Page 2-The Ganadian Jewish NeWs, Thursday, December 4,1986
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RABBI W. GUNTHER PLAUT
My recent journey to Israel hiad two purposes: to lecture at Haifa University and to attend the dedication ceremonies of the World Center for Progressive Judaism, as well ais the new enlarged facilities of Hebrew Union College. It was a great and joyful occasion, attended by Israel's leaders and enhanced by the ex-. qui$ite beauty of Moshe Safdie's architectural masterpiece. When completed it will be one of the city's great tourist attractions.
'' Progressive - Liber^ al-Refprm" — these words which are so familiar in the Diaspora-still have a ring of strangeness to many
Rabbi Piaut
Israelis, who are so turned off by religion that when they hear of quarrels between Orthodox and non-Orthodox groups they will say, "A plague on both your houses." Such an attitude provides the fertile ground on which bus shelter burnings and synagogue desecrations are possible.
For us here, religious pluralism is a fact; in Israel it still struggles for recognition. True, the name of Rabbi Reuyen (Richard) Hirsch is now widely known and his views aire quoted by the papers; and the World Zionist Organization's handsome magazine Israel Scene has featured Israel's first woman rabbi on its front coyer.;.
But it took a SimchatTorah attack on a: Progressive synagogue in Jerusalem's Baka quarter to move the whole matter front and centre. The bus shelter incidents and subsequent syniagogue attacks were perceived as ouitcroppings of ex-treniist tensions; biit the interference with the services in Baka became something else. Sud-dehly the issue of religious equality for the non-Orthodox became a public cohcem, and Israelis who otherwise dbii't care about religious niat-ters began to consider the rights of the Progressives to be everybody's business. What years of patient and quiet labor were imabie to achieve the Baka outrage accomplished overnight.
Rabbi Levi Weinian-Kelmah (nephew of Toronto's Rabbi Joseph Kelman) was ordained at the Conservative Jewish Theological Semiiiary in New York. His father, Wolfe, is the executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the worldwide association of Conservative rabbis. The young rabbi has made aliya and now s;erves conr gregation Kol Haheshama which is affiliated with the Progressive movement, Men and women sit together and participate in the service on an equal basis. The service has. a chassidie tinge and is of course entirely in Hebrew. Many young.Israelis' are attracted by it, as are North American olim; Last year the congregation was forced to abandon its meeting quarters in the Labor Party's.building; poiitical-religious pressure had done its work. But this year the local area coiincil found the congregation a tempbrar>' home in the community centre.
On Simchat Torah, during the hakafot^ Morbccan-bom Riabbi Eliahu Abergil arid some of his followers invaded the synagogue and tried to wrest a Sefer Torah away from the worshipper who carried it. The ensuing struggle became national news, and nothing was the same thereafter.
Rabbi Abergil subsequently apologizedand even said that he had erred and that he would henceforth respect the rights of Progressive Jews.; But the spectacle of Jews wrestling over a Sefer Torah would not go a\yay. Rabbi Abergil. wrote David Chintz in the daily press, has handed Reform Jews on a silver platter what they might not have achieved for years.
On the heels of the incident came the dedication of the new Progressive structure in Jerusalem's prime spot:.on King David St-, above Mamilah facing the Western Wall: Themedia now gave the ceremonies wide play, full-page pictures and extensive TV coverage:
Has a niew era dawned? Not yet. Political realities have not changed; the coalition still counts on the cooperation of the Agudah and of Shas — the ultra-traditional parties of the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. But some change is in the air, and pluralism is now seriously on Israel's agenda;
Israeli spy feared unstable
WOLF BLITZER
WASHINGTON - -
The U.S. justice, department has been trying — so far unsuccessftilly — to get convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Jay Pollard to implicate other American Jews and Jewish organizations in alleged Israeli espionage activities in the United States.
But Pollard, according to informed sources* has steadfastly rejected justice department insiiiuations that a broader Israeli spy network was operating in the United States.
"Pollard has not implicated anyone else," one informed source close to the investigation said. Since his arrest, he has been repeat-' edly and sharply questioned by an assortment of federal prosecutors, law enforcement officers and intelligence officials.
They have been focusing their investigation into the activities of several national Jewish organizations.
American Jewish leaders are deeply aware of. the suspicions among some senior justice department investigators, that Pollard may have been part of a wider Israeli espionage operation in the United States. The Jewish leaders have strongly denied that any such network exists.
They have, however, privately expressed concern that Pollard, during the course of extensive questioning and under a great deal of pressure, may make some statement to back up this allegation. Their fears have been aroused by the prevailing, impression in the Jewish community that Pollard was supposedly somewhat unstable.
Their concern seems to have been further strengthened because of the deep personal bitterness and disappointment he expressed on Nov. 20 during an exclusive. 3-hour interview with this reporter at the Petersburg federal prison in Virginia. It was the first time Pollard has spoken out since his arrest one year ago outside the Israeli embassy
Architect selected
WASHINGTON (JTA)
James Ingo'Freed, of I. M. Pei and Partner, has been selected as the design architect for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, it was announced by Arthur Rosenblatt, the museum's director.
Freed, 56, was the principal design airchitect for the newly-completed Jacob Javits Exposition and Con- . vcntion Center in New York City. Born in Essen,:. Germany, he and his family came to the U.S. in 1940.
' 'The Holocaust in its enormity defies language and art, yet both must be used to tell the tale, the tale that must be told," Elie Wiesel, chairman of the U.S. Holocuast Memorial Council, said. "In James Freal we have found an architect who can master this unique-challenge."
in Washington. He told a very sad story .with broad implications for Israel and American Jewry: He deserves greater support from Israel and more understanding from the American Jewish cdrnmun-
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Pollard said he was "befuddled" and "heartbroken" by the decision of the Israeli government and the American Jewish community to effectively abandon him since his arrest.
"I feel the same way that one of Israel's pilots would feel if after being .shot down, nobody made an effort to come get him," he-said. "Not even lifted a finger — in fact, questioned his abilities and his motivations."'
Yet during the interview, he still proclaimed his deep love for Israel and for Jews everywhere. He said he still hoped to make aliya one day and to live "a productive life in Israel."
Wearing a light khaki, short-sleeve prison shirt and darker khaki trousers, he said: "As far as I am concerned, I am as much a loyal son to that country as. anybody has ever been. . . I did my best. I'm sorry if T wasn't the most effective from a long-range standpoint. But I did my best."
Hisbig mistake, he said, was in not making aliya before entering into the espionage operation with the
Israeli officials. He said he had contemplated aliya since the 1967 Six Day War, when he was 13 years old. "My heart has always been in the East," he said.
In recent days, several Israeli officials in Washington have expressed their personal view that the Israeli government did indeed behave less than honorably toward PoUard and his family over the past year. He was a devoted agent who provided Israel with very important information, they cour firmed.
But they noted that the government was primarily concerned: about the "bigger" issue of U.S.-Israeli relations father than the fate of Pollard. By abandoning Pollard and cooperating with the U.S. investigation — to the point of even providing evidence against him — Israel hoped to limit the damage to its relationship with the U.S.
Israeli officials expressed confidence that the Israeli government would eventually take some steps to help Pollard and his fami^ ly, especially with the enormous legal costs they have amassed.
But Pollard felt betrayed by the official Israeli reaction: "By avoiding the issue." he said, "all Israel is doing is leaving an un-bu'ried body to rot and stink
and foul the air . . I'm tired: I'm frustrated. I'm scared as hell for myself and my wife. I just want to end this."
For his own protection. Pollard has been isolated in. a 6 foot byCfoot cell at the maximum security prison. He has received numerous threats from white supremacy and Black Muslim hate groups. If he is ever thrown into a general prison population, he could be severely hurt or even killed.
He ha.s lost 60 pounds since his arrest and quit smoking; Because he was originally overweight; he commented: ' 'Those are the only positive developments that have happened." He did appear physically fit and mentally alert.
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Pollard, while acknowledging that he committed a bad mistake by agreeing to spy for Israel, insisted that his motives were pure. He said that he was acting strictly out of his Zionist commitment to.Israel. "I was raised to believe in the centrality of Israel to the Jewish people." he,said.
"I broke the law," he continued. "I'm not mincing any words, I broke the law. I've never considered myself above the law.''
But as a civilian intelligence analyst for the. U.S. Navy, he had come across whathe described as
very frightening informa-; tion conceniihg security threats facing Israel. After learning that this information was not routinely being provided to Israel through officialchaniiels, he decided to act on his own. He strongly denied that he was part of any broader American Jewish spy network operating.for Israel.
Pollard, during the interview, maintained that he never actually spied "against" the United States. He said he merely provided Israel with information concerning Arab military threats, He did not see anything contradictory in his being' 'a good Zionist and a good American."
The Israeli government has argued that the opera-tion was unauthorized and represented a violation of Israeli policy, U.S. officials remain skeptical of that assertion, in part because of Eitan's subsequent apjwint-ment to head Israel Chemicals, the .largest government-owned company in Israel.
Last June. Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage charges against him: .His wife. Anne Henderson- , Pollard,, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of possessing classified documents-She has been released on bail. Both are "awaiting sentencing, which is not expected before the end of the January at the earliest.
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By
ELLEN GOODMAN
BOSTON - ^,
I was never keen on the description of the Reagan Years as a Teflon presidency; When historians go searching for a label to mark the first six years of this adminisu-atibn, they won't find it in cookware. It's in that otlier domestic krt; parenting. The l98C)s will go down as nothing less than the era of the Permissive Presidency.
How often did Ronald Reagan warn us about the evils of the permissive society? No rules, no brakes, no discipline, anything goes. It turns out the man was absolutely right. Throughout his formative eariy years as President, Ronald Reagan was a hapless victim of a politically permissive upbringing.
Consider the words of no less an authority on child-raisitig than Dr. Spock. Unfairiy accused of . being pediatrician to a permissive generation, the doctor himself warns: "A child, like an adult, knows when she is getting away with too much naughtiness. ... If she isn't corrected, she's likely to behave worse and worse. It's as if she were saying, 'How bad do I have to be before somebody stops me?'"        ■• ■
Does he/she have to be shipping arms to the ayatollah? ' .
Apparently. It took the Iranian arms deial to get the American people to finally say "no'' to their favorite son. For the first time, the overwhelming majority of Americans in last week's Los Angeles Times poll said they didn't believe the President when he denied trading arms for hostages.
In the United States, people are supposed to be custodians of the ward called democracy. But they've have been unwilling to hold the President they love accountable for his actions. Maybe there was a little law-bending here, a bit of: diplomatic lying there, gun-running in Nicaragua, disinformation in Libya, tale-telling over the KAL 007, disorder in Reykjavik. We allowed ah escalating series of events to be treated as if they were well-meaning acts or "misspeaks." Merely a stage he was going through.
Many chose to trust Ron rather than the evidence or, "certainly, the eVidence-bearers. Like a fond . family, we melted eachtimehe came striding open-faced and cheerftil into the living-room television greeting us, ''Good evening . , you know my name." We were, to put it simply, overindulgent . and ieleiitlessly.approving.
Of course, the more we allowed his dubious behavior, the more the boundaries were pushed. It's textbook stuff. What do the child psychologists call it? Testing, The final test came when the man who promised he would never d^al with terrorists got caught dealing and he couldn't quite charm his wayoiitof.it. - :
From my vantage point, permissiveness — either , in thetxxiy politic or in parenting — bears a .strong resemblance to another P-word in the casebooks: passiveness. Parents who preinaturely resign as family rulemakers often delude themselves with the idea that their offspring are old enough to take care of themselves without "a watchdog."
There is some personal value in this self^ deception. These parents free themselves from the responsibility of overseeing the behavioi" of their kids. Their young are either emancipated or neglected; the parents arc off the hook.
It's the same with permissive politics. The eagerness to totally trust the President, to ignore any early warnings signs, any notices that get sent home, allows us to go about our lives without paying attention. We actively want to be able to leave our public wards on their own. ■ In all this, there is yet another P-word: powerlessness/; The most permissive parents or citizens I know are people who don't believe in their ability to have an impact, to effect change when things or people goawry. They go through Parent Ineffectiveness Training. • But what happens when the misbehavior keeps escalatirig? Let me return to Dr. Spock: "Eventually (his) behavior becomes so provoking that the parents' patience snaps."
The President offered a rationale of the Iranian arms dealthat was about as convincing as a teenager's tale of how the family car got banged up. The country's patience didn't snap, but it is more than a bit frayed. (Copyright Washington Post Writers Group)
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