Or
K
or
we'll have to leave the coun-
try," says Cohen. "I'm not
going to live anyplace where
my children can't eat meat
three or four times a week."
The flap over starvation
and poverty comes at a par-
ticularly inopportune mo-
ment — just as tens of
thousands of Soviet Jews are
trying to decide whether to
come to Israel. Aliyah ac-
tivists are afraid that the
debate will have a negative
impact on their decision, and
score the .politicians for fail-
ing to address the problem
realistically.
"I see that Simcha Dinitz
(head of the Jewish Agency)
says that we will be able to
settle immigrants, even if
we all have to eat only one
egg a week," said a Tel Aviv
woman who has worked with
new settlers.
"There's only one
difference. We'll eat our one
egg a week here; Dinitz and
the other politicians will eat
theirs in the first class com-
partment of El Al." ❑
The days are getting shorter and winter is
almost here. Your family is beginning to
think about the fast approaching holidays.
The Weintraub family is preparing, too. We
want to be ready to do our part towards
making your shopping easier and your
holidays festive.
So when you visit
Weintraub Jewelers
you will find quality
selection, courteous
and knowledgeable
staff, and outstanding
discount prices.
NEWS I
•
Are Italians Jews
Distinct From Others?
BEN GALLOB
.
Special to The Jewish News
N
I
•
I
I
or
I
ew York — Dr..
Stefano Di Mauro, an
Italian-born car-
diologist and nutritionist,
has been on a religious" quest
since he came to the United
States in 1981.
He tried Reform. He tried
Orthodox. And for a while he
belonged to a Sephardic con-
gregation, but all the while
he found his religious life
unfulfilled.
So two years ago; the 60-
Y ear-old physician estab-
lished a congregation of his
own, an Italian Jewish con-
gregation in the. Miami area
that now consists of 140
families.
It is Di Mauro's contention
that Italian Jews constitute
a separate religious com-
munity, distinct from
Ashkenazi and Sephardi
Jews. Unfortunately, he
says, it is a community vir-
tually unknown to the other
two religious Jewries in
North America.
That the current editions
of the Universal Jewish En-
cyclopedia has nothing on
Italian Jews as a separate
religious community is to Di
Mauro only further proof
that it is a culture apart
from the two dominant
cultures.
To Di Mauro, Judaism
means religious commit-
ment. He therefore joined a
Reform congregation when
he first settled in the United
States in Riverside, Calif.
Thoroughly unhappy about
the skepticism over his
Jewish identity shown by
Reform congregants, he quit
after 18 months.
When he moved with his
family to Lynn, Mass.; he
joined an Orthodox con-
gregation. While there, a son
became bar mitzvah and a
daughter bat mitzvah. That
episode ended when he mov-
ed again, this time to North
Miami Beach, where he join-
ed a Sephardi congregation.
Di Mauro says he found
more Italian Jews in Miami
than in either Riverside or
Lynn, enough even to start a
congregation, which Di
Mauro says is the only
Italian Jewish congregation
anywhere in North America.
He said that there are
three major synagogues in
Venice — one Ashkenazi,
one Sephardi and one
Italian. The Italian
synagogue is the oldest.
The lifestyle of the Italian
Jews is to seek a tradition-
oriented "middle of the
way" path of Judaism.
He indicated that he felt
Ashkenazi Jews were
engaged in rivalries, which
Italian Jews considered to be
in sharp conflict with their
ideal of the "middle way."
The Italian Jews con-
gregants worship in the
Mogen Dovid Center, a
Sephardic synagogue in
North Miami Beach, which
Di Mauro said was suffering
an attrition of membership.
When Di Mauro met with
Mogen Dovid officials to
discuss collaboration bet-
ween the two congregations,
seating at worship was mix-
ed. The Italian s Jews asked
for separate seating and
separate seating is now the
rule. There is no mechitzah,
a physical barrier, but the
men and the women sit in
their separate sections. ❑
Seiko, Lasalle, Movado,
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ies
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
43