Stamping out antisemitism
March 27 (27 Adar 5785)
It was another headspinning news week in the Jewish community.
✡️ “No Other Land” director Hamdan Ballal and two other Palestinians were allegedly detained and beaten by the IDF early this week. The Academy Award-winning documentary is described as a depiction of “the destruction of the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli authorities and the unlikely friendship that blossoms between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham.”
😅 Oopsie at the White House! This week The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was included in a text exchange (subscription required) between Republican leaders about an attack on Yemen. This video of US Rep. Jared Moskowitz is gold.
🇮🇱 Lastly, fighting has returned, and people are protesting in Gaza to end the war.
Thanks for reading.
Y’alla, Logan
🎉 Your child can experience Jewish connection all school year long at Jewish Kids Groups! 2025-2026 registration is open for JKG’s Weekday Afternoon Community (K-5th grade, 4 locations, Transportation from school), B Mitzvah (6th-8th grade), and Teen Leadership Academy (8th-10th grade). Learn more. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Taking on hate crimes
📢 Sandy Springs City Attorney Dan Lee this week followed in Brookhaven’s footsteps, presenting three ordinances proposed by the ADL intended to combat hate crimes.
The ordinances don’t infringe on the content of anybody’s speech, Lee said. “It just declares where it can be carried on, how the police can control it, and it gives some direction to the public about distances and the manners that are allowed to be carried on in what would hopefully be a lawful protest.
👉🏼 Read Bob Pepalis’s article here.
RELATED
🗳️ Local attorney Andrew Chinsky announced his candidacy for Sandy Springs City Council District 6.
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!
Anne Applebaum in ATL
📚 Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist Anne Applebaum will be in conversation with Greg Bluestein, political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on Thursday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the MJCCA.
Applebaum’s latest book, “Autocracy, Inc.,” offers an urgent examination of the rise of global autocracy. She will discuss how modern autocracies operate, collaborate, and threaten democracy worldwide. The author specializes in geopolitics and authoritarianism. A staff writer at The Atlantic, Applebaum is the author of “Gulag: A History” and “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine.”
Prior to the event, a VIP hors d’oeuvres and cocktail reception with Applebaum will take place at 6 p.m., offering guests an exclusive opportunity to meet the author.
Books will be available for purchase from A Cappella Books, and a book signing will follow the event.
Yom HaShoah
🎗️ B’nai B’rith International (Atlanta) and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta will read aloud the names of Holocaust victims on Yom HaShoah, Thursday, April 24 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Selig Center in Midtown and virtually on Zoom.
This year, “Unto Every Person There is a Name” is marking the 36th anniversary of a global Shoah Memorial Initiative.
Participants will read the names of Holocaust victims, along with their own loved ones’ names, where they were murdered, and their age at the time of death. To participate as a reader, complete this form.
The “Unto Every Person There is a Name” ceremony provides the opportunity to remember the six million Jews, among them 1.5 million children. The commemoration honors the memory of the victims, grapples with the enormity of the murder, and combats Holocaust denial and distortion.
200,000 tourists visit Nova site each month
💝 The Nova music festival, where more than 350 people were murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, has quickly become one of the most visited tourist destinations in Israel.
More than 200,000 people per month visited the site, at Kibbutz Reim near the Gaza border, on average over the last six months, according to Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund. If sustained, that pace would put Nova on track to draw more visitors than the Dead Sea or Tel Aviv’s Anu Museum, which focuses on the Jewish diaspora, each year.
➡ Read the full story on the Forward.
🍷 JF&CS presents The Tasting Experience. An evening of wine and spirits, delicious food from your ATL favorites, and a chance to make an impact in our community. Join us May 1st at The Stave Room. Get tickets here!
SPONSOR MESSAGE
Look & Listen
🎁 Need a hostess gift? Look at these Passover-themed marzipan lollipops.
🕊️ Blue Dove has a mental health Passover seder companion.
What’s doin’ around town
SPONSORED BY CONGREGATION OR HADASH
🗣️ March 27: Amanda Knox speaks about her new book. To register.
🥘 March 29: Havdalah potluck in Candler Park. RSVP.
🎬 March 30: “Tragic Awakening” viewing and Q&A with Rawan Osman. Get tickets here.
⚕️March 31: JScreen hosts Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider.
🧑🧑🧒 April 9: You + 2 with young leaders from Sharaka. Register.
✡️ The next Jewish holiday is Passover. It begins at sundown on Saturday, April 12.
🕯️ Light Shabbat candles this week at 7:32 p.m.
🗓️ 🔹Jewish Grandparenting in Jewish+ Families🔹How can we share Jewish identity while honoring diverse traditions? Join Or Hadash, JInterfaith, and the Jewish Grandparents Network for a meaningful discussion with Ruth Nemzoff on grandparenting, family dynamics, and connection. Learn more.
A thousand tins of tuna
🐠 Congregation Shearith Israel’s tuna collection is officially complete. Members helped to collect 1,800 cans to support Intown Cares.