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New Year
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SINCE 1922
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Women's Groups
Continued from preceding page
the separate communities or
of the outstanding scholars of
the generations? Are women
to be seriously encouraged to
achieve independent realms
of religious expression in both
the areas of study of Torah
and liturgy? Finally, how is
community practice to be
established in a charged, con-
flictual atmosphere where
each side believes that it is ac-
ting in the interest of serving
God?
One need not agree with
every argument made in this
book in order to recognize the
essential halachic acceptabili-
ty of women's prayer groups.
Indeed, much more will need
to be taught and written
before some of these issues
develop a sufficient consensus
and clarity to be beyond fur-
ther significant debate.
However, it would be an enor-
mous advance if Rabbi Weiss'
Special to The Jewish News
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154
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991
American Red Cross
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❑
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.
Personal Orthodoxy
Raises A Conflict
ELLI WOHLGELERNTER
A tZ.)
book could put the halachic
issues sufficiently to rest to
enable us to engage in an
open, honest and vigorous
debate on the public policy
questions. Such a debate
would enrich our understan-
ding of the relationship of
Orthodoxy to the spiritual
striving of women, to the
challenges of modernity, to
the absence of central
authority in our communities
and to the degree of our valu-
ing of diversity within
Halachah.
We owe a debt of gratitude
to Rabbi Weiss for the clarity
he has brought to a complex
set of issues. We may come to
owe him an even greater debt
if his work enables us to move
on to a new and invigorating
set of debates on Jewish
public policy issues.
ohn Kennedy, when he
ran for the presidency
in 1960, said that if
ever a conflict arose between
his upholding the Constitu-
tion and his Catholic faith, he
would step down from office.
Ari Goldman confronts a
similar situation. He is torn
between a love and devotion
to his craft, journalism, and a
deeply felt faith, his Orthodox
Judaism. It is no less a quan-
dary for Mr. Goldman than it
' was for Mr. Kennedy.
Mr. Goldman's dilemma is a
unique one, for he practices
his profession working for the
New York Times, the most
powerful and influential
newspaper in the world, and
he is the first Orthodox Jew
to do so.
In The Search For God at
Harvard, Mr. Goldman gives
us three stories at once: his
autobiography, his year at
Harvard and his search for
God. It is a well-written,
skillfully interwoven nar-
rative. But the most compell-
ing read is the subplot: one
man's struggle with his faith
and his desire to remain an
Orthodox Jew in a modern
world.
It is a difficult task. The
pivotal conflict is between the
requirements of his job and
the principles of his religion,
and while the two worlds are
not mutually exclusive — in-
,
Elli Wohlgelernter is the
former managing editor of the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
j
deed, Mr. Goldman makes an
insightful comparison be-
N
tween the construction of a
news story and the composi-
tion of the Talmud — there
are inherent problems in try-
ing to serve two masters.
Mr. Goldman's search and
struggle begin early in life,
but they intensify during his
year at Harvard. In 1985, Mr.
Goldman asked his editors for
a year off to study at the
Divinity School. It would be
an invaluable education, he
argued, and would enable
him to write better stories as
religion reporter at the New
York Times.
Who wouldn't be thrilled to
be able to take his wife and
kid on a year's sabbatical in
Cambridge?
"I loved being in a school
where there were men and
women interested in serving
God and society in an age
when many wanted to serve
only themselves," Mr.
Goldman writes. While there,
he learned, and shares with
the reader in brief chapters, a
little of the basics of Hin- -(
duism, Buddhism, Catholi-
cism, African religions and
Islam.
At the Div School, as it is
called, we also meet a few of
Mr. Goldman's classmates, a
diverse and interesting group,
only to discover; sadly, that
they seem more interested in
politics, sexual and otherwise,
than spirituality. "The
Divinity School sometimes
seemed so devoid of Christian
spirituality," Mr. Goldman
laments.
But all this is secondary.
What the book comes down to