the Jewish bserver www.jewishobservernashville.org Vol. 82 No. 5 • May 2017 5 Iyyar-6 Sivan 5777 Chef Joe will be manning the grill as community Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration returns to Red Caboose Park oe Perlen has cooked the food for a lot of community events What: Free community over the years – fundraisers and celebration of Yom Purim carnivals at Akiva School, Ha’atzmaut, Israeli BBYO’s annual Pasta before Independence Day Passover party. J“At Akiva they call me Chef Joe,” When: 3-6 p.m., Sunday, he says. “I know how to cook for a whole May 7 bunch of people,” On Sunday, May 7, Chef Joe will be Where: Red Caboose Park, cooking for one of the Nashville Jewish The popular New York-based trio Jonathan Rimberg and Friends, show here at the 694 Colice Jeanne Road community’s largest gatherings – the 2016 Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration in Red Caboose Park, will again provide the musical entertainment at this month’s celebration of Israel’s independence day. (Photo by Rick Malkin) Contact: Adi Ben Dor at annual celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, sponsored it will move indoors at the GJCC.) has been organizing the celebration. [email protected] by Jewish Federation of Nashville and Returning to provide the musical The Nashville Israeli folk dance group Middle Tennessee in conjunction with entertainment this year will be a three- will be on hand to lead traditional kosher hot dogs and will also provide typ- the Gordon Jewish Community Center man band led by Jonathan Rimberg, a and contemporary Israeli dancing, she ical Israeli fare like falafel, pita and salad. and the active participation of the local popular New York City musician and said, and there will be a bouncy house, There will also be three food trucks pro- congregations and Jewish agencies. bandleader whose synthesizes tradition- face painting and other activities for viding parve and dairy fare: Farm2Mesa, The celebration will be from 3-6 al Jewish, Israeli and American style children. Dan’s Gourmet Mac & Cheese, and Blue p.m. at Red Caboose Park at 694 Colice music, said Adi Ben Dor, the Jewish And food, of course. Perlen will be Monkey Shaved Ice. Jeanne Road in Bellevue. (If there’s rain, Federation’s community shlichah, who bringing the grill from Akiva to cook Continued on pages 3 On Yom Hashoah, story of WWII sergeant who saved hundreds of Jewish POWs illustrates how “choices matter” By CHARLES BERNSEN n his remarks last month at the Nashville community’s annual Yom Hashoah ceremony, Chris Edmonds referred over and over again to the choices large and small that individ- uals make every day. I“Those choices matter,” the East Tennessee Baptist pastor told several hundred people gathered in the sanc- tuary at The Temple to remember and honor those who perished in the Holocaust. “Even ordinary people can make extraordinary choices, epic choic- es, choices that can change the lives of thousands of people.” His father, U.S. Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, made such a choice on the morning of Jan. 27, 1945 when, as the highest-ranking soldier in a German POW camp, he defied the camp’s Nazi commandant and saved the lives of about 200 fellow Jewish soldiers. The commandant had ordered Chris Edmonds speaks with religious school students before the Yom Hashoah cer- The event included a traditional can- Edmonds, a 25-year-old infantryman who emony at The Temple on April 23. Roddie’s Code is the organization he runs to dle-lighting ceremony for holocaust sur- had been captured during the Battle of inspire “heroic choices” through the story of his father, U.S. Army Master Sgt. Roddie vivors and their descendants like Erin Continued on pages 2 Edmonds. (Photos by Charles Bernsen) Coleman and her son. A Publication of the As she leaves At Vanderbilt, Health & her Foundation it was seders, Beauty post for a new seders and Special adventure, Risa more Section Klein Herzog seders page 9 says she will page 15 not forget her communal roots WWW.JEWISHNASHVILLE.ORG page 4 Yom Hashoah Continued from page 1 contained an offhand remark by Lester the Bulge less than 40 days earlier, to Tanner, one of the Jewish soldiers his have only Jewish POWs report for the father had saved. After talking to Tanner morning presentation, presumably for and others, the younger Edmonds was deportation to a concentration camp. able to document the story. Instead Edmonds had every one of the Last year Roddie Edmonds became nearly 1,300 hundred POWs report, tell- one of only five U.S. servicemen recog- ing the commandant, “We are all Jews.” nized as a Righteous Among the Nations, Even when the commandant held a gun Israel’s highest honor for non-Jews who to his head, Edmonds refused to comply. risked their lives to save Jews during the After a few moments, the German officer Holocaust. With then President Barack lowered his weapon and walked away. Obama in attendance, Chris Edmonds “I’m so proud of my father and grate- was presented the Righteous medal and ful for the choice he made,” Edmonds certificate by Israeli Ambassador Ron said. “My challenge to you is to live like Dermer on the 71st anniversary of that Dad did. Choose right over wrong, good fateful day. over evil. Stand for the dignity of life.” Though he father won a number of The annual Yom Hashoah com- military decorations and is being consid- memoration was sponsored by the ered for the military’s most prestigious Community Relations Committee of award, the Medal of Honor, Edmonds the Jewish Federation of Nashville and said, “I’m convinced the honor from Middle Tennessee. In addition to the Israel is the highest Dad will ever receive presentation by Edmonds, it included a this side of heaven.” traditional candle-lighting ceremony by Too few people stood up to the evil Holocaust survivors and their families as of anti-Semitism during the Holocaust, well as special readings and prayers led Edmonds said. “But today there are mil- by local clergy. The event ended with lions of Christians like me who love the the singing of “Hatikvah,” the Israeli nation of Israel and we will always stand national anthem. with you.” Roddie Edmonds died in 1985, never Today, Edmonds heads an organiza- having told his family about the remark- tion called Roddie’s Code that seeks to able events that had occurred 40 years inspire heroes through his father’s story, earlier. His son found out about his and in a special presentation to religious father’s heroism only after reading a school students before the ceremony, 2008 article in the New York Times that he emphasized that, like his father, they Holocaust survivors Frances Cutler Hahn and her husband, George Hahn, light candles during the Yom Hashoah ceremony. have “the power to influence, the power died earlier this year.) to inspire people to do good” through the In the video, Tanner recalls that he choices they make. never saw Roddie Edmonds after their “And then you will live heroically camp was liberated on the second day of and do what the Talmud says: Go save Passover in 1945. your world,” he said. “But he has never been out of my Perhaps the most poignant moment mind. It has been the defining experience of the Yom Hashoah event was when of my life,” Tanner said. Edmonds showed a short excerpt from Noting that his 18 children, grand- a video featuring remarks from sev- children and great-grandchildren eral of the Jewish soldiers saved by “wouldn’t be here without him,” Tanner his father – Tanner and Sidney “Skip” added, “He was a righteous man.” Friedman, both successful lawyers, and For his part, Chris Edmonds said, Irwin “Sonny” Fix, a successful tele- “The greatest joy and blessing of my life vision executive who hosted the chil- has been meeting the men my father dren’s show “Wonderama.” (Friedman stood up for. I love these men.” • Chris Edmonds (center) was presented with a Jerusalem medallion by Jewish Federation Executive Director Mark S. Freedman and Federation Community Relations Committee Chair Ron Galbraith. “This links the city of our hearts to the city of your heart and the city in which Roddie Edmonds will live forever,” Freedman said. With Rabbi Saul Strosberg accompanying on the piano, Cantor Tracy Fishbein sings “Eli, Roddie Edmonds is now on the list of Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem, the Eli” during the Yom Hashoah ceremony. Israeli Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem. 2 May 2017 The Observer PBS show documents how advanced archeological techniques helped verify Holocaust escape story By TOM TUGEND self” and did not speak of his experiences. The little he learned of his father’s LOS ANGELES (JTA) – A one- past came in two ways: One was the annu- hour TV program that aired last month al reunion, on the last day of Passover, on the PBS show “Nova” document- held by escapees who had settled in Israel. ed how new scientific methods were At dinner, when shots of vodka loosened employed to support an incredible tongues, the men talked of the past, pay- Holocaust escape story. ing no attention to the boy listening in. “Holocaust Escape Tunnel,” In later years, Gol discovered that sheds new light on the attempt by 80 his father had kept a written record of his imprisoned men and women — mostly past, which the son translated into English. Lithuanian Jews — to make a break for One small recollection from the diary: the freedom in the face of Nazi bullets.