The Message
Continued from preceding page
leaders as well. He says he
gets nervous during this
time of year.
"You begin to examine
yourself," he says. "As a
rabbi, I question myself. I
want to see if I have ad-
vanced in a year and where
I stand with my own pro-
fessional life. All these
things are important."
Rabbi Sleutelberg
R
abbi Arnie Sleutelberg
believes the High Holi-
day sermon is "overrated"
and says he'd much rather
"create a congregation that
is much more concerned
with individual prayer, self-
assessment, self-growth and
teshuva (repentance)."
Still, the spiritual leader
of Congregation Shir
Tikvah in Troy, does admit
that the subject matter for
his High Holiday sermon
starts creeping into his
consciousness in early
June.
"No matter what I'm do-
ing, I think about it," he
says. "I could be reading,
eating or even camping,
the subject matter comes
up."
Rabbi Sleutelberg does
not, however, write a long,
laborious speech. Instead,
he keeps his thoughts well
organized, and delivers his
sermons in a more casual
way.
"I see my role as a
teacher, motivator and so-
cial activist," he says.
"And I don't think that a
sermon is a sermon unless
it has an active goal. And
hopefully after the sermon
is heard, people will feel
like getting up and doing
something."
The rabbi says he will be
taking a critical and analy-
tical look at what is hap-
pening in Israel, especially
when it comes to Soviet
emigration and the Persian
Gulf. He also says he views
the sermon as almost a
State of the Union address,
a chance for the rabbi once
a year to get behind the
pulpit and really talk
about what is on his mind.
"We don't have that
great orator at our con-
gregation, that's not my
goal," he says.
"I want to be more
casual, more hamish. My
style is to involve the con-
gregation. Half of our ser-
vices will be led by lay peo-
ple. But again, I want it
stressed that the emphasis
is not on the sermon; it's on
prayer and genuine
teshuvah. That's what I'm
trying to accomplish dur-
ing these High Holi-
days." ❑
""'""1 NEWS I
Knesset
Seeks Reforms
Jerusalem (JTA) — Four
Knesset members of various
political hues have con-
solidated their individual
bills for electoral reform into
a single measure calling for
the direct election of the
prime minister.
The combined bill was in-
troduced in the Knesset Law
Committee ,becoming the
first attempt at reform since
the Likud-led coalition
government took office in
June.
But there is strong opposi-
tion from groups that fear
the proposed changes could
lead to a dictatorship.
The Knesset members,
Uriel Lynn of Likud, David
Libai of Labor, Yoash Zidon
of Tsomet and Amnon
Rubinstein of the Center-
Shinui Movement, in-
troduced separate electoral
reform bills in March.
Each passed its first
reading in the Knesset, but
dropped out of sight after the
Likud-Labor unity govern-
ment fell on March 15.
The four parliamentarians
joined forces to hammer out
a single bill, which they
hope will have a better
chance of scaling the re-
maining Knesset hurdles.
But Dr. Arye Carmon,
head of the Israel Institute
for Democracy, calls it "one
of the most dangerous bills
ever prepared in Israel."
Mr. Carmon, himself a
longtime campaigner for
electoral reform, warned, "If
the bill passes in letter and
spirit, it may prove to be the
means for a dictator to be
elected in entirely democrat-
ic elections."
The four sponsors rejected
such alarms at a symposium
in Tel Aviv. They pointed
out that while their bill
would grant the prime min-
ister wider powers by reduc-
ing his dependence on coali-
tion partners, the Knesset
would be given broader
powers to balance them.
The reform bill would re-
quire the Knesset to ratify
international conventions
and incorporate them into
the legal code.
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33