The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, April 5, 1974 - Page 3
National News
Impact on community of highly-regarded rabbi is immense
Rabbi Bernard Baskin of Temple Anshe Sholom, Hamilton
By MOURA WOLPERT CJN Hamilton Correspondent
HAMILTON -
Looking back on his :25 ' years as spiritual leader of Temple Anshe Sholom, Hamilton, Rabbi Bernard Baskin expresses -satisfaction and pride both in his congregation and the_part hehas played in its spi ritual and physical growth, as well as -his many achievements in -the community at largei where he is regarded as the foremost, interpreter of Jews and Judaism.
"I have given, close to 1,000 addresses to a multitude of organizations and over a period of 25 years a man is bound to make an impact which would be lost.on
a larger community," he says and cites the sire of the city of Hamilton and its Jewish community as one of the reasons why he has been happy to remain here.
Though somewhat distressed that the size of the Jewish community has re-^mained relatively static, it iSi he fejilspfriendly and compact and of a proportion where the rabbi can make an^ impact_on„ the lives of congregation and community.
Essentially a. modest man inclined to shrug off flatr tery, Rabbi Baskin does not conceal his pride in what he feels are his most important achievements and which can best be summed up has having brought about harmony and understanding not only within the Jewish com
1 would aJso have done it for Cairo/ says Gentile donator of vital computer
By ROCHELLE CARR
TORONTO -
One of the most impressive examples of the. many humanitarian gesture^ after the Yom Kippur War was the donation of a vital com-.puter system to an Israel hospital by a non-Jewish To-rontonian.
Ian P. Sharp of I.P. Sharp Associates Ltd., a soft-spoken, gentle-mannered computer expert, was the man behind the gift of the system which aids in monitoring soldiers in Tel Hashomer Hospital.
. The story began a few days after the Yom Kippur War erupted. Sharp, who was born in Dublin and received his engineering degree from Cambridge University before coming to Toronto almost two.decades ago, was in Europe at the outbreak.
The first calls to his Toronto office by the Bar Ilan University Computer Centre were made at that time. They had heard of the Sharp APL
system, which is a time shearing service that can be. hooked into a computer. The system is employed mainly for financial and corporate -planning where speed is frequently of the essence;
Bar Han wanted it to enable Tel Hashomer Hospital in.Tel Aviv to keep track of the extensive transferring of wounded soldiers from hos-. pital department to hospital department, caused by so many soldiers with multiple wounds. During the initial calls, Barl Ilan was told the Sharp APL system cost $100,000.
Computer programs were available to keep track of wounded soldiers from the time of first contact with the medical corps until the time of admission to a hospital and from the time of discharge through the various stages of recuperation and rehabilitation. No programs, however, were available for monitoring the soldiers' star -tus within the hospital. Such, a system was needed, so*
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JSapir visit delayed f
1 tORONTO - 1
1 The scheduled Israel Bond visit here of Israel |
I Finance Minister Pinchas Sapir originally planned |
1 for March 31' has been postponed until April 17 . |
i due to urgent matters in Jerusalem. Details of his |
I visit here will be announced by IsraelBonds in the |
= next issue of The Canadian Jewish News. i
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Bar Han called again.
By then, Sharp had return-, ed to Toronto. Bar Han expressed its interest inbuying ■the system. (It.would be a system fed into Bar Han's computer at the university with terminals at Tel Has- . homer Hospital providing the hospital with instant information.)
During the course of the conversation. Sharp learned the use to which his system (which he developed about five years ago) would be put.:
'.i donated it on the understanding (as is customary procedure) that they, not market it anywhere or let: others use it to compete against my firm, although no written agreement exists. 1 donated it for the emer^ gency as it existfed," he explained to The Canadian Jewish News.
He stressed the humanitarian aspect of the gift. "I did this to help wounded soldiers. 1 would have, done it if a call had come from Cairo," he said;
But Sharp pointed out it does require a fairly sophisticated level of technology" ' to operate his system.
In the field of technology,, he said, there is a lot of traffic between North America and Israel. :
The tapes for the system
lari P. Sharp
were prepared in Torontoby Bob Bernecky. Another employee, Shaya Petroff, was sent to Israel where the system was put in full oper^ ation within a week.
munity but between Christian and Jew.
A beginning was made by Arthur A. Feldman, rabbi of Temple Anshe Sholom in the late 20s and 30s but it was Rabbi Baskin who carried it a step further and who pio^, neered the whole field of ecumenism in the city. He is-proud of having beenthe first Jdw to have-been invited to speak at St. James Anglican Cathedral and most of his many addresses have been: given: to Catholic and other religious groups, as well as to labor and service organizations, in many of which he has been actively involved: As a result of his work he was.appointed Jewish national chairman of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews in 1973. . "I had a strong hand," he says, '*in the breaking down of barriers that existed 25 years ago.".
Among the many honors awarded him were the first B'naiB'rith inter-faith a-ward in Hamilton, a Negev testimonial dinner, an honorary doctor of law degree: from McMaster University in 1972 and in 1973 a doctor of divinity degree from the Hebrew Union College -Jewish Institute of Religion.
Rabbi Baskin came here in 1949 from the United States, where he grew up, the sonof Rabbi Samuel Baskin of New Yorkj and.in due course entered rabbinical studies himself at the Jewiish Institute of Religion, from which he graduated with an MA in Hebrew literature. Before coming to Hamilton, he served communities in Baton-Rouge, Louisiana, and Denver, Colorado, where he met and married' his wife, Mar-jorie. They have three children, Judith, married and now studying for her Ph.D. at Yale University; David, a law student at the University of Toronto, and Susan, who
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Membership' of. .Temple . Anshe Sholom numbered some 85 families when Rab-bi.Baskin first came and it was thanks to his constant striving to build it up as a strong and respected con-. gregation that it i&nowdose-to "bemg the largest in the city, with 450families, about one'third of the Jewish population; — i:l . Of his 25 years with Anshe Sholomj^^Rabbi, Baskin says: --"l have never had any conflicts with the congregation, nor hasthere ever been any factional ism. Everything has been tranquil, there has been no acrimony and nobody has ever quit in a huff."
He is pleased, too, that he has brought a stronger .Jewish feeling to the congregation which, when he. came, did not even have a Hebrew school. He established a Hebrew department, instituted an active adult education program and fostered constantly growing pro^Israel sentiments.
Rabbi; Baskin, who IS The Canadian Jewish News book.
reviewer, confesses to some disappointment that he has not been able to bring more academics --he estimates some 100 Jews among the McMaster University fa-
culty --into a more active Jewish life and wishes for greater participation, in the strictly religious sense, among temple members, s As for his future^ Rabbi
Baskin is happy to remain with a congregation which, five years ago, gratefully awarded him a lifetime contract and with which he has become so closely identified.
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