Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 October 2003 — Page 18

NAT 14 Qslober fi. 2003

Match Continued from page 6 often in the South or Midwest, he adds. But the path one rabbi took to just such a smaller venue reveals the spiritual power many feel pulling them to the job no matter where they end up. Steve Gutow, 54, was a lawyer and political organizer who, like Singer, embarked on a new career in the 1990s. In politics, Gutow launched the southwest chapter of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Washing-ton-based National Jewish Democratic Council. But he began relating to people largely as political assets, he recalls. "I wasn't looking at people as humans." In 1992 his younger brother was killed in a bike accident, and Gutow began a spiritual trek that took him to Israel, Cambodia, and, finally, to teach Sunday school in Dallas, Texas. He was invited to speak at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the movement's seminary in suburban Philadelphia, the day after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995.

solo pulpit job in Montana and for an assistant post at a larger Washington, D.C. synagogue, but he settled on the Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis, a 15-family, startup congregation, where he says he found a connection. "I want to ensure a sense of holiness, that we maintain a sense of integrity of a holy institution that brings people together in a common cause." Among the latest crop of graduates who went straight to rabbinical school from college is Yeshiva graduate Yechiel Morris, 27, who this summer replaced an 18-year veteran at the Young Israel of Southfield, Mich., a 120-family shul. It was something his grandfather, one of several rabbis in his family, said to him about baseball that sparked his interest in the rabbinate. Before the World Series one year, his grandfather likened being a rabbi to being a pitcher, "the most important player of the game." The recent rush to rabbinical school has sent enrollment skyrockefing. At the RRC, enrollment has hovered between 19 in 1999 and 14 in 2003, one of the few

Gutow interviewed for a solo pulpit job in Montana and for an assistant post at a larger Washington, D.C. synagogue, but he settled on the Reconstructionist Minyan of St. Louis, a 15family, startup congregation, where he says he found a connection.

The RRC "was like a spiritual haven," he says. "I walked away from there with tears in my eyes, positive that's where 1 would be going." When he graduated this spring, Gutow looked for a smaller, more low-key synagogue, aiming to avoid a job where he would be required to spend a good deal of time raising money. Gutow interviewed for a

seminaries to see a slight drop. At the HUC's three campuses in New York, Cincinnati and Los Angeles, the total incoming class size shot up from 37 in 1999 to 67 in 2003 - the largest class since the Vietnam War a quarter century ago. The Conservative movement's rabbinical schools, the New York-based Jewish Theological Seminary and the University of Judaism in L.A.,

have also seen strong enrollment. At JTS, rabbinical school enrollment for the new class climbed from 26 in 2001 to 31 in 2003, while the University of Judaism, which began its ordination program in 1999, mushroomed from six to 20 students. And Yeshiva's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, the flagship school of modern Orthodoxy, has seen enrollment for its newest students climb from an average in the low 60s for the past four years to 86 in 2003. All would-be rabbis have their own reason to seek a pulpit, but Rabbi Martin Cohen of the Shelter Rock Jewish Center in Long Island, N.Y., a Conservative congregation, says the recent bounce in numbers was spurred in part by a "shock wave" rumbling from the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. "While 9/11 was not the impetus for people to drop what they're doing and become clergy, 9/11 was the catalyst for people to think about what they're doing with their lives," says Cohen, who has recruited a few JTS students from among his own congregation. "The idea of living every day as if it were your last is a very palpable notion today," he says. "Some incoming students wonder how they can be engaged in a career, an occupation, an avocation, that will have a lasting impact."

Dean Continued from page 7 Dean may have uncovered a small lode of support. The question that is then raised is will Dean's letting the cat out of the bag hurt his candidacy (and fund raising) with Jewish Americans? Regrettably, the answer is not significantly. The same Jews who support Tikkun or Peace Now will still support Dean for the nomination in order to burnish their liberal credentials. Should the Democrats select Dean as their standard bearer in '04, and should George Bush maintain his clearly more positive position vis-a-vis Israel, the conclusion is inescapable that, for at least those Jewish Americans for whom Israel is important, vot-

ing for Dean will be a no-no. One could also hope that given Dean's McGovern-like positions with regard to national security and the war on terrorism, he would share McGovern's political fate at the polls back in 1972. But, for those in the pro-Israel community who may have had doubts as to where this Democrat from Vermont stood on our issufes, he has already made this clear. And whether this is through ignorance or willfulness, we have been put on notice. The author is a former executive director of AIPAC. Ages Continued from page 12 history of this subject in his chapter, where he makes the following points: First, Moshe Dayan was responsible for Israel's handing over of the administration of the Temple Mount to the WAKF (acronym for the Muslim body which supervises the Mount). Second, numerous religious authorities agreed that, for reasons of ritual purity and uncertainty about the exact location of the Great Temple, Jews were forbidden to trod on its precincts. Third, other rabbis, including Rabbi Goren, argued that it was indeed possible for Jews, under certain circumstances to go up to the Temple Mount and even build a small synagogue for prayer. Fourth, there are seven different organizations in Israel today that are actively promoting a more aggressive policy on the Temple Mount question, including the Ateret Kohanim, a group of young men who study the laws relating to sacrifices and other activities in the Temple. The Breger anthology is highly recommended for its other essays on economic, municipal, and environmental factors influencing Jerusalem; Arnold Ages is professor emeritus of French Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo (Ontario) and Scholar-in-Residence at the Beth Tzedec

Teen Scene Continued from page 5 As I look at this year in retrospect, it has been a lot of evolving. I have changed a lot as a person, and I am grateful that religion is still playing an important part in my life. As

old questions are answered, new ones arise, and 1 am so curious and excited to keep on discovering as the days go by. I hope to look at this column one year, five years, ten years from now and realize that I have learned and discovered even more. Julie Cohen welcomes comments at [email protected].

Sukkah

Continued from page 5 And our security is sourced in nothing so flimsy as a fortified edifice; it is protection provided usby G-d Himself, in the merit of our forefathers and of our own emulation of their dedication to the divine. And so, no matter how loudly the winds may howl, no matter how vulnerable our physical fortresses may be, we give harbor to neither despair nor insecurity. Instead, we redouble our recognition that, in the end, G-d is in charge, that all is in His hands. And that, as it has for millennia, the sukkah continues to stand. Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.

Muslims

Continued from page 7 have a determinedly secular cast, including the Atatiirk Society and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. Some anti-Islamists have acquired public roles. Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Holland, who has called Islam a "backward" religion, is a member of the Dutch parliament. Naser Khader in Denmark is also a member of parliament and a secularist who calls for full Muslim integration with the Danes. The weak standing of antiIslamist Muslims has two major implications: For them to be heard over the Islamist din requires help from the outside - celebration by governments, grants from foundations, recognition by the media, and attention from the academy. Those same institutions must shun the now-dominant militant Islamic establishment. Moderates have a chance to be heard when Islamists are repuContinued on next page