mjcca news - The Jewish Georgian

Page 6 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN September-October 2012
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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.