SJL Deep South, November 2014

Southern Jewish Life SOUTHERN SUKKAHS JEWISH BOOK MONTH FESTIVAL AT BIRMINGHAM’S LJCC WHY LOUISIANA BUYS ISRAEL BONDS HEART GALLERY CREATES FAMILIES HOW JCRS HELPS AREA YOUTH CHANUKAH GIFT GUIDE

Ashley Latiolais, Garrett Armentor and John Welcher of Louisiana-Lafayette with [S]Ulam, at the Sukkah City competition in St. Louis.

November 2014 Volume 24 Issue 11

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

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shalom y’all shalom y’all

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This issue went to press as the fall holidays concluded with Simchat Torah. After four weeks of holidays it is time to settle back into the routine of regular weeks.

With the holidays over, organizations and congregations are getting back into scheduling events. This month we have a preview of two large ones in connection with Jewish Book Month. In New Orleans, the People of the Book Festival has morphed into the Jewish Cultural Arts Month, and Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center is introducing a Jewish Book Month festival.

While we have a few pieces on Jewish books of regional interest, we have a huge stack of new books that didn’t fit into this issue. We will have many more featured in the December issue.

With stores putting up Christmas displays before September was over (egad!), Chanukah can’t really be that far behind. This issue includes the first part of our annual Chanukah gift guide. Hopefully you will find some inspiration in these pages, and please let our advertisers know that you appreciate them making it possible for Southern Jewish Life to be in your mailbox every month.

We appreciate the comments and compliments we have been receiving about our redesign.

Keep the suggestions coming, we’re here to provide our community with the best Jewish publication possible.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 3

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SUBSCRIPTIONS It has always been our goal to provide a large-community quality publication to all communities of the South.

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We love what we do, and who we do it for.

agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events

A procession brought the Rosh Ha’Ayin Torah back to Birmingham’s N.E. Miles Jewish Day School on Oct. 15. Story, page 9.

Montclair Run benefits cancer center Hundreds of people anticipating a large Thanksgiving dinner later in the day will work it off in advance at the 38th annual Sam Lapidus Montclair Run. The Nov. 27 event, always held on Thanksgiving morning, is a 10-kilometer race starting and ending at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center. The race generally attracts over 700 runners, and there is also a one-mile family fun run.

A few years ago, the run was named in memory of Sam Lapidus, who was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in 2003, when he was nine years old. He died just short of his 15th birthday in November 2008, but during his long battle with cancer he was a regular at the LJCC fitness center.

Proceeds from the run benefit the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s of Alabama and the LJCC Fitness Program.

Registration for the race is $30 online at bhamjcc.org, $36 for paper registration or after Nov. 21. The fun run is $18. The race starts at 8:30 a.m. with the fun run at 10 a.m.

An awards ceremony follows in the LJCC gym, along with a drawing for 12 turkeys from Piggly Wiggly and a Le Creuset Dutch Oven. Awards are presented for the top three men and women in age group categories.

The course is USATF certified, and timing is done through chip technology. 10K runners receive a long-sleeve T-shirt and fun run participants receive a short-sleeve T-shirt.

Kristallnacht program explores Alabama reaction to events in Europe To commemorate Kristallnacht, the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center is holding a program to explore the local awareness of what was happening in Nazi Germany.

The free program “Kristallnacht — What Did We Know? What Did We Do?” will be on Nov. 9 at 3 p.m. at the Homewood Library.

The program will feature Alabama Holocaust Commission members Maury Shevin and Dan Puckett, who will explore what the Birmingham community knew about “the night of broken glass” and other events in Nazi Germany in 1938 and how they responded.

Kristallnacht refers to the state-sanctioned, anti-Jewish riots that occurred throughout Germany on November 9-10, 1938 in which Jewish synagogues, stores, community centers, and homes were plundered and destroyed.

Puckett, associate professor of history at Troy University, will share insights into how the Birmingham community responded to news reports from Europe. He will also discuss why so many Jewish immigrants came to settle in Birmingham and the issues they faced.

Puckett recently wrote “In the Shadow of Hitler: Alabama’s Jews, the Second World War, and the Holocaust.” There will be a book signing following the program.

Shevin, an attorney with Sirote & Permutt, will share recent discoveries from the Birmingham Public Library archives about what was in the local newspapers during and after the events of Kristallnacht.

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 5

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Adelman to speak about Israel to coastal communities Jonathan Adelman, a professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, will be on the Gulf Coast this month. He will speak to a gathering of the Pensacola Jewish Federation on Nov. 11. He is scheduled to address the monthly Chai discussion and speak in the evening, but times and places were not set by press time.

On Nov. 12 he will speak in Mobile at the Bernheim Hall in the Ben May main library, starting at 7 p.m. The event is free and a dessert reception will follow.

In Israel Professor Adelman taught at both Hebrew University and the University of Haifa. In the late 1980s he worked for three years with the Israeli Foreign Ministry to organize groups of Chinese princelings to visit Israel as part of a successful plan to gain Chinese diplomatic recognition.

He continues to work with the Israeli Foreign Ministry on ways to improve Sino-Israeli relations.

His presentations will describe a realistic yet hopeful view of Israel’s future in the world.

Matisyahu playing panhandle venues Matisyahu is touring through the area this month.

He will be at the House of Blues in New Orleans on Nov. 4 with Radical Something and Cisco Adler.

Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show. All tickets are $30 plus fees, general admission.

On Nov. 13 he will be at the Vinyl Music Hall in Pensacola with Radical Something. General admission tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $25.

On Nov. 14 he will be at the Chili Vibrations Reggae Festival in Panama City Beach, at the Aaron Bessant Amphitheater. The festival also features Julian Marley and the Uprising, Iration and Dirty Heads. General admission for the weekend is $59.

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On Oct. 11, Team Kate Has Hope once again took to the streets of Birmingham as the largest Family and Friends team and the top fundraising team for this year’s Race for the Cure, held by the Susan B. Komen North Central Alabama chapter. The team is named in memory of two members of Birmingham’s Jewish community, Kate Nomberg and Shannon Hope Cogen McInerney, who both died after battling breast cancer.

As of mid-October, the team had raised $21,563. Kerry McInerney was presented this year’s Karen Nomberg Spirit Award “for exceptional effort, support and dedication.” McInerney was the top individual fundraiser with $12,048 — just ahead of the second-place team, Pink Link, which raised $12,043. Team Sirote from Sirote and Permutt was fifth with $9,008. In all, the event raised $645,310 as of press time.

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Exploreum announces Voices of Jerusalem lecture series The Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center in Mobile has announced its Voices of Jerusalem lecture series, which complements the Voices of Jerusalem exhibition and National Geographic IMAX film “Jerusalem.”

The film and exhibit run through April 4.

On Nov. 13, John Switzer will speak on “The Sacred Law of Hospitality.”

He is associate professor of theology and director of the Center for Interreligious Understanding at Spring Hill College in Mobile. He will also present “The Rewards of Interreligious Dialogue” on March 12.

On Dec. 18, Bill Warren will discuss “Scribes and Sacred Texts: Ancient Texts and the Codifying of Faith Perspectives.” He is director of the Center for New Testament Textual Studies and professor of New Testament and Greek at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Dennis Cole will present “Archaeology, Bringing the Past to Life: Recent Excavations at Tel Gezer” on Jan. 22. He is chairman of the Division of Biblical Studies, professor of Old Testament and Archaeology and co-director of the Center for Archaeological Research.

“Monks on the Move: Evaluating Pilgrimage to Byzantine Jerusalem Using Isotopes from Ancient Human Teeth” will be presented by Lesley Gregorika on Feb. 26. Gregoricka is assistant professor of anthropology at the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at the University of South Alabama.

Tickets to the lectures are $10 each, which includes drinks and light hors d’oeuvres.

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Rod Frazer, author of “Send the Alabamians: World War I Fighters in the Rainbow Division” will be the speaker at the annual Blachschleger Library Lecture Series at Temple Beth Or in Montgomery.

His presentation will be on Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.

The book, published for the 100th anniversary of World War I, chronicles the 167th Infantry Regiment of the Rainbow Division. The Alabama recruits’ service, according to Douglas MacArthur, had not “been surpassed in military history.”

The ferocity of the Alabamians, so apt to get them in trouble at home, proved invaluable in the field. At the climactic Battle of Croix Rouge, the hot-blooded 167th exhibited unflinching valor and, in the face of machine guns, artillery shells, and poison gas, sustained casualty rates over 50 percent to dislodge and repel the deeply entrenched and heavily armed enemy.

After Gettysburg, the Battle of Croix Rouge is the most significant military engagement to involve Alabama soldiers in the state’s history.

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Remembering Mississippi’s only Holocaust survivor Joseph Metz, a history major at Mississippi State University, will give a presentation about “Inmate 184203,” his grandfather, Gilbert Metz, who was the only Holocaust survivor in Mississippi. Hillel at Mississippi State is hosting the event, Nov. 6 at 7:45 p.m. at Taylor Auditorium. Gilbert Metz, who died in 2007, was in Auschwitz and Dachau. A year after being liberated from Dachau he went to Natchez to live with an aunt. He attended Tulane University until he was drafted to serve in the Korea war, then he returned to Mississippi where he spoke frequently about his experiences.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 7

agenda Hadassah’s Israel director to speak in B’ham There will be two opportunities to hear Barbara Goldstein, Hadassah’s deputy executive director in Israel, on Nov. 3 in Birmingham.

She will speak at the annual Bubbe Club program at 3 p.m. at the home of Esther and Jack Levy. There will also be a general membership meeting at 7 p.m. at the home of Sherri and Jeff Weissman.

Born in New Jersey, she and her now-late husband moved to Israel in 2007, joining her daughter and family, who live in Meitar.

A dessert reception will follow both presentations.

Women’s Shabbat retreat in Baton Rouge The Baton Rouge community will host a Shabbat Retreat for Women, featuring Rabbi Yael Levy of Congregation Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia. Levy is director of “A Way In: Jewish Mindfulness Center” and author of books on the Omer and Chanukah. She was also named by the Forward as one of America’s most inspiring rabbis.

The retreat, held at The Red Shoes, will begin on Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m. with “Welcoming Shabbat with Gratitude and Awareness.” The weekend continues on Nov. 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with “Calling Forth the Teachings of the Torah.” The week’s portion describes women who embody strength, vision, generosity, kindness and courage, and the legacy of their stories will be explored.

The weekend is sponsored by Beth Shalom Sisterhood, B’nai Israel Sisterhood, Hadassah Baton Rouge, Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana, The Jewish Federation of Greater Baton Rouge and The Rosenson Family Foundation.

Registration is a minimum donation of $36 and includes Shabbat dinner and lunch. Reservations can be sent to Hadassah Baton Rouge, 8021 Owens, Baton Rouge 70809, or email BatonRougeHadassah@gmail.com.

Touro Synagogue in New Orleans announced that the 24th annual Jazz Fest Shabbat will be held on April 24, featuring the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The Shabbat, held during Jazz Fest, is a popular stop for out-oftown Jewish visitors at Jazz Fest.

The fifth annual Jam for Sam is scheduled for Dec. 7 from 5 to 9 p.m. at Workplay in Birmingham. Members of Mesch AZA organize the annual musical tribute to the memory of Sam Lapidus, who died in 2008 after battling cancer, just short of his 15th birthday. Proceeds benefit the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s of Alabama, and Mesch AZA. Sponsorships are currently available, with a Nov. 17 deadline.

The Beth Shalom Sisterhood in Baton Rouge will have its second annual Nearly New Sale, Nov. 7 and 9, and Nov. 14 and 16, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation is holding a community health fair on Nov. 2 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Several vendors will offer their expertise and services to the entire community. There will be flu, shingles and pneumonia vaccines for those with insurance. Mississippi Blood Services will be there, and there will be a fitness instructor, bone marrow testing, chair massages, health screenings and samples from vendors. T Abeles will have information on foot care and diabetic shoes. There will also be healthy snacks from Mac’s Fresh Market. Arbonne skin care and nutrition, and Skinny’s Nutrition Studio will also be there.

8 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

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Just before Birmingham’s N.E. Miles Jewish Day School let out for Simchat Torah on Oct. 15, the school held a celebration marking the return of the community’s Rosh Ha’Ayin Torah.

The scroll, enclosed in a Sephardic case, was presented to the Birmingham Jewish community in 1983. Birmingham had been paired with Rosh Ha’Ayin under Project Renewal, an effort to transform neglected development towns in Israel. Birmingham’s Kimerling family had already built a community center for the town of 14,000, populated almost entirely by Jews who had fled Yemen in 1949. In 1981 a delegation from Birmingham visited Rosh Ha’Ayin, and the Federation then embarked on a campaign that raised $1.5 million to aid the town.

In 1983, the renowned Rosh Ha’Ayin Mandolin Orchestra made the first of many visits to Birmingham. At its main concert, held in front of a packed house at Temple Beth-El, the mayor of Rosh Ha’Ayin presented the Torah to the Birmingham community in appreciation for what Birmingham did for Rosh Ha’Ayin.

It was decided that the most logical home for the Torah, where it could be seen and used, would be the Day School. At first it was housed in a small portable ark that Beth-El had used for minyan in previous years, but when the current Day School building was erected in 1994, a built-in ark was included.

The Torah has occasionally been used for special occasions. In 1990 it was brought to Atlanta for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s regional convention.

The Torah had been held in safekeeping at the Bais Ariel Chabad Center during this past summer as the school underwent major renovations.

The large central room, which included the ark where the Torah had been kept, was transformed into a learning center and library.

A new ark was built in the newly-expanded Rabbi Cynthia Culpeper Reading Room. Stained-glass doors with the Hebrew words “Oseh Shalom,” which means the one who makes peace, were designed by Betsy Marks.

Head of School Debra Abolafia said they wanted to have a room where Culpeper, who taught at the school before she died in 2005, could be properly remembered, and where the Torah would be housed.

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The parade started in front of the Levite Jewish Community Center.

Upper School students held the chuppah as Julian Brook carried the Torah across the parking lot. The entire school followed behind as the Torah made its way back into the school.

Inside, Joel Rotenstreich held the Torah as Sheri Krell explained the relationship’s history to the students.

Today, she explained, the relationship goes both ways. As one example, the Upper School students are e-pals with their counterparts in Rosh Ha’Ayin.

Rosh Ha’Ayin is now a city of 40,000. In 2005 it became an official sister city with Birmingham, and is also the Partnership2Gether community of New Orleans.

Harry Bayer then carried the Torah to the Culpeper room and placed it in the ark. The students, led by Rabbi Yossi Friedman, then sang several prayers and songs. “It’s the right time to be celebrating with the Torah,” he said.

Weiss, Stone among speakers at installation of Rabbi Greenberg Several national figures will be in town for the installation of Rabbi Gabe Greenberg at Beth Israel in Metairie.

The installation will take place during a fundraising gala at the Audubon Tea Room in New Orleans on Nov. 2 at 11:30 a.m.

Rabbi Avi Weiss, founding president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a modern Orthodox seminary in the Bronx, will be one of the guest speakers. Weiss announced on Oct. 16 that he is stepping down as the long-time rabbi of Hebrew Rabbi Gabe Greenberg Institute of Riverdale. He stepped down as head of the yeshiva last year.

Weiss’ successor at YCT, Rabbi Asher Lopatin, will also give remarks at the event. Allen Fagin, executive vice president and chief professional officer of the Orthodox Union, will also speak.

Also on the program is New Orleans native Richard Stone, the Wilbur Freidman chair in tax law at Columbia Law School. He is also immediate past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Greenberg was named rabbi of Beth Israel in 2013, succeeding Rabbi Uri Topolosky, but he had another year on his commitment as rabbi and senior Jewish educator at the Hillel of University of California at Berkeley. He arrived in New Orleans permanently this summer.

Originally from New England, Greenberg studied at Yeshivat HaMivtar and the Pardes Institute in Israel following undergrad at Wesleyan University. He completed the Adamah Fellowship in Falls Village, Conn., a three-month leadership training program for Jewish adults that integrates organic agriculture, farm-to-table living, Jewish learning, community building and spiritual practice. Greenberg also directed the Kayam Farm Kollel in Baltimore, Md. While at YCT, Greenberg served as the rabbinic intern at Congregation Achei Yosef in Norwich, Conn., at Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, and was the first rabbinic intern at the New School in New York City.

Tickets to the Nov. 2 event are $100 per person or $180 for two.

Individual and table sponsorships along with commemorative event journal ads of various sizes were also available.

Louisiana roots inspire sukkah contest entry Among the 10 winners of a St. Louis competition to push the boundaries of sukkah design was one from Lafayette that included a nod to Cajun culture and its Louisiana surroundings.

Ashley Latiolais, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, led the team that created [S]Ulam for the “Sukkah City STL 2014: Between Absence and Presence” competition. The 10 winners were constructed at Washington University in St. Louis.

The competition was presented by St. Louis Hillel and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts.

“The diversity and strength of the submissions surpassed our expectations,” said Jacqueline Ulin Levey, president of St. Louis Hillel. “Each of the 10 proposals selected presents a remarkable re-interpretation of the sukkah drawing upon this year’s theme, ‘between absence and presence’.”

“Viewed together, the designs will create another extraordinary installation,” Levey said. “The designers include architecture students and faculty from the Sam Fox School and design schools around the country, as well as other established architects and firms.

Latolais was joined by Garrett Armentor and John Welcher in designing [S]Ulam. Armentor and Welcher are graduate assistant students, and Latolais is also the principal of ARCH&also, a design and research firm.

She noted that none of them are Jewish but they were attracted to the contest because of local agricultural ties and the holiday’s celebration of harvest. She saw “a direct relationship of our place to the holiday of Sukkot.”

“This entry celebrates the local harvest and community of Southern Louisiana while simultaneously reflecting on the Israelite people with the holiday of Sukkot,” she noted. “Jewish traditions such as Jacob’s ladder, the Exile and the desert are all reminders of community overcoming an extreme endeavor; similar to the story of the Acadian’s Expulsion from Nova Scotia into Louisiana “ The daughter of a sugar cane farmer, Latiolais felt it was appropriate to make the skin of the sukkah from sugar cane because it “represents a materiality which speaks to the idea of ‘Absence and Presence’ because of its temporary nature by decaying processes, and ultimately the ability of its sustainable transformation into bio-fuels via its byproduct, bagasse, molasses and refined sugar.” October is also harvest time for sugar cane.

The sukkah’s name comes from sulam, meaning ladder, and ulam, meaning porch. The design creates a relationship between the personal reflection space through the ladder and the “place for social celebration” on the porch.

She added that the porch “is another connection back to our roots since it’s the communal place to cook, nap, eat and laugh in southern Louisiana.”

Each winning entry received $1,000 to defray construction costs. The sukkahs were on display at the Danforth campus from Oct. 6 to 12.

“The original Sukkah City STL was inspired by a competition in New York in 2010,” Levey said, and was held in St. Louis in 2011. “In the years since, a handful of cities have sponsored similar events, but this remains a unique opportunity. Sukkah City STL allows both young and established artists and designers to reimagine the sukkah through the lens of contemporary art and architecture.”

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 11

Sukkot in the South: Clockwise from top left: Gates of Prayer, Metairie, annual post-staff meeting sukkah party. B’nai Israel, Florence.

Sukkot Across America at Temple Sinai, New Orleans. Millsaps College in Jackson. Temple Emanu-El, Dothan. Building the sukkah at B’nai Israel, Panama City. Olivia Rose Slaughter of Tucson, Ariz., daughter of Nicole Yuan and Birmingham native Jerel Slaughter. Shaking the lulav at B’nai Zion, Shreveport. You Belong in Birmingham members at Chabad of Alabama’s Sushi and Scotch in the Sukkah. Above, the 12th annual Southside Sukkah Stroll in Birmingham.

12 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

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Heart Gallery picturing Forever Families for foster children

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A common saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words, and it is common to look through photo albums to reminisce about family members and the milestones of days past.

Heart Gallery Alabama takes portraits in a different direction, using them to help children in foster care find “forever” families.

Founded in New Mexico in 2001, Heart Gallery now has chapters across the country, including Louisiana, Mississippi and North Florida.

Michelle Bearman-Wolnek, executive director and co-founder of Heart Gallery Alabama, said the local organization was founded after reading an article about the group in New Mexico.

“We need to do something positive in Alabama and be on the forefront,” Bearman-Wolnek said.

Bearman-Wolnek said “These children are in the situation they are in out of no fault of their own. They have feelings and dreams, and they need someone behind them to be their cheerleader and be there for them.”

A statewide non-profit organization, Heart Gallery Alabama works with local photographers to capture each child’s unique personality, and a videographer records interviews of each child.

“Capturing the children in a natural setting makes them feel more comfortable, which allows the prospective families to get a glimpse into the child’s personality,” said Joycelyn Haywood, Heart Gallery Alabama marketing and communications manager. “You get to learn about their hopes and dreams and their plans for the future.”

The videos and photographs are uploaded to the HGA website with a short biography of each child. The portraits are also displayed in various locations across the state throughout the year.

According to Bearman-Wolnek, there are approximately 5,000 children in foster care in Alabama and of that number more than 450 are available for adoption.

About half of the children available for adoption will be adopted by their current foster parent. Heart Gallery Alabama works with Alabama DHR to recruit adoptive families for the others who have no identified family.

“People always say that a picture is worth a thousand words. We want to make sure every one of those words counts,” says Haywood.

Since its founding in 2005, Heart Gallery Alabama has photographed close to 900 children, with 70 percent of the children who were photographed being placed in permanent, loving families.

“It’s very successful and it works,” stated Bearman-Wolnek.

November is National Adoption Month, so HGA and other adoption advocates use the month to host recruitment and awareness events.

The HGA exhibit of waiting children will be on display all month at Colonial Brookwood Village in Birmingham.

On Nov. 20, HGA will host a reception honoring all families created through adoption, educating prospective families on the process, and recognizing the children who are still waiting. At the reception the Karen E. Nomberg Volunteer of the Year and photographer of the year awards will be announced. The reception will be at 5:30 p.m. at Colonial Brookwood Village near the exhibit, and the public is welcome to attend.

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Bearman-Wolnek said Nomberg, who died in 2007 after a long battle with breast cancer, “was co-founder, board member and photographer for the Heart Gallery and my personal motivator to help start the Heart Gallery Alabama.”

Prospective families and donors can visit the Heart Gallery Alabama website at www.HeartGalleryAlabama.com for more information or to view the gallery of children. The organization can also be found on social media networks Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

DYF 3.0 pro-Israel campus festival announced What began as a small event at the University of New Orleans two years ago is going national.

Declare Your Freedom, a Zionist student music festival, has been announced for spring 2015. Organized by Chloe Valdary of UNO and Maor Shapira of Tulane, this coming year the festival will be at Tulane, American University, Penn State and the University of Central Florida.

The second DYF was held at Tulane on March 30, drawing over 400. The event is designed to celebrate the concept of Zionism as the civil rights movement for the Jewish people, and to stand up for Israel on campus.

Artists4Israel created murals for the event.

Speakers this past year included Brooke Goldstein of the Lawfare Project, Sudanese human rights activist Simon Deng and American Islamic Forum for Democracy founder Zuhdi Jasser. Musical performances included Los Rakas, Pep Love, Zion I, Shi 360 and the Ori Naftaly Band.

The first year’s event was held at UNO. The organizers stated that “In light of the attacks on Zionism on the college campus and elsewhere in the media, we have collectively decided to make this year’s theme a resounding ‘Zionism Forever.’ We are proud and unashamed to represent the new generation of activists and fighters for this great cause. We are taking the narrative back that was stolen from us and celebrating the beautiful story of the liberation movement of the Jewish people.”

A Tilt crowdfunding campaign is looking to raise $30,000 by mid-December to help put on the festival. A “surprise musical guest” will be a n n o u n ce d soon, along with the lineup of guest speakers.

jewish book month an annual SJL special section

Book festival expands into Jewish Culture Month in New Orleans The New Orleans Jewish Community Center is hosting a series of events celebrating Jewish Cultural Arts Month, sponsored by Cathy and Morris Bart.

The new event expands from the previous years’ People of the Book festival, celebrated in conjunction with Jewish Book Month. Most of the events will be at the Uptown JCC. The first program will be in commemoration of Kristallnacht on Nov. 9 with the screening of the French-German film “Run Boy Run” at 7 p.m.

On Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. Ari Shavit will discuss his book “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel.”

One of the most influential columnists writing about the Middle East today, Shavit is a senior correspondent for Haaretz and a member of its editorial board, as well as a leading commentator on Israeli public television. A former IDF paratrooper and writer for the progressive weekly Koteret Rashit, Shavit served as chairperson of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel in the early 1990s.

Children’s author Eric Kimmel, who has over 50 books to his credit, will speak on Nov. 23. His visit is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Day School, PJ Library and Vicky Karno.

Kimmel will discuss his book “A Horn for Louis” with religious school and Day School students at the JCC in Metairie at 9:30 a.m. At 2 p.m. there will be a story hour and book signing at Octavia Books, where he will share some of his favorite stories.

Native New Orleanian Walter Isaacson returns on Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. to discuss his new book, “The Innovators.” In 2011 he appeared at the festival to present his previous book, a biography of Steve Jobs.

Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been chairman of CNN and the managing editor of Time magazine. He is also the author of “Einstein: His Life and Universe,” “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” and “Kissinger: A Biography,” and co-author of “The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made.”

Author Tova Mirvis, who recently published “Visible City,” her third novel, will speak on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. Her best-selling book “The Ladies Auxiliary” was set in the Orthodox community of Memphis.

Nov. 9, 7 p.m.

“Run Boy Run” “Run Boy Run” is a 2013 French-German production that had its Southern debut as the opening night screening for the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

Based on the bestselling Holocaust novel by Israeli author Uri Orlev, the film is the true story of Israel Friedman, who was nicknamed Srulik, the son of a baker in Poland.

In 1942, when he was eight years old, he was smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto and finds himself with a group of Jewish orphans who forage at farms in the countryside. A harsh winter and loneliness drive him back to civilization.

He eventually finds a family of Polish partisans to take him in, but they figure he has a better chance of surviving as a Catholic. The wife renames him Jurek and teaches him how to pass as a Catholic, but eventually rumors spread that they are hiding a Jewish child. After a raid and the home was torched, he was on the run again.

He went from town to town, working as a farmhand. At one of the farms, he lost an arm in a wheat grinder. After Russian troops liberated the area he spent three more years in an orphanage, still passing as a Catholic.

In 1948, a Jewish agency tracked him down, and after initial denials he re-assumed his identity. He moved to Israel and made up for the education he never got as a child, becoming a math teacher.

Several years ago he told his story to Orlev, whose novel was published in 2000. The film is directed by Oscar-winner Pepe Danquart.

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 15

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Jewish book month Her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers including The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe Magazine, Commentary, Good Housekeeping, and Poets and Writers, and her fiction has been broadcast on National Public Radio.

The festival concludes with the Community Chanukah Celebration, Dec. 14 at 2:30 p.m. One of Israel’s best-known singers, David Broza, will be in concert. His music fuses the three countries where he has lived — Israel, England and Spain. He is also known for humanitarian activism, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Broza is currently touring for his latest album, “East Jerusalem West Jerusalem,” present-

ing the story of the album that was made in the East Jerusalem, Palestinian studio Sabreen, with Israeli, Palestinian and American musicians and produced by Grammy winner artist Steve Earle along with some tracks produced by Steve Greenberg.

A reception will follow the concert.

As in previous years, Octavia Books is providing books for the author events. They will be available at the store, and at each event. Books may be pre-ordered and picked up at each event, and can be ordered through the nojcc.org website. Octavia is donating 20 percent of the book sales to the JCC to support cultural programming.

Nov. 13, 7 p.m.

Ari Shavit’s “My Promised Land” Painful but inspiring

by Rabbi Jack Riemer JNS.org — “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel,” by Ha’aretz political columnist Ari Shavit, is simultaneously one of the most disheartening and one of the most inspiring books about Israel that I have ever read.

Going decade by decade, place by place, Shavit asks painful questions. He stands in what was once the Arab city of Lydda (now the Israeli city of Lod), which was just a stone’s throw away — literally — from Israel’s only international airport, and asks, “would there be an Israel today if the Arabs hadn’t fled the country in 1948?”

Shavit stands in the Gaza prison where he once did guard duty, in what he can only describe as a cesspool, and asks himself, why must Israel sink to an inhuman level to care for hostile prisoners? Is there any way of keeping your enemy imprisoned without being imprisoned yourself in the process?

After touring the land and reflecting on what happened in each place and in each decade, Shavit ends up awed by what was achieved, frightened by what went wrong. On the one hand, he honors the pioneers who first farmed the land, and he celebrates the orange that gave them their first victory, but he asks questions.

Why were the kibbutzim unable to hold on to their children? Why have their farms become factories, and what has this done to the image of Israel, and to its self-image?

Shavit posits that since 1973 there has been a conflict between what he calls practical Zionism, which focuses on the quality of life, and messianic Zionism, which believes that all the land of Israel can be held by the Jews — despite world opinion, despite the intransigence of the Arab world, and despite the price that holding on to all the land takes on the souls of the young

Israeli soldiers who must secure it.

He does not have any simple solutions to propose. He believes that the Right is wrong in thinking that if Israel holds on to the territories it will be safe, and that the Left is equally wrong in thinking that if Israel just lets go of the territories it will be safe. He believes the truth is that there is no peace partner, and that there is no way that the conflicting claims of the Arabs and the Jews can ever be resolved.

Nevertheless, he believes that the so-called “occupation” must end, not because the Arabs deserve it, and not because Israel can afford to withdraw strategically, but because Israel needs to do it for its own sake.

Shavit argues that the world is changing under our feet. America has been until now Israel’s staunchest ally, and Israel has been America’s most reliable base in the Middle East, but now, after Iraq and after Afghanistan, America is not the same world power that it once was.

He asks, what will happen to Israel if America turns its attention elsewhere? The “Arab Spring” has turned into an Arab winter, and those that have seized control of the Arab states are more hostile to America and to Israel than the old regimes were. What will happen now if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, and if the other Arab states in the region decide they also need to have one? These are frightening questions, and Shavit claims that no one in Israel is focused on finding answers to them. This reviewer thinks Shavit’s judgment here is unfair. It is not that the strategists in Israel are not thinking about these questions — it is that there are simply are no answers to them.

But in Shavit’s eyes, more important than the Arab-Israeli conflict are Israel’s internal con-

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 17

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flicts. He believes that Israel itself has changed in the last 40 years, and not always for the better. He believes that it was once a united people, organized around one Zionist vision. Now it is a collection of tribes: the Russians, the settlers, the Sephardim, the Haredim, the rich, the middle class and the poor, each with its own agenda.

In Shavit’s book, there are no bad guys. He visits Ofra, in Samaria, and is moved by the morality and the idealism of the settlers. He visits a nightclub in Tel Aviv and is impressed by the need of the young people he meets to get away from all rules and all discipline, so that they can breathe free. He goes up and down the land, listening more than judging, with empathy for each group that he meets. And in the end, he says that he is glad that his great-great-grandfather, Herbert Bentwich, chose to leave England and settle in this land and that, despite all of its challenges and all of its problems, he would rather live in the pressure cooker that is Israel than in the melting pot that is England or America.

This is a book that is at times terribly painful to read but also at times enormously inspiring. The Israel that Shavit describes is not a land that is a utopia, or that will be one in the foreseeable. The foundations of this land are somewhat shaky, and every so often its people get the feeling that they are living near a volcano. But the people who live in Israel live well, even though they live on the edge. They do not — and probably never will — have peace and quiet, but what they do have is vitality and endurance. There is still sanity in this land, along with people who believe that the land can and will move forward — if it can only persuade the various groups that live within it to share one goal.

And that is what makes Israel worth believing in and worth working for, no matter what.

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Walter Isaacson “The Innovators” Every few years, Walter Isaacson comes out with another book, and when he does, an appearance at his hometown New Orleans Jewish Community Center is sure to follow.

“The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution” hit stores on Oct. 7. It is viewed as a follow-up to his 2011 book, “Jobs,” a best-selling biography of Steve Jobs.

He spoke at the New Orleans JCC about “Jobs” in 2011, and in 2007 visited to discuss his then-new “Einstein: His Life and Universe.”

Isaacson has also written biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.

“The Innovators” is about the people who created the computer and the Internet, going back to the 1840s and Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron. She suggested the notion of punch cards to Charles Babbage, who is credited with inventing the first computer.

From there, Isaacson zips through the decades, exploring the personalities of Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee and Larry Page.

Isaacson is the CEO of the Aspen Institute and has been chairman of CNN and the managing editor of Time magazine.

A native of the New Orleans Jewish community, Isaacson is a graduate of Isidore Newman School and worked at the Times Picayune. Following Hurricane Katrina, he was appointed by Governor Kathleen Blanco as vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

On Sept. 17, “The Innovators” was listed as one of 10 finalists for the non-fiction National Book Award.

Jewish book month Nov. 23, 9:30 a.m. (Metairie JCC), 2 p.m. (Octavia Books)

Eric Kimmel Eric Kimmel has written dozens of books for children, but one in particular is about a New Orleans mitzvah that the world still benefits from a century later.

“A Horn for Louis” is based on the real-life interaction between jazz legend Louis Armstrong and a Jewish immigrant family in New Orleans, the Karnofskys, when Armstrong was a child. The mitzvah detailed in the book helped set him on his musical path as one of the most influential figures in jazz and one of the first African-American entertainers to find a wider audience in American society.

Armstrong grew up in “the Battlefield,” part of the Storyville district that was notorious for prostitution. His father abandoned the family when he was an infant.

As a child, Armstrong made money by hauling coal to Storyville, and he also did odd jobs for the Karnofskys, who took him under their wing. Armstrong later wrote about his discovery that the Karnofskys were also subjected to discrimination by “other white folks’ nationalities who felt that they were better than the Jewish race.”

Even at that young age “I could easily see the ungodly treatment that the White Folks were handing the poor Jewish family whom I worked for.”

Armstrong was captivated by music and listened to bands and performers in Storyville, especially Joe Oliver, who later became a mentor to him.

While working with the Karnofskys, he would pass a pawn shop each day, and he noticed an old cornet in the window. He longed to play a cornet but could not afford one.

The Karnofskys purchased the cornet, but Armstrong was not one to accept charity. They made an arrangement where $2 in salary was advanced to him to purchase the cornet, and then 50 cents a week was set aside until the $5 cost had been met.

In Kimmel’s novel, the transaction is written as a surprise for Chanukah, which Armstrong feels embarrassed about accepting as a gift.

In the book, Karnofsky explained to Armstrong how he had been the recipient of help, and now could help someone else. Kimmel notes that his account is based on the true story, and should not be taken as historically accurate.

Nevertheless, Armstrong later cited the “real life and determination” that he saw in the Karnofskys, which led him to wear a Star of David pendant throughout his life, and he also often had traditional Jewish foods in his home, having developed an affinity during his time with the Karnofskys.

Today, there is a Karnofsky Project in New Orleans that seeks to collect used band instruments and other donations to equip children who could not otherwise afford to buy a band instrument. The project also assists with music lessons.

Though “A Horn for Louis” was first published in 2006, it became a PJ Library selection in 2012. Several of his books have been distributed by PJ Library.

Kimmel has won numerous prestigious awards, including the Caldecott Honor Medal for “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins,” and the Sydney Taylor Picture Book Award for “The Chanukkah Guest” and for “Gershon’s Monster.” He is the only author to win the National Jewish Book Award for picture books twice, winning for “The Chanukkah Guest” and for “The Mysterious Guests.”

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 19

Jewish book month LJCC features area authors for first Jewish Book Month festival Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center will have its first celebration of Jewish Book Month with a book festival, presented by the Melba and Abe Epsman Center for Creative Expression.

The festival is free and open to the public. During the festival there will be a book sale in the LJCC main lobby, and many of the books are also available through the Southern Jewish Life website.

The festival kicks off on Nov. 2 with local attorney Chervis Isom and “The Newspaper Boy,” about coming of age in the Jim Crow era in Birmingham. The narrative begins and ends with the late Abe Berkowitz, “the most remarkable man I ever have known.” The 2 p.m. program includes a dessert reception.

On Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m., Keith Thomson presents his latest technothriller, “Seven Grams of Lead.” In it, journalist Russ Thornton hears from an old flame who works on Capitol Hill and wants to disclose some top-secret information, but she is gunned down in front of him — and now the killers are concerned about what he knows.

As part of his talk, he will speak about enemy intelligence posing as Mossad agents while trying to recruit American Jews.

Participants are invited to bring their own dinner or purchase one from Bo’s Kosher Café.

Auburn Professor Craig Darch will speak about his biography of retired legendary Auburn track coach Mel Rosen, “From Brooklyn to the Olympics,” on Nov. 7 at noon. Participants can bring a lunch or purchase one from Bo’s Kosher Café.

The book describes how a Jewish kid from New York wound up at Auburn, where he coached for 28 years, including seven Olympians and 143 All-Americans and guided Auburn’s track-and-field team to four SJLad.indd 1 12/12/2012 11:22:58 AM consecutive Southeastern Conference indoor championships. The pinnacle of his career was coaching U.S. Olympians to a record 20 medals in Barcelona.

The book details Rosen’s coaching career during the turbulent 1950s and 1960s, and includes vignettes about Auburn sports history, Alabama history, Jews in the South, and the Olympics.

Mobile native Zoe Fishman will lead a discussion of her novel, “Saving Ruth,” on Nov. 10 at 6:30 p.m. The novel is about Ruth Wasserman, who Seeing friends… grew up Jewish, curly-haired and plump among Sharing memories… very blonde and Baptist classmates in Alabama.

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She recently published “Driving Lessons” and is also author of “Balancing Acts.”

At the Nov. 10 program a pizza dinner will be available for purchase.

On Nov. 11 at 10 a.m., New York Times bestselling author Eric Litwin will visit for a program aimed at children. Litwin is author of the first four Pete the Cat books, starting with “Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes.”

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Jewish book month The Nuts, and co-creator of The Learning Groove.

Mindy Cohen, adult and senior director at the LJCC, said they hope to attract many children and parents because public schools will be out for Veterans Day. On Nov. 13, Birmingham attorney Barry Marks will give a poetry reading at Church Street Coffee in Crestline, starting at 6:30 p.m. A recent president of the Alabama State Poetry Society, his first book, “Possible Crocodiles,” was named Alabama Poetry Book of the Year, and his second book, “Soundling,” was a national finalist for the Eric Hoffer Grand

Prize.

Marks said he likes writing poetry for people who don’t usually like poetry. Much of his work is light-hearted, but “Sounding” is about grief and recovery following the death of his daughter, Leah, who is memorialized with the Chai statue in front of the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School.

He will read selections from his new book, “Dividing by Zero,” along with pieces from his first two books.

The series concludes on Nov. 23 at 10 a.m. with an event co-sponsored

by Birmingham Hadassah and the three congregational Sisterhoods.

Claire Datnow, author of the historical novel “The Nine Inheritors: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Family and Their Ancient Torah Scroll” and “Behind the Wall Garden of Apartheid: Growing Up White in Segregated South Africa” will speak, and a light breakfast will be served.

A native of South Africa, Datnow moved to the United States in 1965 when her husband got a job with NASA, and they moved to Birmingham in 1972. She writes about how historical events affect individuals and families, and her writings explore how apartheid and the Holocaust “shaped future generations in surprising and inspiring ways.”

She also has written an eco-mystery series, “The Sizzling Six.” The Jews in Hollywood Film Series at the LJCC follows on Nov. 23 at 2 p.m. with “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker.”

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“Newspaper boy” recalls Jewish mentor “The Newspaper Boy” is Birmingham attorney Chervis Isom’s memoir of growing up in Birmingham under Jim Crow segregation and through the civil rights era. Born in rural northwest Alabama, Isom grew up in the Norwood section of Birmingham and delivered newspapers.

He frankly states that he was a racist, because that was the culture of his time. In the book he describes his personal evolution, and Abe Berkowitz, a prominent figure in Birmingham’s Jewish community, plays a major role.

Isom’s evolution started by trying to win a contest at the newspaper for the delivery boy who signed up the most subscribers. He decided that the only way to win was to go through the “colored” neighborhoods, meeting blacks for the first time. He also met a Catholic family that moved to the area from the north, and they changed many of his perceptions.

He learned of Berkowitz and his courage in trying to change Birmingham’s segregationist ways from letters Berkowitz wrote to the local papers, and when Isom went to law school he tried to get a summer job with Berkowitz in 1965. In the book, he writes how it was a strange journey, from being a racist and anti-Semite to sitting in the office of “a Jewish civil rights hero.”

He didn’t get the job then, but Berkowitz hired him after graduation.

The book concludes with another major Birmingham Jewish figure, Samuel Ullman, and his famous optimistic poem “Youth.”

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 21

Jewish book month Telling the story of Louisiana’s Alsatian Jewish immigrants — all of them In 2012, Carol Mills-Nichol published a comprehensive history, “The Forgotten Jews of Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana.” Her new book, which just came out, is even wider in its scope.

“Louisiana’s Jewish Immigrants from the BasRhin, Alsace, France” details the French Jewish immigrants who settled in 49 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes in the 19th century. Mills-Nichols gives short biographies of 638 Jewish men and women who immigrated to Louisiana between 1845 and 1915.

Naturally, many familiar names are in the book, including Baer, Bernheim, Bloch, Dreyfus, Goudchaux, Heymann, Kahn, Klotz, Lehmann, Levy, Weil, Wolff and numerous others.

She begins the book with four case studies of “genealogical brick walls” researchers face and how to use on-line resources to trace genealogy.

While many of the immigrants chronicled in the book achieved great success, others met tragic ends — including murder and suicide, and roughly 7 percent of those in the book died of cholera, typhoid or yellow fever.

Many immigrants remained in the New Orleans area while others scattered to larger communities and small towns statewide. Some

worked as store keepers on plantations whose hefty proportion of the population has Jewish ancestry. names are familiar to this day.

The book is available on Amazon.

Naturally, there are stories that involve those who wound up in neighboring states and glimpses of history from Jewish communities throughout Louisiana.

Mills-Nichols became interested in Louisiana Jewish genealogy by accident. The only child of an only child, Mills had been told while growing up that she had no relatives, so she embarked on a personal quest to learn more about her mother’s ancestors.

Born in Michigan and raised in Long Island, Mills made her first visit to her ancestral home of Avoyelles Parish in 1999. Randy DeCuir, editor of Marksville Weekly News, said to her, “You do know you are Jewish, don’t you?”

Michael Suss, whose family name would become Siess in later generations, is her third-great-grandfather, and Abraham Rich is her great-grandfather. After exploring her family, she started exploring other Jewish families in the parish, who were well-intertwined through marriage.

She spent 10 years doing research before publishing her first book. By then there was only one Jew remaining in Avoyelles Parish, but a

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Jewish book month Harwitt writes about greatest Jewish tennis players of all time

by Lee J. Green Long-time tennis journalist and enthusiast Sandra Harwitt hopes for some net gains with her new book “The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All Time.”

Harwitt lives in Boca Raton, Fla, but she grew up in Forest Hills, N.Y., which is where the U.S. Open used to be held before it moved to Flushing Meadows.

“As a young girl I would watch tennis at Forest Hills and I played tennis. I have always loved and appreciated the game,” she said.

Harwitt started at American University and planned on becoming an attorney. But she always enjoyed writing and decided to take a couple of summer journalism classes at New York University. That was enough to convince her to transfer to NYU and go into journalism.

“I went back and forth between wanting to be an on-air commentator to wanting to be a sportswriter. I decided to go into writing about sports, mostly tennis. I think the best writers are those who are familiar with and passionate about what they are covering,” she said.

Over the course of her career, Harwitt has

covered more than 70 Grand Slam tournaments for such media outlets as the Associated Press, ESPN.com, the Miami Herald, the New York Times and Tennis magazine.

A couple of years or so ago, she chimed in on a Twitter conversation among other Jewish sports writers discussing some great and perhaps some not-well-known great Jewish tennis players over the years. Someone mentioned that Harwitt should write a book. Half-jokingly, she said yes.

“I thought about how many professional Jewish tennis players I could name off the top of my head. In 10 minutes I had 65 names. That’s when I thought this could become a reality,” she said.

“The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All Time” features stories on close to 40 Jewish former and current tennis players, including a few very-wellknown players who have partial Jewish heritage.

Beginning with the Italian Baron Umberto de Morpurgo in the 1920s, readers meet a cast of internationally acclaimed Jewish players and learn their stories, including the best Jewish German player who was prevented from playing by the Nazis; the player who competed on both the men’s and women’s tour, the only fully Jewish tennis player to rank number one in the

world, and the player who was denied entry to a tournament in the United Arab Emirates — Israeli women’s tennis player Shahar Peer.

The book also discusses the ways Jewish individuals have been instrumental behind the scenes, playing key roles in the growth of the sport.

Dick Savitt was ranked number one in the world after winning both the Australian and Wimbledon opens. Savitt is 86 years old today and lives in his native New Jersey. He still puts in about six hours of work a day at Morgan Stanley and he still plays on occasion, Harwitt said.

She feels the greatest Jewish tennis player of all time on the women’s side was Zsuzsa Kormoczy from Czechoslovakia. Kormoczy won the 1958 French Open.

Jewish male player Brian Teacher claimed the Australian Open title in 1980. More recently Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich won the 2008 Australian Open men’s doubles championship, becoming the first Israelis to win a men’s doubles grand slam title. Ram also won the 2006 Wimbledon mixed doubles title.

One current player on the tour, Jessie Levine, who also has his home base in Boca Raton, keeps kosher as much as possible.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 23

Jewish book month Harwitt also included Pete Sampras and Boris Becker, two of the greatest men’s tennis players of all time. Sampras’ father was Jewish but he was raised Greek Orthodox. Becker’s mother was Jewish but Becker was not raised Jewish.

“I learned so much in the process of researching for the book. I got to meet with so many interesting, influential people both on and off the courts,” she said.

The book is available on amazon.com and in many bookstores.

Difficult questions in Ivker’s compilation of Holocaust plays This Week In

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24 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

Looking around the world at the prevalence of genocidal wars, can one truly say that mankind has learned from history, especially the lessons of the Holocaust?

Author Barry Ivker believes that the Holocaust continues to raise innumerable questions to the world today, and that those lessons are not being heeded. To address the evils that permeated Nazi Germany during this period, he wrote “Out of the Depths,” a collection of plays that remembers the Holocaust.

“Out of the Depths” is a compilation of 13 original plays using different themes that recalls the tragic experiences of the victims, the aggressors and the survivors of this period.

Ivker raises controversial issues such as the perpetration of evil in a sophisticated country and the risking of lives by people in order to save Jews. Further, it asks why the world turned a blind eye to the persecutions and closed its doors to victims.

He also asks how those facing destruction could continue to study agriculture for the future state of Israel, or teach their children to paint.

“It is my hope that these plays will serve to focus on some of these questions, even as we witness new genocidal wars around the world.,” Ivker said. He added there is an imperative “to affirm the goodness of the world as it is — the potential goodness of human nature — and the need to create (and procreate) even in the force of destruction and death.”

Formerly from New Orleans, Ivker is a part-time clinical social worker in Birmingham who also poetry, children’s stories, fiction, and scholarly works in the fields of literature and psychotherapy. His collages were exhibited at the Museum of Art in New Orleans and other venues. He plays piano/ harpsichord and has performed as a member of several ensembles and as a soloist.

sjlmag.com

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 25

community Academics battle it out over Israel through petitions A group of 758 anthropology academics from around the world, plus 121 who wish to remain anonymous, signed a petition stating they “pledge not to collaborate on projects and events involving Israeli academic institutions, not to teach at or to attend conferences and other events at such institutions, and not to publish in academic journals based in Israel” until Israel withdraws to the 1967 line, recognizes the rights of “Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel” and the “stateless Negev Bedouins” and the right of Palestinian refugees to “return to their homes and properties.”

Among the signatories in this region are David Chicoine and Micha Rahder, Louisiana State University; Lesley Gill, Vanderbilt University; Corinne Kratz and Michael G. Peletz, Emory University; Krista Lewis, University of Arkansas, Adeline Masquelier and Matt Sakakeeny, Tulane University; Donna Murdock, University of the South; Fari Nzinga, New Orleans Museum of Art; Leslie Salama, University of Memphis, MA Candidate.

Meanwhile, over 1,400 academics from around the world have signed a petition opposing boycotts of Israel. The Faculty for Academic Freedom state that “By demonizing and seeking to isolate one of the two parties to the peace process, the anti-Israel BDS movement sets itself apart from the global consensus for peace.”

Signatories in the region include Jack Kushner, former board member of Tulane University; Yael Lieber, Eric Mack, Frank Tipler, Tulane University; Steven Jacobs, University of Alabama; Aaron Hagler, Troy University; Stefan van Zwam, Yaniv Almog, Robert Perlis, Leonard Richardson, Boris Rubin, Ambar Sengupta, Charles Delzell, Lawrence Smolinsky, Stephen Bensman, David Kirshner. Louisiana State University; Maria Azrad, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Mark Ari, University of North Florida; Marsha Strazynski, Stephen Harvey, Jason Cantarella, Amos Zeichner, Bob Storey, Paula Krimer, Ray Kaplan, Elissa Henken, Edward Halper, Abraham Tesser, Gary Grossman, University of Georgia; Michael Scoggins, North Georgia Technical College; Hubert van Tuyll. Georgia Regents University; David Sanders, East Georgia State College; George Hentschel, Jonathan Goldsmith, Judd Owen, Emory University; Aaron Stutz, Oxford College of Emory University; Arnie Schneider, Georgia Tech; Stephen Schach, Lenn Goodman, Vanderbilt University; William Reese, Jacqueline Sack, University of Houston Downtown; Scott Baum, University of Tennessee; David Markell, John Crabtree, Florida State University; Stephen Tabachnick, University of Memphis; Rick Lott, Arkansas State University; Jack Kugelmass, Norman JW Goda, Michael Lewis, University of Florida.

Also signing was Jon Levingston, chairman of the advisory board of the Coahoma County Higher Education Center, a partnership between Delta State University and Coahoma Community College.

Two new CUFI On Campus chapters were announced in Mississippi last month — at Belhaven University (pictured here) in Jackson, and at Mississippi State University. The Christians United for Israel groups provide a pro-Israel voice on campuses nationwide.

26 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

financial an annual SJL special section

Why the state of Louisiana invests in Israel Bonds

by John Kennedy, State Treasurer

fields have come on stream.”

U.S. investment in Israel is strong. Google has had offices in Israel since 2006 and digitized the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Eager to find a seat at the table in Israel’s tech sector, Facebook snapped up a company in 2013 that had employees in Israel. Johnson and Johnson partnered with Israel’s Office of the Chief Scientist on a biotech incubator. Hewlett Packard has labs atop Mount Carmel.

Economic development flows both ways. The U.S. imports billions of dollars in goods each year from Israel.

The import list includes diamonds, pharmaceutical products, machinery and medical instruments.

Like other peace-loving countries, Israel wrestles with the threat of terrorism. This summer was particularly grizzly with the murders of three Israeli teenagers by militants. By no means is the leadership of Israel a threat to peace.

Here’s how the U.S. Secretary of State’s Office sums up our nation’s relationship with Israel: “The United States was the first country to recognize Israel as a state in 1948. Since then, Israel has become, and remains, America’s most reliable partner in the Middle East. Israel and the United States are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests.”

That — along with Israel Bonds’ sold track record — is good enough for me.

Last year, I urged Louisiana taxpayers to scour their mutual fund portfolios for high-risk Puerto Rico bonds. I didn’t want college educations and retirements relying on Puerto Rico’s shaky economy.

You won’t find Puerto Rico bonds in the Louisiana Treasury’s investment portfolio. What you will find, though, are bonds embraced by Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein and Harry S. Truman.

The Louisiana Treasury currently holds $18 million in Israel Bonds.

Those bonds earn 2.868 percent when the 3-year U.S. Treasury is yielding 1.08 percent. As state treasurer, I invest in Israel Bonds for a few simple reasons: They are a safe, solid investment from a country with a sound economic future. Unlike Puerto Rico bonds, you won’t find Israel Bonds hovering above a “junk” level credit rating. The credit rating on Israel Bonds is high.

But, first, a little history: Israel Bonds’ history involves the genius of Albert Einstein and the glitz of old Hollywood.

Israel became a nation in 1948 after it became a haven for Jews fleeing persecution elsewhere in the world. The new nation quickly set about securing a financial foothold. A conference at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel in 1950 launched Israel Bonds.

Political figures and Hollywood elite embraced the bonds as an investment in Israel’s security. Roosevelt, Einstein, Truman, Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant jumped on board. Since 1951, more than $36 billion in Israel Bonds has been sold. It’s an astonishing success story.

Through the innovation of Israel Bonds, Israel quickly shed its training wheels as a newly formed nation. Today Israel is an economic world leader.

As the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development wrote in its 2013 economic survey: “Israel’s output growth remains relatively strong, unemployment is at historically low levels, its high-tech sector continues to attract international admiration, and new off-shore gas

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 27

financial

AXA Advisors offers advice, opportunities

by Lee J. Green

Challenge the Mind. Engage the Heart. Hone the Intellect.

Nurture the Spirit.

At Millsaps College, we celebrate common understanding and learn from the wisdom of other faiths. www.millsaps.edu

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AXA Advisors, LLC, an investment management company that has been around since 1859, can offer personalized or customized investment advice based on individual client needs and consistent with today’s economic factors.

One of the ways one can prepare for his or her financial future is not just to work with AXA Advisors but to work for them, according to South Central Branch Director and Executive Vice President Tim Mackie.

“We’re recruiting and training professionals with an entrepreneurial spirit who want to help others as well as themselves to endure a strong financial future,” said Mackie, who has his office in his native New Orleans.

The office covers all of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. “We’re looking to hire a diverse group of people as financial professionals since there is so much diversity within the communities we serve our clients in.”

Mackie said AXA Advisors provides extensive training to those professionals hired. “They don’t have to have a business, accounting or financial degree, and a college degree is preferred, but not required. It could be a young man or woman fresh out of school; a career parent who desires more flexibility or a senior who is seeking a second career,” he said.

AXA Advisors not only seeks diversity in the professionals they hire but in the type of clients they work with. The company offers financial, investment and asset management strategic advice to individuals, businesses, governments, schools and organizations. “We cross all of the spectrums,” said Mackie.

AXA has been serving Louisiana for over 100 years, but after Katrina hit, the operations moved to Texas. Just more than two years ago they came back to New Orleans. “We have a total of 55 financial professionals and have hired nine new professionals since the office re-opened in New Orleans. That’s a testament to the embedded strength we already had in the region,” said Mackie.

When asked for some general investment advice, he said indicators are pointing toward individuals needing to take an increasingly greater responsibility for their retirement planning. “It takes the average person 20 years to develop a reasonable retirement portfolio,” added Mackie. “It’s never too early to start planning for the future.”

He also said AXA and the South Central branch have seen a strong upswing in individuals seeking and needing long-term care insurance.

“People are more active today and living longer but usually their children are more dispersed these days,” he said. “I think people are understanding not just how these insurances can care for them if needed but also what a strong investment they can be for their financial health.”

Mackie, who has been with AXA Advisors more than 28 years, also stressed the importance of estate planning, 401(k)s, and other retirement options and tools. “It’s not easy to navigate the economy these days, but we can offer the resources of many years of experience… and professionals who understand what it’s like for our clients,” he said.

gift guide

chanukah

Let’s Get This Party Started IT’S NOT CALLED THE HOLIDAY OF LIGHTS FOR NOTHING. USE THOSE EIGHT DAYS FOR CHIC, SPARKLE AND SHINE.

1. WISH THEM A HAPPY HOLIDAY WITH CUSTOM CARDS Your favorite shayna punim gets the cover on personalized cards.

Cost varies according to quantity ordered.

Rudman’s Gifts

741 Veterans Memorial Blvd Metairie 504/833.1286 rudmans.com

Happy Chanukah!

Rudman’s is a gift, stationery, invitation and greeting card shop with Judaica and unique gifts, and they are especially proud to offer locallly designed and produced Louisiana products. Individualized service is a specialty with wording and design assistance on any time of personal or business correspondence, and their partnership with industry leaders guarantees a top-notch finished product.

Customer service they’re famous for, plus free gift wrapping and at-cost UPS shipping around the country make selecting and sending any gift a pleasure.

2. REMEMBER: BLUE AND WHITE ARE TRADITIONAL FOR CHANUKAH There’ll be no forgetting this holiday.

Price upon request.

Wellington & Company Fine Jewelry

505 Royal Street New Orleans 504/525.4855 wcjewelry.com

Wellington & Co. Fine Jewelry’s team of jewelry associates possesses more than half a century of antique, estate and contemporary fine jewelry knowledge and sales experience.

At Wellington & Co., their passion for what they do, combined with the store’s warm and inviting atmosphere in the heart of New Orleans’ historic French Quarter enables them to provide visitors from around the world with a unique and inviting shopping experience unlike any other.

Aunt Sally’s has a range of Pralines for your celebrations and parties Kosher (Dairy) Pralines • 100% Gluten Free

Visit us at 810 Decatur Street and 750 St. Charles Avenue Pralines Shipped Everywhere

1-800-642-7257

www.auntsallys.com

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 29

gift guide

chanukah

Ace your Chanukah gift to your favorite tennis enthusiast Newly published!

Profiles of dozens of well-known and lesserknown Jewish tennis players from around the world

Now Available in Bookstores, on Amazon or the SJL Bookshelf

3. COOKIE CUTTER GOOD TIMES Make way, chocolate gelt. This year, we’re going for the cookies.

Chanukah cookie cutter prices vary. A selection of other holiday gifts are also in stock.

A Little Something

3168 Heights Village Cahaba Heights 205/970.2077 alittlesomethingbham.com A Little Something Gift Boutique in the Cahaba Heights area south of Birmingham offers a variety of gifts and accessories for every taste and budget. Owner Carole Cain is a native Alabamian who worked for Southern Progress, publisher of Southern Living magazine, for more than 20 years. During that time, she developed a deep love of great style and gracious living. You’ll find that reflected in the products and the service you receive at A Little Something.

4. (HAPPILY) JUMP THROUGH HOOPS Artisan workmanship = always in style.

Sheila Fajl loops, prices vary by selection.

Monkee’s

2006 Cahaba Road Mountain Brook 205/783.1240 monkeesofmountainbrook.com Monkee’s of Mountain Brook associates have an eye for fashion and the latest trends, suggestions of what would look good on different body types, and help manage choices of what to wear to those special times like weddings, showers, teas, luncheons, reunions, parties and more. Personal closet consultations are offered to make the most of one’s wardrobe.

For holiday gifting, think Seda France candles, vintage Chanel jewelry, GiGi New York handbags, cashmere wraps that fit everyone, and more. Tory Burch, 7 for all Mankind, BCBG...

Monkee’s is the designer go-to.

5. I’VE GOT THE POWER Run out of juice? Never.

The Mighty Purse by Handbag Butler, $99

Marmi

133 Summit Blvd Birmingham 205/298.7633 marmishoes.com

Perfect for busy ladies on the go: The Mighty Purse charges your smartphone and holds all your essentials. No power plug needed.

Available in a wide variety of stylish colors.

30 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 31

gift guide

chanukah •

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Symmetry Jewelers

8138 Hampson Street New Orleans 504/861.9925 800/628.3711 symmetry-jewelers.com

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Founded in 1975, the gallery has expanded to include one of the most extensive collections of antique and estate jewelry in the city, beautifully complementing the contemporary local, national and international jewelry artists featured prominently.

Some of the most remarkable work is done in-house, with owner/ designer/craftsman Tom Mathis combining his lifelong talent as an artist and master hand engraver with his mastery of the latest in CADCAM model making technology.

A staff of talented craftsmen, in Symmetry’s “on premises” workshop, helps complete the beautiful creations. Jewelry repair and antique restoration are also all done in the Hampson Street workshop. Though Symmetry can design and create just about anything your mind can imagine, it is best known now as the “go to” place for original custom wedding and engagement rings.

What is most amazing is that you can have this original art, hand crafted to the highest standards, priced in most cases less than the “everyone else has” commercially produced jewelry. Most stores find it hard to compete with the style and quality of the work created by the artists and craftsmen at Symmetry. A visit to the store is a must while in the Crescent City.

7. WARM WISHES Bubbeleh, it’s cold outside.

Prices vary by style.

Vineyard Vines

209 Summit Blvd, Suite 100 Birmingham 205/970.9758 vineyardvines.com Two families who share a passionate entrepreneurial spirit and know how to have a good time... What could be better than that? After a few trips down to the Keys, a couple of drinks in the city, and, of course, three amazing stores later, the Levy family learned that they’re just a bunch of dreamers themselves, and couldn’t be happier to be on board.

Tie one on or wrap up in a Vineyard Vines sweater for a distinctive, fun look that will last.

32 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

gift guide

chanukah chanukah

8. FREE-SPIRITED STYLE As Emerson put it, “Love of beauty is taste.

The creation of beauty is art.”

Prices available upon request.

FA M I LY

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Jordan Alexander Jewelry

2003 Cahaba Road #101 Birmingham 205/868.1391 jordanalexanderjewelry.com Jordan Alexander Jewelry is designed by Birmingham local Theresa Harper Bruno, who sought to create beautiful and everydaywearable fine jewelry that would represent her own free-spirited style.

Ami Abel Epstein, O.D. Former Director of Contact Lens Services at UAB School of Optometry.

Graduated #1 in her class of 1998.

The Jordan Alexander line blends ultra-femme pearls and raw, sliced gems with fine diamonds, supple leather, silver and multiple colors of gold.

Large Selection of High-Quality, Fashion & Designer Eyewear

Bruno has been recognized for her innovative use of sliced gems with sliced pearls, making her the first fine jewelry designer to slice a freshwater pearl. Often identifiable by the use of baroque pearls and pearl slices, the Jordan Alexander Collection is meant to be worn by all women on all occasions, from the red carpet to a casual outing.

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In addition to the fine jewelry, Jordan Alexander also offers home furnishings and accessories. The first retail store, which opened in May 2013, is located in the heart of Mountain Brook’s English Village.

Phone 205-977-2777

L’Shanah Tovah

Since the collection’s debut in late 2010, the line has been featured on the covers of Glamour, O Magazine and jewelry industry leader JCK Magazine. In addition, editors from Marie Claire, The New York Times, Vogue Magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings, Women’s Wear Daily, Rapaport, Robb Report, and numerous other publications have featured the line in editorial content. Celebrities, prominent figures and media personalities have taken to the line, including First Lady Michelle Obama, Pink, Katie Couric, Julia Roberts, Miranda Lambert, Brooklyn Decker, and Kristen Stewart.

DON’T FORGET THE GELT Chocolate — the perfect holiday gift

Blue Frog Chocolates

5707 Magazine Street New Orleans 504/269-5707 bluefrogchocolates.com Blue Frog provides a unique and eclectic collection of interesting, delicious, and high quality confections selected from around the world. Kosher chocolates are available, along with Chanukah themes — and they can ship.

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 33

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community

Birmingham native highlights importance of JCRS Another summer has passed. Children are home focusing on school, their friends, and already looking forward to the winter holidays. Yet Jewish summer camp, and the Jewish identity it forges, will leave an impression that will last well into adulthood, sometimes in ways that can’t yet be imagined.

Leslie Wearb Hirsch of Austin still gets emotional at the memories she has from camp and the effect it has had on her Jewish life.

When Leslie was growing up in her native Birmingham, her parents faced some financial troubles, but Jewish Children’s Regional Services was there to guarantee her and her two sisters had access to services that are important to raising an individual with a strong Jewish self. All three of the Wearb girls received scholarships from JCRS throughout their childhoods to help offset the expense of Jewish summer camp. They all received college aid from JCRS, as well.

Birmingham native Leslie Wearb Hirsch with Leslie enjoyed summer sisters Alison Earnest and Rebecca Johnson camp at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica. Every year, when she came home, she and her parents sent back surveys to JCRS about how much she enjoyed her experience. Her mother, Judith Luks, described Leslie’s relationship with camp in one survey as a “love affair” and that she was blossoming as a result, that she “lived for camp.”

After one summer at camp, Leslie wrote “I have a strong bond with the people and surroundings at Camp Henry S. Jacobs, therefore, each coming summer I look forward to the time I spend there.”

And, every year, her counselors sent back to JCRS their own surveys about how much they enjoyed their summers with her. Her counselor for that year wrote that she was admired and well-liked and that she enjoyed close friendships with other campers she had met in previous years.

Leslie said about her camp experience, “It definitely shaped me into the person I am today and created in myself a love of Judaism, a love of friendship and a sense of family as well.”

While at camp, Leslie met Tennessean Roger Hirsch. She said that even though he was from Memphis, she grew up with him. They went to the University of Texas together, an important step in Leslie’s life that she was able to afford by taking advantage of JCRS’s college aid program. While at UT, Leslie and Roger started dating. They are now married and the proud parents of three sons.

Leslie attributes the aid she received from JCRS as a factor in the fulfillment of her Jewish life and her successful career as an archivist. She said, “I think it allowed me to be involved in all of the programs that I wanted to growing up. It allowed me to stay very active and involved in the Jewish community and allowed me to pursue my college career, which led to my actual career.”

JCRS, headquartered in Metairie, is celebrating its 160th anniversary this coming year. The agency dates back to 1855 when Yellow Fever had ravaged New Orleans for more than a decade, resulting in a death toll in

community the thousands. With all of the Jewish widows and orphans who needed help in the city, the Jewish leadership decided something had to be done.

JCRS, and its mission to serve vulnerable Jewish children was born.

When the original Jewish home for children and orphans was opened in 1856, 12 children and one widow found refuge within its walls. Over the next 90 years, it would go on to house 1700 Jewish youths from what is still JCRS’s seven-state service region of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

By 1948, the needs of the region’s Jewish communities had begun to change. Instead of shuttering its doors, the Jewish children’s home transitioned from a facility to house Jewish youths to a children’s bureau designed to provide much-needed services to the area’s most vulnerable Jewish residents. Since its birth in the 1860s, JCRS has helped tens of thousands of Jewish youths within its seven state region.

In 2014, JCRS served more than 300 Jewish youths for camp scholarship aid, 120 college students with scholarships and grants, 50 youths with special needs, and plans to provide more than 925 PJ Library subscriptions to children within the region. This does not include the members of the community served through support groups, community events and the approximately 140 youths and 25 adult state hospital residents JCRS will be sending more than 1,000 wrapped Hanukkah gifts to this year.

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The annual Friedman Family Foundation Jewish Food Festival at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center took place on Oct. 19 under cloudless skies as the festival went outdoors for the first time.

Several vendors set up along the outdoor track as visitors munched on traditional Jewish foods. There were also pony rides, pumpkin decorating and a cornhole tournament.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 35

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Wasabi Juan’s

Celebrating Our 30th Year Family Owned and Operated!!

4120 3rd Ave S Birmingham 205/703.8891 wasabijuan.com

Poke and Sticky

1629 Oxmoor Road • Homewood, AL 35209 (205) 871-7837 Join our “Performance Perks” Buying Club for special offers and discounts throughout the year!

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serves four

1 pound of tuna, cut into bite-size cubes ¼ cup chopped Macadamia nuts 1 tablespoon minced onions 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon sesame oil Sticky rice (amount to your liking)

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36 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

2 cups sushi rice 3 cups water 1/2 cup rice vinegar 1/4 cup white sugar 1 tsp salt

To make the rice sticky, Viall recommends getting specific sushi rice and washing/draining the rice three times to remove the starch. Mix in vinegar, salt and sugar. Then cook it in a rice cooker according to machine directions.

Toss together the other ingredients and place over sticky rice.

KOSHER-STYLE RECIPE

Wasabi Juan’s

by Lee J. Green

Trust

Sticky Rice (makes 5 cups)

Sushi is defined as the marriage of rice and vinegar. But at Wasabi Juan’s the unique unions also involve spicy tuna with Doritos, salmon with avocado and sundried tomatoes as well as sushi with Macadamia nuts in cuisine that could be described as Japanese-Mexican fusion or “Mexinese.”

Wasabi Juan’s opened up in the Avondale neighborhood this past July and has put a whole new spin on sushi.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Barbie Pinon-Toro, her husband Louis and Birmingham native sushi chef Kelly Viall.

“My husband and I would go to sushi bars.

Kelly was the best sushi chef and we followed her at the different places she worked at,” said Pinon-Toro. “Then my husband had her make sushi for guests at a party and we started talking about a restaurant that could put a creative slant on sushi.”

Viall had lived for a little while in Los Angeles and remembered a food truck that was doing some eclectic fusion with sushi. She said, “our original idea was to have a food truck but there were too many hoops to jump through. I had done some sushi classes at Avondale Brewery and they told us about the available space next to them. It was just a perfect fit.”

Viall said not only has the sushi fusion set Wasabi Juan’s apart from other sushi places, but it has earned some sushi converts who were more easily warmed to the idea of sushi mixed

with some foods they were more familiar with.

“We want this to be very approachable and for people to be comfortable with trying some new foods. We’re happy to talk to them and answer any questions. It’s always special to get people who have never had sushi before to say they loved what they got here,” she said.

Wasabi Juan’s menu includes sushi soy wrap burritos, sushi tacos in crispy corn tortillas, nachos and even a Hawaiian specialty, Poke and Sticky.

The restaurant features many kosher-style options including the Ignition Burrito (spicy tuna, jalapenos, sriracha, spicy mayonnaise and Doritos crunch), the Hippy Burrito (cabbage, avocado, cucumber, apple, sun-dried tomatoes and jalapenos), Avondale Taco (spicy tuna, avocado, jalepenos and mango slaw) along with two types of edamame — Cajun or citrus.

And for dessert, diners can order the Frushi Burrito — coconut rice, Nutella, apples, strawberries, Rice Krispies and whipped cream.

Pinon-Toro said Wasabi Juan’s also is happy to do catering, pick-up trays for parties, and those organizing simchas can have Viall come in to make the sushi during a party, as well as do a teaching demonstration.

Starting Jan. 5, Viall will teach a sushi making class every Monday for several weeks. Spaces are limited, so those interested should register as soon as possible at www.wasabijuan.com.

“When we have done those classes in the past, they have been very popular. It’s a fun thing to learn, but there are certainly some tricks to the trade I have learned from other sushi chefs, books and videos over the years,” she said. And, students get to enjoy eating the fruits of their labors.

Continued from page 38

You can relax…

question about whether I was actually Jewish. One of the more Orthodox brothers actually, subtly (so he thought) quizzed me before giving his okay.

Ironically, a year later our first non-Jewish member had a very Jewish-sounding name, bringing balance to The Schwartz. And a month later I started a two-year stint as house president.

Are there still 50 people who think I’m Jewish? Thirty? Even 10? If so, this should take care of it… *** I show up at the start of services. I understand the Torah reading and pay attention during the sermon. I hold the unofficial world record for synagogue attendance without ever serving on a synagogue board.

How many Jews can you say any of that about? *** So, am I Jewish? That question wasn’t rhetorical; the answer is crucial.

I’m signed on to read Torah every Saturday morning for the next few weeks but, if I’m not Jewish, I guess I can sleep late.

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Doug Brook is a writer in Silicon Valley whose Genesis satire, “Original Synergy,” just premiered at Theatre Chevruta, in Los Gatos, Calif. For past columns, other writings, and more, visit http://brookwrite.com/. For exclusive online content, follow facebook.com/the.beholders.eye.

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Birmingham’s Got Talent at LJCC

CCTV

The Levite Jewish Community Center Pizitz Auditorium stage will light up with youth and adult performers – including singers performing everything from Broadway to modern rock, actors doing monologues, musical instrument players, a magician, a belly dancer, a comedian and more. Birmingham’s Got Talent will be on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

“We thought that doing a variety show format would be a great way to showcase all of this youth and adult talent we have at the LJCC and in Birmingham,” said LJCC Theatre Artistic Director Annie Russ.

The evening also promises some special, audience-interactive surprises and more information about upcoming plans for theatre/arts programming at the LJCC. Tickets for the event will be $15 for adults and $12 for students. Reservations are available at the LJCC or online.

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Retro tennis tournament at LJCC Everything old is new again with tennis at the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham as it hosts a nostalgia-themed mixed doubles tennis tournament on Nov. 9 from 2 to 5 p.m.

The first 12 men and 12 women to sign up will be entered in the tournament, sponsored by Mafiaoza’s restaurant in Crestline Village.

The cost is $16 for members and $20 for non-members.

Partners are randomly paired and play six or seven round five-game mini sets. The men and the women with the most total games won receive prizes.

LJCC Tennis Pro Dale Clark said participants are encouraged to wear retro/vintage tennis gear and bring — if not play with — a wooden racket. Prizes will be awarded to the best dressed as well. “We would love to see some long white pants and long white skirts if anyone has them… or someone can dress as their favorite tennis player from yesteryear,” he said.

Participants can also enjoy free refreshments. For more information, call (205) 879-0411 or e-mail dclark@bhamjcc.org.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 37

the beholder’s eye • doug brook

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205.989.0053 38 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

Thisnot is Your Chai I’m Jewish

18

IIndon’t lox. the eat beginning, there was a Need more proof than that? That alone is often enough to make people question. take and go home.

It their was abagel warm, sunny, summer Shabbat morning, when an *** unsuspecting woman was While on staff at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, numerous people quesapproached in a synagogue parking lot, and asked the question that tioned whether I was really Jewish. After all, I wouldn’t eat herring, kugel, would launch a thousand quips. kichel, kreplach, rugelach, blintzes, tuna of the land, or chicken of the “Do you think you know four rabbis who would prefer people sleeping sea. No tsimmes or burekas, no schmaltz or tagaleh. I called chopped through the sermon, rather than talking during it?” She said, “probably.” liver chopped liver. I like gefilte fish, but only from the jar — without From that came the headline, “Rabbis prefer sleeping during sermon.” horseradish.

In that first fateful column, 18 years ago, her innocuous “probably” On Chanukah, I won’t go near a jelly doughnut. On Purim, I find hawas the basis of the scientific assertion that four out of five rabbis prefer mantashen pointless. On Rosh Hashanah, I won’t even put honey on my sleeping during a sermon. From where came the fifth rabbi? Simple: apple. On Shabbat, I find raisins inchallahrable. On Yom Kippur, I fast a When was the last time five rabbis agreed on anything? Thus, four out little slower. of five.

However, by virtue of teaching all of their B’nai Mitzvah, and doing all The journalistic integrity and investigative skills demonstrated there the Torah reading — four days a week, plus holidays — they continued to could have easily led to a prestigious career today in covering the Middle debate the question.

East for most major news outlets. But instead, this column labored every Still think I’m Jewish? Others have been buying me a slice with pepmonth (except for the ones that were missed), and sometimes twice peroni by now. monthly, to bring almost several laughs to its almost several readers. *** Southern Shofar though, despite It rode the sound waves of The contractual stipulation, never rode in thetheseat a Southern I’m from Alabama. Living in California, onlybehind thing more inconChauffeur.

It thenCalifornians spoke in itsthan own Deep South Jewish Voice, before ceivable to many someone from Alabama is someone settling in to Southern Jewish Life‘s hind end — unless you read the Jewish from Alabama. magazine right to left, which does not make most of the news today make Still suspect I’m a Member of the Tribe? What, you weren’t in enough more, or less, already? sense. of a minority Over the years, this column presented the wisdom of the recently*** Bava Gump which, among other discovered, long-lost Mishnah tractate things, teachesof how shrimp cantutoring be kosher.

The parents a child I was gave me four tickets to a Pirates Thewhen column retoldwere the in legendary adventures the her beloved young game the Mets town. (Ignore that I of taught for her Bat kabbalist,– Harry Plotzer, and his adventures Mitzvah it undermines our topic sentence.)with The Sanhedrin’s Stone, through of fans Shpielkis, with The Prisoner Ashkenaz Of the The veryChamber few sports in myand fraternity house, evenoffewer liked and The Gabbai Fire, though to notbring yet getting to The Deadly Challahs. baseball.

So I toldofmy girlfriend two of her sorority sisters.

So, on Occasionally there guests,with sucha as the recurring oneand dueato a harea Friday night, I’m at awere ballgame blonde, a brunette redhead. brained rabbinical Ask thecreating Rabbit, stories as well about as Gurb Caveman All three amusedtypo, themselves methe sneaking to Rabbi, andall thethe occasional special report fromwe The Oynion. ballgames time. After several denials, hear someone shout my Explored werefind calendar anomalies and events, and surreal, such as name.

We can’t the source.

We hear it again,real eventually realizing it Thanksnukah, Mezuzapalooza, Kolaway.

Nidre the 13th, Purover, Chrisnukah, was the beer vendor about 10 rows Yomtober, the pirated The girlsand laughed for theRosh nextHashaarrrnah two innings. and Day of Aarrrtonement.

The chorus of “Bubbe’s Been By a this Reindeer” was sung, the A few innings later, he’s back, Run doingOver it again, time closer.

He says, Rebbe at the Bat got belldo rung, and the Grinch who hated Jew-ville “you have no idea whohis I am, you?”

I didn’t. had hisnext hatred unstrung.

The morning, while Torah reading, I’m pointing to the start of case itand wasn’t apparent, this is the 18th anniversary this theInaliyah, the guy does nothing.

After a few seconds, Iofsee he’sspace just not being for rent.

In honor of this Chai anniversary, it would seem looking at me, smiling, waiting for me to do the math. appropriate tooftoast with some chai tea.

For the rest the it day, and many a Saturday thereafter, I was the leyner Except chai teaonhas bafflednight rabbinic hundreds who was atthat a ballgame a Friday with ascholars blonde, for a brunette andof a seconds. (“Should we have seconds? Is one cup enough? Let’s drink on redhead. it.”By ) After all, the chaiblonde’s is not pronounced Chai, a cupthe of right chai the way, last name waslike Stine (no,though not spelled makes it easier to pronounce Chai. And some say that chai has properties way). that help extend one’s life, hat one’strick?

Chai.This might do the trick…

Still nottoconvinced by that And what is chai tea’s relationship to Thai Iced Tea? Is there such a thing as Thai Chai Tea? If there is, *** are its effects best described as tai chi forMy thename digestive system? couldn’t sound less Jewish without a well-placed “Chris.”

Theseinare questions ponder during this High Day Case point, when to I was looking to pledge AEPi,Holy there wasseason, some though perhaps not late afternoon on Yom Kippur. This column continued on on theprevious previous page continued

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 39

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