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Around Town
* «. i *.M * •
Joe Earle is editor-
at-large at Reporter
Newspapers and has
lived in metro Atlanta
for over 30 years. He can
he reached atjoeearle@
reportemewspapers.net
An activist and grandmother
writes her memoir
Sherry Frank wears a small gold
necklace. The unobtrusive chain dis
plays a single word: bubbe.
It means grandmother, or, more spe
cifically, a Jewish grandmother. “I wear
it every day,” Frank said, smiling when
the word draws notice. “Bubbe fits me.”
Others may see the 77-year-old San
dy Springs grandmother as an energet
ic activist who has lived a very public
life. But her jewelry proudly proclaims
she’s also the kind of woman who likes
to bake cookies for her grandkids.
Still, she’s no homebody. She served 26 years as executive director of the Atlanta
chapter of the American Jewish Committee. She was president of the Atlanta section of
the National Council of Jewish women for two years in the 1970s, and now is again pres
ident of the group. She helped create the Atlanta Black/Jewish Coalition and worked to
build bridges between religious and ethnic groups.
Frank has worked to promote human rights, civil rights and women’s rights. She de
scribes herself as “a pretty passionate feminist.” She’s been involved in Atlanta politics
for decades. She helped start a successful synagogue, Congregation Or Hadash in Sandy
Springs, and served as its president. She recently published a memoir called “A Passion
To Serve: Memoirs of a Jewish Activist,” which was included in the 2019 book festival of
the Marcus Jewish Community Center Atlanta.
Frank came to politics early. She remembers that back when she was growing up in
the Morningside neighborhood of Atlanta, her family had one of the first TVs on their
block. It made a big impression when members of her third-grade class came over one
night to watch election returns.
Atlanta was different then, she remembers. She grew up in world that was segregat
ed racially and culturally. “The only African American I knew was the housekeeper,” she
said. At the same time, “it was Jewish world. My social life was Jewish,” she said recent
ly during a chat at The Temple in Atlanta, where she had appeared as part of a panel dis
cussion about the history of Atlanta’s Jewish community. “I was very much in a Jewish
world.”
But she doesn’t remember being conscious of overt anti-Semitism as a child. Atlan
ta seemed a welcoming place for her as she attended public schools, including Grady
High. The world seems much more threatening now, she said, as anti-Semitism grows
more visible. “You can’t but be fearful in this day, when you see so much hate out there,”
she said.
She grew interested in social service and political activism in part because of the
times and in part because of her upbringing. She gave money for trees in Israel. She was
a teenager when The Temple in Atlanta was bombed by white supremacists. She remem
bers, a decade later, the devastating news of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
She hasn’t given up on politics. Throughout her career, she’s sought ways to bring ra
cial and ethnic groups together and she wants to keep doing so. “I’ve said 1,000 times
that if this country is not safe for Jews, it’s not safe for blacks,” she said. “And if it’s not
safe for blacks, it’s not safe for Jews.”
She’s worked with Christians and with Muslims to allow people to get to know oth
ers they might otherwise vilify. As she’s done that, she’s wanted people to understand
her Jewishness. She said Jewish leaders once worked behind the scenes. Not her. “I want
people to know a Jew is in the room,” she said. “I want them to know Jews are a part of
our coalition. I think that’s part of my desire to heal the world.”
She’s proud of the work she’s done. That shows up in her conversation and in her
memoir. She’s takes pride in trying to make the world a better place by bringing to
gether different types of people to address common issues and improve understanding
among various groups that might otherwise be opposed.
“It’s given my life great purpose,” she said. “I remember after 9/11, thinking what I do
really matters.... It was such a threat to the Muslim world. I thought building bridges of
understanding was a great cause and I was part of the chorus.”
JOE EARLE
Sherry Frank