Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1987-10-01

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Serving
Columbus and,Central Ohio Jewish Community (or Over 60 Years      \\//\Va
Torch Academy Names
Assistant Headmaster
Rabbi Henoch Millen,
headmaster of Columbus
Torah Academy, announced
the appointment of Rabbi
Chaim Hisiger to the new
position of assistant headmaster. Rabbi Hisiger previously-served asdirector of
education at The Rocky
Mountain Hebrew Academy
in Denver.
BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Rabbi Chaim Hisiger
Rabbi Hisiger is a founder
and national chairman of the
Torah High School Network
which develops and shares
curriculum   materials  for
Torah-oriented high schools,
.aids with professional faculty   and   administrator
development, sponsors joint
student activities and con-    FEATURE
ducts   other  educational
endeavors.
In 1984, Rabbi Hisiger received a dual masters degree   in   humanities   and
education from Ryokan College in Los Angeles, and in
1986, received his permanent
principals'   license   from
JESNA. Rabbi Hisiger received rabbinical ordination
from the Rabbinical Seminary of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, Brooklyn (1973), and a
bachelor's degree in education   from   Ben   Gurion
University in Israel (1972).
In addition to his Torah
Academy responsibilities,
Rabbi Hisiger will be associated with Agudas Achim
in a professional capacity
and will serve as a guest lecturer for the Community College of Adult Jewish Studies.
Rabbi Hisiger and his
wife, Arlene, are the parents
of one son, Elisha.
In The Chronicle
 i u '	
Classified..., ll
Soviet Consular Mission To Extend Stay
In Israel
JERUSALEM (.JTA) — Foreign Minister Shimon Peres
indicated last week that the Soviet consular mission which
came to Israel last July will ask for an extension of their
three-month visa, due to expire soon, and it would be
granted.
Reagan Message Included
In Yeshiva U. Time Capsule
NEW YORK — Ronald Reagan, the first sitting U.S. President to receive an honorary degree from Yeshiva University
here, has given some paper back. His written message is included in a time capsule sealed Sept. 15, on the university's
101st birthday, in the newly completed Tenzer Gardens. The
capsule will be opened as part of the university's bicentennial
celebration in 2086.    ,
Grant To Help Restore Martyrs Temple
In Budapest
BUDAPEST (JTA) — A check for $80,000 to repair the
Martyrs Temple here was presented to leaders of the Hungarian Jewish community recently by Rabbi Arthur
Schneier, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.
The Foundation is an interfaith group that seeks to promote
religious freedom around the world. The gift was made possible, Schneier said, "by the generosity of Ronald Lauder, U.S.
ambassador to Austria and an associate of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation."
BEHIND THE HEAPLlwo u     '    '    'g_ A
Neo-Nazi Party Gams Seat
In Bremen State Parliament
j c    not-Hoc in states where I
BONN (JTA) —' The sue
cess   of   the   neo-Nazi
Deutsche Volksunion (DVU)
party in gaining a seat in the
State Parliament of Bremen
in recent elections has badly
shaken the West German
political   establishment,
whose leaders have consistently dismissed such right-
wing extremist factions as
little more than a nuisance
incapable of winning sufficient votes to penetrate even
local governments.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl;
leader of the ruling Christian
Democratic Union  (CDU),
may well be embarrassed by
the  developments  in Bremen. Only a week earlier,
when  visiting  Israeli. Defense  Minister  Yitzhak
Rabin  expressed  concern
over  reports  of  resurgent
anti-Semitism  and  neo-
Nazism in the Federal Republic — especially after the
suicide in Spandau prison of
Hitler's former deputy, Ru-
doIphTHess;— Kohl assured
The Powerful Kol Nidre
~:„tu nontnrv C. R. Ri
By Rabbi Bernard S.
Raskas
(©1987, JTA, Inc.)
Kol Nidre, which begins
the Yom Kippur service, is
one of the most popular and
powerful pieces in Jewish
liturgy. Yet, it is not a
prayer and does not even
mention the name of God.
The origin of its famous
melody is unknown, and its
inclusion in the prayer book
was strongly opposed by
several generations of
prominent rabbis.
The setting of Kol Nidre is
a Jewish court. Two people
hold Torah scrolls at either
side of the Cantor, thus constituting a beth din, a court
of three that is required for
the legal procedure of granting the dispensation from
vows. It }s preceded by a
brief paragraph invoking the
Academy on High, the heavenly body of rabbis. Because the recitation is in the
nature of a court procedure,
which cannot be conducted
on a holiday, it is recited before sunset.
The text is a precise legal
formula in which the worshippers proclaim that all
personal vows, oaths,.etc.,
that they made unwittingly,
rashly or unknowingly (and
thus cannot be fulfilled) during the year should be considered   null   and   void.
However,   it   should   be
pointed out that the Talmud
(Yoma 8:9) says explicitly:
"Yom Kippur atones for sins
against God. Yom Kippur
does   not   atone   for   sins
against  another  human
being until one has placated
the person offended."
In order to understand the
nature and function of Kol
Nidre, we must look to Biblical times, when it was com-
".' mon practice for people to
make vows that could not
possibly be honored. After
the Second Temple was destroyed, this practice continued among  the  people.
The leaders .of the community were troubled, for they
viewed a person's word as
his or her bond. Failing to
convince the people of the
desirability of avoiding rash
promises  altogether,   the
rabbis of the Talmud finally
created a formal ritual for
annulling those unkept vows,
j No one knows for certain,
but is probable that in the
ninth century C.E. Rav Am--
ram's siddur contained the
first complete known text of
Kol Nidre, quite different
from the talmudic legal formula. Kol Nidre was a collective annulment, unlike
the Talmud's individual annulment, and it was written
in a mixture of Hebrew and
the then vernacular Aramaic.
There are two other explanations for its introduction.   According   to   Rabbi
Mordecai ben Hillel  (Germany, d. 1298), this formula
was instituted by Rabbi Meir
ben Barukh of Rothenberg
(d. 1293) to permit transgressors who had been excommunicated  because  of
their defiance of communal
regulations to worship with
the congregation.
And toward the end of the
19th century, Joseph Bloch
had proposed the theory that
Kol   Nidre   arose   in   the
seventh century when secret
Jews — who had been converted to Christianity after
persecution by the Visigoths
(590-711) — would come to
the synagogue on Yom Kippur eve.
. " *■   (CONTINUED ON PAGE 11)
him there was no danger of
neo-Nazi  groups becoming
more than a minor irritant,
creating isolated, if unpleasant incidents from time to
time. But now, even the most
optimistic   West   German
politicians cannot ignore the
reality that for the first time
in 20 years, a neo-Nazi candidate managed to get elected
to a state legislature. The
success of the DVU moreover greatly improved the
chances of future support at
the  polls  by  conservative
voters with rightwing lean?
ings.
The situation in Bremen
was unique. While all of the
federal  states  require  a
party to poll at least five percent of the popular vote to
gain representation in parliament, the Bremen constitution makes a party eligible
if it wins five percent in
either one of the two cities
comprising the state. The
DVU did poorly in Bremen.
But it easily exceeded" the
five percent barrier in Bre-
merhaven,  the deep-water
seaport at the mouth of the
Weser,
As a result, its candidate,
62-year-old retired engineer
Hans   Altermann,  has" become one of the 100 deputies
in the State Parliament. The
DVU employed a successful
strategy by choosing a little
known candidate to head its
election  list.   It  avoided
frightening off voters who
would not support a prominent neo-Nazi.
Moreover, the DVU had
the support of a rival, much
better known neo-Nazi faction.  The National Demo- .
cratic Party (NPD), whose |
notoriety   apparently   convinced it that it could not
win, mobilized its followers
on behalf of the DVU and
made  its  headquarters  in
Bremen and Bremerhaven
available  to  the  smaller
party.
Observers here are now
pointing out that a small but
sizeable minority of the electorate is ready to support
neo-Nazi groups. The latter
possess the devotion, a certain degree of unity and are
capable of working hard to
mobilize support and translate it into votes.
The success of the DVU
also  may   improve  the
. chances of other neo-Nazi
parties in states where the
five percent barrier applies
throughout. Both the DVU
and NPD as recognized political parties can receive tax-,
deductible   contributions
from individuals and businesses. The NPD already receives   financial   support
from  the  federal  government, according to law, because of its relatively good
showing in the last Bundestag elections.
The DVU is headed by
Gerhard   Frey,   who  publishes the Munich-based Na-
ziohal Zeitung, which among
other things calls the Holocaust a Jewish hoax and the
gas chambers "Zionist propaganda." The DVU campaigned in Bremen largely
on the "need" to rid Ger-  .
many of a community of
some  five  million  foreign
workers, mostly Turks. It
avoided attacking Jews.
. But right  after .j election
day, Carla Mueller-Tupath,
a Jewish community mem-
(CONTlNUED ON PAGE 7)
YOM
beginning at Sundown
Friday, October 2
•
Saturday, October 3
Tishrei 10. 5748
Totally Devoted
To Prayer
and Repentance...
The Day on Which
Humanity
^        Is Judged.
61st
Annual
Meeting
u»™.w — nSto FEDERATION
Sunday. October .4,1987 * Agudas Achim Synagogue » 7:30 p.m.