Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1990-01-11

              3.
I
'.   ^
ii
Ohio   Hist... So cist
1982   V&lrna   Ave,
Columbus,    Ohi o
43211 ,
d r
.COMP
Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community lor Over 60 Years
VOL.68 NO. 2
JANUARY 11, 1990-TEVET 14
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals..
BEHIND THE HEADt IMPS
For Romanian Jews, Precarious Past Gives Way
To A Future Which Is Just As Unpredictable
Rabbi Stavsky Dedicates Menorah
By order of the Central Office of Chaplains in
Washington, D.C., a large Chanukah Menorah was
erected on the lawn in front of the main chapel at the
Veteran's 'Administration Medical Center in
Chillicothe. Rabbi David Stavsky, chaplain at the
center, dedicated the Menorah on Chanukah Eve,'Dec:
21. troy Page, director of the center, spoke. A program
book explaining the significance of Chanukah,
prepared, by social worker associate and Jewish
chaplain's assistant, Philip Cohen, was distributed to
Jewish patients attending. Refreshments were served
following the program. On Dec. 27, Rabbi Stavsky
returned to the V.A. to light the Menorah. Gift
packages'were presented to the patients through the efforts of Dorothy Kahn, longtime volunteer at the V.A.
installation and a member of the Women's Division of
the Jewish Welfare Board. In the bottom photo are (1.
to r.) Cohen, Page, Father Joseph E. Quinlamoni, chief
-of Chaplain Services, and Rabbi Stavsky. In the top
photo are Rabbi Stavsky and Cohen beside the
Menorah.
By Edwin Eytan
PARIS (JTA).,.'- There
were few, if any, Jews on the
barricades during the bloody
uprising in Romania these
past two weeks,.which overthrew the regime of President Nicolae Ceausescu, who
was executed with his wife,
Elena, on Dec. 25.
For one thing, about half of
the country's 30,000 Jews are
over 65 years of age, too old
for street fighting. But mainly, Romanian Jews have ambiguous feelings about-the
momentous events in their
country. y
While  their; relationship
with Ceausescu was precarious but comfortable, their"
fate under the new regime is
unpredictable.
Given Romania's long history of indigenous anti-Semitism, Jewish fears ar^ understandable, as nationalistic passions replace Commu-
nistdogmaina deteriorating
economic situation.
The small Jewish community played a role disproportionate to its size in Romania's academies of medicine, science and even history and literature. Several
Jews are tenured university
professors^ and others belong to the country's top
scientific bodies.
Jews will not forget that
Ceausescu's Romania was
the only Warsaw Pact country to oppose the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
that crushed the so-called
Prague Spring democratic
reforms in 1968.
Most-important was the
fact that Ceausescu, alone
among East bloc leaders,
continued to maintain full
diplomatic relations with Israel after the, 1967 Six-Day
War.,- .
The Romanian dictator also maintained excellent relations with the Arab world.
He played an active part in
arranging Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic
visit to Jerusalem in 1977.
And if Ceausescu welcomed
Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat,
he also played host to every
Israeli prime minister in the
last 20 years.
Rabbi David Nelson To Address
'Did Cain Get Away With Murder?'
On Wednesday, Jan. 17, at
7:30 p.m., the Agudas Achim
Synagogue will offer the
third CLAL Seminar. "Did
Cain Get Away with Murder? The Growth of Human
Violence" will be presented
by Rabbi David Nelson as
the study of "Genesis: Images and Mysteries" cohtin-
. ues. 7   ■'!.■■•    ■
Rabbi Nelson is the CLAL
senior teaching fellow at The
National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership,
He received his B.A. in psy-
chplogyfrom Wesleyan Uni
versity and his M.H.L. and
rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion. He is
currently completing a doctorate in rabbinic literature
at New York University.
Rabbi Nelson served for
five years as a congregational rabbi in Garden City, N.Y.,
He has taught Hebrew, Bible
and Judiac Studies at A del-
phi University, New York
University and Hebrew
Union College. Throughout
his involvement with the Reform movement in Israel, he
E. Germany To Return Property
EAST BERLIN,'(JTA)--
The new East German
government is reported
ready to give back to the
Jewish community buildings
that were confiscated by the
Nazis more than 50 years
ago, but the gift may prove
more a headache than a
favor.
There are many obstacles
To the proposed restoration
of property to Adas Israel,
an Orthodox community that
was separate from the mainstream Jewish community
in pre-war Berlin and still retains its unique identity. The
still existing Adas Israel
hopes it can revive itself in
the liberal climate that now
prevails here.  .
Mario Offenberg, a leader
of Adas Israel, welcomed the
authorities'  decision  as  a
CONTINUED ON PAGE »
Rabbi David Nelson
has served as rabbi and
teacher on the movement's
kibbutzim and has led numerous summer study tours
for American teens. Since
joining the staff of CLAL, he
has lectured and taught extensively throughout the
United States.
The fourth seminar is.
scheduled for Thursday,
Feb. 15, with Rabbi Steven
Greenberg analyzing "If the
World Were Going to End,
Would you Get as Drunk as
Noah Did?" Rabbi Greenberg is the director of Learning Leaders at CLAL. He is
the son of Dan and Fran
' Greenberg, members of the
Agudas Achim.
On the domestic front, Romanian Jews enjoyed considerable religious freedom
under Ceausescu. Their
communal institutions were
allowed to function. They
were allowed to inaintain
ties with international Jewish organizations and received much • needed aid
from the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee.
- There are close to 70 Jewish communities in the country, with 120 synagogues still
in use.
In some small villages
where a few dozen Jewish
families survive, .the shuls
are often wooden structures
dating from the early 19th
century.
A Jewish federation provides homes for the aged,
some of them up to Western
standards, as well as medical facilities, .kosher can-
Tifereth Israel's Rabbi Berman
Named UJA Shabbat Chairman
Rabbi Harold Berman of
Congregation Tifereth Israel
has been named national
chairman of the United Jewish Appeal/Federation Shabbat Program by the Rabbinic Cabinet of UJA. Announcement was made by
Rabbi Matthew. Simon of
Rockville, MD, UJA Rabbinic Cabinet chairman, and
Rabbi Doniel Kramer, UJA
Rabbinic Cabinet director.
Rabbi Berman serves as
chairman of the committee
designated to edit materials
to be distributed nationally
for rabbis during the UJA
Shabbot program. Most
communities will observe
UJA Shabbat tin Saturday,
Jan. 20. In Columbus, Fed-
eration/UJA Shabbat will be
observed on the Shabbat of
Jan. 12-13.
Congregations and communities all over the country
will be encouraged to include
federation leadership in
their Shabbat observances
and will try to bring a spiritual dimension of the Fed-
eration/UJA message to the
campaign program. The
UJA/Shabbat committee
will also monitor programs
in communities in order to
share successful programs
with other communities for
future use.
Rabbi Berman has served
on the Executive Committee
of the UJA Rabbinic Cabinet
since 1987. He also served as
a co-chairman of the UJA
Rabbinic   Cabinet  annual
meeting in 1989 and as a
member of the Cabinet Nominating Committee.
Rabbi Harold Berman
The UJA Rabbinic Cabinet
"Orchard" has published articles by Rabbi Berman for
each of the past four years as
sample sermon material for
national distribution. Rabbi
Berman was also a speaker
for the January, 1989, annual
Rabbinic Cabinet Retreat.
King Remembrance
To Be Held Jan. 15
The community is invited
to participate in Heritage
Village's annual Martin
Luther King Jr. Remen>
brance, which will be held on
Monday, JanT15, at 2 p.m. at.
Heritage House.
Guest speaker for the afternoon program will be Sharron
Kornegay, host of "Connections," a live hour-long weekly
CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
teens and a rich cultural life.
But if during the 24 years
of Ceausescu's rule Jews enjoyed certain privileges
denied most Romanians, including the right to emigrate, theirs was a nervous
existence.
They were aware of their
unofficial status as hostages
to Romania's relations with
the superpowers, particularly the United States, where
Ceausescu believed Jewish
political clout was the key to
trade benefits. ,
If disappointed, he could at
any time turn against the
tiny Romanian Jewish community, as he often made
clear to its leader, Chief
Rabbi Moses Rosen.
Rosen, who sat in Parliament in Bucharest, was in
fact the chief Jewish hostage. If there was manifest
unfriendliness toward Romania in Washington or any
Western capital, he was held
responsible by Ceausescu.
In 1982, when the U.S. Congress was about to rescind
Romania's most-favored-nation trade status because of a
barrier to Jewish emigration, a startled Rosen was
awakened in the middle of
the night in his London hotel,
where he was attending a_
meeting of the World Jewish
Congress.
A furious Ceausescu was
on the line. "What have I
done to you and to your people that you take the bread
out of our mouths?" he
screamed.
"Have I not approved all
of your requests, granted
your pleas? All this can
change from now on if your
people turn against us," the
dictator threatened.
Rosen alerted Jewish organizations in the United
States and, at great personal
risk, returned to Bucharest
to try to placate Ceausescu
and convince him that Romania's tiny Jewish community held no sway over
the U.S. Congress.
Congress eventually extended most-favored-nation
status to Romania, after
Ceausescu repealed a so-
called education tax imposed on emigrants, mainly
Jews.
There were other moments of high tension.
, A few years ago, the popular journalist and writer Cor-
neliu Vadim Tudor published
a volume of anti-Semitic
poems, some of which exceeded in virulence the
worst of the Nazi era in Germany.
Rosen, who was abroad at
'-7   CONTINUED ON PAGE /