16 Friday, August 19, 1983
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
B'nai B'rith Foundation of The United States
- - -
ie.
n.
BUILDING FOR OUR YOUTH'S FUTURE
1983-84 CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF DINNER
Wednesday, August 31, 1983
Adat Shalom Synagogue
Cocktail Reception: 6:00 P.M.
JOSEPH CUTLER
Dinner 7:00 P.M.
(recipient of invitation)
PATRONS OF YOUTH
IRVING PITT
SIDNEY SCHWARTZ
ERNEST M. SOLOMON
MILTON M. WEINSTEIN
SPONSORS OF YOUTH
KENNETH BERTIN
DAVID JAFFA
HAROLD S. JAFFA
IRVING SIEGEL
TRUSTEES FOR YOUTH
ALAN ACKERMAN
DR. JERRY APPEL
DAVID L. BITTKER
FLOYD A. BORNSTEIN
JACK COCHRAN
A.J. CUTLER
HENRY DORFMAN
SAMUEL FRANKEL
H.B. GORDON
WILLIAM Q. GRAHAM
DR. WILLIAM HABER
NORMAN ADELSBERG
LOUIS E. BARDEN
DR. ABRAHAM BECKER
SHERWOOD BERMAN
HAROLD BEZNOS
PAUL BORMAN
JOSEPH BRODER
MANUEL CHARACH
ALLAN CHARLUPSKI
GARY COCHRAN
PHILLIP COHEN
MORRIS DIRENFELD
STANLEY EISENBERG
JONNARD (JON) GREENBERG
BERNARD GORDON
LOUIS A. GOUTMAN
SAMUEL HAMBURGER
DAVID HERMELIN
JOSEPH JACKIER
MELVIN KAFTAN
AUSTIN KANTER
DR. MICHAEL KARBAL
ALEXANDER KARP
REUBEN KATZ
MELVIN KEPES
HERMAN S. KEYS
HENRY KONSTAM
DR. EDWARD KROLL
NATHAN HARRIS
DR. BERTRAM MARX
HERBERT D. MENDEL
RALPH MILLER
ROBERT NAFTALY
DINNER COMMITTEE*
IRVING LAKER
SOL LEFTON
CHARLES MILAN
MYRON L. MILGROM
SOL MOSS
MILFORD NEMER
MARVIN NOVICK
ALEX T. ORNSTEIN
DAVID POLLACK
FRED RAZNICK
MAURICE ROSENDER
NATHAN D. RUBENSTEIN
MARVIN S. RUBY
ERNEST SHAW
MURRAY C. PITT
DR. MILTON SHIFFMAN
DONALD SIMON
JOSHUA STONE
LOUIS WEBER
I.W. SHERR
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
MARTIN SORKOWITZ
MAX SOSIN
PHILLIP STOLLMAN
RUDOLPH STRAUS
HAROLD WARREN
MAX WAYBURN
EARL WEINGARDEN
EDWIN WEINSTEIN
HARVEY L. WEISBERG
ARON ZOLA
"Committee in Formation
B'NAI B'RITH FOUNDATION — DETROIT — YOUTH SERVICES APPEAL
1983-84 CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF DINNER
NATHAN D. RUBENSTEIN
Chairman
MILTON M. WEINSTEIN
Associate Chairman
LOUIS WEBER
Honorary Chairman
ALEX T. ORNSTEIN
Council Fundraising Chairman
and
The GREAT AMERICAN TRADITIONS AWARD DINNER
Tuesday, November 22nd, 1983
The Westin Hotel
Honoree
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
General Motors Corporation
General Dinner Chairmen
W. Michael Blumenthal, Donald R. Mandich, Alan E. Schwartz, A. Alfred Taubman
Cocktail Reception 6:00 P.M.
B'NA1 B'RITH METROPOLITAN DETROIT COUNCIL FUNDRAISING CABINET
ERNEST SHAW
Chairman
DAVID L. BITTKER
GERALD CORLIN
JOEL F. GARFIELD
DAVID LEVINE
RALPH MILLER
SOL MOSS
SHARON R. RAPPAPORT
Michigan Director
B'nai B'rith Foundation
By CARL ALPERT
HAIFA — It has been es
timated that about 1,000
persons a year make appli
cations to • convert to
Judaism in Israel, but only
about half of them complete
the process.
Some complain that pre
paratory courses given by
some of the rabbis are too
costly. Others tell that they
were discouraged because o f
the dragged-out procedures,
or because of the hostile
attitude of the rabbinate.
There is no doubt that the
conversion process is delib-
erately made difficult, al-
most as a test of sincerity.
With all that, there are
also some bright and
encouraging spots, and
word has gone out that a
course given in Haifa turns
the whole process of study,
preparation and eventual
conversion into a beautiful
and soul-stirring event.
Who is the rabbi that gives
the course?
It is not a rabbi; it is a
housewife and mother
who has almost uncon-
sciously acquired a new
profession. About a
dozen years ago Johanna
Neumann got a call from
a local rabbi asking if she
could give lessons in
Judaism to an English-
speaking girl from Brit-
ain. Johanna had never
tried before to teach
Judaism to anyone but
her three sons and
daughter, but she was
willing to try.
Since then, more than a
score of girls have found
their way to the Neumann
home. They have come from
Holland, Denmark, Nor-
way, England, Germany,
Switzerland and the United
States. Each of them
wanted to become a Jewess.
"Of course I realized that
most of them looked upon
conversion as a step toward
marriage with an Israeli
boy," Johanna told me, "but
I did not hold that against
them. However, I did insist
that there must be a
genuine desire on their part
to be part of the Jewish
people. Where I felt that
such sincerity was lacking, I
refused to go on with the
course."
ROGER B. SMITH
Couvert $135 per person
Israeli Housewife Helps
Converts Study Judaism
FLOYD A. BORNSTEIN
Associate Chairman
CABINET MEMBERS
ALEX T. ORNSTEIN
NATHAN D. RUBENSTEIN
ARTHUR C. SCHOTT
LOUIS WEBER
MILTON M. WEINSTEIN
HAROLD ZUKER
For Further Information and Reservations
Please Contact - B'nai B'rith Foundation, 552-8070
Perhaps her high
standards, combined with
the spiritual inspiration
which she is capable of im-
parting, have contributed to
her success. None of the
girls trained by Johanna
have ever been turned down
by the rabbinical court, and
all of them are today still in
Israel, practicing a beauti-
ful and fulfilled Jewish life.
Her course lasts a year
and a half and entails
meetings several times a
week. There is an exten-
sive reading and study
program, and Johanna
encourages her girls to
come back with ques-
tions. Blind acceptance is
suspicious, but if they ask
"why" and "how" she
knows they are honestly
searching and seeking.
Herself a fully observant
Jewess, Johanna is a realist
and understands that her
converrts cannot change
their way of life overnight.
One does not enter a mikva
as a Christian, she says, and
come out suddenly a Jew.
The process is a life-long
one.
While she would like her
girls to observe all the
mitzvot, she understands
. the problems. She does re-
quire three basic minimum
observances: To abstain
from non-kosher food like
pork products and shellfish;
to fast on Yom Kippur; to
eat no hametz on Passover.
Sabbath observance? She
would earnestly hope that
her girls would find it possi-
ble to do that, and most of
them do, but as stated, she is
a realist.
There has never been
any interference from the
Christian parents. To the
contrary, she told me,
some of the parents have
come around to "kvell"
that their . "Jewish
daughter" has at last
found herself.
The Johanna Neumann
course is not limited to
books and lectures. The pro-
spective convert in effect
becomes for a while a
member of the Neumann
family. She participates in
religious events with the
family and often spends the
Shabat weekend as a guest.
The interviews with the
rabbis are not always a
pleasant experience,
Johanna admits. Some of
the rabbis are sympathetic
and understanding. Some
are unfeeling, even rough,
and occasionally undig-
nified.
Johanna shelters and
helps her girls. They are
beautiful people, she says.
They are taking a step
which requires spiritual
strength, courage, integ-
rity. She often wonders if
the Sabra boy she sees is
worthy of the precious, sen-
sitive, human being he is
getting.
Johanna herself has
seen life. She was born in
Hamburg to a religious
family who left Germany
in March 1939. Fate sent
them, of all places, to Al-
bania. They spent more
than six of the war years
there, some of the time
underground when the
Nazis occupied in 1943.
She met her husband in
New York in 1952, and
later they came to Israel.
Her husband is an
engineer.
Is conducting conversion
courses a profitable profes-
sion? She wouldn't know.
Johanna accepts no pay-
ment. For her it is all a labor
of love.
But Johanna will have no
pupils in Haifa this year.
She is now at Ann Arbor,
where her husband is
spending a sabbatical year
at the University of Michi-
gan.
Several Jews, including
Luis de Santangel and Gab-
riel Sanchez, helped finance
Columbus' expedition to
America.