Insight
Remember
When • • •
Not Our Millennium
Is the year 2000 a Jewish issue? Depends on whom you ask.
DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
II
ere's the big question: Y2K
— Y4US? Is the change of
the secular calendar from
1999 to 2000 a Jewish issue?
Some insist that the change of the
millennium doesn't take place until
the calendar rolls over to 2001. But
no matter when they think the cur-
rent era comes to a close, people on
both sides of the overall philosophical
divide are taking firm stands.
"Jews should butt out of the turn
of the millennium," said Rabbi. Arthur
Hertzberg, a historian and visiting
professor in humanities at New York
University "It's not our calendar.
We are not at the turn of our
millennium."
Many in the Jewish com-
munity share his perspective.
Two prominent kosher
restaurants in the New York
area canceled planned
Shabbat-oriented New
Year's Eve parties. The
prominent kosher supervi-
sion agencies that supervise
them prohibited Mendy's in
Manhattan, and strongly dis-
couraged Noah's Ark, in
Teaneck, N•J., from holding such
celebrations.
Others, however, say that although
the millennium isn't an intrinsically
Jewish occasion, it still provides an
opportunity — much like Rosh
HaShana — for Jews to reflect on our
experiences and goals.
"This next millennium, replete
with all its hype, gives us an opportu-
nity to look out at the world and to
try and make sense of what we see, to
attempt to clarify what we want the
future to hold," Rabbi Rachel
Sabath, an associate at CLAL: The
National Jewish Center for Learning
and Leadership, wrote in a recent
essay.
"Particularly in a time when the
world seems upside down, it becomes
even more essential to have an orien-
tation, a sense of time, core values
that transcend all interpretations, all
religions, and all political parties," she
wrote.
Still others say that no matter what
our personal feelings about the change
in the Christian-created calendar, it
would be naive for Jews to ignore the
turn of the millennium.
Jews should be prepared for possi-
ble technological problems, they say,
and should be concerned about a
potential backlash by right-wing
Christians whose messianic aspirations
remain unfulfilled when the calendar
rolls over and Jesus has not returned
to earth.
"Though apocalyptic expectations
have always been proven wrong,
wrong doesn't mean inconsequential,"
Richard Landes, director of the
Center for Millennial Studies at
Boston University, warned at a recent
symposium on the millennium, which
was sponsored by the Anti-
Defamation League.
"The more wrong people are, the
more passionate they are," he said.
Rabbi A. James Rudin, director of
interfaith affairs for the American
Jewish Committee, is also concerned.
"A lot of my fellow Jews take the
turning of the millennium as a joke,
but I don't," he said. "For some
Christians, Dec. 31 is just a night for
a great party But a lot of other
Christians take it very seriously.
"There's the wise, prudential
jubilee approach of introspection and
atonement for what we've done
wrong, which is the Catholic
approach," he said. "Then there's the
prophecy crowd from among extreme
evangelical Protestants who make
apocalyptic claims for the second
coming of Jesus."
Until recently, prominent conserva-
tive evangelical leaders — including
the Revs. James Dobson,Jerry Falwell
andJames Kennedy — were predict-
ing mass upheaval and warning their
followers to prepare by stockpiling
dried food, water and weapons in
advance of an apocalyptic scenario
recounted in the Christian Bible's
Book of Revelation.
Christian broadcaster
Dobson even gave each of his
1,300 employees an extra
$500 to prepare for Y2K,
according to a report in the
Religion News Service.
Several who had predicted
widespread social crisis have
in recent weeks largely backed
off such doomsday scenarios,
wrote the news service, but
other Christian fundamentalists
and extreme-right hatemongers
remain a threat, according to "Y2K
Paranoia: Extremists Confront the
Millennium," a report published
recently by the Anti- Defamation
League.
Inherent in Christian theology is
the belief that Jesus will return to
earth, ushering in the messianic era.
There are some, primarily right-
wing evangelical Christians, who
believe that the historical stage has
now been set for that chapter to
begin, since conditions prophesied in
their Bible have been fulfilled: The
State of Israel's creation in 1948;
Jerusalem's reunification under Jewish
control in 1967; and the ingathering
to Israel of oppressed Jews, particular-
ly from the former Soviet Union,
since the 1980s.
When there are high expectations
and then nothing happens, there
From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
„
Dr. John
s, chief archivist of
the Christian Righteous Gentiles
and a founder of Michigan Region
for American Red Magen David,
passed away.
Michael W. Maddin was named
chairman of the Federated
Endowment Fund of United Jewish
Charities.
Women of Reform Judaism
elected Lois Gerenraich to the
board of the National Federation of
Temple Sisterhoods.
ARF.m.„
TheRabbinical Council of America
issued a call for prayers on Shabbat
for the successful return of American
hostages being held in Iran.
Geri Levit was elected president
of the Congregation Shaarey Zedek
Hebrew Teachers Association.
‹v,
Vatican Radio broadcast an entire
program of Jewish interest on the
eve of Chanuka.
George Jessel was the guest star
as the Furniture Club honored its
22 past presidents at a Toast to
Israel- dinner-dance at the Town
and Country Club.
>
•
• W'" s•k
Q,;
•
,
V` "<k
\' ‘
Morris Tulupman and Irving f S.
Cane were elected to the governing
board of the National Shrine to the
Jewish War Dead.
Rabbi Morris Adler delivered the
keynote address at the third annual
conference for presidents of the 340
organizations affiliated with the
Jewish Community Council.
The 'first consignment of $54,000
worth of penicillin in crystal form,
manufactured in Israel, is ready for
export to Romania.
Eleven Jewish DP families, each
to be provided with a farm in
Canada by the Jewish Colonization
Association, arrived in Halifax.
— Compiled by Sy Manello,
Editorial Assistant
"
12/10
1999
37