Newspaper Page Text
HBf
Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
Established 1925
Vol. XLVII1
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, June I, 1973
One Section — 12 Pages
NO 22
Expert Says
Nixon-Breznev Will
Talk From Weakness
Reform Rabbinic Body to Meet
In Atlanta; Will Probe Apathy
NfcW YORK, When President
Nixon and Leonid Breznev meet in
their summit conference, each will
be confronting the other from a
position of unusual weakness, ac
cording to one of America’s most
noted experts on foreign affairs.
Zbigniew Bre/e/inski, Herbert
Lehman Professor of Government
and director of the Research
Institute on Communist Affairs at
Columbia University, speaking on
the final day of the 67th Annual
Meeting of the American Jewish
Committee here, predicted that, as
a result of this mutual weakness,
President Nixon “should be in a
position to press for a broadly
gauged detente in which there is a
linkage between accomodations on
political maters, economic
matters, and issues pertaining to
human rights."
“President Nixon will not
negotiate from a position of
strength, as American policy
makers did in the past, because of
his domestic political crisis,” Dr.
Brzezinski assorted. “Accordingly,
he will be under great pressure
from Breznev to make key con
cessions, both political and
economic, if the summit is to be
the kind of success that Mr. Nixon
now needs.”
“However,” he added, "we
should not lose sight of the fact
that Mr Breznev also confronts
great economic problems at home.
The national issue in the Soviet
Union has become more acute,
and the courageous stand of the
Jewish community has provided an
example for the other non-Russian
nations in how to assert their
human rights. In addition, Russia
still faces the problem of China,
and it continues to be an actue one ’
But in the long run. Dr
Brezezinski stated, an American-
Soviet accommodation is less
crucial to the stability of the inter
national system than the trilateral
relationship that involves the
United States, Europe, and Japan.
The main emphasis of American
foreign policy, he said, “should be
on the development of a new
framework of American-
European-Japanese relations,
without which there is the very real
danger that monetary, trade, and
even political crises will get out of
hand "
Dr. Brzezinski was the keynote
speaker in a symposium on
"World Politics and Jewish
Security."
By: RABBI JOSEPH B. GLASER
CCAR Executive Vice President
The erosion of ethical and moral
values in our nation, dramatized
by the Watergate scandal, and how
these conditions affect religion in
general and the Jewish community
in particular, will be deliberated on
as part of the 84th Annual
Convention of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis,
June 18-21, at the Sheraton-
Biltmore Hotel, Atlanta.
Watergate itself will be raised
only through resolutions and dis
cussions since the CCAR program
was planned months prior to the
outbreak of the scandal. However,
the larger problem of America’s
false values, both as a nation and
as a people, which has produced a
downgrading of religion, has been
the concern for some time of this
nation’s major faith groups, in
cluding the CCAR.
This religious apathy has been
evident in the synagogues and has
produced numerous problems
relating both to the function and
program of a congregation and the
relationship beween laymen and
rabbis. Last year the CCAR
released the first in-depth study of
Katzir Inaugurated in Festive Rites
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prof.
Ephraim Katzir took the oath of
office at a festive Knesset
ceremony here on May 24 to
become Israel’s fourth President.
The 57-year-old biophysicist
from the Weizmann Institute of
Science, kept both of his hands
on a Bible as he was sworn in by
Knesset Speaker Israel
Yeshayahu
In his inaugural address he
called for “A blend of the
knowledge of the sources of
Judaism with a modern concept
of the world."
The entire Knesset was present
for the ceremonies and the public
and VIP galleries were packed
Among the onlookers were
Premier Golda Meir and former
Premier David Ben Gurion.
Israel’s outgoing President,
Zalman Shazar, escorted his
successor into the Knesset
chamber after both reviewed an
Fitzgerald Hebrew Congregation to
Observe Anniversaries June 10
On Sunday, June 10, at the
Fitzgerald Elks Club the Jews of
Southwest Georgia will gather to
observe the 30th anniversary of the
Fitzgerald Hebrew Congregation,
the 25th anniversary of the tenure
of its spiritual leader Rabbi Na
than L Kohen and the 30th anni
versary of the B’nai B’rith Lodge
*1338
An elaborate banquet and
program has been planned for the
evening. Congressman W. S. (Bill)
Stuckey Jr of the Eighth District
will be the main speaker.
The evening will conclude with
dancing. The schedule includes
cocktails at 7:30 and the banquet 1
at 8.00.
All friends of the synagogue, the
Rabbi and the Lodge are invited to
attend
RABBI /V. L, KOHEN
honor guard outside the Knesset
building. As they entered, two
Army chaplains and a rabbi blew
three long shofar blasts. Shazar
spoke briefly, referring to his
successor as “Dear brother and
blessed of God, chosen of our
people.” He prayed that Presi
dent Katzir’s term would witness
the achievenment of peace that
has eluded his three predecessors.
Speaker Yeshayahu ended the
inauguration ceremony with the
words, ‘Long live the president."
They were repeated by the throng
in the chamber as it rose to sing
the national anthem, Hatikva.
T he inauguration was broadcast
live on television and radio.
President Katzir is the second
disginguished scientist to be
elected Israel’s Chief of State
and in his inaugural speech he
quoted his mentor, the late Dr.
Chaim Weizmann who was
Israel's first president, "I worked
all my life and strove to make
science and research the basis of
our national enterprise. Rut I
knew full well that there are
beyond science sublime values . .
. of righteousness and justice, o)
brotherhood and peace
Prof. Katzir lingered on the
importance of science and
technology in Israel but also
warned of their dangers — pollu
tion, ecological damage, tension
and noise. He stressed the need
Turn to Page 12
RABBI DAVID POLISH
the Reford Rabbi ever conducted.
The guiding light of this study,
CCAR President Rabbi David
Polish of Evanston, III., will report
on various activities in this area,
including the recommendations of
a Committee on the Future of the
Rabbinate, which he chaired.
Additional suggestions will be
proposed by Rabbi Robert I. Kahn
of Houston, CCAR vice-president,
and Rabbi Joseph Glaser, New
York City, CCAR executive vice-
president. During the Convention
the problems regarding
congregational-rabbinic relations,
religious school aftd adult educa
tion, worship, and the economy
and population shifts as they affect
the future of the synagogue will be
discussed.
A major debate will center
around the CCAR’s position on
mixed marriages between Jew and
Christian where no conversion has
taken place. The findings of a two-
year study by the CCAR’s mixed
marriage committee will be
presented on Tuesday evening,
June 19, by the chairman Rabbi
Herman E. Schaalman of
Chicago. Ample time for discus
sion has been scheduled to premit
all sides of the question to be
heard.
In last year’s study by the
CCAR on “The Rabbi and
Reform Judaism", the section on
mixed marriage practices shows
that the majority of Reform Rab
bis do not officiate at mixed
marriages (59%), a few will con
duct such a marriage only when
special circumstances exist (18%),
some only for members (2%), and
the remaining number will conduct
a mixed marriage without any
special circumstances (21%)
In the CCAR’s “Rabbi's
Manual," published in 1961, the
opening paragraphs of the section
on mixed marriage state:
“Reform Judaism is opposed to
mixed marriages — by which is un
derstood the marriage of a Jew to a
non-Jew — on essentially religious
grounds. The very nature of the
Jewish marriage ritual implies a
positive commitment to Judaism by
both bride and groom. This is in
dicated by the formula 'Haray At’,
“Be thou consecrated unto me as
my wife according to the law of
God and the faith of Israel.”
Another volatile debate will en
sue during the discussion between
Rabbi Irwin M. Blank, Tenafly,
N.J., and Professor Leonard S.
Kravitz, Professor of Midrash and
Homiletics, Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of
Region, N. Y., on whether or not
Jews arc, or should be, turning to
the right. Chairman for that ses
sion will be Rabbi Maurice Davis,
White Plains, N. Y.
On Wednesday afternoon, June
20, the Rabbinic delegates will pay
a special tribute to the memory of
Dr. Martin Luther King at special
ceremonies at the gravesite. Par
ticipating in the ceremony will be
Mrs. Coretta King, and Rabbis
Polish and Kahn.
That evening the Reform Rab
bis will honor the 25th Anniver
sary of the State of Israel, featur
ing the new Israeli Ambassador to
this country, Simcha Dinitz, as the
speaker. He will be introduced by
Rabbi Polish and the session will
be chaired by Rabbi Leon Kronish
of Miami, Chairman of the
CCAR’s Israel. Committee.
Looking towards the future of
Reform Judaism, a committee of
the CCAR and representatives of
the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations and the Hebrew
Union College — Jewish Institute
of Religion have been working on
a new set of guiding principles for
more than one million members of
the movement in the U. S. and
Canada
The CCAR represents 1100
Reform spiritual leaders in the
U.S. and Canada, serving more
than one million congregants.
Additional Israel Anniver
sary Emphasis appears in this
issue, as the Jewish State
embarks on its 26 th year.