Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1989-05-04

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VOL.67   NO. 18
MAY4.1989-NISAN29
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals.
New Human Rights Law Could Split
World Jewry, Reform Leader Fears
Kapelye, a Yiddish/Klezmer Band, will perform at the
Agudas Achim Synagogue on Tuesday, May 23, at 7 p.m.
Kapelye To Perform May 23
At Agudas Achim Synagogue
Kapelye, a Yiddish Klezmer Band, will perform at
the, Agudas Achim Synagogue on Tuesday, May 23,
at 7 p.m. asa highlight of the
six-week Yiddish Festival
sponsored by the Agudas
Achim Synagogue and the
Leo; Yassenoff  Jewish
Center.' ';.,v.,777.-.-7
According to Melva Schottenstein, co-chairwoman of
the concert, "No one has
Maltz first" became involved with Yiddish music
as a young bby when lie was
.-/.called upon to play the clarinet at family occasions;He
has received degrees in
music education, composition and performance from
Hdfstfa University, C.W.
Post and Yale University.
He has also performed extensively in thefields of com-
..'■'.'■'    (CONTINUED ON PAGE 13)
done more to bring together
the streams of Jewish, expression found in Klezme^
music, Yiddish theatre and
Yiddish folk songs than
Kapelye; they are the pior
neering Klezmer group
whose blend of authenticity
and entertainment has delighted audiences throughout the world."
Performers at the May 23
concert include Michael Alpert, who plays the fiddle
and sings; Eric Berman, the
tuba player; Ken Maltz, who
offers clarinet and vocals,
and Henry Sapoznik, an artist of tenor banjo and song.
Alpert grew up in a Yiddish-speaking family and
has Jjeeri involved with
Yiddish music since childhood. He majored in Slavic
languages at UCLA, resided
for a year in Yugoslavia and
is known for his performance of vocal styles from—
Serbian to Mexican, He is involved in documenting and
researching traditional
music among New York's diverse Jewish communities.
Berman has performed
with the-San Antonio Symphony, the American Symphony, the American Concert Band and a variety of
jazz and chamber groups.
He holds the degrees of juris
doctor ahd doctor of philosophy (music), and is a specialist in entertainment law.
WASHINGTON (JTA) -A
proposed Israeli law guaranteeing human rights has as
much potential as the "Who
Is a Jew" amendment to
split American and Diaspora
Jewry from Israel, the head
of the Reform movement's
rabbinical seminary warned
last week.
• The reason is that "while
in principle it contains pro1
visions for the free expression of religion, it de facto
separates out from that the
areas of marriage and divorce," Dr. Alfred Gottschalk, president of Hebrew
Union College-Jewsih Institute of Religion said here.
"Authority in those key
areas is maintained by the
Orthodox religious courts,"
he told reporters at a National Press Club breakfast
meeting.
He was referring to the
fact that weddings and divorces performed in Israel
by Reform and Conservative
rabbis are not recognized by
the government as valid:.'
The new law is seen as a
step toward a written constitution. It provides for a special constitutional court that
would rule on whether proposed legislation violates the
provisions of the human
rights law.
Gottschalk said that while
some members of the Knesset would like to see marriage and divorce included in
the law, they appear to be
willing to go along with the
exclusion to prevent opposition by the Orthodox parties
to the entire law.
Justice Minister Dan Meridor has predicted that the
law will be adopted by a
broad majority "within a
reasonable period."
"As a political compromise, it is "understandable.
As a compromise of principle, it is incomprehensible,"
Gottschalk  said.   "At this
juncture in the development
of the state it should certainly have been included in
the total package."
* Gottschalk  said  he  believed that if the human
rights bill contained provisions for the complete free
exercise of religion, it would
put an end to the Orthodox
parties'efforts to amend the
Law of Return to reject as
Jews those converted by Reform   and   Conservative
rabbis.
An agreement by Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir
last December to back such
ah amendment caused a
storm of protests from
American, Jews, which re-
'Freedom Sunday1 Phonathon Set for May 21
An all-day phonathon is
scheduled 'for Sunday, May
21, to aid in the Columbus
Jewish Federation's "Passage To Freedom" drive.
Over 100 volunteers will
make phone calls reaching
out to the Columbus Jewish
community over a 12-hour
period.
From a bank of telephones
at Campaign Headquarters,
the Esther C. Melton Community Services Building,
volunteers will call community members on Freedom
Sunday to ask for their financial support.
"This is a new exodus in
our time," said Herbert
Glimcher, co-chairman of
the "F'assage To Freedom"
Campaign. "Welcoming and
resettling these recently released Soviet Jews, denied
freedom and basic human
rights for so long, will take a
community-wide effort."
More than 40,000 Jews will
be released from the Soviet
Union this year with 100 expected to reunite, with their
families, and settle in Colunj-
bus. Sixty new arrivals aire
expected before Jul'x 1,1989.
Several families who recently arrived here waited
eight to ten years for permission to emigrate.
"It's critical that members of our community
understand that this is an
emergency situation," says
Jack Wallick, co-chairman
of the "Passage To Freedom" Campaign. "For years
we demonstrated in support
of Soviet refuseniks. Now we
must unite: congregations,
major Jewish organizations
and members of our Columbus Jewish community, to
help meet the costs of resettling these refugees."
Opportunities to help on
Freedom Sunday are as fol
lows: 9:15 a.m. to noon, 11:30
a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6:30 to
9:15 p.m. Two additional
evening phoning sessions are
scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. on
Monday/May 22, and Wednesday, May 24. Each phone
session allows time for orientation ahd training, as
well as an opportunity to
contribute to the "Passage
To Freedom" Campaign.
To reserve a phone, call
Barbara Love Abrams at the
Columbus Jewish Federation, 237-7686.
Beth Jacob Testimonial Dinner
To Celebrate 90th Anniversary
Co-chairpersons Ron Golden, Irv Flox and Ruth Stavsky announced that the date
for the 1989 Beth Jacob
Congregation Testimonial
Dinner has been changed to
June 11.
Ron Golden, general chairman for this event, said,
"History1 isnot juist written;
history is made. We at Beth
Jacob have groiyh from a
handful of Jews who started
a minyoh in 1899, to a vibrant
and nationally recognized
institution  of  Orthodox
suited in Shamir backing off.
While the issue "was put to
rest for now," the amendment is still in the Knesset
and "will come to light
again, certainly by the time
the next election comes
around," Gottschalk said.
"The human rights bill
gives us an opportunity to
discuss this issue again before it heats up and surfaces" in the next election,
he said. '
Torah Judaism. In those 90
years, thousands of people
have passed through the portals of our synagogue buildings, first on Donaldson Avenue, then on Bulen Avenue
and for the past 20 years in
our new and beautiful edifice
on College Avenue. We had
presidents .who served with
heart and soul, We had
founding families who
proved their loyalty to our
congregation through thick
and thin. We are proud to say
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 13)
While conceding that the
Reform movement is not
completely happy with the
Law of Return as it is" presently written, he said that
"one could live with it." But
he stressed that any attempt
to amend it will result in the
non-Orthodox losing ground
] they have gained in Israel.
He said the issue does not
personally affect a large
number of people, although
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 13)
Yiddish Festival To Open
With Theater Presentation
A reflected "Ray from the
Yiddish Theater" will be
seen or rather heard, when
Gallery Players presents its
Caravan Theater in readings
from The Dybbuk at the
opening of the "Hooray For
Yiddish Theater In America!" exhibit this Sunday,
May 7, at 5 p.m- The exhibit,
to be housed at the Leo Yassenoff Jewish Center, is part
of a local six-week Yiddish
Festival sponsored by the
Center and Agudas Achim
Synagogue.
A reception, open to the entire community, will begin at
4 p.m. Sunday. The material
for the Caravan Theater program has been adapted and
written by Harold M. Eisenstein, Gallery Players'
artist-in-residence. Eisenstein will also present his
thoughts on the Yiddish theater.
The Dybbuk, which has
been referred to "as the gem
of Yiddish dramatic literature," is concerned with the
old Chassidic superstition of
transmigrated souls, the
spirits of the discontented
dead, which suddenly possess the bodies of the living.
S. Ansky was the pen name
of Shloyme Zaynvi Rappa-
port, the Russian-born playwright, folklorist, essayist
and short-story writer,
whose play The Dybbuk has
undoubtedly been the most
frequently performed Yiddish play. It has been performed in at least a dozen
languages and has been
turned into an opera by
several cdhiposers and even
a ballet by Jerome Robbins
with music by Leonard Bernstein.
In thd Caravan Theater
presentation, the role of
Leah, the young, possessed
. bride, will be read by Mara
Lieberman. Julian Barnett
will'narrate the role of the
wonder rabbi of Mirapol who
has been persuaded to exorcise the dybbuk from the
.young girl's body. Barnett
enacted the same character
in the revival of the Ansky
script during Gallery Players' 25th anniversary season, 15 years ago. Others
who will participate in the
performance are Irene
Braverman, who will be
Leah's grandmother; Benton Bloch; Larry Samuels,
and Jay Brand.
The tradition of Yiddish
theater in the UnitedTStates
is a long and rich one, according to Yiddish Festival
co-chairwoman Esther Pass.
"As the immigrant gen- ■
eration was assimilated into
the modern' American scene,
thp richness of Yiddish culture was lost. The goal of this
exhibit and festival is to
bring to the forefront the expressions of the culture,'
adds co-chairwoman Nancy
Levin.
"Hooray for Yiddish Theater in America I" can be seen
for six weeks in the Jewish
Center's Goldberg Gallery.
The free exhibit, organized
by the Smithsonian Institute
Traveling Exhibit Service, is
an adaption of original work
done by the B'nai B'rith
Klutznick Museum.^
The six-week Yiddish
Festival also includes films, "
classes and a Klezmer concert and is being made possible by the support of the
Columbus Jewish Foundation, Leo Yassenoff Foundation, tlie Sara and Harry
Schwartz Cultural Fund of
Agudas Achim Synagogue
and Bella Wexner.
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