COMMUNITY VIEWS

The Search For Meaning
Impacts Our lives

self but is defined by relationships.
hen I learned that
One does not fill a human vacuum
Viktor E. Frankl had
because that vacuum is not an empti
died I felt that I had lost
ness in a sense, but a lack of purpose.
an old friend. No, I
Studies
that Frankl did indicate that
never met Frankl in person, nor heard
60
percent
of Americans are dealing
him speak, but his book Man's Search
with the vacuum they feel.
for Meaning, which has sold over nine
Advertising understands this com-
million copies, had a profound impact
pletely. They sell billions of dollars of
on me when I first read it.
products based on how you
Frankl, in many ways, is the
look, having fun, living for the
third of the Viennese schools
here and now, show you that a
dealing with "psychotherapy."
particular
car or kind of shoes
Frankl freely admits that he has
makes
you
acceptable, utiliz-
appreciated the works of Freud
ing sports stars and other
and Adler, but is somewhat
celebrities to hawk goods.
critical of what has been done
Other aspects of the
in their names. He developed
attempts to fill that vacuum
the concept of "logotherapy"
THE REV.
and a sense of meaninglessness
which was a carefully chosen
JAMES
R.
include heavy overeating, abuse
idea, for the word "logos"
LYONS
of
alcohol and the constant
means "spirit" as well as
Special
search to create ourselves. Visit
"word." It is in talking and in
to The
any bookstore where the num-
the understanding of spirituali-
Jewish News ber of "self help" books and
ty that meaning is ultimately
tapes indicate the perceived
found.
need
for meaning in life. The
Reading about Frankl's death drove
fundamental
question
is, can we make
me back to re-reading his book, which
ourselves
into
our
image?
In general,
talks about Frankl's experiences in
the
answer
is
no
because
we
are often
Auschwitz, development of logothera-
seeking solutions without dealing with
py and, most importantly for me,
the fundamental problems. If we could,
questions of human existence.
we wouldn't be reading self-help books,
One of the areas in which Frankl
moving from one to the next looking
wrote had to do with the idea of an
for
that meaning.
"existential vacuum." If we don't
Frankl
points out that the real evi-
know who we are or what we are, we
dence
of
an
existential vacuum is bore-
have a vacuum about the very nature
dom. All of us get bored on occasion,
of our being. One does not find one-
but when nothing seems to be of any
James Lyons is the director of the
value and the external pleasures are all
Ecumenical Institute.
that are emphasized, those pleasures,

EDITORS
NOTEBOOK

Comments From
The Real World

Pluralism issues are
flowing over.

PHIL JACOBS
Editor

Vivian Stollman is
not a big mover- or
shaker in our com-
munity. She is, how-
ever, a person who
typifies an important
feeling that is out

there in the "real world."
Tuesday night, I went over to
Congregation Shaarey Zedek to sit in
on the Dennis Prager presentation,
sponsored by Shaarey Zedek and the
Jewish Family Service. I didn't go
there for anything other than to
shmooze with some friends and take
in the speech on "happiness."
Before I even entered the hall, how-
ever, Mrs. Stollman came over to me
and told me that she had something
very important to talk about.
She said that not too very long ago,
the Arabs were the "enemy" of the
Jews. Now, she said, we don't need the
Arabs, because the Jews are the ene-
mies of the Jews.
What she was referring to was clear.
The tremendous build-up of pressure
over both non-Orthodox conversion
and the religious council issue within
Israel is pouring over into the
Diaspora. That effect is no longer

no matter what they are, soon become
boring and we need to step up the
intensity of the pleasures in order to
escape the boredom. The abuse carries
to extremes the attempt to block out
our lack of purpose in our lives.
The recent spate of tragic suicides,
the meaninglessness that drives indi-
viduals to physician-assisted suicide,
the problems of being a whole person
strike at the heart of the challenger of
Frankl to us. Interestingly, Frankl does
not provide the
means to
accomplish
inner meaning.
He acknowl-
edges it is there
for each to
develop.
One of the
reasons I like
Frankl was his
recognition of
religion not nar-
rowly defined as
my religion
against your
religion, or my
god against your
god, or even
more, my par-
ticular institu-
tional god is
better than your
institutional god, but rather the near-
ness of God to us. As a survivor of
Auschwitz he could observe, "... a
weak faith is weakened by predica-
ments and catastrophes while a strong

restricted to the board rooms of Jewish
leadership within federations or other
agencies. The feeling of anger and
divisiveness is out of control.
Mrs. Stollman, a West Bloomfield
resident, had an idea that The Jewish
News should list the names and ideol-
ogy of the different Orthodox organi-
zations. Her purpose is simple. She
believes that "mainline" Orthodox
Jews don't accept the exclusion of
Reform or Conservative Jews from
Jewish life within Israel or elsewhere.
She was also quick to say that the
leadership within Reform and
Conservative Judaism needs to be less
inclined to generalize that all
Orthodox Jews support this sort of
exclusion.
"There is enough dislike in this
world," she said. "We don't have to do
it to one another."
Her other concern is Israel and its
survival. The pluralism issue adds

faith is strengthened by them."
Reflecting on his camp experiences,
he writes, "From all of this we may
learn that there are two races of men
in the world, but only these two —
the 'race' of decent men and the 'race'
of the indecent men. Both are found
everywhere, they penetrate into all
groups of society. No group consists
entirely of decent or indecent people."
It struck me immediately that in
every group I have ever worked with
there are the
nay-sayers and
the manipula-
tors, as well as
the yea-sayers
and the doers.
There are those
who talk, but
don't "walk the
walk." There are
those who know
what is best and
will use any
means to get
that argument
forward, and
there are those
who are con-
stantly growing
based on their
principles and
understanding of
life.
So, in my inadequate way, I am
saying thank you to Viktor E. Frankl
for raising on-going human questions
and pointing in directions which may
help us all.

❑

another level of stress to this already
burdened nation.
Mrs. Stollman didn't talk to me to
get her name in the paper. She didn't
even want to see her name in this col-
umn. She needed to be heard, howev-
er.
In a lot of ways, Mrs. Stollman's
voice is the voice of moderation
among our neighbors. Her love for
Israel and for the Jewish people is
pure.
There are many people within our
community who share Mrs. Stollman's
concern and caring. They have
"walked for Israel," bought Israel
Bonds, been on missions and, most
importantly, taught their children that
Israel is precious and critical to the
survival of the Jewish people. Now
they wonder, they truly want to know,
if Israel will even recognize them as
Jews.
WORLD on page 27

11/21
1997

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