It’s beginning to look a lot like Chanukah Everywhere you go Take a look at the latkes fry, I’m winning all the gelt tonight When the dreidels spin to and fro Chanukah is my favorite time of the year. As a child, it was all about the gifts and the gelt. The first...
Papers & Articles
2023 Atlanta Sister Cities Annual Report
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For Bad Maintenance, Poor Security, and Outrageous Fees, Head to the Flats @ Perimeter Place.
What Constitutes a Luxury Apartment and the Role of Security, Maintenance, and Fair Dealings in Defining Claimed Luxury? The Flats at Perimeter Center in Dunwoody, connorgroup.com/apartments-atlanta-ga-/flats-at-perimeter-place/, is marketed as a luxury...
Two Bridges Park: A Garden of Earthly Delights
I moved to the Lofts Apartments on Nov. 4, 2012. While directing the movers to my new apartment, I noticed a sign across the street that was standing before a long, deep strand of trees. Coming: Perimeter Center East Park. The park, as the years passed, and did not...
Proposal: Construct the Ashford Highline Viaduct, an Elevated Linear Park, to Transform Downtown Dunwoody
This proposal was first published on Dec. 12, 2014 after attending my 50th high school reunion in Newark, NJ and experiencing the Highline on a day trip into New York City. New York Highline up the West Side I loved the Highline’s ability to influence development...
2023 Global Studies Update: Nationalism & Imperialism, Collective Security, International Trade, & Russia, China, India, US, Germany, Japan Comparisons; Updated October 22, 2023
– Updated October 21, 2023 Unit 4: Nationalism & Imperialism The world that I taught changed on Feb. 24, 2022. Thanks to Vladimir Putin and Russia, ultra-nationalism and imperialism returned with a vengeance Autocratic Russia invaded democratic Ukraine to...
2023 Holocaust Event – Nate Leipciger, Reflections & Remembrance
https://amyisraelchaiatlanta.org/reflections-and-remembrance/index.html
2022 Atlanta Sister Cities Annual Report
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Atlanta Sister Cities Commission Proposal to Mayor Dickens and the Office of International Affairs to Develop a Series of Murals in Atlanta City Hall
Introduction: Murals, according to Google: Traditionally beautify public and private spaces by adding splashes of color and meaning to bare walls Record and memorialize historical events Become a medium for political or social commentary over time Provoke and...
2022 Holocaust Remembrance: Faith & Fortitude – Ella Blumenthal
https://vimeo.com/669040888 ELLA BLUMENTHAL was born in Warsaw, Poland, on August 15, 1921. After the Nazi invasion of Poland, Ella and her family were deported to the Warsaw ghetto. Ella was a direct witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She survived in hiding at...
2021 Annual Ra’anana / ASCC Report
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2021 Visions: What opportunities do you see in the Upcoming 5782 Jewish New Year?
My son Sasha Heller is an amateur DJ named Fried Sushi who showcases his drum and bass music mixes on web site www.deltadubproductions.com. His most recent dub step mix is a global hit called 2021 Visions that parallels this column’s theme of opportunities for...
Passover 2021: Celebrate Freedom from Four 2020 Plagues
Theme: What does freedom look like to me this year? The Passover holiday is symbolic for the Ten Plagues the Hebrews cast upon the Egyptians to win their freedom from Pharoah. The Passover holiday for 2021 is symbolic to me for freedom from four 2020 plagues: Donald...
America’s Dark Age and Great Aberration: The Trump Administration 2016 – 2021
Introduction: I salute American political cartoonists, M. Wuerker (Politico.com) and Mike Luckovich (AJC.com) in particular. Political cartoonists envision what we’re thinking and feeling in real time, sometimes at risk to themselves. I also thank,...
2020 Annual Ra’anana / ASCC Report
2021 Annual Holocaust Remembrance Event: Miracles & Memories – Stephen Jacobs, Holocaust Survivor
https://amyisraelchaiatlanta.org/miracles-and-memories/
Life During the Pandemic: A Ten-Month Long Blur of Days
The Atlanta Jewish Times, for major Jewish holidays, asks about forty Atlanta Jewish community leaders to submit 250-word columns on a common theme. For Hanukah 2020, the concept was; As a Candle Gives its Light to the Other, We Are Reminded How Our Own Light...
Black Lives Matter: Race – America’s Original Sin and Crucible
Google defines (1) original sin as Christians being inherently sinful because of Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden. Original sin (2) is a wrong of great magnitude as in the case of American slavery that began in 1619. Crucible is a melting pot used for...
Opening up the Floodgates to a New Normal
Published in the Atlanta Jewish Times, April 15, 2020 Last year I wrote that the Hebrew’s ten plagues was the first recorded use of applied terror to achieve political goals. The plagues brought about the Exodus from Egypt, and after the wandering, the ancient...
Mr. Darryl Aftel, Oct. 21, 1950 – Jan. 21, 2020: Memorial for a Beloved Teacher, Coach, and Registrar
I was a colleague of Darryl Aftel for over twenty years and attended a memorial held for him on March 8, 2020, at the Sutton Middle School. All came to celebrate his contribution to special education instruction, athletics, and Northside / North Atlanta High School’s...
2020 Annual Holocaust Remembrance Event
Am Yisrael Chai 2020 RESCUE and REFUGE Keynote speaker:Rabbi Bent Melchior The Am Yisrael Chai event, "Rescue and Refuge” was a powerful and meaningful program attended by more than 900 people. Keynote speaker, Rabbi Bent Melchior was outstanding. Thanks to Ella...
Memorial to Andrew Beard, 1947 – 2018: Publication of His Book of Poems Never to Catch a Butterfly
I only met Andy Beard three times so maybe it’s questionable why I am honoring his life with a memorial web page and publication of his book of poems, Never Catch a Butterfly. Regardless, Andy gave me his handwritten book of poems to read and he died before I could...
Myrna Cohen, Vice Chair, Visits Ra’anana November 14, 2019
Myrna Cohen, Vice Chair of the Atlanta – Ra’anana Sister City Committee, visited Ra’anana, Atlanta’s sister city in Israel, on November 14, 2019. The major aim of her visit was to support the Daffodil Project by planting five hundred daffodil bulbs to honor the memory...
Dunwoody, GA, 2019: My Ten Favorite Places Around Town
Given the popularity of my web page that lists ten good happy hour places in Dunwoody’s Perimeter Mall area – see www.arnoldheller.org/homepage/dunwoody-perimeter-area-ten-good-happy-hour-places.html – permit me to list my ten favorite places that make Dunwoody...
Chef Chris Lanter, Cache Cache, and Aspen, Colorado
My son Sasha Heller, a newspaper designer and journalist, lived in Denver, Colorado from August 2018 to January 2022. Sasha and I are pictured standing in front of Chris Lanter’s smoker eyeing delicious briskets to be sliced up in his Home Team BBQ restaurant in...
Forgiveness in the Dark Age of Trump
Psychologists define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you (Google). On Yom Kippur, Jews ask God to forgive their sins and atone by fasting to learn that repentance is...
In Memory of Saul Cohen, 1933 – 2019, a Founding Member of the Atlanta – Ra’anana Sister City Committee
By Arnold Heller, Chair, Atlanta – Ra’anana Sister City Committee ...
2019 Annual Ra’anana / ASCC Report
Dunwoody, GA, March 12 – 28, 2019: Spring begins anew and my city again becomes a blooming beauty
Map of Dunwoody, GA, Dekalb County Spring across the Metro Atlanta area may occasionally begin as early as the third week of February if a prolonged warm spell prematurely triggers nature. Some years, 2018 comes to mind, spring arrived the...
Images of the Western Caribbean Region – Costa Maya, Mexico: The Rising Star of the Mahahual Coast
My first impression of Costa Maya as I disembarked was to ask Patty; “Is this place – Costa Maya of the Mahuhual – a cruise ship port fantasy or well-developed resort that’s keeping it pretty real?” Mahahual came into existence in 1959 when the nation of Mexico gave...
Images of Western Caribbean Region – Harvest Cay, Belize: ‘Margaritaville Island’ & Ecological Wonderland
It seems that each cruise line must build or purchase their own island and version of tropical paradise. Patty and I experienced Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas that’s owned by the Holland-America Line. For more information, please access...
Images of the Western Caribbean Region – Belize City & Belizeans: A Warm Smiling Mix of People with a Soft Welcoming Voice
My first awareness of this country was during an elementary school map lesson on Central America: British Honduras was a territory in the region’s northwest corner. Belize, the last United Kingdom colony on the American mainland to still maintain s strong tie with...
Images of the Western Caribbean – Cozumel, Mexico: A Great Little Island and Getaway
Patty and I celebrated former birthdays at three all adult, all-inclusive resorts in Cancun, the Playa del Carmen, and the Riviera Maya. Two resorts were very good, the third, Secrets Maroma, was special. See...
Images of the Western Caribbean Region – New Orleans: The ‘Big Easy’ is Back and Better than Ever
I’d previously been to New Orleans three times; 1972, 1984, and 1998 but not since and wondered how the city had changed in the years since Hurricane Katrina transformed it. An estimated 150,000 of the poorest and least educated citizens left New Orleans for Houston,...
2019 Holocaust Remembrance Events
2019 Am Yisrael Chai Hope and Perserverance from Am Yisrael Chai on Vimeo.
Green Cay Wetlands, Delray Beach, Florida: A Nature Preserve and Reconstructed Wetland
I discovered the Green Cay Wetland and Nature Preserve Dec. 27, 2017 when my sister Bobbie Polinsky suggested that we visit the place. I did not know what to expect and did not bother to bring my camera. Upon first view, I realized that I had made a big mistake....
2018 Annual Holocaust Remembrance Event!
The Am Yisrael Chai event, Conscience and Action, “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world” was a powerful program attended by more than 900 people. Keynote speakers, Leo Melamed and Chihiro Sugihara were outstanding....
Selected Special or Influential People I’ve Known, also Some Cool or Key Moments that I’ve Enjoyed
I’ve been fortunate to have met or known many influential, important, or famous people – some even took an interest in me – all helped shape me to some extent. I’ve selected a number of special people to present and exceptional moments in my career to describe and...
1996 Atlanta Olympics: Envoy Driver for Estonian National Team
When Atlanta was awarded the 1996 Olympic games, I and my wife Sue rushed to volunteer for a once in a lifetime experience. We registered, received our official soon to be modified uniforms, and looked forward to being a part of the ultimate global athletic...
Arnie Heller’s Big Fiftieth Birthday Party
Both my grandfather Albert Heller and father Bernie Heller died at age forty. That I might too experience that fate influenced me to make every moment in life count. So, when I turned forty, I celebrated as if it might be my last year. If you’ve not viewed the...
2017 Annual Ra’anana / ASCC Report
2016 Annual Report Atlanta – Ra’anana Sister Cities Committee – ARSCC
Ra'anana Israel Ra'anana Profile Ra'anana is known locally as 'Little America' because so many settlers came from New York. By the 1947 War for Independence, it was a village of 3,000 residents. In the 1980's, Ra'anana was declared a city and...
Arnold and Patty Perform Twist and Shout at MME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GFOjmMx-1A
Arnie Heller’s Memorable 40th Birthday Party
2015 Annual Report Atlanta – Ra’anana Sister Cities Committee, ARSCC
Ra'anana Israel Ra'anana Profile Ra'anana is known locally as 'Little America' because so many settlers came from New York. By the 1947 War for Independence, it was a village of 3,000 residents. In the 1980's, Ra'anana was declared a city and occupies six square...