So my plan to “blog-as-I-go” in Atlanta did not work out. What a surprise.

Many thanks to Amanda and Howard F. for hosting me in Atlanta. They took great care of me and kicked off the Beth Shalom Renewal Fund Roadshow. I also want to express my gratitude to my colleague and classmate, Rabbi Ron Segal of Temple Sinai, for giving me the opportunity to tell our story to the Atlanta area Reform Rabbis. Temple Sinai’s philanthropic fund is making a generous contribution to the Renewal Fund. It is particularly gratifying when our sister congregations in the movement come to our assistance in this way.

My friends in Atlanta took all the materials I had to distribute in the community. I expect that even more support will be generated through their efforts.

A sidebar. I spent last Wednesday morning preparing for my Atlanta events. I then went looking for a place to eat. As I was cruising on Roswell Road near Amanda and Howard’s house I spotted the sign for a Persian restaurant called Pesopolis. When I walked in the door, the owner spotted my kippah and started speaking to me in Hebrew. In turns out the restaurant is owned by Persian Jews. A woman eating in the restaurant mistook me for a member of the Persian Jewish community. After we cleared this up we talked about my mission in Atlanta. She agreed to talk to parents at the Jewish high school about our situation.

At the moment I am in Washington for the AIPAC conference where I will be learning about the Middle East situation ---and talking about Beth Shalom’s reconstruction.

This month will take me both to Dallas and to San Francisco. Watch for details here.