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Beii-Elissar says 'cruel solution' only alteniQtive
JTA Dispatch
JERUSALEM Eliahu Ben-Elisar, chfdrmah of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs aiid Security Comniitteei>contended Oct;31 that thepartition of Lebanon was both unavoidable and necessary.
Ben-Elissar made his reinarks at a session of the committee where Prime Mfaiister Yitzhak Shamir voiced strdng objections to the U.S. plan to arm a Jordanian task force which would be part of the American rapid deployment force poised to protect the Persian Gulf.
Israel Sun Photo'
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK SHAMIR gets Used to hfs "Premier" chair withsecretaryYona KlimovitzHy looking on..
iShamk, stressing that Israel's bppositibn to the American plan was in accordance with its long-standing policy against arming any Arab state that maintains a status of belligerency with Israel, denied reports that Israel had negotiated with the U.S. for possible compensation if it withdrew its objections.
Shamir also denied reports that he had threatened Lebanon with 'indefinite Israeli occupation if it abrojgated the withdrawal arid security agreement the two countries signed last May 17. ~ Ben-Elissar said that both Syria and Israel have interests in Lebanon and therefore that country should be divided, cruel as it would be. He maintained that any Other
solution would be detrimental to Israel.
Ben-Elissar, who was Israel's first Ambassador to Egypt and a protege of former Prime Ministc^r Menachem Begin, is one of the most influential of the younger members of Herut. He expressed his views on Lebanon as that country's warring factions were about to open a meeting in Geneva aimed at national reconciliation.
Geula Gohen, of the Tehiya party, claimed the U.S. arming of Jordan would lead to war against Israel. "If such a war breaks out, we shall fight back the Jordanian army in a war of defense to the Gilead mountains and Amman," she said. Yossi-Sarid, a Labor Aligriinent dOve, promptly-
accused Gohen of calling for Israel's occupation of Jordan.
Editor honored
NEW YORK — Gershom Schocken, editor-in-chief of Ha'aretz Israel's influential Hebrew-language daily, has been presented with the annual International Editor of the Yjear Award of the New York monthly magazine, "Press Review." Schocken won the award for, among other things; being "instrumental in forecasting and reporting the true dimensions of Israel's invasion of Lebanon, exppsing the story of the Palestinian refugee camp massacres (in West Beirut in September, 1982) and instigating the air-clearing investigation that followed."
JWB Staff / dispatches
NEW YORK      The faculty, of the Jewish Theological Seminary of AmeHca on Oct. 24 appro the admission of women to its rabbinical school for ordination as Conservative rabbis.
The Vote of 34-8^ at a special meeting called by JTS chancellor Gersbn Cofe ended a long-running contrpviersy in the movement, in which a steadily growing niimberof Conservative rabbis endorsed admissibn of women for ordiiiation, while a substantial number of JTS faculty members remained in adamant opposition. *
There are 55 faculty members at the JTS. Three from the Talmudic program boycotted the meeting Oct. 24. The 42 present at the meeting represented nearly 75 percent of tlie total faculty senate and the affirmative vote for admission of women was by a similar majority. /
The Conservative movement thus joins Reform and Reconstructiohism in ordaining women as rabbis. There are now some 60 women rabbis, most of them holding positions as assistant rabbis, others in administrative ^nd teaching posts. The (Reform) Hebrew Union College J[ewish Institute of keligion, began the process more than \Q years ago by ordaining Sally Preisand as the first woman rabbi in Aiherican history.
Senior Vancouver Conservative Rabbi Wilfred Solomon felt the JTS decision was in many ways a radical move, yet
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paradoxically a natural evolution within Judaism. **It may be a shock to many but many others who regard this issue as imporhint will be encouraged.**
As for obligations which women rabbis may not fulfil according to Halachaj hepointed out that a rabbi who happens to be a Kohen is also prevented by Halacha from carrying oiit certain rabbic duties. **Tliis does not nullify the overall effectiveness as rabbi,*'said Rabbj Solomon.
Rabbi Howard Siegel of Richmond's eonservative congregation Beth T|kvah,commenting^^on the JTS decision, said he could foresee no miijor effect at this stage hi terms of the Vancouver community.
The long-term impaci for North American Jewry, he said, would stem from tapping the creative resources of women who comprise 51 percent membership of Conservative congregations... ' ■
''In light of history — so vital to our tradition — there is no Halachic reason for denying women ordination,** added Rabbi Siegel. **Discussion on Halaichic issues now begins in defuiing the obligations of rabbis.**
After the vote. Chancellor Cohen, who headed the Jewish Theological Seminary which commission he named in 1977 to study the controversial issue, said he regarded it as "evidence that the Seminary and the Conservative movement in American Judaism are able to respond to the challenges of modernity in traditional terms." "
In a further statement, he said that in the course of the commission's study, he became convinced that refusal to prepare women for ordination in 20th century America was discriminatory, and "belied the stated position of the Conservative Movement, which has always maintained that Jewish law must constantly be reexamined."
"Convinced, as was the overwhelming majority of the members of the commission, that there was no Halachic barrier to the ordination of women, said Cohen, "I realized that to provide equal education to women, but to deny them the opportunity to use that education in the religious service of their people as rabbis, was no longer tenable, either on Halachic or moral grounds. This was especially true in a social milieu which was beginning to recognize, and to compensate for, centuries of discrimination against women."
Skepticism that the action would bring a schism in the movement was expressed by Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis. He felt the first women would be admitted to the ordination program at the JTS in September, 1984.
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JERUSALEM—Israel did offer the United States and France any medical and other assistance they might need, after the recent bomb attacks in Beirut. "
But the offer Was not taken up, because both the U.S. and France ;deliberately avoided asking for any Israeli inyolye-ment in the incidents — even in terms of humanitarian assistance.
Israel's Defence Minister, Moshe Areris, was described by well-informed sources here as being extremely disi^p-pointed that the Reagan Ad-niinistration did not iicc^pt Israers offers of aid; ^ ^ J MARINES - Page 6
Arafat's
PLO CHAIRMAN YASSER ARAFAT at last report wiis surrounded by rebel Palestinian and Syrian forces near Tripoli for a last stand confrontation. Reikis contend they want to oust Arafat because he has abandoned his struggle with israel.i)epeated artillery shelling of the refugee camp where the PLO leader Is besieged has taken hundreds of lives. Above, Arafat In 1979 with recently declared Pfamocratlc party presidential candlMe Jes^ se Jackson, a time when ther terrorist leader was undisputed lieadof the PLO^
Opposition expressed
A group of Conservative Jews opposed to ordination of women, called the Union for Traditional Conservative Judaism, headed by Rabbi David Novak of Bayswater, Long Island, said the decision "defies all norms of Jewish jurisprudence."
Ezrat Nashim, which describes itself as the first Jewish feminist organization, issued a statement asserting that in March, 1972, it had called on the Conservative movement to ordain women as rabbis. The organization, made up of women seeking greater equality in Judaism within the framework of Halacha (Jewish law) said the vote "recognizes the compelling moral claim of women's equality as well as the changed status of women in the modern world," and was "consonant with the Conservative interpretation of the development of Halacha."
The first reaction from Orthodox sources came from the Rabincial Council of America, one of the major Orthodox rabbinical organizations. Rabbi Gilbert Klaperman, president of the Rabbinical Council asserted that "the ordination of women is against Jewish^lawand tradition." He stressed that the Conservative movement had *taken another step away from normative Judaism and is further polarizing^Jewish life."
"This decision, violating Jewish law," said Klaperman, "further reveals that Conservative Judaism's claim of commitment to the inviolability of Jewish law is untrue and misleading. We see in this latest policy pronouncement another movement by Conservative Judaism towards Reform."
"We are especially remorseful that such a serious decision was arriv£d"at by a vote of faculty members of the institution, many -of whom are hot rabbis and skilled in Jewish law, and some of whom are not even religious in their practice. Jewish law is not determined by popularity votes or sdcial cosmetics, but by the guidelines of Torah, and the classic decisions of Jewish law." he said.