Atlanta Jewish Times, No. 20, May 29, 2015

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FIRST CLASS

Europe’s leaders must speak out against rising anti-Semitism, the AJC’s annual meeting hears.

Page 6

DOODLING

Atlanta Jewish Academy holds the first graduation since its creation by merger last summer.

Page 25

Cartoonist Roz Chast offers humorous insights, often in the margins, into Jewish family affairs. Page 27

Atlanta VOL. XC NO. 20

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Summertime brings the return of the synagogue softball league and the annual question: Can anyone knock off B’nai Torah? Page 20

Georgia Aquarium is a not-for-profit organization, inspiring awareness and conservation of aquatic animals.

MAY 29, 2015 | 11 SIVAN, 5775

FIDF Gala Disrupted

chemist who has played a key role in fighting HIV, a medical technology business that provides insight into the colon, and a virtual reality health care company on a quarter-billion-dollar buying spree are among the winners of this year’s Eagle Star Awards.

Conexx, the U.S.-Israel business connector, was set to hand out the awards Thursday, May 28.

Inside we look at the winners of four of the five awards: Dr. Raymond Schinazi, Tom Glaser Leadership Award; Endo­Choice, U.S. Company of the Year; 3D Systems, Deal of the Year; and the city of Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Community Partner Award. (We couldn’t connect with the Israeli Company of the Year, ZIM American Integrated Shipping Services.)

What you’ll find inside: • Emory’s Schinazi is searching for cures for a range of diseases. Page 21 • Atlanta and the airport are developing business ties in Israel. Page 22 • South Carolina-based 3D Systems has strengthened its position by purchasing two Israeli companies. Page 23 • Alpharetta-based EndoChoice is about to go public on the strength of its endoscopic technology. Page 23 ■

PLAY BALL

where

imaginations go to explore.

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

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Photo by Michael Jacobs

A Rabbi, a Priest and a Cantor …

Rabbi Scott Colbert, aided by Cantor Lauren Furman Adesnik and backed by Monsignor Hugh Marren, makes a biblical point at Temple Emanu-El during a gathering at the Dunwoody synagogue with neighboring All Saints Catholic Church to compare and contrast religious traditions May 14. The discussion helped kick off this year’s observance of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, which declared that the Jews should not be blamed for Jesus’ death and that anti-Semitism is wrong.

Read more about the kickoff event on Page 14

DRINK UP

A friendship that started at Camp Barney has grown into a business partnership marketing a new brand of premium tequila, Goza. Page 24

Calendar

INSIDE

2 Business

21

Candle Lighting

3 Food & Drink

24

Local News

4 Education 25

Israel

9 Obituaries

29

Opinion

10 Crossword

30

Youth

16 Marketplace

31

bout 500 supporters of the Israel Defense Forces got an unwelcome surprise at the Friends of the IDF Southeast Region gala Tuesday, May 19.

While Chairman Garry Sobel was speaking, two women jumped up and chanted “Free, free Palestine,” then sang about freedom. The women wore shirts highlighting Gaza casualty figures from last year’s Operation Protective Edge.

The disruption lasted about 30 seconds before the women, Caitlin Green and Asia Parks, and their partner, Rise Up Georgia’s Jim Chambers, were hustled out of the Georgia Aquarium ballroom.

FIDF raised over $500,000 at the gala and had no comment on the protest.

Chambers made a cellphone video of the brief interruption in the festivities and shared it on Facebook and Twitter.

Chambers, a grandson of Cox Enterprises matriarch Ann Cox Chambers, paid $604 for tickets to the gala for himself, Green, Parks and Palestinian activist Hasan Jubran, who was denied entry.

Chambers said he planned to offset the FIDF contribution by giving $1,200 to a Gaza relief organization.

“Creating a disruption in an environment where it would not remotely be expected, and at a moment when a speaker touting the glory of the Gaza war heroes could be interrupted,” was worth the expense, Chambers said.

Protesters from Jewish Voice for Peace and other groups spent nothing to stand outside and greet arriving guests with the same calls to “free Palestine.” ■ A successful celebration, Page 4

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CALENDAR ONGOING

Hollywood in the camps. “Filming the Camps — John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens: From Hollywood to Nuremberg” runs through Nov. 20 at the Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Buckhead. Center admission is $16.50 for adults, $13 for students and seniors, $11 for children 4 to 12, and free for members and younger children; www.atlantahistorycenter.com or 404-814-4000.

History of Jewish Atlanta. The Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown, presents “Eighteen Artifacts,” an exploration of Atlanta’s Jewish history, through Dec. 31. Admission to the museum is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students and educators, $4 for children 3 to 6, and free for members and younger children; thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.

Mixed media. Chastain Arts Center and Gallery drawing instructor Ben Smith exhibits 14 works in mixed media at Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; www.templesinaiatlanta.org.

THURSDAY, MAY 28

Eagle Star Awards. The 14th annual

Conexx gala begins at 6 p.m. at Georgia Power, 241 Ralph McGill Blvd., downtown. Tickets are $125; www.eaglestargala.com.

and watch their bags while they take a break. To get information or sign up for a shift, email Simone Kallett at skallett@templesinaiatlanta.org.

FRIDAY, MAY 29

Car show. The second annual Kosher Kar Show at Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free to view, $18 to enter a car; www.or-hadash.org.

Shabbat 150. Young Jewish Professionals Midtown’s semiannual gathering to meet, mingle and celebrate Shabbat starts with happy hour at 6:30 p.m. at Callanwolde Arts Center, 980 Briarcliff Road, Atlanta. Tickets are $25 for early birds, $30 standard and free for new college graduates; yjpmidtown@gmail. com or www.yjpmidtownatlanta.com.

SATURDAY, MAY 30

Free dental care. Dr. Brett Silverman of Advanced Cosmetic & Family Dentistry, 4205 North Point Parkway, Building D, Alpharetta, provides free dental care to at least the first 50 adults who register at 8:30 a.m. in a Dentistry From the Heart event; www. acfdga.com or 678-245-6816.

SUNDAY, MAY 31

Supporting veterans. Gesher works with the USO at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in three-hour shifts from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to welcome troops, serve them food

Pool party. The community is invited to celebrate the start of summer at the outdoor pool and splash park from noon to 2 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Free; www.atlantajcc.org/pldb-live/26036 or 678-812-4161.

Help for women. Greater Atlanta Hadassah presents “Women in Crisis,” a program featuring Wendy Lipshutz of the JF&CS Shalom Bayit program, Helen Kotler of the JF&CS Starting Over program and Laura Kahn of Jewish Interest Free Loan of Atlanta to highlight the urgent services available for women in Atlanta, at 1:30 p.m. at Berman Commons, 2026 Womack Road, Dunwoody. Free; RSVP by May 20 to gahprogramming@gmail.com.

Hunger concert. Dr. Dan Appelrouth

and a full backup band perform Broadway music to raise money for hunger relief at 3 p.m. at Young Israel of Toco Hills, 2056 LaVista Road. Suggested donation of $10 for admission; danappelrouth.org/broadwaybenefit.

Community of learning. The annual event of the Atlanta Scholars Kollel features Georgia Aquarium CEO Mike Leven and Bernie Marcus discussing the future of the Jewish people at 7 p.m. at the aquarium, 225 Baker St., downtown. A $54 ticket covers a family of four; www.atlantakollel.org.

THURSDAY, JUNE 4

Author talk. Nelson DeMille discusses his latest thriller, “Radiant Angel,” with Dana Barrett at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets to the Page From the Book Festival event are $8 for center members and $13 for others; www.atlantajcc.org/ bookfestival or 678-812-4002.

SUNDAY, JUNE 7

Kitchen tour. Mount Scopus Hadassah holds the Taste of Toco Hills tour of eight kitchens at 10 a.m. at the home of Barbara and Mark Fisher, 1229 Arborvista Drive. Tickets are $20 in advance

JUNE MATCHUPS

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JUNE THEME NIGHTS & GIVEAWAYS

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CALENDAR CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Parshah Naso Friday, May 29, light candles at 8:23 p.m.

Saturday, May 30, Shabbat ends at 9:25 p.m.

Parshah Behalotecha Friday, June 5, light candles at 8:27 p.m.

Saturday, June 6, Shabbat ends at 9:29 p.m.

Empowering students. Perry Brickman, who exposed the anti-Semitic history of the Emory Dental School, will speak about that effort and rising campus anti-Semitism at 10 a.m. at Atlanta Jewish Academy, 5200 Northland Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; www. atlantajewishacademy.org.

Mystical journey. Over brunch, “G-d of Our Understanding” author Rabbi Shais Taub presents a six-step program for self-discovery at 10 a.m. at Chabad’s Intown Jewish Academy, 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Atlanta, Admission is $10 in advance or $15 at the door; www.chabadintown.org.

TUESDAY, JUNE 9

Annual meeting. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta holds its annual meeting and elects its board for 2015-16 (see the slate at www. jewishatlanta.org/board-of-trusteesfy16) at 5:30 p.m. at the Selig Center, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Free; RSVP at www.jewishatlanta.org.

Classical music and mental illness.

Psychiatrist Richard Kogan, a Julliard-

trained concert pianist, performs music by German composer Robert Schumann and discusses how mental illness affects the creative process of composers at 7 p.m. at Skyland Trail, 1903 North Druid Hills Road, Brookhaven. Free but registration required; www.skylandtrail.org/DCFLecture2015.

SUNDAY, JUNE 14

Jazz show. Grammy-winning saxophonist Mace Hibbard performs at 7 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $10 for center members and $15 for nonmembers; www.atlantajcc.org/pldb-live/25492 or 678-812-4002.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 8

Spy games. Daniel Silva, author of the Gabriel Allon series of spy novels, speaks about the latest entry, “The English Spy,” at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets are $24 for center members and $29 for nonmembers, including a signed first edition of the book; www.atlantajcc. org or 678-812-3981.

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...providing engaging, interesting, educational and, when it should arise, controversial news and opinions about our community for our community.

SPECIAL ABILITY

won’t Nonverbal autism from stop Dalia Cheskes becoming a bat mitzvah at Beth Shalom.

Page 4

DIGGING IN

POWER OF ONE

Trees Atlanta gets a lot of help to celebrate Tu B’Shevat in Poncey-Highland.

the Federation honors many individuals who ity make the commun more inclusive.

Page 32

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Atlanta

JNF Photo of the Week

New Negev Generation

Carmit is being developed in the heart of the Negev, 15 minutes outside Be’er Sheva, as part of Jewish National Fund’s (www.jnf.org) Blueprint Negev, a plan to transform the Negev — which represents 60 percent of Israel’s land but houses only 8 percent of its population — into a home for a new generation of Israelis. Such communities are being created to offer an alternative to Israel’s crowded and expensive center.

Corrections & Clarifications

In the May 22 article about the first graduating classes at Atlanta Jewish Academy, the name of graduating senior Michel Azani was misspelled, and the name of graduating senior Sarah Tehila Zolty, who is spending a gap year at Midreshet Yeud in Israel before attending Binghamton University, was omitted. Thus, the headline should have said the Class of 2015 consisted of 28 graduates.

| 24 SHEVAT FEBRUARY 13, 2015

WISHTIMES.COM

WWW.ATLANTAJE

Welcome To The Future

VOL. XC NO. 5

to Atlanta Jewish teens come Nearly 3,500 leading communal paths forward. chart personal and Page 18-25

BEST POLICY

GoldHonest Tea CEO Seth of man brings a message corporations as change agents to Emory business students.

Page 3

SCARY WORLD

to

simAnti-Semitism isn’t ple, which means there to are no simple solutions Eurothe problems facing pean Jews.

Page 7

By Suzi Brozman .com sbrozman@atljewishtimes known as the nita Diamant, best Tent,” is comauthor of “The Red two public ing to Atlanta to make appearances this month.

Boston Girl,” Her latest book, “The her visit Feb. 23 to the will be the focus of Center. But Marcus Jewish Community will help local orgathe night before she an allproject, a new nizers plunge into at Congregation denominations mikvah Springs.

B’nai Torah in Sandy of reimaginDiamant’s discussion age will be free ing ritual for the modern at The Temple in and open to the public the Metro Atlanta Midtown to launch (MACoM) into the Community Mikvah Atlanta. consciousness of Jewish nonprofit MACoM is an independent construction of the that plans to start in May and finish community mikvah The project will before the High Holidays. of the existing faciliinvolve a renovation has the support of ties at B’nai Torah and synagogues and other dozen a than more organizations. diverse supMACoM’s board reflects rabbis and repreport, including three Conservative and sentatives of Reform, Judaism.

Orthodox streams of the model Diamant helped establish ational community for a nondenomin at Boston’s 27 years 10 Education mikvah the past Waters).

Mayyim Hayyim (Living Obituaries 28 to the idea of a “People responded and beautiful, Simchas 29 place that was welcoming a way to sad, and for happy occasions Sports 29 Diamant said. mark life’s changes,” thoughts on the Crossword 30 See more about her Page 6. ■ modern mikvah on Marketplace 31

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INSIDE Local News 2 Israel 10 Opinion 12 Arts 15 Calendar 16 Travel 26

Diamant To Help Launch Community Mikvah

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LOCAL NEWS

500 Dive Into FIDF Gala

Spotlight shines on female soldiers, Avirans

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MAY 29 ▪ 2015

he Friends of the Israel Defense Forces gathered Tuesday, May 19, at the Georgia Aquarium to salute outgoing Israeli Consul General Opher Aviran and his wife, Talyah, and to honor the women of the IDF. Brig. Gen. Gila Klifi-Amir, the former adviser on women’s affairs to the IDF chief of staff and the wife of the head of the FIDF, Maj. Gen. Meir Klifi-Amir, served as the featured speaker. She was joined by three women who served in last summer’s Operation Protective Edge, Lt. Mor Rozenberg, Lt. Roni Johnson and Staff Sgt. Yonat Daskal, in speaking on behalf the IDF’s female troops, who are eligible for 95 percent of IDF roles.

The FIDF is the only nonprofit in the United States whose sole mission is to provide support, care, education and overall well-being for IDF soldiers.

“Tonight our community embraces these soldiers with a record crowd of over 500. We celebrate the IDF men and women with a night of great stories,” said Seth Baron, the executive director of the FIDF Southeast Region.

Congregation Etz Chaim Rabbi Shalom Lewis said: “We have two nephews and a niece who served. We are so proud of them. When we visited Israel last summer during the war, we were impressed with how the soldiers comported themselves. Despite various criticisms, they were exemplary. G-d bless them.”

Fit female soldiers milled about during the pre-ceremony cocktail hour with fashionable painted nails and heavy lace-up boots. Some refused to be photographed for security reasons.

Johnson, who is from Ashdod, develops training programs. Her father is a convert and an American.

Some of her mother’s family died in the Holocaust.

“Together with AIPAC, this is the most important organization I support,” Norman Radow said. “My son Neil made aliyah and served. I know firsthand what they go through every day. And with such humility.”

Paul Reisman and Jennifer Malkin 4

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were among the attendees who wore special Impact ribbons, noting their financial support for a program that spends $4,000 per soldier per year to ensure that IDF veterans can go to college for four years.

Gov. Nathan Deal and his wife,

Jaffe’s Jewish Jive

By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com

Sandra, sent a video tribute to the Avirans, and the governor praised the IDF for meeting the challenge of protecting Israel.

Ambassador Aviran was celebrated as a team player, and in his brief response, he said that of all his posts for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs — including the Netherlands, Australia and Myanmar — Atlanta is his favorite.

Garry Sobel, the FIDF Southeast chairman, praised the 90 percent success of the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Photos by Dr. Dennis Jaffe

He recognized Atlanta parents of the 30 “lone soldiers” serving in the IDF. “They leave their family and homes to go over there and protect us.”

The fundraising dinner came shortly after the IDF’s humanitarian mission in Nepal, where more than 250 troops provided search-and-rescue services and set up and staffed a field hospital after an earthquake hit that Himalayan nation April 25.

“You have to just love Israel,” Rabbi Michoel Lipschutz said. ■

Top: (From left) Linda Shallcross, Norman Radow, Rabbi Michoel Lipschutz and Akiva Lipschutz Middle left: FIDF Southeast Region Executive Director Seth Baron and IDF Lt. Roni Johnson Middle right: The Atlanta Jewish Times’ Marcia Jaffe (left) with FIDF board member Jennifer Malkin Bottom left: While the night focuses on the IDF’s women, the men of the Israeli military stand proudly by.

Bottom Right: Bernie and Billi Marcus Right: Kim Hertz (left) and Shaked Auz recently completed their service as IDF lone soldiers.

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Contributors This Week DAVID BENKOF SUZI BROZMAN JORDAN GORFINKEL LEAH R. HARRISON ZACH ITZKOVITZ MARCIA CALLER JAFFE NOAM LAUFER KEVIN MADIGAN TIFFANY PARKS EUGEN SCHOENFELD CADY SCHULMAN CHANA SHAPIRO

Remember When

restructure the planning and allocations process, provide outreach in suburban areas, and expand the relations between the Atlanta Jewish community and other local, national and international interests.

10 Years Ago May 27, 2005

■ The bar mitzvah of Shaun L. Traub of Atlanta will take place at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 2, at Ahavath Achim Synagogue.

■ Dan Meridor, a former Likud Cabinet member, and Brig.

Gen. Yaacov Ayish of the Israel Defense Forces discussed the controversial withdrawal of 8,500 settlers from Gaza and hundreds from the northern West Bank at Congregation B’nai Torah.

50 Years Ago May 28, 1965

■ Jonathan and Michelle Mittleman of Atlanta announce the birth of their son, Zachary Bryan, on March 15, 2005.

25 Years Ago May 25, 1990 ■ The board of the Atlanta Jewish Federation has approved a comprehensive set of recommendations that will more than double the campaign goal by the year 2000, completely

■ Congressional action condemning the Arab states for the boycott of the state of Israel was reported last week to members of the American Jewish Press Association who were gathered in Atlanta for organization’s annual convention.

■ Dr. and Mrs. Marvin C. Goldstein of Atlanta cordially invite friends and relatives to attend the bas mitzvah of their daughter, Aleta, on Friday, May 28, at 8:15 p.m. at Ahavath Achim Synagogue.

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LOCAL NEWS

AJC Official: Europe Must Confront Anti-Semitism

By Zach Itzkovitz

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urope has experienced “a shocking and intolerable growth in violence against specifically Jewish targets,” the American Jewish Committee’s Jason Isaacson told AJC Atlanta’s annual meeting Tuesday, May 19.

Isaacson, the AJC’s associate executive director for policy and director of

government and international affairs, cited the 2014 shooting at the Jewish Museum of Belgium, “just a mile from the AJC’s Transatlantic Institute offices in Brussels”; the killings of four Jews in a kosher supermarket in Paris two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January; and the shooting that killed a Jewish security guard in front of a synagogue in Copenhagen Feb. 15.

Congratulations Davis Academy Class of 2015!

He expressed discontent with European officials’ responses to anti-Semitic outbursts. Isaacson said the AJC recommends steps that officials should take to ensure the safety of Jews and to diminish anti-Semitism.

“Jewish communities and the general public need to hear directly from European leaders that anti-Semitism violates core European principles and will not be tolerated,” Isaacson said.

European leaders must acknowledge and counter the radicalization of alienated Muslim youths to prevent them from joining anti-Semitic efforts, he said.

“We call on the European Union and its member-states to formulate and implement broad-ranging counter-radicalization programs,” Isaacson said, “working in partnership with Muslim and other faith and civil society leaders.”

Isaacson called for proactive steps against radicalization in European prisons and suggested increased and

refined initiatives in European schools to vilify anti-Semitism.

Laws that vary by region, as well as free-speech concerns, obstruct efforts to monitor social media and websites for anti-Semitism and calls to violence.

“AJC calls on European gov­ ernments to re-examine such laws,” Isaac­son said, “to adopt and strengthen hate-speech measures to prevent, limit and punish the worst offenders, to share information on this dangerous phenomenon, to seek the cooperation of Internet service providers, and that means self-policing by Internet service providers, and to block sites and accounts that promote and incite violence.”

The anti-Semitism at the core of much “European derision of Israel” must be confronted directly, he said.

“We certainly mustn’t always assume that criticism of Israel is essentially anti-Semitic. But we mustn’t be naive, or allow our European friends to be naive, about how much of it is.” ■

AJC Makes Transition

By Zach Itzkovitz

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

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Sy Alifeld Sara Altmann Madison Barnard Zachary Baylin Isabella Bercoon Ryan Blasberg Jake Bressler David Chernyak Remy Clayman Sarah Cohen Ariana Dinberg Joshua Edelman Andrew Ferrar Benjamin Finkelstein Thomas Foodman Justin Footer Shayna Fraley Eliza Frankel Joelle Friedman Joshua Glass Ryan Gold Abigail Goldberg Sidnie Gothard Noah Greenberg Elliott Gruenhut

Sophia Gurin Taylor Herold Tristan Hulsebos Kavan Husney Sarah Kaufman Audrey Kaye Jack Kaye Michael Kobrinsky Andrew Ladden Sarah Landy Sarah London Samuel Mahle Jason Marcus Isabella McCullough Jessica Meyer Zachary Miller Charlotte Morrison Evan Nathanson Alexander Panovka Jack Pines Mason Redler

Josephine Rinzler Courtney Rogoff Jacob Rogow Jeffrey Rosen Sarah Rosenbloum Jacob Rubin Jared Rudnicki Spencer Schiff Emily Shapiro Jamie Sherman Tyler Sherman Jared Solovei Rachel Stinar Katy Sullivan Madison Tessler Justin Thompson Jack Tresh Leah Tuck Sloane Warner Matthew Winston Cydney Wolchock Hannah York Rachel York Joelle Zelony Michaela Zusmann Proud Affiliate of:

Where the Journey Begins www.davisacademy.org

he American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta Chapter bid farewell to Lauren Grien as president and welcomed her successor, Greg Averbuch, at the AJC Atlanta annual meeting Tuesday, May 19, at 103 West in Buckhead.

Tearfully, Grien expressed pride in AJC Atlanta’s work the past few years and gratitude for the chance to enhance those efforts. “Fundraising is at the heart of any nonprofit organization,” she said. “We have broken fundraising records in Atlanta these past few years.”

Averbuch also offered thanks for the chance to serve as president. “I am sincerely humbled by the trust and confidence that you have bestowed on me,” he said. “The staff, officers and myself are committed to continuing the tradition that AJC has established through the years, and that is one of excellence.”

AJC Atlanta has implemented a number of programs to enhance Jewish relations within the general community in recent years. “This past year, after years of talking about it, we finally began our Muslim-Jewish Dialogue,” Grien said. “Sunday night was the culmination of our four-part movie series and discussion, and we averaged over 100 people, both Jews and Muslims, for each program.”

AJC has worked closely with the Birmingham Jewish Federation, which offered a $3,000 grant for Project Interchange, an AJC initiative that brings opinion leaders and policymakers to Israel. AJC Atlanta co-sponsored a “Jews in China” exhibit at the Birmingham Jewish Federation and arranged a meeting between Birmingham Federation leaders and French Consul General Denis Barbet.

“We are now expanding our outreach to the Asian community,” Grien said, “primarily the Korean population of Atlanta. The interfaith committee has identified and is meeting with key leaders in that community.”

Averbuch said AJC Atlanta will integrate and use media in a new partnership with the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, which separated from the AJC in 2014.

“We will continue to integrate and nurture ACCESS,” the AJC’s young-professional wing, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in April, Averbuch said. “We will continue to enhance engagement and leadership development while evolving and expanding our fundraising activities.”

He revealed plans for a high-level mission to Mexico this fall to highlight the 10th anniversary of the Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs. ■

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LOCAL NEWS

LGBT, Women’s Rights Help Draw Atlantans to D.C. AJWS summit brings rabbis before congressmen

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

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Rabbi Rosenthal, who has lobbied Congress with AIPAC, also was looking forward to sounding out lawmakers on important issues, including protection of children and support for refugees.

As Jews, he said, “we have a whole world we have to focus on.”

Rabbi Lesser hopes AJWS will help Atlanta Jews see that they can have a global impact while applying the organization’s global expertise to local ef-

fect beyond the Jewish community.

To that end, Fuhr said she would love to see AJWS, which sends staff to Atlanta for such special events as the annual Pride Parade and SOJOURN’s Purim Off Ponce party, open a Southern office here.

“This is a way to make a greater impact that is significant,” Rabbi Lesser said of the summit, which he hopes to recommend to more people in 2016. ■

Photos by Richard Green for American

Jewish World Service Left: Leah Fuhr, Rabbi Josh Lesser, Ruth Messinger, David Raus, Mike Salamon, Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal and Kathleen Levin meet with Rep. John Lewis in Washington on May 13.

Right: American Jewish World Service activists from Atlanta and around the country gather on Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress to pass laws to combat violence against women and girls worldwide and to protect LGBT rights.

filming

John Ford Samuel Fuller George Stevens

from Hollywood to Nuremberg

May 6 - November 20, 2015 Hollywood directors John Ford, George Stevens, and Samuel Fuller created American cinema classics, but their most important contribution to history was their work in the U.S. Armed Forces and Secret Services.

An exhibition by the Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, France.

AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Filming

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

Atlanta History Center Samuel Fuller’s Bell & Howell Camera © Courtesy of the, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California, Coll. Christa Fuller

ongressman John Lewis met with a group representing Jewish Atlanta on May 13, but for those who made the trip north, personal time with the Democratic lawmaker wasn’t the main draw.

The group, including Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal of Ahavath Achim Synagogue and Rabbi Josh Lesser of Congregation Beth Haverim, went to Washington for the annual American Jewish World Service Policy Summit, including time with AJWS President Ruth Messinger.

In an interview before the summit, Rabbi Lesser said he has known Messinger for more than 20 years, and “in terms of Jewish leaders that I personally admire and have a social justice message, she’s one I continue to learn from. It’s exciting to have AJWS have a greater presence here for that reason.”

Rabbi Rosenthal, who was making his first trip to the AJWS Policy Summit, is part of that larger Atlanta presence for the organization. He has been an AJWS global fellow for a year and a half and is a big fan of the organization and its approach to using partnerships in its policy work overseas.

Leah Fuhr, Ahavath Achim’s youth and young adult community director, said AJWS appeals to her vision for human rights and Torah values because the organization is sensitive to local concerns and listens to people instead of dictating to them.

People in Washington, in turn, listen to Messinger and AJWS. Fuhr, who attended the summit last year as well, expected to be welcomed by Lewis.

The summit and the associated day of lobbying members of Congress focused on legislation to protect girls and women from violence and to advance rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

“AJWS has begun to make clear that its primary way of making a dent in global policy is to focus on advocating for women, children and LGBT people,” Rabbi Lesser said. “That feels particularly relevant to my personal rabbinate.”

He said he was looking forward to learning where some of the new members of the Georgia delegation, all Republicans, stand on those issues.

AJT 7

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

LOCAL NEWS

Federation Talks the Talk; Brickman Walks the Walk

By Leah R. Harrison

M

ore than 700 people gathered at the Buckhead Theatre on Tuesday, May 12, for FED Talks, the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s campaign closing and community event. The evening honored oral surgeon Perry Brickman with Federation’s 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The first of the night’s three guest speakers, Joel Peresman, the CEO and president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, carried forward what seemed to be the theme of the night: gratitude. He reflected on his good fortune at being able to work for an institution and in an industry he loves. From his roots at the William Morrison Agency to management positions at Madison Square Garden, Peresman now oversees the major marketing and fundraising efforts of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s museum and library and archives.

Spanx CEO Jan Singer told of her fortuitous journey from secretary to chief executive. After leaving New York to go home to Massachusetts to gain the necessary typing skills, she returned to the Big Apple and never looked back. She rose through the ranks at brands including Chanel, Calvin Klein, Prada, Reebok and Nike and took the helm at Spanx in Atlanta 10 months ago. She told of the combination of guts, chutzpah and hard work that led her to her new role.

Dr. Joshua Green said a community mission to Israel and Hungary in

2008 opened his eyes to the work of the Federation system.

Since then he has served in many capacities in Sarasota, Fla., and in 2009 joined the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet, for which he is now co-chair designate. While he has a thriving urology practice specializing in male infertility, Green and his wife, Julie, make it a priority to commit time and resources to Federation.

A brief video about Brickman’s efforts to expose the history of discrimination against Jews at Emory University’s School of Dentistry shifted the focus to the new Lifetime Achievement Award winner. His children, Lori, Teresa and Jeff, detailed many of their

Top left: The speakers for FED Talks are Joel Peresman (left), the president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation; Jan Singer, the CEO of Spanx; and Dr. Joshua Green, the co-chair designate of the National Young Leadership Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America.

Top right:Shira Rothman, the education and young adult engagement director, engages with members of Federation’s Young Adult Program.

Bottom left: FED Talks chairs Samantha Schoenbaum (left) and Lynne Peresman Halpern Bottom middle: Perry and Shirley Brickman acknowledge the applause.

Bottom right: Federation Lifetime Achievement Award winner Perry Brickman and his wife, Shirley

father’s admirable qualities.

His wife of 60 years, Shirley, told of how they met when she and a friend visited the Emory campus when he was a college sophomore and she was a high school sophomore. Emory

was not yet coed (women were first admitted in 1953), so, she said, girls on campus were a hot commodity.

Brickman thanked Federation and accepted the award with deep appreciation, gratitude and humility. ■

Ner Tamid’s Rabbi Liebschutz Celebrates 50 Years

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com

R

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

abbi Thomas Liebschutz of Congregation Ner Tamid in Marietta has completed a half-century in the rabbinate.

Ner Tamid held a celebration for Rabbi Liebschutz on Saturday, May 16.

Liebschutz, who was ordained in 1965 at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, has been the Reform congregation’s spiritual leader since 2009 and has been involved with Ner Tamid since 2006.

Rabbi Liebschutz’s career includes 8 eight years as community rabbi/chap-

AJT

lain for the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, 10 years at Temple Tifereth Israel in Malden, Mass., and volunteer work at Temple Beth Tikvah in Roswell. He taught Jewish studies at Tufts University, Wake Forest University, Salem College and Wichita State University.

“The area that I chose to make my life’s work in a sense has become who I am,” Rabbi Liebschutz said. “I didn’t know it so much going into it, but I certainly know it now. I treasure it, and it means that I have fulfilled my potential. Outside of family, this is what I wanted to do with my life.”

Rabbi Liebschutz started rabbini-

cal school in 1960, the year he married Marilyn. He said he discovered a love for teaching early in life as a summer camp counselor and was inspired to become a rabbi by his father, who was a board member for 15 years at Temple B’rith Kodesh in Rochester, N.Y., where Rabbi Liebschutz grew up.

Rabbi Liebschutz, 78, and his wife have four grown children, Philip, Ruth, Joshua and Rachel. The couple moved to Atlanta to be closer to Ruth and grandchildren Ben, Jake and Sam, who live in East Cobb.

In 2006, he came out of retirement to assist the young congregation of Ner Tamid with High Holiday services, and

he has been with the congregation ever since, whether leading Shabbat services, overseeing b’nai mitzvah training or assisting with the religious school.

Rabbi Liebschutz recently signed a contract for an additional two years.

“I’m enjoying it. This is who I am,” he said. “I’ve never been in such a young congregation, such a new congregation. They started from scratch and built it up. When I first started with them, we met at Christ Lutheran Church in West Cobb. We are now in our own space in the shadows of Kennesaw Mountain. It’s been a wonderful feeling for everybody here to know that it’s our own.” ■

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

ISRAEL

Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home

ZIM turns profit. Shipping giant ZIM, Conexx’s 2015 Israeli Company of the Year, turned an $11 million net profit and $40 million operating profit in the first quarter of the year after suffering an $8 million operating loss in the first quarter of 2014. Lower fuel costs drove the turnaround.

Green light for gas. Egypt is letting the private sector sign agreements to import natural gas and liquefied natural gas into the nation, clearing the way for gas from Israel’s Tamar natural gas field in the Mediterranean to sell gas to Egypt and deliver it through existing pipelines.

Riding the rails. Forty-three companies are bidding for pieces of Israel Railways’ construction projects, which are expected to be worth about $7 billion over the next five years. Israel Railways intends to increase the number of companies managing its projects from seven to 20, Globes reports.

Biogas from organic waste. Beit Yanaibased HomeBioGas has created a unit called TevaGas to convert organic waste into clean biogas, which can be used for cooking, heating, lighting and organically fertilizing crops. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon purportedly requested that HomeBioGas contact the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization about deploying systems in various locations.

Link between weaning and cell maturation. Medical researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Hadassah Medical Center found a link between weaning babies off mother’s milk and pancreatic beta-cell maturation. This cell maturation enables the pancreas to secrete insulin to break down excessive glucose. Study results could have implications for the treatment of diabetes.

Artist goes international. Tel Aviv artist Nir Peled is better known as Pilpeled. He combines illustration, graffiti and graphics in his designs, which

have attracted the attention of major brands such as Puma, MTV, Absolut and Coca-Cola, which commissioned him for a national ad campaign.

Video startup draws investment. Wibbitz, founded by Israelis Zohar Dayan and Yotam Cohen in 2010, has raised $11.8 million in investments. The company efficiently creates professional video context from text content, enabling customers to avoid the expensive and lengthy production process.

California tech company NantMobile led a recent round of investing.

Intel lab in Haifa. Intel has opened a lab in Haifa to focus on the Internet of Things, through which items such as door locks and home security are controlled through an Internet connection.

Teaching immigrants. Jewish National Fund, with other organizations, has created an educational program for Ethiopian immigrants to Israel.

Green Dream works with immigrants to landscape the absorption centers in

which many of them live. Immigrants also learn environmental practices.

Compiled courtesy of israel21c.org and other news sources.

Israel Photo of the Week

Teens Benefit From ORT Atlanta Fund

More than 20 students at the Hodayot Religious Youth Village in Israel’s Lower Galilee are benefiting from the support of the Joe Cohen Scholarship Fund, named for the former ORT America president from Atlanta. The boarding school serves at-risk teens from disadvantaged family situations. For some, Hodayot is the first chance for a Jewish education and training that will lead to a rewarding career and a better life.

ORT Atlanta (www.ortatlanta.org) adopted Hodayot as its fundraising focus and has raised more than $240,000 to upgrade and outfit smart classrooms, renovate the student lounge, and remodel the dining hall and kitchen. For more information, call 404-327-5266.

an evening with

BeRnie MaRcus and

MiKe Leven

A Conversation between Bernie and Mike on Concerns for the Future of the Jewish people Sunday, May 31, 2015 7:00 pm Georgia Aquarium $54 per family RSVP by May 20, 2015 at atlantakollel.org for more Information call 404-321-4085.

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

Startup for Airbnb hosts. Guesty, a Tel Aviv-based startup with 30 employees, uses innovative software to manage booking and other concerns of Airbnb hosts. Airbnb is a website that allows people to locate and rent out lodging across the world. Guesty serves 2,000 customers and has surpassed $500,000 in revenue in its first year.

AJT 9

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

OPINION

Our View

Terror Attempt

T

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

he Southeast Region of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces was nearly done with a night of honor and celebration May 19 when the infiltrators struck.

FIDF Regional Chairman Garry Sobel was in the middle of his pitch for donations when two women at a table near the doors to the Georgia Aquarium ballroom jumped up to make their plea to “free Palestine.” By the time most of the 500 people at the gala understood what was happening and began to boo, the stunt was over.

The two women who caused the commotion and the man who shot a low-quality video of their exploits with his cellphone were forced out of the ballroom and the aquarium, and Sobel hardly missed a beat as he resumed his praise for the women of the IDF and made his call for donations.

The stunt didn’t hurt fundraising; the gala raised more than half a million dollars. It didn’t detract from the tributes paid earlier to Israeli Consul General Opher Aviran and his wife, Talyah, or the celebration throughout the night of the brave women who stand side by side with men in 95 percent of IDF jobs. And half a minute of chanting and singing didn’t change any minds about the IDF, Israel or the Palestinians.

The stunt and its social media celebrations afterward had the feel of a student prank, including mocking text messages the instigator, Cox Enterprises heir Jim Chambers, sent to FIDF Executive Director Seth Baron with references to the Mossad and poor intelligence. No one was ever in any danger at an event whose security included Atlanta police and the Israeli consulate’s finest.

So why did Chambers chip in more than $600 of the family fortune for tickets to get the protesters inside instead of lining up with the picketers outside who shouted at every car entering the parking lot?

What was the point?

In part, it was a morale booster for the anti-Israel progressives, those who look at Israel as an expression of European colonialism and the Palestinians as the blameless victims of 67 years of white oppression.

In part, it was a shot at the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, Robbie Friedmann’s program to share Israeli expertise with American police. Though GILEE had nothing to do with the FIDF dinner, Chambers’ press release about the stunt prominently mentioned the program.

And in part, it was terror.

Not “Your life is in danger wherever you go” terror, the kind that some Palestinians try to inflict on Israelis through knife attacks, rockets and cars driven into crowds. But certainly “We want you to feel uncomfortable and know that you can’t hide” terror.

Chambers and friends wanted to infiltrate the pro-Israel comfort zone. They wanted to shake us up so that we might think twice before attending the next pro-Israel event.

Don’t let them win. Try to go to one more proIsrael event this year than last. Reach a little deeper when you donate to FIDF and other organizations doing good work in Israel, such as Jewish National Fund. Smile and thank Israel’s foes for the donations if they try this sort of stunt again. Otherwise, don’t 10 give them another thought. ■

AJT

Let’s Talk About Civil Society

A

Jewish Committee’s Atlanta Chapter is working with lack of civility in conversation is chronic the Archdiocese of Atlanta to celebrate the semicenin society, including the Jewish community. tennial of the Vatican’s acknowledgment that we Whatever the reason — I tend to blame the didn’t kill Jesus, and individual synagogues are pairbinary, yes-no, on-off approach to issues encouring up with Catholic parishes for that purpose. aged by the digital world — we have lost the ability Memorial Day marked the annual Camp Jenny, to discuss disagreements and work toward mutual when Southern chapters of the North American understanding if not actual compromise.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs recognized Federation of Temple Youth treat inner-city Atlanta children to a Camp Coleman weekend. the problem and enacted a Resolution on Civility in Temple Kol Emeth — an example I’m familiar 2010, along with a Civility Campaign to try to help us with because I’m a memlearn to disagree peacefully. ber — has won recogni“The expression and tion from Cobb County exchange of views is often Editor’s Notebook for its annual interfaith an uncivil, highly unpleasThanksgiving service ant experience. Community

By Michael Jacobs and its participation in events and public discusmjacobs@atljewishtimes.com an interfaith Habitat for sions are often interrupted Humanity organization. by raised voices, personal Kids 4 Peace, which insults, and outrageous connects local Jewish, Muslim and Christian youths charges,” reads the JCPA’s Statement on Civilwith Israeli and Palestinian peers to develop underity. “Lack of civility makes it more difficult, if not standing, has a thriving Atlanta chapter. impossible, to open minds, much less find common But it’s as if those interfaith efforts exhaust our ground.” ability to be accommodating and understanding.

That description of incivility fit the May 8 To some extent, it’s a family thing. While we breakfast meeting involving Jewish National Fund have to be careful with strangers, we expect underand SOJOURN, during which raised voices, anger standing from our Jewish family, so we feel free to be and hurt feelings made common ground seem far away. During that meeting Lois Frank, a former JCPA more candid and don’t hold anything back.

But we need to relearn how to be honest withpresident, introduced the concept of the Civility out being hurtful.

Campaign to Atlanta on behalf of the local Jewish “We must commit ourselves and ask others to Community Resource Council. open their hearts and minds to healthy, respectful The JCRC plans to bring Civility Campaign dialogue based on our love for our neighbors and facilitators to town this year to help Jewish Atlanta our people,” the Statement on Civility reads. “We rediscover the art of conversation. We need the help. therefore agree to treat others with decency and One of the frustrating elements of the loss of honor and to set ourselves as models for civil discivility within our community is that it comes while course, even when we disagree with each other.” we’re working so hard to achieve civil conversation In other words, we accept that well-meaning with non-Jews through interfaith dialogue. people can disagree on important issues and can The new Muslim-Jewish Dialogue’s four-part setalk about those differing opinions without trying to ries of discussions around the “Intimate Strangers” change minds. Dialogue isn’t the same as debate. ■ documentary wrapped up May 17. The American

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OPINION

Evolution of My Views On Same-Sex Marriage

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t was the beginning of August 1944 when I arrived at Muhldorf Wald Lager, the last of the four work/ death camps I was sent to and the one from which, about seven months later, I was liberated.

In the camp square I observed two men. They were dressed in same blueand-gray-striped uniform as I was. Their numbers, like mine, were printed on their jackets. They displayed a small, cotton triangle similar to mine, but instead of being yellow, it was pink.

Here were the two homosexual men imprisoned in the camp. I seldom saw them later. They were not assigned to the back-breaking cement detail that, combined with a starvation diet, slowly but surely killed us Jewish inmates.

But on that first day as I looked at them, I recoiled. I wondered whether they recoiled at the sight of over 1,000 Jews inundating the camp.

I didn’t hate them or despise them, nor was I disgusted by them.

The negative emotions I felt primarily came from fear. I feared them as we always fear strange things we do not understand.

To us, the homosexuals were the buzerants, a denigrating term we used for gay people that was not too dissimilar from Zhid, which some Russian kids spewed at us.

I feared them lest being gay was a transmittable disease and any association with them would transmit the disease. Of course fear in a way brings on hate, but my dominant feeling was fear. Maybe, I thought, they should wear bells like the lepers of ancient times, warning the hearer to run to avoid their disease.

My disposition toward gays wasn’t derived from my personal evaluation of the act, of which I knew very little, but I was indoctrinated into a state of feeling and an associated cultural attitude rooted in the Torah. The Torah and all the commentators told me that being gay was not only wrong and sinful, but also carried an odious state of being.

In the Torah, G-d proclaims in an angry tone that homosexuality is more than a sin. It is abhorrent. It is a personal abomination to G-d. It is disgusting.

How could I interpret G-d’s words other than culturally prevalent views: Homosexuality is a threat not only to the sanctity of human existence, but also to the continuation of the species.

When I began teaching in 1959,

One Man’s Opinion

By Eugen Schoenfeld

Americans were sprouting a new revolution. In courses on the sociology of social problems, I tackled the prevalent issues of the day: women’s liberation, the racial revolution, and the gender and sexual revolutions.

Women, black Americans, and gays and lesbians were seeking their rights, seeking justice and personal freedom.

Both as a sociologist and as a Jew conscious of millennia of persecution and just recently liberated from concentration camps, I had to support the principle of justice, and hence I stood with the people who were seeking it. I could not do otherwise.

The right to justice was ingrained in me by the Torah, my consciousness of Jewish history and my Holocaust experiences. Having four daughters, I wished that they would not be committed to a subsidiary social position because of gender.

I supported black people’s liberation from continued slavery. I experienced black people’s struggles. I was in the midst of my own struggles: In spite of my college education, the only job I, a foreign Jew, could obtain was as a door-to-door salesman of debit insurance in the St. Louis ghetto.

I was, however, still ambivalent about gay rights. The sense of fear and my ingrained cultural perspective remained in me in spite of knowing that being gay is not a disease or a sin. It is but nature, or perhaps G-d, producing something different through some unknown form of genetic mutation.

Gay-bashing, I proposed, comes from our ancient fear that nonreproductive sex — that is, sex for pleasure — threatened the balance between birthrate and death rate. The birthrate had to be high because the death rate was high.

Today, the world is becoming over-

OPINION These were his concerns and his fears.

I sat in his office, and my perspectives on being gay were melting away. I realized that he was not different from me and that his fundamental concerns did not differ from those of most married heterosexual men who love their wives.

I had empathy because, were I in his shoes, I would have had the same concerns. We were both concerned with another human being whom we loved and with whom we developed a loving relationship.

In the final analysis, a union is sanctified not by words, but love for another human being.

Many people will angrily declare: How can you compare the sacred ritual of heterosexual union to a homosexual union? Why should we disregard the sanctity of the marriage vows in heterosexual marriages?

But if we are honest, we will realize that in the past much of marriage was founded not on love, but on economic concerns.

Most Jews today have never seen an old-fashioned eyrusin (betrothal), when the two families stood in an often loud and angry discussion of the economic foundation of marriage that led to the signing of the marital contract, the ketubah.

Love transcends gender. It is not my intent to argue what kind of love existed between David and Jonathan.

It was an intense relationship lauded by some rabbis as true love, for the souls of David and of Jonathan were fused into one. ■

In the final analysis, a union is sanctified not by words, but love for another human being.

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populated. The danger for humanity’s existence is not solved by adhering to the first commandment to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. We have too much procreation, too high a birthrate compared with the death rate, and we have more than filled the earth.

Who would have thought that any pope would dare to pronounce, as Pope Francis did, that Catholics should not breed like rabbits?

If procreation is no longer the paramount reason for marriage, what is? Marriage today is an expression of romantic love. We no longer have sex to keep the commandment of pirya v’rivyah (be fruitful and multiply).

Instead, we make love, albeit still governed by social or religious rules.

The primary function of marriage is the declaration of a committed love. But love is not limited to heterosexual couples alone.

Before retiring, I planned to research the relationship between homosexuality and religion. I had lengthy chats with three ministers in the Metropolitan Community Churches, which are traditional Christian churches with the exception that the ministers and the members are gay.

One minister told me that he was dying from cancer, and he began weeping.

He didn’t cry because of self-pity or a fear of nihilism. As a minister, he was sure he had been granted salvation and would enjoy the pleasures of paradise.

But he cried for his partner of 25 years. “What will he do when I die?

How will he get along?”

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AJT 14

LOCAL NEWS

Jews, Catholics Explore Religious Connections

50th anniversary of key document near

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

a piece of canvas at a tent of meeting.

The key for both religions is that separation, which enhances the mystery unwoody neighbors Temple that is G-d.

Emanu-El and All Saints CathoThat mystery includes darkness lic Church took and silence, Monsignor what Rabbi Scott Colbert Marren explained. A priest said he hopes was just the entering the Holy of Hofirst step in an extended lies in the Temple would interfaith journey May 14 have entered darkness, alto celebrate the 50th annilowing him to know G-d versary of Nostra Aetate. in contemplation and si“The journey is a jourlence. ney that we all are on,” the “We allow Him to rabbi said. speak to us, to give us that Nostra Aetate, a docugift, if He so chooses,” the ment the Second Vatican monsignor said.

Council issued Oct. 28, Just as synagogue 1965, addressed the Rosanctuaries face east toman Catholic Church’s ward Jerusalem, older relations to other religions.

Catholic churches face Attacking a nearly 2,000east, he said. But the same year divide, it cleared Jews Second Vatican Council of the charge of deicide in that ended Catholic supthe Roman execution of port for anti-Semitism Jesus and criticized all antialso overhauled church Semitism. design. “Churches built in Leading up to an Atthe past 50 years, they’re lanta-wide celebration at terrible,” Monsignor MarGeorgia Tech’s Ferst Cenren said, calling them “gloter at the end of October, rified social halls.” synagogue-church pairs Rabbi Colbert walked Photos by Michael Jacobs working with the Amerihis Catholic guests Top: All Saints Catholic can Jewish Committee and through a brief history of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Church Monsignor Hugh Judaism, from the call to Marren is the epitome of the are developing their con- jovial Irish Catholic priest. Abraham in Genesis 12, nections and interfaith diathrough our history of logue.

Bottom: Rabbi Scott Colbert such sibling rivalries as About 150 Jews and Isaac and Ishmael, to the Catholics took the first step building and destruction at Emanu-El with Rabbi Colbert and of the Temple twice and the resulting Monsignor Hugh Marren as they ex- exiles, the development of the Talmud plored the connections between Juda- and the use of synagogues as Judaism ism and Catholicism. adapted to not having a place for the Noting that Abraham is the Catho- ritual sacrifices. lic father in faith as well as the first Cantor Lauren Furman Adesnik Jewish patriarch, the monsignor said gave the interfaith congregation a taste the Catholic liturgy all comes from a of Torah chanting, which Rabbi Colbert Jewish tradition. He also pointed, for noted was the source of Catholic Gregoexample, to the parallel between the rian chanting.

Omer, being counted at the time beQuestions from the audience tween Passover and Shavuot, and the brought out further connections beCatholic passage from Easter to Pente- tween the religions, from a shared cost. belief in the eternity of the soul and a He talked about the shared belief world to come to the internal disagreein places that are holy because people ments that have produced different go to them to meet G-d. denominations within Judaism and He focused on the line between Christianity. the secular outside world and the holy The dialogue continued over desplace inside, whether it was in the form sert and coffee, with more Nostra Aetaof a wall at a synagogue or church or te events to come before Oct. 28. ■

D

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Dentistry for the Price of a Smile One-day free clinic set for Alpharetta

By Cady Schulman cschulman@atljewishtimes.com

D

ental insurance isn’t an option for many people in the Atlanta area, and that’s an illness dentist Brett Silverman is trying to treat.

On Saturday, May 30, Silverman and other dentists and dental hygienists will host the second Dentistry From the Heart Clinic, offering free dental care to those who need it.

“We like to give back,” Silverman said. “It’s a busy, crazy, tiring day, but we love to do it. It makes everybody smile and happy.”

Last year, more than 100 people received free dental care — around 75 lined up the night before — and Silverman said he hopes for at least as many this year at his Alpharetta office, Advanced Cosmetic & Family Dentistry at 4205 North Point Parkway.

“I showed up about 5:30 a.m. (last year) to start setting up, and about 6 or 6:30 a.m. I went out and handed out cases of water,” Silverman said.

Patients will be seen on a firstcome, first-served basis from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. They may choose one of three services: cleanings, fillings or extrac-

tions. Silverman said extractions seem to be the biggest need because they affect a person’s smile, and those without dental insurance are more likely to attend an event where a more expensive procedure is free.

“It’s tough to go and smile or try to get a job or get a better job,” he said.

“They don’t feel good.

They’re not smiling.”

Smiles are clinic workers’ re­ ward for a day of service.

“It was incredible,” Silverman said of last People line up for free dental services at last year’s Dentistry year’s clinic.

From the Heart event, held by Brett Silverman (top).

“People on Red Cross Blood Mobile and food. the way out It’s “the whole community coming were smiling and were so appreciative.

It’s always fabulous to have somebody back together and taking care of people come in and leave smiling. It’s great. It in need,” Silverman said.

This clinic is for adults, but Silverwas a tiring but unbelievable day.”

The event will include hairstylists, man said he hopes in the future to partDJs, children’s activities, an American ner with pediatric dentists. ■

Atlanta FBI Head Confides in Seniors

By Zach Itzkovitz The Marcus Jewish Community Center transformed into a situation room Thursday, May 14, as the Edgewise Speaker Series welcomed FBI Special Agent J. Britt Johnson.

Director James B. Comey selected Johnson to lead the FBI’s Atlanta Division in March 2014.

A Georgia native, Johnson joined the FBI in 1995, reporting to the San Diego Field Office on violent crimes, gang activity and drug trafficking.

He transferred to the Atlanta Field Office in 2005 and became the assistant special agent in charge of the intelligence, surveillance and aviation programs.

Like any organization in the Internet age, the FBI struggles with finding secure ways to transfer information and with protecting other parties’ information.

“We were criticized after 9/11 for our ability to share information with local law enforcement,” Johnson said.

“What we found is if we had informa-

tion that we felt needed to be shared with local law enforcement, it would show up in the media.”

Also at risk is private-sector information such as trade secrets and bank account data. The FBI created the Domestic Security Alliance Council to enhance collaboration with the private sector in protecting information, particularly related to interstate commerce.

“If they’re stealing trade secrets, they could bankrupt a company,” Johnson said. “When they’re desperately looking to see what the company’s about, and China steals that and they’re producing it at half the price, the company’s going to go under.”

Cyberterrorism may cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars, but violent extremism costs lives. Johnson spoke as candidly as he could about international and domestic terrorism, especially about “homegrown violent extremists.”

“Those are the ones we’re most concerned about today,” Johnson said, “because they’re really hard to track.

They’re not talking to anyone, and they’re not going to come up on our

radar very often. We’re just trying to figure out when they’re at their snapping point.”

Violent extremists abroad are also difficult to pin down, despite having contacts with known terrorists.

Because foreign extremists migrate frequently from organization to organization, the line between state-sponsored and independent attacks is often blurred.

Johnson dedicated substantial discussion to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked thousands of classified documents and exposed many U.S. surveillance programs.

“There’s far more information he’s taken,” Johnson said. “Countries can no longer cooperate with us because they don’t feel confident that we can protect our relationship with them. So they’re no longer working with us. They’re no longer providing information to us.”

The Edgewise Speaker Series is open to anyone 50 and older. Sessions are free for JCC members and $5 for nonmembers. The last event of year is Thursday, May 28, at 10:30 a.m. ■

Kosher Kar Show Revs Up May 31

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com

C

ongregation Or Hadash will celebrate its Sandy Springs home’s longtime history as an auto shop by hosting its second annual Kosher Kar Show on Sunday, May 31.

Proceeds will benefit the Or Hadash Men’s Club Homeless Shelter project and Sukkah Fund.

Vehicles of all types are welcome to enter the show. Awards will be handed out in three categories: people’s choice, rabbi’s choice and best in show. The entry fee is $18 per vehicle, but admission is free for spectators.

“This is a car show for all makes and models of cars, classics and modern, although there are usually more classics,” event co-chair Paul Flexner said. “Myself and the other co-chair of this event, Ted Marcus, are both classic car guys. I have three MGs, and he has a 1982 Corvette.”

In addition to the car show, an allelectric vehicle rally will be held; an award will go to the team with the most fuel-efficient score on the course.

Last year’s winner of the rally was the team of Errol Leibowitz and his son, David, driving a Nissan Leaf. Other winners included Tim Gaffney, whose MGA coupe won the rabbi’s choice award, and Mitch Frank’s Chevrolet Chevelle, which took home the people’s choice award.

Since Or Hadash was founded in 2003, the congregation has met at various locations in Sandy Springs.

In 2010, the congregation purchased a vacant 24,000-square-foot Chevrolet paint and body shop on Trowbridge Road. After extensive renovations, the space opened in 2013 as the home of the Conservative congregation. ■ What: Kosher Kar Show Where: Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 31 Cost: $18 to enter a vehicle, free for spectators Register: tinyurl.com/cohkarshow

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

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LOCAL NEWS

Reading Between the Lines of Scripture Sofer sees divine hand in variations, patterns

A

s a certified sofer (Torah scribe), Rabbi Mordechai Danneman devotes intense focus to the script of the Torah. Accordingly, he notices fine details that most do not.

“When you write a Torah, you have to copy from an existing Torah,” Rabbi Danneman said. “Not only that, you have to say every single word out loud before you write it.”

During a pre-Shavuot lecture titled “Who Wrote the Torah?” Thursday, May 21, at Congregation Ariel, the rabbi shared with a small but enthralled group of learners the insights he has gained from spending so much intimate time with Scripture.

The Torah has a number of cryptic messages and recurring patterns, according to the rabbi. Those who practice Kabbalah read the Torah differently — even the minutest detail is a significant divine message that merits analysis and discussion.

“This idea of codes in the Torah,

beginning of words and equidistant skips, is a very old concept,” Rabbi Danneman said.

He said the variety of patterns in the Torah and their unlikelihood prove divine authorship.

“Fifty represents the Shabbas also,” Rabbi Danneman said. “If you count from the first tav in the Torah, Bereshit, and you count every 50 letters, it spells tav, vav, reish, hei — Torah. It spells Torah every 50 letters.”

Rabbi Danneman also said the Book of Esther predicts the Nuremberg trials. The book lists 10 sons of Haman by name, but some letters appear smaller or larger than others. A small tav, shin and zayin are found in the names, as well as a large vav.

The first three letters add up to 707 if they are replaced by their corresponding numbers. Vav refers to six.

Rabbi Danneman interprets this six as the sixth millennium — the current millennium on the Hebrew calendar.

Thus, the four letters combine to denote 5707. That year corresponds to

1946, the year 10 Nazi war criminals were hanged because of convictions at the Nuremberg trials.

In some translations, Esther 9:13 reads: “Esther replied, ‘If it pleases the king, allow the Jews of Shushan to do tomorrow as they have done today, and let Haman’s 10 sons be hanged on the gallows.’ ” Rabbi Dan­ neman views that text as additional proof of prophecy in Esther.

To conclude his class, the rabbi asked his initial and titular question: “Who wrote the Torah?” To this question, there were no eager answers, only surrounding silence. ■

Photo by Zach Itzkovitz

Rabbi Mordechai Danneman argues that this portion of the Book of Esther prophesies the Nuremberg war-crimes trials and 10 executions by hanging in 1946. There were supposed to be 11 hangings, but Hermann Goring committed suicide the night before the executions.

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TV reporter Koto’s story starts with parents interned and baby chicks

By Tiffany Parks

A

ward-winning CNN anchorwoman Sachi Koto has built a career on groundbreaking news stories.

But to her, the truly groundbreaking, soul-stirring stories are not part of the news cycle. Rather, great stories reside within the hearts of everyday people, waiting to be discovered.

Koto’s many awards include the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum Speakers Award. Koto discovered the power of her life story by navigating the complexities of the American dream: A woman born in segregated Atlanta becomes the first JapaneseAmerican TV reporter in the Southeast.

“In 1944, when my father and mother came to Atlanta, they were literally labeled number 32 and 33. That’s how many Asian people lived in the entire state of Georgia, only 33 Asians,” Koto said.

Fred and Eiko Koto came to Atlanta with fresh memories of the Wyoming Heart Mountain Internment Camp.

“The government rounded up all the Japanese and put them behind barbed wire. They met in the camp.

They lived in horse stables and had to sleep on hay. It was a dark time in American history,” Koto said.

Her father was determined to succeed, even in Jim Crow Atlanta.

“As Japanese, my family didn’t know what color they were in Atlanta.

Everything was either black or white.

When they rode the trolley, they would sit in the colored section. They didn’t want to cause trouble. Sometimes the bus driver would tell them that it was OK for them to sit in the white section,” Koto said.

Living in a segregated society didn’t give her father many employment options, so he had to think of a creative way to make a living. “My father became a chicken sexer. Georgia was the chicken capital of the world, and the concept of a chicken sexer was a novelty during that time. My father learned the business from a Japanese man. He would determine the sex of the chicken minutes after they were born. Female chickens were more valuable than male chickens because they laid eggs and had breast meat. The male chickens were often killed be-

cause they were not as valuable.”

Koto gleaned an empowering message from watching her father handle chickens.

He built a company on Memorial Drive called Fred Koto Chick Sexing Association and was known as a pioneer of the poultry business in Georgia.

His company was five miles from the headquarters of a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, Samuel Hoyt Venable.

Koto remembers when she faced racism. Her peers called her Jap and other derogatory names.

“I really became an unhappy, shy person when I understood that I was viewed as different. I developed an identity crisis.”

Koto’s father taught her that she should embrace her identity and had nothing to be ashamed of.

The Kotos experienced discrimination, but their African-American maid, Lilly Graves, faced harsher discrimination.

“I was young, but I knew that Lilly’s condition in life was not good,” Koto said. “She lived in a shack.”

Despite Graves’ social status, she was like a second mother to Koto and her siblings, and Koto grew to become the homecoming queen at Clarkston High School. “My father and mother were so happy,” Koto said. “I’m always humbled when I realize that when my mother was my age, she was in an internment camp instead of enjoying her life. Now my parents were fulfilling the American dream.”

After graduating summa cum laude from Reinhardt College with a bachelor’s degree in communications, Koto was hired by CNN. She became the first Japanese-American anchorwoman for CNN Headline News and the first Japanese-American on-air reporter in the South. In 2005, after 16 years at CNN, Koto left to launch Sachi Koto Communications. She had noticed that whenever she spoke about her life and heritage, the event would sell out. The audience was not only inspired by her message, but Koto found that she was as inspired by the stories audience members shared with her as they were with her story.

“Everybody has a story to tell, and I provide the tools to help individuals tell memorable stories,” she said. “A good story can change the world.” ■

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LOCAL NEWS

$6.5M Grant for Tumor Research The Marcus Foundation is granting $6.5 million to a tumor monorail project based at a lab launched at Georgia Tech

by Ian’s Friends Foundation.

The tumor monorail project is a collaboration among Georgia Tech, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University.

“Support from the Marcus Foundation will enable us to accelerate the development of a novel tumor monorail device to treat brain tumors in patients,” said Georgia Tech biomedical engineer Ravi Bellamkonda, the lead investigator.

The grant will enable device design and prototyping, development of a Food and Drug Administration-compliant manufacturing process, and FDA approval for a clinical investigational new drug study in Atlanta.

Atlanta-based Ian’s Friends Foundation supports pediatric brain tumor research, although the monorail project could be used for pediatric and adult tumors. The foundation is named for Jewish community member Ian Yagoda, who was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer at age 2 in 2005.

The research team has demonstrated that the tumor monorail device can significantly reduce brain tumors in rodents by guiding tumors to grow into a specially designed “gel sink.” That study, published in Nature Materials in 2014, received worldwide media attention.

The project exemplifies the strength of Georgia Tech and Atlanta in developing innovative technologies to improve child health, a burgeoning research area known as pediatric bioengineering.

Aronov Joins Capitol Celebration Atlantan Jake Aronov was among the supporters of Aish International who celebrated Jewish American Heritage Month with an event May 20 in the Kennedy Caucus Room at the U.S. Capitol.

The Congressional Jewish Heritage Celebration highlighted the accomplishments of Aish, which was honored in a Senate resolution for having enriched

U.S. society.

Aish’s impact in many American cities “demonstrates that in the United States, people may freely connect with their culture and religious heritage and contribute to the fabric of life in the United States,” according to the resolution.

Aish International honorees and staff celebrate with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.).

Aish International received the Jewish Heritage Award, which it shared with Aronov and other major supporters. Aronov has been a leader in Aish for many years and is a member of Aish International’s advisory board.

“Our partners are dedicated to providing inspiring and accessible Jewish education. Their unwavering support is the reason why we have made such a powerful impact across this great nation,” said Richard Boruch Rabinowitz, Aish’s executive director.

1-Day Fundraiser Set for June 2 The success of the spring’s Millionfor­ Outreach 24-hour crowd-funding campaign has sparked a more ambitious MillionsforChesed (www.charidy.com/ millionsforchesed) campaign June 2.

Plans call for the grass-roots campaign to raise $3 million for 25 Jewish human service organizations, an average of $120,000 each. Under the terms of the campaign, each organization must hit its individual fundraising goal, or none of the groups will get any money.

The participating organizations also must line up matching donors so that each pledged dollar is matched by $3, quadrupling the effect of each pledge.

The campaign will start at noon Tuesday, June 2, and end at noon June 3.

No Atlanta-based organizations are participating as of press time, but Dunwoody’s Congregation Ariel Youth was a late entry into the Feb. 17-18 Millionfor­ Outreach fundraising, which brought in $1.36 million, including $33,635 for the Orthodox synagogue’s youth program.

While Ariel easily met its fundraising goal, its success was in doubt until three of the other 18 participating organiza-

tions met their goals in the final hour of the campaign.

The new campaign, like February’s, will use the Charidy.com platform.

“Our community has yet to take advantage of these new yet sometimes daunting opportunities en masse,” crowd-funding consultant and Giving Day organizer Tobey Finkelstein said. “But I hope that with each success, more Jewish donors and organizations will have the confidence to learn about and pursue online, community-powered crowd funding to reap the benefits for their operations and communities.”

JCC Gymnasts Win Region, State Gymnasts representing the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s Perimeter Gymnastics program have won regional and state championships for the second consecutive year.

Lauren Henderson, 11, was named Region 8 Xcel Gold all-around regional champion with a score of 38.075 at the 2015 Xcel Regional Championships the first weekend of May in Savannah. The Woodward Academy student also finished first in floor exercise with a score of 9.575.

At the Xcel State Championships in Lawrenceville in April, Lauren ranked

second all-around and second in vault and floor exercise.

Halle Kwatnez, 12, who attends Davis Academy, was named Xcel Platinum state bar champion and Region 8 Xcel Platinum bar champion with scores of 9.15 and 9.25, respectively.

Maja Jovanovic, 14, a student at Henderson Middle School, was named Xcel Level 6 Georgia beam champion with a score of 9.225.

Gold Named All-ACC Georgia Tech sophomore Brandon Gold has earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors for his first season as a starting pitcher.

The Alpharetta resident and son of Barry and Kathy Gold, a graduate of Johns Creek High and Davis Academy, was named to the All-ACC third team after posting a 7-3 record with a 3.26 ERA. He had the same number of strikeouts and hits allowed (71) in his 85.2 innings pitched, and his wins included games against NCAA Tournament qualifiers Notre Dame and Virginia.

Georgia Tech (32-23) failed to make the tournament after ending the year on a five-game losing streak, including a 17-4 loss to Miami in Gold’s last start of the season.

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Boys of Summer Step Up to the Plate

New commissioner keeps old unity of synagogue softball season

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com

E

very summer for two decades, the Atlanta Jewish community has unified in friendly softball competition. On May 31, members of 19 synagogues will again take the field to see who can hit, throw and kvetch the best.

The Atlanta Men’s Synagogue Softball League fields 23 teams to play on Sundays in June, July and August.

First-year AMSSL Commissioner Jason Evans said the league is unique in Atlanta.

“I don’t know about everything that goes on in this city,” Evans said.

“But I would be surprised if there is anything that brings members of more congregations together interacting with other members of congregations than this league.”

The league is composed of three skill-level divisions, A, B and C. Congregation B’nai Torah has won the A Division, the top level, eight years in a row.

“The goal of the A-league teams every year is to see if someone can beat B’nai Torah, and so far it has not happened,” Evans said.

Last year’s B champion was Con-

gregation Ariel, and Temple Beth Tikvah won the C title.

Around 350 players participate from congregations as far north as Congregation Gesher L’Torah in Alpharetta and as far south as The Temple in Midtown. Games are played at parks around metro Atlanta to accommodate the geographic spread.

Evans, who plays for Temple Sinai’s C Division team, is serving the first year of his two-year commitment as commissioner of the league. He was chosen because of his background with youth baseball and scheduling experience with Northside Youth Organiza-

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tion sports. He succeeds Ben Nalder of Congregation Or Hadash.

“The fact that the league hasn’t changed much in 20 years is a testament to the fact that it works,” Evans said. “It’s still the same league that many of our fathers played in because it’s been successful and something that people have responded well to. There hasn’t really been a need to change it, which is a good thing.”

Among the few changes over the years are a move to playing fields that are all north of Atlanta — at the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody, East Roswell Park and Ocee Park in Alpharetta — and the addition of umpires to call games. Originally games were played at the old JCC on Peachtree Street in Midtown, and teams had to agree on calls.

Even with umpires, teams sometimes have trouble supporting the calls, Evans said. “Hey, we wouldn’t be Jews if we didn’t argue over this and that now and then.” ■

The 2015 Lineup

Here are the congregations competing in this summer’s synagogue softball season. The full schedule can be found at www. atlsynagoguesoftball.org.

A Division Ahavath Achim Beth Tefillah B’nai Torah Chabad Dor Tamid 1 Or VeShalom Sinai 1 Temple 1 B Division Ariel Beth Shalom Beth Tikvah 1 Dor Tamid 2 Emanu-El Etz Chaim Gesher L’Torah Young Israel C Division Bet Haverim Beth Jacob Beth Tikvah 2 Kol Emeth Or Hadash Sinai 2 Temple 2

BUSINESS

Eagle Star: Schinazi Wins

By Making Viruses Lose Schinazi attended boarding school in England and studied chemistry at the University of Bath. r. Raymond Schinazi, a profesHe then joined Yale’s pharmacolsor of pediatrics and chemistry ogy department for his post-doctoral at Emory University’s School work in nucleoside chemistry before of Medicine, is receiving the 2015 Tom landing at Emory.

Glazer Leadership Award at the Eagle He spoke to the Atlanta Jewish Star Awards Gala.

Times by phone from Paris, where he The gala, the premiere annual was attending a French government event of American-Israeli business liconference on curing hepatitis B. This aison Conexx, is being held downtown is a man who enjoys his work even at Georgia Power on May 28. though he works with diseases that The award “recognizes the are often dire. achievements of an individual who “I always enjoy the passion of dishas provided inspicovery and finding rational and strong the truth. Treatment leadership in furis fun, but curing thering the cause of is even more fun.

U.S.-Israel business You’re bringing a and economic relaproblem to an end, tionship,” Conexx so it’s not just a said in a statement. recurring problem “This coveted award where you have sufis given to someone fering,” he said. who is an exemplary Calling himself Dr. Raymond Schinazi estimates that 94 percent of the world’s HIV community ambasa workaholic, Schinsufferers are treated with drugs sador, demonstrates azi is proud of his he had a hand in developing. passion for Israel, accomplishments. has pioneered deals “As you know, we’ve and reflects the mission of Conexx.” been very successful with hepatitis C. Schinazi, who is also the direcWe got a cure for that.” tor of the Laboratory of Biochemical He said his human immunoPharmacology at the University, is best deficiency virus medicines are “the known for his work developing drug foundation of any antiviral and HIV combinations for treating HIV and therapy,” and he estimated that drugs his research into hepatitis C and liver he has been involved with or invented disease. are used by 94 percent of the world’s He has an “unrivaled record in HIV sufferers. founding biotech companies to com“Once you’re successful, it’s like mercialize research in antiviral drugs,” being a jockey at the races. You win according to Conexx. one race, and then you want to win Those companies have made the next one,” he said, though he Schinazi not only successful, but also acknowledged it hasn’t always been wealthy and somewhat controversial, easy. “There have been failures. You according to a recent article titled can’t succeed every time. You learn “King of the Pills” in the magazine from your failures. That’s what it’s all Science. about.”

“Not perfect or flattering but He credited hard work, long good,” Schinazi said of Jon Cohen’s hours, luck and the help of colleagues piece, in which he is labeled a “polarfor his prosperity. “I’m very grateful to izing force” and a “bear-sized man who them,” he said. “We’ve supported each speaks bluntly, negotiates fiercely, and other. Some I continue to work with. favors splashy, multicolored shirts.”

Others went their own way. But that’s Cohen missed the point, Schinazi part of life. I’m very much a collaborasaid. “He focused too much on the tive person — I love to collaborate.” money, in my opinion, not the discovThe 65-year-old chemist has eries behind it, and the science. He definite plans. “We are focusing more should have spoken to my friends and of our research on curative therapy — colleagues who understand the pain I not just for HIV like we’ve been doing, had to go through to get to where I am. but for arthritis, Alzheimer’s. … We It’s not just about dollars and cents.” don’t want to develop Band-Aids; we Born in Egypt to Italian Jews, want to solve the problem.” ■

D

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BUSINESS

Eagle Has Landed at Hartsfield-Jackson

By Kevin Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com

plored Israeli advances in water technology, cybersecurity and alterhe city of Atlanta and Hartsfield- native energy, and the Jackson Atlanta International mayor, senior staff and Airport are the recipients of the Atlanta business lead2015 Eagle Star Community Partner ers undertook the GeorAward, which recognizes their work gia Cyber Security Miswith Israel through knowledge ex- sion to Israel in March. change, mission trips and the inclusion “This mission proof Israeli technology in city works. vided our 33-person The announcement came from delegation with an inConexx, the Atlanta-based agency that credible opportunity Courtesy of the city of Atlanta facilitates trade between the South- to learn about Israel’s Mayor Kasim Reed led a 33-person cybersecurity delegation to Israel in March. eastern United States and Israel and cybersecurity environbestows the annual honor. ment, which has clearly attract Israeli investment. Delta Air terpart, Mayor Ze’ev Bielski, during the Conexx indicated that the two or- become a hotbed for cutting-edge inLines, Coca-Cola and NCR were among cybersecurity mission in March. ganizations serve as exemplary stra- novation in the global market,” said “Cities are increasingly important the companies that participated. tegic partners and have demonstrated Claire Angelle, the international affairs “It also enabled us to establish as economic, cultural and technologistrong leadership to further the cause director for the city of Atlanta.

Atlanta as a top destination for Israel- cal global hubs of activity,” Reed said. of U.S.-Israeli business.

The goal for the leaders of local based companies that are innovating “As such, I have made global engageAtlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has ex- companies was to promote Atlanta to in the technology industry,” Angelle ment and intercultural exchanges a said. “In this regard, Atlanta is hosting focus of my second term as mayor of on Aug. 20-21, 2015, a return cybersecu- Atlanta. As part of our sister cities partrity conference at the Georgia Institute nership with Ra’anana, I would like to of Technology, in partnership with the see our trade, academic and cultural links continue to prosper and grow.” law firm of Baker Donelson.”

For their part, the leaders of HartsAngelle said that Israeli cybersecurity companies will be selected for the field-Jackson Airport visited Israel for forum and will have the opportunity to the Airports Council Internationalpitch their ideas to local investors. The North America Mission to Israel and Baker Donelson Innovation Incubator Homeland Security Conference, at will help launch selected companies which Hartsfield-Jackson’s former deputy general manager, Balram Bheodari, into the U.S. market through Atlanta.

Angelle cited another example spoke as a panelist in 2014.

Aviation General Manager Miguel of Atlanta’s connection with Israel: Atlanta’s sister city relationship with Southwell, former Aviation General Manager Louis Miller and Bheodari Ra’anana, dating to 2000.

Reed met with his Ra’anana coun- have all engaged in discussions with Israelis about physical security, advanced runway sensing, logistics, solar energy and, of course, cybersecurity.

The airport has hosted the Israeli logistics delegation to Georgia, organized by the Israeli Consulate General to the Southeast, the Israel Economic Mission to the South and Conexx.

Est. 1989 Reese McCranie, the airport’s director of policy and VOTED TOP TEN SALONS IN ATLANTA! communications, said the airport also renders more basic asHigh Five to our # 5; the new Sandy Springs location sistance. “To facilitate the speedy 1st time clients get a FREE HAIRCUT, BLOW DRY & SKIN ANALYSIS arrival and departure of Israeli ministers and Israel’s ambassaCall and book your experience today! dor to the United States on many occasions, our team provides continued service to the Consulate of Israel to the United States,” she said. “For many years, we Sandy Springs Plaza, 6309 Roswell Rd, Suite 1-C, Ga. 30328. have enjoyed a productive and mutually beneficial relationship, and we believe this will continue well into the future.” ■ 22 MAY 29 ▪ 2015

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BUSINESS

Star Deal: 3D Systems Plus Israeli Duo

By Kevin Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com

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his year’s Eagle Star Award for Deal of the Year is going to 3D Systems, a company based in Rock Hill, S.C., that specializes in “advanced and comprehensive 3D digital design and fabrication solutions” for the health care industry, according to American-Israeli business connector Conexx.

Conexx is giving the award in recognition of 3D’s acquisition of two Israeli companies, Simbionix and Cimatron.

“The integration of these companies leverages the combined resources and expertise to advance 3D Systems’ healthcare portfolio on a global scale, to over 60 countries,” a Conexx statement reads. “This award recognizes this new Israel-Southeast business relationship forged with the acquisition of these companies as well as the R&D, channel alliance, global sales and distribution opportunities.”

Avi Reichental, the president and chief executive officer of 3D Systems, answered the Atlanta Jewish Times’ questions about the deal via email.

AJT: What was it about Simbionix manufacturing software entities in and Cimatron that attracted 3D Sys- the world. We concluded some time tems? ago that we could put together a seamReichental: Over the less digital workflow that last six months, 3D sysstretched all the way from tems invested roughly one design to manufacturing quarter of a billion doland provided interoperlars in Israel through the ability with traditional acquisition of two leadmanufacturing methods. ing high-tech companies.

Cimatron’s technology The first company is Simwas the perfect strategic bionix. One of the fastestfit to achieve this goal, growing verticals in our and the acquisition also business is personalized brought to us expanded medicine, and, for a long capabilities in product time, we had looked at development as well as excompanies in virtual realpanded channel coverage. ity and surgical simulation as a means of extending AJT: How will this our integrated end-to-end Avi Reichental is the president deal help the company? and CEO of 3D Systems. health care solutions — Reichental: Simbiowhat we call our “Digital nix has developed capaThread” — from the training room to bilities in 3D virtual reality that can the operating room. It turned out that ultimately take patient-specific data Israel-based Simbionix was the lead- from CT scans and MRIs and feed them ing entity in 3D virtual reality training, into a virtual reality simulation syssimulation and rehearsing of complex tem that allows surgeons to train, plan medical procedures. So acquiring Sim- and deliver a variety of patient-specific bionix made perfect sense. procedures. Combining this with our The second company is Cimatron, existing technology and expertise alone of the leading computer-aided lows us to deliver not only the simula-

tion training and rehearsal, but also the 3D printing of actual medical instruments and implants that make the whole procedure more predictable and efficient. The overall goal here is to improve patient outcomes by advancing the capabilities and possibilities within personalized medical procedures. This, we believe, will be the future of health care.

AJT: Has 3D Systems worked with Israeli industry in the past, and will that continue?

Reichental: Israel is a very exciting, fertile ground for high-tech companies, and it has significant talent and expertise. It continues to be very attractive for 3D Systems to build and expand our base in the Start-up Nation.

It means the opportunity to really harness all these talents and resources and use them to ultimately deliver better products. But it’s important to keep in mind that we completed both acquisitions first and foremost because these two companies are the global leaders in their field. And this made both Simbionix and Cimatron very attractive for us as we invest in the future of 3D printing. ■

By Kevin Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com

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n Atlanta-area medical technology company founded in 2008 has been designated the Eagle Star U.S. Company of the Year by Conexx, the former American-Israel Chamber of Commerce in the Southeast.

EndoChoice, a platform technology company centered on gastrointestinal endoscopy, is based in Alpharetta and recently merged with Peer Medical, an Israeli company that develops endoscopy technology, giving EndoChoice a research and development base in Israel while keeping its headquarters in the Southeast.

“This award recognizes EndoChoice’s sustaining commitment to Israel and having acknowledged Israel as an important partner in business,” Conexx representatives said in a statement.

Conexx described EndoChoice as a medical technology company focused on the manufacturing and commercialization of platform technologies including endoscopic imaging systems,

Gilreath was the only non-Jewish infection control products and pathology services for specialists treating a executive at Given Imaging, which he ended up taking public wide range of gastroinand growing into one of testinal conditions, inthe largest medical tech cluding colon cancer. companies in Israel.

EndoChoice has a EndoChoice, started direct sales organization

by Gilreath in his basethat serves more than ment, is scheduled for 2,500 customers in the its own public filing on United States and works the New York Stock Exwith distribution partchange, which is why Gilners in 25 countries. It reath declined to talk to has rapidly developed the Atlanta Jewish Times; a broad and innovative stock regulations require product portfolio, which a quiet period for compaincludes the Full Specnies leading up to their trum Endoscopy System public listing, during (Fuse). which they must abstain Inc. Magazine recogEndoChoice CEO Mark Gilreath from communicating nized EndoChoice as one with the media. of the fastest-growing Former AICC President Tom Glacompanies in the United States in 2014 for the fifth consecutive year, accord- ser, for whom the Eagle Star leadership award is named, is an admirer of Giling to Conexx.

The company’s founder is CEO reath’s work and said in an article he Mark Gilreath, the former president of wrote for The Times of Israel that GilIsraeli-based pill camera maker Given reath is “as strong a supporter of Israel Imaging, which has its U.S. headquar- as any American I know.”

Gilreath “feels Israelis are pasters in Duluth.

sionate and direct and that he shares a common drive with them to achieve the goal,” Glaser wrote.

He quoted Gilreath as saying, “You want them (Israelis) by your side. They didn’t sign on for a job — it’s a cause to them. They are brilliant and emotionally stronger than most — wonderful partners in building a world-class organization.”

EndoChoice has more than 60 employees in Israel and 400 worldwide.

One of its best-known products is an endoscopic system known as Fuse, which is now approved by the Food and Drug Administration and is in use around the world.

“In a recent clinical study, Fuse found 69% more pre-cancerous polyps than traditional colonoscopes. Patients are beginning to ‘insist on Fuse’ for their colonoscopies,” Glaser wrote.

Gilreath was voted Business Person of the Year in 2013 by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in the emerging entrepreneur category. The CEO also “is married to a saint,” according to his Twitter profile (@MarkGilreath). ■

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

EndoChoice Lights Fuse to Win Company Award

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FOOD & DRINK

Better Know a Bagel: Soho Bakery and Deli The hunt for Atlanta’s best continues

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com

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n our last edition of Better Know a Bagel, we visited Art’s Bagels in Acworth. This week we explore Soho Bakery and Deli in the heart of Sandy Springs.

Readers might recognize Soho as the location of the former Little European Bakery, which closed about nine

shopping center, Soho is a relatively new offering in the Atlanta bagel market. Read on to see how it stacks up.

Atmosphere They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, and from the street, Soho doesn’t look like much. But the interior has the sights, sounds and smells of an authentic New York bakery.

Gourmet cakes and pastries line the glass display cases, and contemporary works from local artists hang on the wall. To get your grub, order from the cashier at the front counter and wait at a table. The seating area is big enough to accommodate large groups and includes the ever-popular banquet table for minyans and church groups alike.

Verdict:

months ago. Located off Sandy Springs Circle behind the Cromwell Square

Bagels The star attraction of Soho Bakery and Deli is the extensive selection of

cakes, pastries, torts and pies, but the house-made bagels give those sweet treats a serious run for their money.

Soho’s large, soft and puffy bagels can stand up to any in Atlanta. Soho has a surprisingly wide variety of flavors, including blueberry, honey whole wheat and salt, to go along with such standards as everything, sesame and plain.

Order a dozen and you will get them in a clear sack through which you can see the steam coming off the ultra-fresh delights. Bottom line: These bagels live up to their New York namesake and might be the freshest in Atlanta.

Verdict: Spreads The cream cheese and other spreads at Soho are adequate to go along with the ultra-fresh bagels. I found the variety of cream cheeses, which feature flavors garlic herb, chocolate chip, and chive and onion, to be

slightly bland compared with other delis. Soho offers a selection of Boar’s Head meat and cheese sandwiches but nothing kosher. I did enjoy the LEO bagel (pictured), which came with eggs and onion on top of chilled Nova.

Verdict: Overall Soho is in a great location in the heart of Sandy Springs and makes incredibly fresh New York-style bagels that will satisfy any deli aficionado. I highly recommend a visit to this authentic shop to sit down and enjoy a hot coffee, a warm bagel and allaround good eats.

Verdict:

From Barney to the Bottle Camp friends launch Goza tequila

By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com

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MAY 29 ▪ 2015

dam Hirsch and Jacob Gluck haven’t always been tequila tycoons. When the business partners met, neither one was even legal to drink.

Now the two, who met at Camp Barney Medintz in 2001, have built a tequila brand and are working to make it nationally recognizable.

Goza tequila, which officially launched in April, is available at more than 40 Atlanta-area bars and restaurants and at package stores across the metro area, including Green’s on Buford Highway. In June, the Goza team of Hirsch, Gluck and head of sales Lauren Kaufman will push into Tennessee with launches in Chattanooga and Nashville.

“One of the things that is attractive about Goza for our distributors is that we’re on the streets going bar to bar, restaurant to restaurant, getting the word out about our product,” Hirsch said. “We’re doing that ourselves.”

Hirsch and Gluck are aiming for a chunk of an American tequila market that more than doubled in sales from $962 million in 2003 to more than 24 $2 billion in 2013.

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They have deployed a grass-roots marketing strategy and a gender-neutral, “be yourself” brand message that can be seen from the tequila’s slogan, “A little Goza long way,” to the bottle artwork created by American pop artist Burton Morris.

“We’re really about this grassroots approach to getting our name out there The Goza team is made up of (clockwise and building brand from top left) COO RJ McNeil, Jacob Gluck, Adam Hirsch and Lauren Kaufman. loyalty,” Goza foundGoza Blanco sells for around $34.99. er Jacob Gluck said.

“We’ve always talked about building from the bottom up I n t e r n a t i o n a l School instead of throwing money around be- Charter cause it is a word-of-mouth thing. We and member of Congregation Beth really want to take the intimidation out Tefillah in Sandy Springs. Nashville native Hirsch grew up attending The of tequila.”

Goza (Spanish for enjoy) is dis- Temple. The two met when Hirsch was tilled and bottled in Jalisco, Mexico, Gluck’s counselor at Camp Barney in and available in three varieties: Blan- 2001, and they stayed in touch, workco; Reposado; and the top-shelf Añejo, ing on various projects together.

When Gluck made a connection which is aged for a year in white-oak with Mexican-based tequilera operator barrels.

Gluck is a graduate of Riverwood Armando Esparza in 2012, Goza was

born. Esparza was looking to sell his tequila in the United States, and Gluck started working to bring it to the Georgia market. A year later, Hirsch joined the project and along the way, they added another Jewish member to the crew, Kaufman.

“Lauren basically runs sales for us,” Hirsch said. “She was the top salesperson for six years at United, which is Georgia’s largest distributor, so when she came on board, it gave us tremendous credibility with the distributors because she’s that good.”

Now Goza, with its headquarters at the DeskHub co-working offices in Buckhead, is focused on getting the word out in unconventional ways.

In December, the company and the Marcus Jewish Community Center co-hosted GozaPalooza, which brought hundreds of young Jews together on Christmas Eve. This summer, Goza plans to operate a nightlife shuttle in Buckhead.

It’s all part of Hirsch and Gluck’s mission to make Goza into one of the leading tequila brands in the South.

“Every day when we get up, we have one goal,” Gluck said, “and that’s to sell Goza.” ■

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EDUCATION

AJA Graduates First Class of 28

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

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tlanta Jewish Academy held its first high school graduation Wednesday, May 20, with praise for the 28 members of the class as exemplars of the school’s goals.

“This is a very impressive class,” said Ian Ratner, the president of the AJA board of trustees. He said the 17 girls and 11 boys are the answer to the big question parents should ask when they investigate the Jewish day school: How do you want your 5- or 6-year-old

child to turn out?

“I’m very proud to be part of this first graduating class,” valedictorian Eliott Dosetareh said.

AJA was born last year from the merger of Greenfield Hebrew Academy, which ran through eighth grade, and Yeshiva Atlanta High School. While the Upper School remains in Doraville, AJA has reached an agreement to sell that campus under a plan to consolidate in Sandy Springs.

Salutatorian Dafna Kadosh explained how her development from a single-minded student to a well-round-

ed young woman at AJA helped her understand Dylan Thomas’ poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.”

She said she understands that raging against the dying of the light means to experience life “with such passion that I know I have lived and lived well.”

Dosetareh added: “My classmates have inspired me with their individual passions.”

Rabbi Pinchos Hecht, the head of school, told the graduates he was sad to see them go because he felt as if he was just getting to know them. He offered free tuition to any student who chose

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to stay for one more year — an idea Ratner quickly shot down.

“What struck me was not just the academic achievements that everybody had,” Michael Balaban, the chief development officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, said about the student biographies in the program. “The level of commitment to Jewish community was just astounding.”

The Jewish people have existed for thousands of year, Balaban told the graduates, and “through you, we’re going to continue to exist for thousands more.” ■

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F Photos by Michael Jacobs

A: The Atlanta Jewish Academy Class of 2015 is the first graduating class since the merger that created AJA. B: Valedictorian Eliott Dosetareh praises the passions his classmates show for their varied interests. C: Salutatorian Dafna Kadosh shares the importance of raging against the dying of the light. D: Prospective AJA parents ask lots of technical but ultimately unimportant questions about textbooks and curricula, Board President Ian Ratner says, but the big question is how they want their children to turn out. He says the Class of 2015 is the answer.

E: The excitement spreads through the graduates as they receive their diplomas. F: Emory University ethicist Edward Queen offers some parting lessons from Pirkei Avot for the graduates. G: Head of School Pinchos Hecht says he

H regrets that the Class of 2015 is leaving just as he’s getting to know the 28 members. H: The Class of 2015 joins in the singing of “Hatikvah.”

By Noam Laufer

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illel Levin came to the Atlanta Jewish Academy on April 15 to discuss the U.S. Constitution with the seventh grade. He is a professor at the University of Georgia, where he teaches constitutional law.

He talked about when, how and where the Constitution was written.

Then he asked the class: “What is the most important law?”

Students answered with many different suggestions, such as “don’t kill,” freedom of speech, and freedom of religion.

Professor Levin told us that before it is possible to make laws that forbid murder or protect freedom of speech, you need to designate the right people to make those rules.

He related this idea to the introduction of the Ten Commandments.

Professor Levin said that G-d could be

compared to the legislative branch of government and that the commandments could represent the rules that were made. Before laws could be passed in the United States, we had to know where, when and how these new rules would be made.

There must be a foundation to support laws so they can work. There is no legitimacy to laws unless there is a substantial source behind them. Like the Ten Commandments, what makes

the laws so important and so powerful is not the laws themselves, but who created them.

As citizens, Professor Levin explained, it is our responsibility to form a more perfect union. We must continue striving for perfection in our laws, even if absolute perfection can never happen. ■

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

G-d as the Legislative Branch

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Noam Laufer just completed the seventh grade at Atlanta Jewish Academy. 25

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EDUCATION

AJA, Avi Chai Engage in Pro-Israel Initiative Atlanta Jewish Academy’s Upper School has been selected by the Avi Chai Foundation as a participating school in its Applying Hearts and Minds Project, whose goal is to change school practices in Israel education by deriving new ideas and applications for Jewish day schools from the report “Hearts and Minds: Israel in North American Day Schools.”

That report, issued in April 2014, had five key findings: • Israel is the glue that holds Jewish day school communities together, especially in schools that aren’t strictly Orthodox.

• Regardless of denomination, about two-thirds of educators who teach about Israel do so as exemplars, sharing something about themselves, while the rest, called explorers, instead encourage students to learn about Israel through their own inquiry and study.

• Students feel a stronger connection with Israel if they develop connections with other groups of Jews around the world.

• Students feel a stronger connec-

tion with Israel if they see their parents engaged with Jewish communal life, regardless of whether the parents are active in Israel advocacy. Parental involvement in Jewish communal life is a stronger predictor than travel to Israel of a student connection to Israel.

• Across denominations, between 25 percent and 50 percent of day school students are detached from Jewish life and Israel, and schools should focus on engaging those students to have the greatest impact.

As part of this initiative, AJA Judaic studies teacher Rabbi Reuven Travis will attend an intensive workshop in the fall to delve into the report and its implications for practice and gain clarity about how the Upper School can deepen its Israel education as the academy consolidates in Sandy Springs.

As many as five content experts will join the workshop participants to help them sharpen their ideas.

After the workshop, participating schools will be grouped into learning partnerships.

Each learning partnership, or

hevruta, will be assigned a content expert for the duration of the project.

The learning partnerships will meet monthly through January to share their thinking about their action areas, expand their expertise in their areas of focus, receive feedback on their plans, and report on the processes they are using to engage the school community in the work.

These meetings and discussions will enable schools to de- This is the AJA Upper School’s Israel Advocacy Club this spring. velop action plans for AJA will also use this project to deapplying findings from the report to velop and launch the Israel Advocacy their work. yearlong senior seminar that has been Based on AJA’s participation in the built into the Upper School’s new dual Hearts and Mind Project, the school Judaic studies tracks, planned for the will launch an initiative for instruction 2018-19 school year.

■ on modern Israel next spring.

ORT Meeting Features Lassiter’s Herman Picked Panovka, Other Atlantans For Technology Congress

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

Several Atlanta-area residents played prominent roles in ORT America’s annual meeting and leadership conference Sunday, May 3, in New York: • Hilly Panovka, ORT America’s secretary/assistant treasurer, spoke at the meeting about her visit to the Hodayot Religious Youth Village in Israel’s Galilee and the important work it does in helping young students who are struggling with difficult personal circumstances.

• Sid Besmertnick, who retired from the national ORT board of directors, was given a special commendation for his dedicated service.

• Sam Shapero lead a panel discussion for ORT Next Gen that included Karen and Jori Fine and Howard Jon Lanznar, who talked about the ORT legacy of involvement being passed from generation to generation.

Also attending from Atlanta was William Klineman.

ORT America raises money for ORT, the largest global nongovernmental Jewish education organization, 26 which teaches more than 300,000 stu-

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ORT America Secretary/Assistant Treasurer Hilly Panovka of Atlanta talks about ORT work in the Galilee.

dents in over 60 countries every day.

During the annual meeting Joel Kaplan, the associate dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, provided analysis of Israel and the media. The Interactive Student Showcase featured students from ORT France, ORT Argentina, CIM-ORT Mexico and Bramson ORT College in New York.

Two of the ORT students from Argentina then visited ORT Atlanta and local Jewish schools for several days. ■

During the three-day congress, Honey Herman, a rising 11th-grader at Lassiter High School in East Cobb, Honey and other students from across has been selected to attend the Con- the country will hear Nobel laureates gress of Future Science and Technolo- and National Medal of Science winners talk about leading gy Leaders in Boston scientific research, from June 28 to 30. receive advice from The honors-only deans of the world’s program is for high top tech universities, school students who be inspired by fellow are passionate about science prodigies, science, technology, and learn about cutengineering or mathting-edge advances ematics. and the future of sciThe purpose of ence and technology. the congress is to “This is a cruhonor, inspire, mocial time in America tivate and direct the when we need more nation’s top aspiring Honey Herman nimble-minded and scientists and techcreative scientists nologists to stay true to their dreams and to provide a path, and technologists who are even better plan and resources to help them reach prepared for a future that is changing exponentially,” said Richard Rossi, their goals.

Honey was nominated by astro- the executive director of the National naut Buzz Aldrin, the science director Academy of Future Scientists and Techof the National Academy of Future nologists.

“Focused, bright and determined Scientists and Technologists, to represent Lassiter based on her academic students like Honey Herman are our achievement, leadership potential, and future, and she deserves all the mentoring and guidance we can give her.” ■ passion for science and technology.

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ARTS / SIMCHAS

New Yorker Cartoonist Wows ’Em at the Alliance the Merck Drug Manual to rule out leprosy and lockjaw.

As an only child of old-fashioned parents, Chast strove to be a warmer

Jaffe’s Jewish Jive

By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com

friend to her own children, drawing herself shaking her hips while dancing. In the cartoon, the horrified, embarrassed daughter oozes, “Mom, don’t do that. You are hurting me.” Chast thus labeled herself a “wussie parent.”

Among other highlights: • Chast drew her father’s typical Sunday morning breakfast, which takes him two hours to eat. “He is not a heavy man,” she said, “but eats a little bit of everything.” The items doodled in the border are schav (a soup of “green weeds”), sour cream, Muenster cheese, ham, lox, borscht, grapefruit, gefilte fish, prunes, bagel and banana.

• Chast had to stop to explain words to the mixed audience, such as kishkes (guts) and pippick (belly).

About Something More Pleasant?” a touching, funny look at helping elderly parents navigate the end of life.

She quoted Marcel Proust about the chrysalis of aging and mused about her parents feeling like inmates or childish summer campers after being moved into an assisted living facility: “Maybe setting up a kibbutz for elderly hippies with individuality allowing LSD might be a better solution.”

Chast’s mother got “good at hospice” and lingered well into her late 90s after her father succumbed to Alzheimer’s.

The artist-observer poignantly sketched her mother with oxygen tubes at life’s end. This, you think, cannot be funny in Photo by Marcia Jaffe a cartoon.

Cartoonist Roz Chast (left) poses with Jodi Fan Sandy Bailey said: Firestone, community outreach director for Arbor.

“Making light of the reality of death and its preparation brought each had a label — vegan, gluten-free, back memories about my mother’s last lactose-intolerant, vegetarian, strictly few days and how important she was kosher. to me. We all go through it and must • She explained how we read the be prepared. But I really laughed at her obituaries — “two years older than slide about the Holy Trinity being saltme,” “10 years younger than me.” sugar-butter.”

Because the event was sponsored One thing was certain: Chast by the Arbor Co., operator of senior made us cry until we laughed our living facilities, Chast hit the nexus of kishkes out. ■ her most recent book, “Can’t We Talk • Don’t be a cartoonist, she advised. “Most of my work is rejected, and there is no pension.”

• Her Thanksgiving dinner guests

Engagement Shams-Wilkins

Birth Betty and Dina Weiss

Amanda and Al Shams of Sandy Springs announce the engagement of daughter Marissa Reiter Shams to Bradford Charles Wilkins, son of Dr. Ilene Kilberg Wilkins and Ronald Wilkins of Orlando, Fla. Marissa is the granddaughter of Anita Reiter of Sandy Springs and the late Joseph Reiter and the late Sylvia and Solomen Shams. Brad is the grandson of Gerri and Milton Kilberg of Orlando and the late Marcia Wilkins and late Ronald Lemieux.

Marissa is an assistant professor of allergy and immunology at Emory University School of Medicine in the departments of internal medicine and pediatrics. She holds clinical appointments as an allergist and immunologist with the Emory Clinic and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She is an alumna of the University of Georgia. Brad graduated from the University of Maryland. He is the vice president of talent management and human resource services at ADCAP Network Systems in Alpharetta.

A summer wedding is planned.

Sara Pilzer Weiss and Jared Weiss of Chapel Hill, N.C., announce the birth of their daughters, Betty Leah and Dina Petra, on Saturday, April 4, 2015.

The proud grandparents are Edith and Alan Pilzer of Sandy Springs and Sheila and Bruce Weiss of New City, N.Y. The great-grandparents are Trudy Pilzer of Boca Raton, Fla., and New York and Cecelia Horowitz of New City.

The girls’ names are in memory of Betty Schear (Sara’s grandmother), Leah Krengel (Jared’s great-grandmother), David Horowitz (Jared’s grandfather) and Paul Pilzer (Sara’s grandfather).

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

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hat do you get when you cross Joan Rivers (without the bite), Dr. Ruth (without the sex) and Shelly Berman with his Jewish angst? Roz Chast, who has published more than 1,000 cartoons (and multiple covers) in the prestigious New Yorker and authored 12 books.

Chast addressed a private audience of 700 on Thursday, May 21, at the Alliance Theatre.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I was entertained and touched.

Chast, an unassuming only child from Flatbush, is known in highbrow circles for her intellectual and subtle illustrations of family life with a Jewish twist. She holds a B.F.A. in painting and an honorary doctorate from the Pratt Institute, but the cartoons appear basic and doodly at first glance. Chast, who has also published in the Harvard Business Review and Scientific American, often buries her humor in the borders, corners and backgrounds of drawings. Sometimes you have to actually think to get it.

She took us on an intimate, illustrated journey of her life.

Chast drew herself at age 8, frozen in bed as an anxious child reading

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ARTS

Appelrouth Sings for Somebody’s Supper

By Suzi Brozman sbrozman@atljewishtimes.com

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ow would you feel if, like a number of Atlanta Jewish families, you could afford only one meat meal a week?

As a chairman of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s participation in the Hunger Walk, Dr. Dan Appelrouth learned more about this problem than he ever wanted to — so much, in fact, that he resolved to do everything in his power to alleviate it.

In the nine years since then, he has raised and contributed more than $162,500 to groups he had grown to admire, including the Jewish Family & Career Services Kosher Pantry, Yad L’Yad, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, and the JF&CS Moas Chitim fund, which distributes Passover food to those who can’t afford it.

He raises the money by giving benefit concerts and selling his three compact discs, the first recorded at the suggestion of his vocal coach in 2005.

Because his Hunger Relief Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, any donations are

tax-deductible.

Getting the ability to take online donations was crucial, Appelrouth said.

“Once we could do that, the donations have more than doubled.”

A love of singing motivates Appelrouth’s performances, some at the Jewish Tower, the Cohen Home and the Naturally Occurring Retirement Community, others for individuals with major health problems.

“I’m always on the lookout for new places to sing,” he said.

He has been singing since college and started taking serious lessons while in medical school, training to be a rheumatologist. Now he has been at it for 49 years. He will sing for any group, even if there’s not a big budget.

As a doctor, he’s aware of the value of music, not only for the sick, but also for newborns and even babies in utero.

“Music touches the soul,” he said. “It helps people heal, and we know with newborns, when they hear classical music, especially Mozart, it helps with right brain development.”

He also knows that nutritious food is more than a luxury. “It’s interesting,” he said, “and painful that summer is the most difficult time because there is no school, so free breakfasts and lunches aren’t available to children.

“We have to educate people. It could be your next-door neighbor.

People live beyond their means, then they’re ashamed, so they don’t tell anyone. Don’t kid yourself. There are many hungry Jewish people living below the poverty line, and the number is always growing.”

Appelrouth’s coach/accompanist is Judy Cole, who is responsible for the musical arrangements of the musicians at his concerts. This year he has added more musicians, including a violinist, for a show focusing on Broadway tunes.

And he has brought back his two sons, who joined him in a concert some time ago. One son, Jed Appelrouth, just

earned his doctorate after 10 years of study at Georgia State, all the while growing Applerouth Tutoring, whose services include preparing highschoolers for the SAT and ACT. Jed lectures all over the country, has written two books, and is an artist and singer.

Son David is the assistant rabbi and director of education at the Temmy Latner Forest Hill Jewish Centre in Toronto. Married with four children, David sings and plays the piano and saxophone.

You’ll be able to sing at the concert, too, during a Nat King Cole medley, with the words in the program. ■ Who: Dan Appelrouth What: Concert for hunger relief When: 3 p.m. Sunday, May 31 Where: Young Israel of Toco Hills, 2056 LaVista Road Admission: Voluntary donation, with a minimum of $10 requested Information: www.danappelrouth.org/ broadwaybenefit

Hero Deserves Better Than ‘Single-Handed’

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

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he story of Tibor Rubin is too good not to be told.

From a prewar childhood in Hungary to a brutal coming of age in the Mauthausen concentration camp to heroic service with the U.S. Army in the Korean War, Rubin is worth learning about even before the longest battle of his life: the struggle to receive the Medal of Honor.

It’s a shame the book telling his story is Daniel M. Cohen’s “SingleHanded.” In an awkward approach for nonfiction, Cohen makes free use of verbatim conversations from World War II that are at best reconstructions from Rubin’s memory more than 60 years later. He’s also sloppy, for instance calling Caspar Weinberger secretary of the Army instead of secretary of defense and counting from 1992 to mid-2005 and coming up with 15 years.

On the positive side, Cohen leaves no doubt that Rubin, now 85, deserved this nation’s highest military honor, which he was the first Jewish soldier

to receive for service in Korea. The story of how he got the Medal of Honor in 2005, 52 years after the war ended, could have filled a book by itself.

That story is one of anti-Semitism during the war and a military establishment that preferred to forget about a “police action” it fought to a draw. But the struggle for the medal, beginning in earnest in 1981, fills only about 60 pages of a 400-page book.

Cohen could have made a book out of the story of how a Jewish boy born in Hungary in 1929 refused to succumb to the Nazis and Hungarian fascists and wound up fighting Communists in Korea to show his gratitude to the U.S. Army for liberating him. But that journey takes up fewer than 100 pages.

The least interesting part of Rubin’s story is his time as a POW, but Cohen devotes the most space to that 2½-year period. The result is not a good book, but it’s still a great story. ■ Single-Handed

By Daniel M. Cohen Berkley Caliber, $27.95, out now

OBITUARIES - MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING

Phillip Jonathan Hershberg 42, Atlanta

Phillip Jonathan Hershberg, 42, a native of Atlanta born Jan. 24, 1973, passed away Monday, May 18, 2015. He was preceded in death by his parents, Roslyn and Harold Hershberg.

Phillip will be forever missed and loved for his sweet and sensitive soul. He attended Heritage Center, Margaret Harris Center, and graduated from Dunwoody High School. Philip loved music, his second home at St. Simons Island, and hanging out with his best friends, John Hudson and Jay Hamby. He especially enjoyed eating the volcano sundae with his cousin Sherry.

Survivors include his angel family, mother for 22 years Miriam McKibben of Stone Mountain, sister Kelly Hardin of Stone Mountain, brother Jonathan McKibben of Stone Mountain, father Jim Willett of Stone Mountain, and sister and brother Marci and Steven Schrader of Atlanta; Phillip’s very special cousins, Sherry and Ike Habif of Atlanta, Joyce and Zale Smilack of Atlanta, Frances Astren of Atlanta, and Barbara Kraselsky of West Warwick, R.I.; and a large family of additional cousins.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Camp Big Heart, P.O. Box 870150, Stone Mountain, GA 30087, 678-294-1916. A graveside service was held Tuesday, May 19, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal officiating.

Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Lawrence Kaminsky 74, Atlanta

Lawrence Kaminsky, age 74, of Atlanta died Thursday, May 21, 2015.

Larry was born and raised in Mount Vernon, N.Y. He studied management engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received his master’s degree from New York University. While in undergraduate school, he met the love of his life, Harriet Kaminsky née Gelb. Larry and Harriet married and began a beautiful journey of over 52 years together.

In 1970, Larry brought a little bit of New York to the South when he moved his family to Atlanta with IBM. Naturally gregarious and social, he found a home in Sandy Springs and was surrounded by friends and neighbors. Larry loved sports, and he and Harriet could be seen walking to Braves games at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium or attending Falcons games at the Georgia Dome. His favorite aspiring athlete was his beloved grandson, Seth, for whom he proudly yelled on the soccer sidelines whenever he could. He was a wonderful and caring father, and his two daughters, Audrie and Gwen, will always treasure his warmth, his loyalty, his sense of humor, and his willingness to stay up late either with a fever or with simply a need to talk.

Larry traveled the world as a passion and a pastime, but when at home, he was an active member at Congregation Or Hadash, where he found a warm, caring and wonderful spiritual home. The family would like to thank Rabbi Analia Bortz and Rabbi Mario Karpuj for their love and support.

Survivors include his loving wife of 52 years, Harriet Kaminsky; daughters Gwen Kaminsky of Atlanta and Audrie Kaminsky of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; sisters Gloria (Merle) Bruskin of Delray Beach, Fla., and Sherry Rosenstein of Boynton Beach, Fla.; and grandson Seth Kaminsky.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. A graveside service was held Tuesday, May 26, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbis Analia Bortz and Mario Karpuj officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Dr. Porter was born and raised in New York City and served in the United States Army during World War II. He also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He attended the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, where he earned his degree. He and his family made Chattanooga home for many years. Dr. Porter was known for his love of family, friends, Judaism, and his community. He was one of the founding members of the small Orthodox synagogue in Chattanooga, Beth Shalom, which he worked tirelessly to keep vibrant. He was one of the people the rabbis knew would never say no to anything asked of him for the welfare of his synagogue. He also worked for the Chattanooga Jewish Federation. Most of all, he loved his family and spent a happy life as a loving husband, father and grandfather. Dr. Porter’s faith was strong, and he loved living his daily life. He exemplified goodness and showed his beautiful soul by caring for others and living each day to the fullest.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Thursday, May 21, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Joshua Heller officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Congregation B’nai Torah, the William Breman Jewish Home or Hadassah. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Death Notices

Send condolence announcements to editor@atljewishtimes.com for inclusion here.

Nancy Hurst of Trenton, Fla., mother of Temple Kol Emeth member Connie Kirshner, on May 20 Barokh Khalili of Dunwoody on May 17.

Rose Goldberg Klein of New Jersey, grandmother of Temple Kol Emeth member Illyse Sheaffer, on May 19.

David Barron Silverman, 58, of Savannah, brother of Dr. Victor Silverman, on May 12.

Ruth Sturm, 88, of Atlanta, Ahavath Achim Synagogue member and wife of Hiram Sturm, on May 18.

90, Atlanta

Murray Israel Porter, 90, of Atlanta, formerly of Chattanooga, died Monday, May 18, 2015, of congestive heart failure. Murray was preceded in death by his loving wife, Muriel Porter.

He is survived by his three daughters, Ellen Freedman (Terry), Carol Kurtz (Paul) and Joan Blumenfeld (Richard), and grandchildren Mathew Freedman (Ashley), Lee Freedman (Rumi), Benjamin Kurtz (Claire), Dennis Blumenfeld and Amy Bledsoe (Roger).

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

Murray Israel Porter

AJT 29

CLOSING THOUGHTS OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

The New, Improvable Me CROSSWORD “Papa, Can You Hear Me?”

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

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’m sure that I will never skydive or try race-car driving. Nothing in the world could get me to wrestle alligators, broncos or sumo guys (although my hefty body build might earn me a senior-citizen-discount apprenticeship).

Don’t look for me when the bulls run in Pamplona or the congregants in a Texas church bring out the fanged reptiles.

Forget about training me as a war photographer or trapeze artist.

I used to have a certain fondness for live fowl (we owned chickens when I was a kid), but I learned about someone who got killed by a goose.

My simple mantra: better safe than sorry.

Therefore, it may surprise you that, upon reaching the age of retirement, I decided to no longer pussyfoot around the exciting challenges of life.

Wonderful opportunities of self-discovery and ego-building are out there, and I decided to do daring new things, grab life by the horns and take advantage of scary activities other people claim to enjoy.

I started last summer when I joined our grandchildren at an outdoor carnival that had terrifying rides.

The sky-high Ferris wheel was too much (I read about one that got stuck and imprisoned an elderly couple at the apex for 18 hours), and the mere sight of the upside-down-loop roller coaster elevated my blood pressure.

I decided to try the whirly-gig, with a protective grandchild seated on each side of me. I didn’t think I’d live. Of course, based on my screams of terror, no one was surprised that upon release, I beat a mad dash for the portable latrine.

This anti-wimp attempt was not a success.

My next act of bravery was agreeing to explore an untended, overgrown, rustic trail, again with protective grandchildren nearby.

We had sturdy shoes, brimmed hats, bottled water, healthful snacks, sunscreen and insect repellant, and everything was going fine until we started seeing hand-painted signs warning us about poison ivy, snakes, eroding path-edged riverbank and “Watch Your Dog.” I like to think of myself as an adaptable kind of person, but I wasn’t

ready to leap over a snake, only to land in a dollop of dog droppings.

I also noticed that the repellant wasn’t as effective as I’d hoped, and the kids and I had become nutrition for a nation of tiny flies.

We raced back and grabbed the Benadryl in the sanctuary of my car.

By Harvey Estes Editor: DavidBenkof@gmail.com Difficulty Level: Manageable

Chana’s Corner

By Chana Shapiro cshapiro@atljewishtimes.com

Another attempt at self-enrichment was dashed.

I gave up on activities that could maim, kill or permanently traumatize me and tried things that were merely very hard to do (but still characterbuilding).

These included maintaining a positive attitude while climbing Stone Mountain; holding a tarantula (live or dead, same freak-out reaction); speaking Spanish to a Dominican foreign student; purging my closet of clothes that will never fit me again; and entering our house’s crawl space to see what the smell was coming from.

I failed at all of these.

I had to give myself a last-ditch opportunity to be adventurous, so I lowered my standards another rung.

Now the challenge would not even have to be character-building; it would just have to be hard.

And so when my friend Judi persuaded me to try a Zumba class, I agreed.

For the last several decades I have consistently avoided activities that have three attributes: special clothing; music whose lyrics I don’t understand; and athletic, spunky women. So you see why the idea of participating in a program that involved all three was problematic.

Deep down inside, I knew it was now or never.

I bought exercise shoes, learned to endure Iggy Azalea and her ilk, and, most important in my “New Me” journey, I remain resolute among a group of high-energy, fit females who like to sweat.

It hasn’t been easy, but I know that Zumba is just the first step toward the day when I will kayak in rapids, rappel off the side of a steep cliff and maybe even touch a tarantula. ■

ACROSS 1 Like one who says slicha 6 Rothschild of the House of Lords, and others 12 Supporter of Israel in the Reagan cabinet 16 Milchig liquid 17 Where to find soc.genealogy.jewish 18 Sarah Silverman’s Best Writing award 19 Kubrick coup 21 Crowd response after a goal by Yossi Benayoun 22 Become meshuga 23 Verbally broke a commandment 24 Drum for an Allen Ginsberg reading 25 Species in a 1998 DreamWorks Animation film promoted

by CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg 26 Gibes from anti-Semitic children, e.g.

28 “Don’t ... mar the ___ of your beard” (Leviticus 19:27) 29 Amount of paper needed to photocopy the entire Talmud 30 Michele of “Glee” 31 Kabob holders 35 Investing some shekels in 40 Emulates Adrien Brody’s character in “The Pianist” 41 Ma, who in 2013 performed with Holocaust survivor George Horner, and others 43 Sitar-playing friend of violin virtuoso Yehudi 44 “Night” author Wiesel 45 Extinguished, as menorah candles 47 “Fantasia on Jerusalem the Golden” composer Charles 48 “Adonai, my ___ and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14) 49 Most kleyn 50 Use it to eat kreplach at a picnic 51 Gilgul is the Jewish belief in these 53 Affiliation of David Brat, who defeated Eric Cantor in the 2014 Republican primary 55 Folower of 53-Down 56 Toy ___ (dreidel container, perhaps) 58 Attack like the lion of Judah?

61 Impact sounds in a Dave Berg cartoon 63 Backtalk from Vidal?

67 Ape in 19-Across 68 Make up a phrase about shekels?

69 Film director Nora

71 Put your He’Brew orders on them 72 Cynthia Ozick story 74 When doubled, “yada yada” 75 Ride its Silver Meteor from NYC to Miami 76 Shaped like eggs for a shakshuka 77 Name suffix for Zionist Szold 78 Kosher ___ (slang for Jewish mob) 79 Israel’s northern one is with Lebanon Down 1 Where Daniel Barenboim directs, with “la” 2 Welles, who wrote “Citizen Kane” with Herman J. Mankiewicz 3 It might end a fast 4 What Kenny Bernstein does 5 Aseret ___ Teshuva (Var.) 6 Baseball commissioner Selig 7 Sanctuary 8 Contents of bags, for Sandy Koufax 9 Late ___ Tay-Sachs disease 10 Candles for Chanukah, e.g.

11 Source of non-kosher meat 12 1st century king of Judea 13 “Shaft ___ the Jews” (spy paperback) 14 It can be graven 15 Israelis may call them shwarma 20 Animal that frolics in the vasser 24 “Oh, where have you ___ my blue-eyed son?” (Bob Dylan) 27 Power sources at Battery Park Synagogue?

29 Matter at court, to Alan Dershowitz 30 Group of names for Schindler 31 Climber who shleps up Everest 32 Weight measures in Tel Aviv 33 The Alhambra Decree, for one 34 Regular reading 35 Locks without keys 36 Who never calls or writes Joyce Antler 37 “For His anger is momentary, but His ___ lasts a

lifetime” (Psalms 30:6) 38 Unlike many Mossad activities 39 Like traveling in the Gaza Strip, e.g.

41 Support for a bill in the Knesset 42 Sound track cries, to Mel Blanc 45 Billy Wilder’s “Sunset ___” 46 Panel maker Stan 50 ___ shiva (honored the dead) 52 55-Across, in the Septuagint 53 Letter that has the value of 9 54 City of the Kristallnacht burning of the Great Synagogue 56 Pictures on a synagogue bulletin 57 Shed at El Al 58 Grant shalom to 59 Elevate, as Elohim 60 Chance to get a hit for Hank Greenberg 61 Blockhead 62 Abraham Regelson and Dalia Rabikovich 63 What Hasidic men don’t do to their beards 64 Cedar-lined spot 65 Film based on a 1953 Ferber novel 66 Like a look from Ralph Fiennes in “Schindler’s List” 70 Bk. of wise sayings 72 Enjoy the beach at Eilat 73 APB letters held by Elena Kagan?

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MAY 29 ▪ 2015

damon.carp@gmail.com

AJT 31

THANK YOU

for joining us on May 19th at the

2015 Atlanta Gala Dinner A Night to Honor Women of the IDF

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If you would like to make a donation in honor of Israel’s brave men and women in uniform, please call 678-250-9030 or visit www.fidf.org.

MAY 29 ▪ 2015

Their job is to look after Israel. Ours is to look after them.

AJT 32

Photo credit: Greg Mooney 1) Rachael & E. Jay Abt, Gala Dinner Chairs 2) Co-Founder of Home Depot & Founder of Georgia Aquarium, Bernie Marcus & Billi Marcus, with Brig. Gen. (Res.) Gila KlifiAmir & FIDF National Director and CEO Maj. Gen. (Res.) Meir Klifi-Amir 3) Aviran Family, Gala Dinner Honorees: Adi Aviran, Ambassador Opher Aviran, Talyah Aviran, Noa Aviran 4) Brig. Gen. (Res.) Gila Klifi-Amir 5) IDF soldiers Yael, Mor, Yonat, Roni, Keshet 6) Perry Brickman, Shirley Brickman, Lisa Lubel & Alan Lubel 7) Meredith Broudy, Lauren Light, Laura Ross, Alissa Funk, Carly Migdall 8) IDF soldier Roni 9) Natan & Dorit Mordel, Gala Dinner Chairs 10) Sam Bettsak, Debby Bettsak, Zevi Solomon