World Flag Debate from page 25 have h t eDetroit Jewish News delivered to your door every Thursday for about a dollar a week San Francisco N 248.351.5174, visit www.JNonline.us (click the subscribe link) or fill out and mail the form below I bill me 2 years @$88 payment enclosed charge my card # Visa MasterCard exp date signature(required) name phone# street address city state zip email address 11 I would like to be contacted about special offers and/or sending a gift subscription mail to: Detroit Jewish News • PO Box 2267 • Southfield MI 48034-2267 DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Please allow 2-3 weeks to begin delivery. In-state subscriptions only. Out of state price $75 for 1 year, $132 for 2 years. 26 May 24 - 200'? mitzvah. "I don't want them in my sanctu- ary," he said. Varon, a noted playwright and performer whose mother was born in Jerusalem, says he has "a very strong connection to Israel." That's not the issue. "For me, the religious quest is a searching for the universal and eter- nal. I don't see a place in that search for the nation-state he said. Ultimately, Perry Teicher said, putting up or taking down the flag should not be seen as the end of the discussion; it should prompt conver- sation. "You have to focus on what are the Israel programs on campus, what's the campus discourse on Israel and the Mideast:' he said. "You can't just do that by throwing up an Israeli flag, and that's the end of it." Individual Decision call year@$56 they did not want the Israeli flag at the event. "I could understand if they didn't want the memorial at all, but to honor the prime minister of Israel, who was assassinated, how could you not have the flag?" she asks. In the end, the flag was displayed after what Toran characterizes as a long and bitter debate. Congregants sometimes take mat- ters into their own hands. Or Shalom, a Jewish Renewal congregation in San Francisco, meets in a Conservative synagogue that displays the American and Israeli flags in its sanctuary. Or Shalom leaves them in place, but some congregants take them down for their family members' life-cycle rituals. Or Shalom member Charlie Varon had the flags removed for his first son's bar mitzvah and will do it again in August for his second son's bar JN o Jewish stream has an official policy on whether synagogues should display the Israeli or American flag. In any case, it's unlikely the Reconstructionist movement would dictate a decision to its individualis- tic member congregations. Left to their own devices, these congregations have varied prac- tices, providing a microcosm of the greater American Jewish commu- nity. Temple Beth El in Newark, Del., hangs the Israeli and American flags on either side of the bimah. "I say that although we are loyal citi- zens of the U.S., Israel is our spiri- tual homeland," Rabbi David Kaplan explains. Some, like Congregation Shalom Rav in Austin, Texas, don't display either flag. Some, like Congregation Dor Hadash in San Diego, Calif., display both flags, but not on the bimah. Some congregations use another congregation's space and simply maintain existing prac- tices. Congregation Shir Hadash in Milwaukee rents space at a synagogue that displays Israeli and American flags in the room, so they keep the flags up. Most people say the issue never arises. But that's not always the case. The Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, III., took down its Israeli and U.S. flags about five years ago in response to a con- gregant's petition to the synagogue board. "He said they were political sym- bols and the sanctuary is sacred space," Rabbi Brant Rosen recalls. "It got in the way of people's prayerful concentration, especially when they were up on the bimah, on either side of the ark." The board "had a good, healthy discussion," Rosen says, and the decision was not unanimous. But the flags came down. Then there are the creative types. Temple Beth Or in Miami displays the Israeli flag, the American flag and what Rabbi Rebecca Lillian calls "the Planet Earth flag," which shows a photo of Earth taken from space. The flags hang at every syna- gogue service and event. The idea of removing them, Lillian says, has never come up. Li - Sue Fishkoff, JTA