the Jewish bserver www.jewishobservernashville.orgO Vol. 84 No. 12 • December 2019 Kislev 5780 Capacity Crowds Hear Holocaust Survivor Irving Roth speaks to about 1,000 at Gordon JCC, Micah By KATHY CARLSON Irving Roth is a survivor and a thriv- er; a husband, father, grandfather and four-time great grandfather. A young 90-year-old, he blends wisdom, spirit and Photos by Rick Malkin humor to tell how he lived through the Steven Hirsch makes President’s Award presentations to Charlotte Seloff and Gil Fox III Holocaust and what people today can do to stop hatred and keep Judaism and the Jewish people alive. Seloff, Fox honored at He spoke to a sold-out audience of 500 people on Nov. 14 at the Gordon President’s Award event Jewish Community Center, an event sponsored and organized by Chabad of Avraham Infeld speaks about importance of Jewish unity Nashville along with presenting sponsor Regions Bank. By LARRY BROOK birthday, for whom “family — immediate Roth and his wife, Myrna, travel fre- At the Jewish Federation and Jewish family and communal family” were most quently as he continues to educate au- Foundation of Nashville and Middle Ten- ing a world suddenly filled with hatred important. diences of all ages and religions about of Jews, but also gave broader perspec- nessee’s President’s Award event on Nov. Three cornerstones of importance to her his Holocaust experiences. That week in 17, guest speaker Avraham Infeld promot- tive in an interview session with Esther are Jewish pride, marry Jewish and love Zion, November, for example, Mr. Roth had Tiechtel, director of the Revere Jewish ed the necessity of worldwide Jewish unity, he said. Her goal was “ensuring the continui- spoken in Los Angeles, returned home while the Federation honored two individ- Montessori Preschool and Rebbetzin at ty of the Jewish people, starting with her own to New York, then arrived in Nashville Chabad of Nashville. uals with a long record of devotion to the immediate family, and working outwards.” It for additional presentations through the Nashville Jewish community and beyond. Asked for his thoughts on forgive- was noted that all 12 great-grandchildren are following Sunday. ness, Roth replied, “I’m not crazy about The event, which filled the Pargh Audito- Jewish Day School students. He not only talked about his person- rium at the Gordon Jewish Community Cen- A Nashville native, Charlotte Seloff al history as a Jewish youngster navigat- Continued on page 4 ter, honored Charlotte Seloff and the late returned to Tennessee after her husband, Gilbert S. Fox. The President’s Award was Eugene Seloff, was decommissioned from instituted in 2012, and in 2014 was moved to the U.S. Navy. the kickoff of the Annual Campaign. She chaired the telethon division of Federation Executive Director Eric the Federation’s women’s campaign in the Reimagining Innovation Stillman noted that at last year’s event, mid-1960s, then became president of West Federation workshop to reset brainstorming, collaboration when he spoke about greater outreach and End Synagogue Sisterhood, later becoming engagement, he quoted Infeld on Jewish the congregation’s first female president. and grant-making process for new programs peoplehood. In the 1970s she chaired the Federa- In the past year, the Federation has em- tion’s women’s division campaign, and For several years, the Jewish Federation people, so Bronstone said they are bring- phasized “being welcoming to all members in the 1980s she became the Endowment and Jewish Foundation of Nashville and ing in Erika Borg, consultant and founder of the community,” including interfaith Fund development director, retiring in Middle Tennessee has encouraged innova- of Civic Allies Consulting, to lead a work- families, the LGBTQ community and 2001. tive thinking through a grants-making pro- shop on Design Thinking. those of differing abilities. “I believe we Charlotte Seloff said she was “very cess for new community programs. The community workshop will be held are making strides in all these regards,” grateful” for the award and being able to Like everything else, said Adam Bron- on Dec. 10 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Gor- Stillman said. share the evening with the Fox family. stone, the Federation’s Director of Plan- don Jewish Community Center. It is espe- Moises Paz said like Infeld, the eve- After recounting numerous historical ning and Israel Partnerships, “it’s time to cially targeted toward organizations which ning’s honorees “dedicated their lives to milestones from the last few decades, she refresh” with the next evolution of the are current or prospective grant recipients, promoting Jewish identity, Jewish commu- said “the Jewish world today is not the grant-making process, to encourage new to emphasize innovation and collabora- nal life and devotion to Israel.” Jewish world of my volunteering,” recom- ways of looking at community priorities tion in their grant requests. Herb Seloff introduced the video trib- mending the book “We Stand Divided” by and how to fill unmet needs. Design thinking encourages the solving ute of his mother, saying she is “an icon- The terms new, innovative and collab- ic woman” who just celebrated her 85th Continued on page 2 oration mean different things to different Continued on page 14 A Publication of the Mitzvah Chanukah in Tennessee’s of Kidney the Nashville Righteous Donation Area Among the Nations page 8 page 17 page 24 WWW.JEWISHNASHVILLE.ORG Awards Continued from front page Daniel Gordis as an explanation of some of the changes that have occurred. Also a Nashville native, Gilbert S. Fox returned to Nashville after serving in the Navy, working in the family’s chain of re- tail stores. In introducing his tribute video, Joyce Fox spoke of her father-in-law’s commit- ment to the community. She explained he was following in the footsteps of his mother’s 50 years of ser- vice in the Nashville general community, and his father’s presidency of the JCC and commitment to other organizations. He began volunteering with the Boy Scout troop at the JCC in 1946, she said, Avraham Infeld and both the JCC and Federation soon be- came the focus of his involvement. amazing, all the different kinds of Jews I met. “He was considered a workaholic in All define being Jewish in different ways.” his business career… and upon his retire- He said “there is no uniformity among ment in 1981, became a volunteeraholic,” us,” but “we cannot survive without uni- she said. He worked with numerous orga- ty.” He cited the story of Ruth, quoting nizations in the Jewish and general com- her response to Naomi, her mother-in-law, munities, including being an officer of the “your people are my people, and your God National Jewish Welfare Board. is my God. Gil Fox, who accepted the award for “It is not accidental that ‘your people his father, said he wished his father had are my people’ precedes ‘your God is my been able to accept it “as he planned.” God’,” he said. When Gilbert Fox was approached by the Saying he knew Fox and knows several Federation just over three weeks before other Nashville leaders, Infeld said “these he died, he told them to honor someone are leaders leading a people, leading am else, “there were younger people who are yisrael. It’s vitally important we learn to involved, and he felt they should be the educate our children and others that what ones recognized,” Gil Fox said. “But he did we are is an am,” a people. accept once he found out he was going to He said it is difficult to teach the con- share it with Charlotte.” cept of a Jewish nation around the world, Infeld, president emeritus of Hillel, where Jews think of themselves as a reli- founded numerous Jewish educational gion, and similarly difficult to teach Israe- institutions, starting in 1970 with Melitz, lis “who think Jews are a nation” about re- which fosters Jewish identity in a plural- ligion. “We are neither, and we are both.” istic understanding of Jewish life and the The purpose of Jewish education is “to centrality of Israel. have every single Jew link his memory to the Paz said Melitz played “a major role in collective memory of the Jewish people.” bringing the J back in the JCCs.” The American Jewish community is liv- Among other roles, Infeld was director ing in a difficult time, he said. No commu- general of Gesher Educational Affiliates nity in history has been more welcoming and the Shalom Hartman Institute, and to Jews, but it is a society where intermar- was director of the Jewish Agency’s Youth riage “has become a fact of life.” Department for English-Speaking Europe While no one in the world is more in London. against assimilation than Infeld, he said, He served as the first international di- he now works with Honeymoon Israel, rector for Birthright Israel, and continues which works with intermarried couples. as president emeritus of Hillel. “For the sake of our future, we have to de- Infeld said he was raised in a very termine that intermarriage is not necessar- Jewish home, where he was taught about ily assimilation. If you ignore it, it will be.” Jewish memory, but it was not a religious He isn’t condoning intermarriage, but he home. His father used to proclaim, “I’m is acknowledging that it exists. an atheist, baruch HaShem (praise God).” All over the world, he gives the same He was the first student of the first message — that Jews who say we are a re- Jewish Day School in Johannesburg, South ligion and Jews who say we are a nation Africa, and recently visited to find that just “have got to begin to talk to each other the high school now has 2,000 students.