Southern Jewish Life, Deep South, June 2022

Southern Jewish Life

OLIVIA MANNON COMES HOME AS PLAYER WITH TEAM ISRAEL June/July 2022 Volume 32 Issue 6

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

On view through July 3, 2022 Seventy-five years ago, Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway and received a seven-minute standing ovation. The sensation quickly spread to stages—and movie screens—worldwide. Now visitors can go behind the scenes of this iconic New Orleans play in this free exhibition from The Historic New Orleans Collection.

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This exhibition is sponsored by

Stella (Kim Hunter) embraces Stanley (Marlon Brando); 1951; The Fred W. Todd Tennessee Williams Collection at THNOC, 2001-10-L.1246

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

shalom y’all Thankfully, primary election season in Alabama and Mississippi are mostly in the rear view mirror. Good luck, Florida and Louisiana.

Of course, there’s the general election in November, but in most of our region, that’s a mere formality when it comes to state and federal positions. Whoever wins the Republican primary is in. Except for a handful of counties and parishes with local races (or the Congressional district in each state that was carved out to ensure Black representation in Congress, but is now seen as a racist way of shunting Black voters off to just one district), the Democrats have no prayer, unless a Republican self-implodes (which can happen — right, Roy Moore?)

In those places, it’s a tough choice. For example, in Jefferson County, Alabama, do you vote in the Republican primary to have a say on statewide and Congressional positons, or do you go Democrat and have a say in judges, the sheriff, and so forth, as the county itself leans Democrat.

If people are saying good riddance to the election, there’s a good reason. In Alabama’s recent races — doesn’t matter which statewide or Congressional one you pick — name the candidate who is a True Republican, a fierce, unwavering Trump supporter, the Christian conservative protecting babies from conception and post-birth children from LGBTQXYZ folks in school bathrooms, and who will personally escort illegal immigrants back to the border while totin’ whatever looks good from the personal armory that day.

Answer: All of them. At least according to the commercials.

And that’s a huge problem. Okay, we know they can all demagogue hot-button issues with the best of ‘em. What else do they have? Can they legislate? Can they get substantive things done for the people? Can they address some of the deep-rooted problems that have been kicked around for decades in our region?

Or do they just want to rile people up about transgendered folks in the name of votes?

Yeah, that seems a whole lot easier.

Over the last couple of years, the state legislatures in our region have been in a race 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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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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commentary

MESSAGES

Maccabi USA leader praises Birmingham Games

I have had the honor of attending many Maccabi competitions around the world. From Israel to the bottom, to seeAmerica, who canEurope come and up with Where theygames aren’taround viewedthe asUnited a cosmic mistake to Australia to South the JCC Maccabi States the most extreme bills regarding abortion or or a freak that just needs to go to church to get and Canada, I have logged many miles seeing how sports can be a vehicle to help build Jewish transgender issues. rid of impure thoughts.

They, too, are made in identity, especially in our young.

Not just extreme. Downright cruel. And they the image of God and deserve dignity.

I felt to come to Birmingham for the firstAtime andwhere fell in they love with notjust justmake the city revel inhonored that cruelty. place might it out butTim theJames’ people.gubernatorial You have takenrace Southern hospitality a new level withwithout your kind and themselves caring was particuof to their teen years killing approach to the JCC Games. larly despicable, as Maccabi he attacked transgender because of the hostility they face. teens andthethe new James’ attacks on the school and the stuLed by Sokol andMagic Helds,City yourAcceptance hard-working volunteers were wonderful.

They partnered Academy where manystaff, of them to school beyond pale, and thankfully he with your outstanding led bygo Betzy Lynch, todents makewere the 2017 JCC the Maccabi games a huge hit. (along with kids). It as is not hyperbowas near to thesay runoff.

I want to takenon-trans this opportunity executive director of nowhere Maccabi USA thank you on behalf le say thatinvolved. he threatened their safety while But based on recent legislation in the state, of to everyone completely mis-representing the treatment he isn’t anywhere close to alone. He just was I had just returned from the 20th World Maccabiah games in Israel with a U.S. delegation of they undergo, and mis-understanding the dif- more willing to make a public display about it. over 1100, who joined 10,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries. Back in July the eyes of the entire ficulties they face, and the nature of the school From what we’ve read about Jesus, it’s imJewish world were on Jerusalem and the Maccabiah. This past month with 1000 athletes and that caters to their needs. possible to imagine he’d be at the end of one coaches from around the world being in Birmingham, you became the focal point.

Why do we have such a school, he won- of those commercials doing the tagline “and I Everyone from the Jewish community at message. large, including a wonderful ders.

Well, maybe if the good religious and folk the in community approve this ” police force, arewouldn’t to be commended. public schools make life aThese livinggames hell will go down in history as being a seminal moment the Jewish community we build for them,forthere wouldn’t be any as need for ato the future by providing such wonderful Jewish memories.place where they can learn in an enseparate vironment Lawrence Brook, Publisher/Editor Jed Margoliswhere they feel (now mostly) safe.

Executive Director, Maccabi USA

Editorial downplays Trump’s responsibility in rise of antisemitism

For years I’ve tolerated the right-wing mesOn Charlottesville saging of your Publisher/Editor in order to get information about our regional Jewish comEditor’s Note: This reaction to the events in with munity.

But he finally breached the dam Charlottesville, written by Jeremy Newman, his most recent assertion regarding former Master of the Alphalack Epsilon Pi Theta Colony President Trump’s of responsibility for the at Auburn University, shared by arising AEPi very neo-Nazism and whitewas supremacy National,inwhich calledtoday. it “very and publicly America Ineloquent” discussing some praised “our brothers at AEPi Theta Colony recent possible anti-Semitic events, he wrote,at“So Auburn University and… they many people chalked it upthe toleadership ‘Trump’s America display onif their campus. (though Trump was ”to blame for the rise in antisemitism, why is it going up even further in White ‘Biden’ssupremacy America?)has Instead a neo-Nazi been of a cancer on or white supremacist, those threats could be from our country since its beginning, threatening aitsleft-winger. ” (Editor’s note: This was in reference hopes, its values, and its better angels. to speculation of took the identity the then-unknown The events that place inofCharlottesville caller threatening Jewish Community represented the worst of this nation. Centers Those nationally in 2017, including four calls in who marched onto the streets with tiki Birmingtorches ham and one indid New and swastikas so Orleans). to provoke violence and First, Biden the recipient neo-Nazi/ fear.

Those whoismarched onto of thethe streets did white supremacist rise perpetrated by Trump. so to profess an ideology that harkens back to Groups individuals used be “una bleaker,and more wretched who time in ourtohistory. dercover” aremen nowand outwomen in the open.

Wecreeds, saw it A time when of many most clearly in Charlottesville (“The Jews races, and religions were far from equal and will far not ” own Trump responding: fromreplace safe in us. our borders.

A time “very wherefine people on both sides”)a and on the infamous, Americans lived under constant cloud of Trump-instigated January 6 insurrection.

You racism, anti-Semitism and pervasive hate. The may recall Trump’s “stand back and stand by” events that took place in Charlottesville served instructions to the Proud Boys during the first as a reminder of how painfully relevant these Presidential debate in 2020. It ain’t going away issues are today. any time soon. Biden and future presidents will Auburn’s Alpha Epsilon Pi stands with the Jewish community of Charlottesville, and with the Jewish people around the country and around the world. We also stand with the Send your letters to editor@sjlmag.com minorities who are targeted by the hate that was on display in Charlottesville.

We stand or mail to P.O. Box 130052 with the minorities of whom Birmingham, AL these 35213white

What do you think?

4 June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

be dealing with it unless there is someback remarksupremacists would like to see pushed able in our and culture. into shift a corner andpolitics made to feel lesser. We stand As and someone has followed the Heyer, consewith pray forwho the family of Heather quences of Trump’s personal bigotry ever since who was there standing up to the face of this he came down the escalator in 2015, I’ve seen hate. dozens of antisemitic hate group leaders speak essence the very American upWe in recognize support ofthe Trump andofsay publicly narrative as a two-century old struggle to rid that he’s endorsed their behavior and views. ourselves of such corners, and allow those comin So, to conclude, your Publisher/Editor’s them the seat at the table that they so deserve. mentary is frequently BS, but none more so It is the to Trump. fulfill theI strongly promise suggest of the he than hisstruggle defense of Declaration of Independence, that “all men take a look at the data and facts collected byare the created equal… endowed by their Creator with Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty certain unalienable rights.Maybe ” We know our work Law Center since 2015. he’d like to get is faran from finished, butthem we know willlies notthe into argument with as to we where move backwards. trigger for the rise in antisemitism.

Cancel my subscription.

When men and women, fully armed, take Joseph J. Levin, to the streets in droves with swastikas and Jr. Montgomery other symbols of hate, it is a reminder of how relevant the issues of racism and anti-Semitism Appreciated piece are today.

It is a wake-up call to the on work that needs to be Bevill’s done to ensure a better, more character welcoming country. But it should not come I want to be sure you know how much my without a reflection on how far we’ve come. family all appreciate the wonderful article you America was born a slave era: nation.

A century wrote on Dad (“Another Remembering into our warsmall in part Rep. Tomhistory Bevill we andengaged his ties in to athe Jasper to ensure we would” not continue as one.

We Jewish community, April 2022). You highlightfound ourselves confronted

by Ithe of civil ed a part of his character that wasissue so familiar rights, and embarked onI atook mission ensure As with during his life that it fortogranted. the tumble fair treatment all peoples no matter we throughofsuch a difficult time oftheir diviskin and color.judgment Althoughand we’ve madebased greaton strides, sion politics hate, I it is especially a mission grateful we’re stillforgrappling with today. am his “compass” and his unwillingness to bend toward that.

America was also born an immigrant Thank As youearly for as bringing this tomany light for othcountry. the pilgrims, ers, for your generous comments.

For capturing groups and families found in the country the this important who he was.their future, opportunity to part plantofstakes, chase Patty Warren and be themselves. Few were metBevill with open Via Email

January 2021 June 2022

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

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

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

agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events On May 15, Hebrew Union Congregation in Greenville held its annual congregational picnic. The event has been held going back to at least 1950.

Beth-El dedicating historical marker as part of Civil Rights Experience As the World Games wind down in Birmingham, Temple Beth-El will hold a ceremony dedicating its new historical marker about the attempted 1958 bombing of the synagogue.

The ceremony will be held at 12:15 p.m. on July 17. Lisa McNair, national speaker and author, and sister of Denise McNair, one of the four girls killed in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, will speak.

Margaret Norman, director of programming and engagement, will also speak, as will Melissa Young, the project historian.

The day’s events will also include a siyyum and study session with Rabbi Steven Henkin at 11 a.m., a luncheon at 11:30 a.m., and the congregation’s annual meeting at 1 p.m.

The bombing attempt was on April 28, 1958, when a satchel with 54 sticks of dynamite was discovered in a now-filled window well below street level outside the social hall. The bomb failed to detonate, but had enough power to level a city block.

The attempt was part of a rash of bombings against Jewish institutions in the South that year, with The Temple in Atlanta being the best known.

The Beth-El attempt was never officially solved, despite fingerprints being taken from the bomb. A couple of individuals verbally threatened a similar attempt at Temple Emanu-El a couple weeks later.

The marker is part of the new Beth-El Civil Rights Experience, which explores the city’s civil rights history through the lens of the Jewish community’s experience, and works to build current connections. Phase II fundraising is currently underway.

When completed, the Experience will include an interactive exhibit, a short documentary film, self-guided audio tours of downtown Birmingham, and space for additional research, education and programming.

Several groups from across the country have already visited Beth-El as part of their civil rights tours in the area.

A “sneak peek” event for the Experience will be held on Aug. 25 at 5:30 p.m.

Talk on Pensacola Jewish history The Pensacola Heritage Foundation is offering a lecture on Pensacola’s Jewish Community, part of a year-long series on “Uncovering Pensacola’s History” presented by Norman Haines.

The lecture will be on July 12 at noon at the Wright Place inside First United Methodist Church.

Haines will detail the community’s origins in the 1700s with families like Joseph de Palacios, Samuel Israel, Alexander Solomons and Isaac Monsanto, and proceed to the present.

A gastroenterologist, Haines is a history buff who collected Civil War artifacts at Antietam when he was a child. For a time, he had a Civil War history museum in Pensacola, with artifacts he had collected, and medical technology from that era.

The talk is $5 for non-members, free to members. Lunch is available at 11:30 a.m. for $12 with advance reservations.

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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agenda

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Bentonville congregation closes doors On June 10, Congregation Etz Chaim of Northwest Arkansas in Bentonville held its final service. The service was held at Temple Shalom in Fayetteville, where the Etz Chaim memorial board will be housed.

According to President Jodi Prohofsky, the closing was “unavoidable” because membership was at an all-time low and not enough people were volunteering to keep the congregation going.

The congregation’s membership mainly consisted of employees of vendors to Wal-Mart, who were rotated in and out of the community and rarely stayed for more than a few years, making consistency difficult in the congregation’s activities.

The congregation was established in 2004 by 12 families, none of whom were native to the area. The next year, they purchased a former church and established the first synagogue building in Benton County.

In 2014, the building flooded, so they found a new home at Waterway Church. They finally found a small space of their own in December 2019, but when Covid hit, services went virtual.

In 2021, Cantor Sam Radwine, who had retired to the area with his husband, was ordained as a rabbi after leading the congregation for four years.

Because of the pandemic, the ordination ceremony was done virtually, making him joke about being the only rabbi ever ordained in Prairie Creek.

On Jan. 23, Etz Chaim decided to cut back the remote services to monthly, along with the news that Radwine had stated he would not be renewing his contract. Prohofsky wrote at the time that “we can’t thank him enough for all he has done for the congregation, for the community, and for so many of us personally.”

On March 6, the congregation announced it would be closing because of a lack of volunteers to take the congregation into next year, though the congregation was in good shape financially.

The board of Temple Shalom expressed “sadness” at the news, saying “Given the small size of the Jewish community in NWA, our congregations have always been intertwined, and we want to make sure that you, your members, and your guests know that you are welcome at Temple Shalom events and services whenever you may need community.”

A closing message from the Etz Chaim board stated that “many of our members will continue to be in the (Northwest Arkansas) area and therefore we are hopeful for continued opportunities to come together as a Jewish community.”

Virtual Vacation shows development of South Florida Jewish life

The next Virtual Vacation with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life goes to south Florida and explores how Jewish life in the Sunshine State developed.

“Boca on Broadway: ‘Road Show,’ Addison Mizner and Florida’s Jewish Boom” will explore the boom and bust story interpreted in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s musical “Road Show,” about the relationship between non-Jewish brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner, whose creative imagination and thirst for wealth shaped Palm Beach during the 1920s Florida land boom.

The program will be a conversation with three-time Tony nominee John Weidman and historians of Jewish Florida.

The program is live on June 28 at noon Central, on the ISJL Virtual Vacation website, and will be available online afterward.

In The Next Issue of

Southern Jewish Life:

Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience Celebration Saying Goodbye to Rabbi Deborah Silver

6 June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

agenda Center for Israel Education offers annual workshop for educators The Center for Israel Education in Atlanta has a new incentive for its 21st annual Educator Enrichment Workshop on Modern Israel. When three or more sign up from one institution, registration is free.

The educator enrichment workshop offers sessions that build a comprehensive understanding of modern Israel’s history, politics, economy, society and culture and that provide tools and tips for curriculum development and classroom experiences.

The free-for-three offer encourages, for example, Jewish day schools to send administrators and secular studies teachers as well as Judaics teachers to expand skills on implementing content into a curriculum that incorporates aspects of Israel across subjects and grade levels.

The workshop will be held online from July 24 to 26, with over 14 hours of learning available. For individual registrations, the fee is $75 until July 10, $150 after.

Sessions will be held from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern all three days, and from 7 to 8:30 Eastern the first two nights. For the benefit of those who cannot attend all sessions live or who wish the opportunity to review sessions later, CIE will make video recordings available to registered participants.

Registration and more details are available at israeled.org/workshop.

JNOLA hosting regional Festival Jew Orleans in October JNOLA, the young adult group at the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, is holding a festival and inviting their counterparts from around the region.

Registration opens on June 15 for Festival Jew Orleans, presented by the Oscar J. Tolmas Charitable Trust. The festival will be the weekend of Oct. 21, and includes the Halloween-themed Krewe of Boo parade.

JNOLA is the local group for ages 21 to 39, and similar groups in communities such as Austin, Birmingham and Charleston are being invited to participate.

Amanda Beyer Loflin, director of NextGen and Mentorship at the Federation, said “This three-day festival highlights the rich Jewish culture found in New Orleans.”

The weekend begins with a lunch on the rooftop of the Higgins Hotel.

Afternoon activity choices are a street mural tour or kayaking through the Besthoff Sculpture Garden at City Park. A Reform-style Shabbat service will be held at the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience, along with a museum tour and dinner.

On Oct. 22, there will be a Tikkun Olam project with a local non-profit, with lunch included. Afternoon options include a Jewish history tour or a visit to the Studio BE arts collective. In the evening, after a visit to the Holocaust memorial at the Riverfront, there will be a Second Line to Barcadia, where there will be Havdalah followed by the Krewe of Boo celebration and the JNOLA annual gala, and dressing for the parade is encouraged. After the parade, there will be time to explore the French Quarter and downtown.

On Oct. 23, there will be a Spiritual Yoga session, followed by a visit to the National World War II Museum for a self-guided tour that can be done before or after the farewell brunch.

Registration is $75 until Aug. 15 and $100 after, and space is limited.

There are two hotel block options available for those from out of town. All meals except breakfasts are included, and are kosher-style. Kosher meals can be requested.

Registration is at festivaljeworleans.eventbrite.com.

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Chabad of Huntsville announced that it is launching Aleph Academy, a half-day Jewish preschool for ages 18 months to 5 years, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. from early August to late May. The program will “provide a love of Judaism and learning through a blend of social, cognitive and physical experiences,” and is located on Holmes Avenue near the University of Alabama at Huntsville. Enrollment information is available at jewishhuntsville.com/aleph.

The gourmet cooking class B’nai Israel in Monroe was holding as a fundraiser for its Precious Legacy Museum and Archives in July has been postponed.

Popular American and Mediterranean Cuisine

There will be a Jewish community evening at the Blue Wahoos in Pensacola, July 3 at 6 p.m. The event is coordinated by Chabad of Pensacola, B’nai Israel and Temple Beth El. Tickets are $35 and include kosher food.

The Temple Beth Or Men’s Club in Montgomery will present the movie “GI Jews” on July 17 at 3 p.m. Pizza, salad and beverages will be served, and the community is invited. The 2018 film had its premiere on PBS and talks about the 550,000 Jewish men and women who served in World War II.

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The Birmingham Jewish Community Relations Council will host the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Supreme Court Review, presented virtually in partnership with the National Constitution Center, July 12 at 11 a.m. at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School. Legal scholars and Supreme Court analysts Dahlia Lithwick, Erwin Chemerinsky, Gregory C. Garre, Frederick Lawrence and Melissa Murray will discuss the important cases of the term including voting rights, church-state separation, reproductive rights and immigration. They will also discuss the impact of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination and confirmation to the Court, as well as what to expect at the Supreme Court next year. Participants are welcome to bring a brown bag dairy lunch. Drinks will be provided. Participating attorneys can earn 1.5 CLE. Birmingham Temple Emanu-El’s Shabbat Hilicha hike will be on July 16 at 10:30 a.m., meet at the Frankfurt Drive entrance to Red Mountain Park.

Beth Israel in Jackson will have a Havdallah and meat potluck, July 16 at 6:30 p.m. Rabbi Joseph Rosen will discuss important updates on Jewish communities around the world. The learning part will be available on Zoom.

Beth Shalom in Fort Walton Beach is reinstituting its Family Potluck Shabbat dinners, with the first one on July 1 at 6 p.m.

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

Chabad in Panama City Beach is offering Art in the Park on Wednesdays from 2 to 4 p.m. this summer, a children’s arts and crafts program centered on Jewish holidays. The program is led by artist Cynthia Gingold, and will meet in the rotunda at Conservation Park.

Temple Emanu-El in Tuscaloosa will do Lunch and a Show on July 24, for the 2 p.m. presentation of “Mamma Mia” at Shelton State. Lunch will be at 11:30 a.m. at La Gran Mexican Restaurant. Show tickets are $16 and reservations must be received at Emanu-El by July 7.

Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El will host a Red Cross blood drive, July 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Author T.K. Thorne will discuss her book, “Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days,” at B’nai Israel in Columbus, Miss., on July 16 at 3:30 p.m.

Chabad of Pensacola announced that it has started a morning minyan every Thursday, with the weekday Torah reading and a breakfast afterward. The minyan is at 9 a.m. continued on page 45

Louisiana Governor Hosts Israel Independence Day Celebration First official visit to state for new Israeli Consul General On May 5, leaders from Jewish communities in Louisiana gathered at the Governor’s Mansion as Governor John Bel Edwards hosted a ceremony marking Israel’s 74th birthday.

It was the first official visit to Louisiana by Israeli Consul General Livia Link-Raviv, who started serving the consulate in Houston last August.

The consulate is responsible for a five-state region, including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico.

“We had a very fruitful and interesting visit, and it was a great opportunity,” Link-Raviv said. She had been unable to travel previously because of the pandemic.

She praised Edwards for being “so generous in hosting” the event at the mansion, with a “beautiful proclamation” about Louisiana’s ties with Israel.

“All the Louisiana Jewish community was there with us,” she said, along with many elected officials from the legislature. “We felt the love and the famous Southern hospitality.”

She said “Everyone came together to celebrate, and it was a beautiful way for the governor to show his friendship to Israel, and I have to say in his term he has done a lot to bring Louisiana-Israel relations even closer.”

Chabad of Baton Rouge catered the kosher meal at the mansion.

In addition to Edwards’ proclamation, the Legislature passed a resolution on Israel’s 74th birthday. On the House floor, “it was very emotional

Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans CEO Arnie Fielkow, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, Israel Consul General Livia Link-Raviv and JFGNO President Brian Katz. standing there and hearing the House honor Israel on its 74th birthday,” Link-Raviv said. U.S. Rep Steve Scalise was standing with her.

Senate Resolution 107, by Sen. Robert Mills, and House Resolution 111, introduced by Rep. Valarie Hodges and 24 other co-signers, note that “the American people and the people of Louisiana feel a strong affinity for the Israeli people based on common values and shared cultural heritage,” and “does hereby congratulate Israel on the occasion of the seventy-fourth anniversary of its establishment, recognize the contributions of Israel to humankind, express support for the people of Israel for their right to live in freedom and to defend their land and their country, and extend its best wishes to the state of Israel and to the Israeli people for a

Traditions ENDURE

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

peaceful and prosperous future.”

She also met with House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, Sen. Bill Cassidy and Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, and looks forward to building a relationship with Rep. Troy Carter, Louisiana’s newest U.S. Representative.

In New Orleans, Link-Raviv attended the New Orleans community event at the Uptown Jewish Community Center, where there was a memorial event marking Israel Memorial Day, which ends into Israel Independence Day. “It’s always an interesting passage, from grief to celebration,” she explained. “In order to understand the celebration, we should understand the grief as well, so we remember the merits.”

She also met with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, discussing similarities between New Orleans and Israel, especially in culture and arts. She said over the coming year, Israel’s 75th birthday celebrations will be under the umbrella of the importance of bilateral relations, and events will be done in that manner “to show how important this bilateral relationship is to us and how much we have to be thankful for.”

She also visited Tulane University President Michael A. Fitts and the director of the U.S.-Israel Energy Center that is housed at Tulane.

She said they are looking forward to July’s Louisiana community and trade mission to Israel, coordinated by the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans. “They are aiming high and it looks like a major delegation, and we will support it in any way we can.”

But she also found that the support for Israel isn’t unanimous, as days

community before the Israel events, it was reported that the student senate at Louisiana State University passed a bill urging a boycott of Israel, including the energy center (story, page 13).

“It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Academia is the place where you should collaborate. That’s the best example of crossing borders and boundaries… to pursue better solutions for mankind. That’s what we do.”

She said “we strongly oppose the BDS movement. It only gets people further away, and that’s not the right direction.” Her direction is “strengthening and deepening the bilateral relations between Israel and our region,” and as a first visit, this was just a “taste” of Louisiana, and future visits will have much more concrete goals.

Link-Raviv has been a career diplomat in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the past 20 years. She has served in Caracas, Venezuela, as deputy ambassador, and in Rome, Italy, as Counsellor for Public Diplomacy. Before her diplomatic career, she practiced law as a mediator in family court.

Photos courtesy Kleinpeter Photography

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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community Flyers, church shooting raise concerns for Birmingham Jewish community

Southern Jewish Life Half-Way Mark

It’s hard to believe 2022 is half over. What a year it has been — so far.

Hardly a day goes by that you don’t read accounts of increasing verbal and physical attacks on Jews, Jewish institutions and Israel.

These incidents used to be a phenomenon that you’d see emanating from other points on the globe. But today such anti-Jewish, anti-Israel attacks are spreading in our country, including the Deep South.

Just read our current story on Louisiana State University’s Student Senate passing an anti-Israel BDS bill. As always with major stories, we not only tell you what happened, but also why and how it happened and what it means for our region.

Of course, we cover more than antisemitism.

Our stories on Jews making an impact in our region and beyond have become increasingly popular, and the in-depth look we take at happenings and trends affecting Jewish life in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Northwest Florida are a reflection of the unique way Southern Jewish Life connects people and communities.

Our recent story on how University of Alabama at Birmingham pediatrician Dr. Morissa Ladinsky’s Judaism has empowered her in her fight against Alabama’s new restrictive transgender law, and our accompanying interview with a Jewish transgender male raised in the Deep South, has drawn much praise.

We are excited about the second half of the year.

We’ll continue to mail Southern Jewish Life free to every known Jewish household in our region, and further introduce our new magazine, Israel InSight, along with developing other new ideas.

These are important times not only for our magazine but also for our regional Jewish community. The growing number of donors who have contributed to Southern Jewish Life can be proud of what they’ve helped us achieve in the past six months alone.

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

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

As the Birmingham Jewish community planned for its first Community Security Meeting and training on June 29, events in the community reiterated the importance of the new community security initiative.

The June 29 forum is the community introduction to Jeff Brown, who has been hired to be the regional security advisor for the Jewish community, in coordination with the Secure Communities Network. Approximately 60 Jewish communities in the U.S. now have professional, fulltime security coordinators.

The weekend of June 4, there were numerous reports of antisemitic flyers in over the mountain neighborhoods in the Birmingham area. And on June 16, a gunman opened fire at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Cahaba Heights, killing three at a potluck dinner. The church is a couple of blocks from Knesseth Israel and the Bais Ariel Chabad Center, and across the street from the facility used by Collat Jewish Family Services for its CJFS CARES program.

Robert Findlay Smith, 70, was charged with capital murder. He had attended the church before, but no motive for the attack has been revealed.

All of the local Jewish congregations and institutions issued statements of support and solidarity, as well as tightening security for Shabbat services that weekend though there was no report of a continued threat.

Temple Beth-El had been scheduled to have a Pop-Up Kabbalat Shabbat at Railroad Park on June 17 and moved it back to their building, which turned out to be a good move anyway because of thunderstorms.

The Mobile Area Jewish Federation also sent “heartbroken” condolences, saying “we will never be silent in the wake of violence that threatens anyone in their safe havens of worship.”

The flyers were distributed by a group calling itself the Goyim Defense League, and numerous cities were targeted around the country during the weekend. Reportedly, the group wants to distribute flyers in all 50 states by the end of the year.

According to SCN, the national leadership of GDL is not known to be violent, but has been engaged in a lengthy campaign to spread antisemitic leaflets in communities across the country. Nevertheless, “they still pose a significant threat with their potential to inspire their followers to commit acts of violence.”

During a GDL campaign in Austin last October, there was an arson attack at Beth Israel, with an 18-year-old arrested and charged. There is no clear connection between the suspect and GDL, but SCN says the arsonist fits the profile of a GDL follower.

Other GDL distributions in early June took place in Tampa, Fla.; Peabody, Mass.; and Wilmette, Ill. In April, they spread flyers in Cartersville and Atlanta, Ga. In February, flyers asserting “Every single aspect of the Biden administration is Jewish” were circulated in Florence. The previous month in Florence and in Tuscumbia in December, flyers were about the “COVID agenda,” which GDL claims is exclusively to the benefit of Jews and the detriment of the rest of society.

The group is also known for displaying antisemitic banners on those themes from overpasses on highways, and doing “Name the Nose Tours.”

They also have an online video presence.

When flyers appear, SCN recommends not posting images of them online, as that helps them spread their message. Instead, alert law enforcement, though such flyers are protected under the First Amendment unless they incite to violence.

Over the course of the summer, Brown will be introduced to the Jewish community and there will be a series of security awareness training sessions for the community.

community Student Senate at Louisiana State University passes BDS bill Pro-Israel students excluded from the discussion In a move that received almost no publicity until well after the fact, the Student Senate at Louisiana State University passed a bill that urges the university to divest from firms that “profit from or engage in human rights violations,” with a focus on “Occupied Palestine.”

Though the resolution was passed on April 20, the final student government meeting of the academic year, it was not publicized until Cooperation Rouge touted it on its social media over a week later.

On May 1, Cooperation Rouge, a self-described “Marxist-Leninist student organization,” announced that it had passed “the first Student Government BDS bill in Louisiana and the 2nd such bill in the south.” It was May 16 before there was any additional notice, in the student newspaper LSU Reveille.

The bill passed 36-0, with 10 abstentions from those who In 2021, this brochure urging armed wanted more specifics on who “liberation” was distributed by antiwould be subject to a boycott. Israel activists at LSU The bill further pledges student government support for any such effort to get the university to divest, including establishment of a faculty-student committee to investigate those corporations.

Cooperation Rouge founder Soheil Saneei, who wrote the bill, told the LSU Reveille that the bill was modeled after the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement against Israel. “Then we thought about how we could relate it to more people,” and sections were added to include human rights violations through prison labor, to migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, and environmental concerns for residents in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” around petrochemical plants.

Despite the broadening in focus, the only entities singled out by name in the resolution are Israeli.

The Tiger Prison Project and Students for Justice in Palestine at LSU were also involved in the resolution’s passage.

Minna Ismail, SJP LSU president, said “the fact that LSU students have managed to pass this BDS bill is a monumental step for the university, as well as the Southern region of the United States.” The Jenin native added that it is difficult to get the attention of those who feel something half a world away has no effect on them.

Claire Neal, president of Tigers for Israel and a campus fellow for Jewish National Fund, said there was no advance notice that a resolution like this was being discussed, and she was not aware of it until the coordinator for the Jewish On Campus Coalition contacted her afterward for a reaction.

The Student Senate has not posted meeting agendas or minutes online for the last couple of months.

Neal said it was “sickening” that SJP and Cooperation Rouge announced the passage on the first day of Jewish American Heritage Month, in the week between Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel Independence Day,” and this was the final straw “after over a year of being bullied, both myself and my club, by these organizations.”

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The Jewish community on campus is very small, with Hillel International estimating 350 Jewish students out of around 26,000 undergraduates. Neal said that a group chat for Chabad at LSU has 35 members and the Hillel chat has 62, but “not many are politically active on campus” and fewer want to speak up about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

In January, Tigers for Israel and LSU Hillel co-hosted a program with Charlotte Korchak, senior educator and director of international student programs at StandWithUs, which advocates for Israel on campus.

The Tigers for Israel statement about the “disgusting bill” said “It does not go unnoticed that the student government has elected to exclude the minute Jewish population from its radar… As one of the smallest minorities on campus, the Student Government neglects us, as we are never included in their push for ‘diversity and cultural inclusivity.’ This bill makes it worse.”

Neal asked why the student body, especially the Jewish community, was not made aware that this was being discussed.

In an email to the student government, Neal said the resolution perpetuates “a false narrative and simplification of a complex geo-political conflict,” and “singles out and condemns anything with ties to Israel, ignoring the fact that most Jews support the existence of the State of Israel.”

The coalition supporting the bill touted its diversity, including Jewish support, in the form of the New Orleans chapter of the fringe anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace. “The tokenization of Jews that support their beliefs, especially those that neither live in Baton Rouge nor go to LSU, does not go unnoticed to the Jewish students on campus,” Neal said.

Arnie Fielkow, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, said everyone in Louisiana should support human rights, but BDS “is a failed tactic which has proven to be unsuccessful throughout the country” and has been condemned by the Louisiana Legislature and the governor.

“We continue to hope that a Two-State solution can be found to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and the BDS strategy does nothing to further advance that goal,” he added. The Abraham Accords show peace possibilities between Israel and the Arab world are very much alive, and our focus and attention should be directed towards the new economic, cultural and peace prospects throughout the Middle East.”

On May 5, Governor John Bel Edwards hosted an Israel Independence Day celebration at the Governor’s Mansion, attended by representatives from Jewish communities across the state, and Israeli Consul General Livia Link-Raviv from the Consulate in Houston.

Link-Raviv also met with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Senator Bill Cassidy, Reps. Troy A. Carter and Steve Scalise, Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, and Tulane President Michael A. Fitts. She also visited the U.S.-Israel Energy Center at Tulane.

In May 2018, Gov. John Bel Edwards issued an executive order forbidding state agencies from doing business with companies or entities that participate in boycotts of Israel. The next year, the Louisiana Legislature codified the anti-BDS move into law, passing a bill unanimously.

The 2019 bill noted “The state of Louisiana unequivocally rejects the BDS campaign and stands firmly with Israel.”

When issuing his executive order, Edwards said “The United States, and by affiliation Louisiana, have benefited in innumerable ways from our deep friendship with Israel. Any effort to boycott Israel is an affront to this longstanding relationship.”

Edwards was part of an October 2018 Louisiana trade mission to Israel, and this summer there is a statewide Israel mission with three different industry tracks.

Litany of Accusations Cooperation Rouge considers Israel to be a white supremacist nation, and promotes a bi-national Israeli and Palestinian state that “enfranchises both groups of people.” Given how the Palestinian leadership insists there will be no Jewish presence in a future Palestinian state, Israel advocates

community say calls for a bi-national state are delusional and will lead to the elimination of Jewish self-determination, with either subjugation or ethnic cleansing being the result.

The bill states that “Occupied Palestine is defined as the area of historic Palestine occupied by the state of Israel in June 1967,” which is still vague as to if it refers to areas conquered by Israel in the defensive war that took place that month, or if it includes all of Israel up to the armistice lines before the 1967 war, as Palestinian groups advocate for “liberation” from “the river to the sea,” the entire region from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, and consider places like Haifa and Tel Aviv to be “occupied.”

The bill was submitted by Senators Lyric Mandell, Harris Quadir and Cooper Ferguson.

Mandell is a doctoral student in media and public affairs at the Manship School of Mass Communication. She researches the effect of mass media representations of marginalized groups and the influences those portrayals have on audiences, including “antisemitic and stereotypical images in television and news coverage,” according to her website.

Her Master’s thesis at the University of Houston was “Oy Vey! Has Jewish television depiction really come a long way?”

The resolution accuses Israel of “massacres of Palestinians in Gaza,” asserts “institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians in Israeli universities” and refers to “illegal settlements” in the territories. It also refers to Israel as having an apartheid system, citing Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations, all of which have demonstrated long-standing hostility to Israel and whose recent apartheid reports have been debunked.

The resolution also takes aim at LSU’s involvement in the U.S. Israel Energy Center, mentioning involvement with Tel Aviv University, Haifa

University, the Israel Institute of Technology and the Geological Survey of Israel (See sidebar, page 17).

The resolution states that Tel Aviv University developed Israel’s “Dayhiya (sic) Doctrine,” which it says “encompasses the destruction of the civilian infrastructure of countries deemed hostile,” and that it violates the Geneva Convention’s prohibition of collective punishment for innocent civilians.

The Dahiya Doctrine is named for a neighborhood in Beirut where Israel bombed large apartment buildings in the 2006 Lebanon war, as they were also being used as command centers for Hezbollah, and Hezbollah Recent social media post by bunkers were built underneath Students for Justice in Palestine, LSU the buildings. The doctrine calls for “disproportionate force” against such installations to send a message to terrorist groups that turn civilian areas into military targets.

Tigers for Israel, in its statement, said “The LSU Student Government needs to do its research before passing an ignorant bill such as this one,” which was passed without seeking student input and counterarguments.

The group said the BDS movement “will hide behind the mask of supporting human rights, but BDS in and of itself puts the state of Israel and its inhabitants at risk.”

SJP, the statement noted, “continuously bullies Zionist and Jewish students, as well as perpetuates antisemitic conspiracies and double standards.”

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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Neal said she finds it “very interesting that the very people promoting this bill and the passing of the legislation are the ones that have bullied me and other Jews ever since we stood up for ourselves in May of last year,” when an on-campus March for Palestine was organized.

On May 14, 2021, SJP, the Black Student Union and Cooperation Rouge organized the march, and the student government placed a statement on its web page that “we aim to represent all students and therefore cannot amplify domestic issues while ignoring struggles that our international students may face.”

The Reveille reported that a student government associate justice, Rehm Maham, said at the time that the government post violated guidelines about the president speaking on behalf of the council, and that it was “dangerous” for student government to be supporting a “radical” group like Cooperation Rouge, which retweeted posts celebrating Hamas bombings of Israeli civilians.

The student government post was removed a few hours later after over 400 comments, most of which were critical of the protest, the newspaper said.

Among the signs at the rally was one stating Israel is “the murderers of humanity.”

Recent online posts by SJP at LSU include “in blood and spirit we will redeem you oh martyr — down with Israel,” “Zionists are racists, xenophobic fascists,” “Israel is a settler colonial fascist state. Stop trying to romanticize or justify Israel’s realization of Jewish statehood. For as long as it is at the cost of Palestinian lives and sovereignty it is void of any legitimacy or morality.”

A booklet, “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free in our lifetime, Palestinian Solidarity at LSU” details activity of the “Zionist lobby” at LSU, such as a presentation on antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League, or the presence of Black students who attended the AIPAC Policy Conference, who the author says were “recruited” and “indoctrinated” so they could “escape the struggling masses by leaping into the arms of oppressors.”

The booklet accuses Zionists of “weaponizing” Jewish identity to silence critics, and directly compares Zionism to Nazi Germany, saying the methods are different but both are concerned with a “final solution” to an “unwanted human element.”

Recent studies have shown a correlation between a rise in antisemitic harassment on campus with the presence of an active SJP chapter.

Misbegotten Resolution In January 2018, the New Orleans City Council waded into the BDS controversy by passing a resolution, sponsored by a coalition of left-wing 16

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

community

What is the U.S.-Israel Energy Center at LSU? Louisiana’s U.S.-Israel Energy Center was established in 2020, one of three centers in the U.S. The Louisiana center focuses on improving the safety, efficiency and sustainability of offshore natural gas production.

A 2020 announcement stated that the consortium, called GoMed and led by Tulane University, includes researchers from LSU, the University of Louisiana system, Argonne National Laboratory, Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, the Israel Institute of Technology, the Geological Survey of Israel, and Delek Drilling.

The Louisiana initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy and Israel’s Ministry of Energy partners with industry and develop and deploy new and critical technologies for the fossil energy, energy storage, and energy-water nexus sectors.

“The U.S.-Israel Energy Center was a brainchild, in part, of former Sen. Mary Landrieu and carried forward by Rep. Steve Scalise and Sen. Bill Cassidy,” LSU Petroleum Engineering faculty member Karsten Thompson said. “Louisiana universities worked together early on, with Tulane as the lead, to prepare a competitive proposal targeting the fossil energy side of the broader energy efforts,” and while it focuses on Eastern Mediterranean offshore gas production, the initiative have the potential to also strengthen Louisiana’s energy infrastructure.

In 2011, Landrieu organized the first oil and gas trade mission to Israel, with a followup trip the following year. In 2014 she introduced the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Enhancement Bill, to further the collaboration between the U.S. and Israel on energy development, and spoke at the inaugural U.S.-Israel Energy Summit in New Orleans in August 2014.

The U.S. Department of Energy and Israel’s Ministry of Energy signed an implementation agreement on June 25, 2018., establishing the Center. In February 2019, the DOE announced the Israel – U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation as the Center’s operating agent. groups led by the New Orleans Palestinian Solidarity Committee, calling for a review of city investments to make sure the “welcoming city” does not invest in companies “whose practices consistently violate human rights, civil rights or labor rights, or corporations whose practices egregiously contradict efforts to create a prosperous, educated, healthy and equitable society.” It did not specifically reference Israel.

After the vote, the resolution, which was introduced in a stealth move at the end of a lengthy meeting under a vote to suspend the rules, was immediately touted by anti-Israel groups as a major victory for BDS, much to the expressed surprise of the city council. Council members said they had understood the resolution to be humanitarian and not aimed at any particular country, and at the next meeting, there was a lengthy, passionate discussion before the council rescinded the measure.

During the second meeting, anti-Israel groups chanted over and tried to drown out those who spoke out against BDS, while there was silence during the anti-Israel speakers’ presentations, including when a New Orleans Palestinian Solidarity Committee spokesperson accused the Anti-Defamation League of murdering Muslims and Blacks in the United States, called all opponents of the resolution Islamophobes, and said that politicians opposed to “human rights” are doing so because of campaign contributions from “the Zionist lobby” and its “scorched-earth policy.”

After the meeting was adjourned, Palestinian activists continued to chant in the hallways and lobbies for another 20 minutes.

Requests for comment about the LSU Student Senate resolution have not been answered by the LSU student government and administration, Governor Edwards’ office or LSU Hillel.

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community Richard Berenson Stone remembered as passionate leader for world Jewry New Orleans native who headed Conference of Presidents, Soviet Jewry advocacy, died suddenly

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At a time when the State of Israel needed someone to speak up for it, New Orleans native Richard Stone’s legal and courtroom skills were indispensable for constructing arguments to answer its critics.

“No one could articulate a case for Israel like him. He would argue it like a Supreme Court case. He’d build a thoughtful argument based on facts,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, longtime executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Stone suffered a burst artery and passed away suddenly in New York on May 29 at the age of 79.

“Facts and truths were irrefutable, and he used them to answer false allegations about Israel, many made by Jewish Israel detractors,” Gerald Platt, president of the American Friends of Likud, told JNS. “Often times, decisions have to be made that alternate between either being correct or being smart… and they don’t always overlay. Richard was able to flesh out details from a particular problem and formulate a plan that would best use the abilities of both the correct and smart perspectives. I was able to use his keen mind to help me sort out some issues in the political Jewish world… not an easy feat,” added Platt.

A giant in the field of Jewish leadership, Stone served as chairman of the Conference of Presidents, representing more than 50 of the most influential American Jewish nonprofits. He was also the longtime president of the National Coalition for Soviet Jewry, later renamed the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry.

“Richard was the embodiment of a selfless leader, working diligently behind the scenes for the benefit of the Jewish people without fanfare or recognition,” Arthur Stark, immediate past chairman of the Conference of Presidents, told JNS. Malcolm Hoenlein, who has served at the Conference of Presidents for 36 years, described Stone as his best friend — a consensus-builder who Jewish figures turned to long after Stone’s official leadership days were over.

“World leaders and leaders of Israel respected him. Everyone thought they were his good friend. He was someone that didn’t put on any airs, though he could and warranted it. He didn’t suffer fools and those who

White House Photo

U.S. President Joe Biden, Malcolm Hoenlein and Richard Stone.

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

community engaged in the division or harmful activities towards Israel. He was truly someone who loved Klal Yisrael and could work with Jews from across the spectrum,” Hoenlein told JNS. “He was the most eloquent, knowledgeable chairman of the Conference of Presidents during the years I’ve been a delegate to that organization,” said Josh Katzen, who represented the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Accuracy at the umbrella group and is also the publisher of JNS. “He remained involved until his passing and was universally respected for his intelligence, wit and commitment. He devoted himself so incredibly to the chairmanship.”

William Daroff, who succeeded Hoenlein as executive vice chair of the Conference of Presidents, said Stone “was a once-in-a-generation Jewish leader and thinker who had a tremendous positive influence on American Jewish life. He was also a dear friend and mentor who will be deeply missed.”

Mark Levin, executive vice chair of NCSEJ, said Stone was involved in the cause of Soviet Jewry from its beginnings, citing a 1973 trip Stone made with Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, “going from one end of the country to the other.

“They arrived in Moscow not knowing that Israel had been invaded and was fighting for its survival,” Levin said. “They learned of the war through their meetings with Jewish activists who were listening clandestinely to banned international short-wave radio reports.”

Levin said Stone told him “this trip was one of the defining moments in his life” and was a motivation in fighting for Soviet Jewry and Israel.

In January 2013, Stone and Telushkin held a conversation in New Orleans to kick off the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans’ centennial celebraton.

Stone’s friends, seemingly made instantaneously, remember him as someone who would always give of himself — his time, his effort, his wisdom — but never considered himself indispensable.

Stone had been serving as the longtime chairman of the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs when Steven Savitsky took over as the OU’s president. Savitsky is a believer in term limits, feeling the need to inject fresh ideas and new energy into organizations.

“I came to [Richard] with great trepidation to tell him I didn’t want him to be chairman anymore, even though he had done a great job. I went through a long speech, and he cut me off and said, ‘What is it that you want?’ I went with him through my thinking how organizations, especial-

ly Jewish organizations, are better off with term limits,” Savitsky told JNS. “Richard looked at me and said, ‘I agree with you. I was just waiting for someone to tell me I didn’t have to do this anymore’.”

‘A chameleon who felt at home anywhere’ Richard Berenson Stone was born in New Orleans. His father was a prestigious attorney and his mother was considered a queen of sorts in the local Jewish community. He also spoke with pride of his roots in Bogalusa, making sure the town was cited in a 2012 Jerusalem Post profile.

In 2014, at the installation of Rabbi Gabe Greenberg at Beth Israel in Metairie, Stone spoke of the Yiddishkeit he got from the congregation and from his grandparents in Bogalusa.

“Over the years I discovered how many great scholars in the European yeshivas ended up briefly in Bogalusa or were related to people in Bogalusa,” he said.

“We had Yiddishkeit in the air in Bogalusa,” but also “on my father’s side at Beth Israel on Carondelet Street,” and he often returned to Beth Israel, including the weekend before Katrina.

Stone attended Greenberg’s installation in memory of a favorite cousin who died young after having three children — one of whom was the mother of Greenberg’s wife, Abby.

Graduating first in his class at Isidore Newman High School in 1960, Stone made his way to Harvard University following a year of study at Mercaz Harav, the yeshivah in Israel founded by Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.

Stone graduated with honors from Harvard before matriculating to Harvard Law School, where he was selected to the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Beginning his career in private practice in Washington, Stone was appointed a Deputy Solicitor General in the Office of the U.S. Solicitor General. He tried 10 cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court while representing the government.

In accepting the 2014 Distinguished Alumnus award at Newman, Stone said that when he was preparing to argue his first case before the Supreme Court, he focused and relaxed by picturing himself in Newman’s auditorium, doing a speech for student government.

After working in Washington, he moved to New York City, where he served for decades as a popular faculty member at Columbia Law School, specializing in tax law. He also served as the mayor’s Manhattan representative on the Board of the City Universities of New York during the

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

administration of Rudy Giuliani.

Since 1991, Stone held the Wilbur Friedman Chair in Tax Law at the Colubia University Law School.

A venture capitalist, he also co-founded several biotechnology companies, including Lev Pharmaceuticals; Powermat, a global player in wireless device charging; and was chair of Espro Acoustiguide, the second largest provider of hardware for acoustical museum guides.

Stone came to Orthodox Judaism later in life and returned to Israel a number of times to study Talmudic law. He noted on more than one occasion that his education at Mercaz Harav was often more rigorous than what Harvard provided.

His work during his chairmanship of NCSJ brought him to the forefront of the Jewish world. That Cold War and Soviet Union breakup period featured a series of protests in support of Jews wishing to emigrate to Israel and the United States. He chaired the policy arms of the Orthodox Union and the New York Jewish Community Relations Council.

Stone co-founded several businesses, and later in life became a significant investor in a number of Israeli tech companies and startups, while finding the time to pursue his passion for fishing, often in isolated areas of Louisiana.

Martin Oliner, co-president of the Religious Zionists of America, remembers Stone as a man who could find his place in any setting.

“He was always a pleasure to be with, a real raconteur. He was a chameleon who felt at home anywhere. He was always entertaining but always focused at the same time. Richard was a man of many, many talents,” Oliner told JNS. Stone is survived by his ex-wife, Suzanne Stone, a professor and director of the Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at Yeshiva University’s law school, and their children: Rebecca Stone, Ilana Stone, Aliza Stone Howard and Mikey Stone; and six grandchildren. He is also survived by a brother, Harvey Stone of New York City, and a sister, Carol Wright Stone of New Orleans.

A funeral was held at West Side Institutional Synagogue on May 31.

His burial will be in Israel, where he was in the process of purchasing an apartment and applying for citizenship.

Hoenlein says he intends to assist with an effort to get the Israeli government to grant Stone that citizenship.

As for Platt, he noted that Stone’s passing hasn’t yet sunk in. “His wit, intelligence, friendship and camaraderie will be sorely missed. But mostly, his tapping me on my shoulder and saying, ‘my boy’.”

A symposium on the structure and design of the Temple in Jerusalem will be held in Oxford, Miss., in July.

Hatikva Ministries, which explores the Hebraic roots of Christianity, is putting on the seminar, which will run from July 25 to 28 at the Castle Hill Resort.

Hanoch Young will be the keynote speaker. He is a licensed, Orthodox Israeli tour guide who specializes in giving tours to Christian and other non-Jewish Zionist groups, and lectures extensively in Christian settings in the United States, promoting the Jewish roots of Christianity and mutual respect for the two faiths.

Young said the organizers of “A Day in the Temple” are experts on the Temple period, and the conference is usually held in Orlando. The conference is led by Joseph Good and Edgar Ramos.

Good, leader of Hatikva Ministries, has taught and researched Hebraic values and concepts “in the context of the non-Jew” for three decades, and has written on Rosh Hashanah, the Book of Esther, the Mishna and Tosefta, and the Temple compound. His research was featured on an episode of “Naked Archaeologist” on the History Channel.

Information is available at jerusalemtemplestudy.com.

community From a Kibbutz to Bryant Denny to serving the worldwide Jewish community

By Richard Friedman Truth, as the old saying goes, is stranger than fiction.

So… did you hear about the Israeli kibbutz girl who barely knew English who wound up as one of the halftime dancers during an Alabama football game at the height of the Bear Bryant era?

“It was surreal,” said Esti Applebaum, shaking her head and laughing about the experience more than 40 years later.

But maybe no more surreal than Hal Applebaum, an 18-year-old from Tuscaloosa, sitting down to dinner at Esti’s kibbutz five years earlier, and taking one look at the 16-year-old Israeli girl serving the food and deciding he was going to marry her.

And he did. They got married in 1978 at Esti’s childhood home, Kibbutz Ma’ale HaHamisha.

That love-at-first-sight encounter launched a remarkable journey for the young couple that would take them back to Tuscaloosa, then back to Israel, Eugene, Ore., San Francisco and to Denver, where they live today.

Though it’s been a diverse journey, and they’ve had three sons along the way, wherever the Applebaums have gone they’ve made a big impact on Jewish life.

For the last 11 years, Hal has worked out of his Denver home as a senior vice president and managing director for the Jerusalem-based Jewish Agency for Israel, educating the American Jewish community about the agency’s work and raising money on its behalf.

Chatting via Zoom recently, Hal called it his dream job. He pointed with pride to the impact the Jewish Agency has had helping Jews immigrate to Israel, with more than 4 million immigrants over the past nine decades, deepening connections between the global Jewish community and Israel, and closing socio-economic gaps in Israeli society.

What brought them to Denver was a job Hal took as statewide executive director for Hillels of Colorado. Before that, he directed the Israel Center at the San Francisco Jewish Federation and also served as Hillel director at the University of Oregon.

Esti has been a superb and supportive partner along the way; teaching Hebrew and Judaic studies in synagogues and day schools, promoting Judaism, and educating about Israel and Israeli culture wherever they have gone.

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Always Excited After they were married and returned to Israel, the Applebaums lived there for 17 years.

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Jewish Agency for Israel that he works for today) Hal often met with American groups who came to visit, always excited to welcome people from Alabama.

In 2001, they came back to the U.S. “In Israel, we had a tourism and seminar business that was all-consuming,” explained Hal. “We were working nonstop. We just needed a break from what we were doing. And my father had passed away suddenly a couple of years before, and we felt a strong pull to connect in a more meaningful way with the American side of the family.”

It also was a challenging time in Israel. The Palestinian leadership had just launched a devastating war of terror against Israel’s civilian population marked by repeated suicide bombings. “It affected our business. It affected our personal life. We wanted to take a break, which we felt would be temporary,” said Hal. They left Israel intending to go back. But life in the U.S. turned out to be fulfilling as they found new ways to serve the Jewish people and work for Israel. “We found a lot of satisfaction. We also started facing college costs for our sons. Life just sort of happened.”

Now 65, there’s not only a yearning in Hal for Israel but also for Alabama.

He describes himself as a proud third generation Alabama Jew — one grandfather was born in Birmingham and most of the family from that generation built their lives in Alabama. “My friends who stayed in Alabama have roots and a sense of place I don’t have. But I have no regrets.”

This Jewish philanthropic leader had a great upbringing in Tuscaloosa.

His family had a successful retail shoe business, he had a grandfather who took him to Israel when he was 11, and he was the number one player on a Tuscaloosa High School tennis team that won the state championship.

In addition, at one point his family lived next door to Bryant, the legendary Alabama football coach, and his wife, Mary Harmon, and he’d spend time with them and swim in their pool.

Growing up, Hal’s plan was to return to Tuscaloosa and go into the family business. Until he spent a year in Israel as a college student. “I fell in love with the girl, I fell in love with the kibbutz and I fell in love with the country and the people of Israel.”

Culture Shock Esti, also talking via Zoom, reflected on her life. Growing up on a kibbutz outside of Jerusalem, she assumed she’d live in Israel her whole life — and still misses her family and country.

Landing in Tuscaloosa shortly after they were married, Esti, who could barely speak English at the time, enrolled at the University of Alabama. “It was a culture shock.”

One thing she knew was that she didn’t like football. “I thought it was violent and aggressive.”

She became a theater and dance major, which is how she wound up dancing on the field at halftime. Just as people say “Israel works its magic,” so does Alabama football.

“It took a year or two, until I was completely immersed — and then I wound up loving it,” said Esti in perfect English. “To this day, 40 years later, I still love Alabama football.”

And more than 40 years later, her husband still loves Israel — and the kibbutz girl who served him dinner.

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community Mikvah Manager The transition is here for newly-unified Baton Rouge congregation The transition is well underway for the Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge.

On June 3, the newly-combined congregation said goodbye to Rabbis Batsheva Appel and Teri Appleby, who led the previous congregations on an interim basis for the last two years as the merger process was underway, along with Appleby’s husband, Jon Leo, who led music over the past two years.

The congregation now welcomes its first rabbi as a unified congregation, Rabbi Sarah Smiley, as of July 1, and says farewell to the sanctuary at the Kleinert Avenue location, the former B’nai Israel.

The Kleinert property will undergo a major renovation and expansion over the next 18 months, to become the hub of Jewish life in Baton Rouge, thanks to resolutions passed at a congregational meeting on May 26.

During the renovation, the congregation will meet at the Jefferson Highway location, the former Beth Shalom. That property will ultimately be sold.

At the May meeting, the congregation overwhelmingly authorized construction and bridge loans for the renovations, authorized short-term financing not to exceed the level of pledges in a capital campaign, and approved long-term financing of a small percentage of the project in case fundraising falls short of the project’s overall cost.

While Appel and Appleby are leaving Baton Rouge, they will remain together this coming year. Appel will be the interim rabbi at Temple Israel in Omaha, while Appleby and Leo are moving to Omaha to be near their granddaughters.

Appel led the June 3 service herself, as Appleby was ill that evening.

Karen Ceppos was invited to light the Shabbat candles, as she had known Appleby from a different community, before their time in Baton Rouge.

At one point, when Appel announced to “stand and sit as you wish,” she added, “We are still bringing two groups together and each has a slightly different approach” to what parts of the service are for standing.

Congregational President Steven Cavalier made a presentation on behalf of the congregation, with Leo standing in for Appleby.

“The last two years have been challenging, interesting, difficult and exciting, all at the same time,” he said. The rabbis arrived at “a time of unknowns” when “we were at the first height of Covid and learning how to function as two congregations in a community in a pandemic” and in the midst of “hard work trying to shape the future of the Baton Rouge community.”

He said, “With steady hands and leadership, you helped us navigate through these difficult times and decisions.”

A handout was distributed to the congregants and read in unison, saying “as a community we thank you for being our rabbis, teachers and leaders.”

It ended with a blessing, “May God bless you on this new path, may you be blessed with health and contentment, may God protect you and

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community comfort you, may all your prayers be answered.”

Appel said the Baton Rouge community “is at the stage of potentiality. There is so much potential here, so much fertile ground, so much water… there are so many talents and so much abundance in this area.”

She urged the congregation to be itself, saying “this community is going to find its biggest strengths when you are exactly who you are, the Unified Jewish Congregation of Baton Rouge…

You have the opportunity to be blessed in every aspect of who you are as a Jewish community.”

Leo noted how his wife was disappointed to be joining the service on YouTube instead of in person. “This has been a very bizarre two years, and every one of you has experience the most bizarre two years of your lives,” he said. “It’s been especially tough to be a congregational rabbi when you can’t be with your congregation in a personal, intimate way” due to a pandemic.

He said there will be struggles moving forward, “but one of the most gratifying developments in the last two years is to see the overwhelming majority by which both congregations decided to unify.”

He charged the congregants to “be bold, really think what it is you would like to be as a Jewish community,” and noted those in the Jewish community and many “special people” in the non-Jewish community who come to the Jewish community to study and attend services.

“We are grateful to have been part of this for the past two years,” Leo said.

Appel concluded the service by noting it was the 50th anniversary, to the day, of Rabbi Sally Priesand becoming the first ordained female rabbi in North America. There had been a Zoom the previous evening to mark the occasion.

Appel said it was unusual for a community like Baton Rouge to be served by two female rabbis, but that ceremony 50 years ago “made it possible for both of us to be your rabbis.”

She concluded the service with the benediction Priesand recited the previous evening, which included “Each one of us is a piece of priceless mosaic in the design of the universe… may all that we are and all that we do bring blessing to our community and honor to Your name.”

The congregation planned to hold welcome weekends for Smiley, with a 6:30 p.m. service and casual Shabbat dinner on July 1, and a layled Shabbat morning minyan at 10 on July 2.

On July 8, Kabbalat Shabbat will be at 6:30 p.m., followed by a “sweet and savory oneg,” and on July 9, 9:30 a.m. bagels and Torah study will be followed by a 10:30 a.m. service and luncheon.

Smiley will also conduct a Farewell to B’nai Sanctuary on July 7 at 6 p.m., with a wine and cheese reception to follow. This will be the final event in the old B’nai Israel sanctuary before the renovations begin.

community Mayors of Greensboro, Louisville among AJC delegation to Israel

By Richard Friedman “It was an amazing trip. It was an experience I will never forget. I know I want to go back.

There is nothing like being there. I think I am a better person for having been on that trip.”

That’s how Greensboro, N.C., Mayor Nancy Vaughan summed up her late March trip to Israel as she spoke at the Greensboro Jewish Federation’s annual meeting on June 1.

Vaughan and a bipartisan delegation of mayors from throughout the country visited Israel through Project Interchange, an institute of the American Jewish Committee. The Israel educational seminar is a joint initiative of The United States Conference of Mayors and AJC. What especially impressed Vaughan was “the spirit of optimism and perseverance” that she saw in the Israeli people despite the challenges they confront living in a country that continues to face formidable adversaries.

She reflected on her visit to a kibbutz. “I had the opportunity to visit the schools and the industry there. One thing that struck me was the number of bomb shelters, all painted beautiful colors. The reason they were there was pretty

stunning — seeing how people have to live their life every day.”

The group, she said, learned about Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which, along with a helicopter tour of the country, helped her and her colleagues appreciate how small the country is.

While she was in Israel, there were two terror attacks, one relatively close to her hotel. “It was very upsetting for the country and upsetting for us… it is really shocking to see these acts of terrorism.”

Toward the end of the trip, the group visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

“I have to say that I was really not prepared for that. It is an amazing place. I know we all left different than when we walked through the doors… The world knew what was going on at the time and let it go on.”

The Greensboro mayor related the experience to the challenges our country is facing today with growing hatred and violence against targeted groups. “We talk about never forgetting.

Yet we see the rise in antisemitism and other hate crimes. We have to remember all of the

Mayors Nancy Vaughan of Greensboro, N.C., and Greg Fischer of Louisville, Ky. people who perished for no good reason.”

Louisville’s Mayor Another Southern mayor who participated, Louisville’s Greg Fischer, was impressed by Israel’s “all-consuming focus on protecting the Jewish state.”

In an email exchange after his trip, he also observed that “innovation is everywhere, and that Israel has demonstrated that innovation is transformative not just for a nation but for the entire psyche of the community.”

Particularly memorable for the Louisville

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mayor was the “security intensity around Gaza, the northern border and the Old City in Jerusalem.” During visits to a kibbutz near the Gaza border and communities in the north on the Lebanese border “we saw the resilience of Israelis but also the trauma of living on constant alert.”

Along with viewing Israel’s security challenge’s first-hand, the mayor said that “meeting a recently displaced Ukrainian family and seeing the trauma and pain in their eyes” had a big impact on him. “Israel is absorbing tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and that demonstrates that even in the midst of our own challenges, scarce resources, etc. we have to open our hearts, our homes, our countries to those fleeing violence and persecution.”

Fischer was touched by “the openness of both the Israeli and Palestinian people in sharing their histories and telling their stories.” However, he believes “the current Israeli-Palestinian situation is not sustainable for either side.”

The mayor was asked what he learned that he thinks could benefit Louisville. Two things he pointed to were “Israel’s enhanced techniques for public safety via camera systems” and “the value of mandatory national service to build a country.”

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Over the years, Project Interchange, according to AJC, “has brought more than 6,000 leaders from over 115 countries to Israel, where they have gained in-depth insight through direct engagement with senior Israeli, Arab and Palestinian officials, business and civic leaders, and academics, and visits to historic and strategic sites.”

“Mayors are selected in partnership with The US Conference of Mayors, based on leadership, experience, location and whether there have been specific issues of antisemitism or anti-Israel activism in their cities,” according to Dov Wilker, AJC’s Regional Director for the Southeast.

Other mayors on the recent trip included Ravinder Bhalla, Hoboken, N.J.; James Brainard, Carmel, Ind.; Jane Castor, Tampa, Fla.; David Holt, Oklahoma City, Okla.; James Hovland, Edina, Minn.; Keith James, West Palm Beach, Fla.; Quinton Lucas, Kansas City, Mo.; Libby Schaaf, Oakland, Calif., and Acquanetta Warren, Fontana, Calif.

The Latest News… www.sjlmag.com

Israel is Coming to Birmingham

Over 50 athletes to participate in World Games The world is coming to Birmingham in July, with 3,600 of the world’s best athletes from over 100 countries competing in 58 disciplines over 34 sports at the 40th anniversary World Games.

Founded in 1980, the World Games is a non-governmental body under Swiss law that holds a major international competition every four years, consisting of sports that are not represented in the Olympics, but, in many cases, are working their way into the Olympics.

This is the first time the World Games have been held in the United States since the inaugural games in Santa Clara, Calif. in 1981.

The World Games were organized to provide a venue even higher than the world championships organized by each member sport, and to develop the international popularity of those sports.

In 2016, the International World Games Association signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding with the International Olympic Committee, to further cooperation between the two.

Among the countries represented, Israel will be sending a delegation of over 50 athletes in several sports, including their first-ever team sport representation, in men’s and women’s lacrosse. There had been hopes that Israel would also compete in flag football, but Israel — which hosted the qualifying tournament in December — fell short, coming in ninth for the eight slots.

Israel will compete in Acrobatics, DanceSport, Jiu-Jitsu, Kickboxing, Lacrosse, Muay Thai, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Sport Climbing, Wakeboard and Wushu.

The Games begin on July 7 with an opening ceremony, including a parade of nations. The closing ceremonies will be on July 17 and will include the passing of the flag to Chengdu, China, for the 2025 Games.

Competitions will be held at Protective Stadium, the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Legacy Arena, Sloss Furnaces, CrossPlex, Powell Steam Plant, Avondale Park, University of Alabama at Birmingham Track and Field Complex and Student Rec Center, Bessie Estell Park, the Sheraton Birmingham ballroom, Birmingham-Southern College’s Bill Battle Coliseum and Soccer Fields, Boutwell Auditorium, Oak Mountain State Park, Legion Field, PNC Field, the Hoover Met, Railroad Park, Barber Motorsports Park, and John Carroll Catholic High School.

It is estimated that at least 400,000 and perhaps 1 million people will come through Birmingham during the Games, which will be held at pre-existing venues throughout the area.

Tickets are available at twg2022.com.

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Birmingham’s World Games are Israel’s first with a team competition Represented in the eight-country field in men’s and women’s lacrosse The only team sport for Israel in the World Games is men’s and women’s lacrosse, and the teams are excited about taking the field in Birmingham.

One particular bit of excitement comes from women’s team member Olivia Mannon competing in the city where she grew up (see story).

The women’s national team is ranked second in Europe and sixth in the world. Israel’s men’s team is ranked seventh, according to the 2018 world championship.

The Israeli team is comprised of Israeli-based and U.S. players who have made Aliyah. There were two evaluation weekends last fall, in Baltimore and Boston, after which the roster was named.

The roster is being divided, as the World Lacrosse Championships will be held at Towson University in Maryland from June 29 to July 9.

“We decided who fit well where depending on their skills,” Alex Freedman, director of high performance for Israel Lacrosse, said.

Scott Neiss, founding director of Israel Lacrosse, said the World Games will be the debut

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

of the “Lacrosse Sixes” format that was invented last year “as lacrosse tries to best position itself for Olympic inclusion in 2028.” He said it will be a new experience for everyone, as there have been just a handful of exhibition matches thus far.

A faster-paced format, Sixes will feature six players on the field instead of the traditional 10; Sixes is played on a 70-by-36 meter field with a 30-second shot clock.

Freedman said there will be four eight-minute quarters, and there will be just one draw per quarter, as goalies will initiate play after a goal, instead of there being a draw. “It’s a much quicker game,” she said, with substitutions “on the fly.”

She hopes the World Games tournament will be the “springboard” for lacrosse becoming an Olympic sport. It was in the 1904 and 1908 Olympics.

A major step in that direction came in July 2021, when the International Olympic Committee Membership voted to grant full recognition to the International Federation for Lacrosse.

“We are really excited for this opportunity to compete in a multi-sport event,” Freedman said.

The World Games is also important in terms of procuring support from the Israeli government.

Each of the players has an online fundraiser for the Games.

There will be 12 men and 12 women competing for Israel in Birmingham.

Among the players who will be in Birmingham is Rachel Rosen, a veteran of the 2019 team, who played collegiately at Penn State and “has spent a significant amount of time in Israel helping grow the game,” Freedman said. “She is a strong attacker, you will see her name on the stats sheet.”

Rosen said that the World Games will be the first opportunity for her parents to see her in the blue and white “and I could not be more excited to have them with me.”

Also on the team is MacEllen McDonough, program director for Israel Lacrosse. She played collegiately at Jacksonville University and has been on the Israel national team since 2019.

Freedman said she coaches youth teams and is

“the best role model for our youth players.”

Aside from Mannon, another Birmingham connection to Israel Lacrosse is in Freedman’s most memorable moment of her lacrosse career — the cleats exchange between the Israeli and Kenyan teams at the U19 world championships in Canada in 2019.

During Israel’s match against Kenya, the Kenya team kept slipping and falling. At dinner that evening, Michael Duvdevani of Birmingham The Israel National Women’s Team wondered why that was the case, and his daugh- Schedule ter Ella, who was competing on the U19 team, The World Games women’s tournament insaid Kenya did not have cleats, though they had cludes Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, been given sneakers.

Great Britain, Haudenosaunee, Israel, Japan and Duvdevani, who owns a pedorthic clinic in the United States.

Birmingham, organized the other parents on The men’s tournament includes Australia, the Israel team and collaborated with the Kenya Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, coaches, then went out to find proper cleats for United States and Haudenosaunee. Each time the Kenya team. The Israeli team surprised the slot features two matches, all of which will be at Kenyan players with the new cleats before the PNC Field at UAB. Play opens for the men on Israel-Belgium match the next day, which the July 8 at 10:30 a.m. with Israel facing Japan in Kenyans were attending. the second game. The U.S. takes on Germany in That act made international news and was the second match of the 2 p.m. block.

On July 9, the 2 p.m. session starts with featured on ESPN. The Israeli team then wound up playing Kenya for 17th place, and the re- Haudenosaunee against Israel, followed by match, which Israel also won, was a lot closer Great Britain against the U.S. The 2 p.m. session on July 10 will be Canada against Israel, then the than the first time.

Lacrosse photos by Jodi Applebaum

U.S. against Australia.

Placement games will be on July 11 at 10:30 a.m., then the semifinals will be at 2 p.m. The medal game and the third place match will be at 7 p.m. on July 12.

The women’s tournament opens on July 12. Israel faces Haudenosaunee in the second match of the 10:30 a.m. block, and the U.S. faces Australia in the second match at 2 p.m.

On July 13, Israel faces Canada at 2 p.m., followed by Japan and the U.S. On July 14 at 2 p.m., it will be Israel against Great Britain, and the U.S. against the Czech Republic.

Semifinal placement games will be on July 15 at 10:30 a.m., with the semifinals at 2 p.m. The medal games will begin at 7:45 p.m. on July 16.

Tickets are available at twg2022.com.

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

29

Professional Counseling

Team Israel In Birmingham Times are as of publication and in some cases reflect the ticket time for the day, not necessarily the start time for the individual sub-event, such as hoop versus ball for gymnastics.

Acrobatics

BJCC Legacy Arena Pair: July 15, 4:10 p.m. Finals 7:35 p.m.

Adi Horwits and Meron Weissman Group Women: July 16, 3 p.m. Finals 7:30 p.m.

Meshi Hurvitz, Inbal Zeitounei, Nikol Aleinik Group Men: July 17, 9 a.m. Finals 12:30 p.m.

Lior Borodin, Amir Daus, Hen Banuz, Tomer Offir

DanceSport

BJCC Legacy Arena July 8: 6 p.m. Finals, 9 p.m.

Liana Odikadze and Alexey Korobchenko

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Jiu-Jitsu

Bill Battle Coliseum, Birmingham-Southern Ne-Waza Individual competitions are July 15.

69kg Men: Preliminary 9 a.m., Semifinal 1 p.m., Bronze 4 p.m., Finals 7 p.m.

Viki Dabush 77kg Men: Preliminary 9 a.m., Semifinal 1 p.m., Bronze 4 p.m., Finals 7 p.m.

Nimrod Ryder 85kg Men: Preliminary 10:20 a.m., Semifinal 1 p.m., Bronze 4 p.m., Finals 7 p.m.

Sahar Shemesh 57kg Women: Preliminary 11:40 a.m., Semifinal 1 p.m., Bronze 4 p.m., Finals 8 p.m.

Meshy Rosenfeld 63kg Women: Preliminary 10:20 a.m., Semifinal 1 p.m., Bronze 4 p.m., Finals 8 p.m.

Roni Nisimian Open Men and Women: July 16 Preliminary 9 a.m. men, 10:30 a.m. women. Bronze 1 p.m., Finals 2:30 p.m.

National Team Competition: July 16 Qualification 3:30 p.m., Semifinal 4:30 p.m., Bronze 6 p.m., Finals 7 p.m.

Kickboxing

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Boutwell Auditorium K1 Style Quarterfinals and Semifinals July 13, Finals and Awards June 14 52kg Women: Quarterfinal 11:30 a.m., Semifinal 7 p.m.

Finals: 6:40 p.m.

Shir Cohen 70kg Women: Quarterfinal 3:30 p.m., Semifinal 9 p.m.

Finals: 9:10 p.m.

Polina Grossman 75kg Men: Quarterfinal 2:30 p.m., Semifinal 8:30 p.m.

Finals: 8:15 p.m.

Or Moshe 91kg+ Men: Quarterfinal 4:30 p.m., Semifinal 9:30 p.m.

Finals: 9:30 p.m.

Yosef Tktok

Lacrosse

PNC Field, UAB Outdoor Sixes, Men July 8: Japan, follows 10:30 a.m. opener July 9: Haudenosaunee, 2 p.m.

July 10: Canada, 2 p.m.

July 11: Placement, 10:30 a.m. Semifinals, 2 p.m.

July 12: Medal Games, 7 p.m.

Outdoor Sixes, Women July 12: Haudenosaunee, follows 10:30 a.m. opener July 13: Canada, 2 p.m.

July 14: Great Britain, 2 p.m.

July 15: Placement, 10:30 a.m. Semifinals, 2 p.m.

July 16: Medal Games, 7:45 p.m.

Muay Thai

Boutwell Auditorium 71kg Men July 15: Quarterfinals, 3 p.m.

July 16: Semifinals, 2 p.m.

July 17: Finals, 10:30 a.m.

Itai Gershon 60kg Women July 15: Quarterfinals, 3 p.m.

July 16: Semifinals, 2 p.m.

July 17: Finals, 10:30 a.m.

Nili Block

Rhythmic Gymnastics BJCC Legacy Arena Hoops and Ball Women July 12: 2 p.m. Final, 6 p.m.

Clubs and Ribbon Women July 13: 2 p.m. Final, 6 p.m.

Daria Atamnov and Adi Katz

Sport Climbing

Sloss Furnaces July 15 Men: Qualification 10 a.m., Finals 5:30 p.m. Awards 10 p.m.

Nimrod Marcus Women: Qualification noon, Finals 8:30 p.m. Awards 10 p.m.

Ayala Kerem

Wakeboard

Oak Mountain State Park, Double Oak Lake Freestyle Men July 14: 9 a.m. Quarterfinals 3:18 p.m.

July 16: 1 p.m. Semifinal, 4:33 p.m. Finals Guy Firer

Wushu

Bill Battle Coliseum, Birmingham-Southern Taolu Jianshu, Qiangshu All-Round Women July 12: 10:15 a.m. Award ceremony, 8:15 p.m.

Anastasia Chiriciuc Updated Schedule and Ticket Information: twg2022.com

Back to Birmingham, via Israel Olivia Mannon returns home for World Games, wearing the blue and white CONTACT US

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Three years ago, Birmingham’s Olivia Mannon was sporting a silver medal from the 2019 Women’s European Lacrosse Championship as a member of Team Israel, getting ready for her senior year playing for Fresno State, and thinking that it would be cool if, by some chance, she were able to play for Israel in the 2021 World Games in her home town, Birmingham.

Of course, Covid intervened, pushing the World Games to 2022, but that was one of many unanticipated twists for Mannon. Still, Mannon will be part of Israel’s national lacrosse team in the World Games, and she is “very excited” that indeed she will be returning home wearing the blue and white, and perhaps showing teammates some of her favorite places.

“It would be fun to take the team to Vulcan” and show them “the old neighborhood,” she said, while continuing to promote the growth of lacrosse.

Alex Freedman, director of high performance for Israel Lacrosse, said they were excited to have Mannon back after her experiences in 2019. “She has been a really strong member of our national team since then,” and she is “excited for her to be a home field advantage.”

It is a busy summer for the team, as some members will be at the World Games in Birmingham, while others are competing in the Women’s World Lacrosse Championships in Towson, Md., from June 29 to July 9.

There were two tryouts for the team last fall, and after Mannon Olivia Mannon at the 2019 was named to the national team, Women’s European Lacrosse the next question was which comChampionship petition she would do. As team officials looked at the rosters, they figured that there weren’t enough defenders going to the World Games team, so her destination was set.

As one of very few athletes competing in the World Games who haveactual Birmingham roots, “I’m happy to represent the city,” she said. Haylie McClenney, who grew up in Morris, 20 miles north of Birmingham, will compete for Team USA softball.

BIRMINGHAM BARONS JUNE 21-26 July 4 - Independence Day Celebration August 20 - Pyro Palooza

Formative years Having spent “some of my most formative years there, to see what Birmingham looks like now makes me excited,” Mannon said. “It’s a beautiful place to grow up, and I get to come back and show people the lacrosse side of things.”

Mannon picked up lacrosse in second grade in Chevy Chase, Md., where she lived before moving to Birmingham in 2008. She was in fifth grade at the time, joined the Greater Birmingham Youth Lacrosse Association and was told she could play with the middle schoolers.

While attending Altamont School, she played soccer for Altamont but went to Mountain Brook to play high school lacrosse, as the sport is still in its early stages in Alabama. With a leg up on the competition because of her start in Maryland, Mannon excelled, and Mountain Brook won the state championship her freshman year. The next three years, they were state runner-up.

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Soccer was at the same time of the year, leading to a strange situation when Mountain Brook was playing John Carroll in lacrosse while Altamont was playing John Carroll in soccer at the same time — so she wound up playing the first half of the soccer game, dashing over to finish the lacrosse match, then back to the last part of the soccer game.

In 2015, Mannon signed with Fresno State, starting all 16 games as a true freshman in 2017.

As a sophomore, she set a single-season record with 64 draw controls and ranked in the top 30 nationally. In both her sophomore and junior years, she was an All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation defender and on the conference all-academic team.

She and one of her college teammates went on a Birthright Israel trip that was a partnership with Israel Lacrosse, and as part of the trip, there were tryouts as Israel’s national team could have three non-citizens compete in the 2019 Women’s European Lacrosse Championship, which was being held in Israel. She made the team and had to quickly adjust her summer schedule.

Mannon participated in all eight matches for Israel during the tournament, winning silver as England defeated Israel in the championship game.

After that, “the pandemic really did a number” on her plans, Mannon said. She went back to Fresno, where she had been an All-Mountain Pacific defender her junior year, but a week before the first game of her senior season she broke her hand in a “freak accident” during practice.

As she was gearing up to return from the injury, Covid hit, and on March 12, 2020, all sports were shut down. She would finish her degree on Zoom from home, which at that point was Omaha, her parents having moved there a couple months earlier. She received her degree in political science, summa cum laude.

In Omaha, she was able to familiarize herself with her new neighborhood through walking and running during the shutdown.

As for lacrosse, she decided to hit the transfer portal, and Oregon expressed interest. She spent her Covid year of eligibility at Oregon, which went 3-9, but she was credited with giving the team a big defensive boost.

Still, the experience was rather odd, as “it was pre-vaccine, so everything we did was masked up.” She worked on her Master’s in Public Administration, graduating in June.

She stayed in touch with the Israeli Lacrosse organizers, hoping to play in the world championships, which were postponed from 2020.

Last fall, she went to the team tryout in Boston, and started the immigration process. “I don’t recommend trying to become a citizen of another country during a pandemic,” she said.

As her academic work was on 11-week terms, in mid-February she went to Israel and officially 32

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

made Aliyah, received her passport and citizenship card. Her time in Israel was then extended by a case of Covid.

Now that she has received her degree, she is the new chief of staff for a state representative in Oregon, but they were able to work out her participation in the World Games. “This is such an extraordinary opportunity,” she said.

Being the only player actually from Birmingham “I’ll probably have the most fans in the stands,” but she’ll still have to readjust to the Alabama heat. “Since being on the west coast, I’m a softie.”

The team gathered over Memorial Day weekend in Baltimore, coinciding with the NCAA Division I championships. They scrimmaged and practiced the new sixes format for the first time.

The format, which was recently invented, is being introduced at the World Games in a bid to get lacrosse into the Olympics. Mannon said it is a faster game, “like basketball on a 70-yard field.”

Because of that, the players tire quickly and “there is definitely a strategy.”

Reflecting on her time playing lacrosse, she said it “has brought me so many places and built so many wonderful relationships. I have a lot of gratitude and appreciation for what the game has done for me.”

And, “to be representing Israel and be in the blue and white, there is a very surreal experience with connecting to your spiritual and cultural heritage and recognizing Israel is so much bigger than you.”

Muay Thai champion sets sights on UFC Not only is Israel’s Nili Block a World Games veteran, she is setting out to change the face of Mixed Martial Arts.

Block is returning to competition in the World Games after a complex leg injury two years ago. In 2017, she received the bronze medal at the World Games in Wroclaw, Poland, in the women’s 60-kg. Muay Thai event. She will compete in the same event in Birmingham, at Boutwell Nili Block winning the 2016 Auditorium starting July 15.

Muay Thai World Championships She made aliyah with her family from Baltimore when she was two years old. When she was 10, her mother who was an officer in Israel’s Border Police, introduced her to kickboxing so she would know self-defense. She quickly rose to world champion level, at the 2015 Kickboxing World Championships in Belgrade, and was named one of the 100 most influential Jews in the world by Algemeiner Journal.

After winning the 2015 championship, she said “it’s so special to become a symbol in the world as a Jew and as an Israeli. They didn’t expect me to win, coming from such a small country. Who would have expected it?”

The same year, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Federation of Non-Olympic Competitive Sports in Israel. She has since been named the Muay Thai (Thai boxing) world champion in 2016 and 2017.

She also played American football in Israel until she was 16, giving it up to concentrate on Muay Thai.

When she turned 17, she was able to continue kickboxing while serving in a special Israel Defense Force program as an “outstanding athlete.”

In all, she has won six world championships in Muay Thai and kickboxing.

In 2018, having achieved the goals she had set for herself, she started exploring the Ultimate Fighting Championship world, and hopes to become the first Israeli woman to compete in UFC. Last year, she told Ynet News that she had contract offers from UFC, and her backstory could be a draw for the sport. “I want to shatter the misconception that martial arts is not for women,” she said.

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Going for medals on a shoestring Head of Israel’s non-Olympics sports hopes to increase support for his athletes

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Arik Kaplan says “we have really good athletes that are going to be in Birmingham,” and he wants to be sure that Israel will be able to continue fielding delegations like that.

Kaplan is president and CEO of Ayelet, the Federation of Non-Olympic Competitive Sport in Israel. Ayelet is in charge of 32 sports federations for non-Olympic sports, including Wu-Shu, alpine, squash, tug of war, waterskiing, chess, sport climbing, cricket, American football, kickboxing, paragliding, bowling and saloon dance.

Because it isn’t the Olympics or the Paralympics, Ayelet does not get close to the same government support, and what they do get is minimal — especially when looking at the expenses involved in bringing a delegation of over 50 athletes to Birmingham. For example, there are 50 visa applications at around $200 each, and then airfare to get to Alabama, and it adds up.

Kaplan said that when he took over, they weren’t able to provide anything to champions in the sports, such as scholarships, or offer much assistance for athletes going abroad to compete or practice. “Now, they get something.”

Media coverage in Israel has also been a problem. There isn’t much in terms of sports journalism in Israel, so “if they write about us, it’s usually something bad has happened.”

But what about a large stage like the World Games to draw attention? It isn’t like the Olympics, where networks compete to secure broadcast rights. Rather, Kaplan said they did not have the funds to pay one of the channels for television time.

He hopes that the time in the U.S. will demonstrate the job they have been doing with minimal resources and attract supporters. The July 14 reception at Temple Beth-El includes an opportunity to help support the team.

Ayelet is working to bring “the best of the best” from Israel to international competitions, Kaplan said, and hopes to build on the Birmingham experience for the next World Games in Chengdu, China in 2025.

For More Preview Coverage and Updated Coverage During The World Games: Visit

www.IsraelInSightMagazine.com

Find Your New Orleans Home “Gary became part of the family. When my husband and I first decided that we would put our toe in the real estate waters, I knew the only person I wanted to represent us was Gary. He’s a real gem!”

— ST, Metairie

real estate/homes an annual SJL special section

“As first time home buyers, my wife and I were very unfamiliar with the process of purchasing a home.

From the moment we met Gary to the day we closed he was great about answering all our questions, walking us through the process and being an advocate for us. I recommend Gary to anyone in the New Orleans area looking to purchase a home.”

— DH, New Orleans

Gary Lazarus

Titan’s Fleishmann can make home dreams come true Stephen Fleishmann, owner of Titan Construction, can build the home of your dreams or transform an existing home — but if someone else built you a home that has become a nightmare, he can help you deal with that as well.

A licensed general contractor in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, Fleishmann is also a highly-skilled expert witness who is qualified in state and federal courts.

Fleishmann, who graduated from the University of Alabama in 1992, has more than 25 years of construction experience and more than 15 years of experience in legal consulting.

His construction specialty is complex custom homes, and the Titan Construction team has been helping clients meet their construction needs, no matter the budget, specifications or location. In the New Orleans area, they have been involved in authentic period renovations in the French Quarter, and new construction Uptown and in Old Metairie.

“Our goal is to preserve the tone and authenticity of New Orleans while serving all kinds of people,” he says. They work with several architects to come up with comfortable dream homes.

“One of the most important things is understanding the clients’ expectations and then meeting those expectations throughout construction,” he said, as a home is the largest investment most people make in their lives. “’Custom build’ isn’t just a catch phrase for us. It’s a promise that your home will be built with your needs and vision in mind — it will be the home you have always imagined and more,” says Fleishmann.

But if someone is in a situation where another company did not deliver, and legal proceedings result, Fleishmann is an expert in the areas of value and causation of construction defects and deficiencies. He offers expert legal services for both plaintiff and defense, in pre-trial, during trial and post-trial matters.

A portfolio of Titan’s projects, such as the home pictured above, can be viewed at titanconstruction.com.

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Special incentives often key in buying homes during current tight market Bridget Sikora’s advice to real estate buyers is to be patient and to work with their agent on formulating the best possible offer for a home.

“When a seller asks for the highest and best offers, there most likely will not be any negotiating like there has been in the past,” said Sikora, who is a real estate agent with Ray & Poyner in Birmingham. “Make sure you are comfortable with the offer that you submit the first time because you June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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won’t have another chance to negotiate.”

It is common for sellers to ask for highest and best offers, but Sikora said buyers have had success by offering special incentives.

“While contract price may be the deciding factor in most transactions, the terms of the contract may be just as important to some sellers,” she said. “I have buyers go ahead and do an inspection prior to submitting an offer. That takes away the second level of negotiations that sellers may not be too excited about.”

“Some have offered to pay for an appraisal gap and even offered to bring pizza to the sellers every Friday night before the house closes. You never know what will be the deciding factor for some sellers,” added Sikora.

Of course, with inventory so low and demand high, it is still a sellers’ market. Home prices have risen almost 20 percent nationally, comparing February 2022 numbers to February 2021. “If you are thinking about selling your home, now is still a great time to get the most out of it.”

Sikora, who is the vice president in charge of fundraising for Hadassah Birmingham, said Ray & Poyner has 50 working agents with a current volume sold of $130 million in 2022, with an average sales price of $650,000.

“We’re optimistic about the real estate market and seeing an increase in inventory,” she said. “We have the experience to work with buyers and sellers to help them navigate current conditions.”

Weiss sees growth for Birmingham real estate, slight market shifts

LAH Real Estate Agent and Assistant Manager Hillary Weiss takes great pride in the Magic City and she has worked with families from as far away as Israel help them relocate to Birmingham.

“Our family lives here. We love seeing Birmingham grow and to get such positive (national and international) exposure with the USFL and the World Games,” said Weiss. She and her husband, Ryan, who owns Ballast Wealth, grew up close to each other in Mountain Brook, but began dating when both were at the University of Alabama.

She said that technology has helped to facilitate the process of working with out-of-state clients. “We’ve started droning and doing video tours for our out-of-town buyers,” said Weiss.

Being involved in the overall community and the Jewish community has also helped her to “open some doors” for her buyers. The Weisses are members of Temple Emanu-El and attend Chabad of Alabama, and she serves on the Birmingham Jewish Federation finance committee.

After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in investment finance and economics, she started working in investments before dedicating herself to non-profit work. Hillary helped run the Religious and Hebrew school at Emanu-El for a few years before taking a position with Collat Jewish Family Services.

“I’ve developed some wonderful friendships and relationships,” said Weiss, who lives in Mountain Brook with their two daughters, 10-year-old Lilly and 8-year-old Emma. “I’m also not afraid to knock on doors and ask folks if they would consider selling their place.”

Weiss said she and Ryan’s knowledge of finance, the economy, investments and the stock market have helped her stay a step ahead in real estate.

“We can see some indicators for where the economy and the real estate market are likely heading,” she said. “Mortgage rates are creeping up and we’ll be seeing more inventory in the housing market. But right now, it is still a very ideal time to sell.”

She advises buyers to get pre-approved and to be ready to make an attractive offer. Weiss said it can also help if buyers are open to widening their search areas. “I do anything I can to help educate them before the process starts and to be there every step of the way.”

Weiss said the most important thing is to find an agent someone can trust. “I feel like my clients become my family and they know they can depend upon me. The best part is when they tell me how happy they are and how much they love their house.”

Great landscaping can add tremendous value to a home A recent article stated that landscaping can add tens of thousands of dollars to the value of a residential property. Beverly Katz says she is always interested “in hearing about the value of the services I provide to New Orleans and its surrounding areas” through Exterior Designs.

“It’s no wonder, because with time, interior décor generally goes out of style,” she said. “However, landscaping only matures and becomes more valuable as time goes on.”

From her experience working with Realtors and their clients, among the top things buyers seek the most in a new home are a well-manicured design, and large, mature plants and trees.

“Homebuyers typically understand the costs associated with creating a new landscape, and many are willing to pay more for one that’s already established,” Katz said. “It reduces their out-of-pocket expenses as they can absorb the costs into their mortgage, and it also takes the burden off of the new homeowner to add yet another project to their long to-do lists.”

For those planning to sell in the near future, Exterior Designs Before (above) and After (right)

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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real estate/homes

has some suggestions to immediately increase a home’s curb appeal. Start by creating a sharp, well-defined edge around garden beds. Add a fresh layer of mulch to liven them up. Fertilizing the lawn should begin as soon as possible, so potential buyers are met with a lush, green carpet of grass, instead of spots of brown grass and weeds. Lastly, add a punch of color by including annuals in decorative planters or in the garden beds themselves.

For those planning to stay in their home for years to come, Katz suggests starting with a master plan. “The biggest mistake I see is homeowners not having a cohesive plan. They put a tree in here, and a few years later add a garden bed there. Fast-forward a few more years and their yard looks disorganized, and is not fully utilizing the space available.”

Clients generally want something low maintenance that provides a space for entertaining and makes the most out of a space. “Having a long-term landscaping plan is so essential if you don’t plan to sell anytime soon. You can achieve your goals without blowing your budget, and make the most use of the space available,” she said.

As a licensed landscape contractor, horticulturist and longtime resident of New Orleans, Katz and her team embrace the natural landscapes and historical character the region offers. Problem yards are her specialty; along with creating New Orleans style courtyards and correcting poor drainage issues.

Regardless of whether one is looking to sell or to stay for a long time, landscaping can only benefit the bottom line — and the home experience. Exterior Designs is committed to helping homeowners make the most of their outdoors.

SJL Online: sjlmag.com

Day Star shines with home builds, repair, renovation Day Star Construction, founded in Birmingham in 1984 by Stephen and Lori Dorsky, continues to build upon its reputation with a commitment to quality.

“We’re always focused on doing exactly what the client needs and making sure every job is done to the highest standards,” said Stephen Dorsky.

The company does home building, renovation, additions and repairs. “My grandfather said all you have is your name. I believe in honor, ethics and helping people make informed decisions.”

Dorsky said the Day Star name was inspired by some of the solar construction work he did in the late 1970s and early 1980s before starting the company.

He said trends have changed from those early days to today. “We’re seeing a lot more marble and natural stone” in builds or renovations today, said Dorsky.

“But everything we do is custom, so every job is unique in that aspect.”

Day Star saw an increase of jobs during the pandemic and have seen improvement in supply-chain issues.

“We’ve been around a long time and built up good relationships with suppliers, so that has helped us, but we’re still seeing some supply chain issues,” said Dorsky. “I advise my clients to plan ahead and work out as much detail as possible early on, since for custom appliances, windows and doors, it could take four to five months in some cases for an order to come in.”

The Dorskys are from Birmingham, and daughter Isa is a managing director for the company. Stephen spent many years on the Levite Jewish Community Center board of directors and he was LJCC board president in 2000-2001. Lori is also very involved in planning for the LJCC Food and Culture Fest.

“We are all about building relationships and being involved in the community,” he said.

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

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real estate/homes

Birmingham’s El-Amin sees new trends in interior designer preferences “I love that my work is my passion,” she said. “My dream job involves Darcel El-Amin sees bright colors emerging and a bright outlook for increating a dream space for my clients.” terior design.

“I’m seeing a move away from grays and toward gold along with some more bold color patterns,” said El-Amin, who owns the Birmingham-area Designing Den Interiors franchise, Designs by Darcel.

While a new kitchen or bathroom can be the stuff of dreams, it is a major “My clients have also gotten interested in wallpaper. When people hear wallpaper, some think ‘70s and flowers, but I’m talking about modern de- investment that requires experience and expertise to keep the process from signs that really fit with the general look of the house. There are so many becoming a nightmare.

Nordic Kitchens and Baths in Metairie has been specializing in the dedifferent options out there.”

Jewish entrepreneur Steven Bursten started the company as American sign and furnishing of upscale kitchens and baths since 1995, with a wide Drapery Consultants in 1969. One year later, the first franchise opened in portfolio of one-of-a-kind projects.

Nordic Kitchens and Baths was originally founded as Nordic Cabinets in Leesburg, Fla, and the company changed its name to Decorating Den Interiors 1986 by a Norwegian master cabinetmaker and his son, the current owner. in 1974. Today, it is the leading interior design franchise in North America.

El-Amin said being a local owner within a large company affords her They were one of the first manufacturers of European cabinetry in the city of New Orleans, and became known for their solidly crafted and innovative resources she can pass on to her clients.

“We confer with some other franchise owners about trends and what they creations.

Nordic Kitchens and Baths evolved from the original cabinet compaare seeing,” she said. “Being a part of a company with such a great reputation for more than 50 years has also helped us in relationships established with ny, and the company now also features appliances, lighting, countertops, plumbing fixtures and more. They feature well-known, trusted brands like supplying companies.”

That in turn has helped to speed up delivery timetables for materials and Bosch, Gaggenau, Miele, Sub-Zero and Thermador.

The full kitchen and bath design services include site inspection, schematprojects. “The supply-chain issue is getting better and lead times are getting shorter. I tell my clients we can filter-buy in-stock items but if they have cus- ics, working drawings, and guidance in design and material selections. They tom appliances, windows, doors or other things we need to implement in are equally at home in new construction and renovating existing spaces.

Having created special spaces throughout the New Orleans area for over the renovation that we need to plan ahead. If they want to have everything 25 years, they are intimately familiar with the architecture and flavor of finished by Chanukah, the time to start is now.”

El-Amin said that kitchen and bathroom renovations traditionally add New Orleans, and design in contemporary, traditional and transitional the most value to homes, but “most of what I am seeing are folks who want styles — and outdoor spaces as well.

To start living in it rather than dreaming it, visit the showroom or draw to do a design renovation to their house not to sell it, but to stay there and inspiration from the website, nordickitchens.com. have a more appealing, functional living space.”

Nordic makes kitchen dreams a reality

Helping Buyers & Sellers Since 2004

Ashley Fierman Lewis REALTOR /Associate Broker The Fred Smith Group 205-907-7622 soldbyashley@gmail.com

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real estate/homes

Lewis: Birmingham real estate market strong, especially for sellers Birmingham’s real estate market remains strong, and the Magic City has attracted new residents as well as investors from places like New York and California.

“Interest rates are still historically low and we’re seeing a slight increase in inventory on the market,” said Ashley Fierman Lewis of RealtySouth’s The Fred Smith Group. Lewis started the group with Smith in 2004.

“I advise those looking for a home to get pre-qualified for their loan and be ready to move quickly on a purchase,” she said.

It is still very much a seller’s market and not uncommon for one of their sellers to have multiple offers in even the first day the home gets put on the market. “We’re seeing sellers on average get 20 to 25 percent over asking price,” said Lewis.

She and her husband, Jon, a local attorney, live in the Highland Park area.

“This area and Forest Park are very desirable areas. Some historic homes have been renovated and sold quickly.”

This past April, The Fred Smith Group had 41 closings — the most in its history. “We’ve got a very strong team and we work well together,” said Lewis. “Technology has provided us the tools to reach out to our clients and to have a more-informed” buyer or seller.

Lewis said that since the start of Covid, they have seen an increasing percentage of buyers coming to Birmingham from larger metropolitan areas.

“The ability for more people to work remotely has allowed them to keep their jobs in places such as New York and California. They move to Birmingham and can get much more for their dollar here.”

Birmingham’s appeal will be even more visible with the upcoming World Games. “We believe very strongly in Birmingham. It is such a joy to help someone move here and to find the home of their dreams.”

Whether it is selling your current home or finding a new one, let me help you make the right decision.

Hilary Weiss Realtor

(205) 876-3052 cell

hillaryw@lahrealestate.com

2850 Cahaba Road Mountain Brook AL, 35223 lahrealestate.com

SJL Online: sjlmag.com

RealtySouth offers enhanced tech tools for buyers, sellers, agents RealtySouth enhanced its website in May to provide additional tools to help home buyers, sellers and its agents better navigate the changing markets.

“It’s important to meet all of our customers where they are in terms of technology,” said RealtySouth Marketing Director Nathan Stuckey. “We offer digital tools that allow home buyers the ability to find relevant information on a specific home or communities within Alabama they want to find out more about.”

Buying a home means buying into the market as well, so RealtySouth introduced the ability to search its website by community across all of Alabama. Each community page includes relevant information such as map of the area with available homes for sale marked; market trends for that area; area demographics, Yelp real-time information on restaurants, businesses and activities in that area, along with local schools information and rankings.

For home sellers, they also launched a new home valuation platform.

That allows sellers or potential sellers to enter the address of their home and see several different, industry-respected home valuations, including the Zillow Zestimate. Individuals can also sign up to receive market reports that include a variety of information about a home’s value and market information relevant to the area. Both can be reached via “Buyer” and “Seller” navigation on the website — www.realtysouth.com.

“Market information is presented in real time, so buyers and sellers can see everything they need currently versus information from a previous quarter or year,” Stuckey said.

For RealtySouth agents, the company provides “the most up-to-date training, marketing and resource tools.”

RealtySouth started in 1955 and today has more than 800 agents in 22 branch locations across the state of Alabama. The company umbrella also includes Prosperity Mortgage, Canopy Title and InsuranceSouth.

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community Mobile Jewish Film Festival back to in-person with first Summer Series

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June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

After being forced to cancel plans for an in-person film festival in January and revert to online only when Covid cases had another peak, the Mobile Area Jewish Federation has announced its first ever 2022 Film Festival Summer Film Series.

Three of the most popular films from January will be screened in person, along with “Breaking Bread,” this year’s Reita Franco Memorial Film.

“Breaking Bread” was not available for online screenings in January, so it was dropped from the virtual schedule.

In partnership with the University of South Alabama, the festival begins with “Persian Nof Atamna-Ismaeel in “Breaking Bread” Lessons.” Inspired by true events, the film depicts a Jewish prisoner during the Holocaust who pretends to be Iranian in a bid to save his life, then is forced to teach Farsi — which he does not speak — to a Nazi officer. The film won Best Narrative at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

“Persian Lessons” will be on June 19 at 2 p.m. at Ahavas Chesed.

“Chasing Portraits” details the works of Moshe Rynecki, a prolific artist in Warsaw who painted scenes of the Polish Jewish community. He was murdered at the Majdanek concentration camp in 1943. After the war, his wife was able to find only a small fraction of his work, but a lot more of his pieces survived.

His great-granddaughter, filmmaker Elizabeth Rynecki, embarked on a decade-long quest to find his works, with unexpected success. Rather than reclaim them, she explores how the works wound up where they are, and whether they should remain there.

The film will be on July 14 at 2 p.m. at the Mobile Museum of Art. There is no charge for this screening, but reservations are required. Since April 25, the museum has highlighted “Lost and Found” by Miriam Schapiro, as Yom HaShoah, a Holocaust remembrance exhibit. Those attending the film will receive free admission to the museum to view the exhibit in the Friedman gallery, before or after the film.

“Breaking Bread” will be on July 24 at 2 p.m. at Ahavas Chesed. It features the story of Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, the first Muslim Arab to win Israel’s version of “MasterChef.” On a quest to make social change through food, she founded the A-sham Arabic Food Festival, pairing Arab and Jewish chefs collaborating on exotic dishes from the region. After the film, there will be a reception with appetizers from Jerusalem Café.

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

The subtitled film won Best Narrative at the Seattle Jewish Film Festival. It will be screened on Aug. 21 at 2 p.m. at Springhill Avenue Temple.

Individual tickets are $9, available from the Federation office or website. All unvaccinated attendees will be required to mask.

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

Proactive planning brings peace of mind

By Labrena Friend, LMSW In 2013, just 10 days after I got married, my mom let me know that she had autoimmune hepatitis. Although I did not know, she had been diagnosed a few years earlier, but now things had progressed and she needed a liver transplant. She was only 56.

Even though I was working in hospice at the time, neither me nor my siblings had ever discussed with our parents what they wanted if we ever had to make life or medical decisions for them. We never thought it was a discussion we needed to have, especially because our parents were young. We were all paralyzed. I had to go into ‘social work mode,’ put aside my shock and sadness and take care of business. Decisions were made on medical proxy, DNR, tube feeding and life support. These were complex and difficult questions that I had regularly addressed professionally, but never dreamed I would have to think about at age 30 with my own mom. My mom passed away six weeks later.

About a year after her passing, I made sure that we had open conversations with my dad. We’d learned our lesson the hard way and I was determined that we would never have to go through the same struggle again.

These conversations can be hard to have with your loved ones. I know. But these conversations are not about getting old or sick, they are about empowering your loved ones to direct their future now, when they have the ability to express their wishes and goals and to make decisions for themselves.

The first step is committing to talk about it, to learn about your parents’ priorities as they get older and to make sure that everybody’s feelings are considered in the conversation. In our case, because we were proactive with my dad, he took the next step and had documents drawn up by an attorney, such as his Will and his Power of Attorney. He’s made decisions about his assets and his healthcare and we know what he has chosen. Most importantly, he has shared what is important to him as he ages so we can use that information to guide decisions we might have to make for him in the future.

Most people want to stay in their homes, independently, for as long as possible, but their ability to do so may change as they age. Explore your parents’ feelings about options like retirement communities, assisted living and nursing homes and learn what’s available in your area. Many parents express that they do not want to become a burden to their kids. Talking about that enables children to express their vision of how they will care for parents too.

Understanding that needs change over time is critical. While the initial goal may be for family to care for an aging parent, their needs may go beyond any one person’s abilities. It’s easy to say, ‘Yes, I want to take care of them.’ But if they can’t walk, that means that you’re lifting them. It also means that you might need all types of equipment in your home. It means you might be bathing or assisting with toileting. These are all issues that can be addressed and you may decide you can’t be the sole caregiver. But knowing your parents’ goals in advance can help inform next steps.

Finally, another important aspect to discuss is the financial planning aspect of care. The costs of most in-home care and assisted living facilities are not covered by Medicare. How will your family pay for care? Do your parents have enough assets? Long-term care? How will you make your loved ones wishes possible?

As social workers and case managers at CJFS, we try to help families proactively plan so they don’t find themselves as I did with my mom at 30 years old having to make some really hard decisions. For me, with my dad, it is such a weight off my shoulders and it gives me peace to know what is important to him as he ages. I will use that knowledge to guide me when and if the time comes.

To learn more about planning for the current/future needs of a loved one, contact Marcy Morgenbesser, LICSW, CJFS Clinical Director, at marcy@ cjfsbham.org or (205) 879-3438.

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community LJCC receives several grants for program enhancements Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center has received several grants to enhance facilities and programs.

In May, the Daniel Foundation of Alabama issued a $25,000 grant to the LJCC to revitalize the auditorium.

“Historically, our auditorium has been the perfect place for diverse groups to experience an event together and connect,” said LJCC grant writer and interim Program Director Elizabeth Patton. As part of the renovation, the auditorium will become an affordable venue for use by area nonprofit organizations and businesses.

“Our auditorium has not been upgraded since 1994, and its current state prevents us from offering those life-changing moments that connect people from all walks of life,” Patton added. The pandemic derailed plans to renovate the space earlier.

The grant will provide new curtains, chairs, paint, refinishing the floor, and enhancing the backstage area.

Part of the original building in 1959, the auditorium was the long-time home of the Center Players, an acclaimed theater group that put on major productions until the early 1990s.

Three grants were announced on June 10. The largest is a $60,000 GoodUse grant for energy and water conservation.

GoodUse helps nonprofits reduce utility costs so that organizations can instead use the savings for the programs that benefit their communities.

Their matching grant will be administered by Southface Institute, an Atlanta-based nonprofit whose architects and engineers will work with LJCC staff to increase efficiencies, lower expenses and improve indoor health.

According to Southface, many nonprofits occupy older buildings that waste energy, water and other resources, but tight budgets make it difficult to do necessary upgrades.

“It turns out that The J and the Alabama Theater have more in common with each other than just storied pasts and great missions,” LJCC Executive Director Aimee Johnson said. “We also both have some of the oldest HVAC systems in the state. The savings we see from this GoodUse grant will make a hugely positive difference in how we operate and what we offer in programming.”

Medical Properties Trust awarded a $15,000 grant to help children from low and medium income families benefit from the athletics offerings at the LJCC. “Last year’s MPT funds were so impactful during the pandemic,” Johnson said. “We have numerous stories about the 17 scholarship recipients who benefited from our sports programs. One of my favorites is the 5-year-old girl who had the opportunity to learn soccer after her father lost his job as a firefighter. She started the summer very shy but blossomed and became an active member of the group.

“Even without the dramatic backdrop of the pandemic, we look forward to more stories this year about our youth sports participants learning life-long skills.”

A $7,500 grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama will go toward wellness programs, mainly the establishment of the city’s second yoga wall.

“Wall yoga is different and fun but more than just a novel trend,” Johnson explained. “The use of the wall and straps allows yogis to experience near-weightlessness as they explore postures and learn more about their bodies.” Wall yoga allows users to hold poses longer and strengthen lessused muscle groups. It is especially beneficial to people with chronic back pain.

“With all this great news plus having summer camps in full swing and the Outdoor Pool filling up with families,” Johnson said, “you can just feel the positive energy around here as soon as you step inside The J.” 44

June 2022 • Southern Jewish Life

community >> Rear Pew

continued from page 46

The World Games feature numerous water-based competitions, including waterskiing, wakeboarding, fin swimming, and even lifesaving.

It might surprise people, including World Games officials, to know that serious consideration was given to adding the watersport of Gefilte Fishing.

The reason why Gefilte Fishing was excluded is, upon reflection, obvious. A demonstration of the sport was arranged but, several years after beginning, this demo derby is still going. None of these adept anglers has caught a gefilte fish yet. But stay tuned.

To avoid missing an opportunity for potential brand tie-in, other gefilte fish options were brought to the table. Considering ESPN18 (“The Chai”)’s sister station ESPN2 annually carries the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, it would be an obvious opportunity to introduce Competitive Gefilte Eating.

However, this recipe for success was never served. There was adamant debate about whether the gefilte fish would be homemade or storebought. Officials tabled this event for the moment. Officials say that, once peace is achieved in the Middle East, they’ll return to resolving this far more difficult controversy.

Doug Brook will tune in to the 2022 World Games regularly, even though he would go gaga for competitive gaga. For nearly several more laughs, listen to the five-star 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/.

>> Agenda

continued from page 8

Chabad centers in the region are taking part in the national Chabad on Campus fundraising raffle, with a grand prize of $18,000. Tickets are $36 and support Jewish life on campus. Individual campus fundraising sites can be found at keepchabadoncampusgrowing.org.

Chabad at Tulane, Alabama, Louisiana State University and West Florida are participating. The tickets are being sold through July 13.

Chabad Emerald Coast in Destin will host a Unity Shabbat on July 8, with candlelighting and services at 6:30 p.m., and dinner at 7 p.m.

Reservations requested.

As of June 17, the Levite Jewish Community Center is now a distribution point for challahs made by Bais Ariel Chabad in Birmingham.

The LJCC will have traditional challahs, no specialty varieties at this time. Challahs can be pre-ordered weekly from Chabad and will be available for pickup after 10:30 a.m. Fridays. A few extra loaves will usually be available. Challahs are also available at Full Circle in Homewood on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

With Rabbi Joel Fleekop of Pensacola’s Temple Beth El on sabbatical at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel in July, Torah on Tap is taking a break, and will return on Aug. 2 at Emerald Republic Brewery.

The Jewish War Veterans Post 608 in Birmingham is planning a meeting on Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. at the Levite Jewish Community Center. Guest speaker will be Jordan Swing, a former Vestavia Hills High School and University of Alabama at Birmingham basketball player who played professionally in the Israel Premier League.

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rear pew mirror • doug brook

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Olympic teams have alternate athletes. In that spirit, perhaps the World Games have alternate sports — ones potentially considered but ultimately excluded.

Here are some humble examples. These aren’t just any alternate sports, they’re Jewish sports — ones you’ll find in volume two of the leaflet Famous Jewish Sports Legends.

These are the sports you’d see on ESPN18 — The “Chai,” bringing the finest in seldom-seen Jewish sports from around the globe since 1999 B.C.E. If it’s almost a Jewish sport, they’ve got it there.

These are sports that aren’t represented in the World Games. Or the Maccabiah. Or the Olympics. Yet. Perhaps they’ll be included only in the world to come, or maybe these Jewish games will be added soon. After all, the World Games already include Ju-Jitsu.

Perhaps the most glaring omission is the classic Israeli sport of Gaga.

As the bruises on many summer campers show, Gaga is an evolutionary step beyond Dodgeball. The five rules of Gaga are dodge, duck, duchen, daven, and… dodge.

Gaga isn’t limited to select athletes; it’s played worldwide by many average Josephs. It also has the perfect music tie-in with a song suitable for playing both at the stadium and on ESPN18 broadcasts.

As Queen fans have long known, all we hear is Radio Gaga — a song for which a cover by Lady Gaga is long overdue. It would be the perfect cross-promotion if officials accidentally found the right mix of courage and chutzpah to add the sport.

The World Games includes billiards and the Maccabiah includes chess.

Both of those could open the door to another ubiquitous, more Jewish table-bound game of skill and acuity: Mah-Jongg.

Yes, the game originated in 19th-century China but, as the dominoes have fallen, bubbes everywhere have It’s time for some made playing Mah-Jongg as Jewish as having Chinese food on Erev Christmore Jewish sports mas.

Chess and Mah-Jongg both feature to be included in strategy but not much in the way of physical skills. For a table sport that the World Games includes strategy but also adds an element of literal dexterity, look no further than Dreidel.

Dreidel is the perfect confluence. Games of strategy are part of the World Games. Table sports (Billiards) are part of the World Games. Competitions involving spinning, including Gymnastics and DanceSport (née Competitive Ballroom Dancing), are part of the World Games.

Despite not being Chanukah, it’s the perfect time for Dreidel — what better way to unite a world so divided into two sides, than featuring a game that’s about four sides instead?

The World Games already feature Flag Football. The Maccabiah features three-on-three basketball. They combine into an opportunity for the World Games’ minions — field minyans to compete in 10-on-10 football.

Judaism has often shown how just one person can make a huge difference. Imagine the significant impact of reducing the regular American Football baker’s minyan of 11 players, by one. Also, with every country having a minyan playing for them, even the worst team always has a prayer. continued on previous page

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