PROTEST from page 16
A Partial List of Our
Exceptional Values:
Mierofiber Jackets,
Rabbit Lined
Reg, Price Sale
$650
$295
Black Leather Coats 51,200
Beaver Coats
$2,700
Ranch Mink Coats
86,500
$495 .
$1,2f)9
$2,499
Plus hundreds of other furs-
all drastically reduced!
Prior sales excluded.
All furs labeled to show country of origin.
HOURS:
Mon.—Sat. 9:30-5:30,
Thurs. & Fri. 9:30-8,
Sun. 1-5
181 S. Old Woodward Ave.
1 Block South of Maple
Next to the Birmingham Theatre
Free Adjacent Parking
(248) 642-1690
Sale Ends
Wrtkr4
""t
WANTED
CAREGIVERS OR
FAMILY MEMBERS
of older and/or
physically challenged adults
with transportation needs
The Commission on
Jewish Eldercare Services (COJES) is forming
a focus group on transportation issues
that will meet on:
Wednesday,
February 17, 1999
6:30 p.m.
IL.
rot
*
Max M. Fisher Building
6735 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills
Registration is required.
To participate, please call
Linda Blumberg, (248) 203-1468
1/15
1999
18 Detroit Jewish News
$111:1 9
erration
-144t,
*I
tinuing efforts to postpone the final
conflict over recognizing the legitima-
cy of non-Orthodox movements in
Israel.
"The time has come to bite the
bullet on this issue," Rabbi Eric Yoffie,
president of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, said. The .
Orthodox rabbinate in Israel "can't
thumb their noses in the face of our
Judaism and expect that we will not
respond."
Similarly, Stephen Wolnek, presi-
dent of the United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism, said, "If those
in power in Israel wish to spit in our
eye, they must expect there will be a
reaction. Our tolerance and patience
certainly has an end."
The Reform Movement placed an
advertisement on the op-ed page of
the New York Times. It read: "Religious
fundamentalists in Israel are again
threatening to redefine 'Who is a Jew?'
We must not let them." Adoption of
the laws "will cause irreparable harm
to the unity of the Jewish people," it
warned.
Although the ad was placed only by
the Reform Movement, leaders of the
Conservative Movement said at the
news conference that they too support
what it says.
At the news conference, both
movements asked their constituents,
who represent about 85 percent of
synagogue-affiliated American Jews, to
communicate their displeasure over
the legislative efforts to Israeli law-
makers and those who can influence
them.
Specifically, they urged their follow-
ers to:
• lobby members of Knesset with e-
mails and phone calls;
• contact Israeli consulates, along
with local Jewish and secular media;
• withhold money from "any per-
son or organization that cannot state
to your satisfaction that they support
pluralism, and that they have respect
for Reform and Conservative
Judaism";
• contact leaders of their local
Jewish federations, which raise money
in Jewish communities all over North
America to support domestic and
overseas needs, asking them "to cau-
tion Israeli policy-makers about the
dangers of passage of any religious leg-
islation."
"It would be helpful if local federa-
tions were to come out with public
statements" in favor of pluralism, said
an "Action Alert" sent out to the lead-
ership of every Reform congregation.
UJA Federations of North America,
the new federation umbrella group, is
taking a proactive role in the current
round of the pluralism debate.
It distributed a brief statement to its
lay and professional leaders, saying that
the organization "urges Israeli leader-
ship and members of Knesset to oppose
the bill" that would exclude non-
Orthodox Jews from religious councils.
Federation leaders also sent a letter
to about 40 members of Knesset ask-
ing them "to consider what impact th5
legislation might have between Israet---,
and American Jewry," said Jay
Yoskowitz, executive vice president of
the Council of Jewish Federations, one
of the main constituents of the new
umbrella group.
Those members of Knesset who got
the letter, including some from the
Orthodox political parties, visited
American Jewish communities to see
their federations at work in the last
year, Yoskowitz said in an interview.
"We felt it was important to make
a statement suggesting very strongly
that nobody do anything that would
affect how Jews relate to each other
both here and in Israel," he said.
In the past, federation leaders have
voiced concern that the pluralism cri-_,
sis would have a severe negative
impact on fund-raising for Israel. But
according to the executive of one
major federation, the actual impact of
the crisis on fund-raising has been
minimal. "This honestly is not an
enormous concern," said Barry
Shrage, president of the Combined
Jewish Philanthropies of Greater
Boston.
The Orthodox Union, an organiza-
tion representing about 1,000
Orthodox synagogues with about
600,000 members, is unhappy that
UJA Federations are getting involved
with the pluralism issue.
"We feel they've overstepped their
bounds," said Mandell Ganchrow, the
O.U. president. "Their job is to be a
charity, and not to be involved in the fl
activities and political desires of any of
the streams. "
For now, Ganchrow said, the O.U.
is refraining from adding its voice to
the debate, because it believes that
American Jewish organizations should
let Israelis and their elected officials
work out their own issues.
At the same time, he said, "it's very
hard for us to sit quietly when one
party puts ads in the New York Times.
If we don't say anything to the govern-
ment, then the perception that the
Reform and Conservative movements
speak for American Jewry is allowed to
stand." P1