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Pi*« 16 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 16, 1979
the
GREAT
Sunday Branch
For $6.50 you can eryoy the greatest Sunday
Brunch in Atlanta Our bountiful buffet includes
items such as Scrambled Eggs, Sausage. Salads,
Lax & Bagels, Fried Chicken, Beef Stroganoff,
Seafood Newburg and Desserts. Every Sunday
from 11 am. to 3 p m., call for reservations.
Bloody Marys also available after 12:30 p. m
Dunfey Atlanta Hotel
Interstate 75 at Howell Mill Road Atlanta Georgia 30318 404/351-6100
We are Proud to
Announce the Addition
GUTHRIE D. PEKARNE
\E \
Director of Catering, Food A Beverage
Who with Iris vast Knowledge and Experience
Can Aaaist Yon in Planning Yonr Wedding
Reception, Bar MHzrah, Meeting, Convention
or Special Occasion in our Newly Redecorated
Ballroom under the Chandeliers from the Old
Progressive Club.
Where Your Best Buy in A tlanta
is Still the
t&nLou^
mmcan
MOTOR HOTEL
COMPLETE BANQUET FACILITIES
FROM 10 TO 500
For information call: Guthrie D. Pekame
Catering Dept. 6X6-8600 Ext. 231
International Boulevard
Carnegie Way and Spring Street
'£EI FRANK AAA'S
“'WiT!
DINE AT THE ONLV
AUTHENTIC HUNAN CHINESE
RESTAURANT IN ATLANTA
frank Ma will personally help you to select
3 mouthwatering hot and spicy fauorite.
LUNCHEON SPECIAL S2 15 and up
including soup fried rice oqg roll
and choice of one of eight entrees
T uosday thru Friday - 11 30 a m 2 30 p m
Closed on Monday
DINNER:
Tuesday thru Thursday 4 00 p m 1 0 00 p m
Fed.
v and Saturday 4 00 p m 11 00 p m
Sunday 12 00 pan - 10 00 pan
BEER AND WINE AVAILABLE
6280 Roswell Rd - 252-8672
, i/e Banquet F, clitics Available
Reaching out
Hip rabbis speak the language
of the streets in alleyway ‘shuts’
by Murray Kass
“How does one visualize rabbis
in Israel?" asked Rabbi Aaron
Grecnbaum, director of Religious-
Cultural Affairs for the Joint
Distribution Committee in Israel.
“Black coat and hat, beard and
payot? Or, for the more modern of
them, conservative business suit,
or even slacks and a sport jacket.
“But not the rabbis of the
‘Yeshivot of Return,’ those
conducting an outreach program
directed at the large numbers of
alienated, disinherited Jewish
youth, most of them Israeli youth
hut a significantly large number of
young people from other
countries, particularly the United
States."
When they go out they wear
dungarees, sweatshirts, and
sneakers, with only the traditional
yarmulke to identify them as
observant Jews. They head not for
the “shul," or nearby yeshiva, but
for the shoot-em-up alleys and the
discoteques. There they reach out
to the hip, the slick and the
troubled youth. They speak to
them on their own turf and in their
own language, and in a reverse of
the Faustian theme, try to win
back some lost souls.
They don’t promise them riches
or pleasures beyond belief, only an
identity, dignity, an acceptance of
self, so elusive in the nether world
of hash and pot and spine-jangling,
-ar-searing rock.
The kids sneer at them, poke fun
at their gentle advances. Most
reject their efforts to engage them
in conversation. But many don’t.
Those are the ones they bring back
to the yeshivot.
In the outreach yeshivot the
background of the youth doesn’t
matter, Rabbi Greenbaum
explains. His ignorance of
Judaism and his alienation from
the community may be
irretrievably deep but that doesn’t
faze the outreach rabbis. They
start not from “Breishith” but from
the aleph beth, from the very
beginning.
“There are now nine such
outreach yeshivot in Israel and
thus far they have enrolled almost
a thousand young people,” said
Rabbi Greenbaum. “They are not
all lost souls Many came to Israel
vaguely dissatisfied with their life
styles and were seeking a deeper
meaning. Others came out of
curiosity and remained to search
out their religious and historic
roots. They are students,
professionals, scholars with
advanced degrees, some single,
some married and all of them now
deeply immersed in the study of
Torah.
“Then there are the others, those
who Seek surcease of sorrow and
responsibility in the dream world
of drugs and discos. They are the
ones who need us most. We have so
much more to offer them than the
many cults that have sprung up
seeking converts among our
Jewish youth.
“At the beginning we give them a
sense of return. We help restore
their identity and their dignity. We
offer them a set of Jewish values,
tradition, learning. But not for
free. They’ve got to work at it,
work for it. Understanding doesn't
come from a transitory high.
Meditation is not a pot-induced
daydream."
A mixture of formal education
and a personalized and
individualized approach —one
person, one rabbi—strikes a
responsive chord down deep inside
the troubled youth. No matter how
alienated he is, if the youngster
listens, the rabbi will find the spark
of remembrance and ignite it. They
listen, they remember, and they
begin to lose their lost ness.
Some of the yeshivot have
opened similar schools for women.
Five of them are attached to
yeshivot, another three at least
have been organized by the
communities. All have the same
goal—reach out to the alienated
and lost youngters, turn them
around and lead them back to the
living, functiciing Jewish
community.
The yeshivot of return are
among 155 supported in part by
the Joint Distribution Committee
with funds provided by American
Jewish Federations and welfare
funds through the United Jewish
Appeal.
HIAS helps resettle
Indo-Chinese in U.S.
NEW YORK—A total of 5,000 Indo-Chinese refugees have
been assisted to resettle in this country by the American Jewish
community during the past four years, it was reported by Gaynor I.
Jacobson, executive vice president of HIAS. Futhermore, at the
request of the U.S. Government, HIAS has agreed to help an
additional 3,000 Indo-Chinese this year, turning them over as
necessary to professional family service agencies and Jewish
federations throughout the country. This compares with 930
persons assisted by HIAS in 1978, more than half of whom were
compassionate “boat cases."
The costs of this program are borne by the U.S. Government
through grants of $350 per capita which HIAS turns over to the
cooperating agencies. The same expertise used to assist Jewish
refugees from the Soviet Union and elsewhere is used in behalf of
the Indo-Chinese.
“The Jewish people,” said Jacobson, “know what it means to be
uprooted and stateless, to be tossed around on the high seas from
country to country, and to crave an outstretched hand of
friendship. These men, women and children are finding haven in
our country, and HIAS is pleased to join with American
organizations of other faiths to assist them.”
HIAS, now in its 95th year, is the worldwide Jewish migration
agency. It is a beneficiary of the United Jewish Appeal, the UJA-
Federation Joint Campaign of Greater New York and Jewish
federations across the country. ’
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
Say It With A Tree!!
$3.00 EACH (404) 237 1132 or (404) 266-9775
Southeastern Regional Office .
Three Piedmont Center
Atlanta, Ga. 30305
President. Gilbert Wildstein, M.D.
Jerusalem Emissary. Michael J. Tidhar