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December 08, 1989 - Image 18

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1989-12-08

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

I NEWS I

*
The December Dilemma

Jewish Community Council Community Assembly

Government, Religion & Cultural Sensitivity .

MODERATOR: George Cantor

The Detroit News

Rev. James Lyons

PANELISTS:

Ecumenical Institute for
Jewish-Christian Studies

Dr. Seymour Gretchko

West Bloomfield Public Schools

Should Christmas be celebrated
in the public schools?

Should the separation of Church
and State be absolute?

Are we alone in our concerns?

How do we achieve our goals
.-while maintaining sensitivity?

Here's your chance to speak out on these
important issues!

Monday, December 11
7:00 p.m.
-
Temple Israel
5725 Walnut Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield

Dessert Reception following the program

No Charge

csiln

JCWCTP5

EVERYTHING
MUST GO!

GUESS WHO'S
COMING TO

COLONY
INTERIORS

CLOSING FOR CONSTRUCTION SALE
UP TO 50% OFF

SUGAR TREE • W. BLOOMFIELD

All Jewelry and Gift Ware

is a grouch. Always com-
plaining. I say, "Uncle Bill,
why not relax?" "How?" he
says. I say, "Take the Newton
Sofa. Stretch out." So he
does. Falls soundly asleep.
And naturally, I've got a
date.

SEIKO AND CITIZEN WATCHES FROM $45.00
14K GOLD CHAINS FROM $13.95
14K GOLD SAPPHIRE, RUBY OR OPAL RINGS FROM $79.95

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(in the Travelers Building, Southfield)

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Uncle Bill

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Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results
Place Your Ad Today. Call 354 6060

-

18 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1989

HAIM SHAPIRO

Special to The Jewish News

S

Can cultural diversity survive
in a secular society?

Everyone Welcome

Women At The Wall
Is Not An Israeli Issue

ome 30 prominent
Jewish women from
North America came
to Israel last week to study
the question of why women
were being prevented from
praying as they wished at
the Western Wall. What
they discovered was that
even those Israelis who are
concerned about women's
issues couldn't care less.
The delegation, sponsored
by the American Jewish
Congress, included repre-
sentatives of the Interna-
tional Committee for
Women at the Kotel, a group
established to support the
activities of a small group of
beleaguered women in
Jerusalem who have
undergone considerable
hardship to pray as they see
fit at the Wall.
A year ago, women from
the first Jewish Feminist
Conference went to the Wall,
where they prayed with
prayer shawls and read from
a Torah scroll. Though they
represented a wide spectrum
of Jewish beliefs, the women
followed an Orthodox service
and omitted those sections of
the prayers reserved for a
minyan.
Some of the women were
deeply committed Orthodox
Jews, and the rabbi of the
Western Wall, Rabbi
Yehuda Getz, said at that
time that what they were do-
ing was not contrary to
Halacha. But later, when
local women tried to repeat
such prayers, they were
identified as the "Reform
women," were physically at-
tacked by ultra-Orthodox
worshippers, and were cur-
tailed by a series of prohibi-
tions that allowed them only
to stand together, without a
Torah scroll, and recite their
prayers silently.

Jerusalem Mayor Teddy
Kollek didn't even want to
meet with the current dele-
gation, and the women
members of the Jerusalem
Municipal Council were
hardly more sympathetic,
aside from Anat Hoffman of
the Citizens Rights Move-
ment, who is one of the
Women of the Wall.
Activists in battered
women's shelters and rape
crisis centers told them that
in Israel, where women's
issues are given low priority,
the issue of women's prayers

at the Wall was of the lowest
importance.
The most sympathetic per-
son with whom they met, ac-
cording to Harriet
Kurlander, director of the
AJC Commission for
Women's Equality, was
Member of Knesset Avrum
Burg. He said that although
he understood their concern,
the truth was the crucial
issues in Israel concern sur-
vival.
According to Kurlander,
the issue of women's prayer
at the Western Wall has
become a cause celebre
among American Jewry.
Israeli public figures might
be judged by American Jews
according to their position
concerning the Women of
the Wall, she suggested, just
as in the past, they were
evaluated according to how
they stood on the Who is a
Jew issue.
Norma Joseph, the wife of
an Orthodox rabbi, said the
issue excites American Jews
in a way Israelis don't
understand. "It highlights
sexual discrimination," she
said.
She added that it was
"shocking and intolerable"
that there had been repeated
acts of violence against the
women and no one from the
Israeli government had de-
nounced them.
Whether the Women of the
Wall and their supporters
abroad like it or not, most
Israelis — especially the
secular majority —apparent-
ly are willing to concede the
Western Wall to the ultra-
Orthodox. ❑

Jerusalem Post Foreign
Service

Israeli Schools
Offer German

Bonn (JTA) — The German
language is being taught for
the first time in Israeli high
schools, the Foreign Min-
istry reported last week.
It has been added to the
curricula of two high
schools, one in Haifa and the
other in Kfar Sava.
German was all but elim-
inated from the Israeli
school system until now
because of the sensitivities
of Holocaust survivors.
It has been taught,
however, in private schools
and universities and by the
West German government-
sponsored Goethe Institute,
which has branches in Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem.

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