January-February 2012 - The Jewish Georgian

January-February 2012 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 31
Blue Boxes
From page 29
each of its offices that will receive and tally
aggregated, miscellaneous U.S. coins at no
charge. At the end of each sort, the customer
is supplied with a printed receipt
showing the total dollar value, which the
individual can either deposit to his or her
checking account or redeem for paper
money and the few coins that will equal the
count on the receipt.
It is this service that Fidelity Bank has
now modified for JNF supporters. Now, a
JNF supporter can come into the bank with
Survivor
From page 29
for many, but the Jewish community
continues to recall and honor the six million
Jews lost in the Holocaust. One special
day, Yom HaShoah, has been set
aside to honor the dead, the survivors,
the martyrs, and heroes.
In Atlanta, the annual event, sponsored
by Eternal-Life Hemshech, the
Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta
and the William Breman Jewish
Heritage and Holocaust Museum, is centered
around the Memorial to the Six
Million at Greenwood Cemetery in
southwest Atlanta. The permanent monument
was first envisioned shortly after
the war by Atlanta’s small community of
Holocaust survivors. Now the memorial,
a euphonic blend of chiseled stone and
soaring torches, is listed in the National
Register of Historic Places.
At first blush, Stern seems an
unlikely candidate to be speaking of the
Holocaust. His accent – a gentle, southern
drawl – links him to his hometown
of Nashville, TN, not to the cobblestone
streets and old-world charm of Brussels.
But his early life was filled with strong
connections to Judaism – religious traditions
and ancient rituals, Zionist youth
clubs, and Jewish camps in the summer.
The activities continued to inform
his world as an adult, his work with
Camp Judea landing him in Atlanta in
the early 1960s. Even after establishing
a law practice – he’s the founding partner
of Stern & Edlin – Stern remained
active in the local Jewish community.
His work with Young Judea connected
him with Hadassah and the
Zionist Organization of America. He
became deeply involved with the Atlanta
Jewish Community Center (now the
Marcus Jewish Community Center of
Atlanta), eventually becoming president.
He helped establish Temple Sinai, a
reform synagogue in Sandy Springs and
is a high-profile member and leader at
the Breman Holocaust Museum.
“George is one of our most active
and beloved volunteers,” says Liliane
Baxter, director of the Lillian & A.J.
a Blue Box, dump its contents into the
machine for counting purposes, take the
receipt and show the Blue Box to a teller,
and that teller will credit the money to
JNF’s account. The donor will then be furnished
a bank deposit receipt that is to be
sent to JNF’s office with the name and
address of the donor, and JNF will
acknowledge the donation for the person’s
tax records. The donor will retain possession
of the box, and no information concerning
JNF’s bank account, including the
account number and the balance, will be
made known by the bank to the donor.
Save the date
If you’d like to remember the victims
of the Holocaust, honor the survivors,
pray for the martyrs and salute
the heroes, then plan on attending
Atlanta’s annual Yom HaShoah observance
on Sunday, April 22, 2012 at
Greenwood Cemetery. For additional
information, contact Dr. Lili Baxter at
404-870-1872 or LBaxter@thebreman.org
Weinberg Center for Holocaust
Education at The Breman. “Not only is
he one of our most popular Holocaust
survivor speakers, but he also sits on our
board and has served as co-chair of our
Survivor Legacy Committee.”
Stern says most everyone – friends
and family – knows of his links to the
Holocaust. “All my friends knew that I
was in Brussels at the start of World War
II and that I had been in a detention
camp,” he says. But it wasn’t until he
heard someone discussing the camp,
Gurs, and he shared his story with a
Breman staffer that he began to think of
himself as a “survivor”.
Now he’s an active member of the
museum’s Speakers Bureau, sharing his
story with visitors to The Breman and
students from across the region.
“Students love his directness and
humor,” Baxter says, “and are moved by
his ability to relate to their own lives and
experiences.”
Why does this matter?
“I think it’s important that as Jews
we remember our past … particularly
the remembrance of the Holocaust,”
Stern says. “I have a goal, a wish that the
entire Jewish community unites in our
ongoing efforts to remember the
Holocaust … to never forget.”
Ron Feinberg is a veteran journalist
who has worked for daily newspapers
across the southeastern United States.
He now specializes on topics of Jewish
interest and can be reached at ronfeinberg@bellsouth.net
Director
From page 29
tion looking for the best.
Naturally, this did not all just happen.
As with most developments, ultimate
credit lies with a historically forward-looking,
active, and thoughtful
lay leadership, which was able to conceive
the vision and hire the professional
staff to create the environment and
model that delivered the results.
As of December 1, the leadership,
after a nearly 18-month search, has
selected a new executive director and
chief executive officer to be at the helm.
If the script for the announcement had
been written for a presentation at the
MJCCA’s Morris and Ray Frank
Theatre, it would read: “Enter stage
right Gail Luxenberg, new executive
director and CEO.”
The Center is one of the major
Jewish communal organization in
Atlanta, and it requires a person who
understands and can lead the organization
in its totality: programming;
staffing; facilities; fund raising,
spokesperson for the organization;
developing a harmonious relationship
with sister institutions, both within the
Jewish community and the larger population;
a respect for the services being
provided; and a warmth that is projected
to the membership. Having had a
chance to visit with Luxenburg, it was
clear to see why the search committee
decided that she fulfilled the requirements
that qualified her for the job.
From an educational standpoint,
she holds a bachelor of arts in Middle
Eastern studies from the University of
Chicago and an MBA in marketing and
organizational behavior from the same
institution. After beginning her working
career with the American Medical
Association, she moved into the Jewish
communal world as head of the
Midwest Division of the American
Friends of Hebrew University, and from
there she went as executive director of
the Jewish Vocational Service in
Chicago, Illinois.
That is the paper vita. What cannot
be shown in this is the smile that projects
her feeling of the “warmth that she
felt in the Jewish world,” which to her
encompassed the religious and communal
aspects.
While she is a native of New York,
her coming to Atlanta puts her in the
same city as her parents and one of her
sisters, who moved to Atlanta after she
left New York to go to college. With her
move to Atlanta, she now has her biological
family and her communal family
all in one place.
Luxenberg said that she was excited
about the opportunity to continue creating
“a great Jewish communal experience”
with meaningful programming.
She continued with the fact that the
MJCCA is “considered one of the best
JCCs with a full range of activities and
an outstanding staff,” and that the
finances are now operating in the black
is an enviable scenario. She said that
“people come to the Center for pleasure,”
and this is the atmosphere that she
is committed to continuing. She hopes
to continue the growth without necessarily
growing facilities.
As the Center moves into a new
leadership mode, we need to remember
how fortunate the community is to have
the dedicated, qualified, and quality
leadership that enabled the organization
to spend the necessary time and effort to
put in place a new executive director
and CEO. Howie Hyman, who stepped
up and temporarily took over the management,
and the entire governance
board are due a great big thanks from
all of us. This was a daunting task, and
they not only did not shirk the challenge
but fulfilled the undertaking with laudable
accomplishment.