Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 May 2002 — Page 7

Mav 22. 2002 NAT 3

Saskatoon Jews in hot conflict

SASKATOON, Sask., Canada — Tensions are running so high between a Conservative congregation and a group of congregants who broke away from it that police here have not ruled out the rivalry as a motive for a synagogue firebombing. When the arson destroyed the archives and religious texts of Congregation Agudas Israel, speculation at first was that Middle East tensions led to the desecration. But The Forward reports that in this community of only 200 Jews, there are such frictions that police have stated they are keeping in mind the possibility of an intrajewish crime. There are four lawsuits under way involving at least two dozen of the city's Jews. At the center of the litigation is Brooklyn-born Rabbi Steven Kaplan, who was hired in 1998 by Agudas Israel, then the city's only synagogue. Court documents say he was fired in March 2000 based on allegations that he lacked proper ordination, sexually harassed female congregants, and committed adultery with one of them. Kaplan, 52, led a breakaway group of 50 dissidents, including some former officers of Agudas Israel, in forming a rival Conservative congregation called Shir Chadash. He is suing Agudas Israel for breach of his five-year contract. He also is suing for libel over an article about him in the Agudas Israel newsletter. Meanwhile, his new con-

gregation claims that Agudas Israel violated rabbinic canon law by operating a non-kosher kitchen and by burying cremated remains and suicide victims in the Jewish cemetery. Shir Chadash is suing Agudas Israel for all of its assets, including the building, cemetery, Torah, and other sacred texts— some of which were destroyed in the firebombing. Agudas Israel is counter-su-ing Shir Chadash and specific members of its congregation for the damages it suffered through their defections. There has been no court ruling about the validity of any of the allegations in any of the lawsuits. Jews in both discordant groups have insisted that.none of their adherents would have committed the firebombing. Kaplan said he understands that police must have a wide pool of suspects at first, but that he cannot believe one of his congregants would have committed the crime. Benjamin Goldstein, a provincial court judge and president of Shir Chadash, said nobody would try to destroy assets they are suing to possess. Grant Scharfstein, a past president of Agudas Israel, says nobody believes a dissident member would have done that. Scharfstein said Agudas Israel remains a member in good standing of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Shir Chadash has not yet sought affiliation with the Conservative body. The Forward reported.

In Recognition

Dr. David B. Larson, late founder and president of the International Center for the Integration of Health and Spirituality, was presented with the Oskar Pfister Award posthumously by the American Psychiatric Association at

its annual meeting in Philadelphia. Woody Allen received the Palm of Gold award for his entire career at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Women’s commentary on Torah being planned

NEW YORK — A women's commentary on the Torah, a five-year project, is planned by the Federation of Temple Sisterhoods and will be written and edited entirely by women. Professor Tamara Cohn

Eskenazi, noted Biblical professor at HUC-JIR, said it is being proposed as an egalitarian rather than a feminist work, one that will have a strong message for both men and women.

Quotation of the week

By RABBI HARVEY J. FIELDS I have just returned from a fact-finding mission with leaders of our American Jewish Federations to explore the troubling situation confronting Argentinean Jewry. The situation there is "surreal." On the one hand the city of Buenos Aires, where 175,000 of the country's 200,000 Jews live, gives the appearance of being the Paris of Latin America. Its main avenues are wide, some sixteen lanes wide, with trees and stately buildings. Yet, tucked behind them in many sections is the result of the economic ruin that has toppled this once proud city from the top of the economic ladder into its present catastrophe. Consider the plight of our Jewish brothers and sisters and you get a sense of the suffering Argentina is enduring. The financial collapse over the past five years has brought about the economic ruin of our community and its critical social and educational institutions. Within the last three years the number of Jews living under the poverty line has grown to nearly fifty thousand, or one-quarter of the entire community! Thousands have lost their jobs. Because of bank failures, government devaluation of the currency, thousands have lost their savings, pensions and homes. Seventy percent of Jewish small business owners have

been forced to close their shops during the past three years. Thirty percent of self-em-ployed Jews have lost a substantial part or all of their incomes. The Ariel Job Center organized to assist those who need jobs has over a thousand seekers and has, during the past few months, only been able to place twenty-six applicants! No Jewish family in Argentina is untouched. No Jewish institution is unaffected. The AMIA, as the Federation in Buenos Aires is known, is runniiig on empty with a deficit of twenty million dollars. As a result, a proud community, which a few years ago boasted fifty outstanding schools through which over twenty-five thousand children were educated, has now been brought to its knees. Beaten by poverty, ten thousand children have been lost to the educational system. Twenty schools have been closed. Since this past January, another fourteen hundred students have dropped out of the system for lack of scholarships. Without the help of the Jewish Agency For Israel, which is supplying teachers, programs and budgetary assistance, more schools would be closing. On the personal side, just imagine the sense of frustration and shame in suddenly no longer being able to buy food and clothing for your family, or to send your children to school, or to pay rent or mortgages.

Imagine the isolation, increasing health problems, the inability to purchase medicines - all the result of the creeping desperation of poverty. I saw the pain in the eyes of the mothers and fathers, the frustration on the faces of the teachers and heads of schools. I experienced it in the comment of a grandmother holding the hands of her children and grandchildren who were about to board a plane with one hundred thirty others making aliyah to Israel. She told me: "We've lived here for three generations. No more. There are only two places for a Jew to live in this world. One is the United States. The other is Israel." We estimate that over five thousand Argentinean Jews will leave for resettlement in Israel during this year, and another five thousand during 2003. The costs of settlement and of reaching out to sustain impoverished Jews in Argentina is in our hands. Our people's ethic is clear: "You shall open wide your generous hands to your needy and poor." Please contribute to our Federation's special campaign for Jews In Crisis. It is meant to relieve needs in Argentina and support the urgent burden our people are facing in Israel. In this hour of peril we must not let them down. - Rabbi Fields serves Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles.

THIS MAP IS FOR YOU-For no particular reason is this map being published except for the clarity of the countries that surround Israel, therefore, readers might like to possess it for future reference.