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SAFE AND SACRED After Orlando, two LGBTQ Jews explain how others can be allies and help restore their safe spaces. Pages 8-9
LEADING WOMEN The latest Jewish Women’s Fund grants pay more attention to young leadership development. Page 14
GIVING LIFE A Beth Jacob member in need of a kidney finds the donor across the mechitza. Page 22
JEWISH ‘OZ’ Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion connect Jewish paths to the yellow brick road. Page 28
VOL. XCI NO. 25
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
JUNE 24, 2016 | 18 SIVAN 5776
JCC Embraces A Kosher Touch By Tova Norman
T
he Marcus Jewish Community Center will welcome a new kosher caterer to its kitchen and cafe space Aug. 1: A Kosher Touch, a division of Sandra Bank’s Added Touch Catering. The cafe space opened up in May when Enoch Goodfriend shut down his catering operations for health reasons. The center put out a request for proposals and interviewed many local caterers before choosing A Kosher Touch, Marcus JCC CEO Jared Powers said. “We are inclusive of all kinds of ways that people practice their Judaism,” he said. “It was important for us to have a kosher caterer on site.” A Kosher Touch will lease the space from the JCC and use the kitchen to continue normal kosher catering operations while also operating the cafe. Bank and her team will move their kosher operation from space at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta. She said the move is bittersweet, but she is excited to occupy a larger space and to have the opportunity to develop the cafe. The JCC’s Dunwoody campus also is closer to Bank’s nonkosher operation, Added Touch Catering, in Sandy Springs. Powers said A Kosher Touch shares a vision for the cafe with the Marcus JCC. “We wanted to create a family-friendly place that’s healthy and affordable.” Bank agreed. While planning continues, her hope is to refresh the menu and space. “I just see it as being a destination.” She hopes to be open all day, serve coffee and tea, bake daily (including her biscotti), have grab-and-go snacks, and offer a full menu that is still in the works.
Inside: Best of Jewish Atlanta Page 16
Goodfriend’s Grill is no more at the Marcus JCC, meaning events such as this Yom HaAtzmaut celebration in 2015 will be catered by A Kosher Touch in the future. The new catering arrangement brings together two winners of our Best of Jewish Atlanta reader survey: the Marcus JCC (local Jewish nonprofit) and A Kosher Touch (caterer). See all 22 winners on Pages 16 and 17.
She and her team are sampling menus at restaurants around the city. “My sales team, they are all young, and this is what they like: healthy, quality food at the right price,” she said. Expect fresh fruits and vegetables and salads. She wants to show people that kosher food can be healthy and delicious. “Kosher food has been given a bad rap over the years,” she said. Bank said she hopes to offer meat and dairy options on different days. Because the cafe and catering operation are certified by the Atlanta Kashruth Commission, she is working out the details of that rotation with a mashgiach. “Here is a golden opportunity to provide the community with healthy, fresh, delicious food,” she said, hoping that her
menu will persuade JCC members who are already at the center to eat at the cafe. “They should be going nowhere else.” A Kosher Touch will also provide lunches for 300 preschoolers at the Weinstein School every day. While she plans to adapt to what works best for her customers, Bank also has ideas for additional opportunities: takeout dinners delivered in carpool lines, food at the pool, fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies, special entertainment and nights out, sushi, and more. “I’m excited because I want to do it right,” she said. Powers said a kosher caterer and a kosher cafe are important elements of the JCC. “We just want to make it that fullservice experience.” ■
ily, and fellow Midtown-based developer Carter would share the role of master developer for City Springs. The companies plan to start construction this summer on 30,000 square feet of retail space and nearly 300 homes — 19 townhouses and 275 apartments — in an area bounded by Johnson Ferry Road, Roswell Road, Mount Vernon Highway and Sandy Springs Circle.
“We are excited and honored to be part of such an important addition to Sandy Springs,” Jo Ann Chitty, a Selig senior vice president, said in a press release about the closing. “City Springs will be a truly walkable destination that defines the future of Sandy Springs.” Sandy Springs was just voted the best neighborhood in the AJT’s Best of Jewish Atlanta reader survey (Page 16). ■
Selig Closes on City Springs Property
S
elig Enterprises and partner Carter have completed the purchase of nearly 3½ acres at the core of Sandy Springs’ City Springs development, putting the first phase of the project on schedule to be completed in winter 2017. The closing was announced Friday, June 17, almost exactly two years after Sandy Springs decided that Selig Enterprises, led by Steve Selig and his fam-