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JEWISH NEWS T-SHIRT 27676 Franklin Road Southfield, Mich. 48034 NAME This offer is for new subscriptions only. Current subscribers may order the T-shirt for $4.75. Allow four weeks for delivery. 12 ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP (Ctrcle One) 1 year: S31 2 years: '52 Out of State: '41 enclosed $ (Circle One) ADULT EX. W. ADULT LARGE, ADULT MED. CHILD LARGE CHILD MED. CHILD SMALL FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1991 'Under The Cross' Continued from Pagel child's growth and maturity than all of the Catholic subliminality. The Russian communists scored a victory with what they accomplished in brain- washing the mother of the ar- ticle's Russian girl, who we suppose gave up the "wonder- ful future" that her daughter could have had under com- munist rule — sans freedom of religion — to come to a country which protects her choice of religions so strong- ly that she can choose to put her daughter into an anti- Jewish setting. Look who's having the last laugh now, comrade! One young man who graduated from the co-ed Catholic high school (whose parents also rejected the "traditional" Jewish school systems) is described as equally proficient in Catholic prayers as in Hebrew ones. How can that be, when he has spent so many more hours per week during the past nine years exposed to Catholic prayers than to Hebrew texts! This is the same person who is quoted as saying, "If I wanted, I could be Catholic in a minute. I know all the prayers, all the rules." This suggests that religious preference is like a light switch on the wall. Flip it up when you want to experience Judaism, down for Cathol- sicism. Isn't there any kind of commitment to religious val- ues in the Catholic religion? There most certainly is in ours! That's why that worn- out comment about how these teens will make (adequate?) Jewish adults because "they know that they are Jews" sickens me with its lack of consolation. How do they know that they are Jews? Is it because of the third seder that their family attends at the local church in the name of ecumenicism .. . or the Chanukah party that they reluctantly attend "just to show our faces" on their way to the high school's holi- day party on the eve of December 25? Or is it via the three days of shiva that the family begrudgingly allows in memory of the old-fashioned grandparent who died and will no longer be around to re- mind them of their Jewish identity? Is it because of the anti- Semitic slogans chanted on rare occasions by their peers who were merely "parroting their parents' opinions" about Jewish people? Hashem! Are you weeping over these victims who don't even recognize that they are victims? For 2,000 years our people have been persecuted in the name of he who is nailed to the cross. (Let's repeat the historic fact again, for the benefit of those who just join- ed us: crucifixion was never a Jewish method of punish- ,ment, but it very much was a Roman method.) It is a pock upon the memory of the thousands of thousands who were mas- sacred by the Crusaders, and in the pogroms of Middle- Ages Europe, and yes, during the Holocaust, when the then-Pope refused to exercise his influence to save the countless Jewish lives which history believes could have been saved — had they but forsaken the faith of their grandparents! As for the young man who is planning to spend several weeks in Israel this summer, before returning to the U. of D. for his senior year — this vacation in the land of our forefathers is not going to replace the years of void in his Jewish soul. To believe other- wise is to __ portray the Talmud's classic example of futility in attempting to purify one's self (toveyl v'sharetz b'yado) i.e., one who immerses in the ritual bath while grasping an impure ob- ject in his hand. It would be meaningful for The Jewish News to run a follow-up story on the same half-dozen subjects of the "Cross" article 10 years down the road. Will they all then be fully active in the "Jews for J." movement, which accor- ding to the July 5 feature has its pews fed by former Oak Parkers and the like who also grew up lacking "traditional" Jewish values. , Or will they have married non-Jewish mates, resulting in the fulfillment of their parents' expections (hopes?) . . . parents, who by the way "won't sit shiva over it." That was one of the obvious barbs of ridicule directed by an "Under The Cross" parent towards the ancient tradition still practiced by the im- migrants of the last genera- tion whose children fully assimilated into American society by marrying- out of the faith (go see The Jazz Singer). Ten years from now, will they still "know that they are Jewish"? Will they care? ❑ P.S. — What will be the Jewish Federation's response when the Catholic diocese ap- plies for educational funds on the grounds that their church-funded schools are providing quality education to children of the Jewish community?