Letters
LETTERS Chinese Jews To the Editor: Recently you have featured a series of articles ("From Moses to Mao: A Jew Visits China," November, 1981) and letters (January-February and March, 1982) on...
...Both insist that the halachah has shivim panim—a broad range of interpretations—and that the Orthodox do not own the only set of keys to the storehouse of Jewish law...
...He feels a tiny bit of sympathy for Israel but feels it has a land-hungry policy...
...At all times the programs provided stimulating discourse and commentary on a wide spectrum of significant Jewish interests, geared especially to appeal to and interest young Jews...
...Interested persons may write for an application to the National Havurah Coordinating Committee, 31 E. 28th St., 8th Fl., New York, NY 10016...
...He wanted to meet with the last Jew living there, an 80-year-old woman, but was told by an American who lives there who has met her that a visit would cause trouble for her...
...He said that his grandfather was the first family member to eat pork, which he ate in the Forbidden City in Beijing with the Emperor...
...Kaye, and others...
...His father told him it was time to remember our ancestors' hardships...
...Rabbi Andrew M. Sacks Penn Valley, Pennsylvania Martin Steinberg Center To the Editor: Your article ("Art and Soul") on the Martin Steinberg Center and its director Jeff Oboler, in the March issue correctly assessed the praiseworthy work of the Center, but with one glaring omission...
...To the Editor: The National Havurah Coordinating Committee invites readers of moment magazine (and their friends) to attend the Third Havurah Summer Institute, which will take place August 23-29 at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey...
...LETTERS Chinese Jews To the Editor: Recently you have featured a series of articles ("From Moses to Mao: A Jew Visits China," November, 1981) and letters (January-February and March, 1982) on Chinese Jews...
...But not on the premise that we each bring a valid approach to the halachah...
...In addition, there will be sessions on major Jewish issues, music and the arts...
...So where can we find fault...
...I should have expected, rather, that the program would be among the Center's proudest boasts...
...The question now is: Do the Jews of Kaifeng want to return to Judaism...
...I find it incomprehensible, therefore, to find no mention of "Yedid Nefesh" or Robert Cohen in an article devoted to the work of the Marin Steinberg Center under whose aegis the program was produced...
...They are known as "foreign experts...
...I would like to add some more information...
...Shi knows all about Jewish history and even said he knew Henry Kissinger is Jewish...
...As a Conservative Jew I must accept this too...
...Then she would point out that he had a typical Jewish nose...
...He said he felt both Jewish and Chinese...
...Shabbat will be celebrated with various services, study, song and dance...
...Was your mother Jewish...
...Also of interest is something not very well known...
...Furthermore, the study of halachah at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and at Hebrew Union College is minimal...
...In early April, 1982, a Washington Post reporter in Kaifeng did an article on the subject...
...The Havurah Institute will offer courses in Jewish texts, literature and philosophy, in havurah organization and programming and in social and political issues...
...How can one sit down to discuss that to which s/he has had only minimal exposure...
...He would also make sweet mutton soup and flat wheat cakes...
...Shi's mother occasionally brought out photographs of his grandparents and great-grandparents and would say that they had large noses...
...Dialogue—yes...
...Each of the participants seems earnestly to desire a joining of hands in an attempt to unite a fragmented Jewish community...
...Would you like to return to Judaism...
...A group of Jews works for the Chinese government...
...Shapiro was raised in Brooklyn and was Bar Mitz-vah in 1928...
...Guests were asked searching questions and the moderator always seemed to elicit thoughtful and thought-provoking answers...
...Gidwitz, Dr...
...He came to China in 1947 and became a Chinese citizen in 1963...
...All the artists mentioned in the article at some time appeared on the program, as did numerous luminaries in the world of committed Judaism...
...Once every spring Shi's father would paint chicken blood or bright red dye on his front gate...
...Do you practice any Jewish customs now...
...From the date of its inception in 1976, through 1980, for four of its six years, the Center sponsored a weekly radio program, "YedidNefesh," which was created, produced and superbly moderated by Robert Cohen...
...Lorraine Cohen Flushing, New York Celebrate Havurot...
...Earlier last year the same man who wrote this article, Michael Weisskopf, was in Harbin doing an article on the Russians there...
...Carl A. Sheingold Executive Director, The National Havurah Coordinating Committee New York, New York...
...Among the scholars, writers, thinkers, musicians, artists and activists in Jewish affairs who were guests on the program were Shlomo Carlebach, Emanuel Rackman, Eugene Borowitz, Arthur Kurzweil, moment editor Leonard Fein, and several times, Jeff Oboler...
...He moved to China in 1953...
...Epstein was born in China, then moved to Canada, then back to China...
...Shi's mother, a non-Jewish concubine, suggested that Shi be circumcised with a sharp stone to help him be close to God, but he escaped the rite...
...Nevertheless, I see a faulty premise in the response of both my Reconstructionist and Reform colleagues...
...Among them are Sidney Shapiro, Israel Epstein, Sidney Rittenberg, Sol Adler and David Kruk...
...I believe such cohesiveness would only be for the good...
...We find within the very leadership of these movements many who have abandoned laws as basic as the observance of Kashrut and Shabbat...
...He interviewed Shi Hong Yu (spelled Shi Zhongyu in the article), a 60-year-old Kaifeng Jew...
...He is the person who has met with Prof...
...YedidNefesh" was at no time another superficial tajjc show geared to provide publicity for its participants...
...Sean Epstein (age 13) Vienna, Virginia Dialogue: Beyond Halachah To the Editor: The plea for mutual respect put forward by each of the contributing rabbis in "Our House Divided" (April, 1982) was most welcome reading in light of the bickering between movements which seems to prevail so frequently...
...Each program was stimulating and provocative as well as informative, and its Sunday evening broadcasts are sorely missed by many...
...Following is a list of questions tourists going to Kaifeng should ask any Jews they might meet: What customs did you observe in your homes as a child...
...Adler was born in England and came to America where he worked as an advisor to the U.S...
...Treasury Department...
...Dialogue because we reject sin'at chinam (baseless hatred) and accept the unity of the Jewish people...
...There were programs on Jewish mysticism, on the cults, on intermarriage, on raising children Jewishly, on Hasidism among young people, numerous discussions on women and Judaism, and many, many other themes of ethical, spiritual and pragmatic concern...
...Not that they interpret certain of the halachot in a somewhat more liberal vein—but that they have completely abandoned the most central elements...
...Never has either the Reform or the Reconstructionist movements accepted the authority of halachah...
...The Havurah Summer Institute is a unique opportunity for individuals and families at all levels of Jewish knowledge, commitment and affiliation to share for a week a total Jewish life of study, celebration and spiritual growth...
Vol. 7 • June 1982 • No. 6
