Southern Jewish Life Regional, January 2024

Southern Jewish Life January 2024 • Volume R1, Issue 1

REGIONAL

Numerous buildings throughout the world were lit in blue following the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres in Israel.

Pictured here is the Governor’s Mansion in South Carolina. More, page 84.

Southern Jewish Editor This wasn’t how we intended to introduce ourselves.

Since 1990, our publication has served as an award-winning independent voice for the Jewish communities in the Deep South, and for the past few months we have been working on this new regional edition that would serve communities from Virginia to East Texas.

We were getting ready to launch, and then Oct. 7 happened.

Like our colleagues at Jewish publications around the country, we have been incredibly busy ever since, getting the news out to inform our communities. The first issue of the regional edition was delayed a bit and the focus has definitely shifted (the photo on this page was originally a field of sunflowers), but here we are, and we’re glad you are reading us.

We have spent the last three decades traveling throughout the South, covering and documenting the unique Southern Jewish stories that aren’t being published anywhere else, to produce our news magazine that has connected the Jewish communities in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and the Florida panhandle. We’re excited to add even more communities to our coverage area, as there is no shortage of interesting stories out there.

Our coverage is entirely about the Jewish communities of the South, from larger communities to places where there’s one Jew remaining in the county or parish. When we do national and international stories, they are based on how they affect our region, such as how Israel’s war with Hamas reverberates in our region.

We welcome your story suggestions, and we’re also looking for freelance writers throughout the region.

Many communities in the region have their own community newspapers, most of which are published by the local Jewish Federation. Whether Federation paper or independent, we are not looking to supplant those local efforts. There is no way we can be on the ground in every community in the South, talking about what’s happening at each agency or synagogue, or who the local Hadassah chapter is bringing in as a guest speaker.

Southern Jewish Life Regional will have a wider view of the region, with interesting news, opinion pieces, features and profiles from throughout the South. In some cases, we will be covering stories that Federation publications just can’t do.

Naturally, our first issue has a lot of coverage about the war against Hamas and how it has affected our region. But we also have a mix of stories that we have been working on over the past several months, and which will be the mainstay of the magazine once again, when the war has ended.

We invite you to subscribe to Southern Jewish Life Regional, so you don’t miss a single issue. If you like what we are doing, we certainly welcome additional support.

Before starting this publication, I worked for a student newspaper at the University of Virginia.

Thomas Jefferson, who founded U.Va., emphasized the importance of newspapers, as a well-informed citizenry is vital for communities to function. With what is happening in our country and around the world these days, it is even more important for our Jewish community to be informed.

Please enjoy our debut issue, subscribe to Southern Jewish Life Regional, and we look forward to informing you for years to come.

Lawrence Brook, Publisher/Editor

Agenda SJL receives national honors Fast food and Israeli drones Teen Diller Tikkun Olam Award winners Ramah Darom Retreats Summer Camp Incentives Remembering JCRS’ Ned Goldberg NFTY Memories in unlikely place

6 9 12 14 15 16 17

Focus: The War Against Hamas

Escaping the Nova Festival massacre 18 Atlanta Lone Soldier killed in Jerusalem 20 State governments invest heavily in Israel Bonds 22 Consuls General fight the PR battle in region 26 La. woman volunteers in Israel, “We will be OK” 30 American cowboys cause a stir volunteering in Israel 32 Mississippi-built ship heads to Israel 34 N.C. Rabbis: Fringe groups don’t speak for community 35 ‘Bama, Texas welcoming to Jewish students 40

Gates of Prayer, Metairie, La.

From Federation to Congress for Manning 42 Va.’s Luria reflects on time in Congress 44 SJL, B’ham Times intern reflects on experience 48 Meeting Ethiopian Israelis as U.S. Black student 50 Evacuating a summer camp? No problem 54 Jewish scientist’s Nobel on market in Nola 56

Travel

Opinion

Sports

Tell antisemitic Presby. Church USA goodbye Anti-Israel Jewish studies at Wake

Books Most Fortunate Unfortunates Don’t Eat This Book!

4

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

58 62

Rosenwald Schools exhibits New Judaic Acquisitions in N.C. Seeing Auschwitz debuts

Arts Tsvey Brider

Baseball’s Jewish draftees SEC Hoops Preview

68 70 72 74 77 79

Food 64 67

Kugels and Collards

80

Rear Pew Mirror

83

Southern Jewish Agenda

Southern Jewish Life receives three Rockower Awards at AJPA convention Co-hosted national event in New Orleans with Crescent City Jewish News Southern Jewish Life magazine once again picked up multiple awards in the 42nd annual Simon J. Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism.

The regional publication with offices in Birmingham and New Orleans received three awards in what is regarded as the “Jewish Pulitzers.” The Rockowers were presented on July 11 at the American Jewish Press Association annual convention in New Orleans, and this year the Rockowers set a new record for most entries.

Southern Jewish Life received first place in Excellence for Writing About Sports for “From the Plains to the Promised Land: Auburn Basketball in Israel,” coverage of the Auburn university basketball team’s groundbreaking trip to Israel in August 2022. The coverage was written by editor Larry Brook.

Richard Friedman won second place in Excellence for Writing About Health Care for “Fighting for their Lives,” his profile of Morissa Ladinsky, co-leader of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Youth Multidisciplinary Gender Health Team, where she is challenging new Alabama laws restricting treatment of youth who have gender dysphoria.

6

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

The piece also had a sidebar with the experiences of a transgender male who grew up in a very small Southern Jewish community.

SJL also received second place among all publications for Excellence in Editorial Writing, for “You are the enemy,” about the lack of outrage when an official with a Muslim self-described civil rights organization referred to most American Jews and mainstream Jewish organizations as “the enemy”; “Say goodbye to the Presbyterian Church (USA),” about how the Jewish community should shun the church because its obsessive anti-Israel activism has crossed the line into overt antisemitism, and “Now what, ADL?” for its admission that its longtime No Place for Hate curriculum for schools had veered off a mainstream path and became “mis-aligned” with ADL’s values, seemingly confirming accusations of critics in Mountain Brook schools the previous year.

As a magazine, for most categories Southern Jewish Life competes in a division with monthly newspapers and magazines, many of which are national in scope, such as Moment, Hadassah, Lilith and the Orthodox Union’s Jewish

Action. The editorial award was combined into one division with all publications, including weeklies, wire services and online sites.

This brings Southern Jewish Life’s cumulative total to 25 Rockowers, having received four in 2022.

The Forward led the night with 32 Rockowers, while the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles tallied 21. Among magazines, Moment and Jewish Currents each received 15.

In the region, the St. Louis Jewish Light received four awards. The Jewish Herald-Voice of Houston received three, while the Jewish Observer of Nashville and the Atlanta Jewish Times each received two. Additionally, Dave Schechter received second place for Best Freelancer, with pieces for the Atlanta Jewish Times as part of his submission.

The conference was co-hosted by Crescent City Jewish News, headed by AJPA President Alan Smason, and Southern Jewish Life. Smason presented Brook with a Volunteer of the Year award for his work on the convention.

The 2024 convention is tentatively set for Nashville.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

7

deep and ongoing trauma. But we are not silent, and we are not still. CUFI’s more than 10 million members are demonstrating their solidarity and non-negotiable demand that the United States supports Israel with every resource it needs to bring every hostage home safely and eliminate the threat of Iranian-backed terror on its doorstep.”

Resources for individuals include backgrounders on the current situation, graphics to share on social media and other materials.

CUFI has raised and given out more than $3 million since Oct. 7.

From New Orleans to Brooklyn A billboard in Chicago that is part of the Christians United for Israel campaign “You Are Not Alone.” Credit: CUFI.

Christians United for Israel launch solidarity campaign (JNS) — Christians United for Israel has just launched a campaign to increase efforts in fighting anti-Jewish bigotry.

“You Are Not Alone” has so far launched in New York, Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.

“Christian Zionists are serving as watchmen on the walls for Jerusalem and will not keep silent in the face of barbaric terrorism and raging antisemitism that has brought immense pain to the Jewish people and all those who value humanity,” said CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee. “I am proud to see so many Americans responding, in word and in deed, to ensure the children of Israel are not alone.”

CUFI Action Fund chairwoman Sandra Parker said “it pains us that Israelis and Jewish Americans are enduring a

What do you think?

Southern Jewish Life welcomes your

opinion pieces, letters to the editor… just keep them short and civil!

Email submissions to editor@sjlmag.com or mail to P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham AL 35213 8

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Author explains how geography was the least of the changes in making that move New Orleans native Corie Adjmi will share her debut novel, “The Marriage Box,” at a Jan 10 program at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans. There will be a Zoom option for those unable to attend in person.

After growing up in a Reform community in New Orleans, she moved as a teen to an Orthodox Syrian neighborhood in Brooklyn. That transition inspired the novel, which follows Casey Cohen on that journey at age 16, as she goes from being a cheerleader in the wrong crowd to an insular world of Shabbat dinners, religious school and marriage prospects.

The Marriage Box is a pool deck where teen girls put themselves on display for potential husbands. Cohen winds up marrying at age 18, only to find that her husband doesn’t want her to go to college, but start having children instead.

In 2020, she released “Life and Other Shortcomings, a collection of linked short stories going from New Orleans to New York and Madrid, from 1970 to the present day. The women in the 12 stories portray a wide range in the female experience.

At the 6:30 p.m. program, she will discuss growing up Southern, the culture shock she encountered in moving to New York, and how she has found her own sense of Jewish meaning. Registration for the free in-person program and the Zoom are at msje.org. The book is also available at the museum’s store.

Jacksonville Alliance’s longtime fitness director dies in kayak accident

By David Swindle (JNS) — The search for Eiffel Gilyana, an acclaimed athlete and leader at a Florida Jewish center who disappeared during a kayaking trip, has ended with the discovery of his body seven miles from where he went missing the previous week.

Eiffel Gilyana worked as the fitness and wellness director since 2009 for the Jewish Community Alliance (JCA) in Jacksonville, Fla. On Dec. 23, he particiPhoto courtesy pated in a kayaking trip to Eiffel Gilyana nearby St. Augustine with Task Force Hydro1, a nonprofit that brings together veterans, active military and first responders “united by a shared commitment to address mental health and foster emotional healing through water-based activities.” Gilyana served as Health and Wellness Advisor to the organization.

The group lost track of Gilyana and soon discovered his kayak had split in two, prompting a 90-hour search by the U.S. Coast Guard. His body was found on Dec. 26.

“Eiffel was an incredible human being,” JCA CEO Adam Chaskin told JNS. “Eiffel had a huge heart and was a very caring man. He would offer help to anyone and do what others might think is above and beyond to help people. But for Eiffel, it was normal and what he thought everyone should do.”

Gilyana, a father of three and nationally ranked bodybuilder, was an Iraqi Christian. He served as a translator for the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Division from 2003 to 2009.

“He loved his family very much and worked tirelessly to make a great home for them in the U.S.,” Chaskin said.

In a nearly 15-year career at JCA, Chaskin said Gilyana “literally helped thousands of people achieve a healthier lifestyle.”

“He was not just someone who worked there; he quickly became part of your family,” said Chaskin. “There is no replacing him, and he will be sorely missed. Although we know we must go on, it will be very difficult not having his incredible smile and energy with us every day.”

An Israeli drone will bring you a chicken sandwich

Want an easier way to get a Chick-Fil-A order, especially avoiding the often-lengthy drive-thru lines? An Israeli company is pleased to serve you.

Flytrex, based in Tel Aviv, has been working with the popular chain to handle deliveries in test markets.

Since Sept. 2022, locations in Granbury, Tex., and Durham, N.C., have tested drone deliveries, and the feature debuted in November in East Brandon/Valrico, Fla. The service in Florida is currently available during weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., within a 1.2 mile radius of the store.

The order can be made by selecting drone delivery in the Chick-Fil-A app. The bag is placed in a cardboard box and delivered to a backyard, with the box being lowered by a wire, as the drone does not land with the order. If someone on the ground pulls on the wire, it detaches from the drone, preventing damage to the craft.

According to Flytrex, in general, drones are 22 times cheaper than other forms of last-mile delivery services, and often are faster in areas where traffic is a concern. In January, their partner, Causey Aviation, received FAA certification to provide drone service beyond the line of sight.

For those looking for a different chicken establishment, Raising Cane’s, a 700-location chain that got its start on the campus of Louisiana State University, is also working with Flytrex.

The company was founded in 2013 in Tel Aviv, and in 2017 tested its service in Iceland. They began U.S. deliveries in 2019.

Flytrex is also involved in drone deliveries with Walmart, Starbucks, Chili’s, Little Caesars, Papa Johns, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, and Unilever’s The Ice Cream Shop in the Texas and North Carolina cities. They hope to expand nationally in the coming years.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

9

Rep. Massie accused of antisemitism after sharing controversial meme (JNS) An image shared on social media featuring rapper Drake rejecting one idea while embracing another — often used to identify alleged hypocrisy — has generated condemnation across the political spectrum after a Republican legislator used it to claim that Congress showed greater loyalty to Israel than the United States.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) engaged in so-called “drakeposting” on Dec. 5 by sharing two images of the Jewish hiphop star from his 2015 “Hotline Bling” music video, each labeled “Congress these days.” In the top photo, Drake holds up his hand and looks away from the term “American Patriotism.” In the bottom one, he grins and points an approving finger at the word “Zionism.”

Massie’s unclear use of the ambiguous meme led some to interpret his intent as antisemitic — that it suggested dual loyalties or Jewish control of Congress. JNS contacted Massie’s press office for clarification but did not receive a response.

The White House called for the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives — and all Americans — to “condemn this virulent antisemitism

from a sitting member of Congress.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also attacked Massie, calling his posting “antisemitic, disgusting, dangerous, and exactly the type of thing I was talking about in my Senate address.”

Massie responded to Schumer, chastising him: “If only you cared half as much about our border as you do my tweets.”

Massie also received criticism for the tweet from the right, with Joal Pollak, senior editor-at-large for Breitbart News, writing: “The idea that ‘Zionism’ and ‘American Patriotism’ are contradictory is a common theme on the antisemitic far-right.”

Pollak noted that Massie had faced criticism with his recent “nay vote” to affirm Israel’s right to exist, but that now “he appears to have taken that argument to a completely different place with his antisemitic post.”

Massie later told Reason that he wasn’t saying that patriotism for America and support for Israel are mutually exclusive.

“It’s okay in Congress to be patriotic for Israel, but you can’t be patriotic for America. That’s considered nationalism,

Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) speaking with attendees at the 2019 Young Americans for Liberty Convention in Philadelphia on April 13, 2019.

which American nationalism is a dirty word.”

He has also been criticized for voting against U.S. aid to Israel, but says that he votes against all foreign aid.

“We didn’t feel like we had it in us” Richmond Jewish Food Festival postponed for security reasons, other concerns The emotional toll from the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, coupled with a subsequent “volatile climate” with a burst in hate crimes, have led to the indefinite postponement of one of the most prominent annual Jewish events in Richmond.

Rabbi Dovid Asher, director of Keneseth Beth Israel, called the Richmond Jewish Food Festival organized by the congregation the “biggest Jewish event” annually in the city. In the past, the gathering had acted as a successful fundraiser and a way to connect with the broader community.

The 16th annual festival was to take place at the Weinstein Jewish Community Center in January, and organizers hope it will be held later this year.

Asher noted that the synagogue’s security costs have risen 10

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

tremendously — up to $500 each Sabbath. He further described how the Jewish community still felt “reeling emotionally” and that they didn’t feel like they “had it in us to pull off a massive event.”

Security for the festival had increased in recent years, and would have grown even more this year.

On Dec. 18 at Richmond’s Congregation Or Ami, police responded to a bomb threat. A check of the building showed no dangers. Over that weekend, dozens of synagogues across the country — some reports stated as many as 200 — received similar “swatting” threats.

On Dec. 14, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey hosted a menorah lighting on the last night of Chanukah, at the Governor’s Mansion in Montgomery. Rabbi Steve Silberman of Ahavas Chesed in Mobile gave remarks, and the lighting was done

by Auburn Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl.

This was the second year for the ceremony, and Ivey has said she wants it to continue long after her term is over.

(From left to right) Coach Bruce Pearl, Governor Kay Ivey, Rabbi Steve Silberman.

Photo by Hal Yeager/Governor’s office

Southern Jewish history grants available from SJHS The Southern Jewish Historical Society is looking for grant submissions, for projects relevant to Southern Jewish history. Applications will be accepted from Feb. 1 to March 15, and funds are generally available after July.

The Project Completion Grant is to help facilitate the completion of projects relevant to Southern Jewish history, through production or completion expenses, or production of an exhibit, not for research or travel.

The Dr. Lawrence J. Kanter Grants assist scholars and independent researchers with travel and other expenses related to conducting research in Southern Jewish history. Graduate students completing doctoral dissertations are particularly encouraged to apply. A Kanter grant also is available for research into Florida Jewish history.

The Scott and Donna Langston Archival Grant supports projects aiming to preserve archival materials related to Southern Jewish history, either in secure repositories or in digital format.

Information on applying for the grants is available at the SJHS website, jewishsouth.org.

The SJHS annual conference is being planned for Nov. 1 to 3 in Louisville, Ky.

Southern Jewish Life Staff Publisher/Editor

Lawrence Brook editor@sjlmag.com

Associate Publisher/Advertising

Lee Green lee@sjlmag.com

Associate Editor

Richard Friedman richard@sjlmag.com

Creative Director

Ginger Brook ginger@sjlmag.com

Social/Web

Emily Baldwein connect@sjlmag.com

Contributing Writers Kiara Dunlap, Keila Lawrence, Rivka Epstein, Belle Freitag, E. Walter Katz Columnist

Doug Brook brookwrite.com

Birmingham office: P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham, AL 35213 New Orleans office: 3747 West Esplanade Ave., 3rd Floor, Metairie, LA 70002 (205) 870-7889 • (504) 249-6875 • (888) 613-YALL (9255) ADVERTISING: Contact Lee Green, (205) 870-7889, lee@sjlmag.com SUBSCRIPTIONS: Subscriptions are $24 for one year, $40 for two years.

Copyright 2024. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission from the publisher. Views expressed in SJL are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. SJL makes no claims as to the Kashrut of its advertisers, and retains the right to refuse any advertisement.

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.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

11

Four area teens recognized with Diller Tikkun Olam Awards There were four honorees in the region for the 2023 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, which recognize up to 15 Jewish teens from across the United States with $36,000 to honor their leadership and efforts to repair the world.

A project of the Helen Diller Family Foundation, the awards began with its home area of the San Francisco Bay in 2007, then went nation-wide in 2012.

The awards committee invites educators, rabbis, civic leaders, and mentors to recognize young leaders who are making a difference in their community. Nominations for 2024 were due on Dec. 22, and teens can also self-nominate by Jan. 5.

Semi-finalists will be announced in March, finalists in April, and honorees are announced in June. Applicants must be ages 13 to 19, identify as Jewish, be a resident of the United States, serve in a volunteer role as a leader in a project that embodies the values of tikkun olam. The project can serve the Jewish community or the broader community.

For 2023, there were three honorees from Virginia and one from Arkansas.

David Ronnel of Little Rock took his experiences with antisemitism and hate speech in school and transformed it into

David Ronnel

12

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Annabelle Lombard

activism on teaching the Holocaust in schools. As a member of the Holocaust Education Living Proposal Committee, he met with state legislators to advocate for a bill, which passed in 2021, making Arkansas the first state in the region to require Holocaust education in public schools statewide.

He followed that with the successful passage of a bill designating a full week of instruction in January as Holocaust Education Week in the state. He followed that by founding the Arkansas Holocaust Education Award Donation fund, a nonprofit that awards teachers for outstanding efforts to teach students about the Holocaust. Thus far, the fund has raised over $30,000.

“It is essential that no individual feel threatened or discriminated against due to their identity, and it is a Jewish responsibility to take action against such hateful behavior, Ronnel said.

Annabelle Lombard of Arlington, Va., co-founded Generation Ratify with four friends, establishing a youth-led movement to educate youth about constitutional gender equality in the United States. The organization promotes activism in seeking ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and other legislation promoting and protecting gender equity.

Lombard is the group’s creative director, coordinating banners, webinars, workshops, art-based protests and performances. The organization now has 50 local and state chapters, with over 12,000 activists since its founding in 2019.

Lombard emphasizes lifting the time limit in Virginia on ratification decisions, allowing Virginia to become the last state needed to ratify the ERA, which was first introduced in 1972.

Discouraged by remote learning during Covid, Benjamin Joel of McLean, Va., and his brother established Intutorly to provide free online tutoring to elementary and middle school students. Among those he had a chance to tutor was a 12-year-old girl in Afghanistan, whose school had been closed by the Taliban.

The Joel brothers have since expanded Intutorly interna-

Benjamin Joel

tionally, working with Points of Light and Lion’s Heart to recruit and maintain a pipeline of qualified tutors and students.

The nonprofit has supported 1,200 students in 35 states and 10 countries thus far.

Max Blacksten of McLean, Va., took his love of nature and camping and joined the Youth Climate Action Team, which puts youth at the forefront of the climate movement. He rose through the ranks to become executive director. The organization has over 500 members in 45 states and 30 countries, with chapters in several countries. He has worked with the government in Fairfax County to develop and expand climate education, and was elected to a one-year term on a local community center governing board.

“Tikkun olam serves as a reminder that we always have the opportunity to positively impact the world, regardless of what others do,” Blacksten said.

Chris Copeland and Dan Forman, Co-Founders

NOLA Detox and Recovery Center is a comprehensive addiction treatment program offering residential and outpatient care.

Call 504-446-1111 for more information or to claim your recovery date.

Max Blacksten

Located in New Orleans

www.noladetox.com

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

13

Small Communities, Chefs and Young Readers Several upcoming retreats at Ramah Darom in north Georgia

Small communities throughout the South will gather at Ramah Darom, the Conservative movement’s summer camp in north Georgia, for a Southern Schmooze Shabbaton the weekend of Feb. 2.

The weekend is designed for small congregations and communities to connect individually and celebrate Jewish life as a region. Unlike the camp’s other year-round retreats, registration for this weekend is open only to participating communities, but there are still opportunities for communities to sign up.

Accommodations are available in the cabins, or in the hotel-style retreat center.

Current partner communities are Beth Israel in Greenville, S.C.; B’nai Zion in Chattanooga; Agudath Israel-Etz Ahayem in Montgomery; and Agudath Achim in Savannah.

Additional Events There are several retreats upcoming at Ramah Darom.

For the first time, there will be a Teen Retreat for grades 9 to 12, with support from Marcus and the National Ramah Commission. The weekend, also Feb. 2 to 4, is open to all high school age teens and registration is limited to 60. Programming is being developed in conjunction with Root One, which provides financial and educational support for youth Israel trips, including Ramah Seminar.

B’Teavon returns from Feb. 16 to 19 with a four-day exploration of Jewish food culture, with several guest chefs. There will be demonstrations, food and wine tastings, evening entertainment in a retreat for ages 21 and up.

14

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

This year’s Southern Spotlight presenter is Zak Stern, Zak the Baker, who has kosher bakeries by that name in the Miami area. This year, he was a James Beard finalist.

Among the other presenters is Debbie Kornberg, founder of Spice + Leaf and organizer of culinary and arts trips to Israel; Rabbi Charlie Schwartz, founding director of Lehrhaus in Somerville, Mass., a Jewish tavern and house of learning; and Helene Jawhara Piner, author of “Sephardi: Cooking the History.”

Leah Koenig is author of seven cookbooks, including “The Jewish Cookbook” and “Modern Jewish Cooking.” Susan Barocas is a writer, chef and cooking instructor who co-founded “Savor: A Sephardic Music and Food Experience.”

The weekend also features The Gefilteria, which was established in 2012 to reimagine Eastern European cuisine.

Book It To Shabbat, March 8 to 10, is a PJ Library weekend for families with children ages 2 to 8, in partnership with PJ Library Atlanta. Hannah Zale will be the musician in residence.

One of the camp’s longest-running programs, which almost always sells out quickly, is the annual Passover Retreat, where families can head to camp instead of changing over their kitchens. Participants can go for all of Passover, April 21 to May 1, or just the first or second half, with April 26 as the dividing date.

The Passover retreat includes communal or family Seders, kosher-for-Passover menus, classes and discussions with visiting scholars, and camp-style recreational activities. There are counselor-led activities for children.

Incentives available for summer camp With the filing of summer camp applications, scholarship and incentive grant applications are not far behind.

The annual incentive programs for first-time campers and rural Louisiana campers, coordinated through the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana, are now open, as are the need-based scholarships from Jewish Children’s Regional Service.

The Goldring Jewish Summer Camp Experience, funded by the Goldring Family Foundation, offers grants of up to $1,500 to help families send first-time campers to nonprofit Jewish sleepaway camps.

Sponsored by the Goldring Family Foundation since 2001, this program has distributed grants enabling more than 1,800 children to attend Jewish summer camp for their first summer.

Children in grades one through nine who reside in Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle are eligible to apply.

The Goldring grants are not need-based, synagogue affiliation is not required, and families with a non-Jewish spouse are eligible. The application deadline is March 1, and grant award notifications will be made by mid-April.

Another incentive for campers from small communities in Louisiana is the RoseMary and Saul Brooks Fund for Jewish Youth Engagement, providing grants of at least $550 for up to 10 Jewish campers.

To be eligible, a camper must identify as Jewish with at least one Jewish parent, reside full-time in Louisiana outside the New Orleans or Baton Rouge areas, be entering grades one to 12 and attending a non-profit Jewish sleepaway camp. Siblings are eligible, and recipients may reapply in future years. The funding is on a first-come, first-serve basis, and applications will be reviewed by JEF staff and board members, and a representative of the Brooks family.

The fund was initially established by RoseMary Brooks of Baton Rouge at JEF to enable her grandchildren to travel to Israel. After the youngest turned 18, the fund was converted to enable other kids to attend summer camp.

JCRS Scholarships Last summer, the New Orleans-based Jewish Children’s Regional Service provided partial scholarship funding for over 430 children to attend summer camp.

The need-based scholarships are available to campers in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, entering grades 3 to 12.

There are two scholarship options — a short form with an

award of $250, or a longer form with a need-based award to be determined on a case by case basis. Both require financial documentation, and no award covers the entire cost of summer camp.

The priority deadline is Feb. 15, and the applications are done entirely online at jcrs.org.

The agency also provides college scholarship aid, special needs assistance and often coordinates disaster relief.

They also administer PJ Library in numerous communities throughout the region, and provide Chanukah gifts for children in need, or isolated residents in adult care facilities.

In all, over 1,200 Jewish children in the region are served by JCRS annually.

One Happy Camper Numerous communities in the region offer One Happy Camper incentives to first-time campers, along with needbased scholarships for veteran campers, often through the local Jewish Federation or Family Services.

Many congregations offer scholarships to overnight camps within their movements, such as Jacobs Camp, Greene Family Camp or Camp Coleman for Reform congregations, and Ramah Darom for Conservative congregations.

In Atlanta, the Jewish Camp Initiative at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta awarded over $1.3 million in scholarships and grants to campers in 2023.

In addition to scholarship assistance, there is a One Happy Camper grant that gives up to $1,000 for first-time campers attending an 11 to 18 day session, and $1,500 for those attending for 19 days or longer. Those grants are first come, first served, and are not based on financial need. There are also second-year grants with an income limit.

In Greensboro, the One Happy Camper grants are $875 and $1250, respectively. For those attending Camp Judaea for the first time, there is a Stanley Shavitz Camp Judaea Camper Incentive Grant Fund that adds $1,000, while those attending a qualifying camp other than Judaea can receive a Fischer SendA-Kid to Overnight Jewish Camp Incentive Grant of $1,000 for programs 19 days or longer, or $500 for 12 to 18 days.

The Louisville Federation administers One Happy Camper incentives to most of Kentucky, except the northern part of the state. Incentives are up to $2,500 for 19 days or longer, $1,500 for 11 to 18 days. A second year incentive of $2,000 or $1,250, respectively, is available for those who received a grant in 2023, and there is a third year grant of up to $1,500.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

15

Remembering Ned Goldberg, longtime head of Jewish Children’s Regional Service

In 2018, Ned Goldberg (left) was honored at the JCRS annual Jewish Roots gala for his then-30 years of service to the agency.

Ned Goldberg, who was the face of the Jewish Children’s Regional Service for over three decades before stepping down as executive director in early 2022, died on Dec. 25.

In an email to JCRS board members and supporters, his successor, Mark Rubin, and JCRS President Michael Goldman said “Ned led an exemplary life and cemented JCRS’s legacy as an impactful and respected agency. His life will be a guiding light for us at JCRS.” JCRS was founded as a home in New Orleans for Jewish widows and orphans, and when the home closed in the 1940s, it evolved into a regional agency that now funds or serves over 1800 Jewish youth each year in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma.

The agency offers “needs-based” scholarship aid for Jewish overnight camp and undergraduate education, as well as subsidies for the care and treatment of dependent and special needs Jewish youth.

Under Goldberg’s leadership, additional programs were added, including “outreach” services to families that are isolated or inactive within the Jewish community. There are also programs that provide outreach over Jewish holidays, including Chanukah gifts for children from families that are suffering from economic distress, or are victims of natural disasters.

In 2008, JCRS started regionally administering the PJ Library program of free Judaic books for children.

Goldberg graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1973, earning his Masters in Social Work from Case Western Reserve in 1975.

16

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Prior to moving to New Orleans to lead JCRS in 1988, he served in professional capacities with three Jewish Family Service agencies, or their spin-off projects, in Florida and Ohio.

When Goldberg moved to New Orleans, he was single, but upon his arrival, he met the woman he was soon to marry, Wendy Diamond, an employee of the New Orleans Jewish Community Center.

In 2018, the agency honored him on the 30th anniversary of his tenure, at that year’s Jewish Roots gala, which was unofficially renamed “Grateful Ned,” especially since the Grateful Dead were in concert elsewhere in the city that night.

Upon his retirement last year, he said his long tenure and the growth of JCRS was due to a “number of factors.”

“First of all, you have incredible dedication from the JCRS board, staff, volunteers and donors,” he explained. “When you have them behind you, you can respond quickly to emergencies, as JCRS did during hurricanes and floods that have repeatedly hit East Texas and Louisiana over the last five years.”

Goldberg said having “wonderful services, hardworking and talented staff, and dedicated and generous board and volunteers are the reasons JCRS endures, and explains why I have tried to stay a few years beyond a typical retirement age.”

He is survived by his wife, Wendy, and children Adam and Jodie. Burial was in Cincinnati on Dec. 28, and there will be a memorial service in New Orleans, at Shir Chadash in Metairie, on Jan. 4 at 4:45 p.m.

How did THAT get there?

Gary Lazarus was talking with the owner of Shogun Restaurant in Metairie when he noticed something quite odd on the wall behind him — a photo of the Southern Federation of Temple Youth’s Leadership Institute at the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in the summer of 1970. Lazarus said “I asked him about it, and he said that it had been up there for a while because someone left it on the table, and he just hung it up in hopes that they would come back looking for it.” It had been on the wall for about a year. As of press time, it is still unknown who left the photo there.

Earn up to 9.7% Annual Income... and 100% of a Nation's Gratitude

Jewish National Fund Charitable Gift Annuities provide a lifetime of fixed income and a variety of tax-saving advantages. For as little as $5,000, you can help achieve your financial goals and those of a nation—Israel.

Use your IRA Rollover to fund a Charitable Gift Annuity and earn income for life!

SINGLE-LIFE GIFT ANNUITY*

Age

Percent

65

5.4%

70 75 80 85 90+

5.9% 6.6% 7.6% 8.7% 9.7%

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT A PLANNED GIVING SPECIALIST

plannedgiving@jnf.org 800.562.7526

* Two-life rates will vary. These rates are subject to change and may not be available in all states.

Ad_Half-pg Southern Jewish Life.indd 2

11/14/23 2:44 PM

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

17

Southern Jewish Focus The War Against Hamas

Escaping the Nova Festival massacre Rosh Ha’Ayin resident recounts harrowing experience in surviving the Hamas attack Rosh Ha’Ayin, the Israeli sister city of Birmingham and Partnership2Gether community of New Orleans, may be relatively far from Gaza, but it is by no means unaffected by events of Oct. 7.

On Oct. 22, the Partnership among the three communities held a multi-generational panel online to discuss current life in the central Israel city. Located east of Tel Aviv close to the pre1967 Green Line, Rosh Ha’Ayin has seen several red Alerts for incoming rockets from Gaza, and has reported several residents killed either in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre or the subsequent Noa Kalash military operations.

Amit Zehavi, a Partnership coordinator, noted that there had been plans for a Momentum women’s trip, a cycling group and community missions in the coming months, and “hopefully we can get back on track when all the dust settles.”

Florina Newcomb, assistant executive director at the Birmingham Jewish Federation, reiterated the partnership among the communities, saying “we have had some very good times in Birmingham, New Orleans and Rosh Ha’Ayin.”

Robert French, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, told the Israeli participants on the call that “we

Photo by South First Responders

Burnt and abandoned cars at the site of the Hamas massacre at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering in southern Israel.

18

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

stand with you 100 percent, we think of you every day. We are mobilizing ourselves to support you in every way possible.”

Noa Kalash started the program by describing her experiences in escaping the Nova Dance Festival, the outdoor music festival near Gaza where about 260 were killed in a direct Hamas attack.

She said she had been taking a break after telling the world about losing one of her best friends and barely escaping the festival herself.

She went to the festival with her boyfriend, arriving right before sunrise, around 5:30 a.m.

She met Noam, her friend, “and we ran to the rave area. We started dancing together, and after 15 minutes of freedom, joy, dancing and beautiful people, I started seeing rockets over us.”

The sky “was shining” from the rockets, fired indiscriminately from Gaza toward Israeli communities. The 3,500 in attendance did not know what to do, though they were aware of the possibility that something could arise from Gaza.

She said they went back to their cars and she started driving back to Rosh Ha’Ayin, though driving during a volley of rockets is very dangerous. After a couple minutes, they saw the rockets were continuing, so they stopped on the side of the road and went into a small shelter near a bus stop to wait for calm. But after 20 minutes, she decided to try and go home “even though everything was still happening and it wasn’t safe.”

Just 10 seconds after she headed out, cars in front of her started suddenly turning around, and she could hear shouts of “terrorists shooting.”

She turned around, then stopped in the middle of the road as a friend told her he had been shot in the leg and needed help. “We started driving the other way, toward the entrance of the party… there was a huge traffic of cars getting out.” The friend found someone to help him, but they figured there were terrorists all around.

“Security and police told us, just run, run to the fields, run and hide. They didn’t have anything else to tell us,” she said.

She and her boyfriend, Maor, took off, and she called Noam to tell her to run away.

Photo by Yossi Zamir/Flash90

On Oct. 25, surveying the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre at a music festival in southern Israel, where hundreds of young people were murdered and and kidnapped.

“At the time,” she said, “we didn’t realize how many terrorists were in the area. We just figured it was a small terror attack. It’s sad to say, but it sounded like just another day in Israel.”

Thousands of festival-goers were running, and “we could hear the terrorists running after us, shooting at us.”

For a while, they hid in a bush. Then, they heard gunshots in the direction to where they had been running, and wound up turning toward an open field with nowhere to hide. “My boyfriend said no way we are running that way, we ran to the nearest bush we saw” and burrowed deep inside. They were there for the next eight hours.

“We heard everything around us… helicopters, terrorists, shooting really close, we heard motorcycles passing close to our bush.”

Another girl was hiding in a nearby bush. “After three hours, we heard them passing by and they kidnapped her. We heard them speaking Arabic, then heard a car, then silence.”

Four different groups tried to rescue Noa and Maor, but some encountered terrorists and had to retreat. Still, when they heard calls in Hebrew, they remained silent, lest it be a Hamas trick. Only after someone called out her name did they respond. She added that she was so deep in the bush, Maor had to pull her out.

Her friend, Noam, was killed in the initial attack, but Noa didn’t know that until the following Saturday. “They just

couldn’t recognize the body for an entire week.”

She said she does not know where her friend was found, nor what happened to her. “It’s probably better that way.”

While she was still hiding in the bush, her 25-year-old sister was already being called up to her unit in the IDF. Noa said the current fight in Gaza “is not about choosing sides, or ‘I stand with Gaza or Israel.’ I stand with humanity. I stand with things that are bigger than politics.”

She said it is not about choosing sides, “it is helping Israel and the Palestinian civilians to fight against terror” and against “people who have pure evil. It’s something I can’t understand, how a human being is capable of doing what they did to my friends.”

But living through that day affected her. She had spent a year traveling Central and South America, making Christian and Muslim friends without a second thought. She travels to Egypt every few months to hang out with friends living there.

She would go to the Arab town of Kfar Kassem, located between Rosh Ha’Ayin and the Green Line, “all the time.”

After what’s occurred, “it’s impossible to see a Muslim on the street and not be scared something will happen… we can’t trust anyone. Things are different, and knowing some of the Muslim students in the university support terrorism and Hamas, it’s something I can’t pass by.

“These people killed my friends, these people almost killed me.”

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

19

“A Jewish Hero” Lone Soldier from Atlanta killed in Jerusalem attack A Lone Soldier from Atlanta was killed on Nov. 6 in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem.

Sgt. Elisheva Rose Ida Lubin, 20, was a border police officer near Herod’s Gate at Jerusalem’s Old City. She had immigrated to Israel in August 2021 and was drafted into the police force in March 2022.

An attacker stabbed Lubin, and another officer was moderately wounded. They were both treated at the scene before being evacuated to Hadassah Medical Center on Mount Scopus.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA identified the attacker as Muhammad Omar al Farouk, 16, of East Jerusalem. He was shot and killed by other Border Police officers. Another suspect was detained at the scene.

Lubin, daughter of Robin and David Lubin, was a 2021 graduate of Dunwoody High School.

At Dunwoody, she was on the girls’ flag football team and was the only female on the wrestling team — but still won a lot of the matches. She also became a cheerleader.

Since football games were on Fridays, she received permission from her rabbi to ride the bus back to school after dark, but she still walked home from there.

Lone Soldiers are those who go to Israel to serve in the Israeli military but have no other relatives in the country.

Arrangements are made so these soldiers have somewhere to go when soldiers normally would go home, and receive other support services.

Photo courtesy MDA

The scene of the stabbing attack in Jerusalem, Nov. 6, 2023.

20

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

In May, Lubin spoke at the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces gala in Atlanta, where she said “if you’re ever by Herod’s Gate, come say hi, I’ll give you a fist bump and a smile and wave you on.” About 40 of her family members, from the Lubin, Hirsch, Halpern and Oppenheimer families, were at the gala.

She had relatives throughout the region; an email from Adath Israel in Cleveland, Miss., noted that she was the greatniece of their members, Avery and Charlyn Lubin.

At the gala, she said she had another 14 months on her current tour, and was thinking of signing up for more IDF roles or pursue a degree in exercise science.

“Friends of the IDF and Jews worldwide mourn the loss of Rose Lubin Z”L, a special young woman and courageous Lone Soldier from Atlanta who made the ultimate sacrifice for the State of Israel and her people,” said Seth Baron, FIDF vice president of Georgia and Southeast States.

Lubin “was not just a committed Lone Soldier, she was a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for the Jewish people.

Her courage and her commitment to protect Israel are a true inspiration, even in the face of grave danger,” he added. “She epitomized the values of dedication and commitment to her mission, and she will always be remembered and honored by the Atlanta community as a selfless hero.”

At the gala, she spoke of how her unit’s motto spoke to her soul, “Generations dreamed of arriving in Jerusalem, and we have the honor of protecting her.” She also reflected on the generations of her family that would have also been there had there been an Israel during the Holocaust. She felt an obligation to take opportunities they were denied, including “watching over the Jews who are living the dream of walking to the Kotel on Shabbat.”

The Israeli Consulate in Atlanta mourned the loss, recalling seeing her speak at the FIDF gala “about how much she loved

serving and protecting the State of Israel… May her memory and the memory of her smile that night and always, forever be a blessing.”

Her commanders reportedly considered her a “fierce fighter” who was first to volunteer for any mission.

Lubin lived at Kibbutz Sa’ad, near the Gaza border, and was there on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked communities in that area. She joined the battle to defend the kibbutz from the Hamas terrorists, until later in the day when she was called back to duty in Jerusalem. Hamas was unsuccessful in infiltrating that kibbutz.

A commander had reportedly offered her time off after witnessing the horrors of Oct. 7, but she insisted on resuming her duties to protect civilians.

Rabbi Binyomin Friedman of the Ariel Congregation in Atlanta spoke at Lubin’s funeral at Mount Herzel Cemetery in Jerusalem on Nov. 9. “Rose is different,” he said. “Anyone who had an interaction with Rose remembered that interaction,” and “when you walked away, you felt touched, because you realized you had been part of something special.”

He said a congregant, upon hearing the news, said “I remember Rose’s Bat Mitzvah speech and how much it touched me.” He noted how unusual it is for a random congregant to remember a Bat Mitzvah speech years later.

Her mother read that speech at the funeral. Lubin had written that she wanted to “create a mind-blowing life story” and do something great for the world, rather than wait for the world to do something great for her.

Her father said that even as a child, she would tell kids in the playground that they could be friends now, but when she turned 18 she was going off to join the IDF. Despite her focus and determination, Friedman said, “Rose was color, Rose was music, Rose was skipping and laughing…

Rose was as bright as you could possibly be, she was light itself.”

He said that “it was not at all surprising that a focused person would be drawn to bring herself to her land and to her people, and in her short decades, her two decades that she had in this world, she gave her life absolutely and totally to her people and to her God. Rose was a Jewish hero.”

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp called Lubin “an inspiration to us all. While the horrors of war may seem far away, moments like these remind us why it is paramount to stand alongside our friends in Israel as they fight against terror in their land.”

On Nov. 9, the Walla news site reported that an officer exhibited “serious disciplinary and operational failure” in the events leading up to the attack on Lubin. According to a police statement, the officer had gone to buy food just before the attack, “presumably leaving Lubin more exposed.”

HIGH AVAILABILITY Same Day Delivery is available 7 days a week.

FAST

Orders placed by 6pm will be delivered on the same day.

FLEXIBLE

We can deliver to your home or office.

CONVENIENT

No more carrying large heavy bags! We do all the heavy lifting for you.

FREE DELIVERY

On Same Day Delivery orders over $49.

Try Our Same Day Delivery Service!

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

21

State, local governments boost Israel Bonds investments Purchases seen as show of solidarity with longtime ally following the Hamas attack Throughout the region, state governments are putting their Raton in December, Patronis announced an additional $25 money behind their words in expressing solidarity and confimillion purchase by the State Board of Administration, bringdence with Israel. ing the SBA holdings to $60 million and the state treasury to $200 million.

Several states are increasing their investments with the Development Corporation for Israel, also known as Israel Bonds.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and Treasurer Young Boozer In recent years, numerous states have legalized the investannounced on Oct. 20 that the state will increase its Israel ments for a wide range of investment portfolios.

Bonds investment. On Oct. 30, Boozer said the state will Florida has announced several Israel Bonds purchases since purchase $6 million in bonds on the Nov. 1 issue date, adding to the $4 million the state already holds since the Legislature the war began. On Oct. 11, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced a $25 million investment in Israel approved such purchases in 2016.

Bonds, making Florida’s holdings $80 million, the most the The governor’s office said the state had been “placed in the state has ever held. forefront of the list of institutional buyers” for the new offering.

“Florida and Israel have deep economic and personal ties, and our state unequivocally stands “Alabama unapologetically and with Israel following the heinous unequivocally stands with our friend “Especially now as they are Iran-backed terrorist attacks this and ally Israel. I am proud our state week,” Patronis wrote on Oct. 11. “To forced to fight against terrorists, will increase our investment in Isthe people of Israel, Israeli Ameriraeli bonds as they rightfully defend they deserve our support.” cans, and Jewish Floridians across our themselves and fight for their peoLouisiana Treasurer John Schroder ple,” said Ivey. “The state of Alabama state, Florida is proud to stand with you.” was the first state to recognize Israel as a nation, and we will always support them as one of our The clerk of Palm Beach County, in an Oct. 11 visit to B’nai closest and strongest allies.”

Torah in Boca Raton, announced a $25 million investment in Israel Bonds. Joseph Abruzzo said they were the first counBoozer spoke of Israel’s ability “to weather storms and ty in the nation to increase their investment in Israel Bonds emerge stronger.” since the war started.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Oct. 13 instructed That was followed by the announcement on Oct. 31 of an Treasurer Steve McCoy to purchase an additional $10 million additional $120 million in Israel Bonds purchases by the state. in Israel Bonds, the highest amount available on the market.

Saying he was proud to announce the additional investment, After the purchase, Georgia will have $25 million in Israel Patronis said “Israel Bonds are a prudent use of state funds Bonds, with the state having purchased an aggregate of $50 and offer a consistently positive return on investment.” million, half of which have since matured.

Also on Oct. 31, Palm Beach County announced an addiKemp led an economic mission to Israel in May, with his tional $135 million, “the single largest one-time investment wife and three daughters. Part of the itinerary was areas where in Israel Bonds” as a followup to the $25 million earlier in Hamas attacked on Oct. 7. the month. Abruzzo said “to make that investment with our Kemp said “Israel is one of Georgia’s strongest allies and greatest ally, in one of the safest investments we can make – as greatest friends, and our support for its people as they enPalm Beach County’s treasurer and CFO, it’s a win.” dure horrific attacks from terrorists is unwavering.” He urged The county has an investment portfolio of approximately $4 Georgians to pray or Israel’s safety and “swift victory.” billion.

On Oct. 27, Arkansas Treasurer Larry Walther announced At the Israel Bonds Prime Minister’s Circle Gala in Boca an additional $10 million investment, bringing the state’s 22

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

holdings to $57 million.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, “Arkansas state government has taken every action in our power to support our friends in Israel in their time of crisis. Treasurer Walther’s purchase of $10 million in Israel bonds allows us to support that country in actions as well as words. Arkansas stands with Israel.”

Walther added that “Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.”

Mississippi Treasurer David McRae issued a statement on Mississippi’s bond with Israel, saying “To say that I condemn these barbaric attacks is an understatement.”

While he said as a treasurer of Mississippi, he has limited influence on foreign policy, he noted that starting in 2019 the state was allowed to place excess general funds into Israel Bonds. “Not only is this a safe investment, but it provides a higher rate of return compared to many other options,” he said.

Since 2019, Mississippi has earned over $1.7 million on its initial $20 million investment.

He also noted that the state has received investments from Israel, such as Stark Aerospace in Columbus, which produces key components for the Arrow 3 defensive missile.

“Now more than ever before, our friendship with Israel must be unwavering,” McRae said.

Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder announced on Oct. 12 that he was directing the state to invest another $5 million in Israel Bonds. A 2004 law allows the state treasurer to invest up to 5 percent of the Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund and the Millennium Trust Fund in bonds from other countries.

“When called upon to support our friends, I am confident in executing my charge as Treasurer and investing more funds in DCI bonds,” Schroder stated.

The $5 million brings Louisiana’s holdings of Israel Bonds to $30 million.

Schroder also issued a warning to any Louisiana business owner contemplating a boycott of Israel. State non-discrimination provisions prohibit executive branch agencies from executing a procurement contract with a vendor engaged in a boycott of Israel.

“Louisiana stands firmly with Israel, a country with which we enjoy mutually-beneficial trade relations and consider a faithful friend,” said Schroder. “Especially now as they are forced to fight against terrorists, they deserve our support.”

On Nov. 7, South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis announced a $30 million purchase of Israel Bonds, bringing the state’s investment to $155 million since 2011.

“Israel has been a strategic economic partner of South Carolina for many years, and this latest investment reaffirms our January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

23

state’s financial commitment to support them during this war with Hamas,” said Loftis. “I am fervent in my support of Israel and her people as they defend themselves from these unprovoked terrorist attacks. We continue to pray for the families and victims being impacted by this senseless violence.”

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced on Oct. 13 that the state is purchasing another $20 million in Israel Bonds, bringing their current holdings up to close to $100 million.

Texas has purchased Israel Bonds every year since 1994, with $140 million in purchases since 2014.

“They are our friend and ally, and Texas supports their right to defend their people against these cowardly terrorists.

We will stand with them, and we will provide them with the financial liquidity needed to respond to the atrocities we’ve all witnessed,” he said.

Hegar also reminded that the state is prohibited from contracting with companies engaged in boycotts of Israel. There is currently a list of 11 such companies at the comptroller’s office.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced his campaign is purchasing $3 million in Israel Bonds. The amount is what he received this summer from Defend Texas Liberty, which caused a controversy when its president met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes in early October.

House Speaker Dade Phelan called on Texas politicians to redirect funds they had received from that organization to pro-Israel groups.

Patrick, who initially called the Defend Texas Liberty meeting with Fuentes a “serious blunder,” noted on Oct. 9 that he had condemned Fuentes, “an avowed anti-Semite,” and is appalled at learning of antisemitism among some Texas conservatives and Republicans. He urged fellow Republicans to review applicants’ social media before hiring.

In Oklahoma, State Treasurer Todd Russ increased the state’s investment in Israeli bonds, purchasing a $10 million bond from the country in early November, bringing the state’s total investment to $62.5 million.

The Treasurer’s Office also invested in a $5 million bond in mid-October, according to Russ’ office. The Treasurer’s Office has invested in Jubilee bonds from Israel since 2007.

“As a trusted source of investment, issuing new bonds to Israel during the current wake of attacks will help rebuild Israel’s economy and future of one of our greatest allies,” Russ said in a news release. As state treasurer, Russ is responsible for investing Oklahoma’s $5 billion portfolio.

Lara Blubaugh, digital media coordinator for the Treasurer’s 24

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Office, said Jubilee bond rates are more lucrative than bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury, and they’re always paid on time and in full.

As of Oct. 16, before many of these purchases were announced, Israel Bonds said over $200 million had been raised, “sending an emphatic message of hope to the people of Israel and the global Jewish community.”

Before the war began, Israel Bonds was close to its annual goal of $1 billion in sales — but one month after Oct. 7, Israel Bonds reported over $1 billion in sales from that month alone.

Israel Bonds CEO Dani Naveh said the support from the U.S., which cuts across partisan lines, “is incredible.” He noted that “the response across many U.S. states was immediate and demand exceeded the amount of Israel Bonds that we were able to sell at that time. At the same time, thousands of Jews from all over the world have been expressing their support for Israel by also purchasing bonds for themselves and on behalf of various organizations such as hospitals, emergency service organizations, and an organization supporting Israeli soldiers.”

New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio were among the initial wave of purchasers, at $20 million each.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis receives the Prime Ministers Circle Award from Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague, the inaugural chair of the Israel Bonds Government, Industry, and Financial Services Leadership Group, at the Israel Bonds gala in Boca Raton on Dec. 18.

Photo courtesy MFA/Shlomi Amsalem

The delegation of senior legal officials touring southern Israel.

Virginia AG visits communities near Gaza

You’ve never heard a story quite like that of Natchez, Mississippi - a city of change and transformation. Where our iconic historic homes set the stage for diverse and fascinating local characters...and our present is just as lively.

Plan your experience at VisitNatchez.org

Part of worldwide delegation of senior legal officials Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares was part of a delegation of senior legal officials from around the world that toured Southern Israel in mid-November. The group included officials from countries whose citizens were murdered or abducted in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, including Germany, France, Argentina and Austria.

According to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the purpose of the delegation’s visit was to promote investigations and prosecutions against Hamas and its senior officials, and to increase pressure on the terrorist organization on the legal front.

The visiting prosecutors toured kibbutzim in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip, visited Sderot and met with representatives of the victim’s families. They also met with senior Israeli officials and viewed the video of raw footage from the Oct. 7 attacks.

Following the meeting with the victims’ families, Miyares said “The heinous crimes committed by Hamas are not directed solely against Israelis, but against all humanity. We will do everything in our power to fight the organization and its people, wherever they may be.”

In early November, there was a gathering outside Miyares’ office to load bags and crates with surplus protective material from state law enforcement agencies, destined for Israel.

After Oct. 7, Miyares had sent a letter to state universities reminding them of the need to protect viewpoint diversity, and in mid-November he sent a follow-up urging university presidents to address the rise of antisemitism. In late October, he opened an investigation into the AJP Educational Foundation, part of American Muslims for Palestine, as to whether the group’s resources support terrorism, and whether they were registered to fundraise in the state.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, AMP “has its organizational roots in the Islamic Association of Palestine, an anti-Semitic group that served as the main propaganda arm for Hamas.”

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

25

Fighting a different kind of war Consuls General speak out throughout region as war of public opinion rages during Gaza conflict When Hamas infiltrated and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, long earth,” she said. before Israel could mount a counter-offensive to rid Gaza of Over the past few weeks, the Houston consulate hosted Hamas, a different war broke out instantly — the war of public families of hostages, sharing their stories. After Oct. 7, Link opinion. said she didn’t think she could be shocked any further, “but It took almost no time for anti-Israel groups to blame Israel after listening to the victims’ families’ stories, I once again for being attacked, and to call for a ceasefire before Israel fired found myself struck by the depravity of so-called human bea single shot. While still reeling from the Hamas massacre, ings, their capability and what they can do.”

Israeli representatives had to mobilize and present Israel’s One of the Israeli visitors, looking at the rows of posters of story to the world — and in this region, that is led by Anat those abducted into Gaza, said he knew roughly one of every Sultan-Dadon, the Consul General to the Southeast in Atlanta, three people depicted, she said. and Livia Link-Raviv, the Consul General to the Southwest, “I was shaken to hear these people relive their trauma their based in Houston. trauma is our trauma, and the burden is heavy.”

Link-Raviv’s area includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Yet, she spoke of the resilience of the Israeli spirit in spreadLouisiana, while Sultan-Dadon has Alabama, Mississippi, ing awareness. “It is emblematic of “our people’s capability to Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Kentucky. survive evil.”

Both have been traveling their respective territories, meetLink-Raviv added, “we will never surrender to this kind of ing with elected officials, community leaders, stakeholders hatred, and we refuse to lose our humanity in the process.” “to discuss the ongoing conflict, to raise awareness and raise Making the Case support,” Link-Raviv said. “I am encouraged by the response I have been A seasoned diplomat, Sultan-Dadon receiving,” chooses her words carefully, often pausing to ponder a question before Recently, they spoke to two different starting an answer. types of groups — Link-Raviv to the Annual Campaign Celebration of the But these days, it is different. At Jewish Federation of Greater New Orthe Kiwanis event, she would look leans on Nov. 30, and Sultan-Dadon down, in deep thought for several to a mostly non-Jewish audience at seconds, before speaking, often with a the Birmingham Kiwanis Club, said to measured but firm voice, other times be the largest Kiwanis in the world, on impassioned.

Dec. 5.

The “orchestrated” Oct. 7 attack that Sultan-Dadon said “we are fighting killed 1,200 Israelis was an “invasion a war here, and it is no less important, of 3,000 Hamas terrorists into Israel because the battle against the lies, the by land, by air, by sea,” she said, and distortions, the denial of what ocConsul General Livia Link-Raviv speaks at the it is one of the biggest tragedies for curred on Oct. 7, the distortion about Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans’ Israel since its founding in 1948. campaign celebration on Nov. 30 what we are facing — these lies have She said “we are fighting this war to be dispelled, and this is the fight we Hamas started. We know we have no other option but to win are fighting here, in the battleground of public opinion.” it.” With Chanukah approaching later that week, she said the Link-Raviv said “we all know what happened on Oct. 7, and holiday “reminds us, no matter how difficult the situation is… yet it seems the world refuses to believe,” including a refusal we will prevail and the light will prevail.” to believe that Hamas’ goal was to maximize harm to Jewish She said the Gaza conflict and other situations throughout civilians. the region “can all be traced back to the same source, which “The United Natons shamefully did what it always does is the ayatollahs in Iran,” and Iran’s funding of these terror — blamed and demonized Israel, unlike any other nation on organizations “is a threat not only to the State of Israel, but the 26

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

region and, basically, the free world.”

John Saxon, a Kiwanis leader who conducted the lunchtime conversation with Sultan-Dadon, said “everyone in this room needs to understand the depravity that happened” on Oct. 7. A large crowd attended the lunch, and afterward some marveled at how one could have heard a pin drop through the entire presentation.

Sultan-Dadon said “we are already facing denial and intentional misinformation about what happened,” despite footage that “actually comes from the terrorists themselves. Not only did they commit crimes against humanity, they took pride and joy in what they were committing. They even uploaded the footage to social media, to Hamas channels, but also to the victims’ social media.”

That evening, the Atlanta consulate hosted a screening of a 47-minute video with raw footage of the atrocities. The footage has been shown around the world in closed screenings rather than the footage being released for wide use, out of respect for the victims’ families, but Israel feels a need to “ensure as many leaders as possible bear witness to the atrocities.”

About 40 attended the Birmingham screening.

Not only is Israel dealing with denial of the atrocities, but silence from those who one would expect to speak out, such as “the silence of national organizations that are supposedly dedicated to women’s rights globally, supposedly dedicated to combatting violence against women globally,” but will not speak out against the rapes committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 and to hostages since then. “They are for women worldwide, they care, as long as it is not about Israeli women,” Sultan-Dadon charged.

Israel has faced enormous criticism for what is seen as a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the number of civilians who have been killed. Sultan-Dadon responded, “if we had not been so concerned about the civilian population in Gaza, this war would have been over in a matter of days. We would not be endangering our troops to minimize harm to civilians.”

She said Israel has demonstrated “the greatest measures any army in the world has taken to minimize civilian casualties.

Hamas does the opposite.”

She said that while “no one wants to see a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas actually does. What has not been widely reported is when Hamas launched its attack on Israel, one of the first things Hamas did was to bomb the crossings into Gaza, “the crossings that were being used to provide goods into the Gaza Strip.”

While there is a lot of discussion about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, she said it is “unimaginable” that there has been no discussion about the failure of the Red Cross to visit and check on any of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. “Not

Consul General Anat Sultan-Dadon speaks with John Saxon at the Birmingham Kiwanis Club on Dec. 5.

one… They are not receiving any of what the international community is demanding that Israel provide, and we are providing,” and it should not be just Israel “losing sleep that we still have 138 hostages in the Gaza Strip.”

There was a week-long pause to get humanitarian aid into Gaza and a negotiated swap of Israeli civilian hostages for Palestinian prisoners convicted of attacks against Israelis.

“We were willing to continue to extend that humanitarian pause even though it is not in our interest from a military perspective,” as it gives Hamas time to regroup. The collapse came when Hamas “was not willing to provide any more lists of hostages… in order to allow for the extension,” she said.

As for a ceasefire moving forward, “that is not and will not be on the table until we are sure that Hamas’ terror capabilities have been destroyed.”

After all, the Hamas leadership “will conduct Oct. 7 again and again and again. Their end goal is the destruction of the State of Israel.”

While Israel has always extended its hand to those in the region who want to choose peace, “there is no peace to be made with those who want to destroy us.”

Israel will know that the task has been accomplished January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

27

when its citizens can safely return to their communities near The world is mainly silent as “we are seeing Jewish students Gaza, which were emptied following the Oct. 7 attacks. Over who are afraid to go to class. They see campuses that speak 200,000 Israelis have temporarily been relocated elsewhere in so highly of tolerance and its spaces for everyone. There is no the country. safe space for the Jewish student,” and university administrations are not taking strong stands.

As for being in Gaza long-term, “we have no interest in staying… we evacuated the Gaza Strip for a reason.” But “anyThere has been silence from “faith leadership, clergy, politione who cares for the Palestinian people should be calling for cians, university presidents, leaders who should know better… the destruction of Hamas.” when this is happening, they do not have the moral spine to speak out and draw a line.”

Sultan-Dadon said the international community will “no doubt” have a role to play in Gaza “the day after.” Hamas will Sultan-Dadon said that rather than ponder what they would not be allowed to continue, and she added that the Palestinian have done in the 1940s, people need to ask themselves what Authority is not going to be able to take they are doing now. “How can I, using “Your voice matters. Do not over Gaza, either. my voice, stand for what is right, to allow others to hijack the truth stand for the morals I believe in. If The PA is “still a body that, even as we do not believe in terror, death and we speak, continues to pay for slay, and control the narrative.” destruction, there is only one place for continues to pay family members of convicted terrorists, on a scale. The Consul General Livia Link-Raviv you to stand right now.” more Israelis they murder, the higher She said Israel is blessed to have the the payments they get. This they get from aid funds from the support of the United States “in word and in deed,” and many international community.” friends and partners in the Southeast, “and we hope to see more.”

The PA would have to be completely overhauled, or different Palestinian leadership “dedicated to building their peoMoving forward ple rather than destroying the State of Israel” would need to After Oct. 7, the Jewish Federations of North America emerge. launched an emergency Israel campaign to raise a staggering The bottom line is that there will be no peace “if they $500 million. The campaign has already exceeded $700 milcontinue to teach their children to kill Jews,” as is taught in lion, with each community taking a “fair share” goal.

United Nations-run schools and summer camps.

Link-Raviv told the Federation gathering in New Orleans The diplomats also addressed the rise of antisemitism, how that “You did an incredible job.” “in broad daylight” on college campuses “we see calls for the After Oct. 7, she said, “Israeli society will never be the same, destruction of the State of Israel, calls for the murder of Jews, and we will be carrying this trauma for decades to come. The and they are accepted,” Sultan-Dadon said. healing process must begin… and American Jewry can play Link-Raviv said “Whenever Israel is engaged in self defense, and is playing a very significant role in this healing process.” we see a spike of antisemitism across the world. This time has To further help Israel, she urged everyone to keep contactbeen no different, yet the scale of the attack on the diaspora ing elected officials and speak about it to friends and acquaincommunity is like never before.” tances, “and keep this war on top of their minds… your voice Last month, Link-Raviv met the students at Tulane who matters. Do not allow others to hijack the truth and control were involved in the violent attack by pro-Palestinian protesthe narrative.” tors at an Oct. 26 rally. “They expressed the shock, fear and Sultan-Dadon said she does not believe the people of Gaza concern that many Jewish students feel right now.” She said it want to live in a state of war. “It is a common interest of all of is evident that what is happening in Israel now is also being us, including the people of Gaza, to rid the world of Hamas.” faced by Jewish communities around the world.

She said that if the Palestinian leaders “truly care for their “If God forbid we fail to stop terrorism in Gaza, they will be people, they will have to tell their people the truth. There will knocking on the doors of America and Europe, as they have not be self-determination for the Palestinians at the cost of the done before,” she said. elimination of the State of Israel.”

While some activists insist that the call for freeing “from Sultan-Dadon concluded, “We are a nation in mourning, we the river to the sea” isn’t genocidal, Sultan-Dadon noted that are a nation in trauma. But we are a nation determined to win they are referencing the entirety of Israel in that chant, and this war. We did not choose this war, but we have no other the chant is calling for the destruction of Israel. “They are not option but to win it.” about being pro-Palestinian, they are about being anti-Israel.”

28

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Help The Hebrew University Community Serve Israel Through the ‘We Are One’ Fund The October 7th Hamas terrorist attack has threatened the State of Israel’s future like nothing before. Nevertheless, the country, its students, soldiers, and citizens have united amidst unimaginable tragedy.

While Israel focuses on the immediate battle of protecting its borders and rooting out the Hamas threat, its people face both Hebrew University students volunteer to prep food short and long-term struggles. A massive and far-reaching effort looms in keeping the country moving forward and addressing Beyond Fundraising: Volunteering Where Needed the myriad economic, medical, and academic needs.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem community — its students, professors, staff, and families — are suffering. Some have lost relatives who were murdered in the attacks. Others continue to endure endless days worried about the status of kidnapped family members and friends. Students and faculty are once again soldiers, having been called up to serve, suspending their academic pursuits, research, and jeopardizing their financial security. Just in the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law, alone, an estimated 40% of students have been called to active military duty.

Hebrew University volunteers are addressing urgent needs in their surrounding communities as well. Faculty of Medicine students are volunteering in Israeli hospitals struggling with staff shortages due to the war. The University is also working with the Jerusalem Municipality to establish a school and kindergarten for children evacuated from their homes in Sderot in southern Israel.

In addition, some of the half million displaced people from the North and the Gaza border regions are being housed in Hebrew University dormitories.

In the face of dire need, Hebrew University has launched the We Are One fundraising campaign to provide aid and support to the 28,000 students, faculty, and staff impacted by the war.

In its role as Israel’s premier university and academic research institution, Hebrew University will continue to address the devastating impact of this terror attack, and its toll on human and financial suffering, just as it has faced adversity throughout Israel’s history.

“The Hebrew University’s American friends will do everything we can to support our community members during the war and its aftermath, which we hope will bring lasting peace,” says Joshua Rednik, chief executive officer, American Friends of the Hebrew University. “Every dollar raised goes to mitigating significant, critical needs to ensure safety, security, and continued educational excellence on campus once the academic year begins.”

Significant We Are One funding priorities include:

Scholarships and Academic Assistance for Soldiers Called to Duty Thousands of students who have been called to military service will incur academic and financial losses while risking their lives. We Are One will provide scholarships and financial aid for students and staff serving in the military. Once the school year begins, Hebrew University will also continue to provide financial and emotional support, and academic assistance for students, staff, and faculty serving in the reserves.

Relocation and Shelter Hebrew University is assessing how best to help employees and students who have had to evacuate their homes. Many have lost all their possessions while facing the trauma of kidnapped, injured, and/or deceased loved ones.

Campus Security The current conflict brings with it increased security needs on all campuses, including equipping guards with bulletproof vests and helmets, increased first aid supplies, and other security mobilization equipment.

Counseling Services The University is providing counseling for anyone in the community who is coping with severe trauma, grief, and loss. This includes assistance for families of hostages and other missing people.

As the war continues to demand time, resources, and attention, Hebrew University, across its six campuses, must also continue doing what it does best: pursuing extraordinary innovation, developing transformational technologies, and delivering educational excellence to solve some of the world’s most urgent challenges.

When the immediate crisis subsides, the University will once again provide an academic home for a full cadre of students, researchers, and faculty. In the meantime, the HU community is supporting each other, providing critical medical resources, helping farmers harvest their crops to prevent food shortages, and looking after the families left behind as Israel’s soldiers heed the call for security.

“These tragic times remind us of the human cost of war and the true blessings of family and friends,” says Hebrew University President Prof. Asher Cohen. “As we mourn those we have lost and persevere through difficult days ahead, we find comfort in community and strength in solidarity. We hold onto hope — hope for the safe return of hostages and faith in our nation’s resilience. Hebrew University is grateful for the support.”

To make a tax-deductible contribution to the We Are One Fund, go to www.afhu.org/wr1 or mail a check payable to American Friends of the Hebrew University PO Box 98212 Washington, DC 20090 January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional 29

“We will be OK” Louisiana Birthright alumna talks about volunteering in Israel during Gaza war

By Jan Lee (JNS) — Like thousands of young American Jews, Melissa Liberson was affected deeply by the news of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack. With Israel at war and hundreds of thousands enlisting for service, the 26-year-old Louisiana resident knew the Jewish state needed workers and she wanted to help.

As a Birthright alumna, Liberson received an email from Taglit-Birthright Israel inviting her to volunteer to pick and pack fruit and relief supplies. She had always wanted to return to Israel after her 10-day tour in 2019 with Birthright. She leaped at the chance to return to Israel not as a tourist but in a capacity where she could give back.

“I have always felt very connected to Israel,” Liberson told JNS, after spending two weeks volunteering in November. “I have close friends in Israel, so I wanted to support and help in any way I could concretely.”

Liberson told JNS that she was partly motivated by escalating antisemitism and anti-Israel hatred stateside, but she also knew that such volunteer work was a family tradition. Her parents met as volunteers at Kibbutz Gesher in 1990 — mere years before the retirement of the national program, which dated back to 1967, when kibbutzim and moshavim (farms) that had been hard hit during the Six-Day War needed manpower.

Like parents, like daughter, the three — and many others like them — saw volunteering as a way to help the Jewish nation.

‘The only reason I am here’ The early volunteer programs suited the collective mindset of kibbutzim, particularly those that rejected payment for labor, according to Alison Bowes, sociology professor and dean of the social science faculty at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

As part of her research on communal society, including for her 1989 book “Kibbutz Goshen: An Israeli Commune,” Bowes spent time as a volunteer in 1974 and from 1975 to 1976 on a central Israeli kibbutz.

“The communal ideology was very strong at that time and so people didn’t earn money,” Bowes told JNS of the kibbutzim. “In many ways, having volunteers fit better with the ideals of the times than paying people.”

The volunteer program saw Israel through times of war and uneasy peace, and volunteers came willingly — as they are now — knowing that they were filling vital roles. They also knew they could be serving amid violent conflict.

Liberson’s recent trip evoked stories her parents shared with her from the 1990s when the Hezbollah terror organization was attacking Israel. One day, someone threw a grenade a few feet away from where Liberson’s parents were standing in a market.

“It just happened to be defective and not go off,” she said. “That’s the only reason they are still here and that I am here at all — that it was defective.”

Last month, she learned to adjust to the sound of rocket barrages overhead as she worked. “It’s weird how quickly you get used to something,” she told JNS. “I honestly didn’t feel scared during the alarms, I think because I knew I was doing what I needed to do. Beyond that, it was beyond my control.”

Photo courtesy Taglit-Birthright Israel

Volunteers organized by Birthright pick fruit on Moshav Zrahia in southern Israel.

30

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

‘A need that Israel’s friends feel’ Gidi Mark, International CEO of Ta-

Photo courtesy Taglit-Birthright Israel

Melissa Liberson, one of Birthright’s first volunteers to Israel this winter. Volunteers helped pick orchard fruit on Moshav Zrahia, one of many communities affected by Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack.

glit-Birthright Israel, doubts that the 1960s volunteer program has much to do with those who are donating their time and energy to Israel today, although he allows it could be “in the back of our minds.”

Birthright’s “Onward Volunteer Program,” which runs through February, invites Jewish 18- to 40-year-olds — with a preference for alumni of a Birthright program to Israel — to apply to participate in “food rescue operations to prevent shortages in the Israeli market” and to “sort, pack and distribute goods for civil and military personnel.”

Participants, who volunteer for four to six hours daily, are responsible for their flights to Israel, food and travel insurance, while the program — a partnership with Mosaic United and the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism — covers most other expenses.

Like the program in decades past, the new initiative came at the request of Diaspora Jews. “We had thousands of people who wanted to do it,” Mark told JNS of the current volunteers.

Many were alumni who were already donating money to help defray the cost of military equipment and uniforms for the Israel Defense Forces, he said.

Rather than drawing inspiration from the 1960s, today’s volunteers act with “an instinctive, immediate response” to Israel’s needs, he said.

Even earlier in Israel’s infancy, volunteerism played an important role, when some 4,000 Machal overseas volunteers defended the new modern state in 1948.

Birthright is working with a private organization that wants to organize a program for non-Jewish volunteers from Western countries. “It is a need that Israel has, and it’s a need that Israel’s friends feel as well,” Mark told JNS. Liberson is already looking forward to returning to Israel next year, when she is slated to lead a Birthright tour.

“There were a lot of people who were moved to tears or really, really thankful that we were there,” she said of her volunteer trip. “I felt we were the ones who should be grateful to them — for serving in the military, for being on the front line, for holding down the homeland.”

“I went in very hopeful about the future,” she told JNS. “I came out with certainty that we will be OK.”

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

31

Photo courtesy The Israel Guys/HaYovel

American cowboys volunteer in Israel, Nov. 23, 2023.

American cowboys create a stir volunteering in Israel Tennessee-based organization provides Christian volunteers to assist Israeli farmers east of the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, which has been repeatedly hit by rocket attacks from Gaza, was buzzing with (JNS) — MOSHAV SDE UZIYAHU — When the group of activity on Nov. 23 with dozens of volunteers, including both four American cowboys with their trademark wide-brimmed Israelis and Americans, packaging nearly a thousand cartons hats, leather belts with heavy metal buckles, jeans and rugged of just-picked produce from farms near the Gaza Strip for boots walked up to the security check at the El Al counter at delivery across the country.

New York’s John F. Kenedy International Airport in NovemBut it was the cowboys carting the ber, security at first didn’t know quite “This is the most important time fresh cherry tomatoes, peppers, parswhat to make of them. to come to Israel for anybody ley, celery and other assorted vegetaIn an instant, the image of the strapbles who immediately stood out in the ping 20-something cowboys on their that wants to help” crowd. way to volunteer in Israel following the With thousands of Thai agricultural Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 went viral, workers who used to work at the farms currently out of the and they became a media sensation in a country at war before country, Palestinian laborers unavailable for security reasons, they even boarded the plane. and more than 360,000 Israelis called up for military service, The atypical volunteers from America’s farming heartland local farmers have been seeking any and all assistance so that were heading to the biblical heartland. their crops — their economic lifeline — do not go to waste.

A symbolic lifeline for agriculture “We are not staying home and doing social media but doing The agricultural warehouse at this farming community just something here that needs to be done,” said Tennessee-born

By Etgar Lefkovits

32

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Britt Waller, 24, logistics manager of HaYovel, a Christian Zionist group that organized the scores of U.S. volunteers. Every year, the organization, which his father, Tommy, established in 2005, has brought hundreds of people to work the vineyards in the land of the Bible.

“For 2,000 years, Christians thought ‘that’s it with the Jews,’ but now the question is what is going on with Israel, where prophecies are coming true,” Waller told JNS. When the war broke out, the group launched an emergency campaign for hands-on agricultural helpers among its former volunteers (“people you could trust with your life during wartime”) coupled with a fundraising campaign aptly named “Operation Itai” — after the non-Jewish biblical general who joined with King David — for needed equipment that has already brought in $2.5 million.

“As soon as I heard what had happened in Israel, I felt I needed to be here,” said volunteer Samuel Wearp, 27, from Texas, who grew up on a farm and now works in his family’s business, Blessed Buy Israel, selling products from the biblical heartland. “I felt that it was my own people that this was happening to.”

met with Israeli evacuees from the south and paid a condolence call to the Jerusalem home of Elisheva Rose Ida Lubin, the slain Border Police officer who was born and raised in Atlanta and was a huge cowboy fan; her cowboy hat and boots line her graveside (story, page 18).

In Israel at her hardest hour “We always say we support Israel, but if you can’t be here in the hardest time then it’s not real support but just words,” said Luke Hutslar, 19, from Arkansas, who works in construction.

The cowboys, who are spending their six weeks in Israel all on their own dime, said that they were stunned by the publicity their visit spawned and are awed by the appreciation expressed by Israelis and the intense feeling of both solidarity and unity permeating the country.

“It is beautiful to watch the unifying factor,” Hutslar said.

“Unfortunately, it takes hardships for this to happen.

“People have been calling us heroes but we are not,” he said. “The real heroes are the guys in green,” he said of Israel’s soldiers.

Taking center stage The group of cowboys hail from Bible Belt states in the United States: Montana, Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee.

Volunteers and passers-by stop to take photos with them, their modest and humble demeanor in stark contrast with their VIP status nationwide.

“This is the most important time to come to Israel for anybody who wants to help,” said Yose Strain, 22, from Montana, who was wearing a metal Star of David on his belt buckle and who normally trains horses and rides them in rodeos. “As soon as the war started, I said if there was any way I could make it then I would.”

The group has been working in locations throughout the country including the Nov. 23 visit to the south, the central region, the Jordan Valley and Har Bracha in Samaria, where Photo courtesy The Israel Guys/HaYovel HaYovel is based. They have A group of American cowboys travels to Israel to volunteer their services, Nov. 23, 2023.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

33

Built in Mississippi, sailing for Israel Navy receives landing craft constructed in Pascagoula On Aug. 8, the Israeli Navy received the first of two landing landing craft consists of dozens of naval combat soldiers, with crafts built at Bollinger Shipyards in Pascagoula. a quarter of them being female. The commanding officer has the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

The ceremony dedicating the INS Nachshon was led by the Commanding Officer of Haifa Naval Base, Rear Adm. Tal The IDF stated that the crafts “will act as a central pillar in Politis, and senior officials in the procurement adapting the Israeli Navy to the modern and delegation of the Ministry of Defense. multi-arena battlefield. Among other things, the landing crafts will serve as a logistical axis for Rabbi Steve Silberman of Ahavas Chesed in transporting equipment as well as the soldiers in Mobile attended the ceremony, along with his near and far areas.” wife, Manette. Silberman said there were brief remarks, then the American flag was raised as Politis said the craft’s completion “marks a the Star Spangled Banner played. The American significant milestone in adapting the Navy to the flag was then lowered, replaced by the Israeli modern battlefield.” flag as Hatikvah was played.

The Israeli Navy used landing craft from the “Jewish, Israeli, American and maritime beginning in 1948, but the last of their crafts was history were changed at a shipyard in Pascadecommissioned in 1993 when it was deterRear Adm. Tal Politis, Haifa goula,” Silberman remarked. “A high-tech vessel mined that there was no need for newer models.

Naval Base commander, designed and constructed in accordance with In recent years, the Navy sought to restore that speaks at the ceremony Israeli specifications by American engineers capability. and American workers, financially underwritten by American Vice Admiral David Saar Salama, commander in chief of foreign assistance for Israel, showcases cooperation, friendship the Israeli Navy, told the first crew of the Nachshon that they and a shared goal of Israel’s safety and wellbeing.” “have a great privilege today, writing a chapter in the history The project began four years ago, and was financed through of the Israeli Navy.” He referenced the craft’s name, as a midU.S. military aid to Israel, almost all of which must be spent rash says that the Red Sea did not part when Moses waved his in the United States. The Nachshon is about 95 meters long, staff over it, but only after Nachshon wandered into the sea up 20 meters wide and weighs about 2,500 tons. It will set sail for to his head. “You are the pioneers of the way, the first to jump Israel in a few months and will be operational in 2024. into the water and carve a new path in the heart of the seas,” Salama said.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the team of the 34

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

N.C. Rabbis: Fringe anti-Israel groups don’t speak for Jewish community (Editor’s note: The following was authored by Rabbi Daniel Greyber on behalf of the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association. It was originally posted by the Charlotte Observer, the Raleigh News & Observer, and the Durham Herald-Sun.) On Nov. 3, not yet a month since the Hamas massacre of 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians, and the taking of more than 220 hostages, a group of protesters sat on NC Highway 147 with a sign saying, “NC Jews Say Ceasefire Now.” They do not speak in our name.

We are grateful for the steadfast support of Israel by North Carolina’s Congressional delegation as well as Gov. Roy Cooper and the North Carolina House and Senate. Our commitments to peace and compassion for innocent Israelis and Palestinians force us to confront a painful truth: Israel must fight a just war until Hamas is defeated.

A just war is not easy or victimless; it is morally necessary, because pacifism in the face of an unfettered evil is an untenable moral position. Israel must do its utmost to prevent civilian casualties and do all within its power to ensure food, water, medicine and other humanitarian aid reaches civilians in Gaza, while fighting an enemy that violates all rules of war.

Hamas purposefully uses its own citizens as human shields and has cynically misappropriated hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign aid to buy and manufacture weapons and to build a network of tunnels deliberately beneath neighborhoods, mosques and hospitals.

Scholars at West Point write that Israel’s Military Advocate General’s Corps “is an exceptionally competent group of advisors on the law of armed conflict that is organized to ensure IDF commanders have access to high-caliber legal advice in real time. Once planners identify and propose targets based on anticipated or actual missions and operational goals, lawyers from the International Law Department (ILD) review each.” Independent reviews of Israel’s targeting practices consistently find them within the mainstream of contemporary state practice.

Civilian deaths in Gaza are extraordinarily tragic and heartbreaking. We recognize that far too many innocent Gazans, including children, are suffering immeasurably and have lost their lives. However, as a matter of policy, the IDF — unlike Hamas — follows the international protocols of war, and civilian casualties are never intentional. We firmly believe that Hamas, not Israel, is ultimately culpable for the deaths of innocent Palestinians.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

35

No modern nation state can tolerate a situation in which its borders are violated and where its civilian citizens — men, women, children, and the elderly — are unable to go to sleep at night without fear of murder, injury, dismemberment, rape and abduction, as happened in Israel on Oct. 7.

On Nov. 2, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad stated on Lebanese television that Hamas will repeat the Oct. 7 massacre again and again until Israel is destroyed. A ceasefire allows Hamas to continue its reign of terror over innocent people in Israel and Gaza. Eradicating Hamas is essential for achieving the safety and security of both Jews and Palestinians between the river and the sea. This terrible war can end tomorrow. Rather than call for a cease fire as some activists have done we call for Hamas to immediately and unconditionally free all hostages and to offer its immediate and unconditional surrender.

Finally, demonstrations in the Triangle will not determine the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the type of conversations we have about it will impact the future of our local interfaith community. We encourage you to invite us to hear the perspective of mainstream Jewish leaders who represent the majority of the North Carolina Jewish community and to share questions that have arisen for you and your communities about Israel/Palestine. Together we can build

36

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

communities of understanding and relationship here in North Carolina.

Rabbi Daniel Greyber is the rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in Durham. The views expressed in this editorial are his own, as they are the own views of the 31 individual clergy who signed on to this editorial. Rabbi Chaya Bender, Wilmington; Rabbi Philip J Bentley, Hendersonville; Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Winston-Salem; Rabbi Robin Damsky, Efland; Rabbi Lucy Dinner, Raleigh; Rabbi Andrew Vogel Ettin, Salisbury; Rabbi Elana Friedman, Durham; Rabbi John S. Friedman, Durham; Rabbi Michael Gisser, Chapel Hill; Rabbi Daniel Greyber, Durham; Rabbi Fred Guttman, Greensboro; Rabbi Raachel Jurovics, Raleigh; Rabbi Tracy Klirs, Charlotte; Rabbi Asher Knight, Charlotte; Rabbi Andy Koren, Greensboro; Cantor Karen Kumin, Durham; Cantor Ted Labow, Hendersonville; Rabbi Mitchell Levine, Asheville; Rabbi Laura Lieber, Durham; Cantor Shira Lissek, Charlotte; Rabbi Emily Losben-Ostrov, Wilmington; Rabbi Cantor Jacqueline Marx, Raleigh; Rabbi Batsheva Meiri, Asheville; Rabbi Judy Schindler, Charlotte; Rabbi Melissa B. Simon, Chapel Hill; Rabbi Matthew Soffer, Durham; Rabbi Eric Solomon, Raleigh; Rabbi Dr. Jenny Solomon, Raleigh; Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas, Charlotte; Rabbi Alty Weinreb, Boone; Rabbi Michael Wolk, Charlotte.

Region’s AGs put national media on notice Using Hamas-affiliated freelancers could be considered material support of terrorism A group of 14 Republican state attorneys general called on media organizations to cut ties with freelancers who are affiliated with Hamas, and to ensure that their hiring practices are adjusted to screen out such individuals in the future and that they do not run afoul of laws against providing material support to terrorists.

The Dec. 4 letter was spearheaded by Brenna Bird, attorney general of Iowa, and was addressed to the heads of the New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters and CNN. Among those signing the letter were Alabama’s Steve Marshall, Florida’s Ashley Moody, Arkansas’ Tim Griffin, Kentucky’s Daniel Cameron, Louisiana’s Jeff Landry, South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, Tennessee’s Jonathan Skrmetti, Texas’ Ken Paxton and Virginia’s Jason Miyares. The attorneys general of Indiana, Montana, Utah and West Virginia also signed.

In the letter, Bird said there are credible allegations that individuals hired by those outlets “have deep and troubling ties to Hamas” and “may have participated in the October 7 attack” where 1,200 Israelis were murdered.

She reminded the outlets that providing material support to terrorists is illegal. Press freedom protections clarify that it is illegal if the agencies are “knowing” that it is doing so. “Outlets such as yours cannot avoid their responsibility by refusing to perform hiring due diligence and then using that willful blindness as a basis to pay terrorists,” she wrote. “If your outlet’s current hiring practices led you to give material support to terrorists, you must change these policies going forward,” or any future contacts will be seen as “knowing behavior.”

Politico reported that Nitzan Chen, head of the Israeli Government Press Office, wrote a letter in October to the outlets’ Israel bureau chiefs, asking them to clarify the behavior of four photojournalists who reportedly arrived at the Israel border “alongside Hamas terrorists, documenting the murder of Israeli civilians, lynching of soldiers and kidnappings to Gaza.”

In early November, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote to those news outlets, saying reports indicated “members of your staff were embedded with Hamas, knew about the attack,

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

37

and not only went along with it but accompanied members of Hamas as they carried out the attack.”

He added, “If your employees, as part of their work, participated in terrorist activities or if your organization or employees provided material support (including any funding) to Hamas, the leadership of your organization may also face criminal penalties under federal law.”

Bird noted that the Times responded to Cotton by saying no employee was embedded with Hamas or had advance knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks. “Notably absent from the defense are non-employees — freelancers, stringers or other payees,” she wrote, adding that photographers paid by the Times accompanied the terrorists during the attacks.

The National Public Diplomacy Directorate in Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement on Nov. 9, saying that “these journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics.”

Minister-without-Portfolio Benny Gantz also condemned the photographers, saying “journalists found to have known about the massacre and who still chose to stand as idle bystanders while children were slaughtered — are no different than terrorists and should be treated as such.”

HonestReporting wondered how so many photojournalists happened to be in that particular area “so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning,” asking if Hamas coordinated with them, and whether the news outlets approved of their being part of an infiltration.

Several outlets used freelancer Hassan Eslaiah, one of the named freelancers. CNN stated they have since severed all ties

with him, and AP did the same. Eslaiah was several miles into Israel during the attack, according to his social media posts.

One post appears to show him riding on a motorcycle with a man holding a hand grenade, while another from before Oct. 7 shows Eslaiah receiving a kiss on the cheek from Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who Israel says orchestrated the massacre.

According to photos, Eslaiah was not wearing any vest or helmet denoting him as a journalist, and while in Israel towns posted that he was “live from inside the Gaza Strip settlements.” He posted about Hamas rockets, saying “a rocket of the resistance directly hits a building in Ashkelon.”

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis warned AP five years ago about Eslaiah, saying he “openly identifies with Hamas’s political platform and is a rabid antisemite, who praises terrorists and expresses joy over the murder of innocent and unarmed Israelis.”

The letter also noted how the Times had hired a reporter who has praised Adolf Hitler and the “state of harmony” he achieved. Bird said they would not call for any action due to the right to hold “even disgusting views,” but readers “can come to their own opinions” about the Times’ hiring judgment.

“We will continue to follow your reporting to ensure that your organizations do not violate any federal or State laws by giving material support to terrorists abroad,” the letter stated.

“Now your organizations are on notice. Follow the law.”

SJL staff and JNS reports

North Carolina divesting from Unilever over Ben & Jerry’s Israel boycott

By David Swindle (JNS) — North Carolina will stop its $40 million investment in Unilever, the parent company of the ice-cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s that has banned sales of its products in Judea and Samaria, and parts of Jerusalem.

The state is one of 37 in the country that has a law barring state funds from companies that boycott Israel.

“The events leading up to the divestment of Unilever were avoidable,” Dale Folwell, the state treasurer, told JNS. “Unlike others, we never divest based on threats of boycotts. We were hopeful over the last 12 months that Unilever was going to address the sanctions.”

“They were unable to do so. We don’t pick and choose which laws to apply or follow. We always monitor the need to follow the law going forward,” Folwell said.

“As tragic as the deadly terrorist attack of October was, the situation with Unilever unfolded months, if not years, before 38

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Photo by Ho Su A Bi/Shutterstock.com

then,” he added.

In December, Ben and Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal wrote on social media that “resistance is justified” for occupied people, tagging her post with such anti-Israel slogans as “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire now.”

White Roses

On Oct. 26, the day of an anti-Israel assault at Tulane at an anti-Israel rally, the Philos Action League distributed white roses to Jewish institutions across the country as a symbol of solidarity from the Christian community. This was received at Chabad at Tulane.

Wendell Shelby-Wallace of Philos said the Tulane deliveries “were most special, considering what happened just moments before we arrived.”

In a nod to the Nazi-era Resistance group called the White Rose, this symbolic gesture was intended as a powerful message of solidarity and friendship, emphasizing that the Jewish community is not alone in these times of darkness and loss.

Luke Moon, Deputy Director of the Philos Project, emphasizes the importance of this initiative: “At this moment, it is imperative that Christians physically show up to support Israel and the Jewish community. We have witnessed an increase in antisemitism around the globe in reaction to Israel defending herself in response to the massacre that occurred at the hands of Hamas. The Jewish community needs to know who their friends are now more than ever.

As Christians, we must stand with the Jewish people and Israel. Christians in the past remained silent, and we refuse to do that again.”

The Philos Project is an organization dedicated to promoting positive Christian engagement in the Near East, taking action in the spirit of the Hebraic Tradition.

Coming soon…

from the team at

Southern Jewish Life

A new magazine for Israel’s Christian friends

israelinsightmagazine.com January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

39

University officials were among those attending a gathering at the University of Alabama Hillel days after the Oct. 7 terror attack.

Alabama, Texas get top marks from StopAntisemitism campus report Rice, Duke and Vandy get lower ratings in assessment Watchdog group StopAntisemitism released its annual Antisemitism on U.S. College and University Campuses Report on Dec. 6, using a report card-style grading system to assess 25 different colleges across the United States on their previous and current efforts to address campus antisemitism and protect their Jewish students.

This year, the University of Alabama was among those evaluated, and ‘Bama passed with flying colors. Other schools in the region were not as fortunate.

The report was originally slated to be released on Oct. 9, but due to the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, the group waited to see what the schools’ responses to antisemitic incidents would be after the massacre, highlighting specific incidents and re-grading some schools.

According to the report, “Some ignored the situation and some created an actively hostile environment for Jewish students via inaction or malfeasance… if it were possible to give certain institutions a grade lower than an ‘F,’ we would.”

“Rising campus antisemitism has been supercharged by the recent Israel-Hamas conflict,” said StopAntisemitism Executive Director, Liora Rez. “This Report Card will help guide Jewish parents in assessing where it’s safe to send their children — a new and frightening consideration that would’ve been unthinkable just a few years ago. Armed with this information, it’s on all of us to hold colleges accountable for recognizing, calling 40

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

out, and protecting their students from antisemitism.”

The 25 schools were selected and classified into five categories, with five per category: Ivy League and Ivy Adjacent, Liberal Arts, Private universities, and Public universities, east and west.

The grades were determined through four categories.

Protection references how the school reports and responds to antisemitic incidents, and the willingness to work with Jewish groups when incidents occur. Allyship is about whether the college speaks out against antisemitism and includes Jews in DEI policies and training. Identity is whether Jews feel safe on campus as Jews, and whether they feel they are being personally held accountable for Israel’s actions. Policy includes adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism — which none of this year’s 25 universities has done — the adoption of anti-Israel BDS resolutions or the active presence of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine.

This year, seven schools scored an A, while five — Brown, Cornell, Pomona College, Vermont and Chicago — received an F. Alabama and Texas each received an A, while Rice received a C, and Duke and Vanderbilt received a D. Last year, Tulane was one of only two universities to receive an A, along with Brandeis. North Carolina received a B, while Florida and Virginia received a C. Seven schools received an

F — Yale, Columbia, Swarthmore, California-Berkeley, City University of New York-Brooklyn, New York University and Southern California.

The report on Alabama noted that students feel supported by the university, do not feel the need to hide their identity on campus, antisemitism is part of DEI training, there are Jewish affinity groups on campus, and no BDS resolutions have been presented. Though the study was about the main campus in Tuscaloosa, the presence of SJP at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was noted.

Texas had similar results, though they have a Palestine Solidarity Committee on campus, and sometimes students report not feeling safe showing support for Israel on campus.

At Rice, the students do not feel supported in combating antisemitism, and antisemitism is not included in DEI training.

There is an SJP presence, but no notable incidents after Oct. 7.

While Rice students say they do not need to hide their Jewish identity, they do not feel safe expressing support for Israel.

In September, Rice Pride cut ties with Hillel, stating that Zionism can not coexist with queerness. The administration did not comment.

At Vanderbilt, students do not feel supported, antisemitism is not included in DEI training, and there is an SJP-like club, Dores for Solidarity with Palestine. No BDS resolutions have been presented lately, and there have been no major incidents since Oct. 7. However, students report feeling the need to hide their Jewish identity and do not feel safe expressing support for Israel.

The report recounted a November 2022 incident where an assistant football coach defended the antisemitic statements of Kanye West. The coach was suspended for the rest of the 2022 season.

At Duke, which has seen a series of anti-Israel events along with the University of North Carolina, students report not feeling supported, stated they need to hide their Jewish identity on campus and do not feel safe showing support for Israel.

Antisemitism awareness is incorporated into DEI training. A BDS resolution was recently presented and passed, and there is an SJP presence on campus.

In revisiting last year’s scorecard, the organization called out Pennsylvania (which received an A- last year), CUNY, Yale and George Washington for particularly egregious antisemitic incidents.

North Carolina was mentioned for “a number of antisemitic incidents,” including an assault on a professor.

The University of Michigan’s administration “has done a good job” in responding to recent incidents, but the report notes that “its student body and faculty are out of control.”

The Oct. 26 “unsanctioned and unapproved anti-Israel

rally next to Tulane’s campus was mentioned, along with the assault on Jewish students by pro-Palestinian protestors, but Tulane President Michael Fitts was praised “for being openly supportive of Israel and condemning Hamas,” and for his response to the rally.

Students were also surveyed about the atmosphere on campus. Seventy-nine percent of students said they had experienced some form of antisemitism at their school, up from 55 percent last year. Additionally, 32 percent did not report the antisemitic incidents.

A majority, 61 percent, feel the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus, and 72 percent feel unwelcome as a Jewish person. Also, 68 percent said their school’s administration does not take acts of antisemitism seriously.

The student survey was conducted before Oct. 7, and the organization “strongly feels” that these percentages would increase dramatically had it sent out the survey following the attacks.

Photo by Bali Levine via JNS

Anti-Israel demonstration just outside of the Tulane campus on Oct. 26. Arrests were made after pro-Israel students were beaten after rushing a truck where an anti-Israel activist started to set an Israeli flag on fire.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

41

From the Federation world to Congress

By Richard Friedman

Representative Kathy Manning was asked which was harder: Dealing with the presidents and directors of 133 Jewish Federations, or 434 other Members of the U.S. House of Representatives?

There wasn’t even a pause at what the questioner thought was a humorous question. “434 House Members,” Manning said, not skipping a beat.

This North Carolinian would know. A former national chair of Jewish Federations of North America, the umbrella group for local Jewish Federations, Manning, a Democrat, is now in her second term representing North Carolina’s sixth U.S. House district. She is the first Jewish person to represent North Carolina in Congress.

“In the Jewish world, despite many different opinions, we were able to set our sights on problems that concern all of us as Jews — such as getting more than 1 million Jews out of the former Soviet Union,” said Manning, who chaired JFNA from 2009 to 2012. “In Congress, it is much harder to get things done.”

Running for Congress was a natural extension of this Greensboro resident’s impressive track record of community service. Not only was she a local and national leader in the Jewish Federation movement, her fundraising skills, leadership and commitment to make life better for people led her to carve out a stellar record as an effective and visionary community leader.

Born in Detroit, Mich., educated at Harvard and the Uni42

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

versity of Michigan law school, Manning never imagined that one day she’d be living in Greensboro, her husband’s home town, and representing the area in Congress. “I’ve never been one to create a long-term plan for my career. I’ve been willing to embrace opportunities as they’ve come along and make the most of them,” Manning, still youthful at 66, said in an interview.

Forthright and engaging, smart and thoughtful, her bio sparkles with Jewish leadership achievements. In addition to her role as the first woman to be national chair of JFNA, she served as founding chair of Prizmah, a national network of Jewish day schools.

High on her agenda Her Judaism goes beyond her resume. It influences the way she performs her congressional duties and the issues she pursues. Helping the downtrodden, increasing educational opportunities, assisting people in distress and welcoming the stranger, the most often-repeated commandment in the Torah, rank high on Manning’s congressional agenda. These are the cornerstones of the Jewish Federation movement, she noted.

Combating antisemitism and advocating for Israel, two other Federation priorities, also rank high on her congressional agenda. She is a co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism, an important role as antisemitism continues to grow.

In her view, antisemitism includes the misperception that American Jews face fewer economic challenges and experi-

ence less poverty, which makes them less vulnerable to harmful attacks. “This misguided perception serves to minimize the nefarious impact of antisemitism,” explained Manning.

Upon seeing this misconception in the halls of government, Manning saw an opportunity to educate.

She is quick to remind others that antisemitism is often the “canary in the coal mine,” a quote she uses regularly in dialogue with her fellow Members who may not be as familiar with the centuries-long history of antisemitism or who haven’t engaged much with Jewish communities. Manning is firm in her belief that “what starts with antisemitism never ends with antisemitism.”

Between exchanges with her colleagues and her leadership role on the antisemitism task force, she’s spearheading the movement in Congress to ensure all members have the tools and language they need to combat antisemitism and form a united response against this distinct form of hate.

A major focus Drawing on her long-time association with Israel and her immersion in international affairs through her Jewish leadership roles, Manning sought a slot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She also serves on the subcommittee that deals with the Middle East. “It has been necessary to work on issues involving Israel to a far greater extent than I anticipated. Israel is a major focus of our subcommittee.”

One of her first actions in the Congress came in 2021 when she helped motivate House members to allocate funding to allow Israel to replenish its Iron Dome missile defense system after the country was attacked by Hamas. She also is a member of the Abraham Accords caucus, a bipartisan group, Manning says, “that is trying to expand something great into something even greater.”

Working side by side with Republicans on her committee and subcommittee and in a range of areas, Manning has developed good relationships and ties across the aisle. “I’ve made important friendships with Republican colleagues. We disagree on many issues. But when it comes to America’s role in the world as the leading democracy and support for Israel, my Republican friends and I are aligned,” she said.

Being from the South, a more conservative and mostly Republican region, as well as traveling all over the country in her previous Jewish leadership roles, has given Manning insight into building relationships with GOP Members and a deeper understanding of what motivates them.

Manning gets high marks for her work from former Virginia congresswoman Elaine Luria, who is from Birmingham, and who got to know Manning well during their time together in Congress. Their offices were next to each other in the stately Cannon House Office Building, and they often walked to the House floor together for votes.

“Kathy is dedicated, not only to her constituents, district and North Carolina, but she also immediately became one of the most vocal and strongest voices in Congress in support of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and combating rising antisemitism,” said Luria. “Her vast experience as a leader in the Jewish community, both locally and nationally, gave her a very strong voice to speak out on these important issues, even when it was standing up to members of her own party.”

Manning is part of a small and vocal group of Jewish House Members who have worked together on issues affecting the Jewish community. This group includes some of the most influential Members. The former Jewish Federation leader frequently is the one encouraging the group to act quickly, and often is the first one to share a proposed statement or letter with her colleagues when issues emerge.

Dramatic moments Two dramatic moments in Congress tie directly to her Federation days.

On Jan. 6, 2021, as the U.S. Capitol was invaded by a violent pro-Trump mob, Manning was caught in the House gallery with about 30 colleagues and a few Capitol police officers.

Unable to evacuate, they were told to take off the pins that identify them as House Members, and to get down and take cover. Yet, she did not panic. “Everything will be alright,” she told herself. “I’ve been through worse.”

That experience occurred years earlier when she was visiting the Israeli town of Sderot near the Gaza Strip. Sirens started blaring as Hamas-fired rockets began raining down near the building where Manning and her group were meeting. They fled to a bomb shelter to wait it out.

The other dramatic moment came in July when Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, addressed a joint session of Congress.

Manning, who has known Herzog for more than 20 years, was one of the Members selected to escort him into the chamber.

“It was overwhelming,” she said slowly and emotionally, pausing to gather her words. “The enduring depth and historic ties of the U.S.-Israel relationship were in full view that day and the bipartisan support was electric. We don’t get a lot of moments like that in Congress. I was so proud as an American and as a Jew.” Proud is also a word that many in the national Jewish community use when they talk about this North Carolina congresswoman. She often meets Jewish people from around the country who thank her for combating antisemitism, supporting Israel and strengthening the Jewish presence in Congress.

“I appreciate these comments so very much. This is a really, really hard job.”

Much harder, for sure, than chairing a group of 133 Jewish Federations.

(Editor’s Note: This piece was written before Oct. 7) January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

43

Peaks and Valleys

Virginia’s Elaine Luria reflects on time in Congress, looks to future

By Keila Lawrence A daughter. A wife. A mother. A proud Jewish woman.

An American Maritime Hero. A two-term Virginia Congresswoman. A true champion for her community and the nation.

“Isn’t that what every Jewish girl from Birmingham does?”

Elaine Luria jokingly asked, recalling her atypical journey, while sitting in her Norfolk home, reflecting on her two tumultuous terms in Congress and talking about what may be in her future.

As she spoke, Luria, 47, carried herself with an air of humble confidence. Her language was steeped with unmistakable expressions of her legacies, both inherited and earned: a generous dose of Southern hospitality layered with nautical phrases through mentions of undercurrents and wavetops. At her epicenter, she has a heart for safeguarding America and a visceral affinity for caring for people and upholding moral standards.

Hanging in the background were naval portraits, artful reminders of exactly where ambition and determination can lead someone; her walls are a gallery of her patriotism.

Included was a distinct, vintage “Merchant Marine” depiction perched above her shoulder, with a sailor grasping the helm of a ship and overhead the emboldened phrase “Let’s Finish the Job!” The image was another indication of her work not yet completed and the need for a champion. Luria’s endeavor to begin this work started when she was 17 years old, when she entered the U.S. Naval Academy.

Throughout her life, Luria assumed the role of champion in her various positions, but her impressive lineage laid the foundation.

Luria’s deep Alabama roots span four generations in Jasper and Birmingham, more specifically the suburb of Mountain Brook.

She comes from a family of leaders: her great-grandfather helped spearhead the construction of Temple Emanu-El in Jasper, a vital affirmation of faith where there were relatively few Jewish people. Her mother, Michelle, held major roles in the Birmingham Jewish community. Her cousin, Ben Erdreich, served as a congressman representing Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District for five terms.

Erdreich’s district was significantly redrawn, negatively impacting his chances of re-election in 1992, and foreshadowing what would ultimately become the same case for Luria. Elect44

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Screenshot/C-SPAN

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) speaks on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, May 13, 2021.

ed as Democrats, their redrawn districts favored Republicans.

Time of Turbulence Luria’s Congressional debut came during a time of turbulence; she encountered exceptionally high peaks and exceptionally low valleys.

Despite this, collaboration between her Democratic caucus and Republicans across the aisle was a consistent goal throughout her terms. Even before she was officially sworn in, she embarked on her first trip to Israel. The trip was organized by the American Israel Education Foundation as a bipartisan initiative. She and five other newly-elected representatives — two additional Democrats and three Republicans — traveled to learn more about the state of affairs and security challenges in the region.

After this trip, her voice crescendoed during both of her terms as she became one of the most outspoken allies of Israel — vouching to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship against other representatives, including some in her own party, who either disagreed or emphasized different priorities. In addition, in the face of antisemitism, Luria rebutted strongly, speaking out on the House floor with vigor and pride in her Judaism.

Luria made many contributions to the fight against antisemitism, including cosponsoring the Never Again Education Act with more than 300 other representatives, which was introduced to expand U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum education programming. Luria also cosponsored House Resolution 1525 condemning antisemitism by public figures, which was intro-

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

45

duced in December 2020 and has yet to be passed.

“There was never a quiet moment in the four years that I served in Congress.”

Her first cohort of House members was pegged by the media as the “blue tsunami” because of the large influx of Democrats. This high was quickly plagued by a slew of uphill battles: the longest U.S. government shutdown; a mass shooting in Virginia Beach, which is in the district she represented, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her next term was similarly challenging. House Democrats across the country battled to keep their seats and only a few were successful. Although her race for a second term was hard-fought, Luria received another chance to continue advocating for her community and country.

The satisfaction of her victory was momentary and eclipsed by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Luria, who witnessed the attack, saw that day as a pivotal moment in American history. She would later be asked to serve on the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack, an assignment that would propel her to the national forefront.

Serving on the committee had a profound impact on Luria, who as a young naval officer and later a Member of Congress, had twice taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Sworn to protect America against enemies, both foreign and domestic, Luria knew this was a moment to step forward on behalf of her country.

Members of the committee had their lives threatened; Luria and two other Jewish members received antisemitic hate mail. During this time, Luria called on her Jewish faith for sustenance and guidance. “My faith has been something that has been an important thread through my entire professional career.”

One scene was particularly painful to her: the man who wore the “Camp Auschwitz: Work Brings Freedom” hoodie was from Newport News, Va., which was in Luria’s district.

She was determined to hold those responsible for the Jan. 6 attack accountable. “I never abandoned that attempt, but it was difficult.”

Although serving on the committee was extremely stressful and intense, the experience didn’t compare to supervising the operation of eight nuclear reactors on an aircraft carrier, something she did as a naval officer.

When asked what she learned about herself through her work on the Jan. 6th Committee, she noted, “It reinforced my strong convictions about what’s right and that there is a truth that’s absolute.”

Pressing On Even after losing a bid for her third term, Luria pressed on and worked incessantly until the very last day of her expiring 46

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

term, until the very last moment.

As that term concluded, Luria secured more than $18.5 million for multiple projects in her district. The Eastern Shore Post reported that Luria said, “These… projects will create good-paying jobs, support local government, improve infrastructure, combat climate change, spur economic development, and lead to further growth and opportunities throughout Hampton Roads. Community Project Funding projects are good government at work that improves the lives of Coastal Virginians.”

Even though no longer in Congress, her odyssey continues.

Luria still leads a busy and impactful life. She established a state Political Action Committee to support Virginia Democrats seeking office; she began a fellowship at Georgetown University where she teaches at the Institute of Politics and Public Service, and, most importantly, she says, she is preparing for her daughter to start high school.

Another goal is advocating for a strong alliance between Jewish Americans and Black Americans. As a result, she is working with current Members of Congress to create a congressional initiative to further this partnership.

Her efforts are inspired by her ties to Birmingham and her awareness of the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities during the Civil Rights Movement. She recalled her mother sharing stories about growing up in Birmingham and, specifically, about Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Milton Grafman — an outspoken Civil Rights supporter — and his sermon in 1963 on Rosh Hashanah which addressed the tragic bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, and admonished his congregation for not doing more to help the Black community.

Even though Luria moved away, had a remarkable naval career and achieved national political prominence, the Birmingham Jewish community remains close to her heart.

“I am very proud of where I come from and the community that I grew up in. What I learned and the place I’m from has really shaped how I view the world and influenced how I pursued my work, both as an officer in the Navy and as a Member of Congress. Ultimately, where I’m from and who I am is defined by growing up in Birmingham and being part of the Jewish community in Birmingham.”

As she explores new horizons and pursues other ventures, the question of whether Elaine Luria will run for office again remains unanswered. “I’m leaving the door open,” she said with a grin.

Keila Lawrence, a graduate of Miles College, an HBCU in Fairfield, Ala., is Development Operations and Events Manager at Junior Achievement of Greater Washington. She is a contributing writer to Southern Jewish Life.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

47

Putting it all together Internship culminates in “life-changing” trip to Israel

By Kiara Dunlap Amazing and life-changing.

Those are the words that describe my recent trip to Israel.

I traveled there in July as part of a Philos Black delegation made up of young Black leaders who wanted to learn more about the country, their own Christianity, and the history and national aspirations of the Jewish people.

For nearly two weeks, I was completely immersed in the culture and lives of Israelis and the place they call home. It is a beautiful country. It was an absolute privilege to have this experience and to journey through such a sacred and special place — a holy land that has impacted on so many people in so many ways, including impacting on me and on my Christian identity.

The trip was the culmination of a joint journalism internship I did earlier this year as a Miles College student, interning simultaneously with Southern Jewish Life/Israel InSight magazines and the Birmingham Times through a pioneering partnership between the publications and Miles College, an HBCU in Fairfield. My focus was on writing stories of interest to both the Black and Jewish communities.

My internship included spending a semester immersing myself in the culture of Birmingham’s Jewish community. That experience gave me a new sense of appreciation for the country of Israel and a lot of context for what I would experience on my trip.

Finally, after months of looking forward to my trip, the day of departure arrived. I bid my family farewell, promising to bring back stories and experiences that would enrich their lives too. Stepping off the plane in Israel, I felt a rush of emotions. The air was different, carrying a unique blend of history, spirituality and modernity.

Throughout the journey, my fellow participants and I were immersed in a whirlwind of experiences. We visited ancient churches and holy sites, tracing the footsteps of Jesus. With every passing day, I felt a deeper connection to my faith, realizing that my heritage was intricately woven into the fabric of the land I walked on.

Visiting these holy sites gave me a much richer and deeper understanding of my own faith. The power of experiencing sacred places that I had read about in the Bible affected me deeply and will stay with me for a long time. Yet, the trip wasn’t just about spirituality.

Philos Black had carefully curated meetings with local activists, scholars and government officials. I learned about the 48

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

complex geopolitical dynamics of the region and gained a nuanced perspective on the challenges facing the Israeli government. These conversations were often thought-provoking and challenged me to think critically about the world around me.

One particularly impactful meeting was with a Palestinian man who was able to share his story of growing up in Palestine. He explained his side of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and shared his perspective on the current political conflict between the two populations. Hearing him gave me a sense of compassion for people on both sides and an even deeper understanding of a land that holds so much identity, purpose and aspirations for both communities.

Living in the U.S. it is easy to be removed from the conflict and the stories. But being there — and hearing from the people who live there day to day, gave me a far deeper understanding of the difficulties of the situation.

Our group also visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust. I’d always known about the Holocaust because I grew up in California where Holocaust education is part of the school curriculum. However, the intensity and scope of Yad Vashem forced me to think about the Holocaust more deeply, heightening my appreciation of the similarities between aspects of the Black and Jewish historical experiences.

As the trip neared its end, I found myself changed. I had not only grown spiritually but also intellectually and emotionally.

The experiences I had accumulated, the people I had met, and the knowledge I had gained were treasures that I believe I will carry with me for my lifetime.

Since returning home, I’ve tried to become a beacon of inspiration in my own community. I have shared my experiences with my family, friends and fellow church members, creating in them a newfound interest in exploring their Christian roots. I have become an advocate for open dialogue and conversations about the complex political and religious issues I encountered.

I believe that my journey with Philos Black transformed me into a leader with a global perspective. My heart, once filled with curiosity, now brims with compassion and understanding. I want to continue to learn, grow and contribute to my community and other communities. I know that I will be driven by my unyielding faith and the new lessons I learned in the ancient land of Israel.

Kiara Dunlap (right), with Ashager Araro, whose family came to Israel from Ethiopia.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

49

Instant Connection Visiting Israel’s Ethiopian community Sudan facing marauders, wild animals and starvation.

At the Ethiopian site, our group was guided by the esteemed As I embarked on my journey to Israel, little did I anticipate the profound encounters awaiting me. While my purpose was Ethiopian Jewish actor and director Shai Fredo. Shai’s poito engage with Israeli culture and the challenges faced by vari- gnant account resonated deeply as he pointed out his grandfaous groups, I unexpectedly found myself especially immersed ther’s name on the memorial. in the narratives of the Ethiopian Jewish community.

His recollections of life and his heritage in Ethiopia, along with the heroic journey his family undertook to reach Israel, The stories of Ethiopian Jews often remain untold, eclipsed left an indelible impression on the group. Despite the chalby the broader Israeli and Jewish narratives. However, my time in Israel gave me a deeper perspective on the history, the lenges he faced upon arriving in Israel as a young boy, Shai’s remarkable journey and the challenges this unique communi- love for the country and his pride in his Israeli identity shined through. ty has faced.

He also talked about the racism that Ethiopians have enMy initial entry into this vibrant community began at an countered in Israel. He attributed this to ignorance among absorption center, where I had the privilege of meeting resilIsraelis and lack of familiarity with the Ethiopian community. ient members of the Ethiopian community.

His commitment to sharing his narrative with anyone willing Many of them had come to Israel relatively recently, others have been in the country longer. The purpose of an absorption to listen underscores his determination to counter misconceptions other Israelis may have about Ethiopians. center is to help immigrants transition into Israeli life. It is a Having been part of an artist-in-residence program at Clark complex process, involving language, employment, identifying within the broader Israeli culture and embarking on a new Atlanta University, an esteemed HBCU (Historically Black College and University), Shai’s appreciation for that opportujourney. nity in this unique educational setting resonated deeply with I was struck by the fact that visitors from non-white backhim. He said that being in an HBCU environment was “libergrounds, such as our group of young Black leaders from the U.S., are a rarity. In fact, it was an honor being among the few ating” and he sought the chance, in part, because it was geared to a minority community.

Black visitors whom they’ve had the chance to welcome.

We also journeyed to an Ethiopian Israeli heritage cultural In one single moment — our moment of arrival — a concenter run by a remarkable activist, Ashager Araro. She was nection emerged between their community and our group. one of the babies born during Operation Solomon, a wellInstinctively, we all knew that it was based on the shared known effort by Israel to bring large numbers of Ethiopians experience of being minorities in our respective countries, unable to conceal that which distinguishes us from the broad- who wanted to immigrate.

As a first-generation Israeli in her family, she conveyed the er culture. It was deeply moving and profound and something challenge of finding her place between her Israeli classmates I never expected. and her Ethiopian family. Her journey of embracing her difThe children at the absorption center greeted us with a ferences and discovering strength in her distinctiveness struck mixture of awe and curiosity, mirroring the fascination we held for them. Until then, our exposure had primarily been to a resemblance to me.

Growing up in a Black family in a white-centered world, atwhite Jews, akin to the Jewish people I have met in Birmingtending a mostly white high school and moving from Califorham during my internship. nia to Alabama, I, too, have searched for my place and could Their search for identity within Israeli culture — and esperelate to much of what she was saying. cially Israeli history — was dramatized to us after a poignant As I look back on my trip, my encounters with Ethiopian visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust, which Jews in Israel have enriched my understanding of Israel’s difocuses on the death and destruction of 6 million European verse tapestry — as well as its challenges. The Ethiopian saga, Jews. not always widely known and rarely center stage, is powerful Immediately after our Yad Vashem experience, we visited and inspiring. And it embraces the essence of unity within a memorial site dedicated to those Jews from Ethiopia who diversity. died trying to reach Israel, often walking on foot through the

By Kiara Dunlap

50

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

51

Israel’s new Consul for Tourism in the Southeast

By Bradley Martin (Editor’s Note: This was written before the Gaza war broke out) (JNS) — Israel’s new consul for tourism affairs to the Southern United States has a good deal of experience in the south… of France.

Lorin Maugery, 43, appointed to the role in August by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, grew up in Lorin Maugery Provence in southeastern France. He trained as a lawyer in France and at Fordham University, and earned a certificate in hotel real estate investments and asset management from Cornell University, according to LinkedIn. When he visited Israel for the first time at the age of 14, Maugery was overwhelmed when he first touched the Western Wall in Jerusalem, he told JNS. At 29, he made aliyah with his wife, Anna. In 2014, he began as a marketing department desk manager in the tourism ministry, responsible for France, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.

In recent years, Maugery established and headed the ministry’s foreign investor-relations department, assisting developers hoping to invest in Israeli hotels. One of his most proud accomplishments was organizing a conference in Dubai on investment in the Israeli hotel industry.

“Having Israelis seated next to Emirati delegates at our event was really moving,” he said. “The Abraham Accords opened many opportunities, and we were honored to enable people from both countries to explore business opportunities in the hotel industry.”

He is now headed to Atlanta, where the Israeli tourism office is responsible for 11 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

“I hope to expose as many people as possible within the Southern region of the U.S. to Israel as a prime travel destination,” he told JNS.

“Closer than you think” Maugery, who is excited to meet “interesting people” in the United States, including those in the travel industry and religious leaders, told JNS that he anticipates his biggest challenge will be conveying “the true and genuine Israel to our friends from the South.”

52

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

He aims to do so by speaking at events and to the media, and through organizing and attending conferences.

“Israel has so much to offer travelers,” he told JNS. “Everything from history and religion to diverse cultures and amazing food. We have beautiful beaches and friendly people, hiking and scuba-diving.”

Those in the South may think of Israel as far away and outof-reach as a feasible travel destination. But, he said, “Israel is closer than you think,” noting direct flights to Tel Aviv from Atlanta, Miami, and soon, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

‘More awareness and acceptance’ Since colonial times, Jews have been a part of the South and have made “significant contributions to the region’s history and culture,” according to Kenneth Hoffman, executive director of the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans.

“In turn, the South has had a significant influence on us. It’s a unique relationship that has given the world Jewish Mardi Gras parades, fried matzah balls and the phrase, ‘Shalom Y’all,’” he told JNS. Hoffman, who invited the new Israeli consul to visit the museum, recommended that Maugery explore Jewish historical sites in Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Galveston, Texas; Natchez, Miss.; Vicksburg, Miss.; and Memphis, Tenn. And, of course, in the Big Easy.

“Sharing our culture and history with the wider non-Jewish population gives us opportunities for education, conversation and fellowship, leading to more awareness and acceptance,” he said. “In this time of growing antisemitism, these kinds of interactions can help make our communities stronger, safer and more secure.”

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

53

The power of summer camp…

and Southern Jewish communities

One of the unheralded qualities necessary in Southern Jew- for strategic initiatives, and Melissa Frey, managing director of ish communities is the ability to pivot — but Jewish intercon- URJ Camps and Immersives, researched options, finding that nectedness around the region often makes it easier. the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Baton Rouge had enough space for the entire camp.

That was evident for the Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Mississippi, which in the past has dealt with challenges including Linda Posner of Baton Rouge, immediate past Camp Covid, and been a place of refuge for those evacuating from Committee chair, said “much of the city was in Omaha for the the paths of hurricanes. This June, it was the camp that wound College World Series, but our bench is deep, and we knew we up needing a place of refuge, with a full complement of first could do whatever needed to be done.” session campers.

With the power still out on Sunday morning, the next stage A major thunderstorm hit the Utica area early in the morn- of the “HSJ Magical Mystery Tour” was launched, and busing on June 16. While there was no significant damage to the es headed to camp for a quick re-packing of overnight bags camp, the power was knocked out. before departing for Baton Rouge.

Camp Director Anna Herman said they planned for the “Moving 380 people on the fly, along with an entire camp’s outage by renting emergency lights, held a Glow Stick party at worth of art supplies, sports equipment, snacks, toothbrushes breakfast and served pizza for Shabbat dinner. and loveys, plus our full medical team, was no Aside from that, they tried to have a normal When the lights small task, but we were not working alone,” camp Friday, despite the heat and the lack of Herman said. went out at electricity.

As the campers headed south, Nuell in North Jacobs Camp As it became apparent that the damage to the Carolina and Frey in Indiana coordinated electrical infrastructure in the area was extenassignments for the night. Posner noted for an extended room sive, plans began to move everyone to Jackson that each double room needed an additional for Saturday if the power was still out. Jackson time, the massive single bed for a counselor, and while the hotel itself was dealing with widespread outages, had some rollaway beds, there weren’t close to impromptu road including at Beth Israel, which wound up being enough. out for almost a week. Beth Israel Rabbi Joseph trip began The Posners, who had been out of town, Rosen, though, was spending the week at Jacobs headed back to Baton Rouge, with Frey ordering Camp. every air mattress from every Target store in a path from AlaAbram Orlansky, a camper parent and Camp Committee bama to Louisiana. Camp Committee Chair Gary Lazarus sent member, volunteers as an indoor soccer coach at the Jackson the Posners directions to each store along the way. “Between YMCA. He contacted the YMCA director, and on Saturday stops, we made phone calls to secure meals, snacks, security and the camp had arranged for several buses, and the Flowood and a medical team,” she said.

Reservoir YMCA locations welcomed the campers with air-conWhen they arrived with the air mattresses, a group of volditioned space, as well as plenty of floor space for sleeping bags. unteers had already assembled to inflate and place the matWith assistance from the local Jewish community, “our tresses in the various rooms. staff magically re-created the camp Shabbat experience for Rabbi Sarah Smiley, in her first full summer with the our campers with a variety of Shabboptionals and a special Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge, was supposed sno-cone treat,” Herman said, and the campers also enjoyed to have traveled to Utica that day to receive her introduction skating and bowling excursions. to the camp as a week-long faculty member. Instead, “Jacobs But the power wasn’t coming on in Utica any time soon, Camp came to me in Baton Rouge.” and the camp leadership knew they needed to find a place When the buses pulled up to the hotel, the ballroom had with beds and showers. been transformed into a camp dining hall, with a big “WelIsaac Nuell, Union for Reform Judaism associate director come Home Jacobs Camp” banner. A hot dinner had been 54

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Henry S. Jacobs Camp Director Anna Herman helps campers board the buses on the last-minute HSJ Magical Mystery Tour

hastily arranged by the Kantrow Altons, camp parents who own Bistro Byronz, which had been closed that day. Security was arranged by a camper parent who is a police detective and got colleagues to show up despite it being Father’s Day. A medical team of camp nurses and doctors also joined in.

“When the leadership decided to bring the entire camp to Baton Rouge, I witnessed beauty,” Smiley said. “Not only the leadership team and staff of Jacobs Camp, but many members of the Jewish community of Baton Rouge stepped up.”

As room keys were handed out during the late afternoon, word came that the power was back on, but Nadav Herman and his team that had stayed behind needed time to get everything restored so the campers could return the next day.

Posner said there was “an epic slumber party on two floors of the Baton Rouge Crowne Plaza” and fun at a local arcade the next morning.

“Our campers could not have handled the transition to the hotel in Baton Rouge more beautifully,” Herman said. She reminded the campers that they were representing the camp, and “the hotel staff told us over and over again what a great group we have, and it was no surprise at all.”

Posner observed that the hotel had probably never experienced 360 voices singing Birkat Hamazon, as they did after breakfast on June 19. “For those of us fortunate enough to witness it, the sound was familiar, but the closing words land-

ed with a different kind of gratitude.”

Later that day, everyone headed back to Morrison Road in Utica. “Passing through the Jacobs Camp gates has never felt so sweet as it did on Monday when we brought our campers back home,” Herman said.

Posner said that though the task was “immense,” it seemed “normal.”

“Everyone did what needed to be done — often before they were even asked — because this is what real communities do,” Posner said. “In this part of the country, where our Jewish communities are small, we are also integral parts of our larger, secular communities,” and those relationships made everything possible. “Our amazing Jewish communities in Jackson and Baton Rouge said hineini with more enthusiasm than we could have asked for… they took care of us.”

They were also assisted by the national URJ staff. In addition to Nuell and Frey working remotely, Debby Shriber, executive director of the URJ Northeast Camps, was on the ground for the adventure.

To help with the unexpected costs, the camp posted an online fundraiser at jacobscamp.org/offsitefun and has raised about $9600 toward a $20,000 goal as of press time.

Herman said those days were “nothing short of extraordinary, thanks to our entire community. There is nothing our camp family can’t do together, and I am so grateful.”

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

55

Want a Nobel?

Historic prize given to Jewish scientist for penicillin available at M.S. Rau in New Orleans The beginning of October marks Nobel Prize season, as the year’s winners are announced in Oslo. For those who haven’t been named this year, there is now a rare opportunity to get a Nobel Prize, at M.S. Rau in New Orleans.

The high-end antiques and fine art store just acquired the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine presented to Ernst Chain, one of the three honorees that year for the discovery and development of penicillin.

“Nobel prizes do not come up” on the market, M.S. Rau CEO Bill Rau said. “The great majority of people… it would descend through their family as a badge of honor,” as it is “the most prestigious prize in the world.”

Nevertheless, he heard “through the Jewish geography grapevine” that this prize might be for sale, and he had a friend in England approach the family.

“It took some time to get it done,” Rau said. After the five or six weeks to close the deal, he then had to wait a few weeks to get an export license from the British government, a mandatory step for taking anything over a certain price out of England.

While Rau has owned many amazing items over the years, Chain’s Nobel is “one of the coolest things we have ever owned,” he said. “Penicillin is arguably the most important drug that has ever been found.” It has saved hundreds of millions of lives, and Rau said that if it did not exist, the average human lifespan would be 10 years shorter. “How many people would have died of strep throat or pneumonia?”

The 1945 prize was presented to Chain, along with Alexander Fleming, who first discovered penicillin, and Howard Florey, Chain’s research partner. Nobels are awarded to as many as three individuals who contributed to an endeavor.

The physical prize is a 23-karat gold medal weighing almost 8 ounces. It is accompanied by a fitted box and a hand-illustrated Nobel diploma, signed by the entire Nobel Institute.

Chain’s original typewritten acceptance speech is also included. In 1945, the cash prize was around 121,000 Swedish kroner; the 2023 prizes were SEK 11 million, approximately $1 million.

Chain was born in Berlin in 1906. His father was a chemist and industrialist, and Chain became interested in chemistry 56

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

during visits to his father’s laboratory. His father died when Chain was 13 years old.

He graduated from Friedrich-Wilheim University in Berlin in 1930, and worked for three years at Berlin’s Charite Hospital in enzyme research. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, he knew he would not be safe there as a Jew, and moved to England with about 10 British Pounds in his pocket. His mother and sister stayed behind, and were ultimately murdered in a concentration camp.

In England, Chain worked at University College Hospital, then moved to the School of Biochemistry in Cambridge, where he finished his doctorate.

In 1935, he started at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, working with Howard Florey, with whom he would eventually share the Nobel Prize. Florey suggested that Chain work on lysozyme, which had been identified by Alexander Fleming in 1920. During that work, he came across Fleming’s paper on penicillin, and how Fleming had tried but failed to purify penicillin.

In 1928, Fleming had been studying staphylococcus bacteria, and later said that if he had been neat, he never would have discovered penicillin. He had left samples out overnight, and one of the cultures was contaminated with mold — which cleared out a zone where the bacteria would not grow. He realized something in the mold was killing the bacteria, and isolated it. But he didn’t know what to do with it, or how to grow it so it could be of further use.

Florey and Chain started working on penicillin in 1938 as a scientific exercise, without considering its possible benefit to humanity.

In 1940, they did an experiment on eight mice that had been infected with strep. The four that received penicillin were fine, the other four were dead the next day.

The decided to do a human trial and grew a supply. In 1941, they treated Albert Alexander, a police officer who had a lethal infection from a rose bush scratch. They gave him penicillin and the infection began to subside. The infection was almost gone when they ran out of their supply, after which the infection came back and killed him.

Chain, who had figured out how to isolate and concentrate penicillin, vowed he would not do another test until they had an adequate supply. The next year, they treated a woman, Anne Miller, who made a full recovery. However, it took six weeks for them to grow the amount that had been used to treat her, hardly a sustainable model. They had to figure out a way to grow penicillin in quantity, and succeeded in 1943.

That was fortuitous, because Florey developed pneumonia that year, and his life was saved by their research.

In 1944, penicillin was being deployed among Allied troops in World War II, and it is believed to have saved 2 million lives during the war.

In his Nobel acceptance speech on Dec. 10, 1945, Chain said “as a member of one of the most cruelly persecuted races in the world I am profoundly grateful to Providence that it has fallen to me, together with my friend Sir Howard Florey, to originate this work on penicillin which has helped to alleviate the suffering of the wounded soldiers of Britain, the country that has adopted me, and the wounded soldiers of our Allies, among them many thousands belonging to my own race, in their bitter struggle against one of the blood lost and most inhuman tyrannies the world has ever seen.”

He emphasized the role of scientists in pursuing discoveries for the greater good, and not to ignore the fight against

barbarism by saying it is the role only of the politician.

After the war, he worked in Rome, becoming the scientific director of the International Research Centre for Chemical Microbiology. He returned to London in 1961 as professor of biochemistry at Imperial College. He died in 1979.

Chain served on the board of the Weizmann Institute in Israel, and was a supporter of Jewish education in England and beyond.

Of the 954 Nobel Prizes awarded

through 2022, at least 212 have gone to Jews, or individuals with at least one Jewish parent.

Rau said a physics medal from 1965, without the accompanying folder and speech, sold for $1 million at auction, while James Watson’s 1962 Nobel in medicine went for over $5.3 million in 2014.

The Chain Nobel is priced well below Watson’s, Rau said.

“I get excited about history,” Rau said.

“This is history, and it is history for good. The discovery of penicillin was one of the great goods of all time.”

From the back page of this magazine to under your drink on the coffee table Celebrate Tu B’Shevat with a Great Use of Trees!

“He periodically spells my name right.”

– Moses “Yes, we gave him a graduate degree. We’re looking into it.”

– chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary “Half of the things he says I said, I never said. Including this.”

– his mother “He knows more about Judaica than most, and you won’t find any of it in this book.”

– his fourth-grade teacher “His translation skills are second to none, and it’s a very close second.”

– his Hebrew professor “I’ll deal with him.”

– The Almighty Big G

wai Why tu Cha ntil nex nuk ah? t

Available Through

www.rearpewmirror.com Or Order on Amazon January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

57

Southern Jewish Opinion Jewish community needs to tell antisemitic Presbyterian Church (USA) goodbye

The Presbyterian Church (USA) goes out of its way to insult and denigrate the Jewish

community, paying lip service to opposing antisemitism

while bearing false witness against Israel.

PC(USA) or PCA? One important note — there are two main Presbyterian groups. The Presbyterian Church (USA), with about 1.3 million members, is the larger, more moderate group, while the Presbyterian Church in America is smaller and more fundamentalist. A local Presbyterian church is one or the other — differences include PC(USA)’s ordination of women, acceptance of same-sex marriages, and of abortion as “a last resort.”

Which makes it further perplexing that the PC(USA) would be so hostile to the only place in the Middle East that is a democracy respecting LGBTQ rights (instead, they favor a leadership that throws such people off roofs), freedom of worship, and advancement of women.

But nobody ever said that hatred of Israel is rational.

58

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Editor’s Note: For 2022, Southern Jewish Life received second place among all Jewish publications for Excellence in Editorial Writing in the American Jewish Press’ Simon J. Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. This opinion piece was one of three submitted for that category, and was originally published in August 2022. It is reprinted here for our new readers in our expanded coverage area. In all, SJL received three awards at the July 2023 ceremony.

By Larry Brook

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has declared Israel’s creation to be a disaster, calls Israel an apartheid state, made an explicit comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany under the banner of “never again” and redefined antisemitism to encompass non-Jews.

Why, then, is the organized Jewish community even talking with them any more?

At their 225th General Assembly biennial in 2022, held online from July 5 to 9 after a series of committee meetings in late June, the Protestant denomination continued its recent history of hostility to the world’s only Jewish state, with resolutions filled with inaccuracies, hyperbole, a lack of context and little regard for Israeli lives.

Like many international bodies, the church is obsessed with Israel.

This year, there were 19 resolutions under the category of International Engagement. Four were castigating Israel. No other country was singled out in more than one, except for two resolutions about seeking a peace treaty between the Koreas.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine warranted one resolution — which condemned the invasion, but also is critical of the U.S. sanctions against Russia and how the U.S. and NATO “flooded Ukraine with lethal weapons” in a “hyper-militarization.”

Naturally, the church has jumped on the Israel as an apartheid state libel, with a resolution claiming Israeli law gives preference to Jews and places Palestinians in “separate reserves and ghettoes.”

Another resolution refers to Jerusalem as “three faiths, two peoples, and one human family,” bemoaning a recent “heightened Zionist-Jewish identity” in the eternal capital of the Jewish people. It calls on Israel to respect the rights of Christians and Muslims to access and worship at their holy sites — which it does and they do, unlike when Jordan controlled the city and barred Jews completely, destroying synagogues and holy sites. And what about places in Palestinian controlled areas that have Jewish holy sites, which the Palestinians keep trying to destroy?

Photo courtesy of the Philos Action League and Pathways for Peace.

Participants in the “Sidewalk Stand Against Antisemitism” hold signs in front of a mobile billboard reading “Don’t Wreck ChristianJewish relations” near the Presbyterian Church (USA) headquarters in Louisville, Ky., on June 28, 2022.

In fact, the only form of religious discrimination in Israel is on the Temple Mount, where Jews are barred from certain areas altogether, and in the rest of the site, one making any hint of Jewish prayer is subject to arrest, for offending the sensitivities of the Muslims. That, of course, is not mentioned.

But when the resolution insists that the placement of metal detectors for security is a provocative act, what do you expect?

The resolution also repudiates the U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem, and urges visitors to utilize Palestinian service providers and to make sure they include encounters with Palestinians, being “mindful” of the “disputed status of Jerusalem.”

The Jerusalem resolution also refers to Christian Zionism, the support of Israel by Christians, as a doctrine that “tend(s) toward idolatry and heresy… portraying a wrathful and arbitrary God, dividing and ignoring parts of the Christian community, and making of the land an idol to be possessed, exclusive of moral conditions.” Furthermore, Christian Zionism is declared to be “one of the very threats to the Christian presence in Israel and Palestine.”

Another resolution references the “siege of Gaza” and, in an effort to appear even-handed, the “collective punishment of innocent Palestinians and Israeli civilians.”

The blockade exists solely because the Gaza government, which is sworn to Israel’s destructon, seeks to use anything it can toward making war against Israel and attacking Israeli civilians, not caring about their own Palestinian civilians. All

that cement going into Gaza wasn’t used to build hospitals or schools, but tunnels under the border so they could sneak into Israel and attack civilians. But you wouldn’t know that from the resolution.

Interestingly, the word “Egypt” isn’t in there, despite Gaza’s border with Egypt — a border the Egyptians control even more tightly than Israel does on its side. Why the omission?

Of course, the resolution also uses the “open-air prison” cliché about Gaza.

The condemnation of Israeli “collective punishment” actions against Palestinians after terror attacks, citing the far-left anti-Israel group B’Tselem, encompasses 822 words in the resolution. The rather matter-of-fact statement about the “rockets, with no guidance systems” (they forgot the words “thousands of ”) fired into Israel by Hamas and other Islamist groups received just 83 words.

The church also designated May 15 as “Palestinian Naqba Remembrance Day” on the church calendar. May 15, 1948, of course, was the day that Israel was established, and the term “naqba” means “disaster,” leading Palestinians to declare that as “disaster day.”

The church has thus declared that Israel’s very existence is a disaster of historic proportions, much like how the Jewish world would refer to the Holocaust or the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem.

You know, those ancient Jewish Temples that anti-Israel January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

59

activists and Palestinian leaders deny ever existed. ing. But that doesn’t seem to bother the church, when it comes to cleansing Jews.

The church is apparently oblivious as to how that argument takes a giant sledgehammer to the Christian gospels, because Never Again much of the narrative happened in… the Second Temple.

The cherry on top of this rancid cake is in the resolution But one can forget such things when showing a zeal to por“On Recognition That Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices tray Jesus not as a Jew, but as the first “Palestinian martyr,” as Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People,” which is currently popular among anti-Israel activists. And we know passed 266-116. The resolution invokes how after the Holowhich group has been killing all those Palestinian martyrs — caust, “Jews around the world said ‘never again’.” hint, it isn’t the Romans…

The church then takes that lesson from the attempted Forget that the term “Palestine” did not exist at the time of elimination of the Jewish people and turns it against the Jews.

Jesus, it was inaugurated by the Romans a century later, well The church is speaking out against Israel because Christians after the destruction of the Second Temple, in an attempt to “vowed that never again would they be silent if a government erase Jewish ties to the land by renaming it after the Philispassed laws establishing and maintaining the domination by tines, the already-extinct Biblical archenemies of the Israelites. one ethnic group over another ethnic group through systemOr that the term comes from the word for “invader.” atic separation, oppression, and denial of basic human rights.

While there is plenty of concern for the Palestinian refSilence in the face of evil was wrong then, and it is wrong ugees, there’s no mention of the roughly 150,000 Jews who now.” were kicked out of their homes and their villages razed when The chutzpah and gaslighting are breathtaking.

Jordan took over what became known as the The lies and hyperbolic statements in the text West Bank, and Egypt occupied Gaza, and did The most are numerous. real ethnic cleansing, making sure no Jews redespicable way to They rely entirely on extreme anti-Israel mained in the areas they controlled, while any Arab who had remained in what became Israel insult Jews is to groups for their misinformation, and reference the debunked recent reports on “Israeli apartbecame an equal Israeli citizen. Not to mention compare Jewish heid” by groups with a long one-sided track — because they didn’t — the 1 million Jews of being hostile to Israel, thus giving who were forced out of Arab nations where actions to that of record them an undeserved legitimacy. They use Richthey had lived for two millennia or more. the Nazis ard Falk’s definition of apartheid — Falk is one That’s because Israel absorbed those refugees, of the more extreme anti-Israel voices out there, while the Arab leaders forced theirs into a perwho twisted the definition to fit what he claims Israel is doing. manent refugee status unlike any other refugee population on They even use the long-debunked “Palestinian loss of land” the planet, treating them as pawns in the conflict and keeping series of maps from 1946 to 2000, which purport to show how them stateless so they can be an embittered weapon to use in “Palestine” has been gradually taken away from the Palestintheir fight to destroy Israel. Even better, when they resort to ians by Israel, starting with the completely false notion that violence, they can claim it is justified and moral because of the Palestinians owned about 97 percent of the land in 1946. what Israel “did” to them.

Invoking the Holocaust to criticize Israel is no accident.

And they get cheered on by the likes of the Presbyterian They know full well that the best way to inflict the deepest Church (USA). psychological damage on the Jewish community is to compare To be fair, the ethnic cleansing of Jews is alluded to, but not it to Nazi Germany. It is a deliberate, provocative act designed as an expression of actual concern for any of those Jews. In to insult, while desecrating and minimizing the memory of its claim that Israel keeps taking Palestinian property, they the six million. It also falls under the international working note that in 1967, the population of eastern Jerusalem was almost entirely Palestinian, and now there are “approximately definition of antisemitism.

The church is slapping the Jewish community in the face, 190,000 Jewish settlers” in Jerusalem’s Old City and surroundthen demanding that we turn the other cheek so they can slap ing neighborhoods. How terrible. it, too.

Well, about that lack of Jews in 1967… Jerusalem was majorSome kind of friend you turned out to be. ity Jewish going back to the 19th century, and in 1948 Jerusalem was two-thirds Jewish. But when Jordan captured “eastern But hey, after the lengthy anti-Israel litany, to appear Jerusalem,” a designation that had never existed before, and all even-handed, there’s an obligatory statement that “The PC(Uthe Jewish holy sites in that part of the city, all the Jews were SA) strongly supports Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nakicked out. So of course in 1967, when Israel re-captured it, it tion within secure and internationally recognized borders” (oh, was “almost entirely Palestinian” — because of ethnic cleanssure, we believe you), a brief acknowledgement that terrorism 60

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

and Hamas rockets are bad, and a repudiation of “all forms of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.” So we’re good, right?

Well, no. Define antisemitism. The church is more than happy to help — their Racial Equity Advocacy Committee recommended replacing the term antisemitism with “anti-Jewish” because antisemitism “encompasses other people groups in addition to our Jewish siblings.” It’s the old “Palestinians can’t be antisemitic because they are Semites too” argument that ignores the term’s history — and the particularity of Jew-hatred.

In another example of blatant hypocrisy, the church, which has voted in the past to support the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement that seeks to isolate Israel and destroy it economically, passed a resolution against international sanctions — saying they are not only ineffective, they mainly harm innocent civilians.

Of course, the examples they bemoan are sanctions against the upstanding regimes of Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan and North Korea (and to add racism to the mix, they mention that it’s the white United States imposing sanctions mainly on nations of color). The resolution does not mention sanctions against Israel.

But they have an out — the resolution calls on the church to “determine that said sanctions do not cause undue harm to civilian populations, and to withdraw support from any sanctions regime that does not meet this standard.” So either they consider sanctions against Israel to not be harming civilians, or they don’t care whether sanctions cause harm against Israelis — even though BDS actions usually cause much more harm to the Palestinian workers that they supposedly are concerned about.

Moving forward?

The default setting for the Jewish community is dialogue.

Having so many groups who have hated us through the centuries, and eager to keep lines of communication open, it now takes a lot before we think that a relationship has become impossible, that a group is too far gone — such as the Klan, neo-Nazis, Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

It is abundantly clear that when it comes to the Presbyterian Church (USA), that ship has also sailed, and the Jewish community needs to disengage completely.

It isn’t as if the Jewish world hasn’t tried to dialogue. The 2006 PC(USA) biennial, held in Birmingham and which I attended, was regarded as a major battleground over a series of anti-Israel resolutions, with months of arguing beforehand.

That debate took a huge proportion of the convention’s schedule. Through extensive outreach and dialogue, and with the effort of some more mainstream Presbyteries, especially from Mississippi and Alabama, the more extreme elements were taken out. The finished product was by no means supportive of Israel, but it was somewhat more evenhanded.

Similar resolutions have come up at every biennial since then, leading to 2022, where despite the engagement over the last two decades, the resolutions have become more extreme and the pushback within the denomination almost nonexistent — and most members in the pews have little or no awareness that this is going on.

Presbyterians for Middle East Peace is fighting the good fight. The Philos Action League, Pathways for Peace, Combat Antisemitism Movement and the Anti-Defamation League demonstrated outside the PC(USA) headquarters in Louisville as the committee vote was taken in late June.

On the local level, there are longstanding ties between synagogues and PC(USA) churches, and many of the churches would be appalled at what is being said in their name.

But on the national level, what do we expect when the Stated Clerk of the church gives a speech on Martin Luther King Day equating Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to slavery, and telling the American Jewish community to use its influence over the U.S. government to change that, a clear antisemitic trope?

The same individual, after the July vote, said the denomination is committed to continuing dialogue with interfaith partners and combating antisemitism, and “we are convinced that there is a fundamental difference between antisemitism and the right to critique the policies of Israel deemed illegal under international law.” This comes at the end of a statement justifying the resolutions by citing a litany exclusively of farleft anti-Israel voices and repeating numerous lies about Israel and Israeli policy.

The church leadership has made it clear that while it claims to have an open door, it really has no interest in honest dialogue about Israel. There is legitimate criticism of Israel, and then there is what the Presbyterian Church (USA) does. It goes out of its way to insult and denigrate the Jewish community, while paying lip service to opposing antisemitism (or whatever they are calling it) while bearing false witness against Israel.

They have sent a clear message that they are not and do not wish to be our friends. It is high time that we listen to them, take their message seriously and treat the Presbyterian Church (USA) accordingly.

We are a proud people. We are a confident people. We are a people who fight for what is moral and just. We know truth is on our side. We do not need to demean ourselves and grovel for a meaningless sign of acceptance that they are not willing to give.

It is time to admit that, unless there is a huge change from within, the Presbyterian Church (USA) on a national level has become a hostile entity and has gone full-blown antisemitic, and it is time for us to walk away.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

61

Southern Jewish Opinion

Wake’s Jewish Studies chair promotes woke anti-Israel conspiracies has been an “ongoing project” to “eradicate non-Jews” from Israel starting from “before 1948” and continuing until the (JNS) — “Democrats and Republicans are funding mass present day, then it means that all the left-wing Labor govmurder.” “Talking about antisemitism is a diversion strategy.” ernments that ruled Israel (from 1948 to 1977), in addition to “There’s much more Islamophobia in America than antisemithe national unity governments that have occasionally been tism.” in power, have been just as guilty of “eradicating” non-Jews as These are some of the extremist conspiracy theories that Israel’s right-wing governments. the hundreds of Jewish students at Wake Forest University are Trachtenberg does not completely deny that antisemitism learning these days. exists. He put it this way: “There is antisemitism, but there is a Professor Barry Trachtenberg, who chairs the Jewish Studmuch larger increase in Islamophobia.” ies department at Wake Forest, doesn’t even try to hide his How does that claim stand up against the actual numbers? extremist views. He wears them on his sleeve, and one can be In October, the FBI released its latest statistics on hate crimes. sure that he shares them in the classes he teaches.

Among hate crimes based on religion, 56 percent are comThose views were on full display during a Dec. 13 webinar mitted against Jews, and only 8 percent are committed against called “Fighting Antisemitism Through the Lens of Collective Muslims.

Liberation,” sponsored by Haymarket Books and the anti-ZiI wonder how Trachtenberg would explain away those numonist extremist group Jewish Voices for Peace. bers. Perhaps he would claim that the FBI is part of the same One of the conspiracy theories that Trachtenberg articulatevil conspiracy as the Democrats, Republicans, Israeli left and ed with great passion and conviction had to do with what he Israeli right. called “the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians.” According to As if that wasn’t enough, Trachtenberg produced one Trachtenberg, everybody from liberal Democrats to conservaadditional far-out conspiracy theory for his tive Republicans is to blame.

Trachtenberg: Talk webinar audience. He claimed that historians “Biden, Schumer and Stefanik are funding have been conspiring to exaggerate how much the mass murder of an entire people,” the chair about antisemitism Jews suffered in the Middle Ages. Sure, there of Jewish studies at Wake Forest declared, is to distract from was some antisemitism now and then, but Jews referring to the U.S. president, the Democratalso enjoyed “periods of great prosperity”; they ic Senate Majority leader and the Republican Israel ridding the were “tolerated”; and “they were part of the representative from New York. Trachtenberg land of non-Jews social and religious fabric of European life.” and his JVP colleagues advocate cutting all U.S. He forgot to mention those parts of Eufunding for Israel. ropean life that included Inquisitions, pogroms and mass In other words, they want to see Israel stripped of its ability expulsions. But I guess even a historian can’t be expected to to fight off terrorists who gun down music festival attendees, remember everything. behead babies, and rape and mutilate women.

This webinar is far from the only evidence we have of The second conspiracy theory that Trachtenberg put forTrachtenberg’s anti-Israel views. ward in the webinar concerns antisemitism. “Talking about One of his published articles similarly bashes Israel. The antisemitism is a diversion strategy by Congress, the White 2019 piece is about American Jews and Israel; it’s co-authored House, the media and American Jewish organizations,” with Kyle Station. Trachtenberg chose to publish the article in according to Trachtenberg. “Talking about antisemitism is the Journal of Palestine Studies, which is an anti-Israel proto distract from the ongoing project of eradicating non-Jews paganda machine disguised as a scholarly journal. Its editor from the land, which began before 1948 and is continuing.” at the time was Rashid Khalidi, who for many years was a Take note of how Trachtenberg continues to widen the spokesman for the PLO. scope of his conspiratorial theories. It’s not just American libThe Trachtenberg-Staton article is a rambling screed about erals and conservatives plotting together; it is also the Israeli the evil behavior of supporters of Israel. Pro-Israel forcleft and the Israeli right who’ve been scheming. But if there es conspire to implement a “strategy of instrumentalizing

By Moshe Phillips

62

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

anti-Semitism as a means of countering criticism of Israel,” they write. And “the tangible threats to Jewish safety that stem from white supremacists and their enablers in government are being dismissed or even excused in order to shore up Zionism and the State of Israel.”

Barry Trachtenberg YouTube may have every right to Professor Barry Trachtenberg promote whatever nutty conspiracy theories he likes, whether in an article, on a webinar, or in his classrooms.

But parents who are thinking of sending their children to Wake Forest University have a right to know what kind of vile nonsense their sons and daughters will be taught.

Moshe Phillips is a commentator on Jewish affairs whose writings appear regularly in the American and Israeli press.

Whether you are home or away, protect what matters most from unexpected power outages with a Generac Home Standby Generator. $0 MONEY DOWN + LOW MONTHLY PAYMENT OPTIONS Contact a Generac dealer for full terms and conditions

REQUEST A FREE QUOTE

CALL NOW BEFORE THE NEXT POWER OUTAGE

(205) 900-7298

FREE 7-year Extended Warranty* – A $735 Value!

*To qualify, consumers must request a quote, purchase, install and activate the generator with a participating dealer. Call for a full list of terms and conditions.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

63

Southern Jewish Books

Everyone knows of someone who was in the Home Marlene Trestman writes history of New Orleans’ Jewish Orphans Home In late October, Marlene Trestman embarked on a number of activities in New Orleans connected to the release of her new book, “Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The Jewish Orphans Home of New Orleans.”

“There’s no other place the book could launch,” she reflected.

The book details the history of the Home, which was established in 1854, dedicated its first building at the beginning of 1856 and closed in 1946, after which the Home has lived on in the form of Jewish Children’s Regional Service. An accomplished attorney, Trestman is a native of New Orleans, and was orphaned when she was 11. She and her brother wound up as wards of the state — had it been two decades earlier, they would have been residents of the Home. Instead, JCRS supervised their foster care as legal guardians.

“For all of the advantages I was given in my unfortunate circumstance, I felt like a most fortunate unfortunate,” she said.

“I wanted to find out if the children who grew up in the Home felt the same way.”

The idea for the book came as she was writing a biography of Bessie Margolin, who was a champion of wage and hour

Photo courtesy JCRS/Marlene Trestman

The boys and girls were separated by a courtyard fence, until 1909.

64

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

rights for workers, and argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Margolin was instrumental in many provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, drafted the original regulations under which the post-World War II Nuremberg trials took place, and was an attorney for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Margolin was also an alumna of the Home. Trestman, who met Margolin when she was headed to college and struck up a lifelong friendship, had often been asked to give talks about Margolin’s legacy. Since nobody else was going to write a biography, Trestman decided she had to do it.

“As a lawyer, I know how to write,” she said, “but it’s different writing a book where people want to purchase it.”

As she went through the Home files from 1913 to 1925, “I was really seeing all the history of the home in the boxes, digests and board minute books.” Going through those files and seeing the range of stories as she was looking for information about Margolin, she knew that her next project had to be the history of the Home.

She figured there were two main audiences with different interests — families who had relatives in the Home, and scholars who are looking to understand the history of Jewish orphanages, philanthropy and education.

The Home was the first Jewish orphanage in the country to have a purpose-built dedicated building. Trestman is particular about the wording, because a Jewish Home in Philadelphia opened before New Orleans, but it was in a rented building.

She explained that the founders in New Orleans felt that they had to offer something of permanence to attract donors, so they rejected the idea of renting another facility.

“Life in the home was really nothing like the Charles Dickens or Jane Eyre, or even Little Orphan Annie,” Trestman said, but “it certainly was regimented and nothing someone would wish for anyone.” After all, it meant that both parents had died, or one had died and the other was unable to provide care.

“The home was always intending to be a compassionate place for the kids, and for the most part it really did serve kids in a humane and caring way, the best that an orphanage can do.”

Compared to other Jewish orphanages in the country, the one in New Orleans was rather small. Homes in New York might have 1,000 kids at once, while the Home in New Orleans had a peak enrollment of 173 in 1915, “where there might be seven other kids your age instead of hundreds.”

In all, the Home had over 1600 residents in its nine decades of service.

With that, “I don’t think you can shake a stick in New Orleans or around the South without hitting somebody who had a family member in the Home,” Trestman said. There were 390 who came from Texas, while the rest were from the other six states in B’nai B’rith District Seven, which established a formal relationship with the Home in 1875.

The book’s title, Trestman said, is somewhat of a question.

While not everyone had a happy experience, as one might expect in an orphanage, “by and large” the residents felt fortunate. As she went through stories, “I wasn’t cherry-picking kids.”

She said there was “great fortune afforded these children in terms of the care, medical attention, food, clothing, social well being, education they received.”

What is now Isidore Newman School was first established in 1904 to educate residents of the Home. When the Home closed, an agreement was reached with the school to continue to admit anyone who would have been eligible for the Home.

Trestman said that agreement was used in her case, and she thinks it may have been the last time that was needed.

Another institution connected to the Home was a camp in Bay St. Louis, run by the Jewish Charitable and Educational Federation. There was a growing trend to establish camps and get kids outside of cities during the hot summers, and the Home started bringing the residents there in 1918. By the 1930s, the residents would go to the camp for a month at a time, and it was a “uniformly beloved feature of the home… even kids who hated living in the Home, Bay St. Louis was a respite and soothed their soul.”

But the book is only part of the story. Her website, marlenetrestman.com, has an extensive list of resources, including a list of American Jewish orphanages; the founders, officers and superintendents of the New Orleans Home, children’s birthplaces, siblings, ages and lengths of stay; and a searchable list of all of the Home’s children, listed by registry number.

The website “may end up being a bigger impact than the book,” she said.

In addition, she is assembling profiles of as many of the residents as possible. It is “my way of honoring all the people who shared photographs and memories.”

She was “delighted” every time she got a message from someone who had relatives in the Home, whether they knew about it for decades, or started exploring genealogy and found they had an ancestor they did not realize was Jewish and discovered they had been in the Home.

Having a relative from the Home was a source of pride for so many people, she said.

Thus far, she has done 73 profiles on her website, and had hoped to do 100 before the book launched. “I’m going to keep going, I feel a commitment to do that,” she said.

She was able to interview many former residents, but “so many of the alumni who I interviewed are now deceased.”

The oldest one she interviewed was Ellis Hart, “and I’m so glad I got to interview him before he passed.” Trestman grew up with his niece and nephew, Susan and Richard Hart, at Newman, and she believes their father, Carol, “had a hand in my being identified and able to go to Newman School under the Home’s charter.”

Many hugely successful, well known individuals throughout the Jewish South were alumni of the Home, and both the book and website have many of their stories.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

65

There were also a lot of stories from the staff. In the 1920s, to provide more adult supervision, promising graduate students were offered free room and board at the Home, as long as they watched the kids and ate with them. In many cases, they wound up being role models.

Uncomfortable topics Because the book is also for historians, she did not shy away from thornier parts of the Home’s story, starting with the Home’s founders and slavery. Many of the founders owned slaves, showing how deeply rooted the institution was in the South, and how people in the Jewish community participated as part of becoming American. In all, she said 14 of around 30 founders had a total of about 90 slaves, with over half being owned by the Photo from Golden City Messenger, June 1925, courtesy of JCRS Home’s founding vice president.

The Home’s 1925 confirmation class in the Home’s synagogue.

She noted the “apparent irony of the seemingly well intentioned philanthropists who dediDespite that, the board released the girl to her brother’s cated time and treasure and talent, and at the same time were care in Port Gibson and would not consider requests for her putting ads in newspapers for their runaway slaves who were to come back to the Home, because of 19th century mores on mothers and children.” virtue and purity.

Four of the board members fled the area rather than take As for Trestman’s writing career, unless it is related to her the oath of allegiance to the Union after New Orleans fell, she legal work, those days are over. The histories of Margolin and added. “It would have been a huge hole if I hadn’t gone into the Home “are the only two stories I felt compelled to write,” that,” she said. “It puts the Home in the context of New Orlethough work on the Home’s website is far from done and will ans and the context of the times.” continue. “It’s been a complete joy.”

In recent years, many institutions have faced reckonings of In addition to the presence of JCRS, there are a few physical sexual scandals by staff, and the Home also had an episode — signs of the Home still in New Orleans. The site of its final but one that was well publicized in the 1880s, when it hapbuilding became the Jewish Community Center’s Uptown pened. location. The cornerstone from the Home’s 1887 location is embedded in the JCC by the front entrance.

Rabbi Simon Weil, who had been at the congregation in Woodville, Miss., became superintendent, but after a couple When she started writing the book, she went to Jackson and of years was forced out when a 15-year-old girl accused him.

Chippewa, the site of the original Home. “Some of the original Because of the times, the language used was quite vague, but intricately designed fence posts are still there,” not connected what surprised Trestman is how the board was transparent, to anything. A large tree has engulfed that fence, physically issued a statement that was printed in publications across the growing over it. country, and that they “believed the young accuser and took She reflected, “It’s almost poetic, the history of the Home is her word over the former rabbi/teacher who had come with so absorbed into New Orleans.” high recommendations.”

66

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Southern Jewish Life

We Want Your Input!

We Want Your News! What’s happening in your community that’s newsworthy? We want to know, so we can be sure to include it in our pages. If there’s a major event coming up that should be known around the region, give us plenty of advance notice.

Write For Us! We are looking for some freelance writers

throughout the region to do stories for us. Please send us some writing samples — and if you already have ideas for stories, or a particular topic you want to concentrate on, let us know. Otherwise, we can collaborate on story ideas for you to pursue.

We Want Your Ideas! Know of something that would make A culinary journey through Jewish holidays Award-winning author and playwright Beth Kander’s newest work takes children on a culinary trip through the Jewish calendar.

“Do Not Eat This Book! Fun with Jewish Foods and Festivals” is written for ages 4 to 8, and explores the smells and tastes associated with different Jewish holidays, from Shabbat to Purim, Tu B’Shevat to Passover.

It also places those food memories in the context of how every culture has their own specific observances tied to food, and that is a good way to learn about others.

The book also includes kid-friendly recipes for foods related to the holidays, from matzah mac and cheese to rainbow latkes.

Mike Moran did the illustrations.

This fall, Kander will have a romantic comedy work, “I Made It Out Of Clay,” about a single Jewish woman who, in a panic before her sister’s wedding, creates a golem to solve her problems.

Kander is also chief strategy officer at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson.

a good story, but don’t want to write it yourself? Send us your suggestions and ideas — we’re always on the lookout for unusual, unique and distinctly Southern stories.

And yes, we welcome your photos from events!

Email Editor Larry Brook, editor@sjlmag.com

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

67

Southern Jewish Travel Two new exhibits detail the Rosenwald Schools story Two exhibits focusing on the partnership between a Black academic and a Jewish philanthropist to expand educational opportunities for Southern Blacks a century ago are opening in the region.

“A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools that Changed America” is opening on Nov. 16 at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans, and “History Lives On: Preserving Alabama’s Rosenwald Schools” is already on display at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery.

Rosenwald, president of Sears, contributed to Black institutions in Chicago. In 1911, he and his rabbi traveled to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which Washington had founded.

Washington asked Rosenwald to serve on the school’s board.

In 1912, Rosenwald made numerous charitable gifts in honor of his 50th birthday, including $25,000 to Tuskegee. Toward the end of the year, Washington asked Rosenwald for permission to use $2800 on a pilot program to build schools for rural Blacks.

A grant of $300 each went to help build six schools in central Alabama — Notasulga and Brownsville in Macon County, Loachapoka and Chewacla in Lee County, and Big Zion and Madison Park in Montgomery County.

Every Rosenwald school was built with matching funds from the local community, and black communities rallied to raise the funds needed to become part of the project. In many cases, the white community also chipped in.

In 1914, Rosenwald gave an additional $30,000 for another 100 rural Alabama schools, followed by funds for 200 more schools in 1916, opening the project to other states.

Rosenwald organized the Julius Rosenwald Fund in 1917 to administer the program. He was of the opinion that a foundation should have set goals and a timetable for disbursing all of its assets and go out of business, since one never knows what

Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience 818 Howard Ave., New Orleans LA Alabama Department of Archives and History 624 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 68

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

the long-term future needs in society would be.

By the time the fund ended in 1932, about 5,000 schools had been built throughout the South.

Forty percent of Black children in the South attended a Rosenwald school at the height of the program. Black communities and white supporters advocated for educational opportunities, raised funds, and maintained the schools for decades.

Among the thousands of graduates of Rosenwald schools are poet Maya Angelou, civil rights leader Medgar Evers, Little Rock Nine pioneer Carlotta Walls LaNier, and Congressman John Lewis.

By the time of widespread school integration in the 1960s, many of Rosenwald Schools were deemed too small or otherwise unsuitable for continued use. While some of these schools today have found new life as community centers, museums, and church facilities, most have disappeared from the landscape or are under threat of deterioration and destruction.

The New Orleans exhibit consists of photographs and stories collected by Andrew Feiler, a fifth-generation Jewish Georgian.

Feiler tracked down and photographed more than 100 of the 500 schools still surviving across 15 Southern states.

Feiler believes the story of the Rosenwald schools is particularly resonant now. “In deeply segregated 1912 America, Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington reached across divides of race, religions, and region and fundamentally changed this nation for the better,” he said. “It’s especially fitting that these photographs and stories that bring people into this history are being hosted by the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience.”

Through Feiler’s exhibition, the Museum hopes to raise awareness of a chapter of history that is still not widely known. “MSJE is proud to be part of bringing this story in front of the public eye. The history of the Rosenwald schools is also the history of the South and the many diverse people and actors who have shaped it,” says Kenneth Hoffman, the museum’s executive director.

The exhibit will open on Nov 16 with a 6:30 p.m. program featuring Feiler, along with a book signing. There will be a preview meet and greet for members and patrons at 5:30 p.m.

MSJE will run a full program of events centered around

Pleasant Plains School, Hertford County, N.C., 1920 to 1950.

the exhibit, including the opening reception talk by Feiler; screenings of “Rosenwald,” a documentary film produced by Aviva Kempner, on Jan. 18, Feb. 28 and April 4 at 6 p.m., and a matinee on March 10; a lecture by Stephanie Deutsch, author of “You Need a Schoolhouse” on March 7 at 6 p.m.; and a panel discussion with Rosenwald School graduates, date to be announced. A bespoke field trip has been designed to introduce students to this important part of American history.

This exhibition is supported by Bill and Susan Hess and the Cahn Family Foundation. Bill Hess is Rosenwald’s great-grandson. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) is a media partner. The exhibit will run through April 21.

Alabama exhibit The Alabama exhibit is the culmination of a research project entitled “Realizing Rosenwald.” This multiphase project began in 2020 as an interdisciplinary collaboration with Auburn University Professors Junshan Liu, Building Science; David Smith, Graphic Design; and Gorham Bird, Architecture. The research focuses on the identification and documentation of extant Rosenwald Schools in Alabama using the latest technology to digitally measure and survey the existing places.

In addition to the team at Auburn, Dr. Kwesi Daniels, architecture professor at Tuskegee University, served as a key collaborator for the exhibit design, building on a 20-year partnership between Auburn and Tuskegee to preserve Alabama’s remaining Rosenwald Schools. Many of the artifacts featured

Photo by Andrew Feiler

in the exhibit are on loan from the Mt. Sinai Community Center, housed in the only remaining Rosenwald School in Autauga County.

Visitors to the exhibit will learn not only about the individuals who started the Rosenwald Schools and the buildings themselves, but also about local communities across Alabama who worked to raise funds and to build and sustain these schools over generations. The exhibit will also explore today’s efforts by community members and alumni to preserve Alabama’s remaining historic Rosenwald buildings and the rich legacies they represent.

“We hope the public will gain a better understanding of the resilience and self-determination of the communities that worked to build and maintain these schools to educate generations of children,” said Gorham Bird, assistant professor of architecture and lead exhibit designer. “It’s been a privilege to meet and learn about the experience of alumni, to see their ongoing commitment to preserving the history of Alabama’s Rosenwald schools, and to share their stories through our research and this exhibit.”

Archives Director Steve Murray said “the Archives is grateful for this opportunity to work with Auburn University in amplifying the stories of Alabamians who collaborated in the early 20th century to expand educational opportunities for African Americans, and of those who are striving today to keep alive the legacies of these vital community institutions.”

The exhibit opened on Oct. 17 and will be displayed through May. January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

69

Adding to the collection

North Carolina Museum of Art exhibits new acquisitions, plans expanded focus The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh is one of only four general art museums in the United States with a permanent gallery devoted to Jewish ceremonial art, and until the end of January, four new acquisitions are being displayed.

Sean Burrus, curator of Judaic art, said the museum has acquired numerous new pieces, but the exhibit features “four of the highlights that show the way the gallery has grown.”

The Judaic Art Gallery began in 1983 under the direction of Abram Kanof. Burrus explained that Kanof was a founder of the Jewish Museum, and had an emphasis on contemporary art. “His vision of Judaic art, Jewish art and Judaism was that it was a living thing., that it has vitality. This wasn’t just a heritage project for him, but it was very much about demonstrating, and especially in the South, Judaism as a lived reality, a vibrant force.”

The collection started mainly with European silver, but the museum is expanding its scope in materials, such as the textiles in the new acquisitions, and in geography.

“The Jewish story is a global story… we’re starting to increasingly be able to tell that global story,” he said. Among the four new pieces displayed are textiles from Venice, a Torah crown from Algeria and a contemporary Miriam’s Cup from an American artist. A map in the main Judaic area shows where the pieces are from, and Burrus wants to expand the variety of locations on the map.

In widening the geography, he also wants to emphasize Judaic art from the South.

Furthermore, three of the four highlighted new pieces are by women.

The largest work is an ark cover by Esther Kohenet, who embroidered her name and the year corresponding to 1717.

North Carolina Museum of Art 2110 Blue Ridge Rd., Raleigh N.C. 70

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Burrus said there was a tradition in northern Italy for ark curtains to feature the Ten Commandments. This is the only known example with the full text, laid out exactly as it is spaced in the Torah scroll. Such covers gave women the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of Torah and Hebrew texts.

An accompanying Torah cover, from later in the 18th century, has over three dozen dyes used in the design, and the colors are still vibrant. “The mantle did its job” in protecting the cover, Burrus said.

A 12-sided Algerian Torah crown, by artist Makhlouf Aznenou, made in 1868, is the second north African piece in the museum’s collection. Along the top of the crown is a running inscription listing the artist and three generations of the donor’s family.

The Miriam’s Cup “shows how Judaism is evolving and continues, it is not a static tradition,” and the concept of the Miriam’s Cup dates back to 1970s feminism. In 1997, the Ma’yan Jewish Women’s Project had an exhibition of contemporary artists doing Miriam’s Cups, and one of the participants was Amy Reichert, known for her contemporary works.

The museum commissioned a new piece from Reichert for this exhibit. “We were interested in her revisiting the concept” 25 years later, and the piece not only challenges the concept of a cup, it references three different moments where Miriam is involved in the Exodus story.

Recently, the Judaic Art Gallery was moved and expanded by 50 percent. Burrus noted that the Judaic gallery had been located toward a back corner, now it is located in a prominent spot near the entrance.

“Recent Gifts to the Judaic Collection” will run through Jan. 28, and the Judaic Art Gallery is a permanent display.

Above: Passover Seder Set with Plates, Dishes and Wine Cup. Originally designed 1930, fabricated 1975, by Ludwig Yehuda Wolpert. Right: Ark Curtain, Venice, 1717, by Esther Kohenet.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

71

Seeing Auschwitz Exhibit makes its North American debut in Charlotte this month

When Judy LaPietra, associate director of the Greenspon Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center in Charlotte saw the exhibit “Seeing Auschwitz” in London last January, she knew it needed to come to North Carolina.

The internationally acclaimed exhibit will make its North American debut on Feb. 9 at the Nine Eighteen Nine Gallery at the VAPA Center in uptown Charlotte. It will be displayed through April 15.

“This exhibit offers personal insight into a historical atrocity. It is especially important to provide this experience at this time of rising hate and antisemitism in our nation and the world,” said LaPietra. “Education about the evil perpetrated there is necessary for people to understand the importance of combating hate.”

LaPietra has visited Auschwitz several times, as a student, volunteer, and as a guide for college students.

Wells Fargo will be the presenting sponsor for the exhibit.

“Wells Fargo is proud to help bring this exhibition to the community so we can learn about the past in a way that helps us build an informed and better future,” said Jay Everette, Wells Fargo SVP, Philanthropy and Community Impact.

LaPietra said “We are so grateful to Wells Fargo for helping to make this possible.”

“Seeing Auschwitz” was originally developed for the United Nations’ observance of the International Day of Commemoration in 2020, in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The Charlotte opening is in connection with the 2024 observance.

Auschwitz was the largest center of extermination in the history of mankind, central to the Nazi plan to eradicate all the Jews in Europe, as well as the persecution of other victim

Nine Eighteen Nine Gallery at the Visual and Performing Arts Center 700 N. Tryon Street, Charlotte N.C. 72

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

groups. Between 1940 and 1945, at least 1,100,000 people were killed there in a process of systematic and industrialized mass murder.

The exhibit is an original creation by Musealia, a Spanish organization dedicated to exploring powerful stories through exhibitions, in collaboration with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the United Nations and UNESCO. The exhibit was fashioned by a panel of curators of renowned experts in the history of the camp and education of the Holocaust.

The exhibit is a collection of 100 photographs of the camp that have survived to the present day, with an audio guide that includes testimonies from survivors. The 60 to 75-minute experience consists of images shot by perpetrators, victims, and liberators, which are presented as a startling glimpse into the human lives lost.

Most of the images were taken by the perpetrators, challenging viewers with the notion that they are being presented with history as seen through a Nazi lens.

The Greenspon Center plans to make the exhibit available to all Charlotte area students in grades 7 to 12 for free. “The exhibit will offer an incredible learning experience for students, and provide an impactful resource for teachers as they fulfill the requirement of the new North Carolina mandate to teach about the Holocaust,” said LaPietra.

Tickets are available at the Seeing Auschwitz Charlotte website, https://seeingauschwitz.com/charlotte/. Exhibit hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Adult tickets are $15, there are discounts for children, seniors and large groups.

Editor’s Note: The opening was delayed to Feb. 9 from the previusly reported date “due to a change in timelines for permitting related to construction of the exhibit.”

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

73

Southern Jewish Arts From opera to Yiddish music, Anthony Russell forges a unique path Finds common themes between African-American and Eastern European Jewish music Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell and Dmitri Gaskin perform as Tsvey Brider, “Two Brothers,” but they had very different paths to Jewish music.

Russell, who became an opera singer after growing up in California, is now a pioneer in Yiddish music. Gaskin is an accomplished accordion player specializing in Klezmer music, and they met in San Francisco in 2013, part of the small group of Jewish music performers in the area.

Recently, Russell was added to the cultural offerings roster at the Jackson-based Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which facilitates Jewish cultural events for communities in a 13-state region.

Russell was born in Fort Worth, Tex., then moved to California. His mother was a classical pianist, and “there was an appreciation in my house already for music,” he said. Around age 12 he started becoming a fan of opera, but not in the sense of becoming a singer.

After he tried “unsuccessfully” to become a pianist, “I decided to try my hand at singing,” and after less than a year of voice lessons, he won his first competition.

At age 17 he started looking for vocal work, and wound up in some opera choruses, then got a couple of larger roles.

He had a role in the world debut of the opera “Appomattox” in San Francisco in 2007. A couple aspects of the production were special, but one in particular turned out to be intensely meaningful.

“It was exciting” being part of an opera nobody had heard before, he said, as well as performing with so many other Black opera singers, “something you usually don’t see.”

But it was one scene that originally struck him as “bizarre” that would become most memorable. During the scene after the liberation of Richmond, President Abraham Lincoln comes to visit, and four newly-liberated slaves started singing verses from Psalm 47 to Lincoln.

Russell asked the librettist why he put something like that into the show, and the librettist told him that it had really happened that way.

The production was close to the High Holy Days, and Russell was in the process of exploring conversion to Judaism.

The congregation where he attended Yom Kippur services did special readings each year during the Shofarot service. Much to his amazement, “out of all the words one could be singing and hearing during a very long service,” the reading that year

was “the exact same words that I sang from the stage” in the opera.

Not only that, the reading was done in English. “It could have been in Hebrew and I wouldn’t have known.”

He later reflected that it was “an indication of my future, that’s eventually what I’d be doing all the time.”

He completed his conversion in 2011 and went to Tel Aviv University to study Yiddish.

Changing Styles After about 15 years in opera, he began to grow tired of it, and briefly gave up singing.

Then, he was asked to lead “Unetaneh Tokef,” “one of the most important moments in the liturgical year” at a service at the New York congregation where his husband was a rabbi.

“The response from the congregation was very intense and came from a very personal place,” he said. “Somehow who I was and what I could do vocally came sharply into focus in the context of Jewish music at that moment.”

He began to consider exploring Jewish music, and started to look for a repertoire.

He heard legendary cantor Sidor Bilarsky in the Coen Brothers’ film, “A Serious Man,” and identified with how he had started as an opera singer who then performed Yiddish art and Jewish cantorial music, and how he experimented with a fusion of styles.

In studying Bilarsky, “I found an entire repertoire of music that suited me as a performer and who I wanted to be as a performer,” he said.

His repertoire is “an archive of the history of Eastern European Jewry over the past 150 to 200 years,” and has a very wide range, from classic niggunim to labor and protest songs, Yiddish poetry to folk material adapted from the shtetls in central and Eastern Europe.

Unlike opera, performing this material is a far more personal experience with the audience.

“When I perform, in a sense I am performing aspects of the personal histories of many members of the audience,” he said.

“For me it is much more rewarding, and much more rewarding for my audiences than the impersonal nature of classical music.”

He once was performing a Yiddish lullaby, and a woman in

Psalm 47 wasn’t just a performance — it turned out to be a sign

74

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Dmitri Gaskin and Anthony Russell

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

75

the audience was singing along. Afterward, she told him “my grandmother used to sing me that lullaby and I haven’t heard it since.”

“That’s an immense amount of connection to have with a complete stranger,” Russell said.

Another difference from opera is that the field of Yiddish music is much smaller and less competitive than opera, though he said “over past 10 years, new Yiddish performers are coming to the fore, and it is very exciting,” as all of them “are working to create, preserve and disseminate this beautiful 1000-year-old culture of music and words and the Yiddish language.”

He has been adding styles in recent years, especially combining “Ashkenazic Jewish folk music and African-American folk music at the places where those respective narratives overlap.”

For example, an early Israeli song about Moses is combined with “Wade in the Water.”

In 2018, he released an EP based on that fusion, “Convergence,” with Klezmer group Veretski Pass. A review from In Geveb, a journal of Yiddish studies, asked “what would it have sounded like if Sholem Aleichem’s late 19th-century Jewish, Yiddish-speaking characters had arrived at a Reconstruction-era Mississippi labor camp?”

“Rosie” is a pairing of the niggun “Es iz shoyn shpet” and “Rosie,” which Russell first heard on a recording of inmates at Mississippi’s Parchman Farm penitentiary.

But not all pieces are heavy — there’s “Rockin’ Jerusalem” paired with “Av Harachamim” on a Cuban melody.

Russell said he wants to have a space where “these respective histories could sing into each other.”

Brothers Russell said he and Gaskin met about 10 years ago, as both of them were working in the field of Eastern European Jewish music. “He’d been an accordion player for a number of years, I’d been working as a Yiddish singer.” They collaborated, and decided to try writing original music in Yiddish. They set works to the poetry of modernist Yiddish poets, and their

“Kosmopolitn” album, released in 2022, is “our original music set to the poetry of a group of amazing Yiddish poets from the first half of the 20th century.”

After collaborating for a couple of years, in 2017 they entered an international contest in Mexico City, “Yiddishe Idol.”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” he said. They decided to do a cover of “Kinder Yorn” in a different style, reminiscent of a French chanson, and they won. “What we were doing was a bit of an experiment and we weren’t sure if it made a lot of sense,” he admitted, but it started them performing all over the world.

In the Berlin Radical Jewish Cultural Festival, they combined African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish music, and “it was very well received there.”

Covid caused a hiatus in performing, but in 2022 they started touring with their album. Their diverse array of styles includes classical, cabaret, blues and pop.

Coming South In August 2022, he moved to Atlanta when his husband, Rabbi Michael Rothbaum, became rabbi of Bet Haverim. They had married in New York in 2015.

Being in the South is a different experience for him, because Jews in places he has lived, California and New York, “think that’s the only places Jews have ever lived in the U.S.” He said it is “important for Southern Jews to be able to celebrate their history and look at their history, and what it has meant to be Jewish in America, and what it could be.”

He added that it is “inspirational,” because much of his personal history and a lot of the Black music he performs is from the South. He has worked with the Yiddish-rooted Workers Circle since 2020, and this past spring went to the Selma to Montgomery march reenactment with them.

While he fuses Black and Jewish music, Russell said American Jewish nostalgia for Yiddish and Klezmer is a “very different relationship than African-Americans have to their music of the same period.” After all, “Black people still live in their ‘old country,’ we never got on a boat to live in a place that would be better.”

Reach a Regional Market… from Virginia to East Texas

Advertise in Southern Jewish Life Regional!

Contact Lee Green (205) 870-7889 or (888) 613-YALL, lee@sjlmag.com Also ask about our Deep South and New Orleans print editions, and our Website and E-News advertising options!

76

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

Southern Jewish Sports

Boys of Future Summers Five Jewish players — all with Southern ties — selected in 2023 baseball draft Though there are some Jewish players among the big names in Major League Baseball, such as Alex Bregman and Max Fried, the 2023 All-Star Game did not feature any Jewish players. However, there were five Jewish players drafted in July among the 614 picks overall.

Scott Barancik, the editor of Jewish Baseball News, says that’s actually a fairly high number. Furthermore, all of the five picks have Southern ties.

Leading the class is University of Virginia standout Jake Gelof, who went in the second round to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 60th overall. His brother, fellow Virginia alumnus Zack, was 60th overall in the 2021 draft and was called up to the Oakland Athletics in 2023.

A third baseman from Delaware, Jake Gelof is the all-time home run leader at Virginia, with 48 in three seasons. He set the single-season RBI record at Virginia in 2022, breaking it in 2023 with 90. Among several other Virginia records, he had six home runs in NCAA tournament games.

Jake Gelof and Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor pose with the historic 38th home run baseball as Gelof set the all-time Virginia mark.

He started at the Dodgers’ Arizona League rookie team in late July, playing four games, before going to the Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. There, he appeared he played outfield for four years before being a graduate in 30 games, hitting .225 with 23 runs and five home runs. He transfer at Vanderbilt. He was selected by the Seattle Mariners also walked 16 times, and was the league’s Player of the Month in the ninth round, 277th overall. for September.

At Duke, Schreck hit .288 with 26 home runs and 94 RBI in Zach Levenson, a native of Orlando, was selected 158th four years, walking 66 times and being hit by 21 pitches. His overall by St. Louis in the fifth round. He started at Seminole slugging percentage of .506 ranks No. 16 at Duke.

State College of Florida, transAt Vandy, he hit .306 in 62 ferring to the University of games, with 14 home runs Miami as a sophomore. There, and 59 RBI. His ways as a ball he hit .295 in two seasons, magnet continued in Nashwith 21 home runs and 73 ville, as he was hit 18 times by RBI. pitches in those 62 games.

The Cardinals assigned the After being drafted, he outfielder to the Single-A played two games in the Palm Beach Cardinals, where Arizona Rookie League’s he appeared in 34 games, hitMariners, with his one hit in ting .268 with six home runs seven at bats being a home and 22 RBI. run. In 25 games with the R.J. Schreck left Los AngeSingle-A Modesto Nuts, he les for Duke University, where hit .258 with one home run Zach Levenson R.J. Schreck January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

77

Ben Simon

and 12 RBI. Ben Simon, a New Jersey native, was picked by the New York Mets in the 13th round, 396th overall. He pitched for Elon University in North Carolina, mainly as a reliever.

According to Elon, he was one of the most accomplished relievers in the Colonial Athletic Association, tied for fourth with seven saves, with a strikeout to walk ration of 4:1. He was named to the 2022 All-CAA second team.

A right-hander, Simon had saves against both of Elon’s Top 10 wins at home this past season, with four of his seven saves coming against teams that made the NCAA tournament. Over his three years, he appeared in 56 games, with 88.1 innings pitched, nine saves and 103 strikeouts.

Though his freshman year ballooned his overall ERA to 5.20, in 2022 he had an ERA of 3.48, and 3.20 in 2023.

He started at the Florida Rookie League’s Mets, appearing in two games and giving up just one hit in 1.2 innings, and was

For Breaking News…

Southern Jewish Life Online www.sjlmag.com 78

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

pitcher of record for one win. On Aug. 25 he was assigned to the Single-A St. Lucie Mets, where he appeared in four games, giving up eight hits and nine runs, five earned, in 4.2 innings for a 9.64 ERA. A New York City native, Will King was selected in the final round by the Atlanta Braves, 609th overall. The catcher played three seasons at Eastern Kentucky University, where he hit .306, with 25 home runs and 124 RBI. As a sophomore in 2022, King was a first team All-Atlantic Sun Conference catcher and ASUN All-Tournament Team selection. He tied for first among all ASUN catchers, throwing out 41.2 percent of the runners who attempted to steal.

This past season, he led the Colonels with a .346 batting average this past season. He had 13 doubles, 12 home runs, 47 RBIs and 47 runs scored despite missing a portion of the season with an injury.

He was assigned to the Florida Rookie League’s Braves, where he appeared in 11 games, hitting .310 with one home run and 5 RBI. He was activated by the High-A Rome Emperors in September.

Will King

SEC basketball tips off; former players share memories of playing in Israel

By Lee J. Green

Here’s the predicted order of finish as voted on at SEC Media Days in Birmingham.

Golden coached under Bruce Pearl from 2014 to 2016 and credits the Auburn coach as being a mentor. In the summer of 2022, Pearl took his Auburn team on a trip to Israel to play some games against Israeli teams and to let his players experience a tour of historic and religious sites.

Pearl has been very vocal about his Jewish faith and about his support for Israel.

Last month, he spoke at an Israel solidarity event hosted at Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El. “Israel needs her big brother’s support now more than ever. We need a strong Israel to be able to ally with her peaceful Arab neighbors and deal with the terrorist regime in Iran,” he said.

The SEC begins its 2023-24 season conference play on Jan. 6, and the 2024 SEC tournament will be in Nashville.

As the Alabama Crimson Tide basketball team tries to defend its SEC championship, a former Alabama great-turned-broadcaster 1 – Tennessee Volunteers fondly remembers his time playing basketball 2 – Texas A&M Aggies in Israel.

3 – Arkansas Razorbacks Richard Hendrix, an Alabama power for4 – Kentucky Wildcats ward/center from Athens, Ala., who graduated 5 – Alabama Crimson Tide in 2008 and was drafted by the Golden State Warriors, played with Maccabi Tel Aviv from 6 – Auburn Tigers 7 – Mississippi State Bulldogs 2010 to 2012, and again in 2016.

8 – Florida Gators “Israel was a very special place to play and live,” said Hendrix, who now lives in Nashville 9 – Missouri Tigers and broadcasts Alabama games for the SEC 10 – Ole Miss Rebels Network. “I’d get invited regularly to Shabbat 11 – Vanderbilt Commodores dinners and Seders. Everyone is so warm, 12 – Georgia Bulldogs open and hospitable. Those were some of the 13 – LSU Tigers best experiences of my life.”

14 – South Carolina Gamecocks Two of the Maccabi Tel Aviv teams he was on won the Israeli league championship and competed for the European League championship.

“Those years really helped catapult me to success,” he said.

“It’s such a great environment. The fans are so passionate and Frankfurt. London. Manchester. there is so much pride in their country.”

1800.

Hendrix said he still have some good friends, players and the dawn of the coaches in Israel, who he touches base with regularly. “I checked in with them (after the attacks) and offered my support,” he said.

This past spring, Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats brought in Ryan Pannone as an assistant. Pannone coached Hapoel Jerusalem from 2016 to 2018 before becoming the head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans’ G-League Birmingham Squadron. During the 2022-23 season, he was an assistant coach for the Pelicans.

Florida Head Coach Todd Golden played for Maccabi Haifa from 2008 to 2010 after graduating from St. Mary’s. by “Being in Israel was a life-changing experience for me,” Lizzi wolf said Golden, who grew up in the Phoenix Jewish community.

“I learned so much there and it really helped me as I transiFollows two generations of a family from the tioned into coaching. I still have a lot of good friends there Frankfurt shtetl, swept up in cataclysmic changes and thank goodness they have been safe.” brought about by the Haskalah The University of Florida is said to have the largest populathat shook the rabbinical establishment to its tion of Jewish students of any public university in the country, core and questioned the very idea of with about 6,500 Jewish undergraduates and around 9,500 what it means to be Jewish. overall. Golden said he has great relationships with the stuAvailable on Amazon dents and Chabad House. “I want them to know I’m there for them,” said Golden.

The House of the Red Shield: A novel

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

79

Southern Jewish Food Setting the South Carolina Jewish Table “Kugels & Collards” is a fusion of cookbook and Jewish family history A prominent space where Southern identity and Jewish identity intersect is through food. What started out as a way to document those stories in South Carolina recently turned into a cookbook, “Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina.”

Rachel Gordin Barnett, from the only Jewish family in Summerton, and Lyssa Kligman Harvey, from Columbia, have been assembling those stories since 2016. Barnett is executive director of the Jewish Historical Society 80

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

of South Carolina, and Harvey is a teacher who created the Columbia Holocaust Education Commission.

Historic Columbia organized a Connecting Communities Through History Initiative, and the Jewish community took part with the Columbia Jewish Heritage Initiative. That led to historical markers, self-guided tours of the city’s Jewish historical sites and collecting oral histories.

Barnett said that she and Harvey approached Robin Waites, the executive director of Historic Columbia,

with the idea of telling the Jewish community’s story “through the lens of food and memory, and we suspect there are really good stories out there.”

Barnett said Waites “was really supporting,” so they worked with the organization’s marketing team to set up a blog, and they started collecting stories and publishing them online in 2017.

“The blog is still going,” she said. “We’re still writing the stories.”

Right before the Covid lockdown, they had been asked if they were interested in doing a book version of the blog, and take it beyond Columbia, expanding statewide.

They consulted with Marcie Cohen Ferris, author of “Matzoh Ball Gumbo” and a leading figure in documenting Southern Jewish foodways, and Dale Rosengarten, who created the Jewish Heritage Collection at the College of Charleston. “They were so generous with their time and guidance,” Barnett said.

The blog posts and book chapters are short family stories and a couple of related recipes, from about 70 contributors.

They had a list of simple questions and prompts, with the goal of staying between 600 and 900 words.

For those who weren’t comfortable with writing, they did Zoom interviews, having originally hoped to do in-person interviews, but the pandemic prevented that.

Barnett said that one could learn a lot about a family by their writing about food. “Food is very emotional,” and people would talk about their grandmothers, or a particular recipe.

Many interviews were “happily emotional, good memories coming back.”

Four years after the initial meeting, the book was published.

“It’s a snapshot of South Carolina,” she said. The stories mainly cover the generation of her grandmothers, with a little bit going back to the 1800s.

Barnett said the recipes are a mix of Southern and Jewish, “because we are in the South and talking about the Southern Jewish table.”

It was important for them to make sure that proper credit was given to African-American women who cooked in Jewish homes, “because they were the ones who brought the recipes into a lot of these homes.”

For Harvey, many family recipes came from Annie Gaillaird, who worked for her grandparents and made fried chicken and macaroni salad, adapting them to the family’s kosher kitchen.

Her recipe for okra gumbo is in the book, though it had not been previously written down, but was prepared by taste.

A section by the Dickman sisters describes Florida Mae

Boyd, who started working for their family in 1956, as “the best Jewish chef in Columbia.” She eventually took over catering at the Jewish Community Center, and Jewish women would call her to learn the twists she gave to traditional dishes.

The recipes in the book aren’t necessarily a fusion of Southern and Jewish, but incorporating both cuisines into the same meal. “Collards next to the brisket and tzimmes,” Barnett explained. “It’s the way we grew up eating, but it’s novel to some people.”

Still, there are items like the grits and lox casserole.

The book also details how different families would maneuver their way to their own version of keeping kosher — if they did so at all, in a land of pork barbecue and shrimp.

One family, she related, kept a strictly kosher kitchen, “but they would sit under a tree outside picking crabs.”

For many families, in the words of Rhetta Mendelsohn, “we ate like our Southern neighbors, but with a few notable exceptions.”

Jewish food could also affect life paths. One anecdote came from Michael Tonquor, now living in Washington. His father ran a factory in Barnwell, which had located there as part of

Lyssa Klingman Harvey and Rachel Gordin Barnett at Clayton Rawls Farms in Lexington, S.C. January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

81

an incentive program pushed by long-time Speaker of the House Solomon Blatt.

The elder Tonquor would frequently travel to New York to meet with his boss, and return to South Carolina with a load of deli items. He would always bring a package for Blatt, who had a passion for smoked beef tongue, which wasn’t available in South Carolina. That deepened the relationship between the two, so when Michael Tonquor was college age, Blatt helped open doors for the path his career took.

On Oct. 25, Harvey entered her Jewish star poppy seed cake in the 150th anniversary South Carolina State Fair and won a blue ribbon. In the book, her daughter, Jordane Harvey Lotts, says that cake is at all events, happy or sad, and “has become a family and Columbia Jewish community favorite.”

The last section of the book, The Legacy, is by younger community members, giving their food-related memories and how their lives have been shaped. An example is Emily Levinson, who went to Auburn University and soon realized, as

82

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

she used her microwave, how fortunate she had been to enjoy home-cooked meals every night.

She soon embarked on her own odyssey of cooking dishes from home, even eventually starting her own baked goods business, Mamanu Baked Goods, introducing many Jewish specialties to Auburn.

While the process preserved a lot of family recipes, it also showed that much has already been lost. Many fondly-recalled dishes have been lost, because they were never written down or taught — they were done by memory, with eyeing the ingredients rather than measuring them. Through experimentation, they were able to resurrect some of them.

In addition to preserving these stories and recipes for the Southern audience, Barnett said she enjoys encountering those who are unfamiliar with the Southern Jewish experience. “It’s been our pleasure to open people’s eyes and educate them a bit.”

View the blog at kugelsandcollards.org.

Rear Pew Mirror

by Doug Brook

The Perfect Dreidel Stuffer It’s time for the triumphant return of our first-ever annual Gift Guide.

To make gift-giving decisions simple amid the over-programmed, overloaded shopping season, this guide has exactly one item in it. It’s all anyone will need.

With great fanfare — that is, a fair number of ceiling fans were turned on and made the room feel great — the first collection based on this column is now available, in paperback and Kindle. “Rear Pew Mirror: Reflections From the Back of the Sanctuary” contains 29 past columns, all updated with more laughs and fewer typos. Each column has been clinically proven to get laughs out of nearly both of our readers, by virtue of them needing clinical help after reading.

It might seem self-serving to focus this shopping guide on this book. In many realms, it would be unthinkable. For example, self-promotion is difficult to get away with in the military. Despite that, we will uniformly discharge our duty, as off we go being all we can be with our anchors aweigh, while turning up our semper hi-fi.

This collection includes past columns about holiday mashups, food, biblical sources, culture, and services. Longtime readers can relive the frightful Friday Yom Kippur that brought about Kol Nidre the 13th, or revisit the menu of Italian dishes for the Passover seder which went far beyond matzahroni and cheese. New readers can live or visit them for the first time.

Each section of the book is introduced by newly uncovered, related pieces of classic literature. The food section begins with the famous Shakespearean monologue “To eat, or not to eat” from Act Three of “Treiflet.” The services section starts with the lyrics to the iconic song from The Man of La Mishnah, “To dream the Shabbat morning dream…”

There’s something for everyone, from a letter to Superman from the Metropolis Rabbinic Council, to Dr. Seuss’s original, never-proven-to-be-inauthentic, ‘Twas the Night Before Chanukah.

You may ask, in these trying times, is it appropriate to laugh? Yes. There’s a story about Rabbi Akiva where, sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple, he and several other rabbis entered Rome. The other rabbis began crying, but Rabbi Akiva started laughing.

The other rabbis asked why he was laughing. In true rabbinic form, Rabbi Akiva answered by asking his own question: why were they crying?

They asked how could they not cry when these Romans who sacrifice to idols and bow to false gods live happily and securely, while for the rabbis the Second Temple had been destroyed.

Rabbi Akiva said that’s why he was laughing. If this is what the Almighty Big G gave to people who anger Him, can you imagine how much more will come to His people?

Similarly, Rabbah — a late Third-Century Talmudist — would start his talks with a joke. Of course, he was teaching to a captive audience and didn’t need to win their attention, but starting with a laugh would loosen up his students’ minds to expand their thinking.

It gave students permission to approach things differently.

So, if you ever need a break from the world, in this book you can revisit last decade’s anomaly known as Thanksnukah, or preview the yet-to-happen happenstance of Chanukippur.

But, wait, there’s more. With the release of this book, Rear Pew Mirror is now a triple-threat. There’s the book, the column itself which has been insidiously inked since 1996, and the podcast.

Yes, lest we forget, Rear Pew Mirror has also been a podcast since 2021. Available on all major platforms, this five-star reviewed podcast is based on columns, past and present. It’s not just reading a column — each episode includes sound effects to great effect, and additional bits that couldn’t get into the column itself due to space limits or unlimited good taste.

Every day is some number of shopping days until next Chanukah, so get a copy now. Take two, they’re small. It’s the perfect bar or bat mitzvah gift, as long as they don’t read it during their ceremony.

You still have to laugh sometimes

Doug Brook does not recommend trying to stuff a copy of “Rear Pew Mirror: Reflections From the Back of the Sanctuary” into a dreidel. Unless you record the attempt and share the video. To acquire the book, read other past columns, or listen to the FIVE-star rated Rear Pew Mirror podcast, visit http://rearpewmirror.com/.

See the ad for Rear Pew Mirror (the book) on page 57.

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional

83

Texas Street Bridge, Shreveport State Capitol, Little Rock

North Carolina Executive Mansion, Raleigh Big Four Bridge, Louisville

Tuscaloosa

Lights of Support For Israel Following the Oct. 7 Hamas Massacre 84

January 2024 • Southern Jewish Life Regional