JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian

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Page 24 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN July-August 2009 Member of Piedmont Healthcare Your health can’t wait. “Yes, We Take Your Insurance.” Walk-ins Welcome, Minimum Wait! ALL AGES WELCOME • IMMEDIATE CARE • PRIMARY CARE • TRAVEL MEDICINE Open 7 Days 678-904-5611 www.perimeterclinic.com 3867 Roswell Road 1/2 Mile North of Piedmont Road Just a few minutes from anywhere in Buckhead, Midtown, Brookhaven, Sandy Springs JF&CS NEWS COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROJECTS HELP FEED THE HUNGRY. This spring, Rabbi Joshua Lesser, of Congregation Bet Haverim, introduced an inspired Seder program that he called “Pay it Forward.” Attendees were encouraged to bring grocery store gift cards, which were then donated to the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Jewish Family & Career Services. More than 125 congregants, including 40 children, participated in this special Seder. Rabbi Lesser presented gift cards worth $2,080 to JF&CS CEO Gary Miller and Outreach Director Linda Briks. He hopes to do this program again next year. Congregation Etz Chaim completed a Social Action Committee project in which they sold The Holocaust Survivor Cookbook. The book contains more than 120 stories of Holocaust survivors and more than 200 recipes. A portion of the cookbooks’ profits will go to the Carmel Ha-ir Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem; additional proceeds will go to the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the JF&CS Kosher Food Pantry. Congregation Bet Haverim and Congregation Etz Chaim are two of the 11 synagogues that the JF&CS Community Outreach Team works with to bring services and programming to people in their neighborhoods and synagogue communities. RECOGNIZING A LEADER. JF&CS Board Member Lynn Redd received the Leadership Award from the Association of Jewish Family & Children’s Agencies at the 37th Annual AJFCA Conference, May 3-5, in Chicago. Lynn became eligible for this honor after she received the 2009 Herbert Kohn Meritorious Service Award from JF&CS. Lynn Redd has been an active JF&CS volunteer for approximately 13 years, serving on the Board of Directors for 10 of those years. Most recently, she successfully chaired the agency’s first $1 million Annual Campaign. Previously, she chaired the Marketing Committee and the Volunteer Committee. She developed business plans that resulted in the establishment of the organization’s Synagogue Outreach Program and Legacy Home Care. She recently assumed the position of vice president of Resource Development. Redd has professional experience in the healthcare industry, including management consulting, venture capital, strategic planning, and information technology. She also worked for the federal government developing national health care policy. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Redd lives with her husband and two teenage children in Atlanta. Novel sheds light on little-examined piece of WWII history The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 2008 Random House 288 pp., $22 BY Carolyn Gold hat a wonderful book! The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Wis charming, quirky, and yet serious in an easy-to-read way. This novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is made up entirely of correspondence. The year is 1946. In these letters, you meet the characters who lived through the German occupation of the British Island of Guernsey in the English Channel during World War II. The deprivation of the island’s inhabitants accounts for the “Potato Peel Pie” part of the title. Much of the story tells how these occupants survived. Some of it touches on German concentration camp victims and their treatment at the hands of the Nazis, but the main story takes place after the war. Juliet Ashton, a writer, goes to the island to learn more and to write a book about the occupation and its aftermath. The people she meets are members of the Guernsey Literary Society; they formed the group to circumvent the German curfew and, through their book discussions, developed lasting bonds with one another. Running through the story is a romance that takes a surprising turn at the end of the book. Mary Ann Shaffer passed away when her book was in its final stages, and her niece Annie Barrows finished the work. The language and thoughts are so everyday, quite British, and delightfully humorous, as well as touching. The island’s occupants observed the good and bad of humankind with resignation, kindness, and some small efforts to outsmart their captors when possible. They watched German planes flying over to bomb London, slave laborers building bunkers on their shores, and even German soldiers scrounging for food as the islanders themselves had done. The book, in a most creative way, brings a period in history down to a very small island and a small group of people, yet touches universal emotions.
July-August 2009 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 25 Twitter From page 21 sage across. After just two months, over 1,400 people interested in food signed up to follow Held and Scher at KosherEye. You can do it, too—visit Twitter.com, sign in, click the “find people” button, put in kosher, and you’ll get a list of twitterers, people talking about the subject. If you click on KosherEye, you’ll see a brief description. And what will you find? Here are a few recent topics: • Is BaconSalt kosher? (Yes, absolutely Kof-K kosher.) • Does extra-virgin olive oil need kosher certification? (No, and it’s even Group Home From page 21 When the idea of a group home was suggested to Frances, she found a small house and persuaded Harry to buy it. “If we buy it now, we can spend all our time on getting approval and funding,” she told him. After four years of hard work by Frances and others who were eager to help, The Atlanta Group Home opened. With a HUD loan, the tiny house was more than doubled in size, with six bedrooms, four baths, and all the modern conveniences. The tour I just took proved to me how wise the founders were in combining privacy and a pleasing ambiance. The huge living room accommodates the group and can be used for special gatherings as well. “No one lacks anything he or she needs,” explains Deborah Lowe, who has been the house parent for 23 years. Many of the residents refer to her as “mother.” Deborah says, “We are a family. Our siblings range in age from 44 to 57. We eat together, we go places together. Everyone has daily chores and a routine to follow. Some of our residents still continue to work, while the others stay busy at home with planned activities.” The residents consider The Atlanta kosher for Passover.) • Is Bone Suckin’ Sauce just for pork ribs? (Try it on beef; it’s terrific.) • Is there kosher sausage? Why buy kosher certified bagged lettuce? Are Burger King Onion Ring Snacks kosher? One of their newest finds are dried capers in sea salt! Held and Scher not only search the grocery stores. They also attend food trade shows, looking for new products they can showcase—anything that happens to be certified kosher, as well as gadgets and appliances designed to make kosher cooking easier and more fun. “We’re in another phase of life,” they explained. “We’ve raised our kids, retired from business, and we’re pursuing a new Group Home their real home. “My daughter would rather sleep here than at our house,” says Nanci Berger’s mother, Rachiel. “My feelings were hurt when she first revealed this to me. But, as I realized that she loved every part of her life at The Group Home, I came to my senses.” The home can accommodate four female and two male residents. The women share semi-private baths; the men also share a bath. At least three of the current residents have Down syndrome. All of the residents maintain their own rooms, do their own laundry, and share in joint chores. They also enjoy many activities, such as bowling together every Sunday night. One question that comes up inevitably when discussing The Group Home’s 25 successful years is how it is funded. The system is somewhat complicated, but it includes regular contributions from parents, the residents’ income, the Federal Government, and donations from the community. Frances Kuniansky, as chair emeritus of the board, continues her interest and input after her many years of working with individuals who have mental disabilities. Long may she continue! Unfortunately, Jill Kuniansky passed away on June 19. Everyone at The Atlanta Group Home will miss her and her contagiously happy personality. avenue of technology. We’re going with a frontier we didn’t grow up with. We’re embracing the wave of the future, and getting on it. We’re mature, vital women—we are not what we see in the mirror, but what we see in our heads—out there seeking, learning, doing. We want our minds to continue and create. It’s so much fun—being active, constantly thinking and doing. We have a lot to give. We want to represent the consumer, to make a shidduch with the manufacturers, help businesses get their word out to our targets, the kosher consumers.” Held and Scher estimate that only about 5% of their audience is local. They A letter from Jill have people in Australia, Europe, New Zealand, and even Israel, following their site. So, next time you have to go to the store, Twitter first, and you may find something new to serve your family. If you’re into Facebook, join the KosherEye Facebook group. And watch for the upcoming contest to name KosherEye’s pink pig mascot on the Twitter site. You can reach Held and Scher at koshereye@gmail.com. KosherEye’s pink pig mascot In the summer of 2000, Jill Kuniansky sent the following letter to The Jewish Georgian. It was published in the September/October 2000 issue. The Jewish Georgian: I love your articles. I read The Jewish Georgian all the time. I enjoy reading it a lot. Could I put an article in about my family and friends I live with? How I love them so so so much, my sisters and my brother, even my boyfriend, the one I love so much. I live with the nicest friends I ever had. I love them so so much. Here is my article about my family, who is more important to me. And my friends from where I live and I love living there. I love my family and my daddy Harry P. Kuniansky and my mom Frances and my sisters Carol and Laura and my brother Alan. And my other family I love so much, the Group Home. I love my friends. I have Deborah, my house mother, and my sister Susie, Tracy, and my other friend Nanci, and my brother Ted and my boyfriend Steve. I love them all. They are my family. And my brother Dennis and my best friend I ever had is Deborah Lowe. My name is Jill Kuniansky.
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