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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 ft- xu’ll aiy TNYMiWa", ml ■ L f' *. * f \ \ \ 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 Second Class Postage txiid at Atlanta. Go (ISSN C/0A8H) tUPS 7?hOhO) POST M AST f.R: Send address i hunges to Tht> Si luthern Israelite. P O tTt. v 2502N7 Atlanta. Georgia 10.125 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 250287, Atlanta, Georgia T0325 Location: TOO Atlanta Technology Center, Suite 365, 1575 Northside Dr., N W„ All.. Ga 30318 Phone (404) 355-6139 Advertising rates available upon request. Subscriptions: $23.00 a year. Member ol Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Religious News Service American Jewish Press Assn , Georgia Press Assn , National Newspaper Assn 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.