SPRING CLEARANCE

50 - 80% OFF

learn that every generation stood at
arrived to take her daughter home.
Sinai, so how do you make receiving
Now after what Gartner calls a "year-
the Torah tangible?"
long dream," the three young people
The answer, he says, is the all-night
whom Weiss describes as "devoted to
study of Torah and the commemoration
the task," have completed preparation
of the moment of revelation by the
for the class they will teach.
Jewish people of the receiving
of the Torah." This is tradition-
ally observed with a ceremony
celebrating the wedding of
God to the children of Israel.
Last year's Tikun Leil
Shavuot came to a close on
that theme. At sunrise, the
remaining members of the
group stepped into the syna-
gogue's outdoor courtyard car-
rying a sefer Torah, with a tal-
lit (prayer shawl) held as a
Preparing for Shavuot: left to right, Joey Gartner,
chuppa (wedding canopy). The
Rabbi Steven Weiss. Ilanna Go berg and Eli
participants sang songs of the
Eisman study at Hillel.
Torah, swayed arm in arm, and
danced feverishly. At the crack
of dawn, the morning service began.
On Thursday evening, when Ilana
At the moment Weiss describes as
Goldberg asks her mom for a ride to
when "the spirits of the group were
synagogue, Miriam Goldberg says her
uplifted so as to feel the energy and
answer this year will be, "Sure, but I'm
presence of God," Miriam Goldberg
going, too."

THE BEST CLOTHING, SHOES
AND ACCESSORIES
FROM OUR NEW YORK
AND BIRMINGHAM LOCATIONS

2 DAYS ONLY

TUESDAY, MAY 18
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19
10am-6pm

.

Religion And Politics

A

(—

merican Jews need to speak
out strongly against the
dominance of a narrow
Orthodoxy in Israeli reli-
gious life, according to a prominent
Israeli educator and feminist.
"Apart from securing peace," said
Alice Shalvi, "the most problematic
and divisive problem in Israel today is
the religious issue. Not the economy.
Not absorbing immigrants. We need
to separate religion and politics."
Shalvi — who made a highly publi-
cized theological switch when she
defected from mainstream Orthodoxy
and aligned herself with the
Conservative Movement two years ago
— spoke in an interview before
addressing the annual awards dinner
of the Detroit Friends of the Jewish
Theological Seminary (JTS), Monday
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
'American Jewry must speak out, just
as they did on the conversion bill," she
said. "You have a right, and not only
because Israel depends on your financial
support. It's because we see again and
again that we are one people."
For nearly five decades, Shalvi fought
the oppression from the inside, as a
modern Orthodox woman. Now, at age
71, she is fighting from another camp.
The respected educator and ardent
feminist simply lost patience with

Orthodox rabbis' unwillingness to
make halacha (Jewish law) compatible
with modern norms.
"Where there's a Jewish will, there's
a halachic way," she said. "We have a
history of this. The sages reinterpreted
Jewish law in light of current social
norms. It's unfair that the Orthodox
in Israel have stopped that process."
She attributed the inflexibility to a
fundamentalism among the Israeli
Orthodox: "The Orthodox have a
vision of what Israel should be — and
that's a theocracy.
Born in Germany, Shalvi was raised
in England. In 1949, she immigrated
to Israel where she joined the faculty
of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
She co-founded the Israel Women's
Network, dedicated to advancing the sta-
tus of women in Israel. She is well known
for running a progressive high school for
religious girls in Jerusalem called Pelech.
She also founded the English Department
at Ben-Gurion University.
In 1997, Shalvi made the move to
the Conservative Movement and
accepted the top job at Jerusalem's
Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, a
school affiliated with JTS in New York.
She recently received a two-year grant
from the Ford Foundation to create the
Center for Women and Jewish Law. 7

L \DA DRFS\FR

299 WEST VAPI F RD. BIRVI\GHAV VI 248.642.4999

TATE FLOWERS (248) 559-5424

F S

GIFTS OF NATURE

WEDDING & PARTY SPECIALISTS
FLOWERS FOR ALL OCCASIONS

"

— Amy Mindell

19799 W. 12 MILE

SOUTHFIELD, MI 48076

Since

STEVEN TARNOW, C.R.

1986

(248)
626-5603

PREFERRED

BUILDING CO.

Fax

248-932-0950

Residential & Commercial Remodeling

Building Quality Into Every Project With Unmatched Personal Service.

./N„.

NARY

XATKIKAL ABICICIAIIM•
1111 XIMODK.143

Featuring Andersen Windows

Licensed & Insured

5/14
1999

Detroit Jewish News

21