israelis livelong andprosper

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what doislamists want?

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atlanta janUarY 25, 2013 – janUarY 32, 2013 14 shevat – 20 shevat 5773 vol. lXXXviii no. 4

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ISrAElAJTIsraeli PrideGOOD NEWS MADE IN THE JEWISH STATE THIS PAST WEEK

ISRAELIS DISCOVER BREAST CANCER SIGNAL. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discov-ered protein S6K1, which – upon mu-tation – turns into a signal for cells to proliferate and cause breast cancer. The researchers are now working on re-versing the mutation as a form of anti-cancer therapy.

GAZA FARMERS ATTEND AGRICULTURAL EXHIBITION. Thirty farmers from Gaza were given permits to enter Israel in order to attend an agricultural exhibi-tion. Ramadan Abu Naja from Gaza said, “We came here to learn about Is-raeli agriculture. We will take some of the types of produce that we like back with us into Gaza.”

A SWISS BEDOUIN JEW SERVES IN THE IDF. Sgt. René Elhozayel’s Arab Bed-ouin father met his Jewish wife in Switzerland. Elhozayel’s grandfather had 39 wives, and most of her 5,600 extended family members in the Israel-

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Arab city of Rahat served in the Israel Defense Forces. As a medic, Elhoyazel treats anyone from soldiers to illegal African migrants.

CHAREDI WOMEN DEVELOP SPACESHIP MICROCHIP. Two ultra-Orthodox wom-en, graduates of the Jerusalem College of Technology’s Lustig Institute, have helped develop a microchip for a space vehicle. Verisense – a leading Israeli semiconductor design company – ran the project for a defense industry com-pany.

ALVARION BRINGS WIFI TO ALASKA. Israel’s Alvarion is deploying its fast wireless broadband service in the Alaska North Slope, one of the harsh-est and most remote places on Earth. Alvarion’s rugged equipment will allow the 7,500 residents, including workers on the Alaskan oil rigs, to have fast ac-cess to the Internet.

THOSE IN THE JEWISH STATE LIVE LONG AND PROSPER. The latest life expectan-cy figures from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics show that Israelis have among the highest life expectancies on the planet, with an overall life expec-tancy of 81.7 years – two years more than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development aver-age. Israeli men normally reach 79.9 years, second-best only to the average of Swiss men.

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY TO MAKE NASDAQ LISTING. Israel’s Alcobra will be the first launch by an Israeli life sci-ences company on Nasdaq since 2010. Alcobra’s MG01CI ADHD medication is undergoing a Phase II clinical trial. It is a non-stimulant treatment, which makes it safer than Ritalin, and has far fewer side effects than Strattera.

ARCHAEOLOGY DISCOVERIES ARE NOW ONLINE. Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) has launched a new online Israel

Archaeological Archive. The project consolidates 30,000 Israeli websites and 30,000 antiquity sites. IAA deputy director Dr. Uzi Dahari called it “the largest and most important asset of the State of Israel.”

“FILL THE VOID” WINS AT PALM SPRINGS. The Israeli movie “Fill the Void” was named Best Foreign-Language Film of the Year at the Palm Springs Interna-tional Film Festival. The film portrays the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Tel Aviv and beat entries from 41 other countries.

ISRAELI INFLATION HITS SIX-YEAR LOW. The year-end increase in the price in-dex was 1.6 percent, well within gov-ernment target projections of 1 to 3 per-cent. Predictions for 2013 remain low, at 1.8 percent.

This list courtesy Michael Ordman and verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com.

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CovEr SToryAJTHow to FightAnti-SemitismRABBI NESENOFF SPEAKS AT LOCAL CHABAD HOUSESBY John MccurdYManaging EdiTOr

Rabbi David Nesenoff is quick to point out that anti-Semitism is not to blame each and every time a Jew

faces a problem.

“Sometimes, a Jew can be wearing a yarmulke, driving down the Long Island Expressway in New York go-ing 90 miles per hour, and the cop pulls him over,” the rabbi said, then cracked a grin. “And maybe it was the 90 miles per hour and not the yarmulke that got him pulled over.”

The self-made journalist (and “recovering C o n s e r v a t i v e rabbi”-turned-Chabadnik, as he calls himself) was at Chabad Intown and then Chabad of Cobb last week for two separate speak-ing engage-ments on the same subject: “How to Catch an Anti-Semite.”

Each time he shared with a capacity crowd the story of his now-infamous 2010 encounter with former White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas, as well as the lesson he gleaned from the event and his own subsequent research:

“The children of Israel and the land of Israel are one, and they exist because of one another and are con-nected. You cannot tear them apart.”

During his recent presentations, Rabbi Nesenoff first recounted the events leading up to his moment of hashgacha pratis (“divine provi-dence”). His then-17-year-old son Adam – well-connected in the capital and beyond – had secured passes for Jewish Heritage Week at the White House. The two, plus a friend of Adam, were there collecting snippets of video for a pro-Israel film project of the rabbi.

While waiting for the festivities to start, they bumped into Thomas, the aged correspondent who covered every president from Eisenhower to Obama. When asked for any com-

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ments on Israel, she made her damn-ing statement, obviously disturbing to her small audience.

Then, she sealed her fate by as-serting that the Jewish people should “go home” to “Poland and Germany,” striking a nerve with not just Rabbi Nesenoff, but many others.

“I’m named David – Dovid – af-ter my great-grandmother, who is buried in Babi Yar with tens of thousands of other Jews, not even a marked grave,” he said. “And I know we all could go through the stories of what we lost [in the Holocaust].”

Once the story broke, the Nese-noff family sadly had to deal with

many threats to their safety, and the rabbi was hounded by me-dia from across the globe. He consulted with former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, fa-mous author and activist Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Abraham Shemtov so as to best prepare

himself for his new role: that of spokesperson for his people.

That is how he distilled the afore-mentioned message, which he car-ries with him on his speaking tours today. He also teaches that it’s by “being and doing Jewish” that anti-Semitism can most effectively be combated.

“The IDF does their part – G-d bless them, they have to – but you can’t be with the IDF,” he said. “So you be the solider ‘doing Jewish.’ Each next level fights anti-Semitism.

“You know what the Hebrew name of the Iron Dome is?” he asked. “Kipat Barzel – the ‘steel kippah.’ When you’re fired at by these anti-Semites, that’s how you stop it: You ‘put on Jewish.’”

Editor’s note: See more from rabbi david nesenoff at his website, rab-bilive.com, or by purchasing his new book, “david’s Harp,” available on-line.

Rabbi David Nesenoff (left) poses with Rabbi Ari Sollish of Chabad Intown.

PHOTO/John McCurdy

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from THE EDITorAJTAlmost Three Years Later…WE’RE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS?BY ron FeinBergWEb EdiTOr

Rabbi David Nesenoff was in Atlanta earlier this month, sharing his thoughts on a little event that became a

huge story. Some of you might be scratching your noggins, trying to re-call where you’ve heard the rabbi’s name.

A few of you might remember that he’s the guy who bumped into Helen Thomas a few years ago on the front lawn of the White House and that – more significantly – after they chat-ted, the veteran newswoman was toast. But for those of you still trying to recall the juicy details, here’s a little background that might jar your memory:

It was June of 2010 when Thom-as, the dean of the Washington press corps and a colum-nist for Hearst, managed to put both feet in her mouth by suggesting that Jews in Israel should “go home” to Poland, Germany and America.

Caught a bit off-guard during a short interview outside the White House, Thomas told Rabbi Nesenoff that Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine.” The rabbi then posted the taped interview on his website, RabbiLive.com, and the rest – as the saying goes – is history!

The interview, only a minute or so long, went viral. Thomas was pretty quickly blasted by her colleagues, U.S. officials and politicians on both the left and the right for her, ahhh, candor. She eventually apologized – in a fashion.

“I deeply regret my comments…regarding the Israelis and the Pal-estinians,” she said in a statement a week or so after sharing her thoughts on Israel. “They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all par-ties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance.”

You would have thought Thomas – who covered nine presidents, be-ginning with JFK in the early 1960s – would have been better at prepar-ing an apology, perhaps actually fo-cusing on her anti-Semitic declara-tion that Israelis should “get the hell

out of Palestine.”

My guess is that’s exactly how she felt and that she never had any plans of backtracking from her beliefs. And, frankly, that’s okay. In fact, I found her fetid comments strangely re-freshing.

Thomas had been quietly crit-ical of Israel for years, even as she was working as an “objective” reporter for UPI, at the time one of the largest news

organizations on the planet. Final-ly, she had fessed

up and shown her true colors.

It was almost like one of those iconic Perry Mason episodes from the 1960s, when the suspect sudden-ly stands up in the courtroom and shouts their guilt to the jury. Instead of tiptoeing around the contentious political issues that had simmered in the Middle East for decades, drop-ping buzz words about bilateral talks and summits and the importance of a two-state solution, Thomas said what she really thought – kick the Jews out of Palestine.

It’s a belief that Thomas in her dotage shares with thousands of aca-demics here and in Europe, as well as angry, festering mobs across the Arab world; and naïve, idealistic lib-erals – hey, I’m sort of one of them, except on this issue – who think peace will come to the region once Is-rael is wiped off the map.

Those are the facts, mostly, with a little editorializing on the side. If you’re still reading, let me take a moment to thank you for your indul-gence before signing off with a final thought and a somewhat, admitted-ly, petulant question.

H e l e n T h o m a s has a worldview that I find repellant. She also had a 60-year ca-reer that had her r u b b i n g shoulders with the country’s political elite, re-porting and offering up opinions on events big and small that shaped our lives.

Now, at 92, she’s mostly a fading memory. To fall back on a cliché: Out of sight, out of mind!

Meanwhile, Rabbi Nesenoff has turned his encounter on the White House lawn into a cottage industry.

Rabbi David Nesenoff

“I understand the media feeding frenzy playing out over the summer of 2010. But the rabbi’s talks, like those this month in Atlan-

ta, continue today.”

A c c o r d -ing to his W i k i p e -dia page – and, yes, the rabbi has a Wikipe-dia page – he’s been i n t e r -viewed by The new

York Times, Fox News and CNN; written about the incident for The Washington Post; and been the fea-tured speaker at oh-so many events.

I understand the media feeding frenzy playing out over the summer of 2010. But the rabbi’s talks, like those this month in Atlanta, contin-ue today.

My simple question: Why?

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ACCorDING To ArlENEAJTNeed Something?BUBBIE’S ON THE WAY!BY Arlene AppelrouthaJT COluMniST

One of the things I love about children is their hon-esty. They don’t consider if things are politically cor-

rect or if their comments are going to hurt anyone’s feelings. By nature, children speak the truth.

Most are also self-centered and think that the world revolves around them, especially if they have had a nurturing mother ready to meet their needs. This quality gives them permission to tell people what they think and ask for what they want.

Now, I don’t think I was a softie when it came to my own children. All in their 30s now, I’m sure each has stories about things they wanted as children that I refused to provide. Michelle wanted a doll, handmade in North Georgia, that came with a birth certificate. Jed begged for an Atari for a year before I gave in.

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David, my baby (who is approach-ing his 35th birthday) was the easiest – until that summer at Camp Bar-ney Medintz, when he got off the bus and announced he wanted to change school and attend the Hebrew Acad-emy. But that’s another column.

As for the next generation, the statement “If your mother says no, ask your grandmother” is something I first learned in a t-shirt shop. For my grandchildren, a more accurate slogan would be:

“If you want something, call Bub-bie.”

One day recently, I received a call from my 3-year-old grandson, who lives in Toronto. He had something specific he hoped I could help him with.

“Bubbie,” he began, sadness in his voice, “my favorite book got wrecked. It’s the Richard Scarry book you gave me. Do you think you could get me another one?”

“How did it get wrecked?” I asked, imagining all the ways to destroy

a book. His answer appealed to the bibliophile in me.

“I read it so much,” he explained, “all the pages are falling out. My brothers tried to put the pages back, but now everything is all mixed up. Do you think you can get another one?”

Richard Scarry’s “What Peo-ple Do All Day” is a classic. I have many memories of reading it to my children, and the illustrations are fabulous. Besides, there’s something wonderful about passing on the plea-sures of reading from one generation to the next.

I told him I would see what I could do to get him another one.

All it took was going online. I checked Amazon.com as well as Amazon Canada. According to the website, the book would be delivered within six to ten business days.

Thirty-six hours later, another grandson – brother to the aforemen-tioned – called. He wanted to tell me what was going on.

“We’re so excited,” he shouted. “Yisroel Meir [the younger brother] can’t stop jumping up and down. He’s so happy. Thank you so much.”

There’s nothing like knowing your actions are appreciated. My grand-sons were very happy, and so was I, knowing I was responsible (with some help from Richard Scarry).

A Special Pizza Delivery

The week before being asked to replace a book, I had a request that wasn’t quite so simple to handle.

A family I know that belongs to my son’s congregation in Toronto went to another congregant’s wed-ding, which took place in Savan-nah, Ga. They made reservations which required changing planes in Washington, D.C. Inclement weath-er caused a delay, and the family – which includes four children ages seven and younger – missed the con-necting flight.

Then, after the wedding, for some reason they had to drive their rental car to Atlanta and fly back to Toron-to from here, instead of flying back from Savannah. The family eats only kosher food, and as they were driv-ing on Interstate 75, the children let their parents know they were starv-ing for pizza.

When I got the call asking if I

could recommend someone they could hire to pick up a kosher pizza and take it to them at the Atlanta airport, I offered to help. The family had hosted my husband and me last summer when we went to Toronto for our youngest grandson’s upsherin (a ritual haircut that many religious Jewish boys get when they are age 3), and I figured delivering a pizza would be a great way to say thank you.

It turned into an adventurous afternoon; the family didn’t know international flights from Atlanta now leave at Terminal F. In order to check in for their Air Canada flight, they had to go to the new Maynard Jackson Lobby. But I was able to pro-vide that information, get the pizza and meet the family right at the ter-minal.

As the father drove back to return the rental car at Hartsfield, I secured a gate pass so as to serve as surro-gate Bubbie and help with the four children.

When we went through security, as required, I took off my shoes.

“Why aren’t you wearing any socks?” I was asked by one of the children. “You’re supposed to wear socks.”

I didn’t know whether she was speaking from a religious perspec-tive, or this was a family rule. I told her that I had been in such a hurry to bring her some pizza that I’d left home as fast as I could. Afterwards, I wondered why I felt it necessary to provide a preschooler an excuse for my behavior.

Once we got to the gate, I opened the box of pizza I had purchased at Broadway Café. It was kosher, as required, but after two hours, it was cold.

The 6-year-old took a bite.

“Our pizza is better in Toronto,” he informed me.

Sorry to have disappointed him, I thankfully had brought something else that would please all of the chil-dren.

The candy from Kosher Gourmet made everyone happy.

arlene appelrouth earned a degree in news-editorial journalism from the university of Florida and her career as a writer and journalist spans a 50-year period; she currently studies memoir writing while working on her first book.

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If yoU ASK mEAJTAbraham Had a Spear, Yaakov Had a Sword and Arrow…WHAT DOES THE TORAH SAY ABOUT GUNS?

BY rABBi ShloMo pinkuSFOr THE aTlanTa JEWiSH TiMES

I enjoy the AJT very much, but I am greatly perplexed by the article “Gun Control is a Jewish Value” [by Harold Kirtz, Dec.

28 edition]. The article shows a great lack of understanding of Jewish ide-als and morals on the writer’s behalf.

He is correct that there is a com-mandment both for the Jewish peo-ple and for the rest of the world “thou shall not murder.” There is even a verse in the Torah stating that if a body is found outside of the city, all surrounding cities must measure which city is closest to try to deter-mine who was responsible for that person’s death.

The Torah assumes that the city did not give the person a proper send-off, and the cities’ leaders must, as a whole, bring an offering to repent for the person’s death.

But at the same time, there is an equal commandment which basically states that if a person comes to mur-der you, you should wake up early and kill him first. That verse says a lot about the Torah’s view on life and death.

First, there is a clear distinction that “murder” and “killing” are two very different and separate acts. A court has the power to kill; a soldier in battle kills; and a person is clearly told not to hesitate but to “kill him first.”

And who does the Torah tell them to kill? The murderer – a person who takes innocent life unjustifiably. The Torah does not say to harm, injure or maim him; it says that when a person tries to take an innocent life, Hashem is handing over to you (or the court) the keys to life and death and – not giving permission – but commanding you to kill that other person.

The cited article itself asserted that “every citizen must do their ut-most to prevent it,” speaking of mur-der. That is true, but the way to do that is by following the Torah, not by creating a false sense of safety.

The Torah puts the right to de-fend oneself in each of our hands,

not in the hands of courts or govern-ment. Even Moshe Rabbeinu went out and killed the Egyptian who was attacking another Jew, and there is no recourse mentioned in the Torah for this; it was his duty to defend.

Life is precious, and we should do everything we can to protect it. That is why I do not understand how we should defend ourselves by disarm-ing and making ourselves defense-less.

Examining the Book and the Bill

The Torah says many things, some of which throughout history have seemed controversial. For example, the Torah says that “a man should not lay with a n o t h e r man,” that you should “not cook the calf in the mother’s milk” and that “thou shall not murder.”

But the Torah is not just a book – it’s the book, the eternal laws given down by Hashem himself as a blueprint for the world. Thus, all of its commandments are also eternal, and that’s why it says those things are not allowed.

However you may feel and what-ever you may think, there will al-ways be a physical want for certain men to be with men; meat and milk will always be delicious; and there will always, under any and all cir-cumstances, be murder in this world. Nothing any of us do will ever change that.

The only thing that we can change is the way in which we treat our-selves.

Consider: The city that is closest to a body is held accountable not be-cause they murdered him. What they are liable for is not taking proper care of him. This tells us:

“If you had taken better care of your fellow man, he would still be here.”

The Torah doesn’t tell us to take away knives, guns or other weapons; it says that if you want to prevent murder, be nicer. Care for one anoth-er as if you were family because you are, and – above all – protect your-self.

The U.S. government and the citizens of this great nation feel the same way. The aforementioned arti-cle claims that “The Second Amend-ment was never written with the intention for everyone to own guns,” but that’s missing the point entirely.

The Second Amendment was writ-ten very clearly written: It guaran-

tees our right to “a well regu-lated mili-tia, being n e c e s s a r y to the secu-rity of a free state,” and also that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

T h e whole pur-pose is to

protect our rights from the govern-ment becoming too strong and tak-ing them away. The idea of having a weapon for hunting or self-protection was never questioned and did not need to be mentioned. The Founding Fathers of both the Jewish nation and the American nation would both own a guns if they were alive today.

Abraham had a spear, Yaakov had a sword and arrow and the prophets not only carried daggers but even used them to kill when necessary.

So your idea to disarm American citizens is obviously not a Jewish idea, and it is clearly not an Ameri-can one either.

What Is the Answer?

Chicago has some of the strictest

gun laws in the nation, yet it makes the top 10 list of U.S. cities with the most murders. Meanwhile, Texas – which has very lenient gun laws – ranks in the bottom half of U.S. states with the highest murder rate.

And across the pond, England may have fewer guns and therefore fewer murders by guns, but the amount of stabbings and other forms of murder are much higher.

We all want a safe environment, a place where our children can come and go without fear. No one wants another incident, but at the same time, how many of these incidents were caused by normal gun owners? There is nothing wrong with owning a weapon – and that means any kind of weapon, according to the Torah – and that is the “Jewish value.”

All this considered, I believe that “Gun Control is a Jewish Value” was a product of fear and not logic. But the question remains: How do we prevent this from happening again?

We can’t just follow part of the Torah; we must follow all of it. We must follow when it tells us to “love your neighbor like yourself” and not to “place a stumbling block.”

These are the precepts for peace. This is how you prevent murder in your cities.

As the Torah said: You measure, and if he is closest to your city, your city is held accountable for his death because you did not take care of him. So take care of one another and make yourself responsible for each other.

These incidents – like that at San-dy Hook Elementary – happen when people fall through the cracks, when no one is paying attention.

Whether you carry a weapon or not is your right as a Jew and as an American. And no matter how many weapons we add or take away, the situation will not improve until we open our eyes, our ears and our hearts to one another.

rabbi Shlomo Pinkus is a rabbinic field representative for the atlanta Kashruth Commission.

“Life is precious, and we should do everything we can to protect it. That is why I do not understand

how we should defend ourselves by disarming and making ourselves

defenseless.”

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If yoU ASK mEAJTOp-ed: My Truth About IslamEGYPT SUCCUMBS TO RADICALISM’S HOLD

BY SherieF MedhAtFOr THE aTlanTa JEWiSH TiMES

in the Jan. 18 edition of the aJT, Sherief Medhat continued his story of awakening by telling of his expe-rience in the Egyptian army during the 2011-12 revolution. in this third and final part of an ongoing series, the author explains how his birth na-tion was lost to Muslim radicals in the second half of last year…

I began to notice lots of Freedom and Justice Party supporters among us in the service, and all were talking freely about how

“the Muslim Brotherhood is best for Egypt.” Their message to me was:

“How dare you, or any other non-religious liberal, open your mouth?”

I was threatened with all manner of humiliations, and for no reason ex-cept that I said my opinion freely!

Meanwhile, my suspicions of the army and the Brotherhood working together were confirmed when, in August 2012, President Morsi asked Mohamed Hussein Tantawy (head of the armed forces) and Sami Awan (army chief of staff) to resign. Their resignations weren’t actually the is-sue; it was the fact that they had not faced what most of the former min-isters during Mubarak’s regime had: financial corruption convictions re-sulting in jail time.

Morsi allowing Tantawy and Awan to resign clearly provided for their “safe exit.” That told me that if there was corruption, then these two particular army men were indeed part of it.

A few months later – November 2012 – Morsi forced Egypt’s attor-ney general to resign and quickly re-placed him. It was apparent that the Brotherhood wanted a supreme legal authority on their side, and so Morsi – as part of his dismissal of the for-mer attorney general – granted him-self unlimited power to “protect” the nation by ensuring there would be no judicial oversight or review of his ac-tions.

Thankfully, such a tyrannical move did not go unnoticed. All mem-bers of liberal and secular groups walked out of the Constituent As-sembly (which is the committee as-signed to create the new constitu-

tion), and hundreds protested Morsi and his dealings at the presidential palace.

But in response, organized and armed fanatic Islamists – some be-longing to the Brotherhood, others simply victims of brainwashing – as-saulted those protesters. Of course, the Brotherhood denied supplying or organizing this assault.

On Dec. 8, Morsi did relent and re-scinded his declaration, but by then the Constituent Assembly was com-posed mainly of Islamists anyway, so it was their chance to pass a consti-tution that they would prefer. After they did, a referendum was held – from Dec. 15 to 22 – and came back with a result of 64 percent approval.

At this point, many had to be pon-dered the question: “Is Morsi really separate from the Brotherhood, as he promised he would be after he won the presidency?”

I think the answer to that is that Morsi is just an image – a puppet – just as Ahmadinejad is in Iran. In-deed, the way I see it, Egypt is going through the same process that Iran went through starting 1979. What makes me say so?

Consider that whenever a major political issue arises, you find men not officially part of the administra-tion – like Mohamed Badie, General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood; or Kahirat El Shater, former Deputy Guide of the Brotherhood – speaking to the media and holding press con-ferences.

(El Shater, by the way, was the MB’s candidate for the presidential election before disqualification by the election commission. What’s re-ally shocking and weird is that his personal bodyguard is a member of Kataeb el-Qassam, a branch of Hamas!)

At last, I have concluded that Is-lam is just a tool to brainwash people and win votes. In my personal expe-rience, I have been humiliated and assaulted both psychologically and physically only because I am a lib-eral free-thinker who isn’t convinced that a non-Muslim would go to hell automatically and despite any good deeds in life.

I have been called the worst names ever when I’ve expressed that I want to give Judaism or Christian-ity a second thought. I don’t agree with Islam and probably never will. But there will always be unanswered questions:

What is the purpose of a religion if it’s just a source of hatred and chaos?

What do the Islamists want from this world?

Editor’s note: Sherief Medhat is a dentist living in Smyrna, ga. and originally from Cairo, Egypt. as part of his quest for greater understand-ing, he visited Jerusalem and Tel aviv in 2012.

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If yoU ASK mEAJTAbsolutism vs. RelativismRECONCILING RELIGION, PART IBY eugen SchoenFeldaJT COnTribuTOr

This is the first in a series exploring Jewish religious laws and their im-portance today.

I am a bibliophile; books are my treasure. My love affair with books began at an early age, even before my bar mitzvah.

Perhaps the desire for dialectic thinking is in my blood – my father was not just an avid reader, but the owner of a bookstore, and my great-grandfather was a writer and pub-lisher of religious texts. Regardless, books and learning seem to be a heri-tage handed down to me.

Since I grew up in an Orthodox family with an emphasis on religious education, it is not surprising that the first book I coveted was a special siddur (prayer book) titled “Hakol Boh” (“Everything in It”). Indeed, this prayer book was quite inclusive: In addition to the daily, Sabbath, and holiday prayers, it also included the weekday Torah readings, the Megil-lah for Purim, the Book of the Mac-cabees and portions of the Talmud pertaining to holidays.

Most intriguing, though, was the list of the teryag mitzvot, the 613 commandments, of which there were 248 lavs (laws of abstention) and 365 mitzvot assey (laws of performance) The observance of these laws was considered by Orthodox Jews as the sine qua non of being Jewish.

Of course, there were additional laws and customs that we observed as well, and we were also subject to the specific methods of observing them, which were specified in the “Shulchan Aruch,” (literally, “set ta-ble”), written and compiled by Yosef Karo in 1563.

Like most Jews in my shtetl, I too accepted the absolutist view of the mitzvot. We believed such a perspec-tive on the Torah and its laws was fundamental to Judaism, as it repre-sents our contract with G-d:

“You shall be my people and I your G-d.”

Jewish lore tells us that the Jew-ish people assumed this heavenly yoke (the contract of obedience) and, with it, our unquestioning belief in and submission to Torah mi-Sinai,

the Torah given at Sinai. So not only do we submit ourselves to observe the Ten Commandments, but to all the laws in the Torah.

Moreover, we accept with a sol-emn faith that the laws of the Torah are absolute, immutable and eter-nal. After all, the people who stood at Mt. Sinai were not only those who were liberated from Egypt, but all the eternal Jewry: The sum total of Jews past, present and future stood at Mount Sinai and in unison de-clared na’aseh v’nishmah, “we shall do [obey] and we shall listen.”

Some Things, You Never

Understand

Although Judaism is commit-ted to wisdom, understanding and knowledge – chchmoh, binoh v’daat, the motto now declared by the Lubavitcher Chasidim – and while most Talmudic discourses on laws are founded on deductive reasoning, there are nonetheless many Torah laws that demand adherence to them by faith alone. Some simply defy log-ic and reason.

For instance: According to cus-tom and law, when buying a suit of clothes, it has to be free of shatnez – that is, that neither in the woven cloth itself nor in the construction of the suit were two different natural materials (like wool and cotton) com-bined.

Such laws, for which reason is not given, are designated in Hebrew as chukim, ordinances instituted by G-d for reasons only He knows. None-theless, these laws are to be obeyed equally to mishpatim, laws for which reason is given and hence are more likely to be perceived as legitimate.

Among the chukim are the laws of kashrut, which govern which ani-mals are considered clean and fit for consumption. We are left to wonder why crickets and grasshoppers are fit to eat while rabbits are not, and why fish with scales and fins like carp are edible while catfish are not.

Thus, the response to questions concerning the origins of kashrut is best expressed in Yiddish: Freygt nit kayne shaaless.

“Don’t ask questions.”

As a child, I was told not to forget

our promise to G-d “to obey and to listen,” and since these laws were or-dained by G-d, they are to be adhered to just as eternal Jewry promised at Mt. Sinai.

Reasonable But Not Quite Right

And yet, in spite of all the legends associated with the giving of the laws at the mountain, I began to challenge the legitimacy of the chukim by the time I entered my mid-teens. I came to see that some religious dicta and decrees by fiat were contrary to the ideals of rationality and to moder-nity.

Then, when I came to the United States after my liberation from the concentration camps, I found a great demand for a rational understanding of the Torah and Talmudic laws. It was not in vogue to accept or observe laws that were not based on rational-ity.

To illustrate this trend and how it affected me: On one occasion, a friend was asked by some Christian acquaintances for his explanation of kashrut. He responded that it was based on ancient principles of health – a rational explanation based on the relationship between food and physi-cal fitness.

I see why he said this; consider how much more acceptable a health-based explanation is to people of other faiths. Instead of admitting that the reason for the chukim is un-known, that the laws most likely are non-functional remnants of ancient taboos related to totemic practice (as anthropologists, including Freud, suggest), one comes off as a reason-able individual appropriately con-cerned with self-preservation.

Indeed, many of the legitimating rationales given for the chukim are rooted in their association with bodi-ly benefits. For example, the monthly female baptism (mikvah) is frequent-ly accounted for with disease-preven-tion-based reasoning; many claim it as a deterrent for cervical cancer, but according to the law, the process ritually purifies a woman and makes her clean for sexual purposes – pure-ly a religious requirement.

A similar claim is set forth for the benefit of circumcision. It is argued that the body part can be kept clean-

er and thus healthier for having un-dergone the ritual, but in reality, the same results can be achieved with hygiene as maintained to today’s standards.

And finally, while it is quite true that abstaining from eating pork will reduce or even eliminate the chance of being affected by Trichinella spi-ralis – a very serious and dangerous parasite – that fact has nothing to do with the commandment to not eat said meat.

Unending Discussion

I do not wish to convey the idea that disagreements and conflict be-tween the world of religion and the secular world have recently emerged, nor that such divergences originate solely in the discrepancy between modern science and faith.

Indeed, there were those in the Middle Ages who argued that Jews were spared from the effects of the Black Plague because of their obedi-ence to hygienic laws. But this is far from the truth; in reality, the true reason is unknown, and Jews obeyed the laws simply because religion commanded it.

Of course, we can still wonder whether observance and health are related, since the Torah clearly states “you shall live through them [the mitzvot].” At the same time, we must realize that the great sepa-ration of religion and the material world lies in the former’s perception of absolutism, which is in reality a power struggle.

I suppose this struggle began be-tween religion and magic and thus preceded the famous conflict be-tween Jan Huss and Galileo with the Vatican. In fact, the Talmud can be seen as an attempt to find ways to bring a degree of co-existence be-tween ancient chukim and the inevi-table changes that are the result in the economic modes of production.

But that is the topic of my next es-say…

Eugen Schoenfeld is a professor and chair emeritus at georgia State uni-versity and a Holocaust survivor.

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Because you’ve had enough

gefilte fish.

Legal Sea FoodsGefilte Fish

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EDEN’S GArDENAJTOh, for the Love of a B+!BEING MORE THAN A NUMBERBY eden FArBeraJT COluMniST

Every new generation brings with it new talents – art-ists, politicians, pop culture symbols, thinkers and phi-

losophers, rioters and rebels, inno-vators and inventors. And while one generation takes the lead and makes their contributions, another begins to look around, understand their world and determine what there will be for them to do.

Some generations fought for wom-en’s suffrage or other civil rights; fu-ture ones may have to fight for the environment or the economy. What-ever it is they’re fighting for, they’ll have leaders, strength and the tools to go about it.

However, right now, I worry that my generation’s strength is deplet-ed.

You see, I’ve both witnessed and ex-perienced the low self-esteem and lack of interest in the world from when I began attending standard schools. It seems that many people in the school system are a little bit industrialized from spending all their days there.

The world as a larger entity – one without grading rubrics – is often frightening to students. As long as you don’t push against the walls of your little bubble, it won’t pop on you. But, at the same time, this reliance presents danger to the students.

As we begin to depend more on this system, we lose our grip on reality and what actually matters in the grand scheme of, well, the world.

This all sort of hit me last week, the last one of the grading term in my school. Within that one week, I watched helplessly as some of my best friends (or even acquaintances I just pass in the halls) cried and begged teachers for a “re-count.”

Please, give me back that point, round that decimal, add that plus sign, they beg – their dignity so far from the equation.

Some of the people I know to be strongest had fallen before the sys-

tem. These are people who generally make amazing contributions to the world, are brilliantly insightful, or wear smiles that light up the hall-ways.

What does it mean to be “strong” or “smart” if the only thing you are on paper is “B+”? Apparently, not much.

So that’s it? We fold to the power of letters and numbers?

We say to ourselves, our friends or our parents: “Sorry, I can’t think about the coming elections, I have pre-calculus work,” or “I really want to go to my little sister’s birthday party, but if I don’t ace this next

chemistry test, my grade will drop to a low ‘A’ instead of a high ‘A’ and I won’t make it into the Honors Roll.”

Or, even worse, “I know I haven’t slept more than two hours a night in a week, but this literature paper is more important.”

What does it mean that these as-signments are more important than the world, friends, family or even one’s self? How can an assignment or assessment mean more than a human being? When did teenagers start believing more in their home-work than themselves?

Of course, no one notices the dis-connect between their importance as human beings and the importance of their schoolwork. Throughout our whole time in school, all we’ve been told is this: We do the work to get good grades, to get into a good col-lege, to get a good job, to support a good family and send our children to good schools. Good, good, good.

However, all these evaluations – that these things are “good” – are

subjective. A “good job” or “good col-lege” for someone is different than that of someone else.

Everyone has different aspira-tions and capabilities; no one can be measured by their peers. So why are we all on the same track? And not just on it, but breaking our teeth over it?

It means that we have lost our individuality in the system and lost our mental health in trying to find it. Instead of learning for the sake of learning, or planning the future in anticipation of what we can achieve with our lives, we are feeding a sys-tem – one that was supposed to feed us.

I fear so greatly that the excep-tional and brilliant human beings of my generation will be crushed by a culture of numbers and systematized future occupations, that people will

“How can an assignment or assessment mean more

than a human being? When did teenagers start

believing more in their homework than them-

selves?”

identify less and less with a name and more and more with a number. I fear that when it is our time to paint the canvas that is our world, it will not be creativity that dictates it, but rules and regulations.

Let’s put an end to this systematic industrialization of human beings, and let our generation break the door down and finally see the sunlight of an open world.

atlanta’s Eden Farber, 15, was rec-ognized in the Jewish Heritage na-tional Poetry Contest of 2010 and has published op-eds and poetry in Modern Hippie Magazine and the nY Jewish Week’s Fresh ink for Teens section.

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BUSINESS & fINANCEAJTBuckhead Coalition Celebrates 25th AnniversaryMASSELL AND COALITION IMPROVE COMMUNITY, CITYBY Al ShAMSaJT COnTribuTOr

Twenty-five years ago, two good friends with a vision thought they could bring to-gether a select group of pri-

vate, concerned citizens whose hard work and personal financial commit-ment could benefit those living and working in the Buckhead area.

Those two friends were Sam Mas-sell and Charles Loudermilk, and the Buckhead Coalition was their joint vision.

Loudermilk had the original idea for the Coalition and quickly enlisted 12 other civic-minded Buckhead resi-dents to serve as founding members. To find a full-time president, the group conducted a search, the result of which was Massell being offered the position.

And in that role, Massell – At-lanta’s mayor from 1970 to 1974 and the city’s first and so far only Jewish mayor – has served ever since.

Early on, Sam’s friends had a dim view of the organization’s viability and advised him to secure a three-year contract. Loudermilk, the Coali-tion’s founder, also not sure of suc-cess, only wanted the responsibility of a one-year contract.

They settled on a two-year con-tract, which – to this day – has yet to be drafted.

The founding mission was to es-tablish a collective of concerned citi-zens to supplement the actions of lo-cal government. The belief was that city governments were struggling to meet some of their citizen’s needs and that a group of high-profile resi-dents could provide some assistance.

That vision has been validated many times during the past 25 years.

Making Buckhead Better

The bulk of the organization’s funding comes from member dues, which are $6,250 per year. Member-ship – which has diversified over the years to embrace women as well as people of different ethnic and cultur-al backgrounds – includes business leaders, local professionals and other concerned citizens, and comprises a list of names most readers would rec-ognize.

The total number of members is

limited to 100, and the waiting list is long. Some might consider this an exclusive group – and it is. However, it is well to note that the coalition receives no pub-lic funding; all expenditures are made with the members’ personal monies.

All efforts are exclusively de-voted to the common good and are not self-serving. Participants’ only reward is the satisfaction of having helped to make Buckhead an attractive place to live, work and visit.

Among some of the most no-table initiatives undertaken by the Coalition in the past quarter-century are:

• Raising $400,000 from mem-bership to fund a renovation of the Atlanta International School.

• Raising another $400,000 from membership to fund construction of the Carl E. Sanders Buckhead YMCA.

• Working to persuade the State to use a portion of Georgia Interstate 400 tolls to fund construction of a Georgia 400/I-85 connector.

• Placing 60 heart defibrillators in public areas, i.e., churches, hotels and office buildings.

• During the recent recession, pur-chasing two full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal to alert readers to at-tractive lease rates in Buckhead.

• Installing a network of free-stand-ing 911 emergency telephones.

• Putting forth $50,000 for informa-tion that lead to the arrest and con-viction of an individual in the case of a local murder.

• Working closely with city govern-ment to help educate residents on the wisdom of completing Georgia 400 through Buckhead.

• Donating bike racks to assist area police.

• Encouraging local government to repair broken street lights and traffic signs and to fill roadway potholes.

• Successfully lobbying MARTA to operate a daily bus, The Peach, between Buckhead, Midtown and Downtown, making for the first time in 33 years a patron could travel this route without making a transfer.

• Publishing a major annual com-munity directory, “The Buckhead

Guidebook,” now in its 18th year, with eight awards and ad revenue contributions going to local nonprof-its totaling $110,500 to date

• Creating the Buckhead Commu-nity Improvement District, which has raised more than $38 million from self-imposed member proper-ties, plus State and Federal grants for the Peachtree Boulevard project and other traffic-related improve-ments

Product of Good Leadership

Many believe that the Coalition’s great success is due to the quality of its membership, its executive staff and the cooperative, helpful and non-confrontational approach it has tak-en in dealing with local government and others.

In that respect, Massell has been the ideal person to serve and lead all these years. In meeting with Sam personally, one is quickly impressed by his warm, gracious, cordial and sincere manner. No wonder he was so successful in public, business and civic life.

A life-long resident of Atlanta, he attended public schools in DeKalb and later the University of Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Emory and Atlanta Law School. He holds many academic degrees and numer-ous honorary degrees.

His father – an active real estate developer in the 1920s and 1930s –

switched paths to practice law at the onset of the Great Depres-sion. The elder Massell always had a passion for state and lo-cal politics, and Sam would join his dad and attend local political rallies, thereby meeting some of the giants of the day (including Eugene Talmadge, Ellis Arnall, Ivan Allen, William Hartsfield and Richard Russell among many others).

At his father’s side, Massell gained an insight into politics, the art of effectively dealing with people and, most importantly, the concept of community service. He believes, as his dad did, in the old adage:

Those to whom much is giv-en, much is expected.

That philosophy has guided a long career. Massell spent 20

years as a highly regarded real-tor – becoming a charter member

of the Million Dollar Club – and on three separate occasions won the Cates Trophy for creating the “Out-standing Transaction of the Year.” Also while active in real estate, he became involved in civic work and eventually politics.

From there, he served 22 years in elected office, first on the Mountain Park City Council, then on the At-lanta Executive committee, then as president of the Board of Alderman and finally as mayor from 1970 to 1974. His administration was cred-ited with establishing MARTA and developing the OMNI Coliseum and Woodruff Park, among other notable accomplishments.

Then, after his time in public service, Massell entered the tour-ism industry as owner and operator of a Buckhead-based travel agency. Thirteen successful years later, he accepted the position of President of the Buckhead Coalition in 1988.

Space does not allow us the free-dom to list Massell’s many honors, accomplishments and awards dur-ing his lifetime; needless to say, they are considerable. Our readers, young and old alike, can learn much from his lifetime of public and civic ser-vice.

al Shams is a Sandy Springs resi-dent a former CPa and an invest-ment professional with more than 35 years industry experience.

Sam Massell

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HEAlTH & WEllNESSAJTRaw and Living Foods to Heal the BodyRE-THINKING HOW YOU LOOK AT FOOD

BY BrendA coBBFOr THE aTlanTa JEWiSH TiMES

Disease doesn’t have to be incurable, hopeless or ter-minal, even if the doctor says so.

In 1999, I was diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer. The doc-tors gave me less than a year to live if I didn’t go through surgery, chemo-therapy and radiation. I refused all the treatments because my own fam-ily members had faced cancer with traditional treatments, and their cancers had either come back or the treatments killed them. I was deter-mined to find a natural way to help my body heal itself.

During my quest, I discovered the living and raw foods lifestyle. In

six months, I was cancer-free, not to mention my allergies and psoriasis cleared up. Even better, my arthritis went away and my energy increased. I never had heartburn or acid reflux again. My gray hair even turned back to its original color!

I was so thrilled with my results that I wanted to tell everyone, so I founded the Living Foods Institute to teach others how to heal themselves naturally. After helping tens of thou-sands of people restore their health, I have discovered that the body is capable of healing most anything if a person is willing to cleanse and detoxify, heal emotional wounds and eat the right foods.

I love watching people transform right before my eyes. The right pro-tocol heals even the most advanced cancers, diabetes, heart disease, lu-pus, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, skin

issues, migraine headaches, viral diseases and much more. The body was created to heal itself and it will when given what it needs.

During the year I’ll be writing sev-eral columns for the atlanta Jewish Times, wherein I’ll teach you a little about raw and liv-ing foods nutrition and how you can achieve optimum health naturally. I will also include a delicious quick and easy recipe. Let’s get started achiev-ing better health, and let’s do it right now!

As we get start-ed, this is a key to remember: When you cook food, you kill it. Heat de-stroys enzymes, vitamins and min-erals. Organic raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and liv-ing sprouted foods supply the best nutrition, enzymes, vitamins and minerals in their com-plete and most nourishing form.

It’s so easy to eat raw and living foods – just go to the organic pro-duce section in your local grocery or health food store, fill your cart with a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits,

and you’re in business.

Take the simple approach and just eat an apple or stalk of celery. Or, blend the two together in a Vi-ta-Mix blender to create a delicious smoothie. Scoop out avocado flesh and eat it with a spoon, or even make a yummy guacamole; eat a raw carrot, or cre-ate a delicious car-rot salad. The possi-bilities are endless!

Think of all the different ways to enjoy Mother Na-ture’s bounty. Eat her goodies straight off the tree, no cook-ing needed. You won’t heat up the kitchen, and you’ll save on utilities. Who could ask for more?

Editor’s note: bren-da Cobb is author of “The living Foods

lifestyle” and founder of The liv-ing Foods institute, an educational center and therapy spa in atlanta offering healthy lifestyle courses on nutrition, cleansing, healing, anti-aging, detoxification and relaxation. For more information, call (404) 524-4488 or (800) 844-9876 or visit living-foodsinstitute.com.

Recipe: Apple Coconut Sprout Smoothie

Ingredients

2 apples1 cup sunflower sprouts2 stalks celery1 Tbs. raw coconut oil2 cups water

Directions

1. Seed the apples.2. Put all the ingredients in the Vita-Mix machine.3. Blend until creamy.

Brenda Cobb

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CareMinders Home Care of Dunwoody and Sandy SpringsCARING FOR MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT

BY SAllie W. BoYleSFOr THE aTlanTa JEWiSH TiMES

A great benefit of living in metro Atlanta is the sheer variety of activities avail-able to all ages. Depending

upon individual interests and tal-ents, seniors can easily fill their days and evenings with continuing educa-tion classes, charitable and social events, hob-bies, cul-tural arts e x h i b i t s , w o r s h i p s e r v i c e s and much more.

S i n c e being ac-tive and involved is integral to good health, a lifestyle that makes time for people and p l e a s u r e s o u t s i d e the home should be encouraged in the se-nior popula-tion. Neverthe-less, the aging pro-cess can cause changes, like mobility difficulties and driving challenges, which decrease one’s ability and de-sire to participate.

“Seniors begin to relinquish their outside interests for the simple rea-son that they must rely on others,” said Lisa Reisman, a nurse practi-tioner and owner of CareMinders Home Care of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody. “In many instances, they’ll refrain from asking for a ride because they do not want to be a nuisance to anyone. Additionally, family members and friends gener-ally have every intention of spend-ing time with the older loved ones in their lives, but other priorities and challenges interfere with such well-

HEAlTH & WEllNESSAJT

a�i�ed living and memory ca�theDistinctively KosherMeet Fred Glusman

Kashruth Supervisor/ChaplainAs a longtime leader at �e Carlton, Fred

provides expertise in �e Jewish culture. As the community Kashruth he oversees the

Kosher menus and food preparation. In his role as Chaplain he plans traditional holiday

observance and o�ers spiritual, education and support to resident’s, families and sta�.

Interesting Facts About Fred: married grown children and 9 grandchildren

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www.thecarltonalf.comAn INSIGNIA SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITY

meaning commitments.”

As a result, the elderly often suf-fer from social isolation.

“The loss of a social support net-work creates stress that increases the likelihood of an elderly individ-

ual develop-ing depres-sion,” said Dr. Joseph B e r g e r , a diplo-mate of the A m e r i c a n Board of Psychiatry and direc-tor of North A t l a n t a P s y c h i a t -ric Ser-vices. “It’s important that care-givers help the elderly remain ac-tive and en-gaged in life by offering activities in their com-munity.

“ T h e effort can be extremely beneficial, especial ly

in terms of enhancing the quality of life for the care recipient. Therefore, geriatric caregivers must be well-trained and knowledgeable about working with elderly patients.”

And in addition to exercising and eating well, seniors are encouraged to spend time with others they enjoy being around and to talk about their fears and concerns with peers, who are likely experiencing similar cir-cumstances.

In order to help her clients main-tain a positive outlook, as well as combat depression, Reisman reveals that community involvement is one of the highest priorities in the care that her CareMinders agency gives.

“Whether it’s a new interest or a

lifelong passion, a plea-surable activity away from home can make all the difference in an in-dividual’s outlook,” said Reisman. “Accordingly, our caregivers gain tre-mendous satisfaction from facilitating such opportunities. We’re on-hand to assist as needed, but often it’s just a mat-ter of being present and giving companionship.”

CareMinders clients and their caregivers can be spotted all over the city – at grocery stores, community centers, plac-es of worship, shopping malls, local exercise pro-grams and even hospi-tals, where they’re visit-ing friends.

“By keeping our care recipients happy, the ex-tended family is happier and less anxious,” said Reisman. “And we defi-nitely provide relief and peace of mind to loved ones, who can’t always manage an outing.”

Medical professionals and caregivers agree that individuals of all ages are more likely to thrive when meaningful people and activities are part of each day. As Benjamin Franklin famously said:

“We do not stop play-ing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing!”

Editor’s note: For more information about caring for seniors, contact lisa M. reisman of CareMind-ers Home Care of Sandy Springs and dunwoody at (770) 551-9533 or car-emindersdunwoody.com.

Bea Blass, longtime client of CareMinders Home Care of Dunwoody, enjoying her weekly bridge game;

with caregiver Mary Koffie.PHOTO/courtesy Judy Landey

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HEAlTH & WEllNESSAJTOrtho that Won’t Make You Say “Oh No!”DR. KATZ AND INNOVATIVE ORTHODONTICSBY John MccurdYManaging EdiTOr

Given the choice between the standard orthodontic expe-rience – painful, drawn-out treatment and loads of vis-

its to a dingy office – and that offered by Dr. Wendy Katz at Innovative Orthodontics, the decision is clear. A more efficient course of care and fewer but more pleasant visits to the doc are easy sells to kids and adults alike.

Dr. Katz sees patients of all ages at her East Cobb office and not only straightens out teeth; she also gives folks a reason to smile. Entertain-ment abounds for the youngsters (a TV at every chair, plus a gaming area with Xbox and Playstation), and adults love how quickly results come about.

How? Innovative Ortho features SureSmile technology, which utilizes 3D computer modeling and custom-made arch wires to ensure accurate diagnostics, spot-on precision and a quick turnaround.

“The most important thing for the patient – the clincher – is that you don’t have to wear your braces for as long,” Dr. Katz explained. “So I’m finishing up cases now in almost half the time that I used to, and I have more operability and more precision. I’m doing the best work of my career now with the help of this software.”

The Atlanta Jewish Times got a chance to speak with the doctor about her approach, the benefits of technology to her field and the re-wards of her profession.

Atlanta Jewish Times: So how did you get into orthodontics?

Dr. Wendy Katz: I went into den-tistry because I loved the sciences – in high school, I wanted to take extra science courses, and in college, I took all that I could. I also used to sew, do crafts, macramé, beading, all sorts of handiwork.

So this was a way to combine both things I had passion for. Then, I de-cided to specialize – I did general work before going back to school for a two-year program.

AJT: Tell me a bit about your busi-ness model. From what I understand, you won’t charge a patient until the braces are put on their teeth.

WK: Right; we have complimentary new patient appointments. I’d rather people come in and have me take a look to see if they’re ready than wish I’d seen someone earlier.

Some orthodontists do charge for that first new patient exam, but we don’t; I just have a different philoso-phy from other doctors in the area. And with orthodontics, it’s not like it’s a procedure that can be over in a day or an hour; so we tend to charge a “case fee,” which generally incorpo-rates the time it’s going to take to get the job done, provided the patient’s going to cooperate.

We might charge something up front, but that’s for the hardware that we’re going to be utilizing throughout the whole treatment. So you can think of it more as though like you’re renting something; you’re going to get started by paying for the hardware, and then you get set up on a monthly payment schedule.

AJT: I’ve also heard that your office is true to its name in that the layout is quite “innovative.”

WK: It’s an open-bay concept. In pediatric orthodontics, it’s not that unusual; I think originally it was done so that kids could see the other kids, and they would get comfortable and not scared because they can see what’s going on in the room.

It just kind of has stuck, and I like it like that. We do have one pri-vate treatment room for people who don’t want to be in an open room, but we’ve never had anyone choose that. I’ve been doing this for so long – I’ve been practicing for 28 years – so I’m used to the open bay.

We have fun. And I don’t have

any anesthesia, I don’t have shots, I don’t have any of that. We want it to be fun. But what’s so amazing about our practice is that 40 percent of our patients are adults.

AJT: On that topic – how are you able to meet the needs of both child and adult patients, and what’s the difference between seeing one versus the other for you?

WK: I enjoy the kids. They’re enter-taining and fun to work with. But the adults are great to work with, too, because they’re compliant; they’re here because they want to be here, not because their parents are paying for it. So if you ask them to wear a rubber band, you’re also guaranteed that they’re going to wear they’re rubber bands.

But [regardless], it’s the relation-ship between doctor and patient that makes treatment so much fun. With kids, you see them mature and de-velop over the course of the years that you’re seeing them; they really develop that self-esteem, and that’s just a wonderful gift.

I love what I do and I look forward to going to work every day. To me, or-thodontics is very, very, rewarding.

Editor’s note: Visit innovative-ortho-dontics.com or call (770) 952-5255 for more info or to schedule a visit to in-novative Orthodontics (1229 Johnson Ferry rd., Ste. 100).

Dr. Wendy J. Katz, DDS

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Cancer”

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HEAlTH & WEllNESSAJTShopping for Medications Online?ISRAELPHARM IS THE JEWISH STATE’S NO. 1 ONLINE PHARMACY

It’s common knowledge that, over the past 10 years, Cana-dian pharmacies have served as an alternative to the high

price of purchasing medications in the U.S. However, not all are aware that Israel has also entered this mar-ket during the last five years and has been providing quality medications while also offering the consumer sub-stantial savings.

Of the pharmacies based in the Jewish State, many have come and gone, but Israelpharm has remained a solid choice for those ordering drugs online. Founded by Saul Kaye, an Australian trained pharmacist who made aliyah more than 15 years ago, the company began as a single location in a small mall in Jerusalem serving the local community.

Towards the end of the last de-cade, though, Kaye saw an opportu-nity to compete with Canadian on-line pharmacies and thus expanded

his business. At the same time, he also partnered with Stuart Forman, who has marketed Israelpharm suc-cessfully and subsequently made ali-yah himself.

Kaye and Forman have led their company to become the largest Is-raeli internet pharmacy. They pride themselves that they are able to em-ploy immigrants from various coun-tries around the world and operate based on a simple philosophy:

“Israelpharm offers only quality

medications at substantially reduced prices.”

Such a motto has helped win over more than 2500 active customers.

It should be noted that while other online pharmacies offer medications manufactured in third-world coun-tries, Israelpharm does not; all medi-cations offered by Israelpharm are approved by the ministry of health in Israel, and most brand medications are manufactured by the same phar-

maceutical manufacturer as in the United States.

Israelpharm also complies with all the laws of pharmacy in the State of Israel, and every package is double verified to make sure that patients receive the highest level of care.

Further, Saul is available via email to answer any and all inqui-ries regarding pharmacy and medi-cations.

Editor’s note: For more information, go to israelpharm.com or call toll-free at (866) 456-3768. The Fda al-lows the importation of medications for personal use and has published guidelines on making smart choices when using an internet pharmacy. israelpharm proudly complies with all the online pharmacy recommen-dations made by the Fda.

SPoNSorED By “a World Without

Cancer”

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HEAlTH & WEllNESSAJTKeep the Weight Off with Clinic’s Expert HelpNO SURGERY OR FAD DIETS!

FroM Medi WeightloSS clinicFOr THE aTlanTa JEWiSH TiMES

Whether it’s losing 10 pounds to get in shape for a wedding or losing 100 pounds to save your

life, weight loss isn’t easy.

That’s why Dr. Susan Wheatley opened the Medi Weightloss Clin-ic. As a medical doctor, she noticed many of her patients were looking for a service that would help them safely lose weight, and the run-of-the-mill local options didn’t seem to be enough.

“Medi Weightloss has been around for nine years, they’re FDA approved and they offer professional medical guidance,” said Dr. Wheatley.

She opened a Johns Creek branch in mid-February 2012 to offer locals a healthy and professional way of dropping weight and keeping it off without resorting to fad diets or in-vasive surgery.

“We have physicians, nurse prac-titioners and nut r i t i on i s t s on staff,” Dr. Wheatley ex-plained. “And, in addition to the physical as-pects of weight loss, we stress nutrition and education.”

“Weight loss isn’t just about weight,” added Julie Ward, the Johns Creek of-fice manager. “It’s about emo-tion, and this process changes people’s lives.”

People in the Medi Weightloss program average about three to five pounds lost per week, which amounts to approximately 20 pounds a month.

A client’s first visit lasts two hours and entails an intense exami-nation and medical history review. A full physical, EKG, blood work and a weight and BMI measurement are necessary; a nurse practitioner will

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then go over with the client his or her goals, make recommendations about diet and exercise and offer vitamin supplements and an appetite sup-pressant.

Follow-up visits are short, lasting around 10 minutes, and include op-tional vitamin B6 and B12 injections for energy as well as weight mea-surements.

“With our Tanita scale, we can measure not just how much weight you’ve lost, but how much was water weight and how much was fat,” said Dr. Wheatley.

All records are kept electronically, so clients can follow their progress on the website, and the records can be sent to a primary care physician or cardiologist who can then determine when to lower medications that con-trol cholesterol or blood pressure.

And that’s the real advantage of the Medi Weightloss process: By

losing weight, you lower blood pressure, bad cholesterol and your risk of heart disease or stroke.

“You have a five-fold risk of stroke if you’re o v e r w e i g h t , ” said Dr. Wheat-ley.

Beyond the focus on diet, physiology and nutrition, Medi W e i g h t l o s s is committed

to seeing you keep the weight off. The clinic focuses on education and teaching you to live a healthy life-style which includes exercise and ap-propriate portion sizes.

“Our biggest goal is for patients to maintain weight loss, so that af-ter a year they’ve kept it off,” said Dawnelle Steding, nurse practitioner at the Johns Creek location.

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HEAlTH & WEllNESSAJTIs the Yearly Physical Exam Really Necessary?PREVENTION VS. REACTION

BY dr. BriAn nAdolneFOr THE aTlanTa JEWiSH TiMES

Has a year passed already? It may be time for that an-nual doctor’s visit again!

If you’re one of the lucky ones who don’t get sick often, you may in fact see your doctor only once a year.

“Forget it,” you think. “I’m healthy. Who needs a physical?”

Some may think that physical exams are not necessary, that they are a waste of time and money.

Maybe those doctors are just recommending annual exams to drum up business, they hy-pothesize. it is a tough economy, after all!

Others are firm be-lievers in seeing their doctor at least once a year. The visit gives a chance to make sure all is working well.

The answer to whether or not you need an annual check-up lies in your philosophy: Do you want to prevent illness, or do you want to react to ill-ness once it occurs? Would you rather keep that cholesterol and blood pres-sure down, or deal with the after-math of a heart attack? Would you rather endure cancer screenings, or go through treatment for later stage cancer?

I know it sounds dramatic, but sadly, I have seen patients face the latter alternatives too many times. I am a firm believer in preventive care; it’s easier than you think and actually saves us all time and money in the long run.

As a doctor, I would rather use our time in the exam room to chat about how to achieve and maintain optimal health than labor on another current illness. Chances are, with the proper plan, we can actually reduce your medications rather than prescribe more.

The annual physical exam gives

you and your doctor the opportunity to begin this process. In this extend-ed appointment, you and your doctor have the chance to plan a blueprint for health for the rest of the year.

And the yearly visit is just the be-ginning. We have the opportunity to

affect lives, to help pa-tients create change and to be there for patients in their time of need. As physicians, we have a passion for healing, lis-tening to patients and attending to their con-cerns.

We must not miss the opportunity to take a preventive moment at each and every visit, regardless of how mun-dane or inconsequen-tial it may seem. The landscape of medicine is changing, and it is changing rapidly; we have to be creative in

how we practice so as to get the most out of each visit.

Make an appointment, build a re-lationship with your doctor and make sure that you have a blueprint for health. Take control of your future, and become a partner with your doc-tor so that the two of you can work to attain and maintain your health.

If you use the time with your phy-sician to start planning for the com-ing years by committing to getting healthy, you can stop reacting to dis-ease. Then, once and for all, you will feel great about the time you spend with your physician.

So go ahead and start: Make that appointment for your annual physi-cal!

Editor’s note: brian K. nadolne, Md, FaaFP is a family physician in Marietta, ga. He is the current pres-ident-elect of the georgia academy of Family Physicians, chair of Family Medicine at northside Hospital, and medical director of nadolne Family Medicine & Preventive Care.

Dr. Brian Nadolne

SPoNSorED By “a World Without

Cancer”

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CommUNITyAJTNot the Same Old Scholar-in-Residence RABBI LAWRENCE HOFFMAN AT TEMPLE SINAI, FEB. 1-3FroM teMple SinAiFOr THE aTlanTa JEWiSH TiMES

Back when the information highway was a dusty foot-path that led to the pub-lic library, people craved

“truths.” They sought out books and experts who could tell them what they should believe.

But that’s no longer the case, says Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, Temple Sinai 2013 Scholar-in-Residence.

“Now with the Internet, we are super-saturated with truths,” he explained. “So if a scholar comes in and an-nounces, ‘Here are 10 more truths,’ people will say, ‘Who needs this when I can just look it up?!’”

Rabbi Hoffman – profes-sor of liturgy, worship and ritual at Hebrew Union Col-lege in New York – prefers to initi-ate a Jewish conversation with his audiences that helps add meaning to their lives.

“We’re used to talking about tik-kun olam, and we love study and charity,” he said. “I’m in favor of all of that, but I try to open the door to serious religious questions Jews tend to shy away from these days.”

Kiddush Cup is Half Full

The reasons for the shift in atti-tude about Jewish life are among the topics Rabbi Hoffman will address during the weekend of Feb. 1 to 3 at Temple Sinai.

One explanation for the change is that we are living in a period when cultural and ethnic differences no longer define what we believe or how we pray.

“For most of American history un-til the recent past, we have been eth-nic to our core,” explained the rabbi. “That ethnicity drove us to the syna-gogue, which was the only place we could satisfy the need to be under-stood as Jews. It was only in a Jew-ish milieu that we felt really comfort-able.”

It was also in that familiar set-ting that people could indulge their nostalgia for the old country and a simpler past. But today, all that has

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changed. Assimilation, a 50-percent intermarriage rate and fading his-torical memory have led to a lack of ethnicity and, with it, an erosion of identity.

Rabbi Hoffman does not bemoan, but rather embraces, these and other transformations. He uses them as a jumping-off point for new ways to be Jewish. Indeed, as co-founder of the “Synagogue 3000” initiative, Rabbi Hoffman is passionate about the sub-ject of tomorrow’s synagogue.

“How can the syna-gogue engage those who have not only chosen it but others who have not yet found their way there?” he wondered.

One response he of-fers is a vision of the syna-gogue of the future as an “in-tentional community” that focuses on helping people find meaning.

The Move Toward Meaning

To build that synagogue – the one where each individual can find his or her own significance in Torah – Rab-bi Hoffman believes modern Jews have to start thinking and talking seriously about religion.

“This doesn’t come easily to Jews from Eastern Europe, many of whom came to this country as atheists and socialists,” he admitted.

It does, however, make sense in America today, where religion is a high priority for many people and is part of the national dialogue. Rabbi Hoffman looks forward to opportu-nities throughout the coming Schol-ar-in-Residence weekend to guide congregants and members of the community into these and other ar-eas of thought and discovery.

“The scholar-in-residence I’m trying to represent is not about dis-pensing truths,” he said. “It’s about exploring the new world in which we all live and the ways we can find sig-nificant insights into life in the midst of our busy lives.”

Editor’s note: rabbi lawrence Hoff-man, author and speaker, will serve as Temple Sinai’s Scholar in resi-dence for the weekend of Feb. 1 to 3. Visit templesinaiatlanta.org to rSVP or for more information.

Congregation KehillatHaShem’s New Torah

Co n g r e g a -tion Kehillat HaShem dedi-cated their

pre-Holocaust Torah scroll on Jan. 12. The scroll, originating from Poland, is certified by Sofer Itzhak Weiner of Staten Island. This Torah weath-ered the Hurricane Sandy and was shipped to Kehillat HaShem’s Rabbi Jeffery Feinstein during the height of the storm. The Johns Creek-area congregation obtained the Torah when two congregations in New York merged last year. Several members of the congre-gation generously donated toward the purchase of this scroll, but fur-ther donations are still needed. Zev Goering of Nashville, Tenn., who builds bimahs and arks for Chabad houses throughout the United

States, has agreed to build an ark for the congregation.

Congregation Kehillat HaShem is a Modern synagogue is Johns Creek; contact rabbi@rabbiatlanta.com for more information.

Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman

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ArTS & lIfEAJTThe Acrobuffos: The Art of ClowningBIG APPLE CIRCUS COMES TO ATLANTA

BY elizABeth FriedlYaSSiSTanT EdiTOr

Padded with a soft, rounded gut, a bouncy bottom and two curly wigs, the world’s only two half-masked clowns

in circus transform their athletic fig-ures each night for the sake of com-edy.

“The contortionists, right at the opening of the circus said, ‘You guys look like the dancers. Where are the clowns?’” Seth Bloom re-calls.

He and his wife, Christi-na Gelsone, make up clown-ing duo the Acrobuffos, cur-rently performing their act “Madame and Monsieur” for Big Apple Circus (coming to Verizon Wireless Amphithe-atre Feb. 1 through 18).

The name is an amal-gamation of the two words “acrobats” and “buffoons” – the two spirits behind the Acrobuffos’ slapstick performances. These aren’t your hired birthday clowns slapping on red noses between cake and ice cream; what we may take for grant-ed as light-hearted comedy, Gelsone and Bloom treat as an art form.

In total, their current piece took roughly five years to develop and perfect. Not only did Bloom and Gel-sone personally construct their “Ma-dame” and “Monsieur” characters, costumes and all, but Bloom created each mask by hand.

Of course, while there is serious training and skill behind each act, the end goal is always to get people laughing.

Bloom’s love of entertaining be-gan in high school, when he started juggling and never looked back. Re-alizing he could either continue with-in the world of academics or pursue clowning in earnest, Bloom applied and was accepted to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown Col-lege.

He went on to study at Dell’Arte International in California before earning his master’s in theater in London.

“The joke between Christina and I is that I went to three clown colleges,

and she went to Princeton Universi-ty,” Bloom laughs, referring to their contrasting education backgrounds.

Befitting of their unconventional lifestyle, the couple met in Afghani-stan in 2003 while teaching circus skills to children. The pair continues to be involved in volunteer efforts in post-conflict zones as a part of the “Social Circus” movement. Related projects include Mobile Mini Circus for Children in Afghanistan and a program in Egypt with Plan Inter-

national and Chil-dren’s Coopera-tive.

Gelsone and Bloom continued to work together professionally for years before tak-ing the plunge into a romantic partnership; it wasn’t until 2007 that Gelsone and Bloom married while traveling in China. Bloom cites their “common language” as what brought them together.

And it’s that language of comedy that the two use to communicate in the “Madame and Monsieur” skits of Big Apple’s “Legendarium.” The show invokes the “legend of the cir-cus,” or a circus from the past. Bloom specifically cites productions of the 18th and 19th century; audience members are seated an intimate 50 feet away from the acts, performed inside a sawdust ring.

“Legendarium” features art-ists from all over the world; in fact, Bloom and Gelsone are the only two

American actors in the cast. Big Ap-ple searched the globe and only the top-tier performers were ultimately selected.

“The Oscar award-winners of the circus come to perform here. A lot of people don’t know that,” says Bloom. “The slack-wire hand bouncing per-formance, he’s the only guy in the world who can do all those tricks.”

The Acrobuffos’ unique half-masked approach harkens back to

the Italian tra-dition known as commedia dell’arte. Deemed one of the first professional forms of theater, masked actors would per-form, outdoors on temporary stages.

Gelsone and Bloom use the masks to further distance their act from reality. They do not speak, us-

ing only nonsense noises and move-ment to communicate.

“We’ve been able to get away with outrageous comedy…things we might not normally be able to get away with in clown makeup. People see us as cartoons, they don’t see us as human,” says Bloom.

He describes performing as “Mon-sieur” as something akin to slipping on a second skin. The process is fa-miliar to him, as the Acrobuffos have spent years mastering characters and traveling the world.

They have performed “Madame and Monsieur” in no less than 15 dif-

ferent countries. From the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland to Belgium and the Netherlands, Bloom has observed that no two audiences are alike. Such a variety of experience has proved to be invaluable.

“We’ve learned what’s funny across the board,” says Bloom. “We’re adding little jokes throughout the show that we didn’t have when we first started, so we’re getting funnier every day.”

Gelsone and Bloom spend most of their time overseas, making only infrequent trips to the U.S. Over time, Bloom has come to appreci-ate the different attitudes towards circus in countries besides his own – Europe stands out in particular.

“You go on dates to the circus [in Europe]. It’s kind of a high art form there. Then you come to America, and the circus is kind of for the kids,” says Bloom.

One of the Acrobuffos’ most mem-orable performances took place across the globe. “Madame and Monsieur” was part of a circus competition in the center of China, where for 10 nights they performed to a ring of 3,000 people, many of whom had little experience with clowns.

“Every time we went onstage, the laughter in there was pummeling us from all sides,” says Bloom. “That is a rare thing to have happen, to have a stadium full, laughing every night. It was amazing.”

One night during the competition, Bloom pulled a young boy onstage, as is their tradition with audience members. The conditions were hot as the boy mimicked Bloom, spraying water from between his teeth. All of a sudden, Bloom dumped the entire bottle over the boy’s head.

“He had such a good time. He started jumping up and down. The audience was cracking up, because it wasn’t planned.”

As silent performers, there is no such thing as a language barrier. Bloom agrees some things are uni-versal – fun with water, Monsieur getting knocked down and Madame bouncing on her bottom. No mat-ter your politics, upbringing, age or gender – it seems there are certain things we can all agree on.

These are the moments that drive the Acrobuffos to continue clowning, all these years later.

Bloom stretches before aperformance.

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ArTS & lIfEAJTIsraeli Violinist Vadim Gluzman MakesAtlanta Symphony DebutBRUCH’S “VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 1,” AS DONE BY A MASTERBY deBBie diAMondaJT COnTribuTOr

Violinist Vadim Gluzman, acknowledged as one of the leading violinists in the world, made his debut with

the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 24. Those who missed out are lucky in that there is another chance to see him – he will perform Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the ASO again on Jan. 26.

An Israeli citi-zen, Gluzman ap-pears regularly with major interna-tional orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, Chi-cago Symphony, London Philhar-monic, London Symphony and San Francisco Sympho-ny. Additionally, he has worked with the world’s most re-spected conductors, including Michael Tilson Thomas, It-zhak Perlman and Andrew Litton, to name just a few.

Still, he is disarm-ingly humble when asked about his un-mistakable talent – particularly so for someone who has received the 2011 Diapason d’Or de l’Année, one of the French recording industry’s most prestigious awards, as well as the Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award.

Gluzman began his music studies at age 7 in the former U.S.S.R. (now Ukraine), where he was born. The son of two musicians, he explains that as a young child, he would watch other children arrive for music lessons each day, only to decide after a short while that it was his turn to play – a choice that has led to two of his lifelong passions, music and per-forming.

“Once I expressed an interest in performing, my mother took me to a school for special and gifted chil-dren,” he recounts. “They put me through a rigorous series of entrance exams, including an inspection of my hands. It was there that they decid-

ed my hands were made for a violin. Why a violin and not a piano or cello, I’ll never know.”

The Foundation of a Virtuoso

Gluzman credits his “incredible” education – which includes years of lessons with teachers Zakhar Bron in Riga, Latvia and Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School in New York – with helping to shape his love of music and the violin. And his rela-

tionship with Isaac Stern, established shortly after mak-ing aliyah to Is-rael, is particularly meaningful to him.

It all began with a little chutz-pah, or maybe bash-ert, that landed a 16-year-old Gluz-man at the Jerusa-lem Music Centre two weeks after his arrival in Israel. He heard that Stern would be listening to young musicians, so he arrived, violin in hand, to request an appointment.

“I had no idea about the protocol in-volved in setting up a specific time,” Gluz-man remembers. “As

the receptionist began explaining that I would not be able to meet with him, who should walk in the office but Mr. Stern.”

Stern agreed to give him five min-utes – which turned into two hours – and Gluzman found in Stern a lifelong mentor. He not only helped Gluzman obtain scholarships and violins through the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, but he also provided him with direction.

Today, Gluzman credits Stern with pushing him to continually move outside of his comfort zone and emphasizing that one should never be satisfied with oneself. Gluzman’s respect and adoration for Stern con-tinues to influence him even today.

Piece and Player Inextricably Linked

Now an Israeli citizen, Gluzman has homes in both a town near Ne-tanya as well as in Chicago. He de-scribes Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 – the piece he will be playing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra – as a “romantic masterpiece.”

According to Gluzman, he first played the Concerto at the age of 13 and plays it now on his 1690 “ex-Leopold Auer” Stradivarius, on loan to him for the past 15 years from the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

“This piece launched my career and was the piece I played when I won the Szeryng Award in Monte Carlo in 1994,” he says. “I also won the Diapason d’Or for this piece, so I guess you could say the concerto is part of my DNA by now.”

The Washington Post has praised Gluzman’s rendition of Bruch’s con-certo as “a thoughtful reading that is almost insouciant about its outra-

geous beauty”, highlighting the art-ist’s “...integrity and lack of flashi-ness for its own sake.”

Christopher Fifield, Bruch’s biog-rapher, described Gluzman’s inter-pretation as “quite the finest perfor-mance I have ever heard.”

The ASO’s performance will open with Japanese guest conductor Ka-zushi Ono leading the Orchestra in the Overture to Weber’s Euryanthe and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, “Scottish.”

Editor’s note: gluzman will perform at 8 p.m. on Sat., Jan. 26 at atlan-ta Symphony Hall at Woodruff arts Center. For tickets, visit atlantasym-phony.org or ticketmaster.com, call (404) 733-5000 or come by the Wood-ruff arts Center.

Music lovers have one more chance to catch Vadim Gluzman with the ASO: Sat., Jan. 26 (see

atlantasymphony.org for tickets).PHOTO/Marco Borggreve

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ArTS & lIfEAJT

GOING OUT OF TOWN?

Kosher Movies: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)APPRECIATION BETWEEN FATHERS AND SONS

BY rABBi herBert cohenaJT COnTribuTOr

I recently taught a poem, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, to my 11th-grade Eng-lish class. The poem is about

the relationship between fathers and sons – how a son finally understands how much his father did for him while raising him from boy to man.

He remembers how hard his fa-ther worked to maintain his house-hold and that “no one ever thanked him.” He acknowledges that he was unaware of his father’s love for him, which was expressed in taking care of the daily needs of his family:

“What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?”

These lines resonate in many films that show the complex relation-ship between fathers and sons, many of which reveal the son not appreci-ating his father until the father has passed away.

Among them is “3:10 to Yuma,” which depicts the story of Dan Ev-ans, a poor rancher and veteran of the Civil War, who is struggling to keep his land as people attempt to buy it off him to then sell to the rail-road at exorbitant profit. When two men set his barn on fire, he resolves to make things right; but his son, William, has little hope that his fa-ther can do this.

When Dan tells his son that he will understand when he walks in his shoes, his son bitterly responds, “I ain’t never walking in your shoes.”

William sees his father as weak and incapable of fixing anything. He does not see inner courage, only out-er trembling.

Dan is pained by his son’s low es-timation of him and will do anything to be a hero in his eyes – even escort Ben Wade, a notorious bank rob-ber and murderer, to federal court in Yuma, where he will probably be hanged.

For a payment of $200 (a huge sum in those days) from the railroad company, Dan puts his life on the line to save his farm and to redeem himself and his family. By bringing Ben Wade to Yuma for trial when no-body else would, he wants to accom-plish a feat that would impress and draw the admiration of his son.

As for the conclusion, Dan gets Ben Wade to the train to Yuma, but

with tragic conse-quences.

The Bible tells us that the com-mandment of hon-oring parents is re-warded with long life. A parent of a student I teach re-cently complained to me about his teenage son, who almost never speaks to him. My friend said, “I wish he was an adult already. Then we could talk to one another normally.”

He also told me that even though he often told his son that he loved him, his son never told him “I love

you, Dad.” He had no doubt that his son loved him, but he wanted his son to have long life; it weighed on his mind that his son didn’t seem to understand how meaning-ful it would be if he would be more forthcoming with expressions of pa-rental apprecia-tion and affection.

To the fa-ther, expressing love verbally was a way to honor one’s parents and for his son to receive the reward of long

life. Obviously, my friend was per-

plexed that his son was not taking advantage of this spiritual opportu-nity; moreover, he was fearful that he would no longer be living in this world when his son finally wanted to verbally express his love.

“3:10 to Yuma” has a lot to say about father-son relationships. It re-minds us of just how much fathers want to be good role models for their sons, and how satisfying it can be to a parent when children express ap-preciation and love. A parent-child dynamic may be rooted in love, but the roots have to be watered for that love to flourish.

rabbi Cohen, former principal of Yeshiva atlanta, now resides in beit Shemesh, israel. Visit koshermovies.com for more of his Torah-themed film reviews.

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ArTS & lIfEAJT“My AwkwardSexual Adventure”AJFF FILM REVIEWBY John MccurdYManaging EdiTOr

You certainly can’t accuse them of false-a d v e r t i s i n g

this one. “My Awkward Sexual Adventure” is just that: awkward, sexual and – very much so – an adventure.

At the same time, though, the title leaves many questions unan-swered. Is this an hon-est look at a man’s per-sonal struggle? Is it a non-stop romp, flowing from one sex gag to the next? Is it something you would see on a date with your significant other?

The answer to all of the above (given you belong to the targeted age 18 to 54 bracket) is yes. This film is, at its heart, a well-intentioned rom-com that sets itself apart in a couple of ways.

Plot-wise, nothing that you see here is new. Sad-sap accountant Jordan (Jonas Chernick) gets stood up by his girlfriend Rachel (Sarah Manninen) at the airport terminal as the two are supposed to leave for a romantic vacation to Niagara Falls. While the two are “on a break,” the former travels to Toronto, where he meets a perfect example of the strip-per-with-a-heart-of-gold trope, Julia (Emily Hampshire), who sets in mo-tion the process of self-discovery.

It’s in the individual performanc-

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es of these actors, as well as their on-screen chemistry, that the film truly shines. Chernick is both completely believable and riotous in the role of pitiful loser (a part which, without his charm, might otherwise seem old-hat).

And the way he plays “Luke Sky-walker” to Hamp-shire’s “Yoda” – a running joke throughout – is en-dearing and hilari-ous. Not to mention, Manninen is a ter-rific “evil ex,” and supporting man Vik Sahay (in the role of best-bud Dandak) deadpans his way to the viewer’s funny-bone as well as any better-known come-dian.

Younger and/or more sensitive moviegoers beware, though, as near-ly every laugh comes with profanity, innuendo, explicit references or a combination of the three. It’s nothing we haven’t heard or seen in each and every of Judd Apatow’s works, but it’s still worth a reminder: While the AJFF is for everyone, “My Awkward Sexual Adventure” probably is not.

But for those who liked “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” prepare to laugh until you cry and walk out of the theatre with your heart warmed.

Editor’s note: Visit ajff.org for a full schedule of atlanta Jewish Film Fes-tival movies.

“AKA: Doc Pomus”AJFF FILM REVIEW

BY elizABeth FriedlYaSSiSTanT EdiTOr

Whether or not you are fa-miliar with the name, as long as

you’re a fan of music, you’ve probably heard Doc Pomus’ work. From Elvis, to Ray Charles, to Bob Dylan, countless musicians sought this great Buddha of a man, the eternally cool Doctor of the blues.

“AKA: Doc Pomus” is the documentary on this man’s life and career. Early on in the film, singer Ben E. King comments, “You gotta live something to be able to sing something. He [Doc] lived a lot of the blues.”

He pauses, looks into the camera: “So there you are.”

Pomus was born Jerome Solon Felder, the son of poor Jewish im-migrants. He contracted polio as a young child and was bound to a wheelchair, but in his adult years still supplied the swing behind El-vis’s hits.

At times a heartbreakingly inti-mate portrayal, “AKA” owes much of its emotional punch to revealing ex-cerpts from Doc’s journals, as read by none other than musician Lou Reed. These provided a portrait of someone very human: His later years spent almost entirely in his apartment, latching onto a life of gambling and “dial-a-steak” delivery service.

The film flows naturally between interviews, photo illustrations, re-corded performances and even tapes of Doc himself. A variety of engaging interviews from family, colleagues, artists and admirers keep the narra-tive moving along at a lively pace.

The film is at its most poignant when explain-ing the creation and meaning behind Doc’s “Save the Last Dance for Me,” a story well worth the price of admission on its own. Unfortunately, the filmmakers’ use of the tune is a little over-zealous, thereby lessen-ing some of its impact. Even so, it makes for a wonderfully charming end-credit sequence.

Directed by Peter Miller and Will Hechter and edited by Amy Linton, the documentary is clearly in good hands. Miller worked on “Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story” and received an Academy Award nomination for his short “The Inter-nationale.”

While detailing Doc’s own vic-tories and hardships, the film also allows us a snapshot of the music industry. This offers an all-too-rare perspective on the process behind the curtain as well as the men re-sponsible for their generation’s most popular melodies.

But above all, we learn from “AKA” that to know Doc was to love him. He was an artist’s artist, and just as his community never stopped caring for him, he never stopped car-ing for them.

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Faith in the Face of FactsRECONCILING TORAH MIRACLES WITH SCIENCE

AJT mATZAH BAll SoUP for THE SoUl

Shabbat CandleLighting Times

friday, January 25, 2013Light Candles at: 5:42 pm

Shabbat, January 26, 2012 Shabbat Ends: 6:40 pm

friday, february 1, 2013 Light Candles at: 5:49 pm

Shabbat, February 2, 2012 Shabbat Ends: 6:47 pm

friday, february 8, 2013 Light Candles at: 5:56 pm

Shabbat, February 9, 2012 Shabbat Ends: 6:53 pm

friday, february 15, 2013 Light Candles at: 6:03 pm

Shabbat, February 16, 2012 Shabbat Ends: 7:00 pm

SHABBAT BLESSINGS

Blessing for the Candles Baruch Arah A-do-nai,El-o-hei-nu

Melech Haolam Asher Kid-shanu b’mitzvotav

V’zivanu l’hadlik ner shel Shabbat

Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of time and space.

You hallow us with Your mitzvot and command us to kindle the

lights of Shabbat.

Blessing for the Wine Baruch Atah A-do-nai, El-o-hei-nu

Meelech Haolam, Borei p’ri hagafen

Praise to You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of the Universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Blessing for the Bread (Challah) Baruch Atah A-do-nai, El-o-hei-nu

Melech haolam, Hamotzi Lechem min haaretz.

Our Praise to You Eternal our God, Sovereign of the universe,

Who brings forth bread from the earth.

BY rAchel lAVictoireaJT COluMniST

Academia and religion have been feuding for centuries, and still I find them diffi-cult to reconcile. Obviously,

the conflict is not so violent as it was in the past; we don’t punish people for studying science or for discover-ing realities that diverge from reli-gious beliefs, but many people still struggle with it.

How can I believe in G-d’s creation of the earth when there are fossils to support evolution? How do I even imagine a man living inside the belly of a whale and surviving? I would feel ignorant for blindly believing in these events, but at the same time disloyal for writing them off as mere stories.

I’m taking my second religion class this semester – it’s called “The Introduction to Jewish Civilization.” As it has no prerequisite of being Jewish, we are instructed not to use “I” or “we,” nor to get emotionally invested in academic debate. I find that detachment to be quite difficult and concealed an eye-roll at the sight of the first slide: “The Hebrew Bible.”

I understand the purpose of using secular names like “Hebrew Bible”

and Pentateuch during class time, but it also creates somewhat of an internal conflict for me.

I grew up with a Reform Jewish education. Mitzvah was interchange-able with “good deed,” and tzedakah with “charity.” I was told – year after year, class after class – that Hashem gave the Torah to Moshe on Mt. Si-nai, and as a result, I feel emotion-ally connected with those words spe-cifically.

A book called “Pentateuch” seems as foreign and secular to me as “Catcher in the Rye” does.

I can talk about the Pentateuch academically – its authorship, his-torical context and various interpre-tations – but when I step back and remember that it is Torah, I imme-diately feel the need to retract prior comments about its validity. Maybe it’s the definitions (“Pentateuch” simply means “five books,” while To-rah means “law”).

Just a change in title shifts entire-ly the weight of this ancient text, but what about everything else?

Who wrote it? When was it writ-ten? Was it meant literally? Who can be trusted to interpret it? Who can be

trusted to translate it? The questions are endless.

On that first day of class, my pro-fessor, Martin Jacobs, did ask if we thought the authorship of “The He-brew Bible” affected its meaning. I raised my hand and answered:

“I don’t think it does. The reality is that some people find meaning in the Torah, and others don’t. Those who do have faith in it and therefore will always find a way to rationalize factual evidence. If one day it’s prov-en that the Torah is just a combina-tion of different sources, then Jews will find a way to fit that into their belief system.”

I don’t know if that’s logical, right or even very Jewish of me to say, but it’s how I’m getting by right now.

I say all of this because this week’s Torah portion, Beshalach, includes a defining moment in Judaism: the crossing of the Red Sea. It’s a story – for lack of a better word – that all Jews know and in which all Jews can find meaning, but it is also one that only a few Jews truly believe hap-pened.

In the previous parshah, G-d sends down the 10th plague, Pha-raoh allows the Israelites to leave and thus begins Beshalach:

“It came to pass when Pharaoh let the people go, that G-d did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines for it was near, because G-d said, Lest the people reconsider when they see war and return to Egypt (Exodus 13:17).”

G-d led the Israelites with a cloud during the day and with a pillar of fire by night. Then, after instructing Moses to set up camp by the sea, G-d said:

“I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue [the Israelites], and I will be glorified through Pha-raoh and through his entire force, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord and they did so (Exodus 14:4).”

And so the story follows that Pha-raoh regretted freeing his slaves and chased after them. When the Egyp-tians drew near, the Israelites be-came frightened and Moses cried out to them, “Don’t be afraid! Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation that He

will wreak for you today (Exodus 14:13).”

Then, following G-d’s instructions, Moses raised his staff and parted the sea. The chase continued through the aisle in the water, but G-d sent the sea crashing down on the Egyp-tians and drowned them.

The next two lines read:

“On that day, the Lord saved Is-rael from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dying on the seashore. And Israel saw the great hand, which the Lord had used upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in Moses, His servant (Exodus 14:30-31).”

Thus, it’s written that on that day G-d played a direct role in the lives of the Israelites, and it was because of this miracle, this defiance of all things rational and reasonable, that they “feared the Lord and they be-lieved in the Lord.”

Herein lays the academic and reli-gious conflict. Academia says the Red Sea did not part – in fact, a storm of controversy arose 10 years ago when the los angeles Times printed an ar-ticle about Rabbi David Wolpe, who told 2,200 Conservative congregants:

“The truth is that virtually every modern archeologist who has inves-tigated the story of the Exodus, with very few exceptions, agrees that the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way it happened, if it hap-pened at all.”

Rationally, I agree with the arche-ologists; a man cannot raise a stick and part water. However, something within me finds it impossible to say with certainty that Hashem did not part the Red Sea, save the Israelites and promise to watch over them and all their future generations.

But I guess that’s what faith is.

rachel laVictoire (rlavictoire@wustl.edu) is a graduate of the davis acad-emy and Westminster High School, recipient of the prestigious nemerov Writing and Thomas H. Elliott Merit scholarships at Washington univer-sity of St. louis and an active mem-ber of Temple Emanu-El and the Marcus Jewish Community Center of atlanta.

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D’vAr TorAHAJTParashat BeshalachRESPOND TO DIFFICULTY WITH DETERMINATION

BY rABBi loren lApiduSTHE TEMPlE and THE aTlan-Ta rabbiniCal aSSOCiaTiOn

As the mother of a 20-month-old toddler, I often find my-self faced with unexpected tears the minute my daugh-

ter is told she cannot have the thing for which she has asked. Whether it is an orange or my iPhone, there are times when her desires are not met, and – like any toddler – she often re-sponds by crying.

This is, according to the parenting books, a very normal response. She is trying to assert her autonomy and learning to ask for what she wants and needs. While we, her parents, are quick to respond to her needs, we do not always agree with her as to her wants, hence the tears.

With time, she will start to respond a little more rationally…so the books say!

This week’s Torah portion introduces us to our ances-tors who, new to freedom from slav-ery, exhibit behavior that is a little like a toddler’s. The Israelites leave Egypt and, in the act of crossing the Red Sea, begin to create a national identity and experience. They are starting to assert their autonomy and find their way.

On four different occasions in Parashat Beshalach, we see the Isra-elites respond negatively to adverse circumstances. At the shores of the Sea, they panic because the waters have not yet parted; after crossing into the wilderness, they complain because the water is bitter; they grumble because there is no meat; and finally, they cry out because of a lack of water.

Each time, they lash out at Moses, suggesting they were better off stay-ing in Egypt. Moses, in return, cries out to G-d, and G-d responds through Moses to show that the people have not been abandoned, to reassure them and to provide for their needs.

While we can give the Israelites some slack – they are new to free-dom and Moses’ leadership, after all,

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and are still developing an ever-in-creasing faith in G-d – there remains plenty to learn in this portion about responding to adversity.

At this early stage in their nation-hood, each time our ancestors faced something they did not understand, felt fear or uncertainty, they chose to respond with panicked and angry challenges to Moses and G-d. But over time, our ancestors developed a better sense of resilience and a better relationship with G-d. The panicked “tantrums” eventually subsided as trust in Moses and G-d increased.

Now, just as our an-cestors had to, each of us when faced with chal-lenging circumstances has to make a choice about how we will re-spond. Will we complain the minute we do not have exactly what we want, like the Israelites in this parsha (or my

daughter)?

When we are faced with uncer-tainty, will we panic? If we face dire circumstances, will we respond with a challenge to God’s authority?

This Torah portion is a reminder that we should make a choice to live out the best within us in the face of challenges. It is tempting to come apart, to wring our hands and ask “why me?” And, at times of serious circumstances, there needs to be space for that emotional response.

The next step, though, is to rec-ognize our blessings: the blessings of family and friends, of community and of faith. With time, we can gain perspective and seek meaning and connection to others.

When we reach within ourselves and respond with faith and courage – when we share trust beyond our-selves – we utilize our strength and develop our resilience.

Editor’s note: rabbi loren Filson lapidus serves The Temple and is a member of the atlanta rabbinical association.

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WHAT’S HAPPENINGAJTFRI., JAN. 25

Etz Chaim Shabbat Dinner & Tu B’Shevat Seder, after service; cel-ebrating our love for Israel and the environment. Fri., Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m. Congregation Etz Chaim. Register at etzchaim.net/lilmodereg.aspx.

Chabad Shabbat Dinner & Seder, fea-turing Kabbalistic and ecological teachings, three courses, including wine and fruits. Fri., Jan. 25, 6:30 p.m. $20/adults, $10/children 3 to 10. Discounted until Jan. 18. Chabad Israeli Center Atlanta. Register at cicatlanta.com. Contact, office@cicat-lanta.com

SAT., JAN. 26

Family Concert, Mr. Greg’s Musical Madness. Sat., Jan. 26, 11 a.m. $10/person. The Punchline Comedy Club. Tickets at punchline.com.

Tu B’Shevat Seder, family-friendly seder; taste some new fruits and sing songs. Sat., Jan. 26, 5:30 p.m. Con-gregation Shearith Israel. Register online or email ysmith@shearithis-rael.com or RabbiLesack@shearithis-rael.com.

MLK Jr. Program, including a read-ing of the “I Have a Dream” speech and a chorus performance by the Morehouse College Choraliers. Sat., Jan. 26, 7:30 p.m. Free. Greenfield Hebrew Academy. RSVP to mlk@ghacademy.org.

Family Movie Night, showing “The Lo-rax,” in support of CSI Youth with pizza, drinks and snacks for sale. Sat., Jan. 26. Congregation Shearith Israel. RSVP to marill@mindspring.com

SUN., JAN. 27

Tu B’shevat Tree Planting, with Trees Atlanta. Tools and gloves provid-ed. Sun., Jan. 27, 9:30 a.m. 897 St. Charles Ave. For info, (404) 982-0659 or mlewin@agnesscott.edu

Jewish War Veterans Lunch, buffet with guest speaker Representative Tom Price. Prepayment required, mailed by check. Sun., Jan. 27, 10 a.m. $8.50/person. More information at jwvga.org.

Israel Trip Info Meeting, for upcoming MJCCA trip, June 12-25. Sun., Jan. 27, 12 p.m. Zaban Park. Information and application forms via (678) 812-4161 or brian.glusman@atlantajcc.org.

Barnes & Noble Bookfair, support-ing GAH Metulla Group; children’s events including book readings, crafts, scavenger hunts and more; adults’ events featuring authors Erin Farwell and Robert Thibault to fol-low. Sun., Jan. 27, 12 p.m. The Fo-

rum on Peachtree Parkway. spure@aol.com.

Mahjong Tournament, benefitting Etz Chaim Preschool. Bring your 2012 Mahjong card; prizes awarded; be-ginners seminar available. Sun., Jan. 27, 12:45 p.m. $25/person. Con-gregation Etz Chaim. etzchaim.net/preschool_events_registration.aspx.

L’Chaim Program: “Being Centered,” four panelists share their insights, includes breakout sessions on per-sonal well-being topics. Sun., Jan. 27, 1:30 p.m. $10/person. The Carl-ton in Sandy Springs. RSVP to eb-frank619@gmail.com.

“Bearing Witness” Series, “Unforget-table Stories from the Holocaust” featuring Helen Fromowitz Weingar-ten, Auschwitz survivor and concert from The Atlanta Boy Choir/Fletch-er Wolfe. Sun., Jan. 27, 2 p.m. $12/adults, $8/seniors, $6/students. Bre-man Museum. (678) 222-3700.

Chosen Food, “Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity,” new ex-hibit opening. Sun., Jan. 27. The Breman Museum. (678) 222-3700.

Beta Israel Exhibit, “Ethiopian Jews and the Promised Land,” features 100 photographs by photojournalist Ilan Ossendryver. Opens Sun., Jan. 27 (runs through April 21). $5/per-son, free for kids under 12 or mem-bers. Oglethorpe University Museum of Art. museum.oglethorpe.edu.

TDSA’s Main Event, “Cirque du Sim-cha,” honoring Josh and Jodi Witten-berg and Susan Krohn and featuring dessert reception, auction, entertain-ment and more. Sun., Jan. 27, 6:30 p.m. Le Fais Do-Do. tdsamainevent.com.

MON., JAN. 28

Declare Your Freedom Rally, Allies of Israel, a pro-Israel student organiza-tion will hold a pro-America and pro-Israel rally. Dr. Daniel Pipes will be the keynote speaker. Mon., Jan. 28, 12 p.m. University of New Orleans. cvaldary@gmail.com.

The Baal Shem Tones Concert, live music at the MJCCA. Mon., Jan. 28, 5 p.m. Free. Goodfriends Grill at Za-ban Park. For more info, email brian.glusman@atlantajcc.org

TUES., JAN. 29

Positive Discipline Series, sponsored by CDT & MJCCA, solutions to com-mon parenting challenges with edu-cator Tanner Figa. Tues., Jan. 29, 7 p.m. $79/members, $85/couple (mem-bers), or $80/non-members, $90/cou-ples (non-members). Congregation Dor Tamid. For info, (678) 812-3727 or ilana.schlam@atlantajcc.org.

Israel Bonds invites you to an eve-ning featuring Pinchas Landau, Is-raeli Economic and Political Analyst. Tues., Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m. Congrega-tion Gesher L’Torah. (770) 777-4009.

WED., JAN. 30

Israel’s Economy: Prospects for 2013, American Israel Chamber of Com-merce special Breakfast Briefing with economist Pinchas Landau. Wed., Jan. 30, 7:30 a.m. $15/AICC members, $20/non-members. Suther-land in Atlanta. aiccse.org.

FRI., FEB. 1

Scholar-in-Residence Weekend with Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, speaking on “Judaism for Busy Lives.” Begins with Shabbat service on Fri., Feb. 1, 6:30 p.m., with more events on Sat. and Sun. Temple Sinai. templesina-iatlanta.org.

SAT., FEB. 2

Pianist Yefim Bronfman Concert, cel-ebrating Schwartz Center’s 10th an-niversary. Sat., Feb. 2, 8 p.m. Emory Schwartz Center for the Arts. For tickets, visit arts.emory.edu/bron-fman.

SUN., FEB. 3

Blood Drive, make a donation ap-pointment. Walk-ins welcome but appointments have priority. Sun., Feb. 3, 9 a.m. Ahavath Achim Syna-gogue. Make appointments at red-crossblood.org.

Congregation Dor Tamid Adult En-richment Program, nine-week series with different speakers each week on varying social and Jewish topics. First session Sun., Feb. 3, 9:30 a.m. The Monarch School. lindadickson1@gmail.com or (678) 777-7099.

WED., FEB. 6

Moving Atlanta to Higher Ground, how religion inspires positive change, interfaith panel event sponsored by Georgia State University Depart-ment of Religious Studies, with Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, Rev. Joanna Adams, Imam Plemon El-Amin and Rev. Joseph Roberts. Wed., Feb. 6, 5 p.m. Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University. (404) 949-3777.

MDE Open House, school for special needs students, individual attention. Wed., Feb. 6, 7 p.m. The Motiva-tion, Dedication, Excellence School in Marietta. RSVP by Feb. 1 to (770) 977-9457 or (770) 971-4633.

FRI., FEB. 8

Splash into Shabbat, at MJCCA’s indoor pool; children will meet the swim teachers, play games and cre-

ate a Shabbat craft. Fri., Feb. 8, 5 p.m. Free. MJCCA’s Zaban Park. brian.glusman@atlantajcc.org.

CDT Fourth Grade Shabbat Dinner, all fourth grade students and parents with clergy. Bring side item of veg-etable, dessert or drink. Fri., Feb. 8, 6:30 p.m. Congregation Dor Tamid. RSVP by Feb. 6 to religiousschool@dortamid.com.

SAT., FEB. 9

Scout Shabbat, Saturday morning services and a celebration of Scout-master Josiah V. Benator’s 78 years of scouting. Sat., Feb. 9, 9:15 a.m. Congregation Or VeShalom. jvbena-tor@juno.com.

Havdalah for the Sole with the MJC-CA and the Total Health Fitness Department; an evening of foot mas-sage, fun, and friends. Sat., Feb. 9, 7 p.m. $30/person. Treat Your Feet on Buford Highway. lora.sommer@atlantajcc.org.

Gala Dinner & Auction with honorees Nava & Ron Alkalay, Sherry Korn-heiser, Cobb County Commissioner Bob Ott and Hollee & Steven Parker. Sat., Feb. 9. Chabad of Cobb. (770) 565-4412.

SUN., FEB. 10

Arts and Crafts Fair, 10 percent of all purchases donated to Hadassah. Sun., Feb. 10, 12 p.m. Decatur Mar-ket and Gallery. For info, (404) 325-0340 or mtscopushadassah@aol.com.

Etz Aviv Hadassah’s Crazy Hats and Gloves Brunch, prizes for the wildest attire. Sun., Feb. 10, 12:30 p.m. $10 couvert. Private residence. (770) 316-7076.

Bar/Bat Mitzvah Expo, resource con-necting parents with vendors. Sun., Feb. 10, 1 p.m. Alpharetta Marriott. Info at atlantapartyconnection.com.

“God’s Children” Film Viewing, pur-chase tickets for sold-out movie with the Ketura Group of Greater Atlanta Hadassah. Sun., Feb. 10, 8 p.m. $12/person. LeFont Theater. For info or tickets, email sfparks@emory.edu.

ONGOING

“Living with Integrity,” Navigating Ev-eryday Ethical Dilemmas, the new JLI course. Six weeks beginning the final week of January. Various metro Chabad houses. myJLI.com.

Dunwoody Sunday Cycle, bike ride for all ages (10+) and abilities. First Sun-day of each month, 2:30 p.m. Meet in front of Bruster’s in Dunwoody Vil-lage Parking Lot. dr_barbara@bell-south.net or (770) 604-3803.

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AJT mAy THEIr mEmorIES BE A BlESSING

Suzette Cohen54, OF ALPHARETTASuzette Felsberg Cohen, 54, of Alpharetta, died Sat.. Jan. 12, 2013. Mrs. Cohen was a social worker employed by the Atlanta Area Psychological As-sociates and an active Jewish educator, but her main emphasis and source of much pride was raising her three sons. In addition to serving as lead teacher at Temple Kol Emeth, she also was lead teacher at Gesher L’Torah in Al-pharetta. Mrs. Cohen graduated from Georgia State University with a B.A. degree in urban life and also received a M.A. in Judaic education from the Siegal College of Jewish Studies. She was a member of Temple Kol Emeth in Marietta and Shalom B’Harim, where her husband serves as spiritual leader, in Dahlonega. Survivors include her husband, Mitchell of Alpharet-ta; sons, Dr. Zachary, Jordan and Eric Cohen; mother, Mrs. Rose Sowad-sky of Alpharetta; sister, Jeanine (Zvi) Bekerman of Atlanta; brother, David (Jennifer) Felsberg of Atlanta; mother-in-law, Roslyn Cohen of Alpharetta; brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, Howie and Deborah Cohen of Alpharetta and Sandra Cohen-Goldberg and Jack Goldberg of Savannah; nieces, Elana Frank of Israel, Arielle Furman and Carey Felsberg of Atlanta, and Lainey and Rachel Cohen of Alpharetta; and nephews, Daniel Bekerman and Noah Felsberg of Atlanta. She is loved and will be greatly missed by all whose lives she touched and the people she transformed. An online guestbook is avail-able at edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Kfar Hasadim (contact Mitch for information) or to the Temple Kol Emeth Adult Education Fund. Services were officiated by Rabbi Steven Lebow at 1 p.m. on Mon., Jan. 14 at Temple Kol Emeth, 1415 Old Canton Rd., Marietta, GA 30062. Burial followed at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care.

Michael Falck57, OF ATLANTAMichael Falck, 57, of Atlanta, passed away on Sun., Jan. 14, 2013. Born in Baltimore, Md., his family relocated to Atlanta in 1964. As chief operating officer of A1 Traffic Schools, he addressed the Georgia State Legislature and successfully lobbied them to resoundingly defeat online traffic school avail-ability, thereby preserving the integrity of classroom traffic school education. Michael is survived by his parents, Audrey and Allan; his brothers, Barry (and his wife Susan) and Kenneth; his niece and nephew, Molly and Ryan; and numerous cousins. An online guestbook is available at edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to PAL Program (Atlanta’s only “Jewish Big Brother/Big Sister” program) through Jewish Family & Ca-reer Services, 4549 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd., Atlanta, GA 30338, yourtools-forliving.org. Graveside services were held at 2 p.m. on Tues., Jan. 15, 2013 at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs with Rabbi Bradley Levenberg officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care.

Dean Smith20, SON OF LAUREN AND NEVILLE SMITHDean Smith, age 20 – beloved son of Lauren and Neville Smith; younger brother of Jarren; grandson of Vivienne and the late Sidney Frame and Beryl and Solly Smith; nephew of Mark and Julian Frame and Selwyn and Michael Smith – passed away tragically on Sun., Jan. 13, 2013. Dean was a warm, charismatic and lovable person whose energy and passion for life was infectious. Dean will be sorely missed by both immediate family and ex-tended family in South Africa and his many friends. Sign online guest book at edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Congregation Beth Tefillah, 5065 High Point Road Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30342. A grave-side service was held Wed., Jan. 16, 2013 at 2 p.m. at Arlington Memorial Park with Rabbi Yossi New officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care.

Yvonne TillemWIFE OF JERRY TILLEMYvonne Slesinger Tillem passed away on Sun., Jan. 13, 2013 at home in the presence of her loving family after a long illness and struggle of life. She showed great courage and bravery. Yvonne was born and raised in Bishopville, S.C. to Morris and Anna Michalove Slesinger, of blessed mem-ory. She was also predeceased by her brother, Paul Slesinger, who lived in Charleston, S.C.; and sister, Rita Goldstein, who lived in Atlanta. Yvonne graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1958 and was a licensed pharmacist. She was a devoted mother and grandmother who was willing to give of herself to her family. In addition to love, she also taught them to be good, kind and respected children and grandchildren. Surviving are her husband, Jerry Tillem; two daughters, Michelle and Wendi (Lloyd Wynn) Tillem; grandchildren, Ethan and Arden Frank; sister and brother-in-law, Marilyn and William Hartman of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; and several nieces and nephews. Yvonne and Jerry would have been married for 54 years this March. She was not only Jerry’s partner in life but was also very instru-mental in getting their family business started. Yvonne prided herself in helping anyone she could and will be truly missed by her loving family and all who knew her. An online guestbook is available at edressler.com. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mt. Vernon Hwy., Atlanta, GA 30328, bnaitorah.org; or the MS Society of Georgia, 1117 Perimeter Center West, Suite E101, Atlanta, GA 30338, nationalmssociety.org. Graveside service were held at 11 a.m. on Tues., Jan. 15, 2013 at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs with Rabbi Joshua Heller officiating. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care.

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ACroSS 1. Uriel appendage5. Peyes position10. Sills to friends13. Jan Peerce specialty14. Like Copland on track15. Roman and Messianic17. Chometz action on Pesach18. Arthur Murray step19. Bloody river20. Cowardly actor?22. Entebbe raid24. Ein Gedi27. Weekday worship wear30. Tsitsit site31. Haifa33. Pomegranate plenty35. Sculptor Benno36. Oy Vay!37. Roasted on Pesach41. Cohanim?42. Yeled (Eng.)43. Biblical weight44. Exodus midwife45. Al chet topic46. Emulate Abba Eban47. Shema ender49. Observed Yom Kippur50. Classifieds53. Afikoman55. Eat (Yid)56. Concentration Camp58. Schindler tally60. ___ B’rith61. Did Masada64. The Golden __68. Yiddish Institute69. Writer Jong

70. Tsahal71. Orthodox minyan72. Comedian Feldman73. Tu B’Shevat planting?Down 1. Existed2. Noodge (Eng)3. Bubkes4. Chutzpa (Eng)5. Queen of Shushan6. Little person7. Purim drink?8. D - H connector9. Sholem Aleichem specialty10. Goodman and Shahn11. Fromm or Segal12. “__ greater than rubies”16. Appear21. Say the Viddui23. Amen24. Jacob’s herd25. Reuben’s second son26. Israeli airline28. Ellis and Long29. Imitates Joshua32. Use a mikveh34. Amos and Micah36. Meir to Myerson38. Make latkes39. Dung and Jaffa40. Sukkot43. Sacrifices often45. Biblical city48. Alphabet run49. “__ the Rabbi Slept

JEWISH PUZZlErby Kathi Handler (bookssss@aol.com)

last week’s answers

Late”, novel50. Advice lady51. Strauss’ jeans52. Hebrew in Egypt54. Opt57. Herzl’s homeland59. Snare62. Songwriter Gershwin

63. Syrian ancient homeland?65. Geller66. K - O connector67. Evil__

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NOTICE TO DEBTORS AND CREDITORS GEORGIA, FULTON COUNTY All creditors of the Estate of Muriel

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WellStar Medical Group welcomes new practices to East Cobb!

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