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Friday. April 3. 1M4
I
I
OFF THE RECORD
CONTROVERSIES
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
PEACHTREE
FEDERAL
SAVINGS
AND LOAN ASSN
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There are too many of them in
the Jewish communities of America
today, and the sooner they are set-
l.ed the better.
Controversies, dialogues, confron
tations, disputations — all of them
are signs of a healthy and free com
munity. However, when they de
teriorate to a point of bitterness they
lose all meaning.
A controversy that promises to
get cut of hand is the one between
Orthodox Jewish circles and seven
national Jewish organizations of
various shades of religious opinion
on the issue of rabbinic influence in
Israel. This development on the
American Jewish scene comes at a
time when Jewish unity is an ab
solute imperative il a way is still
to be found to spare the Jewish
community in the Soviet Union from
complete religious and cultural dec
imation.
Orthodox sources have advised
this writer they would do every
thing possible to avoid involvement
in a cultural conflict with other
Jewish religious segments in the
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country, but that would nol com
promise their principles or be driven
into a comer of Jewish life just for
the sake of Jewish unity "If we
did not fight for what we believe,
we would have to abdicate our right
to Orthodoxy,” one leading rabbi
told us. He acknitted however that
there was room for two points of
view but that those who differed
were strayers from the true path.
He contended that by stating their
position on purely religious issues,
the Orthodox elements were not
interfering in the internal or polit
ical affairs in Israel. It was his
opinion, he said, that “Jews every
where are bound by a moral im
perative to mold the Holy Land in
the Jewish image.” He could not
however clearly define what he
meant by "the Jewish image” ex
cept that it was a product of cen
turies of growth, learning, dedica
tion, scholarship and belief. He ad
mitted the modern encroachments on
Orthodoxy, but he was convinced
rabbinic dedication will find a syn
thesis enabling the modem Jew to
live under an Orthodox roof. “I do
not relish the open controversy,” he
went on, “but I feel we Orthodox
Jews have a right to speak out
without having our adversaries
question our basic motivation. We
are not unaware of the meaning of
politics—nor are our friends on the
other side of the fence—but it seems
to me that even our opponents must
admit there are issues that trans
cend politics—and religion is one of
them."
It is difficult to predict what path
this controversy will take, one Orth
odox rabbi told me over a cup of
coffee. However, this rabbi min
imized the view that a wide seg
ment of opinion in Orthioxy favored
withdrawal from the forthcoming
Washington conference on the Jew
ish situation in the Soviet Union.
"When it comes to saving Jews,”
he observed as he led me to the
threshold, "we are all ready to link
hands with other Jews, whether re
ligious, secular or, God, forbid,
even irreligious.”
The impression I carried off was
that this gentle figure in the Orth
odox rabbinate felt that, having
spoken out on the issue of religious
life in Israel, it would be well for
Orthodox circles to concentrate more
on the American religious vineyard
and let the Israel rabbinate take
care of the problem there.
A second Jewish controversy that
has engendered much bitterness—
and this time among scholars—is the
fight over the transfer of the Amer
ican Jewish Historical Society from
New York to Brandeis University.
This writer learns that a court
action has been started by the dis
senters to keep the society’s head
quarters in New York where, they
claim, it rightfully belongs for a
number of reasons.
Opponents of the transfer claim
in essence that It would rob the
society of the widest possible avail
ability of its archives to scholars
and that the move could only serve
as a hindrance to a projected amal
gamation of a number of other such
institutions under one roof.
I garnered this information from
a prominent Jewish historian who
is not aligned on either one or the
other side of the controversy.
Personally I am in no position to
judge the equities in the dispute, be
yond asserting that it evidently rep
resented the majority view of the
organization’s members However, it
seems to this comer that bringing
the matter into public, paricularly
into the courts, could only serve to
undermine a good deal of the faith
we “plain" Jews have in our schol
ars.
NOTE FROM MY DIARY . . .
This is the first day of spring and
even though the weatherman prom
ises snow and sleet before the day
is over, the mere oncoming of a
new season is reason for rejoicing.
I am no longer the young man to
look forward to whatever promise
spring is said to hold out for the
young. Nevertheless I deeply cher
ish the coming of the new season
if only because there are so few
left for me to share. I say this
neither in wisdom nor in fear, but
out of sober awareness of a reality
that is so real that it has been ab
sorbed by man into mystic lore.
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