Ohio Jewish chronicle. (Columbus, Ohio), 1989-11-23

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VOJ..67 NO. 48
NOVEMBER 23, 1989-CHESHVAN 25
Devoted to American
and Jewish Ideals.
Temple Israel Names
New Members' Class
After Bunny Cowall
Each year Temple Israel
holds a New Members' Dinner at which time the class of
new members is named in
honor of a Temple member.
This year's class will be
named the Bunny Patchat
Cowall class of 1989. In appreciation of her many years
of temple involvement,
Cowall was chosen as this
year's honoree by the Temple Israel Honors Committee, headed by Roger Blair.
The dinner, Twhich iis
scheduled for Friday, Dec. 8,
at6:30'p.m., has been planned by Barbara Guthoff and
Ilene Bronson with the help
of Catering by Paula Weinstein. Following this year's
dinner will be a service honoring Cowall and the new
membersand a special Oneg
Shabbat coordinated by
Hope Ellen Kaplan.
Prospective members are
always welcome to become
part of the Temple Israel
family. This past September, two Prospective Mem-
. her Dinners^coordinated by
Membership Chairpersons
Roger Sugarman and Marcy
Gross^were7held; Anyone
who is interested in membership or wojiid like information about member:
ship should contact the Tern*
pie at 866-0010.
Progress Is Reported In Resolving
Convent Issue, Split From UCIC
JsA       ■    "^ "r-nSVKji^i.1
Jack Rubin, president of Beth Jacob Congregation,
presents a copy of "The Jews in-America", to Rabbi
David Stavsky. Beth Jacob is featured in the book.
Beth Jacob Featured In Book
Columbus, Ohio, and Beth
Jacob Congregation have received national attention
with the publication of the
coffee table-size photographic essay book. "The
Jews in America," edited by
David Cohen and published
by Collins Publishers, Inc.,
San Francisco* Calif.
film a cross section of the
American Jewish community in all of its rich diversity - to photograph the
daily life of a remarkable
tribe that includes farmers
and doctors, t criminals,
senators and Nobel Prize
winners, black-suited Brooklyn Lubavitchers and pin-
Cohen says,'"TheJewsin 7 ,Striped"L.'A.!lawyere:
America' began 'With a simple idea. Then, like many
creative enterprises, it took
on a complex life of its own.
The idea was to capture on
Sylvia Schecter Honorary Chair
Of Next Jewish Blood Donor Day
Blood Donor Council is com1
prised of representatives
from 50 area Jewish organizations and is a beneficiary
agency of the Columbus Jewish Federation. A community-wide phone campaign
will be held next month to
alert past and potential donors to the date and time of
the Dec. 21 drive.
Sylvia Schecter, whose
community endeavors have
touched the lives of three
generations of Columbus
area residents, has been
named honorary chairwoman of the Jewish Community Blood Donor
Council's upcoming Blood*
Donor Day, to be held Thursday, Dec. 21, at the Leo Yassenoff Jewish Center between the hours of 12:30 and
6:'30 p.m.
Schecter, who created the
Jewish Community Blood
Donor Council in 1949 and
chaired the council through-
. out its early existence, has
agreed to once again lend
her expertise and inspiration
to a cause which twice yearly attracts nearly 300 donors.
"The war years set the
pattern for Jewish community involvement in this
cause, and, in my travels for
B'nai B'rith District Two, I
saw how well- this concept
worked in the St. Louis community," said Schecter.    ~
The Jewish community's
blood contribution helps the
Central Ohio Red Cross to
meet its goal of at least 550
pints of blood dally. Forty-
eight hospitals in 27 area
counties are served by this
supply. '  „
The Jewish Community
1 Our photographers
spread out across the Jewish
American landscape to
Squirrel Hill and Beverly
Hills, Shaker Heights, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Great
Neck and Maine. They came
back with more than 2,000
rolls of film-photographs
which were "sometimes expected, often surprising and
frequently moving.
"Then it was left, to the
editors and designers to
choose the best pictures and
weave them into a convincing tapestry. This involved some tough decisions
and close calls. Eighty thousand pictures were taken;
CONTINUEDONPAGE12
Pictured above are (1. to r.) Janet Abroms, Whitney
Mirvis, Alice Taub and Sharon Frank, members of the
committee planning the Agudas Achim Chanukah
Dance. Missing from the photo are Ken Palestrant, '
Meryl Palestrant, Michael Moss and Sarita Moss.
Agudas Achim Finalizing Plans
For Chanukah Dance On Dec. 10
Alice Taub and' Sarita
Moss, chairwomen of the.
Agudas Achim Sisterhood/Brotherhood Chanuka
Dance, announce that the
committee is finalizing plans
for  their  annual  dinner
dance set for Sunday evening, Dec. 10, at 6:30 p.m, in
the Silberstein Social Hall,
Michael Moss represents
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
NEW YORK (JTA) - The
controversy over the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz
has dropped from the headlines over the past several
weeks, but those.in contact
with the Catholic church and
the Polish government say
they are confident that progress toward its relocation is
continuing.
Seymour' Reich, who
serves as chairman of
UCIC, the International
Jewish Committee forlnter-
religious Consultations, said
he anticipates that the issue
may-be resolved by the end
of this year.
Though Reich and others
know that completing construction of a new convent
anji interreligious center
away from the site of the
former death camp is^a goal
that looms far in the future,
they believe the Carmelite
nuns will be moved from the
current building to temporary quarters shortly.
Kalman Sultanik, vice
president df.the-.World-Jew-
ish Congress, "recently reported after a trip to Poland
that a nurnber of the nuns
had already moved.
The present time is being
described as a period of
breathing space for both
Jews and Catholics, following the heated exchanges of
August and September,
when the conflict reached its
ti boiling point.  ;;;     i
Jewish groups at that time
furious over the stated refusal of Polish Catholic officials to honor their agreement to move the convent,
comments by Polish Cardih-
al Jozef Glemp perceived to
be anti-Semitic,; and the
Vatican's silence on the entire issue.
The situation was defused
with a statement from the
Vatican on Sept. 19 supporting the agreement to move
the convent and build an interreligious center, and a
subsequent turnaround on
the part <>f the Polish Catholics.        x   .-,...,
Another» reason for the
quiet regarding the convent
is Jewish uncertainty over
the changes taking place in
the Polish government, as
the grip of the Communist
party loosens.    .
Rabbi A. James Rudin of
the American Jewish Committee, who returned from
Poland last week, observed
that the country is now at an
important crossroads. A current overriding concern for
Jews, he said, is whether the
emerging nationalism in
Poland and other parts of
- Eastern Europe will bring
with it the resurrection of the
region's traditional anti-
Semitism.
Parallel to the uncertainty
about nationalism are
doubts about the renewed influence of the Catholic
Church in Eastern Europe.
.With the resurgence of the
church's power, Rudin said,
he is concerned about
whether the theology of the
newly strengthened Catholic
Church will be "pre-Vatican
II or post-Vatican II."
Prior to the Second Vatican Council, which took
place from 1962 to 1965, it
was commonly taught in the
Catholic Church that the
Jews ..were responsible for
the death of Jesus and that
Judaism was essentially a
heretical religion. The document that emerged from the
council formally stated a
more tolerant view of Judaism by the church.
As Jews begin, to heal the
rifts with Catholics, there also seerns to be movement toward reconciliation within
the Jewish community, as
organizations work to resolve conflicts1 that were intensified bythe convent controversy.
Leaders of the American
Jewish Committee, the
American Jewish Congress
and the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith met
with Reich on Oct. 25 to explore the possibility of the
three organizations becoming part of UCIC.
In early September, in the
midst of the heat of the convent controversy,. AJCommittee pulled out of UCIC
and joined forces with ADL,
which left UCIC four years
ago, and AJCongress to form
an alternative organization.
The new umbrella group,
the Jewish Council of International Interreligious Relations/has essentially the
same mandate as UCIC: to
deal with the Vatican and
other international religious
bodies on behalf of Judaism,
in the interest of promoting
stronger interreligious relations.
The split in UCIC and the
formation of an alternative
group stemmed, in part,
from disagreements between hard-line and more
conciliatory elements within
the Jewish community over
the best approach for dealing with the convent issue.
But is also involved the desire of some Jewish groups
to have a more open exchange with the Vatican on
matters of religious doctrine, a direction strongly
opposed by Orthodox elements in UCIC.
The meeting left Reich optimistic about the prospects
of ironing out these differences and Convincing the
"three groups that formed the
Jewish Council to join UCIC.
"I think we will be able to resolve any nuances that
might be necessary in order
to unite the Jewish community under one umbrella
again," Reich said.
But members of the
groups Reich is trying to woo
said his optimism may be
premature. "I think some
real issues ^regarding dealing with Christians have to
be resolved," said Judith
Banki, associate director of
interreligious affairs for'the
American Jewish Committee.