January-February 2012 - The Jewish Georgian

Page 6 THE JEWISH GEORGIAN January-February 2012
Happening
From page 5
Dulcy Rosenberg
(photo: Chuck
Robertson
Photography)
Jerry Horowitz
(photo: Chuck
Robertson
Photography)
droves to see, thank,
and recognize Dulcy
and her husband,
Jerry, and Jerry
Horowitz and his
wife, Pearlann, four
of our community’s
leading citizens.
Many volunteers
and staff
worked very hard to
put the fabulous
event together, especially
gala Co-chairs
Billie Greenberg,
and Ellen Goldstein.
Because of the
many hours of commitment
and dedication,
and the widespread
support of
the community, The
Home will be able
to continue to fulfill
its mission of caring
for our senior citizens
in the final
years of their lives,
just as individuals
cared for us in our
early years.
STEP UP FOR ISRAEL. Radio talk show
host and author Dennis Prager was in town
as keynote speaker for the Step Up for
Israel Atlanta Kick-Off rally, held at the
Ahavath Achim Synagogue, where he discussed
the growing anti-Israel movement,
especially on the nation’s college campuses.
This theme is powerfully explored in the
highly acclaimed new film, Crossing the
Line, produced by Raphael Shore. View the
trailer at youtu.be/S9kBaICb3so.
The Atlanta event was co-chaired by
Hadara Ishak and Steve Oppenheimer. Step
Up for Israel is chaired nationally by
Professor Alan Dershowitz and former
Ambassador Dore Gold. The project is
designed to educate the public, motivate the
Jewish community to defend Israel, and
expose and counter what Shore calls “anti-
Israel propaganda, pressure, and intimidation
that are becoming increasingly common
on college campuses across North
America.”
According to Amy Holtz, president of
JerusalemOnlineU.com, “Many parents
don’t realize that their children could be
confronted by a one-sided, anti-Israel perspective
when they get to college....Responsible
Jewish parents must prepare their kids for
what they might see and hear about Israel,
just as they prepare them for other challenges
they might face on campus.”
Publicist, commentator on Fox Five’s
Sunday morning show “The Georgia
Gang,” and JerusaelmOnlineU.com
Managing Director Orit Sklar helped organize
the event. She called it “an incredible
success in bringing the Atlanta community
together for Israel.... If every adult and
child attains a basic knowledge of Israel
through the Step Up for Israel mini-course,
we are going to see a marked difference in
how Israel is perceived in all of these arenas....
The community can learn how we
can all ‘step up’ for Israel by getting
involved and supporting organizations
doing great work day in and day out for
Israel right here in Atlanta.”
For more information, visit
www.stepupforisrael.com.
Step Up for Israel Atlanta Kick-Off:
(from left) Orit Sklar, Hadara Ishak,
Dennis Prager, and Steve
Oppenheimer
SUPPORTING ISRAEL’S MOST HERO-
IC ATHLETES. Sheila and Michael
Schwarz had a wonderful reception at their
lovely home for the Israel Sports Center for
the Disabled, which does wonderful work
helping injured and handicapped kids in
Israel.
The event featured some of the group’s
star athletes from the Israeli children’s team
participating in the Miami World
Championship for Disabled Children.
Among the guests was fourteen-yearold
Asael Shabbo who, seven years ago,
lost his mother, three siblings, and one of
his legs in a terrorist attack. He came to the
center, not surprisingly, in a traumatized,
grief-stricken, and psychologically disturbed
state. But now, Asael is a strong,
high-spirited, successful athlete who counsels
and inspires other disabled victims of
terrorism, “uplifting the spirits of newly
disabled youngsters who share his fate, and
helping them in their long journey to rehabilitation,”
as the center puts it.
Today, more than 3,000 kids, many of
them victims of terrorism, are being rehabilitated
by the ISCD through some 20
sports activities. The center trains the kids
in the use of wheelchairs to enable them “to
take part in wheelchair sports that help turn
them from a state of helplessness toward
Marcia and Michael Schwarz with
star Athlete Asael Shabbo
active lives.”
The center’s wheelchairs cost anywhere
from $1,500 to $2,500 apiece, so
ISCD definitely needs a helping hand in
fulfilling its vital mission.
To learn more about the center and how
you can be part of its invaluable work, visit
www.afiscd.org.
PEOPLE OF THE BOOK FESTIVAL. One
of the highlights of the recent Book Festival
of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of
Atlanta, formerly called The Atlanta Jewish
Book Festival, was the Esther G. Levine
Community Read program. This year, the
recommended book was Senator Joe
Lieberman’s The Gift of Rest:
Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath.
Everyone loved seeing the senator, and
Esther said she was “thrilled to have such a
distinguished guest speak. He was warm
and friendly, and his stories about observing
and sharing Shabbat with well-known
national political figures were heartwarming
and inspiring.”
The program is named, of course, in
honor of Sandy Springs’ renowned book
maven, who was instrumental in first bringing
the Jewish book festival to Atlanta
twenty years ago. For 25 years, Esther has
escorted authors around town for media
appearances and book signings. But when
she first got started, as she told Dunwoody
Crier’s Fran Memberg, “Atlanta wasn’t on
[publicists’] radar screen. It wasn’t that
authors didn’t want to come to Atlanta.
Publicists didn’t know enough about the
city to put it on the schedule. Atlanta had to
build credibility.... We’ve now established
ourselves and have such a wonderful reputation
in the Jewish book...world, and
authors really want to come here.”
Senator Joe Lieberman and Esther
Levine (photo: Dan Regenstein)
SERVING THOSE IN MEDICAL NEED.
For the last decade, Community Advanced
Practice Nurses has been in the forefront of
working to serve and strengthen the lives of
homeless Atlantans and others who do not
have proper access to medical care, providing
free physical, mental, and preventive
health care to mothers, children and others
in need.
CAPN’s main clinic is located in
Genesis’ shelter for newborn babies and
mothers in Atlanta. It also sends nurse practitioners
to the Atlanta Day Shelter for
Women and Children to provide specialized
pediatric health care. Additionally, physical
and/or mental health care services are rendered
at other outreach sites (Atlanta
Children’s Shelter, both locations of
Nicholas House, Mary Hall Freedom
House, Grace United Methodist Church,
and Stand Up For Kids).
Our friend and CAPN board member
Sheila Cohen tells us that the dismal economy
is causing increasingly large numbers of
people to seek help: “We are seeing more
and more middle-class patients who are suffering
during these hard economic times.
Our clinic is able to provide essential care
for families, children, and young people
needing help with health care, education,
and employment. But especially this season,
we need the public’s help so we can
continue helping others.” For information
on how to contribute and help out, visit
www.CAPN.org.
ON THE ROAD TO STARDOM. Sixteenyear-old
Native Atlantan Rachel Filsoof is a
singer/songwriter/actress living in New
York City and about to become a superstar.
You have probably seen her in lots of
TV commercials, PSAs, and print ads. Her
recent movie roles include Nikki in Flying
By, a Lifetime film starring Heather
Locklear and Billy Ray Cyrus, and a student
in Paramount’s Mean Girls 2.
Current projects include a reality show
that will be airing on the Oxygen Network;
lead roles in two films under production;
and being the lead singer in a four-girl
group recording songs for a record label.
Her original music can be heard at
Myspace.com/rachellorin, which is averaging
50,000 hits a month. In July alone, she
had 400,000 hits on the new song she cowrote.
Most important, Rachel received rave
reviews from Martha Jo and Jerry Katz
(“really spectacular...amazing talent”), who
attended a private performance at the home
of Rachel’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred
Filsoof, to promote her upcoming TV series
on Oxygen, “The Next Big Thing.” The
show follows music coach Trapper Felides,
as he trains a group of performers hoping
for their big break.
Stay tuned as this Atlanta “Star is
Born.”