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$BUFSJOHGPSBMM0DDBTJPOTt$BSSZ0VUt0VS4QFDJBMJUZ-PX$BSC3JCT$IJDLFO-BNC3JCT Try Our New Boneyard Beef Ribs! Orchard Lake Rd. South of 14 MiletFarmington Hills 248-851-7000 10 % OFF TOTAL BILL &YDMVEJOHUBYUJQBOECFWFSBHFTt8JUIUIJTBEt$BSSZPVUPS%JOFJOt&YQJSFT+/ /PUWBMJEPO)PMJEBZT Mon-Thurs: 4pm-10pmtFri: 11am-11pm Sat: 4pm-11pmtSun: 4pm-9pm OUR PETITE FILET DINNER IS HAPPENING AGAIN! Sunday, December 17 through Thursday, December 21 33210 W. 14 Mile Rd, in Simsbury Plaza, just east of Farmington Rd., West Bloomfield (248) 538-8954 SPOSITA'S RISTORANTE $ 22.95 15% Off food bill Includes Petite Filet, antipasto plate, side of pasta, salad, soup, potato and vegetable. Dine-in only, not valid with any other offer. Offer Good Monday-Thursday, dine-in only and entrees only. Not valid with any other offer. With coupon only. Not valid on holidays. Expires 12/30/17 10% Off food bill Offer Good Friday-Sunday. Dine in and entrees only. Not valid with other offers. With Coupon Only. Not valid on holidays. Expires 12/30/17 Fine Italian Dining in a Casual Atmosphere Now's the Time to Make Your New Year's Eve Reservations! December 14 • 2017 31 jn A t this time of year, when the joyous Jewish holiday of Chanukah is celebrated, we need to acknowledge not only the Macabean defeat of anti-Jewish tyranny, but also the defeat of anti- Jewish tyranny in the United States during the Civil War. Ironically, both of these events, centuries removed from each other, occurred in the month of December. The Maccabean defeat of Syrian tyranny is well known to us. In contrast, the anti- Semitism expressed by Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is not. The Maccabean Revolt was a response to the tyrannical and cruel acts of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, King of Syria and ruler of the Jews in the second century B.C.E. He ruled Judea as a tyrant with an iron fist. His cruel decrees and their enforcement imperiled Jewish spiritual existence even as it imperiled the physical exis- tence of the Jews. He demanded the desecra- tion of the Holy Temple on Mt. Zion and issued decrees making observance of Shabbat and of the New Moon capital offenses. Similarly, prac- ticing circumcision was punishable by death. Jewish worship was decreed to be replaced by idolatry, worshiping the pagan gods. Under this oppres- sive burden of cruel tyranny, in the winter of 166 B.C.E., in the town of Modin, the Priest Mattathias led a revolt against the Greeks. He was joined in this leadership by his five sons: Judah, Yohanan, Simon, Eleazar and Jonathan, who chose as their battle cry words from Exodus 15:11 "Who is like You Lord among the mighty," ("Mi chamocha b'elim Adonai") whose acronym is "Macabee." These war- riors became known as Macabees. Each December, we remem- ber and celebrate their successful revolt against tyrannical cruelty. On Dec. 17, 1862, some 2,000 years after the Maccabean revolt and victory, the epithets "tyran- nical" and "cruel" were used by a little-known United States senator from Kentucky, Lazarus W. Powell, to describe the anti- Jewish acts of Grant. The gen- eral's cruel actions and Powell's response to them are passion- ately described by Ron Chernow in his recent best-seller, Grant. The author cites these epithets offered by the Kentucky senator in response to Grant's Dec. 17, 1862, issuance of General Order No. 11 that expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. Powell responded to an act that Chernow called "the most sweeping anti-Semitic action undertaken in American history." What precipitated this devas- tating order? Chernow describes the order as Grant's act of ven- geance against his father, Jesse Grant, and three of Jesse's Jewish business associates who disre- garded the general's orders. The senior Grant and three Jewish cotton traders had ignored orders regarding cotton sales. Reacting to this defiance, Grant, in what Chernow called an "oedipal rage against his father," directed his ire against all Jews in three states where the cotton trade was a dominant economic factor. Grant's order brought very strong responses. Powell's pow- erful words led to a motion to censure Grant, which was defeat- ed 30-7 by Senate Republicans. The Jewish press vehemently denounced Grant, as did the mainstream media. Grant's wife, Julia, told her husband General Order No. 11 was an obnoxious order. In her memoir, she wrote that her husband eventually agreed that criticism of him on this matter was deserved. A Jewish captain in the Fifth Ohio Calvary resigned from the Army, writing in his letter of resignation that "I can no lon- ger bear the taunts and malice of those to whom my religious opinions are known, brought on by the effect that,that order has instilled onto their minds." In Paducah, Ky., 30 Jewish families received notice to leave the city within 24 hours. Several Paducah Jewish merchants wrote to President Lincoln that Grant's order made the Jews "outlaws before the entire world." Lincoln revoked the order and permitted Paducah Jews to return to their homes. Eventually, the rebuke of Grant did some good. When Grant became president, he incorpo- rated more Jews in his adminis- tration then did his predecessors. He also introduced "a crusading spirit in perfecting Jewish rights abroad." To American Jewish leader Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, these actions showed "President Grant has revoked Gen. Grant's notorious Order No. 11." This December, as we observe Chanukah, let us celebrate the defeat of the tyrannical cruelty of Antiochus by the Macabees and the defeat of the tyrannical cruelty of Grant's Order No. 11. Let us simultaneously remem- ber and honor Sen. Powell of Kentucky, Julia Grant, the general himself, who eventu- ally admitted that he made a mistake, and President Lincoln, who all played a part in making American Jews feel safe in our great country. • Herbert A. Yoskowitz is a rabbi at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills. Rabbi Herbert A. Yoskowitz spirituality A lesson for Chanukah. Antiochus IV Epiphanes And Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: Gen. Ulysses S. Grant