From Persecution to Prosperity

On the heels of the Atlanta Jewish Life Festival and Holocaust Remembrance Day, the celebrations of life and triumph will continue on February 2, 2020 (11:30 am - 1:00 pm), when 83-year-old Rose Sowadsky will introduce her Jewish friends & neighbors at her assisted living facility to her legacy: some of the 32 infants and babies that were created with the help of her granddaughter’s foundation.

Rose Sowadsky’s granddaughter is Elana Frank, a 40-year-old Atlanta native who created the Jewish Fertility Foundation (JFF) in 2015 after battling years of infertility. The JFF provides financial assistance, educational awareness, and emotional support to Atlantans who have medical fertility challenges.

The inaugural JFF Baby Photoshoot at Berman Commons will photographically pair Atlanta’s Jewish seniors with the babies that are carrying on their legacy.

“I fled Nazi Germany in 1938 and my husband, Kurt Felsberg tragically lost his parents in Auschwitz. We eventually came to settle in Atlanta because my husband, a butcher got a position at Arthur’s Kosher meat,” explains Sowadsky. “We raised our children here in Atlanta. Turning struggle into triumph is a value you will find in many Holocaust survivor families, and it’s amazing to watch my granddaughter do exactly that. Because of her difficulties, she has brought 32 babies into the world - and counting.”

Elana Frank, states: “Berman Commons is an ideal location to build an intergenerational community. Not only are some of the Jewish Seniors of Berman Commons Holocaust survivors, but many are the pioneers who contibuted to the establishment and growth of Atlanta’s Jewish community. We feel that this photoshoot is symbolic of the continuity of the Jewish community of Atlanta, but also a symbolic stare-down of the persecution of the past.”