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INSIDE Israel News ���������������������������������� 4 Opinion �����������������������������������������8 Local News ���������������������������������� 11 Candle Lighting �������������������������14 Home ������������������������������������������ 40 Sports ������������������������������������������ 42 Obituaries �����������������������������������43 Marketplace ������������������������������ 44 Crossword ���������������������������������� 46

AJA, Page 16

The commencement season continues at Atlanta’s Jewish day schools as Atlanta Jewish Academy’s 22 high school seniors and the Davis Academy’s 68 eighth-graders flip their tassels and stride into the future.

Davis, Page 18

JUNE 8 â–Ş 2018

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MA TOVU

Integrity Above All, Or Ends Justify Means?

Earn Your Diploma

As a teacher for over three decades, I have a unique perspective to offer, understanding the angles of both the student and teacher. I, too, was a student once upon a time and can relate to your raging thirst to reach the finish line.

You have worked so hard, have lost endless sleep, and feel desperate to turn the page and begin a new chapter.

May I suggest that you consult with your teacher and simply ask whether inventing the last segments of the case study would be acceptable?

I know this sounds a little unconventional. It’s like saying to a police officer, “Do you mind looking the other way while I run this red light, please?”

And if the teacher says no, you’re out of luck: You’re stuck either finishing up with Shelly and Robin or starting fresh with someone else.

Sometimes it’s worthwhile to pro­ ject into the future so that you have a clear view of the present. If you fudge the case study, how will you feel when you are presented with your diploma?

Will you be able to feel proud about your accomplishment?

Weeks, months or years down the line, when you are teaching your students or your own children about values such as integrity, will you be able to look them in the eye as a paradigm of trust?

Good luck, Julie. And mazel tov.

— Frank Adelson

End Justifies Means

I, too, graduated and hold a mas-

ter’s in special education. Surprisingly, I had the same experience while doing my case study, and so did many of my friends.

We made a collaborative decision: The group of us invented our case

Shared Spirit Moderated By Rachel Stein rachels83@gmail.com

studies. After all, the main point of the assignment was to learn. Even though the person’s struggles lived in our imaginations, writing and evaluating them still enhanced our learning.

In my mind, I felt like the goal justified the means. The diploma I earned enabled me to open locked doors and mold future generations.

Imagine the child who continually fails throughout his school career.

Where will he be as an adult? Perhaps holding a low-level job, restrained by the shackles of low self-esteem.

Now picture that same child with a teacher who helps him champion the system and climb high to achieve greatness. Just imagine the teacher’s sheer bliss at sharing in his growth!

Without the teacher’s encouragement and alternative methods, this child would have dried up and wilted.

So, go ahead, my friend. Invent your case study. And then step forward with confidence and help children reach the stars.

— Marge David

Clarion Call of Truth

At 86 years old, I have earned the right to resort to clichés. Mama always wagged a finger and insisted, “The end doesn’t justify the means.”

Be a woman of integrity in every area of your life, especially when it’s difficult. Listen to the pristine voice from within, the clarion call of truth.

And then you will truly graduate with honors.

— Beth Astro All dilemmas are submitted by friends or fellow readers. Send yours to rachels83@gmail.com for publication.

On another note, Judaica Corner is selling my new book, “Liftoff!” Treat yourself to 23 true, inspiring stories — most of them about people you know and love.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Recap: Julie stands on the cusp of completing her master’s in special education. One more case study, another final, and voila! A promising future beckons.

But there is an issue with her case study. Julie’s friend Shelly had assented to Julie working with her special-needs daughter, Robin, as a model in the case study. But after the first session, Shelly became unreliable, leaving Julie in a bind, needing two more sessions and facing a deadline.

Should she find another child and start over? Or could she invent the last two sessions to complete the assignment and graduate?

3

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BE’ER SHEVA

Diving Into DNA Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka University Medical Center in Be’er Sheva have established the first National Knowledge Center for the Study of Rare/Orphan Genetic Diseases with the support of Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology.

The center will advance research in rare genetic diseases by providing resources and decades of accumulated knowledge to decode hereditary conditions in the Jewish and Arab populations. Ohad Birk, who heads Soroka’s Genetics Institute, is leading the center. Rare and orphan genetic diseases affect 6 percent of the world’s population and as many as 60,000 Israelis.

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES (ISSN# 0892-33451) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SOUTHERN ISRAELITE, LLC 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 320, Atlanta, GA 30328 © 2018 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES Printed by Walton Press Inc. MEMBER Conexx: America Israel Business Connector American Jewish Press Association Sandy Springs/Perimeter Chamber of Commerce Please send all photos, stories and editorial content to: submissions@atljewishtimes.com

Big Winter in South The Israel Ministry of Tourism’s incentives for airlines to fly from Europe to Eilat’s Ovdah Airport paid dividends in the form of 144,841 people landing at Ovdah during the winter tourist season from October to April.

The number nearly doubled the tourist arrivals of the previous winter. The ministry estimates that the visitors injected 680 million shekels ($190 million) into the economy. New European air routes to Eilat next winter include Edelweiss from Zurich and Transavia from Amsterdam.

Avrumie Calek, Gitty Beer, Nadel Sadir and Amit Kahn sit in front of United Hatzalah head Eli Beer and board member Murad Aliyan.

CREATIVE & MEDIA DIRECTOR COMMUNITY LIAISON

EILAT

The crusader-era Caesarea walls are being restored to serve as a tourist promenade.

CAESAREA

Real Rothschild Money The Rothschild family, whose branches rose to prominence in European banking centuries ago, frequently is used as a funding mechanism in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. To set the record straight, here’s the kind of thing supported by Rothschild money: the restoration and preservation of the crusader-era fortifications of Caesarea.

A ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, June 10, to unveil the crusader market and promenade of medieval walls as part of a tourist attraction at the harbor in the Caesarea National Park. The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations is contributing $42 million to the project.

Noa Stettner (left) and Ayelet Erez suggest that natural supplements will alleviate inflammatory bowel diseases by boosting nitric oxide only where it is needed.

REHOVOT

Natural Intestinal Healing Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have found a way to trigger a natural defense mechanism to alleviate inflammatory diseases of the bowel. A study in mice, led by veterinarian Noa Stettner, a student in the lab of Ayelet Erez, focused on nitric oxide, a signaling molecule. The team genetically engineered mice to block NO production exclusively in cells making up the inner lining of the gut or in immune cells.

Colitislike disease got worse when NO synthesis was blocked in the gut cells but improved when NO was blocked in the immune cells. Using Erez’s earlier finding that an enzyme called ASL makes the raw material for NO, the researchers combined two natural ASLboosting supplements: fisetin, present in apples, persimmons and strawberries, and citrulline, found in watermelon, beets and spinach. Together, they promoted NO manufacture only in the inner lining of the gut. The symptoms of the inflammatory disease improved, and, in mice with colon cancer, the number and size of tumors decreased.

JERUSALEM

Diversity in Emergencies The Jerusalem Municipality honored four United Hatzalah volunteer emergency medical technicians for going beyond the call of duty as part of a ceremony recognizing first responders Wednesday, May 30. The four represented the diversity of United Hatzalah: Nadel Sadir, a Palestinian EMT who was the first responder during a Temple Mount terror attack last summer; Avrumie Calek, an ultra-Orthodox EMT and ambucycle driver; Amit Kahn, a secular Jew and ambucycle driver; and Gitty Beer, who launched a women’s unit that has helped more Muslim and ultra-Orthodox women volunteer and is the wife of founder Eli Beer.

Atlantans Alan and Roni Wolk visit a Special in Uniform unit last year.

PALMACHIM AIR BASE

Special Inclusive Lessons A visit to the Israel Defense Forces’ Special in Uniform program was the highlight of a recent Friendship Circle mission to Israel to learn about achievements in the inclusion of people with disabilities into general society. During a day at the Palmachim base, Exceptional Israel Ability Leadership Mission participants met commanders and volunteer soldiers. A joint project of the IDF and Jewish National Fund, Special in Uniform enables Israelis with disabilities to serve in the military. Atlantan Alan Wolk chairs the board of Special in Uniform USA.

ISRAEL NEWS

Prime Minister Golda Meir oversees the takeoff of the first El Al flight June 8, 1971.

Today in Israeli History

Items provided by the Center for Israel Education (www.israeled.org), where you can find more details.

June 8, 1971: After several days of training and an official dedication by Prime Minister Golda Meir, the first El Al flight, using a Boeing 747, departs from Lod for London and New York.

June 9, 1967: Israeli forces under the command of Maj. Gen. David Elazar launch an offensive into the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights, a location Syria has used for occasional artillery attacks on northern Israeli farmers.

June 10, 1930: Arab leaders have refused to work with the British Mandatory authorities as a protest of official British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. But in a diary entry, Frederick Kisch, the head of the political department of the Jewish Agency, notes

that most Arab leaders “recognize that the policy of non-cooperation with the Government has been a failure.”

June 11, 1947: Emma Gottheil, one of the first and most important women among Zionist leaders, dies at her New York home at the age of 85.

June 12, 1948: As many North African Arabs pass through Tripoli, Libya, on their way to join Arab armies in the war against Israel, a mob of rioters attacks the Jewish Quarter. Fourteen Jews are killed, and 300 lose their homes over two days of violence.

June 13, 1950: After more than a year of debate, the first Knesset adopts the Harari Resolution, which stipulates that the “constitution” of Israel will be composed of a series of Basic Laws approved by the Knesset.

June 14, 2009: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a 30-minute foreign policy speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he details a proposal for a completely demilitarized Palestinian state.

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Submit your pet’s photo & a brief description to WIN* We can’t imagine cuddling up to some pages of newsprint without your favorite four-legged, winged or scaly friend in our June 29th issue.

Please visit

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JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

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ISRAEL NEWS

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

It’s Time to Reassess Sadat, Begin and Carter

Photo by Ya’acov Sa’ar, Israeli Government Press Office

It wasn’t all tough talk and frayed relations between President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Menachem Begin, as seen in this photo from the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem in March 1979, but new documents indicate an effort by the Carter administration from its start to reduce Israeli influence in Washington.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

The 1978 Camp David Accords and the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty are landmarks in Israeli, Egyptian and Middle Eastern history. How we recollect these events and how they are taught or reported by subsequent generations depend on who writes their histories and what sources are used.

What happens when we realize that our earlier assumptions about how history has been told or understood (e.g., through archival materials, personal memoirs and interviews with key participants) are at odds with later information?

Historians and scholars agree that neither the Camp David Accords nor the resultant peace treaty would have occurred if Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had not continuously aligned himself with the United States and cunningly pushed for the Sinai’s return to Egyptian sovereignty.

Fortunately, Sadat found Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin willing to embrace him. For Israel, both understood the strategic importance of removing Egypt’s military participation in the hostile Arab encirclement of Israel.

Sadat was clearly the engine that drove American mediation. In January 1974, after recruiting Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to negotiate a military disengagement agreement with Israel, Sadat told his chief of staff, “We are planning for peace with the Americans, not the Israelis.”

In a 1991 interview, former President Jimmy Carter recalled that in 1977, Sadat said, “If necessary, I shall 6 make peace with them.”

Israel delegation members meeting with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at Camp David in September 1978 include Aharon Barak, Eli Rubenstein, Menachem Begin, Yahiel Kadisahi and Ezer Weizman.

Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter attend the signing of the Camp David Accords on Sept.

17, 1978, at the White House.

Carter had that fact in his back pocket when he invited Sadat and Begin to join him at Camp David in September 1978. During those negotiations, Sadat gave Carter, already eagerly predisposed to take up Egypt’s political positions, the mantle to negotiate for Egypt vis-à-vis Israel. This encounter added to the testiness of the Begin-Carter relationship.

That testiness I saw firsthand when Begin treated Carter very coolly in our 1983 visit to Israel and refused

Guest Column

By Ken Stein

to see Carter during our 1987 visit.

From its start, the Carter administration aimed at achieving a comprehensive Middle East peace between Israel and all her neighbors (including the Palestinians). Stymied after several attempts, Carter’s advisers could not persuade the PLO to publicly accept Israel’s legitimacy. Nor could the administration entice Jordanian, Lebanese or Syrian officials to participate at a Middle East peace conference.

Sadat’s impatience with his Arab peers, combined with Carter’s genuine but fumbling efforts to convene a conference, prompted Sadat to visit Israel in November 1977 to break the negotiating impasse.

Earlier that year, upon learning that Begin had been elected prime minister, Sadat was not all that disappointed. He calculated that Begin’s ideology was such that he would be more interested in negotiating the return of Egyptian Sinai for an agreement with Israel than in negotiating something as equally transformative as Palestinian self-determination, the return of Jerusalem or a Palestinian state.

Begin’s foreign minister, Moshe Dayan, had made those three Israeli red lines clear to Carter in October 1977 (israeled.org/memorandum-ofconversation-between-president-carter-and-foreign-minister-dayan).

On Sept. 6, 1978, the second day of the Camp David talks, Sadat told Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, “I have the full right to make a separate agreement with you, especially after the malicious remarks that were made against me by various Arab leaders.”

With all its diligence and hard work, the Carter administration failed to obtain more than a promise of full autonomy for the Palestinians over a five-year transitional period and a withdrawal of Israel’s military and civilian administrations after a Palestinian self-rule authority was elected.

No self-governing authority was elected until after the 1993 Oslo Accords were signed.

In March 1979, the EgyptianIsraeli treaty was signed on the White House lawn.

When I published “Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin and the Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace” in 1999, I had spent 10 years researching and writing the book. Over the course of my research, I interviewed roughly 70 bureaucrats and diplomats, accessed reports with the Freedom of Information Act, mined the memoirs of each of the participants, and participated in several study groups focusing on Israeli-Arab negotiating techniques.

I thought I had the story right. I believed that Begin and Sadat sought U.S. help to fashion agreements, concluding that the distance in the U.S.Israeli relationship evolved primarily over the issue of settlements.

With access to new documents found at the Carter Presidential Library and the Israel State Archives and newly released publications of the Foreign Relations of the United States,

I have so far concluded that Carter’s publications and those of Zbigniew Brzezinski, his national security adviser, have painted Begin overall in much bleaker terms than perhaps was either truthful or warranted.

Begin was a crafty, cunning negotiator whose positions about Judaea, Samaria and Jerusalem were steadfast.

But Begin was by no means the implacable, intransigent roadblock Carter and Brzezinski made him out to be.

Distances, even large distances, between the Carter administration and Israel did not begin in earnest after Begin’s May 1977 election or over the settlements.

From these newly available materials, it increasingly appears that from its early days, the Carter administration prioritized curbing Israeli influence in Washington, being more evenhanded with other Arab states and achieving a Palestinian homeland that would devolve eventually into a Palestinian state.

What these new documents tells us is that Begin, Dayan and Weizman relented in negotiations only enough so that Sadat would consider and then accept a separate peace with Israel.

These revelations have profound implications for me, both personally and professionally. My “Heroic Diplomacy” will need more than a face-lift.

Another deep look at the diplomacy of the period is warranted.

When I shared my Emory professor’s position with an administrative one at the Carter Center in 1981, I did not know the origins of the Carter administration’s deeply held negative outlooks and beliefs toward Israel.

I would learn more over the next quarter-century, culminating with my departure from the center in 2006 and my open break with Carter. ■ Ken Stein is the president of the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org).

ISRAEL NEWS

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Israel Must Learn to Hate Its Hate Speech

Could this be a new oleh?

Americans can hold their heads high for giving no quarter to a racist Twitter attack on a highprofile black woman by a Jewish female comedian.

Almost everyone is mortified.

Perhaps it is payback for the dreadful humiliation weeks earlier of a high-profile female politico chained to her chair on the dais at a public dinner by another highly criticized Jewish female comedian.

The funny women are the progeny of Borscht Belt comedians who laughed at themselves. Today, the targets are people whose political beliefs are at odds with their own, turning free speech to dystopia.

Hate speech occurs too frequently in Israel, but without the personal consequences or national chagrin.

A recent video shows a Haredi man chasing teen girls while waving a stick and screaming, as if chasing wild dogs off his Beit Shemesh streets. It’s what happens when authorities and the public tolerate misogyny, racism and religious hate.

Words Matter

Israel advocates get their undies twisted in knots when enemies call Israel an apartheid state. Polish officials set off a firestorm, threatening diplomatic relations, by defending the actions of Poles during Nazi occupation. A Romanian government officer wonders aloud what secret deals his head of state is making with the Jews on his visit to Israel.

Likewise, Israelis of all stripes fulminate when President Mahmoud Abbas blames the Holocaust on Jews’ own behavior. Words matter.

But government and moral leaders, the media, and the public in Israel are unruffled and feckless at bigoted, racist and misogynistic speech.

I heard it all in the 1960s while working in the civil rights movement.

Shame on Israel for not punishing

Judaism, not wanting marriage. They forsake their role in family life, where they belong.

Another hater claims that the lion’s share of damage to the country is “due to loss of morality” because women in IDF combat units are destructive to Judaism’s moral fiber.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett calls the remarks “intolerable and inappropriate.” No, the remarks are hateful and demeaning. Inappropriate is a cheap reprimand.

Evil Words, Evil Deeds View From Israel

By Harold Goldmeier harold.goldmeier@gmail.com

make the “others” sit in the back of the bus (including women in Israel).

Tweens are chased down a street with a stick and worse.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef gives a weekly public sermon. Explaining a blessing uttered upon seeing an “unusual creature,” the rabbi allegedly likens a black person to a monkey, using the derogatory Hebrew term Kushi.

There are no calls for the rabbi to resign or be fired. There is no shame.

Some claim that the rabbi never meant it in a racist context, but an inference is enough to render the talk racist and obscene. It reminds me of claims by white preachers that slavery is the will of G-d.

White, angry parents shouted “monkey” at black children as our team of government civil rights educators worked through crowds escorting black children into Northern schools under federal desegregation orders.

Say such a thing today in most democracies, and you’re sacked. A television show is summarily canceled.

But rarely in Israel.

There was minimal reaction and no consequences for the company or for the paper with an ad in August 2016 for a job opening including the caveat “does not want Ethiopians.”

There is also a war on women in Israel. They don’t know their place.

According to some rabbis, it is in the home, popping out babies.

A rabbi claims that educated and financially successful women feel so independent that they undermine

More stories about racist and misogynist speech in Israel appear in the foreign press than in Israel’s media.

Where does bigoted speech lead?

It becomes institutionalized. Rabbis demean the authority of female commanders. There are more than a few instances where Sephardic and Ethiopian children are restricted from enrolling in white schools. There are reports a municipal rabbi of a large city will not marry black couples.

The video of the Haredi man

chasing girls with a stick has not been investigated or condemned by local rabbis. His fellow travelers throw bags of urine, feces and rocks at women walking on the wrong side of the street or not wearing Haredi fashion.

The words that deracinate promote hate and violence. Doing nothing about it lets such speech enshrine violence and institutional racism.

Israel ranks 30th on the Democracy Index (2017) out of 167 countries for guaranteeing personal and media freedom of speech. We need to try harder. It is disappointing that Israel and Israelis treat the matter with benign neglect.

Let’s hope Israelis take the cogent warning of Dr. Seuss: “Unless someone like you cares a whole lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.” ■ Harold Goldmeier is a public speaker, writer and investment consultant who teaches Middle East politics, business and marketing in Tel Aviv. He was a research and teaching fellow at Harvard and worked for several U.S. governors.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Photo by Laura Ben-David Photography

leaders who speak hate speech.

Shame on politicians for not challenging banal racist prattle.

Shame on Jewish community leaders for not holding racists responsible.

Shame on moral leaders for the hateful things they say and the silence of the Israeli media.

Ignoring hate speech encourages it. Hate speech embeds self-aggrandizement, which leads to demagoguery. Next, they block the entrances to schools and lunch counters. They

7

OPINION

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Our Views

Israel’s Friend As long as Donald Trump is president, American Jews will argue over whether he and his policies are good for Israel. But there can be no doubt that Trump’s U.N. ambassador is a true friend to Israel.

As she has since giving up the South Carolina governorship, Nikki Haley shamed her colleagues on the U.N. Security Council during recent debates and votes over the the ongoing Israel-Gaza violence.

“It is outrageous for the Security Council to fail to condemn Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli citizens while the Human Rights Council approves sending a team to investigate Israeli actions taken in self-defense,” Haley said during a debate held at her request Wednesday, May 30, after dozens of rockets and mortar shells rained down on southern Israel from Gaza the previous day. “I urge the members of the Security Council to exercise at least as much scrutiny of the actions of the Hamas terrorist group as it does Israel’s legitimate right of self-defense.”

She introduced a resolution that called on the council to recognize Hamas for what it is, a terrorist organization. But 11 council members abstained Friday, June 1; Russia, Kuwait and Bolivia voted no.

Less surprising is the other resolution the council considered that day: an abysmal measure crafted

by Kuwait and championed by France and Sweden to put all the scrutiny and the blame on Israel. As Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, complained, “Hamas” didn’t appear once in the resolution.

Four council members — Poland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ethiopia — abstained, and Haley used her veto to help a friend.

Sweet Relief

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

As sour as several U.N. Security Council members were during the debates related to Gaza, that’s how sweet the Atlanta Jewish community was in setting a world record Sunday, June 3 (Page 22).

Largest cookie mosaic of a flag might not be the most coveted of records tracked by Guinness, but it nevertheless is an impressive accomplishment.

In only six weeks, Toco Hills residents led the way in organizing and executing a multilevel mitzvah with astounding logistics: 117,000 cookies, scores of volunteers, witnesses, security, health monitoring, photography, videography, endorsements from the likes of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and former Sen. Joe Lieberman, all coming together to produce an edible, 3,224-square-foot Israeli flag.

The cookies then went to organizations working with people in need. And three Israeli nonprofits are going to receive more than $34,000 each.

It was yet another example of Jewish Atlanta coming together in an innovative way to support Israel and ourselves, and all those involved, especially Rabbi Yitz Tendler, Jodi Wittenberg and Matt Lewis, deserve our thanks for cooking up such a tasty way to celebrate Israel’s 70th birthday.

You still can be a part of this Jewish Atlanta record by sponsoring a cookie ($10) or a dozen ($120).

Just go to www.cookiesforisrael.org, and you can 8 claim your share of a Guinness world record. ■

Cartoon by Yaakov Kirschen, Dry Bones, Israel

A Column That’s a Real Snooze Father’s Day is coming Sunday, June 17, and the Los Angeles Times on May 24. although our June 15 issue will mark the occasion, Reiss is the author of “Wild Nights,” a book allow me to use this space to provide the ultimate about how we do sleep all wrong in the modern Father’s Day gift guide before it’s too late. world.

I can’t speak for all dads, but for most of us, His L.A. Times column reminded me of someanything our spouses or children care to give us is thing he said in an AJT welcome. article about the book in The cliché tie? Love it.

April 2017.

Breakfast in bed or brunch “The whole idea of a Editor’s Notebook at a nice or not-so-nice resbedroom for a common

By Michael Jacobs taurant? Can’t wait. Tickets home is a relatively recent mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com to Braves-Padres, where invention,” Reiss said. Un“chop on” socks are being til the 19th century, “most given out? Wonderful. homes had rooms with But the ideal gift doesn’t cost a penny. No, it’s overlapping functions for day and night.” not a piece of macaroni art. It’s simpler than that.

Like so many things that are off-kilter in the Sleep, that most precious and elusive of commodern world, we can blame the Victorians for modities. deciding that sleeping where others might see you, Simple, but not easy because it’s not just about whether in your own living room or on a public park being allowed to sleep in. It’s also about being able bench, was offensive. to sleep without being disturbed by stress dreams Reiss’ motivation for his recent column was or worries about Sunday chores, from mowing the the situation at Yale in which a student called the lawn to doing the laundry. Just peaceful, blissful rest. campus police on another student who was dozing The gift of sleep is more complicated in our in a dormitory common area — adding sleeping to home because I have a bad habit of not quite making the list of innocent things for which black people it to bed many, perhaps most, nights. It’s not that I can expect a police encounter. don’t like our bed, but I also tend to be a night owl.

The professor does a good job of addressing A bit of work, a lot of cable TV (especially during modern American efforts to ensure no one sleeps in baseball season, when there’s always a game going public — except, perhaps, the affluent and those riduntil 1 a.m. or later) and the uncommonly comforting on a train or bus. For some reason, nodding off able living room furniture we bought to replace on public transit is seen as a good use of time before what Irma took away in September, perhaps with a or after a hard day’s work. cat or two snuggling against me, and sleep tends to But I’m less interested in the details than the big catch me before I stumble down the hall to bed. picture: Bedrooms aren’t our natural setting. We’re I even conked out in the middle of writing this true to ourselves if we simply stop where we are and column. snooze for a few minutes or a few hours when we’re This habit of sleeping on the couch or in the retired, then continue with whatever we were doing. cliner, even when I’m not in my wife’s doghouse, was Being a dad is a natural part of the human exa source of embarrassment until I read a column perience, as is sleeping whenever and wherever you

by Emory English professor and Congregation Bet can. Why not bring them together this Father’s Day Haverim member Benjamin Reiss that appeared in with the gift of sleep? ■

OPINION

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

A Bad Case of Righteous Indignation that, despite all your good intentions, prayers and works, Jesus is the only way to G-d.”

Why gag on my aorta now?

• Maybe it is because the counter-

Guest Column

By Rabbi Marc Wilson

vailing voices of good faith and good will seem so faint and far between.

• Maybe it is because we of broader faith and understanding know, but have not had the courage to say, that arrogance and mean-spiritedness, not benevolence and understanding, lurk just beneath the flimsiest veil of the fundamentalists’ strident pronouncements about Christian “love.”

• Maybe it is because we know, but have not had the courage to say, that given their way, the exclusivists, President Donald Trump’s cheering section pouring salt included, would in a heartbeat put a stranglehold on free

Letters to the Editor Blame Hamas

Lone soldier Mor Lewit does not stand alone (“Check Your Facts Before Slamming Israel,” May 25). The genocidally driven, politically purposed “plight” of the Palestinians is self-created and entirely Hamas’ fault. Israel’s every offer of peace has been rejected.

The Hamas goal is clear. The destruction of Israel, not peace, is written into the Hamas charter: • Article 27 — A real state of Palestine is a state that has been liberated.

There is no alternative to a fully sovereign Palestinian state on the entire national Palestinian soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.

• Article 20 — Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Hamas manipulated Gazans into rushing the Israeli border fence to produce injuries and fatalities. This is what Hamas knew the complicit media would focus on. Hamas has publicly acknowledged deliberately using peaceful civilians at the protests as cover and cannon fodder for military operations.

“When we talk about ‘peaceful resistance,’ we are deceiving the public,”

Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar told an interviewer. “This is peaceful resistance bolstered by a military force and by security agencies.”

Israel had no choice about stopping murderous military operatives sent to breach the border.

Bear in mind that Israel left greenhouses intact in Gaza, but the Gazans destroyed them, despite their proven economic benefits. But when your goal is to murder Jews, impoverished people are easier to incite into murderous rage. Cement, for example, used for terror tunnels and not homes really does pose an existential problem.

But thanks to people like Mor Lewit, the victimization of the Jewish people is over. Lone soldier, you do not stand alone.

— Julia Lutch, Davis, Calif.

Publish Temple History

I was not at The Temple’s annual meeting, nor could I see the historical pictorial walk at the synagogue (“The Temple Goes Back to the Future,” June 1). However, I do know that professor Mark Bauman has worked, commissioned by The Temple, for almost three years to write the synagogue’s 150-year

expression and intellectual, cultural and artistic liberty.

• Maybe it is because we know, but have not had the courage to say, that people cannot forge a common agenda of good will when half the folks at the table, if they are willing to sit down, see the other half as trophies to be claimed by delegitimizing their beliefs.

• Maybe it is because we know, but have not had the courage to say, that all beliefs are not created equal — those that exclude and malign ought not to be ascribed the same credence as those that honor human diversity, integrity and transcendent oneness.

• Maybe it is because we know, but have not had the courage to say, that such arrogant exclusivity denigrates and insults the decent, honorable beliefs that have enlivened a world full of decent, honorable, saintly people.

Maybe all those things.

But maybe above all it is because our communities are also rich with people who witness that Christianity can be vibrant and alive, minus a platform of condemnation and exclusivity.

I meet them every day.

We work together for the common good. We celebrate our fellowship and mutual commitments.

Their vision of heaven shares equally in G-d’s promise of eternity and the beloved community that we create here on Earth.

Their faith appears not to be lacking. It appears well intact, flourishing.

For G-d’s sake, let them come forward together with the rest of us exotics, be counted and have their say.

To too many of my evangelical neighbors: Our Bibles, plural, may lead us along different paths and journeys of faith, but our goal is one — to increase among us the love of G-d and the love of neighbor.

G-d sends the same message to many different mailboxes. I have no desire to deny you a share in heaven.

Just do not deny me mine.

That decision rests, and rests alone, with the Ultimate Judge, G-d.

I simply do not understand why everyone seems so reluctant to say it out loud.

Now, will someone please answer “amen”? ■

history from research sources never used previously.

As an individual who saw parts of this very professional work by the leading Southern Jewish historian, I am most hopeful that this outstanding volume will not be put in a drawer but will be published as soon as possible.

I cannot offer The Temple a large contribution, but I can say that Bauman’s historical study is a contribution that should be revealed to Atlanta and American Jewry as soon as possible. Personally, I am one of those who would like to read this volume now.

— Rabbi David Geffen, Jerusalem

has served thousands of children and adults with disabilities.

On Feb. 14, the Camp Dream Foundation (formerly the Georgia Jaycettes Foundation) received a letter from Roosevelt Warm Springs’ governing body, the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Association, requiring Camp Dream to become American Camp Associationaccredited before its July camp dates, which is impractical because the average time to complete accreditation, according to the ACA, is 12 to 18 months and is impossible because the final step of accreditation involves a site visit while camp is in operation.

CDF began the accreditation process in good faith, in the hope that GVRA would honor the July 2018 dates granted in a meeting Aug. 31, 2017.

GVRA is canceling CDF’s summer camp dates just weeks before 200 campers are to arrive. Most of these campers will not be accepted into other programs because of their disabilities, their age or program availability.

Does this feel like big government squeezing the little guy? Does this feel like our state leaders don’t care about those with disabilities? Let GVRA Director Sean Casey know how you feel at sean.casey@ablegeorgia.ga.gov.

— JR Clark, Smyrna, CDF board president 9

Save Camp Dream

In 1975 the Georgia Jaycettes (wives and girlfriends of the Georgia Jaycees) had the idea to build a summer camp facility for children and young adults with disabilities. At the time there wasn’t another fully accessible camp in Georgia.

Over the next 20-plus years, the Georgia Jaycees orchestrated the raising of millions of dollars to build the facility at the Roosevelt Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs (Roosevelt Warm Springs). In 1996 the Georgia Jaycettes opened the doors to the first Camp Dream session, serving seven campers. To date, Camp Dream

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Whenever I am smitten by a case of righteous indignation, my friend Henry chalks it up to male menopause. I occasionally must remind him that certain insults merit righteous indignation, especially when they come to be institutionalized as dogma.

Welcome to my current bout of righteous indignation. It will likely not ingratiate me to my evangelical Christian neighbors. Then again, they have not ingratiated themselves to me.

Why, then, fear speaking my own mind when they have no reluctance to speak theirs?

No matter what I say or do — short of “Take me! My soul belongs to you!” — they have already condemned me and my co-religionists to the lowest rungs of hell, along with Catholics, Baha’is, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Unitarians and the rest of us damned and doomed “religious exotics.”

I have finally popped a blood vessel, having heard one too many times recently that “true believers know

OPINION

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Discarding the Wisdom of Our Sages Once in a while, instead of going to the synagogue with my father and mother, who attended the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol (the Great House of Study), where for an annual fee my father had the privilege of having a “balabatish” seat on the Eastern Wall, I joined my grandfather at the Chevrey Tanach (Friends of the Tanach), a relatively small and heimish synagogue his friends attended.

The Chevrey Tanach occupied an unassuming building at the back of the fishmonger’s courtyard.

While my grandfather’s seat was not at the Eastern Wall, it was right behind the ark and behind one of his friends, a storekeeper with a pleasant voice who had the honor of being the sheliach tzibur, the cantor.

He was not only the cantor, but also the collective’s messenger to G-d.

His seat was also just a few rows in front of the bimah.

On the way home after one summer Shabbat service, my grandfather stopped and pointed to a person who was also walking home from services.

“Tuli,” he said, calling me by my nickname, all while pointing to a person, “there goes a great man. He is a real eidler man.”

The term “eidler man” was an earned honor and referred to a caring and, above all else, humble person.

In this sense, my grandfather Leyzer Yaakov gave honor to that person, for among many other attributes, first and foremost is to be a man of humility.

The Torah, for instance, honors

Moses not necessarily because he was the lawgiver and spoke directly with G-d, but because he was the humblest person — humbler, the Torah declares, than any other person who departed from Egypt.

He didn’t make himself king, nor did he ensure that his sons would have high status. In fact, we know nothing

One Man’s Opinion

By Eugen Schoenfeld

about them. Moses (in the name of G-d) gave the hereditary position of high priest to his brother, Aaron.

Moses followed the wisdom later stated by the sages: “He who seeks and runs after honor, the honor escapes him.”

Humility, from the Jewish perspective, is a must for our leaders. We believe that a great person starts with humility and adds wisdom. Our leaders should be like a metal can that is filled with gold pieces, so that when it is shaken, it is still quiet.

Moses is our example par excellence of a leader who is not bombastic and loudmouthed, but, as his fatherin-law, Jethro, observed, who toils without the consideration of honor because he is a caring person seeking that which is good for its own sake.

It is tragic that we in the United States, Jews and non-Jews alike, support those in power who manifest the opposite to the values our sages sought

in a leader. It seems we equate loudness with power and honor people who lack the virtues of wisdom and humility.

In the Jewish aggadot (tales), our sages compare the two most significant rivers in the Middle East, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Our sages Cartoon by Arcadio Esquivel, Costa Rica confront the Tigris, asking: “Why are you such a loud and angry river, cause someone in power demands it. I known even to throw up boulders, can only repeat Cicero’s comment: “O while your brother the Euphrates is tempora, o mores” (roughly, “oh, what quiet and pleasant?” times”).

The Tigris answers: “My brother The honest and humble person, the Euphrates can afford to be quiet; our sages tell us, performs deeds he does not need to make himself leshem shemah, for intrinsic reasons, visible and loud. He achieved fame by for the sake of humanity and not for annually flooding the plains around honor. But this is not what we see him and making them the most fertile today. of all lands. But if I do not shout, who Our president acts for extrinsic will take notice of me?” reasons. He seeks actions calculated to Is this President Donald Trump’s gain honor and finds to his dismay, as fear, that his lack of wisdom will make our sages proposed, that “he who seeks him unnoticeable? honor for egoistic reasons, the honor Using the analogy of our sages, runs away from him.” our leader is fearful of not being noIt is a shame that this president ticed and honored, and becomes like a is preoccupied with being a leader of can with one piece of silver in it, which power rather than a leader of morals, is very loud when shaken. a jealous person who cannot bear the I find him similar to the straw success of his predecessors. man in “The Wizard of Oz,” who As a Jew, I find that we are consought reaffirmation of his wisdom fronted with a twofold tragedy. First, and knowledge by the symbolic that we as a nation do not seek men of representation of a diploma, which in honor, humility and vision for a peaceour case is the president’s demand for ful future. the Nobel Peace Prize — a prize that is Second and perhaps more tragigranted and not lightly given to those cally, that we Jews have discarded the who make this world better. wisdom of our sages, separating Granted, the Nobel panel someourselves from our history and comtimes makes mistakes, but I have never pounding the loss of our identity and heard of the prize being given just beour ongoing assimilation. ■

Finding the Divine in a Johns Creek Mosque

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

I was invited to attend my first iftar dinner Sunday, June 3.

Iftar is the nightly break-fast celebrated by Muslims during the month of Ramadan, and I had the pleasure to attend this meal at Masjid Jafar in Johns Creek. This was not my first time attending a service at the mosque, but I was surprised by my reaction the experience.

After I was welcomed by every person I walked past, it was time for the nightly prayer. The muezzin called the community to prayer and began the liturgy.

While I did not understand a 10

word of what was said, I found myself closing my eyes and swaying along

The View From Up North

By Rabbi Jordan M. Ottenstein

with the beautifully haunting melody of the ritual. It was an amazing experience to feel the divine so deeply in that moment, surrounded by a Muslim community and enveloped by Muslim prayer.

I thought, “This prayer, for me, is the truest form of niggun,” the word-

less prayers many of us sing in our synagogues. There were words, that is true, but my inability to understand or have any semiotic relationship with the Arabic liturgy allowed me to get lost in the melody and feel something spiritual.

While the food was delicious and the informal, impromptu symposium I participated in with my friends Tareef Saeb from the masjid and Dave Brewer from Johns Creek United Methodist Church was uplifting, that spiritual moment was the highlight of my evening.

In our services at Congregation Dor Tamid and at most other synagogues in the Atlanta area, we often

sing Psalm 150, which tells us kol haneshema t’halelYah, hallelujah: “Let every breath praise G-d, hallelujah.”

I sing that psalm each week, but it took a trip to a mosque to celebrate Ramadan with members of the masjid and a group from a Methodist church to remind me of the true power of prayer.

As Rebbe Nachman taught, when done with true intention, prayer can cause heaven and earth to come together and allow us to experience the divine. ■ Rabbi Jordan M. Ottenstein is the senior rabbi of Congregation Dor Tamid in Johns Creek.

LOCAL NEWS

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Societal Issues Follow Women Into Rabbinate Being a female rabbi offers rewards but requires persevering through challenges male colleagues don’t face.

Rabbis Samantha Shabman of Temple Sinai and Lydia Medwin and Loren Filson Lapidus of The Temple highlighted some of their challenges and their hopes for the next generation of women in the pulpit at the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta panel discussion “Wait, You’re the Rabbi?!” on Tuesday, May 29, at Temple Sinai.

Female leadership in Judaism goes back to biblical characters such as Sarah, Miriam, Deborah and Esther, Rabbi Medwin said, and the line of female clergy begins in 1861 with Rachel “Ray” Frank and passes through Regina Jonas, the first woman ordained as a rabbi in 1935 in Europe.

Sally Priesand became the first Reform female rabbi in America in 1972.

But even though the Conservative and Reconstructionist movements also ordain women now, female rabbis are still greatly outnumbered in Atlanta.

Women might make up half or more of some rabbinical school classes, Rabbi Lapidus said, but the hiring in Atlanta doesn’t reflect those numbers.

The Atlanta Rabbinical Association has 13 women among more than 50 members; several of them lack recognition because they are not at synagogues.

Rabbi Lapidus said their small numbers put extra pressure on female rabbis to use their voices, as during the 2016 presidential election and the #MeToo movement. Rabbis tried to balance their role as clergy with calls from community members for them to speak out on societal issues.

The problems women face in other professions reach the rabbinate, such as being paid less than men. Female rabbis thus are discouraged from working as long as male rabbis, leading to fewer women in senior rabbi positions, Rabbi Shabman said.

She said some congregations conduct national searches to fill senior clergy positions while overlooking women who have served their community for years.

Requests for family leave present another issue, the rabbis said. Female clergy members traditionally have been viewed as their children’s primary caretakers, but Rabbi Medwin said they are trying to shift how congregations look at parental roles.

The three panelists said people will always have certain expectations about who female rabbis are and how they look. They want people to feel comfortable speaking to them about a range of subjects, Rabbi Lapidus said, but congregants should be mindful that female rabbis’ experiences could include incidents ranging from comments about their appearance to sexual harassment.

But Rabbi Medwin said female rabbis also are in a good position to mentor other women and to speak up for minorities who might lack a voice. And for every unkind comment, there are

Photo by Sarah Moosazadeh

(From left) Rabbis Lydia Medwin, Samantha Shabman and Loren Filson Lapidus talk about the challenges and rewards of serving as rabbis.

dozens of supportive, loving and praiseworthy words that uplift the rabbis.

“Every time that we hear, ‘Oh, you’re the rabbi,’ there is some joy to that being a surprise because we automatically represent the possibility of looking at things differently,” Rabbi

Lapidus said.

Rabbi Shabman added, “I think being a woman rabbi has changed the leadership of what a woman rabbi can look like, and I think that enables younger generations to say, ‘I can do anything I want to do.’ ” ■

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

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LOCAL NEWS

E YO ULR Z I M O L! T CUS AMON RO N OWN CIN

ER! T A C E W

UNDER SUPERVISION OF THE ATLANTA KASHRUTH COMMISSION

JScreen’s Karen Grinzaid

SOJOURN’s Rebecca Stapel-Wax

SOJOURN, JScreen Rank Among Top 50 Innovators Two Atlanta-based organizations, JScreen and SOJOURN, have been recognized among the 50 top innovative Jewish organizations in America in the 2018 Slingshot Guide.

“Slingshot highlights some of the most innovative programming in our community, organizations that are uniquely poised to meet today’s needs,” the organization says on its new website, www.slingshotfund.org.

Slingshot says its 13th national guide, released Monday, June 4, will be its last printed guide, although it will continue to support Jewish innovation.

In an introduction, Slingshot Executive Director Stefanie Rhodes says this edition celebrates organizations “led by and for Jews of color, LGBTQ Jews, Latinx Jews, Jews of every denomination, those who identify as Jew-‘ish’ and those who are seeking connection in a community they were not born into.”

SOJOURN: Southern Jewish Resource Network for Gender and Sexual Diversity falls into that group.

“We appreciate the recognition for and the coverage of the effort SOJOURN­ brings to strengthen and increase LGBTQ+ inclusive communities in the South,” SOJOURN Executive Director Rebecca Stapel-Wax said. “Being included in Slingshot has been a tremendous asset over the years. We have collaborated with other organizations that align with our mission. We have celebrated with the other innovative organizations that are our partners in Atlanta.

It has also been exciting to be found by funders who identify with our work and want to contribute to our impact.”

Slingshot’s 2014-15 and 2016 guides also recognized SOJOURN. “SOJOURN is able to access religious communities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana where faith is a major part of society and where no LGBTQ group has had any presence,” the guide says. “It is using this pivotal access to help queer members of the tribe use Judaism as a way to both gath-

er and affirm their equal rights.”

JScreen, the Emory-based nonprofit offering spit tests to screen for more than 200 genetic diseases, also is a third-time Slingshot honoree after also making the 2016 and 2014-15 guides. In line with Slingshot’s 2018 focus, JScreen tests for diseases that are more prevalent in Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews as well as Ashkenazi Jews.

“We are honored to be included in the Slingshot Guide and to be highlighted for our innovative work in genetic screening,” JScreen Executive Director Karen Grinzaid said. “With our roots in Atlanta, we are proud that JScreen has become a household name with national reach and impact. We will continue to keep our sights on the current and future health of the Jewish community.”

Slingshot notes that JScreen is working on two innovations: an athome, low-cost test for the BRCA gene, associated with breast and ovarian cancer, and an open testing and genetic counseling partnership for the Orthodox community.

Last year, Jewish Kids Groups was the only Atlanta-based organization in the Slingshot Guide. It was JKG’s third time being recognized.

Slingshot honored several other organizations active in Atlanta, including Honeymoon Israel, InterfaithFamily, Moishe House, OneTable and PJ Library. The Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta-supported jGirls Magazine, whose initial editors included Weber School student Aliza Abusch-Magder, also made the list, as did the Goldring/ Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Miss.

You can see the full list and download the guide at www.slingshotfund. org/guides/2018.

Hundreds of organizations applied to be in the guide. The selections were based on innovation, impact, leadership in the field and organizational effectiveness. ■

LOCAL NEWS

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Memorial Planned for WWI Soldiers Slain in Canton A memorial service marking the 100th anniversary of the deaths of three American soldiers killed during World War I will be held Saturday, June 16, in Cherokee County.

But the soldiers, at least two of whom were Jewish, were not killed in distant Flanders Fields by the Germans.

Instead, they were victims of sabotage, plunging to their deaths in the Etowah River on a secret mission to round up draft dodgers and deserters.

The men avoiding the war were responding to the incitement of Tom Watson and his Jeffersonian newspaper, said retired Roswell police officer Michael Hitt, who has meticulously pieced together the story of what happened that morning at Steele’s Bridge.

Watson is the same demagogue who stirred up the anti-Semitic furor that led to Leo Frank’s lynching less than three years earlier.

Watson argued that the military draft was unconstitutional and urged

men not to report for service. Hitt said anti-war meetings fired up military-age farmers and their families and collected money to help them hide.

One hideout was in the wilds of Cherokee County. A deputy marshal in Canton worked with federal revenue agents and the Army to try to catch the “slackers” and, more important, look for documents that would tie their activities to Watson, the ultimate target.

About 65 men were part of the raid, which included three 2-ton Velie trucks and four cars. They left Camp Gordon on June 15, 1918, and made for an artillery range in Marietta, then left that staging area early June 16.

But the convoy took too long reaching Canton, in part because it stopped along the way to search for evidence against Watson. One man got lost in the woods, Hitt said, so 10 men and a Velie truck stayed to find him.

By that time, it was midmorning, and the secret of the raid was blown.

People along the way may have spread the word. A mysterious man on horseback seen when the convoy set out

from Marietta may have been to blame.

Hitt suspects an informer at Camp Gordon — a soldier who later deserted — sent out a warning.

Regardless, the convoy headed up Bells Ferry Road to Steele’s Bridge Road to cross the Etowah. Three cars went across with no problem, but the first Velie truck on the bridge dropped through wood that had been sabotaged so it couldn’t handle the weight. The truck fell 40 feet and flipped over, trapping about 30 soldiers inside.

Remarkably, only three died, and 13 others require hospital care.

Killed were Jewish soldiers Sgt. Abe Marguesee, a medic whose death was reported the next day in his hometown newspaper in Syracuse, N.Y., and Cpl. Sam Smith, who had turned down leave to visit his family in Massachusetts so he could participate in the raid.

The third victim, of unknown religion, was Pvt. Ernest Rhinesmith. All had been part of the 82nd Division.

The disaster was front-page news but was reported as an accident by Atlanta newspapers under military cen-

sorship, Hitt said. The Augusta newspaper, by contrast, quickly pointed to sabotage.

No one was ever arrested for the crime, and Georgia deserters benefited from an amnesty freeing farmers to work their fields. Watson won election to the U.S. Senate in 1920 but died in 1922. The Steele’s Bridge area was lost to the lake; the Bridge Mill subdivision rose nearby.

The deaths of the three soldiers were forgotten until Hitt stumbled upon the case while doing research about Camp Gordon as part of a Chamblee project.

His discovery came in time to organize the centennial memorial, which will include Hitt’s recounting of the story and a memorial prayer led by Rabbi Barry Coffsky. ■ What: Memorial for slain soldiers Where: 810 Bridge Mill Ave., Canton When: 3 p.m. Saturday, June 16 Admission: Free; mdhitt2000@yahoo. com for details

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

13

CALENDAR THROUGH JULY 15

emy, 5200 Northland Drive, Sandy Springs. Free; RSVP at jewishatlanta. org/2018annualmeeting.

Baseball exhibit. “Chasing Dreams: Baseball & Becoming American” is at the Breman Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Museum admission is $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for students and educators, $4 for ages 3 to 6, and free for museum members and children under 3; www.thebreman.org or 678-222-3700.

CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Shelach Friday, June 8, light candles at 8:29 p.m.

Saturday, June 9, Shabbat ends at 9:31 p.m.

Korach Friday, June 15, light candles at 8:32 p.m.

Saturday, June 16, Shabbat ends at 9:34 p.m.

THURSDAY, JUNE 7

Cinebash preview. The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival offers a VIP, sushifueled peek at its artistic tribute to graphic designer/filmmaker Saul Bass at 7 p.m. at Atlanta Stone Works, 112 Krog St., Inman Park. Tickets are $150 (including Cinebash on June 23); www.ajff.org/programs/cinebash.

Art opening. Sisters Judy Robkin and Anita Stein open the latest art exhibit at MACoM, 700-A Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs, at 7:30 p.m.

Free; atlantamikvah.org or info@atlantamikvah.org.

SATURDAY, JUNE 9

Lane, Poncey-Highland. Free; RSVP at chabadintown.org/gimmeltammuz.

a song. Registration is $199; atlantajewishteens.wufoo.com/forms/ m1140k541hz66a1.

Blood drive. Congregation Shearith

Graduation. Torah Day School of At-

Israel, 1180 University Drive, Morningside, plays host to RJ’s Pay It Forward American Red Cross blood drive, helping 11-year-old RJ give back in thanks for blood transfusions he received during the repair of a congenital heart defect, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free; sign up at www. redcrossblood.org/give.html/driveresults?zipSponsor=RJ.

lanta holds its eighth-grade graduation at 7:30 p.m. at Heritage Hall at Congregation Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills. Free; www. torahday.org or 404-982-0800.

Camp Barney tour. Camp Barney Medintz, 4165 Highway 129 North, Cleveland, offers the chance for prospective families to tour the camp in session at 10:30 a.m. Free; RSVP required at www.campbarney.org/ open-houses.

era presents the Stephen Sondheim musical about a murderous London barber at 8 p.m. at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Cumberland, with additional performances June 12, 15, 16 and 17. Tickets start at $35; www. atlantaopera.org/performance/ sweeney-todd-demon-barber-fleetstreet.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

SUNDAY, JUNE 10

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Rebbe’s yahrzeit. To mark 24 years since the death of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Chabad Intown holds a morning study program and breakfast at 8 a.m. and a dinner program at 6 p.m. with Rabbi Levy Wineberg at the BeltLine location, 730 Ponce de Leon

TUESDAY, JUNE 12

Graduation. Torah Day School of Atlanta, 1985 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, holds its kindergarten graduation in the school gym at 10:30 a.m. Free; www.torahday.org or 404-982-0800.

Mill Road, Dunwoody, kicks off summer with a party from noon to 3 p.m. at the Sherwin Glass Aquatic Center that is open to all. Free; www.atlantajcc.org.

The coed league bowls at 6:45 p.m. each Sunday at Bowlero, 6345 Spalding Drive, Norcross. Call Alex Schulman at 404-667-7752 or Pauline Weiss at 404-514-9036 for more information.

Project Understanding happy hour. Alumni of the American Jewish Committee program gather at 6 p.m. at Wrecking Bar, 292 Moreland Ave., Little Five Points. Free; www.ajc. org/atlanta or 404-233-5501.

a camp today through Friday, June 15, for rising ninth-graders through new high school graduates to study music theory, songwriting and engineering while writing and recording

Frankly Speaking. Atlanta activist Sherry Frank leads a women’s discussion group on current events for NCJW Atlanta, 6303 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, at noon (bring your own lunch and NCJW provides the beverages). Free; RSVP by June 13 to christineh@ncjwatlanta.org or 404843-9600.

Barwick facilitates a Jewish Fertility Foundation support group for pregnant women who dealt with fertility issues at 6:45 p.m. at MACoM, 700A Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Free; www.jewishfertilityfoundation.org/expecting-after-infertility.html or 678-744-7018.

facilitates a Jewish Fertility Foundation support group in Toco Hills at 7:30 p.m. Free; RSVP for location at www.jewishfertilityfoundation.org/ toco-hills-support.html.

Film screening. Temple Sinai, 5645

Judaic Mosaic. JumpSpark presents

Museum, 1440 Spring St., Midtown, continues the Lunchtime Culture series with excerpts from two Alliance Theatre plays, “Sheltered” and “Goodnight, Tyler,” and a discussion

by Celise Kalke about how scripts are transformed for the stage at noon.

Free; www.thebreman.org/Events/ Lunchtime-Culture-From-Script-toStage.

Infertility support. Ashley Marx

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13

MONDAY, JUNE 11

Bringing a script to life. The Breman

Expecting after infertility. Jenny

Pool party. The Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly

Atlanta Jewish Bowling League.

“Sweeney Todd.” The Atlanta Op-

THURSDAY, JUNE 14

Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs, shows “The Lion in Winter” at 11 a.m.

Free; www.templesinaiatlanta.org/ event/1968-summer-film-series.html or 404-252-3073.

Annual meeting. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta holds its annual meeting, with the presentation of five annual awards and the election of a new board led

by Mark Silberman as chairman, at 7 p.m. at Atlanta Jewish Acad-

Graduation. Temima: The Richard & Jean Katz High School for Girls holds its graduation at 7:30 p.m. at Heritage Hall at Congregation Beth Jacob, 1855 LaVista Road, Toco Hills. Free; www.temima.org/news/ graduation-save-the-date8808753 or 404-315-0507.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15

Dive into Shabbat. The Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, holds a pool party at 5 p.m. and Shabbat songs and blessings with Rabbi

Shabbat Alive. Congregation Beth Shalom, 5303 Winters Chapel Road, Dunwoody, holds a tot service at 5:30 p.m., followed by service filled with music and soul at 6:30, then a dairy potluck dinner. Free; www.bethshalom.net or 770-399-5300.

olds and free for younger children; www.congregationbethaverim.org/ event/pride-shabbat-event.html.

SATURDAY, JUNE 23

Cinebash. The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival celebrates art, film and Saul Bass with food, music and more at 7 p.m. at Atlanta Contemporary, 535 Means St., West Midtown. Tickets are $35; www.ajff.org/programs/ cinebash.

SUNDAY, JUNE 24

PJ Library gatherings. PJ Library

Shabbat swim. Congregation Etz Chaim hosts families for swimming, pizza, and Shabbat blessings and songs led by Rabbi Daniel Dorsch and Heather Blake at 5:30 p.m. at the Post Oak Recreation Area pool, 2515 Tritt Springs Trace, East Cobb. Admission is $5; RSVP at etzchaim.net/ shabbatswim.

kicks off its Summer Series of family get-togethers at parks in Brookhaven, Decatur, Virginia-Highland, Alpharetta, Dunwoody, Fayetteville, East Cobb and Smyrna at 10 a.m.

Free; RSVP at www.facebook.com/ pg/pjlibraryatlanta/events and contact Nathan Brodsky at nbrodsky@ jewishatlanta.org or 404-870-1870 for details.

Camp Barney tour. Camp Barney

MONDAY, JUNE 18

Cybersecurity. Eden Doniger, Jonathan Grant and Doug Isenberg discuss “Is Your Data Safe” over a kosher lunch held by the Atlanta Jewish Foundation at noon at the Selig Center, 1440 Spring St., Midtown. Free; register at jewishatlanta.org/cybersecurity-luncheon.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20

Film screening. Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs, shows “Rachel, Rachel” at 11 a.m. Free; www. templesinaiatlanta.org/event/1968summer-film-series.html or 404-2523073.

FRIDAY, JUNE 22

Pride Shabbat. Congregation Bet Haverim, 2074 LaVista Road, Toco Hills, commemorates the 49th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising with a discussion of the “Prayer for the End of Hiding” and a dinner of salads prepared by a Syrian refugee.

Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for 11- to 17-year-olds, $5 for 3- to 10-year-

Film

screening. Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive, Sandy Springs, shows “Romeo and Juliet” at 11 a.m.

Free; www.templesinaiatlanta.org/ event/1968-summer-film-series.html or 404-252-3073.

Happy hour. ORT Next Gen hosts a young-adult happy hour, including snacks and your first drink, at 7 p.m. at Fado Irish Pub, 273 Buckhead Ave., Buckhead. Admission is $18; ortamerica­.org/Schmooze.

THURSDAY, JUNE 28

Book launch. Emily Giffin discusses her latest novel, the Nashville-set “All We Ever Wanted,” at 7:30 p.m. at the Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. Tickets, including

a pre-signed book, are $30 for JCC members, $35 for others; www. atlantajcc. org/bookfestival.

FRIDAY, JUNE 29

Dive into Shabbat. The Marcus JCC, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, holds a pool party at 5 p.m. and Shabbat songs and blessings with Rabbi Brian Glusman at 6 p.m. Free to all; bit.ly/2IQsOJV or 678-812-4011.

Shabbat Together. Temple Emanu-El Rabbis Max and Rachael Miller organize a Shabbat dinner at a private home for young adults at 7 p.m. Free; rkmiller@templeemanuelatlanta. com.

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

www.atlantajewishconnector.com

MONDAY, JUNE 25

SUNDAY, JUNE 17

Medintz, 4165 Highway 129 North, Cleveland, offers the chance for prospective families to tour the camp in session at 10:30 a.m. Free; RSVP required at www.campbarney.org/ open-houses.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27

This calendar is sponsored by the Atlanta Jewish Connector, an initiative of the AJT.

IDF golf tournament. The Helping Israel Fund holds a fundraiser for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, with breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and golf at 9:30, at the Standard Club, 5230 Abbotts Bridge Road, Johns Creek. Registration is $375; helpingisraelfund. com/registration or 561-869-4606.

Honeymoon Israel. Learn about next year’s trips for couples, for which the application period opens June 20, at 7 p.m. at 5 Seasons Brewing, 5600 Roswell Road, No. 21, Sandy Springs. Free; cloud4good.tfaforms. net/385523.

Poetry reading. Tarece Johnson performs her poems and premieres new writing at 7 p.m. at MACoM, 700A Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. Admission is a suggested donation of $5; info@atlantamikvah. org or 404-549-9679.

TUESDAY, JUNE 26

Peter without Paul or Mary. Peter Yarrow performs at 7:30 p.m. at Temple Beth David, 1885 McGee Road, Snellville. Tickets are $25 for adults, $10 for children or $50 for VIPs; bit. ly/2J2PTsG.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Brian Glusman at 6 p.m. Free to all; bit.ly/2IQsOJV or 678-812-4011.

JUNE 7-JUNE 29

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S A H C SIM Loud and Humble AJA Class of ’18 Graduates

By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Atlanta Jewish Academy sent the 22 members of the Upper School Class of 2018 into the world with a mission to be humble leaders living in the moment and reveling in their Jewish identity.

“Let out your inner crazy. … Maybe, just maybe, mix your crazy with some courage,” a combination that drove Martin Luther King Jr. to march, Golda Meir to rise to Israeli prime minister and the Israel Defense Forces to liberate the Temple Mount, AJA valedictorian Maayan Schoen told her classmates at the graduation ceremony Wednesday, May 30.

“Find your truth and your courage, add in a little bit of crazy, and live it in each moment. Take a breath and enjoy it,” Schoen said.

The Class of 2018 was the first to finish high school at AJA’s unified campus in Sandy Springs after entering ninth grade at the former Yeshiva Atlanta building in Doraville.

On their path to yeshiva, seminary, college or the IDF, the 22 faced construction and change at school and, as Schoen noted, “too much going on in the world,” from school shootings and hurricanes to political controversies and the uproar over the U.S. Embassy

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move to Jerusalem.

Through it all, the class has thrived, said the head of school, Rabbi Ari Leubitz.

“You are high-achieving as they come. You have earned your way into the top schools in this country and in Eretz Yisrael. You have chosen to serve and to protect our people by joining the IDF. You have been awarded tremendous scholarship money for a class this size,” Rabbi Leubitz said. “And with all the change, you have led our school.

You have kept our unique spirit alive and well. And most of all, you have done all this with grace, kindness and, most importantly, anavah,” or humility.

Alan Minsk, who is the president of the AJA board and said he found his voice as a member of the Yeshiva Atlanta Class of 1985 and the student council president, emphasized the spirit of the school and the strength it draws from the challenge of being small.

“You cannot go to this place and be devoid of passion for Torah, Judaism and Israel,” he said. “AJA and your parents have given you the tools to be successful, to help you develop your identity, to teach you a sense of purpose and respect for others and for yourself.”

In a commencement speech full of pithy lessons such as “Live your life in the moment and not watching the moment; memories are so much more

Photos by Michael Jacobs

Members of the Class of 2018 flip their tassels to mark their transition from AJA students to alumni. See more photos at atlantajewishtimes.com.

meaningful when you are a part of them and not apart from them,” English teacher John Wilson said, “We permit students to feel safe when they fail, to learn from their mistakes, to lead their peers and to mature into their own Jewish identities.”

Wilson, who heads the Upper School leadership team, also urged the graduates to be leaders, not followers.

The two students delivering the d’var Torah, Deborah Broyde and Nate Linsider, focused on leadership and Judaism’s emphasis on influence over power.

They related their class and their parents to four categories of leaders found in Scripture: classic (typified by Moses), underdog (David), behind the

scenes (Deborah) and unknown (Ruth).

It was perhaps no coincidence that women were the exemplars of the two subtler forms of leadership.

Salutatorian Nicole Dori recalled that a teacher once told her that as a Jew and a girl, she “would be shoved down twice as hard as anybody and … would have to work three times as hard to get back up.”

That comment drove her, Dori said, and she called on her classmates to similarly choose personal growth over self-pity as they find their own voices in the world.

She also had a message for the crowd in the packed AJA auditorium: “This is one class you’ll never stop hearing.” ■

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“The clichés are comforting, and the platitudes are pleasing,” valedictorian Maayan Schoen says about most graduation speeches. “They’re general enough to be true, but they’re not that capital-T truth."

Salutatorian Nicole Dori says her first name doesn’t mean anything, so she breaks down the Hebrew letters to draw her own meaning: “my voice.”

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Deborah Broyde and Nate Linsider discuss four types of Jewish leaders found in Tanach and in their class.

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678.879.9900 letscelebrateevents.com Commencement speaker John Wilson shares a lesson from his mother: You have two ears and two eyes but only one mouth, so look and listen before you speak.

AJA board President Alan Minsk says his hope for student leaders Maayan Schoen and Sammy Frankel is that they don’t find themselves in his place onstage in 35 years.

AJA Upper School Class of 2018 Naomi Shira Alsberg Leah Raizel Bader Esther Benchetrit Deborah Malka Broyde Devorah Chasen Alexandri Jacob Cohen Nicole Dori Aharon Tzvi Eidex Aviva Pesha Fine Samuel Avroham Frankel Nuriel Gadelov

Jillian Rachel Gerson Binyomin Glinsky Jonathan “Nate” Mayer Linsider Joshua Eli Mermelstein Jonathan Nooriel Benjamin William Ogden Maayan Leah Schoen Nittai Shlomo Shiff Nathaniel Silverman Ariel Leah Sirota Pesach Zeiger

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JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

The following are the 22 high school seniors who graduated from Atlanta Jewish Academy on Wednesday, May 30.

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Davis’ 68 Grads Urged Not to Forget the Present

By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com Between endings and beginnings, one moment — the present — often gets overlooked, Rabbi Micah Lapidus said during the Davis Academy’s 2018 graduation ceremony Thursday, May 31.

That’s a lesson the 68 members of the Class of 2018, the largest in Davis’ history, will take to high school in the fall. The present represents a moment when people can pause and reflect, Rabbi Lapidus said, something the graduates and their friends and fami-

lies did while viewing a video of the students’ memories of Davis.

The graduates showed their enthusiasm as they sang Israeli Netta Barzilai’s Eurovision-winning song “Toy.” The graduates will scatter to 11 public and private high schools, including the Weber School. The 2018 class increases the total number of graduates of the 25-year-old school to 1,033.

Drew Frank, Davis’ associate head of school and principal, reflected on the graduates’ time at the school: “Over the years we have come to know, laugh and love each and every one of you, and I will miss the incredible artistic,

The 68 members of the Class of 2018 represent the largest Davis Academy graduating class.

through ORT in the seventh grade. The two became best friends, and Rogut visited her seven years after graduation in Buenos Aires while studying abroad in college.

The friend died from leukemia three years ago, but Rogut said she will never forget the role Davis played in bringing the two women together.

“This place is always going to be a blessing in your lives,” Rogut said.

She also quoted Dr. Seuss: “You are off to great places, today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” ■ Photos by Sarah Moosazadeh

With the flip of their tassels, members of the Class of 2018 show that they are Davis Academy graduates.

Alon Rogow and Nate Artzi share a post-graduation hug.

Ava Stark and Jessie Schulhof share a goodbye hug before they leave for high school.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

(From left) Olivia Bercoon, Brandon Bohrer, Anna Baylin, Shelby Bercoon, Rachel Binderman, Hannah Ferrar and Sam Durbin prepare to walk out as part of the Davis Class of 2018.

musical, theatrical, comical talent in the years you have shared here.”

As keynote speaker, Class of 2004 alumna and Tulane University graduate Kelsey Rogut represented Davis’ past while helping the graduates look to the future. She urged them to work hard, surround themselves with friends and leaders who make them feel strong and confident, not stress over the little things, let go of drama, think carefully about what they give and get for their work, and continue to make their families and themselves proud.

Rogut dedicated the speech to a friend from Argentina she met at Davis

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(From left) Logan Bucovetsky, Harrison Frank, Hannah Ferrar, Evan Feintuch and Sam Durbin get excited for their Davis Academy graduation.

Sam Durbin, Max Martin, Jordy Levy, Stuart Cohen and Asher Bressler are happy to have graduated.

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Davis Academy alumna Kelsey Rogut offers advice to the Class of 2018.

Head of School Amy Shafron applauds the Class of 2018’s achievements.

Davis Class Of 2018

Nate Artzi Anna Baylin Olivia Bercoon Shelby Bercoon Rachel Binderman Brandon Bohrer Asher Bressler Logan Bucovetsky Stuart Cohen Ashley Costley Samuel Durbin Evan Feintuch Hannah Ferrar Sammy Finkelstein Joshua Forman Harrison Frank Alexa Freedman Jack Goldstein Sarah Greenberg Annalise Hardy Amalia Haviv Kady Herold Rachel Hertz Noah Hirschfield Kaden Husney Joshua Isaacs Samuel Isaacs Shoshana Katz Margo Kaye Daniel Kobrinsky Veronica Kogan Maya Laufer Sydney Leahy Andrew Levingston

Jordan Levy Ezra Mahle Max Martin Matthew McCullough Seth Meiselman Daniel Menis Mai Miller Jacob Mirsky Sophia Mokotoff Gabrielle Murray Alex Newberg Jordan Palgon Emma Perlstein Sy Polekoff Amit Rau Matthew Richmond Ellie Rifkin Alon Rogow Daniel Rosen Alec Rosenberg Jessica Schulhof Zoe Shapiro Eric Sherman Jason Sherman Brooke Stanley Ava Stark Lily Stark Virginia Sullivan Matthew Szabo Datya Voloschin Alexa Warner Eli Weiser Hailey Weiss Sasha Wildstein

JUNE 8 â–Ş 2018

The following are the 68 eighth-graders who graduated from the Davis Academy on Thursday, May 31.

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SIMCHAS

Photos courtesy of Temple Sinai

Surrounding Lillie Janko are her children and their spouses: (clockwise from left front) Paige Janko Peritt, David Peritt, Angie Janko, Dena Cohen, Mark Cohen and Shawn Janko.

42-Year Employee Retires From Temple Sinai

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to remain consistent on policy and procedures, and she has calmed families through her experience, expertise and stress-free demeanor.

The retirement dinner was full of laughter and fond reminiscences of her four-plus decades at Sinai, including a video of comments submitted by coworkers, family and friends.

Rabbi Ron Segal offered an inspiring tribute to her years with the congregation, and Bunzl Family Cantorial Chair Beth Schafer closed the evening with a blessing.

As Immediate Past President Marcia Nuffer said when giving Janko the President’s Award at Sinai’s recent annual meeting, “While she may spend less time around Sinai during retirement, we hope and trust that Lillie will remain a regular presence at the congregation she not only served, but also shaped.” ■

Rabbi Phil Kranz, now the rabbi emeritus, was the senior rabbi for most of Lillie Janko’s employment at Temple Sinai.

Lillie Janko’s grandchildren join her at the retirement dinner.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

404- 462-4787 • Jim@jimwhitedesigns.com

Temple Sinai is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2018, and Lillie Janko has served on the staff for 42 of those 50 years.

Sunday night, June 3, Temple Sinai honored Janko on her retirement with a dinner attended by more than 225 people.

Short of the clergy, she has held almost every position at Sinai, from answering phones a few hours a week to working as the full-time receptionist, providing administrative support to the religious school and serving as the interim executive director.

In her final Sinai job as facilities and events director, Janko has supported families during lifecycle events in the Sandy Springs congregation.

From negotiating with caterers and vendors around b’nai mitzvah celebrations to working with florists before weddings, she has enabled Sinai

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Photos courtesy of Mollie & Corey Friedman, and Decisive Moment Photojournalism, Event Planning Francee Craig Events, Catering: Added Touch Catering, Venue: Atlanta History Center

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www.atlantajewishtimes.com

7 Things to Do While Your Mitzvah Kid’s at Camp Your teen may want to be involved in several aspects of bat mitzvah plans, but you don’t need her for everything. While she’s making friends at camp, check off these seven mitzvah-related tasks. You’ll be glad you did before it’s back to school.

house, reflect on her best qualities and commitment to Torah study, as well as what you’d like to say. Write your thoughts and save them somewhere

Guest Column

By Shelly Danz

Save the Date

While your teen may want to help select invitations, save-the-date announcements are quick and to the point. For a postcard or an electronic announcement, you won’t need input. If you’re eight to 10 months from the simcha and have your basic details set, send away.

Choose Montage Photos

If you haven’t heard, it takes a long time to choose photos of your child to fit into a 10-to-12-minute video presentation. If you plan to create a montage or hire someone to do it, you’ll review hundreds of photos.

This isn’t an easy process. You’ll feel “all the feels” as you see your baby in images that remind you of special places, beloved people and moments shared. You’ll want to do this without your teen around to veto your picks.

Use our tips to make the process go more smoothly: www.atlantamitzvahconnection.com/tips-tools/13years-in-10-minutes-montage-tips.

Shop for Your Outfits

You’ll spend time outfitting the entire family for services and the celebration. But while the pace is a bit slower, shop for yourself. With no one rushing you, find ensembles for the weekend that make you look and feel great. You want to love what you’re wearing in those keepsake portraits.

Set Up a Surprise your teen won’t easily find them if you share a computer. Also, jot some notes of welcome for your guests at your post-service celebration.

While your teen may have input on the menu, décor and music at the weekend festivities, shouldn’t some things be a surprise? Some parents

schedule an unexpected element (flash mob, anyone?) to make the celebration even more meaningful. Check out ideas at www.atlantamitzvahconnection. com/tips-tools/bar-mitzvah-partysurprises. ■ Shelly Danz is the founder and chief party officer of Atlanta Party Connection (atlantapartyconnection.com). APC produces four events annually to connect attendees with the best celebration vendors. The next Bridal Extravaganza is Aug. 12 at the Southern Exchange. The next Bar & Bat Mitzvah Expo is Oct. 14 at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North.

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Hire a Day-Of Planner

The person who will be in communication with your day-of planner or event manager the most is you. It’s not necessary to check this vendor’s chemistry with your teen.

Hire the person you trust most to ensure that your family’s vision is realized. This person will oversee all vendors, including setup, breakdown and tips; coordinate all logistics; and manage the timeline and any issues that arise over the big weekend.

Your teen won’t want to visit hotels to check amenities and ensure the relatives will be happy. Grab a friend or make appointments through a convention and visitors bureau to tour hotels near your synagogue or party venue and make those reservations.

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While your teen is out of the

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JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

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Atlanta Makes the Cookie Record Crumble

Photos by Eli Gray unless otherwise noted

Volunteers wearing protection on their feet, hands and heads are ready to assemble the Israeli flag out of blue and white cookies.

Photo courtesy of Cookies for Israel

Two volunteers from the nonprofit Gateway Center collect boxes of donated cookies to distribute to those who are hungry.

It takes a community to break a world record using 117,000 cookies.

million but is aiming for $200,000.

Because other donors are covering the costs of setting the record, every dollar raised will be shared by three nonprofit organizations in Israel: United Hatzalah, the volunteer emergency medical service, which answers more than 1,000 calls a day; OneFamily Fund, which supports victims of terrorism; and the Jewish Agency’s Partnership2Gether program, which helps immigrant communities in the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s partnership region of Yokneam.

The flag used about 117,000 cookies, all of which are being donated to charities to be eaten.

Food rescue organization Second Helpings Atlanta was the largest local nonprofit organization partnering with Cookies for Israel, and its volunteer drivers picked up roughly 60,000 cookies for distribution to the Toco Hills Community Alliance, Malachi’s Storehouse, North Fulton Community Charities, Community Assistance Center, Mary Hall Freedom House, UHope and Atlanta City Baptist Rescue Mission.

Rabbi Yitz Tendler, the executive director of Beth Jacob and the man who hatched the idea in April in the back-

The mat on the floor of Heritage Hall shows where to put the blue cookies for the star and stripes; the rest is white.

Guinness has no rule about the size of the cookies in the mosaic, but they must be edible.

The assembly of the cookie flag mosaic takes about four hours.

room of The Spicy Peach with Matt Lewis and Jodi Wittenberg, said the project couldn’t have happened without the immediate support of four pillars of the project: Allen and Judy Lipis; Malcolm and Betty Minsk; the Williams family; and an anonymous donor.

Scores of volunteers wearing plastic over their hands, feet and hair placed the cookies on a plastic sheet with the flag pattern. The VIPs in attendance included former DeKalb County CEO Liane Levetan, who helped the project with a logistical matter, and Ambassador Judith Varnai Shorer, Israel’s consul general to the Southeast, who placed the final cookies in the mosaic exactly five weeks after some 4,000 people gathered at Park Tavern in Midtown for Jewish Atlanta’s official Israel@70 celebration.

Standing behind the record are (from left) Rabbi Yitz Tendler, Ambassador Judith Varnai Shorer, Jodi Wittenberg, Guinness World Record adjudicator Michael Embric and Matt Lewis.

Like that community event, the cookie flag serves as symbol of the close bonds between Atlanta and Israel: Rabbi Tendler said the state of Israel will be added to the Atlanta Jewish community as the recordholders.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Shorer said about the cookie mosaic. She told the story of the Israeli troops who captured Eilat 70 years ago, only to find they had no flag. So they made one out of a white cloth and blue ink.

“We didn’t dream of having a flag made out of cookies,” she said. “Eilat is ours, but the cookies are also ours. I salute you, and I’m happy to be part of the cookies.” ■

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

The Atlanta Jewish community now officially holds a Guinness World Record after volunteers spent four hours Sunday, June 3, assembling the biggest flag mosaic composed of edible cookies the world has ever seen.

Shortly after noon, Guinness adjudicator Michael Embric made it official: The Israeli flag of blue and white cookies stretched across the floor of Congregation Beth Jacob’s Heritage Hall to celebrate the Jewish state’s 70th birthday was more than 32 percent larger than the cookie flag mosaic created last year in Pakistan to mark that country’s 70th anniversary.

The new standard for cookie flag mosaics is 3,224 feet.

“This is amazing,” Embric said after the cheers died down from the crowd standing close to the walls around the room in the Toco Hills shul.

“It looks so good, and it smells so good.”

The cookie mosaic also is doing good. People sponsoring cookies for $10 each have contributed more than $103,000 to the Cookies for Israel project, and donations continue to be accepted at www.cookiesforisrael. org. With donations coming in from around the world, Cookies for Israel has the potential to raise more than $1

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At 3,224 square feet, Jewish Atlanta’s Israeli cookie mosaic flag is 786 square feet larger than the previous recordholder, a Pakistani cookie flag from 2017.

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JUNE 8 â–ª 2018

SIMCHAS

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Photos by Rachel Fayne

Almost 200 former residents of Columbus attend the reunion for the Jewish community April 22. It is believed that 238 Jewish Columbus alumni live in the Atlanta area.

Jewish Columbus Reunites at Gwinnett Picnic

By Rachel Fayne

(From left) Liz Becker Lee, Mary Jane Becker and Reva Shapiro volunteer at the registration table.

Mark Weinstein (left) and Rabbi Larry Schlesinger greet each other.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Close to 200 former residents of Columbus gathered inside a Pinckneyville Park pavilion April 22 for a reunion of the Jewish community.

The picnic in Peachtree Corners was the first communal gathering in 25 years, and Columbites came from five states, including Oregon, to join the party.

Many attendees were affiliated with either of Columbus’ synagogues, Temple Israel and Shearith Israel Synagogue, but many other were connected to the group. Husbands and wives of Columbites and children of former residents ranging in age from 2 to 96 attended.

Linda Satlof Birnbaum served as the host of the event, for which organizers connected with more than 360 alumni of Jewish community in the southwestern Georgia city.

While guests milled around under the pavilion on a rainy day, Birnbaum led the Shehecheyanu and Hamotzi.

Old faces reunited, and new ones met as everyone filled the wooden picnic tables and sat for a barbecue lunch.

“Putting this picnic together has been a true labor of love,” Birnbaum said in her welcome speech. “Your enthusiastic response in attendance and the readiness of so many to help be a part of its fruition is the most beautiful part about it.”

Although she emceed the afternoon gathering, many members of the Columbus community pitched in to help. A group of women sat behind a table, welcoming people and accept24 ing payments for the picnic, and others

staffed the food stations.

A table with posters of memories and photos from the Columbus congregations served as a centerpiece for the afternoon.

Terri Vogel Pesso was born in Columbus and lived there most of her life.

She said the reunion was emotional for her.

“Columbus has a special part of my heart,” she said. “So many people migrated from Columbus to Atlanta, and because of that, the community there has dwindled significantly. The local temple has relocated to a much smaller building. It’s evidence we need to stick together wherever we are.

“People are coming up to me and telling me I look like my mother; my mother has been gone for years now.

Where else can you get that? This feels like home.” ■

Reva Shapiro (left) and Terri Vogel Pesso pause from providing significant help with greeting and feeding reunion attendees.

Images of Columbus synagogues, families and memories serve as an eyecatching focal point for the picnic.

Host Linda Satlof Birnbaum welcomes the group.

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Hanging out on the deck at Three Sheets are (front row, from left) Debbie Diamond Maman, Linda Coleman Epstein, Sharon Stein Jacobson and Mindy Maran Ellin and (back row, from left) Juli Schneps Galanti, Mitzi Saul Berger, Beth Weiller Arogeti, Susan Gordon Moray and Elise (Lissy) Oppenheim.

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Beth Weiller Arogeti, Doug Teper and Susan Gordon Moray prepare to welcome guests for the 60th Jewbilee.

Susan Gordon Moray, Teresa Brickman Finer, Robyn Rousso Levitas, Mamie Kresses and Debbie Diamond Maman capture the moment at the community reunion.

Atlantans Turning 60 Reunite at Jewbilee

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

By Sarah Moosazadeh sarah@atljewishtimes.com

26

Before Moishe House or LEADS, young Jews in Atlanta connected through youth groups such as BBYO’s Aleph Zadik Aleph and B’nai B’rith Girls. That enduring connection recently brought 60 people together for the 60th Jewbilee in Atlanta.

After talk of a reunion a few months ago, Susan Moray, who is leaving the position of vice president of philanthropic advancement at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta to be the director of development at Atlanta Jewish Academy, wanted to organize an event that would unite AZA and BBG chapters in Atlanta.

Cary Goldstein then suggested inviting everybody turning 60 back to Atlanta.

The idea took off, and with the help of planning committee members including Mark Kaufman, Beth Arogeti, Jane Arogeti Durham, Stella Tarica Gordon, Mindy Fleisher Ward, Doug Kuniansky and Robyn Rousso Levitas, Moray and Goldstein organized the

60th Jewbilee for former members of BBYO, USY, NFTY and Sunday school from Atlanta.

“When we get together now, we know people we grew up with from all over the city and went to different high schools, but my kids only know the people that went to their high school,” Goldstein said. “I don’t think youth groups are as popular anymore, but the idea of growing up in a community and knowing so many people and still seeing them wherever we go is rewarding.”

Moray put together an invitation list of names from old yearbooks, then decided to use a Facebook group instead.

Moray and the planning committee called the Jewbilee “58 Turning 60,” and the event brought more than 130 people and their spouses together on Mother’s Day weekend at Three Sheets in Sandy Springs.

“It turned out Three Sheets was so easy to work with and offered us a very reasonable way to have the reunion,” Goldstein said. “The food was delicious.

The owner was very easy to work with, and they offered us the entire deck.”

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Three Sheets owner Ryan Akly said that planning such events is something the venue does regularly.

“The reunion went off really well, and we managed the event like we do every other event. We try to do our best so everyone has a great time,” he said.

“We were glad to be a part of the event and glad it was a successful one. It was a pleasure working with them.”

Holding the Jewbilee the night before Mother’s Day was a good way to draw a crowd, Moray said, because people were coming to town to visit their mothers anyway.

There were attendees from Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and Guatemala.

One person who traveled from Silicon Valley, Calif., had not visited Atlanta in 44 years.

People brought photos, banners and old memorabilia to help commemorate the occasion.

“The event was so much fun,” Moray said. “I had not seen so many people since my junior year in high school, but everybody looked really good.”

Goldstein said he has three children he pushes to try the same kinds of things but to no avail. “They attended Weber and Epstein and feel they have those groups of friends but yet didn’t get a chance to meet kids from other parts of the city.”

He said one of the highlights of the reunion was seeing how everyone had grown up. “There are always cliques when you are kids. But as you grow up, the people who weren’t so cool and those who were all become the same.”

Goldstein added: “I think the Jewish community did the right thing by keeping us together when we were growing up in Atlanta. I see a lot of other organizations, such as Hillel and Birthright, doing the same thing today, which is essential. We are a small group, and when I look at other minorities similar to us, we have managed to stay strong because of our close connections, and that is something we just have to keep up.” ■

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Mark Kaufman, Teresa Brickman Finer and Doug Teper stand in front if their BBYO chapter’s banner.

27

SIMCHAS

Foxhall Resort Offers Nearby Destination

The Cypress is one of two luxury homes at Foxhall Resort.

By Rachel Fayne

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Foxhall Resort touts itself as a refined retreat for outdoor pursuits that often hosts weddings, corporate retreats and larger-scale celebrations.

With 1,100 acres and activities such as paddleboarding and ATV offroading, this Douglasville resort within an hour of most of metro Atlanta can provide an easy weekend getaway for anyone.

Guest accommodations include traditional, hotellike suites, two-, threeand four-bedroom villas, and larger luxury homes for families and groups.

The options enhance the flexibility for Foxhall to serve as simcha venue or a weekend retreat.

Foxhall is perhaps best known for the Beretta Trident Course, a large shooting ground and sporting clay course.

Guests can get private instruction, take on the 15-station sporting clay course alone, or use the five-stand and wobble trap on the course.

The property includes 16 freshwater lakes for fishing, riding hovercraft, canoeing, paddleboarding or kayaking, and a path that runs next to the Chat-

tahoochee River provides a venue for walks and runs with a view.

A traditional archery range and 3D archery course, along with a trail and equipment for ATV riding, are among the popular activities, and Foxhall offers more traditional things to do with four swimming pools, four tennis courts, a golf driving range and the opportunity to hike the property.

Those visiting don’t need to leave the property for meals. The Paddock, the onsite restaurant, specializes in Georgia-grown produce and wild game like bison and duck.

“Foxhall Resort is a wonderful staycation location because it allows families and individuals to escape the city and enjoy spending time outdoors,” said Whitney Marshall, the resort’s marketing director. “With 87 luxury rooms, a farm-to-table restaurant, and activities like the clay course, resort pools, 16 lakes, hovercraft and many others, it’s the perfect getaway that’s not far from home.”

Foxhall Resort serves as a place for an upscale, all-inclusive weekend or a destination simcha venue that’s away from home but not too far away. ■

28

Canoeing and other water sports are available at Foxhall’s 16 freshwater lakes.

SIMCHAS

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Simplify Planning for a Jewish Interfaith Wedding ficiate? Learn about InterfaithFamily’s trusted and free clergy referral service (www.interfaithfamily.com/rabbis-forinterfaith-weddings-and-more).

If you’re ready to find a supportive community, sign up for our email series. We truly hope that these emails prove useful and practical (and maybe even a little fun).

Mazel tov to all the happy couples out there. Now let’s get you married. ■ Lindsey Silken is the editorial director of InterfaithFamily. Rabbi Robyn Frisch is the director of InterfaithFamily/ Philadelphia.

Rabbi Malka Packer-Monroe, the director of InterfaithFamily/ Atlanta, can serve as a resource or an officiant for interfaith couples.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

The goal is a wedding that is Are you having a Jewish interfaith authentic and meaningful not just for wedding? What is a “Jewish interfaith wedding”? It can mean different things your guests, but also for the people who matter most (the two of you). to different people.

Another place to start is our When we use “interfaith” at Jewish Wedding Guide for Interfaith InterfaithFamily, we’re referring to any relationship in which one partner Guest Column identifies as Jewish and one partner

By Lindsey Silken (left) identifies with or and Rabbi Robyn Frisch (right) is from a different religious and/or cultural heritage. A Couples (bit.ly/2kM2sLa).

“Jewish interfaith wedding” is a wedLooking for Jewish clergy to ofding of two such people.

To help such couples, InterfaithFamily created an eight-part email series that is offered quarterly (it restarted Monday, June 4), full of howtos, tips from experts and stories from other couples about everything from finding an officiant to picking a ketubah to managing family dynamics.

Just as every couple is unique, every Jewish interfaith wedding is unique. On the one hand, an interfaith wedding can be similar to a wedding where both partners are Jewish, with perhaps a few minor changes. For example, it can be officiated solely by Jewish clergy, the traditional Jewish wedding language can be recited, and the couple may promise the rabbi before the ceremony that if they have children, they’ll be raised Jewish.

For other rabbis and couples, an interfaith wedding can look very different. For example, the rabbi may coofficiate with clergy of another faith.

There may be elements of another religious tradition incorporated into the ceremony. The couple may not have made any promises as to how they will raise any children they may have.

Many Jewish interfaith weddings fall somewhere in between. (For more on this topic, visit bit.ly/2xKp9Zw.) The email series will help you to plan the Jewish interfaith wedding that’s right for you, no matter what kind of wedding you imagine.

The emails cover these topics: • Finding your officiant.

• The ketubah/marriage contract.

• Elements of a Jewish wedding ceremony and the inclusion of elements from other religious traditions.

• Ritual objects and garments.

• Communication with your partner and family.

• Advice from wedding experts.

• “What I wish I’d known when planning my interfaith wedding.”

29

SIMCHAS

Photos courtesy of JKG

Jewish Kids Groups’ Havdalah b’nai mitzvah service marks the completion of a two-year Jewish journey for eight middle-schoolers May 19.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

JKG Celebrates First B’nai Mitzvah Class

30

Jewish Kids Groups celebrated its first group b’nai mitzvah ceremony Saturday, May 19, at Savoy Events in Chamblee.

The ceremony completed a twoyear personal journey rich with community service, Jewish learning and personal interest projects for each of the eight b’nai mitzvah students in the initial JKG cohort.

Each student spoke at the ceremony about the journey into Jewish adulthood, and they expressed pride in their unique Jewish identities.

“The minute I got (to JKG), I instantly knew there was a lot of fun in store for the years ahead. I was definitely right,” said Chloe Melton, who has participated in JKG for six years.

“From the interactive activities to the singing to the ridiculously cool teachers, JKG quickly became a place I knew I wanted to be. Being part of an interfaith family, I am more than grateful for this opportunity that I have been given and for everyone who made it possible.”

The eight students led a Havdalah

ceremony for the 350 attendees, with the transition from Shabbat to the week mirroring their transition from childhood to adulthood.

Each of the new Jewish adults also received individual blessings from their families.

“The ceremony had all the elements we were hoping for. There were moments of tradition, tenderness, fellowship, and, of course, fun,” said Barrie Herman, parent of bar mitzvah Xander Herman.

In an informal format resembling a science fair, the eight students presented the passion projects they spent the year researching, on topics ranging from “Evolution of Jewish Music” to “20th-Century Jewish Feminists.”

JKG expects to have two graduating b’nai mitzvah classes in 2019.

JKG’s b’nai mitzvah program serves families who are searching for a meaningful, nontraditional way to mark the transformation into Jewish adulthood.

Learn more at JewishKidsGroups. com/Middle-School. ■

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JUNE 8 â–ª 2018

SIMCHAS

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

CATERING

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A Healthy Touch Cafe at MJCCA, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, www.akoshertouch.com, 770-321-9592 A Kosher Touch/Added Touch Catering, www.akoshertouch.com, 770-321-9592 Alon’s Bakery, 1394 N. Highland Ave., Atlanta, www.alons.com, 678-397-1781 Avenue K Catering, www.avenue-catering. com, 770-578-1110 Bagel Boys Cafe, 6355 Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, Sandy Springs, www.bagelboyscafe.com, 678-585-3435 Bagelicious, 1255 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 37, Marietta, 770-509-9505 Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, 265 Pharr Road, Atlanta, www.buckheadrestaurants.com, 404-237-2060 Café Intermezzo, Midtown, Dunwoody, Alpharetta, Atlanta airport, www.cafeintermezzo.com, 770-396-1344 Café Vendôme, 4969 Roswell Road, Suite 155, Atlanta, www.cafevendome.com, 404-551-5163 Cibo E Beve/Food 101, 4969 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, www.ciboatlanta.com, 404-250-8988 Cinnaholic,1230 Caroline St., Suite B110, Atlanta, www.cinnaholic.com, 404-3430805 Citi Wine & Spirits, 5861 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, www.CitiWineandSpirits. com, 404-228-4260 Corks & Caps, 4600 Roswell Road, Suite D-110, Atlanta, www.corkscaps.com, 404483-1050 Create Your Cupcake, 203 Hilderbrand Drive, Sandy Springs, www.createyourcupcake.com, 844-354-7487 Cuzin’s Duzin, 2121 Windy Hill Road, Suite 128, Marietta, www.sweetdreamsminidonuts.com, 347-724-6200 Epic Events, 1119 Logan Circle, Atlanta, www.EpicEventsAtlanta.com, 404-9919128 Farm Burger, 4514-B Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, farmburger.net, 770454-2201 For All Occasions and More, 5200 Northland Drive, Sandy Springs, www.foralloccasionsandmore.com, 404-953-8157 The General Muir, 1540 Avenue Place, Suite B-230, Atlanta, www.thegeneralmuir. com, 678-927-9131 Goldbergs Group, 4385 Roswell Road, Atlanta, www.goldbergbagel.com, 404-477-1110 Hudson Grille, 6317 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, www.hudsongrille.com, 404-5548282 Keith’s Corner BBQ, www.keithscornerbbq. com, 404-250-1227 The Kosher Gourmet, 2153 Briarcliff Road, Atlanta, www.kgatl.com, 404-636-1114 Liquid X Cream, www.liquidxcream.com, 678-733-0084 Madras Mantra, 2179 Lawrenceville Highway, Suite A, Decatur, www.mandrasmantra.com, 404-636-4400 Maggiano’s, Buckhead, Cumberland and Perimeter Mall, www.maggianos.com, 770-704-3313 Margot Alfie Catering & Cooking Classes, 3088 Greenfield Drive, Marietta, 404-2751397

www.atlantajewishtimes.com No Gluten Inc. Bakery, www.nogluteninc. com, 678-406-0003 The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co., 2955 Cobb Parkway, Cumberland, www. brooklynwaterbagels.com, 770-988-9991 Pita — Mediterranean Street Food, 4709-B Ashford-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, pitastreetfood.com, 404-392-7070 Publix Supermarket, www.publix.com Rumi’s Kitchen Persian Cuisine, 6112 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, www.rumiskitchen.com, 404-477-2100 Shami Kitchen, 8363 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, www.shamikitchen.com, 678974-8573 Simha Fusion, 5486 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, www.simhafusion. com, 770-512-7410 SoHo Cafe and Bakery, 334 Sandy Springs Circle, Sandy Springs, www.sohocafebakery. com, 404-549-8385 The Spicy Peach, 2887 North Druid Hills Road, Toco Hills, www.thespicypeach.com, 404334-7200 Sufi’s Atlanta Persian Cuisine, 1814 Peachtree St., Atlanta, www.sufisatlanta.com, 404888-9699 Tower Beer & Wine, 2161 Piedmont Road, Atlanta, www.towerwinespirits.com, 404881-0902 Yum Boutique Catering, 678-592-1783

DÉCOR

Balloons and Events Over Atlanta, 1231 Collier Road, Atlanta, www.balloonsover. com, 404-231-3090 Encore Events & Entertainment, 253 Swanson Drive, Lawrenceville, www.encoreevents.com, 678-427-0028 EventScapes, 1484 Atlanta Industrial Way, Suite B, Atlanta, eventscapesatlanta.com, 404-472-9233 Jim White Designs, 2922 Marlan Drive, Atlanta, www.jimwhitedesigns.com, 404599-4731 Kagan Entertainment, 10270 Piney Ridge Walk, Alpharetta, www.kaganentertainment.com, 770-826-8263 Let’s Celebrate, 4000 Northfield Way, Suite 300, Roswell, www.letscelebrateevents. com, 678-879-9900.

Total Lunacy, 215 Berry Glen Court, Johns Creek, www.totallunacy.com, 770-3154116 Village Green Flowers & Gifts, 3246 Atlanta Road, Smyrna, www.villiageflowersandgifts.com, 770-435-9393

ENTERTAINMENT

Bodyworks Atlanta, 600 Garson Drive, Suite 7304, Atlanta, www.makeupartistryatlanta.com, 404-816-0989 Caricatures by Tony, 130 Canal Place, Fayetteville, www.caricaturesofatlanta.com, 678-817-0169 FlipnPics, 901 Gemtry’s Walk, Atlanta, www.flipnpics.com, 770-742-8910 Game Truck, 50 Barrett Parkway, Suite 3005-137, Marietta, www.gametruck.com, 770-755-5100 Liquid X Cream, www.liquidxcream.com, 678-733-0084 Premium Corporate Entertainment Group, 2981 N. Tower Way, Conyers, 678663-7096

Rock Steady Ballroom, 270 Carpenter Drive, Suite 120, Sandy Springs, www. rocksteadyballroom.com, 404-254-1491

DJ & LIVE MUSIC

Atlanta Fever Entertainment, 978 Forest Pond Circle, Marietta, www.atlantafeverent. com, 404-931-5779 Big Band Contractors, www.bigband.band, 770-998-8888 Espeuté Productions, www.espeute.com, 678-315-2197 Kagan Entertainment, 10270 Piney Ridge Walk, Alpharetta, www.kaganentertainment.com, 770-826-8263 Party Express by Tevyeh, 2823 Arabian Trail, Marietta, www.tevyeh.com, 404-939-3813 Play It Again, Sammy, www.facebook.com/ PlayItAgainSammy, 404-863-4455 Richard Siegal, Pianist, 404-994-7507 Sephinta Zarka Music, 141 Meriwether Circle, Milledgeville, www.sephintazarka.com, 404-479-1719 Vibe Entertainment, 2080 Peachtree Industrial Court, Suite 107, Atlanta, www.vibeentertainmentinc.com, 404-257-0206

VENUES & HOTELS

103 West, 103 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, www.103West.com, 404-233-5993 Alpharetta Convention and Visitor Bureau, 178 S. Main St., No. 200, Alpharetta, www. awesomealpharetta.com, 678-297-2811 Andretti Entertainment, 1255 Roswell Road, Marietta, www.andrettikarting.com, 678496-9530 Atlanta Events Center, 1150 Peachtree St., Atlanta, www.atlantaeventcenter.com, 678793-0030 Atlanta Marriott Century Center/Emory Area, 2000 Century Blvd., Atlanta, www. marriott.com/hotels/travel/atlne-atlanta-marriott-century-center-emory-area, 404-325-0000 Atlanta Marriott Peachtree Corners, 475 Technology Parkway, Peachtree Corners, www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/atlcpatlanta-marriott-peachtree-corners, 770263-8558 Buckhead Club, 3344 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/BuckheadClub, 404-262-2262 City Springs, 1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs, citysprings.com/venues, 770206-2063 City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Suite 201, Atlanta, www.citywinery.com/atlanta, 404-946-3791 College Football Hall of Fame, 250 Marietta St., Atlanta, www.cfbhall.com, 404-880-4800 The Commerce Club, 191 Peachtree St., 49th Floor, Atlanta, www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/ Commerce-Club-Atlanta, 404-222-0191 Country Club of the South, 4100 Old Alabama Road, Johns Creek, www.clubcorp. com/Clubs/Country-Club-of-the-South, 770-475-1803 Defoor Centre, 1710 Defoor Ave., Atlanta, www. defoorcentre.com, 404-591-3809 Dunwoody Convention & Visitors Bureau, 41 Perimeter Center East, No. 200, Dunwoody, www.cvbdunwoody.com, 678-2449800 Embassy Suites-Perimeter, 1030 Crown Pointe Parkway, Sandy Springs, www.embassys-

uites3.hilton.com, 770-394-5454 Emory Conference Center Hotel, 1615 Clifton Road, Atlanta, www.emoryconferencecenter.com, 770-310-6013 Fernbank Museum, 767 Clifton Road, Atlanta, www.fernbankmuseum.org, 404-929-6339 Game X, 275 Baker St., Suite B, Atlanta, www. gamexatl.com, 404-525-0728 Georgia Aquarium, 225 Baker St., Atlanta, www.georgiaaquarium.org, 404-581-4000 Georgia Freight Depot, 65 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Atlanta, www.dceatlanta.com, 404-656-3850 The Georgian Club, 100 Galleria Parkway, Suite 1700, Cumberland, www.georgianclub. com, 770-952-6000 Hilton Atlanta Northeast, 5993 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Peachtree Corners, www3. hilton.com/en/hotels/georgia/hiltonatlanta-northeast-ATLHPHF/index.html, 770-447-4747 Hilton Atlanta Perimeter Suites, 6120 Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, Sandy Springs, www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/ georgia/hilton-atlanta-perimeter-suitesATLPDHF, 770-668-0808 Hilton Garden Inn-Perimeter Center, 1501 Lake Hearn Drive, Sandy Springs, www. hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com, 404-459-0500 Hyatt Atlanta Perimeter at Villa Christina, 4000 Summit Blvd., Brookhaven, atlantaperimeter.regency.hyatt.com, 404-303-7700 Hyatt Regency Suites Atlanta Northwest, 2999 Windy Hill Road, Marietta, www.atlantasuites.hyatt.com, 770-956-1234. iFly Indoor Skydiving, 2778 Cobb Parkway, Cumberland, www.iflyworld.com/atlanta, 844-650-7433 InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta, 3315 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, www.intercontinentalatlanta.com, 404-946-9000 Lake Lanier Islands, 7000 Lanier Islands Parkway, Buford, www.lanierislands.com, 770-945-8787 Le Meridien Atlanta Perimeter Hotel, 111 Perimeter Center West, Dunwoody, www. lemeridienatlantaperimeter.com, 770396-6800 The Manor Golf & Country Club, 15952 Manor Club Drive, Alpharetta, www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/The-Manor-Golf-Country-Club, 770-810-3175 Mercedes-Benz Stadium, 1 AMB Drive, Atlanta, mercedesbenzstadium.com, 470-341-5000 Omni Hotel at the Battery Atlanta, 2625 Circle 75 Parkway, Atlanta, omnihotels.com/ batteryatlanta, 678-567-7327 Omni Hotel CNN Center, 100 CNN Center, Atlanta, www.omnihotels.com/hotels/ atlanta-cnn-center, 404-659-0000 The Pavillion at Olde Towne, 4950 Olde Towne Parkway, Marietta www.the-pavillion.com, 770-578-1110 Roswell Convention Center, 617 Atlanta St., Roswell, www.visitroswellga.com, 770640-3253 or 800-776-7935 Sage Perimeter/Sage Woodfire Tavern, 4505 Ashford-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, www.sagewoodfiretavern.com, 770-8048880 Visit Sandy Springs, 5920 Roswell Road, Suite A-118, Sandy Springs, www.visitsandysprings.org, 770-206-1447 Sherwood Event Hall, 8610 Roswell Road, No.

SIMCHAS

PHOTOGRAPHERS & VIDEOGRAPHERS

7th Wave Pictures, 750 Ponce de Leon Place, Atlanta, www.7thwavepictures.com, 404246-9674 Affordable Photography, 3000 Old Alabama Road, Suite 119-195, Alpharetta, www.affordablephoto.com, 770-992-1529 Blue Orchid Productions, 2184 Zelda Drive, www.blueorchidproductions.com, 404275-2290 Chuck Wolf Photo Design Bar, 3763 Roswell Road, Atlanta, www.photodesignbar.com, 404-709-2981 Current Pixel, 5975 Roswell Road, Suite A125, Sandy Springs, www.currentpixel.com, 404-256-4108 Dewitt Smith Video Productions, 7025 Blue Fox Court, Cumming, www.dsvp.com, 770-886-2999 Eric Bern Studio, 400 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs, www.ericbernstudio.com, 404-252-0209 Gray Imaging Photo, www.grayimagingphoto. com, 770-284-0395 The Great Frame Up, 1432 Dresden Drive, Suite 400, Brookhaven, brookhaven.thegreatframeup.com, 404-464-5972 Harold Alan Photographers, P.O. Box 88744, Atlanta, www.haroldalan.com, 770-730-8911 Jon Marks Photography, 651 Maple Grove Way, Marietta, www.jonmarksphoto.com, 770587-3365 Kissed With Light Photography, 655 Huntwick Place, Roswell, www.kissedwithlight. com, 404-538-4977 Michael Rosser Photography, 3905 Remington Way, Marietta, www.michaelrosserphotography.com, 770-516-4332 Montage Mania, www.montagemania.net, 404-444-5999 Paula Gould Photography, www.pmgphoto. com, 404-310-2094

RMB Studios, rmbstudios.zenfolio.com, 410804-6408

BEAUTY

Anderson Center for Hair & Restoration, 5555 Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, Suite 106, Sandy Springs, www.atlantahairsurgeon. com, 404-256-4247 Balance Salon, 4505 Ashford-Dunwoody Road, Suite 17, Dunwoody, balance-salon. com, 770-698-8832 For the Sole Foot Spa, 6690 Roswell Road, No. 550, Sandy Springs, www.ftsole.com, 404254-3758 Joseph & Friends Salon, 6309 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, josephandfriends.com Keri Gold Salon, 1258 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta, www.kerigoldsalon.com, 404-9903200 Premier Image Cosmetic & Laser Surgery, 4553 N. Shallowford Road, Suite 20B, Atlanta, www.picosmeticsurgery.com, 770457-6303 Sweet Peach Wax & Sugaring Studio, 206A Johnson Ferry Road, Sandy Springs, www.sweetpeachwax.com, 404-481-5488 Vintage Barber Shop, 6649 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, www.vintagebarbershopatl. com, 678-967-4700

EVENT PLANNERS

Atlanta Party Connection, 330 Highlands Court, Alpharetta, www.atlantapartyconnection.com, 770-744-5750

Balloons and Events Over Atlanta, 1231 Collier Road, Atlanta, www.balloonsover.com, 404-231-3090 Bluming Creativity, www.blumingcreativity.com, 770-992-4200 Encore Events & Entertainment, 253 Swanson Drive, Lawrenceville, www.encoreevents. com, 678-427-0028 Mazel Tov Atlanta, www.mazeltovatlanta.com, 770-312-9722 Planning Makes Perfect, www.planningmakesperfect.com, 770-664-7707 Your Party by Karen, www.yourpartybykaren.com, 678-665-1597

CLOTHING & ACCESSORIES

Abbadabba’s Cool Shoes, 4389 Roswell Road, Atlanta, www.coolshoes.com, 404262-3356 Bennie’s Shoes, 2625 Piedmont Road, Atlanta, benniesshoes.com, 404-262-1966 Chic Occasions, P.O. Box 144, Marietta, www.chicoccasions.com, 770-257-9007 Fox’s, 6247 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, foxs.com, 516-294-2678 H Stockton Ladies, 4505 Ashford-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, hstockton.com, 770-396-1300 Nina McLemore, 110 E. Andrews Drive, Suite 3, Atlanta, www.ninamclemore. com, 404-841-8111 Rita Ellen’s Boutique, 1205 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 116, Marietta, www.ritaellensboutique.com, 770-509-0039 Ticknors Men’s Clothiers, 4400 Ashford-

Dunwoody Road, Suite 1455, Dunwoody, ticknors.com, 404-946-5808 Under the Pecan Tree, 5482 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, www.underthepecantree.net, 678-694-8704 Zimm’s Dry Cleaning, www.zimmsdrycleaning.com, 404-227-4426

JEWELERS

Brown & Co. Jewelers, Atlanta and Roswell, www.brownjewelers.com, 404-814-9800 D. Geller and Son, 2955 Cobb Parkway, Suite 230, Cumberland, www.dgeller.com, 770955-5995 H&A International Jewelry, 1820-C Independence Square, Dunwoody, www. hajewelry.com, 770-396-3456 Iroff & Son Jewelers, 3960 Old Milton Parkway, Suite 300, Alpharetta, iroff.com, 770-7517222 LeeBrant Jewelers, 127 Perimeter Center West, Sandy Springs, www.leebrant.com, 770551-8850 Solomon Brothers Fine Jewelry, 3340 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, www.solomonbrothers.com, 404-266-0266

INVITATIONS

EventPrints, www.eventprints.com, 404745-9590

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

200, Sandy Springs, www.sherwoodevent.com, 678-643-9324 Spring Hall, 7130 Buford Highway, Suite A-100, www.spring-hall.com, 770-613-9973 The Standard Club, 6230 Abbots Bridge Road, Johns Creek, www.StandardClub.org, 770-497-0055 Stars and Strikes-Sandy Springs, 8767 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, www.starsandstrikes.com, 678-965-5707 Sufi’s Atlanta Persian Cuisine, 1814 Peachtree St, Atlanta, www.sufisatlanta.com, 404888-9699 Three Sheets, 6017 Sandy Springs Circle, Sandy Springs, www.threesheetsatlanta.com, 404-303-8423 Tongue & Groove, Lindbergh City Center, 565 Main St., Atlanta, www.tandgonline.com, 404-261-2325 Twelve Hotel Centennial Park, 400 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta, www.twelvehotels. com/centennialpark, 404-418-1212 Westin Atlanta North, 7 Concourse Parkway, Sandy Springs, www.westinatlantanorth. com, 770-395-3900 Wyndham Atlanta Galleria, 6345 Powers Ferry Road, Sandy Springs, www.wyndhamatlantahotel.com, 770-955-1700 Zoo Atlanta, 800 Cherokee Ave., Atlanta, zooatlanta.org, 404-624-5602

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

33

SIMCHAS

NOWN! OPE

Enjoy the Hot Weather With Some Sweet Heat

Atlanta’s Newest Kosher Restaurant

Ali’s Spicy “Hot” Chocolate Cookies get their kick from cayenne.

W e C at e r !

2157 Briarcliff Rd • Atlanta

678-973-0360 For online ordering go to…

www.formaggiomio.com Info@formaggiomio.com | Catering@formaggiomio.com

With the hot summer months fast approaching, I wanted to share with you Ali’s Cookies’ Spicy “Hot” Chocolate Cookie. After so many years in business with the same flavors, even though they are amazing, I wanted to add a new cookie that was exciting and unique and would appeal to the foodies out there.

It’s not easy to develop new cookie flavors. In the Ali’s Cookies test kitchen, we come up with a lot of good cookies.

But it takes a long time to improve a good cookie and get it to the level of “Ali’s Cookies worthy.”

It took more than six months for me to develop a cookie with the perfect level of heat.

When you first bite into it, it tastes like a delightful, fudgy chocolate cookie. A moment later, the spicy kicks in. It isn’t fire-extinguisher hot, but it definitely has a little kick.

For an extra-special treat, pair this with vanilla-bean ice cream. This cookie is a great foray into something a little different from your basic chocolate-chip cookie.

Try adding a little heat to your sweet. You may find you like it.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Spicy ‘Hot’ Chocolate Cookie

34

1 cup butter or margarine (The taste won’t be affected, so feel free to use margarine if you need the cookies to be pareve.)

1 cup sugar 1 cup brown sugar 2 extra-large eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup cocoa powder (At Ali’s Cookies, we prefer to use Dutch process cocoa powder. But if you only have American process cocoa powder, like Hershey’s, that is perfectly fine. It will make the color a little lighter, and the chocolate flavor won’t be quite as intense, but they will still be delicious cookies.)

1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (If you want a spicier cookie, you can add a little more cayenne pepper for an extra kick.)

Sweet Baking

By Jeff Rosengarten jeff@shipacookie.com

½ teaspoon salt 1 cup premium chocolate chips Red sanding sugar (optional) (We like to use red sanding sugar, or something similar, to denote that you are biting into a spicy cookie and not a regular chocolate cookie.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add the eggs and blend well. Add the cayenne pepper, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and blend well. Be sure to blend completely so that the heat from the cayenne pepper is evenly distributed.

Add the flour and blend just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the dough onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. For larger cookies, like the ones we serve at Ali’s Cookies, use a 3-ounce scoop. Chill the dough for at least an hour.

If desired, top the dough with red sanding sugar before baking. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, turning the cookie sheet halfway through to ensure even baking. The cookies will just start to crack on the top when they are done.

Let cool and enjoy. And don’t forget to try them with the ice cream. ■ Jeff Rosengarten, a four-decade Atlanta resident and father of five, is the owner and operator of Ali’s Cookies (www.shipacookie.com), which has baked delicious kosher cookies and cakes for over 10 years.

SIMCHAS

Atlanta Jewish Academy first-grade teacher Jennifer Rosenblum and her new husband, Hank, are treated to a special lunch by students at the school.

AJA first-graders, who planned the wedding lunch, also get to enjoy it.

The children had the help of Morah Yael Perez and Morah Dafna Kol in planning and executing the lunch.

AJA First-Graders Bring Joy to Newlywed Teacher learned about and carried out all the different components surrounding the mitzvah.

The students wore special clothes and wrote cards and notes to the bride and groom. They baked challah and special desserts and made a delicious meal for the newlyweds.

The first-graders experienced this beautiful mitzvah with all their senses and all their hearts. ■

Your GO TO Specialists for all YOUR REAL ESTATE Needs RE/MAX AROUND ATLANTA David Shapiro Jon Shapiro DShapiro@remax.net jonshapirorealtor@gmail.com 404-252-7500 404-345-6788 404-845-3050 www.jonshapiro.com

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

To learn about and fulfill the special mitzvah of mesameach chattan v’kallah, bringing joy to the bride and groom, Atlanta Jewish Academy firstgraders recently planned and conducted a beautiful party for Jennifer Rosenblum, one of their teachers, and her new husband, Hank Rosenblum.

With the help and guidance of two of their other teachers, Morah Yael Perez and Morah Dafna Kol, the children

35

SIMCHAS

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Families Find Judaism, Then Sephardic Ancestry

By Kevin C. Madigan kmadigan@atljewishtimes.com

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Converting to Judaism is not for the faint of heart. It’s an arduous process that requires devotion and determination. But three Hispanic families who recently converted together felt an unexpected compulsion to do it.

“I had been, through my parents, a Catholic. Then I tried Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, but there was never anything fulfilling,” said Rosaura Álvarez Sierra, 34, who was first attracted to Judaism by her now-husband, Vinício Sierra, while the two worked in a carpet factory and barely knew each other.

“He kept telling me Saturday was the day we are supposed to rest, and I was saying that wasn’t right, but he insisted. Sometimes I would hide from him because I didn’t want to discuss it.

But then I began to realize he might be right,” she said.

The couple eventually married, and Rosaura initially embraced Judaism more than Vinicio did.

“When I chose Judaism seven years ago, he didn’t want to. He would get mad at me, almost divorced me.

These days he studies more than me — the prayers and trying to learn Hebrew,” she said.

“They explained to me Catholicism never felt right to them, so they became very interested in Judaism,” said Karen Kahn Weinberg, who attends Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy Springs with the 13 Mexicans and one Honduran.

It was there that the Sierras and their children were welcomed into the fold during a special Kiddush on Saturday, May 19, along with the families of two brothers, Juan and Rodolfo Romo García, after they went to the mikvah for conversion in February.

“We were drawn toward Judaism.

It’s inexplicable. Last year we decided to begin attending a synagogue but were afraid of not being accepted. We gave it much thought in order to take this step and looked online for all the synagogues around here,” Rosaura said.

Or Hadash’s Spanish-speaking rabbis, Analia Bortz and Mario Karpuj, who are from Argentina, were crucial to the choice of the Conservative congregation, said daughter Rosi Sierra, despite the lengthy drive for the families, who all live between Rockmart and 36 Cartersville.

Vinício and Rosaura Álvarez Sierra, Juan and Katia Rivera Romo, and Rodolfo Romo Garcia and Rina Hernández Romo converted to Judaism with their children.

Currently a medical assistant, Rosi was never exposed to Judaism while growing up, “but as time went on, while in high school, I began to realize it brought something whole to my heart.

The journey has been very beautiful, very emotional.”

While studying to become Jews, the Sierra and Romo García families researched their lineage through Ancestry.com and FamilyTree.com and discovered they have Jewish ancestry.

“They felt a calling. Lo and behold, they did their DNA tests, and they’re all Sephardic,” Weinberg said.

She said they are likely descended from Jews who were ousted from Spain in 1492 after the Alhambra Decree, which demanded that Jews convert to Catholicism to avoid expulsion. The edict was handed down by Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, resulting in the banishment of some 200,000 Jews from Spanish territories.

Many who fled became the unwitting victims of piracy. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, “Tens of thousands of refugees died while trying to reach safety. In some instances, Spanish ship captains charged Jewish passengers exorbitant sums, then dumped them overboard in the middle of the ocean. In the last days before the expulsion, rumors spread throughout Spain that the fleeing refugees had swallowed gold and diamonds, and many Jews were knifed to death by brigands hoping to find treasures in their stomachs.”

“Our ancestors were probably separated and persecuted, even annihilated, but we are here now,” said Rosaura Álvarez, who believes that her maiden name is derived from the Hebrew word haaretz (“the land”). She added that Spanish Jews, on arrival in Mexico, first settled in the municipality of Guadalajara, named after a city in Spain and

her father’s birthplace, and it is they who developed the area.

A part of the families’ path to Judaism involved going to Israel in January 2017, before their conversion, a trip they all found to be mystically enlightening. Juan Romo García, 40, the younger of the two brothers, recalled it as a special experience.

“It’s hard to explain. It’s something very strong, and you have to go there to feel it. Even the calves are pretty. Everything is lovely. It felt like going home. It stays with you for the rest of your life. I don’t want my son to forget it. I want it to stay here,” Juan said, pointing to the head of 11-year-old Jordan.

Juan’s wife, Katia, agreed. “The atmosphere is different. You feel it in the air. We started reading the Torah, then went to Israel, and, yes, it changed our lives physically, emotionally and spiritually.”

She always felt there had to be more to life than just working and looking after children, and being accepted into Judaism is a privilege. “It’s all been worth it — hard at times but not that hard. You have to keep questioning. We want more; we now know there’s more than just one life.”

Long before converting, Rosaura’s husband, Vinício, recalled, he would sometimes follow Jewish teachings without realizing what they were.

“There are small things we kept doing, not knowing they were originally commandments of Hashem. For example, we show respect to a woman after giving birth by not touching her for 40 days.”

He added, “Ten years ago we had no idea we would be here, converted, getting circumcised. Back then, all I wanted to do on a Saturday was make more money for myself.”

Life was often difficult for Juan’s

Rabbi Analia Bortz holds a young member of the three families during their visit to the Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah for the required immersions in mid-February.

brother, Rodolfo, 43. A forklift driver who used to work in timber, he had a preoccupation with material wealth and was seldom satisfied. “I would wake in the middle of the night, worrying and thinking about things that were out of my control. Now I understand that’s out of my reach and that there are things in life I can’t change.

I’ve learned to let go, and I’m more at peace now.”

Rodolfo’s wife, Rina, 40, who is from Honduras and thus the sole nonMexican in the group, said: “When we are here (at Or Hadash), it feels like family. It’s something very different from when we are with our blood relatives.”

Rosaura concurred. “When I look around the congregation, surrounded

by Jews, I get very emotional. That’s when I consider myself one of them.”

Sitting in at the start of the families’ interview, Rabbi Bortz said Or Hadash is highly inclusive. “Although we are part of the Conservative movement, we have people coming from every single denomination — secular, Reform, Reconstructionist — everyone gravitates here because it’s a very participatory, eclectic, multinational congregation.”

She said that the congregation is proud and honored to welcome the converts, that many tears have been shed, and that the fathers and sons all readily agreed to undergo a bris, the ritual circumcision, wanting fully to be part of the people of Israel. They asked all the right questions, even more so than regular congregants, and were fully committed and engaged.

“They became, little by little, much more, I would say, ritually observant,” Rabbi Bortz said. “Some of them are going to become rabbis. They just don’t know it yet.” ■

SIMCHAS

2 Urologists Do Mitzvah

By Assisting Conversions

By Marcia Caller Jaffe mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com

Hal Scherz

Barry Zisholtz

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

There are many steps to the conversion process, but for boys and men, one is both unavoidable and a bit intimidating: the requirement for a bris, or ritual circumcision, regardless of whether the procedure had been done during infancy.

Southside pediatric urologist Hal Scherz was approached by Rabbi Analia Bortz of Congregation Or Hadash for his help in the formal conversion of three Mexican families with Converso ancestry who live between Cartersville and Rockmart in Northwest Georgia.

Scherz immediately went to work to arrange for the pro bono use of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Scottish Rite hospital to perform the procedure on six boys between the ages of 4 and 18.

“I did them all on Halloween,” Scherz said. “Everything went perfectly.

I considered it an honor and privilege to see this mitzvah through. Of course, we could see the cultural connection between the roots of our rabbis at Or Hadash and these families.”

Rabbi Bortz, a native of Argentina and a medical doctor, was the first female rabbi in Latin America. She was ordained at the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano.

Enter urologist Barry Zisholtz, who this year performed the circumcisions on the three adult fathers at Georgia Urology’s surgical center in Fayetteville, also at no charge. The ancient ritual, in which blood must be drawn, was done under local anesthesia.

The families visited the Metro Atlanta Community Mikvah for immer-

sions and went through a formal conversion ceremony at Or Hadash.

“They were given Hebrew names and did the appropriate bris prayers,” Zisholtz said. “I was asked to do a mitzvah, and I did so. It was a pleasure to help out fellow Jews.”

Circumcision is the removal of the foreskin of the penis. The rite of circumcision (brit milah) is one of the most ancient practices of Judaism. The commandment to circumcise male children was given to Abraham in the Torah (Genesis 17:7-14, then again in Leviticus 12:3): “And G-d said unto Abraham: ‘And as for thee, thou shalt keep My covenant, thou and thy seed after thee throughout their generations. This is My covenant. … Every male among you shall be circumcised. … And the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken My covenant.”

The journey of these families calls to mind a fascinating documentary at the 2018 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, “Challah Rising in the Desert: The Jews of New Mexico.” The film celebrates the history, influences and people of New Mexico’s Jewish community but also well documents the journey and existing Jewish communities of Mexico.

The history of the Jews in Mexico dates to 1519 with the arrival of Conversos, often called Marranos or CryptoJews, referring to Spanish Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism and became subject to the Spanish Inquisition on the suspicion of continuing to practice Judaism in secret.

Many are finding their way back to Judaism. ■

37

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38

The newly married Jim Bradford and Beatrice Yehudah lead the Motzi during their reception.

By Vicki Leopold Jim Bradford has lived on the wild side. He is a world-class runner, a skier, a world traveler, a dedicated Navy man who served in the Marines, a humanitarian, and a seeker of adventures who is fluent in Vietnamese and Cambodian.

Bradford, 83, has never met a challenge too difficult. In fact, his life and the perseverance of his Jewish-AfricanAmerican family have formed a challenge as long as anyone can remember.

Tall, willowy and handsome with a baritone voice resonating with an inner calm, Bradford is quick to explain his family background, one he relishes.

His paternal ancestors hail from Gondar, Ethiopia, where the Beta Israel have lived since the fourth century. His family tribal name, Elezhar ben Levi, has not been forgotten because of the diligence of his slave ancestors.

Brought here in 1714, they were sold to mostly Jewish owners because of their “idiosyncrasies” of circumcising their sons on the eighth day, refusing to eat pork or shellfish, not wanting to work on Saturdays and celebrating certain Jewish holidays. The family’s last name changed several times, to Golden, Feldman, Smith and Brabinowitz, depending on the owner.

Bradford’s maternal ancestors, merchants from India, arrived around 1700 by way of London.

Growing up in the 1940s in the Alaskan territory, which did not become a state until 1959, was not easy for a black Jewish child. There were four or five Jewish families in Delta, Alaska, but only three were practicing:

Jim Bradford shows that at 83 he still can wear his Navy dress blues.

the Bradfords and two Russian families, who celebrated holidays in one another’s homes.

Bradford became a bar mitzvah in 1948 among 15 boys from near and far: two African-Americans, six Eskimos, four American Indians, three whites.

Bradford’s father, who served in World War I and World War II, faced discrimination in the military but developed skills in construction. After the military, he worked on the AlaskaCanada (Alcan) Highway and other projects throughout the United States.

The Bradfords frequently moved.

“My father was my idol, my hero,” Bradford said. “He kept the family together.

While many families were greatly taxed by frequent relocations, keeping the family together, keeping the stability, even during our many moves, was my father’s priority.”

When the Bradfords traveled to the lower 48 states, his father carried a special letter from a rabbi that designated the family as Jewish because most people at that time could not conceive of a black family being Jewish.

Bradford graduated high school in Delta at 14. He attempted college at 15 but was too immature. Wanting to travel to faraway places, he joined the Marines and fought in Korea, then later moved to the Navy and served in Vietnam. Visiting exotic countries with the Navy became part of a routine.

“In my travels, I always tried to locate the Jewish community and temple even though, at times, the temple was a mere hut,” Bradford said.

SIMCHAS meanor encouraged high-risk kids to rethink their behaviors, and his knowledge of languages enabled him to communicate and bond with Vietnamese and Cambodian students.

Bradford is writing a book about his life and seeking a publisher.

He also has grown close to another Congregation B’nai Israel member, family friend Beatrice Yehudah.

Yehudah has an interesting story of her own. Her parents were sharecroppers in Tennessee, and she recalls her mother telling the family that they were the “original Israelites,” which is another term that the Beta Israel of Ethiopia use for themselves. Bradford and Yehudah wonder whether somewhere in their ancestry their relatives’ paths crossed.

Now divorced, Yehudah often turned for counsel to Bradford during the troubled times in her marriage. She found him easy to talk to and wise.

Both feel a strong connection to Judaism, and they were married March 12 at Congregation B’nai Israel in Fayetteville by Rabbi Richard Baroff, who oversaw Beatrice’s conversion 20 years before.

Jimmie Louis Bradford dressed in his Navy finest, and Beatrice Woodard Yehudah wore an exotic wedding dress as they pledged their devotion for life.

They took turns smashing the customary glass as friends and family of the couple shouted the customary mazel tovs.

The two plan to travel to Israel soon. Though Bradford has been there several times, his bride has not, and she also adores traveling.

Bradford loves the way the Jewish state is evolving to express Judaism’s many ethnicities. “When you don’t travel the world,” he said, “you don’t realize that Jews come in all colors, shapes and sizes.” ■

Wedding Goffman-Kressel Rachel Marin Goffman, the daughter of Ira Goffman of Orange, Ohio, and the late Cyndi Goffman married Ross Samuel Kressel, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Kressel of Marietta, in a ceremony in Cleveland, Ohio.

Rabbi Joshua Skoff officiated at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown Hotel.

Rachel is the granddaughter of Barbara and Alfred Luft of Beachwood, Ohio.

She earned her master’s in health administration from the University of Pittsburgh. Rachel is a program manager for the Veterans Health Administration.

Ross is the grandson of the late Shirley and Murray Blank and the late Florence and Jack Kressel. He earned his M.B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and is a learning and development consultant at BNY Mellon. ■

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

During a stop in Africa, he met distant Ethiopian relatives, identified by markings on their upper torsos. Calling on the port of Haifa in 1958, Bradford received a grand tour from Moshe Dayan. Bradford remembers Haifa as a dusty old town with people of many styles of dress and languages.

On other excursions, Bradford met distant relatives in Kochi, Kolkata and Chennai, India, and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

He served in the military from 1953 to 1988 and became a position analyst and correctional counselor. He led religious services for his fellow Jewish sailors in the Navy.

Sports have been important in Bradford’s life. As a youth in Alaska, he enjoyed bobsledding, ice skating and skiing. In the Navy, he played basketball and volleyball. And he runs.

He ran with the bulls twice: in Mexico in 1953 and in Spain in 1958.

Bradford gained consideration for the U.S. Olympic team as a marathoner in 1972, while he was serving in Vietnam.

He and wife Emma, who died last year, enjoyed many adventures together and had two children, Gerald and Kim. During their marriage of 60 years, they rode their motorcycles from San Diego up the coast and over the Golden Gate Bridge. They made two crosscountry trips, one from Newport, R.I., to San Diego and the other from Kodiak, Alaska, along the Alcan Highway.

Bradford earned two master’s, one in human resources and, with money from the GI Bill, a second in marketing.

After the military, he worked in several educational settings, as a teacher, a counselor and a mentor to people with disabilities. At 83, he still worked full time this past school year at Stockbridge High as a hall monitor. He kept order and directed students back to their classes and back into their lives.

His gentle spirit and respectful de-

www.atlantajewishtimes.com

Rabbi Richard Baroff performs the wedding ceremony for Jim Bradford and Beatrice Yehudah on March 12.

It’s time for cake during the reception at B’nai Israel.

39

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Luminescent Trophies of Grandeur A

B

His name is as exotic as his craft and his label as rich-in-culture city, much like Santa Fe, N.M., is today.

It was 5,100 feet above sea level. My father expected “artiste” — as in worldwide, fearless, philosophical me to be a doctor or lawyer, not a starving artist. and technical.

Parish Kohanim emigrated from Shiraz, Iran, Jaffe: How did you arrive at the merger of phospeaking little English and carrying only $300 in his pocket. He went from Manhattan to San Francisco to tography and art?

Kohanim: I came to the U.S. I knew no one. I his current, eponymous Buckhead three-story whitefound my major of geology to be boring. I was a busmarbled studio and showroom and catapulted into boy, then a waiter at the famous Fairmont Hotel in a league of success with Art Basel, building lobbies, the National Black Arts Festival and ethereal painted San Francisco. Later in New York, I interned under world-class photographer portraitures.

Ryszard Horowitz, a Polish Leaving his Persian Holocaust survivor feaOrthodox family at 18, Chai-Style Homes tured in “Schindler’s List.”

Kohanim developed his

By Marcia Caller Jaffe In Atlanta I worked passion and patience for mjaffe@atljewishtimes.com commercially for design producing elegant interfirms and ad agencies and pretations of flowers that satisfied my aesthetics on evolve into combinations the side. In 1994 I had an art gallery in Midtown. with human forms, patterns and mirrors.

Twenty-four years ago Canon Camera approached “I get bored. I keep reinventing myself. I bring me to join their prestigious Explorers of Light proout light and energy to the point of being luminesgram with 50 world-class photographers like Arnold cent,” he said. “There is a whole world of flowers Newman, who was best known for his famous maswith the inner glow that have never been seen this ter photographic collaborations with Picasso and way before.”

Igor Stravinsky at the piano.

A Kohanim work is not inexpensive. Everyday I am still proudly a part of the program, which objects become wondrous and elevated. He said: “My involves lecturing worldwide. My wife, Rosanne, is clients view a piece as a timeless gift, perhaps to a my publicist for our goal of worldwide distribution loved one or to eternalize a romantic or sentimental of my art. My work is in galleries in Dallas, New moment. My brides are quite simply and exquisitely York, Palm Beach, Nantucket, Greenwich, Conn., and defined. We expend hours of work to achieve a Paris. painterly style.”

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Jaffe: What was life like growing up in Iran?

Were you an artistic child?

Kohanim: Iran was very different than it is now.

That being said, even under the shah, there was antiSemitism and jealousy of the success of Jews. I tolerated many snide remarks and was made to feel like a second-class citizen. This jealousy is what kept the Jews together. The Kohanim were a very devout Sep40 hardic Orthodox family from Shiraz, a very artsy and

Jaffe: What are some of the unusual projects in which you are involved?

Kohanim: I am working on a backlit LED dahlia for the new Northside Hospital doctors building. It’s a massive 24 feet by 32 feet of a flower in motion. My cobalt-blue piece (male and female) recently sold at Miami’s Art Basel. We are in the process of editing images for a 300-page, black-and-white, high-end coffee table book titled “Luminosa,” featuring Cirque

du Soleil performers. … Very technical, as it was shot at one-five-thousandth of a second, which was a fiveyear project.

We are crafting a Loop chair designed in France

by Cédric Ragot for Roche Bobois (available at its Buckhead store) where my images are embedded into the clear chairs.

Jaffe: What goes on in your three-level studio?

Kohanim: In my painterly-style portraits, final finished works represent hours of labor. We work with the top stylists and makeup artists. It may take days on the computer, montaging to create a painterly-style portrait, which will end up reproducing to a 5-foot-wide piece as a large-scale project.

Jaffe: Who are some of the artists that you collect in your own home?

Kohanim: I would describe my house as modern with warm earth tones and loads of natural light, so we can see nature. I collect sculpture by Californian Richard MacDonald, who did the bronze “Flair” sculpture for the 1996 Olympics. He uses a lost-wax technique in combination with bronze. He is quite simply known for his beauty of the human body.

My other favorites are Paige Bradley, a contemporary sculptress recognized for her spiritual and balanced works, and Robert Kipniss, known for his essential forms of trees and fields, usually in mezzotints. Also, Dale Chihuly, a household name, whose glass is often seen at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Jaffe: You have been compared to Georgia O’Keeffe. How would you describe your technique?

Kohanim: Photography is lacking a third dimension. I’m immersed in highlights, shadows, depth and composition. Nothing is Photoshopped. It takes time to get this dimension. I must be in a noisefree environment and in my head. Time becomes of no essence when I’m on the creative journey. I am

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very patient. I recently dislocated my back bending over for many long hours photographing. Nothing gets in my way.

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Jaffe: How would you summarize your philosophies on both art and current politics, two disparate topics?

Kohanim: Politics — the Iran deal was a bad one. The religious government there is a disaster, stifling young people. Anyone can be thrown in jail.

Art — my personal mantra is “Do your best work, and the universe takes care of you.”

Jaffe: Did your father live to see you as an unstarving artist selling works for five figures?

Kohanim: No, unfortunately, both my parents died early.

A: Photo by Duane Stork // Rosanne and Parish Kohanim enjoy a playful moment below an original Dale Chihuly, “Basket,” from the Bill Lowe Gallery.

B: These Cirque du Soleil figures are representative of the black-and-white photos that will appear soon in a 300-page coffee table book, “Luminosa.”

C: “White Dahlia” is one of Parish Kohanim’s most recent works. He has been commissioned to design and install a 24-by-32-foot dahlia in the lobby of a

new Northside Hospital medical office building.

D: The Kohanim piece “Reflections” shows how he has reinvented himself to combine the human form with floral patterns.

E: Lucite chairs designed in France and sold at Roche Bobois each feature an embedded Kohanim original photo.

F: These Kohanim cobalt-blue designs were shown at Art Basel in Miami, where one was sold to the National Black Arts Festival.

G: Parish Kohanim takes several days to stage and produce a finished portrait. He does no Photoshopping.

H: Photo by Duane Stork // This Mark Sandlin painting is from his “To Kill a Mockingbird” series.

I: Photo by Duane Stork // Richard MacDonald’s “Whiteface” artist’s proof accents Paige Bradley’s “Balance” sculpture.

J: Photo by Duane Stork // A feathered chandelier from Lighting Loft highlights an original charcoal by Richard MacDonald.

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

Jaffe: Last word — who is the most renowned person you have photographed?

Kohanim: Donald and Ivanka — that’s two! ■

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SPORTS

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Weber Alum Competes on ‘American Ninja Warrior’

Atlanta native Elie Cohen poses before he runs the course at the “American Ninja Warrior” Southeast regionals in Miami on April 13.

Rock climbing is a key part of Elie Cohen’s “American Ninja Warrior” training.

Elie Cohen is a bluegrass mandolinist, a rock climber and a civil engineering student at Georgia Tech, and recently the Atlanta native got to add American Ninja Warrior to the list.

In April, the Weber School grad and Ramah Darom alum traveled to the “American Ninja Warrior” Southeast regionals in Miami to compete on Season 10 of the NBC game show. The 26-year-old said he is sworn to secrecy about his results until after the show airs, but you can tune in to see how he did Wednesday, June 13, at 8 p.m. on NBC affiliate 11Alive.

Cohen spent the past few years training for “ANW” and competed in a number of local ninja competitions.

Last summer he helped start a ninja program for campers at Ramah.

But he said the toughest part of the process wasn’t the training or even the actual competition. It was making the submission tape and getting cast.

“Getting picked for the show was the hardest part,” Cohen said. “I’ve been training for a few years and run in some local competitions, so once I got going and calmed my initial nerves, I actually felt very comfortable moving

through the course. The brutal part for me was the time spent waiting in between submitting the application and finding out that I was actually cast on the show.”

For his submission tape, which can be seen at youtu.be/WJj3xlrN4HY, Cohen used his other standout skill, mandolin. To get noticed among thousands of “ANW” submissions, he performed an original mandolin composition as the backing track to his highlight reel.

Add that he is 6-foot-3 and weighs 215 pounds, which is much larger than the average “ANW” competitor, and Cohen definitely stood out from the crowd.

An avid bluegrass mandolinist, Cohen labeled himself the “World’s Strongest Man-dolinist” in his submission tape and said the producers of the show were excited about the idea of a mandolin-playing ninja. They even had him play a quick tune for the crowd before his run on the course.

He regularly performs around At-

lanta with his brother, David, in the guitar-mandolin bluegrass duo the Cohen Brothers Band, as well as with four-piece bluegrass group High Lonesome. “‘American Ninja Warrior’ exists at a unique intersection for me between two big passions of mine, which are fitness and bluegrass,” Cohen said. “Not many people get the opportunity to play mandolin in front of a national TV audience before taking on the world’s most challenging obstacle course, so for that I consider myself lucky.”

Since competing on the show, Cohen has resumed his intense training regimen of rock climbing, weightlifting and trail running while finishing his final semester at Georgia Tech.

You can follow Elie on Instagram at @thebluegrassninja.

“My commitment to fitness and ninja training is year-round,” he said.

“I’m already composing a song for next year’s submission video.” ■

Summer Softball

June 3 Results

Standings A Division

W-L

B’nai Torah

2-0

Beth Tefillah

1-0

Dor Tamid 1

1-0

Chabad

1-1

Sinai A

1-1

Ahavath Achim

0-1

Or VeShalom

0-1

Temple 1

0-2

B Division

W-L

Young Israel

1-0

Ariel

1-0

Or Hadash

1-0

Beth Tikvah 1

1-0

Gesher L’Torah

0-1

Sinai B

0-1

Etz Chaim

0-2

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

C Division

42

W-L

Emanu-El

2-0

Beth Jacob

1-0

Sinai C

1-0

Temple Z

1-0

Dor Tamid 2

1-1

Kol Emeth

0-1

Beth Tikvah 2

0-1

Beth Shalom 1

0-1

Beth Shalom 2

0-1

B’nai Torah 2

0-1

A Division: Dor Tamid 1 over Ahavath Achim, 17-3; Beth Tefillah over Or VeShalom, 14-5; B’nai Torah 1 over Sinai A, 14-12; B’nai Torah 1 over Temple 1, 18-12; Sinai A over Chabad, 17-16; Chabad over Temple 1, 15-14 B Division: Or Hadash over Etz Chaim, 9-5; Young Israel over Etz Chaim, 12-7; Ariel over Sinai B, 11-7; Beth Tikvah 1 over Gesher L’Torah, 9-5 C Division: Emanu-El over Dor Tamid 2, 14-7; Emanu-El over Kol Emeth, 18-7; Dor Tamid 2 over B’nai Torah 2, 19-4; Sinai C over Beth Shalom 1, 11-7; Beth Jacob over Beth Shalom 2, 20-10; Temple Z over Beth Tikvah 2, 17-9

June 10 Games

Ocee Park: 9 a.m. — B’nai Torah 2-Beth Tikvah 2, Temple Z-Emanu-El; 10:15 a.m. — Kol Emeth-Beth Tikvah 2, Temple Z-B’nai Torah 2; 11:30 a.m. — Kol Emeth-Dor Tamid 2. East Roswell Park: 3 p.m. — Dor Tamid 1-Beth Tefillah, Gesher L’Torah-Ariel; 4:15 p.m.

— Dor Tamid 1-Chabad, Beth TefillahSinai A; 5:30 p.m. — Or VeShalomTemple 1, Ahavath Achim-B’nai Torah 1; 6:45 p.m. — Ahavath Achim-Or VeShalom. Marcus JCC: 3 p.m. — Beth Tikvah 1-Etz Chaim, Or Hadash-Sinai B; 4:15 p.m. — Beth Tikvah 1-Sinai B, Or Hadash-Young Israel; 5:30 p.m. — Beth Shalom 1-Beth Shalom 2, Sinai C-Beth Jacob; 6:45 p.m. — Beth Shalom 1-Beth Jacob, Sinai C-Beth Shalom 2.

OBITUARIES 93, Atlanta

Dr. Jerome Berman, age 93, of Atlanta died Thursday, May 31, 2018.

He was born in Atlanta and was a 1942 graduate of Boys’ High. He received his B.S. degree from Emory University in 1945 and his M.D. degree from the Emory University School of Medicine in 1948.

He completed his internship at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City and his pediatric residency at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He then served for two years in the United States Army Medical Corps during the Korean War, stationed at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

After his service in the military, he began a solo pediatric practice in Sandy Springs, then an undeveloped area. His thriving pediatric practice grew as he added partners as he tended to the medical needs of many Atlanta children. He served on the executive committee of the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He also served as chairman of the pediatrics section of Northside Hospital and conducted sick and well-baby clinics at Fulton County health centers. After 33 years, he ended his pediatric practice in 1982 when he became blind.

He faced the challenge of blindness with the assistance of the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta, which taught him how to adapt to his new circumstances. He took on this challenge and in 1989 received his master of public health degree from the Emory University School of Public Health, the first blind student to achieve that degree. He then helped others in a number of ways for the rest of his life.

With the Center for the Visually Impaired and his friend Stanley Friedman, he founded the Babies Early Growth Intervention Network (BEGIN) program in 1985, which brightens the future for blind children and their families by providing an early intervention program for visually impaired preschoolers in the Southeastern United States. He served as a member of the Center for the Visually Impaired board of trustees from 1993 to 2002. From 1987 to 2010 he was a principal speaker for the Metropolitan Atlanta United Way annual campaign. He made over 700 speeches on behalf of United Way and the Center for the Visually Impaired throughout Georgia. His speaking engagements resulted in the raising of millions of dollars for greater Atlanta service organizations.

He received many honors for his work. He received a Special Award of Merit from the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics for his service to the children of Georgia. In 1996 he carried the Olympic torch on the day before the opening of the Atlanta Olympic Games. In 2002 he received the Carl Aven Cup from the Medical Association of Atlanta, the medical association’s most prestigious honor, given for outstanding community service by one of its members. In 2012 he received the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award from the Emory School of Medicine’s Atlanta Medical Alumni.

He is survived by his three daughters, Karen Berman of Milledgeville, Ellen Berman of Atlanta and Sally Berman of Glendale, Calif.; his son-in-law, Paul Accettura of Milledgeville; his two grandchildren, Shayna Fix of Atlanta and Raphael Fix of Las Vegas; and his sister, Hazel Karp. He was predeceased by his wife, attorney Betty Green Berman. The family would also like to express thanks to his caregivers for the loving care they provided in his last years.

Sign the online guestbook at dresslerjewishfunerals.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the BEGIN program at the Center for the Visually Impaired, www.cviga.org, 739 W. Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta, GA 30308.

A graveside service was held Sunday, June 3, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Neil Sandler officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Daniel Kaplan.

Sign the online guestbook at dresslerjewishfunerals.com. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, June 3, at Greenwood Cemetery. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Frank Spiegel 97, Atlanta

Frank David Spiegel of Atlanta passed away Monday, May 28, 2018, at the age of 97, one week from his 98th birthday.

Frank was born in Fuerth, Germany, a suburb of Nuremberg. Frank was 17 years old in 1937 when his family saw the writing on the wall and sent him to the United States. Seeking opportunity to find employment and make money, Frank applied to the Jewish Agency to be relocated to Georgia for a training project to learn a skilled trade. In his application he is described as an “impressive, quiet, unassuming, natural boy” and was accepted for the program. Five young Jewish men from Germany, including Frank, were sent to Monroe to attend school and receive training in an agricultural setting. After deciding that he wasn’t cut out to be a chicken farmer, Frank transferred to Habersham College in Clarkesville and secured his first job as a service station attendant earning $10 per week.

During this time, he was assigned a caseworker from the Georgia Farm School and Resettlement Bureau, which was a nonprofit agency interested in the resettlement and retraining of Jewish refugees — and one of the early predecessor agencies of what is now known as Jewish Family & Career Services. The case manager’s job was to help Frank acculturate and resettle, but the case manager would soon become Frank’s partner and greatest advocate in his heroic effort to

Continued on page 44

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Lee Kaplan

HelenScherrer-Diamond OutreachCoordinator

62, Dallas, Texas

Lee Kaplan, 62, died Thursday, May 24, 2018, in Dallas, Texas.

He was a beloved brother and uncle. He was preceded in death by his parents, Elaine and Phillip Kaplan of blessed memory. Survivors include his brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Susan Kaplan of Houston, and nephews Phillip and

Edward Dressler, Owner

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Jerome Berman

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OBITUARIES

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Continued from 43 rescue his family from Nazi Germany. With a great effort and the agency’s assistance, his parents and siblings escaped Germany and made it safely to Atlanta in 1941. With his family rescued, Frank enlisted in the Army and served his new country as an interpreter fighting the Nazi regime.

Before his overseas deployment, Frank was sent to boot camp in Galveston, Texas, where he met Helen. On his return from the war, they began a marriage of 71 years and are now once again joined on the first anniversary of her passing.

Frank started his career as a traveling salesman in the electrical equipment business. He and Helen had three children, Elizabeth, Mark and Walter. Frank was successful in his career and advanced up the professional ladder, retiring as an executive vice president after 45 years at the same company.

Frank and Helen were active members of the Atlanta Jewish community, and together they helped establish a women’s shelter, Rebecca’s Tent, at Congregation Shearith Israel. In his retirement, Frank became an active community volunteer, volunteering for Clark Howard and Meals on Wheels. In 2007, Frank and Helen moved to Huntcliff Summit, where Frank served as president of the residents association for several years. He learned to play pinochle at the age of 90 and won a few medals for his senior athletic ability.

Frank is survived by daughter Elizabeth (Robert) Goldstein and sons Mark (Robin) Spiegel of Atlanta and Walter (Sharon) Spiegel of Cincinnati; seven grandchildren, Adam (Kim) Goldstein, Sherri (Jamison) Nighbert, and Elana, Sophie, Jeremy, Shira and Jacob; and four great-grandchildren.

The funeral service wase held Wednesday, May 30, at Crestlawn Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Weinstein Hospice, Rebecca’s Tent (www.rebeccastent.org) or Congregation Or Hadash. Arrangements made by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.

Harvey Yaschik 80, Atlanta

Harvey Yaschik, age 80, died peacefully Wednesday, May 30, 2018.

Born and raised in Charleston, S.C., to parents Mary and Morris Yaschik, he was an outgoing and friendly person whose family and friends were very important to him. He liked to share stories of his happy years with siblings and family at their Folly Beach summer house. He was successful in his business career with

3M Co. (later Lanier Business Products), winning recognition and awards for his accomplishments.

In retirement, Harvey enjoyed many pastimes, including gardening, photography, cooking, USO volunteering, exercising, traveling, and spending time with family and friends. He took special pride in completing the Peachtree Road Race at age 72 with his son. He enjoyed time spent with his two grandchildren. He was a longtime member of Congregation Shearith Israel.

Survivors include his wife, Betty (Barnett), with whom he shared his life for 54 years; daughter Margo (Steven) Tockerman; son Jeffrey Yaschik, and grandchildren Jake Tockerman and Sari Tockerman. Also surviving are his brother and sister-in-law, Dennis and Marsha Yaschik; a sister, Sharon Cohan of Naples, Fla.; and many close nieces and nephews.

Sign the online guestbook at dresslerjewishfunerals.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Congregation Shearith Israel in Atlanta, the Myelodysplastic Syndromes Foundation (MDS Foundation) or the USO. A graveside service was held Friday, June 1, at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Ari Kaiman officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-4514999.

Death Notices

Norman Fleischer, 82, of New York, father of Temple Sinai member Debbie Kurzweil and Lynnie Wax and husband of Eva Fleischer, on May 31.

Susan Forman, 75, of Easton, Conn., mother of Marc Forman and Jeffrey Forman and sister of Stephen Silverman, on May 26.

Roslyn Klarman, 100, of Atlanta, mother of Ellen Ackerman and David Klarman, on June 3.

David Mayer, father of Temple Kol Emeth member Dave Mayer, on June 3.

Obituaries in the AJT are written and paid for by the families; contact Associate 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.

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BRAIN FOOD

SERPENTS OF SCRIPTURE

By Yoni & Ariella Glatt, koshercrosswords@gmail.com Difficulty Level: Manageable 1

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61. “Ariel” poet Sylvia 64. Really enjoy a piece of babka 1. Friday letters that precede “F” 65. Asher of literature 4. Does nothing 66. Yemen’s capital 9. Notable Dead Sea company 67. 18th Hebrew letter 14. “Tell ___ About It” (Joel hit) 68. Gaza to Jericho dir.

15. Not level 69. Ark groupings 16. Former Israeli prime minister 70. Loads and loads 17. Rock subgenre 71. Jewish Federation of Greater 18. Kind of ray ___ Moines 19. CBS series that, oddly, was filmed in L.A. DOWN 20. Giant swimmers around 1. 1984 Leon Uris novel Samuel’s mom?

2. Commentary on the Mishna 23. Singer India. or painter Aroch 3. Like many a “Twilight Zone” 24. Priority for charities ending 28. Joseph’s hooded father?

4. Tibetan monk or “Why?” 32. Almodovar and Martinez 5. Baruch follower 33. Funnel-shaped 6. “From A to ___” (multivitamin 36. Actress Fisher in “The Great ad line) Gatsby” 7. Rock’s John 37. Ruth’s squeezing husband? 8. “Iron Man” villain Obadiah 43. Summit 9. Where to meet Pac-Man? 44. Trial’s partner 10. Like some Orthodox Jews 45. French president Jacques, 11. Biblical queen mother; II 1995-2007 Kings 18:2 48. Poisonous grandfather of 12. Diesel of “Boiler Room” Moses?

13. “___ Dream Will Do” (song 53. Island capital whose name from “Joseph …”) means “sheltered bay” 21. Opposite of paleo56. 100mg, say 22. Airport schedule; abbr.

57. King who might pose a threat 25. While lead-in to 20-, 28-, 37- and 57-Across? 26. Most recent “Star Wars” film

ACROSS

27. Russian ruler, once 29. Email option, for short 30. Joey, for short 31. Writer Frank 34. Hebron’s home; abbr.

35. Letters under shift, on many comps 37. “Goldberg Variations” composer 38. Shmona, to Pablo 39. Former dictator Idi 40. Worst possible, as a review 41. Fish eggs 42. Mr. Berlin, for short 46. Greetings in 53-Across 47. ___-de-sac 49. Words not often heard under a chuppah 50. Combined, as assets 51. Strict Sabbath observer of antiquity 52. “John Wick” star 54. ___ bet (owes money) 55. Amherst school, briefly 58. Shape of a football field, in Australia 59. Lymph gland 60. Got big 61. Nintendo DS competitor 62. Shohei Ohtani’s team, on the scoreboard 63. “___ ledodi, v’dodi li”

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10 Years Ago // June 6, 2008 ■ Two Emory professors, Rabbi Michael Broyde and Deborah Lipstadt, have inspired legislation introduced in Congress to eliminate the practice of “libel tourism,” in which plaintiffs bring defamation lawsuits against American authors in foreign courts whose free-speech protections are weaker than America’s. Lipstadt, who won a famous libel case in Britain against David Irving, Deborah Lipstadt and Rabbi Broyde wrote about another case involving a Saudi businessman in The New York Times in October.

■ The bat mitzvah ceremony of Alexandra Megan Morris of Alpharetta, daughter of Michael Morris and Belinda Morris, was held Saturday, March 29, at The Temple.

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25 Years Ago // June 4, 1993 ■ The University of Georgia Hillel will again be without a director at the end of the month when Marcia Kaufman leaves a post that she took in November.

Kaufman, who lives in Norcross and drives to Athens three days a week for the Hillel job, said the position requires someone who lives in Athens. The job had been vacant for 10 months when she took it, and UGA students have seen three directors the past four years.

■ Ann and Doni Tamli of Atlanta announce the birth of a son, Gil Yehuda, on March 28.

50 Years Ago // June 7, 1968 ■ Thirty Jewish cadets were commissioned as officers during graduation ceremonies June 4 and 5 at the five U.S. service academies, says Rabbi Selwyn Ruslander, who heads the National Jewish Welfare Board’s Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy. They include Marvin Belasco of New Orleans from West Point, Alvin Blumberg Jr. of Chattanooga from the Air Force Academy, and Gary Hirsch of Norfolk and Jeffrey Marlin of Largo, Fla., from the Naval Academy.

■ Mr. and Mrs. Herman Borenstein of New Orleans announce the engagement of daughter Pepi Borenstein to Alan Stewart Wolkin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Wolkin of Atlanta. A winter wedding is planned.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Memorial Day Tears building alone, but she had been there alone before I got there.

I looked into the sanctuary; with the rain dulling the windows, it was almost completely dark.

Had the woman been unable to find the light switch, or had she been sitting without light by choice? I didn’t

We invite members of the community to nominate those under the age of 18 who they believe are Jewish Atlanta’s rising leaders in academics, religious and family life, as well as community action.

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Chana’s Corner

18 UNDE

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YOUR JE WIS

1 8 U N D H ATLANTA ER 18?

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offer to put the light on.

“Let’s see if the rain has let up,” I suggested. “We can talk outside.”

Maybe Memorial Day memories triggered her sadness and anxiety.

I slipped my note under the office door and gestured for the woman to follow me out, but she held her ground.

“I can’t leave. Can you find somebody here who can pray with me?”

I was reluctant to reveal that she and I were probably the only people in the building.

“I don’t know where everybody is right now, and there’s no point in waiting around for them. Let’s go before the rain gets any worse.”

“But I have to pray!” she insisted, wiping her eyes with a bunch of wadded tissues.

She turned and disappeared back into the dark sanctuary.

“I hope your prayers are answered!” I called after her.

I hopped over puddles to my car and sat there, thinking.

Was I a coward? Was I heartless? I wanted to help her, but an inner voice of caution held me back. Should I call someone to check on her (and the alarm system)?

Before I could make up my mind, the woman walked out.

Dabbing her eyes, she stepped into the rain and looked around, probably hoping for someone more accommodating and sympathetic, then she drove away.

I followed her and saw her pull into a church down the street, where many cars were parked. A sign near the entrance read, “Memorial Day Programs and Services.”

It was pouring harder than before, but she didn’t seem to notice as she ran in. ■

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AV 5778

A nominee must be Jewish, at least 10 years old and must not have turned 18 before July 25, 2018. You can nominate yourself, a friend, student or your child - anyone who meets the criteria. Nominees are judged on their academic and community achievements as an active member of Jewish Atlanta.

The deadline for nominations is Sunday, July 1, 2018.

Please visit atlantajewishtimes.com/18-under-18/ for more information

JUNE 8 ▪ 2018

I was doing errands on this rainy Memorial Day. One of them was a stop at my synagogue.

I pulled into the lot, where a single car was parked. Clearly everyone (except the owner of the car) had left for the afternoon, but I know the front-door code, so I let myself in.

Hoping that the car I saw in the lot belonged to someone who had a key to the office, where I wanted to leave an envelope, I searched the building. I couldn’t find anyone, so I decided to leave a note and slide it under the office door.

I stopped at a table in the foyer and began to write when I heard a soft voice coming out of the sanctuary across from where I was standing. I assumed that whoever was inside was the owner of the car in the parking lot, possibly instructing a future bar mitzvah or viewing the space for an upcoming simcha.

Suddenly, the sanctuary door opened, and a middle-aged woman, dressed in work clothes, rushed out.

I spend a lot of time at the shul, on Shabbat and during the week, but I had never seen her there before.

She seemed to be confused, troubled and nervous.

How did she get into the building?

The synagogue is very careful about security.

Had someone let her in?

I wondered if she was new to the maintenance staff or had come in that morning and stayed in the sanctuary after everyone else had left.

“Do you speak English?” the woman asked me.

I smiled and said, “Do you mean do I speak another language besides Hebrew?”

“Don’t all of you speak a different language?” she asked in all innocence.

Though sorely tempted, I didn’t jump at this teaching moment. “I speak English,” I answered. “Are you looking for something?”

“Do you people pray?” she asked.

“Yes, of course we do. You just came out of the area where we pray. Is that what you came here to do?”

“I need to pray.” She began to cry, and when I say cry, I mean cry. “Can you help me pray?”

I didn’t know whether to make a hasty exit or try to help her.

I was reluctant to leave her in the

Nominate Jewish Atlanta’s 18 Under 18!

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