Bham-Hezbollah Link?; Rosh Ha'ayin, Bama & LSU; Phyllis Weinstein on Swastika
HOLOCAUST EDUCATION KEY
In response to the incorrectly-depicted swastika painted outside the home of a Jewish family in Vestavia Hills recently, long-time Jewish community volunteer leader Phyllis Weinstein, a past Birmingham Jewish Federation president, had a letter in today's Birmingham News.
Phyllis is chair of the Alabama Holocaust Commission and Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, one of the 32 agencies and programs funded by our Federation annual campaign. The Birmingham Jewish Foundation also has been involved in funding Holocaust education programs.
In her letter, Phyllis wrote about the importance of Holocaust education. "We don't know the motivations behind this disturbing incident. We may never know. What we do know is the profound historical ignorance of the individual or individuals behind this act," she wrote.
BIRMINGHAM-HEZBOLLAH LINK?
The Birmingham News had a story Saturday on a suspected link between a local car dealership and the anti-American, anti-Israel, Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. Here's an excerpt:
The federal government is trying to seize $24 million from a Birmingham car dealership, money that prosecutors say was part of a Hezbollah-controlled money laundering scheme, according to federal court records.
World Auto Sales on Green Springs Highway and 29 other dealerships nationwide received millions of dollars in overseas wire transfers over the course of about four years to buy used cars and ship the vehicles to Africa, according to a civil complaint filed on Dec. 15 by federal prosecutors in New York.
ROSH HA'AYIN, BAMA & LSU: NATIONAL TITLE TRIANGLE
By Joyce Spielberger, BJF
If you are not from Alabama or have not lived in Alabama there is no way to understand Alabama's college football "psyche."
We Alabamians, including most of us who work at The Birmingham Jewish Federation, are crazy proud for our football -- and pardon my smugness, but why shouldn't we be? The state of Alabama is home to back to back national champions -- the University of Alabama (2010) and Auburn University (2011), as well as back to back Heisman Trophy winners -- Mark Ingram (Alabama 2010) and Cam Newton (Auburn 2011).
So even though the winter holidays are behind us and the rest of the country is getting back into work routines, we here in Alabama have been on a different path. In addition to getting back into our work routines, we've been focusing on "The Big Game in the Big Easy" -- Monday night's rematch in New Orleans between the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University for the BCS National Championship.
It is not always easy for others to understand fully our football obsession, especially our colleagues in Israel. As The BJF's Director of Overseas Programs, I staff our Israel Connections Committee and work closely with the mayor's office in Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel. The BJF has had a 30-year relationship with Rosh Ha'ayin.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, The BJF partnered with New Orleans and Rosh Ha'ayin in a three-way relationship through the Jewish Agency for Israel. Through this initiative, we participated in a series of people to people exchange programs. This led to strong and lasting relationships, not only between people in Birmingham and Rosh Ha'ayin but also Birmingham and New Orleans.
So we thought it would be fun to ask our friends in Rosh Ha'ayin and New Orleans how they felt about the national championship game and even more important, who they thought would win.
The responses were mixed and, not surprisingly, there wasn't much excitement or interest coming from Israel where a "football" is not usually oval and brown but rather round and black and white. But at least Einat Yafat, deputy spokesperson for the municipality of Rosh Ha'ayin, wrote us saying, "I know nothing about college football," adding, "but my heart tells me Alabama will win!" (Of course, she may have just been saying what she thought we wanted to hear.)
NOT TYPICAL
Surprisingly, the colleagues I heard from in New Orleans were not your typical die-hard LSU fans and had their own ties to Alabama.
Alan Franco, who currently serves as the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, is a native Alabamian and an alumnus of UA. Alan called to tell me he wanted to be sure that I included in Update his hope for a "good game for 59 minutes and then...Roll Tide Roll!"
We also heard from Ann Zivitz Kimble, who as a volunteer leader in New Orleans helped establish our partnership with Rosh Ha'ayin. Ann's parents grew up in Mobile and attended Alabama. "Of course, my heart is with both teams," she wrote. "I root for Alabama in every game they play, except when they play LSU and I am forced to pick. So, Go Tigers! And don't tell on me, but Roll Tide!" Ann currently works as director of programming for the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life.
So regardless of whether you are a Tide or Tiger fan or are just trying to figure out what all the hoopla is about down here, we at The Birmingham Jewish Federation are thinking about the game and hoping (at least some of us) to be whooping "Roll Tide!" in the halls Tuesday morning.
Photo is of teens from Rosh Ha'ayin posing in shirts that say Alabama in Hebrew during a visit to Birmingham.
ROLL GRASSROOTS ROLL!
Meanwhile, as Coach Nick Saban gets the Crimson Tide ready for Monday night's game, Operation Grassroots, an unprecedented Birmingham Jewish Federation fundraising initiative, continues to roll.
Operation Grassroots is an effort to raise 1000 new gifts or increases of at least $100 to receive a $100,000 challenge gift -- and a TIDE of gifts is starting to ROLL in.
An on-line Operation Grassroots donation came from one of our past volunteer leaders who now lives in another city. She and her husband, who still feel attached to Birmingham, increased their contribution to The BJF from $500 last year to $600 for 2012. "Operations Grassroots is brilliant!" she wrote. "Count us in." Thanks to this friend's donation, we now have 76 Operation Grassroots gifts -- with only 924 more to go!
This friend's generous gift illustrates something important about Operation Grassroots -- it is open to all. No matter where you live or who you are, you are welcome to participate in this historic effort.
If you'd like to participate, you can do so by going to one of the links below, contacting Tiffany Hyche at The BJF at 205-803-1513 or tiffanyh@bjf.org or calling our 24-Hour Operation Grassroots Hotline at 205-803-1514. You can also send a check made out to "BJF Operation Grassroots" to The Birmingham Jewish Federation, PO 130219, Birmingham, AL, 35213.
