Atlanta Jewish Times, VOL. XCVII NO. 22, November 30, 2021

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VOL. XCVII NO. 22

NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 26 KISLEV 5782

Happy Chanukah

Window to the Soul by Gabriella Schakett, age 15

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CONTENTS

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NEWS ���������������������������������������������� 6 ISRAEL �����������������������������������������28 SPORTS ���������������������������������������30 OPINION ��������������������������������������32 CHANUKAH ��������������������������������� 38 ART ����������������������������������������������� 84 CHAI STYLE �������������������������������� 85 CALENDAR ���������������������������������� 88 COMMUNITY �������������������������������� 92 OY VEY ����������������������������������������� 94 BRAIN FOOD �������������������������������� 95 OBITUARIES �������������������������������� 96 MARKETPLACE ������������������������ 100

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NEWS Rabbi Berg Delivers Vice President’s Mezuzah

Vice President Kamala Harris and, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff at the ceremony.

By Dave Schechter

doorpost at The Temple was nailed to the front doorpost at the vice president’s Many months ago, Rabbi Peter Berg official residence, the Naval Observaof The Temple received a telephone call tory House.

This is the first time that a mezufrom someone who said they were calling on behalf of a high profile couple zah — which contains a tiny scroll with who recently had moved to Washington, texts from the Book of Deuteronomy, denoting the house D.C. as a sacred space Thinking it was — has hung at an a prank call, the American execurabbi nearly hung tive residence. The up. injunction to post The caller asa mezuzah — “insured Berg that the scribe them on the inquiry was legitidoorposts of your mate, and that the house and on your couple in question gates” — is found in were seeking a meDeuteronomy 6:9. zuzah for their new Berg led the home. “They want blessing for the meit to be meaningful. zuzah and the SheThey want it to have hecheyanu prayer, historical signifiwhich recognizes cance,” the caller the importance of told Berg, who rethe moment. Emlated the story to hoff nailed the methe AJT. zuzah to the doorBerg guessed, Emhoff nails the mezuzah, to the front doorpost at the vice post on a diagonal, correctly, that the president’s official residence. in keeping with a mystery couple was Vice President Kamala Harris and her thousand-year-old rabbinic determinahusband, Douglas Emhoff, who is Jew- tion.

“It was a small private ceremony, ish.

That was the first step on the path a really personal moment,” Berg said, that brought The Temple’s senior rabbi including just Harris, Emhoff, and Emto the District of Columbia for a private hoff’s parents, Barbara and Michael ceremony on Oct. 7 during which a me- Emhoff, who had not seen their son zuzah that had been affixed to a front throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

6 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

“They had never seen him in this role in person,” as the Second Gentleman.

“That’s why the service was so emotional. The The mezuzah, which had previously been Jewish parents standing affixed to a front doorpost at The Temple. there, shepping naches Berg quoted Harris as replying: “If for their son, the Second Gentleman.

It was such a beautiful moment,” Berg I’ve told my husband once, I’ve told him said, using the Yiddish phrase for “deriv- a hundred times, we have to pick the mezuzah already.” ing pride.”

A decision was made, and The TemBerg said that he spoke about the significance of The Temple and “the vice ple has loaned the vice president and her president and second gentleman spoke husband a mezuzah. “I was told that The off the cuff about what this meant to Temple had been selected because of our them personally, to the United States history. Because Leo Frank was a member. Because The Temple was bombed by and to the Jewish tradition.”

“It was great to do something in white supremacists. Because of our comWashington that was not political. It mitment to social justice. Because of our was just a beautiful private, religious support for Israel. Because of the work ceremony. It was an honor to be able to we do combatting anti-Semitism,” Berg do it,” he said, stressing that he would said.

In the capital, Berg met with Empreside similarly, regardless of a recipihoff at the latter’s office in the Eisenent’s leanings.

Though the mezuzah was presented hower Executive Office Building. “We on Oct. 7, the White House released that grew up 15 minutes from each other, in New Jersey, so we played Jewish geognews on Nov. 18.

But after that initial phone call, raphy. I talked about Israel, about antiBerg heard nothing for a while. Then, Semitism, and our social justice work,” in June, the rabbi was invited to speak Berg said.

Berg, senior rabbi at The Temple with Harris during her June 18 visit to Atlanta to promote COVID-19 vaccina- since 2008, said that the rabbinic coltions. Given 15 minutes, Berg “did what leagues around the nation that he has any rabbi would do,” and talked with heard from “are just excited that this the vice president about Israel and anti- happened. What’s great is that people Semitism. As her handlers brought the aren’t looking at it as a political thing. conversation to a close, the rabbi asked, It’s just nice to focus on that [the mezuzah] and what that means.”

“What about the mezuzah?”

NEWS

Emhoff posted photos of the ceremony in a tweet.

House, was a silver mezuzah from the Compassionate and ResponsiVe Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life Family law RepResentation at the University of California, Berkeley. sinCe 1991. Emhoff posted photographs of the

Though Harris was sworn in as vice president in January, she and Emhoff lived in Blair House, the presidential guest quarters across the street from the White House, while the official residence underwent repairs. The project — said by the White House to involve chimney work, maintenance, and floor repairs — took several weeks longer than anticipated, thus delaying Harris and Emhoff from moving in.

A second mezuzah, to go on a doorpost within the Naval Observatory

ceremony on Twitter, saying: “For us, and for everyone, Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on the past year. One of my favorite memories was when our family visited and together we hung a mezuzah on the front door of the Vice President’s Residence.”

The Temple posted photographs on Facebook with this comment: “Rabbi Pe-

Compassionate and RESPONSIVE Family Law Representation Since 1991.

Rabbi Peter S. Berg had the honor of hanging a mezuzah on the front door of the Second Family’s residence in a ceremony at the capital on Oct. 7.

Rabbi Berg with Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish.

ter S. Berg had the honor of blessing the Second Family’s residence in a ceremony with the family and hanging a mezuzah on the front door. Our congregation is proud to loan our mezuzah and we are inspired by the Second Family’s decision to ask The Temple for it in recognition of our unique, historic and continued involvement with civil rights and social justice.”

That involvement dates back to the 1950s, when then Rabbi Jacob Rothschild delivered sermons supporting the civil

rights movement. The bombing of The Temple on Oct. 12, 1958, was believed to have been the work of white supremacists opposed to Rothschild’s message.

In more recent years, The Temple has engaged in a number of initiatives, including homelessness, criminal justice reform, record expungement, and human trafficking.

In a letter to the congregation, Kent Alexander, president of The Temple, wrote: “This is a proud moment for our congregation and Jewish faith.” ì

Happy Chanukah Compassionate and RESPONSIVE Family Law Representation Attorneys pictured Since 1991.left to right: Rachel Shockley, Louis Tesser, Sara McCormack, Dennis Collard, Marvin Solomiany, Randall Kessler, Thad Woody, David Sarif, Sean Ditzel, Rob Miller, Lindsey Dodson Offices in Buckhead toweR and Centennial Downtown Atlanta 101 maRietta st., suite 3500 atlanta, GeoRGia 404.688.8810 30303 404.688.8810 www.ksFamilylaw.Com www.ksfamilylaw.com mail@ksfamilylaw.com

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 7

NEWS

Reform Seminary Takes Action on Sexual Harassment

By Bob Bahr

are named in the report, two of them having served as presidents of the semiThe Board of Governors of Hebrew nary.

Rabbi Peter Berg, a local member of Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform movement’s seminary the board and senior rabbi at The Temple for rabbis, cantors and communal lead- in Atlanta, declined to comment on the 37-page report. Berg was ers, is meeting Dec. 14 to also part of a four-person consider its next steps in special committee — comresponse to a scathing reposed of two men and two port that details decades women — who provided of sexual harassment and oversight for the investigaabuse at the highest levels tive process. of the school’s administraThe 52-member board, tion.

16 of whom are women he The report, which said, has decided that inwas issued Nov. 9 by an dividual board members outside law firm hired by Among those accused is would not be commenting the seminary, details over Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, three decades of miscon- the president and chancellor on the report.

However, in a stateduct. Although many inof HUC-JIR for 25 years. ment that accompanied dividuals came forward with allegations against former staff and the release of the investigation, the chair faculty, the law firm of Morgan Lewis, of the board of governors, Sue Neuman led by attorney Grace Speights, decided Hochberg, spoke of her appreciation of to concentrate their investigation on the 170 former students, staff and faculty of the institution who came forward prominent religious figures.

Six former professors at the school to share their personal experiences.

The report by Hebrew Union College is the first of a series of reports on sexual harassment.

“While this moment feels dark,” she said, “it is also an important step in moving toward the light.”

In a letter to the faculty, administrative staff and the students of the seminary, Hochberg indicated that the meeting in December would include an examination of how the institution can begin the process of teshuvah, or repentance, for the errors of the past.

Among those accused in the report is Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk, the president and chancellor of HUC-JIR for 25 years (from 1971 to 1996), and the rabbi who succeeded him, Sheldon Zimmerman, who led the school until 2000.

According to the report, they both harassed and assaulted women at the institution. Rabbi Zimmerman, who is still alive, has been the subject of previous

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NEWS allegations. After his abrupt resignation ple Sinai, who completed a term as presifrom the school, he served as vice presi- dent of the national rabbinic community this year, said he was lookdent of the Birthright Ising forward to the results rael program and was the of the investigation. rabbi of the Jewish Center “I — along with all of the Hamptons in New of the leadership of the York.

CCAR — am truly grateAn investigation was ful to all of the individuals completed earlier this who courageously came year by New York City’s forward to share their exCentral Synagogue, one periences. All the investiof the most prestigious gations in the Movement, congregations in the Reincluding the CCAR’s and form movement, where the URJ’s, which are still Zimmerman had served Sue Neuman Hochberg, ongoing, will ultimately as rabbi for 18 years in the the chair of the Board of lead to a better and safer 1970s and 1980s.

Governors, spoke of her The report uncovered appreciation for the former future for us all.” students and staff who Much of the impetus charges that Zimmerman came forward to share their for the unprecedented sehad developed a pattern of personal experiences. ries of actions has been the predatory sexual behavior, including an alleged attack on a teen- publicity that has come from the MeToo ager. The allegations against Rabbi Gott- movement and pressure that has been exerted by the Women’s Rabbinic Netschalk, who died in 2009, are new.

At Temple Beth Tikvah, in Roswell, work, a group of Reform rabbis led by Mary Zamore, who have Rabbi Alexandria Shucalled for greater accountval-Weiner, who graduability by Jewish instituated from the seminary in tions.

2009, said she had not perZamore has described sonally encountered sexhow, early in her rabbinic ual harassment or abuse. training at HUC, she was She did, however, call the warned by other female report difficult to read at students that she should times and “eye-opening,” avoid going to Rabbi Gottthough she’s not surprised schalk’s office or being by the disclosures at an alone with him. Still, on institution that has been at least two occasions, the slow to acknowledge the Rabbi Alexandria Shuvalrabbi pressured her for a sins of the past.

Weiner described the report as a good start, but date.

“What’s so upsetting, said she will be watching When she was oreven shocking, is that this what happens next. dained six years later, is an institution that is supposed to be about creating symbolic Zamore is said to have experienced conexemplars, setting a symbolic example. siderable anxiety over the ceremony.

There is an assumption that we would The traditional rite, which she endured, hold ourselves to a higher standard called for the president of the ceremony and yet this has been the practice of the to lay his hands on her head.

Rabbi Shuval-Weiner, world. This has been the who is a member of the practice of men in power.”

Women’s Rabbinic NetThe investigation work and is the female is part of a much larger president of the Atlanta examination within the Rabbinic Association, Reform movement. Still praised the report as a to come are reports about good start, but says that sexual misconduct from what’s really important is the Union for Reform Juwhat’s to come. daism, the coordinating “It’s not just saying, body for the movement’s ‘we’ve done the research 850 congregations. It has and this is what we found.’ launched its own investiThe Temple’s Senior Rabbi, I mean, you have to follow gation through an outside Peter Berg, was part of a it up with action, just like law firm, as has the Cenfour-person committee that oversaw the report. when we say Shema Yisratral Conference of Ameriel.

It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t can Rabbis, which represents Reform do the actions of the paragraph that folclergy. lows, the V’ahavta.” ì Ron Segal, the senior rabbi at TemATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 9

NEWS

Schoen Defends Steve Bannon, Former Trump Strategist

By Dave Schechter

ally a Jew or that I am a phony Jew, and most call me a Nazi,” he said, answering the AJT’s As he takes on another high-profile questions by email.

News coverage and social media in Febclient, Atlanta attorney David Schoen says that he “could do without all of the publicity ruary took note of when Schoen, who turns 63 in late December, did or and the circus-like atmodid not wear a kippah on sphere” and “the vicious the Senate floor and, when hate mail ... that apparently not, how he placed a hand comes with the territory.” atop his bare head and said Schoen, an Orthodox a prayer before drinking Jew, is back in the spotlight from a water bottle. nine months after repreBannon, who had senting then-former Presibeen chief executive officer dent Donald Trump in Febof Trump’s 2016 presidenruary’s impeachment trial David Schoen, an Orthodox Jew, tial campaign, worked for before the Senate. recently represented former seven months in 2017 in The "territory" now is President Donald Trump.

His latest client is Trump the White House as chief the case of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon strategist and counselor aide Steve Bannon, who is charged with two counts of contempt of to Trump. After leaving the White House, Congress for refusing to cooperate with the he returned to Breitbart News, a right-wing committee investigating the violent breach website that he co-founded in 2016.

He was indicted Nov. 12 by a federal of Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.

Schoen says that has brought another grand jury on two counts, one for failing wave of vitriol. “The hate mail this time to appear for a deposition and the other for around is almost all directed to me being failing to turn over documents sought in a Jewish in one way or another. The writers subpoena. The indictment said: “The Select tell me to take my kipa off, that I am not re- Committee has reason to believe that you

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have information relevant to understand- Garland issued his own press release (very ing important activities that led to and in- inappropriately) and President Biden called for the prosecution (later acknowledging formed the events at the Capitol” on Jan 6.

Schoen said that he received a call that that that was totally inappropriate).”

Biden walked back his Oct. 15 remark day from a consultant for Bannon, asking during an Oct. 21 appearif he would represent the ance on a CNN town hall, accused. He rejected specusaying, “It has become the lation that Trump was inmost — it was corrupted volved in his being retained under the last administraby Bannon. “I have every tion. I should have chosen reason to believe Mr. Banmy words more wisely. non will be paying my fee I did not, have not, and and I have absolutely no will not pick up the phone reason to believe that forand call the attorney genmer President Trump was Steve Bannon has been charged eral and tell him what he behind my hiring,” Schoen with two counts of contempt should or should not do said. of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the committee in terms of who he should Schoen was present Nov. 15 when the 68-year- investigating the violent breach prosecute.” of Capitol Hill on Jan. 6.

Schoen also addressed old Bannon, after surrendering to the FBI, appeared before a federal the invocation of executive privilege by Banmagistrate judge in Washington, D.C. Ban- non, who was not a White House employee non was released without bond, but ordered on Jan. 6. “This is an interesting legal questo surrender his passport and to check in tion and it is not clear how the underlying weekly with court authorities. Outside the Executive Privilege issue will be resolved,” courthouse, he told reporters: “This is going he said.

Schoen maintains that opinions issued to be a misdemeanor from hell for [Attorney General] Merrick Garland, [House Speaker] by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel support Bannon’s position. One, Nancy Pelosi and [President] Joe Biden.”

A plea of not guilty was entered on from May 2019, included: “It is true that the Bannon’s behalf on Nov. 17. No trial date has President does not have the same need for been set. If convicted, Bannon could face a the daily advice and assistance of his former minimum of 30 days and a maximum of advisers, as with his current advisers, yet the confidentiality interests associated with the one year imprisonment on each count.

On Jan. 6, following a rally on the El- advisers’ former role remain just as strong.”

On this issue, Schoen said, “It makes lipse at which Trump spoke, several thousand people marched to Capitol Hill. Pro- sense. Presidents often call on former office testers battled with police on the outside holders for advice long after they left office steps and inside the building, disrupting for a variety of reasons. He and they should and delaying for several hours congressio- be able to count on their conversations renal certification of the Electoral College vote maining privileged (think, national security that made Joe Biden the 46th president. One for example or other sensitive issues to highCapitol Hill police officer died from injuries light the point).”

Schoen expressed a lack of confidence sustained as the mob surged. Four officers later committed suicide. A Trump supporter in the House panel, formed by the majority was fatally shot by Capitol Hill police as she Democrats with minimal Republican cooptried to force her way into the barricaded eration. “I am afraid they are incapable of House chamber, where members were establishing a truly independent committee sheltering. The D.C. medical examiner said of people genuinely interested in learning that another woman died from “acute am- all of the facts surrounding what happened phetamine intoxication” and was trampled on 1/6. I believe the American people deserve in the throng, and that a man died from a to know; but I feel 100% that the committee that has now been formed will not and canheart attack.

“I view this as a very interesting and not come to any credible conclusion,” he challenging case and I think it reflects a said, citing what he considers to be prejudivery destructive politicalization of the crim- cial comments by committee members.

Bannon is not alone in refusing to coinal process. I wish the case had never been brought as a criminal case; but now that operate with the congressional panel. Three it has, I will do my best to defend Mr. Ban- other Trump aides have been subpoenaed: non,” Schoen wrote. “Mr. Bannon is charged former White House Chief of Staff Mark with two misdemeanors; but there are four Meadows, former White House Deputy FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] agents Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scaand three federal prosecutors assigned to vino, and former Defense Department offithe case, the U.S. Attorney General Merrick cial Kashyap Patel. ì

NEWS

Emory Professor Wins Award for PTSD Research

By Bob Bahr Barbara Rothbaum, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University and leading authority on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), has been named this year’s recipient of a lifetime achievement award by medical researchers working to advance treatments for traumatic stress.

The award was presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies on Nov. 5, in recognition of Rothbaum’s work on innovative psychological treatments for PTSD, especially digital virtual reality tools that have become familiar to fans of video games.

Rothbaum, who has been working in Virtual reality is said to help up to 60% of veterans with PTSD. “Bravemind” is a virtual reality exposure therapy program the field since 1985, described the award that can simulate almost any combat situation. as recognition not just for developing new For Rothbaum, this is a lifetime achievetools to treat PTSD, but also for trying to for various reasons, people avoid it because even smell it, as well. But the main part of it ment award of a totally different sort. is so that their story changes as they go over it’s painful, so they don’t think about it.

And make these tools more effective.

“I’m a believer in the resilience of the and over it.” then they don’t get to emotionally process “The main thread running through my human spirit.

I have seen people who have The National Center for PTSD at the that.

So it festers and it haunts them.

And work is trying to develop new treatments or been through horrific experiences and, you Department of Veterans Affairs says that so our treatments for PTSD are what we call making our existing treatments better and think, how can someone get over this? And these exposure therapies are “effective in exposure therapies.

So helping people to configuring out new ways to do that.” then they do.

We have good treatments, and 60% of veterans with PTSD.” As vets revisit front the memories of Rothbaum is generwe can make them even better.

But always I their memories of traumatic experiences, the trauma and remindally considered to be a want there to be a message of hope.” ì they learn how to master their fears. ers of it, but in a therapioneer in the successpeutic manner so that ful use of computer-gensomething changes.” erated virtual imaging.

Rothbaum’s rePTSD affects up to search entails partici8 million U.S. adults evpants wearing devices ery year; but it is particthat help to recreate the ularly Rothbaum’s work traumatic event as an on treating military vetimmersive video experierans that has received ence. The therapist then the most attention.

Emory Professor Barbara Rothbaum guides patients through Her research in has pioneered the use of visual reality their emotions as they the late 1990s was the technology in the treatment of PTSD. arise. first to demonstrate As executive director of the Emory that three-dimensional graphic technology Healthcare Veterans Program, Rothbaum could be used to help Vietnam combat vets has worked with the Veterans Administrawho had treatment-resistant PTSD. In the tion and other stakeholders to deal with the years since, Rothbaum has written over 300 surge in PTSD diagnoses among veterans scientific papers and published five books about PTSD, including a consumer guide to who served in the Middle East and Afghanistan. the disorder.

She uses a virtual reality program She describes the virtual reality techcalled “Bravemind,” which has been develniques used to treat PTSD at Emory as an oped with funding from the National Instiexpansion of what psychotherapists call tutes of Health.

It’s an imaging program that exposure therapy. She likens the formal Rothbaum says can simulate, in a variety of experience that therapists use to guide a paways, almost any situation combat veterans tient to the informal experience that many have experienced in the course of American go through during the process of grieving in military operations of the past several deJudaism. cades.

“There’s really no way to the other side “We can put that patient in the driver’s of the pain and the grief process, except seat of a Humvee, we can have an IED going through it,” Rothbaum says. “Obviously, all of off on the right front, everything blowing our rituals in Judaism actually help with that, smoke.

And we just do it over and over and the shiva and being together with the mournover as they’re telling the story with more ers and telling stories and having that time to and more detail. And it’s a potent stimulus. grieve and these set periods that help people So they can see it. They can hear it. They can work through it. So with PTSD, we think that ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 11

NEWS

Tattoos Get a Second Look at Etz Chaim

By Bob Bahr To tattoo or not to tattoo: that was the question at the center of a discussion at Congregation Etz Chaim, the Conservative synagogue in Marietta, on October 26. Rabbi Micah Miller, the congregation’s associate rabbi, led an hour-long conversation delving into the history of tattooing in Jewish law and practice.

Miller knows from personal experience. The 34-year-old rabbi has several tattoos, including those he already had when he started studying to be a rabbi and another that he obtained while in rabbinical school. During the discussion at Etz Chaim he came down, decisively, on the side of those who believe Conservative Judaism’s well-established opposition to tattooing should be reevaluated.

“I feel on some level, if rabbinical schools are letting people into school who have tattoos and then saying go ahead and be a rabbi … Well, we’ve got to try and make this fit in a way that honors their tradition and doesn’t just say, ‘just get rid of it.’ I do think there is clearly a way of limiting this and looking at it authentically, what the law was about.”

Israel’s tattoo convention attracted 4,000 people in 2019.

The Hebrew word for love, ahavah, has been incorporated into this realistic tattoo.

Rabbi Micah Miller told a study group at Congregation Etz Chaim that a more liberal acceptance of tattoos is needed.

In 1997, the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly asked its Committee on Law and Standards to look into the issue of tattooing. There, by a vote of 77 to 0 — with 4 abstentions — the rabbis voted to maintain a ban on all tattoos, except those that might be medically required.

The rabbi who wrote the responsa or opinion on Jewish law was Rabbi Alan Lucas of Temple Beth Shalom of Roslyn, N.Y. The opinion was based, essentially, on the injunction found in chapter 19 of Leviticus, which prohibits “gashes on the flesh or any

incised writing upon you.”

“In our day,” Rabbi Lucas wrote, “the prohibition against all forms of tattooing, regardless of their intent, should be maintained. In addition to the fact that Judaism has a long history of distaste for tattoos, tattooing becomes even more distasteful when confronted with a contemporary secular society that is constantly challenging the Jewish concept that we are created b’tselem Elohim, ‘In the Image of God,’ and that our bodies are to be viewed as a precious gift on loan from God, to be entrusted into our care

and not our personal property to do with as we choose.”

At Congregation Etz Chaim, Rabbi Miller, who was interviewed after his presentation, maintains that in the last 2,000 years Jewish authorities have not always been in agreement on whether a total ban on tattooing is required. He believes that the rabbis of the Talmud had ruled that only certain kinds of tattoos are forbidden.

“I think the rationale of the Talmud was not to put other gods on yourself. So even though you might really like some of

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NEWS

It’s not too late to save a life in Israel this year.

Hebrew isn’t just for the scriptures; sometimes it can be found tattooed on the skin.

past several decades. As he told Haaretz, Israel’s leading daily newspaper, tattoos say a lot about how Jews in the Holy Land view themselves.

“The tattoo fad symbolizes Israel’s transition from an austere and khaki-clad society that played down the importance of aesthetics to a society that pays homage to beauty, splendor, ornamentation and glitter.”

That is strikingly similar to how Rabbi Miller views the progress surrounding the acceptance of tattoos here.

“For a long time, people thought only drunken sailors and gang members got tattoos, but I tell people that today that’s not the case. Your accountant might have a tattoo. Your children’s pediatrician or their kindergarten teacher might have a tattoo.

Or your rabbi. And so, it’s also become this thing where I think culturally, in society, it’s more accepted for people. They don’t look at a person differently, necessarily in a bad way, just because of tattoos.”

Times have changed, he says, and the Conservative movement should change, too. Twenty-four years after the Conservative rabbis’ responsa, Miller is working with a colleague on submitting an update to the Rabbinic Assembly’s Committee on Law and Standards. ì

Photo by Kobi Gideon / FLASH90

the Hindu gods or be a self-proclaimed student of Buddha, you shouldn’t get Buddha tattooed on yourself.”

Miller believes that just as we adorn Torah scrolls with artful cloth coverings and crowns made of precious metals, so we may think of tattoos as a way of honoring the human body. Moreover, tattoos in contemporary society have become socially acceptable.

“It’s a way of adorning the body and not desecrating the body. That might not be right for everybody. A lot of people who are outside of the tattoo community would say that this is damaging what God gave you.

But what I said to people in my class is that no tattoo artist, at least no good, reputable tattoo artist, is going to let me put something ugly on my body. There’s a lot of actual art that goes into it.”

Even in Israel, tattooing has reached new heights of popularity. In 2019, a tattoo convention in Tel Aviv brought together 4,000 tattoo artists and fans from around the country.

According to Oz Almog, the author of “Sabra: The Creation of The New Jew,” the widespread acceptance of tattooing in the Jewish state is one more indication of the transformation Israel has undergone in the

For more than 90 years, American donors have provided vehicles, training, and supplies to Israel’s national paramedic and Red Cross service, equipping them to treat the sick and injured under the most difficult circumstances and to save lives.

In fact, this past year Magen David Adom’s 30,000 EMTs and paramedics have been on the front lines in the fight against coronavirus while also contending with terrorist and rocket attacks, riots, car accidents, and other threats to Israeli lives.

If you want to make a real difference in Israel, no other organization has a greater impact on its people than Magen David Adom.

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afmda.org ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 13

NEWS

Redistricting Alters Georgia Political Landscape

By Dave Schechter

Before

After

Redistricting has thrown a fistful of spice into the 2022 election stew.

As they drew new maps for congressional and legislative districts, the Republicans who control the kitchen — by virtue of majorities in the state House and Senate — added a little here and subtracted a little there to keep the flavor to their liking. Democrats, by and large, were left looking through a window, with little input on the recipe.

The maps, redrawn every 10 years following the Census, have cleared the General Assembly and now await Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature.

Pending any court challenges, these maps will remain in effect for a decade.

The General Assembly will deal with county commission and school board maps when it convenes in January.

Georgia’s population has increased by 1 million since 2010, to 10.7 million residents, due largely to minority growth in metro Atlanta. The maps reGeorgia's current 14 congressional districts ahead of A draft map of Georgia's 14 congressional districts was released flect the population shift toward the At2021's redistricting effort. State Republicans may alter

by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. // Photo credit: lanta area, and away from middle and current districts to strengthen their power over the next Georgia Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office south Georgia. Congressional districts decade. // Photo credit: Georgia General Assembly will average roughly 765,000 residents; state Senate districts 191,000, and state “It should be noted that Cobb and Bath announced that she would run in Fla., convenience store, by an assailant House districts 59,500.

Gwinnett, two growing the 7th district, already who objected to the volRepublicans found a and increasingly Demorepresented by Democrat ume of the music coming way to improve on their cratic counties, were from the vehicle.

Carolyn Bourdeaux.

8-6 margin in Georgia’s ‘cracked’ to minimize Bourdeaux said: Several Republicans congressional delegatheir electoral impact,” already had filed for the “Georgia’s 7th district tion. The 6th district — a said Matt Weiss, legischance to challenge Mc- deserves a representative Republican stronghold lative affairs chair and Bath in the 6th and more that understands their that Democrats flipped board member of the Jewmay enter the race. The issues. I am the Gwinin 2018 and held in 2020 ish Community Relations GOP primary winner nett representative in — will again be GOPCouncil of Atlanta. Secwill be favored to win the the race for a predomifriendly, while mapmaktions of Cobb County will nantly Gwinnett district. general election. ers ceded to Democrats be represented in four A Bourdeaux-Mc- The people of the 7th the 7th district seat they Bath tilt in the 7th could deserve a representative Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux congressional districts flipped in 2020. Georgia Democrat Lucy McBath will and Gwinnett County in highlight tensions be- that understands and could impact control of touts her current role as 7th leave the 6th congressional three. the U.S. House, where district to challenge Democrat tween the Democrats’ cares about their needs district congresswoman.

The northwest Georand has Democrats currently Carolyn Bourdeaux in the 7th. moderate a record of fighting for gia 14th district, more than three-quarand progressive wings. hold just an eight-seat advantage. them in Washington. It’s ters white and currently represented The 6th was altered by replacing Both issued statements my hard-fought honor to by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, parts of DeKalb and Fulton counties on Nov. 22. serve the people of Gwin- will now include African American and McBath said: “Brian with portions of more conservative nett and GA’s 7th District Democratic parts of Cobb County, inForsyth, Cherokee, and Dawson coun- Kemp, the Republican and I look forward to cluding Austell and Powder Springs. ties. DeKalb County now will be shared Party, and the NRA [NaThe maps suggest that Republicans continuing to do so.” by the reliably Democratic 4th and 5th tional Rifle Association] Bourdeaux lives in will maintain their majorities in the districts. In the 7th, sections of Forsyth will not have the final Gwinnett County, outside state House and Senate, though DemoCounty were removed, creating a dis- say on when my work in the redrawn 7th district, crats may make inroads. Republicans trict that covers more than half of in- Congress on behalf of my and McBath lives in Mar- currently hold a 103-77 margin over creasingly Democratic Gwinnett County son is done.” McBath’s ietta, but there is no re- Democrats in the state House and a 3417-year-old son, Jordan and most of Johns Creek.

Matt Weiss said Cobb and quirement that members 21 advantage in the state Senate.

Gwinnett counties were Soon after the General Assembly Davis, was slain in Nov. “cracked” to minimize “On the surface, the maps for the of Congress live in the approved the congressional map, 6th 2012, as he sat in a car Democrats’ electoral impact. state House and the state Senate apdistricts they represent. district incumbent Democrat Lucy Mc- outside a Jacksonville, 14 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

NEWS pear to benefit Democrats, by increasing of Macon have only one of each. “This their expected numbers by six or seven means that, when it comes to setting in the House and one in the Senate,” state policy, urban and suburban legislators will outnumber Weiss said. “However, those from rural areas. a deeper look indicates That said, rural issues that certain districts, parand rural development ticularly in the northern remain critical issues to Atlanta suburbs, were legislators, and many of ceded in order to shore the leadership positions up the remaining disand critical committee tricts needed to ensure a chairs hail from rural arRepublican majority in eas,” Belinfante said. both houses of the legDemocratic state islature throughout the Rep. Mike Wilensky, the decade.” Weiss, who also lone Jewish member of serves as deputy general Mike Wilensky will seek rethe General Assembly, counsel of the Demoelection to the state House in saw his district’s borders cratic Party of Georgia, a slightly redrawn district. change slightly and given emphasized that he was not speaking on behalf of the JCRC or a new designation. His current district 79 includes all of Dunwoody, a small the party.

The maps reflect the shift toward piece of Chamblee, Doraville north of Atlanta, said attorney Josh Belinfante, Interstate 285, and the former Chevrolet who served as chief legal advisor to Re- plant in Doraville on the south side of publican Gov. Sonny Perdue and as le- I-285.

Wilensky will run for re-election gal counsel to the state House Judiciary Committee. For example, Fulton County in what will be district 80, which will has several state House and Senate dis- include all of Dunwoody except for two tricts, while some rural counties south southwest precincts, more of Chamblee,

and all of Doraville. “I am running for purchase Israel Bonds, requirements House district 80 and look forward to that companies doing business with being the representative for Dunwoody, Georgia do not engaged in BDS [Boycott, Divestment, and SancDoraville, and a little bit tions] activity, and workof Chamblee,” he told the ing to make sure that AJT. state contracts do not go Those two Dunto persons doing busiwoody precincts have ness with Iran,” Belinbeen added to House disfante said. “I am hopeful trict 52, which includes that redistricting will not a large portion of Sandy erode support for these Springs and Brookhaven, efforts, and candidly, I where Democrat Shea have no reason to believe Roberts is running for rethat the new maps will election. dilute support for these Weiss noted the Josh Belinfante expects kinds of bills.” creation of Democraticthe General Assembly Georgia’s maps no leaning districts in areas to continue supporting legislation favored by many longer require Justice with Jewish populations, in the Jewish community.

Department approval. including Senate district 14, covering northern Sandy Springs In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck and Roswell, and House district 53, down the portion of the Voting Rights which stretches narrowly from Buck- Act that required pre-clearance in states with a history of discrimination against head to downtown Roswell.

Even with the small number of Jews minorities. The Supreme Court further elected in recent years, “The General As- ruled in June 2019 that federal courts sembly has routinely passed legislation cannot intervene in claims of delibersupported by many in the Jewish com- ately partisan redistricting, sometimes munity, including the authorization to referred to as “gerrymandering.” ì

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 15

NEWS

Jewish Political Novice Challenges Marjorie Taylor Greene

By Dave Schechter

Trump received 75 percent of the 14th district vote in defeating Hillary Clinton in Charles Lutin is a 68-year-old politi- 2016 and 73.4 percent in his 2020 loss to cal novice, a self-described “moderate … Joe Biden.

Lutin is a political newcomer — as traditional” Republican, a retired doctor and Air Force flight surgeon, who says his Greene was in 2020 — and like Greene, Jewish identity motivates his campaign he is moving into the 14th from elsewhere against congresswoman Marjorie Taylor in the Atlanta area. Greene moved from Alpharetta to Rome in 2019 to run in the Greene in Georgia’s 14th district.

In an email informing the AJT of his 14th, after initially planning to seek the candidacy, Lutin wrote that Greene has Republican nomination in the 6th district.

Lutin, who plans a December move a “well-deserved reputation as an antisemite” and “Part of my motivation, to to Rome from the Druid Hills area of Atbe frank, is that I am Jewish myself and lanta, said, “I’m making my name and face cannot abide the thought of MTG serving known up there, gradually.”

Lutin grew up in Nashville and was indefinitely and representing our state in a bar mitzvah at Congregation Ohabai such an intolerable fashion.”

Lutin is one of three Republicans — Sholom, known locally as The Temple. along with four Democrats and a Liber- He currently is a member of Temple Sinai tarian — who have filed with the Federal and commander of Jewish War Veterans Election Commission to challenge Greene, Post 112. “I’ve joined a Jewish congregation whose rhetoric and behavior during her wherever I was” during his medical and first year in office have made her a contro- military career, he said.

The Jewish population of the 14th disversial figure.

“She is feared but not respected. Most trict is small, maybe a few hundred, which of the people who voted for her don’t like creates a bit of a quandary for Lutin. In a her,” Lutin said in an interview. “She does recent campaign newsletter, he wrote: “I have her supporters. I would say that the have wrestled with the question of what (if anything) to say support is fairly thin about my religion and fairly ephemduring this cameral.” paign. An early Lutin sees an question that comes opportunity. “I think up in conversation a dose of sanity will with new friends is, appeal to both sides ‘Where do you atof the aisle, to the tend church?’ And traditional RepubI answer: ‘I am a licans as well as the member of Temple independents and Sinai in Atlanta, and left-leaning voters I also attend serin that district,” he Lutin at the Nov. 7 blood drive sponsored vices at Rodeph Shasaid. “A Democrat

by Ahavath Achim Synagogue and lom in Rome.’ And is not going to win Jewish War Vet-erans, Post 112. that seems to satisin that district, but fy. I do not perceive antisemitism in the a Republican opponent can.”

As for his inexperience, “Well, I per- district, although there are without doubt haps see possibilities that professionals, a few ‘Proud Boys’ people here and there you might say, would not see,” Lutin said. in the district. MTG, on the other hand, is “Maybe the possibilities I see are not real a genuine anti-Semite. To speak frankly, it or appear to be real or are extremely dif- is part of my motivation to run. I have a lot of Jewish friends in the Atlanta region now, ficult to accomplish.”

Lutin admires such Republicans as and I have not met one Jew here who can John McCain, Ronald Reagan, and Dwight stomach MTG. Whatever else might be the Eisenhower. Greene, meanwhile, “is stuck biases of the people in the district, antisemto [former President] Donald Trump like itism does not seem to be one of them. So, flypaper,” he said. “I’m not a Trumpist. You I will just be who I am and let the chips fall wherever they may fall.” can call me an anti-Trumpist.”

Lutin, who received his medical The 14th is considered one of the most conservative districts in the country. training at Duke University, worked for Greene was elected in November 2020, 35 years as an emergency room physician winning nearly 75 percent of the vote and, as Lt. Col. Lutin, served in the U.S. Air against a Democrat who withdrew from Force as a flight surgeon from 2007-11. the race three weeks before election day. In addition to postings at Luke Air Force 16 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Charles Lutin is challenging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for the Republican nomination in Georgia’s 14th congressional district.

Base in Arizona and Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, he deployed to Iraq (Air Force Theater Hospital at Balad Air Base) from July 2009 to December 2009 and to Afghanistan (Shindand Air Base) from December 2009 to February 2010.

Candidate Lutin is committed to competing through the primary set for May 24, 2022. “My issue priorities are term limits for congressmen, strong ethics guidelines and enforcement for elected officials, and reorganization of the Veterans Administration, particularly the Veterans Administration health care,” he said.

Asked about issues often invoked to rally the GOP base, he said, “There’s enough Republicans running on those, quote, cultural issues and I want to stake my territory else-where.”

Lutin estimated that he will need $2 million to $3 million to run an effective campaign. “I absolutely am going to have to raise well over 90 percent of it,” he said.

“I’m a realist and if the campaign is going nowhere, I’m not going to continue to throw bad money after good. But I think this is an important enough story and will arouse interest around the country.”

As of Sept. 30, Greene reported $3.25 million cash on hand, three times more than any announced challenger.

Lutin’s children — a daughter who lives in North Carolina and a son who attends Georgia Tech — “think their dad has gone off on a tangent,” he chuckled.

Examples of Lutin’s less-than-absolutist positions can be found on his campaign website: On the 2nd Amendment: “The right to bear arms is crucial in a free society, but that right is not unlimited. No one is proposing to take guns away from citizens, but weapons of war are not properly used

by private citizens.”

On education: “I am not in favor of free tuition at colleges, but I do favor a graduation bonus to graduates of accredited institutions, to be applied to reduction of Federal loan balances as applicable.”

On immigration: “No country is secure without security at its borders. At the same time, we need immigrant labor, and we must take a humane approach to adults who crossed the border as children with their parents. I favor securing the border, and comprehensive Immigration Reform to allow applicants for asylum to be fully evaluated and admitted in reasonable circumstances.”

In an interview, Lutin discussed topics related to his professional experience: Health care: The U.S. system “is very expensive and it’s very fragmented,” with per-person costs double those in comparable countries. “I think there is a solution but it would be extremely difficult politically to get it enacted. I think there needs to be a public option for everybody; not a single-payer, but a public option.” The problem with the Affordable Care Act is that “it depends on the insurance companies to administer that model of care.”

Afghanistan: “I think we certainly had to go into Afghanistan to get rid of Al Qaeda and to push the Taliban out of power, but we went in with the wrong concept. The winning concept and strategy was to mount a punitive expedition to whack the Taliban and corner Al Qaeda and then get out. We should have been in and out of there in about six months.”

Iraq: “We never should have been there. We never should have gone into Iraq. We got stuck there because of a lie and we stayed there because we couldn’t figure out how to let go of the tar baby.” ì

NEWS

Arbery Exclusive: Defense Attorney Shares His Experience

Defense attorney Jason Sheffield calls a witness during the trial of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, at the Glynn County Courthouse on Nov. 18 in Brunswick, Ga.// Photo Sean Rayford/AP

By Marcia Caller Jaffe Defense attorney Jason Sheffield, 48, is back home in Atlanta after a six-week stay in Brunswick, Ga., where the highly publicized trial of three white men accused of murdering a 25-year-old Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, on Feb. 23, 2020, took place. “My job is now done,” Sheffield told the AJT. “I was prohibited by the court to reveal many things like the victim’s mental illness, which led to this tragic end result … why it was necessary to restrain him. The case was won with one word: ‘jogger.’ Also, nationally the atmosphere prevented the court from seeing the facts fairly. Don’t get me wrong, I am not unprofessionally angry. I do think this case adds levels of wisdom to the trial system about how national sentiment has an impact.” Both Travis — Sheffield’s client — and Gregory McMichael were found guilty of felony murder. (Local attorney Bob Rubin was also part of the defense team.) Prosecutors intend to seek life in prison without parole for all three defendants.

Jaffe: You have 11 white jurors, why did you feel the outcome was so racially slanted?

Sheffield: Jurors up front stated that they could overcome the “spin” conversation in the media, etc. In the end they could not. Most of the potential Black jury candidates came in with the racist

mentality that the defendant was guilty and deserved the death penalty.

Jaffe: Why the word “jogger”?

Sheffield: That word in itself [suggests] a sport for leisurely exercising.

There was no evidence of that. “Jogger” was word one implying the pursuit of leisure and enjoyment, which was not the case; word two was ‘black,’ and word three was ‘white.’ What no one heard was the diagnosed state of the victim’s mental illness and the help on that front that he was not getting. Ultimately why he needed to be restrained.

Jaffe: Contrast this judge versus the recent one on the Kyle Rittenhouse case.

Sheffield: The latter allowed the use of the victim’s criminal history and mental illness. Also, granted it should have been said better, the request for not allowing the famous outside “Black ministers” in the courtroom should have been upheld. In other cases, spectators who evoke emotional reaction, even a controversial t-shirt, would not be allowed. Jurors can be swayed by emotion, which is contrary to fairness in the legal process.

Jason Scheffeld defended Travis McMichael, who was seen in court during jury selection.

came to support the fairness of the process and allowing differing opinions.

Others came to defend the perceived attack on the Black community.

Jaffe: Who paid the legal fees for Travis McMichael?

Sheffield: His mother was a nurse and liquidated her retirement fund and that of her husband. There were a handful of community members who contributed maybe a few thousand dollars on that.

Jaffe: Will there be an appeal, and will you handle it?

Sheffield: That is being evaluated.

Not by me. Appeals may be based on judicial error, not being handled well either by the judge or the attorneys. Could be based on error in the effectiveness of counsel which, of course, I would not handle.

Jaffe: Is your family happy to have you home?

Sheffield: My wife, and 14- and 12-year-old [children] are glad for me to be home; but they understand my job and commitment to protect fair justice and proper use of the law. I do not think they expected everyone to be watching me on TV. They have their own thoughts about difficult cases involving law and reason. ì

Happy Chanukah!

Jaffe: That brings up the rally of supporters — some Jewish — who came to protest.

Sheffield: I did interact with Rabbi Rachel Bregman, who was lovely. Some ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 17

NEWS

Lipstadt Takes the Stand

By Dave Schechter In keeping with the protocol for nominees, Deborah Lipstadt has said little publicly about her nomination to be the U.S. envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism while that issue is before the Senate.

Nonetheless, Lipstadt had plenty to say Nov. 3 about anti-Semitism when she testified in a federal trial stemming from the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., during which marchers chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”

The Emory University professor, renowned as a scholar of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, testified on behalf of nine plaintiffs who filed suit, alleging a conspiracy to violate their civil rights by 14 men and 10 groups named as defendants.

The civil trial was held in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, in Charlottesville, before a jury of four women and eight men. [As of Nov. 10, the trial continued.]

About a week before her testimony, Lipstadt posted on Twitter: “Very gratified to be part of this effort for justice and accountability.”

In July 2020, Lipstadt filed a 48-page

18 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

report with the court, in which she said that “the ideology, symbols, and rhetoric that were on display at the Unite the Right rally fit comfortably within a long tradition of antisemitism and share in the tradition that led to the violent murder of millions of Jews in the Holocaust.”

The rally’s ostensible purpose was to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which had been the subject of ongoing demonstrations. That weekend saw a mixed bag of right-wing, white nationalist, and neo-Nazi groups clash with counter-protesters.

On the evening of Aug. 11, 2017, a few hundred marchers — men who appeared to favor khakis, many carrying flaming tiki torches — walked through the University of Virginia campus, chanting “White lives matter,” “You will not replace us,” and “Jews will not replace us.”

In advance of Shabbat services on Aug. 12, members of Congregation Beth Israel removed all but one of its Torahs for safekeeping, while armed men clad in camouflage threateningly stood in front of Charlottesville’s only synagogue.

That afternoon, a car driven by one of

Deborah Lipstadt testified that the rally organizers demonstrated a “great deal of overt anti-Semitism and adulation of the Third Reich.”

the defendants, James Alex Fields Jr., plowed into counter-protesters walking away from the rally site, killing Heather Heyer and injuring numerous others. Fields was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder and other charges.

In advance of Lipstadt’s testimony, the Forward reported: “At times the trial has deteriorated into farce, with many of the defendants representing themselves in court.

Christopher Cantwell, known online as the ‘crying Nazi,’ has held forth at length on ideas only tangentially related to the case.”

When Lipstadt took the stand, an attorney for the plaintiffs asked her to expound on her report. The language used by “Unite the Right” organizers in advance of and during the Charlottesville rally demonstrated a “great deal of overt anti-Semitism and adulation of the Third Reich,” she said.

The communication between defendants constituted “Jew hatred,” Lipstadt said, explaining the term to mean: “You know they’re a Jew and you despise them and you want to do them harm.”

Another topic of Lipstadt’s testimony was the “great replacement theory,” a phrase used by more extremist right-wingers not only in the United States, but also in Europe.

Lipstadt defined the phrase as: “Jews control other nonwhites to destroy society that have been predominately white, European. If you [fear] the nonwhite and believe they are doing bad things, blame the Jews for it. The message is the Jews are at fault.”

Lipstadt was cross examined by Cantwell, one of the defendants. “There’s no such thing as an innocent anti-Semitic joke?” he asked, suggesting that the terms Lipstadt deemed anti-Semitic actually were examples of humor. “If somebody was going to make a joke about the Jewish people, would the Holocaust be an easy target?”

“I find it hard to imagine using a genocide, which killed 6 million people, irrespective of their religion, their identity, their na-

tionality, as a topic of jokes,” Lipstadt replied.

The case is titled Sines v. Kessler.

Sines is Elizabeth Sines, a 2019 graduate of the University of Virginia, who witnessed the march and the car that drove into counter-protesters. In 2018, she told the Virginia Law Weekly that she joined the case as a plaintiff because “I never want anything like this to happen again. No one should have to go through what the residents of Charlottesville have gone through this past year. I joined the lawsuit because black lives matter, because antisemitism is on the rise around the world and cannot be left unchecked, and because white supremacy is a disease. White supremacy will not go away by itself.”

Kessler is Jason Kessler, one of the “Unite the Right” rally organizers, a University of Virginia graduate with a history of white nationalist activity. Also on trial is another University of Virginia alum, neoNazi Richard B. Spencer. The defendants’ attorneys have argued that any violence was the result of self-defense.

A year after the Charlottesville rally, Geoff Schmelkin, who then was chair of Congregation Beth Israel’s security committee [and is the author’s nephew] told the AJT: “Some of the images that stick with me are frightening: weapons, fights, people injured, running and crying. Other images are inspiring: interfaith services, volunteer medics, people standing together. As a Jew, one image is particularly emblematic. We left the sanctuary after Saturday morning services and entered the social hall to make Kiddush and hold an oneg. Without the music of our prayers reverberating in the sanctuary, it was quieter, and for the first time I could hear the thumping of the police helicopter overhead. Word spread that Nazis were outside of the synagogue. I looked out the window and saw their armed mob at the edge of our courtyard. It is a chilling image that I hope I never see again.” ì

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 19

NEWS

UGA Student Speaks at ADL Anti-Semitism Summit

By Jan Jaben-Eilon

date and now U.S. Representative Carolyn Bourdeaux from Georgia’s 7th conAmong the well-known speakers gressional district. I had no idea what I featured at ADL’s Never is Now Summit was doing,” said Gates. “First you start on Anti-Semitism and Hate — includ- by handling mailings and answering phones, then I moved ing U.S. Vice President into the communicaKamala Harris, Israeli tions department. I sat Foreign Minister Yair in on strategic calls. I Lapid and the Tree of ended up running the Life Synagogue in Pitts‘Students for Carolyn.’ burgh’s Rabbi Jeffrey It was a fantastic expeMyers — was a lesserrience. I learned about known, yet dynamic, messaging and best freshman student from practices.” the University of GeorGates had sat on gia. an ADL panel in AuKaty Gates, who gust, capturing attenlives in Forsyth County “It’s hard to get school boards to listen to students,” said tion with her story and and is on a pre-law UGA freshman Katy Gates. enthusiasm. On Nov. track at UGA, talked about how she became a “changemaker” 9, during the virtual Never is Now Sumstarting at 15 years old. “I have always mit, she spoke about best practices and been interested in current events,” she how to get young people involved, as well told the AJT, starting with the midterm as how to get adults to be supportive of elections in 2018. She was only 16 when youth initiatives.

As young as she is, Gates has some she attained her first political job.

“I didn’t even interview for the job. experience with this. “I really believe I just ran into then-congressional candi- that without young people, our ideas

Gates founded Students for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in May. The “response I got was overwhelming,” she said

and enthusiasm,” the political environment would be worse than it already is, she said. She launched Students for DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — in May, and is now thinking of extending its reach nationally. The initiative started almost as an accident, using Instagram as a platform. Gates’s public school in Forsyth had a DEI program and a “local group of parents organized to get rid of it. They equated it with critical race theory,” a curriculum that is only taught in upper-level graduate courses, but has now become a political hot potato, with many parents confusing it with teaching the country’s difficult racial history — including slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws in the South.

She founded Students for DEI to raise awareness, and the “response I got was overwhelming. It spread into other counties in the metro area,” she said. The group holds weekly meetings and is in the process of rebranding and restructuring. “We’d like to take it nationwide.”

Group members organize to speak

at local school board meetings. Tellingly, she complains that “it’s hard to get school boards to listen to students.” The Forsyth County school board is in the process of creating a committee to discuss such things as diverse literature requirements. Gates wants the committee to be composed of teachers and students, but “there are not as many students involved” as she would like.

Gates attributes some of her political activism to “growing up around immigrant communities.” She doesn’t claim that her interests derive directly from Judaism. Although her mother is “technically Jewish,” Gates wasn’t brought up in the religion. Only in the past year or so has she been asking her mother questions about her Jewish upbringing. And last year, the family celebrated Chanukah.

But what she has learned of Jewish values has begun to resonate. She points particularly to Judaism’s emphasis on justice and that it’s always okay to question and be curious. ì

Happy Chanukah!

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NEWS

New Book Focuses on Kissinger’s Middle East Diplomacy

By Jan Jaben-Eilon

teous Zionist,” claims Indyk.

The former ambassaHenry A. Kissinger, whose family fled Nazi Germany dor was a special envoy in in 1938 and who later became the first Jewish U.S. Secretary 2014, working with thenof State, is probably best known for forging détente with Secretary of State John Kerthe then-Soviet Union, opening relations with China and ry to broker a deal between helping to end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Israel and the Palestinians.

Martin S. Indyk, who is originally from the U.K. but It was that failure, after who later moved to Australia and eventually became the nine months of negotiation, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, believes Americans — especially that led Indyk to “go back the Jewish community — should understand that it was to where it began and see Kissinger’s dedication to Israel’s survival that led him to what we can learn.” Indyk initiate the idea of a peace process. In doing so, Kissinger had several interviews with Kissinger, as well as a “treahelped bring order to the Middle East.

Indyk’s most recent book, “Master of the Game: Hen- sure trove of documents ry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy,” just and Israeli archives” to aspublished by A.A. Knopf, brings him to Atlanta to speak at sist him in his research.

“It was a fascinating J Street’s annual event at Temple Sinai on Dec. 7.

Photo by Michael Lionstar // “The genius of This is arguably the first book “Kissinger’s Jewishness is the subtext of my book,” In- journey,” said Indyk. “I tried his peace process is that it wasn’t designed about Kissinger that focuses on his dyk told the AJT. “And he did it from an anti-Semitic White to take the reader into the to produce peace, but it was designed to diplomacy in the Middle East.

House. President Nixon had ordered him to stay away rooms where the negoproduce order,” said former ambassador from the Middle East. Instead, Kissinger engaged in obfus- tiations [occurred] between Martin Indyk of Henry Kissinger. cation in his role. That’s why there’s a prevailing mood in these great leaders and the American Jewish community that ‘he pressured Israel.’ learn from that story.”

Indyk acknowledged that people, including himself, the 1970s. Kissinger’s view of peace was that it’s nice to People don’t know what the real story is. Kissinger took steps at critical junctures to ensure Israel’s survival.” By have mocked the idea of a peace process in the Middle have, but dangerous to pursue.”

If one studies history, he said, one can see that pursuing introducing the policy of a peace process, Kissinger “made East. “People have felt that there’s too much process and peace was more likely to lead to war. It’s more important to it possible for Israel to buy time” and to become the stron- not enough peace, but having spent six years delving into create an equilibrium or balance of power, and that’s what gest power in the Middle East. He “should be held as a righ- archives, I now understand what Kissinger was doing in Kissinger tried to do, said Indyk, adding that Kissinger also sought to take Egypt out of the conflict so that the Arab countries would not go to war against Israel. “The genius of his peace process is that it wasn’t designed to produce peace, but it was designed to produce order,” explained Indyk. “Rather than an end of conflict, he negotiated an interim agreement with Egypt. He never intended to go for a final peace agreement, which President Carter did two years later.”

According to Indyk, Israel needed to exchange territory for time, not for peace. “Time would serve Israel better than a peace agreement, and this has worked well,” he said.

The late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin embraced Kissinger’s approach with the Oslo Agreements, which called for Israel to yield territory in three phases without an endgame. “Rabin used to say that there is no sacred timetable.”

In his last interview with Kissinger, Indyk asked the nearly 100-year-old if he had any regrets about not facilitating peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Kissinger didn’t. “He feared that if he pushed too hard, he would break the process, and that’s what we did at Camp David.

We pushed too hard for an end of conflict,” he said, referring to former President Bill Clinton’s attempt to forge an agreement between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in 2000. “The result was the Second Intifada, and it destroyed the edifice of a peace process. It’s not been possible to put it back together again.”

Always the diplomat, Indyk expressed “cautious optimism” about the Middle East.

We are driven by a passion for academic excellence in “I would like the American Jewish community to unGeneral and Judaic Studies, social-emotional growth, Torah values, derstand that Israel needs to pursue peace. I hope they community and a love for Israel and all Jewish people. learn from this book that there’s a way for Israel to achieve Visit Atlanta Jewish Academy at peace with the Palestinians and Arabs, and it’s the Kissinger way. I learned from this Kissinger journey that there’s www.atljewishacademy.org a way to do it and there’s a way not to do it,” he stated. ì

From Our AJA Family To Yours Happy Chanukah! ‫חנוכה שמח‬

22 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 23

NEWS

Breman Jewish Home's 70th Drive-Thru Gala Celebration

By Marcia Caller Jaffe The William Breman Jewish Home Auxiliary planned to host their biannual gala at the Atlanta History Center on Nov. 7. In early October, the organization announced that in a “pandemic shuffle” the Photos by Marcia Jaffe // gala would be reimagThe first stop had hot apple cider and welcoming staff ined as a drive-thru on alongside historic photos. the Howell Mill campus.

Amid several stations adorned with huge swirls of purple and lavender balloons, kosher food enticements, welcoming staff and volunteers kept up the pace. The Home’s history was featured in exhibits created for the event by Kennesaw State University, from its roots in their original building on 14th Street, to growing into their current campus and opening the Jewish Tower, to what is today the Jewish HomeLife — with three campuses and nine different services that support residents through all stages of aging.

During the event, guests tuned their radios to a dedicated FM channel to hear announcements and music from the '50s. The drive consisted of four stops arranged throughout the parking lot. Guests stayed in their cars while staff and volunteers helped them celebrate safely. Jewish HomeLife Chief Development Officer Stephanie Wyatt served as DJ

Drs. Mark and Nancy Canter Weiner were in one of the first cars to come through.

(L to R): Stephanie Wyatt, Jody Goldstein and Candy Berman kept things lively on the FM station.

with help from Candy Berman, first vice board chair, keeping the broadcast lively. Among the first to arrive were Drs. Mark and Nancy Canter Weiner, who exclaimed “Jewish HomeLife holds a special place in our community! That’s why we are here!”

The first stop was outside the Jewish Tower, where hot apple cider and a party with the Tower residents featured live music from the Pace Academy band.

Stop two was the Zaban Tower portico, where visitors grabbed an assortment of sushi and enjoyed a look back at history.

Stop three was a delicious to-go dinner catered by A Kosher Touch, where visitors enjoyed live jazz music from J. Paul Whitehead and his five-piece band. The caterers packed outstanding meals with matzoh balls and chicken

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Active board members (L to R) Fred Halperin, Steve Berman, and Irwin Siegel were avid cheerleaders.

soup, squash soufflé, slaw, and vegetarian options of stuffed acorn squash and vegetable soup. Their sushi station featured a salmon and faux crab roll.

At the fourth stop, guests “toasted the future” with a dessert box full of sparkling kosher wine, orange juice, a champagne flute and a “future-gram” newspaper imagining what life might look like at the Home’s 100th Anniversary in 2051.

Guests also had the opportunity to vote for their favorite resident art project, displayed outdoors on easels. The winner will be featured in the Home’s History Hall to commemorate the 70th anniversary. Auxiliary Manager Cindy Cassano said, “This was especially meaningful as we employed a geriatric art therapist from Georgia State University to help residents bring out their creativity into Jewish themes.”

Co-President Jodi Goldstein said, “I’m so proud of the Auxiliary, especially in the last The Home’s history was year. We have raised documented on display boards. over $100,000 with pandemic-friendly fundraisers. We so look forward to meeting in person and to getting back to including residents in our events. Today’s pandemic pivot event is incredible, and I’m so happy we were able to celebrate all of the many wonderful donors to Jewish HomeLife.”

JHL President and CEO Harley Tabak echoed the sentiment: “The last 70 years have given us plenty of reasons to celebrate. It’s particularly joyous that we are celebrating this milestone immediately following the most challenging year in our existence. The senior care industry has significantly progressed since we opened our doors 70 years ago, and we are proud to have cared for so many generations and for so many more to come. L’dor v’dor.”

Board member Fred Halperin concluded, “They do a great job when it comes down to caring for this segment of our community and whatever situation that comes down the pipeline for us to lend a hand.”

Current projects include Mitzvah Mondays (a social media campaign featuring photos of mitzvah projects submitted by families, mitzvah candidates, and groups of all kinds) and the Commemorative Brick Campaign (personalized bricks, now placed in the Home’s outdoor courtyard, to commemorate the 70th Anniversary). ì

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NEWS

Blank Pledges $10 Million to Help Grow Democracy

By Bob Bahr The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has announced a new round of grants totaling $10 million to a dozen groups that promote civic engagement and voting rights. All of the groups have a focus that includes the metropolitan Atlanta area, Georgia or the Southeast.

“We believe the right to vote is sacred and must be protected,” Arthur Blank said in a prepared statement. “Our democracy is made stronger when we hear from all Americans on the issues of our day, whether they be national or local. This must happen more often than the presidential election cycle.”

Over half of the funds went to three organizations: the Now Georgia Project, which promotes voter registration of people of color in Georgia; the Pro Georgia organization, which works to help make government more effective in Georgia; and the Black Voters Matter Institute.

The grants are among the first to bear the stamp of the Blank Foundation’s new president, Fay Twersky, who took over in February. Twersky came to Atlanta from the

Fay Twersky, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, is the new president of Arthur M. Blank’s Family Foundation.

Last year, Blank’s foundations and his professional sports teams gave away $277 million.

Hewlett Foundation in California — a major player in the philanthropic world — where she oversaw the foundation’s grant-making program and developed strategies for evaluating its effectiveness.

Twersky has indicated that part of her new approach will be to draw more foundation money to the South, an area of the country, it’s often said, that doesn’t get much national philanthropic attention.

Part of that strategy was evident in the $17 million the Foundation awarded the Na-

“I would say that Arthur [Blank] thinks tional Center for Civil and Human Rights in order to jumpstart a national fundraising that no hate is acceptable. You know, there campaign to transform what has largely are no forms of hatred and discrimination that are acceptable or should be acceptable been an attraction for visitors to Atlanta.

Jill Savitt, the president and CEO of to us as a society. We’ve made grants to supthe Center, is also a relative newcomer to port the ADL locally and nationally. And of course, we are comAtlanta. She shares mitted to all forms of Blank’s commitment diversity, equity and to bringing more inclusion, both in philanthropic dolour in our own busilars to the region. nesses and in the “The Blank grant-making that Foundation has said The $10 million dollar gift from we do.” to us, ‘we believe in the Blank Foundation will benefit Twersky, who you, and you have a dozen organizations that work to grew up in an obthis beautiful gem promote democracy in the South. servant Orthodox of a center, and it should be a focus of the nation.’ And so there home, indicated that much of her upbringare a bunch of investments the Blank Foun- ing was shaped by Judaism’s commitment dation has made in us to achieve this vision to tikkun olam, repairing the world. She and also challenged others to do so, as well.” called it an explicit value that dominates This is the kind of work Twersky will much of her thinking and of the family be continuing as she develops strategies foundation she heads.

“The values that Arthur holds, and his to gauge the impact of the $10 million the Blank Foundation is spending on these rela- family as well, are values that I share, and many of them are Jewish values. It’s an extively short-term grants.

“We’re going to learn a lot during the plicit value of Arthur’s and the family’s, and course of the next two years, and we’ll be I share it deeply. In my life it matters hugely.”

Last year, Blank and his businesses — developing a strategy for our whole Democracy Program over that time, too,” Twersky which include the Atlanta Falcons football team and Atlanta United soccer — gave said.

In a conversation with the AJT last $277 million to various causes, including a month, Twersky indicated that, in addition $200 million commitment to the new hosto the democracy grants, the Foundation pital that Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is will continue to give in those areas where building on North Druid Hills Road.

It was another indication that the it has had a significant impact in the past.

The Foundation was particularly interested, 79-year-old co-founder of Home Depot, who she said, in environmental programs and has amassed a fortune of over $7 billion, will climate change, in helping young people be accelerating the pace of his giving as he increase their economic opportunities and ages. In that sense, Twersky believes that the economic mobility, and in efforts to help $10 million she has helped to allocate is just develop Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods a down payment on much more to come.

“Arthur has signed a giving pledge, around Blank’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

But Twersky also said that the Founda- and he has pledged to give away the mation is mindful of its interest in issues that jority of his wealth during his lifetime. affect the Jewish community and of the ris- We expect to significantly ramp up the ing tide of anti-Semitism and the impact of giving from the foundation over the next decade.” ì hate speech in America.

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ISRAEL PRIDE

NEWS FROM OUR JEWISH HOME

Avraham J. Twerski Learning Center Opens in Israel

A new project in memory of Rabbi Dr. Avraham J. Twerski, zt”l, has been launched in Beit Shemesh, Israel. The Twerski Learning Center will be a global hub for lectures, shiurim, classes, workshops and educational materials on the subject of personal and spiritual growth. A website has been created, https://twerskicenter.org, with a library of video, audio and written materials.

Registrants can sign-up to receive a weekly thought from Rabbi Twerski’s teachings and/ or to register for a lecture.

In the span of his decades-long career, Twerski became renowned as a respected

Today in Israeli History From Yosef Olef’s “The Shattered Crown,” Biblical Archaeology Review, September/ October 2008 The Great Synagogue of Aleppo is in ruins after a mob broke in Nov. 30, 1947.

Nov. 30, 1947: The U.N. partition vote the previous day not only sparks violence between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, but also leads to riots against Jews in such cities as Aleppo, Damascus, Cairo, Beirut and Aden.

Dec. 1, 1973: Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, dies at the Tel HaShomerSheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv at 87 a few weeks after suffering a stroke. He is buried at Sde Boker beside his wife, Paula.

and beloved figure, who revolutionized the Torah world in its approach to many aspects of mental health, including self-esteem, personal growth, and spirituality. Today, the rabbi's pioneering life’s work and teachings are more relevant than ever.

After two lectures on October 13 and November 7, the AJT Learning Center’s subscriber base has grown to 680 with registrants from four continents.

When Michael Levin, from Pennsylvania, arrived in Israel to serve as a lone solider in 2002, he slept on a park bench for two nights because he didn’t know where to go and didn’t speak any Hebrew. This “lonely” feeling convinced Levin that when he was discharged from the army, he would create a place that supports lone service members.

Levin was killed fighting in Lebanon in 2006, but his dream to provide support for lone

soldiers lives on through the Michael Levin Base.

“The Base” is located in Jerusalem, adjacent to Shuk Machaneh Yehuda. Established by volunteers and professionals with vast experience working with the lone soldier community, the Base offers a variety of programs and services for lone soldiers from abroad, soldiers of new olim families, Israeli lone soldiers and lone b’not shierut. In its first year of operation, this vibrant nonprofit organization made a compelling difference to nearly 600 young men and women who serve the State of Israel. Many participants describe it as a “welcoming home away from home.”

In November, Kathy Poodiack and Norman Blaustein donated a Sefer Torah to the

Dec. 4, 2004: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismisses five members of Tommy Lapid’s Shinui from the Cabinet because of the secular party’s opposition to a budget that Lapid says underfunds basic needs to boost Haredi education.

Dec. 8, 1885: Joseph Sprinzak, the first speaker of the Knesset and two-time interim president, is born in Moscow. He helps establish many institutions that form the state’s foundation, such as the Histadrut labor federation.

Dec. 5, 1949: Prime Minister David BenGurion declares in a Knesset speech that “Jewish Jerusalem is an organic, inseparable part of the state of Israel” and that Israel will not give up sovereignty over its “eternal capital.”

Dec. 9, 1987: Riots erupt in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in response to a fatal army truck crash the previous day, marking the start of the First Intifada. The violence kills 900 Palestinians and 100 Israelis by the end of 1991.

The Michael Levin Base

Leo Motzkin received this card as a participant in the First Zionist Congress in 1897.

Knesset Speaker Joseph Sprinzak swears in Yitzhak Ben-Zvi as president on Dec. 10, 1952.

Base in honor of their late spouses. Kathy made aliya from Atlanta and Norman from Lawrence, N.Y. “My son was a lone soldier before we made aliyah and we were always really grateful for the people that helped him when we couldn’t be there,” Poodiack said.

“I love everything that The Base does, and I am very proud to be a part of it. We wanted to make sure that the lone soldiers and lone b’not sheirut would always have a place to daven and not feel lost when they got off base for the chagim or shabbats.”

The Base relies solely on donations to keep Michael Levin’s dream alive. To learn more on how you can help make an impact and donate, visit: themichaellevinbase.org.il.

A 1950 poster declares that an immigrant worker’s place is in the Histadrut.

Dec. 12, 1920: The General Federation of Jewish Labor, known as the Histadrut, is founded in Haifa to serve as an independent trade union for Jewish workers in Palestine.

David Ben-Gurion is elected secretary-general in 1921.

Dec. 13, 1961: After the reading of a 100,000-word guilty verdict for Adolf Eichmann, prosecutor Gideon Hausner requests a death sentence for the Nazi. Eichmann is hanged May 31, 1962, Israel’s only use of capital punishment.

Dec. 2, 2010: Israel’s deadliest forest fire, which kills 44 people, begins in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa when a teen discards charcoal from a water pipe outside the village of Usfiyye. The fire consumes 5 million trees.

Dec. 6, 1867: Leo Motzkin, the chairman of the Zionist Executive from 1925 to 1933, is born in Ukraine. He is drawn to Zionism after witnessing the 1881 pogrom in Kiev. He attends the First Zionist Congress in 1897.

Dec. 10, 1952: Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, 68, is inaugurated as Israel’s second president after 30 days of mourning for his predecessor, Chaim Weizmann. Ben-Zvi serves three terms until his death in office in April 1963.

Dec. 14, 1858: The Ottoman Empire enacts the Tapu Law, which introduces title deed registration to its Arab provinces, including Palestine. The law concentrates ownership among Arab nobles, including many absentee landlords.

Dec. 3, 1995: Matityahu Shmulevitz, a Lehi member in the 1940s and the directorgeneral of the Prime Minister’s Office under Menachem Begin in the late 1970s, dies at 75 a day after collapsing during a chess game.

Dec. 7, 1921: Twenty-two women graduate from the Nurses’ Training Institute at Rothschild Hospital in Jerusalem, making them the first to receive nursing degrees in the Land of Israel. Hadassah opened the institute in 1918.

Dec. 11, 1948: The U.N. General Assembly passes Resolution 194 on “the situation in Palestine,” calling for refugees to be permitted to return home as soon as possible. Palestinians interpret that as an unlimited “right of return.”

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

28 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

ISRAEL NEWS Latest Israeli Travel Ban Frustrates Atlanta Travelers

By Jan Jaben-Eilon After only four weeks of being open to tourism, Israel has prohibited tourists again as the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, was confirmed in a handful of cases.

As with other restrictions imposed during the nearly two-year pandemic, the Israeli Jerusalem on November 24, 2021 // Photo by Olivier Fitoussi Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (left) opens a government enacted meeting of the coronavirus cabinet on November the latest constraints 17, 2021 // Photo Credit Kobi Gideon practically from one moment to another. On Nov. 27, the CO- the midnight closing. If entry was de- those traveling to Israel for b’nai mitzvot Israel, that person is required to quaranVID task force met and decided, after nied, they would have been immediately and weddings for first-degree relatives. tine.

Shabbat ended in Israel and the new deported. In anguish, the Adlers decided While these new travel constraints Atlantan Cheri Levitan, CEO of rules went into effect at are angering both non-resinot to take the chance and Israel-based Kenes Tours, midnight the next day, local dents and residents of Israel, stayed home. They later reported that she had some time. the government has decided learned that passengers on small groups of individual Atlantans like David that the Miss Universe beautheir planned flight were al- travelers who had booked and Eve Adler were caught ty pageant scheduled for reservations “after things lowed into the country. in a lurch. It was still ShabDec. 12 in Eilat would go on Those passengers, how- opened on Nov. 1,” and now bat in Atlanta. The Adlers as planned. During previous ever, were required — un- had to change their plans. had reservations to fly travel bans over the past two der the new restrictions — “We have a Hillel group to New York and then on years, a few international to quarantine for three days that was to leave the States to Israel for nearly three sporting events also went on and await a second negative on Dec. 26,” Levitan said. months. They were excited as scheduled.

COVID test in Israel, not It’s still unknown if that to go visit their son, daughThe latest travel limitacounting the test they had trip will go through. ter-in-law and three grandtions have perhaps heightBut it’s not only tourhad in Atlanta just days beCheri Levitan, CEO “We didn’t know if we children, especially because ened frustrations even more ists who are impacted by fore their planned flights. of Israel-based Kenes were coming or going,” they would be spending because the gates to Israel The Adlers are among the new restrictions. IsTours, said, “We are said Eve Adler. navigating our way Chanukah with them. only opened to tourists after hundreds of tourists who raelis returning to Israel through a pandemic.”

“I was suspicious on have first-degree relatives from abroad are required to quarantine more than a year’s hiatus.

Friday when I heard that people from in Israel and are extraordinarily frus- for three days, regardless of vaccination “I told everyone from day one that, Africa would not be allowed into Israel,” trated with the constantly changing limi- status. If they are arriving from “red” even with travel restarting [Nov. 1], we said Eve Adler. “I remember saying, ‘I tations on their visits there. Facebook countries, a more extensive quarantine must proceed with cautious optimism,” hope they don’t close the airport.’” The and other social media sites were red-hot is required. In addition, if a non-traveling said Levitan. “We are still navigating our new variant was first discovered in South with complaints and yearnings, on both Israeli is accidentally exposed to some- way through a pandemic. This is the ‘new Africa and several countries — including sides of the Atlantic. Young Americans one with the Omicron variant within normal.’” ì Israel and the U.S. — immediately im- who had immigrated to Israel were upset posed flight restrictions for people com- that their families couldn’t join them for ing from many African countries. weddings, births, burials and Chanukah.

As soon as Shabbat ended, the Adlers Some expressed feelings of disillusionwere happy to get their negative COVID ment that Israel didn’t seem to care about test results electronically, but then the its immigrants, while others wondered if news started filtering in that Israel would making aliyah was worth it. not allow tourists to arrive for the next On the other hand, like many others, two weeks. Consulting with their New the Adlers wondered if they should apply York-based travel agent, as well as with for Israeli citizenship just so they would Israelis who assist immigrants and their be allowed to travel to and from the counfamilies, the Adlers were forced to make try during pandemics. a decision about their trip based on conMeanwhile, Yad L’Olim, an organitradictory advice. zation that was launched by former Is“We didn’t know if we were coming raeli legislator Dov Lipman to assist imor going,” Adler told the AJT. migrants with family reunions, posted a They could choose to board their message that said the Israeli government flights and take the chance that Israel was planning on reconsidering its latest would allow an entry that was scheduled travel restrictions this week. The posting for late afternoon on Monday — after stated that exceptions would be made for ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 29

SPORTS Astros’ Jewish Stars Are Garrett Stubbs and Alex Bregman Garrett Stubbs couldn’t help but chuckle.

It was the late afternoon of Oct. 30 — mere hours before Game 4 of the World David Ostrowsky Series — and the Houston Astros’ third-string catcher had just been called into manager Dusty Baker’s office. Stubbs knew why he was meeting with his veteran skipper: since the morning, rumors had been floating around that he was getting promoted from the team’s taxi squad while catcher Jason Castro was reportedly headed to MLB’s joint COVID-19 protocols list.

Stubbs was expecting to be summoned, but he was caught off guard when Baker told him he was batting cleanup. Cleanup? With a lineup featuring the likes of Yordan Alvarez, Carlos Correa, and Alex Bregman? Whether Baker was trying to lighten the mood or just give his young

catcher a hard time, Stubbs, a .176 hitter in 18 games this season, couldn’t take him very seriously.

Speaking on the phone from his offseason home in Arizona, Stubbs recalls the conversation went as follows: “He [Baker] said, ‘What’s so funny?’

And I just said, ‘Well, I’ve got to assume I’m probably not batting fourth tonight.’

And he said, ‘Well, you’re not batting fourth, but you’re on the World Series roster for the game tonight so be ready to get in there for any situation.’”

For the Jewish community, this turned into quite the unique situation.

In what was already only the second World Series ever to feature three Jewish players on the active rosters (the other being the 1959 Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox), Stubbs’s ascension to Houston’s game day roster gave us the first-ever four-Jew Fall Classic.

“When I was activated, my mom actually after the game [Game 4] said, ‘You just made it the most Jewish World Series of all time, being on the roster,’”

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A consummate teammate and professional, Garrett Stubbs was called on to serve as a defensive replacement in the final inning of Game 6 — a historic moment for the Jewish sporting community.

says Stubbs, hours before he was recently traded by Houston to the Philadelphia Phillies.

While Stubbs’ reputation is that of a defensive-first catcher who flashes above-average speed for his position, the three other Jewish participants in the 2021 Series — Atlanta’s Max Fried and Joc Pederson and Houston’s Alex Bregman — are prominent players. Bregman, in particular, is one of the game’s bright young stars, and finished runnerup for AL MVP in 2019, before injuries derailed his production over the past couple years. Houston’s starting third baseman may very well be the most recognizable Jewish athlete around.

When he has enjoyed stints on Houston’s big-league roster over the past few seasons, Stubbs, at least to some extent, has bonded with his All-Star teammate over their shared background.

“We have brought it up before, not something that we talk about on a daily basis,” says Stubbs. “But we have talked about the fact that we are both Jewish players playing on the same team.”

Bregman had a very quiet World

Series, going 2-21, with virtually his lone highlight being an RBI double in the second inning of Game 5. (While it wasn’t a highlight per se, in the bottom of the second inning of Game Six, Bregman was involved in an all-Jewish play when he popped a pitch off Fried into right field, where Pederson made the catch.)

While Bregman started at the hot corner every game, Stubbs had to wait until the very end of the six-game series before seeing the field. It wasn’t until the ninth inning of Game 6, just after starting catcher Martin Maldonado was pinch-hit for, that Stubbs was inserted as a defensive replacement, his team down 7-0 and needing a miracle to force a Game 7.

“That [defensive replacement] was kind of my role throughout the year a lot of the times, usually in closer games,” acknowledges Stubbs who, admittedly did not grow up idolizing any Jewish ballplayers but, coincidentally, has used the bat model sported by former All-Star Shawn Green.

“I was down in the tunnel, getting ready, getting stretched out and trying to

SPORTS prepare for that moment, knowing that I was about to get my first-ever World Series appearance,” he said. “I tried to take in every moment that I could, while knowing that my first priority is getting those three outs.”

The Astros’ battery of Stubbs and Yimi Garcia did retire the side in order, but, of course, Atlanta closer Will Smith slammed the door shut on Houston in the final frame to preserve the club’s 7-0 lead for the title-clinching win.

From a professional standpoint, the final outcome was a letdown. Yet, from a personal standpoint, making a cameo appearance in the World Series in front of his family (they attended the entire World Series) was a blessing, especially after being isolated from everyone for several months last year during the truncated pandemic season.

“During 2020, it was really hard.

I didn’t get to see any of them for four months,” says Stubbs. “Basically, I left for summer camp and from then on, between summer camp, the two months of season, and then the one month of playoffs, I didn’t get to share any of those experiences with any family or friends.

“For me, my whole baseball career

While he had an uneventful World Series, Alex Bregman is poised to become a perennial All-Star and one of the all-time great Jewish ballplayers.

is about the people that I spend it with.

As I was walking off the field, the score was lopsided, so I wasn’t about to point into the stands, but I knew where my

family was sitting and I did get to look up at them.

“You work your whole life to get to the big leagues and then to be able to

have an experience in the World Series is something that I will hold on to forever. I will always remember being able to share that with my family.” ì

Wishing you a Happy Hanukkah The miracle of Hanukkah this year is the light you share with others.

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OPINION Invisible Ink: A Ritchie Boy Speaks After reading the recently published article, “Physician Uncovers True Story of Dad’s Heroism,” I would like to offer my commentary as a surviving member of this unique military outfit, nicknamed “the Ritchie Boys.”

As you know, earlier this year, 60 Minutes aired a Dr. Guy Stern segment featuring this littleknown group of soldiers, including several German-born, Jewish immigrants and their efforts to supply military intelligence during the Second World War. The airing of this episode opened a Pandora’s box of sorts, especially for me, as the media brought to light the contributions of the Ritchie Boys during the war, estimated at over 60% of usable intelligence.

My story is not unlike others. I was born in 1922 in Hildesheim, northern Germany. In 1937, I escaped Germany with the help of an uncle living in St. Louis, Mo. We had hoped that all of my family would be able to immigrate to the United States through my help.

Sadly, the bureaucratic handling of my case by an officious lawyer thwarted my family’s passage out of Nazi Germany: They all became victims of the Holocaust. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, I was convinced that I should enlist in naval intelligence, however, I was de-

Professor Guy Stern stand with his arm resting on another Ritchie Boy.

Professor Guy Stern author of Invisible Ink. stands next to Martha Jo Katz, Atlanta’s premier Event Site Selection Consultant

nied because I was not an American-born citizen. In less than one year, I was drafted into the United States Army — in 1943 — and naturalized. Because of my language skills and knowledge of German culture, I was selected to be part of the top-secret program, now known as the Ritchie Boys.

I took part in the planning of the Normandy invasion and landed on Omaha D+3. It was my occupation during the war to interrogate German prisoners of war.

I interviewed many captured Germans and elicited from them information that would later be used by various headquarters of the American armed forces. Towards the end of the war, I interrogated a Nazi war criminal, a physician, who was in charge of the “euthanasia programs.” I witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust just days after the liberation of Buchenwald. Occasionally, I was able to utilize my formative experiences as a Ritchie Boy in my university lectures during my post-war career as a Columbia Ph.D., and professor of German and Comparative Literature at various American and German universities. The full story of my journey is detailed in my recently published autobiography, “Invisible Ink” (Wayne State University Press), with a forthcoming German translation by the German writer Susanna Piontek (my wife) to be released mid-January.

After the conclusion of the Second World War, I, like other Ritchie Boys for the most part, kept quiet in deference to the Army recommendation of maintaining silence. We didn’t boast of our efforts. It is not surprising, therefore, that there are many stories of families that did not know the significance of what their loved ones did as Ritchie Boys. Dr. Joseph’s story of finding that his father was part of this select group is not unfamiliar to me. I have received numerous emails and letters in recent years — especially since the airing of the 60 Minutes episode — of people who knew, and others of whom did not know, that their family members were Ritchie Boys. Due to the classified nature of our work during and after the war, we Ritchie Boys were asked to observe silence about our contributions. Now our story is being told; we are no longer relegated to the hidden pages of history. As an example, as recently as 2017, I received recognition in being awarded the title Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (French Legion of Honor). It took 72 years for the French government to recognize my — and in a way, OUR — efforts during the war.

I very much enjoyed reading Dr. Joseph’s story; it is a narrative I have heard many times. It is a story that makes me quite proud, to have been part of this select group of intelligence, not for the recent fame we have received, but because we did our part to help make the world safe for democracy. ì

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OPINION

Tackling Climate Change from Tetons to Temple Sinai My son, Charlie, and I were roped up at 12,400 feet on the Grand Teton when the first bolt of lightning struck. It was 4:00 a.m., and we’d been Josh Marks making steady progress through the rainy darkness on our way to the summit. When the thunder came, I thought, “this can’t be happening,” and tried to will the approaching storm away. Two more bolts lit up the night in quick succession. When I heard, “it’s time to pull the plug” over our guide’s radio, the disappointment was crushing. We had worked so hard to get to this point — 9 months of training in Georgia and Wyoming, and a 7-mile hike with 6,000 feet of elevation gain in one day — and to think we would fall just short was excruciating. I knew it was the right decision; two people had been killed by lightning here several years before. But as we started descending, I felt like there had to be another reason why nature blocked our way.

Standing at nearly 14,000 feet, the jagged, glacier-clad “Grand” is one of the world’s most iconic peaks. I had first laid eyes on it back in 1986, when I had done a summer outdoor adventure course in the Tetons. It was incredible: a burst of rock piercing the sky from the Jackson Hole valley along with several similar peaks on both sides, surreal to the point of looking like a painting. But it was very real, and from that point forward, I always wanted to climb it.

Fast-forward to 2018. My son, Charlie, did a similar outdoor adventure program in the Tetons. When I picked him up in Jackson Hole, we drove together to one of the famous overlooks, admired the peak together, and talked about maybe one day climbing it together. Then, last fall, Charlie said to me, “Dad, we need to climb it.” I said, “Climb what?” “The Grand,” he said. “What do you think?” It took me a split second to say, “I’m in. Let’s do it!”

We started training immediately, which required building physical and mental endurance. There aren’t any “14ers” in Georgia, but every Saturday we set out to hike Kennesaw Mountain, the closest thing we have to a “peak” in Atlanta. We hiked six miles up and down through Georgia’s humid air. Being 17 and a full-time rock climber, tackling Kennesaw was like walking around the block for Charlie; for me, it was exhausting when I started. To his great credit, Charlie was patient, and with every trip my lungs and legs got a little stronger.

But Charlie didn’t want us to just have

Charlie and Josh during the Yom Kippur presentation at Temple Sinai.

Josh and Charlie in front of the Teton Range at one of the Jackson Hole overlooks.

a cool father-son adventure. He was determined to have the climb serve a higher purpose. For his entire life and for much of my own, I’ve been railing about the damage that humans are doing to the air, water, land and wildlife on which we depend and that give our lives great meaning, and have made tackling it the focus of my profession as an environmental and sustainability lawyer.

Within the last 15 years, the predominant force behind that damage has been climate change. Over the last two summers, with fires ravaging the western U.S., droughts drying up water supplies, and hurricanes growing in frequency and intensity, climate change has affected everyone, everywhere.

But like his father, Charlie was unable to just sit back and hope someone else did something; he decided he needed to act, and climbing the Grand was the perfect opportunity.

He teamed up with Protect Our Winters (POW), a nonprofit organization that educates and activates the outdoor community to fight climate change. By soliciting family, friends and the rabbis at Temple Sinai where our family belongs, he was able to raise over $10,000 for POW. This made reaching the summit that much more important.

As we continued on down the mountain back to the valley floor, it suddenly dawned on me why we were turned back.

Mother nature, Hashem or both were trying to tell us that we needed to work harder, that the urgency of climate change was so great that we needed to redouble our efforts for the cause. After we got back to Atlanta, I updated Rabbi Ron Segal, the senior rabbi at Temple Sinai, about the adventure. He said he was thinking about doing his Rosh Hashanah sermon on climate change and the special duty that Jews have to tackle it and to be better stewards of the planet, and asked me to help. I was glad to point him in the direction of various topics and resources, and he ended up giving one of the most brilliant sermons I’ve ever heard,

complemented by stirring photos, maps and other illustrations. He then asked me and Charlie to do a presentation the following week, during Yom Kippur, about our climb, Charlie’s fundraiser, the threats caused by climate change and steps our congregation could and should take to do our part to try and tackle the problem. We ended up doing an hour-long slide show for a group of over 200 people that gathered both in person and online.

From both the sermon and the pre-

sentation sprouted the creation of a new Environmental Awareness and Action Committee at Sinai, co-chaired by Charlie and me, where we are taking on three projects: Greening the synagogue; educating our early learning kids; and taking action through a mix of tree planting, stream cleanups and advocacy for climate change legislation. We just had our first committee meeting, where we reviewed the findings of an energy audit of our synagogue and identified a series of steps to make the building more energy-efficient and reduce our carbon footprint.

Meanwhile, this past week in Glasgow, Scotland, world leaders have gathered at the COP26 climate change conference to announce a new series of steps to tackle the issue and keep warming over the balance of this century to a more manageable level.

The urgency and attention to the issue has never been greater, and that gives us hope that maybe we have a chance to limit the damage for our kids and grandkids.

As for Charlie and me, we just signed up to make another run at the Grand next July. And with Hashem’s help and Mother Nature’s cooperation, we will make it this time. ì

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OPINION

Letters to the Editor

Letter to the editor,

The AJT welcomes your letters. If you would like your letter to be published, please write 200 words or less, include your name, phone number and email, and send it to editor@atljewishtimes.com.

Letter to the editor, I spent much of my high school and college years watching Hank Aaron and Phil Niekro from the cheap seats at the old stadium. Recently, my brother sent me a copy of your November 15 issue with Max Fried on the cover as a souvenir of this year’s series.

I saw the Braves come from behind to beat the Mets in a late July game. In the series played in New York they needed to win to have any hope for the division.

In response to one of the letters to the editor in that issue, there was one advocating to change the name of the Brave’s team. I think there’s a very appropriate new one: “The Hammers”.

Charles Steindel, Glen Ridge, New Jersey

Former President Donald Trump was in a radio interview during the first week of November and said, “it’s incredible that I didn’t get the kind of a vote from Jewish people that you would think I would get. Jewish people in this country, many of them, do not like Israel.”

With all due respect to President Trump, his comments insinuating American Jews are to be criticized for a lack of support of his 2020 re-election campaign or for Israel is not only wrong, but it also continues his dangerous pattern of demonization and scapegoating.

American Jews are not a monolithic voting bloc.

Jewish Americans, like Black Americans, Asian Americans, Muslim Americans, Latino Americans and all Americans, have a wide range of thoughts on policies and run the spectrum on political ideology. Any suggestion that American Jews should have been more aligned with President Trump as a result of his domestic and international policies or support of Israel, fails the needed self-reflection to understand why a majority of Jews voted for President Biden.

Time and time again, President Trump has and continues to use his voice as a tool to divide. The “Big Lie” is not only a tool being used right now to divide, but it also serves as a wrecking ball to the values, institutions and norms our country has so proudly protected for nearly 300 years.

Republican leadership needs to encourage President Trump to do more self-reflection to better understand why certain segments of the population, like most Jewish Americans, did not see him as their candidate of choice last year.

My expectation is that an overwhelming majority of Republicans across the nation will continue a practice of indifference, saying and doing nothing to hold the former President accountable for his actions. President Trump will then continue his archaic political scorched Earth tactics that require kowtowing to his will or facing a relentless, divisive and dangerous demonization.

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OPINION

Recognizing the Good Times We stood barefoot at the water’s edge in St. Pete Beach, Fla., watching the setting sun disappear behind a bank of clouds over the Gulf of Dave Schechter Mexico.

From Where I Sit S a n d erlings were scurrying about, flying a short distance, then strutting about the sand near the shoreline in search of food.

A sunny, breezy day was fading into a cool, pleasant evening.

Our middle child, the oldest of our two sons, drives to this beach often, just for the sunset. Soon after his oncologist declared him in remission from a yearlong bout with cancer, he packed his car and relocated to St. Petersburg.

This was our first visit since he made that move. There we were, standing together with that soft sand between our toes. “These are the good times,” he said, looking at us.

Indeed, there was a lot to be thankful for in that moment, standing there with my wife and son; particularly for family and health.

We have experienced a range of family emotions this year.

In late July, a change in our itinerary for Maine led to a quickly planned reunion in Boston with my two brothers and two sisters, and our mother, the first time that she had been with her five children in more than four years.

Not a month later, we were in Rock Island, Ill., for the funeral of my fatherin-law, a homecoming of a sort, to where the family lived when I met my wife.

As for health, there was a point early in the year when three of us in this house were dealing with separate cancer issues. I joked that yellow police tape would be put up outside to warn people away.

The scorecard currently reads: one whose surgery found the threat to be benign, another tolerating periodic examinations and treatment, and the one getting on with his life after enduring months of chemotherapy.

We are thankful for the doctors, nurses, and technicians who performed various procedures and continue to provide care, and for the advances in medicine that made these measures possible.

That’s how science works, the present building on the past to serve the future. For example, the vaccines developed to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus were possible only because of decades of research that came before, and vaccines yet to be created will benefit from the knowledge gained in that effort.

A year ago, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were increasing and the death toll was rising. We ventured out rarely and, for those heeding the warnings, masks were more than a fashion choice. School was conducted online, working from home was a thing, and travel was curtailed because of restrictions in the United States and abroad.

Look where we are now. School doors have reopened, offices are reopening, and the vaccinated feel more at ease about taking that trip, dining indoors, or going to a stadium, a theater, a synagogue.

Personally, I am thankful for writing, my most creative and satisfying — not to mention maddening — undertaking. To use a writing term, I “kill a lot of little darlings” before submitting a column or article, sometimes because I realize those words no longer fit and other times because of length restrictions.

I am thankful for the outlets that publish my work and for those of you who find that work worth sharing with others.

In recent years, I have gained a measure of perspective that would have served me well earlier in my life. But isn’t that always the case?

When the television network and I parted company, putting an end to year after year in which I worked 10, 12, even 14 hours a day in the service of the news, a friend messaged me these words: Just because you are good at something doesn’t mean that it’s good for you.

I was good at what I did but for too long the job was too large a part of my identity. I still commit acts of journalism in exchange for money, but I now describe myself as a freelance journalist and house-husband.

Another piece of that perspective, one that admittedly remains a work in progress, is to be fully present in moments such as those at the beach.

As darkness encroached, we turned our backs to the water and left for our planned evening activity. Our son was correct.

These are the good times. ì

OPINION

Publisher's Note Thankfully, Chanukah and Thanksgiving are not celebrated together very often, but when they are, there is much for which to Michael A. Morris give thanks.

Publisher Like the eight candles of the Hanukkiah, I offer my eight lights of thanks. My first thought is that I am indeed thankful that I am part of the Jewish tribe. Yes, I do think, as Tevye says, “once in a while, can’t You choose someone else!” But deep in my heart, I relish being a part of a tradition that dates back several millennia. I do truly belong to something much bigger than myself.

My second candle sheds light toward Israel. After over a thousand years, I am thankful we live in a time where we can travel to Israel, pray at the Kotel in Jerusalem, be part of our own self-determination in statehood and always know

that I have a home. My grandparents were born at a time when this was not so, and I want to be ever vigilant to recognize my good fortune.

I am particularly grateful that I was born in the United States. This country, this experiment in the combination of democracy, freedom and capitalism is virtually un-comparable to any other known place. What each person, each family, each community is afforded should never be taken for granted. Every country has rich and poor, sick and healthy, educated and not; no matter where you fall, it’s better to fall here than anywhere else.

For my fourth candle, I am thankful for the Atlanta community, which I have the opportunity to serve. I was a transplant, a Yankee, but was heartily accepted by all. Through the decades I got married here, raised a family here, joined many Jewish and non-Jewish organizations here, and ultimately am working to reshape the Southern Israelite/Atlanta Jewish Times for another generation of readers.

I would be remiss if I was not great-

ly appreciative for my partner, Kaylene Ladinsky, and all the staff at the Atlanta Jewish Times. There are about nine of us, along with 20-or-so regular freelance writers, that ensure your paper keeps you connected to the greater Atlanta Jewish community every other week. I promise you this, we do this out of love for this community. I see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices and you can feel it in the paper.

My sixth candle reflects my love, respect and admiration for my parents.

Billi and Bernie Marcus have done amazing things for the world’s Jewish community, Israel, America, Atlanta, and as you know, support the production of the AJT each and every month. Notwithstanding all they do for everyone else, for my parents, I cannot be more thankful for them standing at my side each and every day of my life. I love you.

The greatest joy, happiness (and occasional trauma) in my life, however, comes from my four children. Jacqueline, my first, clearly follows in my footsteps. She is there for her family, friends, community and all the furry

creatures that cross her path. I will always count on you to work with me in all my endeavors. For Alex and her new husband, David, I could not be happier for your new life together. Last week, Marcia Jaffe asked me how I felt about walking my daughter down the aisle toward her chuppah. I will reiterate that I was so filled with joy to see you spread your wings for a new life with your husband, with all the ups and downs, challenges and tribulations, together with your new family. My third daughter Lydia is my jewel and my rock. She is my confidant and trusted advisor.

When my spirits are down, she picks me up. She is the life of the party and the life and spirit of our family. And Hannah, my youngest. Congratulations on your graduation this month from College of Charleston. Your mom and I dropped you off as a child and you have transformed into an awesome young lady. I am proud of what you have accomplished and honored to call you my daughter as well as one of my closest friends.

My eighth candle, I light for myself. ì

Hanukkah HAPPY

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jfcsatl.org ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 37

CHANUKAH The Tangled Traditions of Chanukah and Thanksgiving The coincidence of Chanukah and Thanksgiving this year calls to mind the similarities of the gratitudebased holidays.

Historians and Bob Bahr religious scholars suggest that there are good reasons to link the two.

One interpretation of the origins of the historical eight-day Festival of Lights in 139 BCE is that it owes its origins to the observance of Sukkot. According to the Second Book of Maccabees, a letter sent in 125 BCE from the Hasmoneans to the Jews of Egypt describes “the holiday of Sukkot celebrated in the month of Kislev,” which generally falls in November and December. That is unlike the traditional date of Sukkot, which falls in Tishri in September and October.

Since the Hasmonean guerrilla warriors had not yet conquered Jerusalem

The first Thanksgiving in 1621 may have been inspired by the holiday of Sukkot.

then, they could not properly celebrate the Temple festival.

According to “A Different Light: The Big Book of Chanukah,” Maccabees II describes the holiday this way: “… the sanctuary was purified on the twenty-fifth of Kislev (Chanukah). The joyful celebration lasted for eight days. It was like Sukkot,

for they recalled how only a short time before they had kept the festival while living like animals in the mountains, they observed the joyful celebration, which lasted for eight days. And so they carried lulavim and etrogim and they chanted hymns to God, who had so triumphantly led them to the purification of the Temple.”

Some historians argue that the first Thanksgiving celebration by the Pilgrims who survived the difficult winter of 16089 was influenced by their reading of the bible and its traditions of Sukkot, and that they might have come to this recognition through their contact with the Jews of Holland. Just as many Dutch Jews were

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CHANUKAH

According to the Books of the Maccabees, the first Chanukah was in celebration of Sukkot.

Sefardim, descendants of the persecuted mains secular.

“Thus, it is obvious in my opinion, Jews of Spain, so did the Pilgrims consider themselves the persecuted Protestants of that even in a case where something would be considered a prohibited Gentile England.

They were certainly familiar with custom, if many people do it for reasons the words of Psalm 136, “Give thanks to unrelated to their religion or law, but rathG-d for He is good and His love endures er because it is pleasurable to them, there is no prohibition of imitating Gentile cusforever.”

Nonetheless, the association of tom. So too, it is obvious that if Gentiles Thanksgiving with the Puritans has led were to make a religious law to eat a parscholars like Rabbi Michael Broyde, an ticular item that is good to eat, Jewish Law would not prohibit expert on Jewish eating that item.”

Law at Emory UniIn the original versity, to consider Thanksgiving story, whether it is apthe Pilgrims suppospropriate for Jews edly feasted with 90 to celebrate what Wampanoag Indisome might conans who had helped sider the religious them with their holiday of another crops and taught faith. them how to fish and In Canopy Fosurvive off the land. rum, a publication As Moshe Soof Emory’s Center kolow, a professor of for the Study of Jewish education at Law and Religion, Yeshiva University, he examines the Emory professor Rabbi Michael Broyde has described it, the diverse views of has pointed out that Jewish legal Pilgrims who arrived three prominent opinion on Thanksgiving is divided. on the Mayflower American rabbis.

The first, Rabbi Yitzhak Hutner, who was brought with them a Bible annotated by head of a prominent yeshiva in Brooklyn, Puritan scholar Henry Ainsworth, which argues that the holiday grows out of the in a reading of Psalm 107 speaks of survivChristian calendar and is thus prohibited. ing the threat of catastrophe.

As Sokolow relates, the Puritan The second, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, argued — much as his father before him teacher “essentially copied over an Eng— that it was an American holiday and lish version of Maimonides’s comprehenpart of being a good American, and that sive legal code, the Mishnah Torah, Hilkhot Berakhot, which describes how one is “technical Jewish law permitted it.”

The last set of opinions belong to to give thanks.”

In their prayer service, created imRabbi Moshe Feinstein, who was, “without a doubt the greatest Jewish law scholar in mediately after their arrival on the shores the United States.” Rabbi Feinstein wrote of what would later become the State of four published responsa, or opinions, re- Massachusetts, the Pilgrims anticipated lated to Thanksgiving, which he said was by a full year the initial occasion for our permissible, so long as the celebration re- national holiday. ì

Chanukah at Temple Sinai Friday, December 3 COME TOGETHER TO BE THE LIGHT ON THIS SIXTH CHANUKAH NIGHT!

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CHANUKAH

How Three Jews Made Elvis the King Again

By Bob Bahr When director Baz Luhrmann’s new film, “Elvis,” finally hits the nation’s screens next June, it will mark yet another comeback for the King of Rock and Roll. Starring Tom Hanks as Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and Austin Butler as the legendary singer, the biopic comes 53 years after another comeback, the NBC television special also simply titled, “Elvis.”

The television program, which was first broadcast on Dec. 3, 1968, was thought to be just another holiday special meant to sell Singer sewing machines for the program’s sole sponsor.

But in the hands of the three key members of the show’s creative team, the program became an ambitious attempt to revive the reputation of The King.

For the executive producer, Bob Finkel, director Steve Binder, and music composer and arranger Billy Goldenberg — all of whom were Jewish — creating what came to be called “The Comeback Special” was nothing less than a media resurrection intended to bring the moribund King back to life.

During much of the 1960s, Presley had shunned live performances. He largely devoted himself to a long string of forgettable films with often uninspired soundtracks that produced a quick buck for him and his manager but did little to further his career.

By the time he had finished the 31 films he had turned out during the 1960s, many of his fans had deserted him for

40 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Elvis Presley put a Star of David on his mother’s headstone to honor her Jewish roots.

At the Tupelo, Miss., museum next to Presley’s birthplace, there’s a Chanukah menorah that Presley was said to have admired as a child.

rock and roll groups that had been inspired by the Beatles and Rolling Stones. He hadn’t had a number one single on the charts for six years.

In his initial meeting with Binder, the director frankly told the singer that his career was “in the toilet” and that doing another holiday program like the one his manager was suggesting might be fine for Perry Como or Andy Williams but would do nothing for him.

In an account of how “The Comeback Special” came to

be, published by a small, privately owned publisher in 2010, Binder described how he took Presley out to Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard. As they stood there, to Presley’s astonishment, nothing happened. Cars whizzed by, and a few pedestrians walked past without a word. Binder had made his point to a performer who had largely lost touch with his audience.

From then on, the iconic performer, who had come out of nowhere in the mid-1950s and seemingly transformed popular music overnight, put himself in the hands of his new Jewish collaborators.

It wasn’t the first time Presley had grown close to Jews.

As a teenager, his family had lived in Memphis, on the ground floor of a small apartment building. Upstairs, Rabbi Albert Fruchter and his family also lived in a small apartment.

The young rabbi and his wife had come to the midSouth community to establish the city’s first Jewish day school. The young Presley became the family’s “Shabbos goy,” turning on the lights and the stove for the observant family on Friday nights and Saturdays.

Down on Beale Street, the Memphis entertainment mecca, he became a lifelong customer of the Lansky Brothers. Their menswear shop was also a favorite of the African American entertainers who appeared in Beale Street’s bars and clubs. Three of his high school friends, the so-called Memphis Mafia — George Klein, Marty Lacker and Alan Fortas, a nephew of the Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Abe Fortas — were Jewish.

But what none of these early friends knew was that Presley himself was, at least, technically also Jewish. His maternal great-great grandmother was a Lithuanian Jew named Nancy Burdine, who died in 1887. One of her direct descendants was Elvis’s mother, Gladys Love Smith, who married Vernon Presley in 1935. They named their son Elvis Aron, after Moses’s brother, Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites. El, as he was called by many who later knew him, was also one of the names of G-d in the Jewish scriptures.

When Presley was a youngster, his mother confided to him the family secret, but admonished him to keep it to himself. In Tupelo, Miss., where Elvis was born, there was a deep undercurrent of anti-Semitism at the time. Congressman John Rankin, who represented the town for 30 years

CHANUKAH

Elvis Presley sang “If I Can Dream” to close his 1968 Comeback Special on NBC.

— including the years when Presley was growing up — had a well-known hatred for Jews.

Today, though, in the small museum that adjoins his birthplace in Mississippi, there’s a Chanukah menorah that Presley was said to have admired as a child.

When his mother died in 1958, Elvis marked her grave with a granite tombstone that included a Star of David. Later in life he wore the star in gold around his neck, as well as a golden chai, the Jewish word for life.

Today, the headstone marks Gladys Love Presley’s grave in the Memorial Garden at Graceland, the Presley shrine and his Memphis home. The golden chai is housed in one of the building’s display cases. All of it will be viewed by the thousands who assemble, reverentially, in January, for what would have been the King’s 87th birthday.

But as he was being guided through the preparations for his holiday special, which was actually recorded in the summer of 1968, his thoughts were less on the past than on his future.

Finkel, Binder and Goldenberg, in an effort to give Presley a new image for their show, had dressed the singer in a tight-fitting black leather suit with a black leather wrist cuff. For four hours they recorded a largely impromptu jam session in a casual setting with several of his favorite musicians. As the cameras rolled, Presley largely ad-libbed his way through more than 13 years of hit songs released since he first teamed up with the Colonel.

What the audience, largely made up of adoring young women who surrounded the stage, saw was a musician at the height of his powers — relaxed, charming and in control. The one-hour special was seemingly magical, both in the way it transformed the performer who had almost forgotten how to perform before a live audience and the new image it gave him after years of ups and downs. It was, in the words of Binder, like watching a black panther in his cage.

For the finale, the Colonel had told Binder to come up with a traditional Christmas song and then end the broadcast with a short holiday farewell. But Binder and Presley had other ideas.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Elvis’s hometown in April, just a few months prior. Early in June, as the show was being prepared for the cameras, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed in Los Angeles. The occasion demanded something special.

In the last few minutes of the broadcast, Presley stepped onto a stage with just the oversized letters of his first name spelled out in red behind him. Overnight, Billy Goldenberg and Earl Brown, who was an African American working on the program, had come up with one of the most powerful songs Presley would ever record, “If I Can Dream.” In an impassioned performance, Presley made a plea for understanding and reconciliation.

If I can dream of a better land Where my brothers walk hand in hand Tell me why, oh, why, oh why can’t my dream come true…

We’re lost in a cloud with too much rain We’re trapped in a world that’s trouble and pain But as long as man has the strength to dream He can redeem his soul and fly.

At the age of 33, this entertainer, who had once been cautioned to keep his Jewish roots a secret, had finally come home. In 1968, just ten days prior to Chanukah, and 13 years after he and the Colonel had first cemented their relationship, Elvis Presley delivered a bar mitzvah speech worthy of any synagogue in America. ì [Elvis Presley sings “If I Can Dream” during the 1968 NBC Comeback Special. www.youtube// watch?v=u-pP_dCenJA]

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 41

CHANUKAH

Chanukah Film Festival Tops Entertainment Choices

Disney Plus, the streaming site, is screening the Festival of Lights program from its “Elena of Avalor” series.

By Bob Bahr Jewish film fans will have a second chance to see some of the most popular films featured in this year’s Atlanta Jew-

Amazon Prime Video is broadcasting its Chanukah children’s program, “Special Agent Oso.”

ish Film Festival. Until Dec. 5, Menemsha Films, a leading source for the Jewish film festival circuit, is presenting the selections in its virtual Chanukah Film Festival.

Happy Chanukah Andy N. Siegel CPCU, CIC, AAI Sheldon Berch

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Among the offerings is “Here We a young girl as she bravely traverses Are,” a moving story of a father’s love for the country’s wilderness to save two his autistic adult son and the difficult Jewish children from the Nazis. It won choices that confront him as his son ma- Norway’s award for best children’s film tures, which won this year’s AJFF Jury and garnered Helgeland this year’s AJFF Jury Prize Prize and the aufor best young dience award for filmmaker. the best featureRounding length fictional out the Chanukah film.

Festival offerings The film won are the Italian Israel’s top film film, “A Starry honor, the Ophir, Sky Above the for best direcRoman Ghetto,” tor, as well as which had its East walking off with Coast premiere awards for best at the AJFF this screenplay, best year and “Leona,” actor and best a Mexican film supporting actor. about a love affair (It was also one of The critically acclaimed Israeli film, between a Syrian the Best Bets se“Here We Are,” is one of the offerings Jewish woman lected by Emory’s of this Chanukah Film Festival. and a non-Jewish Matthew Bernman that was chosen for the AJFF Young stein and myself for this year’s AJFF.) The Chanukah Film Festival is also Professionals Night in 2019. Also being screening “Kiss Me Kosher,” which was shown is “The Midnight Orchestra,” shown on opening night at the AJFF and from Morocco, which I reviewed for the had its North American premiere here. 2016 AJFF. There are a total of eight films at The romantic comedy also opened the Chattanooga Jewish Film Festival this the Chanukah Film Festival, one for year and was nominated for the Build- each night of the holiday. Many of them ing Bridges Jury Prize at the AJFF in At- come with programs that feature the lanta. A co-production by filmmakers in directors, screenwriters and stars of the Germany and Israel, the same-sex rom- selected films. Discounted tickets, for as com brings together two families from little as $36, give you access to the films very different cultural backgrounds just for 14 days from the time you first log on. To make such a bargain price posbefore the wedding of their daughters.

For younger audiences there’s Jo- sible, Menemsha has partnered with hanne Helgeland’s film, “The Crossing,” dozens of synagogues and Jewish film a Norwegian production that follows festivals around the country to provide

CHANUKAH discounted tickets. To get the discount, and Lorin Sklamberg of the Grammycopy this link in your browser: https:// award winning group Klezmatics.

For a real taste of the old country, www.chaiflicks.com/checkout/ajff-haJewzy.com, another subscription Jewish nukkah-film-festival-2021/purchase. film site, has several Yiddish film clasOn Chai Flix, the Menemsha sics from the 1930s — streaming platform, the golden age of the which requires a genre. You can find a separate subscripretelling of the story tion, the company of Tevya the Milkhas just premiered man that inspired the “Checkout,” one of Broadway hit “Fidthe most popular prodler on the Roof,” and grams ever aired on “The Golem,” a classic KAN, the Israeli stateJewish tale of the susupported broadcastpernatural. ing channel. It’s a Atlanta’s WABE, comedy series set in a the National Pubgrocery store in a Tel lic Radio affiliate, is Aviv suburb. bringing back AtlanThe National Yidta favorite violinist dish Theatre FolksbiItzhak Perlman, with ene, which has been his Chanukah Radio entertaining audiItzhak Perlman, the famed violinist, is ences for 107 years, featured in a Chanukah music program Party. The program airs Dec. 5 at 4 p.m. is back with “ESN,” a from WABE, the NPR Atlanta affiliate. and features recordvirtual celebration of Jewish food through song and cooking ings Perlman particularly likes, includdemonstrations. It is streaming without ing songs in Yiddish and Ladino. The charge until Dec. 6. at www.watch.nytf. story of the Festival of Lights is also reorg. The program stars Frank London told in Perlman’s own special way.

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the Maccabeats, Six13, the Indigo Girls, and Adam Sandler, among others.

Both Spotify and Amazon Music have free Chanukah playlists that provide well over an hour of uninterrupted music to accompany your latke party or dreidel competition.

For those looking for Chanukah programming aimed at children during the last days of the holiday, there is an abundance of choices, due in part to the growth of streaming on the internet.

The durable Rugrats Chanukah — from season 4, episode 1 of the series — is available on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount Plus.

Amazon also has “Special Agent Oso” and “The Living Holiday Lights,” parts 1 and 2.

Disney Plus has the “The Latke “The Crossing” is a family-friendly film Kerfuffle” and “Nine Lights Tothat won a prize at this year’s AJFF. night” episodes of “Puppy Dog Free music videos are available on Pals,” and the “Festival of Lights” proYouTube from the likes of Matisyahu, gram from “Elena of Avalor.”ì

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CHANUKAH

Eight Things to be Thankful for this Year Since our annual Chanukah issue came so close to the Thanksgiving holiday, we asked community members share eight things that they are thankful for Many spoke about what they learned during the global health crisis, and being thankful for the vaccine. Their experiences, reflections and advice should help set the scene for family discussions about what we are all thankful for this holiday season.

American Jewish Committee 2021 continued to be a challenging year. Nonetheless, we are still grateful for the opportunity to serve the Jewish community.

As we light an additional candle each night of the holiday, we count the opportunities to better our world.

At AJC Atlanta, we are thankful for: ALLIES and PARTNERS in the nonJewish community who stand in solidarity with us and work to educate their communities about our growing challenges; The Jewish COMMUNITY which continues to challenge and inspire us; DIPLOMATS who devote their lives to building bridges across the world; ELECTED OFFICIALS who work tirelessly to advocate for their constituents, in the face of increasing polarization; The State of ISRAEL, which continues to be a shining light unto the nations of the world; Our NEXT GENERATION, who lead from an early age and give us purpose in our work; PLURALISM, the philosophy that promotes diversity of thought and gives everyone in our society a chance to thrive; and SUPPORTERS, who enable us to further our work.

American Jewish Committee’s Atlanta office is comprised of Zach Bernath, Julie Katz, Jennifer Pardee and Dov Wilker.

44 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Arlene Caplan Appelrouth When I think of Chanukah, my thoughts begin as a child in the ’50s, in a predominantly Jewish NYC neighborhood, where it meant dreidels, chocolate gelt, potato latkes with sour cream or apple sauce, and maybe, getting a few dollars.

When I lived in Israel, during 1969 and 1970, Chanukah was joyous. I lived in Rehavia with four Canadian college students. Everyone had a menorah. We lit candles, sang and danced.

When I had my own children, my intention was to learn and communicate the history and meaning of this Jewish holiday. I wanted Chanukah to be celebrated, for my children to appreciate being Jewish, and for all of us to sing songs and play games and have fun on this holiday.

When my children were in a public elementary school in Sandy Springs, my husband and I always volunteered to give a Chanukah party and class to our three childrens’ classes.

Dan would capture the attention of the children with his dramatic retelling of the miracle of the oil. When he spoke of the Maccabees, you could feel the children’s excitement. My role was as the Jewish mother who shlepped my Cuisinart and electric frying pan. I invited the children to help make potato latkes.

We presented Chanukah in a positive light, so what came next was a surprise.

The principal called to say she had received a call from a parent whose child wanted to become Jewish.

That was the end of those Chanukah parties.

Time went on, and my family evolved.

My youngest, David, became enthralled with Jewish history. He was drawn to observant Jewish practice, became a ba’al teshuva, studied in yeshivot in Israel, where he got smicha (rabbinic ordination), and considers himself Haredi. His children attend ultraorthodox schools. They do not have television or go to movies. Chanukah, for them, is a remembrance of a time in Jewish history, with lessons to avoid assimilation, appreciate the miracles God provides and say special prayers expressing gratitude to God. We have the custom of eating things made with oil, namely potato latkes and donuts. We also play dreidel games.

Chanukah provides more opportunity to connect to my grandchildren. It’s meaningful to learn from our history and express gratitude for the present. Chanukah makes it easy to feel proud of being a Jew. Arlene Caplan Appelrouth is a contributor to the Atlanta Jewish Times.

CHANUKAH Shari Bayer “Hello Hello!” sang The Beatles in 1967’s “Hello Goodbye.” This is what I’m most thankful for this year. After a year of so many goodbyes — including my dad, who died of COVID late in 2020 — 2021 began the return to “hello.” Hello to a lifechanging vaccine. Hello to in-person school.

Hello to carefully unmasking, hello to college tours. Hello to a new president.

I’m grateful our community came together to support one another during the darkest days of the pandemic. I am lucky that my job afforded me the opportunity to witness so much generosity from so many people. I’m thankful I work amongst the bravest heroes in healthcare — those who put aside their own fears and said goodbye to their own families each day so they could say hello and I love you to all of our loved ones when families could not be there.

In this season of Light, may we all see the Miracles.

Shari Bayer is the chief marketing and communications officer of Jewish HomeLife.

Rabbi Michael Bernstein The special Chanukah addition to the prayers, “For the Miracles” (Al haNisim), is inserted in the section in which we speak our gratitude several times every day. So, while Chanukah is obviously a time for remembering the miraculous, it is also a time for appreciating the everyday blessings that can be seen as miracles. And eight, as the number that is the foundation of the celebration, is a number that symbolizes taking that perfect divine number 7 (days of creation, Shabbat, the branches of the Temple Menorah) and adding one more to make it our own. So, on Chanukah I look at what human beings have made that are extensions of the miracles provided to us by G*d. I am thankful for my family and the people close to me, for our lives and well-being. For having the ability to be part of the human experience and find meaning in a chaotic world. For the scientific advancements that include the ability to fight the kind of plague that in the past would be even more devastating than the one we face today. I am thankful to be Jewish, part of a history — and a present — that teaches us how to find holiness in what is around us. Thankful to live in a country where our very existence and survival, let alone freedom of thought and expression, are possible in a way different than so many who live under brutality and oppression. I am thankful to live at a time in which Jews live in our land, the state of Israel, founded on our historical legacy and the words of the prophets. Finally, I am grateful for being part of my own Gesher L’Torah community, to serve as a spiritual leader of a congregation seeking to find personal meaning and inspiration in Judaism and in our own lives.

Happy Chanukah!

Rabbi Michael Bernstein is a rabbi at Congregation Gesher L’Torah.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 45

CHANUKAH Kenny Blank

Terri Bonoff On behalf of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, I am so very thankful for our board, committee members, staff, volunteers, sponsors, partners, supporters, and friends – we couldn’t share our love and passion for film without your steadfast commitment to bringing diverse communities together through the lens of our programming and events. Wishing all happy and healthy memories with friends and family.

Kenny Blank is executive director of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

On the first night of Chanukah, I am most grateful for the gift of family. We are gathering at my brother’s home, enjoying latkes, love and laughter. May healing shine upon my brother.

On Monday, the second night of Chanukah, I celebrate the Atlanta Jewish Community, basking in the warmth that is so generously shared among us.

On Tuesday, the third night of Chanukah, I celebrate the generous philanthropy of our Community of Giving, the JF&CS virtual event that takes place on Giving Tuesday and supports all that we do for our treasured clients.

On Wednesday, the fourth night of Chanukah, I am grateful for the distinguished leadership team and staff of JF&CS, my esteemed colleagues, who are selflessly dedicating their lives to serving those in need and providing bestin-class services to the diverse Atlanta community.

On Thursday, the fifth night of Chanukah, I send a BIG THANK YOU to all of the JF&CS volunteers who exponentially extend the reach of our service and fuel the mission of the agency!

Friday, the sixth night of Chanukah and Shabbat, please join me in prayers of gratitude as we live amidst a pandemic and celebrate the good health we have among us. May our gratitude be an antidote and bring healing to our world.

On Saturday, the seventh night of Chanukah, and Havdalah, we rejoice in the restoration of the mind and soul — may G-d have heard our prayers.

On Sunday, the final night of Chanukah, I give special thanks and ask for prayers of good health for birth and new beginnings. We are about to welcome our first grandchild, a precious granddaughter, and at least one more on the way. May the blessings of goodness be bestowed upon these new and precious lives. I am forever grateful.

Happy Chanukah!

Terri Bonoff is the CEO of Jewish Family & Career Services.

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CHANUKAH Rabbi Daniel Dorsch

Robyn Spizman Gerson

The Beatles famously crooned that they had nothing but love, “eight days a week.”

We all know, of course, that there are not literally eight days in a week. But when I was asked to write about eight separate things that I am thankful for at this time of year, the answer is always the same: the love in my life, which I receive “eight days a week.”

I am blessed to have the love of my wife and children, who give me emotional support. I am grateful for the love of our families, who extend across borders and from coast to coast. The love of our dear friends and neighbors who enrich my life is priceless. I am privileged to enjoy the love of my congregation that encourages me to strive to be the best rabbi I can be for them on a daily basis.

Health: Sure. Happiness: Absolutely. Yet, none of these would matter an iota if I lived a life that was absent of love. Love has always been and will always continue to be my life’s most precious gift, not only during Chanukah, but also the other eight days of the week.

When asked for eight things I am thankful for this Chanukah, I found it hard to limit the list, as I feel truly blessed. I pray these blessings will continue and blessings will come true for others. As a writer for the AJT, I hope that I can share something meaningful. After all, that’s why a writer writes. We hear a voice that inspires our thoughts, motivates us to make a difference and share helpful information.

What are my blessings? Here goes ...

Family. They are my blessings and my entire everything. Every single solitary one of them. Everything.

Health. I grew up hearing all the time the vital importance of health. Health is our wealth.

I am grateful for my health, but I pray for and am grateful for the health of my children, my husband, my loved ones, my family, my friends and the world around us. I pray no one has to suffer and for the continued ever-expanding miracle of modern medicine and all the professionals who make it possible for us to stay healthy.

Love. Love is what we all need. Empathetic, compassionate, and caring love. The kind of love that grows and deepens and is never taken for granted. Being surrounded by love is about the most amazing blessing I can think of, along with health and family.

Memories. This has been a hard handful of years, losing my mom, dad and brother, my husband’s sister, cousins and more, and it’s difficult. I could have never imagined this happening. I will treasure the memory of each loved one and try to live out loud their qualities, which keeps them close. They will forever be my blessings and missed beyond measure.

Friends. I simply don’t know what in the world I’d do without them. Mine are world treasures and I count my blessings thanks to each of them. They are truly remarkable.

Relationships. This covers the gamut. I feel truly blessed and fortunate to have a wealth of relationships — from personal to business and more — who sustain me, advise me, inspire me, support me, and enlighten me as I hope to do for them as well.

I will go to the ends of the earth for them, and I hope they know it. I’m truly grateful for these relationships and my world of contacts who stand by me.

Purpose. I feel blessed to understand the importance of living life on purpose. I am a serial optimist and work diligently to understand how I can make a difference in life helping others. I feel lucky that throughout my lifetime people believed in me along the way. Believing in someone else and telling them is a gift. Knowing your purpose is key.

And last but not least, blessings. I am grateful for blessings and knowing that each of us can be one to someone else. The idea that we can be a blessing to our family members, friends and to others is essential to life. I am grateful that my parents taught me what a life of giving looks like. It’s meaningful to count your blessings, but the importance of being a blessing to others is what it’s really all about.

Happy Chanukah and may you and your family continue to bring light to your life and the lives of others.

Rabbi Dan Dorsch is the senior rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim.

Robyn Spizman Gerson is a New York Times bestselling author and media personality and author of “Loving Out Loud: The Power of a Kind Word.” www.robynspizman.com

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 47

CHANUKAH Beth Gluck

Rabbi Arnold M. Goodman 1. The freedom to write whichever eight items that I choose.

2. The vaccine, of course.

3. Summer nights.

4. A granddaughter named in memory of my mother, and a precious grandson.

5. My natural family and those who married into the love.

6. A strong Jewish community that is introspective and ready to evolve while protecting its core values.

7. Jewish National Fund-USA and its extraordinary energy, vision, and success.

8. Growing opportunities in the developing world for girls to attend school.

Beth Gluck is the JNF’s executive director for Greater Atlanta

Rabbi Brian Glusman The definition of chutzpah ... a lady sold pretzels on a street corner for a dollar each. Every day, a young man would leave his office building at lunch time and, as he passed the pretzel stand, he would leave her $1.00, but never take a pretzel. This offering went on for more than three years. The two of them never spoke.

One day, as the young man passed the old lady’s stand and left his dollar as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him for the first time.

Without blinking an eye, she said: “Pretzels are $1.25 now.”

Chutzpah is a quality never in short supply among Jews. Chanukah, in fact, celebrates the chutzpah of the Jewish spirit. Imagine the chutzpah of that small band of Jewish fighters who stood up, fought against and were victorious over the mighty Syrian Greek army. And the chutzpah to light the menorah in the newly dedicated holy Temple, even though there was barely enough oil to last one day. And the chutzpah that we exhibit when we light our chanukiyot in our windows for all to see, calling attention to the Chanukah miracle.

On this beautiful holiday of Chanukah, may all of us be blessed with more chutzpah! To stand up for what is right in the midst of darkness, to cast our light as we reach out to those in need, as we speak out against injustice. May we each be reminded that we have the power to redeem our world.

Happy Chanukah to everyone. May this festival bring happiness, blessings, and good health to you and your loved ones!

Rabbi Brian Glusman serves the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta and is the visiting rabbi at Shearith Israel synagogue in Columbus, Ga.

48 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

FOR THE BLESSING OF …

THE GIFT OF LIFE created in the Divine image, the gift I share with every human being.

THE GIFT OF FREEDOM to live in free democratic countries: in the United States and in Israel.

THE GIFT OF JERUSALEM, where I have spent the past 20 years of my life, and where, on Friday afternoon, as stores close and traffic thins, I sense the Shabbat Queen slowly descending from heaven.

THE GIFT OF FAMILY CONTINUITY that is evoked every Shabbat as I bless my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

THE GIFT OF TORAH STUDY, which has informed my life. The unlimited treasure trove of teachings in the Bible, the Talmud and rabbinic sources through the ages until this very day continues to inform and shape my life.

THE GIFT OF COLLEGIALITY that enables me to relate to study with colleagues, and students of all ages. There is great wisdom in the rabbinic observation that this blessing sustains us emotionally, spiritually and physically. Were this lacking, my life could well atrophy.

THE GIFT OF ZOOMING that has been an antidote to the loneliness and separation during this pandemic. We have Zoomed to create family reunions, to stay in touch with loved ones and friends and to bring synagogue services into our homes.

We have Zoomed to share in a simcha, to be present at a funeral and to comfort mourners during shiva.

THE GIFT OF MODERN MEDICINE and the miracle of the human body. The pandemic impacted and threatened our lives, but scientific and medical advances have enabled us to be immunized. This Thanksgiving, I am especially thankful for the skill of the surgeons that attended to my fractured hip and for my body’s capacity to heal.

May the blessings of good health, good tidings and fulfillment of the wishes of our hearts for good brighten all our lives and those of our loved ones.

From the holy city of Jerusalem, my best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving and a festive celebration of Chanukah.

Rabbi Arnold M. Goodman was the senior rabbi of Ahavath Achim Synagogue (19822002). He now resides in Jerusalem.

CHANUKAH Leslie Gordon Most commonly referred to as the Festival of Lights, Chanukah is also sometimes called the Feast of Dedication. I like both meanings, but this year the second one has more resonance for me, as I think of the dedication that so many Jews in Atlanta have exhibited to improve not only the Jewish community but the community at large. I am reminded of this multiple times each week, when I walk just steps outside my office, because in September the Breman Museum opened our 25th anniversary exhibition, “History with Chutzpah.” One of six sections in the exhibition, “Benevolence and Community,” explores the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, defined as acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world.

There are so many examples of this in Atlanta that our co-curators, Jane Leavey and Sandy Berman, hardly knew where to start. And once they started, it was even harder to decide where to stop. Atlanta has benefitted so much from Jewish philanthropy throughout the years. But Tikkun Olam is not measured alone by the size of a grant; it can also accrue in smaller gestures. There is a 2008 quote from Laura Zaban Dinerman in the exhibition, where she recalls how one of her grandfathers had a separate phone line in his office just so he could solicit for the United Jewish Appeal during World War II, while one of her grandmothers sold poppies on the street to benefit Jewish War Veterans. “It was always part of what we saw in our lives,” she said of her giving family.

As I think of Chanukah 2021, I visualize all the bright lights that are leading our city and country out of the darkness of the pandemic. It’s what we do.

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Leslie Gordon is the executive director of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum.

Home for the Holidays

Rabbi Joshua Heller This year did not give us a lot of time to manage the transition from turkey to latkes. Some called it Thanksgivukah. In fact, the holidays have a lot in common.

Both Thanksgiving and Chanukah can trace their origins to Sukkot, the fall harvest festival found in the Torah. The early settlers in the U.S. (Pilgrims and otherwise) declared days of thanksgiving for a successful harvest, though the dates varied from community to community and even from year to year. Some of these observances drew on the key themes of Sukkot.

Meanwhile, Chanukah was enacted by the Maccabees to celebrate their victory over the Syrian Greeks and the subsequent rededication of the Temple. We often tell the story of the miracle of the oil to explain why the festival is observed for eight days. However, many scholars suggest that that year, Sukkot could not be observed because of the war, and the eight days were set as a makeup.

Furthermore, historically, the first Temple was dedicated during Sukkot, so it made sense to pattern the rededication on that festival.

Chanukah is uniquely connected to gratitude in another way. When most holidays are mentioned in the thrice-daily Amidah prayer and the grace after meals, a special passage is inserted in the blessing that talks about the Temple service in Jerusalem. In contrast, the special portion for Chanukah is placed specially in the blessing that speaks of gratitude.

Chanukah is often associated with gifts. Most other holidays focus on the gifts we give to God — the sacrifices and observances. Chanukah focuses more directly on the gratitude that we have to God for God’s gifts to us. May the Chanukah menorah illuminate all of the blessings that God has given us.

Rabbi Heller is the senior rabbi of Congregation B’nai Torah.

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CHANUKAH

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50 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

While I believe there is always something to be grateful for and I practice gratitude daily, let’s talk about the big EIGHT! I recommend setting a five-minute timer and writing down as many things that come to mind that you are grateful for. You’ll be surprised that you can likely come up with at least 50 items for your list.

If you are struggling with expressing gratitude, start with the things you see around you and expand outwards from there (like the sun, the stars, the coffee you are drinking, the warm fuzzy socks you wear during winter, your family, the roof over your head).

If you are really struggling in life right now, take what you don’t want and flip it around to find what you are grateful for (instead of: “I hate my job,” say: “I am grateful to have the ability to work and change jobs when it feels right”).

And finally, show gratitude for things as though they have already happened to attract them towards you (want to find a partner? Say: “I am grateful for the right partner walking into my life”).

Here are eight things I’m grateful for: LIFE: Every morning that I get a chance to open my eyes, see the day through and start over, is a blessing. I am always grateful that I made it to another day and I get to continue creating the life of my dreams.

FAMILY: Sometimes things are hard and sometimes they are unpleasant, but overall, both my parents are still alive, I have people around me that want good things for me and wish me well and I’m grateful beyond measure that those closest to me are still here.

NATURE: Nature is healing. Sitting outside under the sun, hiking, the crunching of the leaves, the freshness of the air, the sounds of birds chirping. When things are not going as planned, stepping outside into nature always makes things right again.

FRIENDS: From near, from far, friends that came and went, steppingstones in my life towards the next milestone, friends that stood by my side throughout the years, friends that serve a purpose (laughing, crying, dancing). Friends are like little pieces of a puzzle that you pick up along the way.

ALONE TIME: I learn more about myself every day that I get to spend alone. I love, love, love my alone time and I go out of my way to make sure I get that time daily.

Self-care is important, and because I want to be the best version of me, I make this a priority.

CREATIVITY: I am grateful for my mind, my artistic self, my ability to create whatever I dream of. From thoughts into feelings into actions … my creativity is one of my most cherished assets.

LEARNING: I am grateful for my love of learning, my ability to learn, and my absorption of the material. While the learning never stops, it’s important to implement. Implementation. Action. Doing It. Getting it done. Taking steps forward based on what I learned is what takes me to the next level.

CELEBRATION: There is always something to celebrate. Small wins, large wins, doing something that wasn’t working and changing it, so it does. Simchas, holidays, gatherings, growth, empowerment. Did you do something better today than yesterday? Celebrate it. Did you overcome something that was hard for you? Celebrate it.

Did you react from a place of love? Celebrate it. Always find the mini celebrations today, right now, in every moment.

I am grateful for everyone in this Atlanta community that has had a small part in my life. I feel connected to everyone in some way, as we are all parts of a whole. May this Chanukah allow you to shine your light a bit brighter, find gratitude in all you do, connect with people, give your time to others, share your stories, and build a community that loves and supports one another.

Chag Sameach!

Meliss Jakubovic is an online marketing strategist to coaches and healers, and an Israeli folk dance instructor.

CHANUKAH Elliot B. Karp As I celebrate Thanksgiving and Chanukah this year, I gratefully rededicate myself and Hillels of Georgia to: 1.

Encouraging our Jewish students to proudly express their passionate commitment to being Jewish.

2. Supporting our hard-working and devoted Hillel professional staff in their sacred work.

3. Guiding our tremendously dedicated Hillel student leaders to become the future leaders of the Jewish people.

4. Engaging and empowering more Jewish students to “do Jewish” on our campuses.

5. Creating and sustaining dynamic and vibrant Jewish life and support for Israel on all our campuses across Georgia.

6. Ensuring that our campus Jewish communities are welcoming, inclusive, diverse and respectful.

7. Providing a safe “home away from home” for our Jewish students and safeguarding them against rising anti-Semitism and anti-Israel prejudice on campus.

8. I am thankful for our Jewish community that supports Hillels of Georgia and our mission; and wish to express our gratitude to our students, parents, alumni, staff and friends who give so generously of their time, talent and resources.

Elliot B. Karp is CEO of Hillels of Georgia, the statewide association serving more than 5,000 Jewish students on more than two dozen campuses across Georgia.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 51

CHANUKAH Susanne Katz Karlick Eight Things to Be Thankful for This Year: I remember a quiet time in my life. I woke up in the morning and there was no sound in the house from kids or dogs, or the alarm clock. When I started to put my feet on the floor, I realized that I did not have a plan for the day. It was such a strange and empty feeling. A friend called and invited me to a class at a local synagogue. So now I at least had a plan for the afternoon. I just had no idea how this class would change my life.

“When the world was created,” said the rabbi, “we were given a new morning to start each day. So, when you wake up each morning, remember this is your opportunity to begin a fresh new day. Plan and use this gift and remember that you will have another opportunity tomorrow to wake up and start another new day.”

And each day brings new gifts, as I wake to start the day.

My dog licks my face each morning as she starts our day.

My husband brings me coffee.

My mahjong girlfriends continue the tradition my mother brought to me.

My walking partner has kept us on our three-mile trek each week for thirty years.

I cherish my memories of my father’s mentoring that led me to my career.

I am grateful to the lady who walks to the yogurt shop and keeps the store open each day.

I appreciate our loving neighbors and friends, and our talented and caring clergy.

I care each day that each member of our family looks forward to starting a fresh new day.

Each new day is a gift and a blessing.

Harold Kirtz

Chanukah always provides us with light as a method of celebrating the holiday and as a symbol. That this symbol is used over an eight-day period emphasizes the importance of light. The two ways of exhibiting the lights of Chanukah, as told in the Talmud, is that one can light one additional light each night until all eight lights are lit, which was advocated by Hillel; or one can start out with eight lights and eliminate one each night until there is only one on the last night, as advocated by Shammai.

The Hillel approach prevailed, and so in present times, people generally add a light each night, creating greater light over the course of the eight nights.

The symbol of light shines through during our Chanukah celebration and every day, and has come to also represent truth and courage. Truth, the public-square version of light, is important to the lives of each person and in the life of the country. The current political climate has presented a challenge to truth. Finding truth — what are the facts; what is accurate — takes courage and forthrightness in today’s world. We must always be in search of the truth and hold it as a central premise of our democratic way of life.

May we use Chanukah and its symbol of light to remind us that, in our dealings with other individuals and with organizations and countries, we must lead by example in finding and advocating for the truth. That includes truthfulness in our personal relationships, in our business relationships, and in the public sphere.

Harold Kirtz is president of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

Susanne Katz Karlick is a curator, writer, and photographer, co-creator of Atlanta Celebrates Photography, and a former Breman Museum Director of Exhibitions.

52 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

CHANUKAH

HAPPY CHANUKAH!

Philip N. Kranz

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Mighty and Strong

Although Judaism is peace-intoxicated, it would be incorrect to assume that it is also pacifistic. That reality is brought home each time we see the iconic images of twentieth century history. There are the heart-wrenching photos of emaciated Jews staring out at us from the wooden shelves which served as their Concentration Camps beds. Contrasted with those photos is the image of Israeli soldiers standing at the Western Wall on the day of its liberation.

Chanukah, more than any other holiday, celebrates the fighting spirit of the Jewish People.

When the Second World War ended, the congregation in which I grew up, determined to erect a memorial to those members who had fought in the war. The War Memorial was enhanced with three magnificent stained-glass windows by the noted Polish-Jewish master, Arthur Szyk. The three figures, Samson, Gideon, and Judah Maccabee represented strength, determination, and survival.

There is no doubt that the rabbis and scholars of our tradition get much credit for our survival. Those who have lived a Jewish life and applied its principles to their life and work also get credit for enabling us to move creatively and dynamically into the future. But we would not have survived had there been no one willing to defend the Jewish People from enemies without, those Jewish soldiers who died that we might live.

Chanukah is a holiday commemorating a military victory over an enemy who sought to destroy us through assimilation and acculturation. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, King of the Seleucid Greeks, was a megalomaniac who wished to replace himself as the God of Israel and the object of our worship. A small band of Jews, not more than a family, waged guerilla war against him for three long years.

And Mattathias said, you my sons, be valiant and show yourselves strong in the behalf of the law; for by it shall you obtain glory. As for Judas Maccabeus, he has been mighty and strong, even from his youth up: let him be your captain and fight the battle of the people.

And Mattathias died and then his son Judas, called Maccabeus, rose in his stead. And all his brethren helped.

So, he got his people great honor, and put on a breastplate as a giant, and girded his warlike harness about him, and he made battles, protecting the armies with his sword. In his acts he was like a lion. The wicked shrunk for fear of him.

Chanukkah and its military victory is an important component of Jewish history. Let us teach our children that to be Jewish is to be strong and forthright. In the face of anti-Semitism, let them be inspired by Mattathias and his valiant sons who defended Judaism with the might of arms and with the determination of a great soldier.

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Philip N. Kranz is rabbi emeritus at Temple Sinai.

Rabbi Micah Lapidus Ed.D. When it comes to gratitude, I take my cues from Psalm 23: my cup runneth over. That’s my answer when it comes to thanksgiving. It’s also my answer when it comes to the age-old question of whether the cup is half full or half empty. If we pause and mindfully consider our lives and our world, it seems like an undeniable fact to me that our cup truly runneth over. There is more in this moment, in this hour, in this day, then we can ever fully recognize. For that reason, I choose not to count my blessings, but strive rather to notice and honor them.

Rabbi Michah Lapidus is director of Jewish and Hebrew Studies at The Davis Academy.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 53

CHANUKAH Rabbi Ari Leubitz It’s that time of the year. We have just celebrated Thanksgiving and Chanukah is here. The dreidels will be spinning, the gelt and latkes will be a’ plenty ... oh, and there will be beautiful light.

The light I’m referring to is not only the beauty that will emanate from the Chanukiah, it is also the light I see all around me everyday at school. I wanted to step back for a moment and share my gratitude for the many pillars of our school community.

My Chanukiah: 1st Candle - Students. At this time of year, I am grateful for the gift of our children being fully immersed in Judaism - they live, think, talk, see, taste and soak in all that it means to be Jewish. I am constantly amazed at their progress and the middot and social-emotional growth I see in them.

2nd Candle - Faculty and Staff. The heart and soul of this school. These talented and incredibly hard-working folks turn this building into more than a physical structure. They transform it into a home for our students to embrace their General and Judaic Studies education, connection to Israel and appreciation for our culture.

3rd Candle - Parents, Grandparents & Families. As I’ve said before, the lessons we teach about chesed and connection must not end at our front door. I’m grateful for the parents and grandparents who continue those lessons at home - and who partner with us and share special school events and programs with us to show their support for the school and their children.

4th Candle - Administrators. These folks are a bit behind the scenes, and they keep the school running like a finely tuned machine. They are here day and night to support all that we offer at the school. I feel fortunate to work closely with such a talented team. I would be lost without them.

5th Candle - Our Donors. A private school cannot run on tuition alone. We rely on the generous support of you, our donors (including our faculty, staff and parents!) to allow us to offer this depth and breadth of classes and programs. The generosity of our angels leaves me - at times - speechless (and that is no easy task!)

6th Candle - PTSA. It’s a thankless job, I know! You all have spent countless hours helping teachers, creating teacher appreciation days, providing snacks, etc etc etc!

Most do not know who you are AND we couldn’t do this without your help!

7th Candle - Our Board of Trustees. Another thankless job! The hours are numerous and...we are lucky to have a committed and very diverse group of Board Members who are so dedicated to AJA. 8th Candle - The Community. Outside our building and behind the scenes, there are a slew of organizations and groups, rabbis and congregations who we have worked with to continue creating our committed connected community. I’m grateful for their support.

Thank you for sharing your light with us!

May the lights of Chanukah bring happiness to you and your family! ‫חנוכה שמח‬ Chag Urim Sameach!

Rabbi Leubitz is head of school of Atlanta Jewish Academy. AJA is the only ECD - 12th Grade Jewish Day School in the Atlanta area and is driven by a passion for academic excellence.

54 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Rabbi Shalom Lewis Sometimes the Grinch Wears a Kippa

Recently, a shul member asked to meet, wishing to share some good news. The next day he was in my office beaming.

‘Rabbi’, he declared enthusiastically, ‘You are going to be so proud of me’.

I smiled and asked that he continue.

‘Well. You know its December, and, in my subdivision, they put up wreathes and a Merry Christmas sign on our entrance with twinkle lights and candy canes on all the lamp posts.’

I nodded, suspecting the worst. I was not disappointed.

‘Rabbi. When I saw what they had done I exploded. I called the president of our homeowner’s association and told him that lots of Jews live in the neighborhood and that Christmas is not our holiday. I warned him, that if the sign and decorations were not removed within twenty-four hours, I personally would pull them all down.’

With a smile he concluded, ‘Aren’t you proud of me?’

I cringed. I looked him straight in the eye and sternly replied, ‘Not only am I not proud of you but I am embarrassed by you’.

He was stunned. Expecting a ‘Well done’ he was instead harshly reprimanded.

‘Moishe’, I asked (not his real name) ‘Why didn’t you simply ask them to put up some Chanukah decorations? A dreidel? A menorah? A Happy Chanukah sign? Why did you antagonize and tear down instead of being neighborly and respectful?’

‘Uhh…’ he stammered ‘I didn’t think of that’ was his sadly honest answer.

I was deeply disturbed by this gentleman’s misguided crusade wondering how much damage he and other Jewish Grinches have inflicted on our Christian friends.

We are treated with enormous respect in America though we are but a tiny sliver of the population. Our traditions are admired. Our heritage acclaimed. And our festivals honored. And yet, many of us display boorish insensitivity to our Christian neighbors. Are we so insecure that we are incapable of humming ‘Silent Night’? Sipping eggnog? Glowing in the tinseled shine of the season? Are we to chase Santa and his elves out of the mall? Are we to chop down Christmas trees on the town square?

Are we to chastise a shop clerk for wishing us Merry Christmas?

Personally, I enjoy this season of red and green. Holly and mistletoe. Glug and carolers. Though it does not belong to us we can still appreciate its sentiment and its beauty.

To deprive others of decorating and singing and enjoying their holy days is selfish and bigoted. In this great land of ours there is plenty of room for Christmas. There is plenty of room for Chanukah. There is plenty of room for all religious celebrations.

I hope that come April this foolish congregant doesn’t return to tell me with triumphant glee. ‘Rabbi. You should be proud of me. I had the Easter Bunny arrested for littering’.

Rabbi Shalom Lewis is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Etz Chaim.

Happy Chanukah from

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CHANUKAH

Happy Chanukah

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Barbara Lincoln Being able to obtain a vaccination that returns life to more normal times and allows us to travel and to visit family and friends without fear of getting deathly ill.

Ability to travel.

The Braves winning the World Series.

Dogs (and Dawgs this year).

Pickleball courts at the MJCCA. Terrific coworkers.

Family, friends and community.

Most of all, good health (with that, everything else is possible).

And one more to continue the light for next year: Thankful for a community that cares, and from what I have seen, this community really came through in these last 18 months.

Barbara Lincoln is an attorney at Kitchens Kelley Gaynes PC, a member of the board of directors at Jewish National Fund and on the allocations committee of the Atlanta Jewish Federation.

CHANUKAH Allen H. Lipis The holiday of Chanukah is the celebration of a miracle — a candle that was supposed to burn for one day that burned for eight days. The question you need to ask yourself is this: do you really believe in miracles? We tend to use the word miracle for something that is extraordinary, but often can be explained. That’s not a miracle. A real miracle is a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of God. If you believe in God, then you should believe in miracles. Here are two miracles that I witnessed. We had friends that wanted to sell their house for two years and never had an offer.

They went to their rabbi and asked for guidance. The rabbi said, “Check your mezuzahs.” They went home and found that several of them were not kosher. They repaired the mezuzahs, and the next day, they had an offer on their home. Was that just luck or a miracle? They most assuredly believed that God had had a hand in making that sale happen.

When I was single, my roommate and I went to shul, a shul we didn’t usually go to. My roommate was 32 years old, a lawyer and never married. He thought younger women were not interested in him. After services, the rabbi introduced us to an Israeli couple who asked if one of us would agree to sign a betrothal agreement to marry their 18-year-old daughter in Israel, so that she could get out of army service.

My roommate agreed, knowing nothing about the family or the girl, and when she arrived in Columbus, where we lived, he was invited for dinner to meet her. It was love at first sight, and six months later, they were married.

You can say that either story could be attributed to good luck, or some other rational explanation. There are others who see these stories as miracles, honest-to-God miracles, and I am one of them. You just gotta believe.

Allen H. Lipis is a columnist and contributor to the Atlanta Jewish Times.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 57

CHANUKAH Rabbi Max Miller Even amidst a global pandemic, there are still countless things for which I am grateful.

First and foremost, I am grateful for the health of my family and friends, and I say a Shehechiyanu to God for bringing me to this day in good health.

I am grateful for the gift of Torah study that, as in every generation, has been the glue to bind the Jewish people, in times of peace as much as in times of strife.

I am grateful to live in the United States of America. A 245-year work in progress, I still believe in the ability of our country to live by the words inscribed upon the Statue of Liberty, a safe haven for the weak, the poor, the stranger and the outcast of every nation.

I am grateful for the State of Israel. Imperfect as any nation, but always reaching to make real the words of the Prophet Micah: “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” This might be a strange one, but I am thankful for Broadway. In a time of so much unpredictability, few things are as comforting as the familiarity, beauty and creativity of musical theater.

I am grateful for my faithful cup of strong coffee to jumpstart my mornings and for the good glass of wine to softly close each evening.

I am grateful for bones days and no-bones days. Either way, I am grateful for the fine, furry friends who bring a smile to my face.

Finally, I am grateful for the scientists and medical and public health professionals who have created vaccines, advised us on safe practices, and made it possible to fight this virus.

Rachel M. Miller As I celebrate the lighting of each candle on the Chanukah menorah, I recall with love and admiration the values and admonitions left to me by my parents and grandparents.

I value family and friends above everything else. These are the people who accept me with all my quirks and foibles.

I am able to laugh at myself and with others.

Make the world a better place in which to live through large and small initiatives/ actions.

I don’t need to know someone personally to help them better their lives.

Education doesn’t stop when you leave school.

Respect people’s opinions even if I don’t agree with them.

I hope to be remembered for acts of lovingkindness.

And, as my mother always said, “Don’t leave home without putting on some lipstick.”

Rachel M. Miller is the director of the Atlanta Region for ORT.

Rabbi Rachael Miller

Rabbi Max Miller is an associate rabbi at Temple Emanu-El and the leader of TE’s 20s & 30s community.

Rachel Rachael Miller is an associate rabbi at Temple Emanu-El.

58 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

CHANUKAH Jody Pollack

Fran M. Putney Light’s candles action!

Eight Things

Chanukah symbolizes the Jews' historical struggles to overcome adversity, discrimination, oppression and attempts at full-on destruction of our people, places and thoughts. The Festival of Lights presents us with the opportunity to demonstrate to the world that we are still here! We are still here in spite of the attempts of those who desire us to be gone.

We are still here and we shall persevere as we continue to shine light unto the world even if the world does not want that light to be shone upon it.

There! That felt good to get off my chest and get your attention. Now, what about how we are going to celebrate the holiday given that Chanukah is so close to Thanksgiving. Are we going to package up the leftovers into shiny gold foil and make believe it is Chanukah gelt to give to the kids? Will we play spin the wishbone and the winner gets the pupik? How about using the turkey schmaltz instead of oil for the flame? Maybe use the turkey neck to light the shamash?

And the dried out white meat? Hmmm too dry, even for matzoh, but that’s a different holiday.

So, what am I thankful for this Thanksgivanukah?

1. My girls are in loving relationships.

2. We have family and friends joining us for dinner.

3. We as a family made it through Covid.

4. Being an empty nester, which in itself is a pretty good thing, the kids come by for at least one of the eight evenings.

5. The Kosher BBQ Festival was a huge success.

6. The Braves won and we got to stick it to the commissioner amongst others – gotta love karma. Are we allowed to believe in that? There must be a Jewish equivalent.

7. We all get to make plans for next year which, god willing, will be a safe and healthy year and one for which we truly give thanks.

8. Last but not least, people seem to think my thoughts matter. That is thanks enough.

Mom’s memory isn’t what it used to be and sometimes when I visit, she inquires about the family and asks about my spouse of three decades: “Is he a good husband?” I tell her, yes, he is a good husband. Things one and two to be thankful for: A good husband and awesome soon-to-be 90-year-old parents.

In what was a happy day one recent Saturday, we connected with both our young adult children. One lives nearby, the other (sniff) on the west coast. Thing three to be thankful for: Kids that are healthy, selfsufficient and confidently march to their own drums.

As I am profoundly fortunate to enjoy a satisfying career as a writer doing what I love, thankful thing four is: Meaningful work.

When I can get it…. thing five to be thankful for: A good night’s sleep.

It is impossible to do the work I do with the Georgia Holocaust Commission in which I learn, sometimes firsthand, about the courageous stories of survival of those who managed to live through the horrors of the Holocaust and not be emotionally moved. Each person’s experience is unique, and the tales are often utterly mind-blowing. Most of us can barely imagine such events. Thing six to be thankful for: There but for the grace of God, it could have been us -- the miracle that my relatives came to America in the wave of immigrants arriving in the early 1900s.

Who is not thankful for modern conveniences? Thing seven: Random stuff like Smart phones, Amazon Prime, Keurigs, Netflix, and definitely on-line bill pay.

I love being outdoors, especially in warm weather. I am rarely happier than when I am on a trail, on my bike, walking on the beach or out exploring new places with a friend or loved one, although sometimes alone is absolutely fine too. Thing eight to be thankful for: The magnificence of nature and those working to preserve our fragile earth for generations to come.

Lastly, via the Shamos, I am thankful for the beauty of our diverse Atlanta Jewish community and wish all a Happy Chanukah!

Jody Polack is executive director of the Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival and a is proud member of the Hebrew Order of David.

Fran Putney is a writer and editor; communications manager for the GA Commission on the Holocaust and proofreader for the AJT.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 59

Happy Hanukkah May the light from this Menorah fill your home with Happiness and Love.

CHANUKAH Eric M. Robbins Eight Lights of Gratitude

Remember back in 2013, when Hanukkah began on Thanksgiving Day? The mashup of holidays was dubbed “Thanksgivukkah” and we had fun with it. My friend Jennie Rivlin Roberts created a cool t-shirt for the occasion and donated thousands of dollars to charity from the proceeds.

You won’t be surprised to learn that a Jewish woman coined the name Thanksgivukkah. Dana Gitell, then a 37-year-old marketing manager for a Jewish nonprofit, trademarked the name and bought the URL. Given the quirks of the lunar Jewish calendar, another Thanksgivukkah is unlikely to happen again for 70,000 years! But this year we will come close with Hanukkah beginning on Sunday evening November 28, just three days after Thanksgiving.

In the Thanksgivukkah spirit, here’s a list of the things for which I am deeply grateful this year.

CLICK THRU [8 REASONS I’M GRATEFUL]

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1. The COVID-19 Vaccine — This modern scientific miracle that delivers a safe and effective way to build protection against the virus was developed in record time and continues to save countless lives. I take pride knowing that Albert Borla, Pfizer’s CEO who led the company’s development of the vaccine, is the son of Greek Jews who survived the Holocaust.

2. The Braves are World Series Champions! — The ascent of the Braves, after so many years of disappointment, was pure joy for Atlanta — with the added bonus of three Jewish players in the series! This win was exactly what we collectively needed after 18 months of pandemic isolation and anxiety.

3. The 2022 Community Campaign — The Campaign is ahead of pace! As of today, we have reached ​43% of our goal. I’m so grateful for our generous donors who continue to step up so we can meet urgent local and international needs.

4. $10,000 Israel Gap Year Scholarships for High School Seniors — I am delighted to report that The Zalik Foundation has renewed scholarship support for a second year to send graduating high school seniors to Israel. 2022-2023 applications for this year of personal growth and adventure prior to starting college open on December 6!

5. The Resurgence of Midtown Atlanta — The Midtown construction boom continues with 16 active projects underway! The strength of Midtown real estate bodes well for our dream of transforming the Federation property at 1440 Spring Street into a vibrant center for Jewish life in the coming years.

6. Federation’s Professional Team — It makes me especially proud to see Federation professionals blossoming within the organization. In recent months, several of them have stepped into new roles with added responsibilities. These transitions are a result of our culture of Excellence, Empathy, and Fearlessness, along with our commitment to professional development.

7. 548 Commitments to After-Lifetime Giving — That’s right. As we conclude our threeyear engagement with the LIFE & LEGACY™ endowment program, Atlanta’s Jewish schools, synagogues, and organizations have secured 548 letters of intent for legacy gifts with an estimated value of $35.2M! It brings me such nachas (Yiddish for joy) to see our community come together to ensure our future financial health. I extend a special thanks to The Harold Grinspoon Foundation for being a phenomenal philanthropic partner through camping initiatives, PJ Library, and the LIFE & LEGACY endowment program.

8. Matt Bronfman’s Partnership and Leadership – As Board Chair, Matt has contributed a depth of wisdom and fresh insights during his Federation leadership.

I deeply appreciate Matt’s commitment to strengthening our entire community.

Eric M. Robbins is the president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.

CHANUKAH Flora Rosefsky

Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal Grateful for 8

1, For Bernie, my loving and supportive husband for 59 years 2. For our four children and their loved ones – with strong family relationships 3. For eight grandchildren bringing Nachas – ages 8-25 4. For the ability to continue working as a visual artist at home and in my studio 5. For appreciating the opportunity to be an AJT contributing writer 6. For having thoughtful and caring good friends –some that go way back in time 7. For living in our beautiful apartment complex with our mini-botanical porch garden 8. For having had parents and extended family who passed on our shared Jewish heritage and traditions.

Flora Rosefsky is an Atlanta Jewish Times contributing writer and visual artist.

I am grateful for my incredible life-partner Brooke Rosenthal and four children: Avram Eli, Ariela, Ma’ayan, Naftali and their new puppy; JuJuBe. This Chanukah I’m thinking of the candles. Not just any candles, but the little often blue ubiquitous box stuffed with 44 of them. In truth we are only lighting 36 candles throughout the holiday of Chanukah. Eight candles are designated as the Shamesh, or helper candle, to light the others. As we make our way through the holiday adding a candle each day, we end up lighting 36 total. That isn’t just math, it’s meaningful math. There is a group of people called the Lamed Vavniks. First mentioned in the Talmud (Talmud Sanhedrin 97b) and then amplified by the mystic tradition, the Lamed Vavniks are 36 hidden righteous people who, in each generation, are prepared to greet the Shekhina (Dwelling presence of God). Their name comes from the numerical value of the two letters: lamed (30) and vav (6). Hence, Lamed Vavniks. We don’t know who make up the 36 hidden righteous souls and they don’t even know that they are part of the 36, but their existence and the blessings they bring keeps the world upright. Lighting 36 candles throughout the holiday of Chanukah, standing before the Chanukiah and meditating on their illumination affords me the opportunity to think more broadly about my own gratitude. So often I find myself thankful for things I see, feel, experience and for those I interact with regularity. This year, let our lighting open our eyes and uncover the hidden people for which we must be grateful.

Rabbi Laurence is the senior rabbi of Ahavath Achim Synagogue in Atlanta and immediate past president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 61

CHANUKAH Dr. Nina Elizabeth Kram Schlachter

Shaindle Schmuckler

As Thanksgiving folds into Chanukah, I find it especially easy this year to maintain an attitude of gratitude.

It felt breathtakingly wonderful to step into my first social event, and then again later — the first sans mask. Vaccinations have tempered the ongoing fear that the ones we love may be rendered seriously ill or may even die from COVID. And fear of the unknown future is, if not totally in the rearview mirror, at least less pressing.

I give gratitude to Hashem that I and those I hold dearest have survived.

I feel immensely grateful for the pleasure of resuming these two joyous holidays with family and friends.

In these times of such divisive political and global discord, let us all find solace within our more intimate, insular family and Jewish communities, of renewed love, support and hope.

I am eternally grateful for: 1. My children and daughter-in-law.

2. My sisters, brothers-in-law and their extended mishpocha.

3. My “ex-laws.”

4. Dancing.

5. My Atlanta and Florida Jewish communities.

6. Vaccinations.

7. That so many I hold dear are well.

8. That pandemic panic and isolation may be nearing an end.

Chag Sameach Turkukah (or Chanukasgiving)!

Narrowing down the eight things for which I am grateful is like chopping off one of my limbs. There is so much I am grateful for; however, I am limited to eight for today.

I am grateful for: My life partner for over 50 years, my husband Gene.

My four girls, who light up my world, a gift from the angels who along with …

My four sons-in-love: four wonderful, kind, insightful men, who guide …

My ten grandchildren, who are on the brink of making the world a more humane place.

My curiosity and all I’ve discovered on this curious journey.

My emotionality and vulnerability.

My childhood, my foundation, my family, friends and teachers who supported this extraordinary slice of my life, all the memories.

My two beautiful, creative, smart sisters, without whom I would be an only child.

Dr. Nina Elizabeth Kram Schlachter is a semi-retired physician and the grateful momalah of five amazing young adults.

62 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Shaindle Schmuckler is a contributing writer to the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Happy Hanukkah!

Wishing your family peace and light this holiday season. Give the gift of a special holiday to others.

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CHANUKAH Maayan Schoen

Dena Schusterman

There is so much to be thankful for, and there are so many worthwhile ways to demonstrate gratitude, with suggestions abounding in this season of thanksgiving. In his article “Giving Thanks,” Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z”l writes that “the almost universal instinct to give thanks is one of the signals of transcendence in the human condition.”

Though instinctual, it is worth continually cultivating. In the Jewish spirit of this publication, I’ve put together a list of eight biblical ways to show gratitude, some adapted for modern living, some up to your modern interpretation, and others… to be taken with a grain of salt. There are, of course, many more biblical ways to show gratitude! *Like Leah, thank G-d, and even consider naming a child something that conveys your thanks (Genesis 29:35). *Pour out some wine and invite friends to join you in consuming forty loaves of bread and a feast, like those who brought the thanksgiving sacrifice, or korban todah (Leviticus 7:12). *Publicize the miracles that have benefited you, even if doing so necessitates giving something else up (Shabbat 23b). *Drop off your toddler son to serve in your Temple for the rest of his life, like Chana did (Samuel 1:22-24). *Do not oppress any strangers (Exodus 23:9). *Bring the first of your groceries to your local priestly families (Exodus 23:19). *Pause after eating to express thanks (Deuteronomy 8:10). *Give the eligible bachelor/ette in your family to the nice person who fetched water for you and your ten pets, and make sure to shower them with gifts, in the spirit of Eliezer and Rivkah (Genesis 24:14-53).

Let me know how these go! Happy Thanksgiving and Chanukah to all and wishing us a year of light and gratitude ahead.

Night one: One tiny spark of a match, the flicker of a flame, just like that — it is no longer completely dark.

With this tiny light, I have the clarity I need to see what it is before me.

Night two: My vision restored; I listen now.

As the flames dance, I hear the crackle and hiss; I am present, I await their message.

Night three: The light is growing, I am too.

Night Four: Light is wisdom and knowledge; without it, I am ignorant.

Night Five: The flames are increasing; I feel their energy and warmth enter my skin and settle in my bones.

Night Six: I am thawing.

Everything is growing stronger, the light in my mind, the feelings in my soul.

Night Seven: I am distracted. Determined to do their job, and despite me, the lights still illuminated my path.

Night Eight: It is so bright, for a moment, I want to close my eyes and not see, just feel. I want to feel what is. Here. Right now....

The world is brighter, this I know. I feel safer with the menorah’s glow.

Now, with each passing hour, the lights get dimmer.

The warmth stays within me until it, too, is gone.

When Chanukah ends, where does the flame of the menorah go?

It is the light of logic, reasoning, and knowledge that lives inside the Torah.

In the warmth of a mitzvah, of knowing that I am linked in a golden chain of the Jewish people.

Where can I find the light of the fire?

Where can I feel the warmth of the flames?

If not ever-present, something of both will always inspire the other — my intellect and my emotions. Never extinguished, they remain in my soul.

Borne out of Chanukah’s light.

Maayan Schoen graduated from Torah Day School and Atlanta Jewish Academy and studied in the Migdal Oz Beit Midrash for Women in Israel. She is a junior at Yale University.

Dena Schusterman is the director of the Intown Jewish Preschool

64 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

CHANUKAH Dr. Terry Segal

I thank G-d and G-d’s angels for their presence each day. On this Chanukah, which arrives on the heels of Thanksgiving, along with gratitude, I’m proposing a wish list for the eight nights.

Chanukah spells out the acronym. I don’t just wish these gifts for myself, but for all of us, as they have a magical way of being given and received, when done right.

C is for Compassion. If only we could glow our heart lights when speaking our truth and listening to others.

H is for Humor. Never laughing at, but with another, in a way that bonds us together.

A is for Acceptance. Of the hard times that challenge all of us in more similar ways than not.

N is for Nourishment. Sharing not only what we have to feed the bellies, but nourishing the minds and souls as well.

U is for Understanding. We don’t have to agree to understand, simply be able to try on the shoes of another and walk a few blocks, if not miles, in them. It can alter our perceptions.

K is for Kindness. Remember the first time ever and the most recent time you gave and received kindness? Unforgettable.

A is for Adventure. A redefinition of discovery that doesn’t involve travel around the world, just wonderment in our own backyards.

H is for Harmony, which isn’t all singing the same note, but rather sounding more than one note together at the same time as a complement to the melody. When three or more notes are combined, it’s a chord. And maybe it also forms a cord that connects us heart-to-heart with one another, and then anchors us to G-d.

Maybe this year, beginning on Chanukah, we can each take at least one action and G-d can match it to manifest change in the world.

Dr. Terry Segal is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a Ph.D. in Energy Medicine.

Rabbi Larry Sernovitz “Modeh Ani Lefanecha …” I give thanks to you, dear God. These are the words that Jewish tradition teaches us to begin each day with, and in our world, each day is not a given but a true blessing. As a relatively new rabbi in the greater Atlanta Jewish community, the Chanukah season is a bright reminder of the blessings I have in my life. Maybe some of these you share as well. If so, I would love to hear from you so we can share these together.

1. Gratitude for the connections and friendships that I have made and sustained since arriving in Atlanta. You all have made the transition so much easier.

2. Grateful to the Temple Kol Emeth community for welcoming us so warmly to Marietta and the greater Atlanta area. Your care and support mean the world to us, especially because some of you saw our home before we did!

3. Grateful to our parents, who have given us a strong foundation to live a meaningful Jewish life. Through your actions and deeds, we have become the people we are today. We hope we will always continue to make your proud.

4. So thankful for my children: Sam, Daniella and Eden. They are so resilient and managed to deal with the pandemic and moving to Atlanta so beautifully. A special shout to Sam, who became a bar mitzvah during the pandemic. And to Daniella and Eden, who suggested we get a pandemic puppy named Peaches. These beautiful children are my world and make every day so sweet.

5. So incredibly grateful to my wife, Becky, for her huge heart, the love she showers on our family, and for standing by my side as we made the transition to Atlanta.

She is my rock and I love her more than I could ever put into words.

6. Grateful to the teachers who have embraced my children and provided a loving environment for them to learn and grow in. A special thanks to The Davis Academy for making sure our daughters could learn in a vibrant and healthy environment.

7. Thankful for my health and the health of my family and community. Truly grateful that my entire family has received the Covid vaccine.

8. Much thanks and appreciation to God for all the blessings that we have in our lives. Each day presents new opportunities to make a difference in the world. For this, I am eternally grateful.

Happy Chanukah to you all!

Rabbi Larry Sernovitz is the senior rabbi at Temple Kol Emeth in Marietta.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 65

CHANUKAH Chana Shapiro Judaism helps us fight against taking things for granted. Every day, the first words out of our mouths upon awakening are, “I give thanks before You, eternal King, for having restored to me my soul.” The morning Modeh Ani prayer, which means I Am Thankful, had never been more poignant for me than when waking up in good health every morning during the pandemic.

We are reminded to be thankful for life’s experiences, and our awareness is heightened when we respond with focused blessings. Here are eight common occurrences that Judaism encourages us to see as wondrous by reciting blessings of gratitude, specific for each one: Having sight; smelling something pleasant; hearing thunder; seeing a rainbow; donning a new garment; having food to eat; standing up and being able to stretch; and — especially for me at this moment — putting on shoes.

I recently broke a metatarsal bone in my foot and will be wearing a boot and using crutches for many more weeks. I can’t wait to put shoes on both my feet, and when that time comes, I will joyfully express gratitude with the blessing I only recently learned and had never before recited.

In the musical, “Annie Get Your Gun,” Annie Oakley sings a song that expresses the kind of openhearted gratitude I want to emulate, “I’ve got the sun in the mornin’ and the moon at night … I’m all right!” From morning until evening, we are given unending opportunities to appreciate our world, and Judaism has given words to those sentiments for thousands of years. One more thing to be grateful for!

Chana Shapiro is a contributing writer to the Atlanta Jewish Times.

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CHANUKAH Rabbi Alexandria Shuval-Weiner Banu choshech legaresh, we have come to banish the darkness, beyadeinu or va’esh. In our hands are light and fire. Kol echad hu or katan, every soul is a tiny light, vekulanu or eitan together we are a powerful light.

These are the words of one of our family’s favorite Chanukah songs, which we sing following the lighting of our Chanukiah. After we sing, we name our blessings and then share how we turn those blessings into that which fuels our way in the world.

In keeping with the theme of this year’s AJT Chanukah issue, I want to share eight things for which I am most grateful this year.

1. Life: Before I place my feet upon the ground, I take a deep breath, open my eyes and thank G!d for another day of life. I pray to use it well and to strive to live in such a way as to never take that day or any of the days of my life for granted.

2. Sustenance: We are so blessed for the food that we have. Gratitude for those who toil in the earth, suffering the heat and the cold to sow the seeds, tend the fields and groves and with bended back gather in the harvest, month after month, year after year. We enjoy so much solely due to the efforts of the thousands of souls we rarely, if ever will know.

3. Liberty: I am grateful to live at a time and place and of a class where I am able raise my voice without fear of retaliation. While I am acutely aware that, in many ways, I am privileged, I embrace the responsibility to use it for the building of a more loving, peaceful and equitable world. Olam Chesed Yebaneh!

4. Modern Medicine/Science: I feel incredibly blessed to be able to safeguard my life and that of my family with vaccines that protect us from diseases and viruses that can be deadly to the human species.

5. Family: I am blessed to have been born into a safe and loving family, with siblings who care for one another and parents who supported all our passions. I am blessed to have a life partner of 30 years with whom I have nurtured and raised five incredible humans, each unique in their way. They in turn have found loving partners and have begun to build their future families. Best of all, they all enjoy being together and sharing in life’s blessings with one another.

6. Technology: This will be the second Chanukah (and Thanksgiving) that our family will be separated by the miles. The ability to stay connected with one another via Zoom, Messenger and Facetime has been a true blessing these almost two years.

We have enjoyed family game nights, holiday celebrations, a wedding (that I officiated via Zoom), announcements of two pregnancies and later, via Zoom, a baby naming for our granddaughter, Aya Liv, and the brit milah of our grandson Aviv Joshua. While we anticipate the day when we will once again be gathered around the family table, we are beyond grateful for the miracle of technology that has kept us together.

7. Gift of my age: With each passing year, as I become more aware of my mortality, I have also grown in wisdom. Becoming increasingly curious about the mystery of life and of the world. Seeing the interconnectivity of all life on earth and our responsibility to approach G!d’s creations with love and awe. We are not to dominate and subdue life, but rather to walk humbly, lovingly and respectfully alongside Creation. I pray to use this blessing in ways that will assure a better tomorrow for my grandchildren.

8. Jewish Tradition & Faith: Baruch s’asah li Yisrael — this brachah, recited each morning, has always touched my heart deeply. While born into Judaism, I daily choose this faith community. I feel so much gratitude for the wisdom of our tradition, our ethics and teachings, calling us to be better, do better, to stive toward holiness in all that we are. This brings me back to the verse of our favorite Chanukah song: to banish the darkness. This is what our tradition calls upon us to be. As covenant partners with the Divine, we are agents of light in the world, illuminating the spaces where chesed, love and compassion are needed.

These are my blessings; I pray to never take them for granted. As we kindle our Chanukah lights this year, may gratitude open all our hearts, inspire us and bring forth deep love. Chag Urim Sameach!

Rabbi Shuval-Weiner is the senior rabbi at Temple Beth Tikvah in Roswell and serves as the president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association.

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CHANUKAH Rabbi Albert Slomovitz

Rabbi Adam Starr

Chanukah for me has often been a time of missed opportunities — let me explain. Even as a child, while I enjoyed getting presents and lighting the menorah, I realized something was missing.

The main message we were taught about this festival was the miraculous nature of the oil lasting eight days instead of one. Even as a youngster, I thought that this miracle was relatively minor when compared to other biblical events such as the creation stories, crossing of the Red Sea and receiving the 10 Commandments.

As an adult who served 20 years in the U.S. military and is a staunch supporter of Israel, I quickly realized that the real Chanukah miracle was that Jewish people of all ages and levels of observance were willing to put their lives at risk to maintain the practice of our faith even when faced with a formidable army. They held onto their principles, fought a war and won.

As we kindle the lights of the menorah, let’s think back to this relatively unknown story of 2300 years ago and reflect on the heroism, the courage and the bravery of mostly unknown men and women who believed so much in their faith that they were willing to put their lives on the line for it.

The knowledge of their sacrifices is something that can empower us as we maintain our faith moving ahead. Happy Chanukah to all.

Although many people (especially children) associate Chanukah with the receiving of presents, the real message of Chanukah is to bring joy and light to others. In Talmudic times, the Chanukah menorah was placed at the doorpost outside of the home and in our times, we place it by the window. Why do we have the Chanukah lights facing the outside? Shouldn’t they be in the center of the home so that we can most enjoy them and their light in celebration? Furthermore, it is actually forbidden for us to benefit from the Chanukah light, as tradition teaches us that “we do not have permission to make any other use for them except to look at the candles.” We are not even supposed to read by these candles, nor use them to provide us with light! So then why are we lighting?

The message of the Chanukah lights is clear. The Chanukah candles take the light within our home and allow it to emanate outward to the world. The purpose of these beautiful Chanukah flames is to share light beyond ourselves. It is our responsibility to bring the light that we possess to those in the world that may be experiencing a state of darkness through illness or loneliness. When you light the Chanukah candles, reflect on how you, as an individual, as a family or as a community may be able to bring some more light to others. That, in fact, is the greatest gift of all.

Rabbi Adam Starr is the senior rabbi at Congregation Ohr HaTorah.

Rabbi Albert I. Slomovitz, rabbi-at-large, Etz Chaim Congregation; founder, Jewish Christian Discovery Center; professor of American history, Kennesaw State University.

Happy Hanukkah!

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CHANUKAH The Temple Clergy Team

Alla Umanskiy

On Chanukah we say Sh’asah Nisim, a prayer of thanksgiving. In it, we appreciate the wonders which were present in the lives of our ancestors and subtly remind ourselves that we, too, are surrounded by light and miracles.

Face to Face/Soul to Soul! What a miracle it is that we have the ability to gather together once again to celebrate our festivals; there is no substitute for the pleasure of being in one another’s company.

Memory! Around the dinner table and basking in the lights of the Chanukiah are where we make so many tender memories. This year we are overjoyed to once again embrace and renew our traditions.

Health! It has been on all our minds. To see the ones we love healthy and well, who could ask for more?

Joy! Simcha is at the heart of our festivals. Let us rejoice and appreciate all that we have.

Light! As the nights grow longer, we appreciate both the sparks of light that each person brings into the world and the light our ancestors kindled long ago.

Freedom! We are so thankful to live in a country where the symbol of our holiday is not viewed with distrust and hatred, but with love and understanding.

Faith! In darkest times we have always trusted in God to be our rock. As we proudly display our Chanukah lights, we declare our faith once more.

Community! Judaism never happens alone. We could not do this without the Jewish people, Am Yisrael, we would not be here without YOU. Tov L’hodot! It is good to give thanks!

One: I’m thankful for the chance to put a few words down on paper, for the ability to be heard, to be read, to announce to the world that I’m here, that I was here.

Two: I’m thankful for my sister, who will make me an aunt next spring.

Three: I’m thankful for my Big Girl, who fills my heart with overwhelming joy and pride every single day.

Four: I’m thankful for my Little Girl, who touches my soul and brings peace to our family just by being.

Five: I’m thankful that my parents and parents-in-law are living lives I would have wished for them, full of friends, adventures, travel, and family.

Six: I’m thankful for my grandmother, who’s living her life with gusto, even in the face of unthinkable tragedies. But then, she’s always lived that way.

Seven: I’m beyond thankful for friends. I love you. Yes, you. I can’t even imagine doing without.

Eight: I’m thankful that almost 20 years ago I met a guy in a coffee shop, and he changed my life. Happy Chanukah, my love. You make it all worth it.

Alla Umanskiy adores Chanukah, presents, food, her children, husband and any combination thereof, as well as regularly contributes to the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Rabbis Peter Berg, Loren Lapidus, Lydia Medwin, Steven Rau, Samuel Kaye and Cantor Deborah Hartman, The Temple Clergy Team is proud to serve Atlanta’s first synagogue and oldest congregation.

Wishing You and Your Family a Happy Chanukah

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CHANUKAH Doug Weinstein Eight things I am thankful to have started learning this year: C - Charity - the opportunity to learn that we can give to others through the donation of our time regardless of the state of our wallets.

H - Hope - hope gained through experience with the Delta variant that the Omicron variant can also be managed.

A - Awareness - there is always a path through adversity no matter what tomorrow may bring.

N - Neighborliness - recognizing that we are in a shared community where we all can work together to repair the world (even if just a bit).

U - Universality - that all of us share many of the same hopes.

K - Knowledge - those opportunities for learning abound if we just take advantage of them.

A - Activity - you are never too old to get in gear again; and H - Honor - the past is no excuse to not strive for honor every day.

Doug Weinstein is a corporate and intellectual property attorney.

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Menorah Lighting • Sunday, Dec. 5 Chanukah celebration on the square from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. with hot drinks, latkes, music, and photos with Mr. Dreidel! Details at chabadintown.org

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 71

CHANUKAH Dr. Melissa Wikoff Eight Things I am be Thankful for this Year:

1. My Jewish Atlanta Community. I wrote this note earlier this year to the Jewish Moms of Atlanta Facebook group and it’s appropriate to share here: I wanted to send a huge thank you to this beautiful JMOA community. My husband and I are sitting here dumbfounded in the kindness that virtual strangers have shown us. All of our worlds have been turned upside down in different ways. My family owns a small business and both my husband and I reached out in this group and in the Jewish Dads group to find help over the last few months for things like a banker to help us with the PPP, help with parenting young kids during this crazy time, and sourcing PPE. You have come through for us in huge ways on every level. We had no idea how much social media would help us in the ways that you came through. For years, I have poured my heart and soul into growing my practice from scratch and planned for many things, but not for a pandemic to stop it in its tracks. If you know me personally, then you understand that it’s my third child and how much I love what I do. Because of you, even though we were temporarily closed and had no income, I was able to find a way to take care of my employees so that they could pay rent and put food on their families’ tables. Because of you, we were able to find the protective gear that we desperately need to safely get going again. Since we are a small operation, we couldn’t find anyone willing to sell us things we needed in such small quantities. I am a healthcare provider, but Amazon doesn’t recognize my license as essential in the state of Georgia so we couldn’t even order paper towels, let alone proper disinfecting agents. My own professional organizations were unable to help but this amazing Jewish community helped connect us to people who were able to get us everything we needed. Total strangers dropping off pieces of PPE at my office and my home. You came through for us in big ways and we will forever be grateful. We are so unbelievably thankful for all of you who went out on a limb to make the right connections for us. We are blown away by your kindness. We hope to do the same for many of you and take care of our community in the future. Thank you Jewish Atlanta!

2. The opportunity for a front-row seat to see Bruce Springsteen on Broadway.

After the longest period of time in my life without live music or theater, to lock eyes with my absolute favorite musician while he sang my favorite song (“Thunder Road”) was just beyond words. My brother is an actor and this experience made me feel so very hopeful that his light will get to shine on stage to a full house again soon.

3. The doctors, scientists, and nurses who have given so selflessly and worked so hard this year. I have never felt more grateful in my life than when my six-year-old daughter was vaccinated. I am hopeful for more developments so we can breathe that same sigh of relief for my three-year-old son soon!

4. My children. These resilient little creatures who survived “computer school” and have started “normal” activities again. It’s not lost on me that we were privileged to have a friend who is a Broadway dancer making up a weekly Zoom dance class just for my kid. It’s also not lost on me how incredibly lonely that was for her and it fills my soul to see her running around in ballet slippers in a room with other little girls. We recently went to the zoo, and it was amazing to watch my son’s eyes light up

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in wonder as we went around on the carousel. A treat for any kid, sure, but he hadn’t been on a ride since before he could remember! All of these little things I used to take for granted (walking around the grocery store or a trip to Target) are new and exciting to him! What a thrill.

5. My husband. He’s always helped behind the scenes, but this year Josh resigned from his amazing tech job with even better benefits to take on a real role at our practice. He’s worked hard to exponentially grow our small business and I’m proud of him for taking such a risk. When I missed my family and it wasn’t safe for us to fly, he planned a crazy road trip and rented an RV and drove straight to Connecticut to see them. Since our family all lives out-of-town, juggling a business and two small children on our own can make you feel like you’re the ringleader in a circus, but I’m so grateful to have such a loving and fun partner to share this life with!

6. Technology. I’ve got a love-hate relationship with all of this virtual stuff, but I’m truly grateful for it. I can help tune hearing aids for patients who are immunocompromised from the comfort and safety of their own homes, our parents can read a bedtime story to our kids over our Portal, and we can have trivia nights with groups of our friends who live a million miles away.

7. Teachers! Wow, I have never been more grateful for teachers in my entire life.

I’m so thankful for those teachers, especially at the Epstein School, who care for and love my kids like they are their own. I have always appreciated educators, but after even one day of Zoom school, I can’t thank those teachers enough for what they do for the little ones I love the most. My daughter’s first preschool teacher, Lisa Furie, FaceTimed my kids and her children even read books to them in the early days of the pandemic. Miss Lisa owed us nothing. Avital had moved on to elementary school, but she has a big heart and she was there for my kids when they needed her most. It’s a kindness I won’t soon forget.

8. Chanukah always reminds me to find light in the darkness. It’s a reminder to me to take pause in the morning and take a breath of gratitude for the smallest things that bring me joy. A hot cup of coffee before the kids are awake, my daughter’s grin with a gap from her first lost tooth, my husband’s deep laugh when we share a joke, a snuggle from my dogs and my son’s pride when he can put his shoes on all by himself.

Melissa Wikoff, Au.D. is the founder and director of Audiology at Peachtree Hearing.

YOU MAKE MIRACLES

THE ATL ANTA JEWISH FEDERATION IS DEEPLY GRATEFUL FOR YOUR SUPPORT — A MIRACLE IN ITS OWN RIGHT. THIS ALLOWS US TO CARE FOR, CONNECT, AND STRENGTHEN OUR JEWISH COMMUNIT Y. THIS YEAR, AS YOU LIGHT THE MENORAH, KNOW THAT YOUR GENEROSIT Y CREATES MODERN MIRACLES IN ATL ANTA AND AROUND THE WORLD. HAPPY HANUKKAH!

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 73

CHANUKAH

Atlanta Jewish Times Staff Wishes Our Community

Happy Chanukah

From Our AJT Family to Yours

Kaylene Ladinsky Happy Chanukah, Jewish Atlanta!

I sent out an invite a few weeks ago asking community contacts and leadership to submit a community Chanukah message that includes eight things they are thankful for. The response was amazing, with one of my favorite parts being all the creativity that so many put into the submissions. There were insightful thoughts, bullets, numbers, acronyms and even word art. What an amazing community we have. So, right off the bat, I want to start with one of the eight things that I am most thankful for: all of you, our Jewish Atlanta community.

It’s our readers and advertisers who inspire the entire production of the Atlanta Jewish Times; whether it’s publishing an issue or hosting an event, I do it because I believe in all of you.

I must also give a shout-out to Michael A. Morris, the owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, and my boss. This man works day and night, going to fundraisers, continually raising awareness of important community philanthropy, and making sure that we have the means to offer an enhanced community calendar and Jewish Life Festival.

Our professional family at the AJT is definitely on my top eight things that I am thankful for. We work long hours and must work closely together every day to keep the creativity always moving in a productive direction.

Now, the last five things that I am most thankful for, will be more direct and to the point, and not in any order of importance: 5. Lou Ladinsky, my loving and supportive husband. It is only with you by my side that I am able to accomplish each day.

6. I have kids that are 19 and 22 years old and I am thankful that all of them have maintained their relationships for over a year. I am so thankful that they are able to form lasting bonds with a significant other and be comfortable and happy in their relationship.

7. Yes, it’s about my kids again. I am so thankful I have a son who is on his way to becoming a doctor. I have a stepdaughter with a degree in neuroscience, starting her master’s in epidemiology; and my stepson is close to getting his political science degree, while starting his own business. They are all doing so awesome!

Number 8 is probably the least in importance compared to all seven others: it’s my home. I love my home. It’s our empty-nester home that we just got during the COVID pandemic, but it’s special to me and is definitely our forever home.

I know that it will serve our needs, as well as those of our family and even our future family members-to-be.

Thanksgiving is an amazing way to start this Chanukah.

Kaylene Ladinsky is the editor and managing publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times.

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CHANUKAH Daniel Elkind

Lilli Jennison

I’m thankful for a lot of things. My new nephew, Leo, is at the top of the list. I’ve been able to watch him grow up before my eyes this year and it’s the most moving and terrifying thing to witness; I want him to grow, and at the same time I want him to stay this tiny and curious forever. I leaned on my family a lot this year, and I’m beyond grateful for their support and rachmones. I’ve also gained a new family here at the AJT. I’ve learned a thousand little things from the writers I’ve worked with — and some big things, too. Every week, I look forward to experiencing the thoughtfulness of Dave Schechter’s column and the variety of Bob Bahr’s pop culture trivia. When I read a Chana Shapiro sentence, it’s impossible not to hear Chana’s voice. (I want to be Marcia Jaffe when I grow up.)

I’m proud of the work we’ve done this year and grateful for the support of the AJT staff, who welcomed me not only to the office, but also to Atlanta and the Jewish community at large. Above all, I’m grateful that you continue to trust us with your stories.

Happy Thanksgivuka!

1. I am thankful for my family, including my friends and pets. My family is always there for me, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people in my life.

2. I am thankful for my and my family’s health. We do all we can to stay healthy and it is something to be truly thankful for.

3. I am thankful to be the creative director at the AJT! I love my job and love designing for Jewish Atlanta.

4. I am thankful to be the youth group advisor at Temple Sinai. Putting on events for the kids of Jewish Atlanta is so rewarding.

5. I am thankful that I was able to travel this past summer. I went to Nashville, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Disney World.

6. I am thankful for being able to get together in (small) groups again. December 2019, I had a huge party for my 25th birthday, and then April 2020 I had to have Passover via Zoom. It is nice that we can gather in groups now. I am still not ready for a big party but might be soon.

7. I am thankful for COVID vaccines because it allowed me to travel and get together with family and friends again.

8. I am thankful for the Braves winning the World Series! Last time they won I was a one-year-old!

Daniel Elkind is the associate editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Eight things I am thankful for.

Lilli Jennison is the creative director for the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Happy Chanukah!

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 75

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CHANUKAH Michal Bonell Chanukah celebrates many different things, such as the victory of the faithful over the mighty and the miracle of light through the darkness.

Mostly, I think Chanukah celebrates HOPE! In times of struggle, we all need hope to help us through. These days are no exception, with climate change challenges, with political unrest, with a pandemic still raging across the world, we need hope to help us find the strength to move ahead, take a stand and make changes for a brighter tomorrow. Below is a lovely poem I found about hope.

Where Hope Comes From It comes from heartache.

And it grows like the lone sapling from the ashes of loss.

And it carves its way out of the heart of tragedy and its heavy cost.

And it rises like a soldier thought lost returning home to his mother.

And it smiles like the calm, clear sky following weeks of one storm after another.

And maybe this is why when Pandora opened the box that carried such calamities which inflicted all of mankind, gentle hope emerged from it too.

What else helps us overcome suffering if not by giving hope a chance to bloom.

- Nikita Gill Michal Bonell is senior account manager and team supervisor at the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Brenda Gelfand I love this quote by Rachel Goldstein, “At this time of year, when the sun is most hidden, the holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the rays of hope and light. Often, it is through simple and unrecognized miracles that we are able to feel the warmth of hope and light.”

This year, for me, was full of rays of hope and light and many miracles! It is a miracle that my family members are healthy and have not been terribly affected by the wrath of COVID-19 this past year. I have also been blessed with the marriage of my daughter and the engagement of my son, both of whom are so in love and have found their true soulmates. Having a loving family, wonderful friends, food on the table, a safe place to live, employment and freedom are all things that are simple and unrecognized miracles that bring my life hope, light and happiness. Happy Hanukkah and remember to enjoy and cherish all the simple rays of hope and light that are miracles in your life too!

Brenda Gelfand is senior account manager for the Atlanta Jewish Times.

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CHANUKAH Diana Cole

Kyra Goldman

This year, with Chanukah being so close to Thanksgiving, I am thankful for my …

1. Husband: could not have made it through the last 21+ years without you.

2. Children: they are growing and becoming amazing young adults. I know they will be a great asset to society.

3. Education: I am grateful that my children are back in school after a year of being virtual.

4. Family: I am grateful for my dad, stepmom and my brother (plus my sister-in-law and nephews).

5. Health: our family has had some health issues during 2020, and we are still here and healthy.

6. Friends: I would not have made it through the past few years without you.

7. Pets: if you know me, you know I adore my four furry felines. They bring so much happiness to my life.

8. My Job: I get so much fulfillment from helping the Atlanta Jewish community stay connected.

I have only been celebrating Chanukah for a few years since I came to Judaism as an adult. I didn’t grow up keeping Chanukah traditions, so I may not have the same nostalgic feeling about sufganiyot and dreidels that others do, but I have certainly been enjoying making these traditions a part of my life now. It is a blessing to get to discover the ancient things that hold new meaning for me.

I have already made sweet memories.

For my first Chanukah, a friend sent me eight presents in the mail. I felt the love that went into making each night special for me.

This year I celebrated what we called “Friendsgivingkkah” with a few friends on the first night.

We ate Thanksgiving foods and latkes and lit our chanukiyot together. Now, as I watch the candles burn down, I think about our history and survival and how we are living miracles. I think about the importance of kindness and being lights in this world. I certainly think about my deep connection to Israel, and I think of you all, and how grateful I am to be part of such a warm and supportive community.

Diana Cole is the website, content and community coordinator at the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Kyra Goldman is the administrative coordinator at the Atlanta Jewish Times.

Happy Chanukah!

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CHANUKAH

2021 Chanukah Art Contest Menorahs and dreidels were the most common images we received from our contributors for this year’s Chanukah art contest. We were blown away not only by the volume of the submissions but also by the colorful, unique interpretations of the holiday and the tender age of many of the artists. Here we spotlight the winners and other artists who submitted their work, ranging in age from 5 to 64. The cover image, “Window to the Soul,” was drawn by 15-year-old Gabriella Schakett, and our Braves-loving Grand Prize winner, Gavriel Perez, is just 9. We look forward to seeing and sharing your art again next year!

GRAND PRIZE WINNER z Gavriel Pere

haela Perez Parent: Mic Age: 9 h t Up Chanuka Braves Ligh

Gabriella Schakett

Parent: Dawn Schakett Age: 15 Window to the Soul

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Cover Winner

CHANUKAH

10 and Up

Tobi Williams

FIRST PLACE

Parents: Hannah & Joel Williams Age: 13 Dreidel Dance

10 and Up Hanna Dettman

Strassman Parents: Al and Charlotte Age: 64 nukah Moonlit Menorah for Cha

Ruth Liat Frank

Parents: Tal and Pia Koslow Frank Age: 9 Chanukah Happiness

FIRST PLACE

9 and Under

FIRST PLACE

Lia Flusberg

Parents: Keren Fisher and Ben Flusberg Age: 7 Painted Glass Dreidel

9 and Under

FIRST PLACE

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 79

CHANUKAH

Ayelet Hershen

Ashley Reddersen

dersen

Parents: Rabbi Joshua and Carrie Hear shen Age: 12 Glow of the Lights

is Red Parents: Melissa and Chr Age: 13 A Colorful Hanukkah

Bella Ebrams

Parents: Tzeryl and Eli Ebrams Age: 10 Miracle

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Bella Spizman

Parents: Jaime and Justin Spizman Age: 7 Chanukah Lights

CHANUKAH

Benjamin Perkins

Parent: Shari Perkins Age: 9 Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah

Coby Ebrams

Parents: Tzeryl and Eli Ebrams Age: 8 Its a Medical Miracle

Daniel Weinstein

Dani Spizman

Parents: Jaime and Justin Spizman Age: 9 Chanukah Lights

Parents: Doug Weinstein & Sheryl Chen Age: 6 Colorful Menorah

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 81

Happy Chanukah

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ART Threads of Ritual on Display at Marcus Hillel Center Hillels of Taylorsville, a small town in the northwest Georgia recent- corner of Georgia, says that the work in this ly welcomed exhibition “represents a complex layering “Threads of Ritu- of handcraft and artistry along with a deep al,” a new instal- appreciation for the objects of daily life that lation of tallitot are a part of our faith.”

Her interest in textiles began in her and challah covers by Ruth Si- father’s interior design studio, where, as a mon McRae, to young child, she found herself surrounded its Marcus Hillel by beautiful fabrics. Inspired by the fashion Flora Rosefsky Center at Emory of the 1960s, McRae studied painting at the Skowhegan School of Painting and SculpUniversity.

In the Center’s sanctuary, filled with ture in Maine and the Philadelphia College of Art in Pennsylvania. But natural light, hang eighteen it was in 1970 that she purof McRae’s delicate tallitot. chased a 100-year-old loom Attached to the ceiling with and taught herself to weave, hangers, pieces like “Underfocusing on pictorial tapessea,” “Birds and Branches” tries. and “Date Palm Shibori” After moving to Georseem to be floating throughgia in 1978, McRae earned a out the sacred space. Accorddegree from Georgia Tech to ing to Hillels of Georgia CEO pursue a career in industrial Elliot Karp, “the pieces use textiles and floor covering deevocative colors and dynamsign. Her cousin pointed out ic texture to tell the stories Ruth Simon McRae grew and histories of the Jewish up surrounded by beautiful that the complex handmade textiles she created would people.” fabrics in her father’s translate well into tallitot.

McRae, who lives in interior design studio.

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Tallitot hang on either side of the sanctuary’s permanent art collection.

Challah cover installation begins with “India,” stencil and block print on shantung silk with cotton lining.

“I started with autobiographical themes, or more simply themes from my life,” McRae writes, “the landscape in our backyard, the garden, studies in white to express a feeling of holiness, watercolor painting. From there I moved on to tallitot that were inspired by various materials and color combinations. I have a passion for the warmth and feel of textiles and am drawn to handicrafts and the textile arts. Textiles have layers of meaning, and I like to use tallitot and challah covers as canvases for expressing stories, histories and rituals.”

McRae says that she aims to create emotion with surprising color relationships

enhanced by shape and texture. “Each piece was produced over a fairly long period of time, each was iterative, with one material or section added in response to the last, like a painting,” she added.

For over a decade, the Marcus Hillel Center has hosted rotating exhibits of Judaica, which Karp says fulfills the mission of the Center as a place to explore Jewish arts, culture, spirituality and community.

The exhibit continues through Dec. 20 and is open and free to the public, 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding all Jewish holidays. Visit www.HillelsofGeorgia. org for more information. ì

Chai Style Art

Photo by Howard Mendel // A pensive Jerry Siegel relaxes in his study, with (left) his own “House/Home,” (oil stick on canvas) and “Stewart’s Classic, Double Chocolate Pudding” by Cedric Smith.

At Home with Photography Legend Jerry Siegel Selma, Alabama. native Jerry Siegel is best known for chronicling the South, specifically Alabama’s Black Belt region, so named for its rich, dark Marcia soil. He is also Caller Jaffe known for his portraits and the two books he has published. His poignant yet calming photography now hangs on the walls of fine art museums and corporate spaces.

“I’m drawn to the region, highlighting the stagnation, alongside its people and the curious,” Siegel said of his regional focus. “It is a contemporary view of the small towns and rural life.” His first monograph, “Facing South, Portraits of

Southern Artists,” featured 100 subjects.

He lives in a midtown Peachtree Street condominium, surrounded by wall-towall art, with wife Patti — a maven in her own right — who has long volunteered in the arts and served on the boards of two theaters. (Patti is the executive director of ArtsATL.) Siegel explained, “I am a strong believer in place, and how a region and community shapes who you are. The place I know is the Black Belt region of the American South. It is how I was raised, as a Southerner and as a Jew in a small town, instilled with belief in family and tradition that motivates me to document the place I call home.”

Take a rare tour of Siegel’s own urban home space.

Marcia: How did you get started in photography?

Jerry: I was a “terrible” traditional

college student, dropped out, went home to Selma to regroup, and then graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta. I worked for Arington Hendley, my mentor, for five years. In 1986, I opened my studio, shooting for advertising and corporate clients. The Boys and Girls Club and the Atlanta Hawks were longtime clients. Product photography was a large part of my commercial work. In 2001, I started shooting with digital cameras for commercial work. This change shifted my personal work to more of a focus on color images.

Marcia: You’ve authored some impressive books.

Jerry: “Facing South” was my first monograph (2012), published by University of Alabama Press with the Jule Collins Smith Museum in Auburn, Ala. It’s 100 portraits from seven southern states.

“Black Belt Color” was published by the

Georgia Museum of Art in 2017.

Marcia: I have seen your work displayed in law firms. Who are some of your corporate clients?

Jerry: I have shot photos for many corporate clients. My fine artwork has been collected by King & Spalding LLP, Morris, Manning & Martin LLP, Troutman Sanders LLP, Arnall Golden & Gregory, Boyd Collar Knight LLP, Staubach, and Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta.

Marcia: You have emotionally documented the history of Selma’s Jewish community.

Jerry: I rely on intuition and responsibility to the subject for all my work. I pay attention to what’s authentic, what resonates with me and how I grew up. In 2006, I started the project “Ten Jews Left,” as that was all that remained of a oncethriving congregation. Selma has had three Jewish mayors, and Broad Street ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 85

ART

Photo by Howard Mendel // Patti and Jerry with their rescue greyhound Petey.

Background painting by John Folsom, “Magnolia Gardens Pathway,” 2004.

was once lined with Jewish merchants.

During the 1930s, there were more than 100 families on the register of the Reform temple. The Jewish population dwindled as the kids grew up, went off to college and didn’t return. Although there’s no longer a rabbi, they continue to hold services for the holidays and occasional special services.

Photo by Siegel // “Temple Mishkan Israel,” Selma, 2004

Marcia: Name some of your famous subjects.

Jerry: Colin Powell, Jimmy Carter, Hank Aaron, Jane Fonda; CEOs of the American Cancer Society, Georgia Power, Delta; many artists and their families.

Patti: Jerry’s talent in producing striking portraits is making people feel at ease and comfortable during the session.

It’s at that moment that he captures their essence.

Marcia: Patti, how do you artistically dovetail with Jerry?

Patti: We met while working with various clients in the ad world. Then he wooed me with Thai food. After a long career in advertising and marketing, I had the opportunity to combine my passion and my skills as the executive director of ArtsATL. We’re an arts journalism nonprofit providing the most comprehensive coverage of the arts in metro Atlanta on our site and in our weekly newsletter.

Marcia: Every wall in your home is replete with fascinating art.

Jerry: Most of the art is contemporary, and most by artists we know, with a few exceptions. Many are artists that I photographed: Benjamin Jones, Larry Walker, Rocio Rodriguez, Herbert Creecy, Amber Boardman, Elizabeth Lide, Helen Durant. Knowing the artist makes the pieces more meaningful to us. We are especially fond of the rope structure by Susan Beallor-Snyder (Maine) that takes up the depth of the whole wall. Then there’s

Photo by Siegel // “Gametime,” Selma, Ala., 2009

(Left) Photo by Howard Mendel // Siegel photographed this headless marionette, found on the railroad tracks in Castleberry Hill in 1983. The folk-art hand-painted chair, “Chairish the Future,” is by Lorenzo Scott.

ART Tom Nakashima, Clark Walker, John Folsom, Larry Jens Anderson, Crawford Gillis, Beverly Buchanan, and more … a really eclectic and diverse mix of artists — even Navajo rugs, pottery and a drum.

Marcia: What can we expect from you in the future?

Jerry: I just finished a public art project in Selma, “Heart of Selma,” which features portraits of people in Selma doing positive things and making it a better place to live. I’ve continued to work on “COVID DIARIES.” I’m no longer self-isolating in Selma, but I continue to shoot there in the same way, avoiding people and interior locations. I continue to work on the artist series, with hopes of a second edition soon.

Siegel’s photography is part of the collections of 14 museums, including Atlanta’s High Museum, which owns his portrait of Michael Shapiro, the museum’s director, who retired in 2014. “Chromatics,” an exhibition at Spalding Nix Fine Art, ran through Nov. 12.

Photo by Siegel // “Hands & Reins,” Perry County, Ala., 2017

Photos by Howard Mendel // (above) One of the couple’s favorite pieces is a natural manilla rope sculpture by Susan Beallor-Snyder (Maine), “Flowers and Pinwheels” (2013). (right) Siegel has authored two books: “Facing South, Portraits of Southern Artists,” (2012) and “Black Belt Color” (2017). He expects to publish more soon. (left) The diptych in the master bedroom, “Interior – Exterior Spirits I & Interior – Exterior Spirits II (Metamorphic Series),” is by Larry Walker.

CALENDAR

DECEMBER 1-15

ALL OF DECEMBER

AJC Black/Jewish Coalition, local rabbis, elected officials, musical guests and a menorah lighting. RSVP at https://bit.ly/3nxz0Kb.

Dino Safari, … A Walk Thru Adventure - Select Days. Grab a prehistoric passport and join over 30 giant moving dinosaurs in our walk thru safari on a globetrotting expedition at Dino Safari, a Dino adventure for the whole family. Visit https://bit.ly/3qaVkek to purchase tickets.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1 Donut Shop Tour with PJ Library Atlanta -- 4 to 5 p.m. PJ Library is hitting the road for our 2021 Donut Shop Tour! Each day of Hanukkah, PJ Library will stop in a different Atlanta neighborhood. Donuts will be available for purchase and all who pre-register will receive a bag of Hanukkah goodies to be picked up at the tour stop of your choosing. Preregister at https://bit.ly/3c7bsW5.

Menorah Lighting at Duluth Festival Center – 7 to 8 p.m. Join the Chabad of Gwinnett for a Menorah Lighting, Chanukah gifts, and joyous Chanukah songs. Visit https://bit. ly/3olv3aLto get more information.

Dunwoody Village Menorah Lighting – 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Celebrate with Chabad of Georgia in Dunwoody Village for a Chanukah celebration! Enjoy chocolate gelt, music, traditional songs, Chanukah treats, dreidels, activities for the kids, and more. Visit https://bit.ly/3wQetDR to get more information.

Annual Menorah Lighting Ceremony—6 to 7 p.m. The City of Acworth invites everyone to join us for our 10th Annual Menorah Lighting Ceremony on the fourth night of Chanukah. Rabbi Zalman Charytan from the Chabad Jewish Center will officiate the lighting with Mayor Tommy Allegood. Go to https://bit.ly/308ias9 to learn more.

Menorah Mobile 2021 – 6 to 8 p.m.

Each night of Chanukah the clergy of Temple Emanu-El will be in a new location around the city to light the Chanukiah, pass out gelt, and sing some Chanukah songs. Visit https:// bit.ly/3D9G2ub to see where they are today.

Light up the JCC – Hanukkah Celebration -- 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. Celebrate Hanukkah at the MJCCA with an outdoor celebration in the front Courtyard. Visit https://bit.ly/3CjrpTX for more information.

Atlanta Solidarity Community Chanukah -- 6:30 p.m Atlanta Jewish community and allies “Shine a Light on Antisemitism” at The Temple and online. This intergenerational, interfaith gathering will feature ADL, the

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

www.atlantajewishconnector.com

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

88 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Menorah Mobile 2021 – 6 to 8 p.m.

Each night of Chanukah the clergy of Temple Emanu-El will be in a new location around the city to light the Chanukiah, pass out gelt, and sing some Chanukah songs. Visit https:// bit.ly/3D9G2ub to see where they are today.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2 Donut Shop Tour with PJ Library Atlanta -- 3 to 4 p.m. PJ Library is hitting the road for our 2021 Donut Shop Tour! Each day of Hanukkah, PJ Library will stop in a different Atlanta neighborhood. Preregister at https:// bit.ly/3osqKun.

Love & Light Chanukah Celebration – 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friendship Circle of Atlanta for an inclusive community to celebrate the festival of lights together! The Love & Light Chanukah Celebration takes place at the OpenAir Barn at the MJCCA. Visit https:// bit.ly/3CbI5wm to learn more.

Ponce City Market Menorah Lighting – 6 to 8:30 p.m Ponce City Market and Chabad Intown for a traditional menorah lighting ceremony on the Yard beginning at 6:00pm. Celebrate the Festival of Lights with an evening of food and drinks, activities for the kids and music. Visit https://bit. ly/2YBol7C to learn more.

Drink & Dreidel Chanukah Party – 7 p.m. Menorah’s going to get lit! So are we! Who can say no to latkes and donuts?! We also have an open bar and custom cocktail menu as we drink and dreidel! Chabad Young Professionals of Buckhead and Brookhaven and purchase tickets at https://bit. ly/30lNrIC.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3 Roswell Menorah Lighting – 5 to 8 p.m.

Join Chabad of North Fulton and light the Roswell Menorah. There will be a grand Menorah lighting, Chanukah sing-a-long, holiday treats for kids, delicious Chanukah treats, music, and Dreidels for all! Learn more at https://bit.ly/30phor7.

Hall County Public Menorah Lighting -- 5 p.m. Join Chabad of Hall County for the first-ever Public Menorah Lighting in Downtown Gainesville!

We will celebrate Chanukah and light up the night with Jewish pride. Visit https://bit.ly/3qXaB2P to register.

Cub Club: Li’l Shabbat from the Garden (virtual) – 9:30 to 9:50 a.m. Join Rabbi Micah and The Davis Academy for a special sing-along as we get ready to welcome Shabbat. bring in the ruach (spirit) of Shabbat with interactive songs and dances too. Visit https://bit.ly/3eMHwAd to RSVP. Donut Shop Tour with PJ Library Atlanta -- 3 to 4 p.m. PJ Library is hitting the road for our 2021 Donut Shop Tour! Each day of Hanukkah, PJ Library will stop in a different Atlanta neighborhood. Preregister at https:// bit.ly/3qweiMC.

CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES

Chanukah Celebration in the Park – 5 to 8 p.m. Join Chabad of North Fulton at Newtown Park for a Menorah lighting, entertainment, and refreshments. Get more information at https://bit.ly/3n5hVHi.

Torah Reading Miketz

Tot Shabbat – 5 to 6:30 p.m. Join Congregation Etz Chaim for Tot Shabbat Friday night. Learn more at https:// bit.ly/396ku42.

Friday, December 3, 2021 light candles at 5:10 p.m.

Saturday, December 4, 2021 Shabbat ends at 6:09 p.m.

Torah Reading Vayigash Friday, December 10, 2021 light candles at time 5:11 p.m.

Chanukah Party – 5 to 8 p.m. Join Congregation Dor Tamid for the Annual Chanukah party. There will be dinner, music, dancing, and Menorah making. Learn more at https://bit. ly/3C4y3Nv.

Saturday, December 11, 2021 Shabbat ends at time 6:10 p.m.

Light Up the Lot Chanukah Congregational Celebration – 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Bring your menorah to Temple Sinai for a beautiful display of lights and join us for the fun. Food trucks (dinner AND donuts!), silent disco, cocktail lounge, light show, fire pit and s’mores, dreidel casino and more… there’s something for everyone!

There may even be a few surprises.

RSVP at https://bit.ly/3ktf5u4.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4 Tot Shabbat – 11 a.m. Filled with music.

Visit https://bit.ly/3oD6feH for more information.

Chanukah Google Trivia Night – 8 p.m.

Join the New Toco Shul for an evening of fun. Bring your phone, come alone, or form a team. Register at https://bit.ly/3DcQssT.

FLAME - Young Jewish Professionals Chanukah Party – 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.

Chanukah at The Shed @ Ponce City Market with Young Professional Jews in their '20’s and '30’s! Followed by an epic afterparty. Visit https://bit. ly/2YRNwmF.

Donut Shop Tour with PJ Library Atlanta -- 3 to 4 p.m. PJ Library is hitting the road for our 2021 Donut Shop Tour! Each day of Hanukkah, PJ Library will stop in a different Atlanta neighborhood. Preregister at https:// bit.ly/3qyz6Da. Chanukah Lights of Unity – 4 to 5 p.m. Join Chabad of Gwinnett for a Grand Menorah Lighting, the Great Gelt Drop, live music by Tevyeh and Chanukah treats. Special guest: Mr. Les Brown, World-Renowned Motivational speaker. Visit https://bit. ly/3wQuWrLto.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5 FALL in Love with Camp Festival – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. MJCCA Day Camps celebrate fall, friends, and all things CAMP! Weber School Band, Davis Academy Band, songs with Rabbi G, a magic show, and more! Visit https:// bit.ly/3c4Sb7O.

Decatur Square Menorah Lighting – 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Chabad Intown Celebrates Chanukah Menorah Lighting in Decatur Square! Enjoy music, entertainment, dreidels, doughnuts, hot latkes, crafts for the kids and more!

Visit https://bit.ly/3nesic9.

Chanukah Party and Open House – 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Congregation Etz Chaim Chanukah Open House for new and prospective members. Visit https://bit.ly/3ksEh3T.

Hadassah Hanukkah Chai Tea – 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Hadassah Greater Atlanta, Virtual Hanukkah Chai Tea. Join our special guest, Naomi Adler, Hadassah CEO/Executive Director featuring Babette Donaldson. RSVP at https://bit. ly/3om2ytx.

Chanukah Celebration at State Farm Arena – 5 to 6 p.m. Join Chabad of Georgia for a Chanukah Celebration at State Farm Arena! Pre-Game Menorah Lighting at Center Court and Kosher food options! Purchase tickets at https://bit.ly/3c1d1Vs.

Menorah Mobile 2021 – 6 to 8 p.m.

Each night of Chanukah the clergy of Temple Emanu-El will light the Chanukiah, pass out gelt, and sing some Chanukah songs. Visit https:// bit.ly/3D9G2ub to see where they are today.

Shinshinim Funukkah – 2 to 4 p.m.

Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta for an inclusive Hanukkah party with the Schoenbaum Shinshinim.

There will be 8 game stations, Israeli music and dancing, and sufganiyot.

Visit https://bit.ly/3F4J9Ef.

Chanukah Bash – 5 to 7 p.m. Join Congregation Gesher L’Torah for latkes, music, games, and more! RSVP at https://bit.ly/31MUiLn.

Donut Shop Tour with PJ Library Atlanta -- 3 to 4 p.m. PJ Library is hitting the road for our 2021 Donut Shop Tour! Preregister at https://bit. ly/3c4ZAUn.

Menorah Mobile 2021 – 6 to 8 p.m.

Each night of Chanukah the clergy of Temple Emanu-El will be in a new location around the city to light the Chanukiah, pass out gelt, and sing some Chanukah songs. Visit https:// bit.ly/3D9G2ub to see where they are today.

Menorah Lighting on the Marietta Square Stage – 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Rabbi Joseph Prass of Congregation Ner Tamid, featuring Hanukkah music, PJ Library, hot chocolate and doughnuts! Visit https://bit.ly/3nkEJ63for.

Shine a Light on Antisemitism – Hanukkah Event – 7 to 8:30 p.m. Join Atlanta Israel Coalition for a community-wide Hanukkah celebration as we shine a light on the recent rise in antisemitism and delegitimization of Israel. Visit https://bit.ly/30emG97.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 6 Still Traveling: Fabulous Finland – 2 to 3:15 p.m. MJCCA and Zoom off to this overlooked, Scandinavian treasure with trip leader James Sokol for five guided, virtual “trips” with local guide Tuula, who will share her passion for and insights about her homeland.

Tickets at https://bit.ly/3kukqRH. Psalmthing for Everyone with Rabbi Dorsch – 7 to 8:30 p.m. What is the most popular book of the Bible read and studied by Jews and non-Jews alike? Without question, it is the Book of Psalms. Why? How it really does have “psalmthing” for everyone with Congregation Etz Chaim. Register at https://bit.ly/3kw4i2l.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 89

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7 Tot Time at TBT – 10 to 11 a.m. Temple Beth Tikvah. We will have outside play (weather permitting) and inside play. Meet other moms, dads, grandparents and caregivers while your child interacts with others. RSVP https://bit.ly/3Fd5Nem.

Emmy Award–winning comedy writer David Javerbaum. God provides a 21st-century spin on life’s many problems. Updating some of his Biblical teachings for the modern audience. MJCCA and purchase tickets at https://bit.ly/3F2zI84.

Club Hertz Live with Gold Shades – 7:30 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Gold Shades in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit. ly/3cCtcZTto purchase tickets.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10 The Kabbalah of the Matrix – 8 to 9:30 p.m. Discover the truth of reality as exposed by the teachings of Kabbalah. RSVP with Intown Jewish Academy at https://bit.ly/3Cbp4Kq.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8

In Person Party! – 7 to 9 p.m. Join JWC Atlanta and Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta for an in-person party! Featuring jewelry, food, wine, and dancing!! Special guest Isaac Levy of Yvel designs.Ttickets at https://bit. ly/2YCzqFw. Club Hertz Live with Jay Hunter Morris – 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Jay Hunter Morris in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit. ly/3wOkxwA to purchase tickets.

THURSDAY¸ DECEMBER 9

Acoustic Shabbat Cafe’ – Alon’s Bakery (Dunwoody) – 6 to 7 p.m. Join Rabbi Glusman from MJCCA, Drew Cohen, and other local musicians for a soulful evening of music, prayer, and words of inspiration in celebration of Shabbat. If you plan to bring a large group, a table will be reserved for you. Visit https://bit.ly/3FvMGwo

90 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Vodka & Latkes Dance– 8 to 10:30 p.m.

Join Congregation Etz Chaim as they Rock the Night away while we munch on Latkes and Vodka while listening to the the Gray Matters Band. Purchase tickets at https://bit. ly/2ZPPZ0U. Club Hertz Live with Cody Bolden and the Roadhands – 8 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Cody Bolden in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit.ly/3oGIoL1 to purchase tickets.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12

Club Hertz Live with Mike Kinnebrew & Haddon Kime – 8 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Mike Kinnebrew & Haddon Kime in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit. ly/3np7qi6 to purchase tickets.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11 Story Time with Rabbi Jordan – 9:15 to 9:45 a.m. Join Rabbi Jordan from Congregation Dor Tamid for Story Time with on Facebook. Visit https://bit. ly/3xfpywO to get the link.

Club Hertz Live with Moms Unleash on Christmas – 2:30 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Moms Unleash in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit.ly/3FnGGou

markable Life in Show Business – 7:30 p.m. At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Join the MJCCA as this EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner shares his story in his own words. Visit https://bit.ly/3Cv8d5nto.

Club Hertz Live with Ozello – 7:30 p.m.

Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Ozello in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit.ly/3kOtP73 to purchase tickets.

Concert Against Hate – 8 p.m. ADL In Concert Against Hate invites you to a night of music, community and celebration packed with spectacular, can’t-miss performances from acclaimed stars. Register at https://bit. ly/3C2oAq9.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14 Re-Discovering the Land of Israel with the Atlanta Israel Coalition – 9 to 10:30 a.m. A virtual tour of Israel with tour guide David Sussman. We will find out so much on this tour as we talk about the final moments of the great revolt and the fall of this desert fortress. Visit https://bit.ly/2XS4XTG to register.

Tot Shabbat – 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. Celebrate Shabbat at Congregation Etz Chaim on Saturday mornings with other families with young children There will be songs, Torah stories, crafts, and challah. Learn more at https://bit.ly/3zP0UEk/.

David Javerbaum, Author of Book of Pslams – 8 to 9 p.m. Just in time for the Apocalypse comes a new Biblical scripture from God and thirteen-time

to purchase tickets.

Play Tamid—9:30 to 11 a.m. Play Tamid is led by Rabbi Jordan from Congregation Dor Tamid. Enjoy crafts, songs, fun activities, and more. Learn more at https://bit.ly/3BfP8nH. Club Hertz Live with Anita Aysola – 2:30 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Anita Aysola in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit.ly/3wTKaMx to purchase tickets.

Storytime in the Park -- 4:15 p.m. Enjoy an afternoon of stories, music, hot chocolate, and crafts in the park! Join Davis Academy Cub Club, In the City Camps and PJ Library. Event will take place at Morgan Falls Park Pavilion.

Visit https://bit.ly/3DyP6ZP to RSVP Mel Brooks, All About Me! My Re-

Psalmthing for Everyone with Rabbi Dorsch – 7 to 8:30 p.m. What is the most popular book of the Bible read and studied by Jews and non-Jews alike? Without question, it is the Book of Psalms. Why? How it really does have “psalmthing” for everyone with Congregation Etz Chaim. Register at https://bit.ly/3kw4i2l.

Club Hertz Live with Moms Unleash on Christmas – 7:30 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Moms Unleash in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit.ly/3qNSk8g to purchase tickets.

The Kabbalah of the Matrix – 8 to 9:30 p.m. Discover the truth of reality as exposed by the teachings of Kabbalah RSVP with Intown Jewish Academy at https://bit.ly/3Cbp4Kq.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15 Club Hertz Live with Ina Williams – 7:30 p.m. Join the Alliance Theater and welcome Ina Williams in a relaxed lounge atmosphere. Visit https://bit. ly/3HwZ1RR to purchase tickets.

Connector Chatter Directory Spotlight Corso Atlanta

www.atlantajewishconnector.com

In conversation with Tim Gary, CEO and founder of Galerie Living, parent company, to Corso Atlanta and Village Park Senior Living How long has your organization been in Atlanta?

Corso Atlanta’s parent company, Galerie Living, was founded in Atlanta in 1996.

Over the last 25-plus years, we have been grateful to serve Georgia’s seniors with award-winning community concepts, expert management, and most uniquely, creating unexpected happiness. To date, Galerie Living has designed, developed, owned and operated four brands and 10-plus senior living communities. Building upon the success of our suburban concept, Village Park Senior Living, we launched our new intown concept in 2017, Corso Atlanta. Corso Atlanta is located in Atlanta’s West Paces neighborhood, next to the William Breman Jewish Home and Aviv Rehabilitation Center.

How do you cater to the younger members of the community?

Consisting of nearly 500,000 square feet of residential and common space, Corso Atlanta’s vibrant campus creates a welcoming atmosphere for people of all ages. Every amenity is intentionally designed to be enjoyed by residents and their guests — seniors and grandkids alike.

Families are invited to join their loved one for manicures at the spa, a private dinner in the tea house, or a concert at the theater. The community is especially excited for the ice cream and creperie, which is sure to be a popular destination for afternoons spent with grandkids.

Where do you see your organization in 10 years?

Galerie Living and Corso Atlanta are continuously seeking new opportunities to elevate the senior living experience. Constructed with concrete and top-quality materials, Corso is built to stand the test of time while adapting to local needs and preferences. Building on Galerie Living’s two decades of operational excellence, Corso Atlanta looks forward to serving Atlanta’s families for years to come.

Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics

In conversation with Jodi E. Ganz, MD, managing partner How long has your organization been in Atlanta?

40 years How do you cater to the younger members of the community?

Olansky Dermatology & Aesthetics believes that healthy skin is a lifestyle for all ages and should start early. That’s why we’re a practice for the whole family, at every stage. We love educating and answering our patients’ questions on how to best maintain the health of skin, deal with skin issues as they arise, and develop personalized skincare routines. We also offer several aesthetic treatments that help maintain a youthful look and give our patients confidence as they approach key milestones in their life.

For our younger patients, that might be prom, early-career job interviews, or just a general self-confidence that comes from healthy skin.

Where do you see your organization in 10 years?

We truly believe that every person deserves healthy skin. So our mission is to always be the best dermatological medical providers we can be, and to provide quality care for the people in our community.

Alpharetta Convention and Visitors Bureau In conversation with Janet Rodgers, president and CEO

How long has your organization been in Atlanta?

The Alpharetta Convention and Visitors Bureau was created in 1998 and serves as the official destination marketing organization for the city of Alpharetta, promoting tourism and attracting visitors to all 30 of Alpharetta’s upscale and modern hotels.

The Alpharetta CVB uses innovative and targeted marketing strategies, along with sales efforts, to attract overnight visitors to the city. We do this in three key areas: • Increasing the awareness and identity of Alpharetta as a destination for the leisure and individual traveler and raising awareness of the economic importance of the visitor industry to Alpharetta by placing advertisements, writing press releases, utilizing social media and maintaining a technologically advanced website.

• Employing a variety of sales strategies to increase the number of group room nights booked in Alpharetta’s 30 hotels through attendance at tradeshows, association meetings and conferences as well as sales calls and site visits with event organizers.

• Providing leadership for the visitor industry, coordinating activities, encouraging marketing activities and partnerships, and projecting an appealing image on behalf of the city of Alpharetta.

How do you cater to the younger members of the community?

The Alpharetta CVB markets and communicates all the fun things to see and do in the beautiful city of Alpharetta. From concerts to festivals to shopping and dining, Alpharetta has so many activities and events that are tailored for younger members of the community. We also invest in many of those events to help ensure that there is a wide variety of activities that appeal to a large variety of visitors.

How does your organization help the community?

The Alpharetta Convention & Visitors Bureau offers complimentary planning services for groups such as checking hotel availability to secure the best group rate, acting as a hotel liaison to ensure requirements are met, organizing site visits, providing visitor information, assisting with transportation and logistics, referring vendors and service providers and offering publicity assistance.

ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 91

COMMUNITY The Best Money I Ever Spent

By Chana Shapiro

and Portugal. By the time we arrived in Barcelona, our fourth stop, we were hot, tired and ready for a nap. Instead, she said, “We have to get going right away as the Gaudi House closes at 2:00 p.m.”

I couldn’t believe it!

The following year, her twin sister chose Thailand. We played with baby white tigers, ziplined through the rainforest, had Shabbos meals at Chabad of Chang Mai and spent a day at a conservatory, rehabbing an elephant. We cooked, bathed and played with him for the entire day!

I look forward to my youngest daughter’s choice!

I got to spend two weeks alone with each of them, and I was able to get to know them as people, outside of the trappings of daily life. Life is to be lived, to be experienced, to learn and grow.

The results of these shared experiences were priceless!

the owners of the apartment wanting it back. Could I afford it? I crunched the numbers, tightened my belt and took the plunge (sorry for the mixed metaphors!).

At last, I finally had a place I could call my own. Staying carefully within budget, I renovated, decorated, and felt at home. Definitely the best money I ever spent.

Postscript: At age 90, my dad, whom I had been caring for, made aliyah (it’s never too late, folks!). After helping him get settled in Israel, I realized that I had no reason to stay up north, and I now had equity in this apartment! I leveraged that into a nice condo in Toco Hills, and several years later, I was able to use that equity to buy my forever house, down the street from my kids and grandkids.

My happy place!

healthier options.

We had a large crowd in our house, from my husband’s barber to his physical therapist, his gym coach, and a myriad of family and friends, some from N.J., with whom we’d been friends for more than 55 years. His friends from college stayed with us for several days, and it was a wonderful celebration.

One week later, the world shut down due to COVID-19. And a little more than a year after that, my husband passed away. We have beautiful pictures and fond memories of that day!

Michael Edelstein hosted Singles Shabbat dinners that turned into a dating website.

Alan Solon offered each of his three daughters “daddy trips” to a destination of their choice.

Alan Solon The best money our family ever spent was on our children’s Jewish education. However, my mother-in-law gets the credit for that.

My parents were unable to afford extensive travel; fortunately, I was able to offer each of my three daughters a “daddy trip” to anywhere in the world they would like to go. The rules were simple: They picked the destination and planned the entire itinerary, and I booked airfare and hotels (to control cost). The fact that they chose the location and itinerary made them emotionally invested in the trip, the experiences and our relationship.

So far, two of my three daughters have completed their trips. The results were phenomenal! The first chose Spain 92 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Renee Haas arranged a significant birthday party for her husband.

Deborah Wenger made wise housing decisions.

Deborah Wenger One of the lasting lessons I learned from my dad, z”l, was: “Always live within your means.” As a single mom twentyplus years ago, I tried my best but often found it difficult, basically starting from zero. I rented a small but comfortable coop apartment in Teaneck, N.J., watched every penny and saved what I could.

After several years, the apartment across the hall came up for sale. It was tempting; not only would I not have to deal with annual rent increases, but I also would not have to worry about

Renee Haas Neither my father nor my husband’s father ever reached their 60th birthday, so I was grateful to have my husband reach his 75th year of life. My husband was pretty adamant that he didn’t want a party in his honor. Finally, after much badgering by our children and me, he reluctantly agreed. Now I had only three weeks to conquer all the logistics. To expedite matters, I chose to use the impersonal evite. I didn’t have all the contact information I needed, so I was busy calling people to get the necessary information. After several attempts, I found a caterer that was willing to a do buffet with

Michael Edelstein The best money I’ve spent is the money I give to charity, not only because it makes me feel good, but because it’s the right thing to do. For several years before COVID-19, I spent some of my best money hosting Shabbos meals at my home, to which I invited Jewish singles (most of whom I did not know), regardless of religious or political affiliation or ideology. I did this so that Jews of all ages and backgrounds could come together and meet in a comfortable and spiritual environment, to hopefully learn new things and to hear and discuss the various opinions that were shared.

Everyone was encouraged to express their points of view, without prejudice, about any topic they chose, while at the same time meeting and making new friends. Many lasting friendships developed, and at least four couples who met at my Shabbos table got married.

The meals and guests I hosted provided me with an additional benefit. It eventually inspired me to work on creating a 100% all-free Jewish Singles website, which should be ready within the next several months. ì

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 93

OY VEY

JEWISH JOKE

OY VEY! HAVE I GOT A PROBLEM...

Dear Rachel, able and easy to get as a peaceful person, aff f sel my of r about nk thi to e lik I onships and want to hea e and take in my relati giv a oy that the enj I ns th. tio wi ges ng sug alo l tips and es, I weigh in with helpfu etim Som ankfulns.

Th . cer ted con ’ cia ers pre oth input is usually ap my d an , see s ay alw ’t g to you. subjective person can d that is why I’m turnin with regular conflict, an ed int ua mendous acq tre un me am sed I ly, ething that cau older children did som my of e on viously, y, pre da ue er iss oth e the Th we had discussed as ved pro ap dis I ew kn that she disappointment. She orming me afterwards the action anyway, inf th wi ead e how ah sur nt t we no tly she nes yet And I’m ho thing to do. I am livid. ate pri pro ething ap an som s do wa ld it cou felt that my child of betrayal and dismay k the roc to nt wa ’t to get over my feelings ship, and I don enjoy a warm relation nquiltra my g yin tro unethical. We normally nado; they are des tor t len vio a e lik are boat. But my feelings ity. Any suggestions?

Sincerely, Donna

Dear Donna, It is a wonderful quality to be peace-loving and amiable. I am happy that your relationships are usually smooth and free of friction. Regular conflicts can tear people up inside, affecting their physical and emotional wellbeing. However, living with others inevitably leads to some clashes. We’re all different and view the world through different lenses! So, how can you handle major dissension between you and your child?

I often advise honest communication in relationships. But until you can have what will hopefully be a healing conversation, you need to discover how you can sail through your day. Can you give yourself a slot of time to dwell on the issue? Let’s say from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. (or whatever time works for you), you immerse yourself in what happened.

Let the anger, disappointment, and sadness wash over you. Allow yourself to feel the pain, the rage, the frustration. And then, after an appointment with yourself, close the door and sail on with your day. Hopefully this will allow you the freedom of release so that you need to function openly.

Once you’re ready to broach that conversation with your daughter, here is a tactic that can be helpful in conflict resolution. Have you ever heard of P.I.E.S.? Once you are sitting together with your daughter, tell her that you’d like to discuss the way you’re feeling about the incident and go through these steps. “P” equals physical. Describe, without elaboration, the action that took place, stating only the physical facts that took place. For example, you can say, “When I looked for my car keys, I saw that they were missing. Next, I looked outside and realized that my car was gone.” “I” stands for interpretation. How did you feel when you saw that your car had been taken? What story did you tell yourself?

You may say, “When I saw that my car was gone, I felt like you didn’t care about my feelings since I had specifically asked you not to take it without permission.” “E” stands for emotion. Can you tell your daughter your basic feelings in relation to what happened? I felt mad, sad, hurt, worried, etc. Try to keep it simple, basic, and to the point. Lastly there is “S” which stands for spiritual yearning, which can translate into this type of statement.

“I really want to be able to trust you and be close with you. You are my whole world (or a simple, “I love you”).”

P.I.E.S. can be an effective tool if the other party is willing to listen. You are not pontificating or globalizing which can lead to escalation. Rather, you are staying in line with the issue at hand, discussing it in a way that helps shine a light into your heart. Hopefully, your daughter will give a loving response.

I wish you a healthy, healing conversation and hope you continue to find joy and beauty in all your relationships.

Best regards, Rachel Atlanta Jewish Times Advice Column Got a problem? Email Rachel Stein, a certified life coach, at oyvey@ atljewishtimes.com describing your problem in 250 words or less. We want to hear from you and get helpful suggestions for your situation at the same time!

94 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Santa Claus Santa was working at Brookville Shopping center when he noticed a young lady of about twenty two years old, wearing a large gold Star of David pendant around her neck, who was walking toward him. He was surprised, therefore, when she sat on his lap. Now Santa doesn't usually take requests from adults, but she gave him such a nice smile, he couldn't refuse.

He said to her, "What's your name?"

"Hannah," came the reply.

"And what does a nice Jewish girl like you want for Christmas, Hannah?"

"Actually, I want something for my mother, please," said Hannah.

"Something for your mother? Well, that's very thoughtful," smiled Santa. "What do you want me to bring her?"

Without blinking, Hannah replied, "A son-in-law."

Source: Oy! The Ultimate Book of Jewish Jokes by David Minkoff

YIDDISH WORD biz húndert un tsvántsik Biz húndert un tsvántsik (‫צוואנציק‬ ַ ‫[“ – )ביז הונדערט און‬may you live] to one hundred and twenty,” a birthday greeting or a wish for long life.

Based on the biblical tradition (Deut. 34:7) that Moses died at 120 without losing his physical or mental vigor. Thus, the wish is not only for longevity, but also for quality of life in old age. Aware of the slim likelihood of the latter part, another version is biz húndert azói vi tsvántsik – “[may you live] to one hundred as if you were twenty.”

Besides greetings and wishes, the expression has become a euphemism for death in a positive sense: instead of saying “after I/you/he/she die/s,” you can say “after 120.” For example, Yankel to grandpop: “Táte (‫טאטע‬, pops), can I have your fishing gear, after húndert un tsvántsik?”

One of the many jokes based on this tradition is the question: Why should one die at 119 rather than 120? So that your headstone would read “He died before his time.”

Rabbi Joab Eichenberg-Eilon, PhD, teaches Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic at the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, eTeacher Group Ltd.

BRAIN FOOD

Thanksgiving

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35. Saying thanks at the end of Thanksgiving, perhaps 39. Gentle as ___ 41. Yutzes 44. Another name for 35-Across

50. Right-hand man: Abbr.

21. Barinholtz of “The Mindy Project” 22. N.L. Central squad, on scorecards 23. Sewing line 25. Rambam and Ramban, Abbr.

28. Legendary boy king 29. List abbr.

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38. Stare 39. Assimilates 40. Like some cousins 42. Israeli spy Jonathan 43. Went at a crawl 45. “Game of Thrones” character with many faces 46. Where some jokes go?

47. Hurry it up 48. Sometimes they’re frozen 49. Prime Minister or Talmudic Rav 50. Pond slime 53. Kind of fit 58. “The Voice” judge ___-Lo 59. Cockney “present” 60. Gas-guzzling stat.

61. A hitter might have a good one

51. Bring out of slumber 52. Where David slew Goliath 54. Hostage in Genesis 55. Former Mossad Director Cohen or composer Green 56. Full deck, to Caesar?

57. Another name for 35-Across 62. King Saul’s general 63. PC key beside the space bar 64. Blazing heaps 65. First name in cosmetics 66. Fed. ___ Bk. 67. Jewish rocker Lee

DOWN

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ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 95

OBITUARIES

Helen Ruth Ehrlich 76, Cleveland, Ohio

Helen Ruth Ehrlich (nee Juntoff), beloved wife of Steven. Loving mother of Gillian (Michael Parker) Ehrlich and Jason (Tara) Ehrlich. Cherished grandmother of Oll ie, Poppy and Marlow Ehrlich and Tobin Parker. Devoted sister of Adele (Lynn) Sheftel and Laura (Charles) Foster. Beloved daughter of the late Sanford and Terry Juntoff. Services took place on Nov. 16 at the BERKOWITZ-KUMINBOOKATZ MEMORIAL CHAPEL, in Cleveland Heights. Interment Bet Olam Cemetery. Donations can be made to Congregation Etz Chaim, specified in memory of Helen Ehrlich, to 1190 Indian Hills Parkway, Marietta, GA, 30068 or 770973-0137.

Shawn Christian Garbarino 53, Roswell

Shawn Christian Garbarino passed away Nov. 13, after a hard-fought battle with pancreatic cancer.

Shawn is survived by his wife, Lisa (Tamaroff), and daughter, Mia; parents, Robert and Janis Garbarino; sister, Michelle Garbarino Fisher (Jason); niece, Charlotte, and nephew, William Fisher; Aunt Jean Dortch (Cal), and brother-in-law Stephen Diamond (Andrea); nephews, Matthew, Jeremy (Danielle Mohlman) and Ethan Diamond.

He is also survived by many cousins and friends who will cherish his memory.

Shawn was a graduate of Wheeler High School, Marietta, and Mississippi State University. Upon graduation, he opened his own home contracting company called “The Home Pro.” After many years of being self-employed, he joined Alacrity Solutions, where he worked for the past six years.

Shawn loved working around his house, building furniture with Mia and working in the yard. He coached basketball for many years at St. Anne’s Church and the Marcus Jewish Community Center. More than anything, Shawn was devoted to his wife and daughter, and never missed a school meeting, soccer game, basketball game or any other activity that Mia was involved in.

Condolences can be left for the family at GeorgiaFuneralCare.com.

96 | NOVEMBER 30, 2021 ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES

Cary Kaufman Gershon 72, Sandy Springs

Cary Kaufman Gershon passed away peacefully in her sleep, in hospice care, Oct. 18. Cary was born July 28, 1949, in Minneapolis, Minn., where she lived for most of her early life prior to her marriage. She did work in Watergate in Washington, D.C., for a year then returned Minneapolis. Cary attended local public schools, graduating in 1967 from St. Louis Park High School, then attended the University of Minnesota. While working in the Twin Cities, Cary enjoyed catering sales for the Dyckman Hotel in Minneapolis. Later, she received her insurance license and worked as an agent. Still later, she worked for the MTA in the claims department and was to move up to a claims adjuster position soon after her marriage on July 1, 1979. Cary and Jeff had other ideas and decided to relocate to Atlanta in 1980.

Cary and Jeff built an interesting and sometimes exciting life in the Atlanta area with almost no snow to have to shovel, ever! They worked together in several business ventures. When their son, Andrew, was 5, they joined Temple Emanu-El in Dunwoody, where Cary was immersed in all aspects of Temple life. Cary had a lovely voice and was a member of the choir for many years. As a family, they joined an Emanu-El havurah group, where we all had kids about the same age. Good memories of many fun times over the years.

Cary’s illnesses started in 2003. Originally given only a 20 percent chance of surviving, she beat the odds and was able to participate in many joyous family and friends’ simchas and other happy occasions celebrated by our non-Jewish friends.

Though, over the years her condition deteriorated, she still participated even as her mental capacities became progressively compromised and, physically, she also deteriorated to mostly wheelchair confinement.

Though not the life she ordered, she lived her last 18.5 years with no complaints.

Cary lived those years with dignity, grace and charm.

Cary was preceded in death by her parents, Esther and Marvin Kaufman of Minneapolis; and mother-in-law, Muriel Gershon of Atlanta.

Survived by husband, Jeff Gershon of Atlanta; son, Andrew Gershon of New York City; brother, Bruce (Jeannie) Kaufman of New Hope, Minn.; aunt, Judith Goldberg of St. Paul; aunt, Marian Gershon Radwin of Birmingham; and cousins and great cousins and dear friends, of which Jan (Bill) Kuretsky was the dearest and was there for Cary through all her hard times as well as the good times.

Arrangements by Hodroff-Epstein Memorial Chapel, Minneapolis. Graveside service was on Oct. 21 at Adath Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery, Chrystal, Minn.. Donations to The Alzheimer’s Association or local “feed the hungry” programs appreciated. No flowers, please.

OBITUARIES

Richard A. Grifenhagen 89, Johns Creek

Richard Alan Grifenhagen, formerly of Columbus, Ga., died Nov. 12 at The Cohen Home, Johns Creek, Ga. Richard was born on July 29, 1932, in New York, N.Y., to Joseph and Pauline Gross Grifenhagen. The family moved to West Hartford, Conn., where Richard attended Hall High School. His involvement in scouting culminated in becoming an Eagle Scout at age 16. He received an appointment to the United State Military Academy at West Point from then-Congressman Abraham Ribicoff, graduated in 1954, and was commissioned as a First Lieutenant.

Before long, a young woman by the name of Vera Katz caught his eye at a dance at Columbus, Ga.’s Temple Israel, while Richard was in Jump School at Ft. Benning.

The two were married in 1955. Shortly thereafter, Richard was deployed to Korea, where he was part of a U.S. peacekeeping force. He completed his active-duty service at Ft. Bragg and was a National Guardsman for six years.

Richard and Vera returned to Columbus, where they made their permanent home. Taking the reins from father-in-law Sol Katz, Richard became a successful local merchant, operating the popular Katz Home Fashions. He served as a past president of the Columbus Square Mall and Peachtree Mall Merchants Associations.

Their family grew over the next several years to include daughter Joan and sons Stuart and Edward. They were active members of Shearith Israel Synagogue and Temple Israel. Richard was a past president and vice president at the synagogue and a member of the Temple board of directors. His religious outreach also extended to servicemen stationed at Ft. Benning, where he and Vera were part of a team offering food and fellowship Sunday mornings for several years. He also dedicated time to the Jewish War Veterans of America and local youth sports programs, as well as acting as a marshal at Bull Creek Golf Course. In retirement, his business acumen was put to use as a business consultant for the Columbus Chapter of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives).

Richard was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph and Pauline Grifenhagen.

He is survived by his wife, Vera, a brother, Bill (Gloria) Grifenhagen, children Joan (Art) Flaks, Stuart (Diane) Grifenhagen and Edward (Susan) Grifenhagen; eight grandchildren: Noah (Renee) Flaks, Joseph (Amanda) Flaks, Rachael (Jamie Boyd) Flaks, Melissa (Rylan) Wade, Jenny (Kevin) Bach, Benjamin (Hannah) Grifenhagen, Zachary (Kelly) Grifenhagen and Will (Amelia) Grifenhagen; eight great-grandchildren: Nathan Flaks, Ari and Margot Flaks, Jasper Boyd, Harper Wade, Madeline Bach and Zachary and Caroline Grifenhagen; niece Susan Willner, nephew Clifford Allan Willner, nieces Laura (Peter) Zhiss and Shara (Eyal) Ellenbogen and nephew Jonah (Jill) Grifenhagen and their children: Max, Ben and Sam Zhiss, Oz and Shalev Ellenbogen and Linus and Mabel Grifenhagen. A memorial service was held on Nov. 15 at Temple Israel, followed by a graveside service.

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

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www.DresslerJewishFunerals.com ATLANTA JEWISH TIMES NOVEMBER 30, 2021 | 97

OBITUARIES

Irving Lipsky 101, Atlanta

Irving Lipsky died peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by his family. He was an amazing man, so full of life, until he caught pneumonia two weeks before his death.

Irving was born on Oct. 6, 1920, and lived a long, wonderful life and we were so blessed to have him in our lives for so many years. He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was the son of two Russian immigrants. Irving graduated early from high school and completed accounting courses. After deciding that accounting did not fit his personality, he began a lifelong career in retail. Irving worked for a retail store in N.Y. and was eventually transferred to manage a store in Charleston, S.C. He then started his own business, Peoples Clothing Store, in the 1960s and was the first merchant to offer credit to his customers and to hire a woman of color. This was unheard of in the 1960s, and he refused to let anyone come between him and his customers.

After retiring at age 75, Irving spent the rest of his life volunteering and caring for others. He started calling bingo for the seniors at the Sherman House and then donated a van so that he could take them on trips around Charleston every Wednesday.

The activity room at the Charleston JCC was named in his honor.

Irving was also a member of the Charleston Exchange Club and volunteered every year at the Charleston Fair to raise money for various charities. He, with his wife (Helen), were volunteers at the Charleston Aquarium and spent many summers in Israel teaching English to Ethiopian immigrants. He was awarded the Order of the Palmetto by the governor of South Carolina for his tireless community service work.

He and Helen were also awarded the Star of David Award from Israel Bonds for their work in Israel.

Irving loved to entertain and performed in numerous Yiddish and Jewish plays and shows in Charleston. No matter how big or small the part, he stole the show.

When living at Sun City Bluffton, Irving taught Yiddish classes, and when moving to The Piedmont in Atlanta he called bingo every Monday and was known as the Bingo Man. Irving met Helen when she was 15 and he was 17 years old. He asked her to dance, and they never stopped dancing for 82 years. They were married on Dec. 24, 1941, after Pearl Harbor, and were married for almost 78 years. Irving and Helen are finally together again and can dance with each other for eternity.

Irving is remembered by his daughters, Arlene Marcus, (Steve), Linda Wyland (Mel), and Ina Enoch (Harold). He is also remembered by his six grandchildren, Myra Marcus, Seth Marcus (Peggy), Jill Wyland, Amy Wyland, Jordan Enoch and Ryan Enoch (Amanda) and his four great-grandchildren, Michael Malady, Ari Schklar, Molly Marcus and Annie Marcus.

Please send donations in memory of Irving Lipsky to Weinstein Hospice and the William Breman Jewish Home (3150 Howell Mill Road Atlanta, GA 30327) and Jewish Family Career Services (AVIV older adult program) 4549 Chamblee Dunwoody Road Dunwoody, GA 30338.

Dr. Alvin Paul Siegel 86, Atlanta

Dr. Alvin Paul Siegel passed away peacefully on Nov. 17 at home with his family. Alvin was born June 20, 1935, in Atlanta, Ga., and attended Grady and Northside High Schools. He then went on attend and graduate from Emory University. During his younger years, he was a camp counselor at Camp Blue Star, and was also known for teaching ballroom dancing, for which he was often referred to as “Little Freddy” (Astaire). He then went on to attend University of Pittsburgh Dental School and graduated in 1960. While in Pittsburgh, he met the love of his life, Dorene Stein; they would have celebrated their 62nd anniversary this December. After dental school, Alvin served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, stationed in Key West, Fla., where he proudly accepted the award for “The Most Unseaworthy” after a fishing trip. In 1962 he moved back to Atlanta and opened his dental practice. Alvin was member of numerous civic and professional organizations, none more important to him than Alpha Omega International Dental fraternity, for which he served as past president of the Atlanta chapter. Alvin is survived by his devoted and adoring wife, Dorene, and his three children: Robyn (Mark) Clark, Halli (Michael) Jones, and Harris (Gayle).

He was also the most beloved Grandpa to Britni Ashkinazy; Ryan (Joy) Jones; Marlee Jones; and Lauren, Ashlely and Meredith Siegel. Alvin brought much laughter and joy to those around him through his love of magic, hypnotism, and his art of telling jokes.

Graveside services were held at Crestlawn Memorial Park, 2000 Marietta Boulevard NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30318, on Nov. 19 at 3:30 p.m., with Rabbi Ron Segal officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to LDBF for Parkinson’s or the Parkinson’s Foundation. To sign the online guestbook, please visit www.dresslerjewishfunerals. com. Arrangements by Dressler’s, 770-451-4999.

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thehandymancanatlanta@gmail.com

770.962.7125 770.480.1698 cell

MOVING SERVICES

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Closets, pantries, garages, offices and more!

404-255-0589

Atlanta Custom Closets Rick Moore www.closetpro.net

BEST OF JEWISH ATLANTA

MOVING SERVICES

Residential & Commercial Moving Specialists Serving Atlanta & the Metro Area Since 1982

• No Hidden Charges • Experienced Employees Only • Expert packing and Unpacking • No Move Too Small or Too Big • Licensed & Insured • Moving & Storage Specialists HG#6273

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(404) 352-CHOP (2467)

www.tomahawkmoving.com

1070 Sandtown Rd SW, Suite B • Marietta Ga 30008

“H.U.N.K.S.: Honest, Uniformed, Nice, Knowledgeable, Service”

SERVING THE ATLANTA AREA 404.996.1800 www.CollegeHunksHaulingJunk.com

Marketplace ADVERTISE WITH THE

LOANS NEW JIFLA LOAN ALERT: The Quick Start Loan provides Jewish community members aged 20-40 the opportunity to borrow up to $3,000 interest-free for up to 30 months – no guarantor required!

Visit www.JIFLA.or to APPLY! Development Corp. for Israel | 404-817-3500

404-883-2130

Eleventh Series Jubilee Bonds 2.61% Eleventh Series Maccabee Bonds 2.46% Eighth Series Mazel Tov Bonds 2.61% Eighth Series eMitzvah Bonds 2.71%

HEALTH CARE

w w w. At l a n ta J e w i s hTi m e s .c o m F O R M O R E O F W H AT YO U N E E D

Compassionate caregiver with 9 years experience, great references, fully vaccinated, reliable vehicles, Alzheimer's, Parkinson, total care and 24 hrs care Please call Juanique 301 820 0918

COMPUTER

COMPUTER

COMPUER HOUSE CALLS

FAKAKTA COMPUTER

Voted #1 by Atlanta Jewish Community

770-527-3533 www.HealthyComputer.com

BEST OF JEWISH ATLANTA

DESKTOP & LAPTOP REPAIR HOME/BUSINESS NETWORKING

10% OF PROFITS THROUGH

PERFORMANCE UPGRADES2019 WILL BE DONATED TO APPLE DEVICE SUPPORT

JEWISH CHARITIES.

VIRUS/SPYWARE REMOVAL

DREAM H O AWAITS

Linda Rickles Interiors

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Same DayDAMON.CARP@GMAIL.COM Appointments • Reasonable Rates • All Services Guaranteed

BEST OF JEWISH ATLANTA

10% OF PROFITS THROUGH 2020 WILL BE DONATED TO JEWISH CHARITIES.

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FINANCE

• Same Day Appointments • Reasonable Rates • All Services Guaranteed

BEST OF JEWISH ATLANTA

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(770) 395-6726 lindaricklesinteriors@gmail.com lindaricklesinteriors.com follow us @lindaricklesinteriors

AUTO Everyone Knows Someone Who Loves Their SUBARU

A Jim Ellis Family Dealership Where you can always expect the best!

Winner of Salesman of the Year Award for 4 out of the last 5 years!

Ralph Kurland Sales Representative 905 Ernest Barrett Pkwy, NW Kennesaw, GA 30144

Brian C. Spaner

Audi Brand Specialist Mobile: 404-606-0286 Direct: 770-243-5611 bspaner@jimellis.com 5805 Peachtree Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30341 www.audiatlanta.com

cell: 678-665-1024 dealership: 770-419-9800 ext. 312 rkurland@subaruofkennesaw.com www.subaruofkennesaw.com

Call me to test drive any of our new or used cars!