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T - p es · oo many of our chaveirim walking around with a stomach and an empty It's a situation that can be ied with one easy gesture: lace an order for this very ble electronic treadmill and rn Torah while you exercise lk for an hour. Peel off extra pounds, increase your olism, and add years to your cal and spiritual health! you will truly be "ameilim just $360.00 (plus $60.00 for ng) and $30.00 per month .rah tapes, you will receive o Horse-Power Motor, Treadmill and you will ea member of our Dal Yomi I-the-month club. Each , you will receive 30 tapes r favorite Mesechta for only . Please indicate which hta you would like to start nd send your check for 0 to: Products and · 'ces, Inc. ilshire Boulevard, Suite 155, ngeles, California 90036 l: 1-800-752-5615 Teves 5757 •January 1997 THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021 ~6615 is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 84 Wilfiam Street, New York, N. Y. 10038. Second class postage paid in New York, N. Y. Subscription $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 84 William Street, N.Y., N.Y. 10038. Tel; 212-797-9000, Fax: 212-269-2843. Printed in the U.S.A. 6 RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR Peace Begins at Home, Shmuel Schnitzer EDITORIAL SOARD DR. ERNST L BODENHEIMER 8 Chairman Reflections: One Year Later, Dr.Aaron Twerski RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FRIEDENSON RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN 12 Who Took the "Jewish" Out of Jewish Music?, David Sears MANAGEMENT SOARO AVI FISHOF NAFTOLI HIRSCH ISAAC KIRZNER 18 RABBI SHLOMO LESIN The One-Minute Kiruv Person, Yoakov Astor NACHUM STEIN RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING 23 Business Manager From Dave to Dave, Hanoch Teller Published by Agudath Israel of America 28 RABBI MOSHE SHERER PRESIDENT Intensive Reflections, Ephraim Milch U.S. TRADE DISffii8UTOR N.echemia Rosenberg Feldheim Publlshers K1ryat Telshe Stone, 10SA 33 200 Airport Executive Park D.N. Hare·1 Yehuda, ISRAEL Spring Valley. N.Y. 10977 Confessions of a Gemach'nik, Avroham Ellis AUSTRAUAN DISTRIBUTOR EUROPEAN REPRESENTATIVE Gold's Book & Gitt Co. M. T. Bibelman 36 William Streel 36 Grosvenor Works Balaclava 3183. Vic., Mount Pleasant Hill AUSTRALIA READERS' FORUM London ES 9NE, ENGLAND American Jews Without Torah: Where Are They Heading? ISRAEU DISTRIBUTOR THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not 43 assume responsibility for the Kashrus BOOKS IN REVIEW of any product, publication, or service Faith at the Brink, Dr David Kranzler advertised in its pages ©Copyright 1997 Counterfeit Lives, Helaine D. Wolp1n 44 JANUARY 1997 VOLUME XX!X/NO. 10 LETTERS TO THE EOITOR 46 SECOND LOOKS The Shabbos the Rabbi Stayed Home Shmuel Schnitzer .. l'-<:i r ,,,/,,. .1i(f{J~. ~ ~. ...=;~ li1 FALLOUT FROM entertain the notion of classifying THE COMMISSION'S REPORT human beings by the criteria of whether • they are non-vegetarians, or according r. Tzameret's f someone thought that appointing to their identification as non-socialists? a commission to clarify the issue of Dcomment For the State of Israel to remain a I the Sabbath traffic on Bar-Ilan Street Jewish state, its Jewish majority must be would contribute to a relief of tension encouraged those who preserved. But the attempt to examine and a mitigation of dissent, he under­ the political orientation of this major­ estimated the Israeli passion for con­ reject religion and its ity and to issue a "certificate of kashrus" troversy. The commission produced no practitioners to plan only to those whose Zionism is beyond more than an additional document to the shadow of a doubt, entails an inva· argue about. A proposal for reasonable intelligently on how to sion of privacy and freedom one would compromise has certainly not emerged associate with a totalitarian state, not from the commission's findings. limit the increase in with a country where rights are not lim­ At best, the Tzameret Commission ited only to those who subscribe to polit­ report brought the conflict back to its Jerusalem's Chareidi ically correct views. previous impasse: the proposal to stop population (of course, vehicular traffic in the street at prayer THE DIFFERENCES AMONG THE hours. But a comment made by the no one resents the VARIOUS "NON-ZIONISTS" chairman of the commission when it had completed its work "ruined the pud­ increase of the Arabs). r. Tzameret's comment encour­ ding;' creating another bitter dispute­ aged those who reject religion no less acriminious than the contents of Dand its practitioners to plan the report itself. His remark? That in a • intelligently on how to limit the increase matter of a few years, five-eighths of the and raises children and grandchildren in Jerusalem's Chareidi population (of residents ofjerusalem will be non-Zion· there less Zionist than a Jew who lives course, no one resents the increase of the ists: Chareidim (devout Jews) and Arabs. in the Diaspora, loves Zion from afar Arabs): Perhaps the answer lies in I do not know the criteria by which while paying the concept lip service, yet denying them housing, or withholding one determines who is a Zionist and doesn't. even think of making Zion his from them ways to earn a living ... or to who is not. Is a person who lives in Zion permanent residence? What do the thwart their flourishing in other ways, Chareidim and the Arabs think of being so that they will look for alternative Shmuel Schnitzer is editor of Maariv, Israel's linked together to share the negative cat· housing outside of Jerusalem. prestigious daily newspaper egory of non-Zionists? Would one even Those who lump the Chareidim and 6 The Jewish Observer, January 1997 the Arabs under one negative rubric a state of diversity, a mix oflifestyles, and betray a lack of love for both these com­ a variety of political and religious out­ • looks. It is hard to decide which of the munities. Moreover, they reveal some­ he Chiloniim must thing defective in their Ahavas Yisroel­ two sides is more severely affected with love of fellow Jews, especially in that Tunderstand that it the intolerance syndrome. They will instinctive sense of solidarity and mutu­ never reach a compromise if they will al care, which is the most beautiful was not secularism that not come to understand that the honor expression of Ahavas Yisroel. and the right to be a Jew does not expire. An Arab is not a Zionist because Bretz preserved the Jewish Chareidim feel obligated to rebuke Yisroel for him is only one of many nation throughout its the transgressors, but they must-and countries that the Islam warriors con­ can-understand that rebuke has its quered in their first campaign against exile, and that a Rabbi limits, and coercion lies beyond those "the infidels." He was not exiled from limits. this country two thousand years ago, as deserves at least as The Chiloniim, on the other hand, we were, and he has no need to return must understand that it was not secu­ and rebuild his national existence in it. much respect as a larism that preserved the Jewish nation By contrast, a Chareidi is not a Christian or Moslem throughout its exile, and that a Rabbi Zionist because a Zionist, in his eyes, has deserves at least as much respect as a strayed from the proper Jewish path; clergyman, and Christian or Moslem clergyman, and also, a Zionist, among other things, does perhaps even a little more. When both not count non-Zionists among his perhaps even a little sides will learn to conduct themselves brothers with whom he is inextricably with restraint when encountering linked in a covenant oflove and a bond more. brothers who maintain different of mutual responsibility.