Lodge Bezalel News

Staying Together - The Brotherhood of Lodge Bezalel

As we all hunker down, our continued well being depends being able to stay in touch with each other to get help, provide help and maintain the social contacts that are so important to us as human beings. You can contact your Lodge Bezalel brothers directly through our online membership directory. Here are the steps:

1. Log in with your username and password
2. On the Home Page screen, hover over Membership at the far right of the green  bar at the top of screen
3. When the green background turns to orange, click on Membership - Do Not Scroll through the drop down menu
4. You should see links to each Lodge brother's contact info.

Once you have access to the listings, you can scroll through all the names or go directly to a brother's info through the search function. You'll find phone numbers and email address. You can also click the big blue Message button, and that will generate an email with your email address included for a reply.

Your username for logging in is the email address you supplied to Lodge Bezalel when you joined. If you are not sure which email address we have for you, contact Stan Schnitzer (stan@theschnitz.com) for a lookup.

If you do not have a password or can't find it, just click Forgot My Password. You'll receive a password, which you can then change.

Notice from Governing Lodge NA

All meetings of the Hebrew Order of David International have been suspended by Governing Lodge NA until further notice. Those of us at Lodge Bezalel hope you'll take advantage of technology to check in on each other and maintain the social contacts that are vital to us all.

Pat Yourselves on the Back

Lodge Bezalel was awarded for the Highest Percentage of Growth for 2018-2020 Grand Lodge term. The award was given during the Biennial Grand Lodge Conference in Johannesburg, March 6-8. The award is the harvest of the seeds we planted and cultivated over the past 18 months, led by our Membership Chairs, Bros Steve Tabb and David Weingast, who provided the direction and organization. Read More

R Ranch Retreat – Postponed
Likely to be Rescheduled for This Fall

With the need to practice social distancing during our current national coronavirus public health crisis, we are postponing the R Ranch Retreat for Bezalel bros and friends. It's always been a fun time, and we want to continue our Lodge tradition when we're all hale and hearty.

The crisis has also forced the postponement of Dahlongega's Bear in the Square music festival until October. When we see the actual date and check it against the Jewish holidays and the Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival, we'll reschedule our retreat.

A Survivor’s Journey - Our April 21 Joint OLM with Lodge Shimshon

As a Shoah (Holocaust) survivor, Ben Walker led a secret life. Nobody – not even his wife, Ruth, nor his daughters, Ronit and Naomi (Z’l) – knew anything of the events that shaped his life and his deepest fears. But as the Twin Towers in New York fell on Sept. 11, 2001, 56 years of his personal history began to rise.

“It showed what hatred can do,” he said of that infamous day’s events. “Hatred caused them to kill innocent civilians, just like the Nazis. I started talking to many students in schools and universities about what hatred can do. Antisemitism is pure hatred.”

Born near Czernovitz, Romania in 1935, he grew up on his grandfather’s farm, enjoying climbing trees, riding horses and roaming in cornfields. It all changed in 1941.

Hear Ben’s story at our April 21 joint OLM with the Brethren of Lodge Bezalel and Lodge Shimshon – and the brethren of Lodges Carmel and Magen David who wish to attend. The time is 7 p.m. for schmoozing, 7:30 p.m. for a short business meeting and dinner to follow.

Lodge Bezalel meets at Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road, Sandy Springs, GA 30328. Because of our expected large gathering, you must register to make sure we have enough food. Register Now!

Get Involved with Lodge Bezalel

Join one of our committees and make your mark on Lodge Bezalel. Our committees and chair contacts:

Social: David Weinberger and Paul Flexner
Community Service: Alan Wind
Membership: David Weingast
Table Lodge: Ron Scheinzeit

Read Our Meeting Minutes

Click to read the minutes from our last OLM and mintues from all 2020 and 2019 OLMs.

Service Projects Update

Lodge Bezalel has two on-going service projects with new ones being added as our brethren expand our involvement.

• Hunger Walk Join us for the Hunger Walk, Sunday, March 15, at the Home Depot Backyard next to Mercedes Benz Stadium from noon to 4 p.m. We'll walk, jog or run for as long as we can. Just look for your lodge brothers - or any other group of friends. You can contribute through HOD by clicking here - https://engage.acfb.org/site/TRR/2020HungerWalk/General?fr_id=1974&pg=tfind  - and searching for Hebrew Order of David.
• Zaban Pardies Center Serve dinner and dine with guests at Atlanta's couples' shelter that helps homeless couples transition to independent living. We are arranging to serve dinner on three occasions during January, February and March. The center is located at The Temple. We served dinner on March 5, and we'll do it again on March 25. Contact Alan Wind to volunteer.
• Voter Registration  We work with a variety of places, from high schools to senior living facilities to help register new voters and assist voters with updating their addresses and other information to remain on the voter roles. Read about our Voter Registration Project. Contact Paul Flexner for more info.
  

Wine Tasting Event

Our popular Wine Tasting is back – this time on a Sunday night, June 7, at 7 p.m. at the New Bedford Clubhouse, 900 Forest Pond Drive, Marietta, GA 30068. 

It’s a wine tasting with a competition to see who brings the best wine. Anyone wishing to participate needs to bring 2 identical bottles of red or white wine. One of your bottles will be wrapped and numbered for a blind tasting by all attendees who wish to participate. The other one will be put in the vault. During the evening, everyone who wishes to do so will have the opportunity to taste and rate each wine in the competition by assigning numerical values.

We’ll judge the reds and whites separately and tally the scores for each. Whoever brought the best red and white wine, as determined by the voters, will receive all of the unwrapped bottles in the vault – color-coded, of course. Last year’s winner of the “red competition” took home 20 bottles.

Watch for details.

Lodge Bezalel Calendar
March 1, 2020

See Pics from Our Jazz Concert with Joe Alterman at Berman Commons