Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1984-05-24

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VOL.62   NO.21
MAY 24,1984-IYAR22
t Ocvoted to American
And Jewish Jdrali.
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Conservative Rabbinical Assembly Again Rejects
Application Of Reform-Or
To Become First Fern
ained Woman Rabbi
onservative Rabbi
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On Wednesday, May 16, community leaders had an
opportunity to meet with Rabbi Adolf Shayevich of the
Soviet Union. Pictured above, at Columbus Torah
Academy, are (1. to r.) Dr. Irving Fried, Torah Academy principal; Rabbi Shayevich and Rabbi Alan Ciner
of Agudas Achim.
Soviet Rabbi Visits
Columbus As Part Of
Tour Of United States
By Judith Franklin
Chronicle News Editor
Rabbi Adolf Solomonovich
Shayevich, chief rabbi of the
Moscow Choral Synagogue,
was in town last week as a
guest of the Metropolitan
Area Church Board—but not t„
many people were aware of
his visit.
That is, however, just the
way Karen Moss, co-chairperson of the Columbus Jewish Federation's Community Relations Committee,,
planned it.
"We didn't gather together
a large group of community
people because we didn't
want to give him the impression that we recognize him
as spokesman of the Moscow
Jewish community," Moss
explained.
Her sentiments echoed
those expressed by the Anti-
Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith, which issued a statement cautioning that Rabbi
Shayevich "sadly is not free
to speak for the Russian
Jewish community, or even
for himself." If, in fact, Rabbi Shayevich represented
Soviet Jewish prisoners of
conscience and refuseniks,
the ADL said, "he would not
have been allowed to visit
the United States in the first
place."
Moss pointed out that, during her trip to the Soviet
Union last year, she encountered total cynicism about the
rabbi as a person. "He is
recognized as entirely co-
, opted by the situation — entirely compromised," she
said, noting that he told her
privately that anything he
does or does not do is by permission of or prohibition by
his government.
Touring the United States
as  part  of a ' 20-member
Soviet  delegation  of  11,
clergymen land nine lay peo-'
pie under the auspices of the
National Conference of
Churches as part of an exchange program with the
Soviet Union, Rabbi Shayevich came under strong criticism according to the Jewish
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 14)
KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y.
(JTA) — Conservative rabbis voted last week at the
84th annual convention of the
Rabbinical Assembly (RA)
to reject for a second year in
a row the application of Reform-ordained Rabbi Beverly Magidson to become
America's first woman Conservative rabbi by convene
tion vote but changed circumstances in the Conservative movement have made
that issue academic and no
future RA convention is ever
likely to vote on that issue
again.
Despite the backing of the
RA membership committee
and that of many Conservative leaders, Magidson, of
Clifton Park, N.J., received
230 votes in favor to 99 votes
against her application, 22
votes short of the required 75
percent of the convention
majority needed to affirm
her  application.  At  last
year's RA convention she
failed in her bid by fewer
votes.
The application of another
Reform^ordained woman
rabbi,   Jan   Kaufman   of
action. But her application
was tabled. Both she and
Magidson were ordained in
1979 by the Hebrew Union
College, the Reform seminary branch in New York
".., the time will come when Rabbi Magidson and
her fellow women rabbis will take their place in our
ranks and share with us their insights, resourcefulness and scholarship."
Washington, D.C, had been
approved by the appropriate
RA committees for consideration   for   convention
City.
What The Vote Showed
Last week's vote reflected,
in part, the objections of
would be "Reflections
'83/Projections '84." The Annual Meeting will celebrate
Leo Yassenoff Jewish Center
To Hold 'Sports Spectacular'
On Aug. 6 At Winding Hollow
"Another spectacular
event is in the making,"
states chairman for the
Third Annual Sports Spectacular Ron Feerer.
Other personalities attending the "Spectacular" will
be golf great Juan A. "Chi
Chi" Rodriguez and tennis
champs Fred Stolle and Roy
Emerson.
Ticket price for the entire
event, which includes lunch
and an evening cocktail hour
and dinner, is $250. Proceeds
will go to the Leo Yassenoff
Jewish Center's Health and
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 14)
Heritage Village Annual Meeting
Scheduled For Sunday, June 24
Morris Skilken, Heritage
Village 'president, announced recently that Mrs.
Harry Polster has been appointed chairwoman for the
23rd Heritage Village Annual Meeting. The Annual
Meeting has been scheduled
for Sunday, June, 24, at 2
p;m. on,the Village Land-V
scaped Gardens.
Mrs. Polster has distinguished herself as an active
member of the Heritage Village Board of Trustees and
has served on a variety of
committees of the Board. In
1977, the Harry A. Polster
Dental Clinic was dedicated
at Heritage House in memory of Mrs. Polster's late
husband. The clinic continues to be one of the few
dental clinics in the country
to be located within a home
for the agings
In reviewing initial plans,
Mrs. Polster stated that the
theme of the Annual Meeting
Mrs. Harry Polster
the relationship between
Heritage Village and the
community, as well as project Heritage Village's response to the growing
demands of the future.
Also  serving with  Mrs.
Polster on the Annual Meet-
(CONTINUEDON PAGE 14)
Brian Kravitz Selected To Receive
Rabbi Julius 1, Baker Scholarship
Arnold "Red" Auerbach
The Leo Yassenoff Jewish
Center will hold this year's
"Sports Spectacular" on
Monday, Aug. 6, at Winding
Hollow Country Club.^
"If you attended last
year's event, and we know
you had a great time, you
can look forward to an
exceptionally exciting day
this year with our featured
guest speaker, Arnold
"Red" Auerbach,'" says
Feerer.
In his 32nd season as president and general manager of
the Boston Celtics, Auerbach, has brought his team
f.o *14 NBA Championship
wins.
The Columbus Torah Academy announces that Brian
C. Kravitz, a seventh grade
student, has been selected as
the 1984 recipient of the Rabbi Julius L. Baker Torah
Scholarship Award.
The award, which was established in 1983 to Encourage advanced Torah study
among Torah Academy
seniors and graduates,
carries a grant of up to
$2,500. The grant is to be
used to pay the tuition of a
senior at Torah Academy or
a freshman at a Yeshiva
High School for a period of
one year. The Rabbi Baker
Award will be granted
annually and is administered through the Endowment Fund of the Columbus
Jewish Foundation.
Kravitz, who will be a
senior at Torah Academy in
September, was selected by
the awards committee in
recognition of his diligence
in Torah study and trie-practice of Judaism and for his
exemplary behavior.
Rabbi Julius L. Baker was
a resident of Columbus for
almost 40 years. Until 1957,
he served as rabbi.,of the
Congregation B'nai Israel in
Lancaster and from
1958-1971, as rabbi of the
Congregation Ahavas
Sholom. During his residence in Columbus, Rabbi
Baker became well known
for his Torah scholarship
and for his active participation in endeavors to enhance
religious and communal life.
He was one of the founders of
Brian C. Kravitz
the Columbus Torah Academy, the father of a former
Torah Academy student and
the grandfather of two
graduates.
Rabbi Baker, who now
resides in Netanya, Israel,
maintains close contact with
the community and visits his
family in Columbus annually. This scholarship fund is
his legacy to the community.
Conservative rabbis who believe that the only route to
the Conservative rabbinate
should be via the JTS rabbinical school. But until last
October, women had been
barred from admission to
the school since its founding.
In October, after years of
heated debate, in which
three recent successive RA
conventions endorsed admission of women to the JTS
rabbinical school, the JTS
Faculty Senate yielded and
agreed to do so, starting with
the 1984-85 class in the fall.
Another basic source of opposition to women rabbis in
the Conservative movement,
on halachic principle, comes
from a strong group of right-
wing RA members and supporters in the active rabbinate, who came in a body to
the RA convention to oppose
the admission vote on the
two women Reform rabbis.
Those conservative rabbis
and scholars were a major
force oyer the years in keeping the'JTS rabbinical school
closed to women but are now
considered a weakened force
in the movement.   ;
Nature Of The Changed
Circumstances
The changed circumstances, which make an RA
vote such as last week's ever
unlikely again, are not
merely the fact that more
than 20 women have been enrolled in the JTS rabbinical
school for the coming fall
term, but, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was reliably
tpld, one of the members of
the school's entering class
has earned sufficient JTS
credits so that, barring unexpected developments, she
will complete the school's
academic requirements and
be graduated next June and
thus achieve ordination as
the first Conservative woman rabbi in American history. Her identity was withheld by the JTA's source.
Accordingly, the JTA was
told, when the RA meets in
convention next spring, the
woman will be a member of
the 1984-85 rabbinical school
graduating class whose
' members will be routinely
voted into RA membership.
Rabbi Alexander Shapiro
of Congregation Oheb Shalom of South Orange, N.J.,
the new RA president, told
the convention that "the
time will come when Rabbi
Magidson and her fellow
women rabbis will take their
place in our ranks and share
with us their insights, resourcefulness and scholarship."