Sabbath

The vote from the Strathmore Tower condominium board was simple: Down with the Sabbath elevator. But what some thought was a straightforward vote has erupted into a religious and racially tinged controversy to others in this majority senior citizen-occupied condominium complex in Upper Park Heights. The supporters - most of whom are Jewish - say the option for a Sabbath elevator wouldn't have cost extra money and would have aided Orthodox Jewish and disabled residents while helping resale prices.

Tamir Goodman, one of the most publicized recruits in the history of Maryland basketball, told the Terps yesterday that he would decline the scholarship offer he orally accepted from the university last January.Goodman, an Orthodox Jew, said he changed his mind after a Sept. 2 meeting with Maryland coach Gary Williams, citing friction with the Maryland coaching staff over his refusal to play on the Jewish Sabbath."It was very discouraging," Goodman, 17, said of the meeting. "It would have been better off if they would have said [in January]

ONE OF the most refreshing college basketball stories in many years is the recent announcement that Tamir Goodman, an Orthodox Jewish high school basketball star from Pikesville, has promised to play for the University of Maryland.The idea that big-time college basketball, which has been marred by scandal in recent years, would agree to be challenged by Tamir's value system is a notable development.However, some religion-related issues will arise from this union. For example, there is a question of whether Tamir could play basketball on the Jewish Sabbath.

Go ahead, try to outrun the boys and girls track teams at Oakland Mills. Attempt to outpoint the boys, who are the defending Class 1A state champs. Challenge the girls, who finished second in last year's state meet.Oakland Mills has the talent to beat a lot of teams any day of the week. Except on Saturdays, when four team members -- Danielle Stoddart, Aharon McKoy, and Paul and Reesa Phillips -- refrain from competing for religious reasons.They are Seventh-Day Adventists, and their commitment to observing the Sabbath means that Oakland Mills coach Sam Singleton will lead his squads into the state finals on Saturday, May 29, at UMBC without four important cogs.

JERUSALEM -- Ultra-Orthodox rabbis are calling Israel's Supreme Court a bunch of "wanton evildoers" who desecrate the Sabbath. The court's secular defenders are portraying the rabbis as a dangerous cabal that wants to turn Israel into an Iranian-style theocracy.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is upset. So is President Ezer Weizman. So are the police, for the whole fight is likely to come to a head tomorrow when ultra-Orthodox rabbis plan to hold a mass demonstration to protest recent Supreme Court decisions that they say contravene their authority.

CHICAGO -- The FBI joined in the search yesterday for a gunman who, apparently targeting minorities, swept across three suburbs on Chicago's northern fringe Friday, killing black former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, wounding six Orthodox Jews, and firing at two Asian-Americans in a car.Police say a white male between the ages of 25 and 30, driving a blue, four-door sedan, fired on at least 10 people at six different locations within...

75 years ago: On Sunday, Oct. 26, at Westminster in the Armory, at 2: 30 o'clock, there will be held a mass meeting for women to be addressed by Mrs. L. M. DeSilva of New York City. It is not a political meeting, but a meeting in the interest of Sabbath Schools and right living. -- Democratic Advocate, Oct. 24, 1924.

BERLIN -- It's been nearly a decade since the starved consumers of East Germany burst through the Berlin Wall, but it took until yesterday to topple another formidable barrier to capitalism: a federal ban on retail shopping in Germany on the day designated for "spiritual reflection."Hundreds of stores opened their doors for the first time on the Lord's Day to a veritable storm of shoppers in this capital city, in Leipzig and in Halle, ringing up record sales and transforming the usual Sabbath somnolence into a festival of frenzied spending.

All Gary Williams had to tell Tamir Goodman was that it couldn't work. But that's not what happened, is it?Not even close.Not even at the bitter end.Williams had to jump last Jan. 10, had to offer Goodman a basketball scholarship to Maryland, had to lock up this high school junior, right then and there, before other schools could enter the mix.His ignorance of the complexities presented by Goodman's Orthodox Jewish religion is forgivable. His refusal to play it straight with a 17-year-old -- particularly one of such principle -- is not.Goodman never changed his position.

The hot line telephone started ringing just after noon yesterday as concerned Orthodox Jews checked that the Baltimore County eruv is intact so they can enjoy a relaxed Sabbath.Shmuel Siegel, 18, who spent more than two hours checking the boundaries, assured callers that all was well.Since last spring, the eruv, a symbolic enclosure, has bounded a large area of northwestern Baltimore County. Created to help attract more Orthodox Jews to the county, the eruv establishes a "private domain" in which Sabbath restrictions against "work" from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday are relaxed -- very slightly.

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.

For Yoel Benyowitz, setting aside work at sundown on Friday, lighting the shabbos candles and spending the next 24 hours in prayer and fellowship with family and friends "recharges our batteries, both physically and spiritually." It's an experience that he wishes more Jews enjoyed. The 47-year-old father of four, a computer information specialist with the state Department of Transportation, joined thousands of fellow Orthodox Jews in Park Heights on Sunday for a rally to promote observance of the Jewish Sabbath.

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.

Is today the day? Usually, your Sunday morning anticipation revolves around the crossword puzzle, political talk shows, perhaps brunch plans or counting down the days until Week 1 of the NFL season. Maybe even snagging an extra thimble of wine at morning service. But not this summer. Not in Baltimore. We wake up once a week wondering whether this is finally the Sunday - oh, cursed Sabbath - the Orioles can finally post a win. It's the most curious and inexplicable stat, fact or truth of the baseball season.

The vote from the Strathmore Tower condominium board was simple: Down with the Sabbath elevator. But what some thought was a straightforward vote has erupted into a religious and racially tinged controversy to others in this majority senior citizen-occupied condominium complex in Upper Park Heights. The supporters - most of whom are Jewish - say the option for a Sabbath elevator wouldn't have cost extra money and would have aided Orthodox Jewish and disabled residents while helping resale prices.

Ever since his son Sam was born five years ago, David Brown has observed the Sabbath with his family, singing, praying and enjoying a large meal in their Pikesville home. For Orthodox Jews like the Brown family, the time between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday is a holiday during which work, even flicking a light switch, should be avoided. "One of my biggest fears, one of the things I never wanted to happen, was for my family to sit down for Shabbos dinner and to have my chair be empty," he said.

JERUSALEM -- Israel's national electric company is facing a religious quandary: How can the Jewish state's power supplier generate electricity on the Sabbath without violating the laws of the Jewish day of rest and prayer? To find an answer, the multibillion-dollar company has turned to the shabby offices of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Halperin, a 72-year-old spiritual adviser with a Father Time beard, who is widely recognized as the final word on what is possible and what is not under Orthodox Jewish law. Jewish law provides a guide for the actions of observant Jews from morning until night.

The Hebrew words echoed through the halls of the Catholic school. Inside a classroom decorated with a crucifix, a rabbi led the African-American students in song. Rabbi Gila Ruskin had lit the Sabbath candles, recited a blessing over her young charges and passed around a basket of animal crackers. Now, strumming the guitar, she sang: "Shabbat Shalom" - Sabbath Peace. Justine Jones double-clapped on the beat. Styinyard Blue stomped his feet. For juniors at St. Frances Academy, virtually all of them Baptist, Catholic or some other stripe of Christian, the weekly celebration of the Jewish Sabbath is a highlight of religious studies class.

I am a bank customer-service employee who works three days a week. My supervisor wants me to expand my days to include Saturdays, but I observe the Sabbath. Can the bank force me to work that day? State and federal statutes that prohibit religious discrimination require some form of accommodation, within reason. "There is a requirement to accommodate under Title VII," said Louis Graziano, a senior trial attorney in the Manhattan office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces Title VII and other federal anti-bias statutes.

The second annual convention of the Sabbath-school association convened Sept. 8, 1868, in Westminster. Before the association formed, Protestant clergy met individually to discuss the usefulness of religious education, Sunday school classes and ways to extend their influence throughout the county. The group, comprising delegates from all Protestant denominations in Carroll County, met formally for the first time in 1867 and created the Sabbath-school association. -- History of Western Maryland, Volume 2 by J. Thomas Scharf, Page 822. Compiled by Sun researcher Shelia Jackson