THE
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OBSERVER www.jewishobservernashville.org
Vol. 90 No. 1
JANUARY 2025 1 Tevet - 2 Sh’vat 5785
Faith in Action: The Red Tent Fund and the Fight for Reproductive Justice pening in the first place.” Korman founded the ore than half of women Red Tent Fund following the of reproductive age terrorist attacks of October enrolled in Medicaid or 7th. At the time she was CHIP live in states that ban working for the DC Abortion assistance coverage for aborFund and found herself the tion, with very rare exceptarget of what she says is tions. And about half of those antisemitic conduct by staff women are women of color. and board members, someAllison Tombros Korman That is according to the is founder and Executive thing she says is becoming National Council of Jewish Director of The Red Tent widespread throughout other Women. At a recent event Fund abortion fund across the for the local chapter of NCJW, Allison country. “After October 7th, I was the Tombros Korman, founder of The Red only Jewish person on staff, there were no Tent Fund, assisting those who need Jewish board members and my colleagues, care is a fundamental Jewish value. “For and the board members were really insisme, Tikkun Olam needs to be more than tent that the DC Abortion Fund say just repairing a broken world. It needs to something about what was happening in be about being proactive in preventing Gaza.” those things in need of repair from hapHer view that donors were mostly
By BARBARA DAB
M Michelle Biesman to receive the 2024/25 Sandy Averbuch Young Leader Award.
Michelle Biesman Named 2024/25 Sandy Averbuch Young Leader By BARBARA DAB
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ichelle Biesman is what is often referred to in Nashville as a unicorn, that rare native born and raised in the local Jewish community. Her legacy includes her parents and grandparents, as well as her education at Akiva and involvement in BBYO and NCSY chapters. “What my family did was show us what it all meant. I remember at Akiva I started to realize that feeling of being part of something larger than yourself,” she says, “I yearned for that when I went to Harpeth Hall which is a secular environment.” And by the time she joined BBYO she was “all in,” with stints on the board, the regional board, and the summer programs. Michelle left Nashville to attend the University of Chicago where she became active in the Hillel chapter. She held many roles and is currently a member of the Executive Board. Following college, she moved to Minnesota and a Jewish community that was not as welcoming as she would have liked. “It was not very transplant friendly and that really shifted my mentality. Even though I am a Nashville native, how can I make this a welcoming place for everyone.” Inspiration comes from her grandmother, Irma Kaplan, the first woman president of the Gordon Jewish Community Center. “The first call I made was to my grandmother.” In later Continued on page 15 A Publication of the
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focused on funding local abortions, rather than advocating for what she says are geopolitical issues, was largely ignored. So she pushed for acknowledgement that as a reproductive justice organization, it was necessary to also recognize the sexual violence carried out on October 7th. The response at that point was swift and dramatic. “Over those few weeks between October 7th and when I resigned in mid-November I was pushed out of the organization by my colleagues. People would not speak to me because I didn’t adhere to their perspective on what was happening in the Middle East.” Korman explains the concept of reproductive justice was developed about 30 years ago by Black woman activists that asserted that justice itself, rather than simply health, means that peoContinued on page 18
Vanderbilt University to Host “We Are Here” on International Holocaust Remembrance Day By BARBARA DAB
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or one night only, Vanderbilt University’s Ingram Hall will be alive with music created in the ghettos of Europe and the Nazi concentration camps. We Are Here: Songs from the Holocaust is being presented on January 27th in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and will feature performances of music once believed to have been lost forever. The concert was conceived and created by Chicago based musician and producer Ira Antelis who was inspired by the late Elie Wiesel to continue giving voice to those lost during the Holocaust. “When I was growing up Elie Wiesel was the fixture of anything related to the Holocaust. And when he died the first question that entered my mind was, ‘Who becomes the voice for all of us to talk about the Holocaust?’” As Antelis read more about Wiesel, he discovered an article that described Wiesel’s love for music and referenced a forward he’d written for a book called We Are Here about the music created in the ghettos and camps. A lifelong composer, musician, and producer who works in a multitude of genres, Antelis was surprised Guardians of Memory: Preserving Jewish Nashville’s Rich History, page 7
to learn of this music. He tracked down the book and began dreaming up ideas for a concert. Antelis connected with a friend, David Mendelson, who is also from Chicago and a Vanderbilt alum. What came next was a collaboration between two good friends to bring the concert to life. Mendelson says the two formed a small organization to engage with Temple Sholom, the largest Reform congregation in Chicago, the Illinois Holocaust Educational Center, and a couple of other Jewish organizations. The concert was scheduled to be performed at Temple Sholom, but the Covid19 pandemic forced its cancellation. Antelis did not give up his dream of eventually producing the music. After about a year and a half when Covid started to die down, Mendelson called Antelis to begin planning again. Antelis says, “I was researching, and I found another article about a group of songbooks called The 14 Shoah Songooks and I thought, ‘Now I know what I want to do. I want to find those songbooks and do a song form each songbook in memory of the writers and tell the story of the songs.’” Mendelson says, “We got everyone Notice of the 89th Annual Meeting Slate of Officers and Board Members, page 28
back together and put the concert on. And we had no idea how many people we were going to get, and we ended up filling 1,000 seats.” And it was a mere two days later when Antelis called Mendelson back with yet another idea. “He says, ‘David, I got two words for you: Carnegie Hall,’” says Mendelson. So, off the two went to plan for a Carnegie Hall concert. The one night only performance sold out with 2500 people. Not long after that momentous concert, Mendelson found himself in Nashville for a speaking engagement, while also visiting Vanderbilt with his daughter. During that visit, Mendelson remembered the early days of Vanderbilt’s Holocaust Lecture Series and thought it would be a good fit. He called Antelis and pitched the idea of doing the concert as part of the series. Eventually Mendelson connected with Darren Reisberg, senior counsellor to the Chancellor at Vanderbilt. Both of them thought the concert would be a natural fit for the Dialogue Vanderbilt program. Reisberg says, “The University is honored to host the tremendously powerful and moving We Are Here Continued on page 15 Simchas & Celebrations Special Section, page 21