Reading in her new office is ADL region director Talora Gross (Photo by Karen Lozinski)><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Thirty schools in the ADL\u2019s South Central region currently participate in the program, throughout Louisiana and Arkansas, and Gross would like to see that number increase to 45 this year. Through this growth, the ADL hopes to include schools in Mississippi.<\/p>\n
A native of Northern California, Gross grew up primarily in South Florida. She attended the University of Central Florida for her bachelor\u2019s degree in English, and went on to attain a master\u2019s of fine arts degree in creative writing with a concentration in fiction from Antioch University in Los Angeles. She traces her lifelong zeal for education, its manifestation as a career, and her passion for civil rights to the loving, guiding force of her parents.<\/p>\n
Her father, Reform Rabbi Mark Gross, had his first pulpit in Monterey, CA, at Congregation Beth Israel. He has led the Temple Beth Orr in Coral Springs, FL, for the past 26 years. Her mother, Carol Gross, is a social worker, who has worked side-by-side with her husband in his efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have two parents who are really passionate about social justice. I have a father who\u2019s extremely interested in interfaith outreach. I grew up attending Thanksgiving unity services that he initiated in our community where every member of other religious congregations would come together, and we\u2019d collect food to give to a food bank,\u201d she reflected. \u201cI\u2019ve really seen from my dad\u2019s example what it is to build bridges between different groups who maybe could have a continued history of clashing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gross recalls her years growing up in the synagogue with great fondness; her remembrances of teaching Hebrew school, singing in the choir and productions, and helping with fundraisers cause her to light up with the same enthusiasm she undoubtedly brought to those activities when in her youth.<\/p>\n
2013 marks the centennial of the founding of the Anti-Defamation League by Sigmund Livingston. The centennial year has been filled with celebration and activism, according to Gross, and was kicked off regionally with the annual ADL South Central Torch of Liberty Dinner in December of 2012 headed up by her now-retired predecessor Cathy Glaser.<\/p>\n
All attendees of the dinner were given a reissue of “A Nation of Immigrants<\/em>” by John F. Kennedy, with a forward by Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the ADL. Foxman, who had been widely publicized as the keynote speaker at the dinner, was a last minute cancellation when his wife fell ill.<\/p>\nFor this centennial year, Foxman and Christopher Wolf also published the book “Viral Hate<\/em>,” which addresses the hateful vitriol present on the Internet thanks to extremists and the amorphous nature of the medium itself.<\/p>\nLaunched in tandem with the organization\u2019s centennial, \u201cImagine a World Without Hate\u201d is a new ADL campaign Gross is heading up. It\u2019s intent is to encourage individuals \u201cto stand up (and) speak out against prejudice and bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The centerpiece is a compelling 80-second public service video with music by John Lennon that imagines the contributions that victims of high-profile hate crimes might have made to society had their lives not been brutally cut short by racism, homophobia or anti-Semitism. Among those profiled are civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr., Holocaust victim Anne Frank, hate crime victims Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., former Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.<\/p>\n
The video itself is haunting, poignant, and renders viewers close to tears at the possibilities it suggests. A free, corresponding curriculum is available online for educators.<\/p>\n
As part of her celebration of ADL\u2019s centennial, Gross traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend events there, and lobbied for the Dream Act and S.744 Senate Immigration Bill with another regional community director for the ADL. Her training as a new regional director has been intense and non-stop since she took over the role last month.<\/p>\n
Gross\u2019 love of New Orleans began on a visit to a friend to celebrate Halloween here in 2009. A self-proclaimed foodie, she feels right at home in the culture of this great city. She can\u2019t get enough of New Orleans\u2019 cuisine and the music, citing Rebirth Brass Band as one of her favorite artists.<\/p>\n
Her expertise as an educator may make her a natural in her role at the ADL, but Gross is sure to mention the mission statement of the ADL as part of her own core beliefs: \u201cTo stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all.\u201d For her this statement reflects the questions posed by Hillel, \u201cIf I am not for myself, who will be? And when I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?\u201d<\/p>\n
She pauses after reciting both, draws a breath, and sits at her desk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had to put something next to the Shema, that would be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
(This is the second in a CCJN series on the three new executive directors who have recently taken office. Next week\u2019s series finale will concentrate on Liba Kornfeld, the new Jewish Community Center director of Jewish Family Life, among whose many new duties will include overseeing the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School and the annual community Yom Ha\u2019Shoah program.)<\/em><\/p>\n
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