Southern Jewish Life, New Orleans, October 2020

Southern Jewish Life NEW ORLEANS EDITION

INSIDE:

October 2020

Volume 30 Issue 10

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

shalom y’all When I was in elementary school, a local computer company had a conference room that didn’t really look like a formal conference room, with its 1970s vibe. A plaque on the door said “Big Deal Room.”

Back then, not familiar with the corporate world of big deals, I assumed it was an office joke — big deal, as in “so what.”

It seems that dichotomy of opinion has colored reaction to the recent normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and with Bahrain. Big Deal or big deal?

Many, including the ever-accurate Washington Post, have insisted that this round of diplomatic relations isn’t a big deal, because Israel has never met The United Arab Emirates or Bahrain on the battlefield. They see this as normalization between countries that never went to war with each other. In other words, some great achievement, huh?

Yes, Israel never met either of those countries on the battlefield of war. However, both the UAE in Bahrain have long been soldiers in the economic, diplomatic and philosophical war against the world’s only Jewish state.

They have been part of the solid wall of Arab rejectionism of Israel’s very existence, which goes back to the Arab League’s rejection of a Jewish state in any borders since Israel was established.

When Bahrain and UAE became independent of British rule in 1971, they joined the Arab League and were part of the solid anti-Israel Arab-Soviet voting bloc at the United Nations, at a time when it was said that the Arabs could introduce a resolution stating the world is a cube with a green tassel hanging from each corner, and it would pass 187-2, with the U.S. and Israel being the two.

Bahrain and the UAE were huge supporters of the ongoing Arab boycott of Israel, which not only extended to all products made in Israel, but products of international companies that did business in Israel. People forget that for a long time you could find Coca-Cola only in Israel and not in Arab states, while Pepsi was available in Arab states, but the only way

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commentary

MESSAGES

Maccabi USA leader praises Birmingham Games I have had the honor of attending many Maccabi competitions around the world. From Israel to Australia to South America, Europe and the JCC Maccabi games around the United States Barbara Kaplinsky and Canada, I have logged many miles seeing how sports can be a vehicle to help build Jewish identity, especially in our young.

Why to vote No on Louisiana Amendment 5

IOn feltNov. honored to come tovoters Birmingham for the fellpay in love with nottaxes, just the city the 3, Louisiana will vote on first atetime whatand they in property while but the people.

You have taken Southern hospitality to a new level with your kind and caring whether to amend the state constitution to cre- rest of us pay what the law requires. approach the JCCtax Maccabi Games. ate a new to corporate exemption for industry.

Together Louisiana, a not for profit organiThe language voters will see on their ballots zation whose mission is to give and comLed by the Sokol and Helds, your hard-working volunteers were wonderful.

Theyfaith partnered is: “Do you support an amendment to authorize munity-based organizations an opportunity to with your outstanding staff, led by Betzy Lynch, to make the 2017 JCC Maccabi games a huge hit. to enter intoascooperative en- affect change USA on a to larger scale than they could Ilocal wantgovernments to take this opportunity executive director of Maccabi say thank you on behalf deavor ad valorem of everyone involved.tax exemption agreements alone, launched an educational campaign about with new or expanding manufacturing estab- the negative impact that will result from this I had just from the of 20th World games inand Israel with U.S.todelegation lishments forreturned payments in lieu taxes. ” Maccabiah amendment how we aplan defeat it. of over 1100, who joined 10,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries.

Back in July the eyes of the entire The ballot language was engineered to inThis is why I am joining with Together LouiJewish world were on Jerusalem and the Maccabiah.

This past month with 1000 athletes tentionally confuse the average voter, so let me siana in working to defeat Amendmentand 5 — the coaches around the world being in Birmingham, you became theAmendment focal point. clear up from the confusion.

Corporate Welfare Our teachers most underpaid For the previous years,a bills nearly idenEveryone fromare theamong Jewishthe community and the community at large,three including wonderful in the nation.

Our are torn toThese pieces.games Our will ticalgoto Amendment by industry police force, are to roads be commended. down in history 5aswere beingfiled a seminal water systems areJewish barelycommunity holding on.asOur lobbyists presented such to Louisiana legislators. moment for the we bridgbuild to the futureand by providing wonderful Jewish es are falling apart.

They were all defeated by citizen testimony. memories.

Amendment 5 would defund public edu- Amendment 5 won legislative approval in 2020 Jed Margolis cation, pull money away from roads, bridges, only because citizens were at a stay at home orExecutive Director, Maccabi USA healthcare and hurricane recovery, and shift der due to Covid. the tax burden to working families and small The largest tax loophole in the history of Lousupremacists to see back businesses.

And this is because Amendment 5 isiana — one would of the like biggest in pushed the entire counOn Charlottesville into a corner and made to feel lesser.

We stand would allow industrial corporations to negoti- try — is being closed as citizens are re-gaining with andover praytheir for the family of Heather Heyer, control own property tax base.

So, Editor’s Note: This reaction to the events in who was there standing up to the face of this of industry set out to create new loopholes.

One Charlottesville, written by Jeremy Newman, hate. the biggest of those loopholes is Amendment 5.

Master of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Theta Colony A Prayer Templewas Sinai, Lake Amendment would allow major corporaWe recognize 5the essence of the American at Auburnfor University, shared

by Charles AEPi tions to negotiate by contract what they narrative as a two-century old struggle to pay rid in National, which called it “very eloquent” and In this time of need… local property taxes and whether theythose pay them ourselves of such corners, and allow in praised AEPi Thetasomehow Colony at May“our the brothers energy ofatour prayers at all.the Instead paying the tax approved them seat atofthe table that theyrate so deserve.

Auburn Universityhelp and… fillthe theleadership they It is the struggle to fulfillcontinued the promiseonofpage the 24 display on their ” Voidcampus. of no electric power.

Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal… endowed by their Creator with In this time of need…

White has beenwishes a cancer on certain unalienable rights.” We know our work May thesupremacy depth of our good somehow our Help country since its beginning, threatening is far from finished, but we know we will not replenish your wells of hope when Kudos to Dr. Bruce Samuels of New Orleans its hopes, its values, and better angels. move backwards.

Water is its absent. for being correctly on point in fully identifying The events that took place in Charlottesville When men and Marxist women,organization fully armed, (Letters, take BLM as an openly represented the worst of this nation. Those In this time of need… to the streets in droves with swastikas and who marched the streets with tiki torches September 2020). The three founders have adMay our onto continuing thoughts of you other of hate, it is a reminder of how mittedsymbols this openly. and swastikas so and to provoke and Morning,did noon eveningviolence somehow relevant the issues of racism and anti-Semitism That BLM does not have antisemitism in their fear. Those marched onto thesense streets Helpwho strengthen your own of did are today.

It is a wake-up call to the that or organizational platform should notwork assuage so to profess an Faith ideology that harkens back to and Trust. needs to be done to ensure a better, more dilute their true intent. This organization is a bleaker, more wretched time in our history. it should not come the avowedcountry. enemy ofBut both Israel and the UnitA time when menand andsowomen of many creeds, welcoming May all this much more within without a reflection on how far we’ve come. ed States. Malcolm X was critical of liberals races,Our and hearts religions were far from equal and far somehow assure you that as America being the first toaabandon blacks and the was born slave nation.

A century fromBetter safe in our own borders.

A time where days are ahead for each and every civil our rights struggle.

His opinion of inthe Black into history we engaged in a war part Americans lived under a constant cloudfor of Temple Sinai member and family, LivesMatter would balance Golda to ensure we organization would not continue as one. We racism, anti-Semitism pervasive hate. The Our beloved Lakeand Charles Calcasieu Meir’s ourselves factual opinion of Yasser Arafat. confronted by the issue of civil events that took place in Charlottesville served found Region. rights, and embarked on a Henderson mission to ensure as a reminder of how painfully relevant these Marriott the fair treatment of all peoples no matter their issues are today.

Lt Col-U.S. Army-Ret Blessed Are You O G-D, skin color.

Although we’ve made great strides, U.S. Dept of State-(Ret) Who Gives Strength to the weary.

Auburn’s Alpha Epsilon Pi stands with the it is a mission we’re still grappling with today.

Northport, Ala. Jewish community of Charlottesville, and

In This Time of Need

letters

Blessed Arearound You O G-D, with the Jewish people the country All.stand with the and around the Protector world. Weofalso Amen. by the hate that minorities who are targeted was on display in Charlottesville. We stand Rabbi Barry,of Linda and Amy Weinstein with the minorities whom these white 4

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events

Rabbi Michael Cohen leads the fifth and sixth grade students at Metairie’s Jewish Community Day School as they were joined by Hugo Kahn for a Tashlich ceremony at the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The ceremony was broadcast back to the rest of the school on Zoom.

Return to NOLA for Erica Golden as Center for Interfaith Families’ first director Erica Golden has been selected as the first executive director of the groundbreaking Sherry and Alan Leventhal Family Foundation Center for Interfaith Families at the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans.

The Center, one of two new Centers of Excellence announced by the Federation in January, will provide a centralized resource and support system for interfaith partnerships and families in Greater New Orleans. According to the latest research from the Pew Center, interfaith marriages now affect 58 percent of the entire Jewish community.

“Our hope is that Jewish interfaith couples and families in New Orleans find a welcoming manner in which to explore their Jewish values and traditions,” said Sherry and Alan Leventhal, in a statement earlier this year announcing the creation of the Center.

“I could not be more thrilled to be returning to New Orleans as the executive director of the Leventhal Center,” said Golden, a 2015 Tulane graduate. “I am eager to join the Jewish Federation, the Leventhals, and the wider community on a mission driven journey that is sure to leave a lasting impact on Jewish New Orleans.”

The other new Center is the Goldring Family Foundation Center for Jewish-Multicultural Af-

fairs, which is headed by Mithun Kamath, and focuses on the Jewish community’s relations with the African-America and Latin-American communities, LGBTQ outreach and multi-faith relations.

The Leventhal Center will formally launch next month. It is supported by a three-year gift from the Sherry and Alan Leventhal Family Foundation. The Center is co-chaired by Teri Hunter and Alex Gershanik, who oversaw a national search for an executive director, drawing over 80 applicants.

After earning a double-major bachelor’s degree from Tulane in 2015, Golden earned a master’s degree from Tulane in Behavioral Health Psychology in 2016, followed by a Master’s of Social Work and a Certificate in Jewish Leadership from the University of Michigan.

During her time in New Orleans, Golden worked at Slater Torah Academy, and was actively involved in Chabad at Tulane, Tulane Hillel and Tulane’s Jewish Studies department. She has worked with numerous Jewish community organizations across the country, most recently serving as the youth engagement director at Temple Beth Am in Miami. In that position, Erica worked with hundreds of young congregants and their families, many of whom are interfaith families.

“We could not be more delighted with our good fortune” in bringing Golden back to the city, enthused Hunter.

Golden “is warm, genuine, joyful, creative, and motivated. With a background in Jewish education, family programming, social work, and Jewish leadership — and with strong ties to the New Orleans community, Erica is everything we dreamed of when we started imagining who would take the helm of this new center. We’re incredibly grateful to our search committee for their efforts.”

Gershanik emphasized the importance of interfaith support in New Orleans. “The opening of this Center is a watershed event in the history of the Greater New Orleans Jewish community.

For generations, members of the New Orleans community have yearned for education and support in navigating the opportunities and the challenges of interfaith relationships. Thanks to the generosity of the Leventhal family, this center will be positioned to provide nurturing and inclusive opportunities for people of all backgrounds to explore and connect to Jewish values, traditions, experiences, holidays, and culture in an open environment.”

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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agenda Jewish-Multicultural Center officially launches with several events The Goldring Family Foundation Center for Jewish-Multicultural Affairs, one of two new “Centers of Excellence” at the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, officially launched on Oct.1.

The Center, which fosters relations between the local Jewish community and the local African-American, Latin-American, and Multi-Faith communities as well as enhancing opportunities for the LGBTQ Jewish community, announced several programs for its initial couple of weeks.

The Center is continuing the Federation’s partnership with WBOK radio (1230-AM) to highlight and explore Jewish/African-American relations, with “Shalom: A Cross-Cultural Conversation,” co-hosted by Federation CEO Arnie Fielkow and Oliver Thomas. On Oct. 8 at 8 a.m., they will welcome Anthony Bean of the Anthony Bean Community Theater to preview an episode of his show “Reality Teen Talk TV.” The sixth episode of the seven-part series, airing on WUPT-TV (Channel 54), will feature six Jewish teens and six African-American teens engaging in an honest discussion on issues of race, culture, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and their communities’ commonalities and differences. It will air on Oct. 11 at 12:30 p.m.

On Oct. 12 at 5:30 p.m., the Center will host a virtual event in partnership with Puentes New Orleans, “Crossing Bridges: the Latinx and Jewish Immigration Experiences,” recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month. Thie virtual story-telling event will include Latinx students who recently arrived in the United States, a brief historical overview of Jewish immigration, and a presentation from New Orleans’ own Anne Levy, a Holocaust survivor.

A virtual Civil and Human Rights Mission, geared toward middle and high school students but open to the entire Greater New Orleans community, is planned for December, with topics including: the Holocaust;

6 October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement; ongoing humanitarian crises around the globe; and the uptick in hate crimes targeting vulnerable populations, from the Latinx experience to the LGBTQ community.

The Center is led by an advisory council, chaired by Bradley Bain and Ina Davis, and Executive Director Mithun Kamath. The Center was made possible by a gift from the Goldring Family Foundation, which has funded it as a three-year pilot program. The other Center is the Sherry and Alan Leventhal Family Foundation Center for Interfaith Families.

SJHS holds online history programs

The Southern Jewish Historical Society will have a series of SJHS@ Home events in October, digitally hosted by the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson. The programs are free, but registration is required.

The series starts with “A Virtual Southern Jewish Museum,” with Anna Tucker, co-sponsored by the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, Oct. 12 at 5 p.m. Central. Register at tinyurl.com/sjhsmuseum.

On Oct. 19 at 5 p.m., “Distinctive or Typical: Baltimore and the Writing of Urban Jewish History” will feature Eric Goldstein and Deb Weiner, winners of the 2019 SJHS Book Award. Register at tinyurl.com/sjhsurban.

Marcie Cohen Ferris and Margaret Norman will lead “SJHS in the Kitchen: A Southern Jewish Cooking Demo,” Oct. 26 at 5 p.m. Register at tinyurl.com/sjhskitchen.

Barbara Tahsler, president of SJHS, said “since we are unable to hold our conference in Charleston, S.C. this year, we decided to schedule these weekly programs just to give a taste of exploring Southern Jewish history and culture together.”

agenda Florida approves pro-Israel specialty plate, pre-orders start soon Supporters of Israel in Florida can show their drive, thanks to legislation authorizing the issuance of a Florida Stands with Israel specialty license plate.

The bill was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Sept. 18 as part of a bill that authorized 32 new plate designs, including university plates for Georgia, Alabama and Auburn, the “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Special Olympics, “In God We Trust,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” “Beat Childhood Cancer” and Fallen Law Enforcement. The bill also caps the state’s specialty tags at 150 and establishes procedures for phasing out underperformers.

New plates must have 3,000 pre-orders for production to begin. A portion of the revenue from the Israel tags will go to the first-responder group Hatzalah of Miami-Dade.

In Florida, most specialty tags are an extra $25 per year, and gift certificates are available for specialty plates.

The overall bill was sponsored by Rep. Jamie Grant, and incorporated a separate bill for just the Israel tag, sponsored by House Minority Leader Kionne L. McGhee and Rep. Scott Plakon.

In a joint statement, McGhee and Plakon said “this shows that our relationship with the State of Israel touches upon many of Florida’s most vital interests, values, and ideals. Accordingly, the overwhelming majority of Floridians support this special relationship and now have a wonderful way to celebrate it.”

Plakon added that he couldn’t think of a sweeter way to wish Florida’s Jewish community “a Shana Tova – Happy New Year!”

The Israeli-American Council thanked DeSantis and the legislature “for this heartwarming expression of solidarity, which affirms the strong bond between the State of Florida’s citizens and the Jewish State of Israel.”

The IAC will oversee a 30-day contest for the design of the plate, coordinated by Artists 4 Israel. After a panel of judges decides on the winner, the IAC will embark on a campaign to promote pre-orders.

IAC Board Member and IAC for Action Board Chairman Shawn Evenhaim said “this kind of warmth is why Florida has always been a leading destination for Israeli-Americans. This gesture celebrates a long and close relationship.”

In 2019, DeSantis took a highly-touted trade mission to Israel.

South Carolina also has an Israel license plate available.

MSJE hosts program on Jewish Home The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience will have an online conversation with Marlene Trestman, “The New Orleans Jewish Orphans Home,” Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. Trestman, who previously wrote about Home alumna and Supreme Court advocate Bessie Margolin, is the author of the forthcoming “Most Fortunate Unfortunates: New Orleans’ Jewish Orphans Home 1855-1946.” Her biography of Margolin was just released in paperback by LSU Press.

She and Museum Curator Anna Tucker will discuss the Home’s history and some of the artifacts that were selected for the museum’s opening exhibitions. She also will discuss Margolin’s legacy in light of the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The program is free, but registration is required for the Zoom broadcast. It will also be available on the museum’s Facebook Live, facebook. com/msjenola.

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The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans announced that due to Covid, the next class of the Katz-Phillips Leadership Development Program will be delayed by a year.

Instead of starting in fall 2021, the next class will begin in fall 2022 and graduate in 2024.

The current class, which began in 2019, will graduate in May 2021.

Starting Oct. 12, Mondays at Jewish Community Day School are Saints days, for students to wear their black and gold. Students are also encouraged to bring $1 for Hurricane Laura relief.

The Threefoot Marriott, a new hotel that is resurrecting the Jewish-built landmark in downtown Meridian, has pushed its opening to January or February, due to shortages brought on by the pandemic. Previously, the plan was to open in November or December.

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans will launch a new online grief support group, meeting Wednesdays at 5 p.m. from Oct. 7 to Nov. 11. “Building Meaning: Life After Loss” will include coping skills, explore meaning and finding community. Registration is $50 for all six sessions. Register by emailing colin@ jfsneworleans.org or calling (504) 831-8475.

The Greater New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women will have its general meeting on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, who is the national NCJW scholar in residence, will lead a discussion about “Uncomfortable Conversations about Race: Racism and Ourselves.” Registration is available on the NCJW website.

Jewish Community Day School in Metairie is holding a virtual Open House, Oct. 18 at noon.

The monthly joint Shabbat service between the two Baton Rouge congregations will be Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. B’nai Israel will host in their Zoom room, and Beth Shalom Rabbi Teri Appleby will deliver the message.

The Uptown Jewish Community Center in New Orleans will hold a non-partisan session, “The 2020 Election and the Jewish Vote,” with Steven Windmueller, a specialist on political issues and Jewish affairs. Windmueller has served as a consultant and program resource specialist to a wide array of Jewish institutions.

The Zoom program will be on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m.

Tomas Martin of Loyola University will present “Medieval Manuscripts of the Marciana Library in Venice, Italy: The Song of Roland,” Oct. 20 at 11 a.m. as part of the Morris Bart Sr. Lecture from the Uptown Jewish Community Center in New Orleans. The Zoom presentation is open to the community, with advance registration.

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

Rabbi Mendel Danow of Chabad of Pensacola brings their large outdoor Chanukah menorah inside as Hurricane Sally approaches

Hurricane Sally puts damper on Rosh Hashanah along the coast “Minor leaks” at Pensacola congregations, but many community members face rebuilding Sixteen years to the day after Hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Florida, Hurricane Sally slowly made her way ashore in Orange Beach on Sept. 16, bringing flooding and a lot of wind to the same areas.

The storm, with sustained winds of around 100 miles per hour, was a category 2 storm, but because it moved slowly, the winds persisted for hours, along with torrential rain that caused massive flooding, such as in downtown Pensacola.

Pensacola had over 24 inches of rain and its third-highest storm surge, at over 5 feet. Orange Beach had 30 inches of rain, and Mobile had 5 inches.

The Jewish institutions in the region had little damage, but as the storm came ashore less than three days before Rosh Hashanah, the already-unique plans had to be altered in many cases. Planned virtual services, due to Covid-19, were more difficult due to power outages and spotty Internet in some areas.

Jerry Gordon, president of B’nai Israel in Pensacola, said they had “easily fixable” damage in the foyer, but no leaks in the sanctuary, hallway and auditorium. With a curfew imposed for three days starting on Sept.

17, and no power at the shul, Gordon said they would not be able to have Rosh Hashanah evening services under their planned protocol.

Temple Beth El, just up the hill from Pensacola’s flooded downtown, did not flood. Rabbi Joel Fleekop said there were some “minor leaks, nothing that can’t be repaired,” but the congregation’s cemetery had significant damage. “Institutionally, that has been our biggest blow,” with many majestic old trees being felled in the storm. A tree service had to go in and make the site safe before damage could be assessed.

Many members “had a lot of damage to their homes” and will be rebuilding for months, Fleekop said. “Some had wind damage, some had flooding, a lot of trees down.”

Another challenge for Beth El will be the damage to Bay Bridge, which connects Gulf Breeze to downtown Pensacola. Many Beth El members, along with the Fleekops, rely on the bridge, which will be out for a couple of months. “In terms of community, that is a big fracture,” Fleekop said, as “people are cut off from each other.” The 15-minute commute is now over an hour.

Last year, a bad wreck shut down the Bay Bridge on the afternoon leading into Rosh Hashanah, causing Fleekop to take a boat across the bay to get to services on time. “It has been a very adventurous 5780.”

Because of widespread power and Internet outages, “it didn’t make sense to do a full service,” even virtually, he said. They did 30-minute

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miniature services on Facebook and the Beth El website “so people can watch them as they get power.”

The services were done with “partial power” at Beth El, and relying on Fleekop’s phone for Internet access. Several members helped with recording service segments on Sept. 18, and Fleekop said it was inspiring to see “the level and commitment and service” by those who “put the community above their personal needs.”

Not all of the Shanah Tovah bags for Beth El members could be delivered before the storm, and they hoped to have the rest delivered by Yom Kippur.

After the storm, Rabbi Mendel Danow of Chabad of Pensacola said “our distribution center is preparing to help people who need water, food, generators and basic needs. Our volunteers will be helping many with the overwhelming tasks of cleaning and restoration.”

The new Chabad center had parts of the roof blown off, leading to leaks throughout the house. An online campaign was launched to raise the $70,000 it will take to fix the roof and the rest of the house, and provide a temporary place for the Danows to live.

Chabad had planned to hold outdoor Rosh Hashanah services in a new tent, and power was restored during Rosh Hashanah. Before the holiday, they delivered dozens of Rosh Hashanah boxes around the community, despite the lack of power.

In Mobile, Springhill Avenue Temple — which was damaged in a 2012 tornado — did not have significant damage by Sally, but according to Larry Miller, who tends the congregation’s garden, the figs, pomegranates and pears blew away.

Because of power outages, Rosh Hashanah services were delayed until Sept. 21 at 7 p.m. and Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. on Zoom. Rabbi Natan Trief came in from Atlanta to do the online service at the congregation’s sanctuary, though congregants were not attending in person.

Ahavas Chesed in Mobile held its online services, though they had “a power sputter in rehearsal damaging the new audio system and streaming computer.”

At Chabad of Mobile, they were grateful for “the tree that did not fall on our house” and were preparing for a Rosh Hashanah dinner for just the four of them, without electricity, but still holding in-person outdoor services over the weekend.

In Panama City, which was hard-hit by Hurricane Michael in October 2018, Robert Goetz reported that B’nai Israel had no visible damage and the Torahs were secure. There was some flooding in the parking lot.

Similarly, there was no damage reported at Beth Shalom in Fort Walton Beach.

community

Aid programs seek to assist those affected by Hurricane Laura Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans has set up an online page detailing relief availability for those in Lake Charles and Alexandria who were affected by Hurricane Laura.

Hurricane Laura came ashore near Cameron around 2 a.m. on Aug. 27, with winds of about 150 miles per hour, making it a Category 4 storm and the strongest to hit the state since the mid-19th century.

Temple Sinai in Lake Charles was heavily damaged in Hurricane Laura, and many members had severe damage to their homes. There was also widespread damage in Alexandria, with Gemiluth Chassodim having numerous leaks and windows blown out.

Applications are being accepted for the Jewish Louisiana Hurricane Laura Relief Fund, which will provide need-based grants to eligible households in the two communities.

The assistance is available as grants to reimburse residents for paid expenses.

Jewish households around Lake Charles may also be eligible for a stipend.

To be eligible, one must have been a resident of the affected areas on Aug. 27, have been affected by hurricane Laura, be a member of a

Jewish household, complete an application with documentation of expenses, and participate in an intake call with a JFS case manager.

The one time grants are for uninsured repairs, replacing destroyed furniture, providing food and assistance for temporary housing. There is no automatic entitlement to the aid, and a committee will review each application.

The Lake Charles stipend of up to $750 is available for every adult in a Jewish household in the greater Lake Charles area. Applications are due by Oct. 30, but may be extended as Internet access is still sporadic. Stipend applications can also be done over the phone.

The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans has raised over $200,000 so far for Hurricane Laura relief, with a large portion going to JFS for allocation. The New Orleans, Baton Rouge and North Louisiana Federations are continuing the fundraising effort.

JCRS Launches Disaster Aid Program With the help of a matching gift through the end of the year, the New Orleans-based Jewish Children’s Regional Service is establishing the Disaster Relief Emergency Aid Matching Pro-

Henry S. Jacobs Camp Development Director Jacob Fijman and Operations Director Nadav Herman volunteer with Nechama gram to assist families experiencing extreme financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, flooding and other crises.

Michael Goldman of New Orleans, who is treasurer of JCRS and as a longtime member of Temple Sinai in Lake Charles, said “this relief program is vitally important as so many families have been impacted by the economic downturn caused by the pandemic and in the wake of recent extreme weather events. I know many

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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community Jewish families that can use some financial relief. Who better than JCRS to step in and bridge the gap?”

In addition to funding camp scholarships for Jewish youth in its seven-state region and providing college aid, the agency works with families that have ongoing special needs.

Lorne Abony of Austin, Tex., has agreed to match total donations made to the DREAM Program through the end of the year, up to $36,000.

With the matching gift challenge, JCRS hopes to raise a minimum of $100,000 to provide aid and relief to Jewish children and families experiencing hardship during periods of extreme economic challenges, unemployment, natural disasters, and social isolation.

Disaster Relief funds will be approved for families Drying out Temple Sinai in Lake Charles with minor children who demonstrate need from within the region. They will be given as direct monetary grants, reimbursement for extraordinary expenses in relation to the crisis, or in the form of gift cards to retailers such as Wal-Mart. Financial assistance within this program will be time-limited and support to families may be one-time or carried out over a period of months.

Some families in the Lake Charles area have already received gift cards from JCRS following Hurricane Laura.

To make a qualifying matching gift or for more information about the program, contact Mark Rubin or Ned Goldberg at the JCRS office. They can be reached at (800) 729-5277.

Nechama in Lake Charles Nechama Jewish Response to Disaster mobilized to Lake Charles on Sept. 1, assessing needs and starting to work on relief efforts. Through the end of September, the agency had assisted 23 Lake Charles families with gutting their homes, along with debris and tree removal. They have logged over 800 volunteer hours, with 20 additional homes assessed and requesting assistance.

The team was initially housed at First Presbyterian Church of Lafayette. Missions on Wheels recently provided two RVs to house the Nechama teams. They had to pause work when Hurricane Sally and Tropical Storm Beta threatened the area.

Nechama volunteer Sabine Taras Thompson said “the pandemic has reshaped the ability of disaster relief organizations have to responsibly take on large numbers of volunteers, and with the lack of media attention this disaster has gotten, many homeowners are facing longer wait times to receive help.”

Nadav Herman and Jacob Fijman from the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica went to Lake Charles to assist. Volunteers “learn real-life skills in the field and do some fantastic work AND regain your faith in humanity,” Herman said. “The days can be dark in the world right now – Nechama is the light in the world.”

According to Nechama, “there is a need for us to be in the Lake Charles area for at least a couple of months,” but how long they are able to stay 12

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

community depends on donations they receive.

The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans will be coordinating volunteers with Nechama as needed, with the first effort scheduled for Oct. 18, depending on what happens with Hurricane Delta. “If not that Sunday, then the Sunday after,” said Tana Velen.

Velen said the young professionals group, JNOLA, and the New Orleans area congregations will have a bus for up to 20 volunteers, leaving Metairie at 7 a.m. and returning by 7 p.m. It will be a school bus so the windows can be down as part of the social distancing protocol. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for the volunteers.

Volunteers will help with “high priority cases,” including clearing yards, mucking homes and small demolitions.

The group had previously volunteered with Nechama after the 2016 flooding in Baton Rouge.

The Federation is also coordinating local volunteerism, working with organizations like NOLA Ready Volunteer Corps and Second Harvest Food Bank that help evacuees who are now in New Orleans.

Rebuilding in Lake Charles Goldman said initial repairs are underway at the Temple Sinai’s historic building. High-power dryers are working in the sanctuary while repair work begins elsewhere in the building.

The library was “torn apart” by the storm, with books and papers everywhere. Classroom windows were blown out, and a new roof is needed.

They had been working on a new ceiling, which was two-thirds complete and now will likely need to be redone.

The congregation is facing an insurance deductible of around $66,000 for the building itself, not including furnishings.

In response to Hurricane Harvey in October 2017, JCRS delivered 115 Chanukah boxes for Greater Houston children, families and special needs adults. Pictured are Melanie Musser, JCRS Houston area service coordinator, Ned Goldberg, JCRS executive director, and Lu Dorfman, former Beth Yeshurun executive director.

Rabbi Barry Weinstein, who had just been named resident rabbi at Temple Sinai after commuting from Baton Rouge as visiting rabbi for a decade, said the congregation’s damaged books are being gathered for eventual burial. The Torahs had been removed and are now being housed at Touro Synagogue in New Orleans.

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community

Beth Israel, Jackson

Distanced, yet social: Birmingham’s Beth-El takes High Holy Days to the gardens

By Marc Rice

Special to Southern Jewish Life

Touro Synagogue, New Orleans

Beth Or, Montgomery

Beth El, Pensacola

B’nai Zion, Shreveport

Temple Sinai, New Orleans

14 Chesed, October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life Ahavas Mobile

Along with the prayer, reflection and repentance that traditionally mark the Jewish High Holidays, innovation has now become an imperative. With online services the norm during this time of pandemic, many wondered how to overcome the resulting lack of social interaction as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur approached.

Birmingham’s Temple BethEl, a Conservative congregation, met the challenge by figuring out how to create a safe, outdoor in-person experience to celebrate the Jewish New Year 5781 when medical experts advised against having any form of in-person services at the synagogue.

Dalia Abrams does parts of the traditional morning Rabbi Stephen Slater, who service at the first stop on the Rosh Hashanah walk at the conceived this approach, said Birmingham Botanical Gardens the past six months made it clear to him and his staff that there is no substitute Bethany Slater, Beth-El’s director of programfor physical presence. But he was stuck on how ming and Jewish education, said the organizers to bring people together without endangering drew on both the ancient Jewish pilgrimage tratheir health. dition and the Hasidic practice of “hitbodedut,” “Then I realized I just needed to lean into the a prayerful walk in nature. pandemic, to work with it instead of against it,” “It reminded me of the days when I lived in he said.

Jerusalem, when I would walk to services and Slater also took inspiration from the words see other Jews, walking to or from their synaof Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who partic- gogues. We had a profound feeling of togetheripated in the March 21, 1965, Selma to Mont- ness,” she said. gomery civil rights march, describing it as a way She noted that congregants were joined by to “pray with his feet.”

Christian clergy, including the Rev. Terry ElliThus, the “Praying With Our Feet” services son from Montgomery, and Birmingham Mayor were held for Rosh Hashanah at the Birming- Randall Woodfin, symbolizing a broader comham Botanical Gardens, drawing about 440 mitment to the welfare of the community. people for holiday prayers. A similar approach Adding to the beauty of the occasion, the secwas taken for Yom Kippur services. ond-day Rosh Hashanah service included the Planned with creativity, care and commit- sounding of the shofar, which could be heard ment by the Beth-El staff, and supplemented by across the park. online elements, the program enabled congreAny anxiety over whether coronavirus congants to gather in a meaningful way at a time cerns would diminish this year’s holiday were when traditional synagogue services are not thus overcome. As the hot Alabama summer possible because of the dangers posed by the waned, mild temperatures in the mid-70s didn’t pandemic. hurt, either.

“I feel I haven’t lacked for anything in regard to spiritual fulfillment this holiday,” said attendOn the cover: Alejandra Colon Lopez and ee Bernard Axel.

Yihsrael Velez Alicea do the shofar service “I was dreading this holiday because I just at Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens on the wasn’t feeling it,” added Esther Schuster. “Until second day of Rosh Hashanah. Photo by I got to the Botanical Gardens. The thought, the Audrey Nicole Photography. details, the relevance of every piece from begin-

ning to end overwhelmed me and grabbed me.

You gave me Rosh Hashana in all its beauty and meaning.”

The family-oriented Botanical Gardens services included a three-quarter-mile walking path with a series of stations allowing for prayer and reflection. The program book provided prayers, poetry and prompts that formed the basis for the reflection at the gardens. Stations included traditional elements like Torah reading, holiday songs and Kaddish. There were eight stations on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, then two — shofar blowing and a visit to the Garden beehives — were added for the second day.

As plans were formulated, there was a desire to have the usual open-ark experience at the end of Yom Kippur, but even that was deemed inadvisable. Instead, the congregation’s portable ark was brought to the Gardens and those on the walk could have a moment of private contemplation in front of the ark.

There were also unique elements like reflections with the aid of Bonsai trees, provided by congregant Doug Unkenholz, and “intention stones” to carry and help focus one’s thoughts.

Throughout, social distancing was observed, with masks required and admissions staggered to minimize crowding.

For those unable to do the walk, there was a livestream of the service, followed by parts of a more traditional morning service that can be done without a minyan, pre-recorded in the sanctuary.

Rabbi Slater’s sermon for Rosh Hashana summed up his intentions.

“We need to walk into a new year, a fresh beginning. For this reason, I wanted us to gather together, and to include our neighboring ministers from outside of our tradition, to join in this

ISJL, Jackson

B’nai Israel, Florence

The Ivker family led Torah reading at the Gardens, giving everyone the opportunity for a distanced aliyah at the foot of the stairs. prayer walk. Let heaven hear us say, that we are throwing out the sins and the sadness of the past year. We want to begin again together.

“May we begin again, with dedication, and love, and deeper unity. As we walk our way through this pandemic, may God give us the fortitude, and the inspiration to keep reaching out, to keep connecting, to keep listening and learning. Here in Birmingham, Alabama, we live in a holy place. A place where a holy community can walk together with God. Let us bring our hearts and thoughts back to our city and prepare ourselves to walk together with all her citizens, to walk in prayer, and in peace and in justice with our fellow man.”

Alabama joint Selichot service Zoombombed with antisemitic, racist messages For most of the pandemic, congregations in Dothan, Auburn, Montgomery, Mobile and Tallahassee have held a joint musical Zoom Havdalah that has been a time of respite and comraderie.

That calm was shattered during a Havdalah Selichot gathering on Sept. 12 as a couple of unidentified individuals “Zoombombed” the service with racist, homophobic and antisemitic slurs.

Visitors identifying with screen names such as “Jack Greenberg” and “Abba” posted Hitler imagery, wrote comments like “kill all faggots jews n--- monkeys” in the chat, and repeatedly interrupted the event with obscenities, “shut up Jew” and “take a shower.”

Rabbi Scott Kramer of Agudath Israel-Etz Ahayem in Montgomery, one of the organizers, said the incident stunned and shook the participants, and he had never experienced anything like that.

Footage was forwarded to the FBI and Secure Communities Network, along with the Anti-Defamation League.

The Jewish Federation of Central Alabama said they were “sickened” by the incident, which is a reminder “that antisemitism and bigotry are not threats of the distant past, but a harsh reality that we must vigilantly guard against every day.”

Federation President Phillip Ensler said people have targeted Jews throughout history.

“We have not only survived these traumas but continue to thrive because we stick together as a community. We will do the same this time and focus on making the world an even more accepting and loving place in the new year.”

As for the Havdalah sessions — they continue, but the links are sent only to those who are known to the organizers, and additional safeguards have been put in place.

Beth Shalom, Baton Rouge

Agudath Israel/Etz Ahayem, Montgomery

Beth Israel, Metairie

Springhill Avenue Temple, Mobile

Temple Shalom, Lafayette

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

15

community Avodah honorees focus on addiction recovery, voting rights

P R O S E C U T O R . P U B L I C S E R VA N T. Chris Cox is well-prepared for the bench. He served as the Jefferson Parish Executive Assistant District Attorney, an Assistant United States Attorney, the Chief Operating Officer of Jefferson Parish, and an Adjunct Professor at Tulane Law School. He is a principled attorney who will preserve the rule of law. Chris Cox will be a disciplined jurist who thrives on legal precision. Jefferson Parish will be safer and stronger with him as Judge.

Despite a double hurricane bearing down on the area, Avodah New Orleans took time to celebrate activists in addiction recovery and voting registration, at its annual Partners In Justice awards.

Because of Covid, the event was held online on Aug 23. Honorees were Walton and Jeff Goldring, Sylvia Finger and Jill Israel.

Local board chair Gail Chalew thanked the 80 or so on the Zoom call for taking time from their preparations for Hurricanes Laura and Marco to “focus on social justice for an hour” and “honor the passion and commitment” of the honorees and the 11 young people who spend a year in New Orleans, working at anti-poverty organizations.

Avodah recruits young Jewish adults to live in a communal setting for a year, matching them with non-profits, having a “significant impact on the well-being of the greater New Orleans community.” Each organization benefits by having “an amazing corps member as staff, at an annual savings of $20,000.”

Chalew added that two-thirds of the participants “fall in love with New Orleans and stay, enriching the New Orleans Jewish community in the process.”

Avodah National CEO Cheryl Cook said she missed not being able to make the annual trip to New Orleans for the event.

When Avodah expanded into New Orleans after Katrina, “we found a community committed to overcome,” Cook said. With Covid and the fight for racial justice across the country now, “the resilience and care we saw in New Orleans is the resilience and care we need in our country right now.”

Dani Levine, former New Orleans director of Avodah and now the national service corps director, said it is “deeply meaningful to see how the community in New Orleans shows up, even in the midst of a pending double hurricane.”

Half-way through the year for this class of corps members, “all of a sudden everything changes” with Covid and the racial demonstrations. The anti-poverty issues the corps members work on “didn’t go away, in fact they became even more pressing… a matter of life and death in many cases.”

Despite the pandemic, a new group of corps members was preparing to arrive. “They are coming to serve our community,” Levine said, “learning what it means to be a Jewish justice leader.”

Temple Sinai Rabbi Daniel Sherman and Rabbi Emeritus Edward Cohn spoke of the “selfless dedication” of the Goldrings in supporting those in recovery. They noted that a translation for Avodah is “worship,” and “surely the two of you, by pointing out the importance of a higher power, are helping change people’s lives for the better.”

The Goldrings spoke of their struggles with addiction and their “long-

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

Avodah New Orleans corps members from 2019-20

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

17

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH community H H H H Restoring H H recovery.” Jeff GolH term H dring said his addiction Rebuilding H started at age 15 and he H H didn’t get sober until he H 33. He originally felt H Renewing H was “because I graduated from H high school and college H H and went to work every H Healing H day and put on a suit, evH was okay. I found H erything H out it wasn’t. It took two H Louisiana and Our Nation H treatments and me going H through a lot of pain and H H consequences, a lot of H Lee Ann Dugas H prodding from my family.”

H He tells his story in the Congressional District 1 H hopes H that “it helps get H Phone: (504)466-9105 Manager: (504) 430-4394 H rid of the stigma that is H put on drug addicts and H Facebook: Dugas 4 Congress ” Because of the H alcoholics.

H stigma, people don’t want Top: Walton and Jeff Goldring. Lower left, Twitter: @LeeDugas2001 H to talk about the subject, Sylvia Finger. Right, Jill Israel.

H Donations via Paypal.com with Ldugas2001@cox.net H but relating his story allows him to help other people.

H Email: Ldugas2001@cox.net H Walton Goldring said people approach her because they know she is H and broussardhhh@yahoo.com H sober. “They know I am willing to talk to someone and if they have a H in their family, they can talk to me.” She said arresting addicts Website: COMING SOON!!!

H person H “doesn’t stop anything. It just perpetuates it” and society should give HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH them a chance by showing what recovery is.

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

She said sharing about their recovery matches Avodah’s values. “Removing stigmas and letting people know there is a chance to get better is vital.”

In honoring Finger and Israel, the partnership between the National Council of Jewish Women’s New Orleans Section and the League of Women Voters was celebrated.

Judge Miriam Waltzer, who was an honoree in 2019, said Finger and Israel are “both most deserving recipients… their strength of character and their unwavering service to our community and our country is an example to us all, how we have to repair a broken world.”

Waltzer said she was inspired by young adults who rallied after the massacre at Stoneman Douglas School, and felt “we need to encourage youth voter registration.”

A partnership emerged between the organizations, with Finger chairing NCJW’s voter rights and mobilization efforts, while Israel chairs the league’s voter services committee. The two created a coalition of nonprofit groups, Engaging New Voices and Voters. The coalition has registered about 9,000 new voters as of August.

“Our vote is our voice, and we must work to ensure nothing can silence it,” said Waltzer.

Finger said she was born in South Africa when the nationalist party came into power and instituted apartheid. “The right to vote is the absolute foundation of any democracy,” she said.

The coalition aims to register voters, educate them and help them get out and vote. She spoke of an 89 year old who had never voted because no one had ever reached out to help him register.

“Voting is the most concrete thing we can do to participate in our democracy,” Finger said.

In addition to the voting effort, Israel serves on numerous community boards and shares the ADL development committee where she expanded the reach of the No Place for Hate program.

community Study: Low Holocaust awareness among young adults in the region

A commitment to care.

From SJL and JNS reports Several states in the region were among the bottom of the rankings when Millennials and Generation Z members, ages 18 to 39, were asked about the Holocaust.

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as Claims Conference, commissioned the firm Schoen Cooperman Research to conduct the first-ever nationwide survey on Holocaust knowledge and awareness among millennials and Generation Z in each of the 50 states.

Schoen Cooperman Research conducted interviews in March with a total of 11,000 Millennials and Gen Z in all 50 states to determine which states had higher rates of awareness about the Holocaust.

“Holocaust Knowledge Scores” were assigned based on the percentage of those who met three criteria: They have “definitely heard” about the Holocaust, can name at least one concentration camp, death camp or ghetto, and know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Wisconsin had the highest level of awareness, at 42 percent, followed

by Minnesota, Massachusetts and Maine.

At the bottom of the rankings, Arkansas came in last with 17 percent.

Mississippi was next with 18 percent, then Florida at 20 percent. Georgia, Hawaii and Louisiana tied for 45th with 21 percent, and New York was among four states tied at 41st.

Alabama and Tennessee were among those tied at 32nd with 24 percent.

Nationally, 63 percent could not identify from a list of six options ranging from 25,000 to 20 million that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Thirty-six percent selected 2 million or fewer.

“The survey is the beginning of a conversation we must all have, not the end,” Matthew Bronfman, who chaired the Claims Conference task force behind the survey, told JNS. “It raises many questions and highlights many areas where scholarly and empirical research is required.

Having said that, we are now eight decades past the Holocaust. The world has made a promise to Holocaust survivors to ‘never forget,’ but perhaps inevitably, the world has moved on.”

He added that “it’s understandable that people might focus on their immediate concerns. But the lessons of the Holocaust have eternal value—not only for the victims and their families, not only for the Jewish community, but for humanity.”

“The dual crisis of critical knowledge gaps, plus broad exposure to distortion and denial on the social-media apps that young Americans frequent, was the most alarming finding of the survey,” Arielle Confino, senior vice president at Schoen Cooperman, told JNS. “Social-media platforms and apps like Facebook and TikTok are undoubtedly serving as platforms for this and are clearly having an impact.”

Nationally, 12 percent said they have not heard, or did not think they had heard, the word Holocaust before. About 15 percent said it is acceptable for someone to have neo-Nazi views.

Mississippi had the highest percentage of those who could not identify Auschwitz as a concentration camp, death camp or forced labor camp, at 56 percent. In addition, Mississippi was highest in those who could not name a single concentration camp, death camp or ghetto, at 60 percent.

Florida was third in those unable to identify Auschwitz, with 50 percent, Louisiana fifth at 48 percent and Alabama ninth at 44 percent.

Florida was third in the highest percentage of respondents who believe either that the Holocaust is a myth or that the numbers have been exaggerated, at 21 percent, tied with California. The highest Holocaust denial percentage was in New York, at 28 percent. Louisiana, home to Holocaust

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community denier David Duke, tied for eighth at 16 percent.

New York also topped states where respondents said that Jews caused the Holocaust, with 19 percent. Louisiana came in second with 16 percent, along with Tennessee. The question was open-ended with multiple responses allowed, and as an example, the Alabama responses were Hitler with 72 percent, the Nazis at 60 percent and Germany at 41 percent.

A few respondents said the United States, Israel, Palestine or President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In all, there were 30 questions about the Holocaust.

Questions included what war the Holocaust is associated with, and the Civil War and Vietnam received responses. Other questions listed figures associated with the Holocaust to assess whether respondents had heard of them, how the Holocaust happened, whether one had seen Holocaust denial material on social media, whether people talk too much about the Holocaust, and whether something like the Holocaust could happen again.

In general, just under 60 percent of respondents said there is antisemitism in the United States today, with around 10 percent saying there isn’t.

Most first heard about the Holocaust at school, generally middle school or junior high, with Anne Frank as the most common method.

A total of 80 percent agreed with the statement that “It is important to continue to teach about the Holocaust, in part, so it doesn’t happen again”; 64 percent believed Holocaust education should be compulsory at school; and 50 percent agreed that the lessons about the Holocaust are “mostly historically accurate, but could be better.”

In the Louisiana survey results, 52 percent said Holocaust education should be compulsory in school, while 7 percent disagreed. At a forum on Louisiana-Israel business ties last year, Governor John Bel Edwards was asked about Holocaust education in the state, and he said “we’re not doing a very good job of making sure people know,” and the fact that it is an uncomfortable subject “is probably more reason it needs to be taught, not less.”

Rev. Melissa Patrick, executive director of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, said results like this “are certainly related to the reason why we work so hard to train Alabama teachers in the history of the Holocaust, giving them tools to build their curricula, and engaging our Holocaust Survivors and their stories.”

In Alabama, over 1,500 teachers have undergone training in teaching the Holocaust, and 100,000 students exposed to those efforts. “These are students who – like this Claims Conference study reveals – might not otherwise learn about the Holocaust, and who most definitely encounter Holocaust denial via social media and other outlets,” she said.

Alabama has held a state commemoration since the George Wallace administration in the 1980s, reportedly the first state to do so. Held initially at the Governor’s Mansion each year, it moved to the State Capitol two decades ago.

The Alabama Holocaust Commission was established in 1999, and there is also a Gulf Coast Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education.

The Tennessee Holocaust Commission is one of the oldest and bestknown in the country, established in 1984.

The Arkansas Holocaust Education Committee holds a one-day educational program in a state where there is no mandate to teach about the Holocaust.

The Mississippi legislature approved a Holocaust commission in 2004.

There was a controversy when a “messianic” pastor was named to the commission, but after Hurricane Katrina struck the state in 2005, efforts to get the commission going waned.

Louisiana also does not have a state commission, but there are highly-visible Holocaust memorials in New Orleans and Alexandria, and upcoming expansion of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans will expand its exhibits dedicated to the Holocaust.

Honoring our healthcare heroes

The Touro Infirmary Foundation is privileged to present this year’s Judah Touro Society Award, recognizing courage and compassion, to the entire Touro staff for their heroic efforts in caring for our patients and the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’re celebrating – and we’re asking you to join us. Support our efforts by purchasing a Gala ticket or making a contribution to this year’s Gala initiative: Community Health and Equity Fund.

Virtual Gala, Thursday, November 19

For tickets and more information on the Touro Infirmary Foundation Gala, visit

touro.com/gala October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

21

community La. legislator tweets mural at center of antisemitism controversies

Thank You to my friends and supporters in the Jewish community

for your support Judge Sidney H. Cates, IV Orleans Civil Court Division C

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

A Louisiana State Senator who was criticized this summer for a Holocaust comparison in protesting against mask mandates has drawn attention for tweeting a mural that has been at the center of international antisemitism controversies. He quickly deleted the retweet.

On Sept. 2, Rep. Danny McCormick tweeted a version of “Freedom for Humanity,” a mural by American left-wing artist Kalen Ockerman, which showed a group of bankers drawn as Jewish stereotypes playing a game reminiscent of Monopoly with the board resting on the backs of hunched-over naked figures. The mural had been on a wall in east London and caused a controversy before it was removed.

Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labour party, opposed the mural’s removal in 2012, saying he could not see how the imagery could be construed as anti-Jewish. During the Labour antisemitism scandal in 2018, he apologized for those remarks, saying he had not looked closely at it.

Even the artist confirmed the intent, saying “Some of the older white Jewish folk in the local community had an issue with me portraying their beloved #Rothschild or #Warburg etc as the demons they are.”

The version tweeted by McCormick included the slogan “All we have to do is stand up,” and he commented that “public opinion controls politics.”

Rep. Mark Wright of Covington, also a Republican, tweeted that “Antisemitic imagery and language have no place in Louisiana politics.

I hope my House colleague did this unintentionally, but it needs to be taken down and repudiated.”

After being criticized for the tweet, McCormick removed it the next afternoon.

The South-Central Region office of the Anti-Defamation League said after two disturbing incidents, McCormick needs to “make clear he rejects these views. Now.” The ADL called on him “to use his elected office constructively, rather than as a platform to make hateful statements that target vulnerable communities and further the divide in our community.”

McCormick has been highly critical of mandates dealing with the Covid-19 situation, and launched Operation Golden Arrow “to re-open our state and restore liberty to Louisiana.” On Sept. 5, he posted a video asking for signatures on a petition to keep the state from mandating a Covid-19 vaccine “against your will.”

His previous controversy came when he posted a video to his Facebook page in early July. McCormick emphasized that “Masks aren’t bad. Mask mandates are.”

He said that the mandate was shredding the Constitution and individual liberty, and made the statement while firing up a chainsaw that he then directed toward a mask hanging next to him. “This isn’t about whether you want to wear a mask or you don’t want to wear a mask. This is about your right to wear a mask, or not,” he said.

Saying “government needed a villain,” he added, “People who don’t wear a mask will be soon painted as the enemy. Just as they did to Jews in Nazi Germany. Now is the time to push back before it is too late.”

At the time, he told KTBS that he was not talking about Jews, but about demonization and painting people as villains, “not that this is equal to the Holocaust.”

McCormick has not commented about the mural controversy.

community Jerusalem Post names Elaine Luria to 50 Most Influential Jews list Rep. Elaine Luria, a Birmingham native who represents Virginia’s second district in Congress, was named to the Jerusalem Post’s 2020 list of the 50 Most Influential Jews in the world.

Luria, who also has family in New Orleans, narrowly defeated incumbent Scott Taylor in 2018. A Democrat in a Republican-leaning district, she faces Taylor again in her re-election bid this year.

The list is actually 50 categories, some with two or three individuals named. Luria shares the Military Vets in Congress listing with Rep. Lee Zeldin, a New York Republican who saw four years of active duty in the U.S. Army, including time in Iraq.

The list is topped by “the peacemakers” who delivered the recent peace accords with United Arab Emirates and Bahrain — Special Adviser to the President Jared Kushner; Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen; Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer; Special Envoy for International Negotiations Avi Berkowitz; and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

Second on the list are top Jewish scientists working toward the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, Tal Zaks, chief scientist at Moderna, Inc.; Alexander Gintsburg, head of Moscow’s state-run Gamaleya Institute; and Shmuel Shapira, head of Israel’s Institute for Biological Research.

Also listed at No. 12 in the year of COVID are a group of Israel’s pandemic decision makers: Coronavirus Commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu; Health Minister Yuli Edelstein; Chairman of the Board of Assuta Medical Centers Shuki Shemer; and Hadassah Medical Center Chief Zeev Rotstein. And, at No. 13, are the two Israelis with senior positions at the World Health Organization: Dorit Nitzan and Sinaia Netanyahu.

Despite the pervasive nature of the pandemic in this year’s news, the Post “strived to create a list showcasing the diversity of the Jewish nation and highlighting people from all walks of life – government, art, medicine, literature and science.”

No. 50 is “Our Man in the NBA,” Deni Avdija, a Maccabi Tel Aviv star who is projected to be selected in the top 5 of this year’s NBA draft.

An Indian Springs alumna, Luria graduated from the Naval Academy in 1997 with a degree in physics and history. In 2019, Indian Springs named her alumna of the year.

After being commissioned, she served aboard the USS O’Brien, based in Yokosuka, Japan. When she entered the academy, women were not allowed to serve on combat ships, but that ban was lifted in 1995, and she became one of the first women able to serve her entire career on a ship.

When she retired in 2017 after 20 years of service, she was commander of Assault Craft Unit TWO. Under her command, the unit deployed to operations in Honduras, Panama and Norway, and humanitarian and disaster relief operations following Hurricanes Joaquin and Matthew.

In 2013, she also became a small businesswoman, establishing the Mermaid Factory in Norfolk, and later a second location in Virginia Beach.

Luria has been vocal about her support of Israel, calling out antisemitism “within our caucus” after fellow Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted antisemitic tropes about support for Israel. Citing her 20 years of service and sacrifice in the U.S. Navy, she addressed the dual loyalty charge from the House floor, not quite believing that this would have to be the topic of her first such remarks. Detailing her story, she repeatedly asked, “Is that not enough to prove my loyalty to our nation?”

Her first visit to Israel was with five other incoming representatives a few weeks before they were sworn in.

In July 2019, Tablet magazine did a profile, asking if Luria is “the Democratic Party’s next great Jewish hope.”

In a late 2019 video explaining her position on the impeachment of President Donald Trump, she held the Tanach that she had been given at her 1991 Confirmation at Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El.

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community Area JCCs partner with Atlanta Jewish Book Festival The Marcus Jewish Community Center in Atlanta always has a huge Jewish book festival for several weeks each year, with numerous authors making in-person appearances. This year, due to Covid-19, the “Live in your Living Room” festival is taking place online, with Birmingham’s Levite JCC and the New Orleans JCC as partners.

A complete list of programs is available on the calendar at the respective JCC websites, bhamjcc.org and nojcc.org, with links to sign up for individual events. Through the JCC Literary Consortium, participating local JCCs are supported when the local links are used for purchasing tickets.

There are options for just a virtual ticket, or in combination with a book that will be shipped after the individual event. Event recordings will be available for ticketholders for a limited time.

On Oct. 13, Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos will feature the latest in their long series of children’s biographies, “I Am Anne Frank” and “I Am Benjamin Franklin.” Previous biographies in the series include Helen Keller and Rosa Parks. Meltzer is former host of the television series “Decoded” and “Lost History.”

The program will be at 5:30 p.m.

On Oct. 15 at 7 p.m., CNN journalist Holly Firfer will interview shoe entrepreneur Steve Madden about his book, “The Cobbler: How I Disrupted an Industry, Fell From Grace, and Came Back Stronger Than ever.” Madden built his company into a billion-dollar brand, but he had to battle addiction and shortcuts that landed him in prison. In the book, he shares what he learned along the way and how he bounced back.

Comedy veteran Judy Gold presents “Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All In Trouble,” Oct. 22 at 7 p.m. She pres-

>> Amendment 5

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

by voters, they would be able to pay whatever amount they’re able to negotiate through special agreements called “cooperative endeavor agreements.” This new option would exist for a pretty select group – fewer than 1 percent of the state’s businesses.

Last year, a Louisiana corporation in Cameron Parish paid only about $38,000 in property taxes on its $12 billion in property. That’s 99.98 percent tax exemption, amounting to a tax rate of 0.0003 percent. A single refinery has more property exempted from taxation than the total of all the property exempted for every single business in the entire state of Texas. That’s a single facility out of 897 facilities exempted under this Industrial Tax Exemption Program.

Amendment 5 has no guardrails or restrictions on the tax exemptions that could be ap-

ents 10 essays framing comedy as a tool of empowerment, a way to reclaim hateful rhetoric and battle the democracy-crushing plight of censorship.

In a rescheduled event, New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben presents “The Boy From the Woods,” Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. He is also creator and executive producer of “The Stranger” on Netflix.

Television personality Nancy Grace will discuss “Don’t Be A Victim: Fighting Back Against America’s Crime Wave,” Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.

Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy will present “Never Alone: Prison, Politics, and My People,” Nov. 8 at noon. The book explores how Sharansky’s nine years as a political prisoner in the Soviet Union prepared him for public life and shaped his moral clarity and honesty in politics and as head of the Jewish Agency.

At 7 p.m. on Nov. 8, Joan Lunden will present “Why Did I Come Into This Room? A Candid Conversation About Aging,” which has been described as a later-in-life version of “What To Expect When You’re Expecting.”

On Nov. 9 at 6:45 p.m., Esther Safran Foer presents “I Want You To Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir.” The child of survivors, Foer eventually learns that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both of whom were killed in the Holocaust. The book is her journey to learn about what was never discussed.

In remembrance of Kristallnacht, Rabbi Brian Glusman will lead a memorial prayer at the beginning of the event.

Two novelists will present at the noon program on Nov. 10. Rachel Beanland will discuss “Florence Adler Swims Forever,” and Kristin Harmel presents “Book of Lost Names.”

Numerous additional programs are available through the end of November. continued from page 4 proved for industrial corporations. Corporations would not be required to create jobs to get tax exemptions. Exemptions could even go to businesses that were laying off their workforce.

There’d be no limits for polluters or dirty industry.

Amendment 5 puts no time limits on the duration of its “cooperative endeavor agreements.”

That means a corporation could be exempted from taxation for 25, 50 or even 100 years.

Amendment 5 is going to raise your taxes because it’s going to create special deals for powerful interests that the rest of us will pay for.

The bottom line is that if Amendment 5 passes, it’ll undermine the progress we’ve been making and create another way for Louisiana to defund its schools, roads, and other public services. Vote NO on Amendment 5!

community Gala for the times: Hadassah New Orleans does Mask-erade With large face-to-face gatherings impossible and masking in public part of the current landscape, Hadassah New Orleans is adapting to the times with its annual fundraiser.

Unable to have an in-person event, the chapter instead is throwing a Virtual Mask-erade, and everyone is invited to the 4 p.m. virtual event on Oct. 18.

Mexican-Canadian singer-songwriter Monika Schwartzman will headline the event.

Chaired by Marcela Totah and Charisse Sands, the event will include a mask contest, with prizes given for the funniest and fanciest masks, as well as to children under 12, music and videos, and other surprises.

“The regional office has asked me if they can obtain the invitation, to share with other chapters in the Southern Region,” said President Briann Shear.

Any amount, starting at $18, gains entry to the Mask-erade. Donations may be sent to: Carrie Pailet, 215 W. Brooks St., New Orleans, LA 70124, and need to include an email so a Zoom link can be sent.

To participate in the contest, photos of participants modeling their masks can be sent to BriannShear@gmail.com.

Born in Mexico City and later moving to Vancouver, Schwartzman’s passion for music developed at a very early stage in her life. She has performed in many different venues in Canada and Mexico, including various festivals such as Carnaval del Sol and Make Music Vancouver.

One of her career highlights is being invited to compose and share her music for the first two seasons of the Mexican TV series “Bienes Raices” (“Real Estate”).

Schwartzman, whose music has a pop-acoustic sound with a Latin influence, hosted two radio shows in Mexico and was part of the cast of the musical “Spring Awakening” in Mexico City.

Schwartzman says, “I invite everyone to join me in my happy place.

There is always light and always joy in every adventure, miracle, hard moment and in life itself.”

Proceeds from the event will help fund research and development projects at Hadassah. Currently, Hadassah is conducting research into Covid-19, stem cells, ALS, MS, macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and liver disease.

NCJW hosts program on art looted by Nazis During World War II, the Nazis looted billions of dollars in stolen art, hiding it in a sealed salt mine. But when U.S. troops arrived, they found the opening to the mine had been destroyed.

What happened to all of that art, and how can found items be restored to their rightful owners? The Greater New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, will have a virtual presentation, “The Treasure Hunt for Nazi Looted Art,” on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.

Between 1933 and 1945, thousands of paintings and other art objects were stolen by the Nazis. Museums and homes, mostly Jewish, were systematically looted. Chrissy Gregg, assistant director of distance learning at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, will focus on the tracing and the rescue of these priceless works of art.

The program will be moderated by Kenneth Hoffman, executive director of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience.

Patty Barnett, chairman of this NCJW study group, encouraged the public to register for this “interesting and fascinating program.” Registration is available at ncjwneworleans.org, or by calling the NCJW office, (504) 861-7788.

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community Covid prompts changes to Bart Cultural Arts Series at JCC Thanks to Covid, things are different for this year’s Cathy and Morris Bart Cultural Arts Series at the Uptown Jewish Community Center in New Orleans. The series will include four socially-distant movie screenings, each of which will have three showings. There will also be three author events done virtually with the Nashville and Memphis JCCs. “This series has brought the best Jewish authors, films, and music to the JCC year after year thanks to the support of Cathy and Morris Bart,” said JCC Executive Director Leslie Fischman. “We will adapt how audiences enjoy the series this year to ensure our community can still access this quality programming in a safe and comfortable environment.”

Reservations will be required for the film screenings, and individually-packaged snacks will be available. Books for the virtual author events will be available through Octavia Books, which donates a portion of sales to the JCC. The first film, “Love in Suspenders,” will be Oct. 12 and 13 at 7 p.m., and Oct. 14 at 2 p.m. The Israeli film portrays Tami, a widow in her 60s, and Beno, a widower in his 70s, who are both grieving the loss of their loved ones. They meet when she accidentally hits him with her car, and despite clashes in personalities and lifestyles, as well as interfering children and neighbors, they fall in love.

“Mossad!” will be on Nov. 9 and 10 at 7 p.m., and Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. The Israeli box-office smash features the creative support of legendary filmmakers David Zucker and Avi Nesher. The film is a riotous sendup of the Mossad, Israel’s revered national intelligence agency. When an American

billionaire is kidnapped in Israel, operative Guy Moran teams up with the CIA’s best agent to try and save the day. Tsahi Halevi from “Fauda” stars.

“Douze Points” will be on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at 7 p.m., and Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. A proud, gay, Muslim singer is fulfilling his dream of representing France in Europe’s biggest song contest, this year taking place in Tel Aviv. This action-comedy mixes bumbling ISIS operatives, tough Mossad agents and a unique relationship between two young Muslim men in the most rainbow-colored song contest imaginable.

The film series concludes with “Aulcie,” Jan. 4 and 5 at 7 p.m., and Jan. 6 at 2 p.m. In the summer of 1976, Aulcie Perry was playing basketball in Harlem when he was signed by a scout for Maccabi Tel Aviv. A year later, while taking the team to new heights, Perry converted to Judaism and became one of Israel’s biggest stars. Behind the scenes, though, all was not well.

The author series kicks off on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. with Myla Goldberg’s “Feast Your Eyes,” a novel about Lillian Preston, “America’s Worst Mother, America’s Bravest Mother, America’s Worst Photographer, or America’s Greatest Photographer, depending on who was talking.”

Original “Saturday Night Live” writer Alan Zweibel will talk about “Laugh Lines: My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier,” discussing his decades of working with many well-known comics, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m.

Emmy-nominated comedy writer Bess Kalb will present “Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (as told to me) story,” April 13 at 7 p.m.

RE-ELECT PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONER

Commissioner Eric Skrmetta brought us the lowest utility rates in the nation.

By all standards, Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta’s work to protect ratepayers and improve utility services has been exemplary.

• • • • • • • •

Saved ratepayers over $8 billion since taking office Reduced residential utility rates to the lowest in the nation Ushered in new power plants to build Louisiana’s energy efficiency and independence Improved water systems Demanded transparency on consumer billing Protected our community by ensuring prison telephone calls remain monitored Reduced storm recovery costs Returned over a half billion dollars in rate credits to consumers

Commissioner Eric Skrmetta - A champion for ratepayers.

PROUDLY ENDORSED BY:

ST. CHARLES REPUBLICAN PARTY

EARLY VOTING: October 16-27 | ELECTION DAY: November 3

EricSkrmetta.com 26

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

2020 Impact Report jfsneworleans.org

@jfsnola October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life 19

Mission

Our Board

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans (JFS) is a social service agency dedicated to preserving, strengthening and enhancing the well-being and selfsufficiency of individuals and families at every stage of life.

Jewish Family Service is a constituent agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and a community impact partner of United Way of Southeast Louisiana.

President

History

Betsy Threefoot Kaston

Jewish Family Service was initially created when the Jewish Children’s Home closed in 1948. JFS became a separate organization, with its own 501 (c)(3) status in 1976, and opened its doors to people of all faiths in 1982. JFS now serves Greater New Orleans individuals and families regardless of race, religion, disability, gender, or sexual orientation. Services are available on a sliding-scale fee based on household income.

Through the years, the scope of the agency has increased tremendously.

JFS helps the community strengthen the family and the individual to reach their full potential through various programs and services including: providing individual and group counseling, educating our young people about depression and suicide prevention, promoting independence for the elderly, providing case management, and assisting in adoptions.

Zoom Executive Committee meeting 8/13/2020

First Vice President

second Vice President

David A. Dulitz, MD

Ashley Merlin Gold

treasurer

secretary

Bradley Bain

Debbie Pesses

immediate Past President

Laurence Manshel

Harriet Aguiar-Netto

Gail Pesses

Matt Berger

Jill Plotkin

Gilbert N. Braunig

Henry M. Rosenblat

Lauren Bombet

Julie Schwartz

Vivian Cahn

Louis Shepard

Sue Daube

Rabbi Deborah Silver

Rochelle Adler Effron

Rabbi Todd Silverman

Joshua Friedmann

Ben Swig

Susan Green

Hallie Timm

Barbara B. Greenberg

Lynne Wasserman

Sara Kottle

Arthur S. Waterman

Allison Kupperman

Ginny Wise

Melinda Mintz

Ian Zlatkiss, MD

Sanford Pailet, MD

(504) 831-8475 l jfs@jfsneworleans.org l jfsneworleans.org l 3300 W. Esplanade Ave, S., Suite 603, Metairie, LA 70002 2

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

I 2020 Impact RepoRt

Letter from the President & Executive Director Dear Friends, “Neither the individual nor the state is where we discover who we are and why… Beyond the most basic rules necessary for the maintenance of the most rudimentary social order, morality lives in communities and the traditions which sustain them.”

-Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, The Persistence of Faith 2020 marked the dawn of a new decade. When we blew into our noise makers at midnight on December 31st, we were a team of dedicated providers bringing healing, dignity, and guidance to the lost, suffering, and frustrated. We had no idea the hills and valleys awaiting us. As coronavirus whipped through the globe with the speed and voracity of a wildfire, we watched, waited, and prepared. When the first cases came to our beautiful city, we took action. JFS became more than a social service agency for clients; it became a support system. This year, we truly discovered who we are and why. In the face of extraordinary upheaval and trauma, we laid bare the strength of our communal bonds. We witnessed uncommon courage and compassion. The systems and community of care we built over the decades proved more durable and adaptable than we ever imagined necessary. We found ourselves evermore aligned with the JFS mission to help our neighbors live with dignity. We banded together to provide food, housing, electricity, medicine, therapy, and more. We helped people feel loved, supported, and less alone in the face of uncertainty and fear. While social distancing stymied some of our programs, we managed to serve over 100 more people this year than last, helping 3,916 of our neighbors and friends. In addition to maintaining our signature programs and services, we responded to the pandemic by Implementing the Jewish Endowment Foundation-funded Jewish Community COVID-19 Emergency Financial Assistance Program Co-founding the Jewish Community Response Volunteer Initiative Managing a COVID-19 Resource Page on our website Raising over $50,000 for the JFS COVID-19 Tzedakah Relief Fund Initiating telemental health capabilities Launching free Virtual Gatherings for our community While the recovery is just beginning, we are optimistic. Our community is strong. Our donors are concerned and generous. Our clients are resilient. We developed the will and fortitude necessary to provide care under crisis. Together, we won’t leave anyone behind. Together, we will heal, grow, and transform our world for the better.

Here for the decades ahead,

Betsy Threefoot Kaston

Roselle M. Ungar, CFE

BOARD PRESIDENT

ExECUTIVE DIRECTOR

2020 Impact RepoRt

I Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

3

Strengthening Our Bonds Services for the Jewish community combat isolation, fulfill our traditions and values, and guarantee inclusion to everyone in our community.

“We are so fortunate to be a part of this community.”

Loneliness and isolation are associated with higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.

1

1 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults: Opportunities for the Health Care System. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25663external icon.

33

35

families and individuals made ends meet with our Financial Assistance Program Nearly

1/4

of adults aged 65 and older are considered to be socially isolated

300

community members accessed affordable transportation through Catch-A-Cab

community members joined the global Seder table with the Bruce Levy Memorial JFS Passover Food Basket Program

“The friends and connections I’ve made through Bikur Chaverim brighten and enrich my life.”

1

4

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

I 2020 Impact RepoRt

Nurturing Growth and Enriching Lives Our holistic care meets the particular needs of each client, and prepares them for self-determination and self-sufficiency.

“We wouldn’t have made it through this year without JFS’ help.”

Less than 20% of children and adolescents with diagnosable mental health problems receive the treatment they need.

16

2

2 U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. “Mental Health Myths and Facts,” MentalHealth.gov, 29, August 2017, https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/mentalhealth-myths-facts#:~:text=Unfortunately%2C%20 less%20than%2020%25%20of,interfere%20with%20 other%20developmental%20needs.

One in 25 Americans live with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.

2

clients discovered communal catharsis in our Therapeutic Groups

153

clients found understanding and transformative aid with our Case Management Program

“I was lost in a dark place. JFS was my beacon.”

2020 Impact RepoRt

I Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

209

new citizens found sanctuary and independence in JFS’ Victims of Human Trafficking & Immigrant Services

308

clients developed and healed through JFS’ Counseling Services

325

clients assisted via our Information & Referral Services 5

Educating the Next Generation We’re providing teens and mental health professionals innovative and transformative education with life-saving results.

“After TLC, I have the tools to care for myself and my friends.”

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 24.

3

3 United Health Foundation, “Health of Women and Children,” America’s Health Rankings, 2020, https://www.americashealthrankings.org/ explore/health-of-women-and-children/measure/teen_suicide/state/ALL

253

mental health professionals educated through our Continuing Education Workshops

7

masters-level student interns developed professional skills in our Behavioral Health Training Center.

“What an opportunity to work here this year. I really learned how to center my clients, especially in times of crisis.”

6

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

I 2020 Impact RepoRt

Preserving Dignity and Independence Our compassionate services ensure meaningful living for people of every age and life stage in our community.

“I’m prepared for the future and savoring the present.”

About two-thirds of all people 65 or older need assistance with at least one “daily living” activity such as bathing or preparing a meal.

4

4 LeWine, M.D., Howard, “Two-Thirds of seniors need help doing one or more daily activities,” Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publishing, 13, December 2013, https://www.health.harvard.edu/ blog/two-thirds-of-seniors-need-help-doing-one-or-more-daily-activities201312136942#:~:text=A%20 new%20study%20suggests%20that,of%20bed%20or%20a%20chair.&text=Researchers%20 interviewed%20more%20than%208%2C000,about%20activities%20of%20daily%20living.

14

clients prepared for the future of their family with JFS’ Senior Care Planning

481

clients gained independence and security for themselves and their family through Lifeline

Approximately one-third of seniors who live at home experience a fall at least once a year.

5

5 Rubenstein, MD, MPH, Laurence Z. “Falls in Older People,” Older People’s Health Issues: Falls, Merck Manual. April 2019, https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/older-people’s-healthissues/falls/falls-in-older-people

“I feel free. My whole family gained peace of mind.”

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Support JFS Become a Friend of JFS

Make a general or designated gift during our Friends of JFS campaign. No matter what program you support during this September through December annual campaign, your support enables JFS to offer affordable social services, such as counseling, case management, senior services, and more.

Make a Tribute Gift

Honor or memorialize a loved one or community member by supporting one of our programs or services in their name. Such meaningful expressions of affection and respect make a material difference in the lives of our clients.

Give a Stock Donation or Israel Bond Donation

Donate Your Vehicle

Jewish Family Service accepts charitable donations of vehicles through CARS (Charitable Adult Rides & Services), with sale proceeds benefiting JFS. CARS manages all automobile (or other motor vehicle) donation details, which provides you a hassle-free and tax-deductible way to support JFS. Find more information at jfsneworleans.org/donate

AmazonSmile

Make shopping meaningful by making your Amazon purchase through the AmazonSmile portal. Go to Smile.Amazon.com and select Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans. Amazon will donate a portion of the proceeds from select purchases to JFS.

Updating your portfolio? Consider donating shares of stock or an Israel Bond to benefit JFS. Call (504) 8318475 for more information.

Thank You Volunteers!

JFS recruits dedicated volunteers who work closely with staff to ensure the best care for the people we serve.

Volunteer opportunities are available for the following programs: Lifeline, Teen Life Counts (TLC), Bikur Chaverim, and Bruce Levy Memorial JFS Passover Food Baskets. interested in giving your time and talents?

Call (504) 831-8475 or send an email to jfs@jfsneworleans.org.

8

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

I 2020 Impact RepoRt

JFS Partners in CARING Giving Society The JFS Partners in Caring Giving Society is in recognition of the magnanimous support from our compassionate partners. The purpose of this society is to recognize individuals, corporations, foundations and organizations whose cumulative generosity has made a significant impact on the lives of vulnerable individuals and families at every stage of their life. This listing is based on donor records beginning in 1990.

Visionary

($50,000+)

Baptist Community Ministries The Bissinger-Timm Family Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation The Cahn Family Foundation; James & Marie Cahn, Richard & Vivian Cahn Adele K. Cahn* / Adele Cahn Catch-a-Cab Designated Fund

Chai Guardian

Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund Pratt-Stanton Manor Fund Sara Matile Schwarz* Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust United Way of Southeast Louisiana The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Woldenberg Foundation Lynell D. Zelenka Foundation

($18,000 - $49,999)

Cathy & Morris Bart Burkenroad Foundation Covenant House Sue & David Daube Deena Gerber GPOA Foundation Hancock Whitney National Bank Mrs. Sandra P. Heller* Dr. & Mrs. Harris Hyman, III Dorothy S. Jacobs

Benefactor

Ferber Family of Houma Foundation Goldring Family Foundation Shirley* & Robert B. Haspel* Albert & Rea Hendler Charitable Trust Institute of Mental Hygiene Jewish Endowment Foundation Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans

Judge Jacob & Vicki Karno Jeffrey & Betsy Kaston Fran & Jonathan Lake Bruce Levy Family for the Benefit of Jewish Family Service Donor Advised Fund Renee & Rusty Levy Anne P. Lowenburg MAZON: a Jewish Response to Hunger John & Susie Meltzer

Julie Grant Meyer Max Nathan, Jr. Marshall & Julie Wise Oreck Sanford Pailet, M.D. Julie Schwartz & David Radlauer RosaMary Foundation Joshua L. Rubenstein Sara B. Stone* Carol B. Wise Frances Sontheimer Wolff

($10,000 - $17,999)

Anonymous Shelly & Benay Bernstein Burkdale Foundation Leslie & Jonathan Fawer Alan & Diane Franco Ella West Freeman Foundation Jeffrey & Debbie Friedman Bobby Garon & Robin Levy Mike & Marcy Gertler Dr. Dov & Margery Glazer Howard & Susan Green Mr. & Mrs. Ricardo Guevara John Haspel & Amy Gainsburgh-Haspel Mrs. Jimmy Heymann* Julanne Isaacson The Estate of Irwin Isaacson Jefferson Parish Medical Society 2020 Impact RepoRt

Jewish Federation of New Hampshire Lis & Hugo Kahn Jeno & Monica Kalozdi Scott Kisner Mr. & Mrs. Paul Kullman Andrea & Terrence Lestelle Laura & Walter Levy Richard S. Margolin Jan & Henry Miller New Orleans Artists Against Hunger & Homelessness Dr. Bennie P. Nobles Sarah & Joe Pasternack, Jr. Percival Stern Foundation Dr. & Mrs. Gary Rich Henry & Susan Rosenblat Sarasota-Manatee Jewish Federation

I Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

Madalyn & Robert Schenk Jonathan & Debbie Schlackman Dana & Louis Shepard Jane & William Sizeler Robert & Pamela Steeg The TJx Foundation, Inc Touro Infirmary Foundation Patty C. & Randy J. Ungar Roselle & Stanley Ungar Bernard Van der Linden Ellie & Bruce Wainer George, Helen & Harold Wainer Foundation Judge Miriam Waltzer & Mr. Bruce Waltzer Art & Martie Waterman Guy & Dale Williams

9

Our 2019-2020 Supporters $50,000 + Baptist Community Ministries Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans U.S Committee for Refugees & Immigrants

$25,000 - $49,999 Covenant House Goldring Family Foundation Jewish Community Day School Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund The Cahn Family Foundation Woldenberg Foundation

$10,000 - $24,999 Adele Cahn Catch-A-Cab Designated Fund Bruce Levy Family for the Benefit of Jewish Family Service Donor Advised Fund Institute of Mental Hygiene Jewish Endowment Foundation Joe W. & Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation LWCC Sara Matile Schwarz* Mrs. Frances Wolff

$5,000 - $9,999 Marjorie Bissinger Ferber Family Foundation of Houma Sherman Charitable Trust / Ivan Morton Sherman Foundation George, Helen, Harold Wainer Foundation

$2,500 - $4,999 Evelyn & Billy Burkenroad Foundation Vicki B. & Jacob L. Karno Family Donor Advised Fund NGCF Donor Advised Fund 10

Debbie & Leon Pesses Jill & Lee Plotkin Family Fund Julie Schwartz & David Radlauer Touro Infirmary Foundation

$1,000 - $2,499 Anonymous Burkedale Foundation David & Sue Daube Mark & Rochelle Effron Leslie & Jonathan Fawer Margie & Dov Glazer Dr. & Mrs. Harley Ginsberg Mrs. Robert B. Haspel* Sandra P. Heller * Humana INC Dr. Harris & Barbara Hyman The Insurance Professionals of Greater New Orleans Julanne Isaacson Jeffrey & Betsy Kaston David Kerns Mr. & Mrs. Paul Kullman Local Hands Helping Local Children Donor Advised Fund Andrea & Terrence Lestelle Jonathan & Fran Lake Julie Grant Meyer Jean & Saul A. Mintz Foundation Margarete & Leopold Mendler Charitable No. 1 Donor Advised Fund John & Susie Meltzer Mark & Melinda Mintz Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust Sanford Pailet, MD Dr. & Mrs. Gary Reiss Dr. & Mrs. Gary Rich Henry & Susan Rosenblat Joshua L. Rubenstein Madalyn & Robert Schenk Estate of Jacqueline G. Toledano Stanley & Roselle Ungar

Art & Martie Waterman Guy & Dale Williams Marie & Robert Wolf

$500 - $999 Anonymous Ms. Harriet Aguiar-Netto Allan* & Nancy Bissinger Joshua & Giselli Danzig Barbara Greenberg Lauren Haas Maury A. Herman Donor Advised Fund Dorothy S. Jacobs Celia L. Katz Ralph Katz Betty & Ira Kohn Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Kupperman Betty & Harry Lazarus Renee & Rusty Levy Ellen & Stephen Manshel Anna Manteil Mr. & Mrs. Sanford R. Maslansky Jan & Henry Miller Max Nathan, Jr. Dr. Bennie P. Nobles Edie & Paul Rosenblum Nita-Joan Sams Dana & Louis Shepard William & Jane Sizeler Dr. & Mrs. Henry Threefoot Stephen & Nancy Timm Elaine & Bernard Van der Linden Donor Advised Fund Lynne & Michael Wasserman RenĂŠe Zack Dr. Ian Zlatkiss

$250 - $499 Diane Africk Ryan & Madison Albright Jack & Phyllis Alltmont

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

I 2020 Impact RepoRt

Sabina Altman Cathy & Morris Bart Shelly & Benay Bernstein Bonnie & Harris Blackman Joe & Lee Blotner Gilbert & Jody Braunig Kelley & Guy Brenner Mr. & Mrs. Lee Bressler Dr. & Mrs. Aden A. Burka Mr. & Mrs. Robert Caplan Stanley Caron Dr. Marvin Clifford, PhD, LCSW Congregation Gates of Prayer Congregation Beth Israel Richard & Ina Davis David & Kristen Dulitz Emily & Evan Dvorin Fagan Family Charitable Fund Israel & Sylvia Finger Professor Robert Force Irina Foxman Mr. & Mrs. George Freeman, III Mrs. Mollie Fried Deena Y. Gerber Louis & Debbie Gertler GiveNOLA 2020 Anonymous Mr. & Mrs. Jan Glade Charles & Cathy Glaser Scott & Ashley Gold Jeff & Linda Green Howard & Susan Green Maurice & Harriet Handelman Donor Advised Fund John Haspel & Amy Gainsburgh-Haspel Mitchell J. & Susan Hoffman Andrea & Jeffrey Huseman State of Israel Ministry of Finance Mark & Susan Kappelman Richard & Lisa Karlin Susan B. Kohn David & Laura Kulick

2020 Impact RepoRt

Drs. Walter & Laura Levy Louisiana Guardianship Services Inc Money Management Program Marrero Land & Improvement Association Mrs. Carol Marx Marjorie McCants Robert Mintz Andree K. Moss Richard & Carole Neff Mr. & Mrs. Randy Opotowsky Rochelle Pearl M.E. Polson Provident Aid Designated Fund Sue & Fred Preis Lisa Preminger Joyce & Sidney Pulitzer Rabbi Deborah Silver Karen & Eddie Soll Stephen L. & Caroline W. Sontheimer Fund Dr. & Mrs. Richard Spector Ellen Stein Susan Sternberg Priscilla Sutton Patty & Randy Ungar Judge Miriam Waltzer & Mr. Bruce Waltzer Marilyn Pailet Zackin

$100 - $249 Anonymous (4) Ann Abbrecht Bradley & Daniela Bain Alex & Eva Barkoff Sue & Herbert Barton Marc & Angela Beerman Marvin & Marilyn Bernstein Allan & Nikki Berger Ryan Berni Marc & Kathy Bernstein Stephen Blitz Debra Bresler

I Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

Caroline & Bob Brickman Daniel & Melanie Bronfin Mr. Michael Brown & Ms. Linda Green Alexander Cohen Dr. Gerald Cohen Gregory & Joan Cox Benjamin & Fran Dinehart Martin Drell, MD Myra Ungar Dunn Mr. & Mrs. Alan Emerman Mr. & Mrs. Martin G. Falchook Ms. Deborah Fallis Mr. & Mrs. Julian Feibelman Jr. Mrs. Toby Feibelman Marc & Susan Friedman George & Laura Fuhrman Judith Gainsburgh Vadim & Michele Gelman Ana & Juan Gershanik Cathy & Charles Glaser Louis & Lillian Glazer Foundation Mark Goldstein & Peggy Usner Sandra Chass Goldsmith Dr. & Mrs. Mel Gold Leon Greenblatt II Dr. George Greenberg Mr. & Mrs. Edward Halpern Devvie Harris Drs. Kenneth & Melanie Ehrlich Lisa & Mike Herman Sherril Herman Jason Hintersteiner Dr. & Mrs. Ben Jacobs, III Capt. Rick Jacobs, USN Rt Jay L. Joseph Donor Advised Fund Hugo & Lis Kahn Dr. & Mrs. Wynn Kapit Neal & Nancy Kaplan Judge Jacob & Vicki Karno Charel W. Katz Ellen Katz

11

Our 2019-2020 Supporters (continued) Ellen & Stan Kessler Ms. Foley Kessler Susan Kierr Steve & Pat Klein Kathy Kornman Ronda Kottle Leo Krasnozhon Allison Kupperman Peter & Diane Labouisse, III Mr. & Mrs. Irwin Lachoff Gary Lazarus Dr. & Mrs. Barry J. Leader Lehmann Family Donor Advised Fund Donald I. Levy Bobby Garon & Robin Levy Robert Levy Rabbi Robert & Lynn Loewy Laurence & Elizabeth Manshel Daniel Mayer Mr. & Mrs. William Mimeles Harry & Marion Mohre Barbara & Robert Namer New Orleans Jewish Community Center Mr. & Mrs. David Oestreicher, II

Mrs. Joan Oppenheim Larry & Naomi Orlansky Mr. & Mrs. Russell S. Palmer Sarah & Joe Pasternack Jr. Thaia Pick* Joel & Paula Picker John Pizer Jill & Louis Plotkin The Post Foundation Dr. Karen Weissbecker Remer Mary Repko Cynthia N. & Leon Rittenberg Jr. Mark K. Rosenbloom Meryl Rosenbloom Andre & Robbie Rubenstein Barbara Samuels Mr. & Mrs. David L. Schlakman Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Seelig Gary Sernovitz Cathy Shepard Leopold & Karen Sher Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Shefsky Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation Helen Siegel

Rabbi Todd Silverman Harold & Sue Singer Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Ms. Lesley Smith Edgar Stein Mr. & Mrs. Garl & Strother Matthew & Sherri Tarr Dr. Aran Toshav & Ms. Rebecca Friedman Mr. & Mrs. Jeff Varon Lee Vorisek Mrs. Beverly Wainer Ellie & Bruce Wainer Nathan Webb Jr. Dr. Nathan Wexler & Mrs. Helen Katz Mr. & Mrs. Bernard Widofsky Lorraine Lake Williams Judge Jerome Winsberg Ginny Wise & Kevin Wilkins Carol B. Wise Mr. & Mrs. David Wurtzel Dr. Jack Zoller* *Deceased

This list represents contributions of $100 and above to Jewish Family Service from July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020. We regret any errors or omissions in this publication.

Please contact the Development Office to update your records so that we may recognize you appropriately in the future.

Thank you to all of our JFS supporters!

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Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

I 2020 Impact RepoRt

Financials 26%

cHanGe in net assets Change in Net Assets

$231,143

Beginning of Year (1/1/2019)

$2,201,585

End of Year (12/31/2019)

$2,432,728

Grant Income $573,508

1% assets Cash and Cash Equivalents

$240,503

Accounts Receivable

$8,111

Grants Receivable

$107,728

Unconditional Promises to Give

$17,500

Prepaid Expenses

$2,329

Notes Receivable

$0

Funds Held by Jewish Endowment Foundation

$2,064,900

Israel Bonds

$6,000

Property and Equipment, Net

$9,852

TOTAL ASSETS

$2,456,923

11% Contributions $246,169

totaL reVenue $1,739,296

Miscellaneous $13,519

13% Investment Income $289,788

20% 7%

2%

Jewish United Way Federation $35,886 Allocations $430,126

Program service fees $430,126

81%

LiaBiLities and net assets Liabilities Accounts Payable

$3,387

Accrued Vacation

$20,808

Jewish Federation Loans Payable

$0

TOTAL LIABILITIES

$24,195

Program service fees $1,130,772

FunctionaL exPenses $1,518,003

net assets Undesignated

$298,661

Board Designated

$2,064,900

TOTAL WITHOUT DONOR RESTRICTIONS $2,363,561 TOTAL WITH DONOR RESTRICTIONS

$69,167

TOTAL NET ASSETS

$2,201,585

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS

$2,432,728

2020 Impact RepoRt

I Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

10% 9%

Fundraising $199,790

G&A $187,441

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Our Staff *Former JFS Staff as of June 30, 2020

Executive Staff Roselle M. Ungar, CFRE Executive Director Rachel Lazarus Eriksen, LCSW-BACS Director of Clinical Services Julie Finkelstein Steinhaus Director of Business Services

Zoom staff meeting 8/5/2020

Teen Life Counts

Clinical Staff Desislava Altazova, LPC* Therapist

Dr. Katherine C. Godshall, LCSW-BACS* Teen Life Counts Coordinator

Michelle Beard, LCSW, MBA Intern Program Supervisor

Dr. Stephanie L. Haywood, Phd, LPC-S, NCC Teen Life Counts Program Manager

Stephanie Crowder, LPC, LMFT Licensed Therapist

Maria Monahan, LCSW Teen Life Counts Northshore Coordinator

Fran Dinehart, LCSW Licensed Clinical Social Worker/Case Manager

Lauren Jones Teen Life Counts Administrative Assistant

Bethany Linville, BA, MA* Bilingual Program Officer

Jay Lapin* Teen Life Counts Coordinator

Mario Figueroa, BSW Bilingual Program Officer

Communications & Events Lauren Rudzis* Communications & Development Coordinator

Andrea Garcia, BS Bilingual Case Manager Ruth E. Goldberg, LCSW-BACS, ACSW, BCD* Bilingual Social Worker Camila Sobral Multilingual Case Worker

Haley Hemenway Sledge Communications & Events Coordinator

Administrative Staff Chase Alphonso Client & Donor Services Specialist

Vanessa Villalobos, MSW Bilingual Case Manager

Teri Conrad Administrative Assistant

Margaret Winston, LPC JCDS Therapist

2019-2020 Behavioral Health Training Center Interns

Senior Services

Virginia Williams, Andrew Prejean, Madison Farmer, Claire Kohne, Langley Laporte, Colin Foret & Sean Comiskey

Jan Miller Lifeline Office Support Staff Kim Nonenmacher Senior Services Manager Cortni Randazzo* Senior Services Intake & Admissions Assistant Harrison Wool, RTA Lifeline Field Support Staff 14

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans

I 2020 Impact RepoRt

New Orleans

Fall Dining Guide

Kosher Cajun

3519 Severn Avenue, Metairie (504) 888-2010

Southern Jewish Life

Copper Vine Wine Pub

1001 Poydras St. (504) 208-9535

Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery has authentic New York specialties — all Kosher certified. Enjoy classic eats like Reubens and matzah ball soup, plus kosher grocery staples too.

Wine and tropical charm overflow at Copper Vine in the CBD. The restaurant and wine pub boasts a lush courtyard and menus full of inventive Louisiana cuisine with wine pairings.

English Tea Room

Riccobono’s Peppermill

734 E. Rutland Street Historic Downtown Covington (985) 898-3988

The Windsor High Tea, comprising sandwiches, mini-savories, mini desserts, two chocolate dipped strawberries, two scones with house-made clotted cream, lemon curd or preserves.

3524 Severn Ave. Metairie (504) 455-2266

Bringing classic New Orleans dishes as well as Riccobono family Italian recipes to the city in a comfortable, casual atmosphere.

Now, three generations later, that tradition continues to live on.

Hungry for more diners?

Next time, this space can be yours…

Call us today!

Acropolis on Freret Lee Green (Birmingham) or Jeff Pizzo (New Orleans) (205) 870-7889 • (504) 432-2561 • (888) 613-YALL

4510 Freret Street (504) 309-0069

The decor, menu and wine selection at Acropolis On Freret is a dining adventure that features only the best, freshest and most authentic dishes from the Mediterranean region.

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

41

Southern Jewish Life

The Bright Star

Fall Dining Guide

304 19th Street North, Bessemer (205) 426-1861

612 22nd Street So., Birmingham (205) 322-3330

Founded in 1907 in downtown Bessemer, the Bright Star is Alabama’s oldest family owned restaurant and is a James Beard American Classic, known for Greek-style seafood and great steaks.

A Birmingham classic, The Fish Market on Southside offers the freshest seafood around, live music and an oyster bar. Private and semi-private dining available, along with catering.

Bistro V

Pies and Pints

521 Montgomery Highway, Vestavia (205) 823-1505

125 20th Street So., Birmingham 7216 Eastchase Parkway, Montgomery

Located in Vestavia, Bistro V serves lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, with a menu that includes fresh seafood and local and organic meats and vegetables, much of it with a New Orleans nod.

Enjoy an array of craft beers on tap (including many Alabama selections), specialty pies, delicious salads and more. Our signature pizzas are hand-stretched and baked directly on a stone hearth.

Taj India

Homewood Classic Wine Co. 1831 28th Avenue So., Ste 110, (205) 871-9463

2226 Highland Avenue, Birmingham (205) 939-3805

Taj India, Birmingham’s original Tandoori Grill and Curry House, will remain in its current location through next year, serving authentic Indian dishes with a lunch buffet and extensive dinner menu.

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The Fish Market

Birmingham

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

A wine retail shop and wine bar in the heart of Homewood, with wines from all over the world and at all price points. Special Star Power wine tastings every Friday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., in person and on Zoom.

community Bama Professor Uncovers Hidden Jewish Past — and Israeli Relatives

By Richard Friedman Heritage. Holocaust. Homecoming.

These three words course through the unusual story of Marysia Galbraith, a thoughtful and engaging University of Alabama anthropology professor. In fact, her saga is the kind of narrative that academics in her field and other disciplines can learn from and teach, as she has done with her own UA students.

Galbraith has navigated two discoveries in her life which have helped shape who she is today. In her 20s, despite being raised in what she calls a “secular Christian” home, she learned almost by accident that her family on her mother’s side had been Jewish before they became Catholic.

Then in 2013, thanks to the Internet and a website that connected them, Galbraith by chance discovered that she had a Jewish cousin living in Israel. This was another turning point that, depending on your point of view, unlocked a whole new world for Galbraith or brought her life full circle. In fact, it probably did both.

As a young woman in Poland, her maternal grandmother left her Jewish faith and converted to Catholicism, Galbraith explained in a recent interview. She had divorced a Jewish man and would marry a Catholic man. “I believe my grandmother’s religious conversion was sincere.

But I think it also was motivated by what she saw as the constraints of her traditional Jewish family.” Also, Jews at that time were converting to Christianity because they began to see the handwriting on the wall for European Jewry.

Jews throughout Europe already were facing persecution. But the sit-

Photo, taken in Poland around 1916, that connected Marysia Galbraith to her Jewish heritage and her Israeli relatives. Her grandmother is seated on the left, with her parents, siblings, and nephew. uation began to darken considerably in the 1930s as Adolf Hitler and his Nazis ascended to power. Within 10 years, Hitler, the Nazis and their

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43

community collaborators would murder 6 million Jews, one of every three Jews in the world at that time, in what came to be known as the Holocaust.

Galbraith’s research suggests that upon her grandmother leaving her Jewish heritage behind, the family, as was not uncommon in that era, rejected her, not unlike the portrayal in “Fiddler on the Roof.” This created a breach that was never repaired in that generation’s lifetime.

Nonetheless, her grandmother and her well-connected Catholic husband still helped her sister and her sister’s daughter escape from the infamous Warsaw Ghetto where the Nazis had imprisoned large swaths of Poland’s Jewish population. They got them false identification papers and found a place for them to live outside the ghetto, then eventually forged papers to let them escape to Switzerland, after which they went to Israel in 1949.

Astonished Cousins

This UA professor’s research and journey — and, in particular, her reunification with Jewish relatives in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel — has been widely covered in the media recently. Publications such as People magazine and the Jerusalem Post have told her story, focusing in particular on her relationship with a Jewish cousin who lives in Israel who has embraced her warmly and played a role in connecting Galbraith with her larger family.

She and that cousin, the grandson of Galbraith’s grandmother’s sister, became connected through an ancestry website when they discovered that a picture of their grandmothers’ families was identical. They were astonished to realize that both of their grandmothers were pictured in the photo.

Galbraith grew up on Long Island, sensing there was a hidden secret within her family. She remembers vividly when she first learned it. “I was in my 20s and at my parents’ home for Christmas. One of my cousins

44

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

who was there had a little too much to drink.

After dinner, the cousin said to the family, ‘I don’t know why you are celebrating Christmas — you are all Jewish’.” What she also remembers is the reactions of her mother and grandmother. “My grandmother was furious; my mother was devastated because we were being told.”

Learning her family’s secret made a profound impression on Galbraith. Yet, she didn’t pursue it at that time but filed it away, thinking about it off and on over the years. “Why? That’s a good question,” she answers. “I have wondered myself. I think it was because people I loved didn’t want me to explore it and I didn’t want to hurt them.”

In 2011, as she was moving into her late 40s, Galbraith began thinking about it differently. She was traveling to Poland frequently as part of her academic research. “I was working on my book (“Being and Becoming European in Poland: European Integration and Self-Identity”) and it finally just struck me that if i wanted to know anything about my heritage, I needed to ask questions about what I had been told.”

On her way home to Tuscaloosa from one of her trips to Poland, she stopped at her mother’s house in Long Island. “At that point my mom had what appeared to be dementia, and for some reason that gave me ‘permission’ to begin inquiring — me knowing more about our family history wasn’t going to hurt her.”

Her brother mentioned that he had seen some old photographs at their mom’s house, and the way her brother described the people in the photographs seemed to indicate they were Jewish. “The photographs clearly were of a Jewish family.” One of the people in the pictures, for example, had on a head covering and a long black coat and had a beard, markings

community of religiously-observant Jews.

“For me, seeing the photographs was a connection with the past that I hadn’t had before. They were proof of the hidden past, which compelled me to pursue it further.” Thus began a kind of a homecoming which Galbraith believes has enriched her life immeasurably.

Alabama Spring Day

Embracing her Jewish heritage also has added a dimension to the life she leads in Tuscaloosa — a life that began on a spring day in 1998. She vividly remembers coming to Alabama as a young academic for her job interview. UA New College professor Ed Passerini, who picked her up at the airport, was driving a convertible, Galbraith recalls, smiling as she recollects a great memory. Now 57, she remembers clearly that “it was a beautiful spring day, the sky was a glorious color, the afternoon sun was shining brilliantly. I felt at home right away.”

Growing up on Long Island, outside of New York city, she was constantly among Jews and her best friend was Jewish. So she feels as if she always has been on the “periphery” of Jewish life. However, since being in Alabama she has become even more deeply engaged in Jewish life without being a practicing Jew. She has been to the synagogue in Tuscaloosa and a Bar Mitzvah in Birmingham, and clearly has developed a deep attachment to her Jewish roots.

As this interview came to a close, Galbraith was asked if she felt that her narrative reflected tragedy or triumph. She paused, pondered the question then answered deliberately.

“It’s both — absolutely,” she said. An expert on Poland as a result of her scholarly research, she laments the Holocaust’s destruction of the rich and vibrant Jewish life that was a hallmark of the country for 1000 years.

At the same time, though uprooted, many members of her Jewish family did survive. Yet, even these reconnections are bittersweet because she came to discover that, unbeknownst to her, she had Jewish relatives living 20 miles from her as she was growing up.

She also discovered that she lived near a cemetery where a lot of her Jewish family members had been buried. Though saddened that she never knew any of those who were buried there, “it fills me with a sense of connection and joy to know the descendants of the people in the cemetery,” she says.

Over the years, she has asked herself why this was such a well-kept, deep secret within her family. “I think my family was trying to protect my generation. They believed that if we didn’t know, we wouldn’t inadvertently say something that would expose us to possible persecution.” Adds the anthropology professor, “I think this is in part a reaction to trauma — not only the Holocaust, but also the prejudice they experienced in the 1920s and 30s.”

One of the highlights of connecting with her family came in 2015 when she visited Israel for the first time. “My cousins embraced me from the get-go. I was moved by a visceral sense of being embraced. Plus Israel is one of those places where there is so much, there are layers. Even though I was only there for a week, I keep thinking about it and coming back to that time.” Before the Covid pandemic, she was planning a trip to go back. “I fully intend to go back.”

Heritage, Holocaust, Homecoming: Delving into her Jewish heritage and embracing her family’s history has brought this UA professor a sense of contentment and completeness. “My ancestry odyssey has been very fulfilling. When you live in a family where there are secrets, you know you are not being told something, even if you don’t know what it is. Learning this history has filled in this place of absence for me. It has helped me to have a fuller sense of who I am.”

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For more information and updates on her family’s Jewish heritage and her journey of discovery, see Marysia Galbraith’s blog at https://uncoveringjewishheritage.com/ October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

45

community Tulane webinar: Ancient hatreds drive today’s antisemitism

By Richard Friedman

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

There was an Internet before there was an Internet. It was called the printing press.

This simple truth was at the heart of one of many interesting observations made during a Sept. 9 webinar, sponsored by Tulane University, that probed contemporary antisemitism.

Three panelists — the national head of the Anti-Defamation League and two prominent academics who have studied antisemitism — offered an array of insights, triggered by a new ADL publication, “Antisemitism Uncovered: A Guide to Old Myths in a New Era.” ADL is considered to be the world’s leading monitor of antisemitism.

In May 2020, ADL reported that in 2019, the American Jewish community experienced the highest level of antisemitic incidents since tracking began in 1979, with more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism and harassment reported across the United States.”

All three webinar participants worked on this new ADL publication, which is designed to help people better understand the historical roots of anti-Jewish attitudes and behavior and how, despite its recent upward surge, there really is nothing new under the antisemitic sun.

The program, moderated by Tulane assistant professor of Jewish Studies Golan Moskowitz, featured a conversation among Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the ADL; historian Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University; and Magda Teter, professor of history and Shvidler Chair in Judaic Studies at Fordham University.

The event was sponsored by the Tulane Department of Jewish Studies.

An important aspect of the discussion focused on the Internet and how social media empowers and promotes antisemitism, though it was noted, importantly, that mass spreading of antisemitism did not begin in the 20th century with the Internet. Rather, it began in the 1400s with the advent of the printing press — which not only provided an unprecedented tool for sharing anti-Semitic tropes and propaganda via the printed word, but also for anti-Jewish illustrations.

It was an intriguing comparison intellectually and an important comparison tactically, suggesting that those who want to ascribe the current upsurge in antisemitism to the Internet risk missing some of the more subtle factors.

These factors, as identified by the panelists, included Jews and others not fully recognizing the problem of antisemitism today; the politicizing of antisemitism, which diminishes its impact by turning it into a political issue; leaders in government, entertainment and sports not speaking out quickly and decisively enough to condemn antisemitism; and personalities and celebrities with broad and influential platforms not realizing the full implications and history of their anti-Jewish remarks and actions.

Prevalent Myths “Antisemitism Uncovered,” according to ADL, “is a comprehensive resource with historical context, fact-based descriptions of prevalent antisemitic myths, contemporary examples and calls-to-action for addressing this hate.”

A goal of “Anitsemitism Uncovered,” according to Greenblatt, is to sensitize as many people as possible to the thematic areas covered, so that

community they have a greater understanding of the insidious background and harmful effects of antisemitism. A cornerstone of “Antisemitism Uncovered” is the belief that by educating about the hatred and violence against Jews through these age-old stereotypes generated over the centuries, people today will become more attuned to combating what may seem to be random and potentially harmless antisemitic remarks.

The specific anti-Jewish myths that the new ADL publication explores include Jews have too much power; Jews are disloyal; Jews are greedy; Jews killed Jesus; Jews use Christian blood for religious rituals; The Holocaust didn’t happen; Anti-Zionism or criticism of Israel is never antisemitic. Each section includes historical and contemporary context and strategies for responding.

“We are operating in a moment right now where antisemitism unfortunately is on the rise,” Greenblatt told the webinar audience. Compounding it is Covid, Greenblatt added, with some elements of society irrationally blaming Jews for the pandemic and, in some cases, suggesting they are profiting from it. Jewish greed, it was noted, is a classic anti-Semitic stereotype going back centuries.

Historian Sarna said, “I think we can see a large generation gap in the way recent events have been seen. For young people, it was a complete surprise to see antisemitism. What they had heard was American Jews had become ‘white folks’ and they had come to believe that antisemitism had ended.” History shows that antisemitism is cyclical, and often is a reflection of larger social problems, which helps explain what is going on today, said Sarna. For older people, the reappearance of antisemitism was less surprising, he added.

Three Sources Today, many observers believe that antisemitism is coming from three sources that otherwise have little in common ideologically — the far right, far left and radical Islam. “They are certain their problems are caused by the Jews,” said Sarna.

Panelist Teter recently wrote a book on the blood libel — the false accusation that began centuries ago, claiming that Jews use the blood of Christians, and Christian children in particular, for ritual purposes. When she started on the book, Teter thought she would be mainly doing historical research. Today, because of what she sees as behaviors reflecting ancient anti-Jewish myths and attitudes, she says, “I find myself in the twilight zone” — in a surreal and unimaginable situation.

She envisioned her book focusing on the 15th to 18th centuries, yet it begins with ADL calling on Facebook to shut down a site promoting the

myth of Jewish ritual murder. In 2019, she notes almost in disbelief, white supremacists are referencing accusations made in Italy in the 1400s to justify their hatred of Jews. “My book, sadly, is very relevant to what’s happening in America today.”

Those who have enlisted in the fight against antisemitism face two obstacles, Greenblatt observed. “I think we live in a charged moment where everything is politicized, and we shouldn’t be surprised that antisemitism is a

partisan tool, whether it comes from the left or right. And when it becomes a political cudgel, the Jewish people lose.”

The second obstacle, the ADL director said, is that given the heavily-publicized prejudices that other groups face, such as Blacks, people downplay antisemitism, asking, “Is it really a problem?”

Clearly, from this thought-provoking webinar and the conversation among these three experts, the answer is yes. It is really a problem.

Sol Gothard Lifetime Achievement Award (2012) National Organization of Forensic Social Work

Judge Richard Ware Award for Child Abuse Prevention (2014) Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund Board

Louisiana lawyer since 1978 Child abuse/domestic violence victim advocate — 42 years B.S. Tulane 1974 • J.D. Loyola Law ‘78 • LL.M. (advanced law degree) Loyola Chicago Law 2011.

Earned law degree while a probation officer in the Jefferson Parish Juvenile Court Created program to give lawyers to abused kids Appointed special assistant DA in 19 parishes Tried cases in 50 Louisiana courts Argued in every LA appellate court Tried cases in 45 other states Admitted also in PA, the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. 3rd , 4th, 5th and 9th Circuits Courts of Appeals; and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Midwest and Western Districts of LA, the Northern and Eastern Districts of TX, the Northern District of OH, the District of CO, and the Western District of PA Wrote over 25 laws for child abuse/family violence victims, and to prevent infanticide

Trained lawyers, judges, police and psychologists at national and state programs for the ABA., the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma, domestic violence coalitions, child welfare agencies, and law schools Honored by Justice for Children, The Northern Plains Tribal Inst., The National Association of Social Workers, the Young Lawyers Division of the ABA, The LSU School of Social Work, the Louisiana Foster Parent Association, and the United Way Preeminent “A-V” highest rating from lawyers and judges for ethics and ability — 30 years U.S. Supreme Court win for sexually abused kids Adoption and foster care reform work Defended state in roadway suits Proud father of 4 and grandfather of 3 Cases and writings cited in legal textbooks Staunch defender of due process and First Amendment rights Extensive civil, criminal, and appellate experience nationwide.

Elect

RICHARD DUCOTE

Judge, Div. J, 22nd Judicial District (St. Tammany & Washington Parishes)

Early voting October 20-27, Election Day November 3 Paid for by Richard Ducote

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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New film highlights cooperation, challenges and Israel “Shared Legacies,” a new documentary highlighting the relationship between Blacks and Jews during the Civil Rights era, and how Jews supported the Black community during their time of struggle, was the focus of an online program Aug. 27, sponsored in part by the Atlanta-based Israeli Consulate to the Southeast.

Included on the program, which was oriented toward students, were former Civil Rights leader, Congressman, Atlanta Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, and former American Jewish Committee Director for the Southeast Sherry Frank, who are both featured in the documentary. Also on the panel was basketball great Isiah Thomas.

Spill the Honey Foundation and Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College partnered with the Consulate. Shari Rogers, founder of Spill the Honey Foundation, wrote, directed and produced “Shared Legacies.” Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel since its founding over 40 years ago, is playing a pivotal role in the partnership as well. The Aug. 27 program was one in a series of offerings commemorating the rich legacy of collaboration between Blacks and Jews.

One moderator of the program was Wendell Shelby-Wallace, a 27-year-old Black man who works for the Israeli Consulate. His questions were probing and thought-provoking, and played a role in Young and Frank sharing highly-relevant insights, looking back on the Civil Rights movement and forward regarding Black-Jewish relations. His co-moderator was Blake Weissman, a Jewish student at the University of Michigan who is Spill the Honey’s national youth president.

Young was asked how he managed to work with people of differing points of view throughout his career and what advice he could give when it comes to negotiating differences of opinion with others, especially in today’s tense and divisive environment. To answer, the former U.N. Ambassador reached back to his childhood. “I was born in New Orleans in 1932, 50 yards from what served as the Nazi party headquarters, which was the German American Bund. In 1936, when I was four years old, my father had to explain to me what Nazism and white supremacy were.” His dad called them a “sickness” and then gave his son some advice, which Young has carried to this day.

His father told him, “You don’t ever get angry at sick people. Don’t get mad, get smart. Always be polite, never show fear. You know that God

made all the nations of the world of one blood, but they don’t want to admit that and that is their problem with God. You are going to have to learn to live with people who are different and don’t like you, but the one thing you should never do is never get upset, emotional or angry.”

Young’s father was a dentist in New Orleans, and the dental suppliers he used were largely Jewish. Through those business relationships, friendships were formed. “So I grew up in a community that was bound together by common beliefs.” He recalled that one of the first integrated meetings he attended, when he was 12, was a gathering of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He also said that he would not have become mayor if people such as Sherry Frank, his fellow panelist and a long-time Atlanta Jewish leader, had not helped him.

The former mayor was asked how to have important conversations with people despite disagreements. He said, “The challenge is simply to listen to each other. Let people air their differences and then at the end after they share their differences… you create a situation where people realize no opinion is set in stone. People are constantly growing and by listening to differences, you learn more about yourself and… learn to admit the weaknesses of your own position.” This approach, which is not only applicable to tension that sometimes arises in the Black-Jewish relationship, but in other relationships as well “keeps you flexible and enables you to grow.”

Frank, a now-retired long-time director of the American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta-based Southeast office, recalled forming the

Escape to Henderson Park Inn, the Most Romantic Inn in North America

“Clink!” The sound of wine glasses tapping together echoing on the beach as a couple toasts to their love during Beach Walk Café’s signature “Toes in the Sand” dining experience is just one note in a symphony of romantic experiences at Destin, Florida’s only inclusive, adult-only hotel, Henderson Park Inn. Named the Most Romantic Inn in North America by TripAdvisor, Henderson Park Inn remains a hidden gem tucked away along the shores of the Emerald Coast perfect for an intimate escape.

“Henderson Park Inn is one of the most unique places in the country in that it matches modern luxury with classic, coastal charm for a romantic getaway like nowhere else,” said Owner Representative Shannon Howell. “It’s a property that’s designed with no detail of a stay overlooked.”

Initially designed to replicate all the best features of the classic-style coastal inns in New England, Henderson Park Inn continues to capture the hearts of visitors and locals. Each thoughtfully-decorated suite distinguishes itself from others, boasts breathtaking views of the Gulf ’s emerald-green water, and is designed for total pampered privacy, featuring sumptuous bedding, a flat-screen TV and concierge service for any additional flights of fancy.

The attentive staff caters to each guest’s every need from the moment he or she enters. Rooms greet guests with romantic music, a bottle of wine and two glasses, a vase of roses, as well as a special house-made treat.

But, there’s no limit on the romantic experiences offered at Henderson Park Inn. Couples can grab a picnic lunch provided by the Inn, claim a spot for two on the powdery beach where complimentary beach chairs ensure there’s ample room to find some relaxing seclusion, or explore the area like a local on bikes provided by the hotel.

“From a made-to-order breakfast to a complimentary happy hour at our tiki bar, the Inn provides everything you need for a perfect romantic beach vacation,” said Howell.

For the full romantic effect, couples are encouraged to dine al-fresco on the terrace of Henderson Park Inn’s on-site restaurant, Beach Walk Café, as much for the atmosphere as for the exquisite food, which is expertly crafted

by Executive Chef Daniel Peters. For pure seclusion, couples can arrange a “Toes in the Sand” dining experience. Guests can toast to their love by the light of tiki torches at this private dinner on the beach. The romantic, rose-petaled excursion pairs fresh-caught seafood with glasses of bubbly.

“Being nestled within one of the most romantic inns in the country and having unique dining experiences like Toes in the Sand definitely sets us apart as one of the premier places for a romantic evening,” said Beach Walk Café’s Food and Beverage Manager, Jessica Ferreira.

With numerous accolades like Best Outdoor Dining on the Emerald Coast,

Beach Walk Café remains Destin’s only fine dining restaurant located on the stunning beaches of the Emerald Coast. But, the atmosphere and unique dining options of the restaurant aren’t the only features dinner guests keep coming back for.

“Chef Daniel’s food is absolutely incredible,” said Ferreira. “We’re blessed to have a chef of his caliber leading our kitchen, and our guests see that when they dine here.”

A Destin native, Peters harmonizes fresh, locally-inspired ingredients and flavors with culinary skills he perfected while living in Napa Valley and studying under world-renowned chefs like James Beard Award Winning and Michelin Star Chef Douglas Keane and Top Chef Contestant Sang Yoon, among others.

“Chef Stephan Barber, of Farmstead in Napa, really pushed an ingredient-forward approach to food,” said Peters.

“And, I’ve really started pushing that myself at Beach Walk. These chefs taught me everything I know, and I think our guests can see their influence in the food we put out here.”

Peters explained that he’s working to bring about a gulf-to-table concept at Beach Walk, adding daily features like pan seared snapper with roasted fingerling potatoes, and sautéed haricot verts topped with lump crab and Mediterranean artichokes, cherry tomatoes and capers.

“The features Chef puts out are some of the most creative and delicious dishes I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating,” said Ferreira.

Even with Peters’s new additions, Beach Walk’s menu still holds the classic crowd favorite dishes that people from around the country have been enjoying since the restaurant first opened years ago.

“With dinner being the only part of our guests’ stays that is not included, having this award-winning restaurant on site is just another perk for our guests,” said Howell. “It’s definitely a must-do for all of our guests.”

And if guests are looking for additional activities or dining experiences, they have access to the all the amenities at the Inn’s sister property, The Henderson, a Salamander Beach and Spa Resort, including a resort-style pool and spa, and restaurants.

“But you won’t want to miss the sunset on the back patio of the Inn,” said Howell. “To see the sun sink in the Emerald Coast waters is absolutely stunning and one of the most romantic moments our property can offer.”

For more information about Henderson Park Inn or to book a room, visit www.hendersonparkinn.com or call 866.398.4432.

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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Atlanta Black-Jewish Coalition in 1982. From the beginning, she said, the late Congressman John Lewis was an inspiration, serving as co-chair. The work of the coalition continues today and is “alive and thriving.”

She also was asked what are effective tools for breaking through differences when the parties might not see eye to eye. “I believe the way to build coalitions is to get to know each other one to one on a personal level.”

People need to feel comfortable talking to one another honestly and be encouraged to understand one another’s key issues, stressed Frank. She referred to “creating a table to hear each other” and again praised Lewis because of his ability to reach out to others and understand their histories.

Thomas, a legendary collegiate and professional basketball figure, reflected on his youth growing up in Chicago. “The Black and Jewish communities have always been together, particularly connected to sports,” he said. “In basketball, there were important figures” and, in particular, he mentioned with fondness Abe Saperstein, the Jewish owner of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Thomas said that in basketball Blacks and Jews have always interacted, noting that in the 1940s and 1950s there were outstanding Jewish players who others wanted to emulate, and today Jews are among NBA team owners. Through this mutual involvement in sports, the values that Blacks and Jews shared became evident, on issues such as voting rights and human rights, and especially both groups “wanting to be the best that people can be.” Thomas, who grew up poor in Chicago, eventually became part owner of an NBA team himself.

Worth Watching

The film “Shared Legacies,” which was the catalyst for this online discussion, is an outstanding production well worth watching.

Parts of the film focus on the Civil Rights movement in Alabama and Mississippi. Highlighted were long-time Birmingham rabbi Milton Grafman’s out-front push for Civil Rights and excerpts from a famous Rosh Hashanah sermon he gave calling on his congregants to stand up and be counted in the wake of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four young Black girls.

The film also highlights the 1964 murder of two young Jews, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who had come to Mississippi to help Black citizens register to vote. Black activist James Chaney was also was murdered with them, in one of the most memorable and violent racial crimes of that time. The murders of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney are often invoked to reflect the courageous willingness of Jews to stand with Blacks on the front lines of the Civil Rights struggle.

The film “Shared Legacies” also suggests that the Black-Jewish alliance that was forged during the Civil Rights era began to fray in the early 1970s, in the wake of the deaths of the two leaders seen as most pivotal to the partnership — King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

In addition, the film suggests that urban tensions, which have sometimes pitted Blacks and Jews against each other, played a role. The film also didn’t shrink from the tensions that have been caused more recently as some Black activists link the struggles Blacks face today with the plight of the Palestinians, portraying Israel in a harsh and unfair light.

These are all complex issues, though the words spoken during the program offered inspiration and advice. Especially pertinent were the welcoming comments from the Israeli Consul General to the Southeast, Anat Sultan-Dadon. She said, “I look forward to the discussion of the history, present and future of Black-Jewish relations.” To that, Shelby-Wallace, the Consulate’s Director of External Affairs, who is responsible for outreach to the African-American, Hispanic, LGBTQIA+, Christian and Muslim communities, added, “Tonight we are focusing on ally-ship and talking about what that means.”

(To view the film “Shared Legacies” and/or view the discussion highlighted above, contact pr@atlanta.mfa.gov.il)

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Richard Ducote Judge, 22nd Judicial District, Division J While Richard Ducote has extensive experience in the courtroom and sees being a judge as “the culmination of everything I have done in my life,” his motivation is “to do good in the world” because of “tremendous blessings I needed to return.”

When he was 12, his father suddenly died and his mother was pregnant with their sixth child. His father’s boss asked his mother what bills the family had, pulled out his checkbook and continued to pay his father’s salary for the next 18 years.

Pediatrician Hyman Tolmas “never sent us another bill… we had 6 kids who had free pediatric care for 18 years.” His mother had known Tolmas since she was in nursing school, and “he saved my niece’s life” from a premature birth at a time when that had a high fatality rate.

At Tulane, he read a book on children in foster care and knew that is what he needed to pursue. In 1975, Judge Sol Gothard hired him as a juvenile probation officer in Jefferson Parish, and he was on his path, becoming an attorney in 1978.

“I’ve been very blessed,” he said, with “the opportunity not only to make an impact on the lives of abuse victims and those in foster care… but also just simply in a professional sense in terms of legal scholarship and the development of trial skills, and hopefully the teaching I’ve done for judges, lawyers, physicians” has made an impact.

Being a judge is the next step in that progression. “The power of an attorney is to ask questions,” he said. “The power of a judge is to affix his signature to a judgment.”

In the 1990s, Gothard and Tolmas did a series at East Jefferson General for adolescents, discussing every type of issue in a frank and open manner.

Later, at a conference where Tlmas spoke, Ducote “got to go and surprise him and tell the story publicly about what he did for our family.”

He said Gothard referred to him “as his illegitimate son,” and he was known for being “very direct and not afraid of speaking truth to power.”

It was particularly meaningful for him in 2012 when he received the Sol Gothard Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization of Forensic Social Work.

He has tried cases in 46 states, a rare number for an attorney. He won a case in the U.S. Supreme Court, 9-0, for two children who were sexually abused, and laws he has written have been enacted in Louisiana and around the country.

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Donald “Chick” Foret Judge, Jefferson Parish 24th Judicial District, Division H For Chick Foret, this is his first and last campaign for judge. At age 67, he will reach the mandatory retirement age and not be eligible to run for re-election, but he is ready to “put my heart and soul into being a judge” and “do the right thing every day, no matter what the consequences are or who the parties are.”

Foret has practiced law since 1977. While at Tulane Law School, Professor Robert Force told him that a good way to get two credit hours is to work for the district attorney’s office, and “I just fell in love with criminal law, with being a prosecutor.”

As an assistant DA, he prosecuted some of the city’s most notorious criminals, and was appointed to Vice President George H.W. Bush’s elite special task force to combat drug trafficking in America.

He tried well over 200 jury trials in state and federal courts across multiple jurisdictions, and after the BP oil spill, helped over 100 business owners recover over $70 million and get back on their feet.

He was preparing to run in 2009, but the time wasn’t right for him. Now, he points to his life experiences and legal experience as background to deal with “class actions, mass torts, auto accidents, child custody — which many October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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2020 candidates people will tell you is the most important cases a judge hears.”

He has an astounding 525 lawyer endorsements, including Harry Rosenberg and Morris Bart. “Who would think anyone would have both of them on the same side?” he asked. He also has a broad base of support from Jefferson Parish officials.

Because of his political run, he recently left WWL-TV after 19 years as a legal analyst. “I loved it, as much as I loved being in the courtroom.” He said the best feedback was people commenting that he gave both sides and then explained what the law is, not what he thought the outcome should be.

He said “nobody wants to play in a rigged game, everyone wants to be sure the judge has the highest integrity… when the law is applied to the facts, what is the proper result?” In his courtroom, he will ensure “every party has an equal opportunity to present their case, to be treated with respect.”

The criminal justice system should provide safety and dignity for everyone. As judge, Meg Garvey will ensure fairness for all.

Piper Griffin Justice, Louisiana Supreme Court, District 7

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Judge Piper Griffin acknowledges she could have simply gone for re-election to her current position as judge of the Orleans Parish Civil District Court, Division I, where she has served since 2001. Three years ago, that is what she planned.

But as she continued to serve, she realized that “who replaced Chief Justice Bernette Johnson” on the Louisiana Supreme Court “was important,” and the skills she has gained are a perfect fit for the position.

Griffin graduated from LSU School of Law in 1987, saying that a law degree was a way to follow her “desire to help people and make a difference in my community.” She quickly made a name for herself, and in 1997 was recognized as one of the 50 most distinguished Black graduates of Notre Dame, where she received her undergraduate degree.

She was the first African American Chair of the Young Lawyer’s Section of the New Orleans Bar Association, and is past president of the 4th and 5th Circuit Judges Association, and the Louisiana Judicial Council of the National Bar Association.

In recent years, she has worked on numerous Supreme Court committees. While serving in roles such as the budgetary control board and the committee on judicial ethics, she realized “I was being given valuable skills and valuable insight as to the administrative responsibilities of the Supreme Court,” and how that affects not only the Supreme Court but the entire judicial system in Louisiana.

Along with her experience working with judges and lawyers from across the state, “I’m prepared to serve.”

Part of the preparation is that she has run “a very fast-paced and effective docket,” and “the Supreme Court is not a place where you have time to sit.”

She said some have asked why she did not go for an appellate position, but she points out that the last two Supreme Court judges came directly from the district court level. Her work on that level “keeps me in tune with the public and the legal community,” and “prepares me to continue in that fast-paced process, to do the things that are necessary on the Supreme Court.”

Griffin would become the only Black and only female on the court.

Chris Cox Judge, Jefferson Parish 24th Judicial District, Division B Chris Cox, who has spent virtually all of his legal career in public service, has wanted to become a judge for quite some time, even before he attended law school at Tulane.

One of his mentors, Judge Walter Rothschild, told him he wished he had pursued the bench sooner, because he found it very fulfilling.

With two open seats in Jefferson Parish this year because of age limits, Cox said it is time for him to take this next step. Eight years ago, many people wanted him to run, but “it is very difficult to run against an incumbent judge and win” in the parish.

This race, he said, is about trial and courtroom experience, and he has done 52

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

2020 candidates close to 120 jury and judge trials, and handled countless motions in state and federal courtrooms. “That is one thing that really sets me apart,” he said.

His undergraduate work was in accounting, and he was a CPA for a few years — now inactive — before going to law school, which was the path he always intended. But tax law didn’t excite him, and clerking for a judge in federal court for a year “reaffirmed in my mind that the prosecutors have a really interesting and good job.”

He became an assistant district attorney, then a prosecutor. “Although you see some horrible things… it is very easy to get motivated to do the job, knowing you are doing the right thing.”

He found helping victims to be very rewarding, and said that “sometimes the victims get lost in the process” when talking about criminal justice reform.

In 2010, Cox became chief operating officer for Jefferson Parish, then in 2014 became executive assistant district attorney to Paul Connick., representing the parish office at the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and developing policy for our state’s top prosecutors.

“Public service is a calling,” he said. “That is just who I am and that is my motivation.”

David Alvarez Orleans Parish School Board District 6 A frustrating experience with local government prompted David Alvarez to run for the Orleans Parish School Board. The founder and director of community coalition La Voz de la Comunidad, Alvarez was part of a neighborhood group that assembled a proposal in 2015 to purchase and revitalize the long vacant Alfred Priestley school building in Carrollton, establishing a community hub and multipurpose center.

He said the plan had very capable local experts volunteering “to do what needs to be done. It had all the markings of democracy in action.” But when the group approached a couple school board members, “they looked at us like we were crazy, like we didn’t have any type of standing since we weren’t a formal 501(c)3.”

The proposal “was crushed,” and as he processed what happened, he woke up three days before qualifying deadline, determined to run for school board. With a grassroots campaign that was especially popular among teachers, he got “really close” with 47 percent of the vote.

Now, he is running again, with “the same desire, the same fire to get on the school board and make some real changes” to make the board more responsive to the community.

The state says charter schools must have boards of at least 60 percent residents. Alvarez wants to see that become 100 percent. “You wouldn’t vote for me if I didn’t live in New Orleans so why would you have non-New Orleanians on the charter boards?”

He also wants to establish a grading system that is local, not the state’s, saying the metrics and standardized testing currently used “snooker urban districts” and favor wealthy suburbs. If standardized tests were so valuable, “it wouldn’t have been the first thing they got rid of when Covid hit.”

He also wants to see schools rewarded for opening their facilities to after-school activities and non-profit groups.

His community work includes a lot of coalition building and strategic planning to improve the lives of youth, working with school and business leaders, government officials, law enforcement and faith based groups.

Eric Skrmetta Public Service Commission, District 1 Eric Skrmetta, who has served as chair of the Public Service Commission twice, takes pride in being accessible and in fighting to keep rates low for Louisianans.

When he joined the commission, Louisiana was 26th in the nation in utility rates. Now, the state has the lowest residential utility rates in the country, and the lowest industrial rates. Having a stable energy policy and rate structure leads to billions in industrial growth. “That translates to more jobs, and good paying jobs in our state,” he said.

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During college, Skrmetta was an aide to Gov. David Treen, and decided to go to law school afterward. Interested in politics since high school, he felt “I felt at some point when I became seasoned enough as an attorney and as an individual, that I had something to offer, I would put myself up for office.”

When mediation was introduced in Louisiana, he underwent training early on. After Katrina, when Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon instituted mediation between homeowners and insurance companies, Skrmetta mediated about 900 cases in 16 months “and was very successful in putting a significant amount of money back into the hands of homeowners.”

His legal experience and mediation skills translated well when he was first elected to the PSC in 2008, working with different parties to “narrow the issues.” If litigation is necessary, “we will do it,” but the goal is to keep costs down, for the benefit of ratepayers.

Under his leadership, when Cleco Power was acquired by a private entity, he created a list of 77 conditions that included an immediate $136 million in rate credits for customers. The PSC also developed a storm charge mechanism that has saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

The power grid is being strengthened, and in Hurricane Laura, just the older sections were destroyed, so they are being rebuilt to the new standards.

The PSC also approved three new Entergy power plants that are highly efficient, to replace inefficient older ones without affecting the rate structure.

While some parts of the country have capacity issues, “We’re going to make sure in Louisiana there is not going to be a situation where people don’t have access to electricity.”

Lee Ann Dugas

U.S. Congress, Louisiana First District Lee Ann Dugas, a disabled Gulf War veteran, wants to go to Congress to “restore, rebuild, repair and heal.” She explained, “to see a state that I love and a country I love being destroyed and torn apart… sometimes you just gotta say ‘enough is enough’.”

Dugas ran against Rep. Steve Scalise in previous election cycles. After four years of the Trump administration, she is ready to see that Scalise retires.

“Scalise and his fellow Congressional Republicans have remained silent. They have stood by and watched as the reputation” of the United States, and “NATO — our allies, are just being cast to the side,” while “siding with our enemies.”

“I took an oath many years ago to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the nation. When I see it being shredded and disrespected and dishonored, that gets me wound up,” she said. “We deserve better than that and we are better than this.”

Her four-word goal for Congress starts with restoring the Constitution and rule of law; then rebuilding governmental departments and the relationships between the U.S. and its allies.

Repairing also needs to be done in “a bunch of topics,” including women’s rights, criminal justice reform, police reform, LGBTQ rights and the Affordable Care Act. She also wants to see alternative energy expanded. “We have so many beautiful spaces we can’t build on but we can use for solar or wind farms,” and that would also make the country healthier.

The healing will come by bringing the diversity of America together, she said. Diversity “is how our nation was founded, that’s what makes America great, and it is being destroyed, it is being divided.”

“You can come to America and become an American, and that’s why people come here for that better life, to love who they want, pray how they want, for education and to raise a family,” Dugas said. “That’s what America is about, and I see it being torn up.”

After the election, she wants to see a joint ethics hearing, modeled after the joint Sept. 11 commissions, with House and Senate members “holding Trump, Barr, Pompeo as well as the Congressional Republicans accountable. I take that seriously.”

Dugas wants to be open to constituents, saying they can contact her any time.

“I’m old school,” she said. “You shake hands and sit on the porch and have a glass of sweet tea, and I listen. That’s what representing people is about.

They’ve forgotten how to listen to us.”

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2020 candidates Keva Landrum Orleans Parish District Attorney After graduating from Tulane Law School, New Orleans native Keva Landrum started at the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office, becoming the first female district attorney in the state when she became acting DA in 2007. She tried over 100 jury and bench trials, prosecuting homicides, felonies and sex crimes, and heading the juvenile division and the screening division.

In 2008, Landrum was elected to the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, Section E. In 2018, she became the first African American woman to serve as chief judge, the court’s highest office, overseeing the administrative functions of the court.

Landrum said her background as DA and a judge gives her the unique experience “to deliver real reform while protecting public safety,” working to “heal the divisions in our community.” While fighting violent crime, she wants to expand diversion programs and strive to end mass incarceration, connecting youth to job, educational and rehabilitative opportunities.

“For too long the District Attorney’s Office measured success by seeking high conviction rates and pursuing harsh sentences instead of focusing on reducing crime in our community,” Landrum said. “We can do better.”

Meghan Garvey Judge, Orleans Parish Municipal and Traffic Court Meghan Garvey says it is time for a change at Municipal Court, and she has 700,000 reasons why — that is the number of open cases at the court, including many on charges that are unconstitutional or past the statute of limitations.

Garvey started her legal career right after Katrina, representing 100 people trapped in jail without access to courts. She has advocated for public defense, bail reform and raising the age of criminal liability to keep children out of jail.

In college, she worked as a case manager for the homeless and those with severe mental illness. A founding member of Orleans Public Defenders in 2006, she received a fellowship from the American Bar Association Commission on Homelessness and Poverty.

While at Tulane Law School, she saw at the Orleans Municipal Court “masses of people, nearly all black, many old and suffering from mental illness, chained together and pushed through the system without due process.” She also helped represent homeless people who were arrested for standing on the sidewalk.

She said the system needs to ensure justice, safety and dignity for everyone, and she will bring “compassion, transparency and efficiency” to the court. “Sunshine is the best disinfectant.”

Dennis Moore Judge, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, Section A Dennis Moore came back to the legal profession — and his native Louisiana — after a time as a software engineer. In 1994, he decided to pursue his passion for studying law, graduating from Tulane Law School in 1997.

After clerking at the Orleans Civil District Court, Moore was staff attorney for the Orleans Indigent Defender Program. He also was an adjunct professor at Tulane’s A.B. Freeman School of Business while opening a solo practice, handling cases in criminal defense, personal injury, family and domestic law, real estate and civil litigation.

Since 2010, Moore has worked as a staff attorney with the Capital De-

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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2020 candidates fense Project of Southeast Louisiana. For the last 10 years, he has handled multiple first-degree murder cases as a certified Second Chair Attorney.

Saying that much of the court’s systems are in the 19th century, not even the 20th, Moore’s main goal is to make the court system much more efficient, working with the clerk to incorporate new technology, reduce open case files, implement an electronic filing system and a monthly calendar so cases can be followed by the public.

He also wants to expand the drug court program and the reentry program, and help those who are eligible for expungement with the application process.

While the race is for the Section A seat, he looks at the court as a system where the 13 judges have to work together for the entire court to run efficiently.

Mike Hall Judge, Orleans Parish Civil District Court, Division I Mike Hall cites his experience of over 17 years as a trial lawyer and over 7 years as an Orleans Parish Civil District Court family court mediator in running for judge. His practice focuses on family law and general liability defense.

A New Orleans native, he earned his law degree from Southern University. He started as a law clerk for the Orleans Civil District Court, then started with Weiss and Eason, doing medical malpractice defense, professional and general liability defense, and other areas.

Having represented individuals, businesses and governmental agencies “on both sides of the aisle provides me with a distinct ability to appreciate and understand the law from various viewpoints.”

“The citizens of New Orleans deserve a judge who will provide consistency, efficiency and effectiveness from the bench,” Hall said. “Consistency in rulings and judgments; effectiveness in the manner in which the law is enforced, and efficiency in the manner in which the office is run.”

He added, “my ability to relate to all members of the community that presents to Civil District Court is of significant importance.”

Gary Wainwright Judge, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, Section K “Constitutional rights mean nothing if judges do not protect them,” says Gary Wainwright, who brings three decades of experience in his campaign to be “a judge for the people.”

After graduating from the Southern Law Center, he joined the Orleans Indigent Defender Program before going into quasi-public defense private practice. He has conducted 750 jury trials, two death penalty cases and thousands of plea bargains over three decades in the Criminal Court.

“Every accused person is entitled to a fair trial, conducted by a judge who knows the law and the rules of evidence,” he said.

An advocate for the re-legalization of marijuana, Wainwright regularly lectures at Loyola Law School on the drug war and its effect on the nation.

While dangerous individuals who harm others must be held responsible, and for some jail may be the only thing that saves them from death on the streets and gives a chance to choose a better path in life, Wainwright has worked for criminal justice reform, especially when it comes to hundreds of millions of dollars spent on imprisoning minor drug offenders.

Because he is 66, his independence is “guaranteed,” as he can serve only one term before aging out.

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

2020 candidates Nandi Campbell Judge, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, Section G Nandi Campbell was inspired by the Sixth Amendment’s promise of counsel and a speedy trial for the poor and disenfranchised, serving as a member of the criminal defense clinic at the University of Georgia Law School.

A Brooklyn native, Campbell had a varied career before pursuing law.

After a program in business management and law, she was in the New York banking industry for a decade, then was a manager at the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System.

After receiving her law degree, she moved to New Orleans in 2008 to work in public defense of residents still dealing with the after-effects of Katrina, managing a huge case load in the Orleans Parish Public Defender’s office.

She started her own firm, handling many high-level cases. She also launched mentoring programs for young students and young lawyers, and founded My Sister’s Keeper, a mentoring program for young girls in need of stable adult role models.

Campbell is a graduate of the Loyola University Institute of Politics and the Norman C. Francis Leadership Institute, an associate professor of law at Tulane University and an adjunct professor at Loyola University School of Law. She is a contract conflict attorney for both the Orleans Parish and federal Eastern District of Louisiana’s public defender’s offices.

She advocates Flexcourt to reduce the time parties, witnesses and jurors spend in court; greater transparency in sentencing; alternatives to incarceration and organizing one-stop expungement. Addicts need rehabilitation, she said, because incarcerating them for violating parole is “putting a bandaid over a gaping wound.”

“Our courthouse belongs to the people of New Orleans, and we need to start acting like it,” Campbell said.

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DeWayne Williams Judge, Orleans Parish Civil District Court, Division I Aside from earning a degree in business administration at LSU, DeWayne Williams has never wanted to live anywhere else but his native New Orleans. He earned his law degree at Loyola in New Orleans in 2001, then despite calls urging him to start over elsewhere after the post-Katrina flooding inundated his home with over 10 feet of water, he returned to the city as quickly as possible, to contribute to its revitalization.

Now a partner in Aaron and Gianna, Williams has served as counsel in numerous complex and high profile trials, appeals, and writs before a variety of state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

He was on the Louisiana Supreme Court Committee on Bar Admissions as the Constitutional Law Bar Examiner, and the Attorney Disciplinary Board.

He co-founded Infinite Blessings, a non-profit that focuses on investing in the lives of New Orleans area youth to empower them to create a lasting change in their community.

While he cites his extensive legal experience, he cites his experience as single father as making him the best choice for the position, as “I work every day to set an example for my son and to bring about a future where he can thrive,” and he understands “the unique issues facing our community.”

He seeks to make the court more efficient, “so that justice can be served in a more timely manner.”

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commentary >> Editor’s Note to find one in Israel was to go to an Arab village, where it had been imported.

They were also part of the Arab oil embargoes in the 1970s, when OPEC decided to punish the West for its support of Israel.

The Emirates have also been huge diplomatic and financial supporters of the Palestinians, and it has been standard wisdom for a long time — erroneously — that the source of instability in the Middle East has been Israel and the lack of a resolution with the Palestinians. Former Secretary of State John Kerry insisted in 2016 that the only way any Arab state would ever have relations with Israel is if the Palestinian situation were finally resolved.

But with Iran growing as an existential threat to regimes throughout the region, along with the realization that the Palestinian leadership has no interest in running a state but is stuck in the mode of anti-Israel revolution while the leadership enriches itself through siphoning off foreign aid, much of the Arab world has come to realize that Israel is not a threat to them, and that waiting on the Palestinians to come to their senses is like waiting for Vanderbilt to win the College Football Playoff.

With the green movement worldwide and American energy independence, economies built solely on oil are no longer sustainable long term, and these Gulf countries need to figure out a way to diversify their economies. They see Israel’s Start-Up Nation and want to be part of it, for their own futures.

It is also interesting to see how this process is playing out within the UAE and Bahrain. The peace accords with Egypt and Jordan were done by leaders, without selling it to the people. Anti-Israel incitement is still very common in both countries, and you don’t see Egyptian or Jordanian tourists coming to Jerusalem to visit Muslim holy sites — or anything else.

These agreements are completely different,

continued from page 3 as there is great enthusiasm on both sides.

Business deals have been announced virtually from day one. The UAE told its hotels to provide kosher dining options. It was a scramble to see which national airlines would be first to announce direct flights to and from Tel Aviv.

Israelis are already seeing ads to purchase real estate and condos in the UAE, and it is expected that there will be a lot of tourism back and forth.

The rhetoric has not been a begrudging acknowledgement that Israel is here to stay, it has been that Israel and the Jewish people are part of the Middle East. Contrast that with the jihadist vision that Jews or any non-Muslim can’t rule over what is seen as Muslim lands, a sentiment that has been the philosophical underpinning of the Arab war against Israel from the beginning.

Instead, in the UAE there is now a chief rabbi for the Jewish community, and the Abrahamic Family House is currently under construction and will include a mosque, a church and a synagogue at the same location.

It may seem hard to fathom, but a very convincing argument can be made that it is much easier and safer to walk down the street visibly as a Jew in the Emirates than on the streets of Paris, Brussels or Stockholm.

And other countries in the region will be coming on board soon. Speculation is that Sudan will be one of those countries. Sudan of course, is known for the famous “three noes” meeting after the 1967 war, when Israel was looking to make peace and a united Arab League insisted that there would never be peace with Israel, or even recognition of Israel’s existence.

Because of Sudan’s hostility, the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry that took place partly in Sudan in the 1980s had to be done in a highly secretive manner, lest the Sudanese government find out.

These accords herald a huge shift in the Middle East. When you have the King of Saudi Ara-

bia at the United Nations calling for the disarmament not of Israel, but of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, something has definitely changed.

Some who are critical of the recent accords slam Israel for even signing them, because those Gulf countries are autocratic regimes. Israel is making deals with dictatorships, they say. Of course, most other countries in the world, including the United States, Britain, the European Union, the rest of the Arab world… have relations with UAE and Bahrain. Only Israel is expected to meet some purity test in who they can have diplomatic relations with.

Besides, how exactly would one describe the regimes ruling over the territories and Gaza, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas? Yet Israel is supposed to make a deal with them first.

For those who are laser-focused on the Palestinians and oppose Israel out of habit, this agreement is being portrayed as a betrayal. It is comical to watch organizations that claim to be for peace and harmony condemning a peace agreement. It goes to show where their true heart lies, and that is in a Middle East that is still trying to get rid of Israel.

There are others who support Israel but disparage these accords because of where they came from — the Trump administration. Had this happened under Obama, many of these same individuals would be turning cartwheels in the streets and calling for a second Nobel Peace Prize for Obama instead of scoffing at the notion that Trump might deserve one.

In fact, the Obama/Biden administration does deserve credit for this. By trying to prop up and strengthen the Iranian regime, Obama demonstrated to the rest of the Middle East that they need to come together to work against the Iranian threat, and not rely on the U.S. having their back — or being on the same side.

Of course, some have also said that Trump’s unpredictability added to the determination of these Arab countries to come to an agreement with Israel, in case this new alliance has to go it alone because the U.S. under Trump does not want to get involved in any eventual conflict.

Regardless of the reasons, it is clear that the sands have completely shifted in the Middle East, and the UAE announcement, which took so many by surprise, may turn out to be one of the most significant developments in Middle East history.

If this whole exercise results in the Palestinian people getting a reality check that seeking the destruction of Israel will continue to get them nowhere, and convinces them that it is time for a new approach, so much the better.

Who knows, this could wind up being the one bright spot of 2020.

Lawrence Brook, Publisher/Editor 58 October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

community Kurtz writes about family, love, life and loss

By Lee J. Green Author Dara Kurtz believes that the written word can elicit great emotion and can connect “L’dor V’dor” — from one generation to the next.

The Winston-Salem, N.C., resident who graduated from the University of Alabama in 1993 had her second book published last month.

“I Am My Mother’s Daughter: Wisdom on Life, Loss and Love” starts each chapter with an excerpt from a letter she received, mostly from her mom and two grandmothers, from the first time she went to sleep-away camp at Blue Star when she was 9 years old until she graduated college, and goes into the relatable life lessons these strong women taught her.

“My mom passed away a few weeks after I had my first daughter,” Zoey, now 20, said Kurtz, who also has lost her grandparents. “It was devastating and I spent many years pretending everything was okay. Though I knew where the bag of letters was, I didn’t have the courage to open it and reread the letters.

“Then one day not too long ago because of an unexpected occurrence, I finally opened the bag. I thought the letters would bring too much grief and pain, but they brought me unanticipated peace, love and a renewed connection to them. I really felt like I was having a conversation with them. I wanted to pass this on to my daughters.”

Kurtz said the bag not only contained letters, but as also artwork, heirlooms and Shabbat recipes. “I wanted to write something personal but I also wanted to share life lessons. I hope that through the book, readers can think about their own families and traditions. It’s a memoir and a self-help book all in one,” she said.

“There is so much relevance and timelessness in letters,” added Kurtz.

“That gets lost in this world of emails, texts, tweets and social media.”

The author grew up in Richmond, Va., and met her husband, Jon, while at Alabama. They would move to Winston-Salem, where he is from, so he could start his law practice.

Dara worked for 20 years as a financial advisor. Then just over six years ago, she went to the doctor to get a lump on her right breast checked out.

The biopsy results confirmed the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Thankfully the cancer was detected early and was aggressively treated.

“Going through all of that changed me. I found myself questioning what I was doing with my life and my time,” said Kurtz. “It also brought memories back from when my mom was sick,” also with cancer.

Kurtz quit her job at a large bank to start Crazy Perfect Life — her website, blog and podcast.

She also wrote her first book, “Crush Cancer: A Personal Enlightenment From a Cancer Survivor.”

“I wanted to provide insight and inspiration for patients, survivors and loved ones who have been affected by this scary, unpredictable disease,” said Kurtz. “Like with ‘I am My Mother’s Daughter,’ the book helped me heal and I hope it has helped others.”

The books are available from Amazon and through www.crazyperfectlife.com. Kurtz said she is also happy to do Zoom session talks with Jewish community groups throughout the region.

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

If a student is falling behind in the midst of the recent chaos in schooling brought about by Covid, or just needs help with one tricky subject, Club Z Tutoring in New Orleans can help, with individualized tutoring and academic support.

Owner Catherine Kolf said they focus both on their students and on their tutors to make a good match.

Club Z offers a wide range of subjects. She said math is the most requested, generally algebra or calculus. They also offer study skills, writing, reading, pre-Kindergarten, foreign languages, science, music and preparation for the ACT and SAT. Unlike most tutoring companies, Club Z has no long-term contract. “We go month to month, Kolf said.

Rather than working with their own standardized curriculum, Club Z works with each child’s curriculum. “We customize it for each student, so every one is different.”

To start, there is a meeting with the family and an evaluation of the student to determine the need. “Some do one hour per week, some do five days a week. It’s very customized to the student’s needs,” Kolf said. After the assessment, it is determined which tutor would be best for this student, and the initial schedule is set. The tutor and family then decide on the future schedule.

While most of the tutoring sessions are done at home, sometimes the tutoring session is done at a library or coffee shop.

Another option that has become increasingly popular is pod tutoring, where instead of oneon-one instruction, there is a small group of students that want to learn together.

And it isn’t just elementary or high school.

“We do work with college students as well,” along with preparing for many entrance exams, such as for the military or nursing.

With the start of the school year, there have been many inquiries for tutoring, and Kolf said “almost all my tutors are working.” She is always looking for teachers who want a part time position, “even one or two sessions a week.”

“One-on-one tutoring is the best way to improve student skills and create success,” Kolf said.

community >> Rear Pew Mirror

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

continued from page 62 Adoniyah. That is, until Batsheva and Nathan persuaded David to name his younger son Solomon instead. This smooth transition featured Solomon replacing most of the government with his friends, as he prepared to satisfy his edifice complex with the construction of the fatefully named First Temple and various other projects across the land.

After Solomon’s own serving of the Biblically popular number 40, his son Rehoboam became king. Of the southern kingdom. Ten northern tribes rejected him, named Jeroboam their king, and the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were never united again. Each had its lineage of kings (and even one ruling queen), with numerous leadership transitions that would dominate the nightly news even though there were no televisions yet.

So, as the Bible clearly teaches, why can’t we all just get along?

Doug Brook approves of this column. To read past columns, visit http:// brookwrite.com/. For exclusive online content, follow facebook.com/rearpewmirror

New Orleans JCC “Big Night In” Celebration taking Broadway online This year’s Center Celebration may be going virtual, but it will still be a star-studded presentation.

The New Orleans Jewish Community Center’s Big Night In, presented by the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust, will be on Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. Proceeds from the evening will go toward the JCC’s “substantial deficit from decreased capacity due to social distancing and safety restrictions.”

New Orleans Broadway star and “Mad Men” alumnus Bryan Batt will host the evening, which features numerous performers.

Anika Larsen appeared on Broadway in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. She also appeared in “Xanadu,” “All Shook Up” and “Rent.”

Slam poetry champion Tarriona “Tank” Ball is lead vocalist and frontwoman of Tank and the Bangas, winners of the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Contest and 2020 Grammy Award Best New Artist nominees.

Cantor Azi Schwartz, senior cantor of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York and world-renowned vocal performer and recording artist, has performed at Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, Madison Square Garden, the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, the Israeli Knesset and for Pope Francis.

Trumpeter and vocalist James Andrews is known as “Satchmo of the Ghetto,” Andrews hails from a musical family, the grandson of Jesse Hill and older brother to Troy Andrews, most commonly known as Trombone Shorty.

Israeli performer Dganit Daddo is known for her Ladino songs and mix of traditional Jewish and contemporary Israeli music.

There will also be performances by Alix Paige, Jennifer Theriot, Leslie Castay, and Max and Charlie Carver.

Sponsor levels start at $250, with patron levels starting at $1,000. General event tickets will be available on Nov. 1.

Advertise in Southern Jewish Life Call Jeff Pizzo, (504) 432-2561

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

The Bible provides many timeless lessons. They’re timeless because they can apply to any time throughout history — past, present, future, or pluperfect — just as much as they can feel like time stops when learning about them.

These lessons are well known to everyone who’s read the Bible; which is to say, almost nobody. People who don’t believe in the Bible can’t be expected to read thousands of pages that they don’t believe in. People who do believe in the Bible, at an alarming rate, defend and proselytize based on it in manners that clearly demonstrate they haven’t read it, either.

If one did a study, one might find that The Best-Selling Book Of All Time (tm) might also be The Least Read Best-Seller Of All Time (tm).

Perhaps the best one can hope for is to emulate the tribal chief in the Hollywood classic “The Frisco Kid” who held up a Torah scroll and proclaimed to his tribe, “I have read this book!” and then to Gene Wilder’s rabbinic protagonist said, “I didn’t understand one word.”

Nonetheless, the blessed lessons are there. In this month’s exciting episode, the Bible demonstrates the universal necessity for peaceful transitions of leadership. For the sake of avoiding an argument, a peaceful transition is one where, rather than crudely telling one’s successor where they can go, they amenably provide directions for how to get there along with instructions for cleaning the breakroom espresso machine.

The (spoiler alert!) Torah-ending leadership transition from Moses to Joshua is heralded, by at least several links found via Google, as one of the greatest examples of a positive, peaceful leadership transition ever recorded. While those recordings are still being sought by archaeologists, it is known that this handoff was planned for a long time, was the clear will of the electorate (of one, the Big G), and that it was ultimately unprotested despite it rendering the incumbent unable to enter the Promised Land — perhaps the ultimate thing for which to protest at the time.

Even when the leaders involved are the antithesis of Moses or Joshua, the people need an unquestioned, unadulterated handoff no matter how questionable or adulterous either indiWhat happens vidual might be. Societies have collapsed, empires have fallen, and sitcoms have when transfer been cancelled over less.

For many generations after the Torah of power goes ended, the Jewish people were led by prophets. Well, really by the Big G, but awry? The the prophets were divine consiglieres.

Eventually, the people wanted a king.

Bible says.

Since Larry King wasn’t quite old enough yet, the prophet Samuel named Saul the first king of Israel.

Given the eventual rabbinic tradition of three opinions for every two rabbis, it’s not surprising that some weren’t happy that Saul was anointed.

However, right after taking the throne, Saul banned retribution against anyone who had contested his ascension.

The transition from Saul to David was more piecemeal. Saul was killed in battle, along with three of his sons. His remaining son, Ishboshet, was named Saul’s successor, but the tribe of Judah seceded by naming Saul’s former son-in-law David to be king.

Ishboshet’s northern kingdom lasted about two years until David’s southern kingdom prevailed. David reunited the kingdoms and returned to the regularly scheduled history they actually teach in religious school.

After 40 years and 40 nights, David’s reign was reined in. The third king of the united kingdom of Israel was to be David’s famous son… continued on previous page

October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life

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October 2020 • Southern Jewish Life