CROSSED SIGNALS .1 " CHECK OUT OUR PRICES ON OMNIA LEATHER AND CARTER UPHOLSTERY AND PAY No SALES TAX UNTIL MAY 15TH! hMVAL ,:t 4:1A, Free Delivery Special on any pool table purchased with this ad. Prior sales excluded. Poker Tables Bar Stools From From $ 59 95 $ 239 Slate Top Pool Tables 95 from page 22 Congress and other defense agencies, representing Judaism's communal and religious aspects. The Vatican has rebuffed repeated efforts by Jewish groups to open a second channel. The decision to open a second channel now, with a Catholic-spon- sored Jewish group, seems to show just how deeply frustrated the Vatican is with the petulant, one-note tone of its Jewish partners in recent years. As for the new group's strange pedigree, Hoeckman dismisses it as a quibble. Ehrenkranz's center, he said, "is run by Jews, and the initiative came from Jews. If it could be hosted by a Jewish university, fine. We are still waiting for it. In the meantime, you go to those who welcome you." Behind the complaint lies a funda- mental imbalance in Vatican-Jewish relations. Catholicism, many observers argue, needs a dialogue with Judaism much more than Judaism needs a dialogue with the church. For the church, dialogue with Judaism is essential to understanding Christianity. "You can't know what it means to be a Christian without understanding your Jewish roots," says Eugene Fisher, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' ecu- menical affairs director. But Judaism has no such need. Jews entered the dialogue 30 years ago to help rid the church of anti- Jewish biases. Thirty years later, that job is largely done. Many Jewish leaders see little further purpose to dialogue, other than courtesy. Changing Attitude But that's begun to change. For grow- ing numbers of Jewish thinkers and community leaders, the recent Catholic-Jewish war of words over the Holocaust has been -a sobering lesson in Jewish over-sensitivity. Some blame the traumas of the Holocaust. Some blame the consensus- driven, lowest-common-denominator structure of Jewish representative bodies. Still others see a problem in Jewish education, which teaches young Jews about enemies but rarely mentions friends. "This is a moral failing of the first order," Reform leader Rabbi Eric Yoffie declared in a recent speech. Yoffie called for Reform and Conservative Judaism to seize the ini- tiative and work to improve Vatican- Jewish relations. Increasingly, Jewish leaders now argue that Judaism needs dialogue with Catholicism more than ever, to help Jews understand their new place in the world. For that to hap- pen, though, the dialogue must include not just thinkers but com- munity leaders who can be expected to bring the message back to their fellow Jews — as they have failed to do before. That's the oddest thing about the latest events: the Jewish community is finally ready. The Vatican is snub- bing IJCIC, its traditional partner, just as IJCIC has completed a major facelift in response to church com- plaints. Since last fall, it has named a new chairman, set up a program commit- tee — headed by a rabbi well-trusted at the Vatican — and offered a new agenda for discussions, which church officials greeted enthusiastically. Though they won't use the word, IJCIC's leaders have decided to bite the bullet and move, hesitantly, toward discussing theology. "If we're going to move from responding to the negative to building a deeper relationship, then we're going From $ 81 9 95 Corrections & Clarifications with equipment, not as pictured MOVING & RECOVERING • WE ALSO CARRY A FULL LINE OF • ARCADE GAMES • DART BOARDS • DART SUPPLIES • POOL SUPPLIES • BILLIARD LIGHTS • BAR STOOLS • BARS • GAME ROOM FURNITURE ALL AT DISCOUNT PRICES FINANCING AVAILABLE BILLIARDS & GAME offfei 4/28 2000 24 Room SUPPLY 37730 Van Dyke • Sterling Heights (810) 268-3800 • Russell Barnett is among the new members of the Temple Israel Board of Trustees ("Temple Elects New Officers," April 21, page 48). His first name was misspelled last week. • One of the spots that the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan's bus tour of old Jewish Detroit will travel past on May 7 is the Oakland (Avenue) Shvitz, not the Oakland (Boulevard) Shvitz ("Time Travel," April 21, page 16). • An incorrect price was listed for the Adat Shalom Sisterhood fund-raiser on May 4 ("In Search Of Justice," April 21, page 99). Tickets are $36. • Jan Simmons is vice president of Sinai-Grace Hospital care services, and Connie Franco is vice president of Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital support services ("Moving In," April 21, page 35). Simmons' last name and Franco's job title were misidentified last week. \ \ \ 4 4 I I