BOOKS Wishing A Healthy & Happy New Year David Wachter & ns AWARD WINNING SINCE 1922 Novi Town Center 347-1600 Downtown Birmingham 540-4622 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 Certified Gemologists • Member American Gem Society Joe Stamell's Dynamic WearMaster 851.3883 FOREIGN CAR SERVICE WHY PAY MORE? mut tie, stru, 32661 Northwestern Farmington Hills FRONT OR REAR BRAKES • All Broke Work Guaranteed • Turn Drums and Rotors • Semi metallic pads extra • Check Hydraulics $49 • Test Drive Car MOST AMERICAN CARS 5 Alignment Wheel Balancing Brakes - Shocks Suspension - Exhaust Foreign & Domestic Cars OPEN MON.-SAT. 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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