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IN THIS CORNER
Menorahs are just one creative way Judaica Corner creates connections. Page 18
GIFT GUIDE BOUTIQUE VIEW
Robyn Spizman Gerson rounds up the must-haves for gift-giving success. Page 20
CROSSOVER
Christmas and New Year’s help ModernTribe spin Chanukah traditions. Page 23
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Chabad Intown: 1 Day to Make $300K Chabad Intown is trying to raise $300,000 in 24 hours in an all-or-nothing crowdfunding campaign, in part to support the outreach organization’s expansion into Decatur and Midtown. “A Jew is never allowed to rest. We’ve got to grow,” said Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman, Chabad Intown’s director. The It’s Time to Grow campaign runs from 1 p.m. Wednesday to 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14 and 15, and follows drives that raised $50,000, $200,000 and $250,000, respectively, the past three years. Rabbi Schusterman must bring in $75,000 through www.charidy.com/ itstime. One individual and two groups will each match every donation dollar for dollar, turning $75,000 into $300,000. The quadruple effect gives each donation during the campaign a powerful impact, the rabbi said, although if he falls short of the $75,000 goal, all the pledges are canceled. Most of what is raised will fund operations for Chabad Intown, which has operated for more than 18 years and has been independent of Chabad of Georgia and the official Chabad-Lubavitch movement since the middle of last year. Some of the money will fund what the rabbi called growth opportunities. One of those is in Decatur, where he and Rabbi Ari Sollish have run programming for years, such as a menorah lighting that drew 140 people last Chanukah.
GRIEF RELIEF
Just when many at Ahavath Achim are mourning the death of a former rebbetzin, Rae Goodman, Rabbi Daniel Greyber is coming to speak about his own struggles with grief and faith. Page 16
Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman has big plans for his independent Chabad Intown.
Decatur residents attend classes and events at Chabad Intown at 928 Ponce de Leon Ave., Rabbi Schusterman said. That’s three miles from Decatur Square, “but traffic on Ponce can get quite crazy.” In response to the Decatur community’s needs, he said, Chabad Intown will launch Chabad of Decatur with an afterschool program and classes in homes. “When the time is right,” the rabbi said, “we’ll incorporate some kind of facility.” While the Decatur targets are young professionals and families, Chabad Intown wants to attract empty-nesters and retirees by starting Chabad of Midtown. Those groups make up almost a third of the Jewish people moving into the city, Rabbi Schusterman said. They’re separated from the synagogues they
DRILLING AGAIN
Walt Myers has set aside his dental drill and devoted himself to the hobby of woodworking, enabling him to fill his Ansley Park home with custom pieces that complement his wife’s art. Page 32
once belonged to in the suburbs or out of town, so they need not only Torah study, but also social opportunities. Those social events, meant to maintain engagement with the Jewish community, will increasingly be held away from Chabad Intown in neutral spaces. Chabad Intown — including the Intown Jewish Academy; the Intown Jewish Preschool, which, in addition to the Reggio Emilia philosophy, is incorporating conscious discipline to enhance the social emotional component of the curriculum; and YJP Atlanta — in September connected each of 20 young adults to an industry mentor for a year. Rabbi Schusterman said he plans to add 30 more young adults to the program in late February or early March. ■
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Virologist Schinazi Celebrated
Emory virologist and chemist Raymond Schinazi won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the pharmaceutical industry’s 12th annual Scrip Awards in London on Wednesday night, Nov. 30. The loudest applause of the night reportedly went to Schinazi at the end of a black-tie gala that recognized 15 other winners in areas such as clinical advances, technological developments in clinical trials and financing deals. Schinazi, an Egyptian-born, Englisheducated son of Italian Jews, is known for developing antiviral drugs, including Emtriva, which is taken by more than 90 percent of U.S. HIV patients. He also helped develop a drug approved for use against hepatitis C. “I think that hepatitis C is curable globally and can be eradicated globally if there’s a will,” Schinazi said in accepting his Scrip Award. “We have also the moral obligation to get these drugs to the people who need them most.” The Scrip is at least the third major award he has received in 18 months. He won the 2015 Tom Glaser Leadership Award at the Conexx Eagle Star Awards for his “unrivaled record in founding biotech companies to commercialize research in antiviral drugs.” He also received the 2015 William S. Middleton Award, the highest honor of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Biomedical Laboratory Research and Development Service. Schinazi serves as a senior research scientist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. A VA official, Antonio Laracuente, credited Schinazi with a key role in shifting infection with the AIDS virus from a death sentence to a manageable illness. ■