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Sew o*t OfittaA
Matthew Geiger
STAITWRITER
One of my favorite holidays is
coming up. In fact, by the time you
read this, it will only be two days
away. That holiday is of course Na
tional Pancake Day. Well, actually
no, that was last month; the holiday
I am talking about is Passover. Since
there are only approximately 68 Jews
at Guilford, I bet a good number of
you have little or no knowledge about
the holiday. (This is, of course, not to
say that people who are not Jewish
know nothing about the holiday, but
I mean, can you name the ten
plagues? Neither can I and I should
know.)
Passover is the celebration of
the Israelites and their exodus from
the oppressive pharoah in Egypt (the
whole story can be found in the sec
tion of the Torah called "Leviticus").
The Israelites escaped from the
Egyptians after Moses parted the
Red Sea, letting the Jewish people
go through and drowning the en
emies. Passover gets its name from
the tenth plague, where the angel of
death passed over any house with
lamb's blood on its doorway, sparing
the first-born son.
Every year, Jewish people
around the world have Sede's that
celebrate the holiday of Passover. I
really love going to my family Seder
back home in New Jersey. However
this year I will not be able to go, for
obvious reasons. So I thought I
would tell you a bit about my family
and its Passover Seder.
The Seder has always been
held at my Aunt Dot and Uncle
Joe's house. Some things are dif
ferent every year, but some things
never really change. Some things
that never change are the same
vegetable soup that needs about
three dozen tablespoons of salt and
the extra table that is needed. This
table is never balanced because the
top is bigger than the actual table,
and wobbles from side to another.
Of course, this is where all the
wine and relatives wearing white
clothes sit.
My Uncle Joe has always
led the service at the table before
we eat. One of the most common
things you will hear from the table
is heckling. See, my family is
rather impatient during the ser
vice because the service, for us, is
something that stands in the way
of eating. Common things heard
around the table during the service
are such comments as, "We don't
need to do that, skip it," and, "What
do vou mean we do that every year?
7eatures)'!
We never do that!" And of course,
"The (really bad word) wine just fell
on me."
The dinner itself is always
the highlight of the night for the fam
ily. There are always anywhere be
tween 14—18 people at the Seder and,
you would think, after all these
; ■ >;V :
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% if
\ it
years of having dinner, we would
have passing food around the table
down to an art form. Sadly, it never
fails that every year, somebody
seems to have a full plate and some
body else has only the asparagus.
Of course everyone gets all the
food they want and then some.
There is definitely no shortage of
food; there is always plenty to go
around. Dinner, as opposed to the
service, is always really quiet for
about the first ten minutes. I re
member one year, at one point ev
eryone appeared to be chewing in
unison. The sound
was something
similar to what
you hear on those
National Geo
graphic programs.
("Today a cheetah
is let loose in a
chicken coop.")
Six hours
later when dinner
is over, it is time to
find the AfLkoman.
The Afikoman is
the piece of
matzah that is hid
den somewhere in
the house. In a
couple of years, my
little cousins will
start hunting for it,
but for right now,
the hunting in
volves just my sis
ter and me. When
I say hunting, I re
ally do mean hunt
ing; the search for
the Afikoman is of
ten the equivalent
The Guilfordian
of Iwo Jima. Of course, I find it
first and, of course, my sister is up
set because I found it first and that
I cheated. As I untie her from her
chair, I calmly inform her that she
is a big "poopy head" and that I won
fair and square.
After that, it is normally
the time to go home and drop my
sister off at the hospital, because
when she was searching for the
matzah, she "accidentally" tripped.
You say your good-byes and thank
Aunt Dot for the great meal and
the two pounds of salt in your
stomach. Uncle Joe tells you to
stay out of trouble, and you find
Cousin Lee passed out in the cor
ner after drinking too much
Manischewitz wine, so you skip
saying good-bye to him. You leave
and plan on doing the same thing
next year. Only this year, I will be
here, so I will be doing something
different. I certainly will miss the
Seder back home; it's one of a kind.
I can almost hear it now; "This (col
orful word often referring to the
act of copulation) wine is never
going to come out!"
(Shameless Plug: On April
Bth, the Guilford College Hillel will
be having a Passover Seder at 6:30
in the Walnut Room. It will be fun.)
11 Join us for...
(German Movie Night)
The 1985 smash come^lpPtg
ii English subtitles &05.W
1 Winner of 4 German Oscars
Wednesday, April 11 th
8:00 p.m. in the Walnut Room (Cafeteria),
Founders Hall, Guilford College
Food and Drinks Provided by the German Club
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April.6, 200.1
-A gay ■
on
national
IFtl 1 ••••
DevenderSellars
STAJFTWRITER
"AIDS is real and knows no
boundaries. I think [Tony
Kushner] really understood and
was very close to the situation,"
community actor Lee Huggins
said. "My goal is to try and put a
human face on the disease."
The department of Theatre
Studies presents Tony Kushner's
Pulitzer winning Angels in
America Part Two: Perestroika.
As in the fall production of Part
One, the show benefits Triad
Health Project, a local non-profit
fighting AIDS.
The performances are held
in Sternberger Auditorium on
April 6, 7,12-14 at 8:00 p.m., with
an additional 2:00 p.m. matinee
on the 14th. Tickets are 2 dollars
for Guilford students, faculty and
staff. Tickets for the general pub
lic are $7.00.
"Angels in America is an epic
tale of responsibility and leader
ship in a rapidly changing crisis
ridden world," said the Angels press
release. "Perestroika points ... op
timistically towards healing and
the formation of coalitions to ad
dress the epidemic."
Tbny Kusher, during his Janu
ary visit to campus, noted, "As a
Quaker, institution it's wonderful
that {Guilford is} doing this. Quak
ers have done wonders to promote
tolerance and diversity,"
Theatre Studies, for the first
time, invited community members
to participate in the process of the
production. This created an inter
esting and impressive dynamic.
Four community members act in
Perestroika.
Huggins, commenting on the
dynamic, said, "The group of stu
dents involved in this production
have been really great. 1 have
never felt like an outsider."