The Spring Celebrates Fifth Night of Chanukah

The Spring, an ambitious attempt to develop a comprehensive Jewish community center in Atlanta’s Intown neighborhoods, wrapped up its programs for 2025 with a Chanukah celebration on the fifth night of the holiday.

The program, which took place at the Ponce City Market in Atlanta’s old historic Fourth Ward, attracted a broad cross section of residents from the surrounding intown neighborhoods and a number of important community figures. The Spring’s Executive Director, Samara Minkin, welcomed the large and enthusiastic crowd by emphasizing the support The Spring has generated during its short history.

“The Spring is the future Jewish community center and cultural center in Midtown. It is the brainchild of some of the biggest visionaries in Atlanta. Some of some of them are in this room with us tonight.”

The organization, which was formally launched in March of this year, has the dedicated support of a core group of 30 Atlanta families, which has helped to accelerate the progress that has occurred over the last nine months. Minkin began exploring possible sites for a center building with a group of engineers and architects this month. Although a capital campaign is still in the works, the group is not losing any time moving ahead with its plans.

“We’re looking at multiple sites and we’re doing our due diligence around them. We have a sense of what we want to do, and we are working on the details. The feasibility work was done on the Federation’s site on Spring Street, which is coming available, and we’re looking at several sites.”

The event attracted the co-chairs of The Spring’s board of directors, Matt Bronfman and A.J. Robinson. Bronfman is the CEO of Jamestown Properties that developed the Ponce City Market concept in the former Sears Roebuck distribution center on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The two-million-square-foot center is one of several similarly successful developments in important urban projects around the country.

Robinson has long been active in urban affairs as the president of Central Atlanta Progress and the co-chair of the board of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Also attending was Israel’s new consul general in the Southeast, Eitan Weiss, and Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt. She has returned to Emory University after serving in Washington, D.C., as the United States special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism.

A special guest was Merav Oren, who heads up Foodish, the culinary arts project of the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. She is on a tour of several cities to drum up financial support for its programs in Israel. The Spring is developing an informal partnership with the museum and the food for the evening was a series of small plates which played off the relationship between the holiday of Chanukah and Jewish cuisine. The evening’s menu was created by three of Atlanta most talented chefs, Todd Ginsberg of The General Muir restaurant, Tal Baum of the Oliva Restaurant Group, and Liat Tzionov of The Crazy Apron.

The Chanukah observance was co-sponsored by The Breman Museum, the American Jewish Committee’s Access program for young professionals, and Bayit Ba’Beltline, a recently organized effort to encourage Jewish religious observance in intown neighborhoods. The relationships that The Spring has developed during the past year are one indication of the important goals Minkin hopes the organization can explore in the year ahead.

“This project is so very important. We’re doing all this programming in the service of building a Jewish cultural and community center in the city of Atlanta and I think the importance of the Jewish presence and visibility has resonance beyond anything that we can imagine.”

The Spring is the future Jewish community center and cultural center in Midtown.

In the first quarter of 2026, The Spring is looking to expand its ties to Van Jones’ Exodus Leadership Forum, which is interested in strengthening ties between the African American and Jewish communities in Atlanta. They have a series of cultural events planned with The Breman Museum, Atlanta Jewish Film, and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. There is also a celebration being created for Tu B’Shevat, the environmental holiday in February. That is being done with Adamah, which supports Jewish projects related to the natural world.

And there is more to come, says Minkin, in the three areas that they are concentrating on, thought leadership — which means programs on relevant, contemporary issues, cultural events, and making old practices related to Jewish life new again.

“For a long time, there has been a conversation about this massively growing Jewish community in urban Atlanta,” Minkin observes. “And it’s growing across all demographics. The time feels right for this community to step forward and build a place for ourselves, to build a home for ourselves.”