Atlanta Jewish Times, Vol. XCI No. 45, November 18, 2016

HEALTH & WELLNESS

woodruffcreateATL.org

MOM’S TEARS

Heroin killed her daughter; now a Jewish mother seeks a better community. Page 28

MOMS’ HOPE

Women have a proactive way to protect fertility while delaying childbirth. Page 32

HIGH NOTES

Emory’s Herbert Karp was much more than a doctor and a fan of music. Page 33

Atlanta VOL. XCI NO. 45

WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM NOVEMBER 18, 2016 | 17 CHESHVAN 5777

Birthright Excites Ross

Photo by Allan Regenbaum

More than double the crowd from last year attends the Great Big Challah Bake on Nov. 10.

Photo by Eli Gray

Yehonasan Lipshutz plays the violin during Simply Tsfat’s post-Havdalah performance at Congregation Ariel.

Shabbat Provides Much-Needed Respite The third annual Shabbat Project came just in time for many in Jewish Atlanta, providing a way to go forth from the bitterness of the election Nov. 8 into the promised land of spirituality, celebration and global fellowship.

Unaffiliated with any stream of Judaism and welcoming all, the Shabbat Project had an estimated 1 million participants in 1,150 cities across 94 countries.

In Atlanta, one of 543 U.S. cities involved, the festivities started Thursday night, Nov. 10, with about 1,500 women

ABOUT THAT NIGHT

Like the rest of America, Jewish Atlanta can’t stop talking about the election, with six columns, a letter to the editor and the AJT’s own view weighing in on what was and what will be. Pages 10-14

and girls preparing challah at the Cobb Galleria. The fun continued with events such as a special edition of Anshi’s “Good Shabbos, Atlanta” and a block party Kiddush lunch outside Congregation Beth Jacob on Saturday, then concluded with a Havdalah concert featuring IsraeliAmerican hasidic band Simply Tsfat at Congregation Ariel.

“We’ve witnessed an outpouring of emotion across the Jewish world as Jews from all walks of life have embraced the Shabbat Project, putting aside their

ISRAEL TEACHING

Four high-level Georgia State faculty members didn’t know what to expect when they joined a Conexx mission for their first Israel trip, but they learned lessons on university-led innovation. Page 26

differences and gathering together in a spirit of love and unity,” said South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, the founder and director of the project.

“There is a real thirst worldwide for true Jewish unity and for a genuine connection to Judaism. And people really resonate with the way Shabbat carves out a sacred space of tranquility and togetherness amidst the frenzy of modern life.”

Look for more about the Shabbat (or Shabbos) Project and its local success in next week’s AJT. ■

INSIDE

Calendar ��������������������������������������� 4 Candle Lighting �������������������������� 4 Israel News �����������������������������������6 Opinion ���������������������������������������10 Education ����������������������������������� 24 Obituaries �����������������������������������34 Marketplace �������������������������������36 Arts �����������������������������������������������37 Crossword �����������������������������������38

Dennis Ross was invited to a Birthright Israel Foundation event Thursday night, Nov. 10, to help draw donors, not to address the value of Birthright.

He did so anyway, explaining that he couldn’t resist after hearing the story of one of the more than half a million Birthright alumni, Stephanie Neville.

Neville, a Michigan native who moved to Georgia after graduating from Michigan State, was raised by her Christian father after her mother died in a car accident when Neville was young. She had little contact with her Jewish relatives until she got to college, when her maternal grandmother and great-grandmother were close by.

After settling in Georgia with few connections, she went on an Atlanta community Birthright trip in January 2013.

“Those 10 days … were some of the best of my life,” she said. The trip cemented her connections to the Atlanta Jewish community and to Israel.

“Generous people like you have changed my life,” she told the roughly 90 people at the donor event.

Ross called her testimonial amazing and said that if her story didn’t persuade people to give to Birthright, nothing would. “There is no single program that has had a bigger effect on Jewish identity than Birthright.”

He added that he hears “Birthright changed my life” from program alumni all the time, including from a nephew who grew up in a secular home.

There are many worthy causes, Ross said, but “I don’t know of any other program that has this kind of impact you can measure” at a cost of $3,000 per traveler.

He said 80 percent of Birthright alumni marry Jews; the 20 percent who don’t still raise their children Jewish. ■ • Ross’ advice for Trump, Page 9

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NOVEMBER 18 â–ª 2016

MA TOVU

Flailing in Day School The blood drained from my face.

“Mrs. Schwartz, I know this is a lot to take in. Go home, speak to your husband, and feel free to contact me for any assistance or questions.”

I got up in a daze and headed to the parking lot. I flicked the windshield wipers to deal with a downpour.

It took me a few minutes to realize

Shared Spirit Moderated By Rachel Stein rachels83@gmail.com

why the pane wasn’t clearing. It wasn’t raining outside.

Could we, should we take our child out of a Jewish day school and toss him into public school? We can’t afford the cost of specialized private schools geared to kids with disabilities.

If we take the public school step, how will he get a complete Jewish education? And what about the polluted atmosphere he will be exposed to?

On the other hand, it’s not as if he is absorbing Torah in his current situation. There is a good chance he will be turned off to Judaism and even to life in general if we continue having him plod through the system.

I stepped into another meeting with his teachers and principal at the day school. “What about modifying his work?” I asked, reaching for a lifeline.

“Or a shadow? Why does it have to be all or nothing?”

“It’s not just the work,” Mr. Fin said. “The lessons are sailing above his head. His body may be in class, but his mind is orbiting another atmosphere.”

“So you want to just give up on a Jewish child?”

Suddenly every pair of eyes managed to find a riveting spot on the wall.

I was on fire. Wasn’t it their obligation to make this work for Josh?

Were they just taking the easy way out? Or was I simply terrified to face reality while they, the experts, knew that public school was the only viable alternative? Perhaps they had tried using every tool and had reached a dead end.

If Josh were your child, what would you do? Thank you in advance for your time and assistance, — Jean Schwartz ■ Send your suggestions to rachels83 @gmail.com by Monday, Nov. 21.

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“I hate school!” Josh’s voice thundered inside our Toyota Corolla, and I shuddered, waiting for the windows to crack from the impact.

“Did something happen today?”

I asked, stunned by his vehemence. I knew Josh didn’t love school, but this was way behind his typical attitude.

“No!” he barked. “It’s just boring, and I hate it.” Oh, that clears things up.

Josh attended a Jewish day school that was supposed to avail him of a wellrounded Jewish and secular background. But as he grew older and his scholastic struggles increased, my doubts flourished.

“Is there any homework you need help with?” I asked. Maybe I should get him a tutor.

“I don’t have homework,” he muttered. “I just hate school.”

A few weeks later, I attended parent-teacher conferences. In previous years, Josh’s lackluster performance wasn’t given great attention.

“He needs to apply himself more and study more” was a typical message.

Expecting more of the same, I was unprepared for the icy gust that walloped my sails. “Mrs. Schwartz,” Mr. Fin began, “I believe Josh should be tested.

There is a strong possibility that he has a learning disability which is holding him back. The sooner we understand what we’re dealing with, the faster we can get him the help he needs. Are you open to getting him tested?”

“O-of course,” I stuttered, a frisson of fear fluttering in my heart. What wouldn’t I do to help my child?

When I met with the psychologist to discuss the results of Josh’s testing, my heart plummeted.

“Josh has a language processing disorder,” Dr. Rocks said.

Would he be this stoic if this were his child? I nodded and struggled to keep my emotions in check.

“I strongly recommend that Josh attend a school without a dual curriculum. With his deficiencies, the Hebrew subjects are a source of additional frustration for him, exacerbating his belief that he is stupid and incapable of achieving. Surely you understand that if he continues in this vein, we can lose him. It is very unhealthy for a child’s self-esteem to be eroded by continued failure. And as he gets older, the scholastic requirements will become more intense and a source of greater dissatisfaction.”

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CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Book Festival. Jeffrey Selman (“G-d Sent Me”) appears at 10:30 a.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free; 678-812-4005 or www. atlantajcc­.org/bookfestival.

Vayera Friday, Nov. 18, light candles at 5:14 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 19, Shabbat ends at 6:11 p.m.

Chaya Sarah Friday, Nov. 25, light candles at 5:11 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 26, Shabbat ends at 6:09 p.m.

Book Festival. Liane Kupferberg Carter (“Ketchup Is My Favorite Vegetable”) appears at 12:30 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $10 for JCC members, $15 for others; 678-812-4005 or www.atlantajcc­ .org/ bookfestival.

Frankly Speaking. The National Council of Jewish Women’s Atlanta Section, 6303 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, holds its monthly discussion of current events with former AJC Regional Director Sherry Frank at noon. Free; RSVP to Christine Heller at 404-843-9600 or christineh@ncjwatlanta.org.

Interfaith Thanksgiving service.

Temple Kol Emeth, 1415 Old Canton Road, East Cobb, hosts its 12th annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Celebration with 17 religions, followed by a reception, at 7 p.m. Free; www.facebook. com/events/1679112035736976.

Also streaming live at www.kolemeth.net.

Book Festival. William Novak (“Die Laughing”) and Michael Krasny (“Let There Be Laughter”) appear at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $13 for JCC members, $18 for others; 678-812-4005 or www.atlantajcc­.org/bookfestival.

Sofer discussion. Rabbi Shmuel Khoshkerman demonstrates the work of a sofer and discusses his decades of experience at 8 p.m. at Kollel Ner Hamizrach, 1858 LaVista Road, Toco Hills. Free; dkapenstein@gmail.com.

FRIDAY, NOV. 18

Book Festival. Christopher Noxon (“Plus One”) talks about his next book,

on his conversion to Judaism, at noon at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $10 for JCC members, $15 for others; 678-812-4005 or www.atlantajcc.org/bookfestival.

Teen dinner. Chabad Intown’s CTeen group holds a Shabbat dinner at 6 p.m. at a private home in Virginia-Highland.

Free; www.facebook.com/cteenintown or 404-898-0434.

SATURDAY, NOV. 19 Camp Coleman benefit. The Coleman community celebrates Bobby Harris’ 25 years as camp director at 7:30 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El, 1580 Spalding Drive, Sandy Springs. Tickets are $120 or $75 for those 30 and under; www.campcoleman.org/celebration.

Book Festival. Jeffrey Toobin (“Ameri-

can Heiress”) appears with Vinnie Politan at 8 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $18 for JCC members, $24 for others; www.atlantajcc.org/bookfestival or 678-812-4005.

Candlelight dinner and learning. The Intown Jewish Academy, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Midtown, holds a Cafe Chabad session featuring David Bokman discussing Kabbalah and the ninepointed Enneagram at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18; www.intownjewishacademy. org or 404-898-0434.

SUNDAY, NOV. 20 Strengthening relationships. Bikur Cholim hosts a women’s event with author, therapist and educator Esther Gendelman discussing “The Art of Connection” at 10 a.m. at Congregation

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

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

Remember When

10 years ago Nov. 17, 2006 ■ Jimmy Carter’s latest book, “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid,” emphasizes the former president’s belief that Israel is the cause of all the problems in the Holy Land, if not beyond. The book appears intended to break the ties between Israel and its American evangelical supporters by making spurious claims about Israeli oppression of Christians.

■ The bar mitzvah ceremony of Jonathan Bauer of Marietta, son of Gregg Bauer and Mindy Fine, was held Saturday, Aug. 19, at Temple Kol Emeth.

25 Years Ago Nov. 22, 1991 ■ The Georgia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame will induct its charter class Dec. 7 at the Atlanta Stadium Club. The living

members are Ron Blomberg, the American League’s first designated hitter; Natalie Cohen, a tennis champion; and Harry Kuniansky, a University of Georgia football star. Also being inducted are boxer Jake Abel, two-sport star Morris “Kitty” Katz and Atlanta Cracker Sammy Mayer.

■ Leslye and Marshall Tuck of Atlanta announce the birth of a son, Michael Ryan, on Sept. 28.

50 Years Ago Nov. 18, 1966 ■ DeKalb County police are investigating the fifth burglary in two months at Beth Jacob Synagogue, discovered Sunday, Nov. 13. Burglar locks were installed after the fourth burglary, but this time the thieves broke a glass door to gain entry. No damage to the sanctuary was reported.

■ Mr. and Mrs. Eli Taylor of Everett, Mass., announce the engagement of their daughter, Frances Carol, to Stuart E. Eizenstat, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Eizenstat of Atlanta.

CALENDAR

We Treat Skin

Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills. Registration is $50 until Nov. 16, then $60; rachels83@gmail.com.

Dr. Marc Yune is proud to introduce his dermatology team.

Book Festival. Jason Gewirtz (“Israel’s Edge”) appears with Robbie Friedmann at noon at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $10 for JCC members, $15 for others; www. atlantajcc.org/bookfestival or 678-8124005.

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Book Festival. Harriet Levin Millan (“How Fast Can You Run”) and “Lost Boy” Michael Majok Kuch appear with National Center for Civil and Human Rights CEO Derreck Kayongo at 3:30 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free; 678-812-4005 or www.atlantajcc.org/bookfestival.

Raven Elosiebo-Walker, MD Board Certified General, Surgical & Cosmetic Dermatologist

Teen mitzvah project. Chabad Intown’s CTeen group, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Midtown, prepares meals for residents of the Rebecca’s Tent women’s shelter at 5:30 p.m. Free; www.facebook.com/ cteenintown or 404-898-0434.

Book Festival. Andy Cohen (“Superficial”) closes the festival with Phaedra Parks at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $28 for JCC members, $33 for others; www.atlantajcc.org/bookfestival or 678-812-4005.

TUESDAY, NOV. 29

Giving Tuesday. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, 1440 Spring St., Midtown, needs volunteers to call donors in two-hour shifts from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m. Free; www. jewishatlanta.org or 404-873-1661.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30

Teens and the law. Former DeKalb County District Attorney J. Tom Morgan discusses Georgia law and teens at 7 p.m. at the Weber School, 6751 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Copies of Morgan’s “Ignorance Is No Defense: A Teenager’s Guide to Georgia Law” cost $15 at the event. Free; www.weberschool.org/ about-us/calendar/jtom/index.aspx.

THURSDAY, DEC. 1

Rosh Chodesh. Chaya Lieberman leads a Women of Weber session called “Heroines & Hanukkah: A Picture and a Thousand Words” at 8 a.m. at the Weber School, 6751 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. Free; RSVP to bit.ly/2fPkGav.

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NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Game night. Chabad of North Fulton, 10180 Jones Bridge Road, Alpharetta, holds its Middle School Club at 7 p.m.

Free; RSVP to admin@chabadnf.org or 770-410-9000.

Allie McAllister, FNP-C

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ISRAEL NEWS

Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Causing HIV to self-destruct. Scientists at Hebrew University have developed a peptide treatment for HIV that uses multiple copies of the virus to make it self-destruct. It has been tested on blood from AIDS patients with similar results to clinical trials. The peptide, or smaller version of a protein, was developed by Abraham Loyter and Assaf Friedler at Hebrew University.

Treatment for cognitive impairment.

Tel Aviv-based Therapix Biosciences has developed a tablet to administer THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, under the tongue. A clinical trial is expected to start early in 2017 to test its effectiveness against impairments in cognitive functioning, including early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Digital health fund. Israel’s leading global equity crowdfunding platform, OurCrowd, has launched Qure, the country’s first investment fund focused exclusively on digital health businesses. The fund will invest in innovative digital startups. OurCrowd will work with Johns Hopkins University to bring novel ideas to market.

Medical training for peacekeepers.

United Nations peacekeepers are to participate in an emergency field medicine seminar led by the Israeli military and medical professionals. They will learn the methods Israel uses to deal with military medical emergencies.

Linked to Life. Charity Ezer Mizion has set up a WhatsApp group called Linked to Life. Members post urgent requests, and other members find solutions. Like getting medication from Israel to Los Angeles in 24 hours. Or taking a Jerusalem boy’s crutches to Tel Aviv for repair, to be returned the same day.

Solar power for Fiji. Fiji has received 12 portable solar generators from Israel to address the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Winston, which left a path of devastation in the Pacific island nation this year. Fijian Minister Inia Seruiratu thanked Israel for its work in the reconstruction process.

International wildlife award. Rony Malka of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority received a 2016 Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement

Award at the 17th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Happiness brings more milk. Dairy farmers from India to Italy travel to kibbutzim to learn how to increase their milk yields. They hear that happy cows give a lot of milk and discover how to make their cows happy, from Afimilk (Kibbutz Afikim), SCR Dairy (Netanya) and Akol (Kibbutz Bror Hayil).

Torah and tech. Software company Ravtech in Bnei Brak outsources its services to Check Point and Citibank. It is staffed by Haredi married men ages 25 to 35. They first complete a 12-month course run by Avratech in English, math, computer studies and coding while studying Torah in the morning.

Quantum computing breakthrough.

Researchers from the Technion working in quantum computing have built a device that can produce large clusters of entangled photons on demand. It is a major step toward developing quan-

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Today in Israeli History

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

Nov. 18, 1958: A 2½-year project is completed with the opening of a water reservoir for Jerusalem at Bayit Vegan.

Nov. 19, 1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s plane lands at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport to start his historic 36-hour visit to Israel.

Nov. 20, 1977: One day after arriving in Israel, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat addresses a specially arranged sitting of the Knesset. He calls for “peace with justice” based on five principles: an end of the occupation of territory captured in 1967; the rights of the Palestinians; the right of all states in the region to live in peace within secure borders; normal relations among all states in the region; and an end to belligerency in the region.

Nov. 21, 1880: Known for dying while defending the Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in 1920, Joseph Trumpeldor, a Zionist political activist and military hero, is born in Pyatigorsk, Russia.

Nov. 22, 1967: In the wake of June’s Six-Day War, the U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 242, which has served as the framework for all major Arab-Israel negotiations since.

Nov. 23, 1584: Sultan Murad III or-

tum supercomputers and fast, supersecure Internet communications.

The stone that beat the Romans. In the Western Wall is a 2,000-year-old stone that measures 40 feet long by 12 feet high by 14 feet deep. It weighs 600 tons — the equivalent of two 747 jumbo jets, including passengers and luggage. The Romans tried to destroy it but couldn’t.

Intel expansion. The Intel computer chip factory in Kiryat Gat has opened a new production line using the latest technology. Intel received a $300 million government grant for the plant upgrade, which cost $6 billion. Intel has now invested over $17 billion in Israel.

New wave of Ethiopian aliyah. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem is sponsoring renewed Ethiopian aliyah. It has contributed $500,000 to fly in 523 Ethiopian Jews, plus 104 more Jewish immigrants due to make aliyah soon from France and the Ukraine.

Compiled courtesy of Only Good News From Israel, verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot. com and other sources. ders an investigation into the number of synagogues in Safed, which was under Ottoman control.

Nov. 24, 1938: Amid the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt, a debate over British policy in Mandatory Palestine is held in the House of Commons.

Anwar Sadat addresses the Knesset on Nov. 20, 1977.

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NOVEMBER 18 â–ª 2016

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ISRAEL NEWS

Yom HaShoah: The Path to Memorialization

By Rich Walter

Seventy-four years ago this week, on Nov. 22, 1942, the Jewish Agency Executive met to discuss the situation facing Jewish communities in Europe.

Word of Nazi extermination had recently reached Palestine, and the press would soon publish details of deportations and mass shootings.

The leadership proposed a national three-day period of mourning and prayer.

In addition to the civil leadership, the chief rabbinate marked a religious response to the crisis. As part of the three days of mourning, it declared a fast on the third day with the sounding of the shofar.

Opposition to the fast arose from some religious leaders, who referenced a dirge recited on Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av, on which we remember the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem). The dirge marks the destruction of three German Jewish communities during the Crusades.

While the communities were not destroyed on the 9th of Av, this prayer states, “The deaths of the Torah leaders (in the Crusades) was as worthy

Photo by Zoltan Kluger, Israeli Government Press Office

People rally in Tel Aviv for the Jews of Europe on Dec. 2, 1942.

of mourning as the destruction of the Temple. … It is not appropriate to add a fast day. Instead, the day of Tisha B’Av is to be used to commemorate such tragedies in Jewish history.”

As a result, many religious leaders argued that any commemoration for the Holocaust should be folded into Tisha B’Av. Furthermore, they opposed including a fast as part of any additional commemoration.

By the time the state of Israel was established in May 1948, there had been several failed attempts to create a national day of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust.

In 1951, Rabbi Mordechai Nurock, a member of the Knesset and a Holocaust survivor, led an effort to create

a formal day of remembrance. April 19, the date in 1943 that the Germans liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto and the uprising there began, was proposed.

This was typical of the reluctance in Israel’s early years to embrace the victims and tragedy of the Holocaust.

Even though it had become part of the nation’s collective memory, many Israelis preferred to focus on those Jews who engaged in resistance, not on the Holocaust itself.

April 19 was rejected, however, as the corresponding Hebrew date to April 19, 1943, was the 15th of Nisan, the first day of Passover.

Ultimately, the Knesset adopted a compromise. On April 12, 1951, it passed a resolution marking the 27th of Nisan

as Yom HaZikaron la Shoah Ve-Mered Hagetaot (Holocaust and Ghetto Revolt Memorial Day).

Despite the fact that the resolution was passed in 1951, no formal mandate for commemoration emerged. When Yad Vashem was created as the official Holocaust remembrance authority two years later, it was tasked to “promote a custom of joint remembrance of the heroes and victims.” It took until April 1955 for the Knesset to pass a law creating Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) and until 1959 to implement the law creating the national holiday.

Despite the law being fixed in 1959, there is still some opposition to the formalization of Yom HaShoah today.

In August 1977, Menachem Begin, shortly after becoming prime minister, actually led an effort to abolish Yom HaShoah. Begin wanted to fold the honoring of the ghetto fighters into Yom HaAtzmaut and incorporate the memorializing of those who perished during the Holocaust into Tisha B’Av. His efforts met with little support. ■ Rich Walter is the associate director for Israel education at the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org).

Community members with Holocaust connections ignite the memorial flames.

Led by Drew Cohen, Weber School students sign during the ceremony.

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Night of Remembrance

Photos by Michael Jacobs

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Rabbi Brian Glusman leads the Kristallnacht commemoration.

The Marcus Jewish Community Center held a community commemoration of the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht on Wednesday night, Nov. 9, at the Besser Holocaust Memorial Garden. The ceremony included a song by the Weber School’s choir, the lighting of the six gas-fueled flames in the memorial and the reciting of Kaddish. ■

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ISRAEL NEWS

Ross: Trump Won’t Be Able to Ignore Middle East Dennis Ross doesn’t know what President-elect Donald Trump will do in the Middle East or who will lead his policy efforts there, but he knows Trump will have to deal with the region from the start of his administration.

Ross, who has filled foreign relations roles in five U.S. administrations but said he has not been contacted by the Trump transition team, said every president since Harry Truman has faced at least one conflict and one crisis in the Middle East, and “this president-elect will face a Middle East more challenging than any of them.”

The ambassador spoke Thursday night, Nov. 10, at the East Cobb home of Aviva and Eyal Postelnik during the annual Atlanta donor event for the Birthright Israel Foundation.

He pointed to four immediate concerns for the next president, none involving Israel or the Palestinians: • Syria, where Ross said Trump was wrong to say the United States should support the alliance of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Russia and Iran

Dennis Ross talks about the challenges awaiting Donald Trump in the Middle East.

against Islamic State. The goal of Russian leader Vladimir Putin is to destroy the 160 non-Islamic State militias and turn Syria into a choice between Assad and the terrorist organization.

“That’s not going to hap-

pen,” Ross said.

• Iran, which is using Shia militias across the Middle East to undermine the structure of Arab states and is a bigger threat than Islamic State to the United States. Wherever those militias have joined the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, Ross said, all the young Sunni males have disappeared.

Trump must enter office with an understanding of and plan for Mosul, which will likely be liberated from Islamic State by Jan. 20. Otherwise, Ross said, Iran and its Shia militias will recreate the conditions that led to the rise of the Sunni Islamic State.

• Yemen, which is a humanitarian disaster on a smaller scale than Syria.

It’s a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Ross said.

• Egypt, which is in economic chaos and has a shortage of rice and sugar.

Ross said the United States must form an economic coalition to support Egypt and its population of 93 million.

“If you think that a failed state in Syria, a civil war in Syria, where the total population was 23 million, created this tremendous fallout, imagine what would happen if Egypt became a failed state,” Ross said. “The next president has to understand that.”

Ross did offer two developments that offer opportunities for progress.

One is the transformation of Saudi Arabia. Ross said a Saudi official told a recent delegation, “Welcome to our revolution disguised as economic reform.”

The changes are affecting the economy, including a planned public sale of 5 percent of the stock in the national oil company, and culture, with the power of the religious police reduced while the Saudis bring in dance groups, rock bands and Six Flags for the enjoyment of coed crowds.

The Saudi plan to modernize and liberalize is important not only for that nation, but for the rest of the Middle East, Ross said. “There’s never been a successful model of development or modernization in the Arab world.”

The second development is the security and intelligence cooperation between Israel and most Sunni Arab states. That cooperation could be a U.S. asset against Iran and on the Palestinian issue, Ross said.

A two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians isn’t possible now, he said, but changes can be made to make a resolution possible — as long as the United States doesn’t build expectations with publicity. “In the Middle East, never create a binary choice where if I can’t solve it, I don’t do anything. … You should never limit your choices to only two.”

Israeli Consul General Judith Varnai Shorer asked whether the Arab nations could serve as mediators to accelerate an Israeli-Palestinian solution, but Ross said it won’t work because the Sunni nations are worried about Iran and Islamic State and aren’t paying attention to the Palestinians. ■

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

9

OPINION

Our View

More on Trump

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

This issue allots more space than usual to opinions because so many people are grappling with the meaning of Donald Trump’s presidential victory.

Actually, we view it as Hillary Clinton’s defeat.

Trump did not present a coherent program to “make America great again,” but Clinton represented a political establishment that has created too many victims and provided too few solutions for too long.

Under Republicans and Democrats alike, rural areas have been whipsawed by weather extremes that have damaged agriculture, by trade deals that have made it easy for manufacturers to move overseas and by an opioid epidemic that went unnoticed for years until it hit the suburbs. It’s no surprise that voters in those areas opted in desperation for a wild card.

Still, Clinton might have matched her popular vote plurality with an Electoral College majority if so many black voters hadn’t voted against Clinton and the status quo simply by staying home Nov. 8.

Trump must recognize that he has no mandate for any specific proposal — only to find some way to respond to the needs of the victimized majority.

A few other election thoughts: • We’re glad Trump told “60 Minutes” that his supporters who harass people and destroy property should “stop it,” but that isn’t enough. He must declare, over and over, that he disavows discrimination, bigotry and the support of hate groups.

• Overlooked on Election Night was the loss of a genuine neo-Nazi and ex-Klansman, David Duke, who flopped in his bid for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana.

Duke received 3 percent of the vote, which gives us a reasonable approximation of the portion of Trump’s support that came from anti-Semites and racists.

It’s a scary total — it means more Jew-haters than Jews — but it didn’t elect Trump.

• Much has been made of Clinton’s victory in the popular vote. While the much-maligned Electoral College overweights the smallest states and leads residents of noncompetitive states to believe that their votes don’t matter, the system spares us a national precinct-by-precinct challenge of every ballot in the close elections that have become the norm.

This wasn’t just the second election in 16 years that the top vote-getter lost the Electoral College. It was also the seventh time in 18 elections since World War II in which no candidate won a popular majority.

Also, our electoral system isn’t an anti-democratic outlier. In Israel and other parliamentary nations, the prime minister can come from an also-ran party if he or she can cobble together a coalition.

The United Kingdom, which elects members of the House of Commons by individual district (like the U.S. House) instead of by proportion of the popular vote, could get a prime minister whose party wins a majority of seats despite losing the popular vote.

For those determined to change the system, we suggest skipping a constitutional amendment and instead working at the state level. No state must use the winner-take-all system. Georgia could pick electors by congressional district, by statewide proportion or by the results of the national popular vote.

If that’s change you can believe in, the General 10 Assembly session is only two months away. ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

After the Election, What’s Next?

On Oct. 25, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was a featured speaker at a “writers’ workshop” put on by The Social Contract Press, a white nationalist group, according to the Center for New Community.

Kobach has been added to Donald Trump’s transition team. Think about that.

Kobach has pushed laws in various states that are the harshest we have seen against immigrant populations. For example, Arizona’s S.B. 1070 compels police to ask for papers from anyone they have a Cartoon by Daryl Cagle, CagleCartoons.com reasonable suspicion of lacking or had so many opportunities to gin up support for legal status. Under that law, people of color or with a offensive policies. foreign accent can be required to prove their status Trump asks for our respect. He has it backward. and can be jailed — citizen or not — until they can We respect the office of the president; he is a tempodo so. rary holder of the office. He must respect the office Do you sometimes go for as well. a walk without your driver’s We Americans license? Under that scenario in must demand his Arizona, you could be jailed until Guest Column respect for us. He someone could get your driver’s must apologize

By Harold Kirtz license to the authorities. Your for all his racist house is locked; your children live or racist-inciting out of town. How are you going to statements, his get your license? misogynist and sexually explicit statements toward Is putting Kris Kobach on your team the type of women, his mocking of disabled people, his assault leadership move that shows respect for the various on the Muslim community, and his insults toward communities in this country? the African-American community.

Trump’s first tweet after the election comWhich brings me to the Jewish community. plained about the anti-Trump demonstrations — What community has had more experience with almost entirely nonviolent, including in Atlanta. race-baiting, religion-hating, rumormongering He labeled as professional disrupters the tens of and killing — with the Crusades, the Black Deaththousands of demonstrators exercising their First blaming — the pogroms in many countries, and the Amendment rights of speech and assembly. He also Holocaust, in which one-third of our people were blamed the media for inciting the demonstrators killed?

— after he lambasted the media throughout his Throughout history, communities either turned campaign, creating threatening and fearmongering against us or sat back while outsiders murdered our atmospheres against the media at his rallies. people, burned our synagogues and sacred texts, and During the campaign, he threatened to enact destroyed our communities.

British-style libel laws to weaken the press. Right Donald Trump built his base with racist and miafter the election, he still refused to have a press sogynist pronouncements and innuendo. We know presence on his plane. Is he going to be as secretive pronouncements and innuendo. We have experiand vindictive while carrying out the presidency as enced the consequences of that. he has been in dealing with the press — much more It is incumbent upon all Jews to make their secretive and vindictive than any other modern concerns known. That includes Jewish Republicans president? who supported Trump. They must insist that the Moreover, across the country, the days since the president-elect retract every statement of hate, inpresidential election have seen increased incidents citement and profound insult that he uttered during of racist or anti-Semitic vandalism and violence, the campaign. many of which have drawn directly on the rhetoric How else will he truly be a president for all the and proposals of Trump. The Southern Poverty Law people?

No other presidential candidate, at least in Center has counted more than 200 complaints of modern times, has so insulted and maligned whole hate crimes since Election Day. segments of the populace.

So how is Trump going to serve as president?

It is time for Trump to explicitly, directly and We have a history in which many presidents were sincerely apologize for all the hurt he caused during racist, but none had the instruments of government the election campaign and to denounce the white suthat exist today. The presidency has increased its premacist groups that have applauded his election. If powers and privileges over the decades. No president he does not, what claim does he have to the respect in the 18th, 19th or early 20th century had access and support from any of us?

■ to so much alternative media dedicated to racism

OPINION

Sitting Shiva for a Loss and compassion.

A call to my brother the rabbi up the East Coast yielded similar descriptions of “almost total shock” among his congregants.

Clinton’s true believers are struggling to understand the societal forces behind Trump’s victory and the motivations of his supporters, people with whom they feel little in common and,

From Where I Sit

By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com

if honest, with whom relatively few have meaningful conversation.

Unlike the Jews who voted for Trump, Israel was not high on the priority list for Clinton’s Jewish voters.

Now they worry that Trump’s talk of “no daylight” between the United States and Israel will give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a blank check on the Palestinians and other issues.

They worry about the future of women’s reproductive rights, LGBT rights, civil rights, voting rights and a myriad of programs that serve society’s least advantaged.

They worry about the fate of a health care law popular for provisions that protect against discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and allow children to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26.

They worry about the Iran nuclear deal, which many supported not because they trust Iran, but because they trust President Barack Obama.

They worry that saber-rattling rhetoric will lead to the use of sabers rather than diplomacy.

On the other hand, Trump’s Jewish supporters are less worried about the fringe elements in his base. They want to see less U.S. pressure on Israel, want the Iran deal scrapped, want Obamacare overhauled, want court rulings that legalized abortion rights and same-sex marriage reversed, and want his campaign promises translated into action.

From inside their silos lined with mirrors, Jews who expected to see Clinton make history did not see the Trump victory coming. Now they must calm shattered nerves, steel their resolve, and look beyond blame and facile explanations to understand an election that left them shuddering. ■

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Their grief was palpable.

The unexpected manner in which the deceased passed left them confused, angry and scared.

They consoled one another, shed tears and gave quivering voice to their anxieties and fears.

To hear them and to read what others of their ilk were writing, the 71 percent of Jews who exit polls said voted for Hillary Clinton were sitting a sort of shiva, mourning the death of an ideal, their vision of America.

Meanwhile, the 24 percent of Jews who voted for President-elect Donald Trump presumably were toasting with “mazel tov cocktails” (to borrow a malapropism from a Trump surrogate), ecstatic that on Jan. 20 he would be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

The wailing and lamentations of those stricken began before dawn the morning after Election Day and continued throughout that day and into the days that followed.

Their anticipated celebration of the first female president gave way to analogies that compared Trump’s victory to the rise of fascism in Germany in the 1930s and the Holocaust, to right-wing factions in Israel’s government, to 9/11, to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and to the emotional pain of suicides in their own families.

Accession to the highest office in the land by a man they regarded with contempt could scarcely be believed.

How do we explain this to our children, one parent beseeched others.

They spoke in apocalyptic tones of harm that would befall immigrants, Muslims, Mexicans, the LGBT community and, yes, Jews, referencing harassment by anti-Semites and white nationalists who glommed onto Trump’s crusade.

There were warnings that Trump’s victory would give license to an increase in public expressions of racism, xenophobia and misogyny.

A “pallor of gloom” had descended over Clinton’s supporters, one woman said, while another spoke of trying to determine what was the “appropriate paranoia” to maintain.

The silver lining in what they viewed as a dark and menacing cloud was the hope that the emotionally crushing defeat would lead to redoubled efforts to promote social justice

11

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Fearing Worst, Finding Partners in Macon

Cleaning Up Broken Glass

In the wake of the Nov. 8 presidential election, social media feeds and Jewish organizational statements have been filled with calls for unity.

For now, unity is a tall order, given the divided political climate and the deeply differing views of where we stand as a nation.

Instead of calling for unity, let us call for something more attainable: Let us call for partnership.

In partnership with the Religious Action Center, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and members and rabbis from Temple Sinai and Temple Kol Emeth, on Election Day over 20 members and rabbis from The Temple traveled to Macon-Bibb County to assist with nonpartisan election protection.

We were there because this was the first presidential election without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act, and many states have enacted new voting policies such as consolidating voting precincts (which, in turn, can make lines longer and prevent people who need to get to work from casting their ballots), purging voter rolls without notifying formerly registered individuals that they need to reregister, and moving polling places to sheriff’s offices.

In the words of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, these voting restrictions were designed in ways that “disproportionately affected African Americans” and targeted “African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

According to our partner Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: “Georgia is Ground Zero, if you will, when it comes to voter suppression and discrimination. With the guarantee of

free and fair access to the ballot box in danger in ways unseen since the mid-60s and with this vulnerability falling primarily on people of color, we were dispatched to Macon while other

Rabbi David Spinrad is part of the clergy at The Temple.

It’s time for a new broken windows policy: one against racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We must prevent hate crimes from leaving shards of glass in our streets as Kristallnacht did.

We are all too familiar with the broken windows theory of policing: punishing small crimes to prevent big ones. There’s been a divide between the opponents and proponents of broken windows policing. Democrats decry the over-policing of people of color, leading to kids being trapped in the criminal justice system.

Republicans say crimes are crimes no matter how small, and the stakes are too high to let criminals slide.

Well, the stakes are too high to let acts of racism and oppression stand.

If you believe in a great America — whether Democrat or Republican — it’s time to speak up against oppression, no matter how slight. To the Republicans who believe in broken windows policing, the time has come for you to stamp out racism, homophobia and religious-based oppression.

Let me be clear: The vast majority of Republicans think this kind of hate has no place in our country. We’ve heard the old guard of the Republican Party denounce Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims. That’s why I have hope.

Wednesday, Nov. 9, was the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Germans rampaged through the streets, killing Jews and destroying their homes, businesses and synagogues.

Wednesday in the United States, we saw a surge in hate crimes: from spray-painted swastikas to schoolkids chanting “white power” to the harassment of hijab-wearing women. These are the broken windows! We are coming far too close to Kristallnacht. This is our chance to stamp it out.

If you think the recent hate

Letter To The Editor

tion Day poll watching here in Middle Georgia.

However, in my role as the duly elected District 2 commissioner of Macon-Bibb County who supervises our Board of Elections, I, as well as others in our local Jewish and greater communities, take serious umbrage with the egregious portrayal of our county by my Reform rabbinic colleague as reported by the AJT on Nov. 4 (“Macon Polls Draw Jewish Monitoring”).

I can attest that Rabbi David Spin-

rad’s misguided but all too public linkage of “racist” and “colorblind” epithets with the operations of this county and his imaginative but utterly absurd notion that a purposely disguised “de facto poll tax” was afoot here are both far, far cries from today’s reality.

Moreover, as the chairman of our county’s Economic and Community Development Committee, I must also confide that publicized misrepresentations like these serve only to impair and impede the progressive nature and

Macon Maligned

As rabbi of Temple Beth Israel, I wholeheartedly encouraged and supported the Reform-led endeavor to safeguard the voting rights of every registered voter here in Macon, and I am exceedingly grateful to all of you 12 who took time and effort to spend Elec-

Guest Column

By Rabbi David Spinrad

colleagues were in Cincinnati, Ohio, to serve as field volunteers responding to monitoring potential voting problems at the polls, such as malfunctioning machines or voter registration challenges in targeted locations as they arose.”

With an imagined narrative of tension and potential conflict in my mind, my experience in Macon was nothing of the sort. It was one of partnership and will be a memory I will lean on as an example of what might be during these tumultuous times.

Other than cases of registration confusion at primarily one polling place, I did not hear or see any voter suppression or intimidation. Lines were short, voting machines worked, and law enforcement generally respected our presence on Election Day. While I do believe that the Supreme Court erred badly in Shelby vs.

Holder and chose colorblindness over clear vision, at least in what I saw and where I was in Macon on Tuesday the system worked for those who chose and were able to participate. In partnership with the Macon-Bibb Board of Elections, law enforcement and a large number of nonpartisan volunteers, I saw democracy in action. ■

crimes are just isolated events that won’t come of anything, I ask you to remember our history. Seventy-five years ago, we put 120,000 JapaneseAmericans into concentration camps for fear they would sabotage our war efforts. And, yes, many were American citizens. And, yes, the Supreme Court

momentum of our current Macon-Bibb County economic and community development initiatives.

My years of elected public service suggest that the Talmudic adage “All Israel is responsible for one another” ought to apply to our relations as Georgians too, for whenever any one of our civic entities is unjustly shamed and publicly maligned in this way, it adversely affects the impression and perception of our entire state as well.

— Rabbi Larry Schlesinger, Macon

Guest Column

By Jonathan Grunberg

let it happen. All the while, we let German-Americans roam free. Sadly, racism and oppression are also American ideals.

Now here’s the hard part. It’s difficult to call people out, whether friend or stranger. The last election notwithstanding, we tend to be a polite society.

We let acts of racism, homophobia and religious intolerance slide.

We can all mine our history and recall moments when we failed to speak up against oppression: moments in high school when we didn’t defend an LGBTQ kid from a bully; moments when our friends used the N-word as we stood by; and moments when someone said “stop being a Jew,” and we were silent.

Please, don’t let the broken windows of intolerance and hate lead us to Kristallnacht 2.0. Please, don’t tell me I’m overreacting to isolated events, particularly if you have been a proponent of broken windows policing. We cannot deny our history of slavery, racism, homophobia, concentration camps and religious oppression.

Please, speak up now before none of us is allowed to speak. ■ Jonathan Grunberg lives in Atlanta with his wife, Lauren Linder, and their dog, Shiva. He’s a lawyer who is passionate about volunteerism in his free time.

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Offer Benefit of Doubt, Then Let Higher Power Judge a reason (or two or 10) dear to their hearts, and they have a right to that.

The election included many loaded issues, many of which are personal

Guest Column

By Rivkah Eidex

to different people and different families for their own reasons — reasons they have the right to defend.

“What do I say to my children today?” I saw that question numerous times on Facebook.

Maybe for starters: • Provide a factual lesson on majority rules (and sometimes you will not like the outcome, an important life lesson right there).

• Model how to handle disappointment (and even anger) with poise and dignity.

• Get active on those issues with which you and Trump disagree. Show your child how to voice your opinion in a

democracy, and be thankful for the right to do so.

• Explain to your child that the people who voted Trump into office must have their own reasons, and even though we don’t know what they are, we have no choice right now but to accept (and dare I say respect) that reality. This is known in the psychology world as “radical acceptance” — the notion that you can accept a reality even if you hate it (this concept is what enables me to get out of bed every day).

• Children are very literal. Telling them that their schoolmates are likely to be rounded up by armed guards or officers and shipped back to war-torn developing countries borders on emotional abuse of a child, in my opinion.

That type of rhetoric leads to panic, and panic can lead to dangerous and destructive behaviors in a nation.

Your job is to reassure your child that a lot of government leaders collaborate with the president, and nothing is going to happen tomorrow or even the next day. (Does anything involving the government happen quickly?)

You are safe, and your friends are safe. Teach your children to take deep breaths and perhaps encourage them to share this concept with their friends and schoolmates.

Many Americans — adults and children — are under the misconception that the president makes the decisions and rules and runs this great country. Ha-ha, my friends.

We are one nation under — what was it again?

Only He decides things and cares for us. G-d alone knows what is in the hearts of us all and loves and accepts us unconditionally, regardless of how we voted or our gender, sexual preference, nationality, etc.

Furthermore, G-d is the only one who has the right to judge us, so let’s leave that to Him. In the meantime, let’s try to model faith-based living so that our children understand that when things don’t go your way, even if you are overcome with fear, sometimes you just have to trust in the Lord (however you define Him) and know that He is the one in charge.

With that, we have a winning ballot every time. ■

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

People are spewing so much venom toward their fellow man because of the election.

I see people almost daring their friends and family to delete them, unfriend them, unfollow them, etc., on social media while telling one another how disappointed they are.

Why? Why are so many abhorred by Hillary Clinton’s defeat?

Because we wanted a woman we can admire in office, right? A woman who stands up for other women, for minorities, for children, for lesbian and gay Americans, who stands for equality and fairness.

Those traits are indeed admirable and, yes, traits I would hope to see exemplified in my own children and yours.

But how then, if these traits of moral character are so important to you, do you reconcile the temper tantrums, the degrading of others for holding different beliefs, the public shaming of your fellow, the curse words and insults, the depressing doomsday talk?

Friends can be friends only if they agree with you? Doesn’t that defeat the point of respecting diversity and human differences?

Talk about the right to choose.

The people who chose Donald Trump are being bashed for it. Didn’t they have the right to make their choice?

Isn’t that what voting is?

And to put them down and denigrate them — is that fairness and kindness and understanding? Acceptance?

If I don’t want to be friends with (or even nice to) anyone who is different from me, there is only one word to describe me: bigot.

You might read this and say, “But this is different! I am right! He is a buffoon and a womanizer and a jerk, and I am afraid he will be a lousy president.”

For the record, I wholeheartedly agree.

However, my friends, I learned a long time ago that you cannot judge another until and unless you’ve walked in his or her shoes. People have reasons for things that are personal to them, and you will never know them.

That is why it is crucial to give the benefit of the doubt. Always.

Who knows why this one or that one voted for Trump? They may have

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www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

After the Election, We Need the Abraham Emoji We take them for granted, the 2,000 emoji on the standard smartphone keyboard. They increasingly are how we communicate, sharing emotions and entire narratives, much to the chagrin of those who lament the deterioration of our national literacy.

Emoji, however, are apparently serious business.

Finland recently became the first country to lobby the Unicode Consortium, the secretive Silicon Valley emoji gatekeepers, to have its national identity enshrined in graphic digital characters. To do that, Finland had to distill its 5.5-million-person national essence into a smartphone image.

Ultimately, an exhaustive process resulted in Finish identity being boiled down to four possible images. As Georgia Wells reported in The Wall Street Journal on Nov. 10: “The Unicode Consortium, which met to decide the fate of Finland’s offerings Thursday, is no bunch of smiley-faced pushovers. The group, which standardizes computer coding for characters in different

languages, wants emojis to be popular, easily recognizable with just a few thousand pixels, and open to interpretation. Its guidance is followed by Apple Inc., Google parent Al-

Guest Column

By Rabbi Yitz Tendler

phabet Inc. and many other big tech companies.”

After a months-long wait for the nervous Finnish team of lawyers and Foreign Ministry officials, the Unicode Consortium decided that Finland’s national identity can now be tweeted, texted or emailed as either a pair of socks or a sauna.

Which brings us to a millennial take on a biblical question: If you had to boil down the life of Abraham to an essential emoji, what would it be?

If we had only a few freeze frames of definitive moments of Abraham’s life, what would they be?

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Would it be Abraham taking the hammer to his father’s idols, defying polytheistic orthodoxy and physically chiseling away at an accepted theological norm? Or, having left his homeland, would he be standing at the crossroads of civilizations, preaching a belief in one G-d and altering the course of history?

Would he be 100 years old, beseeching G-d for a child with his loving wife, Sarah? Or would he be pictured during his ultimate test, grasping a sword with an outstretched arm, readying himself to sacrifice that same son, born from so many tears?

Thankfully, Jewish tradition has already asked this question, and the surprising answer resonates throughout history and provides an important contemporary lesson. In the Talmud (Avoda Zara 25a), Rabbi Yohanan notes that Joshua calls Bereishit (Genesis), the bulk of which is the narrative of Abraham and his offspring, Sefer Hayashar, inadequately translated as “the Book of the Straight.”

Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (1816-1893), dean of the flagship Volozhin Yeshiva, asks in the introduction to his commentary on the Book of Genesis: Why, of all the adjectives available to describe Abraham, do we not describe him as tzadik (righteous) or hasid (pious), but instead use the far less descriptive yashar (upright)?

What does the encomium yashar even mean? What is it communicating?

Rabbi Berlin’s answer, channeling other traditional sources, is astonishing: Abraham’s ultimate praise does not lie in his piety, his righteousness, or his powerful and singular relationship with G-d and his dedication to His word. His defining praise and true character are most dramatically manifested in the way he treats those who disagree with him.

While this behavior is illustrated in various ways in the winding narrative of Abraham and his offspring, it is most starkly demonstrated in the story of Sodom’s destruction.

Abraham, on the excruciatingly painful third day after his circumcision, pauses a conversation with G-d Himself to run into the blazing sun and welcome wayfarers he presumes to be idolatrous nomads. Eventually they reveal themselves as angels, and G-d communicates through them His intent to destroy Sodom.

Sodom was a city-state that stood for everything diametrically opposed to the Abrahamic creed of “a gener-

ous eye, meek spirit and humble soul” (Avot 5:19). Guests were mistreated and molested. Charity was frowned upon.

The society was built on abject cruelty.

When G-d tells Abraham about Sodom’s imminent destruction, we expect the response to be great joy: This is a big, dramatic win for his team. The flagship political entity that stands in Abraham’s way of spreading his faith in G-d and teaching lovingkindness will be destroyed, never to pose a theological threat again.

But Abraham does not rejoice.

He does the opposite. He begs, pleads, wheedles and negotiates with G-d to spare these people. Perhaps they have some saving grace. Maybe there are 50, 40, 30, 20, even 10 righteous men (Bereishit 18:16-33)?

Abraham disagrees with and even hates what Sodom stands for, but that does not diminish his desire to see the Sodomites live and thrive.

This is the Abraham emoji: a bold statement that while belief, faith and values are seminally important and worthy of dedicating our lives to, ultimately what counts, what makes you a yashar, is the ability to profoundly disagree with but still fundamentally value your political and theological adversary.

As Americans, as Jews and as human beings, we are constantly choosing our emoji. Sometimes in the heat of a painful election cycle we temporarily change our emoji to the values our side holds dear. Our emoji may come in the form of strongly held economic, social and ideological dogmas.

But Jewish tradition enjoins us to “be students of Abraham” and have a “humble soul,” defined by the medieval commentator Rashi as “he has no categories determining with whom he can and cannot associate. … He sits with all men.”

Let’s adopt the Abraham emoji.

Let’s keep the values that have always motivated us, but don’t let them cloud the fundamental desire to see the good of the other and, even when disagreeing, to do so in a way that fundamentally affirms them.

Let us reaffirm that, with all due respect to Finland, our core national identity should not be a pair of socks, changed every day, but a permanent bedrock of mutual respect and common decency. ■ Rabbi Yitz Tendler serves as the executive director of Congregation Beth Jacob.

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NOVEMBER 18 â–ª 2016

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS

Shabbat Dinner Delivers Social Justice Comfort Food

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Most of the roughly 100 people who gathered for Repair the World’s Shabbat dinner Friday night, Nov. 11, needed a good laugh.

Food writer Michael Twitty provided the good and the laughs.

Twitty’s presentation to attendees of the national Facing Race conference and to Atlantans interested in social justice acknowledged the confusion and frustration many felt after Donald Trump’s presidential victory. But Twitty’s style isn’t quiet acceptance.

“I am the Trump voter’s worst nightmare,” he said, referring to his being black, Jewish and gay, then noting the irony of feeling unwanted in the America those voters envision as being great again. “I couldn’t exist in any other country in this world.”

His opening comment might have been the only time Twitty used Trump’s name during his talk at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. He preferred to call him “treif.”

No one eating the vegetarian meal served by Repair the World objected.

The volunteer organization mobilizes young Jews to do service to address pressing problems in their communities. Its guests at the Turning the Tables Shabbat dinner included five members of the Reform movement’s North American Federation of Temple Youth: one from Miami, one from Charlotte and three from the Chicago area.

The two Southerners are leaders of Camp Jenny, the Memorial Day weekend program at Camp Coleman for students of an Atlanta elementary school who might not otherwise get to visit the North Georgia mountains. The three from Chicago work with a similar program in their city, Camp CAR. Attending Facing Race with NFTY’s Southern Area Region director, Adam Griff, they said they were drawn to Atlanta by the chance to learn from each other about their camp programs and by the opportunity to gain different perspectives on racial issues.

Locals around the room included Temple Rabbi David Spinrad, urban planner Jodi Mansbach and Gabby Leon of the Schusterman Foundation, which is working with Repair the World and OneTable to provide re-

sources for people to hold such Shabbat dinners on a smaller scale.

Facing Race brought together 2,000 people interested in racial and social justice for three days of discussions on such topics as immigrant rights, city water systems, mass criminalization, implicit bias, and the various intersections among the racial, religious and LGBTQ concerns.

Twitty, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area, embodies those intersections. He said he experienced regular police harassment as a young black man until he donned a yarmulke, grew out his beard and wore dark clothing as a convert to Judaism.

He joked that his troubles then shifted from local police to the Transportation Security Administration.

The humor led to serious points: • Jews and blacks have a lot in common as minorities in America, but the ability to succeed for the two groups is not the same.

• The idea of expelling Muslims is particularly offensive because so many of the slaves who built this nation were Muslims in Africa. “Treif,” Twitty said, “you’d have to grow your own cotton.”

• It’s wrong to question someone’s Jewish origins based on that person’s appearance. Not only is someone else’s background none of your business, but who is to say what a Jew looks like?

Twitty, who found his first Jewish home in a Sephardic congregation, said he made the point with his Judaics students that their own ideas of Jewish appearance came from the stereotypes promoted by anti-Semites. “Don’t ever let your enemy define who you are.”

• Just as Jews use “we” to refer to the Israelite slaves who escaped Egypt, so we should use “we” to talk about Jews scattered around the world, regardless of their skin tone.

• Known for his promotion of kosher/soul food (black-eyed-pea hummus, matzah ball gumbo), he’s a tireless fighter for culinary justice, gaining credit where it’s due for the dishes we eat. There’s a difference between serving Southern food as old family recipes, ignoring the black cooks who created them generations back, and presenting your own version of a dish while acknowledging its cultural origin.

“No one’s ever stealing my recipes again,” Twitty said. ■

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LOCAL NEWS

Marcus Stands by Trump, Bannon Bernie Marcus didn’t hesitate to stand up for Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, despite silence or opposition from national Jewish organizations, so it was no surprise when the Republican Jewish Coalition board member issued a statement Tuesday, Nov. 15, in support of the presidentelect’s newly named chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

The selection of Bannon, already controversial for allowing extremeright articles on news site Breitbart.

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opened a Breitbart office in Israel to ensure that the true pro-Israel story would get out,” the Home Depot founder’s statement reads. “What is being done to Steve Bannon is a shonda.”

The statement came a week after Trump won the presidential election and six days after Marcus celebrated the electoral surprise during a special lunchtime appearance at the monthly AJT-sponsored Jewish Breakfast Club at the Buckhead offices of Greenberg Traurig.

Marcus praised Trump for being supportive of Israel and said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu know each other well, going back decades.

Trump was not his first or even 10th pick for the Republican nomination, Marcus told the more than 70 attendees, but once the party selected the New York businessman, Marcus embraced him as preferable to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air,” Marcus said, and he poses a threat to government employees standing in the way of economic growth. “Every bureaucrat in Washington is a monster.”

Marcus, the father of AJT owner and Publisher Michael Morris, has no interest in a formal role in the Trump administration but said he will make himself available whenever the new president wants his advice.

Trump’s biggest strength and weakness in Washington are the same, Marcus said: He’s a businessman, not a politician.

On the plus side, he won’t accept nonsensical spending, Marcus said.

“He’s going to walk in like a businessman, and he’s going to say things I would say. ‘We spend money on that?

No more.’ ”

Bernie Marcus says he and former Home Depot partner Arthur Blank will always be like brothers despite their political differences.

On the negative side, Marcus said, Trump will face an endless line of “imbeciles” trying to prevent change.

The Internal Revenue Service is corrupt, Marcus said, and now he’s worried about the fairness of the FBI and the Justice Department for the first time in his life.

He’s not so worried about Trump, whom he called rational.

“He’s an egotist; you have to be an egotist to become a politician. He’s a little ADD, but I am also,” Marcus said, adding that Trump has a fast-food diet and “eats like a slob.”

Marcus said he had three meetings with Trump during the campaign, including a lengthy private flight to Colorado, and found him to be a personable guy. One thing that impressed Marcus is that Trump listened and let him do 80 percent of the talking. ■

LOCAL NEWS

Early registration is open for the International Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework’s annual convention, set for Atlanta from May 21 to 23.

The convention provides an opportunity to gain knowledge and learn skills in Judaic needlework. The Atlanta chapter of Peach State Stitchers (www. peachstatestitchers.org) is hosting the gathering. Convention co-chairs Susan Big and Barbara Rucket have worked for months with a committee to make the event educational and enjoyable.

Convention workshops and other programs will be held at the LeMeridien Atlanta Perimeter Hotel, where dietary laws will be observed. Congregation Or Hadash Rabbi Analia Bortz, a physician, bioethicist, artist and Judaic textile needleworker, will deliver the keynote address Sunday night, May 21.

The event will include vendors with Judaic and needlework items, as well as exhibitions of needlework by members from around the United States and Canada.

Workshops May 21 and 22 will include opportunities to learn innovative techniques of needle art and design processes.

Classes cover such skills as blackwork, crochet, tallit creation, dollmaking, applique techniques, needlepoint, embroidery and mixed media.

Peach State Stitchers member Flora Rosefsky will lead a workshop May 21 titled “Create a Jewish Inspired Design: Your Vision … Your Voice.”

Pomegranate Guild members and nonmembers may attend one or both days at LeMeridien, as well as a field trip Tuesday, May 23, to the Breman Museum and the Center for Puppetry Arts on Spring Street in Midtown.

Current guild members may take advantage of early-bird registration rates ($275 for one day, $450 for two) through Feb. 3. The regular rates ($525 for both days for members, $600 for nonmembers) kick in Feb. 5, when nonmembers may begin signing up.

More about the convention is available at www.pomegranateguild. org/convention2017.html. ■

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Stitching Time Set For May

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LOCAL NEWS

NEW JUDAIC PIECES UNVEILED

Photos by Marcia Caller Jaffe

Joining honoree Jim Hannan at the AJC National Human Rights Award dinner are Susan Hannan (left), Lila Hertz, Doug Hertz and Jim Grien (right).

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AJC’s national board chair, Matthew Bronfman (left), poses with Debbie Neese, Claire Alexander and former honoree Jack Sawyer.

Board member Miles Alexander (left) has cocktails with Caroline Hardin and Jack Hardin.

AJC Does Right Thing With Georgia-Pacific CEO

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com

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American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta Chapter presented its National Human Relations Award to GeorgiaPacific President and CEO Jim Hannan in front of 400 supporters Wednesday, Nov. 9, at the St. Regis in Buckhead.

The pre-gala cocktail hour saw a well-heeled, diverse crowd among the tuna tartare cones, sun-dried tomatoes with goat cheese, and arancini di riso (balls of risotto).

“The AJC does terrific and relevant work, and it’s lovely to support Jim Hannan. After all, Jews are the uniters of change and the embodiment of entrepreneurship,” Renay Blumenthal said.

Past honoree Jack Sawyer said: “The AJC shines a bright light and attracts different business people. Nothing is more appropriate in today’s world.”

Inside the ballroom during the seated dinner, Matthew Bronfman, son of the late philanthropist Edgar Bronf­ man (CEO of Seagram and president of the World Jewish Congress), took the podium as the national chair of the AJC

board of trustees. He urged audience members to roll up their sleeves and stay involved.

Bronfman quoted a family slogan: “ ‘Is this business business or Jewish business?’ The latter meaning ‘Is it the right thing to do?’ ” He revealed the new Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, whose 31 members include Emory professor Deborah Lipstadt, Atlanta native Stuart Eizenstat and local Imam Plemon El-Amin.

Event co-chair Doug Hertz, the president and CEO of United Distributors, began the tribute to Hannan by saying he was “on the one hand a regular guy, one of the folks. On the other hand, a tree standing out in the forest.”

He praised Hannan’s work with underprivileged children and the Woodruff Arts Center.

Hannan accepted the award after a video showcased his role at GeorgiaPacific and the dynamism of the company’s employees and range of products.

Greg Averbuch, the president of AJC Atlanta, was true to his word by concluding the program before 9 p.m. ■

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NOVEMBER 18 â–ª 2016

LOCAL NEWS Flax Picks Scholar

Flax Dental has named Anastassia Stoenelova as the winner of this year’s $1,000 Knowledge Matters Flax Dental Scholarship to help her get a two-year degree as a dental hygienist from Georgia State University.

“I chose to pursue a career path as a dental hygienist because I like to help people realize how important dental care is,” she said. “I came to the United States from my home country of Bulgaria, where there is no focus on oral health and prevention. As a bilingual, I will be able to see some patients from my country that don’t speak English and educate them about dental care.”

Flax Dental (www.flaxdental.com), an Atlanta-based cosmetic and restorative dental practice led by Jewish community member Hugh Flax, awards a scholarship each year to a local student in a dental assistant program or dental hygiene program at a Georgia school.

Last year’s winner was Georgia State student Autumn Dipietro.

Scholarship applicants are selected based on academic record and an essay.

“At Flax Dental, we believe that knowledge matters when it comes to dentistry. It takes extensive knowledge and skill to provide patients with the highest standard of dental care,” Hugh Flax said. “We want the next generation of dental professionals to be able to not only share in that knowledge, but also build upon it to take the dental profession even further in the future.”

The retired oral surgeon and his wife, Shirley, in the spring established the Brickman/Levin Award to support doctoral students in Jewish studies at Emory’s Laney Graduate School. The Brickmans’ other Emory projects include the endowment for Deborah Lipstadt’s Holocaust Denial on Trial website.

Sukkah Tea Time

Hadassah Greater Atlanta’s Metulla Group celebrated Sukkot and its members of the Chai Society (donating $15 a month) and the Silver Chai Society ($30 a month) in the sukkah at Congregation Beth Shalom on Oct. 30.

Metulla, led by President Nancy Schwartz, has 24 Chai Society members, each of whom received a pin designed by Israeli artist Yossi and presented by Elva Rosner. Rosner also talked about the tea parties Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold held to build support for what became Israel.

For All Occasions and More provided the kosher spread of sandwiches, cheeses, fruits, pastries and teas for the sukkah tea party.

Guest speaker Eileen Cohn wove the goals of the event into a smooth fabric of friendship, charity, holiness, spirituality and hospitality. She talked about the traditional game of ushpizen (Arabic for spiritual guests), naming those who in life had been exiled.

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Brickman Honored

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Perry Brickman was one of two Emory alumni presented with the university’s highest honor, the Emory Medal, at a ceremony Thursday, Nov. 3, at the Miller-Ward Alumni House.

Joining Brickman, a Toco Hills resident and 1953 graduate of Emory College, in winning the award was Pete McTier, a 1961 business graduate.

“Both Perry and Pete exemplify a philanthropic spirit and share dedication and loyalty to Emory University,” said Sarah Cook, Emory’s senior associate vice president for alumni affairs.

“I was raised to work for your community. I didn’t even have to be told,” Brickman said in his Emory Medal video.

In 2012 he organized the production of a documentary, “From Silence to Recognition: Confronting Discrimination in Emory’s Dental School History,” which brought to light discrimination against Jewish dental students from 1948 to 1961. The university responded by giving him the Maker of History award.

Eileen Cohn and Michele WeinerMerbaum attend the Metulla Group’s Sukkot event.

Rabbi Mark Zimmerman’s Congregation Beth Shalom plays host to Bonnie Brummer and other Hadassah members.

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

FOOD

Talk Turkey Over Seasonal Cocktails Thanksgiving is meant to be a time to take stock of our blessings, enjoy time with friends and family, and be grateful for all we have. Most people put the emphasis on the turkey, the potatoes or the company they keep, but here are a few great cocktails worthy of your attention and space on your table.

Gold Rush

With just three ingredients, this classic cocktail is fancy enough to impress serious drinkers and easy enough for folks with no cocktail knowledge to make.

The Gold Rush is simple It’s perfect for a enough for a cocktail crowd and can novice to prepare. be made in advance. If you’re not a fan of whiskey, you can use gin instead, and it’s called the Bee’s Knees. If you substitute rum, it’s a Honey Bee.

2 ounces whiskey ¾ ounce honey syrup* ¾ ounce lemon juice Place all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well.

Serve in a rocks glass with ice or in a coupe or other stemmed glass without.

Garnish with a lemon wheel, wedge or peel. If making a large batch, pour all the ingredients into a large pitcher with a small handful of ice, mix well, and store in the fridge until serving. * Honey syrup: Heat equal parts honey and water in a saucepan until fully blended. Cool and store in the fridge; it will keep for about 3 weeks.

Moscow Mule

Maple Daiquiri The daiquiri was invented in Cuba and reached the heights of popularity in the ’60s. The original version is incredibly simple and in no way

resembles the syrup-sweet frozen mess you’ll find on a cruise ship or on Bourbon Street. This update incorporates a few fall flavors for a complete mix of tastes highlighting the best of the season.

1½ ounces dark rum (not spiced rum) ½ ounce smoky scotch 1 ounce lime juice ½ ounce maple syrup Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well.

Strain and pour into a coupe or other stemmed glass and garnish with a lime wedge or wheel.

The Maple Daiquiri is nothing like the sickly sweet frozen concoctions offered on cruise ships.

The Moscow Mule is a story of American innovation, even with the Russian name.

In 1939 an American businessman bought the rights to distribute Smirnoff in the United States. The problem, though, was that Americans hated the flavor of vodka. Legend has it that Americans used to say “vodka” was the Russian word for “horrible.”

At the same time, another businessman had a massive stock of copper

American innovation and the need to sell vodka and copper mugs led to the Moscow Mule.

mugs he couldn’t sell. The two teamed up at Los Angeles’ Cock ’n’ Bull bar to create a cocktail that would be served in the copper mugs, and the Moscow Mule was born.

2 ounces vodka ½ ounce lime juice Ginger beer to top Fill a short (rocks) glass with ice and add the vodka and lime juice. (You can use a copper mug to be authentic, but you certainly don’t have to.) Fill the rest of the glass with ginger beer (not ginger ale) and garnish with a lime wedge. ■ Robbie Medwed writes at koshercocktail.com.

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

By Robbie Medwed

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www.atlantajewishtimes.com

EDUCATION Laugh With AJA

Atlanta Jewish Academy Upper School students will perform two shows of the work of Atlanta playwright Hank Kimmel, the president of the Jewish Theater Association.

The special black-box shows will highlight some of Kimmel’s funniest works, as well as 10 shorts the students and playwright developed together.

The cast consists of Aviva Fine, Deborah Broyde, Esther Freitag, Ezra Blunt, Judah Blanks, Mikhael Khandadash and Rachel Rodbell.

The performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, and 3 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 20, at AJA’s Sandy Springs campus, 5200 Northland Drive. Tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/2714888.

Honoring Rabin

must think differently, look at things in a different way. Peace requires a world of new concepts, new definitions.”

Students decorated individual jigsaw pieces, then joined them together to illustrate how each piece is unique and is essential to complete the puzzle.

GILEE Visits at Davis Robbie Friedmann, the founding director of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, led a 19-member delegation on a visit to the Davis Academy on Monday, Nov. 7.

Israeli Deputy Consul General Anat Fisher-Tsin and top Sandy Springs police officials joined the visit.

The GILEE group covered all areas of law enforcement in Israel, from online juvenile protection to border guards to prison service. Its two-week agenda in Georgia included training

Davis Academy seventh-graders (from left) Jason Sherman, Danny Kobrinsky, Asher Bressler, Jenny Sullivan and Matthew McCullough present letters of appreciation from first-graders to Sandy Springs Police Chief Kenneth DeSimone and Capt. John Mullin during the GILEE visit to the academy Nov. 7.

with federal, state, county and local police agencies in Atlanta, Columbus, Covington, Forsyth, Gwinnett County, Rome, Savannah and Worth County.

Davis students and teachers asked the Israelis about fieldwork, terrorism prevention, terrorist behavior in custody and any Israeli equivalent of Miranda rights. The visitors asked the students how they and their families react to news of terror attacks in Israel and what connection they feel to Israel.

Several students said attacks on Israel make them feel afraid and worried. Eighth-grader Rami Fabian, whose father is Israeli, explained his love for Israel and thanked the public safety officials for their work.

Offering Thanks

Photo courtesy of the Marcus JCC

Weinstein School preschoolers presented visiting veterans with American flags and sang to them to pay tribute to their service and thank them for their sacrifices on Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, at the Marcus Jewish Community Center.

Davis Learns Slur’s Power

Davis Academy middle-schoolers joined other students from the Atlanta area at the world premiere of “Slur” at the Alliance Theatre on Friday, Nov. 11, marking Davis’ third annual day of learning with the Alliance.

The play was written by and for middle school students to address race, religion and identity in seventh grade.

The show opens with “Jihadist” painted across a Muslim student’s locker.

After the performance, Davis’ director of Jewish and Hebrew studies, Rabbi Micah Lapidus, moderated a panel discussion among Munir Meghjani, the CEO of Helping Organizations and People Everywhere, who recently traveled to Israel; Nicole Moore, the education manager for the National Center for Civil and Human Rights; Sherry Frank, the former longtime American Jewish Committee regional director; and Thomas Pinckney of the Alliance.

The students explored what they learned with exercises such as writing poems and creating masks at Davis.

“I witnessed vulnerability, honesty, intentional listening and much more. Days like these reinforce one of the Davis Academy’s core beliefs: that learning is a disposition, not something that takes place only in a classroom,” Rabbi Lapidus said.

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

The Weber School’s Student Council and Pro-Israel Student Movement led a recent commemoration of the life of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated after a peace rally Nov. 4, 1995, in Tel Aviv.

A PRISM presentation highlighted moments in Rabin’s life. The Student Council expanded on a quotation from the man who signed agreements with the Palestinians and with Jordan: “We

Each piece is necessary to complete the peace picture.

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Davis Academy Middle School students make masks, symbolic of the ones we all wear to hide our true identities.

Chanukah ART CONTEST

We’re looking for a festive Chanukah illustration for the cover of the Atlanta Jewish Times’ Dec. 23 issue.

If you’re age 15 or under, send us your Chanukah-themed artwork by Friday, Dec. 9.

Size: 9.5 inches wide by 6 inches high Materials: Anything that shows up bold and bright, such as crayons, markers or cut paper. We suggest taping your artwork to cardboard to protect it. Do not fold artwork. Digitally produced art is accepted. Artwork may be submitted as JPEG or PDF file at atlantajewishtimes.com.

To enter: All work must be received at the Atlanta Jewish Times office, 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, Atlanta, GA 30328 ATTN: Art Contest, or submitted through the website. (One entry per child, please.)

All work must have an entry form attached on the back or filled out online: Deadline is 3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Artwork may be picked up in January at 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, Atlanta, GA 30328 during regular business hours.

There are four age categories: 6 and under, 7 to 9, 10 to 12, and 13 to 15.

GRAND PRIZE $50 Gift certificate to Binders. Winner’s art may be the cover of the Dec. 23 AJT.

FIRST PRIZES $25 Gift certificate to Binders for each category (total of 4)

Awards: Contest winners will be honored at a reception at Binders Art Supplies. Artwork may be reprinted in the Atlanta Jewish Times, posted online and publicly displayed at Binders.

ALL ENTRANTS $5 Giftcertificate to Binders

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PHONE

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PARENT’S NAMES ONE ENTRY PER CHILD, PLEASE 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, Atlanta, GA 30328 www.atlantajewishtimes.com For additional entry forms call 404-883-2130 or look in future issues of the Jewish Times.

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BUSINESS

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Photos by David R. Cohen

Above left: (From left) Geert de Vries, Timothy Denning, Julia Hillard and Binghe Wang visit the old Jerusalem railway station.

Above right: Timothy Denning, Binghe Wang, Geert de Vries and other members of the Conexx delegation stop at the Western Wall.

Left: Over a cold Goldstar beer at the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum, Timothy Denning talks with Immanuel Lerner, the CEO of Pepticom, which searches for novel peptide drug candidates.

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Medical Innovations Open GSU Eyes in Israel

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com Four high-ranking Georgia State University faculty members got a close look at Israeli medical innovation as part of the 2016 Conexx Israel Business Expedition Nov. 5 to 10.

It was the first visit to Israel for the neuroscientist, immunologist and two biochemists.

Conexx delegation member Jorge Fernandez, the vice president of global commerce at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, invited GSU President Mark Becker to send four faculty members on the trip. Eventually composing the group were Julia Hillard, Binghe Wang, Geert de Vries and Timothy Denning.

Each came away with a completely different view on medical innovation in Israel.

“I didn’t know what to expect, quite honestly,” said Denning, an associate professor at the Center for Inflammation, Immunity & Infection at GSU. “Since I got here, I’ve just been so impressed. I feel there’s a common thread through the culture in Israel of education, of striving for excellence and of trying to better humanity. It’s a common thread that I don’t often see as much in the United States.”

Medical highlights of the trip included meetings with the technology transfer companies of Ben-Gurion University, Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute, as well as visits to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, the Trendlines medical incubator in the Galilee and the Israel National Center for Personalized Medicine at the

Weizmann Institute.

Of particular interest to the delegation from Georgia State was an opportunity to witness the transfer of knowledge and scientific research from Israeli universities into ventures that have a commercial interest.

“I was very impressed with the incubators that are set up at the universities in Israel,” said Wang, regents professor and associate dean for natural and computational sciences at GSU. “Instead of only giving out money to small companies, they make sure there is the infrastructure to support them and help move the innovation from academic labs into the market.”

The four faculty members work in different departments at Georgia State and used the many meetings and long bus rides during the trip to get better acquainted. They have scheduled a meeting to discuss takeaways from the trip with Georgia State higher-ups.

De Vries, the director of the Neuroscience Institute at GSU, said he sees an opportunity for the university to set up a medical incubator modeled after Israeli universities.

Denning was invited to speak at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot.

Hillard, director of GSU’s Viral Immunology Center, participated in a women’s panel at Rambam that discussed ways to get women more involved in science and medicine.

In addition to academic connections established on the trip, Wang said he is excited about the general connections he made with the American Conexx delegation and Israeli business professionals. ■

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Every day when she makes coffee or tea, the mother finds comfort in seeing this painting by her daughter.

Nothing Comes Close

A mother’s story of loss to heroin and hope to move the community ahead

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

By Leah R. Harrison lharrison@atljewishtimes.com

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Your GO TO Specialists for all YOUR REAL ESTATE Needs RE/MAX AROUND ATLANTA David Shapiro Jon Shapiro DShapiro@remax.net JonShapiro@mindspring.com 404-252-7500 404-845-3065 404-845-3050 www.jonshapiro.com

“There is nothing in this world that comes close to losing a child.”

That’s how the meeting began with a grieving Jewish mother and the trusted therapist who has helped her get through three difficult years since she lost her daughter.

“She was the light of our lives. She was everything,” the mother said about her only child, who was a few days short of her 21st birthday when she died of an overdose after using heroin just twice.

She was creative, funny and talented — a gifted artist with a beautiful voice she used to record songs from prayers to pop music. After learning the basics from her mom in their home chef’s kitchen, she honed her skills by watching the Food Network for hours until she could whip up gourmet meals.

Passover was her favorite holiday.

There are parallels and disparities between this story and the AJT’s previous reports about young people lost to Jewish Atlanta’s Heroin Triangle. This mother, too, is uncomfortable exposing her or her child’s identity for fear of judgment from the community.

Her daughter grew up in an Orthodox Atlanta home and attended private Jewish schools. She had all the visits with therapists and psychiatrists she desired. She loved being surrounded by family, was the apple of her father’s eye and had a close relationship with her mother.

Her wrong turn began with “meeting a very bad guy, a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” the mother said. “But he got her confidence and her love, and he got her smoking weed. … He saw her inse-

curities and learned how to manipulate her, and he used her.”

They met online when the daughter was 16. The smoking and drinking progressed to pills — everything except heroin. Good grades her junior became bad the next. She passed on a full college scholarship and chose to live with her boyfriend.

Next came treatment at Ridgeview Institute and six months of sobriety, broken by her first use of heroin. The following night, the second use, was a higher dose, leading to her death.

She is buried in the Chabad section at Crest Lawn Memorial Park.

She kept a detailed diary, which is why her mother can provide specifics. The police even found a note under her pillow stating the exact amount of heroin she used the night she died.

The drugs were purchased with Bitcoin on the Silk Road, an online, illicit marketplace known for the sale of illegal drugs. Now called “the first modern darknet market,” the Silk Road launched in 2011 and was shut down by the FBI in October 2013, just a few months after the purchase of this deadly dose of heroin.

Like the other mothers of young adults killed by drug overdoses, this Atlantan is changed forever, but she has no regrets. “I know in my heart and soul I did everything humanly possible for my child.”

Her daughter had constant attention from two loving parents, frequent therapy and drug treatment at a certified facility.

As an observant Jew, this mother’s faith in G-d is absolute and serves as a source of strength. “This is how I cope,” she said. “I’m managing due to my utmost belief in G-d.”

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ALPHARETTA JOHNS CREEK MARIETTA

This is part of an occasional series on the opioid epidemic’s effects on Jewish Atlanta.

With her faith and with the support of Alyza Berman, the trusted therapist who “literally saved my life,” she has achieved the understanding that her daughter made her own choices.

She has learned and integrated the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and understands the wisdom they impart.

She and Berman want to join in bringing more resources to fight addiction to Atlanta’s Jewish community.

With heightened reader awareness and interest, the new year, and a fresh start in mind, Berman said: “I think that we need to contact rabbis and get this into some of the synagogues and start having meetings there, because there are so many meetings in churches. So many. And I have to tell you, for a Jewish person to go into a church with crosses … and to say the Lord’s Prayer at the end,” it’s difficult.

They both agreed with the suggestions outlined in the AJT’s Sept. 2 issue, including offering more Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous sessions, as well as clinical-based meetings in Jewish locales within the community, and adding a Jewish voice in recovery.

“Let’s put tachlis in there,” the mom said. “Let’s put names of shuls who are volunteering rooms and services, and let’s get AA and NA involved.

Let’s get their people involved” to help run the meetings.

Berman, who specializes in working with people with addictions and eating disorders, as well as their families, said: “There are Christian organizations that have treatment centers out there built around Christianity. There is nothing Jewish. Now there’s HAMSA, yes, for sure, but we need treatment centers. We need intensive outpatient programs because with Judaism, our Judaism is the way we live, breathe and eat. And it’s about our sense of community, and you cannot go through recovery if you are lacking that. I think that’s what we’re lacking in our Atlanta community.”

Heroin is killing everyone everywhere, Berman said, stressing the need for awareness and education. She said parents must stop saying to their kids: “Sure, you can drink. Just drink at my house, as long as you give me the keys.”

“Stop condoning it!” Berman said.

She questioned why we are so permissive of alcohol consumption, which leads to other substance use.

Berman, who is also the clinical director of a treatment program, said she works with a lot of families who have lost loved ones. There are many stories to be told, and there is great insight to be gained.

On the question of what causes addiction, she said, “There is no answer, but everyone is a recipe.”

She explained that you have a person’s genetic, social, educational, athletic, spiritual and family issues, as well as insecurities. “We mix it together, and we have a person,” and there is no one issue or person to blame for addiction.

“It takes a village to create issues, and it’s going to take a village to recov-

er,” she said.

“I feel like we could do something big here,” Berman said.

“Yes, from the ground up,” the mother said. “We Jews need to get together. … I would love to help to do this in memory of my child.”

“We can start something. We can do something,” Berman said, offering a list of components she thinks our Jewish community needs: • 12-step meetings that are open to all but are held in synagogues or other Jewish institutions.

• Sober living houses and environments to foster a sense of Jewish community.

• Jewish treatment centers.

• The involvement of religious leaders from all streams of Judaism, from Reform to Orthodox.

On the importance of faith in recovery, Berman said: “Judaism again is a way of life. So that’s what I think can help the Jewish population. And once you stop believing in your religion, you’re going to lose your sense of recovery, and you lose. And we are going to be survivors, not victims to this anymore.” ■ For counseling help with addictions, eating disorders or anxiety, contact Alyza Berman at 404-694-0204, www.alyzaberman.com or alyzaberman@gmail. com. To join the Jewish community’s fight against heroin and other substance abuse, contact Eric Miller, the program coordinator for Jewish Family & Career Services’ HAMSA (Helping Atlantans Manage Substance Abuse), at 770-677-9318 or emiller­@jfcs-atlanta.org.

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

HEALTH & WELLNESS

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Holiday Survival Starts

By Finding Time for You

We are Pleased to Welcome

Dr. Stuart Tuck To the Sandy Springs office Dr. Tuck is now accepting new patients and same day appointments are available for urgent care.

Comprehensive Treatment and Surgery for the Foot, Ankle and Lower Leg

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

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Phone: 404.237.3668 Fax: 404.237.9562 Pediatrics to Seniors Most Insurances Accepted

w w w . v i l l a g e p o d i a t r y c e n t e r s . c o m

Imagine being without power for a day or two or even a week.

Those who live on the coast may have had this experience during hurricane season. It’s not fun to wait and wonder when the lights will come back on or when you might have your next shower. Those who have lived this know what I’m talking about.

Now imagine yourself at the resurrection of the Temple defiled by the Greeks, back when Antiochus IV was in control.

He massacred Jews and prohibited the practice of Judaism.

A revolution began, led by the Maccabees. The revolution succeeded, and the Temple was rededicated.

Oil was needed for the menorah.

There was enough oil for only one day, but miraculously it burned for eight days. Now we commemorate this miracle by celebrating the holiday of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights.

Two very different experiences are exemplified here: one of feeling victimized and the other of an unseen protection. Not sure in the first scenario, they made a holiday out of it when the lights came on.

How can we bring that sense of wonder, light and the presence of miracles to our holiday season amid the busyness of parties, vacations, gift shopping, traffic, and even past and present grief and loss?

For many, the stress of the holiday season can override the essential meaning. Here are a few holistic tips, most of which require a little time out: • Keep an aromatherapy diffuser in your home, preferably one that has a cool mist. Heating oils can destroy the therapeutic value (for example, scented candles and electric devices).

Try oils such as eucalyptus, lavender, orange oil, cedarwood, ginger and lemongrass. Experiment with ones you like.

Essential oils affect mood and emotions and purify your environment. You may use them intentionally and symbolically. Maybe the oil will last longer than you anticipated.

• Every day, take a few minutes for some deep breathing and becoming present. Notice when you’ve reached your limit. You may feel tired or overwhelmed or even let out the “hah” sound. Those are signals to hit the pause button.

You can do this anywhere (except while driving). Simply fill your belly with air like a balloon (pushing the belly out) on the inhale, and exhale to the count of four. Ten repetitions can allow you to become present at any time during your day.

Guest Column

By Gedalia Genin gedaliahdoc@gmail.com

A yogic principle tells us that when the breath slows down, the mind slows down. We tend to rev up the mind in our modern lives with the Internet, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. That’s a lot to process all at once.

Attempt the opposite by slowing down with intention. Use your awareness to make this a daily practice.

• Look for the everyday miracles of life that are before, such as waking up to the beat of your heart, watching the sunrise or sitting in the moonlight.

Spend those moments in gratitude for what is, as opposed to what to get.

• Be open, kind and generous when you can, even though others might be hasty.

• Prioritize time with those who bring you joy and lightheartedness.

• Speak with a friend or healer to share your personal story. It’s OK to have both the positive and what you may call the “darker emotions” present simultaneously.

• Bring some laughter into your day by not trying to make everything perfect. The “trying to be perfect” person causes unnecessary stress and anxiety. The people you’ve invited want to be with you, not to feel tense from a frazzled hostess. Delegate when you can, ask for help and use local places to help you fill in the meals.

Chanukah teaches us the principle that from the miracle itself the Jews went from darkness to light. The holidays are time of joy, light, love and generosity. So remember the miracles, remember the reasons you are here: to give love and share love. ■ Gedalia Genin (www.gedaliahhealingarts.com) is an alternative health practitioner and naturopath at Centre­ Spring MD.

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NOVEMBER 18 â–ª 2016

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Possible Fertility Revolution Born in Jewish Atlanta

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Time is the enemy of female fertility. Wait until 35 to try to get pregnant for the first time and your likelihood of success begins to decline. Wait until 40 and you’re unlikely to succeed without the help of a fertility specialist.

By 45, your chances for a first pregnancy are just about over, said Daniel Shapiro, a leading reproductive endocrinologist with Sandy Springs-based Reproductive Biology Associates.

It’s a growing problem in modern society as women, Jewish and nonJewish, wait longer to start families. In 1961, the average age when an American woman had her first pregnancy was 21, Shapiro said. Now in Massachusetts, as an example, the age is 31.

Shapiro has tried to help through involvement with the Wo/Men’s Infertility Support Havurah (now Wo/Men Infertility Support & Help) and the Jewish Fertility Foundation, but he said in an interview that reproductive medicine has been a reactive specialty.

With the help of Shapiro and his partners, however, Jewish entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky is offering a proactive approach, turning infertility medicine into fertility medicine.

Varsavsky, who has made his fortune with tech and health care businesses, announced the launch of fertility company Prelude on Oct. 17 to offer women something precious: time.

“My wife, Nina, and I had a hard time getting pregnant,” Varsavsky said in an email interview. They succeeded by using in vitro fertilization, but “I felt there had to be a better option than emotionally and physically draining infertility treatments. We had to undergo those treatments given the cur-

rent state of this industry, but I wanted to find a better choice for those seeking to have kids in the future.”

That better choice, which he named the Prelude Method, involves perMartin Varsavsky, suading people who lives in New to plan for famiYork, said he doesn’t expect a set schedule lies and act during their peak for his trips to the Prelude headquarters fertility years, in Sandy Springs, but which continue he does anticipate into the early frequent visits.

30s. The chances of miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities rise as fertility declines in the late 30s and early 40s.

His keys are “fertility preservation, embryo creation, genetic testing and single embryo transfer.”

His wife is having their third child together, and his seventh overall, in January. It will be the first Prelude baby.

Others could follow soon.

Varsavsky said the Prelude Method — the whole process of extracting, freezing and preserving eggs, then later fertilizing and implanting one at a time — will be available starting early next year at Reproductive Biology Associates. “We’re proud to be launching in Atlanta first at the nation’s largest frozen donor egg bank, My Egg Bank, and with some of the nation’s leading experts in reproductive medicine.”

Shapiro said he’s a good doctor, but what drew Varsavsky to RBA was the frozen egg operation, My Egg Bank, the nation’s largest. And Shapiro attributes its success to RBA’s lab director,

Zsolt Peter Nagy, whom Shapiro called a genius.

Unlike sperm banking, a routine process that is also offered as part of Prelude’s service, egg freezing is a relatively new technology. The large size and small number of eggs compared with sperm are complicating factors, but the main issue has been the tendency of the water in the eggs to form ice crystals that ruin them.

The solution is vitrification, which adds nontoxic materials to the eggs to lower the freezing point of the liquid so that instead of crystallizing, the egg becomes glasslike.

Nagy didn’t invent the process but has refined it. Shapiro said My Egg Bank not only has a high success rate with the eggs, but it has reduced complications in harvesting eggs — a process that uses hormone treatments (whose cost will decrease dramatically through Prelude’s bulk buying) to boost production — to a negligible level.

The harvesting and freezing results should be good for women ages 21 to 34, Shapiro said, although he expects most of the demand for Prelude’s services to begin when women are 28 to 32. Once the eggs are frozen, a woman can wait as late as 55 for successful implantation, he said.

While IVF can cost $15,000 now, Shapiro said the Prelude method, including initial egg storage and genetic testing, will cost about $8,000.

Shapiro and his new CEO said they expect the business to grow by partnering with established clinics across the nation. By starting with the purchase of RBA and adding successful clinics in the future, Prelude has a positive cash flow from the start. It also has a $200 million commitment from Lee Equity Partners to use in acquisitions.

“It’s by no means an easy task to shift culture, but who would have thought 30 years ago we would have phones in our pockets with access to all the information in the world?

Same goes for fertility preservation,” Varsavsky said. “What once seemed like science fiction is now an easily accessible reality. As millennials are quick to adopt new technology when it helps improve their lives, we believe they will do the same to seek out the technology of the Prelude Method.”

Success, he said, involved the creation of “a culture that celebrates and preserves fertility vs. one that waits to treat the issue until it becomes infertility. That’s a macro view. … It’s supported by a system that reaches millennials with a message that helps them realize their options and starts with their choice to freeze their eggs and sperm.”

The marketing plan and team selling that message were crucial to RBA’s decision to join Prelude, Shapiro said.

“It starts with education. Millennials may not be thinking about their fertility right now, but they should be,” Varsavsky said. “It’s a matter of being proactive so that people can focus on those other goals as well as increase their chances of having a healthy baby when they’re ready.”

Although Prelude is lowering the cost of fertility medicine, it’s still not cheap. Shapiro can envision would-be Jewish grandparents giving the service to their children.

The grandparent market isn’t the initial focus, Varsavsky said, but he’d welcome early adopters. “Many parents help their children with buying a car or a home. We believe that spending towards their children’s future parenting dreams is just as important of an investment.” ■

Fertility Foundation Gets Busy in the Fall

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

While Jewish Fertility Foundation medical committee head Daniel Shapiro is working on a systematic approach to changing the conversation about fertility, the foundation (launched late in 2015) is meeting its goals of educating Atlanta Jewish leaders and providing support to people facing infertility.

“Our dedicated board of directors and committee members have been working hard putting all of our ducks in a row so that we are ready to begin allocating grants for fertility treatments, providing community-based 32 infertility support groups and educa-

tional trainings,” Jewish Fertility Foundation founder and President Elana Bekerman Frank said.

“Becoming a 501(c)3 opens doors for us to expand fundraising activities and fully realize our goals as a charitable organization providing financial assistance, educational awareness and emotional support to Atlanta Jewish families who have medical fertility challenges. We’re here to help Jewish families create Jewish families.”

Recent activities include: • A panel discussion at the Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah on Nov. 2

about nontraditional uses of the mikvah related to infertility, menopause and illness. Participating on the panel were Frank; Shapiro; Rabbi Analia Bortz, a physician and member of the foundation’s Rabbinic Advisory Council; and Lynn Goldman, an adoption and surrogacy lawyer and member of the foundation’s board who last year helped launch Wo/Men Infertility Support & Help, now part of the foundation.

• A Nov. 9 training seminar at Temple Emanu-El, in cooperation with the Atlanta Rabbinical Association, on how rabbis and cantors can support people

dealing with infertility. The foundation worked with California-based infertility support nonprofit organization Hasidah (Hebrew for stork) on the training. The seminar provided a background on the many issues caused by infertility and taught clergy how to apply existing skills and learn new skills related to infertility support.

• A kosher wine tasting, sponsored

by Citi Wine & Spirits, at MACoM as the kickoff event Nov. 10 for WISH’s second year and its first under the JFF umbrella. WISH plans to meet on the second Thursday of each month. ■

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

Karp Tribute’s High Notes Help With Medicare Herbert Karp was a medical innovator, a music aficionado and the driving force behind the creation of Emory University’s Jewish studies program.

For all those things and more, friends and family gathered to celebrate his life with a classical music concert Sunday, Oct. 16, at Emory’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.

Amid the selections from Bach, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Beethoven and Schubert were tributes from friends whose memories of the neurologist, mentor, musician, father and legendary shofar blower had not faded since his death March 11 at age 94.

“His knowledge was so vast, his interests were so broad, and his energy so boundless,” said David Blumenthal, who launched what is now the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies in 1976 after Karp helped persuade Emory to add Jewish studies and recruited Blumenthal from Brown.

Blumenthal said the university had two search committees for his position — the official one within the university and an unofficial one in the Jewish community. “Herb served on both.”

One of the first neurologists in Atlanta, and later the first medical director of the Wesley Woods Center, Karp served as the Moses of his specialty, winning it independence as a department, neurologist and former student Linton Hopkins said. “He took the department out of bondage and to the promised land. Also like Moses, he was not allowed to be there with the full flowering of the department.”

Anthropology professor Melvin Konner called Karp “superlative in every way” but also reserved some praise for his widow, Hazel, for the incredible hospitality she offered at the grand Passover seders the Karps hosted.

Classical radio host Lois Reitzes also expressed amazement at Hazel Karp’s effortless execution of seders, Shabbat dinners and Sukkot gatherings, but her domestic miracles fit with the wonders Reitzes attributed to Herb Karp, such as his ability to imitate her and to identify not just the musical selection, but also the orchestra, conductor and soloist within a few notes.

She called him the “godfather of classical music in Atlanta.”

More important, “Herb never needed to consult a moral compass,” Reitzes said. “He was the embodiment of moral rectitude and grace.”

A comment from Lois Reitzes draws a smile from Benjamin Karp.

Karp’s son, Benjamin, a music professor at the University of Kentucky, played cello during the concert, which concluded with a movement from a Schubert string quartet that was the first piece of music the father bought for the son.

Recounting the purchase of quartet’s parts for $2.25, Benjamin Karp had to fight back tears, but he recovered to play the music and to assess his father’s place.

“Dad worked tirelessly, as you’ve heard, to make his patients better, to make his students better, to make Emory better, to better the cultural and spiritual life of Atlanta, the city he loved. It takes people like him to make an institution or a city great.” ■

The open-enrollment period for the 57 million Americans eligible for Medicare runs through Dec. 7, and an Atlanta-area internist is trying to help them save money on prescriptions.

Steven Cohen, a WellStar physician, noted that a 2012 study published

by Health Affairs magazine found that only 5 percent of Medicare participants choose the least expensive Medicare D insurance plan and that the least expensive plan would save patients an average of $368 a year.

But the wrong plan can be much more expensive. Cohen’s mother, Dot, died of lung cancer in 2009 and paid $1,500 a month for Tarceva. Discussing the drug with an oncologist in 2013, Cohen found that the annual cost in the Atlanta area that year ranged from $6,000 to $79,000, depending on which of the dozens of locally available Medicare plans was chosen.

Since 2006 the federal government has helped pay for outpatient medicines for people on Medicare by subsidizing the costs for Medicare D and Advantage insurance plans. To help pick a plan, the government provides the free Medicare Plan Finder at

www.medicare.gov.

But the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 13 percent of Medicare participants have no prescription coverage, even though some zero-premium plans are available.

With the Medicare Plan Finder, you enter your ZIP code and medicines and receive an estimate of your annual costs for the available Medicare plans.

You can then pick the least expensive plan. Georgia Cares at 866-552-4464 (Option 4) can provide one-on-one help with the selection, and you can ask general questions at 800-MEDICARE. Cohen’s free www.medicaredrugsavings.org offers a series of instructional videos to explain how to use the Medicare Plan Finder. He said he started the site after one of his patients lost her home to foreclosure because she decided to pay for medicine instead of her mortgage.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta has worked with Cohen to spread the word about the Medicare Plan Finder through the Naturally Occurring Retirement Community program and other organizations working with the Jewish population. ■

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

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OBITUARIES

Joan Kreisberg Clein 88, Augusta

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

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Joan Kreisberg Clein, age 88, of Augusta entered into rest Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016.

She was born to parents Murray and Bess Howard in Brooklyn, N.Y. As a child, she moved with her parents to Atlanta.

After marrying, she moved to Augusta, where she remained until her death. She was a member of the Adas Yeshurun Synagogue for over 68 years, was a life member of Hadassah and served with the sisterhood.

Ms. Clein was preceded in death by her parents, husband Billy Kreisberg and second husband Herbert Clein. Herbert was Billy’s best friend and introduced our parents. He waited for our mother all his life, and after the death of our father, they married.

Survivors include her sons, Robert “Bobby” Kreisberg (Diane) and Martin Kreisberg (Helen); three grandchildren, Marc, Joshua, and Rachel and her husband, Greg; and three great-grandchildren, Ethen, Zoe and Nicole. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Her dad and uncle were in Vaudeville. As a child, she crisscrossed North America with her parents, uncle, aunt, and the troupe of singers and dancers. She met many famous actors whom people would recognize today in the theater and television.

Ms. Clein had several passions in her life: cooking, entertaining, cards, reading and animals. Other than her family, her pets were one of her greatest pleasures. Few visitors to her home could remember a time when there wasn’t some large dog or dogs adding to the excitement of a family gathering. They included Cleo, Pug, Brandi, Punkin, Mandy, Julie and Nikki. She loved them all and always said she wanted more.

Our mother was a loving and kind-hearted person. Her sense of humor, contagious laughter and smile never faded throughout her life. She believed in living life to the fullest. She touched many lives and made an impact on everyone she met.

Our mother did more than exist; she lived. She did more than listen; she understood. She was an amazing woman who taught us that our actions speak louder than words. After being diagnosed with cancer, she wanted everyone to continue with their lives and was more concerned with how we were doing and whether we were happy. Continued support, well wishes and prayers were so valuable during her illness. Family members may no longer be with us, but the love they bring to family and friends does not fade. That being said, the way she touched our lives will remain, and we ask for all who knew her to keep those memories alive by sharing them with us and one another.

Graveside services were held Thursday, Nov. 10, at Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the American Lung Association, National Direct Response Headquarters, 1200 Hosford St., Suite 101, Hudson, WI 54016-9316; the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22478, Oklahoma, OK 73123; or the CSRA Humane Society, 425 Wood St., Augusta, GA 30904. Arrangements by Elliott Sons Funeral Home, 706-868-9637.

Bernard Russo • Birth Announcements • Weddings

• Bar/Bat Mitzvahs • Anniversaries

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84, Atlanta

Bernard “Bernie” Russo, born to the late Sam and Esther Russo on April 23, 1932, in Brooklyn, N.Y., passed away Sunday, Nov. 13, 2016.

Bernie moved from Brooklyn, where he was a kosher butcher, to Atlanta in July 1969 to open Paraphanalia in Phipps Plaza. When he closed that store, he went back to being a kosher butcher and ran Bernie’s Kosher Meats from 1980 to 1984. He went into the vending machine business for a short time, then car seat repairs, before retiring in 2003. A dedicated member of Congregation Or VeShalom since 1969, Bernie led morning Zemirot and stood in for Rabbi Robert Ichay

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OBITUARIES when he was out of town. To many members he was known as “the voice” of Or VeShalom, as he could be heard throughout the synagogue.

He was preceded in death by his brother, Matthew, and is survived by his wife, Saundra Friedman Russo; sons Michael and Meryl Russo of Los Angeles and Steve and Holly Young Russo of Atlanta; daughter Ester Russo of Jerusalem and Atlanta; Saundra’s son, Stuart, and Liza Cristol-Deman of Moss Beach, Calif.; 17 grandchildren in America and Israel; 12 great-grandchildren in Jerusalem; sister Celia Silfen; his first wife and her husband, Evelyn and Doug Miller; mother-inlaw Gert Friedman; sister- and brother-in-law Jill and Yossi Ovadia; numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews; and many loving friends. Bernie will be deeply missed but forever loved and cherished by family and friends.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Monday, Nov. 14, at Greenwood Cemetery with Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia, Weinstein Hospice, Congregation Or VeShalom or the charity of one’s choice. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-4514999.

Seymour Silberstein 70, Atlanta

Seymour Silberstein, 70, of Atlanta died Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016.

Survivors include his brother and sister-in-law, Milton and Eileen Silberstein of Marietta; sister Vicki Mitchell of Glendale, Ariz.; aunt Shirley (Stanley) Tenenbaum of Atlanta; nieces Jill (Gideon) Cohen and Rachel (Harry) Weber; nephews Marc (Shoshanna) Silberstein and Joshua and Michael Fenster; great-nephews Nathan and Ryan Cohen; and great-niece Mollie Weber. He also leaves his roommate and close friend, Martin Steinberg. Seymour was preceded in death by his parents, Paul and Rita Silberstein, of blessed memory.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the National Fragile X Foundation, 2100 M St. NW, Suite 170, Box 302, Washington, DC 20037, 800-688-8765, or the charity of your choice. A graveside service was held Friday, Nov. 11, at Greenwood Cemetery with Rabbi Michael Bernstein officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

was the president of the Standard Club in Atlanta and Futures, an Atlanta social club, and was a lifetime board member of the Jewish Tower in Atlanta.

He is survived by his loving wife of 57 years, Jackie Rose Wolf; daughter and son-in-law Andi and Gordie Morse; son and daughter-in-law Jeff and Toni Wolf; and grandchildren Jessica, Madeline and Carly Morse and Alexander Wolf. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. A graveside service was held at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs on Sunday, Nov. 13, with Rabbi David Spinrad officiating. In lieu of flowers, please donate to The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30309; the William Breman Jewish Home, 3150 Howell Mill Road NW, Atlanta, GA 30327-2108; or the charity of your choice. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Death Notices

Lillian Breen, 92, of New Orleans, mother of Temple Sinai member Janet Task, Linda Weiner and Carole Chackes, on Oct. 30.

Julius Feinstein of Atlanta on Nov. 3.

Jack Ginsberg, 82, of Norcross, husband of Sandra Ginsberg and father of Kenneth Ginsberg, Neal Ginsberg, Jennifer Zanieski and Heather Buechi, on Oct. 25.

Charles Haimowitz, 79, of Jacksonville, Fla., husband of Ellen Haimowitz and father of Congregation Or Hadash member Lori Halpern and Mark Haimowitz, on Oct. 27.

Yakov Koyfman of Berkeley Lake on Nov. 10.

Al Kwatnez, 91, of Lake Worth, Fla., husband of Arlene Kwatnez and father of Temple Sinai member Bob Kwatnez, Marti Brooks and Jody Cotter, on Nov. 9.

Shirley Leaderman, 89, of Columbia, Md., mother of Temple Sinai member Adam Leaderman, Pamela Berman and Stephen Leaderman, on Nov. 4.

Anita Lieberman, 81, of Atlanta, mother of Valerie, Joanna and Caroline, on Nov. 5.

Lawrence Malin, 81, of Cumming, husband of Linda Malin and father of Jennifer Reiser and Jessica Ferrero Granese, on Oct. 26.

Dora Shalman, 94, of Sandy Springs, on Nov. 4.

Oleg Zaslavskiy of Marietta on Oct. 29.

Dave Wolf Jr. Dave Wolf Jr., a successful insurance executive who was known for his sense of humor, community service and wide circle of close friends, passed away peacefully Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016. He was 86.

Born May 8, 1930, in Richmond, Va., to Henriette and Dave Wolf, Dave was an only child. He was a proud graduate of Washington and Lee University, where he studied history. Dave enjoyed a long and successful career in the insurance business. He started in the business in 1952 with Markel, a wholesale insurance broker, where he was an underwriter who specialized in the transportation industry. He became a partner in Atlanta with Irby Sewell/Southeastern Aviation Underwriters. He later sold the business and continued to work in the insurance industry for many years. He was known for his integrity and loyalty to clients and colleagues.

In 1959 he married Jackie Rose. They met at the Standard Club in Atlanta.

They had a long and happy marriage and were true partners. Dave had a wide circle of close, lifelong friends. For years he attended regular lunch groups at Atlanta lunch spots. He was always the funniest person in the group. He was known for his silly handshakes, his good-natured ribbing of friends and his genuine interest in others. He also had a weekly tennis game for 60 years that was both competitive and hilarious. He could make anyone laugh. He adored his grandchildren and loved nothing more than hanging around with them and making them laugh. He

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

86, Atlanta

35

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Wild Love Story in the Wild West

By Leah R. Harrison lharrison@atljewishtimes.com In a highly descriptive, richly worded work of historical fiction, author and historian Thelma Adams brings us “The Last Woman Standing,” the plausible and surprising tale of Josephine Marcus, often referred to as the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp.

Josephine, the daughter of a loving PrussianJewish immigrant father and an emotionally absent mother, grew up in a home where “the air was thick with Ma’s unspoken criticism. Every prayer, even the HaMotzi over the bread Papa had made with his own hands, felt like a curse.”

Rather than dutifully proceed along the traditional path of a convenient arranged marriage, at 18 Josephine runs away with a performing troupe, resulting in an engagement to dapper cowboy and aspiring lawman Johnny Behan.

Lured from her “San Francisco home with a diamond ring and no wedding date,” this naïve city girl lands in Tombstone, Ariz., in October 1880, and at 19 she is “waiting for her real life to start.”

Adams writes prosaically of the booming, arid mining town, the intoxicating landscape, the cowboys

and the crusty and sometimes questionable characters, the townspeople, and the valiant lawmen who strive to protect them. She relates the politics and allegiances when “only fifteen years had passed since Union General Ulysses S. Grant accepted Confederate Robert E. Lee’s Surrender at Appomattox. While the officers officially ended the Civil War, they failed to cauterize wounds still seeping into the conflicts between cowboys and lawmen in the Arizona Territory.”

All these factors come into play as Josephine transitions from a gullible and trusting teenage girl to a brave and determined young woman, making her way through heartache and adversity.

Although it includes infamous references and personalities, such as Doc Holliday and Wild Bill Hickok, as well as the fabled gunfight at the O.K. Corral, it is not a raucous western yarn told in the style of Larry McMurtry. Narrated with a feminine sensibility in the voice of Josephine, “The Last Woman Standing” is, at its heart, a love story of epic proportions. The reader is led on an emotional The Last Woman Standing journey to see if, in the

By Thelma Adams end, the good guys prevail and true love con- Lake Union Publishing, 287 pages, $14.95 quers all. ■

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CLOSING THOUGHTS

A Weighty Matter

NOVEMBER 18 ▪ 2016

Here’s what happened at my doctor’s office when they were about to do the height-weight calculation.

“Good morning, Mrs. Shapiro.

How tall are you?”

“Um, 5 feet 8 or 9,” I answered, averting my eyes while removing my glasses, shoes, socks, watch, ring, earrings and tissues from my pocket.

“You’re 5-8 or -9? Let’s just check.

Step over here and we’ll measure you.”

“Busted!” I admitted.

“OK, OK, I’m 5-2.”

“That’s better,” she said, soothingly. Nurses know when people are in pain.

When I came off the scale and had replaced all the items I’d shed, I mustered my courage, “Am I obese?”

“You can discuss that with the doctor.”

Fortunately, the examination was uneventful, and the doctor answered my question. “You’re not morbidly obese,” he smiled (real or fake smile? I couldn’t tell). “But it would be good to lose a few pounds.”

“What’s a few? Just round it off.”

(Perhaps round wasn’t the best word.)

“Oh, 20 pounds or so. Not impossible for somebody who gave up smoking 30 years ago and stuck to it.”

“How do you think I gained all this weight? I gave up smoking and ate more food. If I give up food, I’ll perish!

You want me to perish?”

The doctor assured me that he wanted me to live. I drove home with the 20-pound challenge weighing heavily (that’s right) on my mind.

I was surprised by a phone call that evening. It was my friend Joyce from New York, who was coming to visit us with her husband, Marty.

“I just need to warn you, I’m not sick,” Joyce said.

I never like the word “warn.”

“You’re not sick? Why call to tell me that?”

“I’m not sick. I just look sick.”

I never like the phrase “look sick.”

“What’s wrong with you? Is it contagious?” Well, I had to ask.

“I shouldn’t have called. You’ll understand when we get there.”

“If you’re sick, we’ll pick you up at the airport instead of the subway station,” I insisted, wondering where I could buy a germ-filtering mask.

“Do not come to the airport. I’m not sick.”

Liar, liar, pants on fire, I thought.

38 Naturally, instead of sleeping, I spent

the night worrying about my old friend who used to be so full of vigor — and praying that whatever she had wasn’t communicable.

The next day at Lindbergh Station, I saw Marty walking toward us, but not Joyce. Had she suffered a sudden relapse or, G-d forbid, experienced a new debilitation back in New York?

Then I heard someone calling my

CROSSWORD 2

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name, and a familiar-looking stranger grabbed me.

“Joyce? Is it you?”

“I told you I look sick,” she said.

“Sick? You look fabulous!” I was stunned by the svelte woman facing me. I blubbered, “What are you now, a Size 2?”

“Two or zero,” she answered. “I’m trying to gain weight.”

What’s that like? I wondered.

Joyce, who used to be chubby, had become, for want of a better word, tubby. When nothing else worked, she decided on bariatric surgery. But the insurance wouldn’t pay for it because she was only 80 pounds overweight.

She had a 20-pound dilemma.

Joyce had to be at least 100 pounds overweight for her insurance to cover the procedure. Otherwise, it would cost her over $30,000.

If only there were a fat-exchange program, I thought, considering how useful my extra 20 could have been.

Sitting next to her, I tightened my abs and stretched my neck to minimize my multiple chins.

“Go on,” I urged.

“So I went to Mexico,” she said. “It cost under $5,000.”

Her story didn’t end there. In Mexico, the doctors missed old, internal scarring, and that caused pain, inability to swallow and other complications, so the surgeon in New York had to correct the Mexico operation.

Insurance paid for that one.

My think-out-of-the-box friend Allen had an alternative suggestion.

“If I were Joyce, I’d have spent the next couple of months eating everything I love until I gained 20 more pounds, making me eligible for insurance-paid surgery in New York.”

That’s something weighty to chew over, isn’t it? ■

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By Chana Shapiro cshapiro@atljewishtimes.com

“Say It Again”

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

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ACROSS 1. Blue foe of Magneto 6. Israeli gun 11. Yom Kippur, e.g.

14. Shalom, to 24-Down 15. First name in terrorism 16. Glass of note 17. Car for a Hebrew month?

19. Shmaltz, e.g.

20. Biblical suffix 21. Half of Mork’s “Shalom” 22. Good ___ (mitzvot) 24. Goodman or Dawson 25. Fit for David 28. Gehrig’s fond of palm leaves?

34. The hora, e.g.

35. Lenin’s “What ___ Be Done?”

36. Where the Jews involved with the Golden Calf ran?

37. Play for a yutz 38. Initials of the “Goosebumps” author 40. Letters of importance to Magen David Adom 42. Ken, to Pierre 43. Those, in the country of the Inquisition 45. Get rid of, like Jehu of Jezebel 47. Singer Cohn and others 49. Be moved by a prayer?

52. Eichlers.com buy, e.g.

53. Initials on Kirk’s ship 54. Rocker born Saul Hudson 57. Bic items that can’t be used for a Torah 59. Many Fla. Jews 62. Ein ___ 63. Take a bar mitzvah giveaway?

67. ___ Maamin 68. Shrek’s mishpacha

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(Noah’s flood, e.g.)

30. Effects in many Spielberg films 31. Early rabbi 32. Speak up (for) 33. They can be used on Hermon 34. Many a Simon & Garfunkel song 39. “Copacabana” girl DOWN 41. G-d’s name from Esther 1. Joseph Gordon Levitt: 44. Gets, like a hard piece Robin :: Tom Hardy: ___ of Talmud 2. Do work on this paper 46. ___ over (as Adonijah 3. Organization with a felt) building overlooking the 48. Jolson and Capp Kotel 50. Notable Levi 4. Red or Black 5. Possible terrorist trying 51. Ronson’s “Uptown” hit 54. Israeli party to get into Israel 55. Adam, at first 6. Enter (a synagogue) 56. Rabbi Steinsaltz 7. Gives confidence (like 58. “___ On Down the G-d to Joshua) Road” (song in Lumet’s 8. Part of Western city in “The Wiz”) an Elvis hit 9. “___ Believer” (Monkees 59. Tref email?

60. ___-tat (Max Weinberg hit written by Neil output) Diamond) 61. Sukkah storage locale 10. Oscar winner Martin 64. Freudian topic 11. Judith to Esau 65. Make like Moses 12. Southern Israeli city hitting the rock 13. “An American Tail” 66. One playing for Wilf’s creature Vikings, e.g.

18. Small device for the Siddur app LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION 23. Ari S H A N A A M M O S T A T follower A I D E S R E A R A R C H 24. Longley C I T E F L A S H D A N C E who played for A T P E R R O F R A Reinsdorf’s R O T A Y A L E R E N D S I N S P E C T O R G A D G E T Bulls A D L X M A N L E A 26. Graceland A L C H E M Y Y I S R O E L or Monticello M A U S G O A 27. Unit of goo E K E W E D D I N G C R A S H E R S 28. Gadot’s S A G E T S H E D A N E W Wonder W E E P N O T A R I Woman uses L O S T T R I B E S A T I D one E L I E O R L A H R A C E A D A R N E E D Y 29. ___ a kind M I K E 69. Motivate like Judah Maccabee 70. Title for Schumer or Booker: Abbr.

71. “Royals” singer with a divine sounding name 72. Many a Jew for 40 years

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NOVEMBER 18 â–ª 2016

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NOVEMBER 18 â–ª 2016