Page 12-The Canadian JewislvNews, Thursday, F 26, 19S1;
T
BvBEVERLEYSTERN
TORONTO —
A Reforni temple and. a Shi'ife mosque which have been sharing.cach other's parking lots forxiver a year may howb'e ready ro share some inicr-faith dialogue.
Since 1979, when Temple Haj ZuTii was under-expansion and the Mo-' hammadi Islamic Centre began construction, both have been sharing their adjoining parking lots on Bay view Ave. abo\e Steeles.
.A conmion ramp between the two parking lots pi^ovides access tor members of each congregation,
Har Zioii. numbers about 1.000 members, and the Islamic centre about 1,200.
Congregants of the Islamic-centre ha\c many new Canadians from .Afri-
can countries such as Uganda;' Kenya.. Mozambique and Tanganyika — ;fs welia.s Asian countries ' /such as India and Pakistan, Some are from Middle Eastern countries such as Iran-and Lebanon^
~r.A large number of,the ■ centre's congregants are . -second and third ge'nera-tion Canadians. -^^^ .
.Accprding to Rabbi MicHael Stroh of Har Zion, the e.xperiment in inter-faith co-operation has operated with relatively fcW hitches, save for a few times each side neglected to tell the other of a special event.
Formal exchanges of calendars and lists of peak periods of attend: ance have since prevented any other par-kini' problems. Muslinis use a lunar calendar vear which is
apprbximateJy 354. days long, .while Jews use a solar calendar of 365 days. Thurs.day evenings aire husiest for .the Islamic Centre, and Fi:idays for Har Zion. ■
Stroh said that such mutual efforts at. accom-modation'make a symbolic sTaTenient.
It's an openinj for future co-operation," hie said, "and we would like to pursue the rela^tionship further."
Stroh participated in an informal tri-partite dialogue in Toronto amoiigst individuals of the Judaic, Christian, and Muslim faiths about four years ago. He referred to that dialogue as a "noble experiment" in exploring cultures, but he admitted discussions bogged.down ■on sensitive issues.
"Participants in dia-
logue have, to be prepared to liisteri tothe other point, of view. It's hard.to hear What you don't want to hear, .hut it is the only way. to understand the same event from another perspective." Stroh said that he would
be prepared to enter into issues of mutiial religious,, moral and ethical"a)ncern. "We don't envision anything controversial." he said. "We are certainly not going to sit dcnvn and talk.about Israel."
Gulam Sajon, a former president of the Islamic Centre, told The CJN fhat his congregation's leaders have been considering inter-faith talks for some
time. Especially, he addedr since a federation of ShiMte communities in North America [about 19] was formed in July last year.
Sajon, now a publicist for the centre, said that one of the- projects of the new;. No.rth - American Shi'itc federation was to open a dialogue With CFTristians . and Jews on issues of common concern.
But so far, said Sajon, the centre's imam (religious leader), Zakir Ebaqri, from India, was not yet conversant in English— a fact which has probably inhibited religious exchange, he specu-fated.
S.\ion explained that the centre's sermons • were carried out in Urdu, the . iantiuage of people from liidia and Pakistan. Prayers, he .said, were recited in Arabic, and lectures and study programs in English. j^^. :
Sajon, who emigrated from Uganda in 1975, remarked that the cultural plimilism of North . America made the climate for religious exchange mVirc favorable than else-wiiere in the world.
"In Africa, even though 1 had friends who were Hindu, .and Ismali (an offshoot of Shi'ite). we would never dream of discussing our religious
differences or similarities. No one ever wanted to talk about those matters;" he said. . The man at the centre most likely, to pilot an inter-faith project is Mah-nioud Ayub, a professor of Islamic and coriiparative religious studies at the . University of Toronto.
Ayub, onie of the centre's chief scholars approves of inter-faith talks not oiily becaiuse of their potential to build com- , munltygoodwill and trust, but also, he said, they open up possibilities for co-opieration in more sensitive areats.
Ayub. who is from southern Lebanon, said
that co-operation in the pbiitical area could follow from discussions based on mutual respect for religious and culturaLdiffer-ences.
Back in / Lebanon last Christmas to teach at a Greek Orthodox seminary, Ayub said the conflict in the Middle East was yery real, to him. Nevertheless, he added,.because Canadian Muslims arid Jews were more t'emoved from the hostilities, they could possibly be freer to explore the issues. '
Ayub is presently working on a translation of the Koran and its commentaries from Arabic texts
into English. "My purpose is to familiajrize Western readers with the Koran," he said.
Referring to the Conference on Religion and Worid Peace held iri Toronto last November, Ayub, who attended the conference, said that inter-faith dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims on mutual concerns of a local nature had been discussed.
Commenting briefly on the conference. Rabbi Jordan Pearlson, national chairman of the Joint Community Relations Committee, said inter-faith talks between. Muslims arid Jews were so
far only in the **explora-tory stages*" ; . ; . Peairlson pointed out that the Muslim community In Toronto . was V e r y h e t e r o g e n o u is. "Many are from : areas foreign, to Middle Easiem disputes, such as Africa and -southeast Asia, and iall/they want is to find a world where they can; live in peace.
"Many others are second and third generation Canadians, and still others are from the Middlie East. Each groiip brings its own mind-set," he said. He indicated that it would be difficult to sit down and talk simultaneously with all these diverse groups.
pro
m
By MARTIN KROSSEL
TORONTO -
Protecting the disabled against discrimination is one of .the items in the proposed Charter of Rights., of the Canadian constitution currently under debate in the House of . Commons.
Before this protection for the disabled was ^ added, the, government claimed the handicappt'd . would-be.protected b> the Charter even though discrimination on the'basis ot handicap was hot included in the -list of prohibitii.ins. Originalh . the Charter outlav^ed discri niina-, tion dnjv because .of race, national.or ethnii, origin, color, religion, se.\ or age.
The amendment, "or mental or phvsical disability." is added to Sec-. tibn i5 of the bill.
David Lepofsky. a spokesman for the.Canadian,.National Institute t\)r the Blind, said he rejected ■the government's 'initial -version because the Jan-' guage of- the proposed statute would not allow the . eourfs to extend the Chart-. ■ cr's: coverage to- groups -not pi.entioned.
He also ;challenged-...the ' government's contention t-hat. an. acceptable defini- ; .• tibn of ■.■handicapped" or '
.■■disabled" .could, not be . found. He said that .these - .tcrriis.had been frequently defined in other federal -.and provincial legislation... ■ Before the reference tothe disabled was added; many organi/,ations not . ■primarily associated AvitK . the disabled conim'uhity urged the governnient t.o' .• s.afe'guard.the rights of the; .handicapped. One- such-
organi/aiion was Cana-tiian .lewish Congress, which niade a presema-iion to the parliamentary committee on the handicapped last September. . Since Justice Minister Jean Chretien announced maj.or revisions to the-' gov ernment constitutional package last month, the Canadian bureau of the North .•\nierican .lewish Student. .Network made luo separate representations to the government on liic iss-ue. ■ • - -
Lepofsky. who was also
a member of the CJC delegation that appeared before the parliamentary .committee, said the inclusion of protection for the handicapped in'the Charter will have a number of practical benefits, including voiding all legislation that discriminates against the handicapped. This includes statutes in some provmces forbidding blind persons from sitting on juries and permitting em-, plovers to pay disabled workers less than the minimum wage.
Jane Lester dies at 100 years of age
TORONTO —
Those who can still recall the King Theatre on Cdilege St' will remember the face of the lady in.the box office, Jane Lester, who died last week at the .VI0 u n t Si n a i H 0s p it al; Mrs, Lester, who vvas sharp and.alert to the very end. was approximatley 100 .years old..'
From the i 920s untilthe late 1940s,^ she sold tickets six days a week at the King, which vvas one of the ■mo.st popular places for .• entertainriient.
During the Depression : of the 30s, Jane Lester and her hiisband, Angel, kept the price of admission at 25 cents so that movies would ajways be open to entire families. The price of admission included a dish with the Indian Tree design for adults and a free sucker for children..
Jarie.and Angel Lester,-vvho were both in the gar-, nicnt'tra'de prior coming to.-
Toronto, emigrated from Bristol, England, v^-ith three children in 1912. Mrs. Lester worked at a ■ sewing machine out.of the
. family home from the time she vvas 12. Her husband was a tailor.
Mrs. Lester is survived by three children: Ida Stern, Lionel and Robert Lester: 12 graiidchildren an.d 19 great-grandchildren: and four sisters. Fanny Kendal, Ray Cohen . and Sophie King of Toronto, and Ethel Harris of Los Angeles.
The funeral, took pjace Feb. 17 at Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel. Holy Blossom Rabbi^Joan Friediiian, officiated, ■
' Mrs. Lester and her husband vt'ere members of
'the ,Goel Tzedec Synagogue in - Toronto, and when - they retired to St. Petersburg;, Fla., they helped fotirid ■ the G'ulf-
: sipdrt Jewish Community
• Centre there.
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ticns
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