"Where You Come First"
Kosins
Uptown
Southfield Rd. at
11 1/2 Mile • 559-3900
Dr. Gerson Cohen, who was
chancellor for 14 years and
considered a strong advocate
for increased women's par-
ticipation. Schorsch has made
a point of playing
peacemaker and advocating a
"militant" middle course.
With his scholarly but ge-
nial demeanor, he seems
well-suited to the delicate
task at hand, supporting
what he calls "traditional
egalitarianism."
"The essence of Conserva-
tive Judaism is a search for
balance," he contends. "It's
not possible to reduce
Judaism to a single trait, but
a struggle to keep polarities
in equilibrium."
In that struggle, Schorsch
says he is confident he will
find an ally among the Con-
servative Jewish laity, whom
he credits with the current
push to increase the role of
women in the synagogue.
"The ultimate arbiter in this
debate is the community and
what it is willing to abide
by," he says. ❑
,
Detroit Conservatives
Mirror The Diversity
Detroit's Conservative rab-
bis are divided on the
liberalization of Conservative
Judaism in recent years.
Often the division is based on
their training — two local
rabbis who were trained at
Orthodox yeshivot but are
serving Conservative congre-
gations in Detroit were the
ones most unhappy with the
changes they say are influ-
enced by the women's move-
ment in the United States.
Rabbi Martin Gordon of the
Livonia Jewish Congregation
was ordained at Mesifta
Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn
in 1959. He has served
Livonia since 1967 but says,
"I do not have the popular
Conservative feeling." The
recent announcement of the
graduation of women cantors
in the Conservative Move-
ment 'caused an uproar in
Canada, he said, because
"traditionalists felt that it
violates their rights."
The increasing role of
women will ultimately lead
to two types of kashrut,
Rabbi Gordon believes, with
Conservative Jews having
their own set of standards
especially if women are ap-
proved as supervisors or
slaughterers.
The woman's issue, Rabbi
Gordon says, is putting tradi-
tional rabbis in the middle.
"Judaism has always been
`separate but equal.' It has
never meant 'sameness'. It
has always been individualis-
tic, with separate respon
sibilities" for men and
women.
Rabbi Sherman Kirshner of .
B'nai Israel of West Bloom-
field expressed similar feel-
ings. A 1971 graduate of the
Skokie Yeshivah in Illinois
who recently earned his doc-
torate there, Rabbi Kirshner
believes the Conservative
Movement has turned away
from its original aims.
"I feel the Jewish Theolog-
ical Seminary and the Con-
servative Movement grew out
of the need to be, a part of the
American Jew's life and to
create both a Jew'and a.
movement that would meet
.
,
each other's needs while
simultaneously not breaking
ties with the traditions of
Judaism.
"I found myself very com
fortable with this kind of phi-
losophy and personally wish
it would have stayed that
way for many more years. I'm
not a liberalist by any means,
and I wish that the Conser-
vative Movement would have
continued to foster and
nourish the age old traditions
of our fathers as they had
originally started to do."
But David Nelson of Beth
Shalom — a JTS graduate
and son of a JTS graduate —
counters with classic Conser-
vative philosophy. "The
Jewish Theoogical Seminary
has given American Jewry an
orientation to live out the
rich traditions as well as live
fully in modern day societyx
"The challenge of the future
is to build a lifestyle that is
true to this orientation."
Rabbi Nelson sees this tradi-
tion growing throughout the
world, and "we have to fight
the myth -that there is no
such thing as a Conservative
Jew, just Conservative rab-
bis."
A Conservative Jew, says
Nelson, will drive to his
synagogue on Shabbat, but
will not go to a shopping cen-
ter. He may eat fish in a res-
taurant, but he will not eat
ham. Nelson describes this
asa blending of tradition and
modernity. •
"I don't believe that only
the traditional approach is
authentic," Nelson explains.
"If the-approach is honest —
whether it's Reform, Conser-
vative, or Orthodox — then it
is authentic. I want to patiei-
pate as a Jew, and partici-
pate in modern life, as fully
as I can." The Conservative
Movement, he says, stands
for "tradition and change, not
tradition or change."
"We also have unity in di-
versity — not every Conser-
vative rabbi or every Conser-
vative congregation is the
same. But we areall Conser
vative."
- A.H.
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