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Sukkah:ATL Atlanta's Only Public Sukkah -- Come Join Us!

 

Atlanta-based Jewish Food Alliance, along with over a dozen community partners, erected its second annual public-space sukkah in Oakhurst Community Garden on Sunday, October 9th.  When sukkot begins on Wednesday, October 12th, Sukkah: ATL will host opportunities for worship, community gathering, learning, and cultural experiences.

The construction of the sukkah is led by architects from Design Plus Collective, who designed the “Seen by Unseen” Sukkah for New York's Sukkah City competition last Fall.

Sukkah: ATL is Atlanta's only public-space sukkah, and is built and programmed as a community cooperative effort, led by Atlanta-based Jewish Food Alliance.

Programs open to the public during the week of Sukkot include:

• Wednesday, October 12th: Chanting Service with Cantor Gayanne Guerin Weiss at 6:30 PM
  
• Friday, October 14th: Family Friendly Kabbalat Shabbat, Potluck Picnic, and Jam Session with Congregation Bet Haverim 6:30 PM
  
• Saturday, October 15th: Havdallah and Sukkot Sleepover with Adamah Adventures 7:30 PM
• Monday, October 17: Shake Your Lulav Dance Party! with Marcus Jewish Community Center, PJ Library, Shalom Baby and Pathways
  
• Tuesday, October 18: Sukkot Baking Competition with Dr. Sweets Cake Emporium 6:00 PM 

 

Why I AM Giving Money to the Atlanta Jewish Federation This Year

... and more than doubled my 2010 contribution.

My old blog post about not giving money to the Atlanta Jewish Federation (in 2011) and its criticisms, made a much bigger wave than expected. Way too often when mentioning the blog post people nod their heads in recognition. That's why I'm publicly announcing my choice to give in 2012.

Why am I giving to the 2012 campaign?

I'm hopeful. Atlanta has a new Federation President, Michael P. Horowitz, from Detroit. No one seems to know much about him and his affinities. However, my dollars are a hopeful vote for progress.

Join me in donating (or increasing your donation) and speak up for progress: continued movement toward an open, transparent, authentic, inclusive, efficient, highly-functional and unified Jewish community in Atlanta, GA. 

Looking forward to a growth-filled 5772,

Shana Tova,

Jennie Rivlin Roberts

Pass on Jewish Wisdom to Kids this Rosh Hashanah

Unlike Passover and Hanukkah, when we are celebrating historical events, the High Holidays are a celebration of a more abstract concept: human beings' ability to grow and change. Pass on Jewish wisdom to your children with the following symbols:

• The shofar is blown to summon us to "wake up" and start thinking about our past behavior.

• We are beginning the cycle of new year, and eat round challah knowing we have yet another chance to start with a clean slate: to change our ways and become better people.

• We are wishing for a sweet new year by eating apples dipped in honey.

• One of the ways we ask for forgiveness and express commitment to change is by giving tzedakah.

We hope ModernTribe can help you and your family usher in the new year in meaningful ways. Rosh Hashanah begins sundown Wednesday, September 28, 2011. 

With Warm Wishes from Your Shopkeeper,

Jennie Rivlin Roberts

Got A Jewish Dad? The Father's Day Gift Guide for Dads We'd CHOOSE Again!

Overall Best gift for your Jewish Dad:

The Amalgamated Menschen International T-shirt celebrates your mensch by declaring him Upright, Honorable, and Decent. On the back, the shirt directs, "Be One!," because, shouldn't we all?

Best gifts for the Zionist Dad

Instead of kitsch, this Independence T-Shirt is design-forward and a serious Jewish t-shirt. California apparel designers, Threaded Heritage, include Israel's declaration of Independence behind the lion of Judea, Atzmaut (Independence), and 1948.

In 66 CE, the Jews rebelled against Roman rule and began to mint their own coins, the shekel, as a sign of their independence. The coins in this pair of cufflinks are cast from a half-shekel that dates to the first year of the revolt!

Best gifts for the Jewish Dad who bucks the trend

Is your dad handy despite his heritage? Then make him a member of the Union of Jewish Handymen with this t-shirt by Jewnion label and accessorize him with tools to get the job done: the hammer bottle opener (that also functions as a hammer!) and the BBQ Tools grilling set which even includes a TAPE MEASURE!

Best gifts for the Jewish Dad who is all about Tikkun Olam (saving the world)

If he had the time, would your dad hug trees and save bunnies? Then he may chuckle at himself represented in Israeli plush: Vigo who frees whales, eats grass, drinks dew, and wears recycled clothes. Plus, any eco-dad can use these: great-looking grocery bags for guys + an ice-worthy eco-cup!

 

Best gift for the absent-minded Jewish professor Dad we all know and love

 Is dad a geek at heart? Speak the inner geek with a Science Quiz clock, an LED Dinosaur Kit, or the Equal Measure measuring cup so he can make pancakes with a tyrannosaur’s brain of flour and sugar equal to the water in a cumulus cloud the size of the bus.

Best gifts for the wandering Jew-ish Dad

Is dad on the go this summer? Equip him with an Israeli designer Funtastic Plastic Passport Cover, a universal plug adapter, and Cohen-hands (Vulcan) USB stick to carry his data.


Whatever you choose for your Chosen dad, enjoy Father's Day with him on Sunday, June 29th, 2011!

What I'm Doing This Weekend: Taste of Limmud -- Join Us!

This Sunday is an event that I and many volunteers have worked long and hard to bring to our Atlanta community: Limmud Atlanta & Southeast's Taste of Limmud.

Our whole family is excited. Even our daughter is excited about Camp Limmud. She goes there while us adults get adult time. Ahhh.

What I'm looking forward to most:

(1) Learning from Jonathan Sarna again -- a wonderful teach from Brandeis is coming to talk about: Jewish Law and American Civil Liberty: Historical Confrontations and Contemporary Implications

(2) Being with my adult friends without kids (How often does that happen?)

(3) Presenting an excerpt from a PresenTense Fellowship training with Shelby Zitelman of PresenTense: Visioning For A Better Future: Your Venture, Your Life, Your Change

(4) Being an Indie Innovator and seeing our wonderful Innovators shine and let Atlanta know about their projects! 

(5) Meeting and hearing Prodezra Beats!

(6) Dancing with my husband and little girl at the after-concert with Naomi Less & Prodezra Beats (brought to us by Atlanta Jewish Music Festival).

Woo hoo. Let's get this party started. If you want to join us, Register Here.

Why I'm Not Giving Money To Atlanta Jewish Federation This Year

Yesterday evening, a young man called to ask for my annual Federation pledge.

I declined.

In Atlanta, Federation mostly raises funds and allocates them to a portfolio of local and international organizations. All of the programs in their portfolio are good, sure. Twenty percent of their allocations go to support Israel through Joint Distribution and Jewish Agency. Plus, one of the 26 organizations they fund, my family utilizes: PJ Library.

However, nearly all of the Jewish programs that make up my family's Jewish life are not funded by Federation: Limmud Atlanta, Jewish Kids Groups, Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, and our intown Atlanta Jewish community. All of these are young organizations, near and dear to me, and I support them with my time and money.

Plus, most of the "Atlanta-based" organizations they do fund are not in Atlanta proper -- where I and my Jewish community live -- but are in different cities North of Atlanta: Dunwoody, Marietta, Sandy Springs.

For me, Federation is like Piccadilly Cafeteria located OTP ("outside the Perimeter") -- it's a smorgasbord where the chicken tetrazzini is ok, but I'm really not into the buttered okra, and they don't even serve my favorite: Indian cuisine. Why dine there?

In addition, customer service at Piccadilly may be fine, but it is not so great at Federation. It's small things, like being told the photos we were submitting for "A Community Snapshot" exhibit shouldn't be from Limmud because Limmud is not Federation funded. Small things, like hearing my friends' frustration with the bureaucracy when volunteering. Unanswered emails. (Federation is not alone with unanswered emails. In 2005, Jewish Outreach Institute did a "secret shopper" experiment and requested program information from 44 Atlanta Jewish institutions; they received 24 replies.) I know, it's small stuff -- but, again, why dine there?

Our limited money needs to go to the organizations that are important to us and are in line with our values (and our geography). Now it will.

One last consideration: today, I had lunch with a former Federation board member and he made a very good point: continuing with my analogy... if I'm not dining at the buffet, I may forget a couple of food groups. Some of the organizations Federation funds are social services that my family doesn't use but are nonetheless important for any community to support, for example, Jewish Family and Career Services and Breman Jewish Home (for the elderly). So, point taken, our family will consider adding these into our annual donation mix, and, of course, donations can be made to them directly.


Do you donate to your local Federation? Why or why not?

Coming to Atlanta Feb 4-10: SoCalled...

Hosted by Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, Socalled is a world-class artist you don't want to miss!

From AJMF:

"Klezmer-hip hop maestro Socalled is a musician, producer, composer, arranger, magician, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist based in Montreal.

Born in Ottawa and raised just north of there, in Chelsea, Quebec, he grew up taking piano lessons and loving funk and hip hop. When Socalled first heard klezmer music on an old Yiddish record, he was fascinated by the cool sounds he could sample to make hip hop beats. Then he realized that integrating this Jewish music from the 1930s into his songs was a way of representing himself and his cultural heritage. It enabled him bring something of his own to funk and hip hop, giving him what he calls "a real reason to make music."

Known for his genre-bending approach and his collaborations with musical giants of funk, klezmer, hip hop, lounge and classical music, Socalled has performed all over the world. He has released three CDs: Socalled Seder; and HipHopKhasene; and most recently, Ghettoblaster, recorded with Yiddish singer Theodore Bikel, lounge pianist Irving Fields, musician and producer Gonzalez, master clarinetist David Krakaeur, country singer Katie Moore, rapper C-Rayz Walz, and funk trombone legend Fred Wesley, among others.

All of these wonderful lunatics, and so many more, appear in the Reframe Films/NFB The Socalled Movie"

The Socalled Movie Premiers in Atlanta at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at The Buckhead Theatre. $20 ticket includes party, film and post-film concert featuring Socalled and Katie Moore. Party @ 6:00 PM. Program @ 7:30 PM. Buy tickets NOW >>

Find out more about Socalled here: http://www.socalledmusic.com/. You can listen to a few of his tracks here: http://www.myspace.com/socalled. Definitely check out his most popular music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tS4OWiozmw (over 2 million hits!!)

The Next Big Jewish Idea: Being Jewish is a Great Way To Be Human

I got an email today notifying me that the LA Federation is looking for "The Next Big Jewish Idea".

I've been thinking about "the big idea" for the last few weeks. At LimmudUK, I went to hear Jonathan Sarna speak about future trends in American Jewish life. (Who, BTW, is coming to speak to Atlanta at Taste of Limmud, Sunday, March 27th, 2011.)  Jonathan talked about many different forces that are acting on American Jewish life, mostly resulting in assimilation and decreasing numbers of Jews. He feels that the Jewish people needs a new great mission to bring us together and boost our Jewish connection.

What is going to be that mission? In the q&a, I commented that I have a dream that one day people will see being Jewish as so desirable, so meaningful, so compelling that there will not be Jews abandoning their Jewishness and that more non-Jews will find a Jewish life compelling and attractive. In my own limited way, I pursue the realization of this dream every day with ModernTribe: helping to make Jewish life desirable, meaningful, compelling.

This is the Next Big Jewish Idea: Judaism Rocks. Positive Judaism. Or, as my new friend Shawn Landres of Jumpstart says, "being Jewish is a great way to be human." I hope, Shawn, you don't mind me using that wonderful expression as the title of the Next Big Jewish Idea.

Here is my application, written after much thought, but little editing, and submitted as an industrial & organizational psychologist and not as the owner of ModernTribe.

Being Jewish is a great way to be human.

Describe your idea (500 words or less) *
Jews (and non Jews choosing to be Jewish) can have a meaningful, enriched life through Judaism and Jewish living. Even if you are not frum. Even if you do not believe in G-d. Or if you do!

In our fabric is tikkun olam: caring for Jews, people, and the world. In our fabric is "engagement": pursuit of justice, ethics, thoughtfulness, debate and community. In our fabric is ritual and tradition: each week, each season, each occasion we have opportunities for contemplation and creating meaning built in! We just need to remember. We need to be reminded. We need to teach each other. Being Jewish is a great way to be human.

This is a meta-idea: all projects: mine, yours, from the Federations, to the non profits, to the philanthropists, to the for profit Jewish businesses, we need to be working from this mindset and the values and behaviors that follow. 

Describe your project goals and expected impact upon Los Angeles Jewish Community (500 words or less) *
The "project" is a campaign, an educational outreach, and a communicated responsibility for all of our organizations to adopt. Specific actions would depend on the identified needs in the LA Jewish community. In general the project would instill, educate, motivate, the following values:

• Judaism is for you, and everyone.
• Judaism is here: it is up to YOU to find the meaningfulness for yourself and your family. We (Federation, non profits, for profits, all organizations) are here to help.
• Jews are a people, but beyond genes, ethnicity, place, or religious beliefs.
• We create and strengthen our community through a culture of respect, openness, and "niceness" to each other. (This is, truly, often missing in Jewish organizations. In organizational psychology we call this a culture of customer service. We are missing this in much of established Jewish life.) We commit to adopting a culture of customer service.
• We are all responsible. You get nothing without giving back. You learn = you teach. You receive = you give. No more giving to people and hoping we get back. Gifts are given with expectations. Don't be afraid of having expectations!
• We are in it for the LONG HAUL -- short term thinking needs to be resisted. We must be patient and do what we expect to give us the biggest long term success of the following:

• Continuation and growth in Jewish numbers and growth in Jews identifying and finding meaning in Judaism.
• Caring and tikkun olam in a Jewish connected way.
• Strengthening our emotional connections to Judaism, Jewish life, and our communities. THIS IS HOW WE ENSURE CONTINUITY: through feelings, emotional connection.  

What makes your project new or innovative? (500 words or less) *
It's a meta-idea. This is training, education, marketing, persuasion for all of us. This idea is for all of Jewish LA. Use LA as the example and carry it forth to the world.

Briefly describe how you will use the funds (500 words or less) *

1. I would convene a small group of like-minded community leaders.
2. We would meet and create a community mission that clarifies, expands, amends, as necessary, the ideas I outline above.
3. The group invites, solicits, persuades leaders of the LA Jewish community to join this mission. This may take the form of a conference, with education by experts.
4. The mission adopters receive the education they need to carry these values back to their organizations.
5. The mission adopters identify and prioritize the help they need to bring these values back to their organizations and determine, together, what community resources need to be in place for everyone to draw from, as needed.

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What do you think? Could you adopt this mission? If yes, what would you need to instill these values in your organization? What immediate change could you make, right now?
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The application asked for a video submission, which I thought was interesting. I submitted my Interview with a Dreidel Peddler video, below, for your enjoyment.