 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World. I'm Seymour Kazimurski. We are here at ThinkTech Hawaii. And I have to tell you that last week was an amazing week for me. I was honored by ThinkTech and I received a community service award, which I really don't feel I deserve, but somehow they thought it was a good idea to give me one. And the Governor, Governor Waihei, gave it to me and I just, I felt very overwhelmed that I was to receive this award, especially after I just got the award that the kids heard too, Gaila, as well. So it was an amazing week for me. I promised you on my last show that I would give you an update on our I Beat Cancer show. That was one of our highest rated shows here at ThinkTech Hawaii and especially for Seymour's World. And I personally have been accepted on a clinical trial drug and if you look at me, I'm as healthy as ever. I'm playing tennis and golf. I'm doing all my foundation work. I'm doing everything that I want to do. And I just feel that this could be the answer to eliminating chemotherapy for treatment for cancer patients. So we couldn't ask for better for me right now. And thank you for all the emails and the texts and the prayers and the blessings that I got from all of you. I mean, I was overwhelmed again by the hundreds and hundreds of people that wished me well. So thank you for doing that. Today's show, I wanted to do a fun show. This show is about Christmas and Hanukkah. Now you're asking yourself Christmas and Hanukkah, two separate holidays, why? Well, I'm going to do it first by introducing our guests and then I will explain. First I want to introduce you to Reverend George Scott, who is the chaplain at Punahou School. And also you have another job besides being chaplain at Punahou School. Yes, I'm involved with youth in many ways. I'm from the Central Union Church and I'm involved in youth ministry there. I've been affiliated with that church for quite a few years now. And I get with the elders at Arcadia Retirement Residence. Well, I might be there soon. We may all be there soon, hopefully. And also another guest is Rabbi Ken Oronowitz from Temple Emanuel, who is a very good friend and also my Rabbi. And I felt that you two are going to be here to tell us all about Hanukkah and Christmas. Yes, we will. So, you know, it has been 59 years since the last time that Christmas and Hanukkah fell on December 25th. Is this a message that we must begin the healing of our local communities? In our country, in our world, that we must come together rather than divide, that we must give rather than take. What do these holidays really mean to you? What are we teaching our children? Are the answers simple or very complex? So I want to learn from both of you. I want to understand and help our audience understand that truly the meaning of Christmas and Hanukkah are both one and the same. And especially because they're both falling on December 25th. So first, Reverend George, tell us a little bit about what your feelings are about Christmas and Hanukkah being together on the same day. Well, it's pretty amazing that I didn't realize it's been 59 years. Yes. And I think that with them coming together, perhaps it is a message. And we can take it as a message and use it because here we are sitting together in this studio on your show. And it's an opportunity to share our common message of peace, hope, love, and joy for the world. And I believe both traditions speak to that. And so it's a great opportunity for us to pursue that a little deeper and talk to the community about it. I think so too. Ken, what do you think? I think it's incredible that both of these holidays fall at the time of the year where there's the least amount of light during the day. It's coming up to Winter Solstice, I believe, next week. Excuse me. And here we are at a time where we have the Hanukkah, otherwise known as the Holiday or Festival of Light. And we have the lights of the Christmas tree, which I hope that the Reverend will turn on. Ah, there they go. Oh my gosh. Let there be light. And here we are. It's a miracle. So it's about also bringing more light into the world. Exactly. And I think that's a wonderful message and a wonderful motivation for the time that we're living in. And I think, you know, the idea of the two holidays merging on the same day. And of course my preamble to this whole thing was can we help the world be a better place? Can we make it a better place by working together as coming out together on the same day, rather than all of the division, especially in politics and what's going on in the U.S. and around the world. It really has been a very difficult year for us. So tell me, Rabbi Hanukkah, tell us what Hanukkah is all about first. Well, Hanukkah is the story as notated in the book of the Maccabees of Mattathias and his sons, the Maccabees. They were living in a time when Judaism was in jeopardy of ceasing to exist thanks to Antiochus, who was the head of the Syrian Greek forces, the Hellenistic forces. It was a time that the Maccabees decided that this was not going to be the case, that they were going to fight back. And Judah Maccabee, who was known as the hammer, because his fierceness in battle said, those of you who are with God, stand with me. And those who stood with him overcame tremendous forces and were able to retake the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, to clean it up, to dedicate it, and to experience the miracle of the menorah and the light that it brought to everyone. And really rededicated themselves to their faith, to their Judaism and what that meant to them. What is the significance of the menorah? Well, the Hanukkah menorah actually represents the eight candles representing the eight nights of Hanukkah, eight days and nights, with a center candle called the Shamish, a helper candle. And I think one of the beautiful messages of Hanukkah is that we can and should strive to be that helper candle to bring more light to the world that we just talked about. And so when the Maccabees were dedicating the temple and cleaned it up, they couldn't find any oil, because in that time you needed oil to make the menorah the seven-branch candle opera light. And they couldn't find any. They looked and looked and finally found a little small jar of oil and thought maybe it'll burn for a night. Well, the legend has it that it burned for not one, two, three, but eight days and nights. And that was the miraculous element and event of Hanukkah. And that's why on this wonderful little top, this toy that we spin, the Sivivon, this dreidel, there are the letters Nun Gimel Heishin, Nes Gadol Hayasham, that a great miracle happened there at the temple. And we're going to talk about the dreidel a little more. Yes. Because that's the fun part of Hanukkah obviously. Yes. And we're going to have a little competition a little bit later between the two of you guys. We're spinning the dreidel because I believe it's the most fun thing of the Hanukkah timeframe that we have is seeing the kids having fun. That's great. Now, George, tell us a little bit about Christmas. We know the gift-giving part, but what is your feeling about what Christmas really means? Well, you know, I brought these few symbols with me. And of course it's celebrating and commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. Again, light coming to the world, a time when there was darkness in the world. And wait a minute, I think there's another light here. There we go. There's a light right there. And I think the beauty of it is, and the reason I brought these two, is the beauty is that it's accessible to you when you can identify with what's going on. You know the story of Christ, you know the story of the shepherds gathering and the wise men coming and Mary and Joseph. Now, one of the things that I've been really happy about is that this little Charlie Brown Christmas nativity really has opened the door. Fifty years, Charlie Brown Christmas story on television these days now. They thought it would be a flop. In 1965 it came out. But I use this sometimes with students because we know the traditional story of Mary and Joseph and they can sort of see it, but when they see these characters who are a little more accessible and there's a little humor added to it, it also makes it come a little live. So again, as Rabbi said, bringing light into the world, bringing light to pierce darkness and sometimes even to pierce the places in our soul that are a little dark. And if you can have a little bit fun with the two, knowing that Christ is why we celebrate, however there are also ways that we can bring it to life so that it's more accessible to everyone. I think both of your messages are so germane to what I wanted to do here at this show because obviously we talk about the marketing of Christmas and both of you know I'm involved in that because my business is all about marketing Christmas goods to the military and I've always felt the wonderful spirit that I get at this time of the year. And Rabbi, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I love the Christmas carols. I love those songs. I put them on the radio and I listened to them for actually the whole month. Now it does get by the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, I made it out of them. But it is beautiful, you know, the songs are gorgeous. The Hanukkah songs, you know, when we sing, and we only do it once a year obviously, and you sing the beautiful dreidel song, I just feel the spirit is the key behind it. The spirit of giving, the spirit of enjoying, the spirit of making Christmas and Hanukkah a holiday that can be shared by many people. They're not separate holidays. So let me ask you, do you believe in what I'm saying? I've been to my share of performances of the Messiahs of believing in Christmas music. It's beautiful and I think the city lights, I mean we took our kids when they were younger. I mean who doesn't want to see the beauty of lights. We drive around to the neighborhoods that are all decorated to the nines and it makes you feel good. Absolutely. I have to say, and this reminds me of a story that I'll share with all of you guys, my mother used to put Christmas lights on her, we had a cedar hedge outside of our house and our house was right across the street from our synagogue. But my mother put up these Christmas lights and there was an Orthodox synagogue and the rabbi came running and he says, Mrs. Kazimerski, you've got to take the lights off. That's Christmas, this is not Hanukkah. And she says, what are you talking about? A little bush. That's nothing to do with Christmas. Anyway, she left the lights on. She left the lights on because she loved the beauty of it. She loved what it was. You know, we talk about the marketing of Christmas and what goes on in the world today, especially at the store level and the internet level and the billions of dollars that retailers depend on the marketing of Christmas. And as a guy who sells to a retailer, I have to tell you it's our most important season. It's by far 65 to 75% of our business is all done from Halloween on to Christmas. That's it. What do you guys think about that? What do you think of that issue? I think it's a, frankly, it's sort of a double-edged sword. I think that this time of year you get into the spirit of sort of a light spirit. And in that light spirit there is gift-giving. There's times when I think there are people who would maybe let you cut in and get a parking spot when normally they wouldn't do it. Now, not just for that reason, but it's a light spirit and people are in the feeling of the mood of giving and giving gifts, families come together. So that part is wonderful. The other end of it, yeah, the commercialization is pretty tough. And the other part, even going with that, is that there are people who are sad at Christmas because they don't have money to give you. They don't have a family that lives here because they live in another part of the country. So it kind of adds, unfortunately, a little shadow upon them that the lightest cast for others and is beautiful and is wonderful, but for those who don't have family, don't have money, aren't receiving gifts. It's a tough time. It's a tough time. It's pain. It's quite pain. I was going to say, first of all, I want to know what shopping mall you're parking at. I'm not going to name names. A little bit of Aloha. But Hanukkah doesn't have the commercial aspect quite as much. You know, it's Christmas. You talk about it. People talk about the commercialism of Christmas and trying to remember the reason for the season. But I think Hanukkah, if you look at the actual origins of it, it was a real struggle striking a balance between the secular world and people's faith and sacred lives. And I think that's really a commonality between both our faiths. Yeah, that challenge. Right, exactly. And this brings it out that time of year is how do you keep the gift giving and the gift buying as important as it is? It drives our economy. It's a very important thing. But how do you keep that in balance with the birth of Jesus Christ and what the implications of that? Well, one of the things we're doing this year and I really enjoy the idea is that we are going to do alternative gift giving in a big way. You know, we've benefited. My mother was in hospice and now my father's in hospice. So we're going to give to a hospital organization. And then my son worked at a children's center in San Diego. So we're going to give to that organization. We love animals because we have a therapy dog at our school, so we're going to give them. So I think starting those small ways of giving gifts that would actually embody the Christian message and the Jewish message of peace, love, hope, and joy, that's one way to begin. I think you guys got it. Maybe that's why you're the professional. Oh, well, I'm the professional. But it's a tough challenge. We're trying. We're trying. I have to tell you that giving is such an important part of the message I give to everybody that I work with in my Make Him Smile program and everything that I do. And giving at Christmas time or Hanukkah time is critical. The idea that you can give children in the hospital a few minutes of joy by playing music for them is like the Make Him Smile. Or what Sue and I do at Thanksgiving where we feed all the foster kids who graduate from our program. Giving gives you a wonderful, much more than receiving. It gives you a great, great feeling. It gives you a feeling that you're doing something for somebody else that really money can't buy when you can do something. I think you're talking about bringing Christmas or Hanukkah to someone who can't come to it. Maybe they're in hospital or at home. And to bring that feeling to them and that experience to them is a wonderful gift beyond any price range. Well, we have to take a short break. And then, Ken, we're going to ask you to sing a song for us. I would love to. And I don't know if Reverend George, can I help him with this? Maybe I'll sing the dreidel song. Maybe we'll do something else. It's an easy one to pick up. Very good. So we're going to take a short break. I'm Seymour Kazimerski with my guests, Reverend George Scott and Rabbi Ken Aronowitz. We'll be back in a minute. Thank you. Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard. I'm the host of Center Stage here on Think Tech. On Center Stage, I talk with really amazing artistic guests about what they do, how they do it and the most important point, why they do it. I think, I hope, the show is inspirational for everyone. I know it's always inspirational for me. I'm also the managing director of Kumakuhua Theatre, which is right next door. And I happen to have with me now Will Kahele, who is an artist. We just finished a conversation. I hope you can catch on Center Stage. And we work together at Kumakuhua Theatre. Why should people come over there? Because it's a great place to see plays written by local playwrights. Why should people watch this show? Oh, because it's cool and it's great things to know every week. And because, you know, you are a very cool hostess. Oh, that's perfect. Thank you. Give me my money. Hi, welcome back to Seymour's World. I'm Seymour Kazimerski at Think Tech Hawaii. Boy, did I enjoy the first half of our show. It was wonderful. Our guests are Reverend George Scott and Rabbi Ken Aronowitz. And we're talking about Christmas in Hanukkah and the melding of the two holidays falling on the same day and what we can do in our local communities and our national communities to try to make the world a better place. And I wanted to... Ken, I was going to ask you to play something. Oh, I'd love to. Would you mind picking up your guitar? I'd love to. Sure, I'd be happy to. This is one of the songs that I think most anyone who has celebrated Hanukkah has probably sung at one time. I'm going to ask actually the good Reverend Scott here to hold our dreidel, because this is a song about the dreidel. We're going to play later, don't worry. He's really anxious to play, I know. Seymour has been practicing. I'm out of practice. I got it, I got it. So... I have a little dreidel I made it out of clay And when it's dry and ready Then dreidel I shall play Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel Now dreidel I shall play It has a lovely body With legs so short and thin And when it gets all tired It drops and then I win Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel I made it out of clay You picked it up, that was great, great. Nice spinning. Now we are going to use this in a little game in a few minutes but I wanted to expand just one minute if we can because we don't have a lot of time on this working together. Go ahead. You first, Richard. Well, first of all I've had a wonderful relationship with Temple Emmanuel and then now that Rabbi Ken is there we've actually participated in interfaith weddings and been to several bat mitzvahs there and participated in welcoming students from our school into the community and celebrating their right of passage and we've had a great experience. I think it was one of my most favorites weddings. Yes, my mind is working mine as well. It was wonderful. I think it showed everybody the diversity and what both Christianity and Judaism bring to the experience and it was done so beautifully and it's great for the communities to work together as you said in a common goal. You both have worked in your church I was going to say in your synagogue in your church and your temple you both worked to improve the lives of others I know both of you are very involved in not just church work but you're involved in helping others. What do you do, George, to help other people, other kids? Oh, well, involved with, we have a huge community service public service base at Punahou School so we even have a center, the Luke Center for Public Service and the chaplains and the people that run that center work together and we bring people in from the community to talk to our students, help them to understand programs that they can get involved in and then the students just take off on it and some of the organizations I mentioned like AccessSurf from the community we brought them in this year to talk to students and it was just wonderful. You brought my group, KidsHer2 in as well. KidsHer2, they've been there to talk to students and then the students, they get that light and it shines through them and then they take their light and help it shine in the world and same thing, Central Union, we get involved with the same we collect money, kids will recycle cans and then give the money to a cause rather than take it and then we'll take kids on trips around the world actually and work in orphanages and work all around the country to improve the lives of others. And that's what giving is. That's what giving is. And I understand you are doing something in early January with 18 kids. Ah! Am I allowed to? Yeah, you can say. Go ahead. Our school has what's called now a G term because our final exams have been moved prior to the holiday break then there'll be this one week that normally would come back to school and classes would begin but there won't be formal classes in classrooms. There'll be classes that faculty are helping to design and the one that I put together deals with going to my old hometown, Detroit, Michigan. So I'm taking 18 students and two other chaperones and we're going to go there, see Motown, go to a Pistons game, visit schools there. How old are the kids? They're freshmen through 12th grade. Oh my God. That should be really incredible. There'll be snow. There'll be snow on the ground. That's the way it should be. Hopefully not abroad. You know, abroad on both end. Those are Detroit receiving it and the kids from Hawaii also going to hopefully abroad. Beautiful. Ken, how about you? Our education director at Temple brought us a wonderful idea which is when a child becomes a bar about Mitzvah when they turn 13 and become an adult member of the community we choose something to do, some project, we call it Project Chesed, a Mitzvah project to do. We have one young man who does magic. It took a page out of Seymour's book where he started doing music for kids in hospital and whatnot. He does magic. And so I can't wait to see all the projects that our kids come up with. We have about 15 or 20 kids this year who will become bar about Mitzvah and they're going to document their experience in photo form, in journal form and share it with everybody at their bar about Mitzvah, what they've done. Wonderful. So that hopefully will engender that spirit of service. Go ahead. I'm hoping that we can go back to bringing our confirmation kids to the Temple of Emmanuel. We've done that for years and years and the last few years we haven't, but we bring 8, 10, 12 kids that are going to be confirmed to the faith. We take them to Temple of Emmanuel for Sabbath. They're there and enjoy Sabbath together. I love that. I understand the Judeo roots of their tradition. I think that's wonderful. We would welcome any time you are able to. We've welcomed exchange students. We've welcomed middle schools, groups. It's great to share and answer questions about Judaism and understanding promotes this connection. So you can see what Seymour's world has done. We've already made a negotiating arbitration. Oh my God. We've made a deal with short hands and things are going to go forward. You're good. Ken, I know that the kids when they get bar Mitzvah and bat Mitzvah, they do something for the community. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, they do all kinds of, we support the Hawaii Food Bank and so they'll help in our efforts with that. We participate in Family Promise which provides shelter for homeless families who are transitioning to housing and so the children take upon themselves to organize and prepare our classrooms and change them into bedrooms for families and help provide dinners and meals and all kinds of things. As I said, the Chesed Project is in its infancy so it's exciting to see where it's going to go and I think it's going to go wonderful, wonderful places. I think that type of community service is what the kids need, what our children and our students need to understand that they have a responsibility, not just to go to school, but to have a responsibility to the community and I think we need to do more of that. We need to have more students and more young people help the homeless, for instance. Go and serve food at Thanksgiving in different times of the year. What really hits home, I think, is when it's multi-generational. You bottle what service is all about, see more of the kids who are too and make them smile and that speaks volumes to others, adults and kids and I think that's what we need to do to have projects where we can work on the door of a door from generation to generation together and surely there are more than enough causes and things that people in need. When you expose kids to it, they'll find something. They'll find something in there that maybe shines for them and then they can pick up on it and we've seen kids start track meets and things that are able to give them an opportunity to use their gift and perhaps a marathon and then use the funds for donating to a cause. And that's the commonality between our face and other faiths is service to something greater and I think that's what, and especially children becoming adults, that goes a long way in helping that transition take place. This whole show I want you to know started with a friend in Vancouver and she's a, she's a devout Christian and she said to me, I really don't know much about Hanukkah and I said, well, you know what? It's actually quite similar to Christmas. Of course it's not really but it's the message that's important. The holiday itself might be quite different but it's the message. It's the idea that we should be giving to others and helping other people and understanding that we have an obligation rather than to take all these presents and all this sort of stuff, give to other people. And I would encourage everyone out there, this is a time as Reverend Scott said too, to gather together and to really, those people who don't have family in Hawaii especially, for them to be part of the gatherings for Christmas and Hanukkah. It's really does. Let me ask you about the future for the synagogue, for the church. What do you see that we can improve upon? I think we can open the doors. The doors should be like the doors of our hearts. Should be sprung wide open and we're able to receive the message that not only the Christian message but the message of life, the message that we all need an opportunity to be loved, everyone's seeking love, everyone's seeking community. Relationships are the most important thing that we can have in life. So a message to the churches and the synagogue is open the doors, open the doors wide, open the doors of your heart. Receive, receive. And I think what I've been learning is that it's not so much about do you believe in God, you're not believing God or you sort of believe in God. It's about come, open the doors and experience the presence of God through the presence of God within others. And then when it's giving, when you open and receive, when you give, you receive. You guys are on it, but now we have to do something that I wanted to do before. We have to do a little gambling. So I'm going to move this over here. I'm sorry. I'm gambling in front of you. I'm going to move this a little bit behind you. We have some guilt right here, don't we? Yes, we do. You each get a halal. I'm going to go start. All right. You got yours? All right. Here, I'll give you some more. Okay, that's money. Oh, that's money? That's money. But it's actually chocolate money. Oh, chocolate money? Yes. Exactly chocolate money. Okay. Now each of these, each of these represents, can you get a picture of that? Yeah. All right. Each of these represents a certain symbol. Ken, why don't you tell us what they mean? Yes. Nun kimul heishin is an acronym for nes gadol hayasham. That a great miracle happened there, meaning the temple. So as you spin, and I'm going to ask you to spin first. No pressure. You are either going to get all of Ken's money you're going to give all of your money to Ken. Chocolate. Or you're going to get half the pot or nothing is going to happen. Got it? I'm rooting for you. I'm rooting for you. I'm rooting for you. I'm going for chocolate right here with you. Come on. That's better than that. Come on. Oh, it's coming. It's coming. My kids do better than that. Oh, come on. Come on. There you go. There you go. Oh, you got a kimul. You got a kimul. That means you win it all. It's all yours. You just won all of his money. It was that easy. It was that easy. Are you a ringer? You're a professional. You're just fooling us. We only have a minute left of the show. And Ken, if you could just take us out with music. Yes, I would love to. I want to say thank you to both of you for coming today. Thank you for doing that. Yes, thank you for doing this. Well, it's what I do. Sharing the message of peace and love and giving back to our communities and our world. I think Christmas and Hanukkah are two of my favorite holidays to do both the same thing. Yes. Ken, go ahead. I'm going to exude all those wonderful qualities. Thank you. So here we go. Thank you. Oh Hanukkah, Hanukkah, come lie the menorah. Let's have a party. We'll all dance the horror. Gather around the table. We'll give you a treat. You got it out. Dreadles to play with and latkes to eat. And while we are playing, the candles are burning bright. Bye.