Letters: Sugarman Shined in Scouts, A Vote for Ossoff

The first person to recognize Rabbi Alvin Sugarman’s potential (“Our View: Dean of Rabbis,” March 24) was Josiah Benator, the famous Scout master of Troop 73. A very spiritual man, Mr. Benator, as his loving Scouts call him, believed that his group of Scouts in the early 1950s should daven when on a camping trip over Shabbat.

He picked the future Rabbi Sugarman to speak to us in the wilderness.

I had the good fortune of being in the Scout troop, and once in a while I was given the opportunity to lead the services as well.

As Rabbi Sugarman developed in the years before he went to Hebrew Union College, he spent Shabbatot with my late parents, Anna and Louis Geffen, who also understood what a gift Rabbi Sugarman had and encouraged him to become a rabbi.

I have been privileged to watch Rabbi Sugarman from Israel as he led The Temple, as he studied and wrote his doctorate, as he was cited as one of the outstanding individuals in Emory’s history, and as he labored diligently for the Jewish and general communities of Atlanta.

For me, it is a moving coincidence that Rabbi Joshua Heller, whose inauguration I attended, is the son of my late classmate Rabbi Zachary Heller, a noted figure in the Conservative movement.

My wife, Rita, and I wish Alvin and his wife, Barbara, many more delightful years with each other and their children and grandchildren. Atlanta should be proud that a native son has risen to such spiritual heights in his outstanding rabbinical career.

— Rita and Rabbi David Geffen, Jerusalem

A Vote for Ossoff

I am supporting 6th District Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff because Jon is a promising candidate who is very intelligent and poised and is a phenomenal speaker. I have had the opportunity to meet him three times, and I believe he is what our community needs to turn things around for Georgia.

I am feeling very unsettled with what I am hearing from Washington and the Trump administration. This is our chance as a community to come together and tell the world that the people in the 6th District of Georgia do not agree with the way the White House is running our country and we do not share President Donald Trump’s values. Jon will be our voice in Washington.

— Sandi Strasberg, Dunwoody

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