NEWS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS Rabbis Debate Value Of Dialogue EVERYTHING MUST GO! ALL SALES FINAL! TOBY AXELROD FARMINGTON HILLS STORE ONLY 100% COTTON FLANNEL SHEET SETS $15.90 WATER PROOF 100% COTTON COMPLETE DISH COMFORTER DISH TOWELS SETS Special to The Jewish News S PERCALE PILLOW CASES $49.90 3 for $2.40 $3.20p, POLY FILLED MATTRESS PADS DELUXE BED PILLOWS $10.90 $3.90 ALL NATURAL WOOL & CarroN BED PADS From 5 24.90 BED SHEET STRAPS $4.90 100% COTTON CANNON ASSORTED REVERSIBLE COMFORTERS ASSORTED RUGS BATH TOWELS BEDSPREADS $2.60 $19.90 SATIN STRIPE 95/5 $5.90 TABLE CLOTHS FEATHER/DOWN PILLOWS $9.90 $10.90 /3 EXTRA FILL 5 16.90 GREAT SAVINGS ON DETROIT'S LARGEST TOWELS SELECTION $C OA OF WINDOW Wash $1.90 ath ‘P7w Hand $3 B .90 TREATMENTS FIELDCREST "NEW SPIRIT" 1 COMFORTERS $19.90 SHEET SETS $10.90 "LUSTRE TOWELS' Bath $5.90 Hand $3.90 Wash $1.90 FARMINGTON HILLS STORE ONLY Orchard Place 30875 Orchard Lake Road 14 Mile and Orchard Lake Road 855-0122 Friday and Saturday 10-9 Sunday 12-5 RELIABLE AND EXPERIENCED SINCE 1930 insurance estimates accepted expert color match, foreign & American TOWING & RENTAL CARS AVAILABLE La Salle Body Shop Inc. 28829 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48018 MAX FLEISCHER BETWEEN 12 & 13 Mile Rd. 22 FRIDAY. MARCH 23, 1990 553 7111 - hould Orthodox leaders engage in dia- logue with non-Jewish clergy? With non-Orthodox rabbis? If so, what topics may be debated, and in what context? Rabbis of centrist or modern Orthodoxy, caught between an increasingly assertive right wing and ever-widening divergences with liberal Judaism on the left, met here last week to discuss the value of continu- ing dialogue with other movements of Judaism and with non-Jewish clergy. The setting was the mid- winter conference of the Rabbinical Council of America, the nation's largest body of Orthodox rabbis. The council meets twice a year, once for busi- ness and once for its mid- winter study and reflection session. "It is our duty to stretch out our hand and hope that if we reach out, there will be a solution to our problems," Rabbi Max Schreier, presi- dent of the council, said in his keynote address to the conference. The Rabbinical Council has faced opposition to its in- terfaith and inter-movement activities for more than 35 years, both internally and from other Orthodox groups. The debate has centered on its membership in the Synagogue Council of America, which unites Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbinic and con- gregational groups. Oppo- nents say membership in that umbrella group implies legitimization of Judaism's liberal streams. Through the Synagogue Council, moreover, the Rab- binical Council is affiliated to the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (commonly known by the acronym IJCIC), which conducts ongoing dialogue with the Vatican and other Christian groups. In a panel discussion following Schreier's speech, several leading Orthodox practitioners of interfaith dialogue sought to explain these activities and their limits. Toby Axelrod is a reporter with New York Jewish Week. "I see our job in the Synagogue Council of America and in IJCIC as plain damage control," said Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, a former Rabbinical Council president who co-chairs the Synagogue Council's inter- religious affairs committee. "We are not discussing religion, but we are discuss- ing issues from a religious position," Schonfeld said of his Synagogue Council ac- tivities. 'We are people of spiri- tual background. We can't discuss a problem as a stockbroker, a glazier or a businessman. We watch over the store, and we call it the interreligious affairs corn- mittee." Israel Singer, another Or- thodox activist involved in "Communication among the various communities will greatly contribute toward mutual understanding." interreligious activity, said he enters such dialogues with a sense of cynicism. "If you have to talk to this guy to stay safe, you talk to the guy," said Singer, who as secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress plays a key role in IJCIC. "My object is to enhance the position of the Jewish people in every way I can, whether with a head of state or church," Singer said. According to Schonfeld, the deciding factor in enter- ing the Synagogue Council and its interfaith panel — for him personally and for the Rabbinical Council — was the opinion of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, the supreme halachic authority of modern Orthodoxy, known to his followers as "the Ray." Soloveitchik, the Leib Merkin Distinguished Pro- fessor of Talmud and Jewish Philosophy at Yeshiva Uni- versity, is ailing and rarely speaks in public today. In 1965, Schonfeld recall- ed, Henry Siegman, then Synagogue Council head, now executive director of the American Jewish Congress, "asked me to become the chairman of the inter- religious affairs committee. I went to the Ray, and he said, `We don't need it: " "In 1967, when I was ask-