FROM:
Andrew J. Groveman   
Belz Enterprises
The Tower at Peabody Place
100 Peabody Place/Suite 1400
Memphis, TN 38103

(901) 260-7278

CONTACT:       
Melinda Medlin or Amy Koppel
Thompson & Baker
(901) 527-8000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Governor Sundquist and Mayor Herenton to Welcome Israel’s Chief Rabbi to Memphis

MEMPHIS, Tennessee, January 5, 2000 - - The Baron Hirsch Synagogue will host a moment in history as they welcome Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Israel. His Eminence, the Chief Rabbi, will keynote a two-day Conference on Medical Ethics, beginning Saturday, January 8.

Tennessee Governor Don Sundquist and Memphis Mayor Dr. W. W. Herenton will welcome the Chief Rabbi Saturday at the 11 a.m. service at Baron Hirsch.

Rabbi Lau, a revered scholar, Torah sage and author, was born in Pyotrekov, Poland. Both his parents perished during the Holocaust and Rabbi Lau’s story of how he escaped from the Nazi peril is now legend, appearing in many books and films concerning the Holocaust. He was found, at the age of seven, at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp hiding among a heap of human bodies.

Today, as Chief Rabbi, he holds a government position above cabinet ministerial rank and represents the state in all religious functions. He serves as Chief Justice of the High Supreme Rabbinical Court and more than 4,000 Ashkenazi synagogues. His rulings in religious matters are upheld by the laws of government.

The Chief Rabbi holds the highest hierarchical position in Israel and is acknowledged as one of that country’s greatest orators. As a personal favor to Baron Hirsch’s Rabbi Rafael G. Grossman, Rabbi Lau will deliver the keynote address at 11 a.m. Saturday, January 8 at the Baron Hirsch Synagogue located at 369 Winter Oak Ln. The second session will begin at 2 p.m. with a discussion on “The Patient: Species or Child of God?”

Sunday’s conference will begin at 1 p.m. at the Fogelman Executive Center at the University of Memphis with a discussion on the “Ethical Issues Surrounding Euthanasia,” followed by the second session exploring “The Use of Human Subjects in the Testing of New Drugs.”

Other participants in the conference include Rabbi Rafael G. Grossman of Baron Hirsch; Sheila Holander, Ph. D., of the University of Memphis Department of Philosophy; David Patterson, Ph. D., from the University of Memphis Bornblum Judaic Studies; Ellis Reef, M.D. from the University of Tennessee; and Mark Timmons, Ph. D., from the University of Memphis Department of Philosophy.

The conference, jointly sponsored by the Baron Hirsch Synagogue and the University of Memphis Bornblum Judiac Studies, is opened to the public. The conference is made possible by a grant from the Assisi Foundation.

For more information, contact the Baron Hirsch Synagogue at 683-7485, or Dr. David Patterson at the University of Memphis, 678-3528.

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Note: A press conference will be held at approximately 1:15 p.m. Thursday, January 6, 2000 in the Airport Authority conference room on the Mezzanine Level of the Memphis International Airport.