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| Volume 11 Number 85 | Mon Mar 4 23:55:02 US/Pacific 2002 |
From: alanbcohen@att.net Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 17:44:26 +0000 Subject: Obituary: Rabbi Jerome Malino As a regular reader of this mailing list, I have been waiting for an announcement of the recent death of Rabbi Jerome Malino at the age of 90. Since it hasn't Rabbi Malino died lat Monday, February 25th, 2002, from complications of a stroke. I'm not anyone special, just a congregant at the United Jewish Center in Danbury CT for the last 21 years. Rabbi Malino was greatly respected by all the members of my family, the congregation, and the Danbury area community, at large. The following URLs will provide you the local newspaper frontpage articles on his passing and his funeral. http://www.newstimes.com/cgi-bin/dbs.cgi? db=news&view_records=1&id=23857 http://www.newstimes.com/cgi-bin/dbs.cgi? db=news&view_records=1&id=24017 Rabbi Malino, we miss you. Alan Cohen
From: Dean Hughson <thtransportation@yahoo.com> Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2002 00:06:24 -0800 (PST) Subject: Argentine Jews Speaking to friends in Buenos Aires,they tell me that only the poor will leave Argentina. They do not fear the situation,having seen similiar 'bad economic times' and those with money and property or position are committed to seeing the country change for the better. It should be noted that the vast majority of Jews in Argentina are similiar to US Jews; not particularly religiously observant but aware that they are Jews. My friend and his wife maintain 2 homes; 1 in Miami,one in Buenos Aires and when I forward emails I read from Israel,etc. they write me back that they don't believe it. It is confusing to me. I worked with Soviet Jews widely in the 80's and saw something somewhat similiar in terms of the first to leave were those who were religious,then the economic poor,and the last were the professionals. Is it to be that way? We are dealing with a different thing though: many Jews are in high positions in the country,unlike it was in the Soviet Union. Dean Hughson,Las Vegas
From: Michael Horowitz <michaelh1@onebox.com> Date: Mon Mar 4 7:58:13 US/Pacific 2002 Subject: Re: Israel recognizes non-Orthodox Judaism Conversions Even liberal Jews should be frightened by the Israeli Supreme Courts illegal decision to grant legitimacy to non Halachic conversions. The basic problem with the law is that it has no basis whatsover in Israeli law. The Barak court believes that it should substitute its judgement for that of the elected Knesset when it disagrees with their decisions. Remember if you justify this power grab when the radical left is in power, the court will still have that power if the radical right takes control. If you believe Israel should be ruled by her Jewish citizens and not her self selected elite you must oppose this ruling. You cannot morally support dictatorship when you agree with the rules of the dictator, and expect anyone to take you seriously when the tyrant changes and you suddenly discover your love of democracy.
From: Michael Horowitz <michaelh1@onebox.com> Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2002 18:10:57 -0800 Subject: Olive Trees for Peace [Moderator's Note: I guess this submission shows that one must be careful which trees one plants, and which ones are uprooted. What the submission does not make clear is whether the tree in question is in the area being planted by the other group. In any case, the Olive Tree discussion is likely to be non-fruitful (no pun intended). However, take a look at Michael's last paragraph, which I think is an interesting point for productive discussion.] We've been solicited on this list to help plant olive trees for the PLO because of the claim that Israel had no reason except cruelty for uprooting them. 10 Jews are dead because Israel has not destroyed enough PLO olive trees. "OFRA (March 4) - Shortly after 6:30 a.m. yesterday, a lone Palestinian sniper crouched under an olive tree on the side of a mountain overlooking an army roadblock on the Ramallah-Nablus road. He fired 25 bullets from his carbine, killing 10 soldiers and civilians and wounding four, before escaping unharmed. ..." http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/03/04/News/News.44481.html One lesson of Purim is that those who are kind to the cruel will eventually be cruel to the kind. Those who led and donated to such campaigns have the blood of these victims on their hands. In the Purim story, our victory comes when the Jewish people take up arms and slaughter our enemies. My namesake Mordechai was no pacifist, because pacifism is not part of our heritage. Purim teaches that Jews pray, Jews fast and Jews kill their enemies. One cannot make peace with an enemy who has no wish but to slaughter. Our enemies have no morality, no decency, and no humanity. Amalek cannot be reasoned with, only destroyed. The week prior to Purim we read parshat Amalek because we are required to remember, not just who Amalek was but what he was. Then we are commanded to obliterate his memory from the earth. [Moderator's Note: The above paragraph raises an interesting point for discussion (and is actually the primary reason I included the article on the list. As Michael notes, we are commanded to obliterate Amalek's memory from the earth. Yet his name is in Torah, and we are reminded of his memory every year when this passage is read. This prevents us from ever obliterating the name completely without first obliterating Torah. What can we learn from this unending contradiction? I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear yours first.] Am Yisrael Chai!!
From: Elkan Presman <elkan@mitzvot.org.uk> Date: Mon Mar 4 7:49:36 US/Pacific 2002 Subject: Re: Questions about Reform and Recon. seminaries In answer to Robert Kaiser's question about the current differences between the Recontructionist and the Reform theologies, surely the only contemporary difference is that Reconstructionists now have a common view about the nature of God, which is recognisably derived from Kaplan's views. On the other hard the Reform movement is so determinedly tolerant and undogmatic about its theology that almost anything goes - at least so far as the nature of God is concerned. I speak with the comforting arrogance of distance, as a member of the British Reform community. B'shalom Elkan Elkan Presman 020 8516 0620 elkan@mitzvot.org.uk
From: Jeanie Rosensaft <jrosensaft@huc.edu> Date: Mon Mar 4 13:00:45 US/Pacific 2002 Subject: Re: Questions about Reform and Recon. seminaries [Moderator's Note: Emily Grotta of UAHC saw Robert's posting, and forwarded to Jeanie, who is with HUC, the Reform seminary.] > (a) How often are prayer services officially held by the schools? (e.g. 3x > daily, 1x daily, 1x weekly, etc.) Services are daily, Mondays-Thursdays at the campuses, morning and afternoon minyans, plus on Shabbat in Cinci and Jerusalem where students are in residence close to the schools. NY and LA students are at their congregational student pulpits on Shabbat, so services are not scheduled there. > (b) May patrilineal Jews be admitted as rabbinical candidates? Yes > (c) Do the school cafeterias offer certified kosher food? The Cinci school is the only one with a cafeteria and it serves dairy food only. > (d) And finally, for the most difficult question: In what ways are the > Reform seminaries differentiating themselves from the Reconstructionist > Rabbinical College, and vice-versa? Please look at our website, www.huc.edu for curriculum, academic catalog, and mission. This should help answer your questions.
From: BerRotm@aol.com Date: Sun Mar 3 9:14:04 US/Pacific 2002 Subject: Worshipping intercessionaries In a message dated 2/26/2002 2:56:40 AM Eastern Standard Time, Sharonn Bolton writes writes: > Many would disagree with you on this point. Christians are not worshipping > the statue, but the idea the statue represents. Human minds need to focus > on something the human mind can comprehend. God instructed us to build the > Mishkhan not because God needed it, but because humans need the focal > point. No Christian that I have EVER met believed that the picture or statue > they had in front of them or in their mind was ACTUALLY anything except a > picture or statue. They are well aware that it is merely a focal point. Here is the translation of the first and second commandment according to the Masoretic text: "I am the Lord thy G-d who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bodage...Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, even any manner of likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them ..." Let me also add that I am well familiar with Christian beliefs. In my youth during the war and due to conditions prevailing then I was brought very close to the Catholic faith, having spent time in a convent for orphans on the Island of Berdere in the gulf of Morbihan in Brittany and subsequently in schools run by Christian brothers in Belgium. I went to mass and learned to say novennas in front of statutes of saints and I said them with fervor and intensity. Much later my rescuer was Father Bruno Reynders, a Benedictine Monk, to whom I communicated my desire to be baptized which he refused to do, to his great credit, without my parent's consent who at the time were captives of the Nazis. But perhaps it is my days in Brittany that opened my eyes to the strong pagan heritage which is particularly prominent in that region. They are cousin to the Irish and their dialect is also a form of Gaelic. Their religious fervor is focused strictly on that of a lady patron saint -- I seem to remember that it is Sainte Anne, the mother of Mary (The Bretons had a female goddess before the advent of Christianity.) Even the Virgin Mary is secondary and their statues are everywhere to be seen and in churches with myriads of lit candles at their feet and worshippers kneeling before them. In fact I was recently at a wedding which took place at a church dedicated to the Virgin in New City NY which has a mostly Irish following. What struck me was the various statues of her in the church with an immense one at the center that was so immense that it reminded me of the statues of Athena that used to be the centerpiece at the Parthenon in Athens. I finally located the feature of a small head of Christ in the stained glass of one of its windows and that is all I saw about Jesus in the whole place. It is inconceivable to me that one could reconcile this to the first and second commandments as quoted above, though I have heard, many many times, the argument that you have presented. I agree that some extreme haredi practices also tend to idolatry. Let me remind you that even today, some Jews can't get rid of the habit and still worship the golden calf (monye,monye,monye) and that is their business but that doesn't make it monotheism and it is wrong to claim that it still follows the Mosaic stricture. It is a constant struggle to maintain the pure monotheism of Moses and some of us would still incur his wrath from sliding into the old habits. The worship of a non-incarnate G-d with whom one can communicate only in the abstract requires a deep introspection and a philosophical and theological underpinning which is beyond the comprehension of the masses. I can well understand why the founding fathers of the church had to retain the trappings of the Celts' paganism in order to achieve success in Chritianizing the barbarians of the Holy Roman Empire. Bernard Rotmil.
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