The Evening Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 15

THE EVENING SUN WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1984 PEOPLEARTSLIVINGCOMICS Bl The survival of the downtown synagogue Children run around during services and we don 't shoosh them. We 're very low on decorum. It creates more of a family atmosphere Rabbi Earl Jordan By Patrick Ercolano Evening Sun Staff RABBI EARL A. Jordan sits behind the desk in his office at Beth Am Synagogue and says, "You don't have to live in Little Italy if you're Italian, and you don't have to live in Pikesville if you're a By not-so-subtle implication, the rabbi means to say that an active Jewish synagogue doesn't have to be on Park Heights Avenue. He would know, because the Beth Am congregation that he has headed for four years is the only active Jewish congregation in downtown Baltimore.

In the beginning (of the post-World War II era, that is), the people moved to the suburbs, and the people took their churches and synagogues with them to the suburbs. Indeed, after the post-war exodus to suburbia had reached its peak about 1960, a downtown synagogue became a rarity. The Chizuk Amuno congregation was one of those that had migrated out of the city, though some of its older members remained at the original synagogue on Eutaw Place. In 1975 they bought the building from the transplanted Chizuk Amuno congregation for $50,000, and Beth Am of the was born. Beth Am, which numbers 500 families, is unique for its mix of the traditional with the modern.

The building itself, built in the 1920s and probably the oldest of any in use by a local congregation, represents the roots of Baltimore's Jewish community. "It's small for a synogogue," says Rabbi Jordan, 50, "at least a good deal smaller than the ones on Park Heights. They don't build them like this anymore find wooden pews and a marble pulpit. The building is not something that has to be overcome. It doesn't overwhelm the congregation." The rabbi likes to say that his congregation feels at home here.

"Children run around during services and we don't shoosh them. We're very low on decorum. It creates more of a family atmosphere. That may seem difficult to manage with 500 families, but I think we pull it off." County campus. As Kaplan said at the time -of the synagogue's purchase, "We find some good in all three movements, but also some not-so-good." Until Rabbi Jordan arrived in 1980, Kaplan led the congregation.

Says the rabbi, "Dr. Kaplan was the main attraction, the reason we have so many members from the intellectual community university professors, doctors, politicians, artists. "He set a tone that drew people who value the mind and value a critical approach to tradition. He's a great debunker, a great pooh-pooher, but also a devoted Jew. The same might be said of our congregation." Rabbi Jordan fondly recalls a comment he heard after a recent Saturday morning service.

"A woman came up to me and said, 'When your service was over, I felt as if I had been given a big That was very nice. But I want people to feel they've gotten more than a big hug here. I want them to think, to ask questions, and maybe to see that the answers of yesterday aren't the answers of today." This Saturday, which marks the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur of Kaplan will conduct his annual "Open Forum," a session in which he fields questions about the literature and philosophy of Judaism. The session begins at 2:30 p.m. at Beth Am Synagogue, 2501 Eutaw Place, and Rabbi Jordan says the public is invited.

By George H. Cook-Evening Sun Staff Rabbi Jordan says of his Beth Am Synagogue, "They don't build them like this anymore." former chairman of the University of Maryland Board of Regents and one-time acting chancellor of the university's Baltimore Beth Am follows none of the three movements of Judaism orthodox, conservative and reform. That philosophical independ ence was dictated by one of the congregation's founders, Dr. Louis Kaplan, president emeritus of the Baltimore Hebrew College, a wKBBtKmSmmBmli ml 1 Some local cats aim for fame on station breaks Ralph and Sophie didn't like Whiskers from Hampden, though they loved Polly from Pikesville. Of course, Polly is a parrot with colorful, fluttery wings, and Ralph and Sophie love birds.

Why not? They are cats. But they weren't too thrilled last week when it was pet of the day time on WNUV-Channel 54 and they saw Whiskers the cat on television. To make matters worse for Sophie and Ralph, Whiskers was given a bowl of milk to lap as she lay there preening and showing off for the camera. What's that you say? Your pets don't look at television? Well, mine do. My cats love cartoons and the pet food commercials, especially the cat that cha-chas.

In case you have missed it, during station identification time, the independent WNUV runs a Pet of Etc.Elise T. Chisolm the Day logo featuring a local dog, cat or bird sitting in an orange arm chair next to a television set. There's a different pet every day. Unfortunately, if your pet wants to be a star, you have to live either in the Maryland area or San Francisco, where Pet of the Day also is being used for station identification. In San Fran it's KTZO.

But don't despair, your city may soon get the notion to go to the dogs or the cats, as the case may be. But can your pets stand it? The day my cats saw Casper, a Chinese Shar-pei from Bel Air, they were pretty upset. First of all Casper has a large face, and he looked a little like he might pounce. But then he also looked "cool," which made them pretty jealous. I called Channel 54 to get the real poop, pardon the pun, on whether I could get Sophie or Ralph on their way to stardom.

I talked to Mark Salditch, the program director. He Women's rugby It's rough and aggressive, but it doesn't have to be violent By Lisa DeNike Evening Sun Staff I have learned," says Nina Gowl, "not to tell anyone and everyone that I play rugby." Gowl, 28, is a member of the Chesapeake Women's Rugby Club, a 10-year-old team that plays weekly against other female teams in the Eastern Rugby Union (including teams up and down the East Coast.) Though women's rugby is nothing new in this area, Gowl and her teammates say some people still can't get used to the idea of women playing a rough-and-tumble sport. "It's not something I put on my resume, for instance. My close friends know, of course, and they understand. But some people still have real funny ideas about it," she explains.

"I find that some men especially dislike the idea," says Jamie Jordan, president of the rugby club. "But I always consider that they dislike it in direct proportion to how threatened they are by it." Like any contact sport, rugby is rough, "but it does not have to be violent," she says. "It is aggressive, though. And a lot of us who play it are aggressive people. For us, myself included, it is an avenue of release.

I go out and play hard and I feel really good afterward." "We always have a terrible shortage of players" because of rugby's reputation, adds Gowl. "Even when people show up at practice wanting to join the team, we sometimes lose them. They'll do fine for as long as we are passing and kicking, but when you tell them they have to tackle other women, some of them can't believe it. We never see them again." Others worry they will get bruised or hurt. "These type of people have a tough time thinking someone is feminine or can be feminine with a bruise on her thigh," says Jordan.

"But you can. Getting a bruise is just part of playing a physical sport." tried to be diplomatic, but he was a little picky. He explained, "We welcome any and all pets. We've been doing this for about a month. I actually have to admit I stole the idea of the Pet of the Day from KTZO in San Francisco.

But we are getting lots of feedback, and we feel mentioning the neighborhood where the pet comes from is sort of like bringing neighborhoods together." He added, "But you have to send in your pet's picture first. And we have put our foot down on livestock. We did refuse a horse the other day. We videotape on Wednesdays I interrupted. "You mean it's not live television?" "Let me explain, the pets are pre-taped and we use See CHISOLM, 1 Inside Accent FASHION: Not all men are indifferent about shopping for their clothes.

B2 THEATER: Lou Cedrone isn't sure why "Sunday in the Park with George" is such a popular show. B6 TELEVISION: Michael Hill says "Charles in Charge" is a pretty good teen-age sitcom. B4 Ann Landers B3 Bridge B3 Comics B7 Crossword B3 Home Base B3 Jeane Dixon B5 Jumble B3 Movie listings B6 Steincrohn B3 Town Crier B2 Trivia B3 TV listings B4 TOMORROW: Famed jumper Touch of Class and the Baltimore Internationale Jumping Classic. Photos by Barbara Haddock Evening Sun Staff -a.