THE JEWISH NEWS
THIS ISSUE 60(P
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
Shoah Answer:
Social Action
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Assistant Editor
S
ometimes he can
almost smell the burn-
ing flesh and see the
children tossed alive into the
fiery ovens of Auschwitz.
And in those moments,
Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Green-
berg cannot speak of God.
He wonders, "What can we
say in the face of those chil-
dren?" The answer: "The
single most religious state-
ment we can make: to
recreate the image of God,"
he said.
"You want to be religious?
You want to speak of God?
Don't talk. Do something.
Take an image of God and
restore it." Help a starving
child; fight racial prejudice;
oppose religious bigotry.
Rabbi Greenberg, presi-
dent and co-founder of the
New York-based CLAL, the
National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership,
spoke last week on
"Triumph of Life: Judaism
as a Covenant of Redemp-
tion" and "Confronting the
Holocaust: The Religious
Implications of the Shoah"
before more than 300 mem-
bers of the Christian clergy
at Temple Beth El's 48th
Annual Rabbi B. Benedict
Glazer Institute.
Rabbi Greenberg, an au-
thor and founder of the
Department of Jewish
Studies at City College in
New York, started CLAL as
a retreat, research and
outreach center for Jewish
leaders.
His talks in Detroit were
filled with calls to social ac-
tion for both Jews and Chris-
tians.
An ordained Orthodox
rabbi, Greenberg said it was
often painful to look at ine-
quities within his own tradi-
tion. At first, he answered
these with silence.
"I was so busy being pious
that I didn't pay attention to
the fact that sometimes you
love God by arguing with
him," Rabbi Greenberg said.
"Where was God?
It's obvious he was
being starved,
beaten, degraded."
- Rabbi Greenberg
Now, whenever he sees an
injustice within Judaism, "I
want to clean it up." And he
wants Jews to "stop telling
the world about God and
start talking about human
beings."
Christians, Rabbi Green-
berg said, have yet to learn
the real meaning of the
FEBRUARY 16, 1990 / 21 SHEVAT 5750
Detroit To Raise
Ante For Emigres
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
L
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg:
"I love humanity. It's my first
cousin I can't stand."
crucifixion: that no one
should have to suffer as
Jesus did on the cross. This
was especially evident dur-
ing the Holocaust, he said.
To assist in the murder of
Jews, or to stand by silently
while they were dragged
from their homes to the
gates of Dachau, "violates
everything Christianity
stands for," he said.
Yet Christians bear a spe-
cial burden for the Holo-
caust, because for the
previous 1,800 years the
church taught that Jews
were the devil and Christ
killers, sometimes using
passages "right out of the
New Testament" to do so, he
said.
Continued on Page 20
eaders of the Jewish
Welfare Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit
last week committed the
local Jewish community to
raising $15 million for the
absorption of Soviet Jews in
Israel.
Federation President
Mark Schlussel and Exec-
utive Vice President Robert
Aronson made the commit-
ment at the Feb. 6 Council of
Jewish Federations meeting
in Miami, which has set a
national goal of $420 million
for Israel's absorption of
200,000 Soviet Jews in the
next few years.
The $15 million figure is
half the projected total for
Detroit's 1990 Allied Jewish
Campaign and would be
raised in addition to that
total. Federation leaders
have not yet decided
whether the funds would be
raised in a separate cam-
paign, similar to last year's
Passage to Freedom drive, or
as part of the regular Cam-
paign over the next few
years.
Detroiters gave $2.25 mill-
ion to Passage to Freedom
for Soviet Jewish reset-
tlement last spring in a six-
week fundraising effort
which began as the 1989
Allied Jewish Campaign
ended.
The $15 million would be
used exclusively for reset-
tlement in Israel.
Federation's Executive
Committee, which approved
the national commitment
made in Miami, also revised
the local resettlement
budget based on an expected
1,000 Soviet immigrants to
Detroit during the fiscal
year ending in May 1990.
The original budget was
based on 600 Soviet Jews
coming to Detroit. The
$590,000 revision grants an
additional $521,000 to
Resettlement Service and
$54,000 to Jewish Voca-
tional Service, $4,000 to hire
two translators at Sinai
Hospital, and $11,000 to the
Transportation Service to
assist newcomers in
reaching various agencies.
Much of the increase is ex-
pected to be covered by HIAS
and federal bloc grant reim-
bursements.
Two Detroit Federation of-
ficers are among seven na-
tional United Jewish Appeal
leaders who left Tuesday on
a nine-day trip to the Soviet
Union, Romania and Israel
to study the Soviet and
Romanian Jewish immigra-
Continued on Page 18
CLOSE-UP
Mark Schlussel is the first
observant Jew to become president
of the Jewish Welfare Federation.