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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.
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