For Adi, it was the uncertainty of how she and her husband could support another baby in extreme poverty.
For Chedva, it was the pressure from her parents who threatened to sever ties if she had her child.
For Sarit, it was lacking emotional support to cope with pregnancy during a traumatic divorce.
So many women throughout Israel want to have their babies—but feel trapped into terminating their pregnancies.
Just $1,500 provides an expectant mother with: counseling, a newborn package, and two years of financial assistance to care for her child.
Donate at cribefrat.org or contact Executive Director Nir Salomon at nir@cribefrat.org.
CRIB-EFRAT is a registered 501(C)(3) organization. All donations are life-saving and tax-deductible.
The American Friends of Israel Sport Center for the Disabled is excited to honor our heroes, Andrea and Mike Leven, for their extraordinary commitment to the athletes at the Israel Sport Center for the Disabled. Their generosity and kindness make them heroes to the many children and adults in Israel living with physical disabilities who come to The Center for creative rehabilitation through sports and recreation.
The Israel Sport Center for the Disabled was founded in Ramat Gan, Israel by the late Moshe Rashkes in 1960, with a unique, innovative approach to physical and emotional rehabilitation. He dedicated his life to empowering people with disabilities and was instrumental in establishing Israel as the world leader in transforming lives and unlocking potential through competitive parasports.
The Center welcomes people of all ages without discrimination based on gender, religion, race, nationality, or ethnicity. We show everyone that through the power of sports, we can level the playing field for those the world leaves behind.
To learn more, visit www.afiscd.org/2022Gala
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Many were astonished by how rever ential and shaken the world was at the re cent death of Queen Elizabeth, including streams of followed posts about the royal family and its relationship to the Jewish community in Great Britain, which, ac cording to many, was one of excellence. Photos of the new king wearing his royal kippah, facts about his circumcision and his relationship with rabbis abound.
According to the European Jew ish Congress, there are 300,000 Jews in Great Britain, with the majority residing in greater London, a smattering in Scot land, Wales, Northern Ireland and even the Channel Islands. The Jewish demo graphic breakdown is as follows:
• Secular Jews: 34%
• Ultra-Orthodox: 18%
• Modern Orthodox: 14%
• Reform: 14%
• Traditional but not religious: 10%
• Liberal: 6%
• Conservative: 2%
• Sephardic: 2%
There is much to tout in terms of the
new king’s devotion to Judaism. Another delightful photo is of him donning his kippah, which was first sighted at the in stallation of Britain’s current Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis in 2013. Charles was the first member of the royal family to attend
an installation of a chief rabbi. Stephanie and Michael Jenkins, Lon don natives who now reside in Sandy Springs, left London in 2014, but were pre viously very involved with the West Lon don Synagogue. Michael shared, “When
the king was Prince Charles, I remember that he was circumcised. Charles did visit Israel on several occasions, but never the queen, probably as the U.K. had too much reliance on Saudi for oil, maybe politi cally inappropriate at that time.”
more details, visit AtlantisYeshivaBreak.com
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and King Charles were contemporaries, born in the year of the foundation of the State of Israel.
King Charles III, along with thou sands of British Jews, was circumcised by Rabbi Jacob Snowman, a physician and one of London’s leading mohelim, or ritual circumcisers. The queen requested Snowman, who was well known in the London community. Some believe that the tradition dates to the early 1700s, when Britain’s King George I, who was born in Germany, imported the custom of German noblemen to have mohelim cir cumcise their sons, though some claim that this royal practice is far newer.
Unlike Queen Elizabeth II, who never visited Israel in her decades on the throne, in 2016 King Charles visited Je rusalem for the funeral of former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. While there, Charles visited the grave of his grandmother, Princess Alice of Greece, who saved Jews during the Holocaust and was named Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem.
Those who watched the Netflix se ries “The Crown” saw a rather strange depiction of Alice eschewing a life of roy alty. During the Holocaust, Princess Alice invited a Jewish family she had befriend
ed to move into her apartment next to the Gestapo’s Athens headquarters. Princess Alice was brought in for questioning, but she refused to divulge that she was shel tering Jews.
King Charles visited Israel again in 2020 to attend the World Holocaust Fo rum in Jerusalem, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Last year, King Charles com missioned new paintings for the official royal collection of art displayed in Buck ingham Palace. The project was part of the prince’s aim to educate future gen erations and ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten. “Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust” went on display in Buckingham Place in Janu ary 2022.
A particularly important alliance was with the British Chief Rabbi, the very popular Sir Jonathan Sacks, who served from 1991-2003 and maintained a strong friendship with the then-Prince of Wales. When Rabbi Sacks died in 2020, the king delivered an emotional eulogy. Sacks was knighted by the Queen in 2005 as a Life Peer in the House of Lords, taking his seat
Chabad of Peachtree City Rabbi Yossi Lew, who grew up in London, compared three great lessons in Judaism in his recent sermon about the queen: she presented herself with dignity, had a sense of humor despite difficult situations and upheld very old traditions and customs.
Further, Rabbi Lew referred to “Hayom, a refresher for today,” where the Torah and Judaism require constant daily focus. Lew’s “Good Shabbos” email stated, “The Queen of England, and the way things work with the royal family, embody this point very well. They have internalized the Hayom factor. Perhaps this is one of the reasons so many people are obsessed with all this ancient pomp and ceremony. Hayom will lead everyone to productive and satisfying lives, both physical and spir itual. The passing of the British queen helps internalize the message of the Torah, that the life of the Jewish people requires a daily, even constant, focus.”
as Baron Sacks.
Stephanie Jenkins said, “I actually met Rabbi Sacks, a fantastic man. Our daughter interacted with him on several occasions when she was living in London as chair to a charitable committee, close to Rabbi Sack’s heart, where they would meet in his home.”
Stephanie Jenkins added, “Ev ery shabbat and High Holy day, there is a blessing for the
sovereign. We prayed for the welfare of Queen Elizabeth II and Charles, Prince of Wales, and the royal family. In 2019, at a royal Hanukah party at Buckingham Pal ace, King Charles praised Britain’s Jewish community and formally thanked them for these prayers.” ì
Natives of London, the Jenkins family (from left, Richard, Stephanie and Michael) pose in front of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Museum. Now they reside in Sandy Springs.
King Charles III was circumcised by a Jewish Mohel and is said to cherish UK Jews.
The Springs Cinema & Taphouse in Sandy Springs offers plush seating, and an audience there on Sept. 18 appeared equally as comfortable with what they heard from three of the state’s top Repub licans.
Gov. Brian Kemp headlined a Repub lican Jewish Coalition event that includ ed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr. All three were elected in 2018 and are seek ing second terms in the Nov. 8 general election.
“Our state’s doing remarkable,” Kemp told a supportive audience of about 150,”and we need to keep this team together.”
Kemp directed numerous gibes at Stacey Abrams, his Democratic oppo nent, whom he defeated in 2018 with 50.2 percent of the vote. The audience booed Abrams’ name when Kemp said, “I can’t imagine what our state would be like if she had been the governor the past two
years.”
Chuck Berk, the RJC-Atlanta cochair, moderated the session.
Kemp acknowledged criticism he re ceived in April 2020, when he allowed the
reopening of businesses that had closed as COVID-19 spread across the state. “People in high places got on me,” Kemp said, without mentioning that Republi can President Donald Trump was among
the critics.
“I wasn’t listening to the media…I wasn’t listening to Stacey Abrams…I was listening to working Georgians,” Kemp said. He similarly hailed his efforts to
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Chuck Berk interviews Gov. Brian Kemp during the Sept. 18 RJC event in Sandy SpringsChuck Berk, co-chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition greets Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp during a RJC event.
return Georgia children to their class rooms. “And when we looked at the data and the science…they were following the political science.”
Kemp, Raffensperger and Carr de fended changes made to the state’s vot ing laws approved by the Republicancontrolled legislature following the 2020 election. The changes were made amid disproven claims that widespread fraud was behind Democrat Joe Biden defeating incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes.
“The Election Integrity Act was de signed to deal with issues we saw during the pandemic,” Kemp said. The law lim its access to ballot drop boxes and tight ens requirements for absentee ballots, among other provisions. Most elements thus far have withstood court challenges.
Passage of the voting law prompted Major League Baseball to remove the
All-Star Game from Atlanta. Kemp was applauded when he said, “We stood our ground even though we lost the All-Star game. We got poetic justice because the Braves won the World Series.”
Raffensperger, whose office oversees elections, said that Trump lost in Georgia not because of fraud, but because 28,000 voters “skipped the top of ticket,” not vot ing in the presidential contest while cast ing ballots in other races.
Raffensperger did not discuss his Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” to reverse Biden’s winning margin in the state.
“Nobody wanted to lose in 2020. I did not want us to lose in 2020,” but “there’s not evidence of widespread voter fraud such that would overturn the elec tion,” Carr said.
Kemp said that his administration’s
response to inflation will be $1 billion tax refund and $1 billion in property tax relief, measures that will require action by the General Assembly when it recon venes in January.
Asked about crime, specifically in Atlanta, Kemp cited the demonstrations and incidents of violence that followed the killing of an African American man, George Floyd, in May 2020 by Minneapo lis police.
“It was your state government that stood up and kept the city of Atlanta from burning down,” the governor said. “It was state resources that sent in the Georgia National Guard, that went in and brought control to the city. We didn’t allow these out-of-state instigators or anyone else to burn your property or to assault our police and National Guard.”
Israel was addressed after the do mestic subjects.
Kemp noted his 2018 campaign pledge to visit Israel plans were canceled because of COVID. “We’re going to fulfill that promise in the second term,” he said.
The governor boasted that the state now holds some $25 million in Israel bonds. He also touted the state’s antiBDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) law. A federal district judge called the decision unconstitutional, but Carr ex pressed confidence that the law will be upheld by the federal Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The BDS movement seeks to em ploy economic pressure to force a change in Israeli policies regarding the Palestin ian Arabs.
Kemp was not asked about two other current headline-making issues, the Supreme Court’s rejection of a con stitutional right to abortion and actions of Republican governors in Florida and Texas to fly and bus migrants to cities and states where Democrats control the state government.
Kemp’s only reference to the latter subject was to say that the Biden admin istration “wants to hire 87,000 IRS (Inter nal Revenue Service) agents but won’t go fix the border.”
Georgia election law requires that a winning candidate receive a majority of the vote. The presence of Libertarian Shane Hazel on the gubernatorial ballot could push the race to a Dec. 6 runoff.
“We cannot rely on anybody but our selves to win this election and we need to work like we’ve never worked before,” Kemp said.
Neither Raffensperger nor Carr spoke of their opponents by name. Raffensperger is being challenged by Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen and Libertarian Ted Metz. Carr, who initially was appointed attorney general in 2016 by then-Gov. Nathan Deal, is being chal lenged by Democratic state Sen. Jen Jor dan and Libertarian Martin Cowen.ì
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, flanked by his wife, Marty, and RJC-Atlanta co-chair Chuck Berk. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaking at Republican Jewish Coalition's event in Sandy Springs.
By Jan Jaben-Eilon
Jewish National Fund-USA has partnered with synagogues and schools around Atlanta to honor school resource
officers in memory of 9/11, presenting them with a special plaque depicting Je rusalem’s 9/11 monument.
Events took place at The Weber School in Sandy Springs, Congregation
Etz Chaim in Marietta, at Sandy Springs City Hall and Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs just to name a few. One of the honorees was instrumental in ap prehending the person responsible for a
recent spate of antisemitic graffiti in an Atlanta-area high school.
On Sept. 12, at a ceremony organized and led by The Weber School Student Council, members of the Rams for Israel
Sandy Springs Police Department Chief of Police Kenneth DeSimone accepts his plaque from The Weber School. Cobb County School District resource officer Kevin Brunson receives his honorary plaque during a ceremony at Congregation Etz Chaim.student club honored the Sandy Springs Police Department Chief of Police Ken neth DeSimone, as well as local school re source officers in a special 9/11 memorial ceremony. In partnership with JNF-USA, the officers received plaques depicting the 9/11 memorial outside of Jerusalem and recognizing their dedicated service and selfless sacrifice.
During the ceremony, Chief DeSim one shared that he had visited the Israeli memorial and had found his friend’s brother’s name on it, saying, “This is very personal to me and very meaningful to our department.”
Student presenter Barri Seitz, a senior at The Weber School, said, “Speaking on behalf of the Weber Rams for Israel at our 9/11 memorial ceremony strengthened not only my connection to the United States but Israel as well. I am proud to support a country and organization that knows how and when to stand with another.”
On Sept. 13, a ceremony was held at Congregation B’nai Torah honoring Officer Aurora Gwynn, who frequently serves the synagogue on Shabbat morn ings. Rabbi Joshua Heller reported that the officer received a standing ovation for her dedicated and continued service to the community.
On Sept. 14, Congregation Etz Chaim honored Cobb County School District resource officers Jerry Quan, William Marshall Duling and Kevin Brunson and thanked them for their service. In partnership with JNF-USA, teens from the synagogue youth group presented these officers with plaques recognizing their years of service to the community in law enforcement. Officer Quan was
personally instrumental in catching the perpetrators of recent antisemitic graf fiti in Lassiter High School, making this recognition from the Jewish community particularly poignant.
Said synagogue teen Mia Kleinman, “I felt inspired seeing the people who keep me safe at the synagogue I grew up in.” Speaking of the tremendous service of these officers, Tamar Oren, a senior at Sprayberry High School said, “The of ficers are like our dads at school. They talk to us in the hall and are people we go to for absolutely anything. I know they have risked their lives and for that I am forever grateful.”
The synagogue’s rabbi remarked about the ceremony, “We continue to be grateful for our community’s partner ship with Jewish National Fund-USA that enabled us to honor our law enforcement personnel in such a special and meaning ful way.”
The plaque features JNF-USA’s and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-JNF’s 9/11 Liv ing Memorial Plaza in Jerusalem — the only commemorative site of its type out side of the U.S. that lists all the names of those who were killed on 9/11. It rep resents the firefighters, paramedics and police officers who made the ultimate sacrifice and worked tirelessly to save countless lives on that infamous day and honors first responders who risk it all to protect and serve. Established in 2009, the monument is a testament to the deep connection between the State of Israel and the U.S., and the two coun tries’ shared values of peace, religious tolerance, democracy and fighting ter rorism. ì
Cobb County School District resource officers Jerry Quan, William Marshall Duling and Kevin Brunson at Congregation Etz Chaim.
By Bob Bahr
Arthur Blank, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Sept. 27, will cap the milestone event by breaking ground next month on a $15 million addition to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta. The two new buildings, to be built on either side of the existing center, will provide much needed space for new exhibits, particu larly for children, and accommodate tem porary exhibits and an expanded offering of educational projects.
The project highlights eight days of philanthropic service that were coor dinated by the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation from Sept. 20-27. The weeklong event coincided with the annual Hands On Atlanta week, the city’s largest volunteer effort. Thousands of volunteers that included Blank's employees from the Atlanta Falcons, the Atlanta United soc cer team and Mercedes Benz Stadium, do nated their time and energy in support of several community projects. Blank, who was the co-founder of Home Depot and retired as the company's co-chairman in 2001, noted that he was "humbled and honored" by the effort.
“Atlanta is very dear to me,” he said. “There is opportunity here for everyone to thrive, and for many, that path starts with the community, sometimes even just one person, taking the time to give back.
I’m proud that associates from the Blank Family of Businesses and beyond are ea ger to participate and contribute to posi tive change.”
“Our associates surprised me with the week of service.” Blank said. “It was their idea, and I’m profoundly honored by that. Serving others is a gift, and there are few things in life that bring a greater
sense of satisfaction and purpose. In es sence, this past week is not about me.
It’s about being our brother’s keeper, cel ebrating our incredible city and creating positive change.”
The week-long program and the planned construction of the national cen ter’s building are just one part of a history of giving that stretches back more than 35 years. The Arthur M. Blank Family Foun dation has donated over $950 million to a variety of projects that includes a $200 million gift in the last year to help build a new hospital for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and a $50 million grant to the Shepherd Center.
For the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Blank’s support, which first began long before the center was opened in 2014, has been crucial. The cen ter’s president and chief executive officer, Jill Savitt, described Blank’s latest gift as
“transformational” for the future of the organization.
“It allows us to really grow into our name, which is national,” Savitt com mented, “so we can be a place where when something happens on these issues, civil rights issues, human rights issues, we’re a natural gathering space for thought lead ers throughout the coun try. And since we’re in At lanta, it makes sense for Atlanta to take the lead on these issues because of its own history.”
Savitt credited both her own devotion to Jew ish values and Blank’s commitment to his Jewish roots for the success of the organization, which has significantly increased its national profile since March of 2019 when she first came to head the center.
“I think Judaism, at least for me and I think for others, is a set of values,” Sav itt pointed out. “It’s about having clear rules and making sure everybody follows them. It’s about repairing the world. It’s about treating everybody equally and fairly. Judaism is, in many ways about law and love. And I think that is the spirit that Arthur approaches his work and his philanthropy. It is very much rooted in Judaism.”
Blank spoke about the influences that shaped his life when he discussed his latest book, "Good Company," shortly be fore it was published almost exactly two years ago. He credits his parents and par ticularly his mother, Molly, who raised him alone from the age of 15 after the sud
den death of his father.
“She was always involved in the com munity, always involved in anything from a social standpoint, in terms of points of principle, areas of interest that she had about community involvement and race,” Blank said, “She was always in the middle of everything. So, I think a lot of that I saw at an early age, and it definitely gave me an orientation to being of service to others.”
Blank grew up in the New York City borough of Queens, where he said he was also strongly influ enced by the sense of to getherness that developed in the neighborhood. But he believes it was not un til his move to Atlanta at the age of 36 to help start Home Depot that he came to fully realize the importance of commu nity.
“Our communities that we live in, our neighborhoods can give us a much higher purpose,” he said. “They can give us the kind of spiritual returns that are impor tant to us leading a full and happy life.”
Savitt believes it is this sense of place and the historical influence that Atlanta has exerted on Blank’s philanthropy that has been most telling. “My sense is that he loves this city, and he loves the history of this city. The unique, profound, transfor mational role that Atlanta has played in encouraging equality and respect for all people. And he has great reverence for the icons of the civil rights movement, that changed not only the country, but changed the world,” Savitt said. ì
Jill Savitt believes Arthur Blank’s philanthropy is solidly grounded in Jewish ethics. The Arthur Blank Family Foundation has provided over $950M in grants over the past 25 years. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights will break ground on a $15M addition funded by the Arthur Blank Family Foundation.
By Bob Bahr
Dr. Miriam Udel, an associate professor of Yiddish lan guage, literature and culture at Emory University, has been formally installed as director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University. She succeeds Dr. Eric Goldstein, who, for the last decade, guided what has become the largest Jewish studies program in the south.
At a reception for both Goldstein and Udel that was held Sept. 16 on the Emory campus, Udel praised her predecessor’s leadership in expanding the program, particularly over the last five years. During that time, four new faculty members were and the Institute’s administration has been reorganized around a new professional staff and a new executive director.
This year Jewish studies students will, for the first time, be offered an opportunity to study abroad in Poland. Udel praised Goldstein for his exceptional administrative skill at a difficult time in higher education.
“Not only does he understand how to get things accom plished,” she said “but he also operates from a keen sense of how the most prosaic administrative details relate to the big human picture. His careful stewardship really brought us through a fiscally lean time during which the impact of this institute nevertheless grew rather than shrinking.”
Goldstein, who is currently on a yearlong academic sab batical, has built a program with a faculty of 17 scholars from six departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, plus a representative from the Emory University School of Law and from Emory’s Candler School of Theology; another 15 Emory
professors offer occasional courses. Goldstein pointed out that such a program is, by design, “looking outward” from a variety of points of view.
“We never want Jewish studies to be sequestered,” he said, “as a field so separate that it doesn’t meaningfully en gage with all of the different disciplines and fields that sur round us. The Tam Institute is crafted in a very particular way to meet that goal. We had the opportunity over the years to be a department. And time and time again, our faculty chose not to be a department, but to be an interdisciplinary insti tute, because this way each of us can be in our departments engaging with colleagues in different fields, but also have the chance to come together across disciplines to discuss issues of mutual concern.”
Under Goldstein’s leadership, the institute continued the yearly Tenenbaum Family Lecture Series each spring that is open to the Atlanta community. For the lecture’s 25th anni versary in March, the institute brought Dr. Have Tirosh-Sam uelson, an expert on Jewish environmental ethics at Arizona State University.
In early November, the Tam Institute’s fall lecture series will feature Dr. George Sanchez, professor of American Stud ies at the University of Southern California. He will speak on the historical relationship between the Jewish and Mexican American communities in East Los Angeles. The series is named in honor of The Temple’s Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, who was a leader on social issues in the American Jewish commu nity. He died in 1973.
The growth of the Jewish Studies program at Emory is due, in part, to the substantial support it receives by the uni versity’s leadership. For administrators like Dr. Greg McGoni gle, dean of religious spiritual life at Emory, the Tam Institute offers a model of some of the best the school has to offer.
“Having the largest Jewish studies department in the southern United States here at Emory is just such an amaz ing treasure,” he commented, “and I think the Tam Insti tute brings a really thoughtful investigative approach to understanding the Jewish tradition, understanding issues of antisemitism and understanding connections with other cultures and religions. And I think other departments, other areas of the university really look to the Tam Institute as a model for not only the curricular engagement, but also the community engagement as well.
Looking to the future, Udel says she’s working on a pro posal that takes advantage of what the institute has learned during almost three years of living with the COVID pandem ic. With additional funding, look for the use of more teaching technology, she said, in coming years.
“We are in the planning stages of a new initiative de signed to harness the skills in virtual living and thinking that the pandemic forced us to learn. We want to put those skills in service of a vibrant scholarly exchange we are creating. So, if you know of any restless philanthropists, please send them my way.”
In 2001, the program got a big boost when it received a $5 million dollar challenge grant given by Arthur Blank, one of the founders of Home Depot. Another $5 million was raised for the initial endowment. The Institute is named after Blank’s longtime friend and spiritual mentor, Rabbi Donald A. Tam of Temple Beth Tikvah, in Roswell. He was an honored guest at the reception in mid-September. ì
Miriam Udel will take over from Eric Goldstein ashead of the Tam Institute at Emory University.
Rabbi Donald Tam, right, speaks with Carla Freeman, interim dean, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and Matthew Bernstein, professor of film and media.
C.,
By Marcia Caller Jaffe
As lawyers bumped elbows and circu lated at the Anti-Defamation League’s 25th Anniversary lunch, attorney Jeff Fisher ex claimed, “I’m just glad to be back in person with the Jewish (among others) legal com munity after such a long pause.”
More than 350 guests convened at The Whitley hotel in Buckhead on Sept. 15 to salute three esteemed pillars of the Atlanta legal community for promoting justice: Ernest LaMont Greer, Jamie Perez and Liz Price.
Each year the ADL’s Southeast Division pays tribute to lawyers who have dedicated themselves to securing justice and fair treat ment for all. This year’s theme highlighted the organization’s mission to fight all forms of hate, expose extremism and educate peo ple about the corrosive effects of bias and discrimination. The luncheon also served as a fundraiser, helping the ADL raise approxi mately $310,000.
Especially moving was the Elbert P. Tuttle Jurisprudence Award, which was presented to Elizabeth A. Price, a partner at Alston & Bird, where she serves as the firm’s chief legal talent partner and alumni rela tions partner. Price also serves on the ADL national board of directors as well as on the
board of the Southeast Region of ADL and is the former national chair of civil rights for ADL among many other leadership roles.
Her story began in 1969, along with two siblings who were adopted by a kind couple after their Jewish parents perished. She said, “My parents died within 18 months of each other due to illness. We were separated, left in the care of friends and foster homes. I was 9, my sister was 5, and my brother was almost 11. My oldest brother, over 18, was left on his own. Through word of mouth in Dal las, news that three siblings were available to be adopted made it to Bill and June Price. The Prices, who were Christian, didn’t hesi tate to bring us together to live as a family.”
The Prices were aware of the chil dren’s heritage and enrolled them in Jew ish schools, took them to synagogue and observed the Jewish holidays at home. As a child in Dallas, Price recalled her first blush with antisemitism when a child terminated her friendship.
That incident stayed with her in her quest for fair treatment for all. She conclud ed by saying, “Combating hate is a group endeavor.”
She began her talk with a quote by Hil lel and ended with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The difference between dreams and visions is that (the latter) is done
with eyes open.”
Price said, “I have visions,” and then emphasized the importance of inclusively and that the ADL brings everyone together, not just Jews.
ADL Southeast Regional Director Ey tan Davidson spoke about his grandparents’ escape from the Holocaust to the U.S., seek ing a haven from persecution. He stated, “I’m proud to be a Jewish American and that my kids just had a bar mitzvah last week.”
Davidson spoke of the important rela tionship between law enforcement and the ADL, noting the recent leak of the names of the Oath Keepers group consisting of ap proximately 1,000 members in Georgia, 19 of whom work in law enforcement. Addi tionally, Davidson stressed the importance of added efforts to combat political violence, further election security and seek volun teer attorneys to observe at polls. He also highlighted the ADL education program in which 200 schools studied No Place for Hate curricula.
Ryan Buchanan and Brent Gray, U.S. States Attorney for the Northern District, provided updates on their vigorous motiva tion to go after hate crimes, including vio lent attacks on houses of worship, and how the Ahmaud Arbery case has made such a huge impact. Noted was a recent event at
the Carter Center where the ADL shared best practices on security, a form of which is available to local temples and synagogues.
Before the program, board member Lynne Borsuk told the AJT, “I’m proud that the ADL is doing the essential work on be half of the Jewish community along with all others. And we need this especially now!”
Richard Goldstucker, who special izes in intellectual property at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, said, “Our firm is very involved in the ADL and wanted to show our support today.”
ADL is the world’s leading anti-hate organization which was founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of anti semitism and bigotry. ì
ADL execs posed before the event: Lauren Estrin, Robin Sangston, Eytan Davidson, Walter Jospin, Joel Neuman, Lynne Borsuk, and Bennet Alsher
Kilpatrick Stockton was one of the many firms who came to show support. From left: Jeff Fisher, Andrew Saul and Richard Goldstucker
New ADL Southeast regional director Eytan Davidson told of his family’s escape from the Holocaust.
Award recipient Liz Price related that she was raised as a Jew by kind Christians who adopted her and her siblings in Dallas.
Randy Gorod, Joshua Spielman and Gil Wolchuck were among the 350 who came to The Whitley ballroom.
By Marcia Caller Jaffe
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) hosted its leadership and guests for a program to highlight Project Inter change, which has brought more than 6,000 leaders from 115 countries to Israel. Former Gov. Roy Barnes, who served from 1999-2003 was the event’s keynote speaker which took place at Smith Gambrell Rus sell law firm on Sept. 20. Celebrating the program’s 40 years, the event featured top leaders from diverse industries and com munities such as academia, journalism, government, faith and civil society.
Israel Consul General Anat SultanDadon, who had just returned from Israel with 20 Black women legislators, expe rienced first-hand how transformative these types of trips can be, said, “I watched through their eyes as they experienced our complexity compared to contradic tions in the media. They came away with real experiences to take back to their com munities.”
Associate AJC director Julie Katz sat alongside former Gov. Barnes as she posed questions before taking audience com ments. Ever in his Southern avuncular voice, Barnes had been on a Project Inter change trip in 2000. He joshed that he and Israel were the same age, 75.
He said, “I’m embarrassed to confess it, but after growing up running a country store, Israel was my first time out of the country.”
He told of his trip to the Golan Heights where he internalized Israel’s pre carious position while eating with Israeli Defense Forces troops.
“Then the siren went off and a young female soldier grabbed her AR and sped away,” he said.
In general, Barnes said he was down on the current ilk of politicians and is critical of people who do not speak up. He stated, “It’s amazing that educated people
like the Germans, some ‘good Christians,’ allowed Hitler to take over. Herein is the lesson why Israel was created: people who were almost destroyed by politics.”
Barnes said he had received death threats when he was perceived by some as being too close to Jews like Rabbi Arnold Goodman of Ahavath Achim. He joked, “I turned down protection because I didn’t think it would be good for my law practice to have FBI agents sitting around.”
Barnes added, “I don’t consider my self to be that. I wasn’t worried about the next election; we need to worry about the next generation.”
AJC regional director Dov Wilker urged Barnes to talk about his courage in changing the Georgia state flag in 2000 to an image that did not represent the Con federacy. Barnes noted his close friend ship with late Jewish architect Cecil Alex ander, who designed the new flag.
He ended on two prescient points: “We ought to look at sending some Repub licans on these trips. Some in small com munities have never been around Jewish people…and remember the south in postWWII. What city was going to be the new center? Charlotte? Jacksonville? Birming ham, because of its steel mills alongside Gov. George Wallace with his segregation ist stance? Then, there was Atlanta with better ideals for mankind. And remem ber Sam Nunn said, ‘Politics is a contact sport.’”
During the pre-function buffet, Sher ry Frank told the AJT of her history as di rector of the AJC and how she led five trips with guests from various backgrounds. Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Frank lin, Johnetta Cole, the first Black woman to lead Spelman College, and journalist Cynthia Tucker were among those partici pants.
Standout North Atlanta High School student Ryder Zufi chatted about his re cent jaunt to Jordan in the AJC Leaders for
Tomorrow program. He said, “Seven of us from around the country had a great trip as we honed our Arabic language skills.”
Coca-Cola marketing executive Sar ah Sachs, who recently joined the AJC board, said, “I was originally in the Ber man Leadership Program, then COVID hit. Now glad to be back and impressed with the organization’s overall mission, values and community development.”
Lois Frank chatted with former trip par
ticipants Christy and Jim Flowers, and Jim recalled, “I was on the 2001 trip, and on the first night in Israel, there we were with the president of Israel eating Mo roccan food. It was surreal!”
The Mediterranean buffet did not go unnoticed as renown chef Shay Levi’s Nur Kitchen catered the magnificent spread of pickles, eggplant boats, humus, baba ghanoush, homemade pita and bak lava. ì
Steve Berman, Steve Labovitz, former Gov. Roy Barnes and Sheri Labovitz chatted about old and new times. Lois Frank, Kristi and Jim Flowers talked of their Israel travel experiences. North Atlanta High School student Ryder Zufi, with his father Jonathan Zufi, shared details of his latest trip to Jordan on an AJC Leaders for Tomorrow program. Former AJC director Sherry Frank recognized Robert Franklin, former president of Morehouse College and current distinguished Professor at Emory Theological Center, from their trip experiences.On Sept. 12, the Atlanta Scholars Kol lel sponsored a networking event at the City Springs Terrace ballroom along with lodge Hebrew Order of David. More than 100 people convened to hear featured speaker Rabbi Mordechai Becher.
The rabbi began by announcing that there are two things that are associated with Jews: “They eat a lot, and they argue a lot, which is unlike the Japanese samu rai that focus on silence.”
According to Becher, the Torah says that if you offend someone, you should ask for forgiveness. Often, if you find yourself offended, the louder the person al offense, the more likely that argument is invalid. However, if you offend some one, on Kol Nidre, you can ask G-d for forgiveness of the sins you committed in the past year, but for another person you must ask for forgiveness directly from the person you offended.
The Talmud lists three major sins: murder, idol worship and infidelity, but the worst of them all is baseless hatred. Becher pointed out that Rabbi Akiva had 24,000 followers, and all of them died
suddenly because they did not respect each other.
On the top of arguments, he said that disagreements are inevitable, and Judaism has courts to resolve conflict, in cluding a Beth Din. Becker also made the point that the Tower of Babel in Genesis failed because everyone spoke the same language and there was no disagreement. G-d instituted different languages among the people because he wanted diversity, not conformity. Just as we have a thumb that opposes the rest of the fingers, a hu man’s hands have diversity in it.
Becher said in learning, the worst way to learn is through a lecture, while the best way to learn is with a partner, the way learning occurs in yeshivas. He pointed out that truth most often occurs by arguing the issues in detail. A single person has no one to criticize or discuss with, so the truth may be difficult to find. Truth occurs from discussion, looking at every issue from many points of view, and then reaching the truth for the best solution.
Therefore, the rabbi suggested that there are several considerations in any discussion with another person. The first
is to listen attentively. This is not always easy because we tend to let our mind wander, or to interrupt before the other person is finished. The second point is to articulate your arguments so that they are easy to grasp by the other person. The better you can explain your position, the more you, too, will understand your own arguments. The third important attri bute in any discussion is to focus on the issue being discussed. Focus on the other person’s opinion and not on that person’s personality.
If you can follow these attributes, you can then focus on supporting com mon ground. Not everything is a dispute, and perhaps there are only very small differences that can resolved. Becher made the point that in this country we all agree on democracy and the support of the rule of law, so many issues can be agreed upon, and let the rest be un resolved. In that case, it is often best to leave them alone, for there is often noth ing better than silence.
The final point the rabbi made in any discussion is not to respond to another’s argument quickly. It is best to just pause. You do not want to regret what you say.
Rabbi Mordechai Becher, originally from Australia, is an instructor at Yeshiva University and alumni rabbi of Neve Yerushalayim College. He received his ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
The rabbi ended his talk with the thought that one person asked his friend, “How could I learn to be silent?” His friend didn’t answer. ì
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President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog attended a reception hosted by the United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Al Khaja, celebrating the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020..
In his speech, President Isaac Herzog said:
“The signing of the Abraham Accords in September 2020 was a very moving occa sion. It was moving because of the great po tential that we wished to see in the accords, and because of the vision we were praying for, for the State of Israel and for all nations in the region. Witnessing that moment of his toric importance, we hoped and prayed that this moment would provide us a path to the
Sept. 30, 1957: French Prime Minister Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury backdates to today his signature on a letter of coopera tion with Israel on a nuclear reactor. He actu ally signs the letter Oct. 1, the day he is voted out of office.
The U.S. Air Force’s AWACS aircraft upgraded Saudi Arabia’s ability to track enemy planes. // U.S. Air Force
Oct. 1, 1981: President Ronald Reagan announces a plan to sell F-15 fighter jets and Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes to Saudi Arabia. Israel pro tests, but Reagan says the sale is not a threat to Israel.
Oct. 2, 1947: David Ben-Gurion, the chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, formally accepts the partition plan proposed by the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine. Arab leaders have rejected parti tion.
Oct. 3, 2005: Sarah Levy-Tanai, a cho reographer who incorporated Mizrahi and Ashkenazi elements and won the Israel Prize in 1973, dies at age 94 or 95. She founded the Inbal Dance Theater in 1949.
future to which we aspire: a future of part nership and prosperity, of renewal and peace.
“Two years later, what began as a wish and as an aspiration uniting us all is now an established fact: ladies and gentlemen, the Abraham Accords transformed, and continue to transform, our region beyond recognition! This is therefore the heart of to night’s celebrations. Over the past two years, we have seen how much power is latent in an openness to change, in good neighborliness, and in unmediated interactions between people. We have seen how a bold partnership may form the basis for sincere change, even when we do not agree on everything.
“The Abraham Accords heralded the re turn of hope, of dramatic regional change, of a horizon of cooperation and prosperity, of a future that draws its power from the togeth erness created in the present. Following on from the peace accords with our dear long time partners, first Egypt and then Jordan, who were the first to sign peace agreements with us."
On behalf of us all, I hope that we shall see more and more groundbreaking accords, including with our close neighbors, the Pales tinians, and that the historic process, gaining unimaginable momentum, of Israel’s inte gration into this region will continue, layer upon layer.”
Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, host ed the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions at the end of last week, an event that brings together leaders of all major traditional religious systems of the world to congregate in search of common human landmarks and engage in dialogue with aims of establishing peace, harmony, tolerance and respect between religions, con fessions, nations and ethnic groups.
Notably, the Congress served as a meet ing point between Pope Francis and both of Israel’s senior rabbis, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef. The religious leaders talked in meetings and on the sidelines, discussing peaceful coexistence and joining forces to
Oct. 8, 1576: Ottoman Sultan Murad III orders 1,000 “rich and prosperous” Jewish residents of Safed moved to Famagusta, Cy prus, to spur economic development on the island. The Ottomans move 500 more Jews from Safed to Cyprus a year later.
combat the issues that humanity faces.
Rabbi Yosef spoke at the Congress about the importance of compromise and peace in society. “I have come here from Jerusalem, the Holy City so important to all religions, to bless all who come here. Our sages say there is no better receptacle for blessing than peace. Peace is a blessing. Peace is one of the foundations of the Jewish religion. Peace is one of the foundations of all mankind. Peace is one of the names of God,” he said.
Pope Francis’s attending the Congress, participating in numerous meetings and giv ing a closing speech following the final read ing of the declaration, conceivably lifted the profile of the event. The pontiff called on all the peoples of Earth for peace.
“Time has come to make our hearts clear, to put aside the history books and leave away the conversations that have long en gendered distrust of religion. Religion is not the problem, but something that promotes harmonious living in society. We need reli gion to quench our thirst for peace,” the Pope stressed.
This year’s event also showed that it is still a crucial historical meeting place for Jew ish and Muslim leaders, as Rabbis Lau and Yosef had a cordial encounter with Ahmed elTayeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar in Egypt, arguably the most important religious figure in the Sunni Muslim world.
Oct. 4, 2003: A female Palestinian Is lamic Jihad suicide bomber kills 18 Jews and three Arabs and injures 60 others at Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The beachfront restau rant, co-owned by Jews and Arabs, is known as a symbol of coexistence.
Oct. 5, 1941: Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis dies at 84. His embrace of Zionism made its support more acceptable among American Jews, and he helped secure U.S. support for the Balfour Declaration.
Oct. 6, 1914: Gold worth $50,000, raised in two days by American Jewish leaders in response to a plea from Henry Morgenthau, arrives in Jaffa on the USS North Carolina to help the Jewish community in Palestine.
Oct. 7, 2009: Crystallographer Ada Yon ath, part of the chemistry faculty at the Weiz mann Institute, becomes the first woman from the Middle East to win a science Nobel Prize when she shares the chemistry award.
Oct. 9, 1917: Sarah Aaronsohn, a leader of the Nili spy network for the British, dies eight days after being captured by Turkish authorities and four days after shooting her self to avoid further torture and interroga tion.
Oct. 12, 1999: Israel refuses to let 26 Irish and Romanian tourists enter through the port of Haifa for being members of an extreme Christian cult. The approach of the year 2000 raises fears in Israel about dooms day cults.
Oct. 10, 1961: Moshe Hess, interred in Cologne in 1875, is reburied at Kibbutz Kin neret beside other fathers of socialist Zion ism. His “Rome and Jerusalem: The Last Na tional Question” may have inspired Theodor Herzl’s “The Jewish State.”
Oct. 11, 1938: Arab leaders adopt the Resolutions of the Inter-Parliamentary Con gress, rejecting Palestine’s partition, demand ing an end to Jewish immigration but offer ing to let Jews already in Palestine remain.
Oct. 13, 2011: Daniel Barenboim, a for mer musical director of the Chicago Sym phony Orchestra who was born in Buenos Aires in 1942 and moved to Israel in 1952, is named the musical director of La Scala Op era House in Milan, Italy.
Oct. 14, 1994: The Norwegian Nobel Committee announces that Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres are sharing the No bel Peace Prize with the PLO’s Yasser Arafat for achieving the Oslo Accords in 1993.
Items are provided by the Center for Israel Educa tion (israeled.org), where you can find more details.
A memorial to the Maxim victims stands next to the rebuilt restaurant in Haifa. // By Gal Almog
An 1846 portrait by Gustav Köttgen shows Moshe Hess.
Israeli police deny using excessive force in barring entry to members of an extreme Christian cult at the port of Haifa on Oct. 12, 1999.
Israel President Isaac Herzog is pictured speaking during the celebration of the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords.
Pope Francis met with the Chief Rabbis of Israel at VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, held in Astana, Kazakhastan.
Thirty-five students at the Univer sity of Georgia were in the middle of a school project when their assignment was disrupted by the unpredictability of Israeli politics. The students are enrolled in the Israeli politics course being taught by Eli Sperling, the Israel Institute Teach ing Fellow in the Department of Interna tional Affairs at University of Georgia.
The students had been divided into groups representing the various political parties expected to run in the upcoming Nov. 1 elections. But on Sept. 15, one of the three Arab parties running on the Joint List split from its coalition partners.
“It was pretty cool for the students to wake up in the morning and see the proj ect change,” stated Sperling. “The stu dents saw how small cracks can become big seizures. It’s quite an evolving series of things.”
The project assignment entailed simulations in which the students would create campaigns for their assigned par ty lists, suggesting advertising and strat egies for each. “The students assigned to the Joint List that was partly dissolved had been thinking of going after the left Jewish vote,” as part of their strategy, Sperling said. Meanwhile, until the par ties submitted their slates to the Central Election Committee, it was not definite which parties would run together.
The more left-wing parties of Labor and Meretz decided to run separately. Former prime minister, Benjamin Ne tanyahu, was able to convince right-wing parties Otzma Yehudit and Noam to run with the Religious Zionist Party just days earlier. Sperling said Netanyahu’s party, Likud, has become the “chameleon party,” bringing in figures from the right who would be favorable to him, chang ing it from the “classic Likud” of former prime ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir. And, the Arab parties of Hadash, Ta’al and Balad were expected to run together. But at the last moment, Balad decided to run on its own.
Political polling shows Balad prob ably won’t meet the minimum threshold of votes and legislative seats to make it into the nation’s legislature, the Knesset. Sperling said those students represent ing the Joint List were given the choice to join other parties’ groups. “The biggest frustration of the students has been the devastating effect of Netanyahu,” he add ed. “They are frustrated by the fact that one individual can throw the national agenda under the bus for his own politi
cal life.”
“Typically, before the course starts, students think in terms of the U.S.-Israel relationship. When they look at the do mestic issues, they see so much overlap” with the American political concerns, said Sperling.
The unexpected party breakup pro vided a notable example and powerful lesson on the precariousness of Israeli politics, and the difficulty of predicting the outcome of what will be the country’s fifth election in less than four years.
The instability of Israeli politics is not new, but since early 2019, the volatil ity in Israeli governments has forced vot ers to head to their polling stations again, again, again and again. Only weeks after Israel’s attorney general announced that he would indict Netanyahu in several dif ferent cases, Israelis voted in April 2019. No party was able to put together a gov erning coalition government, requiring 61 or more of the 120 Knesset seats.
Israelis thus returned to the polls in September 2019 and in March 2020. Netanyahu cobbled together a coalition, but that government fell, and Israelis returned to the polls in March 2021. The opposition parties, meaning those not supporting Netanyahu and his Likud party coalition, formed a government first headed by Naftali Bennett and now headed by Yair Lapid, who is acting as caretaker prime minister until a new gov ernment can be formed.
Polling immediately following the submission of party slates indicated that Netanyahu might, barely, be able to form a government after the November elec tion.
“The anyone-but-Bibi movement has weakened,” said Sperling, adding, how ever that “100 percent that could change” after the election. But much depends on the turnout of Israeli Arabs.
One Israeli Arab party, Ra’am, made history by joining the coalition govern ment after the 2021 election. But with the breakup of the Joint List of Arab par ties, there’s much speculation that Arab voters will be less inclined to show up to vote. As Sperling pointed out, in 2019, there was talk of an Arab boycott of Is raeli elections and “voter turnout was low. It got better in subsequent elections.”
But it is not even clear how motivat ed Israeli Jewish voters are to vote once again, especially when pundits point out that it is unclear whether a stable coali tion government can be formed even af ter the vote.
Sperling gives credit to the govern
ment that resulted from the March 2021 elections, noting that it was able to pass a budget, which hadn’t been done for a couple of years, and “it had kept the gov ernment alive.”
He also pointed to the strength of the regional alliances with Arab coun tries that the current government has reinforced. “Lapid and Bennett have been very, very successful on foreign affairs as a centrist government,” he said.
Just recently the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates visited Israel and participated in a press conference with Prime Minister Lapid in English. Lapid also met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York at the United Nations General Assembly. Erdo gan even broached the idea of visiting
Israel, reflecting the warming relations between the two countries after a bitter fall-out in 2010.
However, Sperling said that the “av erage Israeli will be voting on bread-andbutter issues, like the cost of living.” This is a change from the past when Israelis were more concerned about national se curity.
Forecasting the results of this next election is certainly a fool’s errand. Sper ling said, to some extent, “it boils down to Bibi’s toxicity,” referring to Netanyahu’s nickname. But then again, “only 50 percent [of voters] plan to vote for the same parties as in the last election,” he said. “Another seven percent don’t plan to vote at all, and many are undecided. There’s a great deal of frustration” with Israeli politics. ì
“The students saw how small cracks can become big seizures. It’s quite an evolving series of things,” said Eli Sperling, the Israel Institute Teaching Fellow in the Department of International Affairs at UGA.
These are heady days for the folks over at State Farm Arena.
The At lanta Hawks, coming off two straight playoff appearances, boast arguably the league’s premier backcourt in Trae Young and newly acquired Dejounte Mur ray, while this fall’s concert lineup includes such splashy names as Keith Urban, Post Malone and Lizzo. Looking ahead, as au tumn bleeds into winter, the facility will host the college basketball extravaganza ‘Holiday Hoopsgiving’ in the week preced ing Christmas.
With the building expected to host sold-out crowds on a regular basis in the coming months, the Hawks, in conjunc tion with State Farm Arena, held their in augural ‘Interview Day’ on Sept. 10, where nearly 300 candidates interviewed for parttime roles in various departments includ ing arena conversion, food and beverage, guest experience, housekeeping, security, Hawks retail, ticket box office, flight crew and uniform management. Ultimately, 279 candidates were provisionally hired, remaining subject to a formal background check before being officially hired.
Undoubtedly, this year’s event was unique. For the first time, the franchise opt ed to not hold its annual recruiting event at an off-site venue (they’ve had hiring events under the shark tank at the Aquarium and in front of the Ferris wheel at Centen nial Park) but rather at State Farm Arena, a state-of-the-art venue that recently under went a $200 million renovation project.
“We work every day at a world-class arena. We want them [candidates] to see first-hand what it is like to be here before they start working,” said Camye Mackey, EVP and chief people, diversity and inclu sion officer for the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena.
Just like the building that hosted In terview Day, the event itself was quite in novative in its approach toward providing jobseekers, some of whom hope to segue into a full-time sports job one day; LaTo nya DeBruce, the team’s current manager of recruiting and workforce development, started out on a part-time basis. The event featured an engaging, interactive recruit ing experience, one that relied heavily on audiovisual techniques to showcase the organization’s inclusive, progressiveminded internal culture steeped in south ern hospitality. After meeting with hiring managers, those candidates who success fully proceeded through the screening and interview processes and were eventually offered employment enjoyed a post-event celebration attended by Harry the Hawk and the ATL Hawks Dancers.
“It was really a full-circle day where they got a chance to go through all the core steps of the hiring and interviewing process,” added Mackey. “But I think the surprise and delight at the end came once they were told that provisionally they were hired. There was a big celebration for them. And it was just a fun time for all of us,” he stated.
Close to 300 interviewees attended the event and was a testament to the Hawks deftly navigating the world of social media to spread awareness of the employment opportunities, ones that promise to offer a certain degree of flexibility in addition to access to discounted healthcare services,
five paid major holidays, and paid training and development, among other perks.
“From a marketing standpoint, one thing that we really try to do is be inten tional with our efforts,” explained Mackey. “And intentionally, we leveraged social me dia. As far as some of the other marketing elements, we went into communities that may or may not traditionally come out to apply for jobs with us. We have an amaz ing marketing team and brand communi cations [team] that were able to go out. We were very pleased with the marketing ef forts for this particular event.”
When asked to provide his assessment of how the event unfolded, Brett Stefans son, Hawks’ EVP and general manager of State Farm Arena, echoed a similar senti ment.
“I think it went fantastic,” said Ste fansson. “We want people that really fit into our organization from a culture per spective. We have so many events as our event load continues to grow, the need for more and more both part-time and fulltime staff continues to be a driver for us. This was a huge shot in the arm as we look to start this upcoming season. If we’re able to get those folks on board, it helps con tinue to drive toward our goal of being a world-class arena.”
Aside from the recent infrastructural enhancements, the Hawks’ home is truly a world-class arena when engaged employ ees feel empowered to provide fans with
an optimal in-game experience — whether that be going out of the way to walk fans 50 yards down the concourse to find their seats or taking the initiative to grab a new bucket of popcorn for the patron who just dropped theirs on the floor.
“Creating a great night out for our fans has always been a priority for us,” added Stefansson. “In doing that, we re ally focus on three key things: operational excellence, fan experience, and employee experience. This is really emphasizing the employee experience part. If you’re able to create what we think is an incredible, unique hiring event, it’s really an initial indoctrination into the culture of State Farm Arena and the Atlanta Hawks. And what that does for that potential new hire is it creates this ‘wow’ moment. ‘Wow! Was that a hiring event or was that a party? What was that?”
Stefansson concluded, “It leaves this impression on them, that they just go home and tell their friends. But the real ity behind what that does, is that allows them to directly relate that experience and transition into being an employee with us, and then deliver that same experience to our fans. They know and understand how that made them feel, and now their goal is to translate that into making our fans feel the exact same way. I think there’s this re ally cool perpetual cycle of great employee experience that translates into great fan experience.” ì
David Ostrowsky Earlier this month, the Atlanta Hawks held their inaugural “Interview Day,” during which hundreds of Atlanta residents had the opportunity to apply for instadium jobs for the upcoming season // Photo Credit: Atlanta HawksIf there is a downside to getting selected by the Atlanta Braves in the first round of the MLB Draft and then signing a multi-million-dollar contract, such as what transpired for left-handed starting pitcher Jared Shuster in June 2020, it’s that the franchise is waist-deep in big league talent, particu larly frontline starting pitching.
With said logjam, you can impress in the lower levels of the minors and hold your own at Triple-A, which Shuster has done, but still find yourself waiting for the big call-up. Such is life trying to climb the ranks of an organization with dynastic aspirations, one that is anchored by perhaps the game’s most formidable starting rotation headlined by the trio of Max Fried, Kyle Wright and Spencer Strider.
There is zero doubt that 24-year-old Shuster, whom the Braves selected with the 25th pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, will one day toe the rubber of a big-league mound. It’s even reasonable to believe that the gifted southpaw will crack the 2023 Braves’ Opening Day roster. But it’s also reasonable to believe that had Shuster been drafted by a rebuilding club, such as the Oakland A’s or Pittsburgh Pirates, he would be donning a big-league jersey at this hour.
Armed with a change-up that his former high school coach from Tabor Academy, Kenny Ackerman, describes as otherworldly, the unassuming Shuster has silenced minor league batters this summer while pitching for the Double-A Mississippi Braves and Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers. Sporting an ERA that has hovered around 3.00 all season, Shuster en joyed a breakout performance for Mississippi Braves back in April when he fanned a career-high 12 Biloxi Shuckers, including eight consecutively over five scoreless frames be fore the game was called due to rain in the top of the sixth.
“That was a pretty cool moment for sure,” said Shus ter in speaking to the Atlanta Jewish Times. “I didn’t even realize it [his eight consecutive punchouts tied a Southern League record] until the rain started coming and the game was over.”
Shuster, who also pitched in the All-Star Futures Game at Dodger Stadium this past July for manager Mike Scios cia, bears some resemblance to Atlanta’s current ace, Fried. Both are tall lefties who wear No.54 and make Jewish base ball fans from Miami to Seattle smile every time they take the hill.
“I know there’s not too many [Jewish ballplayers],” said Shuster. “I love being Jewish. I love being able to repre sent the Jewish community, so it’s something I’m definitely proud of. It’s been great for me for 24 years. It’s helped my family stay close.”
Similarly to Fried, Shuster has a very laid-back de meanor, rarely, if ever, flashing signs of strong emotion on the mound or appearing hell-bent on establishing his pres ence with a frightening brush-back pitch.
“Man, he was the quietest kid of all-time,” recalled Ack erman, who coached Shuster for three years at Tabor Acade my, a renowned prep school in southeastern Massachusetts, to which the pitching prodigy transferred after posting a mi croscopic 0.45 ERA and racking up 74 strikeouts while only giving up five walks as a freshman at New Bedford High. (His New Bedford coach, John Seed, recalls how following a 17-strikeout gem against archrival Durfee High School, the opposing coach came over and admitted that his guys took pride in being able to foul a pitch or two off Shuster.)
Despite oozing with talent, every time he stepped on a
ball field — he was also a prolific hitter and burner on the basepaths. Shuster largely walked the hallways of Tabor with his shoulders slumped, not exactly exuding the prover bial big man on campus aura.
Indeed, prep school with its rigorous academic stan dards could humble him at times. Unlike virtually every ac tivity on the diamond, there were aspects of scholarly work that didn’t always come easily to him. “I was so proud of how hard he worked,” Ackerman remarked about Shuster, who earned a full scholarship to Wake Forest University, where he improved considerably from his freshman to ju nior seasons, while wowing scouts with his work in the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer. “He wasn’t doing all the AP classes, but the kid really worked hard in the class room and went for the extra help that he needed. It wasn’t just like, ‘Hey, I’m here to play baseball and you guys are go ing to love me,’” Ackerman added.
Braves fans may very well come to love Shuster, but they may have to be patient and so will Shuster. With the front-end of a rotation at times resembling a modern-day version of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz, another summer of minor league ball and bus rides and fast food and small crowds, is a distinct possibility.
“I wouldn’t say anything has been too difficult,” Shus ter said when asked about his minor league career, which officially began in 2021 with a stint for the High-A Rome Braves. “Maybe the first year having to find housing and live with a few other guys. That’s just always been an issue for minor league players, anywhere you go,” he added.
As the 2022 season dawned, the housing situation, one
Armed with a devastating change-up, Atlanta Braves prospect Jared Shuster has a strong chance to make his big-league debut next season // Photo Credit: Josh Conner/Gwinnett Stripers
that was remarkably easier than the 2021 ordeal, represent ed a strange coincidence. Shuster found himself rooming with Ryan Cusick, a fellow Massachusetts native (Sudbury, Mass.), former Wake Forest teammate, and 2021 first-round pick of the Braves. But merely days into spring training, Cu sick was one of several prospects traded to Oakland for first baseman Matt Olson.
It could just as easily have been Shuster heading to the Bay Area. But it wasn’t and now the Braves appear poised to have a pair of mensches holding down their rotation going forward.
“I think it will pay off for them [Braves] in the long run,” predicts Ackerman. ì
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Matthew Ginsburg and his father Saul are the co-founders of Capsco — a venture into the world of peppers, start ing with some unique products in the dried pepper space.
Capsco was founded in 2022. They have been selling in farmer’s markets since May and have recently launched their website and social media chan nels. Capsco currently operates in two retail locations, The Little Green Store in Huntsville and Kinship Butcher Shop in Atlanta.
Their mission is to increase inter est in plant diversity by introducing the public to the broad array of chili pep per breeds (and crossbreeds) that exist around the world. The Ginsburgs plan to do this by giving people new and unique ways to spice up their food and bever ages.
They launched with products in two different categories, Spices and Cocktail Infusers, but their long-term vision is to continue bringing to market new unique
Matthew Ginsburg and his father Saul are the local co-founders of Capsco.
products that are heavily inspired by the world of peppers.
Matthew Ginsburg grew up in Atlan ta going to Temple Sinai until his family moved to Huntsville, Ala. when he was 12.
For more information to go to: https://tastecapsco.com/
StandWithUs, an international, nonpartisan education organization that sup ports Israel and fights antisemitism, is pleased to announce the 2022-23 students participating in its high school and campus programs.
The StandWithUs 2022-23 Kenneth Leventhal High School interns are: Noa Dor (Johns Creek High School), Noa She fler (Alpharetta High School), Carly Frei man (George Walton Comprehensive High School), Franklin Silverman (The Weber School) and Aiden Smolensky (Atlanta Jew ish Academy).
College sophomores Gabriela Lefko vits (University of Georgia), Aliza Freilich (Emory University) and junior Gabriel Grau (Kennesaw State University) are the 2022-23 StandWithUs Emerson Fellows.
Like previous years, the local student leaders join 150 students who were selected for each of the two programs throughout North America.
Created in 2012, the StandWithUs Kenneth Leventhal High School intern ship selects and trains student leaders from high schools throughout the United States and Canada to teach about Israel at their schools and to combat antisemi
tism. During the two-semester program, the Leventhal interns, who are juniors and seniors, identify the educational needs at their schools as they pertain to Israel and to antisemitism, whether they are rooted in misinformation, ignorance or outright hatred. Then, working with their Stand WithUs regional high school managers, they develop a strategy to meet those needs through relevant and practical educational programming.
Founded in 2007, the year-long Em erson Fellowship is a prestigious program that trains, educates and empowers stu dent leaders on college campuses around the world. Chosen from key campuses, Emerson Fellows lead their campus com munities, engage and inspire their peers through impactful educational events, campaigns and discussions about Israel. These fellows are also trained extensively on how to navigate antisemitic activity on campus, and how to mobilize and confront these issues strategically and effectively. Throughout their experience, Emerson Fellows are plugged into a global commu nity of student leaders where they can ex change ideas, share best practices and sup port each other.
Above: Pictured are the 2022-23 StandWithUs Emerson Fellows. Below: Shown are the 2022-23 Kenneth Leventhal High School Interns.
Homrich Berg is excited to welcome two key client service additions as Abbey Flaum joins as managing director, family wealth strategist, and Isaac Bradley joins as director of financial planning.
The pair join as the Homrich Berg firm continues to bolster its leadership team and enhances its already deep fam ily wealth planning expertise. Flaum and Bradley share a similar background in complex tax and estate planning law, while Bradley also served clients as a wealth planner and accountant during his career.
“We’re excited to have Abbey and Isaac join the HB team,” said Thomas Carroll, president of Homrich Berg. “As we continue to grow, both will play an instrumental role in not only helping to serve clients directly but also providing resources to our advisor teams that will help them provide the HB standard of ser vice to our clients.”
As family wealth strategist at Hom rich Berg, Flaum will focus on providing complex estate and tax planning advice for clients with taxable estate situations, while also serving as a central resource
for all HB client service teams on estate planning issues. She has spent 16 years in private law practice in trusts and estates, most recently as a shareholder with Co hen Pollock Merlin Turner, and has been an active leader in the Atlanta community for many years.
“In my years of law practice, I was continually impressed by the…personal ized involvement that Homrich Berg ad visors committed to the estate planning process for clients we shared,” Flaum said.
“Like me, HB advisors worked to earn their clients’ trust, which is integral in the creation of any strong relationship. The opportunity to create the family wealth strategist role at such a quality institution committed to deep client service was ir resistible, and the fact that Homrich Berg placed significant value in creating this role demonstrates the firm’s commitment to holistically and meaningfully planning for its clients.”
As the director of financial planning at Homrich Berg, Bradley will use his breadth of knowledge to work closely with HB cli ent service teams on retirement, estate, insurance, tax and charitable planning
Abbey Flaum joins Homrich Berg. issues. He will be responsible for creating scalable resources for advisors, ensuring they have access to the latest relevant in formation and implementing consistent planning processes. Bradley is joining HB from Wells Fargo where he served as a se nior wealth planner for five years.
Bradley echoed the sentiments of Flaum about Homrich Berg’s client-
centric culture: “I’ve always shared HB’s client-first mindset. Having a technical background and being client-facing al lows me to work with clients to educate and enhance their financial lives while also providing our advisor teams with re sources to serve their clients well.”
Compiled by AJT Staff
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I began writing this as our children were airborne from Tel Aviv to New York at the end of their seven-day Ta glit-Birthright Israel trip.
For a week, we had monitored Instagram and WhatsApp for photos and messages, hoping that our daughter and two sons were enjoying the trip and taking in everything they were experiencing.
The boys, ages 29 and 23, had toured parts of Israel in 2009, when the older one played on the U.S. youth soccer team at the Maccabiah Games, and I brought his brother to watch. This was their 31-year-old sister’s first trip to Israel.
Since childhood, the kids have heard about their mother’s college adventures in the Middle East, our life and work for CNN’s Jerusalem bureau in the mid1980s, and our other visits to Israel and elsewhere in the region.
So, we were eager to hear their im pressions.
Israelis asked about their Israeli, non-Biblical names; more than one as suming, incorrectly, that because of those names our children could converse in Hebrew. Our daughter heard Israelis pro nounce her name correctly.
The timing was important, because this was the last trip before Birthright drops the upper age limit back to 26, from 32, where it has been the past five years.
A few weeks ago, I began an inter view with Zohar Raviv, Birthright’s inter national vice president for educational strategy, by asking, “What are my kids going to get out of this trip?”
“I don’t know what your kids are go ing to get,” Raviv replied. “I know what I intend for them to get.”
Raviv’s criteria for success was not a young adult returning having “figured out” their relationship to Judaism and to Israel, but rather coming home and say ing, “I finally understand how hard it is to understand.”
As if to validate Raviv, our youngest acknowledged, “I don’t know enough,” as he asked about facets of Israeli religious and political life that he had observed or heard discussed.
At the Western Wall, the young men and women were separated for prayers. At Mount Herzl, where prime ministers and other historic figures are buried, the Israelis accompanying the group talked about comrades from the Israel Defense Forces whose graves were nearby. They toured Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the six million Jews murdered in the Ho locaust. They dined and slept under the stars in a Bedouin tent. Extreme mid-day heat forced them to ride the cable car, rather than hike to the summit at Ma sada. From the city of Sderot, Gaza was visible a mile away.
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We delighted at pictures of the kids together at the port in Tel Aviv and on the plaza at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. They shared video and photos from the Old City and the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, the Carmel market and an underground nightclub/art gallery in Tel Aviv, a Bedouin encampment in the Ne gev desert and the Dead Sea.
In between arriving pre-dawn on a Thursday and leaving in the first hour of the following Thursday, they got a taste of Israel, albeit a thin slice. “Every day was like three days packed into one,” our daughter said. “It was go, go, go.” There are places we would have wished them to see, but only so much that can be accom plished in such a limited period of time.
We credit our middle child, who per suaded his siblings to do this together. This trip was for 27- to 32-year-olds, so a dispensation was needed to permit the youngest to join his brother and sister, allowing them to share the memories.
Throughout, they were challenged to consider their connection to the Jewish people, the parts of Judaism that might cause them to feel conflicted, and which Jewish values are important in their lives.
They made friends among their trav eling companions and got on well with the Israelis leading the trip and ensuring their security. They heard a wide range of viewpoints on a variety of issues. Their experiences were described variously as being interesting, educational, and in some cases, “cool.”
Our children understood that there were aspects of Israeli life that they would not confront on a Birthright trip. “We try to present to our participants an Israel that is delightfully imperfect,” Raviv told me. Based on what our chil dren reported that aim was met.
All three said that they would like to return sometime. Maybe next time their parents will join them. ì
Dave Schechter
Although traditionally the holidays of Rosh Ha shanah and Yom Kippur are seen as a time for spiri tual and reli gious renewal, the process of prayer and reflection that accompany the holidays may bring other benefits as well. At least, that is the belief of An drew Newberg, a physician and medical researcher whose latest work, "The Vari eties of Spiritual Experience," was pub lished this month by the Oxford Univer sity Press. He has pioneered research in what is called neurotheology that looks at the relationship between the mind and our spirit experiences.
Much of his research has been car ried out at the Marcus Institute of In tegrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. The institute was established in 2015 by Bernie Marcus
with a grant from the Marcus Founda tion in Atlanta. It is considered to be the largest center for clinical development of the practice of integrative medicine. The Philadelphia program is described in the book, "Tapestry of Health," which features a forward by the Atlanta phi lanthropist and co-founder of The Home Depot.
In another book, "Brain Weavers," also published with Marcus’s support, the founding director and CEO of the Marcus Institute, Daniel Monti, joined Newberg as its research director to de scribe the biological, psychological, so cial and spiritual conditions that lead to better brain health.
It’s a process that Newberg has found interesting during much of his life. He describes himself as having grown up in a liberal Jewish home where he said he “was really challenged by my parents to ask a lot of questions and then they would kind of throw them back to me,” including important Jewish questions.
That inquiry eventually led him into a career in medicine where almost 30
The newly emerging field of neurotheology is aimed at bringing together the study of religious experience and brain science.
years ago he first began to explore the issues his parents raised when he was growing up. Questions, he said, about G-
d’s existence and the influence that the belief in a divine presence has on our life. These two dimensions of science
Bob Bahrand personal spiritual identity merged when, as a young physician he discov ered that changes in the brain that could be studied using the powerful tools creat ed by imaging technology. Newberg, who 10 years ago wrote a foundational text about what has been termed neurothe ology, believes that the young scientific discipline offers a way to bring together our belief in an all-knowing, all-powerful deity and rational inquiry.
He believes that powerful new medi cal imaging tools that emerged from the growth of imaging technology can help picture the conditions in the brain that lead us to feel more connected to a higher power when we are praying or meditat ing.
Newberg said, “Be ing able to use brain imaging allowed us to really help to iden tify certain areas of the brain that were involved in these prac tices and experiences. It also provided new data. So, you know, sud denly we were looking at parts of the brain to see how they were in teracting during these spiritual practices. Imaging technology helped to really create a more complex and a more cohesive kind of understanding about what’s going on in the brain dur ing these experiences.”
In a series of best-selling books, Newberg has written about the changes that occur when a consistent, intense practice of prayer is begun. In a volume, “How G-d Changes Your Brain,” written in 2010 with psychologist Mark Waldman,
Newberg wrote that “contemplation of G-d and other spiritual values appear to permanently change the structure of the brain that control our moods, give rise to our conscious notions of self, and shape sensory perceptions of the world.”
In 2018, psychiatrist David Halpern joined Newberg in writing “The Rabbi’s Brain: Mystics, Moderns and the Science of Jewish Thinking.” The work examines the knowledge gained from brain scan studies of hundreds of people who were observed in religious practice and how that may influence the way Judaism ap pears in our religious life.
As an observant Jew and a graduate of Yeshiva University with an intimate knowledge of Jewish practice, Halpern believes that neurothe ology allows us to bet ter understand the profound impact that holidays such as Yom Kippur have had on Jewish life. He thinks it helps us not only to have a better under standing of how we function as spiritual beings but how that process supports the social bonds that are strengthened at this time of year.
“The entire com munity gathers togeth er almost as a witness to the relationship that they have,” Halpern observes. “And I think no matter what your background is, Yom Kippur is about seeing that rela tionship as a community of who we are as a people and where we’ve come from. Identifying within that group allows one to feel like it’s a day of self-reflection or personal introspection.” ì
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Medical researcher and author Andrew Newberg uses brain imaging technology to study the connection between prayer and how we think.
Bernie Marcus, second from left, helps to dedicate the new center for integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University.
A Classroom kitchen dedicated to the bakery arts
As Jews worldwide en ter the High Holiday sea son, Rabbi Da vid Silverman, dean of the Atlanta Schol ars Kollel, explains the significance of repentance during this time. During this Q & A session, he explains the history of the concept, how to appropriately seek forgiveness from others and G-d and how Jews can best prepare themselves to enter a new year.
Rabbi, thank you for speaking with me. First, what is the meaning of repen tance in Judaism?
Rabbi Silverman: In Judaism, repen tance is t’shuvah, which literally means “to return.” There is a concept in Jewish thought that you can undo the damage you have done and rectify or repair a situ ation. You have an ability to take away the negative energy that has been put into the world by your misdeed, whether it was against a person, G-d or society.
Where did the concept of repen tance or t’shuvah come from in Judaism?
Rabbi Silverman: The Talmud says that repentance preceded the existence of the world. G-d knew people would mess up and needed a way to fix their mistakes. Tikkun olam or the repair of the world, which is the ultimate goal for Jews, can only take place when we can repair our errors.
How do you repair situations with other people? Is there a process to ask
them for forgiveness?
Rabbi Silverman: Asking for forgive ness is more than simply apologizing. A huge component is digging deep to un derstand how you hurt another person, committing to never doing it again and reassuring the person accordingly. Sincer ity is key in asking for forgiveness. The actual confessional to the person you hurt must include an acknowledgement of what happened, a heartfelt apology and reassuring the person that you will not only never commit this act again, but that you are committed to fixing the situation and making it better than before. Juda ism takes t’shuvah so seriously that even if a person has passed away, you must go to the grave of the person and ask for for giveness.
And what if the other person refuses to accept your apology?
Rabbi Silverman: You must ask the person three separate times for forgive ness. If you have done this, you have done your part and, according to Halacha (Jew ish law), you will be forgiven.
How do you ask for forgiveness from G-d?
Rabbi Silverman: Our prayers to G-d are just the final strokes of the process af ter stopping the sin, feeling and express ing sincere remorse and vowing not to do it again. After completing this process, we participate in the “viduy,” or confessional, during Yom Kippur. The confessional can be personal and does not necessarily have to be communal, though the formula laid out in the Machzor makes it easier to fol low for many people.
How do you seek forgiveness for sins against society?
Rabbi Silverman: If a specific indi vidual was not offended, you would have to confess and express remorse to G-d, who represents the community. Halachic authorities offered several ways to repair the deed, doing something to help a com munity that was hurt, providing general public improvement or offering charity to community organizations.
Are there sins so terrible that for giveness cannot be obtained?
Rabbi Silverman: Our sages outline several types of sin that are unforgive able. For example, a person who leads other Jews away from Judaism to practice polytheism or immoral acts cannot be forgiven. A person who does not take the atonement process seriously will also not be forgiven. For Pharaoh, the doors of re pentance were shut because he refused to recognize G-d as a supreme authority and kept backing down from his word that he would let the people go.
Jewish law has deemed some acts so despicable that only one’s death can bring about atonement, and then only if the per son seeks t’shuvah before his death. There is a Jewish custom that as people pass from this world, they say “viduy” and declare that their death should be an atonement for any sins they may have committed.
How did the process of t’shuvah go from the high priest going into the inner sanctum to sprinkle the blood of an ani mal offering to atone for Israel’s sins to how it is done today?
Rabbi Silverman: Once the temple was destroyed and this way of life was forced to end, prayers took the place of the temple offerings. There was more empha sis on services in local synagogues and communities. We looked to our proph
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ets, leaders and rabbis for guidance on t’shuvah. The Great Assembly, 120 Jewish scholars who led the community after the time of the prophets, compiled this knowl edge and created most of the prayers for Yom Kippur. The text was refined during the next several hundred years.
What is Tefillah Zaka? Is it recited during the Yom Kippur service?
Rabbi Silverman: Right before Kol Nidre, there is a beautiful prayer called Tefillah Zaka that was written in medi eval times. The reader declares that they are forgiving anyone who did not have a chance to ask for forgiveness (unless they still have legal recourse to attain justice). Ideally, if everyone were to say this prayer, all Jews would forgive each other, and we would enter Yom Kippur on an amazingly high spiritual level. ì
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In "Kosher Soul," author Michael Twitty sets out to enlarge our picture of both kosher and soul. It seeks to explain what we think of when we envision kosher food and how we picture food that springs from the soul ful experience of African Americans. Twitty, whose previous book in 2018 on Southern food traditions won the prestigious James Beard Award, concludes that neither kosher nor soul may be what we thought it was.
For Twitty, who grew up in a family where his mother attended a Black Luther an church and his father was Baptist, you can bet that Sunday dinner as a child was not a bowl of chicken soup with a fat matzo ball floating in it. In his 20s, he started to de velop an interest in Judaism and, by the age of 25, he had converted and was launched on his search where the food of his youth in tersected with his newly found observance of kosher living.
The result some 20 years later is "Ko sher Soul," which attempts to define for us and for him what that means. What he con cluded, as he spoke recently in a telephone interview is that both are related in more ways than we realize.
“Kosher and soul are both quasi-ethnic and also universal terms. Literally, kosher or the Hebrew ‘kashrut,’ means the ritual and communal fitness of things for the sake of Jewish observance, but it also means some thing that’s okay. It is passable. It passes muster. It’s solid. It’s valid. So, it is for the meaning of soul that for Black people means soul music and soul food. It’s about the communal fitness of things. It is the es
sence of what it means to be Black.”
And while much of the food he writes about is derived from his ancestral roots in the African American South, he is not afraid to explore other cultures. His book has recipes that were inspired by Jewish com munities in Africa, South America and the Caribbean.
For a break fast meal on Yom Kippur, for example, he is drawn to the Sigd com munity of Ethiopian Jews, many of whom have been resettled in Israel. In place of the platters of smoked fish and bagels that end the holiday for some Jews with Eastern European ancestry, he suggests instead an Ethiopian vegetable or chicken stew, called a vegetable wot or doro wat or a Berbere brisket, prepared in the oven with an exotic spice mix added to many of the traditional ingredients, like garlic and onions. It’s all served with a side of injera, the soft spongy African bread made with teff flour that can be used to scoop up small bites of the stew or meat.
It’s not your grandmother’s break fast
where you cover your bagel with a schmear and slices of nova. Here you grab a hunk of injera and dip it into doro wat or your ten der Berbere roast.
It’s a meal that Twitty would describe as having soul.
“Soul is the intellectual and aesthetic construct—the memory, the feeling and the skills that power African American, AfroLatin and Afro-Caribbean foodways, along with the verve and style that Black chefs bring to other cuisines they interpret.”
Atlanta Rabbi Ruth Abush-Magder, director of education for Be’chol Lashon, a national organization that celebrates the ra cial and ethnic diversity of the Jewish com munity, has known Twitty for more than a decade. She believes Twitty represents a broader and richer definition of contempo rary Jewish life.
“I think Michael is challenging us to think inclusively about Jewish community and that is a passion of mine. I think that we gain when we allow all parts of our commu nity to shine and contribute and bring the
gifts and share the gifts that they have. That includes the culinary gifts.”
According to recent statistics, Jews of color are among the fastest growing seg ments in Jewish life in America. Yet, a re search study led last year by a team from Stanford University, entitled “Beyond the Count,” indicates that 80 percent of those surveyed have experienced discrimination in the Jewish community.
It’s something that Twitty has keenly felt during his years as an outspoken advo cate for a closer bond between traditional Jewish communities and the new commu nities of Jews that are emerging from vari ous ethnic groups. In his interview, he called for a “better form of engagement.”
“We have a lot of work to do,” Twitty said emphatically. “I tell people all the time these two worlds that are represented by those two words, kosher and soul, are ad jacent but they’re not exactly the same for more than one reason. And all of that has to be taken into consideration as we move forward.” ì
Rabbi Ruth Abush-Magder is the Atlantabased director of education for an organization that works with Jews of color.
Michael Twitty’s "Kosher Soul" is the result of his 25 years as a Jewish chef and food writer.
Michael Twitty won the prestigious James Beard Award for a previous book in 2018.
Dan Granot co-runs a boutique com mercial real estate firm alongside Alan Joel. They work both sides of the real estate coin: tenants looking to move, landlords, retail investment, purchasing buildings with investors, office, medical and industrial sectors, all to seek balance in these roller coaster markets.
Mimicking Clark Kent away from the desk and phone, Granot is ranked near the top 10 in the U.S. in his senior division for pickleball.
In terms of his day job at Joel & Granot, Granot said, “Our company had a strong last 12 months given the cur rent climate. We have represented nu merous professional services firms who seem to have come back into the office a little quicker than other sectors and have also represented a significant number of owner/users who have bought or sold property.”
Finding oneself in a pickle of a mar ket, Granot is also known for his fierce
prowess in pickleball. He said, “I try to play five to six times a week, mostly at sunrise for 90 minutes, then play a little longer on weekends. I try to play approx imately one tournament a month some where around the country. I see more se niors playing, but also incredible growth in the younger generation. Overall, it’s a very social and welcoming sport.”
At 56 years old, Granot competes in the Senior Pro Division. He has played approximately nine tournaments in 2022 and hovers around No. 10 in the country in both doubles and mixed doubles. He won three senior pro events in Plantation and Boca Raton, Fla., and Philadelphia. He considers his strength to be “quick hands and good anticipation which like
ly came from years of competitive tennis. I wouldn’t consider myself a power play er, but more so depend on accuracy and misdirection,” he mused.
And, yes, Granot wins prize money listed, which ultimately must be split many ways. He eschews singles tourna ments for their three consecutive days of rigorous wear and tear.
Granot ( in orange shirt) won the Pro Men’s Doubles APP in the Plantation Florida 35K. Dan Granot, of Joel and Granot Commercial Real Estate, is ranked tenth in the U.S. in pickleball.Granot’s background was grounded in tennis. He initially resisted and recalled, “I had jokingly heard that pickleball was the last racket sport people played before they died. Once I played the first time, I was hooked. The game involves hand eye coordination and is very social…pickle ball is more like tennis and table tennis as they’re no walls to contend with; and squash, racquetball and paddle are more similar for the same reasons.”
• The barriers to enter are low. The equipment is inexpensive, a paddle, balls and a portable net cost a couple hundred dollars. (Granot himself plays with an Onix Evoke Premier paddle and a Dura Fast 40 ball. He wears Babolat pickleball shoes.)
• The skill level needed to enjoy the sport is minimal. Whether you are an ex-tennis player, an athlete of any kind or a non-athlete, it is very easy to hit a plastic ball against a paddle from a few feet away across a net with your friend/ opponent.
• The workout itself can be as chal lenging or not, as desired.
• Injuries do occur in pickleball as they would in any racquet sport especial ly when playing competitively or when not properly warmed up. Granot’s only serious pickleball injury was a ruptured Achilles tendon from which he fully re covered.
Atlanta currently can’t build courts quickly enough to satisfy demand. Many subdivisions are either converting ten nis courts to pickleball courts or having courts serve a dual purpose. The MJCC and Sandy Springs Tennis Center are very popular. The Painted Pickle is con structing a facility in midtown among many others.
Pivoting to look forward with his real estate racquet, Granot concluded, “The Atlanta commercial real estate mar ket is currently trying to find its way. Some sectors have never been healthier such as industrial, multifamily and even retail has come back strong.
"The jury is still out regarding office space as many buildings are still healthy from a leasing perspective; but as leases begin to roll, companies will continue analyzing how they will handle their em ployees’ requests to work virtually, in a hybrid environment or demand that they return full force to the office. Every com pany will likely handle differently.” ì
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Granot summarized why pickleball has recently become so popular:Dan Granot played with Angela Simon to win the Senior Pro Mixed Doubles APP in the Boca 90K Tournament.
By Marcia Caller Jaffe
Behind his charismatic anchor per sona on CBS46, Rick Folbaum has earned his true grit wings by covering many seminal events that shaped our culture. Folbaum grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J., where his interest in journalism started.
He said, “The news was always on in my house, and I loved the excitement of a breaking news story…the report ers, showing up at the scene, interview ing the police chief or the mayor. While most of my friends stayed up past their bedtime to watch ‘The Tonight Show,’ I’d stay up watching “Nightline” with Ted Koppel. He was so smart, and I loved how he’d make guests squirm with tough questions. When I found out he’d gone to the Newhouse School for Journalism at Syracuse University [Currently Syra cuse University Newshouse School of Communications], I made it my goal to go there where I majored in broadcast journalism.”
His journey to Atlanta was circu itous, after 20 years in New York, and five
in Miami, he settled in Atlanta to raise a family. He freelanced at CNN in 2018 and started at CBS46 in 2019. Now divorced, he is co-parenting five children.
His impressive body of work in cludes coverage of both attacks on the World Trade Center (1993 and 2001). He recalled, “I was sent downtown right af ter the first tower was struck on 9/11. The second tower was hit while my crew and I were driving down the West Side High way. I pulled over about a block away, began our reporting on the burning buildings; then ran for our lives when the South Tower fell. It’s the closest I’ve come to reporting from a war zone.”
He also spent two years as a foreign correspondent based in London and working out of the Jerusalem Bureau. He said, “I experienced Israel in a way that was very different from my North Ameri can Federation for Temple Youth tour at 15.”
He’s covered climate change in Alas ka, peace talks in Northern Ireland, the Pope’s trip to Cuba, John McCain’s nomi nating convention in Minnesota and the
mass shootings in Orlando and Parkland, Fla. He stated, “I pray I’ve covered my last shooting, but I know that’s not the case.”
Read on to hear directly from Fol baum:
Glad you moved to Atlanta?
Folbaum: It’s everything we hoped and more. My kids go to great public schools. We love Temple Sinai. There are opportunities to volunteer, to really be
Paid for by Dr. Jeri Breiner
The idea of getting divorced tends to immediately predispose individuals to become fearful of change, fearful of backlash, and fearful of the unknown territories ahead. It is at this point the process can begin the path to trauma, intense cost, damage to co-parenting, and long-drawnout battles. You have a choice to do this another way! But first, why does this happen?
Often, the person wanting the divorce first consults with an attorney to learn how to go about this process and protect themselves, their finances, parental rights, etc. This action is promoted by fear and the spiral begins. Attorneys are ethically bound to zealously protect their clients. That means they want you to use their path, be cautious, and not mess up or harm your case. They will tell you to not speak to your spouse because they don’t want you making agreements or statements that can be used against you.
So out of fear you form this allegiance with a total stranger and trust that they only
have your best interest in mind. You stop trusting your own judgement and religiously follow the steps they tell you are required for your safety. On the other hand, the spouse finding out that the other is seeking divorce follows the same process with intensified fear. They are behind in the game. They go to an attorney as well and the spiral of fear continues.
Litigated divorces on average take a year. Both spouses will provide approximately 3 to 5 thousand dollars each, up front, just to begin the process. They are trustful of a system that will pit them against one another and forget that they ever cared about each other or had a friendship. The idea promoted is that you cannot talk to the enemy. Fear abounds throughout this process and normally kind and caring people become cunning, devious, suspicious, paranoid, and protective of things that they never thought about. Suddenly what I need and must have becomes crucial and I am willing to get my and your lawyer into a
control battle, which will be quite costly and do more damage. WHY? FEAR!
This process tears us up. It tears up our finances. It tears up our kids and families.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The first step can be to go to a professional trained MEDIATOR to help both spouses figure out what to do, what the next step is, and how to do it in a way which is in both parties best interest. A Mediator helps guide you through the process so that you can decide on your future based on your real and unique
circumstances, and helps you come up with a plan that is doable and practical. A Mediator does not support fear; rather, a neutral Mediator helps guide you to talk to each other and make responsible decisions. Mediate instead of litigate to stop the spiral of fear.
Dr. Jeri Breiner is a Neutral Mediator and a Clinical Psychologist, who provides both parties with the tools needed to execute an equitable divorce agreement, unique to their family’s circumstances. After hundreds of mediations, Dr. Breiner’s goal remains the same: to help spouses avoid the pitfalls, trauma, and expense of litigating their divorce in court.
To learn more and for a free consultation, contact Dr. Jeri Breiner, Mediator at 678-985-8858 or go to their website at www.AtlantaDivorceMediationServices.com.
Rick Folbaum is proud of his Judaism and gave his on air Hanukkah message alongside the others’ Christmas ones. Paid Content by Dr. Jeri BreinerSarasota direct: (941) 329-6286 Atlanta direct: (404) 231-6535 (678) 575-1399
| broching@stifel.com
part of a community and be immersed in a city that has led the way nationally in civil rights and racial equality.
Describe raising five children.
Folbaum: Remember spinning all those plates on the old Ed Sullivan Show? Just when you get one spinning perfectly, you’ve got to run over to keep another one from crashing. Our kids are amazing. Our oldest is a high school senior…which is CRAZY. We also have a sophomore. Our seventh-grade twins have their B’nei Mitzvah next April. We have a third grad er, too. They are smart, kind and loving which is really all you can hope for.
Any work-related antisemitism?
Folbaum: No, and I have never shied away from talking about my Judaism. One year, all the anchors taped Christ mas greetings and I talked about my fam ily celebrating Hanukkah.
How do you compare working be hind the desk versus on the scene?
Folbaum: I’ve been lucky that I’ve worked for people who have let me travel to big news events, to anchor my news casts live from the scene. Being there makes all the difference. But I enjoy an choring from the studio as well, guiding our viewers through the big stories of the day. Helping people make sense of our complicated world.
Folbaum: I was Danny Zuko in my high school production of “Grease.” De cades later, I went back to my old school and won “Cherry Hill West Dancing with the Stars.”
Folbaum: I covered South Florida’s Holocaust survivor community (third largest in the country) profiling survi vors, how they embraced a post-war life of joy, love and generosity after the hor ror they experienced. I try to think of them every time I feel down. If those sur vivors can smile and laugh, so can I. ì
Forbes’ Best-In-State Wealth Advisors, April 7, 2022. Rankings are based on the opinions of SHOOK Research, LLC, and were selected from a pool of 34,925 nominations. Neither SHOOK Research nor Forbes receives compensation from the advisors or their firms in exchange for placement on a ranking. The ranking may not be representative of any one client’s experience and is not indicative of the financial advisor’s future performance. Investment performance is not a criterion for selection.
Forbes is a registered trademark of Forbes, Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information on the selection methodology, see www.stifel.info/award-disclosures.
Neither Stifel nor its financial advisors provide legal or tax advice. Please consult your legal or tax professional if expert assistance is required. Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated | Member SIPC & NYSE | www.stifel.com
Day 2 of Rick Folbaum covering history. Brits are remembering their Queen and honoring the impact of her 70 years on the throne. CBS46 Gray Television, Inc. // Facebook
By Robyn Spizman Gerson
At the 2022 Obstetrics-Gynecology conference at The Cloister at Sea Island, retired OBGyn, Dr. Jeffrey Korotkin, re ceived the Distinguished Service Award presented by the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society. This year’s con ference recognized both 2020 and 2021 award recipients, due to COVID.
While thousands of high-risk pa tients have benefited from Korotkin’s care with his 40-plus years as a maternal fetal medicine specialist, this significant lifetime achievement award is the high est level of recognition given by the soci ety for extraordinary efforts to improve women’s health in Georgia.
Korotkin deservedly joins previous honorees of this award, ranging from legislators to community advocates to distinguished professors. The accolades for Korotkin were outstanding as, “rarely does the society have an awardee who possesses all of these characteristics.”
Korotkin, a graduate from Tulane University, received his medical degree at University of Miami Miller School of
Medicine and went on to complete his in ternship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University where he was the chief administrating resident and the winner of the resident research day competition. Later, Korotkin became the medical director of obstetric ultraso nography which served to launch his ca reer in maternal fetal medicine.
A sought-after lecturer worldwide about maternal fetal medicine and highrisk pregnancies, Dr. Korotkin has lent his expertise to many organizations, committees and hospitals, including his roles as: head of gynecology and obstet rics ultrasound for Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital and Grady Memorial Hospital; chief of gynecology-obstetric service at Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital. Chief of obstetrics and gynecol ogy at Northside Hospital; and associate professor at Emory University. He was also the president of the Georgia OBGyn Society from 1998-99 and a long-serving board and advisory council member. Devoted to his profession, he is a mem ber of the GOGS Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming the standard
level of care in gynecologic practices; and served as president of the Atlanta OBGyn Society, helping to form and establish the Atlanta Women’s Health Group.
Following his successful career, Ko rotkin is enjoying retirement and family, and continues his involvement to make a difference. Medically, Korotkin is still ac tive at the Geogia Department of Public Health including the leadership role in the regional perinatal center which are rated as centers of excellence throughout the state supporting difficult maternal situations.
Korotkin said, “It’s so rewarding as they are the leader in proving healthcare in the state of Georgia, especially women at risk who are socially and economically deprived. We must still try to improve the healthcare delivery system.”
Korotkin’s legacy alongside the wellbeing and healthcare of women in Geor gia, his adopted state, focuses on his be loved family-wife Cathy, who is his rock, along with their adult children, Julie, Eric and Esther and Samantha.
He shared, “My wonderful wife Cathy ran our family, and it allowed me to do my work. My other legacy is my patients who continue to express their gratitude for the compassionate care they received during difficult situations
which means a great deal to me, even af ter all these years.”
Korotkin’s patients span over de cades, since in 1990, Korotkin co-founded with Dr. Larry Stone, Georgia Perinatal Consultants. He shared, “When I started studying maternal fetal medicine, I was one of the only doctors in town special izing in this area. Because of ultrasound prenatal pre diagnosis, we blossomed. I have always treated high-risk obstetric patients throughout my training, and I developed an instinct about how to get patients out of difficult situations.”
And now in his retirement, Korotkin currently serves on the Regional Perinatal Center committee and the Maternal Mor tality Review Committee in Geogia. Find ings from these reports are used by the Georgia legislature to set policy such as the recent state Senate bill, SB 338, which provides an extension of Medicaid servic es for mothers for a full year postpartum. He can also be found at the state Capitol lending his expertise to legislators.
While Korotkin admits he misses his patients, he’s certainly busy giv ing back and enjoying retirement. He added, “My golf game is reasonable, not great, but the vistas in the mountains in Cashiers, North Carolina provide pure relaxation.” ì
Dr. Jeffrey Korotkin and his wife Cathy at the awards ceremony presented by the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society.
Dr. Fran Norflus started teaching online classes well over 10 years ago. The majority of these were with introductory, non-majors’ biology lecture classes and, subsequently, non-majors’ laboratories.
When COVID hit, she recalled, “All classes needed to quickly be changed to on line. This was challenging to both faculty and students who might not have been accustomed to it and might not have had the skills or technology to be involved with online classes. As COVID progressed, some classes transitioned into hybrid, where they might meet for a small amount of time on campus, then other times online. There are also asynchronous and synchro nous online classes. The former is when students read materials and/or watch videos by themselves online. The latter is when students and faculty will actually see each other and can converse about the material.”
Before the pandemic, an introductory, non-majors’ biology lecture class was com prised of about 64 students. The size has
since decreased. The online sections are about 40 students while on-campus labs have 24 students. She summarized, “Dur ing the height of the pandemic, some of these classes were synchronous online, but now most are non-synchronous. I suppose it’s difficult to have everyone online at the same time.”
Norflus thinks that coming out of a COVID posture, balance will continue to be found. Upper division classes may require more in-person discussion to review sig nificant details. The non-majors’ laborato ries can take different formats. Some use a laboratory kit that students purchase and then perform the experiments at home. In others, students purchase their own sup plies and perform experiments in their kitchens. In other cases, there are virtual lab exercises.
Tuition for both online and in-person learning is similar, but there is an extra fee for online classes. Norflus explained that there are advantages and disadvantages to online classes. “It’s a big savings in time and money when students don’t need to drive to school. It allows for flexibility for
students who work. For students who are quiet, online classes allow for more partici pation. Some students feel stressed taking exams on campus, so online exams might work better. Remote lab classes have pros and cons. Students might involve their families in the experiments and make it a fun experience, but they won’t be able to work with peers or have direct, immediate interaction with faculty. It’s important to learn group work, but in some instances, the groups may not work well together.”
Norflus is no lightweight when it comes to her scientific credentials. She re ceived a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from Duke University. She then obtained a mas ter’s in biology from Virginia Common wealth University. She obtained her Ph.D. in a joint program from George Washing
ton University and the Na tional Institutes of Health. Dr. Norflus performed her Ph.D. and postdoctoral re search on treatment of mice that had neurological dis eases. Her doctoral research was conducted at the Na tional Institutes of Health where she performed bone marrow transplants on mice that had Tay Sachs and Sandhoff disease. Her postdoctoral research was performed at Emory Uni versity and Massachusetts General Hospital where she studied treatments for mice that had Huntington’s dis ease.
As a full-time profes sor at Clayton State, Nor flus said, “Clayton State University is a hidden gem for learning opportunities with multiple bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. We currently enroll over 6,900 students in challenging campus and online courses. The campus is situated 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta on 214 acres. The school has a diverse student population of stu dents with many non-traditional students who work and have families. The average age is around 26.”
Currently, in addition to teaching, Norflus performs research with under graduate students using the model organ ism Caenorhabditis elegans. Most of this research is centered on studying behav ioral phenotypes from adding different compounds to different strains of worms.
Dr. Norflus is a member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue. ì
Dr. Fran Norflus is a full-time professor at Clayton State University, where she instructs a diverse student body both online and in person.
Jennifer Herckis Behar mortgaged her Atlanta home 17 years ago and launched her artisanal breadstick and flat bread company, Jennifer’s Home made, which now employs 20+ people.
She said, “I began in an untradi tional way. I made breadsticks for din ner parties, and friends suggested that I sell them. I said ‘Never’! Then I moved to Florida and found myself baking all the time with my young daughter feed ing the neighborhood. I had an epiphany that I could do this – take my advertising and marketing background and desire to give back and start a business. That day I drove myself straight to the grocery store, started baking and I never looked back. The first year was crazy. I would tuck my daughter in bed, bake at night, take her to school in the morning, then sell and deliver.”
After going through a divorce and difficult times, she knew there were other people struggling even more and wanted to help. She headed to Feeding South Florida food bank and declared to donate a portion of proceeds before she ever made her first sale. She exclaimed, “I think they thought I was crazy. After that, I went to a local gourmet market and made my first sale, and that was the beginning. Now we are selling nation wide to stores like Whole Foods, Publix, Kroger, Albertsons, small gourmet shops and online.”
Her line includes Original Bread sticks, Rosemary Breadsticks, Salt & Pepper Breadsticks, Original Flatbread, Rosemary Flatbread, and Salt & Pepper Flatbread. They are vegan, all natural, made with extra virgin olive oil. In Atlan ta, at Whole Foods, Kroger and Sprouts, they sell for approximately $5.99-$6.99 per five-ounce box.
Behar attended Riverwood High School and earned a bachelor’s in com munication from Boston University. She was an advertising account executive in New York City on the Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo account and launched Acuvue contact lenses internationally, all which led to her expertise in marketing her own company. She was recently the featured speaker for Goldman Sachs at Miami Dade College.
The lessons Behar learned in business and life:
Don’t take more than you need.
When I started, I rented space in dif ferent commercial bakeries, and then I
ultimately built out my own space. I set up a relatively large facility thinking I will grow into this; I will need this. And while we used it, it was more than I need ed. When things got tough, I ended up downsizing, taking what I needed. That turned out to be a good move.
Don’t think you can do every thing yourself.
While I can do everything, I have learned that I will never grow the way I want to grow if I try to do it all myself. I realized there are people that are smarter than me in different areas of the busi ness.
Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer!
No to me is “maybe!” I have had plenty of people say, “we are not bring ing your product,” and I take that as a “not now.” Build relationships, and you keep moving forward. Eventually, if you have a good product or service, it will turn into a “yes,” which is happening to me now. People are coming back around
years later. People whom I met years ago are now customers.
Don’t tell everyone your dreams.
Not too many people can see what you can see. When you are building a business, you are doing something that has never been done before in some ca pacity. Some people are either not going to support you or don’t have your vision. It is a different mindset being an entre preneur. People said to me “Get a job; you can make more money.”
I heard that a lot. I would say, "I have a big goal in mind. I’m building something. It ‘s not about the salary I am taking today; it’s about the brand I am building and something bigger down the road.” Ultimately, it would be nice to make a ton of money, but it is more sig nificant than that. You need to share with certain people who can help you, but not everybody will be able to do that. Some times you need to keep your circle tight.
Believe in yourself and in your
product, believe in what you do.
When things get tough, think about what I need to do to figure it out. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I can be a perfectionist but being perfect can work against you. You want things to be as good as they can, and then you need to move forward.
Dealing with all the challenges is tough. You think that things will get easier at a certain level as you grow, and in my experience it doesn’t. The problems are just different, it doesn’t necessarily get easier. Being able to roll with the punches is critical. Owning and running a business is not for the faint of heart!
Behar adds, “At Jennifer’s Home made we take love seriously. Taste The Love is not just our tag line it is our core business philosophy. I believe the love we put into our product has an impact on everything including how we run our business, build relationships, and treat employees.”
For more information, visit www. jennifershomemade.com. ì
Jennifer Herckis Behar left Atlanta 17 years ago and launched her artisanal breadstick and flat bread company, Jennifer’s Homemade, which now employs 20+ people. Artisanal breadstick and flat bread by Jennifer’s Homemade.
By Marcia Caller Jaffe
In 2019, Northland identified Atlan ta as a top market to acquire and develop a $1 billion portfolio of suburban, infill and urban apartment communities.
Northland chief executive officer Matthew Gottesdiener said, “What drew Northland to Atlanta was its dynamic combination of a business-friendly econ omy, strong educational institutions, practical infrastructure and its status as an anchor of nation-leading HQs of Fortune 500 companies, coupled with increasing appeal to innovative, techfocused global companies and a vibrant and diverse 24-hour city. Entering At lanta also allows us to access one of the most compelling talent pools in the coun try. Atlanta will join markets like Austin, Boston and Florida as core multi-decade Northland markets.”
Northland’s website states their $7 billion of real estate assets consist of: 26,000 multi-family units; 650 em ployees; $500 million annual revenue; home-based in Newton, Mass. The sur name “Gottesdiener” may be familiar to
Atlantans since founder and chairman Lawrence Gottesdiener bought the local WNBA basketball team, Atlanta Dream.
Privately held Northland is not new to the state. They have acquisitions in
Macon and Atlanta and currently have invested $520 million to acquire 1,300 apartments and an additional $250 mil lion in developable land for future proj ects, with the intent to further grow more
of their local portfolio.
Northland currently owns six com munities in Georgia, along with a develop ment site in midtown. They are:
• The Lofts at Zebulon | Macon (April
SLX Atlanta was acquired by Northland in January 2022. It’s a luxury mid-rise property located in Chamblee which consists of 306 apartments and 24,189 SF of wellness-focused retail space.The Sutton was acquired by Northland in December 2020. It’s a luxury community located in Buckhead Village and includes 151 apartments.
2020)
• Glenn Perimeter | Atlanta (December 2020)
• The Sutton | Atlanta (December 2020)
• 17th and Spring Development Site | Atlanta (December 2021)
• SLX Atlanta | Atlanta (January 2022)
• The Maven | Suwanee, (April 2022)
• Station at River Crossing | Macon (July 2022)
In terms of Northland revealing plans, Gottesdiener said, “We are actively pursuing new opportunities in Atlanta today, across both suburban garden apartment opportunities and urban/in fill mixed use assets. We expect to have more news in coming weeks and months as we work towards our goal of over 2,500 units and $1 billion-plus in total Georgia investments. Northland’s focus and earned expertise is as a leading na tional multifamily investor, owner, man ager, and developer. This is where we will continue to stay focused, including mixed use multifamily-anchored oppor tunities.”
Mingling with some of Atlanta‘s local real estate magnates, Northland representatives said they have been wel comed and connected to city leaders like Matt Bronfman and Steve Selig.
“We have been fortunate to have so many in the Atlanta business community welcome us into the market and connect us to some of the most respected and ac
complished real estate leaders in the city… like Steve and Matt,” said Gottesdiener.
For charitable involvement, North land is committed to giving back to local organizations that meaningfully impact communities. Some of the organiza tions they support that are Jewish based include: The Ruderman Family Founda tion, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, and 2Life Communities.
Gottesdiener, and his wife, Rebecca Krumholz, an attorney focused on im pact litigation currently clerking in Mas sachusetts Federal Court, and their two children ages 3 and 5, belong to Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, Mass.
Gottesdiener said,” With our longterm investment strategy, Atlanta is the ideal market for Northland to put down roots and grow our portfolio. It is com pelling because of its strong affordability, something Northland prioritizes when entering a new market, along with an im pressive talent pool from local colleges and universities. We firmly believe the Atlanta market is going to outperform its secondary market peers over the next 20 years. Northland’s long-term philosophy is about unique value creation strategies, driven by the firm’s approach to asset management. Our teams strategically in vest in property improvements and lead the value-add process to generate con sistent growth throughout the long-term hold of our assets.”
ì
Harry Norman, REALTORS Ashford Dunwoody Road Atlanta, GA 30338Harry Norman real estate agent Sandy Abrams, continues a long-stand ing career in residential real estate that covers devotion to her family and a dedication to her trade which began in 1972. But it didn’t start that way.
Ever gracious and charming, Abrams served as the social secretary for Gov. Carl Sanders. She recalled, “Politics was most exciting. I got to meet people I would have never had the opportunity to because of my po sition. Unfortunately, my professional political career was ended when Jim my Carter was elected governor.”
A friend suggested she should ex plore a career in real estate. She added, “I knew Jack Adair, so I went to work for Adair Realty and made the Million Dol lar Club my first year.”
Adair Realty closed its residential operation, then she signed on with Harry Norman where she remains. Over the years, she has sold a plethora of homes and received many awards. The height of her career was receiving the Platinum Phoenix award, the first one ever given by the Atlanta Real tors Association
Navigating a residential real estate career over half a century, Sandy knew how to adapt. Changes like technology (from no internet), safety concerns in not showing isolated properties alone, educating clients to understand pricing (thinking their house is worth more than it is), efforts in getting listings in addition to closing the sale, preparing a house to market (staging) and the many layers of involve ment: lenders, title companies, photographers, inspections, appraisals and understanding the constantly changing
market. Balancing family life with two daughters, Alison Schneider and Julie Rosenblum, and supportive husband Dave, things required a bit of juggling.
Schneider stated, “When mom started selling real estate in 1972, I was nine years old, and my sister was five years old. She always jokes that we turned out so well be cause she went to work when we were young.”
Rosenblum chimed in, “I remembered that mom’s car was always spot clean, and she had the first mobile phone. I also recall always seeing her real estate signs; so, when I read my last name, [I thought] Mom was well known and respected.”
Schneider and Rosenblum said: “While she marks her 50 years in real estate, we are confident, if given the chance to go another 50 years she would jump at the opportunity. The clients, the colleagues, the community and the career allowed her to grow into the outstanding, high-achieving person that she has become. We are so very proud of her. Cheers to 50 years!”
Daughters Alison Schneider and Julie Rosenblum Summarized Abrams’ Keys to Success:
Key #1: Mom has the natural ability to connect and care about people. It comes so easily to her. We believe the initial connection and trust are important because buying a home is a highly personal experience. You need to not only trust your agent, but you need to believe they have your back. This quality also transfers to other agents and office administrators as well. She loves the comradery of the of fice. Still to this day, on Tuesdays she has lunch with the original agents from her office that started around the same time. They are lifelong friends.
Key #2: “No” is not a word in her vocabulary. If you want the home, she will pull all the magic tricks out of her hat to get it for you. Does that mean driving contracts to peo ple’s homes at night? Working weekends? Hosting lunches for other agents with door prizes? Making concessions on her side to make it work? Cooking brownies, vegetable soup, or other goodies? Yes, to all the above. There is nothing bet ter than having Sandy on your team.
Key #3: Mom found her passion in real estate; there fore, she never found it to be a chore or exhausting hence the 50 years. Not many people are able to find what they love in their work/personal life. She was fortunate to blend the two together so well.
Sandy Abrams (center) and her family. Sandy poses with her broker Rick Brinkman(left) and the late real estate mogul Harry Norman(right). Sandy Abrams was the first recipient of the Platinum Phoenix Award bestowed by the Atlanta Board of Realtors.
Mortgage broker and native At lantan Allison Beldick has volumes of transactions under her hard hat to comment on these choppy times regarding the ever-changing real es tate and loan landscape. Are rising mortgage rates sending the runaway market in a new direction? According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 12, 2022, “Atlanta Housing Mar ket Cooled, … The number of closings across the 12-county metro area was down 23 percent compared to June 2021, according to First Multiple List ing Service data, … Metro Atlanta had fewer closings than in any month of June since 2014. A sharp jump in mortgage rates is a key catalyst for the declining activity.”
So, is now the time to take the jump to homeowner ship?
A University of Georgia graduate with an MBA in fi nance from Kennesaw State University, Beldick spent 15 years in real estate, including residential sales, marketing, management and business development. Thus, it was an easy transition with her skill set into the mortgage indus try in 2012. She summed up conditions, “We have been for tunate in the Atlanta market with strong growth over the past year. As expected, with the inventory being low, the number of sales is naturally down. Despite fewer sales ac cording to the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, the average and median sales price has increased 19.4 percent from May of last year and the sales price increased 18 per cent from the previous year.”
Looking ahead, she noted that interest rates have increased while housing supply is still at an all-time low with more buyers than sellers. She continued, “[During] the first half of the year, homes were selling for at least 1012 percent above list price. We’re certainly seeing a bit of a shift right now. I think buyers have been exhausted by the market, and for some with interest rates increasing they have been priced out of the market. However, we are still seeing multiple offers. Rather than 24 offers on a home vis ible in the first half of the year, we’re now seeing between three and six. Since fewer buyers are making offers, we are not seeing prices elevate as high, but homes are still selling above list price.”
Beldick added, “I think as inflation decreases, we will see interest rates drop some, and the housing market will remain strong in Atlanta. One of the biggest factors affect ing mortgage rates is inflation. As inflation increases so do interest rates. Since a mortgage is a long-term fixed return, as inflation increases investors must increase the mort gage rate to compensate for market conditions.”
Beldick cautions that first-time homebuyers shouldn’t let interest rates or current trends deter. “Real estate is an investment akin to a retirement plan or stock market. Even if the interest rate is higher today than months ago, histori cally real estate will continue to appreciate,” she said.
Her own first purchase was a condo, and in four years the value increased 35 percent, which allowed her to have a significant down payment to buy the next home. Looking
historically over the past 60 years, homes have appreciated very con servatively at three to four percent per year. Over the past year, she saw over double-digit appreciation rates, and 2022 higher than average appre ciation is anticipated.
In labeling Beldick a super per forming broker, she noted, “I have been very fortunate in this crazy market. While last year’s volume was stronger because of refinances, I planned for that when forecasting my goals this year and have been focusing on growing purchase busi ness. I’m on track to hit my goals this year.” In 2021 she helped 300 fami lies obtain financing.
Beldick reports that there are specialty programs available for many professions like doctors, nurses, first responders, educators, veterans and first-time homebuyers. Various programs allow for low down payment options (or some times no down payment at all), possible down payment
Beldick says to look for opportunities and consider real estate a great investment over time.
• Work with a local mortgage banker who understands the current market.
• Get underwritten upfront prior to finding your home.
• Be aware of your credit and try to maximize your credit score.
• Set a home-buying budget.
• Hire a real estate professional to help with purchase.
Allison Beldick helped 300 families get financing in 2021.
By Marcia Caller Jaffe
As Intown and Buckhead residential popularity waxes and wanes, new develop ers are betting on downtown Sandy Springs for their new Gregory condominium proj ect. A to Z Developers Limited, Anosh Ishak, Zvi Bekerman, Daniel Bekerman and Cary Blumenfeld plan to break ground, later in 2022, on Sandy Springs Circle at Clifton by reinventing the Radcliffe project (reported in the Atlanta Jewish Times, April 30, 2020) previously marketed by retired real estate veterans Gary Unell and Ed Goldberg.
Blumenfeld feels the timing is right and said, “This type of property in Sandy Springs is long overdue where there is sig nificant demand. Sandy Springs is one of the most desirable areas in metro Atlanta due to its proximity to downtown, Buck head and most other significant points of interest. The city of Sandy Springs has done an amazing job with the evolution of enter tainment and dining options; and The Greg ory’s location is in the heart of it all. Though Buckhead has traditionally been home to many of Atlanta’s luxury condominiums,
we have found that many prefer to be in Sandy Springs if given the option.”
In selecting the name, The Gregory, they considered the overall energy of cre ating a luxury product with a connection to someone local. Cary said, “When A To Z purchased the property, we knew we wanted to start anew. Gary and Eddie did a tremendous job of developing their con cept, but we wanted a name with meaning
to us while still keeping the same regal and sophisticated feel that The Radcliffe offered. We decided on The Gregory because Zvi, one of our managing partners, was given the name Gregory at birth. When his family immigrated to Israel in 1957, they changed his name to Zvi.”
With prices starting at $1.2 million per unit, The Gregory will offer contemporary two- and three-bedroom luxury condo miniums. The architect strove to bring the outside inside by maximizing the outdoor views, enlarging the outdoor living space and allowing the natural light to shine throughout. The open floor plan includes high end appliances (likely Thermador), top of the line finishes and ample room to entertain. Oversized balconies will act as a seamless extension of the living space. The bedrooms will offer privacy with the master offering a large walk-in closet and spa bath room.
Blumenfeld added, “Our focus is of fering a secure building with resort-style amenities and an abundance of storage. We will have concierge services, a gated parking structure and secure entrances. The main level will include a fitness center, an event room and kitchen, a golf simulator room, an elevated outdoor terrace with a pool and outdoor seating. Each unit will have a per sonal climate-controlled storage unit in the garage large enough to accommodate a car.”
The partnership evolved when Blu menfeld, a Georgia State University student, met Daniel Bekerman at an AEPi function. As the relationship built, Blumenfeld be came an established real estate broker, and Daniel Bekerman became vice president of B&Z Construction Services Inc. They began working closely under the guidance of Zvi Bekerman and Ishak. Chuckling, Blumen feld said, “Working with two older Israeli gentlemen can be challenging at times, but they expect the best out of us, and will do anything in their power to see us succeed. “
Anosh Ishak, who has made a career out of identifying areas ripe for growth like, midtown Atlanta in the late 1990s, and Edge wood in the mid-2000s, identified Sandy Springs as viable for condominium develop ment. He had already started a condomin ium project there when he discovered that Unell and Goldberg were looking to sell The Radcliffe property.
Blumenfeld said, “Ishak has over time proven his ability to identify development opportunities. It’s his specialty. He is cur rently working on two projects in Sandy Springs and feels as though this will be very successful.”
A to Z praised Goldberg and Unell for selecting Brooks Hall as the architect while changing the elevations and floor plans. Blu menfeld continued “Eddie and Gary knew how important it was to choose the right architect, with Brooks Hall, one of the best. Brooks is someone that we’ve also worked with previously and they embraced our vi sion.”
The building will have 36 units on six floors and aims for a 2024 completion. ì
Coming Soon: The Gregory stats at $1.2M and replaces The Radcliffe concept. Cary Blumenfeld is the enthusiastic agent for The Gregory. Daniel(son) and dad Zvi Bekerman(right) are both behind The Gregory. Managing Partner Anosh Ishak (right) (here with son Eedan Ishak left) is mentoring the next generation in real estate development.Alongside her feisty Maltese, Brutus, Truffelman embarks on over-the-top ad venture travel and impactful volunteer work. Nestled in her Peachtree Road apart ment, Truffelman shares her professional journey and how it all comes together in high-rise living.
several offices here, including Tower Place and Piedmont Center.
Jaffe: Explain how you furnished all the rooms.
Truffelman: A large coin metal mirror accents the foyer from Global Views.
Marcia Caller JaffeJoanne Truffelman considers her self a hybrid product of East Coast and West Coast style as she looks out from her 16th floor apart ment with floor-to-ceiling windows facing the Atlanta skyline, offering magnificent views of foliage and pool. Truffelman, a former Coca-Cola executive and ad agency mogul, said, “Since this was originally built as a condominium, the finishes and ameni ties are first class.”
“I used white and gray, combining dif ferent tactical fabrics in white, accented by marble, gray wood floors and cabinets. For depth, I added a touch of peacock blue, with pillows and minimal drapes. The use of di mensional metallic and cork wallpapers ac cents individual walls for dramatic effects.”
Jaffe: Describe your home and how you arrived here.
Truffelman: After living in a very modern Bauhaus-style Buckhead house for 21 years, the responsibility became over whelming, although I had lots of parties and enjoyed the lifestyle. High-rise living is in my DNA having been raised in New York, so I downsized to a luxury high-rise with a Manhattan name and an LA vibe.
It was relatively easy to downsize from 4,500 square feet since I sold off most of my furniture, with the exception of three pieces: a white piano, mirrored buffet and cylindrical bar. It was cathartic starting over with that new feeling. I love interior designing since my mom was an interior decorator. I have designed four homes and
The master bedroom is a collection of Caracole pieces, including the Lucite fourposter bed with silk headboard, open lit marble nightstands with crystal cut glass lamps, open glass dresser/cabinet and ar tistic armchair.
The living and dining area has a white round, suede sofa by Modern Interlude, including two chenille white swivel club chairs. The marble and chrome coffee ta ble (Caracole) and dining table glass with chrome spindles (Bernhardt) matches with white ultra-suede chairs with black spin dles (Elite Modern).
The guest room has a wall-to-wall tufted white headboard with gray wood at tached nightstands (Universal Furniture).
My “gal cave” study serves as an office and relaxation with the gray velvet chaise,
gray wood armoire, a cherub photo art bought at a fundraiser, and a wall sconce of metallicized driftwood. I’m surrounded by photos, memorabilia and my Dian Fos sey Gorilla Fund pieces, which include art from Dian’s written notes, and certificates from my Virunga Mountain gorilla treks in Rwanda.
I worked with Jenny Wood Designs who supplied photos from showrooms and furniture sources, based on the pre-con ceived concepts I provided. Over the next six months of pandemic lock-down, ‘voi la’…the apartment was furnished. Then the purchase of art and accessories followed.
Jaffe: What does the color white in voke in you?
Truffelman: White is my favorite color. It brings peacefulness, space, cleanli ness and purity.
Jaffe: What are your very favorite art pieces?
Truffelman: One of my most trea sured pieces is an original Gloria Vander bilt from the Hammer Galleries on Madi
Joanne poses with Maltese, Brutus, in her glamorous apartment overlooking Peachtree Road. // Photo Credit: Howard Mendelson Avenue in 1976, a gift from a business associate and admirer. Another is an origi nal Gino Hollander (Spain) abstract. The latest may be the favorite, by Pezhman from Shiraz (Dejou Art Group), acquired with my friend, foremost art dealer and modern art aficionado, Fay Gold.
Jaffe: Professionally, you are credited with elevating the role of women in the ad business for the Southeast. How did you get to that space?
Truffelman: I launched my career on Madison Avenue at the female-owned Wells Rich Greene agency. I handled cre ative services for top-tier Fortune 500 com panies like Alka-Seltzer and TWA airlines. I was then recruited in the 1980s to Atlanta’s
Truffelman chooses minimalist lighting to free up floor space and opted for this metallicized driftwood sconce in her office hallway.
hottest agency, McDonald and Little. There I continued to ladder climb, working on Coca-Cola biz, which ultimately led to a managerial position in their advertising and art department. Truffelman said, “I spent four of the best historical years at Coke and then, at the right age, the entre preneurial spirit took hold. I partnered with my best friend, Lauren Genkinger, to start an advertising agency, TG Madison (named after Madison Avenue). Would have named it MadWomen, however the TV show didn’t exist yet.” After 29 years, we decided the business had changed dramati cally and sold it.
Jaffe: How are you engaged in non profits?
Truffelman is on the board of Dian Fossey’s Gorilla Foundation. Here are original pages from the latter’s diary and certificates of Joanne’s treks to Rwanda with that organization.
Above: Joanne’s “gal cave” is for both business and relaxation and has another fabulous view.
Below: One of Joanne’s favorite works of art is this “Aqueous” by Shiraz artist Pezhman (Deljou Gallery) acquired through art consultant Fay Gold.
Joanne was gifted this original by Gloria Vanderbilt in 1976. (Hammer Galleries on Madison Avenue).
Truffelman: I’ve been involved with Zoo Atlanta many years, chairing the Beastly Feast, handling their advertising (pro bono), and serving on their board. I have a particular love for primates, goril las, which segued to a board position with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International in the mid-1990s. Several trips to Rwanda, Africa reaffirmed my love for those charis matic-mega-vertebrae.
Our agency was hired by the national Alzheimer’s Association for marketing and advertising, leading to chairing the Geor gia board. I still hold positions on several committees, danced and chaired “Dancing Stars of Atlanta,” a signature fundraiser to support a devastating disease for which we must find a cure.
My love for theater and New York roots led to a vice chair of Cobb Perform ing Arts Centre’s ArtsBridge Foundation, which provides arts education programs for K-12 students, including the founda tion’s high school Shuler Awards.
Truffelman: I’ve always had a quest for travel. I will complete seven continents this year with Antarctica! Africa has a spe cial place in my heart. Italy and Southeast Asia are also favorites.”
Continuing with giving back and nonprofits is always a focus. ì
The white piano, always adorned with fresh roses, is one of the few things Truffelman brought from her previous house.
Jaffe: Last word. What’s left to add to your exciting lifestyle?Above: Truffelman’s master bedroom has a collection of Caracole, including Lucite four-poster bed with silk headboard, open-lit marble nightstands with crystal cut glass lamps, open glass dresser/cabinet and artistic armchair. Below: Truffelman’s living room utilizes white with a touch of peacock to carry out her East-meets-West Coast style.
SOJOURN’s Drawing from the Well- 12 to 1 p.m. an inclusive weekly meet up for LGBTQ+ Jews and allies. For more information visit https://bit. ly/3gxpDWP
Alpharetta Farmers Market- 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. At the Downtown Alpharetta Farmers Market you will find farm ers with fruits, vegetables and natural meats, gardeners with fresh flowers and herbs, and makers of all sorts of edible home goods from yummy des serts and breads to local raw honey and homemade sauces, jellies and soaps. For more information visit https://bit.ly/3D31jq8.
Tot Shabbat and Kiddush Lunch- 11 a.m. Join an interactive Tot Shabbat and sing, play and engage in fun activ ities, followed by a wonderful Shabbat Kiddush lunch together. https://bit. ly/3rBWd03.
In Your Time- 12 to 1:30 p.m. This is an open-ended process group for femaleidentified singles in their late-twenties to mid-thirties to work on developing an acceptance practice and learning how to embrace where we are in life. Cost is $35 a session. See https://bit. ly/3b95YwV for more information.
Avalon Nights Live- 6 to 8 p.m. Kick back and groove to the tunes all season long. Unwind after a long week with live music in The Plaza every Friday. Visit https://bit.ly/3ap0u0Y for details.
Temple Beth Tikvah Saturday Services10 to 11:30 a.m. Join services online or in person. Visit https://bit.ly/3BbaS5n for more information.
Kabbalah & Coffee- 9:30 to 11 a.m. A Weekly Study Series with Rabbi Ari Sollish. Discuss, explore, and journey through the world of Jewish mystical teaching and learn how to apply these profound teachings to your daily life. For more information visit https://bit. ly/3LP4o11
Temple Beth Tikvah Friday Night Ser vices- 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Join services online or in person. Visit https://bit. ly/35XKJeJ for more information.
Chabad Intown Inspiration High Holi day Services: Erev Yom Kippur- 5:30 p.m. Pre-Yom Kippur Community Din ner with guest speaker Mrs. Shimona Tzukernik. 7 p.m. Candle Lighting and Feast begins followed by Kol Nidre and Evening Service. Visit https://bit. ly/3JI20bI for more information.
for online and print calendars at: Calendar sponsored by the Atlanta Jewish Connector, an initiative of the AJT. In order to be considered for the print edition, please submit events three to four weeks in advance. Contact Diana Cole for more information at Diana@atljewishtimes.com.Torah Reading: Vayelech
Friday, Sept 30, (Tishrei 5, 5783) Light candles at 7:05 p.m.
Saturday, Oct 1, (Tishrei 6, 5783) Shabbat ends 7:59 p.m.
Yom Kippur
Tuesday, Oct 4, (Tishrei 9, 5783) Light Holiday Candles at 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct 5, (Tishrei 10, 5783) Holiday ends at 8:28 p.m.
Torah Reading: Ha’azinu
Friday, Oct 7, (Tishrei 12, 5783) Light candles at 6:56 p.m.
Saturday, Oct 8, (Tishrei 13, 5783) Shabbat ends 7:49 p.m.
Chabad Intown Inspiration High Holiday Services: Yom Kippur- Ser vices start at 9:30 a.m. and continue throughout the day until Havdalah, followed by a community break fast at 7:53 p.m. Visit https://bit.ly/3JI20bI for the full schedule.
Acoustic Shabbat Café at Alon’s Bakery in Dunwoody- 6 to 7 p.m. Join Rabbi Glusman, Drew Cohen and other local musicians for a soulful evening of mu sic, prayer and words of inspiration in celebration of Shabbat. Food and wine available for purchase at Alon’s Bak ery and Market. Arrive early to order food and reserve your table. The event takes place outside in the covered pa tio area. Visit https://bit.ly/3oa5YQo for details.
Brain Health Bootcamp- 1 to 3 p.m. Vir tual Brain Health Bootcamp every Tuesday will combine gentle physi cal exercise, including yoga and exer cises to help reduce stress and anxiety, along with a full hour of brain exercis es done in a non-stress and engaging way of learning. For more informa tion visit https://bit.ly/3sr94RP.
Torah Study- 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Join Rabbi Jordan each Wednesday either on Zoom or in-person at Congregation Dor Tamid and continue an in-depth look at the Book Leviticus. For more in formation visit https://bit.ly/3srZsGj.
Significant Others of Addicts Support Group- 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Join Sally An derson, MS, LPC for a weekly free sup port group for spouses, partners and/ or significant others of those strug gling with addiction. Visit https://bit. ly/3B5bABf for more information.
Knit and Crochet Group- 1 to 3 p.m. Join Dor Tamid on Zoom to social ize and crochet and knit beanies for premature babies from home. For more information visit https://bit. ly/34Ru9wp.
Jewish Genealogy Discussion Group- 1 to 2 p.m. A weekly discussion group of the seminars offered at the Inter national Jewish Genealogy Confer ence held at the Lisa F Brill Institute in the Kuniansky Family Center at the MJCCA. Registration at the Inter national Conference is required for participation in the discussion group. For more information see https://bit. ly/3BvTbQf.
Jewish Spirituality and Mysticism- 8 p.m. A weekly class on Jewish spiritu ality, mysticism and how to apply it to your personal growth in a meaning ful way taught by Rabby Hirshy. Visit https://bit.ly/3suZDkg for more infor mation.
Jewish Women’s Torah and Tea- 7:45 to 8:45 p.m. Join the Jewish Women’s Cir cle of Decatur for a weekly discussion on the Parsha and contemporary Jew ish issues. Visit https://bit.ly/3RhGZbf for more information.
Dear Rachel,
HELP! My husband wants to move again. As much as he has put into his home-based company here in Atlanta, it has never taken off in the way he envi sioned, and he is frustrated. He has his eyes set on a city where the cost of living is less and the synagogue in that area has more like-minded people. We have visited this community several times and it does have its advantages. But I still don’t want to go!
Six years ago, we moved to Atlanta. It took time, but eventually, I began to feel comfortable with a circle of friends. My school-aged child is happy, and my older boys have gone off to college, so Atlanta is no longer their home base; they only come home to visit. It seems like whenever I start to feel anchored in a com munity, it’s time to pick up and start over again; this happened in our last home town before we came to Atlanta, also after a six-year stint. Can I stand up and say, “No, I will not go?” Or perhaps a better question would be, Should I?
Signed, No More Boxes
Dear No More Boxes,
Moving is so incredibly stressful; we all know that. Compound that by your desire to stay put, and the decision becomes really complicated.
From your vantage point, it seems unfair to be forced to uproot again. You and your child are satisfied and settled, so why do you have to give that up and face upheaval and the unknown? Getting to know a new city is stressful, necessitating finding doctors and other professionals, shopping, navigating new directions…it’s like a huge obstacle course that you have no interest in surmounting.
Yet, your husband wants to provide for his family and feels unsuccessful here. After visiting this other city, he sees potential for a larger client base, and for more social inter action. So, it’s a tug-of-war; who should give in?
The two of you must have a heart-to-heart conversation. He should allow you to ex plain all your reasons for wanting to remain in Atlanta. He needs to listen, validate and offer compassion as you share your feelings. Then, when you are finished, it’s his turn. Now you must be open to hearing his feelings and his underlying need for this huge life style change.
Once you have heard each other out, it’s possible that the murkiness surrounding the decision will become clear. One of you may be inclined to support the other based on a greater understanding of his or her perspective. One of your needs may be stronger and more compelling, thereby pulling one spouse to acquiesce to the alternate position.
If you are still at an impasse, perhaps you can agree to discuss the situation with a mediator. The interventionalist can be anyone you both respect, whether it’s a friend, rabbi or therapist. But there should be a mutual desire to arrive at a peaceful, respectful conclusion, and not to allow the decision to become a thorn to hurt the other partner who “got his way.”
May you have the wisdom and clarity to navigate this challenging decision and ulti mately find the place that is best suited to your family’s specifications.
Wishing you all the best, Rachel
Got a problem? Email Rachel Stein, a certified life coach, at oyvey@ atljewishtimes.com describing your problem in 250 words or less. We want to hear from you and get helpful suggestions for your situation at the same time!
Issy and Sam, both elderly gentlemen, were deep in conversation. Sam said, “So, Issy, you’re the clever one, how do those so-called cell phones work?”
Issy replied, “Well, in the left hand you take the phone, and with the right hand you push the buttons. See. Nothing magic about it is there?”
But Sam was not satisfied with this answer.
“Nu?” he said, “and how can one talk with the hands so busy?”
n. A person who is forever dramatizing the suffering they endure or believe they endure.
“That veyismirnik Asher gets on my nerves. Today he was oying about how his hair is falling out from too much worry.”
Atlanta Jewish Times Advice Column1. Jewish lore teaches that she married Joshua
Open, as an envelope
Treaty
Finnick who helps Katniss Everdeen
Kind
Hertz Rent follower
...they were given
Gila ___
Indiana Jones found it
Lo-cal
Be a nudnik
He won an Emmy for playing Donald
They charge a lot in Manhattan
... it was entered
Dershowitz of note
There’s (usually) one in every shul
Floral necklace
... it was burned
Village in northern Israel that’s also a common Israeli name
Italian bread
Buzz or Woody, e.g.
... it was pushed off a cliff
Mexican alternatives to He’Brews
B-52 letters
Signs from above
Doe’s mate
Some advanced degs.
The Baba ___
... no one was more important than him
Biblical pronoun
Not pro
Give the slip
HS tests
Where the Nationals spent most of the season
Under
DOWN
1. Parks in 1955 news
“Rings of Power” bad guy or a month
Not a great writer
It’s a must
Scrubber brand
Golden “Harry Potter” item
It’s searched for at schools
Diamonds, slangily
They may block or catch TDs
It’s
Phillies
like the Mets
“Hurry!”
middle America” (Adam Duritz)
“somewhere
Lease
N.C.O.’s
One of three on Shabbat
(ditto)
like cholent
“2001” computer
Garten
Yvonne Bloom, 71, wife of Larry Bloom, died peacefully at her home on Sept. 24. Her wishes include cremation and to have her ashes spread in the ocean. A private cel ebration of her Life gathering will be held at a later date. Yvonne will also be lovingly remembered by her children: Adam Bloom and Amanda (Max) Weissman along with her brother Mark (Audrey) Butler; brothers-in-law Ron (Marta) Bloom and Paul (Hope) Bloom; her grand-children Emma Bloom, Avi Weissman and Reyna Weissman; and nieces and nephews Augie Bloom, Christy Butler, Chad Butler, Noelle Butler, and Ha ven Butler. She was predeceased by her father Roy Butler and mother Dorothy Skipper. Those wishing to offer condolences may send notes to Larry at 525 Coldstream Court NW, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a favorite charity. May Yvonne have a safe and peaceful journey as her soul returns to the uni verse. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Eitan Pallu Force was a light to his family, his friends, and everyone whom he met. Eitan exceled in academics and sports, first, at The Epstein School and then, at The We ber School. He passed away on Sept. 21, while doing one of the things he enjoyed the most—playing football; a captain of the team, he had just thrown a touchdown in the team’s senior-night game. Eitan also loved music and traveling, having visited: Israel, England, Italy, Spain, and, most recently a family trip to Hawaii, as well as many visits to New Orleans to see family. Recently elected to the National Honor Society, Eitan had a wide array of academic interests which he planned to pursue in college. Eitan was born on January 9, 2005, and leaves behind an adoring family and many friends. Although born and raised in Atlanta, Eitan enjoyed rooting on the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans with his father, mother, and brother Asher. Throughout his too-short life, Eitan never stopped challenging himself and in doing so, motivating those around him. Eitan’s superpower was being able to make everyone around him better. Eitan is sur vived by his father (Dr. Seth Force), mother (Dr. Sara Marder), brother (Asher), grand parents (Robert Force and Arnold and Carol Marder), and many uncles, aunts, cousins and two Chesapeake Bay retrievers (River and Rocky) he trained with love. Graveside services were held Sept. 23 at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Joshua Heller offici ating. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that those wishing to honor Eitan make a gift to The Weber School in his memory. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Khail Kelly Iny, 83, Atlanta, Ga., passed away on Sept. 19. Khalil received his degree in engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. He loved his work so much that he worked until the age of 80, when he finally retired due to physical mobility problems and took full time to taking care of his beloved wife, Adrienne. Khalil is predeceased by his parents Abraham Iny and Sabicha Iny, his sister Bertha Iny Rahamim and his dear est wife, Adrienne Cohen. He is survived by his brothers and sisters, Jack Iny, Joseph Iny, Joyce Iny Dayan, Eva Iny Dloomy and Mayer Iny; and his son, Nathan. He loved to play tennis, meet with friends and talk about the stock market. Adrienne and Kelly enjoyed traveling to different places in the world when they could. He was a member of Ahavath Achim Synagogue and the YMCA. Flowers may be sent to the funeral home. A graveside funeral was held on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at Greenwood Cemetery in Atlanta. The funeral was livestreamed. For the Zoom link and to sign the online guest book, visit www.dresslerjewishfunerals.com. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999
Sharlene Berchenko Jacobi, 85, died Sept. 23. She was the daughter of Jack and Eliz abeth Berchenko. A native Atlantan, she graduated from Grady High School. Her big gest joy was her family. She is survived by her three children Caryn Silverman (Larry), Paul Jacobi (life partner Karen Brown), Tracey Brabant (Kevin); her grandchildren Sar ah Beth Brown (Adam), Noah Warshauer (Hether), Claire Andersson (Erik), Leah Faust (Corey), Lauren Hyers (Zach), Lillie Jacobi (Connor Hughes), Jacob Brabant, and Elliott Brabant; and her great grandchildren Alice and Joe Brown, Anna Claire and Nora Faust, and Baker Hughes. Sharlene was a lover of art. She spent countless hours painting and assembling collages. She was an avid reader, and she loved to cook. Her memory will be cherished by all who knew and loved her. Graveside services were held Sunday Sept. 25, at Arlington Cemetery in Sandy Springs. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Harriette Lee “Deedie” Jessup, was born in Greenville, SC in 1936. Deedie grew up in Atlanta, graduated Valedictorian from North Fulton High School and attended Emory University, where she starred in “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” with the Emory Play ers and “My Sister Eileen,” with the Atlanta Theatre Guild. She married Bob Jessup in 1957 and moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where she continued her career in theatre. and played the role of Miss Nancy on Romper Room. She enjoyed a very successful career with Oxford chemical company. Deedie was a longstanding member of Temple Sinai and celebrated her Bat Mitzvah at the age of 72. Deedie is survived by her daughters, Audrey (Keith) Kroll and Susan Jessup (Muriel Mordenfeld), and by her grandchildren, Ross Kroll (fiancée Katarina Calilung), and Monica Kroll. Deedie was preceded in death by her parents, Samuel and Rebecca Levy, son, Steven Jessup, and sister, Carolyn Brenner. A graveside funeral was held Wednesday, Sept. 21 at Crest Lawn Memorial Park. The funeral was livestreamed. For Zoom link and online guest book, please visit www.dresslerjewishfunerals.com. Donations can be made to the Lillie Janko endow ment at Temple Sinai. Arrangements by Dressler’s 770-451-4999
Sandra Klarer, born July 21, 1934, in the Bronx, NY to Hyman and Mary Sanders, immigrants from Eastern Europe, died peacefully on Sept. 25. In 1962, Sandy and her family relocated to Atlan ta, in 1962 where lifelong friendships formed and friends became family. Sandy’s professional ca reer was very rewarding and still to this day her relationships have stood the test of time with the outpouring of love from her colleagues both at Morse Electro Products, Fannie Mae as well as her years of volunteer work at Jewish Family & Career Services. Mrs. Klarer was preceded in death by her son, Eric Klarer and brothers, Charles and Rubin Sanders. She is survived by her daughter, Suzanne Klarer; son, Adam Klarer; grandchildren, Johanna Jones Joseph, Emily Klarer, David Klarer, Evan Klarer; great grandson, Ryan Joseph; and partner for over 20 years, Jonas “Joe” Arem. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Jewish Family & Career Services. Graveside services were held Sept. 28, at Crest Lawn Memorial Park. We all celebrate Sandra Klarer, a wonderful mother, grand mother, daughter and sister. May she rest in peace.
Obituaries in the AJT are written and paid for by the families; contact Editor and Managing Publisher Kaylene Ladinsky at kaylene@atljewishtimes.com or 404-883-2130, ext. 100, for details about submission, rates and payments. Death notices, which provide basic details, are free and run as space is available; send submissions to editor@atljewishtimes.com.
leaders, and
Book Festival is truly unlike any other.
Thursday, Nov 3 • 7:30 pm
Jon Meacham
And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle
Saturday, Nov 5 • 8:00 pm
Melissa Rivers
Lies My Mother Told Me: Tall Tales from a Short Woman
Sunday, Nov 6 • 7:00 pm
Bernie Marcus with Catherine Lewis
Kick Up Some Dust
Monday, Nov 7 • 7:30 pm
Ira Rosen
Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes
Wednesday, Nov 9 • 7:30 pm
Julia Haart
Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie
Saturday, Nov 12 • 8:00 pm
Andrew Young and Ernie Suggs
The Many Lives of Andrew Young
Sunday, Nov 13 • 7:30 pm
Nikki R. Haley
If You Want Something Done: Leadership Lessons from Bold Women
Tuesday, Nov 15 • 7:30 pm
Daughter of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward Clea Newman Soderlund
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir by Paul Newman
Wednesday, Nov 16 • 7:30 pm
Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code for a Younger Tomorrow
Saturday, Nov 19 • 8:00 pm
Deaf Utopia: A Memoir — and a Love Letter to a Way of Life
I still have a few things to do before I leave the house. I click on the audio book player. I must write some sermons, so I choose a book that I hope will inspire me. The recording picks up where I left off, “Against death which we see as the ultimate failure, we offer up success. Against death which we see as the ultimate emptiness, we offer up the acquisition of objects.”
The book continues, but now I can’t find my keys. Or, for that matter, my ear phones. I need them both if I’m going to make it to the dentist. I find them.
I get into the car and focus on pull ing out of the driveway. On my way with time to spare, I focus in again, “...we’ve become a nation of workaholics, a people who have come to believe that we can conquer death by dint of our own pow
ers, to rest is to die, so we never permit ourselves a moment’s rest.”
I stop at a red light. I have no pa tience for this. They were repaving the street leading to the main road.
Now I might be late. I don’t have time for Rabbi Alan Lew’s big philosophi cal ideas right now.
I switch to a mystery. Mysteries are my favorite escape. This one is set in Lon don during the blitz. At night when the city is dark, young boys are sent out to run between offices and deliver messages be tween war officials. This one boy loves to run, and he is sure that running is what is keeping him safe. Because if he runs fast enough, the bombs will never hit him.
This must be a cosmic joke.
I make it on time. Then I must wait. But I left my earphones in the car, so it is just a matter of sitting and waiting. Quietly.
I think of all I must do during the rest of the day.
I think of all I must do during the rest of the week.
But it does not matter how much I have left to do because, at this moment,
I cannot do any of it. I am sitting in the dentist’s chair, waiting. Quietly.
I began listening to Rabbi Lew’s book to get inspiration for the sermon I need to give. But this is not the sermon I have to give. This is the sermon I must hear. In the last two years, I have been particu larly busy. There was work. There were family simchas and, gratefully, many of them. And there was work. I have been too busy for much quiet.
Rabbi Lew is right sometimes; it was easier to be busy than think about the pandemic which was impacting us all or about incivility in public discourse or climate change. Being busy is hard, but it also fills you up. It ensures that you don’t have to confront that which you do not want to confront.
This summer we went away to the beach. We chose a place with lots of ac tivities nearby. I expected we would go on many adventures and see beautiful places. Instead, I was in bed early near ly every night and rarely chose to move from my chair in the shade. I read a book. I painted. I was quiet. On the last day, as
I lay by the water, my high holiday ser mons came to me fully formed as a group.
Then I came back from vacation and got busy. I lost track of my sermon ideas. I forgot what I had learned when I stopped being busy.
I am not in the dentist’s chair long. But in the moment of quiet, I can under stand. I cannot outrun or out busy the re alities of what it means to be alive. I have trust in the process and make space for silence.
Slowing down goes against every thing in modern western life; it is at the core of Judaism. Not only do we have a weekly reminder of the importance of pausing, but during the High Holiday season, from the start of Elul to Sigd, we are confronted time and again with the futility of living as though we can outrun our fear. Our liturgy repeatedly reminds us that we cannot do it all and that we must choose how to be in this world with intention. When we are busy, we may fool ourselves that we are making the most of life, but we may simply be hiding fully from the complexity of living ì
Rabbi Ruth
