Summer 2011 Volume 5, Issue 3

DeKalb History Center

The Great Speckled Bird

The Great Speckled Bird was an underground newspaper published in Atlanta from 1968 1976 and again from 1984 1985. Known for its provocative subject matter, The Bird battled social injustice, conservative southern politics and corporate corruption, while it championed the civil rights and anti-war movements, music and the rebellious life-style of the hippies. This exhibition was first shown in 2008 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of The Bird and has been restaged at the DeKalb History Center through the generous efforts of Tom and Stephanie Coffin, Bob Goodman, Linda Howard, Reid Jenkins, Barbara Joye and Steve Wise. It is supplemented here through the efforts of Patrick Edmondson and Patti Kunkle of The Strip Project, who collected artifacts from the time period. And we extend a special thank you to Dr. Paul Hudson, Professor of History at Georgia Perimeter College, for his assistance with this exhibit. The Bird burst upon the Atlanta scene in the midst of national upheaval. The country was polarized by the Vietnam War and struggles against discrimination at home. A growing in-your-face youth culture with strange clothes, hair, music, drugs and a wholesale rejection of middle-class values bewildered or angered many of the older generations. From the first issue, which castigated Atlanta icon Ralph McGill for his support of the war, there was never a
Continued on page 4

Times of DeKalb

The Great Speckled Bird Exhibiton view now at the Historic Courthouse. Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

DeKalbs Courtyards of Convenience

By David Rotenstein
DeKalb Countys suburban landscapes are dominated by strip malls, subdivisions, and clogged transportation corridors. As the county went from an agricultural landscape to a suburban one, the people moving here brought with them cultural traditions that included a wide array of religious beliefs. As ranch house neighborhoods developed after World War II, churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship were built for the people who lived in them. The Atlanta metropolitan area has the eleventh largest Jewish population in the United States. Approximately 119,800 Jews live in the metropolitan area, and many of them reside in DeKalb County. The authors of one 1984 population study of Atlantas Jews described the regions Jewish population as decidedly suburban. They found many Jews concentrated in the Druid Hills, Dunwoody,
Continued on page 6

Inside this issue

Stone Mountain Book,

page 2

Upcoming Events,
page 2

Remember The Bird,

page 3

Volunteers and Interns,

page 3

Times of DeKalb
Page 6

DeKalbs Courtyards
Continued from page 1

and Briarcliff-Northlake areas. Among the three major Jewish denominations Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Orthodox Jews adhere most strictly to the religious laws spelled out in the Torah and to rabbinic law. Jewish law contains prohibitions against eating certain foods and working during the 25-hour Sabbath. Work includes such activities as driving and carrying objects. As Jews found themselves living in dense and sprawling urban areas, they developed ways to adapt to modern urban environments. To circumvent the prohibitions on carrying during the Sabbath, rabbis invented the eruv: a symbolic boundary that makes public domains private through enclosure. DeKalbs Orthodox Jews are more visible because of their adherence to religious laws. Anyone driving in the Toco Hills area knows that on Friday evenings and Saturdays the sidewalks and road shoulders are crowded with the observant walking to and from the Beth Jacob synagogue. Some folks simply call them the walkers. They are so prominent that smart growth planners pictured desire lines worn into grass alongside roads where there are no sidewalks and attributed them, in part, to Orthodox Jews walking on the Sabbath. Synagogues and people walking are the most visible dimensions of the countys thriving Jewish population. Unseen by many people, however, are the eruvs that enclose large areas in neighborhoods surrounding Orthodox synagogues: Toco Hills, Dunwoody, and Virginia-Highland. Together they enclose about 6.8 square miles in DeKalb County. So what is an eruv? The Hebrew word means to mingle or mix. The mixture is a combination of public and private spaces into a hybrid of the two. Jewish beliefs rigidly divide space into public and private domains. Inside the home, the private domain, Jews are allowed to carry. Outside the home, in the public domain, they are not. An eruv is like a large symbolic courtyard where the space typically associated with domesticity and households has been expanded to embrace public spaces like roads, parks, government buildings, and even shopping malls. To construct an eruv, builders must create an unbroken chain of symbolic doorways. Modern infrastructure provides eruv builders with many of the materials. Utility poles are the uprights in the doorframe and power wires or specially placed string become the lintels. Also incorporated are existing fences and walls if they meet certain criteria. In DeKalb County, large parts of the busy Clairemont, North Druid Hills, and Lavista roads corridors are inside the Atlanta Eruv. In fact, the I-85 sound wall between Cheshire Bridge Road and Clairemont Road comprises part of the eruvs northern boundary. The Atlanta areas oldest eruv was completed in 1992. Based in the Beth Jacob synagogue, the Atlanta Eruv, Inc., eruv wraps around 4.1 square miles. Beth Jacob has been in its DeKalb County location on LaVista Road since 1961 when it moved from Atlanta. According to Joseph Tate, members of Beth Jacob began discussing the possibility

From top: Map showing location of local eruvs; Eruv string attached to utility pole in Dunwoody; I-85 sound wall is a boundary; Strings, hooks and a tree in the Emory woods carry the eruv alongside Peachtree Creek. (Images from the author)

Volume 5, Issue 3
Page 7

Of Convenience (cont.)
of building an eruv in 1988. Tate is a former engineer and an obstetrician. He is also the president and founder of the Atlanta Eruv. Atlantas eruv builders have close ties to Baltimore, Maryland. They consulted with Baltimore rabbis on design issues and a prominent Baltimore rabbi inspected the Atlanta Eruv after it was completed. Baltimores first eruv opened in 1979 and the materials and construction methods used in it have been adopted by other eruv builders, including the Atlanta Eruv. At first, the Atlanta Eruv created its doorways by attaching plastic strips to power poles like they did in Baltimore. They quickly found that method was too costly to maintain and they switched to a system worked out with Georgia Power Company engineers. Tates system uses Georgia Power infrastructure almost exclusively except for a one-mile stretch that runs through the Emory woods. For that segment, Tate recruited Jan Siegelman. An avid outdoors enthusiast, Siegelman helped survey and attach strings to trees that form the eruvs southern boundary along Peachtree Creek. Siegleman became the Atlanta Eruvs first weekly inspector ensuring that the eruv was intact for the Sabbath. He burned out after about five years; for the past 10 years, Rabbi Ariel Asa has inspected the eruv. A mohel (rabbi who performs circumcisions) in his day job, Asa dons an orange vest and travels the eruv boundary looking for breaks and other problems, like replaced poles. Its a paid job and it takes about five hours each week. After the Atlanta Eruv went up, eruvs in Dunwoody (1998) and Virginia-Highland (2004) followed. Now there are six eruvs in Fulton and DeKalb counties. The Beth Jacob eruv experts helped Dunwoody complete its eruv, which enframes the community around the Congregation Ariel synagogue. The Virginia-Highland eruv straddles the Fulton-DeKalb County line and is based in the Anshi Sfard synagogue. Congregations with eruvs experienced dramatic changes once the structures went up. In addition to creating an eruv subculture of inspectors and maintainers, the eruvs enabled women with young children more freedom to socialize and to attend synagogue. Now that they can carry food from house to house over the Sabbath, families are socializing more and there is a greater sense of community. Although DeKalbs eruvs are barely more than a generation old, they are significant reminders of our development as a late twentieth century suburban county. The Jews who moved to the suburbs after the Second World War adapted to the new landscape and altered it to fit their religious needs. As new immigrants with different ethnic and religious heritages settle in DeKalb County, they too will bring with them parts of their cultures that will have visible and not so visible effects on our landscape, adding to the countys rich and diverse heritage.

Join * Renew * Give

Collecting, Preserving and Sharing the History of DeKalb County All funds received through memberships directly support the preservation of DeKalb County history and are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Your generous contribution to the DeKalb History Center will provide you with a year-long membership that includes our quarterly newsletter to keep you informed on all our activities. We hope that you will join our team by either renewing your membership or joining as a first-time supporter.

Name

______________________________________

Email

_______________________

Address ________________________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip _________________________________ Phone _______________________

Supporter Levels
___ Heritage Society$2,500
I n s id e S to r y H e ad l i n e

___ Contributor$250 ___ Sustainer/Business$125 ___ Patron$75

___ Household$50 ___ Individual$30 ___ Student/Teacher/Senior$25

___ Sponsor$1,000 ___ Benefactor/Corporation$500

Please mail this form with your contribution to: DeKalb History Center, 101 East Court Square, Decatur GA 30030