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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 26, 1986 Page 3
Growing Pains
Leaders look at what
by Richard Bono
TSl staff writer
It is evident that Atlanta's
growth as one of America’s lead
ing cities has taken Jewish lead
ers here somewhat by surprise.
Jews of many ages have moved
to the Gateway City of the South
to join in the economic prosper
ity, the appealing lifestyle and
the moderate climate that have
come to characterize Atlanta’s
growing metropolis.
But the rise in prosperity and
population in metro Atlanta has
brought with it a whole range of
social and educational needs,
which the community is strug
gling to provide.
“Everybody has a need,” said
Betty Jacobson, president of the
Atlanta Jewish Federation (AJF).
“We’ve gotten caught running a
community for 20,000 and we’re
actually a community of 60,000.
We do not have the facilities that
we need. We are short on every
thing. We have tremendous prob
lems to grow and catch up with
the population.”
AJF, which is the umbrella
organization helping to support
a dozen different Jewish groups
in Atlanta, raised $8.5 million
during its 1986 fundraising cam
paign. AJF Executive Director
David Sarnat said that the ’87
campaign will necessarily be
larger.
“1 want to feel that people
believe in helping others,” Mrs.
Jacobson told The Southern Is
raelite. “I’m hoping people will
give and keep on giving.”
As the Federation works to
build a stronger base to sustain
Atlanta’s large Jewish commun
ity, it has the solid support of the
Atlanta Rabbinic Association
(ARA). particularly as regards
Jewish education and social needs.
“We as a rabbinic community
will do everything in our power
to make certain that Jewish edu
cation, which is the only guaran
tee we have for survival, will be
strongly supported, financially
and in other ways, in the com
munity,” said Rabbi Shalom
Lewis, president of ARA.
One of nearly 17 congrega
tional leaders in Atlanta, Rabbi
Lew is said the rabbinic commun
ity here, which he called the“con-
science of the community,” is not
unaware of the challenges of pro
viding for the religious, educa
tional and social needs of the
estimated 60,000 Jews in metro
Atlanta.
Shalom Lewis
“It is a difficult challenge,” he
said. “We know what needs to be
done and we know that the re
sources at the community’s fin
gertips are limited.”
It is onward and upward for
three of Atlanta’s larger Jewish
schools. The Hebrew Academy,
the Epstein School and Yeshiva
High School have been working
for years planning, designing and
raising funds for their new facili
ties. And, for each of the schools,
1987 will see those plans near
fruition.
Each of the schools is follow
ing the path trod by their desired
constituencies to Atlanta’s north-
side.
Hebrew Academy is currently
preparing a tract of land in Sandy
Springs near Northside Hospital
to build a 65,000 sq. ft. school,
into which they hope to move
during September 1988. The Ep
stein School is preparingto move
into its new 52,000 sq. ft. home in
the fall of 1987 at the Sandy Springs
site of the old Underwood Hills
Elementary School, which it is
leasing from the Fulton County
Public School System. And Yesh
iva High School, at the end of
next month, will move into its
new facility, situated near the
juncture of Interstates 85 and
285. The new school is at the site
of the old Northwoods Elemen
tary School, a 47,000 sq. ft. facil
ity, which they have purchased.
As The details of design are
ironed out in the coming new
year, officials with the three
schools are also busy planning
fundraisers to pay for their new'
facilities.
For Yeshiva High School,
whose 75 students currently oc
cupy a wing of the Jew ish Corn-
Dale Schwartz.
munity Center on Peachtree
Street, the new school brings
welcome breathing space.
“We were one of the first high
schools in the Atlanta area to
have computers,” said Charles
Lowenstein, past president of
Yeshiva. “But for the last several
years the computers have been
locked in a storage room in the
Community Center because we
haven’t had the room to set them
up. Now we’ll be able to restart
our computer training program.”
Moving to its new location on
the north side, Lowenstein said,
will also have the important, but
less tangible effect of giving
Yeshiva students a placeto better
identify with. “At the Jewish
Community Center, there is no
sign anywhere that says ‘Yeshiva
High School of Atlanta,”’ he
said. “The new building will add
to our identity and to the spirit
the kids feel.”
Hebrew Academy, according
to its president. Dr. Jerome
Blumenthal, is anticipating ex
panding its student enrollment at
its new campus from the current
level of about 350 students to
nearly 500 students within the
next five years.
Hebrew Academy is the only
one of the three larger Jewish
schools in Atlanta building a new'
school from the ground up. But,
the composition of the soil at the
Sandy Springs site, Blumenthal
said, is proving problematic and
additional preparations to the
ground are needed before con
struction can begin. “I think we
are going to end up with a com
pleted building a year later than
our original target date,” he said.
“We’ll spend one more year in
the old building than we thought
’s ahead for’87
Jack Freedman
we would four years ago when
planning began.”
Gary Snyder, president of the
Epstein School, said its new'
school in Sandy Springs will
double the size of its present
location at Ahavath Achim Syn
agogue. Snyder said Epstein
School officials are anticipating
an additional 65 students will
enroll at the school next year.
And when the new school opens
its doors in the fall of next year,
actual classroom size, he said,
will be doubled to meet the
growth.
When Jewish youngsters are
done for the day at their respec
tive schools on the north side,
they can look forward to using
the facilities at the new' Cobb
County branch of the Atlanta
Jewish Community Center, which
will be planned in greater detail
in 1987.
“Eventually we will have ev
erything in Cobb County that we
have at the Zaban Community
Center,” said AJCC President
Jack Freedman. “But to start
with, we’ll probably build a
15,000 to 20,000 sq. ft. facility.”
Situated on 34 acres of land on
Post Oak Tritt Road, the Cobb
County branch has been planned
by Jewish leaders to meet the
needs of the estimated 3,000 Jew
ish families there, according to
Freedman, who said he hopes the
Center will be cleared for a major
fundraising effort in thespringof
the coming year.
Freedman said officials are
“working on the possibility” of
selling the Peachtree Street site
of the community center, which
has been the gathering place for
Atlanta Jews for some 30 years.
Once sold, however, Freedman
said a midtown/intown site will
still be maintained forthose Jews
in Atlanta who haven’t trekked
to the northern boundaries of the
metro area.
Jewish Family Services, con
sidered by many to be a show-
place for the social services it
delivers to Jews and non-Jews in
Atlanta, will also be struggling to
meet the myriad of social prob
lems the community faces in the
coming year, according to its
president Dale Schwartz, who
said that JFS’s work resettling
refugee families will also continue.
Schwartz, who noted the de
cline in Soviet Jewry emigration
to the United States, said “All we
See Leader, page 7.
‘ >
r
f
7
TSl seeks first ’87 baby
Will yours be the first Jewish baby born in the Atlanta
metropolitan area in 1987?
In our Jan. 9 issue. The Southern Israelite will highlight the
family of the first arrival of the New Year.
Send the date and time of birth, hospital, attending physi
cian and photograph to: The Southern Israelite, P.O. Box
250287, Atlanta, Ga. 30325 by Jan. 6.
In addition to the story, parents will receive a $50 savings
bond compliments of TSl and additional gifts donated by
community merchants.
A new dining room design available in a natural
beech finish with an extendable table.
DISTINCTIVE FURNITURE
INC
674 Miami Circle
Atlanta NE 30324
Phone: 404-2319253