Jewish Community Center

Sharon Seigel pulled the wooden candelabrum from her canvas bag and asked if anyone in her young audience knew what it was. "A menorah!" shouted 4-year-old Dylan Hicks. "And does anyone know what we put in it?" "Candles!" Dylan shouted. Oliver Bui, meanwhile, watched from his mother's arms. The sights and sounds of Hanukkah were entirely new to the 6-month-old - and also to his mother. "I think it's great," said Kim Bui, who is not Jewish. "It's exposing kids to other cultural celebrations."

When I wrote about Jill Smokler last year for The Sun, I said she might be Baltimore's biggest unknown celebrity. Then I pointed out her online following stats -- on Twitter, nearly 155,000 people followed her, more, by far, than Baltimore's mayor, Maryland's governor, chef Duff Goldman and the Ravens' Ray Lewis - together. She's added to her flock since then. By nearly 100,000 people. And it's only going to grow because she's about to release her first book. "Confessions of a Scary Mommy," goes on sale today.

In a groundbreaking collaboration, the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center and three nearby synagogues are teaming up to offer Jewish U, a wide-ranging three-month series of adult education courses.Beginning this week, Jewish U will offer courses in Hebrew, Biblical studies, marriage and family, and other topics related to Judaism."This is quite innovative," said Michael Wegier, the JCC's director of Jewish Education and coordinator of Jewish U, which is planned to operate each year from January to March.

More than 2,000 Ocean City evacuees have arrived in the Baltimore area for temporary housing during Hurricane Irene, as part of the state's preparations for the storm. Six hundred foreign exchange students traveled in buses from Ocean City on Thursday night and stayed on cots in Burdick Hall, a gymnasium on the Towson University campus, said John Hatten, director of emergency operations for Maryland's Department of Human Resources. In Owings Mills, 395 more students are being housed at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, while 1,000 to 1,100 are staying at the 5th Regiment Armory near Bolton Hill, according to Hatten and human resources department spokesman Ian Patrick Hines.

The Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills, barraged with requests for weekend recreational facilities, decided to open on Saturday afternoons. Hundreds of Orthodox Jews rallied to protest what they considered a violation of the sanctity of the Sabbath. The decision was reversed.But the year was 1979, not 1997. The drama that unfolded during the past month in the diverse Jewish communities of Baltimore and Baltimore County was a replay of a controversy 18 years ago.The outcome was the same, but the arguments this time were magnified by demographic changes and contained echoes of a passionate debate in Israel.

In yesterday's Live section, the address was incorrect for "Park Heights: Lives Along an Avenue," an exhibit running Sept. 2 through Nov. 29 at the Jewish Community Center's Norman and Sarah Brown Art Gallery. The correct address is 5700 Park Heights Ave. For information, call 410-542-4900, Ext. 239.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 8/28/98

The film version of Herb Gardner's Tony Award-winning play, jTC "I'm Not Rappaport," will open in Baltimore in early 1997, but if you want to see what the original stage version is like, the Jewish Community Center's Ensemble Theatre Company has a production opening tonight.Barney Cohen and Ed Smith star as two elderly curmudgeons in this touching tale of friendship. Direction is by Mitchell A. Nathan.Show times at the Jewish Community Center, 5700 Park Heights Ave., are 7: 30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. Sundays, through Dec. 29. Tickets are $6 in advance; $8 at the door.

The Jewish Community Center has an extensive art faculty, whose members offer classes to adults and seniors in many disciplines and media. Every two years, the faculty gets to have an exhibit at the JCC's Norman and Sarah Brown Art Gallery at its Park Heights location, and the faculty show is going on now. Participating artists include Lucille Weinberg, Tammra Sigler, John Seely, Jennifer Lechner, Dan Howarth, Craig Herron, Edward Hilbert, Judy Heimann, Sheila...

Md. said to trail U.S. average in number of church membersMaryland lags behind the nation in the number of citizens who identify themselves as members of a Judeo-Christian church, according to a new study by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.zTC Forty-eight percent of Maryland citizens identify themselves as a member of a specific religious denomination, compared to 55.1 percent nationwide, according to the study of U.S. church membership released this week.The study said a fourth to a half of the church members in central Maryland are Catholic, while Methodists make up similar numbers in several Eastern Shore and Western Maryland counties.

Homeowners who are in trouble on their mortgages or worried that they will get behind in the future can get a free legal consultation at a Jan. 10 foreclosure solutions workshop. The event, sponsored by nonprofits and staffed by attorneys, is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 5700 Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore. Homeowners should pre-register by Jan. 6 by calling 410-466-1990, x0. - Jamie Smith Hopkins | The Baltimore Sun

Facing financial difficulties, Yeshivat Rambam is trying to sell its Park Heights Avenue campus. Officials at the Orthodox Jewish day school said Thursday the school would remain open through the end of the academic year, helped in part by short-term financing from the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. After this year, however, the school will have to relocate. In a letter to parents this week, officials referred to "perennial rumors of insolvency" and said the sale of the campus at 6300 Park Heights Ave. was inevitable.

Free legal consultation available for homeowners Homeowners who are in trouble on their mortgages or worried that they will get behind in the future can get a free legal consultation at a Jan. 10 foreclosure solutions workshop. The event, sponsored by nonprofits and staffed by attorneys, is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 5700 Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore. Homeowners should pre-register by Jan. 6 by calling 410-466-1990, x0. - Jamie Smith Hopkins Constellation charitable foundation gets $36 million Constellation Energy Group announced Monday a $36 million contribution by Electricite de France to the company's foundation.

Homeowners who are in trouble on their mortgages or worried that they will get behind in the future can get a free legal consultation at a Jan. 10 foreclosure solutions workshop. The event, sponsored by nonprofits and staffed by attorneys, is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 5700 Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore. Homeowners should pre-register by Jan. 6 by calling 410-466-1990, x0. - Jamie Smith Hopkins | The Baltimore Sun

Sharon Seigel pulled the wooden candelabrum from her canvas bag and asked if anyone in her young audience knew what it was. "A menorah!" shouted 4-year-old Dylan Hicks. "And does anyone know what we put in it?" "Candles!" Dylan shouted. Oliver Bui, meanwhile, watched from his mother's arms. The sights and sounds of Hanukkah were entirely new to the 6-month-old - and also to his mother. "I think it's great," said Kim Bui, who is not Jewish. "It's exposing kids to other cultural celebrations."

Local Jewish leaders voted Wednesday to open a community center in Owings Mills on Saturdays, drawing expressions of both hope and sadness from across Baltimore's diverse Jewish community. The issue has highlighted a deep divide between the Orthodox and the rest of the Jewish community, and after the vote by the board of directors of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Greater Baltimore, leaders on both sides said they would work to improve communications. After weeks of debate, the Associated board voted 97 to 33 to allow the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore to open its Owings Mills location on Saturdays - the Jewish sabbath - beginning June 6. "The decision will give the JCC more of an opportunity to serve Jewish people in the Owings Mills area who ... do not automatically affiliate with Jewish organizations," said JCC President Louis "Buddy" Sapolsky.

Opponents of a controversial plan to open the Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills on Saturday are planning a rally this weekend in defense of the Jewish Sabbath. "It's not a negative rally, it's a positive rally to cause awareness of the sacredness of the observance of the Sabbath," said Eli Schlossberg, an organizer of the event set for noon Sunday at Northwestern High School in Park Heights. From sundown Friday each week until nightfall Saturday, Orthodox and some other Jews observe Shabbat by refraining from work, handling money, driving a car, answering the telephone or operating electrical appliances.

Stanley Marcus' life-size sculptures pique our sense of absurdity, with limbs protruding from objects in whimsical and sometimes disturbing fashion. His show, "Party of Three," which opens Tuesday, is the season's first exhibit at the Norman and Sarah Brown Art Gallery at the Jewish Community Center.Most of the pieces in the show are taken from a series called "The Cocktail Party," which was started in 1980. " 'The Cocktail Party' is about celebration," the artist says. "I can imagine a visit to any party, whether in ancient Mesopotamia, Russia of the 19th century or Park Avenue of today.

State won't charge for basic crabbing permit Maryland officials have dropped plans to charge a fee when requiring previously unlicensed recreational crabbers to register with the state. The Department of Natural Resources initially proposed charging $2 for permits issued to waterfront property owners who hang crab pots off their docks or those who use dip nets along the shore. Draft regulations released this week say registration would be free for the new "basic" recreational crabbing license and for anyone crabbing from their own property.