CONTENTS

OPINIONF

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24

CLOSE-UP

Power Of Attorney

GARY ROSENBLATT
Washington lawyer Nathan Lewin
has a huge reputation in legal
and Orthodox circles.

LIFESTYLES

Cosmetic Artist

CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ
Jackie Woolf has taken her art career
into the realm of helping people.

SPORTS

Small Wonders

MIKE ROSENBAUM
Two backcourt
dynamos
orchestrate
N. Farmington
girls' basketball.

ediagiin

A vulture and its keeper at the Tel Aviv zoo: A relationship defined by the Torah.

Where Are The Jewish Voices
In The Fight For Animal Rights?

NINA NATELSON

F

or animals, it's an eternal Treb-
linka" laments Nobel Laureate
Isaac Bashevis Singer in his story
"The Letter Writer."
During the past decade, an increasingly
vocal and activist international animal
rights movement has made us all acutely
aware of the high cost in animal suffering
for the"comforts of living" we have long
considered part of our everyday lives.
We have learned that farm animals suf-
fer abnormal confinement, deprivation and
inhumane slaughter methods. Fur-bearing
wild animals are caught in the steel jaw
leghold trap — a device so cruel it has been
banned in more than 60 countires, but not
in the United States. On fur ranches,
animals are gassed, electrocuted, or suf-
focated and stripped of their fur, often while
still alive.
Almost every day another news story
reveals the fate of animals used in ex-
periments: rabbits' heads are held im-
mobile in stocks while their extra-sensitive
eyes are burned with caustic substances to
help protect companies from law suits over
a new blue eye shadow; dogs' intestines ex-

Nina Natelson is president and director of
CHAI, Concern for Helping Animals in
Israel.

plode or burn away from being force-fed a
new oven cleaner or laundry detergent;
cats' eyelids are sewn together and elec-
trodes implanted in their brains.
Where does Judaism stand on the issue
of animal suffering? What guidelines for
compassionate living does our religious
tradition offer us?
Judaism is replete with laws condem-
ning cruelty to animals and with stories
and legends about the blessings that ac-
crue to those who compassionately treat
animals. Hunting, bullfighting, and all
other "sports" using animals are condemn-
ed. We are forbidden to wear leather shoes
on Yom Kippur because we have no right
to be inscribed in the Book of Life if we
have deprived an animal of life. Everyone
who went to Sunday school remembers the
stories of Moses and David, chosen as
leaders of our people because of the com-
passion they showed sheep in their care.
And our duty not to eat or drink until we
have first provided for our animals is so im-
portant that we are permitted to interrupt
a rabbinic commandment to ascertain if
this has been done.
Our responsibility toward animals goes
beyond not inflicting pain on them. As
Jews, we are required to do all we can to
relieve animal suffering, even if the
animals in question are not otu•s. According

Continued on Page 10

center

Single parent families are the subject
of our special monthly section.

63

ENTERTAINMENT

Rock Never Forgets

MIKE ROSENBAUM
At 51, lawyer-disc jockey Bill Shapiro
still gets his kicks from rock and roll.

77

PEOPLE

Dual Loyalty

ELIZABETH KAPLAN
Long-distance rabbi Arnold Sleutelberg
serves congregations 250 miles apart.

ANN ARBOR

5

Light & Sound

SUSAN LUDMER-GLIEBE
The love affair between Jews and celluloid
is the subject of an Ann Arbor film festival.

DEPARTMENTS

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34
38
46
52
58

62
82
88
92
94
122

Inside Washington
Synagogues
Life In Israel
Business
Cooking
For Women

Youth
For Seniors
Engagements
Births
Single Life
Obituaries

CANDLELIGHTING

September 23, 1988

7:10 p.m.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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