I TORAH PORTION I
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
JEWISH WELFARE FEDERATION
OF DETROIT
Nominees to the Board of Governors
Pursuant to the bylaws of the JEWISH WELFARE FEDERATION OF DETROIT, the
following list of nominees, selected from the membership of the Federation, eligible
for election to the Board of Governors of the Federation, has been presented to the
Executive Vice-President not less than thirty days prior to the Annual Meeting, to take
place on Tuesday, September 26 at Adat Shalom Synagogue at 6:30 p.m.
Treating Each Individual
Equally Before Hashem
FOR RE-ELECTION
3-Year Term Ending in 1992
Rabbi Irwin Groner
Helen Shevin
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Special to The Jewish News
Robert G. Slatkin
p
Robert Sosnick
FOR ELECTION
3-Year Term Ending in 1992
Penny Blumenstein
Stanley D. Frankel
Joel Gershenson
Edward C. Levy, Jr.
Benjamin H. Rosenthal
Other persons may be nominated by petition or petitions signed by not fewer than
25 members of the Federation and filed with the Executive Vice-President of the Fed-
eration not less than ten days prior to the date of the Annual Meeting. Only one
person may be nominated in each petition and no nomination shall be valid unless
the nominees have consented to be a candidate.
1989 NOMINATING COMMITTEE
David Handleman
Chairman
Mandell L. Berman
Paul D. Borman
Milton H. Goidrath, M.D.
Doreen Hermelin
Joel D. Tauber
JEWISH WELFARE FEDERATION OF DETROIT
Martin S. Kraar, Executive Vice-President
163 Madison Avenue • Detroit, MI 48226-2180 • (313) 965-3939
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42
CD
aul Simon wrote a fas-
cinating song entitled
"The Sound of
Silence" which frighteningly
captures a truth of our socie-
ty: "People talking without
speaking; people hearing
without listening."
A member of my former
synagogue in Manhattan told
me of an encounter between
his father and a rabbi ac-
quaintance of his.
"How are you?" the rabbi
politely enquired.
"My wife died two weeks
ago," the gentleman
responded.
"That's nice. And how is
business?" continued the rab-
bi, who obviously had asked
his second question before
listening to the answer to his
first.
So ingrained within our
social fabric is this habit of
not listening that Emily Post
insists that the only proper
answer to the question, "How
are you?" is "How are you?"
Since people rarely listen to
how you really are. Indeed, it
is commonplace to notice that
while in the midst of making
a point to a friend, the friend
is already formulating his
response — without really
listening to what you are try-
ing to say. It is probably
because of this that disco
music is so loud; we don't
listen to each other anyway,
so you might as well drown
out any conversation. And if
you're accustomed to not
listening to others, you stop
listening to yourself as well.
The 'Ibrah reading of this
week commands a judicial
system that would satisfy
even Paul Simon. "And I
charged you judges . . . say-
ing: listen between your
brothers and judge righteous-
ly between a man and his
brother and his stranger."
[Deuteronomy 1:16] Rashi,
apparently noted the im-
perative nature of this verse
and stressed its similarity to
the imperatives concerning
Shabbat; remember and
observe. In other words, the
judge is commanded to do
what few others are mental-
ly and emotionally equipped
to do: the judge is responsible
to listen.
The Hebrew clearly bears
out this message.
"Le'haazin"means to hear
and has strictly an audial
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin lives in
Efrat, Israel.
connotation (to hear with the
ear); "lishmoa" means to in-
ternalize, to accept in your
gut (ma'a means innards), to
truly listen to the litigant's
case. Indeed, the third
chapter of the tractate
Sanhedrin, the first mishnah,
speaks of the ideal and usual
ad hoc court for civil affairs,
in which each litigant chooses
a qualified judge and the two
judges choose the third
qualified judge. Rabbenu
Asher, the 14th century
talmudic commentary, notes
(ad locum) that once the judge
has been chosen by a litigant
he will naturally, and
becomes duty bound to, listen
carefully to that litigant's
case and search for ways in
Shabbat Chazon:
Deuteronomy
1:1-3:22,
Isaiah 1:1-27
which to support his position
— of course, without falsifying
or withholding evidence.
And the Thrall continues,
endeavoring to make certain
that the judge will not be
guided by preconceptions:
"You shall not respect persons
in judgement; you shall hear
the small and the great alike;
you shall not be afraid before
any man, for the judgement is
God's." [Deuteronomy 1:17]
The biblical words could not
be any clearer: if a judge has
a litigation with a tailor, or a
religious scholar with a
secular ignoramus, the judge
may not "recognize" for
former over the latter. If he
feels that he cannot be objec-
tive, he must disqualify
himself. Moreover, a case in-
volving little money must not
take a back seat to a million
dollar arbitration: first come,
first served, and the prior
litigant dare not be treated
any less respectfully than the
wealthy one.
The judge must be able to
stand up to a powerful
litigant and render justice to
all with equity, whether the
defendant's name be Oliver
North or Jonathan Pollard!
And even if a student is sit-
ting in the courtroom and
sees a point against the case
of the more powerful litigant,
despite the fact that he is not
acting in the capacity of a
judge, he must nevertheless
speak up, for "you shall not be
afraid, or hold back your
words, before any man." [B.T.
Sandhedrin 6b, 7a] And that
which gives one the courage
to execute such a judicial