JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Page 26 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN July-August 2009 Law-enforcement officers learn lessons of Leo Frank lynching case M MISH MASH By Erin O’Shinskey the first assistant rabbi for the congregation in more than a generation and the first FIRST. Rabbi Elana Zelony is the woman to serve as a rabbi in the synagogue’s newest clergy member at 105-year history. Rabbi Zelony earned a Congregation Shearith Israel. She is B.A. in geology from Occidental College, A ore than 100 Georgia officers from federal, state, and local agencies participated in a training program that examined lessons to be learned from the lynching of Leo Frank in Marietta, Georgia, in 1915. The training was provided by The Anti-Defamation League, one of the nation’s largest nongovernmental trainers of law enforcement officers. The program coincided with the ADL’s April 30 world premiere presentation of The People v. Leo Frank, a PBS television documentary shedding important new light on the trial and subsequent lynching of Jewish Atlanta businessman Leo Frank. The premiere was held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, located just two miles from the site where Frank was hanged after being abducted from a prison cell in Milledgeville. Michael Mears, associate dean of academic affairs and associate professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, taught the course. As an attorney, Mears has served as lead defense counsel in more than 27 Georgia death penalty cases and was founding director of the Multi- County Public Defenders Office, Georgia’s first statewide death penalty public defender’s office. He was joined by Bill Nigut, Southeast regional director of ADL. “The Leo Frank case was an extreme example of how bigotry unleashed can undermine citizen respect for the law,” Nigut said. “When Georgia Governor John Slayton commuted Leo Frank’s sentence from death to life in prison, he and his wife were forced to flee the state under police protection because angry mobs stormed Slayton’s home and hanged him in effigy; Leo Frank’s lynching was organized by a group of some of Marietta’s leading citizens. “While lynching is now a relic of a dark past here in the South, law enforcement officials are nevertheless still called upon to deal with community tensions created by hatred and bigotry,” Nigut continued. “Our class [gave] them the opportunity to examine how they resolve issues of this kind.” The officers also participated in one of ADL’s highly acclaimed briefings on current extremist activity in this region. Chairs for the world premiere of The People v. Leo Frank, were former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes; Cobb County Chairman Sam Olens, the first Jewish chairman of Cobb County; and Emory University Associate Professor of Law Julie Seaman, a board member of the Georgia Innocence Project. The Leo Frank case is widely regarded as one of the most infamous episodes in American judicial history. Frank, the manager of a downtown Atlanta pencil factory, was accused of murdering Mary studied in a Jerusalem yeshiva, and received her rabbinic training at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles, where she was ordained last month. She is married to Adiv Zelony; they have one daughter, Nesya. NEW SPIRITUAL LEADER. Rabbi Michael Bernstein has joined Congregation Gesher L’Torah. Ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1999, he served as senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Am Israel, in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania, a n d Congregation B’nai Jacob, in Longmeadow, Rabbi Michael Bernstein Massachusetts. He has designed and facilitated programs at the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, served as chaplain at the Springfield (MA) College Campus Ministry and Spiritual Life Center, and recently served as a senior educator fellow at the Melton Centre at Hebrew University. Rabbi Bernstein and his wife, Tracie, have three children, Ayelet, 10, Yaron, 8, and Liana, 4. EASING THE WAY. The Epstein School and The Weber School have signed an agreement providing Epstein students with preferential admission status, a seamless transition, and a continuous Jewish day school education for students 2 years old through 12th grade. Epstein and Weber will work closely together to align academic and enrichment curricula to ensure the goal of seamless transition is met for Epstein students who choose to attend Weber. Earlier this year, The Alfred & Adele Davis Academy signed a similar agreement with Weber with great success, serving as a model for other Jewish institutions to follow. Phagan, a 13-year-old employee of the factory. Sensational coverage by daily newspapers whipped the emotions of Atlanta citizens into a frenzy, and Tom Watson, a Georgia political leader and magazine editor, stirred powerful anti- Semitic feelings with his lurid articles attacking Frank. The Frank case catapulted the Anti- Defamation League into prominence as one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations. Ironically, it also sparked a rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. The People v. Leo Frank, written, produced, and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ben Loeterman, will be shown on PBS stations across the country in the fall. Loeterman is one of public television’s most prolific producers of historical and public affairs documentaries and has produced numerous films for such prestigious PBS programs as “American Experience” and “Frontline.” EPSTEIN AND WEBER SIGN AGREE- MENT. Pictured: (front, from left) Robert Franco, president, The Epstein School Board of Trustees; Stan Beiner, head of school, The Epstein School; Dr. Simcha Pearl, head of school, The Weber School; Harold Kirtz, president, The Weber School Board of Trustees; (back, from left) Steve Rakitt, president, Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta; Carol Cooper, chair of the board, Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta; Felicia Weber, naming benefactor, The Weber School; and Joe Weber, naming benefactor, The Weber School SANTA FOR SENIORS. On July 22, Santa for Seniors held its annual “Christmas in July” cocktail party at the TEW Galleries. Party organizers were Jill Berry; Dottie Smith, executive director; and Jade Sykes. Senior Citizen Services of Metropolitan Atlanta, through its Santa for Seniors program, collects new, unwrapped, “seniorfriendly” items such as large-print books, bath or personal hygiene products, small blankets, slip-resistant slippers, personal fans, flashlights, and stationery. A JOB WELL DONE. Gail Solomon recently received the Cantor Isaac Goodfriend Award from Ahavath Achim Synagogue. She was given this recognition in thanks for her efforts in making the City Wide Blood Drive, which she chaired, a success.
July-August 2009 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 27 Fighting for Jewish education in a highly Unorthodox way Who would ever have thought a professional wrestler named Demon Hellstorm would be a strong advocate of Jewish day schools? Or that a nice Jewish boy would have in his fingers the magic to fix whatever ails a car? Or that these two statements would be describing the same man? They are, of course, as anyone who has ever dropped his or her car off for service at Gann-El Auto can attest. Owner Greg Herman not only knows what’s wrong with cars, he keeps at the job until the owner is satisfied that the job has been done right. But, beyond that, Herman has another passion. He believes in the right of every Jewish child to receive a superior Jewish education. And as a parent of two elementary school-age boys, he knows that today’s sluggish economy, combined with the cost of day school, is keeping kids out of Atlanta’s day schools. He has seen that directly this year: Rambam Atlanta, the city’s Modern Orthodox elementary school, closed its doors, and other schools have not always had the funds to offer sufficient financial aid to prospective families. So Herman has devised a way to use his first passion, wrestling, to benefit the parents struggling to keep their children in Jewish day schools. On Sunday, September 13, Yeshiva Atlanta will host a family fun day featuring not only an antique car show, but also a professional wrestling show featuring Greg Herman, a.k.a. Demon Hellstorm, “the Madman from Miami,” as well as Yeshiva Atlanta’s own wrestling coach, Jan “The Man” Siegelman and an assortment of heavyweight champion professional wrestlers, including Big Daddy Goth and England’s heavyweight champion, Simon Serom. How, you might ask, did a nice Jewish boy come to be known as Demon Hellstorm? Herman started as a youngster, in Miami, watching wrestling on television. By the age of 16, he had begun to attend matches, and, at 21, working out one day in a gym, he was approached by a man who offered him the opportunity to attend wrestling school. “He told me to show up in school and he’d sponsor me if I could make it through the first lesson,” Herman remembers. “I went. There were 64 of us. The instructor asked who’d take a fall flat on his back. I was the only volunteer. Four months later, I was on TV. I didn’t know what I was doing, but the money was good, better than being an auto mechanic, which was my day job. I was the bad guy, inciting the crowd so they’d come watch me get killed.” He chose the name Demon Hellstorm because he’d been told to pick a demonic BY Suzi Brozman name. Demon Hellstorm was lifted right out of Marvel Comics, where a character who was the son of Satan was called Demon Hellstorm. But, insists Herman, he was actually a good guy in the comics. Travel and wrestling became a way of life, until Herman married and became a father. “There’s nothing more important than my kids,” he says. His two boys, Ariel Shlomo, 7, and Natanel Yakov, 5, got to see their dad wrestle live for the first time on Super Bowl Sunday last year. Until then, they’d only seen him on tape. Herman was not brought up in a religious household, but being involved throughout his career with born-again Christians made him want to find out who he was. At age 36, with a serious muscle injury, he went back to being a mechanic. One day, a black man came into the shop. He was wearing a kippah and tzitzis. He explained to Herman what they were, and took him to the Young Israel synagogue in Tamarac, Florida. Herman began going on Sundays, since he was working on Saturdays. Moving to Atlanta, he began studying with Rabbi Hirshy Minkowitz at what is now Chabad of Alpharetta. He got a job in a mechanic shop, soon opening his own in Decatur. But, he didn’t like dealing with the city. So he moved to Toco Hill and opened Gann-El, God’s Garden. He’s happier here, and the community is happy to have him, judging by the number of cars waiting for service and by the praise spread on Frum_Atlanta, the Toco Hill listserv. The shop offers a full array of services, from tune-ups to restorations and paint and body work. But, his children are the focal points of his life. When their school closed at the end of the school year, leaving teachers and parents uncertain about the future, Herman asked himself what he could do to help. Finances were a problem for many former Rambam families. Herman’s own sons will attend public school in the fall. But many others needed help to allow them to make the best choices for their children. Soon, the idea of a wrestling show to benefit them was born. He told The Jewish Georgian, “People are donating their time to try to help. Half of the money we raise will be going to Yeshiva Atlanta to help with tuition, and half will go to parents sending their kids from Rambam to other schools. I want people to know this is a show. It’s entertainment, for fun. There will be no cursing, no spitting, no intentional blood. And there will be some really cool cars to look at.” Visit his website, DemonHellstorm.com, to learn more about Herman and his wrestling career. Another focus of his life is his fiancée, Ilana Melnick. The couple will be married about a week before the wrestling extravaganza. When Yeshiva Atlanta’s wrestling coach, Jan Siegelman, volunteered his services, Herman was apprehensive. “Jan thinks he’s going to win. I think he’s going to get broken in half.” But Siegelman, who has coached the school’s wrestlers for 17 years, is confident. “My life is a study of what it is to be human. My commitment is that young men should grow up to be adults that their parents and they themselves can be proud of, that they should be competent in outdoor skills, in defending themselves, and in standing up for themselves as Jews. They should leave the world a better place because they were here. That’s why I was born, to live that philosophy and help others to.” Siegelman has been wrestling for 45 years. “I always thought a real wrestler could beat these so-called pros, these television guys who I see as all muscle and mouth—most of their muscle is in their mouths. The guy I’m going to wrestle is a loudmouth, trying to intimidate me.” The community can judge his words for themselves at the wrestling exhibition, September 13, at Yeshiva Atlanta. Tickets are just $10. The gates open at 10:00 a.m. with wrestling starting at noon. For more information, or to enter your car in the antique car show, call Greg Herman at Gann-El, 404-733-1555 or 770-826-1660. Sponsorships are still available, with current sponsors including Return to Eden, Bagel Break, C&N Auto Parts, Allan Shaw, D.D.S., and Kosher Gourmet.
Page 1 and 2: Jewish THE Georgian Volume 21, Numb
Page 3 and 4: July-August 2009 THE JEWISH GEORGIA
Page 25: July-August 2009 THE JEWISH GEORGIA

JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?