Happy Hanukkah to All! Truman Gutman Enjoys Some Hanukkah Warmth
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november 26, 2010 • 19 kislev • volume 86, no. 25 Happy Hanukkah to all! Truman Gutman enjoys some Hanukkah warmth. Win a kosher shopping spree! See page 7B www.facebook.com/jtnews professionalwashington.com @jew_ish or @jewish_dot_com connecting our local Jewish community 2 JTNews . WWW.JTNEWS.NET . FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010 Late Fall Family Calendar For complete details about these and other upcoming JFS events and workshops, please visit our website: www.jfsseattle.org FOR ADULTS AGE 60+ FOR PARENTS FOR THE COMMUNITY Endless Opportunities Healthy Relationships & AA Meetings at JFS A community-wide program offered in Teen Dating m Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m. partnership with Temple B’nai Torah & Temple Join us to gain insight and tools on topics of Contact Eve M. Ruff, (206) 861-8782 or De Hirsch Sinai. EO events are open significant interest to parents of teens. [email protected] to the public. m Sunday, December 12 Latkes & Applesauce Seattle Jewish Chorale Presents: 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Contact Marjorie Schnyder, (206) 861-3146 Join us at Whole Foods Market, Roosevelt Setting the Mood for Hanukkah or [email protected]. Square and taste the treats of Chanukah m Tuesday, November 30 m Tuesday, November 30 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. PEPS 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. PEPS is now offering a peer support group Contact Emily Harris-Shears, (206) 861-8784 experience for parents of newborns within a or [email protected]. culturally relevant context. Jewish and interfaith parents are invited to join us! Contact Marjorie Schnyder, (206) 861-3146, Shaarei Tikvah: Gates [email protected] or go to of Hope http://www.pepsgroup.org/register-for-peps/jfs. A Chanukah Celebration for People of All Abilities FOR JEWISH WOMEN A community-wide non-denominational celebration for persons of all abilities; Programs of Project DVORA (Domestic led by Rabbi James Mirel and Cantor Violence Outreach, Response & Advocacy) David Serkin-Poole. are free of charge. m Sunday, December 5 Confidential Support Group 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Peer support, education and healing for Contact Emily Harris-Shears, A Musical Chanukah Celebration Jewish women with controlling partners. (206) 861-8784 or [email protected]. with The Shalom Ensemble m Ongoing m Thursday, December 9 Confidential location, dates and time. Chai Chavurah 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. Contact Project DVORA, (206) 461-3240 or [email protected] A Judaic/12 Step Study Gathering for Jews Jews in China in or considering recovery, their families and With Rabbi Anson Laytner, President of the their friends. Sino-Judaic Institute. m Saturday, December 11 m Tuesday, December 14 Second Saturday each month 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Contact Eve M. Ruff, (206) 861-8782 or Jewish Jeopardy!! [email protected] America’s Favorite Quiz Show m Thursday, December 30 10:00 a.m. – Noon Give Hunger A Holiday VOLUNTEER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! RSVP Ellen Hendin, (206) 861-3183 or 47% of JFS Polack Food Bank clients [email protected] regarding all must choose between paying for food (206) 861-3155, [email protected] or go to www.jfsseattle.org Endless Opportunities programs. and paying for utilities — the “Heat or Eat” dilemma. Your Give Hunger A Holiday donations, now through December 31st, will purchase grocery store gift cards to ease the burden on clients facing the cold winter months ahead. For information, go to www.jfsseattle.org. JFS services and programs aremade possible through generous community support of 1601 - 16th Avenue, Seattle (206) 461-3240 • www.jfsseattle.org To donate, please visit www.jfsseattle.org FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2010 . WWW.JTNEWS.NET . JTNews OPINION A the rabbi’s turn Elie Wiesel’s unusual To recognize the miracles God Thanksgiving message performed for our ancestors, we DR. RAFAEL MEDOFF Special to JTNews must do the same for others today “What is there to give thanks for, anyway?” That was the provocative question posed by the featured speaker on Thanks- RABBI ZARI WEISS Congregation Kol HaNeshamah giving Day 1968 at Kehilath Jeshurun, one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in As the sun begins to set on community or society. Or, we Manhattan. Wednesday evening, Jews and might commit to engaging in The provocateur was Elie Wiesel, recently turned 40 and nearly two decades their families throughout the some sort of act: Writing an away from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Honor, and world will light the first light op-ed piece to the local news- many other accolades. In those days, his Holocaust memoir, Night, still languished of the Hanukkah menorah. paper or a letter to the editor, in near obscurity and his best-known work was his 1966 book about Soviet Jewry, They will recite the blessings, advocating for or helping The Jews of Silence. sing a medley of Hanukkah make others aware of partic- “What is there to be grateful for, and to whom shall we be grateful?” Wiesel songs, enjoy potato latkes ular issues. asked the Kehilath Jeshurun audience of 500-plus. “Shall we be grateful for racial and/or sufganiot (fried jelly I imagine that this addi- hatred? For Vietnam, in which hundreds are dying for nothing? For the desecration donuts), play dreidel and tion to our Hanukkah obser- of 11 synagogues in this city during the past three months?” other games, and perhaps vance could look like this: Wiesel’s gloomy list of worrisome developments didn’t stop there. He also cited even give or exchange gifts. Hanukkah, a Day 1: As we light the first candle, we “the vicious official anti-Semitism of the Polish [Communist] Government”; the Festival of Light in a season of darkness, rededicate ourselves to the ideal that all “three million Jews who are doomed to silence in Soviet Russia while the world is a joyful holiday, warming our spirits people are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the maintains an indifferent silence”; the Soviet Union’s massive arms supplies to Arab during the coldest time of the year. image of God, and deserve to be treated regimes; and “a France — the symbol of enlightenment — in which De Gaulle Among the blessings that will be with dignity and respect. We feel outrage speaks openly about his anti-Israel feelings.” recited is one that praises God for the over the recent suicides which have been Wiesel’s J’Accuse also took aim at the American Jewish community. miracles God performed for our ancestors brought on by homophobic bullying and “Shall we be grateful for the failure of American Jewry to display solidarity with in their day, at this time of year (“she’asah intolerance. On this first night of Hanuk- Jews behind the Iron Curtain?” he asked. Pointing to the Polish government’s nisim lavoteinu, bayamim ha’heym, kah, we commit to ending homophobic refusal to permit a public recitation of Kaddish on the anniversary of the libera- bazman hazeh”). It is this blessing that bullying or harassment of any kind in our tion of Auschwitz, Wiesel said U.S. Jews should have “gathered a mass of people recalls the historical dimension of the hol- synagogues, schools, organizations, and together to recite Kaddish at least on this free soil.” iday, the time in our people’s history when communities. We join with tens of thou- Wiesel noted that “those who hate the Jewish people believe in a certain mys- our ancestors were miraculously able to sands of others in the Jewish community tical unity that binds us together, a conspiracy of Jews throughout the world.” In overcome an oppressive foreign power throughout the United States, and sign our fact, however, “the Jew himself frequently does not understand the brotherly bond that had increasingly prevented them names to the Jewish Community Pledge: which should unite him with his fellow Jews who suffer.” from practicing their religious traditions www.jewishcommunitypledge.org. Still, Wiesel continued, giving thanks is important, because “this is what makes freely, without fear of reprisal or punish- Day 2: As we light the second candle, us human and what renders us most Jewish.” Jews might not have “big thanks to be ment. The small band of fighters known we rededicate ourselves to demonstrate thankful for” in November 1968, “but we do have little things.” as the Maccabees fought for their right to the values of chesed and rachamim, loving “We can be thankful for a Russian Jewry that dances on the streets on Sim- worship Judaism freely. To this day, we kindness and compassion, to those who chat Torah,” despite persecution and forced assimilation. “We can be thankful for observe Hanukkah not only to celebrate are less fortunate. This night, we will give Polish Jews who heroically refused to sign petitions against Israel” presented to the freedom of religious expression that tzedakah to the Jewish Family Service (or them by Poland’s Communist rulers. Most of all, he said, “we can be thankful that they secured in their day, but also, for the another) food bank, to help those who are despite all that has happened, we can still believe in God and in Israel.” freedom that we — in part as a result of hungry and struggling to make ends meet “With that,” Kehilath Jeshurun’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, wrote their efforts — enjoy in ours. on limited or no incomes. in the KJ newsletter, “Elie Wiesel returned to his seat alongside the holy ark. There The word Hanukkah means dedica- Day 3: As we light the third candle, was hardly a dry eye in the synagogue. The spokesman for the Jews of silence had tion.