Letters
UTTERS Philanthropy To the Editor: In response to Eliezer Jaffe's "Non-Conventional Philanthropy" (May 1979): He states that there is no nonprofit legal aid for the disadvantaged in Israel, but...
...Certainly, though, the non-endorsement of the Report, which has had repercussions throughout the Movement, should not be viewed as a weak stand but, once the context in which it occurred is understood, as a strong position...
...Perhaps if Mr...
...It is hard, though, to see why his categorical assertion ever escaped the editor's pen...
...A number of young rabbis arrived in Los Angeles determined to prevent the passage of any resolution favoring the ordination of women, because of our belief that such a resolution would have brought immediate and intolerable pressure to bear on the Seminary faculty, who should have the right to decide whom they will ordain...
...The Jewish residents of Pelham Parkway, Co-op City, and the entire north Bronx join with the residents of Van Cortlandt Village in saying, "Here we are, here we stay, and here we grow...
...I do not consider the success of that resolution to have been "unfortunate," although I concede that others do...
...The optimists among us in our effort to not only "hold out," but renew and grow, foresee a major return to those parts of our borough that have retained their Jewish population and attractive housing...
...UTTERS Philanthropy To the Editor: In response to Eliezer Jaffe's "Non-Conventional Philanthropy" (May 1979): He states that there is no nonprofit legal aid for the disadvantaged in Israel, but he evidently is unaware that Pioneer Women/Na'amat has provided free legal aid since the 1967 War...
...It is not my intention to counter Rotenberg's claim of Conservative supremacy with a similar claim for Reform Judaism...
...Certainly in the area of organizational structure Conservative Judaism has always lagged behind the pattern which the Reform movement successfully established...
...In fact, recently the Na'amat Department in Israel for the Status of Women has extended its free legal counselling service to a monthly open line, in which a panel of experts answers telephone inquiries on all aspects of the law pertaining to women...
...Rabbi Stephen Fuchs Columbia, Maryland To the Editor: I wish to clarify a point raised in Mark Rotenberg's article, "The Buck Stops at the Seminary" (May 1979), regarding the resolution of the Rabbinical Assembly at its last Convention pertaining to the Report of the Commission for the Study of the Ordination of Women as Rabbis...
...Harriet Maddy Fayetteville, New York Conservative Reform To the Editor: Mark Rotenberg's uncritical generalization, "The Conservative movement is generally recognized as the leading religious force in American Jewish life," (May 1979), detracts from the credibility of an otherwise worthy essay...
...Mrs...
...We believe it is inevitable that as the costs of automobile commuting rise, the children of the Baby Boom, who had fled to the suburbs, will come back in droves...
...The principles in his guidelines are basically sound, but often the idea of not supporting programs in Israel that you would not support in your home town is not a valid reason for not donating money...
...We prepared a resolution which pointedly did not endorse the recommendations of the Report and which would also appeal to a broad rabbinic constituency who might otherwise favor the conclusions of the Report...
...Luria had sat down to write his article about "Holding out in the Bronx" a few weeks later, he could very realistically have ended on a more optimistic note...
...KADIMA, Conservative Judaism's Zionist organization, came into being following the wonderful success of ARZA, the Reform Zionist organization...
...This has been advertised in the Israeli press, with tremendous response...
...In addition, we run a consumer rights department, an ongoing activity to educate the family and to guide them nutritionally as well as economically...
...In spite of the public's perception of the Bronx as that one borough of New York City devoid of Jewish communal life, we are in fact the home of some 190,000 Jews, young as well as elderly...
...Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl Albany, New York Holding Out in the Bronx To the Editor: We thank Yaacov Luria and moment (May 1979) for directing attention to the Bronx in a manner that does not focus on the devastation of the southern part of our borough—although we should point out that Jewish life in the Bronx is not restricted to the two communities of Van Cortlandt Village and Riverdale...
...Ordination of women is merely one area where Reform took the lead...
...We sought to detour what might have become a stampede...
...I commend his comment, "Take your philanthropy seriously," and I would like to add "your volun-teerism" as well...
...Rotenberg's implication that the prestige of the Conservative rabbinate is greater than that of other denominations is neither readily apparent nor substantiated by his article...
...Members of synagogues and affiliates are hardly the only criteria to determine the leading religious force in American Jewish life...
...Let us all say amen to that...
...I am a little concerned that his suggestions may create an "easy out" for donors...
...David Edelstein Jewish Community Council of Pelham Parkway Bronx, New York...
Vol. 4 • July 1979 • No. 7
