Atlanta Jewish Times, VOL. XCV NO. 1, January 10, 2020

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VOL. XCV NO. 1 | EDUCATION

JANUARY 10, 2020 | 13 TEVET 5780

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Live and Learn The years may come and go, but we never stop learning. For that reason, the AJT’s first issue of 2020 focuses on education. Here you’ll learn how to teach to a diverse Jewish student population regardless of color, disability or denomination, and why security drills, so common to today’s youth, are yet a source of trauma.

A speech-language pathologist offers tips on understanding your child’s development, and we learn about a remodeling contractor-turned English teacher in Madrid.

We tell you about a new community theater at the Atlanta Jewish Academy and how a 17-year-old board member at Temple Sinai is bringing a younger perspective to a position typically held by older congregants. Not to mention showing how Jewish involvement for teens can take off after b’nai mitzvah.

There’s the new program teaching LGBTQ+ teens healthy sex ed and the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta’s new sexual harassment initiative. Setting a young record, a third-grader becomes one of the nation’s youngest authors while also publishing songs online.

Meanwhile, the Marcus JCC opened registration for its preschools and tryouts for the 2020 JCC Maccabi Games,

and an adult education course is made possible through a tribute gift from three daughters in memory of their mother.

Columnist Allen Lipis pays homage to a big supporter of Jewish education, Betty Minsk, and contributor Bob Bahr reviews a film series that has followed a group of children from 7 to 63.

We also share the impact Russ Shulkes made as executive director of Hillels of Georgia and we discuss why politically conservative Jews don’t think the Reform movement represents their views. Plus, there’s a healthy recipe for children in our Keeping it Kosher section.

It’s never too late to develop a new philosophy, according to a former Nazi, Ku Klux Klan member and white supremacist who will bring his message to Atlanta next week. With growing anti-Semitism, most notably recent violence in New York, the AJT reports on the latest in communitywide demonstrations of solidarity.

Bringing the community together is also the goal of the AJT’s second-annual Atlanta Jewish Life Festival Jan. 26, which we’ll preview next week. Prepare to be enlightened and entertained as the Jewish community unites to showcase what makes us special. ■

THIS WEEK

Cover Photo: A young boy expresses frustration about the need for school safety precautions at the March for Our Lives on March 24, 2018, in Atlanta.

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 5

LOCAL NEWS Shulkes Assumes New Role at Yeshiva University

By Eddie Samuels Eight years after stepping into the role of executive director of Hillels of Georgia, Rabbi Russ Shulkes is making his exit. He’s gearing up for a new challenge as dean of institutional advancement for Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

In speaking to the AJT, he reflected on how he first came to work for Hillels of Georgia after working for Hillel International in England for three years.

“I was very successful in England.

We literally quadrupled the size of Hillel in one place,” he said, noting that he never planned to stay overseas long term.

“Our work there was really focused on identity, in getting Jews to feel comfortable identifying as Jewish.”

Before getting involved at Hillel he had always thought about becoming a college professor, as he loved the atmospheres of college campuses. After his stint in England he applied for several jobs, though he had some needs in mind.

“As an Orthodox Jew I specifically applied for jobs where there was an Or-

6 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Students and staff praised Shulkes’ excitement in all aspects of his work with Hillels of Georgia.

thodox community close to campus,” he said. “I applied for a few, and Hillels of Georgia was by far the best job. I think there were about 40 applicants, and, thank G-d, they hired me.”

The focus of his mission shifted once he returned stateside.

“I think one thing that really set me apart was my focus on relationships with people,” he said. “For example, I just found out that one of our past [Hillel] presidents is going to be a bridesmaid at one of our staff member’s weddings. I

Shulkes said that in his role, getting students to embrace their Jewish identities was a core mission.

Shulkes, front right, enjoys a whitewater rafting trip with his students.

As for his new position, Shulkes says think that’s the paradigm we search for, where staff are friends and mentors and it appeared on his radar unexpectedly.

“I was recruited; it wasn’t something have a connection with our students.”

Among the highlights for Shulkes I applied for,” he said. “But I am very paswere the 10 Israel trips he led, and his sionate about my denomination. … If my work with Hillel was focused on identity, AIPAC Ally of the Year Award in 2016.

“It’s funny, when we got the award, I’m really looking forward to working on ideology.”

I thought it was In addifor the whole tion to being Hillels of Georhis alma mater, gia, so I was Shulkes has — calling staff by his count and congratu— at least 14 falating them on milial ties to the how much we’d institution, from done,” he said. his wife, to his “Only weeks brother and sislater did I find ter and more. out that it was Relationships were a focus of Shulkes’ Relocating specifically for time at Hillels of Georgia. to New York, me, which was jarring. It’s my direction, … but really it is Shulkes explained that the kosher foodie the staff who really execute those plans.” in him is excited at a new wealth of options.

“I had several farewell dinners in One of the staff members who worked with Shulkes closely is Lauren one week, and I went to Fuego Mundo Blazofsky, director of Hillel at Georgia three times — I love Fuego Mundo — but I know my wife and I are looking Tech.

“Russ hired me at Emory Hillel 5 ½ forward to the unlimited options in the years ago,” she said. “I think anyone and Northeast,” he said, laughing.

Molly Aeurbach, current president everyone will tell you that he is the fastest talker and has a lot of energy, but I was of Emory Hillel, first met Shulkes when really excited to work somewhere where she was a freshman at the university.

“I was there the first weekend at my supervisor seemed to be as passionEmory for the bagel brunch,” she said. ate about what we do as we were.”

As for what really sticks out for her “Every year has been different in terms about Shulkes, she explained that his of my role at Hillel, but he’s always engenuine care for his staff would always couraged me to do more and told me how much potential I have. I owe a lot of my stick with her.

“While he cares immensely about being president to him — he’ll deny that, the organization, he cares even more of course.”

As for the reactions from fellow stuabout his employees as human beings,” she said. “He wants them to do what’s dents, Aeurbach explained it was a combest for them in their current role, but bination of sadness and excitement.

“It’s a really exciting job, but it’s defialso better themselves for what’s next nitely a sad feeling,” she said. “When he even in other aspects of their life.”

In his time at Hillels of Georgia the first told me he was leaving, my initial organization has made significant strides, reaction was, thank G-d I’ve had him for 3 1/2 years.” ■ more than doubling its staff and budget.

LOCAL NEWS

Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Jewish Workplace

By Jan Jaben-Eilon The #Me Too movement is coming to the Atlanta Jewish community. The Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta is hosting a Change the Culture Summit Feb. 24 to address sexual harassment, sexism and gender discrimination in Jewish workplaces and communal spaces. The half-day program will address issues of safety, respect and equity and is designed for professionals, board members, lay leaders, donors and general community members.

Or perhaps the #MeToo movement is already here. As part of its Change the Culture Initiative, JWFA is seeking anonymous personal stories of discrimination, harassment and assault in Jewish workplaces.

According to Guila Benchimol is senior Rachel Wasseradvisor to the Safety, Respect, man, executive Equity Jewish coalition. director of JWFA, several such accounts have already been received, from both women and men. “We plan to incorporate these stories into the summit,” she said, stressing that she receives the anonymous reports directly from Google. “People are afraid that their stories can be traced,” she acknowledged.

The summit, to be held at The Selig Center, will kick off by sharing national research that shows the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace is not limited to the non-Jewish world. “The numbers speak for themselves,” Wasserman said. The research was conducted by Guila Benchimol, who is senior advisor to the Safety, Respect, Equity Jewish coalition that addresses sexual harassment and gender discrimination. She is also a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Social and Legal ResponsRachel Wasserman is executive director of the Jewish es to Violence.

Women’s Fund of Atlanta.

Another national expert that JWFA is bringing to the summit is Nicole Nevarez, the inaugural national director of Ta’amod: Stand Up!, a multi-pronged initiative dedicated to ending gender abuse, harassment and toxic culture in the Jewish communal space. According to Wasserman, Ta’amod is training people around the country to be resources for those who have experienced harassment in the workplace.

“The country has been engaging in this work for a couple of years now,” Wasserman noted. “We know that, unfortunately, these crimes that happen in the broader community also happen in the Jewish community.”

Over the past year, Jewish communities have started to

systematically address the issue, with the founding of national organizations and coalitions such as the Safety, Respect, Equity coalition and Ta’amod. These groups are placing special emphasis on the ethical, not just the legal standards that Jews owe to each other.

The summit hopes to attract men and women from all levels of leadership in the Jewish community, said Wasserman, including clergy, professionals, volunteers and lay leaders. “We hope organizations will send teams of people to the summit and see this as a professional development opportunity,” she added.

Wasserman calls the summit just a beginning for

the Atlanta Jewish community. The JWFA hopes to become a resource in this area as well as provide training for people to support those who experience harassment in the Jewish world. In March, the JWFA will offer a screening of a documentary about discrimination in the workplace. Although the film is not specifically about harassment in the Jewish world, “some Jewish professionals are interviewed in the film.”

To sign up for the Change the Culture Summit, visit www.jwfatlanta.org/events. If you want to submit an anonymous personal story, go to www.forms.gle/ajUFP6aa54ksctQp9. ■

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 7

LOCAL NEWS

Former White Supremacist Preaches Compassion

By Marcia Caller Jaffe TM Garret, now 44, was radicalized as a teen in Germany and his experience runs the gamut, including being a skinhead, Ku Klux Klan leader and white supremacist until he changed in 2002. Now, as a social activist and healer, Garret represents the Simon Wiesenthal Center, among other organizations, to speak at colleges or other sites where anti-Semitism is a topic. The news shakes and horrifies us with the current barrage of anti-Semitic attacks, most recently grabbing headlines with a dramatic increase in New York.

Three Chabad centers are bringing this timely topic to Atlanta next week.

Hear Garret’s personal and very timely story “Life After Hate: The Neo-Nazi Who Became a Peace Activist” 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13 at Chabad Intown’s Intown Jewish Academy, 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at Chabad of North Fulton, and 8 p.m. Jan. 15 at Chabad of Cobb.

“The horrific acts of violence against Jews and others that we are experiencing are a stark reminder of the dangers of hate — in whatever form it may take, said Rabbi Ari Sollish, founder and di-

rector of Intown Jewish Academy. “Our world is so divided; we desperately need messages of love, tolerance and unity. TM is a living example of how a human being can transform from utter hate to unconditional love. His story is inspirational and, above all, hopeful. This is a story we all need to hear.”

Garret said, “Our black and white polarized political climate has got it all wrong. The gray area is gone. We need to be listening, not fighting.” Garret’s lecture will detail how he was radicalized and what changed him. He believes that spewing hate back is not the answer.

“The extreme left and right have us living in our own bubbles. Hatred today is popular, and it’s expressed more. Social media helped divide the country, so we feel we have to pick one side.”

Garret often has spoken on college campuses after a hate incident: Ohio State, Harvard, Vanderbilt universities, and others, including law schools. Some are surprised by his light-handedness. He believes that students should experience legal consequences for hate acts; but he advocates withholding social consequences. “People make mistakes and if they

Photos by John Sklba – Simplify your Life // TM Garret, a German-born radicalized former

white supremacist, will speak at three Atlanta Chabad centers beginning Jan. 13.

learn to understand what they did wrong, they should be forgiven. Often, they don’t realize the history or full impact of an evil symbol, or they could be acting out to get attention. I believe in second chances.”

Holocaust survivors are decreasing in numbers and are less able to travel and tell their stories, so people like Garret are in a position to take over this role.

He thinks that the extreme right and left got many beliefs wrong. On the left, he said some Jews think the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions propaganda movement is solely anti-Israel, not anti-Semitic. “If they did their homework, they would see that its founders are virulent anti-Semites,” he said.

“Conversely, sometimes we have to admit bad groups can be right. In the 80s, the KKK predicted that some major cities would lose their white majority by 2020.

And they are right, but so what? I call it ‘German angst.’ The Klan was right about some things,” he added.

Garret was initially radicalized by “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” anti-Semitic document and fell for the “Jews will take over the world” evil notion. We’ve heard the reasons for antiSemitism before: Jews were accused of killing Jesus, they resisted and would not convert to Christianity, and they were criticized for being in the money business. “Believe it or not, the kindness of a Muslim, whom I thought I should hate, turned me around with unconditional love. The best counter is to do what the haters do not expect,” Garret said.

He also has a program for free tattoo removal for those with hate designs.

Garret helps people who want to get out of bad groups including jihadis and gang members. While he has been in the recording and film industry, he is now in the pyro technical business. You might find him on New Year’s Eve heading up a fireworks show. ■

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LOCAL NEWS

Political Conservatives Talk Back at Reform Biennial

By Bob Bahr Atlanta Jewish religious leaders at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Biennial convention last month in Chicago confronted the deepening divide between political conservatives and liberals in synagogue life.

Rabbi Peter Berg, senior rabbi of The Temple in Atlanta, was among a group of leading figures in the Reform movement who participated in what was called “A Conversation for Politically Conservative Reform Jews.”

The program was an attempt to answer criticisms by some with conservative political views that their opinions don’t count when the URJ takes social and political stands that are controversial.

Rabbi Berg’s synagogue has a long history of involvement in liberal civic and political issues in Atlanta. He admits he frequently wrestles with how to present difficult issues so that everyone has a say.

“Everyone wants to feel comfortable,” he maintains. “They don’t want to feel like they’re walking into a political rally. They want to feel like they’re walking into a synagogue. The question is how to package everything we’re talking about.”

Representatives of congregations from states such as Wisconsin, Texas and West Virginia were critical during the program of how decisions are made at the national level. One delegate from the Midwest expressed his deep frustration with the Reform leadership and said it is too far to the left even for many Democrats.

Some support for those criticisms came from Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, a Reform religious leader with strong liberal credentials, who also attended the discussion over the political direction of the URJ. In 2016 he was among a group of Jewish religious leaders who staged a walkout when Donald Trump spoke at the annual AIPAC meeting during the national election campaign.

Yet Salkin, who was a rabbi in Atlanta and Columbus, Ga., and is now at Temple Solel in Hollywood, Fla., backed up some of the comments made by conservative Reform leaders.

“The URJ has never made a political pronouncement or a pronouncement on a public issue that deviates very far from the center left of the Democratic party,” he said. “We tout ourselves as a movement of what we call ‘audacious hospital-

The conversation in Chicago with Reform conservatives was led by Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the URJ’s Religious Action Center. Seated is Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple in Atlanta.

In his keynote address, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the URJ, sought to cool the rhetoric between Reform’s conservatives and liberals.

ity’ but our Republican members do not always experience it that way.”

In fact, when the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism held its annual meeting in Washington this summer, it was described by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as “a Democratic lovefest.”

The only Republican to speak at the RAC meeting was Paul Teller, a special assistant to President Donald Trump for legislative affairs. He was introduced by Rabbi Ron Segal, senior rabbi of Temple Sinai in Sandy Springs, who is also the president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Segal urged attendees to work toward a measure of understanding with members of both political parties.

“It is essential we celebrate a diversity of views and never forget that value,” Rabbi Segal said at the meeting, according to the JTA. “We remain firmly nonpartisan and we seek opportunities to work together on issues of common concern with all elected officials regardless of political party.”

That was also the message that Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the URJ, brought to the Chicago convention last month.

“Respecting a range of political opinion is as important as accepting diverse views of G-d and Jewish life,” he said in his keynote address. “Some of our congregations are so polarized that big issues are not discussed for fear of further splintering our already deeply divided communities.”

Among the workshops at the convention was a three-hour program by

communication consultants from a group called Resetting the Table. The program for Reform leaders, in a room filled to capacity, was described as “Building A Culture of Dialogue Across Differences.”

The program was similar to one held four years ago in Atlanta by the same group for the Jewish Community Relations Council. It won a national award for the JCRC. The program in Atlanta and the program in Chicago last month were led by Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, cofounding executive director of Resetting the Table.

“In many communities, either those who lean left or those who lean right or more conservative feel disenfranchised and marginalized. It’s like there is no room for multiple voices,” Jacobs said.

Still, the RAC is firmly committed to beginning an ambitious nonpartisan civic engagement campaign in this election year. The program, which begins this month, is an ambitious national campaign to get out the vote.

Rabbi Berg is optimistic about the future. After the meeting with conservative Reform representatives was over, he seemed hopeful about what was next for the Reform movement.

“We are a strong cohesive movement,” he said. “We are bound together

by Reform tradition, theology and a belief that it sometimes is OK to disagree.” ■

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 9

LOCAL NEWS

Unity and Action Urged in Response to Anti-Semitism

By Dave Schechter

At the close of the Jan. 6 “Jewish Atlanta Solidarity Event,” hundreds of men and women, their arms draped across shoulders to their left and right, swayed side-toside as they chanted the sounds of a niggun, a wordless song, led by Rabbi Pamela Gottfried of Congregation Bet Haverim.

The 1,100 people who filled all three levels of the Byers Theatre at City Springs, and another 450 watching in an overflow room, heard a mixture of testimonies about anti-Semitism and various calls for actions to counter history’s oldest hatred.

The program was prompted by recent attacks against Jews in New York and New Jersey, which have resulted in at least three deaths and numerous injuries.

In response to those incidents, on Dec. 29, the last night of Chanukah, 300 people gathered for a menorah lighting at the Toco Hills Shopping Center. Rabbi Adam Starr of Congregation Ohr HaTorah (formerly Young Israel of Toco Hills) organized that gathering after hearing of Jews afraid to display holiday candles following the machete attack at a celebration in Monsey, N.Y. Speaking at the Atlanta solidarity event, Eric Robbins, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, said, “Just one week ago I got a call from Rabbi Starr. This event unfolded unbelievably in this week, with collaboration, with no egos, to bring you together to help you feel more secure.”

The program was organized by the Federation,

10 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Photos courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta // “I am Israeli. I am Jewish. And I am proud,” Anat

The event audience of 1,100 people filled all three levels of the Byers Theatre at City Springs.

American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta, and Atlanta Rabbinical Association. Robbins noted that the audience included clergy of other faiths, as well as municipal and county officials, state legislators and representatives of foreign governments.

The evening began with Rabbi Ari Kaiman of Congregation Shearith Israel leading the singing of the Hebrew song “Kol Ha’Olam Kulo, Gesher Tsar Me’od,” which

translates in English to “The Whole World Is A Narrow Bridge.”

The theme of the remarks that followed mirrored the line in the song that says, “And the main thing to recall, is not to be afraid, not to be afraid at all.”

Starr declared, “This is the Atlanta Jewish community at its very best. We’re gathered here proudly and publicly. And this evening it doesn’t matter what you have on your head or what you don’t have on your head, what synagogue you affiliate with or what synagogue you don’t affiliate with, whether you are Conservative, Reform, Orthodox or Reconstructionist. This evening we are all one, members of the Jewish community of Atlanta, proudly and publicly acknowledging our Jewishness.”

Among the testimonies was that of Sydney Levine, a student at North Gwinnett Middle School, who told of how she endured four incidents of anti-Semitism the previous year, as a seventh grader, incidents that she reported to school authorities, county officials, and the ADL One involved a boy who said “Kill all Jews” on her school bus. “Another student asked why I told on him.

He said, he was just joking,” Levine related. “My answer was that it didn’t come from nowhere. The fact that he could think that and say that aloud came from deep down inside him.”

Victoria Raggs offered a perspective unfamiliar to the majority of America’s 6.5-million-plus Jews, that of an African American, one of an estimated 1 million “Jews of color,” a figure drawn from a study released in May by the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative.

Raggs has been a member of Congregation B’nai Torah for 13 years. She has traveled to Israel with Momentum (formerly known as the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project). Her children have attended the Atlanta Jewish Academy, The Epstein School, and The Weber School, as well as Jewish camps and JCC Maccabi Games.

Nevertheless, “With all that Jewish living, I’m still told, ‘But you don’t look Jewish,’” she said.

“Denomination, affiliation, observance levels and ethnicity seem monumental to us. We should take a cue from our enemies, who believe that a Jew is a Jew is a Jew,” Raggs cautioned. “Every Jew counts. We are only

Sultan-Dadon told a packed auditorium.

LOCAL NEWS

Rabbi Ari Kaiman led the singing of “Kol Ha’Olam Kulo, Gesher Tsar Me’od” (“The Whole World Is A Narrow Bridge”).

Sydney Levine, a student at North Gwinnett Middle School, talked about her response to acts of anti-Semitism.

as strong as our weakest link. … Jews are strong together, but separate and divided we are weak.”

Rabbi Yossi New of Chabad of Georgia presented a more stereotypical Jewish face. “I am a Chasidic Jew. I look like many of the victims in Brooklyn and New Jersey. I know I’m stating the obvious, but it’s not how Jewish you look that causes anti-Semitism. The way one looks is merely the canary in the coal mine,” New said.

Several speakers thanked members of other faiths for their support when Jews have been attacked, whether at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018, the Chabad of Poway, Calif., in April 2019, or the recent attacks in the Northeast. “We are so grateful for your support. You can’t imagine how much it means to us that we are not alone in this fight,” Starr said to applause.

Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal of Ahavath Achim Synagogue, who is president of the rabbinical association, went a step further. “When people of other faiths reach out to support us, take their hand.

We have been intoxicated with this idea that we are a light unto the nations,” Rosenthal said. “The world doesn’t know how to care for one another. We know how to do that.”

After a gunman killed worshippers in a Texas church, Rosenthal sent notes of condolence to local Christian clergy.

Jews should extend to other faiths the kind of support they have received, he said. “Send them a letter. Reach out to that church and offer your support.

Share your compassion and your love for them. Show them that they’re not alone.”

Legislative action was urged by a threesome of Dov Wilker, AJC regional director; Allison Padilla-Goodman, ADL regional director; and Leslie Anderson, JCRC executive director. Georgia is one of five states that does not have a hate crimes law. AJC, ADL and JCRC are part of a coalition lobbying the Georgia legislature to enact a hate crimes statute. “Right now is the time to stand up and speak out against hate,” Anderson said, imploring

the audience to text their support of a petition urging passage of a hate crimes law.

“Hate crimes are designed to cause pain and hurt well beyond the original victim. Hate crimes are intended to silence and eliminate our most valuable possession, our identity,” Padilla-Goodman said.

Emory University professor and Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt addressed the event by a video feed from Washington, D.C., where on Jan. 8 she was scheduled to testify before the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Call anti-Semitism what it is, “Jew hatred, because that’s what it means,” Lipstadt said. “We have to remember and understand that it is a threat to democracy. It’s not just a threat to Jews; of course, it’s that. It’s also a threat to the health of our democracy.

“Being Jewish is about so much more than being a victim,” Lipstadt said. “Being Jewish is about celebrating an age-old identity. Being Jewish is about treasuring the fact that our tradition teaches us to treasure justice.”

That message of pride was echoed by several speakers.

“I am Israeli. I am Jewish. And I am proud,” said Anat Sultan-Dadon, Israel’s consul general to the Southeast United States.

“Remember, there is a great resilience in the Jewish spirit. Be proud of who you are. Do not permit fear to diminish you,” said Rabbi Alexandria Shuval Weiner of Temple Beth Tikvah, who is vice president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.

New’s recommendation was that “All of us can strengthen Jewish identity just be being proud of who we are and displaying it fearlessly and unabashedly.”

Rosenthal said, “We must be proud.

We must live proud and out loud our Judaism; even with the fear. We have no choice. So wear what you wear. Celebrate how you celebrate. Live it, proud and out loud, we have no choice any more.” ■ ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 11

ISRAEL PRIDE

News From Our Jewish Home

Courtesy of Habana // Habana’s Goya

processor is sold worldwide.

U.S. Tech Giant Acquires Israeli Startup U.S. tech company Intel Corp. has signed a deal to acquire Israeli startup Habana Labs for $2 billion, the company announced last month. This is Intel’s secondlargest acquisition in Israel after it bought Mobileye, an autonomous car technology developer, in 2017, according to The Times of Israel.

Last year Intel Capital invested in Habana Labs, a Caesarea-based artificial intelligence processor and chip maker.

The startup was founded in 2016 by

David Dahan and Ran Halutz and already has a processor, called Goya, being sold worldwide. In June, they introduced the Gaudi AI training processor solution. The company will continue to operate independently and keep its local offices open, said a statement from Intel.

Along with its Tel Aviv office, the company has offices in San Jose, Calif.; Beijing, China; and Gdansk, Poland.

“We have been fortunate to get to know and collaborate with Intel given its investment in Habana, and we’re thrilled to be officially joining the team,” Dahan, CEO of Habana, said in the statement. “Intel has created a world-class AI team and capability. We are excited to partner with Intel to accelerate and scale our business.

Together, we will deliver our customers more AI innovation, faster.”

Roman Food Site Uncovered in Ashkelon A first century factory that produced the highly desirable fermented fish sauce during the Roman era was recently uncovered during excavations near the city

Today in Israeli History

Photo by Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office // Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak,

U.S. President Bill Clinton and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara talk during a walk in Shepherdstown on Jan. 3, 2000.

Jan. 10, 2000: Seven days of peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara, focusing on trading all or part of the Golan Heights for peace, conclude without any resolution in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy says the talks, facilitated by U.S. President Bill Clinton, never come close to resolving any issues. The negotiations are supposed to resume Jan. 19 but never restart.

Jan. 11, 1961: The Egoz, a ship leased by the Mossad to secretly transport Moroccan Jews to Israel, sinks around 3 a.m., a few hours after leaving the Moroccan 12 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

A monument to the victims of the Egoz sinking stands on Mount Herzl.

port of Al Hoceima on its 12th immigration trip. Forty-four would-be immigrants, half of them children, drown. The tragedy leads Morocco to ease its ban on Jewish emigration in exchange for a payment for each person who leaves, and some 80,000 Jews depart Morocco from 1961 to 1964.

Jan. 12, 1989: In the first competition for Israeli athletes in the Soviet Union since the Six-Day War in June 1967, the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team beats CSKA Red Army in Moscow, 97-92. The game reflects a thaw between Israel and the Soviet Union since they re-established consular relations in 1987. Still, 200 Maccabi fans are granted visas to travel to the game only at the last minute, so Soviet Jews make up much of the crowd.

Photo by Anat Rasiuk, Israel Antiquities Authority // Archaeologists work

at the Ashkelon excavation.

of Ashkelon. It is one of the only identified sites for production of the sauce that has been found in the region.

“We have something really unusual here,” Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini told The Times of Israel last month.

The slimy fermented sauce was considered one of the most sought-after prod-

ucts of the Roman Empire. “I think of it as a condiment, but it went well beyond that,” Erickson-Gini said. “It’s hard for us to imagine. It was far more common than ketchup.”

The team uncovered several installations at the 2,000-year-old site that convinced Erickson-Gini they had found a rare garum production center or cetaria, she said. There are similar installations in the Iberian Peninsula that mirror what was found in Ashkelon.

So far, there is only one other location in Israel in Dor that likely produced the garum, Erickson-Gini said, though there are others in the region.

“What interests me is the fact that this product was very, very popular in the Roman and Byzantine period. As popular as it was, you’d expect to find a lot of installations. I’m shocked we haven’t found more of them in excavations,” she said.

A National Geographic article in 2018 on the sauce states it was considered so essential to the Roman diet “that a huge network of trade routes grew up to move the prized relish from fishery to plate. Like many delicacies today, the finest garum could sell for astronomical sums.” ■

Jan. 13, 1922: Nahum Sokolow, the president of the World Zionist Congress’ Executive Committee, meets with U.S. President Warren Harding for nearly an hour during a U.S. tour to raise money for Jewish settlement in Palestine. Sokolow briefs Harding on the hardships and persecution faced by European Jews and progress on the Zionist enterprise. Sokolow’s son Florian says Harding offers his sympathy for Zionism and promises U.S. government support.

the death camps but is accused by a Hungarian Jew living in Jerusalem in 1952 of collaboration and concealment of information about the Holocaust.

Jan. 14, 1925: Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, one of modern Judaism’s most influential composers and spiritual leaders, is born in Berlin. He spends his early years in Baden, Austria, where his father is the chief rabbi. The family escapes to Lithuania in July 1938, then moves to Brooklyn after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. He founds the House of Love and Prayer in San Francisco in the 1960s and starts a moshav near Tel Aviv, Me’or Modi’in, when he settles in Israel in 1977.

Israel’s first astronaut, Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon, was part of the team that destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981.

Jan. 15, 1958: Israel (Rudolf) Kastner is cleared by the Israeli Supreme Court of any wrongdoing in his activities during World War II as the head of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Hungary under the Nazi occupation. Kastner is estimated to have saved 33,000 Hungarian Jews from

Jan. 16, 2003: The space shuttle Columbia launches from the Kennedy Space Center with Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, among the crew. The son and grandson of Auschwitz survivors, Ramon marks Shabbat and eats kosher food in space. No one knows at the time that a piece of foam breaks off the shuttle’s external tank during the launch and damages a wing. As a result, Columbia disintegrates on re-entry Feb. 1, killing all seven crew members. ■ Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), where you can find more details.

ISRAEL NEWS Immunity Request Increases Stress on Third Elections

By Jan Jaben-Eilon It’s less than two months until Israel’s next election on March 2, after which, hopefully one of the 120 members of the Knesset will be able to cobble together a majority government (61 or more members).

Here’s what we know about the upcoming and unprecedented election, and what we don’t: We don’t know if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party will receive enough votes and enough support from other right-wing parties to be tasked with forming a government. And, because he’s facing three indictments in criminal cases, we won’t know if he would even be allowed to try to put together a government.

At the beginning of this year, the Israeli Supreme Court refused to answer that question because, the judges said, it was too theoretical until they saw what the vote would be.

We also don’t know if Netanyahu’s official request Dec. 31 to the Knesset for immunity will even Surveys of American Jews be discussed by the don’t ask about Prime Minister [so-far non-existent] Benjamin Netanyahu’s favorability, House Committee, said Richard S. Walter. which must vote on the request before the entire Knesset votes.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, hasn’t decided whether to allow the committee to be named. That means we don’t know if it will be this Knesset or the next that will vote on the immunity request, which must be granted before an actual trial date can be set for Netanyahu’s case to be heard before the Jerusalem District Court.

To complicate matters further, Netanyahu has requested both procedural and substantive immunity, depending on which case he’s been indicted. Substantive immunity doesn’t expire, while procedural immunity lasts until the end of his term.

This is what we do know, according to Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, who commented on IDI President Yohanan Plesner Netanyahu’s unprecsaid Israel has no term limits edented request for for its prime minister. immunity. “As Israel does not have term limits for members of Knesset or for its prime ministers, granting immunity means an indefinite delay in the legal proceedings and could constitute

IDI flow chart spells out the possible next steps in Netanyahu’s immunity request.

irreparable harm to the principle of ‘equality before the law.’ By remaining in the highest elected office while indicted of such serious crimes, significant harm will be caused to the public’s trust in the rule of law. It will be nearly impossible to explain that the Prime Minister has full trust in the professionalism of the institutions which he oversees while at the same time as he is attacking their credibility in an effort to raise doubts about the charges against him.”

For American Jews who often conflate their positive feelings for Israel with support for a prime minister who has been in office for more than a decade, this can be a confusing time. Not only are Israel’s electoral and judicial systems different from those in America, but Netanyahu’s specific predicament can be mystifying.

Richard S. Walter, vice president of curriculum and outreach at the Center for Israel Education, pointed out that “while there have been a number of recent surveys about American Jews and their attitudes towards Israel, none of these have asked about Netanyahu’s favorability in particular.”

If one were to judge by the prime minister’s reception at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., Americans wildly support him. However, the last conference occurred before Netanyahu’s indictments and prior to his two failures to form a majority government after elections in March and September. His chief challenger, Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party, also

failed to cobble together a government after the September election. Hence, the third election, scheduled for March 2.

According to Walter, “I can’t imagine that Netanyahu receiving or not receiving immunity is going to be the driving factor in American Jewish attitudes towards Israel. Rather, I think of far greater importance will be whether or not the March elections produce a government and how that government proceeds on the issues that are important to American Jews – or, at least large segments of them, namely religion and public life, including recognition of non-Orthodox forms of Judaism, and the stalled peace process with the Palestinians.”

As for Israelis, the latest IDI Index indicates 58 percent of the country’s citizens believe their government is corrupt. This comes as Netanyahu’s fellow Likud Knesset member Haim Katz has already requested immunity from the Knesset over charges filed against him, while other members of the government are awaiting indictments on various charges. In addition, Netanyahu’s predecessor Ehud Olmert went to prison after being found guilty for bribery and breach of trust, while former President Moshe Katsav was imprisoned on rape charges in 2011, current Interior Minister Aryeh Deri went to prison (and is being investigated again) on bribery charges, and former Minister of Finance Avraham Hirschson was imprisoned a decade ago for stealing. ■ ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 13

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Letter to the editor, A Jewish Holiday Tale My name is Rivka Begun. I am a native Atlantan who studied at GHA [Greenfield Hebrew Academy] and grew up in Sandy Springs. I wrote this short holiday story about Jewish Christmas and would love to share it with you in case there was space to put it somewhere in the paper.

It had been a long time since Santa had left the north pole for reasons other than business. Since the elf on a shelf craze, he’d no longer needed to visit the houses of children to make sure they were naughty or nice. He was OK with that. Spying was a thankless job; no cookies and milk was now a deal breaker for him.

But Mrs. Klaus told Santa that they needed to branch out and meet new couple friends. When she dragged him into the sleigh for a dinner date with a couple she had met on chatroulette, he only went along with it to appease his stubborn-as-a-reindeer wife.

The restaurant, a lackluster Italian place in Atlanta, did not impress Santa. He knew he was missing the nightly Christmas feast his elves prepared for the Klauses, and he fantasized about mashed potatoes, ham, and Christmas cookies as he unenthusiastically spun spaghetti around his fork. Mrs. Klaus, however, could care less about the lack of cranberry sauce, and instead used her fork to lightly poke Santa when she realized he wasn’t paying attention to their dinner dates, Leah and David Rappoport.

“Oh, we don’t celebrate Christmas.” Leah said, and Santa’s ears perked up. This was new and a lot more exciting than the now cold garlic bread still sitting in the middle of the table.

“We spend Christmas Eve at Canton Cooks; their General Tso’s chicken is the best.”

Santa nearly choked on his meatball. Chinese food? On Christmas? Blasphemy!

Sacrilege! Disrespect!

“We’d love to join you!” said Mrs. Klaus, and Santa felt like sending a far harder poke with his fork at her leg.

Santa’s face turned red. He remembered his anger management training, took a few breaths, composed himself, smiled a jolly smile, and whispered into Mrs. Klaus’ ears.

“Christmas Cookie, ... I only work one night a year, and Chinese dinner seems to be cutting it close. Besides I’m full enough with all the cookies and milk people leave out for me when I drop off the goods.”

“Oh don’t be silly!” said Mrs. Klaus, as she lightly slapped Santa’s thigh. “You don’t need to have all of the presents delivered until morning, and besides, you could do without the cookies. You’ve got quite a gut!”

“I’ve always had a gut!” Santa said as he forgot his breathing exercises and his face turned ever redder.

But the rules of marriage applied to everyone, even Santa Klaus. Two months later, on Christmas Eve, Santa and Mrs. Klaus parked their reindeer sled in the snow and greeted the Rappoports at the entrance to Canton Cooks.”

“We’ve already ordered for you. We hope you like Mongolian Beef and Sizzling Rice Soup!” Leah said as she looked around the restaurant hall, waving and smiling to the other Jews indulging in their Christmas feast.

“It’s not so bad,” Santa thought to himself as he took his seat next to David and Mrs. Klaus.

“Try the dumplings, they’re delicious!” Leah said, and she spun the Lazy Susan so Santa was faced with the massive plate. Many Lazy Susan spins later, 12 plates emptied and stacked in front of him, Santa fell into the kind of nap that can only come after the excitement and joy of a Jewish Christmas. Mrs. Klaus kissed him, walked out of Canton Cooks, boarded their reindeer sled, and delivered presents to every sleeping child on earth.

“Don’t worry, I’ll save you a few cookies,” she said to the air as she tasted the sweetness of her husband’s job for one night.

Rivka Begun, Zurich, Switzerland

OPINION Letter to the editor, While there is much to be said for not giving up after a couple of failed attempts, it should also be noted that “doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting different results� is a form of insanity. At this point in time, it would be inappropriate to change the ground rules for the March 2, 2020, elections in Israel. However, considering that the election is not expected to produce results different from those of the April and September elections, it is appropriate (indeed, necessary) that steps be taken now to ensure that a fourth election, if needed, will produce a Knesset able to govern.

It is clear that there are too many parties seeking seats in the Knesset and that many parties lack an identifiable platform, which results in a constant shifting of the players as parties are forever changing alliances or breaking into smaller factions, which then coalesce with pieces of other parties to create newer parties.

I suggest that the election committee should propose guidelines for the election, which will come after the March 2 event, whether that election will be scheduled for 2020 or, I hope, several years in the future. Parties should be required to prepare platforms in which they outline their plans for dealing with major issues. The election committee should specify several, which each party must address and allow parties to also discuss several issues of their own choosing. The parties should then be required to obtain signatures of a specified number of registered voters before they are permitted to stand for election. Should the election result in a situation where a government cannot be formed, parties which did not meet the threshold required to gain seats should be excluded from standing for election until the first election subsequent to the seating of a Knesset in which a functioning government is seated.

Toby F. Block, Atlanta The AJT welcomes your letters. We want our readers to have an opportunity to engage with our community in constructive dialogue. If you would like your letter to be published, please write 200 words or less, include your name, phone number and email, and send it to editor@atljewishtimes.com.

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 15

EDUCATION Jewish Students Bear Society’s Security Burden

By Paula Baroff

school, as a Jewish school on top of that.

Kids are curious by nature,” Levine-Hunt said.

As the Jewish community heightens “The most kids are aware is when security, our youth are bearing the emowe have our lockdown drills,” Levinetional impact. “This is not new to them; Hunt said. Though the drills are scary, it’s the world that they’ve always lived the school tries to be careful with their in,” said Kelly Cohen, director of Jumplanguage and give children a sense that Spark, which provides Jewish teen endrills help them to be prepared and have gagement programs. Teens are “hearing control over their own safety, much like more about anti-Semitism and violence, fire drills. “I have a pit in my stomach but also more about gun violence. They every time we do it. It scares me, being see them as one thing; different manifesan adult, being aware of the reality,” she tations of one thing. said. Though Levine-Hunt has seen a defi“In their lives, there’s increased senite increase in anxiety in children, in curity all over, and there’s a nervousness general, she hasn’t seen it attributed speabout being in Jewish spaces and public Teens protest after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. cifically to fears around security. spaces.”

However, the Jewish high school stuTeens today are dealing with situaWorking with Jewish teens on a attitudes of teenagers across a wide vations and trauma that their parents were regular basis, Cohen has noticed a trend riety of topics, including security, shoot- dents that Cohen works with have been not impacted by, Cohen said. around teens’ responses to what they per- ings and anti-Semitism. “The number doing active shooter lockdown drills for “I worked at Camp Coleman and one ceive as increased societal violence and one most salient point is that teens do not their whole school careers. “The experiof the students who was killed at Park- hate. “I think it’s trauma,” she said. “I was necessarily see the rise of anti-Semitism ence that they have had has been one that land was a camper there. It’s traumatic just at a conference on the rise of anti- as a uniquely Jewish issue. They see it as a for years going to school has been a terrifying experience for and I think we’re goSemitism in the Jewish part of a larger spread some of them. There’s ing to see the effects world and thinking of hate and violence in a lot of trauma there of raising kids in this about it from a posi- society,” Cohen said. already,” Cohen said.

The awareness traumatic environtion of Jewish educa“They are more scared ment,” she said. “We tors. One of the people about increased antiof going to school than had some members was presenting trauma Semitism and security they are of going to of our fellowship last responses. We see in has trickled down to shul. Obviously, we year who were talking teens an increase in younger children as are worried about the about when they did anxiety, an increase in well. “It’s interesting rise in anti-Semitism. the walkout of schools depression and these when to start [sharObviously, it’s leading and being told by can be a response to ing more information to an increase in secuabout security] with school administrators trauma. rity. For a lot of Jewish that if they stood up “Being on the floor kids a lot of the times teens, it’s just another because different and walked out there at 9 years old, huddled Molly Levine-Hunt is an Kelly Cohen said heightened outgrowth of that, not families share differwould be punitive rewith your classmates, elementary school guidance security is the norm for teens. counselor at The Epstein School. necessarily a uniquely ent information. Older percussions.

These that leaves a mark.” teens said to me, ‘We are fighting for our In one of the largest and most com- kids share information with younger Jewish problem.”

The Jewish Education Project study lives here.’ It made them feel very unsafe prehensive studies done of modern Jew- siblings,” said Molly Levine-Hunt, an elto hear administrators say, ‘Sit down, ish teens, called “Gen Z Now: Jewish Teens ementary school guidance counselor at included interviews with teens about stop.’ This isn’t hypothetical for them, Research Study,” released in spring 2019, The Epstein School. “The scariest part is anti-Semitism and reported that though this is the reality that they live in.”

The Jewish Education Project measured when kids are saying a lot of people want people interviewed express concerns about anti-Semitism, generally they saw to hurt us just because we’re Jewish.”

“I try not to bring new information it as a wider trend around political exin. These kids talk, you know,” Levine- tremism and gun violence.

“I think that it was definitely a wakeHunt said, mentioning that they had a second grader announce an anti-Semitic up call for people who had never thought attack to their class before. “Some of them they even needed an alarm clock before. are able to access more information than … Like, it’s really reasonable to panic at others on the internet or television. A lot there being a pogrom here, but it’s not of times parents think if they don’t talk unfamiliar, and it’s not unexpected,” a about it at home, they’re shielded, but I teen identified as Sarah-Rosalind said think it’s hard, it’s a delicate dance par- in the report about the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, referencents have to do.”

Adults, including teachers and ing growing anti-Semitism.

“I don’t feel super differently about school administrators, naturally want to protect children. But because of secu- [Pittsburgh] than I did about like Marrity measures, they also want to make jory Stoneman Douglas, or anything like them aware of what’s happening and that. Like, yes, I’m a Jew, it’s a shul, but I’m why there are “those extra security pre- also a high school student, and that was cautions we have to take especially as a a school,” another student named Anna16 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

EDUCATION belle said in the report, reinforcing that schools and other Jewish institutions. “I her main concern was gun control. The think the data has shown that the more shootings are “all horrible, and I think involved an individual is in their own they’re all equally horrible regardless self-preservation during an active shooter event, the higher of how many people likelihood they’ll surit kills, or what gun vive the attack,” Wilthey used, or who the liams said. “The more people were. It’s all the involved a classroom is same thing. Yeah.” in securing a lockdown For the Jewish or evacuating or whatcommunity as a whole, ever the methodology there have been some is, … It’s been proven benefits to increased [efffective] through attention to security. multiple studies but According to Zach Wilalso through multiple liams, who oversees the active shooter events.

Jewish Federation of Because of that we Greater Atlanta’s secuDavid Bryfman called Gen Z can’t expect our sturity efforts that include the “lockdown generation.” dents and classrooms the Jewish day schools, there is more widespread coordination in to effectively be involved in the process the Jewish community around security. unless they know what to do.”

The security-conscious environment “There’s still an emphasis on preparation and preparedness in the community. If is a tangible reality for organizations anything has changed, it’s more people be- such as JumpSpark that work with teens, ing aware. It’s not so much one day maybe as they consider not only the impact of it might happen; that mentality’s gone shootings and anti-Semitism on teens’ away. You’ve seen a resurgence in a more emotional health but actually securing their own events. Often their programs holistic community approach.”

Active shooter drills, from a secu- use Jewish spaces, which means they rity standpoint, are a crucial element for must hire a mandatory security guard.

Pittsburgh children rally after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting.

They also are very cautious about what information is put on social media when they’re gathering teens for an event. “We hear this all the time from other organizations we work with, how to navigate social media and security,” Cohen said. The Jewish Education Project has started a working group for Jewish educators and professionals who are more interested in security and how it affects young Jews. Their CEO David Bryfman called Gen Z the “lockdown generation,” and encouraged educators to stick with

positive Jewish education rather than fear-based, emphasizing that “fear is not a good pedagogy” in an article written for eJewish Philanthropy in October.

Cohen said of addressing security, “None of us wanted to be here; none of us thought that in 2019 this would be the most pressing topic in Jewish education. It just wasn’t the landscape that we thought we’d be doing this work in. A lot of us are having to learn and catch up to help navigate this new reality that we’re doing our work in.” ■

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 17

EDUCATION

Is Respecting Diversity Part of the Jewish Curriculum?

By Jan Jaben-Eilon About a year ago, Hannah Hassell “took a knee” during the playing of the national anthem at The Epstein School, where the now 13-year-old is in eighth grade. Like the NFL football players who protested police brutality against black people in America, Hassell wanted her voice to be heard among fellow Jewish students.

“I felt like I needed to do it, especially in an all-white space,” she told the AJT before speaking on a panel Dec. 22 with two other black Jewish youths about Jewish diversity in education. “To me, it symbolized strength because I’m usually quiet.”

The response was not as supportive as Hassell would have liked. Two teachers and a number of students told her to stand up. They said she was being disrespectful of the flag and the U.S. army, which she argued against. Some students stood up for her.

Head of school David Abusch-Magder told the AJT that he had not heard of the event, but that one of the school’s values is to encourage multiple views. “We try to teach our students from the youngest that

18 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Ariel Raggs, Hannah Hassell and Miriam Raggs shared their experiences of being both black and Jewish at a program held at The Epstein School.

there are many perspectives in looking at the world.”

He added that what can be life changing for one person can scoot by someone else. “Adults don’t always see the significance [of events] for kids.”

As part of last month’s panel, Hassell related her experiences as a black child in mostly white Jewish environments such as school and camp.

Fellow panelist Ariel Raggs, a 16-yearold student at Chamblee High School,

shared how her double identity mostly to increase emphasis on the Jewish value just confused other students. “I explained of welcoming and inclusion. “The basic that both my parents are Jewish and I was premise of our work is that diversity of the Jewish people is a value,” born Jewish. It’s not hard, she said. just different,” she told Be’chol Lashon is a an audience at The Epnational organization stein School program last that strives to strengthen month.

Jewish identity by raisRaggs’ 14-year-old ing awareness about the sister Miriam, a student ethnic, racial and cultural at The Weber School, rediversity of Jewish identity ported, “I had never exand experience. “This is perienced overt racism work that will have to hapuntil I was in the Jewish pen institution by institucommunity,” referring to tion and by the commua camp experience. nity as a whole,” she said.

The panel showcasDr. Tarece Johnson organized Some Atlanta Jewish ing young voices was one of several programs that the “Courageous Conversations institutions certainly are for Change” panel last month making the effort. Daeducator Dr. Tarece Johnhighlighting young voices. vid Abusch-Magder said son [and Hassell’s mother] sponsored to highlight the importance of he has been aware of the importance of navigating differences and including di- including diversity, both explicitly and implicitly, all of his career. “Kids watch versity in Jewish education.

Abusch-Magder said Hassell’s experi- what we do, not just what we say,” he said. ence could be “the basis for a constructive “Adults also are watching what instituconversation.” He said educators must tions do and not just what we say.”

In second grade at Epstein, he noted, teach students to be inclusive of all kinds of differences beyond race and culture, in- students are taught about Shabbat around cluding diversity among Jewish denomi- the world in Judaic studies. “What does nations, in physical differences and even Shabbat look like in Iraq, Tunisia, Paris, Australia and Morocco? Many are not Ashthrough differences of opinion.

At her “Courageous Conversation for kenazi dominated. We learn the differences Change Panel” last month, Johnson point- of how Jews practice Judaism. We have ed out that Jews of color account for about students with Sephardi and Oriental back12 to 15 percent of the American Jewish grounds. When our students go to friends’ houses or to different synagogues – it’s all population. part of diversity education.”

In May, a study by Children are learning Ilana Kaufman, direchow to value differences, tor of Jews of Color Field beyond race and ethnicBuilding Initiative, called ity and outside classrooms “Counting Inconsistenand the typical school year, cies,” reported that more such as in camp settings. than one million of the 7.2 Five years ago, Camp million Jews in the United Ramah Darom hired a States are Jews of color. full-time psychologist to Kaufman’s group oversee the wellness of all wholeheartedly chose to campers. Dr. Audra Kaplan endorse the programs oremphasized that campers ganized by Johnson, CEO may have special needs of of The Global Purpose Dr. Audra Kaplan was hired one kind or another that Approach and Global Purby Camp Ramah Darom set them apart. One may pose Academy. “We are in five years ago to launch the be experiencing his or her the business of supporting Tikvah Support Group. parents’ divorce; another Jews of color,” Kaufman said. “And we’re excited by this initia- may be dealing with a death of a family tive of Dr. Tarece,” as Johnson likes to be member or friend. “We do training with all called. “We have supported a suite of dis- our staff on how to handle different situations,” she said. Part of the culture is teachcussion opportunities.”

According to Rabbi Ruth Abusch- ing how to know when a friend needs help.

“We also have campers from differMagder, director of education for Be’chol Lashon, the Atlanta Jewish community ent backgrounds, ethnic and racial, even needs to have ongoing communitywide though we are a Jewish camp. We have discussions rather than one-time events kids who know how to lead services and

EDUCATION educational program that includes travel some who don’t have that background. to Poland and Israel.

We’re welcoming of differences,” Kaplan While Adler helmed the Atlanta March continued. “We view problems as learning of the Living, it was mostly Orthodox stuopportunities. Camp is a perfect place to dents from the former Yeshiva Atlanta High learn about kindness toward people difSchool who participated. Still, there were ferent from ourselves.” non-Orthodox kids as well on the trip, and Kaplan launched the camp’s Tikvah the Atlanta group traveled with those in the Support Program, which supports children Southeast region, headquartered in Boca with disabilities in an inclusive way. “Last Raton. “It was mandatory for kids to show summer we had 63 campers out of 700 over up for at least one service every day,” recalls the course of the summer” who required The Global Purpose Approach Facebook post // Panelists and participants Adler, but they could choose between servicextra support, she said. Although her spein the Jewish Diversity in Education panel. es led by an Orthodox rabbi, a Conservative cialty is children with autism, she works She also pointed out that the camp, land and Israel have had the opportunity rabbi and a Reform service led by a woman with youth with Down syndrome and inwho played a guitar. Adler north of Atlanta in the to go outside their comtellectual, as well as other feels that the youth learned foothills of the Blue Ridge fort zones and experience disabilities. a lot from being exposed to Mountains, made a huge daily services from the Those people can be different kinds of Judaism. investment when they perspective of a different other campers, or staff.

Ruth Abusch-Magder hired her. “The fact that denomination.

That is why Ramah Darom notes that although she Eve Adler stepped up they brought someone in has also started the Tikwas trained as a Reform full-time says a lot about to the plate to coordinate vah Vocational Program. rabbi, her work encomthe organization,” and that Atlanta’s March of the It was designed to provide passes dealing with Jews dealing with diversity is “a Living program in 2003. former campers with disof color who range from central part of what we do.” Subsequently, she particiabilities the opportunity ultra-Orthodox to secuIntroducing diversity pated in seven marches, to be staff members. “We lar. She admits there’s a in Judaism doesn’t have while being responsible have one staff individual lot of work to be done to to be imposed on youth. for reaching out to high with Down syndrome and be inclusive of all kinds Rather, it can be posed school juniors and seone with intellectual disEve Adler oversaw the instead as an opportunity. niors in public and private Photo by Be’chol Lashon/globaljews. of diversity. But she’s opabilities working at the org// Rabbi Ruth Abuscheducational March of the timistic. “It’s on a lot of For years, Atlanta high – both Jewish and noncamp,” Kaplan said. “This Magder said teaching diversity Living program in Atlanta. people’s radars. It’s a chalschool students who par- Jewish – schools to join helps everyone see the is on a lot of people’s radars. lenge.” ■ ticipate in the March of the Living to Po- the expensive, but highly value in others.”

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 19

EDUCATION

Federation Creates Online Course for Jewish Innovators The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta has teamed up with Plywood People again to offer a Jewish cohort for a six-week online course for innovators.

The course, Path by Plywood, is an interactive class designed to help problem solvers decide which direction to take their ideas.

It is powered by Plywood People, an Atlanta-based nonprofit with more than 10 years’ experience working with organizations and startups doing good, according to a press release on the course.

Plywood People offers insight on the who, why and how of the organization, and also introduces course participants to a support community.

As part of the Federation’s ongoing collaboration with Plywood People, the two organizations have created a special track for the Jewish community. For this cohort, weekly video calls will be led by a Plywood People facilitator and a Jewish community leader. In addition to instruction from 24 leading social entrepreneurs, this version of the online course will also feature lessons from Jewish movers and shakers.

“We believe in Plywood People’s

20 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

proven Path curriculum and wanted to make it available to more members of the Jewish community,” said Jori Mendel, vice president of Federation Innovation. “By adding a Jewish spin and including Jewish leaders as facilitators, we hope it will be even more beneficial to the dreamers and leaders in our community.”

The Jewish cohort will receive weekly e-books from Jeff Shinabarger, founder of Plywood People, video content, written articles and reflective challenges, and they will participate in group meetups. They will answer thoughtful questions, give and receive feedback from peers, and join weekly video calls.

The dates for the Path Jewish cohort are Jan. 16, 23, and 30 and Feb. 6, 13, and 20, with weekly video meetups on Thursday nights. The cohort is available to Jewish community members for a discounted rate of $75 (regularly $249).

The course coincides with Federation’s Request for Proposals application period for its third annual Propel Grants, which nurture and support organizations that are reimagining Jewish life in Atlanta.

Jori Mendel is vice president of Federation Innovation.

“We hope that by offering Path by Plywood at the same time as the open RFP, we are providing Jewish innovators and leaders with more time and resources to develop their ideas as they prepare their Propel applications,” Mendel said.

Those with big ideas to transform Jewish life in Atlanta are encouraged

to apply for a Propel Grant from Jan. 22 to Feb. 5, with available awards up to $40,000. ■ For more information about the grant, apply to jewishatlanta.org/impact/innovation/propel-grants/ beginning Jan. 22.

Registration for Path by Plywood closes Jan. 15. To join, please visit jewishatlanta. org/path-by-plywood/.

EDUCATION

Ovshey Shines Light on Speech and Language

By Marcia Caller Jaffe Nancy Saufer Ovshey, wife and mother of two, specializes in pediatric speech-language pathology. She completed her master’s degree in the specialty at Queens College in New York, as well as an additional year of clinical fellowship before moving to Sandy Springs.

As a certified SLP, she offers tips parents may use to better understand their children’s communication and learning. “At an early age parents can talk to them, read to them, show pictures, and treat them as equal conversational partners. It may seem like infants are not hearing or understanding, but their brains are like sponges. They are absorbing an enormous amount, even if it doesn’t appear that way.”

She continues, “A child typically says first words around 12 months, although it varies. Parents can evaluate prerequisites to verbal communication beginning at [birth] to 3 months, including smiling, eye contact, gesturing and babbling. A pediatrician should look for both precursors to language and language itself at checkups.

Parents should advocate for their child with any concerns.”

AJT: Beyond words, are there other communication issues that are indicators of a child’s development?

Ovshey: Since people often leave out the “language” part in “speech-language pathologist,” many people think that speech-language therapists only deal with articulation issues. There is much more to our role.

Speech refers to how we make sounds using the mouth, lips and tongue. Speech includes articulation, voice and fluency. Language refers to the words we use and how we use them to share ideas. Language is broken down into receptive (comprehension), expressive (expression), and pragmatic (social) language. Reading and writing are language skills that could be affected and require treatment.

AJT: Do schools offer support?

Ovshey: Early identification and treatment of speech-language disorders greatly improve prognosis.

Before school age, families can seek public assistance.

Georgia’s early intervention program is called “Babies Can’t Wait.” It offers a variety of coordinated services for infants and toddlers with special needs from birth to three. For children 3 to 21, services are provided to those who qualify through an Individualized Education Program at public schools. Private schools are not required to provide services. A private SLP might be hired if a child does not qualify. It costs approximately $120 to $160 an hour.

spond “the horn goes beep!”); adding gestures to words; and singing songs.

AJT: How does Hebrew or any second language figure into speech evaluation?

Ovshey: An SLP will identify what’s typical versus what’s not in bilingual acquisition. Children may occasionally mix grammar rules or use words from both languages in the same sentence. Additionally, children may experience a “silent period,” when they start using a second language.

These are normal parts of becoming bilingual, and the child will typically outgrow them. Learning multiple languages from birth does not cause speech-language delays.

ADD [attention deficit disorder]; selective mutism; autism; Down syndrome; and cerebral palsy. An SLP can provide augmentative and alternative communication devices to help children who are unable to verbalize.

Most diagnoses have a wide range of severity: mild, moderate or severe.

AJT: With what seems a rash of disability diagnoses, what role do these play in speech?

Ovshey: Children with autism typically have receptive, expressive and pragmatic language goals.

Some have difficulty with articulation. Children with learning disabilities often benefit from therapy that targets phonological awareness and decoding skills, reading comprehension and written expression.

An SLP can help a child with AJT: What are some of the disNancy Ovshey provides practical ADD with challenging tasks such orders you see? ways to help children get an early as planning and organizing tasks, Ovshey: Some of the disorstart in boosting language skills. taking turns and paying attention ders SLPs treat are articulation (lisps); stuttering; apraxia [neurological motor dis- to others. It is critical that the SLP collaborate with all order] of speech; late talker; feeding and swallowing; team members (parents, classroom teachers, occupaspeech language impairment; receptive/expressive tional therapist, psychologist) to help ensure the child language; learning disabilities; dyslexia; phonological; reaches maximum potential. ■

AJT: What about children who can say words well, but not put them together?

Ovshey: If a child is 2 or older and not yet combining words (for example, “Mommy up”), the parent should contact an SLP for an evaluation to determine whether there are any other risk factors for ongoing difficulties. At home, a parent can help children learn to combine words by following the child’s lead and responding to his/her message; emphasizing a variety of words; modeling short, grammatical sentences; expanding the child’s words (if the child says “beep,” you reATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 21

EDUCATION

The Petts Enlist In Gen Z Teaching Program

By Marcia Caller Jaffe Just when 74-year-old Larry Pett might be enrolling in senior classes and dusting off his golf shoes, he and his wife Adele are heading to Spain for a six-month program that typically attracts 21-year-olds.

Beginning Jan. 7, Pett, a retired remodeling contractor specializing in Intown properties, took on a new gig as a cultural and language assistant at IES Sapere Aude, a bilingual coed high school in Villanueva del Pardillo, a community outside of Madrid.

“I think I am probably the oldest person ever to do this, just guessing; but in looking at pictures of some of the other language assistants, I think most of them are between 23 and 30 who want to travel before settling down. That doesn’t bother me. I still have the energy to travel around, and why not?”

His job will be assisting the teachers and students with conversational skills in English, helping with classroom activities, and working with the teaching staff. The organization, CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange), is headquartered in Boston and runs a variety of programs all over the world, including teaching and language immersion.

Their online mission states: “We foster the development of understanding and mutual respect between communities and nations by promoting the exchange of ideas and experiences. We help give students, teachers and young professionals from across the world skills that make them active and responsible global citizens.”

There are no qualifications to enlist other than being

22 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

World travelers Adele and Larry Pett are in Madrid for six months while Larry teaches high school.

an American citizen, having at least a bachelor’s degree, and being a native English speaker. There is no age requirement, and no requirement to be a teacher, or to speak Spanish.

Pett speaks an intermediate level of Spanish and hopes to pick up more depth and fluency there. When

asked if he is cramming now to brush up on his Spanish, Pett said, “No, that’s the whole point: all my communication at school is to be in English. That’s why they need me. Also, since this is a high school, most of these students have a decent English foundation on which to build.” He will be paid a modest salary.

Pett’s work schedule will be four days a week, four hours a day, plus additional administrative time. Wife Adele plans to shop, do work projects remotely, and take cooking classes while he’s in school. The Petts have rented a two-bedroom apartment in Central Madrid in an old colonial building. He said, “Madrid has a great transportation system and we can get anywhere without a car. We already have eight friends and family members booked coming to visit.”

The school is an hour commute outside of Madrid.

Larry will take public transportation by bus and train, then walk to get there. “I am taking on an additional project, while riding the train. I have purchased a copy of ‘Don Quixote,’ in Spanish, 1,000 pages, and will try to read and translate it while I’m there. I doubt I’ll finish, but I’ll give it a good try. Quien sabe?” (Who knows?).

On weekends and the 10-day spring break, the Petts will take excursions to nearby cities like San Sebastian and stay in Airbnbs. Larry was last in Madrid over 50 years ago. “We both like flamenco music and eating, and the Spanish food is unbelievable. I have been to Spain four times, Adele three times, but mostly in southern Spain. So this will be really special. “ He continued, “I figure even though I am kinda old to be doing this, I have the energy, and a long list of places to visit before I can’t do it any more, and hopefully that is a long time from now. Life is short and we have to make the most of it!”

Pett, a loyal Atlanta Jewish Film Festival evaluator, said, “Hopefully they will have me back in 2021.” That is, unless he signs up for another teaching assignment in Japan or Africa. ■

EDUCATION

One Teen’s Journey Leads to Temple Board

By Bob Bahr At 14, like many of her Jewish friends, Sara Neuberger was contemplating her teen years without much connection to Jewish life. Her calendar was quickly filling with homework, after school sports and a busy social life.

As with so many teens, her bat mitzvah the previous year was looking more and more like the end of her interest in Judaism rather than the beginning.

But that was before her mother secretly signed her up for an event sponsored by the NFTY chapter at her synagogue, Temple Sinai. NFTY, which stands for North American Federation of Temple Youth, is the Reform moveA recent extensive study of Jewish teens revealed the importance of ment’s program for teens between the youth groups in the community. ninth and 12th grades. It has about 8,500 members spread across 750 chapters in North America.

Well, maybe she would try it, she sibilities at NFTY, Neuberger was given a thought, to please her mother, but just seat on the Temple Sinai Board of Directhis once. What she encountered de- tors. There, she has been welcomed as lighted and intrigued her. more than a fresh young face. She’s seen “I really didn’t know what it was, as an important decision-maker as well. but when I got there, I found it to be very During the last year, she has helped welcoming. It was super nice, like I had the congregation carry out an ambitious found a little home.” capital campaign that comfortably exNow 17 and into the final months of ceeded its goal and raised $14.3 million. her senior year in high school, Neuber- She was also part of a fundraising iniger is not only a busy member of NFTY tiative by teens that raised $12,000 for at Temple Sinai, she is the regional pres- NFTY’s Camp Jenny. The camp provides ident of NFTY-SAR, the Southern Area a free residential camping experience Region of the organization. It has chap- over the Memorial Day holiday for inner ters in six states from northern Florida city youngsters. through Georgia and into Tennessee.

As part of the synagogue’s recent Creating success stories like Neuber- extensive remodeling and facelift, Neuger’s has increasingly become the goal berger also helped plan new facilities of those who work with Jewish young for the synagogue youth programs, inpeople. For synagogue professionals like cluding a dedicated kitchen for young Marisa Kaiser, director of the Center people. for Learning & Engagement at Temple Kaiser, who will become the presiSinai, there are important changes oc- dent of the Association of Reform Jewcurring to make ish Educators Jewish teens feel in January 2021, welcome in the presented NeuReform moveberger’s story at ment. this year’s Bien“We have to nial convention shift our way of of the Union for thinking,” she Reform Judasaid. “We have ism in Chicago. to make this inIt was part of stead of being over a half dozen about the instiprograms that tution, how do discussed how to we make it about boost participaSara Neuberger, on right, received a red the teen? How do tion among teens cape when she was installed as president we meet them after their b’nai of the Southern Area Region of NFTY. where they’re mitzvah. at?”

Among the discussions was the Last year, in addition to her respon- meaning of an important new study

At this year’s URJ Biennial in Chicago, Temple Sinai’s Marisa Kaiser discussed how her synagogue keeps teens involved after their b’nai mitzvah.

about the young people of Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2015. The extensive study by The Jewish Education Project sampled the attitudes of over 17,000 young people involved in 14 Jewish youth organizations, including NFTY.

Prominently mentioned in the conclusion was that teens who were involved in Jewish youth organizations were much more likely to remain connected to their identity as Jews and to Jewish life.

For the Reform movement, which has struggled in recent years with declines in membership and revenue, securing the future through teen participation has become increasingly critical.

The president of the URJ, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, made youth programs an important priority in his keynote speech at the Biennial last month in Chicago.

Neuberger, who hopes to attend Georgia Tech in the fall and to eventually become a doctor, is not sure of how her Jewish identity will develop once she begins college. Nevertheless, she says she’ll look back, with affection, on these past several years, knowing that her synagogue experiences will always be an important part of her life.

“Whatever I do, or wherever I go,” she said, “it will always be so nice to have Temple Sinai to come home to.” ■

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 23

EDUCATION

Levy Launches Atlanta Jewish Community Theater

By Eddie Samuels Simonie Levy aims to provide a new venue for Jewish theater in Atlanta. The Atlanta Jewish Academy theater director is taking the first steps toward launching her new project, tentatively titled the Atlanta Jewish Community Theater.

“I do lower school productions, middle school productions and our high school girls’ production, Hagigah,” she said. “It started off with one parent saying to me, ‘Why don’t we do something with the parents?’ It got me thinking.”

That concept simmered away in Levy’s head for the past year, but just recently became a concrete idea.

“So many people are interested in theater in all sorts of capacities and we don’t have a Jewish place for them to go,” she said, although the Marcus JCC does offer classes and puts on productions. “It’s really going to be for those from 15 to 150.”

While she’s still early in the development of what the actual process for participating would look like, she has been impressed by the responses she’s heard.

“I just tested the water and I think we’ve already got around 55 people who

24 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Levy takes a bow with middle schoolers in “Beauty and the Beast.”

Simonie Levy is AJA’s theater director, and recently directed the lower school’s production of “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”

are interested in different capacities,” Levy said. “We’ve gotten responses from people who want to be part of the planning committee, and the next step is gathering those people and charting the next few months.”

That committee will be formed this month, with Levy’s goal to put on an initial production in the first half of 2020, most likely in May or June.

“I really want to open with a musical,” she said, “but we’ll do musicals and dramas. But I love the idea of being able to bring in speakers or have evenings where we do poetry readings or one-act plays.”

Early ideas in Levy’s mind for that first production are “Hairspray,” or “The Sound

of Music,” but she hopes to hear from participants and audiences what they would like to see.

Most who’ve signed up so far have some theater experience, according to Levy, whether that be at camps, in drama programs at school, or as educators.

“These people really are fueled by passion and I know many want to get back into [theater],” she said. “Some have been out of it for 20 or 30 years and really can’t wait to get back into the arena. That’s who I really want, people who are excited about it and don’t come with a preconceived notion of what it should be.”

It will be housed at AJA, but open to

the broader Atlanta Jewish community.

“We’re really pulling from the entire Jewish community, whether you’re Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, this will be a place for you to be you,” she said. “I want it to be for anybody, whatever your affiliation with the Jewish community.”

That idea of being open to anyone is important to Levy, as she explained she hoped that teens, including her students, would be able to use this as a way to gain even more experience performing.

“I really want to keep the high schoolers involved, and I think that they can learn from the adults and be mentored by them while bringing a lot to the community,” she said.

That idea is especially important to Levy, who has been involved in drama since she was 6 years old, growing up in South Africa. She has been teaching for over 35 years, mostly involved in directing, rather than performing herself, a role she hopes others will also embrace in the new theater.

“I don’t see myself directing every single show and I don’t want this theater to be that,” she said. “I hope this is completely community-based with different directors and crew for each show.” ■

EDUCATION

Juniors: College Applications are Closer Than You Think Juniors, if you are looking at last year’s admissions cycle, look ahead as well. There are some beneficial changes for you. In fact, you are in for a lot of work related to college this semester and beyond into the summer months. Will you be able to have some of your college applications ready by the Mark end of August?

Everyone knows you Fisher have schoolwork to complete.

If you have any AP courses, honors or dual enrollment courses you have competitive endeavors. Obviously, your course grades are crucial in your junior year. If you apply early decision or early action, this year’s grades might, at first, be the last grades you will be judged on by the admissions office.

Of course, there are extra-curricular activities awaiting your participation, community youth groups, including synagogue groups such as NCSY, USY, NFTY, that will take up time. Perhaps scouting activities and a multitude of other tasks will occupy your hours. You may also have a part-time job that takes time each week. Add the college admissions process to your schedule and you have very busy days ahead.

Start now? But you are so busy. Think of the process: research colleges, write essays and possibly supplemental essays, take the SAT or ACT, perhaps with outside tutoring or online practice, design a resume, visit colleges, have interviews, complete financial aid forms with your parents, research scholarships, study indepth a variety of colleges, complete the Common App or Coalition application and individual applications for those colleges not a part of either group. Some of these items will take place in the fall but be ready to apply in August. Am I kidding?

It depends on you.

It has been reported that Generation Z has a bad habit. It is called procrastination. Is that you? Then you are in for a tough year. Last minute essays, as an example, and mistakes, aren’t impressive because admissions personnel sometimes can observe when an essay is a lastminute undertaking.

If you haven’t been seriously meeting with your school counselor, now is the time to start. Or, perhaps you are using an IEC (Independent Educational Consultant).

Ask if the consultant is a member of IECA (Independent Educational Consultants Association) or HECA (Higher Education Consultants Association).

By the way, your high school counselor, in most cases, will be one of the individuals writing your recommendation for college.

If a book would be written about you, what would your counselor write? Just letting the colleges know the activities in which you are involved and your grade point average means little because admissions already knows those facts on your application.

Writing about your involvement in activities lets the college know more about you.

There are some changes that may benefit you in the entire process.

More and more colleges are joining the “optional test (SAT/ACT)” group. Meaning, with some exceptions, you do not have to submit those test scores. Wow, that’s great! Wait, not so great? This means that the rest of your application becomes even more important.

Course grades and the rigor of your courses are looked at even more closely. That includes this year’s grades. Need any more pressure?

Wait. Maybe the ACT has come to your rescue. In past years on the ACT, you may have done reasonably well on three of the four sections. And you needed to take the entire test again to improve on that other section. The change takes place in September. You first need to take the entire ACT. One can take one, two, three sections or the whole test again. Yes, even one section. Can you superscore? Yes, however, only about a third of colleges superscore the ACT. This past December, you should have received your score on the PSAT. Truthfully, what have you done with your score report? Looked at the score and proceeded to put it away, even forever? Benefit from the PSAT. That is your present task.

There are two categories on the test: evidence-based reading and writing, and math, each scored out of a possible 760.

Note the benchmarks, which show your score against its college readiness benchmarks. In addition, there is a National Merit Scholarship score only open to juniors. If your score is high enough, you will be notified next September.

Using the College Board’s website, you will gain much information about your very own test. Were the easy questions easy for you? Did the hard questions have many incorrect answers? That is why the hard questions are hard. But where do you need to concentrate in the days ahead?

Create a study plan after carefully reviewing your PSAT score report. Or, do nothing and you may have regrets when it is too late. That is the student’s choice. No one else’s. Take responsibility. You need to decide if the ACT or SAT is the better choice to concentrate on in the months ahead. Try to study for one of the tests if or when you

have two test choices to compare.

You have probably read articles about the declining population of students available for college. True, some colleges may have difficulty achieving their enrollment goals. But, for the colleges that you will most likely be applying, that is not a major factor to be concerned about in your search.

The University of Georgia recently announced its early action decisions.

They admitted about 43 percent of 16,513 applicants. Students applied from 47 states and 39 countries. The average GPA for the middle 50 percent admitted was

4.0 to 4.29. The middle 50 percent average for ACT scores was 31 to 34 and the SAT, 1360 to 1500. However, of the 9,486 students not admitted, 6,800 were deferred. So, those deferred still have hope to be among those admitted later.

In this article, factors considered by the admissions office were identified. In future articles, some of those topics will be discussed in more detail. Stay tuned. ■ Mark Fisher is a college and career consultant at Fisher Educational Consultants, www.fishereducationalconsultants.com, and a consultant for the College Planning Institute. www.GotoCPI.com.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 25

EDUCATION

New Sex Ed Program for Jewish LGBTQ+ Teens

By Paula Baroff A new health and sexual education program fills a need for Jewish LGBTQ+ teens in Atlanta. The Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity (SOJOURN) is piloting a program for teens beginning Jan. 15, called SVELT: Sexual Validation & Education for LGBTQ+ Jewish and Allied Teens.

The program will offer sexual education courses tailored specifically for Jewish teens who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer between the ages of 15 and 18. Other teens are welcome to join as well, if they are allied with either Jewish or LGBTQ+ communities.

“We’re super excited about it and looking forward to a robust cohort,” said SVELT’s project manager McKenzie Wren. She worked with experts to develop the program based on trusted sexual education sources along with partner organizations such as JumpSpark and the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta. SVELT is set to be held at Congregation Beth Tikvah and the Phillip Rush Center, and Wren is in talks with Congregation Bet Haverim to bring the program there as well.

26 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

The program for teens is eight ses- they will be able to make healthy decisions, each three hours long, and will in- sions, Wren said.

“Our hope is to build better bridges clude support for parents as well. There of communicawill be a parent infortion. Many famimation session at 6:30 lies are uncomfortp.m. Jan. 13 at Beth able talking about Tikvah, and two addisexuality,” she said tional parent courses. in a press release.

“We encourage “This difficulty is parental involvement. compounded for We want to educate LGBTQ+ teens as the parents how families are often to work with their not equipped with teens,” Wren said, information speadding that they recific to the needs quire parental permisof their gender or sion in order for teens sexually diverse to sign up. teens.

SVELT “We do encourwants to change age parents to get that.” involved and we talk McKenzie Wren designed SVELT SVELT is parwith the parents as along with trusted experts. ticularly importo what may be coming up with their teens. … We believe that tant because LGBTQ+ teens show signifithis is really important for Jewish teens, cantly better mental health when given in particular, because kids are getting a any support from adults, and are more lot of information from untrustworthy likely to “flourish,” Wren told the AJT, citsources.” SOJOURN wants to make sure ing suicide prevention as a concern.

Sojourn Executive Director Rebecca teens are getting the most accurate information and learning best practices so Stapel-Wax said in the press release, “We know that youth who are given structured opportunities to explore human development, relationships, contraception and disease prevention feel more informed, make safer choices and have healthier outcomes. These include fewer unplanned pregnancies and more protection against sexually transmitted infections,” Stapel-Wax said.

“When comprehensive programs are available, they are usually offered in secular settings,” she said. “Rarely are youth of faith able to explore how tenets of their religious tradition may influence their choices. They usually do not include

information on gender and sexually diverse relationships.”

While there are some good sexual education programs designed for LGBTQ+ youth, Wren said this one will particularly emphasize Jewish values. These teens may have experienced religion being weaponized against their identities, especially living in the Christian-dominated Deep South, so they will instead be given the tools to draw from Jewish tradition as support.

SVELT is nondenominational and will include the concept of Mussar, Sojourn said, which is a Jewish spiritual practice that teaches concrete ethics for how to live a meaningful life. Wren also mentioned the example of “B’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God” as a Jewish value that SVELT will highlight for the teens.

Topics will include human development, relationships, disease prevention and contraception. Some of the sessions will include “The Power of Love: Exploring Healthy Relationship Dynamics,” “Speak Now & Forever Hold Your Peace: Conversations on Consent,” and “F*** the Isms: Stigma, Biases and Stereotypes.”

The program is currently offered to older teens, but SOJOURN hopes to expand it in the future to be age-appropriate “for younger teens to get the support they need,” Wren said. At the moment, the focus is on the upcoming sessions and the potential to bring SVELT to more institutions, she said.

Along with comprehensive education, the goal is to open conversations between parents and their teens, Wren said in the press release.

SVELT is currently in the recruitment phase, and parents of teens that could benefit from the new program are encouraged to reach out. ■

EDUCATION

Young Sauerteig’s Creativity Soars

Hannah Sauerteig saw a need for more Chanukah songs, so she wrote one.

By Paula Baroff Hannah Sauerteig, a third grader at the Westminster Schools, became one of the youngest authors in the country with her new book “Adventures of Rose: Life Lessons.”

It follows the path of a young girl with curly red hair named Rose who experiences life’s ups and downs. “The book is filled with life lessons. It is supposed to help children like me learn lessons that will help them later in their lives,” Hannah told the AJT. The story follows Rose’s various experiences, such as visiting the zoo and learning to face her fears.

Hannah began writing with inspira-

tion from her family. “My great-uncle, who is also an author, wanted to write a mystery. I wanted to help him. Instead, while he wrote his mystery, I wrote my own pieces,” she said.

Eight years old, she is creative in many ways. “Hannah is a precocious and kind girl, who has a passion for writing, from songs to stories,” said Emily Sauerteig, Hannah’s mother.

Last year, Hannah wondered why there were so few Chanukah songs, so she composed the “Best Hanukkah Ever,” available on iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music. In the song, Hannah sings in a youthful, upbeat voice about Chanukah traditions.

“You will know it’s the right song be-

Book cover and graphic from Hannah’s new book.

cause the picture of the single is a picture of Hannah with a menorah,” Emily said. “There is a pop version and an acoustic version. …

It is festive and snappy. Her next few singles will be released over the coming weeks.”

Hannah’s new songs “Celebrate” and “You and Me” will also be available soon on iTunes.

“As a publisher for 34 years, having produced hundreds of books (seven best-sellers and a Pulitzer Prize winner), it is my rare pleasure to publish a book by an 8-year-old,” said William Dorich of GM Books.

“Hannah Sauerteig is a gifted young girl in numerous ways. She is very active, involved in all aspects of life and a happy member of a typical American family in Atlanta. She has a younger brother, owns a

dog and two fish. When Hannah is not writing, her passion is reading, which comes as no surprise, in view of her eagerness to become an author.

“Hannah plays tennis, attends dance class and plays guitar. She currently has several of her original songs on iTunes. My great pleasure was discovering this young talent and to be her first publisher. The Chinese have a wonderful saying, ‘A journey begins with the first step,’ and we all get to travel on her first journey (with young readers).”

Hannah’s new book is available on Amazon and at www.gmbooks.com.

Her newest song is available on iTunes, www.itunes.apple.com/album/ id1485211604?ls=1&app=itunes. ■

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 27

ARTS ‘63 Up’ Is a Timeless Film Documentary

By Bob Bahr Michael Apted was only 23 and fresh out of England’s Cambridge University in 1964 when he went to work at Granada Television, a pioneer of commercial TV in Britain. The company was also young, having been started by the Jewish entrepreneur Sidney Bernstein just 10 years earlier.

He was soon put to work as a researcher on a documentary called “7 Up,” which was about a diverse group of 7-year-olds and how their lives were heavily impacted by the British class system.

It took as its motto the adage first used by the Jesuit order of Roman Catholicism, that said “give me a child until he is 7 and I will give you the man.” It’s a phrase that implies a sort of social determinism that is at the heart of British society.

Whatever class that you claim at birth, many British citizens believe, that it is who you will become as an adult. The documentary was a smash hit, and “7 Up” became the first installment in one of the world’s most important documentary series.

For 56 years, Apted has chronicled the lives of the original group. Every seven years he has directed a feature-length documentary that examines the lives of the original group of children.

The latest installment, the ninth production in the unique series, just appeared in theaters. For Matthew Bernstein, a professor of Film and Media Studies at Em-

28 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

“63 Up” was released in theaters about a month ago, in time to qualify for the Oscar nominations for best documentary for 2019.

The original group of young people as they appeared in “21 Up.”

ory University and chair of the film department, it is a masterful work.

“Arguably, there is no more important documentary ever made in the history of the medium than the ‘7 Up’ series.”

As Britain has changed over the last several decades, the focus on social class has softened and each successive film has been more about our inner lives as human beings as we mature and encounter the twists and turns of our lives.

As one of the group who has become a college professor and moved to America puts it, the series is less about how society shapes our lives than how we do.

“It’s a picture of every man,” he says in one of the later installments. “It’s how a person – any person – how they change.”

At the same time, it chronicles, in a sense, how Apted himself has maintained his edge as a filmmaker and as a thoughtful observer of how we mature and age.

He spoke with the AJT about “63 Up” in a phone interview from California, where he has lived for many years.

“I’m thrilled really that it has never lost its seriousness, never lost its interest to people all over the world,” he pointed out. “I kept people’s interest in it, not just the audience, because it has a huge audience, but for all these years it has kept the interest of all the people in it.

I do think there’s an honesty and a degree of intelligence about those who have appeared in the films and what they say and what I ask them.”

There is a kind of timelessness about these stories.

They are as reflective of our lives today as the individual struggles of the old biblical stories of Genesis that are currently being studied in the weekly readings in our synagogues.

For Bernstein it is this sense of revelation that makes “63 Up” and all the other films in the series such an absorbing experience.

“They really are extraordinary films. Watching the latest one I was so taken by the openness and vulnerability that these people are willing to share with Michael Apted and his camera. For people like me, who are roughly the age of the participants, it really gives us a mirror into our own life and the way things have changed and developed.”

It’s much the same conclusion that Rebecca Mead reached in a review in The New Yorker magazine seven year ago of “56 Up,” the previous film.

The series’ most important accomplishment, she observed, is “revealing the gradual development of ordinary lives in all their extraordinary complexity.”

There are occasional glimpses of declining health and infirmities in “63 Up” that remind us more powerfully of the fragile nature of our existence and of our mortality.

There is a hint of that, too, in Apted, who, at 78, is not certain whether he will be able to craft a “70 Up” in another seven years.

“You know, the biggest surprise is how long these films have survived. And me too.” ■

COMMUNITY SIMCHA SPOTLIGHT

Baby Announcement Willow Jade Noll

Proud parents Sage Segal and Aaron Noll welcomed their baby girl into the world Nov. 14, 2019. Willow Jade Noll was 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 1/2 inches.

Overjoyed grandparents are Terry and Fred Segal of Roswell and Carmen and Gregg Noll of Carmel, Ind., and great-grandparents, Shirley and Tom Noll of Indiana.

Willow is adored by her Aunt Sascha, Uncle Ross, and cousin Hunter, as well as her Uncle Jordan. She is proud to be given her middle name in loving memory of her maternal great-grandmother, Jeanne Margoluis.

Bat Mitzvah Announcement Sydney Elise Lettes, daughter of Amy and Louis Lettes, on Jan. 4.

A mile of road will take you so far, but a mile of runway will take you anywhere!

College Graduation Avery Evans

Avery Evans, daughter of Jennifer Evans and the late James Evans, graduated from the University of Georgia Dec. 13, 2019. Avery graduated summa cum laude from both UGA’s College of Arts and Sciences and School of Public and International Affairs.

Creating and Amplifying Opportunties for Teens to Connect

Graduating a semester ahead of schedule, Avery is interviewing for various internships, campaigns and opportunities.

Have something to celebrate?

Births, B’nai Mitzvah, Engagements, Weddings, Anniversaries, Special Birthdays and more ...

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Send info to submissions@atljewishtimes.com submissions@atljewishtimes.com..

Atlanta’s Teen Hub for Jewish Engagement and Education JUMPSPARKATL.ORG | INFO@JUMPSPARKATL.ORG | 770.648.2918 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 29

COMMUNITY

Sunshine School Adds Infant and Transitional Class

By Roni Robbins A new infant class at The Sunshine School of the Marcus JCC began this month, bringing back a program that had been gone for many years. And when the MJCCA opened registration for its preschools for the 2020-21 school year Jan. 5, The Sunshine School offered its first transitional kindergarten class.

Kim Sucan, director of MJCCA Preschools, said of the new infant class, “There has been an increased demand for it, and we agreed that it was the right time.” She attributed the demand to more dual-income families. The Sun-

shine School also extended preschool program or who its hours this past fall to are ‘young’ 5-years-olds, and accommodate working parmay benefit from another ents who need to drop off year to develop academically, their children earlier, she emotionally, physically and/ said. or socially before progressing Sucan added that she to a public or private kinderalready had four infants engarten program,” according to rolled for the current year. the MJCCA. The infant class began Jan. Ari Sofsky was a student “The curriculum feain the transitional 2. tures literacy, math, science kindergarten of The The new transitional kin- Weinstein School last year. and social studies exploradergarten class at the MJCCA’s tion, as well as problemEast Cobb campus at Temple Kol Emeth, solving and communication skills, with which will begin in the fall, is “ideal for a heavy emphasis on social-emotional children who have completed a 4-year-old development.”

The Weinstein School at the main MJCCA Zaban Park campus in Dunwoody will offer its third year of transitional kindergarten and The Schiff School at Temple EmanuEl in Sandy Springs, in its third year, got a new playground and recently was accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission.

“Our newest MJCCA preschool, The Schiff School, is growing in so many areas,” Sucan said. “It offers an intimate environment with programs from infant through pre-K, plus specials such as art, music, drama, science, PE, and all the benefits of our MJCCA curriculum. Our families are especially excited about the beautiful, newlyinstalled preschool playground.” ■

New Cairo Genizah Class is Daughters’ Tribute to Mom

By Roni Robbins Three sisters made a memorial tribute to their late mother in the form of a new course offered at the Marcus JCC’s Lisa F. Brill Institute for Jewish Learning.

Dara Grant, Shauna Grosswald and Jessica Sacks and their families made the

memorial gift in honor of their mother, Susan Arnovitz Saltz, an MJCCA member who passed away in 2015 at the age of 61.

The curriculum for the new class, “Exploring a Forgotten World: A Social History of Medieval Jewry as Revealed in the Cairo Genizah,” was commissioned by the daughters through the Florence Melton

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School of Adult Jewish Learning as a gift from the Mimi’s Fund they established.

“Mimi’s Fund is about preserving our mom’s legacy,” Grant said. “One of the ways we do this is by contributing to programs and causes that are meaningful to us and were to our mom, as well as showing our children how and why this is so important.”

Saltz, or Mimi, was a longtime student of the Lisa F. Brill Institute for Jewish Learning, a part of the Melton School.

“We made this gift as a lasting tribute because Shauna, Dara and I know how much she loved her Melton classes. It was an important part of her life for [about 15] years,” Sacks said. She added that her mother was a lifelong student who never believed she was done learning.

The Melton School hired Shelley Buxbaum, one of Saltz’s instructors from the Brill Institute, to write the curriculum about the hidden collection of sacred manuscripts and documents stored in a Cairo synagogue. It was a topic in which Saltz had expressed interest, Sacks said.

“This exceptional project has been in the works for years; we are so pleased

that ‘Exploring a Forgotten World’ is now published and that we get to share it with the community,” Buxbaum said.

“This newly commissioned curriculum can now be used all over the world for the Melton School,” Grosswald said, “and it will be dedicated with love to our mother’s memory.”

“This course will reveal how a collection of worn-out scraps, fragments of texts and other documents more than 1,000 years old open an otherwise hidden era of history,” the MJCCA reports. “We learn the story of the Genizah – a storeroom for timeworn sacred manuscripts and documents – and examine some of its contents. Through translations of the original texts, the course will explore the daily lives and behaviors of Jewish men, women and families living along the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages.”

The class will be offered four times in Atlanta: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays Jan. 8 to April 29; 10:30 a.m. to noon Thursdays Jan. 16 to March 19; and 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. Tuesdays Jan. 21 to May 19 at the MJCCA at Zaban Park; and in the fall at Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta. ■

COMMUNITY

Maccabi Tryouts Begin While last year’s JCC Maccabi Games were held in Atlanta, the 2020 competition will be in San Diego. Tryouts began Sunday at the Marcus JCC for athletes ages 13 to 16 and will continue through Feb. 18 at the MJCCA and other locations.

The Maccabi youth games is an annual Olympic-style event in which Jewish teens “participate in sports competitions and activities imbued with Jewish values,” according to the MJCCA. The games were first held in 1982 and more than 120,000 athletes have competed worldwide.

Here’s the remaining lineup for tryouts by sport: Boys 14U Basketball (MJCCA Blank Gymnasium) 10:30 a.m. to noon Jan 12 7:30 to 9 p.m. Jan 16 Boys 16U Basketball (Blank Gymnasium) 9 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 12 Girls 16U Basketball (13 to 16 years old, MJCCA Mendel Gymnasium) 10:30 a.m. to noon Jan. 12 Boys 14U Soccer (MJCCA Arthur M. Blank Family Sports Complex) 10:30 a.m. to noon Jan. 19 9 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 26 Boys 16U Soccer (Arthur M. Blank Family Sports Complex) 9 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 19 10:30 a.m. to noon Jan. 26 Girls 16U Soccer (13 to 16 years old, Arthur M. Blank Family Sports Complex) 10:30 a.m. to noon Jan. 19 9 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 26 Boys 14U Baseball 12:30 to 2 p.m. Jan. 19 (The Weber School) 2:30 to 4 p.m. Jan. 26 (Dunwoody Senior Baseball fields) Boys 16U Baseball 2:30 to 4 p.m. Jan. 19 (Dunwoody Senior Baseball fields) 12:30 to 2 p.m. Jan. 26 (The Weber School) Co-Ed 16U Flag Football (13 to 16 years old, Arthur M. Blank Family Sports Complex) 4:30 to 6 p.m. Jan. 19 5:30 to 7 p.m. Jan. 23 4:30 to 6 p.m. Jan. 26

Jaeger Ouanounou, a 14-under basketball player for Team Atlanta, dribbles in practice for the JCC Maccabi Games.

Girls 16U Volleyball (13 to 16 years old, Mendel Gymnasium) 9 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 12 Tennis (MJCCA Selig Family Tennis Center) Noon to 1 p.m. recreational, and 1 to 2 p.m. competitive Feb. 9, 16 Rainout only: 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 17, 24 Swimming (MJCCA Northside Hospital Family Aquatic Center) 4 to 5:45 p.m. Feb. 9, 16 Table tennis (MJCCA Brill Family Activity Room) 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 9, 16 Dance (The Rich Foundation Dance Studios) Reunion Dance: 2:30 to 4 p.m. Jan. 12, $7 fee Tryouts: 2:30 to 4 p.m. Feb. 9 Individual sport interest meeting for golf, bowling, track & field, and esports (Brill Family Activity Rooms) 7 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 18 ■ For more information, visit atlantajcc. org/maccabi or call 678-812-4034.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 31

COMMUNITY

Chaya Mushka Hosts Torah Fair The recent Torah Fair of the Chaya Mushka Children’s House elementary and middle schools included tours of the

classrooms to view displays on topics students studied.

Parents, grandparents and friends

learned about blessings from the first grade; parshot, second and third grades; mitzvot and Ten Commandments, fourth

and fifth grades; Jewish scholars and teachers, sixth grade; and Torah sages, seventh and eighth grades.

Shai Sabi and Abigayil Teytel dressed as Yaakov and Leah from parshah Vayeitzei for their Torah Fair presentation.

Matan Fleishman and Meir Isaacs presented the difference between a kosher and non-kosher menorah.

Aderet Afrah showed her parents her presentation on parshah Chayei Sarah.

Yarden Livnat showed her parents and grandparents her presentation on blessings.

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Guest educator Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum spoke at Congregation Beth Jacob. A VIP dinner reception for teachers was sponsored by Atlanta Jewish Academy, CMCH and Chabad of Toco Hills, followed by a parent lecture.

COMMUNITY

A Tribute to Betty Minsk

By Allen H. Lipis

everything being done in the renovation, but they gave a significant financial comJudy and I knew Betty Minsk for over mitment, nevertheless. They had to sup40 years. She was one of our very close port their synagogue. End of story.

We could never say no to Betty when friends and we shall miss her dearly, espeshe helped to raise funds for AJA’s capital cially my wife.

About seven years ago, Betty orga- campaign. You knew, when Betty was involved, things went well. nized a dozen or so families She could sell you on whatto meet with a rabbi once a ever she was committed to month on a Sunday night because she was passionate to discuss important Jewish about what she did. She will books for an hour. Betty and get credit in Heaven for her Malcolm opened up their effort, but here on Earth she home for the meetings, and gets credit for results. She folBetty always had lots of deslowed the famous statement serts for all of us after the of “Say little and do much.” presentation. At first, we Oh, I forgot to mentook on the entire Pirkei tion that one evening Matt Avos, then moved on to MaiBetty Minsk at an Atlanta monides’ Mishnah Torah Jewish Academy event earlier Lewis and Jodi Wittenberg this year. Minsk was a approached Judy and me and now we are beginning longtime supporter of AJA. to fund an Israeli flag made a literary discussion of the Torah. Throughout all those years, Betty out of cookies, the largest flag of any was the organizer, preparing her own des- country in the world made from cookies. serts month after month. It has only been When we asked who else was sponsoring the last few months that she was unable to the event, it was Betty and Malcolm. We offer her home, so Judy and I have taken on had to support the Minsks and the idea.

Speaking for my wife, Betty would that assignment, but we will never be able call her several times a week. There was to match her amazing refreshments.

On many occasions, Betty would call nothing special about these calls. It was my wife and the four of us would go out just two very close friends absolutely for dinner during the evening. In addition committed to each other and to their to that, we would often get together with friendship. They loved each other, and other couples on Saturday night after while her family will miss her dearly, I Shabbos to enjoy each other’s company. know my wife will miss her as a sister, the We just enjoyed being around the Minsks. sister she never had. Betty knew the stock We were there for the opening of the market and I can tell you the one stock she Atlanta Jewish Academy gym that hon- loved and asked me to buy over and over ored Betty and Malcolm for underwriting again. Reluctantly, I had to tell her that I the cost of the gym with the Zisholtz fam- sold it a long time ago. If you knew Betty, ily. We were there when Betty and Mal- you knew the stock. She loved the comcolm put up the funds to establish a new pany; she loved that stock and for good reason. It’s at an all-time high. It is Apple mikvah next to Beth Jacob Synagogue.

I was there as president of Torah Day computer. I wish I took her advice.

It is hard to say goodbye to a close School of Atlanta when Betty joined me on the board to take on the job of evaluat- friend that you saw almost every week and ing the board and finding new members talked with more often than that. We can for it. She did it even though her first love only move on and keep her memory alive was for the AJA. She was so committed to for all the good that she has done. Her partserving the Jewish community that she ing should remind us to fill our lives with the spiritual growth that we are capable of. could not refuse.

We were here to see Betty become Our grief must be viewed as the price we the early childhood director and start the pay for the positive relationship we had Jewish family activities at the Greenfield with Betty. She contributed so much to our Hebrew Academy. We were there when community and to us personally.

If I were to guess what Betty would tell Betty initiated Kosher Day at Turner Field to raise money for all of the Jewish day us now, she would say, “View your feelings schools. We were there when Betty spent of sadness as a challenge to be more posiabout a year creating and writing the his- tive, and set goals for yourself. Focus on dotory of the AJA. This was a major effort and ing a mitzvah. Help someone else.” That’s no one else had the capability of doing it. who she was, so I can only say Amen!

Betty just did it. When Beth Jacob SynaAllen Lipis is a regular columnist for gogue was raising funds for its renovation, I knew that the Minsks did not agree with the AJT. ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 33

CALENDAR FRIDAY, JANUARY 10

Shabbat, Me & Rabbi G – Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Atlanta, from 5 to 6 p.m. Bring your children to the JCC for a Shabbat celebration featuring fun songs with Rabbi G. Program begins at 5 p.m. with an activity and/or craft followed by songs and blessings with Rabbi Brian Glusman, concluding with a visit from the popular “Weinstein School Shabbat Dinosaur.” Challah and grape juice will be served. Free and open to all. For more information, www.bit.ly/2VnuIFE.

Shabbat Sasson – The Monthly Musical Friday Night Service – Congregation Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Parkway NE, Marietta, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Come be part of their Friday night musical service. They are looking for musicians of all ages, so if you play an instrument that enhances the ruach of Shabbat, join them. Free. For more information, www. bit.ly/2KGOyGZ.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11

Tot Shabbat – Temple Emanu-El, 1580 Spalding Drive, Atlanta, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Filled with music, laughter, spirituality and soul, join us one Saturday a month for Tot Shabbat. Rabbi Rachael and Rabbi Max have crafted a program to bring together those little ones from birth to age 5 to feel the rhythm of Jewish music and Jewish time. Meet other parents with children of the same age and be a part of a loving and engaged group. Open to the community for tots and their loved ones. Free. For more information, www.bit.ly/388PqPx.

CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Vayechi Friday, January 10, 2020, light candles at 5:29 p.m.

Saturday, January 11, 2020, Shabbat ends at 6:28 p.m.

Shemot Friday, January 17, 2020, light candles at 5:35 p.m.

Saturday, January 18, 2020, Shabbat ends at 6:34 p.m. proud observant Jew. Free. For more information, www.bit.ly/2rIqP3w.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 12

Blood Drive – Congregation Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Parkway NE, Marietta, from 9 a.m. to noon. Come during religious school or before or after the Men’s Club Jewish Film Festival Preview Breakfast. The blood mobile will be in the Etz Chaim parking lot. Free. For more information, www.bit.ly/38tt1fT.

Bearing Witness – William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, 1440 Spring St. NW, Atlanta, from 2 to 5 p.m. The speakers of Bearing Witness, all Atlanta residents, recall their experiences during the Holocaust. Their words rise above hatred and retribution to speak about the strength and will that enabled them to survive and go on to build new lives.

Free. For more information, info@thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15

Agents of Change Training - from noon

MONDAY, JANUARY 13

Coffee with the Clergy in Dunwoody – Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Atlanta, from 9 to 11 a.m. An informal gathering of interfaith conversations to gain a better understanding of the rich diversity within our community. Several faith leaders will be on hand for casual dialogue. Free and open to all. Food and beverages available for purchase. For more information, www.bit.ly/35ju8wE.

tion Beth Jacob, 1855 Lavista Road NE, Atlanta, from noon to 2 p.m. p.m. Speaker Charlene Aminoff will discuss “How 4 Minutes Changed My Life.” A miraculous story of near tragedy and triumph.

Aminoff is the founder of Gali Couture Wigs, wife, mother of five, philanthropist, and a renowned speaker. She travels the world speaking about the miracle of her daughter Gali and her life-changing experience, which led her to becoming a

www.atlantajewishconnector.com

Judaic Needlework Meetings – Off North Shallowford Road and I-285, Atlanta, at 7 p.m. The Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework is an international organization devoted to needlework traditions through the sharing of handcrafted items for both Jewish ritual and everyday cultural use. $45 for an annual membership. For meeting location and more information, email peachstatestitch@aol.com.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 14

Heroes of the Holocaust – Congregation

Calendar sponsored by the Atlanta Jewish Connector, an initiative of the AJT. In order to be considered for the print edition, please submit events two weeks in advance. Contact community relations director, Jen Evans, for more information at jen@atljewishtimes.com.

to 2 p.m. Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta promotes social change and expands positive opportunities for Jewish women and girls. JWFA’s ACT program builds the capacity of women in Atlanta’s Jewish community to become agents of change, developing their skills through exclusive, interactive seminars led by accomplished leaders, activists and influencers, and providing networking and mentoring opportunities designed to foster a sense of growth personally, professionally and communally. Free. For more information and location, www. jwfatlanta.org/act.

Open Play Games – Marcus JCC, 5342

Speaker Charlene Aminoff – Congrega-

Find more events and submit items for our online and print calendars at:

34 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

examining some of the courageous individuals from various countries whose acts of rescue and resistance are part of Holocaust history. Schancupp is a Lerner Fellow of The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous and has developed a series of lectures on the Holocaust. Free for members, $5 donation for nonmembers. For more information, www.bit.ly/2RLARvF.

Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Parkway NE, Marietta, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. During the dark days of Nazi-occupied Europe, Jewish and non-Jewish men and women took heroic actions to save Jews from extermination. Join Judy Schancupp in

Tilly Mill Road, Atlanta, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Open play tables are set up every week on MJCCA’s Main Street on Mondays and Wednesdays for you to enjoy popular strategy and skill games while making new friends. Free for members, $5 for the community. For more information, www.bit.ly/2H6mYRt.

FRI., JAN. 17 – SUN., JAN. 19

YJP International Shabbaton – Presented by Chabad Intown On The BeltLine, Friday to noon Sunday. YJP International invites you to step behind the curtain for an unparalleled weekend of exclusive access into the heart of the Crown Heights Chabad community. Together with hundreds of like-minded young Jews, discover the eclectic cul-

JANUARY 10-19

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Khatia Buniatishvili, piano – Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 1700 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, from 8 to 10 p.m. With a history spanning more than seven decades, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has been at the forefront of musicmaking in the U.K. As the RPO proudly looks to its future, its versatility and high standards mark it as one of today’s most open-minded, forward-thinking symphony orchestras. Led by internationally renowned and Olivier Award-winning conductor Mark Wigglesworth, RPO is joined by the Georgian virtuoso pianist Khatia Buniatishvili for an evening featuring compositions by Jonathan Dove, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Jean Sibelius. $85 per ticket. For more information, www.bit.ly/2LNFXDz. ture, entrepreneurial spirit, permeating spirituality, and a vibrant urban kosher foodie scene that attracts visitors from around the country. Registration is open.

Book your flights early! Tickets from Atlanta are around $135 right now. YJP Intown, let’s represent with a big group.

For tickets, location and more information, www.cypshabbat.nyc/rsvp.

probes the esoteric through a unique program of English text-based study. No prior kabbalistic experience required.

Free. For more information, www. chabadintown.org.

Acoustic Shabbat Café @ Crema Espresso Gourmet – Crema Espresso Gourmet, 2458 Mt Vernon Road, Dunwoody, from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Join Rabbi Brian Glusman, Drew Cohen and teen musicians from The Weber School for an evening of music and Shabbat prayers.

Food and wine available for purchase.

This interactive Shabbat themed experience is sponsored by Atlanta Jewish Music Festival and The Weber School.

Free. For more information, www.bit. ly/33ToaBw.

Give the Gift of Life of Life at Beth Shalom’s Blood Drive – Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Be a hero and make your appointment today. Free. For more information, www. rcblood.org/2PGnUjU or 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

Book Club – 'Dinner at the Center of the Earth' – Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Join The Sixth Point to discuss Nathan Englander’s Jewish thriller, “Dinner at the Center of the Earth.” We’ll meet at Brash Coffee within the dining area of the Atlanta History Center. Free. For more information, www.bit.ly/38vqrGh.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19

Kabbalah and Coffee – Chabad Intown

Young Professionals Bureka Baking Night at OVS – Congregation Or Ve-

on the BeltLine, 730 Ponce De Leon Place NE, Atlanta, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Discuss, explore and journey through the world of Jewish mystical teaching and learn how to apply these profound teachings to your daily life. This ongoing class

Shalom, 1681 North Druid Hills Road NE, Brookhaven, from 6 to 9 p.m. For young professionals interested in making burekas to learn how to make Sephardic hot pockets. Free. For more information, www.orveshalom.org.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 35

KEEPING IT KOSHER Jewish Joke of the Week

Moses and the Israelites Nine-year-old Isaac is asked by his mother what he has learned in Hebrew school.

“Well mum,” says Isaac, “our teacher told us how G-d sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and everyone walked across safely. Then, he used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters for reinforcements.

They sent men to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.”

Oatmeal Muffin Pops Cooking and prep: 40 minutes Serves: 6 Preference: Pareve Difficulty: Easy Diet: Vegetarian, pescetarian, low fat These dense muffins are filling and nutritious. I like to make them more fun and turn them into muffin lollipops. Kids just love anything that comes on a stick.

“Really Isaac,” says his mother, “is that really what your teacher taught you?”

“Not really mum,” replies Isaac, “but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe me.”

Joke provided by David Minkoff www.awordinyoureye.com

Yiddish Word of the Week Patshke, Potchkey, Potchke, Potshke, Patchkey, Potschke

‫ּפאטשקען‬ ַ To fuss or “mess around” inefficiently and inexpertly, to dawdle, to waste time.

“This recipe involves a lot of patshke.” “The project is almost due; I can’t potchkey with it anymore.”

36 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

2 cups 100% whole wheat flour 2 cups oats ½ cup granulated brown sugar 2 eggs 2/3 cup oil 1 cup applesauce 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate or white chocolate chips Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a mini muffin pan.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. The mixture will be thick, like cookie dough. Roll into balls and place in prepared muffin pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

To assemble pops, melt chocolate. As soon as the mini muffins come out of the oven, dip lollipop sticks into melted chocolate and stick into balls. Let cool.

Tip: For perfect and uniform muffins, use an ice cream scooper to scoop dough into cupcake tins.

Recipe by: Nechama Norman Source: Whisk by Ami Magazine reprinted in kosher.com

BRAIN FOOD

Mems The Word

ACROSS

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1. Make like a waiter 6. Major river in Europe 11. Dorm figs.

14. Modern day communication 15. Kind of dropping 16. Traif catch 17. Those on "Beauty and the Baker" and " Shtisel" 19. NYC subway org.

20. "___ -Team" 21. Mike Trout's team, on scoreboards 22. Blessings followers 24. Land of Baron Hirsch and Marc Cohn 28. Measurement unit for Noah's ark 29. Big name in sugar 32. Notable spy, in the Bible 34. Capsize 35. Talia of "Rocky" 37. Tall, egg-laying Aussie 40. Singer Mann or designer Kestenberg 41. Woman that follows this puzzle's theme?

42. Zillow measurements 44. Northern neighbor of Isr. 45. Geriatrics subject 47. Busy bees 48. Messed up 50. Not tough

18. He's good friends with the Noodle family 23. Sallie or West 25. Be heartwarming 26. Pastry topping 27. Ramaz alternative 29. Like Jekyll's personality 30. Early role for Ron (Howard) 31. Something to get at a JCC? 33. Moses or Joshua, e.g.

35. Snarky 36. Attila was one 38. Like mortals, to a god?

39. Historic 1991 breakup letters 43. Nintendo and Sony makes them 46. Topaz, for one 49. Bad, in Lod 50. Former Giant Barber 51. Do ___! (words for a clutch situation) 52. Show with the main character Doron Kavillio 54. Antlered animal 55. Propelled 57. Apple's G4, e.g.

60. Entrance for a miner 61. Big name in yogurt 62. Word with "Auld Lang" 65. Pitching stat.

66. Old Russian space station 67. "Her ways ___ ways of pleasantness" (Prov. 3:17)

51. Iconic singer Haza 53. Meir's "My Life" and Avner's "The Prime Ministers" 56. Big name in Torah...and wine 58. Kind of tree 59. Fools 63. "C'mon, too easy!"

64. Yom HaZikaron 68. Amin nicknamed "The Butcher" 69. "Shake off the dust....___" (Matisyahu album) 70. Rule, like Asa 71. Initial of "The Raven" author 72. Looked after 73. First name in cosmetics

DOWN

1. Essene, e.g.

2. One way to spell "mommy" in Hebrew 3. Demolish, in London 4. Supplement for better skin 5. Kind of tree 6. Update a route 7. Olam follower (the after life) 8. "___ seen fire..." (Taylor) 9. Tamid or Yisrael 10. She, in Italian 11. Counted the Omen, e.g.

12. Big insurance name 13. Saul Hudson

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION 1

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15 Years Ago// January 7, 2005 ■ An increased number of Orthodox women found a niche in Atlanta, which created businesses that assist Orthodox women to dress both modestly and fashionably. Robin Varon, for example, took a crash course in wig styling and opened up a business in Sandy Springs, serving congregants from the Dunwoody and Toco Hills area.

■ The Bear class at Gesher L’Torah preschool in Alpharetta, along with teachers Debbie Isaacs and Barbara Boehnke, collected $65 to purchase holiday gifts for And One To Grow On. This is a nonprofit organization that supports community-based social service agencies in their work with families.

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tory Museum to the delight of his young audience. The one-foot-tall figure, a puppet dressed in a tiny black fedora and black cape, weaved a Jewish folk tale about finding farm animals and selling them to raise money for charity. The lesson in his puppet show, “Tale of Two Chickens,” was simple: Honesty is the best policy.

■ The Women’s League of Congregation Beth Shalom joined sisterhoods across the country in leading Shabbat services Jan. 21. In celebration of National Women’s League Shabbat, women of Beth Shalom conducted the service, including all Torah readings and chanting the haftorah.

50 Years Ago// January 9, 1970 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Herman Rothstein of Atlanta invited their relaRabbi Hanina Ben Dosa’s tives and friends to attend the bar mitzvah of their son, Leon, Jan. puppet show entertained 10, at Congregation Beth Jacob. A kiddush followed services at the a young audience at the synagogue.

Atlanta History Museum.

■ The Bat Ami Group of Hadassah met Jan. 18 at the Shearith Israel Synagogue library.

Dr. Joseph Baylen, who was head of the history department 25 Years Ago// January 6, 1995 at Georgia State University, spoke on “Britain and the founding of Israel.”

■ Rabbi Hanina Ben Dosa of Galilee glided across the stage at the Atlanta HisPhoto from Chabad.com //

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 37

OBITUARIES

Marcia Fran Bloom 65, Atlanta

Marcia Fran Bloom, 65, of Atlanta, passed away Jan. 4, 2020. Marcia was an accomplished artist who specialized in macramé, weaving, pen and ink, jewelry and beading. Her work was displayed at Piedmont Park Arts Festival for many years along with other art festivals and galleries in the South.

She was predeceased by her father Aaron J. Bloom. Survivors include her mother Wilma Bloom and brothers Larry (Yvonne) Bloom, Paul (Hope) Bloom and Ron (Marta) Bloom.

A graveside service was held Jan. 6 at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs with Rabbi Samantha Shabman Trief officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the Spruill Arts Center at www.spruillarts.org/donate. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999. Sign the online guestbook at www.

DresslerJewishFunerals.com.

Leonard Chill 87, Chattanooga, Tenn.

Leonard Chill, 87, a longtime resident of Chattanooga, Tenn., and later Atlanta, passed away peacefully Dec. 18, 2019.

He was a Holocaust survivor, born in Wilno, Poland. He was the devoted and loving husband of Valerie Saxe Chill; father of David Chill, Ben (Lynn) Chill, Susan (Jim) Whipple, Wayne (Darla) Saxe; and grandfather of Sam (Tara), Anna, Gabrielle, Angela, Brad (Melissa), David and Leila.

Mr. Chill (as known by so many), was president of Synthetic Industries in Chickamauga, Ga., and formed many friendships and relationships with his co-workers. He valued them all.

A graveside service was held Dec. 19, 2019, at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Weinstein Hospice Atlanta. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Joan Goldschmidt 84, Atlanta

Joan Goldschmidt, 84, of Atlanta, passed away Jan. 4, 2020. Joan was born in Washington D.C., and lived most of her life in Atlanta, also spending some time post-retirement in Venice, Fla. Joan worked for Fulton County in administrative roles in both the public safety and human resources departments. She was an active participant in her community and was a member of Hadassah, B’nai B’rith, and the Venice Newcomers Club. She loved playing mahjong and card games, crafting and spending time with her family.

Joan was preceded in death by her husband Fred Goldschmidt and sisters Pearl and Lucille. Survivors include her children Barry (Barbara) Goldschmidt, Robert (Rosie) Goldschmidt, and Laurie (Michael) Paproski; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, 1-800-2272345. A graveside service was held Jan. 6 at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Judith Beiner officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

38 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

OBITUARIES

Ronald Gurin

Danyse Weinberg

Dr. Ronald Gurin, 77, passed away peacefully Dec. 17, 2019, after a brief illness. Recently retired, Dr. Ron was a native Atlantan and beloved optometrist to the Atlanta metro community for over 50 years.

He was raised with brother Alvin by Fannie and Julius Gurin on Augusta Avenue, on the outskirts of Grant Park, and later on Moores Mill Road in Atlanta. After graduation from Northside High School, he attended Oglethorpe University and soon after earned his degree in optometry from the Southern College of Optometry in 1964. He was a proud member of the United States Air Force, based in Luke, Arizona, serving until 1967. After returning home to Atlanta, he settled in Dunwoody, enjoying his time with his family, and many dogs and grand-dogs. Ronald was well known as a kind, gentle soul, always willing to help those in need.

He shared his life with his wife of over 50 years, Renee Judith Gurin. Other survivors include daughter Lisa Gurin of Brookhaven; daughter and son-in-law Robyn and Steven Cole of New York, N.Y.; son and daughter-in-law Michael and Michelle Gurin of Johns Creek; and grandchildren Levi Cole and Joshua and Sophia Gurin.

Graveside services were held Dec. 20, 2019, at Arlington Memorial Park. In memory of Ronald, please consider pet adoption or fostering from one of the many shelters or rescue organizations in the Atlanta area, or a donation to Bosley’s Place, a nursery for homeless and orphaned neonatal and underage puppies.

Danyse Sonya Weinberg, age 72, passed away Dec. 20, 2019, surrounded by her loving family. Danyse, as she was known to family and friends, grew up in Macon, Ga. She graduated from the University of Georgia, where she majored in elementary education. She subsequently received her master’s in special education from Georgia State University. Danyse was a passionate educator and taught for more than 30 years in both public and private schools in the Atlanta area.

She was an avid reader, and enjoyed traveling, splitting her time between Atlanta and North Carolina. After retiring from teaching, Danyse volunteered at the Community Action Center in Sandy Springs and was actively involved in Temple Sinai.

Danyse was preceded in death by her sister Muriel Eichel and her parents Rosalie and Isadore Torch. She is survived by her husband of 49 years Larry; sister Linda; children Adam, Glen, Asher and Ivy; grandchildren Alex, Jeremy, Austin, Mackenzie, Addison, Harriet, Isaac, Rochelle, and Lilly; and a host of beloved nieces, nephews, and cousins.

The family lovingly requests no flowers, but instead, memorial contributions may be made to the Muriel Eichel Education Fund at Temple Sinai or to another charitable organization of your choice.

Funeral services were held Dec. 23, 2019, at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs with shiva following at Temple Sinai. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

77, Atlanta

Doris Perling

98, Atlanta Doris Flank Perling, 98, of Atlanta, died peacefully in her sleep Dec. 30, 2019. She was predeceased by her husband of 74 years, Joseph Perling.

Doris was born in London, England. She met her husband at a Purim dance in 1944 while he was stationed in England during World War II. Doris emigrated to St. Paul, Minn., after the war and was the first war bride to arrive there. She began working as a teenager to help support her family and worked for the Royal Navy during the war. After that she labored as a mother and housewife.

Survivors include children Melvin Perling (Marilyn), Gay Perling-Hoflich and Lester Perling (Martin Kainec); grandchildren Heather Blank (Adam), Adam Perling (Kristie); and great-grandsons Aaron and Jonah Blank and Gavin Perling.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Weinstein Hospice in Atlanta, Hadassah or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Funeral services were held graveside at Crest Lawn Memorial Park in Atlanta Jan. 2, 2020. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

72, Atlanta

‫זיכרונה לברכה‬

Norma Schiff 97, Atlanta

Norma Schiff, 97, of Atlanta, died Dec. 19, 2019. Norma was born in New York and moved to Florida upon marrying Irving Schiff (of blessed memory). Her favorite pastimes were spending time with family, enjoying holiday traditions and being with her husband of 74 years. She will be missed.

Survivors include her sons Brian (Barbara) Schiff and Alan Schiff; grandchildren Stephanie Kozma, Jennifer (Brad) Schiff-Ivers, Jordan and Matthew Schiff, Lauren Yurfest, and Johanna (Drew) Bailey; great-grandchildren Ariella Ivers, and Ansley and Cameron Bailey.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to a charity of your choice.

A graveside service was held Dec. 22, 2019, at Greenwood Cemetery. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, Atlanta, 770-451-4999.

Obituaries in the AJT are written and paid for by the families; contact Managing Publisher Kaylene Ladinsky at kaylene@atljewishtimes.com or 404-883-2130, ext. 100, for details about submission, rates and payments. Death notices, which provide basic details, are free and run as space is available; send submissions to editor@atljewishtimes.com.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES JANUARY 10, 2020 | 39

CLOSING THOUGHTS Picture Perfect My sister Maggie sent up their belongings, their me an undated photograph. four children, and around There is so much hisyear 1915, headed to the land tory in this one amazing of milk and honey. Included photograph in front of the in this group of explorers four-story apartment buildwas a cousin, whom they ing at 790 Elsmere Place, the claimed as their fifth child.

Bronx.

A side bar: For their My grandmother cousin to fit into the birth “Mama,” and grandfather order, all birthdates were “Papa,” Uncle Joe, Aunt Shaindle changed. The result of this Ruthie, elegant cousin Lofarce? If you lie enough Schmuckler retta, my handsome Dad Shaindle’s Shpiel times you begin to believe and beautifully posed Mom your lie as truth. We never and her baby sister Jeanette (all of whom really knew any of their birthdays. We are now deceased) and cute little me, be- guessed, and if we got it wrong, as in ing held by Mama. We are all standing in too old, we would hear the devil himself front of the tenement house on Elsmere straighten us out.

Place, their first apartment in America.

My Mom lived to be one of these lies: Only my Uncle Jack, aka Zaidle (z”l), is 69, 70, 71 maybe even 72 — poo-poo-poo. missing. He was overseas fighting for our I loved going to Elsmere Place. Only country. three or four blocks from my own apartIt must have been a holiday or birth- ment on Prospect Avenue, it seemed like day; we are all farputzed (dolled up). a different world. Many private houses, So, what are the stories behind those smaller apartment buildings with garfaces that makes this photo so impor- dens, and secret alleys to play in. I loved tant? that I had a totally different group of For starters, let’s talk about how friends on Elsmere Place. brave Mama and Papa were. They packed One time, I had this plastic bubble

40 | JANUARY 10, 2020 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

contraption. Everyone knew to blow out to make these semi-permanent bubbles.

If you inhaled, the fumes from the plastic would knock you out. My Aunt Jeanette tried it. The next thing she knew, and the next thing we witnessed, was her ‘falling out’ on the sidewalk. We got the evil eye when we started laughing. Even as kids, we knew to stop and help her up. This was quite the scene: people yelling, people running in what seemed to me at the time, in circles. Obviously, it made a huge impression on me, I still remember it like it was yesterday. (Oy, did I just say that?)

Although you can’t see these things in this photograph, they are all present.

Pesach seder, learning to ride a bike, my friend Brenda, who was a magnificent piano player, the grandfather clock in the living room, Mama’s sewing machine in the hallway on which I learned to sew, the French doors separating the living room from Mama and Papa’s bedroom, the long, oh so long hallway that reinforced my fear of the dark, and the teeny tiny bathroom six people shared with the Pesach fish swimming in the tub.

Is it really possible a photograph can summon up all these, and many more,

Shaindle’s family, many of whom are no longer alive, in front of an apartment building in the Bronx.

memories? Every time I look at this photograph, I am consumed with delicious slices of the past. ■

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