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Editorial
Welcome, ORTists
Atlanta’s reputation as a good place to have a convention is
spreading.
This coming week it is the National Board Conference of
Women’s American ORT that will bring several hundred vis
itors to our city.
ORT is best known for the goals set out in its full name:
Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training. The inter
national network of vocational and technical schools main
tained by the World ORT Union has enabled almost two
million Jewish people to enter the mainstream of society.
That’s a far cry from its humble beginnings in the 1880s
when five influential Russian Jews petitioned the czar to allow
a fund to be established which would aid some of the five
million Jews living in the “pale of settlement” to improve their
lives.
Today ORT programs include pre-vocational and manual
training schools, apprenticeship schools, factory schools, cor
respondence schools, adult training and retraining, compre
hensive vocational high schools, technical institutes and col
leges, teachers’ institutes and seminars,and yeshivot schools.
ORT constitutes the largest single international system of
Jewish day schools in the world, operating under the philo
sophy that “the young Jew must also be formed to the
whole man and must be educated in the knowledge of his
people. We do not want him to be reminded of his Jewishness
only by anti-Semitism.”
Not all of the ORT schools are overseas. In Los Angeles
there is the ORT Technical Institute, which prepares young
men and women for careers in business and industry. The
Bramson ORT Technical Institute in New York City opened in
1977 as the first junior college under Jewish auspices in the
United States. Teenagers are offered enriched learning expe
riences in science and technology at the Jewish high school in
South Florida.
ORTists are involved in education beyond the organiza
tion’s own institutions. Women's American ORT has under
taken a nationwide campaign to achieve quality public educa
tion in the public schools of this country as well, and has
published an “Educational Bill of Rights” to set out its beliefs.
We wish the national board success in its deliberations this
week and join the local volunteer hosts in welcoming them to
Atlanta.
The
Southern Israelite
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
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The Southern Israelite
The Voice of Arlonro s Jewish Community
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar Jeff Rubin
Editor General Manager
Luna Levy
Managing Editor
Published by Sun Publications, Inc.
also publishers of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
Stan Rose Steve Rose
Chairman and President and
Publisher Co Publisher
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Ca (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060J
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Vida Goldgar
Many happy returns
Annie Levy, who was the Atlanta Chapter’s
second president from 1924-29 and served again
from 1934-36, sent a telegram of congratulations
from Florida where she now lives.
In this city of many organizations—and 1
belong to most of them—one can’t play favorites.
Yet, there are two reasons why I have a particular
soft spot in my heart for Hadassah. One is because
it was through the Atlanta Chapter that I first
walked into The Southern Israelite and got offered
a job...an encounter that changed my life. The
second reason actually led to the first: Hadassah
was the heart and soul of my late mother-in-law’s
organizational life in Macon, “Miss Annie” was a
founder and first president of Macon’s chapter and
it remained her lifelong interest. It was she who
insisted, when I was a newcomer to Atlanta, that 1
join Hadassah, and any Hadassah event brings
wonderful, warm memories of her. Sunday night
was no exception and there were even some of her
dear friends from Macon at the dinner.
But a party isn’t all speeches and serious busi
ness and this one wasn’t any exception. It was
showtime with an original presentation that took the
audience through the decades in narration, song
and dance, winding up with a rousing “Hadassah’s
Song” to the tune of “New York, New York.” The
audience joined in the second go-round and wound
up the evening in toe-tapping good spirits.
So for both Hadassah and Judith Epstein, a
Happy Birthday, and many, many more.
t
Everybody loves a birthday party and when its a
double birthday, it just doubles your fun.
That was the case Sunday night when Atlanta
Hadassah celebrated its 70th
birthday. Maybe it was coinci
dence, but it was also the birth
day of guest speaker Judith Ep
stein, twice a national president
of Hadassah. She gives new
meaning to “until a hundred and
twenty.” This, you see, was Ju
dith Epstein’s 91st birthday.
It was enough that she was
there. Those of us who didn’t
know her weren’t expecting much more in the way
of a speech than a few memories, perhaps an
expression of pleasure at being there.
Boy, were we surprised. This tiny, white-haired
lady made her way to the microphone and held the
whole audience enthralled. In a strong voice, and
without a prepared text, Mrs. Esptein made history
come alive. She was there.
The evening began with a parade of honor, with
past chapter and region presidents being escorted
formally to their places. Group presidents, past and
present, were recognized.
In welcoming remarks, Rae Sternberg de
scribed the chapter: “We are an organization of
doers and we do get the job done. From the begin
ning, we were determined to rebuild and renew the
land of Israel.”
The many faces of Judaism
by Rabbi S. Robert Ichay
Congregation Or VcShalom
I was born in Sousse, Tunisia,
and my father in Moknine—less
than 20 miles from my place of
birth. I will never forget the time
when someone asked if we had a
minyan for kaddish and was told:
“There are nine Jews and one
from Moknine.” Those were the
days when one’s Jewishness was
not questioned, but his place of
birth was always a subject of
jokes or derision. Depending from
which city you hailed, you were
the subject of one or another
kind of derogatory remark. And
these were all Tunisian Jews.
We also had comments about
the Jews ot Italian origin who
settled in Tunisia, who were
known as “Grana.” We used to
say that the only thing we could
learn from them was how to
make noise with a fork and knife
at a meal, while they looked
upon the Tunisians as those who
ate with their fingers. There were
different jokes about the Jews
from Poland, Galicia, Lithuania,
Rumania and so on. Those were
the days when the only thing a
Jew could blame another Jew for
was his ethnic background. Of
course, some were more obser
vant than others but their Jewish
ness was never questioned. While
those were “fun-filled days,”
today we live more exciting and
challenging lives. Place of birth
might still be a factor in our rela
tionship with one another, but
the most important question asked
is: “Are you really a Jew?”
The “Who Is A Jew” issue has
been discussed in every Jewish
circle and has found its way to
the Knesset in Israel. The ques
tion might sound puzzling but is
one which should be asked be
cause we are faced with such a
plethora of definitions that it is
becoming more and more diffi
cult to find an answer.
We have the Orthodox, Con
servative and Reform Jew, each
abiding by its own definition as
to what Judaism is. Then wc
have Reconstructionist, Tradi-
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