What's Next? Southern Dreams, Jewish Deeds and the Challenge of Looking Back while Moving Forward

Growing up Jewish in Georgia was a bittersweet experience. The charm of Southern culture was tempered by a distinctness which most Jews felt. Still, for Janice, it was a rich childhood. After WWII, she met Jack Rothschild, who had recently assumed the pulpit at The Temple in Atlanta. Soon, she became the Rabbi' s wife. Already outspoken in the burgeoning civil rights movement, they were spurred to further action by the bombing of their synagogue (featured in the Film Driving Miss Daisy) and becoming friends with Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife Coretta. When Jack died suddenly at the end of 1973, Janice continued to write, eventually publishing her first book. By then she had remarried David M. Blumberg, the President of B' nai B' rith. When David died in 1989, the leadership of the B' nai B' rith National Jewish Museum became her overriding concern. Nine years later she re-encountered Gunther Plaut, the Canadian Rabbi and scholar. Their long friendship soon metamorphized into a deep romantic relationship, cut short when Alzheimer' s disease overtook Plaut. In 2009 she returned home to Atlanta. She had been away for quite some time, but in her heart she never really left. She resumed writing, finishing Prophet in a Time of Priests about her great-grandfather, Edward " Alphabet" Browne. Now in her late nineties, Janice continues to amaze. Her skill as a writer has fully evolved and it is nowhere more evident than in her memoir. She happily continues to learn, staying open to what life brings her way and ready for what' s next.