I PURELY COMMENTARY
I
1 1 11
YOIN
for the
ANNUAL LUBAVITCH
FOUNDATION DINNER
HONORING
Our Children Are Trustees
Of Our Posterity
,
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
O
ur aspirations and
deep-rooted wishes
for blessings and suc-
cesses in oncoming years en-
courage advance salutations
for Rosh Hashanah. There is
so much to hope for in 5753
that we can begin to pro-
claim it a few days ahead.
Sidney & Jewel Fields
Co-founder, Zack & Fields, C.P.A.
Advisory Council, Synagogue Campus
Dr. Eric & Sarah Gordon
President, Congregation Beth Achim
President, I.D.E.A.
Larry and Lois Nichamin
President, Progressive Linen Service
Advisory Council, Synagogue Campus
•
Sunday, September 20, 1992
Elul 22, 5752
The Grand Manor at Fairlane
Hors D'Ouevres
Exhibition 5 P.M. & Dinner 6 P.M.
Guest Speaker
Elie Wiesel
Nobel Laureate, Author and
Human Rights Activist
Dinner Chairman
Florine Mark
President, Weight Watchers Group
For more information, Please call
737-7000
38
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1992
0
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The Jewish Spirit always
proclaims such with courage
and confidence "Netzak
Israel — the eternity of our
people." There is always the
awareness of the threats and
dangers, the obstacles and
errors. Nevertheless, there
is also the faith in the high
goals of Jewish life.
Americans are now enroll-
ing as actors in the great
drama of the day of judg-
ment, the selecting of our
next president. Priority
should be our commitments
as citizens and as devoted
Jews to establish a peaceful
society for Jews, Israelis and
their fellow citizens in the
hitherto embattled Middle
East.
There is no limit to the
commitments to the New
Exodus. In the scores of new
embattled areas in the
world, the emphasis on
Yugoslavia and the
spreading of revived anti-
Semitism in the Russian
spheres where crumbling
Communism does not mean
reduction in Jewish hatred,
there are rescue movements
of oppressed Jews which will
never be abandoned. These
positive duties are major in
our concerns.
There is still the increas-
ing demand for the con-
sideration of obstacles that
reduce the glory of Netzah
Israel. In one of his novels,
Benjamin Disraeli wrote an
inspiring definition in deal-
ing with our obligations to
our youth.
The youth of a nation
are the trustees of pos-
terity.
Are we preparing such
trusteeship properly? The
admitted decline of progress
in our educational systems is
causing an impressive con-
cern. A menacing growth of
indifference toward our
needs is a matter not to be
ignored. The vastly increas-
ing intermarriage rate is
damaging.
B'nai B'rith Women have
just announced the publica-
tion of a volume by Sunie
Levin under the title Winged
Roots: A Guide to Jewish
Grandparents of Interfaith
Grandchildren.
Many problems emerge
and we are advised of do's
and don't's:
Do talk frankly with the
parents about how you
plan to transmit your
religious heritage to the
grandchildren.
Do assure the parents
that you will not try to
"convert" the child to your
religious beliefs. Let your
children know that you
wish to share your heri-
tage with your grand-
children, but that you ac-
cept and respect their way
of doing things in their
home.
Do take your grandchild
to synagogue and to life-
cycle events, with the ap-
proval of the parents. Ex-
plain beforehand the ob-
jects and rituals the child
will see and the rules of
decorum for the event.
Don't compete with the
non-Jewish grandparents
by scheduling family
events on Christmas or
other non-Jewish holidays.
Don't shun celebratory
dinners at the home of
your children or the other
grandparents.
Don't compete with the
non-Jewish spouse over
the child's religious in-
struction. You may not
agree with the choice, but
you don't get a vote.
With every grandparent
there is probably another
reaction and personal con-
cern affecting mind, heart
and the striving for comfort
and a measure of spiritual
uplifting.
In our anxiety in an-
ticipating our youth as
trustees of our future, we are
learning fast that the proper
education of our children is
our most important duty
now, in the oncoming year of
5753 and always.
In response to this
challenge, we must think
again about our earlier ex-
periences. The London Jew-
ish Chronicle carried a series
of articles which emphasized
the demand for actions
under the headline, "Don't
Make Fools of Our Chil-
dren."
We are experiencing new
conditions under which Jew-
ish schools are not prosper-
ing; Jewish education is
frightfully minimized. We
are under the impact of a re-
vised slogan; "Don't Make
Fools Jewishly of Our Chil- '-
dren."
If there is to be any kind of
motto as a duty in the on-
coming years, this would be
the saddest of all. It cannot
be ignored and is certainly
accompanied by the deep-
rooted hope that it will be
short lived in a demanding a
solution. ❑
NEWS I
CL,
Two Are Arrested
In D.C. Haiti Protest
Washington (JTA) — Two
Jews associated with the
American Jewish Com-
mittee were among scores of
people arrested in front of
the White House this week
during a protest against the
Bush administration's policy
of repatriating Haitian refu-
gees.
Arrested, fined and later
released were Hyman
Bookbinder, AJCommittee's
former Washington repre-
sentative, and Judy Golub,
the agency's legislative di-
rector.
Tens of thousands have
fled Haiti for the United
States since a military junta
in September 1991 over-
threw the democratically
elected president, Jean-
Bertrand Aristide. Nearly
30,000 refugees have been
sent back to Haiti after be-
ing kept on a U.S. naval base
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Last May, President Bush
ordered that Haitians
intercepted at sea be return-
ed to Haiti without any
effort to determine first
whether they are eligible for
political asylum.
They are supposed to apply
for asylum at the U.S. Em-
bassy in Haiti, a policy its
critics say places their lives
in danger from attacks by
the military.
Jewish organizations have
protested the policy.