Macklemore goes too far
Thursday, Sept. 17 (6 Tishri 5787) — Are you following the controversy over Macklemore’s latest on-stage calls to “Free Palestine?” After his antics in New Jersey on Sept. 4, the rapper was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour. Pink got involved. Robert Kraft got involved. Sheeran’s tour fell apart. And it wasn’t the first time Macklemore had something to say about Israel.
🚑 Everyone’s favorite TV doc, Noah Wyle, won an Emmy this week for lead actor in “The Pitt.”
🇮🇱 Tonight is the opening event for Emory’s new Jewish exhibition at Robert W. Woodruff Library. “From Tablet to Tablet” begins at 7 p.m. It’s free and open to the public. The exhibit celebrates Emory’s 50 years of Jewish studies until February 2027.
🫶🏻 Chag sameach and have an easy fast.
Y’alla,
Logan
Swamp Shabbat
☮️ A multi-faith effort to celebrate Shabbat in the Okefenokee will be held on Saturday, Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to connect with each other and the land.
The event is being sponsored by Georgians for the Okefenokee, Adamah ATL, and Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL).
After the service, enjoy a catered lunch and guided boat tour through the Okefenokee. Attendees will experience the beauty and ecological richness of Georgia’s first and only UNESCO World Heritage site.
🐊 Tickets cost $30 per person, but kids ages 3 and under are free.
RELATED:
♻️ Sign up for Adamah’s Sukkot program, “Responsibility from Above” on Sept. 29. It’s an equitable, inclusive program on Jewish environmentalism.
The Ultimate Fall Getaway Guide to Lake Oconee
SPONSORED BY VISIT LAKE OCONEE
🍁 The first cool morning of fall changes everything at Lake Oconee. Steam rises off the water, the golf courses are at their best, evenings end around a fire with s’mores, and the trees surrounding the lake slowly turn shades of amber and crimson.
If you’re ready for an easy fall escape from Atlanta, there’s no better time to visit.
🍂 Whether you’re looking to unwind, reconnect, or explore, Lake Oconee is Georgia’s hidden gem for fall getaways. Find your reason to linger longer with this Ultimate Fall Getaway Guide.
Lipstadt founds antisemitism institute
🎓 Distinguished professor Deborah Lipstadt, pictured, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Holocaust and modern antisemitism, won’t rest. She has founded Emory Policy Institute on Countering Antisemitism (EPICA) to prepare future leaders to address antisemitism.
EPICA’s fellowship program is open to third- and fourth-year undergraduate students. The deadline to apply is Friday, Oct. 23.
🗂️ The fellows will produce research related to the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism, endorsed by dozens of countries and multilateral organizations.
Art from Israel at MJCCA
😮 Artist Joseph Bau survived the Plaszow concentration camp because of his talent for lettering, maps, and signs – skills he used to help forge identity papers for prisoners to escape.
Bau’s talents are now on display at the MJCCA through December. See more than 40 signed works including oil paintings, lithographs, and prints that explore the Hebrew language and graphic art. Interpretive storyboards trace Bau’s life from pre-war Poland through the Holocaust, his post-war career in Israel, and the founding of the museum that bears his name.
➡ On Nov. 8, Bau’s daughters and co-directors of the museum, Clila and Hadasa Bau, will present their father’s story at the MJCCA Book Festival.
Educators visit Holocaust sites
👨🏽🏫 Georgia educators visited Germany to study the rise of Nazism prior to delivering the material to their students. Pictured, teachers walked through the Platform 17 Memorial, which commemorates the thousands of Jews deported from Gruenwald station.
Thanks to the Breman’s Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education, in conjunction with Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History Holocaust Education, 15 teachers started in Munich, where the Nazi party began, and traced the rise of the Third Reich through Nurenberg, Dachau and Berlin.
“We can’t simply teach that six million Jews died,” Rabbi Joe Prass, director of the Weinberg Center, said. “Education is understanding how millions of ordinary people were convinced that this was required. Education is learning how to recognize the signs of history repeating itself.”
✈️ The next ambassador program will depart in November.
Huge challah bake with JWC
👩🏼🍳 Three hundred Jewish women gathered to make challah in honor of Batsheva Gelbtuch, who is moving back to Israel after 20 years of leading the Jewish Women’s Connection of Atlanta (JWC) with co-founder Julie Silverman. Pictured: Event co-chairs, Ephrat Lipton (left) and Charla Weinsier.
🧺 Join us at Oakland Cemetery to celebrate Historic Oakland Foundation’s 50th anniversary at the Golden Jubilee Picnic on Thurs., Sept. 24 at 6 p.m.Reserve your table for a once-in-a-lifetime evening at Oakland after dark. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Orthodox Jews are scootering to synagogue. Will Shabbat ever be the same?
🛴 For thousands of years, the Jews have walked. Dispatched by God to the promised land of Canaan, Abraham walked. When the Israelites became a nation in the desert, they camped, kvetched, warred, and worshiped, but mostly walked. And on Shabbat — when the Torah forbids riding horses, carriages, trains or cars — observant Jews have traditionally walked.
But when Ilana Jurkowitz and her two kids went to prayer services one recent Saturday morning, they did not walk. Nor, as Shabbat-observant Jews, did they drive. Instead, the trio made the mile-and-a-half trek to their Beverly Hills synagogue using a decidedly non-Biblical form of transportation: scooters.
📰 Read the full story on the Forward.
What’s doin’ around town
SPONSORED BY CONGREGATION OR HADASH
Sept. 19: Jewish SciFi Book Club.
Sept. 20: Stories for a sweet new year with PJ Library.
Sept. 22: Family play time in the Sukkah.
✡️ The next Jewish holiday is Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown on Sept. 20.
🕯️ Light Shabbat candles this week at 7:21 p.m.
🗓️ Or Hadash offers youth and family experiences throughout Yom Kippur. Join us for Family Kol Nidre, youth programming, Tot Jonah, our beloved Youth Jonah reading, and moving Neilah services. Meaningful, accessible ways for all ages and stages to observe together.
Before you go
🎗️ A yizkor service will be held on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. at the Memorial to the Six Million at Greenwood Cemetery in southwest Atlanta.
The names of Holocaust survivors who lived in the Atlanta community will be read while the six torches are lit. The annual service is organized by Eternal-Life Hemshech, led by Karen Lansky Edlin.
