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Jewish THE
Georgian
Volume 24, Number 6 Atlanta, Georgia September-October 2012 FREE
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Fred Budin
What’s Inside
Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Bob Bahr reflects on our changing
relationship to news media.
Interview by George Jordan
Page 9
A National Institution
Has Atlanta Roots
The United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum celebrates the
Atlantans who helped conceive, build,
and support it.
By Brian Katzowitz
Page 24
Who Are Our Friends?
A Chautauqua Institution program
prompts some soul-searching about
how we regard other countries and
cultures.
By Janice Rothschild Blumberg
Page 23
Honoring a Hero
The Georgia College Theatre
Department brings a play about
Holocaust hero and survivor Jan
Wiener to the Czech Republic.
Page 18
Surface and Depth
“Veneers,” an impressive new airport
art installation, is the work of
Atlantan Amy Landesberg.
By Carolyn Gold
Page 39
Full Circle
Jack Morgan’s bar mitzvah project
had benefits he could not imagine.
By Jeanie Franco Marx
Page 8

Page 2 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 3

Page 4 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
It is time to think about those messages you send
Life is a road upon which all of us travel.
There are detours, bumps, pleasures, problems,
opportunities, and challenges. It is a
physical and mental endeavor that requires
expenditure of effort and planning, and it is a
venture that is influenced by our society,
minds, education, and understanding.
Traversing the course is not one continuous
action, but, while it is a constant, it is one that
requires a pacing of effort and understanding.
It is one that demands of us a renewal of values,
lest we focus on activities at the expense
of morally correct achievements.
The mind and body require some form
of relief from the tedium of the daily routine
with its mental and physical demands. Sleep
provides such a relief, as do days off and
vacations, but these are activities directed
toward the renewal of physical strength and,
hopefully, attitude. Mostly, these activities
deal with the release of tensions, revitalizing
energy, and just plain enjoyment.
But what is it that reminds us to take
time for personal introspection? What goads
us to stop and consider our code of conduct-
––what it is and how we measure up to it in
our actual activities?
There does not have to be just one motivator,
but human nature is such that we normally
do not get off of the merry-go-round of
life unless it is a calendar item. As Jews, however,
we have a program in our DNA that
THE
Jewish Georgian
The Jewish Georgian is published bimonthly by Eisenbot, Ltd. It is
written for Atlantans and Georgians by Atlantans and Georgians.
Publisher Marvin Botnick
Co-Publisher Sam Appel
Editor Marvin Botnick
Managing Editor Marsha C. LaBeaume
Assignment Editor Carolyn Gold
Consulting Editor Gene Asher
Associate Editor Barbara Schreiber
Copy Editor Ray Tapley
Assistant Copy Editor Arnold Friedman
Makeup Editor Terri Christian
Production Coordinator Terri Christian
Designer David Gaudio
Photographic Staff Allan Scher, Jonathan Paz
Graphic Art Consultant Karen Paz
Columnist Gene Asher, Jonathan Barach,
Janice Rothschild Blumberg,
Marvin Botnick, David Geffen,
Carolyn Gold, Jonathan Goldstein,
R.M. Grossblatt, Marice Katz,
Balfoura Friend Levine,
Marsha Liebowitz, Bubba Meisa,
Erin O’Shinsky, Reg Regenstein,
Susan Robinson, Stuart Rockoff,
Roberta Scher, Jerry Schwartz, Leon Socol,
Rabbi Reuven Stein, Cecile Waronker
Special Assignments Lyons Joel
Advertising Anne Bender
Ruby Grossblatt
Editorial Advisory Board Members
Sam Appel Rabbi Alvin Sugarman Sam Massell
Jane Axelrod Albert Maslia William Rothschild
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8495 Dunwoody Place, Suite 100
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The Jewish Georgian ©2012
BY
Marvin
Botnick
activates our messaging system at this time of
the year. For it is during the Days of Awe that
we are prodded into a reflective posture; a
period when we remove ourselves from the
chase for worldly success and seek meaning
and understanding of ourselves and our
actions.
And, boy, do we need this.
Being a Jew is much broader than reading
prayers and attending services. It
demands and commands us to live a righteous
life devoted to justice, fairness, and
understanding. We are to protect the innocent,
advocate for the needy, strive for civility
and equality, and do nothing, either intentionally
or unintentionally, to malign others.
In my mind, one of the most critical
reviews that we need to make is how we deal
with stories about others. Today, we are being
faced with an explosion of mass communication,
social networking, and radio and television
talk shows with very little accountability
for content. And too many of us are blithely
acting as enablers and conduits in passing
misinformation or misrepresentations to others.
It is so easy to push a forward button and
send hurtful statements about someone to our
“friends,” and for what purpose? We may
“Propaganda is neutrally defined as a systematic form
of purposeful persuasion that attempts to influence the
emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of specified
target audiences for ideological, political or commercial
purposes through the controlled transmission of
one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual)
via mass and direct media channels.”
think that what we pass on is funny or innocent—-in
some cases, but not in all cases, we
have no intent to do any harm—-but it does
do harm, and it is against our beliefs and
morals.
We need to remember that we are forbidden
to use true speech for wrongful purposes,
and that it is forbidden to make untrue
remarks. Of all people, Jews should know the
pain and suffering that has been endured by
our people over the centuries by just such
action. We have been isolated, murdered,
imprisoned, tortured, expelled, and dehumanized
by others employing many tactics,
including polemics, to stigmatize us as a bad,
immoral, and licentious people.
Words, in and of themselves, are merely
an assemblage of lines designated as letters to
which we assign definitions for the purpose
of communicating, and, as such, they do not
Richard Alan Nelson
have any intrinsic power. It is the use of the
words that is critical.
Sometimes it is difficult to perceive the
difference between information and propaganda,
but it is critical that we recognize and
understand this dichotomy. According to
Richard Alan Nelson, “Propaganda is neutrally
defined as a systematic form of purposeful
persuasion that attempts to influence
the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions
of specified target audiences for ideological,
political or commercial purposes through the
controlled transmission of one-sided messages
(which may or may not be factual) via
mass and direct media channels.”
How dangerous is this?
We all know of the horrific terror and
inhuman actions of Nazi Germany. Through
the implementation of such weapons as propaganda,
this group of rabble was able to rise
from an obscure contingent to a major world
power. And it was Joseph Goebbles, Reich
Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany,
who orchestrated and implemented this program.
Here is part of a speech he delivered on
January 9, 1928:
“Success is the important thing.
Propaganda is not a matter for average minds,
but rather a matter for practitioners. It is not
supposed to be lovely or theoretically correct.
I do not care if I give wonderful, aesthetically
elegant speeches, or speak so that women
cry. The point of a political speech is to persuade
people of what we think right. I speak
differently in the provinces than I do in
Berlin, and when I speak in Bayreuth, I say
different things than I say in the Pharus Hall.
That is a matter of practice, not of theory. We
do not want to be a movement of a few straw
brains, but rather a movement that can conquer
the broad masses. Propaganda should be
popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not
the task of propaganda to discover intellectual
truths.”
Can you imagine what he could have
done with e-mails and social media programs?
At that time, the radio was the mechanism
for mass communication. He was
quoted as saying, “I consider radio to be the
most modern and the most crucial instrument
for influencing the masses.”
So as we reevaluate our actions and seek
to reinforce our belief in our duty and responsibility
not to gossip or be a party to meanspirited,
spurious actions, let us all make an
effort to think about what we are transmitting
to others. Do we know the truth in the information
we are circulating, and to what good,
positive purpose does such action on our part
serve?

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 5
What’s
HAPPENING
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, DR.
VELKOFF. Dr. Abe Velkoff’s kids threw a
wonderful 100th birthday celebration for
the centenarian at Park Place. Not too many
of his peers were there, but the room was
filled with loving family and friends, there
to pay tribute to the legendary ob/gyn.
His charming daughters, Debbie
Gussoff and Ann Podber, did all the work,
and Michael and his lovely wife, Sandra,
flew in for the affair from Northern
California’s Marin County, “land of redwoods
and burned-out rock stars,” as he put
it.
Helen Alexander was there with her
son, journalist and correspondent Art
Harris, and his wife, Carol Martin. Art,
along with Helen’s other kids, Alex Harris,
Sophie Joel, and Jill Brown, were among
the 5,000 or so babies delivered by Dr V.
Indeed, at his 94th birthday party,
which we were privileged to attend, it
seemed that every time someone walked by
him, he’d say, “I delivered her [or him].”
Art gets the prize for the best birthday
card, which congratulated “a legend that
really delivers.” As Art quipped, “The operation
was a success, but the patient cried.”
As a surgeon in the Pacific Theater of
World War II, Dr. V and his team saved the
lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of GIs
wounded in the brutal battles of New
Guinea and the Philippines.
Michael went to Westminster with us
and used to get us in all kinds of trouble.
One evening, as teenagers, we sneaked into
the woods, next to the house of a neighbor
who was having a party, and threw firecrackers
into the crowd, creating a huge
uproar. Michael has settled down somewhat
since then but still retains that mischievous
and independent spirit. He even showed us
his official California medical marijuana
card. We were shocked at first but then
began to wonder if a visit to Michael in San
Fran might help ease our chronic pain from
an old bowling injury.
We look forward to seeing everyone
again at Dr. Abe’s 105th celebration.
Dr. Abe with his son Michael, daughter-in-law
Sandra, and Herb Cohen
BY
Reg
Regenstein
HAPPY 88TH BIRTHDAY TO DR.
JERRY BERMAN. Dr. Jerome David
Berman is a youngster compared to Dr.
Abe, but he turns 88 in November, and we
wish him all the best. During his three
decades practicing in Sandy Springs, with
four other nice Jewish doctors, the pediatrician
cared for and nurtured thousands of
children, many of them delivered by Dr.
Abe.
A Native Atlantan, Dr. Berman graduated
from Emory Medical School, in 1948.
Because of an inherited form of glaucoma,
he suddenly went blind in 1982. But after a
period of deep depression, Dr. Berman used
his personal loss to help improve the lives
of thousands of visually impaired kids.
In 1985, he founded an amazingly successful
project at Atlanta’s Center for the
Visually Impaired, which has become the
most acclaimed and outstanding comprehensive,
early-intervention program for
preschoolers in the Southeast. Known as
BEGIN (Babies Early Growth Intervention
Network), it has worked with and helped
over 1,500 infants and toddlers under the
guidance of Dr. Berman.
Dr. Berman was the first blind individual
to receive a master’s degree from
Emory University’s School of Public
Health.
He was twice named honorary president
of the Georgia Chapter of the
American Academy of Pediatrics. As if to
demonstrate his leadership and skills, in
1996, Dr. Berman carried the Olympic torch
on the day before the start of the Olympic
Games in Atlanta.
This past April, Dr. Berman was honored
with two prestigious awards. The
alumni association of Atlanta’s old Boys
High School (from which he graduated in
1942) gave him a special award of merit. A
few days later, the Emory University
School of Medicine Alumni Foundation
recognized his 30+ years of service to the
community.
Dr. Berman has been an inspirational
speaker for 28 years, having given some
750 speeches to hundreds of local businesses,
civic groups, and organizations on
behalf of United Way and the Center for the
Visually Impaired, raising millions of dollars
for greater Atlanta service organizations.
Dr. Berman has the distinction of
being the United Way’s longest-serving vol-
unteer speaker. “I give the same speech,” he
says, “but it raises the money.”
He and his late wife, Betty, produced
three brilliant and successful daughters:
Sally Berman is a professional violinist in
Los Angeles; Dr. Karen Berman Accettura
is a professor at Georgia College & State
University, in Milledgeville, where she is
chair of the Department of Theater and
Drama; and Ellen Berman Fix is a writer.
Dr. Berman is also blessed, he says, somehow
to have “the world’s two greatest
grandkids, Shayna and Raphael Fix, who
are students at UGA.”
STEVE’S LIVE MUSIC. Music maven
Steve Grossman has just opened a new
music venue in Sandy Springs, Steve’s Live
Music, with great performances, delicious
food, and a wonderful, intimate, friendly,
welcoming atmosphere. It’s the perfect
place to enjoy serious music.
Steve’s features fabulous international
and American folk music, including jazz,
blues, bluegrass, Dixieland, Klezmer, Irish,
Celtic, polka, and lots of other great styles.
One recent performance featured AA Rabbi
Laurence Rosenthal and his blues group.
Steve, a New Orleans native, moved
here 24 years ago to be education director at
Ahavath Achim Synagogue, but his true
love has always been music, especially folk
music. Now he is pursuing his dream, while
providing great entertainment for our community.
Steve’s is located at 234 Hilderbrand,
near the west corner of Roswell Road,
behind Rumi’s Kitchen. Check it out at
www.Steveslivemusic.com and on Facebook
(www.facebook.com/StevesLiveMusic). Or
call 404-418-6667 for reservations and performance
schedules.
Steve Grossman (from left), his wife,
Heleen, and son Rami
SALLY KELLERMAN WOWS
ATLANTA AUDIENCES. Sally
Kellerman’s weekend July performances at
Jerry Farber’s Side Door, next to
Buckhead’s Landmark Diner, were a huge
success. Friday and Saturday night’s shows,
starring “Hot Lips Houlihan,” of
M*A*S*H*, were sellouts, as were the
Sunday film and readings events.
All this success was the result of the
hard work of Atlanta attorney and impresario
extraordinaire Howard Osofsky, who
arranged Kellerman’s trip, the publicity, a
room donated by the wonderful Four
Seasons Hotel, and cars lent by Jim Ellis
automobile dealerships.
Howard’s next project is an even bigger
challenge—to try to get Jerry’s house
out of foreclosure.
Sally Kellerman, Jerry Farber,
Howard Osofsky
SOUTH GEORGIA GAL MAKING THE
BIG TIME. One of our favorite regular
comics at Jerry’s club is Chesta Drake, a
charming and
delightful
small-town
gal from
Pearson, in
S o u t h
Georgia.
Chesta
attributes her
success to
Jerry, whom
she calls “a
one-man
Chesta Drake
J e w i s h
department
of peace; he offers opportunities to charities
and individuals of all faiths and backgrounds.”
Chesta loves animals and spends much
of her time volunteering for animal welfare
and rescue projects. In fact, she says,
“attending a meeting for animal welfare is
how I met Jerry Farber. This was at a benefit
for Debra Berger’s wonderful group, The
Georgia Center for Humane Education. He
had offered his club as a meeting place, and
he had offered his stage to any of us who
wanted to perform music or comedy.
Nervously, I accepted his offer. He liked me
and invited me back for the weekend, and
he hasn’t been able to get rid of me since.”
You can catch Chesta’s act most nights
at Jerry’s club.
YOU AIN’T NOTHIN BUT A POUND
DOG. As a huge fan of The King, we really
got a kick out of Debra Berger’s invitation
to a fabulous joint fundraiser for her group,
the Georgia Center for Humane Education
(GCHE), and for the GA SPCA’s 3rd annual
“You Ain’t nothing but a Pound Dog”
event. It is part of the animal welfare and
rescue group’s statewide “Love Me
Tender/Don’t Be Cruel” Elvis Presley
Campaign.
It was a really fun event, featuring a
great Elvis impersonator, as well as celebrity
guest host Holly Firfer, a star of CNN,
HLN, and CNN Airport Network, covering
news headlines, travel features, medical
See HAPPENING, page 6

Page 6 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
Happening
From page 5
news, and most everything else the network
carries
To get involved with Debra’s group,
visit www.Human-AnimalBond.org.
Debra Berger and Judy Landey
4TH OF JULY AT GENERAL LARRY
TAYLOR’S. This year’s 4th of July
American independence party given by
Major General Larry Taylor (USMC, Ret)
and his housemate, USN Lt. Commander
Melissa Matthews, was better than ever.
We always meet interesting and important
people there—war heroes, grizzled veterans
of various wars, retired generals,
political leaders, Grady High School alumni,
and even here and there the occasional
liberal Democrat, like Tom Houck and
Doug Teper (just back from doing business
in Iraq), who graced this year’s gathering
and survived.
The food was great as ever, especially
Melissa’s spicy and authentic kimchi,
which is not recommended for the faint of
heart. Real kimchi is so pungent that it is
said you can smell it when flying over
Korea. But the lengthily fermented dish,
which includes cabbage, garlic, and onion,
is really good for your health.
CELEBRATING BASTILLE DAY. At a
Bastille Day (July 14) celebration, at the
Huff Harrington Gallery, in Buckhead, we
had the great pleasure of meeting the lovely
and talented Rose Cunningham, who, at
our urging, entertained the crowd with her
very poignant and inspiring rendition of
“La Marseillaise,” the French national
anthem.
As our columnist Carolyn Gold eloquently
recounted over a year ago, Rose
Gold was born Jewish in Romania, in 1927.
She was later raised Catholic because of the
threat from the Fascists, and she discovered
her Jewish roots only when the family was
forced into hiding.
Fluent in five languages, she now
teaches at Oglethorpe University. Her
amazing story is recounted in her exciting
2004 book, Joie de Vivre.
BOBBI KORNBLIT’S HOT NEW
NOVEL. Atlanta author, journalist, and
educator Bobbi Kornblit has written her
first novel, Shelter from the Texas Heat, and
it is receiving
great reviews
and much
attention. It
tells the stories
of three
generations of
Jewish Texas
women, “like
a tangy, hot
and subtly
sweet barbecue
sauce,” as
Bobbi color-
Bobbi Kornblit
fully puts it.
Although set
in Dallas and
Austin from the “Camelot” years to modern
times, its themes are universal.
Fred Budin was born and raised in
New York City, a place he describes as
having “too many people crowded into too
small an area.” While he always enjoyed
drawing and considered a career as an
industrial designer, because of a learning
disability and a perceived lack of opportunity,
he did not pursue this dream. Instead,
he studied math and science at New York
Institute of Technology and received a
degree in engineering.
But he never lost his love for art and
continued to draw, even though he did not
show his work to anyone or try to take
classes in painting. But then in 1990 the
stars must have come into proper alignment.
He was doing work on a real estate
matter with Ouida Canaday, one of
Atlanta’s premier artists, and began talking
to her about his interest in painting. He
showed her some of his work, and she said
Shelter from the
Texas Heat is
available in print
at www.Peach-
TwigPress.com
and www.
Amazon.com; the
gift shop at
Temple Sinai, in
Sandy Springs;
and at some of
our great local
independent
bookstores,
including Tall Tales, in Toco Hill; Eagle
Eye, in Decatur; and Peerless, in
Alpharetta. It is also available as an eBook.
Visit www.BobbiKornblit.com, and
“like” her Facebook fan page, www.facebook.com/Shelter.from.the.Texas.Heat.
PALS’ NEW FALL CLASS SCHEDULE.
Perimeter Adults Learning & Services
(PALS) has announced its fall Lunch ‘n’
Learn schedule, eight weeks of Monday
classes that run through November 5. The
interfaith group holds its classes at
Dunwoody Baptist Church, 1445 Mount
Vernon Road. Some of the interesting classes
include: Charles Lindbergh—Hero or
Traitor?; a class on Nazi Germany, taught
by Susan Barnard; The Life & Times of
Winston Churchill; Shakespeare’s
“Problem Plays”; and classes on chess,
exercise, mah jongg, opera, bridge, and
other topics. For more info, check
www.palsonline.org, or call 770-698-0801.
ZBT ROCKS. Last issue, we got so carried
away with talking about the great work of
Zeta Beta Tau fraternity’s Jim Summers
that we ran a photograph wrongly identified
as he. So here is an actual photo of Jim,
who helps run ZBT’s Atlanta Area Alumni
Association and is director of development
for the foundation. Jim also gave us an
that he should learn to paint. She added
that she would be willing to teach him.
Thus began a new chapter in his life. Two
years later he won the Dogwood
International show, and local and national
galleries began showing his work.
One of the series he has created is
made up of paintings of Jewish life. He
and his family moved many times within
the city, but this collection is based on the
eight years he lived in Brighton Beach. He
says that this section was a religious, traditional,
and a culturally Eastern European
Jewish community. The residents, including
his parents, were first-generation
Americans, and many were refugees from
the concentration camps of Germany and
Poland. The paintings are made up of
snapshots of what he remembers—-the
colors, the smells, and the deep accents of
that population.
update on all
the exciting
news about
ZBT since our
last report.
Locally, the
Mu Colony, at
the University
of Georgia, is
moving into a
new house for
the fall
ZBTʼs Jim Summers
semester. The
House Blessing and Dedication was conducted
by Rabbi Ronald Gerson, recently
retired after serving twenty years at
Congregation Children of Israel in Athens,
and Joel Marcovitch, director of Hillel at
UGA. Among the Atlanta area alumni
attending was Buckhead Mayor Sam
Massell, president of the Buckhead
Coalition, who graduated UGA in 1948.
Faron Lewitt (front, left) and Keith
Bailey; (back, from left) Laurence
Bolotin, Sam Massell, Grant Bickwit,
and Alan Cason
About the cover artist, Fred Budin
Budin says that his work “evolved
into a style where I designed irregular canvas
with very heavy texture (mainly of
items he found).” In addition to his series
on Jewish life, he has a number of other
series, including subject matter related to
Georgia, New York, music, sports, animals,
and a number of other subjects. He
has shown in many different venues
around the country, and he has a number
of his works in corporate collections.
He now lives in Hoschton, Georgia,
45 miles outside of Atlanta along
Interstate 85, and centuries away from the
Brighton Beach of his youth. You can see
his work in Atlanta at Worthmore Jewelers
at 500 Amsterdam Avenue, N.E., or at its
store on the Square in Decatur. You can
learn more about his work at his web site,
www.fredbudin.com.

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 7
Memories of the Atlanta Olympic
and Paralympic Games
Along with hundreds of other
Atlantans, I volunteered my services for the
Paralympics, which took place here in
August 1996, following the Olympics.
Because Russian is my second language, I
was attached to the team from the Republic
of Moldova.
After many training sessions with
coaches and other local officials, it was
time to go to the former Sears building, on
Ponce de Leon Avenue, to pick up our uniforms
and photo ID badges. I was identified
as an envoy for my team. The little knifeand-fork
logo on my badge indicated that I
could eat in the cavernous mess hall tent, in
the middle of the Georgia Tech campus,
where the athletes were housed and some
venues were located. The dorms were
newly built, and the Olympic athletes had
just vacated them two weeks earlier.
I have many happy memories of those
two weeks at the Paralympics, including
marching with the Moldova flag bearer in
the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and
transporting and translating for the small
six-man team.
I smile when I think of their request to
take them shopping at “Volmart.” I commandeered
a van and driver from the huge
motor pool, and off we went to the nearest
Walmart, where they shopped, till I
dropped, buying “jins” (jeans), boots,
shoes, and knickknacks for their families
back in Moldova. I was sorta glad and really
exhausted by the time I accompanied
them to the Atlanta airport, giving them a
Steve Selig,
left, greets
the Israeli
Paralympic
team at the
Federation
reception
BY
Balfoura Friend
Levine
big “dosvidaniya” (good bye) as they
caught their flight.
All team coaches (called “chef,” which
is French for “chief”) and envoys were
privileged to attend various receptions,
including one given by Japan, which would
be hosting the 1998 Winter Olympics, in
Nagano, and the very elegant dinner party
at the Fox Theater’s Egyptian Ballroom,
given by Australia, which would host the
2000 Summer Olympics, in Sydney. The
Atlanta Federation hosted a lovely reception
for the Israeli Paralympic team, where
I was super-delighted to meet “our boys”
and wish them a hearty “Shalom, Shalom.”
Security was extra tight for that team wherever
they went, whether it was to an activity
or the dormitory at the Olympic Village.
And guess what? I just looked at the
beautiful pure silk scarf that was part of our
dress uniform for the ceremonies, and the
tag says “Made in Korea.” You’ll recall that
Ralph Lauren caught a lot of flak because
his USA Olympic uniforms for the London
games were made in China!
Shana Tova, y’all, and God Bless
America.
Bo Levine at the mess hall at the
Georgia Tech Olympic Village
The
Republic of
Moldova
team at the
Closing
Ceremonies
with Bo
Levine,
far right

Page 8 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
Atlantan’s bar mitzvah project part of a continuum of giving
By Jeanie Franco Marx
Three years ago, when Jack Morgan, a
rising 10th grader at Northview High,
decided to train a yellow lab/golden retriever
puppy as his bar mitzvah project, he
knew he’d made a commitment: to love,
teach, and bond with a pup named Tara for
14 months, then give her up to help someone
with a disability. It would be a sacrifice,
because he loves dogs so much, but if it
would benefit someone else, he was ready
to do it.
Tara went to class twice a week for
more than a year. “Every Thursday night,
Jack was in charge of taking Tara to class,”
reports his mother, Marci Morgan. The
whole family participated in raising Tara,
but Marci and Jack were the primary caregivers.
After more than a year of getting
attached to Jack and his family, Tara spent
another year in training with Canine
Companions for Independence—first in
Orlando and then in Santa Rosa,
California—to determine what type of person
she would be best suited for.
Eventually, the Morgans, of Johns
Creek, Georgia, learned about filmmakers
Tami Pivnick and Susan Broude, of Sedona,
Arizona, who adopted Tara in January
2011. Tami is hearing impaired; she reads
lips but cannot hear the phone or doorbell
ring. But Tara can. She knows how to let
Tami know whether it’s her cell phone or
the doorbell; she also alerts Tami to emergency
sirens, smoke detectors, and signal
from appliances such as the microwave,
washer, and dryer. “Tara responds to different
sounds,” says Tami, as Tara rests on her
feet. “She also lets me know when Susan is
calling me from the other side of the
house.”
This dog is food-trained, Tami
explains. “We withhold food, because she
must be within a certain weight. She’s an
athlete; she’s always working.” If someone
knocks at the door, she’ll poke Tami. “She
usually goes to the door first, then comes
and gets me.”
The couple was in town, at Atlanta’s
Sophia Academy, to preview their powerful
documentary, Bullied to Silence, a visual
and emotional journey into the lives of
teens who’ve been bullied and scarred for
life. “It also presents the bully and goes
beyond the tragedies of ruined lives to offer
a message of hope,” says Susan. “This film
offers the viewer a chance to be a catalyst
for change, to stop the verbal and cyberbullying.”
All film participants are willing
to consult with any troubled teen. Some of
those who did not survive their trials by bullies
still live through stories told by family
and friends.
The filmmakers seek funding to give
their film “legs,” so it can travel to schools
everywhere. They hope to teach educators,
parents, and students about the seriousness
The Morgan family with Tara: (front,
from left) Dick, Marci, and Michael;
(back) Jack
of bullying, in order to stop this continuum
of pain.
At the Atlanta screening, when the film
ended, there was silence, then everyone
applauded and many were emotional.
Questioning hands went up all over the
auditorium.
“What do you do when a teacher
allows bullying?” asked one student.
Another admitted to being bullied at
school. “Are any of these bullies in this
room?” asked the filmmaker. “Yes,” he
replied.
“It’s never about you,” Susan explains.
“It’s about the bully needing to feel good
about himself or herself. Find a way to be
heard,” she urges. “Take responsibility.
Report it.”
Full circle: Jack Morgan gets a
long-awaited visit from Tara, the
puppy he trained to be a service
dog
Susan Broude, Tami Pivnick, Tara, Jack Morgan, and Marci Morgan
The duo finished the film in a year,
working 16-hour days, seven days a week.
“The worst kind of bullying is any bullying,
if it hurts you inside,” says Susan. “The
most important thing to do is not to stay
silent. If you do, you start to disappear.” For
information, visit
www.bulliedtosilence.com.
After the film’s preview, Tara’s two
families finally met. There were hugs and
thanks all around, and Tara sniffed and got
excited, reacquainting herself with her first
family.
Jack Morgan’s bar mitzvah project had
come full circle. Instead of just receiving
gifts, he gave a gift—one that keeps on giving.

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 9
The news, then and now: a conversation with Bob Bahr
BY
George
Jordan
This Rosh Hashanah, when Bob Bahr
looks out over the congregation at Shema
Yisrael—The Open Synagogue, where he has
led High Holidays services for the last five
years, he’ll be speaking to a very different
audience from the one he had for nearly 25
years as an award-winning writer, producer,
and news executive at CBS News, in New
York, and later at CNN, in Atlanta. As I
learned when we sat down to talk, he’s seen a
lot of changes.
What were your impressions of CBS News
when you worked there in the ‘70s?
I had begun my career as a foreign correspondent
in London, for Westinghouse
Broadcasting, which owned an important
chain of television and radio stations in the
United States. When I returned to New York
as a reporter and producer at CBS News, the
three broadcast networks dominated what
Americans saw and heard about America.
CBS was at the top of the heap, with a
nightly half hour newscast that was headed by
what some considered, then, the most trusted
man in America, Walter Cronkite. Just how
trusted he was is clearly outlined in an excellent
new biography. He was surrounded by a
team of experienced and capable journalists,
many of them Jewish-Americans.
They included Daniel Schor, Marvin
Kalb, Bernard Kalb, Mike Wallace, Leslie
Stahl, Morley Safer, Mort Dean, Robert
Schakne, and Murray Fromson, to name just a
few. Behind the scenes, the producer of “The
Evening News” was Sanford Socolow, and
the producer of “60 Minutes” was Don
Hewitt.
When I arrived there, William S. Paley,
who had started the company in 1926 with the
money his Russian Jewish immigrant parents
had made in the cigar business, was still
active in running the company. He had helped
to guide CBS News to the influential role it
had played for decades.
A keen competitor in the business of
commercial broadcasting, he was justifiably
proud of what the press often called CBS in
those years, the “Tiffany Network.” There
was a special aura around the CBS Broadcast
Center, at Tenth Avenue and 57th Street,
where both the “CBS Evening News” and “60
Minutes” were produced. When I walked in
there for the first time, it was like walking
into a sacred shrine.
Working alongside men who had become
popular icons in everyday life and were shaping
American public opinion every day was
heady stuff for a 26-year-old journalist, like
myself, just back from London.
You worked for the national CBS News operation
in Atlanta as well, didn’t you?
When I moved to Atlanta to continue my
career at the CBS News office here, in the
mid-‘70s, Ted Turner was just beginning his
rise as the owner of WTBS, a local Atlanta
station, which had its office on West
Peachtree Street, downtown. He was one of
the first to realize the power that new technology
held for popular entertainment generally
and for broadcasting in particular.
WTBS became the Superstation, as
Turner renamed it, when he rebroadcast the
station’s programs
around the country by
satellite. A few years
afterward, he took
advantage of the rapid
growth of cable television
and the new technologies
that came with
it, to start CNN in what
had been the old
Progessive Club, one of
Atlanta’s Jewish country
clubs, on Techwood
Drive, just north of 10th
Street. The old clubhouse,
with not many
changes, housed CNN’s
first offices. Downstairs,
they added a cheap steel
building for studios and
built an antenna farm for
the many satellite transmissions
that came in there. Today, Time-
Warner, which bought out Turner several
years ago, has built a huge production facility
there.
What has been the impact of new technology
on the way we view the news?
CBS didn’t take the new challenge of
CNN very seriously at first, nor did many others.
It was several years before CNN was
granted full broadcast press privileges at the
White House, for example. The Internet was
still a few years off, and high-speed satellite
and DSL cable to bring it all into the home
were even farther off.
But it was CNN’s Ted Turner, not CBS’s
Bill Paley, who was the ultimate visionary of
broadcasting’s future in the late decades of
the 20th century. The days that I, a CBS News
reporter, could stand in a cornfield in Iowa
and know that the story I was working on that
day might be seen by a hundred million people
in America who had access to the CBS
Evening News are long over.
The three major broadcast networks
helped to define us as Americans during much
of the latter half of the 20th century. They
helped to shape a national consensus on such
crucial issues as our role in the world and our
obligations to one another and to those who
have not always been full partners in the
American dream. Today, that’s all been
scrambled and fragmented.
How have news and journalism changed
since then?
News gradually has become not something
you sit around watching only during the
dinner hour but something you watch whenever
you want. Sitting at a computer keyboard
today, you can make the news yourself. There
are said to be over seventy million blogs, reg-
ularly written by people all over the world.
Facebook, Google, and YouTube are literally
responsible for revolutionary changes in the
way people see themselves, as citizens of
America and the world. The PR industry has
gained an enormous influence.
At the same time, as technological
changes and changes in American life have
contributed to the decline of the broadcast
networks as unchallenged
opinion makers,
the corporations that
own the networks are
still a powerful economic
force. CBS earnings
in the first quarter
of 2012 were up 80%.
The head of CBS, Les
Moonves, a nice Jewish
boy from the Bronx,
last year took home an
astonishing paycheck of
nearly $70 million dollars.
Of course, it helps
the bottom line when
you leave most of the
serious cultural and
documentary production
in America to public
broadcasting and the
people at CNN.
The networks are working very hard to
play technological catch-up. You may not
watch the CBS News like you used to or pay
much attention to the present anchor of the
CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley, but CBS
still dominates many of the hours we spend
each day watching entertainment, whether on
the Internet, smartphones, cable and satellite,
or traditional broadcasting. CBS still owns a
large group of very profitable local stations,
including WUPA, channel 69, in Atlanta. It
also owns Showtime, Movie Channel, and
Bob Bahr
another broadcast network, with Time-
Warner, the CW Network. A few years ago, it
spun off Viacom, which owns a long list of
cable channels from MTV to Nickelodeon
and Comedy Central. It owns a couple of
dozen cable channels in all, as well as
Paramount studios.
NBC News has recently reorganized its
news division to incorporate the cable channels
it owns, MSNBC and CNBC. CNN is
also a part of a vast media blockbuster. In his
new memoir, Dan Rather lays out in stark
detail just how deep these connections have
become between huge modern corporations,
individual politicians, and the political
process.
How people get their news, how news is
shaped and defined, and how people use it is
not nearly as simple as it once seemed to be.
The bottom has fallen out of the newspaper
business, and, according to the most recent
surveys, so has our confidence in newspapers.
Only 25% of us trust them; that’s half of what
it was thirty years ago. Same thing with TV
news—only 21% trust what we see on TV. As
Americans, we’re probably less trusting of
one another too.
Where’s all this leading?
Well, at one time, the broadcast networks’
news operations stood for authority.
Today the greatest casualty of communication
technology is authority, the hierarchies that
support authority, and individual authority
figures. In such diverse fields as medicine,
religion, education, business, and politics,
authority has been undermined. And because
it’s happening so fast, it’s causing great turmoil.
We just don’t seem to agree on how to
reconstitute authority in our new age. In short,
Walter Cronkite is gone, and he’s not coming
back.
Beryl H. Weiner is one of the early contributors to The Jewish Georgian. The following
is a poem that he composed with the assistance of his wife, Eleanor Weiner, as a
memorial to his friend Dr. Robert L. Bunnen.
Much More
I pray for my friend of seventy years awaiting an angel to soothe the pain,
Relieve the suffering, which he bears with all the courage of any soldier.
God, please let him enjoy another spring with its beauty -
dogwoods, azaleas, gardenias, hydrangeas and much more.
Bob is a friend and much more, as close as a family member,
my brother, my cousin, my in-law.
A mench? Much more.
Much more than a dental specialist, a gentleman who always
extends kindness and gentleness to everyone he meets,
An athlete, like a tennis pro, who could teach much.
Bob is a generous philanthropist and a man of impeccable integrity,
always maintaining high standards in all of his endeavors.
Much more than that, he is a father, a grandfather,
a husband and a role model as a family man.
God bless you, Bob Bunnen.

Page 10 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
BUSINESS BITS
By Marsha Liebowitz
TOURIAL AT GDA. Sidney R. Tourial,
DDS, is the new
president of the
Georgia Dental
Association. Dr.
Tourial received
his DDS from
Emory University
School of
Dentistry and
practices in
Sandy Springs.
Dr. Sidney Tourial
He is past president,
Northern
District Dental
Society; past international president, Alpha
Omega Dental Fraternity; fellow, American
College of Dentists; fellow, International
College of Dentists and Pierre Fauchard
Academy; and a GDA Honorable Fellow.
He has served on the Atlanta Jewish
Community Center Board of Directors,
Epstein School Board of Directors, and
twice as president of Congregation Or
VeShalom. He and his wife, Susan, reside in
Sandy Springs.
LEGGE NAMED ASSOCIATE
PROVOST. Jerome Legge, who has served
as interim associate provost for academic
planning at the University of Georgia since
January, has been named to the post on a
JSU News
NIGHT OWLS. The recent 2nd annual
Jewish Student Union of Atlanta and
NCSY All Nighter was a resounding success,
attracting over 250 teens from
almost 35
Greater
Atlanta high
schools. The
All Nighter
was held at
Andretti’s
Entertainment
, as the culmination
of a
shabbos
weekend
event. The
shabbos portion
of the
weekend
closed with
inspirational
words from Rabbi Chaim Neiditch, at a
moving havdalah ceremony.
The entertainment began with a gokart
race among the JSU club presidents,
cheered on by enthusiastic supporters
from their respective clubs. An extreme
permanent basis.
Legge most
recently served
as associate dean
of UGA’s School
of Public and
International
Affairs and also
has been director
of the school’s
highly ranked
master of public
Jerome Legge administration
program. He
taught graduate courses in research methods
and program evaluation in the department of
public administration and policy, as well as
an undergraduate course on the Holocaust
and contemporary German politics in the
department of international affairs.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTAND-
ING. The Metro Atlanta Chamber and
Federation of Israeli Chambers of
Commerce entered into a joint agreement at
the conclusion of the July 18 “Exporting to
Israel” seminar, coordinated with the
American-Israel Chamber of Commerce,
Georgia Department of Economic
Development, and Consulate General of
Israel to the Southeast. The Memorandum
of Understanding includes: exchange of
information on possibilities for market
research, trade fairs, exhibitions, and trade
ropes course, unlimited-access arcade,
bowling alley, rock climbing wall, and a
host of other indoor attractions kept participants
wide awake and active throughout
the
night. To
boot, an
N C S Y
alumnus
helped create
a party
atmosphere
as the
event’s DJ,
by pumping
awesome
simcha
music;
dancing in
JSU All Nighter held at Andrettiʼs
the sky
lounge lasted
into the
wee hours.
News of the event has reached many
across Greater Atlanta, and there have
been several requests to open more JSU
clubs this coming school year.
missions organized in their countries; support
and cooperation in organizing and
exchanging trade delegations; and assistance
in organizing lectures, symposiums,
and other events promoting further development
of economic relations between their
countries.
MACʼs Jorge Fernandez (left) and
FICCʼs Uriel Lynn sign Memorandum
of Understanding, with Tom Glaser
witnessing.
ABBADABBA’S IN EAST COBB. Atlanta
footwear purveyor Abbadabba’s has opened
a new store, the company’s largest retail
space, at 1255 Johnson Ferry Road,
Marietta. Located in Market Plaza, just
south of Merchants Walk, the space marks
the relocation of the Roswell store, which
closed March 30; no jobs were lost in the
transition. Abbadabba’s focuses on offering
footwear that helps people enhance their
overall health, activities, and passions.
Major brands include the Israeli company
Naot together with Toms, Vibram Five
Fingers, Birkenstock, Dansko, Chaco,
Merrell, Dr. Martens, Converse, Vans,
Clarks, Frye, New Balance, and more. For
more information, including locations, visit
www.coolshoes.com.
Abbadabbaʼs new store in East Cobb
SMALL BUSINESS BANKER. Bank of
America has appointed Jonathan Lyons as
small business banker for Sandy Springs
and East Cobb. With more than 25 years’
experience working with small businesses,
Lyons will provide more personalized attention
to small business owners and enable
clients to have convenient access to local
small business expertise from a dedicated
resource. Lyons will work primarily at the
Bank of America Sandy Springs branch but
will also service the Parkaire and Shallow
Falls locations. He lives in Marietta and is
active with the East Cobb Rotary,
Congregation Etz Chaim, and Eastside
Baseball. For information, visit
www.bankofamerica.com.
NEW PROGRAM. The Greenfield Hebrew
Academy welcomes
Dr.
J e n n i f e r
Rosenberg and
her new program
for gifted students,
the Etgar
(Challenge)
Program. In
addition to meeting
the needs of
students identi-
Dr. Jennifer
Rosenberg
fied as gifted or
high achievers,
Dr. Rosenberg
will provide enrichment opportunities in
reading and language arts classes, as well as
differentiated teaching in every classroom.
Dr. Rosenberg already has language arts and
math enrichment opportunities in place for
elementary school students, and she is
assisting Middle School teachers in promoting
higher levels of thinking in all classes.
DIRECTOR OF DRAMA. Taryn Bryant is
GHA’s new
director of
drama. Ms.
Bryant, who has
spent the past
decade as a professional
singer,
actor, and teaching
artist, brings
all her experience
as a performer
and edu-
Taryn Bryant
cator to GHA
Middle School
students. Ms. Bryant’s plans include staging
one play and one musical per year; she
offers training in behind-the-scene skills as
well. She believes that combining arts and
education is as important to students’ academic
development as it is to their emotional
development.
MASON AT YESHIVA. Dr. Pamela Mason
is the new school
counselor at
Yeshiva Atlanta.
She received her
undergraduate
degree in psychology
from
Barnard College,
Columbia
University, and
her Ph.D. in clinical
and school
Dr. Pamela Mason
psychology from
H o f s t r a
University, studying the impact of cultural
and religious factors on body image and eating
behaviors among Jewish Orthodox adolescents.
As a school psychologist at
Ardsley High School, Westchester County,
New York, she implemented a comprehensive
skills program to help teens improve
their ability to regulate their emotions and
improve interpersonal skills; the program
was the first of its kind in a mainstream
school setting.

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 11
By Ruben Stanley
Caring for loved ones at home
From everything we read, and from many of our own personal experiences and observations, it has become more and more evident that our population is living longer and is requiring
more attention and care. Needs differ, as do methods of handling these. One of these is to care for the individual at home rather than at a residential facility.
Because of this, two businesses in the local community engaged in serving this market have several ideas and thoughts that might be helpful in addressing the needs. Below are
these suggestions.
A Caring Approach
As a result of Jeffrey Taratoot’s own personal
experience with the difficulty of managing
the care of an elder parent, he saw the need
for a boutique-style
home care business.
Four years ago, he
joined with fellow
Atlantan Lester
Czuper, and, together,
they started A Caring
Approach.
With a projection
of over 50 million
adults in the United
States by the year
2025, and the desire of
many of these to stay in
their own house with
their cherished memories,
services are now
available to accomplish
this. Years ago, seniors
had little choice but to
live with family, move
to nursing homes, or
seek assisted-living facilities. But now, there
are multiple private home care companies that
can work with families so that loved ones can
safely remain in their home.
Taratoot believes that home-care operatives
should visit with their clients and put a little
extra warmth into the relationship. He says
“we like to do special things for our clients
such as delivering honey for Rosh Hashanah
for our Jewish clients. We even take some
clients to Shabbat dinner so the tradition continues.”
There are other services that help seniors
stay in the home. Taratoot said that if a family
member is ill and has multiple doctors and
feels overwhelmed, SeniorCare Options is an
Lester Czuper and Jeff Taratoot
excellent resource. They provide assessments
of your loved one’s current needs, offering
solutions including “caring at a distance” for
families living out of
the area. Services
include participation in
doctor’s appointments
to monitor appropriate
medical needs and
being the “Ultimate
Advocate” to ensure
you get the care you
and your loved one
deserves.
Taratoot said that,
if needed, there is also
help with paying bills
and getting documents
ready for yearly tax
returns. He mentioned
that one such company
is Personal Financial
Management Services.
That company will collect
all the bills, issue
checks and work with the family to ensure the
checkbook, bank accounts, and monthly bills
are up to date. It will also help organize all the
documents necessary to hand over to a CPA for
tax preparation.
Yes, many services are available, but they
can be costly. Taratoot concluded that it is best
to prepare now. Long Term Care insurance,
according to him, is an excellent product that
can pay benefits toward private home care, and
this is something that he feels should definitely
be investigated.
You can find out more about a Caring
Approach at www.acahomecare.com or telephone
them at (770) 396-0996.
MJCCA NEWS
NEW CMO. Marsha Gilmer Strazynski has
accepted the position of chief marketing officer
of the Marcus Jewish Community Center
of Atlanta.
Marsha spent the bulk of her career
at two global leaders in their industries. At
Feld Entertainment, Vienna, Virginia, she
served as VP—marketing for Disney On Ice
and Disney Live! for almost eight years. Prior
to that, she worked at Coca-Cola North
America, Atlanta, for twenty-three years in
numerous marketing capacities, including
regional and local advertising, brand manage-
Marsha G. Strazynski
ment, and promotions.
A native
Atlantan, Marsha
is a graduate of
the Greenfield
Hebrew Academy
and Grady High
School; she spent
many fun-filled
hours at the
Peachtree location
of the Atlanta
J e w i s h
CareMinders Home Care
Since receiving her bachelor’s degree in
nursing from Emory University in 1986, Lisa
Reisman has worked as a caregiver her entire
professional life.
For the first 20
years, her work
was in the pediatric
field progressing
to a private
practice as a
pediatric nurse
practitioner after
earning her master’s
degree from
Georgia State.
In 2006,
after experiencing
the difficulties
encountered
in dealing with
the care required by her ill father, she decided
to change professional directions. Wishing to
remain in the medical field and motivated by
the disappointments she encountered, she saw
an opportunity to help others facing similar
problems. That was when she founded her own
franchise of CareMinders Home Care to service
North Atlanta, Dunwoody, and Sandy
Springs, the community where she has lived
for the last fifteen years with her husband and
three boys.
Reisman stressed that it is important to
realize there are all levels of help that is available.
The amount of time, the level of professional
training, the scheduling of services, and
other particular requirements can vary, and all
can be tailored to needs of the parties. The
important thing is to determine the requirements
of both the individual needing attention
and the person or persons who are overseeing
Community Center, while participating in
B’nai Brith Chapter Bat Tovah. She is also a
graduate of the University of Georgia. Marsha
and her husband, Mark, have three children.
REMEMBERING THE MUNICH 11. On
July 27, the MJCCA and the Consul General
of Israel to the Southeast commemorated the
40th anniversary of the massacre of 11 Israeli
athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
This was the greatest tragedy to ever occur in
the history of the Olympic Games.
On the morning of September 5, 1972,
Palestinian terrorists from Fatah’s Black
September organization scaled the fence
around the Munich Olympic Village. Armed
with machine guns and grenades, they immediately
killed two Israeli athletes and took
nine others hostage, later killing them.
the care.
She emphasized that home care offers an
additional advantage. By being at home and
not at a facility,
the person does
not have to
change his or
her lifestyle to
accommodate
the rules of that
establishment. It
is important for
the client to
interview potential
providers to
ascertain their
training and
experience,
check on their
insurance coverage,
and get a feel for that intangible personal
touch. While there are definitive services that
are required, it really does come down to making
sure that these are done in a warm, caring
way.
Based on the knowledge she has acquired
from working in this field, she has found that
there is a Veterans Administration benefit that
many eligible clients are unaware of. There is
a provision whereby veterans who served at
least ninety days of active duty where at least
one day of service occurred during a wartime
period, regardless of whether or not the veteran
was engaged in actual combat, may qualify
for a special benefit for home care. There is
also a provision for spouses.
You can find out more about CareMinders
at caremindersdunwoody. com or telephone
Lisa at (770) 551-9533.
Lisa Reisman
Jewish communities around the globe
asked the International Olympic Committee to
agree to one minute of silence at the 2012
Opening Ceremony, in London, to pay tribute
to those killed in Munich. But IOC President
Jacques Rogge said, “The Opening Ceremony
is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember
such a tragic incident.”
Instead, on Friday, July 27, the day of the
Opening Ceremony, communities around the
world each held their own minute of silence.
Atlanta’s minute of silence took place at
The Olympic 11 Garden, created by Sharon
and Mike Levison, at the MJCCA. Attendees
included the Honorable Opher Aviran, consul
general of Israel; Honorable Lutz H. Görgens,
consul general of Germany; and Jeff
Galloway, a member of the 1972 U.S.
Olympic Team.

Page 12 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012

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Page 18 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
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Georgia College students take play
about Holocaust hero to Czech Republic
Zack Bradford as Jan Wiener and Jordan Hale as a British fighter pilot
teaching Jan Wiener to fly
Georgia College actors pushed artistic
boundaries this summer in an inspiring performance
about Czech Republic hero and
Holocaust survivor Jan Wiener (1920-
2010). The play, The Flights of Jan Wiener,
was written by Karen Berman and Paul
Accettura; they were inspired by Rabbi
Neil Sandler, of Ahavath Achim
Synagogue, when he talked about Wiener
during 2011 High Holiday services.
Nine theatre students traveled nearly
5,000 miles to celebrate the legacy of
Wiener, during the annual European
Regional Theatre Festival, Central
Europe’s largest international festival.
“We’re the only academic student
group that performs annually at the festival,”
said Dr. Berman, chair of the Georgia
College Theatre Department. “This festival
attracts more than 200 performances, which
include plays, concerts, exhibitions, and
workshops.”
During the festival, the student actors
gave four stage performances of The
Flights of Jan Wiener in the Czech
Republic capital, Prague, and the town of
Hradec Králové. Hundreds saw the play,
including Wiener’s widow, Zuzana Wiener.
“Zuzana attended the play and ran
onstage to hug our actors after the third curtain
call,” Berman said. “During lunch with
us at a restaurant dedicated to her husband’s
life, she told us about her work as a dance
teacher and film instructor, urging our students
to ‘follow your heart, and you will
always be happy.’”
The Flights of Jan Wiener explores
political issues surrounding the legacy of
Wiener, who escaped Nazi occupation and
fought for the United Kingdom’s Royal Air
Force (RAF) during World War II.
Georgia College senior theatre major
Amy Carpenter played Wiener’s stepmother,
Eva Wiener.
“The play took on a new meaning
when we met Zuzana,” said Carpenter.
“When she gave us firsthand accounts of
the events we portrayed on stage, suddenly
everything we did and said had more
weight. My biggest challenge was getting
the emotions correct for the suicide scene.
It was a hard place, but I trusted my fellow
actors and myself.”
The play also stretched the student
actors physically. Students used their bodies
to create a British bomber plane and a
barbed wire fence.
“At one point I was upside down for
several minutes to create the back of a
plane,” Carpenter said. “It was really hard.
I had to teach myself to live in a place
where I could find peace, since my body
was so uncomfortable.”
Born into a Czech-German Jewish
family in Hamburg, Germany, in 1920,
Wiener fled Hitler’s Germany with his family
to Prague, Czechoslovakia, only to find
himself on the run again after the Nazis
overran Czechoslovakia. Between 1941
and 1942 his father committed suicide and
his mother died in a concentration camp.
Wiener escaped through Italy to join
the RAF. He served as a radio navigator
throughout the war. When the war ended in
1945, he returned to Czechoslovakia.
In 1948, communists took over and
imprisoned Wiener for five years as an
enemy of the state. Wiener emigrated to the
United States in 1964 and became a professor
of history at American University, in
Washington, D.C.
After 1989, Wiener frequented Prague
and eventually moved back for good,
becoming a lecturer at Charles University
and New York University’s campus in
Prague.
After Berman and Accettura wrote the
play, the Georgia College Theatre
Department co-produced it with professional
theatre company Washington Women in
Theatre, of which Berman is a member.
“The play provides an understanding
of Jan Wiener’s contributions as a Czech
hero, U.S. citizen, and American professor,”
Berman said. “He brought Czech culture
to the United States, and we brought
his legacy back to his home to share with
the Czech Republic.”

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 19
BREMAN MUSEUM NEWS
THE STORY OF RICH’S. In 2013, The
William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum
will present a major exhibition about the
history of Rich’s department store. The
exhibition was announced by Breman
Museum Director Aaron Berger, at the
August 19 book launch event for Rich’s A
Southern Institution by Jeff Clemmons.
Rich’s was—and still is—a beloved
institution. Everyone who visited Rich’s
has memories of the Pink Pig, Fashionata,
or the Magnolia Room. However, up until
now, the complete history of the monolithic
company had not been published. In his
new book, historian Jeff Clemmons reveals
the true story, as he traces Rich’s fascinating
137-year history. At the book launch,
Clemmons was interviewed by acclaimed
journalist Maria Saporta. Following the
interview, members of the audience shared
their Rich’s stories, from their experiences
as shoppers, friends, employees, and
Fashionata models.
Jeff Clemmons signing books
BLACK JEWISH COALITION. On
August 16, The American Jewish
Committee and The William Breman
Jewish Heritage Museum presented the
30th Anniversary of the Black Jewish
Coalition. To honor the event, there was a
panel discussion featuring Congressman
John Lewis, Tommy Dortch, Imara Canady,
Elise Eplan, Lois Frank, and Sherry Frank,
who served as the moderator. Atlanta
Mayor Kasim Reed was in attendance and
shared a few memories of his experiences
with the coalition in appreciation. After the
event, Congressman Lewis signed copies of
his new book, Across that Bridge: Life
Lessons and a Vision for Change.
Congressman John Lewis, Breman
Museum Director Aaron Berger, and
Dr. Lili Baxter at The William Breman
Jewish Heritage Museum, celebrating
the 30th Anniversary of the
Black-Jewish Coalition. The
American Jewish Committee Atlanta
and The Breman Museum hosted the
event.
BEARING WITNESS. Over
15,000 children were housed at
the Theresienstadt Concentration
Camp, and only 132 are known
to have survived. Sandy Springs
resident Ilse Reiner is one of
those precious few. On
September 9, at 2:00 p.m.,
Atlantans will have the opportunity
to hear both the story of the
children of the Theresienstadt
Concentration Camp firsthand
and a moving performance by
The Atlanta Young Singers of
Callanwolde. Ms. Reiner will
sign copies of her book immediately
following the presentation.
This program is sponsored by
Hemschech. The William
Breman Jewish Heritage
Museum, 1440 Spring Street, at
the corner of 18th Street across
from The Center For Puppetry
Arts. For more information, visit
TheBreman.org. RSVP at
ilse.eventbrite.com.

Page 20 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
The Jews of Macon, Part II
BY
Stuart
Rockoff
While the late 19th- and early 20thcentury
wave of Eastern European Jewish
immigrants settled primarily in the cities of
the Northeast, a small number came to
Macon. They were tradesmen of all kinds,
including tinners, tailors, and trunk makers.
When a group of thirty Jewish immigrants
arrived in town in 1881, they were greeted
by members of Temple Beth Israel and were
permitted to stay temporarily in the vestry
room of the synagogue, until other accommodations
could be made.
Once settled, many of the recent emigrants
from Eastern Europe had their own
ideas about practicing Judaism. In 1898,
they established a burial society, The
Hebrew Aid Society, and purchased land in
Rose Hill. Soon, they decided to establish
their own, more traditional, synagogue.
On November 10, 1904, 54 men petitioned
the judge of Bibb Superior Court,
W.H. Feldon, Jr., and were granted a charter
incorporating Congregation Sherah Israel.
At first, services were held in rented halls
and then a larger two-story house, which
was also home to the rabbi’s family. Rabbi
Charles Glyck served the newly formed
congregation intermittently, until his death
in 1923. Most of its members were recent
immigrants. As late as 1940, the congregation
still held adult education classes in
Yiddish.
In addition to this new Orthodox congregation,
Beth Israel continued to thrive.
The women of Temple Beth Israel played a
large role in supporting and maintaining the
congregation. Around the time of the semicentennial
in 1909, the Temple Guild and
the Ladies’ Aid Society made contributions
Temple Beth Israel Hanukkah party, 1948
to the congregation. Beginning in 1917, the
Ladies’ Aid Society began calling themselves
the “sisterhood” and became the
strong right arm of the congregation. Since
then, they have assisted in funding a variety
of purchases and improvements, including
tables and cloths, electrical appliances, a
furnace, Sunday School equipment, carpeting
for the sanctuary, a new organ, and even
a Bible for the altar.
By 1909, the Macon Jewish community
was thriving. According to a survey taken
by the Industrial Removal Office, there
were approximately 470 Jews (110 families)
living in Macon at the time. Along
with the two congregations, there was also
a local chapter of B’nai B’rith and a
Progress Club. The IRO report declared that
it was a “fine city for Hebrew gentlemen,”
especially since kosher meat was available
there. In March of 1913, the Industrial
Removal Office officially set up a committee
in Macon to help new immigrants find
work.
The local IRO committee was led by
Gustav Bernd, one of the most prominent
Jews in Macon, who ran a harness-making
company started by his uncle in 1866. But
the invention of the automobile drastically
decreased the demand for saddles and harnesses,
and, by 1922, the company no
longer manufactured those goods, focusing
instead on the hide business. In 1981,
owner-president Gus Bernd Kaufman
retired and sold Macon’s oldest familyowned
company, ending a 115-year tradition.
When America entered World War I,
Macon Jews performed their civic duty.
Rabbi Harry Weiss, of Beth Israel, conducted
services at Camp Wheeler, the local
army base, while the congregation provided
religious services and home hospitality for
Jewish soldiers. Members of both Beth
Israel and Sherah Israel served in the armed
forces. Even before the United States was
officially involved in the war, Jews in
Macon raised money for Jewish War Relief,
an organization that helped victims of the
destruction. In 1917, Macon was made the
state headquarters for the Jewish National
Congress, and delegates from the state traveled
to Washington, D.C., to participate in
the debates concerning the refugees in
Europe and a
proposed
Jewish state in
Palestine.
After
the war, both of
Macon’s Jewish
congregations
expanded. In
1919, Sherah
Israel purchased
land for
a synagogue.
The building
was completed
in 1922. That
same year, the
L a d i e s
Auxiliary for Congregation Sherah Israel
was officially formed at the home of Fannie
Kaplan, with Annie Goldgar as the first
president. In 1920, Rabbi Marcuson
returned to Beth Israel. A new temple
annex, which had been postponed because
of the war, was built and dedicated in honor
of Gustav Bernd, the congregation’s president
who had recently passed away. Beth
Israel invited the members of Sherah Israel
to worship at their temple while the new
synagogue was being built.
Even though the war was over, the
Jewish War Relief organization continued
to raise money for those Jews starving in
Eastern Europe. Among the most generous
contributors was Walter Dannenberg. His
father, Joseph Dannenberg, emigrated from
Germany in the 1850s, but did not arrive in
Macon until after the Civil War. In 1867,
Joseph started a wholesale dry goods store
with Myer Nussbaum. In the 1880s, they
split up and went into business separately.
At age sixteen, Joseph’s son, Walter, joined
the company, and he eventually added a
retail business. The company was a leading
wholesale enterprise, while also becoming
one of the first firms in the country to
departmentalize its retail store.
Dannenberg’s Department Store was
one of the leading stores in Macon. During
the Civil Rights era,
Walter Dannenberg
served on the
Committee of
Businessmen and
Black Clergy and
helped bring about
the peaceful integration
of Macon
Dannenberg
Department Store
ad
s t o r e s .
Dannenberg’s quietly
took down the
segregation signs in
its stores without any official announcement
and proceeded to integrate its lunch
counter without incident. When
Dannenberg’s closed in 1965, it was the
largest department store in the area, but it
had been hurt by the opening of the local
mall. In
order to
compete,
the family
would have
had to renovate
the
s t o r e ;
instead, they
decided to
liquidate the
business.
T h e
start of
World War
II reactivated
Camp
Wheeler in Macon and brought an Air Force
base to Cochran Field, as well as an air
materiel depot to nearby Warner Robins.
Young men from both congregations fought
in the war. Beth Israel’s sisterhood helped
out by throwing temple receptions and hosting
camp social hours. Members of both
congregations threw themselves into work
with organizations such as the U.S.O., Red
Cross, and Bundles for Britain.
Thousands of servicemen and women
found a home away from home in the temple
annex. The Passover Seder held by the
sisterhood was met with such an over-
Shaʼarey Israel (photo: Julian Preisler)
whelming response that it eventually had to
be held in the Shrine Mosque. The Ladies
Auxiliary of Sherah Israel also held Seders
for servicemen.
In 1947, Rabbi Charles Rubel came to
Macon and served Sherah Israel for eleven
years. He helped lead the congregation
away from strict Orthodoxy. During his
tenure, the congregation instituted its first
confirmation ceremony, adopted a new
Conservative prayer book, and affiliated
with the United Synagogue of America, the
national organization of Conservative
Judaism. The congregation remained
strongly Zionist, and a celebration was held
in honor of the United Nations’ decision to
partition Palestine and create a Jewish state.
The following year, a campaign to expand
the building was launched under the guidance
of the congregational president,
Sidney Backer. Two houses next to the synagogue
were bought and torn down to allow
for an expansion. In 1953, Sherah Israel
dedicated its new annex, which featured a
large auditorium, five classrooms, a rabbi’s
study, a library, and a kitchen.
The 1950s was a decade of transition at
Beth Israel. On September 2, 1952, Rabbi
Isaac Marcuson, who had spent over 40
years leading Beth Israel, died at his desk.
Visiting rabbis, the president of the temple,
and other members conducted services until
Newton J. Friedman, of Cleveland, Ohio,
was installed as rabbi the following year. In
1955, the constitution and by-laws were
revised, granting wives the right to vote. In
1957, Rabbi Friedman resigned from Beth
Israel, and Harold L. Gelfman, originally
from Springfield, Massachusetts, was hired
to replace him. Rabbi Gelfman served Beth
Israel until 1976.
During the decades after World War II,
Sherah Israel experienced change as well,
especially in the role of women in the congregation.
In
1958, Mrs.
Henry Koplin
became the
first woman
elected to the
Board of
Governors. In
1960, much
like Beth
Israel five
years earlier,
Sherah Israel
adopted a new
constitution
and by-laws
that granted
wives the right to vote within the congregation.
In 1961, the congregation celebrated
its first bat mitzvah. Ten years later, Beverly
Kruger became the first woman to serve as
an officer of the congregation. By 1974,
they were counting women toward the minyan
and allowing them to receive Torah
honors on the bimah. In 1966, the religious
school began teaching the Sephardic pronunciation
of Hebrew, reflecting the congregation’s
movement away from its
Ashkenazic immigrant roots toward a
See JEWS OF MACON, page 21

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 21
Georgia and the ISJL: perfect partners
The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of
Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) is not only providing
services to communities throughout
Georgia but is also benefiting from the
state’s wonderful resources, individuals,
organizations and what they are able to
offer the ISJL’s constituents.
Michael Scharff, Augusta
Marcia Lindner, Atlanta
Jews of Macon
From page 20
Jewish identity in which Israel played a
central role.
Unlike many other Southern Jewish
communities, Macon’s Jewish population
has remained strong in the decades after
World War II, largely due to the local economy.
The Jewish community of Macon
went from 850 Jews in 1937 to 900 in 1980.
The population seems to have plateaued in
recent decades at around 1,000 people,
though it has likely declined a bit over the
last decade or so. Originally with a cottonbased
economy, Macon became a manufacturing
center. With the coming of the interstate
highways in the 1960s, the economic
focus shifted from agriculture and industry
to retail and service. Much of the local
economy today is based around healthcare,
the financial and insurance industries, and
higher education. As in many other
Southern cities, Macon’s Jewish population
has moved away from retail trade into the
professions.
Today, Macon still has two strong
Jewish congregations. In 1999,
Bari Norden, Ann Dodson, and
Meryl Poku, Macon
This June, the ISJL kicked off the tenth
year of its education program. The ISJL’s
innovative education initiative delivers
much-needed resources to Jewish congregations
in our region, particularly to those
often overlooked and under-served.
Georgia was represented at the conference
in multiple ways. On the participant
side, nine Georgia congregations were represented
by teachers, volunteers, and leaders
of their respective synagogues: Adas
Yeshuren and Congregation Children of
Israel, Augusta; Temple Beth Tefilloh,
Brunswick; Temple Israel, Columbus;
Rodef Shalom, Rome; Ahavath Achim,
Atlanta; Congregation B’nai Israel,
Fayetteville; and Congregation Sha’arey
Israel and Temple Beth Israel, Macon.
In addition to conference participants,
there were also presenters and vendors from
Georgia who enriched this year’s event.
Education consultant Robyn Faintich, of
Jewish GPS, brought her expertise in tech-
Congregation Sherah Israel decided to
return to the community’s original name,
Sha’arey Israel. Rabbi Pamela Gottfried
leads the Conservative congregation. Beth
Israel has shrunk slightly from its peak of
123 families in 1970 to 99 families in 2012,
though the congregation is still vibrant
under the leadership of Rabbi Laurence
Schlesinger.
This history of Macon, Georgia, Part
II, is a segment from the ISJL Encyclopedia
of Southern Jewish Communities. Readers
are invited to learn more about the history
of Jewish communities by visiting
www.isjl.org and looking under the History
tab. The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of
Southern Jewish Life considers the encyclopedia
to be a work in progress and encourages
the public to contact Dr. Stuart
Rockoff at Rockoff@isjl.org with additional
information related to the history of Jewish
communities in Georgia or other communities
of the South. Throughout the Southern
region of the United States, the ISJL provides
educational and rabbinic services,
provides Jewish cultural programs, and
documents and preserves the rich history of
the Southern Jewish experience.
nology and innovation in Jewish education
and kept Twitter conversations going
throughout the event. Karen Paz, of Amit
Atlanta, introduced participants to new and
meaningful ways to engage learners with
special needs and is excited to continue
conversations with the ISJL to further
strengthen communities’ resources in this
area. And everyone loved the books available
from RuthE Levy of And Thou Shalt
Read!
Karen Paz, Amit Atlanta
All told, the ISJL education program
will serve more than 3,000 children and
their families in the 2012-2013 school year.
To learn more about the ISJL and its
programs, visit www.isjl.org, call 601-362-
6357, or find the organization on Facebook
(facebook.com/theisjl) or Twitter
(@TheISJL).
Splish, splash—swimming
adventures with the kids
BY
Marice
Katz
It was a Sunday in July, and the
weather was beautiful. The water was a
little warm, but not bad. Ari is six and will
be seven in October. Cade would turn four
on the 6th of August (my birthday, too).
We all jumped in the pool, and Ari
immediately went under the water and did
a handstand, with her legs directly in the
air. I said that I sure would like to do that,
but every time I went
under, the water
pushed me right back
up. Ari said, “Aunt
Marice, I think you need
to be younger to do that.”
Good point.
Cade entertained us by jumping into
the pool, and then Ari and I raced the
length of the pool. Hate to tell you who
won.
Then, it was time to go in and eat
pizza. Delicious. However, as we sat
there, Cade asked me if I could be a frog,
and I said, why, no. He told me I could if
I said, “Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.” So I did, and
Cade said, “See?”
When they got ready to leave, I
hugged all three of them. When it was
Ari’s turn to be hugged, she said that she
hoped she could spend some time with me
again soon. That put a warm glow on my
face.
Just an added note here: It is true you
need to spend some time during the High
Holy Days reflecting on your life and how
you might improve and become a
better person, as well as
giving thanks for your
blessings. But those kids
brought out my thanks, my
good feelings, and joy in being
with them right then. A good prelude to
the holidays.

Page 22 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
The wonderful symbols of the High Holidays
By David Geffen
An item in The Jewish Chronicle, of
London, dated September 26, 1902, focused
on the consecration of a “Sepher Torah and
Shofar,” in addition to several large barrels
of apples and small containers of honey, all
to be used by Jewish immigrants sailing
shortly for South Africa. The short piece in
the paper stressed that these items were
needed, since “the immigrants will be on the
High Seas during the ensuing festivals.”
The shofar, apples, and honey are
among the most familiar symbols of Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur. An insightful
assessment is made by Amichai Lau-Lavie,
an innovative Jewish educator, about the
importance of the objects we use during the
coming festive season: “During the High
Holidays, we are involved in the verbal
process of acknowledging who we are and
how we wish to change ourselves for the
better. But beyond the words we use, we ‘do
many things and experience the season
through our bodies and not just our minds.’”
Lau-Lavie continues in this fashion.
“We eat certain foods, like apples and honey
and remember the taste and mood of the holiday.
We hear certain sounds, like the shofar,
and we experience something inside that
goes beyond words. The sights, smells, and
feelings all amount to one thing...an integrated
awareness in our bodies and our
minds of the New Year.”
He concludes, “Very often, the things
we do, rather than the things we say, are
what we remember.”
———————-
Initially, let us seek to understand the
meaning of the shofar and its symbolic
value. The shofar is one of the oldest instruments
known to humankind. Mentioned 69
times in the Tanach, it first appears in
Exodus 19:16.
The shofar was used to announce the
Jubilee-Yovel year and the proclamation of
freedom throughout the land. “Thou shalt
cause the shofar to sound...and you shall
hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty
throughout the land to all its inhabitants, and
you shall return every man to his family.”
This verse, from the Book of Leviticus, was
selected, even before the American
Declaration of Independence in 1776, to be
engraved on the Liberty Bell, in
Philadelphia. In Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell
Park, it is possible to examine the replica of
that famous American icon—biblical verse
and all.
Better known to most Jewish people is
the relationship of the shofar to the Yamim
Noraim, the Days of Awe.
In the Book of Numbers 29:1, the shofar
is mentioned in the ritual for Rosh
Hashanah. “You shall observe it as a day
when the horn (shofar) is sounded.”
The shofar was commanded to be part
of the New Year observance by this prescription.
It was defined as a ram’s horn by
the sages who included in the Rosh
Hashanah service the story of Isaac on the
altar and his replacement by a ram caught in
the thicket by its horn.
The horn also became a symbol of
God’s mercy. Hence, the sounding of the
ram’s horn reminded God that He should
forgive the Jewish people their transgressions.
Maimonides taught: “Although the
blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is
a mitzvah for which no reason is stated, it is
as if the shofar were suggesting, ‘Arise from
your sleep, you who slumber. Repent with
contrition. Remember your Creator. Peer
into your soul and improve your ways and
your deeds.’” Then God will forgive you.
The shofar became “the ritual horn” of
the Jewish people as well. When the Torah
was given on Mt. Sinai, the shofar was
sounded. When the walls of Jericho fell, the
shofar was utilized. The victory of the Judge
Ehud ben Gera over the Moabites was
marked by the sound of the shofar. At Ein
Dor, Gideon and his hundred men blew the
shofar as an accompaniment to their surprise
attack.
—-
To be ready, every baal tokea (shofar
blower) must practice so that the tekiah (a
single, unbroken note that in ancient times
was the call to assembly), shevarim (three
short notes that sound like sigh or cry), teruah
(nine notes that are a call to action), and
tekia gedolah (the longest sounding note)
are as perfect as possible.
—-
In June of 1967, when the Israeli army
captured the Western Wall, Chief Chaplain
Shlomo Goren sounded the shofar. When
that victory occurred, I was serving as a
chaplain in the United States Army, stationed
at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. To be honest,
we did not know too much about the war,
because American TV provided limited coverage.
However, about noon on the third or
fourth day of the war, Oklahoma time, I
drove to the post office to pick up our mail.
As I was about to turn off the car’s engine,
there was a newsflash on the radio. The
announcer said that the wall had fallen to the
Israelis, and then I heard, loud and clear, the
tekiah gedolah from the shofar of Chief
Chaplain Goren. What a thrill—one not to
be forgotten.
—-
The first sounding of the shofar each
year takes place during the weekday mornings
of Elul, the month before Rosh
Hashanah. After the recitation of the
Penitential Psalm 27, the tekiah, the shevarim,
and the teruah can be heard. This is a
daily act, except for the Sabbath and the day
before Rosh Hashanah. Most important, it is
a reminder that each individual must prepare
for the days of judgment ahead.
—-
In The Washington Post, on September
15, 2004, just before the High Holidays, a
story titled “A Rabbi’s Unorthodox Revival”
began: “The 30-second television ad begins
with a blast of the shofar, the Jewish ceremonial
ram’s horn. A young bespectacled
rabbi then extends an invitation. ‘Please join
me for an incredible Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur at Washington’s National
Synagogue.’ For a free brochure on the congregation,
he adds, ‘Please call 1-888-8-
Prayer.”’
Many Washington Jews were critical of
this PR blitz by an Orthodox rabbi, but the
shofar caught people’s attention. The phone
rang nonstop, and the shul was packed for
the High Holidays.
—-
When pointing to the specifics of shofar
blowing, the baal tokea must make sure that
the ram’s horn emits 100 notes on each day
of Rosh Hashanah. If the first day of Rosh
Hashanah falls on the Sabbath, the shofar is
not blown on that day, but only on the second
day. This year, however, the first day of
Rosh Hashanah is on Monday, September
17. So the shofar will sound the majestic
tekia gedolah on both days, as well as a
week later, at the end of Yom Kippur,
September 26.
—-
This year and every year, it is important
to recall the words of the Prophet Isaiah
when we hear the sound of our ancient musical
instrument. “A great shofar shall be
blown and they shall come that have been
lost in the land of Assyria and dispersed in
the land of Egypt and they shall worship the
Lord in the holy mountain of Jerusalem.”
———————-
Now, let us turn to the apple-and-honey
treat that is so enjoyed on Rosh Hashanah. A
major source cited for this custom is to be
found in the Biblical book Nehemiah 8:10.
Hana Goodman, in her article on the
“Culinary Art of Rosh Hashanah,” in The
Rosh Hashanah Anthology, pointed out that
after Ezra the scribe had read the “Law” to
the people on the first day of Tishri, they
began to weep. Then Nehemiah said, “Go
your way, eat the fat and drink the
sweet...for this day is holy to the Lord.”
Using this verse as a prooftext, Rabbi Jacob
Molin (1360-1427), better know as
“Maharil,” emphasized that the custom of
eating an apple dipped in honey is rooted in
the Nehemiah source. Molin created the following
formula, which we continue to use,
to be recited after the apple is dipped in
honey: “May it be Thy will to renew unto us
a good and sweet year.”
In recent years, one New Yorker took
this custom to an extreme. In 2007, a man
was arrested atop the Empire State Building,
as he poured honey down the side of the
New York landmark. Supposedly, he told the
police, “There is the Jewish custom of celebrating
the New Year by dipping apples in
honey. What better way to bring in Rosh
Hashanah than by covering the Big Apple in
honey?”
—-
A college student at Cornell University,
Rachel Mattes, put her thoughts about this
holiday treat in the student newspaper. “The
apple, a fruit of the fall and consequently
readily available during the holiday, acts as
a symbol of the season.” Honey, for the
writer, gives us a boost, in the hope of a
sweet year to come. Rachel noted that, “An
apple dipped in honey is a delicious,
crunchy sweet to begin the holiday meal.”
This follows in the wake of what Abaye
taught in the Talmud: “Since an omen is significant—at
the beginning of the New Year,
each person should accustom himself to eat
that which symbolizes sweetness.”
—-
In 2005, Captain Howard Perl was serving
with the United States Third Infantry
Division in Iraq. He recalled his Rosh
Hashanah experience that year.
“On Monday afternoon, I took a helicopter
flight with a Jewish sergeant from
Camp Taji to Baghdad, a 10-minute ride. We
were met by Chaplain Schranz of the U.S.
Navy.” Then Perl described what had been
prepared for Rosh Hashanah: “At the site
used for the services, one congregant had
made an ark for the Torah. We had candles,
kiddush cups, wines, mahzors, challah,
apples, and honey. What more could we
American Jewish soldiers ask for?” The
evening services went well.
“In the morning, the chaplain gave out
aliyot,” he continued. “I had one. I was very
proud that my father’s name was mentioned
in an aliyah in Baghdad, Iraq, for Rosh
Hashanah. After a wonderful meal with
round challahs dipped in honey and especially
made by Filipino bakers, since the
chapel was right on the river, we went
straight out for tashlich.”
Pictures from Baghdad of the ark and
the chapel, along with one of the river used
for tashlich, brought Perl’s description to
life.
See SYMBOLS, page 23

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 23
Three Days at Chautauqua
The Chautauqua Institution might be
described as a summer camp for learningaddicted
adults. It offers a smorgasbord of
studies, alongside a beautiful lake in the
southwestern corner of New York State. Its
main attraction is the possibility for total
immersion each week in a different subject
of intense current interest. When I visited
there this past July, it featured a highly controversial
nation located in the world’s most
fought-over neighborhood.
The British carved this state out of a
colonial possession after World War II. Its
people, long oppressed because of their religion,
were heavily concentrated in a small
area of the land, which the ruling power
promised them as a national home decades
earlier but failed to deliver. Much of the
allotted territory was desert or swampland,
with a disputed border and a portion of the
land separated from the rest and indefensible.
Three times in its short history, this
nation was forced to defend itself in war
Symbols
From page 22
BY Janice Rothschild
Blumberg
—-
Lily Arouch, in her memoir of her
youth in Salonika in the 1930s, described
what was done in her family. “We always
said, ‘Let the New Year be as sweet as
honey.’ Then, as we ate a traditional
Sephardic treat, ‘apple sweet,’ our wish was
that the New Year be both sweet and nice.”
—-
A noted rabbi, Samuel Dresner, once
wrote, “Honey comes from the bee, which
stings, but at the same time, it is able to produce
a sweet food that can add a delicious
flavor to other items.” Dresner now pointed
to the real essence of this sweetness. “We
use honey because it represents the power
of Rosh Hashanah. When we begin a fresh
new year, the past is not always so sweet.
Sometimes, we may have stung and hurt
those close to us. But on Rosh Hashanah,
we turn it all around. The honey we eat on
the holiday reminds us that we are not perfect,
but with a little effort we can achieve
sweetness.”
—-
A visitor to the Golan Heights, in
January 2009, wanted to help her readers
recognize what there is to see in the north-
against its much larger neighbor.
The people of this country are progenitors
of an ancient culture that underlies
much of our Western civilization. Their government
is a parliamentary republic, striving
for democracy, while committed to maintaining
the religious dominance that was the
very raison d’etre for which it sought independence.
Compounding the difficulty in
achieving this is the fact that, within the
broad embrace of their national faith, the
people are divided into several major
denominations, with many subdivisions,
each with its own traditions, rules, and perceptions
of absolute truth. Given this reality,
“religious democracy” becomes an oxymoron.
It also threatens the stability of this
nation, which is crucial to all nations,
because it is known to be a nuclear power.
You realize by now that the country we
studied was not Israel. Like it or not,
Pakistan has striking parallels to the Jewish
state. Much as we love Israel, we can hardly
deny that it, too, has deep problems internally,
especially as it struggles to establish
equal justice for all of its citizens, regardless
of where they stand on (or off) the spectrum
of Judaism. Muslim society has similar
problems, but with infinitely more anger and
variation among its orthodox elements.
ern part of Israel. In doing so, she has provided
a fascinating observation on the
apples we use on Rosh Hashanah. During
the tour, she took her family to see the
Bereshit Apple Packing plant in the Golan,
the largest in Israel, and penned these
thoughts: “You go to the supermarket and
put a bag of apples in your shopping cart.
You have absolutely no idea what the apple
has gone through to get to your cart.” Then
she leaves us with a beautiful apples-people
parallel that is most appropriate for Rosh
Hashanah: “They clean the apples by the
ton; they sort them; they measure them;
they put them through Quality Control; they
sort them again and again and again—a fascinating
process.”
———————-
May the delightful apple and honey
combo inspire us, first, to seek God’s forgiveness
and, then, to make sure that during
the New Year, we transform the sweetness
granted us into the beauty of life in the days
ahead.
Admittedly, I had little interest in
Pakistan when I went to Chautauqua. I was
drawn there because of curiosity about the
place. Founded in the 1870s as a summer
learning program for Protestant religious
school teachers, it is now a mecca for the
intellectually curious of all faiths. It was
there that President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt gave his memorable “I hate war”
speech, in 1936, and where President Bill
Clinton went to prepare for his crucial campaign
debate with Senator Bob Dole, in
1996. Thanks to the generosity of Edith
Everett, in establishing the Everett Jewish
Life Center, Chautauqua currently includes
a Jewish component that brought Deborah
Lipstadt, Jonathan Sarna, Rabbi Joseph
Telushkin, and other luminaries for a Jewish
Writers Conference this summer.
I had no knowledge of this summer’s
program when I chose my dates for visiting
Chautauqua. Atlanta native Brenda
Sugarman Goldberg and her husband,
David, who have a summer home there,
convinced me that July was a good time for
fair weather, and I wanted to hear my friend
Ori Z. Soltes, of Georgetown University,
who usually lectures there the last week of
July. His subjects are always of interest to
me, so I didn’t ask for specifics. In addition
to the lectures, I eagerly anticipated the
opportunity to visit with him, his wife,
Leslie, and their two sons.
Ori gave us a background of Pakistan’s
history and culture, without which the uninitiated,
such as I, would have missed the
import of much that followed. Two major
lectures each day featured such speakers as
former ambassadors from Pakistan to the
United States, a brilliant woman who represents
Pakistan’s tribal territories in parliament,
and the author Akbar Ahmed, familiar
as a CNN consultant on Islamic issues. They
drew huge crowds, filling the great
amphitheater under the big white tent. Their
opinions differed, as did their areas of
expertise. One former ambassador seemed a
bit too diplomatic, glossing over the real
issues faced by our two countries in confronting
terrorism. Most, however, were factual
and frank, candidly admitting that some
of our differences are irreconcilable. They
agreed, essentially, that we Americans
should think of Pakistan as a friend, not as
an ally. Most importantly, they reminded us
that they see issues through their own spectrum,
not ours, as all countries do, a point
that we tend to forget when dealing with
friendly nations.
Although I vacationed at Chautauqua
for only three days this year, it inspired me
to learn more about a timely subject and
hopefully to return for other insights next
summer. Meanwhile, let’s pray for a peaceful
and prosperous New Year for all people,
a year in which the spirit of democracy will
prevail in Israel, in Pakistan, and throughout
the world.

Page 24 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
Holocaust Memorial Museum gives thanks to the Atlanta community
By Brian Katzowitz
In April 2013, the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, in
Washington, D.C., will celebrate the twenty-year
anniversary of its opening. The
museum, which has played host to nearly
30 million visitors, serves as a living tribute
to the millions of people that were lost,
while educating a whole new generation
about the atrocities of genocide and ways to
confront hatred.
While various gatherings and tributes
are planned over the next several months to
mark the milestone anniversary, a special
event will take place in Atlanta—because,
even though Washington, D.C., houses the
physical structure of the museum, its roots
can be traced back to a group of business
leaders in Atlanta.
The museum will take the opportunity,
on November 13, to host a tribute dinner at
The Georgia Aquarium, to thank the Atlanta
community for its leadership and support in
helping conceive, build, and support the
museum.
The dinner will largely serve to recognize
individuals and businesses for their
financial donations to the museum over the
years. However, an important component of
the event will be to share the story of
Atlanta’s connection to the museum, which
goes far beyond a dollars and cents contri-
bution.
Prompted by a memo between members
of the Carter Administration in 1978, a
commission was developed to explore a
permanent memorial to the Holocaust victims.
Local Atlantans Isaac Goodfriend and
Marilyn Shubin served on the commission
and quickly brought Atlanta to the forefront
of the initiative.
Upon learning about the effort to establish
such a museum, Charlie Ackerman, the
prominent Atlanta real estate developer,
offered to co-chair the museum’s capital
campaign, in an effort to inspire the community
to rise to the challenge to help support
the museum and its formation. It wasn’t
long before Ackerman utilized his close
connections to other local business leaders,
like then-CEO of Coca-Cola Roberto
Goizueta, Ira Herbert, and Bernie and Billi
Marcus, to rally the city’s business and
Jewish community to help bring the museum
to fruition.
In addition to honoring Charlie
Ackerman, the Marcus Foundation, and
The Coca-Cola Company, the November
event, which will feature Rwandan genocide
survivor Clemantine Wamariya as a
keynote speaker, will also pay tribute to
several other families who played a key role
during the capital campaign. The dinner’s
honorary co-chairs are the current presidential
appointee to the United States
United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
Holocaust Memorial Council (the governing
board of the museum), Dr. Deborah E.
Lipstadt, of Emory University, and Michael
A. Morris, who served on the council from
2005-2011.
Charlie Ackerman
By Gene Asher
Trying to pick the best Jewish
athletes I have ever seen is, for me,
an impossible job. But trying to pick
some of the best, along with the
unheralded, is possible, although it
will require more than one column.
So for a start, here goes, thanks to
much help from Alan (Buddy)
Rubinson and Norman Greenberg:
Al Loeb, Wilbur Stein, Sandy
Koufax, Larry Sherry, Harry
Kuniansky, Ron Blomberg, Icky
Orenstein, Alfred Berman, The
Furchgotts (Charles and Maurice),
Marvin Rotblatt, Hank Greenberg,
Carl Richard (Chubby) Zwerner,
Stanley Stark, Melvin and Morris
Froug, Bob Silverman, Larry
Lafkowitc, Larry Frank, the Golds
Visitors tour the museum
Roberto Goizueta Billi and Bernie Marcus
Who’s the best?
(Cary and Howie), Jerome Green, the
Dapranos (Bill and Jeanne), Natalie
Cohen, Leman (Buzzy) Rosenberg,
Paul Muldawer, Alan Smith, Charlie
Spielberg, the Edelsteins (Asher &
Ben), the Jacobses (Lenny and
Harris), Ivan Friedland, Roy
Buckman, the Schwartzes of Macon,
the Finkelsteins (Bruce and Milt), Joe
Fox, Asher Benator, Max Benator,
Sandy Seligman, Richard Alterman,
Myron Dwoskin, Ben Shapiro, Clyde
Rodbell, Leonard Diamond, Leon
and Bobby Tuck, Jake Adel, Henry
Moses (Hank) Levinson, Joe Wasser,
Al Rosen, David Elsenberg, Julie
Silverman, Warren Shulman, and the
Wenders (Billy and Donald).
More to come.

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 25
Jewish genetic screenings can identify carriers of genetic diseases
In the past, parents had no way of knowing
if they were carriers of a genetic disease
that could threaten the health and life of their
children—until it was too late and a child
became sick. For Jewish individuals of Central
and Eastern European descent, the potential
danger is particularly great, since one in five
Ashkenazi Jews is a carrier of at least one of 19
different genetic diseases, many of which strike
in childhood. All these diseases are devastating,
incurable and can lead to early death.
Today, with advances in the field of genetics,
scientists have identified the gene mutations
that cause these 19 inherited diseases,
enabling healthy individuals who are screened
before pregnancy to know whether their children
may be at risk.
Making screening widely available and
affordable to potential carriers is the mission of
the Victor Centers for Prevention of Jewish
Genetic Diseases. This is accomplished
through Jewish community education programs
and screening programs for healthy individuals
at risk for being carriers of a gene
mutation for any one of these diseases.
Lois B. Victor, a mother who lost two
daughters to a Jewish genetic disease, founded
the Victor Centers for the Prevention of Jewish
Genetic Diseases. In 2002, the National
Coordinating Office opened at Einstein
Medical Center Philadelphia, part of Einstein
Healthcare Network. Through the generosity of
Lois Victor, other funders and Einstein
Healthcare Network, the Victor Center at
Einstein has screened over 2,000 young adults
to date. Given this success and the ultimate
goal of eradicating the Jewish Genetic
Diseases, the second Victor Program opened in
2005 at floating hospital for Children at Tufts
Medical Center in Boston, and the third center
opened at University of Miami’s Miller School
of Medicine in 2007. Expansion plans for other
Victor Centers across the country are in
progress.
A simple blood test is all that is necessary
to screen for the current Jewish genetic disease
panel of 19, and all at-risk individuals, including
interfaith couples, should be screened, with
the Jewish partner being screened first.
Couples should be screened prior to each pregnancy,
since with advances in testing, the list of
Free to Breathe Atlanta helps fight lung cancer
On August 18, local residents laced up
their sneakers and joined the national movement
to defeat lung cancer, at the third annual
Free to Breathe Atlanta 5K Run/Walk and
1-Mile Walk, at John Howell Park. Proceeds
from the event went to the National Lung
Cancer Partnership’s life-changing research,
education, and awareness programs.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer
death in Georgia and the United States,
claiming the lives of more men and women
than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined.
Free to Breathe Atlanta unites lung
cancer survivors, families, friends, and advo-
cates to form a community of hope, acting as
a local catalyst to create change for everyone
affected by the disease. This year alone, more
than 40 Free to Breathe events in 26 states are
bringing together tens of thousands of people
to help increase awareness of the disease and
raise funds for programs that help patients.
“Free to Breathe events connect people
whose lives have been touched by lung cancer,”
said event organizer Amy Waggoner, of
Decatur. “Together, we’re building a movement
of people committed to finding a cure
for all types of lung cancer within our lifetime.”
In support of Free to Breathe Atlanta
2012, 375 community members, teams, and
local businesses helped to raise more than
$30,700.
Those who were unable to participate in
Free to Breathe Atlanta can take part in the
National Walk Week, November 3-9. During
this week, the Partnership is inviting supporters
across the country to organize teams to
raise funds and show solidarity by walking
around the block, around the neighborhood,
or around town.
For more information, visit www.freetobreathe.org.
known genetic diseases for which screening is
available is constantly being expanded.
Community-wide screenings will be conducted
at Torah Day School on September 9,
10 a.m.-2:00 p.m.; Congregation B’nai Torah,
October 14, 10 a.m.-4:00 p.m.; Temple Sinai,
October 28, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m.; Temple
Emanuel, January 27, 2013, 10 a.m.-2:00 p.m.;
and Or VeShalom on March 3, 2013, 10 a.m.-
2:00 p.m.
Maximum out-of-pocket cost to screen for
19 genetic diseases for individuals with insurance
is $25. For further information, contact
Nancy at 404-561-7478 or e-mail nancy@victorcenters.org.
Participants from the Free to Breathe
Atlanta 2012

Page 26 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 27

Page 28 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 29
Jewish
THE
Georgian
New Year in the Pacific, 1945
By David Geffen
When the atomic bombs fell on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in early August
1945, my father, Lt. Col. Louis Geffen,
who had been a judge advocate in the U.S.
Army since January 1941, assumed that he
would soon be issued his discharge papers.
What a surprise it was, four days later,
when he received orders to join a military
unit shipping out from Oakland, California,
at the end of August, for parts unknown.
His wife, Anna, and I, their son, staying
with Anna’s mother, in Norfolk, Virginia,
were most disappointed.
Louis knew people who were getting
orders to return home and becoming civil-
ians again. But not him. As a judge advocate,
he was conversant with military rules.
Thus, he had no recourse but to board the
ship at the end of the month. What struck
him was the date of embarkation—August
29. That was a mere nine days before Rosh
Hashanah, the first weekend in September.
Just his luck. He would be on the high seas,
in a Navy transport, for the New Year 5706.
Before being drafted in 1941, by a special
order from President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Louis had spent most of his life
in Atlanta, Georgia, where his father,
Tobias Geffen, had been an Orthodox rabbi
since 1910. After high school, Geffen
entered Emory College, where he graduated
with a bachelor’s degree faster than any-
Rosh Hashanah with Mr. Spock
By Ron Feinberg
There is much high ritual associated
with Rosh Hashanah, but certainly one of
the most mesmerizing moments is the
Priestly Blessing.
It’s a bit of spiritual
theater handled
by the Kohanim,
the class of Jews
believed to be
direct descendants
of Aaron, the
Kohen Gadol and
the brother of
Moses.
At our synagogue
in East
Cobb, members of
the congregation
turn their backs on
the Kohanim, mys-
teriously shrouded
in their prayer
shawls, as they
gather together on the bimah in front of the
Ark. The prayer leader slowly chants the
ancient words of the iconic blessing—May
the Lord bless you and keep you; May the
Lord make his face shine upon you and be
gracious unto you; May the Lord lift up His
face unto you and give you, shalom, peace.
The choir of Kohanim responds to each
phrase, chanting the words as they wave
their arms about, their hands held high and
their fingers splayed out in a very, ah,
Vulcan-like fashion. Truth to tell, it’s the
Vulcans—specifically Mr. Spock—who
came up with the
idea of using the
look and style of
the Kohanim.
Most everyone
knows the story of
Spock, a.k.a.
Leonard Nimoy,
coming up with the
Vulcan greeting
based on what he
recalled seeing as a
youngster attending
High Holiday services
with his grandfather.
About all I
have to add is a bit
Spockʼs Vulcan greeting based upon
the Kohanimʼs Priestly Blessing
of shameless namedropping.
Consider
this, then, a New
Year’s gift.
Several years ago, when I was still
working at The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution, I wrote a news brief about a
little controversy brewing in the Jewish
community. Apparently, some local rabbis
one in school history, completing all his
work in two and a half years.
With that first degree in hand, Louis
went to New York, to study at Columbia
Law School. In a distinguished class, he sat
next to Stanley Fuld, who became the chief
justice of the State of New York. Upon
receiving his degree, Louis turned down
offers in New York and returned to the
South—to Atlanta, where his parents and
six of his seven siblings continued to
reside. So, in 1928, having passed the
Georgia Bar, he was back in his hometown
to open an office.
Holy Roots: Farmer D’s
seed-to-soul journey begins
By Daron Joffe
While in the Holy Land in 1992, on a
two-month adventure at Alexander Muss
High School in Israel, I found myself suddenly
surrounded by agriculture, community,
self-sufficiency, and entrepreneurialism.
(The agricultural innovations throughout
Israel were hard to miss despite my teenage
Ibqqz!Ofx!Zfbs
See PACIFIC, page 34
Daron Joffe
Louis and David Geffen at train
station, Portsmouth, Virginia
distractions, which I will choose not to go
into here for the sake of my reputation.)
The kibbutz and moshav movement, in
particular, enthralled me, and I soon found
myself touring and working on some of the
most sustainable farm kibbutzim and
moshavim in the country, such as Kibbutz
See ROSH HASHANAH, page 46 See HOLY ROOTS, page 35

Page 30 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 31

Page 32 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
By Belle Klavonsky
VAULTING TO VICTORY. Epstein School
8th-grader Becky Arbiv (pictured) pole
vaulted her way to compete at nationals,
after she qualified by taking 1st place at the
2012 USATF Region 3 Junior Olympic
Track and Field Championships, with a pole
vault of 8’ 10”. At the 2012 USA National
Track & Field Competition, Becky placed
7th in the nation, with a 9’ 2” pole vault.
Near the end of last school year, Becky also
competed in the 2012 Georgia State Middle
School Championships, where she placed
2nd in high jump, 2nd in pole vault, and 6th
in 300-meter hurdles.
EPSTEIN ON FOX NEWS. While interviewing
Epstein’s Head of School Stan
Beiner for a feature on Internet safety, Fox
News reporter Tacoma Perry became so
intrigued by the school’s blended education
concept that she highlighted it in her report.
Internet safety is integral to Epstein’s curriculum
and will become increasingly
important as Epstein moves toward a blended
education model. The school is redesigning
its approach to education to empower
students to take more ownership of their
education and enable teachers to become
more effective learning facilitators. In
blended education, technology is a fully
integrated component, rather than an
enhancement.
INTERNET SAFETY. As a leader in technology
education, The Epstein School is
committed to proactively addressing issues
surrounding Internet safety with parents,
students, and faculty. After Epstein educators
took part in training provided by
Internet safety expert Ben Halpert, Fox
News Reporter Tacoma Perry interviewed
Epstein Middle School literature teacher
Kathyrn Godwin, to discuss the increasingly
important role of technology in education.
At Epstein, even the furniture is being
adapted to ensure success, as the school
redesigns its educational program to meet
current and future needs.
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. Epstein 1st-8th
graders are busy back at school, getting settled
in their new classes, as they see old
friends and make new ones. Second-graders
Mathew Lewis and Kayla Kornfeld observe
the new flowers that have flourished over
the summer in the school’s Educational
Science and Biblical Garden.
NEW YEAR, NEW GOALS. Seventhgrader
Arly Yagoda enjoys working on her
new laptop, part of The Epstein School’s
transition to a blended education model.
IMAGINATION PLAYGROUND.
Greenfield Hebrew Academy is excited
about its brand-new Imagination
Playground. This groundbreaking playspace,
a gift from the PTSA, is designed to
intrigue younger students, sparking their
imaginations, and encouraging them to
invent their own course of play. Carts full of
bright blue foam shapes, specially designed
to maximize creativity, also promote cooperative
play. GHA is the first private school
in Atlanta to host this revolutionary new
mobile play environment. Here, 2nd-grader
Sam Franco gets interactive with some of
the grooved pieces and creates a ball run.
(All GHA photos: Devi Knapp)
OPEN HOUSE. GHA Head of School
Rabbi Lee Buckman welcomed back stu-
dents and their parents at the school’s Open
House, on August 12. Students roamed the
grounds, checking out the entertainment,
meeting faculty, and storing their school
supplies in preparation for the first day of
school. Here, members of the Steinberg
family—(from left) Chanie, Isabella,
Sophie (grade 5), Scott, and Jordan (grade
2)—are greeted by Rabbi Buckman.
SIGN OF THE TIMES. GHA likes to welcome
new students by placing special signs
on their lawns. Eli Jutan, who is starting in
the GHA Early Childhood Pre-
Kindergarten, seems to like being a member
of the GHA family.
MEET AND GREET. The first day of
school at GHA was an exciting one for the
new 3rd-grade students. Here, at their
morning meeting, Alex Schwartz (from
left), Kiki Starr, Jacob Lewis, Aryeh
Freitag, and Benjamin Salama play a
“Getting-to-Know-You” game.
LOCKER OLYMPICS. The GHA Middle
School welcomed its newest incoming 5thgraders
with a day designed to ease their
adjustment to life on the Lower Middle
School hall. The most exciting portion of

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 33
the day was the Locker Olympics, in which
5th-and 6th-graders competed for the title
of GHA’s Fastest Locker Opener. Here, 6thgrade
student Jacob Lieberman is ready to
play his best game, while teacher Jennifer
Klein looks on.
THANK YOU, PARENTS. Parents are a
vital part of GHA. The school would not be
the same without the help of the parent
body and the hardworking volunteers of the
PTSA. Here, PTSA presidents Eileen
Esworthy and Rebekah Feingold greet parents
at the school’s Open House, on August
12.
DR. SCIENCE. On the evening of June 5,
Dr. Alan Feingold (pictured), known within
the Torah Day School of Atlanta family as
Dr. Science, hosted a once-in-a-lifetime
viewing of the planet Venus crossing in
front of the Sun. Students armed with X-ray
film (pictured) designed to be held in front
of one’s eyes, Dr. Feingold explained to his
students that the teeny black dot at the one
o’clock position on the Sun was Venus.
While the planet was barely visible to most
viewers, the excitement among the small
crowd gathered at the Toco Hill Shopping
Center was clearly evident.
FELLOWSHIP WINNER. Yeshiva Atlanta
student Gabriela Hoberman (pictured) is
one of only
26 North
American
teenagers
selected for
the prestig
i o u s
Bronfman
Y o u t h
Fellowship
in Israel.
Gabriela is
the second
YA student
in the past three years to be named a
Bronfman Fellow. Bronfman Fellows spend
the summer before their senior year participating
in a 5-week program that educates
and inspires exceptional young Jews to
become active participants in Jewish culture
throughout their lives. Fellows come
from all over the United States and Canada,
from the widest possible range of Jewish
backgrounds, and are selected based on
merit, not financial need.
UNSUNG HERO. This year, YA inaugurated
a “Quite Hero” Award, to honor the
memory of Allen Brill, who, despite being
president and CEO of Rolex Watch USA
and contributing
generously
to the Jewish
community,
was a softspoken,approachable
“regular
guy.” The
inaugural
recipient is
D i a n a
Yashar (pictured),
who
provides encouragement and help to students
who are struggling academically and
socially. Last year, she was a valuable
intern in YA’s Strategic Learning Program,
where she helped students understand and
even enjoy math. In addition to helping others
in school and in the community, Diana
has maintained a 4.0+ GPA.
WELCOME BACK. Davis Academy 3rdgrader
Amalia Haviv walks younger sister
Kindergartner Gabriella Haviv into school
on the first morning of the 2012-2013
school year. Behind the girls is seasoned
1st-grader Jordan Frank, ready to return to
the Lower School for a great year.
SPECIAL GUESTS. Senator Joseph
Lieberman and wife Hadassah, Davis
Academy grandparents, were among the
special guests for the first Kabbalat Shabbat
of the school year. Senator Lieberman
spoke to students and families about “the
wonderful gift of Shabbat” and joined in
Kiddush and birthday blessings.
READING REWARDS. Davis Academy
Lower School students who met their summer
reading requirements enjoyed an ice
cream party. Here, 3rd-graders Ezra Mahle
(from left), Sammy Isaacs, Alex Newberg,
and Harrison Frank savor the sweet
moment.
FEATURED FRIENDS. Davis 7th-graders
Maqueline Weiss and friends Molly Antebi,
Zoe Starr, Rachel Murray, and Jenna
Holland were interviewed for WSB-TV’s
People 2 People program. Maqueline, a
Type 1 diabetic since age 7, is a spokesper-
son for diabetes research and education; she
started a few years ago by informing her
own friends, who were then able to stay
calm and help Maqueline during a medical
emergency on a school field trip last year.
MACCABI WINNERS. Davis Academy
2012 graduate Meridith Galanti and current
8th-graders Jodi Gottlieb and Jamie
Greenberg were on the winning Gold
Medal softball team at the Maccabi Games
in Memphis. Davis 8th-graders Carly
Clayman and Sophie Zelony also participated
in the Maccabi Games and received silver
medals in tennis.
A GREAT SHOFAR CORPS. In a longstanding
Davis tradition, Lower School students
may bring their shofars to blow during
the morning announcements during the
Hebrew month of Elul, preceding Rosh
Hashanah. Toward the end of the month, the
corps grows to nearly 50 students. Pictured:
(from left) Zachary Rosing, Emma Tessler,
Lily Stadler, Cooper Bernath, Emma
Bernath, Zack Rubin, Harrison Frank
(back), Avi Frank, Katie Janko (back), Ella
Berman, Hannah Brown, and Talia Neufeld.

Page 34 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
Pacific
From page 29
Eight decades ago, Atlanta was not the
most hospitable place for Jewish attorneys,
and it was even more difficult for Sabbath
observers. Louis rented a small office in a
bank building at Five Points, the heart of
Atlanta. On two or three occasions, his
father, the rabbi, arranged interviews for
Louis with businessmen who employed inhouse
counsel. Each time, the person who
interviewed him was impressed with his
credentials. Then Louis was told that he
would have to work on Saturday—Shabbat.
He apologized, stating that he was a
Sabbath observer and could not accept the
position. Until the 1980s, he was singled
out as the only Sabbath-observing Jewish
attorney in the city. With the great love he
had for the law, he persevered, continuing
to be a single practitioner. In 1930, his
younger brother Samuel joined him, and
they were known as the Geffen and Geffen
firm.
One could not label Louis a Civil
Rights advocate, but he was a very just and
fair person. Therefore, long before Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., individuals in the
black community turned to him for their
legal work. In 1932, he handled the purchase
by a black church of a new site for
worship. This was the first of a number of
such transactions that he handled throughout
his career. On one occasion, he was
invited to speak at a client’s funeral at a
black Atlanta church.
In early 1934, Louis was introduced to
Anna Birshtein, a young, vibrant woman,
from Norfolk, Virginia, by an uncle of hers
who was a rabbi in New York. Rabbi
Birshtein spent a few years in Georgia, first
in Rome and then Atlanta, just before World
War I. In Atlanta, he was befriended by
Rabbi Geffen, Louis’ father, and never forgot
that helping hand. In January 1934, on a
visit to New York, Louis stopped by to give
Rabbi Birshtein regards from his father.
Knowing Louis was still single, the rabbi
showed him the picture of his niece and
gave the young lawyer her address.
Their meeting was “bashert.” A correspondence
ensued; Anna visited Atlanta on
business, Louis visited Norfolk, and they
were married on December 26, 1934. Their
hatuna (wedding), in Norfolk, was the
beginning of 67 years of marriage. I was
born in 1938, their one and only son. All
was going well in the late thirties, but the
clamor of war hit the U.S. as the forties
began. When Germany invaded Poland a
few weeks before Rosh Hashanah in 1939,
American Jews were most concerned, but
President Roosevelt held to a neutrality policy.
However, by the end of 1940, the situation
had worsened, and the American president
ordered a number of reservists to
active duty. Louis was instructed to report
to Camp Shelby, in Mississippi, to serve as
the judge advocate at this newly established
military installation. My mother would not
permit him to go there alone. After my
father found a place to live, we joined him.
Louis Geffen, before he went overseas
My parents had a miniature U.S. Army uniform
made for me, and I wore it with great
pride as an American.
From January 1941 until January 1945,
Louis served as a judge advocate in three
Mississippi Army posts—Hattiesburg,
Grenada, and Oxford. Then, in February
1945, he received orders to join a military
government unit in California, in preparation
of the invasion of Japan.
As the war wore down, through the
spring and summer of 1945, Louis hoped to
be discharged. He did get to attend an early
session of the newly formed United
Nations, held in San Francisco, with a ticket
signed by Alger Hiss. Yet, no discharge
came his way; the Rosh Hashanah holiday,
in September 1945, saw him aboard a ship
in the Pacific Ocean.
Louis had spent his entire Army career
following the tenets of Orthodoxy, as had
always been his custom. He had his tallit
and tefillin with him, along with his siddur
and mahzor, at any military locale. While
he, my mother, and I were in Mississippi,
Rabbi and Mrs. Geffen sent us kosher food
by train or bus from Atlanta. With dry ice as
the only preservative, any delay meant that
meat would spoil. The noted Professor
Hillel Blondheim, of Hadassah Hospital,
once shared a most delicious kosher meal
with us, when my father was stationed at
Camp Shelby, in 1943. The professor
recalled that, since there was another officer
present, they recited birkat hamazon (grace
after the meal) in a mezuman (quorum of
three).
When Louis’ naval transport sailed
away from Oakland, California, on August
29, 1945, he knew that if there were to be
Rosh Hashanah services on September 8
and 9, he would have to arrange them.
Initially, the only help available was from a
Catholic Army chaplain, a priest. As they
left the harbor, the chaplain promised Louis
his assistance in getting the services
arranged.
As the ship cut through the waves into
At a March 1946 reunion in Norfolk, Virginia, when Lt. Col. Louis Geffen
returned from Japan: (front, from left) Lt. Col. Geffen; his mother-in-law,
Frieda Birshtein; his wife, Anna; their son, David; and (back) Frieda
Birshteinʼs sons
the Pacific Ocean, it was clear that the High
Holidays-Yomim Noraim process had
begun. Eight days were granted Louis to get
the Yomtov tefilot ready. For the Shabbat
evening services, Kabbalat Shabbat, on
August 31, Louis was permitted to use an
area on the bow of the ship.
Announcements were placed throughout
the ship, specifying that “Jewish services”
would be held at 6:00 p.m., on Friday
evening. “All Jewish personnel of the
Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard are
invited.”
When the service began, Louis was
pleased to see about 30 people in attendance.
The Catholic chaplain had a few
Jewish Welfare Board military siddurim,
which he gave Louis to use. As he led the
service in the way he had been trained by
his father, Louis heard a beautiful voice
davening with real intensity. That soldier, a
New Jersey native, had sung in a choir in
his synagogue for many years prior to
entering the service. He became the chazan
for the High Holiday-Rosh Hashanah services.
On Saturday morning, September 1,
Louis found his Baal Koreh (master of the
reading); this gentleman had no Torah to
read from, but he would use the Humash
(Hebrew five books of Moses). Louis had
no idea about someone to blow the Shofar,
but he realized that, during this first
Shabbat, he had progressed significantly.
The frenzy of Rosh Hashanah preparations
filled the schedules of Louis and the
Catholic chaplain during the next week.
Louis worked with the hazan and developed
a structure for the tefillot. He listened to the
Baal Koreh practice from the Humash. A
few tallitot surfaced from individuals and
from the main supply rooms of the ship.
Most important, a nice spot had been
assigned by the ship’s captain for the davening.
It overlooked the water and would
add a sense of reverence and awe to the
High Holidays.
That Catholic chaplain, a noted
American father of the faith, was deter-
mined to do everything possible so that the
services would be as close as possible to a
traditional Jewish service. He sent ship-toshore
messages to military facilities on
islands, saying that the ship would be passing
and requesting Jewish prayer books and
prayer shawls. “Needed for Jewish High
Holidays-September 8 and 9. Try to find
Jewish books and shawls. Fly them to
Eniwetok Atoll, which the ship will pass on
Thursday-September 6.” He also was in
touch with the chief chaplain in that locale
of the Pacific, requesting a Jewish cover for
the altar and a Jewish field ark, if any existed
in the area. The countdown to Rosh
Hashanah was on.
When Rosh Hashanah began, on
Friday night, there were about 120 attendees,
along with the Catholic chaplain and
the ship’s deputy commander. When all
were asked to rise for the Barchu, the hazan
began to chant the traditional High Holiday
melody, and many joined in with him.
Louis recalled that, through the chaplain’s
efforts, about 65 Jewish Welfare Board siddurim
had reached the ship and were shared
that night and throughout the next two days.
In a letter to his Anna, Louis first described
the waves reaching up to touch the ship, as
their prayers rose up to God. He did not see
a dry eye in the congregation. These were
battle-hardened warriors, who had defeated
the enemies of the U.S. and saved the
Jewish people.
Some of the lines from the sermon
Louis gave that night expressed great feeling.
“My fellow American Jews, you have
fought hard in this war to destroy the
vicious anti-Semitism fabricated by Hitler,
which he then transformed into the deaths
of the innocent, our people. Now, with your
determination, which filled the past and
which points to the future, there is immense
hope for a new world, in which sadness will
cease and joy will reign.”
He pointed out that in Hebrew, the
word “het,” usually translated as “sin,” can
also mean “miss the mark.” “America

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 35
defeated her enemies in World War II—
because the leadership, both civilian and
military, was right on target. For four long
years, President Roosevelt hit the Nazis and
their allies, seeking to pound them into submission.
President Truman, last month, was
right on target in Japan with the atomic
bombs. Our commanders, Eisenhower,
Marshall, McArthur, Clay, and others, used
America’s military might, while calling on
each of you, who were under their command,
to do battle against our foes.
Moreover, without God’s help, neither the
great nor the small could have succeeded.
“Let the New Year of 5706 be filled
with goodness and sweetness. May we all
be blessed with much happiness as we
return to our families and civilian life.
Leshana Tova Tikatevu. Let each of us be
inscribed in the book of life for the coming
year. You are most deserving of this gift
from God in the heavens above.”
Louis Geffen had achieved his goal:.
Rosh Hashanah services on the sea. A Rosh
Hashanah never to be forgotten. A Rosh
Holy Roots
From page 29
Lotan, Harduf, and the Arava Institute at
Kibbutz Ketura. It was there that I fell in
love with both the Israeli way of life and the
land. I even begged my parents, to no avail,
to let me stay in Israel for my senior year
and study at an agricultural high school
named Pardes Hanna—coincidentally, the
same name as my late Grandmother Hanna
“Cissie” Meltzer, who showed me how to
plant my first garden.
It wasn’t until a few years later, while
running my own organic, biodynamic CSA
farm in southwest Wisconsin, that the
desire to connect deeper to my Jewish agricultural
heritage resurfaced. I was babysitting
my dear friend and CSA member’s
daughter, Skye, when she showed me the
Hashanah filled with blessings.
The ship landed at Manila before Yom
Kippur, and Louis participated in the fast
day there, even chanting the prophetic
“Book of Jonah” as the afternoon maftir
(the portion from the prophetic text recited
after the torah reading is completedz0.
In November, he was ordered from
Manila to Japan. There, in December, he
was the prosecutor at the trial of Tatsuo
Tsuchiya, the Japanese war criminal known
as “the little glass eye.” This was the first
trial of its kind in Japan after the war and
was covered extensively in the Stars and
Stripes newspaper and The New York
Times.
In his book Judgment at Tokyo,
Professor Tim Vega wrote, “To Geffen,
Tsuchiya represented the execution of ‘cruelties’
soon to be highlighted in the general
indictment of the war regime.” Since the
trial dealt with the persecution of POWs by
the accused, Vega cited the following point
in answer to the defense: “Geffen insisted
that Tsuchiya’s victims would remember
video for her summer camp, Camp
Interlaken. It was her first year of overnight
summer camp, and she was both nervous
and excited.
As I watched the promotional video for
the camp, I couldn’t help but think back on
how my summer camp days at what is now
Camp Alterman and Camp Barney had a
profound influence on my love for nature.
Then the birkat hamazon, and I suddenly
had an epiphany moment that this blessing,
embedded in my memory, is a reflection of
the passion, appreciation, and humility that
fuels my love for the land and farming.
It then hit me, like a squash falling
from the roof of a sukkah on my head.
Suddenly a light when on, like a newly lit
Shabbos candle. Why not grow food at
summer camp to teach campers about the
connection between Judaism and agriculture
and improve the quality of food served
Garden in the shape of a Mogen David at MJCCAʼs Camp Isidore Alterman
their torture in detail for the rest of their
lives.”
Finally, in late January 1946, Louis
received orders to return to the U.S. In
March, after five years of service, he was
discharged from active duty and brought
his family back to Atlanta.
My father had served his country well.
Louis and David Geffen, Atlanta,
1943
at camp? (I do recall barbecue bologna and
other scary processed unhealthy foods
being commonplace—I don’t know that the
birkat, as holy as it is, will somehow make
BBQ bologna good for you!)
When Skye went to sleep, I started
writing out the vision for what would later
blossom into a non-profit organization
called Gan Chaim (Garden of Life). Seeds
planted, of course, come to fruition, and
years later, I started a garden that still exists
today at Camp Alterman (full circle) at the
Marcus Jewish Community Center of
Atlanta, in Dunwoody. The vision I laid out
was to essentially build community and
strengthen, both Jewish identity and awareness
of local and organic foods, across generations
through garden and farm-based
programming.
The scope was described as such: “Gan
Chaim provides innovative programming
for Jewish Community Centers, camps and
schools through the creation of hands-on
therapeutic and educational gardening
experiences. Through its projects, Gan
Chaim endeavors to ensure enjoyable,
empowering and educational Jewish experiences
for children, seniors, and individuals
with special needs in Jewish communities,
while simultaneously promoting environmental
awareness and responsible stewardship.”
Shortly thereafter, I received the prestigious
Joshua Venture Fellowship for my
work at the MJCCA and later developed
similar garden programs at summer camps
all over the country, while learning valuable
social entrepreneurship skills that I would
later apply to my business, Farmer D
Organics.
Since starting Gan Chaim in 2001, I
have helped start gardens in dozens of
Jewish summer camps, schools, and synagogues,
including many in metro Atlanta,
such as Torah Day School of Atlanta,
Congregation Beth Jacob, Congregation
B’nai Torah, The Weinstein Preschool, and
Anna, Louis, and David Geffen at a
Memphis park
Farmer D teaching teens at the
MJCCA
Chaya Mushka Preschool.
My business, Farmer D Organics,
offers everything from garden design and
installation to maintenance, educational
programming, and ongoing supplies to
meet gardeners’ needs throughout the seasons.
To learn more, go to
www.farmerd.com. Be sure to stop by our
store at 2154 Briarcliff Road, Atlanta GA
30329, and stay tuned for more stories and
garden tips in each issue of The Jewish
Georgian. Farmer D Organics products can
be purchased at the store, website, Whole
Foods, and at www.williams-sonoma.com.
Daron “Farmer D” Joffe is CEO of Farmer
D Organics, an environmentally and socially
responsible company that provides consulting
services, signature products, and
expert support for organic farming and
gardening initiatives nationwide.

Page 36 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
Thought You’d Like To Know
By Jonathan Barach
REMEMBERING RAVENSBRUCK.
Congregation Ner Tamid’s Adult
Education Committee will host a special
showing of “Remembering Ravensbrück:
Women and the Holocaust,” presented by
the Kennesaw State University Holocaust
Center, September 8, 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.,
with refreshments following.
Recommended for adults and teens, this
free program takes place at the KSU
Center, Room 300, 3333 Busbee Drive,
Kennesaw. Created by the KSU Public
History and German Studies programs and
the Ravensbrück Memorial Site,
“Remembering Ravensbrück” tells the
story of the Nazi concentration camp
where more than 150,000 women were
interred. For questions or to RSVP, e-mail
events@mynertamid.org, or call 678-264-
8575.
CAMP SUNDAY. Beginning September 9,
the MJCCA will offer “Camp Sunday.”
Children, pre-K to 2nd grade, will learn
Jewish traditions and customs in a camp
setting. The program, which is open to
everyone, will incorporate Israeli culture,
art projects, nature, dance, cooking, stories,
and music, while building a strong
sense of Jewish identity. Parents and children
are invited to an open house and
information meeting, August 2, 5:00-6:15
pm, to participate in a camp activity and
tour the beautiful MJCCA facility. For
information, contact Lori Goldstein, at
678-812-3881, or visit www.atlantajcc.org.
A GIRL THING. Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl
Thing! a program of Moving Traditions,
draws on Jewish teachings to help girls in
grades 6 and 7 navigate the complexities of
adolescent life. Each Rosh Hodesh gathering
will focus on specific life lessons that
draw on core Jewish values and practices
to explore such issues as body image,
friendship, family, assertiveness, and
social action. The program is Sundays,
September 9-May 12, 5:00-6:30 p.m., at
the MJCCA. The fee is $225 for non-members
and $180 for members. For more
information, contact amy.helman-darley@atlantajcc.org.
CHALLAH & VODKA. On Friday,
September 14, at 6:00 p.m., join the
MJCCA at the City Club of Buckhead, in
collaboration with the Jay Austin Bowtie
Club, for a special Shabbat celebration.
Enjoy different types of challah, vegetarian
hors d’oeuvres, and an open bar featuring a
variety of specialty vodka drinks. The
evening will include Shabbat prayers and
blessings with Rabbi Brian Glusman. The
cost is $15 per person, payable at the door.
Complimentary babysitting will be available
for children ages 3 and up. For more
information or to RSVP, contact Zoe Fox at
zoe.fox@atlantajcc.org.
OR HADASH HIGH HOLIDAY SERVIC-
ES. Congregation Or Hadash welcomes
the community for High Holiday services
at the MJCCA, September 16-18 and
September 25-26. Or Hadash is an egalitarian
Conservative congregation dedicated to
providing a warm, welcoming Jewish environment.
In addition to traditional High
Holiday services, the congregation offers
Yom Kippur speakers, Tashlich service,
programming for children 3 and over, and
babysitting for children under 3. Call 404-
250-3338.
BETH JACOB LEARNERS’ SERVICES.
Congregation Beth Jacob’s High Holiday
Learners’ Services are friendly and accessible.
Run by the “Men in Black” and cool
real and fake rabbis, they have fewer
prayers, more perspectives, inspiring stories,
and more. Rosh Hashanah services are
September 17 and 18, 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Yom Kippur services are September 26,
11:00 a.m-1:30 p.m. Tickets are $18/individual
or $36/family and cover both Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur. For reservations,
call 404-633-0551 or e-mail receptionist@bethjacobatlanta.org.
MEET THE MOMS. Moms in interfaith
marriages/relationships and their young
children are invited to drop in at the Sophie
Hirsh Srochi Discovery Center, 9:30–11:30
a.m., on September 19, October 23, and
November 19. Spend time with other
moms for playtime in this free program.
For information, e-mail suzanne.hurwitz@atlantajcc.org,
or call 678-812-4160.
SAFE SITTER. The Safe Sitter class offers
teens, ages 11-15, the opportunity to learn
essential skills. This up-to-date, wellrounded
program with a medical basis
teaches young teen babysitters everything
they need to know to keep themselves and
See THOUGHT, page 48

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 37
MISH MASH
By Erin O’Shinskey
MEDOF HONORED. Billy Medof has
received the Jonathan R. Barkan Israel
Advocacy Award from the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee Southeast. Medof,
who currently leads a corrugated packaging
business unit within Georgia-Pacific, is a member
of AIPAC’s Washington Club, serves on the
AIPAC Atlanta Executive Council and is active
in AIPAC’s New Leadership Network. He
serves on the Jewish Federation of Greater
Atlanta Board of Directors, the West Point
Jewish Chapel Fund Board of Trustees, and the
executive committee of the Jewish Family &
Career Services Board of Directors. He is also
a recent graduate of the Wexner Heritage
Program.
CTCA BOARD. Serving on the board of directors
of Cancer
Treatment Centers
of America at
Southeastern
Regional Medical
Center, which
opened August 15,
are several Jewish
community members.
Greg Cohn,
founder and managing
partner,
Stanley Steinberg
Greg Cohn
Capital C, recently
co-founded
Source Capital
Mezzanine
Partners; he previously
led fundraising
for Atlanta
Equity, a $109 million
leveraged
buyout fund. Linda
Selig, principal,
the MIH Team,
spent four years as
director of development
for the
Southeast Region
of the Anti-
Defamation League. Stanley P. (Mickey)
Steinberg, independent director, GameStop
Corporation, is senior advisor to the management
consulting firm of Casas, Benjamin &
White LLC.
ZBT HONORS MASSELL. Zeta Beta Tau fraternity,
in Athens, has installed a plaque to dedicate
its Chapter Room to prominent alumnus
Sam Massell, former mayor of Atlanta and cur-
Sam Massell (left) and ZBT Chapter
President Grant Bickwit
rent president of the Buckhead Coalition. As
Massell opposes naming public property for
people who are still living, he has declined suggestions
of former dedications in his honor.
However, the fraternity house, at 1175 S.
Milledge Avenue, is not on the University of
Georgia campus and thus not owned by government.
Massell, Class of ’48, was president
of the MU Chapter of Phi Epsilon Pi, which
was later merged into ZBT.
NEW BOARD. On May 7, members and
guests of the Ketura Group of Greater
Atlanta Hadassah convened at the
Mirage Restaurant for the installation of
2012-2013 officers, conducted by former
Ketura President Rita Loventhal.
Pictured: (from left, front) Elaine Clein,
Arlene Glass, Rita Goldstein, Co-
Presidents Annie Kohut and Sybil
Ginsburg, Helene Jacoby, Fran
Redisch, and Joan Solomon; (back)
Ellen Frank, Dorothy Scherr, Nancy St.
Lifer, Ellen Keith, and Cindy Tracy. Not
pictured: Judy Greenberg, Reba
Herzfield, Katie Kloder, Reina
Nuernberger, Carol Schneider, Helen
Sharfstein, and Arlene Winn
HELP WITH ADDICTION. Jewish Family &
Career Services of Atlanta has launched a substance
abuse awareness program to educate
people from adolescence to adulthood about
the realities of addiction. For more information,
contact Peggy Kelly at 770-677-9405 or pkelly@jfcs-atlanta.org.
As part of the program,
JF&CS offers a roaming “Sober Shabbat” dinner,
the first Friday of every month, for Jews in
recovery or others who would like an alcoholfree
Shabbat; it provides individuals an opportunity
to be with other Jews experiencing similar
circumstances, as well as connect spiritually
with their Jewish roots. For more information,
contact Ally Thompson at 770-677-9318
or athompson@jfcs-atlanta.org.
ESSAY CONTEST. The Jewish Interest Free
Loan of Atlanta (www.jifla.org), a non-profit
organization whose mission is to make available
interest free short-term loans to Jewish
people in Georgia who are in need of financial
assistance, is sponsoring an essay contest. The
topic is: “Why giving a hand up is better than
giving a hand out.” There will be winners in
two age groups: 10-13 and 14-18 years. Each
winner will receive a $100 gift card. The deadline
for submission is February 17, 2013. Email
entries to freeloan@jifla.org. Contact Stan
Alhadeff, stan@alhadeffcentral.com with questions.
AMIT 2012-2013 BOARD. New Amit
Program board members Jason Cristal, Mindy
Feinstein, Sue Feig, Stacey Geer, Roseanne
Lesack, Laura Markson, Hilly Panovka, and
Yael Swerdlow have joined existing members
Vicki Benjamin, Eve Bogan, Cathy Borenstein,
Linda Bressler, Debra Brown, Stephanie
Covall, Susie Davidow, Jane Durham, Ina
Enoch, Roger Gelder, Helen Hackworth, Trudy
Kremer, Debra Brown, Margie Kassel, Susan
Shoulberg Martos, Beth Ann Rosenberg, Jerry
Rosenberg, Louise Samsky, Janel Schwartz,
Carol Sherwinter, Michelle Simon, George
Stern, Rhonda Taubin, James Weinberg, and
Jerry Weiner. Since 2001, Amit has been the
central resource in the Jewish Community for
special education.
Incoming Amit board president Ina
Enoch (left) presents Carol Sherwinter,
outgoing president, with a Parsha panel
from Amitʼs Visual Torah as a thank-you
for her two years of service.
EAGLE SCOUT. Jason Benator recently
earned the Eagle Badge, the highest rank a Boy
Scout can earn. Jason is the 43rd scout in Troop
73, sponsored by Congregation Or VeShalom,
to earn the Eagle Badge. Jason’s Eagle Badge
project benefited Paws Atlanta, a no-kill animal
shelter. He and his peer group redid the animal
walking trail by clearing underbrush and
spreading mulch, built a new dog ramp, and
completed other improvements. Jason Benator
graduated from The Cottage School and has
been accepted at an aeorspace engineering college.
Contact Scoutmaster Josiah Benator at
404-634-2137 for information on Troop 73.
Parents Ann and Sam Benator with
Jason
GOOD OLD DAYS. The Mount Scopus group
of Greater Atlanta Hadassah presented an
evening with vibrant, witty storyteller Shirley
Brickman, who entertained the group with
“The Good Old Days...They’re Still Here,” at
the first general meeting, September 11, at the
Avis G. Williams Library, in Decatur. The
Mount Scopus Group includes women living in
Northeast Atlanta, including Toco Hill, Intown,
Decatur, Northlake, and Stone Mountain.
FASHION SHOW. On August 19, the
Mount Scopus Group of Greater Atlanta
Hadassah had a brunch and fashion
show, premiering the new fall line from
Irinaʼs Boutique, located in the Briar
Vista Shopping Center. Irinaʼs Boutique
owner Irina Yanovskiy (center) is pictured
with Hadassah member models
(from left) Barbara Fisher, Rachel
Wallenstein, Malka Ambrose, Keren
Fisher, Alisa Haber, and Irina Pelishev.
Make-up for the models was beautifully
done by Faye Grossblatt, and Barbara
Fisher provided jewelry, along with
accessories available at Irinaʼs. Event
proceeds will further the lifesaving
work at Hadassahʼs two hospitals and
groundbreaking medical research in
Jerusalem.
YOUNG LEADERS MEET. In August,
USY chapter presidents from the Ein
Gedi Sub Region (Georgia, Alabama,
Tennessee, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Mississippi, and the Florida
Panhandle) met at Congregation Bʼnai
Torah for networking and leadership
training. Pictured: (front, from left) VP
Kerri Fogel (Etz Chaim, Marietta),
President Erin Beiner (Bʼnai Torah,
Atlanta), HaNegev Regional President
Marc Sznapstajler (Bʼnai Aviv, Weston,
Florida), Secretary Natan Gorod (Etz
Chaim); (middle) Will Finkelstein
(Congregation Shaʼarey Israel, Macon),
Stefani Johnson (Bʼnai Zion,
Chattanooga, Tennessee), Leah Givarz
(Etz Chaim), Hannah Stein (West End
Synagogue, Nashville, Tennessee),
Matthew Prater (Beth Shalom, Atlanta),
Teva Ilan (Congregation Shaʼarey
Israel); (back) Abby Mandel (Synagogue
Emanu-El, Charleston, South Carolina),
Alex Gordon (Beth Shalom, Memphis,
Tennessee), Lili Brown (Bʼnai Torah),
Eliza Lebovitz (Bʼnai Zion), Michael
Roochvarg (Temple Israel, Charlotte,
North Carolina), and Sam Book
(Synagogue Emanu-El)

Page 38 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 39
A winning leader in the arts
BY
Carolyn
Gold
One of a continuing series of articles about women
who are community leaders.
Guess what happened to the girl next door. We
watched that pretty child of our cherished neighbors
grow through elementary and high school. Now she
has become one of Atlanta’s leading women in the
arts.
That’s Amy Landesberg, a public artist and
winner of the national competition to design the art
installation in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport’s new international terminal.
Her site-specific artwork, called Veneers, is 640 feet
long and runs in the underground connector between
Concourse E and the new Concourse F.
It consists of enormously enlarged wood grains
of 29 endangered species of rare trees. The natural
wood-grain patterns have been computer magnified
and colorized to show their designs in a new way.
These woods are endangered because they have been
used historically as decorative veneers.
Amy has created a meaningful connection
between a city known for its trees, a mode of transportation
that flies way above those trees, and colorful
images bringing together ecological issues and
art.
Veneers, Atlanta International Airport
EF Connector, south-side view looking
west, bays 17-29
The national competition was held in 2004-
2005. Five artists were qualified by a panel to compete.
Amy was the only local competitor, and she
won. Her design, using 508 pieces of laminated
glass, functions both as art and architecture, a glass
dividing wall between the two corridors. LED light
passes through the glass, projecting colors much as
stained glass, onto passersby.
The drawing took three people a year to complete.
The entire construction took two years, and the
whole project with the airport involved eight years,
at a cost of $1.5 million. The high-tech project
employs steel, glass, and lighting. Amy says, “It was
like building a building.” It is situated in a space the
length of three football fields.
Amy Landesberg’s visual art background made
her well qualified for this major project. As an undergraduate,
her first interest in art was pottery, her
major at the University of New Hampshire. Upon
returning to Atlanta, she earned a master’s degree in
visual art, again with emphasis in pottery, from
Georgia State University.
In 1981, she married John Whittemore, an
installer of exhibitions at art museums. Amy became
interested in architecture, and, a few years later, she
entered Yale. The family, with one daughter, moved
to New Haven, Connecticut. After three years and
another daughter, Amy earned a master’s degree in
architecture from Yale.
Back in Atlanta, Amy worked for a couple of
architectural firms. Now she works independently as
Veneers, Cipres de la Guaitecas,
Atlanta International Airport EF
Connector, bay 6 bench
either an artist, doing public art by commission, or as
an architect. Her firms are Amy Landesberg Art &
Design Incorporated, Amy Landesberg Architects,
and LP3, in which she is a principal, along with
Stuart Romm.
About this team effort, Stuart said, “Amy has
been a great friend and amazing collaborator on so
many challenging architectural projects over the last
15 years. After growing up in the same community
here in Atlanta, it was nevertheless a surprise to find
ourselves teaching design studios side-by-side at
Georgia Tech in 1992. Then, the Beth Jacob Mikvah
was our first architectural commission together, followed
by many more civic and college campus
buildings. That’s where Amy’s probing art projects
have opened up such vital insights into how to make
our architecture far more unique and publicly
responsive, both visually and environmentally.”
Some of Amy’s recent public art projects
include an installation on the exterior of the Fulton
County Center for Health and Rehabilitation and an
award-winning steel construction for an electrical
sub-station owned jointly by Georgia Tech and
Georgia Power. She has designed art galleries, museums,
healthcare facilities, educational buildings, a
rapid rail station, a fire station, and a university
bookstore. Among her many honors and awards,
over a nearly 30-year career of solo exhibitions,
teaching, and building, is the Moulton Andrus Award
for Art and Architecture, from the Yale School of Art
and Architecture.
Amy Landesberg believes that public art
defines a civilization. Her latest winning work adds
beauty, color, meaning, and the international issue of
endangerment and preservation of natural resources
to Atlanta’s international welcome.
Veneers, Spanish Cedar, Atlanta
International Airport EF Connector, bay 4

Page 40 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN — KASHER LIVING September-October 2012
Kosher Affairs
BY
Roberta
Scher
Once again, I had the pleasure of
attending the Summer Fancy Food Show,
held this year in Washington, D.C. (It
returns to the New York’s Javits Center next
year.)
How do I briefly describe aisles and
aisles of gourmet foods and three days of
sampling? It was simply one continuous
gala tasting party—a Disneyworld for foodies,
kosher foodies included. My husband,
Allan, accompanied me, to assist with both
the tastings and the photos.
As I tirelessly walked aisle after aisle
of this fabulous show, I was dazzled by and
delighted with the wide variety of kosher
selections. Kosher was almost everywhere.
For a first glance—or shall I say first tasting?—I
present a few winners below. Many
more will follow, as I review and sample an
extensive list of new kosher discoveries.
• Siggi’s Yogurt—My favorite new find for
drinkable yogurt was Siggi’s, a high-protein
yogurt, and Siggi’s Skyr, a spoonable traditional
yogurt, both from Iceland. These are
available at Whole Foods.
• Just when I thought I had yogurt covered,
I discovered Karoun Dairies delicious
Mediterranean-style yogurt. I tasted the
honey flavor, and it was a honey! Then
came the frozen treats, such as gelato,
yogurt, and ice cream. Chozen is an all-natural
ice cream. I sampled three flavors
(well, why not?)—Apples and Honey,
Ronne’s Rugelach, and Matzoh Crunch.
This brand is currently distributed primarily
in the Northeast, but can be ordered
online, at chozen.com. The company is
owned by a mother-daughter team.
• And, of course, how could I resist a taste
of Ciao Bella and its new introduction,
Adonia Greek Frozen Yogurt? So refreshing!
By the way, Greek frozen yogurt is a
creamy new trend. Adonia, happily, is
available at Publix.
Adonia Greek Frozen Yogurt by Ciao
Bella
• I finally proceeded to the snacks and
found at least 15 kinds of chips, including
some made of lentils, veggies, pita, beans,
pretzels, dried fruits, and more. Many were
gluten-free and salt-free, some baked, some
fried. One of my favorite new brands is
Kiwa, an all-vegetable chip made in
Ecuador.
• The chocolate was a “Willy Wonka”
dream. I particularly enjoyed the rich, deep
flavors of Guylian. If you are a chocoholic,
as I am, you can imagine how much I loved
discovering Sheila G’s Brownie Brittle
(browniebrittle.com), a cookie-type product,
just like the crunchy crispy edges of
freshly baked brownies. You’ll love these.
It is delicious crumbled over ice cream or
yogurt.
• Another special find was from San
Gennaro Foods. We’ve all seen ready-toheat
logs of polenta and logs of quinoa, but
now there is a log of Southern-style grits
(www.polenta.net/product/Southern-Style-
Grits), ready to microwave. Add some
cheese and butter, and you’re set. These are
especially fun on vacation or for
Southerners who are away at college and
are craving home-style foods.
San Gennaro Grits
• The product choices were infinite—
Himalayan salt, fig and ginger jams, jellies,
infused oils, unusual ketchups, cookies,
sorbets, olives, soups, salmon jerky,
smoked fish delicacies, coffees, candies,
and more—much globally sourced, but
even more made in the U.S.
• As you know I am an avid, but amateur,
gardener. So, I couldn’t resist trying the
innovative sofi Gold Award winner, the
Grow Your Own Mushroom Garden—yes,
Indoor tabletop oyster mushroom
garden from Back to the Roots
See KOSHER AFFAIRS, page 44

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN — KASHER LIVING Page 41
Kosher Korner
BY
Rabbi Reuven
Stein
KOSHER NEWS
OU for You has changed its name to
Café Noga and is now a kosher meat
restaurant. It is still at the same location,
1155 Hammond Drive, Sandy Springs GA
30328. The phone number is 770-396-
5533.
Sandra Bank’s Added Touch Catering
is opening a new, totally separate, kosher
division, called Kosher Touch. It is operating
out of the Jewish Federation of Greater
Atlanta, under AKC supervision. Call 770-
321-9592.
The new AKC Kosher Guide
2012/5773 is coming out in August. To get
your copy, make sure to renew your membership,
or contact the AKC Office.
The AKC will supervise the 2012
Annual Atlanta Kosher BBQ Competition,
at Congregation B’nai Torah, on October
14. Visit www.atlantakosherbbq.com for
more information.
KOSHER ALERTS
The kosher status of several QT
smoothies has recently come under question.
Do not buy Black Cherry, Juicy
Orange, or Melon Berry smoothies until
further notice from the AKC.
The AKC has checked into soft-serve
ice creams and nonfat frozen yogurts currently
sold at select QT stores, and they
currently meet kosher requirements for the
summer of 2012. This approval applies
only to ice cream and yogurts, not to
smoothies.
All Brusters ice creams are now kosher
dairy, including all peanut butter flavors.
The only non-kosher items in the store are
piecrusts, gummy worms, and ground Oreo
powder. This is a temporary approval, for
the summer only. Check back with the
AKC Office for updates in the fall.
Nature Valley Dark Chocolate & Nut
Trail Mix Chewy Granola Bars, produced
by General Mills, of Minneapolis,
Minnesota, are not certified kosher. Some
packages mistakenly have an OU on them.
Corrective measures have been implemented.
SUPPORT THE AKC
The Atlanta Kashruth Commission
supervises local establishments and events
to ensure kosher food is available for our
communities; answers hundreds of consumer
kosher questions monthly; monitors
kashruth alerts and notifies the public;
assists families in learning about kashruth
and how to maintain kashruth at home;
educates children and adults through classes
in day schools, religious schools, and
synagogues; and publishes kosher materials,
such The Kosher Guide, The Pesach
Guide, and kosher symbols cards.
Please show your support, and become
a member of the AKC. You will receive
updated kosher information, The Kosher
Guide, and other publications, and you will
save money with the Kosher Kard.
AKC membership is $45; patron membership
is $100; and benefactor membership
is $180. All donations are appreciated.
Donations and payments can be made at
www.kosheratlanta.org. Checks can be
mailed to the AKC, at 1855 LaVista Road,
Atlanta GA 30329.
Rabbi Reuven Stein is director of supervision
for the Atlanta Kashruth Commission,
a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting
kashruth through education,
research, and supervision.

Page 42 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN — KASHER LIVING September-October 2012

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN — KASHER LIVING Page 43

Page 44 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN — KASHER LIVING September-October 2012
Kosher Affairs
From page 40
in your kitchen—from my show find, Back
to the Roots. After 10 days, I had an oyster
mushroom garden proliferating on my family
room table. Find this at Whole Foods or
online.
• A highlight of the show for me was chatting
with one of the top bean counters on
the globe—the amazing CEO of the Jelly
Herm Rowland, CEO and founder of
Jelly Belly
When we are in the Baltimore-
Washington area, in addition to visiting
sites such as our national museums and
monuments, we try to see some of the many
treasures within a 3-hour drive of the city.
I consider Kreider Farm one of these. I
thank my dear daughter-in-law Aliza for
sharing her thoughts on a family visit to
Kreider Farm, approximately a 2 1/2 hour
drive from Washington, in the midst of the
beautiful Amish country.—Roberta Scher
KRIEDER DAIRY FARM. It is hard not to
say “Moooo!” as you drive through the
lush farmland in Lancaster County and
beyond, quite a change from life in the city
and suburbs. What a lovely place to vacation
and expose children to life on a farm.
We specifically decided to visit Kreider
Farm, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
to learn about Pride of the Farm Cholov
Yisroel Milk, which is the milk we drink at
home. (Cholov Yisroel refers to milk that
is kosher-certified and watched by a Jew at
the time of milking.)
Kreider Farm is a 2,600-acre dairy
farm owned by three generations of
Kreiders. Started from only 12 cows, the
farm now boasts 1,600 cows. We got to see
many of them while driving through the
Titanic-sized Cow Palace, where these
“lovely ladies” reside.
From the comfort of our own car, via
radio transmission from our tour guide,
Ada, we learned all about how Kreider
takes care of its cows. We enjoyed learning
Belly company, Herm Rowland. He is an
extraordinary businessman and a nice person.
How wonderful to see multiple generations
of a family working together. Our
kosher sweet tooth appreciates this product.
Want to know what’s in the Jelly Belly flavor
pipeline? It’s going to be hot: Tabasco!
The Summer Fancy Food Show trends
can be summed up as: healthful, low-calorie,
protein-packed, gluten–free, natural,
and happily kosher.
As always, I encourage our local
supermarkets, grocery stores, and food sellers
to explore and consider some of the new
kosher; only a fraction of these items are
listed here. Expanded gourmet kosher grocery
departments would be welcomed by
Atlanta’s ever-growing market for kosher
products. Statistics show that this niche is
growing steadily—and that you don’t have
to be Jewish to buy kosher!
LOCAL NEWS
Fuego Mundo has introduced a new,
extensive catering menu for the High
Holidays and special events, including
that the cows enjoy a natural diet of four
food groups and that the workers keep a
close eye on each cow’s health, so that
only cows in tip-top shape are milked. In
fact, there is a cow hospital where cows go
if they are not well, where they can be
treated and can recuperate.
We waved at the mashgiach’s trailer,
knowing that his efforts create the special
level of kashruth for our milk. But our
favorite part of the tour was getting out of
tapas, entrees, sides, and desserts. One of
their newest offerings is a Latin sushi platter.
Any dish can be purchased separately
($100/order minimum) or as a full meal.
Pickup and delivery is available with 48hour
notice. By the way, if you want to taste
Latin sushi ( I do!), it is available at
FuegoMundo on Wednesdays, between
3:00-9:00 p.m. For more information, visit
fuegomundo.com or call 404-256-4330.
Elegant Essen has announced that it
will, once again, offer full catering services
for the Jewish New Year, including a new
Mexican menu for Sukkot. Call 770-451-
3065.
OU for U restaurant, located at 1155
Hammond Drive, at Peachtree Dunwoody
Road, has changed its menu from dairy to
meat and has a new name, Café Noga.
Whole Foods Briarcliff (www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/briarcliff/)
has an
in-house mashgiach, Elisheva Robbins,
who offers kosher food demos, recipes, and
tours. Call 404-634-7800, or visit the store
to order kosher fish.
Kosher family fun, in and out of Georgia
Cows at the Kreider Farm
the car to see the cow carousel, where the
cows enter to get milked. This invention of
Ron Kreider enables the farm to milk 54
cows at a time, seven hours faster than
they could before this machine was created.
It was amazing how the cows just
knew what to do—getting on and off the
carousel at just the right time, like clockwork.
There was even a massage for these
cows, after they exited the carousel.
The tour ended with a sample of
May 5773 be a sweet, peaceful and
prosperous year for the Jewish people and
for all good people everywhere. May we
grow in our spiritual lives and rejoice in our
homes, in our relationships, and of course,
in our kitchens!
What’s cooking? We welcome your
questions, suggestions, and comments. Email
kosheraffairs@gmail.com.
This column is meant to provide the
reader with current trends and developments
in the kosher marketplace and
lifestyle. Since standards of kashruth certification
vary, check with the AKC or your
local kashruth authority to confirm reliability.
kosher milk—chocolate milk for us chocolate
lovers—and Cholov Yisroel milk at
that, right at the farm where it was produced.
It was an informative tour, enjoyed
by the whole family, but it is especially
recommended for children ages 9 and
up.—Guest writer Aliza Scher
AND LOCALLY—FLYING HIGH AT
THE FOX. I can still remember all of the
movies I enjoyed at the Fox, sitting in the
balcony, munching on popcorn, and listening
to the organ.
Now, this fabulous theater, an Atlanta
treasure, is a venue for gala productions
and shows. In addition to a catering space
(I have attended many kosher events
there), the Fox also offers exceptional
entertainment, classic shows, and recent
Broadway productions. Many of these
shows are appropriate for children—family
entertainment. Last winter, I had the
opportunity to take grandchildren to the
wonderful production of Annie. More
recently, I took some of my grandchildren
to the high-flying musical production
Peter Pan, starring Cathy Rigby. This fall,
I hope to return to the fabulous Fox, for
another of my favorite classic family
musicals, The King and I. What a wonderful
opportunity to expose children to
Broadway.
And mark your calendars for another
family event—the upcoming production of
Fiddler on the Roof, coming to the
MJCCA this fall.—Roberta Scher

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN — KASHER LIVING
Recipes
Page 45
For this issue, I am sharing some recipes
appropriate for holiday entertaining.
—————
Breaded Gefilte Fish Cakes with
Horseradish Sauce
Adapted from a recipe by blogger Busy in
Brooklyn
Serves eight; may be doubled or tripled
1 loaf frozen gefilte fish, such as Ungar
brand
2 cups bread crumbs
1 teaspoon dried dill
1/2 cup olive oil
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Thaw loaf slightly, just enough so that
it can be sliced with a knife (but not too
much). Slice the loaf into 1/2” pieces.
Mix dill and bread crumbs. Press fish
pieces into bread crumbs, coating thoroughly
on all sides.
Heat oil in a skillet. Add fish to hot oil,
and fry until golden brown on both sides.
Place on a cookie sheet, and bake for 30
minutes.
Horseradish sauce: Mix 1 cup mayonnaise,
3 teaspoons lemon juice, and a
squeeze of creamy jarred horseradish
sauce. Serve alongside fish.
Marinara variation: Place browned
patties in an oven-safe dish in a single
layer, and cover with a cup of marinara
sauce, such as Barilla. Bake at 350 degrees
for approximately 30 minutes.
—————
Kay’s Company Chicken, Orzo, and
Roasted Vegetables
Adapted from a recipe by Kay Fink
Makes about 8 servings
This amazing recipe, an elegant and
easy-to-prepare company platter, was
shared with me by a friend. Double or
triple, depending on the number of guests.
It can be prepared from start to finish in as
little as 45 minutes and will dazzle your
guests. It looks and tastes as if it took hours.
1 package Italian salad dressing mix, such
as Good Seasons
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 lb. cherry tomatoes, cleaned and drained
32 ounces vegetable or chicken broth
1 16-ounce package orzo pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 16-ounce jars of roasted peppers, drained
and sliced, or fresh roasted peppers
1/2 cup Kalamata or ripe black olives
Fried onion rings, such as French’s,
crushed
Garnish: fresh chopped parsley and
snipped chives
Prepare salad dressing according to
package directions.
Place half the dressing in a bowl; add
the chicken and marinate for 30 minutes-2
hours.
Place remaining dressing in another
bowl; add vegetables, and marinate for 15
minutes-2 hours.
Bring broth to a boil. Add orzo, and
prepare according to package directions.
Drain well; mix in 2 tablespoons of olive
oil, and set aside.
Grill the chicken or bake at 350
degrees until just done. Do not overcook.
Cut into bite-size pieces. (Kitchen shears to
make this job easy.)
On a beautiful long or rectangular platter,
place a mound of orzo, a mound of vegetables,
and a mound of boneless chicken
side-by-side. Top the orzo with crushed
fried onion rings. Sprinkle the parsley and
chives over everything. Enjoy!
Notes:
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Dish can be prepared ahead, and rewarmed
before serving.
If you have more time, add marinated and
grilled or roasted fresh vegetables such as
squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and red
onions.
Steak or salmon can be substituted for the
chicken. If using salmon, cook the orzo in
vegetable broth.
—————
Shira’s Potato–Leek Soup
My 12-year-old granddaughter, Shira
Kalnitz, enjoys cooking and baking, and
she often assists her mother in the kitchen.
She has adapted this delicious and easy
soup recipe from The Bais Yaakov
Cookbook. It incorporates two of the symbolic
foods of Rosh Hashanah—leeks and
spinach.
6 large Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced
3 leeks, white part only, washed well and
chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 quart vegetable broth, such as Imagine
Brand or Trader Joe’s
1 quart water
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Sauté leeks, celery, and onions in olive
oil, approximately 10 minutes.
Add broth and potatoes; bring to boil.
Simmer, covered, for approximately 30
minutes, until vegetables are tender.
Remove from heat, puree with immersion
blender.
Reheat on low.
Optional Garnish: Blanch 1 cup baby
spinach for 10 seconds. Drain well.
Sprinkle on top of each portion when serving.
Serves 8-12
—————
Salad Simanim
This wonderful recipe is from former
Atlantan Renee Chernin, now residing at
home in Jerusalem. This is the perfect Rosh
Hashanah recipe, containing many of the
symbolic foods to begin the Yom Tov meal.
For more of Renee’s delicious recipes and
inspirational words, visit thekosherchannel.com.
Read about the meaning of the symbolic
foods of Rosh Hashanah at thekosherchannel.com/rosh-hashanah-symbols.html.
According to Renee, “This sweet salad
is a time saver, its jewel tones a sight to
behold, plus it’s fun to eat. All components
may be made ahead of time and assembled
for an impressively easy presentation of the
simanim at the beginning of your Rosh
Hashanah meal.
1/4 cup vegetable oil
juice of two medium limes
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon raspberry spread
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 carrots, peeled and shredded
1 beet, peeled and shredded
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and shredded
2 leeks, white part only, washed well and
sliced thinly
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
3 dates, diced (optional)
3 cups lettuce
In a small bowl, whisk together oil,
lime juice, honey, raspberry spread, cinnamon,
salt, and pepper. (Dressing may be
prepared 5 days in advance; keep tightly
covered in refrigerator.)
In a small pan, heat oil to very hot. Fry
leeks until golden brown, 3-5 minutes, and
drain on paper towels. Cool and store in a
covered container. (These keep for 2
weeks, if stored in a plastic bag in the freezer.)
In a medium bowl, toss carrots, beets,
and apple with just enough dressing to coat.
You may toss and store them separately to
maintain their colors; or toss them together,
in which case, the apple and carrot will take
on the ruby tint of the beets. Refrigerate
until cold, up to one day in advance.
When ready to serve, assemble salad
either on individual plates or on a serving
platter. On a bed of lettuce, mound the carrot,
beet, and apple mixture; sprinkle with
pomegranate seeds, dates (if using), and
fried leeks. Serve extra dressing on the
side.
—————
Chocolate Dipped Honey Cookies
Adapted from a recipe by food writer
Eileen Goltz
Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine, melted
1 cup honey
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs until
they are light in color. On low, beat in
sugar, margarine, and honey until blended.
Mix in flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Drop by the teaspoonful on greased baking
sheets, about 2” apart. Bake 13-15 minutes
or until brown around the edges. Do not
over-bake.
Let the cookies cool, and then dip half
of each cookie in melted chocolate; place
the dipped cookie on waxed paper and
refrigerate.
—————
POM Cosmo
Adapted from a recipe by Chef Amy
Ephron for Pom Wonderful
A Toast to the New Year! Serves one
POM Cosmo
1 1/3 oz. freshly squeezed pomegranate
juice or POM Wonderful Pomegranate
Juice
1 3/4 oz. vodka (I use Smirnoff Vanilla
Vodka)
1/3 oz. orange liqueur
1/3 oz. fresh lime juice
Shake all ingredients over ice, pour
through a strainer.
Garnish with a twist of lime.
For a crowd: multiply all ingredients
by number of guests, and mix in a pitcher.

Page 46 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
JNF NEWS
By Noah Pawliger
EXPERIENCING ISRAEL WITH JNF AND
BIRTHRIGHT. The first time I heard about
Taglit-Birthright Israel—a free trip to Israel for
young adults, between the ages of 18 and 26,
who have never been on an organized, educational
trip to Israel—I thought, “They’re giving
away trips to Israel? How can I be a part of
this?”
To date, over 300,000 young Jewish people
have benefitted from this opportunity and
have life-transforming experiences. If you were
to ask me what could be a tool to “save
Judaism” in our generation, I’d offer up Taglit-
Birthright Israel as a strong contender.
Recently, I returned from leading my 13th
Birthright trip—a Jewish National Fund (JNF)
Birthright trip—and, I must say, I was amazed.
I was blessed with an enthusiastic crew of
young minds, thirsting for knowledge and connectivity
to the land and people of Israel. My
group, Shorashim Bus 128, was made up of a
diverse group of young professionals,
vagabonds, and students, ages 22-26 years old,
all hunting for a little more meaning and a little
more understanding about their inherent connection
to our Homeland. We were joined by
eight Israeli students and soldiers for the entire
journey.
Our itinerary was action-packed from the
moment we touched ground. We started up
north, in my favorite part of Israel: the Golan,
with its breathtaking beauty and bounty. After
hiking the Gilabun wilderness and a jaunt to the
Mt. Bental lookout, we visited the mystical city
of Tsfat, birthplace of Kabbalah.
Our group spent Shabbat in the Golan,
enjoying a beautiful view of the Kinneret,
Israel’s primary source for water. The moment
I saw the water level and compared it to my
memories of last year, I registered just how critical
JNF’s vital work is in implementing water
initiatives in Israel.
As we headed south, the political landscape
changed in the blink of an eye, and so did
our itinerary. Because of rockets falling in the
area, we had to cancel our scheduled visit to a
JNF initiative that is close to my heart: the
Sderot Indoor Recreation Center. In Sderot,
innocent children are constantly at risk simply
by playing outside, due to the constant bom-
bardment of rockets in schoolyards and homes.
The recreational retreat of the playground is the
one safe place for Sderot’s children to be kids.
For my Birthright group, the disappointment of
missing this visit was quick to set in, and the
reality of the dangers the people of Israel face
on a daily basis hit us like a ton of bricks.
En route to our backup activity, we saw
fire trucks speeding down Highway 1 toward
Jerusalem, responding to attacks on JNF forests
in the Judean Hills. Many of Israel’s fire trucks
are quite old and rundown. Many people don’t
know that Friends of Israel Firefighters, a JNF
partner, helps provide new firefighting equipment
and fire trucks. Ronnie Porat, JNF Israel
Emissary in Atlanta, once told me that firefighters
in Israel don’t get the same acclaim
they receive here. They are not given the same
up-to-date equipment, nor do they share in the
glory of other Israeli heroes. They deserve and
need better equipment. I was proud to spot a
brand-new JNF-sponsored fire truck heading
towards the fires.
We found ourselves near the community
of Yerucham, another exciting JNF project. As
we stood at the dock overlooking Lake
Yerucham, I had the group close their eyes to
imagine the bustling promenade that will soon
surround the lake, people enjoying delicious
fare at cafes overlooking the water, and life
developing through the sandy hills. For this trip
leader, JNF was summed up in a few moments.
Whether providing a safe haven for our future
at the Sderot Playground or building a thriving
community around a lake in the desert, the
dream of developing Eretz Yisrael is coming to
fruition. It’s thriving because of ordinary people
who put their hearts and souls into securing
a bright and new future that, for ages, was simply
a dream.
JNF is bringing a sense of normalcy to the
lives of children in danger, planting the seeds of
new communities where others thought it
impossible. If you know a young person looking
to have a life-changing experience on
Birthright, contact the JNF Southeast office at
404-236-8990.–Noah Pawliger
TREES FOR THE OLYMPIC 11. Jewish
National Fund contributed a tree-planting ceremony
to the July 27 program, presented by the
Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta
Shorashim/JNF Taglit Birthright Bus 128 at the Harvey Hertz Ceremonial
Tree Planting Center at Neot Kedumim Nature Preserve
and the Israeli Consulate, at the MJCCA’s
Olympic 11 Garden, which was created by JNF
board member Sharon Levison and her husband,
Mike Levison. The ceremony marked the
40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli
athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.
The tree planting communicated JNF’s commitment
to life, despite the tragedy.
The MJCCA selected eleven outstanding
young athletes to plant 11 saplings in the
Olympic 11 Garden, which was established
more than a decade ago to serve as a beautiful
space in which to educate Atlanta’s young athletes
about the massacre at the 1972 Olympic
Games. The new JNF trees will be maintained
by the MJCCA.
“As an Israeli and representative of JNF, I
was proud to be part of an important and meaningful
community ceremony,” said Ronnie
Porat, JNF emissary. “Wherever there is Israel,
there is JNF.”
Rosh Hashanah
From page 29
were upset with a new art exhibition at the
Jewish community center, featuring nude photos
of women draped in religious garb—tallis,
tefillin—and not much else.
The exhibit was drawn from a book of
photography, Shekhina, created by—you
guessed it—Leonard Nimoy. Some critics
found the photos revolutionary, others salacious.
Most in the Orthodox community were
outraged and demanded that the JCC shut
down the exhibition and, if possible, beam Mr.
Spock far, far away.
The following morning, when I checked
my e-mails, I had a note from an LNimoy asking
if I was interested in hearing the real story
of the Shekhina. In utter amazement, I realized
that, well, Mr. Spock was trying to reach me.
After jumping over a few minor logistical
hurdles, I eventually hooked up with the
Vulcan on the Left Coast and had a delightful
conversation that became the focus of an
expansive feature story. I do recall Mr. Nimoy
telling me in detail how he sat next to his
grandfather as a child, enthralled by the
pageantry of the High Holiday services, especially
the moment when the Kohanim blessed
the congregation.
Iconic tree planting by JNF in memory
of the Olympic 11: (from left)
Ronnie Porat, JNF emissary; Mike
Levison; Sharon Levison; Naomi
Levison; and Noah Pawliger, JNF
campaign executive
Years later, it was that memory, he said,
that led to his developing the Vulcan greeting—hand
held out in front of his face, the
middle and ring fingers spread apart in what is
now a very familiar pose.
The four-word greeting, almost always
uttered by Mr. Spock in his oh-so emotionless
manner, also nicely echoes the Priestly
Blessing: “Live long and prosper.” I could
wish nothing better for all of us as we begin
the New Year.
(A footnote: After much give and take,
the executive director of the local JCC
announced at the time that he had spoken with
all interested members of the Jewish community
and would be taking their views into
account as he decided the future of the
“Shekhina” exhibition. Apparently he was still
trying to figure out how best to handle the
issue when the show finished its scheduled run
six weeks later.)
Ron Feinberg is a veteran journalist who has
worked for daily newspapers across the
Southeastern United States. He most recently
worked for the Atlanta Constitution. Ron now
specializes in topics of Jewish interest and can
be reached at ronfeinberg@bellsouth.net. His
blog, This&That, can be found at norgrebnief.blogspot.com.

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 47
YOU NEED TO KNOW...
During the last 60 years, meter for
meter, person for person, no other nation
has done more for the betterment of the
health, economic, and technological
advancement of the world population than
Israel. It is a story, although critically
important, that is not heralded and largely
remains unknown. We plan to present some
of these unbelievable accomplishments in
an attempt to disseminate the heart and
soul of what and who Israel really is.
STRIVE FOR TODAY TO PROVIDE
FOR TOMORROW. For centuries, the land
that is now Israel has laid ravaged and minimally
productive. Samuel Clemens
described part of it as “a hopeless, dreary,
heartbroken land.”
But that was before the influence from
the inflow of Jews returning to their land
from which they had been driven, culminating
in the creation of the State of Israel
in1948, a mere sixty-four years ago.
They did not have much in material
belongings to bring with them, but they did
have a tradition of hard work and a desire to
make their land a better place for them and
their families.
But they also brought another critical
ingredient: the understanding of and the
need for education. In 1918, the cornerstone
for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was
laid, and in 1925 its doors were opened.
The original Board of Governors was
chaired by Chaim Weizmann and included
Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin
Buber, Haim Nahman Bialik, Asher
Ginsberg (Ahad Ha’am), Dr. Judah Leib
Magnes, James Rothschild, Sir Alfred
Mond, Nahum Sokolov, Harry Sacher, and
Felix M. Warburg.
That was a tangible acknowledgment
of the understanding of the importance of
accepting what was there and using knowledge
and education to develop what others
had abused.
Our world is being challenged by the
need to provide for a growing population
with an apparent increasing scarcity of
basic needs. But this is merely the same
dilemma that has been facing Israel, just on
a much larger scale. The land was wasted,
the water was scarce, the population was
rapidly growing. How would the basic
needs of the citizens be met? They combined
high-tech research with the knowledge
of farming. What was and is being
produced is an array of salt-tolerant crops
grown in dry, desert conditions.
Building on the decades of agricultural
developments for the needs of the new
country, a new joint research project
JELF awards record $675,000
in interest-free loans
The Jewish Educational Loan Fund
(JELF) has awarded more than $675,000
in interest-free loans to Jewish students
throughout Georgia, Florida, South
Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia,
for the 2012-2013 school year.
A record number of applicants came
to JELF, seeking to fill the gap between
the resources they assembled through
grants, loans, and scholarships and the
real cost of their education. JELF
responded to the rising need by loaning
more than ever before in a single year.
JELF loaned over $217,000 to students in
the Greater Atlanta area alone, a 25%
increase over last year.
While JELF currently administers
over $3.6 million in outstanding loans, it
has maintained its impressive 99 percent
repayment rate. As students repay their
loans, JELF uses those payments to make
new loans, creating a circle of tzedakah.
JELF loans are need-based and can be
used for full-time undergraduate and
graduate degrees as well as vocational
programs.
As one loan recipient recently
expressed to JELF, “I just wanted to say
thank you to JELF for another generous
loan for my next school year. I will use
the support to its fullest capacity in my
path to my career and life.”
For additional information, contact
JELF Executive Director Lara Dorfman,
at 770-396-3080, or visit www.jelf.org.
Applications for JELF interest-free loans
for the spring 2013 semester will be
available September 2-30, 2012.
Applications for the 2013-2014 academic
year will be available in March of 2013.
Visit www.jelf.org for complete information.
between the Central and Northern Arava
Research and Development center and Ben-
Gurion University has been initiated to help
address the problem of world hunger and
make desert land productive through the
establishment of an artificial desert oasis
created through the use of low-cost desalination
technology that is run on solar
power.
According to an article in Israel21c,
“The new oasis solves the problem with an
ecosystem that produces a variety of freshwater
and salt-hardy crops that feed on
saline wastewater from the desalination
process. It’s in tune with Mother Earth and
affordable for some of the poorest farmers
subsisting on areas of encroaching desert.
“From the outset, the main idea was to
create a solution to feed the world’s hungry.
. .”
WORLD-CLASS EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS A VITAL PART OF
ISRAEL’S DEVELOPMENT. Do you
wonder how Israel made the move from
being a third-world country into the ranks
of a developed country and one of the 34
members of the Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development?
One of the primary reasons for such
unbelievable development in so short a time
was education, an item sorely lacking in
that part of the world.
In 1913 at the 11 th Zionist Congress,
thirty-five years before the establishment of
Larry Brown, Alan Elsas, Lyons Joel,
and Herb Stine should be sitting by the
pool, eating yogurt and playing cards, not
running all over the state winning tennis
tournaments. But that is exactly what
these four Jewish Georgians did—won the
State of
Georgia’s
Men’s Super
70s United
States Tennis
Association
championship,
in
the 3.5 category,representing
Bitsy
Grant Tennis
Center.
These
four were
part of the
team that
captured the
state title in
2011. In
October, they head to Savannah to defend
their title. What is unique about this foursome
is that they are not only in the same
age bracket (over 70), but all are native
Atlantans. Yep, they’re “born and bred.”
Larry Brown, the “baby” of the
bunch, went to Grady High School and
then to Georgia Tech and Georgia State.
the State of Israel, Chaim Weizmann proposed
the idea of a university in what was
then Palestine. He championed the cause
around the world, and in 1918 the cornerstone
was laid for such an institution,
Hebrew University. In 1931, the university
awarded its first degrees.
The recently published 2012 ranking of
the world’s research institutions published
by the Academic Rankin of World
Universities now includes three of Israel’s
universities in the top 100 schools in the
world. The ranking is based on “the number
of alumnae/i and staff winning Nobel Prizes
and Fields Medals, number of highly cited
researchers selected by Thomson Scientific,
number of articles published in journals of
Nature and Science, number of articles
indexed in Science Citation Index -
Expanded and Social Sciences Citation
Index, and per capita performance with
respect to the size of an institution.” In
2005, The Economist commented that this
survey is “the most widely used annual
ranking of the world’s research universities.”
In a column in the Chronicle of
Higher Education, Burton Bollag, wrote
that this survey “is considered the most
influential international ranking.”
Knowledge, when linked with an imagination,
a democratic system, and an independence
of opportunity, has enabled this
small country to build a strong economy
that is contributing to the well-being of its
citizens and the world.
Why lounge when you can compete?
Alan Elsas, the “smartest,” attended
Westminster, where he started on the
Wildcats football team in its early years,
and then went to Vanderbilt. Lyons and
Herb (the biggest of the four, a tree of a
man) came out of what were, at the time,
both military
high schools,
Marist and
Riverside
Academy, and
then became
Bulldogs at
Athens.
A s
much as they
hate to admit
it, they didn’t
win the championship
alone; they
had some terrificteam-
mates. Other
members of
the Bitsy
Super 70s team are Capt. Harvey
Brickley, Bill Outlaw, Bob Schmitz, Bob
Witton, Irv Hoffman, Wayne James, and
Tom Richter.
Lets hope these four Jewish
Georgians and their teammates defend
their title in Savannah. But if not, there’s
always the pool and yogurt!
Lyons Joel, Herb Stine, Alan Elsas, and Larry
Brown

Page 48 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
Schwartz on Sports
BY
Jerry
Schwartz
BASKETBALL BUNCH AT LUNCH. The
third get-together of the Basketball Bunch
at Lunch was held May 24, at Taco Mac, at
The Prado. We had 21 guys attend; all
played in the AJCC Men’s Basketball
League in the late ‘60s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s,
covering a 20-year period.
It was great seeing everyone again and
hearing old stories that get more and more
embellished over the years. First-timers
included Stan Lansky, Larry Lipman, Sid
Stein, Ray Blasé, Randy Feinberg, and
Larry Brown.
Stan Lansky reminded me that I didn’t
include him and Pete Rosen, the JCC basketball
version of Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid, in an earlier column about
the Men’s League. Sorry, Stan, I have no
excuse. You and Pete came in under the
radar for the first year in the league, and
there were other twosomes that got by the
captains, were drafted in late rounds, and
excelled in the league. Larry Lipman/Mark
Jacobsen and David Plummer/Tom Fox
come to mind. I hadn’t seen Larry Lipman
in 25 years, and he looked great. He could
probably lace up the sneakers and play
some ball. Larry was one of the wittiest
guys out there and was easygoing. I never
saw him lose his temper, although he needed
to “drive for the bucket and score” more
often.
Stan told me that one of the things he
remembered most was when Hal Krafchick
opened the side door of the gym and invited
guys to play basketball Thanksgiving
morning. It was by invitation only, and you
knew you’d arrived when you got to play in
that game.
We missed seeing Moose Miller, who
was in the hospital with pneumonia at that
time. Everybody wished for him a speedy
recovery. It was also interesting to note that
we had three guys, Ray Taratoot, Martin
Cohen, and Randy Feinberg, who had
played in the league and then refereed there
at a later time.
About halfway through the lunch, a
waiter came to our table and said, “There is
a gentleman at the front door who says there
have been more kvetching, technical fouls
given to, and more illegal screens set by the
people at this table than there have been in
the history of the NBA.” Yes, Gene
Benator, of Alta Cocker fame, made an
appearance and left us with this message.
Once again, we had a great turnout and
great fellowship, embellished stories and
all. Stan Sobel, Steve Gruenhut, and Howie
Frushtick did a great job in organizing the
get-together, and we elected them to do it
again. Our goal is to contact other ex-play-
ers who may want to attend future lunches.
I’m already looking forward to our fourth
get-together.
TOBY BASNER DEBUTS AS MAJOR
LEAGUE UMPIRE. In the January-
February 2006 edition of “Schwartz on
Sports,” I wrote about Jewish Georgian
Toby Basner, who was on the fast track to
become a major-league baseball umpire. At
the time, Toby, then 21, was umpiring in the
South Atlantic League. I heard about Toby
from his grandparents, Richard and Judy
Bracker, who are good friends of ours. They
were able to set up an interview with Toby
and his father and mentor, Alan. I ended the
column with this line, “So remember
Jewish Georgians, if you hear that Toby
Basner is umpiring a major-league baseball
game sometime in the future, you heard his
name here first.”
Now, for the rest of the story. Toby had
his major-league debut after the June 22
Rays-Phillies series opener was postponed
due to rain; the make-up double header was
scheduled for June 24, necessitating an
additional umpire to provide base services.
Toby got the call and made his majorleague
baseball debut at second base during
game one. Congratulations, Toby. We hope
to see you as a regular umpire in the major
leagues for many years to come.
FRAN AND PICKLEBALL. I’ve written
about Pickleball a number of times in previous
columns. The sport kicked off at the
MJCCA a little over a year ago and has
grown from 5-6 guys to 15-20 showing up
to play on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays. Sid Cojac is credited with bringing
the sport to the attention of Mature
Adult Program Director Shanna Levy.
Under the leadership of Ed Feldstein and
Ken Lester, the sport has become very popular.
You’ll read about the August 19 doubles
tournament in my next column.
I’ve been a regular player and introduced
Pickleball to my daughter, Mindy,
and grandsons Jared and Seth. All three
instantly took to it and liked it, asking about
playing again at the “J” when they came in
town.
My sister, Fran Sevcik, was visiting
from Miami, in June, and I was able to get
her to participate at an afternoon session.
Fran is an avid tennis player, outstanding
athlete and, after about five or six practice
hits and getting used to the bounce, was hitting
forehands and backhands all over the
court. We played as teammates for a number
of games and did very well. She was
made to feel welcome by the other players
and enjoyed the friendly competition.
So now Pickleball is on her list. Maybe
she’ll start a club down in Miami.
THE BOOKIE’S DAUGHTER. Sid Stein is
one of my valuable contacts for “Schwartz
on Sports” columns. I’ve known Sid for
Basketball Bunch at Lunch: (back
row, from left) Allan Carp, Jay
Empel, Ray Blase, and Ed Hoopes;
(middle row) Jerry Schwartz, Sid
Stein, Stan Sobel, and Leonard
Sherman; (front row) Sam Appel,
Marty Berger, and Jerry Finklestein
over 25 years. We played pickup basketball
at the Peachtree JCC, and I often joined him
at lunch, where we talked sports. He’s an
active member of the Edgewise group at the
MJCCA, and he and Eddie Ullman keep me
informed about upcoming programs. He
told me about Heather Abraham, who wrote
The Bookie’s Daughter, a book about her
father, who was a big-time bookie in
Pittsburgh in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Sid read it
and said it was very interesting, with some
fascinating stories. Heather was speaking at
the Edgewise meeting in June, and apparently
the topic was of interest to many; it
had the largest turnout, standing room only,
that I’ve seen at any Edgewise presentation.
I also never heard so many questions asked
of a speaker.
Sid introduced Heather by dressing up
as a mobster, looking as if he had just come
from a Mafia “sit-down”; Carlos, who you
Thought
From page 36
the children in their care safe. The
nationally recognized, pediatriciandeveloped
program includes childcare
techniques, basic first aid, infant and
child CPR, rescue techniques (like choking
infant and child rescue), babysitting
as a business, and online and cell phone
safety. This program is September 23 and
30, 1:00-5:00 p.m., at Congregation Etz
Chaim; the cost is $125. Contact Linda
Citron at 678-812-3972 or linda.citron@atlantajcc.org.
GRILLIN’. On October 5, the 11th
Annual Taste of Atlanta festival will kick
off with The Big Grill: Grills Gone Wild.
At this block party, some of Atlanta’s
favorite grill masters will be dishing out
their most mouth-watering bites. Tickets
for The Big Grill: Grills Gone Wild will
Basketball Bunch at Lunch—the
other half: (back row, from left)
Randy Feinberg, Larry Brown, Jon
Miller, Steve Gruenhut, Ray Taratoot,
and Martin Cohen; (front row) Howie
Frushtick, Larry Lipman, and Stan
Lansky
normally see at the entrance to the “J,” was
dressed as Sid’s bodyguard. It was a very
clever and creative introduction.
Heather’s story was riveting. Her father
was a bookie for the majority of his life. Her
mother was addicted to alcohol and pills
and was a very angry person who had guns
all over the place. Heather and her sister led
a crazy, chaotic life in this crime-ridden
family.
Heather left home at age 18, spent a lot
of time in therapy, and just received her
master’s degree in religion from Georgia
State University. Both of her parents are
deceased.
Again we’ve covered a lot of territory
in the column. I hope you’ve enjoyed the
variety of stories. Until the next time, “drive
for the bucket and score.”
be sold exclusively through Scoutmob, at
http://bit.ly/BigGrill. VIP Entry tickets
(6:30 p.m. entry) are $75; regular tickets
(7:30 p.m. entry) are $60; both options
include a general admission Taste of
Atlanta ticket for Sunday, October 7. For
more information on Taste of Atlanta,
visit www.tasteofatlanta.com.
GO FOR GAUCHER. In conjunction
with Gaucher Awareness Month, the
National Gaucher Foundation will hold
“Go For Gaucher,” its first 5K walk/run
on October 14, at Decatur’s Mason Mill
Park. Participate as an individual, team,
and/or sponsor. Register by October 5 or
at the event; fees are $20/NGF members,
$25/general public, and $30/day of registration.
Ads for the “Go for Gaucher”
program book are due September 14.
Visit www.gaucherdisease.org for ad
sizes, registration, sponsorship, and more
information, or contact the NGF at 770-
934-2910 or 800-504-3189.

September-October 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 49
Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation honors General Norton Schwartz
Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation,
a national non-profit to help ensure a college
education for military children who
have lost a parent in combat or training,
raised more than $350K at the second CFPF
Atlanta event, held at the Ritz-Carlton,
Buckhead. The event, co-chaired by
Barbara Roos and Sheree Boyd, included a
local singer, 11-year-old Lily Anderson,
performing patriotic songs, accompanied by
Patriot Award Recipient General
Norton Schwartz and Co-Chair
Barbara Roos
One of the outstanding U.S. fighter jets
of the post World War II era was the
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom. Designed
as a fighter-bomber for the U.S. Navy and
Marine Corps and later used by the U.S. Air
Force, it saw service all over the world, especially
in Vietnam, the Middle East, and the
Persian Gulf. It was one of the most versatile
fighters built, and with its crew of two—pilot
and radar intercept officer—it could do most
everything, from air-to-air combat to bombing
North Vietnamese Army supply lines.
There were 17 variations of the Phantom to
carry out most any mission.
By the time production ended, 5,195
Phantoms had been built. As they were
replaced with even more advanced fighters,
many Phantoms were turned over to U.S.
allies to update their air forces. Israel was one
of these allies.
The Israeli air force had been equipped
with French fighter aircraft. They could not
match the Phantom, which could fly at twice
the speed of sound and had superior armament
configurations. Israeli fighter pilots
were, however, considered some of the finest
in the world. With the addition of the
Phantom, they had the ability to outmatch
another Atlanta rising star, musician Matt
Kabus.
Colonel Jack Jacobs was host for the
evening, and General Norton Schwartz was
honored with the CFPF Patriot Award.
General Schwartz, the first Jewish chief of
staff of the U.S. Air Force, has served the
nation in uniform for more than 40 years.
As chief of staff, he is the Air Force’s most
senior military officer and leads more than
Rabbi Peter Berg (left) with event
host and Medal of Honor Recipient
Colonel Jack Jacobs
Colonel Callahan (right) and his son,
Drury, at a marker on their way to Masada
any enemy fighter plane.
Even though the Israeli pilots were
excellent, a fighter plane like the Phantom
required special and transitional training for
its air crews. The United States set up a special
training facility at George Air Force
Base, in California, for both U.S. and foreign
pilots. The Israelis sent over five two-man
crews for the training. One of the officers
assigned to the training unit was a veteran Air
Force officer, Colonel Drury Callahan, who
logged over 1,600 hours in the Phantom
while serving in Vietnam. He was the operations
officer at George AFB.
Colonel Callahan had an illustrious
career that spanned 28 years, and he flew
many of the military’s aircraft. He retired to
Plano, Texas, and stayed active in aviation by
becoming a docent at the Cavanaugh Flight
Museum, which had an extensive collection
of military aircraft, all in flying condition.
As the 40th anniversary of the training
700,000 airmen and civilians. General
Schwartz created the Air Force’s first new
major command in 17 years—the Global
Strike Command—overseeing increased
combat air patrols by remotely piloted aircraft
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“General Schwartz has made it a commitment
to care for families of wounded
and fallen warriors,” said CFPF co-founder
David Kim, “and we are so grateful for his
leadership and service to our nation and her
people.”
Colonel Jack Jacobs is one of only 81
living recipients of the Medal of Honor, the
nation’s highest decoration for valor in
combat. He received this award for his
actions during a fierce battle in Vietnam.
Colonel Jacobs is also a military analyst for
MSNBC and author of the award-winning
memoir, If Not Now, When?
“By providing college scholarships and
long-term educational counseling to these
children, we honor the lives of those who
have sacrificed themselves for our country,
ensuring the success of those they loved,”
said Cynthia Kim, co-founder of CFPF,
“and we are so thankful for the support of
the Atlanta community.”
The funds raised during the event will
of the Israeli pilots neared, Colonel Callahan
received a phone call from the wife of Yair
David, one of the Israeli pilots who trained at
George AFB. Mrs. David said that she had a
son in school in Dallas, and her husband
asked her to call Colonel Callahan and tell
him that the Israeli air crews were marking
the upcoming anniversary with a reunion in
Israel and were inviting the American officers
to join them.
The colonel accepted the invitation and
flew to Israel with his son, Drury, a professional
photographer, for a reunion, from
March 6-11, 2010. The Israelis were genial
hosts. They had IDF members escort the
Americans throughout Israel, with the
emphasis on places of particular interest to
non-Jews, such as the Church of the Primacy
of St. Peter. They also visited Jewish historical
sites, like Masada, and toured a restricted
area to the River Jordan, escorted by Israeli
military vehicles and armed personnel. In
Co-Founders David and Cynthia Kim
with friend and supporter Duke Roos
(center)
help send 70 children to college for one
year, while also letting them know that their
country treasures them. These children may
not otherwise have a successful future.
Founded in 2002, CFPF is committed to
bridging the gap between existing sources
of grants and scholarships and the total cost
of college. To date, CFPF has raised more
than $5 million in funds, awarding more
than $3.1 million in scholarships to over
250 children. For more information, visit
www.fallenpatriots.org.
Israeli fighter pilots trained in U.S.
BY
Leon
Socol
Colonel Callahan posing at an
Israeli Air Base with a F-4E Phantom
Jet
more modern locales, they saw where rockets
were frequently fired into Israel from the
Gaza strip.
The Americans were greeted and
addressed by Israeli military officers at
luncheons and government facilities. They
were first welcomed to Israel by Maj. Gen.
Ido Nehushtan, who told them that the introduction
of the F-4 Phantom into the Israeli
Air Force was a generation leap forward.
Previously, the IAF was a “French” air force,
in which the personal capabilities of the
pilots, as “airborne knights,” compensated
for the deficiencies of the aircraft. The
French fighters and bombers of that era were
very much single-purpose platforms; the success
of each mission was often determined by
the skills of the individual pilot. With the
introduction of the F-4 Phantom, the picture
changed significantly, and the pilot became a
part of a total war machine that included all
the aircraft’s systems. The IAF had entered
the modern era.
I was privileged to meet Colonel
Callahan through his acquaintance with my
brother, Marvin, a former civilian pilot and
current guide at the Cavanaugh Flight
Museum. Colonel Callahan granted me an
interview in his home and showed me pictures,
many of which were taken by his son
on their trip to Israel. While touring the
Cavanaugh Museum, I was shown a Phantom
F-4 fighter and a Sabre Jet figher, the planes
Colonel Callahan flew in Vietnam and North
Korea.

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