The Charlotte Jewish News - February 1999 - Page 2
In My Opinion...
By Amy Krakovitz Montoni
The American Heart Association
has designated February as “heart
healthy month.” This seems very
appropriate as I write this because
it is still the beginning of January,
and many people are making those
first of the year commitments to
getting in shape and changing
their bad habits.
I personally favor those kinds of
resolutions. Those who know me
well know that I am a devoted run
ner. In addition to running, which
I love, T also do a little weight lift
ing, which I don’t like as much,
even less stretching, which I don’t
like at all, and “watching what I
eat,” which I hate.
The problem some people have
isn’t starting a fimess and health
regime, it seems to be sticking
with it. For that, I give you my
unprofessional advice, a phrase I
picked up in John Irving’s novel,
The Hotel New Hampshire. It
came from the grandfather, Iowa
Bob, who'when he was training
the main character, John, said,
“You’ve got to get obsessed, and
stay obsessed.” Once you’re
obsessed, you’ll find it difficult to
stop your fitness program.
The other concern people seem
to have is that they don’t have the
time to fit a workout into their
lives. For me, something else has
to give. When I was a young
woman, it was sleep. I would
wake up sometimes as early as
4:30 AM to fit in a run. I just can’t
do that anymore. So what gets sac
rificed is my housework, some
thing I don’t care to do anyway. So
when you come into my house,
you might find dishes in the sink,
dust on the blinds, or spots on the
bathroom mirrors. I don’t care.
I’m obsessed.
Obsession has its limits, too,
though. Like a good Jewish
bubbe, even the most strenuous of
fitness schedules, even training for
a marathon, calls for one day of
rest every week. Now there’s
some spiritual fitness advice we
all could use! 0
MAZON Awards Grants to Four North
Carolina Hunger Organizations
MAZON: A Jewish Response to
Hunger has announced Fall 1998
grants totaling an unprecedented
$1,255,000, including $31,000
awarded to four North Carolina
nonprofit organizations and three
recent emergency grants to
regions in crisis. Since 1989,
MAZON has granted $240,000 in
North Carolina. MAZON also
recently granted $30,000 in emer
gency relief to International
Medical Corps, to fund therapeu
tic feeding and intervention pro
grams designed to bring a sleep
ing-sickness epidemic under con
trol in the Tambura region of
southern Sudan, considered the
country’s breadbasket. The epi
demic is sweeping through the
region, already devastated by
years of civil strife. Sleeping sick
ness - fatal to humans and cattle if
left untreated - has reduced agri
cultural production and con
tributed to the famine threatening
millions of Sudanese people.
MAZON also recently awarded
two _ emergency grants totaling
$50,000 to support relief and
rebuilding efforts in Central
America, devastated by Hurricane
Mitch last month.
The grants were made to The
SHARE Foundation/Building a
New El Salvador Today, head
quartered in San Francisco, which
received $30,000; and Operation
USA, based in Los Angeles,
which received $20,000.
MAZON’s funds will support
efforts to feed and shelter tens of
thousands of people left homeless
by the storm, prevent the spread of
disease, and help devastated com
munities rebuild. MAZON is also
seeking donations to facilitate
additional emergency funding in
Central America.
Daniel D. Levenson, Chair of
the MAZON board of directors,
stressed that MAZON’s principal
mandate remains confronting
hunger in the United States.
“Despite the fact that we have an
extremely strong economy, hunger
and poverty affect more children
per capita in the U.S. than in any
other industrialized country,” he
said. “However, our Jewish tradi
tion teaches us to ‘help the
stranger,’ meaning we must reach
beyond our own borders when
tragic situations compel us to do
so.” MAZON, Hebrew for “food,”
was established in 1986 and is
now one of the largest privately
supported organizations in the
United States funding domestic
hunger prevention and relief
efforts. A small number of grants
are made annually in Israel and in
poor countries worldwide.
MAZON raises funds principal
ly by asking American Jews to
contribute 3% of the cost of life
cycle celebrations, such as wed
dings and bar/bat mitzvahs. Funds
also are raised during annual
Passover and High Holy Days
appeals and from thousands of
commemorative contributions.
In its 13-year history, MAZON
has awarded grants totaling more
than $16 million to emergency
feeding programs, food banks,
anti-hunger advocacy groups,
multi-service organizations and
international relief and develop
ment projects.
For further information about
MAZON, or to Contribute to the
The Charlotte Jewish News
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A Publication of the
Jevrish Federation of Greater Charlotte
Marvin Goldberg-Executive Director
Amy Krakovitz Montoni-Editor
Dana Gattheim>Youth Page Editor
Advertising CoordinatocfSales Rep: Rita Mond, 366-6632
Advertising Sales Rep: Pam Grossman, 841-1544
CJN Executive Board
Co-Chairs • Bob Abel • Bob Davis
libers: Evelyn Berger, Ann Langman,
Linda Levy
Th« CJN does not assunM responsibility for th« quaMy or kasnith o( any product or
servic* advertisad. Put)Nshlng of a paid poOHca) advwtlseniant does not consfttuls an
andorsaiT^ o( any candidate, poittcai pwty or position by tiis newspaper, ttw
Feitefation or any amptoynes
Layout Design by Erin H. Bronkar
PuWIehed monthly except July
Copy daadline is the 1st of the month preceding nwnth of l««ue
organization, contact: MAZON: A
Jewish Response to Hunger,
12401 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 303,
Los Angeles, CA 90025; tel: (310)
442-0020. 0
MAZON: A Jewish
Response to Hunger
North Carolina Grants
Fall 1998
(North Carolina grants = $31,000)
Elizabeth City
Albemarle Manna .... $7,000
In general support of this food
bank which is the only source
of emergency food in a sparse
ly populated, rural 15-county
area.
Raleigh
Food Bank of
North Carolina $10,000
In general support of the distri
bution of more than seven mil
lion pounds of food annually to
nearly 500 emergency feeding
programs in eastern and central
North Carolina.
North Carolina Hunger
Network $7,000
In support of this grassroots
organization’s efforts to coor
dinate a statewide advocacy
response to North Carolina’s
food and welfare policies.
Activities include providing
training to give low-income
people the tools they need to
advocate for themselves.
Winston-Salem
Food Bank of Northwest
North Carolina $7,000
In general support of the distri
bution of four million pounds
of food annually to more than
300 charities in 18 counties.
Point of View
Each issue of the CJN
features an article written by
one of three rabbis active in the
Charlotte Community.
This Month:
Kahhi Mui i a\ I /riii'4 (»l
I cm pic Israel “
Charlotte as a Moielfor IsrmU
My family and I spent part of tite wintn* from sckid hi
Florida. On our way down to a family simcha. we visited Disney
World. Disney World is a wonderful vacation spot It is like enter
ing a worid of virtual reality, ft is a place set aside fiom the rest of
the w(xld» separated by dreams and Imagination in coder to create a
fantasy world into which we can escape.
Many pe^ie arc adui^ that Disney was able to envision stich a
place out of time wd cr&ate his own phu:e is the wwid. Ib those of
us who are religious people it should not be a smprise. In fact
gion, and particularly our Judaism looks at the wcuid as it is and
tries to create a new reality in which we can live. The Torah raU>inic
teachings try to Iwlp us look at the w(xrld £rom a new perspective:
Not wl]^ really is, but what coidd fuid ^lould be. Our luda^ |»t>-
vides a lens to life vkHhich guarantees good and proper treatmeiftt ^
all human beings, special times and jdaces in we can cele>
Inate life and our relationship to Ck)d and a liihue filled vtdtfi joy and
hope.
' One of the constant hqpes of car ancestral' people has been a
rehim to tiie land of Israel While early 2Sonist leaders warned that
we would know we have a Jewish state when th«»e are Jewish crim
inals in the prisons and on the streets, we still, as a peqple, idealized
the vision of what Israel would be.
This new year of 1999 has once f^ain reawakened the tensions
within the Jewish peq)le. While !sr»$l is seen as the homeland for
all Jews, mce again tihe poUticalization of religion has made head*
lines in our modem homeland. Questions ova* Israeli Supreme
Court decisions which qpen the doors to a more pluralistic re^ous
exixession within the religious councils of iterael; an attempt to
reopen the conversion law. Discussions within the Knesset have
made it clear that our idealization of one unified State of Israel
accepting all forms of Judaism does not exist We must understand
that the State of Israel is undergoing its grovring pains. As the nation
matures, as its politicians and lead^ understand the need for an
open society diat protects not only the rights of other religions, but
all forms of Judaism, we will see a much mcne cohesive future in
the modem State of Israel.
That is why what we do here is so important. That is why it is nec-
essaiy fH- those of us who live in communities such as Chirlotte
with Jewish communal histories that date back much farther than
the modem State of Israel, to provide a model for the modem State.
As we continue in spite of the bumps in the road and the pains of
maturation for the modem State, to show diat we can accept each
other and live together creating a stronger Jewish conununity
because of our mutual respect acceptance. It is important to
imderstand and discuss our di£fere»;>^ and |»oblems both here and
in Israel. It is just as important to understand that these problems are
blips on the road of progress, and not issues that should distance us
firom our community or from our ancestral homeland. If we are
upset with what we see haf^ning, rather than turning our back it is
our role to speak up, to t^ part to ensure that our traditions are
heard. It is no different than arguments within a family; within a
home; for that is what Israel and the Jewish community is, our fam
ily and our home. Can we be upset? Yes. Can we turn our backs on
Israel? No. Can we allow what is going on politically in Israel to
destroy us as a community here? No. Rather, we have to set the
example uid show that in even a minority community like
Charlotte, tl» strength of our Jewish community is our ability to
accept each other, respect each other and to work together. That is
the idealized reality that the Torah demands of us; that Jewish his
tory demands of us; and that we ourselves must denwnd of us. We
pray that the New Year will Iwing healing and unity within the
Jewish world. 0
Article deadline for March issue
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