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Friday, May 9, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Purifying Israel Atmosphere...Rackman Clarifies Mormon Issue
An unfortunate religious issue has in-
jected confusion and regrettable self-
debasement in Israel. It is one of many
demeaning matters that have darkened
what is rightfully expected to be Israel's
highly ethical attitude. The matter in-
volving the Mormons and their desire to
establish a study center in Jerusalem has
become more than a means for resorting to
abuse and misrepresentation of Israel's
committed role to be just as well as fair-
minded. It often assumes ugliness in ex-
tremists' approaches to what should be a
normal "Jewish ecumenism." A resort to
this term will be presently permitted.
One of the most distinguished world
Jewish scholars, who is among the most
eminent interpreters of Jewish law in the
Orthodox sense, tackled the Mormon prob-
lem in his most recent excellent weekly
column in the New York Jewish Week (
The Jewish News, May 2, page 62). It
speaks for itself and calls for a sense of fair
play as well as common sense judgment.
Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, chancellor of
Bar-Ilan University, thus dealt with the
Mormon matter:
The establishment of a center
in Jerusalem for the Mormons'
Brigham Young University has
evoked protests which are an em-
barrassment to American Jews.
Prominent Mormons in America
are distressed that Israel is deny-
ing them what other faiths enjoy.
The ill-feeling that has been
engendered is enormous, and be-
leaguered Prime Minister Shimon
Peres is caught between threats
from influential people in the
United States and many not-so-
temperate religious spokesmen in
Israel.
The not-so-temperate reli-
gious spokesmen in Israel oppose
the Mormons because missionary
activity to the Jews is very much
an integral part of their faith.I am
not sufficiently expert to judge
whether they are more committed
to missionary activity than the
Christian groups already estab-
lished in Israel, but I do not com-
plain of that. Indeed, the Mormons
have been in Israel for 15 years,
and I know of no allegations that
they have offended.
What concerns me is the man-
`JudaeomPersian Manuscripts'
Retain Glorious Iranian Records
Mere mention of Iran now evokes re-
vulsion. The horrors emenating from
there as a prejudiced society that thrives
on many hatreds, the anti-Israel policies,
the uncertainty of the Iranian Jewish
community, create fear over that coun-
try's status. There were at one time some
100,000 Jews there. Now no one knows
the condition under which perhaps a quar-
ter of that number lives as survivors.
There were, however, glorious chap-
ters in Jewish-Iranian history. Hebrew
Union- College Press has just produced an
art book that serves as a reminder of the
better and the creative years. Miniature
Paintings in Judaeo Persian Manuscripts
is the expressive volume that records
anew the era when there was creativity in
an area now so sorely tried.
With the publication of Miniature
Paintings in Judaeo Persian Manuscripts,
Hebrew Union College Press not only re-
tains and hopefully popularizes an inter-
est in preserved art treasures, but also
brings to light the cultural values of a
vanishing dialect.
Vera Basch Moreen, who has
authored this scholarly work, provides an
important recognition of the background
of the thesis and the source of the accumu-
lated treasures. She points out:
-
-
In recent years the magnifi-
cence of Iranian miniature paint-
ings has come to public view
through scholarly publications
and several exhibits, but a secon-
dary unique group of paintings
known as Judaeo-Persian minia-
tures have remained neglected.
Until now scholarly disregard has
stemmed, at least in part, from the
complexity of dealing with two
languages. Judaeo-Persian minia-
tures illustrate Judaeo-Persian
manuscripts which are in the Per-
sian language interspersed with
some Hebrew vocabulary and in
the Hebrew script. In addition to a
thorough knowledge of Persian
and Hebrew, a proper under-
standing of the cultural and artis-
tic value of Judaeo-Persian minia-
tures -requires' familiarity with
Iran's Jewish and Muslim cultural .
ner in which one vehement
spokesman for the Jews defended
his position that construction of
the Mormon center already
underway should be stopped.
When he was told that there will
be no missionary activity in Israel
by the Mormons in the future, as
there was none in the last 15 years,
he explained that it did not matter.
Something else did matter.
The new center is on Mount
Scopus where the Hebrew Univer-
sity is also located. Most of its stu-
dents are not committed to the
religious way of life. They will be
exposed to Mormon center stu-
dents who are gentle and kind,
God-fearing and righteous. They
will make a wonderful impression
on the godless ,:Israelis. Con-
sequently, the godless will want to
embrace the religion of those
whose behavior is ideal. In that
way, without any effort or design
to convert, there will be a
turning-away by Jews from their
own heritage to the faith that does
so much to ennoble its adherents.
When this explanation was
given to me — and it was given in
the presence of colleagues who
should have reacted furiously to
this demeaning of Jewish students
and the glorification of Mormon
students — I was distressed be-
yond description. How could a
rabbi resort to smearing our own,
before non-Jews, without realiz-
ing how dangerous and immoral
this is? And what young Jew,
learning of this, would not choose
to run away from the faith that
breeds that kind of champion?
During a recent symposium on
problems of the terminally ill, I
made the point that when students
are interviewed for admission to
medical schools, too much atten-
tion is given to the candidates'
achievements as brainy individu-
als and not enough attention is
given to their character and espe-
cially their love of people. There is
no doubt in my mind that the same
is true of students who aspire to
become rabbis. Their scholarship
Continued on Page 28
milieux and with the development
of Persian miniature painting in
general. Viewed in this larger con-
text, it is evident that Judao-
Persian miniatures stand out as
an important contribution to past
Judaeo-Persian culture. Further-
more, when considered artisti-
cally within their socio-historical
context, these lovely and often
quite sophisticated paintings
show that they deserve a greater
audience and recognition than
they have received until now.
There exist twelve accessible
Judaeo-Persian manuscripts con-
taining a total of 179 miniatures
and many smaller page decora-
tions. These manuscripts are scat-
tered in various libraries, i.e., the
Jewish Theological Seminary of
America (JTS) in New York, the
Klau Library of the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Reli-
gion (HUC) in Cincinnati, the Is-
rael Museum UM) and the Jewish
National and University Library
(JNUL) in Jerusalem, the British
Library (BL) in London and the
Stiftung Preussischer Kultur-
besitz (SPK) in Berlin. They do not
belong to the enticing genre of
royal Persian manuscripts, but
rather to more primitive, provin-
cial schools. They can be dated, on
stylistic grounds, between the
seventeenth and nineteenth cen-
turies and are closely linked,
chronologically as well as stylisti-
cally, to the development of the
popular, provincial style of Ira-
nian miniature painting in gen-
eral. The miniatures illustrate
Judaeo-Persian texts which were
composed much earlier than the
painting of the miniatures.
The exciting invitation to learn about
this art collection thus becomes apparent.
Besides, there is an invitation to become
acquainted with an important historical
era when Judaeo-Persian was a com-
municating Jewish dialect.,
It is imporeant to indi'cate• that the
Continued on Page.28 _
.
Collection of Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz.