AdaS Israel ConGreGaTion Chronicle VOl. 73, No. 5 deCember 2010 kisleV–teVet 5771 Happy Hanukkah! about our Shem Tov honorees—Joy & bob Cohen Hanukkah TeMfA RaBlD Bob Cohen has been a member Dover Emet of the Adas Israel community at adas Speaking the Truth all his life. He remembers going L’Dor VaDor Shabbat Service & Dinner, Rabbi Gil Steinlauf to synagogue with his parents at the 6th and I location and Friday, December 3, 6:00 pm Perhaps you have heard some can name his Hebrew school yP@ai Shir Delight, Jews laugh and brush off Hanuk- teacher (Mrs. Hollander) and Friday, December 3, 6:30 pm his bar mitzvah teacher (Mr. kah: “If only people knew how Shabbat Hanukkah–Consecration & Irving Wilner). Joy, the daughter of a Pennsylvania relatively minor and insignificant Family Shabbat, congressman, spent her early years in their home Hanukkah is,” they say, “they Saturday, December 4, 9:15 am would never make such a big town but moved to DC to attend Mount Vernon religious School Dan Kaufman deal of it.” Have you ever heard College. Joy’s move brought together a couple Memorial Latke Party, this before: “It’s not that Hanuk- who would dedicate their lives to helping others continued on page Sunday, December 5, 11:15 am kah isn’t important—of course, 16 it’s an important holiday about adas Oneg Service to uSy Hanukkah bash, a miraculous victory of the Mac- Feature Sari horwitz, Sunday, December 5, 5:00 pm cabbees,” they say. “It’s just that, Latkes & Mojitos: Hanukkah Seder, compared to major holidays like Dec. 10 Sunday, December 5, 6:30 pm Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and The Hebrew word Visit the ruth & Simon albert Sisterhood Pesach, Hanukkah can’t—if you’ll oneg means pleasure Gift Shop for all your Hanukkah needs! excuse the expression—hold a or delight. The great candle!” I grew up hearing this pleasure of Shabbat We look forward to lighting the exterior message about Hanukkah, that is that it’s a time to Hanukkah menorah dedicated in memory it’s a nice, pretty holiday, but it’s be together with of Rose & Simon Laupheimer, and to using continued on page 2 one another, and the beautiful silver Israeli hanukkiyah to learn, study, and donated to the synagogue by Ryna and grow together. At the Adas Oneg Service, we Melvin Cohen in honor of their 50th welcome extraordinary guest speakers, teachers, wedding anniversary a few years ago. As and performers who educate and enlighten us we light this Hanukkah menorah, we wish and deepen our experience of Jewish culture, Mel and Ryna many more happy, warm, knowledge, and heritage. and illuminating years together. ¢ Our December 10 speaker, Sari Horwitz, is Sunday, Dec.the 5, Hanukkah at 6:30 seder continued on page 6 See page 3 forby Daviddetails j. Smolar Clergy Corner Sisterhood Life Cycle Page 2 Page 6 Page 10 Celebrating Our 141st Year Holidays Lifelong Learning Calendar the ChroniCle is supported in Page 3 Page 7 Page 12 Part bY the ethel and nat PopiCk Men’s Club YP@AI Contributions endOwment Fund Page 4 Page 7 Page 22 Youth Schools Tikkun Olam Page 5 Page 8 February 2010Page • Chroni 24 Cle • 3 TeMfA RaBlD Clergy Corner Dover Emet Speaking the Truth Rabbi Gil Steinlauf Dover EmeT continued from page 1 evolve. They take on new dimensions of meaning depending not that important. And implied in this is the on the social and cultural conditions within which the Jews find rather guilt-provoking message: You know, themselves. And the new, American-Jewish dimension of Hanuk- Jews of America, if you were more serious kah is truly magnificent. Its message is: Here we are! We have about your commitment to observance, made it in America! We’re really an accepted, successful, beloved you’d know that Hanukkah is getting more people in this wonderful blessing of a society that is America. press than it deserves. And more than this, Our lives are multifaceted. Our choices for who to be and how to Rabbi Gil Steinlauf the secret that we Jews have to acknowledge be are infinitely more complex than those of our ancestors. We is that the only reason Hanukkah gets all the attention it does are Jewish, yes, but we are also secular in many ways. We have is because of Christmas. All the Jewish kids who were jealous of access to multiple belief systems that we hold in the cognitive their Christian friends getting presents resulted in the mass mar- dissonance of our identities. We’re more and more intermarried. keting of Hanukkah right alongside Christmas. So we Jews get And yet, despite it all, the light of who we are as Jews has not to feel guilty, not only because we’re not observant enough, but gone out. To the contrary, it burns stronger and stronger. Our also because we’re just copying Christians. We can all feel guilty Jewish heritage, while so different now from what it was for our because, ironically, Hanukkah, the holiday that is all about resist- grandparents, is something we will proudly pass to our children. ing assimilation, has become the purest expression of American In this day and age, in 2010—5771—Hanukkah truly is one assimilation. of the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar. It is a We have to acknowledge that there’s some truth in all of this. cause for wild celebration. It is the shining light that reminds But it’s only partial truth. As time goes by, I see a deeper mes- us that, despite dire predictions a generation ago, assimilation sage in the American Jewish experience of Hanukkah. Hanukkah and intermarriage are not the death knell of the Jewish people. really is a beautiful holiday about miracles, about victory against We are alive and well and proud to be who we are. It’s just that all odds, about the triumph of the spirit, about lighting up the who we are is different now from what we were before. And this darkness. But for so many Jews today, Hanukkah has more nu- evolution of our people is good. It is a miracle. So this year, enjoy ances and layers of meaning. In more and more houses, you see Hanukkah. Celebrate the light no matter who you are, whether Hanukkah menorahs proudly displayed next to Christmas trees. observant, or secular, or not even Jewish. And while you’re cele- And I mean proudly. Hanukkah, more and more, is evolving a brating, remember its message: that the spirit of this remarkable message that it didn’t have in generations past: it’s a way of af- people is a light that burns brighter all the time, promising to be firming the meaning of Jewish identity in the uniquely accept- an ever-evolving blessing for generations to come. ¢ ing multiculturalism of 21st-century America. Generations ago, in the old country, our ancestors proudly placed menorahs in their windows as an act of defiance and Daily Minyan Moment courage. The outside world, symbolized by the darkness of this Ever heard of the Minyanettes? They are the lovely ladies time of year, was an unsafe and rejecting place of anti-Semitic of the Daily Minyan! They provide friendship and support violence and betrayal. The message was clear: We stood up for to one another while saying Kaddish, but they also who we are, and despite the hatred of the surrounding nations, celebrate just being together. In fact, sometimes they despite their overwhelming strength and numbers, we pre- surprise each other with birthday cakes at Daily Minyan. vailed. But it’s different now, here in America. The menorah now And sometimes they even use Minyan as their appetizer isn’t so much shining out into the dark night as it is illuminating before dining together in Cleveland Park. Come to Daily the home within. More and more Jews aren’t observant. They Minyan to find out more about the Minyanettes. might not believe in God. And yet, they will light that menorah. They will sing the dreidel songs with their children, they’ll make the latkes. Why? Because being Jewish matters to most American Jews. It’s something we’re proud of. Even if Kashrut and Shabbat haven’t found a way into the family’s home observances, Hanuk- kah works! It is accessible, powerful, and beautiful. Its message can be seen clearly in both its particularist and universalist di- mensions. Both conventional and intermarried families can fully access this wonderful way to celebrate Jewishness. We’re witnessing the evolution of Jewish observance in America. What’s happening before our eyes, frankly, is what Weekdays 7:30 am and 6:00 pm has happened with all Jewish holidays over the centuries: they Sundays 8:30 am and 6:00 pm 2 • ChroniCle • DeCeMber 2010 office Closings & Minyan Times Holidays Friday, December 24, & Friday, December 31 Offices Closed Minyan at 8:30 am & 6:00 pm Latkes & Mojitos Bring your friends and join us for friends, and fun along the way. If you The Hanukkah Seder followed by our know everything—or nothing—about Latkes & Mojitos dinner party, Sunday, the holiday, if you just want to meet December 5, at 6:30 pm. and greet in the city, if you want a The Hanukkah season always Hanukkah party where you actually brings the same questions: What real- celebrate Hanukkah—then come early, ly went down 2,170 years ago? Where stay late, eat your weight in latkes, the Hanukkah seder can I go to learn more? And will there drink your mojitos, and be ready to by David j.