HEROIC TALK
A tank officer who held off the Syrian onslaught in 1973 explains why he’ll speak at an FIDF event. Page 8
TRIBE TRIAL
ART HOME
Jennie Rivlin Roberts’ minishop at The Temple could be the model to solve many synagogues’ woes. Page 21
Gary Bodner’s abstract expressionism delivers the color, style and drama inside his family home. Page 26
Atlanta VOL. XC NO. 45
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
NOVEMBER 27, 2015 | 15 KISLEV 5776
Emory J Street U Leader Wins Rhodes Scholarship
F The gathering space at the front of the renovated JF&CS headquarters will be a place for the public as well as agency staff, clients and family members to spend time together.
JF&CS Capital Drive Enters Final Phase With Urgency
J
ewish Family & Career Services has entered the final, public phase of its capital fundraising campaign to expand and improve its campus in Dunwoody next year. JF&CS has raised about $5 million of its campaign goal of $5.1 million and, if it gets the additional $100,000, is on track to break ground in March for a project that will last nine to 12 months, agency CEO Rick Aranson said. The problem for JF&CS is that construction and regulatory costs have risen during the capital campaign, so to build its original plans and deliver a first-class facility for staff and clients, the agency will need to raise $350,000 beyond the goal. Because the project cost would go up about 1 percent for every month’s delay in the groundbreaking, construction will begin in March as long as the fundraising reaches $5.1 million. But if the total raised doesn’t quickly approach $5.5 million, Aranson said, the plans will be adjusted during the work to find the savings. That’s why the capital campaign involves urgency. You can give at ytfl.org/completeourcampus. ■
Next week: What JF&CS will build
CAMP TRIBUTE
Jewish friends whose counselor drowned at Camp Thunderbird will remember him by watching his college basketball team play Tech. Page 6
MIDLIFE SHIFT
Writer Alfred Uhry explains how the real-life inspiration behind his “Atlanta Trilogy” brought him Tony- and Oscar-winning success. Page 22
ourth-generation Jewish Atlantan Leah Michalove has been named a 2016 Rhodes Scholar. The Emory University senior and Sandy Springs native is one of 32 American college students and two Georgians announced as winners Saturday, Nov. 21. Emory reported that she is the 19th student from the university to win one of the world’s most prestigious scholarships, which provides two or three years of study at Oxford University and is worth up to $50,000 per year. Michalove, who is majoring in Middle Eastern and South Asian studies and minoring in anthropology, plans to use the scholarship to pursue the M.Phil. degree in social anthropology. She then plans to pursue a doctorate in anthropology, focusing on the Middle East. “I’m so excited and grateful. I wouldn’t have gotten here without the support of friends, family and Emory. It’s going to give me an amazing opportunity to study at Oxford and build relationships with outstanding students from the U.S. and around the world,” Michalove said in an Emory announcement. A graduate of the Davis Academy and veteran of the Reform movement’s NFTY teen program, Michalove is the treasurer and outgoing president of Emory’s chapter of J Street U, which she helped found.
INSIDE
Calendar 3
Business 20
Candle Lighting
3
Arts 22
Remember When 5
Simchas 25
Israel 8
Home 26
Opinion 10
Obituaries 28
Education 15
Crossword 30
She was one of eight Atlanta-area college students who went to the national conference of J Street, the left-leaning pro-Israel lobbying group, in Washington in the spring. She told the AJT beLeah Michalove fore that conference that she had visited Israel three times, most recently with Birthright Israel. She has been an active campus proponent of a two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution and an advocate of Israeli civil rights and pluralism, as in an AJT column she wrote a year ago to criticize a proposal for separate Jewish and Arab bus lines into the West Bank. “As the inheritors of the legacy of Jewish civil rights, we are compelled to pursue justice and democracy and to hold those organizations and governments who seek to represent us truly accountable,” Michalove wrote. At Emory, Michalove is a Dean’s Achievement Scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a recipient of the Amy Johnson Study Abroad Award and an active member of the Emory Scholars Program. In theater, she has served as artistic director, production manager and stage manager for Dooley’s Players and as technical theater staff for AdHoc Productions. She tutors students in Hebrew and Arabic and organizes Emory’s monthly Arabic Round Table. She spent a semester in Morocco, leading to her senior thesis on young Moroccans’ self-identity in an increasingly interconnected world. She focused on how modern Moroccan women express themselves through fashion and appearance. ■