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INSIDE Calendar ����������������������������������� 4 Candle Lighting ���������������������� 4 Opinion ������������������������������������ 9 Business ��������������������������������� 12 Education ��������������������������������15 Sports �������������������������������������� 16 Israel News ���������������������������� 17 Home ��������������������������������������26 Health & Wellness ���������������28 Obituaries ������������������������������29 Crossword ������������������������������ 30 Marketplace ���������������������������31
FOOD FOR THOUGHT The annual Hunger Seder drives home the need for immediate action. Page 6
AT HOME OUTSIDE Two UGA frat brothers build a thriving outdoor furniture business. Page 12
COACH SPEAKS Basketball coach Josh Pastner talks about Judaism, nonstop work and his vision for Georgia Tech. Page 16
RIVER RUNS BY IT The defense lawyer rests in luxury at Chai-Style Homes’ first Gwinnett County mansion. Page 26
Ultimate Victory Photo by Michael Jacobs
Robert Ratonyi, who survived World War II as a child in Budapest, delivers the keynote address while a breeze whips up the Israeli flag behind him at the 51st annual community Yom HaShoah commemoration at the Memorial to the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery on Sunday, May 1. The ceremony focused on the children of the Holocaust — those who lived, those who died and those who were never born. Ratonyi, who was born 10 months before Kristallnacht, said it was half a century after the war before his mother told him he’s an only child because his parents couldn’t bear to bring another baby into Hitler’s world. More, Page 8
Lone Soldiers Come Home With FIDF
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tlanta has 30 lone soldiers serving in the Israel Defense Forces, but the Friends of the IDF emphasized at its annual gala dinner Monday night, May 2, that it always provides those troops and the 2,600 others from more than 60 countries with the physical and emotional support of a family. A crowd of more than 450 gathered at the InterContinental Buckhead to pay tribute to lone soldiers — those who FIDF Southeast Region Chairman Garry Sobel said make the “courageous decision” to leave their homes and families overseas to volunteer in the IDF. “Their families and their communities have instilled in each of them a
strong sense of the importance of their Jewish identity and ensuring Israel’s survival,” Sobel said. He told of a 2014 meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who said lone soldiers represent the children of the Diaspora coming home to defend Israel and demonstrate to Israelis that Jews around the world care. The program featured two lone soldiers: Walton High and Georgia Tech grad Eran Mordel, a paratroop staff sergeant, and Emma Browne of Warwickshire, England, a military police sergeant. Browne described the pride and pressure at age 19 of commanding troops defending Israel’s border and thanked FIDF for funding trips to visit her family.
Retired British Col. Richard Kemp, who delivered an impassioned defense of the IDF’s morality in the gala’s keynote address, said he has “never met such an impressive young woman as Emma.” But for the Atlanta crowd, the highlights were Mordel and the surprise appearances of two fellow Atlanta lone soldiers, neither of whom may be identified. “There is nothing coincidental about Israel,” Mordel said. “Not its Jewish identity. Not its beautiful beaches or gorgeous cities. Not its startup spirit, and, no, not even its defense forces.” ■ • Gala photos, Page 25, part of a special Israel section starting on Page 17 to prepare for Yom HaAtzmaut