I PROFILE
THE ZIONIST ORGANIZATION
OF AMERICA
Metropolitan Detroit District
INVITES
YOU TO
In His Image
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin left New York to
create a lifestyle of Jewish tolerance in
Israel.
MICHAEL FARBOWITZ
Special to The Jewish News
THE MOST EAGERLY AWAITED
MUSICAL EVENT OF
THE FALL SEASON
PLAN NOW TO ATTEND:
Sunday, November 4, 1990, 7:30 p.m.
Masonic Temple Auditorium
FABULOUS STAR-STUDDED SHOW
YEHORAM GAON
World-Acclaimed Actor,
Singer
Israel's foremost pop musical
artist, Yehoram Gaon played
the lead in "Kazablan," Israel's
longest running hit musical.
He has recorded 27 albums
and is the top star of Israeli
radio, television and motion
pictures.
THE RUSSIAN RHYTHMS OF KOLAN
Stars of "From Russia to Israel With Love," Kolan is a folklore ensemble
of Israel famous for its rich repertoire of Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew
songs. Led by Avi Shilo and featuring the renowned Yelena Levinsky,
the group is made up of four singers and a pianist, all recently arrived
Russian emigrants to Israel.
MAX SOSIN master of ceremonies
MACK Pt1 . 1 musical conductor
FOR RESERVATIONS PHONE 569-1515
or write to the
ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA
Zionist Cultural Center
18451 W. 10 Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48075
Rabbi M. Robert Syme, President Metro Detroit District
Sidney Silverman, National President, ZOA
72
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1990
n
oes Rabbi Shlomo
Riskin have his head
in the clouds? He
dreams of peaceful coex-
istence between Jew and
Arab, and between religious
and secular Jews. He dreams
of a city of educational in-
stitutions that endeavor to
bridge the gap between re-
ligious and secular studies.
But unlike other
dreamers, the American-
born rabbi has a long list of
accomplishments, in Israel
and America, focused toward
those lofty goals.
Pursuing a lifelong dream,
he left the pulpit of a promi-
nent New York congregation
seven years ago for a de-
veloping town in the Judean
hills. Today, Rabbi Riskin,
whose weekly column on the
Torah portion appears in the
Baltimore Jewish Times, is
the Chief Rabbi of Efrat, a
fast-growing Jerusalem
suburb of 450 families. He
can also boast of Ohr Torah,
an education network he
founded that now enrolls
over 1000 students in
various programs each year.
"It was the best decision I
ever made," says Rabbi
Riskin of his move to Israel.
"My quality of life has risen
tremendously since I came to
Israel. I have a very close,
connected sense of place
here. I feel that here, the
Jewish issues that we're
dealing with are far, far
broader."
During an interview, the
enthusiastic rabbi, whose
youthful looks belie his 50
years, reflects on why he
chose to give up a successful
rabbinate in New York to
settle in Israel.
"American Jewry is very
narrowly defined in terms of
ritual," he says. Orthodox
Jews in America discuss
which tuna fish has the
proper kosher supervision,
while in Israel they deal
with broader, more fun-
damental issues, he sug-
gests.
"Here you deal with peace
and war, how to treat the Pa-
lestinians, religious and non
religious. Here, suddenly
Michael Farbowitz, a former
editorial intern at the
Baltimore Jewish Times,
studied at a yeshiva in Efrat
for several months earlier this
year.
Judaism has something to
say about society," he says.
`In America I felt I was
struggling for Jewish sur-
vival. In Israel, I feel that I
can reach out for Jewish
redemption."
All this from a rabbi whose
struggle against assimila-
tion was well known. Rabbi
Riskin's tenure at New
York's Lincoln Square Syn-
agogue on Manhattan's
upper West Side was an un-
precedented success. He
founded the synagogue in
1964 and helped it grow
from a Conservative prayer
group of 15 people in a small
apartment to an Orthodox
congregation with over 3000
members. At their peak, his
adult education classes at-
tracted 1600 students each
"I don't want the
Arab villagers to
give up their
homes. I don't
think I, or the
people in Samaria,
should be asked to
give up their
homes."
— Rabbi Shlomo Riskin
week. Rabbi Riskin's and
Lincoln Square's success
sparked a modern Orthodox
renaissance on the Upper
West Side, and served as a
model for the return of pro-
fessional young Jews to the
fold.
"Rabbi Riskin has the
unusual and perhaps even
unique ability to touch and
inspire Jews from all ends of
the religious spectrum to an
unswerving commitment to
living according to
Halachah," says Dr. Peter
Abelow, a former member of
Lincoln Square.
Yet in 1983, at the age of
43, Rabbi Riskin, his wife
Vicky and four children gave
it all up for the unknown.
They gave up family,
friends, the congregation,
the adult education classes,
and the potential to reach
thousands of assimilated
Jews, all for a dusty hill on
the historic road between
Jerusalem and Hebron that
would one day be the city of
Efrat.
"It wasn't easy to leave,