Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1990-07-12

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Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Community tor Over 60 Years     \Jj%^
VOL. GS NO. 28
JULY 12, 1990-TAMMUZ 19, 5750
Devoted to American
and Jewish ideals.
Soviet Immigration
To Israel Surpasses
50,000 Mark For '90
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Soviet Jews continued to arrive
in Israel at a record pace
last month, comprising all
but a small number of olim
from various parts' of the
world.
Out of 12,600 immigrants
who arrived here in Junei
11,015 were Soviet Jews, the
highest monthly total ever.
The numbers were reported
by the Jewish Agency for Israel and by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry in
Washington. .
An additional 182 Jews left
the Soviet Union for the
United States in June, according to the New York-
based Hebrew Immigrant
Aid Society, which assists
those who have received permission to come to America.
So far, 37,563 Soviet Jews
have come; to the United
States since the beginning of
the fiscal year last Oct. 1.
The U.S. refugee quota for
the fiscal year is 50,000 from
the Soviet Union, about.
40,000 of whom are expected
to be Jews.
The U.S. ■ limits have resulted in a sharp influx of Soviet Jews to Israel. In
January, a little more than
4,500 arrived here. In May,
the monthly number had
climbed to 10,202, which was
exceeded fiy more than 800 in
June.
That brings Soviet immigration to Israel during the
first six months of 1990 to approximately 50,000, Absorption Minister Yitzhak Peretz
said.    - - :
Serbian Leader Positive On Israel
GENEVA (JTA) -- Serbia, one of the six socialist republics
comprising Yugoslavia, has established good relations with
Israel on all levels, according to its secretary of state for foreign affairs, Alexander Prija. On a visit here, Prija said he
hoped diplomatic relations would be established between Yugoslavia and Israel, a matter he has already raised with the
federal government in Belgrade.
Britain Sets Up War Crimes Unit
LONDON (JTA) - The British government has decided to
reintroduce the War Crimes Bill in Parliament early next
year and, in the meantime, to set up a special unit to begin
surveillance of suspected war criminals. The legislation,
which would allow British courts to try alleged Nazi war
criminals living in Britain, achieved a resounding victory in
the House of Commons on March 19. But it suffered a crushing defeat by the House of Lords on June 5. A committee of
ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,
has decided to resubmit the legislation, in its original form,
to the House of Commons, which would call a vote without
further debate. If necessary, the government will invoke the
Parliament Act, which overrules objections by the Lords.
But the upper house is considered unlikely to vote down the
bill on second reading. If it did, the measure would still go
directly to the queen for royal assent.
Iraqi Airline Won't Carry Jews
AMSTERDAM (JTA) - The Amsterdam office of Iraqui
Airways could face criminal prosecution for violation of
Holland's laws against racial discrimination. The Iraqi
airline issued a brpqhure-Stating that it.do*?s not carry people^
holding Israeli passports or passports showing the holder has
visited Israel. It also will not accept passengers "with Jewish
connections," the brochure said. The matter was raised in
Parliament, when Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin
stated that if the airline follows such a policy, it is in violation
of Dutch statutes.
House Leaves Aid To Israel Intact,
Increases Funds For Soviet Jews
WASHINGTON (JTA) -
The 1991 foreign aid spending bill, approved recently
by the House of Representatives, not only continues the
$3 billion annual U.S. aid
package for Israel, but also
provides enough money for
U.S. Jewish groups to bring
close to 50,000 Soviet Jews
here next fiscal year.
In addition to holding the
line on Israel's all-grant economic and military aid package, Jewish lobbyists succeeded in gaining a $20 million increase in funds for resettling Soviet Jews in Israel. A total of $45 million has
now been earmarked for this
purpose.
They also gained enough of
an increase in the refugee
budget to ensure that all. Soviet Jews who come to the
United States next year will
receive government funding.
This fiscal year, which
ends Sept. 30, the government is not providing funding for 8,000 of the 40,000 Soviet-Jews expected to[arrive.
That has been a burden on
the American Jewish community, whose resources are
already strapped by the
massive exodus from the Soviet Union.
The $15.8 billion spending
bill, which now goes to the
Senate, was approved by a
vote of 308-117. In addition to
providing aid, it includes various policy statements critical of some of Israel's biggest enemies.
One statement reaffirms
U.S. policy of withholding
funds to any United Nations
body that accords membership to any group that "does
not have internationally recognized attributes of statehood." Its intent appears to
be to prevent the Palestine
Liberation Organization
from enhancing its international status.
Another provision calls for
a suspension of U.S. aid to
U.N. programs that provide
benefits to the PLO, Iran or
Libya.
This year,' U.S. Jewish
groups intensified their advocacy for maintaining the
$3 billion level of aid to Israel, because of concern that it
could be adversely affected
by a nlimber of pressures, on
Congress, said-Martin Raf-
fel, director of the Israel
Task Force at the National
Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council.
These  include  growing
Halachah And Modern Orthodoxy Are Discussed At RCA Convention
SPRING GLEN, N.Y.
(JTA) - Orthodoxy, the
oldest branch of Judaism,
has enjoyed increasing
membership,   burgeoning
Rabbi Harold Berman Elected
President Of Board Of Rabbis
Rabbi Harold J. Berman
of Congregation Tifereth Israel hasj>een elected president of the Columbus Board
of Rabbis. The two-year
term runs from June 1990 until June 1992. Rabbi Berman '
assumes the position for the
second time; having served
as president of the board in
1981-82.
The Columbus Board of
Rabbis serves as a coordinating body for various rabbinic and congregational activities, annually sponsoring the
Yom HaShoah service.
■ Programs of the Board of
Rabbis give opportunities to
all the rabbis of Columbus,
Orthodox, Conservative and
Reform, to join together in
the exchange of ideas and information for the improvement of the community.
Rabbi Berman succeeds
Rabbi Bradley Bleefeld who
served from 1988 to 1990.
Rabbi Steven Engel of Temple Israel has been elected
secretary/treasurer for the
coming year.
Rabbi of Congregation Tifereth Israel since 1979, Rabbi Berman has served the
Rabbi Harold J. Berman
community in numerous capacities, including the presidency of Jewish Family Services and chairmanship of
the Community Relations
Committee of the Columbus
Jewish Federation. He is a
trustee of the Federation,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
congregations and a renewed vitality in recent
years.
But with young converts
and previously non-practicing Jews returning to traditional Judaism, the modern
Orthodox movement inpar-
. ticular has been forced to reexamine its philosophy,
goals and ways of dealing
with halachic questions in
the 1990s.
These were some of the issues rabbis were discussing
at the annual convention of
the Rabbinical Council of
America, held last week at
the Homowack Hotel here in
the Catskill mountains. The
RCA is the largest Orthodox
rabbinic group in the world
and represents mainly
modern or centrist Orthodox
leaders.
"The Orthodox movement
has to reject every form of
trumphalism, as Orthodoxy
is on the rise today," said
Rabbi Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University,
in a keynote address.
At the same, time, Lamm
warned that Orthodoxy has
suffered a loss of prestige because of "Orthodox-bashing
by its detractors. The way of
moderation is open to attack
of extremists. We must not
be intimidated, nor must we
compromise on principle or
policy," he said.
, With their synagogues
packed with ba'alei teshu-
vah, or returnees to tradition, rabbis at the convention
and in their various synagogues are struggling with
the problem of implementing halachic law in the
1990s while maintaining the
moderate, secular approach
of modern Orthodoxy.
"There can be two approaches to halachah," remarked Ezra Rosenfeld, director of Zomet Israel, in a
presention on technology
and science. Zomet Israel is
an Israeli-based organization that applies science and
technology to halachah.
"One: halachah was meant
for humans in a real world;
or two: halachah cannot deal
with modern realities,"
Rosenfeld said. "Where
should the line be drawn?
Who should draw it?"
Rosenfeld displayed a collection of Zomet's "Shabbos
contraptions" - the Shabbat
telephone, a samovar for
drawing hot water, a Shabbat ophthalmoscope, a gas
timer for the stove, to name
a few - that make Jewish observance easier in a modern
world, .-'.'»'■
But gadgets or no gadgets,
rabbis are still struggling
with halachic conundrums.
What does a disabled person
dependent  on  an electric
wheelchair do to get to synagogue on Shabbat? Can a
woman carry her child to
shul without an eruv? Should
a woman who is the elected
chairman of the synagogue
board be allowed to address
the congregation from the
bimah?
These are questions that
the ba'alei teshuvah are asking and the answers they are
finding are, more of ten than
not, by the book.
"We're opting for absolute
truths," said Rabbi David'
Stavsky of Beth Jacob Congregation in Columbus,
Ohio. "Halachah has to be as
true for everyone in the 1990s
as it was in the days of Ba'al
Shem Tov (1698-1760). It
can't be flexible and subject
to the winds of change.
"We can be liberal," he
said. "But if liberalism
comes in loggerheads with
Torah, and Torah is emet
(truth) then liberalism must
bend to Torah and not Torah
to liberalism. If you make
too many dents in the framework, then the whole structure would come tumbling
down."
It is this reliance on the
basic framework of halachic
tradition, the rabbis say,
that has led to the success of
the modern Orthodox movement in America.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
U.S. budget constraints, new
competition for foreign aid
dollars from emerging democracies in Eastern
Europe and Latin America
and dismay with some of Israel's policies.
Rep. James Traficant Jr.
(D-Ohio) tried to pare most
items in the foreign aid budget by 10 percent, including
aid to Israel and refugees.
"I do not want to cut education anymore. I do not
want to cut housing. I do not
want to cut nutrition. I am
tired of roads falling apart,"
he said in a speech on the
House floor.
Traficant, who often
boasts about challenging organized lobbies such as the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the National Rifle Association,
said, "I know I am a demagogue; I am anti-Semitic; I
am the whole ball of wax."
Rep. Patricia Schroeder
(D-Colo.) said the amendment Traficant proposed
was,'.'very fair."
"I come from a state that
just took a terrible hit," she
said, speaking of a tornado
that ha^ "wiped out" an entire town. "It is absolutely
amazing to me that the federal government said there
was no money for that
town," Schroeder said.
But Traficant could not
muster enough support to
bring his amendment to a
vote. Instead, a substitute
amendment, offered by Rep.
Bob Clement (D-Tenn.), cut
many areas in the bill by 2
percent, but left aid to Israel
and refugees intact.
Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.),
chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee
on foreign aid, supported
Clement's amendment,
which he said was "in contrast to the blunderbuss approach" by Traficant.
But earlier, Obey warned
that he would support a cut
in Israel's aid level in 1992 if
it expands existing settlements in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
To the chagrin of Israel's
supporters, the House Appropriations Committee has
asked the Bush administration fp report to it by Feb. 1,
1991, on the extent of Israel's
investment and expansion of
settlements in the territories.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
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