5007 Providence Road
Charlotte. NC 28226
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Non-Profit Organization
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Charlotte, NC
Permit No, 1208
The Chaflotte
JEWISH
news
Vol. 18 No. 11
Kislev-Tevet 5757
December 1996
The Votes Are In! The JCC Gala Was a Great Success
By Cynthia Chapman
The Jewish Community
Center Tenth Anniversary Gala
held on Oct(^r 19 was a perfect
combination of ceremony and
comedy at its best. If you missed
it, you missed one of the stellar
events of our Jewish community.
The Gala celebrated ten
years of the JCC being in Shalom
Park, as well as paying tribute to
the past presidents during that
period,who nurtured and guided
the Community Center during
years of tremendous challenges
and growth.
For people who have been in
our Charlotte Jewish community
less than ten years, the night’s
program gave them an overview
and insight into just how signifi
cant Shalom Park and the JCC’s
presence there are. For people
who are well-acquainted with the
Paric and the JCC history, the
night was a wonderful, fun way
to recognize the contributions of
the ten men who have given of
themselves to make the JCC what
it is today. How do you thank a
mensch who does what needs to
be done and sets an example of
what we as Jews and as a com
munity can achieve when we
work together? You throw a won
derful party for that person, invite
his or her peers, friends and fam
ily members and delight with
everyone there in every moment
of the evening!
That’s just what Gala Co-
Chairs Ben and Florence Jaffa
and Scott and Tammy Menaker
did. And, oy, what a party! Such
food! There was nothing lacking
and it was obvious that it was
enjoyed by all. There were cui
sine choices ranging from pasta,
to Mexican, from exquisite hors
d’oeuvres elegantly offered by an
efficient and professional group
of servers who tempted eye and
palatte with what seemed an
unending supply of trays of tid
Federation Helps to Bring
Elie Wiesel Here Soon
By Adam Bernstein
“The opposite of love is not
hate- It is indifference.” —Elie
Wiesel
In what promises to be a
defining moment for Charlotte,
renowned author, humanitarian
and Holocaust survivor Elie
Wiesel will visit the city next
Spring to share his unique
insights and commentary on
human rights, peace, tolerance,
and personal responsibility.
Wiesel’s presentation, titled
“Against Indifference,” will take
place on March 12, 1997 at the
N.C. Blumenthal Performing
Arts Center, beginning at 8 p.m.
The Jewish Federation of
Greater Charlotte has joined
with Charlotte Latin School and
the National Conference (for
merly the National Conference
of Christians and Jews) to spon
sor the event.
Members of the local
Jewish community will receive
invitations in December to pur
chase advance tickets, priced at
$25 for adults and $15 for stu
dents. A limited number of
patron tickets are also available
for $150 each. Patron ticket
holoers will receive priority
seating and be honored at a pri
vate recef^icMi with Wiesel, host
ed by NationsBank, prior to the
evening presentaticm.
“Wiesel reminds us that our
responsibility to humankind is
universal, and his messages stir
in each of us a desire to make a
difference,” said Stephanie
Goldberg Ansaldo, chair of the
event and faculty member of
Charlotte Latin. “Having him
here is an honcH*, as well as a
tremendous opportunity to rein
force to this community, particu
larly our youth, tfiat the fortu
nate must never become indif
ferent to injustice or suffering,
anywhere in the workL”
Wiesel is an internationally
acclaimed author of some thirty
books, inchidtnf Nighty a mov
ing personal account of hi*
experience in the Nazi asnccn-
Ell« Wiesel.
tration camps at Auschwitz and
Buchenwald. Among the many
honors he has received are the
Nobel Prize for Peace, U.S. con
gressional Gold Medal of
Achievement, the Medal of
Liberty, Grand Officer of French
Foreign Legion, the Human
Rights Law Award and the
Humanitarian Award. Wiesel is
currently Andrew W. Mellon
Professor of Humanities at
Boston University.
Wicsel’s visit will also
include a (fialogue with k)cal
junior high snd high school stu
dents on the Charlotte Latin
campus earlier that day. To
^xiead his messages to the
widest possible audience, tlie
session with students is expect
ed to be telecast live to several
educational facilities around the
city.
To purchase tickets, contact
the Blumenthal Performing Arts
Center box office at (704) 372-
1000, or Ticketmaster at (704)
522-6500, or visit any
Ticketmaster location. Patron
tickets may be ordered by send
ing a check, payable to An
Evening with Elie Wiesel/CLS,
to Chariotie Latin School. 9502
Providence Road, Chariot NC
28277-8695. For more informa
tion, or to volunteer for ttie
event, contact the Federation
office at 366-5007.
bits first, and then served the
crowd of around 400 guests with
enough food to rival the best
wedding or bar or bat mitzvah!
All I heard about the food from
guests at the gala was that it was
wonderful.
But food alone does not
make a good evening great. To
enhance the evening and connect
the JCC and its presidents with
the political satire group. The
Capitol Steps, who provided the
ni^t’s comic entertainment, the
Atrium at Two First Union
Center was decked out in a color
ful display of political regalia.
Attendees were drawn into the
spirit of the night with classic
straw hats completed with red,
white and blue ribb(Mis for the
men and political buttons saying
“Vote JCC” for the women.
Each table was creatively
and colorfully (tecorated with a
centerpiece campaign motif.
Inside the theater set up for The
Capitol Steps' pedormanct, there
were massive nets suspended
from the ceiling filled with red,
white and blue balloons such as
are used at major political con
ventions. These were released at
the end of The Capitol Steps’ per
formance as the grand finale. A
Please see GALA on page 20
Federation Announces
1997 Campaign Start
By Cynthia Chapman
The Jewish Federation of
Greater Charlotte has announced
the start of the 1997 campaign.
The canipaign is the communi
ty’s vehicle for collecting and
distributing funds to support
Jewish needs here in the local
community as well as in Jewish
communities overseas. Without
the campaign, each individual in
our community would have to
spend an enormous amount of
time reviewing requests and
making contributions to the
many agencies and groups to
which the Campaign channels
funds. As difficult as it may be
for us as individuals to decide
where to distribute our funds for
tzedakah, it would be much more
difficult without the annual
Federation campaign Through
the organization of the campaign
and the efforts of the many, many
individuals who make it a suc
cess, the process is handled effi
ciently and the tasks are shared.
TTiis year’s Campaign gears
up with a Major Gift Dessert
Reception which takes place
Sunday, December 8 and
Malcolm Hoenlein will be the
guest speaker. He will also speak
to the Bernstein Leadership
Development group. Mr.
Hoenlein is the Executive Vice
Chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major Jewish
Organizations, an umbrella orga
nization for fifty national organi
zations. The conference coordi
nates policy formation and pre
sentation on issues of interna
tional and national Jewish con
cern.
Malcolm Hoenlein has met
with heads of state, governmental
leaders and Jewish communities
throughout the world. He is a
consultant to American public
Mclcolm Hoenlein.
officials and leaders, and is often
featured on radio, television and
in the American and internation
al press.
The Dessert Reception
begins at 7:30 p.m. at the home
of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Luski,
3239 Foxcroft Road in Charlotte.
The 1997 campaign goal is set at
$1.6 million, an increase from
last year’s high of $1.42 million.
Added together, it sounds like a
lot of money, and it is. Last
year’s successful campaign was a
wonderful statement of the
strength and vitality of our
Charlotte Jewish community.
But, as anyone who sits on the
Allocation Committee can tell
you, even this great accomplish
ment meant that some funding
requests could not be answered
and some community needs went
unmet. Needs continue to rise
and the funds to respond need to
increase as well. Together, we
can use the 1997 Annual
Campaign as a tool to help us
reach our individual and commu
nity potential.
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