ON THE EDGE
Meet Staff Sgt. Elle, a lone soldier who was one of four IDF women to enter Gaza last summer. Page 6
CEO OUT
MEAT MAN
Gail Luxenberg’s resignation forces the Marcus JCC to launch its third CEO search in nine years. Page 9
Howard Halpern explains how he built and sold a meat-and-fish empire, then did it all again. Page 26
Atlanta VOL. XC NO. 30
WWW.ATLANTAJEWISHTIMES.COM
100 Years Later Leo Frank’s lynching still a shock
AUGUST 14, 2015 | 29 AV, 5775
Town Hall To Help Set Agenda
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Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History of The Breman Museum
Leo and Lucille Frank visit Grant Park on July 17, 1909, exactly six years and one month before his lynched body became a temporary tourist attraction at Frey’s Gin in Marietta. Full coverage of the centennial, Pages 14-23
SDT RESPONDS
A former president of the Sigma Delta Tau chapter at UGA explains why strong, independent women choose a Jewish sorority. Page 12
SUNCOAST TRAVEL
Sarasota and Bradenton provide some of Florida’s finest beaches alongside a vibrant arts scene and a century-old Jewish community. Page 28
INSIDE
Calendar 3 Business 26 Candle Lighting
3 Travel 28
Israel 4 Obituaries 29 Remember When 5 Closing Thoughts 30 Opinion 10 Crossword 30 Sports 25 Marketplace 31
he Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta invites the community to a town-hall meeting Tuesday, Aug. 18, on five Jewish Council for Public Affairs resolutions. The resolutions address: • Anti-Semitism. The proposal builds on existing policies tied to Europe and college campuses to take a broad view of worldwide anti-Semitism, including when criticism of Israel crosses the line. • Early childhood education and day care. The proposal calls for a system of child care, education and other services from birth through age 5 to fight poverty. • Paid sick leave. The proposal backs legislation requiring this benefit. • Marijuana. Rather than call for legalization, the resolution urges studying a range of reforms that would stop jailing people for low-level drug offenses. • Armenian genocide. The proposal calls for recognizing the genocide Turkey began in 1915 and for pushing the United States to call it genocide. The decisions on those resolutions by the JCRC of Atlanta and the other 124 JCRCs across the country will be part of the national advocacy agenda discussed in Washington at the JCPA’s Jewish Community Town Hall from Oct. 11 to 13. The experts lined up for the Aug. 18 meeting include Frida Ghitis, a former CNN correspondent; Jay Strongwater, a criminal defense lawyer; and Mindy Binderman, the founding executive director of the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. at Congregation B’nai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs. ■
AJT-LEOFRANK-rev073015-FP.pdf 1 7/30/2015 10:51:19 AM
CALENDAR
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CALENDAR CANDLE-LIGHTING TIMES
Parshah Re’eh Friday, Aug. 14, light candles at 8:07 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, Shabbat ends at 9:04 p.m. Parshah Shoftim Friday, Aug. 21, light candles at 7:59 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, Shabbat ends at 8:55 p.m.
FRIDAY, AUG. 14
Dive into Shabbat. The Marcus Jewish Community Center, Congregations Shearith Israel and Bet Haverim, Jewish Kids Groups, and PJ Library invite the community to celebrate the approach of Shabbat from 5 to 7 p.m. at the pool at the Emory Student Activity & Academic Center, 1946 Starvine Way, Atlanta. Free; www.atlantajcc. org/pldb-live/26038 or 678-812-4161.
SATURDAY, AUG. 15
ADL speaker. Jonathan Greenblatt, the new national director of the Anti-Defamation League, will speak at Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, during Shabbat morning services, which start at 9:15.
SUNDAY, AUG. 16
Persian picnic. The Sixth Point’s Persian SPIN holds a picnic at 2 p.m. at Piedmont Park in Midtown. Bring a snack to share. Free; fmoosazadeh86@ gmail.com or thesixthpoint.org.
SUNDAY, AUG. 23
Holocaust workshop. The Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Buckhead, hosts a free workshop organized by the Memorial de la Shoah for educators from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on film and archives of World War II and the Holocaust. Free; mwilson@ atlantahistorycenter.com.
MONDAY, AUG. 24
Film lecture. Christian Delage, the curator of “Filming the Camps” at the Atlanta History Center, will screen “From Hollywood to Nuremberg” at 7 p.m. at the center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Buckhead. Tickets are $10; www. atlantahistorycenter.com.
SUNDAY, AUG. 30
Civil rights struggle. Reform con-
gregations’ role in the civil rights movement and continuing struggle for justice is explored at the Center for Civil and Human Rights, 100 Ivan Allen Blvd., downtown, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with keynote speaker Rebecca Stapel-Wax of SOJOURN and such panelists as Rabbi Peter Berg of The Temple, Janice Rothschild Blumberg and center interim CEO Deborah Robinson. Attendance, including lunch, is $36; www.cvent.com/d/8rqvj5 or prezbhood@crystalflex.com. Lebanon War film. Hadassah’s Mount Scopus Israel Film Fest presents “Zaytoun,” about a downed Israeli pilot in the 1982 war and the Palestinian refugee boy who helps him escape the PLO, at 1:15 p.m. at the Central DeKalb Senior Center, 1346 McConnell Drive, Decatur. Tickets are $12, payable by check made to Hadassah and mailed to Melanie Doctor, 3825 LaVista Road, J-1, Tucker, GA 30084. RSVP by Aug. 25 to Regine Rosenfelder, gine@aol.com or 404-633-1849. Camp day. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, with the Camping Initiative and PJ Library, hold a family fun day for children of all ages interested in or recently returned from Jewish summer camp from 1 to 3 p.m. at the pavilion at Brook Run Park, 4770 N. Peachtree Road, Dunwoody. The event includes free snacks, food for purchase, bounce houses, a balloon artist, face painting, music and stations from participating camps. Admission is $5 for adults and free for children; stanenbaum@jewishatlanta. org or 678-222-3730. America’s music. The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta hosts the oneman show “Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin” at 5 p.m. at the Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road, Buckhead. Tickets are $18; www.jewishatlanta. org/hersheyfelder.
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Bowling kickoff. The Atlanta Jewish Bowling League holds a reception at 6:30 p.m. at Brunswick Zone Roswell, 785 Old Roswell Road. The Sunday night bowling league starts play Sept. 20. For information or reservations, call Roz Brotman at 678-393-6339 or Alex Schulman at 404-667-7752.
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AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
THURSDAY, AUG. 13
A spoonful of sugar. The musical “Mary Poppins” shows at 8 p.m. at the Marcus Jewish Community Center’s Morris & Rae Frank Theatre, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody, and again Sunday, Aug. 16, at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $28; www.atlantajcc.org/ boxoffice or 678-812-4002.
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ISRAEL
Israel Pride: Good News From Our Jewish Home Discovery of the melanoma trigger. A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Technion, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Sheba Medical Center have discovered what causes melanoma cells to turn into aggressive tumors. The scientists are convinced that the finding will soon lead to a breakthrough treatment. Protection against microbial infections. Professor Ervin Weiss, founder of Herzliya-based NanoLock, has invented a nano-polymer additive that protects against microbial infections, one of the most urgent medical problems. NanoLock has just acquired licenses and patents for the technology. Druze village tops Israeli matriculation. The Druze village of Beit Jann achieved Israel’s highest rate of matriculation certificate eligibility among high school students in the 2013-14 school year, having finished third and second the previous two years. Haifa doctors save two Palestinians in Jerusalem. Muhammad Jabri, 18, nearly died in a Hebron car crash but was
saved by doctors from Haifa’s Rambam Hospital who were at Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem treating another Palestinian when Jabri was brought in. Israel donates helicopters to Jordan. Israel has given 16 retired, U.S.-supplied Cobra combat helicopters to Jordan to help fend off insurgent threats on Jordan’s Syrian and Iraqi borders.
on cosmetics can use the TryItOn app from Israel’s EZ Face. The app, demonstrated during a Conexx program on retail innovation in July, connects to a database of 25,000 beauty products. A woman takes a selfie, then scans the Universal Product Code of any cosmetic to see what it would look like on her.
Africa hub launched. Israeli startup Fundz has launched the online community Israel Africa Hub. It leverages technology to support the fast-growing tech ecosystems across Africa, allowing entrepreneurs and investors to interact, co-invest or expand enterprises.
Israeli drones to protect Australian sheep. Israel’s Ninox Robotics and Bluebird Aerosystems are employing drones with thermal imaging to guard Australian sheep farms from pests such as kangaroos and wild dogs. The drone protection saves farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of sheep, plus hours spent defending them.
Preventing carjacking. Tel Aviv-based startup Argus has the world’s only effective system to detect and prevent the kind of electronic attack launched recently on a Jeep Cherokee in St Louis. Argus analyzes data transmitted to a vehicle’s IP address and accepts only genuine commands.
Tech investment at record high. A record $1.12 billion poured into Israel’s high-tech ecosystem in the second quarter of 2015, according to the Israel Venture Capital Research Center. The increased volume of funds from foreign private equity investors is a sign of maturity for the Israeli tech economy.
An online makeover. Busy female entrepreneurs who haven’t time to try
Tourism up. Tourist arrivals in Israel the past 10 years have tripled to 3.3 mil-
filming
John Ford Samuel Fuller George Stevens
from Hollywood to Nuremberg
May 6 - November 20, 2015 Hollywood directors John Ford, George Stevens, and Samuel Fuller created American cinema classics, but their most important contribution to history was their work in the U.S. Armed Forces and Secret Services.
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
An exhibition by the Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, France.
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AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Filming
Samuel Fuller’s Bell & Howell Camera © Courtesy of the, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California, Coll. Christa Fuller
Atlanta History Center
lion per year. Christians accounted for 56 percent of last year’s tourist arrivals, up from 33 percent a decade ago. Calling all Hebrew U alumni. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has launched HUJiconnect.com. It provides more than 30,000 HUJ alumni with their exclusive place to professionally and socially connect with one another to find training and employment opportunities. Keeping customers loyal. Israeli startup Keeprz has developed a sophisticated app that offers customers loyalty incentives. Keeprz’s customers include Burger King, Coca-Cola, BMW and Cafe Joe. Keeprz has just been acquired by another Israeli company, Como, for around $50 million. Putting Hebrew texts online. The National Library of Israel and the British Library in London will digitize all of the 3,200 rare Hebrew manuscripts at the British Library. 50,000 Christian Zionists for a united Jerusalem. Israel365, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that promotes the biblical significance of the Jewish state to evangelical Christian Zionists, presented Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein with a Jerusalem Covenant signed by more than 50,000 people affirming the unity of Jerusalem. 2,000-year-old Jewish inscriptions in Jerusalem. Archaeologists have excavated a mikvah (ritual bath) dating to the Second Temple era (first century CE) inside an underground cave in Jerusalem. The walls were adorned with paintings and Aramaic inscriptions. Joint space projects with Florida. The Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program has awarded secondround funding to four space-related projects. The Israeli beneficiaries are Micro-gRx, Israel Aerospace Industries, STEMRAD and Elbit Systems Land. Security for ARM chips. Microprocessor manufacturer ARM has bought Israel’s Sansa Security for at least $85 million. Sansa has developed embedded security for microchips, which will be useful as the market for Internetconnected devices increases. Sansa will become ARM’s Israeli R&D center. Compiled courtesy of verygoodnewsisrael. blogspot.com and other news sources.
www.atlantajewishtimes.com
LOCAL NEWS
sale of the center’s $21 million Peachtree Street property, charity dollars stretched by the Soviet exodus of 1986 and ’87, and decreasing memberships contributed to the deficit. Mitchell Jaffe, the assistant executive director of the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America, said, “One ought not to panic because the economy is bad.”
Remember When
Atlanta
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EDITORIAL Editor
MICHAEL JACOBS
10 Years Ago Aug. 12, 2005
■ The first national reunion for the Alexander Muss High School in Israel was held here Aug. 5 to 7. More than 100 people from around the country gathered to reminisce about their Israel experiences. The reunion let the attendees meet the band O.A.R. at a Friday concert and included a Saturday party and a Sunday barbecue.
■ Carla and David Zion of Atlanta announce the birth of a son, Andrew Joseph, on July 19. 50 Years Ago Aug. 13, 1965 ■ At least two members of the Atlanta Jewish community are stationed in Viet Nam because of the escalation of the U.S. fighting forces there: Pvt. 1st Class Martin Steven Libowsky and Capt. Steven L. Sanders. Capt. Sanders is the battalion surgeon for the engineers assigned to Jui Nhon and was previously stationed at Fort Gordon in Augusta. Pfc. Libowsky was previously stationed at Fort Knox, Ky.
■ Lewis and Sylvia Hassett of Atlanta celebrated the bat mitzvah ceremony of daughter Jessica Rachel Hassett on Saturday, April 9, at The Temple. 25 Years Ago Aug. 17, 1990 ■ The Atlanta Jewish Community Center is laying off staff and redefining its structure because of a $250,000 deficit but does not expect to cut any services. The changes could save $150,000. A downturn in the economy, the delayed
■ Mr. and Mrs. Jake Banks of Huntsville, Ala., announce the engagement of daughter Carol Adele Banks to Raymond Taratoot, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Taratoot of Atlanta.
mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com Associate Editor
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AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
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LOCAL NEWS
Life on the Edge
Visiting lone soldier was one of four IDF women who went into Gaza last summer By David R. Cohen david@atljewishtimes.com
D
uring Operation Protective Edge last summer, four female soldiers went with the Israel Defense Forces into Gaza. One of them was Staff Sgt. Elle, an Australian-born lone soldier who served as paramedic in a combat engineering battalion. Elle’s regular service with the IDF has ended, and she is touring the United States with a Friends of the IDF delegation. She visited Atlanta on Thursday, Aug. 6, and stopped by the Atlanta Jewish Times to chat about her combat experiences. AJT: You grew up in Australia. How did you end up serving in the IDF? Elle: I was born and raised in Perth, which is in Western Australia. I grew up in a very Jewish and Zionist community, plus my parents are Israeli. At the end of Year 12 in school, we have this tradition where graduates take a gap year and usually travel
to Israel. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I spoke to my cousin on the phone who was in the Navy SEALs at the time, and he told me I should join the IDF. I realized that if I want to live in Israel anyway, then I’m obliged to do the army like every 18-year-old. So I started researching positions and came across paramedic. There was no going back from there. AJT: How did you end up in Atlanta this week? Elle: I’m on a delegation with the FIDF. Because I’m a lone soldier, I’ve had a lot more interaction with the FIDF before this. They send lone soldiers home to go visit their parents once per service. We make 800 shekels ($210) a month, so we can’t really afford a plane ticket. The FIDF sent me home, and now they sent me here. It’s been nice meeting and greeting all sorts of people across the country. AJT: Favorite place you’ve been so far on this tour?
You can sit on your couch to watch a game on Sunday, August 16... Or you can come to Marietta, to stand up for justice! Leo Frank Memorial service Sunday August 16, 2 pm Rabbi Steven Lebow Founder and Chair
Timothy and Joanne Cole Associate Chairs
Guests: Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court, Hugh S.Thompson (Retired) Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court, Norman Fletcher (Retired) Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court, Leah Sears Senior Assistant Attorney General of Georgia, Van Pearlberg Chief Judge, Cobb Superior Court, J. Stephen Schuster Chair, Cobb Commission, Tim Lee State Representative, Michael Smith Counsel, Anti-Defamation League, Dale Schwartz And many, many others...
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
“In this ‘Newer South’, in Marietta, we are prepared to remember a difficult past in order to affirm a better future...”
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Rabbi Steven Lebow Temple Kol Emeth 1415 Old Canton Road, Marietta Rabbi Steven Lebow - Ravlebow@aol.com
Facebook: Rabbi Lebow: “Leo Frank: Falsely Accused, Wrongly Convicted...”
Elle: This trip? Probably the Hamptons. Sorry, Atlanta. … Also San Diego and Chicago might be the two nicest places in the States that I’ve been to.
means that if the boys need to do what they need to do, they just take a bottle, whip it out and are good to go. I don’t have that luxury, so I actually found myself drinking less water so I wouldn’t have to pee as much.
AJT: You were one of only four AJT: When you women who went speak at FIDF events, into Gaza with the what message do you IDF during Operatry to get out? tion Protective Edge. Elle: It’s really How did you end up important for me to down there? get people to encourElle: We were age the IDF. Living in the first combat engiAmerica or Australia, neering battalion to you read the newsbe called down to the paper, and you see south. You get down the news, but you there, and it’s just a don’t really underhuge mess. After 24 stand how tough it hours of no sleep and is at times in Israel, just getting equipespecially for the ment prepped, one soldiers. It’s not just of the officers came during conflict when and debriefed us on Photo by Michael Jacobs we have to support the situation. They Staff Sgt. Elle says that when a the IDF. Throughout wanted to station friend got some perfume to her during the fighting in Gaza, the the year we have to me at the border in scent alone tipped off fellow soldiers remember that these an ambulance, and that a woman was walking by. soldiers are on these I kind of forced my bases, and they are officer to put me with going home once or twice a month one of the entering companies. That maybe. They’re doing everything they way if something were to happen, I’d can so that Jews all over the world can be there to treat them straight away. know that if something goes wrong in Because I went in with one of the their country, they have somewhere to armored companies, someone else go back to. I think it’s really important had to get kicked out of that specific to support that. vehicle. So for the two weeks before we went in, they had to train me to do AJT: How do you feel about the what he would normally do, which IDF now that your regular service is was mostly handling explosives. complete? Elle: I’m very angry at the world AJT: What was it like there on a for not seeing Israel as it is. I think day-to-day basis? Israel’s military is one of the most Elle: Once we were inside and I’m humane in the world. I’ve treated Syrwearing this bulletproof vest, which is ians and Palestinians, and it could be a just like two walls on you, it was really Palestinian who was chucking rocks at uncomfortable. We’re in there with me two hours earlier, but he’s injured our weapons, and it’s 40 degrees centinow, and I’m a paramedic. I’m going to grade (104 Fahrenheit). Everyone’s hot, do what I can to help him. and it’s stuffy and smelly. All we had to eat was tuna, corn and baked beans, AJT: What are your plans after so eventually I had to start hiding the this FIDF tour? beans because the boys wouldn’t stop Elle: I’m going to start working as eating them, and it made them a bit a paramedic for Magen David Adom gassy... [laughs]. when I get back to Israel. I’m also saving up, and I think I’m going to go to AJT: What other hardships did India or South America. I don’t know; you face as the only woman in your there’s so many decisions. … That’s unit? the one thing about getting out of the Elle: A lot of the time we were Army: I have to make every single decinot allowed to leave the APC (armored sion now. ■ personnel carrier), which pretty much
Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Annual Lecture at Ahavath Achim Synagogue presents
Vice President
Joe Biden
Thursday | September 3 7:30 p.m.
“Challenges Facing the U.S. and the World in the 21st Century”
Open to the public. No tickets and reservations required. RSVP requested: info@aasynagogue.org Uber recommended. Additional parking with shuttle service available at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Howell Mill Road. Ahavath Achim Synagogue | 600 Peachtree Battle Ave. NW | Atlanta, GA 30327 404.355.5222 | aasynagogue.org
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
A free public lecture drawing on Vice President Joe Biden’s experiences at the center of domestic and foreign policy and politics.
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Young Adult Tickets
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LOCAL NEWS
Family Arts Center Opens at JCC By Zach Itzkovitz
S
ince the Weinstein Center for Adult Day Services closed roughly a year ago, the Marcus Jewish Community Center has been developing a purpose and programming for the 7,500 square feet left behind at Zaban Park in Dunwoody. Aug. 16 will mark the grand opening of the result, the Kuniansky Family Center. The center was enabled by last year’s Marcus JCC capital campaign, which raised $7 million. Substantial contributions came from the Kuniansky family, including Doug Kuniansky, the chairman of the board of directors since March and the acting CEO as of Wednesday, Aug. 12. The grand opening will showcase Todd Ginsberg of the General Muir, Eli Kirshtein of The Luminary and other high-profile Atlanta chefs in cooking demonstrations and tastings and feature performances by the J Dance Company and Collective Dance Project, as well as dance workshops for preschoolers, youths and adults.
Those elements highlight the programming at the new facility, which is meant to reach all ages, from toddlers to seniors, while remaining focused, program director Laura Ross said. “Cooking and art are the two main new program areas that this building will hold, along with dance.” The building includes a new kitchen, a multipurpose room, two art studios and a dance studio with sprung flooring. The new kitchen features two islands, a double oven and three sinks and will handle dairy products exclusively. Such culinary classes as “All About Cake,” “Eating in a Pocket — Israeli Cooking,” and “Rosh Hashanah Favorites” will use the facility. The carpeted multipurpose room will house a “Jewish Life and Learning” class and the Club J afterschool program, among others. The two art studios, which sit opposite each other, feature broad classroom sinks and counters and will be the scene for classes on painting,
Smart Ladies Never Pay FULL Price!
Photos by Zach Itzkovitz
Above: Art will join cooking and dance as the programming focuses at the Kuniansky Family Center, program director Laura Ross says.
drawing, mosaics and jewelry making. The studios also will be open to anyone for private projects or class assignments, beginning Aug. 17. Supplies include easels, paint, paintbrushes,
beads and jewelry wire. The Rich Foundation Dance Studio will be used as a multipurpose room as well as for dance, Ross said. Although the studio was recently completed, the dance program moved into the building in March, dance program director Erin Lesure said. The studio will offer classes for all ages, including basic movement for children 18 to 24 months old and an adult ballet class. The grand opening is free and open to all from noon to 4 p.m. at 5342 Tilly Mill Road in Dunwoody. ■
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
ents Consignm ll a F g in t p Now Acce
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LUXURY CONSIGNMENT New, Samples and Once Loved Formal Dresses and Bridal Gowns. 206-B Johnson Ferry Road NE, Sandy Springs, GA 30328
404.842.1955
Shop online: LeDressBoutique.com
Mon-Wed 11 a.m.-6 pm. Thursday CLOSED Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Left top: The Kuniansky Family Center has taken the place of the Weinstein Center for Adult Day Services. Left middle: The Rich Foundation Dance Studio features sprung flooring and will serve as a multipurpose room. Left bottom: Cooking classes will be held in the two-island, three-sink dairy kitchen.
LOCAL NEWS
Luxenberg Resigns As CEO of Marcus JCC By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
near loved ones, Kuniansky said. “During her tenure, the Marcus Jewish Community Center really flourormer Marcus Jewish Communi- ished, it truly did,” he said. “All expectaty Center President Sheri Gumer tion is it will continue to do so.” will lead the search for the cenHe said successes under Luxenter’s next chief executive after Gail Lux- berg have included the $7 million capienberg submitted her resignation as tal campaign that ended last year and CEO during the last week of July. led to the new Kuniansky Family Cen“My work with the agency has ter and other improvements, record been very rewarding,” Luxenberg said preschool and camp enrollment, allin an announcement from the Marcus time-high participation in programs, JCC on Wednesday, Aug. 5. “I am im- and the development of the special mensely proud needs and incluof my achievesion programs. ments during the He also past three years, praised her leaderand I have enship through the joyed every mindifficult decision ute of my work to close the Weinat the MJCCA.” stein Center for Her final Adult Day Services. day was Tues“It’s a chalday, Aug. 11, belenging job to be a fore some longCEO of a JCC,” Kuplanned vacation niansky said, addtime, Marcus JCC ing that the search Douglas Kuniansky is the interim board Chairman committee will replacement for Gail Luxenberg. Douglas Kunianlook for someone sky said. with a lot of the Kuniansky became the acting CEO same qualities and skills as Luxenberg. of the center Aug. 12 and said he plans “It takes a well-rounded individual to to be at the center in Dunwoody every be CEO of such a large nonprofit orgaday to work with “a really strong senior nization serving so many constituenmanagement team who will operate cies and impacting so many.” just like they have been operating unLuxenberg brought the best finander Gail.” cial health the Marcus JCC has seen in He has the support of an 18-mem- decades, Kuniansky said. That health ber board of directors that was reor- enabled the center to switch in March ganized in March and includes Vice from a two-board system — a goverChairman Joel Arogeti, Treasurer Ron nance board for financial oversight Brill and Secretary Howard Hyman. and an advisory board for programHyman served as interim CEO of the ming — to a single board of directors. center for more than a year between Now the center would like some the resignation of Michael Wise in Au- leadership stability. Harry Stern served gust 2010 and Luxenberg’s hiring after 15 years as the CEO until 2006. But Wise a national search in November 2011. served less than 3½ years from April Kuniansky said he is pushing for 2007 to August 2010, and Luxenberg’s fast action from the new search com- tenure was only four months longer. mittee under Gumer, whose three-year Kuniansky said it would be better term as the JCC president ended in to hire a CEO who could stay seven to March 2010. The committee likely will 10 years, but the JCC leadership lacks a use a national search firm, as did the crystal ball. Luxenberg’s departure, he search that found Luxenberg, who was said, was “unexpected but not a comhired after a search committee rejected plete surprise.” six other recommended candidates. “We are grateful for Gail’s leaderLuxenberg left a job as the execu- ship over the past three years,” he said. tive director of Jewish Vocational Ser- “I have the utmost confidence that our vice in Chicago in part, she said at the board of directors, along with our setime, because her parents and three sis- nior management, will ensure that the ters lived in Atlanta. A similar motive is community continues to receive the taking her away from the Marcus JCC: first-rate programs and services that She’s moving to Seattle in October to be you have come to expect.” ■
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OPINION
Our View
Remembrance
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AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
his week we mark the 100th anniversary of the most traumatic moment in Atlanta’s Jewish history: the lynching of Leo Frank. The 31-year-old factory superintendent was — by marriage, by religion, by organizational membership — one of our own, and his slaying a century ago Aug. 17 (and possibly the lynching of another Jewish man convicted of murder in Georgia, Albert Bettelheim, two days earlier) served as an act of terrorism. The prison officials who did nothing to protect Frank in Milledgeville, the two dozen prominent citizens of Marietta and Cobb County who carried out the abduction and hanging, the thousands of people who made a celebration of seeing and photographing the body dangling from an oak tree, and the law enforcement officials who did nothing to solve the crime combined to threaten the Jewish community. The threat worked: Those Jews who didn’t leave largely withdrew from public life for decades. Our biggest disappointment in the commemoration of the Frank lynching is that we have not seen a coordinated communal effort to match the communal threat of a century ago. It’s a sign of the creativity and dedication of so many community members that we have a rich mix of centennial events, as listed on Page 16. But it’s a sign of our disunity that those events reflect no broader vision or logical progression. It’s painful that the two oldest congregations in Cobb County, Congregation Etz Chaim and Temple Kol Emeth, not only couldn’t come together to mark the tragedy that happened a few miles west of them along Route 120, but couldn’t even get out of each other’s way. We’re all poorer for having to choose between their simultaneous events Aug. 16. If you’re a part of Jewish Atlanta, you should attend at least one of the many commemorations. It’s important to know our history. Want an academic discussion? The Georgia Historical Society brings you the expert, Steve Oney. Want more of a legal examination? The Anti-Defamation League offers Attorney General Sam Olens, lawyer and former Gov. Roy Barnes, and new ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt. Want to hear a local prosecutor’s well-researched, well-practiced thoughts? Catch Van Pearlberg at Congregation Ner Tamid. Interested in helping say Kaddish for Frank? Etz Chaim and Ner Tamid offer opportunities. Want to lobby for a full exoneration of Frank? Kol Emeth’s event is the place to be. This anniversary also is a reminder of the value of the Breman Museum and its Cuba Family Archives. Without the Breman’s work to preserve, curate and share Jewish Atlanta’s history, the proper observance of the centennial would be impossible. You can see images from the Cuba Family Archives on the cover and throughout the in-depth article starting on Page 14. You can see samples of Frankrelated items in the lobby display at Etz Chaim and elsewhere. You can visit highlights of the Frank collection in a special exhibit at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw. When the centennial excitement fades, the Breman will still be protecting those artifacts and the 10 story they tell, ensuring we never forget our history. ■
AJT
A Civil Israel Conversation Begins
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antagonism toward those who disagree with us; and hree dozen people who have distinguished avoidance of those on the other side. themselves as thought leaders in Jewish AtMy biggest worry is disengagement. College lanta gathered at Federation on Sunday, Aug. students forced to take sides on Israel before they’re 9, to learn to play nice. ready or repelled by the anger they see in the arguIt sounds so basic, which perhaps explains why ment too often reject organized Judaism or Judaism our teacher for the day, Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, itself. We can’t afford that loss of vitality. resorted to preschool techniques (“Clap twice if you We of course can hear me”) to herd us. didn’t solve all the It was a nice metaphor for problems at the how childish we all can act when Editor’s Notebook JCRC workshop. the topic is Israel, and Rabbi By Michael Jacobs We just started the Weintraub was there, through mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com effort, but the mix the efforts of the Jewish Commuof viewpoints was nity Relations Council of Atlanta, encouraging even to help us learn to act like and if the lack of denominational diversity was disaptreat one another as adults. pointing. The hope is that the conversation about the Support for Israel ought to unite the Jewish Israel conversation will continue, and we’ll develop community. But that unity breaks down when we the skills and the facilitators within our community dive into the details and our different values, priorito create a safe space for Israel discussion. ties, perceptions, backgrounds and influences. There Look for more on this important effort from is no safe space for questioning, conversing, listenJCRC throughout the year. Meanwhile, you can help, ing and learning; there’s no room for uncertainty. one conversation at a time. When you find yourself Our shared passion for Israel, what it is and talking to someone who holds different views about what we want it to be, increasingly drives apart those who are engaged in the Jewish community and the Israeli settlements or the Palestinians or religious pluralism, resist the urge to prove that you’re drives away the next generation. right and he’s an idiot. We’ve seen that inability to listen to each other Instead, take the time to listen, to learn, to try — the essential element of any conversation — too to understand. Worst case, you delay the usual argumany times in Jewish Atlanta in recent years. ment by a few minutes. But maybe your would-be Without civility — which is not about reaching opponent returns the respect and listens to you. consensus or convincing the other side but about ofMaybe you change a mind. Maybe you find that fering and accepting the space to hear and be heard your positions have more commonalitites than dif— we can’t understand or learn from one another, ferences. Maybe your positions wind up just as far and we can’t express the mutual respect to disagree without dislike and to maintain communal strength. apart as before, but you both realize that those areas of disagreement aren’t as important as the Judaism We in Atlanta aren’t unique in our wrestling that brings you together. with Israel; flare-ups over Israel seem inevitable in It doesn’t hurt to try, and the effort should be its Jewish communities. Rabbi Weintraub said three reown reward. ■ active patterns are common: avoidance of the topic;
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OPINION
Old Times Not Forgotten; Don’t Look Away South. Scary things happened in the land of cotton, things that made for grim headlines and gruesome photographs. Bad things happened in the North, too, but the view looking south was foreboding. Had Atlanta not been the headquarters of the news network we hired on with in Jerusalem, we likely would not have moved here. Not long after we arrived 28 summers ago, my mother came to visit. Seeking to show her something Southern, we drove to Stone Mountain and rode the train around the park. During the narration about the site’s Confederate memorial, my Iowabred and -educated mother, with her Ivy League master’s degree in history, asked in a conversational tone of voice, “Don’t these people know they lost that war?” After checking to see if anyone
had heard her, I replied that based on my brief exposure to the region, some doubt remained on that question. I have been immersed in another period while working on an article for the Atlanta Jewish Times about the legacy of the Leo Frank case. Aug. 17 is the centennial of Frank being hanged in a Marietta woods (after being kidnapped from the state prison
From Where I Sit By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com
in Milledgeville) — the best known, if not the only, lynching of a Jew in the United States. Standing near the site of the lynching, along a forgettable (save for the “Big Chicken”) stretch of Roswell Road where it intersects Frey’s Gin Road, it is difficult to imagine the scene a century ago. There are no historical markers. Two that Rabbi Steve Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth affixed to a nearby build-
ing in 1995 and 2005 were removed when the building was razed. Lebow continues to campaign for permanent recognition at the site and an official exoneration of Frank. A 1986 pardon did not declare Frank innocent in the 1913 killing of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old worker at the National Pencil Co. factory in Atlanta, where he was the superintendent. The pardon was granted “in recognition of the state’s failure to protect the person of Leo M. Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction, and in recognition of the state’s failure to bring his killers to justice, and as an effort to heal old wounds.” Studying the Leo Frank case was quite an education. I learned that the lynch “mob” was well-organized by leading citizens of Marietta, some of whose descendants today are prominent in Marietta and Cobb County. I learned of the courage displayed by Gov. John Marshall Slaton in commuting Frank’s death sentence to life imprisonment. I found a Jewish community heav-
ily composed of transplants who, not unexpectedly, may lack awareness of the case and its traumatic aftereffects. As Linda Selig put it, “There are fewer people now with historical roots to the Atlanta Jewish community, even though they’re now Atlantans and they’re Jewish.” I found a community of no single mind about how to remember this uncomfortable piece of its past. A century later, many Atlanta Jews still balance living in the larger gentile world with openly displaying their religious identification. I also found a deplorable number of websites that review the saga of Leo Frank and Mary Phagan using antiSemitic tropes and disproven canards. Lessons remain to be learned from the Leo Frank case. One is that not only history, but also present-day events do not allow Atlanta’s Jews the luxury of looking away and pretending old times have been forgotten. ■ Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
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AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
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hen I was growing up near Chicago, Jewish boys did not aspire to live in the
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OPINION
The Chutzpah of Rushing Jewish Note: This response is on behalf of the dozens of people who have reached out to me with their ideas, edits and words. The thoughts below belong to previous members of Sigma Delta Tau, Eta Chapter, and it is with their permission that I write these words. I would like to give a special thanks to Megan Maziar, Dana Odrezin, Cara Lewin, Stacey Light, Stephanie Fishman, Abby Weinberger, Lenni Nagler, Jamie Lincenberg and Danielle Hyman for their support throughout this process. riel Pinsky mentions the notion of chutzpah in her article “Don’t Fear Non-Jewish Greek Life” (Aug. 7 issue). As a former president of SDT at UGA, I would like to respond to the chutzpah I saw in the article — the chutzpah, or boldness, inherent in discussing an experience she chose not to have. To box up the Jewish Greek life experience as one in which everyone already knows each other and is forced into it by an overbearing parent is wrong. To understand why people join SDT at UGA, you have to be a part of
the organization. You must see SDT from a foundational level. You must know that being a member means you have the highest GPA on campus, you organize the biggest philanthropy in Greek Life, and you are a representative for a culture that makes up just 3 percent of the university. To understand why people join
Guest Column
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By Monica Flamini
SDT at UGA, you must consider every nuance that has gone into creating the most successful and renowned chapter in the sorority’s history. Back in 2009, I was standing where countless college freshmen are going to be in a week: inside the Chapter Room of SDT, about to make the easiest decision of my life. Surrounded by both unfamiliar faces and girls I have known my entire life, I saw
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a place I knew only by name quickly transform into my home. I saw a place where I could be my most genuine self, and I knew the young women making this journey with me were fully aware of the responsibility that comes with being a member of the only Jewish sorority at the University of Georgia. The second you walk into SDT, you are overcome with the feeling of soul, the feeling of ruach (spirit). The atmosphere in the house is so comforting and warm because it is familiar. It is everything you have grown up with; it is loud, it is kind, it is funny, and it is filled with food from Bubbe. I have seen hundreds of girls shy away from pledging the sorority because they are afraid to join “the familiar.” They want something new, and they want an experience totally different from what they have grown up with for 18 years. What so many of these girls do not realize is that college is a long road, composed of limitless first experiences and the overwhelming notion that adulthood is looming. At a time when familiarity is perhaps the greatest comfort of all, so many girls shake away their cultural upbringing to join a different sorority, one they have known for only a week. When the glitz and glam of crystal chandeliers and marble parlors dissipate, these girls realize that they are cut off from a culture intrinsic to their identity. They begin to reach out to girls who did join SDT, and they build up the Jewish circle they do not have in their own sorority. These girls then start to accompany the new members of SDT to tailgates at AEPi and TEP, oftentimes alone, as none of their new sorority sisters knows anyone in the Jewish fraternities. Soon enough, they are at the SDT house, studying for exams with the new members and wondering what life would have been like if they had joined. I saw this happen over and over again during my four years as a member of SDT. Jewish girls who join Tri Delta, Chi Omega, Kappa, AOPi and Theta do not know where to go on Wednesday afternoons during Bible study. They do not know what to say when their chapter says a prayer exalting Jesus Christ before meals. They do not know what to do during initiation
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when they are asked to promise allegiance to Christian values. So while I understand the paramount importance of having agency over your Greek life, I also know the necessity of choosing a sorority that will sustain and comfort you for years to come. I also understand the chutzpah that comes with emblazoning yourself with the letters sigma, delta and tau in one of the nation’s oldest Southern state schools. As soon as you don those letters, you are exposing to thousands of students that you are Jewish. You are inviting judgment and ignorance to have a front-row seat in your life. It is a vivid display of vulnerability and courage, and not everyone has the strength to possess that kind of chutzpah. It takes a special young woman to become a member of Sigma Delta Tau, and we join with the knowledge that the people wearing our letters are fighting the same battle. It is a Davidand-Goliath tale set in a small college town in the middle of a state whose anti-Semitism is painfully obvious at times. SDT is so much more than the Jewish traditions and Jewish connections that the recent article mentions. SDT is not about having people to go to synagogue with on Yom Kippur or to Chabad on Shabbat. It is about a community fastened together with cultural ties so resilient, they transcend divides too deep for many to contemplate. The women of SDT are not my friends; they are my sisters to the full extent of the word. They come from all over the country and bring with them a shared bond to a faith that has come to define how we view the world. The women in my sisterhood challenge and inspire me to grow in a system that seemingly has compartmentalized who I should be as a Jewish Southern woman. Because I joined SDT, I became part of something so much larger than three Greek letters and a little house on Bloomfield Avenue. I became the best version of myself, all the while surrounded by values my family worked tirelessly to engrain within me and by people who taught me the meaning of living a full life. What parent would not be proud of that? What parent would not want that for a child? ■
OPINION
Publix Should Support Farmworkers’ Rights refuses to join the FFP. Publix’s mission states that it commits to be “involved as responsible citizens in our communities.” The farmworkers who supply the produce for the stores not only are part of their communities, but also are in the supply chain, responsible for Publix’s significant profit.
At age 91, it would surely be sinful.
Guest Column By Rabbi Joshua Lesser
So why has Publix turned its back on them? Outside its home state of Florida, Atlanta is Publix’s biggest hub. I want the stores available to me in Georgia to uphold the human rights of the farmworkers. I do not want to be a silent bystander. That’s why, the past three years, I have joined the CIW in seeking out store leadership in delegations. My congregation has sent postcards to Publix to advocate joining the FFP. We have protested alongside workers and other Atlanta residents at the stores. I urge Publix to drop its disingenuous arguments and join other companies to ensure the well-being of workers from whose labor it profits. As a spiritual leader who believes that we must pursue justice, I could not agree more with Publix founder George Jenkins, who warned the greedy: “Don’t let making a profit get in the way of doing the right thing.” The current leadership has offered excuses instead of living up to its core values. I believe that both my faith tradition and my human obligation require protecting the dignity of those most in need and safeguarding fairness, safety and freedom. We all profit when we do the right thing. So I ask Publix, “Other than excuses, what is getting in the way?” The time is ripe not just for tomatoes, but also for major grocers like Publix to join Ahold in doing right by the farmworkers in the supply chain and ceasing to benefit from their exploitation. Ahold has made history by signing on as the first major grocer; it is time for Publix to join it in supporting justice, dignity and fairness. ■ Rabbi Joshua Lesser is the spiritual leader of Congregation Bet Haverim.
But, that aside, here’s what I have done for Society: You know that option you have on your driver’s license about being an Organ Donor? My friend and I started that program in 1968. It was adopted by the Kidney Foundation and later picked up by Divisions of Motor Vehicles. I have formed Blood Banks for communities and synagogues and associations. I served as Israel Bonds chairman in Northern Virginia in 1967 and when the 6 Day War broke out, I created the method for borrowing money to buy bigger bonds. I had to explain to the DC director and the New York bank how to make it work. Others copied me Big Time!! I was Advance Gifts Chairman for the United Jewish Appeal in Northern Virginia for 2 years and gave 20% of my GROSS INCOME those years. I love providing people with Peace of Mind through providing them with quality life and disability insurance products with A+ companies. I also find and help correct errors for people who would otherwise be unaware of the pain and heartaches caused by errors in applications for insurance and other errors UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!! Take advantage of my experience and let me review your policies for you. NO CHARGE. Then, if we do business... fine. If not, I won’t go hungry. Besides, one-half of my new commissions are pledged to 3 charities. Magen David Adom, Friends of IDF & local Jewish Poor.
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t’s that time of year when I check the tomato plants on my small balcony garden to see if they are ripe. I cannot look at these plants without remembering the beginning of 2012 when I joined T’ruah, a Jewish human rights organization made up of rabbis, to meet the needs of farmworkers of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The organization had formed in the early ’90s to respond to the abusive conditions in Florida’s fields, where workers harvest 90 percent of the tomatoes consumed in the United States between November and May. On that trip, I learned how 20 years of farmworker-led, consumersupported work has effectively eliminated human trafficking in Florida’s fields and ushered in a new chapter of never-before-seen human rights protections for farmworkers through the CIW partnering with consumers to persuade major food retailers to join the Fair Food Program (FFP). At the trip’s end, I joined my colleagues in becoming a “tomato rabbi.” At the end of July, Ahold USA, the major supermarket of the Northeast, followed other grocers like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods — as well as retail giant Walmart — in joining the FFP. This landmark win will increase the number of grocery stores carrying FFP tomatoes by over 75 percent. And this summer the FFP began its expansion into many of Georgia’s tomato fields for the first time. Hundreds of workers on these farms have already received worker-to-worker education on their new rights to shade and water, freedom from sexual harassment and slavery, and a robust, round-the-clock system to ensure compliance. As one worker said recently, “Our dignity is being restored.” Unfortunately Publix, one of the places I shop, is not among these stores. Despite letters, conversations with managers, vigils, fasts, even a 200-mile march by hundreds of workers and consumers, Publix has refused to join for almost six years. Publix goes so far as to advertise purchasing tomatoes from farms without the protections of the FFP. On those fields, farmworkers still face subpoverty wages, wage theft and unchecked sexual harassment. I cannot understand why Publix
Would I Lie To You?!!
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LOCAL NEWS
A Century of Awkward Silence Atlanta’s Jews struggle with how to remember Leo Frank’s lynching By Dave Schechter dschechter@atljewishtimes.com
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AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
othing near the intersection of Roswell Road and Frey’s Gin Road in Marietta says slow down, look around, evil happened here. Motorists on Roswell Road between Cobb Parkway and Interstate 75 cannot miss the “Big Chicken,” a 56-foot metal structure atop a KFC restaurant. But nothing marks the site a couple of hundred yards away where, on Aug. 17, 1915, a Jewish man named Leo Max Frank — convicted of a murder for which he may have been innocent — was hanged in the best-known, though perhaps not the only, lynching of a Jew in the United States. Close your eyes. Use your imagination. You’re in a woods on land owned by a former sheriff of Cobb County. A phalanx of cars pulls up. Leo Frank, kidnapped late at night from the state prison in Milledgeville, 125 miles to the southeast, is pulled from one of the cars. His glasses have been removed from his face. He is blindfolded. He wears a sheet around his waist because he was taken while wearing only a bed shirt. His legs are bound together. This is no unruly mob, but vigilantes organized by prominent citizens of Marietta, calling themselves the Knights of Mary Phagan, memorializing the slain girl. A rope is produced, one end thrown over a tree limb. A noose is knotted around Frank’s neck,
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Evidence Of Other Jewish Lynchings
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hough commonly thought of as a hanging, as in the death of Leo Frank, a lynching is any extrajudicial (without legal authority and
Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History of The Breman Museum
still bandaged from where another prisoner had tried to slash his throat a few weeks earlier. The conversation is brief. He asks that his wedding ring be returned to his wife. A table is kicked out from under his feet. Frank’s neck snaps, the flow of oxygen to his brain is cut off, and after a brief struggle he is dead. The time is shortly past 7 a.m.
Keep your eyes closed. More people have arrived, people coming because word has spread and created excitement. Later they will tell others that they saw the limp body of Leo Frank hanging from that tree, that they saw justice done. The shoeless body is left hanging for hours. The 31-year-old dead man can’t see the carnival scene around him. Cameras are set up and photographs
in violation of due process) killing by a mob. Frank was found guilty at a trial, but his death sentence was commuted by the governor. Though his hanging commonly is referred to as the only lynching of a Jew in the United States, it is cited here as “the best-known, though perhaps not the only, lynching” because the historical record is not certain. He might not have been the only Jewish man lynched in Georgia in August 1915. According to online lists of lynchings, a Jewish writer named Albert
Bettelheim, convicted of murder, was lynched in Georgia on Aug. 15, 1915, two days before Frank was hanged. But no other information about Bettelheim is readily available. Much more is known about the death of S.A. Bierfield, the Jewish operator of a dry goods store in Franklin, Tenn., on Aug. 15, 1868. According to news reports and an official federal inquiry, Bierfield was dragged out of his store and fatally shot by a several assailants, who also killed a black employee. Sources suggest that Bierfield ran
The morning after Leo Frank was abducted from the state prison in Milledgeville, his body dangles from an oak tree as thousands of people gather for the spectacle.
taken. Some will be turned into postcards for sale. Pieces of his clothing are torn away. Small pieces of rope will be hawked around town for 50 cents, much as alleged pieces of a cross were sold in another time and place. No one afoul of local sentiments as a supporter of Reconstruction who did business with whites and blacks or was framed in a murder plot or was a victim of the Ku Klux Klan, which had formed two years earlier in Pulaski, Tenn., about 60 miles from Franklin. The main question with Bierfield is whether his killing was planned or just happened when he tried to run from his attackers. Other online sources make reference to two Jews being lynched in the South in the 1890s without offering any more information.
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LOCAL NEWS will be brought to justice for lynching Leo Frank. Unmarked Spot Open your eyes. Do people traveling along Roswell Road know what happened in this place? Do they recognize the name Leo Frank? Do they know that local streets carry the names of men involved in the lynching? Do they know that prominent citizens of modern Marietta and Cobb County are the killers’ descendants? There were plaques on the side of a building near the site — one put up in 1995, on the 80th anniversary, and the other in 2005, on the 90th — but the building has been torn down. Those plaques sit on the floor of the office of the man who put them up, Rabbi Steve Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth, a Reform congregation a few miles to the east. A marker that stood beside the road in front of that building — sponsored by the Georgia Historical Society, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation and Temple Kol Emeth — is stored in a Georgia Department of Transportation warehouse, pending a decision on its relocation after the widening of Interstate 75.
A little more than two miles west of the lynching site, in the Marietta Confederate Cemetery, is the grave of Mary Phagan, the 13-year-old girl killed April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day, at the National Pencil Factory in downtown Atlanta, where Frank was the superintendent. Frank is buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in the New York borough of Queens. Along with the dates of his birth (April 17, 1884, in Cuero, Texas) and death are the words “Beloved Husband” and “Semper Diem,” Latin for “always the same.” His Atlanta-native widow, Lucille Selig Frank, never remarried and died in 1957, and her ashes are buried between her parents’ graves in the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. In 1983, after an elderly man who had worked at the factory as a boy came forward and implicated another worker at the plant, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected an appeal that Frank be exonerated, saying that his innocence could not be proved beyond a shadow of doubt. On March 11, 1986, the board granted Frank a posthumous pardon “without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence and in
recognition of the state’s failure to protect the person of Leo M. Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction, and in recognition of the state’s failure to bring his killers to justice, and as an effort to heal old wounds.” The Leo Frank case has been referred to as the “American Dreyfus case,” compared to that of French military officer Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew wrongly convicted of treason about 20 years earlier. In his appeal of Frank’s conviction, attorney Reuben Arnold called it “the most horrible persecution of a Jew since the death of Christ.” In his June 21, 1915, order commuting Frank’s sentence from death to life imprisonment, issued the day before the scheduled execution, Gov. John Marshall Slaton rejected the notion that prejudice against Jews was a factor in the case: “The charge against the State of Georgia of racial prejudice is unfair. A conspicuous Jewish family in Georgia is descended from one of the original colonial families of the State. Jews have been presidents of our Boards of Education, principals of our schools, Mayors of our cities, and conspicuous in all our commercial enterprises.”
Crushing Experience One hundred years later, the lynching of Leo Frank in that Marietta field remains a sensitive issue in the Atlanta Jewish community. Some strive to keep it in the public consciousness, while others regard it as a matter for the history books. Some link it to other historical events, while others say it should not overshadow communal successes. Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, who became the senior rabbi at The Temple in 1974 and today is rabbi emeritus, sees a wound that may require another century to heal completely. “The tragedy of his life was so deep for Leo Frank and his widow, Lucille, and all of the family that were related and The Temple family and the Jewish community of Atlanta,” Rabbi Sugarman said. The Leo Frank case put Atlanta’s Jewish community — particularly those of German descent, whose forebears had founded The Temple — on notice that assimilation was illusory. In its wake, according to reports, Jewish schoolchildren were harassed, Jewish-owned stores were vandalized, Jewish men sent their wives and children to live with relatives out of town,
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LOCAL NEWS
A Century of Awkward Silence
Atlanta’s Jews struggle with how to remember Leo Frank’s lynching an untold number of Jews moved from Atlanta, and no Jew ran for public office locally for more than a decade. The community withdrew into itself. “It was a very crushing experience,” said Mark Bauman, a historian of Jewish life in the South. “The Atlanta Jewish community had felt extremely secure,” based on its involvement in the economic, civic and philanthropic life of the city. “They really felt accepted.” The historian compared this attitude to that two decades later of Jews who felt themselves assimilated into German society before the rise of Hitler and the horror that followed. “For Jews in Atlanta, in Georgia, in the South and in the United States, the Frank case made them feel leery, made them feel marginalized. They never expected anything like the Frank case to occur. It really shocked them,” said Bauman, who grew up in Long Island, N.Y., but has lived in Atlanta since attending graduate school at Emory University in 1972. He edits Southern Jewish History, published by the Southern Jewish Historical Society. The Jews may have felt in step with the professional classes among the gentiles, but Bauman suggested that they overlooked a change in public attitudes as poor farmers left their land and moved into the city. These refugees from rural Georgia brought with them prejudices exploited by demagogues, notably Thomas Watson, the populist politician and publisher whose Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine railed against Slaton’s commutation of Frank’s sentence, its vitriol aimed at Frank as a Jew but also as a Northerner from New York City.
Family Ties Businessman and philanthropist Steve Selig is a great-great-nephew of Frank’s wife, Lucille. “I think it helps sensitize us to acts of anti-Semitism,” he said about the legacy of the case. Selig’s wife, Linda, who grew up in Miami, was (with Lynda Walker) co-executive producer of the 2009 docudrama “The People v. Leo Frank.” She learned about the family history while researching the story and was impressed by Lucille Frank. “When I read about it, I was very touched with the loyalty that she showed to Leo by keeping her name and staying in Atlanta and never remarrying. … It took a lot of courage,” she said. “The fact that she had the courage to stay and call herself Mrs. Leo Frank, I found it very touching.” The Leo Frank story resonated with those in the Jewish community who made donations to finance the film, but Linda Selig also noted that the significant donors included descendants of prominent Marietta citizens involved in the lynching. Playwright Alfred Uhry, whose family also was close to the maelstrom, had a front-row seat to the aftermath in the decades after the case. Uhry’s “Atlanta trilogy” of plays — “Driving Miss Daisy” (1987), “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” (1996) and “Parade” (1998) — was inspired by his family and Atlanta Jewish history. He is the great-nephew of Sig Montag, who owned the pencil factory that Leo Frank managed. “When I was growing up in Atlanta in the ’40s and ’50s, Leo Frank was mentioned only in hushed tones.
I remember people getting up and walking out of the room if anyone talked about the case. Why? I think
it was some sort of toxic combo of shock, horror and embarrassment,” said Uhry, who lives in New York. “Our
Centennial Events The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History is playing host to an exhibit through Nov. 29 titled “Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited.” The exhibit, organized by the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum and supported by Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education, opens to the public at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 17, at the Southern Museum (www.southernmuseum.org), 2829 Cherokee St., Kennesaw. Museum admission is $7.50 for adults, $6.50 for seniors, $5.50 for children ages 4 to 12, and free for children 3 and under. “The lynching of Leo Frank is a difficult moment in our state’s history and one that still resonates a century later,” Southern Museum Executive Director Richard Banz said in a press release. “While its memory and aftermath are painful even 100 years later, we expect this exhibit to spark an exploration of how we can work together to eliminate bigotry from the public square.” The exhibit opening is one of several public events marking the 100th anniversary: ■ Steve Oney, the author of the definitive book on the Frank case, “And the Dead Shall Rise,” and Georgia Historical Society senior historian Stan Deaton discuss “The Ghosts of Leo Frank: Reckoning With Georgia’s Most Infamous Murders 100 Years Later” at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre, 117 North Park Square, Marietta. Free; georgiahistory.com. ■ Georgia Senior Assistant Attorney General Van Pearlberg of Marietta lectures on the case — from the slaying of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in April 1913 to Alonzo Mann’s revelation 70 years later that he saw Jim Conley carrying the body at the National Pencil Co. factory — at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, at Congregation Ner Tamid, 1349 Old Highway 41, Suite 220, Marietta. Free; www.mynertamid.info. ■ Rabbi Steven Lebow leads a memorial service and call for Frank’s exoneration at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, at Temple Kol Emeth, 1415 Old Canton Road, East Cobb. Those scheduled to attend include Pearlberg, Cobb County Superior Court Chief Judge Stephen Schuster, Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Tim Lee, lawyer Dale Schwartz, and the current and two former chief justices of the Georgia Supreme Court. Free; ravlebow@aol.com. ■ Rabbis Shalom Lewis and Albert Slomovitz lead a memorial service at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, at Congregation Etz Chaim, 1190 Indian Hills Parkway, East Cobb. In addition to such scheduled speakers as Marietta City Council member Philip Goldstein, Schwartz, and lawyer Charles Clay, a great-nephew of one of the suspected lynchers, the ceremony includes a brief film presentation and a tree planting. Free; etzchaim.net/LeoFrankMemorialProgram. ■ Oakland Cemetery, 248 Oakland Ave., downtown Atlanta, holds two special tours Sunday, Aug. 16: “Fear & Accusation: The Leo Frank Story” at 5 p.m. and “The Jewish Grounds of Oakland” at 6:30. Take either tour for $12 or both for $20; www. oaklandcemetery.com/?tour=remembering-leo-frank-100-years-later.
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
■ The Anti-Defamation League’s Southeast Region commemorates the centennial with a program featuring new ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and former Gov. Roy Barnes at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 17, at the Georgian Club, 100 Galleria Parkway, Suite 1700, in Cobb County’s Cumberland area. Free; cwilliams@adl.org or 404-262-3470.
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■ The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, the Breman Museum, Kennesaw State’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education, and Congregation Ner Tamid hold a commemoration featuring Barnes, Rabbi Tom Liebschutz, Ner Tamid President Kristine Goldstein and Kennesaw State professor Catherine Lewis at Ner Tamid, 1349 Old Highway 41, Suite 220, Marietta, at 2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17. Free but with limited space; RSVP to mhhe@kennesaw.edu or 470-578-4699. Centennial events will continue in the fall, including a discussion of the role the media played in the Frank case at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at Kennesaw State; a tour of the Southern Museum exhibit and discussion of the artifacts by curators and historians at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15; and performances of Alfred Uhry’s musical on the case, “Parade,” with Uhry leading post-show discussions, Thursday, Nov. 19, at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre at Marietta Square and Sunday, Nov. 22, at The Temple in Midtown.
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Newcomers’ Cause Rabbi Lebow hails from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but has invested himself in this history. “Like every other student of Jewish history, I had heard about the case,” he said. But before coming to Atlanta in 1986, “I don’t even think that appeared on my radar.” When friends pointed out the site, Rabbi Lebow was unaware of its significance. There were no markers “because it’s the most shame-worthy event in the history of Georgia,” he
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particular strain of Judaism was German. The family came to Atlanta in the 1840s, when the town was still called Marthasville. They considered themselves Southern first, American second and Jewish third. So when one of their own (albeit a New Yorker) married into one of the ‘good’ families, became the focus of rabid anti-Semitism, it was a brutal slap in the face.” He added: “All those years of assimilation counted as nothing. German Jews were just Jews, no matter how long they’d been in Georgia. The case was a severe blow to their pride, as well as a personal tragedy. How did they fit in to the Atlanta they loved? It took several generations to resolve the issue — if, indeed, it is resolved. I like to believe it mostly is.” Repercussions from the case were evident in the population growth of the Jewish community. Atlanta had about 4,500 Jews in 1910 and 11,000 a decade later. Throughout the 1930s, estimates were close to 12,000. In 1945-46, however, the figure dipped to 10,200. By 1960, there still were just 14,500 Jews in the area. Their number rose to 27,500 by 1980, and then came significant growth, to 70,000 by 1992 and 120,000 by 2006, when the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta completed its last survey of the population. The community is made up heavily of transplants. Federation’s 2005-06 population study found that only 19 percent of local Jews were born in Georgia (most in Atlanta). Thirty percent were born in the New YorkNew Jersey area. An awareness of the Leo Frank case and an understanding of the trauma it caused do not come naturally to transplants. “There are fewer people now with historical roots to the Atlanta Jewish community, even though they’re now Atlantans and they’re Jewish,” Linda Selig said, adding that this diversity has spread leadership within the community among a greater number of people than in the past.
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A Century of Awkward Silence
Atlanta’s Jews struggle with how to remember Leo Frank’s lynching
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
said he was told. “I used to call it the original sin of Cobb County because it was unspoken but it was always in the room.” He has gone to the lynching site annually for 20 years to mark Frank’s yahrzeit and chant Kaddish, the Jewish prayer used to mourn the dead. Rabbi Lebow will lead a memorial service and call for Frank’s exoneration at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, at Temple Kol Emeth. Scheduled speakers include former Georgia Chief Justice Norman Fletcher; Van Pearlberg, Georgia’s senior assistant attorney general and a longtime speaker about the Frank case; and Dale Schwartz, an Atlanta lawyer who was instrumental in obtaining the 1986 pardon. Among those expected to attend are Otis Brumby III, the publisher of The Marietta Daily Journal, and Allison Barnes Salter, principal of the Barnes Law Group, both descended from men involved in the lynching. “By their very presence we are assured that the tenor of our service is
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one of reconciliation rather than the eternal shaming of our city. We are not looking for apologies or admission of blame after 100 years. All we are trying to do with the service that day and in weeks and months to come is to clear an innocent man’s name. No more. But no less will do,” Rabbi Lebow said. “I don’t think it’s about the lynchers anymore,” he added. “That ship has sailed. They were exposed. Their names have been published. It’s been embarrassing to their families, and I don’t think that’s a fruitful avenue anymore. … Cobb County and Marietta are completely different 100 years later.” He knows children and grandchildren of members of the lynching party and said almost all of them are “the nicest, sweetest, not racist or antiSemitic group of people.” Rabbi Lebow would like the Board of Pardons and Paroles to issue a pardon that “will acknowledge one simple fact, just four words long: Leo Frank
Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History of The Breman Museum
Leo Frank takes time for tennis at Cornell University in 1905. Both his family wealth and his Northern upbringing made him a target in Atlanta.
was innocent.” Failing that, he welcomes such a proclamation from the governor, the Cobb Board of Commissioners or the Marietta City Council. Rabbi Shalom Lewis will lead a separate service at Congregation Etz Chaim at the same time and on the same day as the Kol Emeth service just over two miles away. The Conservative Etz Chaim is the first Jewish congregation in Marietta, founded in 1975. Scheduled speakers include Rabbi Albert Slomovitz, who teaches history at Kennesaw State University; Marietta businessman and City Council member Philip Goldstein, whose grandfather owned a store on Marietta Square a century ago; Charles Clay, a Marietta lawyer whose great-uncle has appeared on lists of those involved in the lynching; and Schwartz. Along with the chanting of Kaddish, the service will include the screening of a film clip on the case, the planting of a tree, and the dedication of a stone marker. “Obviously, the conversation has changed over time,” said Goldstein, who heard family stories about the tension of those times, “from where there was little or no conversation in the open to one where there is open conversation on the topic and public recognition of Leo Frank. … The secrets are out in the open as well as the conversation.” Rabbi Lewis understands the significance of Etz Chaim’s location so close to the lynching site. “For many years the incident was not spoken
about by either Jews or those involved. The former just wished to put the fear behind them, the latter to avoid identification and prosecution. The lynching was not ancient history, but many of the descendants of those involved or who simply observed the hanging are still around. Prominent names in Marietta history and politics remind all that the event is not distant ancient history. Many Jewish memories still remain as family sagas. Some descendants, though not bigots, do still believe in Frank’s guilt.” Rabbi Lewis acknowledged his own learning curve. “I do not recall when I first became aware of the Frank case. I suspect that I stumbled across it in my study of modern American history or a reference in a documentary on anti-Semitism, but not until I moved to Marietta and saw the TV movie with Jack Lemmon did I really understand what happened here and the panic and migration north of many within the Jewish community.” Fight for Pardon Twenty years ago, on the 80th anniversary of the lynching, Rabbi Lebow and a small group placed a plaque on the building nearest to the lynching site. The plaque reads: “Leo Frank (1884-1915) — wrongly accused, falsely tried, wantonly murdered, pardoned 1986.” Ten years ago, Rabbi Lebow affixed another plaque to the nowtorn-down building that included the question “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?”
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LOCAL NEWS The Cobb Board of Commissioners passed a resolution that year that condemned the lynching and pledged that “no such injustice will ever happen again.” The commission chairman was Sam Olens, who five years later became the first Jew to win a statewide election in Georgia when he was elected attorney general. Olens, a Florida native raised in New Jersey, said he “was generally familiar with Leo Frank growing up and have of course learned much more about this tragic case while a Cobb County resident and commissioner.” He added, “The descendants of those responsible for Frank’s murder have always treated me with respect and courtesy.” Asked whether the centennial is the occasion for a pardon that exonerates Frank, Olens said: “It is not appropriate for me to answer the question given my current responsibilities.” Dale Schwartz compared securing the 1986 pardon to “Sisyphus pushing that rock up a hill.” He was a member of the AntiDefamation League’s Southeast Region board and served as lead counsel for the pardon application process. Schwartz later chaired the ADL regional board and served on the national
board and executive committee. Today he is a prominent immigration lawyer in Atlanta and teaches at Emory. Schwartz, who is from New York but grew up in Winder, remembers how difficult the effort was 30 years ago and advises against a fresh attempt to secure a pardon. “I think it would be impossible, and it could set the cause back even to try. The way the world sees it, Leo Frank was pardoned,” said Schwartz, who can recite examples of evidence indicating Frank’s innocence. “I just feel that if it were to fail, it diminishes what we did to get the pardon.” The effort to gain the 1986 pardon was not universally popular in the local Jewish community, he said, recalling a meeting of 300 to 400 people at which some urged the organizations seeking the pardon — the ADL, the American Jewish Committee and Federation — to leave the past alone. The Frank murder trial and appeals provided renewed impetus for B’nai B’rith to create the ADL “to stop the defamation of the
new
of B’nai B’rith when he was arrested. The case also gave rise to an antagonist of the ADL. On Thanksgiving Day 1915, three months after lynching Leo Frank, 17 men, including some members of the Knights of Mary Phagan, burned a cross atop Stone Mountain and declared themselves to be the reconstituted Ku Klux Klan, the anti-Semitic, antiCatholic, racist organization whose members hid beneath white robes and hoods. Inside The Temple Leo and Lucille Frank were members of The Temple, where “the story lives within our walls, still, every day,” said Rabbi Peter Berg, just the fifth senior rabbi in the congregation’s 148-year history. The Temple, where Frank is personal history, Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish has made the case part of its History of The Breman Museum sixth-grade history curricuA young Leo Frank poses in this undated photo. lum for Sunday school and Jewish people and to secure justice has included the case in its and fair treatment to all.” Frank was adult education programs. the president of the Atlanta chapter Janice Rothschild Blumberg’s first
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SANDRA BANK AJT 19
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A Century of Awkward Silence
Atlanta’s Jews struggle with how to remember Leo Frank’s lynching husband, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, led The Temple from 1946 until his death in 1973. “As to how the community talked about it when I was growing up, it didn’t,” Blumberg said. “I first heard about it in 1939 in the course of a required course for freshmen at UGA entitled ‘Contemporary Georgia.’ When I asked my mother (born and raised in Columbus) if she had ever heard of Leo Frank, she said, ‘Of course, dear. You know Miss Lucille.’ I heard this story repeated almost verbatim in a television interview with Alfred Uhry, his mother having been born and raised in Atlanta. “Both of us knew Miss Lucille all of our lives, but it wasn’t unusual for a woman the age that she was when we knew her to be widowed, so we never thought to ask what became of her husband.” If the Frank lynching was a seminal moment in the history of Jewish Atlanta, another was the bombing of The Temple on Oct. 12, 1958, a pre-
dawn blast caused by the detonation of 50 sticks of dynamite and believed to be a response to Rabbi Rothschild’s advocacy of the civil rights movement. No one was convicted of the bombing. Blumberg drew a link between the Frank case and the bombing. “In my opinion it would have been impossible to commemorate the case here in any way until the generation alive then (and even those born within the next five years or so) died,” said Blumberg, who is 91. She said Temple members of her generation “would/should have expunged their fear of local anti-Semitism as a result of the general community’s reaction to The Temple bombing (I called it the bomb that healed because it lanced the long festering boil of the Frank case). Generally speaking, the conditions that made the case what it was have changed dramatical-
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Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History of The Breman Museum
Leo Frank’s casket is carried at his funeral in Brooklyn. His bodied is buried at New York’s Mount Carmel Cemetery.
ly — not that anti-Semitism has gone away, but diversity of population and general exposure to other cultures has rendered it non-PC” — not politically correct. Blumberg, a past president of the Southern Jewish Historical Society, sees a changed attitude compared with the period after the Frank case, when the community turned inward. “Let us not forget the enormous changes that have taken place within the total Jewish community in the past century,” she said. “We are no longer mostly first-generation Americans, fearful of offending our Christian neighbors and inordinately proud of being ‘accepted’ by them, as most German Jews were in those days. As assimilated as our ancestors were, my work in American Jewish history as well as American Judaism confirms my suspicion that our forebears — regardless of time as U.S. citizens — still harbored historic memory of discrimination in Europe, and it didn’t take much to rekindle the flame. Thanks in large measure to the existence of Israel and in even larger measure to the burgeoning of Jewish education and concomitant pride (and knowledge) of our roots, we have solid confidence in ourselves as Americans, whereas our forebears did not.” Rabbi Sugarman, an Atlanta native born in 1938, attributes his attitude toward the Frank case to his father, who was born in 1892, and other
family members who belonged to The Temple, including an aunt who taught in its school. “I grew up in a Jewish society where the motif was ‘Don’t rock the boat,’ ” Rabbi Sugarman said. “As a child, I remember him telling me over and over, and as a teenager, about the tenor of the times. I still remember as a child and as a teenager and a young adult that whenever the name came up there was a look of horror. … ‘Shh … don’t even say the name out loud.’ That has impacted my life.” Decades later, “the tentacles of the Leo Frank case … are still deep in our flesh,” he said. Social Impact Legacies change, said Sandy Berman, an author (“Klara With a K”) and former archivist for the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum. “If you would have asked me this question 20 or 30 years ago, I would have answered quite differently. The community then, especially members of The Temple, were still hesitant to discuss the case. It was a black mark on their collective history. After Frank was lynched, Jewish leaders met at ‘the club,’ probably the Standard Club, and decided to not say or do anything about the crime because they believed that it would adversely affect their standing and more importantly their safety. That was the general feeling for a very long time,” she said. “Today the community is different. I don’t believe anyone (even within The Temple community) considers the case other than as a historical moment in time. Many young people have never heard of the case or the name Leo Frank. During this, the anniversary year of the lynching, it is important to remind people of the effect that Leo’s trial and subsequent history had on the shaping of Jewish life in America today,” Berman said. Dottie Freedman Cohen felt that influence growing up as the daughter of Adalbert Freedman, Southeastern
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New Cobb County Stephen Schuster, the chief judge of the Superior Court of Cobb County, is a member of The Temple, where he grew up, and Kol Emeth. At The Temple, “I do remember this was a topic of teaching and that we read books on the subject. Mrs. Frank died somewhere during this period, and she was a Temple member,” he said. “Teaching about Leo Frank was important to The Temple. It was also a tool for the clergy to teach you about race relations and the importance of equality. I am convinced The Temple’s forward thinking on race relations was shaped by the lynching of one of their members.” Schuster said that when he began practicing law in Cobb County in 1976,
“I could count the other Jewish attorneys on one hand. I was probably the first prosecutor who was Jewish. But that changed rapidly. Cobb now has a vibrant Jewish population. There are no barriers to entry in local politics.” He pointed to Olens, Goldstein, Pearlberg (a former Marietta City Council member) and the late Debra Bernes (a judge on the state Court of Appeals) as examples of Jews elected to office in Marietta and Cobb County. “Cobb has probably elected more Jewish people to positions than Fulton and DeKalb combined,” he said. Theater director Mira Hirsch grew up in East Cobb “when a good part of the area was still horse farms,” not far from the site of the lynching. “I was taught that Leo Frank had been hung, practically in the shade of the Big Chicken, the area’s most iconic landmark. The story was concerning, but it wasn’t something that was discussed amongst people my age,” Hirsch said. “While I believe I was one of only two students who identified as Jewish in my school (Wheeler High School), I was not generally considered an outsider due to my religion. In fact, it rarely came up. But not because this population was so evolved in the areas of diversity and tolerance — almost the exact opposite. In the late ’70s, early 1980s, most teenagers in East Cobb County wouldn’t have even imagined that someone amongst their peer group was anything other than what they were — white and Protestant. I don’t remember the name Leo Frank ever coming up within the walls of my high school.” Hirsch said she’s sure she learned the “shocking and haunting” story of Frank from her parents and at Sunday school at The Temple, and it felt distant to her. Then she saw the two-part TV miniseries “The Death of Mary Phagan,” with Lemmon as Slaton and Peter Gallagher as Frank, in early 1988. “From my new perspective as a young adult, the story had greater resonance and meaning. I realized that it hadn’t, in fact, happened that long ago. And by then, I could clearly see the remnants of long-held, ingrained bigotry in this state — particularly when I joined Hosea Williams’ march in Forsyth County that same year.” Hirsch added: “It makes sense that the ADL would be birthed as a result of actions that took place in an area of our country in which Jewish assimilation was very prominent. The Jews of the South have long lived amongst their gentile peers, sharing neighborhoods, shops and schools, developing a level of trust and community. I think
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director of the American Zionist Organization, and Miriam Kaufman Freedman, who was the president of The Temple’s sisterhood and active in Hadassah and other Jewish organizations. “Jewish identity, Jewish issues, Zionism were constant topics of conversation in my home,” Cohen said. Her parents taught her about the Frank case, and she recalls it being discussed during Sunday school at The Temple. “The impact Leo Frank had on me was feeling a connection with all vulnerable communities and a call to social activism,” Cohen said. “My coming-of-age experiences occurred during the late ’50s and ’60s, so the civil rights movement was a powerful influence. Jews were not typically lynched … but the theme of minority murders and racism are linked in my experience.” Rabbi Joshua Lesser of Reconstructionist Congregation Bet Haverim grew up in Atlanta and drew a line between past and present. “The lynching of Leo Frank hovered around to remind us that Jews were never truly safe in the South. I think as a child I was less aware of the social tensions, the facts of the case, the sensationalism of it in its time and the formation of the ADL as a response than I was of the sheer terror of it. It was a cautionary tale of being Jewish,” he said. “Today, the Frank case is more of a complex social history where class, race, religion and police negligence came together in a way that shocked the nation. During a time where the disparities of class, race, religion and police enforcement are front-page news, this is a case that can help Jews relate and understand what our role should be in the struggle for racial equality and justice.”
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LOCAL NEWS
A Century of Awkward Silence
Atlanta’s Jews struggle with how to remember Leo Frank’s lynching
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
the Leo Frank incident tested all of that. Jews who thought they were safely ingrained in the Atlanta community were suddenly shaken from their complacency by this crime. It seemed that ‘Jew’ was OK as long as it was coupled with ‘Southern.’ But once it was matched with ‘Yankee,’ that was sort of a tipping point. And that had to rattle even the most Southern of Atlanta’s Jews.” Kenny Blank, an Atlanta native, is the executive director of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. “My sense is that 100 years later the case is still very raw for Atlanta and those who were connected directly or indirectly,” he said. He said Uhry’s “Parade” first showed him the full impact of the case in 1998. “Not only did the production humanize the victims, but it revealed the social, political, racial underpinnings of this tragic historical episode. Sadly, these strains of prejudice and bigotry are deeply rooted in parts of the South and elsewhere and no doubt will require many generations
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before we can say they have been truly eradicated.” Emory film professor Matthew Bernstein is the author of 2013’s “Screening a Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on Film and Television.” “I grew up on the North Shore of Long Island in the 1960s and 1970s and never heard of the Leo Frank case there,” Bernstein said. “I may have heard a reference to it while in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the ’80s, but that’s all. I really didn’t learn about it until after I arrived here in 1989 and joined The Temple, where Frank was a member. But I didn’t really know the details until I started researching it for my book on the two films and two TV dramatizations of the case.” He said two books, Leonard Dinnerstein’s “The Leo Frank Case” and Steve Oney’s “And the Dead Shall Rise,” hooked him on the case. “I could feel myself becoming increasingly fascinated with the case, as so many people in Atlanta and elsewhere have
More on Frank
The Leo Frank case has inspired multiple portrayals on the big and small screens and on the stage and has been written about in many books. Among the dramatizations: ■ “The People v. Leo Frank,” a 2009 docudrama written and directed by Ben Loeterman from historical documents, stars Will Janowitz as Frank and Seth Gilliam as Jim Conley. The film, which includes archival footage, involved Linda Selig and Lynda Walker as producers and “And the Dead Shall Rise” author Steve Oney as its chief consultant and premiered at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre before appearing on PBS. ■ “Parade,” a 1998 Broadway musical directed by Harold Prince with a book by Atlanta playwright Alfred Uhry and music by Jason Robert Brown. The show, which tracks the case from Confederate Memorial Day in 1913 through Frank’s lynching, won Tonys for best book and best original score. ■ “The Murder of Mary Phagan,” a two-night TV miniseries from 1988 produced by George Stevens Jr. and starring Peter Gallagher as Frank, Jack Lemmon as Slaton and Charles Dutton as Conley. Other familiar faces include Cynthia Nixon and Kevin Spacey. ■ A 1964 episode of the TV series “Profiles in Courage” about Slaton’s decision to commute Frank’s sentence. Walter Matthau plays Slaton, giving the former Georgia governor the distinction of being played by both members of the original “Odd Couple” film. ■ “They Won’t Forget,” a 1937 Warner Bros. film directed by Mervyn LeRoy based on a novel by former Atlanta newspaperman Ward Greene. Claude Rains stars as a small-town Southern lawyer railroading a teacher from Chicago for the murder of a young secretarial student played by Lana Turner. ■ “Murder in Harlem,” a 1935 movie made by black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux for black audiences in the segregated Depression-era film industry. As the title suggests, the details and setting of the case are changed, but the primary features remain the slaying of a young white girl, her white boss and a black night watchman at a factory as the key suspects, crucial testimony from a black janitor and the media frenzy. The movie is largely a remake of Micheaux’s “The Gunsaulus Mystery” from 1921. Interesting reads among the many books: ■ “Screening a Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on Film and Television,” Emory University film professor Matthew Bernstein’s study of four screen dramatizations and how and why they differed. ■ “The Leo Frank Case,” the 2008 update of University of Arizona history professor Leonard Dinnerstein’s classic account of the case from 40 years earlier — before Alonzo Mann’s revelations about Conley and Georgia’s pardon of Frank in the 1980s. ■ “And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank,” former newspaper reporter Steve Oney’s definitive work on the case from 2003. The book reflects 17 years of work by Oney after Mann’s revelations about Conley sparked renewed interest in the case in the 1980s. ■ “The Murder of Little Mary Phagan,” which the victim’s great-niece Mary Phagan Kean wrote in 1987 and published in 1989 to present the family’s case for Frank’s guilt. The most interesting information is probably an account of a meeting in 1934 between Conley and Mary Phagan’s brother. ■ “The Silent and the Damned: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank” by Maryland writers Robert Seitz Frey and Nancy Thompson, released in 1988, which is most noteworthy for possibly being the first book published about the case after Frank’s pardon, although it lacks the accuracy and authority of some other books. ■ “A Little Girl Is Dead,” Carolina Israelite publisher Harry Golden’s entertaining account of the case, including the question of why a white jury in Atlanta in 1913 would believe a black man’s testimony against a white man. ■ “Night Fell on Georgia,” Charles and Louise Samuels’ version of Phagan’s death and Frank’s trial from 1956. A cover blurb from Walter Winchell calls the book the “first authentic account” of the case.
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LOCAL NEWS been. And it tells us so much about where Atlanta and Southern Jews have been and what a long way we have come since then.”
Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History of The Breman Museum
Leo Frank is confined to the Tower at the Atlanta jail in 1914 amid lead defense attorney Luther Rosser’s failed appeals.
munity came out in support of the Atlanta Jewish community, unlike what happened in the Leo Frank case.” Schwartz said the 1986 pardon helped lift the veil. “Especially after we got that pardon, it was like a big catharsis. People who hadn’t talked about the case suddenly were telling their grandchildren,” Schwartz said, making an analogy to Holocaust survivors who did not talk about their experiences for decades.
Public attention to historical events tends to be greatest on anniversaries. The centennial of the lynching may be the last best chance to build momentum for another reconsideration of the case. By the end of August, Frank could again be consigned to history. Rabbi Lebow said a teenager recently told him: “Why should I care about Leo Frank? It happened 100 years ago.”
Films and Archives of WWII and the Holocaust A free workshop for teachers and educators Sunday, August 23, 10am–5pm Atlanta History Center
A workshop by the Mémorial de la Shoah, Paris, France, in conjunction with the exhibition “Filming the Camps, from Hollywood to Nuremberg: John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens” on view through November 20, 2015. Presented at the Atlanta History Center - 130 West Paces Ferry Road, NW, Atlanta, GA 30305 More info and RSVP at: contact@memorialdelashoah.org
George Stevens and his crew filming in France, n.d. © Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
Beyond History A century after the lynching, with more than 120,000 Jews in the Atlanta area and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 in Cobb County alone, Sherry Frank would prefer to emphasize the achievements of the Atlanta Jewish community since the Frank case and The Temple bombing. “I wouldn’t want us ever to walk away from history, but there’s so much more. … Those are two historic events, but that’s not what’s most important about Jews in Atlanta. If you never knew about the Leo Frank case, I don’t think that would be a tragedy,” said Frank, a former regional director of the AJC who is not related to Leo Frank but believes in his innocence and was part of the effort behind the 1986 pardon. The case “was a terrible tragedy,” said Frank, an Atlanta native who learned about the case as an adult. “I don’t want to minimize the impact. But it’s a blip on the line of history of important things that the Jewish community has done in this city.” As examples, she cited Sam Massell, Atlanta’s only Jewish mayor, who played a crucial role in building modern Atlanta, including MARTA, and lawyer Morris Abrams, who was instrumental in advancing one-man, one-vote laws in Georgia and was the only Georgian to serve as the national president of the AJC. “We shouldn’t just focus on Leo Frank and The Temple bombing. … Let’s celebrate Jewish participation in the city in contrast to Jews being scapegoated,” she said. Three things happened in the 1980s that helped lift the veil on the discussion of Leo Frank, historian Bauman said: • Alonzo Mann came forward with his memory of seeing Jim Conley carrying the body of Mary Phagan inside the pencil factory and being threatened by Conley if he told. That statement prompted the 1983 effort to secure a pardon. • Oney in 2003 published “And the Dead Shall Rise,” regarded as the definitive work on the case. • Lebow launched and has maintained his “crusade” to gain recognition of the lynching site and to clear Frank’s name. Like Blumberg, Bauman credits the aftermath of the 1958 bombing of The Temple “when the general com-
The case is part of the Georgia studies curriculum for public school eighth-graders in a section that examines the “key political, social and economic changes that occurred in Georgia between 1877 and 1918.” The Jewish day schools also include it. The Epstein School, for example, teaches the case as part of its middle school “Facing History” program, addressing prejudices and stereotypes, and the case is part of the Davis Academy’s seventh-grade exploration of issues of “Jewish identity, anti-Semitism, and the mitzvah of pursuing justice and righteousness.” Rabbi Sugarman stressed the need to keep alive the lessons of “the unbelievable tragedy” of Frank’s life. “It’s human nature not to confront the stark evil that took place, but it is as important a part of Atlanta’s history, if not more so, than when we secured and hosted the 1996 Olympics, which we were proud of, but is as much a part of our history as the Olympics taking place here. One hundred years later, it is something we need to gird our loins and face up to and make sure that nothing, G-d forbid, like that ever happens again, to a Jew or anyone else.” ■
AJT 23
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AJT 24
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(From left) Rabbis Ezra Sarna, Tzvi Oratz, Daniel Gopin and Doron Silverman stand in front of the “Keeping the Kosher Kitchen” display in Congregation Beth Jacob’s Heritage Hall on July 22.
4 Kollel Rabbis Bid Farewell With Kosher Fair By R.M. Grossblatt
O
ops, they did it again when the four young rabbis completing their tenure with the Atlanta Scholars Kollel gave their third and final halacha fair under ASK’s sponsorship Wednesday evening, July 22, at Congregation Beth Jacob. “Oops” was the title of one of the demonstrations at the Basar Bichalav Fair, which concentrated on how to prepare and eat meat, milk and parve after the acclaimed fairs the past two years focused on observing Shabbat. Rabbi Doniel Pransky, ASK’s rosh kollel, introduced the program to about 100 women from several communities in Atlanta. Seated in groups of 25 in front of interactive displays in Beth Jacob’s Heritage Hall, the women moved every 20 minutes from one display to the next. If they missed something, they could refer to a detailed booklet prepared by the presenters. Rabbi Pransky emphasized that the booklets and demonstrations by the rabbis were the fruits of their labors. Like the first two fairs, presented at Beth Jacob and Congregation Ariel, this one came to life with props and humor. While Rabbi David Silverman, the ASK dean, snapped photos, the young rabbis took action. Rabbi Tzvi Oratz held up a plastic chicken in one hand and cheese in the other when he spoke about “Separation and Waiting.” Rabbi Doron Silverman balanced a pot as he addressed “Noodles and Spice: Parve Food Cooked in
Non-Parve Pots.” Opening a toy oven in a child’s kitchen, Rabbi Daniel Gopin demonstrated “Keeping the Kitchen Kosher.” And Rabbi Ezra Sarna displayed spatulas and charts to solve “Oops: What to Do About Splatters and Mistakes.” It was no mistake when the kollel brought in the four young rabbis from Yeshiva Ner Israel in Baltimore three summers ago. The rabbis came with their families, renting houses in Toco Hills and warming the community with their presence. During the day, the young men learned full time, covering the topics for their fairs. At night, they learned with men in the community. Their tenure complete, three of the rabbis have found other positions in Atlanta, while Rabbi Sarna has accepted a position in Texas. After the Basar Bichalav Fair, some women stayed to ask questions and thank the rabbis for their work. Michal Donowitz, a teacher at Torah Day School of Atlanta, said the sessions were practical and humorous. Rena Gray, recently married and moved from New York, was impressed with the clarity and organization. Jordana Bernhard, part of the Chabad community in Sandy Springs, told Rabbi Pransky, “The program was amazing.” Now the kollel is bringing in four new rabbis. Although they have a hard act to follow, the rabbinical recruits, with the help of Rabbis Pransky and Silverman, will add excitement to the work of ASK. ■
LOCAL NEWS
SPORTS
B’nai Torah Reaches Softball Semifinals
L
Local Briefs
3 New Eagle Scouts Boy Scout Troop 73, sponsored by Congregation Or VeShalom for almost 60 years, celebrated its 45th, 46th and 47th Eagle Scouts in a Court of Honor ceremony Sunday, Aug. 9. In addition to earning 21 merit badges on topics such as citizenship, outdoor skills and personal responsibility, the Eagle rank requires the Scout to develop, lead and report on a project of his choosing. Asher Benator, son of Ann and Sam Benator, chose to lead a team that built computers for ORT America that are being used in Chicago. Asher graduated from the Weber School in the spring and is attending the University of Alabama this fall. The other new Eagle Scouts are Chamblee High grads Alex Bragan, son of Mary Jo Bragan and Frank Bragan, who built benches outside the youth building of a church, and Chase Huckabee, son of Kim and Wayne Huckabee, who enhanced the entryway to the Huntley Hills subdivision by constructing a rock wall with a built-in bench. While Troop 73 follows Jewish traditions on food and holiday observance, membership is open to all boys, regardless of religious affiliation. Troop 73 meets on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. at OVS in Brookhaven. For more information, call Scoutmaster Josiah Benator at 404-634-2137 or Assistant Scoutmaster Ed Heller at 770-394-1190. Bortz Speaks at U.N. Congregation Or Hadash Rabbi Analia Bortz was scheduled to speak Tuesday, Aug. 11, at the United Nations in an anti-Semitism forum convened by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. The U.N. missions of Israel, Cyprus and Palau sponsored the two-hour forum, which also involved the World
Council of Independent Christian Churches. Look for coverage of Rabbi Bortz’s speech in the Aug. 21 AJT.
Aug. 16 Softball Schedule A Division #1 B’nai Torah vs. #2 Or VeShalom #8 Chabad vs. #5 Beth Tefillah #6 Temple vs. #7 Ahavath Achim #3 Sinai vs. Chabad-Beth Tefillah winner #4 Dor Tamid vs. Temple-Ahavath Achim winner
Super Sunday Sooner The Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s Super Sunday will take place Oct. 18 at Davis Academy in Sandy Springs from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. A highlight of the Community Campaign, the day of phone calls to potential donors has moved from December to October to provide more time afterward to plan allocations to more than 60 affiliates and partners. Federation again is offering two incentive programs: • Community Incentive Program. Half the new gifts and increases in donations solicited by a volunteer, up to $1,000, will go to the organization of the volunteer’s choice. • Golden Phone Award. The day school, synagogue or other affiliate agency with the most Super Sunday volunteers will earn $1,000. For more information or to sign up, visit www.jewishatlanta.org/ supersunday. AJMF Adds Seven to Board The Atlanta Jewish Music Festival has seven new board members for the 2015-16 season, its seventh: Drew Cohen, Ariela Freedman, Beth Schafer, Rich Walter, Treasurer Todd Koransky and Secretary Rachel Meltzer. “These leaders’ unique perspectives and connections will complement the skills and relationships currently found within AJMF’s board,” the festival said in a press release. The eight returning members of the board are President Bram Bessoff, Vice President Rebecca Herring, Cantor Lauren Adesnik, Rabbi Jonathan Crane, Alan Kitey, Sammy Rosenbaum, Eli Sperling and Valerie Root Wolpe.
B Division #4 Emanu-El vs. #5 Gesher L’Torah #2 Young Israel vs. Emanu-El-Gesher L’Torah winner (Winner faces Ariel Aug. 23) C Division #4 Beth Tikvah vs. #5 Sinai 2 #2 Or Hadash vs. Beth Tikvah-Sinai 2 winner (Winner faces Kol Emeth Aug. 23)
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AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
Asher Benator, son of Ann and Sam Benator, is off to the University of Alabama after earning Eagle Scout status.
ooking to capture its ninth consecutive A division title, top-seeded Congregation B’nai Torah advanced to the Atlanta Men’s Synagogue Softball League semifinals with two wins Sunday, Aug. 9. After sending Chabad to the losers bracket with a decisive 18-6 victory, B’nai Torah squeezed by Congregation Dor Tamid 7-6 and will now face No. 2 seed Congregation Or VeShalom on Sunday, Aug. 16, in the A semifinals. In the B and C divisions, both No. 1 seeds have moved on to the finals. Congregation Ariel, the regular-season B champion, defeated Young Israel of Toco Hills 11-4 in the semifinals and will play Temple Emanu-El, Congregation Gesher L’Torah or Young Israel for the B title Aug. 23. Regular-season C champion Temple Kol Emeth reached the finals with a 2111 win over Congregation Or Hadash. Kol Emeth will play Temple Beth Tikvah 2, Temple Sinai 2 or Or Hadash for the title Aug. 23. ■
AJT 25
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BUSINESS
Halpern Keeps Swimming With the Big Fishes By Michael Jacobs mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com
I
t’s hard enough to build one company from scratch to a buyout. Howard Halpern, backed by wife Lynne and son Kirk, has done it twice with essentially the same business: a specialty meat distribution company that provides the protein at the center of your plate when you dine out. Halpern, who came to Atlanta from Miami in 1966 to distribute produce to Burger King, started Buckhead Beef in 1983 with five butchers and his wife, “who has always been my support system,” after four years of operating Halperns’ The Gourmet Grocer in the first mall food court at Lenox Square. In an interview from his home at the St. Regis in Buckhead, Halpern explained that he had switched from produce to meat more than a decade earlier because he could sell a 60-pound box of tenderloins for $120 instead of bags and boxes of lettuce, tomatoes and onions for $3 to $4.50 each with a gross margin of 25 cents per bag or box. Buckhead Beef rode the expansion of steakhouses nationwide to
rapid growth until Sysco So he and his family bought the company in started over again in 2005 1999. Halpern stayed on with Halperns’ Steak & as the CEO of the foodserSeafood. “I just felt that a vice company’s East Coast family-run, center-of-themeat operations and overplate protein business that saw expansion through brought efficiencies, techthe purchase of 11 other nology, and good old-fashspecialty meat operations ioned care and concern in five years. for the products — that When he left Sysco, there was a big void.” Howard Halpern the meat operations had But because he learns grown from $850 million from his mistakes — “I in annual sales to $5.2 billion. made all the mistakes anybody would But Halpern said there was a make and then probably more” — and downside to the consolidation that always tries to innovate, Halperns’ Sysco and such rivals as US Foods and Steak & Seafood wasn’t simply a copy Performance Food Group carried out. of Buckhead Beef. Dozens of high-quality, familyThe name reflects the obvious difowned operations similar to Buckhead ference: the larger role of seafood, oneBeef were bought out. Halpern said third of Halperns’ business. half were no longer profitable within Consumer tastes have changed the five years, and all of the founders left. past 30 years, and Halperns’ applies He said Sysco, in which he still improvements in technology and proholds stock, and its broad-line rivals cesses to meet the increased demand. are good companies with a flawed apOn the technology side are special proach. “Their philosophy was to bring plastic bags that allow oxygen in witheverything under one roof, and I am out letting liquid out, as well as the use convinced that the specialty compa- of ozonated water that doubles freshnies have to remain separate.” ness by killing all bacteria. On the process side, Halpern decided to handle fish with the federal safety ALL Major for meat. The company also appliances standards takes traceability and sustainability se& brands riously, contracting with specific boats and bar-coding every container of fish washer, dryers and some individual fish. & refrigerators If a restaurant calls to check on the source of a fish, Halperns’ can proovens, stoves vide the answer within five minutes. “All that creates a great comfort & dishwashers level for the customer and the consumsaid. Garbage er,” Halpern A different business plan helped disposals the company grow in a decade to four times the size of Buckhead Beef when 30 Years Sysco bought it. Halperns’ bought East
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Coast purveyors run by their founders or their founders’ children with an emphasis on quality, integrity, and treatment of employees and customers. Halpern told them upfront that the goal was to sell the company at some point and that they would benefit when that time came, which it did Jan. 7 when Gordon Food Service purchased Halperns’ Steak & Seafood. Unlike Sysco, Gordon is a fourthgeneration, family-owned company that is not public and never will be, Halpern said, so the companies will grow as they were built. Gordon supports operating Halperns’ separately to maintain its brand and is putting two Gordon facilities in Michigan and Kentucky under that brand as of Nov. 1. “They are not driven by the next quarterly result,” Halpern said. Florida is an example of how the companies mesh, he said. Gordon has $1 billion a year in sales there but only $3.5 million in steaks, while Halperns’ sells $100 million in steaks. Halperns’ has 17 target markets. Gordon will provide a start in some, and Halperns’ is easing Gordon’s entry into others, including Atlanta. They’re launching together in Texas. The Gordons are devoted Christians, but Halpern said their faiths are compatible. “It’s the same kind of people; they just go to a different church.” That compatibility comes through in the treatment of employees. Halpern said none of his 600-plus employees have left since the sale, which made about a dozen of them millionaires, giving him a lot of naches (satisfaction). Halpern himself has committed to two years as CEO and five as chairman because he is having fun. “The business success that I’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have is directly tied to the passion I have for the industry.” ■
BUSINESS
Your Retirement Lifestyle
Lifestyle Expenses It is helpful to categorize the expenses you will face. For starters, there are essential expenses, the basic costs of living. These include food, shelter, utilities, medical care and similar costs associated with day-to-day living. Lifestyle expenses can vary based on your priorities. They may include travel, hobbies, recreational activities, ownership and maintenance of a second home, and investment in your own business venture. Costs for these types of expenses can vary widely, depending on the types and specific nature of the activities you wish to pursue. For example, traveling the world could require a significantly greater investment than visiting parts of the United States or spending time at your vacation home. Another nuance to lifestyle expenses is that they may fluctuate from year to year. Some retirees choose to pursue an active lifestyle in the first years, and their expenses may be higher as a result. Lifestyle expenses
decline as they grow older and are less able to pursue certain activities. It’s important to consider how your retirement lifestyle will change over time. Good Planning Most people who are able to achieve their ideal retirement don’t do so by accident. They plan and develop a savings and investment strategy. No
Sushi ■ Grill eat in - take out Teriyaki Noodle Soup
Guest Column By Allen Shpigel www.ameripriseadvisors.com/ allen.a.shpigel
matter your age, here are three important steps you should consider: • Map out your dreams for retirement. Try to identify specific goals and activities that you want to pursue. • Estimate the monthly or annual costs of your ideal retirement lifestyle. Try to leave some cushion in case actual costs exceed your expectations. Keep in mind that even with modest inflation, it will likely cost more down the road than it does today. • Develop a plan to fund those goals, including a dedicated savings strategy that increases every year for inflation. Consider tempering the risk in your portfolio as retirement nears. You can dream about retirement again. The sooner you become proactive in planning, the more likely you are to make those dreams a reality. ■ Allen Shpigel is a financial adviser and chartered retirement planning counselor with Shpigel Financial Group, a financial advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. He specializes in fee-based financial planning and asset management strategies.
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AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
I
t’s a question many pre-retirees ask: How much money will I need to keep my current lifestyle in retirement? Will I have enough to live the retirement of my dreams? A few years ago, as we struggled with the country’s financial crisis, achieving an ideal retirement seemed to take a back seat to ensuring that retirement essentials were handled. Today, people again envision a fulfilling retirement. At the very least, most people want to keep the lifestyle they have become accustomed to. Given that people also will likely have more free time after they set work aside, retirement can mean much more.
AJT 27
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TRAVEL
Suncoast Culture
Arts and beaches lead to relaxation
S
ince I have lived in and enjoyed the Sarasota area for 16 years, I felt it was time to write about my adopted hometown, a great place to live and a wonderful place to visit. Located on the Gulf of Mexico an hour’s drive from Tampa and less than four hours from Miami, the area is justly proud of its extensive arts and culture resources. Its pristine, award-winning (and free!) beaches and beautiful waterfront vistas draw vacationers back again and again. Throw in impressive culinary resources and a growing shopping and international sports presence — the IMG Academy and the Benderson Park Rowing Facility — and you have a winner. The cities and suburbs of Sarasota and Bradenton form a metropolitan area of about 750,000 people with an enviable quality of life, frequently referred to as the Suncoast.
Before You Go • Read one of the Lew Fonseca novels by Stuart Kaminsky. • Check out www.VisitSarasota. org and www.mymanatee.org/home/ visitors.html.
Simply Smart Travel By Jeffrey R. Orenstein jorenstein@SimplySmartTravel.com Photo by Jeffrey R. Orenstein
Sarasota’s Bayfront Park is a popular place to walk, dine and enjoy the water.
Getting There Sarasota is accessible by plane, train, ship or car: • Sarasota International is 11 miles from Sarasota and eight miles from Bradenton. Tampa International is 44 miles away via interstate 75/275. • The nearest cruise port is Tampa. • Going by train is possible from Atlanta. The closest station is Tampa,
and a charter bus connects you to downtown Bradenton and Sarasota. • I-75 runs through the region. When You Are There A car is a must. Free parking is available in most places. If You Have Two or Three Days Must-sees: • The Ringling Museum (art, circus and the gorgeous Ringling mansion). • The bayfront along U.S. 41 and the bridge to St. Armands Circle (shopping, eating). • University Town Center and Lakewood Ranch (upscale mall, restaurants, competitive rowing facility). • Siesta Key’s public beach. • Lunch or dinner at Michael’s On East, Marina Jack or the Beach Bistro. • Downtown Bradenton with the South Florida Museum, Old Main Street and the Riverwalk. • A cruise on LeBarge or the Marina Jack from the Sarasota bayfront.
If You Have More Time Fun additions: • A circular drive from downtown Sarasota to St. Armands, north on the barrier islands (Longboat Key, Anna Maria), west on S.R. 64 to Bradenton, and south on U.S. 41 back to Sarasota. • Deep-sea fishing. • Mote Marine (aquarium and science center). • Selby Gardens, a breathtaking collection of tropical plants in a gorgeous, bayfront setting. • A walk through the Amish/Mennonite Pinecraft neighborhood. • More waterfront dining (Beach House, Mar Vista, Old Salty Dog, Pier 22, Riverhouse Reef & Grill, Seafood Shack and Sharky’s on the Pier in Venice, to name a few). ■ Jeffrey R. Orenstein is a syndicated travel writer. He and his wife, Virginia, enjoy simply smart travel. Check out their travel ideas, articles and blog at www.SimplySmartTravel.com.
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
Jewish Sarasota and Bradenton
AJT 28
The first Jewish settlers arrived right before World War I. Until the population boom of the 1950s, the Jewish population remained small. There were few communitywide Jewish organizations and only two synagogues in Sarasota and Manatee counties. (Manatee County is adjacent to Sarasota and is anchored by Bradenton.) The United Jewish Appeal annual campaign grew with the population in the second half of the 20th century and was the catalyst for today’s significant Jewish presence, anchored by the Sarasota-Manatee Jewish Federation. Thirteen large and small Jewish congregations on the Suncoast range from liberal to ultra-orthodox. The Jewish Family and Children’s Service and the Sarasota-Manatee Jewish Housing Council (with assisted living facilities) are important institutions. An in-depth history can be found in Kimberly Sheintal’s book “Jews of Sarasota-Manatee” (Arcadia Publishing, 2013). She traces Jewish life from the explorers of the 1840s through Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin’s brief exile to the prominent Jews of today’s Sarasota cultural and commercial landscape. Today, the Jewish population is generally affluent. Kosher food is available, and Jews are integrated into the fabric of the community.
OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
Charlie Alhadeff 94, Atlanta
Charlie Alhadeff, 94, a native Atlantan, passed away peacefully Saturday night, Aug. 8, 2015, after a brief illness. One of six children, he was born April 4, 1921, to Estreya and Solomon Alhadeff, both of blessed memory. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Upon his return to Atlanta, he married Minnie Wolfe, of blessed memory, and had one son, Jack, of blessed memory. Charlie was also preceded in death by his brothers, Jake and Morris, and a sister, Alice. He is survived by his brother Abraham (Ruth); sister Julia; grandson Daniel; daughter-in-law Joyce; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. Charlie was a devoted, lifelong member of Congregation Or VeShalom. His hobbies included playing cards and golf until he was unable to do so. He lived his later years in the Zaban Tower and had many friends there. His charming smile and his generous personality will be missed by all. Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. Graveside services were held Monday, Aug. 10, at Greenwood Cemetery with Rabbi Hayyim Kassorla officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Congregation Or VeShalom, the Atlanta Community Food Bank or Hospice Atlanta. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.
Robert Alan Moss 63, Atlanta
Robert Alan Moss, 63, died Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015, in the company of close family and friends. Funeral services were held at H.M. Patterson & Son Arlington Chapel in Sandy Springs on Friday, Aug. 7. Interment followed at Arlington Memorial Park. Born in New York City on June 27, 1952, to the late Evelyn and Murray Moss, Robert graduated with a B.A. with honors from Michigan State University in 1974 and with a juris doctor with honors from the Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago Kent College of Law in 1978. After moving to Atlanta, Robert pursued a career in family law, working for Decker, Cooper & Hall until starting his own firm, Moss & Rothenberg. In 2013, Robert was voted one of the top lawyers in Georgia. His high ethical standards, dedication, and compassion for his work and his clients made him a truly special person to all of those he worked with. Robert also had a passion for the outdoors and for flying, taking pilot lessons later in life and even purchasing a Cessna plane to share with family and friends. Robert is survived by his two children, Rachel and Jacob Moss; brother and sister-in-law Joel and Karen Moss; sister and brother-in-law Judy and Jeff Steinberg; nephews Jared and Matthew Steinberg; and niece Marissa Moss.
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Cobb. She was a nominee for the Atlanta Woman of the Year. She received the Distinguished Service Award for Holocaust Education from the Anne Frank Center USA, as well as the Chapel of the Four Chaplains Legion of Honor Award from its foundation in Philadelphia and the Anti-Defamation League Unsung Hero Award in Cobb County. Sylvia was preceded in death by her parents, Hermann and Rae Wygoda, and grandparents, Sam and Ester Raider and Maier and Channa Wygoda. Survivors include sister Lois (Michael) Klezmer of Santa Fe, N.M.; brother Mark (Linda) Wygoda of Lake Charles, La.; nieces Deborah (Ann Reuland) Klezmer and Jennifer (Kevin) Israel; and nephew Daniel Wygoda. Funeral services were held at B’nai Zion Congregation, 114 McBrien Road, Chattanooga, on Friday, Aug. 7. Burial followed at Mizpah Congregation Cemetery, 866 E. Third St. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Development Office, Anne Frank Center USA, 44 Park Place, New York, NY 10007. Arrangements by Hamilton Funeral Home, 423-531-3975.
Death Notices
Bobbelise Ceigler, 75, of Johns Creek, wife of Mike Ceigler and mother of Rose Ceigler and Julie Ceigler, on July 31. Sylvia Glantz, 93, mother of Temple Sinai member Doug Romanoff, Susan Baum and Rick Romanoff, on Aug. 2. Morton Harris, husband of Judye Harris and father of Temple Sinai member Wendy Greenberg, Alvin Harris, Tracy Lips and Beth Harris, on Aug. 3. Terri Morgan Morrell, 77, of Maitland, Fla., wife of Henry Morrell and mother of Temple Sinai member Ann Olevitch, Scott Morrell and Lisa Morrell, on Aug. 5. Barry Polner of Atlanta, father of Scott Polner and Jayson Polner, on Aug. 3. Blanche Rosenfeld, mother of Congregation Beth Shalom member Joseph Rosenfeld, on Aug. 1. Rica Sabetai of Atlanta, a Holocaust survivor and the mother of Donna Krombach and Devorah Yaffe, on Aug. 3.
Sylvia Ann Wygoda Sylvia Ann Wygoda, 67, of Soddy Daisy, Tenn., passed away Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015, at her home after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Sylvia was a member of B’nai Zion and Mizpah congregations in Chattanooga. She was the director of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Legion of Honor Award Program, creator of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Memorial Peace Gardens Project, and on the board of trustees of the National Medal of Honor Museum of Military History in Chattanooga. She was the founding executive director of the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, the director of the “Anne Frank in the World” exhibit, and the director of the Thomas B. Murphy Holocaust Teacher Training and Resource Center in Atlanta. Sylvia was the executive producer and director of the award-winning video “Prejudice and Hate: Georgians and the Holocaust.” She received the Distinguished Community Service Award from Chabad of
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67, Soddy Daisy
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CLOSING THOUGHTS OBITUARIES – MAY THEIR MEMORIES BE A BLESSING
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Elul Means The Universe CROSSWORD “Technicolor Dreams Is New Again Editor: DavidBenkof@gmail.com Difficulty Level: Manageable
R
AUGUST 14 ▪ 2015
osh Chodesh Elul begins at sundown Friday, Aug. 14. During Elul we’re gifted with the opportunity to turn away from actions that don’t serve and toward connection with our deeper selves, HaShem and our community. We take stock, cleanse our spirits and realign with our highest purpose. The holidays are the blank pages in the new notebook offering a fresh start. We choose how to fill those pages to repair what is broken. The Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation) offers a perspective that helps us find our way through the maze. Elul’s Hebrew letter is yud, Zodiac sign is Virgo, tribe is Gad, sense is action, and controlling limb is the left hand. Yud is the smallest letter of the Aleph Bet. It’s unpretentious, unadorned and humbled, as are we in the presence of HaShem. At this time of year, HaShem is said to be the most accessible to all, “sitting in the field,” ready to hear and receive each of us as we wrestle with our wretched and then transformed truths, making peace and amends with ourselves, G-d and others. Virgo is the sign of the virgin, one who is untouched. This is the state to which we wish to return. We cleanse and purify our spirits through teshuvah as we turn away from thoughts and behaviors that have caused us to miss the mark the past year and set our intention to move toward a re-envisioned picture of ourselves. We become as pure as virgins or newborn babies. Those born under this sign are observant, analytical, precise, helpful and reliable. They’re straight thinkers and problem-solvers who can find the needle in the haystack. Out of balance, they can be inflexible and picky and appear cold and indifferent. As at Passover, when we sought out crumbs with a candle and feather, during Elul we need this level of scrutiny to search our souls. We can’t be emotionless, however, as we beat our chests during the public recitation of the sins we have committed knowingly and unknowingly. We must experience our feelings, or we are not fully plugged into life. The tribe is Gad (luck or good 30 fortune). Gad was Jacob’s seventh
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son, thought to be an intuitive healer, born to Zilpah, Leah’s handmaiden. This tribe was granted the only land handed out by Moses just before his death and before the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Gad settled on the eastern side and became one of the lost tribes.
New Moon Meditations Dr. Terry Segal tsegal@atljewishtimes.com
Action is the sense of Elul. As we tend to the repair and redirection of our souls, we also focus on the tools that support our actions to ensure they’re in working order. Mezuzot should be properly affixed to our doors and tefillin intact. Rituals help us answer the call to action. We hear the piercing sound of the shofar to rouse us from complacency. We speak of G-d’s light, our salvation and enlightenment, with the daily addition of the 27th chapter of Psalms before morning and afternoon prayers. During the last 12 days of Elul, we reflect and make peace with the months of the year. Each day we select a different month for contemplation. The left hand is the controlling limb. In energetic circuitry, the future, or approaching energy, is received through the left arm. The right arm is concerned with the past and energy leaving the body. The chakra in the elbow of the left arm must be clear so creative energy can flow unrestricted. The intentions set for the future merge with creativity that passes from the hand, through the elbow, and up the arm to connect to the heart. This is how change occurs. Meditation Focus “On your mark, get set, go!” Where is your mark? Are you standing securely on it? How can you align yourself with divine essence? What has taken you off your mark in the past year? What actions can you put in place to arrive at your destination in case those same behavioral patterns, temptations and outside forces present themselves to thwart you? What will you do differently this year to bring HaShem’s light to the world? May each of us be written and inscribed for a good and sweet year. ■
ACROSS 1 Sababa, e.g. 6 “The Patriot” is a Starof-David-shaped flying one of these 10 Give a forshpeis to 14 “Blazing Saddles” prop 15 One place to find Mayim Bialik 16 Zach Braff’s Jewishthemed film “Wish I Was ___” 17 Loosened, as with immigration laws 18 Many Jews wonder if the Torah is this 19 Age of the Divided Kingdom 20 Novel set in Genesis with a woman’s point of view 22 Brouhaha 23 Last name of the authors of the “Curious George” series of books 24 Hebrew school of yesteryear 26 Temple sacrifice 30 Woody Allen type 32 Haman quality 33 Nazi Exploitation film “___, She Wolf of the SS” 35 Tragic woman of Genesis 39 Org. that has tried to bring down kosher slaughterhouses 40 Feivel of “An American Tail” is a cartoon one 42 New York university where Joan Roland researches the Jews of India 43 Sport for Jesse Owens at the “Nazi Olympics” 45 Second Temple Period and others 46 ___ the Scribe 47 Cartoonist Jack who cocreated Captain America 49 She played a Jewish mother in “Prime” 51 ___ ibn Shaprut 54 Wissotsky product 55 One of Julie Taymor’s two awards for less prominent New York productions 56 Former right-fielder for the Mets 63 Strip of note 64 Nasty slur 65 Judy Garland’s daughter with Sidney Luft 66 Help a gonif, e.g.
67 Falco who played Feiga in “A Price Above Rubies” 68 “Hakn a tshaynik” (knock a teakettle, or rattle loudly with no meaning) 69 “Beautiful Mind” subject accused of anti-Semitism 70 It could make a pair of tefillin unkosher 71 Mood in the Middle East, virtually always DOWN 1 Mark that a Jewish Journal editor might use 2 Mother of Reuben and Simeon 3 Where some Christians daven 4 “Let me ___ forget Those days of degradation”: Emma Lazarus 5 It’s only an hour’s drive from Hadera, which can be confusing 6 Meshugene 7 Dictator’s opening 8 Not a kosher way to kill a cow 9 Complain 10 1939 document about partitioning Palestine 11 Ancient figure known for his “edifice complex” 12 Give Israelis more work to do in the Negev 13 Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt was one 21 Levi’s material 25 One of Fran and Barry Weissler’s Broadway shows, perhaps 26 Refrained from putting in the pushke 27 “World ___” (children’s magazine published by the New York Board of Jewish Education) 28 Actress Wilson who recently played Larry David’s wife on Broadway 29 Blame for this 1300s disease led to Jewish persecution 30 Shylock was
known for it 31 Gregory Chamitoff was its most recent Jewish astronaut: Abbr. 34 Leopold’s partner-incrime 36 Scary location in Kubrick’s “The Shining” 37 It’s sometimes spelled Akko 38 Something one might do around Sukkot time in agricultural areas 41 To nosh, more formally 44 On Israel’s Yom HaZikaron, the nation mourns its soldiers in this category: Abbr. 48 Tried to make peace in the Middle East, pretty much by definition 50 Alternate name for Birthright 51 Character whose show starred Werner Klemperer and Robert Clary 52 Addis ___ (birthplace of many 1980s immigrants to Israel) 53 Tallises come in several 54 @yidwithlid does it several times a day 57 Imitate Anne Frank 58 In the same mishpocha 59 Enjoyed a chariot 60 Moran who starred with Winkler on “Happy Days” 61 Adam’s oldest grandson 62 33-Across or 61-Down LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION
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