FOLLOW-UP GEMINI TRAVEL We double the service I call Gemini Travel for my business travel I call Gemini Travel for my pleasure travel WE TRAVEL!! Lucky Dogs Trust your business and vacation travel to the professionals at Gemini Travel. •Same Day Tickets • All Major credit cards honored •We book your flight, hotel and car rental 855-3600 In Orchard Mall In Search of Exotic and Totally Unique Things for You! 626-1999 COLONY MITEIRIORS TEMPLE ISRAEL A Congregation of Liberal Judaism Invites You to Our Membership Open House Sunday Afternoon, August 23rd, from 1 to 5 P.M. Learn about our Religious School (Sunday) Classes; our Weekday Hebrew School Program; our Nursery School and Weekday Enrich- ment Classes; and our Newly-Opening Kindergarten Class. Temple Israel has one of America's largest and best run school pro- grams . . . clergy who are knowledgeable, sympathetic, caring and concerned . . . lay leadership who are supportive of our Rabbis and who themselves further Jewish needs in the synagogue and the Jewish community. Temple Israel is led by: Rabbi M. Robert Syme Rabbi Harold S. Loss Rabbi Paul M. Yedwab Cantor Harold Orbach Joseph Poisson Educational Director For Information on Temple and Affiliate Group Programs and Ac- tivities; for an Idea of Our Religious Philosophy; for Information on Our Forthcoming Events and Programs, Stop in on Sunday, August 23rd, or Call Frank L. Simons or Eva Shapiro 661-5700 TEMPLE ISRAEL 5725 Walnut Lake Road Just East of Drake Road d2 FRIDAY. AUG. 21, 1987 Can Judaism Respond To Feminist Criticism? JANE R. LITMAN Special to The Jewish News I was troubled to see an article about me in your May 29th issue ("Can A Reconstructionist Rabbi Go lb° Far?"). Although your ar- ticle seems to imply that the substance of this controversy is the question of limits, I believe it is rather whether organized Judaism can fully respond to feminist criticism regarding the Jewish tradi- tion's historical discrimina- tion against women. It is im- portant that liberal Judaism integrate women not only in- to its organization structure as rabbis, cantors, and lay leaders;but that it also accept women's visions and ex- perience into its histor- iography and theology. In terms of historiography, this means that women of the past — talmud scholars, folk healers, moneylenders, mystics, and midwives must be given their place in history alongside their male counter- parts. In terms of theology, it means that women's images of the Deity must be given the same credence as men's. Of course most liberal Jews accept that images of God are psycho-social symbols, not descriptions of any tangible reality, and that they thus reflect the values of our culture. When such masculine imagery for God as "King" "Lord of Hosts," and "Man of War," is considered normative, but the introduc- tion of the ancient Hebrew feminine terms for the Deity such as "Queen of Heaven" or "Mother of all living things," is met with charges of "Ca- naanite idol making" or "statue worship," there is a problem. Although I see the goal of modern Jewish theology as moving beyond gendered im- ages, male or female, the hostility and hysteria with which ancient Israelite feminine God-images have been denounced, and the per- sonal attacks on me for using such images in an experimen- tal liturgical context, has been a shocking experience. I had hoped we as a people were rather more sophisticated than that. I am pleased, however, to Jane Litman is a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Jane Litman point out that the Reconstruc- tionist Movement has been at the forefront of women's rights including its introduc- tion of the bat mitzvah ceremony, its ordination of women as rabbis from the in- ception of its rabbinical col- lege, and the election of a woman as head of its rab- binical association. The Reconstructionist Movement continues to respond boldly to the challenge of integrating authentic Jewish tradition and contemporary thought and values. I have every faith in the ability of Reconstruc- tionism to deal respectfully and thoughtfully with the aspirations and goals of the modern Jewish woman, despite pressure from the name-callers who seek to halt the forward march of social justice. NEWS I'm Retrial Set For Revisionist Ibronto (JTA) — The second trial of revisionist Ernst Zundel, previously convicted of deliberately publishing lies about the Holocaust, will commence Jan. 4, 1988. A Canadian court in March 1985 convicted Zundel, a Ger- man native living in Canada, of one count of wilfully publishing false information likely to cause racial or social intolerance. Zundel published a number of books and pamphlets, in- cluding "Did Six Million Really Die?" which claimed that Zionists invented the hoax of a Holocaust to extort reparations from post-war Germany. He also claimed nobody had seen Jews being gassed to death.