Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 16, 1993 TAG: 9309160221
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That essential hopefulness is getting a big boost as Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah for the year 5754 today.
The season of new beginnings has a special significance this year, accentuated by this week's peace initiative between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Muller, rabbi for the Temple Emanuel congregation of Reform Judaism, said the "amazing" events of the last few days have a feel of "a new age of human cooperation."
Rabbi Jerome Fox of Beth Israel Synagogue, a Conservative congregation, was likewise delighted. He cited a quote he heard earlier this week that summed up his reaction, "The unimaginable has become imaginable."
"In my lifetime, I never expected to see Anwar Sadat in Jerusalem, Jews allowed to leave Russia" or Yasser Arafat shaking hands with an Israeli prime minister, Fox said.
Both rabbis had to alter their Rosh Hashanah sermons at the last minute to address the dramatic changes in the Middle East.
When talking to members of Roanoke's Jewish community this week about peace prospects in the Middle East, many admit they never expected such events. And certain feelings come through consistently - hope, optimism, wonder, delight.
They are words that also could be associated with the celebration of High Holy Days, whose beginning is marked by Rosh Hashanah. That hopeful day is the start of a 10-day period that ends with Yom Kippur, the more somber Day of Atonement.
As the season has its contemplative period, so the hopes for peace are tempered by the reality of the difficulties that could lie ahead.
Mark Black, president of the Roanoke Jewish Community Council, is "very hopeful these developments will represent a movement toward peace." But he and others believe there is "a long way to go."
For instance, when Arafat talked about Jerusalem being the capital of a Palestinian state - a position Israel is unlikely to accept - it's evident "we have a lot of unresolved issues," Black said.
Nonetheless, "People whose ancestors are the same need to be able to live together peacefully," he said.
A sign of that possibility may lie in the fact that both sides were able to "compromise on positions that in the past were uncompromisable," Black said.
David Nova, active in ecumenical circles and at Temple Emanuel, said, "For the first time, I have a sense of hope . . . euphoria."
Nova was so delighted with the news that he ordered buttons with words for peace in English, Hebrew and Arabic on them to celebrate.
For many Jews, the prospect of peace with the Palestinians offers the additional benefit of removing the stigma some associate with Israeli tactics used to control the occupied territories.
"A lot of Jews are uneasy with the way Palestinians have been treated in Israel," Nova acknowledged. With a mutual recognition of each other's right to exist, oppressive measures could cease.
Fox agreed that although "the overwhelming majority of American Jews support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, . . . they may disagree with Israeli policies."
A former president of the Jewish Community Council also found the news "extremely hopeful."
Though problems with implementation remain, Dennis Brumberg said, Monday's "handshake between two warriors was a pretty good start" on the road to peace.
"No one knows for certain what the future will hold," Brumberg said, but one has to "feel some pretty strong emotions" over the unexpected progress so far.
by CNB