Youthful Y’alla
May 1 (3 Iyar 5785)
🇮🇱 Happy Yom Ha’atzmaot! Today is the 77th Israel Independence Day.
📓 This week we’re dedicating Y’alla to the under 25 set – the college students who are bearing down to finish finals and move out of the dorm; high schoolers who are wrapping up monumental sports seasons in time to take AP tests and attend graduation; and middle schoolers on the cusp of high school, itching to see the end of May. All of them ignoring the difficult goodbyes that come with the dawn of summer.
📧 Did we miss something? Please reach out.
Thanks for reading!
Y’alla,
Logan
Young scholars
✡️ Jewish Atlanta Merit Scholarships announced the 2025 winners, recognizing achievement in academics, athletics, arts, and community leadership of students applying to attend Jewish high schools in metro Atlanta. Congrats to the students:
⚬ Aaron Baldwin
⚬ Elijah Cohen
⚬ Nadav Flusberg
⚬ Mathew Frank
⚬ Chloe Isakow
⚬ Sophia Mielnikowski
⚬ Arthur Millstein
⚬ Hayden Printz
⚬ Avery Schwartz
⚬ Ella Siegel
⚬ Eva Wolff
👏🏻 Mazel tov! Read more about JAMS here.
“Three beautiful reasons”: How one woman’s fertility journey sparked a movement
SPONSORED BY JEWISH FERTILITY FOUNDATION
🩵 Before Elisheva Engler became National Program Manager at the Jewish Fertility Foundation, she was simply a woman struggling in silence.
“There was nothing like JFF,” she remembers—no support groups, no roadmap, no one to say I’ve been there, too. Now a mother of three through IVF, Elisheva helped co-found JFF so others wouldn’t have to walk the same lonely path. Now a decade later, JFF has supported over 240 births and hundreds of hopeful parents. For Elisheva, it all comes back to “three beautiful reasons” to keep going.
➡️ Support more families on their journey to parenthood by donating here.
Atlanta goes to the Games
⚽ Summer 2025 is bustling with Jewish athletic competition. Not only will Atlanta-based delegates visit Israel from July 8-22 for the Maccabiah Games – the world’s largest Jewish athletic competition – but the JCC Maccabi Games will be held in Pittsburgh from Aug. 3-8.
Nearly 40 athletes and medical staff members make up the Georgia delegation to Israel, competing basketball, tennis, golf, softball, gymnastics, ice hockey, pickleball, swimming, track and field, soccer, futsal, rugby, and volleyball. While the majority of the athletes are U16 and U18, a dozen adults are competing.
🎯 Best of luck to all of the travelers!
LGBTQ+ support group for parents
🏳️🌈 Join SOJOURN and JTeen for the first meeting of a group for Jewish parents of LGBTQ+ youth on Tuesday, May 6 from 7-8:30 p.m. in Sandy Springs.
SOJOURN is the Southern Jewish resource network for gender and sexual diversity, committed to educational programming, outreach, and advocacy for LGBTQ+ people.
🫶🏽 Guided by mental health professionals, the group will provide resources and engage in discussion on how to best support kids in being true to themselves. Register here.
Emory celebrates Israel
🥳 Israel Fest – hosted by Emory Hillel, Meor Emory, Chabad at Emory, Eagles for Israel and others – was a vibrant celebration on Emory’s campus last month. Despite an active presence of anti-Israel demonstrations, Jewish students rallied to celebrate Israeli culture and share Jewish traditions with friends.
Emory Hillel President Maya Rezak told the Emory Wheel that the annual event creates community.
“I can speak personally as the daughter of an Israeli American, it’s personal for me to share what my family’s culture was growing up,” Rezak said. “It’s really special for me to be able to share it with some of my friends who had never gotten the chance to visit Israel or to really be exposed to Israeli culture.”
➡ Read the Emory Wheel’s article.
RELATED
🐝 Hillel at Georgia Tech is welcoming incoming students with a gift. Sign up here.
SCAD responds to antisemitic invitation
🖊️ It went viral on social media late last week – a party invitation designed by a former student from the account of the Savannah College of Art and Design class of 2028 that blatantly stated “No Jews.” Now, the Jewish community is lauding SCAD’s swift response.
The college claimed the individual dropped out of SCAD last quarter, and has no current access to any SCAD facilities.“SCAD leadership is reaching out to students, faculty, and staff who have been affected by the social media post to offer support and resources,” the college said in a statement.
Immediately, the Savannah Jewish Federation, SCAD, and the Savannah Police Department were working together to take “swift action” according to Federation CEO Sam Friedman.
“We have been in close communication with SCAD and appreciate their swift action in investigating this terrible post. I am relieved to say the individual who posted the invitation is not a current SCAD student and the party in question did not take place,” Friedman said.
Rose Schaffer, the advisor at Georgia Southern and SCAD Hillel, told Rough Draft they were “disheartened to learn about the recent antisemitic social media postings surrounding the SCAD Savannah campus. We have and will continue to work closely with SCAD administration to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our Jewish students.”
👓 Read more on WABE.
🗣️ Join renowned educator Brendan Murphy on Sun., May 4, at 3:00 p.m. at The Breman Museum for a powerful exploration of antisemitism—past and present—and how we can confront hate in today’s world. Free event – register here! SPONSOR MESSAGE
A Jewish city attorney is going after pro-Palestinian protesters. Her Oct. 7 tweets are making it complicated.
📱 The Los Angeles city attorney is going after protesters from a Jewish left-wing group who shut down a freeway on Hanukkah over the Israel-Hamas war — but her tweets from Oct. 7, 2023, are getting in the way.
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is pursuing misdemeanor charges against 31 members of IfNotNow, who were arrested in December 2023 after they walked onto the 110 freeway in Downtown L.A. and sat down, grinding rush-hour traffic to a halt.
But a judge has taken up the protesters’ argument that Feldstein Soto’s social media activity — and her tendency not to prosecute in similar situations — betray anti-Palestinian bias.
➡ Read the full story on the Forward.
Be a Mensch
🎨 The artist collective 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. Register here.
Look & Listen
🎧 Listen: Daf Punk podcast is by teens, for teens.
📺 Watch: “Just for Today” about small-time ex-convicts who represent a cross section of Israeli society.
🎭 See: The Breman presents “Chametz-Off,” a staged reading of short plays written over a period of two weeks by eight talented playwrights.
➡ Tell us about Jewish pop culture you’ve been into lately.
What’s doin’ around town
SPONSORED BY CONGREGATION OR HADASH
🧒🏼 May 3: Tot Shabbat in Sandy Springs.
🧘🏼 May 8: Drop-in Jewish mindfulness meditation.
🦆 May 10: Adamah ATL Interfaith Shabbat and bird walk in Decatur.
🏓 May 10: Pickleball demo day at the MJCCA.
📸 May 15: “Humans of the Holocaust” and “Humans of Oct. 7” photo exhibit. Registration required.
✡️ Today is Yom Ha’azmaut, Israel Independence Day.
🕯️ Light Shabbat candles this week at 8:04 p.m.
🗓️ Celebrate Shabbat with joy! Join Rabbi Lauren for Tot Shabbat—an interactive, music-filled experience for families with young children. Free and open to all. Stay after for lunch and connection. Bring a friend and experience the ruach! Learn more.
Sneak peak
🏕️ Ma’alot is hosting its annual Shabbat Campout at Kaluna Farm Retreat, an organic family farm 90 minutes north of downtown Atlanta. Hike, sing by the fire, splash in fresh spring water, eat organic, local food, and more. All ages are welcome. Register here.
