The Breman

Corinne and Larry, new friends from the caravan, invited us to park our motor home in their driveway and enjoy another side of Atlanta.  The price for this offer was many hands of bridge which we all enjoyed even when the cards were bad.  They live in the Atlanta suburb of Buford where dining is surprisingly good.  Dinner at Sperata was delicious, and, for a change, not Cajun, and the service charming.

Between rubbers of bridge, Jerry and Anna Lee went to the Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum.  The museum is in the Selig Center which houses the Atlanta Jewish Federation.  For a small museum, it does an excellent job of telling the history of the Jews of Atlanta.   This stained glass window is all that remains of any early synagogue.

Starting in 1862 with thirty families, the community has grown to more than 100,000 today.  In the 1850s Judah P. Benjamin was twice  nominated for a seat on the U. S. Supreme Court but declined in order to serve as Secretary of War and State for the Confederacy. 

Anna Lee was in Atlanta in the 1980s for an ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation and Training) Convention.  This certificate is from an ORT student in 1947 in Munich.

World War II brought many Jews escaping the Nazis to the Atlanta area.  The museum has personal accounts as well as family photographs and momentoes that the immigrants were able to salvage. 

Several student groups were touring the museum while we were there.  One docent, whose family was killed in a camp, questioned the students on what they would do if their neighbors were so threatened.  He then told the stories of the righteous who resisted the Nazis to try and save Jews from being sent to the extermination camps.  This Torah was rescued from a destroyed synagogue but is too damaged to use for ritual reading.

Further displays tell of the growth of the community and of  two major acts that affected it.  The first was the trial, questionable conviction, hanging and pardon of Leo Franks for the murder of a young girl.  This event led to the modern rise of the KKK.  The second event was the bombing of a synagogue whose Rabbi was active in the civil rights movement.  This brought out community support for the congregation and for those working for desegregation.
    
On a lighter note, we delighted in Chosen Food, a traveling exhibit that tells the significant role food plays in Jewish culture.  A model grocery has shelves filled with products that are kosher.

Another display explains that Coca Cola, a major Atlanta product, adjusted the ingredient glycerine so that the product is kosher.  Videos showing cooking demonstrations, table settings for holiday meals, and audio about lively conversations during family meals could have been taken from our own lives

After seeing all that Jewish food, we were hungry for deli and went to Goldberg’s for lunch.
 

.