Atlanta VOL. XCI NO. 39
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
OCTOBER 7, 2016 | 5 TISHREI 5777
Todah Rabah, Chaver
Obama, Clinton, Netanyahu thank their friend Shimon Peres
INSIDE Calendar �����������������������������������4 Candle Lighting ����������������������4 Israel News ������������������������������6 Opinion ���������������������������������� 10 Yom Kippur ��������������������������� 14 Business ���������������������������������39 Travel ������������������������������������ 40 Education ������������������������������ 42 Arts ������������������������������������������43 Home ��������������������������������������48 Obituaries ������������������������������50 Crossword ������������������������������54
ALT-REALITY
Dave Schechter explores how two Jewish communities see the world differently. Page 11
LIGHT BREAK
Try these recipes to prepare a fast-breaking meal of traditional appetizers. Page 22
A DOG’S LIFE
Doug Ratner’s viral video of a song about time with his dogs has led to a thriving novelty e-business. Page 39
MOVE-IN READY
Decades of collecting helped Carol and Bob Nemo enhance the furnished Buckhead flat they found. Page 48
World leaders united Friday, Sept. 30, to bid farewell to a man whose friendship they cherished. “I took great pleasure in my friendship with this older, wiser man,” President Barack Obama said at the funeral for Shimon Peres in Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl Cemetery. Obama, who said he was the 10th U.S. president to meet with Peres and the 10th “to fall victim to his charms,” closed the last of nine eulogies at the ceremony by saying, “Todah rabah, chaver yakar” (thank you, dear friend). Peres, 93, who died early Wednesday, Sept. 28, of complications from a stroke two weeks earlier, was the last leader from Israel’s founding generation, a man who spent 48 years in the Knesset, served in 12 Cabinets, twice was prime minister, and capped his career as president from 2007 to 2014. He suffered devastating political defeats but always bounced back. Former President Bill Clinton said in his eulogy that he “always was in awe of his endless capacity to move beyond even the most crushing disappointments.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who as Likud leader delivered one of those disappointments by defeating Labor’s Peres in the 1996 elections, said their friendship began in 1976 after his brother was killed in the raid Defense Minister Peres ordered on Entebbe to free hostages. “You said that one of the few times you shed a tear was when you heard the tragic news of the death of my brother, Yoni, in Entebbe. You cried then, Shimon, and today I weep for you,” Netanyahu said. “I loved you. We all love you.” He did not deny their differences. The prime minister said Peres saw peace as
Photos courtesy of GPO
Shimon Peres, who died at age 93 early Wednesday, Sept. 28, is remembered with a special pullout section, Pages 26-32.
the true security, while his view was that security was essential to achieve peace. Netanyahu told a crowd packed with current and former leaders from more than 70 countries, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, he has come to realize they were both right. “Power is not an end in itself; it’s a means to an end. That goal is to ensure our national existence and coexistence, to promote progress, prosperity and peace — for us, for the nations of the region and for our Palestinian neighbors.” Novelist Amos Oz said people laughed at Peres for being a dreamer, but he made most of his dreams come true. The dream of peace with the Palestinians hasn’t come true but is inevitable, Oz said, because both peoples have nowhere else to go. What’s required are leaders on both side Speaking at the funeral Sept. 30, President Barack Obama says he is who can face that one of 10 U.S. presidents to fall under the charms of Shimon Peres. reality.
Oz said he talked to Peres every Friday the past 42 years, and “as long as Israel is alive … its conversation with Shimon Peres will continue.” Clinton said people were wrong to call Peres a naive, overly optimistic dreamer. “He knew exactly what he was doing in being overly optimist. He knew exactly what he was doing with his dreams.” Obama emphasized how remarkable it was that Peres’ dreams did not become nightmares. His understanding of the anti-Semitism in the world “would never harden his heart,” Obama said. “It would never extinguish his faith. Instead, it broadened his moral imagination” and helped him see the world as it should be. Obama said Abbas’ presence was a reminder of the unfinished business of peace. Several Arab delegations but no Arab head of state attended the funeral. “The region is going through a chaotic time. Yet he did not stop dreaming, and he did not stop working,” Obama said of Peres. His optimism “makes us not just honor Shimon Peres, but love him,” the president added. “He believed in us even when we doubted ourselves.” ■