Re ligious News Se rvice

YEAR IN REVIEW 5746 YEAR IN REVIEW

Re lig ious News Service

POPE JOHN PAUL II, escorted by Rome's chief rabbi Elio Toaff, became the first pontiff
to visit a synagogue. At Rome Synagogue he called the world's Jews "our elder brothers"
and condemned anti-Semitism.

EVANGELIST PAT ROBERTSON
brought religion directly into politics with
his campaign for the presidency for 1988.

NEW CHANCELLOR of the Jewish
Theological Seminary, Dr. Ismar Schorsch,
was named to succeed Dr. Gerson Cohen
prior to the Conservative institution's
100th anniversary.

and debate. A conference sponsored by
CLAL, an organization urging unity and
dialogue, attracted the leaders of each of
the religious branches, although they did
not appear on the platform at the same
time. A jointly-sponsored JWB chaplain-
cy program that had been in existence for
many years broke up when the Orthodox
group, claiming the Reform had broken
the rules by endorsing a woman rabbi for
the chaplaincy, withdrew their participa-
tion.
The Conservative movement sought to
solidify its middle ground status on
religious issues, electing Dr. Ismar
Schorsch, a staunch mainstream Conser-
vative scholar, to the chancellorship of the
Jewish Theological Seminary, which
marks its 100th anniversary this year.
Yeshiva University, a major Orthodox
institution, is also celebrating its 100th
anniversary, but two leading Orthodox
scholars died this winter. Rabbi Yaakov
Kamenetzky, dean of Mesifta Torah
Vodaath in New York, died at the age of
95, and several weeks later Rabbi Moshe
Feinstein, the preeminent Torah scholar
of his generation, died at the age of 91.
Tens of thousands of people attended the
two funerals in New York, and an esti-
mated 200,000 paid respect to Rabbi
Feinstein at his burial in Jerusalem.
A number of other prominent American
Jews died this year, including Bernard
Malamud, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
novelist; Yehuda Hellman, the long-time
executive director of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations; Jacob Javits, the four-time
Republican senator from New York; Hall
of Fame baseball player Hank Greenberg;
Admiral Hyman Rickover, the controver-
sial father of the nuclear Navy; and
astronaut Judith Resnick, who perished
along with the six other crew members of
the ill-fated Challenger space shuttle.
Around the world attention was focused
on the struggle against apartheid in South
Africa and whether or not to impose eco-
nomic sanctions; the nuclear disaster at
Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, which renewed
debate in the West over the merits of
nuclear-generated energy; and the visit by
Pope John Paul II to the Rome Syna-
gogue, the first such visit by a pontiff,
spurring talk of further interfaith
dialogue.
Here at home, The Jewish Welfare
Federation of Detroit announced a major
new program in late spring to try to
preserve Jewish areas of Southfield and
Oak Park. The Neighborhood Project will
encourage block clubs, neighborhood pro-
grams and city services to enhance the
targeted areas. It is also providing up to
$6,000 in interest-free loans to Jewish
families wishing to purchase homes in
these areas. The program is based on

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