SJL Deep South, October 2018

Southern Jewish Life

October 2018 Volume 28 Issue 9

Southern Jewish Life P.O. Box 130052 Birmingham, AL 35213 Window in the chapel at Ahavas Chesed, Mobile

THE NEW

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

shalom y’all It’s a staple of sermons — the story of a man who was in his home during a tremendous rain. A police officer came by to urge him to leave, and he said God would keep him safe.

As the waters rose, he was on his porch when someone came by in a boat — probably a member of the Cajun Navy. He refused to leave, God would protect him. Soon the waters rose to where he was on his roof.

When a helicopter came by, he refused to leave, same reason.

After he drowned, he confronted God. “How could you let this happen? I was faithful and trusted you!”

God responded, “who sent the policeman, the boat and helicopter?”

As there is an election coming up, politicians have similarly been wearing their faith on their sleeves, waiting for divine rescue.

There are tremendous issues in schools and in society, problems with the breakdown of families, poverty, low expectations, violence… the list seems endless. Some point to when God was “kicked out” of schools (such a weak God, to be pushed around like that!) as the point when the slide began.

In Tennessee, there is now a requirement for schools to prominently display “In God We Trust.” In Alabama, there is an amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot to place the Ten Commandments in schools and public buildings.

Mississippi considered a bill this year that would have required teachers to either recite or have someone else recite the Ten Commandments each day at the start of school, and also required the display of “In God We Trust.” That bill died in committee.

The complicated issues we face require hard work over a long period of time. These public expressions of the majority faith in what are supposed to be secular institutions are little more than feel-good measures. God will protect us, we need not get on the boat and actively participate in our rescue.

Since Alabama’s amendment speaks of historical displays and no state funds being used, perhaps someone in the Jewish community can step up and supply all schools with the Ten Commandments — in the original Hebrew. Now that would be quite a lesson!

shalom y’all

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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commentary

MESSAGES

Maccabi USA leader praises Birmingham Games I have had the honor of attending many Maccabi competitions around the world. From Israel to Australia to South America, Europe and the JCC Maccabi games around the United States and Canada, I have logged many miles seeing how sports can be a vehicle to help build Jewish known alt-right troll and Holocaust denier, to by Jerry Gordon identity, especially in our young. attend President Trump’s State of the Union adThe Mother Jones by investigative I felt honored to comereport to Birmingham for the first time and fell in love with not just the city dress. He cited Johnson’s mea culpa alleging he journalist DavidYou Corn given new meaning but the people. havehas taken Southern hospitality to a new level with your kind and caring to the second line of the hoaryGames. meme, “Fool me was not a Holocaust denier and had contributed approach to the JCC Maccabi Jewish causes, while being silent on Johnson’s twice. ” Corn’s tag-line: “Reps.

Matt hard-working Gaetz and to Led by the Sokol and Helds, your volunteersinwere wonderful. partnered assertions an Alt-right “AllThey Questions Asked” Dana Rohrabacher just can’t Charles C. to make the 2017 with your outstanding staff, ledquit

by Betzy Lynch, JCC Maccabi games a huge hit.

2017 interview.

Johnson.

I want to”take this opportunity as executive director of Maccabi USAquoted to say thank yousaying on behalf That interview Johnson “I do was about the presence of Johnson on a of It everyone involved. not and never have believed the six million figyacht owned by a co-founder of the Republican ure.

I think the Red Cross numbers of 250,000 I hadCoalition, just returned fromBalitzer, the 20thinWorld games in Israel with a U.S. delegation of Jewish Alfred New Maccabiah Port in the camps typhus are of more over 1100, who joined an 10,000 Jewish athletesdefromdead 80 countries.

Backfrom in July the eyes the realisentire Beach, Calif.

Johnson, alleged Holocaust tic.

I think the Allied bombing of Germany was Jewish world were on Jerusalem and the Maccabiah.

This past month with 1000 athletes and nier and blogger was there during a fundraiser a waryou crime.

I agree… about Auschwitz and the coaches from around1st theCongressional world being inDistrict Birmingham, became the focal point. for Gaetz, Florida’s gas chambers not being real.” representative, hosted by embattled colleague Everyone from the Jewish community and the community at large, including a wonderful A Southern Jewish Life article in February, California Rep. Rohrabacher. These As baseball police force, are Dana to be commended. games will go down in history as being a at seminal following Johnson’s appearance the State of great YogiforBerra mightcommunity opine, “it’s as déjà allto the future by providing such wonderful moment the Jewish we vu, build Jewish the Union, cited Gaetz’s rationale for his deciover again. ” memories. sion to invite him.

The July 20 fundraiser brought in less than “Some of the claims against Mr. Johnson Jed Margolis $2,750.

So why did the Northwest Florida Conare not accurate,” Gaetz said in an interview Executive Director, Maccabi USA gressman fly out to California, when he could have been campaigning in the Republican captured by Mediaite. “He’s not a Holocaust he’s not a white supremacists would like supremacist. to see pushedThose back are primary back in his home district, answering denier; unfortunate characterizations of him, but I did On Charlottesville constituent questions about the Chuck Johnson into a corner and made to feel lesser. We stand not know he was as perhaps infamous and conwith and pray for the family of Heather Heyer, affair and his This peculiar voting record during Editor’s Note: reaction to the events in his troversial as he standing was whenuphetocame by my office.” who was there the face of this first term in office?

Charlottesville, written by Jeremy Newman, During his interview with Jake Tapper on hate.

Whenof Corn questioned Rohrabacher Master the Alpha Epsilon Piboth Theta Colony CNN, Gaetz alleged that Johnson had made and Gaetz aides aboutwas Johnson’s We recognizetothe of theestablished American by at Auburn University, sharedpresence

by AEPi at the contributions a essence foundation fundraiser, they called responded: narrative as a Wiesel. two-century old struggle to ridhis National, which it “very eloquent” and the late Elie Further, he defended “Jason“our Pitkin, Rohrabacher’s ourselves of such corners, and allow those in as praised brothers at AEPi Thetacampaign Colony at fi- InfoWars appearance with host Alex Jones nance who attended the fundraiser, them the who seat at thetotable that theyextremist so deserve.

Auburndirector, University and… the leadership they someone has go on these protells Mother Jones, ‘I don’t It is thetostruggle to fulfill theGaetz promise of the“But display on their campus. ” remember who invit- grams get the truth told. insisted. ed him there.’ Asked whether Johnson had come Declaration of Independence, that “all men are think that when… we only talk to audiences or at the invitation of Gaetz, Kip Talley, the chief Icreated equal… theirwe Creator people agreeendowed with us, Ibythink end upwith in a of White staff forsupremacy Gaetz’s reelection replied certain that has beencampaign, a cancer on unalienable rights. ” We know our work myopic state of politics. ” in email, since ‘It wasitsa beginning, private event and you’re is far from finished, but we know we will not ourancountry threatening On Feb. 5, Gaetz was interviewed on Andrew welcome reports to see who move its hopes, to its check values,the andFEC its better angels. backwards.

McKay’s “Morning Newsmaker/News Shakdonated.

Thanks for reaching out’ . ”

The events that took place in Charlottesville er” program News Radio 1620.

When menon andPensacola’s women, fully armed, take Gaetz hasthe hadworst his run of legislative faux pas represented of this nation. Those Gaetz apologized for his lack of due diligence to the streets in droves with swastikas and in hismarched first term.Last December, he was the lone who onto the streets with tiki torches on Johnson’s allegedly other symbolsbackground, of hate, it iswho a reminder ofwas howre“no” vote on did a bi-partisan human trafficking and swastikas so to provoke violence and ferred tothe him by another Congressman.

When relevant issues of racism and anti-Semitism bill that passed both the U.S. House and Senate. fear. Those who marched onto the streets did McKay pressed him for the identity of the Conare today. It is a wake-up call to the work that Gaetz produced a video message accusing so to profess an ideology that harkens back it toof gressional colleague, Gaetz demurred. needs to be done to ensure a better, more being “bureaucratic creep.time ” a bleaker, more wretched in our history.

Gaetz doubled whether Johnson country.down But iton should not come In late February, Gaetz wasofone of creeds, 14 Re- welcoming A time when men and women many was a Holocaust denier.

The Tampa Bay Tribune without a reflection on how far we’ve come. publican House members who voted against a races, and religions were far from equal and far reported his reply during the interview with bi-partisan sex trafficking on-line, America was born nation.

A century from safe inbill ourfighting own borders.

A time where McKay: “It was a poora slave decision on my part not aAmericans topic thatlived InfoWars’ Alex Jones is accused into our history we engaged in a war in part under a constant cloud of of. to do better vetting.

I won’t do that again.

But I Gaetz appeared onand InfoWars with controto ensure wouldMr. not Johnson continueaasdenier one. We racism,has anti-Semitism pervasive hate.

The think thatwe labeling of the versial host Alex Jones, allegedly to find out found ourselvesbeen confronted by the issue of from civil events that took place in Charlottesville served Holocaust met with skepticism what the otherofside Herelevant voted not once rights, and has embarked on a mission to ensure as a reminder howthinks. painfully these who have dedicated a substantial portion but twice against a Trump Farm Aid bill that people thetheir fair treatment of all peoples no matter issues are today. of lives to Holocaust remembrance. ” their impacted local producers in his home district. skin color.then Although we’veto made greatBalitzer, strides, a Gaetz proceeded invoke Auburn’s Alpha Epsilon Pi stands with the In January, he gave a ticket to Johnson, a it is a mission we’re still grappling with today. founder of the RJC, saying that he had written to Jewish community of Charlottesville, and

Fool me twice, Mr. Gaetz?

with the Jewishis people country Jerry Gordon a senioraround editorthe at the New and around the world.

We also stand with the English Review, co-host of Israel News Talk minorities who are targeted by the hate that Radio-Beyond the Matrix. He is a registered was on display in Charlottesville.

We stand Republican in the Florida First Congressional with the minorities of whom these white District.

4 October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

theAmerica Congressman indicating he never heard was also born an that immigrant Johnson denying thetheHolocaust.

Gaetz said he country. As early as pilgrims, many was awaiting a similar statement from Harvard groups and families found in the country the law professortoemeritus Alan chase Dershowitz. opportunity plant stakes, their future, and be themselves. Few were met with continued on open page 45

October 2018 January

Southern Jewish Life PUBLISHER/EDITOR Lawrence M. Brook editor@sjlmag.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ADVERTISING Lee J. Green lee@sjlmag.com V.P. SALES/MARKETING, NEW ORLEANS Jeff Pizzo jeff@sjlmag.com ADVERTISING SPECIALIST Annetta Dolowitz annetta@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 14 Office Park Circle #104 Birmingham, AL 35223 205/870.7889 NEW ORLEANS OFFICE 3747 West Esplanade, 3rd Floor Metairie, LA 70002 504/432-2561 TOLL-FREE 866/446.5894 FAX 866/392.7750 ADVERTISING Advertising inquiries to 205/870.7889 for Lee Green, lee@sjlmag.com; Jeff Pizzo, jeff@sjlmag.com; or Annetta Dolowitz, annetta@sjlmag.com Media kit, rates available upon request SUBSCRIPTIONS It has always been our goal to provide a large-community quality publication to all communities of the South.

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agenda interesting bits & can’t miss events

Front porch diplomacy: During a recent visit to Mississippi, Israeli Consul General Lior Haiat met with Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton and toured Elvis Presley’s birthplace. Story, page 19.

Samantha Dubrinsky-Clayton named interim executive director of LJCC Samantha Dubrinsky-Clayton, director of community impact at the Birmingham Jewish Federation, was named interim executive director of the Levite Jewish Community Center.

Richard Friedman remains as chief executive officer of both agencies, but said Dubrinsky-Clayton will now be “the senior go-to person at the LJCC with the authority to make whatever decisions she feels are necessary for the well-being of the LJCC.” As Dubrinsky-Clayton takes over those duties, which will be in addition to her Federation role, Friedman said he will be concentrating on helping the two agencies with fundraising, staff mentoring and strategic planning.

Friedman, who has headed the Federation since 1983, became CEO of the LJCC in August 2017, after the departure of Betzy Lynch, as part of an experimental collaborative partnership with the two agencies. He is serving in this capacity until the end of 2019, which was previously announced as his retirement from the Federation.

This interim arrangement came in the midst of discussions over longterm planning for the local Jewish community, and an exploration of new models of organizational structure and cooperation.

In addition to a BA from Birmingham-Southern College, Dubrinsky-Clayton has a Master’s in Public Administration from Troy University with a concentration in non-profit management, and will soon complete a Master’s in Business Administration from Troy with a concentration in international relations.

Friedman said she “has played a variety of key roles for both the BJF

and LJCC during her seven years of service to our Jewish community, been recognized nationally for her leadership and speaking skills and writing abilities, and over the last year has grown tremendously as an executive.”

Roy Moore sues Sacha Baron Cohen Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suing Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime and CBS for duping him into appearing on Cohen’s new show, “Who Is America.”

The suit, which was filed on Sept. 5, is for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud, and seeks “actual, compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $95 million.”

“Who Is America” debuted on Showtime in July, and an interview with Moore was aired during the third episode, on July 29.

To lure Moore, Cohen and his agents “falsely and fraudulently represented… that Yerushalayim TV — which does not actually exist — was the producer and broadcaster of the show that Judge Moore would appear on” and that Moore would “receive an award for his strong support of Israel in commemoration of its 70th anniversary as a nation state.”

Had Moore known it was a ruse, the filing states, he and his wife would not have traveled to Washington for the Feb. 14 ceremony.

During the segment that aired, Cohen was disguised as Erran Morad, “a supposed Israeli anti-terrorism expert and former Mossad agent” who, continued on page 24 October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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agenda Chai Mitzvah returns to Birmingham After a three-year hiatus, Chai Mitzvah is once again being offered in Birmingham.

Chai Mitzvah is a non-denominational Jewish learning program to deepen engagement, discussing Jewish topics using text-based source books. In addition to the monthly sessions, participants adopt or deepen a spiritual practice, identify a topic of learning and engage in a social action project.

The classes meet monthly through May on Tuesdays starting on Oct. 23 at 5:30 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El, and on Thursdays beginning Oct. 25 at 8:30 a.m. at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School.

Sheri Krell will teach the morning sessions at the Day School, while Monika Singeltary will lead the Emanu-El sessions in the evening. Each class will cover the same topic, but the discussions may take different paths based on the participants.

Krell said “When people sign up they can go to either or both classes for the same fee.”

The program is $40 and includes a book, online resources and a JNF tree planted in the participant’s name. To express interest, contact either of the instructors.

CUFI holding regional Night to Honor Israel near Chattanooga

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Christians United for Israel, along with churches in North Georgia, North Alabama, and Southeast Tennessee, will hold a Night to Honor Israel on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. (Eastern) at the Colonnade in Ringgold, Ga., just south of Chattanooga.

Erick Stakelbeck, director of the CUFI Watchman Project and host of “The Watchman” program on TBN since 2016, will be the keynote speaker.

Area Christian and Jewish communities have been working together for six years to produce this annual event, and will be represented by Pastor Victor Styrsky, CUFI Eastern Regional Coordinator and National Outreach Director, local pastors, the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga and CUFI City Directors.

The event is to show solidarity between the Jewish and Christian communities in their support of Israel. All are welcome regardless of religion or denomination.

Musical group “Adams Voice” will perform. They were featured at the Church of the Nazarene General Assemblies and conferences, on Bill Gaither’s Homecoming Tour and videos, and have performed the National Anthem at National Football League and Major League Baseball games.

Stakelbeck is a sought-after authority on the Middle East, terrorism and radical Islam. On his show, he visits Biblical sites in Israel, reinforcing the proof of the Jewish people’s ancient, ancestral claim to the land of Israel.

A Jerusalem Post profile said “Within Evangelical Christian circles, Stakelbeck is considered by many to be the leading authority” on issues of national security and the Middle East. He regularly provides commentary on leading national television and radio programs and as a frequent guest on Fox News.

The event is open to the public, and there is no charge. A complimentary reception will be held afterward. Reservations can be made at cufi.org.

agenda B’nai Israel in Hattiesburg announced that after just one year, it had reached its three-year capital campaign goal, raising around $60,000 toward its kitchen project.

The Mobile Area Jewish Federation has moved from its long-time office and as of this month will have its main office at Ahavas Chesed.

Kathy Lovitt, Federation administrator, said she will be in the office on Mondays and Tuesdays, and a third day at a satellite office at Springhill Avenue Temple, usually on Thursdays.

New Stage Theatre in Jackson is producing “The Diary of Anne Frank,” Oct. 23 to Nov. 4. The production is the 1997 adaptation by Wendy Kesselman of the 1955 original, which had been criticized for downplaying Frank’s Jewishness and making the story more universal.

Productions will run Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $30, $25 for students and seniors.

Faith In Action Alabama will have a phone banking session on Oct. 17 at Temple Beth Or in Montgomery, and Oct. 23 at Temple Beth-El in Birmingham. From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., volunteers are needed to call local residents and encourage participation in the Nov. 6 election. The calls are non-partisan and will not endorse any candidate.

Rabbi Brian Glusman, formerly of Temple Beth-El in Birmingham and Etz Chayim in Huntsville, is leading an adult trip to Israel, May 5 to 16. Currently at the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Atlanta, Glusman said the trip is for first-timers and those who have been to Israel before, and will include Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebrations in Israel.

Participants currently are from Atlanta, Columbus and Birmingham.

More information is available at www.israeltour.com/marcusjcc.

The Mobile Area Jewish Federation is coordinating volunteers for the Israel booth at the annual Mobile International Festival. “Celebrating Israel’s Super Stars” will showcase medical pioneers, science, technology, art, music and defense. Setup will be on Nov. 14, with school field trips on Nov. 15 and 16, and the festival is open to the public on Nov. 17. The festival is moving to the Mobile Fairgrounds this year.

The University of Mississippi Museum in Oxford will have an Artist Talk with sculptor George Tobolowsky, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. Based in Dallas, Tobolowsky is known for his found-object steel sculptures, and the current exhibit includes a couple of Chanukah menorahs. The exhibit will be up through Dec. 8.

Pensacola’s Temple Beth El will have a workshop on ethical wills, led

by Rabbi Joel Fleekop, Nov. 7 and 14 at 6:30 p.m.

A series of three religious literacy talks, the “Children of Abraham” series, will be at the Central Public Library in Lake Charles in October.

Presentations are at 5:30 p.m. and the public is invited. The schedule is Islam on Oct. 9, Judaism on Oct. 16 and Christianity on Oct. 23.

The Birmingham Jewish War Veterans Post 608 plans to honor the service of military members in the community by placing American flags at the grave sites of Jewish service members at the local cemeteries, including Elmwood and the “old” Emanu-El and Beth-El/ KI cemeteries on the Northside. The flagging of veterans’ graves is tentatively scheduled for Veterans Day, Nov. 11. Those who want to make sure a veteran is included should submit the veteran’s name, branch of service and rank, cemetery and specific grave site location to Post Commander Robert P. Rutstein, bagel@uab.edu.

The Sisterhood and Men’s Club at Birmingham’s Temple Beth-El will honor Jewish war veterans on Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. with a screening of “G.I. Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II.” Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center will have Fit Fam October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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agenda Fun Day, Oct. 14 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be vendors and food 278-7118. trucks on-site, along with pickleball, child/parent yoga, karate, kid’s Based on the Disney film and J.M. Barrie’s enchanting play, Disney’s Zumba, chess, a bounce house and other fitness activities for the fam- “Peter Pan Jr.” is a modern version of the timeless tale about a boy ily. The free event is open to members and the public. who wouldn’t grow up. Theatre LJCC at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Ahavas Chesed in Mobile will have “Think Pink” breast cancer Community Center will produce the show, Nov. 3 to 11, with Saturday awareness Shabbat on Oct. 19, in conjunction with Guitar Shabbat. curtain at 6:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

David Brown will also discuss his Eagle Scout project at the 6 p.m. serThe Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood in Birmingham will have a wine vice. tasting event, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. at the home of Brittany Saag. ReservaBeth Israel Temple Youth in Jackson is hosting the NFTY Southern tions are requested by Oct. 18.

Region Fall Mitzvah Corps the weekend of Oct. 12.

Bridge for Beginners will be taught at Ahavas Chesed in Mobile, The Men’s Club at B’nai Israel in Monroe will have its Hot Dog Sale Tuesdays at 7 p.m. from Oct. 16 to Nov. 7. Reservations are requested on Nov. 6 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., to benefit projects at B’nai Israel. Tick- by Oct. 9. ets are $5 and include a hot dog, chips and drink. Orders of 20 or more The Sisterhood at Temple Beth El in Pensacola will host “Undercan be delivered. standing the Muslim Religion and Its Customs,” with Salma AshBeth Shalom in Fort Walton Beach is holding a Backyard BBQ and Bingo fundraiser, Oct. 20 at 4 p.m. at the Geletas’ in Niceville. A $20 buy-in includes food and two cards, additional cards are $2. There will be 10 games with cash prizes, and an all-card jackpot. Reservations are requested by Oct. 13.

wani, Oct. 17 at 11:30 a.m. Lunch reservations are $15 and are required

by Oct. 15.

The museum directors of Ouachita Parish will hold their Oct. 18 noon meeting at B’nai Israel in Monroe, to view the congregation’s new museum chronicling 174 years of Jewish history in the area.

Back by popular demand, Collat Jewish Family Services in BirmingThe B’nai Israel Sisterhood in Panama City is hosting a garage sale, ham is offering several sessions of its popular Cyber-Senior classes in Oct. 13 from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 3210 Florida Ave. October and November. Cyber-Seniors pairs older adults with UniverThe next Torah On Tap in Mobile will be on Oct. 11 at 5:30 p.m. at sity of Alabama at Birmingham or Samford students who help them learn to use their smartphones, tablets or laptops. The free classes Alchemy Tavern, led by Rabbi Steven Silberman of Ahavas Chesed. will be held in various locations, and pre-registration is required. For information, contact Jennifer Nemet, jennifer@cjfsbham.org or (205)

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agenda Engel leaving New Orleans to open Israeli restaurant in Chicago James Beard Rising Star Chef Zach Engel is leaving New Orleans to open an Israeli-inspired restaurant in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Engel was executive chef at Shaya restaurant in New Orleans, during which the restaurant won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in the U.S. He became culinary director at Alon Shaya’s Pomegranate Hospitality Group, which Shaya formed last year after he was forced out of the restaurant Shaya for speaking out during a sexual harassment controversy involving John Besh and his restaurant group.

This year, Pomegranate opened two Israeli restaurants, Saba in New Orleans and Safta in Denver.

In a social media post, Pomegranate said they “could not be any happier or more proud” of Engel, as “this has been a dream of his for years and he is more deserving of this opportunity than anyone. He has taught us all invaluable lessons through the years with his natural ability to connect with people and cook incredible Israeli food.”

Engel, the son of a rabbi, is partnering with Andres Clavero, a Cuban-Palestinian. They became friends while studying at Tulane University. The restaurant will be called Galit, Engel’s daughter’s nickname. It is expected to open early next year.

Bama ZBT holding Second Century event in Atlanta The University of Alabama’s Psi Chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity will hold a “Championing Our Second Century” alumni gathering in Atlanta, with keynote speaker Eli Gold, voice of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.

The event will be held at the Hudson Grille in Sandy Springs on Oct. 24, with a cocktail hour at 6 p.m., dinner and speaker at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15, $25 for couples.

ZBT is the oldest Jewish fraternity at Alabama, forming in 1916. The chapter had a centennial celebration in March 2016. The Oct. 24 event will “celebrate a rich history and promising future for Psi Chapter of ZBT, the University of Alabama and Bama football.”

In recent years, ZBT has grown with the resurgence of Jewish enrollment in Tuscaloosa.

Birmingham’s Emanu-El hosting national URJ Leadership Learning

Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El will be one of approximately 40 sites nationwide for the Union for Reform Judaism’s Day of Leadership Learning on Oct. 28.

Currently, there are no host sites in Mississippi, Louisiana or Tennessee. Congregation Emanu-El in Houston is hosting, as are Children of Israel in Augusta, Ga., and Kol Emeth in Marietta, Ga. “Finding the Joy in Board Service” will teach congregational leaders “to cultivate their boards to be productive, motivated, and joyful.” Each site will have a URJ community lay leadership team and URJ staff, running the same program.

Joan Garry, noted non-profit consultant and author of “Guide to Nonprofit Leadership: Because Nonprofits Are Messy,” will be the key presenter for the day. Her presentation will be streamed into the event’s various host sites throughout the day.

Registration is $10, and is required by Oct. 25. The program is intended for executive committee members, clergy and professional staff or their equivalents from congregations of all sizes. At Emanu-El, the program will run from 2 to 5 p.m.

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Art • Jewelry • Books Jewelry designed by New Orleans Artist Marla Jean Clinesmith October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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agenda AJC launches Jewish Voters Guide On Sept. 13, the American Jewish Committee launched a 2018 Jewish Voters Guide, with details about Senate candidates in each state that has a Senate race this year. Mississippi has two Senate races this year, Florida has one.

Dan Schori, AJC executive director, said with the 2018 elections being pivotal for the country and a wide range of views being cited as motivating voters, “one element has not been explored: How do these elections impact the Jewish community and what are the candidates’ positions on the issues that matter to our community?”

The website, ajccandidates.wpengine.com, does not endorse candidates “but aims to serve as an educational tool for its users to learn more about the positions of candidates on issues that affect the wellbeing and interests of the Jewish community.”

The website also has a listing of the nine “worst candidates of 2018,” those who have expressed white supremacist, Holocaust denial or virulently anti-Israel views.

New JLI class wrestles with faith The next class from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute will explore questions of faith in the 21st century world.

“Wrestling With Faith” will be offered at Chabad Centers around the region, with Baton Rouge recently being approved to offer the international courses.

According to the course overview, “most people, even the devout, struggle with beliefs about G-d. It is easy, for example, to affirm the basic tenets of Judaism during a prayer service, but when it comes to trusting G-d with our daily decisions, many share a secret, painful fear that G-d isn’t really looking out for them.”

Also, there seems to be a polar argument of science versus faith, with an assumption that the two are incompatible. “The course acknowledges the often unspoken doubts and fears that all people share,” and invites digging deeper for answers.

The first session is entitled “I Have Trouble Believing In G-d,” which also explores why people should bother having a relationship with the divine.

Other sessions deal with whether G-d really cares about Jewish observance, the seemingly-primitive Jewish notions of a “chosen nation” and gender roles, how to relate to G-d when there is suffering and tragedy in the world, how a scientific mind can reconcile unprovable beliefs with compelling scientific evidence that seems at odds with a literal reading of the Bible, and how a finite person can relate to in infinite G-d.

JLI courses “are intellectually rigorous, yet highly accessible to beginners in Jewish studies,” Rabbi Peretz Kazen from Chabad of Baton Rouge said.

Bais Ariel Chabad Center in Birmingham will offer the course on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. starting Oct. 24, or Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. starting Oct. 25. Registration is $89. For Wednesday sessions, there is a 25 percent discount with two or more registrations.

The Chabad Jewish Center in Metairie offers the class on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. or 7:30 p.m., starting Oct. 23. The first week of November, class will be that Wednesday, Nov. 7. Registration is $70.

In Baton Rouge, classes will be held at the Main Library on Goodwood, on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. starting on Oct. 23. Registration is $89, with a 15 percent discount for couples.

Next year, “Crime and Consequences” and “With All My Heart,” about the world of prayer, will be offered.

As of press time, there were no details on classes at Chabad of Mobile.

10

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

“This is the day that love won” Community rallies around Northshore Jewish Congregation after anti-Semitic graffiti discovered days before Rosh Hashanah The High Holy Day season usually brings capacity crowds to synagogues, but on Sept.

16, the Northshore Jewish Congregation in Mandeville had a standing room only, overflow crowd the weekend between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

An interfaith and multiracial audience heard a wide range of speakers discuss the need for demonstrating that the community stands together, after a Sept. 5 anti-Semitic graffiti attack on the Northshore’s only Jewish congregation.

Jeremy Shalett, president of Northshore, said “today that evil is being replaced by a community of people.”

He called the gathering “an amazing show of support,” saying it was “not to acknowledge the hate… this gathering is to show what this community is all about.”

The spray-painted graffiti had two swastikas in red and black, a red cross, the phrase “synagogue of Satan” and the term 14/88.

The number 88 represents “Heil Hitler,” as H is the eighth letter of the alphabet. The number 14 references a 14-word white supremacist slogan about securing a future for white children.

Shalett recognized 13-year-old Cager Bloom, who attended the gathering. He and his friend David Hill, 15, skateboard through the Northshore parking lot every day and first discovered the graffiti. “It was horrible someone would do that,” Bloom said afterward.

They went to his house and got his mother, and they came back to the synagogue and went inside to report the vandalism.

Rebecca Slifkin, the congregation’s administrator, was inside. Slifkin said the door is usually locked, but she had been taking things to the dumpster. Upon finding out what was outside, she contacted local police.

The morning of Sept. 7, the graffiti was re-

moved by Stephen Landeche of Absolute Pressure Washing.

Landeche said he was scrolling through Facebook on Sept. 6 when he saw photos of the vandalism posted by the Slidell and Mandeville police. “This is really racist and really hateful,” he thought, and went out to his truck. He didn’t have the proper chemicals for graffiti removal, so he had to wait until the next morning, when a friend’s store opened.

He told his friend, “the Jewish center got tagged, I’m going to go and clean it off,” and his friend said “take what you need, go do it.”

Landeche had hoped to just show up and remove the graffiti without being noticed, but WWL-TV was there, setting up a camera for a story about the graffiti.

He has been tickled by the “nice reaction for so many people” to his deed, especially online where “you see so much negative, hateful garbage.”

Landeche said he did not know anyone who attends Northshore, but “it made me mad” to see the vandalism. “I figure if it made me mad, it really made them mad,” and since he had the time and expertise, showing up “seemed like a no-brainer.”

Denunciations of the graffiti poured in. Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans CEO Arnie Fielkow and Federation Board Chair Henry Miller commented jointly, “Our community remains unified in opposition to white supremacy. Hate for one is hate for all, and as such, we condemn all forms of bigotry and discrimination.”

They thanked those who have denounced the graffiti, and “call upon our Greater New Orleans community at large to do the same.”

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Council, said “The Jewish community, and all of its rabbinic and clergy leadership, stands together with our brothers and sisters at the Northshore Jewish Congregation. We must rededicate our actions moving forward towards teshuva, tefila, u’tzedakah: repentance, crying out against injustice, and continuing to create holy and righteous communities here in southern Louisiana and the world.”

Rep. Steve Scalise issued a statement standing with the congregation.

“Hatred and bigotry have no place in our society. This cowardly act of anti-Semitism is disgraceful, and I hope the criminal who perpetrated it is brought to justice.”

Tammy Savoie, who is running for Congress, said “I strongly denounce this vile expression of hatred in our community… it is shocking and repugnant and beneath any Louisiana resident any time to use a swastika in committing a crime.”

Louisiana’s two U.S. senators, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, issued a joint statement on Rosh Hashanah. “The anti-Semitic symbols painted onto the Northshore Jewish Congregation synagogue are hateful and unacceptable,” they said.

“There can be no tolerance for religious bigotry in our state or the country. We are encouraged by the community’s unified condemnation of the vandalism, especially as our Jewish friends are in the midst of celebrating Rosh Hashanah.”

The seven members of the New Orleans City Council issued a joint statement, in which each councilor made an individual comment. They said the council is “extremely troubled by the anti-Semitic graffiti,” and stands with the congregation and the ADL to “strongly condemn these acts.”

The New Orleans Human Relations Commission also issued a statement, strongly condemning the attack. “Greater New Orleans is home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the South, and this attack, days before the celebration of Rosh Hashanah… is deeply troubling.”

In the 2017 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, Louisiana’s total jumped from three in 2016, all vandalism, to 10 in 2017, seven of which were harassment and the rest were vandalism. In March 2017, fliers and stickers were posted on the two local synagogues and at a mosque in Shreveport.

Also last March, there was anti-Semitic harassment reported in Metairie, aimed at a Shabbat service. In New Orleans, a synagogue received an anti-Semitic phone call, a swastika was posted in front of a Jewish home, a Jewish city council candidate’s signs were defaced with swastikas, and anti-Semitic content and threats were posted on social media by middle school students.

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

The Sept. 5 graffiti at Northshore Jewish Congregation

Ruby Bridges speaks to students in the religious school at Northshore Jewish Congregation The Sept. 16 event began with Amanda Shaw playing “God Bless America” on violin after local Boy Scouts presented the U.S. and Israeli flags. At the conclusion, Michael Hertzig blew a shofar.

Many at the event spoke of turning the evil of the vandalism into an opportunity for good, compelling a wide range of races and faiths to stand up and unify.

Maureen O’Brien, who represents the area on the Parish Council, said “this is the day that love won.”

Rabbi Alexis Pinsky, who is the High Holy Days rabbi for Northshore this year, said “You never want something to happen like what occurred, but I have been blown away by the expressions of kindness and support.”

She cited the High Holy Days as a “time to repair, to build bridges” and also related the gathering to Sukkot, with the community’s support weaving a shelter.

For the congregation’s sukkah, there were large pieces of blank fabric on tables, where those in attendance could write statements of support and unity.

Though the event was on the day when synagogues have memorial services at their cemeteries, a few rabbis from New Orleans were able to attend.

Rev. Jimmy Owens, executive pastor at St. Timothy United Methodist Church, said he would like to believe “such as this is a one-off event that does not reflect the hearts of our community,” but he said over the years a Jewish friend has confided in him “things that have been said along those lines.”

For this, he said, “we must repent as a community” and respect the truth that anti-Semitism exists.

Father Emile “Buddy” Noel, ecumenical and interreligious officer of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, expressed the hope for change in the soul of the person responsible for the vandalism.

Noel related how he had been invited to participate in an interfaith Seder by one of Northshore’s previous rabbis, and one of the most beautiful events in his life was holding an unrolled Torah there. “I spoke about that in a sermon, just two days before the vandalism took place.”

Noel hoped “at some point God would move the person or persons responsible… to walk in that door and learn the same things I did.”

Hamid Hussein said “when we heard the news, we were all shocked,” and he read a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, condemning the graffiti.

Aaron Ahlquist, ADL regional director, told the crowd that while “voices of hate are emboldened” these days, “you are sending a powerful message that this hate will not be tolerated.”

Citing other recent anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues around the country, 17-year-old Savannah Cutliff said her congregation has been changed by the incident. “We must be the voices of reason,” she said. “We must take pride in our faith and we must speak up.”

Despite the vandalism, she said “we are not broken. Oppressors have been trying to eliminate us for 3,000 years. A few idiots with a can of October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

13

community spray paint don’t stand a chance.”

Because some of the congregation’s religious school students expressed fear about going to class, Ruby Bridges was brought in to speak with the children about overcoming the fear that can come in facing racism.

Bridges knows all about the topic. A 1964 painting by Norman Rockwell, “The Problem We All Live With,” depicted a 6-year-old African-American girl being escorted to school by four U.S. marshals as she integrated the New Orleans elementary schools in 1960. Bridges was that girl.

Racism is a grown-up disease,” she said, “and we need to stop using our kids to spread it.”

Noting the title of the painting about her, she said the hate behind the vandalism “is the problem. We are still living with it.”

Teri Gross said when the congregation purchased a church building in 2002 and turned it into the current synagogue, there was a debate over whether to have a sign with the congregation’s name, as Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke lived nearby. “What’s the point of having a synagogue if you can’t put up a sign and say there is a synagogue in Northshore,” she asked.

Gross said she knew if something were to happen, the greater community would rally

around the congregation. “Hateful acts do not represent this community,” she said. “You have shown this.”

Warren Montgomery, St. Tammany Parish District Attorney, said “we’re going to do everything we can to identify” the perpetrator “and prosecute that person.”

Referencing the gathering, he said “God turns bad things into good things,” and emphasized Bridges’ message to the congregation’s students, quoting Isaiah’s admonition to “be strong, fear not.”

Mandeville Police Chief Gerald Sticker said they were following every lead they receive, but graffiti is usually hard to track down. In this case, there were no witnesses, no surveillance footage and no spray paint cans left behind.

“We are working this as a hate crime,” he said, and will charge the perpetrator accordingly.

While graffiti is usually a juvenile crime, “the specificity” in the message “leads us to believe there is some education, some indoctrination.”

Pat Brister, St. Tammany Parish president, was out of town when the vandalism occurred, and said she “would hope most people had the same revulsion I did” at the “cowardly” act.

She said it is important to demonstrate that ing, “we send an unequivocal message that we, there is no place for hate. By joining the gather- all of us, reject the sentiments that were scrawled so cowardly in the night on these walls.”

Covington Mayor Mike Cooper expressed “disdain for the horrific act” and said he was there “representing love and peace, and ask that we all join in.”

Rep. Reid Falconer, who represents the area in the State Legislature, spoke to the congregation during Shabbat services on Sept. 14, saying on behalf of the state of Louisiana that “you are not alone. We stand with you.”

He said elements of the state seal include a mother pelican and several chicks, with the pelican representing the state. “That mother pelican is here for all those chicks,” which he said represent “all races, all ethnicities, all religious traditions.”

O’Brien said she was “very shocked and disappointed at what we saw” because “we all feel we are better than this.”

“An attack on one faith,” Montgomery said, “is an attack on all faiths.”

Bridges said it is unfortunate that it takes events like this to bring people together, “something we should be doing a lot more.” The only thing that Alice J. Forrester - Mickey Whitaker can “stave off evil is the love between us.”

Brokers/Owners Pastor Donald Burris of Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church said “the more we get together, the happier we’ll be.”

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Looking out at the overflow crowd, Shalett said “this is everyone’s congregation today.”

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

A new Torah for Touro Synagogue On Sept. 16, Linda Coppleson sat under a canopy in the sanctuary of New Orleans’ Touro Synagogue, and wrote the Hebrew letter “bet” on a clean sheet of parchment as students from the religious school looked on.

With that, the writing of a new Torah scroll for the congregation was underway.

This is the fifth Torah that Coppleson has written, and it is “the first one written by a woman here in New Orleans, at least I am assuming so.”

The Torah is being dedicated in memory of Julian Good Sr., who died in 2013. His son, Julian Good Jr., said because of how much his father loved the synagogue, “the family wanted to offer a gift to the synagogue in his memory, which would always be used, always be loved and always connect us to this place.”

As president of the congregation, his father “was interested in attracting new members and in particular young families.” He was “looking to the future, not maintaining the status quo, looking to new ideas.”

As part of her weekend visit, Coppleson examined the congregation’s existing scrolls, looking at their history and checking their condition.

“They are historic and they are beautiful,” she told the students. “They range from the early 19th century to the 20th century. Some of them are really tall, and some are teeny tiny. Some have short pages with three columns, some big pages with six or seven columns on a page.”

She added, “despite the different outward appearances of the scrolls in your aron kodesh (ark) — inside they are all the same.”

The new Torah will be a smaller one for regular use, one that congregants can carry more easily.

Between letters in the first word of the Torah, Coppleson explained the process for writing a Torah, showed all of the implements used by scribes — and explained a handful of the many rules.

Touro Rabbi Alexis Berk spoke about her time as a student rabbi, when she would set the Torah before Shabbat alone in the sanctuary when visiting a congregation for the weekend. “it was in these intimate times between me and the Torah that I truly became a rabbi,” she said.

Berk ascribes human traits to each scroll, and asked “what will be the sole of this new Torah scroll? What will be the personality?”

Over the coming year, Coppleson will visit during the weekend of Dec. 7 and the last weekend of March. Members will be able to have “scribing sessions” with Coppleson, holding her hand as she writes a letter or word.

Families or groups can do a chain of hands.

Every Touro member is encouraged to participate in a scribing session — women, men, children, seniors, non-Jewish members. No Hebrew knowledge is needed.

Dedication opportunities are available, starting with letters at $18 and words at $30. Significant stories start at $900 and go to the receiving of the Torah at Sinai, at $7,200.

“Torahs are not written very often,” Good said. “My family is honored to give this moment to the members of Touro Synagogue.”

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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• October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Eva Schloss, step-sister to Anne Frank, will speak in New Orleans and Tennessee in the coming weeks.

Her Nov. 6 talk in New Orleans is presented by Chabad of Louisiana and Chabad Jewish Center in Metairie, in conjunction with 80 years since Kristallnacht and 70 years since the first publication of Anne Frank’s diary, and will be hosted by the Uptown Jewish Community Center. The 7 p.m. event is open to the public.

When Germany invaded Austria in 1938, among the Jewish families who fled was 8-year-old Eva Geiringer, who moved to Belgium and then Holland with her brother and parents. She became friends with a neighbor, a German Jewish girl who was the same age, named Anne Frank.

In 1943, both families went into hiding, but both families were ultimately discovered by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

As is well known, Anne Frank died at Auschwitz, but Eva Geringer survived, as did her mother. Her brother and father did not.

Returning to Amsterdam following the war, they met up with Otto Frank, who was dealing with the loss of his family, and the discovery of Anne’s diary. In 1953, Eva’s mother married Frank, making her Anne’s step-sister.

Since 1985, Schloss has devoted herself to Holocaust education and global peace. She has recounted her wartime experiences in more than 1,000 speaking engagements. She has written two books and has had a play written about her life.

A co-founder of the Anne Frank Trust in Britain, in 1999 Schloss signed the Anne Frank Peace Declaration along with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the niece of Raoul Wallenberg, a legendary figure who rescued thousands of Jews in Budapest.

Tickets to the New Orleans talk are $18, with an Oct. 30 deadline, $25 after. Tickets can be obtained at jewishlouisiana.com/evaschloss. Sponsorships begin at $100, and signed books are available for $20.

The event is also endorsed by the New Orleans Holocaust Memorial Committee.

Rabbi Mendel Ceitlin said “This is a special opportunity to hear a firsthand account from someone whose life intersected with one of the most compelling figures in our history.”

Schloss will also be speaking in Tennessee, coming from Illinois and then going to New England before her New Orleans appearance.

On Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m., Schloss will be at the Nashville Music City Center, hosted by Chabad of Nashville. Tickets start at $35, $25 for students, military and seniors for general admission, $90 for reserved seating and $150 for a VIP experience.

On Oct. 14, she will speak at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium at the Tivoli Theatre in Chattanooga. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for groups of 10 or more. Doors open at 6 p.m. for the 7 p.m. (Eastern) talk.

Her Memphis talk will be Oct. 16 at the University of Memphis’ Michael Rose Theatre. Sponsored by the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, Memphis, the talk is also presented by the Unknown Child Foundation, which is working to build a children’s Holocaust memorial in northwest Mississippi.

The memorial is an outgrowth of the “Pennies Project” effort by Horn Lake Middle School to collect 1.5 million pennies to represent the 1.5 million Jewish children murdered in the Holocaust. Diane McNeil, coordinator of the Unknown Child Foundation, said Schloss “is extremely important to us because Anne Frank is one of our pennies.”

Also co-sponsoring are Facing History and Ourselves, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel and FedEx. Tickets to the 7 p.m. Memphis event are $25 in advance, $35 at the door, $10 for students. A $180 VIP ticket, $250 for couples, includes a VIP ticket to the event, a reception with Schloss and a personalized signed book.

community

Alabama’s “Bloom Hillel is thriving” as expansion dedicated Seven years after the Bloom Hillel at the University of Alabama dedicated a new facility that would meet its needs for the foreseeable future, a dedication ceremony was held on Aug. 26 for a much-needed, if not originally anticipated, expansion.

With Jewish enrollment at the university expanding every year, the Hillel had been drawing capacity crowds averaging 110 to 120 for Shabbat dinners each week. Mike Honan, co-chair of the Bloom Hillel board, said they were routinely bumping up on capacity and did not want the fire marshal to compel them to turn anyone away.

Star Bloom, who also co-chairs the board, said the first Shabbat dinner in the expanded facility, held on Aug. 24, drew over 175 students, prompting Honan to say that they might need the services of their architect and construction company again soon.

The expanded Hillel has a capacity of 250, and the expansion added a board room and director’s office.

The project had a quick turnaround, as the groundbreaking was held on Feb. 4. Lisa Besnoy, director of Bloom Hillel, said if the dedication ceremony had taken place 10 days earlier “you would be sitting on a concrete slab.”

A $1 million campaign was launched for the expansion, and as of the dedication it was approximately 70 percent complete. Bloom said “we can’t stop, we need to meet at our original goal.”

Part of the fundraising is for increased operating and programming expenses, and Bloom noted that the week’s Friday night turnout “tells us we better get busy raising the money.”

The dedication’s theme was “L’dor V’dor,” generation to generation.

Besnoy said “We know a thing or two about tradition at the University of Alabama,” adding that “Bloom Hillel is thriving.”

University President Stuart Bell said when he walked in, he commented “this room seems larger.”

Looking around the room, he could see the generational influence, praising the generation “stepping forward to leave the kind of facilities our students need to be successful. Trying to build something for the next generation — there’s nothing greater that one can do.”

Bell added, “Thank you for what you are doing, and of course, Roll

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Tide.”

Honan said in the 1920s, up to a third of the student body at Alabama was Jewish. “President George Denny saw an opportunity to welcome Jewish students” as there were restrictive quotas at Northeastern schools. He added that New York still has the largest Alabama alumni chapter.

In 1927, Bill Bloom Rabbi Eric Berk (left) of Temple B’nai and Louis Pizitz started Sholom in Huntsville helps affix a mezuzah the effort to establish at the Hillel expansion dedication a Hillel. Honan said the Alabama Hillel was the third Hillel established in the country, and it was formed “to create a home away from home for all Jewish students on campus and anyone they wish to bring with them.” The first permanent Hillel House opened in 1952 across from the stadium.

But the 1963 Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and other civil rights tensions led to the Jewish enrollment declining by half, and the rabbinic position at Hillel ended during the recession of 1973. By 2000, the Jewish enrollment had dropped to around 250.

In 2004, then-University President Robert Witt started an effort to recruit “critically under-represented” Jewish students, and it was very successful.

Part of the effort included relocating the Hillel and moving Temple Emanu-El to campus, next door to the Hillel, and Honan said they knew “in 2011 that we would never outgrow this building.”

For the last year or so, the need for expanding the building was self-evident. When ground was broken in 2009 there were about 600 Jewish students on campus, now there are at least 900.

Honan also spoke of the new Hillel Connections program which paired students with companies in Birmingham during the summer and exposing them to what the Jewish community in Birmingham has to offer. “We have a potential for a wonderful future if we can only believe in ourselves.”

Leslie Bashuk, Hillel student board president, said “I, among countless others, have found a home here. Without this place, we as students would be lost.”

Alumnus Chip Boardman reflected on his journey to Tuscaloosa. He is a native of El Dorado Arkansas where there were half a dozen Jewish families. The family then moved to Houston and in 1979 he was invited to a Jewish recruitment event Alabama. Meeting Morris Mayer at the ZBT house “changed my life forever.”

Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies at Alabama, referenced the generational theme for the dedication in introducing Rabbi Eric Berk of Huntsville’s Temple B’nai Sholom, who placed the mezuzahs on the expansion. Berk had just arrived in Huntsville weeks earlier to lead the congregation, and Jacobs noted that before going to Tuscaloosa in 2001 he had been the rabbi at B’nai Sholom.

Rabbi Scott Looper, who just started at Montgomery’s Temple Beth Or, gave the invocation, asking that the Hillel “be a place that reassures and restores souls” and “a place open and accepting of diversity… May it be a place where souls and bodies are nourished.”

Cantor Jessica Roskin of Birmingham’s Temple Emanu-El did the closing benediction and song, then there was a barbecue chicken lunch. Before the ceremony, there had been a brunch for donors and board members, leading Besnoy to observe that “you will not go unfed at Bloom Hillel.”

community

First “Made in Mississippi” canister delivered for Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense The first “Made in Mississippi” Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile canister was delivered to Israel Aerospace Industries during an Aug. 27 ceremony at Stark Aerospace in Columbus.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant and several members of Mississippi’s Congressional delegation were at the ceremony, along with senior officials from Israel’s Ministry of Defense and Consul General Lior Haiat from Israel’s consulate in Miami.

Stark was recently chosen to manufacture canisters for the Arrow-3, an integral component to the latest generation of missile defense systems developed by IAI, Stark’s parent company.

The canisters hold the anti-ballistic missiles that are fired at incoming rockets and missiles. Each launcher can hold six canisters.

The Arrow Weapon System is the upper tier defense system against ballistic missile threats and is the world’s first operational, national missile defense system. IAI is the prime contractor for Arrow and responsible for Arrow 2 and 3 interceptor development, production and system integration.

The Arrow-2 system is for low-altitude intercepts. The Arrow-3 interceptors are faster, have a longer range than Arrow 2 and can operate at much higher altitudes, including intercepting missiles whose trajectories go beyond the atmosphere into space.

Moshe Patel, director of the Israel Ministry of Defense, said the ministry “is proud to mark here in Mississippi another achievement representing fruitful long term cooperation between the U.S. and Israel for building a strong protective shield to the State of Israel against missiles and rockets.”

He said that partnership “created a world-class interceptor that, together with the Arrow 2, expands the ballistic missile defense envelope provided to the State of Israel. Stark joins many other U.S. vendors and manufacturers that do an exceptional work and produce high-end components to our Arrow, David’s Sling and Iron Dome systems.”

The Arrow-3, he added, is for longer-range threats, such as Syria or Iran.

Boaz Levy, general manager and executive vice president of IAI Mis-

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

19

community siles and Space Group, said the event “symbolizes the full cooperation between Israel and the U.S. Stark’s missile defense capabilities enable IAI to manufacture parts of the Arrow Weapon System in Mississippi and serve as a basis for future expansion on missile defense initiatives and other activities.”

It was noted during the ceremony that the U.S.-funded project benefits both nations, with Israel getting the most advanced systems while providing jobs in the U.S. ““We are combining the defense of Israel with bringing jobs to places like Mississippi,” Patel said. “It’s a win-win situation.”

Bryant said 70 percent of the materials in manufacturing the canister “come from Mississippi, so you’re looking at Mississippi steel and a lot of Mississippi technology that goes in this.”

Radar systems protecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem also come from Mississippi, Bryant said.

In November, Bryant will travel to Israel on a trade mission for the third time in four years. He generally also speaks at security and technology conferences while in Israel, and in March the state hosted an international homeland security conference in Biloxi that was dominated by Israeli companies.

Rep. Gregg Harper said Stark “is utilizing a strong and talented Mississippi workforce to defend Israel from shared foreign adversaries throughout the Middle East and beyond.”

Building the canisters in Mississippi also helps Israel on the world stage. According to the site Breaking Defense, when the U.S. funds development of a weapons system for Israel, it has a veto over any Israeli export of the system, to prevent competition against U.S. systems. Being able to say these systems are made in the U.S. is a major advantage.

Also, new restrictions mean Israel has to spend U.S. aid in dollars and will eventually not be able to convert the aid into shekels to pay Israeli companies, leading Israeli companies to have U.S. affiliates and partners.

During Haiat’s visit to the state for the ceremony, he also toured Mississippi State University, including Davis Wade Stadium. “There’s no visit to Mississippi without a little football,” he remarked.

He also visited Tupelo, visiting Elvis Presley’s birthplace and dining with Mayor Jason Shelton at Elvis’ old haunt, Johnnie’s Drive In. Haiat also toured Temple B’nai Israel, the local congregation.

KI holding weekend on bioethics Bioethicist Yoelit Lipinsky will be scholar in residence the weekend of Oct. 11 at Birmingham’s Knesseth Israel.

A Ph.D. student at Duquesne University, Lipinsky specializes in the nexus of secular and religious medical ethics. She has a triple Master’s degree from the University of Toronto in Jewish studies, religion and bioethics. She has presented at the Conference in Medicine and Religion and has been invited to the UNESCO Ethics Chair Conference in Jerusalem.

On Oct. 11 at 8 p.m., “Beer and Bioethics” will be a facilitated Torah discussion on topic in bioethics, including genetics and cosmetic enhancements.

On Oct. 12 she will speak at the 6:30 p.m. Shabbat dinner following the 6 p.m. service. The topic is “Hesped and Bechi: Halakha, Bioethics and Post-mortem Artificial Insemination,” whether someone can father a child from beyond the grave, and what the ethical and legal concerns are.

Dinner reservations are $18 per person, $36 per family.

On Oct. 13, services are at 9 a.m., followed by a noon Kiddush and a talk on “Insular and Isolated: Hasidic Judaism and Mental Health Care,” how mental health is stigmatized in the Hasidic community — and some manifestations of illness can be difficult to differentiate from parts of the Hasidic lifestyle.

On Oct. 14, after the 8:30 a.m. service, she will hold a Women’s Shiur, “Topics in Jewish Reproduction: Freezing, Selecting and Counting.”

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Get protection and live worry free Photo by Nik Layman

Joel Rotenstreich with grandsons Asher and Noah

Holocaust Center “poised for growth” Joel Rotenstreich honored at annual event With his self-described “modern family” at his side, Joel Rotenstreich recounted how “we are so blessed, all of us,” as the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center honored him at this year’s L’Chaim event.

Twin grandsons Asher and Noah did a video tribute, and BHEC President Deborah Layman said “There are no accolades great enough to express our gratitude” to Rotenstreich for his decades of service to the community.

The event was held at the Alys Stephens Center on Aug. 19. During the program, Interim Executive Director Joyce Spielberger announced that Thomas Bryant would be taking over as the new executive director (see story, page 24).

The BHEC is “poised and ready for great growth… I am so grateful to have had this opportunity,” Spielberger said.

A major project of BHEC is teacher training, so lessons from the Holocaust can be incorporated into school curricula. Rachel Hartsell of Isabella High School in Maplesville spoke about her experiences as a teacher.

She attended a Jewish Foundation for the Righteous seminar through a Lerner Fellowship. That’s when “I truly learned what the definition of intense was,” she said.

Holocaust education “is going to be a journey I’ll be on for the rest of my life,” she added.

Teaching in rural Alabama, “There isn’t much diversity” and many students don’t know Jews or Catholics.

The goal, she said, is to “teach equality. Teach that we do not live in a tiered society.” She wants students to become budding activists and not to be indifferent to others.

Spielberger spoke of how the center has been expanding its “valuable partnerships” with groups such as the UAB Institute for Human Rights.

Another partnership that was in full view during the event was with the Red Mountain Theatre Company. Executive Director Keith Cromwell started working with BHEC in 2017 to present a musical program that expresses their organizations’ shared commitment to human rights and social justice.

“It’s a pleasure to work with Keith on a program that uses music and the spoken word to deliver the message and honors a member of our community who epitomizes this commitment,” said Layman.

Many performers from Red Mountain and the youth Conservatory did musical presentations and spoken word dramatizations about fighting prejudice.

“The Conservatory program brings kids together and gives them common ground through art to express the values of unity and collaboration,” said Cromwell.

The Steel City Men’s Chorus also performed, as did Temple Emanu-El Cantor Jessica Roskin, who made her musical theatre debut in Red Mountain’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Lehman spoke of Rotenstreich’s “love of family, passion for justice and

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

community his desire to build bridges in our community, and we in Birmingham are the beneficiaries of all this.”

While Rotenstreich chaired the BHEC annual fundraising in 2016 and 2017, his legacy of service goes back much further. He was campaign chair and president of the Birmingham Jewish Federation and served three five-year terms on the Mountain Brook Board of Education, including a stint as president.

He and wife Bunny have led 22 group trips to Israel, including seven interfaith missions, involving a total of over 600 people.

He also headed the Anne Frank Tree project.

As the famed horse chestnut tree outside the window of the Secret Annex where the Frank family hid during the Holocaust was dying a few years ago, a batch of saplings from the tree were offered to suitable sites around the country.

When Birmingham’s civil rights district wasn’t selected, Rotenstreich decided to find a horse chestnut tree to place in Kelly Ingram Park.

At the event, Rotenstreich was clearly moved by the tribute. He said Noah recently asked him what his most romantic date was. “The best date we’ve ever had is today, right here, this moment… this honor is the most loving date.”

He added, “the recognition of me and our family is not based on how many meetings I attend, how much money I raised or how much money we have to contribute, it is given to us because of the way we have lived our lives” in service to the community.

The BHEC, he said, “is about education, education and education, all over the state of Alabama. The lessons are about integrity, caring and kindness, personal and social responsibility, and the “courage to speak up when you see something that’s not right.”

He added “Each of us is an angel with one wing. We will fly only when we embrace each other for the greater good.”

David Silverstein, co-chair of the event, noted it had been a year since the demonstrations in Charlottesville. “Birmingham is at the forefront of opposition to racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance,” he said. But “we cannot become complacent — we must remain vigilant in opposition to those who are intent on planting the seeds of prejudice, hatred and indifference.”

Walking into the audience, Silverstein said Rotenstreich had told him the day wasn’t about him, but was about raising money for BHEC. Rotenstreich often jokes that it is “expensive to be my friend.”

Standing in the aisle with Rotenstreich, Silverstein told him “Today you have raised $450,000.”

Lehman told the audience “because of you we can dream big hand bigger. We can expand, we can grow. We can reach more teachers and more students with our very important message.”

community West Blocton’s Jewish past to be remembered Israel, Ellis plaques to be dedicated at new library The Jewish history of West Blocton will be celebrated as the town’s library is rededicated in a new setting.

Two plaques honoring Sam Israel and his son, Elmo Israel Ellis, will be unveiled during the Oct. 28 ceremony, which will be from 2 to 4 p.m. The library has been moved into the former Elks Lodge, and Ellis’ daughter, Janet Israel Beerman of Atlanta, donated her father’s books to the library at his request.

The family presence began in 1891 when Wolf Israel established a business, and roughly 20 Jewish families moved to the area.

His son, Sam Israel, soon took over The Cahaba Lily Center occupies the former I&N Store the family business, partnering with Ike Nathews on what was known as the I&N ly history were shown the portrait. The person Store in the center of the coal mining town. To- conducting the tour noticed that Israel’s portrait was facing a large portrait of Jesus and worried day, the building is the Cahaba Lily Center.

Wolf Israel was one of the founders of West how that would be received. According to the Blocton’s Orthodox synagogue, Ah Goodies Ah story, Ellis reassured him, “that’s fine, after all, Chem, and Sam lived next door to the building, they were brothers.”

A broadcasting innovator and legend, Ellis which was dedicated in 1905.

With the community dwindling, the building was captain of the high school football team in was demolished in 1938 after being damaged by West Blocton, graduated from the University a storm and by a fire. A historic marker was ded- of Alabama and then was a communications icated in 1997, and the home next door became officer in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. After the war, he wrote and directed radio the residence of former mayor Gary Donner.

After going back and forth for years, in 2015 shows, then became production manager of Donner bought the vacant synagogue property, WSB-TV in Atlanta in 1948, producing the with Beerman using the proceeds to establish South’s first television program.

Ellis then moved to WSB radio in 1952 and a named fund at the University of Alabama to assist Judaic Studies students and honor the turned the station into a powerhouse. He produced and directed four Democratic National memory of the congregation.

Sam Israel was fire marshal, and a Masonic Conventions, including the first-ever televised master. A popular story is that his portrait hung coverage in 1952. He co-authored a book on rain the Masonic Lodge, and family members who dio station management that was the longtime had traveled to West Blocton to see their fami- standard college textbook on the subject.

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This summer, Temple B’nai Sholom in Brookhaven got a new roof and a new exterior paint job. Since the congregation closed in 2009, the building has become the Lincoln County Historical and Genealogical Society Museum. In June, the museum started hosting Nights at the Museum programs (left).

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

23

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Former Birmingham Holocaust Education Center board member Thomas Bryant has been named the new executive director of the educational agency.

The announcement was made by Interim Executive Director Joyce Spielberg during the BHEC L’Chaim Gala in August.

Bryant has served at the Alabama Humanities Foundation for more than 16 years. During his tenure at AHF, Bryant directed nearly all of the foundation’s educational outreach programs, including a decade of content-based, graduate-level teacher development.

For the last seven years, Bryant served as director of AHF’s federal and non-federal re-grants program supporting a vast array of catalytic humanities, arts and culture educational projects.

“Serving a noble cause and working with passionate people is to me the most fulfilling work imaginable. It is easy to give something your all when you believe in it strongly,” said Bryant. “The opportunity to advance BHEC’s crucial mission of educating all generations about the perils of ignorance, hatred, and indifference is without question the greatest honor of my career.”

A native of Daphne, Bryant holds a degree in political science with emphases in cultural geography, European history and art history from the University of Alabama, and an M.A. in art history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His extended studies abroad in France, Italy, Germany and later China, Japan and South Korea were immensely influential in shaping his worldview, including a strong appreciation for social and cultural diversity, and a deep-rooted respect for human rights.

Bryant has served on the board of the Alabama Historical Association and the advisory board of Birmingham AIDS Outreach. Currently he serves on the board of Birmingham AIDS Outreach, and BAO’s subcommittee for the Magic City Acceptance Center.

>> Moore

continued from page 5

during the interview, introduced a fraudulent device that supposedly had been invented in Israel to detect child molesters through a hormone in their sweat.

During Moore’s 2017 run for U.S. Senate, four women accused Moore of inappropriate conduct when they were underage and he was around 30 years old. Moore passionately denied the allegations, but in the segment, Morad’s device “malfunctioned” by going off whenever it was placed near Moore. Moore then cut off the interview and walked off the set.

After the segment taped, Moore’s counsel sent a letter saying they would seek legal remedies if the segment aired.

The suit states that “this false and fraudulent portrayal and mocking of Judge Moore as a sex offender, on national and international television… has severely harmed Judge Moore’s reputation and caused him, Mrs. Moore and his entire family severe emotional distress, as well as caused and will cause Plaintiffs financial damage.”

Moore signed a release before the interview, but claims it was obtained through fraudulent means.

community

Coming to terms with the past German diplomat meeting with regional Jewish communities, Birmingham event on Oct. 18 Retired German diplomat Stefan Schlüter will visit Birmingham as part of an 11-city U.S. tour, visiting mid-sized and smaller Jewish communities to speak on “How Germany Has Come to Terms with Its Past.”

As program director of the Diplomatic Academy in Berlin, Schlüter strongly believes German diplomats have an obligation to reach out to Jewish communities due to the legacy of the Holocaust.

His main Birmingham event will be on Oct. 18 at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, with a 5:30 p.m. reception and 6 p.m. discussion.

The event is coordinated by the Institute, the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, the UAB Institute for Human Rights and the American Council on Germany.

He will also speak at a breakfast briefing on Oct. 19 at 7:15 a.m. at the Levite Jewish Community Center’s senior lounge. The event is free and open to the community, but reservations are required to Florina Newcomb at florinan@bjf.org.

The American Jewish Committee is also coordinating the national tour. According to information from the AJC, the tour’s goal “is to engage Jewish communities in smaller U.S. cities to examine German-Jewish themes, to openly discuss Germany today in the context of its history, and to provide opportunities to learn about contemporary Germany.”

In Birmingham, that also means examining local civil rights history.

The event will include a panel discussion by local educators, moderated

by Tina Kempin Reuter, director of UAB’s Institute for Human Rights.

“We cannot host Mr. Schlüter and his country’s story without also including our own story and how we handle our past,” said BHEC Outreach Coordinator Kendall Chew.

After studying political science at the University of Hamburg, Schlüter went to Israel as a 23-year-old in 1975 and lived on Kibbutz Ramat Rachel near Jerusalem. He joined the German Foreign Office in 1979, and was sent to Buenos Aires, where he met his wife, and then Algiers before moving to Tel Aviv as spokesman for the German Embassy.

While in Tel Aviv from 1986 to 1990, his daughter was born. During diplomatic postings in Los Angeles, where his son attended a synagogue preschool, New York as Deputy Consul General, and San Francisco as Consul General, Schlüter engaged in dialogue with Jewish organizations and at synagogues about Germany’s relationship with the Jewish people and organized several trips to Germany for rabbis. Since the summer of 2017, he is a retired member of the German Foreign Office.

The American Council on Germany was incorporated in 1952 in New York as a private nonprofit organization to promote reconciliation and understanding between Germans and Americans after World War II. The tour will also be in Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta and Nashville.

Montgomery’s Beth Or selling Carnegie Deli cheesecakes

Montgomery’s Temple Beth Or Sisterhood is once again selling Carnegie Deli cheesecakes, just in time for Chanukah. The cheesecake has been a New York tradition since 1937, and Beth Or also sells it at the Jewish Food Festival every February.

The prices remain the same from last year. A 6-inch cheesecake, which serves 10 to 12, is $25, while an 8-inch cheesecake serving 12 to 14 is $35.

Orders must be received by Oct. 26, and the cheesecakes can be picked up at Beth Or on Nov. 13 and 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Top statewide candidates in Florida have been dealing with controversies involving issues of importance to Jewish voters.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democrat gubernatorial candidate, has been accused of associating with groups that have ties to Palestinian terror groups.

The Republican candidate, Rep. Ron DeSantis, attacked Gillum in television ads and in a Sept. 24 talk for his ties with the left-wing Dream Defenders, and for welcoming the Council on American Islamic Relations to Tallahassee during Florida Muslim Capitol Day in 2016.

According to a JNS.com report, Dream Defenders founder Phillip Agnew has ties to Ahmad Abuznaid, a supporter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is the U.S. recognizes as a terror group.

Dream Defenders labels Israel as an apartheid nation, calling it a “settler colonial project” that develops weapons by “attacking the civilian population of Gaza.”

Agnew has made numerous trips to the territories, meeting with Omar Barghouti, founder of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement to isolate and eradicate Israel, in 2015.

A spokesman for the Gillum campaign said Gillum doesn’t agree with everything Dream Defenders espouses, such as “BDS or other efforts that undermine the peace process.”

Ron Klein, chair of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told JNS that he has known Gillum for many years, and Gillum is interested in the criminal justice agenda of Dream Defenders, but when it comes to Israel “he understands the importance of Israel, and the relationship between the Jewish state and the Sunshine State.”

Gillum’s PAC has also received $1.2 million from George Soros, who funds numerous far-left groups that are highly critical of Israel.

DeSantis charged that Gillum brought CAIR to Tallahassee, but CAIR was one of several Muslim groups visiting the Capitol that day. The groups were lobbying against legislation that would bar public contracts from the state with companies that participate in boycotts of Israel.

Founded in 1994, CAIR has seen its share of controversy. While it is viewed by many as a Muslim counterpart to the Anti-Defamation League, many CAIR leaders have made inflammatory statements about Israel and linked with groups that demonize the Jewish state.

While some in the Jewish world view CAIR as apologists for terror groups, in many communities local Jewish leaders dialogue with the local CAIR chapter leaders.

In 2014, the United Arab Emirates placed CAIR on its list of terror organizations.

Gillum said DeSantis’ accusations show that DeSantis is “unstable.”

Meanwhile, DeSantis condemned as “disgusting” racist remarks by a Jewish donor, Steven Alembik.

Alembik, who has given the campaign over $20,000, referred to former President Barack Obama as an “f---ing Muslim n-----.” When asked about that Twitter post, he told Politico that he grew up in the New York of the 1950s, where “we were the kikes. They were the n-----s. They were the goyim. And those were the spics.”

Meanwhile, the Democrat candidate for lieutenant governor has a different type of controversy. In June, Orlando Rising reported a comment Chris King made in 1998 after losing a close election for undergraduate student council president at Harvard University.

King was quoted by Newhouse News Service as saying he was “nailed to the cross” in the Harvard Crimson student newspaper. “And most of the editorial staff that was so hard on me, the vast majority were Jewish.”

Orlando Rising said King did not recall the quote that was published in a Newhouse News Service story in 1999, but apologized for it in a written

community statement. “This quote from when I was 20 years old is completely at odds with my beliefs. It was a hurtful and stupid comment and I apologize.”

Florida Politics contacted Jonathan Tilove, who had written the 1999 piece. Tilove, who is Jewish, said he was not bothered by the quote and did not consider it anti-Semitic, but representative of how evangelical Christians are underrepresented at such secular, liberal institutions.

King was well-known as an evangelical Christian, and while Orlando Rising noted he did not campaign on a religious theme at Harvard, others made an issue of it. In his statement, King said anonymous flyers claimed he wanted to take over institutions at Harvard to promote his religious views.

Some conservative outlets seized upon the controversy as an illustration of liberal persecution of Christians.

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Haiat is based out of Israel’s Miami Consulate, which covers Florida, Puerto Rico, Alabama and Mississippi.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey was one of the other main speakers.

Attorney General John Merrill, who met with Haiat, said “Alabama is a strong partner with Israel, and we want to grow even stronger.”

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Court orders Rosh Ha’Ayin to try again as Reform congregation seeks facility On Sept. 12, Bavat Ayin, the Reform congregation in Rosh Ha’Ayin, moved one step closer to their dream of having their own building, with a court order for the city to consider “in good faith” the congregation’s request after years of foot-dragging.

The case was heard in a Lod courtroom in the week between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rabbi Ayala Shashoua-Miron described the scene as two lawyers and a legal assistant, two city council members, the Bavat Ayin chairperson, the head of the Reform movement in Israel and over 20 “anxious congregants.”

On the other side, there was one lawyer, one legal assistant, the city treasurer and Rosh Ha’Ayin’s mayor. Despite the disparity in numbers in the courtroom, Miron said it is “Rosh Ha’ayin that has held the power for the last 12 years and has used that power to deny us the right to our own home.”

In Israel, the government allocates land and funding for the building of synagogues, but Reform and Conservative congregations often find numerous roadblocks in asserting their rights to a fair share, as Orthodox authorities object to any recognition of the more liberal groups.

Formed in 2004, the congregation meets in a building that used to be a children’s nursery. The city argued that Bavat Ayin should remain there and add a second floor to the building. “There was a time that we were prepared to accept this solution,” Miron said, “but it never got beyond the discussion stage because Rosh Ha’ayin’s city council consistently refused to consider this option.”

In early 2017, the Ministry of Religious Affairs allocated 300,000 shekels toward a building for Bavat Ayin, but Rosh Ha’Ayin’s council was unable to vote on the matter, due to opposition from Orthodox and Haredi rabbis. The allocation expired at the end of 2017, and the congregation filed a legal petition in February.

The size of Rosh Ha’Ayin is expected to increase from its current population of 44,500 to over 100,000 within the next decade. In the 1980s, Rosh Ha’Ayin was a Yemenite development town of 14,000, but rapid growth since 1990 tripled the town’s size and it is now a bedroom community to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Bavat Ayin applied for one of 10 new synagogues being built in Rosh Ha’Ayin to accommodate dramatic growth in the community, but the request was denied.

On July 8, a hearing was held in Lod, where a judge ruled that the city had 30 days to reconsider Bavat Ayin’s application, and scheduled the Sept. 12 hearing.

On Sept. 12, the judge ruled that Rosh Ha’Ayin’s allocations committee must meet within five weeks to consider the Bavat Ayin request for one of the 10 planned new synagogues, and Miron said “if the committee does not allocate one of the planned new buildings for Bavat Ayin, we are all going to be back in court on Nov. 18.”

Miron said that during the hearing, the deputy mayor, who is a Bavat Ayin member, said whenever the issue was raised in city council meetings, there was “no meaningful discussion, no votes, just reasons not to decide.”

Recently, a city professional realized the second-floor option was not viable and charged the congregation with finding 150 residents of the new neighborhoods to sign a petition urging the allocation of a home for the Reform congregation. That effort took just a couple of days.

Miron said they are “cautiously optimistic that the scales are finally tipping in our favor and that our long battle for a permanent home for Bavat Ayin, the only progressive congregation in a city of nearly 60,000 residents, has reached a critical point.”

Rosh Ha’Ayin is Birmingham’s sister city in Israel and the Partnership2Gether community for New Orleans.

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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Henri Bendel closing shuts chapter of Louisiana Jewish history While many in the fashion world are mourning the Sept. 14 announcement that the iconic Henri Bendel is shutting down, the announcement also closes the book on a chapter of Southern Jewish history.

All of the chain’s 23 stores will close in January, according to an announcement by L Brands, which also owns Bath and Body Works, and Victoria’s Secret.

“We have decided to stop operating Bendel to improve company profitability and focus on our larger brands that have greater growth potential,” L Brands CEO Les Wexner said in the statement.

Henri Bendel’s parents, William Louis Bendel and Mary Plonsky, were married in New Orleans in 1863. They moved to Vermilionville, which later became Lafayette, and opened a general store. Henri Bendel was born in 1868 and was raised in an apartment above the store.

When Henri Bendel was six years old, his father died. His mother was great at business, and eventually ran a furniture store, drug store, dry goods store and an undertaking parlor. In 1878 she remarried, to Benjamin Falk, who would

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Henri Bendel commissioned this monument in Lafayette’s Jewish cemetery in memory of his parents and step-father become highly successful. Among their businesses was Falk’s Opera House.

After graduating from school, Bendel opened a millinery shop in Morgan City, but it burned down soon after he married Blanche Lehman in 1894. They decided to try New York, and Bendel opened his store in 1895, but that year, Blanche

died in childbirth.

He put his energy into the business, becoming known among socialites for his stylish hats.

He developed a signature brown and white stripe pattern for his shopping bags and hat boxes, and because he spoke French, imported fashions from Paris.

The business took off as he also became a fashion designer. He created his own label of perfumes and soaps, the first retailer to do so.

He also created the concept of a semi-annual sale, in-store makeovers and fashion shows.

Though his business was in New York, in 1927

community he bought almost 180 acres along the Vermillon River, the former Walnut Grove plantation. In 1950, the land was subdivided and is still known as the Bendel Gardens neighborhood in Lafayette.

In 1918, Bendel commissioned a memorial for his father, step-father and mother at the Jewish cemetery in Lafayette. The monument was built by the Weiblen Company and is perhaps the most extensive monument in a Jewish cemetery in the region.

The monument, “Angel and Mourner,” is made of Dorian gray granite with Italian bronze figures.

The Southeastern Architectural Archive at Tulane University has the presentation model of the memorial in its collection.

Bendel Road in Lafayette is also named for him.

Bendel died in New York in 1936, and his nephew took over the business.

Bendel is thought to be the one who first brought Coco Chanel to the United States, and many years later the store hired an in-house illustrator named Andy Warhol.

According to a piece in the New York Post, since acquiring Henri Bendel in 1985, L Brands in recent years neglected the iconic store. In 2008, they started opening Bendel stores outside New York, then announced the next year that they were no longer going to sell clothes, concentrating on accessories and gifts.

In 2014, Bendel’s, which had been known for discovering talent such as Perry Ellis and Ralph Lauren, stopped carrying outside brands in favor of in-house lines that were not well-received. Also, the passion New Yorkers had for Bendel never really translated to other markets around the country.

Holocaust educators’ workshop with Rabbi Polak at South Alabama Rabbi Joseph Polak, author of “After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring,” returns to Mobile for a teacher’s workshop on Oct. 15 at the University of South Alabama.

An infant survivor of two concentration camps, Polak is an assistant professor of public health at Boston University, rabbi emeritus of the Hillel House there and chief justice of the Rabbinical Court of Massachusetts.

Polak was a personal friend and teaching colleague of Elie Wiesel, and Wiesel wrote the foreword for Polak’s book.

He spoke at Ahavas Chesed, Spring Hill College and South Alabama in an October 2015 visit.

The workshop will be at South Alabama’s UCOM building at 4 p.m.

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women’s health an annual SJL special section

Tulane goes from 2D to 3D surgery

by Lee J. Green

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A revolutionary new robotic GPS system employed by Tulane Health System provides surgeons with enhanced real-time visualizations of a patient’s anatomy, leading to more minimally invasive surgical options for several complex spinal, orthopedic and neurological conditions.

Earlier this year, Tulane became the first New Orleans area hospital to offer the ExcelsiusGPS system.

“This gives us the most pinpoint accuracy during surgery,” said Dr. Chris Maulucci, vice chair of clinical neurological surgery at Tulane University School of Medicine. “Seeing that trajectory on the screen in real-time lets us make minor adjustments that match each patient’s unique anatomy.”

The improved optics of the ExcelsiusGPS allows for more minimally invasive procedures, resulting in less blood loss, muscle damage and potentially faster recovery than traditional surgeries.

“Prior to this technology we depended upon X-rays, which didn’t provide us the same degree of accuracy we have now,” said Dr. Maulucci.

“This is taking 2-D surgery and converting it into 3-D surgery.”

Another benefit of ExcelsiusGPS is that it reduces the radiation exposure to patients and staff. Traditional spine surgeries, for example, require multiple X-rays throughout the procedure. But the improved imaging of the new robotic navigation system greatly reduces that need.

Maulucci said the new technology would especially benefit people who need a lumbar, thoracic or cervical spinal fusion, as well as anyone who has endured degenerative disc disease or traumatic spinal injuries.

He said some new software for the system will be coming out soon that will allow for greatly enhanced optics on the brain, especially key when working with Parkinson’s and brain tumor patients.

“This is the way things are going globally,” said Maulucci. “The ExcelsiusGPS is the first real-time instrument that has applications across the entire spectrum of neurosurgery.”

Health Screenings to Help Women Prevent Disease from Touro Infirmary Don’t let heart disease, stroke and other serious health conditions sneak up on you. Instead, prevent them by seeing your doctor for a yearly well-woman checkup. At your checkup, your doctor will likely suggest health screenings. These tests can help spot potentially deadly conditions before they become life threatening.

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

women’s health

Make Clinical Trials

BLOOD GLUCOSE: This simple blood test helps detect type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, which can increase the risk for heart disease and other complications. It’s recommended for adults ages 40 to 70 who are overweight.

a Care Option for Your Patients

MAMMOGRAM: This breast X-ray can find breast cancer in its early, most treatable stages. Talk with your doctor about the schedule and imaging that are right for you.

PAP TEST: This test, as part of a pelvic exam, takes a sample of cells from the cervix to check for cervical cancer. Women ages 21 to 29 should get a Pap test every three years. Women ages 30 to 65 should get screened every three to five years. Cervical cancer, in the beginning stages of the disease, is treatable if caught early.

COLONOSCOPY: The doctor will examine your colon and small growths that can become cancerous, which can be removed during the test. Experts recommend people at average risk should get a colonoscopy every 10 years, starting at age 45.

From infrastructure to compliance and day-to-day operations, Iron Horse Research is your partner in developing and growing your clinical trials program

UAB Vein Clinic advances treatment for women

By Lee J. Green Women tend to develop venous disease earlier and more often than men. But through advanced diagnosis and treatment at the UAB Vein Clinic, coupled with preventative care and a healthy lifestyle, women can attain vascular wellness.

“Spider veins and varicose veins are much more common in women,” said Marc Passman, director of the UAB Vein Program and Clinic and a member of the Birmingham Jewish community. “Women need to consider that family history and lifestyle can play significant roles in their vascular health.”

Though venous issues become more common as women age, pregnancy can also lead to certain problems such as flow issues when the uterus expands. Hormonal therapy can also lead to enhanced clotting risk.

For spider and varicose veins, non-operative treatment includes compression, medication and life-style measures. The UAB Vein Clinic also employs minimally invasive treatments such as endovenous ablation, injection treatments and Veinwave, which uses heat to treat surface veins.

Passman said the UAB Vein Clinic also evaluates for venous clotting issues such as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms. Knowing one’s risk factors for clot, including prolonged sitting, bed rest and travel; advanced age, hypertension, smoking, complex surgery, lower body trauma, obesity, congestive heart failure, hormonal changes and family history is important.

Passman said in the past few years, technology and research have led to more options to remove clots through the use of venous stints, as well as medicines and catheters that dissolve clots.

More common today are catheter-based procedures for both vein clot and flow issues. “We are able to use catheters in places we were never able to before. That has allowed us to make some of these treatments more minimally invasive,” he said.

The UAB Vein Program, which combines outpatient care at the UAB Vein Clinic with more intensive treatment available at UAB Hospital Highlands, is “the only program of its kind in the state designed to take care of a wide range of problems that were previously underserved in this region,” said Passman.

“We know women lead busy lives and they can’t be slowed down by venous health issues,” he said. “We’re here to help them return to wellness as soon as possible.”

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women’s health

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Many physicians don’t know the benefits that facilitating clinical trials for their patients can bring, or if they do, they don’t have the time and staff to deal with the maze of requirements.

Enter Chad Eriksen and Iron Horse Research.

After working in clinical research for over a decade, Eriksen recently partnered with a New Orleans physician to start Iron Horse Research.

Eriksen is a Henry S. Jacobs Camp alumnus, and that is where he met his future wife, Rachel Lazarus. An Alabama graduate, Eriksen started in the field in Jackson, and then moved to New Orleans to be clinical research coordinator at Ochsner Clinic. He then became director of operations at GuideStar Research, which works with hospitals, health systems and physicians, serving as the administrative back office for their clinical trials programs.

He said Iron Horse’s goal is “to create and help sustain clinical research programs for physicians.”

Any drug that gets approved by the Food and Drug Administration has to go through a rigorous process, Eriksen said. The testing has several phases, including testing on patients with certain diseases.

Eriksen said a study may have 1000 participants, and that study could have those participants at as many as 100 sites around the country. Each site has to have ongoing contact with the pharmaceutical company, a budget with that company and routinely report on progress.

“There are a lot of moving parts,” he said. To deal with that, hospitals typically have a dedicated clinical trials administrative office, but physicians at private practices usually don’t have that. Often they don’t know how to find the resources to participate, Eriksen said.

“A lot of patients and a lot of physicians don’t even know it is an option,” Eriksen said.

The ultimate goal of clinical trials is to provide new cutting-edge treatments to patients. Clinical trials help get drugs to market quicker.

Eriksen said it is remarkable to see the progress in hepatitis C, for example. Patients who have been dealing with that condition for decades sometimes find, through participation in a clinical trial, a new therapy that quickly clears up something they were resigned to living with.

Often, patients in small towns have to drive very far to find advanced treatments for their conditions. Eriksen said clinical trials enable physicians in small communities to offer cutting edge treatments. The patients “are not traveling for hours for treatment, they’re going down the street to their physicians they know well.”

For those small practices, clinical trials can be an additional source of revenue, and also help attract patients to the practice.

There is an education process about clinical trials, Eriksen said. Many people view participants as guinea pigs, and Eriksen said they don’t understand everything that is involved in clinical trials. If a treatment is not working, they are switched to one with better prospects. “It’s exceptional care,” he said.

Patients participating in these trials get access to cutting edge treatments not widely available, often paid for by the pharmaceutical company, including follow-up and sometimes the treatment itself for a time after the trial ends. Because the study has to be monitored, they also get to see their physician more often than they normally would.

Ongoing results from trial sites around the country are uploaded to a common database so it is very easy to spot trends quickly, including reports of side effects. That information also goes to the FDA to help them determine whether to approve a drug.

For many participants in clinical trials, it isn’t necessarily about themselves. Eriksen noted a survey where 98 percent of participants would do a clinical trial again, and one of the main reasons cited was helping others.

“It’s because of patients and physicians in clinical trials that these drugs are available to the public,” Eriksen remarked.

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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women’s health

New Hillel initiative addresses mental health on campus Continuing its efforts to adapt to the changing needs of the students it serves, Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish student organization, last month announced the launch of HillelWell as part of the Hillel U professional development program during the 2018-2019 school year.

With initial support through a $1 million gift from Stephen J. Cloobeck, founder of Diamond Resorts International, Inc., HillelWell will provide resources and training to campus professionals to better prepare them to serve the student body, regardless of religious affiliation, on their campuses with increasing rates of depression, anxiety and other mental health and wellness concerns.

“Our goal is to create an integrated Jewish approach to mental health, focused on giving young people the knowledge and skills to balance their spiritual, physical, intellectual, relational and emotional wellbeing,” said Rabbi Sherre Hirsch, senior rabbinic scholar for Hillel International, who is overseeing HillelWell. “This approach seeks not only to normalize mental health and wellness and remove its current stigmas, but also to promote it as a way to enrich the Jewish people and the world.”

This issue is not new to Hillel. In recent years, Hillel professionals on campus have identified stress and anxiety as well as mental health and wellness among their greatest concerns for Jewish and non-Jewish college students, and one of the highest priorities for skill development and programmatic resources. Research shows that one in three college freshmen will report a mental health disorder, and 1 in 12 college students will make a suicide plan. Researchers also believe even these statistics underrepresent the issue. Barriers to effective prevention and treatment include lack of campus resources, stigma and fear — causing many young adults to suffer in isolation.

HillelWell will address the mental health and wellness crisis on campus in tangible ways, including: The launch of a HillelWell lab with five to seven campus participants that will each pilot an innovative, scalable wellness initiative.

Providing in person and online training for at least 400 Hillel professionals during the 2018-2019 school year.

Collaboration with Hillel International’s student cabinet to ensure HillelWell is integrated into all programming and addressing the needs of students.

Development of resource guides for campus professionals to create their own wellness strategies, including through deep campus partnerships that support the whole student.

“I am honored to support Hillel International as it seeks to address mental health and wellness for a generation that is more in need than ever of this type of support,” said Cloobeck. “Through my own struggles with dyslexia, I know firsthand how isolating and difficult it can be as a young person dealing with something others might not understand. I know that HillelWell will make an incredible difference to the students and the wider Jewish community.”

HillelWell will incorporate longstanding practices including “unplugging” for Shabbat, the intentionality of Jewish tradition, mindfulness of prayer and meditation, all while providing highly relevant and modern training for professionals and equipping the next generation of Jewish leaders with the resources they need to live in a complicated and demanding world.

“Students have told us what they need from Hillel and we are listening,” said Rabbi Hirsch. “With the support of Stephen J. Cloobeck, HillelWell will allow us to respond to the changing needs of our students and professionals and promote proactive steps toward wellness on campus.”

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

simchas a semi-annual special section

Capturing memories at simchas

by Lee J. Green Sherri Arias puts the art in heart, capturing memories at weddings and other celebrations with live event art.

And at some of the events where the former Homewood art teacher has painted, her daughter Brittany Arias Sturdivant has worked her own art through Love Be Photography.

After teaching art for 25 years as well as doing her own artwork on the side, Sherri Arias retired in 2013, about the time Brittany got engaged and started planning her wedding.

“She and I looked into live event art and there were very few people in the region doing this,” said Arias. “Most of those doing it used acrylic or oil but I didn’t think anyone else was doing watercolor. It has a soft, romantic feel that really fits a wedding.”

Arias booked her first wedding in 2015 and the business grew quickly.

“I started promoting on Instagram and spreading the word with those in the wedding planning industry. This is a unique niche, but people are excited once they learn about it,” she said.

The first meeting with the wedding party, or those involved in other celebrations, usually comes four to six weeks before the event to learn more about what they most want to capture. Closer to the event, Arias will take photographs and do some pre-planning.

“It’s important to prepare, but the inspiration comes from being at the event itself,” said Arias. “I look for those little moments, those moments that are just so unique to the wedding or other celebration.”

At times, Arias has to take some “artistic license.” She said, “there are certain things that are so important to capture, such as the first dance.

But in one case the groomsmen weren’t close enough so I added them in.”

Arias and her daughter can share their visions as well as perspectives when working together.

Sturdivant said she started Love Be Photography because “I wanted work and a business that would reflect the qualities I love so much about life as well as photography. I want someone to look back on their images and remember how they felt. I want them to see the love, bliss, emotion and pure joy of the day.”

In 2015, they opened Studio Birmingham in West Homewood, across from Patriot Park. The event space can accommodate seated celebrations of 25 people and 50 people standing.

“We take the setup and prep out of the clients’ hands so they can enjoy the event. We do everything but the catering,” said Sherri. “We help create memories here.”

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simchas

Where to celebrate?

Bellingrath Gardens

This Week In Southern Jewish Life The South’s Most Comprehensive Weekly Jewish News Email To Subscribe, send an email to subscribe@sjlmag.com

Experience the picture-perfect wedding of your dreams at Bellingrath Gardens and Home in Mobile, where there are blooms and beauty every day of the year.

Weddings and receptions can be scheduled from May through October on Saturdays, with events starting no later than 2 p.m., as the grounds close at 6 p.m. The Great Lawn has a capacity of 500, while the South Terrace holds 150, and the chapel holds 24.

The Magnolia Room is available for groups of up to 80 during daylight hours, with additional capacity possible through the use of rentable tents.

More information is available at bellingrath.org.

Ramah Darom Retreat Center Many people meet their future spouse at summer camp, and many choose to return to camp to get married.

The Kaplan Mitchell Retreat Center at Ramah Darom near Clayton, Ga., is a first-class, full-service facility surrounded by the Chattahoochee National Forest. The property includes a lake, 70-foot waterfall, a variety of lodging options and state-of-the-art recreational facilities.

The center’s award-winning chef prepares menus in the facility’s kosher kitchens.

In addition to celebrations, the retreat center hosts a variety of year-round events, from corporate team building on the ropes courses, Shabbatons, weekend educational retreats and conferences.

As the property houses the Conservative movement’s summer camp, the center is available for group rentals from mid-August through May.

Ace Hotel New Orleans Ace is in its name so it is no surprise that the hotel is an Ace at hosting celebrations and accommodations for guests.

Ace Hotel Sales and Marketing Director Dawn Ledet said that they have hosted Jewish weddings, movie premieres and “special events from eight people to 1,000 people. Our space is so flexible and plentiful. It can be transformed into anything,” said Ledet.

The hotel includes the James Beard Award-winning Josephine Estelle Restaurant and Bar as well as the Alto Rooftop Bar and Grill.

She said the restaurant specializes in Italian with a Southern U.S. twist but “we can customize a menu for any event. We have done kosher-style, vegetarian and vegan,” said Ledet.

The Ace Hotel offers more than 6,000 square feet of space for events. Ledet said part of the 38

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

simchas

wedding package is a complimentary honeymoon suite for the bride and groom.

Located on 600 Carondelet Street in the Warehouse District, the 1928 art deco building housed Barnett’s Furniture Store until the 1970s.

The Elms Mansion, New Orleans History meets modern elegance at The Elms Mansion on St. Charles Ave. in New Orleans.

Built in 1869 for industrialist Watson Van Benthuysen, the mansion is situated on more than one-quarter of an acre of grounds in the Garden District. Architect Lewis Reynolds designed the house using a blend of Italianate and Greek revival.

The Elms Mansion can accommodate up to several hundred guests inside and outside on the courtyard. They offer packages that include customized catering with specialties including a Pasta Station, Salmon Brulee and herb-crusted beef tenderloin.

Because they’re family: Including dogs in wedding ceremonies MaryMac’s Doggie Retreat is New Orleans’ first dog daycare and boarding company that specializes in reducing stress, anxiety and depression in dogs while their owners are away.

They also specialize in helping make “your fur baby” part of a wedding celebration, with Bridal Pawties.

They offer three levels of bridal services. The highest level, the platinum package, includes transportation to and from the venues, a Pet Nanny to increase warm smiles and wags while caring for them during the engagement pictures, the wedding rehearsal, and as they walk down the aisle. It also includes dancing and more photo opportunities during the reception.

A spa treatment, including grooming, coloring, and polished nails, and tailored bridal clothing, such as a bridal gown, tux, or flowered collars, are also included.

Mary Mac’s also offers slumber pawties, house pawties, day pawties, and for visitors to New Orleans, hotel pawties. Their online store sells a range of calming treats and calming bath bombs.

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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community Trinity Heights redevolpment cancelled The massive redevelopment of the Trinity Medical Center campus near the Levite Jewish Community Center in Birmingham is a no-go, Berman Enterprises said last month.

The Maryland-based firm had the 79-acre property under contract, and was doing several months of due diligence before deciding whether to buy the property. The firm had been planning Trinity Heights, a “mixed use development with many asset types,” including luxury apartments, condos, townhouses, office space, an upscale hotel, retail and an upscale senior living community, according to Ben Berman.

The property, which has 1 million square feet of space in its buildings, has been vacant since the hospital moved to Highway 280 in October 2015.

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Held Oct. 20 at the Uptown JCC, the poolside party includes an open bar, signature drink and kosher barbeque buffet by Kansas City grill master Adam Glass.

Tickets are $150, $75 for ages 35 and under. Patron levels start at $250 and go up to $10,000. Center Celebration tickets may be purchased online at nojcc.org or by calling (504) 897-0143.

WRJ district gathering in NOLA

Women of Reform Judaism’s Southwest District is hosting its 6th biennial convention from Nov. 1 to 4 at the Doubletree by Hilton in New Orleans.

The convention will focus on pressing challenges facing the Jewish community in the 21st Century and advance women’s leadership. The district comprises Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and western Tennessee. The District Biennial is open for registration through Oct. 10.

The keynote speaker is Madi Hoesten, WRJ vice president of affiliate services and an active member of Kol Tikvah Sisterhood in Parkland, Fla. Victoria “Tory” May, cantorial soloist for Gates of Prayer in Metairie, Louisiana since 1987, will serve as the spiritual and song leader for the convention.

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

Advocate cartoonist hopes to draw a crowd at Uptown JCC The Uptown Jewish Community Center in New Orleans will have “An Evening with Walt Handelsman,” Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.

Handelsman is the editorial cartoonist at The Advocate, which recently released his newest book, “I’m Drawing As Fast As I Can!!!” which is a collection of his cartoons from 2013 to the present.

Handelsman has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning twice, once with the Times-Picayune in 1997, and in 2007 with Newsday. He returned to New Orleans in 2013.

The event is free and open to the community, and books will be available for purchase.

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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Want a smile like Cathy’s?

Sukkot Around The Region

Donate your old car to Collat Jewish Family Services

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www.cjfsbham.org Clockwise from top left: Lunch at the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School in Birmingham; Chabad at the University of Alabama; Etz Chayim, Huntsville; ZBT at Alabama; Harvesting willow, myrtle and palm at Beth Israel, Gulfport, for make-your-own lulavim; Chabad at LSU; Sukkah dining at Kosher Cajun in Metairie; Temple EmanuEl, Birmingham; B’nai Israel, Florence

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

culture

Telling stories in a different way After years with NBC News, Martin Fletcher writing historical novels; “Promised Land” is the newest Working for a national television news department isn’t conducive to being a novel writer, but that is something longtime NBC News reporter Martin Fletcher always wanted to do.

He visited New Orleans for an Oct. 3 program at the Uptown Jewish Community Center, to discuss his new novel, “Promised Land.” The 7 p.m. program kicked off this year’s Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series. Southern Jewish Life interviewed him before the event, as he took a stroll around Central Park in New York City.

Described by former NBC News AnPhoto by Chelsea Dee chor Tom Brokaw as picking up where “Exodus” left off, “Promised Land” is the story of a love triangle that involves a woman and two brothers, set during the first 20 years of Israel’s existence.

The story begins with Peter, who at age 14 was sent to America to escape Nazi Germany. The rest of his family winds up in the death camps, and only his younger brother, Arie, survives.

When they reunite in the newly-formed Israel, Arie becomes one of the country’s richest businessmen, while Peter becomes a top Mossad agent.

They also both fall in love with the same woman, a Jewish refugee from Cairo.

“Promised Land” is the first in a trilogy that Fletcher is planning. The three novels will encompass the whole history of Israel in 20-year segments, he said. “The struggles of the brothers mirror the struggles of the newly founded nation.”

One goal of the book is to “make the story of Israel accessible to people who may not normally read about Israel.”

Many of the readers have seen him report on Israel. He was an NBC correspondent in Israel for 26 years, including 15 years as bureau chief.

He won five Emmys for his coverage, three in Israel and one each for Kosovo and Rwanda. He also was the only television reporter to join up with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the only reporter to enter the American embassy in Iran when Americans were being held hostage for 444 days, and walked through the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan with the Mujahideen for three weeks to report on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

“When you work for an American television network,” he explained, “most of what they cover is conflict, so you get sent to those places.”

He said those areas are “the most challenging places to be” and “that’s where the best stories are.” By being in those situations, he was able to relate the stories of people caught up in tragic circumstances.

He finished his first book around 1987, and then a second book a few years later, neither of which were published. “I always knew I wanted to write books, and I always wanted to write novels,” he said.

His first book was a professional memoir, “Breaking News,” which came out in 2008. When he was writing it, he considered why he went into journalism and did so many stories from dangerous locations. “I didn’t really have an answer” when he was asked that question, so he looked deeper into his experiences.

Fletcher grew up in London, the son of Holocaust survivors. His grandparents on both sides, and most of his extended family, were killed

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

in the concentration camps. “The fact my family was murdered… left me with the feeling of wanting to tell the stories of people who can’t tell their stories.”

“As a journalist I gravitated toward stories of people who were in similar situations.” He saw echoes “all over the place” such as when he saw 50,000 refugees in a field in Kosovo.

His second book was “Walking Israel,” also non-fiction. Those books required a great deal of research. He switched to novels figuring “it’ll be easier,” but” that didn’t work out at all. It’s actually a lot harder to write fiction.”

For “Promised Land” he said “I did so much research I could have easily written a nonfiction book about Israel.” But “I didn’t want to tell the history of Israel, I wanted to tell the story.”

Novels, he added, do a better job of “transporting the reader to a time and place.”

“Promised Land” is his fourth novel. His first two, “The List” and “Jacob’s Oath” are set in Europe in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, while the third, “The War Correspondent,” is set in Sarajevo.

Over the years, Fletcher has done about 150 Jewish community events, and he remarked that there hasn’t been a single event where he was not asked about the media’s relation to Israel. “It has never not come up.”

At first, the complaint was that the media spend too much time covering Israel, but today, Fletcher said, the question is “why don’t you cover Israel more.”

He added, “you can’t win.”

Fletcher does believe the media is biased against Israel, but not out of anti-Semitism. For the most part, the Palestinians do a much better job of presenting their case, and the Palestinian narrative “is easier to make to an uninformed audience than the Israeli case.”

The Israeli narrative speaks to the mind, while the Palestinian narrative appeals to emotions, he said. “They are taking our land and we want justice” is an easy slogan to report. He said Israel has been lacking “an emotional story” and one problem playing into the Palestinian narrative is the issue of settlements in the territories.

Fletcher has 30 years of experience reporting from Israel, has lived in Israel for 35 years, his wife is Israeli and their children were born there. ”Obviously, I’m on the Israeli side,” and while he did not want that to be evident in his reporting, “I’m quite happy if it comes out in my writing” of novels.

LJCC holding Israeli art show and sale There will be an Israeli art and jewelry show and sale at Birmingham’s Levite Jewish Community Center from Oct. 16 to 19, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the main lobby.

The show includes tapestries, microcalligraphies, blessings, lithographs, Judaica made from wood, jewelry and more, by Moshe and Goldie Monzon and other artists.

As part of the visit, Hadassah Birmingham is holding an Israeli cultural program, “From Monzon to Jerusalem and Beyond,” Oct. 18 at 5:30 p.m. with Moshe Monzon. The event is free and open to the community, and refreshments will be served.

Born in Jerusalem, Monzon is sixth generation Israeli on his father’s side, ninth generation on his mother’s side. A graduate of the Shenkar College of Fashion, Artistic Textile Design and Technology in Israel, he continues his family’s artistic tradition.

On his father’s side, his family fled Monzon, Spain, during the Inquisition, eventually winding up in Russia. Monzon’s great-great-grandfather arrived in the land of Israel on horseback in 1830, and after Moshe Montefiori restored Rachel’s Tomb, the Monzon family was entrusted with the key and the responsibility of keeping the tomb safe.

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>> Rear Pew Mirror rule, which is as incomprehensible then and now as the Bible itself.

Thanks to the delays in several earlier innings, darkness fell upon the game so play was suspended after a scoreless ninth. Even then, there were no lights at Wrigley Field.

After darkness lifted, Pharaoh decided to end things quickly and resolutely. To break the deadlock that led to extra innings, he sent out a bunch of older players to ensure the tenth inning would be the last. It was. They got slayed.

The conclusion was inevitable. After all, baseball plays through the dog days of summer. Hebrew reads from right to left. Therefore, whose days of summer are these?

Next month: The rush to the Red Sea finds the Israelites trying to stay ahead of the tacklers. Will they be forced to make a goal line stand?

Doug Brook had nothing to atone for last Yom Kippur, so he decided to start early this year. To read past columns, visit http://brookwrite.com/. For exclusive online content, like facebook.com/rearpewmirror.

>> Gaetz

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That brought an abrupt tweet to Gaetz from RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks. “This organization is deeply troubled by the comments from Charles C. Johnson, and it is incredibly important for the congressman to acknowledge he is a Holocaust denier and has extensive writings that attest to that and that it was wrong to bring him to the State of the Union. We are deeply troubled by any inference that our organization believes otherwise.”

But then the July 20th Gaetz fundraiser was held on the RJC founder’s yacht, where Johnson was hobnobbing with Congressmen Rohrabacher and Gaetz as an invited guest.

What was the connection that brought this nefarious trio of Rohrabacher, Gaetz and Johnson together on Balitzer’s yacht? Was it that Balitzer, a former Reagan era political adviser and envoy to Brunei, was an esteemed 35-year professor at Claremont McKenna College and that both California Congressman Rohrabacher and Johnson, alleged Holocaust denier and GotNews blogger, were Claremont McKenna alumni? Was it that both Rohrabacher and Gaetz were Republican supporters of marijuana reform? Which may explain why Corn, in the Mother Jones report, noted Nick Kovacevich, the CEO of Kush Bottles, a supplier of paraphernalia for cannabis users, gave Gaetz a $500 check at the Newport Beach fundraiser?

Gaetz’s opponent in the Northwest Florida Republican primary, former Marine aviator and businessman Cris Dosev, responded to the Mother Jones report saying that he had campaigned against Gaetz on these issues: the Johnson Holocaust denial affair, his peculiar voting record and advocacy of marijuana reform. Dosev noted Florida’s enactment of a law creating a veritable cartel for production of medical marijuana.

Gaetz won a decisive victory in the Aug. 28 Republican primary, with 65,000 votes versus 30,500 for Dosev. In his victory speech, Gaetz trumpeted: “This looks like a decisive victory. I’m very grateful to the voters for their confidence in me.” Gaetz criticized Dosev for running “an exclusively negative campaign.”

Given that Gaetz is once again enmeshed in dealings with Holocaust denier and alt-right blogger Johnson, it is up to Jennifer Zimmerman, his Democrat opponent in the November mid- term elections, as to whether she can energize the anti-Gaetz vote in the overwhelmingly red northwest Florida Congressional District.

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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rear pew mirror • doug brook

The Game’s the Thing In speaking of the Bible, William Shakespeare (that is to say, Christopher Marlowe) once wrote, “the play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

In stealing this line from Star Trek, as the Bard often did, he actually intended something deeper than what was in his play that popularized the Danish. Working further back in time — remember, it started with Star Trek, which sometimes indulged in time travel — the Talmud explains that Shakespeare actually used “play” to mean an action in a sporting competition, and that “the King” referred to the one almighty who some still hold in even higher esteem than Elvis or Saban.

Thus, the Bard meant, “the game’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of The King.” What’s more, he originally meant this as an introduction to a monumental — some would say game changing — new look at the Exodus from Egypt. This perspective takes a saga that crosses not only nations, generations and religions, but also leagues and divisions.

It’s increasingly common to consider whether parts of the Bible should be taken literally or metaphorically. The ten plagues are a perfect example because they were the first miracles in baseball, later surpassed only by the 1969 Mets.

Moses and Pharaoh agreed to settle their fight over the fate of the Israelites in a baseball game. Extrapolating from the Torah, this is how it went.

In the first inning, one of Pharaoh’s men was hit by a pitch. The resulting bloody nose was one that Pharaoh and his entire people would not soon forget.

The second inning was a pitcher’s duel on both sides, with nothing to show for it but a seemingly endless barrage of one-hoppers.

In the third, several insidious birds circled high above with the potential to harm the Pharaoh’s players harvesting runs this inning. In fact, one fly ball hit a bird, preventing it from leaving the park.

Tensions were high by the fourth inning. The sun was high, nobody had scored, and Pharaoh’s people were afraid that they could lose and might have to start working for a living. A fight broke out and soon the field was overrun by players acting “In the Big Inning” like animals.

The fifth inning saw a round of isn’t the only player substitution. Many of the players who fought in the fourth Biblical mention were injured, and in the fifth their beastly behavior was rewarded by of baseball… coping with the physical inflictions they incurred.

In the sixth inning, the mid-afternoon sun caught up with Pharaoh’s folks. The Israelites were prepared, being used to outdoor labor for generations as part of their enslavement, but Pharaoh’s folks were more indoorsy. This far into the game, their skin was suffering from sun exposure so much so that thousands of years before and one inning earlier than William Howard Taft, they stretched out the mid-inning break far longer than normal.

In the seventh, play was delayed due to inclement weather. Specifically, unseasonal hail arrived, pelting the players and periodically driving them to the dugouts. Unconfirmed reports said the hail was the size of baseballs.

The eighth inning was abuzz with a swarm of instances of the infield fly continued on previous page 46

October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life

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October 2018 • Southern Jewish Life