STILL LEARNING
Israelis’ actions don’t reflect their love of the land, an ecologist says. Page 25
VOL. XCIII NO. 4
TU B’SHEVAT, PAGES 25-27 LOOKING BACK HAVING FUN Tu B’Shevat in 1948 was a big deal as the Jewish state’s birth neared. Page 26
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
Events for the holiday include fruit tasting, rock painting and tree planting. Page 27
JANUARY 26, 2018 | 10 SHEVAT 5778
Righteous Gentile’s Light Shines in Atlanta A child survivor of the Holocaust who transformed world financial markets gave credit to two men and two nations Sunday night, Jan. 21, at Sandy Springs’ Westin Atlanta Perimeter North. Leo Melamed, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange chairman emeritus who invented financial futures and moved futures trading onto computers everywhere, was the keynote speaker at Am Yisrael Chai’s “Conscience and Action” event ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27. Melamed and his parents fled Poland to Lithuania when he was 7, thanks to the foresight of his father. They then received a warm welcome in Japan, which they reached with a transit visa issued by Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara, whose acts of conscience in defiance of his government saved an estimated 6,000 Jews. Am Yisrael Chai dedicated the event to Sugihara, whom Melamed called one of the most righteous men in the world. He has spent decades helping the Sugiharas publicize the diplomat’s heroism. One of Sugihara’s grandsons, Chihiro Sugihara, also spoke at the Jan. 21 event. Even though his grandfather was only 5-foot-4, he said he remembers him being like a big refrigerator — solid outside and beautiful and fresh inside. Congregation Ariel Rabbi Binyomin Friedman’s father-in-law, Rabbi Yehudah
Photos by Michael Jacobs
Rabbi Binyomin Friedman shows a montage of the nearly 100 descendants of his father-in-law, Rabbi Yehudah Dickstein, who was saved by a transit visa from Chiune Sugihara. See more photos at atlantajewishtimes.com.
Dickstein, who died in October, was one of the thousands saved by Sugihara. Drawing on the Talmudic lesson that saving a life is like saving a world, Rabbi Friedman said, “This heroic man saved many thousands of worlds.” Am Yisrael Chai is bringing its Daffodil Project — an effort to plant 1.5 million daffodils in memory of the 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust — to Japan to honor Sugihara. But Melamed, whose life was saved
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and fortune made through forward thinking, didn’t limit his focus to the past. Speaking during a federal government shutdown linked to the fate of immigrants, Melamed said he and his parents reached Chicago as refugees with no money, no family and no clout, but the United States enabled him to use his talents and his imagination to reach the top. “This country gave me that opportunity,” he said. “This is the greatest country in the world.” ■
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While Joshua Sampson provides accompaniment on the violin and Eden Guggenheim stands at her side, Holocaust survivor Suzan Tibor lights one of the memorial candles at the start of the Am Yisrael Chai ceremony.
Holocaust survivor Janine Storch lights a memorial candle with the help of Emma Novitz.
KING’S LEGACY
Approaching the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Jews in Atlanta disagree over what the civil rights leader would think of Israel today and how they should carry his dream forward. Page 13