THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Boris Smolar's
`Between You
.. ,and Me'
Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)
THE LUBAVITCHER AT 80: No Jewish personality
has, in the last 40 years, contributed so much to the
strengthening of Jewish identity and Jewish religious edu-
cation in this country as the Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Menachem M. Schneerson, whose 80th birthday will be
ce
ated worldwide on Sunday by his Hasidic followers
a
many thousands of sympathizers. The event will be
ma ed, among other events, by a four-hour satellite tele-
vision transmission from New York which will start at 9:30
in the evening and will be watched in Lubavitcher centers
all over the United States and Canada.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe is a man of a great knowledge
in sciences which he studied at the University of Berlin and
later at Sorbonne University in Paris. His approach to
implanting and fortifying Jewish education is a combina-
tion of Yiddishkeit and worldly methods. In this respect he
is the Maimonides of our time.
HIS INFLUENCE: The Lubavitcher Rebbe is doing
now what Maimonides did in his time. He is concentrating
on guiding "the perplexed" by interpreting, in a modern
way, all cardinal questions of religious philosophy, among
them proof of God's existence.
The influence of the Lubavitcher Rebbe is strong not
only among his Hasidim, but in American Jewry and in
world Jewry in general. Since he immigrated to the U.S., in
1941, and started to develop an intensive Jewish religious
education program, Hasidim has become a very popular
movement among American Jews, including young
American-born Jews.
American publishing houses are now publishing at-
tractive and valuable books on Hasidism and on the life of
the Hasidim in New York; serious articles on the
Lubavitcher Rebbe and his movement have begun to ap-
pear in leading American newspapers; Jewish scientists —
professors in universities — "discovered" links between
religion and science and became Hasidim. Today there is
even an organization of religious scientists, and some of its
members can be seen at the "get-togethers — the
Lubavitcher Rebbe's "Farbrengen" — which take place on
special occasions at the Rebbe's headquarters in Brooklyn,
and which are always overcrowded.
Twice a week, on Sunday and Thursday evenings; the
doors of the Lubavitcher Rebbe are open for private audi-
ences known as "yekhidus." Jewish leaders, rabbis,
businessmen, housewives, government officials, students
and persons from all walks of life come to him in these
evenings for advice Or blessing. He also receives letters
from Jews all over the world seeking hiS counsel.
HIS PROJECTS IN ISRAEL: In Israel, the
Lubavitcher movement conducts a very wide program of_
activities. There is the Kfar Chabad settlement of
Lubavitcher Hasidim. There is the "Rehov Chabad" in the
old city of Jerusalem; on a narrow street in the very heart of
the Arab section of the Old City with a renovated prayer
and study-house which was built some 150 years ago by the
Lubavitcher Rebbe of that period.
There are Lubavitcher projects and institutions in Tel
Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, Beersheva, Eilat, Safed and in about 20
other localities in all parts of Israel. The Rebbe in New,
York encourages American Hasidim to settle in Israel.
Senate Unit
`Passes Bill .
Backing "Israel
WASHINGTON — The
Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on Tuesday ap-
proved a resolution requir-
ing the U.S. to end its finan-
cial support for the United
Nations and withdraw from
the General Assembly if the
UN ever expelled Israel.
The sponsor of the resolu-
tion, Sen. Daniel P. Moyni-
han (D-N.Y.), said there
was a serious threat in the
UN to expel Israel unless
the full Senate passes the
resolution.
The resolution was op-
posed by the State Depart-
ment, which preferred a
version calling for un-
specified U.S. actions if any
democratic _country were
expelled from the UN.
Ties, Reg. $20-$50
$10
Study PLO, Syrian Impact
in -Lebanon, Jackson Urges
>
WASHINGTON (JTA) — part of an exhibit called
Sen. Henry Jackson (D- "Zahle-'81." Zahle is the
Wash.) said that the Ameri- largest Christian town in
can government and people Lebanon which was
should know more about under siege by Syria for
what the Syrians and the more than 90 days last
alestine Liberation year.
The exhibit is sponsored
anization are doing in
by the American Lebanese
ebanon.
He said their occupation League, an American
has had a "disastrous im- group, and by "Help Leba-
pact" on Lebanon and the non," a non-profit organiza-
Lebanese people want to tion in Lebanon which seeks
have their own country to help Lebanese Moslems
back. and Christians caught in
Jackson described Leba- the civil war.
The exhibit was put on
non as having been at one
time the most advanced of display in one fo the hearing
the Arab countries. He rooms of the Senate Foreign
made his remarks after Relations Committee by
viewing photographs of civi- Sens. Edward Kennedy
lian casualties in Lebanon (D-Mass.), Rudy Boschwitz
inflicted by the Syrian (R-Minn.) and George
forces and the PLO since Mitchell (D-Maine). It may
1970. be taken on a tour of major
The photographs are cities in the U.S.
Friday, March 26, 1982 1
Belts, Reg. $19-$60
$10
Gloves, Reg. $25485
$10
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