TIE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
40—FridaY, Septwiaber 25, 1970
'Society Faces
Religious Crisis'
NEW YORK—"The accelerating
polarization toward extremes by
the far right and far left, coupled
with a rapid growth of totalitarian
ideology and tactics, have produced
signs of repressive actions by var-
ious branches of government. Simi-
lar symptoms also have appeared
in the religious community."
This warning on the serious
crises facing all religious institu-
tions has been sounded by Dr.
Bernhard E. Olson, director of
interreligious programing for the
National Conference of Christians
and Jews, who expanded his omi-
nous warning by declaring:
"The polarizing effect has poten-
tially serious consequences for our
racial and religious minorities,
especially Jews, since the first
seismographic reading of a society
heading toward totalitarianism
anti-Semitism."
The tension between Jews and
Christians, despite The growth of
dialogue fostered/by the NCCJ,
has become either static or re-
gressive as far as the Roman
Catholic community is concerned,
says Dr. Olson.
The fact that a Catholic sought
the presidency in 1928 opened the
floodgates of hate and anti-
Catholicism. This eruption dis-
turbed many people and several
distinguished Americans subse
quently helped to found and acti-
vate the NCCJ.
Today, across the country in
most regions, interreligious dia-
logue groups meet regularly to
discuss these and many other vital
issues affecting American society.
Many of these are clergy groups,
but a growing number consist of
laymen.
"Dialogic enterprises usually
focus on social problems ranging
from those found in the local com-
munity- to those of a national or
international scope," says Dr.
Olson. "These discussions of con-
crete and real issues have proved
valuable and necessary. However,
the dialogic experiences .under-
taken by the NCCJ, particularly
those dealing with the relation-
ships between Jews and Christians
over the situation in the Middle
East, have indicated that a new
dimension. of dialogue is needed."
NCCJ's department of interreli-
gious programing has prepared
three basic publications to aid -and
provide valuable resources for in-
depth dialogue. Dr. Olson contends
that the future direction of Jewish-
Christian relations will depend
upon the extent to which they come
to understand how their basic
faiths illuminate these problems
and point to their solutions.
The booklets in the series of pub-
lications are "The Meaning and
Conduct of Dialogue," "Homework
-for Christians" and "Homework
for Jews."
Halt in Talks Causes Dip
in UAR Pound in Gaza
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Suspension
of the Jarring peace talks in New
York has caused the Egyptian
pound to drop in value relative to
the Israel pound in the Gaza Strip.
Both currencies have been recog-
nized as legal tender there since
Israel occupied the Strip in the
June 1967 war.
Many Gaza residents anticipated
an early return of Egyptian rule
when the Jarring talks began last
month and started to unload their
Israeli currency.
Some made massive purchases
of Israeli goods and others exi
changed
Israeli for Egyptian
pounds. The latter rose in value
from 5-1 to 6-1. When Israel broke
off the talks on grounds of Egyp-
tian truce violations, the old ratio
of five Israeli pounds to one Egyp-
tian pound was restored. The buy-
ing wave also has ended. " -
U.S. Bishops Conference
Names Moderator for
He is roaming about the world Catholic-Jewish Relations
directed
Stars in Variety of Notable Films
By HERBERT G. LUFT
(Copyright 1170, JTA, DM)
LONDON—Ron Moody, the Fa-
gin of "Oliver's" stage and screen
productions, now portrays the char-
acter of Hawk Dove in Ralph Nel-
son's "Flight of the Doves," a
whimsical tale of the pursuit of two
children across Ireland by a sinis-
ter uncle. The film, now before
the cameras at the Ardmore Stu-
dios in Bray near Dublin, reunited
Moody with Jack Wild, the Artful
Dodger of "Oliver!" Veteran Ab-
bey Theater performer Noel Pur-
cell essays the role of a rabbi.
As uncle John Cyril Dove, Moody
appears as a master of disguise, a
vaudeville artist posing as a law-
yer to get his hands on two chil-
dren and their inheritance. Hawk
Dove is a man with a split pe*-
sonality tortured by the effort to
quell an essentially sensitive na-
ture with an overlay of male-
volence and hostility towards the
world. This dichotomy•also was ex-
pressed earlier by Moody in his
portrait of Fagin. In "Flight of
the Doves," the character is con-
temporary, more pantomimic,
blends malice with humor and pro-
vides Moody with several roles in
one, for he appears in disguise
ranging from a parsimonious soli-
citor to an irrespressible woman
journalist.
Ron Moody, 47 years old, ha_'
been playing only much older
characters. He started in the early
1950's, becoming a cabaret and
"TV variety performer and build-
ing his reputation as a comedian
with London stage revues like
"Intimacy at 8." He is currently
writing "Saturnalia," a musical he
says has sociological overtones
and is "an answer to 'Hair' and
the social dropouts."
•
Fritz Kortner (C o h e n), the
Vienna-born thespian, a giant of
stage and cinema in the Germany
between the two World Wars, died
recently at the age of 78 in Mun-
ich. An outspoken foe of Prussian
militarism, he appeared in the title
role of Jessner's modern "Ham-
let" production, denouncing from
the ramp a reawakening of chau-
vinism in the early 1920s. He por-
trayed "Dreyfus" in Richard
Oswald's famed motion picture
when Hitler was on the verge of
rising to power, and was one of
the first to leave the Third Reich
in 1933. In England, he appeared
in several movies before going to
Hollywood, where he struggled
through the war years making only
occasional screen appearances,
such as one of the cameos in "The
Hitler Gang."
Returning to Germany in 1948,
Kortner continued to present un-
compromising stage productions,
thereby holding up a mirror of
truth to a people often resenting
his work as director and perform-
er. Most famous among the rare
appearances in his final years was
Kortner's portrayal as Strindberg's
"Father." His son, Peter Kortner,
formerly a producer with NBC
television on the coast, is now in
London as a screen writer and re-
cently published his first novel.
• • a
Sidney Lumet, son of our friend
the Yiddish playwright Baruch
Lumet, currently is preparing for
producer Robert M. Weitman at
Columbia the filmization of'le
Anderson Tapes," the
sto of n
story
epic million-dollar robbery that
takes place in a luxury apartment
in New York's fashionable upper
East Side and stars Alan King and
Martin Balsam. The younger
Lumet, perhaps America's most
intellectual and articulate film
maker, director of O'Neill's "Long
Day's Journey Into Night," of "The
Pawnmaker" and most recently of
Chekhov's "The Sea Gull," has the
distinction of never having worked
in Hollywood. Lumet, who made
in Manhattan a few seasons ago,
"Fail Safe" — dealing with the
doom of an atomic disaster—be-
lieves that working in a major
film studio would take away' the
sense of realism he tries to infpse
into ail- of- his cinematic creations.
with his camera and has
films in England, Sweden, Italy
and France as well as in Florida,
Massachusetts, Louisiana and, of
course, New York.
• • *
David L. Wolper,who produced
such outspoken anti-Nazi films as
"The Bridge at Remagen" and
"The Rise and Fall of the Third
Reich," now is preparing at Bav-
aria Studios in Geiselgasteig near
Munich, in conjunction with Stan-
ley Margulies, the filmization of
"WWu Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory," based on Roald Dahl's
best-selling fable. The movie
focuses on the adventures of young
children visiting a candy plant.
Gene Wilder, who rose to fame as
Zero Mostel's nitwit co-star in Mel
Brook's madcap movie "The Pro-
ducers," -plays the title role. The
picture features five original songs
by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony
Newley.
*
a
Roman Polansky, who had just
finished an idyllic, unlikely fea-
ture, "One Fine Day," in Denmark
when disaster struck with the
Sharon Tate murders, has joined
with literary critic Kenneth Tynan
to write a modern film version of
Shakespeare's "Macbeth," to be
directed by himself at Rank's Pine-
wood studios. It is for Hugh Hef-
ner's Playboy Productions and will
feature a series of fresh faces from
the stable of British stage and
television actors.
. *
Sidney Sheldon, who broke into
films almost a quarter of a century
ago when Dore Schary signed him
directly from college to write the
scenario for "The Bachelor and
the Bobby Soxer," for which he
won an Academy Award, and then
made a fortune producing such
television series as "The Patty
Duke Show" and the current,
"Nancy," is in London to set up a
Hollywood mobile unit for location
work, in conjunction with Samuel.
son Film Service, the largest in
the world. Sheldon. a prolific
writer-producer-director, will have
his first novel, "The Naked Face,"
published in the U.S. this fall.
• * *
Harry Saltzman (of the "James
Bond" film series) and Don Kirsh-
ner are the co-producers of "To-
morrow," a space-fiction yarn in-
volving a new vocal group that
clashes with superhumans from an-
other planet—an obvious spoof de-
signed for the younger set.
• * a
Arthur P. Jacobs is preparing in
London and Montreal a futuristic
adventure yarn, "Kyle," with Sam
Wanamaker (the American actor
now living in England) directing
a screenplay by Lewis Davidson
and David Karp.
* • •
Dimitri Tiomkin was guest of
honor at the Soviet premier of the
Mosfilm production of "Tchaikov-
sky," a motion picture for which
he was both executive producer
and musical supervisor.
• • 0
Norman Cohen is directing, at
the British Shepperton Studios,
"Dad's Army," a feature screen
comedy from the successful Brit-
ish television series.
NEW YORK (JTA) — The up-
coming fifth anniversary of the
Vatican's renunciation of the con-
cept of collective Jewish guilt for
the death of Jesus was emphasized
by Msgr. Francis Mugavero, bish-
op of Brooklyn and newly desig-
nated moderator of the Secretariat
for Catholic-Jewish Relations of
the National Conference of Cath-
olic Bishops. He spoke at a recep-
tion in his honor in the offices of
the American Jewish Committee,
where he called for mutual efforts
to erase anti-Semitism.
The reception was one of a series
of observances planned by the
AJCommittee to mark the promul-
gation of the Vatican proclamation
in October, 1965. The - series will
include a seminar at the Institute
of Judeo-Christian Studies at Seton
Hall University, South Orange,
N.J., Oct. 25-28.
Msgr. Mugavero was welcomed
.by Morris B. Abram, honorary
AJCommittee president, and by
Rabbi Marc H. Tenenbaum, na-
tional director for interreligious
affairs, who presented him with a
Bible.
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Coordination Urged
to Assist Immigrants
TEL AVIV (JTA)—The head
of the Jewish Agency's immigra-
tion department has urged better
coordination between his agency
and the government's immigrant
absorption ministry to facilitate the
integration of 40 to 50,000 new im-
migrants who arrived or are ex-
pected this year and a like num-
ber anticipated for 1971.
Gen. Uri Narkis said improved
cooperation was necessary to avoid
bottlenecks that may develop in
receiving and absorbing the new-
comers. He said 8,000 of this year's
immigrants are from the United
States and 10,000 are expected
next year. Gen. Narkis said that
120.000 immigrants -have. arrived
in Israel since the Six-Day War.
Al lieigler:..Your.Ilost.