JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian

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Page 4 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN July-August 2009 Happening From page 3 Rochman, instead of Dad Jerry. Josh is an honor roll student at Arcado Elementary School, where he was also voted friendliest in class. Baseball champ Josh Farber SOUTHERN FRIED SCHMALTZ. Jerry has also been busy, headlining Congregation B’nai Torah’s Southern Fried Schmaltz event, where he entertained over 400 people to benefit the Jewish Family & Career Services Emergency Fund. The event, sponsored by the Hebrew Order of David Carmel Lodge, raised $6,500 for JF&CS. Jerry had a couple of tough acts to follow. David Cohen emceed the event, beginning with Dunwoody’s Saul Sloman, a native Atlantan who lived for five years in Israel, graduated from Georgia State University, and has appeared at the Punchline and the Funny Farm locally. Jerry Farber Saul did a hilarious 40-minute schtick of jokes and stories in the Borscht Belt style. The crowd loved it and wondered why Saul was not the headliner instead of Jerry. As for Jerry, he said it was the best Jewish audience he Saul Sloman ever had, at least since his bar mitzvah in 1950. Jerry did his usual adult humor—all the jokes were at least 21 years old. One guest told Saul that the event was a real mitzvah, since everyone had a ball and forgot for an hour and a half about the recession and world turmoil and all the other troubles on their minds. “The event was such a roaring success,” says Saul, “that we plan to make it an annual event.” GOLDBERG’S DELI. Goldberg’s has always been one of our favorite places to dine, schmooze, and kibbitz. Apparently, lots of other folks also enjoy Goldberg’s, since they now have five locations: West Paces Ferry at Northside Parkway; Roswell Road in Buckhead; East Cobb; Colony Square; and Chamblee- Dunwoody at I-285. Jewish dining at its best. R uby Jones is a bundle of perpetual motion. She never walks when she can run. And she is on the run 12-14 hours a day. If there is a star at The Jewish Tower, it is Ruby. This 5’ 2”, 66-year-old lady (she looks 20 years younger) has a heart of gold. She does not play cards or bingo or sit around The Tower lobby. She has no time for schmoozing. What she does have time for is driving Tower residents to the hospital, doctor’s office, and supermarket. At Henri’s Bakery, where she works three days a week, she averages about 37,000 steps a day. She sometimes opens and closes the bakery. In between, she runs from the front to the kitchen, where she prepares sandwiches, cakes, and assorted delicacies, and then races back to the front, where she welcomes customers with her milliondollar smile. You seldom see Ruby without her seven-year-old Yorkie, Weston. She walks Weston daily, 2-5 miles, rain or shine. The only people who come before Weston are sisters Belenda and Shirley, brother Harold, and nephews Eddie, Jim, Johnny, and Tyson. Ruby was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, worked her way through the University of Tennessee, and is a loyal Volunteer supporter. She moved to Atlanta 18 years ago and has been running ever since. She managed the Sweet Auburn Curb Market for the City of Atlanta and was assistant manager of the State Farmers Market in Forest Park. FROM SAM MASSELL’S SCRAP- BOOK. Mayor Sam Massell and his lovely daughter, Melanie, now a popular singer, welcome Michael Jackson and the rest of the Jackson 5 to his office at City Hall, on April 7, 1971. Ruby better than gold Ruby Jones (Photo: Phil Slotin) BY Gene Asher After she moved into The Tower two years ago, she found she could not stay busy enough, so she took a job at Henri’s. Cream rises to the top, and it certainly is true of Ruby Jones. It was scarcely one year before she assumed the duties of opening and closing. Most of her work days start at 6:00 a.m.—and end at 10:00 p.m. She gets her energy and motivation to excel from her mother, who worked two jobs to literally bring home the bacon. “My spare time is spent with family,” says Ruby. “My sisters and nephews are the most important people in my life.” Weston comes next. Besides her work, Ruby is strong on volunteering. She is the No. 1 Tower resident in promoting the Sunshine Fund, founded the Men’s Clothing Closet for Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, and serves on the Council for Aging Persons for the Community Outreach Program. When I think of Ruby Jones, I think of passages from our old Union Prayer Book: “...receive the helpless and despondent with sympathy and love.”
July-August 2009 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 5 Waycross From page 1 Despite this extreme level of population turnover, the Jewish community of Waycross began to organize in the 1920s. Jews in the area first gathered to pray together in 1920. Four years later, thirteen men officially organized a congregation, with Alex Gilmore as its first president. All but one of these founders were immigrants from Russia or Poland. Half of them owned dry goods stores, though their numbers also included peddlers, store clerks, and a lawyer. In 1924, Waycross Jews traveled to Valdosta or Brunswick for the High Holy Days; the local newspaper noted that the Jewish merchants in town closed their stores for the occasion. Between 1926 and 1953, the congregation rented space in the Knights of Pythias Hall, on Plant Avenue. Alex Gilmore bought a Torah for the group in the 1920s; the Gilmore family donated a second Torah to the congregation in 1935, after Alex’s death. The congregation would often bring in visiting rabbis to lead services on the High Holy Days. By 1937, 47 Jews lived in Waycross, and they began to discuss the possibility of building a synagogue. Due to the effects of the Great Depression, the congregation had to postpone its plans for a permanent home. Finally, on May 22, 1952, the congregation broke ground on the Waycross Hebrew Center, on Screven Avenue. They were able raise money from local Jews, family members who lived in other cities, Jewish-owned wholesale firms in other cities that did business with the area’s Jewish merchants, and local gentiles. When the synagogue was dedicated in the summer of 1953, the congregation held an open house in which the non-Jewish neighbors were invited to tour the synagogue and learn about Judaism. Local Christian ministers announced the open house from their pulpits and encouraged their members to attend. The congregation was Conservative in practice, though it has never officially affiliated with any of the Jewish movements. A kosher kitchen was maintained in the building, even though most members did not keep kosher at home. For some members, walking to shul was not possible, as the Waycross Hebrew Center attracted Jews from several of the small towns in the area. At the time of the synagogue’s dedication, members lived in Alma, Blackshear, Douglas, Homerville, Jessup, and Baxley, in addition to Waycross. A cemetery sign Like all Southern Jews, the members of the Waycross Hebrew Center had to adapt to the local culture while working to maintain their religious traditions. In many cases, Waycross Jews had to make compromises. Since so many of them owned stores, the congregation held services only on Friday nights, as members had to work on Saturdays, the busiest trading day of the week. Al Jacobson recalls moving the start time for Friday night services from 8:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. during high school football season when there were several teenagers in the congregation. Since the congregation was conservative, they insisted on waiting until sundown, and thus, even with the earlier start time and shortened service, they still arrived late at the game. As they entered the stands, other fans would shout, “I hope you prayed for us!” Soon after the congregation settled into its own building, members discussed hiring a full-time rabbi to lead the congregation, but they came to the conclusion that it was beyond their financial means. In 1961, they made an arrangement with the Jewish congregation in Valdosta, that its rabbi, Samuel Zakuto, would drive the 60 miles to Waycross each week to teach Hebrew to the children in the religious school. Rabbi Zakuto also officiated at the Waycross congregation’s lifecycle events. He served the congregation into the 1970s. Since then, Waycross has relied on student rabbis from the Jewish Theological Seminary for the High Holy Day services and lay readers for the rest of the year. In 1948, 35 Jewish families belonged to the Waycross Hebrew Center. By 1968, this number had dropped to 24, as children raised in Waycross moved away in search of greater economic and social opportunities. Historically, Jews had been concentrated in retail trade in Waycross. By the 1970s, most of these stores began to close, including Weisser’s Jewelry Store, which had been in business for over fifty years. Jacobson’s Department Store closed in 1981, after 58 years in operation. Today, there are no more Jewish-owned retail businesses in Waycross. In 2005, the congregation’s newsletter declared, “We are shrinking.” After the community Seder drew 47 people in 2008, congregation President Al Jacobson noted, “We were saddened by the fact that there was not one Jewish child to ask the four questions. We need youth.” Despite this decline, the small but close-knit membership of the Waycross Hebrew Center has persevered and continues to hold weekly lay-led Friday night services. About 11 or 12 members regularly attend, with some driving as much as 70 miles to get to Waycross. If they cannot make a minyan, they hold an abbreviated service. The congregation still brings down a student rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary for the high holidays. The synagogue’s kitchen is still kosher, and the members bring in kosher meat from Jacksonville for special events. Al Jacobson continues to edit the congregation’s Inside the synagogue newsletter, which he has done since 1968. Rich Luskin serves as the lay leader of the weekly services, and Ann Jacobson, Al’s wife, often adds a Torah commentary. This small but dedicated group has worked hard to ensure that Jewish life continues in Waycross, Georgia. Dr. Stuart Rockoff is historian at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life.
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