I DETROIT

Jewish Parents Must Deal
With Dilemma Of Halloween

RICHARD PEARL

Staff Writer

A

s Halloween draws
near, many Detroit
area Jewish parents
are facing a dilemma: should
they alloW their children to
trick or treat?
For some, Halloween — also
known as All-Hallows Eve,
the night before All-Saints
Day — is a purely secular,
civil holiday on which their
youngsters dress up in
costumes and collect candy
and other treats from their
neighbors. The parents also
may attend Halloween par-
ties in costume.
For others, Halloween is a
pagan holiday with an anti-
Semitic history which
precludes their or their
children's participation.
Perhaps in the middle are
those who don't participate
but do provide treats to those
who ring their doorbells.

"We found alternatives,
like taking the kids to a
shopping mall. But last year,
12 Oaks Mall was closed on
Halloween, so we took them
to a restaurant to avoid peo-
ple coming to the door," said
Hillel parent Dr. Bob
Lubin. "We left a bowl of
candy outside our door with
a note saying 'Sorry we can't

"We stress Purim.
If you give a good
Purim, you don't
need Halloween."

Rabbi Meilich Silberberg.

be here, please take one can-
dy apiece.'"
This year, Dr. Lubin is
looking for another alter-
native to Halloween.
"We would feel hypocrit-
ical letting our children
celebrate Halloween," he
said.

Maccabi Head Named
Beth Achim Exec

PHIL JACOBS

Assistant Editor

D

uring the recent
summer months,
Beth Robinson spent
most of her day in a T-shirt,
shorts and sneakers while
coordinating the JCC-
Maccabi games in the base-
ment of the Maple-Drake
facility.
These days, however, for
Ms. Robinson, 26, it's busi-
ness suits and heels. And
why should it be anything
but that when you are the
newly appointed executive
director of Beth Achim Syn-
agogue in Southfield? She's
even out of the JCC base-
ment, working instead in a
bright yellow executive di-
rector's office with its own
window. With the appoint-
ment, Ms. Robinson is the
first woman to hold the Beth
Achim post.
"The people here have
been wonderful to me," Ms.
Robinson said. "I think the
position fits well with what I
want to do with my career. I
wanted to be in Detroit and
preferably work within the
Jewish community."
There was speculation at
the end of the summer that
Ms. Robinson, who received
much of the credit for the

Beth Robinson, Beth Achim's new
executive director

success of the Maccabi
Games, would move to
Baltimore to help organize
and coordinate the 1992
Maccabi Games there. Ms.
Robinson declined the offer
and decided to stay in
Detroit.
Rabbi Martin Berman said
that the appointment of Ms.
Robinson was a good one,
and that he was looking for-
ward to working with the
Farmington Hills resident.
"She seems to have a good
feel for working with a
synagogue that has a
traditon of very involved lay
leadership. Her background
should stand her in good
stead."

❑

Dr. Lubin recalled that,
during a stay in California,
his children attended a
Solomon Schechter School
which sent out notices that
Halloween was not to be
observed.
Hillel will not send out
notices, but will let parents
know of options available to
them.
"Rabbinic opinions are
varied on the issue of
celebrating the holiday,"
said Dr. Mark Smiley,
headmaster of Hillel Day
School. "It is clear that one
is required to be a good
neighbor in any case."
Dr. Smiley said Hillel
"neither condemns nor con-
dones the celebration of
Halloween. We are well
aware that many Conser-
vative Jewish leaders have
begun to question the ap-
propriateness of children go-
ing out trick or treating for
the holiday. However, as
Conservative Jews, we are
required to struggle with liv-
ing in a pluralistic society."
One option is the gather-
ing at Congregation B'nai
David. Begun several years
ago when Oct. 31 fell on a
Friday night, thereby
disturbing Shabbat, it
evolved last year into the
kosher supper which drew
45 people.
"It's a very informal kind
of thing, not a Jewish
reverse celebration of
Halloween," said synagogue
board member and supper
organizer Michael Traison.
He said attendees are a mix
of Young Israel and B'nai
David congregants, people
who share the desire to be
away from the constant
interruption of ringing
doorbells.
For Harriet Mall, another
parent with children at
Hillel, "It's a question of
values, of what we are
teaching our children.
Halloween teaches the kids
to dress up in a costume and
scare people and take things
from them. Judaism teaches
they should give to other
people with a full heart and
not be consumed with what
they get in return."
One person who has in-
vestigated the holiday's re-
ligious history and rabbinic
response in depth is Nancy
Kaplan of West Bloomfield.
Among the things she
leas ied was that the ancient
Roman festival of Pomona,
which became one of the
sources for All-Saints Day,

featured a masquerade in
which two actors portrayed
Esau and Jacob, with the
Esau actor wearing a mask
made of the skin of the mar-
tyred Rabbi Ishmael.
Although she acknowl-
edges no such feature ap-
parently ever made it into
All-Saints Day, she decided
she didn't want anything to
do with any holiday drawn
even remotely from such a
source.
Mrs. Kaplan, whose
daughter attends Hillel, un-
successfully tried to organize
an alternative program with
Jewish Experiences For
Families (JEFF) at the Jew-
ish Community Center.
"We are in the business of
helping out with authentic
Jewish experiences, such as
enriching Jewish holiday
experiences," said Harlene
Appelman, JEFF direc-
tor."It's not our mission to
respond to the gentile calen-
dar."
Rabbi Meilech Silberberg
of Bais Chabad of West
Bloomfield said traditional

Jews abstain from
celebrating Halloween be-
cause "at best it is a viola-
tion of the spirit of Judaism,
at worst a violation of Jew-
ish law. One isn't supposed
to have any part in celebra-
tions of paganism.
"Most Jews who do par-
ticipate in it say it's for fun.
But most of the candy isn't
kosher, so how are you going
to tell a kid to throw away 80
percent of the candy he's col-
lected?
"And if you say it's just
fun for kids to do, can you
say the same thing about
Christmas, and then - where
are you?" asked the rabbi.

Rabbi Marc Volk of Akiva
Hebrew Day School said the
school does not offer any
program on Halloween
"because its origin is Chris-
tian. We probably have no
children getting involved in
Halloween. The emphasis
here would be on Purim be-
cause that's a Jewish holi-
day and with a totally diff-
erent connotation." 111

Federation To Begin
Educational Change

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

T

he Jewish Welfare
Federation board of
governors on Tuesday
accepted the Tauber Com-
mission report calling for
major changes in the
delivery of local Jewish edu-
cation.
The action paves the way
for hiring a national consul-
tant to work with area edu-
cational organizations, to
propose programs and
outline costs.
"In nine months to a year,
the consultant will tell us,
`Here's where we want to go
and here's what it will
cost,' "said Joel Tauber,
former Federation president
and chair of the commission

which studied Detroit's Jew-
ish educational systems for
the last three years.
Larry Ziffer, Federation's
director of planning and
agency relations, said Fed-
eration President Mark
Schlussel will appoint an
implementation committee
to oversee the process. Mr.
Ziffer expects a consultant to
be hired by the end of the
year and an initial report
presented to Federation by
September 1991.
When the Tauber Com-
mission announced its report
last spring, it called for
sweeping changes in edu-
cation delivery and increased
emphasis on adult Jewish
education and informal
education.

❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 15

