Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 January 1981 — Page 16

Jewish Poet end Opinion Page 1:

Jewish Papers Refuse To Criticize: Columnist

LOS ANGELES - Yehuda Lev has challenged many aspects of American Jewish operations from the Jewish Federation Council on down, and now he has turned his cynical pen on the Jewish

press.

The columnist for Israel 2 Today asked “When was the P last time you saw a Jewish §> newspaper on the West Coast. ~ of which there are several, take on an adversary from 6 within the Jewish community c on an important issue other “> than calling ‘Arab lovers’ anyone who questions the West Bank policies of the

Begin government?

ANSWERING his own question, he then wrote: “No, what they are good for, in the main, is the ritual bow towards the official wisdom. Their targets are easy ones. Who in our midst is going to say a good word for the government of Argentina or Lyndon LaRouche or Arab-controlled chairs at the University of Southern California: And you will find a few votes in tavor of the Ayatollah or the PLO or Mr. Assad. And who will

speak against Jewish education or celebrating holidays or

contributing to charity?

Then he zeroed in on the areas where the Jewish papers, according to him, fear to tread. “But where, comrade, do you find the Jewish newspaper which is about to question the way we collect and distribute our communal funds? Which one of these mighty organs, trumpeting the importance of the freedom of the press, is willing to add a quiet grace note or two asking by what means our leaders assume their positions? AGAIN he answered his

own questions. “Forget it,” he wrote. “Either the papers are house organs owned by the local Federation and therefore incapable by definition of discussing controversial issues in any way designed to cast light upon the darkness, or they are the private extensions of the egos of their owners or they are ‘newspapers of record’, keepers of the flame, the fuel for which is invariably organizational press releases.” He then praised some of the monthly and quarterly magazines and named the best of

them as Present Tense, Moment, The Jewish Spectator, Response, Judaism, Midstream and Forum, pointing out though that they are limited and “do not, nor can they, tell us what is taking place in our own communi-

ties."

UNAFRAID to bait the lion locally, he wrote that “there is none, among the four that are published in Los Angeles, that tells us what is happening here, that gives us the information we need in order to make sensible decisions about our communal responsibilities.”

Orthodox 'Discrimination' Of Other Jews Challenged

SAN FRANCISCO — That he has publicly declared that he shall no longer support iy ''VM Orthodox insti- ■ . ■ .-'ll tutions in Israel stated by ^ Rabbi Saul WM^mm White in the bulletin of his f§ llilKB Congregation Beth ShoWhite lom (Conservative) here. Hie dean of the rabbinate in San Francisco listed a num-

DEERFIELD, 111. - Although eschewing deceptive missionary practices seeking to convert Jews to Christianity, it seemed that the evangelical Protestant leaders meeting here with Jewish leaders held fast to efforts that were noncoercive and nondeceptive. BLUE GREENBERG, representing the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, touched on the Jewish response when she asked boldly, “Would those who preach conversion want a world free of Jews?” and went further when she described “the idea that only through faith in Christ will Jews be saved” as “out of order and obscene.” Inde Gibel, of the American Jewish Committee, was no less outspoken. She said that “if you are talking about winning away our children, you’re talking about cultural genocide.”

NEW YORK - An episode extracted from “The Samurai of Vishograd” will be broadcast over NBC radio at 11:30 - 12 a.m. EST this Sunday s part of the Eternal Light program. The tale was adapt-

ber of actions of the Orthodox, both in America and in Israel and even in Los Angeles and here, and then asserted: “I USED to support, uncritically to a lesser or greater extent, all Orthodox institutions in Israel who solicited my contribution. I have publicly declared that I shall do so no longer.” He then added: “More than two-thirds of the American Jews, if belonging, have declared themselves Conservative or

Reform. The Orthodox fanatics consider us illegitimate, inauthentic Jews, but solicit vigorously our support for program in which we are held in contempt.” He concluded that “we are tref — but our money is kosher.” THE LIST of infringements by the Orthodox on the other wings of Judaism that Rabbi White listed included refusal to admit to a tax-exempt private Jewish school “children of intermarried families — or those of families where the Christian partner was converted by a Reform or Conservative rabbi.” He carried his criticism to the local federation. He wrote that he regretted “to state that the San Francisco Jewish Federation and Welfare Fund, which gets its support from every section of the Jewish community, by not challenging that practice and supporting the school is guilty of perpetuating this evil in our midst.” HIS OTHER protests were about the decision of Jerusalem’s two chief Orthodox Rabbis who proclaimed that one has not “fulfilled the mitzvah of hearing the sound of the shofar if it took place in a Conservative or Reform synagogue.” He compared their action to that of “Rev. Smith in proclaiming that God does not hear the prayers of Reform Jews, but only Orthodox.” He urged: “The religious arrogance and divisiveness of the Orthodox fanatics has to be challenged and openly.” His final example was the refusal of the Chabad people in Los Angeles in “denying the use of the mikvah to those converted by Conservative or Reform rabbis,” which led the University of Judiasm (Conservative) in that city to build a mikvah on its campus “to accomodate the ‘renegade’ Jews.”

In Missionizing To Jewish Evangelicals Hold Fast To Noncoercive Methods

"Samurai" On Eternal Light

The New York Times report had Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, the leading American Jew in interreligious affairs, taking a more middle of the road position. “In the 80’s we’re going to need each other as never before,” he said. He called for avoiding “the temptation toward scapegoating,” and reminded the conference, of which the Committee was a sponsor, that both Jews and evangelical Christians have been guilty of negative stereotyping. THE MORAL MAJORITY position seemed to receive criticism of both groups. Dr. Arnold T. Olson, retired president of the Evangelical Free Church of America, asserted that the influence of Moral Majority, especially its image of Christian exclusivity, had begun to undo some of the good will that has been growing between Jews and evangelical Christians

ed by Anita and Shimon Wincelberg from their own book and later play, which purports to be the diary of Jacob Maratech, a Jewish recruit in the Czar’s Army in the Russo-Japanese war.

GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YOU — Although this young Israeli Miss doesn’t seem to have the least of any kind of a skin ailment, she’s sunbathing in the Dead Sea where, because of its depth below sea level and the filtering out of ultra-violet rays, the sun’s burning power is reduced. As a result the Dead Sea is a mecca for those suffering from severe skin problems. She’s seated on a lump of salt which dots the dead sea and whose valuable mineral elements are salvaged through evaporation at the huge Dead Sea Works at Sdom.

Zionsim Here Said On Decline

JERUSALEM - Although

any American conversant with what goes on in the Jewish community recognizes that the comparison is unfair, Eliezer Scheffer, chairman of the Young Leadership of the World Zionist Organization, does have a point. Returning from the United States where he attended two major functions of the Jewish community, he compared the attendance at the convention of the American Zionist

Federation with the general Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations, and came to the conclusion that the Zionist Movement and its parties in the United States are on a steady decline. He said the Federation convention was poorly attended not only by heads of the large American Jewish Organizations but also by members of the American Section of the World Zionist Organization, according to the Jerusalem

Post.