Southern Jewish Life
NOLA YOUNG LEADERSHIP IN ISRAEL JEWISH BOOK MONTH B’HAM HOLOCAUST LIBRARY EXPANSION REMEMBERING HARRY GOLDEN CHANUKAH GIFT GUIDE November 2015 Volume 25 Issue 11
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This may be the November issue, but we’ve already been hard at work on the December issue. While the Chanukah issue is one of the two largest issues each year, next month’s magazine will be even larger as we also have a retrospective for our 25th anniversary. We’ve been going through the back issues, revisiting stories that reinforce our claim that this is a unique magazine for a unique community. Starting as The Southern Shofar in 1990, we have endeavored to cover the communities of Alabama, Mississippi, the Florida panhandle and Louisiana, providing a large-community quality publication to the smaller communities of the region. With so many technological changes in the last 25 years, we’ve changed as well, including our online presence, weekly e-news (if you aren’t receiving it, send us your email address) and active Twitter feed that just topped 5,000 followers. Naturally, there have been so many stories to tell, and we will mention many of them in next month’s issue. When this issue arrives, there should be a few days remaining before the deadline for the December issue. Please show your support for quality independent Jewish journalism in the South by placing an anniversary greeting ad in the December issue. More information is available by calling our office or online at sjlmag.com/p/greetings.html. As we get ready to embark on our 26th year, we will continue to keep the community informed and provide the original, local coverage that we are known for. Your suggestions and feedback are always welcome. Larry Brook Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! EDITOR/PUBLISHER
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SUBSCRIPTIONS It has always been our goal to provide a large-community quality publication to all communities of the South. To that end, our commitment includes mailing to every Jewish household in the region (AL, LA, MS, NW FL), without a subscription fee. Outside the area, subscriptions are $25/year, $40/two years. Subscribe via sjlmag.com, call 205/870.7889 or mail payment to the address above. Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission from the publisher. Views expressed in SJL are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. SJL makes no claims as to the Kashrut of its advertisers, and retains the right to refuse any advertisement. Documenting this community, a community we are members of and active within, is our passion. We love what we do, and who we do it for.
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agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events
On Oct. 18, Springhill Avenue Temple in Mobile held its first annual Animals on the Avenue, a Blessing of the Pets in conjunction with the weekly Torah reading of Noah. Rabbi Dana Kaplan wrote a service for the occasion.
Bonds, Federation event emphasizes leadership In being recognized by Israel Bonds, General Charles Krulak told the Birmingham Jewish community that his status as being outside the community means he can see the selfless way the community helps Israel. In the process, “the signal you send to the Christian community is so positive, you should be proud of yourself.” Krulak was one of the honorees at the joint awards ceremony among Israel Bonds, the Birmingham Jewish Federation and Birmingham Jewish Foundation, held at the Levite Jewish Community Center on Oct. 28. During the event, local Israel Bonds chairman Jimmy Filler stated that Birmingham is the only community where Israel Bonds and the local Federation share an awards evening. The program made history in a second way, as an award was presented to someone from outside Birmingham. Knesseth Israel Rabbi Eytan Yammer and Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar from Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville were presented the Federation’s Joanie Plous Bayer Young Leadership Award. In March, Yammer and Bahar were both named to the Forward’s 33 most inspirational rabbis list, and it was noted that Alabama is the only state to have two rabbis who are each under
Photo by Rabbi Barry Altmark
Honorees Richard Pizitz Jr., Raymond and Cynthia Tobias, Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar, General Charles Krulak and Rabbi Eytan Yammer 40 on the list. Daniel Odrezin, Federation assistant executive director, said the two rabbis have a lot in common, starting with “they ain’t from around here.” Both are passionate supporters of Israel, with Yammer having served in the Israel Defense Forces and Bahar meeting with Presbyterian
churches in north Alabama to persuade them to oppose anti-Israel resolutions at their biennial national conferences. Yammer is “a stellar advocate for the Jewish people” and Bahar “is the face of the Jewish community” in Huntsville to the general community, Odrezin said. “Both rabbis have made their congregations more welcoming and November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 5
agenda more open to diversity.” Acknowledging several Huntsville congregants who traveled to Birmingham for the ceremony, Bahar said hers is “an amazing congregation.” A Pittsburgh native, she said “the richness of Southern Jewish life is not well understood in other parts of the country, and I have been blessed to take part in this rich heritage. Yammer said “a leader can only do so much without a community that is open.” While he may have ideas, “without the Knesseth Israel mishpocha and without the greater Birmingham community, they would stay in my head.” Richard Friedman presented Richard Pizitz Jr. with the Susan J. Goldberg Distinguished Volunteer Award. Calling him “one of the nicest, most sincere people I have met,” Friedman said “he is able to digest an issue dispassionately, but always with compassion.” Pizitz noted how he absorbed lessons on volunteerism and giving back from his family. The auditorium where the event took place is named for his great-grandfather, who was president of what was then the Young Men’s Hebrew Association over 100 years ago, and he was LJCC president in 2008 and 2009. “The importance of civic and charitable involvement became ingrained in me,” he said. Ginger Held presented Cynthia and Raymond Tobias with the N.E. Miles Lifetime Achievement Award, which is presented by the Birmingham Jewish Foundation. “Many of our institutions were fortunate to have a Tobias presence,” she said. Cynthia Tobias said when they were looking for a new home in 1982, they had three criteria — whether the new position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was what they wanted, a viable Jewish community and synagogue, and a Jewish preschool and Day School. “Birmingham satisfied all our requests… we are so thankful we came to Birmingham.” Raymond Tobias said they have been active in the community for the long-term “so other will be able to settle in Birmingham as it will satisfy their needs as it did for us.” Ripps said the Krulaks “enriched us all when they decided to move to Birmingham.” His role in turning around a fiscally-ailing BirminghamSouthern College was explained. Since retiring from the college, the Krulaks have remained in Birmingham, and Krulak has worked on Israel advocacy for the Federation. Ripps said “in fact, I’d never had a Christian solicit me for the Jewish Federation.” Krulak retired from the U.S. Marine Corps after 35 years of service, culminating as Commandant of the Marine Corps and a member of the
Members of Huntsville’s Jewish community attended the event, in honor of Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar 6 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
agenda Joint Chiefs of Staff. After his military career he was chairman and chief executive officer of MBNA Europe Bank. Krulak told the audience to imagine being a few feet outside the Harbert Center downtown when someone with a knife attacks, or having a daughter or daughter-in-law pushing a stroller on a Mountain Brook sidewalk, then a car comes careening onto the sidewalk. This is the reality Israel lives with, living “in a state where your neighbors hate you, where your neighbors want you dead.” Not only that, it is a state “where people tell lies about you — your culture, your religion and your history. And those lies are spread around the world, and people believe them.” That is why it is important for the community to remain engaged, even from thousands of miles away, he said. Advocacy, prayers, writing and visiting all send a signal. “You are in the fight, and you will remain in the fight, selflessly,” Krulak concluded. Donald Hess said “we are their brothers and sisters, and we can join them in being leaders and being a light to the nations.” As the evening was an Israel Bonds event, Filler urged the crowd to “Invest in the Jewish future… By doing so, you make a bold statement to our enemies.”
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Emanu-El launches Gelty program
Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El is doing its annual Feeling Gelty holiday program with First Teachers@ Home. Emanu-El members can receive a wish list for a family and shop for their Christmas. The non-profit is a non-traditional organization that teaches low-income parents how to prepare their three- or four-year-old children for success in Kindergarten and beyond. The 16-week course teaches academics and positive parenting, and the books and supplies are free to participants. Only those who have completed the course will be eligible to be matched with Emanu-El members for Feeling Gelty. This year, there will also be a Feeling Gelty toy store at Emanu-El, with used and in good condition bikes, tricycles, toddler riding toys, strollers and kitchen centers. The items are “budget friendly” and priced at $30 and below. The store is open during business hours and Religious School. Additional donations of clothing, books, puzzles, games and so forth are also welcomed. Feeling Gelty Shabbat will be held on Dec. 11.
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Huckabee leading Israel event in Ark. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Night to Honor Israel in Little Rock on Nov. 15. Agape Church hosts the annual event in its main auditorium. Scott Stewart, who leads the church, said “It is our spiritual duty under God to support the State of Israel…I soundly believe that the future of the State of Israel is the single most defining issue of our time.” The event, which will begin at 6 p.m., is held in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of Arkansas. Each year, the gathering raises thousands of dollars for Israeli and Jewish charities.
CUFI honoring Israel in Georgia
Christians United for Israel will have a Night to Honor Israel on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m., at The Colonnade in Ringgold, Ga., near Chattanooga. The keynote speaker will be CUFI Executive Director David Brog, who wrote the first book on Christian Zionism, “Standing With Israel,” when he was on the staff of Sen. Arlen Specter, before CUFI existed. Also speaking will be Judith Varnai Shorer, the new Consul General from Israel to the Southeastern United States; Michael Dzik, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Chattanooga; and Pastor Lyndon Allen, CUFI Central Regional coordinator. The Scenic City Chorale will also perform.
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Drink Specials and Appetizers Available The Birmingham International Center, as part of its Spotlight on Belgium this year, will have a program on “Remembrance and Resistance” on Nov. 15 at the Southern Museum of Flight, starting at 3 p.m. The program will honor Alabama veterans who took part in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Belgian Resistance from World War II will also be remembered. Alabamians with family members who were in the Battle of the Bulge are encouraged to send information and photos to BICStaff@bic-al.org so they can be honored. The event is free, and Belgian-style refreshments will be served. There will be a Young Jewish Pensacola Happy Hour on Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at World of Beers. Mark Elovitz will give an “Update on the Middle East Conundrum,” at Temple Beth Shalom, Fort Walton Beach, on Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. There will be a brief Shabbat service before his talk. Elovitz is the director of the Centre for Strategic Geopolitics.
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Temple Beth Or in Montgomery will participate in a joint Thanksgiving service at First United Methodist Church, also with Church of the Ascension, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. Rabbi Elliot Stevens will speak. Temple Beth-El will take part in a Pensacola interfaith Thanksgiving, Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at Christ Church on West Wright Street. Etz Chayim in Huntsville is developing a series to learn about Israel through film. The first screening will be “The Band’s Visit,” a 2007 comedy, drama and romance about an Egyptian police band’s ill-fated trip to Israel during which the band gets lost in the wrong town and is taken in by members of the local community. The film will be on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. A future film schedule is under development. Temple Beth-El of Pensacola will have a movie and discussion of “Who Killed Emmett Till,” Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., at Gulf Power. The Jewish War Veterans Fred Sklar Post of Northwest Louisiana plans to honor Jewish veterans buried in the Shreveport area cemeteries, placing flags at their graves. Anyone who has information on veterans who are buried there should contact the B’nai Zion office. Baton Rouge Hadassah will have a game night on Nov. 22 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Beth Shalom. Bring games and snacks to share. There will also be an installation of new officers and Chanukah vodka and latkes brunch on Dec. 6, with details to be announced.
The Birmingham Community Youth Group had a Mr. Magic City Service Auction and Fundraiser on Oct. 18. Live and silent auction items included services performed by members of Mesch AZA. 8 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
agenda Art and Soul in Baton Rouge
Ambassador Varnai Shorer, Israel’s Consul General in Atlanta, had her first visit with Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant last month in Jackson. This month, she will accompany Bryant and 32 government and business leaders from Mississippi on a mission to Israel.
B’nai Israel in Baton Rouge held its Art and Soul fundraising gala on Oct. 22, with more than 60 items auctioned in person and online. Items included luxury and box-seat tickets for select Saints, LSU football and LSU baseball games, a Les Miles-signed LSU football helmet and other sports memorabilia, and a luxury chartered fishing trip off the Louisiana coast Art and Soul supports B’nai Israel’s music programs. Proceeds will help pay for new instruments, updated sound equipment and hiring and training musicians who perform during services. “Music is important to everyone because it provides direct access to the soul and spirit,” says Rabbi Jordan Goldson. “For B’nai Israel, music provides a way for us to transition from our hectic, busy lives to a peaceful frame of mind for worship.” Music was also part of the event, featuring LSU professor and jazz legend Bill Grimes. He performed with the Bill Grimes Quartet, along with vocalist Stephanie Jordan as special guest.
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Morgan Freeman, who grew up in the Mississippi Delta and has a residence there, visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Oct. 25. He is currently filming a National Geographic series, “The Story of God.” Freeman has played that role twice, in “Bruce Almighty” and “Evan Almighty.” He is pictured here with Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz.
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“Is it true what they sing about Dixie?” That is the question Rabbi Kenneth Kanter will tackle when he delivers the Rabbi Murray Blackman Memorial Lecture at Temple Sinai in New Orleans on Nov. 13 during the 6:15 p.m. Shabbat service. His presentation examines many popular songs about the South from 1890 to the 1930s, noting that many of them were written by Jews who had never been to the region. Songs about “Alabammy,” Georgia peaches, cotton and slavery were staples of Vaudeville. Composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern sought to transport their northern audiences to a place that so few of them had ever visited, with songs such as “Carolina in the Morning,” “Ole Man River” and “Swanee.” Kanter is associate dean and director of the rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. In 2005 he completed 13 years as the founding rabbi of Congregation Micah in Nashville. He also served 10 years as rabbi of Mizpah Congregation in Chattanooga, was assistant rabbi at Ohabai Sholom in Nashville, a Jewish chaplain and adjunct professor at Vanderbilt. His first book, “Jews on Tin Pan Alley,” was published in 1982. He also contributed to “Jewish-American History and Culture” and “The Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture.”
A bet is a bet: Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff from Chabad at Texas A&M sports a Crimson Tide shirt after losing a bet to his cousin, Rabbi Kussi Lipskier of Chabad at the University of Alabama. Alabama’s football team beat Texas A&M, 41-23, on Oct. 17.
community Beyond the headlines: New Orleans Young Leadership enjoys Israel trip While one might say that a victim of an attack was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Bradley Bain said they were “fortunate to be in the right place at the right time” participating in the Katz-Phillips Leadership Development Class trip to Israel in mid-October. The class is a two-year experience coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, and a group Israel trip is a required early component for participants. In the days leading up to the trip, Rose Sher kept an eye on the news as a wave of Palestinian stabbings of Israelis continued daily. “I was not scared about my personal security, but I was concerned that our trip would be cancelled because of the situation in Israel.” Instead, the trip went on as planned, with a couple of schedule modifications. “Everything else went off smoothly and the group always felt extremely safe,” said Sheri Tarr, assistant executive director of the Federation. “During all of the free time, they were able to wander around. None of them felt that their experience was limited in any way.” Sher said “yes, our itinerary was modified. Yes, we had extra security in the Old City.
Yes, many in our group checked the Israeli news often, but the effects of the security situation on our trip ended there. We still saw all of the important and historical sites, we were still able to visit organizations supported by the Jewish Agency, and most importantly, we were still turned loose for free time, meals on our own, and evenings out in Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.” While still in Israel, Ben Caplan said “honestly, I feel safer here than in the French Quarter at night.” Bain, who had never been to Visiting with students at Begin School in Rosh Ha’Ayin Israel before, said the group was “exposed to the incredible complexity of the could feel the fortitude to which our presence situation on the ground. This is something and the knowledge that Americans were behind that our western media totally misses” in its Israel contributed,” and it underscored the portrayal that “is molded to fit a more simplistic, importance of being there and not only sending contributions. predetermined narrative.” The group started out in the north, visiting Bain said there was a sense of solidarity from government officials, IDF soldiers and Israelis communities like Caesarea and staying in on the streets of Jerusalem and elsewhere. “We Haifa. On Oct. 13 they were supposed to visit
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community the Golan Heights, but Tarr said there were “skirmishes on the Syrian side amongst the Syrians but some of the shots landed on the Israeli side,” so they instead visited an IDF base on the Lebanese border. After visiting Tzfat they were supposed to visit an Arab village to see the Galilee Circus, comprised of 60 Jewish and Arab children from the area, but an Arab “Day of Rage” had been declared, so they went to a neighboring moshav where the circus performers visited them. After visiting the Bahai Gardens on Oct. 14, the group headed to Rosh Ha’Ayin, New Orleans’ Partnership2Gether community and Israel’s music city. The visit was seen as a highlight of the trip, as the group saw older and newer neighborhoods, discussed the partnership while visiting the Begin School and planted trees in Partnership Park. At the school, they met with students and distributed Mardi Gras beads that they had brought. Sher related that the teacher told a “mortifying and hilarious joke” to the 11th graders by explaining and gesturing that they have to “do something” to receive the beads. Breaking into small groups, they had discussions with the students, who wanted to know details of Jewish life in New Orleans. Sher also told them about the circus participants they met with in the Galilee. “They told us that they would befriend Arab-Israeli children their own age, but the opportunity did not exist for them.” After a program at the Rosh Ha’Ayin Conservatory, the participants were divided up for home hospitality dinners. Peter Seltzer had dinner with a family of jazz enthusiasts, “and between the two sons, the father and the mother they formed a full band and performed jazz standards for us in their living room.” Caplan’s host family had a son who was on active duty with the Israel Defense Forces, and he got a “great perspective on Israeli day-to-day life.” The group then moved to Jerusalem, visiting neighborhoods, absorption centers and the Israel Museum. After meeting with a representative of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, they had dinner with members of the Rosh Ha’Ayin Steering Committee, followed by a late-night musical excursion to Machane Yehuda, which appeared to be less crowded than usual because of the situation. The next day included visits to Yad Vashem, lunch at the Machane Yehuda market and free time on Ben Yehuda Street before Shabbat. They had two security guards instead of one as they went to the Wall for Shabbat services at the Egalitarian Plaza. Shabbat included visits to Masada and the Dead Sea, with free time in Jerusalem after sunset. There was more touring in Jerusalem’s Old City the next morning, with the enhanced security escort. Tarr said “before leaving for Tel Aviv the group was to have time to shop in the Cardo. We could not allow that and had to leave directly after lunch” though “the group felt so safe they were disappointed that they couldn’t go shopping
Planting trees at Partnership Park in Rosh Ha’Ayin 12 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
community there.” In Tel Aviv they visited Independence Hall, then toured the Hatikva neighborhood, which is being rejuvenated. After an afternoon at leisure, there was a farewell dinner at Tel Aviv’s Old Port. Though the mission went on, the security situation did weave itself into the experience. Seltzer said a representative of the Jewish Agency for Israel related a poignant story about delivering a token financial gift the previous day to a mother whose son was seriously injured in an attack, and “the difficulty she was having in carrying out a normal life of cooking and feeding her other children.” Caplan said Jerusalem’s atmosphere was “cautious with a large military and police presence everywhere,” but he never felt nervous or threatened. They did sense gratitude from Israelis for their visit. Bain said Israelis told them “how much their spirits are raised and resolve strengthened with visitors from abroad during these tough times.” Sher said some of the Israelis apologized to the group for what was happening there. “The message that we received from these Israelis tugged at our heartstrings, and I believe made our visit more meaningful and gave our
Photo courtesy Rose Sher
Mission a greater and more special purpose,” she said. “Sherri Tarr should receive all of the credit in the world for corresponding with the Jewish Federation’s Israel team and seamlessly modifying our itinerary.” Tarr noted “the participants returned educated, engaged and inspired — all of the goals of the trip.”
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An inquiry to Mobile’s Springhill Avenue Temple about family history has led to a Virginia woman sending a $1,000 donation to the congregation to right a wrong from decades ago, in remembrance of her grandmother. The grandmother, Augusta Eichold, was a member of the congregation, better known then as Sha’arei Shomayim, with her husband, Emanuel. They had a daughter, Gabriella, and it was her daughter, Ann Hardy of Virginia Beach, Va., who contacted Susan Thomas, the congregation’s archivist, in June. It turned out that Springhill Avenue had some documents in the archive that Leo Drum of Montgomery, a cousin of the Eichold family, had noticed on eBay in 2011, purchased and sent to the archive. The documents included congratulatory notes from 1907 written to Augusta on Gabriella’s birth, and a letter written a few years later to Gabriella from a local physician. Thomas said Drum, who died in January 2012, said he knew that branch of the family in the 1940s but as far as he knew, Gabriella and her daughter were deceased, so Thomas was surprised when Hardy contacted her this year. Before the eBay acquisition, the archive already had an item related to the family — a letter from Gabriella, written shortly before Augusta died, stating that Augusta should be taken off the congregation’s rolls as she had become a Christian. Hardy said her mother was unstable and she was estranged from her parents for most of her adult life. “I had no idea that my mother wrote the Temple,” she said. “My family had no contact with her.” While her mother renounced her Judaism, her grandmother never did, and she knew her grandmother wanted to leave money to Sha’arei Shomayim in her will. “I found out that my mother changed the will so neither the Temple or myself would get anything,” she said. “Her Mobile lawyer informed me that her will had been changed and marked with an X,” leaving everything to her mother. In September, Hardy sent the donation in memory of her grandmother. Her grandfather, Emanuel Eichold, came to the United States at age 13, sponsored by an uncle — also named Emanuel Eichold, whose family arrived in Alabama before the Civil War and started out in Newbern before moving to Mobile. The older Emanuel Eichold died in 1904. The younger Emanuel Eichold died in 1963, and Hardy thinks her grandfather killed himself, distraught over losing so many relatives in the Holocaust. Gabriella had married Albert Ash Jr. from Birmingham. Hardy said her paternal great-grandfather, Benjamin Asch, came to America from Breslau in the 1800s. He was the first president of Congregation Emanuel in Statesville, N.C., where he changed his name to Ash. His sons Albert and Aaron moved to Birmingham and opened A&A Ash Jewelers, which closed in 2007. Her side of the family sold their interest in the business to Aaron’s side in 1946 when her grandfather, Albert Ash Sr., died. That is when her branch of the family moved to Virginia. Hardy, now 81, said her children were interested in family history, and while she had records of the Ash side, she did not know much about her Eichold grandparents’ later years. Thomas, who plans further research into the Eicholds, said, “it was just such a lucky coincidence that we had the correspondence and notes from my earlier conversation with Leo. Being able to put that together with Ann’s story was very fulfilling.”
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November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 15
RAMAH DAROM IS AN EXPERIENCE THAT LASTS A LIFETIME. Give your child the gift of camp this summer.
San Diego and Santa Clara Hillel groups worked with JDRC on projects in Alabama following the 2011 tornado outbreak
Jewish disaster relief groups merge Nechama, JDRC combining complementary efforts Two Jewish groups that came to assist after disasters in the region, such as the levee break in New Orleans following Katrina and the massive 2011 tornado outbreak in Alabama, have decided to merge. The boards of NECHAMA - Jewish Response to Disaster and Jewish Disaster Response Corps announced the merger on Oct. 13, creating the only Jewish-affiliated organization for disaster preparedness, response and recovery volunteerism in the United States. NECHAMA will remain the corporate entity and the organization will continue to be called NECHAMA — Jewish Response to Disaster. As it has for its 20-year history, NECHAMA will continue to bring disaster preparedness, response and recovery services to communities across the country. With an established record in long term recovery and rebuilding efforts 12/12/2012 11:22:58 AM since it was founded in 2009, JDRC will become the recovery arm of the organization. JDRC service trips incorporate a strong service learning curriculum to provide college groups, Hillels, and other youth groups valuable opportunities in disaster recovery volunteering. “We’re thrilled to join forces with JDRC. This bold move will allow us to have a bigger impact,” said Bill Driscoll, Jr., executive director of “By combining our complementary programs, we have the New wraps NECHAMA. opportunity to increase our capacity to serve the many communities afby Echo fected by disaster and create a more robust, effective organization.” Having collaborated on several projects since JDRC’s founding, the staffs and boards are excited to see the partnership become official. New purses “This is a fantastic opportunity for both organizations,” said Elie by Baggallini Lowenfeld, JDRC founder and new NECHAMA board member. “JDRC be able to continue to provide meaningful avenues for the Jewish and Hobo will community to aid in post-disaster rebuilding efforts, now with the support and resources of another established group like NECHAMA. It’s a win-win.” The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation along with the SeaChange-Lodestar Fund for Nonprofit Collaboration, and Bikkurim financially supported the merger and helped make the NECHAMA/JDRC collaboration a reality.
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Happy Chanukah!
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Mountain Brook Shopping Center 205.871.9093 16 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
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gift guide
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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.
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741 Veterans Memorial Blvd Metairie 504/833.1286 rudmans.com Rudman’s is a gift, stationery,
New Orleans’ Best Bring this ad in for 10% off in the Vulcan® Park and Museum Gift Shop. invitation and greeting card Lighting Source is Offer valid November 1 through December 31, 2015. shop with Judaica and unique gifts, and they are especially proud to offer locallly having a retirement visitvulcan.com designed and produced Louisiana products. Individualized service is a specialty with sale through the wording design assistance on any time of personal or business correspondence, end ofand the year. andAbove, their partnership a pair of with industry leaders guarantees a top-notch finished product. Customer service bronze, bronzethey’re d’or famous for, plus free gift wrapping and at-cost UPS shipping around the country make selecting and sending any gift a pleasure. and marble Louis XVI style lamps with smocked fawn silk shades ($3,975 for the pair). Above right, a pair of mid-19th century Vieux Paris vases with bisque and tole flowers ($1,695)
A Little Something
2. REMEMBER: BLUE AND WHITE ARE TRADITIONAL FOR CHANUKAH
3168 Heights Village Birmingham There’ll be no forgetting this holiday. 205/970-2077 alittlesomethingbham.com Price upon request. A Little Something Gift Wellington & Company Fine Jewelry Boutique in the Cahaba 505 Royal Street New Orleans Heights area south 504/525.4855 wcjewelry.com of Birmingham offers a variety of gifts and Wellington & Co. Fine Jewelry’s team of accessories for every jewelry associates possesses more than half a taste and budget. Owner century of antique, estate and contemporary Carole Cain is a native fine jewelry knowledge and sales experience. Alabamian who worked At Wellington & Co., their passion for what for Southern Progress, publisher of Southern they do, combined with the store’s warm Living magazine, for more and inviting atmosphere in the heart of New than 20 years. During that Orleans’ historic French Quarter enables time, she developed them to provide visitorsafrom around the world with a unique and inviting shopping deep love of great style experience unlike any other. and gracious living. You’ll find that reflected in the products and the service you receive at A Little Something. Pictured: Jewish Words glasses.
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10/20/2014 2:21:34 AM
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 17
chanukah gifts Vineyard Vines
Neal Auction
The Summit Birmingham 205/970.9758 vineyardvines.com
Louisiana Purchase Auction™ November 21 & 22, 2015
vineyard vines, a company best known for its whimsical neckties and smiling pink whale logo, was founded in 1998 on Martha’s Vineyard when brothers Shep and Ian Murray cut their ties with corporate America to start making ties that represented the Good Life. In addition to signature neckwear, vineyard vines offers a variety of clothing and accessories for men, women and children. Cotton Bol Tie ($85). Fleece Harbor Vest ($89.50).
Earthborn Pottery
7575 Parkway Drive Leeds, Ala 205/702.7055 earthbornpottery.net
Walter Anderson (1903-1965), “Butterflies,” c. 1947, linoleum block/cotton, 70 x 33 in., Prov.: By descent in the artist’s family; Private Collector.
Auctioneers & Appraisers of Antiques & Fine Art 4038 Magazine Street • New Orleans, Louisiana 504-899-5329 • clientservices@nealauction.com
www.nealauction.com The successful bidder agrees to pay a buyer’s premium in the amount of 25% of the hammer price on each lot up to and including $200,000, plus 10% of the hammer price greater than $200,000. LA Auc. Lic., Neal Auction Co. #AB-107, Alford #797, LeBlanc #1514
18 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
From the finest restaurants to your home (and used at last December’s JCRS Latkes with a Twist in New Orleans)… Earthborn pottery is restaurant sturdy, dishwasher, oven and microwave safe. It’s artisan work that is passed to down to generations. And Earthborn “buttons” can be made into any logo or mark… the Star of David, a Menorah, or your favorite image — custom dinnerware that’s beautiful and functional! Prices at www.earthbornpottery.net
Aunt Sally’s Pralines
810 Decatur • 750 St. Charles New Orleans 800/642.7257 auntsallys.com Send a taste of New Orleans with Aunt Sally’s Pralines, New Orleans’ most famous praline. They’re kosher (dairy) and can be shipped anywhere. Pictured: New Orleans Breakfast gift basket ($24.99)
chanukah gifts Jordan Alexander
2003 Cahaba Rd #101 Birmingham 205/868-1391 jordanalexanderjewelry.com Exciting things are happening at the Jordan Alexander showroom in English Village! Just in time for the holiday season, the Birmingham-based retailer is launching “JA Collections” — a new and thoughtful selection of curated collections from unique, handpicked designers sold alongside Jordan Alexander Jewelry in the beautiful Mountain Brook store. Featured brands include Meredith Marks, Sorellina (below), Carbon & Hyde, and Buddha Mama.
Blue Frog Chocolates
5707 Magazine Street New Orleans 504/269-5707 bluefrogchocolates.com
Designed by Birmingham local Theresa Harper Bruno, Jordan Alexander Jewelry was born of her desire to create beautiful and everyday-wearable fine jewelry in her own casually elegant style. In addition to the showroom, Jordan Alexander is sold at high-end retailers internationally and was most recently launched at Neiman Marcus in St. Louis. The collection blends ultra-femme pearls and raw, sliced gems with fine diamonds, supple leather and multiple colors of gold. Since its debut in 2010, Jordan Alexander Jewelry has been featured on the covers of Glamour, O Magazine and jewelry industry leader JCK Magazine. 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.
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. Above: Solid Milk Chocolate Pizza with confection toppings ($23.95); Gift Box Assortment (1 lb) of delectable Blue Frog Chocolates ($28); Nancy’s Truffle Assortment Tray ($26); Hand Dipped Truffle Assortment (9 Piece) ($26). Current Flavors: Bread Pudding, Traditional Dark, Salted Caramel, Mexican Spiced, Cafe Au Lait.
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 19
chanukah gifts Homewood Toy & Hobby
2830 18th Street So. Birmingham 205/879-3986 homewoodtoy-hobby.com
With 60 years in business, Homewood Toy and Hobby has everything for kids and grown-ups, from model trains to Playmobil, Melissa & Doug and the largest selection of remote control items in the area. Above, the Yuneec Q500+ quadcopter with 4k camera. This is a professional grade camera, with 2 batteries, a steady grip controller and travel worthy case ($1299.99). Right, the Explorer 2.0 car. It has an aluminum frame, with adjustable bars and adjustable seat as the child grows. Maximum weight is 155 lbs. ($284.99). Free gift wrapping for almost any item over $10.
Backstreet Treasures
2820 Petticoat Lane Birmingham 205/502.7996 Mtn. Brook Village Backstreet Treasures is a new store that takes customers back in time. Owner Carol Ogle describes Backstreet Treasures as a store filled with “antiques, uniques and collectibles.” Ogle had booths in antiques shops before opening her own store. She said she looks for old wood, silver (in the photo is a silver horn that resembles a large shofar), chandeliers, clocks, old globes, antique lamps, crystal and things that are unique. “I want to bring back and preserve these treasures. They don’t make things like they used to. We want people today to appreciate these things from yesterday.”
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ukah Chan
Chocolate -the Perfect Holiday Gift Favors, Party and Corporate Gifts We Have Kosher Chocolates • Shipping Available
5707 Magazine Street • New Orleans www.bluefrogchocolates.com 504-269-5707 20 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
A’Mano
2707 Culver Rd Birmingham 205/871.9093 amanogifts.com
Amano offers the most unique hand-made products from area artists in a convenient and caring atmosphere. Pictured here is a selection of R. Wood pottery.
community How a scrawny, shy Jewish kid from Birmingham with an operatic voice became a wrestling star…
Sam Lapidus Montclair Run adds 5k Each year, over 1,000 runners hit Montclair Road in Birmingham on Thanksgiving morning to take part in the Sam Lapidus Montclair Run. This year, the run is expanding so runners of all levels can participate. In addition to the usual 10-kilometer race and one-mile fun run, the Levite Jewish Community Center’s 39th annual event will also feature a 5-kilometer race, sponsored by Schaeffer Eye Center. The event was renamed in 2008 in memory of Sam Lapidus, who loved fitness and working out at the LJCC. He was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma at age 9 in 2003, but refused to let it alter his plans. He died in November 2008, just shy of his 15th birthday, and Bruce Sokol urged the LJCC to name the event in his memory. Proceeds from the race benefit the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s of Alabama and the LJCC Fitness Program. The Center for Childhood Cancer donations help children in Alabama by enhancing services, building new programs, and recruiting new physicians and researchers. Registration is already open online and at the LJCC. Packet pickup and registration starts on Nov. 25 at 9 a.m., then at 7 a.m. on Nov. 26. The 10and 5-kilometer races will begin at 8:30 a.m., at which point registration will begin for the fun run. The fun run will be at 10 a.m., and an awards ceremony will begin around 10:30 a.m. There will be RFID chip timing and awards to the top three overall finishers and by age group in male and female categories. All entrants will receive a T-shirt, and the course is certified by USATF.
Book Signing
Little Professor Book Center • Homewood, AL December 5, 1 p.m.
“The Unmasked Tenor”
by Sam “The Great Kaiser” Tenenbaum Jr. with TJ Beitelman
Remembering Rabin
Now Available at Select Bookstores and Amazon.com
Weddings Birthdays Bar/Bat Mitzvahs Corporate Events Reunions School Dances Private Parties Event Production Open Houses DJ • Custom Lighting • Digital Projection Photo Booth • Karaoke • Snow and Fog Machines Dana Korem, Montgomery’s Shlicha, held a memorial program marking the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The event was held at NewSouth Books.
Confederate flag opposition is anti-Semitism? A counter-demonstrator at an Oct. 11 Jackson rally that sought to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Mississippi state flag had an unusual take on the motivations of those who oppose the flag. MSNewsNow quoted Craig Haden as saying that the blue in the battle flag “represents St. Andrew who was an apostle of Jesus Christ and he was Jewish and makes me wonder if they’re anti-Semitic.” Mississippi voters were scheduled to vote on Initiative 55, which would remove the emblem, on Nov. 4.
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November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 21
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Polak speaking to Mobile Dialogue Rabbi Joseph Polak, author of “After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring,” is speaking in Mobile this month through the Mobile Christian Jewish Dialogue, co-sponsored by the Gulf Coast Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education. An infant survivor of two concentration camps, Polak is an assistant professor of public health at Boston University, rabbi emeritus of the Hillel House there and chief justice of the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts. His main public address will be on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. at Ahavas Chesed. There will be a book signing during the reception. He will also speak at Springhill Avenue Temple on Nov. 9 at noon, with lunch available on a first come, first served basis, and at Ahavas Chesed on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. Other Nov. 9 talks will be to students at Spring Hill College and a Holocaust educator workshop for high school and middle school teachers at the University of South Alabama. On Nov. 10 he will also address David Meola’s class at South Alabama.
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“Old Jews Telling Jokes” stage show coming to Birmingham
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The traveling production of “Old Jews Telling Jokes” hits the stage at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center on Dec. 5 at 7:30 p.m. The Off-Broadway production is based on the hit website of the same name. In 2009, film and television producer Sam Hoffman was asked for website ideas and he came up with the concept. The stage version was created by Peter Gethers and Daniel Okrent, and features five actors paying tribute to classic jokes and in many cases, updating them. The show, which is for adults only, also includes comic songs and tributes to some of the giants of the comedy world. Many of the stories are based loosely on the writers’ lives, and the show progresses chronologically from tales of birth to old age. It ran at the Westside Theatre in New York for 16 months in 2012 and 2013, then played in Chicago for five months. It also had a two-month run late last year in Broward County, Fla. Tickets start at $39.95 and group discounts are available. For tickets, go to ticketsforplay.com.
Beth-El hosting health care accessibility forum A presentation and panel discussion on confronting healthcare accessibility in America will be held at Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El on Nov. 22, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monika Safford, with the division of preventative medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Medicine, will moderate. There will be presentations by Michael Saag from the UAB division of infectious disease, David Becker from the UAB department of health care organization and policy, and Beth-El Rabbi Randall Konigsburg. A reception will follow. The event is open to the community. 22 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
community Book collector’s donation triples size of Holocaust library in Birmingham After several months of work, the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center dedicated its new library on Oct. 11. The major overhaul came after the Center received a donation of 1,300 books from Clifford Young, a Washington-area book enthusiast who wanted to donate his collection but did not want to split it up. Rebecca Dobrinski, program director at BHEC, said some places were interested certain volumes, but BHEC said they would accept the entire collection, and before long 56 crates arrived. With the new acquisition, the library has a foreign language section, with works in French, German, Russian, Polish and Hungarian. There is also a rare books section. “In some cases we’re the only library in Alabama that has that book, or the only one in the Southeast,” BHEC Librarian Mark Skinner said. The library now has a numbered presentation volume of Rudolf Hess’ speeches that was published by the Nazi regime in 1940, and BHEC is one of only 14 libraries in the world with a copy. One book in the collection is available elsewhere only at the Library of Congress, New York University, the New York Library and Harvard. The rare books and foreign language books will be available only for use inside the library, while other books may be checked out. They are exploring issuing library cards to those who are interested. At the dedication, BHEC President Phyllis Weinstein gave a history of the organization’s library, which started with four freestanding bookcases. One day, a minister from a local church offered bookcases that were sitting unused in their gym, and which wound up filling three walls at BHEC. Additional bookcases later came from the N.E. Miles Jewish Day
School when it underwent a recent renovation. With the new collection, metal shelves were installed, floor to ceiling. Weinstein noted that the organization’s collection has come from donations, as they have not had funds to spend on acquiring books. However, they did purchase a 10-volume Encyclopedia of the Righteous of the Nations, published by Yad Vashem, in memory of Helena Lubel, “who was the point person for Holocaust programming in Birmingham for years.” Last fall, Judy Mills retired as BHEC librarian and was succeeded by Skinner, who is head of circulation at the North Birmingham branch of the Birmingham Public Library, and a historian. Skinner and intern Melissa Young spent a lot of time working on the
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 23
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library, and they were assisted by the ninth grade class from Temple BethEl and other interns. Part of redoing the library was transitioning from the Dewey Decimal system to the Library of Congress system, which “makes us more accessible to researchers,” Dobrinski said. At the dedication, Young did an extensive presentation on research she has done over the past year into the life of Dora Nesselroth, who wound up in Birmingham after surviving the Holocaust. Going forward, the Center wants to catalog, transcribe and digitize the oral histories of Alabama Holocaust survivors, and make the collection available on a world-wide online catalog. The BHEC office is located in the bottom floor of the Bayer Properties building on Arlington Avenue, with hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.
Theatre LJCC presents “Oliver!” Center Players veteran returns for production
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This month’s Theatre LJCC production of “Oliver!” at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center is reaching back to the days of the legendary Center Players. The Center Players was the JCC’s theater group from the late 1950s until the early 1990s, under the direction of Irving Stern. Mavis Bierd, who said “life begins again at 81,” will have a role in this month’s musical. She performed as Gwendolyn Pigeon in the Center Players’ “The Odd Couple” and Mrs. Higgins in “My Fair Lady.” She said she “really had fun with” her role as a secretary in the 1980s production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” Bierd has also worked with Birmingham Children’s Theater, and her most recent performance was a Summerfest production of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Her interest in the arts came at the age of 5, captivated while staring into the flame of a candle while in an Anderson air raid shelter in London during World War II. After seeing “The Wizard of Oz,” “I begged my mother for some red tap shoes” and started at the Royal Academy of Ballet at age 9. Her first professional theatrical experience was at age 12. She remembered Stern was “a great director and shook the halls when he bellowed.” “Oliver!” is a musical based on the Charles Dickens novel “Oliver Twist.” Performances will be Nov. 12 to 22, with curtain at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, 6 p.m. on Saturdays and 3 p.m. on Sundays. The Nov. 15 performance is in conjunction with the Jewish Book Month events. The Theatre LJCC production is directed by Ellise Mayor, with musical direction by Ellen Weems.
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community Series of events marks Jewish Book Month in Birmingham Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center is hosting a series of programs in conjunction with Jewish Book Month throughout November. Co-sponsored by the Birmingham Jewish Foundation, the series began on Nov. 1 with journalist and fatherhood columnist Josh Levs. “All In” describes his successful battle with his employer for parental leave and how fatherhood today differs from previous generations. On Nov. 5, Dave Gettinger will present “What is a Jew?” by his father, Mike Gettinger, who died in Birmingham in 2000 after a career in Jewish social services. He had been executive director of the Atlanta Jewish Federation for 20 years. The children’s book starts with Abraham and has profiles of numerous important Jewish figures through the ages, such as Moses, Isaiah, Maimonides and the Ba’al Shem Tov. Mike Gettinger also wrote “Coming of Age: The Atlanta Jewish Federation, 1962-1982.” This book and “Changing Seasons, Five Decades
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Dori Weinstein to lead writer workshops Children’s author Dori Weinstein will visit Birmingham for a weekend of events at the LJCC, N.E. Miles Jewish Day School and Temple Beth-El. A native of Queens, N.Y., Weinstein now lives in Minneapolis. She has taught in public and Jewish schools, and speaks about writing through a Jewish lens. She has released two books in her “YaYa and YoYo” series. “Sliding Into the New Year” is about YaYa, a fifth grader who wants to visit the local indoor water park, and finally is invited by her best friend — but her twin brother, YoYo, points out it is the first day of Rosh Hashanah. “Shaking in the Shack” is about the twins and their classmates finding an unusual four-legged visitor in their congregation’s Sukkah just before the holiday. The Jewish Book Council says the books are lighthearted romps “for middle readers with some substantial messages subtly worked into the fun.” She was inspired to write the books about a decade ago when she was working a Jewish book fair and noticed that most of the children’s books were about the Holocaust or set in the early 1900s. She told Times of Israel that “there needs to be Judy Blume meets ‘All of a Kind Family’.” Her children advise her on contemporary authenticity, and she plans to eventually have 12 books in the series. She will visit with students at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School on Nov. 13. At Beth-El, she will be the special guest for the 11 a.m. Tot Shabbat service on Nov. 14, and lead a teen and adult “Writer’s Process and Purpose” workshop starting at 3:15 p.m., followed by Seudah Shlishi and minyan. On Nov. 15 she will lead a writer’s workshop for grades 3 to 6 at Beth-El at 9:15 a.m., followed by a workshop at the LJCC at 1:30 p.m.
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26 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
in Jewish Communal Service 1938-1990” were published posthumously in 2004. The 6 p.m. program will include a wine and cheese reception, and attendees will receive a free copy of the book. The illustrations by Cynthia Fitting will be on display at the LJCC all month. On Nov. 10, Marcia Friedman will present “Meatballs and Matzah Balls,” the story of re-creating her Italian-American kitchen after her conversion to Judaism, exploring the union of Jewish and Italian life through food. The noon cooking demonstration, discussion and tasting is $10. On Nov. 13 at 10:30 a.m. there will be a free children’s concert with the husband-and-wife duo of Joanie Leeds and drummer Dan Barman. Leeds is an award-winning songwriter of both Jewish and secular music. Her “Jewgrass” — Jewish Bluegrass — CD “Challah, Challah” has a sound reminiscent of the Greenwich Village folk revival of the 1960’s and is a collection of Shabbat, holiday songs and liturgy perfect for families with young children. Barman is an award winning performer and musical educator. In 2000 as a senior at Syracuse, Leeds recorded “My Job Application Knows More About Me Than You Do. In 2006 she started working at a Gymboree location in New York, and began to write children’s music. Her first such album, “City Kid,” won a Parent’s Choice Award. She married Barman in 2012, and her most recent CD, “Bandwagon,” was released in 2013. Children’s author Dori Weinstein will lead a creative writing workshop for ages 8 to 13 on Nov. 15 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The $15 workshop includes a ticket to see the Theatre LJCC production of “Oliver!” at 4 p.m. On Nov. 18, T.K. Thorne will discuss her Biblical novel “Angels at the Gate” in a 5:30 p.m. program co-sponsored by Hadassah and the Sisterhoods of Knesseth Israel, Beth-El and Emanu-El. A native of Montgomery’s Jewish community, Thorne is a retired Birmingham Police captain and now is executive director of CAP: City Action Partnership, which works with businesses, residents and the police and has reduced crime in the central city by almost two-thirds since 1995. She is said to be the first Jewish female police officer in Birmingham. Her debut novel, “Noah’s Wife,” received an award as Book of the Year for Historical Fiction. A short film from her screenplay “Six Blocks Wide” was a finalist in a film festival in Italy and has shown at other juried festivals in the U.S. and Europe. In 2013 she released “Last Chance for Justice: How Investigators Uncovered New Evidence Convicting the Birmingham Church Bombers.” A follow-up to “Noah’s Wife,” “Angels at the Gate” gives a name and a backstory to Lot’s wife, who in the Biblical account is turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah when Lot and his family flee. The festival concludes on Dec. 8 with “The Return: A Documentary About Being Young and Jewish in Poland.” A discussion will be moderated by Samantha Dubrinsky. The film follows four women in their 20s who are trying to rediscover their heritage, one that had been buried until Communism fell in 1989. There are currently about 20,000 Jews in Poland, where there had been 3.5 million before the Holocaust. The four women are part of the “new Jews,” third-generation of Holocaust survivors, many of whom were raised Catholic and discovered their Jewish heritage when they were teens. They have to forge a path in a place with a rich Jewish history but very little present, and figure out what it means to be part of an ethnicity. Festival events are open to the community, and during the month there will also be a book sale in the lobby.
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Food Festival Scenes
The Friedman Family Foundation Jewish Food Festival was held at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center on Oct. 11. Above, glass artist Natalie Young from Huntsville brought her Judaica. Below middle, staff from the Henry S. Jacobs Camp visited for the festival.
28 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
25
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years of Southern Jewish Life
One Latke, Three Muses… Jewish Children’s Regional Service will kick off the Chanukah season with Latkes with a Twist, a fundraiser on Dec. 3 at Bellocq, starting at 8 p.m. Chef Daniel Esses of Three Muses will stock a complimentary latke bar while a silent auction goes on. There will be drink specials and live music by Israeli soul singer Eleanor Tallie. Tallie moved to Memphis two years ago. She originally studied cello in Israel, then after graduating from high school in 2005 started writing songs and performing as a vocalist. She was the soloist for the Ori Naftaly Blues Project, performing in 180 shows in 30 states in an 18-month Photo by Anthony Earl tour. She left the band to work on her Eleanor Tallie first solo album in March, and did a pre-release tour in Colorado and Nebraska this fall. Her upcoming album will be Indie Funk and was recorded at Royal Studios with Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell and Uriah Mitchell co-producing. Tickets are $25 and are available at jcrs.org or at the JCRS office. Funds raised through the event will support the PJ Library program, which provides free monthly gifts of books and music to Jewish children through age 8. In addition, proceeds from the event will enable JCRS to directly assist greater numbers of vulnerable Jewish youth and families with college aid, Jewish summer camp grants, and assistance to families with children with special needs.
Established 1990 as The Southern Shofar Renamed Deep South Jewish Voice, Sept. 1999 Reformatted as Southern Jewish Life, August 2009
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Wrapping for Chanukah
On Oct. 11, volunteers came to the Jewish Community Campus in Metairie to wrap over 1500 gifts for the Jewish Children’s Regional Service Oscar J. Tolmas Chanukah Gift Program. Over 200 gift bags were assembled for Jewish youth in the region. The program provides eight gifts, one for each night of Chanukah, to youth in need in the agency’s seven state region, which includes Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 29
community New Orleans interfaith gathering to mark 50 years since Nostra Aetate The 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate will be marked in New Orleans with a program coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and the Jewish Community Relations Council in partnership with the Archdiocese of Greater New Orleans. Rabbi Michael Cook of Hebrew Union College and His Excellency Gregory Michael Aymond, archbishop of New Orleans, will discuss the landmark document on Nov. 23 at 6:30 p.m. in Nunemaker Hall at Loyola University. The program, which is free and open to the community, will celebrate the relationship cultivated between the Jewish and Catholic faiths during the past half century, and look toward the growth of collaborative efforts. Cook is the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judaeo-Christian Studies, and Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literatures at HUC in Cincinnati. Regarded as the only rabbi in North America to hold a full professorial Chair in New Testament, he has keynoted hundreds of Institutes for Christian Clergy across the country, and was one of sev- Rabbi Michael Cook en scholars selected by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to assess the accuracy of the advance script of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ.” Aymond is the first native New Orleanian to serve as archbishop in the over 200-year history of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He became auxiliary bishop in 2007, then coadjutor Bishop of Austin in 2000. In 2009 he was elevated to Archbishop of New Orleans. He has served as chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People and the Committee on Divine Worship, and currently chairs the board of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Nostra Aetate, which is Latin for “In Our Time,” was passed by the assembled Catholic bishops on Oct. 28, 1965 by a vote of 2,221 to 88, under the direction of Pope Paul VI, toward the end of the Second Vatican Council. The declaration, which was made in five parts, starts by affirming the unity of the origin of all people, then clarifies the church’s relations with other world religions. The fourth section deals with the Jewish people, and speaks of the bond that “New Covenant” people, namely Christians, have with the descendants of Abraham. It repudiated the centuries-old charge that all Jews were responsible for deicide in the death of Jesus, as well as the notion that Jews are “rejected or accursed by God.” The document continues, “In her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.” This was seen as a major break with church-sponsored theological anti-Jewish teachings throughout the centuries, which had led to numerous mass murders, forcible conversions and expulsions of Jews. In commenting on the 50th anniversary, Pope Francis stated “Since Nostra Aetate, indifference and opposition have turned into cooperation and goodwill. Enemies and strangers became friends and brothers.” After the declaration, over two dozen centers for Christian-Jewish understanding were set up at Catholic institutions in the United Sates. It also had an effect on local levels, such as the Mobile Christian-Jewish Dialogue, which started when Bishop John May asked Mary and Paul Filben to approach the Jewish community for a series of joint programs. 30 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
jewish book month an annual SJL special section
Golden wasn’t silent: Remembering an outspoken Jewish newspaper pioneer When I started attending national Jewish newspaper conventions in the early 1990s, when people found out where I was from, I was often asked if I knew fellow Southerner Harry Golden, with a tone that indicated they were speaking about one of the giants of our profession. One really should know the trailblazers, but I knew next to nothing about Golden, except a vague notion of a publication in the Carolinas, though he was a household name in the 1950s and 1960s. His newspaper, the Carolina Israelite, folded in 1968, Charlotte is a six-hour drive from Birmingham — not exactly next door — and Golden died in 1981, when I was doing a newspaper… as a sixth grade student at the Birmingham Jewish Day School. So, no, I did not know Golden. In “Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights,” Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett preserves the story of a writer and publisher who is “a bit of a Forrest Gump tale,” having a front-row seat to a wide array of major historical events and never shying away from giving his opinion about them, regardless of what others thought. Daughter of a transplanted Southerner, Hartnett said she grew up reading Golden’s books and her mother said she had worked for Golden at one THE LEO FRANK time. While researching her book, she LYNCHING GREATLY came across a folder among the Harry AFFECTED GOLDEN’S Golden papers at North CarolinaCharlotte that contained notes in her VIEWS ON RACE, mother’s handwriting. EQUALITY “Once I learned a bit about Golden I realized he was exactly the sort of person I love to read about—an unlikely and very flawed hero. He was a writer who used his celebrity to fight on behalf of others,” she said.
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 31
jewish book month
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Born in 1903 in what is now Ukraine, Golden immigrated to New York with his family in 1907. Goldhirsch, as his family name was back then, peddled newspapers on the New York streets. In 1915 at the age of 12, he was greatly affected by the front page story about the lynching of Leo Frank in Atlanta. Hartnett points out, “For the rest of his life, Golden was something of a student of what we now call ‘hate crimes’.” Fifty years later, Golden would write a book about the case, “A Little Girl is Dead.” He would be influenced by storytellers and “showmen” publishers, such as “Little Blue Books” publisher Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, who would take sleepy classics and change the titles to something provocative, then list only the title in a mail-order catalog. But at the time that was a peripheral influence, as he was on Wall Street during the roaring 1920s — until he was sentenced to five years in prison for mail fraud involving stock scams, with Virginia Methodist Bishop and political activist James Cannon Jr. as one of his major clients. After his term in prison, he sold advertising for a New York newspaper, then flopped at an ad venture tied to the World’s Fair, and was still involved in sketchy enterprises. In 1943, he was arrested in Birmingham after writing the Tutwiler Hotel that a representative of the “Advertising Trade Service Inc. of New York City” would be visiting and asked for “all courtesies” for the representative. While the Tutwiler was apparently happy to comp rooms and meals to someone they though was legitimate, they called the police when he started bouncing personal checks. Traveling around as a writer and salesman, he wound up in Charlotte, which turned out to be a great fit. It was a small enough place where he could have a large effect, but large enough to have a vibrant journalism community. It was in the South, which was on the verge of a major societal change that meshed with his cheering of the underdog and passion for advocating equality. He launched the “improbably titled” Carolina Israelite, spinning yarns and tackling controversial issues head-on. “He exposed racism in all its guises and deconstructed antiSemitism, and he did it with wit and originality,” Hartnett said. Often, he castigated the Jewish community for inaction, which was not uncommon in Southern communities where the Jewish community was caught in the middle in the civil rights struggle. “Horrified” was a routine reaction in the Charlotte Jewish community to his writing. Golden “introduced whites to blacks, Gentiles to Jews. His endless stream of anecdotes gave
jewish book month northerners a glimpse of Dixie and Southerners a sense of the Lower East Side,” Hartnett said. Once he got his reader or listener to laugh — and it never took long — he could get them to question the status quo. In the process, he amassed a huge number of celebrities and politicians as friends, though none as close as writer Carl Sandburg. Golden would often add a prominent person to his mailing list, and then mention in print that the unknowing individual was a subscriber, as a way of attracting other subscribers. “It’s amazing how often this led to real friendship,” Hartnett said. At one point, his newspaper claimed 55,000 subscribers. In 1958, a collection of his tales from growing up on the Lower East Side, “Only in America” became a surprise runaway best-seller. He followed it with one book per year, many of them also becoming huge sellers and earning him entrée to the “Tonight Show” couch. It also led to the unmasking of his past, with the revelation of his fraud convictions — but the public shrugged off the scandal and in 1973 he even managed to get a Federal pardon from the Nixon administration. As self-promoter, storyteller and humorist, sometimes his works fell flat as he played fast and loose with reality. Some of his more scholarly books are viewed with skepticism today, and when Life magazine hired him to cover the Eichmann trial, they discontinued his reports after the first one. His writing included “Golden Plans” to change society, often absurd but pointed, such as his argument that if Jim Crow laws said mixing races was fine as long as people were not seated together, then schools should remove chairs from the classrooms. When Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail, he listed Golden among the “too few in quantity” whites in the South who “have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms.” As noted in the book, Golden certainly had comments to make after the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, and Bloody Sunday in Selma. But that was also the beginning of a demoralizing time for Golden. He would still travel and do lectures, but much of the grind of the paper was too wearing. Also, elements in the civil rights movement were transitioning from equal rights to black power, a shift that alarmed him. The assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy were also a heavy load for him to bear. Golden’s life “encompassed some of the most fascinating and telling events in America’s modern history,” Hartnett said. “Anywhere big news was breaking, Golden seemed to be there.”
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 33
jewish book month Great Kaiser forged his own path through wrestling, music What does a thin Jewish kid growing up in Birmingham who has an obsession with opera and aspires to be the next Enrico Caruso wind up doing? If you answered “become a professional wrestler,” then you clearly have met Sam Tenenbaum Jr. His autobiography, “The Unmasked Tenor: The Life and Times of a Singing Wrestler,” was recently released, and it describes how he went from a weak kid to a star of the regional wrestling circuits in the Southeast, as the masked Great Kaiser. As a child, he loved music and developed quite a voice, but he also was a target of school bullies and not a great student. His parents sent him to Marion Military Institute to get some discipline. Interacting with other students there, he quickly learned that he needed to develop some fighting skills. That, plus a regimented training system , meant that when he came home he was a different person, physically and mentally. He went to the University of Montevallo to pursue a music career — though with a “safe” liberal arts degree to fall back on, but which did not interest him at all. Working out at the downtown YMCA in Birmingham, he met Joe Honeycutt, an established wrestler who saw potential in Tenenbaum and offered to train him. His parents were skeptical, and insisted that he not wrestle in Birmingham, where they were known to everyone, and have a stage name on the road. Soon, Tenenbaum had his first wrestling appearance, in Oneonta. He let Honeycutt choose a name, and he “almost had a stroke” when he got to the venue and found that he would wrestle as “The Jewish Angel.” Nick Carter, a wrestling promoter and Tenenbaum’s opponent in the ring that night, gave him the name for showmanship and controversy. Bitten with the bug. Tenenbaum continued getting onto wrestling cards, generally as the newcomer who was cannon fodder for the established wrestlers. He chose the innocuous name of Bob Kaiser as his stage name. He worked his way onto televised cards out of Atlanta, worked Florida and the Carolinas, building his reputation and persona. In 1975, bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger came to Birmingham with Sally Field for the filming of “Stay Hungry.” Regulars from the YMCA assisted with the production, none more enthusiastic than Johnny Peebles III, who Tenenbaum had recently met. Schwarzenegger told Tenenbaum that the name Bob Kaiser was too small for him, and he needed a name with “Great” in it. Soon, the masked Great Kaiser was born. No longer in the role of getting run over in the ring, the Great Kaiser upped his showmanship with Peebles by his side as manager. Tenenbaum noted that they definitely turned heads — it wasn’t just a 280-pound wrestler in a mask, but he was accompanied by a long-haired manager in a white tuxedo. His most famous match was a semi-stunt “feud” with local sportscaster Herb Winches that ended in the ring. Years later that would be replicated 34 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 35
jewish book month to a lesser degree with Paul Finebaum. Tenenbaum also discusses how Vince McMahon transformed professional wrestling into a national obsession, to the detriment of the regional circuits where the Great Kaiser made his name. As his wrestling career wound down, aside from the occasional publicity bout, he turned back to his music while caring for his aging parents, who eventually came around regarding his wrestling career — especially his mother’s reaction to his being inducted into the Birmingham chapter of the National Wrestling
Alliance Hall of Fame. On occasion the two worlds did mix. The Great Kaiser’s theme song was “Edelweiss,” and he was known to sing it occasionally in the ring at matches. Written in the first person, not only is the book a window on growing up Jewish in Birmingham and venturing into a world that has little Jewish participation, it also gives a perspective of the athleticism needed to make it in wrestling, along with the showmanship and storylines. Tenenbaum will have a book signing at Little Professor in Birmingham on Dec. 5 at 1 p.m.
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
Clifford Celebrates Hanukkah by Norman Bridwell Emily Elizabeth and Clifford are excited to learn about the Festival of Lights from Melissa and her family at their home (and of course, Clifford likes sufganiyot!). Later, when everyone goes out to watch the lighting of the menorah in the town square, they learn that doing something nice turns out to be the best Hanukkah gift of all.
The Miracle Mitzvah Moose by Dawn Wynne, illustrated by Gloria Pineiro Abbey finds that getting settled in to her new home in Alaska isn’t easy, and looking for the familiar on the first night of Hanukkah doesn’t turn out the way she expects. When a moose appears outside her window, his antlers sparkle like a menorah. Thinking of miracles and how we show appreciation, the mitzvot Abbey sets out to do warm the heart of everyone.
36 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
jewish book month
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Longue Vue House and Gardens by Charles Davey and Carol McMichael Reese Substantial enough in size and comprehensiveness of content, “Longue Vue House and Gardens” is destined for display rather than to be shelved away and will be the book to give and receive this holiday season. Those interested in the New Orleans landmark’s architecture and landscape will appreciate the biographies of the planners and details of how elements came together as well as letters of appreciation from Edith and Edgar Stern, the original owners. The home was built between 1935 and 1942 with eight acres of gardens. Quality, large-scale photography abounds in the book, including that of plant specimens conveniently paired in text with their nomenclature. Ellen Biddle Shipman’s planting plans (even the spring, summer planting plan for the portico garden) along with lists of each variety used as in the Japanese Iris area, and other plans with each vegetable enumerated with its place in the vegetable garden are especially noteworthy. Beside seeing the home in person at an event or as part of a tour, the images of the interior — along with architectural and furniture plans — show how timeless the the furnishings, fabrics and millwork truly are alongside the inventiveness the Sterns incorporated such as built-in bathroom scales, elevator, a dark room, and the first integrated central air conditioning system in the area. Those familiar with Louisiana architecture will especially appreciate how so many elements of the home are inspired by other landmarks such as the Beauregard-Keyes House, the Uncle Sam House in Convent, and Shadows-on-theTeche in New Iberia.
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 37
jewish book month There is also a section on the Sterms. His family was in the cotton factoring business in New Orleans, while she was the daughter of Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., who also bankrolled efforts to build thousands of rural schools for blacks throughout the South. The book details the couple’s philanthropic endeavors in the New Orleans area, in the Jewish and general communities. They were instrumental in the formation of Dillard University and Flint-Goodridge Hospital, though the book notes the Sterns had to be “resourceful” in discussing the institution because of rigid racial social codes of the day. A launch party for the book was scheduled for Nov. 4 at Longue Vue.
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The latest novel by Steve Stern, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for fiction, is set in a historical Jewish neighborhood in Memphis. “The Pinch” is set in an area of the same name centered on North Main Street. By the 1960s, when the story takes place, the once-thriving Jewish community is down to a single tenant, Lenny Sklarew. The scrawny Sklarew tries to avoid the draft, selling drugs and working in a used bookstore, until he notices a musty book about the rise and fall of the neighborhood — and discovers that he is a character in the book. The 50-year-old history, written by Muni Pinsker, was written not only about the neighborhood’s past but what its future would become. As Sklarew reads the book, the past and present come together. Stern teaches fiction and literature at Skidmore College in New York, but grew up in the Reform community in Memphis. He recalls that the Pinch was something he knew nothing about growing up, and he didn’t really think much about Judaism until he was in his 30s, living on a commune in the Arkansas Ozarks. Sparked by portrayals in literature, he began to explore Jewish folklore, especially magical and mystical traditions. He also started transcribing oral histories at the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, which included Jewish remembrances of Beale Street and interactions between Jews and blacks. The Center made him ethnic heritage director of a “Lox and Grits” project, and it was then that he started learning the history of the Pinch, and writing stories that were set there. His previous novels include “The Book of Mischief ” and “The Frozen Rabbi.”
Rick Recht performed at Touro Synagogue in New Orleans in a free community concert on Oct. 18. Recht plays over 150 concerts a year and is the national music spokesman for PJ Library. He is also the founder and executive director of Jewish Rock Radio, which is available online and on an app.
38 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
financial an annual SJL special section
As lending law changes, Sirote’s longstanding practice adapts by Lee J. Green In 1946, Birmingham Jewish community members Morris Sirote, Edward Friend, Jr. and James Permutt began practicing law together at a small law firm. Soon thereafter, Karl Friedman joined the firm. Almost 70 years later, Sirote & Permutt, P.C. is one of the largest and most respected full-service firms in the Birmingham and Florida markets, with offices in Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville, Pensacola, Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale. Samuel Friedman, one of the newer Sirote partners in the Business and Financial Services practice group, is an involved member of the Birmingham Jewish community. He describes himself as a “general business lawyer” with a practice that focuses on three areas: complex real estate deals, commercial lending transactions, and consumer finance law compliance. On the first two, he explains that the Sirote real estate and banking “teams” handle some of the biggest as well as most complex transactions in the region. But, his eyes really light up when talking about the third focus of his practice. “I’m not sure my own family understands what I do,” he explains of his practice. “But, I promise it is really interesting — at least to me.” Friedman, together with law partner Maurice Shevin, advises financial institutions, particularly non-bank lenders, on how to comply with federal consumer financial protection laws. Since the economic crash and Great Recession, Friedman notes that much has changed from a regulation and compliance standpoint in just a few short years. “We don’t live in the same financial world we did 10 years ago. It’s a brave new world,” he said. “In 2015, financial institutions can’t operate the same way they did 10 years ago. And, that’s where Sirote has expertise.” Five years ago, President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 — the most significant overhaul of financial services regulation in the United States since the Great Depression. The Act established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new agency of government designed to protect consumers in the financial marketplace. That, Friedman says, is where his practice took an unexpected turn. “I didn’t graduate law school thinking I would be a federal consumer finance expert. But in the practice of law, you have to adapt to your clients, and our clients needed that expertise.” Since then, particularly over the last two years, Friedman and Shevin have written, lectured and given interviews as national experts. “In this brave new world, it has become so much more complex for financial institutions to navigate the waters of federal compliance, which has made it even more important for them to work with legal professionals who know the ins and outs of the new regulations,” said Friedman. And the landscape is ever-changing. Discussing next year’s election, he feels that these new regulatory changes and the CFPB in particular are here to stay regardless of who wins the White House. “There could be a change in the funding mechanism or governing format of the [CFPB], but in my opinion, it’s not going away,” he said. “I think I’m going to be doing this for a long, long time.” When asked for the single most important piece of advice for financial institutions, Friedman replied without hesitation, “That’s easy. Don’t ignore the law. It’s that simple.”
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Refreshments provided by Wenonah High School Tourism & Hospitality and Alabama Crown Beverages
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November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 39
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by Lee J. Green Following Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans law firm of Herman, Herman & Katz, LLC helped businesses and individuals recover through making sure they got the insurance benefits they were entitled to. Founded in 1942 by brothers Harry and David Herman, the diverse law firm hopes through proactive education and consultation they can help others to ensure the best coverage along with protection from loss. “We recommend that any business review your insurance policies with your provider as well as an experienced attorney before signing,” said partner Brian Katz. “It is better to know for sure that you are protected ahead of time versus trying to handle something after a disaster or work stoppage has occurred.” Katz said most of the businesses they worked with had flood insurance protection, but most policies have caps on them. Most also had business interruption insurance. “But just because you have it doesn’t mean you are covered for everything and every situation,” he said. Business interruption insurance protects a business from the profit they would lose when a
disaster happens. That protection can cover everything from business interruption from flood to fire to computer network malfunctions. Harry and David Herman were born at the turn of the 20th century to immigrant parents who settled in the Irish Channel area of New Orleans. Their personal injury practice quickly took on the tough and gritty characteristics of their immigrant upbringing. Katz said Herman, Herman & Katz’s practice today is broad. The firm served as lead or colead counsels on segments of the BP case, the Chinese drywall case and Zarelto case. The firm also handles business and construction litigation; personal injury litigation and family law. After earning his B.A. from the University of Alabama, during which time he served a year as president of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, Katz received his J.D. in January 1996 from Tulane University School of Law. The New Orleans native served on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and the New Orleans Jewish Community Center. He is a past president of the NOJCC and past co-chair for the Jewish Federations of North America National Young Leadership.
Estate Planning is Life Planning by Lisa Finn
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Proper estate planning isn’t just about what happens when one dies. To do it properly, one must take into account all the important life and death decisions, including child care, incapacity during life, near-death considerations, post-mortem financial planning and tax consequences, including but not limited to income, estate, and capital gains tax. Proper estate planning means that in the event that an individual is unable to manage his or her own affairs, he or she has already decided who will take over caregiving responsibilities and oversee assets, rather than a judge making that decision. Through revocable living trusts, powers of attorney and living wills, Louisiana families are relieving their loved ones of the burden, both emotional and financial, of making life and death decisions, and allowing their loved ones to avoid the time delays, costs and publicity associated with a Louisiana Succession. There are several things to examine when selecting an attorney to entrust when working on
these most important life and death decisions. His or her practice should be exclusively an estate planning and estate settling practice. Proper estate planning definitely touches upon important tax issues. The tax code is not a place one wants to just happen upon; and the law changes every year. It is important to be able to rely on someone who can keep up with these changing laws. And, the attorney one chooses must be able to explain everything in an understandable manner. Lisa Finn is an estate planning attorney with Rabalais Law in New Orleans. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the Florida State University College of Law in 2001. Then, to further her knowledge in estate planning and taxation, Finn returned to law school, and earned a Master of Law degree in Federal Estate Planning from the University of Miami School of Law in 2006. She is licensed to practice law in both Louisiana and Florida, and can be reached at: (504) 274-1980 and (504) 274-9431, and contacted by email at: lisa.finn@rabalaislaw.com.
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To make sure your milestone is included, email the information to editor@sjlmag.com, or mail to P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham AL 35213. Photos are welcome.
health and wellness
Optometrist sets sights beyond eyes for Hadassah health programs by Lee J. Green Birmingham optometrist Dr. Ami Abel, who owns Eye Do, sees great ways to spread awareness about Hadassah while also providing important, free health advice with events she is planning as the Birmingham chapter’s vice president of health/wellness programs. Soon Hadassah in Birmingham will announce a free event at which health practitioners of various types will be on hand to provide important health information and answer questions. Hadassah representatives will also discuss the many strides the organization has made with medical research, such as genetic testing that can identify greater risk factors for certain types of cancer in Ashkenazi Jewish women, for example. Abel said Hadassah is also doing research on genetic testing to identify a greater predisposition for macular degeneration. “There is so much good Hadassah is doing and we want to have events that raise awareness of important Hadassah initiatives while also helping those who need it most,” she said. Then in January, Hadassah will host a “Barbells for Boobs” event that raises awareness and funds for breast cancer through strong women/ weightlifting competitions.
Great strides made in contact lenses and eyeglasses Abel said contact lenses continue to become more advanced and Eye Do carries the Ultra brand of contact lenses designed to provide greater needed moisture for dry-eye sufferers. The more moist contact lens for great hydration is available in spherical and in multi-focal later this year. In early 2016, they will come out in toric. “This is the best new contact lens that I think
has ever become available. It breathes so well,” she said. These days with many people on a computer or mobile electronic device so frequently, dry eye symptoms are becoming more common. “We normally blink around 15 times a minute but we blink five times a minute on average when on our electronic devices. Burning eyes, a gritty feeling, intermittent blurriness and even excessive watering are all symptoms of dry eye. As far as the latest in eyeglasses, Abel said, “style is always important but the trend on design is for companies to make lenses that are lighter in weight and more durable.
Some of the materials used on the frames are the same materials used on airplanes. Abel said digitally made computer-generated design has allowed for sharper vision and less distortion in optical lenses for eyeglasses. The lenses that change colors in sunlight (to become sunglasses) are better and change quicker today. “We use optical lenses designed by a company in Israel called Shamir,” said Abel. “This way we feel we can have the best products on the market and support Buy Israel.” She also said some of the new eyeglass frames Eye Do has received for fall can allow college football fans to sport their teams’ colors.
Ease pain, enhance relaxation with massage by Lee J. Green Constance Smith wants to rub out pain with massage therapy, and said this practice that has proven effective for thousands of years can promote both physical and mental healing. The owner of Vestavia’s CR2 Massage Therapy, just south of Birmingham, said she got into the field because she wanted to help people. “I had started studying to be a psychologist and while at a yoga class I found out more about the healing powers of massage,” she said. “It feels good to help others to feel good.” Massages relax the muscles and put the body in a good position to heal from pain while releasing serotonin, the hormone that brings feelings of pleasure to the body. “I have had some people come to me with pains that wouldn’t go away, even with surgery. But after a few sessions their bodies embrace the healing powers of massage and they see results,” said Smith. She said with many people working at a com-
puter much of the day and on their phones a lot, sore wrists and necks have become more common. “I am happy to see people and help them after they start to feel pain and stiffness, but would rather them be proactive to perhaps prevent these things from happening,” said Smith. “I recommend for some who sits down at work all day to get every 30 minutes just to stretch and get the blood flowing. It is also important to drink lots of water regularly so individuals don’t get dehydrated. That can lead to muscle cramps or worse conditions.” She said there are three basic types of massage. Swedish massage is for relaxation. For those who have deeper soreness, a deep tissue massage is recommended. For those suffering from some numbness, neuromuscular massage may be what is called for. “I give free consultations and we ask questions to determine the most ideal form of message therapy for someone,” she said.
Chanukah gift cards… for the gift of well-being
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 41
features The Jewish story of “Rat Pack Christmas” Show comes to Birmingham in December by Lee J. Green The name of the show kicking off Theater League’s Broadway in Birmingham 2015-16 season Dec. 18 and 19 is “Rat Pack Christmas,” but there are numerous Jewish ties to the production. Lead producer Sandy Hackett, son of the late, legendary Jewish comedian Buddy Hackett, also plays late Jewish entertainer Joey Bishop. His wife, Lisa Dawn Miller, is also Jewish and wrote a couple of new songs for the show. She plays and sings as Eva Gardner in “Rat Pack Christmas” as well. Miller picked up some of her songwriting talent from her father, Ronald Miller — a songwriter from Detroit who is the first Jewish Motown songwriter, and a couple of his songs also appear in the show. Sandy Hackett’s son, a high-school musical prodigy named Oliver, also sings. “Most of the great Christmas songwriters were actually Jewish,” said Sandy Hackett. Ronald Miller even wrote a whole Christmas album for Stevie Wonder. “We have some references in the show to Chanukah, and of course Joey Bishop was Jewish.” He added that the show includes stories and songs both old as well as current. The original “Sandy Hackett’s Rat Pack” show started in 2001. “Before my dad died, he recorded his voice for the show to be the voice of God, who agreed to move these legendary characters to modern day. That allows us to bring some current things and new songs and versions into the mix,” said Hackett. Sandy met Lisa in 2003. She was attending the “Rat Pack” show in Las Vegas. At the time, she was working as a stock broker and had to leave during the performance to go to the lobby to take an important call. “Sandy did his monologue as Joey Bishop and saw me walking out to take the call. He told the maître de to encourage me to get back in and when I sat back down (while another performer was on stage) he comes from backstage and sits on my lap, introducing himself,” she said. “He invited me to the meet and greet. That night I thought to myself, ‘I am going to marry that man and have a baby girl with him’.” As if it were fate, the two were married in 2005 and a year later had a girl named Ashley, who has become one of the top dancers for her age. Hackett said his wife is “not only a very loving, supportive wife and mother, but she is an incredible singer, songwriter and producer. She has really helped me to build the ‘Rat Pack’ shows to what they are today.” He said before they met, he had no idea that Ron Miller was her father. “It just turned out to be another chance connection we had.” Hackett, 59, was born in New Jersey and lived there with his parents continued on page 45 42 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
nosh
jewish deep south: bagels, biscuits, beignets
Southern holiday tradition: a Greenberg turkey from Tyler, Texas
THANKSGIVING
A Texas Tradition, Delivered: Greenberg Smoked Turkeys When S.I. Greenberg was serving as the kosher butcher in Tyler, Tex., in the 1930s, little could he have imagined that what he was doing would set the groundwork for enhancing tens of thousands of Christmas celebrations across the region. It’s the busy season for Greenberg Smoked Turkeys, which will sell over 200,000 turkeys in the next two months, at its smokehouse in east Texas and through an extensive mail-order operation. In 2006, Texas Monthly said the turkeys are such an ingrained tradition for many families, they’d sooner give up their Christmas trees than their Greenberg turkeys. In the last few years, Greenberg has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and was listed as an “Oprah’s Favorites Under $100” in Oprah magazine as “the best turkey I’ve ever tasted.” Forbes magazine described it as “like a ham with ambitions toward flight.” It all started from a tin smoking shed that S.I. Greenberg built on their dairy farm, as was common in the area. He had arrived in Galveston from Eastern Europe in 1903, becoming the leader of Ahavath Achim in Tyler. Aside from being a shochet, he was also a mohel and had a blacksmith shop downtown. While neighbors smoked hams, he smoked turkeys.
Friends started asking him to smoke birds for them. After a few years, there was a request in 1942 for six birds from friends in Dallas. Son Zelick Greenberg figured out how to pack them for shipping and sent them by rail, leading to more mail orders. Because of war shortages they had to improvise by repurposing boxes from the local grocery store. The operation grew, with Zelick adding more smokehouses as time went on, but there was a major setback in 1951 on Christmas Eve, after the last orders for the season had been filled. Ashes that turned out to still be smoldering had been put on a trash pile and caught fire, burning everything down, said Sam Greenberg, Zelick’s son and the third Greenberg generation in the business. Zelick “built back what is the heart of the plant that we have today,” he said. The processes are the same, Sam Greenberg said, “we just do it a little more and a little faster.” He runs the plant with “right-hand man” Tracy Lisner. While most people identify turkeys with Thanksgiving, November isn’t the busiest time of the year for Greenberg. Roughly one-third of their annual business is for Thanksgiving, while two-thirds is for Christmas. “After December 25, we’re basically finished until next September,” he
COOKBOOK
THE NEW KOSHER: Simple Recipes to Savor & Share by Kim Kushner
Kim Kushner has a great background for composing interesting flavors: she was born in Montreal, was taught to cook from her Moroccan-born mother, spent time in Israel, and now lives in New York. Professionally, she graduated from the Institute of Culinary Education and went on to develop recipes for “Food & Wine” before becoming a highly-sought instructor. Although she’s a cookbook author, she explains that her favorite part comes not in the cooking, but the sharing of the meal. This makes perfect sense when reviewing recipes, as most of them are composed of a handful of common ingredients with simple instruction which results lowering the stress of preparation and putting forth straight-forward, flavorful dishes. Perhaps the strongest section is that on salads, which seem super-fresh, new and light: pomelo salad with red onion, mint & cilantro and another of kohlrabi, edamame & carrots in ginger-miso marinade. There’s not much on holiday-specific foods, so think of this as a weeknight what-to-make-for-supper guide, from roast chicken to “bowl of crack” quinoa. But when Purim rolls around, don’t forget her idea for hamantaschen with rocky road filling, either.
November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 43
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said. While they do sell a small number of turkeys the rest of the year, “this is the only time of the year for us.” The turkeys are spice rubbed and smoked from three hickory-wood fires in one of 20 pit houses, with no gas or electrical heat, just wood. “They’re not baked, they‘re not ‘kind of ’ smoked,” he said. The rub comes from a recipe by Jenny Greenberg, S.I. Greenberg’s mother, Sam’s great-grandmother. The smoking gives it a dark brown color, which might initially surprise someone used to golden brown turkeys. Also, because of the smoking process they recommend not eating the skin, just the flavorful meat inside. Fans say that stock made from the turkeys is perfect for gumbo and jambalaya, and the first recipe listed on the Greenberg website is for a smoked turkey and Andouille sausage gumbo. The turkeys average 8 to 10 pounds, a 10-pounder sells for $57.70, though larger ones are available. UPS Ground shipping adds about $12 or so to the bill. The turkeys are shipped in the signature Greenberg white box that, like so much about the company, has not changed in decades. The turkey arrives ready to eat — but if you don’t tear into it right away it should be refrigerated. They recommend eating it within 6 to 8 days, and serving it chilled or at room temperature, not reheated. Though Greenberg keeps things the way they have always been because he doesn’t want to mess with so many families’ cherished holiday traditions, there have been a few changes over the years, including online ordering. In 2009, the website started accepting credit cards, instead of just sending an invoice with the shipments. Another change came with the end of supplying kosher turkeys. “We always had a small quantity of kosher birds, keeping true to our heritage,” he said. But in the 1990s, the inability to get a reliable supply of quality kosher turkeys led him to discontinue them. “That was not a decision that came easily to me,” he said. But it was “not worth risking our reputation” on sub-par birds, and he noted that there was one load of kosher turkeys that the USDA would not even allow into his plant. Still, “the roots of this business are deeply embedded in the Jewish community of Tyler.” He also said “The people of Tyler are the people who put my grandfather and my father in business. Regardless of religion, background, race — people around here enjoyed what my father and grandfather did. “Tyler and east Texas have made us what we are and we can’t thank them enough.” More information: gobblegobble.com
Continued from page 46
FA M I LY
EYE
CENTER
There is also a one-person version of this, sometimes played in some synagogues on certain slow Saturdays. It’s called “The Rabbi’s Sermon.” One game that has been lost in time features a field reporter interacting with two news anchors. The reporter can’t see the breaking news he’s reporting on, but the anchors can. From what the anchors say, the reporter has to figure out what’s going on. It seems innocuous enough, so why is it never done? The name of the game set up an unintended expectation: “Jews Flash.” Doug Brook is a writer in Silicon Valley who once brought down the house on USY Israel Pilgrimage doing a Switch game, flipping back and forth arguing the pros and cons of shilshul. It was an audience suggestion. Look it up. Better yet, don’t. For past columns, other writings, and more, visit http://brookwrite.com/. For exclusive online content, follow facebook. com/the.beholders.eye.
A mi A be l Epste in, O.D. Former Director of Contact Lens Services at UAB School of Optometry. Graduated #1 in her class of 1998.
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until he was 11, at which time they moved out to Los Angeles. The family was involved in the Beverly Hills and greater Los Angeles Jewish communities. Joey Bishop was a good friend of the family who lived down the street from the Hacketts. Sandy called him Uncle Joey. At 15, Sandy Hackett performed comedy for more than 3,000 people at New York’s Westbury Music Fair. Though he graduated from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas where he earned a degree in hotel management, he knew that entertaining would ultimately be his calling. He honed his comedic skills on the stage at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Before long, Hackett started working the national comedy club circuit. A casting director saw Sandy and hired him for a TV pilot in the mid-1980s. That led to a role in the movie “Cannonball Run II,” which also featured other Rat Packers Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Then Sandy Hackett had roles in both “Hamburger The Motion Picture” and “Hot Dog The Movie.” In 1988, Uncle Joey was shooting a pilot for a TV game show called “Joey Bishop’s Punchline.” Bishop handpicked Hackett to work with him on the project. “I knew this was a show I had to make,” he said. “I have some wonderful stories about all of them and had the chance to know them as people, not just entertainers.” When he told Bishop he was doing the show and got his blessing, Bishop gave him some Rat Pack performance tapes so Hackett could get Uncle Joey’s cadence and rhythm. In the show, the actors playing Martin, Sinatra and Davis, Jr., sing “For Once In My Life,” which was written by Ron Miller for Stevie Wonder. “Our goal is to honor these great legends and really get the essence of them. But we didn’t want to do some cheesy tribute show. We want to show the depth and diversity of such great talents, while bringing in some more modern touches to connect with those who weren’t around when these performers were in their hey days,” said Hackett. Lisa Miller said when she was growing up in Detroit, Motown legends would visit their house regularly, including Wonder, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and others. “My dad loved Rogers and Hammerstein musicals. He also loved soul and the emerging Motown sound at the time,” she said. Miller and Hackett are working on a documentary about Ron Miller’s life called “For Once In My Life” along with a similar-themed theatrical production. “Just about any time we have a subject we say his dad would have had a joke about that, and my dad would have had a song about that,” she said.
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November 2015 • Southern Jewish Life 45
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46 Southern Jewish Life • November 2015
rear pew mirror • doug brook
Jew’s Line is it Anyway?
Welcome to “Jew’s Line is it Anyway,” the game where, like Midrash, everything is made up and, come Yom Kippur, the points don’t matter. Yes, they matter as much as Jimmy Carter at a pro-Israel rally. Four performers make up everything you see, right on the spot, like some Torah readers on Shabbat morning. Everything they do is based on suggestions from the congregation and what’s written on cards that they’ve never seen before. The first game is called “Questions,” or in its original Jewish form, “Rabbinic Answers.” In this game, the contestants are allowed to speak only in questions, thus answering each other’s questions with nothing but more questions, like the rabbis of yore (and evermore). Get it? “Let’s Make a Shidduch” is a dating game, where one contestant asks questions of three blind dates, to try to determine who they are. The three are given an outlandish persona to enact as they answer the contestant’s questions. For example, one bachelor might be, “the cool kid who always won at ga-ga, 30 years later.” Another could be, “that annoying song leader from summer camp.” (Not that they all are annoying, but THAT one.) The third might be, “that guy who dozed off and missed that the Red Sea parted.” It’s always an eclectic group, but more appealing than any three bachelors one might find in real life. Perhaps the most popular game IT’S THE GAME is “Scenes from a Kippah.” In this, WHERE EVERYTHING congregation members get to write (before Shabbat) a one-line description IS MADE UP AND of a scene. These are pulled at random THE POINTS DON’T MATTER, LIKE JIMMY from a kippah — preferably a large, Bukharan kippah, because the papers CARTER AT A fit better. The contestants must make as PRO-ISRAEL RALLY many brief scenes as they can from the description. The descriptions can be anything. For example: “Things to not say at the end of a bris.” “Holidays that aren’t on the Jewish calendar, but should be.” “Prayers we say in our daily lives, but not in services.” “What not to say to the new rabbi.” “Things you can say about services, but not about your spouse.” In “Kiddush Quirks,” one contestant gets to experience what most rabbis do each week after services: Meet very strange people and try to figure out what their deal is. For example, one kiddush guest could be Moses, smashing everything in sight, trying to get water to come out of it. Another could be a specific animal, going through other kiddush attendees to find a mate so he can get the last seat on Noah’s Ark. The third might be a mosquito sampling and judging every dish at this week’s bar mitzvah kiddush. What is one of the greatest Jewish pastimes, hearkening back all the way to the 40 years in the desert? Complaining. In “World’s Worst,” the contestants offer one-line suggestions for things like: “Worst blessing a parent could give a bar mitzvah kid.” “World’s worst pitches for the annual campaign.” “World’s worst things to include on a seder plate.” “World’s worst titles for a High Holy Day sermon.” In the game “Jew’s Line,” two performers are given a subject to work from. They’re also given several slips of paper, each with a single, random line of Talmud. At spontaneous times during the scene, they pull out a slip and say whatever line is on the slip and make it fit into what they’re saying. continued on previous page
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