Southfield Jewish Council
Members Step Down

Letters

Can Conversion
Be A Destroyer?

Quietly, two people important not just to the instrumental in the success of the Young Israel
Southfield Jewish community, but to the entire of Southfield's eruv, , or ritual boundary.
It is, perhaps, easy to stack up one achieve-
city, have announced plans to step down.
Southfield City Council members Suzanne ment after another here in this space. But what
Goldstein and Eli Robinson announced last week Mr. Robinson and Ms. Goldstein have done is
that they will not run for re-election this fall. Ms. raise the awareness of the council and the city
Goldstein has been on the council for 16 years. concerning a very active Southfield Jewish com-
Mr. Robinson has served since 1985. Both have munity. For that reason alone, Southfield re-
served stints as president of the council. Indeed, mains a welcoming address for Jews, as it does
Mr. Robinson is the current Southfield City Coun- for African Americans, Chaldeans and all groups,
cil president. His wife, Zelda, served a distin- to be counted as good neighbors. Mr. Robinson
guished career on the Southfield School Board. and Ms. Goldstein can rest assured that they
Both council members worked very hard to en- helped make that happen. For that, we know the
sure the success of the Federation's Neighbor- Jewish community and the city at large is grate-
hood Project. Ms. Goldstein, in particular, was ful.

Jewish Organizations Must
Combat Threat To Refugees

Time is running out.
The Personal Responsibility and Work Op-
portunity Act of 1996 bars non-naturalized
refugees resettled more than five years ago and
legal immigrants from receiving federal means-
tested benefits such as food stamps. Elderly and
disabled non-citizens in these categories will
be barred from the food stamp and Supplemen-
tal Security Income (SSI) programs by Oct. 1.
Now, there is legislation pending on Capitol
Hill that would cut off these refugees from the
SSI program seven years after their arrival, in-
stead of the current five-year limit. This would
give local jurisdictions and agencies such as Jew-
ish federations more time to help elderly immi-
grants prepare for and pass citizenship tests.
But Jewish organizations are clearly vulner-
able for impact because a great percentage of
refugees from the former Soviet Union are el-
derly. There are perhaps more elderly immi-
grants coming from this area to the United States
than any other group of immigrants. And be-
cause their younger relatives often have not yet
been able to build a financial base here, they must

C/)

LLJ

CJD

LL1

THE PROMISED

THE CONTINUING STORY

by i Jordan T B., Gorfinkel

OF JEWISH

IT'S NOT JUST A KeLIG/01/.5
1551.1E, LOUIS - SOC/OZOG/CAllY
IT'S B E TTER NO TO HAVE
PRE•ARIMI 50X. wHAA7A M E AN
JUST ASK ISECCA! •,ASK accA..?

1--

C.)
CC

LIJ

D

LLJ

28

LAND

SO FAR. Louis has dought Ms non,lemsti gene. to The cherfah's—gang's—weekly Friday .01 Shabbat donor at Bub, and Zaycl,

I can't believe we're
talking about this at
the. SHABBAT

I THANK EVERYONE FOR THEIR
HEALTHY INTEREST IN MY Salge,
BUT WORRY NO FURTHER- -
I'VE SOLVED THE PA'0131•041.

MARY ANDS AM 60174/6414R/VA

turn to the Jewish community, which is already
struggling from government cutbacks.
There is infighting between parties and dis-
agreement at almost every level when it comes
to welfare reform. But the political debate in the
comfortable paneled walls of a D.C. chamber are
a far cry from the emptiness of the kitchen cab-
inets of a small apartment.
It is important, therefore, that Jewish orga-
nizations across the United States place them-
selves in a state of readiness instead of reaction.
Without SSI or food stamps, older, frail immi-
grants could find themselves slipping through
the safety net and become at-risk for homeless-
ness.
In cities such as Detroit, for example, the Jew-
ish Federation has already approved funds' ust
in case." May we suggest that 'just in case" isn't
so far-fetched?
We need to be prepared. America's Jewish com-
munities worked so hard to get their Russian
brothers and sisters out. Now, with a threat to
benefits possible, we still need to be there for
them.

BE.

6 EMI

CI :ME

ltenI

Sept

6 Was:

WEL L L ISN'T THERE SOME'
THING YOU'RE 511PPO5EbTO SAY
ON 111/5 5ORT OF OCCA5/0N- - ?

YAEL

ri fr

MOS

Regarding "Answering the Mes-
sage of Jewish Intolerance" by
Caroline Cooper (June 13):
Ms. Cooper found that, when
talking of Reform and Conserva-
tive ideas, some Jews found plen-
ty that they could not tolerate,
especially the format and prac-
tices of these movements.
She called the dispute of tra-
ditional and Orthodox rabbis sim-
ilar to Hillel and Shammai of
2,000 years ago, but failed to note
the overwhelming similarities in
their Jewishness and nationali-
ty — and that both would con-
demn her ideas if Reform and
Conservative had existed at that
time.
Who then are these converted
people in religion and nationali-
ty? Ms. Cooper, for example, cit-
ed "a Jewish woman who has
been converted by a Reform rab-
bi" — but Jews find that she is
not Jewish. Regardless of intent,
the woman remains a gentile and
all her children are gentile.
Unfair? If yes, then the stan-
dards of conversion will have to
change to allow gentiles to play
at becoming part-Jews and in-
doctrinate each other into their
personal form of rabbinic Ju-
daism. -
This means that anything or
anyone can be "Jewish" when a
"rabbi" can put his or her name
to the certificate of conversion.
"Rabbis" can be found to do any-
thing.
Israel, unlike Ms. Cooper's de-
scription, is the one place where
Jews can truly be Jewish or have
religious freedom to be nothing;
and there are many of those. Yet
there are those who believe that
with a little bit of knowledge, they
can enter the scholarly fields of
rabbis.
The alternative of finding a
"Conservative" or "Reform" ver-
sion, no matter how many "rab-
bis" at the head temple in
Cincinnati, New York or else-
where, is understandable but an
admission of failure. Further, it
is not {the rabbi's] followers who
fail; but the Conservative or Re-
form rabbi who has misled his
congregation. He, and increas-
ingly she, may be Jewish but is
in error, for he or she violates the
provision that "Jews shall neither
add or subtract obligations from
the Torah."
In Israel, the voluntary mem-
bers of the shuls and synagogues
are born Jewish or are halachi-
cally converted. They may fail in
kashrut and Shabbat, fail in re-
sisting temptations, fail in hold-

ing tight to the things that are
important to Judaism. But, nev-
ertheless, they are Jewish in re-
ligion and nationality.
Rabbis of nontraditional
groups, as they struggle to gain
acceptance, should at the very
least be denied their ability to
convert. Oinversion means that
anyone can be a Jew and their
numbers and falseness will mul-
tiply to where religion and na-
tionality will be destroyed even
more.
Here then is the issue. Do Jews
allow anyone to convert, using
any method of conversion, allow-
ing just anyone to examine and
test the presumed converted just
so some Jews will be seen as pro-
gressive? For anyone who is with-
in traditional thought, the answer
should be no. If the answer is yes,
then your grandchildren will be
gentile.
Everything is at risk.

Mich2.0. Drissman

Farinin on Hills

The Wall

Core Values
Define Judaism

There cannot be any real justifi-
cation for what happened at the
Kotel on Shavuot; it was a chilull
Hashem, a desecration of God's
name. Truly, violence has no
place at the Kotel, but neither
does provocation.
Today, granting facial validi-
ty to all points of view is expect-
ed; this is called tolerance.
However, should tolerance be
championed at the cost of one's
own integrity?
Indeed, a recent Reform re-
sponsum explained why accep-
tance of messianic Jews and their
congregations could not be ac-
cepted by Reform because of the
incompatibility of the two posi-
CORE page 31

r—/

/