Forum
FORUM How an Enterprising Chelmite Intends to Make a Fortune My fifth cousin seven times removed writes me from Chelm that by using a magnifying lens, the Chelmites can now actually find and read...
...The broad spectrum of opinion and the depth of thinking in the American Jewish community is now coming through...
...I do...
...My non-Jewish husband gave wholeheartedly to temple...
...At a public meeting in New York recently I asked Grossman whether he believed this would happen and if he did was this a reason for not ending the occupation...
...we are not deluding ourselves that our answer will keep the couple from getting married...
...Inasmuch as many readers keep prior issues of MOMENT for reference, my fifth cousin seven times removed wants to make a fortune advertising these lenses in your magazine...
...When the family emigrated recently, one of our congregants brought Stot-senko (now Wooll) a set of his note-cards...
...Granted that the typical Israeli bureaucrat retains some of the spirit of the British Mandatory Authority and the Ottoman and Czarist empires, and that any red-blooded Israeli will do his or her best to wiggle around the rules, electoral reform— while vital for many reasons—is also the path to more equitable access to government services for the ordinary Israeli citizen...
...Jesse Zel Lime Pleasantville, New York Praise for MOMENT Always provocative and aesthetically pleasing, MOMENT has now matured into the pre-eminent popular Jewish periodical in the U.S...
...Rabbi Daniel Pernick Beth Am Temple Pearl River, New York Jesse Zel Lurie Is Not and Never Has Been A Member of Hadassah Jack Fox calls me callous and insensitive (Forum, May 1988, p. 59) because in writing about The Yellow Wind by David Grossman I quoted an Arab informant who claimed that there would be a bloodbath if Israel withdrew from the West Bank...
...At 59 I felt I was entitled...
...All Jews are qualified to blow a shofar...
...Cut Off, She Does Her Own Cutting The letters in Forum about intermarriages ("Rabbis Who Perform Intermarriages—Who They Are and Why They Do It," January/February 1988) hit home for me...
...another taught religious school...
...Hadassah is a magnificent organization which I had the honor and privilege to serve as the editor of its national magazine...
...we were married 23 years...
...Since we were not apt to have children, he agreed to marry us...
...I am a Reform Jewish woman, twice married by rabbis...
...13) you suggest that a Passover greeting included in a reader's dentist's newsletter contains a picture "of a rabbi blowing a shofar...
...I followed with interest the change of hands...
...I was terribly hurt by these "rabbis/ teachers...
...First all collaborators with Israel would be massacred and then there would be a bloody struggle for power...
...The literary quality was there, but inevitably, polemics drowned out the beauty...
...My answer is a forthright "yes...
...However, in the end, interfaith marriage is less of a threat to the Jewish people than is failing to stand up for Jewish principles...
...August 1988 issue.— Ed...
...Our rabbinical training is not from the state for the general population...
...Fox is right about one thing...
...Katz sees no problem with this...
...He agreed to let a rabbi officiate because he knew it would please me...
...We lived together for almost four years before deciding to make our commitment legal...
...My second husband was not Jewish and my rabbi had his principles...
...In my congressional district of about 400,000 (the standard size for the United States), our representative maintains local offices for ' 'constituent services...
...in the March 1988 issue of MOMENT (see illustrations, pp...
...To begin with, we are not hypocrites...
...When the editorial developments became evident to me, I literally leaped to applause...
...Henry H. Hartmann Evanston, Illinois The Relationship Between Electoral Reform and Protektzia Daniel Elazar's article in your June 1988 issue ("How to Achieve Electoral Reform for Israel") was a brilliantly clear exposition of this complex subject...
...We had two sons and a daughter...
...Carol Karsch Senior Vice President Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Tucson, Arizona...
...My first husband was a Jew...
...If we are to do what we "should do without question," then we should co-officiate at weddings with Christian clergy even in a church on yom tov...
...While an influential constituent, large contributor, or fundraiser may get preferential service from the congressperson, the typical representative—who must go to the voter every two years—has a staff whose job it is to try to satisfy every constituent...
...The constitution of Hadassah forbids membership to the male gender...
...we arc simply being true to our role as officiants of Jewish religious services...
...My congregation—Holy Blossom Temple—put the drawings on note-cards as a fundraiser for our Soviet Jewry committee...
...Should we risk alienating Jewish families by refusing to include a non-Jew in Jewish worship services, including marriages...
...American Jewry needs MOMENT...
...Why should we be expected to officiate at a non-Jewish person's wedding...
...Without protektzia the citizen faces the bureaucracy naked and alone...
...Not one would even discuss it with me...
...Before investing his rubles, however, he wants me to make sure that you have no plans to make future dates fin-dable or legible...
...Rabbi Jim lebeau American Student Center The Jewish Theological Seminary Jerusalem, Israel Former Refusenik Now Illustrator for MOMENT I was delighted to see the works of Anatol Stotsenko (Anatol Wool...
...To use just one of Daniel Elazar's models, if even half of the Knesset were elected directly by permanent regional division, the bureaucracy would, over time, become more responsive to the individual citizen, and the present unfairness minimized...
...FORUM How an Enterprising Chelmite Intends to Make a Fortune My fifth cousin seven times removed writes me from Chelm that by using a magnifying lens, the Chelmites can now actually find and read the dates on the cover of MOMENT...
...He put them on his mantle with such pride and joy, obviously pleased that he could help to raise funds for others to be released...
...Protektzia is necessary because Israel, while a democracy, does not enjoy representative government...
...Perhaps Mr...
...I would like to tell my story...
...it is from rabbinic seminaries for Jewish life-cycle events (among other things...
...To respond to both Brenda Danet and to Philip Horn's letter in your April 1988 issue (Forum, p. 10) protektzia is more of a structural than a cultural phenomenon...
...This imposes a measure of accountability—lacking in Israel—upon the bureaucracy, since it is to the legislature that the governmental agency must turn for its annual funding...
...Not neccesarily so...
...Kol ha'kavod and best of luck in this endeavor...
...As Dr...
...We are very pleased that you have given a new American a chance to work at his profession and an opportunity to share his talent with such a wide audience...
...In the end, a minister/neighbor officiated at our marriage in an unreligious ceremony...
...I urge you not to contribute to the stereotype that ritual practices require a professional leader...
...Hopefully all rabbis encourage their lay leaders to acquire this skill and contribute to the ritual observances during the High Holy Days...
...Rabbis can and should be understanding, helpful and inclusive even when declining to officiate...
...In the United States, each of us has one congressional representative and two senators...
...40-45...
...Should we risk alienating Jewish families by refusing to promote their Religious School children if their work is unsatisfactory...
...It should have been obvious that these are not my views, nor those of David Grossman...
...However, responsible Jewish leadership, as demonstrated over the millennia, means standing for traditional values even in the face of popular opposition (see, for example, the golden calf incident in the Bible...
...Katz wants rabbis to do whatever the people want...
...After four lonely years I met a kind, loving man, who, like my second husband, was not Jewish...
...We do not officiate at b'nai milzvah or funerals for non-Jews...
...MOMENT was always irresistible with its sharp, bold layout and wit...
...Shirley Hanick Vice Chairperson Committee for Soviet Jewry Holy Blossom Temple Toronto, Canada Mr...
...However, in your April 1988 Spice Box (p...
...We are not being judgmental...
...He did not believe it...
...Hadas-sah's views are presented by its elected officers and not by me...
...V. Rivers Tucson, Arizona Why a Rabbi Must Stand on Principle As a rabbi (Reform) who does not officiate at interfaith marriages, I feel compelled to respond to the letters of the June 1988 issue, particularly that of David Katz ("Rabbis Who Refuse to Perform Mixed Marriages," p. 8...
...We belonged to temples and practiced Judaism at home...
...all I wanted was a blessing on whatever years I had left...
...He even wonders whether your ' 'graphic desecrators" might not be induced to reduce the present type size, in the unlikely event such a font ever becomes available...
...He said that the Palestinians had plenty of opportunity during the present uprising to kill those who worked for the Shin Bet, but with one or two exceptions, it hasn't happened...
...Woolf also did the illustrations for the ¦ excerpt from Amos Oz's novel in our July...
...Before parting, he gave me two pencil drawings done secretly in his Leningrad studio...
...Here's what they have done: Although I still light candles and am a Jew in my heart and home, I will never again buy High Holy Day tickets, attend temple seders, or support any temple in any -way...
...If they can cut me off from their community, then I can do my own cutting...
...we held seders and Chanukah parties in our home...
...One son made aliyah...
...Should we risk alienating Jewish families by telling them that Jews don't FORUM celebrate Christmas...
...If Judaism becomes merely what Jews want, regardless of its "Jewish-ness," it will have lost all substance and meaning...
...I contacted every rabbi in Tucson (excluding Orthodox rabbis, of course...
...He asked me whether I thought he might have a future as an illustrator in the West...
...Robert A. Riesman Providence, Rhode Island Rabbis Are Not the Only Ones Who Blow Shofars I very much enjoy reading MOMENT magazine and always look forward to the items in Spice Box...
...But I pointed out that I was 45 and my fiance was 59, so his principles didn't apply to us...
...I visited with this young artist and his family in Leningrad in March 1986...
...We should understand that there is a direct relationship between Israel's electoral system and the pervasiveness of protektzia, the system of' 'pulling strings" with the Israeli bureaucracy, described in your January/February 1988 issue by Brenda Danet in such a lively fashion ("The Two Faces of Protektzia...
...Everyone loved him...
...Elazar explains so well, no Israeli citizen has a member of Israel's parliament that represents him or her, or even the district in which the citizen resides...
...Mrs...
...They have taught me it doesn't take much seichel to be a rabbi...
...When he died, my temple accepted my check to place a memorial plaque for him in the foyer of the temple...
...I tried to explain my feelings, that I had been a good Jewish mother and wife...
...We recognize that some may be turned off (and subsequently away) by this stand on principle...
...Certainly, it was not a reason for not ending the evil occupation, he stated...
...When we go head-to-head with our own extensive federal or state bureaucracies, whether for admission to government-sponsored housing for the elderly, for social security, Medicare or veteran's benefits, for complaints of pollution or other code violations, we can call upon our elected representative to intercede for us...
...I was never a member of Hadassah...
...quite the contrary...
...We had brises, bar mitzvahs, confirmations, and weddings...
...We all enjoy MOMENT'S contents, new and old...
...The May 1988 cover, where the date overprints a halftone of the same color, was particularly ingenious, he thought...
...we attended services together...
Vol. 13 • September 1988 • No. 6
