4 Friday, January 3, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS THE JEWISH NEWS Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish Community with distinction for four decades. Are Judaism's Shelves Empty In United States? Editorial and Sales offices at 20300 Civic Center Dr., Suite 240, Southfield, Michigan 48076-4138 Telephone (313) 354-6060 PUBLISHER: Charles A. Buerger EDITOR EMERITUS: Philip Slomovitz EDITOR: Gary Rosenblatt CONSULTANT:Zarmi.M._Slomovitz ART DIRECTOR: Kim Muller-Thym NEWS EDITOR: Alan Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tedd Schneider LOCAL:COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin OFFICE STAFF: Lynn Fields Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore Allan Craig Rick Nessel Danny Raskin PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone ' Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme ©1988 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520) Second Class postage paid at Southfield. Michigan and additional mailing offices. Subscriptions: 1 year - $21 — 2 years - $39 — Out of State - $23 — Foreign - $35 • VOL. LXXXVIII, N 19 CANDLELIGHTING AT 4:55 P.M. f ood News Apc1 Bad News It was the best of•years. It was the worst of yeari. Israel's relations with the United States, particularly in the area of economic aid, were better in 1985 than ever before in history. The two countries entered into a free trade pact which will phase out all tariffs between them within a decade. And then came the Pollard spy case, which threatened to bring all of the carefully nurtured harmony down around Shimon Peres' head. In the United States, Jews — like everyone else — pulled out of the recession'and people began salting their money away again in savings accounts. And then came the savings and loan scandals, in which members of the Jewish conimunity figured prominently. Domestically and internationally, anti-Semitism appeared to have hit an all-time low. But anti-Israel terrorism reached an all-time high, with Arab extremists rounding off the year by killing 18 people at the El Al ticket counters in Rome and Vienna airports. Around the nation, the number of AIDs victims climbed to epidemic proportions, Dr. Ruth Westheimer gained unprecedented popularity with her sex advice radio talk show and her best-selling board game, and teenagers showed signs of edging back toward the mores of the 1950s. The airlines were busy and their bargains tempting, but 1985 was also the worst year in aviation history for air accident fatalities. The United Nations was the scene of some accord between the superpowers, but again the U.N. passed a violently anti-Israel resolution. On the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II, a Holocaust memorial was initiated in Washington, but shortly thereafter President Reagan visited a German military cemetery in Bitburg, despite protestations by Jewish leaders and others. Meir Kahane, Israel's fiery right-wing Knesset member, visited the United States and was roundly condemned in almost every city in which he appeared, but continued to gather support back home, where he confidently predicted he would become prime minister within ten years. Before the summit meetings, rumors arose that Russia.. t would release some 400,000 Jews to Israel. So far, nothing has happened to affirm or deny the rumor, and the§oviets still have a lid on emigration. Twelve rabbis from . Baltimore an Washington were 'arrested for picketing too close to the Soviet Embassy in Washington. The five Washington rabbis opted to spend 15 days in jail rather than pay a $50 fine and be released on their own recognizance. The search for Josef Mengele, 40 years after the "Angel of Death" disappeared from Auschwitz, reached a fever pitch and finally turned up the remains of the infamous death camp doctor. That was the good news. The bad' news, for many Auschwitz survivors, was that they and the world were deprived; not only of Mengele's trial, but of information about the experiments he performed on them. Israeli investigators are still not satisfied that the exhumed body was that of Mengele. On the lighter side, Halley's comet was discovered to have been mentioned in the Talmud, the Statue of Liberty's renovation, scheduled for completion in time for July 4, 1986, was being supervised by a Jewish engineer, and Whoopi Goldberg, whose name only sounds Jewish, starred in one of the best movies of the year, a film about a black girl in Georgia. , OP-ED BY DR. LEONARD LACHOVER Special to The Jewish News What -1§ - the contribution of American Jewry to Judaism? This question first 'came to my mind as I attended a Jewish book fair. At the exhibition I saw shelves filled with books, and most of these books were written on two subjects. One of these subjects was • the Holocaust, and the other subject was the State of Israel. As I stood there, I asked myself this question; "What books would be on these shelves if the Holocaust in Europe had not happened, and if the State of Israel had still not come into existence?" A strange question? Perhaps! But for that moment, in my imagination, I looked at the shelves as' though the Holocaust had never occurred, and suddenly half the books "disappeared!" Again, in my mind, I imagined that the State of Israel had not yet been estab- lished, and the remainder of the books "disappeared." What I stood staring at were empty shelves! It was as a result of this experi- ence that the question arose regard- ing the contribution of American Jewry to Judaism. Jews in America are well represented in all the pro- fessions, and in almost every univer- sity there are Jews on the faculty in all departments. Among the scien- tists awarded the Nobel Prize each year, Jews are well represented. Both in federal and state "govern- ment, Jews take their places both as elected representatives and as ap- pointed advisers at high levels. In the arts and entertainment, Jews have made a substantial contribu- tion. • But what is the specific con- tribution to Judaism of all of these skilled and talented individuals? In — This article by Dr. Lachover, of Southfield, appeared in Hebrew in the Dec. 13-19 issue of "Israel Shelanu." future–times, when the history of American Jewry is written, what will they write? This is not a simple que§tion, and the answer is not found easily. Perhaps it will be' written that the Jews of America were builders of great and beautiful synagogues; that in every large city there were con- structed elaborate architectural edifices, each more beautiful than the next. If this is true, and our The haunting question returned: "What is the destiny and what is the essence of Judaism in American" , primary contribution to Judaism will be large and beautiful bilildings ; then surely we are at the crossroads of a serious crisis! Again, I returned, in my imagi- nation, to those "empty shelves" and again the haunting question re- turned: "What is the destiny and what is the essence of Judaism in Amefica?" And my mind drifted to Jewish communities of years ago in Europe, and I thought about the rich Jewish heritage which our present .generation received from them. Part Of that heritage was the treasury of Jewish literature from such writers as Chaim Nachman Bialik, .Saul Tchernikovsky, Y.L. Peretz, Ahad Ha'am and Shalom Aleichem. In Europe, during the past century, there was published a wealth of Jewish stories, poems, essays, Lei- . des, and even newspapers, written in both Yiddish and Hebrew. Move- ments such as, Chassidism and Has- kala born, akid Jewish culture