ewish Press
Serving Nebraska and Iowa Since 1920
26 TISHBE, 5753 Friday. October 23,
Vol. LXX No. 5 Omaha
Do
Sing at the Sukkah
Masorti bans driving to Shul on Shabba By David Landau
Dozens of preschoolers learned about Sukkot last week in a singalong led by Susie Drazen, Judaic music instructor at the Jewish Community Center's Child Development Center (CDC). Drazen brought a lulav and etrog to "•how and tell," and also explained why Jews build Sukkahs during the harvest holiday. Other adults pictured above are Dinah Raful, CDC director (center) and Belinda Collins, a CDC teacher, right.
Jews among winners of Nobel prizes By Tom Tugend LOS ANGELES (JTA) — tYofe^sor Rudolph Marcus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena has been named the , 1992 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. The Canadian-born Marcuit was apparently attending a meeting in Toronto and could not be immediately reached by his oflflce. However, he was lauded by colleagues as a 'brilliant theorist and a very nice man.' ProfMSor Samuel Epstein, a coliMgua and friend for four decades, described Marcus •• 'very Jewish," though more in the cultural than religious sense. Irving Bc'ii >seirac« wrtler on Nobel laurialt^^, aiiul he bnlioviia another of th> N<.i en"
standing of how the body regulates cellular activity. In recognizing the 69year-old Marcus for the $1.2 million chemistry prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited his 'contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems." It praised Marcus for finding "simple mathematical expressions for how the energy of a moleculsr system is affected by changiM in the structure of nwcting molectiles and their nearest, neighbors." M^arcus was awarded Israel's prestigious Wolf Prize two years ago and is widely known in the Uraeli scientific communi• lid Professor Harry snuther ooUeagu*. "1 think the Isrselis saw what was coming bv Wol'f
JERUSALEM (JTA) — In a departure from the longstanding policy of Conservative Judaism, the rabbis of Israel's affiliated Masorti movement have issued a religious ruling prohibiting travel to synagogue by car on Shabbat. The decision by the Halacha (Jewish Law) Committee of Israel's Rabbinical Assembly means that membeirs of Masorti synagogues, as the Conservative movement is known here, are prohibited from doing something that Conservative Jews everywhere else are permitted to do. Until the Halacha Committee's decision was published, the entire Conservative movement was governed by a 1950 ruling of the New York-based Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which stated that automobile travel is allowed if the distance between home and synagogue is too far to walk.
Somalia accepts aid from Nathan, Israel
The 1950 ruling permits driving only to and from synagogue,, wit^iout stopping for any other purpose. The Israeli Halacha Committee, in its ruling, stated that many people hqve come to mistakenly believe that driving on Shabbat is permitted for any purpose. "In the State of Israel, no one works on the Sabbath. Every Israeli can open a siddur (prayerbook) and pray, and there is sure to be a synagogue in his locality,'' stated the Israeli decision. The question of whether rulings made by the New York-based law committee are binding on Israel's Conservative Jews, or whether the Masorti movement is free to come to its own conclusions has yet to be worked out, according to Rabbi Kassel Abelson, chairman of the New York committee. The (Conservative movement's law committee has no policy on it," he said in New York. "It has come up as an issue in principle
but not in fact before." The nature of the relationship is "being tslked through now, and with this psak (halachic ruling) will have to be discussed even further," he said. But he made clear that "the impact of the Masorti movement's psak is limited to the Masorti Jews of Israel." The three members of the Masorti Halscha Committee who issued the ruling included its chairman, Rabbi David Ckilinkin. According to the niling, driving is prohibited on Shabbat because igniting a fire, as when an engine is turned on, is a transgression specified in the Tprah itself And in case the car breaks down en route, the driver is likely to try to fix it and breach other prohibitions. In addition, according to the ruling, Talmudic sources say that leaving one's own city is forbidden on Shabbat. And the car's driver would be com-
pelled to take ale ^ wallet and money, ^ i is prohibited under ish law, as is buying < thing, including gasc , '.' The ruling also Siui-to that permission to drive to synagogue is likely to be interpreted by Masorti Jews as permission to drive anywhere on Shabbat, and that driving Can create stress and tension, which are not conducive to the Sabbath spirit. Praying in synagogue after driving there, the ruling concludes, is a mitzvah that comes from a transgression. The rabbinic decree was issued in response to a question submitted by a Masorti family in Petach Tikvah. They asked if they could drive since there is rto Masorti synagogue in their area and they feel uncomfortable in the local Orthodox synagogues, where men and women are treated unequally. (Contributing to this report wak JTA staff writfr Debra Nussbaum Cohen in New York.)
Yad Vashem unveils community memorial
Viewed from above, the ish comn\unily in that reJERUSALEM (JTA) — For 10 years, architects, monument resembles the gion, with smaljer comhistorians and builders map of pre-World War II munities written on the NEW YORK (JTA) — have toiled to create a Europe. On ground level, aide. Gen. Mohamed Farah Holocaust mpnument that the towering walls form a In the courtyard desigAideed, chairman of the would both commemorate aeries of courtyards, one nated for Greece, for exSomali National Alliance, the dead and educate the for each country in which ample, the left side of the has accepted an offer .of living. Jews were persecuted. wall bears the name aid for starving and Just a few steps fnto' Thessaloniki (Salonika). Next week, the Yad homeless refugees from once the largest Jewish Israeli philanthropist Vashem memorial and the labyrinthine structure, the visitor is drawn community in that counmuseum will inaugurate Abie Nathan and said he welcomes humanitarian the result of their labor: into a stark world of stone try. Athens, which had a Liaaid from Israel and its the Valley of the De- and rock, with just a smaller Jewish popula touch of greenery 20 feet tion, is listed on the rigl non-governmental organi- stroyed Communities. Situated in a rocky above. The eye is immedi- aldng with other Gre< zations. Aideed also invited wooded area on Y«d Va- atdy drawn to the walls, towns and villages whi Nathan and representa- shem's Mount of Remem- etched in Hebrew and Jews perished. tives of his Voice of Peace brance, the huge monu- English with the names About 90 percent organization to visit So- liient commemorates the of 5,000 devastated cqm Greece's Jews died durii malia to discuss the es* Jewish.communities of munities. the Holocaust. tablishment of refugee Europe and North Africa Every wall bears the camps there. destroyed or damaged by name of the largest JewResponding to a letter ' from Nathan, Osroan thi»Nazia. "Some 20,000 Jewish Hassan Ali, adviser to the general, wrote that the communities in Europe "Somali National Alllancif) alone were destroyed has requested (the) Inter- alongside the 6 million," national community for explained Yitzhak Arad, help to contain and reha- chairman of Yad Vashem. Tom Fellinan and Phil Schrager, general cu-cii This valley will combilitate the displaced peomen of the 199.3 UJA/Federation Campaign, ple in So—••'••• "'id Israel memorate all the communounced that Ethiopian and East Euro)>< and til ;overn- nities in which ut least grants who have retiuttlvd in larael mental .-h" •"• 'TC 100 Jews celebrated JewOmaha on '^ ia(ia«il equ u- ish life, religion and culdinner T^ heartedly iit... ^.tr- . ture. licipate in this vital proThe valley symbolizes a By Susan Birnbaum
Ethiopian Jews wiii Join campaign event
ject." The acceptance seems fi, iMiii'k n rt.vt<ri4Ht for
•en iiont to Mpn'H DlvUlnl
Cllli •|
uci' will Krvbs lur Icnilirif.'
L
ID
ti I-
p.m
ind sulnr energy d*-
liTMlt Conaulata in N' York
yet somehow
't VIP