24 Friday, July 31, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
A Swing Vote in Israeli Politics: Aguda's Council of Torah Sages
By MOSHE RON
The Jewish News Special
Israel Correspondent
TEL AVIV — A few days
ago the Israeli public
watched with interest the
consultations of the Council
of the Great Torah Sages in
Jerusalem, which were to
decide the fate of the future
coalition government. A
Jewish newspaper abroad
published this event under
the headline: "15 old Rabbis
will determine whether
Menahem Begin will re-
main Prime Minister of Is-
rael."
In Israel the Council of
the Sages is part of the polit-
ical life and nobody can
deny the great political im-
portance of this group of
rabbis, known as the "Gov-
ernment of Agudat Yis-
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No Jewish leader with
whom I have spoken has
reacted with anything but
anguish and unhappiness
over the televised reports
showing Palestinian chil-
dren and civilians suffering
in the wake of Israeli mili-
tary strikes into Lebanon.
The lives of Palestinian
children are no less precious
that the lives of Jewish
children and those of other
members of God's human
family.
But Jewish leaders are
equally distressed over the
brutal callousness to the
value of Palestinian lives
demonstrated by Yasir
Arafat and the PLO who
have consciously, cynically
installed terrorist training
centers and ammunition
depots in the very center of
Holocaust Victim Paintings
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committee to approve mil-
lions of shekels for the
yeshivot and other religious
aims of the Agudat Yisrael.
The oldest rabbi is the
chairman of the council ses-
sions. 'The main figures in
the current council are
Rabbi Eliezer Shach, head
of the Ponivesz Yeshiva in
Bnei Brek, and the Rabbi of
Gur Simha Bunim Alter.
Rabbi Shach is over 80-
year-old but one of the
greatest experts in
Halakhic matters.
The Rabbi of Gur is a
popular personality having
many Hasidic partisans. He
knows his way in interna-
tional and local politics.
Hassidim seek his counsel
in business affairs. He leads
the "Court of Gur" with
great success.
A third personality in
the Council is the Rabbi
of Vishnitz Moshe Hager
who is 70-years-old. His
"court" is in Bnei Brek,
but her rules over several
branches in the country.
He is known for his deep
love of Israel and its
Jewry.
Lately, the Hasidim of
Belz have joined the Aguda.
The Rabbi of Belz Dov
Rakach, 34 years of age, be-
came an official member of
the council.
The language in the
meetings is Yiddish. The
meetings deal generally
with matters of Agudat Yis-
rael and hear first the
Knesset members of the
party. After their departure
the council discusses the is-
sues and decides. There is
no appeal against its deci-
sion.
The council set conditions
for Aguda joining the Begin
coalition government.
Within this extreme Or-
thodox camp a certain
realistic policy is develop-
ing. The council knows well
the religious laws which
Aguda succeeded in push-
ing through the ninth
Knesset. It is expected that
the Aguda, supported by the
council, will not insist on a
new law, according to which
all conversions of Judaism
must be carried out by Or-
thodox rabbis.
Begin cannot accept
this formula, though he
personally supports it.
The Liberals will not
compromise and vote for
this formula in the Knes-
set. Begin and the Aguda
leaders are looking for a
satisfactory compromise
formula.
Some council members
think that it is more impor-
tant to safeguard big
budgets for the yeshivot of
the Aguda than to insist ul-
timately on the conversion
formula.
Anguish Over Mideast Bloodshed
1 /2
545-1300
rael."
The Council of Torah
Sages is elected by the
"Great Knessia," which as-
sembles once in five years as
the World Congress of
Agudat Yisrael. Its com-
position is determined by
rabbis and heads of
yeshivot. One year ago the
Great Knessia met. Israel's
President was not invited so
that the members of the
Great Knessia should not
have to rise when he
entered the hall.
When one of the mem-
bers of the Knessia dies,
the other members
choose his successor. The
Council of the Sages was
founded in 1912 with the
formation of Agudat Yis-
rael. Its founders in-
cluded Torah scholars
like Hafetz Hayim, Rabbi
Ozer Gorodzeski of Vilna,
the Rabbi of Belz, the
Rabbi of Czortkov, the
Rabbi of Slonim and the
Chief Rabbi of Frankfurt.
The results of the elec-
tions to the 10th Israel
Knesset turned Agudat
Yisrael and its Council of
Torah Sages into a decisive
factor in forming the new
coalition government -.
Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz,
Knesset member from
Agudat Yisrael, will con-
tinue to head the Knesset
Finance Comthittee. He
knows how to influence the
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NEW YORK — Although
Charlotte Saloman, like
Anne Frank, produced a
memory of her Holocaust
experiences, her name is not
as recognizable to Ameri-
cans as Miss Frank's.
That situation will be re-
medied, at least in part,
when "Charlotte: Life or
Theater?" is published in
the U.S. by the Viking Press
this fall.
Miss Saloman, a 21-
year-old artist in 1939, fled
Berlin as the Nazis closed in
and hid at her grandparents
home in the French village
of Villefranche-sur--Mer.
There, with a premonition
of doom, she furiously began
to paint the story of her life.
In 1942, Miss Saloman was
picked up by the Nazis and
sent to Auschwitz, where
she died the next year.
The book, which fea-
tures some 769 paintings
in addition to autobiog-
raphical text, has stirred
an unusually strong re-
sponse from European
readers, particularly
those in Germany and the
Netherlands. The volume
was an international
endeavor — originating
in the Netherlands,
where it was translated
from the original German
by Lena Vennewitz, con-
tracted for in Jerusalem
and printed in Japan.
The memoir covers the
young artist's life from her
birth in Berlin to her refuge
in France. It includes inci-
dents about her family,
friends, love life and the de-
spair at the end, when she
contemplated suicide.
Her story is also the basis
for a film by European di-
rector Frans Weisz. Birgit
Doll, an Austrian actress
plays the role of Miss Salo-
man in the movie.
A representative selec-
tion of 100 paintings will be
shown later this year by the
Union of American Hebrew
Congregations. The exhibi-
tion will tour the country for
two years.
Palestinian refugee camps.
The PLO has cruelly made
Palestinian civilians into
hostages for their terrorist
campaign to destroy Israel.
Last year, the former
president of Lebanon, Dr.
Charles Malik, told me
with tears in his eyes,
"Lebanon invited the
Palestinians as guests,
and the PLO has repaid
our kindness by destroy-
ing our country, espe-
cially the Christian popu-
lation. We want the PLO
out of Lebanon."
It is clear to any con-
cerned person that this
cycle of destruction must
come to an end before more
innocent children — Jewish
and Palestinian — are need-
lessly wasted. But only the
PLO can break that cycle,
and it can and must do so by
giving up its declared pog-
roms of terrorism and cam-
paign to destroy Israel.
Then the peace process can
replace the killing madness.
Three forms of asceticism
have existed in this weak
world.
Religious asceticism,
being the refusal of pleasure
and knowledge for the sake, --
as supposed, of religion:
seen chiefly in the middle
ages.
Military
asceticism,
being the refusal of pleasure
and knowledge for the sake
of power; seen chiefly in the
early days of Sparta and
Rome.
Monetary asceticism,
consisting in the refusal of
pleasure and knowledge for
the sake of money.
—Ruskin