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Page 20 • The News • November, 1994 Chanukah: Holy Day of Light, Laughter and Latkes TMs That The Carolina Panthers have named Mann Travels as their exclusive travel agency. Mark Richardson, director of business operationsfor the Panthers, said, "Mann's designation as our exclusive travelagency was the result of an extensive search for the right travelmanagement company. Our varied travel ^>needs are complex... Mann Travels is the right choice to pro vide a high level of service andto help us keep our travel expenses as low as possible." GarySilverstein, President of Mann Travels is also the travel agencyfor the Charlotte Hor nets and the Carolina Checkers. Lyerly Agency, Inc. re cently took five prestigious V J Awards from the Business Marketing Association's marketing com- petition. Recog- nizing the best creative work in North and South CaroUna,Lyerly Agency received a ProAd for two adver tisements. Elaine Lyerly was ap pointed to the Board of Direc tors forSouthTrust Bank and ' ^ was recognized as the Charlotte Woman Business Owner of the Year for 1994 by the Charlotte Women Business Owners Asso ciation. Elaine, and her hus band, Marc Rauch, have recentlyadopted an eight month old son, Elias, from Paraguay, South America. Sidney Cojac, representing Mecklenburg County at the North Carolina Senior Games held in Raleigh on September 22, won a gold medal for Ten nis Singles. He is now eligible to play at the level of competi tion held in San Antonio, Texas. Josh Hantman, son of Barry Hantman, former di rector of the Jewish Community Center, has been invited to become a Golden Key member of the National Honor Society. Membership is ex tended to the top 15% of stu dents only. Josh, an upper Junior, is pre-med and is major ing in Biology and Chemistry with a 4.0 average. The Golden Key National Honor Society was founded in 1977 to recognizeoutstanding students at leading colleges and univer sities throughout the U.S. Judy Goldman's book. Wanting to Know the End, won two prestigious awards re cently: the Oscar Arnold Young Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Council and the North Carolina Poetry Society's Zoe Kincaid Brockman Award for the Best Book of Poetry by a North Carolinian in 1993. Ruthie Warshenbrot, daughter of Amalia and Abraham Warshenbrot, won first place in the annual Essay and Public Speak ing contest spon sored by Charlotte Mecklenburg Ur ban League, Inc. Ruthie is a sixth grader in First Ward elementary school and is in the Vav class of Temple Israel reli gious school. by Ted Roberts My good friend Herb loves Chanukah. "It's the Fourth of July with latkes subbing for hot- dogs and dreidel-spinning for fireworks. "Dreidels," says Herb, the Chanukah Hochem, "are safer than fireworks. And much more profitable if you un derstand the odds and your fel low players think it's a child's game. How 'bout a nice game of dreidel," Herb says to syna gogue newcomers - all year 'round! We augment our shul trea sury with a latke cookoff every year. Anyone can enter. Even an anonymous member -we'll call her Yetta - who tried to buy a house without a kitchen, until her real estate agent fired her as a client. Once a year she at tempts latkes. A gray, soggy mound of mush that would work well in the transmission of your car. When Yetta sets a skillet on the stove, oil futures skyrocket and the latke hotline is tied up all afternoon. Herb the dreidler, since he can't be a Jewish mother, is the ultimate Jewish eater. He once begged Hilda to bake him a Chanukah turkey - stuffed with latkes. The other night at my kitchen table - inspired by a glass of Manischevitz - he told me his version of the Chanukah story; "It was all a big culture clash, "he says. "Greeks and their worship of beauty and the human anatomy vs. Judaism's accent on adornment of the soul. Those Selucids loved to work out," says Herb. "Why, they opened up fitness centers all over Jerusalem." So here's a Jewish kid walk ing to Hebrew School and he passes a gym full of Selucids and their oiled-up sinewy bod ies. "Hey kid, you're as pale as a bowl of goat's milk," yells a guy pumping a full-grown heifer over his head. "Lay out on the hillside with us and catch a few rays - then you can join our lOOOK run to Beersheva." Pale(but bright) Jewish kid: "I dunno. My folks said I should go to Heder this afternoon and then attend Maariv services at the synagogue." Well, Herb oversimplifies. And he forgets to mention that Chanukah is our only holiday that comes from the Apoc rypha - the books that didn't make the first team. But basically it WAS a clash of incompatible c u 1 t u r e s . Antiochus IV, the Haman of his day, wasn't content to collect taxes and sit on a golden throne and coexist with his conquered contentious subjects. He wanted to crush Judaism like you mash a thick latke with your spatula. And like we learn in Maccabees I and II, he filled the Temple with chazzerai - statues of gods and goddesses. Things were so bad, says Maccabee I, that rulers and elders groaned, girls and young men fainted away, and the beauty of the women was al tered" You know things are bad when the beauty of the women is altered and your best girl starts looking like Antiochus. "That did it!" said the Hasmonean clan. Our long-suf fering ancestors could take no more. They rose up like the nar row brool^ of the Galilee turn into raging white water torrents during the rainy season. They stormed over their banks, car rying all before them. After many battles, most of Jerusalem was liberated and the desecrated Temple was cleansed. The portrait of Antiochus was used as a chopping board to pre pare the onions and potatoes for latkes. The Temple's holy flame - the eternal light - was relighted and miraculously it burned for eight days with only a single day's oil. That's why we cel ebrate for eight days. Pesach, Purim, Chanukah - Holidays that commemorate first bondage, then deliverance. Our past, we should remember, is not only oppression, but lib eration. This Chanukah, after latkes and dreidel, maybe a si lent prayer of thanks would be well-received by He who makes history. PUT THE SPARK BACK IN YOUR ROMANCE WITH THE ROAD. The BMW 325i is just the car to rekindle that old flame. Its muscular six-cylinder enqine and advanced suspension componentry are designed to extract maximum pleasure from any drive. Stop in Tor a test-drive today. Q THE ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE. HENDRICK BMW 6950 East Independence Boulevard • Charlotte, NC 704-535-0885 • 800-476-0885 Ecstasy of Eilat's silky beaches t Desert jeep rides Hikes through the lush Galilee ^ " Tel Aviv nights ! Masada mystery Jerusalem spirituality I
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