Dave Schechter

Sep 14

Outtakes from Holocaust Coverage Research

In my youth, I would descend the metal stairs in our town’s public library into the cool of the shelf-lined basement, where I would lose myself in history, reading back issues of news magazines, mostly from the 1930s, ’40s and ‘50s. Today, my fingers do the walking online. The internet…

Holocaust

4 min read

Sep 14

The Southern Israelite and the Holocaust

A banner headline — “The Nazi Terror In Full Swing” — topped the front page of the Aug. 2, 1935, edition of the Southern Israelite. Robert Brown, a “special correspondent,” reported on “pogroms spreading to hundreds of German cities and towns … passions fanned by the Nazi press,” Jews barred…

Holocaust

12 min read

Sep 12

Public Television Examines ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’

Eighty years after two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population was murdered in the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” the questions persist. What did the United States government — and the American public — know and when did it know it? Why did the U.S. not do more to save Jewish lives? …

Jewish

7 min read

Public Television Examines ‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’

Sep 1

Addressing High Holy Days Safety Concerns

As the Jewish community prepares for the year 5783, sermons are being edited, menus for gatherings of family and friends are being planned and security procedures are being reviewed and implemented at synagogues throughout the Atlanta area. For many of Atlanta’s approximately 40 congregations, in-person attendance at Rosh Hashanah and…

Atlanta

5 min read

Addressing High Holy Days Safety Concerns

Aug 31

Watching Storms, Political and Otherwise

Dating back to the years I lived in Iowa, I have enjoyed the flash of lightning and the clash of thunder that comes with an approaching storm. From dorm rooms and apartment balconies I would scan the sky as storms advanced toward my location, the intervals between flash and clash…

Politics

4 min read

Watching Storms, Political and Otherwise

Aug 31

Birthright’s ‘Delightfully Imperfect’ Israel

A parent whose children will join an upcoming Taglit-Birthright Israel trip asked Zohar Raviv, the program’s international vice president for educational strategy, “What are my kids going to get out of this trip?” “I don’t know what your kids are going to get,” Raviv replied. …

Israel

5 min read

Aug 11

Telling a Friend ‘Thank You’ Before He Died

A light went out the other day. A friend from college succumbed after a lengthy struggle with cancer. His demise was not unexpected, but word of his death rocked me nonetheless. In life, you meet a lot of people. Relatively few leave a mark on you. My friend did, pretty…

Friendship

4 min read

Telling a Friend ‘Thank You’ Before He Died

Aug 4

‘Kindness’ Added to Forsyth County Curriculum

There will be something new in every Forsyth County public school classroom this year: a small, yellow plastic ark, with a coin slot — part of a partnership with Congregation Beth Israel to promote “Acts of Routine Kindness” (ARK). In Jewish terms, think of the ark as a pushke (the…

Jewish

4 min read

‘Kindness’ Added to Forsyth County Curriculum

Jul 28

Conservative Rabbis Debate Missouri Convention Site

Rabbis representing the Conservative movement will gather in St. Louis, Mo. in November, despite calls for a change of venue prompted by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that triggered the state’s restrictive abortion law. Rabbi Daniel Dorsch, of Congregation Etz Chaim in Marietta, applied local experience when asked about the…

Jewish

4 min read

Conservative Rabbis Debate Missouri Convention Site

Jul 28

The Potential for Civil Discourse

At the American Jewish Press Association meeting last month in Atlanta, one session was titled “The changing face of Judaism: Human Rights and Jewish Identity.” Part of the conversation under that banner concerned the role that Jewish news media can play in connecting a diverse community. Jill Savitt, president and…

Jewish

4 min read