SJL New Orleans, November 2014

Southern Jewish Life NEW ORLEANS EDITION

SOUTHERN SUKKAHS JEWISH CULTURE MONTH AT THE NOLA JCC WHY LOUISIANA BUYS ISRAEL BONDS HEART GALLERY CREATES FAMILIES HOW JCRS HELPS AREA YOUTH CHANUKAH GIFT GUIDE

NOW INSIDE:

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

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JEWISH CULTURAL ARTS MONTH A Celebration of Jewish Authors, Cinema and Music SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9 - SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14 NEW ORLEANS JCC - UPTOWN – 5342 ST. CHARLES AVENUE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

KRISTALLNACHT PROGRAM SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 7:00 PM

Featuring the film RUN BOY RUN

ARI SHAVIT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 7:00 PM Jointly sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans Presented in cooperation with the Jewish Book Council

ARI SHAVIT presents My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel

ERIC KIMMEL SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2:00 PM OCTAVIA BOOKS 513 OCTAVIA STREET, NEW ORLEANS Sponsored by the Jewish Community Day School, PJ Library, and Vicky Karno

Featuring Story Hour with ERIC KIMMEL

WALTER ISAACSON MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 7:00 PM

WALTER ISAACSON presents The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

TOVA MIRVIS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 7:00 PM

TOVA MIRVIS presents Visible City

COMMUNITY CHANUKAH CELEBRATION SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2:30 PM Presented with the support of the Jewish Endowment Foundation

Featuring a performance by DAVID BROZA

For more information visit www.nojcc.org

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November 2014

Southern Jewish Life

shalom y’all shalom y’all

Cover Image: Courtesy Haspel

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.

Larry Brook EDITOR/PUBLISHER

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In Jefferson First Parish Court, you won’t see a jury. No courtroom dramatics. You will see ordinary people charged with a misdemeanor or in a civil case dispute of less than $20,000.

You will see the kind of people and procedures that I have chosen to work with for more than 23 years. Having worked over 8,000 legal cases, I understand the law and the people it affects.

A good judge should have unquestionable integrity, a firm understanding of the community they serve and a commitment to improve it. A good judge should earn the title of “honorable.”

My legal and business background, combined with my civic leadership, has prepared me well to serve as Judge of First Parish Court. I hope you will give the opportunity to earn your respect and trust.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 3

commentary

November 2014

Southern Jewish Life PUBLISHER/EDITOR Lawrence M. Brook editor@sjlmag.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ADVERTISING Lee J. Green lee@sjlmag.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ginger Brook ginger@sjlmag.com WEB EDITOR Eugene Walter Katz eugene@sjlmag.com PHOTOGRAPHER-AT-LARGE Rabbi Barry C. Altmark deepsouthrabbi.com CONTRIBUTING WRITER Doug Brook brookwrite.com

The Shir Chadash congregational trip to Israel this past summer

Losing some of the old-world Jewish anxiety Editor’s Note: Sheldon Hersh of New Orleans gave these remarks at Shir Chadash in Metairie during Kol Nidre.

On April 11, 1918, army soldiers entered a small village in Hungary. They rounded up 21 Jews and accused them of spying. The Jews were beaten, shot and dumped into a mass grave.

Among those murdered Jews was Josef Hersko, my father’s father, my grandfather.

After my grandfather was murdered, my father ran away from home. At age 11, my father walked a thousand miles across Europe to the Belgium seacoast. He became a cabin boy on a ship bound for America, where Samuila Hersko became Sam Hersh.

My mother was born in Romania.

“DESPITE BEING In 1952, when I SURROUNDED BY was five years old, HUNDREDS OF JEWS, my family moved I DID NOT FEEL to a Jewish neighPART OF A JEWISH borhood in BrookCOMMUNITY… NOW lyn, New York. The 1950s was a time I AM ENJOYING MY when the horrors JEWISH JOURNEY” of the Holocaust were becoming known, and the pictures on television were gruesome.

As a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, the subliminal message I received from my grandfather’s murder, the Holocaust and the world around me was that it was ok to be Jewish — but I should not be too Jewish. It was ok to wear a kippah inside the house, but I should be careful wearing a kippah outside the house. In my child’s mind, the message I learned was that it was not safe to be a Jew. The rabbi in my parent’s Orthodox shul spoke only Yiddish and was unapproachable. My own

Jewish education had little meaning or context.

Despite being surrounded by hundreds of Jews in my neighborhood and school, I did not feel part of a Jewish community; I felt alienated. So, after my Bar Mitzvah, I did what many of my friends did; and for the next 20 years, I rarely attended synagogue.

In 1975, my wife and I moved to New Orleans. Our pivotal moment came in 1984, when my five-year-old daughter came to us after a Christmas program at school, and said, “Mommy, daddy, I know what I’m not, but I don’t know what I am.” So my family went “shul-shopping” and fortunately we joined this congregation and have been members for 30 years.

I watched my children thrive at Shir Chadash.

They enjoyed Shabbat services, Communal Hebrew School and Sunday school. They enjoyed USY, Kadima, Young Judaea and Camp Judaea.

I watched my children embrace a happy, proud Jewish life in New Orleans. I was careful not to impart my anxiety to my children.

Over the years I learned to pray, read Torah, chant Haftorot, and conduct Passover Seder. Yet my child’s sense of Jewish anxiety and isolation remained. I had one foot in the old-world European Jewishness of my parents, and one foot in the Judaism of my children’s America. I had a Jewish rock inside my shoe as I walked.

So, when Rabbi Ethan Linden announced that our congregation would go to Israel this year, I signed up — it was time to challenge myself. Along with 32 people from Shir Chadash and other congregations, my wife and I accompanied Rabbi and Liba to Israel.

To my surprise, I felt at home in Israel. Our guide was a scholar of all things Jewish and Israeli. Between our guide, and Rabbi and Liba, we were immersed in Jewish history and praccontinued on page 36

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4 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events

The Goldie and Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life at Tulane will convert to a Speakeasy and deli on Nov. 20 for Schmancy

Tulane Hillel will honor “Big Pastrami” Sarah Mack at first Schmancy gala Tulane Hillel will hold a “Schmancy” benefit evening on Nov. 20 at the Goldie and Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life The Hillel’s first gala will have “the allure of a classic New Orleans Speakeasy and all the comforts of a Lower East Side Manhattan delicatessen.”

As part of the evening, Tulane Hillel will present its first Big Pastrami Award, which will recognize leaders in New Orleans who have made an impact on the city’s resurgence and recovery. The first award will be presented to Sarah Mack, a leader in the movement to monetize wetland carbon offsets, which is anticipated to stimulate up to $1.6 billion of private investment into wetland restoration over the next 50 years.

A Ph.D. in the field of Global Sustainable Resource Management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Mack has become an internationally recognized leader finding innovative solutions to address the global challenges of climate mitigation, urbanization, and pollution through wetland and water management.

Previously, she worked as Technical Administrator of the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board, serving as emergency liaison between S&WB and other agencies in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Rabbi Yonah Schiller, executive director of Tulane Hillel, said Mack “provides an inspiring example of an innovative leader. Her efforts in the critical field of environmental research and development speak for themselves, and she is an incredible role model for the more than 150 Tulane undergraduates who participate in Tulane Hillel’s leadership incubator each year. New Orleans is lucky that Dr. Mack has made it her home, establishing herself as an international expert in introducing wetlands to emissions trading markets. I look forward to her sharing her experiences with our leadership students in an upcoming seminar.”

The Hillel is also establishing the Leading Forward Awards, which will be presented to roughly half a dozen individuals who have been nomi-

nated by the community. The awards will recognize those who represent the mission of Tulane Hillel. Nominations were being taken through Oct. 31.

Schiller noted that “Leading Forward is the name of our student leadership incubator, and it was a natural extension to create community-wide “Leading Forward” Awards. As we inspire our student leaders to make an impact in the local community, we will showcase local leaders, across a wide variety of professions, who have made community inSarah Mack speaks at Idea Village volvement a priority in their busy lives.”

Schmancy will start with a patron’s reception at 6:30 p.m. and the party at 7:30 p.m. The Speakeasy will be upstairs and the deli will be downstairs. Admission is $99, with patron levels starting at $250. Dress code is “schmancy,” and valet parking will be provided.

To celebrate the Big Pastrami Award, Tulane Hillel and Hillel’s Kitchen will have an organic pastrami sale on Nov. 12, where one can buy a tray of sandwiches or pastrami by the pound.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 5

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Speakers at Tulane Jewish Studies Tulane University’s Jewish Studies Department has several speakers lined up in the coming months.

On Nov. 4, Michael Stanislawski of Columbia University will speak on “The Jewish and Muslim Enlightenments in Imperial Russia: A Comparison.” Co-sponsored by the history department, his address is this year’s Byron Strug Memorial Lecture. His presentation will be in the Jewish Studies conference room at 7 p.m.

On Nov. 19 at 7 p.m., Erga Atad will speak on “How News Becomes News: The Israeli Case” in the Jewish Studies conference room. Atad is a professor of communications at Tel Aviv University and is teaching about Israeli media this year as a visiting assistant professor. She is at Tulane through the Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor program.

Brian Horowitz, the Sizeler Family Chair of Jewish Studies at Tulane, will speak on “Jabotinsky: The Final Years” on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. in Newcomb Hall 119.

Author Elwell to visit Gates of Prayer Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, editor of “Chapters of the Heart: Jewish Women Sharing the Torah of our Lives” will speak at Gates of Prayer in Metairie on Nov. 7.

A 2014 Oprah’s Book Club Choice, “Chapters of the Heart” invites readers into the lives of 20 women for whom Jewish language and texts provide a lens for understanding their experiences. The authors write about being daughters, mothers, sisters, partners, lovers, and friends.

Elwell is a senior rabbinic fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, after serving as director of the Pennsylvania Counciul and Federation of Reform Synagogues of Greater Philadelphia.

The founding director of the Los Angeles Jewish Feminist Center, she also edited the CCAR Haggadah and was an editor for “The Torah: A Women’s Commentary” and “Lesbian Rabbis: The First Generation.”

There will be a pre-service oneg at 6:15 p.m., followed by the 7 p.m. service. A Mediterranean dinner will start at 8 p.m. Dinner reservations are $5 for Gates of Prayer members, $18 for non-members, and are due on Nov. 4. Elwell will speak during the service and at the dinner.

6 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

NOLA

agenda Barney Medintz attracts NOLA campers Camp Barney Medintz, summer resident camp of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, will present their annual new musical slide production and dessert reception in New Orleans on Dec. 8 at the Goldring/ Woldenberg Jewish Community Center in Metairie, beginning at 7 p.m.

Camp Director Jim Mittenthal will meet with new and returning families, answer questions about the 2015 summer camp season, and provide applications for registration.

This year marks the introduction of “CBM Live!” a 2-week specialty camp with either a music and band track or a theater track.

Camp Barney Medintz is located in the North Georgia Blue Ridge mountains on over 500 wooded acres surrounding two lakes just 75 miles northeast of Atlanta. According to Mittenthal, the setting facilitates “every imaginable activity”, including water skiing, wake boarding, swimming, paddle boarding, kayaking, leaping off the “Blob” or soaring down the 180-foot “Hurricane” water slide, horseback riding, “zipping” over 1000 feet across Lake Wendy, whitewater rafting, tennis, all land/court sports, theatre, crafts, music, Israeli culture, dance, film studio, cooking “classes”, mountain biking, climbing the adjacent Appalachian Trail and a series of high-adventure rock climbing, rappelling and ropes courses.

Specific age groups may also participate in fencing, karate, ceramics or scuba diving.

“Camp Barney”, celebrating its 53rd summer season, has created “a unique community that is all about adventure and self discovery, exhilarating activities and exciting events, being in a strong culturally Jewish environment with special friends, all under the supervision of a carefully selected group of mature, talented, conscientious, loving, and enthusiastic staff,” said Mittenthal.

Camp Barney annually develops new construction projects to improve its mountain facility. Recent additions include a major cultural and performing arts complex, a new sports complex and “Food Network”-type camper kitchen, the new Marcus Health Center, and the construction of a new second swimming pool with double water slides.

Inquiries about the 2015 summer season are again far exceeding previous years and each of the two- and four-week sessions is likely to fill to capacity very rapidly.

For more information about Camp Barney programs, Family Camps, staff opportunities or other CBM adventures, call the camp office in Atlanta at (770) 395-2554 or New Orleans parent representatives Lisa and Brian Katz, (504) 301-1196.

Kash-Root Cafe open for lunch at Metairie JCC

There is another kosher lunch option in the New Orleans area. The Kash-Root Café is taking orders at the Goldring-Woldenberg Jewish Community Campus weekdays, with pickup between noon and 1 p.m.

Chef Andy Adelman, who also provides lunches for the Jewish Community Day School, prepares lunches that come with a main course, two sides and a dessert for $8. Orders can be phoned in, emailed or texted. Options are available to order by the week or month. An adult menu is available on the Day School website, or email andeezascatering@gmail.com.

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November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 7

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The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans announced it is planning a Mission to Spain and Morocco for Oct. 15 to 25, 2015. More details will be announced soon.

A lunch is available if reserved by Nov. 3. The program and lunch are free to JCC members, $10 for non-members. The Dec. 8 program will feature Joel Dinerstein discussing “American The next 92Y Live program will be on Nov. Cool,” the concept of what it means to be cool.

20 at 7 p.m. at Temple Sinai in New Orleans. The There will be a screening of “Honor Diaries” programs are simulcast from the 92nd Street at the University of New Orleans on Nov. 5 at YMHA in New York City.

7:30 p.m. Allies of Israel is hosting the screenOn Nov. 20, retired General Wesley Clark ing, at Kirschman Hall room 137. The controwill discuss a new national strategy to make the versial film features nine women’s rights advoUnited States “independent of the Middle East” cates in Muslim-majority societies who speak to more properly focus on the resurgence of out against forced marriage, honor killings and China. female genital mutilation.

On Dec. 4, “America and Israel: The Way The Beth Shalom Sisterhood in Baton Rouge Forward: will feature Dalia Rabin, the former will have its second annual Nearly New Sale, Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense and current Nov. 7 and 9, and Nov. 14 and 16, from 7 a.m. chairperson of the Yitzhak Rabin Center, and to 3 p.m.

Ambassador Dennis Ross, who played a leading Touro Synagogue is holding an adult Hebrew role in shaping US involvement in the Middle class, starting Nov. 4 and meeting through April East peace process.

28. The sessions will be taught by Cantor David The Jewish Community Day School in Me- Mintz and Eileen Hamilton, and will alternate tairie will have Open House days on Nov. 11 between Hebrew reading mechanics and the and Dec. 4 at 9 a.m. meaning of the liturgy. The class is for those Touro Synagogue in New Orleans announced who already have basic Hebrew skills. Register that the 24th annual Jazz Fest Shabbat will be through the Touro office. held on April 24, featuring the Preservation Hall The Jewish Babies Club at Jewish CommuniJazz Band. The Shabbat, held during Jazz Fest, is ty Day School will have a Shabbat Art program a popular stop for out-of-town Jewish visitors at with art therapist Dixie Moore on Nov. 21 at 11 Jazz Fest. a.m. The group is free and open to community Anshe Sfard in New Orleans continues its series of speakers following Shabbat morning services. On Nov. 15, Gary Remer, professor of Political Science at Tulane University, will speak about “The Relationship Between Biblical Prophet and Roman Orator: The Limits of Preaching and Prudence.” The talk will follow the 9:30 a.m. service, and be followed by a luncheon. On Dec. 13, Rabbi Barbara Metzinger, a chaplain fellow at Oschner Medical Center and visiting rabbi for B’nai Israel in Monroe, will speak.

members with children under age 3. Reservations are requested.

The November Morris Bart Sr. Lecture Series event at the Uptown Jewish Community Center features “People and ecosystems on the coast: Life in a changing environment.” The discussion will center on the implications of the majority of the world’s population living on 10 percent of the planet’s land surface, mostly near coasts. New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana will be used as case studies to explore dynamics and the distinctive challenges currently affecting coastal populations and ecosystems.

mission.

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.

Touro Synagogue Rabbi Alexis Berk is launching a series on Jewish ethics for professionals. The first session, on physicians and health care providers, was held on Oct. 28. The series discusses current ethical issues. A group on legal ethics for attorneys and judges will begin on Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m., and one for educators and school leaders will be on Dec. 2 at 6:30 p.m. All three groups will meet again in early 2015. Participants are welcome to submit topics Tulane University’s Department of Jew- for discussion. ish Studies will have its annual Major/Minor Matisyahu is touring through the area this Declaration Party on Nov. 3 at 4 p.m. at the Ju- month. He will be at the House of Blues in New daic Studies building. Pizza will be served and Orleans on Nov. 4 with Radical Something and T-shirts will be distributed to current and new- Cisco Adler. Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. ly-declared majors. show. All tickets are $30 plus fees, general ad-

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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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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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18 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

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.

She returns home from her first year of college and enjoying it all! up north, 40 pounds lighter and in the middle of an eating disorder, but finds that things have not By giving America’s best hearing plan changed as much as she had hoped. from HearLab this holiday season, The book is a coming of age tale about famiyou will be giving the gift of love. ly, misconception, race and religion in the South.

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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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November 2014 • The Jewish Newsletter 1

2 The Jewish Newsletter • November 2014

From Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans Jewish Family Service partners with Jewish Community Day School

Rhythm & Soul 2014

Thanks to a Block Grant from the Jewish Endowment Foundation, JFS expanded a pilot program at JCDS begun in Spring 2014 into a 2014-2015 academic-year partnership. This fall, JFS Therapist Matthew Watson, MS, CI, NCC offered a morning series of workshops for parents exploring topics such as Play and Healthy Development, Choice Giving/Choices as Consequences, and Reflective Responding. Staff social workers and counselors will also offer clinical support to students and faculty at the school during the school year. A second series of parent workshops will be offered in the spring.

Above: Event Co-chairs, Barbara Hyman, Henry Rosenblat and Ashley Merlin Left: Stanley Ungar; President Roselle Ungar; Honoree Max Nathan Jr.; First Vice President Julie Wise Oreck Photos courtesy of Donna Matherne

Please give to our Friends of JFS campaign - currently in process!

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Once a year, we ask the community to help support the work that we do for the benefit of over 10,000 in the Greater New Orleans area. Our programs serve all ages and all faiths — from Teen Life Counts, our teen suicide-prevention program; to Bikur Chaverim, which offers companionship and friendship for the home-bound or partially home-bound; to our extensive counseling services for individuals, couples and families; to Catch-A-Cab and Passover baskets, among others.

We are able to offer our services on a sliding fee scale because of your generosity and we thank you for keeping us in mind during the holidays and into 2015. Visit our website to donate today! http://www.jfsneworleans.org.

JFS is looking for volunteers to help with several program areas including Teen Life Counts (or TLC), which reaches over 5,000 students each year by offering suicide prevention workshops at schools in Orleans, Jefferson and surrounding parishes; Lifeline, a personal emergency response system, needs help making calls to subscribers to remind them to test their equipment; and Bikur Chaverim which pairs volunteer Visitors with Friends in order to reach out to those who are homebound or partially homebound. For more information on volunteering with JFS please call (504) 831-8475.

From Tulane Hillel Schmancy! and The Big Pastrami

Pastrami Day

By now you’ve probably all heard of Tulane Hillel’s upcoming fundraiser: Schmancy! It promises to be a zany, fun-filled evening with the allure of a classic New Orleans Speakeasy and all the comforts of a Lower East Side Manhattan delicatessen.

Coming Soon: Pastrami Day! To celebrate our Big Pastrami Award winner, Tulane Hillel and Hillel’s Kitchen will be featuring delicious, organic pastrami for sale November 12. Order a tray of sandwiches for your office, or buy it by the pound for a delicious family dinner!

Tulane Hillel also wishes to use this event Green Wave Community Market to celebrate the incredible local leaders in Join us Sunday, November 16 from 12 to 3 p.m. the New Orleans Jewish community. The Big for this semester’s fourth Green Wave Community Market!

Pastrami Award will be presented to Dr. Sarah Mack, a globally recognized leader in the critically important Founded as a Tulane Jewish Leader’s student initiative, the market welcomes both students and community members to field of wetland and water management. purchase local art, produce, clothing, and more. With over Additionally, Tulane Hillel will be featuring 5 to 7 leaders 200 people in attendance each month and 15 to 20 vendors from across the community who are ideal role models for our selling specialty goods and services, the market serves as the student leaders. These inspiring community members will be perfect vehicle to marry students’ passion for local sustainpresented with a Leading Forward Award to celebrate them ability and their desire to partner with New Orleans-based and the work they do. business.

November 2014 • The Jewish Newsletter 3

From the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana A Win-Win Proposition Donate to JEF, save on your 2014 taxes and Create Your Jewish Legacy As the end of the calendar year approaches, it is an ideal time to review your financial affairs and investment portfolios. Many publicly-traded stocks have increased significantly in value this year. These gains present an opportunity to take advantage of tax laws that encourage charitable gifts of appreciated assets. Donating appreciated stock directly to JEF — rather than selling the assets and donating the after-tax cash proceeds — can significantly increase the dollars that you have available for charitable giving while providing you with a larger tax benefit.

above, a CRT can provide you with a current charitable deduction as well as an income stream for a period of years.

Another way you can create your Jewish legacy and receive income for life is to open a Charitable Gift Annuity at JEF. A CGA provides an exceptionally high guaranteed rate of return (see chart) with a portion of that return tax-free, a charitable gift income tax deduction, and deferment of capital gains taxes when you contribute appreciated securities.

For more information about gifts of appreciated assets or other giving opportunities, please contact Sandy Levy Making charitable contributions of long-term appreciat- (sandy@jefno.org) or Patti Lengsfield (patti@jefno.org) at ed securities (those held for more than one year), including (504) 524-4559. stocks, bonds and mutual fund shares, remains one of the most tax-efficient ways to benefit charity. You are entitled to a tax deduction for the full fair market value of such gifts, up to 30 percent of your adjusted gross income in the current tax year and you pay no capital gains tax on any appreciation.

In effect, this tax savings goes directly to JEF in the form of a larger contribution and your lower tax bill leaves you with additional assets that you could use to fund other charitable gifts!

Besides making a direct gift of appreciated assets to JEF’s General Fund, you might want to consider establishing or adding to a Donor Advised Fund at JEF. With a DAF, you get an up-front deduction for your contribution of assets to the fund and you can use the fund to make distributions to qualifying charities at a later date. The DAF you create at JEF can also become the foundation for creating your Jewish legacy.

Another strategy to consider is to create your Jewish legacy with a Charitable Remainder Trust funded by appreciated stock. In addition to avoiding the capital gains tax as discussed

IRA Charitable Rollover Not Yet Extended Over the past seven years, many individuals over age 70½ have utilized the IRA charitable rollover to transfer up to $100,000 each year from their retirement accounts directly to public charities. Unfortunately, the IRA Charitable Rollover expired at the end of last year and, so far, Congress has not yet acted to put the provision back into the law. However, there is a strong likelihood that it will do so. Because of the interaction of the IRA charitable rollover and the IRA required minimum distribution rules, if you are considering a rollover of retirement funds to charity, it is advisable to contact your professional advisor before taking any action.

The information provided here is not intended, nor may it be relied upon, as legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Before making a gift decision, you should consult your own professional advisor.

4 The Jewish Newsletter • November 2014

From the New Orleans Jewish Community Center Kindergarten Readiness Forum

Join the JCC Maccabi Games

The JCC will present its annual Kindergarten Readiness Forum on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. in the Uptown JCC’s Mintz Auditorium. Designed to demystify the kindergarten enrollment process, which can often be confusing and stressful for families, the event features panelists from the public and private school realm who will talk about all areas of the kindergarten enrollment process.

Jewish teens ages 13 to 16 are invited to be part of the New Orleans JCC delegation at the Dallas Maccabi Games, held August 2-7, 2015. Come experience sports, social events, service and fun at the largest gathering of Jewish teens in the world. Participants can compete in either individual or group sports. For the boys, team options include 14U baseball,

Topics include the New Orleans Public School OneApp process, faith-based school choices, private school admissions testing and kindergarten readiness. After the presentation, panelists will be available to answer individual questions.

While the forum is designed for parents currently looking at kindergarten options, the information will be useful to all families of young children who have questions about the application and enrollment process. The evening is free and open to the public.

basketball and soccer, and 16U basketball and soccer. Girls may participate in 16U basketball and soccer, as well. Boys and girls of all ages may compete in the following individual sports: golf, tennis, swimming and table tennis.

Downtown Lunch & Learn

For additional information about the Dallas Maccabi Games, visit www.dallasmaccabi.org. To register or to learn Feeling bored by the same routine? Add some spice to more about the New Orleans delegation, please contact J. lunch hour with the JCC’s new Downtown Lunch & Learn Morgan, Director of Sports and Wellness, at (504) 897-0143 series. Each month a rabbi will lead a discussion on a topic or jmorgan@nojcc.org. close to his or her heart. Rabbi Gabe Greenberg of Congregation Beth Israel comes to the table on Nov. 19 to share his Learn to Play Mah Jongg thoughts and spark a conversation. Typically held from noon Learn to play mah jongg in just one week and discover how to 1 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month, the Downfun and competitive this ancient Chinese game can be! At town Lunch & Learn is free and open to the community. the Purple Flower Mah Jongg School, held Nov. 17 to 20 at No need to RSVP, simply bring a lunch, a desire for Jewish learning and an appetite for self-growth to Energy Center, the Goldring-Woldenberg JCC in Metairie, instructors Lynn Plotkin and Carrie Michaels will teach the rules and basic Suite 1502, 1100 Poydras Street. strategy of mah jongg.

Morning and evening sessions are offered in this introductory-level class designed specifically for beginners. A current mah jongg card will be provided and is included in the $100 fee ($125 for non-members). For more information, contact Liba Kornfeld at (504) 897-0143 or liba@nojcc.org.

Online registration is available at www. nojcc.org.

November 2014 • The Jewish Newsletter 5

From Jewish Community Day School Jewish Community Day School Board Officers Selected This year’s JCDS Board Officers are Lis Kahn, president; MiWasserman, Senior Physician of the Ochsner Clinic Foundation chael Wasserman, vice president; Gail Naron Chalew, secretary; since 2001 will serve as vice president of the board. Wasserman Alexander Cohen, treasurer; and Immediate Past President Dash- has been very active volunteer for 20 years with the Jewish Fedka Roth Lehmann. Sharon Pollin is JCDS Head of School. eration of Greater New Orleans, serving as president from 2007 A JCDS volunteer since the inception of the School, Kahn, com- to 2009. He was named a Citibusiness “Health munity leader, steps into JCDS’s top leadership role. Kahn is the Care Hero” in 2012 and regularly appears as a chairman of the Israel Overseas/Partnership Together, a past presi- children’s health expert on WWL-TV Morning dent of Shir Chadash and longtime volunteer for the Jewish Feder- News. ation. She is also the recipient of many awards, but most recently, JCDS Secretary Chalew is an editor specialthe International Lion of Judah Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award izing in academic books and articles, as well for New Orleans, which is designed to honor inspiring women. as a community-wide activist. She has written “As a busy and very involved member of JCDS and all aspects of extensively on the New Orleans Jewish comJewish life in the Greater New Orleans area, to support our JCDS is munity’s experiences during and after Katrina. the easy and the right thing to do,” Kahn said. “Without a vibrant The founding chair of LimmudFest New OrleJCDS in this area, how can we portray ourselves as a complete and ans, she has guided its growth through its first three conferences. In addition to her role with viable Jewish community?

JCDS, Gail is secretary of Beth Israel Congrega“Katrina inflicted heavy casualties on us but we are a brand new tion and a vice-chair of the Jewish Community ‘start-up school’ with everything intact. We are back under the able Relations Council. guidance of Head of School Sharon Pollin. Under her guidance, “I believe in JCDS because of its commitvision and boundless energy, along with our very strong and hardment to educating children to be not only working board and faculty, we are poised to make this school the knowledgeable but also mentsches whose lives ‘go to’ school in the Jewish community. This great community dewill be guided by Jewish values,” Chalew said. serves a great JCDS! — We have one!! Come see JCDS… come visit us… send your children! You will not regret it. Like me, you will be Cohen is an independent business conproud to say, ‘I support our JCDS’,” Kahn said. sultant and former vice president and partner at Alta Max LLC. He received a business degree from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business.

Roth Lehmann, immediate past president of JCDS, said that when she was asked to join the board of the Day School, she never dreamed that she would fall in love with this organization and become so passionate about Jewish education!

“I feel that a thriving community Jewish day school is the only way to preserve a Jewish community for our children and our children’s children, guaranteeing a Jewish continuity for generations to come,” Roth Lehmann said. “I firmly believe that JCDS offers our children an excellent secular education as well as a caring, loving atmosphere in which to grow up Jewishly.”

JCDS, an independent school for boys and girls in grades Pre-K through 5, is the Jewish day school of Greater New Orleans. Its mission is to instill a strong ethical foundation rooted in Judaism and a love of learning, invigorated by academic excellence. JCDS is grounded in Jewish tradition where it fosters spirituality (emunah), dedication to repair the world (tikkun olam) and a commitment to the entire Jewish people (klal Yisrael). JCDS is a nurturing school where families of all backgrounds are welcomed, and children are prepared to be engaged, compassionate leaders.

6 The Jewish Newsletter • November 2014

From the top: Dashka Roth Lehmann, Lis Kahn, Michael Wasserman, Gail Naron Chalew, Alexander Cohen

November 2014 • The Jewish Newsletter 7

8 The Jewish Newsletter • November 2014

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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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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28 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

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

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8. FREE-SPIRITED STYLE

Home Cooking always pleases…

As Emerson put it, “Love of beauty is taste.

The creation of beauty is art.”

Prices available upon request.

Casual dining Specializing in Italian cuisine and seafood

Jordan Alexander Jewelry

2003 Cahaba Road #101 Birmingham 205/868.1391 jordanalexanderjewelry.com

OPEN

Monday-Friday 11am-9pm Saturday 4:30-9pm

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.

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

724 MARTIN BEHRMAN AVE METAIRIE • 504-834-5646

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.

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.

Prime Beef • Gourmet Cheeses

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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.

125 E. 21st Avenue • Historic Downtown Covington, LA www.acquistapaces.com • 985-893-0593

NOLA

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 33

Proud to be part of the New Orleans Jewish Community Nobody does local coverage like

Southern Jewish Life

A team of volunteers from New Orleans Hadassah prepared Bra-Veaux, an “uplifting” event to raise awareness of breast cancer and to raise funds for Hadassah Hospital’s research.

As a follow-up, the chapter is holding a program on Nov. 5. Dr. Alan Stolier, a surgical breast oncologist of the Center for Restorative Breast Surgery, will speak about “Genetic Factors and Breast Cancer” at this educational program.

Refreshments will be served at 5:30 p.m., followed by Dr. Stolier’s lecture and a question and answer period.

Shir Chadash roasting the Divine Ms. L Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation will host its 2014 fundraiser on Nov. 16 as a farewell to Sandy Lassen.

The roast, entitled “The Divine Ms. L” will start at 6:45 pm with a patron party and then continue at 7:30 pm with dinner. The event will take place at the Audubon Tea Room in Uptown New Orleans with an open bar, entertainment and silent auction.

Shir Chadash Rabbi Ethan Linden said Lassen “has lived in many cities and done many different jobs. But through all the different places she has been and all the different careers she has had, Sandy found her way home to New Orleans and home to her synagogue.

Lassen was president of Chevra Thilim before its merger with Tikvat Shalom created Shir Chadash, and has also served as Shir Chadash president. For the past eight years she has ben executive director. Linden said Lassen “has been a pillar to the New Orleans Jewish community in general and to the Shir Chadash community in particular.”

The special guest emcee for the evening will be Rhonda Shear, the locally-born American television personality, comedian, and actress. A former beauty queen and star of the popular late night series USA Up All Night, Rhonda is now the designer and entrepreneur behind Shear Enterprises, LLC and Rhonda Shear Intimates.

Proceeds from the evening will support the spiritual, educational and festive programs at Shir Chadash.

34 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

Upcoming Events Saturday, November 1 Center Celebration: One Singular Sensation Gala Uptown JCC, 7 p.m.

Sunday, November 2 Installation of Beth Israel Rabbi Gabe Greenberg Audubon Tea Room, 11:30 a.m.

Wednesday, November 5 Genetic Factors and Breast Cancer (NOLA Hadassah) Center for Restorative Breast Surgery, 5:30 p.m.

The Honor Diaries University of New Orleans, Kirschman 137, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, November 9 “Run Boy Run” Kristallnacht program Uptown JCC, 7 p.m.

Thursday, November 13 Ari Shavit, “My Promised Land.”

Uptown JCC, 7 p.m.

Sunday, November 16 “Divine Ms. L” roast of Sandy Lassen.

Audubon Tea Room, 6:45 p.m.

Thursday, November 20 Schmancy.

Tulane Hillel, 7:30 p.m.

NOLA

community “Our Summer Place” est. 1963

JCRS funds record number of NOLA youth

…Where more and more kids from

With two months left to go in 2014, the Jewish Children’s Regional NEW ORLEANS are swimming, Service, headquartered in Metairie, has already affected more than 400 horseback riding, climbing, skiing, Jewish youths in the New Orleans area this year, which comprise about 35 percent of the local estimated Jewish youth population, age 17 and biking, boating, zipping, acting, under. and “blobbing” beneath a million If current trends continue, the JCRS staff estimates that the agency stars each and every summer! could serve another 50 local Jewish youths before the end of the year, pushing that service percentage closer to 40 percent.

For a 2015 application, information about our Founded in 1855, JCRS is the oldest Jewish children’s agency in the Family Camps, staff opportunities and details about United States. JCRS evolved in 1946, after 90 years as the first Jewish children’s home in the U.S., into a social service agency for Jewish youth. “the most meaningful and exciting Jewish overnight It was a path that none of the dozens of other Jewish children’s homes in camping adventure of your life,” the United States took as World War II ended and these homes began to email us at summer@campbarney.org or call the close their doors.

CAMP BARNEY MEDINTZ office in Atlanta The primary services that JCRS now operates include needs-based fundat (770) 395-2554, or our New Orleans Parent ing for Jewish youth in summer camp Representatives, Lisa & Brian Katz, at (504) 301-1196 scholarships, undergraduate college aid - PRESENTATION and special needs subsidies.

The PJ Library book subscription DATE: Monday, December 8, 2014 TIME: 7:00 P.M. program is open to all Jewish youths, PLACE: New Orleans Jewish Community Center, Metairie age eight and under, and there is no fi- 3747 West Esplanade Ave (504) 887-5158 nancial-need qualification, nor is there a charge for the monthly children’s book Summer Resident Camp of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta that is sent to each child.

Accredited by the American Camp Association Additional JCRS programs provide Chanukah gifts to Jewish youths from lower-income families and to those adults who live in state hospital settings.

Via JCRS, over 350 Jewish A Special Friends Club recognizes mileyouth from Greater New stones and life cycle events in the lives Orleans will be receiving books of special needs, dependent and/or through The PJ Library in 2014. isolated Jewish youth. The agency also Vote November 4 operates several support groups.

Early Voting Oct. 21-28 The agency just sponsored a New Orleans community Chanukah gift wrapping event that serves about 175 of its clients across the region with # 90 holiday gifts. It involved more than 100 volunteers of all ages.

Almost every month, there is a PJ Library program in the Greater New Orleans area sponsored by JCRS, where books for young children are read aloud, and Jewish families are encouraged to sign up for the free book subscriptions.

Unsurpassed EXPERIENCE and DEDICATION to Juvenile Law. JCRS is a regional agency that serves Jewish youth in seven states of the South, which include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, OklahoA good judge knows the law: ma, Tennessee and Texas. In 2013, JCRS served more than 1500 undupliH SIXTEEN cases to the Louisiana Supreme Court on Juvenile Law and WON 13. cated Jewish youths and funded 1400 of them in at least one subsidy area.

H Numerous other appeals, legal research and writing in Juvenile Law. “JCRS stands alone, nationally, in its goal to serve those Jewish youths A good judge practiced the law: and families with minor children who have the greatest personal and H A 23 YEAR career dedicated to Juvenile Law & courtroom trial practice. family problems, have the least access to financial resources to enable H THOUSANDS of juvenile court hearings, hundreds of juvenile court trials. their children to develop into healthy and successful Jewish adults, or H FORMER PROSECUTOR, JUVENILE DIVISION, Orleans Parish. just ‘fall between the cracks of service’ as a result of geography or social A good judge has compassion: isolation,” said JCRS Executive Director Ned Goldberg.

H FORMER CHILDREN’S ATTORNEY and Parent’s INDIGENT DEFENDER. “The New Orleans Jewish Community has a unique asset and social Family History service agency headquartered here, that exists nowhere else in the United Cynthia Samuel is the great-granddaughter of Jacob B. Samuel and Caroline Marx.

States. With the growing levels of service we provide locally, we stand Jacob B. Samuel is the son of Henry Samuel and Delphine Cahn. Jacob B. is brother to Rose D. Samuel. Caroline Marx is the daughter of Alphonse Marx and Rosalie Fietel. ready to serve local Jewish families as the numbers of families with chilEndorsed By: dren begins to rise here, after decades of decline,” he added.

(504) 460-7502 • CynthiaDSamuel.com The agency receives over 90 percent of its annual income from doP.O. Box 24417 • New Orleans, LA 70184 nations, foundation grants and annual income from permanent endowPaid for by the Committee to Elect Cynthia D. Samuel ment funds.

NOLA

November 2014 • Southern Jewish Life 35

Continued from page 4

tice, along with Israeli history, geography, culture, and food.

We explored old Jaffa and modern Tel Aviv.

We sat in Independence Hall and heard Ben-Gurion declare the State of Israel. We learned the history, sacrifice and bravery of Israeli armies in wartime. We stood on the Golan Heights and looked into Syria and Lebanon.

We had a glorious Kabbalat Shabbat overlooking the old City of Jerusalem. I cried at the Western Wall, and was I amazed as we explored underground tunnels below the temple mount.

I cried at the Holocaust Museum at Yad Vasham. I laughed as we floated and bounced around in the Dead Sea, and I was riveted at Masada.

I sat in the airplane that carried Israeli soldiers to rescue the hostages at Entebbe in 1976. We explored caves where our sages are buried in stone sarcophagi. We visited an ancient synagogue in Safed, and Maimonides’ tomb in the Galilee. I laughed as we sat on the balcony of our Jerusalem hotel, drinking the Rabbi’s scotch and swapping funny stories under a beautiful full moon.

It all made sense. I enjoyed having Jewish people all around me speaking Hebrew. The Jews I saw were not weak, defenseless people; here was a strong, proud, and handsome people, who lived without the anxiety I felt in Brooklyn; and here were Jewish soldiers with Jewish guns; and Israeli flags flew everywhere.

We visited two Conservative day schools, filled with beautiful Jewish preschool children.

In the middle of each school there is a “safe room” — a concrete and steel bunker to protect the children when rockets fly from Gaza into Beer Sheva — which doubles as a play room in happier times.

Everywhere we went, we saw a land of beauty.

From the lowlands near the coastal plain to rolling hills and valleys filled with olive orchards and fruit and vegetable farms. Even the desert mountains around Masada had a stark beauty.

As I went through my Israel journey, I felt my anxiety receding; the Jewish rock in my shoe became a small pebble. I always knew that Israel needed our support to survive; but I learned that we, all of us, need Israel so we can survive as Jews.

Wherever there is trouble in the world, anti-Semitism surfaces. That is why Jews from Russia, Argentina, France and now Ukraine come to Israel. Jewish people must have a safe haven in Israel, where Jews, secular or religious, can live openly as Jews.

I do not know where my Jewish journey will take me; it is difficult to change the lessons we learn in childhood. But I do know that now I am enjoying my Jewish journey. Surrounded by my wife and son, my fellow travelers, my Shir Chadash family, and Rabbi and Liba, I know that I now have a real Jewish community of my own.

And for that I am thankful.

36 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

NOLA

Continued from page 38

LUCIA

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…

DI LAMMERMOOR

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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.

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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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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 in Pittsburgh, numerous people quesWhile on staff at a synagogue approached in Iawas synagogue parking asked eat the herring, questionkugel, that tioned whether really Jewish.

Afterlot, all,and I wouldn’t would launch a thousand kichel, kreplach, rugelach,quips. blintzes, tuna of the land, or chicken of the think you know four who or would prefer peoplechopped sleeping sea.“Do Noyou tsimmes or burekas, norabbis schmaltz tagaleh.

I called through the sermon, than talking it?” She “probably. liver chopped liver. I rather like gefilte fish, butduring only from thesaid, jar — without” From that came the headline, “Rabbis prefer sleeping during sermon.” horseradish.

In that first fateful column, ago, her innocuous On Chanukah, I won’t go near18a years jelly doughnut.

On Purim,“probably” I find hawas the basis of the scientific thatI won’t four out of put fivehoney rabbis on prefer mantashen pointless.

On Roshassertion Hashanah, even my sleeping a sermon.

Frominchallahrable. where came On the Yom fifth Kippur, rabbi? Simple: apple.

Onduring Shabbat, I find raisins I fast a When was the last time five rabbis agreed on anything? Thus, four out little slower. of However, five. by virtue of teaching all of their B’nai Mitzvah, and doing all journalistic and investigative skills — demonstrated there theThe Torah reading —integrity 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 mostI’m major newsOthers outlets.have But instead, this column labored Stillforthink Jewish? been buying me a slice withevery pepmonth by (except peroni now. for the ones that were missed), and sometimes twice monthly, to bring almost several laughs to its almost several readers. *** It rode the sound waves of The Southern Shofar though, despite I’m from Alabama.

Living in California, onlybehind thing more inconcontractual stipulation, never rode in thetheseat a Southern ceivable to many someone from Alabama is someone Chauffeur.

It thenCalifornians spoke in itsthan own Deep South Jewish Voice, before Jewish settlingfrom in toAlabama.

Southern Jewish Life‘s hind end — unless you read the Still suspect a Member of the you in enough magazine rightI’m to left, which does notTribe? makeWhat, most of theweren’t news today make of a minority more, or less, already? sense.

Over the years, this column presented the wisdom of the recently*** discovered, long-lost Mishnah tractate Bava Gump which, among other The parents a child I was gave me four tickets to a Pirates things, teachesof how shrimp cantutoring be kosher. game when the Mets were in town.

(Ignore that I of taught for her Bat The column retold the legendary adventures the her beloved young Mitzvah it undermines our topic sentence.)with The Sanhedrin’s Stone, kabbalist,– Harry Plotzer, and his adventures Of the The veryChamber few sports in myand fraternity house, evenoffewer liked through of fans Shpielkis, with The Prisoner Ashkenaz baseball.

So I told my girlfriend to bring two of her sorority sisters.

So, and The Gabbai of Fire, though not yet getting to The Deadly Challahs.on a Friday night, I’m at awere ballgame blonde, a brunette redhead.

Occasionally there guests,with sucha as the recurring oneand dueato a hareAll three amusedtypo, themselves methe sneaking to brained rabbinical Ask thecreating Rabbit, stories as well about as Gurb Caveman ballgames time. After several denials, hear someone shout my Rabbi, andall thethe occasional special report fromwe The Oynion. name.

We can’t the source.

We hear it again,real eventually realizing it Explored werefind calendar anomalies and events, and surreal, such as was the beer vendor about 10 rows away.

Thanksnukah, Mezuzapalooza, Kol Nidre the 13th, Purover, Chrisnukah, The girlsand laughed for theRosh nextHashaarrrnah two innings. and Day of Aarrrtonement.

Yomtober, the pirated A fewchorus innings he’s Been back, Run doingOver it again, time closer.

He says, The of later, “Bubbe’s By a this Reindeer” was sung, the “you have no idea who I am, do you?”

I didn’t.

Rebbe at the Bat got his bell rung, and the Grinch who hated Jew-ville The morning, while Torah reading, I’m pointing to the start of had hisnext hatred unstrung. theInaliyah, the guy does nothing.

After a few seconds, Iofsee he’sspace just case itand wasn’t apparent, this is the 18th anniversary this looking at me, forthis me to do the math. not being for smiling, rent. In waiting honor of Chai anniversary, it would seem For the rest the it day, and many a Saturday thereafter, I was the leyner appropriate tooftoast with some chai tea. who was at a ballgame on a Friday night with blonde, for a brunette andof a Except that chai tea has baffled rabbinic ascholars hundreds redhead. seconds. (“Should we have seconds? Is one cup enough? Let’s drink on the way, last name waslike Stine (no,though not spelled it.”By ) After all, the chaiblonde’s is not pronounced Chai, a cupthe of right chai way). makes it easier to pronounce Chai. And some say that chai has properties Still nottoconvinced by that that help extend one’s life, hat one’strick?

Chai.This might do the trick…

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 My name couldn’t sound less Jewish without a well-placed “Chris.” for the digestive system?

Case in point, when I was looking to pledge AEPi, there was some These are questions to ponder during this High Holy Day season, question about whether I was actually Jewish. One of the more Orthodox though perhaps not late afternoon on Yom Kippur. This column

continued continued on on theprevious previous page 38 Southern Jewish Life • November 2014

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