Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 August 1974 — Page 4

THE JEWISH POST

Friday, August 2, 1974

Freedom of the Press AH letters to the editor should be addressed to The Jewish Post and Opinion, 611 North Park Ave., Indianapolis, Ind. 46204. The letters should be typed and should be concise. Anonymous letters will not be printed. No letters will be returned. Short letters get preference.

How Teacher Overcame Problem As Students Hid Jewish Identity

Rabbi Repeats Call For Debate On Conducting Intermarriages

Editor, POST and OPINION: This is to take cognizance of the letter from Rabbi Kurt Klappholz who disputes my contention that by providing a mixed couple with a Jewish ceremony I make it possible for some couples to be saved for Judaism. I said in a previous letter that there is halachic support for what I do. My friend says that is incomprehensible to him. But it is not to some authorities. I challenged Rabbi Abraham Besdin, a previous gladiator, to a public debate on the merits of my policy. Rabbi Besdin has not replied to my challenge. Rabbi Klappholz says that a debate would be “utterly ridiculous.'’ But he doesn't say why. Is there to be no dialogue between rabbis with different viewpoints? I said that traditionalist rabbis have begged some Reform colleagues to officiate at the mixed weddings of their own children so that they might have a chance of having Jewish grandchildren. Such rabbis, Rabbi Klappholz calls

“charlatans.” That’s a harsh epithet for men who want to save their children for Judaism. I said that in a dialogue the “people” could judge both sides of the situation. Rabbi Klappholz pooh-poohs this idea, despite the fact that one Talmudical sage urged his colleagues to “go and see what the people do” in order to determine how to perpetuate Judaism. In a snide aside, Rabbi Klappholz says that he is sure that I do these marriages “for a handsome fee.'’ How is he so sure? I submit that a far more serious infraction of halachah than giving a mixed couple a Jewish ceremony is publicly insulting a colleague without bothering to get the facts. I repeat my challenge. I will accept an invitation to appear before any forum to defend what I do against anyone who opposes me. Any takers? RABBI SAMUEL M. SILVER Temple Sinai Lakeside Dr. Stamford, Conn 06903

Rabbi Hopes Israel Will Restore $100 Bond

Editor, POST and OPINION: I am one of the many rabbis who have written with the hope that Israel Bonds will reissue the $100 Bond. I feel it is a grave injustice to people of lesser means being ruled out of the privilege of purchasing a bond. There are many retired people here who are quite disturbed about this situation.

Many of them have purchased bonds for their grandchildren, but cannot do so any longer. I commend your efforts in this area and pray that everything will work out satisfactorily. RABBI ALBERT PLOTKIN 3310 North 10th Ave. Phoenix. Ariz. 85013

Breira Asked: Haven't We Learned Yet?

Editor, POST and OPINION: It is with growing confusion that I write this letter re the policies of Breira. Breira proposes a positive stand towards Israel and yet on the other hand claims that Israel has drained American Jewish communal hopes of thriving and developing. If one traces the genesis of strong Jewish identity in America since the 1900’s, its very intensity has been the outgrowth of the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel. Breira fervently, perhaps frenetically, supports territorial concessions in behalf of the State of Israel. We are all aware that these territories

were taken because of irrational attacks, blood-letting attacks against the State of Israel. Israel’s prime aim at this point is to have secure borders not a mass of land. In 1942 - 1943 discussions, recommendations were quite the order of the day. Actions on the part of American Jews to save their fellow Jews in war-torn Europe were at the least of a marginal quality. Platitudes and intellectual discussions filled the air with a stench worse than the bodies that laid in the crematoria. Haven't we learned vet? NAOMI LIPSITZ 5830 E. 6th Ave. Denver. Colo. 80220

WINNIPEG - An innovative teacher at the Isaac Newton Junior High School, disturbed by the evidences of antiSemitism among her students and even the willingness of some Jewish students to cover up their identity, has altered the situation radically by tackling the problem headon. Elsie Stasiuk assigned her class a three-to-four week number of topics of Jewish interest with the plan to culminate in an exhibit. The students spread out to get their information first hand, and visits were made to the offices of the Western Jewish News, to the Jewish Public Library, to the Rosh Pina Hebrew School

Study Facts On Quotas And Maaiot Is Urged Editor, POST and OPINION: So as to ascertain the facts of “reverse discrimination hurting Jews,” may I suggest that Arnold Forster of the AntiDefamation League open his file of cases for examination by the presidents of the three major rabbinical organizations (Rabbinical Assembly of America, Rabbinical Council, Central Conference of American Rabbis). Also, so as to get a sufficient number of dossiers, I call upon all those who know of cases of “reverse discrimination” where Jews were hurt, to forward their case histories, properly documented, to Mr. Forster (315 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016). I am of the opinion that the time has come to back up the charges of “reverse discrimination” with FACTS. As to Maaiot, where Moshe Dayan’s trigger-quick action resulted in the avoidable death of 25 teenagers (not to mention the wounded youths) while there was silence in the Israel Orthodox camp, the Report of the Commission of Inquiry and Examination of the Maaiot Massacre is now available BUT, for “security reasons,” some sections have been deleted. I suggest that your readers who think I don’t know what took place at Maaiot secure a copy of the “report” which will probably be available at Israel Consulates. TRUDE WEISS-ROSMARIN The Jewish Spectator 250 Wes* 57th St. New iork, N.Y. 10019

and to synagogues. THE EXHIBIT crowned the effort with success. Invited was the entire student body, the faculty and some parents. They were entertained with Jewish folk music, dined on kosher tidbits and viewed

MECHITZA In Buses JERUSALEM — Backed by $4 million supplied in part by foreign investors, the Committee for the Protection of Sanctity in Israel plans to operate a bus line with seating segregated between the sexes. The Committee charged “lack of modesty in dress” on the Egged Lines. The bus would operate to the Western Wall and through the religious neighborhoods of the city.

films donated by the Jewish Historical Society, as well as a special slide presentation arranged by a teacher at the school, Hymie Rosenblatt. Mrs. Stasiuk told The Western Jewish News that the reaction to the class effort “was overwhelming.” She added that “the whole student body benefited from the project. For many of the students it was the closest they have ever been to anything even remotely Jewish.” She suggested that the Jewish community approach the Department of Education to include a history of the Jews in the social studies curriculum. IN CONCLUSION, she related that students who had found it necessary to hide the fact that they were Jewish wore their identity proudly during the course of the entire program. She expressed the view that they would continue now to do so.

WAGNER THE GENIUS BETRAYED NO A.S.

Rabbi Corrected On Homosexuality

Editor, POST and OPINION: Rabbi Thodore N. Lewis, alas, errs again <P-0 July 12). He is quite wrong in asserting that the American Psychiatric Assn, has withdrawn its original statement and “continues to call homosexuality a disease and a mental illness.” The initial decision to remove “homosexuality per se” as a category of mental illness from

the APA’s Diagnostic Manual was made by the APA Trustees on Dec. 15, 1973. This decision was submitted to the APA membership in a referendum and upheld by a 58-per cent majority, announced on April 8, 1974. In a national election this would constitute a landslide. JAMES LIVELY 2917 Richmond Ave. Mattoon, 111. 61938

Garbled Line Is Corrected Editor, POST and OPINION: A misplaced line garbled up one of the main points of my letter regarding Rabbi Blumenthal’s unfamiliarity with Israeli laws and with the religious concept of halachah. (P-0 July 19). The sentence should read: “A law legislated by the Knesset is therefore a secular law and not a religious, i.e. a halachic law.” I shall appreciate your publishing of this correction. Y. ETZION 20 Laurel Hill Terrace New York. N.Y. 10033

JERUSALEM - That the Nazis failed to recognize that one of Wagner’s great works.

Trust In God, Not Social Security Editor, POST and OPINION: This is to comment on the July 5 article on the Rabbi’s Social Security Tax problem. There is a provision in the Social Security Tax law that allows a clergyman the option to pay no Social Security Tax at all. I have filed this form myself because I believe the Social Security System to be a violation of the Scripture: “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. And whose heart departeth from the Lord.” Jeremiah 17:5. T’nach teaches that we are utterly dependent on God. Man’s effort to create his own “security” via all kinds of insurance schemes will alw-ays end in a curse upon that system. I urge the rabbi to trust God for his old age just as I do (I am 53 years old). In case anyone questions my sanity I can testify that I have no life nor health insurance either. After 30 years of marriage and a family of four children as well, I find that God meets our needs in miraculous ways without begging or borrowing when the hour of need comes. CHARLES DEVISSCHER 874 Crescent Ave. Runnymede, N J,

“The Ring,” spoke out clearly against the “master race” concept, and that he became their darling because of his anti-Semitic utterances not the message of his works, was the basis of a letter from A H. Sakir in The Jerusalem Post. Sakir held no brief for the great composer, whom he labelled as a “nasty, conniving, cheating, lying, ungrateful SOB.” He ADDED that Wagner, like Dickens, Dostoevsky and hundreds of other artists, shared in the widespread antiSemitic, anti-Jewish feelings of his age cannot be denied. “Like them,” he wrote, “Wagner knew nothing about Jews — only the few that he knew were more successful professionally and socially that he was, and he was envious and jealous to the point of malevolence.” In another vein, the letterwriter was less bitter. He wrote that “The curious thing, however, is that those who were geniuses, like Dostoevsky, couldn't be untrue to their artistic integrity; for instance, Dostoevsky couldn’t make a Jew a murderer. Similarly, and to Wagner’s credit, in another of his masterpieces, “Die Meistersinger,” he has a stage full of towns-people, with every opportunity to slip in a Jew as an object of derision or hatred. He didn’t. His artistic integrity rose above his personal anti-Semitism.” THE LETTER- WRITER concluded that “our Jewish intellectual and spiritual integrity can afford to rise above our loathing for Wagner the man, in favor of Wagner the genius.”

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