JGA Mar-Apr 10 - The Jewish Georgian

March-April 2010 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 19
News from Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum
NEW WEBSITE, NEW LOOK. What’s
clever and colorful and easy to navigate?
The Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust
Museum’s sparkly, new website, www.thebreman.org.
Washington, D.C.-based Free Range
Graphics, known for its ground-breaking
contributions to internet viral marketing
and interactive web design, worked with
the experts at The Breman to create the
new site.
“Free Range guided our team through
an exploration of The Breman’s goals and
internal assets,” says Ruth Einstein, the
museum’s special projects coordinator. “I
worked with them to bring our vision and
their expertise together.”
The museum’s Legacy Project is just
one of the beneficiaries of all the hard
work. A new web interface has been created
to showcase the project, which documents
the lives of Holocaust survivors who
settled in Atlanta.
Once upon a time, the Legacy
Project’s online exhibition was housed in
the Holocaust gallery at The Breman, “but
the hardware fell apart,” Einstein says. But
soon—hopefully by Yom HaShoah in early
April—the new site will offer anyone with
a computer easy access to video interviews
with survivors living in metro Atlanta, family
photos, bios, and interactive maps, plus
details about World War II-era ghettos,
work camps, and concentration camps.
Another new bonus? The site provides
a searchable index of The Southern
Israelite, the Jewish community newspaper
that was published in Atlanta for decades.
It also provides a searchable database of
the Ida Pearle and Joseph Cuba Archives
and Genealogy Center, the largest repository
of its type in the Southeast; its holdings
of personal and family papers and organizational
records include diaries, scrapbooks
and photos, audio and video recordings,
and oral histories.
“We’ve tried to create a user-friendly
site that is easily navigated by both sophisticated
researchers and average folks trying
to track down information about their families,”
Einstein says. “I think everyone visiting
our new website will be happy they
spent some time with us.”
SHINY AND NEW. If a stroll through The
Breman Museum’s updated gift shop
makes you think you’re in an upscale airport
store, that’s understandable. After all,
it’s just gotten a fresh new look, thanks to
the Paradies Shops, one of the most recognized
and acclaimed airport concessionaires
in the country.
The Elinor Rosenberg Breman
Museum Shop, just inside the entrance of
the Selig Building of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Atlanta, is filled with books and
artwork, challah covers and kiddush cups,
jewelry, and Judaica. The space has been
completely redone and now is brighter, easier
to navigate, and more accessible.
The updated look—and hard work—is
thanks to Jim Paradies, a longtime support-
er of The Breman and vice chairman of the
Paradies Shops. The company operates
more than 500 stores in over 70 airports
and hotels across the United States and
Canada, serving more than a half-billion
customers each year.
“I went to Jim and asked if he could
help us update our gift shop,” says Joyce
Shlesinger, who, along with Spring Asher,
is co-chair of The Breman’s development
committee. “He solved all our problems.”
The professionals at Paradies completely
redesigned the space and provided
the workers and skilled laborers to update
and install new lighting fixtures and display
counters.
“There’s just no way that non-profit
organizations could manage without the
cooperation and help of corporations like
Paradies,” says Shlesinger. “What they
provided is an incredible gift; they managed
to transform the entire space.”
It’s a space that right now has a decidedly
“Seussian” look about it, all part of a
marketing effort to highlight The Breman’s
current exhibit, “Dr. Seuss Goes to War …
& More.”
So along with all the tchotchkes one
expects to find in a gift shop, the space is
also filled with Seuss-themed markers,
books, pens, pads, lunch boxes, and dolls.
“Our shop has been magically
changed,” says Judi Ayal, director of visitor
services at The Breman. “We’re now providing
a fun, exciting shopping experience
for everyone.”
Ayal says the shop is easy to spot.
“Just hang a right. When you spot the huge
cutout of The Cat in the Hat…you won’t be
sorry.”
SEUSS GALA HONORS BENEFAC-
TORS. At first glance, it all seemed so normal—cold,
a bit of snow and ice, and lots
of cars. However, the army of valets hustling
about on this wintry February night
outside the Selig Building hinted at something
special.
But it was the hats—zany and colorful,
standing tall, and spilling over—that tipped
off people entering the building that they
had seemingly stumbled into another
dimension.
Hundreds of people milled about in a
Seussian wonderland—a place of huge,
colorful trees twisting oddly in the center
of the room, zig-zags of color splashed
across the walls, and, well, those “Cat in
the Hat” hats.
Such was the opening-night gala for
“Dr. Seuss Goes to War…& More,” a
splendid evening that promoted the new
exhibit at The Breman Jewish Heritage &
Holocaust Museum and honored The
Breman’s benefactor, Elinor Angel
Rosenberg Breman.
Elinor was just inside the entrance,
welcoming friends and family who braved
the cold and ice outside to enjoy the warm,
festive celebration inside the Selig Center.
This unique fundraiser generated over
$350,000 for The Breman—a fact that was
proudly announced later in the evening by
Norman Zoller, president of The Breman’s
Board of Trustees.
Gala Honoree Elinor Breman
The Seussian motif was created by
Tony Conway, the owner and president of
A Legendary Event, a full-service specialevent
company. “There’s no way we could
have pulled this off without the help of
Tony,” says Joyce Shlesinger. “He brought
his crew to The Breman and transformed
the whole place....he provided a very special
gift.”
Gala Co-chair Spring Asher,
President of The Breman Board of
Directors Norman Zoller, and Gala
Co-chair Joyce Shlesinger
Before the night’s main event—a spirited
“USO” show starring Jenny Levison
and the Souper Jenny Singers—many
patrons managed a quick look at the new
exhibit in the Schwartz Gallery.
For decades, readers throughout the
world have enjoyed the marvelous stories
and illustrations of Theodor Seuss Geisel—
Dr. Seuss. But few know of Geisel’s work
as a political cartoonist during World War
II. “Dr. Seuss Goes to War…& More” features
some of the 400 editorial cartoons
Geisel created while working for the New
York newspaper PM. The “More” part of
the exhibit focuses on his zany artwork and
children’s books and offers a series of
Ben Hirsch, architect of The
Breman’s Holocaust Gallery, enjoying
the gala
interactive exhibits.
After an hour of mingling, it was time
for the show, “All’s Not Fair in Love and
War!” A huge American flag spilling across
the back wall of the stage set the mood, and
Elinor’s oldest son, Jerry Rosenberg, set
the tone, outlining the stages of his mother’s
life and offering praise for her love and
devotion to family, friends—and The
Breman.
Elinor Breman with sons Jerry,
John, and Philip Rosenberg
The Souper Jenny Singers transported
the audience back to the 1940s, dishing up
a jazzy, swinging, but melancholy remembrance
of a difficult time, when the country
came together to battle a common
enemy. Many of the songs were about loss,
longing, and sacrifice.
The evening of tribute was about love.
You could feel the warmth in the air, hovering
about Elinor.
It was a night, she told the crowd with
her children and family at her side, she
will always recall as “the frosting” on her
beautiful cake of life.