Mental health check
Feb. 27 (29 Shevat 5785)
Checking in, fam. How’s everyone dealing with this news cycle?
💖 Jewish Atlanta is fortunate to have mental health resources at the ready. BeWellATL supports youth mental health, HAMSA provides help with substance abuse, PJ Library connects parents of young children, and One Good Deed keeps seniors engaged. There’s so much more.
🫶🏼 As Purim approaches, the Blue Dove Foundation is offering mental health mishloach manot – resources like articles, videos, coupons, and personal stories – to demonstrate the season of connectivity through play. Remember to take off your Purim mask to check on your neighbors.
HOSTAGE UPDATE
🧡 Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas were buried in a single casket during a private funeral yesterday. The Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, and many other landmarks around the world were lit in orange to honor the mother and two young boys murdered by Hamas.
🎗️ Terrorists released the bodies of four hostages killed in Gaza earlier. They represent the final group scheduled for release as part of the first phase of the ceasefire.
Y’alla,
Logan
Raising good humans
🫶🏼 Developmental psychologist Dr. Aliza Pressman is speaking at The Davis Academy on Tuesday, March 4 from 7 to 8 p.m.
Pressman is a New York Times bestselling author of “The 5 Principles of Parenting” and host of the widely acclaimed podcast “Raising Good Humans.” She believes that the better caregivers are able to handle stress, loneliness, and disappointment, the better children will be able to handle these same struggles.
Pressman gives parents permission to be imperfect. In “The 5 Principles of Parenting,” she highlights the importance of making mistakes and repairing them to strengthen the parent-child relationship as opportunities for growth.
➡ The event is open to parents of preschoolers to teenagers. Registration is required.
Embark on a prehistoric adventure!
SPONSORED BY THE FERNBANK MUSEUM
🦖 Journey through time at Fernbank Museum to discover what made dinosaurs that once roamed the Southern Hemisphere unique from their better-known relatives in North America. With stunning skeletal displays and augmented reality, the new exhibit Ultimate Dinosaurs reveals how the breakup of Pangaea shaped the evolution of dinosaurs. See life-sized casts, fossils, and hands-on specimens like Eoraptor and Giganotosaurus.
➡ Visit the Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit daily during regular hours, plus select after-hours events until May 4. Plan your visit today and step into the prehistoric world!
Words to Action summit
✡️ The ADL is offering a free, daylong summit that will equip middle and high school students with tools to embrace their Jewish identity, combat antisemitism, and foster leadership skills. Parents in attendance will gain insights into advocacy and ways to support their children in navigating both Jewish and non-Jewish spaces.
Teens can expect to hear from Hillels of Georgia, choose their own themed workshops, take breaks, eat snacks (of course), and make action plans. The summit takes place on Sunday, March 16 at Ahavath Achim Synagogue from 1 to 6 p.m.
📍 Sign up here.
‘Fiddler on the Roof Jr.’ at Habima Theatre
🎻 When Broadway fans hear “Sunrise, Sunset,” it sends them straight to the little village of Anatevka, where a poor milkman, Tevye, and his five daughters face growing antisemitism in Russia.
Audiences can hear the wedding song — and other classics like “Tradition,” “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “Matchmaker” — when “Fiddler on the Roof Jr.” is performed at Jerry’s Habima Theatre from March 6-16.
Productions sell out year after year for Georgia’s only professional theater company featuring actors with disabilities.
Free events with AJFF
Don’t miss these free events at the 25th Atlanta Jewish Film Festival:
🎷 Sunday, March 2: “Klezmer to Contemporary” explores Jewish music and culture from soulful klezmer to modern icons like Diane Warren, Janis Ian, and Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Led by acclaimed Yiddish musician and African-American Jewish convert Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell.
🍿 Thursday, March 6: “AJFF at 25: A Celebration of Community” is being held at Tara Theatre. Reflect on the festival’s incredible journey, with stories from leaders past and present, and get ready for the future. It’s AJFF’s last in-person event before diving into streaming options.
🎞️ Sunday, March 9: “Cinema in the Face of Conflict” examines how Oct. 7, 2023 reshaped Israeli cinema, igniting powerful storytelling amidst resilience, global backlash, and the realities of war.
🖼️ Wednesday, March 12: “Stolen Masterpieces: The Lasting Toll of Nazi Plunder” reviews the history and enduring impact of Nazi art theft, revealing its cultural and legal relevance in today’s world.
Community event for women
✊🏼 Author, speaker, activist, and social media influencer Samantha Ettus is coming to Atlanta on Wednesday, March 26. Ettus has become a powerful voice in the fight against rising antisemitism since Oct. 7.
The Young Leadership event celebrates women’s empowerment, women’s philanthropy, and the work done by Atlanta Jewish women to uplift Jewish people here and worldwide.
‼️ Space is limited.
Vroom, vroom
🏎️ On Sunday, March 2, tune in to the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on FOX or the INDYCAR website at 12 p.m. to watch race car driver Israeli Robert Shwartzman.
Schwartzman is the first Israeli driver in INDYCAR history, and if he qualifies for the Indy 500, he will also be the first Jewish driver to compete in one of the world’s most prestigious races since Mauri Rose won Indy for the third time in 1948.
Born in Tel Aviv, Schwartzman moved to St. Petersberg, Russia at age 4 where his father started him in kart racing. At the age of six, he moved to Italy to pursue his karting career, leading to joining the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2017.
Trump posts AI video showing ‘Trump Gaza’ as a beachside paradise
⁉️ As JTA reports, is Donald Trump backing away from his vision to transform Gaza into a beachside resort? Not according to a video the president posted late Tuesday to his Truth Social account that renders the Palestinian enclave as “Trump Gaza.”
The AI-generated video opens with an image of destruction, dated 2025, then asks the question “What’s next?”
The answer: a thriving beach community, complete with (bearded) belly dancers, Elon Musk eating hummus, happy children and golden statues and balloons of a heroic Trump.
The video shows Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, lounging poolside, shirtless.
👉🏼 Read the full story on the Forward.
RELATED
😡 JStreet issued a statement expressing “disgust at the notion of forcibly displacing millions of war-weary Palestinians with the backing of the United States of America.”
Be a Mensch
🚙 Purim delivery: One Good Deed needs volunteers to deliver mishloach manot bags to older adults in celebration of Purim. Volunteers can pick up and deliver the bags on Tuesday, March 11 or Wednesday, March 12 at JF&CS in Dunwoody. Sign up here.
🎨 The artist collective: This program brings the love of arts to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in JF&CS’ Community Access Group at IndependenceWORKS. Volunteers work alongside clients as they create works of art. New dates have been added on Tuesdays to prepare for The Tasting, a fundraiser to support JF&CS’ Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Services. Register here.
What’s doin’ around town
SPONSORED BY CONGREGATION OR HADASH
🕯️ Feb. 28: Inclusive Shabbat with JDAIM. RSVP required.
🥳 March 2: Hamantaschen Hustle at Piedmont Park.
🧑🏻 March 6: The Atlanta Jewish Foundation honors matriarchs.
📚 March 9: Journalist Dave Schechter on his new book, “A Life of the Party.”
✡️ The next Jewish holiday is Purim on Thursday, March 13.
🕯️ Light Shabbat candles this week at 6:15 p.m.
🗓️ Join us tomorrow evening for Shabbat for All! Celebrate Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance & Inclusion Month with JAccess, PJ Library at Or Hadash. Enjoy hands-on activities, ASL storytelling, and a joyous musical Shabbat. Click for details and RSVP! #JDAIM #ExperienceOrHadash
We remember
🎗️ Rose Girone died this week at 113 years old. She was the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor.
