Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
Our 55th Year
VOL LV
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, November 16, 1979
Stable Mideast nee
strong Israel—Strai
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Tops in pops
Some of Israel’s top singers, dangers,, and
musicians from the 1979 Israeli
sponsored by Atlanta Hillel Monday night, Ntwi»<0 at
Glenn Auditorium. Call 329-6490 for information.
President Carter’s Special
Ambassador to the Middle East,
Robert Strauss, appeared before a
closed off-the-record session of the
Delegate Assembly of the Atlanta
Jewish Federation last Thursday.
Strauss, who has recently been
appointed to a high position within
Carter re-election committee,
firmly reiterated the White House
position with regard to the Middle
East. He said, “The cornerstone of
United States policy in the Middle
East is stability and the heart of
stability is a strong and safe
Israel.”
Strauss admonished the
American Jewish community not
to take the temperature of the
Middle East every few minutes.
And he clearly stated that
advancement in the Middle East
will be slow and that there will be
small steps forward and small steps
backward in,she quest for peace.
There will be episodes and
incidents which occur that will
appear favorable and unfavorable
toward Israel, but the American
Jewish community must attempt
to be patient. He went on to cite the
importance of the Camp David
accords. Strauss said, “Now, we
have a strong bilateral agreement
which we must stand by firmly and
we must not be impatient with
either Begin or Sadat if they
appear to be hesitant, for this is an
involved and tedious process.”
Strauss stated unequivocally
that as far as he could see the
situation in the Middle East was
better than it had ever been, but
that we have a long way to go.
The ambassador explained that
he was deeply disturbed by the
economic situation in Israel and
that the problems of leading a
country like Israel, governed by
coalition, seemed virtually
insurmountable at times. He
remarked, "If we ever question the
two party system,
wc should try democratic
gbvernmcrtt'fey coalition."
Strauss expressed his feeling
that there had been a slight erosion
in terms of American public
support for Israel but that the
American Jewish community
would have to understand that
alienating the Saudis and other
“moderate" Arab nations was
counterproductive in the long-run
for both the United States and
Israel.
The ambassador urged everyone
present to get involved in the
American political scene. “It is the
duty and obligation of every
American to make this system
work and anyone who sits back
and merely criticizes is failing the
American way of life.”
He closed by reminding the
audience that, in the words of
Walter Lippman. “There is
nothing for nothing in America
today," and if Americans don’t
participate in the political system
they are the ones who will make it
fail.”
Sinai’s Rabbi Lehrman, 41, dies
Rabbi Richard Lehrman of
Temple Sinai died on Wednesday,
Nov. I4.
He was 41 years old.
Rabbi Lehrman arrived in
Atlanta in I965 as the assistant
rabbi at the Temple. He was a
catalyst in the Jewish community.
He created a new dynamic in
Judaism in the city of Atlanta.
Dick Lehrman made it possible
for an environment to be created to
permit and encourage new Jewish
growth within the Reform
movement. In his short life he
provided the opportunity for many
people to grow Jewishly. And he
provided the inspiration for a
generation of children to feel more
in touch and more secure and more
in love with their Judaism. Rabbi
Lehrman was the most personal
and private of men yet he
possessed an incredible charisma.
He had an impact on all who knew
him and inspired unparallcd love
and devotion.
From the very beginnings of
Temple Sinai, he lugged the Torah
and Ark around in his car, perhaps
an appropriate beginning for a
congregation led by a man who
was unimpressed with the material
trappings of life. He believed that
the synagogue was a place to talk
about God openly and freely. The
synagogue which he created he saw
as a traditional place of Jewish
worship, and at the iame time an
essential part of modern life.
Temple Sinai was to be a house of
prayer, study and assembly. But it
was also to be a place of Jewish
nostalgia, a place where one could
recapture a bubbe or a zayde. A
place to discover whether or not
you could go home again.
Rabbi Lehrman came to
Atlanta at a time when he saw that
classical Reform movement in
America was not fulfilling the
needs of a group of its young
members. And in the creation of
Temple Sinai he attempted to
provide a place of refuge from the
systems and pressures of the
modern world. In Sinai he saw a
first or second home for all of its
members; a place where anyone
could be comfortable.
He gave to the many members of
Sinai the ability to struggle with
their Judaism and the freedom to
believe more than one way. He told
his congregants that there may not
always be answers, but that one
could learn to live with the
questions. He always believed the
synagogue could be a more
effective house of prayer and that
we as Jews could always do better.
For the short period of time that
the members of Temple Sinai and
the Reform Jewish movement had
him, he left a legacy of the return to
tradition and to the love of God,
for God’s sake. He often spoke of
his childhood rabbi in Harrisburg,
Pa., who had left him his library
of Jewish books upon his death
and what a wonderful gift that
was! For those whose life he
touched, Dick Lehrman left a
legacy larger and more loving than
any book.
For many people Rabbi
Lehrman and Temple Sinai were
synonymous and having to
attempt to separate them will be
virtually impossible.
He was not a teacher in the true
classical style, for what emanated
most from Dick Lehrman was a
style of Jewish life whereby the
modern American family could
have a synagogue it could relate to
on all levels.
His influence went well beyond
the Atlanta community; he was a
forerunner in many of the battles
of the Reform Jewish movement.
He was a traditionalist in a
modern time and a man who
brought the wisetiess, simplicity
and joy of the Hasid into a
synagogue in Atlanta.
Rabbi Richard l ehrman, 191*1979