NUMBER 7

SPRING 1985 RfiffiEN contents

2 Jeremy Milgrom Tear Gas, Flying F}ocks And Rabbi Meet ln Arab Village

566891016 Erie Moonman Zuaiter Was Lovely - And A Killer

Lionel Blue lnklings - Kaddish For A Nun

Julia Neuberger Mother Was An Atheist, Father Was A Jew

Julia Pascal A Great Artist's Vision - Images Of Human Dignity

Letters

Ilya Kovar Must I Let This Baby Die?

Geoffrey Spyer Why We Build Synagogues Which Lack Grace, Style, Beauty and Inspiration

192021 Larry Tabick Revolutionary Message From Hasidic Sage

Our Man Front

David Goldberg's Last Word

Editor: Rabbi Tony Bayfield; Deputy Editor: Rabbi William Wolff. The cover picture of JeruT salem Jews at the Western Editorial Board: Rabbi Colin Wall 1896 (Underwoo`d & rna Eimer, Rabbi Dr. Albert Fried- -mi-I-u-I-I Underwood) is taken from lander, Rabbi David Goldberg, Dr. 0-- historian Martin Gilbert's Wendy Greengross, Rev. Dr. Isaac latest book Jerusalem, Rebirth The Sternberg Centre for Judaism, Levy, Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Of A City, just published by The Manor House, Magonet, Rabbi Dow Marmur, Chatto & Windus, The .80 East End Road, Rabbi Dr. John Rayner, Professor Hogarth Press. London N3 2SY .T 8. Segal, Dr. Alan Unterman, Telephone: 01-346 2288 Isca Wittenberg. MANNA is the Journal` of the Sternberg Centre for Judaism at the Subscription rate: £4.50 p.a. (four Manor House and of the Manor issues) including postage anywhere House Society. in the U.K. Abroad: Europe - £8.cO; Israel, Asia, Americas, MANNA is published quarterly. Australasia - £12.00. EDITORIAL One Body Or Tu)o - Let Members Have Final Say

numbers will merge without In every other country pro- AGATHAherself is putCHRISTIE to shame trace into the secular back- gressive Jews a.re members of by some of the leaders of pro- ground of British society. the same movement. And Bri- gressive Jewry in Britain. The The progressive movement tain's progressive Jews are Queen of surprise never does provide them with an ac- surely no more quarrelsome, sprang a bigger one than the ceptable alternative, a com- no more "holier-than-thou" bolt from the blue loosed with munity where leaders and con- than those anywhere else. On dazzling skill by the executive gregants march largely in step, the contrary, the majority are of the Reform Synagogues. where they are not required to imbued with a wholesome After producing a report pay lip service to one doctrine dose of British tolerance. showing the total feasibility of while practising another. Nor are they frightened by a merger with the Union of But they have not come to the threatened defection of Liberal and Progressive Syna- us because we are divided. one or two congregations, gogues, they announced that Our division sows confusion however sad the prospect. A it was NOT feasible. in their minds. And its effect united movement will not be That was a triumph of on us is to sap our energies, to weakened by such a defection. speed and resolution. It had prevent our presenting a front Instead of 60 congregations, it little to do with the labours of sufficiently confident to act as will count 58 or 59. Instead of the joint working party that a magnet to those who need 40,000 members, it will have probed and prodded the pro- our guidance and our leader- 37,000-38,000, before surging ject for nearly a year. And it ship. ahead to much greater num- cannot be the last word on the That is why, in considering bers. subject. a merger between the two Because their future and the For infinitely more is at wings of the progressive future of all our fellow-Jews stake than the sending of con- movement, the time has now in Britain is at stake, our 6on- verts to the M.ikveh - which a come to switch the angle of vi- gregants ought now to be united progressive movement sion away from rabbis, offi- given the last word on unity. is more than likely to continue cers and lay leaders. And to Let them be polled in a ref- into an indefinite future. look at our 40,000 congre- erendum. Let them decide The whole future direction 8ants. whether they wish to remain of Anglo-Jewry hangs on the Mingle with a represen- as two divided fringe move- proposed merger. Its present tative sample from Liberal or ments. state is lamentable, with the Reform congregations, and Or let them declare that bulk of its religious leaders you will find that in their they wish to see closer and preaching one doctrine, and religious outlook aid their closer co-operation leading to the vast majority of their religious practice there is no the creation of one movement flock practising another - or perceptible difference between within the foreseeable future. nothing. them. Those who meet in the A movement standing in the This ever-widening gulf, British branch of the World mainstream , confidently this total disregard for one Union of Progressive Jewish leading Anglo-Jewry into the another by leaders and led, Youth do so without friction 21st century. . can produce only one out- or conflict. Those who work come, the decimation of and study together at Leo Anglo-Jewry. Through b.ore- Baeck College do so in unity dom and indifference, vast and amity.

Manna Spring 1985- The Fateful Day When Meir Kahane Went On The March

Tear Gas, Flying Rocks And Rabbi Meet ln Arab Village

thodox Jews' substitute name for Urn El-Fahm during a luu be- By Jeremy God. IFIRSTtween HEARDthe endless THE succession NAME of A month later I finally found the assaults on the rocky hills of the Milgrom road to Urn El-Fahm. I was putting Southern Carmel during basic t.rain- together a group of `spiritually ing as an infantry soldier. Those minded' Jews and Arabs for a week- houses on the horizon belonged to The weekly reading was long conference and people kept `that village'. And although our A4isApafz.in and, walking down pointing me towards Hashem guns fired on barren slopes away to through the Sfewk, past the glorious Mehamid. Between Hadera and the North West, the hostility of my Church of the Annunciation to the Afula I found the turnoff to his comrades' glances towards it during rally, made me feel the absence of a village and kept asking every few squad training way back in October Devar rortzfe very poignantly - hundred yards where Hashem lived. 1971 left ominous associations with something that would resolve the Everyone knew him and pointed me Urn El-Fahm in my mind over the tension between: `You shall not towards the end of the village past dozen years. wrong nor oppress a ger (stranger) almost past the little houses - the Last winter I went back to that for you were strangers in the land of ones I saw on the horizon in 1971? landscape. Once again I was in Egypt (Ex.22.20)' and `1 will deliver I began wondering whether I was uniform. I was called to reserve duty the inhabitants of the land into your as frightened of getting lost in Urn (miluim) for a week of field power and you will drive them out El-Fahm as some of the children on manoeuvres which ended too late on before you G]x.23.3l)'. the road were at the sight of a beard- a winter's short Friday to make it I was churned up internally but ed kippah-wearing Jew. back to Jerusalem for Shabbat. also uplifted by the turnout at the Hashem recessed the emergency But I remembered there was a ral- rally - twice as many Jews and Council meeting which I had chan- ly called for the following day in Arabs, coming from near and far, ced upon in his house on a Friday NaLzareth to protest against the rise as Nazareth's largest hall would afternoon in his Moslem village, of a Jewish group called MeNA contain. I asked the person in the and spent forty-five minutes getting whose purpose was to make the chair whether I could give a `Rab- both of us excited about the project neighbouring town of (Upper) binic blessing'. When the rally was I was organising. But, alas, if he NaLzareth -Illit `4rffb-re!.H '. over the crowd broke up into small missed even a single Council In response to MeNA, a Commit- huddles of priests, kadis, liberals, meeting his coalition would col- tee Against Racism was formed. socialists, communists, atheists, lapse... Jews and Arabs of all political per- religious Jews, Christians and `But next time for sure!' suasions were invited from all over Moslems, all enthusiastically bridg- `Next time' was July 31st -just a the country to meet at the Nazareth ipg the many gaps and creating week after the National Elections in Diana Theatre. I had not plarmed to friendships. I was met with a warm which the racism that had produced attend, but it looked like Pro- embrace by an energetic young man MeNA had grown into a national vidence, helped by my uniform who had been sitting at the other movement with enough support to which facilitated hitching a ride, end of the stage, Hashem Mehamid, put `Rabbi!' Meir Kahane into the was directing my steps to spend the head of the local council of Urn Knesset. Kahane's newly established Shabbat at a friend's house in El-Fahm. A circle had closed. legitimacy and the Parliamentary Naureth. `Hashem' incidentally, is the or- immunity he would enjoy augured

Manna Spring 1985 badly for the future. He announced `Should I invite my friends?' kihds of listeners whose hearts were `Bring loco families. Every house plans to set up an office for Arab warmed by the message that Shab- emigration in Urn El-Fahm. in Urn El-Fahm will open up to bat embraces both ritual and ethical Hashem and the local council im- you,. concerns. mediately decided to call a Protest I told my rabbinical colleagues As promised, the Mayor and his Rally as a national demonstration of that in our own backyard an colleagues provided for everything solidarity with Urn El-Fahm. abomination was being threatened but prayer books and a Torah, I was just leaving my house for an and we would be guilty of self- which we brought. Our davening emergency meeting of Knesset Ha- interest if we were to shirk Urn El- was a bit self-conscious - how rabb anim , the Mas orati- Fahm's call. I was expecting the often does one pray in a Moslem Conservative Rabbis called in usual procedural rebuff . But people Mayor's living ro.om? - but quite response to orthodox demands for began asking questions. spirited. Our hosts were attentive further discrimination against `Does the village support the observers. My senses were over- Israeli and Diaspora non-orthodox PLO?, whelmed by the pastoral serenity of Jews, when Hashem called. Two days later we had a delega- the neighbourhood, and my mind `We are having a rally this Shab- tion of 30 Jews including 10 pre-occupied with my address to the bat afternoon and we want you to teenagers just back from a visit to rally. Should I encourage those who join us'. Refuseniks in the USSR. We also had come, or admonish those who `I'd love to come but I don't had the official blessing of the had made the rally necessary? Were travel on Shabbat'. Masorati Movement which put out a the words of this week's Shabbat `No problem! We will put you up press release and our mission .was Hazon's Haftarah which condemn- in my house, buy new utensils, cook featured on the Friday Kabbalat ed ritual worship offered by blood- as per your instructions. It is impor- Shabbat radio programme in stained hands and callous hearts, tant that the children of Urn El- English. I felt truly uplifted during words that demand social action - `Zion shall be redeemed through Fahm see for t-h-e~inselwies that `Rab- those few minutes on the air, as if I bi' does not mean `Kahane'.' we;re a. Shaliach Mitzvah, for all justice' - to be confined to the Continued on next page

Manna Spring 1985 `1 Felt Sick At Prospect Off Bloodbath'

Continued from previous page close scrutiny. My beard and knitted He told us to pacify the crowd. privacy of the mz.J2);a#? I also kept kippah helped. We stopped at the We pointed out that the best way to worrying whether our delegation petrol station at the turnoff to the do that would be to tell them that was enjoying it's first Shabbat in an village where there was an ac- there would be no attack. He said he Arab settlement. Of course they did, cumulation of police vehicles. We had no orders to enter the village. and all felt there could not have were lucky that they let us continue When we passed on that message been a better time for it because of on foot. A kilometre later we had to things calmed down a bit but, alas, the Kiddush Hashem the pu"ic leave the road and we headed up fifteen minutes later rocks flew mj./zvch, involved on this day of through the olive trees towards the again. I pleaded with an officer to solidarity. village on a goats' trail. disengage his forces but he had no The turnout for the rally was im- Rounding a hilltop we suddenly patience to talk. I persisted when pressive, as was the range of saw below us thousands of people at suddenly his sergeant grabbed me speakers, MKs, student leaders and the entrance of the village facing a and dragged me through the ranks. I clergy of three faiths. The over- line of helmeted police carrying was kicked and punched by his crowded podium buckled three plexiglass shields and batons hang- troops. He told me to keep moving. times. There was a feeling of ing from their waists. A man with a But I was stunned, more with strength in numbers. One was re- megaphone led the chanting of disbelief than with physical pain. I assured but also apprehensive about slogans in Arabic and Hebrew, de- had not yet realised that in the the future. nouncing fascism, racism and fracas I had lost my kippah. We only had to wait three weeks Kahanism. We joined the crowds Scenes from Y. L. Peretz' `Three for our forebodings to be justified. and waited. Gifts', where the Jew running the Kahane picked August 29th as the Just past noon the quiet broke. Cossack gauntlet dies whilst trying date of `his visit' to Urn E1-Fahm Reports differ as to what set off the to pick up his yarmulka, were and he publicly invited his sup- riot. Rumour that Kahane had ar- flashing through my mind. Where porters to arm themselves and join rived, a re-alignment of police rein- was I? Was this Israel or the him. The then Minister of Police, forcements or village hotheads. Diaspora? In whose name and for Joseph Burg, had enough common Tear gas was released. The crowd whose sake had' I been beaten? I sense to order the police to keep retreated. The police put on gas began asking senior officers who Kahane's bullies out of the village masks and prepared to attack. Ac- were milling around on the sidelines but insisted that Kahane himself tivist friends, Arabs and Jews, tried whether they would help me identify would be allowed to enter under desperately to `disarm' the young my attackers ... No-one thought it p olice protection. H ashem local rock throwers but with limited was urgent. I could complain at the Mehamid publicly urged Burg to success. regional police station if I wanted reconsider. Kahane's uninvited By this time Kahane had already to. presence would be so destructive been turned back by the police but I spotted my Jerusalemite that it would erode the villager's no-one in the village knew this. If he passengers who were still carrying ability t6 identify as an Israeli had in fact gone away, why were the my books amongst the mixed crowd citizen and he was inviting blood- police still menacing the village? of demonstrators and police walk- shed. A second round of gas and rocks. ing towards the highway. A girl said Burg was unyielding. In those Both sides were angry, the violence she had seen someone being beaten. days there was no .King in Israel, was escalating. Villagers began pil- I told her it had been me and we only a I.ame-duck Government. ing up barricades, collecting an began looking together to identify Hashem rang the day before `the arsenal of bottles, sticks and my assailants. Then I saw them. visit', asking me to help in the na- boulders. Tyres were set aflame. They boastfully admitted the deed. tional effort to stop Kahane from The black smoke and tear gas were The officer in charge, the same one I entering Urn El-Fahm. The entire everywhere. The village had become talked to, blurted out that he wished village would be on general strike in a combat zone with one side fighting they had hit me harder. One of our the presence of Jews and Arabs for the right to live unmolested as group began arguing with him and from all over the country. He said it free citizens. The police fighting for within seconds we were grabbed, would be passive, non-violent it had retreated and it was un- clubbed and arrested for `throwing resistance. I would try to make it. I thinkable blasphemy that an Arab stones at policemen'. did not tell him that I felt sick at the village could have its way. Eight hours, which seemed an prospect of a possible bloodbath. What I feared most had happen- eternity, ensued until I regained my I woke early. and got the car ed. There were two choices for me; freedom. I recall a few highpoints ready, knowing that the chartered to stand by as a painful and passive during this `eternity'. It wasn't easy bus from Jerusalem might be stop- witness, or to try and avert a to convince my police escort that ped en route. Out came the child's catastrophe. I chose intervention. A someone who had identified with an car seat. This was `business'. A friend and I went down to the police Arab village was actually interested number of concerned friends would lines and told the officer in com- in, or in the habit of, darveni.Hg. Car- fill the car. mand,.`.`that if they charged there rying a volume of A4lj.dros* helped. The first road block was near Kib- would be many casualties, perhaps The Arabs who were arrested during butz Barkai and `we came under deaths on both sides. the day's events and whose cel`l I Continued opposite

Manna Spring 1985 For a Palestinian. A Memor.\a.1 to Wael Zuaiter - Editor, J. Venn- Brown (Kegan Paul Int. £6.95) Zuaiter Was Lovely -

nay thousands of potential And A REller THEREauthors ARE who HUNDREDS, s ubmit manuscripts to publishing houses Arafat? Subsequent events have like Kegan Paul International and proved him wrong as the PLO is sadly get a rejection slip. There may ByEricMoonman torn apart and Syrian pressure is be reasons why a particular building up to isolate Arafat. manuscript should not see the light The story of Zuaiter can be told of day. What is inexplicable is how course, there are exceptions to the simply. He was a Palestinian, and or why other manuscripts make it. rule but only when the writers show operated as an agent from Rome for For a Palestinian fa,Ils into the se- considerable literary skill. George a number of years until he was cond category. Orwell' s ` 1984' and Arthur assassinated in October, 1972 at the What are the objectives of this Koestler's `Darkness at Noon' are age of 38. How and why he operated publication? According to the two marvellous examples of this from Italy is glossed over, but editor, Janet Venn-Brown, the book genre. repeatedly we are told he was `For a Palestinian' has neither is to honour the `martyr' Wael murdered by the Israeli Secret Ser- Zuaiter. The editor, in fact, does literary skill nor a consistent theme, vice. For whatever reason he was not provide a statement on the and is a no-nonsense, unsubtle piece `special', and a `lovely' person. He reason why he is considered a mar- of propaganda. probably was, `but then there are tyr and a hero, but says `1 will leave But this is not to say that men like some lovely people doing some pret- it to his personal friends'. Zuaiter don't have a story. They do, ty awful things to innocent children Who are they? Not a group of and it should be a challenge to a and bystanders in the name of dispassionate, unbiased writers but, writer to persuade through style, liberation causes and fundamen- for one, the terrorist leader Yasser lucidity or humour so that you are talism. Arafat. He says of Zuaiter: `He was interested in him as an individual. So to return to the earlier ques- not one to be attracted to wordly The confrontation between Israel tion, why publish this manuscript? splendour; he was essentially a man and the Arab States has indeed The dust jacket says `Without pro- of ideas and culture, an intellectual; thrown up a number of remarkable paganda or political rhetoric, this but above all he was dedicated to individuals. But regretfully, on anthology of essays, poems, Palestine. He was a man of great neither side do we learn very much memoirs and drawings provides a sensitivity, with his roots deep in the about the circumstances of such in- human approach to the Palestine heart of humanity, like the roots of dividuals from the literature. issue.' Sadly it does not.I the oaks and the olives deep in the There are some good Israeli soil of Palestine.' novelists and several remarkable Personal stories when a land is humourists but they have not told torn apart either by external or in- the personal story within the wider ternal conflict can strike a dramatic setting. So it is with the Arab states. chord about the wider issues or a Very little literature has been particular cause. For instance, the translated into English and what has Anne Frank story in wartime been merely reflects the propaganda Holland had the effect of enlighten- of a particular cause. ing subsequent generations of Jews As for the PLO, a remark made Ewic MoorlmBm is a Liverpool-born former and non-Jews all over the world. to me some years ago by an Arab Labour M.P. who recently announced his Such stories have to be carefully student in a debate makes the point: resignation from the Labour Party. His publications include `The Alternative drawn. Propaganda should not in- who needs PR or a literature to Government' and `The Manager and the trude or the meaning of a particular work for us and to explain ourselves Organisation'. He is Director of the Centre `cause' will be lost or distorted. Of to the world when you have Yasser for Contemporary Studies.

shared were intrigued by our com- Ran Cohen, an MK of the them did not find it hard to do. mon fate, but they had been beaten Citizen's Rights Party, secured my How immune are the rest of us? . rather badly and we were not able to release that night but I was treated converse much. When Hashem to a friendly admonition by the Sta- heard I had been arrested he came tion Captain who advised me to turn down to the station but was unable Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom was boom /.» /954 /.». my energies elsewhere as `you can Richmond, Virginia, the son Of the to get me released. never trust an Arab'. distinguished Professor of Bible, Jacob The powerlessness one feels in a He was really speaking for the Milgrom. He emigrated to Israel as a teenager cell, cut off from any contact with front line policemen who had been and served as a parachutist bofore returning the outside world, with the inmates' sent by Burg to protect Kahane and to New York to study for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He now lives in faeces floating in the stopped-up had been forced by the confronta- Israel and works as rabbi, lecturer and drain, defies description. tion to identify with him. Most of political activist.

Manna Spring 1985 Two Exce tional Lives I was intrigued by her and, as I got to know her story, I was even more startled. She was brought up in a traditional Jewish household in Berlin and had been taken on visits 1) Kaddish to `rebbes' in Poland. She had mar- ried - it was not a success - and in Italy in 1939 had become a Catholic. For She had then been rescued by an Italian princess, who had sent her off to Palestine, as it was then ANun known. She had joined, first British wore long pants and carried a Intelligence, then the Sisters of cigarette holder. This caused Sion. It was quite a story. something of a sensation and her Gabriel many years ago. She was After a trip to America `Sister views were outspoken, too. She ap- IFIRST MET SISTER LOUIS wearing a black bombazine robe Louis' was dropped and Charlotte peared in newspapers, on radio and and looked every inch a nun of the Klein emerged, known to her friends TV. old school. I think she kept custody as Lottie and to acquaintances as The quality I prized most in her of the eyes which made her look Dr. Klein. was her honesty. She was the only either downcast or furtive. Lottie was now a `modern' who person I've met who could get up in

Dame Albertine Winner talks to Rabbi Julia Neuberger of her life bet ore and after she 2) `Mother was An became Jewish, and of her vinced by Roman Catholicism or formal belief system, and as I work in the hospice move- Quakerism, and for a time Bud- started to work with the terminally ment. dhism. It depended a lot on whom I ill, became more and more aware of had been talking to, and what my my need. `1 WAS NOT BROUGHT UP friends were thinking. But I was (Dame Albertine was Deputy in any religion at all. My never convinced by any of them. I Director Of St. Christopher's father was a non-practising could not accept the idea of per- Hospice from 1967, working closely Jew, and my mother was a convinc- sonal redemption through an in- with Dame Cicely Saunders. She is ed atheist. I think she was the only dividual, or indeed the whole con- now Chairman of St. Christopher's, convinced atheist I have ever known cept of incarnation. So I drifted and of St. Joseph's, and Vice- in my life. When we went to a ser- along. Chairman of the new North London `1 became self-conscious about vice, it might be to an Anglican Hospice Group). church, or to the Queen's Road my Jewishness in 1933, with Hitler's `1 am convinced of the need for a Ethical Society, or to the rise to power. It was the first time I strong belief, a firm outlook on life, Unitarians, or to the Liberal Jewish had been properly aware of it. I for anyone who works with the ter- Synagogue to hear Rabbi Israel resigned from two tennis clubs in minally ill. Being part of an organis- Mattuck. We went for the music Hampstead because I discovered ed religion helps, but one could be principally, I think. quite accidentally, that they did not as effective with a strong `1 was vaguely aware of being admit Jews. As I regarded myself as humanitarian ethical code. St. Jewish because I could not be head. Jewish at that moment, I resigned, Christopher's is strongly Anglican, girl of my school (Dame Albertine and as I happened to be club cham- though it opens its doors to every went to two Church of England pion, in both cases, it was not a very faith for its patients. But I did once schools, Eothen in Caterham and popular move. It didn't, as far as I have a terrible argument with Cicely Francis Holland, Clarence Gate). am aware, make them change their over her unwillingness to appoint a Then when the others in my class policy. ward sister who was not a Christian. `When the persecution became were being confirmed I asked my Cicely herself is deeply religious, father whether I could be. He wisely acute it really hit me. Although I and would, I think, very much have said `By all means, but I would had known that I had not been bap- liked me to become a Christian, prefer you to wait until you are eigh- tised it had not really struck home though she is now very proud of teen'. I did that, and the phase pass- until Nazi persecution started. My having a Jewish chairman. ed. I did not then become p¢r- mother and I became involved with ` Being involved in St. fz.c"/ar/y interested in religion until bringing members of my family over Christopher's brought a reawaken- my early thirties when I came to from Germany on their way to ed desire for a formal religion. realise that followers of all religions America. That continued until the Whilst thinking about it, a friend had mystical experiences which were authorities stopped us giving suggested to me that it might be broadly similar and which seemed to guarantees for any more refugees, more sensible, instead of experimen- me to point to the existence.of because we could not afford it. ting, to go back to the faith of my `From then on my associations something superhuman which one fathers. It seemed a sensible enough could call God. were with being Jewish, but not by suggestion. I went to the Liberal `Later on I toyed with many religion. That didn't happen until Jewish Synagogue and was inter- religions and was nearer being con- later. I had growing yearnings for a viewed by Rabbi Rayner. Dr. David

Manna Spring 1985 the middle of a sermon in a public She was a Catholic. She had made harder life to be a German Jew in service and say `Father this is really her choice and that was it. She never the twentieth century and to be a not so!'. It's something I've always went back on it or regretted it. German Jewess who became a wanted to do but never dared. After But apart from that she also never Catholic nun is asking for trouble. she retired from her Jewish Chris- pretended to be anything other than For those of us who knew her, tian work - though she never really what she was - a Jekke - a Ger- something really vital has gone from did - ch'e trained as a counsellor. man Jewish refugee. She was faith- our lives. It's like watching a colour She forced herself to examine all the ful to her accent, her culture and her TV set and suddenly the colour problems of her early life. She terrible experiences in the thirties. drains away and only dull black and didn't avoid them, though it was She also did work that no Jewish white is left. That's how I and hard going. person could have done. She wrote a others felt when we heard she had Some rabbis came to her memor- book on Antisemitism in the died. ial mass and said Kaddish for her. I Church. It must have been difficult She was a real friend, whom have never known it before for to write and I should think it tore could love and quarrel with. someone who crossed such a well- her apart. But she did it. She wasn't wonder what she would have been drawn religious frontier. I think the establishment's favourite nun, like if she had remained a Jewess - they did it for these reasons. but she fulfilled in a strange way her perhaps tremendous, perhaps im- Charlotte never tried to fudge the Jewish responsibility. `It's a hard life being a Jew' my possible, I don't know. But I respect religious issue. She was not a `Jew and admire people who are real. The for Jesus' nor a `Messianic Jew'. grandfather used to say. Well it is a lady had guts! . Atheist, Father Was A Jew...' Goldstein then taught me for a year, family tree made which I distributed vice-chairman and maintains stoutly a period of study which gave me im- to all the members of the family I that she has become involved `with a mense pleasure. The more I learnt, could trace. That was very in- large number of extremely nice the more I felt I really agreed with teresting - there were more than Jews', rather than with `the Jewish what I was learning and reading. twelve nationalities represented Community'. And I became a Jew. though I have very little family left Despite her own doubts about her At this point I asked Dame Alber- now. involvement with `the Jewish com- `Now that I am Jewish, I feel hap- tine how long ago she had con- munity', there is no doubt that the verted. `Do you know, I can't remem- py in its strong monotheism. I love North London Hospice Group is a the sense that there is no priesthood combined effort between the ber, . - no-one between me and God. I `That's rather good, isn't it. It original group and some represen- feel deeply sympathetic to that, and tatives of the Jewish community, means you feel so Jewish that it's to the monotheism -it's the lack of who came in via the Jewish Welfare too long ago to actually think true monotheism that has always Board. Melvyn Carlowe, Executive about' ... `1 should think it's seven or eight put me off Christianity. Not only Director of the Board, is one of the that, of course. I reject the idea in members of the Executive, and its years'. Christianity of suffering being good `As little as that?' greatest advocate within the Jewish in itself. Everything depends on `As little as that ... I'm still a very community. Dame Albertine has, what one does with it. It is as neutral unwittingly perhaps, become involv- new Jew,. in itself as pain or joy. ed to some extent with the Jewish `None the worse for that. Some of `1 find Jewish services very satis- community in her work for the the newest Jews are the most en- fying. Th e Lib eral J ewis h North London Hospice Group, and thusiastic but you have obviously Synagogue services have just brings into it great expertise and thought of yourself as Jewish since enough ritual to give them a struc- authority in the field of terminal 1933,. ture, but not enough to distract one. Care. (It seemed extraordinary to me I like ritual when it is not a distrac- Her work with the terminally ill that Dame Albertine had converted tion, and I love the music. I like finally brought her, formally, to to Judaism as recently and it was belonging to the Jewish com- Judaism. I wonder whether her clear that her own feeling was that munity,. Judaism has brought her Jewish she had been, at least in some There was some altercation bet- community nearer to some percep- senses, Jewish since birth and aware ween us as to whether or not Dame tion of what is needed for the ter- of it since 1933). Albertine had become involved with minally ill. I `1 have been very little involved in `The Jewish Community' in the communal life. I don't do enough North London Hospice Group, an for my own synagogue. I have inter faith group which has already spoken once or twice, and I go when set up a home care nursing service Iuhiit\ Nouhorgie*, Rabbi of the South London I can, but I'm not particularly in- for the terminally ill in North Lon- Liberal Synagogue, fought Tooting for the volved in communal affairs. Before don, at the moment covering Har- SDP at the general election. Graduated in my conversion I did become more Hebrew and Assyriology at Cambridge. Ih ingey and Barnet, and which hopes 1977 became second woman to be ordained and more strongly aware of my to have in-patient care in the very by Leo Baeck College. Married and mother Jewish family, and in 1966 had a near future. Dame Albertine is its of two children.

Manna Spring 1985 `I've Known Hell And Paradise...' A Great Artist's Vision - Images Of Human Dignity

are they?' and he said to me, `Are Gallery to find that his pictures IARRIVE AT THE TATE By Julia Pascal you stupid?' He didn't know any are not on display at the mo- either. But one day I met a Jewish ment. Walking through the building `Like the Jews?' banker who bought a painting of past Rodin's `Th6 Kiss' and rooms `Very much so', he replies. `These mine and he astonished me by eating of Turner, I am allowed to inspect Welsh villages reminded me very salt herrings and bagels as I did. Josef Herman's work in catalogues much of the street of my You can't imagine how I was disap- in the Tate Library. Here are childhood' . pointed!, Glasgow workers, sfefcf/ beggars, a I ask if he was accepted as a Herman's sympathy for the poor Jewish shepherd, tailors, musicians, Polish Jew in wartime Wales. `Of and the hungry, is a sympathy which miners, a woman whose body en- course, because the Welsh judge you extends far beyond his own Jewish circles her child in memory of a on personal grounds. Religion does experience. `In 1942 I learnt my pogrom. The images have a unity as not come into it. There was a short whole family was .exterminated in if the poverty of Glasgow, Wales wave of anti-semitism when a one day. I do.not care to talk about and pre-war Warsaw all have fun- number of Poles arrived in the it; I hate self-pity', he said in an in- damental connections. And of Welsh valleys, but this was anti- terview in the Jewish Chronicle in course here they do. Herman's vi- semitism from the Poles, not the 1966. If religion is a metaphor for sion is one of humanity surviving Welsh,. hope then to him Auschwitz is a against poverty, repression and There are also warm memories of metaphor for human evil not just darkness whether in the sA/ef/, the Glasgow. It was there in 1942`that Nazi evil. tenement, or the miner's cottage. he renewed his friendship with the I remember reading that the Poles In Herman's visions, survival is Warsaw painter, Jankel Adler, and were considered by the Nazis to be possible through the imagination. was -encouraged by the Scottish the most anti-semitic of East Euro- So his fiddlers and accordionists still sculptor, Benno Schotz. In 1941 his peans and wonder if Herman play, his grandmother tells him a first exhibition was put on at James agrees: `Yes and no, not more anti- story on a Friday night, he sits at a Connell's gallery and The Celtic semitic than the French, Germans or table dreaming of his sister. The Ballet Club staged his `Ballet of the Russians but more than the Scan- Glasgow worker, the Welsh miner Palette' which is still performed in dinavians or the English. It was and the heimische shtetl falhily form European international repertoires. natural to many Poles because of a complete dramatic circle. Is he a religious man? He has no the stories they learnt at their I wonder why he has concentrated simple answer and laughs at his own mother's knee. `In Poland if a woman wanted to so much on the image of the miner contradictions. `1 don't believe the and the worker. He talks of wanting world was created in six days. I wean her child and the child com- to create images which show human don't believe in a Paradise or Hell. plained, the child was told `that the dignity. `Brutality appalls me in When I die, that's it. But I do Jew had taken the breast away'. So art', he says, `even brutality in the believe in the metaphor of God, the young Poles linked their own works of such a genius as Goya'. Angels and Devils. All these I ac- deprivation with Jewish gain. ' His miners are evoked with great cept. I've known Hell and I've But Herman always puts racism respect; with love, because of the known Paradise. Similarly with in an universal context. `All eleven years he spent in the com- Resurrection. There are days when I minorities are scapegoats. First it's munity. `The miners are perhaps the am dead and then there are days the Jews, then the gypsies. We cream of .the working class', he says, when I'm resurrected. But if you tell didn't have any Irish! To find a `they are a self-taught people and me that one day after death I will be scapegoat is endemic in humanity. `The stranger always awakens the you know how the self-taught are physically resurrected -forget it\.' usually far more aware than those His religious and educational worst forebodings whether the who have been conventionally points of view emerge from ex- stranger is Irish, Jewish, Asian or educated at Oxford or Cambridge. perience, rather than conventional black. We are still socially extremely Self-taught people are a special doctrine. Herman was born in 1911 primitive. Voltaire wrote the breed. If you come into a miner's into a very poor Warsaw family. His magnificent `Candide' , as an indict- home you may not see pictures on father was a cobbler. ment of human cruelty and yet the his wall; you may see flying ducks; `1 never knew that Jews could be same Voltaire was an anti-semite.' but you will see a piano and a rich', he says, `my father was a cob- We return to religion as a wonderful library. They are not a bler and we lived in a slum. One day metaphor as he remembers a trip to visual people but a literary people. I said to one of my uncles, `Tell me Portugal last year. `1 was in a They are also `People of the Book' .' about these Jewish bankers. Where bookshop and I found "Candide"

Manna Spring 1985 LETTEHS Not The Last Word Sir'

A4l¢##¢ and also a member .of IAMEdgware A SUBSCRIBERand District Reform TO Synagogue. You can therefore im- agine my feelings on reading the last part of the `Last Word' contribu- tion in the most recent edition. I assume `Last Word' is meant to be a sort of gossip column, but the one to which I refer is, or at least comes across as, a nasty little piece ranging from the inaccurate to the defamatory. The reference to our Senior Rabbi is particularly vicious. Although I am sure he is far too polite to say so, he must be deeply hurt by it. Certainly an ordinary congregant like myself feels hurt and offended on his behalf. I hope that future editions of that particular contribution will be in better taste. JONATHAN M. KRAMER on the shelf. I picked it up and a and daughters. After coffee she Dalkeith Grove, young priest saw me with it and leaves us to see a patient and I listen Stanmore, Middlesex. took it from me. As he leafed to Herman's tales of his friends in through it, he said: `Voltaire didn't Warsaw's Yiddish theatre and look Sir' like priests'. I replied:`He didn't like at his collection of African Jews either'. miniatures on the living room `He asked me: `Are you a Jew?' I reading A4l¢##¢, and the last shelves. This amazin.g art collection ITHOROUGHLYissue was no exception ENJOY until I told him I was and we became is a passion and these figures - reached `Last Word' which, to me, friends. He's one of those priests warriors and brides - suddenly was the last word in tastelessness.. who believes that Christ is alive to- associate with his own drawings of Note Rabbi Goldberg's reference day in South America. I asked him: workers, dreamers and storytellers. `Do you believe that Christ is to those who formed the Conser- A hair's breadth away from vative Synagogue as `defectors'. holding a machine gun?' He said: Auschwitz, Herman, both as artist That is how he describes committed cYes,. and collector, concentrates on `Now, if I would have told him Jews who have given years `of creating an homage to human sur- dedicated service to Ref\orm that he speaks the language of vival and beauty. Judaism and now seek to enlarge the metaphor, he would say, no, he I leave the house feeling I've met sphere of non-orthodox Judaism in speaks the language of Christian someone far greater than a renown- this country. Does Rabbi Goldberg morality. Nevertheless, with such a ed artist. describe *z.a members who have man I can get on very well'. I've met a true me7!scfe. . come from other Synagogual bodies We have spoken for almost three as `defectors'? I suspect not. Under hours and the light in the studio is Iuhi\a Pasct\l is an Hc)nours graduate in the circumstances his complaint of growing dim. Coffee and cake is English of London University; is Dance others being insulting is a supreme served upstairs in the kitchen and we Editor Of the weekly, Cirty Tjrmiits and has chutzpah. are joined by Mrs. Herman. She is a written and directed `Men Seldolm Mi`ke Passes' for the National Theatre. Her play S. M. BUDD psychoanalyst, deep in research for `Charlotte and Jane' /or BBC Schoo/s wo# a Edgware, Middx. her second book, a study of mothers Royal Television Society award, 1982.

Manna Spring 1985 A Doctor's Agony Call At 3 A.M. MUST I LET THIS BABY DIE?

the distance. It is 3.00 a.in. THE TheTELEPHONE tired voice reports RINGS that IN a By llya Kovar baby has been born with congenital malformations and potential han- medical advisers, and is determined dicap, and requires artificial respira- ultimately by what is perceived to be tion support. The question is asked the child's rights, in society's in- as to how hard the staff should terest and by the law. Attitudes to strive to preserve life. The fate of the dilemma have evolved but not so this child can be predicted from past the law and basic medical ethics. experience with similar babies: the The Greco-Roman and Judeo- future holds mental deficiency, Christian models are still applied. physical incoordination, special But the rules of the warrior society education, multiple infections and for which they were developed are repeated surgery. The family is mid- no longer relevant. dle class, stunned and shattered; re- I get distressed and lose sleep each jection is their first response. Time time I am faced with one of these is at a premium, each passing hour decisions on a child but decisions brings more decisions, what to do if must be made. The options affect ... and what if ... decisions which the child's whole life and are rarely affect a lifetime. Is it possible to redeemable. A medical decision may properly consider all the issues at impose life, death, sorrow, financial that time of the morning? It is no and social hardship, both on in- easier at a later hour. dividuals and their families. Doctors are not trained in tradi- There are few places for an in- tional moral philosophy but rather dividual doctor to turn for advice to practise a new technology. This and support. `All men are created equal and in- permits the modern paediatrician to Society is hypocritical. For exam- alter fate, to offer survival where ple, it permits the abortion of a nor- dc%#t%nt'he;h3tertfivre°#ghtthsa:nheegrueantt previously there was none, to offer mal foetus, and of a handicapped health and to maximise potential. baby diagnosed before birth. Yet it and inalienable, o[mong which are The technology has outpaced the does not permit the natural death of the preservo[tion Of lofe and liberty ethic of understanding and ability of a baby born with that same han- and the pursuit of happiness'. an individual, the medical profes- dicap. Abortion of a baby known to Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) sion and society. The ability to have mongolism is often advised. cause survival occasionally requires But if that baby is born with an in- `Thou Shalt Not Kil]' - the sixth a decision between death and the testinal blockage surgery is required misfortune of survival with han- or it will starve. There are few who commandment. dicap. This is a dilemma for those could permit that. In the past these who are trained to preserve life. babies would die. The right to life of unseen. Modern medicine, it could Death may to some be a more accep- a foetus and newborn baby must be argued, interferes with nature's table alternative. surely be the same, yet there would cull and natural selection. The choice is not simple. It seem to be a psychological dif- The demands of parents have also belongs to the family guided by their ference in death, sight seen and sight changed and it is they who carry the

10 Manna Spring 1985 phasis on small and physically ideal switch off a ventilator on a and intact families. The physician premature baby with a brain was previously asked only to offer haemorrhage and a high risk of support, comfort and wisdom but is damage. Is this approach right or now asked to provide solutions and permissible? intervene against nature. The The law provides controls and parents not infrequently request safeguards for the majority but is that steps are taken to ensure that a often inadequate when faced with the problems of the individual. The PaarbeYyds°€:;£#.tsurvive.Themotiveis failure to operate on the congenital I find it difficult sometimes to intestinal blockage previously men- know just what is right. There is a tioned is seen by some as acceptable clear paradox where there is on one as it is nature's way. But to ad- hospital corridor an expensive minister a lethal agent and make premature baby intensive care unit death comfortable is not. The intent which strives to salvage babies who and goal are the same. I find it im- were no-t meant to be, while down possible to stand idly by and watch the corridor is an operating theatre. such a baby starve. And yet my ac-, for abortions of babies that were tion has put me at odds with parents meant to be. who have thought this a way out of As a paediatrician the respon- their dilemma. sibilities are clear; most importantly There are those who argue that to one's patient, the individual the parents wishes are paramount children, to promote their physical, and should be respected. In some emotional and social welfare, to cases it is not possible to support parents and family, not to increase their view, in others a more sym- hardship and to recognise and sup- pathetic approach can be con- port their needs and desires, to sidered. oneself, to do what is right to main- It is important to understand that tain integrity and emotionally sur- with these issues there are often only vive, to society, to support its needs, questions and no answers. How to to the medical profession, to main- aid the individual who would seem tain standards of care and prin- to be condemned to a life long suf- ciples, and to humanity, by fering, how to preserve the integrity recognising that by altering fate of families which may not be able to natural selection is affected. survive a handicapped baby, how to It is the children who are impor- do what is right where there would tant. One has to recognise them as not seem to be any agreement about having a moral worth and impor- what is right, how to support the tance, that they are unable to defend sanctity of life and when needed the themselves, and that they have a dignity of life, how to juggle fate right to respect and the best profes- appropriately and compassionately, sional advice and support available. and how to recognise the needs of The dilemma is that the Hippocratic society and its various pressure principles of relief of suffering and groups? preservation of life may not always The effect of pressure groups and be compatible, nor necessarily are the effect of legal action must the separate needs of the child and always be borne in mind. I do not. their family. There is a need for an pretend to know what is right but advocate for the child. It is unable am often obliged to try and answer to speak for itself. And in the situa- these questions and aid in individual tion where there is a balance bet- cases. Decisions, right or wrong, ween life and major handicap can can affect patient care in the present the family or the doctor presume and may have long term implica- `1 will neither prescribe a deadly what the child's wishes may be? tions for them and their families drug if asked for it, nor wi]] I make At what point does potential han- which I am totally unable to predict. a suggestion to this effect' Hip- dicap become intolerable? Is it when I do not believe there is a right or pocrates (C 460-377 BC). it is there for all to see or while it is wrong way of approaching these only known to be potential and the issues but I do know that there are future uncertain? The tragedy is tragic consequences of adhering to heaviest burden. There is the loss of that the latter time may be the only too strict an approach and ignoring. a dream, a future, a normality and a time it is possible to intervene and the consequences. life. Their attitude can influence a permit the child to pass away with And what of the baby born at doctor to try harder, or to think dignity. An example of this is when 3.cO a.in.? Fortunately nature in- more. There is now an increased em- it might be considered right to tervened and caused pneumonia, Contirmed on next page

Manna Spring 1985 il

d`. continued from previous page one with a very poor one. Murder is rna concerned with keeping deform- thus mercifiirly ending his and his murder and no exceptions are allow- ed children alive and heard the family's agony, and in truth ed. With regard to the other offence. voices of parents asking to be reliev- mine. I - of failing to save life - distinc- ed of the agony of caring for a child tions can be made. Here, it can be that could never be any reflection of Dr. Tlyt\ Kovarr was born in Prague in 1947. argued that if the life that is saved is their physical or intellectual in- He was brought up and educated in Australia one not worth living there is no heritance, one was torn. and came to Britain in 1972. He is Senior Lee- obligation to save it. In my own case the dilemma was turer in Child Health and Consultant Paediatrician at the Charing Cross and It would seem to follow that made still more difficult because I Westminster Medical School. He is married under no circumstances is it permit- came to obstetrics after six years of and has four children ranging in age from 8 ted to perform any positive act that service in the Royal Air Force where years to 9 months. will result in the death of an infant I saw the flower of British youth, in- born with congenital defects. But to cluding many Jews, killed in withhold treatment so that death Bomber Command. Quit-e often We asked tu)o rabbis and five will occur .naturally is allowed. It is their deaths were due to faulty deci- doctors to comment on Dr. in this sphere that a doctor's ex- sions of commanders who had sent Kouar's dilemma. Here are perience and expertise has the them on raids to impossibly heavily their answers. decisive voice. defended targets or to try out new There are, to be sure, border-line theories of air navigation. At the Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs, a/ ffte rvew Londo# cases where, presumably, doctors end of that experience when healthy Synagogue, an international authority on Jewish will rely on their own conscience but lives had been sacrificed in such vast law. the divine fiat - not the result of numbers I felt that unhealthy lives needs of a `warrior society' - should not be perpetuated. I confess Halakhah, atoortiion is a, very against any act of positive murder is that on occasion I made it difficult categorically stressed in all the A CCORDINGserious offence. TO But it THE does for the nursing staff `to strive of- not fall under the heading of murder Halakhic scjNIces. ficiously to keep alive.' Why God should allow infants since the foetus, whatever its poten- The dilemmas have become worse with severe congenital defects to be tial, is not a full human being. Once because, as Dr Kovar points out, the baby has emerged from the born is an additional theological there are now very sophisticated womb, it is a human being and to problem, over and above that of the ways of keeping premature babies kill it is to commit an act of murder. very existence of evil, since it all alive. For instance, ventilation has seems so utterly purposeless. But No one would advocate the killing only been invented in the last decade Judaism wisely demands that of, say a child of three or four, even or two. It is a form of artificial theological speculation should be if it has t`he most severe congenital respiration that can keep a baby go- defects, and there is no logical left out of the practical considera- ing. Sometimes the results are distinction between killing a child of tion of what is to be done when fac- marvellous, when the baby is just three or four and killing a new-born ed with ethical questions about life premature and maybe even has a baby. The line must be drawn and death. Once God has, as it brain haemorrhage. The real pro- were, given the physician the right somewhere and the Hc7/¢kfearA draws blems come when the baby is con- and the duty to do the work of heal- it from the time of the actual birth. genitally a.efor.med.. This is why the Ha/okfe¢fe permits an ing for Him, the physician, if he is a I give three instances to illustrate abortion of the foetus if this is the believer, must not be concerned, the point. only way the life of the mother can when making his decisions, with At one time a hydrocephalic baby be saved but refuses to permit the what God is doing but with what with much water on its brain and God would have him do. I slaying of a baby which has emerged with spina bifida whose future from the womb, even for the pur- seemed very poor was being kept pose of saving the life of the alive while a decision as to whether mother. It is permitted to commit Mr. EIIiot Philipp, a Co»s«//a" obs/c/rt.c7.an and surgery should be undertaken was Gynaecologist. foeticide but not.homicide in order slowly being made by the to save life. neurosurgeons at that hospital. At On the same reasoning, according WHENorthodox A PRACTISING Jew becomes a that time `shunt' techniques had not to some H¢/akAz.c authorities, it is gynaecologist in this coun- been developed to the extent that permitted to abort a foetus with try he is immediately aware of two they have now. It was quite clear serious congenital d.efects but not to different cultures that form him. that even with good surgery this kill an infant already born even if it The first is that of the orthodox child would never be able to walk has the same defects. Judaism which he has imbibed with properly nor ever be continent of To withhold life-maintaining his mother's milk and had rein for- urine or faeces. It then became in- treatment from a person who needs ced all the time he was living at fected and posed a risk to other it in order for him to survive is to of- home and, strangely enough, at children in the nursery. I was ada- fend against the different rule that it Cambridge. The Jewish student mant, rightly or wrongly, that this is wrong to stand idly by, as Scrip- community at Cambridge where I child should not live and refused ture puts it, when one is called upon was a student has always been a fair- point blank to prescribe antibiotics to save life. With regard to murder ly orthodox one. or to let any member of the team no distinctions are made between When, however, one went into prescribe antibiotics. I thought that one with a good life potential and the wards and saw the awful dilem- the continued presence of that child

12 Manna Spring 1985 in the nursery was not only a danger there was a big price to pay. Her their flimsy threads of existence. to its mother who insisted on com- father could not face the agony and We who thankfully. inay claim to ing to handle it all the time, but also worry and abandoned the family. be normal may feel that death to the other children and perhaps Her mother had to pay much lass at- would be preferable to such ham- the other mothers in the ward. It so tention to her older children because dicaps. Increasingly there is pressure happened that there was no really she had to become the breadwinner to legalise euthanasia and the right effective way of isolating that child. of the family.. to die. Fortunately it died within two days. • Shortly afterwards another child I think in retrospect I would have The Euthanasia Society is fifty done exactly the same with all three years old. Among its aims is to pro- born to a Christian minister of cases, so I cannot lay down a rule vide the ultimate help for the religion who was far from well off even for myself. I can only pray that hopelessly helpless and senile who and who already had many children, the jridgments I make are correct. had previously asked for life termin- had some fit of apnoeia and stopped But I really do not know. I tion should they reach this stage of breathing for long enough to cause non-person. I believe the majority cerebral damage. It was quite clear of doctors and staff would agree that if the child survived he would that there are categories of neonate be mentally defective. The father Dr. S. Charles Lewsen, ¢ pAysj.cj.¢n wi.rA special interest in psychosomatic illness. defect where prolongation of ex- took me aside and begged me to do istence is unjustified. Nature's prun- something to stop that child's life. ing fork should not be opposed. The This I could not do., believing that moving and sensitive paper DR. ILYA KOVAR. IN HIS neonate with minimal potential and every child is precious, yet not draws attention to the dilem- still a non-person without sense and believing at all that there would be a rna faced by doctor and nursing identity - like his fellow human at virtue for the parents to bring up staff at the birth of an obviously ab- the other end of life's allocation - this handicapped child who certain- normal and severely handicapped should be allowed, actively or ly would be a burden to his brothers infant whose destiny lies urgently in passively, to slip away. and sisters, and also would deprive their hands. He quotes the injunc- George Steiner has suggested that them of some of their necessities. It tions of Jefferson, Hippocrates and `perhaps Man has in a certain sense was one thing to allow a baby to die the Bible regarding the inalienable outgrown the gods; that the great and another to deprive it of life. respect for life and the rights and in- imperative morality of the ancient The third occasion was even more dependence of the individual. A deities belong to a somewhat earlier poignant. I delivered a beautiful kind of mechanical living is now stage of the world, and that Man's woman of her third child, having possible - at both ends of life's understanding or needs or moral already previously operated on the spectrum - but at what com- anguish are moving beyond that neck of her womb for an incipient promise to the quality of life. stage'. cancer. The child was born with a In the case of the deformed in- As Dr. Kovar says, and as cah.be large spina bifida. At th.at time I fant, practical decisions, life and said of life itself, there are plenty of called a very d.own-to-earth, sensible death ones, may need to be made questions, but no answers. For Dr. and unfashionable paediatrician to urgently, yet with due regard to Kovar, as for all of us, it is always 3 view the child with me .and he came parental wishes, social, legal and a.in.I in the middle of the night within an moral considerations, and the over- hour of the baby's birth. Together riding concern for the infant and we called a neurosurgeon and all what can be assessed as best for it. three of us tested the child to make Once survival measures are started, Dr. Michael R0bins0n, cons"/faHf paedr.afri.- .clan at a number Of Manchester hospitals. quite sure that she would have at withdrawal presents further. heart- least urinary and faetal continence. searchings. Who, indeed, is to be That having been established, the left holding the baby. And are the been the most dangerous THE BIRTH PROCESS HAS neurosurgeon operated on the baby ancient injunctions obsolete or ab- period in a person's life. In- to close her spina bifida sac and do solute. deed, statistically, more people die some repair to the muscles the Sincerely held religious opinions in the first week than in any other. following day. may find it morally right to save any Over the past 15 years a number of I have since followed this child, spark or manifestation of life at any factors, including advances in who is now a beautiful girl of 17. cost. And they can instance the obstetric and paediatric manage- Her mother brought her to see me many severely handicapped who ment, have succeeded in reducing when she was 8 and she came in, her have achieved productive and useful perinatal mortality to such an extent legs in irons and her arms wielding lives. How much do we know about, that there is now a greater, though the crutches which she needed to or how far can we enter. the private still small risk of bearing a ham- walk. She accused me blatantly for world, of the defective; the blind dicapped child than a dead one. The having allowed her to live and told and deaf, the paralysed and the knowledge of the improved pro- me I Should never have done that. mentally abnormal. For them is spects for survival has highlighted My heart turned right over. But there perhaps an entity of the dilemmas many parents and pro- there is a happy end to this story, `otherness', an alternative life- fessionals have faced privately for because at the age of 17 she is glad setting held as deeply as we hold our some time. to be alive. She is highly intelligent `normal' one. Our sad screens At one extreme of a spectrum of and in her life gives enormous recently have shown how unremit- severely handicapped processes, pleasure to many other people. But tingly the famine victims hold on to problems exist in which there are Continued on next page

Manna Spring 1985 13 continued will still be there afterwards to con- help. A man is ill with an incurable conflicts of interests between the in- tinue either to support the family disease, and in great pain. Most dividual and the group, the types of through life or the parents in their people, of whatever views, would conflicts which spiritual, legal and grief. agree that all steps should be taken moral guidelines are formulated to to relieve his pain, even though they resolve but rarely do. In such cir- realise that such treatment might in- cumstances there are often no ab- Dr. L0uis Freedman pracfi.cos as fl gener¢/ evitably hasten his end. The highly solutely right answers and though it physician in London. He is also a student of moral motivating force here is the desire to may be comforting to look to the philosopky. relieve human suffering. past for guidance, Hippocrates Perhaps one can extrapolate from himself would have found many for us aspects of the current this to Dr. Kovar's situation. It is present day difficulties insoluble. DR. KOVARdebate - problemsHIGHLIGHTS of the pointless, I think, lamenting the The parents need to be advised by grossly deformed new-born child; responsibility which devolves upon informed attendants as to the pro- termination of pregnancy for severe the doctor. All men of courage and gnosis of the disease process with or abnormalities identified during determination find themselves at some time or other responsible for without intervention. The advisers pregnancy by amniocentesis; abor- need to refrain from projecting their tion; experimentation on embryos difficult and perhaps tormenting own views on to the parents, `who produced by in-vitro fertilisation. problems. Only the doctor who is will be both vulnerable and suggesti- The sadness of society's predica- there on the scene, and the parents ble. The parents' ultimate decision ment today is not so much that we who need his guidance, can really as to the propriety of heroic try, and fail to agree on these vital feel the weight of the burden of that measures in a desperate situation issues; rather it is in fact, that agree- particular situation. And it seems to will depend upon their perception of ment is virtually impossible. Our me that as long as men of sincerity and compassion set the relief of suf- any potential handicap, their inner premises split us down the centre. resources and their external sup- The world of those who would ban fering as their goal, society should ports. They will be constantly abortion and the rest, as interfering be able to sleep peacefully. Perhaps reminded of their child, whatever with the potential for life, tamper- it is best in the ultimate to leave the outcome, whatever their social ing with God's will as they would decisions such as these to men of class and however inarticulate, for put it, has no meeting place with the this calibre, rather than to expect the remainder of their lives and the world of those who believe that this society at large to legislate in weight they feel should not be approach is a travesty of religion abstraction.I under-estimated. There needs to be and humanity, and in given tragic adequate time to consider all the situations these procedures are not ramifications and there is rarely only allowable, but right. unbearable pressure for an im- This being so it is unrealistic to in- Rabbi Simon Franses, rtrbbi. a/ G/asgow Ivew Synagogue. mediate decision to be made. What dict society, as Dr. Kovar does, as is more, if life saving measures are hypocritical. Society's inconsisten- introduced they can equally cies are merely a somewhat crude at- ILYAprefaced KOVAR'S by the sixth PAPER command- IS justifiably be withdrawn, if in the tempt to satisfy all shades of opi- ment, `Thou Shalt Not Kill', and light of events their continuation nion. Equally unrewarding, I think, a part of the Hippocratic Oath. seems merely to prolong the process is the view that would-be doctors The dilemma that he sets out in Of dying. would benefit from a course in terms of medical ethics is not only The doctor needs to be aware of moral philosophy. There are no faced by the medical profession, but his role. He is rarely responsible for answers there for the same reasons. by every one who has responsibility events. He is an unwilling messenger Witness the Warnock report - a for the wellbeing of other people ir- and an adviser. He needs to remain paradigm of clarity and elegance of respective, whether he be a consul- sensitive and pro fessi onal , style - with many recommenda- tant paediatrician or the Com- understanding though not directive, tions -but no answers. In the final mander in Chief of a country's informed, supportive and consis- analysis only self-examination and army. tent. He must speak for the child, critical conscience-searching can In a recent sermon at Menorah though the zeal with which he help us. We are thrown back on the Synagogue in Cheshire I said: `The presses his charge's case will be col- old fashioned Sartrian `existen- sixth commandment at the beginn-. oured by his knowledge of and at- tialism' to make our `choices in con- ing of the second tablet admonishes titude to the probable outcome. It is flict' and `decisions in Angst'. us, `You Shalt Not Murder'. But here, where he straddles the roles of In fact, Dr. Kovar's article is not what is the difference between com- judge and advocate, that he finds so much a plea for help, I fancy, as mitting murder or sending our himself most alohe and with least a cri-di-coeur. Suppose hypo- young men to war without firstly ex- professional and public support. thetically the law were to come ploring all possibilities of peace, not Why the doctor? What ultimate down overtly and encourage, let us for the defence of others or ter- qualification does he possess to say, intervention in the life of this ritorial integrity. The two acts are enable him to advise on such grave hapless infant. Would his problem the same for me. events? He is there; there is no one be any the less? Would he not have I have seen the war in Lebanon in else. He may indeed possess those. to wrestle still with his own cons- that light since 1982, or for that skills which enable parents to see the . cience? matter the withdrawal that takes many facets of the problem and he Perhaps a glance elsewhere might place now.

14 Manna Spring 1985 The real issue is `when do we send as from the paramedical and caring say that they appreciated and need- our children to war without us com- professions.. Decisions about who ed the ad-vice and support of in- mitting murder'. should live and who should die need formed, caring professionals. The General and the paediatrician never be made by any one individual The cases that Dr. Kovar face the same dilemma. for another, however skilled or wise describes will, unfortunately, con- Many of my colleagues as well as that person may be. tinue to arise, however good the myself have been faced with un fail- Cardiac resusci7ation units exist antenatal care. The decisions as to ing regularity with the same dilem- in hospitals and are used in medical their management should no longer mas that Ilya Kovar faces daily. emergencies. Similarly, there should be made by one doctor, however Very often we have sought advice be units or groups of people wise, compassionate and caring.I from the paediatrician or any other available in all hospitals to help pa- medical person in such cir- tients and their relatives make ap- cumstances only to find that they propriate decisions in the situations too were puzzled. that Dr. Kovar describes. These are I have felt that I was unable to ethical rather than medical emergen- Letter make the decision. The moral cies. philosophy that I studied did not Ethical committees already exist provide practical answers. in most hospitals. But they tend to scriber to A4lar##a, after reading a By turning to the medical person I be used to advise on new and IHAVE JUST BECOME A SUB- felt that not only did I need support few of the earlier issues and am previously untried treatments, or in happy to read the variety of articles, but also I required to be absolved of cases where complaints are made though many of them are outside responsibility. Ilya Kovar does not against doctors. Their terms of the more traditional mould to which require the second. As a consultant reference could be enlarged so that I am accustomed. he has taken the Hippocratic Oath each acts as a forum for the discus- But the illustration on pages 10-11 and he is prepared to subscribe to it. sion of difficult ethical problems. What he does require, however, is of your Winter 1985 issue strikes me At present, most ethical commit- moral support in his predicament as as going too far. I do not, in saying tees consist only of doctors. But well as ours. For we are living in a this, comment on the substance of they could be expanded to include hypocritical society. Lynne Reid Banks' article but only clergymen, lawyers, social workers, Legislation I do not think will on the pictures. There is a boundary help. The guidelines that such paramedical and lay people. And into genuine unpleasantness which I small groups of the committee legislation might provide might even think it crosses. could, after appropriate training, increase the dimension of Ilya There may not be too much hope , take it in turn to give advice and Kovar's dilemma. of reasoned debate on these impor- help to doctors, patients and Finally, as he says, there are no tant topics but one might at least relatives in emergency ethical situa- solutions, only questions. What we hope for some attempt to conduct tions. can do is provide moral support and and present it more reasonably and Parents looking back on incid6nts understand the predicament. To do less bitterly. where decisions were made for them less we will be failing in our duty. are often angry, resentful and L. MINKES depressed. Openness may seem to be Hong Kong painful.`at the time, but the pain is Dr. Wendy Greengross, a gyHaecofogf.sf, usually less than the anguish that ac- general practitioner and counsellor. companies helplessness. Doctors rationalise and say that Geoffrey Spyer references with arti- fair for any individual, either cle overleaf. IT IS BOTH WRONG AND UN- relatives or patients in times of crisis doctor or layman, to have to are unable or unwilling to make Isfr;widrfr- Ben-Eli;ezer: `Destruction make decisions about life and death. decisions about living and dying. and Renewal - The Synagogues Of Doctors were in the past trained They fall back on stereotypes and the Jewish Quarter' Mercaz Press, to behave as Gods and patients talk of mothers fainting and having Jerusalem 1973. tended to collude with this. hysterics, and fathers paralysed by 2 ibid. Those days have passed, and in- strong emotion, fighting back tears 3 Brian D e B reffny.. ` The creasing numbers of people demand through clenched teeth. But the Synago gue '. Weidenf eld & the right to make and take decisions truth is that most people keep their Nicholson 1978. about the outcome and quality of heads in crises. The largest number 4ibid. their own lives, even though, as pa- of people faced with a range of 5Building Design No. 478, 11 Jan tients, they sometimes may slip, unpleasant alternatives, behave sur- 1980. from fear and apprehension, into prisingly rationally and calmly. The 6Building Design No. 539, 3 Apr. obedience and unquestioning com- numbness accompanying shocking 1983. pliance. news often concentrates the mind 7Of. 1 above. Surgeons have learnt to accept the and helps in facing up to making 80rganisation Of the `Arbeitstrat fur advice of anaesthetists, and physi- difficult and unpleasant decisions. Kunst' Berlin, from a circular of the cians the advice of pathologists. The' pain, the grief and the anguish Arbeitstrat, Spring 1919, quoted in More rarely doctors are accepting tend to follow later. In retrospect, V. Conrads & H. G. Sperlich.. `Farr advice from other professionals, most are pleased that they accepted tastic Architecture', Architectural such as lawyers and clergy, as well responsibility when necessary, and Press,1963.

Manna Spring 1985 15 `Generous Budgets Produce Vulgar Shools' Why We Build Synagogues Which Lack Grace, Style, Beauty And Inspiration

describe them. For example, Brian MODERNbuildings SYNAGOGUE in the UK are By Geoffrey De Breffny, discussing modern generally very un- synagogues, appends the following distinguished and it would be dif- Spyer caption to a photograph of Hendon ficult to claim that any is of outstan- synagogue: `The genteel modernism ding architectural merit. Why of Hendon, a respectable London should there be this lack of architec- great architectural quality arising in suburb, extended to this discreet tural quality? Is it a phenomenon broadly similar circumstances as red-brick synagogue built there in peculiar to this country? Is it well as examples built by prosperous 1935'.3 He also notes that: `Post- peculiar to modern synagogues since communities. One would not war synagogue building in most there have been outstanding necessarily compare them with the European countries has usually been synagogues in the past? Why should great cathedrals of the Middle Ages modest and none of the com- a Jewish community which has con- or with the grand churches of the munities has been as ambitious as tributed considerably to the cultural Renaissance or the Baroque but they those in the United States. The St. and aesthetic life of contemporary would stand comparison with the John's Wood synagogue, London society, not least through the work smaller village or urban church even and the Liberal synagogue in of its architects, make such im- though they were less conspicuous. Amsterdam are examples' .4 An arti- poverished aesthetic statements After all, any suggestion of com- cle on a new synagogue in Dundee in when building its religious and com- petition with the religious buildings an architectural magazine is headed munal centres? of the majority community would `Discreet in Dundee'.5 In other Historically one would not expect issues of the same magazine a there to be a great tradition of description of the new Pinner synagogue building to compare with Selifeconfidence to pro- synagogue states: `But for the that of the Christian church, given absence of a cross, the design for the the persecution and resulting in- claim .their Judaism has new synagogue and community security of the majority of Jewish been absent. rooms for the Pinner Jewish con- communities since Roman times. gregation could be a church com- Shimon Ben-Eliezer, in his study of munity centre or sheltered housing. the synagogues of the Jewish have been intolerable. In the Old The design is on a domestic scale Quarter of Jerusalem, makes the City of Jerusalem, for example, the with its pitched roof and brick walls point that `aesthetic merit is not a four synagogues built by the fitting neatly into the residential set- quality one would naturally look for Sephardi community after the ex- ting.'6 This not only emphasises among the synagogues of the Old pulsion from Spain were below discretion but also raises the issue of City. Its destitute Jewish communi- street level, ostensibly to gain lof- the identity of the synagogue as a ty possessed neither the material tiness in their interiors but, in reali- synagogue. means nor the cultural traditions ty, because the Moslems objected to The problem of identity has been that would lead one to expect any synagogue which might over- another thread running through the outstanding works of art.'] This shadow a mosque. synagogue's history. There has, in could be applied to most Jewish The need to be inconspicuoris in a fact, been no such thing as an iden- communities through the ages. The generally hostile environment is a tifiable form of synagogue building. amazing thing is that sometimes, thread which runs through the The church and the mosque have despite this, a work of art did. ap- history of Jewish communities and always been immediately iden- pear. Ben-Eliezer goes on to say certainly applies to th eir tifiable irrespective of period or `Yet one of its prayer houses (Beit synagogues. It still crops up in a style. The synagogue has not. This Menachem) was a rare architectural number of commentaries on has been due not only to the need gem'.2 There are, in fac.t, many modern British synagogues where for discretion. It has as much, if not other examples of synagogues of the term `discreet' is used to more, to do with symbolic forms.

16 Manna Spring 1985 Frank Lloyd Wright design for the Beth Shalom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsyivania, 1956. View from the west.

Judaism is limited in its use of Buildings, even the most modest, in exactly the same way? When they religious symbols but this is not the are put together of elements which have developed to a point where it is reason for the lack of identity. Even combine functional and construc- possible for them to build, they have without many of the figurative sym- tional purposes with a certain sym- generally followed the pattern of bols of Christianity, the form of the bolic significance. The synagogue of assimilation into the architectural church is clearly recognisable and environment, at least in Europe. proclaims itself as a holy place. The The self-confidence to openly pro- synagogue is not a holy place in the `We have found a dilapi- claim and affirm their Judaism in same sense. the architecture of their synagogues In the foreword to Ben-Eliezer's dated house... and taken has been absent. So too` has been the study, referred to above, Rabbi M. it as a synagogue' - tradition of architectural symbolism C. Weiler writes: `It was his view which could be drawn upon. that in pure monotheism there is no Rambam The Modern Movement in ar- scope for such a notion. The term chitecture coincided with a general `hallowed places' would be far more emancipation of European Jewry appropriate than `holy places'. In after the First World War. Great Jewish tradition, the acceptance of , Florence has Jstrongly oriental inter- waves of emigration from Eastern prayer is not conditioned by the nal decoration in an otherwise Baro- Europe to the United States had place where it is offered. Yet it is que building, a very strange com- taken place before the war. In the also true that the intensity of prayer bination. Otherwise they were forc- post-war economic, political and may be heightened by the associa- ed to take what they found, both cultural turmoil, Germany became tion of a place and these associa- literally and in the forms and sym- the most influential centre for the tions may bring about a religious ex- bols of the surrounding architec- arts generally and architecture in ture. particular. German Jews were deep- perience not attainable elsewhere. " `We have found a dilapidated This poses a problem for the ly involved from the earliest days of designer of a synagogue which is house, built on marble pillars and the Modern Movement. The `Arbeitsrat fur Kunst' established in central to the whole issue. How does with a beautiful dome, and taken it he achieve the quality of hallowed as a synagogue.' Thus wrote the Berlin in 1918 had, as one of its place and express the special nature Rambam in a letter to his son leaders, Walter Gropius and Erich of Judaism in the form of the Nachman in 1267 CE. Have not .Mendelsohn was a `resident friend' , build`ing? most modern congregations started both of them eminent Jewish ar- Continued on next page

Manna Spring 1985 17

:,. Continued from page 17 Where does this leave the ques- chitects. The movement was utopian Design By tion of synagogues in this country? and socialist in outlook. A slogan of As I suggested initially, they remain the Arbeitsrat circulated in 1919 bound to the European tradition, at stated `Art shall no longer be a lux- Committee best discreet, inconspicuous, bland ury of the few but should be enjoyed and rather undistinguished, with lit- and experienced by the broad Does Not tle but the applied symbols of masses. The aim is an alliance of the Menorah or Magen David to in- arts under the wing of a great ar- Work dicate what they are. There may be chitecture.'8 Despite what Gropius other reasons. I would imagine that called `the curse of functionalism', War. One of the outstanding ex- few synagogue councils, having by the time the Modern Movement amples is the Beth Shalom taken the decision to build, would had been absorbed into the main- Synagogue in Elkins Park, Penn- first select the best available ar- stream .of architecture via the in- sylvania, built in 1956 to the designs chitect and then give him a fluence of the Bauhaus, which of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright reasonably free hand within a clear Gropius led from 1919 to 1928, and generally disliked the European brief of requirements and budget. of Le Corbusier in France, it was the modernists and their work. He was The British tendency to run pro- functionalist approach which most the son of a Unitarian minister and jects as well as everything else by closely fitted it to the utilitarian had a profound knowledge of the committee has certainly left its mark demands of society. bible. His synagogue is a marvellous on our communal organisations. The Reform. Judaism movement tent-like structure rising to a height Unfortunately, design by committee in Germany would certainly have of 115 feet over a hexagonal plan. does not work and there are numer- had a strong affinity to a func- Bruno Zevi, a renowned Italian ar- ous examples in the world of in- tionalist approach in synagogue chitect and critic has referred to it as dustry and commerce to prove the `the victory over time and space that design. Compared with the church, point. Architecture is no more the synagogue has to provide more is the architectonic incarnation of amenable to design by committee facilities than a place of prayer. It Jewish thought, all the more signifi- than an industrial product and pro- has to cater for many activities and cant because it has been realised by bably far less so. There are enough groups of varying size in its role as a a non-Jew. ' people and authorities imposed social and educational centre for the from outside involved in any community. So it was reasonable to building project as it is. By the time expect that most architects, faced `Only by a miracle do we town planners, borough engineers, with the functional requirements, local amenity groups and all the the tenets of Modernism, the lack of build beautiiful syna- other authorities have had their say, traditional symbolic forms and the gogues, the architect has to be strong to ongoing need for inconspicuous maintain whatever integrity his assimilation into the environment in design may have. An interfering societies still rife with anti-semitism, Erich Mendelsohn, mentioned synagogue building committee is not should build rather bland, above, left Germany in 1933 and likely to improve the situation. This utilitarian §ynagogues. spent some years in England and is not a frivolous attitude. If Anglo- If one adds to this the fact that Palestine before going to the United Jewry were to develop a real sense most European communities had States in 1941. He designed three of self-confidence and identity, that but limited, often minimal, funds important synagogues in Cleveland, confidence would permeat all levels for building, then it is less surprising Ohio, Grand Rapids, Michigan and of activity and committees would be that the modern synagogue should St. Paul, Minnesota. The Park confident enough to leave expert or be rather modest in its architectural Synagogue in Cleveland (1952) is in specialist decisions to the experts. pretensions. But building to a tight the form of a domed hall at one end Apart from this, there would be a and limited budget does not of a long triangular plan and is con- general atmosphere in which the ex- necessarily mean poor architecture sidered to be particularly significant ternal symbols of Judaism could be even though this is often the com- in his development of a synagogue fully developed and exploited in the plaint or excuse of the architect who style. Many other architects have forms of its synagogues. Unfor- lacks the imagination and devotion designed and are designing tunately, this begs all those ques- to make a virtue out of limitations synagogues in the United States and tions which affect the survival of and restraints. Conversely, an there is a broad concern to further Anglo-Jewry and until they are unlimited budget js no guarantee of develop a recognisable synagogue resolved it may only be by the occa- a great work of architecture and one form. It would seem that the self- sional miracle that we build a really can point to more than one confidence and prosperity of beautiful synagogue. . synagogue in this country where an American Jewish communities has obviously generous budget has pro- enabled them to escape from the in- duced a building of vulgar preten- hibiting restraints of European Geoffrey Spyer RIBA AA. Dipl FSIAD sions rather than real quality. Jewry even to the extent of en- SA:DG was born in London in 1930. He has worked in Denmark and West Africa as well Synagogues which are great couraging their architects to begin as in the UK. He is currently practising in works of architecture have been to develop the forms and identity North London and is a lecturer and head of built in the United States, par- for their synagogues so long denied Postgraduate Studies in Interior Design at ticularly since the Second World •to Judaism elsewhere. Middlesex Polytechnic.

18 Manna Spring 1985 When God Goes Into Exile... Revolutionar!/ Message From Hasidic Sage tl»

l73t]b lrili tj;`ilp,i nil i.`¢.nt> }p] ati,i iiit},i iDt] E]iir] n],ii '.9 .yi tj.+`7) pni,i Ri". iz]j jJJ.j ii}N ]ipm} iuiDR .x inij7# r``]] Ni,ic;'j it#,i t.b`bj .n.]n •]D5 R]} ii]H i]txbt iDj i] it+Di{ ,n¥i..# .» 7j i`bR ]ipm} }Ji. th.t. .iii]

r\ib}] Di`n ij .lay i]ibi i`!9} *i]t +i]7 i7t}' pi]iD] iii]i ,irij}b r``]] it73n ]ixb iim ij] .i}¥R tjiw`i lay nii`t;` lib .tx ,i''] .''.t`,i liipi]i] ]t;.ritl Dixhu.j i`#.i`.7 iititpz) }] ,ivtyi pi ,Jm i]bb ii5i xt¢` ti5] t''m nixn,i Tb lb`jy pri-,n..b.

.yih pHm ,i}¥x i9i.I..t` .#z3 i"i T].t`# pniH inti .'ni

`Keep far from an evil neighbour until his own death, Reb Dov Baer - Sfeoche# -' (literally `Keep far Bv Lany Tabick was the sole leader of the Hasidic from a neighbour-evil' Avot 1:7). movement. During these years he The explanation is that nowadays, gathered around himself, in Mezrit- during the period of the exile, it is Shem Tov. Modern scholarship sug- ch, a whole galaxy of future Hasidic easier to attain to the holy spirit gests that the two men should be luminaries, including R. Levi Isaac than it was when the Temple stood. considered of equal rank. Indeed R. of Berditchev, R. Elimelech of To give an analogy: A King in his Dov Baer might be termed the se- Lizhensk and his brother R. Zusya palace cannot be approached at all, cond founder of Hasidism. He was of Hanipol, and R. Shneur Zalman as he could be if he were travelling. certainly the organiser of Hasidic of the Cfeaz7crd (Lubavitch) branch `missions' throughout Eastern For then anyone who wishes can ap- of Hasidism. proach him, even a peasant who Europe, and the major theoretician Like the Baal Shem Tov, the would not have been thought wor- of the movement. Great Maggid wrote no books. In- thy to come before the King in his The precise date of the Maggid's stead, a few of his disciples collected palace. But while the King is travell- birth i,s unknown, though it was ear- his discourses into a number of an- ing, staying at an inn, anyone can ly in the eighteenth century. His up- thologies. The most famous of these come before him and speak to him. bringing was of a traditional or- ls entitled Maggid Devarav Le Thus, nowadays, during the exile, thodox type, and his education con- ya'akov - He Tells His Words to when a person cleaves to God in sisted of talmudic and k;bbalistic Jacob, Ps.147:19 -the final letters thought, He immediately abides and studies at a well-known );esfej.War. As of these Hebrew words spell out dwells - SAocAe# - with him. a young man, he had already achiev- Dov,. Therefore it is fitting for a person to ed a considerable reputation as a This work was compiled by keep himself far from desires and talmudic scholar, kabbalist, Solomon of Lutzk, and published in extraneous thoughts, in order not to preacher, and ascetic. It was this 1781. It is the source of our opening be separated from God. Rather he asceticism that, according to parable. should perform all his deeds for His Hasidic tales, led him to seek out the The Maggid was famous for his sake. This is the meaning of the Baal Shem Tov. Made ill by ex- parables, and this is perhaps one of phrase from Avot quoted above: cessive fasting, he went to R. Eliezer his best. In common with other Keep evil far from the One who for a cure. The Baal Shem did not discourses, it opens with a quota- dwells -S„oche# -with you'.I turn Dov Baer from his ascetic path, tion, in this case from rabbinic Maggid Devarav LeYa'akov but he did teach him how to study literature, and closes with a re- `with soul', that is with religious fer- interpretation of the opening vour, and not simply with intellec- phrase. In the process, the quota- tual prowess. The preacher, legend tion is reshaped and made to serve a HASIDICcords that LEGEND Rabbi Dov RE-Baer, says, had become a disciple. new purpose. Within the framework known as the Maggid When the Baal Shem Tov died, on provided by the quote and its (Preacher) of Mezritch, in the Shavuot 1760, it was to the Great reworking, the parable is introduced Ukraine, was the foremost successor Maggid, as he came to be known, and expounded. of the founder of the Hasidic move- that many of his disciples turned for In its ideas this passage is in some ment, R. Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal guidance. For the next twelve years, ways quite remarkable, not to say

Manna Spring 1985 19 Continued from page 19 revolutionary. The Mezritcher has Our Man Front made use of the ancient image of the exile of the Shechinah - God's presence - from the Temple. While the S*echi.#ch is not specifically mentioned, the three-fold repetition of the root s„-cj-#, `t`o dwell' , clear- ly alludes to it. The notion of God's presence going into exile with the destruction of the Temple stems from the biblical book of Ezekiel (11:23), and can be traced through rabbinic and kabbalistic literature. But prior to this time, it was nearly always seen as a national or cosmic tragedy. The Maggid saw it as an opportunity. According to rabbinic tradition embodied in the Talmud, prophecy ceased with the destruction of the Temple. But the Maggid insists that since that event, prophecy, or at least a lesser form of it, namely the holy spirit is actually easier to Segfportrait achieve, and therefore more likely. God is somehow more accessible as HARLES FRONT, ONE OF colo. This is believed to be the first a result of exile. No doubt, Dov our regular and most valued paperback Bible for children. Baer wished in this way to offer C contributors, is a free-lance Since then he has illustrated justification for the Hasidic em- illustrator and designer with an numerous books for a variety of phasis on attaining ecstacy and enthusiasm for calligraphy. publishers.-He also works for televi- detjekwf, attachment to God. Although born in London, his sion and has often received commis- Dcvekwf is achieved, according to formal art training began at Nor- sions from Jackanory, Play School the Maggid, in thought, by con- thampton School of Art where he and Aquarius. His drawings have stantly thinking of God. The desire was evacuated during the last war. appeared in many journals in- for other, lesser things of this world, After his family's return to Lon- cluding Radio Times and TV Times. and indeed any extraneous thought, don, he continued his studies, at the He has taught at many London serves only to separate a person South East Essex Technical College, Art Colleges, lecturing in Life- from God. This means that one where after four years he was Drawing, Advertising, Graphic must think of God before, during awarded the National Diploma in Design, Lettering and Illustration. and after every act, thereby doing it Art and Design. He has exhibited at the ICA for God's sake, rather than one's He went on to the. Slade School of Gallery, the Victoria and Albert own. Here, the impetus to be good Fine Art, University College, Lon- Museum, the Ben-Uri Gallery, the derives not from fear of divine don. There he studied drawing, Playhouse Gallery, Harlow, and in punishment or society's displeasure, painting and illustration for three travelling exhibitions in Canada and but from the wish to maintain the years. Japan. Another one-man show is connection with the divine in one's Having gained his Diploma in currently in preparation. thoughts. Fine Art, he spent the next two years He particularly enjoys collaborat- Above all, in this parable, the on National Service in England and ing with his wife on picture books Maggid has shifted the emphasis in Germany with the Royal Army Pay for children. Their most recent is religion away from an objective Corps. `The Scary Book' to be published in God, `out there', outside of After that followed twelve years June by Andre Deutsch. ourselves, to a subjective God, God as an Art Director with various Lon- The Fronts live in London with within. The Temple, that external don advertising agencies. During their two children. They belong to manifestation of service to God this period he married his wife South-West Essex Reform Syna- gives way before the internal service Sheila, and was commissioned to gogue and are active members of the of thought. In our age, when the illustrate his first book, "A Child's Manor House Society. I physical and social sciences have Bible", currently published by Pie- tended to banish the objective God from our world-view, we need once again to establish contact with the We need to distinguish between the Rabbi Larry Tabick, 4ssr.sta#/ A4fHisfer af subjective God that dwells within holy spirit and our extraneous Middlesex New Synagogue, London, was us. At the same time, we need to thoughts. We need to hear anew the born in Brooklyn in 1947. A specialist in the avoid the trap of thinking whatever message of R. Dov Baer, the Mag- work Of Pinchas of Koretz, Rabbi Tabick is a comes from within us must be good. gid of Mezritch. . graduate of Leo Baeck College.

20 Manna Spring 1985 I confess to being disappointed, Israelis, he would be across the road but not sufficiently so to do any- watching England play Australia in thing about it. That probably sums a Test match. up the reaction of most people, lay However, one thing about Rabbi and rabbinic, in the two Harris does puzzle me. Although movements. And it explains why a •determined, organised minority can our synagogues are near enough to say Kaddish in one a[nd en3ey Kid- always impose its will on the c7c/sfe in the other, our paths never GOLDBERG apathetic majority. If you want to cross. A few years ago we both at- understand how the far left has hi- tended some lectures at Jews Col- jacked local Labour constituencies, lege by that great Midrash teacher. after all, unless the RSGB and then study the history of the merger Dr. Irvine Jacobs. Since then, I have S 0 MERGERULPS Councils IS NOT reject TOthe joint BE negotiations. Once Jerome Karet sat on a panel at his Synagogue recommendation of their respective stepped down as RSGB Chairman, when he was not present, and he has Executives; as unlikely one would no-one emerged on either side as sat on a panel at his Synagogue think, as enough Tory backbenchers committed to merger, as you-know- when I was not present, at which he voting against the bill to abolish the who from Edgware and his follow- referred to me as `his good friend', GLC. ers were opposed to it. before attacking my views. In the long run, neither RSGB nor Otherwise, nothing, and I would. ULPS will gain from this failure to suspect that John Rayner's experi- Letter establish a single Progressive move- ence has been similar. Why then, ment in the U.K. The ULPS will should the Imam of the Regent's hold on to its substantial resources, Park Mosque inform me recently rather than utilising them for the that he had met Rabbi Cyril Harris, life-long student of English Lit- IAM AN EX-TEACHER AND A further development of the Manor who told him that Rabbis Goldberg erature. House complex. The bureaucrats 'and Rayner were his `good friends'? I think that certain people are so will busily unveil new initiatives Maybe this is the riltimate example absorbed in pandering and making which duplicate each other. of absence making the heart grow things seem more `meaningful' that The RSGB will continue in its ever fonder.I all they do is to distort meaning delusion that tinkering with the whilst .destroying beauty and poetry. rituals of traditional Judaism can On browsing through the Antho- achieve that legitimacy it so craves HE FACT THAT A logy and Psalm sections in our Sid- from Orthodoxy, while the ULPS` `T clergyman was concerned dun, I was appalled once again at the will continue in its delusion that in- added to the interest ... his rendering of the 23rd Psalm as an voking the memories of Claude obvious delight in the publicity ac- example; Montefiore and Lily Montagu con- `He leadeth me beside the still corded him ensured that the Court's stitutes a current policy. As so often proceedings should be lengthy and waters' has been altered to: in the relationships between organi- `He takes me to the quiet colourful ... Wearing ill-fitting sations supposedly dedicated to evening dress he ... made a short streams'. religious ideals, short-sightedness `Thou anointest my head with oil' speech about the wrongs he had suf- has triumphed over vision, particu- fered and then gave a recitation, to: larism over unity. The Orthodox `You soothe my head with oil'. usually humorous, of a type once must be breathing a sigh of happy popular at amateur concerts, but T. S. Eliot in part two of `East relief . I now seldom heard' . Coker' from the Fog/r Q#arrfets says: `Leaving me still with the intoler- Surely Rabbi Clifford Cohen, who sued Southgate for wrongful able wrestle round of Orthodox-Progressive dismissal? Or perhaps Rabbi Sim- With words and meanings'. IN TIIE MOST RECENT cha Lieberman who will be doing polemics it was Rabbi Cyril He later goes on to explain that the same to Jews' College? No, but even the struggle itself is valuable, Harris of St. John's Wood who came forward as their Knight of the dismissed vicar of Stiffkey, as helping people to understand and described by Malcolm Muggeridge remember. Do they have to under- single combat. But I refuse to speak ill of Rabbi Harris. You see, like in his book about the Thirties in stand every single word? Great Britain. As the wise preacher I know that the new Machzor is me, he is mad about cricket. I recall inviting him a couple of years ago to said, "There is nothing new u.nder almost ready for distribution and the sun! ' ' I this is a little like locking the stable a morning meeting at the LJS about door after the horse has bolted but Israel.. The. date was for three the problem will crop up again. months ahead, but he promptly de- I wonder if any of your other clined, pleading a prior commit- readers think and feel the same way ment. My admiration for him rose 'about this matter? tenfold when the day of the meeting dawned and I realised to my chagrin ESTHER BERGNER David Goldbel.g 7.s Assoc;.are jtabbi. a/ fAe that while I was to be closeted in- Liberal Jewish Synagogue and a former Ben Winchmore Hill, doors with some uncomprehending Azai columnist on the Jewish Chronicle. London N21 1JH.

21 Lm The Manor House inmrJ-|iifit-"- Society The Manor House Society is an ambitious cultural venture. Its aim is to bring a wide range of Jewish cultural and intellectual events of a high level within easy reach of a large audience. Regular activities include concerts, debates, exhibitions, drama, seminars and lectures. Membership of the Society gives easy access to the many amenities of the Manor House Centre for Judaism, the largest Jewish centre in Europe. These facilities include a bookshop, library, coffee-shop, extensive grounds and tennis courts. Membership also brings advance information about events, priority booking and ticket discounts and automatic subscription to Manna. Membership can be on either an individual or family basis. Subscriptions are modest: Single membership £8 per annum Family membership £12 per annum Senior citizen/student single £6 per annum Senior citizens - family £8 per annum Existing subscribers to Manna may deduct the unexpired portion of their subscription from the Manor House Society subscription.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Sunday 5th May, 7.30 p.in. A Gala Evening with THE ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Mendelssohn : Haydn : Bloch : Tchaikovsky followed by a Reception to meet the Conductor Geoffrey Simon and the Soloist Raphael Wallfisch June -Date to be notified An Evening of Advice and Agony with Anna Raeburn and Dr. Wendy Greengross Sunday 14th July, 8.00 p.in. Recital Vivienne Bellos. -Soprano Alexander Knapp -Piano Sunday 25th August to Friday 30th August Summer Music Course A non-residential week of musical study and pleasure Wednesday 18th September, 8.00 p.in, High Holy Days Debate Speakers will include - Rt. Hon. Lord Young, Minister Without Portfolio Sunday 20th October, 7.30 p.in An Evening with Maureen Lipman Sunday loth November to Sunday 24th November An Exhibition of Sculpture by Jacqueline King-Cline running concurrently with Sunday 17th November to Sunday 24th November Manor House Society BOOK FAIR There will be literary events each evening during this eight day period and events for children as well. Brochure and member:hip application form from: Manor House Sociel:y, Sternberg Centre for Judaism, The Manor House, 80 East End Road, Finchley, London N3 2SY

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