May 27, Shabbat ends at 9:23 p.m. ton, 10180 Jones Bridge Road, Alpharetta, offers the Jewish Art Zone from 4:30 to 6 p.m. for kindergartners to second-graders. The session is $15; www. chabadnf.org/jaz or 770-410-9000.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24

Babyccino. Chabad of North Fulton, 10180 Jones Bridge Road, Alpharetta, offers a session for mothers and their babies up to age 2½ at 10 a.m. Free; hs@ chabadnf.org or 770-410-9000.

Selig Award dinner. American Jewish Committee Atlanta honors Beth and Gregg Paradies, with cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner and the program with AJC CEO David Harris at 7 at Flourish Atlanta, 3143 Maple Drive, Buckhead. Tickets ($180) are sold out; email grossl@ajc. org to get on the waiting list.

Rosh Chodesh study. Rabbi Emily Brenner leads a discussion about the Book of Ruth and women over a dairy dinner at 7:15 p.m. at MACoM, 700-A Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. The cost is $18; info@atlantamikvah.org or 404-549-9679.

THURSDAY, MAY 25

Rosie the Riveter. Carol Cain, who has portrayed the World War II figure for 23 years, speaks to the Edgewise group at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, at 10:30 a.m. Free for JCC members, $5 for others; matureadults@ atlantajcc.org or 678-812-3861.

Tzedek Award. New Israel Fund Atlanta honors Janice Rothschild Blumberg at 7:30 p.m. at The Temple, 1589

50 Years Ago May 19, 1967 ■ The Atlanta Jewish Welfare Fund has announced that it has raised $946,720 in the 1967 campaign, surpassing last year’s final results. Marvin Goldstein, the general chairman of the campaign, said close to $100,000 of last year’s contributions remain outstanding, and “if we exert all our efforts,” the campaign will meet its goal of $1,090,000.

■ Southern Israelite Editor and Publisher Adolph Rosenberg is leaving Wednesday for the 1967 convention of the American Jewish Press Association in Israel, where 15 Jewish newspapermen and wives will gather to evaluate the Jewish state. Associate Editor Vida Goldgar and her husband have left for the convention, via Portugal and Switzerland.

■ Mr. and Mrs. Paul Patten Harrison of Decatur announce the engagement of their daughter, Mollye Rebecca, to Richard Jerome Schwartz, son of Mr. Milton Schwartz of Tampa and the late Gertrude Schwartz Bordelon.

Peachtree St., Midtown, with speaker Sharon Abraham-Weiss of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Free; RSVP to Mordy Labaton at atlanta@ nif.org or 212-613-4426.

MONDAY, JUNE 12

Holocaust education. The Breman Museum holds its 26th annual Summer Institute on Teaching the Holocaust today through Friday, June 16, with full scholarships available after a $25 application fee. Register at www.thebreman.org/Weinberg-Center/SummerInstitute; questions to 404-870-1872 or summerinstitute@thebreman.org.

War commemoration. Yitzhak Yifat, Zion Karasanti and Haim Oshri, the paratroopers shown in an iconic SixDay War photo at the Western Wall, appear at a Friends of the Israel Defense Forces event at 6 p.m. at The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown. Tickets are $36; fidf.org/SixDayAtl.

Corrections & Clarifications

The Friends of IDF gala Monday, May 8, had attendance of more than 500 people. The number was incorrect in an article May 12. Also, Barry Sobel’s name was misspelled in a caption.

Book Signing

Rabbi Karmi Ingber of The Kehilla in Sandy Springs is signing copies of his new book, “Where the Heavens Kiss the Earth,” from 10 a.m. to noon at Judaica Corner, 2185 Briarcliff Road, Toco Hills.

The book offers instructions and exercises to apply the mystical insights of the Torah to make personal growth.

You can preview the book at Amazon.com.

The book is written to be userfriendly and accessible to anyone from a Torah scholar to a person with little Jewish knowledge. It shows how to live a happier, healthier, more fulfilled life and is a suitable gift for b’nai mitzvah.

Judaica Corner can be reached at 404-636-2473. ■

CALENDAR Atlanta

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ISRAEL NEWS

Tensions Surround Haifa’s Ammonia Tank

By Eli Sperling The past couple of months, a tense dispute over closing a large tank containing ammonia (a chemical compound common in industry but deadly to humans if exposed) in Haifa has been loudly played out in the streets, courts and government of Israel.

Since Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah threatened to attack the tank last year, the fate of the contentious facility, which employs 1,500 Israelis, has sparked national debate.

This issue, which has garnered many headlines because of large protests staged by facility employees who fear losing their jobs, hits on some of Israel’s core, historical tensions.

Israel’s minute size, limited natural resources, growing population and constant existential threats have forced the Jewish state to continually strike a balance among the often-conflicting

needs of economic prosperity, protection of the environment and maintenance of the level of security necessary to ensure the safety of Israel’s citizens.

Those three issues, equally important to Israel’s survival as a state, lay at the core of the debate about how to handle the ammonia tank.

A report drafted by members of Israel’s scientific community in January suggests that should the facility be attacked or suffer a natural disaster, tens of thousands of Haifa residents could be killed.

Further, should the ship that delivers the monthly supply of ammonia to Haifa’s port be attacked, hundreds of thousands of Israelis could die, with devastating environmental impact to the region.

Despite that ominous warning, Israeli agricultural and chemical industry representatives, who rely on the ammonia for their businesses, have

Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Haifa Chemical employees protest the closure of the facility where they work.

lobbied Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to keep the facility active.

The protesting employees of the chemical company charge that should the government allow the facility’s closure, it would be neglecting the economic needs of Israel’s often-impoverished periphery.

Haifa courts, informed by the January report, have ordered that the tank be closed by June 1. But Netanyahu is consulting with the Ministry of the Environment to find an alternative to closing the facility.

Whatever the outcome, Israel will have to decide which needs of the state and its citizens take priority. ■

Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Multinational heart. Israeli surgeon Sagi Assa from Save a Child’s Heart worked with his former mentor, Stephan Schubert from Germany, to implant an artificial heart valve into 11-year-old Iraqi-Kurdish boy, Marwan Ghazi Ali. The valve was made from the jugular vein of an Australian cow.

lion) project aims to attract young families to revitalize the city and the entire Western Galilee, which has a sister-city relationship with Sandy Springs.

Mind your manners. Customers of coffee chain Cafe Cafe who say “please” and “thank you” when they order an ordinary-size cup of coffee will pay 6 shekels ($1.66) instead of 8 shekels ($2.22). Cafe Cafe owner Ronen Nimni says he wants “to encourage more respectful conversation in Israel society.”

Indian navy in Haifa. Three ships from India’s navy moored in the Port of Haifa for three days to mark 25 years of India-Israel ties. The Indian ships also took part in a joint drill with the Israeli navy. It was the eighth visit of Indian ships to an Israeli port since 2000.

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Exporting kibbutzim. AlefBet Planners, an architectural and engineering company based at Kibbutz Afikim, is exporting the kibbutz model all over the world. The examples include 12 kibbutz-style villages in Angola and three in Nigeria. The kibbutzim help develop the region and create hundreds of jobs.

More than a Snuggie. A wearable blanket now available on El Al flights has won an innovation award at the TravelPlus Amenities competition in Hamburg, Germany. The blanket was designed by Idan Noyberg and Gal Bulka of Herzliya’s LyLy Design Studio.

Electric trucks for Britain. Asher Bennett — the brother of Israeli Edu6 cation Minister Naftali Bennett, who

Israel Photo of the Week

O, Canada!

Photo by Mark Neiman, Israeli Government Press Office

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Canadian Ambassador Deborah Lyons greet each other during a visit by 920 members of Montreal’s Federation CJA to Jerusalem to mark the Montreal agency’s centenary and the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification. “Today, the state of Israel is a proud democracy, and I can assure you there is no gap between Israel as a Jewish state and as a democratic state,” Rivlin told the Canadians. “There is no gap, and there will be no gap in the future.”

just visited Atlanta in support of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces — has founded Tevva Motors in the United Kingdom. The company is building emission-free delivery trucks based on Israeli submarine technology.

All-time air record. April was a record month for Ben Gurion Airport with 1.74 million passengers, 26 percent more than in April 2016. Over 5 million pas-

sengers have passed through the airport in the first four months of 2017, an increase of 20 percent from the same period in 2016.

Doubling Akko. Israel plans to double the size of the northern city of Akko (Acre) by building 17,000 homes, hundreds of classrooms, and day care centers, synagogues, libraries and sports centers. The 3 billion shekel ($830 mil-

More multimillion exits. April business takeover news includes Dutch game developer GamePoint buying Israel’s Luck Genome for $13.7 million, Israel’s WalkMe acquiring Israeli analytics startup Jaco, U.S.-based Magento buying Israel’s Shopial, and U.S. ticket marketer SeatGeek taking over Israel’s TopTix for $56 million.

Baby, oh. Justin Bieber enthralled 50,000 fans at Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv on May 3. The 90-minute performance included 25 songs, accompanied by lasers, fireworks and acrobats.

His first song also helped a pregnant fan who was three weeks overdue go into labor; she gave birth to a healthy girl. It was Bieber’s second time performing in Israel.

Compiled courtesy of verygoodnewsisrael. blogspot.com and other sources.

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MAY 19 â–ª 2017

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ISRAEL NEWS

Kennesaw State photos by Jake Lipsiner

A Tasty Education on the Love of Israel

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

The AJT recently shared photos from the Israel festivals held at the University of Georgia and Emory University, but they weren’t the only area campuses that found space and time to celebrate Israel’s 69th birthday before the end of the spring semester.

Georgia Tech held its largest-ever Israel Fest on April 6, three days after hosting a lecture by Holocaust survivor and Atlanta architect Benjamin Hirsch, Tech Hillel Director Veronica Beskin reported. The festival, held as close to Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) as possible, is an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to experi-

8

ence the history, people, culture, technology and food of Israel in a nonpolitical, nonreligious way.

Attendees had such experiences as a chalk tour of Jerusalem’s Old City, a do-it-yourself salt scrub station at the Dead Sea and a taste test at the shuk.

“We hope the giveaways, free food and selfies with the camels will continue to foster a positive image of Israel on the Georgia Tech campus,” Beskin said.

More than 900 Tech students brought friends to see the camels make their yearly appearance by the fountain in the center of campus.

Kennesaw State held its first cam-

pus Israel Festival in more than seven years on April 21, KSU Hillel Director Lara Schewitz said, a reflection of the rapid growth of the Jewish student population the past few years.

Hillel responded to the demand for more Israel education on campus with the celebration of Israel’s culture and many achievements. Students and faculty learned about various cities in Israel at booths with engaging activities.

The festival also included a camel, a DJ and free Israeli food from a food truck. More than 500 students attended the festival. ■

ISRAEL NEWS

Anat Cohen is one of the featured musicians at the 2010 Israeli Jazz Festival in New York.

Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), where you can find more details.

May 19, 1950: The first two flights of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, which carries most of Iraq’s Jewish population to Israel by January 1952, take off from Baghdad for Lod via Cyprus with 175 immigrants. The airlift, also known as Operation Ali Baba, is planned and executed by the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah after the passage in March of an Iraqi law giving Jews a one-year window to emigrate.

May 20, 2011: Arieh Handler, a native of what is now the Czech Republic who moved to Israel in 1948 and took a leadership role in the religious Zionist movement Hapoel Ha-Mizrahi, dies.

He had moved back to London in 1956, then in 2006, at the age of 90, made aliyah for the second time.

May 21, 1963: Zalman Shazar, a drafter of Israel’s Declaration of Independence who had helped Jews make aliyah from Russia in the 1920s, is elected Israel’s third president.

May 22, 1975: After a breakdown in diplomatic talks between President Gerald Ford and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 76 U.S. senators sign a letter stressing the importance of military and economic assistance to Israel and urging the president to stand with Israel.

May 23, 1420: Austrian Archduke Albert V issues the Wiener Gesera, ordering that all his Jewish subjects are to be imprisoned and their possessions confiscated after libelous accusations against an influential member of Vienna’s Jewish community.

May 24, 1948: Going against the advice of top military leaders, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orders an assault on the fortress of Latrun, considered a key to liberating Jerusalem.

May 25, 2010: Acclaimed jazz artist John Zorn hosts the first Israeli Jazz Festival at The Stone, his New York venue.

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Today in Israeli History

9

OPINION

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Our View

Israel’s Capital

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

President Donald Trump is expected any day to sign a six-month waiver to a 1995 law ordering the U.S. Embassy in Israel to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, Trump’s decision is not a surprise.

Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama did the same thing every six months, starting in 1998, postponing the implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act on the grounds of “national security interests.” Obama’s last waiver, signed several weeks after Trump was elected, is due to expire June 1.

Based on Trump’s campaign promises, that deadline to act on the embassy issue should have been irrelevant. He repeatedly assured voters that he had made the decision to put the embassy in Jerusalem and would begin the process at the very start of his administration.

But since the inauguration, Trump and his staff have largely been silent about the embassy and, when forced to address the issue, have offered standard political double-talk, seeking time to study the implications of the move despite the stated support.

With the June 1 deadline approaching and national media reporting Trump’s plans to renew the waiver even as the president prepares to visit Jerusalem on Monday, May 22, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, May 14, that Trump needs more time to make the decision (meaning another waiver) and that the effects on the peace process will be a key consideration.

Tillerson said the decision will involve feedback from all sides, including “whether Israel views it as helpful to a peace initiative or perhaps a distraction.”

That was an odd statement because if Tillerson means the elected Israeli government, its view has been consistent and unequivocal in support of putting the U.S. Embassy in the actual Israeli capital.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly responded to Tillerson: “Israel’s position has been stated many times to the American administration and to the world. Moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem would not harm the peace process. On the contrary, it would advance it by correcting an historical injustice and by shattering the Palestinian fantasy that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel.”

The argument against moving the embassy, uniquely denying Israel the right to declare its own capital, focuses on the problem of prejudging the final status of Jerusalem, one of the major disputes blocking an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. But putting the embassy west of the Green Line, in an area of Jerusalem that Israel has controlled since 1948 and that only the history-denying U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and opponents of Israel’s existence refuse to acknowledge as part of Israel, would not eliminate the possibility of a Palestinian government presence in Jerusalem.

Such an embassy, to the contrary, would make a clear U.S. declaration that Israel’s place in Jerusalem is non-negotiable, so work on the grand peace deal Trump envisions could concentrate on other issues.

Israel’s capital is and always will be Jerusalem, regardless of the location of foreign embassies or the resolutions of UNESCO. We look forward to the day 10 the United States acknowledges that reality. ■

Cartoon by Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com

Bias Everywhere You Look The pro-Karen Handel guest column by Chuck Berk’s article, which some people thought was either Berk in last week’s AJT sparked quite a reaction, an unbalanced news article or an AJT endorsement some of which you can read on the next page. The of Handel. But even people who understood that it uproar brought two things to mind. was one person’s opinion were furious.

Early in my journalOne letter writer ism career I was the beat expressed a sincere belief reporter for the city of Pain the First Amendment Editor’s Notebook terson, N.J., which meant I — but not for something

By Michael Jacobs spent a lot of time covering as outrageous as Berk’s mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com the mayor, Bill Pascrell. He column, which combined was a big-city, Northeasta positive spin on Handel’s ern, Catholic, old-school career with a negative liberal. I wasn’t. reading of Democratic feelings about Israel. Areas In 1996, several years after I escaped New Jersey, for disagreement, sure, but fury?

Pascrell was elected to Congress. I would have voted If liberals and Democrats are no more likely for Pascrell if given the chance for two reasons: He than conservatives and Republicans to go crazy over was devoted to the people of his district, and he politics, the disproportionate reactions indicate reflected their political preferences. something bad about the AJT: Too many people per(Pascrell, now 80, is still in the House, where in ceive political biases in the paper based on the ownApril he organized a bipartisan letter calling for the ership, my editorship or things we have published.

Nonprofit Security Grant Program to be expanded Once such perceptions are in place, they’re from $20 million to $50 million a year to help proalmost impossible to change. If you expect to find tect Jewish institutions.) bias, you’ll see it everywhere, and you won’t notice After New Jersey, I worked for The Washington anything countering your belief.

Times. We competed with The Washington Post, This newspaper is the work of flawed humans whose executive editor was Len Downie. Among othwho see the world subjectively. We try our best to er things, Downie was famous for never voting. He counter any biases, and we are most vigilant on said he didn’t want to give himself a rooting interest politics. Just remember when you see something you in any election, lest he tilt the Post’s coverage. think reflects our biases that you’re also viewing it Downie was an incredibly successful editor, but through a subjective lens. his approach to elections was silly. You can’t sepaAll the articles come through me, of course, and rate yourself from the world and still edit a newsI reject Downie’s no-voting approach. But just bepaper, and you’re going to have biases, regardless of cause I voted for one of the eliminated Republicans whether you act on them at a polling place. on April 18 doesn’t mean I’m voting for or rooting for Speaking of biases: Berk’s column ran a week af- Handel on June 20. ter Steve Oppenheimer’s column backing Jon Ossoff, I’m undecided, based on the same two criteria which inspired one letter and no comments on our that would favor Pascrell in northern New Jersey and website. The pro-Handel column, however, produced my fondness for some compromise-forcing gridlock 30-plus comments on our website, a couple of dozen in government. But my eventual pick of a candidate letters and outrage across social media. won’t change how we report the news or choose Some of the reaction came from a misreading of opinion pieces — believe it or not. ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Letters To The Editor

Bigger Than Handel, Ossoff

It has been said over and over that the outcome of the 6th District election will send a message far and wide, and I believe, at this very moment more than ever, that message rests in the hands of the community of Jews in Georgia as we go to the polls on June 20.

Sure, we can continue to argue back and forth about specific issues surrounding both candidates.

Karen Handel opposes the ban on assault weapons. She is not pro-choice.

And yet, as was argued in a recent opinion piece in the AJT (“Why Karen Handel Deserves Jewish Vote,” May 12), she is more “pro-Israel” than her opponent, an argument that is so weak as to be laughable.

Jon Ossoff, while a congressional aide on military and counterterrorism programs, worked on defense authorization bills that helped fund the Iron Dome and David’s Sling defense systems, which are essential to protecting Israel from missile and rocket attacks.

Ossoff has stated that he is committed to supporting Israel’s security as a homeland for the Jewish people and to strengthening the historical, unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel.

But we are well beyond the time when it’s necessary to make point/ counterpoint arguments about the candidates in this election. At this very moment, we need to be united and laser-sharp in our focus because nothing less than the core values of our democracy are at stake.

Whether you identify as red or blue, independent or undecided, it’s safe to say that as Jews we all feel a level of discomfort that every branch of our government is controlled by one party. Adding to the discomfort, at least for me, is the autocratic nature of our president, which is becoming more apparent and more troubling every day.

As Jews, can our consciences allow this type of mono-leadership to continue, or do we want to ensure that a broader voice, a wider representation, is present in Washington?

Our core values as Jews and as Americans are on the line in this election. Each day brings more uncertainty as events unfold and our standards of credible, honest, intelligent and fair leadership are being called into question on the world stage.

We need to vote to send a representative to Washington who will stand

for these values, not someone who will simply disappear into the ranks of elected officials already overpopulating our government. I hope the Jewish community in Georgia can be united in this, our most important task, which is our commitment to uphold the legacy of justice, freedom and the rule of law here and throughout the world.

— Caroline Stover, Atlanta

Offensive Column

I am very offended by the column “Why Karen Handel Deserves Jewish Vote.” I am Jewish and a Democrat, and I completely disagree with the characteristics and assumptions made about Jewish Democrats.

I fully support Israel. I have a spiritual connection with Israel. I visited Israel as a young adult, and I have family living in Israel. I think most Jewish people in America would agree that Israel holds a special place in our hearts.

I am disturbed that this article is attempting to divide Georgians, just as Karen Handel’s ads do, by labeling “us” and “them.” We are all Georgians, and I would prefer to vote for a candidate who wants to unite us by working with both parties, not divide us.

Jon Ossoff is that candidate, and he has stated that he will work with anyone to make Georgia’s 6th District thrive. Jon is a uniter; Karen is a divider.

— Sandi Strasberg, Dunwoody

He’s One of Us

I write in response to the opinion piece by Chuck Berk suggesting that Jews should vote for Karen Handel.

As a Georgia voter and proud Jewish American, I was disappointed to read this essay. Despite Berk’s prose (and Handel’s vacuous TV commercials funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee), she is certainly not “a proven, effective leader.” She is, in fact, a politician who is a proven loser of elections and has allowed herself to be co-opted by Donald Trump and his apparatchiks, who as of today seem to be doing everything they can get away with to bring totalitarianism to our country.

Of particular concern to your readers, Handel is running advertisements exhorting voters to support her because “she’s one of us.” Intelligent voters might ask, “Who is ‘us’?”

Handel was born in Washington, D.C., grew up and graduated from high school in Maryland, attended two colleges but never graduated, worked for a few companies, and, after losing several elections, took a job at the Susan G. Komen Foundation, where her rightwing politics (and egregious and self-

centered attempt to influence Planned Parenthood funding) forced her eventual, ignominious resignation from what had been an apolitical charity.

There is nothing in her personal history — geographic, economic, social or philosophic — to which I or my middle-class Jewish family can relate.

We, apparently, are not “one of us.” Her rhetoric is redolent of exclusionary politics and encourages outright racism and anti-Semitism.

Jon Ossoff was raised in Georgia.

His father is an Ashkenazi Jew. He was brought up as a Jew and was once a bar mitzvah boy. His fiancée is Jewish. His views on achieving peace in the Middle East seem intelligent and thoughtful and respectful of history. Perhaps I am prejudiced, but Jon Ossoff seems to be “one of us.”

I can only hope your readers look at the facts and make up their own minds.

— Ira K. Schwartz, Decatur

Better IDs, Please

We’re so lucky we live in a country where our freedom of the press and right to free speech are protected by our amazing Constitution. These two rights are the foundation of great journalism and a newspaper’s right to have editorial pages and make endorsements. However, when you read a column, the author should be attributed as an employee or a contributor. You’re not left to wonder.

So I read Chuck Berk’s opinion on Karen Handel and wondered who he was. His piece is listed as opinion, but we readers are forced to wonder what his lens is. Thank goodness for Google.

Nowhere does the AJT mention that he is the co-chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Atlanta.

No wonder he loves Karen Handel.

I’m sure Jon Ossoff’s ema has good things to say about her little poopskala, but her opinion is going to be no less biased and no more useful than Berk’s.

Please, if the AJT is going to invite opinion pieces, allow us to understand the perspective so we can form educated decisions.

— Howard Winer, Dunwoody

Handel Puts Principle First

It is no surprise that Steve Oppenheimer, a former Democratic candidate for public office, is supporting Democrat Jon Ossoff (“Why Ossoff Has Earned Our Support,” May 5). Likewise, it should be no surprise that I, a former Republican state legislator, am supporting Republican Karen Handel. Partisans have decided, but how about the rest?

Often what a candidate doesn’t

say speaks volumes about his/her past.

Ossoff worked for Congressman Hank Johnson for five years — the same Hank Johnson who compared Jews and Israeli citizens to “termites” based solely on the where they live. Yes, Johnson apologized, but his voting record on Israel never changed.

Ossoff’s campaign website shows the names of many people whom he associates with and displays a picture with respected Congressman John Lewis. Hank Johnson, his mentor, is nowhere to be found.

Ossoff as a journalist sold films to many media sources, including Al Jazeera, known as “a mouthpiece for terrorists” and owned by the government of Qatar. The network promotes the Muslim Brotherhood and has an anti-Western, anti-Israel agenda.

While Ossoff’s relationship was legal, he chose profits over principle.

Would he also have sold to a neo-Nazi or Klan publication? With 95 percent of his campaign funds coming from out of state, will he represent the money or the people?

There are many reasons why citizens across the political spectrum could and should support Karen Handel. As the chair of the Fulton County Commission, she turned deficits into balanced budgets. As the Georgia secretary of state, she implemented and successfully defended a voter ID law to protect election integrity, increasing minority and overall voter participation. As the president and CEO of the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, she promoted an aggressive economic development program that created thousands of jobs.

More important, Karen places principle first. As senior vice president of policy for Susan G. Komen, a leading charity fighting breast cancer, she resigned when the organization restored funding to a group she philosophically opposed. Principle over profits!

In a normal year, the first vote a member of Congress makes is for the speaker of the House. Karen Handel proudly supports and is campaigning with Speaker Paul Ryan. John Ossoff is supporting Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi but doesn’t want that secret to get out. Any wonder why she will not come to Georgia?

With his millions, Ossoff has developed a poll-tested message that now makes it seem he is one of us, ignoring the common threads of Hank Johnson, Al Jazeera and outside money. From health care to jobs to taxes to national security, Karen Handel has what it takes to truly represent all the people of the 6th District.

— Mitchell Kaye, Marietta 11 MAY 19 ▪ 2017

OPINION

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Unpacking Community Study on Interfaith Families

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Over coffee, Debra shared a story of unexpected heartbreak. After five years together, she and her partner had become engaged. She was thrilled to call a synagogue for an officiant.

When the secretary asked whether Debra’s partner was Jewish, and she replied, “Yes,” the secretary exclaimed, “Mazel tov!”

Debra hung up, feeling hurt, sad and confused because, while her partner is Jewish, she is not.

They were later married by a justice of the peace.

She described these experiences to me soon after I moved south to work as the director of InterfaithFamily/Atlanta in 2015.

She asked for guidance on how to find the Jewish institution where they now feel welcomed and even honored as an interfaith couple.

I often act as a concierge to Jewish engagement in Atlanta, particularly for people who are unsure where to start and how to begin. I meet regularly with people who identify as interfaith, LGBTQ, singles, engaged, parents and people with limited means and help them along their Jewish journeys.

I hear all too often, “We want to get involved in the Jewish community, join a synagogue, meet other interfaith couples like us, but we don’t know how to go about it.”

Sure, I may be a relative newcomer to Atlanta, but through InterfaithFamily, the leading national experts in the field, I have 15 years of research and experience to rely on. And from my vantage point serving the interfaith community, I’m not surprised by data in the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta‘s 2016 community study.

People here have a lot of unmet expectations — a true craving for Jewish community and connection.

Nearly half (46 percent) of interfaith respondents say they’re not as involved in Jewish life as they would like to be. And 69 percent of people in interfaith relationships said they wish their local community had more interfaith programming.

While there’s an appetite for Jewish life, unfortunately many times interfaith families and couples don’t feel welcomed or included. Only 13 percent of Federation’s respondents in interfaith relationships strongly agree that they feel part of a Jewish com12 munity in metro Atlanta vs. 49 percent

of people who are “inmarried” (both partners identify as Jewish).

The top reasons why interfaith couples don’t feel connected include not feeling welcomed and not connecting with people at programs and events. Only 18 percent of people in interfaith relationships strongly stated that their most recent experience

Guest Column

By Rabbi Malka Packer

made them want to attend another Jewish event or activity.

When I meet with interfaith couples and share the work that I do, I often hear: “We can’t believe you are here doing this work! We need this in Atlanta. We’ve felt so alone. There hasn’t been anyone to talk to. How can we get more involved?” I’ve heard too many stories of Jews and their loved ones feeling shame, pain and loss as they try to connect to Jewish life.

I’m excited to work with synagogues and other Jewish institutions to tear down barriers to engagement, and I especially hope to serve as a resource to help avoid inadvertently alienating the very people who want to connect.

I offer creative, positive, nonjudgmental, discreet, behind-the-scenes support and programming to strengthen outreach. Often all it takes is a subtle adjustment to existing communication and marketing.

Building an inclusive, welcoming presence takes care and thoughtfulness, but it isn’t rocket science. Federation’s study reveals that respondents in interfaith relationships want to meet other interfaith couples and families and are looking for places where their choices in partners and how they connect to Judaism are not judged. Interfaith couples are more likely to seek social programming in their community and are also more interested in the expansion of worship opportunities, both traditional and nontraditional.

I have been excited and stunned by the response to the low-barrier events we offer to the interfaith community — programs that are easy and comfortable for anyone to join.

We meet people where they are. We celebrate and honor diversity and difference.

Promukkah, a prom-themed Chanukah party that made its debut in December, will be an annual event.

We want everyone to feel welcome, regardless of background, knowledge and choices of how to connect to Jewish life. Whenever there are prayers or blessings, we always provide the transliteration and translations so anyone can follow. We keep the costs low or free. Our goal is radical hospitality. And we hope more Jewish organizations will follow our example.

At InterfaithFamily, we are creating various opportunities to partner with Jewish and non-Jewish institutions, synagogues and organizations.

It’s a fun and effective way to address a need highlighted in the Federation report for more integration of Jewish organizations and to build positive connections among the many institutions that tend to focus on their own membership.

In 2016, we threw a party called Promukkah, a prom-themed Chanukah party at our office space at Ponce City Market. We provided dance music, a photo booth, a corsage/boutonnière-making station, and delicious, kosher catered food.

This intergenerational event, co-sponsored with eight local Jewish organizations — Federation, Limmud, Moishe House, SOJOURN, the Sixth Point, AAspire, Be’chol Lashon and the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival — attracted a crowd of over 100 wearing prom gowns, fancy suits and lots of sequins.

One gentleman wore his father’s wedding tux. A delightful gay male couple in their 70s wore light-up tuxedos and lighted up the room with their joyful grins. We plan to make this an annual event.

You wouldn’t think that popcorn, gobstoppers and candy drops are a route to connecting new people to Jewish life. Yet that’s precisely what we’re trying, building on data in Federation’s report about keen interest in Jewish cultural events and gatherings.

We’re finalizing plans for an outdoor Shabbatluck co-sponsored by In the City Camp, Jewish Kids Groups, PJ Library and the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. This potluck gathering in Historic Fourth Ward Park on Sept. 8 will feature tasty treats, a children’s movie and Shabbat blessings.

For Shavuot on Tuesday, May 30, we are hosting at our offices a justicefocused night of study co-sponsored

by Limmud, Moishe House, Congregation Shearith Israel, Congregation Bet Haverim and SOJOURN. Options for learning sessions that evening include self-care and prayer as activism, traditional prayer services, racial justice and relating to the other, yoga, and chanting.

Let’s work together to welcome the many individuals and families who make Jewish Atlanta stronger and more vibrant. Let’s find creative ways to make sure interactions with interfaith couples end not in tears and disconnection, but in a growing and dynamic reflection of our beautifully diverse community. ■ Rabbi Malka Packer is the founding director of InterfaithFamily/Atlanta, a Jewish nonprofit organization that empowers and supports interfaith couples and families. She serves on the boards for the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and MACoM (Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah).

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SIX-DAY WAR

The Mixed Blessing of the Kotel’s Recapture A noted writer penned these words: “What was once seen as an unmitigated blessing has come to be seen as a very mixed blessing.”

The blessing is the Israeli victory in 1967’s Six-Day War. The mixed blessing arises from the situation in Israel today.

Because my wife and children and I have spent 40 of the 50 years since that victory in Israel as Israelis, I want to focus on the Kotel rather than all the land won in the war.

A couple of weeks ago, quietly, the Orthodox of Israel took over the whole Kotel again. There was no fanfare in the United States. It was just done, and that was it.

The part of the southern section of the Kotel that had been a locale for men and women to be together in tefillah and celebration has been stripped from the hands of those who worked so hard to create an egalitarian prayer area.

Some of you may recall that I wrote about my experiences in con-

ducting b’nai mitzvah ceremonies at the Kotel and at other locales so men

Guest Column

By Rabbi David Geffen

and women could be together. I did that because I came to feel — and I still do — that participating in a wonderful simcha at the Kotel is one of the greatest acts for a Jewish family today.

Whatever has transpired at the Kotel now has tarnished the spirit of the Western Wall, but you should not let it tarnish your spirit. The Kotel’s existence is an answer to all those who would argue that we Jews have no roots in Jerusalem and Israel.

A few weeks after the Six-Day War victory, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol turned over the administration of and jurisdiction over the Kotel to the Orthodox political party leaders in Israel. Rather than protest at the time, the Reform and Conservative Jews and

the secularists of the Jewish people all over the world were silent.

I have studied the whole issue of the Kotel to learn in the lifetime of this Atlanta Jew what happened. The greatest contributors then, and probably now, to the Jewish Federations, which gave the money to the Jewish Agency for Israel, permitted their donations to be placed into areas of life in Israel that did not build the whole country but instead basically supported the Orthodox sector as a controlling body.

I state that as a fact, not as criticism of those in Israel who used the “dirty” money of the rich, non-Orthodox Jews who loved Israel and were so enthralled with victory 50 years ago that they forgot the nitty-gritty of Judaism that has given us the fervent desire as a people to survive.

As I said, I feel good that in my lifetime I can go to the Kotel, touch it, make blessings, and have both of our sons and two of our grandsons come into Jewish maturity there.

I wish the holiness of the Kotel — as it existed for Jews from 70 C.E., when the Romans defeated the Jews

Orthodox men have plenty of space to pray their way at the Kotel.

and destroyed the Second Temple, until 1948, when the Kotel was lost — could have been upgraded for all Jews in 1967 when it returned to the hands of Am Yisrael.

On Shavuot 1967, the first time the Kotel opened for prayer after the war, 200,000 men, women and children davened there together with no mechitza because the Kotel before 1967 never had a mechitza.

Clearly, Orthodox, Reform and Conservative Jews have tried to ensure the centrality of Israel for the Jewish people. The Orthodox seem to have worked harder. ■ David Geffen is a native Atlantan and Conservative rabbi who lives in Jerusalem.

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The deadline for nominations is Sunday, June 11, 2017.

Visit atlantajewishtimes.com/40-under-40 for more information.

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MAY 19 â–ª 2017

SIX-DAY WAR

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Divine Act or Loss of Soul?

Atlanta Jews’ different views of 1967 prevent a unified observance

By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

The black-and-white films of Israel shown to Sunday school students in the early 1960s extolled the labors of the halutzim (pioneers), who were “making the desert bloom” dressed in shorts, shirtsleeves and those kova tembel hats.

In six days, from June 5 to 10, 1967, the image of an Israeli was transformed.

Now American Jews acclaim the valor of the men and women wearing the uniform of the Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF’s defeat of the armed forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, as well as other Arab nations that contributed to their coalition, remains consequential five decades later.

In those six days, the Israeli landscape, on the ground and in the psyche of Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora, changed radically.

Suddenly, Jews could pray at the Western Wall, as that remnant of the Second Temple no longer was beyond reach but could be touched and wept upon.

Israel, a sliver of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea (roughly the size of New Jersey, the Sunday school teachers said), now controlled the high ground of the Golan Heights, the vast Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank (the biblical lands of Judaea and Samaria west of the Jordan River), including the eastern sector of Jerusalem and, notably, the Old City.

“As someone who lived through the experience of the Six-Day War, I think the stories should always be recalled.

When I think back to the Six-Day War, I think of the song ‘Yerushalayim Shel Zahav’ (‘Jerusalem of Gold’), the longing and the return of the Jewish people to their city of gold, Jerusalem,” said Ambassador Judith Varnai Shorer, Israel’s consul general to the Southeast.

The attachment of American Jews to the 19-year-old Jewish state reached unprecedented heights during the summer of 1967. From boardrooms to schoolrooms, chests puffed out in pride as “the Jewish homeland,” thousands of miles away, made a bold statement on the world stage.

Atlanta native Shai Robkin was 15 and living in “an intensely Zionist 16 household.”

Native Atlantan Shai Robkin says until the 1967 war, “there had not been anything that created such enthusiasm and a great feeling of pride and joy in the state of Israel.”

“There had not been anything that created such enthusiasm and a great feeling of pride and joy in the state of Israel until 1967,” said Robkin, who made aliyah with his wife in 1976 and served in the IDF before returning to Atlanta in 1984. Today Robkin chairs the Atlanta regional council for the New Israel Fund and is an active supporter of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.

Israel remains a significant component of American Jewish identity.

When the Pew Research Center surveyed American Jews in 2013, 43 percent considered “caring about Israel” to be “essential to what it means to be Jewish.”

“Caring about Israel” was less essential than remembering the Holocaust (73 percent), leading an ethical life (69 percent), and working for justice and equality (56 percent) but more than having a good sense of humor (42 percent), being part of a Jewish community (28 percent), observing Jewish law (19 percent) and eating traditional Jewish foods (14 percent).

Pew found that the emotional binding of American Jews to Israel was more than twice as strong among those who identified with Judaism as a religion than for those who did not. The attachment was decidedly strongest among those 50 and older.

The bond was fairly stable across the spectrum of educational achievement and somewhat stronger among those identifying as Republicans than Democrats or independents. By de-

nomination, Orthodox Jews evinced slightly greater attachment than Conservative Jews, and both were notably ahead of Reform Jews and those Pew listed as “no denomination.”

Fifty years ago, the issue of how Israel would administer the lands that it captured — including the lives of 600,000 Arabs in the West Bank and 356,000 in the Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli census conducted just after the war — was of less concern to the American diaspora than Israel’s survival.

In 1967, America’s estimated 5.8 million Jews rallied in support of Israel, even though only a fraction had visited and not until after the war did more than 1,000 Americans annually immigrate to Israel.

“More American Jews chose to be buried in Israel than to live there,” Seton Hall University Professor Edward S. Shapiro wrote in “A Time for Healing: American Jewry Since World War II (The Jewish People in America),” published in 1992.

During and immediately after the war, Atlanta’s Jewish community, numbering about 16,000, raised more than $1.5 million (worth approximately $11 million in 2017) for an Israel Emergency Fund coordinated by the national United Jewish Appeal. (AJT articles in June will look at how Atlanta’s Jewish community responded during the war.)

Fifty years later, unity has given way to division, especially when discussing the effects of the war.

“It’s hard to imagine how far we’ve

“What do we want Israel to look like, to be? What kind of Jewish state?

What kind of democracy?” Jan JabenEilon says. “I know Israelis aren’t necessarily asking those questions, but we should if we care about Israel.”

come from that feeling of exhilaration to being a divided community as we are today. It’s felt in Israel, and it probably is felt more in America,” Robkin said, citing Israel’s control of the West Bank as the “focal point of that division.”

The words used to describe the events of 1967 can be controversial.

“Calling it the war of 1967 or the Six-Day War comes from a particular Jewish narrative and perspective and from the victor’s point of view,” said Ilise Cohen, a scholar on Mizrahi Jews and an activist in Jewish Voice for Peace. “The Naksa is the Palestinian name for the Israeli state’s occupation, displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, as well as the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, in 1967. The Israeli state understands itself as a victor, but by winning and occupying the Palestinian territories, it is also known for its rejection of international law and human rights and for its decades-long refusal to allow the Palestinian population under its control equality and freedom.”

(Nakba, meaning catastrophe, is used by Palestinians to refer to the events related to Israeli independence in 1948. Naksa, meaning setback, refers to 1967.)

“After 50 years, the only meaningful way to observe this anniversary of occupation is to ensure that it is the last,” Cohen said.

The June 1967 war was mentioned but was not the focus of local celebrations of Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Inde-

SIX-DAY WAR

Chuck Berk, shown with wife Bonnie and actor Jason Alexander at the national Israel Bonds gala at which they were honored in February, says many progressive Jews “came to believe erroneously that the Palestinians were an oppressed people.”

that history as a 12-year-old.

His father, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, was on leave from Beth Jacob and teaching for a year at Bar-Ilan Univer-

sity in Ramat Gan, several miles east of Tel Aviv. He and his wife, Estelle, decided that they and their four children would remain in Israel during that per-

ilous time.

The two Rabbis Feldman spoke at Beth Jacob in April about their experiences during the war and their belief that the events of 1967 were miracles.

“We who were living there saw with our own eyes the hand of G-d,” Rabbi Emanuel Feldman said.

Rabbi Daniel Dorsch of Congregation Etz Chaim traveled to Israel later in life.

“I was born after the miracle of 1967. Today, many of my peers are simply unable to even entertain the notion of a world without Israel because it has always existed in their lifetimes. Unfortunately, this narrow-mindedness that allows us to take Israel’s existence for granted also leads us to myopically

Continued on the next page

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

pendence Day), and no Atlanta event is scheduled to mark Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) on May 24. The 50th anniversary will pass without a communitywide commemoration bringing together thousands of Jewish Atlantans — the kind that have happened to show solidarity during Israel’s wars.

The war and its impact likely will be part of the discussion when Daniel Shapiro, the most recent former U.S. ambassador to Israel, speaks Wednesday, June 7, to the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta at Ahavath Achim Synagogue and when CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer delivers the annual Eizenstat Family Lecture on Sunday, June 11, at Ahavath Achim.

The only local event focusing directly on the anniversary will be produced by the Friends of the IDF’s Southeast Region on Monday, June 12, at The Temple, featuring the three paratroopers —Yitzhak Yifat, Zion Karasanti and Haim Oshri — who appear in an iconic photograph taken by David Rubinger on June 7, 1967, some 20 minutes after the IDF secured the Western Wall.

(Rubinger died in March at age 92.)

The paratroop veterans are attending several events sponsored by FIDF around the country.

The FIDF event, however, is not free. General admission tickets are $36.

Those who become commemoration sponsors by purchasing six tickets for $1,000 will receive copies of the Rubinger photograph, to be signed at the event by the three veterans.

“The soldiers of Israel still fight today as they did 50 years ago to protect our Jewish homeland and guarantee our existence. Our commemoration will stress the importance of the SixDay War and the sacrifices of IDF soldiers. This was a pivotal moment in history that changed the landscape of Israel and the lives of Jews worldwide,” said Seth Baron, the executive director of FIDF Southeast.

Israel today is far from the plucky little Jewish nation founded just three years after the end of the Holocaust.

Its population has grown from 2.74 million in 1967 to 8.68 million. An estimated 74.8 percent of Israeli citizens are Jewish, and 20.8 percent are Arabs.

An estimated 2.8 million noncitizen Arabs live in the West Bank.

For some, the victory in 1967 was nothing less than evidence of the divine, a miracle that should not be ignored half a century later.

“Any observance of this anniversary by any Jewish community without noting the hand of G-d would be a travesty,” said Rabbi Ilan Feldman of Congregation Beth Jacob, who witnessed

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SIX-DAY WAR

Ilise Cohen of Jewish Voice for Peace says that calling it the Six-Day War is problematic and that “the Naksa is the Palestinian name for the Israeli state’s occupation, displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people … in 1967.”

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view present-day challenges of Israeli society without any greater context of history,” he said.

“I’ll never forget walking around the Yemin Moshe neighborhood (in Jerusalem) during my first trip as a teenager and seeing the bullet holes that came from Jordanian snipers from the Old City. As a young man in 1999 visiting Israel, these seemed to me to be ancient history. But for the people of Israel, these serve as daily reminders of how a united Jerusalem helps to maintain peace and security in their country,” Rabbi Dorsch said. “As Atlantans approach the 50th anniversary of the 1967 war, I hope they will take a moment to reflect on the miracle of the reunification of the city of Jerusalem, that in our day continues as a flourishing, booming city under Israel’s governance.”

Rachel Rothstein teaches modern Jewish history to 11th-graders at the Weber School. Most of her students have been to Israel or will visit in their senior year. Rothstein reminds them that it is because of the 1967 war that they can visit the Western Wall (Kotel Ha’Maravi in Hebrew).

“It’s something that’s so much a part of their own experiences that they can understand the impact of the war from that perspective,” she said.

“It’s a period that I’ve found my students to be really interested in. They ask good questions about the war and how the territorial gains then directly impact the situation in Israel today. It’s a good way to bridge current events and history, and it’s like things click for them once we go over this period.

They hear terms like West Bank, settlements, etc., all the time, but they don’t always understand what they mean,” Rothstein said. “This is the point in the semester when I can unpack a lot of the complexities for them and help them begin to understand.”

Jesse Benjamin, an associate professor of sociology and coordinator of African and African diaspora studies at Kennesaw State University, is clear about how he believes those complexities should be understood. Benjamin was born in Israel and raised in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States before returning to Israel as a teenager and college student.

“Until 1967, many black people globally saw Israel as an anti-colonial force with which they could identify, but after this expansionist war, most African nations and conscious people everywhere, including a handful of Jewish Israelis, began to see more clearly that Israel was aligned with U.S. imperial interests and embroiled in its own internal settler-colonial issues,” he said.

“The peace process held out the hope of peace in return for land occupied in 1967, as when peace was made with Egypt and Sinai was returned. But the relentlessly expanding settlements and Jewish infrastructure in the West Bank have made this impossible, while the rise of social media and the nonviolent boycott movement have all promoted a wider awareness of the deep racial divisions at the core of Israeli society and its occupation,” he said.

“For Atlanta Jews committed to the deeply held core Jewish values of

For Ambassador Judith Varnai Shorer, the anniversary of the Six-Day War is a time to remember “the longing and the return of the Jewish people to their city of gold, Jerusalem.”

Taking Israel’s existence for granted, Congregation Etz Chaim Rabbi Daniel Dorsch says, “leads us to myopically view present-day challenges of Israeli society without any greater context of history.”

social justice, remembering 1967 is a time to renew our fight for Palestinian, Mizrahi and African migrant liberation and for an end to racist policies in Israel and to say ‘not in our name.’ It’s our duty as Jews to stand on the side of social justice, and our concern is to salvage some version of Israel before it descends any further along its current xenophobic path,” Benjamin said.

If Benjamin occupies one end of the spectrum on this issue, Chuck Berk holds the other.

Berk, a past chairman of the Israel Bonds Atlanta board, and his wife, Bonnie, received Israel Bonds’ Israel69 Award this year for their “exceptional support for Israel and efforts to perpetuate Jewish heritage.”

“The war dramatically changed the Middle East balance of power to Israel’s advantage. Israel changed from being perceived as a beleaguered, small nation surrounded by big, powerful Arab states to the pre-eminent military

power in the Middle East. (That) set the stage for Israel to be seen as a potential aggressor,” Berk said. “Over the years, liberal, progressive Jews, many with little real knowledge and understanding of Middle East history, came to believe erroneously that the Palestinians were an oppressed people. This has led to support of the destructive boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which has tried to marginalize Israel and label it as apartheid.”

In Berk’s view, supporters of an immediate, two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution are “naive.”

“The Arabs and Palestinians are not ready to support any form of separate Jewish state, no matter what the boundaries,” he said. “They also do not understand or are unwilling to admit that, even if awarded a separate Palestinian state tomorrow, the state would fail due to inadequate Palestinian leadership, infrastructure and financial stability.”

Jan Jaben-Eilon, an Atlanta-based correspondent for the Jerusalem Report magazine, said that, coming from a Zionist family, “I always thought Israel was mine.” She called her decision to make aliyah in the mid-1990s “the best thing I ever did and the most challenging thing I ever did.”

Jaben-Eilon takes a different view from Berk of the lessons to be learned from the 1967 war and its aftermath.

“Perhaps the observance of this 50th anniversary should require us to ask what we want to observe in another 50 years. What do we want Israel to look like, to be? What kind of Jewish state? What kind of democracy? I know Israelis aren’t necessarily asking those questions, but we should if we care about Israel,” she said.

“In 1967, we thought Israel’s existence was in question. We were tiny and really unproven. We were the David to the Arabs’ Goliath. This isn’t true anymore. Israel’s top military and intelligence officials say we are not really at existential risk from the outside.

They cite only the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an existential threat,” said Jaben-Eilon, who serves on the regional NIF board.

“The divisiveness comes from whether one believes one side of this over the other: Are we the underdogs, or are we the stronger side? Should we be living in constant fear, or should we, can we, take risks to separate from the Palestinians?” she said. “The older generation seems to still be living in the fear that goes back 75 years, or thousands of years. The younger generation has grown up with a different Israel: It’s been strong all their lives.” ■

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MAY 19 ▪ 2017

SIX-DAY WAR

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SIX-DAY WAR

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Rabbis Share Tears of Joy, Sorrow 50 Years Later

By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Rabbi Emanuel Feldman was teaching an English course on the Torah in Jerusalem on May 22, 1967, when he noticed three Israel Defense Forces buses loading students who were also trained paratroopers.

“That’s when I realized the mobilization was no longer a cold, objective fact but reality. Some of those students were mine, and they were being sent off to war to be killed, maimed, who knows? I just watched them in silence and cried,” the Congregation Beth Jacob rabbi emeritus said in speaking about the Six-Day War on Sunday, April 23, at the Toco Hills synagogue.

Rabbi Feldman also read excerpts from his book about the war, “The 28th of Iyar,” recently reissued for the 50th anniversary. In the book he mentions a student named Rachamim, who did not excel in class but was an admirer of the rabbi’s. One day Rachamim didn’t show up for class, and Rabbi Feldman learned that his student had enlisted in the army against doctor’s orders.

Rabbi Feldman and his son and

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successor at Beth Jacob, Rabbi Ilan Feldman, together delivered the annual Amram Hillel Feldman Memorial Lecture about their experiences in Israel 50 years ago during the Six-Day War. “Tonight is about miracles and a memory we are all too familiar with,” Rabbi Ilan Feldman said. “Fifty years ago … and 22 years after the Holocaust, Jews were once again threatened by their enemies, yet within a few hours Israel wiped out the Egyptian air force, took out the Arab armies, and took control of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, among other territories, and we were there.”

His father said the family feared the worst as tensions rose in the buildup to the war. “We were not sure of anything. We didn’t know if President Lyndon B. Johnson would support Israel, if we could count on the United Nations, England or France.”

The Feldmans prepared bomb shelters by stocking food and producing sandbags.

Rabbi Feldman held back tears as he described a memory about one of his four children. “One day my 7-yearold daughter, Chava, came home from

Photo by Rabbi Yitzchok Tendler

Rabbis Emanuel Feldman and Ilan Feldman answer questions about their experiences during the Six-Day War.

school and asked me, ‘Dad, what’s a bomb?’ It was like a bullet, and I felt cornered. After I explained it was very bad and that she should stay far away as possible, she said she already knew that, but then asked if the Arabs would drop a bomb on Israel and if G-d would let the Arabs hurt the holy country. I was again cornered and responded by saying, ‘OK, let’s have lunch.’ ” On June 5, 1967, Rabbi Feldman woke to sirens. “Everything seemed normal, and there was no news by the Israeli government. I asked my neighbor what was going on, and he said it was just the alarm. I asked someone on the streets, and they stated it was just a drill. A second siren went off, this one more constant, and after I asked a passer-by what was happening, he replied, ‘It has begun in the Negev; Israeli army forces have responded to an attack.’ ” The rabbi said he thought the fighting would last only a few hours, “but I soon arrived at the school and was told that the dormitories were being used for the wounded. The shops were all closed, and the roads were deserted, and I thought to myself, ‘Where is everybody?’ Then I remembered the air-raid shelters and raced to be with my family. We could hear noises and anti-aircraft guns outside while my wife and I thought to ourselves, ‘What are we doing here? Why are we here?’ ” Israel wasn’t issuing much news about the war, but a neighbor’s radio was tuned to the Voice of America, Rabbi Feldman said. “The reports indicated that Israel destroyed the Egyptian air force, but we didn’t believe it. And yet

it was true.”

The war opened the Kotel (Western Wall) to Jewish visitors for the first time since Israel’s founding in 1948.

“I took a field trip with my class, and when we were 70 to 80 yards from the Kotel, I saw my teacher run with his arms out and throw himself at the wall,” Rabbi Ilan Feldman said. “This taught me a very important lesson and what it is like to experience holiness.”

The aftermath of the Six-Day War was a time of joy but also sorrow because more than 770 Israeli soldiers were killed, many of them young paratroopers.

“It was not an easy fight, and we recall the events which occurred with tears and joy because we lived it and remember it in a very vivid way,” Rabbi Ilan Feldman said. “We live in a generation where we have seen miracles and witnessed some terrible things, yet we have a responsibility to remember pain, suffering, devotion and reawakening toward Judaism.”

After the war, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman said, he obtained a press pass for Bethlehem, where he saw “a paratrooper patrolling the area covered with dust. It was Rachamim.”

His student rushed to the rabbi and embraced him. “The first thing he asked me was if I was really going to fail him. The war was the last thing on his mind. I told him no, but he didn’t believe me,” Rabbi Feldman said. “However, I gave him an A-plus for his sacrifice, not only for me, but the Jewish people. He fought his way down to Jerusalem and was a soldier.” ■

EDUCATION Pope Junior Wins Hadassah Award

Pope High School junior Tessa Stanton, 17, is one of two high-schoolers in the nation awarded Hadassah Leaders of Tomorrow Award scholarships for Young Judaea’s Teen Summer Program in Israel this year.

The highly selec- Tessa Stanton tive, merit-based competition, now in its fourth year, covers full tuition for four weeks in the Israel program. Shira Subar, 17, of Studio City, Calif., is the other winner. Noa Pitkowsky, 16, from New York receives $1,000 toward expenses in the Machon program in Israel as the runner-up.

Tessa, an East Cobb resident, has been involved with BBYO since 2014, belongs to the Jewish Club, the Interact Club and the National Honor Society, and captains a club soccer team at Pope High, according to the announcement from Hadassah. She has volunteered at the Atlanta Community Food Bank for several years.

Last summer Tessa completed an internship at tech startup Cloudtags.

“We are proud to provide opportunities for leadership and personal growth for women of all ages,” Hadassah President Ellen Hershkin said. “We congratulate these three exceptional young women for their achievements, especially their passion for Israel and the Jewish people.”

Hadassah’s national chair for Young Judaea, Barbara Spack, added: “We know that Shira Subar and Tessa Stanton, along with runner-up Noa Pitkowsky, will continue to demonstrate their exceptional leadership skills as well as their noteworthy academic achievements as they grow to lead Hadassah groups in the future.”

Elizabeth Goldberg is leaving the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta to become the development director for Hillels of Georgia in June.

In announcing the hire, Rabbi Russ Shulkes, the executive director of Hillels of Georgia, noted that Goldberg started her Jewish communal career at Emory Hillel more than a decade ago.

Goldberg, a Brookhaven resident, most recently served as the senior director of Federation’s general campaign. She also has worked for Federations in Milwaukee and Baltimore.

She’s a graduate of Wheaton College and has a master’s in Jewish communal service from Brandeis.

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

New Hillel Fundraiser

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LOCAL NEWS

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Photos by Michael Jacobs

Rabbi Ilan Feldman accepts the Beth Jacob award on behalf of his wife, Miriam, from synagogue Vice President Cliff Alsberg and President Josh Joel (right).

Rabbi Emanuel Feldman faces a packed Heritage Hall to pay tribute to his son and daughter-in-law.

Rabbi Ilan Feldman pulls off a surprise by giving his mother, Estelle, flowers during his speech accepting the congregational award.

Although his father earlier had joked that Mother’s Day was over because it was after dark, Rabbi Feldman declared that it’s the custom of Beth Jacob to observe Mother’s Day until midnight.

Beth Jacob President Josh Joel (left) presents the Man of the Year award to Mike Cenker.

A third generation of Feldman rabbi, Avraham Chaim Leib Feldman, speaks about his honoree parents on behalf of his siblings.

Jodi Wittenberg accepts the award as Beth Jacob’s Woman of the Year.

“I was born with a spiritual silver spoon in my mouth,” Rabbi Ilan Feldman says.

Rabbi Emanuel Feldman talks about the crucial role of Beth Jacob in Atlanta’s Jewish development.

Beth Jacob Celebrates Feldmans’ Leadership

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Rabbi Ilan Feldman says he never needs Google to remember the date of the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev that marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union: Aug. 18, 1991.

It’s the same day he was installed as Congregation Beth Jacob’s senior rabbi after 11 years as the assistant to his father, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman. He told his father he accomplished in six hours what he couldn’t do in 40 years.

In sharing that story Sunday night, May 14, with about 400 people at Beth Jacob’s honor dinner celebrating the first 25 years of leadership of Rabbi Ilan Feldman and his wife, Temima High School Principal Miriam Feldman, the rabbi also offered a lesson.

“There’s no way this is about the rabbi,” he said. “This is about the shul.”

He paid tribute to a few of the many people who have been crucial to Beth Jacob the past quarter-century, from his first hire, Sybil Goldstein, who has filled any role necessary over the years, to Chana Shapiro, whom he stole 22 from the Atlanta Jewish Community

Center to fulfill a vision of Beth Jacob as the center of the community and not just a place of worship, to Rabbi Norman Schloss, “a gabbai’s gabbai.”

Two such people shared the spotlight at the dinner as tireless volunteers for the Beth Jacob community: Woman of the Year Jodi Wittenberg and Man of the Year Mike Cenker.

“It’s a privilege to be able to serve and to live and to raise a family in a community that I myself was raised in, and it’s a privilege particularly in this shul, which has achieved around the world a unique status as a spiritual center, a collection of people who will not announce a limit on where they will go, on where they will stop,” Rabbi Feldman said.

He said the congregation is a successful experiment in what happens when you bring together Jews from a range of backgrounds, educations and levels of observance with a reverence for Torah and respect for the centrality of G-d to unite them.

Jewish communities around the country call on Rabbi Feldman for advice on how they can re-create what Beth Jacob has, he said.

“I know that his community can become a model for other communities,” Rabbi Emanuel Feldman said during his tribute to his son and daughterin-law, without whom, he said, Atlanta wouldn’t have Torah Day School, Temima, the Atlanta Scholars Kollel and so many other core institutions.

It’s a family tradition that goes back to the earlier generation: Rabbi Emanuel Feldman brought the community to Toco Hills, for example, and his wife, Estelle, was one of the first teachers at the Hebrew Academy.

The next generation, Rabbi Avraham Chaim Leib Feldman, the third of the honorees’ eight children, said one key to his parents is that just as they expect the community to keep growing spiritually, so they never tire of growing.

To that end, Rabbi Ilan Feldman used a lesson from Maimonides’ son — “another person who probably had to go through psychotherapy” to live up to his father — to help his congregation get the most out of his big night.

The Rambam’s son, Avraham, taught that there were three rising levels to Shabbat observance: Keep it because G-d created the world and

rested on the seventh day; keep it because you’re overwhelmed as you look around at the magnificence of creation; and keep it as an expression of the exclusive relationship between G-d and the children of Israel.

Similarly, Rabbi Feldman suggested three ways to participate in the dinner: Show up to honor the rabbi and his wife for 25 years of service; appreciate what the rabbi and the congregation have shared as their souls have merged; and recognize that there is a partnership representing “the last remnants of the Jewish people, that we exist in a post-Holocaust century where almost the entire Jewish world is ignorant of what it means to be Jewish.”

“You and I, we have an idea, and we’re passionate about it,” Rabbi Feldman said. “If we don’t fulfill our responsibility to the rest of the world, who will? … The world has no idea what it is to be a human being, what it is to be dignified, what it is for relationships to be sanctified, what it is for a human being to reflect the nature of the Creator Himself in our daily behavior.”

All of that, he said, is what it means to be a Jew. ■

LOCAL NEWS

As Leaders Change, AJC Cites BDS Successes

By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com

Photo by Sarah Moosazadeh

New AJC Atlanta President Melanie Nelkin presents her predecessor, Gregg Averbuch, a leadership award for his service as regional president from 2015 to 2017.

growing portion of Israel’s population, but many stay out of the military.

While the unemployment rate among Haredi men is falling, it’s still 50 percent, Bayme said.

To help integrate them into society, Israel is recruiting them into universities across the state. “This is really nice,” Bayme said, “because the real price and value of the endeavor is building stronger relationships with the community.”

Bayme said 89 percent of Haredim put Jewish law above secular law, and 86 percent say the state should use religious law, causing clashes with the majority of Israeli society.

“The Chief Rabbinate, under Haredi auspices, maintains its control over matters of personal status, especially marriage and conversion to Judaism,” Bayme said.

“The question of future American Jewish attachment to Israel is closely tied to the question of what kind of a Jewish state will Israel become,” he said. “More religious laws will make it more difficult for non-Orthodox Jews in America and worldwide to relate to Israel as a historical Jewish homeland.”

Religious pluralism is an important brake on extremism and helps maintain the special relationship between Israel and the United States, Bayme said, “but the sad reality is that the American versions of religious pluralism simply have yet to resonate within Israeli society. More likely, Israel will need to develop its own options appropriate to its culture and society.”

The place of religion gets at the core of Israel’s existence.

“Israel’s very raison d’être is that it is the homeland for all Jews. Additional religious legislation passed under Israeli law signals that, to the contrary, Israel is not the homeland for Jews who are not observant,” Bayme said. ■

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

“Our goal is to help elevate AJC to the next level,” American Jewish Committee Regional Director Dov Wilker said at AJC Atlanta’s 73rd annual meeting Tuesday, May 9, at 103 West.

For the 2016-17 fiscal year, he said, “we have raised over a million dollars and have over 600 sold-out seats for the Selig Distinguished Service Award Dinner honoring Beth and Gregg Paradies” on Wednesday, May 24.

“We have increased interreligious programs to one a week and must continue to reach out to new people to join us by sharing each lineup,” he said.

AJC remains steadfast in resisting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, Wilker said, noting that 47 U.S. governors have signed the national organization’s statement against BDS. “We have continued to reach out to members of Congress and diplomats to discuss similarities and differences in the community in order to fight BDS.” Outgoing AJC Atlanta President Gregg Averbuch said that passing the reins to Melanie Nelkin “represents a happy moment and has added to the tapestry the AJC began 73 years ago. Since then, we have established a president and vice chair, continued to nurture ACCESS through the leaderships of Julie Katz and Matt Weiss, and enhanced engagement and leadership development, which has placed Atlanta as the top regional office.”

He added, “AJC is an irreplaceable asset of the Jewish community, which will reap dividends for years to come.”

Nelkin said, “AJC has become my place of advocacy, where we continue to build bridges in communities based on common values; however, the friendships I have made along the way are my crown jewels. I am humbled by your perspective, dedication and humility.”

Her goals as president include increasing participation in the AJC Global Forum in June, raising engagement, and elevating AJC via social media, print and personal interactions.

Keynote speaker Steve Bayme, the director of AJC’s contemporary Jewish life department and its Koppelman Institute for American Jewish-Israeli Relations, spoke about the tensions between Haredim and secular and liberal Jews in Israel.

The ultra-Orthodox compose a

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A crowd of campaign contributors and other JF&CS supporters attends the ceremony.

Photos by Leah R. Harrison and JF&CS

Cutting the ribbon are (from left) Ann Kay, Michael Kay, Lois Blonder, campaign co-chairs Cherie Aviv and John Perlman, JF&CS CEO Rick Aranson, Dunwoody Mayor Denis Shortal, JF&CS President Michael Levy, Dunwoody City Councilwoman Lynn Deutsch, and former JF&CS CEO Gary Miller.

Commemorative coasters are ready to distribute to the invitation-only crowd at the grand opening.

A decorative wall provides a word cloud of key JF&CS concepts.

Campaign co-chairs Cherie Aviv and John Perlman thank supporters for exceeding the fundraising goal.

JF&CS CEO Rick Aranson talks about the future of the agency.

Rick Aranson and Gary Miller distribute ribbon pieces cut up by John Perlman.

The new IndependenceWORKS building helps consolidate services and staff on the Dunwoody campus.

The light-filled hub of the IndependenceWORKS building offers a teaching kitchen and cubbies for clients.

Rabbi Joshua Heller hangs the mezuzah on the new facility.

New Campus Means New Beginning for JF&CS

By Leah R. Harrison lharrison@atljewishtimes.com

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

In a ceremony filled with gratitude and heart, Jewish Family & Career Services cut the ribbon Wednesday, May 10, on its expanded, renovated campus at 4549 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody.

Crediting former CEO Gary Miller with the vision for the expansion because the IndependenceWORKS program was “bursting at the seams,” two-time former JF&CS President John Perlman, who chaired the Campaign to 24 Complete the Campus with Cherie Aviv,

thanked all involved with the project planning, fundraising, “friendraising” and construction.

Raising more than $6.7 million allowed the team to “blast past” their goals and help pay for landscaping and maintenance of the facility, Perlman said.

The new construction and renovations integrate most of the staff and services of JF&CS onto one multifunctional campus. The grounds now include three gardens plus the Giving Garden, which will yield fresh produce to supplement the offerings of the Kosher Food Pantry.

Aviv spoke about the impact of the new building and grounds and of the renovated Walter and Frances Bunzl Family Foundation Clinical Services Wing. She said JF&CS clients enter “comfortable, warm and inviting spaces” where they are treated with dignity.

The new IndependenceWORKS building accommodates the day and pre-vocational skills programs of the Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Services. The light-filled hub, the gathering space of the building, complete with cubbies for the clients upon their arrival, includes a teaching kitchen and is surrounded by an art room,

a computer lab, a teaching laundry, a sensory room and supplemental classrooms.

Calling attention to the new Legacy of Leadership wall in the renovated lobby, CEO Rick Aranson thanked the 258 families and 26 foundations supporting the campaign, saying “Your investment in our future will surely change lives.”

After the ribbon cutting, Rabbi Joshua Heller hung a mezuzah and described JF&CS as “a place where those who have been laid low may have a chance to rise up” and “those on a journey will have a place to go.” ■

LOCAL NEWS Virtual Housewarming

Rebecca’s Tent, the seasonal women’s shelter at Congregation Shearith Israel, is holding a virtual housewarming party through May 31.

Instead of holding a gala or other event, Rebecca’s Tent is raising money with a shower-type registry online where you can purchase items to help make the shelter feel more like a home.

Visit bit.ly/2otLjWg to shop through the wish list and donate.

The shelter serves 13 homeless women per night from November through March with a place to sleep, a hot meal and job coaching.

Project Understanding Taking Applicants

Applications are being accepted until June 19 for participants in Project Understanding, a program held every other year since 1989 to develop relationships between young leaders in Atlanta’s black and Jewish communities.

The 2017 Marvin C. Goldstein Black-Jewish Project Understanding Emerging Leaders Retreat will be held in Peachtree City on Aug. 26 and 27.

The retreat, a program of the Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition and American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS young professionals group, is open to Atlanta-area residents ages 25 to 39.

Project Understanding alumni Jonathan Grunberg and Lauren Linder are co-chairing the program this year.

More info at bit.ly/2qre8Fg.

Chabad Intown Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman is one of 60 alumni of Chabad’s flagship Oholei Torah Educational Institute in Brooklyn being honored at the school’s annual dinner Sunday, May 28.

Oholei Torah (www.oholeitorah. com) sought nominations from Chabad community members worldwide to find 60 alumni to honor as part of the celebration of its 60 years of operation.

“Rabbi Schusterman truly lives up to the school’s ideals and has dedicated his life to furthering Jewish awareness and education,” said Rabbi Joseph Rosenfeld, director of Oholei Torah.

Rabbi Mendel Duchman, the CEO of skin-care company Nonie of Beverly Hills, is the keynote speaker at the gala.

“Oholei Torah is the true training ground for Chabad’s work worldwide,” said Rabbi Nosson Blumes, Oholei Torah’s director of development. “It is the skills, passion and Jewish warmth they receive that inspires Chabad rabbis in their work as community leaders.”

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Chabad School to Honor Schusterman

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NIF Honoree Eager to Face Group’s Critics

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com The New Israel Fund has faced criticism for its choice of nonprofits to support, some of which are critical of the Israeli government, but if anyone wants to attack Janice Rothschild Blumberg for accepting the NIF Atlanta Regional Council’s first Tzedek Award, she’s ready.

“I’d like to fight back. I really

Rose

would,” the 93-year-old former rebbetzin of The Temple said in an interview about the award she’ll be accepting at a ceremony at the Midtown synagogue Thursday, May 25. “I’ve been fighting uphill all my life with what I thought was the way to go.”

Blumberg, the widow of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, who led The Temple in standing up for civil rights and supporting Martin Luther King Jr., sees parallels between the work of NIF-backed

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nonprofits working for the rights of Israeli Arabs today and the efforts in Atlanta and the rest of the South to turn hard-won civil rights into equal access to government services.

“There’s something going on there with Palestinian neighborhoods,” which aren’t getting their fair share, Blumberg said about Jerusalem. She said Israel’s Bedouin citizens face the same disparity.

She supports NIF because it is pushing Israel to do a better job of fulfilling its founders’ admittedly impossibly high ideals. Whenever an NIFfunded organization crosses the line from working toward a civil society to attempting to damage Israel, NIF cuts it off, Blumberg said.

Critics say NIF’s backing for peace groups and Arab rights organizations undermines the Israel Defense Forces and endangers Israel. But Blumberg said NIF is “very, very patriotic” and just thinks Israel’s leaders have strayed too far from what Israel should be.

She became aware of NIF in the 1990s, after the organization successfully sued El Al on behalf of a pilot who had been denied the benefit of bringing

Former Temple Rebbetzin Janice Rothschild Blumberg is receiving the first New Israel Fund Atlanta Tzedek Award.

his same-sex partner to spend the holidays with him.

In the two decades since, Israel has improved its respect for LGBTQ rights, just as it has corrected the Jim Crow-like treatment of Sephardic and Mizrachi Jews the past half-century, Blumberg said. But she’s still frustrated at the treatment of non-Jews and of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism: “The black hats have taken over.”

What she sees as a deteriorating situation in Israel comes 50 years after she doubted it would survive.

During The Temple’s centennial year, when she wrote the first history of Jewish Atlanta and was the president of the Women’s Theatre Guild, a predecessor to the Alliance, she hosted a visit by Habima Theater actor Misha Asherov. It was May 1967, and everyone gathered around a TV during the nightly news to hear the latest on Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

With reports Nasser had closed the Straits of Tiran, the party was over.

Half a century later, as much as she’s honored to receive the award from NIF, Blumberg said, she’s eager to hear keynote speaker Sharon AbrahamWeiss, the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the country’s equivalent of the ACLU. Abraham-Weiss is expected to speak about the role of civil rights organizations at a time when democratic values are eroding in Israel and the United States, according to NIF. Blumberg said the free event is the perfect opportunity for people who don’t like or have concerns about NIF to ask questions and learn about the group so at least they know what they’re criticizing. ■ What: NIF Atlanta Tzedek Award ceremony Where: The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St., Midtown When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 25

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Cost: Free; RSVP to atlanta@nif.org or 212-613-4426

LOCAL NEWS

Photos by Elyse Butler, Georgia Historical Society

The historical marker is at the southeastern corner of The Temple.

Temple Executive Director Mark Jacobson says it was beshert for the Georgia Historical Society to erect the marker during the celebration of the congregation’s 150th anniversary.

Rabbi Peter Berg is only the fifth senior rabbi in The Temple’s history, a group that includes Rabbi Jacob Rothschild and Rabbi Alvin Sugarman.

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com The Temple, Atlanta’s oldest Jewish congregation, was honored by the Georgia Historical Society on Friday, May 12, with the 29th marker on the Georgia Civil Rights Trail, an initiative focused on preserving the history of the civil rights movement.

Temple Executive Director Mark Jacobson told a small crowd gathered at The Temple how timely the dedication was for the congregation, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

“Many use the phrase ‘There are no such things as coincidences,’ ” Jacobson said. “In Judaism, we call it beshert, which means ‘meant to be.’ So here we are today, and wasn’t it meant to be that Janice Rothschild Blumberg, wife of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild of blessed memory, the Georgia Historical Society, the Jackie and Tony Montag family, and The Temple come together during our 150th anniversary celebration year to dedicate this civil rights marker?”

The marker sits outside the front entrance to The Temple at the southeastern corner of the building. It commemorates the role The Temple played during the civil rights era.

Rabbi Rothschild, The Temple’s senior rabbi from 1946 to 1973, was an outspoken proponent of social justice, as were many of his congregants. In response, white supremacists bombed

the northern side of the Peachtree Street building Oct. 12, 1958.

The bombing sent ripples through Atlanta, which called itself the “city too busy to hate.”

“When we started this Civil Rights Trail a few years ago, we wanted to make sure that the sites are not exclusively African-American because the civil rights movement involved all kinds of people,” said W. Todd Groce, the president and CEO of the Georgia Historical Society. “What happened here, the bombing of The Temple, was incredibly important, and it’s very important to mark this site. It was a significant point in the civil rights movement.”

Groce said the Historical Society, based in Savannah, worked for years to get a marker at The Temple. Georgia has more historical markers than any other state aside from Texas.

You can create a driving tour of the Civil Rights Trail through georgiahistory.com or can download the GHS Markers mobile app for details, photos and information on historical markers nearby.

“The struggle for civil rights is an ongoing process,” Groce said, “not only in America, but in the world. What markers like this do is help us understand how we got to this point so we can make good decisions going forward.” ■

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Marker Honors Temple’s Civil Rights History

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Auxiliary Luncheon Sells Out for Good Cause The annual lunch of the Auxiliary of the William Breman Jewish Home was a festive and meaningful event Monday, May 8.

More than 285 women (and a few men) attended the sold-out event at the InterContinental Buckhead.

An emotional torch was passed when Brooke Blasberg, the outgoing board chair, turned the top job over to sister Jodie

Jackson, the incoming chair alongside Sharon Corenblum.

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Volunteers Cheryl Alifeld and Sydell Harris have donated their time and beauty services to the Breman Jewish Home over several decades.

Accountant Kirsten Jacobson is the auxiliary’s new treasurer and its former secretary.

“I am honored and humbled to be involved with the auxiliary,” Blasberg said. “My grandmother Dora Marcus volunteered at the home and inspired me to get involved. We are fortunate

Steve Berman urges people to become life members of the auxiliary and goodwill ambassadors of Jewish Home Life Communities.

All coordinated in black, Brooke Blasberg (left) passes the chair’s gavel to Jodie Jackson (center) and Sharon Corenblum (right).

to have wonderful board members, auxiliary members and volunteers that support the residents.”

Jackson extolled her sister’s inspiration as a mother of four who shows encouragement, compassion and dedication.

Volunteer of the Year Susan Jacobson was lauded for her tireless efforts, including staffing the gift shop. Jacobson thanked her mother, who flew in from Houston, along with her mah jongg, college, book club and aerobics friends who came to honor her.

“I just love to organize and have gotten tremendous gratification from serving the residents,” she said.

Corenblum, the incoming cochair, tearfully saluted her mom and aunt. In regard to helping the elderly and infirmed, she said, “You have never really lived until you do something for someone who can never repay you.”

Stephen Berman, a former board chair of the home’s parent nonprofit, Jewish Home Life Communities, ended the program by making the Motzi. He said, “You all in the audience today should become life members of the auxiliary and serve as goodwill ambassadors for our great system.”

The biggest laugh of the day came when, referring to the colorfully bagged door prizes, Berman said, “I have never seen more hazarie in one place at one time.”

Be sure to save the date for the home’s gala Nov. 4. ■

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Bar Association Committed to Justice for Vets Having 40,000 homeless veterans in Georgia is a disgrace, American Bar Association President Linda Klein told the monthly breakfast meeting of Jewish War Veterans Post 112 on April 30, at the William Breman Jewish Home.

Klein, the senior managing shareholder at law firm Baker Donelson in Atlanta, was elected the ABA’s president in August, and she said she quickly realized the nation has 650,000 homeless veterans, with women making up a growing percentage of that group.

She also said 3 million veterans are living near or below the poverty line.

“The ABA is fighting to help these great men and woman,” Klein said.

The Bar Association is rallying Americans to lobby members of Congress to fully fund the Legal Services Corp., which supports legal aid services across the country.

The federal budget for legal aid services nationwide is $385 million, Klein said, but cuts are possible.

Naturally, as a Jewish lawyer who has made speeches in such countries as France, Britain, Sweden, Spain, Russia

and Canada, Klein has a personal dedication to justice.

Klein said half the lawyers in Berlin were Jewish when Hitler took power in Germany, but they were all disbarred in one day. “They were all forced out by the Nazi-controlled government.”

Lawyers came under attack in Nazi Germany because they stood for the rule of law. Removing them freed the Nazis to crush civil liberties, invade neighbors and carry out the Holocaust.

“When abuses go unchecked, great tragedies happen,” Klein said.

“Every American has the equal opportunity for justice,” she said, because “our Founding Fathers’ No. 1 priority was establishing justice.”

Speaking to the war veterans the day before May Day, Klein shared a story about what happened on May 1 exactly 60 years earlier. The ABA president saw the Soviet Union’s military parade through Red Square in Moscow that day and called President Dwight Eisenhower to express disgust.

Eisenhower responded by declaring May 1 to be Law Day in the United States, Klein said. “I will go to D.C. tomorrow for Law Day.” ■

6th District Forum JWV Post 112 has invited 6th District congressional candidates Jon Ossoff and Karen Handel to speak about what they would do for veterans and national defense if elected. Each candidate will get an equal amount of time to talk, followed by a joint question-and-answer session.

The meeting is open to the public.

What: JWV monthly breakfast meeting Where: Berman Commons, 2026 Womack Road, Dunwoody When: Sunday, May 21; breakfast at 10 a.m., program at 10:30 Cost: $10; jwvpost112@gmail.com or 770-403-4278

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Tallit-Making Rabbi Keynotes Needlework Gathering

By Bob Bahr Rabbi Analia Bortz isn’t just another brainy Jewish overachiever.

Besides being the mother of two daughters, she is a physician with post-doctoral training in radiology and bioethics, a scholar in modern Jewish studies with the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and the founding rabbi, with her husband, Rabbi Mario Karpuj, of Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs.

Despite her many professional accomplishments, Rabbi Bortz is perhaps most proud of her tallism, the varied and beautiful prayer shawls she has created with her own two hands.

She will be the keynote speaker Sunday night for the national convention of the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework, which runs from Sunday to Tuesday, May 21 to 23, at Le Méridien Atlanta Perimeter Hotel in Dunwoody.

The two days of how-to workshops include classes on crocheting, smocking, 3D paper cutting, knitting, needle weaving and silk applique.

For those who might want to follow the rabbi’s lead, there’s a five-hour class on “Creating the Ultimate Shawl Tallit,” the kind that drapes over the shoulders and stays put without clips.

During one recent afternoon Rabbi Bortz pulled her handiwork from a commercial shopping bag like a magician reaching into a top hat. One tallit is embroidered with the names of all the matriarchs in her family, going back to her great-great-grandmother.

Another is made from a delicate silk fabric she bought from a craftsman in Laos in Southeast Asia.

Altogether, over the years she has made more than 50 of these ritual garments, one for each of the young women who have had b’not mitzvah at Or

Above: The Bortz collection of tallism includes a fabric panel handpainted by the rabbi’s mother for one of the rabbi’s daughters.

Below: Rabbi Analia Bortz crafted this tallit with silk she brought home from Laos.

Photos by Bob Bahr

Rabbi Analia Bortz stands with Or Hadash’s Torahs, one of which has a cover created by Pennsylvania Judaic artist Mordechai Rosenstein.

Hadash since the Conservative synagogue was founded in 2003.

One of them is a fabric panel that her mother delicately hand-painted for one of Rabbi Bortz’s daughters.

Textiles and fiber art have a long and distinguished history in the practice and rituals of Judaism. They are familiar touches to the well-set Shabbat table in today’s home, but they extend back to the precise instructions we read in the Torah.

Even as the Israelites journey from one encampment to another in the Sinai wilderness, the divinely inspired priestly garments are described in minute detail.

The lavish sense of craftsmanship is echoed in the use of art, often by prominent artists, in the modern American synagogue. One of Or Hadash’s Torah mantles, the fabric coverings for the scrolls, is the work of well-known artist Mordechai Rosenstein.

Although a young woman’s wearing of a tallit of a creative and often delicate artistic design has become commonplace in liberal Judaism, tra-

ditionalists have been less accepting of the practice.

At the Temple’s Western Wall in Jerusalem, for example, there are frequent clashes between women wearing prayer shawls and tefillin and Orthodox men protesting the women’s presence and practice.

“There is nothing in the Torah that says women can’t wear a tallit,” Rabbi Bortz said. “It must have four corners and not be a combination of wool and linen — that’s all it says. More importantly, wearing a tallit is a way of saying women are accepted.”

During her student years, she coupled her fight for acceptance as a spiritual leader with a ball of yarn and a pair of knitting needles. She created dozens of scarves and sweaters that she designed as she completed her studies, first as a medical student and later as the first female rabbi ordained in South America.

After an emotional visit to the Chagall Museum in the south of France, she took up painting to create an illustrated midrash, her personal artistic

interpretations of biblical tales.

“I am a constant spiritual seeker,” Rabbi Bortz said. “If you seek G-d, you are never done. It is your companion to re-create yourself.”

In her keynote talk at the Pomegranate Guild convention, she plans to speak on “The Art of Living,” about how art integrates itself into modern life. As both a rabbi and a physician, she is a fervent believer in the holistic basis of well-being.

“The health of the body,” she said, “is always a manifestation of the soul.

There is a balance that must be maintained between the body and the soul.”

One of her favorite artists is M.C. Escher, a Dutch graphic artist who worked in the 20th century. His mathematically inspired works often portrayed alternative levels of reality and hinted at a mysterious and endless spiral of spirituality.

“In Escher, it’s all about the partnership you have with G-d,” Rabbi Bortz said. “G-d creates, but you create and re-create. Nothing is ever finished.

One creative act brings on another.” ■

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Pastner Wraps Up With Business Network When Josh Pastner was a senior at Kingwood High School in Houston in 1995, he knew that getting an athletic scholarship to play college basketball was a long shot for a slow, 5-foot-9, Jewish point guard.

So Pastner marketed himself as a “coach in training” and sent over 1,000 handwritten letters to basketball coaches across the United States, asking to be a player-coach.

Speaking at the first breakfast meeting of Chabad Intown’s Jewish Business Network-Midtown Atlanta on Wednesday, May 10, Pastner, who is now the head men’s basketball coach at Georgia Tech, said he got only one reply, from University of Arizona Coach Lute Olson.

Olson was intrigued at having an extra coach on the bench who could connect with the players, and he invited Pastner to walk on as a freshman at Arizona, which he did. The Wildcats won the 1997 national championship in Pastner’s first season on the bench.

Pastner, who was named the 2017 ACC Coach of the Year, spoke at the inaugural JBN event about how he earned undergraduate and master’s degrees from Arizona in only 3½ years while playing basketball and how he became the head coach at the University of Memphis at age 31.

John Calipari had led Memphis to a 137-14 record in his last four seasons at the school, with four trips to the NCAA Tournament and one to the Final Four, before Pastner took over in 2009. Pastner had been an assistant to Calipari in 2008.

“No one wanted to follow John Calipari at Memphis,” Pastner said.

“The Memphis athletic director, R.C. Johnson, had gone after everybody and finally just offered me the job. When he asked me, I’m 31 years old and thinking I’m going to get punked by Ashton Kutcher. This is not how it’s supposed to happen.”

Although Pastner had success during his seven seasons at Memphis, he never could get out from under the shadow of Calipari, who has reached four Final Fours and won one national title at Kentucky since leaving Memphis.

When Pastner heard about the head coach opening at Georgia Tech last year, he said, he was excited to start at a school coming off a couple of down years.

Photo by David R. Cohen

Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman helps Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner wrap tefillin after the Jewish Business Network-Midtown breakfast May 10.

In his first season, Georgia Tech finished the regular season with a 2116 record, including 17 home wins, the most in school history. He led Tech to the championship game of the NIT for

only the second time.

Answering questions from JBN attendees, Pastner said recruiting at an academically challenging school such as Tech is a lot different from the ex-

perience at Memphis, so he hired two assistant coaches with backgrounds at top academic schools in Division I: Stanford and Northwestern.

He said he is OK with the oneand-done rule, under which the NBA requires players to wait a year after finishing high school before entering the league, and he doesn’t expect it to go away. He said he thinks the way for Tech to compete against elite one-anddone players at schools such as Duke is to get older and stronger as a team.

The next meeting of the JBN will be a real estate symposium at the sales and event center of Opus Place Atlanta on Thursday, June 22. ■

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com

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BUSINESS

A tray of Alon’s Bakery desserts includes tiramisu, cheesecake and flourless chocolate cake.

Alon’s Bakery Tastes 25 Years of Sweet Success

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

By Patrice Worthy

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Alon Balshan began his culinary journey more than a quarter-century ago when he moved to the United States from Israel. He had a vision to open a restaurant and, with the help of wife Janine, turned his passion for food into an Atlanta treasure, Alon’s Bakery, where the smell of freshly baked bread and the sound of light jazz transport visitors to the Old World.

“This is not what I had in mind. I don’t know what I had in mind, but as far as the land of opportunity, it’s all happening for me and was easier than I thought in some ways,” he said this month while celebrating his eatery’s 25th anniversary.

He and Janine met 26 years ago when Alon was working at Murphy’s, a restaurant near his Virginia-Highland location. Janine said something about him caught her eye. “My friends told me about him and set me up. He was working at Murphy’s, and I wanted to marry him, so I would go in and eat carrot cake every day. … I hate carrot cake, but I knew he was the one.”

It took a bit longer for Alon to decide — a characteristic that put Janine at ease. “He never makes rash decisions.”

The two married three years later, and Janine became his business partner, helping him strategize growth.

When the time came for the entrepreneur to buy his first restaurant, a 1,300-square-foot space, Randy Feinberg recognized Alon’s integrity and sold to him on a handshake.

“We started in a peanut of a place and then decided we wanted to expand it. He said he wanted to do cheeses and

wines and expand the dessert,” Janine said. “So we expanded the kitchen and began going to food shows to find out what exactly having a cheese counter meant.”

He owned the Virginia-Highland location for more than 15 years before adding a Dunwoody location nine years ago at the beginning of the recession. But he persisted through the challenging times.

“I’m a visionary. That’s the biggest thrill, is to see something in my head and make it actually happen,” Alon said.

The cafe evolved into a cozy place with a character unique to the Atlanta dining scene. The hardwood fixtures and flooring combined with quaint tables give it an international ambience that is unpretentious and inviting.

“I’ve always been in markets and shops around the world, like several places in Europe and Israel. I grew up with this stuff,” Alon said. “There was a cheese counter where I grew up. In Europe when I went, it was fascinating.

I love markets. Basically, what I’ve done is built what I love.”

He knows exactly how he wants things done, and when he decided to make sandwiches to complement the desserts and coffee, “the only way to make the best sandwich was to make his own bread.”

Alon advertised for a bread baker.

Leon Dallas responded and was hired two weeks later.

Dallas attended the 25th anniversary celebration with his two daughters, Jayla and Jade, who both work at Alon’s as cashiers.

“When I first started working here, my baby was about that size,”

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Leon Dallas, Alon’s original bread baker, attends the eatery’s 25th anniversary with daughters and Alon’s employees Jade and Jayla Dallas.

Dallas said, pointing to his 7-monthold granddaughter. “We had a personality conflict at first. He knew how he wanted things done, but we persevered.

I think he’s done a great job, and I’m proud of him.”

At over 6 feet tall, Alon oversees all aspects of his restaurants. He ducks as he enters the kitchen of the Dunwoody location, which makes 4,000 macaroons a day for sale at Whole Foods locations across the nation. His specialties, such as eclairs and chocolate-chip cookies with pecans, are made to the highest standards: his own.

“All cuisine is classical cuisine.

Cooking a potato is cooking a potato, and you add dressing to it. You learn the principle of what it is. When I first moved here, my boss wanted me to make scones. I didn’t know what a scone was, so I got a recipe book and made it. It didn’t come out that good,” Alon said. “But then I was visiting a bakery, and I ate one, and I decided to try it again, and it was delicious. I made it from the taste.”

With a menu that is constantly expanding and changing, Alon’s somehow seems to get it right. He recently added a zucchini salad made with corn, parmesan cheese and a cream sauce that is gaining popularity.

But his desserts, with a sweetness that pairs perfectly with the earthiness of the restaurant, are what leave an imprint on the memory of customers, from cheesecake, panna cotta and flourless chocolate cake to cookies and his French macaroons.

Like his desserts, Alon is a constant, walking around in his chef uniform. If you don’t know him by name, he stands out as that tall guy with the big smile. “It’s been a roller coaster, and I work six days a week, but I’m still here.” ■

Janine and Alon Balshan are partners in business as well as life.

The new zucchini salad and small sandwiches are served at the anniversary celebration.

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Alon Balshan discusses the ingredients in his cheesecake and flourless chocolate cake.

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

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Mitzvah Renews Kidney Donors and Recipients

By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com “Living with kidney failure is a humbling and daunting experience for anyone struggling with the disease,” Ira Tedoff said Sunday, May 7, at a kidney donation awareness event for the Renewal organization.

The gathering at Congregation B’nai Torah to share the stories of people who need and who have donated kidneys had the support of Chabad Intown, Ahavath Achim Synagogue, Congregation Bet Haverim, Congregation Shearith Israel, Young Israel of Toco Hills, The Temple, Congregation Beth Shalom and Congregation Or Hadash.

“Asking for a kidney was not easy, and I had to let the experience humble me, as I am not one to ask for things in life,” Tedoff said. “Yet I have grown from it. I had to get out of my state of denial even though I didn’t wish to believe the doctor’s diagnosis. … I slowly had to accept there were things I could no longer do, such as maintaining a full-time practice, working out three to five times a day and spending time with my children.”

Ira Tedoff is facing dialysis if he does not find a kidney donor.

Kidney donor Shai Robkin answers questions at Renewal’s kidney donation awareness event May 7.

Tedoff has had two potential kidney donors fall through as systems such as fatigue and short-term memory loss have worsened. “I will now be required to go on dialysis. Yet I must realize the reality of the situation and do what I must to live.”

Shai Robkin donated a kidney to a stranger last year.

“I chose a different path from most donors as the decision was extremely calculated,” he said. “I realized at 63 I would soon age out of donating and began examining my options.”

Robkin learned that most people willing to donate a kidney are rejected or can’t give for financial reasons, such as lost wages. “Yet I was a perfect can-

didate,” he said. “I was in perfect health and also in a time in my life where I was cutting down on work commitments.”

Robkin donated his left kidney Dec. 1 to Glorious Echols, whose daughter then donated to another recipient.

He has maintained contact with the family.

“You don’t have to be exceptional to donate, but if you’re prepared to do it, an organization or hospital will find a match,” Robkin said.

Rabbi Josh Sturm is the outreach director for Renewal, which facilitates kidney donations. He said Renewal works with hospitals that have expe-

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rience and adopt the organization’s philosophy, in which donors are heroes and should be treated as such throughout the process, even if they opt out at the last minute.

Renewal streamlines the donation process. Once a match is made, tests and blood work are completed in one day instead of six months. Donors help Renewal by becoming volunteers and educating others about the process.

Only 207 people in the United States sought to donate kidneys altruistically in 2016, Rabbi Sturm said, even though “there is a growing need for kidney donations.”

Transplants typically follow one of three paths: a direct donation between family members; a match between a donor and an unrelated recipient; and a chain donation, as with Robkin, in which one donor’s gift leads a relative of the recipient to donate to another unrelated recipient.

Renewal uses various methods to help recipients find donors, and recipients are encouraged to market themselves to find potential donors.

“We are constantly evolving and learning from the process,” Rabbi Sturm said. “Everyone is capable of helping and spreading the word, however, whether it’s through social media, ads or emails. We can all do our part.”

“When someone asks you about the opportunity to save a life, you should take it,” Chabad Intown Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman said. “The most significant aspect I learned about those suffering from a kidney disease is fundraising. Asking for money from individuals is difficult; however, asking for a kidney is harder. The mitzvah of giving money is one thing; the mitzvah of giving a part of one’s body is quite another.”

The Jewish perspective on kidney donation has evolved, Young Israel Rabbi Adam Starr said. “In the past, we were told not to stand idly by your brother’s blood, meaning if one has the ability to save a life and they fail to do so, they are held responsible. Yet we also examine at what risk this applies to the individual. The sages say one is not required to put their life in danger to save another; however, the Torah also says if one is willing to give a kidney, it is not forbidden.”

Jewish law barred living kidney donation in the 1950s and ’60s because of the risks to the donor, but not anymore, Rabbi Starr said. “It’s still not an obligation but a tremendous act of kindness.” ■

OBITUARIES

M. Donald Levine 86, Dunwoody

M. Donald Levine, 86, of Dunwoody passed away peacefully Monday, May 8, 2017.

He was born June 2, 1930, in Chicago to Ethel and Jack Levine, both of blessed memory. Don was a member of Phi Epsilon Pi at the University of Illinois before owning a successful children’s clothing store. After moving to Atlanta in 1961, Don spent 40 years traveling the Southeast as a ladies’ clothing sales representative. A lifelong Cubs fan, he got to see them win the World Series.

Don was preceded in death by his brother, Alvin, and is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Sandra; daughter Jody Wilson (Raymond); son Bob; and grandchildren Robin, Michael, Blake and Jordan Wilson and Emily and Benjamin Levine.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Wednesday, May 10, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park with Rabbi Scott Colbert officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Williams Syndrome Association, www.williams-syndrome.org. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Louis Perlis 91, Cordele

Death Notices

Arthur Butcher of Cumming on May 15.

Maria Estroff of Atlanta on May 11.

Richard Paradies, 65, of Atlanta and Munich, Germany, father of Logan Paradies, on April 23.

Stanley Sard, 89, of Atlanta, husband of Diane Sard and father of Temple Sinai members Mike Sard, Nikki Berger and Jonathan Sard, on May 14.

Michael Steier, 75, of Atlanta, husband of Christie Steier, on May 7.

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

Louis Perlis, 91, of Cordele, Sarasota, Fla., and Highlands, N.C., passed away Saturday, May 13, 2017.

He was born Oct. 14, 1925, in Cordele to Isadore Perlis and Clara Feingold Perlis, both of blessed memory. Louis is survived by Pauline Heller Perlis, his loving wife and soul mate of almost 63 years, as well as his three children, daughter Janice Perlis Ellin and her husband, Dr. Richard Ellin, of Atlanta, son Larry Perlis and his wife, Barbara Arogeti Perlis, of Savannah and Cordele, and son David Perlis and his wife, Robin Kent Perlis, of Atlanta; grandchildren Lee Perlis, Hayley Perlis, Sarah Perlis and Caroline Perlis; and his brothers and sisters-in-law, Lamar and Jackie Perlis of Cordele and Marvin and Lynette Perlis of Amelia Island, Fla. Louis was a graduate of Cordele High School and Georgia Tech. He served in the United States Navy during World War II as a radio technician on the island of Guam. After completing his service in the Navy and graduating from Georgia Tech, Louis entered the family retail business, The Fair Store, alongside his parents and siblings in Cordele. Louis later became involved in numerous other business pursuits, including other retail operations, shopping center and commercial real estate development, hotel ownership, and other various business ventures.

Louis was the consummate entrepreneur.

Louis served multiple terms as president of the Fitzgerald Hebrew Congregation and the Cordele Chamber of Commerce, which honored him by naming him its Citizen of the Year in 2010. He was active with the American Cancer Society and the Cordele Lions Club and served on various bank boards. He was also a Freemason.

Louis was an avid golfer and fisherman but most of all loved spending time with his family and friends (including his four-legged friends).

Graveside services were due to be held Wednesday, May 17, in the Fitzgerald Hebrew Congregation section of Evergreen Cemetery in Fitzgerald with Rabbi Joshua Heller officiating.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Fitzgerald Hebrew Congregation, c/o Phil Perlis, 346 Main S. Main St., Tifton, GA 31794, or a charity of one’s choice. To sign the online registry, go to www.paulkfuneralhome.com. Paulk Funeral Home, Fitzgerald, is in charge of arrangements.

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FOOD

Ginsberg: Atlanta Hungry for Ethnic Food

By Patrice Worthy

son, so I could give that to my son.

Chef Todd Ginsberg is famous in Atlanta for his take on ethnically diverse food. Whether he’s serving kugel at The General Muir, Mediterranean fare at Yalla or sandwiches inspired by his travels to Vietnam at Fred’s Meat & Bread, he knows how to prepare a variety of dishes and make them agreeable to Southern sensibilities.

Ginsberg is hosting a class at the Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, which is June 1 to 4 in Midtown (tickets and other details at atlfoodandwinefestival.com). During that class, he’ll do what he does best: introduce a new approach to a Mediterranean staple, the eggplant.

Ginsberg talked to the AJT about what it means to experience culture through food.

AJT: Is it true you couldn’t make a pastrami sandwich when you opened The General Muir?

Ginsberg: It’s true. I ate a lot of Jewish food growing up, but I cooked French food.

AJT: You have opened three restaurants that focus on ethnic food. Is this your way of introducing these foods in the Atlanta community?

Ginsberg: As far as I’m concerned, I think the Atlanta community would like more than what we’re offering.

I would like to open up an Israeli sitdown restaurant. If you can take things people are emotionally connected to, like food and Jewish food, then you have something. I opened up General Muir right when I was about to have a

AJT: What is the inspiration behind your sandwiches at Fred’s Meat & Bread? You offer a variety from different countries.

Ginsberg: The sandwiches are based on sandwiches I had growing up in New England. You know, the Philly cheesesteak. I’ve traveled to Vietnam and had different sandwiches which have all been a part of the menu. My favorite thing to eat is the Italian grinder.

AJT: What was your reasoning for becoming involved with the Jewish Food and Farm Alliance?

Ginsberg: For the last couple of years I did the Sukkot dinner, and I think it’s the same reason why I opened General Muir: to be close to the community and the Jewish community. I felt myself leaning more toward Judaism in a cultural way and wanted to get back to the religious. … Whenever it comes to my religion and community, I always want to be a part of that.

AJT: Fred’s Meat & Bread and Yal-

la are located in Krog Street Market.

What is it that appeals to you about the dining space?

Ginsberg: I think the biggest thing is you could have several people come to one location and appeal to different tastes. I was just talking to someone about how big menus are dying and menus are becoming more curated.

This is the way other countries and places have been doing it for centuries. When you go to the shuk in Israel, one guy does hummus, and one guy does shawarma. At Krog you can concentrate on one thing.

AJT: What kind of food do you like outside your professional cooking?

Ginsberg: I really, really like ethnic food. I go to Desta for Ethiopian, Nam Phuong for Vietnamese food, and I go there at least once a week. I also like Northern China Eatery and Little Bangkok.

AJT: What do you think makes Chef Todd Ginsberg of The General Atlanta a culinary Muir, Yalla and Fred’s Meat & Bread will destination?

AJT: What be teaching a class on eggplant during Ginsberg: I will you be focusthe Atlanta Food & Wine Festival. think we’ve had ing on during the talented chefs that have lived here for Atlanta Food & Wine Festival.

Ginsberg: We’re going to do a pair- a while. There are people who have ing with eggplant. Eggplant is one of moved here from all over the country those vegetables people don’t under- and brought their experience with stand. I went to Israel and found out, them. What I’m most proud of is how when done right, it’s delicious. I’ll be supportive we are of one another. ■

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CLOSING THOUGHTS

The Blinking Game

MAY 19 ▪ 2017

If I blink to the left, my little missive will be a Mother’s Day tribute. If I blink to the right, my missive will be a tribute to my years in summer camping.

Left, right, left, right — well, that was easy. Looks like summer camping won. Oh, no, the guilt has already begun to overwhelm me. Left, left, left! Oh, look, left won, so Mother’s Day won. Whew, that was too close for my comfort.

Mother’s Day honors the strong influence of mothers (by any definition) around the world.

Way back in 1870, Mother’s Day began as a celebration honoring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father’s Day, Siblings Day and Grandparents Day. Julia Howe created one of the first known Mother’s Day cards and implored all mothers to join together for world peace. I would suggest it’s time for a repeat performance.

My own mom (z”l), although less than 5 feet tall, would have been a giant in this movement for peace.

Mom was a staunch Zionist, and she believed there must be peace for us to survive as a human race. My dad (z”l) always gave my sisters and me the responsibility of choosing a beautiful Mother’s Day card for his “little veibel” (wife), Paulinka. We loved that he asked this of us, that he trusted us to choose just the right card.

My little mommy’s first language was not English. Yet, and you may find this hard to believe, my mom could help me with my school papers. Of all the reasons my heart was crushed when she died, the fact that I could never live up to who she was and all she knew was the toughest.

Mom was insightful enough to realize, as a first-generation American and the oldest daughter, I would benefit from the summer camping community and all the experiences and activities.

Hmm, now that I think back, I could have been shipped off to summer camp, if you catch my meaning.

Mothers are so clever. I toast all the 38 mommies.

Camp KinderVelt (Children’s World) in Highland Mills, up in the New York mountains, took a little girl who was not aware at the time of her search for her true self.

I’m curious as to what you thought I was going to say.

My summer camp was created to offer Jewish culture, spirituality,

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ACROSS 1. Notable Frank work 6. Wedding fragments 11. Org. of Stern and Silver 14. Lauder of note 15. Treif sounds 16. It might be in a warehouse in Nevada, according to Spielberg 17. Bribe Leibovitz?

19. Ending with no-good or beat 20. Aaron Copland’s was 551-20-4475: abbr.

21. Paskez and Orbit makes it 22. Biblical preposition 23. Having Haman and Hitler for a meal?

28. ___ Mae Brown (Oscarwinning role for Whoopi Goldberg) 29. -Cone that wouldn’t last long in the Negev 30. Subsection of the Shulkhan Arukh 31. Bruno who has a Jewish grandmother 33. Texts referencing Him? 36. Evil individual 40. The start and finish of 17-, 23-, 51- and 60-Across, e.g.

43. An animated twin voiced

by Julie Kavner 44. Played a Chanukah game 45. Shrimp 46. Lee who directed Kevin Kline in “The Ice Storm” 48. Southern Hem. country where kudu shofars are obtained 50. Snake in a plane with Indiana Jones 51. A stunning sheitel?

55. Kind of Torah 57. ___ Gabriel 58. Div. of Lerner’s Nationals 59. One can keep the matzah off your clothes 60. It is often higher than Skokie’s for apartments 65. Storm rarely experienced in Israel

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songs, music, dance, art, foods, theater, playing, journaling and so much that was unobservable. There is a direct line from my love of Judaism to Camp KinderVelt and the rest of my life.

The warmth and safety of community would carry me from one summer to the next. The staff understood the immense responsibility of being role models for the campers. Of all the places on Earth for children to develop a sense of self, how to apply makeup and how to shave our legs, overnight summer camping can’t be beat.

I never had the insight to know what I wanted to be when I grew up.

My inner self knew I would surround myself with children, whom I would keep safe and happy. I am not counting the years I spent working toward the dream of becoming an actress — oh, please! What nice Jewish girl from the Bronx actually believes this?

I was an educator of third-grade children of itinerant workers in a public school. Sears, Roebuck generously gave us enough catalogs, one for each child in my class, to teach reading, drawing, math, etc. You guessed it: no books. Oh, and no shoes.

I am a Jewish educator of preschool-age children. I have the honor of sharing my love for Judaism — its culture, spirituality, songs, music, dance, art, foods, theater, playing and so much that is unobservable. Sound familiar? It should.

Jewish summer camping was not wasted on me. Very soon I will be a certified social therapist — can’t get away from those precious children.

Best of all, I am a mom of four beauties, who made me a savta (grandma) to 10 blessings and brought four sons-in-love into my life.

A belated happy Mother’s Day to me, to my girls and to all of you. ■

“Double Bill”

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

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By Shaindle Schmuckler shaindle@atljewishtimes.com

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66. Code abided by the Israel Prison Service 67. It once made more than 50 percent of Israel’s cellphones 68. Start of a major Israeli city 69. Like Degas 70. The “E” of E.L. Doctorow (or Degas)

a shyster 35. Blue animated character in a 2011 film with Hank Azaria 37. Eilat tank?

38. ___ Hannah 39. Sacrifice site 41. Carvey who played Garth for Michaels 42. Like a hero not (yet) recognized as a righteous DOWN gentile 1. B.S. from YU, e.g.

47. A rock hit by Moses, for 2. ___air one 3. Participated in a siyum 49. “Do we not have ___ 4. Make like one requesting father?” (Malachi 2:10) to convert to Judaism 51. Famous tower locale 5. “Kens” 52. Make a sacrifice impure 6. ___ long way (like the Jews 53. Peruvians who would in the desert) have had an extra-long night 7. Mamet writes it well when Joshua stopped the 8. Per ___ (parnasah term) sun 9. Acts like a shnorrer, 54. He did major Temple perhaps renovations 10. Be’er Sheva to Dimona 55. Last words on Arthur dir.

Miller 11. TV job for Fran Fine 56. Sephardic food on 12. Weisz, Garfield or Passover Radcliffe, e.g.

60. Deg. for one doing the 13. Another way to spell books at Goldman Sachs Israel’s Acre 61. Reisman of Olympic fame 18. Demand from one 62. Readout in the ER, but insisting a seder finish not a Hatzalah ambulance already 63. Actress Long in Ben 22. Like Israel’s treatment at Younger’s “Boiler Room” the U.N. 64. Translation that goes with 23. Starting points? “gum” 24. “___ you!” (Challenge one LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION to dunk for two 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 L A P S E N P O L I T E minutes in the 13 14 15 A L I S O N Dead Sea, e.g.) 16E C O 17 A W E 18 25. Comic Kane 19V U L T U R 20E 21 W I Z A R D A R I E L S H E M A 26. Catatonic 22 23 24 25 26 27 T O A D R H E A states (for Ariel N A S H 28 29 30 Sharon and A S H I A N I A D A M S 31 32 33 34 35 others) N I S F O R L O U 36 37 38 39 27. Shows on B L A C K P A N T H E R 40 41 42 Yes M O O E S E T S A 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 32. Archangel C H E F S C A A N C A A 51 52 53 (of death, A R B A W A S P S A L S 54 55 56 at times) L E O N I T E L L S mentioned in 57 58 59 60 61 S T A N L E E S A U C E R Talmud 62 63 64 A R N O L D E L L T N S 34. Make like 65 66 67 T

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

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