Community-centered art
Thursday, Aug. 20 (7 Elul 5786) — Hi there, This week Y’alla is highlighting new voices, new events, and new ideas with our first reader letter from parent coach Jessica Dickson.
✉️ First, here’s an update on the fraudulent letter being distributed to the Jewish community. It’s been documented in Atlanta and New York.
🕍 The attacker on Central Synagogue, Larry Montes, is in court today. A rally was held yesterday by the Jewish community and allies in Midtown Manhattan.
👴🏼 Are grandparents trending? This High Holiday season, parents are staying back while grandparents take the kids to Jewish events.
👉🏽 Read on for more about Daily Chew’s dining event that mixes Julia Kesler Imerman’s beautiful food with an art exhibition called “Manna.”
Y’alla,
Logan
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‘Manna’ brings art to Daily Chew
☕ Daily Chew is a Jewish-owned cafe located at the back door of Morningside. Tables are now available on Resy, so there’s no excuse to miss this gem.
Daily Chew is launching a community-centered art program on Thursday, Aug. 27, with Artist Harvest Dinner to provide a first-look at “Manna.” Curated by Micaela Elle Art Advisory, “Manna” features original work from Southeast artists Laura Deems, Cameron Wilson Ritcher, Jordan Patterson, Melanee Brown, and Christa Collins.
🎨 The exhibition is inspired by the shared South African Jewish heritage of Daily Chew founder Julia Kesler Imerman and Robinson to explore how food, family, and tradition sustain us.
Daily Chew has long worked directly with local farmers and artisans, and this program extends that same support to independent artists building careers across the Southeast.
“Daily Chew has always been about more than food,” Imerman said. “Bringing art into that space felt like a natural next step — a way to celebrate the artists and small businesses that make this community so vibrant, and to create even more reasons for our neighbors to come together.”
🔥 The exhibit will be on display until late November.
Your High Holidays start here
SPONSORED BY OR HADASH
🌟 Looking for a different kind of High Holiday experience? Come experience Or Hadash—meaningful prayers, joyful music, engaging sermons, and a community where tradition meets creativity and innovation. Our services are spiritually rich without feeling overly formal, with room to connect, reflect, and be yourself.
Complimentary tickets are available for Atlanta-area residents.
🎟️ We’d love to welcome you home for the High Holidays. Learn more and RSVP today.
Sukkot by the lake
⛰️ Retreat to the mountains of North Georgia to immerse in nature, lake life, and Shabbat for a weekend at Ramah Darom (pictured) from Sept. 25-28.
In a relaxed, intimate space designed for connection, Ramah Darom is hosting families for a community celebration of Shabbat and Sukkot. It’s a mix of sports, programming, togetherness, and Judaism – all in a camp environment.
A word from our readers
From the editor: Do you feel passionately about issues happening in the Atlanta Jewish community? Submit a letter (up to 300 words) on a timely topic, and we’ll consider it for publication.
Modeling forgiveness
By Jessica Dickson
🗣️ Recently, I worked with a father who told me he had raised his voice when his child accidentally spilled juice on his papers. When he saw her reaction, he realized how he affected his daughter. He acknowledged his mistake, apologized, and made an effort to repair the relationship.
After he finished the story, we sat in silence for a few moments. I was in awe of his insight, thoughtfulness, and willingness to repair. It would have been easy to double down – to make his daughter focus on the mistake she had made. Instead, this father took responsibility for his actions. With one simple parenting move, he modeled several profound ideas: the importance of admitting when you miss the mark, the importance of continually working to do better next time, and, most importantly, love can survive a rupture.
As we approach the High Holidays and enter the Yamim Noraim – the Days of Awe – Jews are commanded to do teshuvah, to repent and make amends for our sins. We are not only asked to seek forgiveness from God; we are also expected to ask forgiveness from the people we have wronged. Through this process, we take responsibility for our actions and work to repair the fractures in our relationships.
🙏🏼 There may be no one who needs parents to model this more than their children.
Conflict is inevitable in families. We will lose our patience, say the wrong thing, or respond in ways we regret. What matters is our willingness to acknowledge our mistakes and repair the harm we have caused, and work hard to do better next time.
When parents apologize to their children, we teach them that accountability matters, that relationships can survive moments of hurt, and that perfection is not a prerequisite for love.
📅 These are important lessons for the High Holidays and beyond.
Jessica Dickson, a certified parent support coach, has worked in the Atlanta Jewish community for almost 30 years including almost 20 as the Judaics specialist at the MJCCA Weinstein School.
Samuel Beckett’s characters may have seemed inert, but he didn’t wait to fight antisemitism
💥 A newly published diary of Samuel Beckett’s extended trip to Nazi Germany in the late 1930s helps to explain why the Nobel Prize-winning Irish author became active in the Resistance movement in Occupied France. Already discussed and cited by Beckett scholars in such studies as Samuel Beckett’s German Diaries 1936–1937, the new book explains how the creator of Waiting for Godot, that dramatization of stasis and futility, could turn out to be a man of action opposing the Holocaust and the downfall of German culture.
At a time when only an estimated 1% or so of French citizens dared to assist the Resistance, Beckett was from neutral Ireland, where sympathies were often skewed to the enemies of the much-loathed British. But he risked his life to participate.
🗞️ Read the full story on the Forward here.
Look & Listen
📖 “Conversations with an Executioner,” a 1949 book of a Nazi leader’s confessions, was published this week for the first time in an uncensored English translation.
🪭 A Korean Jewish teen tells her story about identity and college applications.
🍀 “Don’t Say Good Luck” is a new Netflix coming-of-age drama about a secular Jewish family in New Jersey.
What’s doin’ around town
SPONSORED BY CONGREGATION OR HADASH
🎶 Aug. 21: Musical Kabbalat Shabbat service and dinner.
🫶🏽 Aug. 25: Parenting with Heart and Chutzpah series begins.
🇮🇱 Aug. 25: David Bernstein on the “Future of Jewish Allies.”
✡️ Aug. 30: Advice on college selection and Jewish campus life for 11th and 12th graders.
🍯 Aug. 30: Tour the Georgia Tech bee hives with Adamah.
🎺 Aug. 30: When Rivers Meet jazz show with Joe Alterman.
✡️ The next Jewish holiday is Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on Sept. 11.
🕯️ Light Shabbat candles this week at 7:59 p.m.
💕 Make Jewish memories together. Join us for Tot Shabbat Aug. 22, a joyful Shabbat experience for our youngest members, and Youth & Family Sunday Aug. 30, a thoughtful morning exploring Jewish values through chesed—acts of kindness. Come connect and learn at Or Hadash!
Before you go
🏅 Champions for Life is a free, family-friendly wheelchair basketball exhibition taking place on Aug. 30, from 3-5 p.m. at the MJCCA in Dunwoody.
Meet elite Israeli athletes Asael Shabo and Ibrahim Baho, hear their inspiring stories, learn about adaptive sports and disability inclusion, and try wheelchair basketball. The event is supported by the Atlanta Committee for the Israel ParaSport Center and JAccess.
