Focus Having Faith In Faith In new book, Reagan administration official urges Jews to reconnect with religion. SANDEE BRAWARSKY Special to The Jewish News nvolvernent in the community and devotion to family and friends remain our legacy. From its founding more than 50 years ago, THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL has stood for integrity, mutual respect: and individual attention. THE IRA KAUF1V1AN101APEL Bringing Together Family, Faith & Corn&nity • THE KAUFMAN.. -_ __ COMMUNITY CORNER Holiday Gift Bazaar December 7-8, 1997 Hosted by Northwest Child Rescue Women Jr. League The Northwest Child Rescue Women Jr. League is sponsoring a Holiday Gift Bazaar, 10 am - 5 pm Sun/Mon, Dec. 7-8, 1997 at the Jewish Community Center in W. Bloomfield. Admission is free and all proceeds sup- port the JCC Special Needs Program. On sale are-toys, stationery, books, crafts and more. For more info-motion!, call Carole Ka .tan (248) 855-8802: 18325 West Nine Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48075 • Telephone 248369.0020 • Toll Free: 800A5.7 • 14 = Please visit us at our new web site: www.irakaufman.com I AM YOUR NIECE. I AM YOUR BEST FRIEND'S CHILD. I AM YOUR GREAT- GRANDDAUGHTER. r or Elliot Abrams, the issue of Jewish continuity is clear-cut: Only Judaism, or faith, can sustain the Jewish people. He dismisses ethnicity, social activism, a connection to Israel or the Holocaust as elements of an "amorphous Jewishness" that can not be passed down over gen- erations. In Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian Culture (Free Press), a bold new book that outlines his argument, Abrams, a former assis- tant secretary of state in both Reagan administrations, leaps into the national debate on Jewish survival. Its not the Christian right that most threatens Jews in Ainerica, he explains, but Jews' own disregard for Judaism. He wants to put Judaism— the religion — back into the center of Jewish life. "Unless the 'community is based on faith in God, what possible purpose could there be for;:concern-about its survival," he asks. Sine the book was published over the summer, Abrams says, in a felet phone interview from his Washingthn, D.C.,, office, the response has been, -- ``vei3i. rewarding." The president of the Ethici , and Public Policy Center, he explaini. that he intended the book as analysis that would have some impact on public discourse. To the Jewish community, Abrams calls for a shift in energies, away from efforts to "promote a secular society and to ensure that individual Jews can suc- ceed in America" to a new focus on the goal of keeping the Jewish community vital through faith. He argues in favor of allocating additional financial resources and attention toward Jewish education. To individuals, he states, "I can't argue about faith. I can argue about practice. Judaism is not an abstract reli- gion. What we each should be doing is practicing it more." Even for those unsure about their beliefs, Abrams asserts that they too should take their children to synagogue and give them a Jewish education, to give them "a fight- ing chance" to remain Jewish. ... I AM JARC'S FUTURE. Disability can touch any family. Now or in the future. Over the years, you have helped provide Jewish homes and programs for people with developmental disabilities. Your generous support enables us to take care of today's pressing needs. Diminishing public funds seriously threaten our ability to care for the 250 people waiting for JARC services. We must ad now. Please join the JARC Endowment Campaign, Caring for a Lifetime. Because every day a baby is born who will someday need JARC. Call 248-352-5272. Barbara and Irving Nusbaum, Campaign Chairs - Sandee Brawarsky is a book critic for the New York Jewish Week. Abrams has clashed more than once in public with Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, whose own recent book on the same subject, The Vanishing American Jew takes a different tack. The two men — whom Abrams says have had a long, friendly relation- ship — both emphasize Jewish educa-. tion, but Dershowitz's vision is more embracing of all Jews, however they choose to express their commitment to Judaism. Abrams says that Jews doing whatever "works for them" is "what got us into this mess." The book opens with an overview of American Jewish demographics. Citing the 1990 National Jewish Population Study and other research,.he describes "a disaster in the making." He writes: "Of the 6.8 million peo- ple who are Jews or of Jewish descent, 1.1 million say they have no religion and 1.3 million have joined another religion. This means that one-third of the people in America of Jewish ethnic origin no longer report Judaism as their current religion." Abrams shows how American Jewish_ attitudes toward religion and assimila- tion have evolved. In the 1920s, many Jews of the immigrant generation saw secularism as the safest path in an America that was largely Christian, and that sentiment persists. Now, as he writes, many Jews are biased-unfairly against religious Christians, based on historical fears and also on politics. Abrams believes that "immense changes" in Christian dispo- sition toward Jews and Judaism have been underappreciated, and he calls for new attitudes among Jews toward Christians and Christian religiosity. Unafraid of breaking down barriers between church and state, he is in favor of public support of religious education. He also writes of the strength of the Orthodox community — which many expected would die out in secular America — who prove his point about the sustaining power of faith. And he writes of the rifts between the denomi- nations, criticizing the disrespect among other Jews of the Orthodox, and the Orthodox community's contempt for others. "The most divisive factor in American Jewish life, then, is Judaism." Although some might be surprised to see Abrams writing about Jewish issues rather than American politics, he says he's been thinking about these issues since college. The 49-year-old father of three — to whom Faith or Fear is dedi- cated — grew up in Queens and attended Hebrew school at the Hollis Hills Jewish Center. [1]