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P««® 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 8,
JACK QELPBART
The Southern israeiite
Published weekly by The Hluthwu Israelite, be., P. O. Box 77388,
188 FUteeetb 8t„ N.W., Atlanta, Qe. 38357. Pbooe 878-8248. Second class
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Are synagogues necessary?
NtWA,.,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Georgia Press Assn.
World Union Press
Society of Professional
Journalists, Sigms Delta Chi
Tod Tumor's dark side
o Ted Turner, owner of the Atlanta Braves and Hawks, has
3 always seemed to be a “good ole boy.” Perhaps a little eccen
tric and undisciplined but essentially a fun-loving, outspoken
playboy. ' ,.
But now he has revealed a dark side that is all too familiar
to those of us whose antennae are sensitive to anti-semitism.
In a comment reported by the New York Times and the
Atlanta Constitution, he spouted off before a group of
sportswriters on Tuesday about Jerry Kapstein, an agent for
several ballplayers.
Turner, as usual, was blunt. “Kapstein is the only guy I dis
like more than Adolf Hitler and Commissioner Kuhn,” he
said. “I’m kidding about the commissioner, of course. I’ll tell
you the way Kapstein conducts his business and the reason I
don’t like him — after all, you should have some reason to dis
like a guy besides the fact that he wears a full-length fur coat
and is a Jew.”
Then, for good measure, Turner added, “I wrote him that he
was doing his players a disservice and I signed the letter,
‘Yours in Christ.’ ”
It is one thing for a self-indulgent egocentric to make out
rageous statements for shock effect, but it is no laughing
matter when he crosses over into blatant anti-semitic
remarks under the guise of flippancy or facetiousness.
At press time, Turner issued a letter of apology, but we’ve
heard those before too. These letters never seem to garner the
publicity accorded to prejudicial statements — Earl Butz
proved that. Responsible people, particularly those in the
limelight, cannot expect to repair such damage with an “I’m
sorry.”
Next thing we know, Turner will be saying, “Some of my
best friends are . . . .”
Don’t run away, Wyche
Wyche Fowler wasted no time after his landslide win as 5th
district congressman. He hopped right on a plane for
Washington the next morning and I would image that he
again “hit the ground running.”
We just hope he doesn’t run aioay from us in the way many
representatives in Washington have.
There must be something in the Washington air that im
pels politicians to forget all their campaign promises once
they get there.
Here’s hoping Wyche doesn’t fall into that trap and that he
remembers the positive stands he took on eliminating the
Arab boycott, speaking up for the freedom of Russian Jews
and preserving the integrity of Israel.
A recent news item raised important issues in
my mind concerning the place of synagogues in
the fabric of Judaism.
The story was about a synago
gue in Miami that had success
fully brought suit against a for
mer member for delinquent dues
and included an interview of
the lady who had been sued. She
was hopping mad. “Religion
should be free,” she said. “How
can they place a price on it? Ju
daism is not a business.”
How could they, indeed?
After all, what is a Jew’s responsibility to the
synagogue? Is it a business? How important is it to
the Jewish religion?
I think it is very important. The system of
worshipping in synagogues may well be imperfect,
as often claimed. The services can be uninspiring
at times and the rabbi’s sermon is not always on
target. But, make no mistake, the synagogue is a
preserving receptacle for Judaism. One may not
always need it or want it, but it is always there
and, like it or not, the synagogue is a keeper of
the flame of Judaism.
When I hear those who say they have no need for
the synagogue, that they carry their commitment
with them wherever they go, I am reminded of
the chaos that could result from such a freelance
form of religion. We would then have a formless
ness similar to that envisioned by poet W. B. Yeats
who wrote in The Second Coming, “Things fall
apart; the center cannot hold; /Mere anarchy is
loosed upon the world.”
The synagogue is the center of Judaism because
it is the training ground for Jews. It is not only a
place to go to find God — we know that God is
everywhere"— but it is also a place for young peo
ple to be taught Judaism; it is a place where one
goes for solace and advice; it is where we are mar
ried and become bar mitzva. It is the center that
must be held.
And all of this costs money. How easy it is to say
— as many do —Ahat there is no need for the ex
pense of supporting the synagogue. “Let someone
else do it,” is the most familiar rationalizing argu
ment of all. But this is actually a useless argu
ment. If someone else always has to do it, it won’t
be done.
Every synagogue is different and there are im
provements that should be made in most of them,
but we should work from within to make the
system better. There is nothing to be gained by
absenting ourselves with the argument that “there
is nothing for me at the synagogue.”
I’m not arguing that regular synagogue atten
dance is necessary to be a good Jew. That is a
matter of personal preference, But what I am say
ing is that support of the synagogue is necessary if
we are to preserve Judaism, and those who claim
that “religion is free” are inviting the kind of
amorphous mess envisioned by Yeats.
The strength of Judaism has always been that
we do not stand back and allow someone else to
practice our religion for us. History has never
allowed us to be distant even if we wanted.
We are Jews and as such our religion is ordered
and based on tradition. In all their wisdom, our
lineage of rabbis devised a system of preserving
and protecting the tenets of Judaism. In many
ways, synagogues are the symbol — as is the
Western Wall — for our dogged determination to
survive.
There’s no other way. We have to put our money
where our God is.
How the UN
has failed us *
by I. L. Kenen
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It is to be hoped that President
Carter’s unprecedented call to
the United Nations General
Assembly to enshrine human
rights as a primary mission may
inspire a return to responsibility
in that body. And since the
President was confessing our
own shortcomings, perhaps the
United States may resume the
battle for human rights in its
own foreign policy.
We should remember the fer
vor which attended the birth of
the UN at San Francisco 32
years ago; the struggle of
American organizations to
amend the UN Charter to focus
attention on the promotion of
human rights and fundamental
freedoms. Hitler had been
defeated, and the victorious
United Nations were assembled
there in the hope that the world
could be made safe from new
demagogues and dictators.
The dream did not last for
long. Morality, we are often told,
has nothing to do with foreign
policy. It is “counter-productive”
to determine our policies by
moral standards, some say. And
in many lands, a democratic
United States has helped to
bolster dictatorial regimes,
working under the illusion that
friends can be bribed or bought.
We are preoccupied with our
national “interests,” not ethical
principles, and some
sophisticated editorial writers
have been quick to warn Carter
that this path is leading us into
inconsistency and inconstancy.
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Democracy, which promises
freedom and security for the in
dividual, has been in retreat
everywhere. War and revolution
have bloodied many lands in
Asia, Africa and Latin America,
and all of us live in fear that
mighty arsenals will suddenly
shatter the universe.
The UN has failed to preserve
the peace, to slow the arms race,
to protect innocent peoples from
the ever-growing threat to their
liberty and security. It has been
manipulated by the logrolling
blocs to promote prejudice and
hostility.
Our own country is, in part,
responsible for this failure.
Despite our commitment to
human rights, the United States
has failed to ratify the genocide
convention, voted in Paris in
1948. Carter has promised to try
to remedy this anomaly.
The Soviet Union has brazenly
violated the Helsinki Accords.
Its conduct towards Jews and
dissidents grows harsher. In
many countries freedom is a
fable and innocent lives are
brutally chopped away.
Blacks and Jews are not the
only victims. Christians have
also been menaced. Uganda is
the most recent scene of anti-
Christian terror, and the bloody
civil war between Maronite
Christians and Moslems in
Lebanon continues to despoil
and depopulate that land.
Like the Jews and Christians,
others are also treated as in
fidels, with whom there can be
no peace. The list of infidels is a
long one: the Armenians,
massacred by Turks. Kurds and
Syrians; the Assyrians in Iraq;
the blacks in the Sudan; the Ibos
in Biafra; the Copts in Egypt;
and the Kurds in Iraq, to men
tion just a few.
What is difficult to com
prehend is passive indifference
— the inability of a civilized
world to act against these erup
tions of violence. While six
million Jews were slaughtered
by Hitler, it should not be
forgotten that many Christians
were also liquidated by that
pagan barbarism. Too many,
both in Rome and Washington,
were all too silent. Now the
terror has come home to our own
capitol in the recent Hanafi
episode.
And the UN? Confronted with
terror, civil war and genocide, it
has squandered most of its time
adopting resolutions denouncing
Israel and providing a platform
for spurious tirades against the
Jewish State.
We hope that President
Carter’s UN speech will summon
us all to our responsibilities to
mankind, and that morality may
be restored as a measurement of
international conduct
I.L Kenen is editor emeritus
of Near East Report