12 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, January 18, 1985 NEWS The Crisis averted BLIND SPOT Continued from Page 1 50%-70% OFF ALL NAME BRANDS ti I • Vertical Blinds • Levolor Blinds • Pleated Shades • Wood Blinds Free Professional Measure at No Obligation Free in Home Design Consulting THE BLIND SPOT The Congress Building 30555 Southfield Rd. Suite 255 Southfield, Michigan 48076 `N: Showroom by Appointment 644-1001 Announcing A VERY GRAND OPENING! 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D . 9.25 RATE 9.65 36-Month C.D. 10.25 RAZE 10.50 10.75 11.02 YIELD' BEVERLY HILLS 31255 Southfield Road (ot 13 Mile) 644-2999 YIELD' Money Market go% sags n &lo an WATERFORD TOWNSHIP 2986 Walton Road 674-4901 Rates subject to change FSLIC tween Diaspora Jewry and the Jewish state. The Law of Return defines a Jew as a person born of a Jewish mother or converted. The proposed amendment would have added "according to Halacha" which would in- validate conversions per- formed by non-Orthodox rab- bis in Israel and abroad. The converts and their offspring would not be recognized as Jews in Israel. Rabbi Efry Spectre of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Far- mington Hills told The Jewish News that the change is not being pushed "out of concern for Halacha . . . They are going to invalidate people who have lived as Jews for years and who have converted halachi- cally," but not through Or- thodox rabbis. Rabbi Spectre said the issue threatens to "fragmentize Judaism" and "politicize" reli- gion. "We who care for the fu- ture of Judaism, and teach traditional Judaism with every concern and respect and consideration of every nuance, resent this kind of coercion. It is forcing political parties into positions they don't endorse _and no one believes in." He added that the lack of recognition of religious pluralism in Israel is a "source of embarrassment to anyone concerned with Judaism in the rest of the world." "We are able to work to- gether here," Rabbi Spectre stated. "The Conservative rabbinate can work with the Vaad Harabonim (Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit) in mutual community efforts without invalidating other expressions of Judaism. It is a pity that our Israeli col- leagues have not learned that lesson." Rabbi Spectre will attend a rabbinical meeting in Israel next week. His brother, Pin- chas, heads the Conservative movement in Israel, the Movement for Mesorati Judaism. Rabbi Chaskel Grubner, di- rector of the Vaad Harabonim, was also asked to comment on the "Who is a Jew?" issue. The Vaad gave The Jewish News the following written state- ment: "In answer to the question `Who is a Jew?' — a Jew is a person born to a Jewish mother or one who has under- gone a halachic conversion, which includes the acceptance of the totality of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah as handed down to us in the Shulchan Aruch and Poskim. (Sages). "Anything less than this commitment invalidates the conversion. - "The proliferation of non- halachic conversions only serves to widen the gap be- tween Jews and cause hard- ship for those converts who are not accepted as Jews by a large segment of the Jewish people." During the Knesset debate, Prime Minister Peres called for national unity. "Our gen- eration was called upon to find a way of ensuring the con- tinuity of the Jewish people in times of change and great dangers. "A way must be found to unify the people, not to cause Peres explained that the Law of Return, as originally formulated by the Knesset years ago, was a Zionist law rather than a religious meas- ure and was not concerned with matters of religion or personal status. The amendment went down to defeat when it was brought before the Knesset last year, under the sponsorship of the Agudat Israel Party. This time it was introduced as a private member's bill by MK Avner Sciaky of the National Reli- gious Party. Its most vigorous proponents were members of the Chabad Chasidic move- ment, acting on orders from Chabad headquarters in New York. Representatives of 21 American Jewish organiza- tions on Monday called on political leaders in Israel to re- sist the amendment and urged that Israel establish an inter- national commission, com- posed of representatives of the major branches of Jewish reli- gious and communal life, to meet in Israel with Orthodox spokesmen "in the hope of working out an agreement that would prevent the deep divisions in Jewish life we fear if the proposed legislation is passed." Speaking at a New York news conference, Rabbi Ale- xander Schindler, president of the Union of American He- brew Congregations, said, "We categorically reject the notion that there is some sort of qualitative distinction be- tween one kind of Jew and an- other. We reject the notion and refuse to be reduced to a kind of secondary Jewish citizen- ship. We categorically refuse to be beggars at Jerusalem's gate." Other Jewish leaders were equally adamant in their op- position to any revision in Is- rael's Law of Return.