SHALOM
VQL.LVII. NO. 28 TAMUS19,5750 THURSDAY, JULY 12,1990
750
^WB at 60 Super
Sufiplenieiil;
mONTREAL
VANDALIZED
Break-ins, theft comcide with white supremacist
Richard. Cohen Associates
MOSCOW CHIEF RABBI Adolph Shayevlch (left) gIvesTorah to Rabbi
tan's Park East Synagogue "as an expression off gratitude" for his role as "spiritual link" between Soviet Jewry and world Jewish community "during the long years when our community felt isolated and alone." Presentation was made before800 persons at synagogue's centennial dinner at Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
seen as answer to
By GIL SEDAN and HOWARD ROSEN^RG
JERUSALEM — Both Israel and the United States appear to be looking toward President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt ot rescue the Middle Hast peace process.
Speculation here is rife about a possible summit meeting between Mubarak and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir.
According to unconfirmed media reports, U.S. president George Bush suggested such a meeting in a message to
Mubarak, conveyed two weeks ago when Bush met at the White House with Egyptian foreign minister Esmat Abdel Meguid. The U.S. president's strategy was said to be to get Mubarak to influence the Israelis to soften their opposition to the U.S. proposal for Israeli-Palestinian Arab negotiations on the Israeli peace plan.
News of the message, first reported by the Arabic-language Radio Monte Carlo,
canie from sources in the Egyptian foreign ministry. That was sent as an indication that Mubarak was seriously considering a meeting with Shamir.
In Washington, the U.S. state-' department said last week that it was unaware of the Radio Monte Carlo report. A White House official confirmed that there had been "an exchange of views" on the subject, but no message EGYPT - Page 13
By BRAM D. EISENTHAL
MONTREAL — Y^shiva Gedola became the latest yictim race-related vandalism in Montreal when it was broken into twice over the Canada Day weekend, robbed and extensively spray-painted with graffiti.
Thb incident coincided with a rally of white supremacists and neo-Nazis on a farm in Carlsbad Springs, Ont., not far from Ottawa.
about," said Mark Sandler, president of the League for H uman Rights of B'nai B'rith Canada. The league lobbied politicians and local religious leaders to condemn the rally as well.
In recent months, skinhead-related incidents have been on the rise in Montreal. In April, a Jewish cemetery was desecrated with racist graffiti and headstones were broken.
Two weeks earlier, a party in an apartment in the mainly Jewish suburb of Cote St. Luc was disrupted by skinheads who beat a teenage boy^ sending him to hospital.
The KKK has just established a French chapter in Montreal, called "Longitude 74," Montreal's geographical location.
The Jewish community is concerned about the escalation of activity by hate groups. "It's a deplorable situation," said Yechiel Glustein, director sOf-B^nai B'rith Canada's Quebec office. "To us, it only shows that neo-Nazi individuals and organizations, even though they are small in number, are really a threat to
Although no arrests have been made in the Montreal break-ins, local skinheads, racist youths who attack Jews and other minorities, are suspected.
The 200-student yeshiva was first broken into sometime between midnight and 6 a.m. June 20. Slogans such as "Heil Hitler," "Death to the Jews" and "KKK" (Ku Klux Klan) were spray-painted on the; walls.
A night watchman^ who was asleep in the basement, discovered the damage in the morning, and called police and school administrators.
About $2,000 was stolen from the ftiain office's sp^3^< cash boXy and a plate glass window was removed from 'the building. Cars parked along a neighboring street were vandalized and sprayed with racist graffiti.
Montreal police investigators were uncertain how the vandals gained access to the building. The crime is being treated as two separate incidents because there were no graffiti inside the building, where the robbery occurred.
Late on the evening of Canada Day, intruders broke into
the rabbi's study in an apparent robbery attempt, but no money was found and there was no vandalism reported.
- The Canada Day rally near the Ontario town of Metcalfe brought together Canadian, American and British white supremacists, including the Aryan Resistance Movement, a Montreal white-power group. A group with the same name is based in the community of Mission in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.
Last year, a similar rally in Minden, Oht. attracted some 100 neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members.
The 180-acrechunk of farmland used for this year's rally apparently was purchased six months ago by the movement for $50 from Ian Macdonald, a retired federal trade commissioner. In a riecent interview, Macdonald denied the sale, but defended the racists' right to hold a celebration on the property. He admitted he was "not antagonistic toward them."
About 200 people gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last week to protest the rally. The gathering was "something eVerv Canadian should worry
communities.
JTA
Divisions reopened
By CRAIG MgGINGER The Jewish Transcript
SEATTLE — The recent decision by the Central Conference of American Rabbis to allow qualified gay and lesbian rabbis to serve as members of the Reform rabbinate has reopened longstanding divisions among the major movements of Judaism
More than 500 rabbis attending the 101 st CC AR convention at the Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers last month adopted the unanimous recommendation of its Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate that "all rabbis, regardless of sexual orientation, be accorded the opportunity to fulfill the sacred vocation which they have chosen."
Orthodox leaders were quick to condemn the decision, calling it an "outright distortion" of Jewish tradition and a "deeply disturbing move."
Leaders of Conservative Judaism, while„less_outspoken, disclaimed any affinity with the Reform statement. '
The decision makes Reform Judaism one of the first major Jewish or Christian religious bodies in the United States to include acknowledged homosexuals among its clergy.
Only the Reconstructionist movement in Judaism and the Unitarian Uni-versalist Association have formally chosen to include lesbian and gay men among their clergy, though other Protestant denominations have ordained gay ministers on an ad-hoc basis.
The vote caps four years of CCAR studyanddiscussion on the subject that included consideration of anonymous personal testimony by gay rabbis and^ rabbinical students, review of scientific, religious and legal viewpoints,, and consultations with leaders of other Jewish movements.
The outcome of the vote was expected but nevertheless greeted with a sense
DIVISIONS-Page 11
Rabbi Bregman challenges move
- By BARRY DUNNER
Rabbi Philip Bregman, spiritual leader of Congregation Temple Sholom, has a mind of his own. He was one of only four to speak out publicly at a recent Reform conference in Seattle against the decision by the Central Conference of American Rabbis to allow gay and lesbian rabbis to serve as members of the Reform rabbinate.
He emphasized during a ^i^//e/i>i interview that his position is personal and does not necessarily reflect that of his congregation. "Being gay or lesbian, whether a matter of
choice or biblogy;does not allo\y them to function as appropriate role models as rabbis for members of the Jewish community."
He stated that rabbis are more thanjust teachers. A rabbi represents the Jewish community from" a religious point of view as an example of how to live one's life as a Jew, he eriiphasized. Rabbis^ are examples from which other individuals choose their lifestyles.
Rabbi Bregman is concerned that some might decide that if this is acceptable for the rab^bi then it is acceptable for them. "This kind of thinking is detrimental to Jewish life and the perpetuation of the Jew^ ish family," he said.
This has nothing to do with morality, he stressed, and everything to do with religious values. "Gays and lesbians are not immoral people; lam not condemning their lifestyle." .
However, for Rabbi Bregman, one of the cornerstones of Judaism is its emphasis on the family. To live a Jewish lifestyle means to buy into the concept of a family, he believes. "Especially today, with such high
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RABBI BREGMAN