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Page 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 26, 1986
Editorial
Cautious celebration
One of the Soviet Union’s most famous dissidents, Andrei
Sakharov, and his wife, Yelena Bonner, are back in Moscow
after having been exiled to Gorky, he for seven years, she since
1984.
What is especially exciting to all who have worked for years
to call attention to the Soviet Union’s violations of human
rights, is that Sakharov did not return, hat in hand, kowtowing
to the Kremlin. Instead, he immediately spoke out against his
country’s involvement in Afghanistan and in behalf of freedom
for other dissidents. His criticism of the U.S.S.R.’s Afghanis
tan deployment led to his exile in the first place.
Although it is not inconceivable that the Soviet Union will
again take action against Sakharov, given the nature of his
prominence, it is unlikely.
But in that very prominence lies the rub. The Gorbachev
regime, in keeping with the projected image of modernism and
“amiability,” has achieved major public relations coups in its
highly publicized release of equally highly publicized dissidents.
While we join the free world in celebrating the Sakharov
decision, as we did the release of Anatoly Shcharansky and a
handful of others, we must not be lulled into a false sense that
there has been a Soviet change of heart.
As Morris Abram, chairman of the National Conference
on Soviet Jewry, has pointed out, the decree on emigration
regulations adopted by the U.S.S.R.’s Council of Ministers
last month offers little hope for the majority of those w ho w ish
to leave that country.
Abrams, as reported in this newspaper, said, “The decree
restricts the conventional interpretation of family ties and thus
could be used to justify still further cutbacks in the emigration
of Soviet Jews to Israel.”
He suggested that instead of being a legal basis for increas
ing emigration, the decree was “crafted as propaganda designed
to deceive the West and silence the growing volume of interna
tional protests against the cruel policy of the Soviet regime...”
Until it has been proved otherwise, we must agree.
But what is apparent is that our involvement—naming
names and keeping the issue in the public eye—can have some
effect.
Our obligation is clear.
Looking back
As the curtain rings down on another year, we take the
opportunity to look back, not just at the 12 months just past,
but at the decades of the last half century.
Starting on page 1 1, our readers will find a combination of
some of the most momentous events of the past 50 years and a
roundup of local items w hich were highlighted in the pages of
this newspaper.
For “oldtimers” we know these will evoke memories. For
our younger readers, we hope they will provide a sense of
history.
For all our readers...enjoy. And a happy, healthy and
peaceful year to come.
BUYTH
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Vida Goldqar
Changing times
One of the hundred or so publications we
receive here every week is a digest-type newspaper
called the German Tribune. It contains English
translations of articles which
have appeared in leading papers
in West Germany.
I just got around to leafing
through the Nov. 23 issue and
found two stories of more than
passing interest.
The first, translated from
Bonn’s Die Welt, was about the
opening of a new Jewish Com
munity Center in Frankfurt—a
center which includes a kindergarten, a primary
school, religious, cultural, sports and entertain
ment facilities and a kosher restaurant.
The article says that the primary school, which
is about 20 years old and just moved to the new
building, has such a good reputation that many
non-Jewish parents send their children there, pay
ing a premium for the privilege. Interestingly, its
says that about half the non-Jewish children volun
tarily take part in the Jewish religion instruction.
The building has expensive security arrange
ments and the report indicates that Jews standing
in front of the building have heard passers-by
comment: “Look at that, international Jewry is
back.”
Even so, the writer maintains that there is a new
Jewish self-confidence, especially among younger
Jews who “are challenging the lack of assertiveness
of their elders” and “w ant to know w hy they should
be so reticent about their Jewishness.”
Admitting that the “proud, new self-assured
Jewish community building will eventually attract
latent, muffled anti-Semitism,” the story says that
anti-Semitism is not confined to West Germany
and that “these people, mainly young people, will
know how' to take this in their stride.”
The second story, this one from the Frankfurter
Neue Presse, tells ol the reopening of the Auerbach
synagogue south of Darmstadt, after half a cen
tury. Not coincidentally, the same night the syn
agogue reopened, the first professional Jewish
theater company gave its first performance.
Here’s what Neue Press says: “Both events
were designed to reduce the foreignness of things
Jewish and to break down lack of communication
between non-Jewish Germans and Jews.”
No one can, nor should, forget the past. But there
is certainly encouragement in the fact that those
few' (approximately 30,000) Jews remaining in
West Germany are beginning to be recognized as
something more than “a remnant” and that major
German newspapers write so positively about the
changing times.
A report this week said our nation’s capital leads the nation
in alcohol consumption.
We’re not surprised, when so many there are “taking the
fifth.”
The Southern Israelite
The Voice of Atlonro s Jewish Communify
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar Jeff Rubin
Editor General Manager
Luna Levy
Managing Editor
Published by Sun Publications, Inc.
also publishers of The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
Stan Rose Steve Rose
Chairman and President and
Publisher Co Publisher
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Reconstructionist Judaism
by Stanley M. Lefco
In the last section of his book,
“Profiles in American Judaism,”
Marc l ee Raphael, a professor
of history at Ohio State and an
ordained rabbi at the Hebrew
Union College, discusses Recon
structionist Judaism as the fourth
branch of American Jewry.
He credits Mordecai M. Kaplan
as the founder of this movement.
Born in Lithuania in 1881, Kaplan
studied the Talmud as a child in
Vilna. About 1889 or 1890 he
came to New York City and later
graduated from the City College
of New York and the Jewish
Theological Seminary. In 1902
he obtained a master’s degree
from Columbia. Raphael notes
that Kaplan provided the ideol
ogy at the time he created Recon
structionism and for several
decades thereafter sanctioned its
rabbinic and congregational insti
tutions.
Kaplan proposed a “recon
structed” historical Judaism
“w ithout supernatural revelation
or supernatural ‘choosing’ ol the
Jews,” yet maintaining certain
customs, ceremonies, holidays
and other traditions.
When this branch of Judaism
actually began is subject to de
bate. Some argue that it started
in 1922 when Kaplan began to
“programmatically reconstruct
Judaism.” Others claim it started
in 1934 when his book, “Judaism
as a Civilization: Toward a Re
construction of American Jewish
l ife,” appeared. Kaplan himself,
however, claimed it started in
January 1935 when he and sev
eral friends launched the Recon
structionist Magazine.
Raphael observed that Kaplan
saw the function of religion as
primarily social. By that, it re
volved around the Jewish peo
ple. “ I he people become the
source of authority and ‘one’s
chief source of salvation,’ and
each individual Jew was urged
to link him or herself to the des
tiny of the Jewish people, to the
group.” Stressed Kaplan, God is
“the power that endorses what
we believe ought to be, and that
guarantees that it will be."
Kaplan viewed the mosaic of
Jewish civilization as being com
prised of religious as well as secu
lar organizations in addition to
the history of individual Jews,
prayer, language, social hopes,
spiritual ideas, art and literature.
The heretical ideas of Kaplan
led, in 1945, to his excommuni
cation by the Union of Orthodox
Rabbis. Kaplan persevered. He
declared that Reconstructionist
Judaism was not a new denomi
nation, but a “state of mind." It
was an ideology, which sought to
be supportive of the existing
branches of Judaism. His move
ment was “to provide a rationale
and a program...of Jewish unity
which might enable Jews to tran
scend the differences that divide
them.”
As part of his program, men
and women were completely
equal. Congregational committees
under rabbinic leadership should
determine halacha for themselves
alone and with as much input as
possible.
The year 1968 saw the opening
ol the Reconstructionist College
in Philadelphia. By 1983, 70 rab
bis had been ordained, including
12 women. The first woman was
ordained in 1973.