DAN HOTELS OF ISRAEL A SUPER EXPERIENCE Next Year, Jerusalem Or Somewhere Else GABRIEL LEVENSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS assover, the festival of an exodus, is also the tradi- tional holiday of return, of an ingathering of the fam- ily in the comfortable and famil- iar surroundings of one's own home, or the home of grandpar- ents or other family members. In the course of a long life, I, too, have enjoyed the warmth and the fulfillment of conducting a seder or being one of the guests at a family event; but we have also made the deliberate effort, over the past 20 years, to cele- brate Passover in various parts of the world with fellow-Jews whom we had never previously known. p per person in double room including breakfast Starting at DAN PANORAMA, TEL AVIV — DAN PANORAMA, HAIFA DAN PEARL, JERUSALEM* — DAN CAESAREA Any combination of Dan Hotels for a minimum of seven nights. *Scheduled opening Summer 1995 GABE L EVENSON Rates valid as of March 1, 1995 .(varies by season) our visit, in the late 70s, there were virtually no Jews surviving in the city; and the enormous syn- agogue, a marble masterpiece in the flamboyant style of the Ital- ian Baroque, contained a scant minyan of elderly worshippers for the Saturday morning service in which we participated. The waning congregation had had no rabbi since the Sinai Cam- paign of 1956, when the majority of Egypt's Jews were imprisoned or exiled or simply fled on their own to France (French had been the daily language of the Allexan- drine Jews) or to the long-cher- ished homeland of Israel. In fact, there were more Jews per person in double room including breakfast Starting at KING DAVID, JERUSALEM — DAN TEL AVIV — DAN CARMEL, HAIFA DAN ACCADIA, HERZLIYA — DAN EILAT* Any combination of Dan Hotels for a minimum of seven nights. *Hp•ningiuly 1995 Rates valid as of March 1, 1995 (varies by season) A 14th century Sephardic seder from a folio in the British Library. For information and reservations, please call your travel agent or Israel Hotel Representatives (212) 752-6120 or outside New York State Toll Free: 800-223-7773/4 or FAX: (212) 759-7495 ( 4(m 1/611(V:• , CA••er•i YOUR CAR IN ISRAEL' r Save an Extra $50°° per person On Your Next Cruise! (7 days or more) w L LLJ with this ad We have the lowest rates on most cruise lines but you must call immediately to secure your space. Some at 50% Off! F- LIJ 1 - LIJ 12 S 215 RENT-A•CAR 337-num FROM I • EXC. INS. PER WEEK UNUMITED MILEAGE CELLULAR PHONE IN EVERY CAR 'EXC. TYPE A USA & CANADA 800- 938 - 5000 IN NY: 212-629-6090, VALID: 6/1/95-7/4/95 O CC ELDAN 171 THE CRUISE SHOPPE a division of SUMMIT TRAVEL 810 - 932-1188 'Restrictions apply 29214 Orchard Lake Rd. • Farmington HiHs S. of 13 Mile Rd. Between Kinkos and Burger King CLASSIFIED GET RESULTS! Call The Jewish News 354-5959 We are the Elijahs, for whom attending the seder we learned an extra place is always set at the about and joined that same seder table; and everywhere we evening in a Jewish old-age home have traveled at that time of the on the outskirts of Alexandria year, we have always managed than there had been at the syn- to connect with a Passover ob- agogue. The celebrants, residents servance, and we have always of the home, were men and been welcomed as if we were women in their 70s and 80s—the members of the particular fami- men wearing a kind of striped pa- ly with whom we have chosen to jama with the look of Auschwitz garb; the women, simple house- nest on the evening of Pesach. There are differences in the dresses. languages we speak, but there is The guests were ourselves, a always the commonality of the massive, black-moustached Haggadah, in Hebrew, and the Egyptian policeman in plain- sense of Jewish belonging which clothes who was here either to trancends the separate languages guard the old-age home or to keep and customs with which we, the on eye on us foreigners — or both guests, and our hosts share the — and a gaunt, long-haired young American who had jumped joy of Passover. It was two decades ago that we the freighter on which he'd been — my wife, myself and our then- working to become an instant 10-year-old son — participated and zealous `ba'al teshuvah.' His newfound religiosity took in our first "foreign" Passover. We were in Alexandria, Egypt, the form of vigorously objecting that one-time great center of Jew- to my photographing this extra- ish learning and community ordinary historic event — per- which dated back to the founding haps the last seder ever to be held of the city by Alexander the Great in Alexandria. When we returned in the 4th century BCE. to Alexandria last Rosh Even as far back as the time of Hashanah, 20 years later, we en-