64

Friday, April 5, 1985

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

FIND IT

HOW KOW INN

L

13715 W. 9 MILE, W. of Coolidge • Oak. Park

IN THE

Cantonese,-Szechuan and Mandarin Dining
Wishes Its Friends & Customers
A HEALTHY & HAPPY PASSOVER

FOLLOW-UP

Israel's Law Of Return
Vs. Religious Pluralism

BY LEON ILUTOVICH
Special to The Jewish News

Johnny and Pete Ginopolis
and the employees of

GimpUs'

851-8222

27815 Middlebelt at 12 Mile • Farmington. Hills

Heartily Wish
Their Customers, Friends
And The Entire Community

.

A VERY HEALTHY
AND HAPPY
NEW YEAR

The recent defeat in the Knes-
set of a controversial motion to
amend the Law of Return of 1950
was a victory of statesmanship
and good common sense. Had it
been adopted, the amended law
would have granted the Israeli
Orthodox rabbinate the exclusive
right to determine "who is a Jew"
and would have turned back a
hundred years the history of the
young Jewish state.
Apart from religious and moral
considerations, the amendment
had it passed, would have dealt a
severe blow to the sense of unity
between Israel and Diaspora
Jewry and would have seriously
damaged whatever prospects
there are for a larger aliyah from
countries of the free West. -
Like the United States, Israel is
a country of immigrants. But it is
a small and relatively young
country. Its fate and future de-
pend upon a steady influx of new
olim (immigrants). Next to de-
fense, aliyah is a top priority on
Israel's national agenda: Its prin-
cipal reservoirs are in the West-
ern world, first and foremost in
the United States whose political,

Ilutovich is former executive vice
chairman of the Zionist Organization
of America.

cultural and religious traditions
are based on principles of separa-
tion between church and state,
upon religious freedom and
tolerance, and most of all upon
religious pluralism. It is the latter
that the Orthodox establishment
of Israel is trying to prevent, al-
though it realizes full well that it
is of crucial importance to the
State of Israel and Jews
everywhere.
While I agree with Rabbi
Emanuel Rackman, eminent reli-
gious Zionist leader and president
of Bar-Ilan University, that "it
would be unfair to condemn all
the Orthodox or even a majority"
of them for their repeated at-
tempts to force an amendment of
the Law of Return, because "there
were Orthodox Jews and sec-
ularists on both sides of the issue"
— the fact remains that all Or-
thodox parties in the Knesset
without exception joined forces in
the bitter fight for the amend-
ment. Notwithstanding their
internal differences, they all gave
sanction to the grand design to
amend the law and all must bear
responsibility for the conse-
quences.
At issue is not just the status of
Jews converted by non-Orthodox
rabbis, who go on aliyah and

RENEE AND RON FORMAN
FAMILY AND STAFF

MOST HEARTILY EXTEND
BEST WISHES TO EVERYONE FOR A HEALTHFUL & JOYOUS

the

PASSOVER

WE WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAYS
AND REMODELING
THROUGH MONDAY, APRIL 15

AND REOPEN

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

AT 10 A.M.

Sorry For Any Inconvenience

Il d ell

Ron
Forman
LINCOLN SHOPPING CENTER

GREENFIELD & 10% MILE RD.

Oak Park

968-0022

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