Share Laughs, Libations for Cobb Habitat

An announcement from Temple Kol Emeth:

One of the funniest rabbis in the business is coming to Cobb County to help Temple Kol Emeth celebrate three of its favorite members.

Rabbi Bob Alper, who touts himself as the only practicing clergyman intentionally doing stand-up comedy, will return to the Atlanta area to perform at the East Cobb synagogue Saturday night, April 20, in a show whose proceeds will benefit Habitat for Humanity.

Rabbi Alper has done stand-up comedy for more than a quarter-century and has appeared on Showtime, CNN, the BBC and “Good Morning America” and at the Montreal Comedy Festival. His local stops have included Temple Beth Tikvah, Congregation Beth Shalom and Congregation Shearith Israel. His website has a sample of his routine.

You don’t need a Jewish or religious background to laugh at his comedy. An example: “We did get some good news about our son years ago. We found out we were able to arrange a student loan for him. We loaned him to a family in Iowa.”

The Kol Emeth sanctuary is an appropriate place for Rabbi Alper’s performance because jokes, laughter and fun are parts of the repertoire of the Reform congregation’s rabbis, Steven Lebow and Erin Boxt. Rabbi Boxt, for example, recently was seen singing in drag as Queen Vashtita in the Purim musical “Esther Queen Superstar and Her Amazing Technicolor Purimspiel of the Opera Now With Cats.”

The congregation’s fun-loving spirit makes a comedy show the perfect addition to the annual Lights of TKE Avodah Evening of Honor, when Kol Emeth celebrates the community contributions of outstanding members. “Avodah” is a Hebrew word referring to work in God’s name and is used for community service and good deeds.

Kol Emeth is presenting the fifth annual Avodah Award for Community Service to three longtime congregants and East Cobb residents: Henry Hene and Addie and Harvey Schneider.

Addie Schneider has coordinated Kol Emeth’s b’nai mitzvah program since 2003 and served as principal of the religious school the past five years. She has been a leader in Hadassah and Women of Reform Judaism and a member of the Boobulahs team in the Atlanta 2-Day Walk to fight breast cancer.

Her husband, a veteran of the Israeli army, is a former Kol Emeth board member and president of the congregation brotherhood. Among other contributions to Kol Emeth, he designed the 8-foot-tall menorah the congregation lights outside each night of Hanukkah. He participates in the annual Habitat for Humanity build of the Cobb Interfaith Habitat Coalition.

Hene, an Atlanta native, is Kol Emeth’s senior vice president for operations and a longtime member of the synagogue board.

He started working with Habitat in 2003 to support his daughter’s involvement in the Pope High School Habitat Club, and he has served as a crew leader for high school volunteers the past nine years. He has volunteered with the Cobb Interfaith Habitat Coalition since 2005, joined the board in 2006 and became chairman in 2010.

The coalition includes synagogues, churches and mosques working under the motto “We Build to Coexist, We Coexist to Build.”

The coalition will receive a portion of the proceeds from the April 20 celebration as it prepares to start another house this summer. A family moved into its most recent home in Marietta’s Fair Oaks section in September.

Kol Emeth invites everyone who wants to support Habitat, honor Hene and the Schneiders, or just enjoy a great, clean comedy show to join the celebration.

Advance tickets for Rabbi Alper’s show are $36, which includes two adult beverages and access to a silent auction featuring such items as a Costa Rican getaway and a chance to swim with the Georgia Aquarium’s gentle giants.

You can purchase tickets online at tkeavodahcomedyshow.eventbrite.com. Tickets at the door the night of the show are $43.

The fun will start at 8:30 p.m. April 20. Visit Kol Emeth’s website or call 770-973-3533 for more information.