Exciting

new events are on the horizon for the congregation of

B'nai Israel.

The

congregants are looking forward to breaking ground on

their own building in Fayette County very soon. Members

currently meet in Christ Our Hope Lutheran Church on the

Fayette-Clayton border on Ga. Highway 138.

Just a

month ago, the congregation received its first spiritual

leader who was not a rabbinical student. It should also

be mentioned that the new rabbi was the first female

United States Naval chaplain (1986).

Rabbi Julie

Schwartz is a native of Cincinnati, growing up near the

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and

became a bat mitzvah about the time the first female

rabbi was ordained in 1972. "I thought she must be

very cool," said Schwartz in an interview in The

Atlanta Jewish Times, July 9, 1999.

She did her

undergraduate work at Northwestern University, Chicago

and her advanced degree was from HUC-JIR in 1986.

She met her

husband, Rabbi Steven Ballaban, in the Navy, where they

both remained for three years. They then moved to

Cincinnati where Schwartz joined the HUC-JIR faculty.

During her nine-year tenure, she established the pastoral

education program which included training rabbis in

counseling, crisis intervention and congregational

leadership and management. Some of those students served

at B'nai Israel and she was familiar with the

congregation.

Her husband

accepted the position as head of school of the Davis

Academy in Atlanta, a Reformed Jewish day school for

grades K-8. Schwartz called B'nai Israel to offer her

assistance and the congregation quickly accepted.

She and her

husband are the parents of four children: Reuven, 11,

Aryeh, 9, Gavriella, 6, and Adina, 20 months.

B'nai

Israel began in 1981 when five families met in a home to

discuss the possibility of a synagogue in the south of

Atlanta. Three of those five families are still in the

synagogue. They called as many people in the phone book

as they could find with Jewish-sounding names and called

everyone together at a community room in Southlake Mall.

Within a

few months, Christ Our Hope Lutheran Church offered to

share its facility with the new congregation, and

"for the past 17 years," said B'nai member

Elaine McGee, "they have been here for us 150

percent. We cannot say enough about their kindness and

consideration. They have always accommodated us in any

need we had."

For some

time, B'nai Israel has owned seven acres in Fayette

County at the Ga. Highway 54 - Corinth Road area and the

congretation is finally getting ready to break ground for

its very own building. "Donations will be gratefully

accepted," mentions member Sharon Hudgins, whose

family is one of those first five in 1981.

The current

membership is 67 families and the congregation is active

in a number of social concerns: they volunteer at the

Zaban Night Shelter in Atlanta, serving meals and

overseeing the overnight stays of homeless people; at

Jewish holidays it makes sure needed Jewish families can

be availed of the pertinent services and see that

children receive toys, etc.; it participates in the

"Hunger Walk" which supports the Atlanta Food

Bank, and on Christmas Day, members relieve those working

at the Clayton County Night Shelter, so the Christian

workers can be at home with their families.

Said

Schwartz, "Judaism derives a philosophy from the

profits, who said that caring for people who can't care

for themselves can be accomplished through prayer and

that prayer then translates into action."

The

Congregation B'nai Israel Religious School has classes

for fourth, fifth and sixth graders Wednesday nights. For

information on classes, call Sharon Hudgins,

770-460-1218.

Shabbat

services are each Friday at 8 p.m. B'nai Israel's address

is P.O. Box 142481, Fayetteville 30214; phone

770-471-3586, or check out its web address: www.bnai-israel.net.

Holy

Days

services are

planned

B'nai

Israel will conduct High Holy Day services: Rosh Hoshanah

Saturday, Sept. 11 at 10 a.m.; Yom Kippur Friday, Sept.

17 at 8 p.m., Monday, Sept. 20 at 10 a.m., continuing

through the day.

Rosh

Hoshanah marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year,

welcoming the year 5760. The ten-day period from Rosh

Hoshanah to Yom Kippur is marked by prayer, confession

and introspection, when Jews gather in synagogues to

contemplate the manner in which they have lived during

the past year.

Yom Kippur

is a day spent in prayer and fasting, and recalling loved

ones who have entered eternity by evoking and handing

down the teachings those loved ones gave when on Earth.

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