The Jewish Times

              THE BOSTON
JEWISH TIMES Write the vision and make it plain upon tables.
HABAKKUK2 2
VOL. XLII, NO. 40
THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1987
12 TAMMUZ 5747
TWENTY-FIVE CENTS
Israelis And Americans
Differ On Super Plane
By Susan Bloch
BOSTON The conflict over
Israel's national pride in its
super-sophisticated Lavi fighter,
jet and the enormous cost of
continuing its development
reached new heights last week.
While the Israeli Cabinet was
debating the issue, several
thousand employees of the Israel
Aircraft Industry demonstrated
outside the prime minister's
office.
Earlier last week, Defense
Minister Yitzhak Rabin made a
hurried, low-profile trip to
Washington    to    discuss   the
plane's future with U.S.
Secretary of Defense Caspar
Weinberger.
At issue for the politicians in
Israel is the loss of thousands of
jobs and the resultant economic
problems which would ensue if
the project were abandoned. In
an election year, the collective
voice of the workers will make
itself heard at the polls.
The Cabinet has been unable
to make a decision, although the
Israeli military has recommen-
ded the Lavi be scrapped. The
army fears production costs will
be so high that billions will be
diverted from the development
Who Is A Jew Redux
By Samuel Seidner
JERUSALEM � The
symbolic wedge that has been
lodged between Israel and the
bulk of American Jewry is about
to receive another hammer blow
here and many observers feel the
log is about to splinter.
Orthodox interests in Israel
have tried to amend the Law of
Return for some years. Their
goal is to administer conversions
to Judaism, a growing
phenomenon in the Diaspora.
There were an estimated 10,000
conversions to Judaism in the
United States alone last year.
Some Orthodox rabbis feel
that these conversions are legally
imperfect because they were
performed by Reform and
Conservative ratfbis in the
United States who don't comply
with halachic strictures. As a
result, there is a rapidly growing
population of young people who
regard themselves as Jewish, but
have questionable lineage as far
as the rabbinate of the State of
Israel is concerned.
Thus far, there has been only a
handful of converted Jews who
have presented themselves to
Israel as new immigrants under
the Law of Return. One of the
most prominent has been
Shoshana Miller, a Reform
convert from Colorado whose
case erupted onto the frontpages
of Israeli newspapers when the
then Minister ot the Interior,
Yitzhak Peretz, resigned rather
than allow her application for
Israeli citizenship. Ms. Miller
later returned to America where
she now serves as a cantor at a
Denver temple. The Orthodox
strategy, originally devised by
the Lubavitch movement, was to
amend the Law of Return,
attaching the phrase according
to halacha to the sentence
referring to converts. This
required a Knesset vote, of
course, and the motion has been
defeated three times, but by
margins sufficiently narrow to
encourage further attempts.
Now, the issue is apparently
headed toward another
showdown; this time the
outcome will be more influenced
by internal Israeli politics than
ever before. Many feel tne
amendment will pass despite the
anguished protests of American
and international Jewish
organizations.
Strangely, it is the Labor
Party's initiative for an
international peace conference
that is the catalyst for another
debate in the Knesset on the
status of converts. The Labor
Party, under the leadership of
Shimon Peres, favors a peace
summit. The Likud Party, under
Yitzhak Shamir, opposes it. To
overcome opposition from
Likud, Labor has endeavored to
bring   down   the   government,
See Who Jew page 7
What's That About Fraternite?
' JERUSALEM - Mayor Teddy Kolek will not attend the
Bastille Day celebration of the French government this year,
according to Israeli daily Maariv. The reason is that two
separate celebrations, one for Arabs and one for Jews, are
being planned in honor of the occassion. The Arab
celebration will be held at the French consulate in East
Jerusalem. The Jewish celebration will be held at the Alliance
Francaise in West Jerusalem.
of other essential weapons.
The IAI has said it would cost
over $1 billion in indemnifica-
tion fees to suppliers and
subcontractors if the project is
curtailed. The treasury ministry,
however, estimates that
abandonment would cost only
$400 million.
In Washington, State
Department spokesman Charles
Redman said, "We've made it
clear that the United States has
serious concern over the cost of
continuing the Lavi and the
effect such cost would have on
our ongoing security assistance
program for Israel."
Against this backdrop, Rabin
met with Weinberger, who is
reported to have said that the
United States would do its best
to    compensate   Israel   for
scrapping the Lavi. Rabin
reportedly asked for approval to
purchase 100 of America's most
advanced fighter plane, the F-
16C, "off the shelf," which
means at the rate charged NATO
countries. Informed sources said
that Weinberger was prepared to
consider the proposal as well as
increasing U.S. military aid to
Israel to cover the estimated
$400 million to abandon the
project.
Another alternative which
Weinberger reportedly said
"would not be excluded," is the
possibility that the Lavi would
be built in the United States with
Israel providing component
parts. It is the avionics of the
Lavi which make it such a
sophisticated and advanced
weapons system. The American
military establishment is said to
be very interested in Israel's
avionic technology.
Foreign Minister Peres, who
has spoken in favor of
continuing the Lavi project, is
reported to have suggested that
Israel look to "private sources"
to help in the funding. This is
interpreted to mean seeking
support from some of the
ancillary companies that are
involved in the production.
An editorial in the
Intermountain Jewish News
suggested an original approach:
appeal to Diaspora Jews to fund
the new plane. The paper argues
that "The Lavi is not just the
Lavi. The Lavi is Israel's chance
to prove to itself that it can
employ all those Jewish minds
See Super Plane page 7
Judaism Takes Center Stage
At Protestant Confabs
By Samuel Seidner
BOSTON � Jews had a
pretty good month in June,
batting two for three in the
Christian Theological League.
The United Church of Christ,
a major Protestant group with
about 1.7 million members,
passed a declaration which
affirmed the validity of Judaism.
This motion, the most positive
and unambiguous ever passed by
a Christian sect in America, put
Judaism on an equal theological
footing with Christianity.
There are ten important
Protestant denominations in the
United States. The United
Church of Christ is numbered
among the ten. The group does
extensive missionary work in the
Middle East, including the West
Bank area occupied by Israel.
In addition to passing the
declaration at a regular
scheduled meeting in Cleveland,
Ohio, the group adopted a
working document regarding
Jews. The paper calls for
churches, educators and
seminaries to "(re)-examine and
(re)-evaluate the image of Jews,
Judaism and the State of Israel."
Most commentators on
interfaith relations regard the
declaration by the United
Church of Christ as a "home
run."
In Biloxi, Mississippi, the
United Presbyterian Church
beat off a bitter pro-Palestinian
faction and issued a "special
report" on Jews called "A
Theological   Understanding  of
the   Relationship   Between
Christians and Jews."
The Church, which is the fifth
largest Protestant denomination
i Statement By
[United Church Of
i Christ On Jews
We in the United Church of
i Christ acknowledge that the
|Christian   Church   has,
| throughout   much    of   its
history,   denied   God's
continuing   covenantal
relationship with the Jewish
people expressed in the faith
of Judaism. This denial has
often led to outright rejection
of the Jewish people and to
theologically   and   humanly I
intolerable violence.
Faced   with   this   history
from which we as Christians
cannot,   and   must   not,
\ disassociate ourselves, we ask
for God's forgiveness through i
I our Lord Jesus Christ. We \
pray for divine grace that will ;
enable us, more firmly than
ever before, to turn from this
path   of   rejection   and
persecution   to   affirm   that
Judaism    has   not   been
superseded  by   Christianity;
that Christianity is not to be
understood as the successor
religion   to  Judaism;  God's
covenant   with   the   Jewish
people    has    not    been
abrogated.    God   has   not
rejected the Jewish people; \
God   is faithful  in  keeping j
covenant.                              I
in the United States with about
3.1 million members, invested
six years in preparing a policy
statement about Jews. Then, in
protracted debate at the Biloxi
annual meeting, the statement
was watered down to be
acceptable to critics of whom
there were many.
A reference to Israel in the
original paper spoke of "the
irrevocability of God's promise
of land to the people of Israel."
That was changed to say "The
State of Israel is a geopolitical
entity and is not to be validated
theologically." Nevertheless,
the statement condemned anti-
Semitism and those Christian-
linked movements which preach
"a theology of racial purity, anti-
Semitism and violent overthrow
of the government in the name of
Jesus Christ."
One Jewish veteran of the
interfaith wars said the United
Presbyterian Church's statement
had "potential." For Jews it was
a infield single.
The Rev. Bailey Smith, a
former president of the Southern
Baptist Convention, has a
theological problem with Jews.
His 1980 comment that "God
Almighty doesn't hear the prayer
of a Jew," has already
immortalized him in the
Theological Hall of Fame.
Last month, while addressing
the Conference of Southern
Baptist Evangelists in St. Louis,
Rev. Smith again turned his
attention to Jews. "Unless they
repent and get born again, they
See Center Stage page 7