R American Jewish philanthropy was tested as never before on behalf of Operation Exodus, a $420 million effort to resettle Soviet Jews in Israel and America. By year's end, predictions for resettlement in Israel in the next few years reached the billions of dollars. The Testing Of American Jewish Philanthropy A merican Jewry this year launched an unprecedented campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry resettlement. And while the dollars raised were impressive, the questions raised remain unanswered — namely whether the community is prepared to sustain the emergency level of philanthropy necessary over the next few years and whether the immi- grants who arrive in America will live Jewish lives. In addition to meeting the costs of resettlement for the 50,000 Soviet Jews expected to come to America annually, local Jewish communities are committed to acculturating them Jewishly and helping to pay for Soviet Jews settling in Israel. Operation Exodus, the United Jewish Appeal's national emergency campaign, was created in January and pledged to raise $420 million over three years from American Jewry for Soviet Jewish resettlement in Israel. An emergency general assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations was held in Miami in early February to determine how communities should be assessed. The delegates agreed on a policy of "equitable col- lective responsibility," or, in simpler terms, for communities to commit to pay their fair share for the resettlement. American Jewish leaders acknowledge that many of the Soviet Jews who came to America in the 1970s were lost to the Jewish com- munity. Though they were provided 52 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1990 for in terms of housing and employ- ment, not enough was done for them in terms of Jewish acculturation. As a result, a number of communities have made a major effort to reach out to the current crop of im- migrants, whose knowledge of and attachment to Judaism is often marginal. Volunteers are being recruited to participate in direct family to family programs, synagogues are providing instructional services and classes, and Jewish communal agencies are encouraging the newcomers to par- ticipate in religious activities. But the major concern is still financial. Communal leaders are worried about going back to con- tributors, after requesting emergency funds this past year, and acknowl- edging that the emergency is more long-term than temporary. Soviet Jews may be leaving the USSR at a rate of more than 150,000 a year for the next five or 10 years. How long will American Jewry continue to bear the burden? And how will community services be affected on the local level? With the U.S. economy approaching a recession, polls indicating that younger American Jews feel less at- tached to Israel and Jewish causes, and Jewish federations worried that centralized giving may have peaked, the ability to maintain the current level of fund-raising — not to men- tion increasing that level — will be a major challenge in the year ahead. ❑ E Making The Talmud More Accessible I he image of a bearded Israeli rabbi discussing the publica- tion of his latest book on "Good Morning America" was unusual enough, but when the American public learned that the book was the Talmud, it was clear that this was a unique event. The rabbi was Adin Steinsaltz, a soft-spoken Jerusalem scholar who has spent the last two decades translating the Talmud, the multi- volumed compilation of the Oral Law, from Aramaic to Hebrew. He is halfway through that mammoth undertaking and now, with Random House as his publisher, has produced the first volume of the English translation of his Hebrew version of the Talmud. As Arthur Magida noted in a Detroit Jewish News cover story on the event, "this was the first time that the Talmud had come out of a major, mainstream publishing house, one with the resources to produce an edition more graphically attractive than many that had preceded it — and the resources to mount a full- scale promotion for the Talmud, a peculiar turn of events given that the Talmud has survived reasonably well minus a media blitz for about 1,300 years." The Steinsaltz English Talmud has been greeted by hosannas from some Jewish leaders who are hopeful that making the Talmud more accessible to American Jews may spur a re- newed interest in Jewish study. The Talmud is the source of Jewish law whose study has been the base of Jewish religious life for centuries. But until now, its Aramaic text and complexities of logic have made it almost solely the domain of scholars. It is those scholars who are most skeptical about Rabbi Steinsaltz's ef- forts. Many Orthodox rabbis see the Steinsaltz Talmud, be it in Hebrew or English, as a crutch, a Cliff Notes summary, rather than an authentic textual experience. They scoff at the media attention, including full page ads from Random House in the New York Times pro- claiming: "Read It. Study It. Treasure It. As you never could before." Still, the fact remains that one million copies of Rabbi Steinsaltz's Hebrew translation of the Talmud are in print. He has translated 21 volumes of an anticipated 40-volume set. It is expected to take the rabbi, who is 52, another 15 years to com- plete the project. As for the English translation, Random House reported sales of 25,000 of the Talmud, now in its third printing. And a second volume is due out next year. Clearly, the interest in the Stein- saltz Talmud in English is an indica- tion that there are numbers of Jews seeking to connect with their Jewish heritage. Whether they will delve into, or simply read, the Talmud, and whether that experience leads them to further Jewish study, remains to be seen. In the meantime, Rabbi Steinsaltz sits in his Jerusalem of- fice, chipping away at the notion that the wisdom of the Talmud is out of bounds to every Jew. EJ Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, translator of the Talmud into Hebrew for the last two decades, was in America to promote his translation of a volume in English, published by Random House amidst extensive media attention.