Rabbi Louis Bernstein Claims
UJA Is Writing Off Orthodox
RICHARD PEARL
Staff Writer
T
CD
David Hermelin and Jay Robinson were the featured speakers at the
Maccabiah meeting.
Maccabi Prepares
For 1990 Games
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
A
week-long party for
2,700 guests takes a
bit of preparation, so
forgive the Detroit Maccabi
Club if it starts its party plan-
ning a little bit in advance .. .
77 weeks in advance!
The Maccabi group last
week formally kicked off its
work for the 1990 Jewish
Community Centers North
American Maccabi Youth
Games with a meeting for
volunteers.
Maccabi expects 2,200
athletes aged 13 to 16 to come
to Detroit from throughout
North America and as far
away as Israel. An additional
500 team coaches and
managers and hundreds of
parents and famiy members
will also be drawn to Detroit.
It amounts to a major athletic
explosion from 1984 when
Detroit hosted the second
youth Maccabiah for 800
athletes.
The games will be held in
August 1990 at the Maple-
Drake Jewish Community
Center and other sites in the
Detroit area. Athletes will be
housed by host families as far
away as Ann Arbor.
Jay Robinson, general
chairman of the Detroit
games in 1984 as well as
1990, at the meeting marvell-
ed at the number of 1984
volunteers who are returning
for the 1990 event. More than
100 volunteers have signed
up, but Robinson said more
are needed.
"On the opening Sunday
alone we have to process
2,200 kids and 500 coaches in.
65 delegations," Robinson
said. The opening ceremonies
Sunday evening, held at West
Bloomfield High School in
1984 with a parade of
athletes and torchlighting,
will be held in West Bloom-
field next year under the
chairmanship of Chuck
Newman and the Washtenaw
Jewish Community Center.
Other special events in-
clude an Israeli night and
Bob-Lo trip, Sabbath services
with area congregations, a
memorial service for the 11
Israeli athletes slain by ter-
rorists at the 1972 Munich
Olympics and a community-
wide memorial walk, a
coaches' party hosted by the
Windsor Jewish Community
Centre, and the closing
ceremonies.
More than 3,000
athletes, coaches
and relatives- are
expected at the .
Maccabiah.
David Hermelin, honorary
chairman of the 1990 games
with BillDavidson, told the
volunteers last week, "You
have the community behind
you." He said sports, both in
the United States and Israel,
help to upgrade the quality of
life. "I know in 1990 we will
have the best games ever."
Said Robinson, "Doing this
again is like childbirth," dif-
ficult but worthwhile. He
said, "Our own sense of com-
munity is heightened by the
games. We (volunteers) enjoy
and take pride in each
other and it transfers to the
kids when they are here. They
know we are going out of our
way to provide them a good
time and they appreciate
it."
❑
he president of the
Religious Zionists of
America says the
United Jewish Appeal has
begun "writing Orthodoxy
out of its plan."
Rabbi Louis P. Bernstein of
Bayside, N.Y., made the
charge during the first Frieda
Stollman Memorial Lecture
held last week at Young Israel
of Oak-Woods.
"American Orthodox pro-
grams received half of what
Reform and Conservative
Jewish programs were given
by the UJA," the rabbi told
some 250 persons who attend-
ed the lecture.
He said Orthodox Jewish
programs received $800,000
compared to $1.5 million
for each of the other two
branches and said Orthodox
Jews, who offer the only
educational system "that
guarantees retention of
Jewish young . . . must recon-
sider their support of the
UJA."
Bernstein's remarks were
part of a wide-ranging lecture
on the future of American Or-
thodox Judaism memorializ-
ing Mrs. Stollman, a Detroit
Jewish community leader
and philanthropist who died
last fall.
The rabbi, an associate pro-
fessor at Yeshiva University,
a former secretary of Hapoel
Hamizrachi in America and
former president of the Rab-
binical Council of America,
said, "Orthodox Jews have a
responsibility for all
Judaism!' He decried the
shrinking Jewish birthrate
and increasing assimilation
of Jews into American culture
and called for renewed sup-
port for Jewish religious set-
tlements in Israel.
Bernstein said that "the
Jewish people are caught up
in a losing war against
population erosion" and
clainied there would have
been 10 million Jews in the
U.S. today rather than 6.5
million if the original 2,500
Jews in the colonies had
reproduced at the rate of
three children per family.
"Israeli security and our
presence in the U.S. would be
much better," the rabbi said,
noting that only Orthodox
Jews today are exceeding the
2.5 children per Jewish fami-
ly birth rate of the 1980s.
"There is no possibility the
Jewish community will grow
quantitively in the first part
of the 21st century," he said.
"Yordim (Israeli Jews who
come to the U.S.) and Russian
Jews assimilate and are being
lost as Jews faster than any
other group , in the U.S?'
Furthermore, the continu-
ing migration of American
Jews in all directions from
traditional neighborhoods is
creating "less caring and con-
cern for Jewish identity!'
The rabbi blasted Jewish
federations and the Reform
movement over the handling
of the recent "Who is a Jew?"
controversy.
"Jews must never forgive
the federations and the
Reform movement for sending
non-Jewish congressmen to
Israel to plead with the
government there against the
proposed change in the Law of
Return," Bernstein said. The
proposed change would have
meant that only halachically
converted Jews would be per-
mitted to make aliyah.
"That was damaging (to the
Jewish image) and it hurts,"
the rabbi said.
"If there is a single lesson
to be learned in Jewish
history, it is not to rely on the
non-Jewish world," Bernstein
said, referring to the United
States' opening a dialogue
with the Palestine Liberation
Organization. "Non-Jews
decide what is good for them
and not for the Jewish peo-
ple!'
The rabbi said Israel's
dovish Abba Eban "is a
brilliant man who should
know better" than to en-
courage talks with the PLO,
whose mandate is the
destruction of Israel. And
Bernstein said Menachem
Rosensaft, who also favors
talking with the PLO, is
wrong in claiming "there will
be no peace with Yitzhak
Continued on Page 10
I ROUND UP I
Trenton Incident
Is Investigated
Police are investigating
damage to the office of Dr.
Rafeek Farah, which was
riddled with bullets last
weekend after the Trenton
physician paid for the reprin-
ting of a newspaper advertise-
ment calling on Israel to
negotiate with the Palestine
Liberation Organization.
Police said they are still
uncertain whether the shots,
fired at 10 windows in Dr.
Farah's office, were made by a
BB gun or bullets.
Trenton police said they
had 20 similar incidents last
week.
The ad ran in the March 3
issue of The Detroit Free
Press, signed by "The Jewish
Committee on the Middle
East!'
Say Dere
What A Seder!
New York (JTA) — Members
of the China Jewish com-
munity and Jews throughout
the world will unite at Pesach
for the International
Assembly of Jews in China.
More than 30,000 Jews liv-
ed in China during World
War • II, when Shanghai per-
mitted entry to Jewish
refugees fleeing the Nazis.
The refugees established
Jewish newspapers,
synagogues, schools and
theaters, most of which disap-
peared when the Jewish com-
munity dispersed after the
war. The Pesach gathering
plans to mark the sites with
appropriate signs.
Among the participants in
the upcoming gathering will
be Yosef Tbkoah, chancellor of
Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev and a former Shanghai
resident.
Alcohol, Drugs
Focus Of Talks
"Alcohol and Drugs: Use
and Misuse — A Jewish Con-
cern" will continue this week
with a program Wednesday
on "Impact on the Family"
featuring Sis Wenger,
manager of, community
education at Henry Ford
Hospital in Maplegrove.
Future programs include
"Intervention — A Way To
Enable the Chemically
Dependent Person r th Accept
Help" on March 22 and "Our
Jewish Community's
Response — What Can We
Do?" on March 29.
All presentations will be
held 7:30 p.m. at Congrega-
tion Shaarey Zedek and are
open to the public.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5