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EXPIRES 1/1/98

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

30

"If Israel wanted
to deal with
Jewish unity, I'd
take care of these
Rabbi Eric Yoffie,
issues." — Union
of American

Hebrew Congregations

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1 1 /2 1
1997

A warning came from Rabbi
Jerome Epstein, vice president of the
Conservative movement's United
Synagogue for Conservative Judaism.
This is all happening, he said, when
our people are disengaging from
Israel in North America. For many,
that was their Jewish commitment.
We have to stop fighting."
There are those who would say that
such issues must be delayed to focus
on the stumbling Middle East peace
negotiations. Rabbi Eric Yoffie of the
Reform Movement's Union of
American Hebrew Congregations is
not one of them.
"For 50 years, these issues have
always been moved down the agenda
to take care of other crises," he said.
"Israel has always been a unifying fac-
tor of world Jewry ... If Israel wanted
to deal with Jewish unity, I'd take care
of these issues."

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Reflecting the makeup of delegates,
few Orthodox voices were heard.
Rabbi Jacob Rubinstein, president of
the Rabbinical Council of America, an
Orthodox group, urged restraint and
respect.
"We can't say we are not divided,"
he said. "We are divided, and the divi-
sion's fragmented our family and
turned brother and sister against one
another."
The good news is that Ms. Bagen's
sentiment of cautious optimism was
reflected in other informal conversa-
tions.
"I believe that the pluralism issue is
essentially an Israel-Diaspora issue,
based upon different perceptions of
Judaism and its role in society," Jeffrey
Klein, head of the Federation of Palm
Beach County, Fla., noted in a session
on Israel-Diaspora relations.
In his much-anticipated address,
Mr. Netanyahu saved the largest
chunk of his 20-page speech for the
amorphous Jewish unity concept. He
took pains to ensure that the work of

non-Orthodox rabbis outside of Israel .
does not come into question by his
government.
Prior to the talk, an unattributed
flier being distributed urged, "The
whole world is watching. Respect for
the prime minister does not require
more than applause at the beginning
and end of his remarks."
While interrupted by applause sev-'
eral times on predictable crowd
pleasers such as an undivided
Mr. Netanyahu received a
J
final standing ovation that seemed
perfunctory.
In his address the next day, Labor
party leader Ehud Barak wasted no
time in implying that he was the late
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's legiti-
mate heir.
"His life is gone but his light has not
been extinguished, and I believe the
people of Israel are determined that
Yitzhak Rabin should not have died in
vain," he said to warm applause.
Mr. Barak promised to veto the
pending Conversion Bill, but asked
for the Conservative and Reform
movements in Israel to allow more
time for the issue to work its way out
Mr. Netanyahu, who spent only a
few hours at the G.A., left behind
Finance Minister Yaacov Neeman to
meet with delegates. Mr. Neeman
chairs the prime minister's committee
charged with seeking a compromise
on the matter.
"Let me say very clearly the question
before you is not, 'Who is a Jew?' " he
said in a news conference. "I want to
stress very clearly that a Jew is a Jew no
matter the way he practices, and if he
doesn't practice any of the command-
ments, he is a Jew ... This is the corner-
stone to the solution of any problem."
Mr. Neeman and everyone else at
the G.A. seemed acutely aware that
time may be running out on this divi-
sive issue. Steve Selig, president of the,
Atlanta Jewish Federation, was one of
the many delegates who wondered if
the pluralism issue could be pegged
with a Jan. 31 deadline.
"I don't think three months is
enough time," he said. "I'd give
[the Israeli government] a whole
year."
Ms. Bagen said the task now is to
figure out how to further educate T:
those who weren't at the G.A. about
religious pluralism.
"We have an obligation," she said,
(to present it in a light that's not more
divisive and to be a factor in bringing
people together, not in tearing them
apart."

,

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