Praying We're Wrong

PERSPECTIVE Praying We're Wrong To those of you who may be wondering why MOMENT doesn't have more to say about the disturbances, unrest, riots— what shall we call them; whatever term we use seems...

...It is well-known and hard political reality: our survival as Jews is largely dependent on our brethren abroad...
...Congress, as a gesture of support and a test of glasnost Roald Zelichenok of Leningrad, whose subscription was donated by Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), wrote: "I am reading the magazine with great interest, and I think it was a brilliant idea to organize such subscriptions for Soviet Jewish citizens and to send the magazine by registered mail with 'return receipt' "It is very important for us to have better understanding of the world Jewry problems and especially of those of the American Jewry...
...On reflection, I have considered that one small thing we can do for Soviet Jewry is to make a contribution to moment," wrote Frederick L Simmons, Esq, principal trustee of the foundation...
...This brings to 77 the MOMENT Arrives in the Soviet Union for the situation they're in, that Israel could have handled the situation far better than ' it has, that questions of morality are tearing us apart, that even today the Arabs are utterly uncompromising (as are some Israelis), that the situation has radically changed as a result of the riots, etc...
...Paul Simon (D-IIIJ wrote in a recent letter to moment...
...She is one of 38 new participants in moment's refusenik subscription drive to the Soviet Union...
...Second, issues of MOMENT are prepared far in advance...
...So it is not only a matter of 'academic interest'" We also spoke by telephone to Irina and Yevgeny Lein of Leningrad, who were the first refusenik family to receive moment through the mail...
...What appears in MOMENT, we like to think, cannot easily be found elsewhere...
...I feel honored to be an active participant in this campaign for human rights and freedom," presidential candidate Sen...
...I have written to Ambassador [Yuri] Dubinin and to Secretary [Mikhail] Gorbachev to express my concern about Isaak Tsitverblit, the Soviet Jew who is receiving the subscription to moment [in my namel" Those persons or families who have moment subscriptions and subsequently are given permission to emigrate will continue to receive moment in Israel or wherever they decide to live Fellner Foundation Sends moment to Refuseniks moment has received a donation for five refusenik subscriptions from the Leopold and Clara M. Fellner Charitable Foundation...
...Three of the November 1987 issues of moment sent by registered airmail to the Soviet Union have reached their destination...
...H.S...
...Singer, a lieutenant in the Israeli army who was killed in Lebanon in September 1987, impressed the Leins "We remember him very well," Irina said...
...The situation changes so rapidly in this maelstrom that the factors we analyze today may be entirely different by the time an article we commission appears in print...
...I think it is very interesting and very important for us," Irina Lein told moment, "because it helps us to understand your point of view...
...Yet given the present political configuration—in both Israel and in the Arab world—there seems no way of getting from here to there...
...But on the subject of the current situation in the territories, every major thinker, pundit, politician— even comedian—has had his say in the daily and weekly press...
...whatever term we use seems to imply ajudgment—that have gripped the headlines, as well as the hearts and souls of Jews during recent months, the answer is, like the situation in the territories, complex...
...The truth is, we don't...
...The two interests are not in conflict...
...It would be foolish for us to suppose that we have found someone to express something different in MOMENT from what is easily available—indeed, a surfeit of it— elsewhere...
...Many thanks...
...Managing editor Charlotte Anker visited the Lein family last summer...
...Which leads me to the next factor...
...By coincidence, the Leins have been visited by two people connected with the moment staff...
...As I said, we at MOMENT are not so wise...
...Alex came [to visit us] with the sincere desire to understand the problems of Soviet Jewish refuseniks...
...For example, even before the riots, we commissioned someone to write about ways the occupation could be made less humiliating—more humane—on a daily basis to the average Arab living on the West Bank, including using a specially trained occupation force instead of teenage soldiers to relate to the Arab populace...
...Reading this discussion now seems a bit precious and even presumptuous...
...We have started numerous articles on the questions that now seem to consume us, only to have them overtaken by events...
...These were the first copies from one-year subscriptions given to refusenik families by readers and by members of the U.S...
...What does seem clear is that there is no easy way out of this damnable quagmire...
...He was full of energy and hungry for knowledge as young people are...
...Ten-year-old Rachel Shapiro of Harris-burg, Pennsylvania used her Chanukah gelt a present from her grandmother, to purchase a subscription for a Soviet refusenik...
...What seems clear one day, doesn't seem so sensible the next day in light of later developments...
...But it's really worse than that: we change our minds—weekly, at least...
...If we had a unique insight, we would of course share it with our readers...
...Alexander Singer, son of executive editor Suzanne F. Singer, visited them in 1983...
...if we had some answers, we'd tell you...
...If that is true, Israel will be cast in the role of a reluctant occupier for a long time to come...
...Our predictions have been wrong so often in the past few months, we can only pray that this prediction too is wrong, and that somehow a solution will be found...
...And we don't think MOMENT readers need to be told once again, as is surely the case, that the Arabs are to blame number of copies of moment being sent each month by registered airmail...
...On one level, the solution seems obvious—West Bank and Gaza Arabs should be given self-rule while at the same time Israel's security must be adequately protected...

Vol. 13 • April 1988 • No. 2


 
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