Update: Limmud Cancels Torah Celebration
Jewish Atlanta's response proved too little, too late to help celebrate the organization's 10th anniversary.
Update March 23: Limmud has informed the AJT that Atlanta’s Got Torah has been canceled. Other community organizations weren’t showing enough interest in forming teams with less than two months until the event.
Original story below
Limmud Atlanta + Southeast is marking its 10th anniversary by holding a talent show with a Torah twist.
Atlanta’s Got Torah will feature team performances of biblical texts. The event will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 13, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta in Midtown.
Federation’s current CEO, Eric Robbins, and chief impact officer, Jodi Lox Mansbach, were driving forces in bringing the Limmud movement to Atlanta a decade ago. Born in England, Limmud is volunteer-driven effort to bring people of all backgrounds and ages together for Jewish learning and community.
It started locally with a one-day event March 1, 2008, at Oglethorpe University. Since 2009, its feature event has been LimmudFest at Ramah Darom across Labor Day weekend.
Paul Flexner, the president of the Limmud Atlanta + Southeast board, noted that this fall will be the 10th LimmudFest at Ramah Darom, so “we needed to hold an event in Atlanta to celebrate.”
Registration for the festival opens the day of Atlanta’s Got Torah.
Limmud hopes to get 12 to 15 teams representing Jewish organizations to compete in performing a Jewish text that fits the theme of mothers in the Torah or the city of Jerusalem (the event falls on Mother’s Day and Yom Yerushalayim). Most of each team’s members should be adults.
Befitting both Limmud and TV inspiration “America’s Got Talent,” participants have wide leeway in determining what talent to use in their performances of three to five minutes. They could sing, dance, play music, perform magic, juggle — anything that teaches the text and entertains.
Meaningful Media’s Ori Salzberg will hold an orientation and brainstorming session Sunday afternoon, March 25, to help teams develop performance ideas.
The team entry fee is $120. The winning team will get tickets for a family of five to LimmudFest and, more important, the coveted Atlanta’s Got Torah trophy.
Get details and register at limmudse.org/talent.
“We think this is a great opportunity to bring a diverse community of people together to celebrate Torah and Jewish peoplehood in a fun and engaging way,” Flexner said. “It’s just the kind of thing that the Jewish community should be doing and should be having fun doing.”
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