N ws COMMUNITY TAY SACHS SCREENING PROGRAM October 25 10 a.m. TO 1 p.m. Sinai Hospital's Berry Health Center 28500 Orchard Lake Road Farmington Hills New Rabbi Installed In Czechoslovakia Tay Sachs is a rare genetic disease that a baby inherits from both parents which causes progressive destruction of the central nervous system and death by age five. There is no cure for the disease. Most carriers are Jews of Eastern European descent. You should be tested if you are over age 17, considering marriage or pregnancy, or had been tested for the disease prior to 1980. No appointments are necessary for the screening. The cost is $10. This event is sponsored by the Sinai Hospital Guild, the Sinai department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Jolson AZA Chapter of the Michigan Region B'nai B'rith Youth Organization. For more information, call Robin Gold at 493-6060. w A 6i3 SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE ig METRO DETROIT'S VOLUME HONDA DEALER WHY BUY HERE? NO GIMMICKS, NO GAMES A A 1. SATURDAY SALES & SERVICE 2. FREE LOANER CARS* 3. WE CAN BEAT ALL DEALS WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD IFERNO4ILE ON to 21350 WOODWARD • FERNDALE 548-6300 (3 Blks. N. of 8 Mile Rd.) *Some restrictions may apply A AV S 3AVS 011/111VS 3AVS NIAVS z Prague (JTA) — In a 75- minute ceremony just before Rosh Hashanah services Sept. 27, Karol Sidon was formally installed as the rabbi of Prague before a standing-room-only au- dience at the city's ornate Jubilee synagogue. Rabbi Sidon, 50, filled the gap left when the previous rabbi, Daniel Mayer, was forced to resign two years ago following revelations of his links with the local secret police. In an address at his in- stallation, Rabbi Sidon — who was a well-known dissident playwright before becoming involved in Jewish studies at the end of the 1970s — stressed the impor- tance of knowing and caring about Jewish traditions. As rabbi of Prague — and the only rabbi in the Czech republic — Rabbi Sidon will be the spiritual leader of a Jewish community facing many problems as it copes with the transition from life under communism to life under democracy. "Are you sure you only have one day to talk about our problems?" Rabbi Sidon joked in an interview a few days before his installation. The Prague Jewish com- munity numbers about 1,500 (out of a total of about 3,000 in the Czech republic), most of whom are elderly Holo- caust supTivors. However, the community has divisions and sometimes friction among the strictly Orthodox, liberal and Reform currents. "My first goal is to help the community to be Jewish, to help these people feel that they are part of the Jewish nation," Rabbi Sidon said. "When Israel came out of Egypt, first they felt them- selves a nation, and then they got the Torah at Sinai," he said. "I want first that (Prague Jews) feel that they belong to the entire Jewish people. There is no nation without the Torah and no Torah without the nation. You can't divide them." One of the most pressing problems facing the com- munity involves Jewish identity. Many younger community members, in- cluding some who are the most active in community affairs, are children of mar- riages in which the mother is not Jewish and thus are not considered Jewish under traditional Jewish law. "Most members of the kehilla (community) are Or- thodox," said Rabbi Sidon. "That's OK. But in the future, the kehilla will build on young people, on assimi- lated people — my genera- tion and my children's ge- neration. "They are returning to Judaism but don't know anything," he said. Rabbi Sidon said he has al- ready held meetings with more than two dozen people who have "been waiting for years" to be formally con- verted to Judaism, and had arranged to hold weekly study groups with them to prepare the way. "It won't be just for those who want to convert — but for others, too, to learn about Judaism," Rabbi Sidon said. "The focus will be on re- ligious observance, simple things." Rabbi Sidon knows the problems and pitfalls of returning to Judaism from his own experience. Though The previous rabbi was linked to the secret police.. he says he grew up feeling Jewish, he is the son of a Jewish father and a non- Jewish mother. His father was killed by the Nazis in the Terezin con- centration camp in 1944 and as a toddler, Rabbi Sidon was forced to stay in hiding. Eventually, his mother remarried another Jewish man. He underwent formal con- version to Judaism in 1978. Rabbi Sidon was a well- known writer and playwright in the 1970s and along with Vaclav Havel was one of the founders of the dissident Charter 77 movement in 1977. Increasingly involved in Judaism and Jewish studies, he left Czechoslovakia after his conversion because of his political views and in order to move to Germany to con- tinue Judaic studies. "I didn't think I had enough strength to be a rabbi," he said. "I thought I'd finish my studies and then be a teacher." After the 1989 revolution in Czechoslovakia, however, and the forced resignation of Rabbi Mayer, the Prague community called on him to go to Israel and complete rabbinical studies in order to return to Prague as rabbi.