NEWS
We need your help
to feed the hungry
Food Bank of Oakland County
150 Osmun
Pontiac, MI 48056
332-1473
YES! I/we want to help provide nutritious food
to the needy of my community.
I/we have enclosed:
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❑ $25
1:i $10
I/we prefer to contribute $
Please send additional envelopes.
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each: ❑ month, ❑ quarter.
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Checks should be made out to
Food Bank of Oakland County
All gifts are tax deductible.
76
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1990
Thanks for your support.
ADL And AJCommittee
Rejoin Interfaith Group
New York (JTA) — The
International Jewish Coali-
tion on Interreligious Con-
sultations, which is going to
Rome next month to meet
with Pope John Paul II and
Vatican officials, will be a
much stronger and more
representative body than it
has been for the past year
now that two key organiza-
tions have rejoined.
The Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith and
the American Jewish Com-
mittee have been readmitted
to IJCIC, and will be par-
ticipating in the Dec. 5 and 6
meetings.
Both groups resigned
IJCIC — ADL pulled out in
1985 and AJCommittee late
last year — because the
group was not tackling what
they considered essential
theological issues, and be-
cause of internal conflicts
between personalities
within the group, according
to participants.
"Discussions between
IJCIC and Catholic and
Protestant officials then
were general, so general
that they couldn't ever hurt
anyone," recalled Rabbi
Leon Klenicki, director of
ADL's Department of Inter-
faith Affairs. "We pulled out
because we wanted more
substantive meetings.
"We were at a stage of tea
and sympathy; nothing
tachlis, " he said, using the
Yiddish word for substance.
According to ADL Nation-
al Director Abraham Fox-
man, "IJCIC wasn't fulfill-
ing some of our needs and
the needs of the Jewish
community."
AJCommittee, along with
ADL and the American Jew-
ish Congress, went on to
form the Jewish Council for
International Interreligious
Relations, which is now be-
ing dissolved, according to
Rabbi A. James Rudin, na-
tional director of Inter-
religious Affairs for
AJCommittee.
The two projects the Jew-
ish Council had already
organized —separate
meetings with Roman
Catholic and Protestant
leaders in Europe in 1991 —
will be handled by IJCIC.
According to ADL and
AJCommittee represent-
atives, the time was ripe to
seek readmission to IJCIC
because the Vatican-Jewish
relationship has matured,
and because of the recent
changes in Eastern Europe.
IJCIC and the Vatican's
representative body, The
Commission for Religious
Relations With the Jews,
tackled difficult and impor-
tant issues, such as the issue
of anti-Semitism, at the
meeting in Prague in
September.
Fighting increasing anti-
Semitism in the nascent
democracies of Eastern
Europe also became a priori-
ty for ADL and AJCom-
mittee.
"The rapid changes in
Eastern Europe, where the
churches are playing such
an important role in over-
throwing Communism, have
put a lot of emphasis on our
struggle against anti-
Semitism," Rabbi Rudin said.
said.
"The danger of anti-
Semitism requires joint
work," ADL's Rabbi
Klenicki added.
AJCommittee also faced a
recent reorganization, which
The groups had
felt key issues
were ignored.
left fewer resources and staff
people to devote to inter-
religious work.
"We had to look, in this
climate of tremendous
change, to reassess the most
effective way to have impact
in that area," Mr. Rudin
admitted. Being part of
IJCIC "will enrich and
enhance and strengthen our
efforts."
IJCIC chairman Seymour
Reich, who also serves as
chairman of the Conference
of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organiza-
tions, is credited with
"keeping the door open" and
encouraging the two groups
to come back into the fold.
Mr. Reich said that when
he "took over the chairman-
ship a year ago, it was a
goal" to have the two groups
rejoin because "it is good for
the Jewish community. It
strengthens IJCIC," he said.
"IJCIC has demonstrated
that it is viable, that it is
seen by the Christian com-
munity as the vehicle for
dialogue with the Jewish
community," Mr. Reich add-
ed.
He said the rejoining of
ADL and AJCommittee
"permits us to come together
on important subjects to see
if we can work out our own
differences and face the
Christian community
together."