Batter up for Team Israel
Thursday, Oct. 8 (27 Tishri 5787)— Get cozy because Y’alla is chock-full of news this week.
⚾ Israel Baseball is entering the Atlanta market with a showcase on Oct. 18 for players in 15U and 18U age groups in Dunwoody.
🧾 A full-page ad by a fringe group that ran in the Atlanta Jewish Times caused quite a stir – and ended with policy change and apologies.
🆕 Next week: The newly appointed American Jewish Committee Atlanta director Sharon Goldman tells Y’alla about her plans for the organization.
🏳️🌈 Lastly, it’s Pride weekend! Join SOJOURN at the Pride festival on Saturday and parade on Sunday.
As always, thanks for reading.
Y’alla,
Logan
🎸 Gather friends and family for Wire & Wood, a FREE festival Oct. 9 and 10, with over 30 performances across 7+ stages throughout downtown Alpharetta, with everything from Americana and Indie to Southern Rock, Pop, Country, and more! SPONSOR MESSAGE
Atlanta Jewish Times apologizes for controversial Trump advertisement
😯 An inflammatory advertisement in the Atlanta Jewish Times claimed that “if President Trump was president in the 1930s, we would not have had World War II,” sparking readers to decry the 100-year-old community publication and prompting the publisher to apologize and to review the paper’s internal policies.
Submitted by a group called “Worriers for Israel,” the full-page ad ran in the Atlanta Jewish Times’ weekly print publication on Sept. 30. Invoking Holocaust imagery, the propaganda-like ad claims that Trump would have prevented the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews.
The advertisement comes during an intense midterm election season in Georgia – one the Atlanta Jewish Times has garnered national attention for after publisher Michael Morris wrote an opinion piece attacking U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is Jewish, for his record on Israel.
Have you HERD?
SPONSORED BY THE FERNBANK MUSEUM
🐘 Fall at Fernbank Museum is packed with science, nature, and discovery. From fall leaves in Fernbank Forest to the new Elephants exhibit, it’s a great time to visit.
➞ Check out our fall events, exhibits, 3D films, exhibits and more at our website.
Israel Baseball to visit ATL
🧢 Israel Baseball is welcoming baseball players ages 15U and 18U to meet professional coaching staff at a prospect showcase on Oct. 18 in Dunwoody.
Players can expect to show off their talent and build their own profile while learning what it’s like to be on the Israel baseball team, which has participated in three World Baseball Classics.
Local players Chase Engelhard and Ari Fabian will be on site.
🌭 Learn more about the event here.
‘YidLife Crisis’ at MJCCA
😂 Get ready to laugh when “Swedishkayt: YidLife Crisis in Stockholm” delivers on Saturday, Oct. 17 at the MJCCA.
What happens when two wisecracking Montrealers land in Stockholm to perform and discover a vibrant Jewish and Yiddish world in one of the diaspora’s most unexpected corners? “Swedishkayt” takes the comedic duo on a journey through 250 years of history and a community keeping its culture, language and humor alive.
🎤 Thanks to the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the Montreal comedy duo YidLife Crisis (Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman) will slay the event with their documentary and live show.
🎸 Gather friends and family for Wire & Wood, a FREE festival Oct. 9 and 10, with over 30 performances across 7+ stages throughout downtown Alpharetta, with everything from Americana and Indie to Southern Rock, Pop, Country, and more! SPONSOR MESSAGE
How Jim Bakker sent a rabbi’s son to 52 churches
🖊️ Editor’s note: This is a first-hand account written by The Forward’s Senior Writer Benyamin Cohen.
⛪ Jim Bakker convinced me to go to church.
Bakker died Monday at 86. For a stretch in the 1980s he and his wife, Tammy Faye, were on television every day, praying, singing and weeping, her in waterproof mascara, in front of as many as 13 million people. Then came the sex scandal, the hush money and the fraud trial.
And yet, he became my gateway into Christianity.
✡️ I’m an Orthodox rabbi’s son who grew up in the Bible Belt, which made me a spiritual window-shopper. My bedroom window looked out across the street at Cokesbury Methodist Church. Every Sunday morning, I watched the families climb out of their minivans in khakis and pastels, smiling like people who had never once wondered whether turning on a light switch counted as work on Shabbat.
We didn’t have cable. Regular TV in our house was already a negotiation, and a channel devoted to Jesus wasn’t even up for discussion.
📰 Read the full story on the Forward.
Look & Listen
🇲🇽 Did you know new-ish Braves player Rowdy Tellez is a Mexican-Jew? He represented Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.
💻 Mikey Madison and Jeremy Strong star in a new film called “The Social Reckoning” about the dark side of Facebook.
💕 LoveShackFancy is open in Atlanta’s Buckhead Village and they carry Judaica. The company’s founder, Rebecca Hessel Cohen, is Jewish.
What’s doin’ around town
SPONSORED BY CONGREGATION OR HADASH
🎭 Oct. 10: Cabaret show Baddies of Broadway.
🧒🏽 Oct. 11: All Smiles sensory-friendly play for kids age 0 to 5.
🌕 Oct: 14: Rosh Chodesh creativity and spirituality.
👩🍼 Oct. 16: The science and spirituality of parenthood.
🍽️ Oct. 16: Dinner with a dialogue.
👽 Oct. 24: SciFi Book Club.
📓 Oct. 25: Free executive functioning workshop.
✡️ The next Jewish holiday is Chanukah, which begins at sundown on Dec. 4.
🕯️ Light Shabbat candles this week at 6:53 p.m.
✨ Celebrate Rosh Hodesh with an evening of creativity, connection, and Jewish learning alongside other women. Join Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder for Make Your Mark on Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. Explore the new month through text and art—no artistic experience needed!
We remember
🎗️Students at the University of Georgia held a vigil to remember the victims of Oct. 7, 2023. They created clay flowers to honor the lives of those who died at the NOVA music festival.
🗞️ Read about it in the newest Rough Draft newsletter, Athens Weekly.
