Pavel

Announcing
The Charleston Walk:
the only
A Travel Find
11 1/2-hour
T
nonstop from
Chicago to Israel.

GABE LEVENSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Only 11 1 /2 hours. On a comfortable 747-400, no less.
And it's the only nonstop return, too.
Call your travel agent or EL AL at 800-223-6700.

EL/I AL

The Airline of Israel

ISRAEL

NO ONE BELONGS HERE MORE THAN YOU

Nonstop service begins 6/24/96.

Our internet address is http:

here are perhaps 3,500
Jews in Charleston, less
than 2 percent of the city's
population, but proudly
cherish traditions of their 300-
year-history in the city. The
magnificence of its institutions
such as Kahal Kadosh Beth Elo-
him, the oldest surviving Reform
synagogue in all the world; and
the wide range of activities in
which this tiny Jewish commu-
nity is presently engaged are
among the factors which further
enhance a visit to Charleston.
The city consistently rates
among the top 10 of the country's
most attractive travel destina-
tions. And for good reasons: a
salubrious climate, and miles of
beaches; the unparalleled collec-
tion of restored Antebellum
homes; the Gibbes and
Charleston Museums; the gar-
dens and plantations; the Dock
St. Theater (America's first) and
the famed Spoleto Festival of the
Arts.

(most of the king's mistresses,
like Nelly Gwynn, were actress-
es) of music, the arts, and formal
gardens were marks of Restora-
tion England which the good cit-
izens of Charles Town sedulously
imitated — "together with an
overindulgence in drinking," ac-
cording to historian Rosen.
An overindulgence in alcohol
was accompanied, however, by
an indulgence in religious diver-
sity which emboldened Jews,
among others, to seek and, im-
mediately experience freedom of
worship in Charles Town.
Its founders had read John
Locke's Fundamental Constitu-
tions, which guaranteed "ye lib-
erty" of religion to "ye natives ...
whose idollatry ... gives us noe
right ... to use ym. ill" — and
even, Locke declared, "ye liberty"
to "yt heathen Jues."
The "heathen Jews" were
made welcome in Charleston;
they prospered, along with other
Charlestonians, in the indigo and

ROCHELLE L1EBERMA,N

And The
Staff Of

GATEWAY TRAVEL

wish all
our friends and clients
a happy and healthy Passover!

Nicole Arslanian • Vickie Buckley • Mille Chad • Sonny Cohn •
Wendy Danzig • Christy Ehlers • Bede Epstein • Sue Erlich • Beth
Feldman • Nancy Deroven-Fink • Cindy Gorgies • Roseann Konke •
Lois Kozlow • Marlene Kraft • Cyd Kuppe • Rochelle Lieberman •
Trish McDonald • Nancy (Max) MacLeod • Julie Morganroth • Vivian
Paesano • Ina Pitt • Rhonda Ran • Laura Richards • Angela Rodriguez
• Mark Rubinstein • Monique Schreibman • Jeanette Shouneyia •
Sylvia Smaltz • Lynne Starman • Loren Stone • Jean Sucher • Scott
Thomas • Kristan Venticinque • Sandie Weiss • Henrietta Wienberg •
Connie Wolberg • Gail Young

Gateway. Travel

29100 Northwestern Hwy.
Southfield, Mich. 48034

810-353-8600

In his A Short History of
Charleston, Robert N. Rosen, who
describes himself as "only" a
fourth-generation Charlestonian,
writes about the Jewish families,
still active in the community,
which can trace their ancestry
back more than 12 generations
to the late 17th century, only a
few years after the first group of
English colonists had founded
Charles Towne (the later
Charleston).
The settlement was named af-
ter King Charles II, the so-called
Merry Monarch, newly restored
to the throne of England, and the
colonists' lifestyle was a careful
emulation of the king's own plea-
sure-loving ways.
The cultivation of fine horses
and fancy women, of the theater

rice trade which would make the
city, before the American Revo-
lution, the fourth largest — and
the richest — in all the Thirteen
Colonies.
Within 50 years of their ar-
rival, the Jewish settlers would
found Kahal Kadosh Beth Elo-
him (the Holy Congregation
House of God). Within 100 years,
the congregation would be
housed at its present site, on
Hasell Street, in the largest syn-
agogue building in the newly-
formed United States.
That "spacious and elegant"
building, as contemporaries de-
scribed it, was destroyed in the
disastrous fire which ravaged
Charleston in 1838, but today's
visitors to the city can view the
remains of the old structure —

