COUNCIL OF JEWISH FEDERAnONS
57 th Gtntml AascmUy
November16*20,1988
P.O. Box 13369
Charlotte, NC 28211
Address Correction
Requested
Non-Profit Organization
BULK RATE
U.S. Postage PAID
Charlotte, NC
Permit No. 1208
The Charlotte TEWISH ‘TNEWS
Vol. 10 No. 10
Charlotte, North Carolina
November, 1988
*89 Federation Campaign Launched:
$1.4 Million to be Raised
The Federation’s 1989 Cam
paign received prompt en
dorsement and higher levels of
giving among major contribu
tors in its first few weeks of ac
tivity. Both campaign workers
and those solicited early at
tributed the enthusiasm and
increases to a convincing case
for giving this year.
Federation’s Campaign com
mittee attributes Harry Swim
mer as being instrumental in
early solicitation successes.
Swimmer recently spoke with
other major contributors ex
plaining that he had personal
ly attended all the allocation
meetings. “I’m here to tell
you, the numbers are right,”
Swimmer said.
The Campaign will have to
raise at least $1,405,520, beised
on the allocations committee
recommendation. This figure
represents an increase of
$200,000 over that of last
year’s campaign.
Shelton Gorelick, a Federa
tion vice president, noted that
the allocations procedure this
year was unusually thorough.
“We wanted to be absolutely
certain where every dime was
going. We owe that to the
community, and I’m convinced
we did it.” Gorelick said that
38 people were involved in the
allocations evaluations.
The allocations committee
and its sub-committees inter
viewed representatives from
most major, intermediate and
small agencies. After careful
scrutiny, the decision was to
target $1,075,983 to the large
recipient agencies (UJA, Fami
ly Services and others),
$33,000 to the intermediate
agencies and $15,600 to the
small agencies.
Two meetings with mem
bers of the Federation’s
Leadership Circle, givers of
$10,000 or more, gave every
indication that there would be
a positive response to the
allocations report. “We’re off
to an unusually fast start,”
Bobbi Bernstein told indi
vidual Federation board mem
bers. Bernstein, Federation
president, predicted the goal
would be reached by late
December with the help of
over 65 volunteer workers.
Kristallnacht’s 50th
Anniversary to be Observed
KRISTALLNACHT: Stores and synagogues were vandalized in Nazi Ger
many and Austria. Photo from UJA.
Jewish Book Fair Features Eli Evans
, Southern Jewry can stand
tall and proud when Eli N.
Evans, noted Jewish North
Carolinian, comes to Charlotte
on Sunday, November 20. He
will be the guest speaker in a
program co-sponsored by the
Charlotte Chapter of Hadas-
sah, the Jewish Community
Center and the Foundation of
the Charlotte Jewish Com
munity, as part of the celebra
tion of Jewish Book Month.
Mr. Evans will reveal his
knowledge of another noted
Southern Jew, Judah P. Ben
jamin, who came to be known
as the “Brains of the Con
federacy.” The public is in
vited to attend this event, be
ing held at 8 p.m. at Shalom
Park in Gorelick HaU. It is the
highlight of the Jewish Book
Fair that will run from Nov. 16
through Nov. 22
Mr. Evans currently serves
as president of the Charles H.
Revson Foundation, an inter
national organization head
quartered in New York City,
which makes grants for pro
grams in urban affairs, educa
tion and Jewish philanthropy.
He was formerly an executive
of the Carnegie Corporation of
NY and has in the past served
on the White House staff as a
speech writer for President
Lyndon B. Johnson and for
political candidates in NC. Ad
ditionally, he was staff direc-
Eli Evans
tor at Duke U. of a nationwide
study of the future of the
states that was headed by
former Governor Terry San
ford.
Eli Evans was bom and raised
in Durham, NC. He graduated
from UNC-CH in 1958, spent
two years in the U.S. Navy,
and graduated from Yale Law
School in 1963.
Evans writes from experi
ence, coming from a Jewish, as
well as political southern fami
ly. While it is well known that
his father, Emanuel J. “Mutt”
Evans, served as Mayor of
Durham, 1951-1963, it is
equally revealing to note that
his grandmother, Jennie
Bloom, organized the first NC
chapter of Hadassah in
Kinston. His mother, Sara
Nachamson Evans, helped
form the chapter in Durham
and served as the President of
the Eastern Seaboard Region
as well as on the National
Board.
This past September Mr.
Evans was guest of honor at
a reception, hosted by Senator
Terry Sanford, in the Senate
Office Building in Washing
ton, D.C. It was called “Judah
P. Benjamin Returns to the
Senate,” since it commem
orated Senator Benjamin's
pivotal role in the national
political scene prior to the
Civil War. Judah P. Benjamin
has been termed “the Con
federate Kissinger.”
Sanford stated in a letter
dated Sept. 2, 1988, “I have
known Eli for more than 25
years and we have worked
together on numerous projects
over that period...I admire
deeply the research and writ
ing accomplishments and take
special pride in the fact that
the heeu-t of the research was
done over the past nine years
in the Southern CoUection at
Duke University.”
In Judah P. Benjamin, The
Jewish Confederate, Evans
probes the life of this major
Jewish figure in American his
tory. A Sephardic Jew, raised
in Charleston, SC, Judah P.
Benjamin moved to New Or
leans, carved a law practice
that turned into a political
career, and as an elected
Senator of Louisiana was the
first acknowledged Jew in the
U.S. Senate. After Secession,
Benjamin became Jefferson
Davis’s right-hand man, serv
ing as Attorney General, Sec
retary of War and Secretary of
State to the Confederacy from
1861-1865. Offered a seat on
the U.S. Supreme Court in
1852, sixty years before Louis
Brandeis, he achieved greater
See EVANS page 9
Fifty years ago this month
marks the beginning of the
most horrifying chapter in
Jewish history: Kristallnacht
— the night of broken glass —
which signaled the beginning
of the Holocaust.
The entire community is in
vited to join together to
observe the 50th anniversary
df Kristallnacht on Wednes
day, November 9 at 7:45 p.m.
at Temple Israel.
Beginning with the Nurem
berg Laws of 1935, the syste
matic legal, economic and
social disenfranchisement of
German Jews had become part
of the social and political fiber
of Nazi Germany. Kristall
nacht, November 9-10, 1938,
was the newest phase of the
solution to the “Jewish Ques
tion.”
On October 27, 1938, al
ready stripped of citizenship,
Polish Jews were deported to
Poland. However, anticipating
this move by the Nazis, the
Polish government had moved
to close their borders to all
Jewish immigration. This left
nearly 18,000 Jews living in
refugee camps at the border.
Hershal Grynszpan, a 17-year-
old student studying in Psiris,
was so outraged by the treat
ment of his family, that he
shot a low-level German em
bassy official, Ernst Von
Rath. This tragic event gave
the Nazi regime £J1 the excuse
See KRISTALLNACHT page 5
In The News-
Arts 10
Book Review 26
Calendar 27
Classifieds 27
Editorials 2
Family Services 8
JCC 17-19
Lubavitcli 13-16
Organizations 23
Recipes 27
Temples 24-25
This *n That 11
Women’s Division 6-7
World Beat 4
J«wlsh Book Wook at Shaloni Park
12
y
DESTRUCTION AND RE-DEDICATION...
The Community Joins Together to Observe
THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF
KRISTALLNACHT
the infamous -NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS" when
frenzied mobs throughout Germany destroyed synagogues,
Jewish businesses, institutions and homes, and desecrated
holy scrolls, books and sacred objects.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
AT TEMPLE ISRAEL — 7:45 p.m.
The event will be commemorated by the dedication of a
HOLOCAUST SEFER TORAH
in honor of
CELIA SCHER
for her singular conmiitment to perpetuate
the memory of the Holocaust
— Candlelight Torah Procession from Holocaust Square
— Charlotteans offer their personal witness to Kristallnacht
— Prayers of Memorial and Re-Dedication
SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY WITH THIS
UNIQUE MEANINGFUL COMMEMORATION!