SJL Deep South, February 2016

Southern Jewish Life BIRMINGHAM TO HOST 2017 GAMES AMERICAN FOOTBALL:

FROM ALABAMA TO ISRAEL UNCOVERING WORLD’S BIGGEST JEWISH BOOK COLLECTION ALABAMA ZBT HALL OF FAME

February 2016 Volume 26 Issue 2

Southern Jewish Life P.O. Box 130052 Birmingham, AL 35213

On Jan. 14, a good-size interfaith crowd turned out in Birmingham for a program on a transgender employee at an Orthodox institution. Many synagogues in our region have been outspoken about their support for and welcome of the LGBT community.

What, then, is one to make of the following week’s events in Chicago? The National LGBTQ Task Force cancelled a Jewish group’s reception at its Creating Change conference in Chicago scheduled for Jan. 22 because of complaints that an Israeli group would be there, hurting the feelings of Palestinian activists.

After national protests, the task force reversed itself, but then a mob stormed the hotel where the reception was taking place (in Chicago!), and anti-Israel activists forced the program to shut down.

Three days after, the Task Force issued a condemnation of anti-Semitism, noting in 28 years they had never had a protest at a reception.

In the eyes of these activists, the tolerance shown in the Jewish world, as demonstrated

by Israel’s openness, is nothing more than “pinkwashing,” a scheme to distract everyone from their highly exaggerated narrative of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. How insulting.

Today, tolerant people want safe spaces where they can be free of offensive ideas, but have no problem threatening Jews. The home of anti-Jewish sentiment has shifted from the right to the left, and this is particularly painful for a Jewish community that has historically aligned with the political left, seeking to be an ally with a wide range of marginalized groups.

The philosophy of intersectionality states that Black Lives Matter equals LGBT rights equals worker rights equals women’s rights equals Palestinian rights — they’re all the same struggle against the presumed white European patriarchal colonialist oppression.

Communist regimes demonized Jews as capitalist, in the capitalist West Jews were seen as Communists. Here, too, Jews are molded into what is being fought against.

It is a moral inversion that so many have swallowed an extremist Palestinian narrative and are eager to vilify the Middle East’s only bastion of tolerance for LGBT while advocating for

shalom y’all shalom y’all shalom y’all

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February 2016

commentary regimes that would just as soon throw them off tall buildings.

Unfortunately, for many of those activists, logic is also part of that oppressive construct and must be avoided, and freedom of expres-

Southern Jewish Life sion is protected only for approved viewpoints. It remains for those of good will and true tolerance to marginalize the vitriol, to prevent all credibility — and real progress — from being lost.

What Does “Big Tent” Mean?

by Matt Rosenthal This year, we are billing LimmudFest as “a weekend festival of Big Tent Jewish learning, arts, culture and spirituality.” As we’ve brought this message around the New Orleans community as well as to congregations across the Gulf South, it has been greeted with excitement and enthusiasm. But some have asked “What does ‘Big Tent’ mean?” It’s a great question, and one we enjoy answering.

The term “Big Tent” has its origins in politics, as it is formally defined as a party’s strategy to “encourage a range of beliefs, opinions and views among its members.” But the idea itself is much larger than that, and perfectly aligns with many of Limmud’s values and principles such as diversity, respect, religious observance and enabling connections.

The modern practice of Judiasm is commonly divided into Reform, Conservative and Orthodox traditions, but the formal and informal divisions of the faith do not stop there. This has created a wonderful array of vibrant communities across

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the country and the world, each with their own ideas, customs and practices.

By being aware and considerate of all levels of religious observance, and respectfully celebrating both those things we have in common as well as those which make us unique, LimmudFest New Orleans seeks to offer a weekend of engaging programming that is, above all things, inclusive.

Great care is being taken to create a collective and communal event that is accessible and enriching for all participants no matter how they do (or do not) identify. We offer choice in the form, content and style of the learning sessions offered and believe in the power of a diverse community to create rich cross-cultural and cross-generational experiences.

We strive to open the doors to LimmudFest as wide as possible, help us make this year’s LimmudFest Tent as big as ever. Register today!

Matt Rosenthal is a LimmudFest 2016 volunteer and director of marketing and operations with St. Charles Vision.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR Lawrence M. Brook editor@sjlmag.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ADVERTISING Lee J. Green lee@sjlmag.com NEW ORLEANS ADVERTISING Jessica Thomas jessica@sjlmag.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ginger Brook ginger@sjlmag.com SOCIAL/WEB Eugene Walter Katz eugene@sjlmag.com PHOTOGRAPHER-AT-LARGE Rabbi Barry C. Altmark deepsouthrabbi.com CONTRIBUTING WRITER Doug Brook brookwrite.com BIRMINGHAM OFFICE P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham, AL 35213 13 Office Park Circle #6 Birmingham, AL 35223 205/870.7889 NEW ORLEANS OFFICE 3747 West Esplanade, 3rd Floor Metairie, LA 70002 504/780.5615 TOLL-FREE 866/446.5894 FAX 866/392.7750 connect@sjlmag.com ADVERTISING Advertising inquiries to Lee Green, 205/870.7889 or lee@sjlmag.com or Jessica Thomas, jessica@sjlmag.com Media kit, rates available upon request SUBSCRIPTIONS It has always been our goal to provide a large-community quality publication to all communities of the South.

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agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events

Pensacola’s Temple Beth-El will celebrate its renovation and expansion with a Shabbat rededication on March 18. There will be a wine and cheese reception and dedication ceremony at 5:30 p.m., followed by a Shabbat service with music by Victoria Adamenko, Leonid Yanovskiy and Cantor Richard Cohn at 7 p.m. The project includes a new kitchen, new office and meeting space, and an atrium that connects the main building with the education building. On Feb. 12, there will be a raffle for the first official ride on the elevator.

CJFS launches $6.2 million From the Heart endowment campaign For the first time in its 26-year history, Collat Jewish Family Services is launching an endowment campaign, the agency announced at its Jan. 26 Annual Meeting.

The $6.2 million “Min Halev: From the Heart” campaign is timed to prepare CJFS for a projected surge in the older adult population, which is the agency’s primary focus.

“Over the next 15 years, the population of those over age 65 is expected to double in Alabama, with the frail elderly — those 85 and older — being the fastest growing segment,” said CJFS Executive Director Lauren Schwartz. “Older adults want to stay at home and live as safely and independently as possible, with a good quality of life. ‘From the Heart’ will enable us to take care of our parents and effectively meet the needs created by these demographic shifts.”

From its roots as a committee of the Birmingham Jewish Federation, CJFS today is an independent United Way agency that serves people of all ages, religions, income levels and races with programs that are built on and reflect Jewish values.

“Although CJFS serves all ages, it has stepped up to fill particular needs and gaps in service among our community’s seniors,” said Esther Schuster, former CJFS executive director, who is co-chairing the “From the Heart” campaign with CJFS Past President Marjorie Perlman.

The agency’s comprehensive network of services includes care coordination, counseling, in-home personal care, transportation, financial management, caregiver support, Medicare Part D consultation and more.

The newest CJFS program, CARES: Caring for Adults through Respite, Enrichment and Socialization, was so popular in its first year that it recently doubled its capacity from two days to four days per week. CARES

enriches the lives of those affected by Alzheimer’s, dementia or Parkinson’s disease, while offering caregivers a much needed break from their daily responsibilities.

“When we launched CARES, we knew there was a need, but we’ve been truly touched by this program’s impact not only on participants but on their family members and our volunteers,” Schwartz shared.

“From the Heart” seeks to add $6.2 million to CJFS’ existing endowment of $3.8 million, which consists of dozens of individual and family funds already dedicated to the agency over the years through the agency’s partnership with the Birmingham Jewish Foundation. Over the next five years, “From the Heart” aims to add $1.2 million in new endowment fund assets and an additional $5 million in legacy gifts such as life insurance endorsements and bequests, ultimately building the endowment to $10 million.

In addition, to meet immediate staff and program growth needs, the campaign will seek to raise $100,000 each year, over the next five years, to bridge the gap between current needs and the sustainable endowment support that will be realized in the future through the campaign.

“The campaign is structured to provide financial stability for CJFS now and for years to come,” Perlman said. “In building this endowment, we honor the elders whose lives are enriched today by CJFS programs, and we ensure that CJFS will be here to help future generations age with the dignity they deserve.”

For more information about the “From the Heart” campaign, contact Elaine Witt, CJFS Development and Outreach Director, elaine@cjfsbham. org or 205-879-3438.

February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 5

agenda Atlanta Consulate escapes budget cut, will remain open In early January, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the closure of five consular offices worldwide. While the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast, located in Atlanta was named as one of the possible consulates to shut down when the initial announcement was made in August 2015, the Atlanta consulate will remain open.

The Philadelphia consulate is the only one in the United States slated for closure.

“We are very pleased that the Consulate General of Israel in the Southeast will remain open. We believe it is a wise decision for many reasons,” said Ambassador Judith Varnai Shorer, Consul General of Israel to the Southeast. “The Consulate General is a vital location for the six states in our region. The growing Jewish, African American, Hispanic and Evangelical communities are a consistent source of support for Israel, and the economic impact the Southeast region and Israel are creating together is extremely significant.”

The consulate noted “the amount of letters, phone calls and emails calling for the Consulate General office to remain open was unprecedented. We will continue to serve the Southeast region with diligence and strength.”

The Consulate General of Israel serves Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. As an official representative office of the Government of Israel, the consulate is responsible for furthering relationships with national and local organizations in the Southeast region, including offices of public officials, businesses, cultural and academic institutes and citizens.

On Jan. 23, B’nai Israel in Baton Rouge held its annual New York Nosh Night fundraiser, featuring Houston landmark Kenny & Ziggy’s deli

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Day School 6th grade students win state robotics competition Sixth grade students at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School in Birmingham were named State Champions in the very first Wonder League Robotics Competition.

The competition consisted of seven obstacle course-like challenges through which the students had to program the Wonder Workshop’s Dash and Dot robots. Each challenge was filmed and submitted online to the competition judges. Over 1,100 teams entered throughout the country, and top teams were selected in each state.

The students were already familiar with the Dash and Dot robots because the NEMJDS was an early supporter of the Wonder Workshop.

Wonder Workshop’s goal is to teach programming basics through handson play with their robots, Dash and Dot. As an early supporter, the Day School was among the first group to receive Dash and Dot and their accessories.

The Day School’s Trouble-Shooting Gobblefloobs started working on the competition in their Innovative Learning Class, then met after school and on the weekends to work on the competition. This was a student-led process, and our students rotated through various leadership and coding roles to ensure they completed all of the challenges.

The Wonder League said the competition tests the critical thinking, creativity and teamwork skills that are pivotal to STEM education.

Montgomery’s two congregations, Agudath Israel-Etz Ahayem and Temple Beth Or, will have separate congregational meetings on March 6 to discuss the status of merger talks. Five task forces have been exploring different aspects of a possible merger. The March 6 meetings will be informational in nature and for the answering of questions. There will not be any voting or final decision made at the meetings.

Team Friendship will take to the streets of Birmingham during the Mercedes Marathon on Feb. 14, raising money for Friendship Circle, which supports special needs children in the community. As of press time, over $20,000 had been raised toward a $36,000 goal. Friendship Circle is a project of the Bais Ariel Chabad Center.

Springhill Avenue Temple in Mobile will welcome Pensacola’s Temple Beth-El for Shabbat services on Feb. 20 at 10:30 a.m., with Rabbis Dana Kaplan and Joel Fleekop, and the Springhill Avenue Temple Choir.

A lunch will follow.

You Belong in Birmingham will have a Jews and Brews event on Feb. 26, starting with a 5:45 p.m. Shabbat experience and potluck dinner at Day Star Construction in Avondale, followed by brews at Avondale Brewery.

Baton Rouge Federation of Temple Youth will have a spaghetti supper and auction fundraiser at B’nai Israel, Baton Rouge, on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. Proceeds will go toward the regional spring conclave, which will be held in Baton Rouge the weekend of April 8.

The next Young Jewish Pensacola Happy Hour will be at Red Fish Blue Fish on Pensacola Beach, Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m. In honor of Theodore

February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 7

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In conjunction with the Extemporaneous Theater Company, Birmingham Hadassah is producing a night of comedy, “Latke vs. Hamentashen: The Great Debate.” The program will be Feb. 27 at the Friedman Center on Overton Road. Latkes and hamantashen will be served following the debate. Cost is $18 for adults and $10 for students. Proceeds benefit the new Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower to complete the underground Surgical Center at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

Bais Ariel Chabad Center in Birmingham will have a Mexican Shabbat on Feb. 19. Services are at 5:30 p.m., followed by a Mexican dinner at 6 p.m. Reservations are $18, $10 per child and a maximum of $54 per family.

Rabbi Elliot Stevens will teach a five-part course, “A Guide to the Complex,” on Tuesdays at noon at Temple Beth Or, Montgomery, starting Feb. 16. The sessions will explore contemporary issues such as medical ethics, technology, social and business issues, ritual and Jewish identity.

Rabbi Joel Fleekop of Pensacola’s Temple Beth-El will teach an Introduction to Judaism class, the first and third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m., from February to May. The historic Temple Beth Tefilloh in Brunswick, Ga., is hosting a Jewish Food and Culture festival on March 20 at the Morning Star Marina, in the courtyard near the Coastal Kitchen and Raw Bar, on St. Simons Island, Ga., just off the Causeway. There will be music, dancing and a mock wedding. Proceeds will benefit the Temple’s restoration fund for its historic building. Admission to the event is free.

Birmingham’s Knesseth Israel is holding a fundraising raffle, with 500 tickets available at $100 each. The winner will have the option of a Jewish or Christian tour of Israel for two, or $5,000. The tours include airfare.

The winner will be drawn at a reception on May 12, one need not be present to win.

B’nai Israel in Baton Rouge will have its 17th annual Magical Mitzvah Day on March 6, with projects throughout the community.

Chabad of Mobile will hold a Ladies Night Out, a social tea event exploring the secrets of the Jewish woman. The Feb. 23 event will be at 7 p.m. at Blacksher Hall. There will be a dessert buffet as Bina Goldwasser gives a presentation on spirituality, femininity and the evolving role of the Jewish woman. Pensacola’s Lorie Weekley will do a makeup and skin care demo. Reservations are requested but not required.

Baton Rouge Chabad’s Jewish Women Circle will have a Soups and Strokes artful expression program on Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Ahavas Chesed in Mobile will have its monthly Torah on Tap on Feb. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Alchemy Tavern.

Temple B’nai Israel in Monroe will have a kosher hot dog lunch on March 15 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The $5 package includes a kosher hot dog, chips and drink. The meals are pick-up only, and benefit the B’nai Israel Men’s Club.

The Chabad Jewish Kids Club in Baton Rouge will have a program about Shabbat on Feb. 14 at 3 p.m., and about Purim on March 13.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga will have an Israeli wine tasting on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Cultural Center. The $36 admission includes five kinds of Israeli wines and appetizers. The Exclusive Wine Club, which is $54, includes two additional Israeli boutique wines. Admission to ages 21 and over.

8 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

SJL file

Birmingham’s delegation at the Memphis opening ceremonies, 2012

Birmingham named as host of 2017 JCC Maccabi Games Four years before the city hosts the 2021 World Games, Birmingham will be one of the host cities for the international JCC Maccabi Games.

The Birmingham Maccabi Games will be held July 31 to Aug. 4, 2017, with Layne Held and Bruce Sokol co-chairing the effort, which will require a large amount of participation from the local Jewish community.

Levite Jewish Community Center President Alyssa Nadler said “This is a game-changer for Birmingham, for our JCC and for our Jewish community” by putting the Birmingham Jewish community on the international stage.

The JCC Maccabi Games is part of the Jewish Community Centers Association, and three communities across North America host the games each summer. Roughly 6,000 Jewish teens THIS “IS GOING TO BE from ages 13 to 16 participate each year in an Olympic-style sporting event. It is AN EXTRAORDINARY regarded as the second-largest organized EVENT AND sports program for Jewish teens in the world.

OPPORTUNITY TO The Games began in 1982 in Memphis, SHOWCASE HOW and an arts festival, held at one venue each WONDERFUL THIS summer, began in 2006 in Baltimore.

The 2015 games were held in Fort CITY IS” Lauderdale, Fla., Milwaukee, Wisc., and Dallas. The 2016 games will be in Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis and Stamford, Conn. As of press time, the other two host cities for 2017 had not been announced.

Birmingham is the second-smallest community to ever host the games.

Only Akron, which has a community of roughly 4,000 and hosted in 2008, is smaller.

Atlanta hosted the games in 2001. New Orleans was set to be a host in 2006 but the recovery from Hurricane Katrina made that impossible.

LJCC Executive Director Betzy Lynch was in charge of the 2012 games in Memphis, the games’ 30th anniversary, before she became the head of Birmingham’s JCC. “We’re so excited to be a host for the 2017 Maccabi Games,” Lynch said.

“We’re so proud to showcase our community to the world.”

The official announcement was made through a video presentation at the conclusion of the LJCC’s 109th annual meeting on Jan. 14. “Make sure you sign up to be a host family before you leave,” Lynch urged.

Athletes receive home hospitality with members of the host city’s Jewish community.

Lynch said there will be a need for 250 host families to house athletes.

February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 9

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community As for volunteers, there will be a need for “a minimum of 800, probably closer to 1,000, to make the Games work.” Volunteers do everything from serving lunch to keeping score at games to chaperoning evening activities.

Over the coming months, more details about volunteer opportunities will be announced.

Nadler said roughly 100 people came together when the Maccabi selection team came for a site visit, including representatives from Altamont School, located just up the hill from the LJCC, BirminghamSouthern College and the mayor’s office.

Altamont and Birmingham-Southern will be sites for the competitions, with the LJCC serving as the main hub. Other venues are also being examined and will be utilized as demand warrants.

“We are grateful for the organizers allowing us to ‘show off ’ our campus and facilities to the world,” said recently-retired Birmingham-Southern Head Soccer Coach Preston Goldfarb, who led Americans to their firstever gold medal at the 19th World Maccabiah Games in Israel in 2013.

“These games have been an important part of Jewish Community Centers all over our country and in other countries for the past 31 years; this is great for our city, our Jewish community, and our college.”

At least 700 teens will participate in the Birmingham games, which will include sports competitions and a day of community service. The games will also attract parents and chaperones for the week.

The delegates will compete in individual sports such as bowling, tennis, track, dance, golf and swimming as well as team sports like basketball, flag football, soccer, lacrosse, softball, volleyball and baseball.

“This is a great way for these kids to begin a journey that could perhaps lead to the World Maccabiah Games, every four years, or even the European and Pan American Maccabi Games,” Goldfarb said.

The games typically have an opening ceremony where each delegation parades in, and notable Jewish athletes and coaches often speak. The Memphis 2012 games’ opening ceremony at the FedEx Forum included Jewish athletes from the 1972 Olympics and relatives of some members of the Israeli team who were killed in the terror attack in Munich.

University of Memphis Basketball Coach Josh Pastner also spoke at the 2012 opening ceremony.

Lynch said the games provide an estimated economic impact of $2 million to the host city. Because Birmingham is within driving distance of so many possible delegations, it could be higher as a larger number of spectators take hotel rooms and visit restaurants. “It’s feasible for a lot of people to drive in” for the week, she said.

Held, who competed in the Maccabi Games as a teen, was coach of the Birmingham delegation’s basketball team during the 2011 games, which were held in Israel.

At those games, “I immediately knew I wanted Birmingham to be a host city for the games.”

“I cannot articulate how important and exciting this is for our entire community,” Held said. “It is going to be an extraordinary event and opportunity to showcase how wonderful this city is.”

Sokol, who has a “deep-seeded, long-time love for the JCC” said the games will be “beneficial to the greater Birmingham community and especially the Jewish community. Birmingham has grown in leaps and bounds and this will help put us on the map.”

The unique character of each host community is what gives the Maccabi Games its flavor, Lynch said. “You can play a basketball game anywhere.

It’s the uniqueness of the experience in each community.”

Birmingham, she said, is a “diverse city with a fascinating history.”

Having organized the games in Memphis, she said the Birmingham games “will feel completely different here. A they should.”

The JCC Maccabi Games is co-sponsored by the JCC Association of North America, Maccabi World Union, Maccabi Canada, and Maccabi USA/Sport for Israel.

community Shared experiences: Trestman writes bio of JCRS alumna Bessie Margolin The upcoming book “Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin” tells the story of one of the New Orleans Jewish Children’s Home’s most prominent alumni.

For biographer Marlene Trestman, Margolin’s origins echo her own story.

Trestman will be honored at the Jewish Children’s Regional Service gala on March 5, along with the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust. JCRS is the successor agency to the Jewish Children’s Home, which operated from 1856 to 1946.

After her mother died, Margolin wound up at the Jewish Children’s Home, where she lived from 1913 to 1925, until she graduated from Isidore Newman School. The school had originally been established to educate residents of the home.

After her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Tulane, she received her doctorate in law from Yale in 1933.

Margolin was a U.S. Department of Labor attorney from 1939 to 1972, a champion of wage and hour rights for workers, who argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. She was instrumental in many provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, drafted the original regulations under which the post-World War II Nuremberg trials took place, and was an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

She argued 27 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 25. She also was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women.

Two years after Margolin retired, Trestman graduated from Isidore Newman. As Trestman set off for Goucher College in Baltimore in 1974,

a school counselor suggested she meet fellow alumna Margolin.

Trestman grew up in New Orleans.

She and her brother were orphaned when she was 11, and they wound up as wards of the state. The home had been closed for over two decades, but JCRS “became our legal guardians and supervised our foster care.” The agency also invoked Isidore Newman’s history with the home’s orphans in getting her admitted. “It was life-changing for me,” she said.

Trestman contacted Margolin, who was expecting her call, and a friendship ensued. “I thought she was the most worldly and dignified woman I’d ever met,” Trestman said. Not only that, she was the first female lawyer Trestman had met, and she was a government lawyer. Trestman went on to be a special assistant to the Maryland attorney general for 30 years, so “she certainly made her impression on me.”

In 1993, Trestman worked on a speech for Isidore Newman’s 90th birthday, and found nobody had done a biography of Margolin.

As a full-time lawyer with children, Trestman said “for years I had no interest in being her biographer, and I kept trying to find people with the title ‘author’ to do it.”

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 11

community After Margolin died in 1996, Trestman was often asked to give talks about Margolin, so each time she would do a little more research. Still, she approached archival and historical groups, asking if they would write a biography. Nobody had the staff to do it, but they expressed interest if Trestman would.

She finally realized “nobody was going to write about her except me,” so she started on the book.

A huge leap was when she was able to locate Margolin’s papers and received exclusive accesss. As Margolin never had children, the papers wound up with the son of Margolin’s sister, who had a different last name by marriage.

She started doing interviews in 2005, adding a day or two to business trips, with the idea of having something in conjunction with the JCRS 150th anniversary in the fall of 2005.

Katrina wrecked the anniversary plans, but she continued with the project.

She is now working on a second “long-term” book, a history of the Jewish Children’s Home. Having been through the foster system, she finds the idea of an orphanage like that to be “captivating.”

“I was thirsty to learn everything I could about Bessie’s 12 years in the orphanage,” she said. There wasn’t a lot of material about what life was like, so she started digging through the entire history.

She included a lot of it in an early draft of the biography, but was told to include only the parts relevant to Margolin’s experiences. “I had so much invested and was so emotionally captivated about the history of the home” that she is now working on that book.

She received a fellowship from the American Jewish Archives and gave a presentation at last year’s Southern Jewish Historical Society conference.

She wants anyone with information about the home, or descendants of alumni from the home, to contact her at marlenetrestman@gmail.com.

12 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

She will have a talk and book signing at Isidore Newman School on March 6 at 11 a.m., and at Octavia Books in New Orleans on March 9 at 6 p.m.

JCRS auction has vacations, staycations In addition to Marlene Trestman, JCRS will be honoring the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust at the Jewish Roots of Celebration gala on March 5.

The event at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans will include a cocktail reception followed by a dinner created by some of New Orleans’ most celebrated and talented Jewish chefs, including James Beard Award winner Alon Shaya, Daniel Esses of Three Muses, David Slater of Emeril, Nathanial Zimet of Boucherie and a special dessert from Commander’s Palace.

The silent auction will include “once in a lifetime” trips, such as San Francisco wine country, Israel, Paris and the wine regions of France, the castles of Ireland, sailing the Inside Passage of Alaska, art and cooking in Tuscany and Florence, the Greek islands, golfing at St. Andrews in Scotland, Cape Town and the wild animal preserves of South Africa, and tropical Costa Rica.

There will also be local “staycation” packages at hotels including the Windsor Court, Loews and Westin Canal Place. Dinner packages include Ruth’s Chris, The Grill Room, Café Adelaide and more.

In April, the Tolmas Trust underwrote the JCRS Chanukah gift program, which provides gifts to Jewish children in need in the agency’s seven-state region. The program, which just completed its 18th year, serves about 200 Jewish minors and residents of state institutions.

The Trust also established named funds for the JCRS Special Needs and Education programs.

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Sam Laufer knew from a young age that he would eventually join BBYO. It was practically a given. His father, Jeff, was a member as were his cousin, uncle and grandfather. The old Harry Laufer AZA chapter in New Orleans was named after his great-great uncle.

“Before I joined BBYO, my father would tell me stories of experiences he had, conventions he attended and friends that he made from BBYO,” said Laufer, president of Big Easy BBYO, the current New Orleans chapter. “He told me about how I could make friends that would last my entire life. He never pressured me into joining, but because of him, I knew I wanted to be in BBYO.” Laufer knows that his father wasn’t exaggerating, because he can tell just how excited he and his BBYO friends are as they prepare for the upcoming New Orleans BBYO reunion, Feb. 26 to 28. The weekend features Friday night services at Congregation Gates of Prayer, a party Saturday night at Southport Hall and a meet-up Sunday morning at Morning Call in City Park.

The theme of the reunion is “Reconnect, Renew, Rebirth,” and Cathy Kanter Bart, one of the reunion organizers, along with Debbie Bressler, Melanie Blitz and Linda Heiman, said the weekend promises to be one filled with laughter and love as alumni from across the country gather to renew old friendships.

“I am thrilled with the response we are getting,” Bart said. “We are getting calls from people all over the country, people I haven’t spoken to in years. Everybody is excited and making plans to come in and reconnect with old friends. It comes at a great time for our current Big Easy chapter, which is working to grow and again become a strong presence for our local youth.”

BBYO is a youth-led, worldwide group that provides opportunities for teens to develop their leadership potential while cultivating their Jewish identity. Activities include out-of-town conventions, weekend programs, community activism and social gatherings.

Aleph Zadik Aleph was formed in 1923 in Omaha, Neb., as a Jewish high school fraternity. Two years later, AZA was adopted by B’nai B’rith and spread nationally. The Mother Chapter of the South was established in Birmingham in 1927, the year that B’nai B’rith Girls was organized in San Francisco.

In 1944, BBG was recognized by B’nai B’rith, and the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization was formed with both groups. The organization became independent in 2002 and is now known as BBYO, while chapters continue to be known as AZA and BBG. In communities without separate chapters, there are co-ed BBYO chapters.

At its peak in the 1970s, BBYO had three BBG chapters in New Orle-

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ans — Susan Frank, Ahavah and Robert Gervis — and three AZA chapters, Freed-Goldberg, Rodfay Shalom and Harry Laufer. Prior to that, Crescent City, Harry L. Ginsburg and Shoshanim chapters were a strong presence in New Orleans. Over time, largely due to a shrinking Jewish population, increasing demands from school and other obstacles, membership dwindled.

By the time New Orleans hosted its last Cotton States regional convention, in 1986 at the Landmark in Metairie, only Freed-Goldberg and Susan Frank existed.

Eventually, BBYO in New Orleans became a thing of the past. But in the early 2000s, with support from local BBYO alumni, B’nai B’rith and the Jewish Community Center, efforts to revive the program in New Orleans led to the birth of the Big Easy chapter. In addition, BBYO Connect was formed to provide middle school students with social and meaningful experiences aimed at serving as a gateway to continued involvement in Jewish life.

Garrett Moore, who as head of teen programming at the JCC serves as director of Big Easy BBYO, sees the reunion as an ideal opportunity to strengthen and invigorate BBYO in New Orleans.

“The event plays a pivotal role in displaying what BBYO has done for many generations of New Orleans teenagers,” Moore said. “It invokes a sense of family and tradition, and we’re looking to bring that back to Big Easy BBYO.” Moore need only look at the reunion Facebook page to understand the role BBYO played in the lives of so many New Orleans teens. The page features dozens of photos along with reminiscences about this impactful time in their lives.

Eddie Bronston, a member of Freed-Goldberg AZA in the 1970s, created the page, enabling alumni to renew friendships, share memories and make plans for the reunion.

He said being a member of FG, as it was known, was a life-changing experience. It not only introduced him to the concept of tikkun olam, but it led to friendships he still has today. Some of his fondest memories include conventions, athletic competitions, youth-led Shabbat services and socials, many of which culminated with late-night card games.

“Some of my best memories were from the conclaves and conventions where we met kids from all over the South, and we were able to show our spirit and pride for our chapter,” he said. “I also met kids from New Orleans I would not have met otherwise, because it transcended the divisions among Reform, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues.”

Amy Jacoves Kent was a member of Susan Frank BBG from 1975 to 1979. Prior to that, Judaism was merely something she shared with her family on holidays. “When I became involved in BBYO, a light turned on inside me,” she said. “I found a group of Jewish girls and goys who were active in the Jewish community. As I became more involved in Susan Frank, my confidence grew and eventually I became N’siah (president).”

She traveled to regional and district conventions along with national leadership programs and the international convention in Starlight, Pa., in 1978. “I literally met people from all over the world, and I have friendships that have lasted a lifetime,” she said. “Plus the leadership skills and religious lessons I learned are still with me today.”

Moore and Laufer say the reflections and experiences of BBYO alumni can and should serve as an impetus for strengthening the Big Easy chapter.

“We’re at a pivotal turning point into making New Orleans a hub for BBYO yet again,” Moore said.

Laufer added, “I believe it is important to keep BBYO in New Orleans alive because it belongs here, and I think our community needs to do everything in its power to make sure that it stays alive.”

For reunion registration and more details, go to www.nolabbyoreunion2016.com.

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community Inaugural class named for Alabama ZBT Hall of Fame A former president of the University of Alabama will be inducted as an honorary member of Zeta Beta Tau, and 11 prominent alumni will be the inaugural class to be inducted into the Alabama ZBT Hall of Fame.

The honors will be conveyed during a Hall of Fame event the evening of March 5, part of the Alabama Psi Chapter of ZBT centennial celebration weekend.

The weekend will celebrate “100 years of vibrant Jewish life on the University of Alabama campus,” including ZBT legacy organizations Kappa Nu and Phi Ep. Robert Witt, now chancellor of the University of Alabama system, will be recognized for his efforts in making recruitment of Jewish students a priority for the Tuscaloosa campus while he was president of the university. It was also during his tenure that ZBT completely renovated its house, Alabama Hillel built a new facility and Tuscaloosa’s Temple Emanu-El moved back to campus, with a new building next door to Hillel.

According to the centennial steering committee, “Much of the recent success and growth of Psi Chapter, as well as the University of Alabama, can be attributed to Dr. Witt and his efforts.”

The inaugural Hall of Fame class includes Harold Blach, Fred Friedman, Karl Friedman, Jimmy Rotenstreich and Bruce Weinstein. Posthumous inductees are Mel Allen, Aaron Aronov, David Aresty, Morris Mayer, Fred Sington and Leonard Weil.

The Hall of Fame committee was co-chaired by Allen Halpern and Daniel Odrezin. The committee determined the criteria for the Hall, soliciting and reviewing nominations. Honorees were selected for having a

meaningful impact on their fraternity, whether Kappa Nu, Phi Epsilon Pi or Zeta Beta Tau, their community and/or their profession.

The weekend will kick off with a reunion reception at the Paul W. Bryant Museum on March 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. On March 5 there will be a memorial service for ZBT, Kappa Nu and Phi Ep brothers, hosted by Hillel. There will be a breakfast at 9:30 a.m. with services at 10 a.m.

A Founders and Leadership luncheon will follow at ZBT, honoring those who founded the three fraternities, served as officers or were in the Student Government Association.

There will also be a “behind the scenes” presentation on the university’s master campus plan with University planner and designer Dan Wolfe at 1:30 p.m. At 3 p.m. there will be a viewing party of the Alabama basketball game against Georgia in Athens.

The presentation and reception for the Hall of Fame will be at the Hotel Capstone ballroom at 6 p.m. Dinners for particular decades and legacy organizations are being organized for the evening.

The weekend will conclude with brunch on March 6 at 10 a.m. at the ZBT house.

The block of rooms at the Hotel Capstone has already filled, with overflow going to the Holiday Inn Express.

Registration for the weekend is $75 for adults, $40 for current Psi Chapter members and students age 12 and above. The weekend is being underwritten by the board to enable as much participation as possible.

For more information or to register, visit uazbtcentennial.com.

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community Huntsville football coach takes position developing Israeli team American-style football continues to grow in Israel, and the Israel Football League has turned to an Alabama coach to keep the momentum going.

Eric Cohu, who led Madison Academy in Huntsville to three consecutive Class 3A high school state championships, has been named offensive coordinator and international ambassador for the IFL’s national team, which will compete in the International Federation of American Football.

Cohu also is national director of Friends of the IFL, which raises funds in America to support the Israeli league.

While he has been working with the IFL since 2007, “it got to the point where they asked me to do a bit more.”

This summer, he will work with the national team as they prepare for two games in Italy. The first will be against Italy on Sept. 2, and then against either Switzerland or Serbia on Sept. 4. The games will be played at Lignano Sabbiadoro. The winner will advance to the European Championship 2017 qualifying round.

The team played its first official game in the International Federation of American Football Europe in Madrid on August 30, winning 28-20 and qualifying for this year’s games in Italy.

The national team is an all-star team from the IFL. While in the U.S., Cohu will work “to develop strategic partnerships to help develop the league through coaching conduits, colleges, NFL teams and businesses to help develop the league with the resources here in the United States where football is prominent.” He and his family will continue to live in Huntsville.

Cohu attended Harding University in Arkansas, then became head coach at Jackson Academy in Tennessee from 2002 to 2005. After amassing a record of 38-12, he became assistant coach at Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg, Va., for two seasons before arriving at Madison.

His first trip to Israel was in 2004 and he “fell in love with the place.”

While at Jackson, he took a group of students to Israel for a Holy Land tour. “While I was there, a guy found out I was a football coach” and told him “we really need American help.”

At first, Cohu assumed that the person was talking about soccer and was going to tell him it was the wrong type of football, but the person was talking about the initial phases of American football in Israel.

The league began in 2005 with a group of Israelis who wanted to play the sport. They played without pads or an organizational structure.

In 2007, Cohu started consulting for the IFL during its inaugural season, which saw four teams competing eight-on-eight.

Some of his assistance was Internet-based, watching film for them and offer a critique. He also ran clinics and camps for the league each summer when he had time off from his jobs in the U.S. One of the Israeli coaches, Ori Shterenbach, lived with his family in Alabama for a year, studying American football operations.

The league is sponsored by Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. The Kraft Family Stadium is the only football stadium in Israel; other teams play in soccer stadiums when available.

There are eight teams competing this season, which runs from November to March. Israel Bowl IX will be on April 14.

February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 17

community There are also dozens of youth and club teams throughout the country.

Cohu considers American football to be “the greatest game on Earth,” and is excited by the sport’s expansion into places like India, Dubai and China — and of course, Israel.

Since football is an American sport, the “resources, knowledge, businesses, equipment are all here in America,” and “they’ve got to have some kind of liaison in America.”

To help raise awareness, last March, Cohu went to the national AIPAC Policy Conference and helped the league make a presentation.

He wants to enlist “anyone that loves Israel, that loves football, who can help in any way, shape or form,” whether Jewish or non-Jewish.

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The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute will present “The Jewish Course of Why,” the institute’s new six-session winter 2016 course, with classes starting in Birmingham and Metairie this month.

“No religion is known for its rational basis and it’s welcoming of questions and intellectual debate quite like Judaism” explained Rabbi Zalman Abraham of JLI’s headquarters in Brooklyn.

“In preparing for the course, we turned to over 30,000 people who each submitted their biggest questions about Judaism. We then selected the most popular among them and addressed each one with resonant insights from the greatest minds in Jewish history.”

“The Jewish Course of Why” spans a diverse range of topics, from fun, light, and off-the-beaten-track questions, to more complex and controversial issues. Some of the course’s 50 questions include: Why are there so many Jews in Hollywood? Why do Jews eat gefilte fish and cholent and wish each other mazal tov and l’chaim? Why does the Bible sanctions slavery and animal sacrifices? What is the cause of anti-Semitism?

What does Judaism say about Christianity and about the role of women in Jewish life?

The Birmingham classes will be at the Bais Ariel Chabad Center on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., starting Feb. 10, or Thursdays at 11:30 a.m., starting Feb. 11.

Rabbi Mendel Ceitlin of the Chabad Jewish Center in Metairie will conduct the six course sessions at noon and 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays beginning Feb. 16.

Ceitlin said “The Jewish Course of Why gives our participants the opportunity to expand their Jewish knowledge and intellectualize their Judaism by exploring rational insights into the most intriguing questions that Jews have today.”

The course is designed to appeal to people at all levels of Jewish knowledge, including those without any prior experience or background in Jewish learning. All JLI courses are open to the public, and attendees need not be affiliated with a particular synagogue, temple, or other house of worship.

Registration in Birmingham is $89, or $133 for couples. In Metairie, registration is $70. One may sign up at myjli.com.

community Full Limmud roster announced, early-bird deadline extended Limmud New Orleans early bird registration has been extended to Feb. 15, and the full roster of speakers has been announced — though the actual schedule will not be finalized until mid-February.

Limmud is a regional weekend festival of Big Tent Jewish learning, arts, culture and spirituality, bringing Jews from diverse background together to study everything from theology and texts to culture, social justice and history. It will be held March 18 to 20.

Limmud Co-Chairs Lynne Wasserman and Ann Kientz said programming is offered for all ages and levels of experience in Jewish learning, with over 80 sessions to choose from. There is also a children’s track.

National speakers include Joel Hoffman, author of the new “The Bible Doesn’t Say That: 40 Biblical Mistranslations, Misconceptions and Other Misunderstandings”; Montreal Jewish food historian Katherine Romanow; and “Mitzvah maven” and poet Danny Siegel.

Lila Kagedan, the first person ordained at the Orthodox women’s seminary Yeshivat Maharat to take the title of rabbi and be hired in that role by an Orthodox synagogue, will present two sessions — one on the Jewish position on organ donation, and one on Orthodox women and Jewish religious leadership.

Local rabbis from across the spectrum will present, as will Rabbi Dana Kaplan, who is interim rabbi at Mobile’s Springhill Avenue Temple this year. Kaplan previously was rabbi of B’nai Israel in Albany, Ga., and United Congregation of Israelites in Jamaica.

Rabbi Steven Silberman of Ahavas Chesed in Mobile will also present, discussing “Terrorism and Text.”

Rabbi Mark Glickman, interim rabbi at Beth Shalom in Baton Rouge, will discuss his new book, “Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books” (see story, page 25). Barry Ripps of Pensacola, who has a private practice in fertility issues, will compare Biblical accounts of infertility with today’s responses.

Barry Ivker, formerly of New Orleans and now living in Birmingham, will discuss the art form of collage. In 2000, he published a Haggadah with 111 collage images, 13 of which were exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art in 2002.

Efraim Chalamish, a professor of international economic law in New York, will present on how financial markets shape political movements such as ISIS and BDS, and will discuss lawfare, the Israel-Palestinian conflict as it plays out in international courts.

Chicago Oak Park Temple Rabbi Emeritus Gary Gerson will speak about Kabbalah, and Hazzan Neil Schwartz, who serves Agudath Achim in Shreveport, will show how the musical notation of Torah reading conveys meaning.

Becci Jacobs, assistant director of the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, will lead a session on cultivating Jewish identity in children outside the synagogue walls. There will also be several presentations demonstrating the racial diversity of the Jewish community.

Also scheduled are historian Stuart Rockoff, formerly director of the history department at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life and now the executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council; Randy Fertel, president of both the Fertel Foundation and the Ruth U. Fertel Foundation and author of “The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak”; and authors Rodger Kamenetz, Michael Rubin and Nechama Liss-Levenson. There will also be a presentation by Southern

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 19

community Jewish Life editor Larry Brook.

Registration begins at 5 p.m. on March 18 at Gates of Prayer in Metairie. There will be Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner that evening.

On March 19, there will be Shabbat services at Gates of Prayer in a variety of styles. Learning will continue through the day, with Havdalah and an evening program.

Most of the sessions will be on March 20 at the Lavin-Bernick Center on Tulane University’s campus, running from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The events will be kosher and Shabbat-observant, and home hospitality within walking distance of Gates of Prayer can be arranged for those who are Shabbat-observant.

The presentations will be in 10 tracks, includ-

ing arts and culture, contemporary Jewish life and identity, family, history, Israel, social justice, Southern Jewish life, spirituality, text and thought, and food. There is no signing up for sessions, just dropping in on whatever sounds good.

Led entirely by volunteers, New Orleans Limmud began in 2010 and is held every other year.

With early-bird rates, three-day passes are $75 for adults, $40 for young adults ages 18 to 30 and $15 for children. The one-day pass for Saturday evening and Sunday are $50 for adults, $25 for young adults and $10 for children. Registration rates go up on Feb. 16.

More information, including the full list of presentations, is at limmudnola.org.

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Site reputed to be fortress conqured by Joshua and Israelites Faulkner University’s Kearley Graduate School of Theology in Montgomery recently announced the opening of a new exhibit, “Khirbet el-Maqatir: History of a Biblical Site.”

The exhibit features over 60 artifacts from the excavation of what is thought to be Ai, including lamps, a chariot axle, storage pots, a mortar and pestle, sling stones, coins and many other items of historical significance, from the Middle Bronze Age to the Byzantine Scott Gleaves and Faries Austin unpack items from the upPeriod.

The items will be displayed coming exhibit. through December in the F. Furman Kearley of archaeological work have been a great aid in Library. The grand opening of the exhibit will that.” be during university’s annual Faulkner Lectures, Khirbet, which means “ruins of,” el-Maqatir Feb. 28 to March 3. The artifacts were previously is strategically located in the highlands of on display at the Museum Center at 5ive Points Canaan, north of Jerusalem, on the south bank in Cleveland, Tenn. Brian Peterson, an assistant of the Wadi el-Gayeh. It lies on the east side of professor at Lee University in Cleveland, has the main north-south ridge road through the been leading student groups to the site since central hill country, running from Jerusalem to 2012.

Bethel west of the site and on to Shechem to the According to Biblical accounts in the Book north. of Joshua, after the fall of Jericho, Joshua and A major east-west road proceeded from the Israelites moved against the fortress of Ai. Rabbah in Transjordan, past the north side of Though defeated in the initial attack, Joshua Khirbet el-Maqatir, on to Bethel, and then to devised a strategy which led to the conquest of Ai. Joppa on the Mediterranean coast. It is situated At Khirbet el-Maqatir, archaeologists on an eroded natural limestone hill whose have discovered the probable remains of Ai, summit is 2920 feet above sea level. Bedrock according to Dr. Randall Bailey, professor of is exposed in many places with the remaining Bible and the director of the Kearley Graduate soil less than 3.3 feet deep in most cases, except School of Theology. for the portion of the fortress, approximately 25 The findings are significant “historically percent, that is underneath the Late Hellenistic/ and biblically. They confirm the time period Early Roman village from the first century specified in the Bible and aid us in identification B.C.E. and first century C.E. of the biblical site Ai, which has been difficult The exhibit will open to the public at the end to identify,” Bailey said. “The numerous years of February.

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From Texas to Israel, with laughs Benji Lovitt to perform in Mobile, Tuscaloosa Israeli comedian Benji Lovitt will make two stops in Alabama during his upcoming tour, performing in Mobile and Tuscaloosa.

A graduate of the University of Texas, Lovitt made aliyah in 2006. Since then, he has performed for audiences around the world including Hillels, Birthright Israel, and Jewish Federations. His perspectives on life in Israel have been featured on Israeli television and radio and in publications such as USA Today, Time Magazine, Huffington Post, the Times of Israel, and more.

During 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, his humorous observations on the war led to his being called in Israel “the only reason to go on Facebook.”

A Dallas native, Lovitt went to Israel on a Young Judaea trip at age 15. Following high school he spent nine months on a kibbutz. He said he started going to comedy clubs in Austin after his 21st birthday, and describes it as “feeling like the teenage girls watching The Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” I may not have been screaming but I was just in total awe of them.”

He felt a pull to the stage, assembled a few minutes of material, practiced for a week before his first appearance, and “the rest is history.”

He worked in the dot-com sector after college, but felt a pull to Israel. He wound up getting a position at the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta, moved to New York to work with Young Judaea on summer programs, then moved to Israel.

After a few months in Israel, he started doing comedy routines and set up a website, whatwarzone.com, to show daily life in Israel to those whose only information comes from media coverage of conflicts.

Lovitt will be at Ahavas Chesed in Mobile on March 6, at press time the event was tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m.

His Tuscaloosa performance will be at the University of Alabama Hillel, March 8. There will be a “stand-up” dinner at 6:30 p.m. and the show will be at 7 p.m. After the performance, Lovitt will hang around for questions and further dialogue.

The dinner is free for students, while other community members will be asked for a small donation to support Hillel programming.

Lovitt said he is excited to return to Alabama, though he often doesn’t get a chance to see much of the places where he performs. Regarding the Tuscaloosa show, “As a graduate of a big school, I enjoy seeing other big state schools and how they compare. And it’s a bonus to see small Jewish communities and feel like I’m giving them something they don’t get every other day, as opposed to a place like New York where there’s a smorgasbord of Jewish activities to choose from every day.”

Though much is made of an increasingly hostile environment on U.S. college campuses regarding Israel, Lovitt said he hasn’t had any negative experiences yet. “ I was actually told recently that some non-Jews came to a show of mine 5 years ago in California and were prepared to “protest” or show some kind of dissent but couldn’t figure out what I was talking about or where to interject.”

He says he doesn’t talk politics, “so there’s nothing to protest.”

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 21

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Lew Shuman, long-time director of broadcasting for the New Orleans Pelicans and its predecessor, the New Orleans Hornets, did not know much about the Jewish War Veterans of America until the Pelicans hosted a Nathan Lew, David Wesley, Lew Shuman and Jewish Education Judge Sol Gothard.

Night on the first night of Chanukah in 2014.

The night featured the student body of the New Orleans Jewish Community Day School singing the national anthem and, at halftime, performing a Chanukiah lighting ceremony. The event had been promoted by the school, the New Orleans Jewish Community Center and JWV New Orleans Post 580, which also participated in the lighting ceremony.

After learning about the local JWV Post, Shuman immediately joined, since he is a veteran who spent the majority of his enlistment in Iran as a member of the ARMISH/MAAG providing Signal Corps support to the Shah and his army.

Judge Sol Gothard, commander of the Post and a season ticket holder for the Pelican games, learned about Shuman’s extensive knowledge of basketball in all its facets. Shuman has been a producer and director for the Celtics, Sixers and the New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans, and the author of two books, one about basketball, “Hoop Junkie,” and another based on his father-in-law’s diary of the battle for Peleliu, “15 Days of Hell.”

Shortly before this year’s NBA season began, Gothard approached Shuman about making a PowerPoint presentation for JWV on Jews and Basketball, which took place at the Metairie JCC. The first slide in Shuman’s program read “If you ask a Jewish millionaire what he wanted to own, he’d probably say ‘the Knicks’.” Shuman then proceeded with slides about Jewish American college basketball players such Adolph “Dolph” Schayes and coaches such as Nat Holman, Larry Brown and “Red” Holtzman, as well as Jewish owners of NBA teams, broadcasters, and even commissioners, including the current one, Adam Silver.

Shuman pointed out the incredible fact that when the NBA started in 1946 with 11 teams, the starting five for the first-ever NBA team, the New York Knicks, were all Jewish, with Ossie Schechtman scoring the first basket in league history.

David Wesley, former starting guard for the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets and current television broadcaster for the Pelicans, with playby-play announcer Joel Meyers, who is also Jewish, was a surprise guest at the meeting. Wesley brings extensive knowledge of basketball to his analysis of the team, its players and coaches. After speaking at the JCC, he stayed until everyone who wanted to speak with him had a chance.

Established in 1896, the Jewish War Veterans of America is the first and oldest veterans organization in the U.S. To be eligible for membership, one must be Jewish on active duty in any of the armed forces, Coast Guard or Reserves of the U.S.or a veteran thereof; or Jewish, currently residing in the U.S. and a veteran of any allied country, such as Canada, Great Britain or Israel.

Anyone can become a patron of the organization, even if one is not Jewish nor a veteran. The Post has over 30 non-Jewish patrons, including African Americans and a Muslim Kurd from Turkey.

“Birmingham’s finest scratch bakery since 1939” This past December, Tulane Hillel sent a group of students to Israel on Birthright. Highlights of the trip included bonding with Israeli soldiers, riding camels, nights out in Tel Aviv, a desert double rainbow, and a sunrise at Masada. This a letter written by a student that details the impact the trip had on his life.

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By W.A. Davis, Tulane Class of 2017 “Barukh atah Adonai” was rarely at the start of the sentences in my household when I was growing up. Coming to the South for school, I had no expectation that I would end up wanting to say it more. Although the city I grew up in, Boulder, Col., is a hotspot for diversely minded people, it is not a hotspot for traditional Jewish culture. My family, though not religious, did emphasize the morals of Judaism in me. While I was never enrolled in Hebrew school, I never felt any different from the few Jewish friends I had until I got closer to 13. They were beginning to have their Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, fully demonstrating their transition into the Jewish community and religion. I still felt and called myself a Jew, but I began to sense a separation that I hadn’t before.

Right around the same time, my mother, my only Jewish parent, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Any and all other problems I was dealing with seemed trivial when the news hit. The next six months were the most difficult I’ve faced in my life. My mother slowly became frail and her impending death was more apparent as the days went by. She taught as much as she could to a 12-year-old boy. I forgot much of it, but not the sentiment. One of the last messages she gave to my brother and me was her wish that we continue to explore Judaism. We had a rabbi come to our home (my mom was unable to leave the house by this point) to give us Hebrew names as a symbol of beginning our journey. Mine is Adam, my brother’s is Asher. My mom eventually died at 9:47 a.m. after six long months of being sick. My 13th birthday was just four days later.

I grew up immensely in the years following her death. I had my first kiss, I graduated high school, and I left for college. I became a tour guide at Tulane and was frequently asked how I ended up there. I still am not 100 percent sure. I had never visited, researched or thought about the school but my brother convinced me to apply. I ended up committing and finally seeing New Orleans and Tulane on move-in day. Choosing Tulane was risky but I don’t think I can put down in words how perfectly the whole situation ended up. I fit. The people are amazing, the classes are amazing, and this past winter I learned that the Jewish community is also amazing.

Even after my mom’s passing, I was never fully immersed in Jewish culture. I knew that I needed to finally commit. This past winter, I was privileged enough to go on Birthright with Tulane. My brother and many of my friends went in years past and told me I had to go. I knew that I would end up going one day but had no idea how much it would mean to

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 23

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me. The country was beautiful and the sights were awe-inspiring, but the people I went with were the highlight.

The first few days I wasn’t completely comfortable. Many people in the group had stronger Jewish backgrounds than I did. I began to feel some separation from them just as I did with my friends when I was younger.

The feeling, however, didn’t linger. Our group did an exercise where we chose what in Judaism was most important to us. I realized we all had the same core values. I began to feel welcome but still on the fringe because I had yet to have a Bar Mitzvah. Many in the group felt that having a Bar Mitzvah wasn’t all that important, but I felt the opposite.

To my delight, my guides, Inbal, Ali, and Sasha planned a Bar Mitzvah for myself and seven others at the Western Wall the very next day. I was nervous the entire morning. I could barely talk to my closest friends on the trip. As we got closer to the Wall, my emotions swelled to my eyes.

I had to focus on breathing so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed. I still had a speech to give. I choked through the speech summarizing my childhood and my mom’s death. The moment gave me closure. I felt that I had finally begun to explore Judaism as my mom had hoped. I finally felt as a part of the Jewish community because of the people I was with. The entire group accepted and empathized with my story.

While in Israel, I heard many of the Israelis say the phrase “Be with me” when our group was having too much fun and getting distracted (which was often). The phrase is simple and straightforward, but the message unintentionally deep. Truly being with someone is difficult and takes so much effort, yet, during that moment by the Wall, every member of my Birthright group was with me.

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24 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra has one Alabama appearance on its upcoming U.S. tour.

The orchestra will perform at the Opelika Center for the Performing Arts on March 5 at 7:30 p.m. The tour features conductor Dmitry Yablonsky, and Danielle Akta on cello.

The program includes Tchaikovsky’s “Khojaly Requiem,” Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto and Rachmaninoff ’s Symphony No. 2.

The orchestra will have just performed in Tallahassee on March 3, and some members of the orchestra are expected to attend services at Beth Shalom in Auburn on March 4.

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, IBA was founded as the Palestine Broadcasting Service Orchestra in the late 1930s. In 1948 it became the national radio orchestra and was known as the “Kol Israel Orchestra.”

In the 1970s, the orchestra was expanded into the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Broadcasting Authority. As a radio symphony orchestra, the majority of the concerts which the orchestra holds at its resident hall, the Henry Crown Auditorium, are being recorded and broadcasted over IBA’s Kol Ha’musika station.

Dead Sea Scrolls program at UWF Sidnie Crawford, an internationally-recognized scholar of the Dead Sea Sctrolls and textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will speak in Pensacola this month.

On Feb. 25, she will speak on “What Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Teach Us about the Bible?” at the University of West Florida.

The 6:30 p.m. program will be at the UWF Center for Fine and Performing Arts, with a 6 p.m. reception beforehand. The event is free and open to the public. Her lecture is sponsored by the Pensacola Jewish Federation, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, UWF Department of History and UWF Division of Anthropology and Archaeology.

On Feb. 26 Temple Beth-El will host a lunch and discussion with her at noon.

community The world’s largest collection of Jewish books Baton Rouge’s Glickman writes about little-known Nazi plunder A sticker in an eBay book purchase in 2004 launched Rabbi Mark Glickman on a path leading to his new book, “Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books.”

Glickman is interim rabbi at Beth Shalom in Baton Rouge this year; the congregation had a launch party for his book’s release on Jan. 30.

It is well known that the Nazis had collected hundreds of Torah scrolls they had plundered from synagogues across Europe for eventual museums chronicling what they planned to be the extinct Jewish people. Most people have seen images of Nazis holding book burnings and assume that was what the Germans did with Jewish books.

That is also what Glickman thought — until he received a copy of “Hilkhot Alfasi” from an antiquarian book seller in Jerusalem. The book, an explanation of Talmud, became popular when the Talmud was banned by the Pope in the 1500s, but this book escaped the ban. It was one of the first printed Jewish books, and Glickman had ordered a copy of the 10th edition, printed in Bavaria.

Inside the front cover of the 18th-century printing of the 11th-century North African work was a decal from a group he had never heard of, Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, which led him to the little-known story of how the Nazis, rather than burning Jewish books, were collecting millions of them and storing them in what became by far the largest library of Jewish books in history.

The Nazis “burned books for a short time” when they were coming to power in the early 1930s, Glickman said. Though the “spectacle” was meant as a way for Hitler to show his power, the burnings “got the Nazis really bad press” as they were trying to put on a good image to the world before the 1936 Olympics. Besides, he said, books really don’t burn well — the next day, people would go to the charred piles and retrieve relatively undamaged books from the middle.

“In the age of printing, you can’t really burn books” because there are so many copies, he said.

Instead, the Nazis started looting books, taking everything from valuable works to children’s activity books and “trashy novels — they just took everything.”

After the war, the Allies found many of the book stashes in castles, abandoned mine shafts and warehouses throughout Europe. About 3 million books were brought to Offenbach, Germany, and stored in a warehouse confiscated

from the chemical company that manufactured the poison gas used at concentration camps.

Efforts were made to reunite books with their owners, after which the rest went to Jewish Cultural Reconstruction.

Glickman said noted political thinker Hannah Arendt, who covered the Eichmann trial for the New Yorker, was executive secretary for the group but it is barely mentioned in her biography.

The group was little-known elsewhere, Glickman said. There was a dissertation here, a short piece there, but not much else.

In Seattle, where Glickman lives when he is not serving an interim pulpit, he met a Jewish studies professor who found a cache of the looted books in Salonica. “The more you talk to people, the more you learn.”

He researched people who were involved, and tracked down some people who were reunited with their books. One person he included in his book received a children’s book that he never remembered owning, but his name was written inside — he got the book back as an old man.

Glickman wrote about how the books were discovered, the process leading to decisions on how to get books back to their owners and who had the authority to do so, and what to do with volumes where the owners could not be identified.

He said writing the book was “daunting” because so much has been written about the Holocaust. It is a “challenge to say something new” about that era.

What happened to the books is “secondary, a tangential story to the central story, which is the murder” of millions in the Holocaust.

Nevertheless, he said, “it is a fascinating chapter that very few people know about.”

Gary Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, said Glickman’s book is “A genuine page-turner, written with engaging prose and heartfelt passion.”

This is Glickman’s second book. “Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizah” came out in 2012, discussing the 1896 discovery of over 300,000 centuries-old Jewish documents at the Ben Ezra Synagogue.

Before coming to Baton Rouge for this year, he was interim rabbi at Har HaShem in Boulder, Colo. In Seattle, where he served Kol Ami in Woodinville and Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island. While in rabbinical school, one of his student pulpits was Temple Emanu-El in Tuscaloosa.

Shop the Southern Jewish Bookshelf Find a wide range of books about the Jewish South — from current releases to hard-to-find historic works, at

www.sjlmag.com February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 25

BOOKS

The Courage to Act

by Ben S. Bernanke

culture

Growing up in Dillon, S.C., the grandson of four immigrants, one a pharmacist who left New York City during the Great Depression for a better start down south, Ben Shalom Bernanke went on to help lead the country through the Great Recession as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

This account gives a window into not only the Fed’s vigorous actions, but the myriad of intercessions underneath it all taken to keep the country from full-on disaster. Bernanke’s role, and the lasting the effects of his guidance on American monetary policy and goals, are insightful.

Abraham: The World’s First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer

by Alan M. Dershowitz

It’s all in the optics. Sure, Abraham is known as the first Jew, but consider for a moment that he was also the first in a very, very long line of Jewish lawyers. In his first trial, he not only made a case for the people of Sodom, he negotiated with the Judge of all the Earth from 50 innocent souls all the way down to 10. The sacrifice of Isaac was yet another test, though in these pages it takes on a whole new light (and here, Dershowitz includes not only the views of Immanuel Kant but Woody Allen and Bob Dylan) whereby Abraham transitions from defense lawyer for the Sodomites to fundamentalist. Other Biblical and contemporary figures are included, but the strongest element of the book are these musings on how we see... the world’s first Jewish lawyer.

COOKBOOKS

ZAHAV: A World of Israeli Cooking

by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook

In New Orleans, we’re spoiled with Alon Shaya and his eponymous restaurant, Shaya, on Magazine. Philadelphians no doubt feel similarly about Michael Solomonov, who owns Zahav and has gone on, among other accolades, to become a James Beard winner for Best Chef, mid-Atlantic. Here, he’s authored a robust recipe book loaded with stories and photographs for the multi-faceted flavors that make up Israeli cuisine. Equal footing is given to traditional and more innovative flavors, with an entire chapter on tehina. Energetic instructions lend confidence on what may be newer concepts: on the twice cooked eggplant, “by taking the eggplant to the edge, you can develop rich, deep and almost chocolaty flavors that make this one of the punchiest bites there is” and direction to “salt the hell” out of the fried cauliflower. Let’s do this.

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

SHALOM EVERYBODEEE! Grover’s Adventures in Israel

by Tilda Balsley and Ellen Fischer, illustrated by Tom Leigh

Grover travels to Israel! He spends Shabbat with friends, writes a prayer and puts it in the Western Wall, works on a kibbutz, goes snorkeling in Eilat, and does much more. Sharing adventures with his friends via email, they’ll be excited to visit too. Sweetly, Grover leaves something behind in Israel for the future. Great fun for any Sesame Street / Shalom Sesame fan!

26 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

Making Informed Decisions Doesn’t Have to be Overwhelming

senior life an annual SJL special section

Somerby residents discover their Spark

by Lee J. Green Somerby of Mobile’s seniors stay active with everything from Chanukah parties to educational field trips. Recent trips have included GulfQuest National Maritime Museum and the King Tut Exhibit at the Gulf Coast Exploreum.

In Birmingham, Somerby at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen is the premier senior living community in the area, providing independent living, assisted living and memory care residences and services. Located on the St. Vincent’s One Nineteen campus, residents also enjoy a full complimentary membership to Fitness One Nineteen and ready access to diagnostic imaging, physical therapy, and spa services.

The recently expanded services at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen, completed in late 2015, now include urgent care, outpatient surgery, and additional physician offices. Residents benefit from Somerby’s partnership with St. Vincent’s and their commitment to not only diagnose and treat but also to provide overall health and wellness support.

Under the guidance of Dr. Jim Concotelli, MSW, PhD, Somerby has developed the “Discover Your Spark” Lifestyle and Wellness approach, which is used at both of these locations. Since health and wellness extend beyond the physical to the emotional, mental, spiritual and social aspects of life, this innovative methodology encourages all residents to nurture and strengthen their connections with their families, friends, and interests while enabling them to explore new relationships, new talents, and new experiences.

“Our seniors take an active role not just in telling us some of the activities they would like to have at our community but also in taking leadership roles in organizing these activities,” said Birmingham Lifestyle Director Saralyn Millwee. “We’ll do anything we can to help them facilitate, whether it’s a trip to an Alabama Symphony Coffee Concert or bringing in musicians to perform.”

Mobile Lifestyle Director Marcy Matherne used to work at the University of South Alabama, so she uses those connections to bring in some special speakers as well as to plan some trips to the University.

“We know our community has seniors with a wide range of background and interests so we give them a lot of opportunities to get involved in things they are interested in,” said Matherne. Somerby of Mobile includes independent living, also with garden homes and villas, assisted living and memory care.

In December, Somerby of Mobile hosted a Chanukah party, which was well-attended by Jewish and non-Jewish residents. Somerby served latkes with applesauce and sour cream. Twice a month, Rabbi Steve Silberman comes to meet with the Jewish seniors and speaks on topics of interest.

Additionally, he leads a Shabbat Service on Friday afternoons. In January he and a Catholic colleague led a new program, “Interfaith Conversations.”

A few times a year, as a part of a partnership with Springhill Avenue Temple, a visitor from the Temple comes to meet with seniors as a part of

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 27

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Somerby’s Cultural Awareness Series. The most recent visit was by Israel native Arad Lenor, who spoke about Jewish holidays and traditions.

“Those events are also well-attended by both Jewish and non-Jewish residents,” said Matherne. “We are pleased to see that cultural and religious diversity in our community. Our residents enjoy learning about their friends’ beliefs, culture, tradition and things that are important to them.”

Coming up at Somerby in Mobile will be a Wedding Vow Renewal in February and a Passover Seder in April.

“Discover Your Spark” focuses on five key objectives: to support positive life choices, to foster meaningful relationships, to honor history and traditions, to encourage exploration and growth, and to be champions of fun.

Events, outings, programs, and activities are designed to achieve these objectives and inspire purposeful engagement with people, places, and ideas both within the community and with the world outside its walls.

“Somerby Residents love to party and learn. They have a keen interest in geography, health-related topics… as well as learning more about how to use social networking to keep up with friends and family,” said Millwee.

“Our goal is to provide the setting and opportunities for every resident to ignite that spark that brings them joy.”

All-inclusive independent retirement living on the West Bank

by Lee J. Green Seniors at the all-inclusive independent retirement living community The Landing at Behrman Place in New Orleans can stay for free at any of the other 22 Sunshine Retirement Corporation communities in eight states across the U.S. while on vacation.

But with all the activities, amenities and services provided to residents at the West Bank community, seniors might feel like they are on vacation all of the time.

“Our residents here can enjoy independent living with the added benefits of three great meals a day; complete housekeeping service; plenty of activities to participate in and convenient transportation to anywhere they want or need to go,” said The Landing at Behrman Place Director Shawn Montgomery.

The community launched in 1998 and underwent a significant enhancement after Katrina. Montgomery said the residents at The Landing at Behrman Place have such a high level of satisfaction that they average staying there between six and nine years.

All-inclusive living at the community includes free common area Wi-Fi, front desk concierge service, weekly housekeeping and on-call apartment maintenance. The monthly rent includes all utilities except personal telephone.

As far as activities, Montgomery said residents can participate in exercise classes, regular happy hours, Saturday brunches, poker games, bingo, tai chi as well as classes on everything from gardening to computers to medicine.

They celebrate the Jewish holidays and recently had their big, annual Mardi Gras Ball.

The Landing at Behrman Place offers an onsite hair salon, library, gym and computer center. Pets are also welcome in the community.

Montgomery said the community’s expertly trained chefs specialize in Cajun/Creole cuisine such as red beans and rice, gumbo as well as fried fish. The kitchen is not kosher but some rooms have full-service kitchens if someone wants to keep their own kosher kitchen.

Residents can travel to any city with a Sunshine Retirement Living community and receive complimentary food and lodging for up to 14 days.

Montgomery also said that The Landing at Behrman Place also offers some guest rooms for loved ones of residents to stay for free on a temporary basis when visiting.

She said that after residents stay 90 days, they can go on a month-tomonth lease or if they know they will be staying at The Landing for a long time, they can opt to sign a “lifetime lease” that guarantees the monthly rates will never go up as long as they are living there. “We have options and opportunities to please everyone,” said Montgomery.

28 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

senior life

Schonberg communities in La., Miss., built around individual needs

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Schonberg & Associates has revolutionized and set a new standard in assisted living by going above and beyond to provide unparalleled amenities and care tailored to fit each resident, creating customized activities and care plans based upon a thorough assessment of the individual residents’ abilities, likes, dislikes, passions, and preferences.

In order to make the transition into assisted living as easy and comfortable as possible, Schonberg & Associates has opened several locations throughout the Greater New Orleans and Mississippi area that provide high-quality amenities, programming, and care, including Vista Shores in New Orleans, Beau Provence in Mandeville, Park Provence in Slidell, and Ashton Manor in Luling, Beau Ridge in Ridgeland, and Alden Pointe in Hattiesburg.

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Schonberg is also committed to honoring the sanctity and importance of providing each resident with the means to practice and celebrate their faith.

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 29

senior life

JFS New Orleans expands geriatric family consultation services When Roselle Ungar became executive director of Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans, one of her first objectives was to create Centers of Excellence which could become areas of specialization for the agency. One of the first efforts in this endeavor was last month’s launch of a new Geriatric Family Consultation Program that will respond to the growing needs of both caregivers and older adults in the Greater New Orleans community.

“I know that when my mother’s health was starting to fail, my brother and I had so many things we had to resolve and settle in a very short period of time,” she said. “It would have been so helpful to have a service like this available to provide us with direction and advice.”

In fact, the concept for the Geriatric Family Consultation Program had been a subject of discussion for several years among the clinical and program staff at JFS who work closely with clients either coping with aging parents or who are, themselves, trying to plan for their own future care.

Though no single program addressed geriatric issues so comprehensively, the realization of how much relief could be provided through the addition of this service further necessitated its creation.

Thanks to a recent Block Grant from the Jewish Endowment Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, the Geriatric Family Consultation Program is now a reality. JFS has hired a Geriatric Specialist whose role is to help individuals and families with aging relatives to focus on the needs of that family member and determine what resources are available to address their specific issues.

Some families may be questioning whether living independently is still the best option for a loved one; others may be determining if their existing financial plans need to be adjusted; and others may be caring for family members with chronic or debilitating conditions and need support,

30 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

resources or services. Phone and Skype appointments are also available for caregivers who live outside of the Greater New Orleans area.

The Geriatric Specialist can also serve a role as an objective facilitator, since decision making involving multiple generations can sometimes be complicated by family dynamics or charged emotions that can make difficult conversations even more challenging. The Geriatric Specialist can help family members negotiate potential points of impasse and may also help to focus the conversations so that the concerns of all family members involved are appreciated and understood.

A second component of the Geriatric Family Consultation Program features lectures, demonstrations and discussions which are free and open to the public, including an Older Adult Speaker Series, co-sponsored by the New Orleans Jewish Community Center, and a Caregiver Support Group.

The inaugural speaker, Registered Dietician Kerri Dotson from the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine, spoke on Jan. 27 about “Cooking for Health.” She provided information about the changing dietary needs during the aging process, healthy adaptations to favorite recipes and how to stay active in the kitchen with arthritis and other physical challenges.

The next speaker in the series, Pat Harvey, ACSW, LCSW-C, will focus on “The ‘Sandwich Generation’: Finding a Balance,” on March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Goldring-Woldenberg Jewish Community Campus in Metairie. She will discuss the juggling act of caring for children and aging parents simultaneously.

The Caregiver Support Group was recently formed to offer a supportive environment to discuss the stresses, challenges and rewards of providing care for a loved one. The first meetings will take place every Tuesday from Feb. 16 to April 19, noon to 1 p.m. at the Goldring-Woldenberg Jewish

senior life

Community Campus in Metairie.

The Geriatric Family Consultation Program is a complement to existing programs at JFS that have been serving older adults for decades. These include: Homemaker, a weekly or bi-monthly light housekeeping and transportation service; Lifeline, an electronic personal emergency response system; Catch-A-Cab, which provides transportation assistance to Jewish seniors through taxi vouchers, and Counseling, which serves individuals, couples, families and groups.

More speakers, groups and programs are planned in future months. Contact Jewish Family Service’s office (504) 831-8475 or visit the website (www. jfsneworleans.org) for updated information on the Geriatric Family Consultation Program or for any other JFS services.

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Helping seniors and older veterans to maintain their health as well as independence in their homes or home-like environments is one of the main goals for the Tulane University School of Medicine Section of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System.

“With geriatrics, we want older adults to maintain as much independence as possible. Just because you get older, it doesn’t mean your quality of life has to diminish significantly,” said Dr. Lumie Kawasaki, associate professor of medicine with the Tulane University School of Medicine and the chief of geriatrics and extended care for the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System.

Kawasaki is also the medical director for SLVHCS Home Based Primary Care Services and St. Margaret’s Daughters nursing home.

“St. Margaret’s was one of the first in the area to focus on the creation of a home-like environment within an institutional setting,” she said, adding that Tulane University School of Medicine students in internal medicine go to the community on a regular basis to provide medical care and gain valuable learning experience.

“Once older veterans are stable enough to get out the hospital we want them to be able to get all of the rehabilitation and continuing health care needs either in their homes or a home-like environment,” added Kawasaki.

“I believe we may be one of the only VA medical centers, if not the only one, in the United States delivering a fairly broad continuum of home-based services, offering veterans more choice in how and where they receive their care.”

She said a trend for the VA is on non-institutional care. The SLVHCS provides home-based community services such as primary care, respite care and community adult day care. It was the second VA in the country to form a Hospital at Home Program; providing care to veterans in their homes who may otherwise be in the hospital; shortening or preventing hospital stays and increasing patient comfort.

Kawasaki said that St. Margaret’s has partnered with the Steve Gleason Foundation to best serve residents there who have ALS. Gleason is a former New Orleans Saints player who currently is waging his own battle against ALS. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans VAMC was devastated. SLVHCS reorganized to meet the needs of veterans and now consists of eight community-based clinics located in New Orleans, Slidell, Hammond, St. John Parish, Houma, Franklin, Bogalusa and Baton Rouge.

Ninety percent of patients live within 30 minutes of primary and mental health services.

“As we get older there is an increasing concern about loss of independence and loss in quality of life,” said Kawasaki. “But there are plenty of resources available to older adults to help them maintain their quality of living.”

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LSVT therapy uses innovative and clinically-proven methods for improving communication and movement in individuals with Parkinson’s diseases. The program can also be applied to other neurological conditions, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. Internationally, the LSVT programs have been developed and scientifically researched over the past 20 years with funding from the National Institutes of Health.

LSVT Loud is a Parkinson’s-specific speech therapy designed to improve vocal loudness, speech intelligibility and facial expression through intensity and repetition. LSVT Loud is one month of intense treatment including one hour of patient practice per day and four days of therapy per week.

Each patient identifies 10 phrases that they want to be able to say on a daily basis, and works toward those goals throughout the training. Therapy includes increasing intensity, breath support, pitch range and improving vocal quality. Additional improvements that have been noted include improvement in swallowing and the masked facial expression which often accompanies Parkinson’s disease.

Certified Physical or Occupational Therapists use the LSVT Big technique to drive intense and high effort practice and teach the amount of effort required to produce normal movements.

LSVT Big includes four therapy sessions per week for 4 weeks plus daily exercises. LSVT Big patients are also given personalized and specific “functional exercises” depending on what limitations they may have, which may include difficulty buttoning buttons, getting in and out of the car, and reaching for objects.

Research on LSVT Big has documented improved ratings on tests of motor functioning in persons with Parkinson’s disease following treatment including faster walking with bigger steps, improved balance and increased trunk rotation.

Touro offers a free Parkinson’s Support Group for all individuals living with Parkinson’s disease. To learn more, contact the Touro Neuro Rehab Center at (504) 897-8135 or visit www.touro.com/LSVT.

Peristyle offers assisted living in more personal settings

by Lee J. Green

Instead of home-like, how about a true family home?

Peristyle Residences in the New Orleans area fills a niche for seniors in need of care by providing room, board and care much like larger assisted-living facilities but in a smaller, more personal setting.

“It’s a true home experience. These are actual homes anywhere from four to eight seniors live in together with around-the-clock care. Thus we can provide all the care, companionship and socialization a senior wants and needs,” said co-owner Sean Arrillaga. “We serve those who can no longer safely live at home but who do not need or do not prefer more institutional settings such as large assisted living facilities and nursing homes.”

Because each home has at most a one-to-four caregiver to resident ratio, seniors and caregivers living in the homes develop strong companionships. “The residents and the caregivers become like family,” added Arrillaga.

He and co-owner Jason Hemel together have more than 30 years of healthcare and living experience including nursing home and assisted living administration, home health and hospice management, nursing care and nurse education. Both are from and went to school in New Orleans.

In 2011, they started Peristyle Residences. There are now four residenc32 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

senior life Caring for our Community es in Metairie, one in the West Bank and one in Lakeview, with more planned in the near-term.

“We purchased these homes in nice communities and in each one put at least $100,000 in enhancements to meet all ADA requirements as well as the needs of our senior residents,” said Arrillaga.

The homes were also selected for the flow of the house — no laundry room next to a kitchen; no bathrooms in which someone would have to go through another bedroom to access, and so forth.

Peristyle Residences offers family-style meals geared toward specific nutrition requirements and likes of residents, social activities such as bingo, gardening, cooking, arts and crafts, play-

ing cards, cognitive activities and assistance with all Activities of Daily Living.

“The beauty of it is that this is all resident-directed care. There are no set meal times and they can choose the activities that interest them the most. The care and service is customized.

Residents can also decorate their rooms any way they want to,” said Arrillaga.

He said there is a current market demand for senior living services and within 10 years many of the 76 million Baby Boomers will require or seek senior living services.

“We feel we are reaching the most underserved market,” said Arrillaga. “This is a great niche and we plan to grow this model as much as demand and resources allow.”

Visiting Angels provides home care to area seniors

by Lee J. Green Visiting Angels wants to make sure its caregivers match well with those they are caring for, so there is a lot that goes into the pairing process for the Birmingham area, non-medical home care provider.

“We and our caregivers want to develop friend relationships with the seniors we are providing care to and their families,” said Visiting Angels Birmingham Franchise Owner Russell Renfroe.

“We go through an extensive screening process before we hire caregivers. Those receiving care and their families always get to select who they want to be their caregiver to help ensure there is the best match possible.”

Renfroe said his is one of 500 franchises nationwide of the Philadelphia-headquartered company, which started in 1998.

“I am always available 24-7,” he said. “It’s the best of both worlds. They get the strength, re-

sources and experience of a successful, national company along with a local team such as ours that is very hands-on, accessible and friendly.”

There is no contract or deposit required and there is not an hour minimum with Visiting Angels. Renfroe said they offer a free, in-home assessment.

Since Visiting Angels provides non-medical care, Medicare and Medicaid do not cover costs.

Qualifying veterans and spouses can get some government assistance but most of the time costs can be covered by long-term-care insurance.

Renfroe said Visiting Angels is always looking for experienced caregivers. They require a minimum of two years of experience and conduct extensive background checks.

“We can plug in several algorithms into our scheduling software to help ensure there is a fit for both the caregivers and the person they are caring for,” he said. “It is our hope that the caregivers become like a member of the family.”

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The Greenbriar at Hanover satellite campus opened in 2015. Assisted Living started in March followed by its memory care unit in July. Greenbriar at Hanover offers cottage-style living with a locked outdoor space for residents to enjoy.

Both Greenbriar at the Altamont and Hanover offer seniors very culturally diverse activities programs. They kicked off 2016 with a New Year’s Eve party and soon will have a Mardi Gras party followed later in the spring with a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. They also celebrate the Jewish holidays with fun events that keep with the traditions.

Greenbriar invites prospective residents at their families to come for a free lunch and tour of the facilities. For more information, go to www. greenbriaratthealtamont.com.

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34 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

The highly-popular Temple Beth Or Jewish Food Festival and Treasure and Collectible Market opens at 9 a.m. on Feb. 28. Over the years, thousands have attended the festival, where most of the dishes are hand-made

by Beth Or members.

The hot plate includes beef brisket with carrots, Quajado (spinach pie) and challah. A deli plate includes a corned beef sandwich, homemade slaw, chips and a pickle. The veggie plate has Quajado, kugel, a latke, slaw and challah.

Stuffed cabbage, hot dogs and matzah ball soup are also available, as is a bakery with numerous items, including praline matzah and whole Carnegie Deli cheesecakes.

As the festival attracts a large number from outside the Jewish community, Rabbi Elliot Stevens gives short talks in the sanctuary during the day.

Admission and parking are free, and hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Series of “Israel Faces” in Mobile To “bring Israel closer to the community and promote a healthy discussion, awareness and engagement,” Mobile’s Shaliach from Israel, Arad Lerner, organized a four-part Faces of Israel series through the Mobile Area Jewish Federation.

“Israel Faces” began on Jan. 27 with Rotem Malach speaking on the judicial system in Israel.

On Feb. 17 at 7 p.m., Michael Weil will speak about “Israel’s increasingly unfriendly neighborhood.” Weil has been executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans since 2006. He recently announced that in 2017 he will retire and move back to Israel.

His talk will be at Springhill Avenue Temple.

On March 6, Israeli comedian Benji Lovitt, who moved to Israel in 2006 after growing up in Texas, will perform as part of an event supporting Israel and the Israel Defense Forces. The 7 p.m. program will be at Ahavas Chesed, and a full profile is on page 21.

Ron Brummer, Israel’s Deputy Consul General in the Atlanta consulate, will speak on April 6 about Israel’s challenges in an unstable Middle East. His 7 p.m. presentation will be at Springhill Avenue Temple.

LGBT advocacy group celebrating anniversary The Birmingham Welcoming Communities will celebrate its first anniversary with a continuing discussion of the film “Straightlaced: How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up,” March 10 at 7 p.m. at the Levite Jewish Community Center.

The group aims to help regional synagogues, schools, and agencies become welcoming places for gender and sexually diverse Jews, in theory and in practice. The group works with Atlanta-based SOJOURN: the Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity.

Representatives from the Birmingham Jewish community have met over the past year to create a plan of action to make the community’s agencies more welcoming, and expanded partnerships with LGBT organizations.

On Jan. 14, the groups presented a program on Joy Ladin’s book, “Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders” at the Emmet O’Neal Library in Birmingham. Through word of mouth, over 40 attended the program, which was facilitated by Beth Jacobs and Michelle Konigsburg.

Ladin is the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution. She holds the David and Ruth Guttesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University.

At the March 10 program, which is open to the community, facilitators from Groundspark will lead an interactive workshop on advocacy for LGBT youth.

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 35

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Savage’s Bakery and Deli

by Lee J. Green Some bakeries just care about making dough by making dough. But not Savage’s Bakery and Deli. Owner Van Scott said Savage’s is all about community, tradition and family.

“We love seeing three generations of families coming in and the parents/grandparents say that the store is just as special to visit as it was when they were kids,” he said, adding that all three of his daughters have worked at Savage’s starting when they were 12 years old.

Margaret Scott currently serves as the operations director and plans to take ownership when

36 Southern Jewish Life • February 2016

her father retires. Van Scott also said their employees are like a part of the family.

“I have a baker who started here when he was 19 years old and now he is 55,” he said. “A good bakery does more than just provide high-quality baked goods. It should be a place that conjures up warm, special memories,” added Van Scott.

Mr. and Mrs. William Savage started Savage’s Bakery on Highland Ave. in 1939. Scott said his mother and grandmother were at the grand opening, and he has fond memories of going to Savages with them. The bakery moved to its current location on the strip in Homewood in the early 1950s.

Van Scott and his family always loved to cook.

After earning a graduate degree, he worked for a year at Waite’s Bakery. “They imported foods from across the world and made their own ice cream. I knew right away that I wanted to own my own bakery and deli,” he said.

So in 1978 at the age of 27, Scott purchased Savage’s from the Savage family with the goal of expanding the great tradition and reputation of the place.

“Over the years we’ve added more products and we have upgraded from a technology standpoint, but we still make everything fresh by hand here,” he said. “What we bring to the table is quality, very friendly customer service, and we can do any custom order even on short notice – from cakes to custom-decorated, iced cookies.” Scott estimated that since 1978 Savage’s has made more than 10,000 custom wedding cakes.

“That is our niche and we stick to what we do

Continued from page 38

FA M I LY From out of none came one, but like a single shoe This pair is not complete without its volume two.

One commandment says I am God to you; It didn’t say what else to do, and then there was two.

Second command says no gods before me; Make for you no idols, and then there was three.

Third commandment says take names in vain no more; Not only when in Chancery, and then there was four.

Fourth commandment says that you cannot drive; Or work at all on Sabbath, and then there was five.

Fifth commandment says honor both parents; They are why you are alive, and then there was six.

Sixth commandment says don’t send to heaven; Any one I still want there, and then there was seven.

Seventh command says do not spurn your mate; If with you slept another, and then there was eight.

Eighth commandment says don’t take what isn’t thine; Keep hands to your little self, and then there was nine.

Ninth commandment says the truth must be your ken; Whene’er you bear witness, and then there was ten.

Tenth commandment says that all under the sun; Is not for you to covet, and then there was none.

Doug Brook is a writer in Silicon Valley who is currently in Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None.” No spoilers. For past columns, other writings, and more, visit http://brookwrite.com/. For exclusive online content, follow facebook.com/the.beholders.eye.

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best,” he said, adding that they can custom make challah and any Judaica-themed cakes or cookies for the holidays.

In recent years, Savage’s has expanded its deli offerings for dine-in or carryout. Some of those items include tuna salad, chicken salad, hot or cold deli sandwiches and tomato aspic.

“I think some people are surprised that we have the deli items in addition to a full-service fresh bakery,” said Scott. He added that Savage’s Bakery and Deli is happy to do full-service, customized catering.

“We’re proud to have been a part of the community here for so many years and we are grateful for the support the community has given us,” he said.

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February 2016 • Southern Jewish Life 37

rear pew mirror • doug brook

Ten little exodus

Once upon a time, there was a well-known rhyme…

Today it’s about soldier boys, called “And Then There’s None.”

Before that it was often called “Ten Little Indians.”

What its name was first, or second as some reckon, Is something that repeating would PC Police beckon.

Ten little soldier boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little soldier boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little soldier boys traveling in Devon; One said he’d stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little soldier boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six.

Six little soldier boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one of them and then there were five.

Five little soldier boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.

Four little soldier boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little soldier boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two little soldier boys playing in the sun; One got all frizzled up and then there was one.

One little soldier boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.

Where we’re at in Torah puts us in the mood, To share the rhyme’s real origin, straight from the Talmud.

One’s about the plagues, with commandments added then, Each contained in their own list, adding up to ten.

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Now, wait no more to read them, for here they all are, Hopefully you will not think they have gone too far.

One plague of blood turned the Nile to goo; The main seer did it too, and then there was two.

Second plague of frogs hopping out of sea; A red herring swallowed them, and then there was three.

Third plague of vermin sent them to the floor; Still little chance to free, and then there was four.

Fourth plague of beasts storming from their hive; Pharaoh’s heart was stung, and then there was five.

Fifth plague of disease making cattle sick; The herd was chopped in half, and then there was six.

Sixth plague of boils raining down from heaven; Many days they stayed there, and then there was seven.

Seventh plague of hail pouring very late; Pharaoh overslept his heart, and then there was eight.

Eighth plague of locusts swarming in to dine; Pharaoh choked his latest “no,” and then there was nine.

Ninth plague of darkness blinding girls and men; His heart still lost in the dark, and then there was ten.

Tenth plague on firstborns slain til there were none; All to free the Israelites and then they were gone.

continued on previous page

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