Southern Jewish Life, Deep South, May 2022

Southern Jewish Life P.O. Box 130052 Birmingham, AL 35213

Volume 32 Issue 5

May 2022

Southern Jewish Life

2

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

shalom y’all There’s an old saying that it isn’t paranoia if you know they’re really out to get you.

And sure, evidence keeps mounting that “they” are increasingly out to do so. There’s the increasing numbers in the annual antisemitism audit, which we write about in this issue. There’s the increasing hostility on college campuses — one recent article referred to what proportion of Jews on a campus were “out” versus “in the closet,” as if being Jewish is now what being homosexual was in the 1960s.

Nevertheless, when something bad happens, we must still remember that “they” aren’t always out to get us.

As this issue was wrapping, news came in of the fire that destroyed the Chabad center in Tallahassee. While this magazine’s coverage area does not typically extend that far east in the panhandle, the Tallahassee center is still connected to our coverage area because the newer Chabads in Panama City, Destin and Pensacola have their origins there.

Immediately, there was speculation as to the cause. Thankfully, most of the coverage and the comments followed a reasonable line — the cause was unknown, there were no obvious signs of anything particular, and at press time the forensics team said it could take months to determine what happened.

Nevertheless, there was some speculation as to which group of haters torched the place.

A Crown Heights media outlet headlined the fire as a “possible arson attack.” Others saw a pattern of anti-Jewish hate, since a Chabad in Louisville, Ky., burned just a couple weeks earlier, and two California Chabads had fires in December. Some cited rising campus antisemitism and how the Tallahassee and Louisville Chabads were active on campus. That Florida State had been named one of the top 10 Jew-hating universities by David Horowitz’s Frontpage magazine a couple weeks earlier probably boosted that speculation.

Unless there is an obvious cause, most fires are “possible arson,” that is one of many explanations. But it is irresponsible to assume the worst in our neighbors, and bad journalism to jump to conclusions before there is evidence. One should also take into account continued on page 4

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

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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commentary

MESSAGES

Maccabi USA leader praises Birmingham Games

I have had the honor of attending many Maccabi competitions around the world. From Israel the flood oftosolidarity and concern theJCC to Australia South America, Europefrom and the Maccabi around theor United States— or out to be games lightning strikes electrical general community after the fire.miles Lookseeing for the and Canada, I have logged many howeven sports be a vehicle ancan insurance scam.to help build Jewish positive. identity, especially in our young.

Fires happen for numerous reasons, and That Kentucky fire? Accidental. The two in looking historically, the “rash” was not very I felt honored to come to Birmingham for the first time and fell in love with not just the city California? One is being investigated as arson, far out of proportion to the typical number of but the people. You have taken Southern hospitality to a new level with your kind and caring the other seems to not be tied to a criminal of- church fires. It just seemed like an epidemic approach to the JCC Maccabi Games. fense. So much for a “pattern” of antisemitism. because everyone was paying attention — Led by often the Sokol hard-working volunteers were wonderful.

Theytopic. partnered We’ve saidand thatHelds, whenyour there was the and then moved on to the next with of your outstanding staff, ledJewish

by Betzy Lynch, to make the could 2017 JCC games a huge rash bomb threats against CommuPeople wellMaccabi have said there washit. an I want to takeand thisJewish opportunity as executive director of Maccabi USA to say in thank you on in behalf nity Centers Day Schools five years antisemitism epidemic Louisiana 2020 of everyone ago, we toldinvolved. the secular press that we were when two synagogue buildings burned a day notI had going jump tofrom conclusions who apart.

But Gates ofwith Prayer in New Iberiaofwas justtoreturned the 20th about World Maccabiah games in Israel a U.S. delegation was doing it.

So many people chalked it lightning, andinthe Yeshurun Synover 1100, who joined 10,000 Jewish athletes up fromhit 80by countries.

Back Julyformer the eyes of the entire to “Trump’s America” (though if Trump was to agogue building in nearby Lafayette not Jewish world were on Jerusalem and the Maccabiah. This past month with 1000 athletes and only blame the around rise in antisemitism, why it go- was long abandoned andpoint. occupied by squatcoachesfor from the world being inisBirmingham, you became the focal ing up even further in “Biden’s America”?) ters, it had not been a synagogue in decades, Everyoneoffrom the Jewish community and the community at large, a wonderful Instead a neo-Nazi or white supremacist, a church had more including recently been in the buildpolice force, are to be commended.

These games will go down in history as being seminal those threats could be from a left-winger, we ing and there was nothing on athe property to moment forbe theaJewish community as we Could build to indicate the futurea by providing said.

Could pro-Palestinian activist.

Jewish past. such wonderful Jewish memories. be some lone crank in his parents’ basement in It is possible that by the time this hits mailMontana.

Of course, it turned out to be none boxes, it will be announced that the TallahasJed Margolis of the above, it was a disturbed Executive Director, Maccabi USA teen in his see Chabad fire was accidental, or that it was parents’ home in Israel. But don’t point fingers intentional. At that point, everyone should until facts are known. react accordingly. supremacists would like to see pushed back When there were a few arsons of Black On Charlottesville Buta corner the best way to react to follow Rabbi into and made to feelislesser.

We stand churches in isolated rural areas of the Oirechman’s call to spread light in the world, with and pray for the family of Heather Heyer, Editor’sSouth Note: in Thisthe reaction the events Deep 1990s,tothere was in a lot of and help him rebuild, bigger and better. who was there standing up to the face of this Charlottesville, written byresurgence Jeremy Newman, hand-wringing over the of racism. hate.

Masterthat, of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Theta Colony After every time a church caught fire, it We recognize the essence of the American at Auburn University, was sharedevidence

by AEPi of our was national news and further narrative asLawrence a two-century oldPublisher/Editor struggle to rid National, which called it “very eloquent” and societal rot. Never mind that many later turned Brook, ourselves of such corners, and allow those in praised “our brothers at AEPi Theta Colony at them the seat at the table that they so deserve.

Auburn University the leadership they these How doesand…

Facebook make outrageous decisions?

It is the struggle to fulfill the promise of the display on their campus.”

Does anyone still believe that social media Declaration Without explanation, and giving themen reason, of Independence, that “all are is an unbiased, fair and equitable platform, “because of the social issues” (as if in a democcreated equal… endowed by their Creator with permitting all pointshas of been view?a You may everyone mustrights. accept theknow liberal’s interWhite supremacy cancer on have racy certain unalienable ” We our work to your mind after you hear what hap- pretation social but issues) Facebook ourchange country since its beginning, threatening is far fromof finished, we know we willjumped not pened right in Nashville this past month. into It was the perfect storm for them to its hopes, itshere values, and its better angels. moveaction. backwards.

Benjamin Ferencz, the 102-year-old last sur- make another political statement by banning or The events that took place in Charlottesville Whencriticizing men and another women,conservative fully armed, group. take viving prosecutor of the World War Those II Nurem- at least represented the worst of this nation. to the streets in droves with swastikas and berg trials, was invited by Chabad of Nashville Facebook banned any advertising for who marched onto the streets with tiki torches other symbols of hate, it is a reminder of how to give an April 26 lecture on his experiences.

Chabad’s most important event. and swastikas did so to provoke violence and theremember issues of racism andoranti-Semitism Who would betteronto thanthe Mr.streets Ferencz?

I can not Facebook any other libfear.

Those whoknow marched didAs relevant are today.

It is a wake-up call to the the prosecutor of thethat Nazis accused of to war eral-controlled platform banning anywork eventthat sponso tochief profess an ideology harkens back needs to be done to ensure a better, more crimes, he was personally responsible for the sored by a progressive organization.

Can you? a bleaker, more wretched time in our history. country. it should not come conviction of men 22 Nazi murdering Thankfully, after aBut week of protest, Facebook A time when anddefendants women of for many creeds, welcoming without a reflection on how far we’ve come. us over million Jews during Holocaust. races,1 and religions were farthe from equal and far came to its senses. They gave in and allowed I can’t anyone could objectwhere to this. to America promote was our event their platform. born aon slave nation.

A century from safe believe in our own borders.

A time Soon no one will be left who personally Forour anyone questionsinElon historywho we engaged a warMusk’s in partpurAmericans lived under a constant cloud of wit- into nessed these outrageous atrocities.

It’s not just chase of Twitter in order to open it upWe to all to ensure we would not continue as one. racism, anti-Semitism and pervasive hate. The the Jews who areplace concerned that anotherserved Holo- points of view, this latest incident inform found ourselves confronted by theshould issue of civil events that took in Charlottesville caust could happen. their In order to democrarights,belief. and embarked onmaintain a missionour to ensure as a reminder of how painfully relevant these I wasare born in New York during the Holocaust. cy, media must prevented from being the social fair treatment of allbepeoples no matter their issues today.

Soon, all the survivors will be gone and you will askin censoring instrument for the liberal ideolocolor.

Although we’ve made great strides, Auburn’s with books. the only be able Alpha to readEpsilon about itPi in stands our history gy. must not only but encourage, it isWe a mission we’re stillallow, grappling with today.all Jewish community of Charlottesville, and Keep in mind that Chabad is one of the most points of view, not only those we agree with.

America wasisalso immigrant with the Jewish people around For the country conservative sects of Judaism. those of you Elon Musk our born only an hope to reinstate evcountry.

As early as the pilgrims, and around the world.

We also stand with the who claim that social media is impartial and eryone’s First Amendment rights,many which many groups and families found in the country the minorities who areattargeted by thegroups hate that censorship aimed conservative doesn’t have attempted to curtail. opportunity to plant stakes, chase was onwhat display in Charlottesville.

We repudiates stand exist, happened next totally Dr. their Stevefuture, Morris and be themselves.

Few were met with open with the minorities of whom these white your argument.

Nashville, Tenn.

4 May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

January 2021 May 2022

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

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agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events At the National Council of Jewish Women New Orleans Section’s 125th anniversary celebration on April 9, past presidents of the Section and of Moonlighters, and past and current Angel Ball chairs took part in the cake lighting ceremony. Pictured (left to right) are Susan Kierr, Jody Portnoff Braunig, Gale Pick, Jan Yellin, Joyce Pulitzer, Cathy Bart, Shellye Farber, Gail Pesses, Barbara Greenberg, Barbara Kaplinsky, Loel Samuel, Kathy Shepard, Dana Shepard and June Leopold. Story, page 37.

Birmingham Jewish Federation holds first post-shutdown Campaign kickoff Two years after Danny Cohn arrived in Birmingham, there was finally a large gathering where he could meet face to face with lots of people.

The Birmingham Jewish Federation, where Cohn has been the chief executive officer since March 2020, held its Annual Campaign kickoff on April 10 at Knesseth Israel, its first large-scale event since the beginning of Covid. Over 200 filled the main area.

Since Cohn arrived at the start of the Covid shutdown, he said, “we’ve had two Campaigns,” and he thanked the chairs, Jack and Barbara Aland, and their team of solicitors “who kept our Federation going through Covid” when large gatherings and most in-person visits could not take place. The 2020 Campaign met a $2 million goal.

Steve Greene and Andrea Haines are co-chairing the 2022 Campaign, which has a goal of $2.1 million. Donors are being asked to make a twoyear commitment when they sign their cards this year, and the 2023 goal will be $2.2 million.

Any new gifts or increases are being matched dollar for dollar by the Morris and Joe Sirote Community Fund at the Birmingham Jewish Foundation.

Greene explained that the two-year pledge “will enable the Federation and our constituent agencies to better budget for the year ahead.”

Federation funds go to local Jewish institutions, from the Levite Jewish Community Center, N.E. Miles Jewish Day School and Collat Jewish Family Services, to the Hillels at Alabama and Auburn. There are also allocations to needs in Israel and in Jewish communities around the

Six13 performed at the Federation event on April 10 world. A special campaign is ongoing to assist the Jewish communities in Ukraine, and those who have left the war-torn country.

The Federation recently unveiled a community strategic plan, which calls for greater coordination and cooperation among agencies and synagogues, to eliminate duplication of services. The implementation phase of the plan is beginning.

Another new community component is the hiring of a security coordinator to oversee all Jewish community entities in the Birmingham area.

The Federation’s theme for the year is “We’re Here For Good.” Greene said “working together, we are living the legacy of our past and celebrating the transition to our future, ensuring that we are here for good.”

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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The Mobile Area Jewish Federation held its Annual Campaign kickoff and annual meeting at Springhill Avenue Temple on April 24, along with a celebration of Israel’s birthday. David Meola, co-president with Larry Voit (left), conducts the meeting as Federation Executive Director Cassie Morgenstern stands by. Last year, the Mobile Federation campaign raised $104,000.

Returning to Jackson: ISJL names Molly Levy new education director The next director of education at the Jackson-based Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life already knows the territory.

Molly Levy, who served as an Education Fellow for ISJL from 2011 to 2013, returns to the agency in a new role. She succeeds Rabbi Matt Dreffin, who became education director in 2018 after joining ISJL as the associate director in 2013.

Levy most recently served as director of Youth and Family Engagement at Congregation Scharaai Zedek in Tampa, Fla. She holds a Master of Arts in Jewish Education from Towson University, as well as undergraduate degree in English and a Georgia Teaching Certificiate in Secondary Education from the University of North Georgia.

Her career has included work in Jewish camp, communal, and congregational settings, in addition to her time at ISJL, which she credits with shaping her trajectory as a Jewish professional.

“The opportunity to work with emerging professionals, all while fine tuning a curriculum I love, and working towards a mission I believe in, is extremely exciting to me,” she said. “Everything about this position feels b’sheret (meant to be). The ISJL gave me my first chance and opened my eyes to a world that I cannot imagine my life without.”

In a recent restructuring, the former Education Fellows became Program Associates, with the same two-year commitment of serving congregations and communities using the ISJL standardized curriculum.

A native of Georgia, Levy said she is excited about working with the staff who are in the same role she previously held.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Molly is the right person for this job,” said ISJL CEO Michele Schipper. “Her experience and enthusiasm are incredible, and it’s truly an added strength to already have such a strong a sense of the organization, and a direct connection with the communities we serve.”

Levy will start on June 1, overlapping a month with Dreffin, who called his time with ISJL a “dream job.” Their time of overlap and transition will include this year’s Education Conference, which will be held online on June 26 and 27.

agenda Levin to head New Orleans JCC Comes to Louisiana from San Francisco area The New Orleans Jewish Community Center announced that Stephanie Levin will become the new chief executive officer, joining the JCC on June 27.

She will succeed Leslie Fischman, who is retiring after being executive director since 2011.

Levin has been in the Jewish communal world for over 20 years, mainly in the San Francisco area, most recently as chief engagement and innovation officer at the Peninsula JCC in Foster City, Calif., for the last five years.

She began at the PJCC as camp director from 1999 to 2002, then returned in 2007 after working with Berkeley Hillel, JCC of San Francisco, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Oak Hill School.

Her emphasis has been creating communities of inclusion and connection.

Levin is a participant in the Wexner Field Fellowship, a prestigious national fellowship for Jewish professional leaders. She serves on the advisory board of JResponse, a signature program of the JCC Association, and the board of Shalom Bayit, the Bay Area Jewish community’s center for domestic violence prevention and response.

A graduate of the Tikea Fellowship for Educators of Jewish Teens, she was awarded the prestigious Helen Diller Family Award for Excellence in Informal Jewish Education in 2009.

Baton Rouge to say farewell to interim rabbis Appleby, Appel For the past two years, Rabbi Teri Appleby at Beth Shalom and Rabbi Batsheva Appel at B’nai Israel were tasked with being the interim rabbis at the two Baton Rouge congregations as they navigated a process that ultimately led to a reuniting of the congregations, under the Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge umbrella.

Now that the merger has happened and Rabbi Sarah Smiley has been announced as the first permanent rabbi for the congregation, the community will hold a “Farewell to the Rabbis” event on June 3 at 6 p.m., at the Jefferson Highway location.

Jonathan Leo, Appleby’s husband and cantorial soloist, will also be recognized.

The service will be in person and on YouTube. Babysitting will be available with advance reservations.

“Shared Legacies” screening at Sidewalk The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Birmingham Jewish Federation and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute are co-hosting a screening of “Shared Legacies: The African-American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance” at Sidewalk Cinema May 23 at 6 p.m.

The 2020 documentary chronicles the coalition between Black and Jewish Americans before, during and after the Civil Rights movement.

There are many interviews with members and leaders in the Black and Jewish communities, many of whom lived through and bore witness to the bond that formed between the two communities during the Civil Rights era.

Through archival footage and interviews, the film explores how shared experiences of trauma, enslavement and discrimination brought Black and Jewish Americans together to fight for racial equality, and serves as a call to action for that bond to be rekindled now.

A panel discussion will follow the screening. There is no charge, but preregistration is required.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Bais Ariel Chabad in Birmingham will hold a Lag B’Omer BBQ and bonfire, May 19 at 4:30 p.m.

ShulHouse Rock at Temple Beth-El in Birmingham will have a Lag B’Omer Kabbalat Shabbat, May 20 at 5:30 p.m., with a family-friendly Kabbalat Shabbat, followed by a cookout-style dinner and s’mores, upcycled craft station and music.

Chabad in Huntsville will have a Lag B’Omer field day, May 19 at 5:30 p.m. at Hermitage Park. There will be a BBQ dinner, music and archery. Admission is free, sponsorships are $180.

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Chabad of Pensacola will have a Lag B’Omer party on May 18 at 5:30, with BBQ, a musical bonfire, drinks, crafts and a bounce house.

Admission is free.

Chabad Emerald Coast in Destin will have a Lag B’Omer celebration on May 19 at 5:30 p.m., with BBQ, a bonfire, S’mores bar and bounce house. Reservations are required.

Chabad in Panama City Beach will have its Lag B’Omer BBQ Celebration on May 19 at 6 p.m.

The new mikvah in Mobile will have an opening celebration and tours on June 22 at 6:30 p.m. There will be a presentation of “From Masada to Mobile,” mikvahs throughout the millennia and around the world. Hors d’ouevres and dessert will be served. Contact Chabad of Mobile for the address.

Birmingham’s Knesseth Israel will host a Zoom event with Rabbi Ben-Tzion Spitz, “Why Israel’s Actions Affect Jews Everywhere,” May 22 at 1 p.m. Spitz is former chief rabbi of Uruguay. The event is coordinated with Mizrachi Religious Zionists of America and Israel360.

After twice having the event postponed by threats of severe weather, Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El announced that “rain or shine,” T.K. Thorne will discuss her book, “Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days” on May 26 at 7 p.m.

Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville will say farewell to Rabbi Eric and Shira Berk at the June 10 Shabbat service. The Berks will be moving to Hingham, Mass., where he will serve Congregation Sha’aray Shalom.

Following the 7 p.m. service there will be a festive oneg, something that had been suspended for the past two years during the pandemic.

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Chabad of Pensacola announced the launch of the Pensacola Jewish Kids Club. The first gathering was scheduled for May 15. The CKids group will meet monthly for events that will focus on their interests and connect them to their Jewish identity.

On June 12, volunteers with Ahavas Chesed in Mobile will spruce up the congregational cemetery, from 8 to 11 a.m. Structures will be painted and bushes will be trimmed, and volunteers should bring their own equipment.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Gemiluth Chassodim in Alexandria will participate in a regional assembly of congregations and citizen organizations at Emmanuel Baptist Church, May 24 at 6:30 p.m. The groups from across central Louisiana will assemble for the first time in an effort to have people across race, economics, denomination and geography take action and solve common problems.

On June 16 at 1 p.m., there will be a Zoom gathering of those interested in Jewish culture in Alabama. An initiative is being explored to connect communities and researchers, and strengthen the documentation of Jewish life in Alabama and preserve the histories of communities across the state. The session is being convened by the Alabama continued on page 44

agenda JCRS College Aid Applications Due Jewish Children’s Regional Service is now accepting college aid applications for undergraduate Jewish students from its seven-state region.

The New Orleans-based agency provides college or vocational training scholarships based on financial need. Many of the college students who receive aid from JCRS are from low-income families, but middle-class families are encouraged to apply. Over half of JCRS’s college scholarships are awarded to families whose household income is between $50,000 and $150,000.

In 2021, the program funded 90 students with an average award of $3,000. Typically, freshman and sophomores are eligible for grants for the academic year. Juniors and seniors generally are eligible for a combination of grants and no-interest loans.

The priority deadline is May 31. To be eligible, students must be Jewish and reside primarily within the seven-state service region of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

Caroline Samuels, a recent college graduate and former recipient of JCRS college aid, said the program “made it much more manageable to handle the various costs. I would not have been able to complete my studies without the funding you all provided, so thank you very much.”

Applications are made online at jcrs.org.

World War II Museum offering course on origins of the Holocaust Enrollment is now open for “Holocaust: Origins,” an online course developed by Arizona State University in partnership with the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. The online course looks at the long-term and short-term causes that created Hitler, the Nazi party, fascism, and the Holocaust.

Taking a wide view, the course juxtaposes broad post-Enlightenment trends of nationalism, imperialism, racism and totalitarianism with the specific components of antisemitism, pan-Germanism and Hitler’s rise to power. The course concludes with the violent Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938.

While no reading is required, course participants will also receive exclusive access to a curated list of relevant books and articles as well as an online discussion board where they can interact with instructors and fellow enrollees. Participants will receive a certificate after completing this course.

Registration is $299, with a 10 percent discount code, WWIIORIGINS,

by May 22. The course will run from May 30 to July 31.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Jewish Federation world leapt into action on numerous fronts, but for Arnie Fielkow, the crisis was also a family affair.

Fielkow, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, has been anguished since the Russian invasion began. Two older sisters of Fielkow’s two adopted daughters are still in Ukraine, and he wants to make sure they are safe.

In 2007, Fielkow and his wife, Susan, adopted two young girls, Yana and Svetlana, from Ukraine. They wanted daughters in addition to their three biological sons. They also loved being parents.

Never could the couple have imagined that Fielkow, at the time president of the New Orleans City Council and former executive vice president of the New Orleans Saints, would find himself on Ukraine’s border with Slovakia 15 years later, awaiting the arrival of one of the older sisters still in Ukraine.

Yet there he was in April, trying to help 25-year-old Natalya and her young children leave Ukraine and come to America. The other sister, Ira, 29 is staying in Ukraine for now. Their husbands are away fighting the Russians.

Fielkow drew on a lifetime of contacts, arranging for Natalya’s departure, hoping to greet her and her children when they arrived in Slovakia.

The saga has the makings of a beautiful story. His short video narratives have touched hearts around the world.

Yet so far there is no happy ending. Natalya and her kids never made to Slovakia. *** As the horror of Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ira and Natalya and their families have been on the minds of the Fielkow family constantly. Their daughter Yana, now 20, has been especially anguished.

Though memories of her Ukrainian sisters Ira and Natalya are vague, the ties are deep. It was Ira, nine years older than Yana, who took care of her as a surrogate mother before Yana arrived at the orphanage from which she would eventually be adopted by the Fielkows.

Arnie and Susan first met Yana in Ukraine when she was five.

In 2019, the Fielkows, including Yana and the family’s other adopted Ukrainian daughter, 17-year-old Svetlana, visited Ukraine. “We wanted our daughters to have a sense of their identity and heritage,” explained their dad.

The family walked into Yana’s old orphanage and introduced themselves. The director did a double-take. Then she shrieked, “Yana! Yana!”

The director pulled an old photo out of her desk drawer and called others into her office. It was a photo of a very young Yana and other kids with

community the then-president of Ukraine during a visit he made to the orphanage. Always tall for her age, she was easy to remember.

Yana doesn’t remember the president’s visit.

Still, her dad said, Yana now guards a copy of the photo she was given like a “crown jewel…

It’s my daughter’s one connection to her past.” *** Now a student at Oberlin College in Ohio, Yana was jarred and unnerved on Feb. 24 when she learned Russia had invaded her native country.

“I woke up to a bunch of texts from friends.

They said, ‘I hope you are doing okay.’ But I didn’t know what was going on. I found out on my way to class that morning — Russian class.

Once I understood what had happened, I started bawling my eyes out.”

Speaking via Zoom from Oberlin, Yana was asked how she felt walking into class that day.

“Not very good. My Russian professor knew I was from Ukraine and had family there, though he didn’t ask me questions. I just sat there crying the whole time.”

As the attack on Ukraine began dominating the news, Yana tried to pull back — to put it away.

“I wanted to distance myself from thinking about it. All it did was bring me sad emotions.

But this was easier said than done. Since those first few days, though, I haven’t watched the news on TV.” What has stayed in the front of her mind is the fate of her two older sisters still in Ukraine, and their families.

In 2019, when the Fielkows visited Ukraine, they were unable to locate Ira and Natalya.

After the trip, Arnie’s daughter-in-law Meaghan found the two Ukrainian sisters through Facebook. Meaghan took one look at Natalya’s picture and knew she was one of the sisters. She looked exactly like Yana.

“It was really emotional,” Yana said. “I always wanted to find them — to meet them and connect with them, to know that they were alive.”

Once Russia invaded Ukraine and their husbands joined the fight, Ira and Natalya were left to fend for themselves. Yana couldn’t stop thinking about them, especially with Natalya being pregnant.

“For the first few weeks we texted every day.

Most of it was ‘How are you doing? Are you okay? Are you safe?’ They were in their basements for shelter. I was scared for them and they were scared. It was really sad.”

Consumed and overwrought, Yana began neglecting her schoolwork. “I did not want that to happen. I started relying on my family’s communication with them, knowing they would keep me updated.”

The war has had another effect on Yana.

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community “The attack has connected me more deeply to Ukraine. Though I don’t remember much about the country, I have always loved Ukraine. The war has made me feel more Ukrainian because I am from there.”

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*** Fielkow is still trying to get Natalya and her family out of Ukraine.

They have been in a relatively safe area in western Ukraine. Yet things there could heat up quickly. No place is totally safe.

Getting Natalya and her young children out of Ukraine is no simple endeavor. It would’ve taken 16 hours and two train rides for them to meet Fielkow in Slovakia. Eight months pregnant, Natalya feared the ordeal would disrupt her pregnancy. She cancelled at the last minute.

Though let down, the New Orleans Jewish Federation CEO remains undeterred. Through texts, emails, phone calls and letters he has been reaching out to contacts he’s made over the years, from sports institutions to elected officials to Jewish relief agencies.

“It’s like having cousins in another part of the world who you rarely see but know are family. Even though I have never met them, the fact that they make my two daughters so happy gives me great satisfaction that we have connected with them.”

Fielkow’s efforts have not gone unappreciated. Knowing this story was being written, Natalya sent this message from Ukraine: “I am very grateful to Arnie and his family for trying to help me and my children and all they are trying to do for us.”

A thoughtful and passionate community leader, the 66-year-old Fielkow has accomplished a lot as his impressive resume reflects — from the Saints to the City Council to heading the NBA Retired Players Association to leading the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans.

Yet, talking to him you sense his life’s work won’t be finished until this job gets done. That’s why after his recent Jewish Federations of North America trip to the Polish-Ukrainian border, he extended his stay, hoping to meet Natalya and her family in Slovakia.

In Judaism, rescuing captives is one of the highest mitzvot. Honoring that commandment is helping to drive Fielkow — that and the love of parenting he spoke about.

He is determined to reunite his daughters with their Ukrainian sisters.

“It will happen one day and it will be a beautiful thing. It will bring everyone great joy.”

Ukraine relief concert at Pensacola’s Beth El

Join Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans, Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12 for our long-awaited GRAND OPENING! A weekend of celebration, food, music, memories, and mishpocha that you don't want to miss.

The Pensacola Jewish Federation will have a Ukraine relief concert, featuring an evening of music with Leonid Yanovskiy and Victoria Adamenko.

The concert will be May 21 at Temple Beth El. Doors open for refreshments at 6:30 p.m. with the concert beginning at 7 p.m. Donations will be collected to support Ukrainian relief efforts.

A violinist, violist and conductor, Yanovskiy is Director of Strings and Orchestra and Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of West Florida, and is concertmaster of the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra. He is also conductor of the UWF Orchestra The Runge Strings, and director of the UWF Student and Faculty String Ensemble.

Pianist Adamenko received her doctorate from Rutgers in 2000, having received her Bachelor’s and masters degrees at Gnesin in Moscow, and taught at UWF for 15 years. She has been pianist for Beth El since 2007. She is author of “Neo-Mythologism in Music: From Scriabin and Schoenberg to Schnittke and Crumb.”

For the full weekend schedule and to Register visit www.msje.org/celebrate

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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community Deep South doesn’t avoid last year’s “disheartening” rise in antisemitism Antisemitic incidents in the United States reached an all-time high in the annual antisemitism audit conducted by the Anti-Defamation League. The findings were released on April 26.

In 2021, there were 2,717 instances of assault, harassment and vandalism reported to the ADL, which has tracked the level of incidents since 1979. This represents a 34 percent increase over 2020.

Nationally, attacks against Jewish institutions rose 61 percent, incidents at Kindergarten through 12th grade schools were up 106 percent and incidents on college campuses rose 21 percent.

Assaults rose 167 percent, going from 33 in 2020 to 88 in 2021. The vast majority of the rise in assaults can be attributed to the New York City area, where attacks on Orthodox Jews have been taking place. There were no fatalities, and no mass shootings last year.

A large spike in incidents happened in May, when Israel was forced to respond to over 4,000 rockets being launched at population centers from Gaza. Incidents were up 148 percent compared to the previous May, as anti-Israel protests often turned violent.

“While we have always seen a rise in antisemitic activity during periods of increased hostilities between Israel and terrorist groups, the violence we witnessed in America during the conflict last May was shocking,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “Jews were being attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish, and it seemed as if the working assumption was that if you were Jewish, you were blameworthy for what was happening half a world away.”

But the May spike was just one of several during the year, with others having no obvious trigger, such as in November and December.

“When it comes to antisemitic activity in America, you cannot point to any single ideology or belief system, and in many cases, we simply don’t know the motivation,” said Greenblatt. “But we do know that Jews are experiencing more antisemitic incidents than we have in this country in at least 40 years, and that’s a deeply troubling indicator of larger societal fissures.”

The largest number of incidents Harassment and happened in New York, with 416. vandalism incidents New Jersey had 370, California had 367 and Florida had 190. None of increased in the Florida’s incidents were in the panhandle, the closest were three in region, but no Tallahassee. In 2020, Florida had assaults were 127 incidents.

The Southeast Region, based in reported despite a Atlanta, had a 74 percent increase national spike from 2020. Georgia was up 133 percent, with 49 incidents in 2021, compared to 21 the previous year. South Carolina had 15 incidents, Tennessee had 17, and for the third year in a row, Alabama had six.

The South-Central Region, based in New Orleans and comprising Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, reported 44 incidents, up 29 percent from the 34 incidents last year.

While there were many reports of harassment and vandalism in the region, there were no assaults.

“The rise in antisemitic incidents in the United States and the Southeast Region is disturbing and disheartening,” said Allison Padilla-Goodman, vice president of the Southern Division, which includes the Southeast and South-Central regions. “We must work harder than ever to provide anti-bias programming for schools and communities, hate crimes training for law enforcement, to advocate for local social justice initiatives, and to respond quickly to incidents. It is clear that antisemitism is in-

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community

Southern Jewish Life April Showers Bring…

While the weather in the Deep South continues to remain choppy and unsettling, after the April showers, Southern Jewish Life is seeing things begin to flower.

More businesses and donors are recognizing the value of our magazine as we broaden our impact in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, NW Florida and beyond, as we are the region’s only nationally award winning Jewish community publication. We also have launched a new magazine, Israel InSight, focused on Israel and geared toward Israel’s Christian friends.

Israel InSight also is conceptualized in a way that anyone, regardless of faith and background, who is interested in learning more about Israel will find of value.

Our increasingly dynamic mix of hard-hitting stories and unique personality pieces, coupled with our colorful, quality graphics and ads, is capturing the attention of readers and others throughout the region.

We supplement our printed magazine with our timely e-news, which captures all the Jewish and Israel news in the Deep South and includes a range of opinion pieces on regional, national and global issues. (To subscribe to our e-weekly, email subscribe@sjlmag.com and put “Subscribe to E-Weekly” in the subject line.)

As May moves into June, we expect more innovation — ranging from a new feature, “Young Voices for Israel,” to a joint internship between our publications, the Birmingham Times (Birmingham’s African-American newspaper) and Miles College, a well-known HBCU. Those who work for Southern Jewish Life say that the success of our magazines has made going to the grocery store fun! Inevitably, people tell our staff how much they’re enjoying our magazine and point to stories and ads they find particularly impressive.

We take our role seriously – and pursue it enthusiastically. However, to attain our full potential we need more dollars, especially donor support. If you enjoy receiving Southern Jewish Life (mailed free to every known Jewish household in the Deep South), then please consider becoming a donor.

To contribute send a check to Southern Jewish Life, P.O. Box 130052, Birmingham, AL 35213, or go to sjlmag.com/contribute/ (Donations are not tax-deductible.)

We look forward to serving you and building on the unique role we play in connecting Jewish communities throughout the region, keeping all of us informed and making Jewish life in the Deep South even stronger.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

creasing and it is critical that the government supply security grants to help protect all targeted non-profit organizations.”

Alabama’s two incidents classified as vandalism were the defacing of school buses at Semmes Middle School with swastikas and “Heil Hitler,” and the theft of a nine-foot menorah from in front of Chabad in Huntsville.

In January 2021, antisemitic, racist, Islamophobic and homophobic fliers were left at businesses and a church in Tuscaloosa. In November, a sign held by two participants in a White Lives Matter rally in Killen said “With Jews You Lose,” and in July a kippah-wearing man in Birmingham was harassed on the street. In December, members of the “Goyim Defense League” distributed items in Tuscumbia that included the charge that the Covid agenda is Jewish. They have already been the focus of two more incidents reported in 2022.

In Mississippi, most of the activity was in the northwest corner, just south of Memphis, and was related to one group. Folksfront, a neo-Nazi group that changed its name to Folkish Resistance Movement midyear, distributed antisemitic and white supremacist propaganda in Olive Branch, Horn Lake, Forest, Southaven, Hernando, Morton, Independence, Nesbit, Senatobia and Walls at various points during the year.

Twenty of the 21 Mississippi incidents were about that group. The only other reported incident was a stop sign in Lincoln County that was vandalized with a swastika and SS bolts.

Louisiana had 14 incidents, up from 10 the previous year.

In Rayne, White Lives Matter activists promoted the antisemitic film “Europa — The Last Battle” in November. They also did so in Baton Rouge this January.

In Baton Rouge in October, a Star of David, a swastika, “Heil Hitler” and “1488” were written in a bathroom stall at Louisiana State University.

And in Alexandria last May, a caller to a synagogue wanted to discuss the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, saying Jews are Nazis and warning the synagogue to watch out.

The rest of the incidents were in the New Orleans area. Also related to the Gaza hostilities last May, a Jewish high school student who wore a kippah was harassed by a pro-Palestinian student who told him to take his “dirty Jew hat” off. Another school incident was in Kenner in November, as three students harassed a Jewish student, including a taunt that “one day there would be another Hitler.”

In June, a synagogue received an antisemitic voicemail, and a Jewish organization’s social media account received antisemitic comments. Another synagogue received threatening calls in January. In December, a Jewish individual’s neighbor made antisemitic comments at them.

The Jewish Community Center received a threatening phone call in August, with the caller saying he was “looking to kidnap some Jews, put them in the oven, in the fire and make Jew stew. Is this a good place to start?”

Swastika vandalism included a Walmart fire exit door in March, outside a Goodwill store in Metairie in July, and on a traffic cone in Metairie in September. Another January harassment incident in Metairie is simply listed as “confidential.”

Among the Arkansas incidents were synagogues receiving antisemitic emails stating “A Divine Judgment have been Issues Against the Jews (sic).”

“The rise in incidents in our region means that we must increase our efforts to combat antisemitism and all forms of hatred and bigotry by investigating and exposing extremism,” said South-Central Regional Director Lindsay Friedmann, adding “we must also educate children and adults on how to promote diversity and respect through our many programs and resources.”

Friedmann asserted “We must be ever vigilant in identifying hate in our communities and encourage anyone who has experienced or witnessed an incident of antisemitism, extremism, bias, bigotry, or hate to report it to law enforcement and to ADL.”

community

Home field

With The World Games coming to his city, Ron Froehlich reflects on his decades of service to sports For decades, Ron Froehlich has traveled the world to attend every edition of The World Games, before, during and after his time as president of the International World Games Association.

This summer, the world travels to him, as the 2022 World Games are in his backyard, in downtown Birmingham.

The World Games are held every four years, one year after the Summer Olympic Games. Birmingham’s World Games were supposed to be held in 2021, but Covid pushed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to 2021, moving The World Games back a year.

The 11-day event will have over 3,600 athletes from more than 100 countries competing in 34 sports from July 7 to 17.

“The World Games is the waiting room for those wanting to become part of the International Olympics Committee,” Froehlich said, and several World Games sports have become part of the Olympics. Also, he noted, some sports come in and out of the Olympics, and continue in The World Games. “Softball goes in and out of the Olympic program — when it misses an Olympics, it goes in The World Games.”

In the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan beat the U.S. in the gold medal game in softball. Both teams have qualified for The World Games, and Froehlich hopes there will be a rematch in Birmingham.

As the Honorary Life President of the International World Games Association, Froehlich has been Special Advisor to the Birmingham Organizing Committee. He was president of the Games from 1993 to 2014.

But the World Games is just part of his long sports career, which led to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame naming him as a Distinguished American Sportsman in 2015.

Talking to Froehlich, one of the first things one notices is his distinct Southern accent — as in South African, as he is a native of Johannesburg, and started his sports journey with trampolines.

Jumping into international sports The trampoline industry in South Africa began with Ron Munn, a Tex-

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World Games Vice President Max Bishop and Ron Froehlich at a Birmingham Organizing Committee gathering in 2018

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community an who was the U.S. trampoline champion in 1959, and Olle Areborn, as the two of them established the Trampoline Company of South Africa in 1960. But back in Amarillo, a letter was waiting, informing Munn of his U.S. military service obligations, so he decided to sell his interest to Areborn in 1962, and suggested that the company merge with a new competitor.

That competitor, Ron’s Trampoline, was started by Ronnie Lombard, a two-time Olympic gymnast for South Africa who owned a high-end men’s clothing store, and who also saw the growing trampoline craze and went into that business with a close friend — Ron Froehlich.

The companies merged in 1963, and the next year was the first World Open Trampoline Championship, in London, as the sport continued to grow.

In 1966, Froehlich became vice president of the South Africa Gymnastics Association, a position he would hold for 10 years, until the Froehlichs moved to the United States. He said that position involved a lot of travel to other countries “to make sure we weren’t kicked out” because the growing anti-apartheid movement around the world was pressuring for boycotts of South Africa.

He also became involved with the South Africa Amateur Trampoline

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The World Games, held every four years, will be held in venues around Birmingham from July 7 to 17. Over 3,600 international athletes from 110 countries will take part in over 200 medal competitions in 34 sports, most of which are not on the Olympic roster.

Numerous sports are familiar to American audiences, including archery, billiards, bowling, gymnastics, lacrosse, karate, flag football, water skiing, squash, softball and racquetball. Others are lesser known, such as boules, finswimming, fistball, korfball, Muaythai and Wushu.

The opening ceremony will be July 7 at Protective Stadium. There will be a parade of athletes, numerous dignitaries and a celebration of Birmingham’s past, present and future. The closing ceremony, also at Protective, will be on July 17, at which the flag will be presented to the next host city, Chengdu, China.

Henry Panion, who composed “Dreams of Hope” about the four girls killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, is the Games’ artistic director for both ceremonies. “Dreams of Hope” was performed at the church using “Violins of Hope” that were used

by Jews in Nazi concentration camps.

Panion will direct a World Games Orchestra and a Youth Choir.

The closing ceremony will feature Lionel Richie, Alabama, Blind Boys of Alabama, Bo Bice, Ruben Studdard, Taylor Hicks and more.

A World Games Plaza, presented by Regions, will be open daily to the public, media and athletes, with live entertainment, food, sports demonstrations and ongoing coverage of competition.

Tickets for all competitions are available online at twg2022.com. For fans of a particular sport, there are packages to purchase tickets for all days of that sport’s sessions.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been barred from participating in the World Games because of the Russian war on Ukraine.

Originally, 62 Russians and 11 Belarus athletes were to compete.

The Russians originally were going to compete as “Russian Olympic Committee” rather than Russia because of penalties previously administered by the International Olympic Committee due to a state-sponsored doping program. Those penalties extend to the end of 2022, and The World Games are considered to be affiliated with the IOC. A portion of ticket revenue from the Games in Birmingham will be donated to Ukraine for the rebuilding of sports venues damaged or destroyed by the Russian invasion.

community Union as treasurer, then became president. He was then elected secretary-general of FIT, the International Trampoline Federation, and in 1974 the world championships were held in Johannesburg.

After moving to Birmingham in 1976, he became involved locally as well as internationally. He is credited with bringing the World Trampoline Championships to Birmingham in 1988, and had a major role in the U.S. Olympic Committee naming Lakeshore Rehabilitation Center as a designated training center for the Paralympics.

In 1981, he went to Santa Clara, Calif., in his role with FIT to see the first World Games. The idea was to have a world stage to promote sports that are not part of the Olympics. “Trampoline was in it right from the start,” he said, and soon he was asked to be involved with The World Games.

In 1989, he was asked to be part of a group to help draft a new constitution for the International World Games Association. The new constitution was ratified in Monaco in 1990, and Froehlich was elected vice president.

“Four months later,” Froehlich said, Kim UnYong of Korea, the first World Games president, retired “and said ‘good luck, now you’re the

president’.”

At the time, the IWGA was under financial difficulties, which he had to sort out as acting president, then in 1993 he was officially elected president, a position he held until 2014. At the 2014 annual meeting, he was named Honorary Life President of the IWGA. In 1990, he became president of the International Trampoline Federation, and negotiated with the International Olympic Committee to merge with the FIG, International Gymnastics Federation, paving the way for trampoline to become an Olympic sport.

As World Games president, he signed the first Memorandum of Understanding with the IOC, and the IOC president attends the opening ceremonies of The World Games.

He became an executive member of USA Gymnastics and was chairman from 2001 to 2008. He also became a member of the International Olympic Program Committee from 2002 to 2014.

Even before his Olympic involvement, he spent the entire day in Birmingham with the Olympics group that was assessing possible venues for soccer in the 1996 Atlanta Games, culminating in a huge crowd in the Alabama Power headquarters atrium chanting “we want soccer!”

Birmingham landed the soccer matches.

In 2010, Froehlich was the IOC recipient of the Olympic Order, the highest award in the Olympic Movement. Though he calls it a highlight and a major honor, he does not wear it at events. “I’m not that kind of guy.”

This is the first time The World Games has returned to the United States since 1981, and it has progressed dramatically since Santa Clara, Froehlich said. The first games were held in a university setting, with 58 countries and about 1,400 athletes. The second Games, held in London in 1985, started the development of the Games, and the 1989 Games in Karlsruhe, Germany, “really turned it around.”

The two most successful games, he said, were 2009 in Kaohsiung, Chinese Taipei, and 2013 in Cali, Colombia. The 2009 Games were highly organized, with dedicated World Games lanes to the stadiums, and when there was difficulty getting aircraft for a parachuting event, they met with the president, who called the military and instructed them to supply whatever was needed.

The Colombia Games were “the people’s Games,” Froehlich said. “You could not believe how they celebrated, the whole city.” Two days after the opening ceremony, there were no tickets left for any event, and large crowds gathered

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community outside the venues to watch on big screens and party.

At the harbor, a plaza was constructed, with a performance stage to one side, and he said about 1.2 million people visited.

Birmingham will have a plaza under the new Interstate 20-59 corridor, with two stages. “This is going to be the meeting place for the Games,” and he hopes there will be 1 million visitors.

Though Birmingham was selected during Froehlich’s final term as president, he stressed that he was not part of the decision, but “being the president, I still got the reports.” Russia and a South American venue were competing with Birmingham, and he said all three had great proposals.

A major rule for communities bidding on the World Games is that, unlike the Olympics, new facilities are not to be built specifically for the games — existing infrastructure is to be used, including for housing athletes.

The athletes will mainly be at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Birmingham-Southern College, and there will be a highly diverse food program. Some athletes require plenty of starch, others need salads, and kosher and Halal needs will be met.

He credits Edgar Welden as a major factor in the decision to come to Birmingham. “He organized a breakfast for IWGA with the top companies in the city,” Froehlich said. World Games Vice President Max Bishop could not believe that the CEOs of all those companies made the time for the breakfast and all pledged to support the Games. After co-chairing the committee to land the Games, Welden stepped down in 2016.

Froehlich said the city will be on the world map of sport because of

Israel Comes to Birmingham Among the 100 countries participating in The World Games in Birmingham will be Israel, and the local Jewish community is mobilizing to welcome the delegation, which is expected to number in the dozens.

Israel has qualified in several sports, including both men’s and women’s lacrosse. Other sports involving Israeli athletes are kickboxing, ju-jitsu, gymnastics, Latin dance, Muaythai, boulder sport climbing, wakeboard and Taolu.

Israel hosted the flag football qualifiers in December, and there were high hopes that Israel would place in the top eight, earning a spot in Birmingham — but they came in ninth.

Gymnastics and Dance Sports will be held at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex and Sloss Furnace. Kickboxing and Muaythai will be at Boutwell Auditorium. Ju-Jitsu and Taolu will be at Birmingham-Southern College. Wakeboarding will be at Oak Mountain State Park, while lacrosse will be at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Sport climbing will be at Sloss Furnace.

Community Reception On July 14, there will be a chance to welcome the Israeli delegation, at a community reception at Temple Beth-El. Hosted by the local congregations, the Birmingham Jewish Federation, Birmingham Jewish Foundation and the Levite Jewish Community Center, the event will be from 6 to 8:30 p.m., with doors opening at 5:15 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres and dessert will be served.

The event is free. Commemorative “Israel Comes to Birmingham” shirts will be available for pre-order at $25 each, and donations are welcome, to support the Israeli delegation.

Everyone attending the reception must pre-register, due to high security and planning purposes. Registration is due by July 7, T-shirt orders should be made before June 20.

Representatives from the Israeli consulate in Atlanta are expected to visit during the Games, and additional activities are in the planning stage.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

community The World Games. “Hopefully this will lead to other events coming to Birmingham — world championships, World Cups, regular events.” He added, “Birmingham is capable of doing it. They have the facilities.”

He also emphasizes the opportunity for the region as a whole. In talking about the Games, “we always go Birmingham, Alabama, United States.”

While Birmingham is currently identified as the home of the newly-reconstituted United States Football League, The World Games’ flag football competition is being sponsored by the National Football League.

“That’s a big move,” Froehlich said.

Flag football will be one of the sports making its way into the Olympics for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, along with lacrosse, and Froehlich thinks competitive climbing, which will be at the World Games, will also be in the Olympics.

Another “big move” is how CBS and the Olympic Channel will broadcast the Games. Froehlich noted that the Olympic Channel is owned by NBC, which “agreed they can work together” with CBS.

Finding a home

How did the Froehlichs wind up in Birmingham?

A friend in South Africa’s Jewish community had twins, and one had a hole in his heart. The family was referred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a last-resort procedure with a high failure rate.

Another friend knew Hazel and Melvin Olshan in Birmingham, and contacted them, asking them to take care of the family while they were at UAB. The surgery was successful, but the child was so weak, he died the next day. Still, the family returned to South Africa with words of praise for the Olshans and Birmingham.

Later, Froehlich was in Cedar Rapids on business, and contacted the Olshans to thank them. “They talked me into flying down here,” where they introduced him to Karl Friedman. “Then I started coming back every year.”

In 1976, with the Soweto uprising and its turbulent aftermath, he called Friedman and said “I think we want to move to the U.S.,” so Friedman contacted Alabama Congressman John Buchanan’s office to start the process.

When they arrived at their new home, they found it furnished and the refrigerator stocked. In addition to his sports involvement, he became involved in the community, serving as president of Temple Beth-El. Birmingham “is a good city to be in,” he said.

Jewish basketball coaches gather at Tulane Hillel during Final Four With the Final Four in New Orleans, on April 2 the Jewish Coaches Association held its regular Final Four Breakfast in Tulane Hillel’s Goldie and Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life.

Over 70 coaches, administrators, and members of the local Jewish community got together to network and meet new upand-coming Jewish coaches.

Matt Elkin, the host of the breakfast and Yale Basketball’s Director of Operations, introFlorida’s Todd Golden holds the duced notable coaches in attenCoach of the Year Award dance, including Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Florida’s Todd Golden and Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner.

Golden was presented the association’s Red Auerbach Coach of the Year Award for his successful season at the University of San Francisco, recent hiring at the University of Florida, and commitment to the Jewish community. Golden coached San Francisco since 2019, and this year led them to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998. A 10 seed, they lost in the first round to Murray State.

Golden played professionally with Maccabi Haifa, and was also part of the U.S. team at the World Maccabiah Games in 2009, coached by Pearl. In 2014 he was hired at Auburn by Pearl, rising to assistant coach before being hired at San Francisco, where he had a 57-36 record as head coach.

Photos by Karina Ramirez

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Fighting for Their Lives Jewish physician speaks out on trauma transgender teens face as Alabama criminalizes their treatment

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Passover, celebrated last month, challenges Jews not only to remember the story of the Exodus from Egypt but also to interpret and integrate it into their own lives. Few have done that more intensely and publicly than Birmingham Jewish community member Dr. Morissa Ladinsky.

Ladinsky is associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and co-leader of UAB’s Youth Multidisciplinary Gender Health Team. She has emerged as a high-profile plaintiff in a recent lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a new Alabama law.

That recently-enacted measure makes it a crime for physicians such as Ladinsky to provide certain gender-related medical care to anyone under age 19 who is transitioning from the gender assigned them at birth to a new gender identity.

Thus far, two other states have passed similar laws, though Alabama is the first one to impose criminal penalties. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked for an injunction stopping implementation of Alabama’s new law until the case is decided.

The Alabama law is part of a wave of bills and laws being enacted in more conservative states, including measures restricting the use of bathrooms and participation in sports by transgender people.

As the measure started gaining legislative traction, Ladinsky wrote a piece that was published on al.com, talking about a recent consultation she had with a patient battling gender dysphoria, a condition where one is at odds with the gender assigned at birth. “My patient — a well-built teen clad in oversized maroon scrubs — was pacing tensely in a small room in my hospital’s psychiatric ward,” Ladinsky wrote.

The patient was admitted as a male to the hospital after a third suicide attempt and unrelenting depression. “Earlier that day, the patient told the care team an inescapable secret: The patient had always known herself to be a girl,” she explained. “With puberty closing in and a visceral dissonance deep inside her, amplified by the trepidation of angering her family, she was left entirely hopeless. Her dark eyes, windows to a kind but troubled soul, conveyed her long journey, a forever search to be heard and understood.”

The piece ran under the headine “I’m a doctor and Alabama could arrest me for doing my job.”

For medical professionals such as Ladinsky who are involved in gender care, the matter goes beyond a young person’s decision to transition.

“Internalized guilt, confusion, shame and a sense of defeat lead almost half of transgender youth to embark on suicide during their journeys.

Our clinic patients have made large right turns away from that darkness, daily reminders of the healing power released by affirmation and hope,” she wrote.

Confusing, Unsettling As a specialist in pediatric gender issues, Ladinsky is part of a small,

community

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Call Cantor Jessica Roskin! multi-disciplinary UAB team that counsels and comforts families and provides medical and psychological care to young people trapped in a world few on the outside understand. There are about 55 such teams in the U.S. The UAB team begins with a comprehensive, integrated approach that includes psychological evaluation, counseling with patients and their families, and reviewing available resources to help patients and their families during this often perplexing and stressful time.

Then, there is an extended, ongoing analysis of each situation on a case-by-case basis, often lasting 1 to 3 years before medical options are considered. Even then, the team’s mantra is to go slow, especially with patients in their early teenage years, said Ladinsky.

For younger teens, puberty blockers are prescribed if the team thinks they are necessary. “These medications, introduced in early puberty, provide a short term pause button on further pubertal changes and are instrumental in preserving the mental health of younger teens who are beginning to struggle with gender dysphoria,” Ladinsky explained.

As the teen patient gets older, hormone therapy becomes an option.

In cases of females transitioning to male, hormone injections can stimulate the growth of body hair, deepen the voice and create a more masculine appearance. For males transitioning to female, treatments can lead to breasts, softer skin, rounder hips and other changes.

For those new to the transgender conversation, especially if they have never met a person who has transitioned, it can be confusing, complex and unsettling.

Yet, there is nothing new about gender transitioning. What is new is that public awareness has become Alabama’s new much greater and transgender people have become more open about law “doesn’t help their gender journeys. people. It can actually This pediatrician knows the transgender issue is emotionally harm them. It could charged in heavily conservative have devastating Alabama. It’s also one that she believes politicians are using to score downstream points with voters. She remains deconsequences for termined as she fights for those she “my kids,” driven in large part these kids, especially calls by her Jewish faith. loss of life.”

Chatting over Zoom during Passover, Ladinsky saw a parallel between the Jews enslaved in ancient Egypt and the oppression, bullying and burdens that plague transgender youth.

The 58-year-old doctor grew up in what she calls a “culturally Jewish home” in Madison, Wisc. Her parents were University of Wisconsin professors and social activists.

Inherent in her family’s Judaism was a commitment to social action and a belief that Jews, because of their difficult history, are obliged to stand up for those who are oppressed — such as the transgender community.

“I was the kid who brought home the kid other kids were picking on.”

Being at the forefront of the transgender issue and practicing gender pediatrics, especially in Alabama, reflects Ladinsky’s commitment to Tikkun Olam, the Jewish concept of repairing the world.

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“By signing SB 184 (the new law) Gov. Kay Ivey has told kind, loving and loyal Alabama families they cannot stay here without denying their children the basic medical care they need,” Ladinsky said in a public statement after Ivey signed the bill into law.

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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“The governor has undermined the health and well-being of Alabama children and put doctors like me in the horrifying position of choosing between ignoring the medical needs of our patients or risking being sent to prison.”

Ivey said she signed the bill because she believes that “if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl.”

The governor also said, “We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life.”

No gender affirming surgery is performed on minors in Alabama, La-

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Let’s call him Bobby. It once was Barbara. He was assigned female at birth. As he came of age, it didn’t fit.

It didn’t make sense to him.

A desire to become male was coursing through him — igniting a tortuous fire in his heart, mind and body.

“What’s wrong with Barbara?” his parents pondered, trying to figure it out.

The child, born into one of the Deep South’s rooted Jewish families, behaved more like a boy than a girl, based on how our culture thinks about gender, from his toddler days until age 10.

Tomboy? Maybe, his parents thought. Though their child couldn’t express it, they knew something was different.

That pendulum of Bobby’s gender confusion swung back as he entered his teens. From then until college, growing up in a small, politically conservative town, he presented himself as female, wanting to fit in.

It didn’t work. It was awkward. More confusion. Which would lead to depression, anxiety and rebellious behavior, alienating him from his parents.

“At first, I thought I was just experiencing the inner turmoil, changes and anxiety that many female teens go through. That’s the only thing I could figure out. But as I sank within myself, I began to sense something deeper was happening.”

Others also sensed there was something different about him.

Female peers misunderstood him, and teachers treated him in a way that made him feel uneasy. “I thought people were treating me that way because I was Jewish,” he said, a gentle smile creasing his now-masculine face. “I was so confused. I couldn’t see what was right in front of me.”

As a senior in high school, he listened to other students talking about what they hoped to be doing 15 years later. He had no aspirations. Because he had no hope. His only goal was to get through the day.

*** Off to college he went, as Barbara from the Deep South. He found a school in another part of the country, a large metropolitan area where he and his folks thought this burdened youth had a better chance of finding his place.

There it began to click. Bobby became a gender studies major. He came to realize that other cultures have concepts of gender that are more diverse and nuanced than the male/female definition that frames gender identity in Western society.

He recognized that he’d spent his entire life journeying from his identity at birth as female to who he truly wanted to be — a male.

It was liberating; a defining moment for a young person hunger-

community dinsky noted.

State Rep. Wes Allen, the sponsor of the House version of the bill., was quoted on NBC as saying “We regulate all kinds of things that are harmful for minors — alcohol, cigarette smoke, vaping, tattoos — because their minds aren’t ready to make those decisions about things that can affect them long term,” said Allen. “With these powerful medications that have detrimental effects on their body long term, we just want to put a pause on it… (to) give them a chance to develop and grow out of that.”

Ladinsky offered her own historical perspective. “For a long time, the gay community was the target for politicians in culturally conservative ing for tranquility, fulfillment and a chance to dream about the future. “It was like being told I was left-handed and being forced to write left-handed to no avail. Finally, I could write with my right hand.”

Liberating, yes. Simple, no.

He began by binding his breasts — to flatten and hide them, a common first step for a female transitioning to male.

The decision to embrace a new gender identity was not something his parents fully understood. They also worried that he was making irrevocable decisions at too young an age.

“I love my parents deeply. They tried to understand and be supportive and have made great strides. But once I made the decision to transition, there was no turning back,” said Bobby, now in his mid-20s.

He began hormone therapy and underwent a double mastectomy.

Hormone injections, which he continues weekly, have deepened his voice, given him body hair and rounded his facial structure to create a more masculine appearance.

*** Talking to him on Zoom, as comfortable as he is with his decision, there is a sadness in him. “I’d like to move back to the South to be closer to my family. But I know my life there would not be easy given the religious attitudes and politics surrounding the transgender issue.”

Today, living far from his hometown, Bobby takes pride in being part of two communities. He’s involved with the transgender community and lives in a Jewish neighborhood.

That neighborhood gives him comfort and a sense of cultural Judaism greater than he ever could have experienced in his hometown.

There are some intriguing moments.

Many Jews who live in his neighborhood are Orthodox. Among the traditions they follow is that men do not touch women other than their wives. Bobby knows if they knew he was transgender, they would shun him.

His dilemma is whether to shake hands with his Orthodox neighbors when they extend their hands in friendship. In other words, as the saying goes, “It’s complicated.”

Bobby has another challenge beyond not shaking hands. He is what is known as “stealth transgender” — not everyone knows he has transitioned, particularly people with whom he works.

“Though I’m in a progressive city, I work with a lot of blue-collar people who I believe would never accept a transgender person as a friend. I keep my story hidden.”

As the Zoom chat ends, Bobby is asked if he wants to add anything.

“I want people to understand this is not an easy journey. Transgender people do not choose it readily. Transitioning is a difficult path that comes after a long struggle and often causes great pain for families.”

He then makes a request. “Before people make judgments about transgender people, I ask that they talk to one of us, just once.”

(Bobby is not the real name of the person interviewed for this story.

The name was changed to protect his privacy.)

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

23

community states. Now that same-sex marriage is law, they have moved on to a new group — transgender people. And they’ve weaponized the lives of these people who they perceive of as not following the so-called natural order.”

Several studies suggest there are from 1.4 million to 1.7 million transgender people in the U.S.

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Additional thoughts on the challenges transgender people and their families face come from a mom involved in Jewish life, who has spent nearly her entire life in the Deep South, and whose child transitioned from female to male.

This mom loves her now-son deeply and sees in retrospect that this was her child’s destiny.

She asked that her family’s name not be used only to protect her son’s privacy. (See companion story, page 22.)

“I’m not the least bit embarrassed. In fact, after years of frustration, I’m so grateful that we found the answer to what was plaguing our child. All the signs were there but my husband and I had no ability to read them. It’s a complex, confusing issue, and until you understand it, a scary issue,” she said.

She has little patience for what she sees as “politicians trampling on peoples’ lives for votes.” However, she also has compassion for those who are sincerely uncomfortable with the idea of people, especially young people, transitioning to new gender identities.

And, she admitted, for some, experimenting with different gender identities has become “trendy,” which, she worries, gives fodder to those pushing restrictive gender identity measures.

“Like other things, people fear what they don’t know. Yet, I have seen from our own family’s experience that once someone gets to know someone who has transitioned, they tend to become more enlightened.”

At UAB, Ladinsky sits in her small office handling an array of university duties while staying focused, with the support of her team and others, on fighting the new Alabama law. The legal challenge she and others have initiated continues to unfold.

This UAB pediatrics professor did not start out in gender care. “When I was growing up, people weren’t talking about transgender people. It wasn’t something I learned about in medical school and residency either,” said Ladinsky, who was born in 1964.

She was a practicing pediatrician with a typical practice doing both clinical and academic work. Her turning point came about 10 years ago while she was working in Cincinnati. Based on what she was seeing in her practice, Ladinsky’s interest in transgender youth began to grow.

community A few years later, in 2015, Olympian Bruce Jenner’s much-publicized transition to Caitlin Jenner sparked an explosion of interest in transgender issues, catapulting the gender identity conversation onto the front pages. Social media has magnified it even further.

Bullying, Harassment Ladinsky recalled the story of a 16-year-old Ohio teen, feeling female but trapped in a male’s body, who committed suicide in December 2014 because of bullying and harassment. It’s hard for her to talk about it even today.

That’s because the teen was Leelah Alcorn, who went to school with hundreds of Ladinsky’s patients and whose suicide drew wide attention.

“Almost every day, I would drive by the place where she killed herself and think about her.” Alcorn’s legacy included Cincinnati being one of the first cities to ban “conversion therapy,” which her parents had forced her to attend. Conversion therapy insists one can pray away transgender notions, but studies have found it to be not only ineffective but harmful.

There are other stories, scores of them.

“I also remember one girl, who I had taken care of since she was little, freezing up at her annual physical at the start of her teenage years, as her parents, with tears in their eyes, asked me why she was starting to wear boys’ underwear.”

The pediatrician’s chance to do more in the gender area came when her husband, Dr. Mitch Cohen, a prominent pediatrician at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital Medical Center, was recruited in 2014 to be chair of the UAB Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief of Children’s of Alabama.

UAB also provided Ladinsky with an opportunity to teach and practice, opening the door to her and a UAB pediatric endocrinologist, also interested in gender care, co-establishing a transgender care program.

Their team, which also includes a chaplain and psychologist, was established in 2015.

“We are the only group providing this level of care in Alabama and Mississippi. Families from the Florida panhandle, southern Tennessee and western Georgia also come to see us. Since we began, we’ve touched the lives of 400 to 500 kids and families. We also have helped pediatricians better understand gender dysphoria and the toll it can take on a young person’s physical and mental health.”

Being in the limelight hasn’t been easy.

“I’ve gotten some crazy emails from really bizarre humans,” though none of it has been antisemitic. The emails don’t faze her. It’s the political attacks directed toward “my kids” that deepen her determination, along with her commitment to her Jewish faith.

And she remains firm.

“This law doesn’t help people. It can actually harm them. It could have devastating downstream consequences for these kids, especially loss of life. Plus, it’s an unprecedented overreach into medical decision-making.”

Ladinsky knows not all Jews agree with her views. For her, though, her interpretation of Judaism not only validates her position but also empowers her.

“We as Jews are taught to elevate voices, to hear those whose voices others are attempting to silence; to see, hear and elevate the voices of people who are oppressed.”

She augmented her point by referring to a conversation she had during Passover with the UAB chaplain who is part of her team.

“God will always hear — and listen to — the voices of the marginalized, oppressed and disadvantaged, just as God heard the voices of the Jewish people who were enslaved and oppressed in Egypt,” he told her.

Serene and confident, Ladinsky draws strength from her colleague’s words. “His comment explains exactly why as a Jewish person I must step forward and be heard loudly — in word and deed.”

Vote on May 24

Priorities: Equity • Innovation • Healthcare

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He/Him/His AL House District 54 @RepRafferty Paid by the Committee to Elect Neil Rafferty, P.O. Box 321579 Birmingham, AL 35232 May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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community

Lillian Lalo recently read a PJ Library selection to her son’s class at the Cohn Early Childhood Education Center at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center

The Power of Community, Extended Friendships across faith lines help blanket news anchor with support through toughest times

By Richard Friedman “Jewish people are like a warm hug. They’re like a loving mother.”

That comes from Lillian Askins Lalo as she reflects on her lifelong ties to Birmingham’s Jewish community, from elementary school to becoming one of Alabama’s best-known TV journalists — and through the devastating loss of her husband, Christopher, who took his own life nine months ago.

Lalo, a 33-year-old Christian with fiery red hair and a personality bubbling with warmth and charisma, talks about Birmingham’s close-knit Jewish community, and especially her Jewish friends, with love, gratitude and admiration.

Growing up in Mountain Brook, Lalo’s first encounter with the Jewish community came in fourth grade when she took swim lessons at the Levite Jewish Community Center.

At Brookwood Forest Elementary School, lasting friendships were formed with Jewish classmates. “The Jewish girls were so cool,” Lalo recalled with a smile, remembering the fun she had at Bat Mitzvahs.

Never could this TV personality have imagined that 20 years later those lasting friendships would help sustain her during her darkest days.

It was at Brookwood Forest that a Holocaust survivor, Riva Hirsch, grandmother of a Jewish classmate, spoke to her sixth-grade class.

Though only 12, that encounter deepened Lalo’s understanding of the resilience, love of family and community, and compassion that she saw in the families of her Jewish friends.

Two decades later this awareness would turn into awe as Jewish friends and other Jews she barely knew put a collective arm around her shoulder after her husband’s suicide.

Meals poured in, long-time friendships deepened, new ones blossomed, and help was offered in every way imaginable.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

community A JCC leader in another part of the country who learned of Lalo’s situation through a mutual friend went to bat for her, successfully appealing a life insurance claim on Lalo’s behalf after it had been denied because of a technicality in the timing of her husband’s death.

Showing Up Sitting in a cluttered dressing room on a recent April morning, after co-anchoring CBS-affiliate WIAT-42’s 4:30 to 7 a.m. show, Lalo, not used to being interviewed herself, spoke with emotion.

“When Chris died, I came to see the Jewish community is first to reach out in any kind of crisis and to act. You can count on your Jewish friends. They show up. Even people you don’t know step forward, such as the man who helped me appeal my insurance claim.”

One Jewish friend who has always shown up for Lalo is Samantha Dubrinsky. They became close in sixth grade after bonding over a shared love of figure skating.

Dubrinsky would become executive director of the LJCC, later taking a similar job in Springfield, Mass.

“Though Lillian and I grew up in a community that was and still is mostly Christian, I believe our faith differences made us closer. Lillian has always approached the unknown with curiosity and understanding — that’s what makes her a great journalist.”

One of Dubrinsky’s favorite stories took place four years ago at Lalo’s son’s christening.

“Lillian’s dad told me she has always loved Jewish people and at one point even wanted to be Jewish. He couldn’t remember why, though he did recall Lillian wearing a Star of David necklace to school on Jewish holidays!”

Lalo’s attachment to the LJCC has never waned. In a previous marketing position at CBS 42, she produced two well-received promotional videos for the LJCC, assignments that rekindled her swim memories.

But it was another decision that Lalo would make, guided by Dubrinsky, that would have powerful implications for her husband, her, and their son.

“When their little boy was two and Chris’ mental health plight started to become more severe, I told Lillian about the LJCC preschool,” said Dubrinsky.

“I knew the preschool would provide a nurturing environment for their family and especially their son. Lillian enrolled him without hesitation, wanting to expose him to different faiths and backgrounds and expressing deep appreciation for the Jewish community.”

Then came the fateful day: August 16, 2021.

After four years of struggling with suicidal ideations — recurring suicidal thoughts and

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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community impulses — 32-year-old Christopher Lalo took his own life.

Two Blankets The tragedy and story of this young family rocked Birmingham and beyond. Lalo, delving deep into her heart as a wife and mother while drawing on her journalism skills, began writing powerfully about their family’s saga, to educate about mental illness.

At the same time, the LJCC preschool community swung into action, providing Lalo and her son with love, support, and something else — a precious gift for her little boy. Chris had a collection of t-shirts. Preschool staff took the shirts that his son remembered his father wearing the most and turned them into a colorful patchwork blanket.

“When Lillian’s husband passed away, our first thought was for her son.

We wanted to do something to express our sympathies and comfort him,” explained Barbara Traweek, director of the LJCC’s Cohn Early Childhood Education Center.

A staff member came up with the blanket idea and enlisted others, including the boy’s teacher, to help.

“This was an incredible gift,” said Lalo. “Chris and I met when we were freshmen in college. We were together 15 years, and we would buy t-shirts to preserve memories. The blanket was a beautiful gift, a unique

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

remembrance of Chris and an amazing present to my son. He will now have these memories and stories about his dad as his life goes forward.”

There’s an additional dimension to the blanket story.

Recently, Lalo posted a picture of herself on Facebook reading to her son’s class. She was holding a Jewish-themed book, “Something from Nothing,” distributed by PJ Library, a widely hailed initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation that began in Massachusetts and now distributes free Jewish books to children in North America and beyond.

Lalo, a Presbyterian, actually had her own copy of the book while growing up, which she still has. Her mom had seen it, liked it, and bought it for her five-year-old daughter.

Written by children’s author Phoebe Gilman, “Something from Nothing” tells the story of a Jewish boy, Joseph, whose grandfather makes him a blanket when he’s a baby.

As he grows up, the blanket becomes worn. Yet as the years unfold, the grandfather, adept at cutting and sewing, creates other things for Joseph from the blanket’s scraps, such as a vest, and later out of the vest, a tie.

Then one day there is nothing left of the blanket, not even a shred. What remains for Joseph are memories of his grandfather’s love and the story of the blanket itself, treasures he clings to tightly.

As the interview ended, Lalo pondered the message of “Something from Nothing” – and then it clicked.

The t-shirt blanket may become faded over the years and even torn.

Yet, more lasting than the blanket will be the story of its creation, and memories of Chris as a loving father, husband, and friend.

These legacies will endure.

Along with the Jewish friendships that have hugged Lillian Askins Lalo throughout her life, embracing her like a loving mom.

Auburn basketball team to tour, compete in Israel this August Fulfilling a desire that Auburn Men’s Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl has spoken about for years, the Auburn basketball team will travel to Israel for a 10-day visit that includes three games.

The team will play in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, facing off against the Israeli U-20 national team on Aug. 2 and 6, and the Senior National Team on Aug. 8. The full itinerary is still in the planning stage.

College teams can take one international trip every four years, and Auburn’s most recent trip was to Italy in 2017. “These foreign trips have been one of the greatest teaching moments I have been a part of in 40 years of coaching college basketball,” Pearl said. “Israel has not been your typical destination for college basketball teams. Yet, Israel is one of the top 2 or 3 countries in the world in its quality of competition and support for professional basketball.”

Numerous American collegiate stars who do not make the NBA wind up playing for extended periods in Israel’s professional leagues. Some have converted to Judaism, served in the Israeli military and stayed in Israel after their professional careers.

This isn’t Pearl’s first basketball-related trip to Israel. In 2009, while at Tennessee, Pearl coached the U.S. national team to the gold medal in the World Maccabiah, held every four years in Israel. Maccabiah teams are comprised of Jewish athletes, and before the team traveled to Israel, Pearl brought them to Shabbat services in Knoxville.

“To take 12 Jewish men to Israel and to come back to the U.S. as mensches was incredibly meaningful,” he said. “To wear USA on our chests

and to have a Star of David in our hearts was special,” he said in a 2019 interview. His son, Steven, was a member of the team.

Pearl was the first president of the Jewish Coaches Association and in 2019 became the fifth Jewish coach to reach the Final Four, on a journey some analysts believe began with the team bonding during its 2017 Italy trip. Pearl is also an outspoken advocate for Israel.

In 2008, he took his Tennessee team on a trip to the Czech Republic and Germany, and included visits to the Dachau and Theresienstadt concentration camps on the itinerary. In a 2008 interview with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, he said he visits a concentration camp every time he goes to Europe, and many of his players didn’t know anything about the Holocaust.

“For me as a coach and a teacher, my whole thing is to bring my team together, to accept each other’s differences, to tolerate one another, and that helps us become a great team,” he explained.

One Auburn player already has Israel connections. Lior Berman, who grew up in Birmingham’s Jewish community, just finished his junior season, where “The Bermanator” played in 20 games, averaging 2.0 points

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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community and 0.7 rebounds, and missed seven games due to injury.

Berman came to Auburn as a walk-on, and has been named twice to the SEC Academic Honor Roll. In 2017, Berman was on the gold medal U-16 basketball team at the Maccabiah Games. His grandfather, Floyd, is from Israel, and he and Lior would often shoot hoops on trips to Israel.

Berman and Pearl drew attention nationally before this year’s NCAA tournament as a rare coach and player Jewish combo in college basketball.

“It’s always an honor to be able to represent the U.S. and your team versus international competition, especially against the Israeli junior and senior national teams,” Berman said. He looks forward to sharing the experience with his teammates and seeing the famous religious sites together.

“This will be my fourth trip to Israel and I’m really looking forward to going back,” he said.

Another Israel connection for Auburn is Romi Levy, a forward on the women’s team, who is originally from Tel Aviv. Her family now lives in Herzliya.

Steven Pearl, now an assistant coach at Auburn, spoke about a possible Israel trip while on The Jungle podcast in February. In the past, there were no organized summer workouts, so the two weeks of practices a team was given before an international trip was a “huge advantage.” Now, “the biggest advantage is the whole bonding thing, and getting to play in real, meaningful games before you have a season.”

In addition to the games, Bruce Pearl said the trip to Israel “is an educational experience for our players. We are going to take them to where Jesus was born in Bethlehem and visit the City of David in Jerusalem.

From a historical and religious standpoint, this is going to be one of the greatest trips in our student-athletes’ lives.”

Pearl added, “I am grateful to Auburn for its continued support of our foreign trips over the years and helping with our ministry.”

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Rain couldn’t dampen the spirits at the Gary Cohen Memorial Tennis Mixer on May 1 at Pinetree Country Club in Birmingham. Though the courts were damp, the luncheon was held, with a pledge to play tennis in the near future. The idea for the benefit for Hadassah Medical Organization came from Cohen’s family, as it combined his passions for tennis, health care and Israel. Cohen was one of 98 killed on June 24 when the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside, Fla., collapsed. His brother, Brad, was also killed.

community A year after his sudden passing, Fred Levin gets his Way in downtown Pensacola Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May said that legendary Pensacola trial lawyer and longtime friend Fred Levin would often talk about plans for his funeral. He envisioned it being at the arena, with schools letting out, government offices shutting down for the week.

Instead, he died of Covid on Jan. 12, 2021, when even small gatherings were problematic.

But on April 24, May told the crowd assembled on Palafox Street to “look what is happening today. Roads are closed, churches are shut down and people are here.”

The heart of Pensacola was blocked off for the Fred Levin Way Fest, a Celebration of Giving. The day kicked off with a ceremony dedicating Fred Levin Way on a block of what had been Zaragoza Street, right in front of the law firm where he worked for decades and built a controversial legacy.

“In his wildest dreams, he never could have imagined there would be a street named after him in Pensacola,” said Martin Levin, his son. “He’d joke he couldn’t get elected dog catcher.”

The dedication kicked off an event where about 40 non-profits had booths around Plaza Ferdinand VII, showcasing what they do for the community. There was an exotic car show, children’s activities, food trucks and free admission to museums.

A booth near the entrance handed out copies of Levin’s biography, “And Give Up Showbiz?: How Fred Levin Beat Big Tobacco, Avoided Two Murder Prosecutions, Became a Chief of Ghana, Earned Boxing Manager of the Year, and Transformed American Law.” In 1980, he made headlines nationally for the then-highest jury verdict

in a personal injury compensatory suit. But he was just getting started.

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When the new law was upheld, tobacco companies settled with Florida

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community for $13 billion.

He had over 30 verdicts in excess of $1 million, and a lengthy charitable legacy, including a naming gift to the University of Florida School of Law, with part of the motivation being revenge against the state Bar Association, which had tried to dis-bar him three times.

“Fred’s legacy is so large, it is so hard to imagine his not being here,” May said. “He is present in each of us because he made each of us feel so important.”

May said Levin “would be dancing down the street if he were here today,” and Martin Levin said “this truly would be one of the happiest moments of my dad’s life.”

He envisioned his father looking down and having a Crown Royal “and telling everyone it is all because he is the greatest trial lawyer who has ever lived.”

Levin wouldn’t take any flak from those who had an issue with his being Jewish, but May said that “from the rabbi to the Muslims to the Baptists to the Seventh Day Adventists, Fred covered his bases.”

His dedication to the city was also highlighted. Mayor Grover Robinson said “he could have gone anywhere but he set his roots here in Pensacola, and was here in this community, making it better all the time.”

Martin Levin said that no matter where his father was on the world stage, he would make sure to talk about Pensacola. “Even in Israel, the only thing he would say the whole trip is that Pensacola is better.”

Professional boxer Roy Jones Jr., a Pensacola native and Olympic boxing silver medalist, said when they made Levin, “they threw the mold completely away.” Levin was Jones’ manager for 14 years. As Levin was a constant promoter, Jones said he had to make sure never to get between Levin and a camera.

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But with that, “I had a lawyer who thought I could beat the world” and “an angel who can support you all the way to the top.”

He also managed Ike Quartey of Ghana, leading the African nation to award him the title of High Chief in a United Nations ceremony.

Martin Levin paid tribute to the next generation at Levin Papantonio Rafferty. “This law firm is what made him. He believed it was making a difference in the world, and it did.”

Martin Levin acknowledged that his sisters, Marci Goodman, Debra Dreyer and Kimberly Brielmayer, came up with the idea for the festival and “none of this would be possible without them,” but “like dad, I’ll take all the glory, and do nothing, and I’m damn good at it.”

When it came time for the sign unveiling for Fred Levin Way, the box of balloons surrounding the sign got stuck, and eventually had to be pulled down instead of flying off. “Good, the environmental lawyers won’t sue us,” May quipped.

After the event, Councilperson Ann Hill said that the event was no longer the “first-ever” but the “first annual” because of the successful turnout. She said it was “a true gift to the people of Pensacola, a place the festival’s namesake loved like no other.”

Levin Papantonio Rafferty posted that they have “big plans for next year’s festival, so stay tuned.”

Hill said roughly 4,000 attended the event, including many families, and 1,200 free meals were served. Over 1,000 prizes were given out, “including toys for all ages, fitness equipment, electronics, art and science supplies.”

In addition, 1,000 tickets for the Escambia County Area Transit, 500 free admissions to the Pensacola Children’s Museum and 100 free admissions to the Pensacola Blue Wahoos were given away.

2022 JEF Annual Event Honorees with Bobby Garon, JEF Executive Director — Cait Gladow; Joyce and Sidney Pulitzer; Rusty Levy

Milestones announced at long-delayed Jewish Endowment Foundation event One consequence of not having an annual event since 2019 is that the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana’s most recent honorees “have waited over two years for this,” said event co-chair Morris Mintz.

But the 7 p.m. celebration on April 24 at the Audubon Tea Room was done at a quick pace, because they could not have anticipated that the New Orleans Pelicans would be in a pivotal playoff game that evening, with an 8:30 p.m. tipoff.

In addition to the recognitions made at the event, JEF was able to celebrate a couple of milestones — passing $100 million in assets, and announcing the largest gift in its history, over $6 million from Dorlene Lauferski Alaynick, who died in January 2021 (see story, page 34).

Executive Director Bobby Garon said the “milestone number” of $100 million came about through the hard work of the staff, many in the room that evening, and seeds planted by former Executive Director Saundra Levy, seeds that “have recently germinated.” The rising stock market also has helped.

But that isn’t a point to pause, as JEF will soon launch a campaign to expand endowment funds for the local Federation-affiliated agencies, with the silent phase about to begin and a $5 million matching campaign on the table.

Morton Katz, JEF president, said that shortly after he joined the JEF board in 2007, there was a large drop in the stock market in 2008 and 2009. He said to think of it as a bump in the road, though it was more “a pothole,” but they stuck with the plan, and now the agency’s assets are in nine figures.

The agency’s redone mission statement says JEF is to “ensure a secure future for our Jewish community.” He calls it the community’s “rainy day fund.”

Rabbi Katie Bauman of Touro Synagogue gave the invocation, noting that the event is during the Omer, a “precarious time” in the Jewish calendar. She mentioned how there have been many “Red Sea” moments of “great transformation,” and “JEF has been reminding us that we need to be prepared to respond to any need our community may face.”

In addition to traditional foundation work, spinning off earnings to agencies to supplement their budgets or provide for special needs, the unrestricted funds in New Orleans have been vital for responding to May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

33

community community needs arising from catastrophic events, such as hurricanes.

JEF Honors Sherri Tarr, chief operating officer at the Jewish Federation of Greater

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JEF Receives Largest Gift in History Passing the $100 million mark wasn’t the only big news at the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana’s gala on April 24. At the dinner, JEF announced that it recently received a legacy gift of over $6 million, the largest donation in the Foundation’s 55-year history.

The gift came from the estate of Dorlene Lauferski Alaynick and will support and endow organizations that she cherished during her lifetime.

One-time grants will be distributed to 33 nonprofit organizations across the country. The remainder of her gift will be separated into four designated funds for long-term growth and philanthropy for the benefit of JEF, the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, Hadassah New Orleans, and the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Alaynick, who died in January 2021, had worked with Sandy Levy, JEF’s previous executive director, and Carole Neff, a partner with Sessions, Fishman and Nathan, to create her lasting legacy.

“We are pleased to carry on Dorlene’s history of giving to the local, New Orleans community,” said JEF Executive Director Bobby Garon. “These designated funds provide us the opportunity to honor her thoughtful philanthropic planning and foresight to leave generous funds for tomorrow’s needs.”

Alaynick moved to New Orleans in the early 1960s, utilizing her enterprising business acumen and creativity to become the cosmetics buyer for the Maison Blanche department stores. Throughout her life, she was an active and devoted member of Temple Sinai; past president of the Hadassah New Orleans Chapter; part of the New Orleans Garden Society; a volunteer at East Jefferson Hospital; and life-long supporter of many animal rights organizations.

Alaynick was passionate about animals, her friends, and supporting the New Orleans Jewish community. She was preceded in death by her husband, Moise Alaynick, and her two sisters, Dorothy and Ruth.

“Anyone who was acquainted with Dorlene knew her to be kind and generous, even though she was never one to seek recognition for her actions,” said Levy. “The magnitude of her gift was quite unexpected coming from such a humble woman, but these transformative gifts will truly create a legacy that will be recognized for years to come.”

At the JEF annual event on April 24, Garon said the gift is the largest unrestricted gift in JEF history, and will be the largest Lion of Judah endowment in Federation history. The Lion of Judah Society is for women who contribute at least $5,000 each year to the Annual Campaign.

Neff, Alaynick’s estate planning attorney, added, “Although Dorlene made many changes to her estate plan over a number of years, one aspect never changed — her desire that the bulk of her estate world be left to her beloved charities.”

JEF will invest and manage the four designated funds so they will grow over time, while also distributing the income annually to each of the four organizations to support their charitable work. After 20 years, the principal and any accumulated income of each fund will be distributed outright to each organization.

“Our mission is to ensure a secure future and an enduring legacy by serving as an essential resource for Jewish and non-Jewish philanthropy,” added Garon. “Dorlene’s estate gift is an example of the power of planned giving, advancing JEF’s capacity to meet the community’s most immediate needs and making the world a better place for future generations.”

community New Orleans, presented Cait Gladow with the Helen Mervis Jewish Community Professional Award. Federation CEO Arnie Fielkow was originally scheduled to make the presentation but was in Covid quarantine following his trip to near the Ukraine border.

Gladow is marketing and communications director for the Federation, a position she has held for 14 years. Tarr said she revamped the Federation’s weekly email, redesigned the website and forged a partnership with Southern Jewish Life to disseminate the Federation’s newsletter.

“Cait never says no, and works tirelessly on behalf of the Jewish community.”

Even a recent breast cancer diagnosis could not slow her down, as Tarr noted she prepared a press release as she was being prepped for surgery.

Gladow took the occasion to remind everyone, “please get your preventative screenings.”

She said she is “very fortunate” to work at the Federation, and that there has been a “huge demographic change” since she began in 2008, and everyone in the community has an opportunity to give back and leave a meaningful legacy.

In addition to her work in the Jewish community, she is on the advisory council for Community Works of Louisiana, president and founder of the Greater New Orleans Seminole Club for Florida State alumni, and vice-chair of the Neighborhood District Conservation Advisory Council.

She also co-created Cakeup for a Cause, which holds sanitary item supply drives to benefit the most vulnerable in the community.

Garon presented the Young Family Award for Professional Excellence to Charles Levy III. He has been a chartered life underwriter and chartered financial consultant for 45 years, served as president of JEF and received the 2004 Tzedakah Award.

Levy said he feels “a great drive to make New Orleans and the world a better place,” and “people who have the resources to make the world a better place should do that.”

Levy has also been a vice president of the Federation and Annual Campaign co-chair, president and treasurer of the Hillel Foundation of New Orleans, treasurer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Baton Rouge, and secretary of Temple Sinai.

Saundra Levy presented the Tzedakah Award to Joyce and Sidney Pulitzer, saying it is hard to share “all this incredible couple has achieved,” doing a “Dayenu”-style listing of their involvement.

“They did not have to make a difference, but we are so thankful they did,” she said Joyce Pulitzer, a past president of JEF, said the agency “has given our lives great meaning,” and just as those who came before worked for what

C.C. Pulitzer Lemann; Sidney Pulitzer Jr; and Joyce and Sidney Pulitzer May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

35

community

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the community enjoys today, so too is this generation responsible for planting seeds for future generations. During her presidency, the Create a Jewish Legacy initiative began.

She was the first female president of Touro Synagogue and the Anti-Defamation League South-Central Region, and the first Jewish president of Hermann-Grima House. She is also an endowed Lion of Judah at Federation.

Sidney Pulitzer, noting that tipoff was drawing near, simply said “this has been an amazing evening, it is one of the happiest times of my life.”

In the video presentation, he noted that his father and four uncles lost their parents when they were young and were raised at the Jewish Children’s Home, where “they learned values and a good work ethic.” After graduating, the brothers started what became the Wembley Tie Company, which soon became the world’s largest producer of ties.

Sidney Pulitzer was an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the Freeman School of Business at Tulane for 22 years and has served on numerous boards, including president of the World Trade Center and Junior Achievement, helping establish the endowments for both organizations.

Event chairs Morris and Melinda Mintz with Bobby Garon

Cait Gladow and Federation COO Sherri Tarr 36

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

NCJW Celebrates 125 Years The National Council of Jewish Women Greater New Orleans Section’s 125th anniversary gala started out with President Gail Pesses remarking, “we look pretty good for our age, don’t we?”

At 125, the Section is alive and thriving, and the April 9 “Looking Back and Leading Forward, With a Salute to Angel Ball” was a time to do just that.

About 175 members and allies attended the celebration, held at the Higgins Hotel, with dinner and dancing to the music of The Wise Guys.

Shelley Brown, anchor at WVUE-TV, emceed the evening. Five years ago, she did a story about the 120th anniversary and “I thought that was a big deal then.”

Gala co-chairs Loel Weil Samuel and Jody Portnoff Braunig welcomed everyone to the celebration.

During the evening, Brown led a spotlight on two of the Section’s biggest services, the scholarship program and FOX 8 Defenders, which involves her television station.

The scholarship program is the oldest onEvent co-chairs Loel Samuel and Jody going activity, begun Braunig with past president Susan Hess in 1903 to award need-

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based scholarships to promising Jewish students. The program is now named in memory of Irma Isaacson, and there are four additional named scholarship funds.

FOX 8 Defenders is perhaps the most visible program, with over 200 calls a week from around the New Orleans area. Volunteers take calls from individuals with consumer problems that seem impossible to fix.

Many are solved quietly, and some become features on the news.

About 25,000 callers have been assisted since the program was established by Babs Isaacson in 1995.

The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program was also highlighted, as New Orleans was one of the early adopters of the preschool readiness program for low-income or marginalized families.

The evening was also a tribute to the Angel Balls, which ran consistently from 1961 through 1995, then again in 2000 and 2002. They were a major source of financial support for the Section, and at one point, one had to earn an invitation through service and donations to the Section’s

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Since being established in 1897, the New Orleans Section “has lasted 125 years because of the quality of its mission,” Pesses said.

Past National President Joan Bronk, one of three national presidents to come from New Orleans, reflected on the organization’s long history. In 1903, President Grover Cleveland enlisted NCJW in the fight against slavery and sweatshop work, and in the 1970s NCJW was working on behalf of Soviet Jewry.

Other priorities have been a woman’s right to choose, and the Family Medical Leave Act. Above: Barbara Greenberg, Gail Pesses.

She added that NCJW had been working on an Below: Dana Shepard, Karen Sher, Diana anti-lynching bill since the 1920s, and President Mann, Sara Mayeux Joe Biden had just recently signed a bill that passed Congress after over 200 failed attempts over the decades. “We never give up on the issues we believe in, even if it takes 100 years.”

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Summer Travel

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an annual special section The VIP Room at the Scarlet Pearl on the Mississippi coast

The shiniest pearl on the Gulf Coast

By Lee J. Green Visitors to the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s newest gaming resort property will find an oasis for serious gamers and foodies.

The Scarlet Pearl, a family-owned casino resort that opened in 2015, has grown significantly through taking a hands-on approach and gearing the guest experience to fit with its clientele.

“Being a family-owned casino has allowed us to really get to know our guests and cater the experience to what they are looking for,” said Scarlet Pearl’s Vice President of Marketing Ben Koff, who is Jewish and came to the D’Iberville casino resort from Las Vegas last year. “Our owners and the executive staff walk the floors and get to know everyone. The Scarlet Pearl is the friendliest, brightest casino on the Gulf Coast.”

The Scarlet Pearl features 300 hotel rooms, award-winning dining, a large array of gaming tables and 60,000 square feet of some of the latest slot and gaming machines.

Koff said Scarlet Pearl recently invested more than $8 million into its VIP experience, including the Orchid Room. It features private gaming, televisions and amenities geared toward serious gamers. “It’s like a firstclass cabin on an airline. We have put much focus on elevating that experience.”

He said sports betting has really grown in the past several years and the Scarlet Pearl has the distinction of taking the largest bet in Mississippi history, as well as one of the largest wagers of all time when Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale bet on the 2019 World Series. Guests can watch games on 23 high-definition screens surrounding a 144-square-foot entertainment screen.

Scarlet Pearl also has kept up with the growing world of cryptocurrency and announced in April that it is the first Mississippi casino to facilitate the exchange of digital currency to cash.

“As we move toward a more cashless world, this is another option we can offer to our gamers,” said Koff. “We will be the beta test property and we expect this to be very successful.”

He said the Scarlet Pearl has won awards for its dining, which is headlined by its Scarlet’s Steak and Seafood. They are upgrading their Under the Oak Café and offer more casual options with Ami Pizza and Chopstx Noodle Bar. Other amenities at the Scarlet Pearl include its exciting, 36-hole, miniature golf course — the Lava Links; the Oasis pool and a fitness center.

“And it’s just a short drive to the beautiful beaches of Biloxi and excellent golf courses.”

Koff is original from Baltimore and worked in the television industry after graduating from Northwestern. He entered the casino gaming in-

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dustry in 2006, working outside of Chicago before moving to Las Vegas.

He and his wife, Erika, have three daughters — twins Zoe and Yael, who will have their B’nai Mitzvah next January, and younger daughter, Noa. “Our family has really been embraced here,” said Koff. “I have some ideas we hope to implement here at the Scarlet Pearl to cater to guests and groups in the Jewish communities. Whatever we can do to personalize the experience.”

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The Breman Museum in Atlanta brings Jewish history into focus with its current exhibitions.

“History with Chutzpah” launched last fall and includes more than 250 artifacts, documents, photographs and oral histories offering a unique historical perspective of Jewish life in the Southeast from 1773 to today.

The exhibit focuses on communities across Georgia and Alabama.

Other exhibitions currently on view at The Breman include “Culture Shock.” It features the photographs of John Gutmann, a Jewish refugee from Germany who arrived in the United States during the Great Depression, in San Francisco in 1934, and proceeded to document what he was seeing in his new homeland at the time.

“The Absence of Humanity” exhibition presents the history of the Holocaust through artifacts and stories of Atlanta area Holocaust survivors.

In April, The Breman Museum welcomed a new director of archives, Casey Fishman. Fishman joins the Museum with expertise in museum archival work, art history and art therapy from the Jewish Museum of Florida, The Jewish Museum in New York, Boston’s Carter School and the Archives of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Fishman holds a degree in Art History from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Jewish Literature as well as a master’s degree in Jewish Art and Visual Culture from The Jewish Theological Seminary.

“The work of the Breman museum, connecting the public to Jewish history, art and culture, is a mission that is very dear to my heart,” said Fishman. “I believe that opening doors to a deeper understanding of the nuance and texture of the Jewish story is a benefit not just to the Jewish community but to the wider world.”

As with many institutions, the museum was closed for a time due to Covid, but it is currently open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, Wednesdays through Fridays, and on Sundays.

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Evelyn Greenblatt in the plane where she was a Women’s Air Service Pilot during World War II. 40

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

summer travel

Start summer at Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience’s opening celebration Registration is ongoing for the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience’s opening celebration in New Orleans. The museum, which opened to the public last May, postponed the dedication due to the pandemic.

The Celebration Weekend will be June 11 and 12. The museum itself is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., every day except Tuesday.

There will be a hospitality suite for museum donors and members, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and June 12 from noon to 4 p.m. The suite will be in the Ferber Family Foundation classroom on the second floor.

Founding donors at the $18,000 and above level, along with sponsors and senior leadership, are invited to a patron party on June 11 at 5:30 p.m.

All donors and members are invited to a celebration of the museum’s first year, starting at 6:30 p.m. Registration is required for the evening events, as space is limited.

On June 12, there will be a jazz brunch at the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute, across from the museum, starting at 10 a.m.

There will be traditional brunch fare, drinks and music. Tickets are $35 for adults, $10 for those under age 18.

The main celebration will be from noon to 4 p.m. on June 12, with free admission to the museum, crafts, music and food trucks.

A commemorative program is being published, detailing the museum’s history, listing donors and celebrating the first year. Mazel Tov messages are being solicited for the program, for supporters to do a congratulatory message, recount their family’s Southern Jewish heritage, or promote a company.

For more information or to register, visit msje.org/celebrate.

Lots of Jewish history to see in Natchez Though the Natchez Jewish community has few members remaining, the city has a great deal of Jewish history.

B’nai Israel, with its ornate 1905 building, is the oldest Jewish congregation in the state, organized in 1840 and officially recognized by the state in 1848. Jackson’s Beth Israel would have the first synagogue building in the state, as the process did not begin in Natchez until 1866. The first building was dedicated in 1872, and after a long ideological discussion, the congregation became a charter member of the Reform movement.

In 1991, the building was deeded to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, and occasional performances and meetings are held in the space, along with services. A museum about Natchez Jewish history is also housed there.

A commercial hub, Natchez was once one of the richest towns in the country. Many historic homes in the city have Jewish history — Bailey House used to be owned by Adolph Jacobs, The Burn was the residence of Saul Laub, and the Neoclassical Guest House belonged to the Ullman family before they moved to Birmingham in 1884.

The Eola Hotel, which closed in 2014, opened in 1927, owned by Leon Levy and Isidore Levy. The hotel was named for Isidore Levy’s daughter.

A restoration is underway with a reopening anticipated in 2023.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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election Neil Rafferty wants to ensure equity in communities, improve health care

By Lee J. Green Neil Rafferty wants to continue to “build a better Alabama” through focusing on equality, community, education, improving healthcare and creating opportunities as he bids for re-election in State House District 54.

“Our focus is healthcare, equity and innovation,” said Rafferty, a Birmingham-native who has been serving since being elected in 2018 as the first gay male Alabama legislator. “To achieve what we want to achieve we need a united front and strong partnership between the communities we serve.”

Rafferty said he credits the great support from members and organizations within the Birmingham area Jewish community.

Hadassah Birmingham helped to generate support for and partner with Rafferty on a bill seeking to eliminate sales tax on diapers and feminine hygiene products, known as a “pink tax.”

He also fought the passage of the transgender healthcare act, which was signed into law last month. Alabama became the first state to criminalize the use of puberty blockers and hormones to treat transgender people under age 19 (see story, page 20). The state legislature passed a law requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex at birth and prohibiting discussion of gender and sexual identity in the lower grades.

On April 28, the U.S. Department of Justice challenged an Alabama law that makes it a felony for a doctor to administer gender-affirming health care to minors.

The complaint alleges that “the new law’s felony ban on providing certain medically necessary care to transgender minors violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.” The Justice Department is asking the court to issue an immediate order blocking the law, which was set to go into effect on May 8.

“This is not small government,” said Rafferty. “This is a direct violation of human rights and we will fight the law with everything we have.”

He credits an involved member of the Birmingham area Jewish community, Morissa Ladinsky, for being such an advocate of transgender rights and healthcare. The associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Alabama in Birmingham provides gender-affirming care to trans youth in Alabama and surrounding states.

Rafferty graduated from UAB with a Humanities degree. He and his husband, Mike Richards, also served for several years in the United States Marine Corps.

“We were successful in getting a bill passed that created a task force to get needed healthcare and addressing mental health needs of service members, veterans and their families,” he said.

Rafferty also said that some of his proudest accomplishments during his four years in the House include generating needed funding for arts and education organizations, renewal of a historic tax credit and a costof-living increase for state employees.

He also got the 9-8-8 Study Commission to decriminalize mental illness, and have health professionals or social workers respond to emergencies involving individuals suffering from mental illness or substance abuse.

Earlier this year, Rafferty also helped the Israeli delegation for the World Games coming to Birmingham this summer to ensure housing and the provision of kosher meals.

“I’m proud to serve my district, the state and our country,” he said. “We want to build a better Alabama together.”

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

election

Sheriff Mark Pettway lights the Chanukiah at the community event at the Summit in 2021.

Safety in friendship In an age where security is one of the foremost concerns in American Jewish communities, it is important to have a good working relationship with local law enforcement.

Often, friendships develop, such as the one between Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway and Rabbi Levi Weinbaum of Chabad of Alabama, in Birmingham.

One connection comes from Pettway’s middle name — Levie. But there is more to it than that.

The Sheriff ’s office has been attentive in providing security for the Jewish community, especially on holidays and special events, and checks in with the community if there has been a major antisemitic event elsewhere. One local incident involved a suspicious individual at the Levite Jewish Community Center; the individual was identified as being from New York and barred from the area.

Beyond the security needs, Weinbaum has shared challah with Pettway and his deputies many Fridays, and answers their questions about Jewish culture and religion. Pettway has spoken to the children at the Chabad preschool and brought them badges.

Weinbaum invited Pettway to take part in the community Chanukah lighting ceremony this past year.

He regards his church trip to Israel as one of the highlights of his life, and said “I value my relationship with Rabbi Weinbaum, Chabad and the entire Jewish community. I look forward to continuing to work together to keep everyone safe.”

Luria gets pro-Israel Dem group nod The Democratic Majority for Israel PAC announced that Virginia Rep. Elaine Luria, a Birmingham native, has received their endorsement as she seeks a third term in the U.S. House this fall. They announced their third round of House and Senate endorsements on April 25.

“As Democrats across the country prepare to go to the polls to decide their nominees for Congress, DMFI PAC is thrilled to announce our third slate of primary endorsees, each of whom believes in — and has demonstrated the willingness to fight for — a strong U.S.-Israel relationship,” said DMFI PAC President Mark Mellman. “With this latest round of endorsements, DMFI PAC will have endorsed nearly 50 well-qualified, diverse, pro-Israel Democratic candidates for House and Senate — candidates who know well that being pro-Israel is both good policy and good politics.”

The group does not have any endorsements in heavily-Republican Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana or the Florida panhandle.

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mopeclinic.com May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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community >> Agenda

continued from page 8

Folklife Association, and hosted by Amy Milligan of Old Dominion University, who has been working extensively with the Selma Jewish community on preserving its history. The Zoom will be accessible at bit.ly/JewishCultureAlabama, or contact alabamafolklife@gmail.com.

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PJ Library will have a Pajama-rama Havdalah Breakfast Party on May 22 at 9 a.m. at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School, with Havdalah crafts, a story and singing, and a tzedakah project to benefit Heart Gallery of Alabama. Donations of a new book for pre-teens or teens are requested.

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Agudath Israel-Etz Ahayem in Montgomery will have a Welcome Back Shabbat, June 3 at 6 p.m., with student cantor Carl Sayres. A chicken dinner will follow the service. Reservations required by May 24.

We have the wines to toast your Simchas!

The United Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge will have a Shavuot dessert social and an adult study session with Rabbis Batsheva Appel and Teri Appleby, “The Gift of the 10 Commandments: A Look at What We Receive at Sinai,” June 4 at 7 p.m., in person at Kleinert Avenue and on Zoom. Shavuot morning services will be June 5 at 10:30 a.m. at Jefferson Highway.

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Catching up on missed events from the Covid years? Etz Chayim in Huntsville will celebrate the reopening of its building for in-person events with a Chanukah in May celebration, May 22 at 11 a.m., to “celebrate like it is 2019.” The event will begin with Bingo, and lunch will be served at noon, including latkes, salad, ice cream and drinks.

The event is free.

Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El will have an Opening Our Doors Shabbat on June 4, coordinated by (T)BE Involved Social Action, to encourage participation in refugee resettlement. Speakers will be former Ukraine resident Yakov Lyublinskiy, Alabama Interfaith Refugee Partnership’s Lynda Wilson, and former Collat Jewish Family Services Executive Director Esther Schuster. Rita and Alex Meikson, Leonid Shilkrot and family, and Marina Gregoryev will be honored. A borscht and pierogi lunch will follow the 9:30 a.m. service. The group is encouraging donations and furniture for Afghan refugees through Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood.

The Jewish Fertility Foundation of Birmingham will have A Night Off from Infertility, at Habitat Feed and Social Bar in the Grand Bohemian Hotel, May 21 at 8 p.m. The first drink at the social gathering is on JFF. Reservations requested.

B’nai Israel in Pensacola will host “Jews and Blues” on May 28 at 7 p.m., featuring David Wesson of Boston. A musical Havdalah will be included. There will be light snacks and a cash bar. The program will highlight the social history of Jewish immigrants and freed slaves, how they defined themselves and became American, with their experiences intertwined in 20th-century music.

The next Chabad Emerald Coast 30A event will be on June 12, with details to be announced.

B’nai Israel in Pensacola continues its series of monthly kosher Shabbat dinners around the world with a Panamanian Shabbat dinner on May 27 at 6 p.m. A musical Shabbat service will follow at 7 p.m.

Reservations for dinner are $25 for ages 12 and up, children are free.

Going out of business sales: Agudath Israel-Etz Ahayem Sisterhood Gift Shop in Montgomery is closing, and in the final days, everything is 85 percent off, except for the Alabama home and car mezuzahs. The Sisterhood Gift Shop at Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El is also closing and has a clearance sale underway.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

community >> Rear Pew

continued from page 46

action results in an act of revenge against it. Revenge is bad, so there’s no better way to get back at books which promote it than to not read them in the first place.

Cruelty to animals, fratricide, negative portrayals of a nation split between its northern and southern regions… the list goes on.

It’s quite a list, which could lead to quite a list of books. But there’s a way to save everyone’s souls and summer reading lists all at once.

Instead of taking the time to not research and then ban dozens or hundreds of books, all of these offensive offerings can be efficiently evaded by banning just one book which contains them all: The Bible.

No wonder it’s the best-selling book of all time.

Doug Brook figures that banning the Bible would make religious school a lot shorter. And services. And a lot of arguments. (Also, just in case: This was all satire. Thank you.) For nearly several more laughs, listen to the fivestar rated Rear Pew Mirror podcast at anchor.fm/rearpewmirror or on any major podcast platform. For exclusive online content, follow facebook.com/ rearpewmirror. For past columns, visit http://rearpewmirror.com/.

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

Resolving issues when one problem leads to another

By Marcy Morgenbesser Older adults are often referred to CJFS because of one acute problem — say, they’re grieving the death of a spouse, they have serious financial problems or their loved ones have noticed they’re growing forgetful.

But while working with the client to deal with that problem, our clinical social workers sometimes discover other pressing issues — concerns that are linked to the initial problem but are worrying on their own.

For example, while a member of our clinical team was helping a client deal with his emerging memory issues, the client received a serious medical diagnosis. While assisting him and his wife in managing his numerous medical appointments, our staff member discovered that the couple had recently forgotten to pay their health insurance bill. While straightening that out, she discovered their finances, in general, were a tangled mess.

When pressing issues have been left unaddressed for months or years, the first job of a case manager is to assess, prioritize, and address the numerous issues, layer by layer. And each time a new issue is uncovered, priorities need to be reassessed and adjusted.

A situation like the one described above can be overwhelming and incredibly stressful for friends or family to manage on their own. Social workers have experience breaking complex problems down into their distinct parts and prioritizing them — all in a respectful partnership with our clients.

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

45

rear pew mirror • doug brook

Ban Roll On It takes less time to read a book than to write one. Similarly, it takes less time to ban a book than to read one.

With that in mind, and given how trendy it is to revoke reading materials lately, it’s a reasonable time to unreasonably jump on the banwagon.

Doing away with pieces of literature often focuses on the young, removing books from school libraries and curricula. Sometimes, however, it’s an attempt to save the sensibilities of the greater (and lesser) reading (and non-reading) public, usually resulting in a spike in a book’s sales the moment its ban is announced.

And why shouldn’t they be banned? The very idea of the ideas these books conjure could serve the frightening purpose of giving people ideas.

So, in the interest of ensuring nothing indecent passes before innocent eyes, this is a selection of things to make sure to avoid in books just as soon as they’ve been read.

Of course, a top concern is heresy. Not only because of its blasphemous nature, but because it’s just one vowel away from hearsay, which is often people’s basis for banning a book in lieu of having actually read it.

Sexual content is a no-brainer, no matter how much people think about it all the time. Parents don’t want their children reading books with sexual content. If they wanted kids exposed to it, they would just let them watch television.

With every passing year, society is increasingly overwhelmed by violence. Of course, this is a problem because violins are expensive, as are violin lessons.

The presence of profanity can promulgate so profoundly in literature and, thus, our children’s mouths, that some people compensate by calling it the Hoover Darn.

Acts of rebellion or anti-government sentiments should not be written or read. They should receive only limited exposure in obscure art films such as the Star Wars trilogies.

Homosexuality is never to be read Why ban hundreds about because it was never depicted in 1950s television. of books when Many people would be satisfied if their only exposure to Satan was a daily there’s one with slice of devil’s food cake.

People have problems with polygevery manner amy, perhaps partially because it’s as of offensive hard to figure out wedding and living logistics as it is to figure how to pay for material… it all.

Nudity is problematic because seeing people truly naked is frightening to those who shy away from the naked truth.

Partaking of alcohol can be seriously fun or unfunnily serious. Youths reading about it would be a counterproductively counteract having b’nai mitzvah drink Manischewitz to scare them off from alcohol for at least ten years.

What self-inflicted pain must the 14-year-old son of director Robert Altman have read that inspired his writing the lyrics to the iconic M*A*S*H film’s song — and later the TV show’s theme — “Suicide is Painless”?

If parents wanted their children to explore issues of race, they’d make them go out for their school’s track team.

Books are filled with clichés and aphorisms. One such example is, “every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” But that means every continued on previous page 46

May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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May 2022 • Southern Jewish Life