By Frank D. Roylance , frank.roylance@baltsun.com|May 28, 2009
Local Jewish leaders voted Wednesday to open a community center in Owings Mills on Saturdays, drawing expressions of both hope and sadness from across Baltimore's diverse Jewish community.
The issue has highlighted a deep divide between the Orthodox and the rest of the Jewish community, and after the vote by the board of directors of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Greater Baltimore, leaders on both sides said they would work to improve communications.
After weeks of debate, the Associated board voted 97 to 33 to allow the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore to open its Owings Mills location on Saturdays - the Jewish sabbath - beginning June 6.
"The decision will give the JCC more of an opportunity to serve Jewish people in the Owings Mills area who ... do not automatically affiliate with Jewish organizations," said JCC President Louis "Buddy" Sapolsky. "The more opportunities we have to touch Jewish people, the better off we're going to be."
But for the Orthodox, who refrain from driving, operating electrical appliances and other activities from sundown on Friday until nightfall on Saturday, the idea of fellow Jews going to the JCC's gym or taking part in other secular activities there on the sabbath represents an erosion of core values that have enabled the community to survive for millennia. The prospect sparked a May 17 rally for Shabbos that drew thousands of Orthodox.
"I am tremendously sad, tremendously sad," said Rabbi Moshe Hauer, spiritual leader of the Orthodox Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation in Baltimore. "I feel that this is weakening the strength of the community. ... I am absolutely committed to doing whatever I can to move forward in building and in rebuilding the strength of our community."
The center will open Saturdays at 1 p.m., rather than 5:30 a.m., to avoid any conflict with religious services. There will be no cash transactions or food services.
"And we will be working with local synagogues to provide informal, creative Jewish learning opportunities for families and for kids, so people really do realize that the Sabbath at the JCC can be different, can be special," Sapolsky said.
But not everyone sees much promise in the idea.
"I think that past experience has shown that introducing Jews to Jewish values has to be done by education, not by exercise. ... That doesn't bring them closer to Judaism," said Rabbi Aharon Feldman, dean of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, an Orthodox yeshiva in Pikesville.
