ISRAEL DISCOVERY 'TOURS. INC. LIS ONLY I DISCO VER 11 ' • • • . OUR INCREDIBLE FREE OFFER FOR YOUR BAR/BAT MITZVAH CHILD. DiscoVER_ OUR UNIQUE, COMPREHENSIVE ITINERARY. DiscoVER_ OUR WELL LOCATED, SUPER DELUXE HOTELS INCLUDING THE NEW JERUSALEM HILTON AND KING DAVID. ■ 11 ■ 00111•011/161MORMC.,,,, . • DISCOVER__ more than just how we do things. This is the way that our parents did things and their parents before them. More than anything, we are keeping the tradition alive. Biting into that matzah at that moment was more than eating what I still consider to be a glorified burnt cracker. Biting down was an act of THE MOST REQUESTED TEAM IN 1SRAEL...OUR GUIDES. BEN AMI GELLER, ISRAEL TOUR DIRECTOR. DISCOVER__ THE TOUR NORTH AMERICA IS RAVING ABOUT. RECIPIENT OF PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS FROM THE ISRAEL MINISTRY OF TOURISM connecting with those who came before me, an act of defiance against those who had wished to destroy me. When my parents looked quizzically toward me and asked why I suddenly was div- ing into matzah without a comment, I simply looked at them and said, "That is just how we do things. Do we have any macaroons?" Fl 1999 TOUR DATES FEB. 11-22, 1999 (12 Days) MAR. 28-APR. 11, 1999 (Passover) APR. 26-MAY 10, 1999 (Adults) MAY 10-24, 1999 (Adults) JUNE 7-21, 1999 Adult Bus Available JUNE 14-28, 1999 * JUNE 28-JULY 12, 1999 JULY 12-26, 1999 JULY 26-AUG. 9. 1999 AUG. 9-23, 1999 AUG. 16-30, 1999 AUG. 23-SEPT. 6, 1999 OCT. 18-NOV. 1, 1999 (Adults) NOV. 1-NOV. 15, 1999 (Adults) DEC. 20-JAN. 2, 2000 (14 Days) DEC. 22-JAN. 2, 2000 (12 Days) A Play Makes An Impression SHIRA TRAISON Special to The Jewish News — for Wormation and brochure — ILENE WALLERSTEIN Skokie, IL 1-800-362-8882 IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR FITNESS Let us help you be the best you can be with 1 on 1 training at our club. A patient friendly program designed just for you to help you reach your realistic fitness goals. 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Miriam, who after the splitting of the Red Sea, led the women in song and dance in praise of HaShem. Miriam, who is the foremost example of what all Jewish women are meant to be. . . Shira Traison For a 7-year-old, that was a fairly big responsibility to undertake, and so I did my research. As the days grew closer to the big moment, I practiced my lines, studied the Chumash, and asked people all around me just what it meant to be this famous Jewish leader. Despite my young age, I was intrigued. The fact was, I was playing Miriam at a trivial point in her life. Not as she danced beating on a tam- bourine, as a grown woman led out from her exile, but as a 6-year-old child, sending her newborn brother out into the unknown, wrapped in just a little ark made especially for him. His future was uncertain, and Shira Traison, 16, is an 11th grader at Akiva Hebrew Day School in Lathrup Village. She is a member of Congregation Shomrey Emunah. yet, her trust in God was all that she could rely on. For all she knew, her little baby brother could be picked up by a savage, and led to lead a life so foreign to that into which he was (---=( born. Even had she known that the daughter of Pharaoh would save him, his future as a Jew was hardly tenable. Yet, with a strength and a belief in God in her heart, incompara- ble to any other child of that age, she sent him on his way. I thought a lot about Miriam that month. I thought about what it would have meant for a girl so close to my age to have a belief that strong. As I stood by the side of the makeshift Sea of Reeds that April day, I looked down at the long blue paper with lily pads and red flowers painted upon it. I placed the ark down, holding the baby doll representing Moses, and sang the song we had written for Miriam. Perhaps the deep understanding of what Miriam stood for didn't affect me as much in those days; but more than ever, it affects me now To me, Pesach is more than just a holiday of afikomen and charoset. It's a holiday that only ameliorates our strong belief. As I sit at the seder table every year, I always sing the songs a little bit ,—/ louder. I always read the paragraphs with a little more interest. (I always eat the brisket with a little more zest, but that's a side point). Every year, Pesach means some- thing new and wonderful to me. Every year, my faith grows stronger. After all, Miriam started early. She was only 6.