Swastika graffiti in an East Cobb neighborhood last weekend. Source: Anti-Defamation League
The leaders of the Temple Kol Emeth synagogue told their congregation Sunday that following the discovery of swastika graffiti in an East Cobb neighborhood last weekend, they’ve learned of other similar incidents.
Rabbi Larry Sernovitz and Rachel Barich, president of the congregation, said that “through our connections with local law enforcement, we are now aware of at least five similar incidents that have occurred over the past few weeks. This is a serious concern to us and to the Cobb County Police.”
They didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the incidents or when and where they took place, but said that “we know that the actions of a few do not represent East Cobb.”
Their message comes a day before Kol Emeth will be holding a gathering to announce a community response to acts of anti-Semitism.
That meeting will include representatives of the Anti-Defamation League of Atlanta, Atlanta Israeli Consul General Anat Sultan-Dadon, Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott and Capt. James Fincher, commander of the Cobb Police Precinct 4 in East Cobb.
The initiative is to include bias training and other educational programs:
“Through a partnership with the ADL, we will present to the wider East Cobb community a comprehensive program of education which will include bias training and how to be ally. Our fellow Jewish congregations and the interfaith community support this initiative with a high amount of interest. This is the spirit of Cobb County!”
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Monday’s gathering, which begins at 10 a.m., is not open to the general public. Sernovitz and Barich said an educational program to follow will be available to all via Zoom in the coming weeks.
“We also know that we cannot be silent, as silence does not make these things go away. Rather we are drawing on our friendships and ties with so many others in our community to provide a teachable moment, an opportunity for everyone to come together, speak together, and learn together.”
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Retiring Temple Kol Emeth Rabbi Steven Lebow with clergy following the 15th Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service (ECN photos and videos by Wendy Parker).
Rabbi Steven Lebow was scheduled to give the final benediction near the end of the interfaith Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service at Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb Thursday night when the event took a most surprising turn.
The rabbi who had a vision for a celebrating religious and social pluralism in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has rarely been a man of few words.
But when another clergyman rambled down an aisle at the synagogue, crooning Kenny Rodgers’ “The Gambler” as the packed house delighted, Lebow was left speechless.
The mystery guest was retired Monsignor Patrick Bishop of Transfiguration Catholic Church, who worked with Lebow to get the service started. The affable “Father Pat”—who retired in 2014—warmly embraced Lebow and nearly brought the retiring rabbi to tears.
Lebow is stepping down in July, after becoming the first full-time leader of the East Cobb Reform synagogue in 1986.
“For 30 years . . . you have stood for the marginalized and the outcast,” Bishop said. “You screamed and hollered when injustices were done to others, even facing serious injustices done toward you.
“Fifteen years ago you had a dream, to bring people of goodwill, who could share in these troubled times, not division and poison and polarization and the ugliness of the world we’re living in right now, but the goodness of people. . .
“It’s easy to get cynical. We need each other, to say, ‘Hey wait a minute, the darkness does not prevail. Light will win out.’ You, my dearest rabbi, have been a light to nations.”
His remarks embodied the service’s theme of “Are We Our Brother’s Keepers?” and that featured music and personal reflections. The service attracted several hundred people and included participation from nearly two dozen faith communities in metro Atlanta.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Lebow said about the visit from Father Pat. “I was flabbergasted. In a community of several hundred people, this was kept a secret from me. I am on cloud nine. I am delighted to be with an old friend.”
Hal Schlenger, a Temple Kol Emeth congregant who heads the service’s organizing committee, said the key to flabbergasting the rabbi was to tell hardly anyone.
“Six people, and my wife,” he said after the service.
The festivities included a Muslim call to prayer by members of the Roswell Community Masjid, songs from an interfaith choir from the participating faith communities, reflections from youth about addressing climate change and global warming, and poignant pleas for peace.
“Fifteen years ago, this was a vision I had,” Lebow said at the start of the service, and then brought the crowd to a loud applause. “Take a look at this. This is what America looks like.”
The message was clear: Helping others in need, regardless of whom they may be, is at the essence not only of faith, but in the spirit of brotherhood and community.
“The best way to help someone is to teach them how to help themselves,” said Kol Emeth member Henry Hene. “There’s no better way to help one another than to do it together.”
Mansoor Sabree, director of the Intercity Muslim Action Network of Atlanta, bolstered that message by explaining the work of his organization to help formerly incarcerated people transition to outside life.
“We see this as a chance to join an interfaith community,” he said, “and lead in a way in which we trust in God and in our humanity.”
The German-born Syrian-American pianist Malek Jandali, of the Atlanta-based charity Pianos for Peace, also issued an emphatic message for people of goodwill to combat hate and violence in a most eloquent way.
In his work, he has visited refugee camps in war-ravaged Syria, where his parents had been beaten for their son’s song, “Watani Ana,” written to protest the Syrian regime.
“Truth is being attacked,” Jandali said, “and art is the answer.”
The participating faith communities included:
Baha’i Faith Center
Chestnut Ridge Christian Church
Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church
First United Lutheran Church of Kennesaw
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Sandy Springs Christian Church
St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church
Temple Beth Tikvah
Temple Kol Emeth
The Art of Living Foundation
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Transfiguration Catholic Church
Trinity Presbyterian Church Atlanta
Unitarian Universalist Metro-Atlanta North Congregation
Unity North Atlanta Church
Proceeds from the offering will benefit IMAN Atlanta and Kol Emeth’s “Give-A-Gobble” program to purchase turkeys and Thanksgiving dinners for those in need.
Lebow’s co-host in recent years has been Noor Abbady of the Roswell Community Masjid, who said in closing that while she’s going to miss being by his side, “the spirit of being each other’s keepers lives on.
“We don’t need to be of the same religion to be decent human beings.”
Lebow said he still plans to remain living in Cobb County, but admitted “I’m gonna miss” presiding over the service he initially thought would draw only a hundred or so people.
If they have him back, he quipped, “I’ll still tell a few bad jokes.”
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Next Thursday Temple Kol Emeth will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service, which includes nearly two dozen of faith communities in north metro Atlanta.
The interfaith service, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a dessert reception. Here’s more about the event:
“The Ecumenical Thanksgiving Celebration is a program that combines uplifting messages, music, and often humor to help those in attendance find common goals to benefit their local communities. During the reception after the program, guests can enjoy samples of treats from the different congregations and anyone can write their thoughts, comments or feedback about what moves them on the Wall of Words or on social media. This year’s theme is “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
“With so much negative media about religious extremism in many religions, this evening is proof that we can coexist, can learn and can enjoy being together! We’ve been doing this for years! It is an evening you will long remember.”
Other East Cobb faith communities that will be participating include the Baha’i Faith Center, East Cobb Islamic Center, East Cobb United Methodist Church, Emerson Universalist Unitarian Congregation, Pilgrimage United Church of Christ, St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church, Transfiguration Catholic Church and Unity North Atlanta Church.
Temple Kol Emeth is located at 1415 Old Canton Road, and you’re asked to arrive at least 15 minutes before the service begins because seating for 900 people fills up quickly.
The program also will be live-streamed at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (3155 Trickum Road), or you can view from home by clicking here.
For more information about the Ecumenical Thanksgiving Celebration, visit the Facebook page or contact Hal Schlenger at hal.schlenger@earthlink.net or Temple Kol Emeth at 770-973-3533.
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It’s the week before Thanksgiving, and holiday-themed events are popping up on our East Cobb events calendar, including the Ecumenical Thanksgiving Celebration. on Thursday.
It’s the 14th annual service starting at at 7 p.m. at Temple Kol Emeth (1415 Old Canton Road), and this year’s theme is “Harmonizing the Voice of Humanity.” Representatives of Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other metro area faith communities will participate in readings, music and fellowship.
The public is invited to stay for dessert and is asked to bring canned food donations for Must Ministries and an offering for Give-a-Gobble. Overflow parking is at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3155 Trickum Road.
The elections are over, but the League of Women Voters of Marietta-Cobb is delving into lingering political matters with a discussion Monday night about gerrymandering. It starts at 7 p.m. at WellStar East Cobb Health Park (3747 Roswell Road), and the guest speaker is Elizabeth McNamara, the former president of the League of Women Voters of the U.S.
Cobb Police are continuing their community outreach events with citizens on Tuesday. Cookies With a Cop goes from 6-8 p.m. at the Great American Cookies/Marble Slab Creamery in Providence Square Shopping Center (4101 Roswell Road). Bring your questions about crime and public safety for Precinct 4 community officers to answer in an informal setting.
Check our full calendar listings for more, including a number of public library book club and other events going on during this week, and beyond.
Did we miss anything? Do you have a calendar item you’d like to share with the community? Send it to us, and we’ll spread the word! E-mail: calendar@eastcobbnews.com, and you can include a photo or flyer if you like.
Whatever you’re doing this week, make it a great one! Enjoy!
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After spending this week absorbing the tragedy of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh, East Cobb synagogues will be taking part in a new national effort to promote unity and awareness during Saturday services.
It’s part of an effort called “Show Up for Shabbat,” which is being promoted by the American Jewish Committee.
Congregation Etz Chaim (1190 Indian Hills Parkway) is taking part, and here’s how the synagogue is describing the effort to its members:
Rabbi Daniel Dorsch, Congregation Etz Chaim
“It calls for all Jews, our allies, elected officials, civic and religious leaders of all faiths to come together and stand as one united community. Let us all stand in solidarity with those we mourn in light of this horrific attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
“We urge you to stand in solidarity in this national initiative. We will #ShowUpForShabbat. We will not be afraid. We will not allow hatred and bigotry to destroy our faith. We stand together. We mourn together. Let us be a light unto the nations.”
Etz Chaim Rabbi Daniel Dorsch told a local business group Thursday that non-Jews are also invited to the service, which takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
“This has been a very challenging week,” he said at a breakfast of the East Cobb Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. He said the objective is to show solidarity, and “not to tolerate hatred and bigotry in our community.”
Etz Chaim is the Hebrew translation of “Tree of Life.” After the shootings, which killed 11 people, members of nearby Catholic Church of St. Ann created a memorial at Etz Chaim for the victims, arranging 11 chairs outside the synagogue in a circle. Each chair seat had a card with the victim’s name and a rose.
Earlier this week, Temple Kol Emeth held a solidarity service (East Cobb Newscoverage here) that included members of other faith communities in the area.
On Saturday, the Chabad of Cobb synagogue on Lower Roswell Road also is taking part in Show Up for Shabbat. According to a Rabbi Ehpraim Silverman, a special service will follow at 11:30 a.m., marking the end of Shiva, a period of remembrance for those who were murdered.
In a social media posting, Silverman said Cobb County officials, including those from law enforcement, will be discussing security matters.
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Pittsburgh native Brian Pearle (left) greeted by well-wishers at a special solidarity service Tuesday at Temple Kol Emeth. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
As he and his daughter lit a candle at an East Cobb synagogue service on Tuesday, Brian Pearle choked up talking about his hometown.
He grew up in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh where 11 members of a synagogue were murdered Saturday in the worst mass killing in American Jewish history.
Pearle also knew several of the victims who were attending a bris at the Tree of Life synagogue when they were shot to death. The alleged gunman was taken into custody after a standoff, and after authorities said he posted anti-Semitic messages online.
Reciting the names of other places of mass shootings—Sandy Hook, Charleston and Parkland—Pearle admitted it was unfathomable that the place he called home for much of his life will be included on that list.
“It just hasn’t sunk in yet,” Pearle said at a special solidarity service at Temple Kol Emeth. “It torments me that the place I’ve called home could forever be remembered as one of those places. That just hurts me deeply in my soul.”
“You can’t really describe the feeling,” he said after the service, with many participants approaching him and his daughter Rachel, who had her bat mitzvah at Kol Emeth, with shows of support.
He said Squirrel Hill, with stately homes and many schools and places of worship, felt like the safest place in the world.
Two of the victims he knew well, brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, who were fondly remembered in Pittsburgh and beyond. Earlier on Tuesday, they were laid to rest in the first of the funerals for the shooting victims.
“Everything you’ve read about them, that’s exactly who they were,” Pearle said, fighting back some emotion. “It could not be more accurate. They were great guys, would give you the shirt off their back.”
Pearle was among those speaking during a “call to action” segment of the service, which was quickly organized by Kol Emeth leaders on Sunday.
Other attendees urged the crowd to vote, contact their elected officials and treat one another with generosity, love and kindness and emphasize those qualities with their children.
Rebecca Tullman, the synagogue’s religious school director, said it was particularly tough to address the shootings during Sunday services with youth.
“It’s really hard to explain to kids why some people hate you, because of your religion,” she said.
Tullman, Kol Emeth president Rachel Barich and Rabbi Steven Lebow offered prayers for peace and special messages. The audience recited the Mourner’s Kaddish and sang, including “If I Had a Hammer” and “Oseh Shalom.”
“There has always been anti-Semitism and there always will be,” said Lebow, but recent political discourse and rhetoric “has done little” to tone down those sentiments.
The Pittsburgh shootings took place at the end of a week that included the arrest of a man for allegedly mailing pipe bombs to members of Congress and former presidents Clinton and Obama and the shooting deaths of two black customers at a Kentucky supermarket in what’s also being investigated as a hate crime.
“When will this madness end?” asked Lebow.
He urged Cobb schools, local churches and politicians to do more to practice and preach tolerance, not just for Jews, but for others from racial and other minority groups, as well as immigrants.
Barich said she was heartened by a co-worker asking her how she was doing when she arrived at her job on Monday.
“I didn’t expect to be approached as if I needed support,” Barich said. “That was very much appreciated.”
Barich said the support from around East Cobb, especially other faith communities, at Tuesday’s service also was uplifting.
“This is the beginning of healing.”
Pearle agreed, calling this “a good beginning. “This was therapeutic, this was cathartic.”
He was last in Pittsburgh last month, as his son is considering attending college there.
“The next time I go home, I’ll probably be a wreck,” Pearle said.
On Nov. 15, Kol Emeth will hold its annual Thanksgiving Ecumenical Service. This year’s theme, “Harmonizing the Voices of Humanity,” is “still very appropriate,” Barich said.
“We’re moving forward,” she said. “That’s what we Jews do.”
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Jewish food and culture, music and vendors’ goods were on display Sunday at Noshfest 2018 at Temple Kol Emeth.
One of the highlights of the first day is the Bagelicious bagel-eating contest, and it was a record-setting seven whole plain bagels in five minutes, for a $500 cash prize.
The bluesy sounds of the Alex Guthrie Band wafted through the Kol Emeth grounds, along with the aromas of kosher and Jewish delicacies.
Patrons purchased food tickets and brought canned goods to benefit MUST Ministries.
Noshfest continues on Monday from 11-4 at Temple Kol Emeth (1415 Old Canton Road). Admission is free and parking is available across the street at Eastminster Presbyterian Church.
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Atlanta attorney Dale Schwartz, a key figure in Leo Frank’s posthumous pardon in 1986, holds up a photo of the 1915 lynching near what is now Frey’s Gin Road. (East Cobb News photos and video by Wendy Parker)
The Leo Frank memorial that stood near the site of the infamous lynching in Marietta 103 years ago this month has been relocated and on Thursday morning was rededicated.
Across the street from that venue on Roswell Road, representatives of the Cobb and metro Atlanta Jewish community and others gathered to honor the memory of Frank, regarded as the only Jewish lynching victim in American history.
Squeezed between the new Northwest Corridor Express Lanes on Interstate 75 and a taco eatery, the marker is located in a “parklet” created by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The small slice of greenspace, with soft soil underneath reflecting its very recent planting, also has become the new focal point for continuing efforts to fully and formally clear Frank of the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a girl from Marietta, in 1913.
“Leo Frank is innocent,” said Rabbi Steven Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb, a leader in pushing for a full exoneration of Frank.
“Your presence here today is one more step toward full exoneration.”
The dignitaries included Marietta City Council member Joseph Goldstein and State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of East Cobb, as well as representatives of the Georgia Historical Society, the Cobb SCLC and various Jewish organizations.
Frank was a supervisor at the National Pencil Company in downtown Atlanta in 1913 when Phagan, a worker there, was found murdered in a basement. Frank was put on trial, convicted and sentenced to death and later imprisoned in Milledgeville.
When his sentence was commuted to life, a mob from Marietta traveled to the jail. The mob, which allegedly included prominent local citizens, law enforcement and elected officials, kidnapped Frank. They brought him back to Marietta and on Aug. 17, 1915, hanged him from an oak tree near what is now Frey’s Gin Road.
The trial and lynching earned national headlines, inflaming anti-Semitic tensions in America and helping revive the Ku Klux Klan, but also giving birth to the Anti-Defamation League.
In more recent years, the Frank case has inspired several films and books as Jewish leaders worked for a pardon. That effort was sparked by a 1982 admission by Alonzo Mann, a pencil factory worker, that Frank was wrongly convicted.
After a silence of nearly 70 years, Mann said he saw Jim Conley, a factory custodian, carrying Mary Phagan’s body the day she died. Mann also said was told by Conley he would be killed if he told anyone about what he saw.
At Frank’s trial, Conley was the main witness for the prosecution against Frank. The state of Georgia granted Frank a pardon in 1986, but only on the grounds that he did not receive a fair trial.
“We’re still trying to get a new trial that would, in effect, exonerate him,” said Dale Schwartz, an Atlanta attorney who also has led the charge for a pardon.
The Leo Frank saga was national front-page news for more than two years, from his trial and imprisonment to his lynching.
He retold the story of the pardon effort in detail, as well as his own Jewish family being attacked by the Klan for hiring black workers at a clothing store in Winder during the Jim Crow era.
The Leo Frank memorial was originally dedicated in 2008 by the Georgia Historical Society, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation and Temple Kol Emeth.
It had to be moved four years ago to make way for an entrance ramp to the Express Lanes, which are scheduled to open by the end of the summer. The marker was kept in storage during that time by Georgia DOT.
Jerry Klinger, founder and president of the Jewish American Society, said the new site is the perfect venue for what he said is “an important story.”
Rabbi Steven Lebow of East Cobb’s Temple Kol Emeth.
“We have an opportunity to transform the meaning of this location beyond Leo Frank,” he said.
Klinger noted nearly a century’s worth of anti-lynching legislation that has never been passed, as well as a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate.
He said his organization will soon locate a black granite anti-lynching marker on the site, also in honor of Frank, and has placed a floral arrangement near Phagan’s gravesite at the Marietta City Cemetery.
“We chose to remember the first victim but also chose to remember all the victims in the United States who have suffered the horrors of lynching,” Klinger said.
The Southeast regional office of the Anti-Defamation League in Atlanta also planted a crepe myrtle tree and invited guests to shovel dirt around it to honor the dead.
Shelley Rose, the ADL deputy regional director, said Georgia is only one of five states that does not have a hate-crimes law, and said it’s important to press for such legislation here.
Rabbi Daniel Dorsch of Congregation Etz Chaim in East Cobb offered a benediction he dubbed “A Really Horrible Thing,” based on what a supermarket clerk told him in reference to the Frank case, not long after he moved to the community two years ago.
The rededication, Dorsch said, can help “to inspire us to go out and create a world where there will be no more horrible things.”
The new Leo Frank memorial site is located between Huarache Veloz Mexican Taqueria, 1157 Roswell Road, and Interstate 75.
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An interfaith choir from the participating faith communities performed “Amani,” “America the Beautiful,” “I Will Sing Hallelujah” and “Take Down These Walls.” (East Cobb News photos and slideshow by Wendy Parker
A special focus on young people in need and those who serve them was part of the 13th annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service Thursday at Temple Kol Emeth, with the theme “Dare to Be.”
That formed the basis of reflections from adults and teens representing several faith communities in and near East Cobb, as well as efforts to help Cobb youths.
With Thanksgiving a week away, a packed audience at the East Cobb Reform synagogue heard about the work of the Center for Children and Young Adults, a Marietta non-profit that provides more than a roof for homeless teens. It provides education and a sense of family for the youngsters, several of whom also performed musically at the service.
Angela Thornton of the CCYA.
Angela Thornton, the CCYA’s advancement officer, spoke about the success stories of several young people her agency has taken in, including a current student at Reinhardt College.
“Our youth dare to do every single day,” she said. “It’s not just a shelter. We’re a home.”
November is Homeless Youth Awareness month, and Thornton said nearly 40 percent of all homeless people in the United States are teens and young adults.
Proceeds from the offering at Thursday’s service are going to purchase Thanksgiving food for the CCYA, as well as to the Give-A-Gobble community food support program, a longtime beneficiary of Kol Emeth’s Women of Reform Judaism organization.
Gathering music performed by the drum circle of the Emerson Unitarian Universalist Congregation and Unity North Atlanta.The Muslim call to prayer by Hassan Faye of the Roswell Community Masjid.
In another symbol of interfaith generosity, Fred Macey, a member of the Emerson Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Canton Road, presented a tapestry of Mecca he acquired on a trip to Saudi Arabia in 1975 to the Roswell Community Masjid.
Fred Macey bequeathed a tapestry of a Muslim worship in Mecca he purchased more than 40 years ago to the Roswell Community Masjid.
Macey, who also sang in the choir, explained his gesture in the service program:
“May mutual respect between worshippers flourish for generations to come, as people of all faiths grow together and work, worship, pray, share music and food—and especially listen to one another in the coming years. May we always find joy and peace in the recognition that you and I are one.”
Kol Emeth Rabbi Steven Lebow, who started the service in the aftermath of post-Sept. 11 sentiments in Amrerica, asked attendees to think about “what they saw” while taking part in a celebration of many faiths.
While some may have seen others as different when they arrived, he said, “after the 90 minutes, you came to the realization that this is what America looks like!”
He got a standing ovation, and the choir sang “Take Down These Walls” before the attendees gathered in the synagogue’s social room for “noshing” and continued fellowship.
Rabbi Steven Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth, who started the Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service in 2005.
The faith communities taking part include: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community; The Art of Living Foundation; Baha’i Faith Center for Learning; East Cobb Islamic Center; East Cobb United Methodist Church; Emerson Unitarian Universalist Congregation; Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta; Holy Trinity Lutheran Church; Interfaith Community Initiatives; Islamic Center of Marietta (Al-Hedaya); Temple Kol Emeth; Masjid Al-Muminum; Pilgrimage United Church of Christ; Roswell Community Masjid; Sikh Educational Welfare Association; Gurudwara Sahib; St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Transfiguration Catholic Church; Unity North Atlanta Church.
More photos from the 13th Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service:
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Community service has always been a strong component of the East Cobb Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service held at Temple Kol Emeth.
This year, it’s the featured theme, especially as it pertains to youth, when this year’s service takes place next Thursday, Nov. 16, at 7 p.m. Kol Emeth is located at 1415 Old Canton Road.
“Dare to Do!” is the theme of the 13th annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service, which will include a special interfaith effort involving Center for Children and Young Adults, a non–profit agency in Marietta providing services for homeless, abused, neglected and at-risk youth.
More than a dozen faith communities in and around East Cobb will take part in the service, which includes music, reflections and post-service fellowship, refreshments and writing on the “Wall of Words.”
The service is free and open to the public, and attendees are asked to bring non-perishable food items to be donated to MUST Ministries.
Carpooling also is encouraged, and overflow parking will be available across the street from Kol Emeth at Eastminster Presbyterian Church (3125 Sewell Mill Road).
The following faith communities will be taking part:
