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Men's Club
Upcoming Events
Save these dates. Sunday, February 12th Worldwide Wrap.
March 18th Men’s Club Shabbat.

Men's Club
Officers
President: Martin Solway
Exec VP: David Schiewitz
Admin VP Norbert Rosenblum
Treasurer: Gary Huniu
Recording Sec: Mark Levine
Board Members: Alan Meyers, Larry Buff
Board Meetings are usually held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month. All Men’s Club Members are invited.
Message from TBE Men’s Club President Marty Solway
THE TRIUMPH OF THE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT
In 1981 the film Chariots of Fire won the Academy award for Best Picture. The opening scene is the
funeral of Harold Abrahams played by Ben Cross. The story is told through the eyes of a teammate
attending the funeral. The 1924 Olympics British track team featured two prominent athletes Harold
Abrahams, a Jew who encountered Anti-Semitism, and Eric Liddell played by Ian Charleson, a devout
Christian, who had to deal with the disapproval of his missionary family. A fierce competition developed
between the two star athletes throughout the training regimen leading up to the actual Olympic races.
Harold Abrahams won a gold medal in the last race of his scheduled events. Eric Liddell won a gold
medal in a different race event. Harold Abrahams went onto a distinguished career as an elder
statesman representing British athletics. Eric Liddell followed his family’s path and became a missionary
in China. The teammate recalled at the time that the team was enthralled with the competition between
the two athletes, being young men as they were in collegiate athletics. At the funeral, the maturation of
the teammate allowed him to truly appreciate the significance of their achievements, through the self-
sacrifice, determination, intestinal fortitude, and moral courage that the two athletes had to endure to
reach their competitive goals. This process served as a springboard to propel them to success in their
chosen careers.
This story made me reflect upon my time in Hebrew School. Mitchell Yellin was my chief protagonist. He
always seem to emerge as the prized student in quizzes, tests, and other special assignments. I generally
placed as the second best student in the class. Through encouragement of the teacher, I continued to
study course work diligently. Once or twice, a seminal moment came to pass, and I placed as the top
student. It taught me success was in reach if you worked hard to overcome adversity to reach your
goals. As a freshman or sophomore in college at the De Paul University Business School, I had to take an
elective philosophy course. Father Walker was the instructor. During a lecture he proffered a question
to the class. Classmates either gave wrong answers, or were stymied and could give no answer. I went
up to him after class, and said once you saw nobody could answer the question, why did you not tell the
class the answer. He responded to me, I am not here to spoon feed you the answers, that is not how life
works.
The same is true for establishing your divine connection with Hashem, through Torah study and prayer.
As we age, our physical senses diminish in capacity. If Hashem should take my sight away, I would get a
Siddur in Braille. If Hashem would take my hearing, I would get a cochlear implant, If Hashem would take
my legs, I would get a wheelchair. I will always fight to display an emblematic competitive spirit, until
Hashem takes my breath away.
Shalom