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Atlanta VOL. XCI NO. 36
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 | 13 ELUL 5776
Get a Golden Ticket for 4 Wilder Films
INSIDE Calendar �����������������������������������4 Candle Lighting ���������������������� 5 Israel News ������������������������������6 Opinion ���������������������������������� 10 Health & Wellness ��������������� 13 Business ��������������������������������� 14 Education ������������������������������� 15 Sports �������������������������������������� 17 Obituaries ������������������������������27 Simchas ����������������������������������29 Arts ������������������������������������������30 Crossword ������������������������������ 31
The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is holding a four-film retrospective in memory of Gene Wilder at Lefont Sandy Springs on Sunday, Sept. 18. Wilder, who was born Jerome Silberman and who died Aug. 29 at age 83, “left behind a 50-year legacy of memorable roles and incredible comedic output” and “has shaped Jewish cinema for generations,” the festival said in announcing the quadruple feature.
The retrospective excludes Wilder’s best film, Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein,” but features four iconic roles: • Avram, a Polish rabbi wandering the Wild West on his way to a new congregation in San Francisco, in “The Frisco Kid” at noon. • His best-known part, the candy man himself, Willy Wonka, in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” at 2:45 p.m.
INSIDE: TRAVEL, PAGES 18-26
SECOND COURSE Breadwinner’s success with local ingredients leads to two locations of a similar eatery, Farm to Ladle. Page 14
ISLAND ESCAPE Learn how the Philippines served as a Jewish refuge from Nazi Europe. Page 16
OVER THE TOP The Weber School’s Arbiv sisters rank among the nation’s best pole vaulters. Page 17
JEWISH COUNTRY Four years after converting, Texan Joe Buchanan mixes Americana and Judaica on his debut album. Page 30
Photo by Udi Goren
Towering Trail Markers
Solomon’s Pillars in the Timna Valley, formed through water erosion of sandstone, serve as a marker of the final phase of the Israel National Trail — more than 600 miles completed from Kibbutz Dan at the Lebanese border, about 20 miles to go to the Gulf of Aqaba at Eilat. Photographer Udi Goren tells how walking the length of the trail in 2014 changed his life, Page 24. Also in Travel: Take a train from Toronto to Vancouver, Pages 18-22, or a luxury riverboat along the Danube, Page 26.
Marking Decade of Moishe By Leah R. Harrison lharrison@atljewishtimes.com
Atlanta’s two Moishe House locations will join the other 89 houses around the world in a global Shabbat celebration of the organization’s 10th anniversary Friday night, Sept. 23. Each Moishe House is a place for young Jewish adults to come together for educational, religious, social and community action programs each month. Since the first house opened in California in 2006, Moishe House has spread
to 21 countries. The Inman Park and Toco Hills locations will hold a combined commemoration at 7 p.m. at the new Toco Hills Moishe House on Biltmore Drive. During the celebration, the Moishe House story will be told, and participants around the world will join in. The entire Atlanta Jewish community is welcome to attend. To get details or RSVP, contact Lander Gold at lander@ moishehouse.org or 202-779-9190. ■ • How Moishe House is growing, Page 16
• Jim, the hard-drinking sidekick of the new black sheriff in town, in “Blazing Saddles” at 5:10 p.m. • Leo Bloom, the accountant persuaded to join a scheme to get rich with a Broadway flop, in “The Producers” at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $11 for each film, or you can get a golden ticket and see all four movies for $36. For tickets, visit ajff.org/ genewildertickets. ■
New Home For Shaarei Shamayim “MAZAL TOV TO ALL OF US!” With that all-caps excitement, Rabbi Mark Hillel Kunis announced by email that Congregation Shaarei Shamayim had closed Monday, Sept. 12, on the purchase of its permanent home. Rabbi Kunis hoped to move the next afternoon from 1810 Briarcliff Road to 1600 Mount Mariah Road, which had housed a Baptist church since the 1880s. The shul planned to celebrate and sanctify the building with a ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The event was to include the marching of Torah scrolls under a chuppah and into the sanctuary and the posting of mezuzot on door frames. Rabbi Kunis said the sanctuary is slightly bigger than the shul’s old home and with well-maintained wooden pews requires little more than removing the crosses to be ready for his congregation. The original church at the site, Mount Moriah Baptist, outgrew the space about 25 years ago, moved to Tucker and rented to Mount Calvary Baptist, which also has grown too big. After Shaarei Shamayim tried to buy the property for four or five years, Rabbi Kunis said, Mount Moriah was ready to sell. The site is behind property the shul lost during the economic downtown and positions Shaarei Shamayim to serve Toco Hills Jews who live closer to Kittredge Park and Target than the synagogues on LaVista Road. The location “feels right,” the rabbi said. “It feels right.” ■