THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Reform Leader Warns
Against 'Who Is a Jew'

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A
leader of the Reform move:
ment warned here that if
the Knesset was ever to pass
the "Who Is a Jew" bill,
non-Orthodox q,liya to Is-
rael would dry up com-
pletely.
Gerard Daniel, president
of the World Union for Pro-
gressive Judaismi was re-
ferring to the measure that
would invalidate conver-
sions by other than Or-
thodox rabbis by inserting
the words "according to
halakha" (religious law)
into the Law of Return, The
Law of ' Return auto-
matically grants Israeli
citizenship to any Jew set-
tling in the country who de-
sires it.
Pretnier Menahem Begin
his pledged to do every-
thing in his power to see
that the bill is adopted dur-
ing his term in office. But
when it was brought before
the Knesset last March 21,
it was defeated by a vote of
58-50.
Daniel spoke at a press
conference preliminary
to the 22nd international
conference of the World
Union for Progressive
Judaism which opened
here Tuesday. The con-
ference is attended by 600
Reform Jews from Israel
and 23 other countries.
Although the "Who Is a
Jew" issue is not on the
agenda, it is expected to
figure in the delibera-
tions this week, just as it
has at previous confer-
ences.
Another controversial
issue is the decision by the
Reform Movement in the
United States to recognize
as Jewish the offspring of a
Jewish father and a non-
Jewish mother. Until now,
all three branches of
Judaism — Reform, Con-
servative and Orthodox —
have observed the tradition
that Jewish identity is de-
termined only by the
mother.
Rabbi Mordechai Rotem,
secretary general of the Re-
form movement in Israel,
said in response to ques-

.

tions at a press conference
that "The movement in Is-
rael did not accept this
(American) approach." He
said, "We shall have to deal
with this development
when the time comes. I
presume that we shall treat
each case on its merits and
see to what extent the as-
sumption that this person
was raised as a Jew proves
itself correct."
He added, "We shall not
hesitate to send such per-
sons to be converted — but
not by Orthodox rabbis."

ADL Hosts Secuiity Meeting

Twenty-five Jewish in-
stitutions were represented
last week at the Anti-
Defamation League's sec-
ond annual Conference on
Building Security; co-
sponsored by the public
safety departments of
Southfield and Oak Park.
Speakers represented the
ADL, FBI, Bureau of Alco-
hol, Tobacco and Firearms,
the Oakland County Pro-
secutor's Office, a private
security alarm company
and the two directors of pub-
lic safety. The cotiference
represents ADL's ongoing
efforts to educate those re-
sponsible for buildings and
building security within the
Jewish community.
Stressing that "nothing
has-happened which pro-
duced the conference,"
Elaine D. Block, Michigan
ADL's president stated,
"The conference is merely

British Holocaust Memorial
Placed in Hyde Park Garden

LONDON (JTA) — Brit-
ain's first national memo-
rial to the victims of the
Nazi Holocaust was offi-
cially unveiled Monday —
more than 38 years after the
Allies liberated the death
camps.
It is a small garden in a
quiet corner of London's
Hyde Park, in which newly
planted silver birch trees
surround a cluster of large
boulders, inscribed with a
passage from the Book of
Lamentations.
On behalf of the British
government, Patrick Jen-
kin, the environment secre-
tary, declared the garden
open describing it as "a re-
minder of the past and a
warning for the future."
Under grey skies, a
crowd of about 500, in-
cluding many Holocaust
survivors, then listened
to the Chief Rabbi, Sir
Immuanel Jakobovits,
read from the Psalms.
After the singing of the
memorial prayer by the
Rev. Simon Hass, the
crowd recited the Kadish

Daniel explained that
the conference was tak-
ing place in Israel despite
the discriminatory atti-
tude of the authorities
toward Reform Judaism
"because for us the com-
mitment to 'Zionism is
total — so total that we
are the only international
Jewish organization,
with most of its members
living abroad, which has
its headquarters in Is-
rael."

Rabbi Richard Hirsch', di-
rector of the World Unions
executive, complained that
notwithstanding its accom-
plishments in recent years,
the Reform movement in Is-
rael has remained unrecog-
nized. Rabbi • Rotem noted
that there are 17 Reform
congregations in ‘ Israel, a
youth movement . and two
kibutzim, Yahel and Lotan.
The Reform leaders un-
veiled a new prayer book for
Reform Jews in Israel which
had been in preparation for
more than 10 years by'a spe-
cial committee of Progtess-
ive rabbis here in coopera-
tion with other scholars in
the movement. It is called
"Avoda Shebale-v" (Service
of the Heart).
It is w4itten in Hebrew
and is based on traditional
versions of prayers adapted
to the contemporary ideol-
ogy of Progressive Judaism.
According to Rotem, the
new prayer book allows
worshippers "a sincere ex-
pression of the heart, rather
than a meaningless .recita-
tion of lips and mouth."

Friday, July 1, 1983 19

Grenade Hits
IDF Convoy;
Two Injured

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Two
Israeli soldiers were
slightly wounded Sunday
when a grenade was thrown
at their vehicle in a convoy
near Sidon in south - Leba-
non. A military spokesman
said there were four other
attacks on Israeli troops in
'Lebanon over the weekend
but none resulted in casual-
ties.
Beirut radio reported
three heavy explosions in
the Sidon area Saturday.
One was on the Sidon-
Nabatiya road and two
others at the Ein Hilweh
refugee camp on the out-
skirts of Sidon, according to
the radio report.
Meanwhile two of the
Palestine Liberation
Organization's breakaway
factions, Naif Hawatme's
Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine and
George Habash's Popular
Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, reportedly have
merged in order "to
strengthen the PLO" which
has been weakened by the
revolt within El Fatah
against Yasir Arafat.

and sang "Adon Olam."
The garden was spon-
sored by the Board of De-
puties of British Jews whose
president, Greville Janner,
Labor MP, has negotiated
for the past four years with
the government over a suit-
able site
Janner later told lunch-
eon guesta at the city of
London's Guildhall that the
garden was "not only a re-
minder of past tragedy but a
flare of warning for the fu-
ture, that any threat to
Jewish rights is an im-
mediate and an inevitable
threat also to the rights of
every other minority."
Gerald Kaufman, the op-
position Labor Party's
environment spokesman,
whose grandmother was
murdered in Poland by the
Nazis, said that the memo-
rial was essential becasue
the German responsibility
was partly shared by -other
countries.
It was also needed now,
he added, because the
sheer horror of the
Holocaust to believe that
it ever happened.
Prof. Thomas Bergenthal,
dean of the Law School of
Washington University,
who praised the simplicity
of the Hyde Park Garden;
said holocaust memorials .
must not become places that
people are too frightened to
approach. Bergenthal was
one of the youngest inmates
of Sachsenhausen Concen-
tration Camp.

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part of an ongoing effort by
ADL, across the county,
stimulated by, if anything,
the Rue Copernic
Synagogue (terrorist inci-
dent) in Paris. While there
are, from time to time, scat-
tered and isolated incidents
of vandalism to Jewish •
buildings, and while there
LONDON — Jewish re-
are the occasional activities
presentation in Parliament
by anti-Semites who seek to will decrease by nearly 13
harass the Jewish commu-
percent as British voters re-
nity, in the main, we have
turned only 28 of the 32
seen no traces of organized Jewish MPs up for re-
activities . . .
election last month, the
• "This conference," she London Jewish Chronicle
said "is merely part of a
reported.
continuing effort to sen-
According
to
the
sitize responsible per-
Chronicle, 17 Jewish Con-
sons in the Jewish corn-
servatives were elected as
munity relative to !con-
were 11 Jewish members of
cerns, techniques, pro- - the Liberal Party. In 1979,
cedures and hardware."
23 Jewish candidates suc-
Ms. Block was critical of cessfully defended seats for
the fact that half of Detroit's
Labor and nine Jewish Con-
Jewish institutions chose
servatives gained seats in
not-to attend the meeting.
the Parliament.

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