Shalom My Gantseh Megillah Family and Friends,

This was a most remarkable holiday season. Arnold and I traveled to Seneca Falls, New York to spend Christmas with our 102-year-old Great Aunt Helen. We had a marvelous time and “Aunty” was excited about playing her role as host. Even after more than a century of Christmases, she revels in spending this special time with those near and dear to her.

It is a real privilege to be in Aunty’s presence and I am fascinated by her memories and insights. We are fortunate she retains clarity of mind and a total ability to communicate her thoughts. After over 100 years, this remarkable woman has much to share which she does both with love and generosity of spirit. After witnessing so many decades of progress and change I wonder how she felt as they occurred. In my relatively brief 56 years so much has happened I find it mind boggling to try to put myself in Aunty’s position of longtime spectator of history.

Aunty has seen the beginning of the industrial age, the inception of air travel, the horrors of two world wars, and the different politics of 17 U.S. presidents beginning with Theodore Roosevelt. So much of what I view as ancient history is actual real-life memory to Aunty. Her opinions are based on over a century of observation, thought, experience, trial and error and just plain living life.

Speaking of opinions, this is a woman who is not afraid to voice hers. Yet, even when expressing a less than positive point of view, she always finds a tone of kindness, tolerance and understanding. This is more than I can say for a lot of people, myself included. Just ask me what I think of the current occupant of the White House, and I find respectful discourse becomes extremely difficult. Aunty on the other hand, can express displeasure in the most pleasant way.

Aunty has friends and acquaintances of many nationalities, faiths and cultures. Although she prides herself a good Christian woman, she is always respectful of the beliefs of others. For example, even though we were gathered in her home for Christmas, there was a Chanukah present waiting for me under the tree. And each year on Rosh Hashanah, these is always a greeting card from her in my mailbox. At 56 I find it hard sometimes to remember what I had for breakfast, and yet Aunty always remembers birthdays, holidays and anniversaries and dispatches greetings on each of those occasions.

Visiting Aunty this year enabled me to put many situations that have been bothering me into greater perspective. As with many people, in the New Year I begin to take stock of the past twelve months as well as my expectations and hopes for the coming year. This year I am concerned, nay worried, and for the first time in a long while, I am feeling somewhat negative about the next twelve months. But after talking with Aunty for several days, I realized that the world has faced challenges before. Terrible wrongs have been committed and countless thousands of people suffered and died because of the folly of mankind. And yet, somehow, we endure. Somehow, we find a way of correcting the path we are on and making things better. Innovations that make our lives easier, more productive and bring us closer together find their way through the madness. Even the darkest hours of mankind eventually pass and we could continue on our way towards a better world. There will always be detours, but as long as we continue to keep our eyes open and our hopes high; as long as people of vision share their views and help guide us in the right direction, we will prevail. I don’t know if there will ever be permanent peace on earth and good will towards mankind, but Aunty has helped me to realize that it is a goal we must continue to strive for, and that if we do, good things will follow.

2004 promises to be an exciting year. The presidential race in the United States will command a great deal of attention, as it should, and the Megillah will not be left out of the festivities. In February, we will be having the first ever Gantseh Megillah primary election. You will be asked to vote for the candidate you would most like to see win the Democratic nomination for president. If there had been a contest for the Republican nomination, the Megillah would have had a similar primary for that party. However, all you Bush supporters will have a chance to vote in the ultimate Megillah presidential preference ballot once the nominees are officially named. And that’s the Gantseh Megillah.

On a somber note, we recently lost two of our Megillah family members. Jack Wolkovitz, passed away on October 6th and David Lloyd Lewis succumbed to a brain tumor on October 22nd. Please join me in extending prayers of strength and love to their wives Edie Wolkovitz and Noriko Lewis, both who remain important members of our Megillah family.

As always, I urge everyone to help get the Megillah off to a good financial start for the New Year. We really need your help to pay the bills and maintain the quality of the publication along with the glossary, photo album and discussion forum. Donations large and very small are all most welcome and much needed. For further information on how you can help us keep our brand of Yiddishkeit alive on the Web follow the Tzedakeh links.

Arnold and I wish our Megillah family a happy and very healthy New Year. May all your dreams come true.

Michael

Editor- the Gantseh Megillah