Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 44, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 19, 1990 Page: 3 of 24
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IN OUR 44TH YEAR! — THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1990, TEXAS JEWISH POST 3 FCOtUtOS
Shul Politics Mixes With Popular Concerts As
Cantors Meet With Opposition During Tour
By Ruben E. Vis
(Copyright 1990, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
— AMSTERDAM
-I The Wiener Founda-
tion’s annual concert tour
brings some of the world’s
greatest cantorial voices
to Jewish communities in
Eastern and Western
Europe.
In the East, the audi-
ences, though mostly
lacking a deep Jewish
background, have been
enthralled.
But when Flaim Wiener,
chairman of the founda-
tion that bears his name,
decided this year to in-
clude Amsterdam on the
itinerary, he did not reckon
with certain local preju-
dices.
While the concerts were
immensely successful, pet-
tiness and cultural chau-
vinism emerged at local
synagogues, where it had
been arranged that some
of the visiting cantors
would conduct regular
services.
Hundreds of Jews
walked for miles Friday
evening and Saturday to
hear the fabulous voices
of Ben-Zion Miller, David
Bagley and others fresh
from their concerts in
Hungary.
But Bagley was black-
listed before he landed at
Amsterdam’s airport.
Because he was
“suspected” of of-
ficiating at one of Toron-
to’s Conservative syna-
gogues, he was not to be
allowed to participate in
services at Amsterdam’s
Orthodox synagogue.
“Do they know me?”
asked the angered and
deeply hurt Bagley, son of
an Orthodox rabbi in pre-
war Poland. “Do they
know I sit and study every
day?”
At his performance in
concert the following
evening, Bagley demon-
strated a marvelous blend
of melody and interpreta-
tion of the text.
His replacement at
Friday night’s services in
the Orthodox shul was the
Israeli army’s chief can-
tor, Arie Braun.
Braun’s performance
was beautiful and in-
spiring, but there were
complaints when several
members of the Orthodox
congregation, led by the
Torah reader, objected to
his accent.
“In our shul, it’s the
rule that the chazan leads
the service using the Ash-
kenazi pronunciation,”
they explained. “We
don’t want anybody Con-
servative, or not praying
in the Ashkenazi way.”
Braun, an Israeli, used the
modern Hebrew pronunci-
ation.
Contrary to agreements
reached among the can-
tors themselves, Chaim
Adler of Congregation
Beth Avraham in Toronto
officiated at the Shacharit
service.
For the audience in the
shul it didn’t really matter.
They enjoyed hearing him
sing together with the
others, forming a choir
conducted by Cantor
Daniel Gildar.
Only the disappointed
Bagley refused to par-
ticipate.
The board of the Am-
sterdam Jewish Com-
munity embarrassed the
Federation of Jewish Com-
munities, which hosted
the visit, by refusing to
allow Ben-Zion Miller to
sing his blessing of the
New Moon in the Musaf
service.
At issue was not a mat-
ter of accent or degree of
Orthodoxy, but of terri-
torial rights — the board
insisted that Amsterdam’s
chief cantor, Hans
Bloemendal, lead the
Musaf service.
Bloemendal, 70, has a
sweet but thin, not very
powerful voice, which is
showing his age. He
couldn’t compete with
giants like Miller, whose
voice can easily fill a shul,
or Braun, whose resound-
ing notes electrify any
memorial service at the
Western Wall.
“What a difference
from Eastern Europe,”
sighed Alberto Mizrahi,
the youngest chazan on
the tour. Only a few days
before, Mizrahi was over-
joyed to be in Amsterdam
because “being too long
in Eastern Europe makes
you feel depressed.”
Now he recalled that
“wherever we went (in
Eastern Europe), people
were so happy to have us
in their concert halls as
well as in their shuls. In
Warsaw last week, Isaac
Goodfriend and Chaim
Adler led the services and
people got so emotional,
it was unbelievable.”
The Eastern European
segment of the tour, spon-
sored by the Wiener
Foundation’s American
Society for the Advance-
ment of Cantorial Arts,
was taped by CBS for
broadcast on “Sunday
Morning With Charles
Kuralt” on April 8. Clips
of the memorial service on
the grounds of the former
Majdanek death camp
were also taped, as well as
recordings made in Buda-
pest, where the cantors
performed with the
Hungarian Opera Sym-
phony Orchestra.
The Wiener Founda-
tion operates a school for
chazzanut in Tel Aviv in
collaboration with the Tel
Aviv municipality and the
Great Synagogue in
Jerusalem, and conducts a
similar institute in
Moscow.
The performance part is
achieved by inviting the
world’s most distinguished
cantors on tour.
“Every year, another
combination of cantors
performs,” Haim Wiener
explained. But “we want
to promote the cantorial
art, not the cantor,” he
added.
le Drews
continued from page 2
riss, director of public affairs
for Agudath Israel of Amer-
ica. “The fact that somebody
practices Judaism doesn’t
make them Jewish. Even if
it’s a second generation.
What is the claim based on?”
A spokesman for the Israeli
consulate responded similar-
ly: "The only criteria we can
rely on is birth certification,
which should mention that
the mother is Jewish. It’s the
same principle that’s applied
to the recent Soviet immigra-
tion.”
The failure of the Jewish
“establishment” to reach
some kind of understanding
with black leaders has fos-
tered resentment.
“They want us to go
Through conversions,” com-
plains Rabbi W'hite. “But
we’re already Hebrews.”
As a result of these differ-
ences, the blacks formed their
own rabbinate council to or-
dain their leaders. And
they’ve adopted an “equal,
but separate” mentality.
For instance, Rabbi White’s
congregants always make a
point of referring to them-
selves as Hebrews or Israel-
ites. This, they feel, allows
them to stress their black
culture and African roots.
Jews, so the story goes, have
a European or Arabic back-
ground, making them very
different, even if they are
practicing the same religion.
As Rabbi White likes to
note, only one of the 12 tribes
was called Yehuda, from
which the word Jew is de-
rived. Such arguments, if you
stop to think about it, turn
many assumptions on their
heads.
The African connection, as
one might imagine, is a sub-
ject of great debate. Rabbi
White and his colleagues else-
where maintain that their de-
scendants were members of
African tribes who, many cen-
turies ago, had Jewish cus-
toms, such as circumsion and
lighting candles once every
seven days. Migration led
these people westward across
the Sahara Desert to the horn
of Africa. From there, they
went in slavery to the Carib-
bean and North America.
Of course, this argument is
hard to prove. They’re not
recognized as true Ethiopian
Jews by the American Asso-
ciation for Ethiopian Jews or
the North American Con-
ference on Ethiopian Jewry.
In their defense, though,
black Jews are quick to cite
stories of the Hebrew-like
Ashanti tribe on Africa’s west
coast as supporting evidence.
They also point to Israel’s ac-
ceptance of Ethiopian Jews
as living proof that their mi-
gration theory has substance.
Others suggest that many
black Americans adopted
J udaism earlier this century
as an offshoot of the back-to-
Africa movement.
“They’re self-converted.
Black Hebrews emerged in
the 1920s, about 10 years
before Black Muslims came
about,” says Floward Brotz,
who retired as a sociology
professor from McMasters
University in Tbronto and is
the author of a book about
Harlem’s black Jews. “Mar-
cus Garvey ignited black
nationalism and Rabbi Mat-
thew was a great admirer of
Garvey. The Muslims have
the same root.”
Coincidentally perhaps,
some of the men at the Com-
mandment Keepers wear
skullcaps that more closely
resemble the wide, knitted
headcoverings worn by
Muslims than a fashionably
knitted kippa.
In other ways, however, the
services are conducted largely
according to Orthodox Jew-
ish practice. At times, I can
close my eyes and feel at
home. But there are a few dif-
ferences. Prayers, of course,
are said in Hebrew, but every-
one stands all morning except
for readings of the 'Ibrah. And
the Haftorah is read com-
pletely in English. Acknowl-
edging an old Orthodox cus-
tom of not turning one’s back
to the Tbrah, congregants
called for an aliyah must walk
around the bimah and then
descend to their seats back-
wards. Moreover, no one at
the bimah wears shoes, emu-
lating Arabic practice. And,
for a touch of authenticity,
sweet incense burns as it did
in the 'Ifemple in Jerusalem
2,000 years ago.
There are also touches that
might be found in a Baptist
church, or perhaps a Reform
congregation. A Hammond
organ is used to accompany a
choir of eight women and two
men who belt out several
hymns. And Rabbi White
concludes services with an
hour and a half long sermon
admonishing his congregants
about many of today’s evils,
all the while sounding like a
preacher from the deep south.
But Rabbi White dismisses
such similarities, “We live ac-
cording to Torah. We don’t go
outside our religion. The
Hebrew way of life is not a
gentile way of lifa” And he ex-
presses regret that his con-
gregation is still viewed with
suspicion by most white
Jews.
“We’re not hateful people,”
he says. “We don’t have hard
feelings against Jews no mat-
ter what their complexion.
There are other light-skinned
people and white Jews who
belong to us, who worship
with us. Everybody has
looked down on us. But my
people aren’t poor or looking
for help. No Jewish philan-
thropist has given us any-'
thing. We’re all made by the
same creator. We just want to
follow the Commandments.”
And, as he has at the begin-
ning and end of every conver-
sation, he says “Shalom.” □
Edward R. Silverman is a
staff reporter at New York
News day.
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 44, No. 16, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 19, 1990, newspaper, April 19, 1990; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753559/m1/3/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .