Way for people to come together

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- One minute Ralph Shapiro was clapping along with the music,

the next he was fighting back tears as he explained the importance of the

celebration Sunday at the Jewish Community Center.

“It’s a way for people to come together and celebrate despite the horrors

going on in the world,” he said. “This represents 4,000 years of people

-- that they learned to accept one another and live together. We are the

lucky ones.”

It was the annual Jewish Community Center Fair that brings the Jewish

communities of Orange County together to celebrate the Independence of

the state of Israel.

Shapiro, 78, was one of more than a thousand Jewish community members who

gathered at the Jewish Federation Campus in Costa Mesa.

Sheila Lefkowitz remembers a time when there weren’t Jewish restaurants

in the area or even places to buy Jewish food. To her the fair is a way

for the community to realize how that has changed.

“Being Jewish is a very comfortable feeling now,” she said.

There was a dual purpose to the event, said fair committee chair Mike

Lefkowitz. It unites the Jewish community in what is one of the largest

Jewish gathering in Orange County and this year celebrated the 52nd

anniversary of Israel’s independence, Mike Lefkowitz said.

But it is also a fund-raiser for the Jewish center, that brings in

between $10,000 and $20,000 each year.

This year, the center was hoping to make $15,000 through the fair -- a

number Mike Lefkowitz said they easily surpassed.

That money was raised through ticket sales, sponsors and the 101 booths

ranging from food stands to temple information to arts and crafts for

kids set up in a normally empty lot.

To the families eating, laughing, dancing and socializing however, the

day was not about money -- it was about freedom.

“We are from all different parts of the world -- I am from Irvine, they

are from South Africa, that man is from Ethiopia,” Shapiro said looking

around the crowd. “I have been to 21 countries, but in this country we

have the freedom to celebrate the way we want. It’s wonderful.”