SERVING NEBRASKA, Omaha, Neb., Fri., January 1,1982 cr OQ
O 00
Kallah scholar: idaism 'practical'
By David Blttner Crowds at Beth El and Beth Israel Synagogues and Temple Israel heard Kallah weekend scholar-inresidence Dennis Prager present a series of lectures on Judaism as a means of achieving ethics, God as the basis of morality, and some common values as the false gods of modern society. Prager, who is the director of the BrandeisBardin Institute in Los Angeles, called Judaism the most practical and elevated system, secular or religious, eastern or western, for making good people and a good society. "Contrary to the popular belief of many Jews," said Prager, "Judaism does not regard man as being basically good. "We are not evil, either, as Christianity says, but the innocence in which we are all bom is not the same as good. What Judaism has done is build a system of law legislating and defining goodness which, if practiced, will guide us in good paths." Prager stressed that the whole system of law hinges upon the existence of a God. The attempt made in recent years by humanists and other secularists to separate goodness from belief in God, he said, is doomed to failure. "If there is no God for goodness to emanate from,
our system of transcendent moral u n i v e r s a l s will collapse," said Prager. "There will no longer be one world-wide standard of good and evil and everything will become personal taste, with right and wrong actions as a r b i t r a r i l y chosen as chocolate and vanilla." P r a g e r u r g e d h, i s listeners to wake to Israel's mission at this juncture in time. "History will record of American Jewry in its obsessive desire to secularize America that it did society a massive disservice, and we will have to pay for our myopic attempt to rid America of its religious bases," he said. Prager introduced his topic of false gods by quoting Will Herberg's observation that there are no such things as atheists, only people who worship gods with small "g"s if they do not worship God with a capital "G." Prager listed some of the small "g" gods which he believes supplant God for some people.
such things as selffulfillment, self-expression and self-realization are held up as being important," said Prager. "Judaism is the antithesis of the how-do-I-feelaboutit movement," he continued. "Our faith commands us to do good even we don't feel good about doing it." Prager said that if less attention were paid to the self, there would be fewer divorces, with husbands and wives learning to accommodate each other b e t t e r , and i n c r e a s e d generosity, to charity. Art today should be as unJcwish a value as it was in a n c i e n t t i m e s , when Hellenism and its adulation of beauty threatened Jewish civilization, said Prager. "Artistic creativity has •wothing to do with morality," hq said. "The arts are addictive pastimes and they do not make for a better world. (Continued on Page 2)
• t'rjBMamm The name of the 1981 Community Service Award winner will be added to this plaque which hangs in the lobby of the Jewish Community Center.
Nominees announced for Community Service Award By Ellen Gordman ^ The Community Service Award will be presented for the third time during the Annual Meeting of the
Jewish Federation of Omaha on Jan. 17, 1982. The award was started in 1979 to recognize excellence in programming by Jewish
community organizations. This year's five nominees are the Oral History Project, the Learning Disabilities (Continued on Page 2)
Dr. Fellman opens mini-series
"What are the im- series of seminar-lectures plications for the Jewish sponsored by the Jewish community from America's Cultural Arts Council and is. move to the right?" is the open to the public at no subject of a talk by Dr. charge. Gordon Fellman at the Dr. Fellman received his Jewish Community Center, undergraduate education at Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m. This • Antioch College and his Ph.lecture is the first in a mini- I). at Harvard University, where h<> was a member of the faculty before joining Brandcis* University as associate professor of sociology. Dr. Fellman, in association with Barbara Brandt, is the author of a book titled, The Deceived Majority, Politics and Protest in Middle America. During a telephone interview with Mary Fellman, chairman of the JCAC, Dr. Fellman said that his interest in working class' protest movements was inspired by his observation of "the rapid and vast changes in consciousness and activity wrought by the civil rights, anti-war, feminist movement of the late '60s and early '70s." Dr. Fellman further stated: "During this period 1 studied a largely working class NEW YORK • In this scene from "David," a prize-winning film about a rabbi and his family protest movement against a during the Nazi-era in Germany, Waiter Taub, left, who portrays Rabbi Singer, and Mario proposed eight-lane highway Fischei, who plays David, discuss a family problem. Written and directed by Peter LJIIenthal, through Cambridge, where I the movie tells the story, of a rabbi's son and his ultimate escape to Palestine. The production, live, and three adjoining which was filmed entirely in West Germany, won the best film award at the 1979 Berlin Film cities. The movement, which Festival. It has Its U.S. premiere in New York on Jan. 20. Popular psychological l i t e r a t u r e and t h e proliferation of encounter groups, he said, testify to the fact that the self is at the center of many people's lives. "In this age of me-isnv and looking out for no. 1,
Prize-winning film
Dr. Gordon Fellman succeeded in ending the highway plan, became the case study around which the larger issue of working class protest is examined in a number of articles and in my book." During and after two sabbatical years in Israel and several shorter visits
there, Dr. Fellman has been preparing articles and perhaps a book on an American Jew's mixed reactions and impressions of what he calls "that complicated, exciting, enchanting, agonized society." Dr. Fellman is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Fellman and is related to numerous members, past and present, of the Omaha and Council Bluffs Jewish communities. In addition to his association of Jewish and secular organizations in the Boston area. His visit to Omaha precedes a speaking tour in Arizona, California and Washington state, for the Brandeis University National Women's Committee.
Subscription change Starting with the Jan. 15 issue, the Jewish Press subscription list will be transferred to the Federation computer. It is hoped that by this means, the Jewish Press will be better able to serve its subscribers regarding address changes. Subscribers are asked to save the mailing label. from this or the Jan. 8 issue of the Jewish Press and send it to the Press office, should they not recieve a copy of the Jan. 15 issue. The Press staff hopes that any problems will be quickly - resolved and asks for the patience and cooperation of its readers in this change to a central list on the Federation computer.