- 100 members from all over North America. The choir was led by Cantor
Mikhail Manevich of Washington Hebrew Congregation, Washington, DC--the first cantor ever to conduct the Biennial choir.
- With close to 5,000 conventioneers, this was the largest Biennial ever. More than 3,100 temple delegates took part.
- 75th anniversary. NFTB marked the occasion with a Diamond Jubilee dinner
honoring men who have been members of Brotherhood for more than forty years.
- 97%. According to Rabbi Allan Smith, director of the UAHC Youth Division
since 1983, "Jewish kids feel very good about who they are. They are
hopeful....Judaism is a part of this picture of hopefulness. The overwhelming
majority don't feel threatened in any way as Jews; they feel accepted by
non-Jews."
- More than 80% said they would date someone not Jewish, but they expect to
marry a Jew. Comments Rabbi Allan Smith: "Most youngsters do not see a
connection between dating and marriage. ...They do not seem to realize that
dating a non-Jew increases the chances of intermarriage, so there is a
disconnect between what they are doing today and what they imagine their
adult lives will be. It is therefore not surprising that more than half of
our children marry non-Jews."
- Twelve written lines. Handwritten by a sofer (scribe) in
Torah script with a special quill pen on unattached paper, the get
specifies that the husband divorces his wife, and that "she is now
free for any man."
- 220 million people in some 50 countries. In the book, "While America
Watches, Televising the Holocaust," Jeffrey Shandler contends that its wide
dissemination introduced a postwar generation to the Holocaust, as did the
television broadcast of "Schindler's List" in 1997.
- 248 columns.
- 304,805 letters.
- 613 mitzvot.
|
Back to RJ Magazine