SUMP PUMP

failure

OR POWER OUTAGE IS NO PROBLEM IF YOU
HAVE AN AUTOMATIC JET PUMP. $149.50

352-9350

N. B. LEWIS PLUMBING

NOW . . . at your service

SONNY BRASS

,

"AN OW Om

name Implies."

formeihr of Progressive Cleaners

• Draperies
• Bedspreads
• Blankets (cleaned or laundered).
• Window Shades .
• Lampshades
• Pillows
• Venetian Blinds

(cleaned. relaped & recorded)

FREE! =4

Any other Items you may hove —
If It con be deoned, we II dean It
and clean It properly

OPERATING THE NEW
AND IMPROVED
Phone for "all that the name implies".
SERVICE

•

891.1818

Come Visit Your Favorite Metro
Chevrolet Dealer For The Best
Selection And Lowest Prices!!!

FOR THE MENTION & COMMITMENT
YOU DESERVE

•

orris

'YOUR FAVORITE NETRO.DHEVROLET
DEALER"
•
,
.
1149 HAGGERTY AD. )1 Gorgon/0,64N
MON. - & THURS. 9-9
WANED LAKE
GENERAL MOTbRS

PARTS DIVISION

6144500

TUES., WED., FRI. 9 6

-

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

of whether a child born to a Jewish father
and a non-Jewish mother should be
recognked as a born Jew. The Rabbinical
Assembly, representing the official think-
ing of Conservative rabbis, voted last sum-
mer to expel colleagues who recognize a
claim of Jewishness through patrilineal
descent.
But the decision doesn't please some of
the more liberal elements of the movement,
who believe the Rabbinical Assembly
made its decision without adequate debate -
under heavy pressure from the Union for
Traditional Conservative Judaism.
The result is that neither faction within
the movement is completely content, and
the debate at JTS continues.
• But not everyone thinks such debate is
necessarily bad or even inconsistent with
Conservative Judaism's roots. "I think we
need to recognize that the diversity within
this movement is not a liability," says
Dr.John Ruskay, a vice-chancellor at JTS.
"We are people engaged in dialectic with
our tradition. The fact that this needs to
take place within our movement is in part
what we are about:'
Dr. Neil Gillman, who teaches philo-
sophy at the Seminary and has served as
dean of the rabbinical school, sees JTS as
overlapping communities. "There are four
or five versions of Judaism being pro-
pounded and living within these walls,
with faculty, students and administration
in each camp," Dr. Gillman says. "Com-
munity never meant uniformity."
JTS officials are, themselves, ever expan-
ding and rewriting the definition of the
communities they serve. The New York
campus, which the Seminary has occupied
since 1929, houses the rabbinical school,
the school of Jewish music, an under-
graduate college (offering a joint degree
. with Barnard College and Columbia School
of General Studies), and a graduate school.
The Seminary's main campus sits on the •
edge of New York's Morningside Heights,
a community that includes such other
noted religious or educational institutions
as Columbia University, Cathedral of St.
John the Divine, Manhattan School of
Music and Union Theological Seminary.
From the outside, the most striking
feature of JTS is its eight-story red-brick
tower that rises in quasi-Renaissance
splendor above the wrought-iron gates. In-
scribed on the face of the,tower in Hebrew
and English are the words, "And the bush
was not consumed." The various buildings
of the campus, including a modern library
facility completed in 1983 (named in honor
of Ivan Boesky and his wife but now of-
ficially known as the Library of the JTS),
form a quadrangle which permits visitors
— at least temporarily — to block out the
outside world. '
Yet JTS has a long history of reaching
out to others. Many faculty and student
members have been active in secular and
charitable causes. JTS Professor Abraham
Joshua Heschel was a revered teacher and
major Jewish figure in the country's civil
rights movement. He marched arm in arm
with the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Many students on campus participate in

Vaad Gemilut Hasulim, a student social
action organization that encourages acts
of loving kindness such as blood donations,
visiting the sick and elderly, teaching first
aid and staffing shelters for the homeless
in the community.
'lb extend its reach beyond the greater
New York City area, JTS has additional
campuses in "Los Angeles and in
Jerusalem. The Seminary is also involved
with Ramah camps for young people
throughout this country and the long-
running "Eternal Light" radio and tele-
vision series.
Of late, Seminary officials have been par-
ticularly active in their efforts to establish
the Israeli branch of the Conservative
movement, known as Masorti (Tradition)
Judaism. Tbere are now about 40 Masorti
congregations in Israel, although the
movement has required substantial
organizational and financial aid. lb help
raise funds for Masorti, the Seminary
established the Foundation for Conser-
vative Judaism, which recently sponsored
a mission to Israel for 30 members of the
- JTS board of directors. Among their fin-
dings was that the Conservative move-
ment in Israel often fills the role of
mediator between secular and rightist
Jews. Dr. Lee Levine of the Foundation
acknowledges that "we'replaying catch-up
to the Reform movement, which developed
its agenda in Israel years ago. But I think
we have our act together now."
A Conservative "shopping list" of pro-
grams and projects in Israel is pending,
based on a' request for increased funding
from the Jewish Agency. Both the Conser
vative and- Reform movements have sharp-
ly criticized the Jewish Agency, claiming
that Orthodox projects receive too high a
proportion 'of Agency funding.

,

.

A view of the quadrangle of the Jewish Theological

Seminary in Morningside Heights.

