Southern Jewish Life, New Orleans, January 2022

Chanukah Party at B’nai Israel in Columbus, Miss.

Southern Jewish LifeLife Southern Jewish 3747 West Esplanade Ave. P.O. Box 130052 3rd Floor Birmingham, AL 35213 Metairie, LA 70002 Volume 32 Issue 1

January 2022

NEW ORLEANS EDITION

Southern Jewish Life

“It makes you dream of a heavenly world. It’s really a balsam, a salve for the soul. It’s something that really restores you, regenerates you.”

—Filippa Giordano, famous Italian-Mexican Singer

Shen Yun’s unique artistic vision expands theatrical experience into a multi-dimensional, deeply moving journey. Featuring one of the world’s most ancient and richest dance systems—classical Chinese dance—along with dynamic animated backdrops and all-original orchestral works, Shen Yun opens a portal to a civilization of enchanting beauty and enlightening wisdom.

Shen Yun Performing Arts is a nonprofit organization based in New York. Its mission is to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture. Traditional Chinese culture—with its deep spiritual roots and profoundly optimistic worldview—was displaced by communism in China. While Shen Yun cannot perform in China today, it is sharing this precious heritage with the world.

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

“This is the best I have ever seen. It was so uplifting. It spoke to everything that is good in this world.”

—Glen Duncan, Grammy Award-winning musician

CHINA BEFORE COMMUNISM

“So beautiful and so moving!”

—Vikki Carr, Grammy Award-winning singer

“There was something pure and bright and very dignified about them.

The show gave me a real sense of goodness and meaning in life.”

“Shen Yun brought something most needed in this world—hope: hope for a better world, hope for a better future, hope for a better life.”

—Anna Liceica, soloist with the American Ballet Theatre

—Jesse Miranda, producer

Huntsville, AL Jan 11, 2022 Von Braun Center

Jackson, MS Feb 8, 2022 Thalia Mara Hall

Birmingham, AL Feb 12, 2022 BJCC Concert Hall

ShenYun.com/Huntsville

ShenYun.com/Jackson

ShenYun.com/Birmingham January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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commentary

MESSAGES

Maccabi USA leader praises Birmingham Games I have had the honor of attending many Maccabi competitions around the world. From Israel to Australia to South America, Europe and the JCC Maccabi games around the United States and Canada, I have logged many miles seeing how sports can be a vehicle to help build Jewish the Middle East?”

By Rabbiespecially JonathaninMiller identity, our young.

Tutu could smile and cry at the same time. He enjoyed serving as the rabbi of the largest II felt honored to come to Birmingham for the first time fell in love withatnot the city said thatand he was dismayed the just amount of sufsynagogue in Birmingham andSouthern the state hospitality of Albut the people.

You have taken to a new levelinwith your kind and caring fering endured that part of the world and, “It abama. approach to the JCC Maccabi Games.

Birmingham is a beautiful mid-size Southern is so sad to see that the same people, the Jews, have suffered so much They and so recently are Led bywith the Sokol and Helds, volunteers were wonderful. partnered city, but a painful historyyour as ahard-working crucible of who inflicting the same suffering on the Palestinians. with your outstanding staff, led by Betzy Lynch, to make the 2017 JCC Maccabi games a huge hit. violence and racial hatred that keeps it on the What was doneUSA to them they are doing others.”

Imap want this opportunity executive director of Maccabi to say thank you ontobehalf ofto thetake world’s imagination.asDuring my tenI thought I would explode.

I blurted out inof everyone involved. ure, important people come through to check in dignantly, “Archbishop, do you really think that forI ahad visit. is an place. justBirmingham returned from theimportant 20th World Maccabiah games in Israel with a U.S. delegation of the Israelis are Nazis?

Where are the ovens, the About years ago,10,000 the Nobel Prize over 1100,15 who joined JewishPeace athletes from 80 countries. Back in July the eyes of the entire genocide, that cattle cars and the gas chambers? laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, made his Jewish world were on Jerusalem and the Maccabiah. This past month with 1000 athletes and Palestinian babies suffering the same way Birmingham I was honored hear Are you coaches from pilgrimage. around the world being in to Birmingham, became the focal point. that Jewish babies did during the Holocaust? him speak at the beautiful Church of the AdEveryone from the Jewish community and the community at large, including a wonderful vent and then join him as a guest for an intimate Are the Israelis and the Nazis really cut from the police force, are to be commended. These games will go down in history as being a seminal lunch with Birmingham’s religious leaders. Tutu same cloth? How can you say that? Israel has the moment for the Jewish community as we build to the future by to providing such wonderful Jewish power to do the Palestinians what the Nazis was magnificent. I cannot remember exactly memories. did to the Jews, and they do not do that in any what he said to the overflowing church audiway, shape or form.

How can you say that?”

Jed Margolis ence, but I do remember how I was mesmerAll eyes were on me. I realized that I had overExecutive ized by hisDirector, speech. Maccabi He spokeUSA about justice and stepped the bounds of polite discourse, sometruth, a rebuke of the powerful interests. But his thing treasured in the South. I shrunk back. passion was colored with love and a bounteous supremacists would like to see pushed back “Rabbi, ” the great humanitarian smiled, On Charlottesville grace that inspired us all with hope. into a corner and made to feel lesser. stand “These things are complicated, butWeinjustice I had recently returned from an interfaith with and pray for the family of Heather Heyer, Editor’s Note: ThisBosnia reaction to Serbia the events in fellow everywhere is terrible and must be denounced.” trip to Croatia, and with who washorrified. there standing theand facesent of this I was I tookup histo card him a Charlottesville, written by Jeremy Newman, Birmingham religious leaders. We witnessed the hate. long letter, first apologizing for my outburst but Master of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Theta Colony powerful forces that tore apart the communities him to reconsider his views Wechallenging recognize the essence of the American at Auburn University, AEPi and had them turn onwas eachshared otherby with a vicious then and his language.

Six months later I received as a two-century old struggle to rid a National, called eloquent” andread narrative cruelty. Towhich prepare forit “very our trip, we each note thanking me for sharing my opinion with ourselves of such corners, and allow those in praised “our brothers at AEPi Theta Colony at Tutu’s epochal work on the South African Truth him and wishing me well. them the seat at the table that they so deserve.

Auburn University and… the leadership they and Reconciliation Commission, and we studied this story because needs to the struggle to fulfill the itpromise of be thetold. display on their of campus. ” the confluence accountability and forgiveness It isI share I am not so churlish as to pick on a dead man Declaration of Independence, that “all men are as a model for overcoming historical injustice. who cannot answer me now, just as I received created equal… endowed by their Creator with At lunch, I was thrilled to sit at the right hand White supremacy has been a cancer on no response back then.

I can Tutu’s unalienable rights. ” Weunderstand know our work of Archbishop Tutu. I jumped in and shared how certain our country since its beginning, threatening identification with the Palestinfar from finished, butsuffering we knowofwethe will not some of Birmingham’s religious leaders had just is its hopes, its values, and its better angels. ians. Ibackwards. can understand how people can disagree come back from the Balkans, and how we were in- move The events that took place in Charlottesville with Israel’s policies and take them to task. That spired by South Africa’s spiritual work under the When men and women, fully armed, take represented the worst of this nation. Those is not what troubled me then. Nor is this what Archbishop’s direction. He nodded appreciatively. the streets in droves with swastikas and who marched onto the streets with tiki torches to disturbs me still today.

Then I asked, “Archbishop Tutu, do you think other symbols of hate, it is a reminder of how and swastikas did so to provoke violence and I don’t know if Archbishop Tutu’s lack of comthat a Truth and Reconciliation Commission relevant the issues of racism and anti-Semitism fear. Those who marched onto the streets did passion for Jews was motivated by classic western might be a good way for Europe to deal with its are today.

It is a wake-up call to the work that so to profess an ideology that harkens back to Christian tropes or political expediency, or maybe centuries of anti-Jewish persecution and vio- needs to be done to ensure a better, more a bleaker, more wretched time in our history. a real belief that Jews and Nazis, the victims and lence? Wouldn’t that be a great model to explore welcoming country.

But it should not come A time when men and women of many creeds, perpetrators are one and the same. I don’t know. and bring to light the forces of this historic vioa reflection on how far we’ve come. races, and religions were far from equal and far without But I did learn from this experience that lence and bring healing to both the victims and America wasbeing, born even a slavethose nation. century from safe in our own borders. A time where every human we A beatify, has a way forward for the perpetrators?” into our history we engaged in a wartoin part Americans lived under a constant cloud of their blind spots where they refuse see.

He responded, “Rabbi, I understand your to Archbishop ensure we would not continue as one. We as racism, anti-Semitism and pervasive hate. The Tutu will, justly, be remembered question, but the experience of the Jews in Euourselves confronted bygreat the fortitude issue of civil events that took place in Charlottesville served found a man of spiritual courage and who rope is not the same as the experience of the rights, and embarked on a mission to ensure as a reminder of how painfully relevant these helped his nation heal from the terrible injustice blacks in South Africa.” the fair treatment of all peoples no matter their issues are today.

I wanted to ask him, “What is the difference of apartheid. I will remember him that way. But skin color. Although we’ve made great strides, Auburn’s Alpha Epsilon stands this?” with the and why would you advisePiagainst But I I will also remember him as someone who disapit is a mission we’re still grappling with today.

Jewish of aCharlottesville, and didn’t. Icommunity was, after all, lunch guest, one of may- pointed me profoundly for his unwillingness to the Jewish painanand my own anguish. waspeople’s also born immigrant with the Jewish people around country be a dozen people.

It would notthe be good form to feelAmerica Blind spots — ifasDesmond Tutumany has them, we country.

As early the pilgrims, and around world. We also stand with the dominate thethe discussion. all have them. groups and families found in the country the minorities targeted the Episcopalian hate that Our hostwho andaremy friend,bythe to plantMiller stakes,ischase future,of was on display in Charlottesville.

Wewould stand you opportunity Rabbi Jonathan rabbitheir emeritus Bishop, later asked, “Archbishop, be themselves. were met with open with minorities of whom theseiswhite Temple Emanu-El inFew Birmingham. sharethe with us your sense of what going on in and

An Unsettling Lunch with Archbishop Tutu

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

January January2021 2022

Southern Jewish Life PUBLISHER/EDITOR Lawrence M. Brook editor@sjlmag.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ADVERTISING Lee J. Green lee@sjlmag.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Richard Friedman richard@sjlmag.com V.P. SALES/MARKETING, NEW ORLEANS Jeff Pizzo jeff@sjlmag.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ginger Brook ginger@sjlmag.com SOCIAL/WEB Emily Baldwein connect@sjlmag.com PHOTOGRAPHER-AT-LARGE Rabbi Barry C. Altmark deepsouthrabbi.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rivka Epstein, Louis Crawford, Tally Werthan, Stuart Derroff, Belle Freitag, Ted Gelber, E. Walter Katz, Doug Brook brookwrite.com BIRMINGHAM OFFICE P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham, AL 35213 2179 Highland Ave., Birmingham, AL 35205 205/870.7889 NEW ORLEANS OFFICE 3747 West Esplanade, 3rd Floor Metairie, LA 70002 504/249-6875 TOLL-FREE 888/613.YALL(9255) ADVERTISING Advertising inquiries to 205/870.7889 for Lee Green, lee@sjlmag.com Jeff Pizzo, jeff@sjlmag.com Media kit, rates available upon request SUBSCRIPTIONS It has always been our goal to provide a large-community quality publication to all communities of the South.

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Documenting this community, a community we are members of and active within, is our passion.

We love what we do, and who we do it for.

shalom y’all If you are reading this magazine, chances are you are now seen as a legitimate target.

Do you attend a synagogue somewhere in our coverage area? Gone on a mission to Israel? Attended or sent your kids to one of the Jewish summer camps in our region?

Give to Federation, support the Anti-Defamation League?

Or, heaven forbid, you’re a member or associate of Hadassah, or visited a Hillel house while in college.

In other words, if you are pretty much any random Jew in America today.

You may consider yourself open minded and tolerant, you may think that you are working toward peace and justice in the world. Oh, but no. Your evil has been exposed, and the warning has gone out about your existence.

And a target has been put on your back.

The alarm bells about you were sounded recently by none other than a leading figure with the Council on American Islamic Relations, which considers itself the leading American advocate for Muslim rights and a warrior in the battle against hate and bigotry. By a person who briefly was named to the Women’s March board, but was quickly bounced after her history of antisemitic social media posts came to light.

In a speech to the American Muslims for Palestine national convention in late November in Chicago, Zahra Billoo, CAIR’s San Francisco regional director, told those in attendance that the vast majority of American Jews are their “enemies.”

She specifically referenced “Zionist synagogues” — which is the vast majority — Hillel Houses on “our campuses,” the ADL (ironic, since for years CAIR has tried to portray itself as the Muslim version of the ADL, before the ADL became anathema

SJL Online: sjlmag.com Southern Jewish Life is an independent Jewish periodical. Articles and columns do not necessarily reflect the views of any Jewish institutions, agencies or congregations in our region.

To subscribe, email subscribe@sjlmag.com

continued on page 6

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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commentary in certain social justice circles) and Jewish Federations, which are the mainstream umbrella group in pretty much every Jewish community of more than a few hundred people.

The frightening aspect is that outside of certain pro-Israel advocacy circles and some Jewish media outlets, there has been barely a mention of this.

Imagine a politician, or, to make a closer analogy, a prominent regional director of the ADL, giving a speech that labels the vast majority of American Muslims or any other group as “enemies.”

We wouldn’t hear the end of it.

And CAIR would be at the forefront of denouncing that speaker — with most Jewish organizations not far behind. But in response to Billoo’s remarks, CAIR has doubled down in defending her, even stating that criticism of her dangerous remarks is Islamophobic.

In other words, “if you denounce our hateful incitement, you’re being hateful and inciting.”

She has since announced that she is taking an already-planned sabbatical, while complaining of a “prolonged Zionist onslaught” against her.

Billoo’s remarks are part of the increased radicalism in anti-Israel circles. Over the last couple of years, Israel has been increasingly referred to as a white supremacist or Jewish supremacist endeavor.

Remember the longstanding policy of not negotiating with terrorists? That has been turned 180 degrees. Calls for a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace side by side in their own states, have been falling by the wayside as Israel is considered a foreign European outpost in the Middle East, an illegitimate presence no matter what borders are drawn.

Not only is one not supposed to negotiate with such a regime, but one should not even normalize relations, or even interact with Israel as one would any other country.

Far from being a protest against Israeli policies in the territories, the Boycott Divest and Sanction movement doesn’t really care about Israel’s policies, its aim is the complete dismantling of Israel.

Aside from the tiny fringe groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, the vast majority of the Jewish community disagrees with the idea of dismantling Israel and realizes such actions would result in a massacre as the “colonizers” are dealt with and sent back to “where they came from,” as many in the anti-Israel crowd propose, imagining that they “came from” Europe though the majority of Jewish Israelis have roots in Arab countries that kicked them out. Not to mention those who had been in what would become Israel for generations before the modern state was established, who the activists conveniently label as “Palestinian Jews,” a term used by precisely none of those Jews.

Forget that the vast majority of American Jews lean left and want to see Jews and Palestinians living side by side — even if it is a Jewish state where Arabs live as full citizens as societal equals, and a Palestinian state where its leaders have insisted no Jew would be allowed to reside.

In the mind of the anti-Israel activist, the Jew-free Palestinian state is completely justifiable while pluralistic Israel is racist apartheid.

But in an age where the anti-Israel activists, especially in academia, consider a Jewish state on any square inch of the Middle East to be illegitimate, even a two-state solution is unbearable because it perpetuates said supremacist, colonialist regime, and must be resisted. And

What do you think?

Send your letters to editor@sjlmag.com or mail to P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham, AL 35213 6 January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

yes, resistance means whatever it takes, violence and terrorism (er, freedom fighting) included.

For them, there is no middle ground, no room for agreement. There is only the evil occupier, Israel, which must be dealt with and expelled.

And if you disagree with that extreme notion, you are complicit in that evil.

The way Billoo and her cohorts are now publicly framing the argument defines the vast majority of American Jews in those terms.

Sadly, it is a maximalist argument that does nothing to make life better for actual Palestinians and only delays hope of a better future for them, as Israel isn’t interested in committing national suicide.

Billoo’s rhetoric is a double-edged danger for the Jewish world.

First, there is the physical danger as more extreme acts against a wider range of Jewish targets in the U.S. are not only advocated, but justified.

If you are fighting racism and genocide, battling ethnic cleansing and apartheid, then what you do claims the moral high ground. You’re fighting for the greater good.

In Europe, there have been rulings that attacks on synagogues are legitimate expressions of political opinion, not hate crimes. American courts recently ruled that a group harassing a Michigan synagogue for years with weekly anti-Israel protests on Shabbat can continue to do so.

A prestigious university gave a pass to a student who threaten to light someone on fire who was wearing an Israeli Defense Forces sweatshirt.

Imagine a student using a noose to threaten a Black student. Another prestigious university drags its feet over dealing with a student diversity officer (!) who expressed a desire to kill all Zionists.

The other danger is that Jewish youth, especially in college, where this rhetoric is at its most pervasive, will look at what they are being accused of by being Jewish, look at their own humanistic ideals, accept at face value the distortions and outright lies being told about Israel, say “who needs this,” and turn their backs on the community and on Israel. It would be so much easier to just fade into the woodwork and not deal with this.

Who wants to be identified as an oppressor? As a supremacist? Not your typical “let’s all get along” Jewish college student who was raised on the concept of Tikkun Olam.

An alarming percentage already feel it necessary to hide their Jewish identity from peers, or even worse, professors known to be anti-Israel, lest their grades suffer. How much more would it take for them to just walk away?

How has it reached this point?

How has society devolved to the point where social justice activists can label the vast majority of American Jews as enemies and there is no outpouring of outrage, but silence or nodding agreement?

How, in this atmosphere, can so many in the Jewish community pretend that the only threats to the community come from the far-right white supremacists that nobody takes seriously?

And how can so many profess a greater trust in the likes of CAIR, which was established by those with ties to Hamas, than in evangelical Christians who profess unconditional love and support of Israel and the Jewish people, with no conversionary or end-times agenda?

Over the last couple of decades, the anti-Israel movement has become much more strident and extreme, and it has reached the point where they are trying to make Jewish identity toxic.

This problem can not be ignored, and our communal impulse to work with and get along with everyone can no longer keep us from standing up for ourselves. Some might argue that this is no time to burn bridges, but in this case, in the words of Billy Joel, “we didn’t start the fire.”

Lawrence Brook, Publisher/Editor

agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events

On Dec. 16, ground was broken for the Louisiana Community Mikvah, a combined effort of all Jewish congregations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The freestanding building will be behind Shir Chadash in Metairie and serve the region.

Baton Rouge congregations unite, plan to announce new name As the secular new year begins, a new chapter in Baton Rouge Jewish life unfolds.

No longer two Reform congregations named Beth Shalom and B’nai Israel, Baton Rouge is now home to what is temporarily being called Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge. The merger is the culmination of a process that has been discussed for years, but especially over the last two years. Both congregations approved the merger in August.

The congregation’s first annual meeting was scheduled for Jan. 9, but was postponed due to Covid. When it takes place, fig trees will be planted, Torah scrolls will be exchanged, and there will be a champagne toast following lunch.

The new congregation has been voting on a new name, which will also be revealed at the meeting. Two of the top four choices are combinations of the previous names, Beth Israel and B’nai Shalom. The others are Gesher, which means bridge, and Or Chadash, a new light.

The new congregation’s logo is a braided candle with a flame in the shape of the Hebrew letter “shin,” as found on the mezuzah.

At the meeting there will also be a facilities update. The plan is for the new congregation to expand the existing Kleinert Avenue location and eventually sell the Jefferson Highway property, once the preschool has its new home. A town hall meeting is planned to discuss the expansion plans and get input from congregants. The goal is to have the facilities completed by the High Holy Days in 2023.

A rabbinic search committee is already interviewing candidates. Rabbis Batsheva Appel and Teri Appleby were brought on specifically to serve the two congregations as they navigated the transition process.

Shabbat evening services are alternating between locations, with services on Jan. 7 and 21 at Jefferson Highway, and Jan. 14 and 28 at Kleinert Avenue. Shabbat mornings, there is a 10 a.m. minyan at Kleinert Avenue and a 10:30 a.m. service at Jefferson Highway.

MSJE named Top Ten new attraction in USA Today reader poll The Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans was named to the USA Today Readers’ Choice 10Best list for Best New Attraction in 2021.

A panel of experts came up with the initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 were decided by popular vote. At fifth, the museum was the highest-listed museum in the survey, and the only attraction in Louisiana.

“This award is a huge accomplishment for the Museum to receive within such a short time frame from when we opened in May 2021,” said Executive Director Kenneth Hoffman. “Despite opening in the middle of a pandemic, MSJE has quickly gained recognition as an important center for cultural exploration and a vibrant tourist destination. The Museum appreciates the support it has received from the people of New Orleans, supporters from across the South, and thousands of visitors from around the world.”

The museum is planning its long-delayed opening celebration for its first anniversary, June 11 and 12. The weekend will include a founding donor patron party, Jazz brunch, special exhibition opening reception and Family Fun Fest.

The overall winner was SkyFly: Soar America, a “flying theater” attraction at The Island in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

The Van Gogh Immersive Experience placed second. It is touring the country, and will be in New Orleans from April 8 to June 17, at a location to be announced. An exhibition in Birmingham ran from November to Jan. 2. There are five different companies producing immersive Van Gogh experiences across the country, and the New Orleans exhibit is a different group than the Birmingham exhibit.

Allegiant Stadium tours at the new home of the Las Vegas Raiders in Paradise, Nev., and the Friends Experience in multiple cities, based on the television show, placed third and fourth.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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agenda The New Orleans Jewish Community Center will have its annual meeting and brunch on Jan. 23 at 10 a.m.

The Jewish Women’s Circle at Chabad Uptown will have a Tu B’Shevat Wine and Cheese boards event, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. Linda Waknin of D’vash Catering will lead a session on how to craft a fruit and cheese board, themed for Tu B’Shevat. Reservations are $15, sponsorships are $54.

Touro Synagogue in New Orleans will honor Ana and Juan Gershanik with the L’Chayim Award. The Argentine-themed benefit dinner and celebration will be Jan. 30 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $125. Patron levels start at $250 and go up to Amigo Platinum at $5,000.

Tulane basketball, in partnership with Tulane Hillel, will hold Jewish Heritage Night at the Jan. 26 game against Tulsa. Tickets start at $5 and parking is free at the Loyola garage. There will be kosher concession items available. Tipoff will be at 8 p.m.

Krewe du Jieux kicks off carnival season in New Orleans with a family bagel decorating workshop at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience. The workshop will be Jan. 22 at 10:30 a.m., and a minimum of one adult is needed for every four children. Cost is $10 for the bagel and decorations. The workshop will include the history of the prized throw and what it represents.

The Jewish Krewes will march in New Orleans on Feb. 12. Krewe du Mishigas is part of the Krewe du Vieux parade, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. at Royal and Press, then winds its way to Toulouse in the Quarter, and back. Krewe du Jieux marches with krewedelusion, starting at 7 p.m. at Franklin and Royal, also going through the Quarter to Toulouse and back to Frenchmen.

Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans announced that after a hiatus of nearly two years, in-person counseling will be available to clients ages 5 to 14, starting Jan. 3. Proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours of the appointment is mandatory, and masks are required. JFS offers in-person individualized talk and play therapy as well as family therapy for this age group. The Dora Ferber Family Foundation Playroom is specially designed to facilitate growth, development and healing in a fun, safe, and creative environment.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Baton Rouge will have its annual meeting on Jan. 23 at the Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge’s Kleinert location, starting at 3:30 p.m. A Zoom link will be available.

Moishe House New Orleans will host a Tu B’Shevat Bash on Jan. 16 from 3 p.m. to sunset, at the bayou by the Dumaine Bridge. There will be outdoor games, pot painting, snacks and connecting with nature.

Jewish Community Day School in Metairie will have its Family Fun Fest on Jan. 30 at noon.

Waffles on Maple in Metairie announced that they will be unable to offer their gluten-free king cakes this year.

Camp Gan Israel will hold a Kids Mega Challah Bake on Feb. 6 at 3 p.m. at Chabad in Metairie. Early-bird registration is $10 by Jan. 23.

The next Nola Nights at Shir Chadash in Metairie will be a tree painting workshop on Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m. Tree poems will be the inspiration for a tree canvas. Snacks of the seven species and an evergreen cocktail will be served.

Moishe House New Orleans resident Maddy will lead a virtual trivia night, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. Contact Moishe House for the Zoom link. continued on page 41 8

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Growing Chabad at Panama City Beach acquiring building, launching campaign The Chabad Jewish Center in Panama City Beach has signed a contract on a new facility that will be renovated and become the new Chabad Center.

The new building is on Miracle Strip Loop, close to where they are currently renting a space.

Rabbi Mendel Havlin said their current space has one main room where they have “the shul, the dining hall, the workshop space, the classroom, the kids school, the meeting room and the party space,” often having to switch purposes in the middle of an event. Because of a lack of space, large events have to be held elsewhere.

A campaign is underway to raise $1.2 million for the purchase and renovation of the 5,000 square foot facility, with numerous dedication opportunities available. They hope to be in the new facility by Rosh Hashanah.

Havlin said that they had been looking for a new facility, but after Hurricane Michael, “purchasing a space in Panama City Beach has become almost impossible.” Then this opportunity came up “to purchase a building, in a central location, to serve the growing and vibrant Jewish Community in Panama City Beach.”

They plan to have a large synagogue and library, a dining hall “that can comfortably seat a big crowd,” a lounge space, a commercial kitchen and separate Passover kitchen, dedicated children’s classroom and a space for kosher groceries.

Chabad in Panama City Beach has a Hebrew school, Cteen programs, Torah classes, a Jewish women’s circle, services on Shabbat and holidays and a Young Professionals group.

Havlin said the Jewish community includes “young couples that just moved recently to the area,” those stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base and the Navy Support Base, as well as veterans, families, singles, businessmen, retirees, and students at Gulf Coast State College and Florida State University Panama City.

The area is poised for growth, with many large new developments, such as Latitude Margaritaville Watersound, the “New Orleans inspired” Lagoon Manor, Breakfast Point, Moonraker and others.

“We are also serving many visitors, tourists and businessmen, or people with second homes at the beach area,” Havlin said.

In August 2020, there was a gathering of Chabad rabbis from the panhandle in Tallahassee, where they committed to helping the Havlins purchase a center.

Havlin said this project “would not be happening without the tremendous help of Rabbi Schneur Oirechman from the Center of the Chabad Lubavitch of the Panhandle” in Tallahassee, and Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, director of the international conference of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and the vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Chabad has seen tremendous growth in the panhandle in recent years, under the direction of Oirechman.

The first Chabad center in the panhandle outside of Tallahassee was established in 2013 in Destin by Rabbi Shaya Tenenboim. In September 2018, Rabbi Mendel Danow arrived in Pensacola to establish Chabad there, just days before Hurricane Michael hit the area. At the start of 2019, the Havlins arrived in Panama City Beach.

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community

New Orleans Federation unveils strategic plan at annual event The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans unveiled its new strategic plan at its annual celebration on Dec. 8 at the Audubon Tea Room.

But that presentation and the installation of the Federation’s new officers wasn’t why Rabbi Deborah Silver of Shir Chadash began the evening with the recitation of “Shehecheyanu,” said at auspicious occasions.

“It is so long since we have sat in a room together,” she said. “It makes this moment a very special moment.”

Outgoing Federation board chair Joshua Force said the past two years had been “difficult for the Jewish community and difficult for the Federation.” Despite having “to deal with plagues of Biblical proportions and storms, our Federation never stopped working.”

In addition to the usual work of the Federation in a normal year, “the Federation has been nimble enough to pivot and face any challenges head-on,” including conducting the bulk of work in the virtual world the last two years.

At the City Park event where he became Federation president, Force said his emphasis would be on a strategic planning process for the Federation. Not only was that accomplished, the Federation launched two new Centers of Excellence for Jewish-Multicultural Affairs and Interfaith Families, but developed special programs to respond to Covid, and Hurricanes Laura and Ida. Noting that the Federation’s emphasis is on implementing the strategic plan, incoming board chair Brian Katz said his first remarks as president “might be the easiest presentation I’ve ever had to make.”

Asked about his goals for the next two years, he said “I was handed a strategic plan and told, ‘Here are your goals.’ Since the community told me what my goals are, those are my goals.”

He hopes “the next two years in our community will be short on challenges” but are “as prosperous as the last two.”

Katz also promoted the upcoming Louisiana Trade and Community Mission to Israel and the United Arab Emirates in July, where there will be a traditional “explore Israel” track and four business tracks for state businesses, including medicine, biotech and health care; energy and sustainability; transportation, port and maritime; and cybersecurity and innovation. Registration is already open at louisianatoisrael.com.

He also noted the recent hiring of a Community Security Director,

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Photos by Donna Matherne

Transition: Outgoing board chair Joshua Force and incoming board chair Brian Katz

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Left: Barri Bronston receives the Oscar J. Tolmas L’dor V’dor Award from Lisa Romano. Right, Rebecca Friedman receives the Herbert and Margot Garon Young Leadership Award from Bobby Garon.

Jimmy Stewart, a former FBI agent and retired New Orleans Police Department officer.

Mark Wilf, board chair for the Jewish Federations of North America and owner of the Minnesota Vikings, made a video presentation for the event.

He recalled how, in the aftermath of Katrina 16 years ago, New Orleans was at the center of Jewish Federation awareness, and countless recovery volunteers “got to experience a community that was warm and welcoming despite what it was enduring.” The local leadership “set the bar for how Jewish Federations take care of everyone.”

He mentioned the partnership with Baton Rouge and Shreveport following Hurricane Laura in 2020, saying “I don’t have to convince this group of the power of the collective.”

That sense of community responsibility also manifested in the response to Covid, Wilf said.

Arnie Fielkow, CEO of the Federation, recalled being on the city council 15 years ago in the aftermath of Katrina, watching the range of programs Federation put in place during the recovery. Now, he said, the community is 20 percent larger than the pre-Katrina figure, approaching 12,000.

He hoped for “a sense of normalcy” for 2022, and noted that “this is the best community of any place in the U.S.”

Community Awards Bobby Garon presented the Herbert and Margot Garon Young Leadership Award to Rebecca Friedman. A New Orleans native, she moved to New York after graduating from Yale in 1998. She then worked for McKinsey and Company in Philadelphia, and Garon said she didn’t anticipate moving back to New Orleans, but she did in 2010, asking McKinsey to work remotely “long before long-distance work became the norm” due to Covid.

Now a freelance writer, she became part of the 2019 class of the Federation’s Katz-Phillips Leadership Development Program. She joined the Jewish Community Center’s board, where she was quickly “regarded as a shining star.”

“It’s been such a pleasure coming home to this community… and getting to know what Federation does,” Friedman said. “I hope to do a lot more.”

Lisa Romano, vice president of the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust, presented the Tolmas L’dor V’dor Award to Barri Bronston.

Bronston got her community start in the youth group at Gates of Prayer. Since coming back to New Orleans after graduating from the University of Missouri, “she devoted much of her time to the National Council of Jewish Women.”

In the 1990s she was in the Federation’s Lemann-Stern Leadership Program, predecessor to Katz-Phillips.

She has been on the Federation board, chaired Super Sunday and

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community served on many committees, served on the boards of the JCC and Gates of Prayer, and the Jewish Children’s Regional Service gala committee. She was a founding member of the New Orleans Jewish Day School, “where her daughter Sally was in the first graduating class and the only eighth grade class.”

For over 30 years she was a writer at the Times-Picayune, sharing a Pulitzer in 2006 for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Since 2012, she has worked in public relations for Tulane University, and is author of “Walking New Orleans,” which came out in an updated version last year.

Bronston said she was “shocked” to find out she was receiving the award. “Especially in this room, there are so many people who are equally deserving.”

She added, “I love this J community and plan on being involved for many more years to come.”

In recognizing the Annual Campaign chairs, Joshua Force said that due to recent conditions, Mara Force and Joshua Rubenstein “actually chaired two consecutive campaigns,” something that hasn’t happened for a very long time.

Last year’s campaign raised $2.6 million from 1,222 households, with a 4 percent card-forcard increase. “Their passion and hard work made the 2021 campaign a real success.”

Joshua Force said the campaigns were successful “despite the fact that we were not able to meet with people on a face to face basis and discuss the campaign.”

Mara Force thanked “both of my Joshes,” and Rubenstein thanked Mara Force for “making this very easy for me.”

Nancy and Steve Timm will chair the 2022 Annual Campaign, with Melinda Mintz and Marc Behar succeeding them for 2023.

Fielkow noted that “at the end of the day, we are a fundraising organization,” and Federation donors provide “a safety net” for the community.

Strategic Plan

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Joshua Force said the strategic plan being unveiled at the event “is not a plan to sit on a shelf.”

The plan was recently presented to the Federation board and approved.

The plan was the culmination of almost two years of discussions, focus groups, surveys and interviews.

In the community, Force said the Federation plays several different roles: Convener, to bring groups in the community together; Funder of local agencies and overseas needs; Program Provider and Supporter of the Jewish People locally and around the world.

The plan has four main objectives that “all lead to different channels of impact on the Jewish community, its members, organizations, and

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One priority is to welcome and connect all Jews “into an inclusive, meaningful environment,” whether first-time or long-time community members, and using the two new Centers as entry points. The goal is to have a space for everyone regardless of views or affiliation level.

Building a sustainable, resourced future involves expanding donorship, understanding of the Federation’s effect on the community, and increasing young leadership participation.

“We need to ensure the community understands not only how we raise money, but how we spend money and the impact it has,” and ensure that funds are spent efficiently, Force said.

Collaboration and coordination in the local Jewish ecosystem involves awareness of the different organizations and institutions, and their roles in enhancing community, and to share resources and cut redundancy.

For example, engaging younger adults should be done in partnership with the community groups that are already reaching them, to boost their efforts and provide additional resources to develop long-term active community members.

The fourth priority is to optimize the board, staff and leadership, improving communication and clarity of roles, and greater access to organizational information.

Each of the priorities comes with a set of recommendations on how to implement them, and how to measure success.

Force said “this is not going to happen overnight. It will take a while for it to be implemented fully.”

Katz announced that Michele Gelman and Shea Soll will chair the plan’s implementation, and said one piece of the fundraising component has been implemented with the hiring of Kassie Cosgrove as chief development officer.

The task force and committees “will be responsible for shaping the New Orleans Jewish community for the next five years or so,” Katz said.

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Pensacola Chabad adding preschool Chabad of Pensacola continues to add to its offerings with the establishment of a Jewish children’s daycare that will open “in the very near future.”

Jewish PensaTots will be for ages two months to four years, with limited space. The program will promote Jewish values with a Reggio Emilia philosophy, encouraging the individuality of each child, and seeking “to instill a love and pride of being Jewish by providing meaningful experiences for children and their families in a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment.”

The program will be led by Nechama Danow. Parents can register for 9 a.m. to either 12:30 or 3 p.m. On Fridays, the day will include a Shabbat party.

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community Local “Crime on the Bayou” opens Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival Event’s return to in-person screenings postponed

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

For the 16th installment of the annual Baton Rouge Jewish Film Festival, the festival is looking locally for its programming.

At press time, just days before the festival was to return with in-person screenings this year, the Omicron variant outbreak forced a postponement. The festival will still be held in person, but at dates that will be announced later.

The festival’s run of four films was to debut on Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. with the 2021 documentary “A Crime on the Bayou,” the story of Gary Duncan, a Black teen from Plaquemines Parish, and Jewish attorney Richard Sobol, who leaves a prestigious Washington law firm and volunteers in New Orleans.

In October 1966, Duncan was 19 when he was driving through Plaquemines Parish and saw his nephew and cousin surrounded by white teens.

The parish had just fought a bruising battle over school desegregation and tensions were high.

Duncan approached and introduced himself, touching one of the white teens on the arm. That night, Duncan was arrested for assaulting a minor. Leander Perez, a powerful segregationist who ruled the area from his position as district attorney, prosecuted Duncan as part of his effort to maintain de facto segregation. In the film’s trailer, Duncan said Perez “wanted to use me as an example for the rest of the Blacks.”

Duncan was denied a jury trial and sentenced to 60 days in prison and a $150 fine.

Sobol had arrived in Louisiana in 1966 as a volunteer for the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee. He became a leading figure in civil rights litigation, and took on Duncan’s case, leading to a 7-2 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968 that Louisiana was fundamentally obligated to provide a trial by jury, a ruling that rippled nationwide.

Director Nancy Buirski said the film shows how the legal system was used to oppress minority groups in America, a problem that has not been completely eliminated.

“A Crime on the Bayou” is the third in Buirski’s trilogy of films profiling individuals who fought for justice during the Civil Rights Era. The first two films were “The Loving Story” and “The Rape of Recy Taylor.”

When Sobol died in March 2020, Duncan said “I lost part of myself,” as Sobol “was one of the greatest people in the world.”

In 2016, Sobol wrote that his work with the LCDC brought him to “a new world from which I have never returned.” He was jailed for representing Duncan, and after the 1968 Supreme Court ruling, he returned to Washington to practice law. In 1971 he returned to Louisiana, then set up a civil rights law firm in Washington, and in 1991 returned to Louisiana for two decades. He was involved in an employment discrimination class action lawsuit against a Bogalusa paper mill, and many other cases.

Retired Columbia Law School professor George Cooper told the Associated Press that Sobol “was one of those men for whom civil rights and justice, particularly justice for black people, was the cause to which he devoted his life. And he faced a lot of danger because of that.”

“In Louisiana, people who needed help would be depending on my work,” Sobol wrote. “Whether I did it and did it quickly and successfully meant the difference between jail or not jail; integrated or segregated education; fair or discriminatory employment practices; the right to demonstrate or the denial of that right; access to public accommodations or the denial of access; the right to vote or tricks to nullify that right; and so on.”

The festival continues with “Born in Auschwitz,” the story of Vera, who arrived in Auschwitz in May 1944 and was selected for medical experiments run by Josef Mengele. Her daughter, Angela, was born in the camp and hidden for five weeks before liberation.

community The film explores healing in a parent-child relationship, as Angela passed on the trauma of the Holocaust to her daughter, Kati, an ultra-Orthodox cancer researcher who is determined to keep from passing that trauma to her children. While trying to free themselves from the Holocaust’s long shadow, they visit places they never wanted to return to, and meet people they never would have expected, including German psychotherapists and Pope Francis.

The romantic comedy “Honeymood” is next in the lineup. In the Israeli film, a newlywed couple arrives at their hotel suite in Jerusalem after the wedding, but instead of a relaxing, romantic night together, a gift from an ex-girlfriend launches them into a fight that leads to a dazed all-night urban journey, confronting past loves, repressed doubts and the lives they left behind.

This is the second film by director Talya Lavie, following her breakout hit “Zero Motivation.”

The festival concludes with “The Light Ahead,” a 1939 film that the National Center for Jewish Film considers one of the most important films in its archive collection. This showing is the Louisiana premiere of its 4K digital restoration.

Audaciously adapted from the work of novelist S. Y. Abramovitch, whom Sholem Aleichem dubbed the grandfather of Yiddish literature, this luminous allegory of escape marries Edgar Ulmer’s masterful direction with superb acting by members of New York’s Artef and Yiddish Art Theaters. Film historian J. Hoberman calls Helen Beverley and David Opatoshu “perhaps the most beautiful couple in the history of Yiddish cinema…their scenes have a touching erotic chemistry.”

The film is about a lame young man who is in love with a blind orphan

Photo: Augusta Films

A Crime on the Bayou girl in a cholera-obsessed town. They long to escape to Odessa, the big city, and an enlightened bookseller uses small-town superstitions to their advantage. The film, made on the eve of World War II, is “painfully conscious of the danger about to engulf European Jews.”

All screenings will be at the Manship Theatre. Individual tickets are available on the Manship Theatre website. The film festival website, brjff. com, has a sign-up for a VIP club that includes two tickets to opening night, discounts to all other nights, and food and drink coupons.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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community

Mobile Jewish Film Festival goes virtual again this year

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

After holding a virtual event last year, the Mobile Jewish Film Festival was planning on a hybrid event this year, returning to its model of numerous films in several venues, while preserving a virtual option for all but one of the films.

But at the end of December, the rapid spread of Omicron compelled the organizers to announce that the festival will be virtual-only this year.

“We are holding our breath to see what the next month holds,” said festival co-chair Barry Silverman last month. “If things worsen, we may revert to virtual again as we did last year.”

One positive from the Covid-era festival last year was connecting to filmmakers over Zoom, Silverman said, and there are plans to have question and answer sessions with three filmmakers this year. With the festival going virtual, the timing of introductions and question-and-answer sessions may change.

The festival will run from Jan. 13 to 30. “Breaking Bread” was supposed to be the final film in the series but was not available for online screening, so it has been dropped from the schedule. All films will be available virtually starting at 8 a.m. on Jan. 13.

Organizers hope to screen “Breaking Bread” in person later this year, along with a few other films, when Covid wanes.

Since the festival has shifted to online, in-perKiss Me Kosher son tickets can be exchanged for online tickets. Those preferring not to view films online can get refunds.

Individual film tickets are $9, and a festival pass is $65. Tickets are available at mobilejewishfederation.org. Sponsorships start with Friend at $100 to Executive Producer at $2500.

The first film will be “Chasing Portraits.” The film details the works of Moshe Rynecki, a prolific artist in Warsaw who painted scenes of the Polish Jewish community. He was murdered at the Majdanek concentration camp in 1943. After the war, his wife was able to find only a small fraction of his work, but a lot more of his pieces survived. His great-granddaughter, filmmaker Elizabeth Rynecki, embarked on a decade-long quest to find his works, with unexpected success. Rather than reclaim them, she explores how the works wound up where they are, and whether they should remain there.

Rynecki will have a question and answer session following the film, via Zoom. The group screening was planned for Jan. 13 at 3 p.m.

Many people embark on significant new careers, though it would initially seem like Carl Laemmle would be hard-pressed to top his initial achievements. The documentary about his achievements goes by the same name, “Carl Laemmle.”

A German immigrant, Laemmle invested in nickelodeons and fought Thomas Edison’s attempts to monopolize the film industry. He headed to California and in 1912 founded Universal Pictures.

Laemmle hired many talents who would go on to become Hollywood legends, including Walt Disney, John Ford, William Wyler and Irving Thalberg, and also hired many female directors.

In 1936 he changed course, forced to sell Universal because of the Depression. He had annoyed Adolf Hitler with his 1930 Best Picture winner, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Now, he set out to save lives, battling Nazis and the notoriously antisemitic U.S. State Department to rescue more than 300 Jewish refugee families in his original hometown from the

community Holocaust before he died in 1939.

There will be a question and answer session with filmmaker James Freedman after the screening, which was planned for 3 p.m. on Jan. 16.

Inspired by true events, “Persian Lessons” depicts a Jewish prisoner during the Holocaust who pretends to be Iranian in a bid to save his life, then is forced to teach Farsi — which he does not speak — to a Nazi officer.

David Meola, Jewish and Holocaust Studies Chair at the University of South Alabama, will lead a discussion after the film. The screening was planned for Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.

“Thou Shalt Not Hate” is an exploration of emotion and morality.

Simone, a surgeon who is the son of a Holocaust survivor, rushes to a hit-and-run accident, but upon seeing a swastika tattoo on the victim’s chest, he lets nature take its course. After, he confronts the ethics of his choice, further complicated by feelings of guilt and how he bonds with the neo-Nazi’s daughter.

Author Roy Hoffman will lead a post-film discussion, originally planned for 7 p.m. on Jan. 19.

“Kiss Me Kosher” is a romantic comedy about two families from very different cultural and religious backgrounds frantically planning a samesex wedding in Israel, and how they try to overcome their differences — except for one grandmother of the Israeli partner who insists Germans and Jews should not marry, while she has her own skeleton in the closet.

“Irmi” is a deeply personal film made by a daughter who is inspired by her mother’s story and her spirit, exploring the way in which unexpected events and chance encounters can both shape a life and reveal its true nature.

Actress Hanna Schygulla reads from the memoir of Irmi Selver, a native of Germany who lost her first husband and two children in the Holocaust, detailing how she traveled from country to country, picking up the local language and showing strength, resilience and joie de vivre. She died in New York in 2004 at the age of 97.

“My Name is Sara” is based on the true-life story of 13-year-old Sara Goralnik. After escaping a Jewish Ghetto in Poland and losing her family at the outset of the Holocaust, Sara hides in plain sight, using a classmate’s name to pass as an Orthodox Christian in the Ukrainian countryside, where she is taken in by a farmer and his young wife. She soon discovers the dark secrets of her employers’ marriage, compounding the greatest secret she must strive to protect, her true identity.

Filmmaker Mickey Shapiro said he did not know many details of his mother’s story until she visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with her grandchildren. She was interviewed for the Shoah Foundation oral history project in 2012. Springhill Avenue Temple Rabbi Edward Boraz will introduce the film, originally scheduled for Jan. 25 at 7 p.m.

A story accessible to all ages, “The Crossing” tells the story of the adventurous 10-year-old Gerda and her brother Otto, whose parents are in the Norwegian resistance movement during the Second World War. One day, just before Christmas in 1942, Gerda and Otto’s parents are arrested, leaving the siblings on their own. Following the arrest, they discover two Jewish children, Sarah and Daniel, hidden The Crossing in a secret cupboard in their basement at home. It is now up to Gerda and Otto to finish what their parents started: To help Sarah and Daniel flee from the Nazis cross the border to neutral Sweden and reunite them with their parents.

Don Berry, director of the Gulf Coast Holocaust Center, will introduce the film, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 27 at 7 p.m.

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Investigative Reporting as an Exercise in Tikkun Olam

By Richard Friedman Discovering how his Jewish identity shapes TV journalist David Hammer’s award-winning investigative reporting takes some investigating.

But if you dig you come to understand how his commitment to the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam — repairing the world — intersects seamlessly with this New Orleans reporter’s dogged pursuit to expose fraud and corruption.

Hammer is passionate about the two Js in his life — Judaism and journalism — and sees his determination to shed light on the misdeeds and malfeasance that harm the people of his city as a reflection of his obligation to make the world a better place.

“People react with gratitude and convey a feeling that what I am doing is actually helping to make New Orleans better,” Hammer said in a recent Zoom chat as he reflected on his work. “You feel like Sisyphus sometimes pushing the rock up the proverbial hill, but you see incremental improvements and people really appreciate it.”

“Though it is kind of a cliche to say that Tikkun Olam is the driving force behind my work, it really is. I can’t do more to improve the world than pursue the opportunities this job affords me.”

This articulate Harvard graduate, who turns 47 in January, has had varied journalism jobs over the years, ranging from sportswriting in New England to political and governmental coverage for the Associated Press in Little Rock and Washington.

Along the way he learned his craft well — welcoming pushback from hard-nosed editors, which Hammer describes as the best way to learn, while picking up local, regional and national reporting awards along the way.

Yet for this seventh-generation New Orleanian, his hometown was in his heart. Offered a chance to join the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 2006, he jumped at it, becoming an investigative reporter for what was then one of the South’s most influential newspapers.

Besides, New Orleans, as every journalist knows, has been fertile ground historically for covering government corruption and even to this day, 15 years after he returned home, Hammer says the city still behaves at times “like a third world country.”

Turning Point Another turning point for Hammer came in 2012 when the paper, due to declining revenues and growing Internet competition, cut back to three days a week while striving to “You see upgrade its online presence.

In the process roughly half of the incremental news staff — 84 of the 173 newsroom employees — were abruptly let go. improvements Though Hammer was invited to and people really stay, he chose not to, believing the paper’s influence would decline. He was appreciate it” especially frustrated that at the time only 36 percent of the households in the New Orleans market had Internet access and converting to an online strategy would cost the paper significant readership.

What especially troubled him was that the bulk of those without Internet access were poor and powerless, and that they and their neighborhoods often were the ones most heavily impacted by the municipal misdeeds that Hammer was intent on uncovering.

So, he switched paths.

WWL reached out to Hammer and offered him a reporting slot. The

community television station was ready to expand its commitment to investigative reporting and they wanted Hammer because of the work he had done at the Times-Picayune and elsewhere over the course of his career.

He didn’t have an ounce of TV reporting experience, though station officials told him that he had the most important ingredients — a heart and head for investigative reporting — and that the TV skills could be learned.

They were right.

Hammer today has an excellent on-screen presence. He comes across as genuine, and restrained yet passionate. He speaks with precision and explains things clearly, and the footage and graphics that accompany his stories enable viewers to not only grasp the importance of his reports but also how his coverage relates to their day-to-day lives.

Just in recent weeks, his investigations have helped send the former head of a charity to prison for stealing $1.3 million from public library donations, forced the FBI to raid a local government office hours after his report on self-dealing by agency officials, and exposed major engineering failures that caused a New Orleans hotel under construction to collapse, killing three workers.

Several of his investigations over the years have led to prison time for their targets. At times, prosecutors have used his reports to present their case in court, and defense attorneys have argued that his stories would turn the jury against their clients. But he’s also investigated law enforcement for abusing their powers and government agencies for failing to safeguard the public.

He’s won major national journalism awards,

including Scripps-Howard, Edward R. Murrow and four Emmys for environmental, investigative and government reporting.

Deeply Woven Along with the rigors and intensity of being a well-known investigative reporter, Judaism remains deeply woven into the fabric of Hammer’s life.

“Judaism is very important to me,” he explained. “Many members of my father’s family died in the Holocaust because they weren’t able to get out of Hungary, though my grandfather came to the U.S. in 1938 and I got to know him very well.”

Before the Covid pandemic, the newsman and his son attended Shabbat services regularly at Touro Synagogue. “This was something very important for me to share with him.”

His son’s Bar Mitzvah, scheduled to take place shortly after Covid erupted in early 2020, would become the first New Orleans Bar Mitzvah to be broadcast on Zoom, and the March 28 ceremony took place at the family’s dining room table.

Hammer himself contracted Covid that same week. He provided powerful first-hand reporting while facing a terrifying struggle and through his recovery. The New York Times quoted him describing his scariest symptoms in a May 2020 headline: “Like an anvil sitting on my chest.”

Today, this busy journalist still finds time to study Torah regularly. He also is planning to chant his Bar Mitzvah Torah portion at Shabbat services to mark the anniversary of the event.

Hammer also has lent his time and talents to the Jewish community. For the American Jewish Press Association, he judged entries for

WWL TV photo David Hammer its prestigious Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, and recently moderated a program on U.S.-Israel relations for the new Louisiana Jewish Coalition.

Given his visibility and the explosive nature of the stories he reports, Hammer was asked if he has ever experienced antisemitic backlash from those he has covered or from his viewing audience in general.

On occasion, yes, he said, though it is not a major problem. It certainly hasn’t fazed him. “When people have said things, it is from people who are kind of crazy. I don’t put much stock in what they have to say.”

Meanwhile, Tikkun Olam keeps driving this gifted reporter forward, providing him with passion and propulsion to ferret out corruption in his beloved hometown.

Clearly his hard-hitting investigative reporting is making the world a better place.

That is, for everyone other than the crooks he exposes.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life 19

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Southern Jewish Life 2022

It’s hard to believe the new year is here.

People, including us, are praying that America’s civic health will soon be restored.

We hope the bitterness and acrimony that seem to characterize every public discussion will begin to diminish.

We as Jews go into the new year especially concerned about increasing anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence both in the US and abroad.

Who would’ve thought the FBI would be taking out ads in Southern Jewish Life, as it has done now for several issues, urging the Jewish community to be vigilant and to report hateful acts when they occur?

This, sadly, is the year we are moving into — and at a time of stress heightened by pressures and tragic losses stemming from the ongoing pandemic.

At Southern Jewish Life, our work as independent journalists has never been more important.

Through our coverage, we connect Jewish communities throughout Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and NW Florida, making us all stronger, and keeping us apprised of the mutual concerns that course through our region.

To continue to do this well, though, we need your help. More dollars are needed to sustain and expand our magazine which is why, in addition to advertising revenue, we have developed a growing donor base.

So as 2022 begins, please consider becoming a Southern Jewish Life donor by sending a check to SJL, P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham, AL 35213, or going https://sjlmag.com/contribute/ (Donations to Southern Jewish Life are not tax-deductible.)

By doing so, you will join an important effort and one that will make Jewish life in the Deep South even stronger.

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

community Leventhal Center partners with 18Doors to serve interfaith families The Sherry and Alan Leventhal Family Foundation Center for Interfaith Families in New Orleans announced a partnership with 18Doors, along with a search for the Center’s next executive director.

Launched in 2020, the Sherry and Alan Leventhal Center for Interfaith Families — an in-house initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans — is designed to foster a broader and more inclusive Jewish community through programs and community partnerships for families and households who identify as interfaith regardless of age, observances, and where they fall on the Jewish spectrum.

In collaboration with area synagogues, Jewish organizations, and non-Jewish partners, the Leventhal Center creates opportunities to explore and connect to Jewish community, values, traditions, experiences, texts and spirituality to support an individualized Jewish or Jewish adjacent journey.

18Doors, formerly InterfaithFamily, was founded during the early stages of interfaith acceptance in Jewish communities, and is ever evolving to serve the unique needs of a changing Jewish and interfaith community.

The organization has served as the industry leader in making Jewish more welcoming and inclusive, creating accessible entry points to explore Jewish identity and expansive perspectives for interfaith couples and families.

Through individualized professional coaching and myriad learning opportunities, 18Doors supports Jewish organizations across North America — from Jewish Federations and synagogues to Jewish Day Schools, Jewish Community Centers, and Jewish summer camps. 18Doors can now count the Leventhal Center as one of its partner organizations.

“This partnership with the Leventhal Center is critically important,” said 18Doors CEO Jodi Bromberg. “It furthers the reach of 18Doors’ programs and resources. Now, interfaith couples and families who come to the 18Doors’ website or find us on social media will know that there’s a local organization in New Orleans that they can trust — that will welcome and include them.”

Teri Hunter and Alex Gershanik, Leventhal Center co-chairs, said “18Doors has been the gold standard leader in making Jewish life and meaning more welcoming and inclusive for individuals and families in interfaith relationships. As a partner in their network, the Leventhal Center is now a part of a national network of support, connection, and education for interfaith families.”

Transform life through meditation at next Jewish Learning Institute course “Meditation from Sinai” will be the next course offered by Chabad’s Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, for six sessions starting in mid-January.

The course is based on how not only the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, so were the meditative tools to help people open up, see more, and live more deeply. It teaches the what, how, why, where, and when of Divine Meditation, Mindful Awareness and Soulful Transcendence.

Class topics include how we control our brains, not the other way around; how to tune into spirituality through meditation; transforming every moment of life; and how Mount Sinai is “Mountain Do” to engender spiritual and physical change in the universe.

At New Orleans Uptown, the course will be offered on Wednesdays from Jan. 19 to Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. Registration is $70.

In Metairie, there will be a free trial standalone class on Jan. 25 at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. There will be a dinner for the evening class. The entire course runs for six weeks starting Jan. 25, though the fourth week will be on Wednesday, Feb. 16, and there will be no class on Mardi Gras. Virtual and in-person options are available. Registration is $70.

In Birmingham, the course will begin on Feb. 2, and the course will be offered in Baton Rouge, but details were not set at press time. Information and registration will be available on myjli.com.

BRINGING LIGHT TO OUR COMMUNITY FOR OVER 166 YEARS As a welcoming home to all, where Jewish values are celebrated and nurtured, the New Orleans Jewish Community Center has brought light to our community for over 166 years.

Each fall the JCC traditionally hosts Center Celebration, an annual fundraiser that supports our operating budget. Due to the pandemic and hurricane, this year, Center Celebration has taken the form of an appeal for your support rather than an in-person or virtual event. We will use every dollar raised to continue doing what we do best: bring light to our community.

Add your light to ours, so that we may all shine brighter in 2022.

Visit nojcc.org/bringinglight

SCAN TO VIEW In this fun video, see how the JCC enriches and brightens lives each day.

THANK YOU TO OUR PATRONS Shining Light Jill and David Israel Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust Transformer Anonymous Generator Aimee and Steven Bain Nancy Bissinger Leslie and Dr. Nathan Fischman Shannie and Rabbi David Goldstein Nancy and Steve Timm Menorah Arlene and Paul Barron Dr. Margaret Parker and Juan Barroso Ann and Robert Eisen

Abby Gaunt and Gabe Feldman Ana and Dr. Juan Gershanik Cathy and Dr. Charles Glaser Margery and Dr. Dov Glazer Lis and Hugo Kahn Lisa and Brian Katz Ashley and Michael Kirschman Patricia and Richard Kirschman Robin and David Mintz Kathy and Randy Opotowsky Debbie and Jonathan Schlackman Molly Pulda and Gary Sernovitz Kathy and Hal Shepard Nancy and Gary Silbert Ellen and Marc Yellin Renee Zack Rella and David Zapletal

Candle Barata Family Mat Berenson Christine Carlomagno Rachael Kansas Feder and Jason Feder Sandy Feingerts Mara and Joshua Force Allison and George Freeman Holly and Jonathan Friedman David and Robert Garner Debbie and Louis Gertler Janie and Dr. Louis Glade Marcie and Myron Goldberg Wendy and Ned Goldberg Stephen Futrell and Thomas Goldsworthy Amy Gainsburgh-Haspel and John Haspel Lisa and Mike Herman

Lynn and Rabbi Bob Loewy Susan and Byron Kantrow Beverly Katz- Exterior Designs, Inc. Emily and Zach Kupperman Rachel Zoller and Jacob Lipsman Dr. Sam Money Robyn and Eric Nowak Naomi and Larry Orlansky Sanford L Pailet, MD Debbie and Leon Pesses Paula and Joel Picker Susan and Lee Scharff Julie and Scott Silbert Monika Flurer Singletary Vicky and Peter Sperling Ellen Kempner and Lee Sucherman Rebecca Friedman and Dr. Aran Toshav Lynne and Dr. Michael Wasserman

THANK YOU TO OUR FRIENDS OF THE J Flame Linda and Richard Friedman Robin Levy and Bobby Garon Jillian and Eric Greenberg Kelly and Dr. Lawrence Haber Ellie Streiffer and Ben Horwitz Ruth and Larry Kullman Danielle and Benjamin Lee Jan and Henry Miller Annie and Dr. Jon Mizrahi Carole and Dick Neff

Posner Family Cathy Lazarus, Eric and Stuart Simon Sherri and Dr. Matthew Tarr Flicker Aleeza and Andy Adelman Julie Koppman and Brian Bain Betsy and David Beckser Karissa Haugeberg and Benjamin Benus Holli and Kolman Berger Marilyn and Marvin Bernstein

Lee and Joe Blotner Melanie and Dr. Danny Bronfin Cathy and Dr. Andy Burka Alex Canary Barbara Greenberg Leslie and Ron Gubitz Susan and Bill Hess Patricia and Howard Hodes Shellie and Terry Jacobson Marsha Jan Scott Kisner

Marilyn and Paul Kullman Saundra K Levy Rabbi Deborah Silver Judy Steinberg Tory Taylor and Josh Yukich Spark Phyllis and Joseph Bernstein Sylvia and Israel Finger Ida Stone Christine and Jason White

Patrons and Friends of the J as of December 21, 2021 January 2022 • The Jewish Newsletter

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AQUATICS, SPORTS & WELLNESS OUR GOAL: A BETTER YOU IN 2022 Let us help make it happen! The New Orleans JCC offers state-of-the-art fitness equipment for both cardio and strength training, free group fitness classes, studios for personal training and reformer Pilates, as well as indoor and outdoor pools. In addition, our Metairie facility features an indoor track, allowing members to walk or jog in any weather.

Spa amenities including sauna, steam room and massage services Certified personal training and reformer Pilates instructors TRX, boot camps, indoor cycling, HIIT, yoga, mat Pilates and more!

Join in January and save up to $125! $0 initiation fee 60+ FREE group exercise classes each week TRX and barre specialty classes included in membership Monthly contracts Two convenient locations Complimentary orientation and fitness assessment

Both locations accept Peoples Health, and the Metairie location also welcomes Silver Sneakers participants.

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January 2022 • The Jewish Newsletter

AQUATICS LEARN TO SWIM AT THE J! The JCC Swim School offers private and semi-private swim lessons to all ages, teaching beginning students how to swim and helping more experienced swimmers work on their strokes and breathing technique. Taught by Red Cross certified Water Safety Instructors, lessons are available seasonally in Metairie and throughout the year Uptown.

Bubble Babies water exploration class helps acquaint our littlest ones with the water while creating lots of fun parent-child interactions and bonding moments.

YEAR-ROUND LAP SWIMMING AND AQUA FITNESS With our heated lap pool and indoor teaching and therapy pool, you can take your workout to the water all year long. Adult lap swimming is available daily with advance registration. Aqua Fit is offered at least 15 times a week.

An invigorating pool workout that can be adapted to all fitness levels, Aqua Fit is free to gold members.

SUMMER SWIM SEASON Recreational swim returns in May as the family pools reopen for the season at both locations. Families are particularly excited to for their children to play on Metairie’s splash pad, complete with water features, and Uptown’s toddler splash pool, which includes an adorable child-size alligator slide.

ADULT SPORTS Adult sports are back and as popular as ever. Enjoy the camaraderie of friendly competition and register to play sports at the J! Pickleball Flag Football YABL: Young Adult Full-Court, 5-on-5 Basketball League Mellowball : Ages 30 and Up Half-Court 3-on-3 Basketball League

QUESTIONS? CONTACT US! AQUATICS kathleen@nojcc.org MEMBERSHIP - Metairie katelyn@nojcc.org MEMBERSHIP - Uptown membership@nojcc.org SPORTS sports@nojcc.org January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, CAMP & YOUTH PROGRAMS The JCC Nursery School and Pre-K enriches a child’s natural love of learning and encourages growth in social, emotional, cognitive and physical development. Our program offers a play-based, child-centered curriculum.

We view each child as a unique and complex individual grounded in a cultural heritage, and embodied with potential. To support these capable, curious thinkers, we provide a nurturing, engaging environment that will balance boundaries with freedom of discovery.

OUR PROGRAM 13 months - 5 years old August - May Summer program options Before and after care available TOURS: 1st and 3rd Wednesday, 10:00 AM

OUR CURRICULUM We believe that children are competent and capable learners full of potential.

Through research and discovery our teachers and children create opportunities to co-construct knowledge and explore the world around them.

Our newly opened Loose Parts Library enables our educators to bring open ended materials that support and expand the children’s ideas, abilities and interests into the classroom.

We nurture creative exploration as a means of selfexpression and a vehicle for learning and problem solving. Visual arts are integrated into all aspects of our school day. Children participate in movement classes that celebrate and encourage an active healthy lifestyle. Our music teacher visits the classrooms weekly to share musical games and activities helping to foster a love of music at an early age.

As a Jewish school, we approach all of our work through Jewish values, lenses, and culture which follow the JCC Association’s Sheva Early Learning Framework.

The Sheva Lenses, although rooted in Jewish values, hold us accountable to a set of universal values that include diversity, inclusion, reflection, and innovation.

Join Us at the J 24 January 2022 • The Jewish Newsletter

SUMMER CAMP We are thrilled to offer a safe and fun-filled day camp experience to our community again this summer. Mark your calendars: Camper applications for 2022 at both our Uptown and Metairie facilities open soon!

Find details about tuition, dates, and more at nojcc.org/camp.

January 14: Applications open for current JCC Nursery School & Pre-K families February 1: Applications open to returning camp families who attended in 2021) February 15: Applications open to the community

YEAR-ROUND ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS MINI CAMPS

BBYO

When schools are out on holiday breaks or special days off, the JCC provides an opportunity for children to participate in camp-style days at the JCC. Our experienced staff will ensure your child has a safe, supervised experience and returns home exhausted, talking about the fun projects and new friends that filled their day.

BBYO is a youth-led, worldwide group that provides opportunities for teens in grades 9-12 to develop their leadership potential. With the support of peers, participants commit to personal growth while cultivating their Jewish identity. BBYO includes outof-town conventions, weekend programs, community activism, volunteer opportunities and many other activities for high school students.

KIDS’ NIGHT OUT On select evenings, the JCC hosts participants in grades K-5 for a three-hour evening of camaraderie and special activities while parents get some time to themselves!

YOUTH SPORTS CLINICS Our Metairie location offers small capacity sports clinics for children ages 5-12 years old. Whether they are new to the sport or want to take their skills to the next level, these clinics are designed to help them stay active and explore new hobbies while remaining safely socially distanced. Currently private and semi-private clinics are offered in soccer, basketball, lacrosse, tee-ball, football.

MACCABI GAMES Be part of Team NOLA! Jewish teens ages 13-16 are invited to join the New Orleans JCC’s delegation at the San Diego Maccabi Games, held July 31-August 5, 2022.

Come have a blast at the largest Jewish youth event in the world. Teens participate in athletic activities, and then come together for social events, community service and fun. Athletes ages 13-16 can compete in either individual or group sports. A complete listing of sports and additional details are found at nojcc.org/maccabi.

QUESTIONS? CONTACT US! BBYO Camp

bigeasybbyo@nojcc.org uptowncamp@nojcc.org metairiecamp@nojcc.org Maccabi Games neal@nojcc.org Nursery School and Pre-K adrienne@nojcc.org January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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ADULT CLASSES & PROGRAMS ADULT CLASSES Created for those with a passion for art, a thirst to continue (or begin) their Jewish education, or a desire to adopt a new hobby, you will find what you need at the JCC. Traditionally, both of our facilities have offered a diverse range of classes, with topics ranging from dog obedience and knitting to self defense and mosaics. Learn more at nojcc.org/adultclasses.

REGISTER TODAY FOR OUR UPCOMING CLASSES! Painting in Acrylics Learn to Play Mah Jongg Shtisel 101: Everything You Always Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask

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January 2022 • The Jewish Newsletter

BOOK CLUB The JCC Book Club offers engaging and insightful discussions in a laid-back environment. Meeting the third Tuesday of the month, discussions are led by a local reviewer. Descriptions of the selected titles and their reviewers are listed at nojcc.org/bookclub. Books are available for purchase at our neighborhood partner bookstore, Octavia Books.

ACTIVE ADULT PROGRAMS Research proves the lifelong importance of exercising body and mind. For adults 60+, the JCC offers resources to keep you engaged. Drawing on decades of experience, the JCC offers activities that address the social, cultural and physical needs of these members.

Programs include: Chair Exercise Better Balance Games Day Movie Day Holiday Parties Lunch & Learns with the Rabbi Museum Visits Morris Bart Sr., Lecture Series featuring community leaders and college professors speaking on a range of topics that affect us here in the South

ACE: ALZHEIMER’S CARE & ENRICHMENT PROGRAM The Alzheimer’s Care & Enrichment Program offers respite for caregivers while their loved ones meet with qualified staff in a safe, familiar environment.

For participants, ACE provides a sense of community, sustaining their connections with others, while engaging them in a host of activities, including: Exercise Art Music Meal preparation Weekly visits with the JCC nursery schoolers Rotating artists in residence

MIND MATTERS Mind Matters is designed specifically for those concerned about their memory. In this boot camp for the mind, you will discover techniques to improve memory, participate in stimulating discussions and learn from others undergoing similar challenges. Throughout the duration of the program, participants will: Learn about factors that affect memory Develop memory strategies Participate in group discussions Learn brain health information Use the arts in cognitive exercises Take your learning out of the classroom with occasional outings Exercise (because physical health helps mental health) Enhance and continue lessons learned in class with weekly homework

DANCE FOR PARKINSON’S Modeled after the Dance for PD® program developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson Group, this class is built on one fundamental premise: professionally-trained dancers are movement experts whose knowledge is useful to persons with PD. Dancers know all about stretching and strengthening muscles, and about balance and rhythm. Most importantly, dancers know how to use their thoughts, imagination, eyes, ears, and touch to control their movements. This dance class is appropriate for anyone

with PD, no matter what stage or how advanced. No dance experience is required. Dance for Parkinson’s is sponsored by the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust, through a community health partnership program between the New Orleans Ballet Association (NOBA) and the New Orleans JCC. For contact information and to learn more, visit nojcc.org/danceforpd.

QUESTIONS? CONTACT US! ACE rachel@nojcc.org Active Adult Programs rachel@nojcc.iorg Adult Classes & Book Club judy@nojcc.org Mind Matters joanna@nojcc.org

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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JEWISH CULTURAL ARTS, SPECIAL EVENTS & HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS THE CATHY AND MORRIS BART JEWISH CULTURAL ARTS SERIES The Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series celebrates Jewish authors, music, and films.

Film: Holy Silence January 13 2:00 and 7:00 PM

TV: The New Jew! February 3 February 10 2:00 and 7:00 PM

Author: Jake Cohen Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch March 10 7:00 PM

Film: Asia April 7 2:00 and 7:00 PM

Film: Here We Are May 12 2:00 and 7:00 PM

SPECIAL EVENTS & HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS Throughout the year, the JCC holds holiday celebrations and commemorative events that are open to the entire community. During the pandemic, the Purim and Chanukah celebrations were reimagined as fun, drive-through events with live music and holiday goodie bags. This fall we were thrilled to begin opening our doors to larger public events as we welcomed best-selling author Walter Isaacson back to the J to present his newest book. This year’s Chanukah celebration was especially joyful as all ages sang and danced to the upbeat rhythms and melodies of the popular a cappella group the Maccabeats.

SAVE THE DATE! Sunday, March 13

Purim Celebration

Thursday, April 28 6:30 PM

Yom HaShoah Holocaust Memorial Program

All events take place at the New Orleans Uptown JCC and are free and open to the community. Advance registration, masks and proof of vaccination are required.

Register online at nojcc.org.

Wednesday, May 4 5:30 PM Yom HaZikaron Wednesday, May 4 6:30 PM Yom HaAtzmaut Israel Independence Day celebration with a performance by Gilad Paz

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January 2022 • The Jewish Newsletter

QUESTIONS? CONTACT US! Cultural Arts Programming and Holiday Celebrations judy@nojcc.org

education an annual SJL special section Rebecca Kitchens in the Loose Parts room at the Uptown JCC

Loose Parts build new approach to preschool education The room at the Uptown Jewish Community Center in New Orleans that is called Loose Parts isn’t the maintenance supply room — instead, it maintains learning and creativity.

Rebecca Kitchens, director of teaching and learning at the JCC’s early childhood department, explains that Loose Parts are “materials that are found, collected, or manufactured for the purpose of providing children experiences with open-ended materials that can be manipulated in multiple ways.”

Through those materials, children have a way of communicating “that lends itself to advanced problem solving, dramatic play, storytelling, fantasy, engineering, mathematics, and communication, just to name a few.”

The idea is to not have the object defined for the student, but to let the student define the object in creative applications. It can be “anything from a peach pit to a box of ribbon.” The room is filled with shelves that have a wide range of items that can be used in constructive projects, some of them conventional art supplies, while other items are a bit more inventive.

In 2019, Kitchens was one of 31 educators in the country selected to the first Sheva Center Leadership Institute, a three-year program through the JCC Association of North America. The Sheva Center is the JCCA’s early learning framework, using the Hebrew word for seven to reflect the program’s seven core elements.

The fellowship included in-person and virtual learning experiences, mentoring, and study trips to Israel and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Kitchens also received a national director’s credential through the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University in Chicago.

Sheva Center created the SCLI fellowship to advance the professional development of educators in the field of Jewish early childhood education. Made possible by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the fellowship is designed to enhance the skills of high-quality staff and create a pipeline for management and executive staff.

According to the JCCA, “the Sheva Lenses, although rooted in Jewish values, hold us accountable to a set of universal values that include diversity, inclusion, reflection and innovation.”

Kitchens started at the JCC in 2000 as an assistant teacher for ages 3

YOU'LL FIND MORE THAN A COLLEGE ON

the hilltop YOU’LL FIND A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY.

BSC

Birmingham-Southern College

bsc.edu

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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education

and 4, and became lead teacher in 2005.

The approach exemplified by the Loose Parts room is that rather than planning out curriculum for the year, “the teacher follows the lead of the child” and goes in the direction where the students’ interests are heading.

One example is how they wound up doing a project about carrots and root vegetables. “I would never have thought we were going to do a section on root vegetables and things that grow under the ground,” but it became one of their most successful extended projects.

It is part of the Reggio Emilia approach to education that was developed in Italy after World War II “and became the example for the entire world,” Kitchens said. The approach emphasizes a student-centered approach with a constructivist self-guided curriculum.

The approach is named after the Italian city where it was developed, and the Sheva fellows visited the city, where the entire school system uses a constructionist approach.

Kitchens said there was a feeling that the town fell too quickly at the start of World War II, and they “needed to create a sense of what it meant to be a citizen, how to think for yourself ” and empower children through their own ideas.

She added that there is a lot of constructionist education in Israel, and they want to “empower children to create and think for themselves” at the JCC. “It’s the Reggio Emilia approach with a

layer of Jewish education on top of it.”

As part of the fellowship, Kitchens has a Sheva Center mentor, who has come to New Orleans to work with the entire Early Childhood faculty.

Additionally, Early Childhood Camp Director Amanda Taylor and Lead Teacher Vanessa Cohen are participants in the Sheva Center’s Year of Intention: 21st Century Skills Seen Through Jewish Lenses. The community of practice is led by Sheva educators in the U.S. and Israel. The year of intention and study will culminate in a study trip to Israel.

Kitchens said that these approaches give children “readiness that naturally gives rise to a healthy appetite for academic content and a sense of what it means to be a citizen of the world.”

Jewish life thriving at Alabama

By Lee J. Green

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

The Alabama Crimson Tide are back in the College Football Playoffs and Jewish life continues to thrive with a swell of activities and return to high participation numbers at Hillel.

“We want Hillel to always be a Jewish home away from home,” said Hillel Director Lisa Besnoy. “The students find community here and we can see how much they enjoy being together.”

During the 2020-21 academic year, Hillel had to scale back on the size of some events and some of the programming was via Zoom. But the fall of 2021 returned a sense of normalcy.

“We’re being safe, but we’ve gone back to a regular schedulewith our welcome-back visits, Shabbat dinners and holiday celebrations,” said Besnoy.

There are an estimated 1,000 Jewish students at the University of Alabama and some Shabbat dinners in the past have been attended by more than 100 students.

Besnoy said 40 students signed up for the return of Birthright Israel’s trips for late December and she expects even more to take the trip in May. In April, The University of Alabama Hillel will partner with the Birmingham Holocaust

Education Center to bring the “Darkness into Life” Holocaust art exhibition to campus. This will coincide with a Shabbat dinner honoring Holocaust survivor Max Steinmetz, who passed away last March.

Besnoy said they want to provide opportunities to educate and to help students to prepare for professional careers. Hillel Connections helps students to earn internships in the Birmingham area and the Hillel Five-Plus program focuses on providing networking and as well as social opportunities for Jewish graduate students.

She said they have begun planning for their first-ever Jewish Alumni Weekend, April 29 to May 1. Open to alumni of all eras, the weekend will include a Shabbat dinner at the Bryant Museum; stadium and campus tours; a special presentation by University of Alabama President Dr. Stuart Bell and a late-night party on The Strip.

“We’ve really seen a renaissance of Jewish life over the past 10 years especially, and we are excited to share that with our alumni,” said Besnoy. “It is a great opportunity to come back to Tuscaloosa, see old friends and make new memories.”

education

Fostering Jewish Community on the Plains Strengthening Jewish student life at Auburn

By Lee J. Green Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl is a “gem” for Jewish students at the University and he has made it a point to make sure they are well-supported.

“Our students know that he is always there for them,” said Auburn Hillel advisor and Journalism/Communications Professor Nora Patterson. “Bruce has done a lot to boost Jewish student life and for some (incoming freshmen), he is the one they reach out to.”

Students come to Bagels with Bruce once per month, and recently he hosted the annual Chanukah party at his house, featuring the famous Pearl family recipe latkes. He also works with Hillel to organize some groups to attend Auburn basketball games, where junior guard Lior Berman, from Mountain Brook, is on the team.

Patterson said this past fall, Hillel doubled the amount of programming from the previous year, and they are planning for a busy spring of 2022.

They are planning a community Passover Seder, Israel Independence Day celebrations, Shabbat dinners, including campfire Shabbats at the Kreher Nature Preserve in Auburn, and other events to be determined.

“Our program is very student-driven,” said Patterson, adding that they have some excellent leadership from Hillel President Alexa Cotel-Altman. “We are also trying to plan a bus trip to Tuscaloosa for a joint Purim party with the University of Alabama Hillel.”

Patterson said that 10 faculty members at Auburn are from Israel, as is sophomore Romi Levy, who is a star on the Auburn women’s basketball team.

“We want to give those outside of the Jewish community opportunities to learn more about our holidays, traditions and Israel. The students want to be ambassadors of the community… promoting education, understanding and diversity.”

She said a few Hillel members also teach Sunday school at Beth Shalom, Auburn’s congregation.

Patterson is originally from Los Angeles and said that Jewish students from across the country come to Auburn. Cotel-Altman is from Westchester County, N.Y. They estimate that just more than 100 Jewish students are on campus, but that number continues to grow.

“We want to give them opportunities to connect with other Jewish students and be a home away from home,” she said.

The Latest News… www.sjlmag.com

Contact us to schedule a tour or phone call to learn more about Jewish life at Auburn.

Instagram: @auhillel Facebook: Auburn Hillel https://auburnhillel.wixsite.com/ auburnhillel

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summer camp an annual SJL special section Camp Blue Star

Grants, scholarships for summer camp From individual congregational programs to regional incentives, there are many ways to offset the cost of summer camp.

The Jewish Summer Camp Experience Incentive Grant program, administered by the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana, provides up to $1,500 for a Jewish child attending a Jewish not-for-profit sleepaway summer camp for the first time.

The Incentive Grant, underwritten by the Goldring Family Foundation, is open to every Jewish child in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle who has never attended a not-for-profit Jewish sleepaway summer camp. It is not need-based.

Since 1999, this program has helped send 1,632 children to Jewish summer camps. Deadline for this summer is March 1, and more information is available at jefno.org under the Youth and Camping tab.

The Jewish Endowment Foundation also oversees the RoseMary and Saul Brooks Fund for Jewish Youth Engagement, which provides scholarship assistance to Jewish campers who are full-time residents of Louisiana but outside of a major metropolitan area, such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

The rural Louisiana scholarships are for those entering grades one to 12, and the application deadline is March 1. Recipients can re-apply for future years.

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Jewish Children’s Regional Service, based in New Orleans and covering a seven-state region, has a new option in its popular need-based scholarship program.

The longstanding JCRS summer camp scholarship program provides need-based awards based on family circumstances. Last year, JCRS provided partial scholarship funding to over 300 campers.

This year, the JCRS is introducing a short form with a $250 grant, or the traditional longer application with the possibility of a larger amount, to be determined by the award committee on a case by case basis.

The JCRS scholarships are for those in third to 12th grades, residing in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee or Texas. Camps must be non-profit, and programs in Israel or other countries are not eligible.

The priority deadline for applications is Feb. 15, and the application process is done online at jcrs.org.

JCRS also does need-based college aid, special needs programs and a Chanukah gift program for children in challenging situations.

The Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica is offering a $1500 grant for First Time @ First Session, for first-time campers in grades 3 to 8 who attend the first session for the first time. The grant is not need-based. The first session runs from June 12 to July 6.

Ramah Darom in Georgia has an incentive program for campers from smaller communities, for up to $3,000 off a camper’s first summer and a minimum of $1,500 off the second summer.

summer camp

Discover Ramah Darom Blue Star planning 75th anniversary celebration weekend Two of the six camps that make up Camp Blue Star in Hendersonville, N.C. are called “Pioneer.” That pioneering spirit will be celebrated over Memorial Day weekend as Blue Star marks its 75th anniversary as the South’s first Jewish summer sleepaway camp.

The camp was founded by the Popkin brothers in 1948 and is now run by the third generation — Herman Popkin’s granddaughter, Lauren Herschthal, and her husband, Seth.

Seth Herschthal said the anniversary weekend will be “Catskills at Blue Star style” the weekend of May 27 to 30. The fully-programmed, catered event will be for alumni, families and friends, modeled after the Family and Friends weekend they do every five years, but with “extra flourishes, being the 75th.”

Plans are still being formulated, but two long-time former summer camp leaders Tali Azoolin and Evan Grabois are coming in from Israel and Miami to host the weekend.

There will be a full camp Shabbat experience, sunrise or sunset hikes on Pinnacle Mountain, child care provided, special programs for adults, a color war or Maccabiah competition, and visits by food trucks.

More information about the weekend will be announced soon.

After the anniversary celebration, it will be time to go right into staff training in anticipation of a “much more traditional, much more typical Blue Star summer” than during the past two summers with Covid in the background. First session will begin on June 12.

Herschthal said, “once campers are on the mountain, camp should feel like the rest of the world is far away.”

Blue Star’s six camps are Rookies/Juniors, Pioneer Girls, Pioneer Boys, Senior Girls, Senior Boys and the Teen Village.

Blue Star was one of the few camps to hold an in-person camp during the summer of 2020, and did so successfully with numerous anti-Covid measures in place.

Last summer was much closer to a typical summer, but still with many Covid protocols in place. Herschthal noted that there was “more stress on the system” with the emotional and mental health of campers and staff who had not been “interacting in a regular, healthy developmental way” for over a year. “Kids of all ages were having to figure out how to be together again.”

This summer, Blue Star plans to reinstitute field trips to outdoor, nature-based activities. They are also expanding their on-site water ski and cable park systems, so those activities can be done at camp instead of off-site.

There will be new martial arts offerings and an expanded music program with multiple musical arts instructors.

A theater space is being retrofitted into a Be Creative space, with laser 3-dimensional printing, screen printing and more computer-based arts.

There will also be a new official pickleball court by the tennis courts.

They anticipate a full house this summer, and look forward to welcoming back large numbers of international staff. “We actually had more international counselors and activity specialists hired before Dec. 1 than in any previous summer,” Herschthal said.

With the hopes that the pandemic will no longer be much of a concern, “this should be a celebratory summer, and it just happens to coincide with the 75th,” Herschthal said.

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Ramah Darom is the place to be this summer! Offering days and nights filled with adventure, fun and joyful Judaism in the North Georgia mountains. For details, visit ramahdarom.org/camp.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Judaea “family” adjusted to bring in recordbreaking numbers

By Lee J. Green Camp Judaea is based on traditions and a close family community. For the first time in 2021, the daughter of Assistant Director Ilana Schlam got to enjoy the experience at the Hendersonville, N.C. camp before Schlam joined the year-round team.

“My daughter had an absolute blast. As a camp parent, we could not have been more pleased with her experience and how happy, and healthy she was the entire time,” said Schlam, who joined Camp Judaea this fall after having served as a counselor and assistant director there years ago. “I am excited to return to the CJ team full time and to have the chance to experience the magic of camp alongside her and my son for years to come.”

Schlam said the majority of the staff were former campers, “which adds a special element.

We are all truly like a big family here.”

Camp Judaea Director Lori Zeligman said they had a record-breaking 2021 summer with just over 320 new campers, as Judaea adjusted to make camp a safe and healthy environment for everyone. They ate in an open-space event tent, installed new field lights so that they could enhance programming in the evenings outside, and set up bowling in an open-air sports pavilion to bring in to camp the activities they would generally be doing in town on field trips.

“After having run a successful summer last year, we know that we can ensure proper protocols to keep everyone healthy and happy,” said Zeligman. “We are looking forward to an even-better summer of new and enhanced programming in addition to keeping our traditions alive at CJ.” Camp Judaea programs are for rising 2nd Grade through rising 10th Grade. Daily activities include high ropes and zipline, horses, lake activities including a slide and trampoline, arts and crafts, sports, GaGa, Israeli culture, Israeli dance, cooking, petting zoo, and so much more.

In addition, Judaea is planning to launch a couple of new travel programs for 2022. The Southern Jewish Journey will be a new travel program based around the theme of Jews and the Civil Rights Movement. The trip, for rising 9th graders in the Bogrim unit, will be going to Birmingham, Selma, Montgomery and Atlanta, including learning opportunities and tikkun olam.

Rising 10th graders, called Chalutzim, will learn about social action/tikkun olam, the historical experience and present-day life of Southern Jewish communities in a week-long

summer camp

trip from New Orleans to Memphis. After the trip, campers are encouraged to attend Camp Tel Yehudah, Young Judaea’s teen camp in upstate New York, to continue their exploration of Jewish history, values and identity.

The 2022 programs have already been filling up and the Camp Judaea team are happy to do some informational Zoom sessions with parents considering registration. In addition, staff hiring has begun and potential staff can apply directly on the website for summer opportunities.

Day Camps in region

For those too young or not ready for sleepaway camp, there are many day camps offered in the region.

A Birmingham tradition since 1952, the Levite Jewish Community Center’s summer camp is for grades 1 to 8, with the Early Childhood Learning Center offering a Kindergarten camp.

Information about this summer will be released in January. Last year, the LJCC camp ran for 10 weeks, along with tennis camp and soccer camp.

Both the Uptown and Metairie locations of the New Orleans Jewish Community Center hold summer camp, with ages 21 months to grade 5 Uptown and age 3 to grade 5 in Metairie. Applications open on Jan. 14 for JCC nursery school families, and Feb. 1 for campers who attended in 2021. Applications open to everyone on Feb. 15. Camp runs for eight weeks in June and July.

Gates of Prayer in Metairie also holds a camp at the Louise Hayem Manheim Preschool, for ages 15 months to 4 years. Dates for this summer were not set at press time, but last year there were two four-week sessions in June and July.

After a hiatus last year, the North Louisiana Jewish Federation hopes to hold Camp Chai in Shreveport this summer. The two-week camp runs in late July and early August for ages 3 to 13.

Camp Gan Israel will be held at numerous Chabad centers in the region.

Chabad of Alabama in Birmingham holds camp at their facility. Information about summer has not been released, but last summer the camp was held for four weeks.

In Huntsville, the camp will run from June 28 to July 9 at the Monte Sano Lodge at Monte Sano State Park.

Chabad in Panama City Beach will have two sessions, from June 3 to 15 and from July 12 to 30.

Chabad Baton Rouge will hold camp at the Elan Vital Montessori School, with two one-week sessions, June 21 to 25, and June 28 to July 2.

In New Orleans, the camp will be at Slater Torah Academy, with five one-week sessions from June 20 to July 22. CTeen Xtreme for grades 6 to 8 will be held June 20 to July 1.

Information for this summer in Pensacola has not been finalized.

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summer camp

Jacobs Camp: “Kids need camp,” especially in times like these After being forced to take the summer of 2020 off due to the Covid pandemic, the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica had “a spectacular summer,” according to Camp Director Anna Herman. “We’ve always said that kids need camp, and that was never more true than it was last summer.”

Even with “stringent Covid protocols that were very successful,” it “was still one of the best summers ever.”

She is looking forward to “a much more normal summer,” while acknowledging that in today’s climate “you can only plan so far ahead.”

Enrollment is “really strong” and the camp will require the Covid vaccine for campers this summer, as a way of having a more normal summer.

“When you have hundreds of young people living together, we’ve had a longstanding vaccine policy, so this is nothing new for us.”

Many age groups are already waitlisted or close to full, especially in second session. There is a special incentive for first-time campers who choose first session, which opens on June 12, but “spaces are getting tight” even for first session.

There are numerous short programs for younger campers. There is a March 26 weekend for those currently in first and second grade, and an overnight in June for Kindergarteners. There are also 10-day and 2-week mini-sessions in June for first and second graders.

“We’re excited to give our youngest potential campers a small taste of camp, so they can come for longer in the future,” Herman said.

The top staffers have resumed visiting communities in the region for recruitment events. “We’re starting to get back on the road, and it’s great to be back with people.”

That said, Covid did teach ways to connect to the camp family yearround, through age group meetups on Zoom.

New Pool Bath House With the shutdown in 2020, the camp embarked on a major fundraising campaign for the year-round expenses that don’t disappear and to keep the gates open. They also did “aggressive fundraising” for increased demand for scholarships, and to bolster the staff experience as days off

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

excursions outside camp were curtailed.

Even with those campaigns, they were still able to embark on building a new pool bath house for the 2022 season. “Annual donors helped make it happen,” Herman said.

The new building will have a larger, better configured and more accessible restroom and changing areas, and updated fixtures. Herman said it is “something our campers have been begging for, for years.”

The camp also recently added pickleball to its sports portfolio.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp recently published its satisfaction survey of parents, with Jacobs Camp at the top of the charts in almost every category, and highest in the country in some, including percentage who would recommend the camp to others, and satisfaction with communication from camp.

summer camp

Ramah Darom celebrates its 25th summer

By Lee J. Green Camp Ramah Darom celebrated its 25th anniversary this past summer, and it is also a reunion for the camp’s new director, Anna Serviansky.

“I was a counselor at Ramah from 2000 to 2004 and it was such a memorable experience,” said Serviansky, who joined Ramah Darom’s professional staff in late 2020 after serving as an associate dean with New York City’s List College. “The experience working as a counselor made me love who I am. I believe that with all my heart. The way we approach Jewish learning and living is unique.”

Serviansky said “everyone would agree that our 25th anniversary summer was a huge success. It was a fun, safe and healthy summer.”

They did weekly testing throughout the camp. All the counselors and employees were vaccinated. The only trips outside of camp that they took were in nature areas. Ramah’s Covid-safety protocol was even recognized by the CDC for its stringency and effectiveness.

The camp is expanding its programs and camp offerings in 2022, and the first session is already almost full. They are piloting two new programs for younger kids entering the second and third grades.

Ramah Darom also plans to open the Menkowitz bike trail, named for former Camp Ramah Director Geoffrey Menkowitz, as well as adding a couple of popular sports — pickleball and bubble soccer.

“We’re in the midst of a big capital, programmatic and endowment campaign, called Kadima (Forward). We will be adding many fun outdoor activities like rock climbing, a zipline, a new slide into the lake and so much more” said Serviansky. “In the summer, we want to add specialty camps

like drama, offer horseback riding, teach more about social justice too.”

She said they will have much continued learning about Israel and will bring in the counselors from Israel again. They hope to recruit on a visit to Israel, but may need to do it via Zoom as they did for 2021.

“The kids really love learning about Israel from those who live there,” said Serviansky. “It’s eye-opening learning about their military service. The campers also really enjoy learning about Israeli food and getting to cook it.”

Ramah Darom also plans to expand its Tikvah support program, which gives campers with varying needs and disabilities the opportunity to enjoy the Ramah Darom experience.

They also hope to grow their Small Communities Incentive Program that attracts campers from smaller Jewish communities. “We get campers coming from as far away as Tulsa,” said Serviansky.

In addition to Summer Family Camp, which runs while camp is in session, Ramah Darom also has family experiences all year. They just held Winter Break Family Camp. Coming soon and open for registration are the Southern Schmooze Shabbaton for small communities, including Montgomery and Mobile, the weekend of Feb. 4. The PJ Library Grand Getaway will be March 13 to 15 for kids and their grandparents, and the always-popular Passover Retreat, April 14 to 24.

She said that while the camp facilities have grown significantly since she was there as a counselor and they have added many programs, one thing hasn’t changed.

“The heart of Ramah Darom never changes,” said Serviansky. “Kids can learn about themselves and their Jewishness. We are molding future Jewish leaders.”

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On Dec. 3, members of Temple Sinai in Lake Charles had a Chanukah celebration at Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. The congregation has been meeting at the church for in-person events as the Temple undergoes repairs from Hurricane Laura in 2020.

Rabbi Barry Weinstein noted that the church met at Sinai when the church was damaged in a 1918 hurricane.

The experience of hosting the Temple at the church has prompted Father Jim Lueckenhoff to write a couple of children’s stories explaining Judaism.

“About five years ago I created the Forest Friends, Fred the Fox, Stinky the Skunk and Floppy the Rabbit, who were deputized by Sheriff Thompson,” Lueckenhoff said. “They gather under the old oak tree in the forest and their duty is to help protect the forest which is that magical, whimisical place in my mind where doctors, arborist, Santa Claus, kayakers, care takers for the elderly, biologists etc. come to visit and some build a cabin by the lake.”

When Sinai started meeting at the church, he was inspired to have a rabbi come to the forest to explain Shabbat and Torah, leading to “A Jewish Rabbi Visits the Forest,” featuring “Rabbi Weinstein, Joel and George.”

Sinai’s president is Joel Davidson, and George Bodin is the congregation’s cantorial soloist and lay leader, who recently announced that he will be pursuing rabbinic ordination with an eye on staying in Lake Charles afterward.

With Chanukah approaching, Lueckenoff wrote “Hanukkah in the Forest,” where the three “come in a flatbed truck with griddles and menorah to celebrate Hanukkah and explain it to the forest friends.

He now has about 40 Forest Friends stories. As he explained, “there is a place in the forest for everyone.”

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Chanukah at the Riverwalk, New Orleans

The Terk and Rothman families at Chanukah on the Avenue at Temple Sinai, New Orleans, on Dec. 3.

Images of Chanukah

Chabad Car Menorah Parade finishes outside Regions Field in downtown Birmingham

Chanukah at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge

For Beth Israel in Gulfport, the Bowling Pin Menorah lights up the bowling alley at Cypress Lanes in D’Iberville on Dec. 4.

David Frost Photography www.davidfrostphoto.com

Representing all new members of Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville, Gregory Wallach holds the Shamash while his wife Karen Anne Wallach offers a meditation on the miracle of the menorah light’s brightness persisting through darkness, as their daughters and Rabbi Eric Berk look on.

Tulane Chabad Celebration on the LBC Quad on Nov. 29

On Dec. 5, the Shir Chadash Men’s Club in Metairie had an Ugly Sweater Chanukah Poker Night. Pictured are (Front row, left to right) Hal Levkowitz, Shawn Daray, Rabbi Deborah Silver, Peter Title, Bee Clancy; (Back row) Henry Weber, Alvin Samuels , Barbara Kaplinsky, Peter Seltzer and Steven Lew.

On Dec. 5, the Chanukah candles were lit at the landmark St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.

For more than 20 years, “Chanukah at the Cathedral” has fostered a strong Jewish-Catholic interfaith relationship and community dialogue, reflecting the relationship and commitment to interfaith understanding between Temple Sinai and the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond and Ecumenical Officer Father Buddy Noel invited Temple Sinai to present a celebratory program featuring the music and readings of Chanukah. The event was led by Temple Sinai Rabbi Daniel Sherman, Rabbi Emeritus Ed Cohn and Cantor Joel Colman. The temple’s clergy, congregation officials, auxiliaries and youth led attendees in the lighting of Chanukah candles, readings and songs.

“This was a special time for the New Orleans Jewish community to celebrate the last night of Chanukah and gather in word and song,” Sherman said. “We were proud to underscore the historic interfaith relationship between the Archdiocese and the New Orleans Jewish community.”

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Rabbi Moshe Rube of Knesseth Israel in Birmingham traveled to Piedmont in northeast Alabama, where Alan Tyree, who attends KI, lives. During Sukkot, Rube had asked Tyree if he knew of a place to get bamboo for his sukkah, so Tyree asked Mayor Bill Baker, and a delegation from Piedmont delivered. They discussed having a Chanukah celebration there, so Rube brought the menorah and latkes for the ceremony, held in a gazebo across from the old Kass store. The Kass and Steinberg families were the Jewish families who used to live in Piedmont. Gabe Weinstein, grandson of Ethel Kass Weinstein, was a history intern at the Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson in 2013.

GatesFest returns in March with expanded offerings Last year, Gates of Prayer in Metairie held one of the first Covid-era festivals, with GatesFest taking place in parking lot pods as bands played all day.

A larger GatesFest returns on March 27, and the lineup is headlined by multi-platinum artist X Ambassadors. In addition to the two parking lot stages, there will be acoustic performances in the sanctuary and a family stage in the playground. It is hoped that pods will not be necessary this year.

This year, GatesFest is partnering with other organizations. The Team Gleason Beer Garden will raise funds for the Gleason Foundation. The Humana Arts Village will feature many community artists, who will have their works for sale. The Jewish Community Day School and J-FLEx Family Fest Area will have games, arts and crafts, and music for the youngest in attendance.

With the Jewish Children’s Regional Service Jewish Roots Gala that evening, there is also an option to Fest for JCRS by adding an $18 donation when purchasing a ticket to GatesFest.

The lineup includes Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Big Sam’s Funky Nation, AsheSon, New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, Greg Hicks and Friends, Ben Kessler, Tiffany Pollack and Company, Electric Yat String Quartet, Duo Louisiane featuring Glenn Hartman and Washboard Chaz, and a Stephen Sondheim tribute with Jordan Lawrence.

General admission tickets are $54, with children 12 and under admitted free, and a Krew of GatesFest VIP package is $2500. The VIP package includes six VIP tickets, promotional recognition, a parking pass on-site, indoor VIP area and restrooms, open bar, prioritized covered seating at the main stage and catering by Katie’s restaurant. Additional sponsorships are available starting at $5,000, up to $25,000 for presenting sponsor.

Additional information is available at gatesfest.org.

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community ISJL announces cultural programs The online cultural programming at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life continues on Jan. 20 with Daniel Cainer presenting “Gefilte Fish and Chips” at 7 p.m.

Cainer, from London, has been called “The Comic Bard of Anglo-Jewry,” and his one-man show details what it means to be British and Jewish through a series of stories on a wide range of topics.

As part of Jewish Disability Awareness Month, the ISJL will host “Being Heard,” a program with New Orleans native Nick May, on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

Raised in a musical household, May is a singer/songwriter, educator, song leader and inclusion activist. He found music as a way to express himself as a person who stutters.

“Being Heard” was inspired by a presentation he made in 2018, detailing his story of growing up as a person who stutters, and how his summer camp and day school communities supported him. The program combines storytelling, singing and group discussion, and has been done at venues around the country.

The programs will be available to sponsoring congregations or communities, at $250 per organization. Among those signed up for May’s presentation as of press time is the Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge.

For Cainer’s presentation, Temple Sinai in New Orleans and Beth Israel in Jackson are among the presenters. Anyone who donated to the Institute in 2021 will also be invited to the Cainer presentation.

>> Agenda

continued from page 8

The Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge will have a Tu B’Shevat Shabbat Swamp Stroll, Jan. 15 at 2:30 p.m., at the BREC Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center. Reservations are requested.

The next Continuing Education program at Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans will be on Jan. 14 at 8:45 a.m. Amy Alvarez will lead “The Basics of Custody Evaluation,” to help mental health clinicians gain a better understanding of the process in Louisiana. The class is approved for three General hours by LCA and LABSWE. Registration is $70 in advance, $80 day of.

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The Atlanta Jews of Color Council will hold a Jewish Social Justice Summit over King Weekend, online on Jan. 16 at 5 p.m. Central. The panel will include national change agents who contribute to Tikkun Olam. Speakers include Jesse Rabinowitz of Miriam’s Kitchen, SooJi Min-Miranda of ALEPH Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Rabbi Shais Rishon of MaNishtana, Mariely Luengo of The West Tribe and Stacy Aviva Flint of Congregation Boni Shalom.

News and the Jews at Touro Synagogue with Rabbi Katie Bauman will continue on Jan. 26 at noon. This session will be exclusively on Zoom.

Beth Israel in Metairie will host a family Tu B’Shevat Seder, Jan. 17 at 3 p.m. Reservations are required.

The Atlanta Israel Coalition’s Virtual Tours of Israel continue with Eilat on Jan. 9 and Haifa on Jan. 23. Tour guide David Sussman leads the free virtual sessions at 8 a.m. Eastern. Past episodes are available on YouTube.

The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York will present a virtual performance of “Sweet Tea and the Southern Jew,” Jan. 23 at 6 p.m.

Central. The production, which explores what it means to be Jewish in the South, is produced by The Braid, formerly the Jewish Women’s Theatre in Los Angeles. Tickets are available on the museum’s website, mjhnyc.org.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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take care of yourself an annual SJL special section

Is My Child Too Sick to Go to School?

Courtesy Children’s of Alabama Being sure that a child is well enough to go to school can be tough for any parent. It often comes down to whether the child can still participate at school. Having a sore throat, cough, or mild congestion doesn’t always mean kids can’t handle class and other activities.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, though, health experts ask that families keep sick kids home. Even mild symptoms like sore throat, cough, or a headache can be signs of a Covid-19 infection that can spread to teachers or other kids. During the pandemic and after it’s over, kids should stay home when they have symptoms like a fever over 100.4°F, diarrhea, vomiting, or trouble breathing.

When in doubt, check with the school. Schools have guidelines about what families should do during the pandemic if their kids get sick. It’s also important to report that your child is sick, so the school staff can check to see if others might have been exposed to your child.

As for other types of infections, chickenpox sores should be dry and crusted over before kids go back to school. Usually this takes about 6 days. Kids with strep throat need a dose or two of antibiotics first, which can mean staying home the day after diagnosis, or possibly longer. Other contagious infections — like rubella, whooping cough, mumps, measles, and hepatitis A — have specific guidelines for returning to school. Your doctor can help you figure this out.

Lice, scabies, and ringworm shouldn’t keep kids out of school. If the problem is found by the teacher or school nurse, the child should stay in school until the end of the day. Kids who get their first treatment after school should be able to return to the classroom the next morning.

You know your kids best. A child who has the sniffles but hasn’t slowed down at home is likely well enough for the classroom. But one who coughed all night and had a hard time getting up in the morning might need to take it easy at home.

Turkey Train at Gates of Prayer

Photo courtesy Diana and Chip Mann

On Dec. 19, Gates of Prayer in Metairie held its first Turkey Train, passing donated turkeys down a line of adult volunteers and students from J-Flex to a waiting van. About 75 turkeys were donated to Second Harvest food bank.

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

borhoods!

counselor’s corner a monthly feature from Collat Jewish Family Services

It’s All In The Neighborhoods

Forgetfulness: What is Normal?

By Pam Leonard, LBSW, CDP In our virtual support groups for family caregivers, it’s not uncommon for someone who’s caring for a loved one with dementia to voice concerns about their own memory. “I pick up the phone and don’t remember who I was going to call. I walk into the other room, then can’t remember why I went there,” they’ll say. “Are these the early signs of dementia?”

Perhaps you’ve had the same concerns. You may be relieved to hear that memory impairment can be a normal part of aging — but how do we tell the difference between “normal” forgetfulness and serious brain diseases like Alzheimer’s?

Normal age-related forgetfulness is when we occasionally misplace items such as glasses, keys, and the remote control. We also may become easily distracted in the middle of performing a task or telling a story. It is also common to forget an appointment or mix up an acquaintance’s name.

In contrast, the symptoms of dementia go beyond memory loss, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. Signs of dementia may include trouble communicating, focusing, reasoning and completing tasks. Examples may include: Inability to solve problems: Working with numbers, such as taking care of monthly bills, becomes more difficult.

Issues completing everyday tasks: Driving, playing a game or working — tasks that used to come second nature — seem impossible.

Feeling confused about time or location: Someone loses track of time and becomes confused about where he or she is, in places like the grocery store or at the park.

Inability to engage in conversation: Dementia may cause someone to have trouble engaging in spoken or written conversation.

Poor judgment: Affected individuals may make faulty decisions, such as leaving home without a jacket on a frigid day.

Change in personality: If someone seems more fearful, anxious, depressed or suspicious than usual, it may be a sign of dementia.

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If you’re struggling with increased forgetfulness, the normal aging process may play a role, but stress can also be a factor. At Sweden’s Sahlgrenska University Hospital, researchers have found that severe stress is causing a growing number of people to seek help for self-perceived memory problems. In addition, the researchers found that lack of sleep can affect our ability to focus and remember.

If stress can lead to “normal” memory problems, then it’s not surprising that caregivers are sometimes forgetful. It is not “selfish” to take time to manage your own stress. It is restorative to nourish yourself by doing something you enjoy; exercising, being in nature or having coffee with a friend. Reducing your stress may help you focus and stay on task — a benefit to both your loved one and yourself.

Pam Leonard, LBSW, CDP, is program director of the CJFS CARES respite program, which provides four hours per day of cognitive, social and physical engagement for those affected by dementia and related disorders.

Pam is also a facilitator of CJFS’ virtual caregiver support group. To learn more about CARES and caregiver support, contact pam@cjfsbham.org or (205) 960-3411.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Classic meets modern with a new planned luxury condominium community overlooking downtown Birmingham, co-developed by David Silverstein.

Construction on The Tramont, a collection of condominiums with lush gardens, expansive terraces and upscale amenities to be located in the historic Highland-Redmont Park district, will begin in the spring.

“We have a vibrant community that has seen what’s happening in cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta,” said Silverstein, president of the FiveStone Group. “The Tramont will give them something they have only seen in larger cities and something that complements the area so well.”

The six-story community will include 28 units from one to three bedrooms, some two stories, ranging in square footage from 1,100 to more than 4,000, and ranging in price from $900,000 to $2.5 million, including a penthouse.

The Tramont features a fitness retreat with sauna, bathing facilities and yoga/barre studios; a heated lap pool with poolside lounging; a gym, a lobby gallery and full-service concierge as well as a covered parking garage with vehicle charging stations.

“We’re really focusing on the little details and doing everything to bring out this feeling of understated elegance,” said Silverstein, who is developing the project with Evan Watts out of New York. He said the condominiums will feature large windows, high ceilings, acoustically insulated high performance glass and elegant interiors.“We also want to contribute to quality of the neighborhood with some infrastructure enhancements to the surrounding area” including landscape enhancements, lighting and adding sidewalks.

The Tramont will be built just a couple of blocks up the hill from Temple Beth-El and Temple Emanu-El. Silverstein’s company is currently developing the new Birmingham Holocaust Education Center at Emanu-El, which will open this spring, and has developed The Summit as well as The Pizitz.

Margi Ingram, president of Ingram and Associates Real Estate, said The Tramont sales office recently opened in English Village and they are conducting presales.

Ingram said she has been selling condominiums since the late 1970s and “I’ve never been associated with a community the caliber of what is being planned with The Tramont. This will be more luxurious than anything we have ever seen before. The name Tramont comes from the Italian word Tramonto, which means ‘sunset’ and the views will be spectacular. We’re really excited to share this project with Birmingham.”

>> Rear Pew

continued from page 46 not living in it.” Cohn says that the Talmud declined to state that Jews plant trees at this time of year, with Tikkun Olam in mind, to compensate for all the trees left curbside during the previous month by our Christian brethren and sistren.

If confronted with this notion, any Talmudic scholar today will disavow it, in no small part because the Talmud was written many centuries before the advent of Christmas trees.

Cohn understands that not everyone buys into his scholarly screed; however, he points out that people often assume the Talmud and Torah have no connection to modern times.

But they do. You just have to listen closely during the Torah reading.

To hear it over the snoring.

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Doug Brook knows that you’ve been pining for him to cover this subject, but won’t abuse having you in the palm of his hand. Oakie dokie? For nearly a few more laughs, listen to the new Rear Pew Mirror podcast at anchor. fm/rearpewmirror or on any major podcast platform. For exclusive online content, follow facebook.com/rearpewmirror. For past columns, visit http:// rearpewmirror.com/.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life 45

rear pew mirror • doug brook

A Tree By Any Other Name January Seventeenth, Twenty-Twenty-Two. Why is this day different from all other days?

It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, commemorating an historic icon whose dream is probably rolling over in his grave with him lately.

It also would have been Betty White’s 100th birthday, being commemorated with a nationwide cinematic party. (As of this writing it’s not known if they’ll continue with it as a commemoration. There was originally something funny in this paragraph, but sadly she passed just before publishing. The CDC says that this column didn’t jinx her.)

Third and last…

(Yes, the opening alludes to The Four Questions — which are really four answers to one question, if you read your Haggadah more closely this April — but, due to holiday season postal delays, only three questions arrived in time for this writing. So, third and last…) … it’s also Tu B’Shevat. The Jewish New Year for the Trees. Yes, this holiday exists. After all, trees are people, too, and we have to care for them — it’s not like they grow on trees, you know.

Despite what its name sounds like, Tu B’Shevat is on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat, not on the second (“tu”) of Shevat.

(Editor’s note: That’s funnier spoken than in writing. Please read it out loud, react accordingly and, if that reaction didn’t include ripping this page from the magazine and pouring kerosene on it to stoke your winter fireplace, continue reading.)

(Editor’s note: The editor didn’t actually write the previous editor’s note.

Or this one.)

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January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

So, why would Judaism have its own Arbor Day, and in one of the coldest months of the year? Talmudic scholars spent so long debating this that they didn’t even have time to write their debate into the Talmud.

But the holiday itself does go all the way back to the Talmud. It’s not some post-modern vegetarian environmentalist plot. The Mishnah mentions four new year’s days in the Jewish calendar, of which Tu B’Shevat is one. (This column has previously presented all four, as nearly a couple of you won’t recall that you read over the years.)

Tu B’Shevat isn’t as well-known as some other Jewish holidays like Chanukah because, while its name has numerous debatable spellings, none can be morphed into nearly as many variants as the name of the annual Maccabean memorialization.

Trees have a long presence in Judaism despite so much of early Jewish history being in deserts. All the way back in the Garden of Eden, there was the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge — which both lasted thousands of years until George Washington famously chopped them down because Martha was making cherry pie for dessert that night.

The biblical big-fish story of Jonah less famously concludes with Jonah’s anger at the Almighty over the death of a tree he planted. (Bet you’ll go back for Yom Kippur afternoon this year to know what that’s about, won’t ya.)

But no text records the definitive origin of Tu B’Shevat — at least, the origin according to the world’s most revered unknown rabbinic botanist, Pinchas “Pine” Cohn. For the first time ever in print, here’s his heretofore unheralded Talmud-esque treatment about this winter holiday’s historic provenance.

Cohn says that a central tenet of Judaism is Tikkun Olam, literally “repairing the world” because, as the Talmud says, “if it ain’t broke, you’re continued on previous page

Celebrating trees? In the middle of winter?

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CATCHING UP Here, we’re going to reach back to books that have been published not in the last two or three months, but in the last two or three years and deserving of space as a reminder of how really great they are. We’ve recommended Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios The Lost Years by Stephen Berkman a million times and that’s not enough: the person you know who has everything doesn’t have this enormous, evocative, wondrous coffee table book and needs it. The works inside, a “tribute to the enigmatic 19th century New York City photographic establishment known as Zohar Studios, located in the predominantly Jewish Lower East Side” produced using the photographic process known as wet collodion, brings forth the most captivating images in a historical vision.

Photographer Murray Riss produces the images that make up Beloved, a large selection of photographs of Memphis’ Temple Israel Cemetery, one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the South. For collectors of Southern Judaica especially, a nice addition. For children, I Am Anne Frank by Brand Meltzer, illustrated by Christoper Eliopoulos, is special. Using many of Anne’s own words to explain her journey and a tone that’s hopeful, not fearsome, a community explains in the last pages how Anne’s story ultimately ends, and the bright spots — Jewish values — that shine still and can be carried forward by us all. Judah Touro Didn’t Want to be Famous by Audrey Ades and illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger begins with Touro’s sailing to New Orleans and the successful shop he’d go on to open at 27 Chartres. After being injured during the War of 1812, Touro wonders how best he can use his success in business and good luck in surviving, and decides to help the community in (very) big ways and small, never seeking the spotlight. An important example of doing good because it’s the right thing to do, not for the spotlight. Goodnight Bubbala, A Joyful Parody by Sheryl Haft is just that: a sweet take on the classic, mixing in some Yiddish in effusive short passages alongside absolutely charming illustrations by Jill Weber. Like the original, prime to be read aloud time after time before bed, as is the more relaxed, slower-paced Lilah Tov Good Night by Ben Gundersheimer and Noar Lee Naggan.

ISRAEL

THE ISRAELI CENTURY

How the Zionist Revolution Changed History and Reinvented Judaism

by Yossi Shain

Yossi Shain moves us through the timeline of Jewish peoplehood and how Israel the country defines how we see ourselves and each other, serves as a geopolitical dining room table where we are all tied together and can always come home to, and how that sense of permanence gives each a greater confidence not previously enjoyed. Not a bit player, Israel here is the hero that isn’t kowtowed by Diaspora donations, enjoys a robust economy and is a shining star in global start-up culture, and while real political threats linger, its successes on the world scene bring admiration.

In a discussion on return to history and its meaning (and how far back to go), the assertion is made that the State of Israel’s stability of sovereignty is what makes pluralistic Judaism thrive, otherwise a more traditional ideology would take hold in fear of the whole being threatened with collapsing. The overall takeaway? The Diaspora isn’t needed to prop up Israel, the author maintains Israel is instead setting the tone for the Diaspora and will continue that trajectory.

UNDER JERUSALEM

The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City by Andrew Lawler

Even the discussion on Jerusalem’s size and importance in King David’s era, perhaps a dozen acres and a thousand or so inhabitants, the “capital of a few small villages,” ripples forth into current stances. Highlighting the continuing saga of archaeological digs setting off religious motivations, political intrigue, and history book re-writes, “Under Jerusalem” also sets out as an outline for a more peaceful, shared identity for what and whom is above.

JUDAICA Marvels of Judaism:

SYNAGOGUES

by Leyla Uluhanli

Certainly not the first generouslysized volume of synagogue architecture, this has one major difference: the essays are more than just color commentary.

A nice selection of images includes the exterior as well as interior design, and some of the most compelling are the more contemporary, almost stark spaces as opposed to elaborate environments elsewhere.

While we were hoping to see a few southern treasures like Touro in New Orleans or Gemiluth Chassed in Port Gibson, Miss., in the New World section, Charleston’s 1841 Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim deservedly made the cut of 60+ world synagogues included overall.

The stunning 2010 rose window commissioned by the Museum at Eldridge Street in New York featured on the cover ensures this coffee table book stays on the top of the stack.

FOOD

CLAUDIA RODEN’S MEDITERRANEAN

Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel The first three or four recipes in, and you’re hooked (focaccia to tapenade, and already an envisioned grocery run is in the works). Roden is famous for her time-tested recipes, research, and stories peppered in that bring a strong sense of place. Not only kosher recipes, but easy enough to figure out mods in most cases. Uncomplicated, delicious.

January 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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