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The Charlotte Jewish News - March 2002 - Page 2 In Mv Opinion They’re My Heroes By Amy Krakovitz Montoni In Hebrew class, we learned the vjoxi g’vurot. “Acts of heroism,” I told the third-graders. “Like the policemen and fire men!” they all called out. “Yes,” I said, “policemen and firemen do heroic things every day. They do g’vurot." “No, no,” some of the children responded. “We mean the police men and firemen in New York and Washington, DC.” I raised my eyebrows. “What they had to do on September 11 was extraordinary,” I reminded them, “but policemen and firemen everywhere have to be heroes every day.” It’s odd to think that deciding who is a hero is a subjective deci sion, but apparently it is. The choices people make of heroes are so diverse that it’s clear that it is strictly a matter of opinion. The police and fire departments of New York and Washington are the selected heroes of today’s youth. Those of us a little bit older might opt for all police and fire depart ments. One of my personal heroes is someone that a lot of people haven’t even heard of Deborah Lipstadt is a professor at Emory University whose book on Holocaust deniers was challenged in court by Dr. David Irving, a notorious denier and Nazi sympa thizer. He sued her for libel in the British courts where she was forced to prove what she said was the truth, quite the opposite of libel suits in the US. Dr. Lipstadt withstood six years of preparation, court appearances, and a trial in a situation where a weaker person might have just set tled the case. And she emerged tri umphant as Dr. Irving was proven in court to have falsified docu ments and outright lied in both speeches and publications. Two years ago I saw Dr. Lipstadt speak at the University of South Carolina and I asked her if she ever feared for her life. Absolutely, was her reply. She had been receiving vicious and Aviva Rav Shechter, counselor at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, will talk at Davidson College on Tuesday, March 12, about Israel and the Middle East crisis. The free, public lecture will begin at 7:30 PM in the C. Shaw Smith 900 Room of the Alvarez College Union. Call 704-894-2440 for more information. The Charlotte Jewish News 5007 Providence Road - Charlotte, NC 28226 Office Hours Hours: 10:00 AM -4:00 PM Phone (voice mail after office hours) Office 704-944-6765 FAX 704-365-4507 email: amontoni@shalomcharlotte.org A Publication of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte Amy Krakovitz Montoni - Editor Advertising Coordinator/Sales Rep: Rita Mond, 704-366-6632 Advertising Sales Reps: Pam Grossman, 704-841-1544 CJN Executive Board Co-Chairs - Bob Abel - Bob Davis Members: Evelyn Berger, Ann Langman, Linda Levy The CJN does not assume responsibility for the quality or kasruth-of any product or service advertised. Publishing of a paid political advertisement does not constitute an endorsement of any candidate, political party or position by this newspaper, the Federation or any employees. Published monthly except July Copy deadline is the 1st of the month preceding month of issue SHALOM PARK AGENCIES DIRECT TELEPHONE LISTINGS Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte ...704-944-6757 Jewish Community Center of Charlotte ...704-366-5007 The Foundation of Shalom Park ...704-366-5007 Charlotte Jewish Day School ...704-366-4558 Charlotte Jewish Preschool ...704-944-6777 Jewish Family Services ...704-364-6594 Charlotte Jewish News ...704-944-6765 Speizman Jewish Library ...704-944-6763 CAJE ...704-944-6780 Consolidated High School ...704-944-6782 BBYO Local Office ...704-944-6734 Temple Israel ...704-362-2796 Temple Israel Religious School at the JCC ...704-944-6785 Temple Beth El ...704-366-1948 Temple Beth El Religious School at the JCC ...704-944-6789 Please help us to help you! CALL THE AGENCY YOU NEED DIRECT! threatening emails since the beginning of the David Irving trial. But she wasn’t about to let that kind of thing stop her -from speaking out in public against the lies perpetrated by Holocaust deniers. She’s a real hero. Sometimes your heroes are just people who give you a hand. In the past few months, I have made specific appeals for Voluntary Subscriptions to The Charlotte Jewish News. This small donation offsets some of our costs and frees up funds from the Federation to do its good works in Charlotte and around the world. Since my last appeal, the following heroes have come to my aid: Subscribers Sharon and Natan Feldman Irwin Goldstein David and Rayleen Grim Marilyn Guss Roz and Martin Husney Elaine Joffe and Michael Oestreich Helen Lipman Steve and Nicole Nydish Dorothy K. Schulman Friends Alan and Lee Blumenthal Robbie and Michael McGinley Shai Richardson Milton Tager Patrons Linda and Peter Hindel Thanks to you all, you are heroes. And don’t fret. You, too, can still be a hero to The Charlotte Jewish News. Just fill in the form below and send us a Voluntary Subscription. We would appreci ate it so very much. ^ Candle Lighting for January 2002 Friday, March 1 5:59 PM Friday, March 8 6:06 PM Friday, March 15 6:11 PM Friday, March 22 6:17 PM Friday, March 29 6:23 A Point of View Each issue of the CJN features an article written by one of the rabbis active in the Charlotte community. This month: Rabbi Yosef Edelstein of The Charlotte Torah Center/Congregation B’nai Shalom “Meditations on Freedom” Freedom is certainly one of our most prized possessions as Americans. As historian Eric Foner writes (in his book, “The Story of American Freedom”), “No idea is more fundamental to Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals and as a nation than freedom.” Indeed, the whole pur pose of our current war on terror ism, we are told, is to preserve our unique way of life with its blessed freedom and liberties. How do our Jewish sources view this hallowed American con cept? It would certainly be nice to quote the Torah in clear support of freedom, to break out some bub bly biblical quotations that praise and glorify the concept (and there are some). The only problem is that we have to define our terms first. Does “freedom” mean the same thing to the Torah that it does to modern Americans? Perhaps we will find that the Torah perspective on “freedom” and “liberty” differs from that of, say, Thomas Jefferson or 19th cen tury British philosopher, John Stuart Mill (both influential theo rists on the subject). Perhaps the Torah has something unique to say to us Jews about the parameters and the purpose of freedom, seen in the context of our people’s unique covenantal relationship with God. If so, there is no better time to listen than in these days right before Pesach — the holiday des ignated by our Sages as “the sea son of our freedom.” For there is an ironclad rule when it comes to Jewish observance (if not all life experiences, in general): the more thought we put into it beforehand, the more meaningful it will be, experientially, during the execu tion. The Torah portions that deal with the Exodus from Egypt reveal to us the basic Torah per- . spective on freedom, insofar as the concept applies to the Jewish peo ple. In the Torah portion of Va’eira, for example, God instructs Moshe to inform the Jewish people that He will remove them from Egypt, redeeming them with great and awesome wonders. Then He makes the following statement: “I shall take you to Me for a people, and I shall be a God to you; and you shall know that I am Hashem, your God, Who takes you out from the burdens of Egypt.” (6, 7) This verse reveals to us the pur pose for which we were rescued from Egyptian slavery: to assume the “yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven” by becoming God’s peo ple. That is to say, we were given freedom from a human master. Pharaoh, in order to have the abil ity to accept the responsibility (and privilege) of serving a divine master, the Creator of heaven and earth. Indeed, there are many other such verses in the Torah that high light the central purpose of the Exodus. At the very outset of Moshe’s mission (in the biblical scene of the burning bush), God tells him of the final stage of the Exodus: “When you take the peo ple out of Egypt, you will serye God on this mountain (i.e., Sinai)” (Exodus 3, 12). Or consider the verse traditionally said every day as part of the recitation of the Shema, after we mention the mitz- vah of tzitzit (fringes traditionally worn on a four-cornered garment): “I am Hashem, your God, Who has removed you from the land of Egypt to be a God unto you; I am Hashem, your God.” (Numbers: 14,41) The true greatness of freedom, the Torah teaches, is that we can thereby devote ourselves to the service of God. When we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, that was impossible. Has it never struck you as odd that at the Passover Seder, the fes tive meal commemorating our freedom, we are positively hemmed in by mitzvot (command ments)? Drink four cups of wine, lean here, eat this amount of matzo and maror, etc. This is not accidental. We are being shown that the goal of our freedom is to serve a higher Master. You may ask: Where has' our freedom gone, then, if we are still servants, albeit of a different mas ter? The answer is that “service of God” is a qualitatively different experience than other forms of service. To serve a human master is debasing and enervating. To serve the one God, by contrast, is elevating. By accepting God’s offer of the Torah at Sinai, the Jewish people were elevated to a new status: “a kingdom of priests [or, spiritual teachers]” and “a holy nation” (Exodus: 19, 6). To serve God, our ethical masters teach us, is in fact to attain true freedom. Serving God enables us to achieve freedom from the mun dane and the transitory, freedom from the tug of our lower selves —- which, you’ll agree, often pull (Continued on page 21) I would like to make a contribution to demonstrate my support of The Charlotte Jewish News. Name Phone ( ) Address City State Enclosed in my check for $ $18.00 $25.00 $50.00 $100.00 ..Zip . 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