5007 Providence Road
Chariotte, NC 28226
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Charlotte, NC
Permit No. 1208
The Charlotte
JEWISH
Vol. 22 No. 5
Nisan-lyar 5760
May 2000
Heart of UChaim Charlotte! Beats From Stage
MusiCy Dancing Highlight FestivaVs Rich Cultural Offerings
/
MLM
The Yiddishe Bande at L’Chaim
Charlotte! 1998.
Klezmer is one cultural tie that
binds Jews everywhere. But there
are distinct styles of the music that
are as diverse as the Jewish com
munities where they are played
the world over.
“A Klezmer band playing a
wedding in New York sounds very
different than one in Israel,”
said Yossi Shem-Avi, festival
entertainment chairman.
“Live Klezmer music is
an important part of
UChaim Charlotte!; it
creates the atmosphere
and people love to listen
and dance to it. We
brought in more bands
this year to turn the music
into a learning experience
as well — in the spirit of the festi
val’s educational mission.”
Three Klezmer bands are
scheduled to appear during
L’Chaim Charlotte on May 21:
The Charlotte
Klezmers (for
merly Shira Tova) ^
will lead off the
afternoon. Their
raucous “Hora-
type” style draws
from music typi
cally heard on
Israeli kibbutzim, w
Listen for the >
prominent accor-
dian, Shem-Avi
says.
Another local band, Viva
Klezmer!, plays a more classical
Klezmer variety that is popular in
New York and features intricate
instrumentals, especially the clar
inet. Gene Kavadlo, principal clar
inetist for the Charlotte
Symphony, rocks with this group.
Viva Klezmer! has performed a
series of educational concerts
in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
schools this school year to teach
students about Jewish culture
through Klezmer music, and to
instill an appreciation for cultural
diversity. The band has also been
another
A
TR E I
TAVIN CEN
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You'r« one-of-a-kind. So are we.
instructor based in Atlanta, will
lead a workshop and initiate
“spontaneous”
dancing
throughout the
afternoon.
Returning to
the stage will be
the always-pop-
ular mock Jewish wedding, offici
ated by Rabbi Robert Kasman of
Temple Israel. (No word yet on
who the lucky couple will be.)
L’Chaim Charlotte! will also
have exhibits of Judaic art, a fea-
%
ture initiated in 1998. Wendy
Petrocoff, member of the festival
steering com
mittee, has
recruited new
artisans repre
senting a wide
range of artwork
and crafts from
across the region, including:
Beyond Surface Design —
Fiber artists who hand dye all of
their work which is mostly silk
and linen. All designs are either
(Continued on page 4)
tawreMe* »»>ina puvm m
invited to perform this summer for
ClarinetFest 20(X), an internation
al gathering of clarinetists to be
held at the University of
Oklahoma.
Finally, Freilach Time
Klezmer Band from Durham will
weigh in with an Eastern
European-style that includes
Yiddish singing. “Close your eye-
swhen you listen to them,” Shem-
Avi says, “and you can almost
imagine yourself at a Jewish wed
ding in some small Russian or
Polish shtetl at the turn of the cen
tury.” By the way, “freilach”
means “joyful” in Yiddish.
Adding to L’Chaim Charlottef’s
rich entertainment mix will be
Israeli folk dancing. Steve
Weintraub, a professional dance
UCHAIM NOTES:
L’Chaim Bucks are on sale at the Federation office
and all three locations of Phil’s Deli. The tickets, which
come in $1 increments, are the official event currency
— to be used to pay for food, drinks, raffle tickets, chil
dren’s activities, baked goods and other festival mer
chandise. They are being sold in bundles of $10 and
packaged in a special envelope that is printed with a
festival menu and prices.
Come early and stay late: the schedule has been
expanded to six hours, from noon to 6:00 PM.
Look for the festival advertising insert in The
Charlotte Obsen/er on Thursday, May 18.
Make a fashion statement with a L’Chaim Chariotte
2000 hat? Comes In denim blue wrth khakt bill or khaki
with black bill. Only $12.
Thanks again to festival spofi^ofB The Tavin Centre
for Plastic Surgery, Montag Famffy Foundation and the
Silverman Family Foundatk>n.
Annual Community
Campaign Edges Towards
$2 Million
“Frum Dos Macht a Leiben?”
Exhibit of Line Drawings by Arnold Mesches at Jewish
Community Center of Charlotte During May
The 2000 Annual Conununity
Campaign sponsored by the
Jewish Federation is well within
reach of the $2 million mark. The
goal for the 2(XK) Campaign is
$2,250,(XX). The current campaign
total is $1,918,028, $331,972
away from reaching the goal.
“We are pleased with the results
thus far,” said Eric Sklut, 2(XX)
Annual Campaign Chair. The
overall campaign total represents a
14% increase over last year’s cam
paign. Our goal is to finish the
campaign in the next several
weeks with 100% participation
from the community.”
“Step into the Limelight,” the
Federation’s second annual com
munity fundraiser, provided initial
momentum for the campaign by
raising over $260,0(X). The
Federation’s Major Donors (those
men giving $10,000 or more and
those women giving $5,(XX) or
more) also moved the campaign
forward by increasing their giving
more than 12%. The Womdn’s
campaign is also up 14.7% from
last year, raising a record total of
$450,000.
Dollars raised for the Annual
Campaign are used to support
local Jewish institutions (such as
the Jewish Community Center and
Jewish Family Service) and pro
vide funding for social services,
Jewish education and hunger relief
in Israel and 49 countries through
out the world.
If you have not already been
contacted and would like to make
a contribution to the campaign,
please contact Cary Bernstein
(944-6762). 0
Of GteBATER Qiarixhte
Like so many other villages in
Lithuania, the village of Grodno
was unable to escape the pogroms,
pillaging and rapes of
the Cossacks in the late
19th and early 20th cen
turies. And like so many
Jews before and since,
the Mesches family
pulled up their roots and
left Grodno for the
United States. Their
patriarch, a hospital
superintendent in
Lithuania, was unable to
find woric in the U.S.
His son, Benjamin,
faired little better, buy
ing and selling old gold
in Buffalo.
But the grandson,
Arnold, decided to
become an artist. The subject mat
ter he chose - att^king war and
the makers of war - stemmed from
hearing of the experiences of his
grandfather in Europe; of growing
up during World War II and hear
ing of death camps, death march-
to move
should. ..
Arnold Mesches ’ stark line drawings of scenes from concentra
tion camps are on display at the Jewish Community Center of
Charlotte during May 2000.
es, and atomic bombs. “I wanted
my paintings to have...structural
mystery and complex emotions,”
Arnold Mesches says in an essay
about his father. “I wanted my art
people like good art
I wanted to find a way
to make my art serve
humankind...”
He was disappointed
in his father’s reaction
to his decision to
become an artist. He
had expected his father
to applaud his route
to teaching about jus
tice and evil, about
conscience and Jewish
ness, about right and
wrong. Unfortunately,
he was mistaken. “My
being an artist was
indiscernible to him,”
says Arnold. When
Arnold invited his
father to his studio to
see his first body of work - paint
ings of meat packing workers
hacking up sides of beef - all
■Continued on page 3!
Inside tiiis issue...
Inqrficfttkms of a Unilateral Israeli Withdraw! from Lebaiion.....p. 3
By Dr. XmSttm
Lag B *Omer . ^pp. 20
Jmtt what cr 0^9 And why is there a holUiay on (he day?
Yon lU’AttBuM..... pp. 21*23
Bi^py Birthdtay of the flag. hrn>r\ and mitre
L.
Federation Page
page
4
CAJE
...
10
Women’s Events
....page
11
Temple Iv tcl
.. .page
12
Lut>avitch of North Carolina ....
page
13
Temple Beth El
page
14
Jewi-ih F iinily Service.-.
• page
16
Spei/n. n Jeviish l.ibrtrry
page
17
Yo*?th V
page
:4
V^-:l 1.-V . . .
page
lb
C'' rk*ne Dav ScNiol ..
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T* V ■frvvi>h Travel-*-
payt
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Conmell^
IhldWIOR
Expansion Campaign
Gifts Exceeds 750!
See Pages 6 4 7
MAKE YOUR
PLEDGE TODAY!