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ADL to open Holocaust library
NEW YORK. (JTA)— A Library of Holocaust Law—the first
of its kind is being established by the Anti-Defamation League of
B nai B rith to house legal and other documents relating to the
pursuit of justice against Nazi war criminals.
It will include documents having to do with the European war
crimes trials, American deportation actions, war crimes investi
gations, Canadian Holocaust denial trials and SS archival papers
previously available only in Austria and Germany.
Bishop Tutu seeks Jewish help
TORONTO (JTA)—South African Bishop Desmond Tutu
recently thanked Jews for fighting oppression—part of their com
mon heritage with blacks—and called on Jewish support in the
battle against apartheid.
Speaking to a capacity audience at Holy Blossom Temple, a
major Reform synagogue here, the 54-year-old Nobel Peace Prize
winner and leading voice in the fight against South Africa’s racist
system reminded Jews they too suffered and continue to suffer
from oppression.
Lutheran, Jewish meeting set
NEW YORK (J7 A)—Lutheran and Jewish leaders have
agreed to hold a number of meetings to deal with such current
problems as terrorism, nuclear disarmament, an emerging new
anti-Semitism in Germany, Soviet Jewry, Jews in Arab countries
and world poverty and hunger, Rabbi Walter Wurzberger an
nounced here.
W urzberger, chairman of the inter-religious affairs committee
of the Synagogue Council of America, said the agreement on
cooperation between the Jewish organization and the Lutheran
World Federation was reached at the offices of the SCA, the
coordinating agency for rabbinic and congregational organizations
of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism.
Police exercise is flawed
TEL AVIV (JTA)—A secret police report on a widespread
police exercise carried out about four months ago has disclosed
serious flaws and shortcomings, according to Israel Radio.
T he radio said that because of the sensitivity of the subject, no
details of the report are being disclosed, but senior officials are said
to be studying it to learn what immediate steps should be taken to
improve the situation.
The exercise covered a number of simultaneous incidents,
including the firing of katyusha rockets, explosive charges, attemp
ted infiltration by terrorists, and the hijacking of vehicles and the
taking of hostages for bargaining purposes.
IDF corrals terrorist gang
JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israel Defense Force spokesman
announced the capture of a terrorist gang believed responsible for
29 attacks in northern and central Israel during the past year. The
suspects belong to the mainstream Fatah wing of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, the IDF said.
They are believed responsible for placing 10 booby-trapped
devices in Haifa and 10 others in Alula. An explosion charge that
detonated near a gasoline station in that Jezreel Valley town last
Thursday was the 10th bombing there in 12 months. Other explo
sives were planted by the gang in a half dozen other population
centers around Israel. There were no casualties or damage in Afula.
SLA holds 200alleged terrorists
TEL AVIV (JTA) Gen. Antoine Lehad, who commands the
Israel-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA), confirmed that he is
holding 200 suspected terrorists prisoner in the south Lebanon
security zone and defended his refusal to permit representatives of
the International Red Cross to visit them.
Lehad said that 75 percent of the prisoners belong to the
extremist Shiite Moslem Hezbollah group, said to be influenced by
Iran. They are being held at the El-Hiam prison, which the Israel
Defense Force used for detainees before its withdrawal from
Lebanon a year ago.
Increase in yordim to U.S.
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The number of yordim—Israelis leav
ing the Jew'ish state—arriving in the United States is constantly
increasing, according to Haim Schein, head of the aliyah emissaries.
According to figures provided by U.S. immigration authorities
to a team of researchers, in the past 20 years, 402 Israeli govern
ment officials were naturalized as U.S. citizens.
An urgent appeal for blood donors
Editor:
We as a community are falling
down (in our support of the blood
drives).
This city has grown the past 10
years and instead of the need for
blood being less, it has become
greater, and the donors have be
come less. When the blood is
needed, we somehow come up with
it, even by borrowing from other
groups to meet the great needs of
our community.
At our joint blood drives with
the Jewish War Veterans Post 112,
the Fulton Masonic Lodge 216, the
Ahavath Achim Synagogue and
other Jewish and non-Jewish or
ganizations, there was a point when
we would obtain approximately
200 pints and now' we are lucky to
obtain 60 pints at four drives per
year. This will hardly cover the
Jewish people in our community.
The real givers are getting older
and there are few new younger
donors around. Where are they
and why don’t they realize that
they are the ones that should come
forward and take up the much
needed slack?
I appeal to our community to
help out in this great need. You
can’t go out to the store and buy
the stuff, you can’t make it in a
factory, it must come from the
heart...Without it we can’t live.
Our next drive at the A.A.
Synagogue is Aug. 3 from 9 a.m. to
1 p.m. on a Sunday. It is for the
whole community and not just a
few. Please support this Community
Wide Blood Drive, and feel good
that you did something that money
would not buy. A note of interest:
This is the oldest continuing blood
drive in the country. We have not
missed a drive in approximately 40
years. This is a record that we
should not let falter, because if we
do, there will be many lives affected.
Jerry H. Fields
‘There must be a middle ground’
Editor:
If everyone were of the same
opinion life would be unbearably
dull. On the other hand, attitudes
can be so different, so divergent,
that dullness and lassitude are
removed and instead, equations
that are most disturbing are in
troduced. There must be a middle
ground.
Not everyone is in agreement
with the Supreme Court decision
that abortion is constitutionally
permissible. There are the “right to
lifers” who are horror-stricken,
while others feel that where there is
valid reason the right to abort
should not be abrogated.
Southern Baptists convening in
Atlanta, voted into office a presi
dent of far right fundamental per
suasion. Approximately half the
delegates went away grinning like
Cheshire cats while the remainder
were left shaking their heads.
About
by Don McEvoy
National Conference of Christians anil Jews
“Can A Woman Be A Rabbi?”
was the topic of Regina Jonas’ the
sis when she completed her studies
at Berlin’s Reform Seminary shortly
before World War II. “Absolutely
not!” was the response of Chanoth
Albeik, the only member of the
faculty authorized to sign rabbini
cal diplomas.
Undaunted, Frau Jonas persuad
ed a liberal rabbi in Offenbach to
give her a private ordination. She
then served as a rabbi in a home for
the aged until 1942 when she was
arrested by the Nazis and sent to a
concentration camp. In 1944 she
was put to death in the ovens of
Auschwitz.
When making hospital calls she
introduced herself briskly. “My
name is Frau Regina Jonas. 1 am
not the wife of a rabbi, but a rabbi.
What can I do for you?” At least
one bedridden patient at the Jew
ish hospital in Berlin replied, “You
can darn my socks!”
Courageous, perservering, single-
minded are the words used by
many to describe this remarkable
woman. “Pugnacious” \yas the term
wondering what the world was
coming to.
Southern Baptists are not alone.
We Jews are in the midst of differing
viewpoints that may unfortunately
lead to dissension and divisiveness.
Reform Judaism has concluded
that patrilineal descent sufficiently
qualifies a child to be considered
Jewish. Conservative Judaism takes
the egalitarian stance that women
may aspire to the rabbinate, may
read from the Torah, may, if they
wish, wear tallit and tefillin. Or
thodoxy will have none of it. The
words of Rabbi Irving Greenberg
reverberate in our minds: “Will
there be one Jewish people in the
year 2000?”
Israel is being torn apart by the
ultra-Orthodox who, among other
acts of violence, burn bus stops
which display advertisements de
picting women, stone automobiles
that violate Shabbat. In an ad in
women
used by the rabbi of a Berlin syn
agogue where she attended servi
ces. Three decades later he recon
sidered and wrote, “The personal
encounters I had with her were not
always very pleasant (but) for rea
sons I understand and appreciate
now far better than most of us did
at the time, her pugnaciousness
was the mark of one trying to
break through long established
barriers, in her eagerness and desire
to be fully recognized and accepted
in the role she had chosen.”
Valiant is another word. Indeed,
a valiant woman who deserves not
to be forgotten.
I went back to Roslyn Lacks’
book, “Women and Judaism,” to
refresh my memory about Regina
Jonas when the morning paper
reported that Leslie Alexander has
been selected, over six male appli
cants, for the position of pulpit
rabbi at Adat Ar El, a large Con
servative synagogue in North Hol
lywood, Calif.
This marks the first time that a
prominent Conservative congrega
tion has employed a woman for
such a significant leadership role.
Sally Priesand was the first
woman rabbi in America, ordained
the New York Times, a group of
rabbis refer to Jerusalem’s mayor,
Teddy Kollek as “Teddy the Ter
rorist” simply because he insists
that the city maintain its pluralist
characteristic. Martin Peretz, a
devoted Zionist and editor of the
New Republic magazine, feels that
the greatest threat to Israel stems
not from the Arabs but from the
ultra-Orthodox Jews “who are at
tempting to turn Israel into an
Iran-like theocracy.” Of the Kho-
meinist rabbis he states, “These
rabbis might just as well be agents
of Yasir Arafat.”
Barry Gold water to the contrary,
extremism in pursuit of liberty is
no virtue. We shall and must learn
to respect one another’s viewpoints
or we too are in danger of tearing
ourselves apart.
Max E. Rohkin
rabbis
by the Reform branch of Judaism
in 1972. Quite a number of others
soon followed. Only much more
recently has the Conservative wing
given approval.
Finding employment in other
than secondary or supporting posi
tions, however, has been the diffi
culty for both women rabbis and
their counterparts in the Christian
ministry. Perhaps this represents a
another major breakthrough.
It is a good time to remember
others, who blazed the trail in the
wilderness, like Regina Jonas.
After a fire
ora flood...
after any disaster...
it takes money to
help people
rebuild their lives.
A lot of money.
Give to the
Red Cross.
We’ll help. Will you?
+
American Red Cross
PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE June 20, 1986