Hanukkah means food, fun for UH group

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

•	Hanukkah events Shaloha Hillel potluck dinner. 6 p.m. today. University of Hawai'i Campus Center courtyard. Free. 957-1687 (ask for Eli) At Temple Emanu-El, First Day of Hanukkah service. 7 p.m. Dec. 19. 2550 Pali Highway. Menorah lighting. 595-7521.

The group that celebrates Jewish customs and culture is hosting its event early — Hanukkah doesn't officially start until sundown Dec. 19 — so they can get together before students head out for their winter break.

"Hillel is here to support diversity on campus and create an environment where people can learn about Judaism," said Shaloha Hillel student president Adam Luchs, a Southern Californian.

Tonight, a cantor from Temple Emanu-El will lead the singing, and there will be traditional jelly doughnuts and latkes as well as booths for kids' activities, such as the game of dreidel. There will also be dancing, storytelling and a potluck dinner.

Don't mistake this for a somber temple service, said Iris Yoeli, an Israeli who teaches Hebrew at UH. "It's a cultural event more than anything else," she said.

Yoeli and the group also made heads turn earlier this year, during the Jewish high holy days. She and her Hebrew students created a sukkah for Sukkot, which comes several days after Yom Kippur.

A sukkah, or shelter, was erected on campus, alongside the main walkway to the parking structure, in remembrance of the time when the Israelites left Egypt and went into the desert, breaking bread in a sukkah that had been set there for eight days, she said.

At UH, some students used the temporary structure as a quiet study spot. Others brought lunches.

"Many people wondered, 'What is this Hawaiian hut?'" Yoeli said. "It was really funny. It was very educating for them."

UH student and Shaloha Hillel member Eli Kase was among those who used the sukkah as shelter from the campus storm. He said he's glad he connected with the campus organization, which hosts Friday night services on campus and does community service. As the new events and activities coordinator for Shaloha, he hopes to add bowling or karaoke night to the mix.

He was active in Jewish youth groups on the Mainland and, during his studies here, he has attended some services at Temple Emanu-El, a Reform Judaism congregation in Nu'uanu.

"My dad was orthodox and my mother was conservative," Kase said. "I consider myself 'conservodox' and do what I want."

Neal Milner, a political science professor, is faculty adviser for the group, which has about a dozen regulars and an e-mail list of about 50.

Earlier this year, the group raised its profile on campus when its members protested the Ka Leo student newspaper's cartoonist for his depiction of Hitler in cartoons they called anti-Semitic. They demanded that the paper require all Ka Leo editors to attend ongoing workshops on civil rights and journalistic ethics and asked for columnists to attend an orientation on journalistic ethics each semester. After a forum in which the former editor met with the group, Shaloha filed a complaint with the board of publications seeking a permanent code of ethics.

The student editor of the paper this year, Lori Saeki, said the result was that during the summer, Ka Leo faculty adviser Jay Hartwell held a session for incoming staffers that included ethics training, with a follow-up session planned in the spring.

"We're definitely trying to build on this," Saeki said. "We realize we have a responsibility to our readers to provide them with content that is reflective of our community."

For today, Shaloha's Luchs is content to throw parties.

"The controversy in the Ka Leo took up a lot of our time," he says ruefully.