Christmas Eve parties becoming a Jewish
tradition in U.S.
By Jessica Gresko
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) _ With no tradition of leaving cookies for Santa, no church to attend and no expectation of presents in the morning,
Christmas Eve used to hold little to look forward to for non-Christians _ until the Matzo Ball and other night-before-Christmas parties.
Part reunion, part date night, these parties draw thousands of people. The granddaddy of them all, the Matzo Ball, will be held this year at clubs in six cities.
Organizers say the events are open to everyone, though the crowds are overwhelmingly Jewish singles and couples in their 20s and 30s.
“For Jews, Christmas Eve has become the dating or the matchmaking night,’’ said Andy Rudnick, 42, creator of the Matzo Ball. “That’s the night that things happen.’’
Rudnick was just out of college when he threw the first Matzo Ball party _ named for the large dumpling featured in traditional Jewish cuisine _ in Boston in 1987. To his surprise, 2,000 people showed up. It has grown ever since, and Rudnick, who has moved to Florida, even met his wife at a Matzo Ball in 1997.
This year, the parties are being held in Boston, New York, Denver, Washington, Miami and Boca Raton, Florida.
The Matzo Balls have competition. A party sponsored by the Tampa Jewish Federation is called Vodka Latke after the Jewish pancakes, and the Eve Party in Miami Beach, Florida, is hosted by an organization called Jmerica. In Los Angeles, it is the Schmooz-a-Palooza, which has drawn over 1,000 people in the past, and New York has The Ball, now in its 12th year.
“I think that every two seconds on the radio you hear another Christmas song and everywhere you go you see Christmas trees,’’ said Lewis Weinger, who organized the Schmooz-a-Palooza for 12 years before JDate took over. “I think in a predominantly non-Jewish environment, even Los Angeles, I think it’s an important night for Jewish people to get together and connect and to party and be proud they’re Jewish.’’
Robert Fellman, 31, of Boca Raton, said he has attended the Matzo Ball ever since he turned 21.
“I look forward to it all year. It’s definitely not just another night out,’’ he said. |
‘Tis the season for charities to bare (almost) all for
calendars
By Dinesh Ramde
Associated Press Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Miss December is wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a smile. Oh, and holding one strategically placed cat.
Chandra Gates, 39, decided the Humane Society of Jefferson County was a worthy enough cause for the 39-year-old to bare nearly all for a nude-calendar fundraiser.
“I’m shy about the picture but definitely proud of the cause,’’ said Gates, an animal caregiver there.
The Humane Society in the city of Jefferson is one of countless nonprofit organizations around thew world selling tastefully nude 2007 calendars.
A group of women aged from mid 50s to early 70s in Yorkshire, England, pioneered the idea in 2000 when they sold a calendar of discreet nude photographs of themselves to raise money for cancer research.
The women, whose story inspired the 2003 movie “Calendar Girls,’’ raised $2.55 million (euro1.93 million) through sales of 800,000 calendars as well as book and film royalties.
The women have released a 2007 calendar, the group’s third, that has a photo of the women _ clothed _ with Prince Charles.
In Gates’ black-and-white photo in the Humane Society calendar, she is pictured from the waist up, holding a cat against her bare chest as she stands in a snowy yard.
Humane Society executive director Lisa Patefield said the calendar’s other pictures are equally artistic and were inspired by the “Calendar Girls’’ idea. Her group expects to raise $30,000 (euro22,741) through the sale of 1,500 calendars.
“For nonprofits, it’s getting tough to raise money,’’ Patefield said. “In order to be competitive in fundraising, you have to come up with something new, something exciting.’’
Linda Bayens only plans to use nude calendars as a fundraiser once. The real estate agent from Louisville, Kentucky, and her husband created a calendar of nude chefs to help cover nearly $30,000 (euro22,741) of out-of-pocket medical expenses after their daughter had successful cystic fibrosis surgery this summer.
Bayens, 50, sold about 1,300 of the 2,000 calendars printed, raising some $19,000 (euro14,402) after expenses. She said local businesses stocked the calendars but larger bookstore chains refused.
“I’m not sure why sales stagnated. I don’t know if we were lacking exposure, no pun intended,’’ she said.
Some groups, including the Jefferson County Humane Society, said they don’t plan to make calendars in subsequent years because the originality factor is gone. But the Calendar Girls in England are still getting strong demand for their third run of calendars, said Clare Lipscombe, press manager for Leukaemia Research in London, the fundraiser’s beneficiary.
“It might be difficult for other groups but we haven’t found people losing interest,’’ Lipscombe said. “Maybe because these girls were the original ones who started it all.’’
Tumbleweeds invade Colo. town of Pueblo West, pile 20 feet high in some places
PUEBLO WEST, Colorado (AP) _ The blizzard that dumped up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) of snow in Colorado’s mountains brought a different force of nature to this Front Range town: tumbleweeds that piled up to 20 feet (6 meters) high.
“I couldn’t see out the kitchen window, and it’s on the second story,’’ said Lisa Jackson, a resident who lives near the Pueblo West golf course. She and her husband were still trying to dig out from the tightly packed weeds Friday.
Neighbor Michelle Peulen drove through the tumbleweed storm Wednesday.
“It was like being in a weird video game, dodging the tumbleweeds,’’ she said.
On Friday, residents were helped by crews from the Pueblo West Metropolitan District, a group of Pueblo West volunteer firefighters, and a “chain-gang’’ of inmates from the Pueblo County jail.
Don Sailing, the metro district’s general manager, said the weeds piled up next to homes along U.S. 50 _ a highway _ where houses are close together.
Residents of the town about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Colorado Springs can get permission to burn the weeds to dispose of them, Sailing said. |
U.S. judge orders school to reinstate students it
expelled over ‘teddy bear
attack’ movie
KNIGHTSTOWN, Indiana (AP) _ Making a movie in which evil teddy bears attack a teacher got two budding filmmakers expelled from their high school, but a federal judge says it was the school that was wrong.
However, the judge said the boys should apologize.
Cody Overbay and Isaac Imel, both 10th grade students, must be allowed to return to Knightstown High School for the second semester, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker said Friday in Indianapolis in granting a preliminary injunction. She also ordered the school to allow the students to make up any work they had missed since their expulsions in October.
The boys worked on the movie “The Teddy Bear Master’’ from fall 2005 through summer 2006. It depicts a “teddy bear master’’ ordering stuffed animals to kill a teacher who had embarrassed him, but students battle the toy beasts, according to documents filed in court.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sued on behalf of the two teenagers last month arguing that school officials overreacted to a film parody and violated their constitutional free speech rights.
“I had a feeling we’d come out the winner,’’ Imel said.
Attorneys for the school district did not say if they would appeal.
School officials had argued that the film was disruptive and that a teacher whose name was used in the movie found it threatening. Prosecutors reviewed the movie but declined to press charges.
State law allows expulsion for activity unconnected with school if the activity is unlawful and interferes with school operations.
The judge said the movie was “vulgar,’’ “tasteless,’’ “humiliating’’ and “obscene,’’ but ruled that school officials did not prove it disrupted school.
The judge said she did not believe it was a coincidence that the teacher in the movie had the same name as a math teacher at Knightstown Intermediate School. She urged the teens to apologize to the teacher and the school administration.
“School officials need to know you’ve learned a lesson,’’ Barker said. |
