Candle lighting ceremony held in Itamar this year on every night of Chanukah, in front of the home of the Fogel family.
As the Rabbi of Itamar, Rav Natan Hai said, “The terrorists wanted to frighten and silence us but we will go on building and lighting a great light in the hills of the Shomron. Our beloved righteous ones, the Fogel Family, were murdered, but their light will go on and their way shall overcome.”
Elie Klein the donut guy
Elie Klein is at it again. Last year, the 31-year-old Anglo public relations account executive chowed down 70 sufganiyot (Hanukah donuts) for charity, raising over $9,000 for 44 causes around the world. This year, he set a goal of eating 100 donuts and, in the process, has raised over $10,000. As of this morning – with still a day of donut eating left to go, he’s reached the 101 mark.
To put that in perspective, if each sufganiya contains approximately 400 calories, that’s over 40,000 calories consumed for charity. We sure hope his arteries aren’t already flowing with Krispy Kreme.
Klein’s adventures in edible oil began two years ago as a “gentleman’s bet” between friends over who could eat more sufganiyot during the Hanukah season. Klein quickly realized that he could line up financial “pledges” from friends and family for each donut eaten, much like charity races raise money per kilometer run or pedaled.
Klein has run most of his “Dough for Donuts” campaign via Facebook – regular status posts update supporters on what he’s eaten and where the money is going. Yesterday, for example, funds went to two groups: Ramot for the Environment and Ahavas Yisrael of Baltimore.
Other organizations Klein has backed – this year the tally reached 47 groups - include well known charities such as Zaka, Melabev, Meir Panim, and a variety of “Yad’s” – Yad Binyamin, Yad Eliezer, Yad L’Achim, Yad Sarah, and more. A full list can be found on Klein’sFacebook “event.”
One thing copiously absent from Klein’s postings: which sufganiyot he’s eating. Is he going for super gourmet award winners like those from the English Cake and Roladin bakeries (with its vodka double espresso “chaser”), or the more humble supermarket variety? The price difference is not insignificant: the over the top donuts can reach 8 shekels each, while a plain blob of fried dough and artificial jelly can be had for as low as 1-2 shekels.
Although I’d like to think that, if he’s going to be scarfing up all those sufganiyot, he at least ought to please his taste buds along the way, I hate to think of him eating up all the profits. Either way, Klein has shown that an individual really can make a difference – the charities he’s supported can attest to that. Perhaps they’ll throw him a party to celebrate. But please, serve carrots for dessert!
The legacy of Hanukkah – faith, patriotism, defiance of extreme odds and tenacity in the battle of liberty against tyranny – has underlined the American spirit since the early pilgrims, enhancing the unique foundation of the U.S.-Israel covenant: shared values.
For instance, the statue of Judah the Maccabee, the hero of the Jewish rebellion against the Syrian-Seleucid Empire, is displayed at the West Point Military Academy, the most prestigious U.S. military academy, founded in 1802. The statue of Judah the Maccabee, known for his principle-driven leadership and daring battle tactics, is displayed along with the statues of Joshua, David, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hector, King Arthur, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouillon – “the Nine Worthies.”
George Washington became acquainted with the spirit of the Maccabees, upon settling, in December (Hanukkah) 1777, at his new headquarters at Valley Forge, Penn., with ill-equipped, weary troops. Faced with a superpower, George III of Britain, Washington concluded that only a dramatic change could avoid a defeat. According to the diary entries of Louisa Hart, Washington told the Harts about a Jewish solider at Valley Forge who lit a Hanukkah candle and explained its significance. Washington’s reaction was: “Perhaps we are not as lost as our enemies would have us believe. I rejoice in the Maccabees’ success, though it is long past … It pleases me to think that miracles still happen.” Six months later, on June 19, 1778, the Continental Army implemented the battle tactics of Judah the Maccabee, leaving Valley Forge in pursuit of the British, who were moving toward New York. Although the war would linger for five more years, Washington won a decisive victory.
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were inspired by the Maccabees, proposing “Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God” as the American official seal. Just like the Founding Fathers, the Maccabees were a tiny minority of “rebels” - condemned by the “loyalist/pragmatist” Jewish establishment - rebelling against an oppressive superpower. They prevailed thanks to their conviction-driven determination. They knew that swimming against the stream gets one closer to the source. The Maccabees were a role model for Paul Revere, who was referred to as “a modern day Maccabee” and the organizers of the Boston Tea Party, who realized that there were no free lunches for freedom-seeking nations.
“In God We Trust” was inspired, also, by the Maccabees’ battle cry, which adopted Moses’ battle cry against the builders of the Golden Calf. A literal translation of the battle cry is “Whoever trusts God; join me!” The Maccabees’ sacrifice and lack of political correctness also inspired Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!”
In 2011, Hanukkah is still a living experience in the U.S. For example, the residents of Billings, Mont. celebrate Hanukkah in solidarity with the Jewish community of 40 families, and in protest of the 1993 vandals who broke the windows of Jewish homes that displayed Hanukkah menorahs. In response, more than 10,000 of the city’s residents put makeshift menorahs in their own windows. They persist, annually, in this ritual.
Hanukkah and the Maccabees have become an integral part of the American way of life, culturally and politically. Americans respect the legacy of the Maccabees, who fought the Syrian-Seleucid super-power, mostly, in the mountains of Judea and Samaria, in the Judean Desert and in Jerusalem. Judah the Maccabee’s own Valley Forge was at Beit El; his capital was Jerusalem; he scored dramatic victories in Beit Horon (over Seron), Hadashah (over Nicanor), Beit Zur (over Lysias) and Ma’aleh Levona (over Apolonius); he was defeated at Elazar and killed at Ba’al Hatzor – all are located beyond the “1967 Lines.”
The descendants of the Maccabees are not “occupiers” in the cradle of their own history. Hanukkah is not a holiday of “occupation,” but a holiday of deliverance. Hanukkah is a holiday which highlights the moral high ground of Jews in their ancestral homeland.
Shimon the Maccabee - who succeeded Judah and Yonatan the Maccabees – articulated the Jewish territorial case when responding to an ultimatum by Antiochus, who demanded an end to the Jewish “occupation” of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Gaza, Gezer and Ekron: “We have not occupied a foreign land; we have not ruled a foreign land; we have liberated the land of our forefathers from foreign occupation,” Shimon said.
Pressuring the Jewish state to withdraw from the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria defies the American story. Either you are with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other defenders of liberty, or you provide – inadvertently – a tailwind to the forces of tyranny
(Source: israelhayom.com)
P.M. Yitzhak Shamir flanked by his wife shulamit and a hostess singing the maoz tzur lighting Hannuka candles on their return flight from Washington - 1983
