Friday, September 27, 1985 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
12
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to the sense of history and the
fitness of the bulk of Jewry.
(Not until a large group of
Ethiopians resisted and
dramatizei the issue could a
counter force alter the rabbi-
nate's decision.)
The insulation of the Israeli
rabbinate from popular values
and choice has allowed the East
European yeshiva world to im-
pose its values vis-a-vis secular
study and the news media on Is-
raeli rabbis. The latter do not go
to college: in most cases they do
not watch television or films;
many do not even read news-
papers When Bar-Ilan Univer-
sity, the Orthodox university in
Israel, proposed providing rab-
binical training for college
graduates, enormous pressures
were brought to stay it. Such ac-
tions and attitudes separate
these rabbis from the public and
from public criticism of their ac-
tions. This also accounts for
their poor public relations skills
and their tendency often to
handle issues insensitively.
Halakhah has its own legal
structure and halakhists do not
merely register opinion. But
rabbis are much less likely to
rule constructively if they have
neither experience nor sym-
pathy for other's claims.
Most people do not see the
connection between university
study for rabbis and the many
issues that inflame religious-
secular relationships in Israel.
The most recent issue was Rabbi
Peretz' comment that the train
crash that killed school children
in Petach Tikvah was divine re-
tribution for the opening of a
theater on Friday night (Shab-
bat) in that town.
Until the broad public (includ-
ing the religious public) re-
structures the training for the
Isareli rabbinate and its rela-
tionship to its constituencies,
ugly incidents will recur reg-
ularly to further polarize Israeli
society. One cannot expect an-
other Rabbi Kook, who em-
braced all sides, to emerge from
the Israeli rabbinate without
the creation of a much broader
educational and socializing
process.
Until Bar-Ilan starts training
rabbis or until disestablishment
of the rabbinate occurs, sharp
publicity and constant public
pressure will help mitigate some
of the more glaring miscar-
riages. But these are no solu-
tions for the long run. The Beta
Israel situation dramatizes two
major lacuane in American and
world Jewish life.
One is the lost opportunity for
world Jewry in the current
Chief Rabbinate setup. Lehavdil
(by constrast), the Pope gains
enormous press and media
coverage for all his trips and
pronouncement. This serves as a
tremendous force for spreading
Catholic ideas and values to all
groups, not least to the
Catholics. Pope John Paul II is
living proof that religious lead-
ers need not be all modern or
liberal to be heard. Such leaders
do, however, need to be cultur-
ally au courant and able to
speak articulately to the issues.
Jews are a media prone and
interest group, yet remain the
most unreached by religious in-
stitutions and channels. An ar-
ticulate, respected Chief Rabbi
of Israel who came across as a
Twentieth Century figure (albeit
a critic) could be a tremendous
communicator of Jewish values
and teachings through the
media. Instead of fighting inter-
necine religious warfare that
weakens all groups, American
Jews should give serious consid-
eration to creating an equiv-
alent religious office to get the
Jewish message out to all the
constituencies — affiliated and
unaffiliated alike.
The other great lacuna is the
absence of a strategy center for
Jewish survival, a think tank
An articulate,
respected Chief
Rabbi of Israel .
could be a
tremendous
communicator of
Jewish values and
teachings through
the media.
that is not totally preooccupied
with the day-to-day needs of
Jewry (and itself). When Halevy
found the Beta Israel commu-
nity in the Nineteenth Century,
they reportedly numbered
250,000. About 10,000 of them
have been saved, with perhaps
another 10,000 waiting to be
saved. The rest were lost, a ter-
rible price for the absence of a
framework /institution designed
to rally world Jewry to the
broadest issues of national out-
reach and survival.
How many more Jews must be
lost before we create this mis-
sing link?
Copyright 1985 CLAL: The National
Jewish Center for Learning and
Leadership.
Israel EconoMy
Better, Shamir
New York (JTA) — Israeli
Foreign Minister Yitzhak
Shamir told the Presidents Club
of the Israel Bond Organization
that although there is a long
way toward an economic re-
covery in Israel, the beginning
of such a recovery has already
taken place..
Speaking at the luncheon
meeting at the Regency Hotel in
New York the foreign -minister
and deputy premier said that Is-
rael needs now to increase ex-
ports and increase investments
in its economy.
Shamir noted that the
Japanese business community is
I extremely fearful of the Arab
boycott and therefore has been
withholding conducting business
with Israel. He said that Israel
is very much interested in de-
veloping econbmic ties with Ja-
pan.
.