Is World Jewry Ready
for Revived* Sanhedrin?
Proposal for
Community
Commission
to Study
Emerging
Jewish Needs
Important challenge formulated . as a result of conflicts involving all
elements in world Jewry. Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Orthodox. Conservative
and Reform . . Important Responsum by Dr. Solomon B. Freehof in-
spires new interest in frequently reiterated request for changes in Jewish
religious practices.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Htst,u,„11
ct
Andlir;s•s
Sektra and
tLe Countin.;
The Omer
llerien, of Jeicish News.
Michigan Weekly
Editorial
Page 4
( . HM 7 11E:NT:IR)
Definitive Slur.
on Page T.'.
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper
VOL. LXI, No. 4
17515 W. 9 Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
-
r l ear;
This Issue
April 7
25c
Christians and Jews Condemn
Anti Israel Easter Sermons
Moscow Passover Worshipers
Dispersed by 300 Soviet Police
LONDON (JTA)—Jewish sources in the Soviet Union have re-
ported that on Passover eve 300 policemen were deployed outside the
Moscow Synagogue.
They made a path through their ranks for worshipers to enter the
synagogue. When the synagogue became full, the sources said, the sev-
eral hundred Jews outside the synagogue who had hoped to enter were
ordered to disperse. On previous holidays, Jews were allowed to gather
outside the synagogue for prayer and conversation when the syna-
gogue became filled.
The sources also reported that after the Passover eve service. the
worshipers were told to leave immediately. Several who did not leave
the synagogue fast enough to suit the police were arrested. All but one
were later released.
Forty Jews held a seder at the home of Aleksander Lerner, the
computer expert, in Moscow. Greville Janner. MP and honorary secre-
tary of the Committee for the Release of Soviet Jewry, telephoned
Lerner's home during the seder. Janner said he was told a number of
Soviet Jewish dissidents took part in the seder. including Vladimir
Slepak, Mrs. Esther Markish, Vladimir Polska and others.
Janner gave the seder participants greetings from the parliamentary
committee and they in turn asked Janner to convey their appreciation
to the committee and to the British public They also urged , the com'
mittee "to induce the Soviet authorities not to prevent Jews from praying
outside 'as well as inside the synagoghes still leftn the USSR. -
t
Jewish Couple Expelled From allet Troupe
LONDON (JTA)—A Jewish couple who are soloists with the Kirov
Ballet in Leningrad, have been expelled from the troupe after applying
for exit visas to go to Israel, Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported.
The sources said the dancers. whose professional . names are Valery
Anov and Galina Lagadina, were denounced by their fellow performers
when they applied to the Kirov collective for the character references
required to obtain exit visas.
They appeared before the collective March 30. When they arrived
at the theater for rehearsals April 1, they were not allowed in, the
sources said. They were called ungrateful and treacherous.
(Related Story on Page 6)
NEW YORK (JT:Ai — Anti-Israel •sermons delivered by three Washington area
clergymen on Palm Sunday have been sharply criticized by other Christian spokes ,
men and by rabbis and Jewish groups.
The main target was the sermon by the Rev. Francis B. Sayre. Episcopalian
Dean of Washington Cathedral, who claimed that the once oppressed Israelis hate
become oppressors of the Arabs in Jerusalem. •
Also criticized were Lenten sermons by the Rev. Edward L. R. Elsom chap-
lain of the U.S. Senate and pastor of the National Presbyteriap Church, and by
Bishop Papken Varjabedian, pastor of St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church in
Washington.
Most of the critics compared the blasts against Israel to sermons of a past
era when the Easter season was the occasion to denounce .Jews from the, pulpit and
to whip •ongregants into anti-Semitic excesses.
The Rev. Arnold F. Keller, Jr.. pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Reforma-
tion in Washington and president of the Council of ChurcheS' of Greater Washing•
ton, referred to the Palm Sunday sermons as "provocative rhetoric .
. acting ex-
He was joined in his statement by the Rev. Philip R Newell, Jr.
ecutive director of the council.
Without mentioning Dean Sayre by name. Pastor Keller and the Rev. Newell
said the view expressed on conditions in Jerusalem "simply . does not square with the
facts." They added, "This seems to us to serve only to fan embers of prejudice."
Pastor Elson, also unnamed, was criticized for his reference to the Christian
Church as the "new Isrel," inferring that the old Israel of the Jews has been su-
perseded. Their statement characterized as "distressing" and "perplexing" the use
of a week holy to both Christians and Jews "to make pronouncements which would
inevitably be construed as anti-Judaic."
Rabbi Balfour Brickner, director of the commission on interfaith activities of
the Union of American llebrew Congregations and former rabbi of Temple Sinai
in Washington, called Deam'Sayre's sermon "prejudicial. -
He said the dean's remarks on Jerusalem were "all toiltypuLl of the thought-
less remarks of some Christian spokesmen who know little but really not enough
about the current situation in Jerusalem and Israel...
Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum. director of the interreligious affairs department of
the American Jewish Committee. referred to the Palm Sunday sermons as "a moral
offense against Judaism and the Jewish people... He said rt was "for Christians to
judge the appropriateness of the exploitation of Holy Weck and its oentral message
of reconciliation between all men as an occasion for an unfair and inaccurate and
(Continued on Doge. Si
one-sided political • attack against Israel."
,Truth Sprouts: Egypt's Last t'hief Babb:
Reported Safe in Paris: lteveals How 114.
ll'as Compelled to Lie to Press in Cairo
PARIS (JTA)—Egypt's former. and last. chief 'rabbi. Haim Douek, is in Paris after teas ins
t aphic,,Agency here. Rabbi Douek.
('airo secretly March 14. In an interview with the Jewish Tclegi
68, termed his escape "a miracle."
countries and revealed how he had been forced
He warned about the suffering of Jews in Arab
to falsify facts in two interviews given to foreign journalists who saw him in Cairo.
,On the two seder evenings. Rabbi Douek conducted Passover services in a small synagogue
in the heart of the old Parisian artists quarter. Montmartre. tlundredt of Jewish immigrants from
their rabbi's arrival reached them
Egypt flocked to the small, old buildings, as soon as the news of
Rabbi Douek refused to give details about how he was allowed to leave Cairo. Very little is
known about international efforts making his departure possible, but Jewish circles here said they
believed both the International Red Cross and the French Consulate in Paris had helped.
-
Speaking to the JTA, Rabbi Douek revealed how in June 1967 he had been compelled to TM,
inform journalists of the New York Times and of the French-Tunisian weekly "Jeune Afrique.
At that time Rabbi Douek had told the journalists that no Jews had been arbitrarily arrested
or
in Egypt during and after the Six-Day War. Later. he stated some Jews had been- arrested 'f6)
(Continued on Page
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