Atlanta VOL. XCI NO. 1
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
JANUARY 8, 2016 | 27 TEVET 5776
Film Festival Builds Foundation to Grow By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
INSIDE Calendar ����������������������������������� 3 Candle Lighting ���������������������� 3 Israel �����������������������������������������4 Local News ������������������������������� 5 Business �����������������������������������9 Opinion ���������������������������������� 10 Arts ������������������������������������������ 13 Obituaries ������������������������������27 Crossword ������������������������������30 New Moon Meditations ������30 Cartoon ����������������������������������� 31 Marketplace �������������������������� 31
ENCHANTED
David N. Weiss prepares to share his trek from “Shrek 2” to observant Judaism. Page 7
WALK ON
Now under the ownership of the third generation of the Shemaria family, Bennie’s Shoes keeps strolling along as the place for shoe repair in Atlanta. Page 9
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year ago the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival approached the opening of public ticket sales as a newly independent nonprofit running the second-largest Jewish film festival in the world. Now it’s No. 1 and nearing the start of sales Sunday, Jan. 10, with more than a year of independence behind it. “We never in a conscious way were chasing the title of No. 1 Jewish film festival,” Executive Director Kenny Blank said. “We’re proud to have the bragging rights. That came about as a nice secondary benefit. We were just producing the best festival we could for our community.” Aside from one new venue, SCADshow, and bigger theaters at some continuing locations, audiences shouldn’t notice many changes during the 16th festival, which runs from Jan. 26 to Feb. 17. Perhaps the biggest adjustment has come for donors. The festival overhauled a system of sponsorship levels and benefits that treated individual and corporate supporters the same. The change led to the opening-night gala being open only to festival sponsors and patrons. The public still can buy tickets to see the opening-night film, “Remember,” but can’t get passes to the party. Blank said only 30 to 40 of those passes were sold last year. Overall, he said, about 5,000 more festival tickets are available this year, but
Real-life couple Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung star in “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong,” the ACCESS Night film at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. See a review on Page 22, part of this week’s special festival preview on Pages 13 to 26.
that’s a response to demand, not an effort to pad last year’s total audience of more than 38,600 to remain No. 1. Instead of holding on to bragging rights, the festival organization has focused during its first full year apart from the American Jewish Committee on creating a strategic plan, charting sustainable growth, developing a long-term business model, and staffing up with fulltime communications and community engagement employees, Blank said. The festival experimented with yearround programming, such as holding September screenings of the documentary “Rosenwald” and Germany’s nominee for this year’s Oscars, “Labyrinth of Lies.” But Blank intends for the programming
Quake Rattles Jews
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IN MEMORIAM
Atlanta’s Jewish community lost many prominent members recently, including Gene Asher, the Jewish Georgian’s founder, and Phil Levetan, husband of former DeKalb CEO Liane Levetan. Page 27
to expand beyond a traditional night at the movies with speakers, workshops and other events that meet the mission of creating community dialogue and building bridges of understanding. The festival’s independence has opened opportunities to apply for cultural grants and seek National Endowment for the Arts funding at a higher level, but many of those applications will have to wait until the festival has two or three years of independent financial data. “Beyond grant opportunities, I think for a lot of current funders, not advocates but true cultural entrepreneurs, it changes the optics,” he said, with independence making the festival a more appealing recipient of donations. ■
Bnei Menashe community member Nakhon Hoakip and his mother, Leah, who live in Imphal, examine damaged buildings Jan. 4.
6.7-magnitude earthquake that struck India early Monday, Jan. 4, caused extensive property damage to the country’s Bnei Menashe community. Nine people died and 90 others were hurt in the quake 18 miles from Imphal in the state of Manipur, near Myanmar and Bangladesh, about 4:30 a.m. local time Monday. “Buildings shook violently,” said Tzvi Khaute, one of
the Bnei Menashe. “Thank G-d no one among the Bnei Menashe was injured or killed.” A 2005 ruling by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate found that the Bnei Menashe descend from the lost tribe of Manasseh and are eligible to make aliyah, as 3,000 have. About 700 of the 7,000 Bnei Menashe left in India await permission to make aliyah this year, said support organization Shavei Israel. ■